7 months...

Of loving you

Of being loved by you

Of laughter and smiles

Of hopes, dreams and wishes
Of teases and joy
Of shared thoughts and emotions
Of happiness

There's still more to come
Forever and beyond

I love you, sayang
Happy 7th month anniversary

p.s: Happy belated 4th b-day to my other baby (my cousin) check out dayah's blogpage

A Day With My Boss

My bosses are seldom at the office nor do we have enough time to discuss about the happenings outside work, though at some time she (my woman boss, the wife) would always ask me when will Jeff come over town so that she could at least make it possible to spend time with him. I know she sometimes have this very inconsistent 'angin' due to the hard time that the consultant was giving us or the sub clients that act 'macam bagus' (I actually ended up yelling at one of the client's Clerk of Work through the phone for giving us such a hard time and acted so darn cocky. Like I say, macam bagus).

So one day we went out to check out on the custom made pots that the client require. Well that is also one of the reason I stayed when my predecessor fled weeks or days after they start working - my boss train me so that one day I could start on my own. On our way back we have this long talk about life and suddenly my cellphone howls. Actually Jeff called at about 5.40pm, and the custom ringing made my boss shrieked out in surprise - even jokingly said that she would cut off my salary if I don't change the ringtone after being surprised again in the office for the same reason. Even my other boss, her husband said the same thing. I didn't change the tone, I only turned the volume down, hehehe.

She asked what was the time there, and so I told her its 4.40am. Thats when she told me about her problem being an insomniac. She couldn't sleep at night when she was in school no matter how hard she try but she made through it when she was taking master degree. She was too busy to even bother about her sleeping time. One thing led to another, but I will always remember what she say .

No matter how much you love someone, you can never eat for them, drink for them or even sleep for them. You can never actually do anything for them unless they do it for themselves. As the 'other half' we could only give them full support, help them in anyway possible and be there when they need us. Just be positive even when everything seems to be going against us. Yes, everything seems easier to say than done but like the stock market, when you hit the lowest point, you can't hit any lower and when you hit the highest point, there's no more afterwards. So when you're down, just remember there will be time you can get up again and when you're up, don't get too comfortable because there's always down.

Thats the word of wisdom from my boss. I love you baby, I really really miss you

Wrong Turns

Today must be one of the many days when I get so absent minded that I don't know what I do or where I was heading. I take that back. I know what I do but I don't know where I am heading to. This week has been really hectic (I don't know when will it be un-hectic for me) as my boss only drop by at the office in the morning getting my feedback of what had happen the day before, like calls/complain from clients and then going off to the site again. The good part of that is I get to do my job without any pressure, the bad part, I have to do most of the thing that she always do and the phonecalls will never end.

So today my boss assigned me to meet up a client to do a presentation. This project is the very first one that I got when I started work and all the late nights paid off, we got the job. And so, since we are assigned to do this project, my boss kind of let me do the handling while she's paying attention at the other project. Kinda like taking for grantedlah. Drove away from the office at 1.50pm after wishing Jeff goodnight, 2.30 on the dot met up with the client, ends at 3.10pm (very short presentation with briefing) and honestly, I have been driving the car non stop afterwards. I was supposed to drop by at the other client's office to pick up the colour pallete and I kept on making wrong turn. Don't get me wrong, I know all the roads in JB (well not all but more than half) its just that my brain was elsewhere.

After missing the road that I was supposed to use, I kept going on trying to look for a place to make a u-turn and boy, you sure don't want to miss a u-turn spot because the other spot would be really far away. so I missed one, and then missed again, and then missed again, found one, made a turn and I don't know wht possess me to make a wrong turn, and then try finding a turn again, miss, miss, miss, wrong.... u get the idea. I only reached the client's office at 5. Can you believe that? 5pm. the JOTIC building and Metropolis Tower is NOT that far.

It doesn't end there. The same thing happen when I was on my way home, and reached there at 7. My mind is elsewhere.

Miss Me?

