Happy and Sad Ending

The month of May is coming to its end in a few hours. Fuhh...time surely zooms, and before you know it, a whole six months would have gone by.

Like always, work took precedence amongst all else. I'm happy to say that I've accomplished quite a bit in this month. The curriculum that I designed was well accepted by client and I saw its successful implementation in the last two camps. The response was overwhelming, with participants asking for more in the future. I get lumps in my throat each time we bid our good byes to the children after a good 4 days at camp. Nonetheless, out of sight doesn't mean out of mind coz we meet almost everyday now online. If only these children knew how lucky they were to be the selected few to experience this different method of learning where creativity and collaboration were the essential skills used. I am all so glad to share my knowledge and expertise with to these buds. Hopefully they will benefit from the knowledge, InshaAllah.

On the home front, I'm overjoyed too as we managed to carry out our kenduri kesyukuran sometime early in the month. We feel much at peace now after that traumatic time when fire broke out in our home. I must thank all who came on that day. Thank you to fellow bloggers Zendra, Kak Ezza, Desert Rose, Aida, Madam Principal, my bffs Muni and Jupe, my immediate family members, my Haj sister - Kak Lin, my sister TM and family, neighbours, Abe's colleagues and everyone else who have been so supportive of us during those trying times. I'm sorry if I didn't extend the invite to all, faham-faham saja lah, rumah comel je, takut nak kenduri besar-besaran.

As promised the girls and I had our way of celebrating; we girls just wanna have fun and fun was at the mall. As always Nissa got her wish - stuffs from GIRLS. It was outfit buying for her too, as she made it through the High School Rock cheer leading audition and will after this compete with other students in Putrajaya. And Nissa has really, really grown!!! Other than her school uniform, most of her clothes are obscenely tight. Macam sarong nangka, serious!

Nissa said some of her friends have a collection of these tees from GIRLS - such lucky children.

Told her to go for Enid Blyton's Malory Towers. Instead, she got carried away with "Diary of A Wimpy Kid". She said this is what everyone at school reads now.

So last Friday was shop till we dropped day. When we got home, my feet ached so bad. I must now remind myself that I'm no longer that 20 sumthing girl who could go mall hopping from sun rise till sun down.

Since the PLUS highway south bound at Nilai was badly congested, we took LEKAS to Seremban. It was LEKAS all right. Faris was behind the wheels and he took like 1o mins to get to Ampangan toll on LEKAS.

On Saturday, the girls were supposed to have their usual activities at Art and music class. Just as they were getting ready a call came in for Abe. It was his brother calling to inform him that an ailing uncle had passed on early that morning.

Immediately we changed plans and got kids packing for the day trip back to Seri Menanti for the funeral. Two weeks ago Abe had gone back to visit him when we got news of his frail health.

It rained for a short while before the funeral.

Farah and Daddy walking to the mosque for the prayers.
Al-fatehah, semoga roh nya bakal ditempatkan di kalangan orang yg soleh.

Pak Ngah was the husband of my mother-in-law's sister. Abe's uncle lah kan? Of all his uncles, Pak Ngah was one of the few, that I know. If I recall well, he was the spokesperson for Abe's family during our engagement. Pak Ngah was a real nice man, I respect him for his wisdom and wit. He was 79 and I believe he must have lived his life the fullest.

Cajun seafood pasta

Salmon toast...yummsssss!!!

We ended our long weekend with more makan-makan on Sunday. I decided to try Italian and surprisingly my Cajun seafood pasta turned out a real hit with folks at home (come to think of it, don't think the kids dared say the otherwise).

Then there was the Carrot Apple Nutty cuppies for late night dessert

And Chitty wanted to take five, go chill too.....

Sunshine...Hooray! Hooray!

What a beautiful morning!! The sun's out and I'm pretty determined about putting work aside. And it's too nice of a day to be indoors, knocking hard on the keyboard.

