Travel Bug

Caught the travel bug I have. My bag is still unpacked from the trip to Ho Chi Min City. Stuffs I brought home are still sitting nicely in my luggage bag. Some are souvenirs waiting to be given away whilst others are stuffs for the children and yours truly of course. Bilanya nak habis berkemas entah laaaa.....

And unpack I did; stored the HCMC stuffs neatly in our closet. But that wasn't the only thing I did in the last two hours. I got myself packing again....packing for another trip which will happen in 5 hours!!

I'm going to be away again; four days to be exact. Both Abe and I will be taking off to Colombo, Sri Lanka till Friday. He's treating me (for what pun I dah lupa dah....), and I'm treating him for his upcoming birthday. Pretty confusing huh?? Whatever lah......

Faris is driving us to LCCT in an hour or so. I'm still awake, responding to emails and FBing. Work is ultimately crazy. New projects have come in and I must say this is not quite the right time to be away from the office. Well, what's new lah kan....kerja kerja jugak...cuti tetap cuti.

Okay lah, I can hardly keep my eyes opened. Need to snooze for 10 mins or so. There rest of the sleep?? On board nanti lah.

So people...have a good and productive week. I'll see you Friday, hopefully with loads of stories and pictures for Sembang :)

Don't Mind Us

Don’t mind us, we just want to shop till we drop. That would have made a good tag line for my recent trip to Ho Chi Min City. And we did drop – at the airport to be exact, upon weighing our luggage. It was a whopping 130kg all together, an alarming number considering we only have an allocation 80kg in total.

An excess of almost 50kg!! What on earth have we done? There were only two days of shopping and how could we have picked up so much?? I still have no answers to these questions and believe me I am still struck with awe of those crazy moments spent with Desert Rose, her friend M and Liadevega, hubby S and baby Yusuf.

From one market place to the other, bags and bags of merchandise exchanged hands; from the shop into our open arms. Parting with our Vietnam Dong had become so natural after the second hour of roaming the hot and humid market place. Even the downpour couldn’t stop us.

Desert Rose & M were stocking up for Unggu – their boutique which made debut some two months back. With festive celebrations coming up, the timing couldn’t have been better. I’m pretty impressed with these two ladies actually – so young and very entrepreneurial. So when the invite came from Desert Rose to go explore HCMC, I obliged. When looking at merchandise they got, I’m confident that their “Cotton Story” will excel.

Ho Chi Min City by the Mekong River awaits us

Ho Chi Minh City Hall or Hôtel de Ville de Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Head office - Trụ sở Ủy ban Nhân Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) was built in 1902-1908 in a French colonial style for the then city of Saigon.
It was renamed after 1975 as Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.

That’s their story. And mine? What else if it’s none other than RT. After a stretch of stressful days both in the office and at home, I just had to go recharge myself. And RT works like magic on me; all troubles out the window – well at least temporarily for the two or three days. If I recall what my doctor said about exercising the other day, it must be the happy hormones that did the job. From the walking around, I believe my happy hormones are triggered. Thus, making me feel like I’m on cloud nine. Spirits uplifted and there wasn’t a single sick bone in my body. I have recovered, thank God.

I shall let the pictures do the story telling.

Motor bikes...so many motor bikes conquered the city

Polka dot pants, anyone?

Shops at An Dong Market

Our good friend Raja (a local who speaks fluent BM) in Ben Than Market and he sells baju kurung!!

It's raining season now in HCMC. Heavy downpour on our first night. We should be indoors, right?

Wrong answer..... The search must go on...walaupun having to put on that horror looking raincoat. Memang rupa hobbit!!

Tired....had to find a place to sit at one of the shops we walked into.

Dah penat...apa lagi cari makan je lah. This was at the Parkson Food Court in HCMC. There are two Halal outlets there, Pak Indian food & D'Anjung.

The chicken briyani I had for dinner....sedap!! (well dah so hungry...makan apa pun sedap lah)

Our luggage of weight total 130kg.

The trio - posing before leaving for airport, with probably these thoughts on their mind -
Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase -
Erma Bombeck

Mod Metr

Mod metr, hai metr, da metr........ kar men.
One meter, two meters, three meters....and thank you! That's how you say it in Vietnamese.

Haroooooo.....I'm home. Tired from the walkabout in HCMC. But as always, nothing beats the satisfaction from RT, well at least that's how it works for me.

I hope to be able to post our interesting stories in Ho Chi Min City. But right now, first order of the day is WORK. As the saying goes, ada kerja ada gaji, ada gaji boleh beli-beli.

Have a productive day and have a good week :) :) :)

GoSS Strikes Back

Before I left for home this evening, I informed my girl that I won't be around on Monday. She asked if I had meetings outside. I said, "Tak...saya cuti."

My staff in the office by now read me like a book. "Cuti" means going off somewhere, to chill out for one or two days, "Cuti" to them is the keyword indicating that I had managed to get a good online deal from AA.

I'm done packing; however not quite excited about the trip yet. Flight departs at 9.30 this morning and by 11.00am local time, I'd be walking about the the city streets of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Intense rush of adrenaline will most probably happen during this time.

So if you happen to be in HCMC too, do look out for the "gang of serious shopaholic - GoSS" (Desert Rose, her friend M and Ms Liadevega and her two bodyguards and yours truly of course) doing their 10,000 steps walkabout around the city.

