Pseudo-random thoughts for today

I am maidless for the next three weeks. We (Mama and I) allowed our maid to go home for Hari Raya Haji since its been three plus years since she's been home. So the current arrangement is that we will take turn to take care of the kids for the time being. I will be taking a bulk of the turns to stay home since I still have a lot of annual leave to utilize.

So the last three days (Monday to Wednesday) I really spent time with the kids. It was relatively easy, make sure there is food for the kids to eat, do the laundry, and everything else that needs doing (hey, there so much with my ability that I can do...:)

My precious AF1 have been very good, helping me out with the chores and so on... she is quiet dependable. I am proud to be her father :)

Well today & tomorrow I am in the office and its Mama's turn to be at home, and I am sure that the kids is in better hands than their father's.......

Then I'll be off from next week onwards and Mama will join me from wednesday onwards, and hopefully after Hari Raya Qurban, the whole family can sneak of for a holiday somewhere for a well deserved break...

On another totally different note....

I was reading wanshana's blog the other day.. and it took me back to my yonder concert days. I actually started out going to so called 'concerts' during the KPP Shah Alam days, when they had the funfair across the road (those days there were no Giant or all the shops there, there were only huge desert). I would go with my group of friends, and watched Search, Bumiputra Rockers and the rock group of those times.....

It continued when I was overseas, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue (with opening act by Skid Row), Bon Jovi at Wembley Arena. Then Suzanne Vega and Tanita Tikaram at Brighton (how diverse was my taste in music - go figure)

Back home, Sheila Majid Concert in Stadium Negara, then after I met Mama, smaller gigs such as Harvey Malaiholo at Barn Thai Jazzaraunt (I think) and Go West at Hard Rock Cafe...


And those are just the ones I remembered...

So I admit that my taste in music was quiet weird... I listen to

Rock...
Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, White Lion, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Halloween, Poison, Extreme, Heart, Gary Moore, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Linkin Park... to name a few

Other types
Tanita Tikaram (she's no longer around I guess), Suzanne Vega, Sandra, Amy Grant, Bangles, Matchbox Twenty, Rick Astley (I dont believe it myself), Wet Wet Wet, Toni Braxton, Sadie and the list goes on...

These are the most notable ones that sticks to my mind.. Hey I even listened to the old classics.. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong... and even classical classics Bach, Beethoven and the likes just because I liked the sound of the instruments coming from my Hi Fi....

I still have my Hifi sets from those crazy student days...

Musical Fidelity B1 integrated Amp
Musical Fidelity Speakers
Philips CD610 CD player
Denon Tuner
Denon Cassette Deck....

Probably I'll write about those much much later.

Back to my taste (or lack thereof) in music. Nowadays my taste is much simpler..... whatever is playing on radio, or whatever CDs that Mama or I bought, or whatever I downloaded for the kids, that now becomes part of my current music favorites...

So that ladies and gentlemen, ends my (scattered) ramblings for today

Ever got that feeling....

Ever got that feeling when you come back from a tiring day at the office, only to be greeted with three smiling faces, scrambling to get the first inline for their hugs and kisses. They would then talk simultaneously to tell what they did for the day and whoever loudest would get heard?

Ever got that feeling when its bedtime and they would drag you to come and tuck them in, to give them a hug, and to kiss their forehead and say the goodnights and 'I love you's so that your voice will be last voice they hear before they go to sleep

Ever got that feeling when they kiss you goodbye before you go to work, and wave to you as you drive off

Ever got that feeling when they kiss you hands and say their goodbyes before alighting the car to go to school

Ever got that feeling when they say their thank yous when you buy them something, even if it is something small and blase

Ever got that feeling when you hear their laughter when thay are playing outside with their bicycle or roller blades

Ever got that feeling when looking at how excited they are before entering the cinema for a show

Ever got that feeling when you take them for a holiday where swimming pool and the beach rules and how eager they are to splash in

Ever got that feeling when you are being a bit sentimental like what I am feeling right now....?

Champions!

Alhamdulillah. We came out tops in last weekends Treasure Hunt. The four of us came back with the perfect score and won the first prize of RM3,000. We got all the treasures correct, answered all the questions correctly. We came in quiet early, got to the midway control 10 minutes before it opened, and only the media teams came in earlier than us. We breezed through the questions to arrive at the final destination 30 minutes before the opening time.

Well.. the people at corporate comm office knows me now... and so does most of the people in the group.

On another note, went out on Sunday with the family and bought a chess set for my AF2. I am trying hard to teach her how to play, and she knows the basic moves, but I am not a good teacher :( She sometimes gets bored playing with me, since I dont let her win, although I gave her hints on what I am doing. Oh well.... thats why I never became a teacher although bot my late parents were teachers.

Update on going ons....

Well the school holidays are here, and we havent been anywhere yet. hopefully we can get away at the end of December, provided we can rooms somewhere... havent decided on it yet.

Nothing much has happened the last week or so... Everything is quiet routine. Next month there will be break to that routine. My maid will be going back to Indonesaia for Hari Raya Haji for 3 weeks. Hopefully she will be back here on schedule before school opens. In the eman time I will be maid'less' for the next three weeks. The solution? Mama and me will take turns taking leave to stay with the kids at home. I will take the most leave since I still have a lot more leave to finish up... So dont expect cooking from me during my turn with the kids, it has been many many many moons since I last cooked. So lauk kedai lah nampaknya for the kids.

My AF2 in the last few days has shown a keen interest in learning chess. I spared my time to teach her and play with her in the evenings. Too early to say whether she will be good at it, but hey if you kid shows interest in anything I need to support it right?

My AF3 wakes up in the morning, goes to his sisters' room and check up on them. Once he sees them in their room, comes back to me and says.... 'Abah, tak payah sekolah.... sekolah cuti panjang...'. Once I acknowledged, he smiles and turns to do his things. He is oblivious to the dates and days and he just knows that when his sister goes to school, he will have to go to his kindie. Ah well, lets see what will happen next year when school starts. Will it be easy or will it be a struggle just like earlier this year.

My AF1 slips in her usual routine, books, computers and more books.

Tomorrow, 1st December I am going for my company's Treasure Hunt. Unfortunately I cant go with Mama this year. We are a good team together. Yes we do fight ocassionally when we go for hunts when there are just the two of us... but hey I have got no complaints. I get to spend a lot of time with her. With the kids and work and all... that would be the time that we go out together without the kids wanting to follow us. Therefore I am going to this hunt with my officemates, and hopefully this time this gang clicks well, since there is a first timer, and this is the first time I am going with them too. So wish me luck for that RM3,000 first prize.

So then back to the grind. Updates will come in if I can find the time.

