The Many Layers of Me

Anak Ayah

2011-06-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Anak ayah right? :p

Peek A Boo

2011-06-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

Nuha dah pandai main peek a boo dgn mak!

Nuha Demam :(

2011-06-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

Nuha demam teruk last week. 38.5C, i tell you. The temperature keeps fluctuated in every four hours. I was worried so the hubster.

We went to Ampang Putri to check on Nuha's condition. Nuha did not have any flu or cold. Apparently not having that is far more dangerous as viral fever would 'go away' after sometimes. Thus, as directed by the doctor, we went to the lab for urine test.

Alhamdulillah, the white cells in Nuha's urine is increasing but slow in number. We would need to monitor that so as to reduce the increased. I took two days of emergency leaves to stay by her side. She lost 1 kg too. Poor my baby. :(

Demam tapi masih boleh layan upin ipin. :)

Nuha's Little Library #2

2011-06-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

New titles joining the club;

Nuha is happy, so do Mak! :)

Mak @ Work

2011-05-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: U2

Alhamdulillah, I have been blessed to be able to do exclusive breastfeeding for Nuha. It is such a challenged task and it requires positive mind.

I have almost gave up recently when I experienced a shortage in the milk supply. Since then, I have been taking a supplement to help increase the milk production, Alfalfa and Fenugreek. Alhamdulillah, the milk supply turns out to be okay again.

I am trying my absolute best to ensure that I will pump at work at least 3 times a day. Although it is hard to cope between job demands and the pumping session I am pushing my effort to ensure that Nuha will get what she needs.

Now, I truly understands the mother's sacrifices. It's BIG, really.

I am using Medela Swing at work to pump the milk. I choose to store the milk in the Breast Milk Storage bags to ensure it stays clean.

I am supporting breastfeeding and encourage my friends out there to stay strong in the process. It is hard but worthwhile. :)

Nuha @ 5M

2011-04-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Nuha's Milestone at 5 Month old;

She can pusing 360 degrees
She had little incident; jatuh tilam :(
Trying hard to crawl. Comel sangat! :)
Bumbo is her best friend at this stage.
Likes car, school bus toys.
Very attentive, bila tengok tv. Abisla ayah marah. :p

Nuha's Little Library

2011-04-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

Now Playing : Coldplay

I have started to introduce books to Nuha since she barely 1 Month old. In fact, I have been reading to her since she is still in my womb. It is true what people said that reading explore your minds and specifically for babies it helps develop the motor skill, eye coordinating and speech development. I am amazed with the magic brought by books. Subhanallah..

Since then, I have been collecting some series of books for Nuha. Thanks to Anis of http://dearests.blogspot.com and her son's blog at http://books4knight.blogspot.com/. I get inspiration and recommendation of books from there. Many thanks.

These are some of Nuha's books collection so far;

These type of books let Nuha to explore bright colors and she is able to touch different kind of surfaces ie; squashy, woolly, rusty, etc.

This book is so colorful and have a lot of flip flap to explore.

This is the perfect book for keeping busy hands and busy minds entertained for hours.

Classic!

Mak is more excited than Nuha when buying all the books! Seronok tau! hehe

Beyond Words

2011-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sayangness

Nuha @ 4M

2011-03-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Nuha's milestone at 4M;

She is able to sit with support
She is "smiling' baby
Had her usual checkup and immunization done
Able to adjust her way at the babysitter
She LOVES books
Went to Taman Sri Empangan Park for the first time
Commuting from Putrajaya-KL-KL-Putrajaya everytime
Sangat attached to Mak :)

Nuha's First Day at the Babysitter

2011-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Spice Girls

Remember my last post that Nuha will be at the babysitter on the 10 February 2011?

I was on leave on 9 February (Wednesday) to prepare Nuha for the 'big' day. As she is 3 Month old now, she is able to recognized familiar faces. That is why I am worried if she would not want to detach from me.

I was with her all the time at the babysitter place to show how to feed Nuha, how to warm the expressed milik, how she sleeps and how to bath her. Everything looks fine initially. The babysitter is well experienced in handling babies. She can hold nuha without her screaming and thats shows she is good.

Nuha behave accordingly although she had slight fever due to the long journey Kelantan to KL. I brought along her medicines, thermometer for standby.

I am proud with Nuha as she is able to mingle with other babies too. That's important.

Such a relief. :)

But on Monday (the following week) she throw her tantrum for few hours after i left for office. This is due to the long weekend with me, so shes find hards to adjust the situation. Comel kan babies ne? hehe

All in all she behave accordingly throughout the week. Pandai anak mak bawa diri kat tempat orang ye. :)

Balik Kampung Grandpa

2011-02-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Sia

I took extra leaves on the 7 until 9 of February to go back to Kelantan. Weehooo!

Works have been crazy as always. I am the officer in charge for the 55th Session of Commission on the Status of Women, New York, United States of America from 22 February until 4 March 2011. The delegation of the Ministry will be headed by the Minister itself.

I am in charge of the logistics preparation. Booking flights, preparing the diplomatic note, application of visa and yada, yada..

The journey back to Kelantan was okay. Nuha behaved like she used too. Sleeping and in between feeding through out the journey. Pandai anak mak. :)

Spend my lazy day with Nuha was the best moments ever. Serious tak cukup masa. :)

Oh, oh, 10 February will be Nuha's first day at the babysitter. Wish us luck!

Love

Nuha's First

2011-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

First Smile : 1 Month

First Travel : To Kelantan at 1 Month

First Car Seat's Experience : To Kelantan at 1 Month

Her Aqiqah : Done in Kelantan at 1 Month

First book(s) that catches her attention : My Speedy Turtle and Little Josh Series

First Toy : Playmate by .....

First bottle feeding : Early 2 Month in Kelantan using Tommee Tippee (she now prefers MAM bottle)

First looong sleep at night : 2 Month

First strolling experience : To KLCC at 2 Month

First laugh : 2 Month

First Word : 'Ma' 'Mek' at 2 Month

First 'dress' experience : To Ampang Putri Hospital at 2 Month

First house : Precint 5, Putrajaya

First visit to park : Taman Sri Empangan, Presint 5, Putrajaya

First 'meniarap': 3 Month

First Stand with assistance : 3 Month

First grab : 3 Month

First shoes' experience : At 3 month using baby GAP pink shoes

First seating using bumbo : 3 month

.... to be continued

Nuha @ 3M

2011-01-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

Nuha's Milestones;

She has a looooong gooos gurgles to die for.

She is now 6.2kg.

She likes books so much. I planning to get more books for her soon. :)

She managed to lie her face downward; 'meniarap'.

She likes to stand with someone's assistance.

She prefers to be cuddled if she is sleepy. Manja kesayangan ayah.

She loves Incy Wincy Spider's song.

Nuha loves a day at a park and travels.

:)

Saya dan Rumah Baru

2011-01-10T19:20:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: The Frames

We are officially moving to Putrajaya. Wooot!

A new abode for Baby Nuha. :)

I've applied for government quarters back in December 2009. It took them one year to offer me the apartment situated at precint 15 (near to PICC). Ok lah dari tak dapat kan. So basically we will be in KL during weekdays and in Putrajaya during weekends. Pening? Tell me about it.

Nuha practically loves the house. Angin sangat kuat ya di situ. Its very cold towards the night, and that is why she loves it. :)

Starting February we will be commuting from PJ to KL. As for Nuha, her babysitter will be in Kampung Bharu. I just hope she will be fine staying at the babysitter's house. Tawakkal..

If everything is perfectly arranged at house, will definitely invite you, you and you the house. Can't wait. :)

Nuha @ 2M

2010-12-31T19:11:00.000-08:00

Nuha's Milestone;

1. She is starting to talk by making 'err', 'awwuuu' sounds.

2. She's started to recognize familiar faces.

3. Still under exclusive breastfeeding. Alhamdulillah.

4. She is now weigh 5.5kg.

5. Her sleeping trend is much better and can be tolerated. hehe.. She's sleeping more in the evening towards night-morning.

6. She is hardly fit in 0-3 month attire. hehe. And sudah sendat sedikit untuk 3-6 month attire. :p

7. She will listen if you read something to her. I usually read books with attractive colors and she likes it.

8. She attracted to things in red, white, black colors.

9. She can laugh with 'gagagaa' sounds and its addictive. :)

Alhamdulillah for this 2M journey. :)

Nuha @ 1M

2010-11-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

Nuha's Milestone;

1.She is now 4.3kg

2.She has recovered from prolonged jaundice. Syukur

3.She enjoys bath time very much.

4. Mak has started bottle-feeding training with Nuha using Tommee Tippee.

5.She has the sweetest smile ever. :)

6. She will be having monthly appointment with Dr Lim's at Ampang Putri tu monitor her immunization.

So far, everything is good for now. I am beyond happy and Syukur. :)

The One with A Million Little Pieces

2010-11-09T04:18:00.000-08:00

Alhamdulillah.

The perfect word to start this post. I am beyond blessed and contend with the changing phase in my life now. I am sorry if I didn’t reply comments, smses from you lovelies any earlier. Life has been very ‘challenging’ these days.

I thought it would be great if this post to be written in chronological order. Beginning from the day I gave birth to my precious daughter.

9 October 2010 (Saturday)

The day began with my usual check-up with Dr Marlik at Ampang Putri. I had the usual contraction test at the labour room before I went to see him. I started to feel the ‘real’ contraction during the test and the nurse in-charge confirmed my feeling. I didn’t take her words seriously on that morning. After half an hour spent at the labour room, off we went to Dr Marlik clinic for usual scan and check-up. Dr Marlik told me that by now my baby weighs around 3.8kg and he predicted that the baby will be around 3.6kg on birth. After setting up another appointment with Dr Marlik on 13 October 2010(my real EDD), we went for our usual breakfast at Mamak nearby.

Hubster was busy the whole day preparing the room for the baby at my parent’s house. I told him that the contraction keep coming at every 3 hours or so and he, the perfect hubster one can wish for, keep tracking of my contraction by writing in a piece of paper. It didn’t occur into my mind that this very day would be the last day of my pregnancy.

10 October 2010 (Sunday)

The contraction kept coming and at this point of time, the pain became stronger and longer. I remembered that the pain came at every half hour starting at 12am and when it reached 3am, the pain started to come at every 15 minutes. It was 4am, that we decided to go to Hospital Ampang for checkup. I told my parents about our plan to go to the Hospital and I managed to seek their forgiveness before leaving the house. I had mixed feeling along the way to the hospital and GOD knows how scared I am at that time.

I reached the hospital at 420am at was been told to go to the labour room for checkup. Hubster was told to wait outside by the nurse as I went inside the room. I did the routine checkup for the people who are in labour. The nurse confirmed that I had 3cm opening at 440am. She told me that I would be transferred to ward to get some rest and I would come again to the labour room at 8am.

After spending an hour or so at the labour room, I’ve been transferred to the ‘waiting’ ward. Hubster accompanied me to the ward but later was been directed by the guard to leave the ward as no husband is allowed to be at the ward after visiting hours. Irony ah? At this point of time, I am in need of my pillar of strength to be 24/7 with me but was not allowed to have that privilege. So there, I am berzikir tak henti until the clock struck at 8am.

Just before 8am, I called a nurse to request for a pain killer as the pain was unbearable at this stage. She then, performed the infamous ‘opening check’ where she used her two fingers to check for any opening from the ‘bottom’. She then later confirmed that I had 5cm opening and ready to be transferred to the labour room. You guys might wondering on my pain killer request right? Stay tuned as the ‘pain killer’ drama is about to come.

At 830am, I was later been transferred to the labour room. I met the same nurses who performed the CTG test just now. They are now preparing for my delivery. A doctor came and she then performed an operation to break my ‘air ketuban’. I requested the pain killer again to the doctor in charge and she told me that she needs to check the baby’s heartbeat first before the pain killer is given. So I waited.

After half an hour spent at the room, I have to say that the pain cannot be tolerated anymore. I kept on calling the nurse and told him the contraction that I had was unbearable. I was literally asking their mercy to ease the pain. They advised me again and again to blow the gas provided to ease the pain. But seriously man, the gas is created to psychologically ease the pain not physically. The gas did nothing at this stage to help me out from this misery.

At 9am another doctor came in and I was literally happy to see her as my request for pain killer has been ignored since 8am. She then checked my condition and to my surprise she did not allow any pain killer to be given at me at this point of time as my contraction was so strong. According to her lah. She advised me to relax a bit (gila apa?) and she said that my baby will be delivered soonest that I thought. Just imagined, me with the strong contraction and not be able to have hubster beside me. I am beyond sad at this stage.

Later at 920am, I called the nurse again as the pain was so …… She later check my opening and its already 8cm. She told me to wait as the opening needs to be reached until 10cm. I told her I cannot take the pain anymore and I have the drive to push by now. Five minutes later, the other nurse came and checked the opening again and then prepared for my delivery. She asked another nurse to call for hubster as I am about to deliver the baby.

930am; hubster was there standing beside me. He tried to reach my hand to ease the pain but I told him nicely that I cannot hold his hand as I was afraid I would cause some damaged to him. The nurse asked me to take a 10 second deep breath and push. It was hard not to lift up your leg but I was been told not to do that as it would ‘injured the bottom’. Alhamdulillah, at 9.40am, I safely delivered a baby girl, Wan Nuha binti Wan Kasim weigh 3.61 kg. I am beyond syukur.

After I have been stitched up, the nurse came with Nuha for the breastfeeding. That was the first moment I hold my baby and I cannot express my feelings with words. The family came sometimes later to see Nuha for the first time and I didn’t feel the need to rest as I was beyond happy to see everyone gathered for this precious day.

It was 730pm the very same day, the test from God came. Initially, we have detected breezing sounds came from Nuha’s breathing. We called the nurse and she performed oxygen test on Nuha. She said the oxygen level was normal and nothing to worry. But, later when hubster called the nurse again at 730pm, just before he was about to leave the hospital, Nuha was then being taken to procedure room for another test. As hubster needs to leave (because the visiting hour has ended), he asked me to update him with Nuha’s condition. I waited until 830pm but no one came with any results. 10 minutes later, a nurse came and told me to give her some diapers and wet wipes for Nuha and she was surprised that I didn’t know that Nuha has been transferred to Neo-Natal ICU for monitoring. Imagined my feeling at that time. With all the pains from the delivery, I pulled some strength to walk and get the details out from the doctor. A nurse told me to go straight to the ICU to get the infos as they have not been informed anything on my baby’s condition. I walk slowly to the ICU (which no one told me the location) and search for my baby.

Being in the ICU was stressful as you can imagine. With no direction and all, me by myself literally checked every baby cot at the ICU in my search for Nuha. I then asked the nurses in-charge, and I was being informed that Nuha has been located at the Intensive section. I walked slowly and to the Intensive section and met with the On-Call Doctor. She explained Nuha’s situation and asked me not to worry. The reason why they took Nuha to the ICU was to monitor her ‘fast breathing’ and to check whether her blood has been infected or not. She said that this is normal procedure and to know the reason of Nuha’s fast breathing.

I then called hubster to inform and he came to the hospital as fast as he could. Although he knew that he cannot meet Nuha that night, he still came to calm me at the hospital. The next day, we were told that Nuha needs to be monitored at the hospital for 5 days as the specialist wanted to run 5-days antibiotics for her. I have been advised by the doctor to rooming-in together with Nuha because Nuha is fully-breastfeed. So we spent another 5-days at he hospital and man, you cannot imagined how restless we were.

After we have been discharged from the hospital, me and hubster decided to register Nuha’s birth at the Klinik Kesihatan for their daily monitoring. During our 5 days at the hospital, Nuha has been diagnosed with Jaundice and was been put under ‘phototherapy’. At the Klinik Kesihatan, Nuha’s Jaundice was been detected at 10.5. The nurse told us to monitor her jaundice and the level should lower than 10. So she asked us to come again to the clinic on Monday to check on her jaundice level.

On Monday, her jaundice level has lower to 10.1. We were glad and thankful to Allah. As I was about to step outside from the clinic I felt warm blood came out from the lower part. I thought it was the normal ‘darah nifas’. I stood outside the clinic and waited for hubster to fetch us up. But, the running blood didn’t stop. I started to panic as I was carrying Nuha and saw my blood was all over the floor. I took another step to more comfortable area and saw hubster came. I told him to walk fast and took Nuha from my hand. I was about to faint but told myself to stay strong. Hubster ran as fast as he could with Nuha on his hand for help. Later, I was been carried to the emergency room at the clinic and was given drip before the ambulance came and took me to the hospital. At the hospital, I was been told that the gushing blood that I had was due to the infection that I had in my blood. Hence, I have been admitted again to the hospital with Nuha (as I need to breastfeed her) for 3 days.

Our own ‘amazing race’ didn’t end just yet. On the next check-up for Nuha’s Jaundice, her level has rise to 12. I was devastated a bit but later after much thought and encouraging words from the hubster, I took this as a test from The Above. I have been advised by the nurse at the clinic to take Nuha everyday to check on her level. As for now, Nuha has been diagnosed with Prolonged Jaundice as she is now 28 day old. We have taken Nuha for blood and urine test last week and the result for the test will be out this Thursday. We are just hoping for the best for our daughter. According to the doctor, if Nuha is active and breastfeed regularly which is the case for Nuha, she will be fine. We are praying constantly for her best of health.

Those situations above are quite adventure for us, for our little family. To tell you the truth, I did have my breakdown some other days. My family and in-laws are all worried if I were to get the post-partum stress. I still remembered one time where I felt very much detached from my own baby as I was so restless. Thanks to none other, my pillar of strength; my husband. He has proved to me and Nuha on how dedicated and patience he was (and still) embracing those challenges. During our days in the hospital, he will come as early as he could to the hospital to be with us although I can tell from his eyes of how tired he was. He brings positive energy to me in order to be strength and ‘tawakal’. On the day where I had mixed feelings while in the hospital, he quickly left his works just to calm me down. He will come to the hospital at the wee hours (although that was not permitted). Me and Nuha cannot express our ‘kesyukuran’ to have him in our lives. Thank you ayah for being who you are. We love you.