Greens out my window...looks like we'll have rambutans soon :)

Us girls have our plans already lined up till Sunday. Looking good all of us, and with that..... have a wonderful long weekend folks!!

Accept As Is

Someone close accused me of not carrying out my responsibility well. It hurts when facts are put blatantly upfront.

Yes, I have erred a lot. I am no saint, and neither am I perfect. I make heaps of mistakes. And for that I am sorry. I accept what I did wrong and try to do better next time. But I’m not going to punish myself forever.

To that someone, if you must know, yes, regrets I have a few.

There is regret when I look back and realize that I could have done more. Yes, there’s also that remorse feeling when I know some of my actions are not right.

To that someone, I’m not in the business of fault finding. I have too much in life to be spending time doing that.

I’m sorry if life wasn’t fair with you. Yes, I know, I’ve been there: life is never fair. But it’s fantastic. It’s unique, unrepeatable, one of a kind, beautiful, simple, challenging, sweet, hard…

All you need to do is, take a step back and find reasons to love life.
Lighten up. Accept life as it is.

ON Again

Sorry guys, I have no choice but to exercise my rights in activating moderation mode on all comments posted at Sembang.

Reasons – BIARLAH RAHSIA!!

Such Arrogance

I'm not a morning person; most people know that. I'd perform my subuh prayers and then I'll go into slumber again. Not good I know, in fact it's one bad habit I really need to kick off. My staff knows that if I have my choice, I wouldn't schedule meetings or appointments anytime before 10am.

Anyway, not everything can go my way. Just my luck that in the next two weeks, I'd have to be an early bird. Reason? Simple - I have to do cross state driving, from home in Shah Alam to event place in Ampang. Distance never mind. But the crawl i DO mind.

I left the house at about 7.20 this morning. Head towards NKVE and was greeted by throngs of vehicles of different shapes and sizes. Amongst the very many single occupancy cars, there are also back hoes, tractors, lori bawak kereta, oil tankers and trailers ala-ala yang dalam citer BJ & the Bear. Kenapa lah mesti sama nak berebut jalan masa tu jugak? Can't you guys like start later, say around 10 or 11 ker?

How ah? No government department wants to make a kajian of this ke? Kaji...dan kaji...dan kaji lagi. Conclusion dia in the end...ummppp, is not shared publicly anyway, antara mereka dan gang-gang mereka je yang tahu. In the mean time, we have to continue being patient and brave ourselves through the horrendous KL crawl.

Anyway, this entry is not about the infamous KL crawl nor brawl should you become unlucky to bump into road bullies etc.

Okay, if it's not about traffic jam, what is it about then??

Patience, folks...it's about patience.

You see after a longggg day at work, and after braving such hideous snail speed traffic in KL TWICE today (once in the morning and then again on the way home), all I needed was some jerk honking violently at us in the car, when we waited in the almost chocked road, to fetch Farah from her tuition class. Not only we were honked, the driver even came out of his "me-don't-really-care-what-mata-or-class car" and shouted at us to move our car. Yar...yar just because you drive a fancy one, you now have the license to be a bully?? Ohhh melampau dah ni...grrr.

Mind you, this wasn't my first time seeing such rotten behaviour. And yang "berlagak" (as much as I hate to use this word, I can't help it, it's the most apt) ni selalu nya adalah orang of my own skin colour jugak. Affluent (of coz lar affluent kan, sebab dapat project millions, duit buat apa dulu??? Beli luxury cars duluuuu) , successful (of coz lar coz project pun project surat wahyu) , but perangai macam...beep, beep...

Hey...don't get me wrong. I'm not envious of them. It's their rezeki, good for them.

It saddens me but this is what's happening in this city - Shah Alam, where one would definitely stumble upon the breed of these "new Malays" at almost every corner in the street - posh cars, money to splash (so it seems lah) and totally disastrous fashion sense. Such annoying arrogance!!

I recall many, many years back when we first set foot in Shah Alam, the city was quiet and all so peaceful. Drivers behaved in orderly manner, flora and fauna untouched and there was peace and harmony at heart, everytime you come home from a day's hard life in the office.

