JURNAL SEORANG PESARA :

Beijing Trip II....

2011-09-22T12:16:00.029+08:00

This is my 2nd trip to Beijing. The 1st was in winter of December 2002. This time I thought it was autumn, tapi rupa2nya end of summer, so the scenery were not that exciting. Anyway these were some of the places we visited....,

the people that I went with ( the last time was with my IMR buddies)....,

and the last photo is of the woman whose life is to harass tourists with her merchandise ( I gave her a taste of her own medicine by trying to sell her something using the words she uses...how much, how much..10 yuan..ok ok 5 yuan...ok ok 5 yuan for 2..hehe,... lari dia takuttt)...

Mengimbau kenangan lalu...

2011-08-17T16:56:00.011+08:00

Kini Ramadan datang lagi...almost 7 years ago in the month of Ramadan, my Getz telah menggalami satu kemalangan yang sungguh menakutkan ( tapi bukan dengan kereta lain ). So today I thought I nak abadikan peristiwa tragis itu di laman blog ini semoga ianya menjadi simpanan abadi...

Below are the snapshots taken with my handphone ( sempat lagi tu, walau pun dalam keadaan begini. Alhamdulillah, I dilindungiNya semasa kejadian itu, berkat bulan Ramadan Al Mubarak )

Now, my Getz telah diwarisi oleh anaknya yang comel si i10 dan ia meneruskan khidmatnya kepada my AA ( another anak yang comel juga...hehehe )....

p/s sorry gambar AA yang cute tak dapat disertakan ;-))

June Birthday Celebration...

2011-06-13T20:04:00.008+08:00

Last weekend telah diadakan satu sambutan hari jadi besar-besaran ( standard kita lah ) untuk family members yang dilahirkan dalam bulan jun bertempat di Hillpark, Pantai Dalam. Di bawah disertakan beberapa shots yang sempat diambil pada malam itu untuk dijadikan kenangan...

p/s To the other two birthday people, sorrylah the birthday Cake was out of this world!! Thank you to the hostess for providing almost everything...;-))

My Umrah Trip...

2011-03-09T15:41:00.009+08:00

Sebelum bertolak ke Mekah untuk menunaikan umrah tahun ini berbagai perkara yang bermain di kepala. Maklumlah the last time I was in Mekah it was 2001, 10 years ago. Anyway pada 20 Feb hingga 3 Mac 2011, Pesara dan PA telah mengikuti rombongan Andalusia bersama 3 lagi kekawan ( plus 3 bus load of other jemaah ) untuk menunaikan ibadah umrah di tanah suci Mekah Al Mukarramah. Penerbangan kami berhenti di Jeddah dan kami seterusnya menaiki bas ke kota Madinah Al Munawarah yang mengambil masa 6 jam ( or longer, I was too tired to remember ). Ujian pertama kami was kat imigresen Jeddah di mana kita orang beratur for almost 2 hours untuk cop pasport tiba2 bila dah sampai giliran kita, pegawainya decided to take a break. We had to change lane cos we were not sure if he is ever coming back to work ( seriously! )

Then the long bus trip after rushing to pray jamak magrib and isyak at the airport. By the time we reached Madinah, it was nearly subuh. Then the second ujian, we were separated into different rooms but we had no time to settle things cos we wanted to rush for subuh prayer in Masjid Nabawi. Pesara managed to stay with PA and 2 other jemaah, while the other 3 friends each had to share a room with 3 other jemaah. The good thing was our rooms were next to each other so we could still go to the mosque together-gether. Below are some photos of us taken in Madinah Al Munawarah....

After spending 3 hectic days in Madinah, on the 4th day we started another long bus journey to Mekah Al Mukarramah. Though we stopped for lunch at a famous nasi arab with ikan ( look- like siakap) goreng and ayam panggang, I was too tired to enjoy the food..tapi makan jugalah sebab dah lapar sangat ( we had lunch at almost 3 petang ). We arrived in Mekah almost magrib and rushed to complete our tawaf, saie and tahlul for our 1st umrah. The rest of the stay in Mekah is about doing umrah, some zairah, going for all prayers in Masjidil Haram and occassional melontar ( mainly di Jamratul Abdullah and others..hehe ). Below are some photos taken in Mekah Al Mukarramah...

p/s I nak rekod kat sini ucapan terima kasih pada Kak Yah, Azma, Sherry dan PA for making this trip most memorable and blessed. My special TQ to my 1DO sis Azma for being strict with us with the timing to go for all prayers..kalau not for you, kita orang mungkin slack sikit..;-))

My Japanese Friends...

2011-01-17T12:51:00.006+08:00

When age creeps upon you, you need all the help you can get from your friends. Well, I have a few Japanese friends who are ever willing to help me through this challenging time into the golden age . Below are the friends that I have personally acquired to help me through this era ...;-))

Ada yang dibeli dan ada yang diberi... ( You can now say my middle name is Ogawa ..hehe )

p/s There's alot of rolling, shiatsuing, vibrating, shaking and tapping going on nowadays at LV..hehehe ( hoping and praying that the fat and cellulite are also leaving..;-)) )

My Kind of Day...

2011-01-06T12:16:00.008+08:00

My last birthday celebration!...It was of the " Surprise " kind and so I decided to have it on my blog for remembrance...

Complete with the birthday cake and cutting ceremony, entertainment and presents and the prefect ending ( or should I say landing..;-)) )

Intruder's Shots....

2011-01-03T17:18:00.005+08:00

January 1st 2011 we decided to do something fun...Off we went to Bangi for Bryani Gam at Restoren Anje. The bryani was great but my ayam kampung was salty.

Then we headed for Pullman Resort Putrajaya..here is where the fun started...Below are part of the Intruder's shots we took. We were all over the place until we heard a voice asking this question " Cik, duduk sini ke? " The answer given was a convincing and strong "Ya" but the shooting stopped...hehe

p/s May be next time we will stay there for real...

Autumn in Korea Part 3...

2010-11-09T14:54:00.004+08:00

Night pictures taken while waiting for our bus after a long shopping spree...

p/s gambar-gambar lain tak larat dah nak upload...

Autumn in Korea Part 2...

2010-11-09T13:57:00.005+08:00

These are some of the pictures taken at The Palace, Folk Museum and a man made river in the town of Seoul....( I'm not good with names of places ;-))

Autumn in Korea Part 1....

2010-11-09T12:45:00.005+08:00

We were in Korea for autumn holiday from 27th October till 2nd November and here are some pictures taken from three places that we visited...Nami island, Mt Sorak and Everland

The Many Faces Of....

2010-10-20T17:38:00.004+08:00

Since today's date is very cantik 20102010, I decided to abadikan gambar-gambar my latest nephew kat my blog yang dah lama tak dikunjungi ini. Untuk semua pengunjung blog Pesara, inilah dia " The many faces of Muhammad Umar Mohd Shah"...diambil di rumah dia somewhere in Pantai Baru...

My E Square Weekend Get Away....

2010-08-01T16:51:00.007+08:00

Just got back from a long weekend get away with AA and family. It was one of the most Enjoyable and E dot dot dot ( fill in the blanks after looking at the pictures ya ) weekend get away I have ever been to.

Why? just see the pictures below.. ( my heart felt thank you to my Sponsor..yam leaf thank you ...hehehe )

Flora of Cameron Highlands....

2010-06-29T16:01:00.009+08:00

We went to Cameron Highlands last weekend, it's the first for Aa but untuk Pesara rasa2nya untuk kali ketiga ( the last two visits were a long time ago.. ). Sangkaan to have a beautiful scenic and nice environmental holiday ternyata meleset sama sekali. After spending half a day there, we decided to cut short our holiday in Cameron and headed back to polluted KL.

Sad to admit but the best part of the holiday was shopping back in KL after going through a long winding road back..

Tapi I did manage to take some nice shots of flowers found there , in one of the nursery we dropped by to get some veges...

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia...

2010-05-31T15:46:00.004+08:00

Last weekend, Pesara ikut AA ke Penang untuk bercuti 3H/2M ( yang bercuti Pesara lah, AA ada event to organise kat sana ). So, selain dari menghabiskan waktu pagi lepak2 atas katil and tengok movies kat Vision Four, Pesara turun juga ke pantai to see what is happening there...
Here are some activities at the beach

Pada malam hari pula, apa lagi..acara bantai makanan Penanglah. Satu malam kari kepala ikan and the next night seafood course...

On the way back, jalan2 cari cenderahati ( but in my case cedera hati ..) kat pasar malam along Pantai Feringgi lah...kat bawah nilah cedera hati yang Pesara dapat, jam jenama Omega model " YOLAD" ( bukan ROLEX ya)..

p/s YOLAD to stands for you only live a day...hehehe

Another morning shock!!...

2010-04-07T13:54:00.002+08:00

Kalau semalam Pesara dikejutkan oleh pepisang di dapur, this morning there was another shock but this time di tempat yang tak disangka-sangka...

If we grew up with the song " You light up my life " kali ni Pesara memperkenalkan lagu " You light up my butt "...hehehe

p/s So sorry to have to show this to those who might find this repulsive..but it was magical ;-))

Morning shock!..

2010-04-06T09:15:00.003+08:00

Kalau Anita Sarawak diingati dengan trajedi buah epal .... Pesara pula dikejutkan dengan trajedi buah pisang sebaik sahaja lampu dapur dinyalakan this morning...hihi. Saksikan sendiri pisang-pisang yang bergelimpangan jatuh dari tangkainya ( tangkai ke?? )

p/s This is something that I just had to have on record.

2010 Make Over...

2010-03-14T22:02:00.019+08:00

End of 2009 I decided to " make over " by Getz. I changed the seat cover and the colour of my car. This was easy, because it only took one day to change the seat covers and a week to paint the car ( during which time I was in Viet Nam for the first 4 days ) so tak terasa sangat tak ada kereta tu.

Early of 2010 I took a bold step, this time I decided to " make over " my unit in LVC. Why was it considered a bold step is because I had to spent almost a week in living in a messy house full of strangers from 9am to 5pm.

Lepas dah siap, the weekend was spent cleaning the house and rearranging the furnitures. It became a long and tiring weekend. My appreciation and sincere thanks to AA who was there through out the whole ordeal from the day I decided to take that big step ( this will be the first and last time for this type of " make over " ) till the time the place was liveble again.

Below I would like to share with penjenguk2 my blog the before, during and after pictures of my unit ( this entry is more for me to remember how it used to be before it became...)

http://picasaweb.google.com/nieza09/Renovation02?feat=directlink

Haji I, Aura Langkawi ...