Not to forget, our endless thank you to all dearest friends for their prayers and thoughts especially to mummy sarah and daddy ali in US, aunty majie, mama p-jot, aunty reen, aunty erna, aunty nad, mak etty and the rest of the family, aunty teha, aunty as, aunty tim and all you lovelies, you know who you are. We are touched by your warm thoughts throughout our little journey.

p/s: I know I have yet to post nuha’s picture. I just hope I get some free time to do that this week. Please bear with me. :)

Mimi Bom Bom @39 weeks

2010-10-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2

Excerpts;

I have been blessed with a good health during the pregnancy (except for the mishap during the Eid). Alhamdulillah.
Preparation for the delivery has been made. Attended 2 series of Parent Craft classes to equip ourselves as the first time parent. The hubster has been very supportive though out the classes. I am proud of him.
Been reading several books for the baby every night and she has responded in a very good way.
Check-up at Ampang Putri is weekly at this point of time. The baby is looking good and I can't wait to meet her soon.
Addicted to rompers, jumpers and the like and not to mention online-shopping, which is 'harmful'. :p
I 'think' I have gain too much (additional of 15++kgs). Not good.Tsk
Being blessed with loves and kindness of people surrounded me. Thank youss lovelies (you know who you are) for the advices, gifts and more gifts. hehe
Stilll didn't took a picture of me during pregnant. On my list.
Had minor and not so minor contraction(s) while writing this entry. Writing and reading proven to be among the ways to distract myself from pain.
Been craving for sweet stuffs during pregnancy, which is bad. tsk
I have been labelled as 'too energetic' at work during my pregnancy. I have been advised to slow my pace as to be at the 'same' par of the rest of the pregnant ladies at work (kalau tak kesian dorang kena kerja kuat2 jugak) hehe
Sleeping is a nightmare at this stage. Susah woo nak tido.
Baby's kicking and heartbeat are the precious gifts sent by Allah to all women. Syukur for that.
8 days to go.
Strangers have been very kind to me lately. I got RM5 off from paying the parking ticket at Delicious Duo Residence. Thanks to that Indian uncle. I also received 50% discount while buying dates this morning. Thank yousss all.
I am nervous and excited at the same time. :)
I am praying for my safe delivery. Pray for me ya, lovelies. :)

Oh, Palin

2010-08-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Sia (We are Born)

"Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate"
-Sarah Palin, tweeting her disapproval of a plan to build an Islamic Cultural Center and mosque near Ground Zero; Palin was subsequently mocked for her use of a nonexistent word; taken from TIME

This has always been the case not only in America per say, but to the Western World in general. To talk, discuss, or aprreciate Islam at open space(s) might be seen as a taboo to that area of the world. As a Muslim, I do understand how this perception originated. Islam is 'the other' to that part of the world. We are the outsider and certainly an alien to them. 'The Other' is the infamous term by the late Edward Said which is a simple term but with deep meaning inside it.

Many writings, discussions and debates have been put forward in regards to this matter. From the extremist to the moderate Muslims, everyone entitled to their piece of opinion. But the question here is that, despite all the good writings and discussions, Islam is still being manipulated and with the recent controversy of the Islamic Cultural Center, I am not wrong to say that how poor the true meaning of Islam has evolved at the heart of Westerners all this while.

For me, before putting the blame to other people judgments, it is best to look upon ourselves first and ponder the situation. I would say that, Islam today is lack of strong, good, bold leader(s). Although we have people like Tariq Ramadhan; the modern persona of Islam today, the loud Ahmadinejad, the bold Tun Mahathir and those brilliant Muslim in the Muslim World, we are still lacking a leader who can stand and swipe all allegations with grace. We are missing an image of Muslim Obama (not all of his attributes, really). Islam today is in need of someone not entirely like Obama but something assemble to him. Islam is in need to revive the spirit of Ummah all over again. The call for unification rather having 'that' group and 'this' group'.

The Muslim leader that we have today are not all dissappointing with regards to their abilities and charisma. But, it is dissappointing to have a Muslim political leader who are manipulating the name of Islam for the hidden interests that lays in their heart (do not let me talk about Malaysian case). Until and unless we, Muslims are hand in hand regardless of our skin colour and different belief systems, we are nowhere, really in today's world.

-just my 10cents thought-

***********************************************************************************

On the other note, I am reading this at the moment (despite all the Parmuk's books)

Have I mentioned that I am a sucker for memoir's books. This is all happened after reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. Maybe because it easy to relate to Memoir sometimes. Maybe..

2010-08-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Rachael Yamagata

I am now in my 30 weeks and still fine. Alhamdulillah, syukur. Life hasn't changed that much accept for my physical appearance. Kembang to the max okay. I kid you not. hehe

Nevertheless, the reality of life has slowly bites me. At this point of time, I am calculating life theories that I have never think of. I am about to raise a human into this life and that thought really scares me off. I believe every young mom likes me had their fair share experience on this, right? I pray hard that it would be a smooth sailing journey for me. Insha Allah..

This month, I am very much anticipated reading Orhan Pamuk's works. I bought The Museum of Innocence and the husband accidentally bought My Name is Red. Do not ask me how that happened but certainly, I am happy for that little incident. hehe.. I am now halfway reading the former book and now jumping over to the later. You know me right? teheee~

Ramadhan is approaching and I am preparing myself for the challenges ahead. I have been told by people that I am not obliged to fast if it will give bad impact the baby. But I am determine to try fasting in this coming Holy Month. And we'll see from there whether I survive or not. This year I am certain that I'll be 'beraya-ing' in KL with the husband. What I missed the most about raya in Perak and Kelantan would be the yummy raya dishes which includes the lemang jagung and nasi dagang. sigh

Anyhoo, I have been searching for children book on the 25 Prophets. Found one at the MPH but a little bit pricey. I dont mind investing money on that but would be great if I have other choices. Appreciate your suggestion(s).

Everything in Between

2010-06-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Dixie Chicks

So many things to express but with so little time to write, i am beyond frustration. I keep denying that the current job has taken certain privileges that I had before, and one of it is writing. Reading too, i think. Booo~

I like bulleted point-type of writing (another excuse for making your writing looks longer than reality)

1) I am reading the above book. If I'm not mistaken it was among the last lectures delivered by the great Edward Said. I stumble upon the book while browsing Said's shelf at Kinokuniya (I am surprised to see the shelf and gone crazy after that. Oh and burn hole in the pocket too). The content of the book is taken from the lecture and you will find the book in talking points-type. While I was reading the book, the inhumane Isreal issue was being highlighted around the globe. Suddenly, it came to my mind that if Said is still alive, I am very much sure that he will be the one who first to speak in regards to this issue. I miss to see him as the Palestinian fighter. And above all I miss to read his thoughts. RIP Said.

2) I am now physically bigger that I am supposed too. And this is terrifying. haha

3) I have a job which is not pregnant-friendly-type-of-job. I hate thinking how irony this place can be towards women. Blah~

4) I need vacation. Singapore specifically. Can ah naik plane lagi?

Book Session: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

2010-05-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: John Mayer

Last week, I had some leisure time after work (which is very rare) and a split second I decided to watch Iron Man 2 with the husband. This would mark the first movie after a year of isolation from theater. hehe

To kill the time before the movie started I decided to pay a visit to Kinokuniya and I should know better that the trip would burn a big hole in my pocket. My relationship with bookstores have always been a mixed feelings. We developed this kind of love-hate relationship as you know that I am much in love with books but not the part where i need to sacrifice so much moolahs for the books. I find it irony for Malaysian government who launched "Cintai Buku" or even "Membaca Amalan Kita" Campaigns but fails to see this perspective. I know that Malaysia books are much cheaper than the overseas books but are you for real wanted all Malaysian to narrow their horizons? Something need to be done and that something is not only referring to tax exemption of RM1k for tax payers who bought books. That would be great for the tax payers but for the students?

Moving on, during the visit, i end up buying four books that cost me fortune. sob,sob,sob. (But I have no regret. Funny, eh?)One of it is the Persepolis. Thanks to my best friend, Hanna who is responsible in introducing the book to me 3 years ago. It is not entirely a book per say, it is a biography-comic of the author during her childhood up until the university years. What makes the comic distinguished than the rest of the titles in the same genre?

1. The way the author describing her childhood in a very 'real' way but funny at the same. Imagined yourself living in country like Iran where the subject of war is being discussed since your early years and not only that, you get the to taste the first hand experience on war and living by it. What is so funny about that, right? Quoting from Independent Sunday; "The magic of Marjane Satrapi's work is that it can condense a whole country's tragedy into one poignant, funny scene after another".

2. This biography not only illustrates her real experiences but at the same it provides another dimension of looking the history of Iran from the modern-Iranian perspective. The illustration is beyond real and you feel connected to the main character.

3. As for me, who has limited background of Iran's War, Gulf War, Iran Revolution, etc, the biography managed to add few slots of informations into my system and the author has succeed in explaining some complicated scenarios that took place in Iran in a very simple way.

I hugely recommend the work by Satrapi's "Persepolis 1 & 2", not only for your leisure reading but for your world history consumption. It is a very stimulating book and I bet you will stuck reading the book from the first page to the end.

Happy reading!!!

Of Lontong, Naturalizer Sandal and Everything in Between

2010-05-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Lonely Soul (U.N.K.L.E)

I have never admitted openly that I had cravings for 'crazy' things until one incident on that Friday morning.

1.The Story of Seksyen 14 Lontong

I went to 7 Eleven nearby my house to buy vitagen before went to work. When I was about to left 7 Eleven I found a stall which sells nasi lemak and the like. From the place where I stand, I can see that the stall also sells lontong. Suddenly my craving for lontong came like I never expected. To tell you the truth, the moment the doctor confirmed the existence of my other little half, I was very tempted to know and experience some wild cravings that future mothers usually had. Unfortunately, I have yet to taste one until the craving for lontong came. All thanks to the super-self-help books that became the voice in my head "all cravings are just the game in your mind. it is all psychologically effect". Bosan betul bila jadi rational ni. Duh.

Back to the story. So I went to the stall in happy and exciting mode. I have already imagined how the taste would be like. To my surprise, the container that I thought was the kuah lontong was actually pulut kuning. I am beyond sad. For the first time in my life, I feel like crying because I could not get the lontong. Form that moment, I determined to get lontong first thing in the morning tomorrow.

On the next day, I woke up early and while I was in the shower, my mind keep thinking which lontong stall should I go today. The husband is still sleeping and to drag him all the way to PJ would be unnecessary. I decided to go by myself to Seksyen 14, PJ just to get the infamous lontong. No one in my house knows about my little journey as I know if I told them, they will 'bising2' and at last no lontong for me. I arrived at 745am and saw the long que in front the stall. That long que would not demotivates me from getting what I wanted to have. So me with the little half stand in the line to get the infamous lontong. I left the stall with 6 packs of lontong and i am now in the euphoria mode. teheee...

2. The Addiction for Ikan Bakar Tang Ling

I do not know what did they put in the Ikan Bakar, but I certainly knew that that my craving for this ikan bakar will not easily end. I think the cicah belacan which made me wanting for more. haih..

3. The reason(s) why I think Malaysia is a better place to live, after all...

I have never expected in my life to receive such an honest and humble assistance from strangers. Its all happened during my visit to Isetan to buy new sandal for my comfortable walk. Me and the husband went to Naturalizer section as I know I will only get the comfortable shoes from there (after clarks betrayed his promises on me). There was this young lady who patiently entertain my needs. She is sweet and after a while she noticed my extraordinary belly and provides me with super sweet assistance. Serious tak tipu. Up to the extend her friend who stands beside her, offers to tie the lace of the sandal. I am very much appreciated with the gesture and even ask the husband to find me the customer service form to appreciate their gesture.

And my super sweet experience did not last there. While waiting for husband to buy some medicine at nearest pharmacy, I went to the infamous Pak Cu Jambu Batu stall. I ordered for 2 packs of Jambu. The seller is also super sweet. After he realized that I look extraordinary on my belly part, he later gave me additional jambu for that. Sweet kan... Bagus orang2 Malaysia ni. teheee..

Thats end my craving story and I do hope that my dream of this Malaysia-Utopia of mine will not end. Mimi in the wonderland.. :))

The Book Club; Session (?), Baldoni, Lead by Example, 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results

2010-03-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: U2 (Vertigo)

The father of modern management, Peter F. Drucker once said; “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”. There are numerous best-sellers book under leadership title produced every year. Nevertheless, it is rare to find a leadership book which introduced ‘scientific’ leadership theories and at the same time take your personal-related-issues into account. It is like reading a theory book and self-help book in one. This is my initial feeling while reading ‘Lead by Example, 50 Ways Great Leaders Insipre Results’ by the recognised leadership guru, John Baldoni.

Among the things that make this book extraordinary than the rest of the books in the same genre is the way the author structuring the book. The author starts by discussing several points that are related to the inner-strength of oneself; ‘Set the Right Example’. What the author trying to prove in the first chapter of the book is to how personal strength of individual shapes the way he/she look at things. It is vital for a leader to set a high standard in tems of his/her moral characters as it will give enormous impact to his/her followers. The next chapter of the book, explained on the fundamental ways on how to lead; ‘Act the Part’. In this chapter, the author provides a significant insights and tips on how to lead the people efficiently. As the book moves along, it also touches on how to ‘Handle the Tough Stuff’ in the third chapter. In summary, the chapter provides step by step direction in handling crisis at work. Another interesting point about the book is the way the author concluded the book by discussing the importance of teamwork under the theme ‘Put the Team First’.

Leadership has always been observed as a mundane subject by some people. They assert that, leadership is just merely a way people direct people to do things. This is hardly near to be true as leadership comes with great responsibilities. The late Winston Churchill once said; “The price of greatness is responsibility” and the author certainly agrees to that when discussing a chapter on ‘Act the Part’ which in my view is the most striking qualities that should be hold by a leader. One of my favorite of the “50 Ways” is the lesson on how leader should ‘delegate (and execute) for results’. According to Baldoni, “People need direction, but they do not always need mile markers. That means leaders need to set direction, but then step back and let people discover for themselves how to get things done”. In my opinion, this is among remarkable qualities that should be possessed by a great leader. By giving people freedom and continuum for them to show their abilities in order to contribute to the success of the business will eventually awarding the leader with high respect. In reality, not many leaders are brave enough to embrace this quality as they would believe that this quality will put the business in jeopardy; which is another myth in leadership.

I would recommend this book for people who are currently leaders in their respective field, people who are about to lead people in their organizations and those people who have been looking for a manual on leadership which is easier to comprehend by laymen person. If I were to summarize the book into a statement; “The book has been developed in such a way it combines the knowledge on leadership as well as psychology field in one book”. The lesson of “All You Need is Love” proves the statement above as the author tries to connect the very basic concept of nature vs nurture (love vs leadership). According to him; “Leaders need soul, that ability to connect on a personal level with their people. People need to feel that their leaders care about them as people as well as contributors. Call it love”. Hence, the book definitely a thought provoking book as well as one of the greatest leadership book which stimulates the mind to think creatively and work smartly in the world which are scarce in resources.

Genting,genting!

2010-03-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Roxette

I am now at IAB, Genting Highland attending a short course until Friday. Oh yes, sejuk kat sini. :p

I skipped tonight session as I had bad,bad backpain and not to mention perut yang tidak tenteram. hehe

I am currently reading Coelho's "By the River Piedra, I Sat and Wept". Coelho has never failed in his introductory lines and I love him for that. I have always admired his writing style and I have this habit to collect those magic lines and wrote them in my special book. At the same time, I'm also reading a book on Bilal bin Rabah, Prophet's (pbuh) beloved friend. It is an interesting book to read and full with emotions. Yes, I almost cried reading his great sacrifices in the name of Islam. MasyaAllah...

Anyhoo, I have annoucement to make. I have created another blog to rant about you-know-what. Alah, that big secret.. For those of you who are interested to read the blog, you are most welcome to send in your email address at hamizah.aimi@gmail.com to receive the invitation from me.

Happy,happy,happy day people! :)

#7 The Magic Number

2010-03-01T02:46:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Jewel (Goodbye Alice in Wonderland)

After much procrastination and whatnot, here goes;

1. Mimi is born to be indecisive.period.
Yes, I can be the pain in the as when it comes to making decision. Susah weh nak pilih. To the extend that I had difficulties to choose between Italian B.M.T or Subway Club at Subway yesterday. Poor my husband. haha

2. Mimi has short tempered.
Betul. Tanya la suami saya. Dia sangat mengerti. :p And I'm not proud of this.

3. Mimi watched Friends EVERYDAY.
Never missed a day. Seriously. I am Phoebe's imaginary friend. :)

4. Mimi likes to cook but not ironing.
I like to try new recipes and sometimes I do wonders on the food by putting not so talented creativity. haha.. My dream is to get an affordable-good-oven so that I can start roasting and baking. I am craving for Pavlova! Ironing is a big no-no. Had discussion with my husband yesterday. He told me that its been a while since the last time i helped him ironed his shirts. Like bullet rush to the head la his statement. haha

5. Mimi owns a doraemon-handbag.
You can ask anything from the bag but you will hardly get what you want when you really wish for it. haha.. Bila taknak tu, semua barang ada. From scissor to glue to nail clipper to hand sanitizer. You name it. I have it all. Assam pon ada nowadays. ehem

6. Mimi wishes she could be a teacher among all the fancies jobs.
How? I have been depriving myself for this one little ambition that I had. I keep postponing my dream and now I seriously do not know how to postpone it anymore.

7. Mimi has a secret. But she won't tell until she and the other half and the quarter half are ready to tell the world.
Yes, rahsia besar. Will keep you guys posted. :))

Roadtrip(s)

2010-02-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Dixie Chicks

My february this year, starts with roadtrip(s). Although technically the PD trip fall on 31st January, but let just assume it happened in February. hehe

International Water Chalet, The Legend Hotel, PD

It was a holiday-break that I have always wanting for. Get to sit together with the whole family of mine after crazy weeks at work. A good theraphy, I must say. The water chalet is equipped with a private pool where you can swim anytime you want, wearing non-dress-code-swimsuits and the like. Sangat best!!! Although I am not a swimmer, I still enjoy my berendam time with my niece, Ameera and the husband. The husband was literally sugar high as he kept terjun in the pool. Serious, I have never seen him like that. Syukur to Allah for the opportunity to spend some quality time with family. The time that I have been longing for.

Jahor Bharu-Danga Bay

The next day we headed to Johor Bharu to visit our dearest friend at Bukit Serene. The journey to JB was hot like ****. And the AC is not functioning well. Just imagined how hot and depressed I was. hehe

We arrived at Danga Bay at 3ish pm. Spent the night at the budget hotel next to Danga Bay. The hotel was okay and I totally recommended for those who wanted to spend there. Later at night, we make our move to Bukit Serene for tahlil. Had our dinner there with the warmest hostess ever. Talked until late night, seriously. Another Syukur for being able to meet them and for their warm acceptance. Thank you, thank you. You know who you are.

Back to the future

Now back to the reality. Works are piling up and you can notice that my post becoming shorter in every new post. haha
I need something new. Seriously.
I need have a long conversation regarding works and the like. I really need this pronto.

