What I've been up to

Lamanya tak update blog, kan... alhamdulillah, am no longer melancholic, just busy... don't know which one's better, the former or the latter...

Everyone's sibuk tak terkata at the office now... and will be for the next 2 weeks... left the office at 8.30pm a day last week and mammamia... the parking lot was still full-house!! adoiiiii!!

Last week Thursday-Saturday I was in PD & Malacca for work... a retreat we organised for the press people... why PD, you may ask... well, times are bad so instead of some 6*star hotel at some island, A*vill*on pun jadik la ye... hehe

It was almost all work and almost no play whatsoever for me!! I say almost because of course, I did squeeze in some fun in between... pandai-pandailah kan... :-)

One thing I didn't get to do was to enjoy their newly-launched spa... lawaaa tau their new spa... bilaalah nak dapat pergi lagi...

Check out the Av*i Spa... lurrrvvvveee the colors!!

Basically the retreat was organised to update our media friends on the going-ons at our organisation. Alhamdulillah, it went well... a few hiccups here and there in the beginning (wifi connection was sooooo bad!! nasib baik we tested our demos a day before to have a back-up plan) but in the end we overcame it!! yeay!!

The first day was quite stressful... so what do you do to release the stress after the briefing was over?? Ka-ra-o-kay!! hehe... it was part of the programme and we had so much fun...

Habis je briefing on the second day, it was like MERDEKA for me and the team!! Sooooo glad the *important* part of the retreat was over. We had a pirate's night themed dinner konon-konon that night. After dinner, more karaoke (menyanyi /or was it menjerit sekuat hati?? :-D) and after karaoke... swimming at 12.30am!! Stress reliever betolll....

We left PD on Saturday morning for Malacca -- Jonker Walk. This short detour to Malacca was so that we could absorb some authentic Malaccan culture (chewah, ada orang Melaka tu senyuuummm je nampak :-D), taste the food and admire the antiques. Basically cuci mata lah...

We had lunch as this wonderful place called Peranakan Restaurant recommended by ms hart's uncle (thanks, ms hart and uncle... we love the place!!)

I believe the house belongs to some filthy-rich Straits Chinese family who converted it into a restaurant.

We had the must-haves of course... assam pedas Melaka and cendol among other things... yummmsss... ni kena mintak resepi assam pedas Melaka from ms hart niiii.... :-D

There was so much to see in the restaurant itself -- wall hangings, cabinetry, jaded framed photographs... it was a sight to behold and the food was very good too (now can I get commission for my recommendations??) hehe

I love the tiles too... it reminded me of my school days... our school flooring used to look like these...

After lunch, jalan-jalan sikitlah (though macam dah tak leh nak jalan after all that food!!)... Waaahhh... Jonker Walk happening now (went there last in 2006)... someone told me that it had a facelift when it was declared as one of the World's Heritage Site by UNESCO this year.

Went to Bibik House for some buah tangan to take home... the pineapple tarts were heavenly... and I couldn't resist another bowl of cendol!! :-D

I think I might do Malacca again with my girls in the next couple of weeks!!

Bz, bz, bz...

Too many things, too little time. Work is stressing me out. Won't be blogging for awhile!!

The Jakarta trip...

I'm back from Jakarta... work-wise everything went on smoothly, alhamdulillah... but tak puas shopping!! uhuksss... heheh...

This biz trip was a 'kill two birds with one stone' or 'sambil menyelam minum air' as I got to meet two of my relatives who are residents of Jakarta.

I managed to meet up with Tante Ret who picked us (my boss and another colleague begged to tag along) up at the hotel before taking us to (where else?) Tanah Abang for some shopping. We only had about 2 hours to do our shopping on that first day (mana cukup!) before having a very very late lunch at around 5pm...

Thank you, Tante Ret for the great lunch and please excuse my boss and my colleague for displaying such gluttonous behavior!! heheh..

Lunch was @ Rumah Makan Garuda @ Jalan Sabang

A pic of Tante Ret and myself... Tante Ret was leaving for Kuala Lumpur the next day to attend my nephew's wedding which I had to miss!!

The next day, my boss and I stole a few hours after our official visit to Cengkaring to do some shopping in Mangga Dua. Unfortunately for us, we reached there close to 4pm when the shop owners were getting ready to close shop. I got my girls a cotton dress each at one of the shops for RM25 which was a grrrreeeat bargain!