2010-02-02T16:09:00.010+08:00

Dah banyak kali juga lah Pesara ke Langkawi untuk bercuti tapi kali ni I got to see some serious "affair " that most ladies who come to Langkawi have with one man named Haji I...;-))

This time the trip was with a few close friends and their family members. It was a most hectic and yet relaxing, sweet and enjoyable trip. Hectic for some whose always on the go tapi relaxing to the mind cos there's no worries about time factor or annoying the driver, cos we had our own personal driver to take us where we want to go. Sweet cos we were always around chocolates and enjoyable with lots of laughter no matter where, be it in the apartment or in the mpv.

Eventhough our flight was delayed by 3 hours, being in Langkawi this time was most memorable except for the HOT weather.

p/s Bagi yang dah beli minyak gamat untuk gatal-gatal tu, jangan lupa guna ya, kecuali untuk satu gatal yang tak boleh dihilangkan dengan minyak gamat ...hahahaha

Happy Birthday from JB...

2009-12-28T07:06:00.007+08:00

Today Pesara menyambut hari lahirnya di sebuah hotel kat JB bersama AA. Semalam keluar makan mee rebus ( famous kat johor ) sebagai acara penamat lawatan jalan2 cari makan dalam Malaysia. Pagi ni kita orang akan bertolak balik ke KL. Semoga perjalanan dilindungi Allah SWT.

Sebagai tanda ingatan hari yang bermakna ini, disertakan gambar2 celebration yang telah diadakan earlier bersama family di Cosmic Bowling, Mid-Valley pada 24 Disember...

Ho Chi Minh and his beloved Viet Nam...

2009-12-13T17:34:00.009+08:00

We just got back from HCMCity last nite. Today I thought I wanted to share with my blog visitors my experience in Vietnam. So I went through more than 700 pictures that we took through out our 4D/3N stay in HCMC. Tengok punya tengok, I couldn't find any breathtaking scenic pictures to share. The only nice things in the pictures are the two tourists ( hahaha, just kidding). What I enjoyed most from any countries that I 've been to is normally the beautiful sceneries dan bangunan lama yang mengkagumkan dari segi arkitekturnya atau keunikannya. Di Vietnam ni, nothing like that is there for me to admire.

So kenapa pilih Vietnam? Dekat ( meaning flight tak lama ) and murah. Anyway, the trip was not a total lost. Besides the cheaper than most places things to buy, I did learn something from/ about the vietnamese people.

We had the opportunity to see for ourselves the undying love that the vietnamese communists ( VC )people have for their motherland, in those days. Kepandaian dalam mencetuskan idea dan kesungguhan mereka demi mempertahankan negara daripada penjajahan, pada mulanya daripada tentera Perancis dan diikuti oleh tentera Amerika. Bagaimana mereka menggali underground tunnels ( di Cu Chi province)yang begitu complicated for survival yang mengambil masa 20 tahun untuk dibina ( menggunakan cangkul semata-mata ) dan di mana mereka tinggal untuk selama 30 tahun sebelum kemerdekaan dicapai dalam tahun 1975. Banyak lagi cerita yang boleh dikongsi, separuh that was told by our tour guide and dari pengalaman kami, tapi kalau nak share kat sini, panjang pulak nanti entry ni. So cerita boleh di share bila ada kesempatan berjumpa.

Another thing that was pelik to me about Vietnam is, macam mana orang yang begitu sayangkan tanah air masa penjajahan dulu, boleh menghasilkan bandar yang begitu bercelaru dan bersepah/kotor ( tapi hotelnya, Alhamdulillah bersih ). Setiap penjuru bandarnya penuh dengan permandangan yang menyakitkan mata. Manusia di mana-mana asyik minum kopi dan berborak di tepi-tepi jalan. They have alot of " portable cafes"( a few small chairs and pembuat kopi ). Bila datang pihak berkuasa, they just run away with their things, just like some illegal stalls in Malaysia yang lari daripada DBKL. Bangunan yang macam tak siap, tapi merupakan tempat mereka melakukan perniagaan mereka. Yang paling ketara, kalau di China banyak basikal, di sini banyak motosikal.

Pengalaman naik sampan di Mekong Delta agak menarik tapi bau sungai boleh tahan juga harumnya dan yang paling menarik ( atau scary is a better word ) pengalaman dikejar anjing semasa nak mencuba hammock, tak akan dapat dilupakan ( walau pun I would rather lupa that part of it ). But I still buy a hammock from the dog's owner. Ini yang akan forever remind me of that fearful moment.

Anyway, I hope you can appreciate the pictures which I have picked ( from the more than 700 taken )to share with you from our short stay in HCMC, Viet Nam. To see more pictures boleh ke facebook AA.

Uniknya Singapura....

2009-11-24T14:48:00.007+08:00

Last Thursday till Saturday I had the opportunity to spend somedays in Singapore, courtesy from my AA who was there to attend a seminar. We were thrown at a resort on an island called Sentosa. I nak share with my readers some of my experience there.

Firstly, when we arrived, we were greeted by heavy rain, sebaik saja mendarat di Budget Airport, Kota Singa. Nasib baik that was the only wet thing, as we were not caught in Singapore's traffic jam. It took about 30 minutes to reach the short bridge to Pulau Sentosa. The room we had was great with the view of the ocean and ships ( most pictures already published in AA's facebook ) but I will put some here for the benefit of those barred from opening facebook hehe..

Everything was fine until it's time for makan time. AA has seminar dinner to attend, so I browsed through the hotel menu for room service dinner. Adalah dishes that is familiar to my palate. Anyway, just to be sure it's halal, AA called the hotel management and was given the upsetting news that it was not halal. Perut terasa lapar ni and kat mana nak cari makan. She decided not to attend the given dinner and we walked out to the nearby bus stand, just outside the resort. Luckily for us the Delifrance serves halal food..pheww!!( the only eating place that's halal outside the Rasa Sentosa Resort ). So it was Delifrance for dinner and the next morning breakfast. Itu aje lah the scary experience that I want to share, cos food is very important to me..hehehe .How I love Malaysia.

Yang lain-lain tu biasalah, gi shopping complexs called Vivo City and tak beli apa pun on the second day there tapi got to eat nasi padang ( after naik turun escalator looking for halal food ) and visited the beach in the morning on the third day there. Oh yes, malam kedua tu we went to see "Song of the Sea" show which I decided to share a portion of it with you all. Have fun watching the video!

p/s By the way, when AA was busy attending her seminar in the morning till noon on the second day, I was busy spending autumn with this guy in my hotel room...

Leonardo da Vinci, The Genius

2009-11-07T23:54:00.001+08:00

Today after sending my car for it's 60,000km service ( after almost 6 years of usage.. hehe), we headed to Pusat Sains Negara for the above exhibition. Eventhough I was excited to see the exhibits from the beginning but my excitement was more when I discovered that I did not have to cough out RM25 for the entrance fee ( and my AA had to pay for hers ). Now my readers must be wondering " How Come?"

Just like the Da Vinci code, the answer is in one of the pictures. I will not reveal it just yet. The exhibits were great but sad to say we were not allowed to take any pictures. Today both of us felt that we got to know Leo ( on first name basis now ) a lot more after reading/seeing what he had accomplished in his lifetime. Very interesting indeed. The man is a Genius.

Above are 2 pictures taken from the brochure ( hehehe ) showing some of his inventions that were exhibited. There were also movies regarding his life and his inventions and paintings shown at the exhibit. A whole section was dedicated to knowing about the famous Mona Lisa with analysis done on the painting involving the use of a 240,000 megapixel camera ( very complex analysis ) just to reveal the actual colours on the various parts of the painting. Anyway, I was not that interested in the Mona Lisa. To know more, please visit the exhibition at the National Science Centre ok ( don't forget to bring RM25 for the entrance fee for adults and RM 20 for children ).

ACT 2.....

2009-09-27T23:54:00.004+08:00

Pesara as usual will always be looking for ways to cut short on cooking to many dishes ( more than one ), so for raya ni I decided to combine masakan meat which is rendang with masakan sayur which is pucuk paku. Jadi untuk pertama kalinya ACT 2 mempersembahkan masakan " Rendang Daku " ( singkatan untuk rendang daging campur pucuk paku)

Macam biasalah, orang yang boleh komen tentang rasanya tak lain tak bukan AA yang forever bersemangat untuk mencuba apa-apa aje yang dimasak oleh MAnya. So apa komen AA? Gambar yang sempat dirakam untuk tatapan semua ( air liur menitis tu jaga-jaga sikit..hehehe )

p/s Kalau ada lagi rendang daku tu, insya'Allah sesiapa yang berkesempatan dapatlah merasainya....Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri kepada yang melawat blog ini. Maaf Zahir Batin!

ACT 1.....

2009-09-02T17:42:00.005+08:00

It's been a while since I last wrote in my blog. My penjengok setia pun dah nak naik fed-up. Buka blog, no new entry. Bukan apa, takde cerita menarik nak dikongsikan. Anyway today rasanya nak share something with my family and friends (cum my readers hihi..)

Semenjak berpuasa di Ramadhan ni, baru sekali pesara pergi ke bazar kat Danau Kota tu. That's because I have been cooking for my breaking fast and sahur dishes. Azam tahun ini tak nak makan nasi for berbuka. So, untuk tidak merasa jemu, kenalah creative sikit. So far dah masak kari daging, masak lemak udang, sotong masak hitam, ayam masak merah, spageti, bihun goreng just to name a few..hehehe

Anyway, berbalik pada topik today " ACT 1". Sounds like nak berlakun, tapi sebenarnya ACT tu singkatan pesara untuk Acu,Cuba, Try....

Tadi pesara cuba for the first time to buat karipap. Intinya adalah inti yang pesara buat untuk berbuka dengan roti pita sebenarnya, tapi tiba-tiba teringat nak makan karipap. Selepas gagal mendapat resepi kulit karipap dari kaum keluarga, pesara pun apa lagi surflah the internet. Jumpa banyak sangat pulak dah. I decided just to go with the simplest one.

Mula-mula tu doh jadi keras, tak cukup minyak and butter, then tambah air pun tak nak lembut. Terpaksalah pesara panaskan minyak and butter lagi. Now dah jadi berketul-ketul pulak. Tambah air lagi, now dah jadi lembik pulak. Gaul punya gaul nampak orait pulak. Pesara biarkan selama 1 jam to see if it is usable. Berkat bulan Ramadhan, dapatlah juga pesara berbuka dengan karipap ACT 1 malam nanti...

Gambar sebagai kenangan..

p/s Tentang rasanya pula, kenalah tunggu komen daripada sesiapa yang berpeluang merasanya..

The Mataking Trip...

2009-05-26T09:04:00.034+08:00

A bunch of close friends went for a trip to Mataking Island, Sabah from 21-24 May 2009 and here is their story...

the people involved...

the sceneries they saw...

and finally the contraversial coconut crap..oops crab picture...

p/s this is just a fraction( 1/40) of the snap shots taken, kalau nak tengok yang lain-lain tu kena lah jumpa pesara ya....