Will upload our roadtrip(s) pictures soon I get home. Really? haha

Anyhoo, congratulation to Athiah Ilyana and her partner on their marriage. You look gorgeuos as usual. May happiness always be yours. :))

Oh and PLEASE REMEMBER FEBRUARY IS MY BIRTHDAY MONTH. ALL BFFS PLEASE TAKE NOTE YA! Pun intended. haha

The New Normal

2010-01-17T18:15:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: The Calling (One by One)

So it is proven that I will blog once a month in this blog? Yucks! (Im so wanna retire soon. Call me crazy but it is the truth. Ter'emo' la pula di sini)

1. The life has been great since the day I decided to serve the gomen. Nothing fancy about the job, really. Working late has been 'normal' in my life definition. Mr husband has been extra patience ever since. I need to give an extra credit to him for the willingness to wait for his wife after work, and sometime the job requires me to stayback until 9pm. Thank you very much Love. I am very much in debt to you. Although there are times when stress and crankiness took control of me, you managed to handle everything in your simplicity. Terima kasih ya.

2. I did some shopping spree earlier this month. Got myself 4 shirts from Dorothy Perkins. Each cost me RM35.90. Ok la kan? Bought 2 books for Hanna and Sarah for their belated birthday presents which reminds me that I have yet to go to the Post Office. Need to ask husband to help me on this pronto. To Hanna and Sarah, if you are reading this, sorry for the late late delivery k. You know how helpless I am. Got myself 3 books too. Two books are from Penguine Collection and the real reason why I decided to buy the books, are to redeem the limited edition shopping bag from them. Serious. Did I tell you that I am addicted to shopping bag(s)? haha

I had this 'sickness' ever since the green, recycle, love your mother-nature and the like campaign took place everywhere. I cannot resist the demand originated from inner me, so to speak. haha.. Since then it has become the new normal hobby through which I have collected various forms of bags from different stores; Mercato, Jusco, Body Shop, etc and the worst part is sometimes you need to spend some amount on things in order to redeem the bag. And this is what happening in this case. I need to buy two books from Penguine collection to redeem for a bag. There goes my 60 bucks. Tapi takpe, dapat buku kan. Sedap kan hati mode. hehe And this is not the first. In some other instances I spent hundreds to be able to get the bag. I am in need of shopping-bag rehab. haha

3. My next new normal goes to the used of Makeup. Oh yes, Mimi has transcend with a blusher, BB cream, and a lipstick. All thanks to Elianto.

4. Attended Anne and Cik Ja's wedding last December. Looking forward for a wedding at the end of this month. Jika tidak dapat hadir Cik Tya, saya sentiasa mendoakan kebahagiaan anda. :))

5. The news that I have been wanting to heard this year, My Bff Sarah is officially moving to Malaysia. Woot,woot!!! Finally, I have another couch to crush on to, Baking-Partner, Library-Partner and etc,etc. Yeay!

And that is that.
Take care lovelies. Hugs

To Err is Human

2009-12-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Adele (Daydreamer)

People are vulnerable from making mistakes. I certainly believe that human are imperfect. Sometimes they tend to overlook things. Sometimes they misjudge other human. And sometimes they are just plain in the ass (pardon the words). I have news folks, people make mistakes and they do lie(s).

I subsrcibe to the saying that never regret in whatever you do. Life is full with colours. We learn from our mistakes. Experience makes us wiser. At this age, as humble as i may, i am proud to say that i hold no grudge to people. Life are too short to be miserable, anyway. To err is human, to forgive is divine. The phrase might sounds catchy and simple. But the fact of the matter is, to forgive is the hardest part to do. Having said that, I also hope that the people whom I may have wrong them intentionally or unintentionally in the past, could find some space to forgive me.

BUT,

there are few (i hope so) things that I find it hard for me to digest and to forgive;

1) People who do not value life as it is. See this;

Body of Newborn Baby in Plastic Bag Found at LRT Station

KUALA LUMPUR: The body of a newborn baby girl was found Sunday in a plastic bag on the concrete platform of the Jalan Jelatek LRT station near Sungai Klang.
The body, with the umbilical cord intact, was found by passers-by at 1pm.
Sentul police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan said the baby could have been delivered in the past 24 hours.
The body was sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
"We will wait for the post-mortem report before taking further action," he said.
Zakaria appealed to anyone with information on the case to contact any police station. - Bernama

- taken from the Star Online

Sick isn't? Lain kali nak buang, buang dekat depan rumah saya. Biar saya yang jaga.

And,

2) The Never-Ending War in Palestine

Israel's Peres rejects U.N. Gaza report

Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected a United Nations report on his country's incursion into Gaza as "one-sided" and "unfair" in an interview with CNN.

The U.N. Council for Human Rights last week approved the report, which accuses both Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas of "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the three-week offensive which ended in January.

Peres insisted that Israel had a right to defend itself, and said the United Nations was in danger of "supporting the terrorists instead of supporting the fight against terrorists.
"If you can't fight terrorists, then ... nobody is defending us. We never asked any other people to fight instead of us, but the right of self-defense is non-negotiable," Peres said during Monday's interview.

"I think we have shown courage in war and we have shown devotion in peace and we shall continue to struggle for peace," he said.

-taken from CNN.com

Really? Be a man, will you Peres?

These two things will be at the top of my 'Unforgiven' list. And as of now, only these two are in the list. I do hope i will not have to add more things into the list.

Hope it is not too late to wish Selamat Tahun Baru Maal Hijrah. May this year would turns to be the best among all. :)) InsyaAllah...

2 in 1; Mimi insignificant rant and Book Club; The 5th Session: "A Brief History of Everything"

2009-12-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins)

1. My parents and the aunt have safely landed from Mecca last Thursday. Everyone is in a good shape and I thank Allah for that. It was a very emotional and happy reunion. Alhamdulillah..

2. Ameera, my niece has been super extraordinary these days. No doubt that she has gained A LOT of pounds and yo do not want to know how heavy to dukung her nowadays. Sakit pinggang woo I tell you. And she is VERY talkative now and she is not shy meeting new people. She will be the one who approach other kids and play with them. Oh and, she has started her kindergarten lesson once a week at Smart Reader. Sangat hyper ye ini budak..

3. The work is fine (in denial). Nothing significant to rant about.

4. I have started to read a book by Ken Wilber; A Brief History of Everything. He is a drop out college student but with extraordinary intelligence in philosophy. A must read book. Only RM 32.90 at Kinokuniya. I am recommending this book for those people who had limited knowledge in science, physics, big bang, philosophy, etc,etc.. but do not know where to start. It is a worth book to read. I bought another book by Bill Bryson title; A short history of everything. Sounds similar right? But have yet to read it and find differences (if any) between the two.

5. On the book note; have anyone read Tariq Ramadhan latest book? Would love to explore the book and perhaps you may share the insights of the book. And I have yet to find Davutoglu's book and apparently the latest book by him (2000), has yet to be translated into english. How lah?

The Past, Present, Future

2009-11-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Sugarland (It Happens)

Seriously (in Grey's Anatomy Style), it has been a while since the last time I step my foot (literally la kan) here. And it has been a long hiatus since the last book review that I posted here. I have been too occupied with works (seriously) and adjusting myself to the new environment. I do not know how many loyal readers that I have (as I always mentioned in my previous post) but for me number is just a number. I received few comments from my silence readers lately and certainly you guys have made my day with your warm words. I feel good and grateful when people commenting on how my book reviews here, have helped them a lot. They enjoyed reading it very much. Please note that, I'm writing this is not for the purpose of showing off or whatnot. My intention is to acknowledge what people have commented here. With that, I want to thank all of you for the sweet and honest comments. It has very much made my day. :))

The Past

For those who have not know yet, I am no longer working at Introspek Asia. I have tender my resignation in October. I had hard time in making the decision to leave the company as my relationship with the colleagues there is like a family. This is the place where I found my first mentor in career life. I gain a lot of knowledge there; from managing a company to the way of making good research. I learned the basic principles of networking and the need for effective communication. I cried during my last at the company which was very embarrassing but that's just sum up of how I felt towards the company.

The Present

I am officially a PTD. I have been posted to KPWKM since 8th November 2009 as PSU in International Relations Department. My post requires me to handle bilateral relations and ASEAN related matters regarding women, family and community issues. On the very first day at the ministry, my first task was to draft a speech for the minister and since then the works are piling up by every hours. I am not exaggerating here. This is the truth; as in my case lah. Yesterday I received a delegation from an NGO from Cambodia and this morning I attended a meeting chaired by TKSU MITI and looking at the audience who came, I would say I am the junior among all. And these all happening within my very first few days in the ministry. My point here is, if you are interested to join the force, please be aware that, the job is not as easy as you may have heard before. You need to be well prepared. Kalau nak tengok orang relax, maybe staff sokongan ada lah but not the officers. Booorring :p

The Future

Apa eh? I hope that my life here at the ministry would become one of the great journey that I ever had. I pray that Allah make it easier for me. On the sideline, I am also hoping that I am able to advocate the rights that need to be championed. Oh and, and, I hope I will be able to finish the draft of minister's speech by next week. There goes my hari raya. sob,sob,sob. berkorban la konon.. LOL

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha!!! :))

Book Club; The 4th Session - The Cultural Creatives by Paul H.Ray and Sherry Ruth

2009-10-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Missy Higgins

I have yet to read the whole book. But after reading the first two chapters, the book totally got me hooked up into it. It was the boss who recommended to read the book in order to help us in developing new set of questionnaire. The title of the book is a term coined by sociologist Paul H Ray and Psychologist Sherry Ruth, who both are the author and the co-author of the book. The book is based on their claim to have found that 50 million (in the year of 2000) adult Americans can now be identified as belonging to this group. If you are interested to know more on the concept, you may do so by going to their website http://www.culturalcreatives.org/home.html

But first, you may want to answer this simple question first;

Are you a Cultural Creative? This list can give you an idea. Choose the statements that you agree with.

You are likely to be a Cultural Creative if you...

1. ...love Nature and are deeply concerned about its destruction
2. ...are strongly aware of the problems of the whole planet (global warming, destruction of rainforests, overpopulation, lack of ecological sustainability, exploitation of people in poorer countries) and want to see more action on them, such as limiting economic growth

3. ...would pay more taxes or pay more for consumer goods if you could know the money would go to clean up the environment and to stop global warming

4. ...place a great deal of importance on developing and maintaining your relationships

5. ...place a lot of value on helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts

6. ...do volunteering for one or more good causes

7. ...care intensely about both psychological and spiritual development

8. ...see spirituality or religion as important in your life, but are concerned about the role of the Religious Right in politics

9. ...want more equality for women at work, and more women leaders in business and politics

10. ...are concerned about violence and abuse of women and children around the world

11. ...want our politics and government spending to put more emphasis on children's education and well-being, on rebuilding our neighborhoods and communities, and on creating an ecologically sustainable future

12. ...are unhappy with both the Left and the Right in politics, and want a to find a new way that is not in the mushy middle

13. ...tend to be somewhat optimistic about our future, and distrust the cynical and pessimistic view that is given by the media

14. ...want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country

15. ...are concerned about what the big corporations are doing in the name of making more profits: downsizing, creating environmental problems, and exploiting poorer countries

16. ...have your finances and spending under control, and are not concerned about overspending

17. ...dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and "making it," on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods

18. ...like people and places that are exotic and foreign, and like experiencing and learning about other ways of life.

If you agreed with 10 or more, you probably are a Cultural Creative.

taken from; http://www.culturalcreatives.org

The book in some ways did open up my mind and I came to realize that there are vast and new concepts out there that I have never think about. I always making excuses that I have limited time to read, but the more I keep making one, I will end up not knowing of everything or becoming ignorant. The procrastination should stop now. If you do not have much time to read, just go to their website and you can find a summary and the current writings on the subject. Happy reading!!!

Entri ini sangat cliche. Sekian, terima kasih.

2009-10-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Jakob Dylan

Saya rindu dia. 5 days to go.
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Saya tahu. Macam corny sangat kan. Alah, sekali setahun je. Please bear with me. :p

note: En suami jangan marah ye? Boleh ke nak minta tolong, don't tell him that I published his photo here, can? hehe

P/s: My parents and the aunt has safely arrived at Medina airport this morning. Thank you for your kind prayers. You know who you are.

And, I have tender my resignation to the current company that I worked for. Nothing personal. Just looking for other new opportunities out there. The time has comes, I presumed. Ye ke? LOL

A reminder to the self

2009-10-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Suara hati

"Then, when u've taken a decision put your trust in Allah. For Allah loves those who put trust in Him"

(Ali Imran:159)

P/s: Cik diri sendiri, selalu ingat ini ya?

Random Thoughts II

2009-10-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Stereophonics

1. DUKE Highway is insanely stupid. Why the Smart Tag lane is only open at ONE lane but to cater HUNDREDS of cars? This is too irony to comprehend. Isn't 'the very basic existence' of Smart Tag to help smooth the traffic? Aiyoo!!

2. I have been observing for quiet sometimes now, and if I may conclude that Malaysians are too selfish when it comes to line up at the train (especially monorail) station, driving and whatnot. This selfish breed always think that they are in hurry and they must go first above all people. Yello brader, I paid the same fee that you did, would that make us equal? And another thing that annoys me the most is when this breed do not want to go inside the train but rather to stand next to door. I know that you wanted to go out at the next stop, but do you see people waiting outside to come in? Adoi la weh..

3. Oh ok, this one is funny. This is based from my friend first-hand experience. Currently, it is the trend for some Muslims ladies to wear a dress plus with lining and jeans/slack. So you know that sometimes this dress came with a belt attached to the dress. And sometimes, people mistakenly assumed that you are pregnant while donning this type of dress. This is what happened to my dear friend (sorry ye, cik fiza, hehe). In a monorail, she has been offered to a seat by this kind fellow who assumed that shes pregnant. My friend being in her cool mode, accepted the offer. Using this incident as a case study, I am now berhati-berhati dalam meng'offer' my seat people. Lagi senang tak payah duduk. LOL

4. My parents and the aunt have been confirmed to fly to Medina this coming 27th and later to perform hajj. I am glad with this opportunity and hope everything will goes well as what we have prayed. Insya Allah...

5. The husband is going to Korea on 24th until the 2nd for work. So ladies and gentlemen, according to my calculation it is 10 days (including the 24th; because he will not be at home starting that day). But according to him it is 9 days instead of 10 days. Why am i so concerned about the figure? This is because, i will now entitled to have 10 days holidays alone/with girlfriends. Not that I am not looking forward to spend time/ holiday with him or whatnot (which is the best actually), but sometimes i do want to be able to spend time with girlfriends too. Bole tak? hehe..
So Singapore, here I come!!! :))

6. I am now reading Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" after so many procrastination. Hey, it is better than never ah? (alert: sedap kan hati mode).

The One with A Guy Who Cannot Park

2009-10-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Pixie Lott

disclaimer: This post is just another 'self therapy' after an incident which happened last month. The writer wish to disclose personal information of people who involved in the incident and hope that this post serves as a reminder to us.

I have been living in Ampang, specifically Taman Sri Watan for 24 years now. My age, literally. In my entire life, I have never moved out to any other places. I have never experienced, meeting new faces at school, at the resident and what not. Suffice to say I am accustomed to Ampang. This is the place where I called my home, my sanctuary (minus the infamous traffic jam, of course). Although technically I have moved out from my parents house for 5 months now, I find it difficult to change my answer when people asked me this, in this scenario(s);

1. During an event at Johor Palace in KL.

Datin: Tinggal kat mana?

Me: Ampang.

Husband: What? (and starting to roll his eyes (betul tak tipu))

Me: Alah, I cannot helped it la. Used to that 'formal' answer. Bad habit dies hard.

2. During an event at a kenduri in taman melati (neighbor's kenduri)

Makcik Vogue: Cantik baju awak. Tinggal kat mana?

Me: Terima kasih. Makcik pun apa kurangnya (me being polite). Tinggal kat Ampang.

Makcik Vogue: Oh ingat tingal dekat sini. Selalu nampak awak ulang-alik turun blok sebelah tu. Salah orang la kot.

Me: Errr...

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. I have embarrassed myself up to that extent. I do not know why, but I am still appeal to consider myself as living in Ampang. Boleh tak in denial? hehe

I have always treasured my memories while I still reside in Ampang. I met new people and established friendship with them. During this 24 years residing at Sri Watan, I have came to know several types of neighbor.

I had good neighbor; who likes to gives food, who likes to organise makan-makan every month, who likes to tease me, who went to school with me, etc. And not to mention, I also had neighbor; who likes to jamming at the wee hours, who is an actress and wants people to notice her, who likes to go around and spreading words about other and the like. Mind you, although I do categorized some neighbors as fall under bad category, I have never hate them. But this would be the first time in my life after 24 years residing in Ampang, I met the worst self-centred person in my life.

I lived in a terrace house resident. In front of my house (outside the gate) there is a space for cars to park if people come to visit us. As my family owns three cars, and the space (inside the gate) is just suits for two cars, so the third car will always be parked outside the house gate. We have never had problem before on where to park the car so as to my other neighbor. Sometimes my neighbor who lives across the street will park at the spot and we never bothered with that. Our life was perfect until came T in our life (drama seyh. hehe).

I remembered it was a fine evening and me and my sister were watching Buletin Utama. Suddenly the bell rang, and my sister quickly went to the door. Here are the excerpt of what happened:

Sister: Ada apa ye?

T: Boleh alih kereta tak? Kalau nak parking kereta tu, janganla sampai masuk rumah orang. Tengok tiang rumah tu kalau nak parking. Skang dah susahkan orang. Tak reti ke nak parking. (not his exact words)

Sister: Pakcik ni tak boleh cakap elok-elok sikit ke. Dahla tengah azan Isyak ni. Selama ni kami takde masalah nak parking. Cubala timbang rasa sikit.
My sister went to move the car.

Sombong gila kan? The funny thing is, he choose to park his car outside the house, although he had the space inside the house. Self-centred he is, big time. And with no manners too. And the other funny thing was, after my sister moved the car, less than 5 minutes T left his house and literally left the parking spot. Sakit hati kan? Sabar je la banyak2.

After few months of the incident, we literally left the parking spot unoccupied to avoid misunderstanding in the future. And you might guess that we have a bad relationship with T, and you are so true. To show how disrespect he was, he even cannot bring himself to my kenduri which took place last June. Gila kepala batu kan.. I think he better move in to Batu Caves because of his failure to understand basic human relations.

Ever heard about the old Malay saying of; makan ludah sendiri or mengata orang lebih, tapi diri sendiri pun terlebih.... or something like that. Forgive my err, if any. hehe. Translation: You

So this is what happened after the incident in April.

Now tell me, who cross the line?
info: The blue car belongs to T, while the black belongs to us.
The wall/fence with hole is the starting point of T's wall/fence.So this picture clearly proven that he definitely crossed the line.

and pakcik what about this one;

Gotcha!! You bet, I did!!

Moral of the story: Pakcik, janganlah cakap kasar-kasar dekat orang. Kan sekarang dah susah. Malu tak?

End

The Other Side of Mimi

2009-10-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Aqualung

I've been watching your world from afar,
I've been trying to be where you are,
And I've been secretly falling apart,
I'll see.
To me, you're strange and you're beautiful,
You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see,
You turn every head but you don't see me.

