Minor updates

1, My immediate boss was transferred to another department today. So all of us in the unit has managed to chip in for some going away present, which was well received. Something profesionallly done yet have the personal touch. Good luck in your future undertaking boss and thanks for the mentoring, nurturing, guidance and words of encouragement all this while. Words could not express our thanks and gratitude to you.

2. The election fever is at its highest today. Tomorrow all the eligible Malaysian would be casting their votes for their choice of the government that they want. Please vote and let yourself be heard otherrwise you might just as well suffer in silence.

Image from here

3. Steamyx suck man -for the past few days have been experiencing poor service plus connection to my fav sites have been throttled. The office connection was even worse ..... Grrrr ...

4. Adi is more responsive nowadays plus her patterns have more or less been established. Some new photos :-

Me : Bi, which part again of her that looks like me? Most of her features looked like you je...
Mrs : Adalah, the receding hair je ... hahahaha

Yang Mana Satu

Yang Mana Satu
Idaman Kalbu
Tidak Tertahan
Menanggung Rindu
Mungkinkah Jauh
Hingga ke Bulan
Atau Dibalik Dacing Yang Biru

Kalaulah Aku
Jadi Temanmu
Kroni Mengkroni
Serah Padaku

Kalaulah Aku
Jadi MPmu
Minda Rakyat
Aku Cuci

Oh Tukang Timbang
Aku Tak Sudi
Hai Tukang Roket
Mata Hitam Turun Ke Hati
Aku mencari biar berpadan
Asal dihati Dapat Berkenan

Inilah dia, yang dicari-carinya
Mainstream Media, Aku Yang Punya
Ini Orangnya, Idaman Dara,
Internet Ada, Blog Pun Ada

Oh Sungguh Susah, Cari Pasangan
Tak Mau Yang Merah, Biru Pun Bukan
Hati Dah Bosan, Tidak Berkenan,
Sebab Perangai Semuanya Tidak Siuman

~ sing to the tune of Yang Mana Satu - P Ramlee & Saloma ~

Yang Mana Satu ek?

Election day dah dekat

Got it from youtube. Hillarious!

Sums up the sentiment nowadays.

Here's one I made earlier

I've been thinking about how to remember Adi's birth, especially to capture the things that she has when she's small. I meant like foot or hand print that we could look at years later and say that how small you were when you were born but it will only be a print. So in looking high & low, I've came across an imprinting & casting for the lil one hand and feet.

The box - available from Mothercare

The box and the salesperson said that this is an easy to do, safe for the baby and 100% foolproof. Imagine how I felt when I botched up the first attempt (not feeling so clever then). The thing that pisses me off is that I followed all the instructions to the t, plus including my own set of failsafe methods only to botch it up. Grrr....

Luckily, the supplied kit has more than enough material to cover for the failed first attempt. After becoming wiser, I have in fact manages to get 3 castings out of the remaining material with the luxury to choose from in case I screw up again.

The whole process is quite lengthy as the time needed for preparation and letting the plaster set. From experience, I knew that this is one process that cannot be rushed in order to achieve the highest possible quality my skills (and luck) would allow me.

Pointers to those who would like to try this, ensure that the container for the mold would fit the subject nicely, too big then it would be a waste of material and too small you wouldn't get all the details. Also, the imprinting material sets quickly, so better for you to mix a small batch and cast the mold rather than mixing it all in one go.

The mixing of the porcelain plaster is also quite tedious for you to ensure a good result, no air pockets and a smooth finish. Please observe the instruction in doing layers on casting, rather than pouring it all in one go. Point to not is to use a flexible container for the mold as it would facilitate the removal of the mold and ensuring that you did not break any digits off the cast.

The results?




I think I did OK. Well not in the league of professional/amateur artist but I should be able to preserve Adi lil hand & feet in 3D for our memories.

Changes..

Changes are an inevitable part of life. We see changes everyday and adapt to it. But for a certain few things, we would like to see no changes at all. As a creature of habit, we like to create a comfort zone around us and would like to control this comfort zone so that minimal changes affect it. But sometimes, we have to accept the fact that changes have to happen and whether we like it or not, adaption has to made to it.

These adaptation and ways to cope with the changes would be different to everyone. How do you react to changes that affect you directly or indirectly? There's no rules or logic condition to be applied as each changes are unique. A change too fast too soon might have a detrimental effect to a person likewise too slow too long. Anyway, how we react to the changes would affect our lives as well.

Even if we are mentally prepared for the change, but when the time comes, it still going to hit you like more than you were prepared for. So whether we like it or not, there's always a time for a change.

Loteri Halal

We decided to take another stab at the loteri halal again. Hopefully this time brings a better luck to us. Maybe the god of fortune is in a good mood during these festivities to bless on us or maybe he's to busy entertaining other more affluent offerings from those who would want to be in power when Malaysia Decides on Mrach 8. All in all I hope it would work out well.

With the water mains pipe issues and dipping into the lottery pool activity, money has been flowing out like water from my bank account into someone else's, sengkek oi bulan ni....

Feels like listening to this ...

Time to cast your votes

It's official. The election day has been set on the 8th of March 2008. Now we could see those who's contesting promising the moon and the stars, whilst most still fail to keep promises prior to being elected during the last election.

Now we will see the scare tactics, discrediting of nominees and personal attack on the candidates. For me, the whole thing is like a big circus. The build up to it was dramatic, then they will fall flat during the delivery.

Most countries have change government a few times but that is a rarity in this region. Maybe a wind of change is coming. Vote wisely.