Makhluk Tuhan Yang Paling.....

2009-05-03T11:48:00.009+08:00

Sama-samalah kita menghayati pose makhluk-makhluk Tuhan yang sempat dirakamkan ini. Tapi yang menariknya, yang mana satukah agaknya makhluk Tuhan yang paling seksi??

Pesara pilih yang niiii.........

Foot Sa...lah Tendang Bola..

2009-04-26T18:50:00.020+08:00

Saksikan aksi-aksi menarik perlawanan futsal antara MA melawan AA di Ampang Sports Planet sempena Piala YB Pertama Peringkat Keluarga....

Selepas bertungkus lumus selama satu jam kedua-duanya pulang tanpa piala ( yang sememangnya pun tidak disediakan.)

Selepas penat mengeluarkan peluh, the futsal gang ke Naili's untuk upacara kejutan birthday celebration to salah sorang ahli "geng-ster" futsal...

Yesterday Once More with YB..

2009-04-12T11:28:00.002+08:00

It's been slightly more than 3 years Pesara dah pencen. Dalam menjalani kehidupan sebagai pesara ni, banyak pengalaman dan pelajaran yang telah diperolehi termasuk gelaran YB. Ramai yang tak mengenali YB tertanya-tanya apalah agaknya yang Pesara buat hari-hari kat rumah tu. Apa yang boleh dikatakan is that I try to fill up my time dengan aktiviti2 yang bermanafaat untuk dunia mahu pun akhirat, Insya'Allah.

Diantaranya Pesara cuba mengikuti program2 tv yang berbentuk keagamaan seperti rancangan " Tanyalah Ustaz " setiap 7-8 pagi di tv9 setiap pagi jumaat, sabtu dan ahad. This week it's about "Silatulrahim". Anyway, dalam merapatkan silatulrahim ni banyak benda yang boleh kita lakukan, di antaranya memanjatkan doa untuk kawan2 yang berhajatkannya. Sebagai contoh, this morning a friend smsed and told me that she has a fishing competition at 2pm today and nak I doakan dia. Yesterday, another friend smsed me to let me know that a "friend" that she had been waiting for more than 3 months, finally came, Alhamdullilah ( after asking me to doakan bersama )..inilah antaranya walau pun tak sebesar mana permintaan mereka, tapi ianya tetap merapatkan silatulrahim antara insan.

Tapi apa yang Pesara nak share today is my passion for music. I called it passionlah. Selepas bersara, I ada membeli organ/piano untuk memenuhi passion tersebut dan setelah sekian lama tak menyentuhnya, tiba2 ada pula rasa rindu kepadanya and I just want to share this experience with all my friends and family members yang menjadi pembaca setia blog ini..enjoy!!

p/s jangan marah,rupa2nya dalam diam-diam tu, I dah ada peminat nun jauh di pulau...:-))

Bersantai di river+stone...

2009-03-09T11:17:00.010+08:00

Last sunday YB and PA nak gi picnic kat Riverstone Eco Resort di Ulu Yam. Malam tu kita ke carrefour membeli keperluan untuk dibawa bersama sebagai cekikan and decided to tanya member terdekat kalau-kalau dia adik beradik nak ikut. Oleh sebab kesihatan tak mengizinkan, mereka tak dapat turut serta ( harap-harap dah fully recovered by now ).

So pagi tu off we went looking for said resort. Kita dah berbincang kat rumah sebelum bertolak that kalau takde orang yang bermalam di sana, we would only go for a day trip ( maklumlah bermalam di dalam hutan all by ourselves is a scary idea ). Sebaik aje masuk jalan menuju ke administration building we saw a bunch of people having some kind of activity, so we said "ok ada orang nampaknya". Tetapi selepas bertanyakan receptionist kat situ semasa nak check-in, we found out that we will be the only guest there for that night. Orang yang ramai tu sudah nak balik. Kita orang pun tak jadi check-in and terus belah dari situ.

We went further up looking for tempat just have a picnic and mandi manda, kita end up at another resort called river+stone. We had a great time eating and lazying in the river with stones in it, as can be seen below....

p/s YB balik sakit satu badan tapi kalau nak go again, YB tak kisah....

Bila YB dan PA bercuti....

2009-02-24T13:24:00.011+08:00

YB, seorang pesara kerajaan dan PA seorang pekerja swasta apabila mereka megambil keputusan untuk pergi bercuti bersama ke Pulau Pinang, lihatlah bagaimana mereka menghabiskan masa percutian mereka...

Walau apa pun enjoy tetap enjoy hehehe..

p/s mungkin PA ada versinya sendiri tentang percutian ini. Bagi yang berminat nak tahu lebih lanjut, sila rujuk ke facebook beliau ya!

Pesara's 50th Birthday Celebrations.

2009-01-09T19:11:00.013+08:00

The celebration started even before Pesara turned 50, di satu kondo di Taman Melati bersama dengan seorang lagi teman yang menjangkau umur 4_. Anyway, makanan yang disediakan oleh the hostess amatlah banyak and tq for the surprise birthday cake!( terlewat ambil gambar, so the other person's name dah dimakan )...TQ hostess

Then there was the celebration with AA at my condo ( semasa tu Pesara sedang sakit diserang virus Mesir ) on the morning of 28th December 2008...TQ AA

Followed by a surprise birthday celebration from the family in Bangi. Bersama2 kek dibawa dua striptees berkaca mata hitam...TQ families

Last but not least, the mandated celebration from my dearest friends and X- colleagues at the Crown Princess Hotel. Makan sampai terasa nak pecah perut. Semakin umur meningkat ni dah tak boleh makan macam dulu2 lagi. Those were the days. Walau pun tak dapat makan macam dulu2, we still enjoyed each others company like always...TQ friends

Well, it will be awhile before we celebrate the next 50th birthday of another friend, so till then may we all be in good health and in God's care ( we would like to be able to know where we are and what we are doing the next time we meet up..hehehe )

Egypt - My Experience (Last Episode)

2009-01-08T15:15:00.031+08:00

After visiting the Nubhian family and having the welcome drinks, we all prayed in the house and proceeded to visit the Masjid/Madrasah. Ustaz dia siap bagi kita arabic lesson and taught the kids in our group how to write their names in arabic. It was fun cos the teacher was quite funny. He did teach us how to count in Nubhian language. Then we were taken by boat for lunch. Wehad rice mixed with mee hoon. I was not well, so nothing tasted good.

After a long tiring day, we headed for the train station to board the sleeping train or sleeping car as they call it, back to Cairo. I was so sick that night that the chicken they gave for dinner tasted like the buck from a tree. We arrived in Cairo at about 6 am. Lupa, before that we visited the Dam..

Sebaik sampai di Cairo, we were taken back to the hotel to check-in and freshened up. Thank God, dahlah satu malam tak dapat tidur sebab terlalu sejuk dalam train and semasa keluar masuk bilik nak ke tandas. Member kat bunk atas siap berdengkur lagi. Selepas balik ke hotel, kita keluar lagi, this time to visit Masjid Imam Al Shafie ( and some houses seen on the way out );

Then we visited the Citadel of Salah Al- Din ( Masjid dan Istana Salahuddin Ayubi ); it was very, very cold in the mosque that morning and as for the palace, we were not allowed to take any photos but I managed to take one in front of the palace ( there are 365 rooms in the palace we were told, to house the 11 wives and the mistresses, WOW! )...

and seterusnya ke Masjid Al Azhar to pray( nak visit the university tapi tak sempat, sebab shopping lebih penting to the Malaysian tourists ) before attacking the Bazaar Al Khaleeli ( untuk shopping of course ). As I was sick, so minimum shopping was done cos I can't wait to get back to the warmth of the hotel room.

After getting some sleep, it was time to leave Egypt. That morning we had our last buffet breakfast and headed for an early lunch cos we had to check-out of the hotel early to go to the airport. We had a photo stop along the road of the Egypt Tower ( I think ) and Sharif ( our Egyptian tour leader ) must be glad to finally got rid of us. Baliklah kita ke tanah air tercinta Malaysia dengan membawa seribu kenangan dari Mesir ( apart from bringing back a burned face and the Egyptian virus). Ahlan Wasahlan Misr!!

Egypt - My Experience Part 3

2009-01-05T17:49:00.028+08:00

After using the "Swan" towels, we got ready for lunch and some rest, while the boat made its way to Kom Ombo Temple. While looking out the window, we managed to snap a picture of the boat driver through his side mirror along with more sceneries...

We were to go and see the Kom Ombo Temple during sunset. The sun did not set on the temple tapi on the opposite site. Anyway, it was different to see the temple at sunset, lain dari temple sebelum ini yang kita visited during the daytime...

After being exposed to the cold nite weather, pesara was starting to feel unwell and feverish. Walau pun we had time to do some shopping dekat bazar yang ada sepanjang tempat kapal berlabuh, all of us decided to balik berehat di kapal sebab tak larat diganggu oleh penjual2 yang agak agresif bila tawar menawar berlaku. Pagi besoknya we were to check-out of the boat but leaving our luggages in the boat to be sent to the train station petang nanti. Kita pula akan naik felucca ( a small sail boat ) ke the Botanical Garden . Dalam felucca tu sempat juga dia orang berniaga..

Habis berniaga barulah kita dibawa ke Botanical Garden. Di botanical garden, I was more interested in the beautiful sceneries at the side of the botanical garden then the plants and herbs there hehe..

We were then picked up by a small boat to tour the Cataract Island with its beautiful sceneries. Bateri dah weak so tak dapat ambil banyak gambar. Then we visited the Nubhian village. The people are Muslims but some things just did not imply that ( like having the skeleton of a crocodile atas pintu masuk rumah.. )

Hoyo panjang lagi rupanya, so sekali lagi kena berhenti disini, sambung lagi besok...

p/s Did I mentioned to you earlier there are about 1000 snap shots..

Egypt - My Experience, Part 2

2009-01-03T11:48:00.021+08:00

Selepas melawat Karnak Temple, we headed back to the cruise sebab kita nak belayar ke Edfu at 1.00noon. Sampai di kapal, we had buffet lunch ( same dishes from day 1 till the day we left ) and rested in our room, spending most of the time looking out our window at the sceneries and some people and animals we saw along the Nile.

At 4pm we got ready for our tea on deck and stayed to watch the sunset...

Off we went down to eat and sleep while waiting to be on deck again to see the sunrise. The morning was madly cold as seen below...

After the same buffet breakfast, kita di bawa menaiki kereta kuda ke Edfu Temple. Kawasannya amat luas sekali sama dengan temple2 sebelum ni..