I'll put a spell on you,
You'll fall asleep
and I'll put a spell on you.
And when I wake you,
I'll be the first thing you see,
And you'll realize that you love me.

Nota kaki: En suami, bila mahu dedicate lagu ini? :)

Book Club; The 3rd Session - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

2009-09-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Friends (The One with a chick, and a duck)

I have to confess, this book has been at the shelf for quite sometimes, or to be precise I bought the book at the time I was prepping for my book's hantaran. hehe

I decided to buy the book after reading a review of the book at the Time Magazine. At that time, I have never read the previous books written by Gladwell except a chapter from Blink. And I must say I am very much interested with the contents. So, when I saw the Outliers already reach Malaysia's Bookstore, I thought it is better for me to buy the complete works of Gladwell in order to understand his thinking. The books purchase are totally worth buying. Reading Tipping Point has added a new dimension in viewing the world that we live in. A mind blowing, I must say.

In The Tipping Point, Gladwell changed the way we understand the world. In Blink, he changed the way we think about thinking. Outliers will transform the way we understand success.

I know that not everyone likes to read a book full with theories and facts. Sometimes i feel hard to digest information taken from theory book like management, business, and the like. Imagined, reading Peter Drucker talking about management in the 21st century. I bet, baru sampai 3rd page pun dah ngantuk kan. hehe..

One thing about Gladwell that makes laymen like me who happened to be too lazy to read a theory book, is the way he explained his theory using a story. He will find a story and relates it with the theory. Definitely he is a Master-Story Telling. That is why, people like me are appeal and interested to read his books. In Outliers, he started by giving a case study of people in Roseto, US. The following chapters; The Matthew Effect, The Trouble with Geniuses, The Three Lessons of Joe Flom, Rice Paddies and Math Test, .... are all written using the real story which happened related to his theory.

Outlier is a noun. 1) It defines as something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body.
2) A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.

" There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story about intelligence and ambition. Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how and why some people thrive, we should look around them - at things like their family, their birthplace, even their birth date".

An excerpt from the book;

" I remember going to Roseto for the first time, and you'd see three-generational family meals, all the bakeries, the people walking up and down the street, sitting on their porches talking to each other, the blouse mills where the women working during the day, while the men worked in the slate querries, "Bruhn said. "It was magical". When Bruhn and Wolf first presented their findings to the medical community, you can imagine the kind of skepticism they faced. Tehy went to conferences where their peers were presenting long rows of data arrayed in complex charts and referrring to this kind of gene or that kind of physiological process, and they themselves were talking instead about the mysterious and magical benefits of people stopping to talk to one another on the street and of having three generations under one roof. Living a long life, the conventional wisdom at the time said, depended to a great extent on who we were - that is, our genes. It depended on the decisions we made - on what we chose to eat, and how much we chose to exercise, and how effectively we were treated by the medical system. No one was used to thinkong about healt in terms of community".

If you want a food-for-thought kind of book, you might want to give it a try to read Gladwell's works. You will not be dissappointed. That, I can promise you. :))

Anyway, is there anyone who happened to read David Eddings works; The Belgariad, The Malloreon, Polgara The Sorcerer... ?? If you happened to read one of those, let me know as I have been searching for peeps who love Eddings works since forever kot.. hehe.. I have been wanting to borak2 about his works.

Have fun reading!!!

Eid Mubarak!!

2009-09-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Balik Kampung (Sudirman)

While writing this post, I have to admit that my mind and heart has already landed somewhere in Kelantan. No more work, can? hehe

This year marks my first celebration of raya as a wife. As for Raya preparation, we decided to have a low-key raya. Sape suh gomen tak bagi bonus kan? :p I bought several types of kuih raya, kerepek and whatnot. The house is still not in the raya mood as both of us were too busy with works. Pandai betul kerja ni, nak dekat raya baru belambak.

After work today, we will drive back to KB and on the second day of Raya, we are planning to visit my parents in Perak. I have packed a bag of tid bits in anticipating the infamous traffic jams of karak-gua musang tonight. Hopefully, everything goes well according to plan.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends, the readers and to all my fellow Muslim, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin. May we have a blessed celebration.

Love,
mimi

P/s: Sila roger ye sapa ada buat open house. teheee~

The One with Luggage Crisis

2009-09-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Norah Jones

Just went back from working trip in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu for three days. It was working and fun trip altogether. And tiring too. The shopping part was fun but not the travelling part. Penat woo.. As a result of that, I am down with bad flu for the weekend. tsk,tsk,tsk

Day 1

I have been to Kuching twice with my family. So, Kuching is not a foreign land to me. I even planned earlier on what to buy and where to go upon arrival there. Not only that, I already had shopping list made by the family (panjang okay the list. some more all the things that they ordered semua pun berat-berat. This is why, I had luggage crisis on the trip). Being a well-prepared tourist (ehem, :p) I decided to bring extra bag(s) to accomodate those things that I am about to buy.

We arrived at the Grand Continental, Kuching at 11 am. The day before, I had my homework on the hotel. Turns out the hotel received bad reviews; 7 out of 10 reviews. So I already expected to receive bad services or whatnot. To my surprise, the hotel reviews were wrong after all. Okay, ada la yang betul jugak. But overall seems perfect to me. I totally recommended this hotel if you have little budget in hand. Or else, try Grand Margharita or Hilton which are located in the town-centre.

Being a multi-tasker (chewah..) kerja-kerja jugak but the shopping spree must go on too. The best thing about the trip is when your travel partner has a lot of friends in any town you went. Kudos to Cik Rubian for making the short trip; hassle-free. hehe... After we took our luggage to our room, we were then been pick up by Rubian's friend; Angela to the town. Senang kan. Some more she sends her staff to accompany us to the Kek Lapis shop so that he can help in bargain the price for us. Sangat baik kan. Let the pictures do the justice, shall we;

Our journey continue later at the night. We went to Taman Kereta to indulge ourselves with cheap seafood. We had Steam Garoupa with Stir-fry Paku Pakis with shrimp. Sangat sedap okay. And to accompany the seafood, we ordered the super-delicious "tiga masam" drink; the combination of lemon, lime and calamansi.

Day 2

Went to Pasar Satok to buy Udang Salai for my aunty and Ikan Terubok Masin before left to KK. Not so many people were there maybe because it is fasting month. The market has many things to cater your needs. From the traditional curry paste to the Infamous Udang Salai, you can get anything here.

Arrived in KK at 5pm. Went directly to the hotel to check in. This is when all the drama started. We stayed at Cititel Express Hotel. It is a brand new hotel. Just recently launched. So you can expect the kelam-kabutness of the staff and how inexperienced they were. And the funny thing is the hotel only open until 6th floor, while the remaining floors are still under construction. Gila ah.

We already made the hotel and meeting's room payment earlier. So we were ecpected to get fast service. In contrary, it took the staff 30mins to arrange for our room. After finally getting the keys, we went to the room. To our surprise the room is so freaking small. I have never imagined to pay RM150++ and received such a tiny room. We decided to get other room instead of this and to our surprise (again) since the hotel is half-open, all the big rooms are not available. Crazy kan. Later we end up 'cramped' in a twin-bed sharing with no windows. Yes no windows. And, and the hotel is not a Muslim-friendly hotel. There is no kiblat sign found in the room and with limited space it is difficult for you to pray inside the room. After much thought, rather spending time in the room we better make our move to the filipino market and get some shopping theraphy. hehe

One thing you need to know about Filipino Market. It is a HUGE market with many stalls selling ONLY PEARLS. Can you imagines, how rabun mata and jakun I was? :p

After getting pearl-theraphy at the Filipino Market, we off to find place for breaking fast. Nect to Filipino Market, there is a wet and dry market where you can buy foods and eat there. This is the place where I bought many many Amplang to KL. Sangat sedap okay..
We decided to stroll at the market and find foods for berbuka. Okay, I have to admit here, I was so jakun when I bought pisang goreng for the price of RM 1 for 8pcs. Cheap! We also treated ourselves with the unique mee goreng which apparently only available in KK. I even considered to bring the mee to KL with me. hehe.. Later at the night we went for lepak-ing session with Rubian's friend; Petra at the Waterfront. Lawa seyh the scenery.

This mark my first trip to KK. I had fun in KK and certainly will come back for more exploration. In a future, I am planning to go to the Tip of Borneo and perhaps to Mount Kinabalu? Any takers? teheee~

So thats conclude my three days journey to Kuching and KK. Hope to come back soon. Definitely this time I would want to buy another large suitcase. :p

Mimi's Imaginary Book Club. 2nd Session: A Thousand Splendid Suns

2009-08-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Matthew Ryan (Return to Me)

I have always wanted to join a book club since my university years. I am aware that, the concept of book club can be considered as 'alien' in Malaysia. Not many people are interested to join this 'mundane' club or if they were people who are interested, they do not know where to begin (speaking from my experience). I remembered back in university years, I was highly encouraged to establish a book club. Funding(s) would not be the problem. But rather to find people would be the hurdle in making the book club to be a reality. To nurture the interest to read would be other problem. And not to forget, to commit to the club also among problem that I faced.

So rather making my dream simply shattered like that, me in a very humble way are going to launch Mimi's Imaginary Book Club effective immediately. LOL. I am aware that at some points I will be de-motivated and thus led to the closing down of the club (chewah, cakap macam real je. haha), but lets pray it would last. Shall we?

As the club will be operating at my blog due to lack of funding (haha), you may leave your comments, views or even if you have books/articles to share, do not hesitate to email me. Oh and, I am also aware that I might not receive any comments from you on this, and I am fine with that. The reason I created this platform is for knowledge-sharing purposes. If it suits you to be the silent reader, I am not going to impose you with anything. Feel free to read, and if its beneficial for you, I am happy that I am able to share the limited knowledge that I had with the rest of you. Lets begin the session. Shall we..

2nd Session: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I bought the book from the The Times Clearance Sale at CapSquare KL. By now, you know that I am crazy over Book's Clearence Sale and will goo goo gaa gaa over books. hehe. I had a very pleasant experience with the book. From the day I started reading the book, I can already tell that I am in for a good journey. The setting of the book is in the land of Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini is famous for his work; The Kite Runner which has turned to be a major picture. Below are my 2cents on the book;

If you happened to be a fan of oriental world, this book will definitely adding up the missing little pieces in understanding the beauty of oriental world. Being a Said's fan, I find myself appeal to the oriental-related works. This book gives the opportunity to the reader to explore the root of Afghanistan history and at the same time experienced what it is like to be in a war country.
As I have mentioned earlier, this book provides the reader with the history of Afghanistan in a very interesting way, so for those of you who are too lazy to read the history book, you can have a brief picture of what happened and still happening in this warn-torn country. It is sad but real.
The two main characters of the book are women who are struggle for their emancipation. One thing that I loved (among other things) are the Hosseini's portrayal of the women. He managed to portray a women with dignity. A women who are being left out from the society but still able to equipped herself with education. It is a heart-breaking journey, but it is far from desperate and too cliche.
Oh and, when I mentioned about history earlier, the book is not boring as you may have presumed. You can feel the excitement of reading it and you certainly do not want to not read it. I have to tell you the truth here, I may have watched The Kite Runner, but I have yet to read the book. So I probably will read the book as I had positve vibe while reading this book.
If taknak beli the book, you can always borrow from me. :))
An excerpt from the book:

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls". - Saib-e-Tabrizi

Some praises for the book:

"Just in case you're wondering whether ... (A Thousand Splendid Suns) is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better." - The Washington Post
"A Thousand Splendid Suns is an ambitious work. Once again the setting is Afghanistan, but this time Hosseini has taken the last thirty-three years of that country's tumultuous history of war and oppression and told it on an intimate scale, through the lives of two women." -The New York Times
Khaled Hosseini has the storytelling gift. He offers us the sweep of historic upheavels narrated with the intimacy of family and village life." - Los Angeles Times

And that is that folks. Have a Barakah Ramadhan!!! :))

Never Seen Before - Mimi's Wedding Scoop

2009-08-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Broken Strings (James Morrison feat Nelly Furtado)

I have been asked by few good friends who are about to tie the knot with their partners, on several wedding-related matters. Having said that, this post is mainly for those who wanted to have 101 information on preparing your big day (purely based from moi experience).

In my experience; in a very honest mode, preparation for the wedding has taken a lot of my times away. I do not have the luxury to hire a wedding planner or assistant(s) that I can yelled and make them do things for me. Hehe. Unfortunately, I just have myself and the husband to do research (you certainly don’t want know how much time it takes to surf the net, google-ing, and whatnot), do bargains, and etc,etc. To tell you the truth, I am in-charge of EVERYTHING starting from the design of the three dresses to the buying of the material(s), from the ‘hantaran’ concept to the design of ‘pelamin’, the infamous door-gift(s) and the list may goes on…

From the day the husband proposed to me which led to the very low-key merisik + engagement ceremony in December 2008 (I never had an official engagement ceremony, suffice to say I only had merisik before the reception. Thank God, my parents were fine with that.), I am officially left with five months to prepare the big day. Imagine the craziness that I have to bear. Sangat pening to the max okay.

Here, I am about to present to you, everything that you wanted to know about Mimi’s wedding (if you want to la kan). If you find the tips/suggestions/ideas below are beneficial for you, I am glad that I am contributing something to your big day. Let’s start the show, shall we.

1. Wedding Dress
I had two not-so-wedding dresses for Ampang reception; Baju Kebaya for Akad’s and Baju Kurung Moden for reception. Me and the husband went to several boutiques in KL before decided to pick Kak Eilla from Busana Cinta @ Pertama Complex as our tailor. We were recommended by Kak Fynn Jamal (who is seriously kind and helped a lot in giving her two cents on the prepping. I am glad for her helps and May Allah bless her) who happened to be Kak Eilla ex-client. One thing about Kak Eilla is she knows how to design a dress that will complement your body. She also gave advices on how to choose a good material for the baju’s. Using her advice, we went to Gulatis to buy the material(s) for the two dresses and two Baju Melayu for the husband. The husband is so not into laces and therefore we decided to have chiffon instead. For the two dresses, the tailor’s fee was RM350-400 each and the two Baju Melayu is RM150-200 each.

For the Kelantan’s reception, we decided to pick Ashley from Kapas @ Great Eastern Mall to be our tailor. Professional is a perfect word to define Ashley, apart from being friendly. I had a one piece white-dress with an extravagant veil. The wedding shoes was also bought from Kapas. The tailor’s fee (including material(s)) is in the range of RM1k++ and it is negotiable.

2. Hantaran

Had the crazy idea to use fresh flowers as the based for the hantaran. Yes, it was crazy when you have no choice but to prepare the hantaran the day before the reception. With the tonnes of works piling up every second, my advise would be, “Do not try this at home”. Haha.. Serious weh, if you decided to use fresh flowers for the hantaran you may do so, but ask other people to do the hantaran for you. Or else your face need extra-touch up for the reception. Hehe.. The advice implies to the bride who at the same time is the wedding planner; like me.

3. Photographer

As for me, this category falls under husband’s jurisdiction. Since the day he proposed to me, he already had in mind which photographer should be hired for the day. To cut the story short, we pick Candid Syndrome to be our official photographer for the two receptions. I would say, I am beyond satisfied with the work of the photographer(s). Many thanks to Udey Ismail who gave his best shots in capturing the moment that I could not imagined being this beautiful. And for the first time in my life, I got the chance to have my Ayah’s picture smiling (even laughing) for my safe keeping. The thing with my Ayah is he rarely smiled when people took his pictures. Macam miracle gitu. Tehee~ And, and not to forget many thanks to the other photographer(s); En Gg and En Ahmad Ghasan. If you interested to have them as your photographer, make sure to book as early as possible. In my case, I booked them sometimes in November 2008. Crazy kan? Haha.. Go to their website and make an appointment with them to know the price. They are super friendly and eventually you will end up bridging a friendship with them.

4. Pelamin

In case you haven’t noticed yet, I am the Super-Bride and because of that I like (in denial) to do everything for the reception. Gila kuasa? Hell yeah.. haha.. So yes, we had a simple pelamin, touch-up with fresh flowers and large sized vase bought from Ikea. For the backdrop, it was custom made by the dearest sisters of mine; Erna and Fiza. And, and for the additional decorations (which was superb by the way) was a spontaneous idea of the other sister of mine; Syima. You guys are angel sent by God (seriously).

5. Caterer

I had no problem to choose which caterer to be used for the day, since my Mak wanted to use Fajara Caterer who catered my sister’s reception back in 2001. The truth is the food taste similar like what we had previously. The rendang daging and acar buah are to die for. Super delicious, I tell you. Hehe.. Fajara Caterer also responsible for the canopy and whatnot. The charges for the food was RM9 per pax and RM250-300 per canopy (including tables, chairs, etc,etc).

6. Wedding Card

Ampang’s Reception: We used Kanda Dinda service for this reception. The price is reasonable provided with a lot of design for you to choose from. They are professional and the plus point is they delivered the card on time. You may visit their website for more details. And the also entertain online-order for those who reside outside KL.

Kelantan’s Reception: It was husband idea to custom - made the card. Yes, we made the card by ourselves or more like husband’s creation (since I am too lazy, teheee~). For the picture of the card, you may browse it, at my facebook page. Sumpah lawa (from my friends comments, hehe).

7. Door Gift

The search for perfect door gift is indeed very challenging journey. I still remember it was two weeks before the wedding, and we still do not have the solution for the door gift. Later, while ‘strolling’ at Tesco that husband got the idea to give small plant to the guest. I was very excited at first but later figured out the idea was meant for Kelantan Reception and not mine (oh I still remember husband’s funny faces and how annoying he was back then when he finally solved the issue for his side. Gila jahat). Later, after few attempts visiting Ikea for table coaster, Tesco for mugs, and browsing several websites for cupcakes failed, it was at Max Value, Ampang that I got the idea to have non-woven bag a.k.a shopping bag for the doorgift.

The next few days were very critical for me as I need to find the vendor and at the same time to bargain for good price. At one point I was already gave up when majority of the vendors gave unreasonable price. Later, thanks to husband who managed to find a vendor from Penang with reasonable price. It was a risky decision as all the transactions were made online. If the vendor intends to cheat me, I would not have any idea and I do not got the chance to preview the bag physically. Sangat scary okay. Dah la nak dekat reception. You don’t want to know how many sleepless nights that I had before the day.

8. Makeup

This was easy. I agreed to use my cousin’s friend who happened to be UIA’s lecturer to be my makeup artist (gempak kan saya. Haha). Kak Shan’s was superb and you may visit her blog for more details. Harga pun sangat okay.

9. Hand Bouquet

This was funny. I totally forgot to order for the hand bouquet until the final week ofthe reception. After browsing several website(s), me and the husband decided to choose Kerja Kahwin. I am very much satisfied with the work and on top of that the price is reasonable. RM 60 per bouquet; okay la kan?