I admit, I haven't had that much time to blog for nearly half a month already. Yikes! its 2005 already - the year where people from half century ago predicted that we would be driving a floating car (apparently that is still a long shot). So here I am, checking my blog for any drop off comments that rarely comes in and i got 3 messages urging me to update, calling me pemalas, hahaha. I was touched. I have fans after all (LMAO). Okay reasons (or excuses) for the blog update delay. You pick which one is fact and which one is fiction. Multiple choices is allowed:-

1. Too tired - morning at the office, daytime at the site til abt 9pm, went home just in time to crash in my bed. I can't write while sleeping though i did dream writing off my blog once. Then again its a dream, so no blog update, hahaha.
2. My head was still shook up by the earthquake in Sumatra and the idea to write was being washed off the shore. Honestly the news that we got is getting worse everyday, more people were killed if its not because of the wave, its because of the disease that comes after. It is heartwarming to hear that kids as young as 7 were trying to help. Have you done your part for the tsunami victims?
3. I was abducted and brainwashed by aliens while i was working late at the site. I had only regain my memory and ability to type properly yesterday (Gosh, this is lame)
4. My PC was fried off, it was doing a crazy loop thingy and i can't even get into windows. Had it reformatted and it has been going berserk ever since. That means, no long hours to crack my head to write into the blog.
5. My mind is way too occupied with the thoughts of Jeff (*wink wink)
6. Plotting up plan on how to delete the files in my big bro's e-mail inbox that contained some secret information (guess not that secret anymore). Hmmm.... baby, the account lock program does work, right? *devilish laugh.

Anyway, Happy belated New Year everyone. May this year be better than before and would bring lots of prosperity (prosperity?... reminds me of McD's prosperity burger though i hate black pepper hahaha).

Dear Diary

I know most of the people have had their own diary, if not only entry with tons of to do list in it or as most teenagers and well, some adults still do this, writes off an entry on what they had been going through, what they felt for the day - sad, mad or happy. I have had those - note the word had as time taught me that written off stuff could be read by both really "not-that-nosy-but-can't-help it" brothers and they could laugh about it. Well I might say that it was my own fault anyway.
I started off reading and hunting for my oldest brother's diary when he was in secondary school and believe me I enjoy reading every single thing in it. He always have cartoon characters alongside his entry. I remember most the image of broken sink that he drew when he actually broke it and was caught. One of the things living in a boarding school, there is always something to share well, the escapade and misfit... save for my sister - she was a school prefect during her time and as for me, lets just say that I support my friend in her GAP (Gerakan Anti Pengawas / Anti-Prefect Movement). My youngest brother learnt well from his brother and sisters - not to document anything that can be read and be used against him.
Abang Bil (thats my bro) wrote off his blog entry about the time he met up with my sister in law - make that before he met her and just by pure coincidence and luck, I happened to find a tape that one of his exes gave him. So being "curious" both A'an and I played it and ... I guess we just kind of compared it with Din Beramboi's tape (Din Beramboi is one of the comic comedians who released a couple of stupid but funny comedy tape. Yeah yeah we are both mean, hahaha). Just when I was getting my kick out of posting some familiar part from the tape, Abang Bil posted back saying that my saved IM conversation in A'an's pc was even more interesting that the tape. DARN! I forgot that I actually saved them. Darn! Darn! Darn!

Starlight, Starbright

True to the prediction, the Geminids meteor shower could be seen best last night from 9pm. At 9, after dinner and watching Survivor Vanuatu (I seriously kinda sick of it but that's the only watchable program at that time) I turned the lights outside off for a better view and start craning my neck up. Nothing much going on up there just yet and I was so glad that it rained heavily. The sky was so clear and beautiful.
Not long after mom joined me, turning the backyard light on. Then I start taking out a chair from the porch while mom taking the swing because our necks were hurting already. Most of the meteor could be seen after 9.30pm and we were both counting who sees the most because we were looking at different direction of the sky. We only managed to catch some together and then the airplane passing by was spoiling the fun.
Not long afterwards, my brother joined in, carrying a chair and a jar of crackers. We get to see more and the funny thing is, my mom keep saying, "after one more meteor, i'm going in", but she has been saying that since 10pm. Guess I got her hooked. The shower was not as many as I saw in 98 but then again the web page did say best seen in America and Europe. Still, I'm thankful that I manage to catch it at all. The last count was about 16 meteor and 17 airplanes, hehehe. Wished on every single one of it - minus the plane.