Selepas penat melawat Edfu Temple, we headed back to our hotel to have the usual lunch and to our surprise we found this on the bed in our room ( for that, he got 2 egyptian pounds hehehe )

sambung lagi lepas ni ya......

Egypt, My Experience- Part 1

2009-01-02T16:13:00.025+08:00

We left for Egypt by JetAirways to Bahrain on 18 Dec 2008 at 12noon. The flight was 7 hrs. Overnite kat Bahrain then we took Gulf Air at about 11 am the next day and sampai Cairo 3 hours later. On the way to the hotel, I managed to snap a few pictures of sceneries in Cairo. Since by the time kita check-in dah gelap so petang tu kita just rehat2 dalam bilik aje.

The next morning kita ke Egyptian Museum. Apa yang slaknya , dalam Museum takleh bergambar pulak. So all the mummies tak dapatlah dirakamkan. Tak rugi apa pun you all, muka nya tak lawa pun. Di luar Museum tu adalah gambar mummies juga but yang masih alive and kicking ( sebab kesejukan hehe )

Next we went to Giza, to see the famous Pyramids. Took alot of pictures there and was harrassed by an Egyptian for money, kononnya kita orang suruh dia snapkan gambar kita. The truth of the matter was, dia yang curi masuk dalam gambar kita and offer to take our photos. Malas nak tunjuk gambar dia, tapi just gambar yang ada serban dia ( as proof )

We took an early flight to Luxor, our next destination. Keluar hotel at 4.30am, had packed breakfast and off we went to the airport. Sampai Luxor, kita visited Valley of the Kings and Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple

then kita check-in at ke Cruise, Ms Nile Splendour ( the name of our cruise ). Wow, best juga biliknya ( takle seperti StarCruise yang I naik the last time hehe ). Before leaving for Edfu and Aswan we visited Karnak Temple. We had 3 nites on the cruise with beautiful sceneries along the Nile seen thruogh our own window in our room.

which will be in the next entry Insya'Allah..

p/s takut nanti panjang sangat, memboringkan pulak para pengunjung blog nii hehe....

Ahlan Wasahlan min Misr

2008-12-31T21:18:00.032+08:00

I did not want to share the stories behind these pictures with you in this blog but in person, so this is just a small portion of the shots taken from my last trip to Egypt 18-27 December 2008. What I can conclude from this trip was it had a nose blocking, feverish ending. The effect is felt up until this entry is made...

p/s there is over 1000 shots taken for those interested to see...( to my arabic class buddies, I did get to use some arabic words along the way hehe )

Setiap Raya ada Keistimewaannya...

2008-10-05T20:46:00.010+08:00

Hari Raya tahun ini ada kenangannya yang tersendiri. Tak perlulah dicoretkan di dalam blog ini kerana ianya hanya bermakna kepada pesara sahaja. What I would like to share with those who visits this blog is some memories that was captured untuk tatapan berulang kali whenever I need to remember those days pada raya 2008 bersama keluarga di kampung...

p/s Dedicated to those whose pictures appear in this particular entry. Semoga ianya membuat anda tersenyum sendirian....

Happy Birthday Zara!!

2008-08-18T11:53:00.009+08:00

On the 17th August 2008, Puteri Nur Fatma Azzahra turned the big 1, the age where you will have your first taste of glamour. There will be people actually celebrating your existance. Saja aje nak bersastera sikit maklumlah selepas mendapat title YB tempuh hari.

Anyway, " Selamat Hari Lahir Yang Ke 1 Zara, Semoga menjadi anak yang Solehah "

Sebahagian yang puluhan gambar ( kalau dikira jumlah resolusinyalah )yang dirakamkan pada hari yang bersejarah itu..hehe. Jangan terpedaya, Zara tu bukannya happy sebab hari tu birthday dia tapi sebab dibenarkan duduk atas meja makan. Gambar sebelah pula menunjukkan wajah keterujaan ( hehehe ) para tetamu menunggu acara potong kek yang tak kunjung tiba...

Aina Mutakhoedah ( 25-29 July 2008 )?

2008-07-31T09:16:00.017+08:00

These are some shots that I took while I was away from KL from the 25 - 29 July. It first started with a 2D/1N stay in Guoman Resort PD and ended with a 3D/2N vacationing in Perhentian Island Resort.

The first trip for me was basically enjoying myself in the room with a view of the sea and watching movies on Vision Four, a BBQ dinner and a buffet breadfast.

Then it's back to KL to do some packing for the trip to Pulau Perhentian. The next trip started with a flight to KB followed by a van ride to Kuala Besut then a speed boat ride to Perhentian Island Resort ( ini yang suspens sikit sebab nasib tak tercabut tudung, thanks to the life jacket ).

Hari2 terkemudiannya di penuhi dengan 3 kali buffet sehari dan attempts at swimming, snorkelling, floating and sunburning ( yang tak di sengajakan ). Whatever it was pun, apa yang indahnya about the trip is whats below...

p/s A big THANK YOU to my sponsor ( walau pun penat masih dapat memberi senyuman sambil menikmati "Montel Split" ...hehehe)

Alkisah Keluarga Enang dan Se Tujuh...

2008-07-07T18:14:00.015+08:00

This is the story about a clan known as " Puang enang2 semua se je tujuh" to the famous Lake Kenyir.

First their boathouse driver started the trip leaving behind their chef, boat assisstant and food supplies. Selepas sepuluh minit bergerak dari jeti, the boat had to turn back to pick up those people and supplies. Then the real adventure began...

Masa atas boat, baru they got to see keadaan " kediaman " mereka untuk the next 3 day and 2 nights. Tak kisah lagi sebab apa yang boleh di harapkan sangat dari rumah yang sebesar itu dan akan didiami pula oleh 11 ahli keluarganya.

While on the boathouse tu ahli keluarga yang se tujuh tu took the initiative the clean-up the mess left by the penghuni sebelum tu and the rest of the clan started to set the table for the birthday celebration for one of the enang. Everone enjoyed the Choclate Indulgence to the fullest( they even had it with biscuits and bananas hehe ). After a few hours of journey, they had a nice late lunch from the onboard chef named Mat.

Dah lewat petang tu, sudah tentulah time for prayers and pembuangan. Masa tulah baru they dikabarkan oleh Anuar, their boat assisstant yang the generator is not working and there will be no water or electricity onboard until the problem is solved. Macam cacing kepanasanlah kalau berada di bahagian bawah boat ( terutama dalam bilik2 ). So semua ahli klan menghabiskan masa kat atas dek, berborak, tidur, mengalamun atau membantai cecikan dan sebagainya.

Oleh kerana problem generator belum selesai tetapi mereka dah nak kehabisan waktu solat, keadaan ini telah memberikan mereka pengalamang yang baru seperti mengambil wudud dari air di tepi boat dan juga untuk keperluan lain. Oklah lagi tu!!

Night time came and they were in total darkness with no form of contact with the "outside " world. Had their dinner dalam cahaya unggun api sahaja. Dalam kepanasan dan kegelapan they cuba menidurkan diri ( juga dalam ketakutan for some tu). Berbagai bunyi-bunyian yang kedengaran pada malam itu, ada yang dari mereka and selainnya dari berbagai tempat.

Perbincangan telah di adakan antara ahli2 keluarga untuk meminta dibawa ke resort and spa sekiranya masalah generator tak dapat diselesaikan untuk malam kedua kerana tak tahan dengan ketidak selesaan semalam. Hujah2 sokongan pun dicari untuk menguatkan perdebatan dengan pihak pengurusan nanti.

With all these discomfort pun mereka masih lagi sempat masuk Gua Bewah dan mandi manda di Air Terjun untuk aktiviti selanjutnya. Sebelum malam hari, generator dapat dihidupkan dengan bantuan jurutera yang dihantar oleh pihak pengurusan sebelum tiba malamnya. Mereka masih lagi nekad ingin mendapatkan penjelasan dari pihak yang bertanggungjawab kenapa keadaan ini boleh terjadi sedangkan booking untuk trip ini dibuat way in advance ( ini akan dibuat semasa mendarat nanti )

Malam kedua they had a nice barbeque dinner and most people had a good night rest ( kecuali adalah yang terganggu dengar aktiviti boathouse kedua yang berlabuh bersebelahan ).

Paginya some ahli klan keluar untuk menikmati keindahan air terjun dari atas bukit while yang lain meneruskan mimpi sambil menghidu bau minyak wangi diesel. Had their breakfast kat bahagian bawah dan bukan kat dek seperti kebiasaan and berkemas untuk balik meninggalkan dunia boat people and back to their world of the non rich and non famous .

Back on land they did visit the management office to let them know what they think of their service. Tapi seakan-akan anjing menyalak kat bukit, kata orang. Walau bagaimana pun, trip ini telah memberi semua yang hadir, satu pengalaman yang amat berharga and as for me, gave me more then just the experiences but also a new title YB ( ini satu bab lagi kalau nak diceritakan ;-))

I'm still around...

2008-06-13T08:43:00.007+08:00

I haven't been feeling well since balik dari Bandung trip tempoh hari. Been down with the fever, flu, sore throat and cough. Tapi pagi ni rasa sihat sikit. Dahle dapat tahu yang homework is more then what I thought, so had to make myself sit at the table to finish the homework before the class tomorrow. My Arabic pun dah kelam kabut, maklumlah dah tinggalkan kelas selama 2 minggu ( tapi kedua2nya dengan izin ;-)) ).

My Bandung trip this time was shorter and the concentration was more on shopping. Ingat nak gi spa, tapi as usual kalau dah shopping tu, malam baru sampai hotel and too tired to go out for any spa appointment. Tapi we managed to get a massage in our room at the hotel . All in all it was a good vacation except for the flu that I brought back with me.

Tapi my ordeal was made better ( much better ) when I got a "surprise" from one of my favourite singer, siapa lagi kalau bukan Anuar Zain. So I nak share this with you all.....

p/s kepada peminat AZ yang di luar sana tu jangan jealous ya ;-))

What makes kids go nuts?

2008-03-27T13:12:00.003+08:00

Apa agaknya yang menarik minat kanak-kanak semuda ini untuk tidak mengalihkan pandangan mereka dari kaca tv walau pun dibekalkan dengan permainan yang pada kebiasaannya membuat kan mereka teruja nak bermain?? Tengoklah video ( amatur sikit..) di bawah ni sebagai bukti...

p/s yes, you are right! she's watching the purple and green hippo, every parents solution and at times nightmare, named BARNEY

Ahlan Wasahlan and Yum Yum...

2008-03-17T14:59:00.007+08:00

It's been a while since the last entry, nasib baik I can still recall my username and password. Nothing much to share itu sebabnya I haven't been blogging. What with the PRU12 baru-baru ni so I spent most of my time reading other peoples' blogs. Now that the election is over ( and the results were pleasing to me ), bolehlah get back to filling my own blog.