Misery Loves Company

I returned home today to a big surprised. My water bill comes to almost RM400. Was thinking, wow, we sure used a lot of water this month since the birth of the girl. But almost RM400?. On the bill was a handwritten note with a phone number by the meter reader. A call to him reveals a method to detect leakage and when done, sure enough the meter was ticking even though no one is using water in the house.

A check with my brother who had similar case before said that he spent close to RM1K to get his pipes repaired. So judging by that I should set aside a similar amount of money to get it repaired. Oh boy, misery sure loves company.

A well deserved break

or so I thought...

During the Chinese new year break I have managed to :

1. Got my hands on the original Transformers More Season 1 DVD, hence giving the boy a chance in understanding the Transformers Series in depth, short of buying the guidebook, as to what it is about rather than the 'movie' which kinda lost me

2. Catch up on a few movies which I had, which turns out to be a blood-bath-fest. Never in my life I feel that the movie industry has really pushed the envelope on 'realistic' blood spatter, where decapitation is the highlight of the movies... urgghh... puts me off blood for a while

3. Made plans to have a mini reunion for the east coast members of my school (there's only 4 of us there) but had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances

4. The sleeping pattern of the newborn is still not fully established, which have left me red-eyed and tired during the day. Wonder how I'm gonna cope next week when work is going to be full force.

5. Loads of old wives tip (petua) on the newborn. Some rather dubious, some rather obvious. The thing is that there are so many medically trained elders that you were left wondering what good a MD that your doc has. Also a lot of stuff were sourced for the newborn with money and time spent on it, but when it come to applying it, it was like, "cuba sikit je dulu, kalau tak mujarab cuba benda lain plak". I was like WTF??? Wanna try or not? If don't want to try then why ask to seek in the first place? Should I play Doc and try everything even though it would upset the elders?

6. The work than I brought back hasn't been touched. Sigh... need to do overtime to meet the dateline....

7. On the up note, my time of changing the baby has improved. Now need to challenge the best of the best pit crew. Anyone seen my stopwatch?

Rant over. Catching up some zzzz....

Now Listening ...

Hujan - Pagi yang gelap

Spectacular Family

It means that 3/4 in the family member are wearing vision correction device a.k.a spectacles. Why 3/4? Let's count :

1. Me
2. The mrs
3. The boy?

The boy had been complaining lately that he couldn't see what the teacher wrote and the blackboard and as a results some of his homework is not copied. Which prompted us to go to an ophthalmologist to have his eyesight checked. The results? This is one of the results where a higher number is not preferable, and his is higher than mine!!!! And he's only six going on seven.

Anak Bapak - with his chosen glasses

Home photo therapy & Airlock Issues

Baby Adi (that the correct spelling deemed by the boy) did another blood test for her bilirubin count today. Initially when we check out from the hospital, it was 175 umol/l, when she was admitted it was 225, when she was discharged it was 209 but today it was 275, on the rise again after 2 days. Seeing this, the peadi wants her to be put in the hospital again for photo-therapy.

I suggested to him that we gonna do our own at home photo-therapy as we had friends who did that with comparable results with what the hospital could achieve but with another big advantage, the baby stays at home. He was reluctant at first saying that for one, to his knowledge no one does the renting out of the equipment, certainly not his clinic and two, it might not be as affective as doing it in the hospital due to the fact that as parents we actually care for the child, if he/she as much as twitches let alone cries we gonna take her away from the light. In the end he agreed subjected to a daily blood test. Fine, at least there was a compromise.

I've seen the way they did it in the hospital, where the babies are just 'patients' to them and if they doesn't conform to the hospital regulation of feeding time, sleeping pattern then it too bad for the baby. Also they have this tendency that even if you brought your own EBM, the wold rather go for the baby formula because it is easier and convenient for them. No way I'm gonna let them have another go at Adi again plus it would be hard for me to travel every now and then to the hospital to check and relay updates back to base.

So with the info given by a friend, I called up the clinic which contacted the mobile photo therapy company. Within minutes, they return my call and says that their rep would come to the house in 2 hours to set up the equipment and the necessary instructions. At the appointed time, the rep was in the area with me fetching him from our designated rendevous and show the way. The equipment was actually house in a large hard shell suitcase, akin to the one you would take for a holiday. Setting up was quick and he showed me, with the help of a doll, on how to do it. Confident that I could do a much better job than those 'trained' nurses in caring for my child, and it seems easy enough.

After feeding her, we prepped her up and put her in the equipment. At first Baby Adi was crying, but as we comforted her, she slept through her first 3 hours under the lights without much issue. Then it was time for feeding and cleaning but this time it was harder as she was awake, probably due to the adequate rest of the prior session. I then put her to prone position, much to the chagrin of the other half and orang2 tua, but if that makes me a bad guy, so be it as I wants my baby to show some improvement for the test tomorrow. Then she relaxed with adequate time for me to catch some shuteye. Then I woke her up again for some feeding and cleaning and she was comfortable for the 3rd session. The rep says that normally they would recommend stopping the treatment at midnight so that the minder could get some sleep for tomorrow, but I think I'm gonna go the whole yard for the first day to maximize on getting a noticeable reduction if not arresting the rise of the serum bilirubin for tomorrow's blood test. Its 1:25 am and I wonder whether I should continue the treatment or call it of for the day.

