Tribute to FIL and Hari Raya 2009

Yea...being the fickle minded me I decided to open up my blog again...no idea why though but what the heck...For the past few years ever since I got married, I have been going back to Alor Setar almost every year now for Hari Raya, and truth be told, I love coming back here, what with the angin sawah padi in the morning, overloaded with oxygen and the ever caring MIL...and everytime I would love to hear stories about the late FIL, how we share the same hobbies and passion for books and travelling, and every year I would feel this nagging feeling of regret for not knowing him earlier, we would have had great conversations as he was the Chief Police and I have always wanted to be a spy...hehehe...but seriously..when I look at his pictures with his uniform and recently we found a tape of him singing while strumming his guitar for the last time before he passed away brought tears to our eyes...I never knew him and yet I missed him...I imagine that our relationship will be like Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachan (tak telepas dari cerita Aci kan), he'll spoil me like crazy as I am the only DIL, (having said that, he doesn't really have a choice actually)...all I can do now is pray for him and read him Al-Fatihah...it's fated I suppose...

Anyways...Hari Raya has been a blast so far, and we really have to drag ourselves to come back to KL, we were suppose to go back yesterday itself, and tried to pack up today, and supposed to go back this evening...but dragged on and finally decided to go back tomorrow morning...who wants to think about work when you have had such a long hol for the past one week? Makan tido makan tido.....will have to go on a diet soon....

First day was full of going to relatives' houses in Alor Setar, get it done and over with, second day was filled with shopping at Bukit Kayu Hitam and Padang Besar, while Cousin Lan and Ja came over the next day for an experimental homestay experience at MIL's house..that was fun as we got to play bunga api and mercun the night before....the rest of the week was filled with again...makan tido makan tido activities....

Come next week will be the normal hectic month for moi, as I have two MBA workshops to attend, some lecturers from Manchester are gonna come over and conduct the lectures, in between will be tutorials, still one assignment to hand-in, and mid November will be flying off to Chengdu, China for the World Cyber Games Grand Finals for 10 days, then 2 exams end of Nov and early December...some other projects for the department still need to be sorted out before I go off for my year-end hols...now you see why I drag going back to KL and face reality? Shessshh....

So how was your Raya?

Sudah Masuk Bulan Puasa Hor..

Entah kenapa hatiku terusik untuk meneruskan menulis di blog yang sudah lama ditinggal2kan ini...Mungkin kerana ramadhan telah hampir tiba dan aku ingin mengucapkan kepada rakan2 ku selamat berpuasa...

Anyways...Last post was in May man..that was like yonks ago..most of the time i der verryyy menyampah when people complain in their blogs that they are so busy doing this la that la..mengejar kekayaan dunia la....demanding life la....but it's their life kan...its just me having issues la not them hehehe...

so what's been happening apart from H1N1 and the economic crises?

...for one, my younger brother is no longer the budak gemuk yg perangai that he used to be...sudah menjadi laki orang ok...it was quite a touching event on my side since both of us are very close, and i will miss him hanging out with him...of course his life has to be dedicated to his new family and also his new business venture, will update u guys soon on that one once the kedai is ready....but the wedding was a joyful one...apart from Ms.Tai Tai (the attention seeking madame who sang at her own wedding)....this is the second wedding that I have ever attended that both bride and groom actually sang the out-of-tune saloma and p.ramlee song..belasah la labu....janji korang happy....

am still married and nowhere near to having my second child soon... (wait lah wait lahhh....what's the rush...j-lo got pregnant for the first time at the age of 40 rilek jekan....)

the new IT unit is still troubleshooting the network here and there and from time to time we get calls from everyone saying that the network is down, me..am happy just taking the calls and doing the write-ups and handling projects and the deadlines for one of the project will be end of this year....fingers crossed...i bump into Big B once in a while, and still keep in communication with him when the company encounters major issues....

but of course, life is a lot more peaceful now, no more phone calls at night and emails at 3 in the morning...phew.....Mr.Soulmate is also a much happier man now that am most of the time at home...

and...i've started studying again...yes yes yes...most of the time when i'm stuck with my textbook and assignments i will just stare into space asking myself why the heck am i doing all this, and paying like LOADs of money when I could go out there and buy a Toyota RUSH or some other cosmetic cars...confirm la i cant afford a Goldie Hawn or Ahmad Kamil macam orang tu kan...but at least a much more spacious car so that i can dump all kinds of things in there...what you will find in my car:

