30 October 2008

I am still as sick as I was yesterday. I think I got a temperature too. At times like this, how I wish I can just go home and rest right after work. Instead I go home to look after 2 very-very active kids after fetching them from the nursery. Their Mom usually won't come home until after 8 PM (the earliest). Of course if I said that to my wife she will put on a face and offered to be a stay at home mom. And then I'll be mad with myself for not being able to do more for the family. Baby, you know we can't afford to do that right now kan? But who knows if I really become the Minister of Education like in my dream than you can just stay home and look after all our 7 kids. Till then just keep the faith ya.
Holy cow what's all these people doing on my other blog? Oh yeah I forgot, my last post got featured on Malaysia Today this afternoon. Actually I sent them the article last night and they were kind enough to publish it there. You think that one any good? No? Wait till you read my next piece. It will only gets better.

Hey anybody notice my new pants that I wore to office today? It's black and it's Chargers Outfitters, my fave brand for trousers. No? Oh I forgot again. People at my office cannot access blogs. Dang.

29 October 2008

Lately I've been having these weird dreams. Last week I dreamed that I run in a race up the Maybank Tower in KL. Next I dreamed that somebody appointed me as the Minister of Education. Also I dreamed that I go to school with Zac in High School Musical. Last night I dreamed that I sold songkok at a market supplied by Adflin Shauki. Weird stuff. Why can't I have a normal dream like going on a date with Kristin Kreuk, go bowling with Jessica Alba or at least strolling down the beach with Nur Fazura? (just kidding darling!)
I am terribly sick today. My nose is blocked, my throat is sore and I have a cough to boot. And worse I took the wrong cold tablet this morning which made me awfully drowsy while driving. Sleep + driving = bad-bad combination. I want to sleep early tonight and hope that I'll feel better tomorrow. Stay away from me. I'm contagious.

28 October 2008

A wise woman once said, "don't be too loyal with a single product or brand - one day you'll be disappointed". Needless to say, y'all should already know by now that I'm one big IKEA junkie. The last furniture I bought from them was our new beds, one single and one queen sized. The queen sized bed broke last week. No it didn't break into pieces or something like that but the main spine as I call it cracked. Maybe it's because our mattress is too thin. Maybe I'm a little bit too heavy for the bed. Maybe we've been way too active on it. OR maybe the bed is just not strong enough. Either way, I'm totally disappointed with it. I thought all IKEA stuff is built tough, durable and will last forever. Apparently not. Anyway I'm planning to patch the crack with a duct tape (will that work?). I hope that will do until we get the spare part from the store. I doubt it is covered under the warranty. Whatever.

27 October 2008

En realidad yo quería felicitar a mis amigos indios en su día festivo el día de hoy. Pero después de lo que pasó anoche, me cambió mi mente. ¿Quieres saber lo que pasó? Empezaron a encender los petardos desde la medianoche hasta la madrugada. ¡Qué montón de idiotas desconsiderado. No saben que algunas personas tienen niños pequeños que no pueden dormir debido al ruido? Por lo tanto, no felices deseos para este año. Y también el próximo año. y el próximo. Bueno, al menos, hasta que me trasladan a un barrio que no tiene petardos durante los festivales.
No hemos hecho nada en la mañana, salvo mentira alrededor de la casa. Tomé esta oportunidad de oro para tener mi sueño de belleza. Ni una sola vez, dos veces. Más tarde nos llevó alrededor de Taman Puncak Jalil y Kinrara buscando para nuestra futura casa. Encontramos una en el Taman Puncak Jalil, pero ya estaban todas agotadas y tenemos que esperar a los propietarios a vender. Estas casas son como para nosotros. No es demasiado pequeño y no demasiado grande y está ubicado justo en el medio entre Bukit Jalil y mi oficina. Realmente espero que la caída de precios dentro de nuestro presupuesto.