Regretfully, the present is the opposite; rasa macam sesak nafas je, nak-nak when encountering people yang don't know how to uphold good moral and values nih...grrr.

Is this the price we pay for development? And our people have become such heartless souls? I don't want to provide answers to these questions, coz I already knew what they are :(

No More.....No More.....No More

The head is heavy, and I'm feeling very chesty. My whole body aches, and I just wanna stay in bed. However, there are still deadlines to meet today. Yucks...yucks...yucks is the feeling.

My schedule last week was an absolute mess. Long hours at work to beat the rush in getting the solution ready for client's user acceptance. It was tough and stressful. Alhamdulillah everything went well and my design was accepted well by the users. I tell myself to never again repeat such a crazy and mad schedule.

Hopefully situation at the work front will improve in a week or two. Else....................

Happy Mother's Day

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~Author Unknown

A call came in and Mak's number showed on my BB screen. Err...I thought she was in Ho Chi Min City?

When I picked up the call, Mak sounded very chirpy on the other end. It was her second last day in Ho Chi Min City and she has requested that I pick her up at the airport. Reason being, she's been on a buying streak, luggage almost bursting at the seams and it'd be difficult for her to ride on the tour bus back to Seremban. Well, that's Mak and I am not at all surprised.

So last night the girls and I bunked in at Mak's in Seremban after picking her up at LCCT. First thing she did after we got home was dug into her luggage and spilled the colorfuls from her spree. Macam-macam ada....

I guess in many ways I (and my sister TM and brother Pak Dr too...I bet) take very much of her - our passion for travel. And when we travel we shop!! And it was nothing new when her luggage weighed the heaviest during this trip. There was something for every one - the 14 grandchildren (with one more coming veryyyy soon!!), 4 children and 3 maids.

Mak at Borobudur

With our cousin Datuk Zul & Datin Jem (then the Ambassador to Libya) at one of the historical sites in Libya. Mak was touring Tunisia. She and another friend did one helluva adventure ride from Tunis to Tripoli; even I have never done such an adventure trip!!

Mak with friends on one of the Swiss peaks

With her jalan-jalan regulars in Pamukkale, Turkey

The little children often teased her, asking her about her next destination. Nissa suggested Australia & NZ for her next gateaway. Ilham, my youngest sister's son recommended the States (he had Disneyland in his mind obviously..heh..heh). Mak already has another place in mind. And where to?? Teka lah....heh..heh :)

To Mak, thanks for making us what we are today. We are grateful and blessed for having special mother like you. Wishing you good health and may Allah bless all the days of your life.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

K.I.S.S

It must have been one of the most boring speeches I've ever listened to. The crowd was no doubt showing its restlessness. And why wouldn't they be? Most of them were children who were hardly 10 years old. They understood nuts of what was said. The rest of the crowd were teachers. They too were tired of listening to the same voice. I concluded that from what I saw of their facial and body language.

Someone whispered to me that the speech giver (a VIP) had like 15 pages to deliver. Oh my God.....I could only shake my head with disbelieve. To me, it was pure torture - trying to show a straight face, while the heart yearned to be else where. However, there was nothing much I could do but just sit and wait. I was only attentive for the first 10 minutes and beyond that the mind was else where. I saw people in the crowd were fiddling with their hand phones - texting and FBing. How else would we keep ourselves entertained, right?

Time and time again, I witness the same scenario. Up on stage, there could be a the top most government or state official orating. But before him, the crowd does not show the remotest interest on what is said. Pathetic is the situation; a real waste of time.

I ask myself what's the point of talking when no one is listening. Why bother insisting to be heard? How come no one is reading the silent but obvious message reciprocated by the audience? Why can't the message delivered be more comprehensible to the target audience - children, village folks and other locals? But most of all why can't the speech be a K.I.S.S - keep it short and simple (or would you rather have it "keep it short, stup*d"!!)