31 August 2011

This Hari Raya I got myself a new job. Although it pays well, I need to work extra hard sometimes to justify the pay that I get. It's not easy jumping headlong into a new field but life isn't always a bed of roses. This Hari Raya I drove home with a brand new car. As much as it felt really good to do so, it would also mean I had to set aside some extra money to pay for it every month not to mention mileage and maintenance.

This Hari Raya I lost 4 kilos from fasting and a total of 15 kilos from my dieting and exercising. It's not easy sometimes maintaining your discipline, holding yourself from all those good food and waking up at 6 a.m almost every day running 5 kilometers around the neighborhood, dogs and all. But just looking at how good you are posing for your Hari Raya album in a size L dress, it's all but worth it. It's amazing what you can achieve when you really sets your mind to it. It's all in your head.

After this Raya things will get even tougher at work and I would have an even harder time resisting all those nice food especially since I can afford them now. Life is never easy. You'll just have to try the best you can.

30 August 2011

This year my brother Faiz and elder sister Lina didn't come home for Raya since they're spending the holidays with their respective in laws. That said, our Hari Raya this year is still happening and gay with all my uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces coming back home to Pasir Mas. After the customary get together at grandma's place, my siblings and I would have another Raya tradition to conform with - seeing my dad. Usually we would me at a restaurant somewhere between Pasir Mas or Kota Bharu since my dad are not exactly welcomed here in Pasir Mas and we also don't really feel like going to his place meeting our stepmother. It's a long and complicated story, you probably don't want to know.

Anyway, this year my dad cordially invited us siblings to his place in Pasir Pekan regardless of how we and our mother felt towards the person living there. He and the missus were holding an open house or something and they would like us to come there for a change. Actually I have no problem going there, meeting her for the first time. My mom, grandma and sister however didn't feel the same. So in the end we met somewhere by the roadside in Wakaf Bharu since we couldn't find any open restaurant this first Hari Raya and all. It was awkward and I felt sorry it has to go on like this. I wish we could move on and let bygones be bygones. But for some people, the cut runs deep, very-very deep.

29 August 2011

When I was a kid I used to save up my school allowances or every penny that I could get my hand of every fasting month for one thing and one thing only in my mind. To buy firecrackers. After saving up for the whole month, I will usually have a drawer full of crackers and lit them all up on the Raya eve. I would have so much fun and then the whole house would be filled with thick heavy smoke from the aftermath of my fireworks show.  Those were the days.

Today I will think twice even before buying my kids those cheap, harmless sparklers. Now only I realize spending my hard-earned money on firecrackers and stuff is akin to burning them, literally. Now I know why my mother would never-ever bought me any of those firecrackers or sparklers. She just had so many other more important things to think of other then a little bit of fun for me.

28 August 2011

27 August 2011

So begun the rush to go home for balik kampung has. Klang valley folks have started to flock the roads and highways to go back to their respective home town since Friday so naturally roads everywhere is reportedly congested with traffic. Me I have totally expected those dreadlocks so we decided to wait a whole day until the mad traffic rush subsides. So we went back on Saturday evening instead.

In which my calculations were proven totally correct because traffic was smooth all the way from MRR2 to Bentong, Gua Musang and finally Tanah Merah. Of course we chose to skip Bentong and took the Sertik-Mempaga route and yet we still arrived in Raub just in time for break of fast. I have always wanted to take my family to eat at this little fast food restaurant in Raub since forever and only today I managed to do so. Marrybrown isn't exactly the hippest or trendiest eating spot around but somehow I have this strange and unexplainable connection with this local franchise. Something about those long lost, sweet memories in UPM's Marrybrown perhaps?

I meant to get home around 12:30 AM just in time for the Liverpool game but we could only plan so much. By 1:00 AM we were still nowhere near Kuala Krai so I decided to stop by somewhere in Laloh to watch the game at an eatery there. Although tired and super sleepy, it was all worth it since Liverpool cruised to a 3-1 victory over Bolton. 2 hours later we finally arrived home safe and sound. Now I remember why I don't like driving at night. It felt so much longer, it's really tiring and sometimes I had a difficult time trying to keep my eyes open. That's it, no more evening trips home.