Baby Adi under the limelight, eh bluelight

On another note, they say problems always come in pairs. When the mrs. found out that there was no water in the master bedroom toilet, my thoughts were like, great, another unscheduled water cuts. We had this problem a few times for the last few months so maybe its time to write in to SYABAS and make an official complain. But then there was water in the kitchen and the rest of the bathrooms, so I was stumped. Suddenly I recall this situation when I was small, and my dad used to relieve some trapped air in the pipes and this could block the water flow, so I gave him a call for some guidance before setting off to work. It showed some promised but then the water flow stopped completely. I decided to check out the tank above the ceiling and to my surprise the tank is almost empty, making my problem bigger than it was. It showed that I have a trapped air bubble in the main feed to the tank and this warrants help from "its gonna cost you RMXXX brigade".

I was adamant not to call them yet and I think this problem could be fixed. Since the storage tank was quite empty, it made the job easier. I tried to bleed the main feed to the storage tank, but that proves easier thought of than done. Then I decided to let all the pipes in the house to be empty of water and would rush water in from the main pipe in. It worked when I started to hear gurgle of air through the main feed to the storage tank and water actually starts to flow in, albeit in the complimentary 'rust' tint from SYABAS. Wonder whether they are in cohorts with these water filter guys.

So far, the water supply was all good and dandy, I managed to save probably 2 x RMXXX, got the bluelight up and running and Baby Adi going through her course of treatment. Not bad for a days job, maybe not to Superman's standard, but hey, at least I don't have a weakness to bluelight. Maybe to green cryptonite I suppose ;-)

Ady's back

Got the call today from the clinic, apparently Ady could go back today due to improving condition and lower bilirubin count. Everyone was excited especially the boy. And when she got home today, she spent most of her time sleeping. She must have been feeling better I suppose. Alhamdulillah.

Of highs and lows

Baby Ady's bilirubin counts were getting higher today, hence the doctor ordered her to stay in and undergo photo treatment. Pity her, her brother and especially the mrs. Leaving your 3 day old daughter to the hands of the nurses would be daunting . Even the boy was crying before he went to sleep, pining for his sister.

Hopefully she can recover and be with us again soon.

On another note, I have registered her birth with the JPN, hence she is officially and legally known as Adriana Hani Sharizal.

Welcome Adriana Hani

Ok, sorry about the 'live' update part, was caught up with the moment and decided that attending to the mrs and the girl was way more satisfying than trying to update this.

The delivery was scheduled at 1:30 pm, but with all the necessary pre-op precodeure, the mrs was only wheeled in at 1:50 pm. As she was wheeld into the OT, the spouse has to wait outside. SJMC has a strict no spouse allowed in OT, due to histories that husbands have fainted during the procedure and need more attention than the mother and baby themselves.

At 2:45 pm, 28January 2008 Adriana Hani was born. I was introduced to her about 15 minutes later. Quick check reveals that she has all 10 toes and fingers, quite a good size at 3.32 kg, 40.6 cm with an AGPAR score of 10, has a great pair of lungs as most importantly is a GIRL! After a more thorough check, I was able to 'iqamat' in her ears before handing her over to the nursery staff for cleaning and warming up. Her features was more on the mrs side of the family, with me wandering whether they got the right baby or not as her eyes were just slits. Even the nursery staff has to double check with the OT staff that they haven't mixed up the baby.

Baru lahir dah pandai posing

Macam anak patung Jepun

Yang ni macam Shin-Chan plak

At about 4:30 pm. I went back home to do the 'cleansing' of the placenta, along with picking up the boy from school so that he would be able to go to the hospital. I think among all of us, the boy was the one who's really looking forward for the arrival of his sister. He was really excited and was talking about things that they would do together, oblivious to the fact that his sister would need about 4-5 months before she can play along with him.

Welcome to the world Adriana Hani Sharizal.

Ok peeps, we have a live feed

Checked in at a temporary room in the hospital, waiting for the preparation. BTW, this is the free wifi courtesy of SJMC. What we could do now is wait and hope everything would be ok.

Wouldn't know if I could do a hourly updates, maybe I'll just update the important timelines. The rest macam malas nak report. Soon-would-be mom anxious, me just taking it as it comes, waiting in anticipation for my bundle of joy in pink.

Till further updates

It's here today ....

1 more day ...........

1 more day 2 go

image from

2 days 2 go

more days 2 go ........

image from

6 days and counting

6 days of waiting in anticipation, lots of things to think about, lots of things to do, self preparation to make, physically & mentally .

So right now, I'm gonna take things easy and pace myself till the day comes.

Issue with a pussy

I've got some issue with a pussy at the moment, before anyone of you get any ideas, it's the real pussy with four legs. Lately a white stray cat has been encroaching our kitchen through the window trying to find scraps of food, up to the extend of uprooting the garbage. Tired with the antics, I've decided to put up some netting on the grill to prevent it form getting in.

So off I went to the hardware and after getting the required materials, begin to work on it. Up the netting went, covering 2/3 of the window. Once the work was done, I got the thumbs up for the effort. So the proof of the pudding is in the eating right? What better to test the newly put up barrier that enticing the cat in. I was expecting that she wouldn't figure out the way in but I was dead wrong, In minutes, she managed to enter the kitchen through the windows. Twice. Grrrr... No wonder the coin the term cat burglat

Been outwitted by a four legged creature, what's next?

First Day of School

First day of school! I meant the real school not like kindies and the ones that are excited more are the parents from what I observed. Parents are the ones who would queue with their child and eagerly awaits the nest instruction from teachers, whereas the child would be absorbed in his/her own world, anxious to survive the day rather than savour the experience of being in a new place and meeting new friends.

Also I found that some parents are a bit insensitive in the sense that they were hogging the tables at the canteen during the first year recess. Granted that you would want to save a seat for your child, but if theres five of you in the family at least get up and clear the table. Also wouldn't it be better to let them find their own way around the canteen with newly made friends. The least you could do it get up and clear the space for them to sit. Instead some of them have to sit on the floor or anywhere available to have their break.