I enjoyed looking at some the pretty ball gowns displayed... would have bought 'em for my girls if they were younger to play dress up! gerrrraaammmm tengok!

...dresses fit for a princess

The see-eee-ohh arrived Friday night for the actual event which took place Saturday morning...

Immediately after the event, my boss and I 'escaped' from our see-eee-ohh who wanted us to join him for shopping at Sarinah... we turned off our phones (jahat, kan... kesian the old man!)heheh... yelah... we had some unfinished business at Tanah Abang, what?

...my boss posing with the telekung I helped chose for his wife...

His wife had texted him earlier saying, "tak payah beli telekung...kat PKNS berlambak..." but I convinced him otherwise... back at the office after the trip he told me, "eh...my wife said thank you so much...she liked all the things you helped me chose for her..." and... they are making plans to go there end of the month to do some more shopping!!! hahaha... p/s to ms hart: memang got hantu la this place!!

After some serious shopping (I was very focused, ok... more focused than when I'm doing my KPI!) we went back to the hotel to attend a dinner hosted by the Minister. The first thing the see-eee-ohh said when he saw us was, "hangpa pi mana tadi" in his signature thick Penang accent... hahaha... ooopppsss...

dinner time... this is me with Ibu Nada, a biotechnologist with the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology

After dinner, see-eee-ohh ajak sembang-sembang @ the coffeehouse... zzzzzz.... ngantuk (how can one be passionate talking about work on a Saturday night after 11pm, huh?) ... we then saw a glimpse of the Minister there too and told the see-eee-ohh that he should join the Minister (his boss maaa)... but, like us, our see-eee-ohh ngelat from his boss!! haha...

Before we called it a night, the see-eee-ohh pesan... "tomorrow let's meet up after breakfast to do some shopping together". Dengan bangganya I told him, "Dato', I've made plans with a relative to take me do some shopping"... and he dengan tak malunya said, "tak pa lah... we all pi sama-sama..." What???? How to escape like this???

So, after breakfast the next morning, we all went in two cars; me and Kak Emi with her three boys in Kak Emi's MPV while the see-eee-ohh and my boss and the other colleague in another.

I had wanted to go to Pasar Majestic to look at some materials for baju kurung, but the see-eee-ohh suggested Tanah Abang (again???) ... hmmm... what to do, ikut ajelah...

Thus, Kak Emi and I became the shopping consultants for the three men, choosing sarongs and clothes for their family...

I always thought Kak Emi was very pretty... even my boss commented that she doesn't look like a mom of three teenager boys...

There you go... my update for now... the computer is getting to be so slow at this hour pulakkk... more to come...

Khabar dari Jakarta...

A quick hello from my hotel room before I go down for a meeting. Have to say that I do miss blogging... haven't been updating as much as I would like to... been busy laaa...

As mentioned, a quick update this will be. More stories later...

Pic below is the view outside my room last night... (sorry, not a very good phot0)

We arrived late yesterday afternoon and had nasi padang for dinner...

my room...

Putting on the party-planner hat again!

"I think we should start planning for my birthday party la Mommy...," said Maira Friday night.

Yup, my first-born will turn nine May 20. And she definitely has figured out what she wants for her party!

For starters, she'd like to have a 'handbag cake'. Amboiiii... baru sembilan tahun dah pandai nak handbag, ye??? haha... girls these days. Well, I have that taken care of by Wiz. And I'm sure she's going to come up with yet another masterpiece!!!

Maira wants to invite all her classmates too, but girls only. This is because she's embarrased if the boys see her without her hijab!!! pandai malu!!! (my girls go to an Islamic school and wearing hijab is part of the uniform).

We got ready-made invitation cards at MPH today after their Computertots class. Being a cheap-skate, (haha) I had thought of asking them to make the invitation cards themselves, but remembered that they will have their first term exam next next week and knowing them, they will spend all their time creating, decorating and beautifying the cards and I sure don't want that to happen when they should be doing their revision.

Last year, it was just a quiet birthday for Maira. May 20, 2007 was just 3 months after their daddy's passing and with me still in my iddah, we had a quiet cake-cutting do with some family. This year, she is expecting a PARTY!!!

I have decided that I will let her have the party that she wants. If daddy was around, he'd give in to her, too. And yeah, I will gladly organise everything everytime.

The next two weeks will be a mega-busy time for me on the workfront. We are participating in a world congress -- sort of like the Olympics of the IT world and I anticipate the 'panic state' will start tomorrow onwards!!! hehehe... arrrggghhhh...