My cheeky AF2

Ah.. my AF2, she is a darling at times. She will be 9 this January. She was born on 1st Syawal in '99. Yes she was born in the morning of Hari Raya. She has grown quiet big.. she is a tall as her sister who is 11. She is quiet smart... but a little bit lazy. She has beautiful hair but she is too lazy to take time to comb her hair.... so her hair would look 'berserabut' most of the time. She is very photogenic and would really pose for pictures.

She is the 'manja' one in the family. Of course, she is very attached to me just as her sister, AF1. She talks a lot at home, but outside, she is very meek. When she was in kindie... you would find that it is very very hard to get even a peep out of her. It continued to standard one and slowly after making new friends that she started to open up and start talking. But still not very much. I used to tease her, saying that once she steps out of the house, she would zip up her mouth and keep the key in her pocket... and she would 'tarik muka masam'....:)

She is one who kuat merajuk, merengek and expects me pujuk her. 99% of the time I would do that... but sometimes I would lose it and she will really get it from me. She is more of a TV girl ( I mean she watches TV a lot) and still despite that she reads a lot just like her sister. But she still reads that has no more than 100 pages (no novels involved)

She is still not at the level of maturity like her sister and I still treat her like the kid she is (hey.. no complaints here) She is doing well in her studies, although she did not get any placing in class this year (she got 2nd placing last year) she still got up the stage for 5As & best student for BM (Penulisan).

She likes to write, and she would write stories in her book... and sometimes I would have a peek. (mind you this is not her diary) She has quiet an imagination, although sometimes it will be quiet ridiculous, but hey this is an 8 year old.

My AF2, you know I love you, always have always will. You know it when every night when I tuck you and your sister in bed, I will always say that to you guys.

The Friday that was

With the long holiday (with me taking the Friday off between Deepavali and the weekend) I decided to take my maid to the Indonesian Embassy to renew her passport.

I took along my AF1 just to accompany me. We arrived at the parking besides the Embassy at about 8 am. As soon as we walked to the Embassy we were already been approached by the 'Calo' offering tips and services.

Pak! gambar sudah diambil? Belakangnya merah ya bukan biru. IC nya sudah di fotostat? Paspor sudah di fotosat?

Me being me, I realised that I havent photocopied my IC and some pages of the passport... so might as well do it...

Then after all was done.. then came the offer...

Calo: Pak! kalau mau saya uruskan semua bisa.. semua sampai beres...
Me: Berapa? bila siap?
Calo: RM250 sahaja..... siap Rabu depan....

What the..... the passport renewal would cost me RM22 only and would be ready the same day...
So being the selfish and kiasu dude that I am.. figuring I would save a lot, I politely declined..

Later I realised what I need to go through....

We arrived at the Embassy gate and we started to queue up. It was a long long line. Reached the guard at the gate, he went through the documents and when he found everything in order, he gave us the renewal forms to fill. Then on to the counters (or Loket). The was no numbers, just queue up. At least it was orderly. So got my maid to join the queue. There was no need for the employer to be in the queue.

So my AF1 and I left to run some errands. half an hour later, we returned, only to find my maid have barely moved and inch. Ouch!

So, what to do me and my AF1 went out again, this time we decided to go to the nearby Secret Recipe just to hang out. Another hour passed by... finished my cup of coffee and the Almond Brownies (yum) and headed back to the Embassy.

Luckily this time my maid have reached the counter and completed the transaction. She paid the RM22 for a three year 24 pages Passport. A quick check with the guard, and the passport will be given out from 3 pm.

It was only 11 am, I decided to drive home, go for Friday prayers and return alone to the Embassy in the afternoon, just to get it over with. Looking at the slip number, #165, I thought I wouldnt have to wait long.

Or so I thought

So at exactly 3 pm I arrived at the embassy, thinking that I just need to queue up at the counter, hand in the slip and wait for my turn...

How wrong I was...

What happened was... you just have to wait until they call out the name of the passport holder... I dont know heads or tail, I dont know how long I have to wait, I dont know whether my maid's name have been called. So I had no choice but to stay there and wait for the names to be called....

I peeked a glance at the people around me, there was a number 347, a number 89... well I was thinking my number is between these two, so I should be OK.. it wouldnt take long....

Again I was wrong.

So I just stood there, cannot go far since I need to be within hearing distance of the speakers. There were people who cam all the way from Ipoh and Kelantan just to renew either their passport or the maids.

To cut a long story short..... my maids name was finally called at...... 6.15 pm

I tried very very hard to be patient and not to curse.....

My Dear AF1

Last night was a peaceful night. My AF2 was down with fever. She had her early dinner of Quacker Oats, took her medication and went off to bed early. My AF1 was in very talkative mood last night. All of us were initially in my bedroom watching Fear Factor on TV with Mama and AF3, I decided not to disturb them with all the conversation between me and AF1 so we moved to the family area and and watched the TV there.

So there I was with my mug of coffee and my AF1 with her mug of Milo, and she continued her ramblings of everything. So we ended up talking as friends, and not and a parent child. She talked about her circle of friends in school, how she is doing in school, some minor misunderstanding with her best friend. And I told her that I will always be there for her, to support her emotionally and financially for her welfare and studies. I told her of my expectations wanting her to succeed in her studies and her life. I told her as well that there are times that I will be a father to her, disciplining her, instructing and directing her, nurture her and there will be times that I am a friend to her, and promises of no secrets between us.

You see my AF1 is 11 years old. At times she is childish over petty things (well she is a kid...) but ocassionally she can really be matured. Sometimes she worries over our finances (not that we have any serious financial issues Alhamdulillah), not wanting to asks expensive things (eg toys, gadgets etc) that other kids would usually ask or throw tantrums when they dont get it. I have to reassure her again and again not to worry about this. She prefers books for presents from her uncles and aunts for her birthdays. She sometimes worries about the future, she worries about not meeting our expectations, she worries about not getting good placing in class (we never push her for this, I clearly state that she must have a target and at least her target would be 5As in her exam would do for me) She just need to reduce her carelesness and she would do just fine. She is a bright kid. She wouldnt ask for new CDs instead she would ask me to download it from the net (I know its wrong but then I do it.... not setting a good example am I) so that she can load it to her MP3 player. I got the MP3 player as gift and since I dont have time for MP3 players and Mama already has an ipod, so its hers for her birthday.

She is good with computers and gadgets. I gave her a handphone to use especially for her to carry during her tuition classes. Well, now she knows how to edit MP3s to use for her ring tones. She knows how to navigate the net (but I always check so she doesnt go to unwanted websites) she knows how to check for the connection status on the wireless router that I setup for the Screamyx connection at home (she knows this more than Mama), She knows how to transfer songs from the PC to her MP3, she knows how to use iTunes.. and the list goes on...