We'll be home, InshaAllah on Monday night. Well till then, ciao and have a wonderful weekend folks.

Reality Hurts

Huh?? Since when have I become a relationship counselor? Do I even look like one? And please do not expect me to make character judgments. I hate doing that!!

Someone who is very much involved in a relationship forwarded these very disturbing lines to my email. Outchhh…reality hurts; if I were to read from accepts of email keramat tu.

The great love that I have for you is gone, and I find my dislike for you grows every day. When I see you, I do not even like your face.

Our last conversation was very boring and has not made me look forward to seeing you again. You think only of yourself. I have a heart to give, but it is not something that I want to give to you.

I could only think of this as my reply to her email - “Sabar lah…..”

What else was I to say; these matters of the heart are not easy to tackle. Perhaps I should add this one liner - “Chill dear….clear your mind, go for a break and pray for the best.”

Not at all a detrimental reply, kan?

Hopefully the message gets across coz I’m so not looking forward to getting sequels of such emails over the weekend. Perhaps I should add the picture below too in order to hammer the message.

Yes….I’m going on a break myself. Tired of battling too many stormy weathers and putting off fires of blazing hearts.

Take care everyone….see you next week!!

Sue's Sufferings

It is heart wrenching every time I catch a glimpse of her. Her sadness was observable, no matter how hard she tries to hide. The always so jovial Sue, has suddenly become tight lipped, keeping very much to herself. There have been mornings when Sue walked in with bloodshot eyes; an indication that she was probably crying the entire night.

Many a times I wanted to walk to her, wrap her in a hug and let her know that she has me by her side lending the listening ears. Even a shoulder to cry on if she wanted, but I just didn’t know what muzzled me. We would pass each other along the corridor, her gloom eyes meeting mine, signaling the troubled heart. There was only exchange of glances, no words. It was as if we were total strangers, when in actual fact we are not.

It hurts me inside that I couldn’t reach out to her now. It hurts me bad knowing we have walled up the emotions between us. We used to be bosom chums; inseparable through thick or thin. But it took only one careless action to distance the closeness once shared.

Why Sue…why? Why shun me?

These were the emotions shared with me during a counseling session with a subordinate sometime back. This morning the girl came to me in tears, telling me that Sue is gone!!

Sue died over the weekend, in a motor accident apparently. The vehicle was a total wreck; a wrecked and mangled of body mass, manifesting Sue’s state of mind, I imagine. As I stood still to regain my composure, tears welled up my eyes. Visual flashes of Sue’s sufferings caused the world around me to slowly spin. I saw stars; no….correction, I think what I saw Sue’s sad, lost soul, looking for the love she never received.

Through our glazed stares, we both ponder upon the sequence of events that happened earlier with much disbelief. The lost is apparent – for both of us, even with my shriveled knowledge of Sue.

Sue – not her real name

Waka Waka

Superb sportsmanship it was at the opening game FIFA 2010 between Mexico and South Africa that ended some minutes back. Though we were putting our bets on South Africa, the Mexicans displayed great determination, showing to the host nation that they can't easily be dismissed.

So that was how the game went. It ended with a draw of one all for both teams.

I must confess I am no soccer fan. This is probably due to the much disappointment with local soccer scene and those foolish acts of the rowdy fans - main nya tak seberapa, musnah nya yang lebih.

My personal observation on the local sports scene is that there is just too much of politics. Handsome rewards await the players despite their lackadaisical performance. The much awaited sports heroes like Super Mokh, Santokh Singh and Soh Chin Aun never surfaced. *sigh* Bila lah agak nya patah tumbuh, hilang berganti......

Nissa watching the game earlier as she received quick notes on Soccer 101 from Daddy.
Game result RSA 1 : Mex 1

Let's do the Waka Waka dance with Shakira

School's Out

School is out for two weeks and we haven't the faintest plan on what to organize for the children. Nissa mentioned like four times in the last two days that three of her close friends are away overseas on holiday. One is in Sydney (and they keep in touch via FB!! Haaa...tu dia, budak-budak sekarang. Pi holiday pun still boleh ber FB!!), another close friend is in South Africa for World Cup and the third girl pi mana tah, I pun tak ingat!!

Mommy here is somewhat stressed when getting such updates. We have plans for a family holiday, but it will only come sometime towards year end. I tell you it's really tough trying to be diplomatic in providing answers to such questions - "My friend is currently on her way holidaying in bla bla bla destination. And where are we going Mom?"

My simple answer would be, "Errr...rumah Uwan in Seremban, can ah?" (as I give that "Daddy & I do not grow money on trees...yarrr!!" stare)

Looks like I have to come up with a holiday plan pronto. Now, what shall it be??

Kalau zaman I was a little girl dulu, gi Mimaland (and pedal non stop that funny boat around the lake) or the Lake Gardens and then a quick stop over at Fitzpatrick's Supermarket for ice cream and chocolates dah memadai. For kids these days, I doubt that an itinerary as simple as that would tick them. But I shall try. Perhaps this weekend, we try and click with nature ker... umppp....that would not be too bad kan?

What say you, any suggestion on a quick holiday plan?

S.E.V.E.N.T.E.E.N

Happy Birthday Farah.

Love life, bring warmth and kindness to everyone around you.
May Allah bless you with good health, happiness, success and all the good things in life.
Lots of love from Abang, Nissa, Daddy & Mama.