10. Bridesmaids

I remembered Majie Popo once asked me; “Mimi could you give me the exact numbers of your bridesmaids? Knowing you, semua pun you nak ajak join the parade.” And yes, I had a never-ending list of bridesmaid’s names. If possible, I want to have those who think that they are close to me to be my bridesmaids. So at the end of the day, I had like 10 prettiest bridesmaids showed up during the reception with matching baju kurung and whatnot. I am truly honored to have them and God knows how super happy I am. I will never forget the craziness that we had and the effort or should I say the attempt to kidnap me for bridal shower. Seriously thank you gazillion much.

There you go, all-you-want-to-know of Mimi’s Little Wedding.

Eid Mubarak and may this Ramadhan bring new lights to our household. Insya Allah..

Something worth to share #1

2009-07-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Marvin Gaye (Trouble Man)

Went to Times Bookstores Book Clearance Fair at Capsquare on Tuesday, last week. At first when I heard about the fair, I thought it would be 'dull' fair, similar to Pay Less Book Clearance Fair. But surprisingly, this is not the case. There are A LOT of titles to be choosed from, including the Best- Sellers. For Best-Seller series you are entitiled to get 30% discounts. They even have 3 books for one price section. Seriously, I would recommend my friends to go there. And the best part is, you do not need to pay for the parking fee if you are driving and if you are taking train, you may take Putra LRT and stop at Dang Wangi Station. Walk until you see AIA building. Capsquare is opposite AIA building and next to Jalan Bunus/Masjid India (alah yang dekat kedai tudung Ariani itu)

One thing that I dislike about the Pay Less Book Clearance Fair is that, i find it hard for me to search for the book(s) that I wanted to buy. At Pay Less Book Clearance Fair, you need to have some sort of magic or recite some charms before enter the fair, praying that your eyes will work wondrously in finding the books. If you are less patience like me, my advice, think twice before you decided to go. That's my opinion la kan. Having said that, I prefer to 'bersesak-sesak' at MPH Book Clearance Fair as I am sure that the book(s) that I am looking for are there waiting for me to pick them up. hehe (exception need to be made towards Edward Said's Books. I do not know why but his books are hardly to get at cheaper price). And thank God that, Times Bookstore Clearance Fair is similar to MPH Clearance sale. I am satisfied with the book purchased and if I ever got few more bucks, i think i might buy everything that i see. Serious, tempted okay. teheee~ Soon i think I can write "Confession of a Book-Shopaholic". LOL

I bought two Khaled Hosseini's books and one cooking book. I also bought this gem;

"After Dark" by Haruki Murakami

My two cents;

Recommended to buy/steal/borrow.
If you plan to buy, go to Times Bookstore Clearance Fair. You are entitled to get 30% discounts; and the price after discount would be; RM23.03.
Murakami's is the Best-Seller Author for "Kafka on The Shore" and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
This book will make you 'hunger for more'. The book seriously makes me 'hook-up' on it until the last page.
I am very much impressed with his imagination and the way he constructed his sentences. It is beyond imagination.
Some acclaim for Haruki Murakami;

"After Dark is hypnotically eerie, sometimes even funny, but most of all, it's a book that keeps ratcheting the suspense"- The Washington Post Book world

An excerpt from the book;

"Eyes mark the shape of the city. Through the eyes of a high-flyung night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature-or more like a single collective entity entered by many intertwining organism. Countlessa rteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuos supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old......".

Last month, me and the in-laws make a trip to Skoob Malaysia. If you feel familliar with the shop's name, yes, it is a branch of infamous Skoob in UK. The word 'Skoob' is taken from the word 'books' (read it from the back). It is a second-hand bookstore where you can find if you are lucky; the first edition of a book. The Skoob Malaysia has operated many years back then. It runs by the infamous playwright, actor, director, lecturer, critic; Mr Thor. If you are wondering which books to buy, ask Thor-who-happened-reads-everything. He will suggest books that suits your preference. If you are the first-timer there, not to worry. You will feel like you have known him for years when you start a conversation with him. Trust me on this. And if he starts to speak, there will be no end to it. hehe.. And he succeed in making me buying the favorite book of the late Yasmin Ahmad; The Makioka Sisters. Currently I'm waiting for my Ken Wilbur's book to arrive. If you have time do visit Skoob. It is located in Menara Mutiara Majestic (next to bus-terminal), First Floor, Old town PJ.

I have ...

2009-07-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: The Script

1. discovered that there are a lot of foods that I cannot eat according to The Blood Type Diet Guru; The Infamous Peter D'adamo (thanks to ayumi anyway who forwarded an email on this). As the type A bearer i have been categorized as 'Cultivator' through which in order to loose weight i have to eat vegetables more. That's a piece of cake. I can do that. But one thing that makes me VERY sad is, I cannot eat squid and lamb anymore. And even bananas, oranges, wheat? How la? I am beyond sad.

2. learned that H1N1 virus has not only affected one's health but at the same time affected one's fate. Yesterday, Saudia Arabia government has decided not allowing children aged 12 years and below AND elderly people aged 65 years and above to perform hajj this year . And guess what, my parents and aunty have been preparing their mental and physical fitness, attending classes, medical check-up and whatnot since early this year and later to discover that they cannot perform hajj? I do undertand the move as to avoid the spreading of the virus. I can understand why some states decided not to give visas for those who are coming from highly effected H1N1 states for the purpose of business or even holidays. But this is about people who are going to perform their duties as religion has asked them to do so. This is about people who have been registered to perform hajj ages ago (in Malaysia, you need to register for hajj as early as you can so that you will secure a place. There are thousand of people who have applied since many years then, and only this year they have been selected to perform hajj. But with this breaking news... Just imagine how devastated they can be? Looking at my father's eyes yesterday, I could sense his sadness. He has been working hard to ensure he got a place this year. He has been through a lot and I am in tears thinking that he will not be able to perform hajj this year. I pray that Allah will ease the pain and hoping for miracle to happen.

3. learned that day by day I am becoming more like my mother. This is not good. Do not get me wrong here. I love my mother and no one can takes her from me. But my mother has this Bree Van De Kamp (if you watch the Desperate Housewives) antics. She likes to clean and everything should be keep back to where things are. And she has this bad temper too. I pray hard that I can shield myself from inheriting the infamous temper of my mother. Please God.

4. learned that marriage is not about everything nice, happy, pretty things. There are days where the sun refused to shine. This is when the 'compromise tool' comes in handy. It is about give and take. Sometimes I wonder, I am 'stucked' with this one person (not that I having any regret marrying him, how long can me or him can take this pains together? Pray that Allah will shower HIS hidayah upon us.

5. learned that, the more 'sincere' you are in your works, at the end of the day something good will come to surprise you. I am getting additional few bucks this month. yeay! Alhamdulillah.

6. discovered that, my adorable niece ameera cannot pronouce my name even after many trials. The least that she can pronouce is "ni-ni". Sedih tak..

And that is that beautiful people. Have a good day!!!

The Tag Team

2009-07-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Michael Jackson (Man in The Mirror)

Note to Sarah: Yeah, I know!!! I have turned to this lazy bump-bump Mimi. Will 'try hard' to keep writing on this space. teheee~

Tagged by my dear twin sister, sarah. So here it goes;

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. finish reading backdated Newsweek/Time/The Economist. And, Veronica Decides to Die. And, On The Road. Banyak la pulak.. hehehe
2. watch Harry Potter. Yeah, I'm cliche.
3. spend the weekend alone with husband. With good foods. With good dvds.
4. meet my geyam-able niece, Meera Po-Po. How I missed those days when I still live with my parents. She is an addiction. Seriously.
5. get new job. Possible kah? hehe
6. scout for grad-school(s) and scholarship.
7. plan for house-warming partay? ahaha
8. have internet connection at home. Shame on you telekom!!

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Cycling?
2. Involves in voluntary works often. Help those Palestinians.
3. Be a good wife and a mother. Be a Khadijah.
4. Speaks English fluently. And writes good English.
5. Buy all the books that I have always wanted..
6. Own a customer-friendly-with-cheap price- bookstore. Or a rental bookstore, perhaps.
7. Study in an Ivy League university.
8. Be a domestic Goddess? hehe

8 things I love:

1. Cooking. Baking.
2. Books/Journals.
3. Perfume. Scented things for room, car, toilet.
4. Meeting my BGFs. This is a therapy.
5. My Mp3 Collection. My movies collection. My tv series collection. Oh yes, call me Abeng, if you want. haha
6. Plain water.
7. Babies. They are meant for biting. hehe
8. Hand sanitizer.

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Prepare lunch-box for husband. Well, I'm a trophy wife kan. haha
2. Works alone in the office. Banyak kerja woo.
3. Walking alone from the terminal to home with injured feet. Biasalah mimi kan..
4. Ate Osbourne biscuits with Ahmad tea.
5. Watched Manjalara. Boleh tak? haha
6. Went for grocery shopping with husband at OTK.
7. Read Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings.
8. Had a battle with ants. I will hunt for you, ants. Beware!!!

8 Shows I watch:

1. Friends
2. Brothers and Sisters
3. Gossip Girl
4. Eli Stone
5. Bones
6. Nigella Express
7. Jamie at home
8. Southland.

With the power vested by me, I'm tagging everyone. hahaha

Moi Delirium

2009-06-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Glen Hansard (Falling Slowly)

I'm Back!!!

Feels good to clear up the dusty cobwebs in this blog of mine. A lot has happened since I last updated.

First

The second reception in Kelantan was superb!!! Not that I'm being biased or what, but this is what my closest friends told me (you guys are being nice kan,kan,kan?). All in all I am very grateful that everything went well according to the plan. Although I would say this reception (Kelantan) was far more trying compared to the Ampang reception, but hey, what is wrong to have crisis here and there kan. To tell you the truth, I was relatively tired and at some point I was ready to give up. Just imagine, the day before the reception I was still awake until 3am. A big thanks to the extended families who came all the way from Thailand to help me and Kasim before/ during the day. May ALLAH bless all of you. :))

Second

Went to pre-PAC for the PTD post last saturday. Same ol' same story. Had my fair share experience with others who have been to the PAC. Did some pumping for 30 times, those lompat katak for 30 times, lari pecut for 20m which is unfair because the ladies had to compete with the guys. All in all, i think i would be disqualified for this PAC since I happened to be the one who talks a lot in the English group's debate. No PTD for me, I guess.

Third

I have start working since yesterday. Had 'jet-lagged' at work after 2 weeks of holidays. Need to accelerate my working aura or else the works are piling up every second. And writing this makes me aware that I should stop blogging now.

Fourth

We have moved to our literally new house. Been cleaning here and there. The husband is very helpful as always to accomodate his 'monica-ness' wifey. LOL Hope everything will be in place within this week so that I could sleep in peace.

Fifth

I am on job-hunting / grad-school hunting. Keep me posted if you guys have anything related to the two.

Till then, cheers to more exuberance days to come. Chiow for now.

Pesanan Buat Pedoman

2009-06-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: The Godfather

I am at home today, not working for sure. But for the first time in my life, i have to confess that I prefer to be in the office, working; rather than staying at home in pain. Let the picture below do the justice, shall we?

*credit to the husband who is patiently helping his 'mengada-mengada' patient to walk. Not to mention a big thanks to him for being VERY brave to clean up the wound(s) after I decided to sepak-terajang peeps who came near to clean the wound. Kudos husband!!! heeee~

Moral of the story: Say NO to 2 inches platform. That particular shoes is the definition of the phrase; "The Shoes that Killed". Oh and a good advice, do not walk too fast with the shoes. Quoting from hanna dearie; "Mimi, jalan biar macam pengantin." And now I understand and it's too late, no?

The Kelantan's reception will take place this saturday. Please pray for my speedy recovery. And to all Markonah's; one thing that can makes me feel better is to know that you guys are coming to the reception. You guys, seriously do not want to see Pengantin Cacat kan? Don't you guys love me? (hahahahaha, ayat yang sengaja di makan dalamkan. :p)

toodles~

Of Mimi's Thank You Note and FAQ

2009-06-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Sia (Day Too Soon)

1. How was the wedding?

There are no words can perfectly describe the 6th June reception. Words cannot do justice to the feelings that I had during the reception. It is far from what I have always imagined. I'm in a state of satiety.

And I am in debt to those special person(s) who are responsible in creating the exquisite ceremony of the year.

From the friend who traveled all the way from Singapore, to the friend who had high fever the day before, to the friend who making sure that the wedding cake is available for the day, to the friend(s) who stayed over at my house and sincerely offered their hands to ensure everything went well, to the friend who i rarely meet, but turns out to be the planner for the day, to the colleague(s) who came directly from office to help making the hantaran, to the photographers who did not know the meaning of word 'tired' and eventually become my friends, to the family who are very reasonable on the day, to the lost bridesmaid who making sure she will wearing the baju kurung on the day, and to all darling(s) who managed to come and celebrates the day together. How am i supposed to say thank you if the word itself cannot justify the real feelings that i had for you guys. I am speechless and grateful at the same time. May Allah showers Hidayah upon you guys.

Mimi and Kasim's Walk of Fame goes to;

1. Hanna Taufiq Siraj
2. Majidah Maruan
3. Ayumi Sani
4. Ernawati
5. Nor Hafiza Salina
6. Nur Hasyimah
7. Sarah Pahman
8. Nur Balkis
9. Reen Ashikin
10. Udey Ismail
11. Ahmad Ghasan
12. Maryam Saiful
13. Nor Hafiza
14. Nurnadiah
15. Aida Tasni

and to the special guest(s) who came;

1. Aaina
2. Lina
3. Maisarah
4. Linzy
5. Sharina
6. Zaralisa
7. Nina
8. Nach Ana
9. Anne Zaqwan
10. Nizam
11. Onn
12. Fahmi Saldi
13. Ridzwan
14. Firdaus
15. Ahmad Fahmi
16. Adik-adik Poss4; Yusri, Att, Alyaa, Ida
17. Dr Ishtiaq
18. Dr Wahabuddin
19. Rubian

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will treasure all moment(s) that we had together and as quoted from Mastercard; There are the things that I cannot buy. Its PRICELESS. teheee~

2. How marriage life treating you so far?

Everything is fine. I was over the moon for several days (Cik bebal jangan nak translate yang lain k. :p). The 'Malam Pertama' went well with no interuption of smses or call(s) as I expected. LOL. The husband has been very helpful and I have to admit bit by bit he's becoming more loving and and caring. Cold no more. Thank God for that. :)))

Overall, nothing changes so far. Maybe the marriage aura has yet to bite me off. heee~ Whatever it is, I am happy and contented. :))

3. Any babies soon?

I am sorry if I have to dissappoint you, but until this moment, I have yet to plan for the arrival of babyours. Not that I do not want any babies in the future but the fact of the matter is, we have to make sure that we are ready to embark into another journey. Ready here to have stable financial and whatnot. Kena la ada reality check kan. Give us sometimes can? heee~

I swear, since seeing Your face,

the whole world is fraud and fantasy

The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf

or blossom. The distracted birds

can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,

a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,

a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.

-Rumi

* pictures credit to; Hanna Taufiq Siraj, Udey Ismail, Maisarah Najib and Hazlin Aminuddin. For more pictures visit: http://blog.udeyismail.com/

The Celebration of 100 days,no?

2009-05-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Andrea Bocelli (Amore)

6th June 2009 which is this coming Saturday, will mark 90 days of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

But the most critical date would be 16th June 2009 where it marks 100 days of Najib in the Prime Minister's office. On that day, political experts/scholars and not to mention the political blogger(s) would reviewed his achievement(s), performance and perhaps his ability and credibility as the PM. Many people are anxious to see how far Najib could stretched his ability as the PM. As Obama has succeed in earning excellent reviews on his 100 days of his presidency, I hope (wish) Najib could earned something like that too.

Below are my take-away in reviewing his performance after he took the office from Pak Lah. Note that some points in the discussion below are purely mere opinion(s) from me and there are some points which I took from my other discussions with 'my group'. As the discussion below is stated as 'opinions', you the reader, may or may not agree with my points. Having said that, I welcome your 'constructive' comments only in this post. I hope we can agree on that.

The very first day he took the PM's office, he already made a headline by releasing all ISA detainees. Many people welcome his action and could not agree more with his gesture. This action reflects that he is serious to correct what is incorrect and at some point he is trying to portray that he is different compared to the rest of the PMs. I think it is common for a people like him who just took over a new office, tried to change everything so that he will not be shadowed by his predecessor images.

For me, change is good. But without a strong mechanism in driving the process of change, it would be hard to sustain the changes process and worst rather than planning to change, we end up stuck in confusion that created by us. I am not saying that releasing the ISA detainees was a bad move. I am just saying that, if he thinks that by abolishing ISA he could projected his image as being more 'humanis't or accordance with the principle of human rights, i really hope that he could do the same with OTHER significant unjust issues which are happening in the country. ISA is just a minor issue in the state and it happened to be popular issue because it involves 'special' person(s) to which be detained under it. There are so many other issues under the banner of 'violation of human rights' which are happening in the state ie; the issue of workers, the issue of foreign workers, the issue of equality in the state, the issue related to the the power of the people in determining which government to choose, etc... These are the issues which involve a lot of people. Isn't Malaysian are bond together under the principle of social contract,no?

Oh and, I just hope that he will not make a u-turn on his decision. You already say NO to ISA so there will be more YES in the future right, Mr. Prime Minister?

Up until this moment, there are several changes that have been done by him. From the newly constructed stimulus package to the proposal to have Chinese as a Malaysian Ambassador to China, all sounds overwhelming. I could understand the later gesture as to show that he is really serious when he launched his mega idea of 'Satu Malaysia'. The moment he launched 'Satu Malaysia', I cannot helped it, but to think it is ironically for him to pursue his agenda of 'Satu Malaysia' but at the same time playing his role as UMNO president. Don't you think so? Day by day he will eventually sounds like DSAI. And not to mention the move to liberalize or opening up selected industries to the non-Bumis is another ways of saying he is all out for the Satu Malaysia mission. This point makes me wonder whether our leaders really understand the concept of social contract in the Malaysia context.

Oh by the way, i discovered the trick played by the 'other' races. The more they asked for it, ie: make a noise on inequality of economic distribution, social rights and whatnot, the more government likely to give in. I do not want to start speaking on economic distribution as it is already made known to us, that the Malays only have 25-30% of economic share in the state. Try have a look to the list of millionaires or billionaires in Malaysia which published every year. Get what I meant? Sure, you do. So why there is still a need to compromise their wants?

This leads to the question of; Is Satu Malaysia idea is really a golden agenda for all?

All in all what I am trying to say is within this 90 days of Najib's administration; there are more and more 'big' agenda being introduced. But sadly, these big agenda did not really benefited the large population of Malaysia. Why am I saying this?