It also brought back memories of my first day in school. Blackboards, chalks, long yellow ruler and feather dusters for dishing out punishments. Wonder what the boy will remember about his first day.

Toys for Boys

I got the boy a miniature RC Helicopter for Christmas as I thought it was a cool toy (definition of cool toy : the ones that dad can play too). I was drawn to it rather than the bigger ones as it can be played indoors and the parts are mostly unbreakable, hence even when it crashes at the hand of inexperienced pilot, the craft would come out unscathed. The heli even came with its own rechargeable battery to keep the weight down and to ensure that with even a small dimension it can still fly around. Wonders of technology eh?

It took some time to master the art of flying it, as long as it stays airborne the two of us are contented. Brings back the memories of Airwolf.

Can we fix it, Yes we can!

I took some time off this time off the year to clear all my annual leave and also to run some errands wrt to The Boy's schooling matters, the impending arrival of the bundle of joy and also to do outstanding year end cleaning and repairs around the house. Of all those, the one that I dread was calling up a plumber to have a look at a slow flowing wash basin that has been there all the while but never get around to fix it.

You see, plumbers are a different breed than the rest of us. They are in their own world and one thing for sure they will make every job look and sound impossible to do without the help of someone from UTK & some C4. The thing with modern day plumbing is that most of it are concealed into the walls, with only bits accessible. I have looked at it one day thinking I culd DIY but then decided that its best for professionals to have a look at it and bracing myself for the day.

As we know, the white van trade has the most lucrative payrate irregardless the location worldwide. The chap came and looked and starts with, " Bang, this one kena kasi jolok sikit, kasi clear itu sumbat dulu. For that I need to charge you RMXXX. Kalau tak boleh, then kena potong itu paip and kasi tengok apa barang ada dalam. That will cost you a further RMXXX."

I said fine, but managed to bring down the price after some haggling. Hey, thats part of the culture here right? They'll quote you something then you try to reduce with some haggling and at least tried to get some discount off. For one, they know that you mean business and the other reason is that the significant other will see that you seem to be in charge of the situation and you got it under control and that will score you some brownie points.

After some time, he came back to me saying that there was something lodged in the pipes that he can't removed even after cutting the pipes. "Bang, itu lantai mau kena hack, potong itu pipe, kasi keluar itu barang, pasang baru punye pipe, tampal balik itu lubang and siling baru, That will cost you a further RMXXX" I said," Every costing that came out of you seems to be RMXXX? Did your teacher taught you until that amount so that it'll be easy for you to count or is it a prerequisite of being a plumber to quote the magic number of RMXXX?"

After some more haggling, we reached a figure that was agreeable by both parties but then he said that he needed to go and buy some stuff and have his lunch break. His buddies would come around after lunch break to finish up the jobs. Typical, do a halfway job, then cite that you need a coffee/tea/lunch/smoke* (*choose which ever applicable) break and get somebody else to finish up. To cut the long story short, off he went for his break and his buddies came back to finish the job. Where is the true and honest Bob-the-Builder when you need him. " Can we fix it, yes we can with RMXXX!"

In the end, the Mrs got what she wanted, which is a fully functional* (it was functioning before, only the dv/dt of the flow was a little off to according to her charts, love you dear, mwahhh!), the plumber got his dues and me, a burning hole in my wallet. RMXXX, that's the figure I'll teach my offsprings to quote for duit raya/birthday gifts/angpows etc. to patch the hole back.

The day I got itchy hands....

Probably I was watching too much Spooks and got carried away with it, so today whilst attending a telephone call, I decided for no unbeknown reason to emulate a lock picking scene with some paper clips. As luck would have it, the paper clip broke in the keyhole, leaving me with one unlockable set of drawers. Grrrr...

Then when I got home, my son has taken delivery of a set of Gundam action figures which require self assembly. He managed to assemble most of the robot himself, and was waiting for me to finish it. Upon seeing the instruction which was written in full Japanese but has some pictures as a guide, I was impressed with his effort. As I was trying to figure out how to assemble it, I managed to snap off a small part which had to be superglued back on. Double grrrr.....


ps. We did an 'Honest Abe' today. I mean the mrs did it. We realised that an establishment that we had lunch on last Saturday not charged us for a dish hence we made a trip back and corrected it. Hopefully the big guy would chalk it up as one good deed.

pps- Welcome Aqeef Nuqman to the Shamuri Clan on 1702 24 December 2007. Pictures would follow suit.

A Twist At The End

Haven't been updating this blog for a while due to some unforeseen circumstances with a twist that had happened. It had us in shock in a while, but as the saying goes, when the going gets tough the tough gets going. One thing for sure is that it will take us a while to give full trust to anybody outside our circle of trust.

Chance / Community Chest ?

In line with the monopoly theme, I have gotten a phone call today that could have been classified as Chance / Community Chest. It goes something like this :

Caller : Who's this?
Me : I dunno, who is it that you're looking for?
Caller : Oh, this is Z**a from E*A, did you enter our contest the other day?
Me : Yeah, but I didn't get any notification so I assume that my entry did not go through.
Caller : It did, & you have won 4 pass to see I Am Legend at G*C M*M.
Me : Oh, thank you.

This is like the third official win for me from E*A. It was unofficially 4 times but they decided not to accept me as I have won before. Normally I would be jumping in joy with the win, but I have decided not to attend but to give it out to a friend who could utilise them better. The only drawback is that the winner has to collect the tickets in person, so I still have to go there to collect it for him. Enjoy the show, I*am & way go go my trusted Treo!