For the past 12 weeks, some of my friends and I were busy learning to be pseudoArabs. I braved myself to belajar bahasa Arab dengan cikgu Arab this time around. Everytime he says something in arabic to me, I'll go blink blink. Tak faham satu habuk pun ( tapi baca and buat ayat OK ).

I have to say the two classess were definitely different. I actually learned something valuable from both of them, mungkin not all about bahasa Arab tapi about people and things that are important to them and us too. Anyway, I got more joy and laughter from this class ( from that other class, I got some singing and dancing lessons too, hehe ).

Well we just had our level 1 exams last Saturday and on the very next day kita semua pelajar ( excluding Madame Latifah ) had a dim sum celebration. Can't say that I dah lama tak makan dim sum cos I just had one with the ex-officemates but with the XO gang ( nama baru kumpulan ni when it relates to dim sum attack ), memang it's been a while since we belasah Hotel Equitorial Bangi. Glad we had a chance catch up with the menu, right XOs? Pada mulanya the serving pace was quite slow ( or was it we were eating too fast? ). Tapi lepas tu, nak bernafas pun susah. Look at those happy faces below ( ingatkan dah nak bayar lepas ambil gambar, rupa-rupanya...round kedua please..bring me the steam ones with shrimps..what colour? green, yellow and white please...)

p/s ..and guys the next outing we go bowling ok, dahlah mengfobiakan chef and crews kat hotel niih..

My Inspirations...

2008-01-11T10:57:00.000+08:00

It's been 2 weeks since I last celebrated my birthday, tapi I haven't given myself any birthday present. Since yesterday was a holiday ( Awal Muharram ), after going for our usual exercise in Titiwangsa, I decided I wanted to go get myself a birthday present or two.

I needed something that would inspired me to enjoy my spare time more. I know I should be doing more reading and may be writing ( masa kerja dulu malas nak write..hehe ) and for sure I needed something new for the house cos I'm spending so much time in it.

After making a few stops at some shopping places, I decided on two things ( actually at least one item was decided before I left my place, and the other thing was suggested by my dear friend and I too fell in love with it ).

Anyway, why don't I just share them with you guys. To have a better look, come overlah... ( only for friends and family members ya hehe )

p/s Hope these two birthday gifts ( for myself ) will inspire me to be more productive and creative at home ( one at the table, reading and writing and the other at the kitchen looking at the mirror and cooking. Insya'Allah ).

I did create something for Awal Muharram, tengoklah...

Kami saling berpandangan....

2008-01-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was supposed to be the first session for our Arabic class at AlDiwan. All of us were there dengan semangat yang berkobar2 untuk menjadi orang Arab hujung minggu. Tapi malang sekali kelas tak dapat diadakan kerana ketiadaan cikgu di sebabkan masalah komunikasi. Anyway, it was nice to see familiar faces in this new Arabic Class of mine ( teringat masa dulu2 di mana semua di dalam kelas adalah strangers saja ).

Since takde kelas, I and my "driver" ( lepas I balik tukar uniform ) decided to go for lunch. Kita orang ke Kopitiam Bangi which is in Wangsa Maju daa. Lepas makan nasi lemak and manggo smoothies ( yang manis gilos )for me and bihun sup and Soursop smoothies for my "driver", we headed for the petrol station to isi minyak while deciding where to go next. Fikir punya fikir I decided kita ke KL Central ( of all the shopping places ). Round2 and ended buying corn dalam cawan aje..hehehe.

On the way back, I was already thinking about dinner. We decided nak makan buah aje sebab lunch dah makan heavy. Tiba2 dalam otak teringat durian. Since kita ada ternampak seorang pakcik yang jual durian dari boot kereta kat Sentul tempuh hari we decided to try kat situ.

Bila nampak pakcik tu, terus buat U-turn and singgah. This is the part yang menariknya. Kita tanya yang mana sedap and tebal isinya, pakcik tu tunjuklah yang kat sebelah kanannya and we decided to buy 2 biji. Pakcik tu kata ambik aje 3 lebih baik, so kita kata ok. Lepas dikopekdan diperiksa isinya , kita pun ready to pay. Bila tanya berapa, and mendengar jawapannya..? Kami pun saling berpandangan....

Alkisahnya, inilah rupa dinner kita orang yang paling mahal sekali ( considering it's only one dish, oh silap, not even a dish..)

p/s now we know what it felt like to be " Singaporean Prime Minister " eating durian served by "Malaysian Prime Minister " hehehe

Video Apa pulak nii??

2008-01-05T12:53:00.000+08:00

With the latest crase pasal DVD luc_ _ baru-baru ni, yang boleh dikatakan melibatkan someone yang ada kena mengena dengan dunia Pesara at one time, di sini I wanted to share another type of video ( involving a personal person of mine ) yang I hope tak akan meremangkan bulu roma sesiapa yang melihatnya. It certainly did not bring horror to my eyes except a wide smile to my face..enjoy!!

p/s video ini was taken masa rambut masih banyak di kepala..

There's a new designer in town...

2008-01-02T16:21:00.000+08:00

As one of my birthday present, I was given a book entitled " Beautiful Beading " by a sister who thinks that I have lots of free time to take up this art-work.

So, untuk tidak mengecewakan hasratnya, MAH and I decided to work on the beads that came along with the book given to me.

Below we share with you the latest collection from an up and coming new designer rois niezalman for your viewing...

28122007, My Day!

2007-12-28T10:47:00.000+08:00

This year I celebrated my birthday on 3 separate occasions; on the 9th, 25th and 28th of December. Oleh kerana celebration dah diadakan beberapa kali sebelum tarikhnya, I sendiri had forgotten my own birthday today until I got my first sms wish at 5.25am from kawan I, Izan ( nama manjanya, hehehe..).

Malangnya today I'm not feeling that well tapi I intend to celebrate juga kat rumah ajelah. It has been a ..... 49 years. Walau bagaimana pun I am blessed with friends and family that have brought me joy and happiness over these 49 years ( ada juga lah dugaan, tapi itu tak perlu diingatkan selain dari mendapat pelajaran dan pengalaman daripadanya ).

Anyway, pada yang mungkin singgah di blog ini, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for being part of my 49 years in this world. May Allah SWT blessed us all always. Amin.

Some memorable moments during my last visit back home..

Setiap gambar yang ditunjukkan ini ada ceritanya yang tersendiri. Semoga ianya menjadi kenangan manis buat semua yang terlibat.

Dedicated to Che Ayu dan Che Tif...

2007-12-10T16:53:00.000+08:00

Since you two tak dapat attend kita punya latest function at Taman Lavenda, Nilai hari tu so I decided to dedicate this entry especially to both of you.

I won't be writing much cos the snapshots will tell you all that you need to know regarding that day when we celebrated the birth of 4 people in the month of December and not forgetting the birth of a new niche for our dearest hostess ( and her dearest friends, whenever they decided to make a shopping trip to Nilai 3 hehehe.. )

p/s salah seorang dari birthday girl yang sedang bertungkus lumus menyediakan kuah kacang sebelum acara makan-makan..( agak-agaknya ini kali pertama menyediakan juadah dengan air tangan yang dah berusia dot dot tahun ke?? hehehe )

And that something is....

2007-11-20T16:23:00.000+08:00

Selepas menunggu and beberapa kali menelefun memberi directions on how to get to the condo, finally the man came. He was a dark and scary looking man ( not tall, dark and handsome, more like average, very dark and so so..hehe ).

Anyway here's what happened after he came......

p/s hehehe..hope you all were not too disappointed with the answer, bukannya apa saja nak masukkan entry baru sebab dah lama tak berkarya..

Something is happening today...

2007-11-20T12:26:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I last wrote in my blog. Tentu ada yang tertanya-tanya ( kalau ada lah ) kenapa senyap aje lately nii..

The last few weekends sentiasa sibuk dengan open-house and makan-makan sepanjang Syawal. Baru last weekend ada masa nak melawat my two anak buah kat hill-park. Lama benar rasanya tak bersama mereka ( nasib they still remember me ). As for my two cucus kat Shah Alam, they are back in KB with their nenek, so tak terasa bersalahlah tak jumpa pun.

Today, seperti yang tertera pada tajuk hari ini, something new is coming to Unit 8-2-2. I'm excited to receive it. Sama-samalah kita tunggu kemunculannya ya. I promise to let you all have a peek lepas semua dah settle ya..tungguuuu!!

Sementara tu, have a productive week. Jangan lupa singgah ke blog ni lagi besok untuk mengetahui apa yang dimaksudkan.

Ramadan Di Kuching...

2007-10-01T10:41:00.000+08:00

Kerana ingin menikmati tawaran tambang murah AirAsia (RM 0.30 ), kami telah membuat tempahan tiket ke Kuching tanpa menyedari ianya di bulan Ramadan sehingga selepas hotel booking dibereskan. To cut the story short, MAH dengan I decided to just make the trip walau pun di bulan puasa.

On the 27 Sept 07 at about 2.00pm kami sampai kat airport Kuching. Selepas check-in and solat, we decided to jalan-jalan kat Waterfront. We were the only tourist at that time ( rasa2nyalah ) sebab masa tu kol 4.30pm and semua Kuchingians either kat office or kat dalam rumah sebab cuaca pun panas. Before reaching the Waterfront, sempat jugalah visit the Old Chinese Museum. On the way to Moly's Restaurant ( belakang Hotel Bayview )for berbuka , sempat jugalah membeli cenderahati yang terdapat kat kedai2 along the way back.

Berbuka kat Moly's amatlah mengenyangkan ( maklumlah buffet, RM15 je ), sebab dah biasa berbuka kat rumah simple aje. Malam tu dah tak larat nak berjalan2 ( walau pun ada niat nak bergambar kat Waterfront pada waktu malam ).

Next day lepas heavy buffet sahur kat hotel and sambung tidur ( sahur awal at 3.45am ), kita keluar visit Museum Sarawak ( old and new ). Letih gila! Tak cukup lagi dengan torture tu, kita berjalan pulak ( sambil mencari teksi ) sampai balik ke hotel melalui jalan keluar dan masuk bazaar. Phew!! sampai hotel terus kong. Tak keluar2 sampai 5.30pm, berjalan lagi ke Parkson Parade ( or something ) and back to Moly's for berbuka ( this time, order aje ). Tak le sekenyang semalam so makanlah limau dan chokolat yang dibeli kat supermarket Parkson tadi.

Last day kita ke Pasar Tani Satok dalam pukul 10.30am stayed sampai around 12.00tgh ( masa matahari sedang terik ). Lalu along stalls yang menjual bermacam buah dan juadah ( sambil menelan air liur ), terpaksa tengok aje le. Tapi sempat juga beli buah nona, ciku, pisang, tapai ubi ( untuk berbuka ) dan ikan terubok masin untuk dibawa balik ke KL.