26 October 2008

The sweet-sweet taste of victory. If I could gamble, I wouldn't bet all my life savings on Liverpool tonight. Although my heart is on The Reds trashing Chelsea, my right mind is saying a draw would be more likely against the odds. But thankfully the boys in Red doesn't think so and gave The Blues a run for Abramovich's money. So a victory it is. And to put the icing on the cake, it ended their incredible 86 games unbeaten run on their home turf since 2004. One would have thought Man Utd or Arsenal would be doing that but ahem, guess who done it? Damn, if I'd put my life savings on the game tonight I would be 100 ringgit richer by now.
Earlier this afternoon we went to Linda's cousin open house in Bangi. It's possibly my last Raya open house for the year (Thank God!). Maybe it's just my luck but they served the two food that I'd prefer not to eat, laksa penang and fish, catfish some more. Sorry I won't be polite here so I didn't touch the above two foods. Lucky for me they also serve rice and chicken. Else I don't know I want to come there again next year. Yeah-yeah I'm such a jerk. No point pretending.

25 October 2008

I felt much better today. Well I had to because I have a lot of driving to do. My wife had to work today. They'd ask her to work tomorrow too but since they don't wanna pay her overtime, we're safe for the weekend. Anyway today Linda brought Adam to work while I look after Mia at home. I'll look after 5 Mias anytime than a single Adam (he he no offence kid!).
Later I went to pick Linda and Adam at her office and went to Sungai Buloh Hospital to pick up her mom. She's been working there for a few months now. We walked around the hospital while waiting for Ma to finish her shift. It's a huge hospital, but largely empty from what I see. Maybe few people come to visit today. Maybe not many people get admitted here. Service-wise, I don't know yet. I hope they don't suck as much as the Serdang Hospital. A big hospital doesn't necessarily mean a top-class service.

24 October 2008

Fever


Maybe I've been under the rain so much

Maybe I've been cooped up in the freezing cold server room In Puncak Alam too long

Maybe my body just need some rest

23 October 2008

It is that time of the month again to take my kid to local government clinic for her monthly checkup. I used to dread doing that, going to clinic early in the morning waiting for hours for our turn when the actual checkup process took less than 5 minutes. Today, I still dread doing that but I have grown pretty much accustomed to it. I just suck it up and get on with it.
Don't know what to do with your kid's duit Raya? Why not save it up in SSPN (National Education Savings Scheme). You can open an account for your kids (from age 0) at major local banks (like Maybank & CIMB) and you cannot withdraw from the accounts until they get into college. To open an account you just need to bring the kid's and your birth certificate/MyKid/MyKad and deposit a minimum of 20 ringgit. And the rumors are not true. They won't deduct anything from your salary. Furthermore you can deposit (or not deposit) anytime you like. It doesn't have to be every month. You can even do it once a year (i.e after Raya season). So today we deposited all the kid's duit Raya into SSPN. Hope the government doesn't borrow it to inject into any ailing GLCs. That would be CBT if you ask me.
Later we took Adam to get his much needed hair cut. Okay-okay I confess I'm guilty for giving him that horrible hair cut last month. After receiving a few dozens snide comments from my family members and friends, we think it's time to give him a proper hair cut. For a mere 5 ringgit, we let the professionals (i.e the local Indian barber) do it. Just look at this before and after picture.
Left: local native Penan boy. Right: local naughty city boy.

22 October 2008

ZOMG! Haven't you heard? Mawi is getting married this December!! How did I miss this? Oh wait, since when did I care for this no-talent singer's life? I don't!!! Move along.