She is now a senior red belt in taekwando, and at the last grading she wasnt confident enough to take the test, but Mama prodded her a little, and she passed with flying colours. She is sometimes afraid that she lets us down just because she is not athletically inclined as Mama and I am, since Mama plays squash, used to play hockey in school and me playing futsal regularly and used to be active and represented my school in football, volleyball and rugby. She is not interested to take part in her school sports events. To tell you the truth, I am ok with all that. She is who she is and I am happy with who she is and how she turned out so far. She is a bookworm and and she prefers books but she is active and likes to hang out with me in the evenings maybe on a bike ride or a stroll around the housing area. And yeah, she is really close to me and I do sometimes spoil her....


My AF1, Abah loves you very much and stay you always

HUGE dissapointment

It was a disappointing Saturday, thought we did really well in the SUN treasure hunt. We were in the Open catagory, and we were doing very well on the route questions, even got the bolded questions right. Then it had to happen, we became complacent and we didnt read properly the treasure questions. Due to our carelessness, we missed three treasures worth 15 points, and only ended up in the top 30. If we were to add the careless 15 points, we would have ended up in the top three... sob sob sob....


We didnt get the

Loose Gown (Wong) that shows cleavage I hear (low cut - Lo Kat)
The Wong Lo Kat Drink....

The Tong Garden Honey Almond (didnt finish the 1st line's anagram properly)

and the 40g Kit Kat (didnt read beyond the time out line)

Well instead of a 32" Philips LCD TV, we ended up with Philips 1 GB MP3 player...

My AF2 with here 'sincere' smile is already asking for it... (and I said was we'll see....)

Sparse and sporadic updates

Again, my fault for being too preoccupied with work to provide quantity updates. Coz once I'm in the mood I can ramble on and on. But this is part of my disciplinary training where I have to force myself to make updates for that is what I have promised myself.

Last weekend was my AF3's Parents- teacher discussion on his progress in kindie. Ok, so this boy is only 4 years old and should I put high expectations? I am talking about socially and academically. Compared with his two elder sisters, they were better socially (altho AF2 at this same point wasn't talking very much in kindie) and academically. Four year olds are now taught subtraction and addition. And he is now reading Ladybird's Peter & Jane books at book 6A. Is this now such a kiasu world that we are rushing kids along and hope them to mature earlier. Can kids just be kids at this age? However, I am at fault (if you can say that) as I am that goes with the flow in this aspect, hoping my AF3 dont get left behind. I let him still be the baby that he is once he gets home.

Anyway, socially he has improved, made friends, but still cant hold a proper conversation with me. (No, I dont expect a debate.... at least till he is 9 years old :)) At least I observed that his way of thinking has improved and he has become more observant. He is not that fluent (orang melayu kata petah bercakap)

My other two girls are now waiting for their results of their final exams. AF2 got 2nd place and 5As last year... I have a feeling she will drop slightly in her position in class, but she told me last night that she got 5As and best marks in BM Penulisan. Alhamdulillah

My AF1 still doesnt know how she fared, but going through her marks so far I anticipate she woould get 5As (Insyallah)

Ouch I sound like a a parent that keep scores on how my kids are doing... maybe to some extend I am.

So now in the afternoon I get calls from the asking permission to surf the internet or to watch Astro.

Well, I am now well versed in Hannah Monatana, High Schools Musical 1 & 2, other Disney channel series, Kim Possible, Totally Spies, and Nick series, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 and a couple more that have slipped my mind, Astro Ceria series Adi & Ayah, Telematch (I hate the voiceovers), gerak geri gasing......Why? because I watch it with them... how good of a father am I? :)

AF3 if he gets bored watching the above.... he will go to the DVD cabinet and choose from his current favourite and ask me to watch it with him... and when I say current favourite he will watch it over and over and over again. I have gone through multiple sittings of The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Matilda, Transformers, Rattatouile (among others). Currently he doesnt have a specific title that he watches over and over again.


Enough rambling. I will now go back to the thing I call my work or the thing that I was suppose to complete one hour ago.....


Update....

Watch out as I will be driving around tomorrow (Saturday) taking part in the Sun Treasure Hunt. Hopefully we can win something....

Post Raya Blues

Blues? Well, not really. I did have a nice Raya though. Started the journey to Penang on the wee hours of Friday, and got there at about 8-9 am. Stayed at my SIL's house. After Friday prayers went with my BIL to get some lemangs. For me Raya is not complete wihout lemang.




Ever tasted lemang pulut hitam? or even lemang jagung? Well, I can still remember when I was still young balik kampung to KK, my uncles would prepare lemang pulut hitam. And along the road from Kota Lama to KK town, lined up lemang sellers, with plain lemang and lemang jagung. Makes my mouth watery just mentioning this.

That evening, a small gathering at my SIL, with the wife's cousins, aunts and everyone else dropped by and a nice feast ensued. The kids had fun with bunga api (no mercun roket or meriam buluh mind you). Even had time to rush out for 10 minutes to meet my old STARian friend Kadiaq who lived around that area. Kadiaq, it was nice seeing you again.

Hari Raya again was enlightning, it was good time for reflections of the month that was.

My AF3 behaved very well, this year wearing his new Baju Melayu without throwing any tantrum. I was really proud, him able to wear his Baju Melayu and Songkok (no sampin though, doent match and not colour coordinated). The 5 of us were not really colour coordinated, everyone wearing different colours, or different shades. Doesnt matter, as long we celebrated Hari Raya together as one happy family.

Got back to KL on Sunday, via KK - short stops at more relatives and catching up on stories since meeting up once a year.

Took the whole week off, just to clear my head from my hectic schedule. Managed to find time to go to the Gardens (near Midvalley) just browsing through Robinsons, then had lunch at Italliannes, headed down to MPH, where the wife treated the kids to some books.

Saturday, after the normal schedule of being the chauffer (taekwando classes etc) went out to open houses, gathering at my Uncle's place in Klang. Had a wonderful meal steaks, chicken chop, tenderloin, sirloin, lamb shanks, salads, potato salads, brocolli, KFC(??) and desserts.

He cooked it himself and it was really filling for everyone. Then headed back to USJ for another friend (hunter) for his open house.

OOT - talking about hunt... Next hunt on my calendar - The Sun Hunt, for the hunters, see you there.

I'll take my leave here for now. See you soon

Puasa is coming to an end

Well folks Ramadhan is coming to an end. It was an eventful Ramadhan. It was more hectic than usual.

For the first time in years I went for Buka Puasa at a Hotel. The wife got two vouchers and I only have to pay for two kids, AF3 is still too young for the hotel to charge me... which works out to a price on one adult. Not too bad I guess although I am in the opinion that Hotels do overcharge during Ramadhan....