A hardly used squash racket (with the ball)

magazines (old and new)

brochures i picked from mcds or wherever

shoes (loads of shoes)

bag full swimwear stuff, and towels and what not

topi contractor

boots contractor

3 week old garbage (used nescafe cans, plastic cover for bread)

stroller (one in the boot, one at the passengers seat at the back)

anak2 lipas that i will step on from time to time while driving the car

just to name a few....but i keep an air freshener so, it smells QUITE nice considering the junk in the car..

my boy is going to be three soon, and we are having loads of fun teaching him new stuff everyday...and such a parrot...we are not sending him to school anytime soon, letting him enjoy his time with his mates at the babysitter's place and do whatever he likes...the babysitter actually complains that he's a kaki tido...but come midninght and that's it....he's the hero and wont go to sleep...

there was this one weekend that we were watching the tv at midninght (was it Thomas and Friends) and i actually fell asleep, when i woke up it was 3 in the morning, and he was still watching it. he saw that I was awake and when...shssshh...shhsshhh....tido..tido....while patting me on my shoulder....and i thought it was suppose to be the other way round kan....

ok enough mumbling...u guys have a good ramadhan ....here's the latest pic of alex..

The Broken World Record, The Drunken President and the Haunted Apartment...

A VERY VERY OUTDATED POST EVERYONE...

yes..yess...very fulfilling weekend indeed, first and foremost, Malaysians have managed to break the World Record for the Longest LAN PARTY held in Cyberjaya and the record was at 40 hours with 274 participants..

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CYBER WARRIORS AND TO THE TEAM who have worked so hard in ensuring that the effort was a succcess...food was provided, air ventilation was good and the place turned out to be like a club rather than a whole lot of computer geeks playing computer games for 40 hours...like best friend said, if i were a female gamer, i would have died from an orgasm just looking at these potential mates in one place man...but yeah...it was a PARTAYYYY indeeed...endless flow of red bull, hotdogs, KFCs and pizzas were all available, and Ms.Brat was busy accompanying Talal (The Guiness adjudicator left right center everywhere) todo headcounts and not to mention brought him for a quick sightseeing at Petrosains and Petaling Street to buy cheap watches...heheheh...pleasant dude indeed...

Everything went well until the last day..during that closing ceremony...we gotta a phone call from the security guard that the MMU president was there already.and while waiting for the VIPs to have their quick drinks at the VIP Lounger, the President went missing and acolleague found him amongst the gamers shouting and screaming, God knows what there all about. Told him that VIPs were waiting for him, and suddenly he screamed "I don't care for VIPs, let them wait."

We thought that this guy had issues with VIPs, and it turned out that he was drunk.

He disrupted the whole flow of the event when he called out all 274 gamers up on the stage along with the VIPs to have a photo session. They were suppose to queue up and get their certificates and not attack the stage at one go, some more the VIPs were on the stage at that time. He actually snatched the mic from the emcee and started announcing that all u gamers...come up to the stage NOW...its ok..u can come up... you can imagine the damage control that had to be done by the us then....

Media conference...while everybody was complimenting on how successful the event was, suddenly he said , "I think this WHOLE THING IS STUPID..playing games for 40 hours non stop is stooopid....why not we make a movie?"

And the reporters suddenly stopped and looked at him, thank God they were nice enough not to write this in the newspapers. A friend of ours (another reporter) calmed him by saying "Mr.President, I think this press conference is all about the LAN Party. probably we could talk about your movie some other time." Thank God he shut the hell up after that.

Anyways, MMU staff managed to send him away after that and all is well.

Speaking of hal-hal keduniaan, we were also disturbed by some presence at one apartment in Cyberjaya that we have rented for two nights just for cyber Fusion 2009. We rented the show house (very nice, very well equipped and all that), but however, it was not only me, but some of my colleagues actually felt some presence in the apartment, you know when your bulu roma naik tegak in the bathroom, felt someone was watching you in the toilet, and when u came back at 2 in the morning, and started to sleep and you heard lots of noises going on in the childrens room full of soft toys, you know something was definitely there. But then again, we were too tired that night, and we just ignored the noises. But luckily nothing appeared in front of our eyes, or they did, and we were too exhausted to notice hehehehe...

Anyways....some pictures of Cyber Fusion 2009:

More pictures here. Love you aci...thanks for coming.....

Betapa Pentingnya Handphone Dalam Kehidupan Kita..

Semalam saya telah berjanji untuk berjumpa dengan seorang rakan baik saya. Dengan sedaya upaya saya telah cuba menaliponnya walaupun sudah berkali2 mencuba tetapi tidak berjaya, walhal kami telah pun berjanji untuk berjumpa selepas waktu pejabat semalam.