This is because, 60% or half of Malaysian population is still live under poverty. And not only that these are the people who live without having basic necessities. Who are not going to school and not getting formal education. These are the people who do not understand what is the hoo haa on the Satu Malaysia and the truth is they cannot be bothered with this idea as for them the most important things in their life is to be able to wake up the next day, to have food(s) to consume, and to have a decent place to stay. The only thing that matter to them is to sustain their life. The only thing that they want government to do is to secure their welfare. Is that really hard for a government with leader(s) who drive Porsche to work, to protect the welfare of the people?

In my opinion, rather than introducing mega ideas who will only benefited small portion of people, could we rather think of something that eventually will benefit the whole population of Malaysia?

Until and unless someone in the administration see the points that I'm trying to make, just pray that Malaysia will achieve what we need to achieve before the year of 2020, no?

Sincerely,

mimi who thinks that Mr. Prime Minister can do better than this.

Tropic Thunder

2009-05-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Dixie Chicks

If you are happened to be the loyal reader of this insignificant blog, I would like to apologize if you are waiting too long for new post or updates from me.

Prepping for the wedding is just so tiring and if I were given the chance to hire a wedding planner; I would certainly do so. All in all not that I am hating doing it, but the fact that I could not focused on other important thing(s) just make me sad. During the last two weeks I was not been able to concentrate doing my work at the office. How I missed the determination that I had in analyzing figures, numbers and whatnot. And I am not saying that I am the trophy-worker, but the fact that I could not give my best to work it is just frustrating.

So this is again going to be a short one. Please pray for me friend(s). I need that.

Oh,oh, wait, Happy Birthday to the man of our house. May Allah showers HIS hidayah upon you. Can't wait to treasure our life together.
Can't wait to argue with you on what color to choose for our curtain(s) and whatnot.
Can't wait to cook together with you.
Can't wait to eventually become couch potato and watch 'Friends' marathon.
But most importantly can't wait to susah senang dengan you. I love you sayang. :))

Sila jangan marah jika saya corny. Sekian. teheee~

He just simply irresistible (can ah? :p)

2009-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Top Gun Soundtrack

I traveled by train this morning. I usually have something to read while waiting for my stop. So i decided to flip through the latest Newsweek; 25th May 2009 issue. The front cover is 'Obama on Obama'.

In this special edition, the Newsweek team come out with an interview with the infamous Obama. While reading those lines, i was laughing and smiling all by myself. Gila ah. Up to the extend that the next passenger 'curi-curi' baca what i read.

Here are some of the excerpts or lines that just simply plain, funny and the most important thing is pure. Why 'pure'? Because the way he utter or construct his words are just spontaneous but yet true and it touch my heart. That makes him an ordinary person but with an extraordinary character(s). He implied to me that there is nothing different between him and us. And because of that, I salute you MR. B.

On Cable News
" I don't watch cable news at all. the only television I'm watching these days is sport"

On how his family became part of the cultural iconography
"You know, the nice thing is that, partly because of Michelle's unbelievable parenting skills, I've just got some happy, normal kids. And all that stuff that's going on around them, they just kind of miss. We have not seen any effects, any fishbowl effects, yet on them. Now, I worry about them when they're teenagers where, you know, you're already embarrassed about your parents and even more embarrassed on TV all the time. And dating I think will be an issue because I have men with guns surrounding them at all times(laughter), which I'm perfectly happy with, but they may feel differently about it."

On how he divides time for family and works
"I'm a night owl. My usual day (is): I work out in the morning; I get to the office around 9, 8.30 am to 9am; work till about 6.30pm; have dineer with the family, hang out with the kids and put them to bed about 8.30pm. And then I'll probably read briefing papers or do paperwork or write stuff until about 11.30pm and then I usually have about half hour to read before I go to bed about midnight; 12.30pm, sometimes a little later."

On the last movie he saw
"Now, movies I've been doing OK (with) because it turn out we got this nice theater on the ground floor of my house... So Star Trek, we saw this weekend, which I thought was good. Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out and- (the president makes the Vulcan salute with his hand)

Is he too cute or what?

Random

2009-05-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Rascal Flatts (Unstoppable)

1. I have been multitasking for the past few weeks and I do not like it at all. Not that I am not a fan of being multi-tasker but this time it is just too much of pressure(s) and the like. Perhaps I should consider to get married in a small ceremony and very private. Kenduri doa selamat sudey..

2. Malaysian recently celebrated Mother's Day. To tell you the truth, I have never celebrated the day in all my life. I was watching Astro the other day and they launched a campaign in collaboration with Mother's Day celebration, if i am not mistaken 'give a hug' or something with 'hig your mother today'. I came to realize that it is been ages (seriously) since the last time i hug my mother and i could not remember exactly when Gile la kan.. Those who know my background will perhaps understand (ye ke? hehe) my situation. Hopefully during the reception or akad I could have a moment with my mom and get the chance to hug her.

3. I cannot imagined how the Malaysian student that is confirmed with H1N1 virus, has not been detected with the virus upon his arrival at KLIA. I thought KLIA was supposed to inspect every passenger and quarantined them immediately. tsk,tsk,tsk..

4. If I did my counting right, I am getting married in less than 3 weeks. Should i be nervous now? People around keep me asking whether I am nervous or whatnot. Seriously i did not feel the euphoric feelings yet. Planning the day has taken a lot of my time away that I usually spend reading(s), writings and to the extend that I have yet to open several copies of my subcription of The Economist. Gila outdated seyh..

5. I need to get my hair trimmed and perhaps do manicure and padicure. I am a virgin in the whole business of mani and padi so forgive me if I am so excited to go for it. heee~

~to be continued

The Infamous Angelou

2009-05-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

- Maya Angelou

Food for Thought

2009-05-07T02:07:00.001-07:00

Now Playing: Marvin Gaye

" When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way"

-Paulo Coelho

Sneak Peak

2009-05-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Jennifer Hudson

Of work

Being busy as always. Deadline(s) never meet. I do not know why, but it seems like the works are piling up everyday. I am not going to procrastinate but last few months i do not have tonnes of works like this time. I always keep saying to myself that this is just normal and perhaps this is one of the test(s) that HE wanted to test me. Whatever the reason(s) are I have to deal with it.

Gatorade please!!!

Of wedding preparation

A lot of thing(s) to settle off before the end of this month. Being paranoid does not help at all. Feels like i am doing all by myself. Okay, that is so not true,hehe.. I have several 'helper(s) who helped me in collecting friend's addresses, add values to my so called 'wedding dream'. Without them I will not be at this stage. Thank you friend(s) who deserved to be called friends.

To-do-list;

1. Fitting session at Kapas 5th May 2009.
2. Fitting session at Butik Cinta next week.
3. To prepare door gift.
4. To plan for hantaran design. Kepada bridesmaid(s); sila curahkan idea kalian ya. Saya sudah ketandusan idea neh. :p
5. This is the most important thing to settle within this week; To apply for leave(s). heee~

Of new phase in life

I have been bombarded with classic question of 'why getting married in a such young age?'. And i think those who are in the same shoes like me, are having fair share of experiences like i do. Every time when the question is being asked i will politely answer;

" I do not have a perfect answer for you. But I guess ALLAH has a perfect plan for me in the future. And I cannot be thankful enough for this perfect moment"

To those who are about to experience the magical moment in their life i would want to just say this;

"The hardship that we are facing at the moment, the tears that we shed while preparing the Day, there will be the best thing(s) happened in your life. And I pray that ALLAh will shower HIS hidayah upon us. InsyaAllah.."

Will write again soon (yeah, really? haha)

Back on Popular Demand and of e-Wedding Invitation

2009-04-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Once Soundtrack

After so called 'work-detention', I am proud to say that "Mimi is survived". Alhamdulillah..

The last few weeks were the busiest week ever. I have to juggle two big thing(s) in one time, and boy I feel like hiring personal assistat for myself. Anyone up for charity work for Mimi? heeee~

I would like to take this opportunity to annouce that I am getting married to the bestfriend that I have always had.

To the man that i have always fight and argued.

The man that annoyed me that up to one point I was (literally) already put him in a box and shipped him to the North Pole. And i even changed his name in my phone to "Do not trust him".Seriously tak tipu punya.

The guy who makes me from hating him to simply love him even more.

Yes, I am getting married to Kasim. The love of my life,no? haha :)))

The akad nikah ceremony and the first reception will take place on the same day which is

6th June 2009 (Saturday)

And the second reception will take place on;

20th June 2009 (Saturday)

P/s: To my dear friends, if i have yet to ask for your address, could you do me a favor to send your mailing address (i mean your home address) to my inbox; hamizah.aimi@gmail.com. Thank you. I really appreciate it :)))

In addition to that, i would like to take this opportunity to clear up on few thing(s),

Yes, I am unofficially engaged to Kasim since we DO NOT HAVE an official engagement day. We just had 'merisik day' in December last year who were attended by FAMILY only. If you need further explanation on that, FAMILY here refer to my parent, my sibling, my aunty UCU, my cousin; kaknim, my brother in-law, my niece, Kasim's family, two imam(s) and thats it. And if you, i mean you who go around telling stories about how me being ignorant for not inviting friends to the event, and you who have the gut went to my bestfriend and spilled out the beans about me being sombong and lupa kawan, and you who happened to be my loyal reader of my blog space and ironically hating me for who I am today, i hope that this elaborative explanation will give the best amount of satisfaction for you. I pray hard that God will ease pain(s) that we both had. InsyaAllah...

Changing subject, back to happy cheery mode, quite a number of friends asked me recently what i want for the wedding gift. Seriously, I will appreciate anything that you are about to give me. But if you asked me what I have always wanted, here are sneak peak to the thing(s) that I have always wished for. For your information, I already published the list in February in relation to my birthday. But looking at it again, there are several items that fall under "unrealistic gift' type of gift. So me being very polite and a good friend (ehem,:p) has come out with a new gift list. Note that, this is just for fun okay. Bagi canla kat mimi.. :p

Just for the sake of sharing, I'm moving out to Melati soon after a lot of persuasion(s) of course. Yeay me!! Saya akan berjiran dengan en rahmat. Mesti anda tak sabar kan rahmat. Saya tahu. Thanks rahmat. You are the sweetest!! haha

1) A collection of The Great Ideas Books by Penguin. RM400++.

2) Dapur Masak. Since I'm moving out soon. Yang murah-murah tu je.

3) Washing Machine.

4) Wang besar/Ang Pow/ Whatever you want to call it. Can lor? :))

5) TV. 20 inch pun dah okay. No need for the wider screen or what not.

6) Waffle Maker. reserved by En Fahmi aka Abg Minyak.

7) Nigella's Cook Book. Probably "Nigella Express" or "Forever Summer"

8) Toto/Comforter.

9) "Entertaining" by Martha Stewart.

10) Salad bowl.

11) Ikea's White Dining Plate. Ikea's fork and spoon. With mugs too.

12) "Orientalism" by Edward Said. Or perhaps a collection of Said's books. Can? :p

13) Blender. Murah-murah sudah. reserved by my dear hamiza.

14) Oven. So that i can bake pavlova for you. Again, the cheap one.

15) Corning Vision Cookware.

16) Nigella's Cooking tools.

17) Tupperware's Rice Dispenser.

18) Tupperware's Garlic and All Keeper.

19) Curtain for my new house.

20) Knife set

I think that's conclude my wish list. If i ever think of something nanti, will keep you posted. So go 'book' or 'reserved' which item you want to give me. The items above are limited. One item per customer. LOL

So who's gonna be next? :p

Have a good day ahead people.

Disclaimer: You may contact me if you wish to give other 'extraordinaire' gifts. I am open for consultation. LOL

Sekian.

Hiatus

2009-04-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Andrea Bocelli

Until deadline(s) are over.
So as the saying goes "No weekends for me". Period

Is there anyone kind enough to teman-ing me to Spa or massage parlor or whatever you called it? Pleaasee

Oh by the way let me remind myself;
"Time flies. Next week is May already. Sila sedar diri. Sekian"

P/s: Sarah hunny, if you are reading this I want you to know that your bahasa has improved to the next level. Can't wait to borak-borak with you nanti. :)))

This is not Cliche. Beautifully Imperfect.

2009-04-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

It is too beautiful.

It is too honest.

It is a perfect moment.
.
.
.
.
And this time, it is not cliche.

Yeay!

2009-04-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Missy Higgins

Happy 2nd Anniversary to me!!!

I just realized yesterday by looking to the daisy path calendar that I am officially have been blogging for 2 years now. Woot, woot!!

I know it is not a big deal for other people, but for me, it totally is. The time that i committed to this blog would always be treasured.

With work's deadlines that never met. With the house chores that never end. I am proud that I put a little effort to have sometimes to write.

I would like to make a toast; To the many many anniversary to come!!! Cheers :)))

Mengapa ya?

2009-04-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Ray Lamontagne (Let it Be Me)

Saya baru lepas membaca satu penulisan yang diterjemah daripada bahasa Inggeris ke Bahasa Melayu. Terus terang saya katakan yang saya bukanlah pakar bahasa dan saya akui kadangkala tatabahasa yang saya gunakan di dalam bahasa melayu tunggang langgang apatah lagi bahasa inggeris.

Ini cuma pendapat, anda tidak perlu bersetuju.

Melihat kepada terjemahan yang baru saya baca sebentar tadi, hampir separuh daripada perkataan yang diterjemah ke bahasa melayu semuanya berasal daripada bahasa inggeris. Cuma ejaannya sahaja yang ditukar supaya ada bunyi 'kemelayuannya'.

Sebagai contoh;

sukses

artikel

transformasi

respon

Jika diterjemah ke dalam bahasa melayu, boleh kan kalau kita gunakan perkataan ini;

kejayaan

penulisan

perubahan

maklum balas

Saya cuma berpendapat, jikalau kita terus- terusan menggunakan perkataan asal bahasa inggeris dan kemudiannya 'di melayukan' bukankah nanti bahasa kita sudah hilang keasliannya?

Saya ini budak baru belajar. Kalau salah sila maafkan. :)

The new minister line-up

2009-04-09T00:34:00.000-07:00

This gonna be a short one.

I have tonnes of reading materials to read but still have few minutes of 'quality time' to update. heee~

Anyhoo, the line-up are as follows; (Please forgive me if the name did not spelled correctly. I was listening to the radio so i cannot really catch up the real name of the person. My bad. LOL)

1) PM - Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak

2) TPM- Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

3) JPM- Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon (Perpaduan)

Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (Perundangan/Parlimen)

Tan Sri Noh Yaakob (Perancang Ekonomi)

Dato Jamil Bahrom (Agama Islam)

4) Kewangan- Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak

With four Timbalan(s). One of them is Datuk Seri Dr Awang Adek Hussin

5)Pelajaran - Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

6) Pengangkutan- Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat

7) Perusahaan dan Perladangan- Tan Sri Bernard Dompok

8) Dalam Negeri- Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein

9) Penerangan- Datuk Seri Rais Yatim

10) Komunikasi dan Tenaga- Datuk Seri Peter Chin

11) Luar Bandar- Datuk Seri Shafiee Apdal

12)Pengajian Tinggi- Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin

13) MITI- Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamad

Timbalan- Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir

14) Inovasi- Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili

15)Sumber Asli- Datuk Seri Unggah Embol

16) Perlancongan- Datuk Sei Ng Yen Yen

17) Pertanian- Datuk Seri Noh Omar

18) Pertahanan- Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

19) Kerja Raya- Datuk Seri Shaziman Abu Mansor

20) Kesihatan- Datuk Seri Liau Tiong Chai

21) Belia dan Sukan- Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabeeri Chik

22) Sumber Manusia- Datuk Seri S Subramaniam

23) Hal Ehwal Pengguna: Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri

24) Perumahan: Datuk Seri Kong Chu Hua

25) Wanita: Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil

26) Luar Negeri: Datuk Hanifah Aman

27) Wilayah Persekutuan: Datuk Raja Nong Chik

In My Head

2009-04-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

The song that keep playing in my head at the moment;

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross

Just because I'm hurting
Doesn't mean I'm hurt
Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserve
No better and no worse

I just got lost
Every river that I've tried to cross
And every door I ever tried was locked
And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off...

You might be a big fish
In a little pond
Doesn't mean you've won
'Cause along may come
A bigger one
And you'll be lost

Every river that you tried to cross
Every gun you ever held went off
And I'm just waiting till the firing starts
And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off

I am not lost.

I am just undiscovered. Period.

Heating Up

2009-04-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Robin Thicke

An excerpt from The Doha Debates Focus On US-Israel Election;

taken from: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=102637817

Tell Me More: April 2, 2009

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

Continuing with our international briefing we turn to the Middle East. The Persian state of Qatar among the Arab nations is known for it's tolerance of open political discussion. It's home to television network Al Jazeera. It's also the host of the Doha Debates, a forum for spirited discussion over Mid-East policy issues. These debates are televised on the BBC World Service television eight times a year. The next installment airs this weekend, but this time they did something different.

That segment was taped recently here in Washington, D.C. the focus: whether the Obama administration should ,quote, "get tough on Israel," unquote. Arguing the affirmative the debater said that the current U.S.-Israel relationship undermines national security.

Unidentified Man #1: Can America defeat a pro-Israel fifth column of U.S. citizens that corrupt U.S. politics and foreign policymaking and amount to the most lethal threat to the state of Israel? For renewed post-war ties Israel must take five actions to help destroy the fifth column that has made Israel the most arrogant, avaricious and treacherous U.S. ally.

MARTIN: Arguing the negative, the debater said it would be dangerous to break relations with America's greatest ally in the Middle East.

Unidentified Man #2: There could be no worse time to get tough with our strongest ally in the Middle East - to single out Israel as the one nation to get tough with. Getting tough on Israel is more likely to produce bloodshed than to produce peace.

MARTIN: Here to talk about the debate is Tim Sebastian, a former BBC correspondent. He founded the Doha Debates in 2004 and moderates the discussion. He's here with me now in our studio in Washington, D.C. Welcome, thanks for joining us.

Mr. TIM SEBASTIAN (Founder and Moderator, the Doha Debates): I'm pleased to be here. Thank you very much.

MARTIN: A member of our team attended the taping of the debate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. - and spirited, clearly the word to use. I have a short clip of an exchange between Harvard University law Professor Alan Dershowitz and former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Avraham Burg. Here it is.

Mr. AVRAHAM BURG (Former Speaker of the Knesset, Israel): So it is not getting tougher but it's an option…

Dr. ALAN DERSHOWITZ (Professor of Law, Harvard): (unintelligible) Prime Minister, what do you have? What would you prefer? Do you agree with that analogy (unintelligible)

Mr. BURG: (unintelligible) getting tougher.

Dr. DERSHOWITZ: (unintelligible) getting smart.