That was two weekends ago when I took the whole brood to the Hotel in KL. I took everyone on the LRT. Boarded from Kelana Jaya, it was fun for my AF2 & AF3, it was their 1st time on the train. They were so smiling, out of happiness & fear I too I guess but it was great to see them have fun.

The ride ended at the hotel in Jalan Ampang. It was a nice environment for a change, there was no rush, no long queues, the food was nice the seating arrangement comfortable - not too packed.

Saw a familiar face, to Wan Jo, nice to see you again.

We stayed for a little bit more than an hour before we made our move. Went back on the LRT again. This time the kids were braver, I guess clear of any inhibition or hesitation since this technically is their second time on the train. They were more excited to see out the window, the lights when the train came out the tunnel.

the three of them were sleepy by the time we got home.. even AF3 went to bed early that night.

I might not be able to update this page until after raya... So I would like to say to whoever is reading this,

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin

I'll be in Penang for Raya then back to KL soon after

See Ya...

Type your Title here

Sorry, for a lack of a better title. I have no idea what to write but I am forcing myself to write since it was a week long ago that I added any entry. Well things have been monotonous lately, only been broken up by a visit from a relative,

Well my sister in law lives in Canada. She's married to a Canadian. However, last weekend her husband came to malaysia, while she couldnt make it here (loooong story). So my brother in law spend berbuka on Sunday with the whole gang. My family, My mum in law, my other sister in law & family and my wife youngest brother and family. Oh ya my youngest brother in law, brought his kids along (the ones who were hospitalized earlier). It was noisy to say the least.

oh ya and what my brother in law related to me was... It is going to be their wedding anniversary next weekend, they are not going to spend it together, since his flight is due after that, and worse of all he is spending it with her family in Malaysia....

Whenever, he or they comeover from Canada, the kids would be the happiest 1) they would be able to see their aunt & uncle 2) presents...
Their presents mainly consists of clothes... so my AF1 ended up with a tshirt and a pair of jeans, my AF 2 got herself a tshirt & bed sheet (?) and my AF 3 got himself two tshirts. Mama got a pair of long denim skirt. Me.. somehow I ended up with a new pair of 501 Levi's. It was a matter of who can fit into a size 36.. and I was the first to try it and it fits....

It was a memorable evening where everyone had fun, my kids were happily playing with their cousins and there was enough food (main course courtasy of my elder sister in law), with yours truly being the host (and provider of venue, drinks and desserts)

So far my AF1 hasn't missed puasa with today being the 14th day of puasa. My AF2 had the first two days full.... then started to make her ayoyo self.... and now she is only doing 1/2 days.


Let's hope they can learn to appreciate the meaning of berpuasa.....

Change of pace (I wish)

Well not really change to a slower pace.. maybe faster?

Changes going round... well my company as the previous years lets everybody off 1 hour earlier (4.30) provided one works throughout the lunch period. Me? I have tons of work besides my research (more on this later) that time really flies, that it is impossible for me to have time to doze off during the lunch period... (if my boss is reading this, which I doubt.... boss saya tarak tidur punya).

Once I'm out of the office sometime between 4.40-5.00 I would rush to the nearest Pasar Ramadhan (that would be either SS18 or USJ4). Too lazy to drive much further.. altho I wouldnt mind driving to Sect 14 PJ for the popia....

Before reaching Pasar Ramadhan, frantic phone calls from yours truly to everyone, taking orders for buka puasa. Mama would usually ask for murtabak or putu piring. My AF1 would ask for Tau Fu Fah or agar agar. My AF2 would ask for agar agar or roti John. My AF3 wont ask for anything... he just eats plain rice and nothing else...

Me?... I will end up eating everything that everyone else orders....


Everybody will eat together at buka puasa... the guaranteed only time of the year where everyone eats at the same time. Otherwise it will be makan berterabur. By 8.15 I will be off to the surau for Isyak & Tarawikh prayers... the only month that I spend my nights at the surau.

(So far I have skipped 2 nights from going to the surau.. me bad me bad)

Oh ya.. my nephew have been discharged yesterday, and hopefully my niece will be discharged soon (refer previous post on the virus)


The research that I was talking about earlier? Well it is for one of my upcoming project. I am nearly at the completion of my MPLS network project, and I have three more projects coming before year end.

1. Upgrade my ISP Core to a higher capacity
2. Implement traffic & application management (the one I am doing my research on)
3. Phase 2 of my MPLS network rollout, which has been brought forward from next year

I guess you guess in what line my work is... probably to some extend anyone can guess which company I work for......


It took me nearly one hour to complete this entry... I am doing it with constant questions bombarded by my colleagues (work related of course). Well I think it is a sign for me to sign off now.....

Virus going around

I guess there is a virus going around. My wife's cousin two sons were admitted in Penang two days ago due to vomiting & purging. Last night my four year old nephew & 1 year old niece were also warded in one of the hospital nearby. They have the same symptoms. Well those guys from Penang did visit my nephew's house last week and probably it was spread then from one person to another. Luckily my kids are clear for now. No sign of any symptoms that their cousins are having.

Alhamdulillah.

Selamat Berpuasa

Nothing to add except

Selamat Berpuasa Kepada semua yang beragama Islam



My kids havent started their Hari Raya countdown yet

and yeah... I'll miss my morning coffee

Picture of my coffee mug taken with my TREO 680

It has been a week since....

It has been a week since my last post. That long? sooo many things happened, and I didnt record it here for prosperity. Looks like I have to start from the latest events while it is still fresh in my memory.

Yesterday, went to lunch with vendors at Holiday Inn (the Japanese Restaurant). Nothing eventful happened, only when we arrived there was a 'drama' shooting... starring.. Rosyam Nor. No big deal but just want to write it here...

An old friend dropped by the office, havent seen him for a while since he left this company. If you are reading this drop by often.. dont be a stranger

Sunday, travelled back to KL from Penang... huge jam at Bukit Beruntung. I was stuck for two hours starting from after the Tapah rest area.

Saturday, from Penang went to Alor Star for some shopping at Pekan Rabu. Got the girls baju kurung for Hari Raya, and got the boy Baju Melayu and Songkok. Well my boy was so excited because his Pak Long was there with him and showed off all his new attire to his Pak Long.

Had dinner again at Ilyana's in Teluk Kumbar. The food was great, the company was great. It wasnt too expensive. 4 adults and 5 kids and I ended up paying RM 80. There was ikan bakar, tomyam, lala, sotong goreng tepung, telur dadar and drinks

Friday, I was still in Jerejak Island Spa and Resort, the kids joined by their cousins had a great time at the pool. Check out at 2.00 pm and left on the ferry at 3.30.... ouch, that was a long wait.
Tried to go to Teluk Tempoyak for dinner, we went there at about 6.30 pm and my God... the place was packed, there was no parking and we ended up having dinner at Ilyana (not again.. remember this was the day before). So ended up ordering 1 siakap bakar, 1 jenahak masak stim, sotong goreng tepung, tomyam, sayur campur, and drinks. RM 102.. not bad.. and the food was delicious.

