Goodbye Miss Rumble and Tumble

After 12 years with us, we have to say goodbye to Miss Rumble and Tumble. Your years of service, without uttering a word when asked for would be remembered. You said nothing when asked to do the same chore again and again and again. Would you continue to be of service in another 12 years to come and your deeds to those who is is dire need of your service would be remembered for eternity.

Farewell. We'll miss you.

April Schedule ..

April have been with a hectic start for me. It started off with a work trip to Kedah for 3 days, 29-30 March 2010, then a dive trip to Tawau/Semporna/Mabul from 1-6 April 2010, then continuing with work trip in Sabah again , KK/Sandakan/Tawau/Lahad Datu/KK from 12-18 April 2010.

In the past three weeks, I have been home in about 6 days :-(. There would a few more work trip in Semenanjung planned but I'll try to make it a day trip as much as possible even if it means I have to drive or take the early flight in last flight out.

Work is work but what I miss most is time with the family. Time with the kids and the mrs. Things are moving at such a pace that I wish I could clone myself, leaving the original me home to be with my family. Until then, I will try to minimise days away.

Black Beauty is down .. again ..

For the second time in weeks, the black beauty had experienced a leak in the power steering system. All this while, we had managed to get by using Amiaq's magic potion no 1, but this time it did not help. Need to bite the bullet & get the component changed, but due to limited availability of second hand parts, the progress had been slow. So much so that I had to forego my teaching session in Taiping tomorrow. Else it would be my return trip to Taiping since last Thursday..

Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan

The March school holidays was spent in the north, with specific food instructions :

1. Kwey Tiau Goreng Doli, Taiping

~ no pics, too busy eating ~

2. Mee Banjir Udang Mak Teh, Kuala Sepetang,

3. Nasi Ketam, Warung Pak Su, Bagan Nyior, Juru, Penang

4. Roti Canai Argyll Street Penang

5. Seafood Dinner at Penang

That was a tall order and to my surprise, we managed to go to all those and had finished everything that we ordered. Officially, I'm above the limit of my cholesterol / uric acid intake for the month, now need to call my reflexologist for some detox session and to keep fit for upcoming dive trip in Sipadan, else I'll end up looking like a dugong in my wetsuit.

ps. Stay at Jana View Condotel in Taiping, room rates are on the cheap site, quite good accommodation unit with a sofa-bed but the breakfast leaves a lot of improvement to be made. RM60/night during the school holidays, what more can I say ...

Micheal Phelps in the making

My uncle had refurbished his pool (kolam ikan to be exact) because he's trying in a new venture. Previously he had bred patin & keli and when the harvest time came, the fishes were snapped up real quick. But then the pool has some problem, so he drained the water and let it dried for almost two years. During that time he did rear some fish in the surrounding parits, but as usual it became targets for thieves. Imagine almost 1000 fishes of the talapia, baung and patin varieties slowly dwindling due to theft. Not to mention the water pump as well.

The refurbish pool will be housing some udang galah, with maturity and harvesting period around 14 - 16 weeks. Then maybe we could have some udang fiesta ... watch this space ..

Four pools

Eager testers

Ready to set the world record

Berendam sampai kecut

Traffic Offense

There I was, driving to my alumni dinner in Royale Chulan, KL using Jalan Pekeliling. I took the turn off to Bulatan Kg Pandan and try to cut left to go towards Berjaya Times Square when I was topped by two traffic police doing 'ops' there.

TP : Encik dah belok pada tempat yang salah, minta IC & lesen ...

me : Salah macam mana tu?

TP : Encik sepatutnya buat bulatan baru boleh masuk sini. Encik kena tengok arrow kat jalan tu ..

me : Oh ye ke.. saya tak perasan sebab saya jarang masuk KL.

TP : Encik duduk mana ?

me : Saya duduk Puchong. kerja kat PJ, jarang masuk KL . Hari ini pun sebab ada function and kawan kata suruh belok kiri kat sini.

TP : Takpelah Encik.. kami akan tulis kesalahan seperti begini (shows me the previous summons slip)

me : ok.

The TP then went round the car, so called checking my road tax and other things.. I was ready for him to fill in the book and sign it off ..

TP : macam ni la Encik, kira saya kasi warning kat encik ajelah kali ini, lain kali jangan buat lagi ..

Hmmm... made me wonder whether he's trying to nego something from me or what, the moment he says I'm in the clear, I straight away drove off ...

Close encounter of the slithery kind

We were back in Pekan for the long CNY hols and also to celebrate Adi's birthday there. On the second day of CNY, about dusk, we heard a commotion coming from the chicken coop. A quick inspection by Peh confirmed that one of the chicken had been attacked by a python and the offending snake serpent is still there trying to swallow the lifeless chicken.

So out Peh went with a parang, torch light and a rope loop. I follow suit with my camera and flash, trying to capture the 'historical' event. I brought the boy along in order to show him how a live snake is being captured.