Sweetest Day

Well okay I haven't written in for days. I am definitely not in the mood for writing but I am definitely in the mood to jump up and down, screaming all over the place in joy and happiness and well, basically, just be happy. I have a great family, someone who loves me so much (believe me I was actually surprised but thankful that I am actually experiencing this) an okay job etc. etc. the list will go on and on and on.
Anyway as for what happened on the 9th of December 2004... that I would leave for anyone to guess. I was actually in the office, multitasking doing my job and chat up with Jeff while babysitting my bosses' son (yeah I have 2 bosses, drive me crazy sometimes) then he called me up and asked me to turn the cam on which I did, telling me how much I mean to him, his hopes and dreams which includes me and... oh well. *sighs+grin+blush.
I was in daze the whole day and went out to Jusco without realizing what I was doing. Spent kind of a lot there and returned home still in daze, prayed and crashed onto my bed. I woke up at midnight, perform prayer and of course - istikharah, the guidance prayer. I had done it quite few times, it all leads to him and for that night I dreamt of going through a recipe list tht mashed up Malay & Western cooking. Enough said. Just hope for the best. We still won't ever know what would happen in the future. Though I am HAPPY!!!!!! and hope that my dreams will come true too.
The Geminids Meteor Shower can be seen clearly tomorrow - Monday 13th December. I am not sure if we could see it clearly here like the last very cool and clear meteor shower (I forgot which) that happened in 1998 (They predicted last time that it was going to be at about 2 am, we waited up just to see that we actually see the showers at 5 to 6 - just about the time when everyone would wake up at the boarding school - bummer) Hope we could catch it here even though the hotspots would be around in Europe and some part of America.

Motorcycle Crash Causes 1 to Fall

Pontian: An accident happened involving a male, a motorcycle and a stop sign late afternoon today. It was reported that the motorcyclist was too occupied thinking about his future engagement with the restroom that he nearly missed the road towards his house. It caused him to make the emergency break thus 'injuring' the stop sign in return. The stop sign however did not survive the crash. The rider went straight into the muddy drain nearby while the motorcycle was not even scratched. The rider is currently being laughed at by his mother and sister as he was trying to hide it. He was caught when his mother told him about the fallen stop sign when she returned from work that causes him to smile crookedly and laughed giving away his involvement to the crash. He is now going through a hard time getting the smell of the mud off his arms and face. The drain is believed to come from the nearby house's lavatory (i.e: toilet)

The fallen stop sign


The tool of destruction


The perpetrator

Honour Killing

This is a slight detour from my usual blog entry but I feel that I really need to get it written out.

Picture this

A single woman returned home. Her clothes in tatters, face was badly bruised - she was raped. She came home to seek help, to seek refuge where everyone would when they are faced with the worse thing in their life. Her father and brothers went out and seek revenge - after killing her in the name of 'family honour'.

How are you feeling now, after reading that paragraph?
Sick? Disgusted? Horrified? Angry?

That was how I felt when I first came across an article about 'Honour Killing' in the local newspaper when I was 14 that occurred in Middle East. All my life, I know that my family would protect me from harm and even if I was harmed, they would always be there for me, protecting. Same goes to others. All I could think was, what happen to the family constitution there? Not long after Reader's Digest published out the topic on the so called 'Honour Killing' and again I felt sick to the pit of my stomach. One of the cases that happened was about a married woman in India (or was it Pakistan? I'm not sure but it was just about there) who was trying to get a divorce due to her husband's abusive ways. She ran back to her family with the hope that they would give her the protection she needed. She got a bullet in her head instead, put there by her own mother when she filed for divorce because it would taint the family's reputation.

Recently, my cousin Dayahlent me Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love. Again, it was about honour killing but due to the authenticity of the book, it was pulled out from the shelf. Ms Khouri should have known that for an autobiography, she should not mix fact with fiction. In other case at the end of Ms Khouri's page a girl was raped by her own brother. Logically we would think that action would be taken on the brother. It happened differently. She was shot by her other brother while that other brother of hers is still alive and well. That certainly tipped me over. (For the part where Ms Khouri listed the cases that happened, it was based on real cases but the existence of her friend Dalia was in doubt because she couldn't supply enough proof that she was there at the time it happens) Nevertheless, both Dayah and I agree that we couldn't be grateful enough to be living over here instead of there.

Needless to say, in countries where honour killings are permitted - and believe me there are acts and bills to support it in some of those countries such as Jordan - women become the victim in every single way. From the National Geographic channel, it was told that this happens when women are deemed as a property, not as a person nor do they have the freedom to choose. Some even believe that honour killing is in accordance with the religion of Islam. That is a complete lie. There is no verse in the Qur'an that said anything about honour killing nor permitting them to kill women in the name of honour. In my opinion, it is an act of extreme male chauvinism and stupidity.