Mr. BURG: (unintelligible) about vocabulary. This is not (unintelligible)

Dr. DERSHOWITZ: You (unintelligible)

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Excuse me. Excuse me. You've made the point. I'm going to take a question from the gentleman over there on the left.

MARTIN: Excuse me.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Excuse me. Yeah, rough stuff. Rough stuff.

MARTIN: Excuse me. Yeah, well…

Mr. SEBASTIAN: It's rougher than in the Gulf, really.

MARTIN: And I was going to ask you about that. I can relate to the feeling of being more referee than moderator. Is this a typical exchange in one of these debates?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: This was pretty spirited by comparison. I mean, we do have people who feel passionately about the views they espouse, but this was pretty rough stuff. And I put it down to the fact that we were talking about a sensitive issue. There are strong feelings about it and I think we hit some raw nerves there. But that's fine. At the end of the day we had a civilized discussion. People agree to disagree. They walked away. They didn't fight. They didn't throw punches afterwards. I kind of expected they might, but they didn't.

MARTIN: Seriously? Or are you just being funny?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: No. No. I…

MARTIN: You really thought that it might get…

Mr. SEBASTIAN: I thought it could get rough. We have security there just in case.

MARTIN: (unintelligible)

Mr. SEBASTIAN: But it wasn't necessary in the end.

MARTIN: How did you come up with the concept to begin with?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: I was in Qatar in 2004 and I was lucky enough to be invited to a lunch with the amir, the ruler. He explained what he was doing with the country and how he wanted to open things up a bit. He said, have you got any ideas? I said, no, but I'll go away and think about it. And I came up with the idea of town hall debates, thinking that if they really want to talk about controversial issues in a region where nobody talks about anything except under very strict censorship, then let's give it a try.

We gave it a try. We started in 2004, and the rest is history. We have aired some very, very controversial issues.

MARTIN: And just to clarify, there is no prior discussion with the government of the topics.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: There's no prior - there's no discussion of any kind with the government about topics, about what is said during the course of the debate or, interestingly enough, who is invited.

MARTIN: How do you choose your topics? And they are often ones that generate intense discussion. I'll give an example. This house believes that after Gaza, Arab unity is dead and buried. This house believes that political Islam is a threat to the West. This house believes that Gulf Arabs value profit over people. None of these are easy.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: These are not gentle subjects.

MARTIN: Gentle subjects, no. How do you choose the topics?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: No, but we want to be controversial. We want to be provocative. We want to talk about areas which don't get much of an airing in that particular region. And we bear in mind that we appear on an international news channel. So we want to make news, as well. We're looking for some headlines.

I think we raise some eyebrows, and we raise the temperature a little bit in the region where we work because we just talk about different things.

MARTIN: Well, I have to ask, though, because I realize that all, you know, countries and contexts are different, but in this country, there's a concern that a lot of our political discussion is more heat than light. It's just gratuitously provocative.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: I don't think we're gratuitously provocative. I know that kind of television. I know that kind of broadcasting. I think we get heat and light.

The idea is that we produce, in this region, which hasn't had any of it, some free speech, and that means accountability.

MARTIN: How do you choose your guests? Because obviously, you want people who know quite a lot about the subject. You want people with strong opinions, but you also want people who will maintain a standard of civility, and you want newsmakers. How do you go about choosing?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Well, we cast around as far as we can.

MARTIN: Has anyone ever turned you down?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Oh, they turn us down all the time.

MARTIN: Because?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Well, because they don't like the particular subject that we're talking about, or they can't make it on the day. But I mean, there are plenty of reasons. Free speech isn't going to be popular with everybody.

Look, it's a fight, wherever it is. It's a fight in the United States. It's a fight in the United Kingdom. It's certainly a fight in the Gulf, and it's getting worse around the world.

Look, we operate in a very, very complex environment. The Middle East is a rough neighborhood. I don't need to tell you that. Free speech is at a premium because there isn't any of it. We are a little island in a sea of censorship, which is restrictive, which stunts the growth, the normal, natural growth of free societies.

MARTIN: There are those, and I am not being facetious, I'm not being disrespectful, but there are those who would say, you know, talk is cheap, that there is no way that these debates can really have any larger meaning.

People are still killing each other every day over these issues and that by definition, if persons are willing to participate in this kind of forum, that they only represent a very - a slice of the relevant parties, that the people who don't believe in debate, the people who don't believe in this kind of dialogue are by definition absent. So therefore, it's, in a way, a kind of an unreal world. Do you understand what I'm saying? What do you think of that?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Not much, I have to say.

(Soundbite of laughter)

MARTIN: Well, I mean, we do words for a living. That's what we do. Obviously, we believe in words. But do you know what I mean?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Look, it's a luxury for us to say talk is cheap because we live in a society where we can have it. It's not a luxury at all in the Middle East or in much of the Islamic world, where talk is strictly censored, regulated by the state.

So for us to say talk is cheap, in those areas, I'm sorry, it's condescending. It's very condescending indeed. We represent an island of free speech in an area that simply doesn't have it. And we have embraced a number of people, hundreds of people, and we have introduced them to this concept that people can hold thought leaders and their politicians to account by asking them questions. I don't think that's cheap. I think that's rather worthwhile.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, you're listening to TELL ME MORE from NPR News. We're speaking with Tim Sebastian. He's the founder and the moderator of The Doha Debates, which grapple with some of the toughest question in Middle East policy.

Why did you choose the resolution, this house believes it's time for the U.S. administration to get tough on Israel?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Oh, because I think Israel's relationship with the U.S. is a very controversial area. You don't see many debates on that subject in the United States. Everybody talks about how powerful the Israel lobby is and that it stifles debate. I didn't believe that that was necessarily the case. I thought, why don't we come in and let's have a tough debate on the subject?

MARTIN: We noted that the goal of the debate is a spirited debate, but a civil debate. There were times when the conversation did get extremely intense. I want to play a short clip from a comment by Alan Dershowitz.

Mr. DERSHOWITZ: More Jews than any other ethnic group in America oppose the war in Iraq. What you're saying is bigotry. It's bigotry.

(Soundbite of applause)

MARTIN: What do you think about that? Because there are often times in a number of issues that people discuss where - you know, where is the line between ad hominem attack and a legitimate statement? Where's the line, and when do you have to decide when to step in?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Taste and decency. Taste and decency, and when the public can no longer hear what's going on because everybody's talking at the same time. That's when you step in.

I mean, again, it comes back to your question about heat and light. I want some light out of this. If everybody's shouting at each other, you don't get any light at all.

I think there was some shouting, but I also think we aired some very important issues. We talked about discrimination against Arabs in Israel. We talked about the settlements policy. We talked about how Israel is reacting to the new Obama administration. These are important issues.

MARTIN: Did you feel that you succeeded with this one?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: Success in my terms was airing a very controversial issue, and we certainly did that. Everybody walked away, all the participants walked away saying it was a fair debate. Those who won and those who lost said it was a fair debate.

MARTIN: What's next?

Mr. SEBASTIAN: What's next? We'll be talking about Darfur, and we're likely to suggest in a motion that the Arab world should hand over the Sudanese president to the International Criminal Court, where he's been indicted. So we'll be talking about another sensitive issue.

MARTIN: I'll watch that.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: I hope so.

MARTIN: Tim Sebastian. He's the founder and the moderator of the Doha Debates. He is also the author of eight novels and two works of non-fiction. You can see the Georgetown debate on the BBC's World News Television on April 4th and 5th. Tim Sebastian, he was here with me in our Washington, D.C., studio. Thank you so much for joining us.

Mr. SEBASTIAN: It was a great pleasure. Thank you.

MARTIN: Remember at TELL ME MORE, the conversation never ends, and we want to hear from you. I'd like to ask you to weigh in on a question that I asked Tim Sebastian. Do you think debate forums like this are, in fact, constructive? Do they ever move opposing sides toward solutions, or do they just reinforce the polarization that already exists?

Will leave a comment on this right after i finalised my work(s).

Anyhoo, would love to hear from you guys.

P/s: I find that NPR website is very attractive and benefical for me. There are numerous transcripts on Middle East discussion(s) are available there. And guess what you may download the transcript(s) for free.

Please visit their website at; http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=1101

Are we screwed?

2009-04-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Sade

I found this article from The Independent dated 3rd April 2009. As we are aware the G20 Summit is currently held in London where all the representative countries sit together to come out with solutions to ease economic crunch that effected us.

While writing this post, I have yet to hear any comments on the said matter made by Malaysian leaders. Perhaps they were too busy with the by-election(s) or maybe this matter is not that important?

The article that i wanted to share is concerning on the move made by the G20 leaders to reform financial system. The excerpt;

"The 20 leaders also agreed to reform the financial system to prevent a repeat of the crisis. Mr Brown trumpeted the "start of the end" for tax havens refusing to be transparent about the money they hold; they will be named and shamed.

Last night, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued a "blacklist" of four offending countries: Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay. In the run-up to the summit, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Andorra and Singapore joined a new spirit of openness. Yesterday Brunei and Guatemala agreed to abide by the new rules. The Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and British overseas territories such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands already comply with the guidelines."

To read full article, you may go to this link;
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/obama-hails-the-new-world-order-1661088.html

So Malaysia, what to do next?
Are we ready to be shamed?

Overhaul

2009-04-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Jamiroquai (Virtual Insanity)

Hey everyone!

I'm back from Bukit Gantang.
Nothing new happened there. With posters and flags everywhere. Typical weather of election's week.

But one poster is scary tho. I'm sure it is coming from the opposition. There were several Altantuya's picture in a LARGE size at certain places in Bukit Gantang Parliament. The motive behind that is well understood. But she is dead, isn't? I think we should respect her family kot. I might be wrong, but everyone entitled to give opinion right.

Either you are from the government or opposition side, I do not think that by playing sensational issues like Altantuya or Royal issues would be a good move. As the Home Minister has already made it clearly that neither two issues should be played while campaigning in the election. I guess the order did not reached Perak yet. LOL

There are MANY other things related to Rakyat's needs should be championed by them. Rakyat does not bothered with your political games, tactics or what not. What matters to them are their welfare been taken care of.

Oh, did i mentioned that there are many 'tanah terbiar' in this area. Especially in Trong. These vacant land(s) has not been developed for years now. You just imagined, if these land(s) are open for cultivation and development; thus it will provide the rakyat with job opportunities. Not only it will benefit the rakyats it also helped boost the state's economy. I do not have clear answer for why there is no effort to cultivate these vacant land(s). But through my reading somewhere, the reason for this problem happening (not only in Perak, but across Malaysia) is because sometimes a piece of land has several names who own the land. So when one among the rest wanted to cultivate the land, not all owner will agree to that. At the end, the one who has the effort to cultivate the land, could not do anything. If he were to do so, he will only get limited area to start cultivating the land(s), which is not worth it at all. Sad isn't.

I think i should stop talking about politics for the moment. My mind has 'actively' been used and in these past few weeks all that i can think of is Whither Malaysia with the new PM in the office, who will win in the by-election(s), been up close to Indonesian election, and whatnot. Not that I hate to think about all of that, in fact those are my interests, my first love.

But, I also believe that i need to give my weekend-break from all of these. Lets gives other thing(s) priority too. I have tonnes cards to be put name on it. Having said that, i need to go to post office tomorrow to buy stamps. Oh, to reschedule my fitting session(s). Wait, it seems like i would not have weekend-break at all, huh? LOL

I need to stop here. I'm having bad period pain today.

Enjoy your weekend!

We Will Survive

2009-04-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Sia (Day Too Soon)

I've cried while watching Greys Anatomy today. Specifically Season5Ep19. There are mix emotions involved here. Let me tell you why;

First Scene; I was sad seeing a bunch of ungrateful children impatient waiting to see their so called beloved mother took her last breath. For your information, the mother suffered from terminal illness in which doctor has predicted that she will survive for only a month. And to make it interesting the doctor prediction happened to be wrong after the mother still alive for the next three years.

Because of that, they feel like being lied for the last three years and they are exhausted for being off and on plane. In their mind, this is the time where the mother should rest in peace and not to burden them anymore.

Could you imagined that his second son even had the guts to say that; "I have board meeting tomorrow. Could she probably died before noon?" Crazy lah these people. I know i am exaggerating a scene in television series to which maybe it does not happened in the real world. But I'm trying to reflect that if the scene were to happen in a future; in our real world, how could us the children acting like an ignorant or the best word would moron person.

I hope and pray I would not become like one of them.

Although i had a complicated relationship with my mother, it never crossed in my mind to act disrespectful towards her. Who are we without our mother? She has been there for us all the time although she keep on nagging you, or she slapped you without any reason, or she put her anger on you so that she feels released a bit in which I know we do not deserved that. Or if your mother (i hope not) an alcoholic person, or she abused you all the times, just think about 9 months she carried us whenever she go. Although i have not experienced that, but looking at pregnant women faces I could sense that they are battling with their life to secure the baby in their womb.

I hope and always remember and grateful for that.

Second scene; When FINALLY Dr Shepard propose to Meredith. How i wish i have the proposal like that. LOL. Seeing Dr Shepard face while proposing to Meredith, me being emotional babe cannot stop myself from crying. See this is what happened when Mimi start to talk about feelings, emotions, yada,yada,yada.

................................................................................................................................................................................

On the other note, i received a disturbing Sms last night, judging by selection of words that been used by the sender. I am not trying to accuse anybody here, and please do understand that i do have feelings like a normal person. And i made mistakes too. But never regret making one of it because from there you will evolve to be a better person.

I would not be at this stage of my life without making mistakes and regret will never bring you anyway. I do understand the concept of to regret on our mistakes and try not to continue doing it in the future. But to regret and be apologetic all the time for the things that you have done will never bring you anyway. In other words you are yet to learn from the mistakes.

Having said that, whether the mistake that you made was ugly and ruined the equilibrium of your life, take a minute, ponder what has happened and move on.

After all, you will survive.

Okay back to the point, the Sms was so disturbing up until one point i do not want to reply to the sender. But me being polite i did reply the Sms. What are so disturbing with the Sms?

The Sms came from my high school friend who i rarely contacted or even to say hi. So he/she is not in my close-knit friends circle. We exchange hello or bye whenever we had reunion organized by our friends. After that none,zero,nada conversation. Suddenly, out of the blue he/she send me a Sms calling me with 'oi, perempuan'. For the love of God, if my best friend(s) did that, i would accept it (although, I am sure they will not do that) but coming from him/her it is just unacceptable. Fear of being too dramatic i forward the Sms to Kasim and my other best friends to judge. They could not agree more with me.

Seriously (in Grey's Anatomy style), what happened with greeting people by Assalamualaikum or Hello? It is 11.30pm at night when people like me has already sleeping and your Sms is not helping at all. Judging from the content of the Sms, he/she kind of surprised that I am getting married soon and did not tell him/her a clue about it. Why put the blame on me? I have the right to share my personal life with whom i want to share. And certainly you are not in the close-knit friends circle.

I always amazed with these people antique(s). They want me, the one to inform them everything, ask me to share everything with them.

Let me clearly tell you this;

To whom it may concerned,

I appreciate your concern to get involve with my life, to know what is happening or to get the juicy story of my personal life. But I have to say that your application has been declined. I have my own life, I have my own circle of closest friends in my life although i am not trying to imply that i do not want to befriend with you anymore because i appreciate our friendship. I am sorry to say that I am very selective in sharing information with people even with my family members.

I hope you would understand as i do understand that you are also acting the same thing like i do in sharing information with people. But I have to stress here that, i do not welcome your sarcastic statement towards me or whatever you want to call it. I respect your privacy and I hope you feel the same way too. After all this world is too small for us to hate each other and be miserable. Oh and i will definitely invite you to my reception. No worries about that.

Thank you for your attention.

Regards,
mimi

I will survive from this trauma. I always do. :)

P/s: I'm off to Perak today. Have a nice day ahead! :)

Neruda Totally Got Me This Time

2009-04-01T00:48:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: In The Sun (Chris Martin and Michael Stipe)

Okay, Mimi has to admit that she is hardly sharing any lovey dovey post on her personal life. Truth to be told she feels that by writing on her personal life will make the personal life become not so personal at all. But sometimes she can sense the urge within herself to pen her love life. Maybe it is just a dull, boring, unexciting, dry type of story. And maybe because of that she strongly feel to keep her love story at the bay. She afraid if she start to share people will label her as being cliche. After all we know that the worst critic among us is ourselves.

But today she finds a beautiful bait from Neruda's poem that totally related to her. In a second she fell in love to that poem and wanted to share for the first time her story of compassion, of being hurt, of being love. Please not that Mimi is a neophyte in expressing her emotions. And please please be kind to her. :)

I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

Note: The first paragraph made her burst into tears. She feel connected to the poet. This first paragraph is the summation of her love story. It is totally like being shot through the head. You are the man, Neruda.

The One With The Invitation Card

2009-03-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Thirteen Senses

The Cards are ready. Weee!!! (If you know what i mean here).

The next step is to ask for relatives and friend's addresses.

To tell you the truth, when the card was being presented to me, I was speechless looking to the names written on the cards. I never thought seeing those cards could be this emotional.

Although, i have to confess that we did not satisfied with the packaging. It destroyed some parts of the cards and need us to go through all the cards to make sure there were no otehr damages. And not to forget that the printing company decided to print our last 15 cards in different color. Their excuse was the color that i wanted was out of stock. So they thought it is better for them to replace other colors rather burden the cost of late delivery.

The thing is why didn't they called us to get our permission first?

After all we can always wait since the reception will only be taken place in June. This is a typical Malay business-dealing. See, you made me over-generalized again. Sheesh!

All in all i am satisfied that there are no typo or grammatical errors on the cards. If there was one mistake i will not hesitate to reject all of it.

But seriously, every night i will glance at the cards and I still could not believe that the day is nearly approaching. Mimi is getting cold feet? LOL

Btw, i bought this baby, so that I would have your name been typed properly and neat.

The One With Mimi for President

2009-03-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Rachael Yamagata

I still remember clearly back then, when a friend from my undergraduate years labeled me as a racist. Just to let you know, we were discussing on the shocking result of PRU-12 result.;

" Mimi, I'm sorry, but i think you are racist"

After he utter (yes, it is he) the word, i was taking aback and try not to respond in irrational ways. I asked him later on why did he labeled me as a racist. In his defense he argued that, until and unless i become UMNO-less, I will not belong to the R group. To him, UMNO propagated the idea that only Malays should be protected and not the rest of races in Malaysia. He also strongly think that Anwar Ibrahim is the practical leader to overturn what is happening in the country. Whenever i tried to give my argument on Anwar Ibrahim, I'm being accused as being using conspirational theory towards him. Okaylah bro. Whatever suited you the best.

He is not alone in this. After the so-called political tsunami happened in Malaysia, there are many people becoming more extreme in their political views. I do not want to over-generalized my next statement, but after doing several in-depth interviews and quantitative analysis with local people i have to admit that the opposition supporters are being extreme in their thinking. They cannot tolerated any rational arguments that will favor the government.