Flight ke KL retimed ( which dah dibagi tahu melalui sms ) dari 6.30pm to 7.55pm, so kenalah berbuka kat airport dulu dengan buah2an, tapai dan chokolat ( lebihan semalam ). Sampai Kl pukul 10.00pm, stopped to berbuka ( heavy sikit ) and reached home sweet home by 11.45pm. What an experience it was being a tourist pada bulan Ramadan Al Mubarak kali ni but tak sangka enjoyable juga akhirnya.

Some shots to share with my regular visitors...

EOM helps everyone to see...

2007-09-06T16:44:00.000+08:00

What's great about EOM is that it not only provide spectacular sceneries for those who can see but also for those who can't. Want to know what I mean? Just take a look at the photo below...

Well, this person might not be able to see with her eyes, but with her heart she could imagine all these beautiful sights...

Personally I think what were seen on the ground was more interesting...

What A Hectic Week...

2007-09-04T08:24:00.000+08:00

Last Monday I was in KB temankan my sister bawa balik Maya and her newborn Zahra. Sepanjang berada di sana, I was the official playmate for Maya and co-Mum for Zahra. It was a hectic but enjoyable experience for me having to handle two babies at one time, from changing diapers, bathing, dressing and feeding them. Not forgetting playing the 18 months old baby games.

After 4 days in KB, on Thursday, I was on my way back to KL ( leaving my much needed eye-mate in KB, too late to turn back ).

Sampai KL, I was picked up by MAH ( thank you ) and was told that this long weekend ada Academic Boot Camp organised by member dia kat Dusun Eco Resort, Bentung Pahang and if I'm interested we can go and spend the weekend there. I said ok, so off we went to DER. Ingatkan nak holiday tapi dia orang nak kita tolong facilitate sama2, seronok kata mereka. What the heck, so we did.

It was very tiring for me climbing up the slope everytime going to the hall and not to forget the Obstacle Course. Walau pun I tak buat any of them, tapi the climb uphill to the area was tiring enough..phew!! I learned alot form attending the lectures and mixing with the participants. I wish I had known about the techniques of learning when I needed them most masa varsity dulu. Anyway, masih boleh dipraktikan teknik itu dalam aktiviti sekarang pun...Insya'Allah I will.

There's a new gal in town....

2007-08-18T15:56:00.000+08:00

Alya " Mari kita habiskan kek ini cepat-cepat, Kakak dengar ada budak baru dalam keluarga kita!! "

Addini " Ya ke Kak ? Ini kek harijadi kitalah. Siapa budak tu Kak? "

Maya " Alah, itu adik kita. Mummy baru keluarkan dia semalam"

Introducing the new gal in town ...........................

Putri Nur Fatima Azzahra

Doa semua semoga menjadi anak yang solehah.

Spa Anyone?

2007-08-05T17:04:00.000+08:00

Sambung balik cerita pasal percutian ke Bandung tempoh hari, apart from sightseeing, most of the people yang mengikuti rombongan Ibu Roshidah ke Bandung adalah untuk menjalani rawatan spa kat Bandung tu. Oleh kerana kesuntukan masa, maka idea itu terpaksa dibatalkan aje. My dear friend MAH terasa amatlah tak puas hati tak dapat buat facial dan massage treatment kat sana so today we went hunting for a Spa around our area.

We came across this relatively new Spa in Danau Kota called Chakra De'Surya Spa. Kita pun masuklah bertanya treatment apa yang available. Nasib kami baik sebab dia menyediakan promosi untuk bulan merdeka ya itu 40% discount for all packages dan pemberian kad VIP yang membolehkan kami mendapat diskaun sepanjang hayat.

MAH telah membuat Full Facial Treatment ( harga promosi RM76 ), sementara I pula instead of just waiting around, decided to go for Full Body Massage Treatment + Vacuum Extract ( harga promosi RM66 ). There's a total of 13 different treatments that you can choose from.

Maka berihatlah kami petang tu sambil menikmati treatment masing2. This is my first massage at any Spa. Selepas habis treatment kami dihidangkan teh bunga and kami sempatlah berborak dengan puan punya Spa. According to her, rawatan hanya diberikan kepada perempuan aje and men are not allowed into the Spa area so that the women are free to move in and out of the treatment rooms and berborak dengan rakan2 yang datang bersama untuk treatment in the living room area. So MAH and I thought it would be a good idea for a change to have our friends get together at the Spa once a while instead of just for high-tea. Apa pendapat kawan2 di luar tu, setuju?

Below some snap shots of the inside of Chakra De'Surya Spa that we went to on 5 August 07 untuk tatapan visitors semua. Kalau ada yang berminat, bolehlah kabarkan kat MAH atau saya ya!..hehehe ( kita tak dapat komisen pun, hanya nak tolong sesama insan ).

Jalan-Jalan Cari Bandung...

2007-08-01T11:01:00.000+08:00

As most of my family members and friends are aware, me and 9 other friends were in Bandung last week for a 4D/3N tour. Kita bermalam di sebuah hotel bertaraf 3 bintang known as Hotel Perdana Wisata.

It was quite a tiring trip for me ( cos of the age factor ) but company and food wise, most enjoyable. Normally kalau bercuti ke tempat2 yang bukan negara Islam tu, food is always a problem. Being in a van with 9 other people who are all your friends, is a rare thing on a tour outside Malaysia for me. Most of the time there will only be just another 2 friends and a bunch of strangers in the same vehicle. So it was some experience to look forward to.

Everything went beautifully well and everyday was filled with jokes and laughter ( apart from food and shopping bags, for some ). More stories when I see you guys in person ya, it's too much writing for me, kalau nak muatkan dalam blog ni.

Below is some of the shots taken semasa di tempat2 menarik di Bandung untuk dikongsikan bersama.Yang lain2 tu, kenalah datang rumah untuk melihatnya.

Sharing some BBQ moments...

2007-06-25T16:00:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday nite, the Ishak families went over to Sri Kembangan for a BBQ dinner. The occasion was to celebrate Iqah's 17th birthday and Abe's acceptance into UiTM, Dungun. Here's some shots to share with visitors to my blog...

Dim Sum Marathon...

2007-06-11T11:12:00.000+08:00

What can I say, when these group of people get together for dim sum, the chosen hotel will be in fear. Apa tidaknya selagi waktu untuk makan dibenarkan, selagi itu kami tak akan berganjak dari meja makan ( kecuali untuk mengosongkan pundi hehe ).

That time came again yesterday, 10 June 07. The target this time was a place in Holiday Villa, Subang Jaya. The given time limit was 9.00am till 2.00pm ( 5 solid hours ). Apa lagi the players got into their respective transportation and headed to the said venue. Ada yang sampai as early as 9.10am and everyone was there by 9.30am. The attack began as soon as the first player sampai I rasa but anyhow by the time I and partner arrived half of the served dim sum choices were already missing ( at that time baru ada 4 attackers ). Then kita orang pulak join in, followed by the last person at 9.30am.

We were all glued to our seats ( except for the times we had to get up to take other dishes that were not served to us and of course to visit the "room"). I dapat rasakan the tension building up dalam diri the workers and their supervisors as time passed by and we are still eating. The other customers yang came in later than us pun dah went off but we were still strong...hehehe.

When we decided to call for the bill and started collecting payments from all at our table, terpancar kelegaan di wajah pengurusnya. On our way out, they gave us a forceful goodbye but it wasn't followed by the usual see you again phrase... hahaha ( the time was 1.15pm ).

Below are some of the "shocks" taken to share with you guys.

The players....

The damage....

p/s this damage happened without the presence of our main player yang tak dapat turut serta. Kalau dia ada sama.."May God help Holiday Villa.." hehehe

Family Day in PD..

2007-05-29T10:41:00.000+08:00

Last weekend we had a family gathering at Port Dickson. Ini merupakan outing kedua keluarga Ishak untuk tahun 2007 ( the earlier one was in Melaka ). Anyway, this time more families could make it for this trip.

Pada 26 Mei, kami bertolak dari kediaman masing-masing mengikut jadual tersendiri tapi dengan harapan by 3.00pm semua akan berada di Kondo TNB yang telah ditempah oleh pegawai-pegawai TNB dalam keluarga kami ( sekalung terima kasih daripada ahli keluarga yang bukan TNB hehe ).

Banyak aktiviti yang dirancangkan oleh pihak penganjur tetapi oleh kerana masa dan keadaan tidak mengizinkan, ianya tak dapat dilaksanakan dengan sempurna but the fun was still there. May be the next trip kita should concentrate less on the FOOD ok guys!!. We had beach games while having BBQ and other home cooked dishes in the evening.

Pada malam harinya pula, sempena perhimpunan kali ini kita telah menyambut hari jadi beberapa anggota keluarga daripada yang muda sampai ke yang matang. It was full of laughter and FOOD. Lepas sesi membuka hadiah, kita ke karaoke room untuk menikmati nyanyian sedap dan sumbang daripada the male species of the family. What to do kaum hawa semuanya either sakit, semput or just plain shy.

The next morning selepas breakfast ( yang again disediakan oleh the family ) kita adakan acara meneka tajuk cerita atau peribahasa melalui gaya dari jaguh-jaguh pengaya ( bila teringatkan aksi naga tempoh hari memang melucukan ). Then diikuti pula dengan acara penyampaian hadiah, berkemas dan cleaning up the MESS sebelum check out time.

The trip was closed with a lunch treat from Datuk WH. Kita bersalam-salaman dan meneruskan perjalanan ke destinasi masing-masing at about 2.00pm. Adios, till we meet again!! Thank you to all yang telah menyumbangkan tenaga dan kepakaran masing-masing.

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-08T09:50:00.000+08:00

On the 13th May 2007 we will celebrating "Mother's Day". I want to take this opportunity to wish all Mums and Mums-to-be;

" Happy Mother's Day! Hope you raise your child or children to be somebody you all can be proud of "; and

To all those ' children ' out there " Try your very best to be that someone who will always bring joy and happiness to your mother ".

Harap maklum gambar ini hanya hiasan semata-mata, tiada kena mengena dengan entry di atas.

p/s Saja nak tulis awal2 supaya anda semua mempunyai masa untuk meraikan ibu tercinta. Khas buat anak angkat di luar sana tu, jangan lupa 13 Mei ni untuk meraikan mak angkat ya! :-))

Menjadi yang pertama....

2007-05-02T12:16:00.000+08:00

Kat Malaysia ni ghairah betul dengan title seperti berikut " Belia pertama membuat penerjunan ke, Wanita pertama buat this..Lelaki pertama buat that ..and so on ". The latest achievement oleh orang Malaysia antara lain ialah " Ahli Politik pertama terjun di Kutub Utara.... serta seangkatan dengannya dan ada beberapa lagi so called achievements yang telah dimuatkan dalam berita tempoh hari.