Thursday, travelled from KL to Penang, took the ferry to Jerejak Island Spa & Resort. It was a nice place, spacious room for reasonable rates, big swimming pool with water slides (the kids loved it) there was a lot of activities suspension bridge, flying fox, wall & rock climbing, jungle trekking, trek to the old prison, paintball et al... but we did not go for any of those. Well with the kids nagging me to go to the pool.... lets just say we I spent most of my time at the pool. The only setback to this place? There was no beach for diving in.....
This place was facing the seagate area (those familiar with Penang would know where this is)

We were told that that night would be fireworks on display on the beach across the resort. We wanted to wait for it at midnight, however, by 9.30 all of us were already asleep....


Probably I'll continue later and adios for now

Blanks, Blanks and more blanks

I have been really busy the last week. I did go outstation and yes I did have internet connection at the place where I had to work. No I did not bother to connect to the internet for this blog updates at the hotel. Was too tired ended up working till 3 am the first night and 1.30 am the second.

I did try to login from Coffee Bean Wifi at senai airport (my flight was delayed for one hour) somehow my old trusty notebook was unable to get connected to the Wifi AP.

So today I am still stuck with tons of things to finish before I go on leave starting tomorrow. So I will only be able to do updates next week (as if that many people read this thing anyway)

I do have a lot of things to write, about my trip, the politics of business & in the office, the characters I met, my 'durian runtuh' etc etc but time is not on my side at the moment so I will leave it for later. Just hope that I wont forget the details of the happenings for past two weeks


till then more blanks on the blog

Got this in my email

Got this from an email... you know the type that goes around saying distribute this.. share this with other people... there you go

Copy & pasted without any ammendments


A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to
choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his
directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

'It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO,' he said. 'I
have decided to choose one of you.'

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. 'I am going
to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you
to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today
with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge
the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.'

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others,
received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get

a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After
about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about
their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept
checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now,
others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant
and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had
killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had
nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just
kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to
grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company
brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that

he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest
about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing
moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was
amazed
at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were
beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor

and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young
executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

'My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,' said the
CEO.

'Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!'

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his
empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, 'The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he
will have me fired!'

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his
seed.

Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and
then announced to the young executives, 'Here is your next Chief
Executive! His name is Jim!'

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he

be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, 'One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to
me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not
possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

'When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and

honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one
who will be the new Chief Executive!'

Moral:

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

It has been a while

It has been a while since my last post. I know, I know that I tried to make it a point to update and tell my side of the story as frequent as I can, but shit happens.

I am required to go for a business trip in the southern region tomorrow for 2 days. I just got the agenda, the portion that I am suppose to look at is only for an hour or so on the first day. I mean thats it? spend the unnecessary traveling for hours, which I think air flight is not possible due to two reasons; first its gonna be hard to get flight tickets due to school holidays and second, the MD is not around to approve for air travel (ouch!)

So I am trying my very best to wiggle my way out of going.



So now is the school holidays, I am still tied up with my project which is one week behind schedule from my original plan. However, the actual completion date in stages and the first milestone is actually end of this month, so in a way I am still ok.

So to not let the kids disappointed by not going anywhere for the holidays, I took the whole family for another movie last weekend - "Rattatouille" (did I spell that right?). I guess they kinda enjoyed it, I liked it, my AF1 liked it, my AF2 said she liked it, my Af3 said heliked it, but he did looked bored on occasions, and Mama said she sorta liked it.

So it was fun, they did enjoyed themselves, which was the whole idea anyway. Munching away on popcorns and the movie did evoke laughter from all of them....


My AF3 has a defense mechanism on getting himself out of school. The last week before the school holidays he was very reluctant to go to school. Angin dia masa mula mula sekolah datang balik. He cried and tried to get out from getting me to send him didnt work, so when he got to school, he got himself to throw up so that the teacher would call me up to pick him up and take him home. That worked for the first day (monday) then he didnt go to school on tuesday & wednesday.

On thursday I forced him to go to school. He threw up in the car (fortunately in a plastic bag) but I still refuse to budge nor did I show any sympathy (it was hard but I had to do it... I felt really bad). He didnt vommit in school that day. And the thing was repeated again on Friday, and he was finally ok by the time he got home. Now with one week holiday, I dont know whether he will be worked up again on the first day of school.

So now, my head is in a mess about the traveling issue (the first paragraph of this post). Therefore I leave this post as it is now, and maybe just maybe I will get in some updates later

Wise words perhaps?

Here is something that I read recently that may be applies to nearly everything in life

You would have three things in most solutions in life, whether it is work related or in everyday life

Good, Quick, Cheap

And in most cases you can have only two of these components, no matter what.

Good + Quick solution = Not Cheap
Good + Cheap solution = Not Quick
Quick + cheap solution = Not Good


How does that sounds? Take a pick of what you usually choose




On another note here is a riddle told to me by my 8 year old AF2

If
Farmer A sells vegetables
Farmer B sells fruits
What does Farmer C sells?

It had me thinking.....I said a lot of things and she would laugh at me each time saying I am wrong...


The answer.. Farmer C (pronounced - Pharmacy) sells medicine!



That sure puts a smile on my face...

Futsal with a view and other thots

Last night was my futsal outing with the guys from the office. Well put it this way, the rest of the guys are young.. in their 20s, me and and YBA are touching 40.. sigh.

Anyway, one of the guys arranged a friendly with a team from TV3 (kononnya). It turns out that these guys are training for the upcoming National futsal league this weekend. Ulp! what have we got ourselves into.

Eventually it didnt turn out too bad. We didnt make a fool out of ourselves. Lost 2 matches and drew the other. Score... cant remember.

However, the view for that night is there was a filming going on at that venue... a taping of the tv series Gol & Gincu episode was taking place. So all the main actresses were there. So it was a nice sight indeed.

At home, my AF3 was still in transformers mode. Keep on repeating watching the transformers dvd, just like what he did when 'Cars' came out. The other day when we were in Subang Parade, he saw 'Cars' watch on display, he came to me with his cute eyes....

"Babah... boleh bili jam cars?'

This boy is four years old, cant even tell time, has two watches at home (one is a free faber castell digital watch, the other is a spiderman watch). So me being me, try to divert as much attention away from the topic until at one point..