So, my question are;

Who are the self-centred?

and

Why only Malays are being labeled as racist? Is it because a gesture made by one man, who held the Keris as the symbol of Ketuanan Melayu, you can generalized that all Malays are like that?

I have to admit that i have a limited knowledge in politics and i do not claimed myself as being an expert to accuse people without a proof.

On my trip to Perak last week, i was given the task to interview the locals there in order to get feedback on what they wants and needs are. During the interviewing session, i did not have any problem interviewing the Malays and Indians. But it is sad to say that i did not getting a good cooperation with the Chinese. I am not saying all of them and I am not going to imply anything here. I remembered a Chinese guy who screamed out loud to one of my friend when she tried to approach him;

"Lu sapa? Gua tak mau cakap dengan lu. Lu tak boleh cakap cina. Kita orang kat sini takda gaul dengan Melayu"

I know that not all Chinese like him. And i also believe that only a self-centred person will be acting like that.

I just one to make an argument that, if i could accept that, if i did not make over-generalization on the above scenario, why you need to do that to me? I personally sad to see more and more Malays becoming apologetic when it comes to defend Malays rights. Defending Malays rights are not equal to be racist. It is far from that. And i can accept if the Chinese or Indians wanted to defend their rights. But make sure that you are defending the right cause and not to another controversy.

In truth, i am happy to see that political transition in Malaysia has made a big impact in the development of political culture in Malaysia. More and more independent media are rising in numbers as a channel for the people to wire their views and opinions.

But are we Malaysians ready for that technology wave? I certainly do not have an answer for that.

But what intriguing me the most is seeing many students in Kampungs all around Malaysia are dropping out from school. I would say that if i were to be somebody in the top rank of Malaysia administration, education reform should be put as 'immediate action to take'. There will be no Vision 2020 without a good quality of education. Why education is important?

Let me give you a scenario. When an adequate amount of knowledge are missing or the increased of students in secondary school dropping out from school, these group of students will eventually work as nelayan. buruh, etc,etc. Later, after years of doing the same thing every month, and every year they later figured out that to become rich you have to join politics. Politics then will provide you with the source of money and assistance to get contracts and etc. So these group later joined politics in order to have a better life, they say. So now you may figured out where is the root to the problem that been having by many political parties. Corrupt leader, a self-centred leader, an extreme leader, or anything that you want to call it.

I could give you an evidence to that. During my interviewing session with party member of the you- know- who political party there are a few number of people who cannot read. And surprisingly they proud to be that. Because why? They told me that even the illiterate can join politics and hold position in the party. I am not saying that, the illiterate should not be given the chance to join politics, but at least have a decency to improve yourself. I am sad looking to these people who are my brothers and sisters who are still ignorant in the importance of the knowledge.

If i were to be the PM i would make sure the education and the state development should go hand in hand. We need to instill back the love for the knowledge starting from the children.

If i were to be the PM i would want to follow what has been practiced by Khalifah Umar Al-Khattab during his administration. He would give sometimes at night to go from house to house in order to make sure his people are doing fine. I know it could be too ideal to do that, but people love to see ideal things been practised. I certainly think that with the enormous wealth that we have in Malaysia, we could utilize that to reach the people. After all, my bosses are the rakyats and I am accountable for that.

And if i were to be the PM i would want to gradually have a strong government. I would hire the best person in town to be the minister, ahli parlimen, adun and whatnot. Thus, i would implied to all that to be in high position is based on merit and not the other way around.

Oh and if i were to decided to be PM i would want to hire David Plouffe from the Obama's campaign to be my campaign manager. Can? LOL

In truth, i am not interested to be a PM or involved in politics at the moment. I do not know what future hold for me yet. But maybe someday i would think about it and if one day i finally decided to join politics, you the readers should remind me about this post. :)

The X FIle: The One With The Revelation

2009-03-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Kelly Clarkson

When I was in Primary School, I like to watch this one segment in Malaysia Hari Ini called “Jejak Kasih”. I do not know why, but seeing people re-connected with their lost families make me wonder how lucky I am to have extended families who knew each other.

And I never thought one day, I'll be experiencing my own version of "Jejak Kasih"

It is all started in the year 2007 in which brought a new revelation to me.

I have other family that I never thought I had. All started when I received a call from a Chinese lady who claimed to be my mother’s sister. Then come this Malay couple all the way from Tanjung Karang to explain the ‘X-File’ of my origin, if I can say that.

If you still wondering, Yes, my mom is Chinese and I am a half Chinese???

After much thought, we decided to meet the other extended families for the first time at Jusco Kepong. My heart was beating fast just like I am about to see my real parent or something but in reality my mom and my aunty whom I called Ucu were cool all the way to the meeting place. Biasalah mimi kan..

We arrived at the place around 10 am where the place just open for customers. We find a spot at the food court there and waited for them. Not too long, the expected guest(s) came.

So apparently all of them are Chinese.

I first thought that, the meeting would not be interesting at all. We will be awkward all the time. The guests will be such a boring group. Surprisingly the meeting turns out to be fun and I’m having no difficulties conversing with them. I am touched with their gesture to help us (since most of them are super-rich) and I couldn’t care less with that passer-by who looks weird looking at us.

You must be wondering why I wanted to share this story with you. And why now?

In truth, I was been asked by my family to keep it as a secret since this could in some ways ‘endangered’ my family’s image. Don’t ask me why. I do not have an answer for that.

Later, after two years knowing that they are exist, and with my reception nearly approaching, I thought that the reception could be the perfect event to introduce them to the rest. After all they are my family too. And for the first time in my life, I got to experience what it is like to be in a big family where uncles and aunties gave their attention to you and not to mention I got my first big hug from my dearly uncle, Uncle Tom. I would treasure those moments and I hope this relationship would last.

I pray hard for that.

The Other Family

The 100th Post: Happy Pill(s)

2009-03-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Dear diary,

Instead of jumping out for joy or being 'yay'ness for getting reached the 100th post, I have no soul to celebrate this day of happiness. If you asked me am i fine? I would sincerely say; "I'm okay but i need time to figure out the cause for this spiral problem". And i would say to you, "I'll be back soon and let my friends know that my absent is not something to worry. I'll find the happy pill(s).

Love,
mimi

The 99th Post:: Destinasi Bajet Bahagian 1 – Pre Bacholerette Party: “The Beach Galore”

2009-03-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: The Beatles

On the 13^th – 15^th March 2009, marked my first road- trip-with-the-usual-gang. Our last minute plan became reality after the hotel-hunting mission was a success (the weekend was rated as the Super Peak in relation to the School Holidays) and not to mention the effort made by the usual peeps in the gang to ‘sacrifice’ their disposable income and big thanks to Majidah; the transporter for the Beach Galore Mission who efficiently maintain the smooth sailing of the journey (excluding the part when “Comel” freaked out and started to shout in her (or is it he? Let the owner justified that) own Pavarotti way.)

Day 1 – The One with Taboo

We leaved KL after our works finished at 5.30pm. You may imagine how bad the traffic from Jalan Tun Razak to Sungai Besi was. Luckily, thanks to Mimi-the-perfectionist, our ways to Port Dickson were full with laughter and screaming from all sides of the car as we entertained ourselves with Mr Taboo. We got ourselves lost in the middle of Port Dickson highway as everyone arguing which exit we should take to get to Port Dickson. Despite having lost our ways to Port Dickson, we are very much anticipated on our sight seeing in Bandar Lukut where we found out the existence of Kota and Muzium Lukut that later we decided to visit on the last day in Port Dickson.

We first checked ourselves at the Sunshine Beach Resort before we pick Reen at her house. At Reen’s house, we had a great dinner and chit chat with the family. Later at 10pm we left Reen’s house and headed straight to the apartment. Nothing much happened that night as everyone was tired except their mission to so called ‘terrorizing’ Mimi the helpless did happened. Mimi being the obedient friend making no excuses or fusses over her friend’s mission and made herself ‘available’ for the said mission. Let the pictures below do the justice;

* The Try & Error Make-up Session*

Total Expenditure for Day 1:

Petrol (Full Tank) : RM 50

Toll Fare (PLUS Highway & Seremban-PD Highway): RM 12.70

Apartment’s Fee (2 Rooms): RM 360 (RM 180 per night)

TOTAL: RM 422.70 divided by three person: RM 140.90

Day 2 – The one with No Fire

The day started with Tanning session by the beach. We had fun swimming at the beach with no ones there. Only we were at the beach on that morning. We built sand castle, laugh over something stupid, make foolish of ourselves and not to forget cam-whoring (It’s a must!). After few hours of swimming and grinning for no reasons we decided to have brunch at Teluk Kemang. Before that, we made a pit stop at Reen’s house to pick her niece.

* Us having fun at the beach*

After having overrated/pricey brunch, we decided to go to The Ostrich Farm. Initially Majie’s plan was to make me ride the ostrich (part of the ‘terrorizing mimi mission’). But after seeing the not-so-well-maintained farm and with the ‘garang’ ostrich we put hold on that mission. We bought foods for the goats and ostrich but later only Reen the brave one among us to feed the ostrich.

* With 'Baby'*

After happy cuddling session with Baby at the farm, we make our way to Tanjung Tuan Light House. We arrived at the Light House after half and hour or so. To tell you the truth, we did not expected to climb a-very-challenging-hill before reached the Light House. I later found myself and Yumi climbing the hill with jeans and platform shoes. Crazy aight? The scenery at the Light House was magnificent. The hill was surrounded with big big trees and at the peak of the hill you will discover the ‘untouched’ sea and the water was clear as crystal. There were many tourists up there with their sophisticated cameras to take pictures of rare species birds. According to the local there, there will be several groups of birds (up to 14,000 birds) making their stop at the shore of the sea. So that justified why there were a lot of bird-watchers equipped with camera under the hot sun up there. Serius panas. I feel like melting at one point. But with the breathtaking view, I feel like I was in imaginary land. I bet you will not regret climbing the hill just to see the scenery. Sumpah, sangat cantik okay.

" The Climbing Experience with Platform*

Later at night we had our own BBQ style over the beach. As the first rule of any BBQ is to set up the fire, me and the gang with full confident tried our best in setting up the fire. After 40 minutes struggling in our efforts to set up the fire, finally came this kakak from nowhere with rubber tube in her hand to help us set the fire. With rubber in our hands we were very sure that this time we would had success in setting the fire up. But later at 9pm, the luck was still not on us, and to add to our embarrassment wall come this Arab guy with the fire starter to help us. Finally the fire was set up after much efforts being put by us and the outsiders. Shukran Jazillan Ya Ahi. We had chicken, hotdog, squid, kerang, capsicum, egg plant, mushroom and onions to be barbequed. I had so much fun eating by the beach and not to forget the depression for not getting to shisha on that night.

* Us hard at work*

Total Expenditure for Day 2:

Lunch at Teluk Kemang: RM 5 per person x 4 person

Ostrich Farm’s Fee: RM 7 per adult (With Jusco Card) x 4 person

Groceries: RM 57

BBQ’s Equipment: RM 10

TOTAL: RM 120 divided by 4 person: RM 30

Day 3- The One with Yummy Soto

On the last day we were in PD, we tried the banana boat ride that cost us RM 13 per person. The experience: Awesome! Minus the over- salty water. Before that we drove to Teluk Kemang to buy the infamous Nasi Lemak that turn to be a-not-so-special-nasi lemak-with no egg and cucumber and anchovies and nuts. We had the Nasi Lemak after the Banana Boat ride. Later at 12pm we checked ourselves out from the resort and we headed straight to Reen’s house. There, we had a fabulous- yummy- slurpy Soto made by the sister. After saying goodbye to Reen and the family we headed back to KL.

But before that, we had two pit- stop. First, we had our coffee-bridesmaid discussion at the Pak Lang Coffee Shop. Although the name reflected that it is a Malay shop, but for me it is arguable to say that. But still we had fun eating the infamous Roti Kukus and Roti Sambal. The taste is so so lah.

After fuelling the tank, we headed to the next stop which is Kota and Muzium Lukut. There is no admission fee at the museum which is good and the landscape is so beautiful. We later discovered ourselves climbing another hill to get to the top of Kota Lukut. But this time me and Yumi climbed the hill with slippers and not platform. Lesson learned. I must say that the place is spooky in some ways but that feeling is something normal when you visited historical places kan. Please do visit the museum and the Kota Lukut. You will not regret.

Total Expenditure for Day 3:

The tak sedap Nasi Lemak: RM 3 per person x 3 person

Banana Boat Ride: RM 13 per person

Pak Lang Coffee Shop: RM 2.50 per person x 3 person

Petrol: RM 30

TOTAL: RM 59 divided by 3 person: RM 19

The not so official ads for Tourism Ministry;

So with only RM 190 in hand you are able to experience an unforgettable weekend-holiday with your loved ones. With this small amount of money you may take this opportunity to isolate the stress from works for a moment by going holidays in Malaysia. Jom ZOOM Malaysia.

Sekian.

Mimi reporting from Menara KL.

To the girls- Next journey, Perak “The Historical Journey to The Unknown Side of The World”- The Real Bacholerette Party.

The 98th Post:: Women's Day

2009-03-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Now Playing: Seal

Happy Women's Day to all courageous, ambitious and determined women who deserved to receive high respect on this day!

Here is an article that i wanted to share with you (thanks to my besties Hanna for sharing the link).

President Kadyrov defends honour killings

The President of Chechnya has justified the right of male relatives to carry out 'honour killings' after seven young women were found shot dead.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had loose morals and were rightfully shot.

The 32-year-old former militia leader describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children.

He also encourages men to take more than one wife and women and girls are required to wear headscarves in all schools, universities and government offices.

-taken from Belfast Telegraph, Sunday, 1st March 2009.

I feel sick reading his immoral statement. How on earth he was elected as a president.
Shame on you Kadyrov for being ignorant of Islamic teaching. There is no excuse for being so self-centered in thinking. God has created all creatures in the world to complement each other Islam has never teach its followers to discriminate any gender, race even religion.

Would love to hear comments from you.

May we women stay stronger and believe with what we do. After all we are neon who lighten the dark and the cold side of men.
We are the beauty of life.

The 97th Post:: The Many Layers of Mimi

2009-03-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Angel and Airwaves

Rules: The rules are simple. Use Google Image to search the answers to the questions below. Then you must choose a picture in the first page of the results, and post it as your answer. After that tag 6 people.

I AM

I WANT TO GO TO

and while I'm there, go to

MY FAVOURITE PLACE

MY FAVOURITE THING(S) ARE

MY FAVOURITE DRINKS ARE

MY FAVOURITE FOOD ARE

MY COLOURS ARE

I CURRENTLY LIVE IN

BUT WAS BORN IN

I ATTENDED

I LOVE WATCHING THESE SHOWS

I LOVE DOING THESE

I WISH FOR THESE. EVERYDAY.

Woaahh.. Finally I am done with this tag thingy.

So i want to tag;
Sarah
Majidah
Ayumi
NurNadiah
Hamiza
Linie
And anyone who has free time to do this. Mind you, it will definitely burn your brain.

The 96th Post: Of Mee Udang, Laksa Kuala, Night Safari, Works and What Not

2009-03-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

Now Playing: Keane

Hellooo!!!

Been away for quite sometimes.

Last week was a loooong and tiring week for me. I went to Taiping, Trong and Kuala Sepetang to do some fieldwork research. I did few in-depth interviews with the locals to get general feelings on the ground so that we will be able to come out with a good hypothesis and perhaps better solutions for the you-know-who political party.

Oh well, i am not planning to give you details on that because i'm not prepared for ISA yet. LOL
But let me share our journey throughout those places.

Day 1

We arrived in Taiping at 3pm. Initially we planned to stay at Hotel Panorama which is look nice from the pictures in the the net but in reality su***. After much thought, we decided to look for Hotel Sri Malaysia. The day before, we were told that the hotel is fully booked for a function. But my instinct tell me to go and check the hotel perhaps they can accept walk-in. Luckily there is still one vacancy for Family Room and not to mention the room is near to the swimming pool. Double joy. Wooohooo!

Around 4pm, Rubian; our Fieldwork manager picked us up from the hotel to meet with the interviewers at Kuala Sepetang. I told Rubian that we did not had a chance to take lunch. So it was me who proposed (Oh yes I'm proud of that, haha) to the group to have our lunch at the infamous Warung Mee Udang Mak Teh at Kuala Sepetang. With Rubian expertise in remembering landmarks-reading map and etc, we did found the infamous warung. It is located next to the main road and i assured you that you will not lost in getting to the place.

Let the pictures do the talking, shall we..

There are 15 prawns per plate. Talk about being greedy. hehe

The main dish that they served here is Mee Udang. But they also serve Nasi Goreng Udang, Nasi Ayam and etc. The Mee Udang is yummeh and with the fresh prawns served you will definitely ask for more. Seriously.

Day 2

The day started with doing few interviews with the local in Trong. We had so much fun in approaching the locals and getting informations from them. The locals there wre friendly but not the 'doggies'. I almost got heart attack when this one dog slowly approaching behind my back. Takut wooo..

Us with the locals at Trong Coffee Shop

Among the locals that we interviewed in Trong

After so called 'working hard' moment in the morning, we decided to have our lunch at Kopitiam in Taiping town. I had rice with butter chicken. Okayla the food.

Us having lunch

In the evening we went for a stroll at the Taiping park near our hotel. Then, we headed to several historical buildings in Taiping and visited a war memorial. And yes, we took pictures too.

The evening scenery at Taiping Park

Us at Pejabat Tanah Larut dan Selama

Us at the War Memorial

Later at night, we went to Night Safari Taiping. At first, we thought to walk around the safari rather than riding the Safari train. But after much thought and we discovered how big was the safari and not to mention how dark it was, we took the train as safety precautions.

Us at Night Safari Taiping.

Day 3

We went to Kuala Kangsar on the last day we were in Perak. I am much familliar with the route because it is my kampung. We arrived at Kuala Kangsar at 12pm and the first stop was Masjid Ubudiah Bukit Chandan. The road to Bukit Chandan was full with big trees and colorful flowers.

Us at Muzium Diraja Bukit Chandan Kuala Kangsar

Next, we stop at Muzium Diraja Kuala Kangsar. Previously the building was served as Istana Diraja for Perak Royalty. The building was built without using any nails. Amazing aight.

After that, we went to Sungai Kangsar Medan Selera for lunch. We had Laksa Kuala with Cendol Pulut. Yummeh i tell you. LOL

The infamous Laksa Kuala

Cendol Pulut and What Not

And thats conclude our journey to Perak.
I had great times there and certainly will treasure the memories spent together.

Next journey: Kelantan

P/s: Maj, Yumi, Reen, jom road-trip! :)