From my search throughout the net and books, honour killing trailed back even before the coming of Qur'an, during the dark time of the Arab or known as the Jahiliyah period where female infanticide and 'honour killing' was widely practiced for they were afraid that the female would bring shame to their family. The prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) called for an end of this barbaric practise back then but still it manage to survive through time. I am not sure about female infanticide nowadays but it is clear that the honour killing goes on.

There are no clear statics for this killings and the women who was killed for honour sake would always be buried in an unmarked grave and the family tend to wipe clean any memories of her. The saddest part of all, the family who practise this believe tend to strike out on gossip basis without even investigating the female's innocence. That would come after she was killed during the post-mortem but then again, for what purpose? When someone is dead, they remain dead. From what I read, in Jordan, the male family member who commit the killing would be jailed for the short sentence of 6 months or less and when he was being freed, he would receive the welcoming fit for a 'hero'. They have no regrets killing their female family member believing what they did was right and was even widely supported by the community. Due to that action, many female in the respective countries opt to live inside a prison to save their lives.

Knowing all that, there is no spared moment that I don't feel blessed and lucky living here. I would always have options and I could choose. Families did not tend to act out based on the gossip itself and even if there is a gossip or even if the gossip is true, I don't have to be afraid of getting home and being killed by my own family.

And the Winner Is.........

Taufik Batisah!!!!!!!

I don't know whether it was wise or not to tell the fans who support Taufik to turn up at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to wear white while those who supports Sylvester to wear... pink because it was apparent that most of the audience turned up in white. When we look it at another view, it was kind of a spirit killer for Sylvester even before he started performing. When Gurmit prompted the audience to say out loud what was the number to vote for Taufik, the number 1 could be heard very clearly and as for Sylvester, the sound of number 2 came out as a mumble from the stage and some of the Taufik fans even had the gall to shout out 1 on Sly's turn.

Our very own Jac was in attandance of the grand final. Now i'm waiting for the World Idol :D

Singapore Idol

Okay, before anyone get the wrong idea, I am not from Singapore nor do I live there. I am a Malaysian who happens to have the opportunity getting Singapore TV channels from home - I live in Johor, few minutes away from Singapore. The Malaysian Idol fever has finished with Jaclyn being crowned as the first Malaysian Idol and she deserve it too. Tonight is the final round for the Singapore Idol with Taufik Batisah and Sylvester Sim as the final 2.

I spent the afternoon on the net, multitasking as usual, doing work, talking to my baby - on the phone and on the net and discussing with my best buddy Eena about the outcome of tonight's show. The Singapore Idol fever is geniusly being build up by the Mediacorp by having interviews on the radio - Perfect 10 98.7fm Morning Show for those who has fallen out of the contest and for the standing idols each week after their performance night and of course not to mention the magazines. I don't like to watch the Singapore Idol at first but when you get to hear Daniel Ong and Grace Chua every single morning tapping about the idols throughout the 30 minutes journey to work, you tend to get the fever without realizing that you have it.

The most remembered Idol contestant would be Jerry Ong. He was being booed and jeered openly during any appearance mostly because of the fact that... okay I am being mean but here was what I hear most people say - he can't sing, but still he managed to last for so long. Jeassea (very complicated spelling, I don't think I even spelled it correctly) got voted out at the first spectacular round even though she sounded so good. That is the power of voting.

So anyway, Eena and I agreed that Taufik deserve to be crowned as the Singapore Idol tonight. His own version of Belaian Jiwa could melt anyone's heart. We'll see about that, and hope that he would.

My last comment - Jaclyn could win World Idol.

Taufik or Sylvester?

Open House

I just got home to see 2 of my cats lying lazily on the carpet at the verandah of my house. As always, they would pose like gatekeepers with each at different side of the door. Apparently someone put that particular carpet while I was at work today. When I opened the door, I was surprised. Chairs were arranged to be close to the wall and there were food at every table surface available at the living room. I know that my abah's friend would be visiting him for the Eid (the celebration goes on for one whole month, and so does the visiting) though I didn't expect it would be an open house. Apparently my mak took that opportunity to call up her friends at the office to come and visit so that inadvertently change the small visiting into a full fledge unplanned open house. Felt quite bad about the whole thing actually. Had I known that it would turn into that, I would have asked my parents to push it forward for the weekend so that I could help and that I could bring my friends around. Oh well, what passed has passed. Next year maybe.

All that is left at the end pf the day... still a lot. Food anyone?