There's no point paying thousands of ringgit for some ISO certification when you can't even stock up your first aid kit properly. Imagine when the ISO inspectors came and check the safety aspects and they fail you just because your first aid kit is in such a pathetic state. Is it so hard to buy a freaking handyplast? Nah I'm not complaining all that because I had a cut this morning and I had to leave it exposed all day just because I can't find a single plaster anywhere. I'm a tough guy and a tiny cut won't kill me. Although it did sting a lot after being exposed to the scorching sun all day long for the round trip to Puncak Alam.
I came back to the office late this afternoon and guess what? No Mawi still can't sing but they've created a new pasar malam (night market) near my office. It is situated just across the street starting next to restoren Nizam (now known as Thoiba) all the way round. From what I saw so far there's nasi tomato, fried noodle, noodle chicken soup, murtabak, yong tau fu, chicken rice, burgers, some veggies but no nasi lemak (yet). So remember people, Wednseday - pasar malam near my office. Don't park in front of my office though. We have employed Bujal to scare away potential parkers.

21 October 2008

HP service center in Damansara is probably the 2nd best service center that I've ever been to. Their service is fast and prompt, there free cakes and drinks and there's a huge plasma TV tuned to Channel V in the corner. The best service center I've ever been so far should be the Renault service center in PJ. The customer's lounge is spacious with a huge 32" TV + Astro and the best thing is I get to hog the remote all to myself. There's also free drinks of course but no cakes. And when I get bored of watching TV, I can go online using the PC with broadband Internet provided in the corner. Usually there's only one or two other people waiting in the lounge.
The worst service center ever must be TMT services also in PJ. They do services and repair works for electronic giants such as Philips and Sanyo but their office environment virtually sucks. There's no food or drinks or TV and the worst part is you have to pay a non-refundable hundred ringgit up front as a 'checking fee' just to send in your product for repair. And 2 weeks later, they're still checking the problem carefully when I called the company for the repair status. How uncool is that? The guy on the phone can't even speak proper English or Malay. That's how they rake in millions of profit every year. Exorbitant fees and cheap labor. So my advice to y'all is, if you buy Phillips or Sanyo products, make sure they don't break. <-- Like that also can ah?

20 October 2008

I spent most of the day today at the Renault service center in PJ section 13 waiting for the Kangoo to be serviced. The service officer Shan was extra friendly towards me today. He was quite friendly before but today was a different experience. Maybe because I said certain unfavorable things when the customer service dept called the other day. Things like I have to wait for ages for the service to complete. That's why today I waited for 5 minutes less. Thank you customer service!

Just how many person can you put on a single queen sized bed? Four according to Adam. We're still trying to make him sleep on his own bed but he still won't. Yes we can carry him next room when he's asleep but he'll always sneak out and join us afterwards. I'm out of ideas what to do.
Adam has this annoying habit of holding back his pee. We can see him holding his weiner but when we asked if he wanted to pee, he would shake his head right until the last minute. Sometimes when he just woke up he would suddenly cry and cry and when we asked whether he wants to pee, again he'd say no and soon enough he will wet his pants. I don't know why sometimes it's so difficult to make him say that he needs to go. I mean he's almost fully potty trained today. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, our almost 7 months Mia has started crawling on all four today. Well that's what she's trying to do anyway. And what's that I hear her said? Papa? :)

Alterchart m#12

01 Dibius cinta - Melly Goeslow & Yusry mp3

02 OK - Malique feat Cat Farish mp3

03 Cinta antara kita - Duta feat Baizura Kahar mp3

04 Coba - Faizal Tahir mp3

05 Molek - Elyana mp3

06 A.E.I.O.U - Ahli Fiqir feat Elliza mp3

07 Baiknya - Ada Band

08 Tak bisa memiliki - Samsons

09 Cinta yang sempurna - Sixth Sense feat Noe

10 Kutunggu jandamu - Irwansyah

19 October 2008

"The World's Best Kept Secret Blog" that's what I should name this blog as, not Afif Chronicles. At the prestigious Annual Weblog Awards, the winner for best kept secret blog this year is so very alone. I'm inclined to disagree with that. I mean his blog got thousands of hits everyday and there were numerous comments on his posts. What's so secret about that? My blog on the other hand receives an average of 4 visitors per day and I can even name all of them (Rina, Bujal, Nora, Linda and Ashraf). So sad, no?
Actually I was just kidding. If I was concerned about page hits and popularity, I would have stop blogging long time ago. This blog is about me, my life and I alone and the reason I blog day in an day out is so that my kids and friends and even myself can read this sometime in the future and have a good chuckle for themselves. Besides, I love it this way. No pressure to post, no high expectation to meet, no nothing. Only here can you see Afif in his almost* truest form.

