Another memory to cherish...

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..

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..

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!

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...

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...

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...

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....

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!

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

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

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!!

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!

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Kenangan Malam 28 Ramadhan 1427H

Last nite I berbuka bersama MAH. Kita janji to meet at 6.00pm at my place to keluar cari nasi dagang at Bazaar Ramadan Sri Rampai. Dia sampai lewat at about 6.20pm so we had to rush through the buying of food. Nasi dagang takde ( orangnya dah balik kampung kut ) and we end up buying ikan pari bakar, cendol, karipap and wadey ( teringat pula nii makanan kegemaran Datuk I ).

Lepas selesai membeli, again terpaksa pecut ( cos'the time now is 6.50pm ) and sempat sampai rumah just before azan magrib. Nasib baik I ada masak nasi dan sup ayam untuk bersahur, so kita berbukalah dengan masakan sendiri.

Selesai makan, it was time to go for terawih kat Surau At-Taqwa. Hari ni hujan lebat pulak. So MAH suggested that I jadi Imam and kita terawih aje kat rumah. Since I tak ready to jadi Imam, we decided to pergi juga ke surau dalam hujan ( yang by that time dah mulai renyai2 ).

Selesai terawih, kita pun berangkatlah balik. Semasa sedang drive back tu, terdengar pulak macam ada bunyi pada kereta ( gededup-gededup, macam tulah lebih kurang ). What could that be? MAH kata bunyi air berkocak kut ( dalam but memang ada bekas air ). Nasib baik rumah dekat aje. Sebaik sampai, terus check kereta. Rupa2nya tayar punctured. Apalagi kita orang yang masih dalam dalam telekong ( as for me, tak boleh ditanggalkan sebab tak pakai tudung) terus bertungkus lumus menukar sendiri tayar kemek tu. MAH memang expert bab menukar tayar puncture ni sebab selalu terjadi pada keretanya. Anyway, apa yang nak I share with you the readers is the surprise we got when we took out the SPARE TYRE to replace the punctured tyre. See for yourselves the photo below.... ( MAH tak habis2 ketawa bila teringatkan tayar spare tuu ). Tayarnya besar cenonek aje ( macam tayar motorsikal, Hyundai- Hyundai ish ish ish ).

Semangat Ramadan...

Memang kita harus mengalakkan anak2 belajar berpuasa pada bulan Ramadan dari usia yang seawal mungkin supaya bila besar nanti berpuasa adalah satu perkara yang biasa. Akan tetapi, ada anak2 yang dapat menyahut dugaan berpuasa dengan cemerlangnya dan tak kurang juga yang tewas ditengah jalan.....seperti yang tertera di bawah ni...hehehe

Macam ni lah gayanya sebelum berbuka puasa ....
















p/s kesian cucu2 saudaraku ( sorang tu macam mabuk susu..hehehe )