Dreams Part 2

Dream No.3
Maybe this was an effect from watching the Japanese drama 'Pride' starring Takuya Kimura (I like!!!) and... I don't know what's the actress' name but she look a bit like Nanako Matsushima, only shorter. The drama was about the star ice hockey player for the team 'Blue Scorpions' - Halu (Spring) playing the game of love with one of the company's employee, Aki (Autumn) but falls for real. Sound a bit cliche' but it's a great drama. Anyway there was one scene in the last episode in the final period when Halu saw the mythical 'Ice Queen' - that is rumoured to be the strength provider for the hockey players, and only the best gets to see them - when he was unconcious during the game. The Ice Queen came in the form of Aki. When the match was over after he scored, Halu kissed the ice rink before finally sank into oblivion.

How does that drama relate to my dream?

Well lets just say in my dream I found my 'Ice King' though he is definitely NOT cold and icy and I kissed the ice rink... well actually kissing him before he became a fragment of my mind and then the ice rink, hehehehe. I woke up in my dream, finding that I was kissing the matress and then I woke up for real to find Snuggles right smack on my face. How nice.

Dream No.4
I was at my boarding school, namely SMKAJB though I know the setting was way too weird and I know its not exactly my school but it was. The paint was still fresh and some of the stairs were undone - I know in real life there's no way the Ministry of Education would allow buildings without CFO to be occupied. I don't know why but all so suddenly I was at the nearby residential area with... this was totally out of element - Jon Stamos! You would probably remember him as Jesse in the sitcom Full House. He was slouching and sitting in front one of the houses, talking about life in general. And then again I got back in my class with my friends, though the ones that were so clear in my dream was Rai - used to not like her in the first year but we became best friend in the second and Deej, we both shared the double decker bed in our senior year - I took the top despite the 'fall-from-the-double-decker-bed' incident in Form 1 that nearly broke my left shoulder. The bell rang, marked our last period and everyone was running - and I mean run like there was fire. Funnily, I realized there was a lift at the school though it was out of order. I woke up at 3.44am and realized that I missed Jeff by 5 minutes. Bummer.

...... tidur tak basuh kaki kot - NOT!

Dreams

Evidently, my brain was M.I.A from my body after the long festive season. I am totally absent minded and all I could think of every single day when I got my rear on my chair in the office was - how much farther is 5.30pm? I guess that would be one of the reasons on why I kept on having dreams the whole week.

Dream No. 1
It was Lord of The Rings and Star Wars mixed into one. There were lasers everywhere, ships and of course there were nazguls in a war and I was in the middle of it. The cool thing was that I was the assassin that look exactly like The Spawn... cool (I don't know how the Spawn manage to get into the LOTR and Star Wars group) I killed the king in the end, who thought he could hide away from my oh-so-good sensor by pretending he was his own personal guard (remember the part when Queen Amidala in Star Wars 1 posed as her own Lady in Waiting?) Mission accomplished.

Dream No. 2
I was on a holiday trip to... I don't know where and all I do was eat, eat and eat. Funny thing was that I dreamt walking into KFC but they sell beef jerky and roast duck. After eating the beef jerky my back tooth kinda went loose but its still there. In Malay myth, if you lose a tooth in your dream someone close to you is going to... pass away. I never believe that part though because I have dreamt losing the whole teeth quite a few times but no one near me pass away. Though some said it means letting go. Anyway, in my dream I still have my teeth, it was just shaky (I don't know if the term is right, bantai ajelah. Any comments on my grammar Granpa Ken?)

I got more, but those are the only dreams permittable to be shared with. No naughty thoughts there, just too personal. Maybe I was too tired, maybe I was having a neverending work blues, maybe it was the jars of tarts that I consumed the whole eid up until now (is there any connection to anything?) or maybe its just Snuggles, the stuffed toy/my sleeping partner that Jeff sent me, hehehe. Don't think so, because I slept without Snuggles last night when I dreamt abt the berserko KFC. Hmmmmm, when will the clock turn to 5.30pm?

One more thing

HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER A'AN
I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU KEEP ON MAKING BLUNDERS WHILE TALKING LATELY
(THE 'ADA ORANG DALAM BALDI' INSTEAD OF 'BILIK AIR' PHRASE WILL ALWAYS BE MY TEASING ASSET, HEHEHE)

MAYBE IT JUST SHOWS THAT YOU ARE GETTING OLD, HAHAHAHA
GOOD LUCK FOR YOUR LAST SPM PAPER

A Cute Surprise

19th November 2004 marks the 5th month of our anniversary. Look what manage to creep into the mailbox in the afternoon - other than more cool stuff that my baby sent me, hehehe.