Well I have my own achievement to share with my blog visitors. On 30th April 2007, I declare myself " Pesara pertama membayar RM11 tol untuk ke Colmar Tropicale dari Kuala Lumpur ". How about that, for world record??...hehehe. How did that happen? Sama-samalah kita fikirkan.

Another memory to cherish...

2007-04-23T10:39:00.000+08:00

Last2 friday, we had dim sum at Quality Hotel to celebrate the retirement of yet another friend. Dah lama juga tak makan dim sum but I noticed, kuasa makan semua orang dah tak lagi seperti it used to be ( macam back in the 1990's , hehehe ). Anyway, kita still enjoyed good food and more importantly being with good and caring company.

Walau pun tetamu yang diraikan tak dapat memberi ( dengan pantas ) apa yang akan dirindui most about working in the IMR, semasa soalan diajukan kepadanya, but I am sure over time, she will be able to come up with a few things ( I hope... just kidding, ada lah tu )

I have a lot of the memories ( I think ). It's not meaningful to write in this blog but they are wonderful memories to share and share again with those that made up those memories. Bila berjumpa tu, tidak biasalah kalau meja kita tak disertai dengan hilai ketawa yang terbahak2.

So my dear friends ( and families ), make as many wonderful memories as you can when you are with each other , cos they are things that can cheer you up on those lonely days ( besides money to go shoppinglah..)

p/s Happy retirement Zawiah ( by the way, did you manage to siapkan that susulan media before you leave? hehe)

Special request..

2007-04-03T19:15:00.000+08:00

Here's the one and only snapshot of the "handsome/spring-time" tour guide yang I managed to capture on my digital camera ( gambar2 lain diambil dengan kamera biasa ) untuk tatapan my dear friend :-))

p/s The two ladies dalam gambar ni are not chinese tourists but my two dear friends that were with me for this trip...hahaha

A Taste of My ShangHai Trip..

2007-04-02T08:48:00.000+08:00

As promised, here are a few sample of shots taken in ShangHai, Suzhou and Hangzhou during my last trip to China. Hope you guys can get the essence of the places. Banyak perkara yang interesting and memorable yang berlaku sepanjang melancong kali ini but mostly involving our conversations with our handsome and "spring-time" tour guide. Susah sikit nak cerita here, you had to be there to appreciate them. Anyway, kalau kita berjumpa bolehlah I berceritakan.....

Long Time No Write!

2007-03-19T17:12:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I menulis in my blog. Tiba2 bila I nak masuk dalam blog sendiri, I was asked to upgrade blog ni ke format baru. I tak tahu apa yang telah diperbaharui, nampak macam sama aje. Anyway thot I tulis something so that blog ni tak terkubur sebelum sampai ajalnya.

I and a couple of my travelling friends will be going to China 27 March ni, Shanghai, to be more precise. May be lepas balik from that trip adalah kut something interesting to share ( gambar, perhaps ). Apa2 pun, pray that we will have a safe and enjoyable trip. Looks like the weather there will still be cold by the time kita orang ke sana. So, apa yang merisaukan sekarang ( at least, for me ) luggage yang akan dibawa tu is a bit BIG for a 5D/4N trip ( macam nak gi for 2 weeks ). Apa nak buat, kalau bawa yang kecik nanti tak boleh nak sumbat baju-baju yang tebal ni. This is my 'situation' now. Walau pun I realised kat luar sana there are more pressing 'situations' facing the world. But, we do what we can to help others and live our life the best we can too.

Now to share some of the shots I took, the last time we were outside...

p/s kalau bukan kerana EOM mesti you all tak boleh guess where these were taken, right?

Our Young Tourists...

2007-02-21T07:55:00.000+08:00

Sempena Tahun Melawat Malaysia 2007 , tiga sahabat karib pun decided to take a trip to Bandar Bersejarah, Melaka. Berbekalkan makanan 2 in 1 ( susu dalam air ), topi dan cap mereka berjalan-jalan melihat tempat2 bersejarah di Melaka. Ini kisah mereka.....

Apalah agaknya yang bermain di fikiran this young traveller ? Eee...geramnya, mana pergi sahabat2ku tadi, janji nak jumpa kat depan Museum Mistik nii

Sahabat yang satu lagi tu pula nampak konfius dengan kesibukan tempat yang dikunjungi dan cuba mendapatkan sahabatnya yang berhenti berehat sambil menghilangkan dahaga dalam kereta Smartone ( muat untuk sorang ) tu...

p/s Hope this trip that they took together will be among the many more trips that they will make together in the future...

Malam yang indah...

2007-01-22T17:41:00.000+08:00

Saja aje nak kongsi with you all 2 shots I took at Lake Titiwangsa on the night we went there to see if we can naik the EOM without having to beratur since it was on a week day. Rupa-rupanya, orang ramai tak terhingga. So we end up taking shots of some interesting sceneries at the Lake.

We also managed to see a half an hour fire works that was being displayed at the Lake where the EOM is, just our luck! ( tak tahu pun ada ). We and a few more people were able to see it without having to berebut with the crowds who were mostly at the EOM.

Kalaulah duit tu digunakan untuk membantu mangsa banjir alangkah baiknya...

After the launching of EOM...

2007-01-13T13:27:00.000+08:00

Remember the key word here is After...

It's been awhile since MAH and I went for our regular exercise. This morning we decided to start balik selepas berihat selama 1 bulan ( due to the construction of EOM ). Excited pun adalah sikit pagi ni sebab nak tengok EOM yang menjadi kebanggaan terbaru rakyat Malaysia. Yes, we got to see the EOM and a lot more yang menyedihkan...

See for youselves what the keghairahan untuk menyambut Tahun Melawat Malaysia 2007 did to the once beautiful Lake Titiwangsa. Sepatutnya kerja pembinaan yang nak dibuat tu dilakukan sebelum datangnya tahun 2007 bukannya after the launching pun still tak siap2.

p/s what does this say about the management?? apa pula agaknya komen CUEPACS,.. naikkan gaji?

Always know what's important....

2007-01-05T10:42:00.000+08:00

A few things I want to share from my latest trip back home...

walau pun kita mengidamkan sebuah rumah yang tersergam indah di atas bukit dengan views of hills and lakes, tapi kita wajib belajar bersyukur dengan rumah yang kita ada walau pun tak seberapa. Things could be worst if we can only see what some of the others have..

I'm sure most of us have better cars than this, right? So everytime we feel that life has not been that good to us always look at others that are less fortunate instead of always looking at those that are.
But don't ever forget what's most important of all..that is to be able to see the smiles ( or shocks ) on the faces of those we love, be it family members or friends. We should always ( if we haven't already ) show our appreciation and our gratitute to Allah SWT for the opportunity to be blessed with the family and friends that make our life full of meaning and purpose ( with all the laughter, heartaches, headaches and wonderful memories ).

p/s to my mum, eventhough life hasn't been kind to you lately, we hope you know how much you are loved by all of us.

Oopss..Another Birthday!

2006-12-30T13:39:00.000+08:00

Iman (my god daughter ) is 2 on 27 December 2006. She was borned a day after the Tsunami disastor in 2004.

Her mummy had her share of tsunami-like pregnancy while carrying her with shooting up BPs and not to mention the swollen legs right from the early stage of pregnancy. Anyway that was two years back. Now, she will have the privilege of going through more tsunami-like incidences with Iman...;-))

To Iman " Happy 2nd Birthday and May Allah SWT bless you and your whole family throughout this life and the life after"

p/s guess this is the full stop to this year's birthday parties. Selamat menyambut Aidiladha to my Muslim friends and Happy New Year to all yang rajin singgah blog ini.

2812/1228

2006-12-28T16:32:00.000+08:00

Dua nombor plat yang menjadi idaman masa muda-muda dulu. Sempat jugalah merasa satu daripadanya, BCK 1228. I'm hoping the next one will be 2812 and I'm also hoping it will be the final one ( hoping aje ya ).

Today I celebrated my 48th birthday dengan meronda sekitar Jalan TAR bersama a few family members, menemankan mereka membeli-belah. Dalam meneman tu sempat jugalah membeli sepasang seluar untuk diri sendiri ( but this cannot be my birthday present for myself ). Haven't thot of what I should give myself for this year's birthday. Any suggestions from my visitors?

Anyway, biarlah birthday tahun ini dimulakan dengan memberi instead of menerima ( dimulakan ok! ). Lepas memberi, bolehlah kalau nak menerima pula kan? I was able ( God willing ) to do just that, which made me very happy. Syukur kepada Allah SWT for allowing me to mendahulukan keperluan orang lain dari keperluan diri sendiri. Semoga azam baru ni akan berkekalan hendaknya.

Selamat Hari Lahir Ke 48 kepada Pesara!!

A Birthday Weekend

2006-12-25T09:47:00.000+08:00

Tajuk yang begitu sesuai sekali. This whole weekend was dedicated to menyambut one birthday after another. And what comes with birthdays??... Food and presents!!

Dari hari Sabtu, the whole ( well almost whole ) Ishak clan were moving from KL, SA to Bukit Subang for the first birthday. Bermula dengan nasi, diikuti dengan mee johor, roti jala, pudings and of course birthday cake. Makan and more makan..( it's safe to say that dieting was not on anyone's mind). Then everyone headed back to their respective base-camp. Ada yang masih meneruskan birthday celebration kat KLCC pulak ( that was a royal one, laporannya kemudian ya, kita kena nanti wakil kita bercerita).

So for pesara and pilotnya, we had to torture our already tired stomach, with a bowl of killer HOT tom yam kung ( jenis yang mengeluarkan cecair melalui every rongga in your body tu lah ) and ice blended mocha/cappucino ( wow lega nya ) kat secret recipe before proceeding back to base-camp.

Sunday pulak started with birthday celebration at A&W next to Amcorp Mall. Yang nii lebih sikit sebab ada majlis tari menari and a bit of some dangerous hugging and forbidden kissing ( for some lucky or unlucky ones.. hehehe ). This was no leisure birthday, everything was quick-quick cos' time was a key factor ( fear factor pun boleh juga lah ).

Keluarga Ishak ni makan kejap tak puas, so we proceeded to another site ( where a different batch of food and entertaiment awaits us ). Kali ini kat some condominium pulak. This was where the SURPRISE!!! occurred.

It was for pesara for her 21st ( ++++..... ) birthday. It was a real shocker ( as seen in the photo yang menunjukkan maximum gigi exposure ..). Tapi here there were no dancing ( or dangerous, forbiden kissing ) just loud, out of pitch, singing and motherly kisses and huggs for those below 2 years of age. Then followed by pool events which included swimming and screaming ( birthady girl sempat jugalah contribute a few cc of water from her very own body to the pool..hehehe, sejuk beb! ).