Somebody should nominate me for the award above this year.

* of course la I have to censor a bit to save my job and not to hurt my friends/loved ones.

18 October 2008

Today we went to another Raya open house. This one was held at our friends house in Vista Angkasa, Kerinchi (in KL). Since we didn't go to Mak Cik's (Mashitah) open house the last 2 years, we felt obliged to come this year.
There we met Linda's office mate Yus and long time friends like Rini and Nisa and family. Nisa's little baby had grown up into that beautiful girl you see there in white. I slept for most of the afternoon so I was understandably hungry when we got there. There were laksa penang and nasi dagang and I had the latter of course. It was not nice lah, not as good as Kak Na's but fairly acceptable. I so like to critic people's cooking. If I didn't become a technician I would have became a food critique instead. Imagine making a living out of eating.

17 October 2008

I suck at maths. I even failed my calculus test twice. I'm not very good at sports either. I don't play football much, I never won anything at school and I'm definitely too fat to start running. But one thing I am good at is cleaning computer viruses. I'm so good that those viruses shit in their pants whenever they hear my name.
But today though the viruses had fought back. 2 days ago I encountered a type of virus that transforms Word and Excel files into viruses. Once that happens, you have no choice but to delete those files and there's no way to recover them back. Unless you made backup copies. And the worse thing is, I just might get in trouble for that. That sucks.
Anyway tonight we went to our good friend Puan Hajar's place in Taman Puncak Jalil. She held a little open house for her close friends. There were chicken rice and spaghetti bolognaise. I had the spaghetti which was a little bit sour. Maybe to much tomato puree I think.

16 October 2008

A few months ago I found out I cannot use my Maybank ATM card. When I went to make a new one, they insisted that I replace my identity card first because they cannot read anything from the chip. So I have no choice but to make a new I.C just to get a freaking replacement ATM card.

Which I only did today. Actually I lost my I.C twice already before so I was worried that I might have to pay the 310 ringgit fine to make a new one. Fortunately I don't. This time I didn't loose my I.C, I just want to replace it (which is free of charge). And while am at it I thought why not change my address also? This is my chance. I'd like to cast my vote here in Selangor in the next general election. It's not that I don't love my home town Kelantan anymore, it's just I'd like to keep BN/UMNO out of Selangor forever and ever. Besides I'm confident my folks back home will keep PAS in power for the next few decades.
To change the address on your I.C you just need to bring a copy of your water or electricity bill so that they can confirm that you live wherever you put your address at. Remember to make a photocopy of the bill before you go. Then fill up the form, pay 10 ringgit and voila! You are now a resident of Selangor/KL/Sabah/wherever. As for me, I need to make a new I.C so I have to take a new photo also. I didn't have the chance to put on any make up so that explains the tulan face. Plus they make me wear that one-size-fits-all fugly blazer for the photo shoot. Then I'm finished. They will keep your current I.C and gave you a temporary one like the one above. My new I.C will be ready in a month's time so they say.

Now I just have to convince Linda to do the same. Else there will be a huge logistical problem come election day.

p.s: I change my address to my mom's place in Serdang.

15 October 2008

Good news people! Kak Na and her nasi berlauk/dagang stall is open for business again this morning. It's been ages since I last taste her delicious cooking. The bad news is, they upped the price tag by 50 cent. Nevertheless I think RM3.00 is still pretty reasonable. Where got rice + lauk that cheap anywhere else right?