First peek.......

2nd peek.........

The name is still undecidable though one thing I know for sure, I would be having a bedmate from tonight onwards ;)

Selamat Hari Raya

Hari Raya - full of joy, laughter, relatives and of course, food. My holiday finally ends. I have to start working today..... feeling so lazy :D For this raya entry, I could only post this family picture we took on the first day of Eid.

Anybody heard of Thursday blues?

Heelies from Hell

The nearer it gets to the holiday, the crazier the crowd at the shopping complex begin and the crazier the price slash. Spent my day yesterday with Eena and her boyfriend Helmi. The original plan was only for both of us to go and check out stuff at Plaza Angsana and accompany her in finding her baju raya. Since Helmi was feeling kind of left out when us girls went out together, he joined us. It was okay actually because he paid for the food :D Traffic was crazy on the way to Angsana due to the heavy rain and people who are doing last minute shopping because Thursday is already a holiday for Deepavali. Most I know, including Eena start taking Eid holiday from Deepavali towards after Raya. Lucky her. Since I don't have annual leave yet (have to wait a year for that) I made a compromise with Ms Lee that I would work on Deepavali in exchange for a day off on Wednesday.

We broke the fast at Vivo Restaurant because of the Ramadhan buffet promotion that went on there. We piled up everything we could - buruk lantak sikitlah, and sat at our table to wait for azan. One thing we found odd is that the mushroom soup tasted funny. To be exact, it was burnt-off funny. We look skeptically at other table. One uncle actually ate the soup greedily like it was the best soup ever and so does some other people at other tables, dipping garlic bread into it and sipping them. Was it our taste bud or they couldn't tell that the mushroom soup taste awful? Anyway we cleared off our pizza plate, arranged our bowl of soup in it nicely and snuck it on the dessert table next to us to make way for other food at the buffet table. A few minutes later, horrificly we found that one of the soup bowl was gone. If the waiter/waitress took it why does he/she have to leave the other 2 bowls? We burst out laughing at the thought of someone actually ate our leftover-but-looked-like-untouched soup.

Set out our shopping journey afterwards and boy, was it eventful. Kids all over with their heelies on making misfits and bumped into us so many times. We even thought that they sound they made from wheeling over the wood verandah over our head was the thunder. Eena was picking up her prospective dress and one thing that we found out, my opinion and Helmi's clashed. When I said the dress looks nice, Helmi doesn't and when he held out a dress for Eena to look, I gave it thumbs down. Went around until 9 when 3 of us finally agreed upon a dress, after giving comments like "Macam minah kampung daa" on a very short kebaya and "Eh, mbok dari mana?" on a batik print dress as Eena stepped out of the fitting room. But sadly, The L size dress is way too big for Eena and the M size was restrictive. At 9.30pm I surrendered and took my leave because my eyes were drooping. I woke up yesterday at 12 midnight and haven't slept since.

Driving was a very hard feat providing that the road towards home mostly doesn't have any lights and I was so sleepy. Got home 14 minutes after CSI started and watched it, but at the end it was CSI that watched me. Went into my bedroom, start off my pc, connected to the internet and I was lost the moment I put my head on the pillow while waiting for my yahoo to log on. Had a nightmare that I became a school prefect at primary school (which I actually was) and trying to fend off kids wearing heelies. Woke up after the nightmare and found out that Jeff was online 18 minutes after I logged into yahoo. Darn I missed him again *sighs.

A day in the life of a person named Nadiah, with a screwed up sleeping time hehehe.

Home Delivery

The heat of Raya is drawing closer. Every Malay speaking radio station all over Malaysia could be heard playing the favourite all time raya tunes - from Uji Rashid and Hail Amir, Sudirman, M Nasir and the old tune from Saloma (honestly I forgot who sang the famous Selamat Hari Raya song but I have a strong feeling it's Saloma). For today my Mak gave me the duty of cooking the nasi himpit and pre-frying the chicken for our advance food exchanging session that usually happens on the eve or on the day of raya i.e: munjung - Javanese word that covers up visiting and bringing food for neighbours / relatives. Kinda like the Malay word kunjung, means the same anyway. I was on a fast tempo doing the cooking because of my weekend date with Jeff until one of the stove sets ran out of gas. Called up Abah as fast as I could to buy new gas cylinder while checking up my pc (good thing having a network hub now - no need for the constant fight over the modem and pc with my big lil bro). Managed to get all done at about 11 and went over to spent the day with my baby.