Selepas maghrib kemudiannya dia menalipon saya dan menyatakan dia hendak datang ke rumah tetapi saya mengajaknya berjumpa di KFC Equine Park. Masalahnya saya terlupa bahawa di Equine Park terdapat dua KFC, satu di Jaya Jusco dan satu lagi di Petronas.
Jadi saya dan suami pun pergilah ke KFC Jaya Jusco dan menunggunya selama sejam, tetapi tidak jugak kelihatan kelibat comelnya itu.

Kami menyangkakan bahawa dia mesti telah menunggu di KFC Petronas dan terus menunggunya di KFC Jaya Jusco dengan harapan dia akan mempunyai fikiran yang sama dan akan datang ke restoran KFC yang sama sehingga pukul 9 malam. Tetapi kelibat comelnya tidak juga kelihatan. Saya mula berasa risau dengan ketidakmunculannya dan memaksa anak dan suami saya untuk makan dengan segera supaya kami boleh bergegas ke KFC Petronas.

Setibanya di sana, kereta barunya tidak juga kelihatan begitu jugalah dengan kelibat comelnya itu. Saya bertambah risau dan menalipon adiknya dan memastikan lagi bahawa memang betol dia sudah keluar dari kawasan kediamannya. Adiknya juga tidak tahu ke manakah pegi kakaknya itu.

Saya tidak juga putus asa dan pegi semula ke KFC Jaya Jusco, dan seperti yang dijangkakan, tidak juga menemuinya. Lalu suami saya mengajak pulang ke rumah, dan lagi sekali saya menalifon adiknya dan menyatakan menyuruh sms saya sebaik saja tiba ke rumah, kerana dia tidak mempunyai telefon di rumah, jadi saya tidak boleh menelefonnya, dan juga untuk memastikan bahawa dia selamat sampai ke rumah.

Kesimpulannya di sini ialah:
1) Memastikan anda memberi arahan yang betul sebelum membuat temujanji
2) Sentiasa memastikan anda mempunyai telefon bimbit untuk mengelakkan kejadian2 seperti ini berlaku
3) Membuat temujanji yang tidak ada dua buah jenis restoran yang sama di satu kawasan yang sama

Sekian. Cerita saya untuk kali ini.

The Dream I Had...

I dreamt that he was running his hands all over me...





As I was feeling hot...his actions caused me to get wet and wanting for more..






So I succumbed and and surrendered....





I let him do whatever he wanted with me...I trust you..deep down inside I said....




And he would wash, cut and blowdry my hair.....yesss...yesss.....yess......time go see Sam my hairstylist!!!!.....



*The hell were you thinking?

As time goes by..

Ok la I have to admit, as I spend more and more time with them, they are actually quite ok...the lady has a funny sense of humor, and the guy...actually knows what he's talking about..and one thing I have to give M*** credit is that they have come a long way, and have long established the relationship with our potential investors...

You can imagine how upset we were when we came late, and we gave them the reason that it was the GPS that was bad and failed us, but still these people were actually really nice as to provide us with lunch...Oh yea...u know since u lost your way, we thought of serving you lunch because you must be hungry as it is gonna be lunchtime soon...or so they said..

Pheww...so it all turned out into relief as we spent our time in Menlo Park doing the site visit and had a fruitful discussion...cool huh?

We spent quite a long time in San Francisco, 6 nights, and then off to Boston for two meetings..Boston was freezing and there we met up with Director of MIDA...yeahh cruell cruel wind...business is not good acccording to him, most projects been put on hold and its difficult to meet their KPI in the US...but what else is new la kan...

Had some funny encounters in New York..I was in Toys R us and at the counter paying for some stuff when the cashier wished me "Namaste" siap dengan tangan2 ok...*matila muka aku macam aci kan*

And I found it that generally new Yorkers are nice...I didnt have small change but wanted to go and have mocha..but I went to Starbucks anyways...and I told the guy I didnt have change..and he said they never accept 100 dollar bills...and guess what..he decided to give me the large mocha for free...like...helllooo..is he for real or what..and i was waiting for them to laugh at me and ask me to pay anyway...but they never did...if in Malaysia means every night I will go and pretend not to have change so that I can get mocha for free in different starbucks kan..

and while I was having meeting with forbes, i was coughing loudly , normal la..winter time what..so the SVP heard and he got out of the room himself and got me a bottle of water...sheshh....probably it's just the time of the week where everybody decided to be nice to everyone ..i dunno...oh well..got an early flight to catch tomorrow...and am gonna have to wake up at 4:00 a.m., am tired..and gona be more exhausted tomorrow...one more meeting in pittsburgh...then come back to newark and check in flight back to KL at 9 p.m. ..arriving on saturday 7 a.m....we've had 14 meetings in the span of two weeks...so by the time i reach malaysia, i will pengsan....

see you guys in malaysia anyways...taaa....