'Babah.. naik atas pigi toysus' (Toy r us)

'ok nanti kita pergi' I happily replied, knowing if he goes to Toys r us he'll happily browse around, watch the promo on the tv sets until he is satisfied then we can leave peacefully. He is such a darling that he doesnt throw a tantrum.

Selamat duit babah



On another another note, I was at the Shah Alam pasar tani (the one located near the stadium) last sunday. As usual I would browse through the stalls carrying sports apparels. One particular stalls with footbal jersey replicas had the latest Arsenal 07/08 away strip. It was so much like the original. With the printed small print on the strip, the herbert chapman commemorative logo on the inside, with the quality of material... it was like wow? the price? RM40


Then I went to nike shop when I was in subang parade, there it was on display the same replica strip. The sales assistant came up to me started his sales pitch..

"bang, latest Arsenal jersey, tulisan tu semua pakai laser technology"

'yeah.... how much?'

"RM 250 jer...."

'ok... thank you'...

I check the quality, it was like very very very similar. I think only if I worked for Nike that I would know the difference. I am not advocating piracy or anything, but for that price?

Enuff Said.


Final thoughts of the day..... Welcome back my Treo 680. He ehe

New Car?

Yesterday, as I was dropping off my 4 year old AF3 to kindergarten, I parked the car. As I opened the rear door for him, I noticed there were some tears on the rubber lining of that door near the seat. I just mentioned to myself, "Oh Boy koyak pulak getah ni..."

And guess what the response I got from that boy?

"Koyak.... Abah, bili kereta baru la..." Banyak kereta cantik... tu tu " pointing to the other cars parked at the parking lot (among others a kancil, kelisa, getz and a proton)

I just smiled not knowing what else to say..... speechless....

Solat....

Entah macammana sebaik saja selepas solat maghrib two days ago, tiba tiba terlintas dihati, nak suruh my two precious girls AF1 & AF2 start solat on a regular basis. So I called them up, had a nice talk with them (with me doing all the talking actually) The two were initially worried, coz usualy if I called both of them and sit down and talked to them, usually they had done something wrong. But they were very receptive to my instruction and they were ready to do as I have asked. It was very heartwarming to see them eager and willing to perform the solat without me having to throw a fit. All I need is just to remind them (or maybe sometimes their mama or bak ti) of the prayer times.

So far Alhamdullillah, evrything is going well... no tantrums thrown when it is Solat time.

Whats going on?

Exactly. Whats going on in this world? As I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to HotFM, this was this caller, who said that she knew a female friend of hers in college (or was it a local U) who was humiliated by her boyfriend. The female friend was having a discussion about their coursework with colleagues (male amongst them) and he became jealous and he came over and spit on the poor girl. What's up with that? Man I tell you you are bringing shame to the whole of the male species. How could one treat another person especially a female with that? It is a deplorable behavior.
What has the world come to?

Buang anak dlm tong sampah, wife abuse, where have the feeling of compassion and responsibility gone to?

All I can do to change this is to raise my kids so that they will grow up with principle, dignity, responsibility, accountability, compassion, berilmu, berakhlak and fear of God.


On another note.. the Putrajaya hunt. we failed ... we did well on the hunt proper.. we failed on the missions. the 3rd mission it was all or nothing 0 pts or 10 pts..... guess what... we got nothing. there goes any hope of any decent top 20 placing.

Probably next year we might skip Putrajaya hunt... too many missions


time to go back to work....

A frantic weekend

I have been too tired to write anything. Been really busy managing my project. But I just wanna write how my weekend went, just for me to remember what went on last weekend. Here goes:


Saturday

Wet Market day. Dropped of AF1 for her tekwando class. Shoot of to Pasar Borong Selangor. Equipped with my trusty trolley off I went. Lets see what I got...

5 kg of ikan sardin
5 kg of ikan pelaling
2 ekor terubuk
1 kg udang
3 ekor nyok-nyok
2 ekor tenggiri
11 ekor cincaru
3 ekor ayam
1 kg daging
1 kg paru
2 kg tulang

Sayur - bayam, kangkong, pucuk paku & my favourite petai!!!!

Not bad for a couple of hours shopping. All in all for all the above I spent less than RM200 (which is my budget for the shopping every fortnight)

Rushed home to pick up everyone to go to Tok's place to put away all the things (Tok's place has a big freezer)Picked up AF1 on the way. Had a breather.. and there goes my morning.

Had lunch then brought the kids and Mama to Summit for "Tranformers" I had to go the previous night to get the tickets since
1. All the GSC phone booking lines are engaged... (for hours and hours)
2. Online reservation is down... cannot be accessible

The kids had a ball of a time... especially AF3 which was his first cinema movie experience.

The movie?.... AWESOME!!!!!

But get this... movie tickets RM 33... popcorns & drinks RM 16.. total RM 49..
I went to buy some pirated DVD (shhhh.. dont let the enforcement officers know about this....) I got 6 discs for RM 40...... sheesh no wonder the pirates are making a killing....

But all in all it was worth spending the money.... by the look on the faces of the three kids coming out from the movie theatre... it was like... priceless......they were smiling from ear to ear.

Finally... got home and was able to relax..... just parked myself in front of the TV watching Tiger Woods failing to make an impact.


Sunday...
You know why I was determined to bring the kids to the cinema? Coz today me and Mama are going Treasure Hunting... It was our first treasure hunt of 2007. We were on hiatus for nearly a year.

It was the Multiple Sclerosis Awareness hunt. We had a respectable finish...

for results see http://www.michaelpang.com.my/home/blog.php

It was tiring... yes it was. But at the same time rewarding especially when you get the answer. Treasure hunting is like a drug. The more answers you get the more you come back for it. Who in their right mind wakes up very early on a Sunday, just to torture themselves with hunt questions.... and then comes back for more.

Next week we are going for the Putrajaya hunt. So... see you guys there...

Evening... Giant time.. shopping for groceries... again!

I need to finish up some work now.... will continue when I have time......

The fragility of it all

Referring to the previous post, it set me thinking. How life is so fragile and unpredictable. We plan but God determines. Every time I go out, will I get back safely to see the cheering faces of my wife and 3 adorable kids. Will I still be around to see them grow up, will I always be there to nurture them, to provide for them, to educate them, to be there during the good and bad times, during the ups and downs?

Will I be able to take care of my health in order to always be there for my family. Will be safe on the road to be able to travel to and from home to be there when they need me?

I have had the pain when my parents passed away. I was unfortunate not to be by their side during the last moments. I was in KL at work on both occasions. However, the impact was different from this situation. When my parents passed away, there was just sorrow, sadness and a sense of loss. This occasion the impact was different. It hit closer to home. You lose the sense of security. Granted he was 9 years older than me but what is 9 years? Pejam celik pejam celik 9 years passes you by.