Board Games

Image from here

Remember once that the word games means physical activities? It is either spent outdoors or indoors but it always involve physical exertion such as running, climbing, jumping and etc. Not like today where the term game means sitting in front of the telly with hands permanently glued to the controller of a video game console.

Bought a Malaysian Edition Monopoly for the boy last weekend. Ever since that he'd been bugging me on playing it with him. So far, we had one quick game and another extended game, in which he manages to procure the most prime location of real estate and actually built houses on it. The intention us buying the game was actually to teach him the concept of money but the way he's playing the game is like a duck to water. While the adults are busy buying all the plots that we landed on, he coolly waited until he could get a suitable plot and develop it. And in those prime areas, the return are so much better, hence he's raking it in. Could he be the next Trump in the making?

Deciphered!

Now I understand why so much work was poured into encryption and the same amount spent to break any encryption. The sense that you have if you could use coded words and left everyone else baffled is priceless. But what if someone manages to decipher what you were saying? Then the code is useless and you have to move on to the next encryption technique.

Our 'parental' codes have been deciphered by the boy up to the exact meaning of it. Dayyumm! How could he decipher it so easily? I mean he's just 6. I guess 6 years is a little too long to use the same codes. Now need to learn new ones soon. like Safayafa rafasaya mafacamfa nakfa mafakanfa nafasifa lefamakfa. Or better still, habla espanol or parlez francais?

Completely Incompetent & Bungling fools

Arrrggghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Service with a smile they say! Service beyond expectations! Service that should have left your equipment as good as before or even better! Bah! Humbug!

This is the feeling that I had today. My HRM battery has died on me last week. Hence it was hard for me to keep up with my workout session and I was feeling a bit under the weather plus extra workload(plus giving me the excuse of not doing any). So yesterday as I was out doing some shopping with the family, I decided to get it fixed. Once the deed is done, the watch was as good as new. Or so I thought!

A few laps in the pool today proved otherwise. I was about to time myself ans as I was looking at the watch, all I could see was a pool of water in the display. I was like WADAFAK! It was fine when I took it for swimming before the battery change. Took it off and start to examine the backplate, 3 out of 4 screws are MISSING!!!!! How could it happened? Didn't they checked all the fixing screw should have been in place before returning it to your paying customer after a battery change or else the watch wouldn't be waterproof anymore?

A trip back to shop was called for. The salesgirl recognised me and with the look on my face she knew that it wasn't good news. She explained that her completely incompetent and moron of a colleague didn't screw all the fixing screws yesterday, She only knew about if after he asked what to do with the extra screws? She said she tried to find me after I left the shop but couldn't find me. Call yourself and establishment that deals with fine timepieces and you find extra screws during a basic routine battery change?

I wouldn't know whether they could repair the watch or not as from what I could see it had extra electronics part for the HRM. If they couldn't than I would like to request a new one, equivalent or better replacement. Till then I have to wait till they have a look at it more closely.

Ulterior Motives

I received a phone call today that makes me wonder whats the motive behind the call. You see, I had investigated an incident a few months back, and since I couldn't find anything conclusive I have issued a report with possible causes and not pinpointing into one. The reason being is that I can't say with full conviction that I have found the root cause of the incident. So when the call came in, the caller was basically saying that my report was akin to "paralysis by too much analysis" and wanted me to at least identify one root cause that would indemnify a vendor.

What happened was that the caller is the head of another department who have slapped a vendor on the wrist and would like to use my report as means of further punishment. Hence he kept pushing me to select at least a reason so that my report could have been used against the vendor. I felt that they had an ulterior motive as dishing out punitive reports wasn't in my scope of work. They wanted to impose a sort of punishment but wanted to be seen as it was not by them.

Macam mana ni? Baling batu sembunyi tangan? I personally won't do up a report that I have no strong conviction in it. I have to talk it out with my immediate supervisor about this and see what he's going to say. I really hate the feeling that I'm being a pawn in someone else's chess game.

Timely updates

Been held with a lot of work for the past week, not including unplanned site inspection due to equipment failure. The week has been hectic to me but I have to wrap everything up by Saturday to attend The Boy's School Concert & Graduation.

It's amazing when I asked him where are the concert is going to be held, he just said "Zon Kunci" is where the bus had stopped when they had the rehersal. Bless him for being observant but how in the world could anyone find out where "Zon Kunci' is... ( It's actually a street sign telling that the area is a vehicle clamping zone for indescriminate parking")

The concert was actually held in a Kelana Jaya, but the strange thing is that we we met up with a massive jam trying to enter the concert venue due to the fact that the guards wanted everyone's particular upon entering the place. I was like" WTF? 4-6 y.o. can run amok and steal stuff from ther? C'mon, we're going there for a kindy concert people!" In the end, they relented and let everyone in without taking down my grandmother's middle maiden name, or they could have ran out of visitors passes.

We enjoyed the concert very much, seeing kids conquering their fear and let themself loose on the stage in front of a big audience. Granted some did had stage fright and a few were reduced to tears on stage, but on overall their good spirit to perform prevails.

Rock & Roll Baybeh!

Look Ma! I've Graduated

Everybody knows me bcoz I'm the famous rock & roll star!

Kudos to the teacher for their patience in teaching the kids all the moves and dances. You could hear most of them counting "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8" when doing their moves or eyes on the floor searching for their markers, but the event hadf me bursting at the stitches, laughing my head off seeing the kids in their element.

Well, the next one we will be attending this sort of do would be in another 4 years time!

