25 June 2010

Today my company celebrated it's 10th anniversary in existence. We had some prayers and had a little party to commemorate the milestone. Did you know that it was previously name Cosmos Dynamic before it changed to its current name? Yes it was a dreadful name and I'm glad somebody decided to change it for the better.

10 years is quite an achievement for a small company. We've been through ups and downs and achieved so many things through the years and I'm proud to be a part of that. Almost 4 years to be exact. I'm the kind of guy who likes to settle down at one place and generally loyal to a particular organization. To me if a company treats me right with respect and rewards me accordingly then I have no reason to leave. So far I have no reason to. Here's for another 10 years, cheers!

22 June 2010

If my wife didn't have the time to cook in the morning, I usually had breakfast somewhere outside. As I said before, breakfast is the most important meal of the day for me. Can't start my day without it. Now finding a good place to eat around Bandar Putra Permai/Equine Park is not easy. Most of them serve so-so food that I easily get bored with. And since Kak Na is so far away now I rarely get to sample her delicious food anymore. So where can I eat? Certainly not Thoiba!

That was before KFC introduced their morning smart meal breakfast. I especially love their nasilemak with fried chicken meal. The sauce is spicy and they throw in a free drink some more. And at RM5.25 (including tax), it's a no brainer. These days if my wife doesn't cook, you can find me at KFC Petronas around 8-ish. Though bear in mind eating fried chicken everyday is bad news for your diet program.

20 June 2010

Today I attended our first resident's association meeting. They've had a couple of meetings before. We haven't moved in yet so obviously I didn't attend.

The security firm and representative from the management were present. We discussed a lot of things, security, parking, cleanliness, security, mainly security. In fact the first hour and a half was all about security. Not surprising since there were already 4 break-ins here at this apartment. All of them in block A. I know stuff happens but what are all those security guards doing about this?

After that they also selected several new committee members for the resident's association. I was elected as head of the fifth floor at random. Wow, now I'm head of something.

15 June 2010

While sorting through my emails this morning, I received one from the UiTM Academics department. It was my exam result! I don't remember they ever doing this, sending exam results to students but it is pretty impressive considering their student portal website is almost always down this time of the year.

So how did I fair? As you can see below I did quite well this semester, even better than the last. Principles of Management was never easy and I think my average mark for my assignment affected the final score. Next time remember to do it with the top student in class (that's you Mrs Rock!). Islamic Civilization was quite tough but I got an A as well for that. As usual, thank you everyone for your help, my family, friends, lecturer, employee who gave me that 3 days leave to take these exams. Well, this is just the 2nd semester and we still have 6 more to go. Long way to go and I must continuously improve my results. You know I won't post them here if they were bad right? :)

All this week I'll be working at a client's office in Subang, replacing my colleague who is taking some time off this school holiday to be with his family. Is it just my feelings or does everybody have like 30 days off a year? Cause everybody seemed to take leaves every other week (not counting M.C and E.L). After my sister's wedding, Hari Raya and next semester's exams I will have like -2 days left of annual leave. Sigh.

13 June 2010

My initial plan is to set off early for KL, arrive early there and have the evening off to rest and recover. But then you know how it is with women and children. We only left Tanah Merah around 12:30 in the afternoon. Add that with 4 stops and some traffic jam, we didn't get home until 12 hours later. School holiday or not, the highway will always be jammed with traffic especially when entering the city. Lucky for me I took the Sertik-Mempaga alternative route to the Karak Highway which is void of traffic but super-creepy and lonely at night. You don't want to drive alone down that road. At least we arrived safe and sound.

Hey what do you know, the World Cup is here! It's been here since last Thursday but I didn't catch much of it because I was pretty much occupied with Izni's wedding. Plus we didn't have the sports package back home. I'd like to say I don't have favourites but then I would be lying. Spain then England for me. I am also rooting for the underdogs as always. So Korea (north & south), Japan and USA all the way! Argh those vuvuzelas is driving me nuts. They should ban them from the stadium.

12 June 2010

Have I told you that my camera, that cheap digital 7 Mega pixel Kodak camera is broken? I can not turn off the camera. The only way to turn it off is to wait 1 minute for the lens to come in and pull out the battery. So you can imagine how short the battery life is with this camera now. And I won't bother to get it fix cause I imagine the cost would be more than 200 ringgit when I bought the camera online for mere RM250 some 2 years ago.

At my sister's wedding yesterday, I managed to snap a few dozen pictures before the battery completely dried out. Then I can only take pictures with my phone's camera which is obviously not as good as quality as the digital camera. Unless some kind soul out there is nice enough to buy me a new one, it would be some time before I get a new camera, sigh. Till then, camera phone it is.

Today we returned home to Tanah Merah and got news that my mother-in-law's sister, her son died. You can read all about it here. It's all over the papers. Rumours has it that the deceased has had some mental depression and he probably jumped into the well by himself. But then nobody saw it happen so you can never be sure. Anyway we visited her house today in Kemubu, Kota Bharu to read some prayers and offer our condolences. May his soul rest in peace.

11 June 2010

Today is the reception ceremony at the groom's place in Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu. Although my digital camera is broken, I did took a lot of pictures with my phone's camera. But somehow when I synced it to iTunes, it magically removed the camera app along with all the pictures inside. That's what you get for downloading pirated apps. Instant karma! So no pictures in this post.