It had me pondering, what if something happens to me? What have I prepared for my family? Financially, hopefully it's covered. I have my life insurance and EPF which has my wife as my benificiary.
Emotionally, I dont think one can ever be prepared for the devastation.
Spiritually, I will always be there.
Physically, life goes on for them.
I hope I have raised my kids well enough to overcome whatever lies in their path.

To my wife, my dear wife, my beloved wife, I know well enough that you can survive. That's why I married you in the first place. I know you are fiercely independent, you are strong and I know that you can take care of the kids better than I ever could.

Sorry for the sombre mood today cant help but think of what transpired over the weekend.

Hopefully my next entry will be on a more cheerful note. Till next time

Al Fatihah

It was a sad day indeed. I was in PD for the leadership program. One of our friends passed away during the session. Al Fatihah to Roslen Yusoff, one of my team mate during the rafting program. He passed away due to suspected shortness of breath and heart attack. We were all stunned. I was in the front row of the raft with him.


So very short post today, Today post is dedicated to him and semuga ruh nya dicucuri rahmat dan semuga Allah tempatkan beliau disisinya bersama orang orang yg beriman


Al Fatihah

Going away again

I will be away again from tomorrow till saturday. Off to PD this time. Its a leadership program. More about it when I get back.

Another scenario thats going round the company now is resignation. Quite a number are leaving. Why? I dont know... they have better opportunities. Why am I still here. I can only think of two things

1. I dont have a better offer elsewhere
2. I like what I am doing here.

For number 1, I did have an offer a few months back. I declined since it was not attractive enough at the end of the day. It was only a 10% increase intially, when I sounded my intention to decline, they increased another 5% to a GRAND TOTAL of.....15%. Well considering the travelling..(it is in the middle of KL btw) the additional costs of tol and worst of all..... WORKING SATURDAYS. That beat the lot!

No 2 - I am in the middle of a big project, racing with the other giant telco to rollout the latest network. A new thing, new challenge, things to learn. So... nothing beats that!

I think I am marketable... but there have been no attractive offers.... any takers out there?


On another note
My AF3 is not feeling well for the past couple of days. It is very hard since he refuses to take medicine orally. No choice but to insert the bullet shape medicine up his behind. so far his fever is on and off, but at least he is eating well. He has only been his bubbly self in spurts when he feels better.

OK I need to finish my work before I sign off for the day. See you next week

Back to reality

I got back from the team bonding session on Sunday. Didnt have time to write anything yesterday (read lazy/too preoccupied). A few interesting things did happen over the weekend. The session itself was not physically strenuous as expected. Although it was tiring, but it wasnt that hard.

Highlight of the session was the jungle trekking and camping. The whole group was adjudged by the instructor as to be unfit. We only ended up a quarter of the planned route when the instructor made a detour and we ended up in an alternative campsite. The two camps on top got a place near a waterfall, and the two group at the bottom got near durian trees. the top camps had a bash at the waterfall, and the lower camps got their durian feast. A group of four went to find 'dinner' while the rest of the team members set up camp. The 'dinner' in question included chopping down a bayan tree, to get its 'umbut' on the top part of the tree. My God... the tree was really hard. These four guys (yours truly included) laboured with parangs for one hour and we barely went through a quarter of the tree. Rescue came in the form of other team members who have completed setting up their camps. the tree eventually fell.... unfortunately it fell to the opposite side than the one that we wanted and it fot tangled with other trees and never fell to the ground. Well that was the end of it. Well later that evening another group went to look for another bayan tree and started hacking away. I was too tired to join and went to the waterfall instead. They never got the tree to fall that night, they continued early the next morning and got it for breakfast instead.

The session that night ended at about 12.30 am and I was already feeling nauseous from the lack of food. We only had rations of sandwiches , lemang from the previous night cookout and some oranges. I threw up that night in the bushes. I took some panadol and dozed off....

Worse was to come the next morning. We still had some discussion session that morning, had some of that bayan umbut, but mostly empty stomachs all round. I only had a small piece while some of my mates really gobbled it up. Then it started, at about 11am when we started our trek down back to the resort, people started to vommit. My guess is about 7-8 of the threw up along the way down. one of my mates was hit real bad. From the starting point to our next stop where we had to do our next task, which was about 15 minutes walk, he threw up 8 times! (I heard yesterday he was admitted, I suspect due to dehydration)

Some of the things we had to do? Lets see....
1. Paint our faces....
2. Make your own lemang
3. Pass a rubber band from one team mate to another using straws
4. Bride across a ping pong ball using sheets of A4 paper
5. Answer riddles (most of it were ridiculous)
The best one was the catapult (catapult water balloons and try to hit the target. It was a riot!)


You want to know some of the riddles?

Q1. Apakah persamaan telefon dan kain jemuran?
Q2. Namakan Buah-buahan yg berakhir dengan huruf K
Q3. What is heavy going forward but backwards its not
Q4. Apa yg ada pada yg hidup dan yg mati?

There are a few more, but maybe I'll save it for later. Answers? later



All in all it was an interesting outing. Wanna know something else? I am slated for another similar program this weekend! This time it is a program from from the Holding company. Two weekends in a row. Aiyaaaaaaa! At least I have the comfort of knowing that there will be no food rationing or outdoor camping. Oh ya... it is not a teambonding program, it is a leadership program


adios muchachos

Order! Order!

Just a small quick note before i go home for the day.. I've got a few weird friends that once they get to shops their brains went overtime in ordering drinks or food... here goes

1. Air suam Kurang Manis, satu!

2. Teh O Ais Panas Satu!

3. This only applies on a Friday at the mamak shop

Friend: Mamak! Hari Jumaat Pisang free kan?
Mamak: Ya, Ya Pisang free
Friend: Kalau Macam tu kasi roti pisang satu.

4. This really happen once upon a time

Friend: Air Buah apa ada?
Waiter: Air tembikai, honeydew, belimbing, belimbing susu, carrot, orange, mango, laici, longan, nenas......
Friend: OK bagi teh O ais satu

And do you realise that if there are two of you and you order teh tarik kurang manis and your friend orders teh tarik biasa... usually it will be from the same kole..... meaning there is no difference in the kurang manis and biasa....sigh

I rest my case.. I've been hanging around friends like this too much


Signing off

Team Building?

Who on earth invented this thing called team building outings? Is it sane to send 30 something and 40 something age groups to this so called team building where all the physical activities take place? All the trekking, camping and the strenuous activities.. If only it had happened in 10 or 20 years earlier I wouldnt have minded in fact I would have relished it. I used to be the adventurous type. Wished that I could have attended OBS (my folks couldnt afford it) and there was no sponsors anyways (well my school Headboy and two assistants were sponsored by the scool at get to attend that course).