If you think you could, you would

After last week's run, I decided to push the envelope a bit more. I haven't done any distance longer running than 5km, so today I've decided, WTF, I'll might just run 10km to gauge how fit I am. It turned out to be a rather long run, wait, make it run/walk/run/walk. I finished the course in 1:17, which is miserable by any standards even for a first try. But as long as I am still standing after it, I guess I could just improve upon it.

Also had another go at the pool today, just to build up the endurance and guess what, still a lot more improvement can be done there. So hopefully with these baby steps, I could see more substantial improvement in the future.

ps. also hope that the 10km run would atone my sins of having satay 4 days in a row due to open houses, not forgetting nasi beriyani, nasi mandie, nasi minyak, char kuey teow and the list goes on...

Terry Fox Run 2007

Wohoo! We did it. I mean The Boy & Me did it. We ran the course and crossed the finishing line. We were there by 7.45 am but couldn't find parking near the drop off area, so we had to park at the Bird park and made our way to the start line.

At home before leaving

Cheeky pose - full moon?

Before the run - still can smile

Belly dancing warm-up - shake it, shake it ....

There were two sessions of warm-up, one by Fitness First, the other by these ladies doing belly dancing. You can guess which one received the most participation, hehe ...

Terry Fox Run Route

During the run

The guy in the orange cap took a short cut - loads of people behind us

The route started off with a hill ascend, which most of the participants was walking calmly as the starting horn has sounded. We walked for a bit until it was clear to run, and I asked the boy to set the pace. In case if he was tired, then he can walk albeit at a fast pace. I was surprised that he can clear the hilly bits of the course until we came to the Bird park area. Then the route was mostly downhill, so it didn't pose much problem to us.

He managed to run for about another km or so before we started to walk. And then the inevitable happened... he asked for a dukung (carry), which I obliged for about 500 m. Imagine me with a backpack on my front and a kid on my back... endurance training galore..

When we saw the finishing line, and the boy decided to run and finish the race, which is about 800m away. Congratulations son, you made it. Next year it will be the four of us (hopefully).

I'm a finisher !!!!!


Penat! Penat! Aiman lapar ni ...

After race treat - free cotton candy !!

ps. went to the donut place as the mrs. is having craving for it - We were there by 11 am, and there's about a 30 mins wait line already formed. By the time we got to order, the favs are all gone, but there are other just as good...total time spent in line & waiting for order 1 hour 10 mins, which reminded me, never again on weekends...

Possible new addiction?

What would you do if you saw a line of people queuing up at a donut outlet during weekdays? Some of you wold find it weird for people to be queuing up for donuts right? Well not me and not for these ....

Click on picture

hehe... was in the vicinity and saw the queue and decided, What the heck, just join the line and see what's the rave is all about.. Just imagine, there's about a 10 minutes wait in line during workdays and most of the donuts that they have are being replenished, so you might not be able to get what you wanted unless you wait some more.

The verdict? Soft and light dough, with choices of toppings and fillings. Sure fire way to add a few inches to the waistline. So after queuing up for this, better make a line to your gym....

Turning 33

I've joined the repeating number club this year. The next one would be 10 years from now. So how does it feels to celebrate your 33th birthday? I felt that it was no better than the previous one and just hope to survive the next one.

For my birthday dinner treat, I have decided on Pizza Uno, having loads of great reviews from bloggers and forumers alike. A quick check on the internet for contact number and hey presto, I found out that they have recently open a new branch in Bandar Puteri Puchong. Surely that's a sign. Called up to make a reservation for a three person dinner party.

Finding the place is quite easy as its near my house, but finding an available parking space during prime dining time is another story. The decor was cozy and the setting provided just the right ambience for dining.

Dinner companions

Getting a big, wet one !

It's so good that I wouldn't want to share

The ice chocolate was NICE! A glassful of chilled milk with good serving of chocolate syrup, and a dollop of vanilla ice cream. It was so good that the boy wouldn't want to share it with us.

Appetiser - Crostini platter

Spagetthi marinara - Notice those big prawns? Yummy !

Primavera with prawns - fetuccini

Lemon Pana Cotta - complimentary from the house

Me scraping upto the last morsel of dessert - It was that good!

The portions of serving was more than enough for our Asian serving, and left uf full to the brim until the next thing that came to my mind is o sleep it off. By he way, no regrets about trying out this place, & since its near our place, would might be the next favorite to go for some good food.

The third eye

I for one believed that there are other 'beings' to co-exits with us humans, the ones that we could not see with our normal vision. But others have been 'blessed' (or cursed) with the ability to see the inexplicable beings. In adults it would be a very rare ability to have, but in children they seems to have been to detect the other beings presence easily.

Why broach this subject? Am I gonna be a volunteer on Seekers? Trying to film it on tape?

Nope, not close. The thing is that I believe during the weekend I have noticed two persons who might have experienced it. One is at a gathering when an acquaintance was talking then he suddenly quites down, eyes fixed on a spot and seem to be like 'out of this world'. He snapped out of it a few seconds later continue talking, albeit at a slower pace. He wouldn't want to disclose anything but I suspect that he saw 'something' but wouldn't want to disclose it maybe he doesn't want to alarm the host or the guests. I have talked to him before and he claimed to have experienced these things before, so I believed that he must have witnessed something.

The other incident was from my nephew, as he was having dinner at my house, he commented 'Banyaknya orang kat kipas Uncle Long tu." I asked him about it, "Adam nampak orang kat kipas tu ke?" He replied, " Adam nampak ramai orang kat kipas tu.." the adults at the table suddenly went quiet. We didn't want to pursue the subject any further, but I felt that he must have been telling the truth but the thing is that he is not alarmed about the sighting, continued eating his dinner.