Izzat's family is really nice, friendly and warm. We were greeted with some fireworks display that evening. His father, the retired army Major was especially nice. You can find him chatting away with my Dad all evening.

10 June 2010

My little sister Izni got married today. About time too, she's 27 this year if I'm not mistaken. All of my family member is in town for the big day, Lina & family and also Faiz with his recently wedded wife. Uncle Dib and Uncle Din had to spend the night at Aunty Yati's place because our house can not possible fit all of us together.

My Dad is here too of course. After all he is going to be the wali (marriage guardian) for Izni. I wish he had worn something more proper than that blue denim shirt. A baju melayu would be fine. Then again I too wore a green t-shirt. Anyway during the formal lunch, my Dad and Mom didn't sit together at the table with the bride and groom. They have this long and complicated history between them and until today they can't see eye too eye. Well I think my Dad is pretty cool with everybody, it's just my Mom. She rarely forget things, especially those which hurts her the most. But now that all of my siblings are married, they have no reason to see each other ever again after this. I hope that is not the case. Although separated and well apart, we are still family.

But today is about Izni and her new husband. I don't know him that well, nobody in my family does but I hope he would be the man to take care of my sister well and make her happy for the rest of their lives together. Only time will tell.

9 June 2010

Today is the first day of my 3 days off from work. As much as I would like to rest at home, I have a wedding to attend to some 500 KM away. Although some people might find it strange to have weddings on a Thursday, it is not really that uncommon actually. It is now the school holidays and my sister and her future spouse must have some really good reason to hold it that day.

Anyway first we went straight to Kota Bharu to visit my father-in-law who's about to have a minor surgery to remove something in his bladder. They told him to fast before the surgery and then kept postponing the procedure until about 30 hours later. Imagine his hunger and pain. That is what you can expect from government hospitals.

5 June 2010

A few weeks ago my brother-in-law registered for his foundation program at International Islamic University (UIA) in Petaling Jaya. Today we visited him there. The entire campus was small and packed right in the middle of bustling section 13 PJ.

Actually he received 2 offers to further his studies. One from there and another for a matriculation course in Kuantan. I advised him to take the matrix course but somehow he chose to go here. In UIA, you'll have to be really good in English and Arabic which I doubt not many people do. Plus if you do not perform well in the initial test, you'll be there a year or two longer than your matriculation student counterpart who will only spend a year there. Besides, I don't think it matters anyway in the end which university you graduate from, as long as you have a degree to show for.

That said, I hope he can prove me wrong and do well there in UIA. Good luck to you.

4 June 2010

Once upon a time, I got bonus from my company and treated myself with a huge desktop table. That was before when I placed all my computers and stuff in our living room. But now here in Casa Riana my wife explicitly prohibited me from putting anything in the living room so I had to move them here instead in our bedroom.

I traded the huge table for this smaller one so that it can fit into our small bedroom. Small as it is, at least I got an outside view of the hills. No this hills don't have eyes and it is actually quite beautiful. I can't wait to start studying already!

3 June 2010

Did you know that you can listen to hundreds of Internet radio stations from all over the world through iTunes? How come I never knew that before?

I love these online stations especially the Bossanova and Classic ones. No need to download mp3s anymore. Just switch on iTunes.

2 June 2010

Check out our new IKEA Mawas Mavas entertainment center rack. We bought it from IKEA for RM369 and took it home the same day with our trusted Proton Savvy. Believe it or not but it actually fits that tiny car! That's the wonder of IKEA flat packs.

Assembling this thing is a real pain in the a** though. It required 26 steps of aligning, screwing, hammering and jumping through hoops. In comparison, the cheap Flarke computer table took 9 steps and our previous IKEA bed frame took 19 steps. But even if I didn't worked at IKEA for 1 1/2 years before, I still think I can manage to assemble this just fine.

That little PC down there is my very own HTPC (Home Theatre PC) running Geexbox. Sadly it cannot support XBMC or Boxee or else it'll be awesome. Still a lot of space to fill.

Alterchart m#19

01 Pelita - A.P.I

02 Muda - Hujan

03 Daus - Kenapa

04 Dan bila esok - Sofaz

05 Ku bukan aku - Tilu

06 Pemuja dari jauh - Ruffedge

07 Cuba lagi - Malique

08 Tinggal kenangan - Saleem

09 Doktor pakar cinta - Yusry

10 Yang - Wali Band

1 June 2010

When it comes to eating out near Casa Riana, you have several places to go. First there's this mamak restaurant called Restoran Malik Makmur. The food there is so so but it is also rather expensive. Then there is Makan-Makan at the opposite end of the shop lots which is open 24 hours and with even more expensive but average food. I had a fried rice once for 5 bucks. Next we have Firzana's Kitchen which part of the Firzana kindergarten, nursery and logistic franchise. This restaurant looked so high class and well decorated we felt intimidated to even go anywhere near.

Which brings us to d'Puncak Selera, a simple restaurant with an array of mouth-watering cuisines and inexpensive menus. We had breakfast and lunch there once and they were simply delightful. I'd recommend this place for everyone who lives in the vicinity. It's just 10 minutes walk from where I live and you won't miss it if you drive through Puncak Jalil regularly.