But back to the present. Just like what a senior management personel said on his involvement of the same programme on the previous session.."Tell me what you get by sending a 50 year old up the hill in the name of team building?"

I am not against team building per say, or on improving things... but I am willing to bet you whatever lesson learnt during that 3 days excursion will soon be forgotten within the next few weeks.

Oh well I will be off this friday for a tiresome three days. Hopefully I will survive intact and back in one piece, Insyallah

On another note, my projects are well under way and me ending up with all the paperwork. The worst part is navigating myself thru the SAP system. My God! Enlisted help from a couple of people, parked myself in front of their terminal and egging them on until the first part of it was completed. (I cant do it myself, not trained and I dont even have the SAP username and password) Well still need to delegate the shitload of paperwork as in keying in individual Bill of Quantities for each location for the project deployment. Now... who will be my next victim to assist me...(with a devillish grin, and raised eyebrows).

You guys must be thinking that I am shirking my job/tasks that I am giving it out/delegating to other people. The fact is I am juggling too many things on my plate at the moment to ensure this project A is smooth, Assisting my colleague on Project B, Project C is waiting to be tendered out, improvement programs needs to be planned and initiated by Q4 this year. Upgrading works on our gateways need to be identified etc etc. sheesh.. it is just tiring listing it out. So the next best thing is actually to bitch it out, rite

Back to reality, my flu is getting better and feeling fresher though still not as sharp as I should be. Have to stay away from my kids since they have exams this week (Both AF1 & AF2 are having their PKSR exams)


Untill my next ramblings, stay cool and dont do what I wouldnt do

Take care

Under the weather

The weather is making me go under the weather. Sorry no updates yesterday. Had a few things on my mind to unleash in this ramblings. Unfortunately I was knocked out by the flu. No updates on the weekend tho, I only blog from the office so there you go. The computer at home conquered by the kids, once I switch it on my AF3 will come and say " Nak Lightning Mcqueen" which means he wants to go to the Disney website and play the games there. Not bad for a four year old kid.

Any way, still not feeling to well and my brain is still stuck on second gear. I have a lot of paperwork to finish. And I damn well hate paperwork.

Got this call last Sunday evening:

Caller: Can you send someone for a meeting with customer on Monday 10am
Me: What is it about?
Caller: They want technical person to resolve some issues
Me: OK. What issues? So I can send the relevant people.
Caller: Some technical issues
Me: Ya larr... What are the issues
Caller: I dont know, all I know is there are issues...
Me: Then why dont you get the people who knows what the issues are instead of calling everyone as if it is a crisis. Go and call Mr X to solve this....

End of call

Dont you just hate that? HooHaa about big issues where they dont even know what the issue is? How can we solve ISSUES when nobody can tell us what the issue is? How can we prepare when no one knows what the issue is? Such an issue

I know, I know some of you might say that it is irresponsible of me not supporting the team But picture this, when there is meeting with the customer and you are sure to be in the line of fire, these guys get all the technical people to be 'hentamed' by the customer and no sales or presales person in sight.

Oh ya.. btw the caller did not attend the meeting.


Before I go I will leave you with some inside joke that we have in the office. Some of the techies might understand what they mean but surely could not get the joke...

Lelong VRF 3 RM 10
BGP routes satu 20 sen

There you go.. to see how craetive(crazy) our presales team is


C Ya

Little ol me?

I am just a typical guy, your average Joe kinda guy. Been there done that, but still stagnant. Attended one of the residential school in Ipoh (an all boys school.... you guys can sure guess which one) went on to KPP/ITM (duh... as it was known back then.. it was changed to PPP (Pusat Pemulihan Pelajar... btw KPP stands for Kolej Perosak Pelajar, but now known as INTEC - dont ask me what it stands for)

Went of to an island in Europe, in a town by the seaside (Famous landmark - Palace Pier - You should know the place :)

That was a brief resume of my travels in pursuit of higher education. What did I get out of it? Pretty much a screwed up life experience. But seriously, my travels made me who I am today. Really in my opinion Malaysian students with overseas studies opportunities stands out better than local Malaysian students (most of them anyway)

Why you say? the experience, the independence, the interaction, really is different. You're on your own dude. no spoon feeding. zilch (unless you have a too good too be true coursemate that feeds you everything - naaah highly unlikely) Some of you might disagree... prove me wrong

What am I doing now? I am in this company for nearly 13 years and this is only my second job. (God.. has it been that long?) I do interesting stuff, planning for technology advancement, get my hands dirty with things other people havent done before. but one thing really gets me puzzled. Heve anyone heard of NGN (Next Generation Network)? Why do people still call them NGN when they are already here, now? whats so next generation about it. I would rather call it the Now Generation Network and save the term Next Generation Network for something really is next generation.

Anyway, if anyone out there ever heard of Morse code? Thats what I do.....NOT!!!!! I let you guys whoever is reading this to ponder what I really do... or maybe I'll get round to tell more about it some fine day.



Before I sign off, let me tell you a joke that my eldest daughter (Lets call her AF1) told me the other day.


Do you know how Hang Tuah got the title Laksamana?

One day the Sultan sent out Hang Tuah to get him a bowl of Laksa, Hang Tuah searched high and low for the laksa, unfortunately there was none to be found. When Hang Tuah went back to the palace, the Sultan saw him and promptly asked in front of everyone, "Laksa mana Hang Tuah?"

Upon Hearing that all the Bendahara and menteri thought that the Sultan just gave him a new title... and he title stuck till today.


Hey, dont be angry if you dont find it funny, at least it got me smiling, especially coming from my AF1



Stay tooned

The Starting point

Greetings and salutations

I'm definitely no scribe, I dont think I have a flair for writing amusing things. My writings may not amuse you, but I am writing this for me (Syok sendiri lah tu). This is my corner of the world to say whats on my mind, things otherwise I would not say face to face.

I will write what amuses me, about me, things around me, my family, especially my kids (my three adorable kids) things that affect my life, my crappy working life... dont get me wrong, I love my job, what I am able to do in my line of work... but they are times when so called colleagues will drive me up the wall (more on that later)

This blog will remain minimal for now.. no pictures (too lazy to download from the camera - I dont have a digital camera tho there's two good working units at home, or downloading it from my phone)

About me...

I am an optimist by heart tho sometimes a pessimist by nature. Nothing really bothers me. I most of the time contradict myself, and can be a hypocrite sometimes. Cakap tak serupa bikin. I do avoid confrontation. On occasions I am an introvert, but can be a perfect extrovert on other times.

I speak PERFECT BROKEN ENGLISH. I dont go out much as I love spending time with the kids and my better half (Definitely my BETTER half)


I will ramble on and off but for now I have to sign off by saying STAY TUNED to my side of the story

Your Humbly