Selepas dah kenyang and upacara membuka hadiah, slowly-slowly ( kata Malaysian ) one by one started to beredar balik to their respective sarang. Tinggallah our host and hostess to clear what "little" mess ( sorry ya ) we made to especially, her 3 brand new carpets and home in general. That was a real hectic weekend for all involved.

p/s sampai rumah pesara tersenyum lebar sebelum tidur mengenangkan the surprise she got today..A BIG thank you to all involved with the planning and execution of a wonderful birthday surprise.

Another Day, Another Birthday!!

2006-12-09T20:14:00.000+08:00

Guess whose birthday is it today 9.12.2006? The morning started with a birthday surprise breakfast prepared by the famous chef of LV. Upacara meniup lilin ( yang agak luar biasa tempat letaknya ). Cuba teka pukul berapa gambar ni diambil?

Pada sebelah tengaharinya pula, kita menghadiri upacara penyampaian diploma penterjemahan seorang kawan di DBP. Sempatlah bergambar sakan kat lobi DBP tu untuk dijadikan kenangan. I don't think we will be going there in the near future, so baik ambik gambar siap-siap.

The birthday celebration wasn't over just yet. Pada malamnya the chef prepared another dish, spaghetti marinara, ala-ala syok sendiri..hehe. Walau pun tak sama dengan yang dekat restoren di ibu kota tapi good enough sehingga menjilat sudulah katakan.

Bila agaknya celebration ini akan tamat? The night is still young when this entry was written. Jeng, jeng, jeng..... Apa-apa pun hope the birthday girl had a great time celebrating her ...th birthday at LV.

p/s banyak betul birthdays bulan disember ni...agak-agaknya siapa punya lagi yang belum disambut?;-))

Happy 1st Birthday Maya!

2006-12-07T10:08:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, 2 December 2006, genaplah 1 tahun umur Puteri Nur Sumayyah. We had a small celebration for her tapi Maya tak sihat pada hari tu. Walau pun Mummy dia dah ready with ice-cream cake for her to blow her first candle but Maya was too tired to get up from her sleep.

Untuk tidak menghampakan sambutan hari tu, we managed to snap some photos of the birthday girl with her birthday cake ( while she slept away...)

Anyway, the rest of the tetamu masih dapat meraikannya dengan antara lain, jagung bakar dan nasi ayam berempah. Only after we all had the celebration, baru the birthday girl got up. Tapi it was time for the guests to leave...what a birthday celebration it was, lain dari yang lain.

p/s Maya jangan risau ya, Mummy and Daddy akan adakan satu lagi birthday celebration for you ( walau pun you are too young to know..hehehe )

The Two F's...

2006-11-30T07:36:00.000+08:00

These two F's memang tak dapat dipisahkan. Di mana ada satu F akan ada the other F. Apakah F yang dimaksudkan itu?

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting up with 2 old Friends that I haven't seen for a long time ( one longer than the other ) and 2 other friends that I just saw a few days back. Anyway, what I wanted to record in my blog is the meeting with those 2 old friends. It brought back the "feel" of being in campus again. We had the meet-up at One Utama and had Food at one Thai Restaurant there. At the beginning of dinner there was some commotion over how they serve their Chinese tea but that had us in a very jovial mood through out the whole meal.

We chatted about old times and about what some of us went through since the last time we met. There was alot of laughing plus abit of finger pointing as to who did not keep in touch with who ( resulting in the long time no see syndrome ) and parents health updates. We were still chatting away long after our bill was payed. Tu lah lain kali we should meet more often....( jangan nak salahkan sesiapa cos all of us had to accept the blame, right? ). We all had a great time, old and new, all enjoying what little time we had with each other. God bless us all, my friends.

Though I know ( deep in my heart, cos this is not the first time ) we might not see some friends in the near future ( being in a year or two ) but whatever time we had with each other will always be something to cherish and be grateful for. Like what was said by my oldest friend " ..when we die, we are all alone..."

So I have made a promise to myself today to give my oldest friend my e-mail address, my phone numbers ( which I know she has ) and my blog address, so we can always be in touch and she will never have to feel " alone " while she's still alive ;_-))

p/s to my dearest friend " Have a safe trip, and hope that we stay in touch ( kalau tak pun, hope to hear or see you again when you get back in 5 months time ). Have a productive sabbatical.

Trial and Error...

2006-11-22T16:41:00.000+08:00

Just a few minutes ago I did an experiment that set my microwave up in smoke! What was I thinking?? Once a researcher, always a researcher.

It started with an inspiration from my all-time idol yang suka makan strawberi bersalut coklat tu lah. So off I went to my second home AA to get the ingredients. Sedang berjalan2, I met one of the tutor at MLT College walking with her husband. She stopped and asked if I'm on leave from work. I told her I dah pencen ( pilihan ) so she asked if I dah reached 40 ( at this point I was smiling... ) She is going for her Haj so we hugged and I wished her all the best. Anyway, back to the earlier story. I got the strawberry and a bar of chocolate ( with no nuts ) and headed home.

Lepas tengok my favourite soap opera ( Bold & Beautiful ), I was ready to start my experiment. Simple enough, I broke the chocolate bar and put them in my microwavable container. Set the timer to 30 seconds and washed my strawberries. It didn't melt, so I set the timer to 1 minute. That's when I saw smoke coming out of the microwave. Cepat2 keluarkan bekas yang dipenuhi asap and membuka tutupnya. There was a burned smell and part of the chocolate was actually burned.

I quickly dipped my strawberris into the melted chocolate and that was the end of the experimant. Had to throw away the partially burned container. ...and the end result is as seen below..

p/s kalau ada rezeki may be some of you might get to taste my version of strawberry-chocolate one day...( selagi Datuk M bersama, it shouldn't be a problem! )

Jalan2 dan Makan2...

2006-11-20T08:31:00.000+08:00

Agaknya yesterday was the last day for Raya Open House. Last weekend was the most " all over the place " weekend. Bukan all over as in bersepah tapi kita orang telah drove all over for the jalan2 and makan2 . Hari raya has been very "good" for the appetite but "bad" for the cholesterol. Kalau BP high macam awal2 pencen dulu, sure dah kong memandangkan redang daging menjadi hidangan of choice. Nasib baik satay yang dihidangkan selalunya satay ayam.

Tapi I still have 2 functions ( food related ) to attend. Satu masih lagi berkait dengan raya ( at my old office ) and satu lagi just makan2 dengan geng lama. I am still, despite my choles level diancam, looking forward to both occassions. Not so much for the food but for the chit chats. ( Rois bukan Azwan ). Maklumlah bila dah pencen ni kita dah kureng bercakap dengan orang ( face to face ).

Ada orang "komplen" dah lama I tak menulis dalam blog I nii, so I thot I just scribble something for my die-hard readers..hehe. Some photos yang sempat dirakam masa some makan2 function everywhere to share with you all...

p/s Harap semua orang dah makan dan bermaaf- maafan dengan sepuasanya raya kali ini...

My Wedding of the Year...

2006-11-06T16:50:00.000+08:00

Last night I had the opportunity to attend my ex-boss's son punya wedding. All the while I thought it was just another wedding kat dewan, no big deal. I biasanya malas nak go for wedding sebab nak kena pakai formal. Semenjak jadi pesara nii bertambah2 lagilah malas nak pakai formal2 nii. But I did not regret going for this wedding, and let me share with you all why...

I went with my buddy Puteri ( from my ex-office ). As usuallah because malam and hujan we had to really concentrate on the road so that kita tak miss entrance to Dewan Risda, Ampang tuu. My friend nii kurang sikit penglihatan kalau drive malam tapi dia gemar bercerita. Anyway,we arrived at the Bangunan Risda and were looking for a place to park kat basement tu when we saw a few more cars driving in with some of the men in the cars wearing songkok. So we knew these must be people also attending the same wedding. There is a reason why I'm mentioning "men" at this point in my entry.

Since dah lewat, kita pun rushed up by lift to the 1st floor. As the lift opened we were greeted by my ex-boss punya second daughter ( dah besar pun budak ni ) and told to go to the dewan on the left, which was for women katanya. Terasa pelik juga tapi since both of us are women so, no big deal lah. Bila masuk dewan tu barulah kita realised rupa2nya hanya ada women dalam dewan tu. No sight of any man ( not that we are looking for one ). It's felt so odd attending a wedding without being able to see the bride and groom in the same dewan ( plus not seeing any kind of man, including my ex-boss yang invited us to the wedding in the first place ). Terkilan jugalah sebab we did want to congratulate dia for the wedding.

Rupa2nya the story is, anak my ex-boss ni is involved dengan tabligh so dia insisted that women and men be in separate dewan. So it's strange to be in a wedding where you don't actually get to see a wedding taking place ( more like a group of women having dinner ). Kalau you can see from the photo below ( sorry not that clear sebab takleh go dekat2 to snap ), on stage pun is a bunch of women with the bride ( that's the one with the purdah ). Anyway, "Selamat Pengantin Baru , Semoga Berbahagia hingga ke akhirat" ucapan to the I'm sure lovely couple( takleh nak komen sebab tak tengoh the groom) .

p/s part of the female guests ( wondering if their partners are having fun in the other dewan?? )oh lupa the only time we saw men was at the lift and car park. The organisers really had things well under control. Syabas!! except for that little incident.

Why can't we be brave all the time...

2006-10-31T12:30:00.000+08:00

Kadang2 kita dihadapkan dengan masalah yang tak semestinya rumit tapi biasanya melibatkan orang2 yang begitu bermakna dalam hidup kita sehingga menjadikannya sukar bagi kita menyuarakan apa yang tersirat di hati ini..

So much wrong is going on around us that we feel we cannot change. The truth is that we are not brave enough to execute changes to the things we feel are not right. We see or hear about the wrong doings but we somehow feel it's too big for us to try and change them. It's not so bad when it involves people that you don't know, but what if it does? We hope that they will have the courage to change things themselves. Even when we are fully aware that they cannot....

Inilah sebahagian dari apa yang bermain di kepala semasa menyambut Aidil Fitri kali ini. Walau pun bergembira di samping keluarga dan sanak saudara tapi masalah yang melanda tak dapat dilupakan walau pun pada hari kemenangan ini.

Hari ini I mengambil kesempatan ini untuk mengucapkan "Selamat Aidil Fitri, Maaf Zahir Batin" kepada pengunjung2 setia blog ini dan semoga Allah SWT memberi kita kekuatan dan keberanian untuk mengubah apa yang kita mampu mengubah dan memberi kita ketenangan dan kesediaan untuk meredhakan apa yang tidak mampu kita ubah. Amin.

p/s hope everyone had a good raya celebration with your love ones...