Personally, I haven't experienced any sightings myself (and wouldn't want to) but have experienced some 'presence' previously, so I believe that these things truly exits.

All set & ready to go

Running Shoes - checked

Run T - shirts - checked

Run partner - checked (betul ke partner, nanti halway minta dokong camne?)

Fitness to run - dunno, maybe gained kgs after raya

What am I blabbering about ?

Check this out. Terry Fox Run KL 2007 .

For those who wants to help for cancer research, just register urself for the run. Venue and details on the link above.

C'mon guys, it's for a good cause plus you'll be getting some cardiovascular exercise. Plus gives you an excuse to get some rubdown from your nearest and dearest due to 'aches' from the run. Hehe...

Kampungmu ke kampungku?

Bestnya raya kat kampung ni ... Balik Kampung..

Ever since we got married, my mrs. & I have made arrangement for Eid, one year it would be on my side and another year it would be on her side. The arrangement has worked fine since, so this year we celebrated Eid in Pekan.

As I grow older & wiser (doesn't feel like it), I noticed that the Eid celebration feeling has lost some of its luster. As a kid, I would wait impatiently for raya coz that would be the time for collecting duit raya, trying on new clothes bought during Ramadhan, eating all the raya dishes and playing fireworks but as an adult the feeling is reversed as I am the one who's going to fork out the duit raya, buying the clothes and the preparation for it.

But wherever Eid is celebrated, the traditional dishes (Malaysian) would be similar albeit different tasting. For example, at my mrs.'s place, they are having ketupat but at my mum's, we'll be having lontong (this is the pure bona fide Javanese lontong) but the rest would be the same, rendang either beef or chicken, masak lodeh and sambal kacang.

Here's one I made earlier
( bangga tu dapat buat at least satu after 3 tries )

Lontong daun pisang & kuih lopes - hmm...food
( wonder how to shed those weight after indulging into these? )

Apart from the food differences, the environment is also different. At my mrs. her house would be the focal point of gathering as her grandmother is still around, but at my place we would go around to the elder relations during the first day.

But all in all, the spirit of Eid is still abound, irregardless of our geographical location as witnessed when celebrating here in Malaysia or even when I was abroad.

Eid Mubarak everyone.

Eid Mubarak

[ Image from here ]

First and foremost, I would like to wish all Muslims around the world Eid Mubarak. To those who sent us their greetings by card/emails/sms, we would like to wish the same to you back. Have a wonderful Eid, and those traveling have a safe journey.

Selamat Hari Raya
Maaf Zahir Batin

That's It... no escape for me anymore

The esc button on my laptop has fallen off today. Come to think about it, this is the second time that this laptop needs attention. The first time was to have the LCD changed after three months due to flickering images ... before any of you guys have any ideas...it's not porn ok... well... not most of the time...

Anyway, saw on telly the angkasawan launch just now. I gonna bet that there will be sleepless nights for some people on earth, probably dreaming of being mrs. angkasawan... hehe ... of a good chance of being datin angkasawan ...

Towards the end of Ramadhan

Pergh...now bila dah dekat nak hujung-hujung bulan puasa ni, makin tak lalu pulak nak sahur dan buka. Even the pasar ramadhan sellers have been dwindling noticeably as Eid is just around the corner. May I have the strength to finish this.....

Last Song Syndrome

Most of us have gotten the feeling before, the song that will be playing in our head would most likely comes from the last song that we heard, either in the car or the one on your portable music player. The same thing happened to me today, where this particular festive song has been playing on my cd player since 7 am nonstop-with-encores courtesy of The Boy.

Sudirman - Balik Kampung

Perjalanan jauh tak ku rasa
Kerna hati ku melonjak sama
Ingin berjumpa sanak saudara
Yang selalu bermain di mata

Nun menghijau gunung ladang dan rimba
Langit nan tinggi bertambah birunya
Deru angin turut sama berlagu
Semuanya bagaikan turut gembira

Balik kampung oh oh...( 3X )
Hati girang
Ho ho... Balik kampung (3X)
Hati girang

Terbayang wajah-wajah yang ku sayang
Satu-satu tersemat di kalbu
Pasti terubat rindu di hati
Menyambut kepulangan ku nanti
Perjalanan jauh tak ku rasa
Kerna hati ku melonjak sama
Ingin berjumpa sanak saudara
Yang selalu bermain di mata

Nun menghijau gunung ladang dan rimba
Langit nan tinggi bertambah birunya
Deru angin turut sama berlagu
Semuanya bagaikan turut gembira

Balik kampung oh oh...( 3X )
Hati girang
Ho ho... Balik kampung (3X)
Hati girang

Terbayang wajah-wajah yang ku sayang
Satu-satu tersemat di kalbu
Pasti terubat rindu di hati

Menyambut kepulangan ku nanti

Mechanical Failure week

Got a bit of a withdrawal symptom now. My 'equipment of torture' as been rendered unusable and the technical support cavalry will come and look into it tomorrow. Man, this is the second time in about six months into the ownership that it given me problems. Gonna wait for what's the verdict tomorrow, if it's the same one as the previous one, I'll consider writing in to them for a change. I mean, it's either design flaw or shortcoming in material used for the same fault to recur again.

On that note, a few of my toys are also out of service and to top that off, my car had a flat. So the old adage does come true, when it rains it pours. Just like the Japan F1 at Fuji today.

ps.. someone had a craving for a classic ploughman sandwich, hehe ... also for a pure, unsweetened ice blended watermelon juice....all home made, mind you...