I guess I put my right foot first (langkah kanan) when coming to Puncak Alam today. I have no idea they were holding a Raya open house today until I got there this afternoon. And this year everybody's invited unlike last year where certain-certain people only get to come. There were satay, ketupat, rendang, rojak, ABC and curry mee among others. But since I'm on diet (ha ha!), I only had the satay, rendang+rice and the chicken soup. Besides I've got loads of work to finish today.
I can't recall the last time it rained so heavily like today. It was pouring whales and dinosaurs. There was flood and traffic jams everywhere and I had to take the longest route there is to get from Sungai Besi LRT to my home.

14 October 2008

I don't like the new season of Heroes. It's too gloomy and gruesome. Too many bad guys this season plus I don't know who's the real villain anymore. Is it Peter and Nathan's mother? Peter himself? Claire? Nathan? Has Sylar a.k.a Gabriel turned over a new leaf for good?
And why does they have to blow up the world each season? I bet they gonna blow up the world also next season. That's what you get when there's too many Superman running around.

13 October 2008

Last night I finished assembling both our queen and single sized Daslev Ikea beds. It took me 2 and a half hours to finish fixing it up. And how much did I save? 27 ringgit. Is it worth it? I don't know really.
In the beginning, Adam was quite excited to get himself a new bed. We told him he's gonna sleep in his new room and bed just like Shazlan (of Hikayat Putera Shazlan). Then he said "but Shazlan has a magic book! Where's my magic book?". Never mind that. Come the time to go to bed, Adam changed his mind about sleeping alone. So Linda slept together with him for a while but later when she got up to sleep in the next room, Adam followed suit. I think he's not ready to sleep alone yet. I don't wanna push or force him or anything so we let him sleep together with us for the time being. Nevertheless I carry him off to sleep on his bed later in the morning. Poor thing.

12 October 2008

This weekend we didn't have to cook anything for lunch and dinner. We had them at the numerous open houses that we went to. Today we went to 2 more open house. One is at my boss' house and another at my neighbor's house, a few doors away.
Most of my colleagues were present at my boss' open house. It rained heavily when the open house started at 3:00 PM so we didn't get there until 2 hours later. I ate 2 plates of roti jala. The laksa looks really tempting but it's a pity I don't eat them.

Later in the evening I went to my neighbor's open house nearby. I didn't eat anything much except for the cakes and cookies because I was still full then. Okay who wanna invite me to their open house next week?

11 October 2008

We visited 2 open houses today. They were Linda's office mates. One in Keramat and the other in Ampang. I think everybody in Malaysia hold their Raya open houses today because the road was jam-packed in KL. I got lost a few times in Keramat trying to find the first house. Usually I'm good at finding places but today my built in GPS system got a little bit out of tune.
We had chicken rice at Shu's house. It was okaylah. The rolled tart biscuit was nice though. I didn't eat too much there because we've got another house to visit later on.

The road to the other house in Ampang was bloody congested. The house was easy enough to find but traffic crawled from Ampang Point to Lembah Jaya Utara.
Yati's house also served noodles and chicken rice too. The noodles strangely had no chicken.
Anyway I like her house and the surrounding environment. It is situated just outside Ampang in a kampung setting on the foothills of the Titiwangsa range. It's peaceful, quiet and serene and if you just got there, you wouldn't believe that 10 kilometers away is the bustling city center. I would like to have a house there but come to think of the daily traffic jam that I had to endure to get to work, I don't think so.

9 October 2008

I found this interesting furniture shop in Subang today. Question to my Malay Muslim friends: would you buy anything from this shop based on that banner there?
For me, I would never buy anything out of sentiments alone. Yeah maybe it's good that we can help a fellow Muslim in his/her business but above others I would only buy something that offer value and guality above others. Furthermore I don't think it's a good idea to put up something like that in front of your shop. Yes maybe you would attract a few sympathizers and curious passer bys but the rest would just avoid your shop altogether especially the non-muslims.
I don't want to buy from this shop, one because this banner looks kinda desperate and uncool. Second, there's no guarantee the furniture inside is any cheaper or better than the rest of the furniture stores out there. No class at all.