The snake had nowhere to go as it has exhausted itself in constricting the chicken. The chicken is not the normal ayam kampung, but of another variety, which is about 1.5 times the normal chicken, hence it had difficulty in swallowing the chicken whole. What Peh did was to knock the snake on the head and tie a loop around its neck and carried it away from the coop. The snake is about 2m in length, probably still a juvenile. From Peh's account, this is the third time the chickens had been attacked but as their sizes are a little bigger than your average chicken, it couldn't swallow it, hence the decision to kill the snake before it launches subsequent attacks.

The pics showed it all, plus the boy posing at the lifeless snake after its all done.

Trying to corner the phyton

Success!

Sizing the snake out

Aiman tak takut pun ...

The lifeless serpent

Do we have all the time in the world?

I'm still trying to achieve balance in my life. At the moment it was not as what I wanted it to be. As usual, new year work schedule is filled with activities and it has been taking me away from home a lot. Even when I'm in the office, the amount of work is SOOOO Much, that right now maybe its like waiting for the last straw to break the camel's back.

In an ideal world, I would like to have all my work during my office hours, with the rest of the time spent at home. I know I haven't been much of a help to the mrs, who's singlehandedly running the home and wish I could do something more to relieve her. Plus my kids are also commenting that I'm always outstation. Hmmm ...

Now even they are calling me to work during the weekends, and with the songel in my HR department, getting an off day for work done during the w.end is like asking for a pot of gold.

Now have to relook on how to reorganise my life with the current situation ...hope it would just be temporary...

KK, KK & KK

I will be going to KK three times this month.

The first time was last week, from 16-19 Jan 2010. The nest one is this coming Wednesday.

The third one would be 1st Feb 2010, albeit only to Kuala Kangsar. Hehe.... 3 kk trips jugak kan ...

Touch & Gone

I have been using Touch & Go (TNG) since 1999, back during the days when they haven’t integrated the toll paying system. The only reason I got the TNG is that to use the then PLUS only highways as the other like SPRINT and LDP are using their own KESAS or LDP tag.

In a way, I have found that the reload system of other tags is way more efficient than the Touch & Go. Imagine this, you sign up for an integrated credit card with TNG with the anticipation of hassle free reloading but what you get is not. One case in particular is that I passed through Sungai Besi and upon exiting in Seremban I have been told by the machine that the card is not valid. WTF?

I also have another TNG which was linked to my credit card for reloading and after one reload which have been credited to my TNG, they called me up saying that I haven’t been paying for my top up along with a legalese letter. I told them to shove back the TNG card where the sun doesn’t shine.

My then LDP tag was not giving me any problem at all. At exactly RM 10, it will reload to the preset value and straight away debited to my banking account. No hassle at all. But then the heavy hand of government wanted to streamline all the payment into one and no guesses needed. TNG is the preferred method. So everyone had to migrate. FINE. I got another one to use. Along the years I have also bought an additional TNG & Smart Tags for the mrs.

Then they came up with some press release saying that certain cards form certain years will not be usable any more and the user have to get new cards. I read about it in the news but didn’t expect them follow thorough but I guess the smell of money made them do it.

If we keep on using our old card then they can’t supply new cards right? They must have been going through the numbers and realize that supply of new cards are slowing down and what way to generate more income on top of the % charge to all the operators using TNG. Why deactivate a fine and working car other than to rake in more money from the consumer. Curse you TNG & Rangkaian Segar.

All has been done, now up to divine help

A friend of mine from school is now experiencing some serious medical condition. His predicament started off with a one day viral like fever, developing into near paralysis of the limbs and eyelids the next day, deteriorating vitals, put in chemically induced coma and life support machine. All this in the span of 3 days.

Whilst the details of his illness couldn't be shared here, suffice to say that his own antibody is attacking his central nervous system, which created all the chaos to his body. What we are told is that the medication given to him is super expensive, bordering to RM40k.

My batch mates are organizing some sort fund raising and solat hajat for him. I just wish that he could recover from this and even though the diagnosis is that he would have to undergo a long recovery period. My prayers goes to him. Get well soon.

Hong Kong Trip

Sorry for the delay , a lot of pending post not yet published. For the Hong Kong trip, the photos could be viewed here ... Facebook link .. story coming up later ...

Tiredness creeping in

The last few weeks have been hectic for me... almost every week I have to go away for work and as there's a public holiday every friday in Dec, its like working a 4 day week. It's like every week I'm in a different city and sometimes I forgotten where I am. I even was called to work in JB during Boxing Day, where I'm suppose to be spending it with my family. Sigh ...

My physical activities in Dec have halted to a grind, I only manage to catch 45 mins of swim last Tues in Equatorial Melaka 25m pool. I long for my usual laps in the cold water of Bukit Jalil, the sense of tranquility and peace as I traverse the length of the pool. I also long for my runs.

I need to increase my energy level energy, now forever feeling lethargic. Hope that thing will improve in 2010.

Jual air liur

Part of my portfolio now is giving presentation to the operation staff and my dept is planning a massive roadshow-cum-meet-and-greet thingy. Three regions have been identified and plans are being made for us to touch on current issues. I think each of us would be given around 2 hours to talk on our expertise.