SMS Our Angkasawan

I saw the headline today and it got me thinking, is it going to be like the popular 'reality-tv' show where they put up the 2 competing astronauts and decide to leave the election process to the masses instead of professional space trained personnel. Only after reading it I saw that this was a ploy for the monopoly satellite broadcaster way of milking extra moolah out of their customer.

But, lets say in Bizzaro world and this do comes true, then I think our "Raja SMS" ould surely beat all other contestant hands down. Some people just worship the ground he walked on and would blindly sms their vote to him.

As for me, the money spent on this angkasawan thingy could have been better utilized. Granted that it was part payment of our export, but so much could have been done with it. But that was just me.

ps. I know of at least one person who would SMS the angkasawan... hehe ... you know who you are ....

State of Indefference

Have we turned into a nation of apathy? How many reports in the news hat we have heard about people who needs help in the middle of a crowd but none of them actually lend a helping hand? We would crowd and slowed upon an accident or even a snatch case but none of us would actually administer first aid or even calling the emergency services.

I had similar encounters before, the latest last weekend. I was window shopping when among the crowd of people when I heard "Tangkap, tangkap!" and saw a man with a helmet being chased by another guy. Nobody even bother to stop the guy until a good samaritan just held the man running away and threw him against the wall and pinned him before the one chasing him caught up and whisked him away. The crowd that has parted suddenly gather around to watch the drama.

If I were closer to the guy running away, I would also be in the position of not knowing what to do. But I wasn't anywhere around him and fall into the 'guilty' category. Now, where are Spiderman when you need him eh?

So Proud Of You Son!

Aiman did something that I thought he could do today. Something that everyone at home tought that he did not have the endurance to do. After a few days of puasa setengah hari, he finally did manage to finish the whole day today. One whole day!!! OK, we had to give in to a lot of his demands just for him to continue with his fasting, but in the end he kept his word.

We're so proud of you son!

Glorified Coffee/Copy Boy

Due to my company's new policy, certain type of meetings especially dealing with tenders, the job that used to be run by us the menial boys are officially delegated to the upper echelon of the management but get this, the paperwork is still done by us.

So in order not to violate this, our presence in the meeting is not minuted and if anyone asked, we are there to do the coffees and happened to be subject matter expert in the area of discussion. Oh and due to Ramadhan, the term can be interchangeable with copy. So we were asked to commit our presence and time, but could not officially appear in any documentation. So its like a loop hole.



ps.

Alfatihah to a colleague who lost a daughter yesterday and also to Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.

Shakedown on the 1st Day of Ramadhan

First day of Ramadhan & I felt my body shaking at 7.50 am today. In my mind, "Eh, first day of puasa, not even yet 4 hours into it I have suffered from low blood sugar?"

Turns out to be the tremors from the afterquake that hit Sumatra earlier during the night. Now I really felt the earth moving under my feet. The next questin is going to be, was it as good for you as it was for me? ;-) -

Ramadhan Mubarak

Selamat menyambut kedatangan bulan Ramadhan kepada Muslimin & Muslimah dimana sahaja anda berada. Semoga amalan kita diterimaNya.

CNN...this blog is not...

Sometimes I might get stumped on what to write,
Thinking about it day and night,
Sometimes I can't find anything interesting to share,
As I can't seem to find any ideas anywhere.

Sometimes my life is just plodding along,
Shades of gray between what's right or wrong,
Sometimes I can just be a bore,
And at times I wanted to be much more.

So if you thinking of finding updates after updates, all done in a timely manner, then you would be better off, searching for it elsewhere...

Signs that you have arrived...or not...

Was going through my mails and through the sea of bills and spam there was one surprise : an RSVP to test drive a brand new 2007 E90 BMW 5 series. I turned the envelope front and back just to see whether they've sent it to the right person. Did they know something that I don't? Like I'm due for some windfall in the near future that I would even consider trading up to it. Or maybe they've found some money that someone with similar name as me have stashed away. But this wasn't the first time that they sent it to me. The first one was to test drive the new X5.

Why does the 3 pointed star never sent me a invite for test drive? Granted that I'm driving a 9 y.o. model, but the way the propeller signs are working their marketing, time for a change? The dark force is strong on this one....

The Long Weekend

First and Foremost,

Selamat Menyambut Hari kemerdekaan yang ke 50, Malaysia!

Went back to kampung on Merdeka day, been about 4 months since we were last back. The drive east was uneventful, not a lot of traffic or any hidden policeman trying to catch you in the act of exceeding the speed limit. Got there around 5pm, sempat singgah pekan sari lagi for fixes that couldn't be found in KL.

The boy was excited and when we got there, straightaway he wanted to get on his bike, (yes, we brought his bike back due to his request).

The next day they're were having some kenduri for one of the mrs. cousins who's getting engaged and the order of the day was to slaughter 7 chickens. These were not the run-off-the-mill poultry, these are the free range (ayam kampung) of the Isreali breed, means that they're easily 1.5X bigger than the local variety. Me had the task of holding them still for the slaughter and the cleaning afterwards and I would say that this went better than my last venture. I looked like the butcher of Pekan after it ended. Sorry folks, no pics as wouldn't want to upset PETA or something, suffice to say that cleaning them up by the river was a new experience to me.

Also in season was rambutans and the dragon fruits (white variety). Had loads of them and managed to whisked some home. Those homegrown dragon fruits are much more nicer & sweeter than store bought ones...now thinking of ways to grow my own ..

Being back in kampung did provide me with some sort of break from my normal routine ( meaning that I could sleep & eat & sleep to my content without the mrs. bising-bising...hehe) also being away from the hustle and bustle of the city ...

Next schedule back is during the Eid ....