Since her birthday falls on a Tuesday, we will have the party on Sunday, May 18 as the following day, May 19 is a public holiday for Wesak. That way, I'll have a day to recover after all that!!!

But you know what? I just found out that we will be involved in a press conference on Wesak Day itself! WHAT??? There goes my rest! Another aarrrggghhhh!!!

On another note, I hope I'll be able to organise something memorable for Maira. Nine days after she turns nine, I will be leaving them two with my mom as I will go on a two-week trip which I have been looking forward to for a loooonnnngggg time now.

May is a busy month for me but come May 29, I hope I would be able to leave everything behind and just enjoy my trip. Insya Allah...

Glad it's over!

Glad the whole work weekend episode is over. Phew!!!

It was the most stressful outstation trip for work ever. So far.

Sure hope they'll be no more such experience. That's the risk when you do collaboration with other companies. It's so much easier if you're the master of everything, where it's easier to control the outcome of things.

Enough said.

This and that...

I barely had anything done in the office today. First half of the day was spent moving my stuff to our temporary office two floors down. This is to make way for the renovation works at our current place.

We'll be at this 'transit' office for about a month before moving back to our renovated space. I also had to attend an internal meeting in the morning.

Second half of the day was spent attending another meeting in Cyberjaya, together with my boss and our consultants. It was such a hectic day that I didn't have time for lunch. Thanks to Z who treated us drinks after the meeting. I had more than just coffee, to make up for lunch.

Driving home, Maira called to ask me if I was going to pick up her swimming suit which I had sent to the shop yesterday to have the zipper fixed (the zipper got spoilt last week when her friend helped her zip up for swimming lessons). Thank God she called, coz I was ready to just drive straight home. Totally forgot that I had to pick it up for her lessons tomorrow.

Came home to Misha's "Mommy, I need to bring potato stamps for art tomorrow". Ok. So, this was what I managed to carve out of the potatoes. Not so imaginative, eh? Mommy dah tak de idea, la Misha...

While helping them with homework, they realised that both of them need to bring water colours to school for art class tomorrow and there's only one set at home (which puzzles me coz' I distinctly remembered getting one each early in the year). And Maira kept saying she needed to bring Manila card as well. Why lah only tell me now?

So off I went after Isya' to the nearest store to get a set of water colour and some Manila cards.

Now here is the best part of the day! It was quite a long queue at the express counter (I had like 5 items) and so were the other four people in front of me, all anxious to pay and get going as it was already past 9. Suddenly, here comes an old auntie, in her 70s probably, with a Colgate toothpaste in her hand who 'potong queue' in front of the guy before me.

I had hoped the guy wouldn't get mad at the old lady (she was really old) as she is, after all a 'warga emas' and probably really badly needed to get that toothpaste at that certain hour heheh! Thank God he didn't say a word.

Next thing I know, the auntie was saying terima kasih, terima kasih and touching the guy's arms and appearing to be so grateful. She even had some tears in her eyes and kept on saying something else in Mandarin while touching the guy until he got embarrased.

Wanna know why? The toothpaste cost her RM5.20 and she only brought with her RM5! And so, upon hearing from the cashier that the old lady is short of 20 sen, the guy took out 20 sen from his pocket and paid the balance.

The thing was, she was so so grateful at this young Malay chap -- seriously, her eyes were gleaming. And the guy tertunduk malu-malu... It was like watching a scene from one of Yasmin Ahmad's ads. So sweeeett... so muhibbah! Just wish I had my camera with me!

I tell you, seeing that made me feel alive. Made me realise there's still compassion and gratitute amongst people out there.

Monday blues...

My car's battery decided to go kaput on me this morning. This was at 7.40am -- 50 minutes before my meeting with the big boss. Time to get to the office in the morning = 35-40 minutes. Time to get a cab = ? errr...

After several failed attempts to get the engine started, I decided to walk several metres and get a cab to work. Alhamdulillah, after only 5 minutes of waiting, I got a cab who'd take me to Tech Park. Got to work at 8.45am and thank God meeting was brought forward to 9. Phew... lega!

Left work early and took a cab to the mechanic in my neigbourhood. Mechanic then drove me home to have a look at my car. He managed to start the car, and so I drove my car back to the workshop to fix a new battery. Dok pi balik pi balik lagu tu lah... anyways, all settled, my car has a brand new battery and I'm RM175 poorer!