7 October 2008

Our beds arrived today but I didn't have the time to assemble them yet. That would easily take hours and I don't have time for that.
I'm tired of Raya songs. My Hari Raya celebration ends after the 3rd day as usual. After that it's back to work. No more Raya mood for me. Still, those radio stations keep on playing those Raya songs all the time. Sigh.

Alterchart e#9

01 Fall for you - Secondhand serenade

02 Best damn thing - Avril Lavigne

03 Love in this club - Usher

04 Bye bye - Mariah Carey

05 7 things - Miley Cyrus

06 Burnin' up - Jonas Brothers

07 In the air - FloRida

08 So what - Pink

09 I'll be loving u long time - Mariah Carey

10 I kissed a girl - Kate Perry

4 October 2008

After much discussion we've decided that it's time we get a new bed for ourselves. And where else to get a low price, quality bed but from your friendly neighbourhood furniture store IKEA?
We bought two beds from the Daslev series, one queen size and one single for Adam. Son, the time has come for you to sleep on your own bed. It's not that we don't love you anymore but you just cannot sleep with us forever. You know how sexually active your mom and dad are and there's no telling when they're gonna have the urge to beep and beep you know. Someday you'll understand son.

3 October 2008

Today we brought an entourage to see Dr. Z and family in Sungai Buloh. It seems that Faiz had finally found THE ONE. Well all the best to you bro. I'm sure you've thought things carefully. Are you sure you're going to spend the rest of your life with this woman? Once you're married there's no turning back you know. No more partying on weekends and fooling around with girls (Just Kidding!).
I wanted to post these posts earlier but I can't. I did brought my HSDPA modem along for balik kampung but it was nearly useless. The best I could get was GPRS and even then I had to reconnect every 5 minutes. No wonder they don't promote Maxis or Celcom wireless broadband outside the Klang Valley.

2 October 2008

Our Raya holidays end today since we'll be returning back to KL this afternoon because Linda has to work tomorrow. I deliberately woke up late this morning so that I get enough rest for today's long drive. 500 KM is a long drive indeed. We started off around 2-ish in the afternoon and turned back twice because we left several things in the house.
Save for the little jam along the Tanah Merah - Machang road, traffic was clear all the way to KL. For lunch we decided to stop by KFC in Gua Musang for lunch. I have no idea that half the population of Gua Musang went to KFC today to eat. The queue was very long and everybody bought the biggest combo there is. I queued for nearly an hour before I can get my two lousy burgers. Also I would like to take this opportunity to award Idayuni here the award for The Slowest Fast-food Restaurant Crew EVER!!! I mean she took her own sweet time moving gracefully to serve the customers today. When did you start work girl? 2 hours ago?
We stopped thrice later on, one in Kampung Mun in Raub for the Maghrib prayers and the other two between Raub and Bentong for toilet breaks. Adam really need to poop today but he just cannot do it in those dirty toilets. In the end he hold it until we got home around 11. Praise to God, our home is safe and sound, just the way we left it last Sunday.

1 October 2008

A tiring Hari Raya indeed. I went everywhere from morning till evening. In the morning we went to the Ismail Petra mosque right in the middle of Tanah Merah town. Adam came along but tagged with her mom and grandma in the women's section. I am not prepared to bring Adam with me yet. God knows what he'll do while we were praying. True enough, he didn't sit still all the while he was there according to her mother.
Then we went to the graveyard and the relatives house. Linda does has a lot of relatives and we have to go visit all of them. That's okay. It's not like we have to do it everyday, just once a year.
Actually I have no plans to visit dad today. It was all Faiz's idea. But it's a good one nevertheless. I thought he would bring along our other sister Meera but he came alone this afternoon. It was during that meeting that Faiz told of his wedding plans. Apart from that we talked about this land he'll be buying for us from his EPF savings. He plans to buy a plot of land somewhere in Selangor and we'll all built our houses on it. Sounds like a good plan and I'm all for it.