It will involve travelling to the respective region and spending a 2 day session with them. To the east would mean a balik kampung trip, the south and north would mean travelling alone.

Now is the time to jual air liur and to gauge how the operation staff acceptance towards the issues that we have to talk upon. Now if only my air liur is like the swallow's, selling at RM4-5K/kg, just think how much I can make per session. hehe..

11 months have gone

I've just realised that 11 months in 2009 have gone, leaving another 3 weeks to go. This time around, December is going to be a busy month for me, with my GM dropped a bombshell last week. Almost all the remaining weeks in December would be filled with outstation trips. Almost all weekends would be occupied with wedding and my lil sis wedding preparation.

As a start, here I am in KB doing a day trip, which is now getting tiring to me. Looking back, I could do day driving trips to JB but now it seems a chore. Age catching up on me I guess. Next week Kuantan, then Melaka then Ipoh.

I still haven't been able to update this blog as frequently as I like, also haven't been downloading stuff as I like. And I felt like even if I sleep straight during the day I still couldn't recover from the state of perpetual sleepiness. And I don't think I'm making any sense typing this.

Farcical Exercise

No, I didn't mean me doing all sort of funny things to be justified as physical exercise, but rather the annual song and dance routine that we got once an audit is pending. This years theme, Hogwart's Magic Elementary 101 - conjuring non existing documents and backdating them ...

I mena, tahun ni tah apa tah mimpi my SGM yang selected me to be the contact person for one of my dept's processes and procedures, up to the point of freezing all outstation trip & leave. I have a 3 day HV course in UTM next week, so it looks like I may have to forgo that ... or if i could get someone to replace me in the office doing the conjuring thing.

It was supposed to be finished by today, Friday the 13th, but I have came down with quite severe fever ... hmmm..whether or not to come in for the day or get MC ... looks like its gonna be health first as KPI pun memanag dah kena potong kan, so tak payah le beria-ia ...

Quick Updates

It's been quite a while since I last updated this, the last being the raya pictures. Got a lot on my hand and mind and by the time I want to commit thought to text, something came out.

Work - been travelling a lot nowadays, everyone s set new KPI to meet and all want it to be done before the year end. So in a month, expect to see me all around Peninsula running around meeting someone else's KPI. I was also appointed (finally) tot the position that I have applied and went to interview for three times ...

Personal - celebrated my 35th birthday ... another milestone in my life, thinking of changing the black beauty into a kompressor version without breaking the bank, the boy had someone knocked into his nose at school and bled, haven't had time to muhasabah diri pun lagi .... got a family trip to Hong Kong before AidilAdha ..

On a different note, condolences to Bhumi & family for the passing of his dad. Semoga dia ditempatkan dikalangan orang yang beriman.

On another note, two of my friends are going to perform the haj this year. May you obtain what haji yang mabrur...

Aidilfitri 2009

Some shots of us taken at Pekan ..

All of us

The mrs, Abang & Lil-miss-chief

Mami. Abang & Adik

Me & The kids

Adik & female cousins - Wawa, Aliya, Afaf & Ain

Birases - menantu Ustaz Mohamed - Me, Sofi, Rizal, Abg Long & Amran

Adik & Aki

Aiman & Pokde Azim

Adik Posing control Ayu

Eid Mubarak

First and foremost I would like to wish Eid Mubarak to all who knows me. We would be spending the first few days in Pekan this year, to celebrate with our PM on his first raya of PM. To be honest, all this while, we haven't made it to his open house but we might try something different this year.

For me, this raya has lost a little lustre, maybe due to work presure etc, but at least I would try to have a little of it for the kids. I mean, up to now, I still haven't gotten round to change the monies, or getting some of the usual stuff that I would have already done previously. Maybe the last two days might gave a a reprieve in my schedule to do that.

Will be coming back to KL on the third day of raya, so if anyone is around by then, then maybe we could catch up. Till, then and if I wasn't able to meet any of you in person, Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin.

One more week to go

There's another week to go for Ramadhan. After that it will be back to normal routine f or us. I felt that this year, everything is passing by at the speed of light. Time flies so fast that looking back, it has already been September where events that happen a year ago is still fresh on our minds.

This year, we will be celebrating Eid in Pekan, Pahang. Who knows, we might join the PM's function thus year, :-0. For me, this Eid somewhat seems ordinary, maybe because the mood has not set in yet. Maybe I'm getting too old for this. Normally during this time, most of the shopping's are done, I'll be getting the bunga api & duit raya done, but this year it seems lacklustre. Plus waiting to be appraised for past year's performance at work, which doesn't help a bit in turning on the raya mood.

Maybe I should just be grateful with what I have at the moment and savour whats left of Ramadhan.

ps. today is the 8th anniversary of the WTC incident. I still remember watching the TV thinking what movie they are playing with the burning buildings and plane crashing into it. Aiman was about 2 months then...