By 5 pm start packing up the food to be distributed to nearby relatives and neighbours and as always I was given the duty to drive up and send the food. First trip was to Tok Long's - my late granma's oldest sister. She was still asleep, didn't manage to meet and greet her. She's one of the coolest 'atuk' around and she's 90+. Next stop was to my aunt's house. By the time I got home Mak already finished distributing the food to our neighbours. Even told my mom to ask our front neighbour if the pineapple tart we ordered are ready yet - sadly no. Had to wait for raya for that. Mak Intan's pinapple tart is the best!!!

And of course, the lontong for buka puasa (break fast) was fabulous, hehehehe. Though I am really really sure that the sambal kacang (nut gravy) taste fine. I accidentally used yesterday's chrysanthemum tea (oops!) to blend the dried chilli instead of plain water. Mak mixed the tea container up among the group of jugs. Didn't realize it until I washed it up... sure figures for the ants that I kept on swatting.

8 Days Towards Raya

Paycheck got cleared today, and being me who isdesperately in need of stuff for Eid grabs it as a lifeline - not really. Hari Raya is few days away and I still haven't found the matching tudung for my baju raya. At about 3 after I let Jeff boot myself out of yahoo (a really rare occurence since my booter can't load up really well at the office and the only one that I could load up is the one that only require 2 bots and I never let him boot me out) I start out my shopping spree.

Went off to Jusco (where else?) since I'm much too lazy to drive extra miles to Angsana and did the whole shopping there. Whole sounds like a lot... to be exact, 3 things for raya - cookies & biscuits, shoes and some clothes. Parking was crazy - many were out to shop for the season, both Deepavali and Eid and of course the crazy price slashing sale that went around the place. This is definitely one of the moment that I am really grateful driving a small Kancil. I could park off basically anywhere and in this case, I parked at the trolley bay, hehehe.

If there is anything familiar about being in the midst of a crazy sale, it would be the constant announcement of lost kids. The funny thing is, it won't be the parents announcing for their kids lost but the kid would go out to the main information counter to be announced or someone would find them crying and sent them off to the counter. The announcement would always sound "To the parents of ...... please proceed to the information counter" or "To anyone who lost their kid wearing....". Good thing so far there are no case of kidnapped child in a shopping area. Parents would be too absorbed looking for their intended things and forget about their kids sometimes.

Done shopping at about 5 with a satisfied feeling and a dent to my wallet, what else. Got the shoes that I have been eyeing on and it was good to know that there was only one left for my size. Hard having a big feet sometimes.

These are my Raya wishes for everyone:

My Family
To Emak and Abah (save it for raya during the 'salam-salam' session) To my sister, both brothers, uncles, aunts (esp. Mak Jun because she reads blog), cousins esp the head of the 7 dwarves, Dayah, Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir & Batin, love everyone of you a lot.

My Baby, Jeff
Selamat Hari Raya, I'm sorry for everything that I've done to you (esp those that inadvertantly causes your hurt) , intended or not, accidental or not. I love you so much and you'll always be my 'Sexy Pringles' ;)

My Friends
Selamat Hari Raya, 0-0, Maaf Zahir & Batin. I miss all of you guys esp the studio 4 dwellers of '04 ex-schoolmate both secondary and primary and the AE chatters especially the exilers.

To the Blog Reader
Selamat Hari Raya :D

Tulang Belut, Tulang Ikan, Tulang Ayam

Finally, after 4 long years of waiting I could finally wear the intended baju kurung that was supposed to be worn years ago. Bought that particular fabric while my mom was searching for a fabric to be given to my future to be sister-in-law at that time (now my sister-in-law lah, imagine how long that was) Due to some cutting error by my sister, the fabric was cut out based on my mom's size and not mine. After stewing for quite some time had to make the decision of giving the baju kurung to my mom because I definitely could not fit into it. But my mom just save it up, leaving the neck area unsewn because she said the colour was too vibrant for her taste.

I've just finished sewing the neck up with tulang belut sewing style, that's eel's bone... because it resembles the eel's bone wht else ;) Raya is not far away... so does my paycheck, hehehe

Work In Progress


Done :D