*note that the pictures are not in sequence, the first collage is Boston, second in San Francisco, third, fourth, fifth in new york, and the last one in boston again...tgh pening siot...

The Last Minute Sucker Part Two..

So I finished up all paperwork on the week itself, hopefully I didn't forget to complete anything, packed up my clothes, toiletries, my pills (very important this) packed up materials to be brought to the US, and some other things.

Our schedule this time will be as crazy as before, as in the span of two weeks, we have 19 companies lined up for meetings. From San Francisco, Boston, Pittsburgh and New York.

Boarded flight on Monday morning at 10 a.m and bermula lah kembali kisah perjalanan yang sangat panjang. As Big B did not go on the trip this time, I have quite an ample time to especially update my blog hehehe...from KL we had a transit in Taipei then through the Pacific, stopped at LA for 5 hours before our next flight to SF. The whole journey took up around 25 hours including waiting time.

We arrived at Four Seasons approximately 830 last night and my nose was blocked the whole time. Tak tahan ok..had to pop my actifed. Weather is quite chilly here, from 8 degrees to 11 degrees. This afternoon was raining cats and dogs. Having my own room is quite boring as I don't have anyone to goof around with. At least last year I shared a room with another girl and I had someone to kacau all that. I can't go all the way to the GM's room and kacau him right...hehehe...

Anywayyy....I'm now blogging from my room and trying very very hard to concentrate on work and not switch on the TV or go out to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge again and loiter at the shopping malls...Have to read on these companies and look through the presentation slides and prepare the framework for the final report as Big B had already demanded that the full report should be emailed to him before our flight touches down KLIA and not forgetting DAILY REPORT...The only thing I forgot about this trip is to tapau some cans of tuna and other food for snacking as you know la..room service is expensive...

We'll be meeting with M*** people tomorrow and we are going to strategize on how, and what to do in order to lure these companies to Malaysia. So good luck to us and may the force be with you...until then...taaa....

yea...am that bored...thought of putting the toilet bowl's picture but probably later today...khekhekhekh....

The Last Minute Sucker...

Last week Tuesday, Big B called me to his room.

"Read this proposal now, and tell me what you think."

So I sat in front of him and read.

"Cool..I think it's a good effort if we participate in this trade mission with M*** and tell these ppl what C*******a is all about..."

I looked through the proposal again and read the itinerary.

"sheeeiiikkk......it's this Saturday, the flight...it's very last minute isn't it?"

"Yeaaa, that's the thing..and have you read who is he bringing with him?" Big B asked.

"Yeap...but she's not confirmed yet, it's very expensive to send someone there just for the heck of exposure..it's not Penang you know..." I highlighted.

"Tell RBM he can go, but bring MYK or AO.."

So I smsed the GM and told him that Big B approved on his going, but...he had to bring someone else.

Ok..he agreed on AO..wait a minute...AO does not have a US visa yet...unless she can get it in 24 hours. AO is already excited...but to get the paperwork compiled and done in 3 days...IMPOSSIBLE...she said...

damn...I gotta suggest someone else...sms-ed Big B. And suggested 2 junior executives. So it's either or. Big B said ok. Called back the GM and proposed those two names. And he hesitated. Errr...if AO can't make it, I was hoping YOU could make it...Ehhh??? Righttt....I didn't see that coming. Let me talk to Big B.

Had a short chat with Big B during our site visit, and he actually said ok..but ..I gotta talk to my husband first. Called Mr.Soulmate and my adrenaline started pumping, he was taken aback by the whole thing (he's the kind of person who will do this kind of preparation 2 months before just like Big B)..at first he got mad..what about Alex? And it's for two weeks.

We can send him back to Alor Setar since you are still not well yet. At least you can get rest that way. And he called MIL and told her. Then I called MIL if she was ok with this whole thing. She was MORE than happy to take care of her beloved grandson for two weeks.

"Hantaq sebulan pun takpa. Tapi mak dah cakap ngan mawi jangan la marah2 kat Fina..dulu pun mak kerja shift jugak, selalu jugak kena tinggai...biasa la...kita kerja carik rezeki halal..."

Don't you just love her..?? Remind me to buy her a handbag...

So we made arrangements. Bought airasia tickets and sent Mr.Soulmate and Alex to Alor Setar on Saturday. Flight to the US has been postponed on Monday instead of Saturday....phew....

To be continued...