26 August 2011

Earlier this afternoon, I went to Lafarge cement plant in Rawang to meet with some contractors there. I was supposed to discuss this plc diagram with them despite the fact I have no previous experience whatsoever with this thing. Actually this didn't surprise me that much because my new boss had this habit of throwing us new staffs straight into the sea and expect everybody to get the job done. It's up to us to learn how to adapt or in my case bluff my way around the job he he.

Lucky for me this discussion didn't last that long because obviously those guys didn't understand much what I was explaining. In the end they decided to stick with the original drawings and do the modifications themselves. Phew. Imagine there I was with my shirt and pants without any safety helmets or jackets at the cement plant. I was like a fish out of water. Had I known sooner I'd prepared myself better. Anyway I got back to the office around 4:30 PM. At my old office, the boss would have let everybody before 3 o'clock on the last day of work before Raya. I guess this new place didn't have such tradition. So I waited impatiently for the last hour to pass by which felt like eternity.

In the end 5:30 finally came and I went not home but straight to Low Yat Plaza. You see, my iPhone was having this problem with the touchscreen. I was thinking of fixing the screen when suddenly it flashed in my mind, why don't I just trade in this phone for something new? I mean it's been having so many problems, one after another and what guarantee do I have that this phone won't go bonkers again in the future? Furthermore between me and Adam we had dropped the phone like 20 times previously. It's a miracle that the thing is still working right now.

So I didn't give it any much thought and spontaneously swapped my phone for an HTC Wildfire Android phone. Of course the shop had to reduce the trade in price a little bit for the broken screen so I end up paying a hundred ringgit extra for the new phone. Although I have been relentlessly expressing my undying devotion for the iPhone, doesn't mean I would never buy a different phone brand ever. I've always had a soft spot for Google's Android so naturally it became my second choice if I had to choose another one. At the end of the day I went home with a new phone and a big grin on my face.

Yes I am already missing my precious iPhone. Although the Wildfire is newer and shinier, no phone could ever replace the phone that changed everything. Of course I fully expect to revert back to the iPhone some time in the future.

25 August 2011

So I got my first paycheck today. I was a little bit concerned that I might only get this 3 days before the end of the month like everybody else here but thankfully my fears were allayed when I received this crisp & beautiful check with my name written on it this morning. Actually a lot of things that worries me somehow about this new job disappeared when I got this check. It all seems worth it now.

Before today I've planned of doing a lot of things with my first pay. I'm going to treat my wife, my kids and my mom for dinner. Not forgetting some of my closest friends from workplace past. And then I'm going to buy myself some nice new clothes for work (not Hari Raya okay). I badly needed to add more options to my sorry wardrobe collection. The thing is my check should only be cleared on Monday. By that time we would be in Pasir Mas preparing for Raya. Shopping and treating my loved ones will have to wait then. Thank you Allah nevertheless.

24 August 2011

Yesterday I was supposed to pickup our brand new car in Pandan Indah. Since I had to be in Sungai Buloh with my colleague who didn't manage to finish his work until late at night, I had to take a train to get there. Just my luck, the train ran an hour late so by the time I got to KL Sentral it was already Maghrib. So after stopping by to pray, I quickly board the LRT to Masjid Jamek and then to Pandan Indah.

It's been quite a long time since I last took a train so I struggled a bit to find the right train to the right destination. There were only two trains but there were also 4 different lines that they took. Choosing the right one and waiting on the right platform was rather tricky. Anyway I did made it to Pandan Indah. I thought I would just walk a short while to Pandan Capital but when I got there it was dark and I had no idea where that building was. Lucky for me I called the car salesman and he willingly agreed to pick me up from there. He took me to the showroom and I signed some documents and he explained to me a bit about our new car. Half an hour later I was driving home our brand new Alza. But that's not all, I went to pick up my wife and then she drove the new car to my office so that I can take my Savvy home and then we went out to Seri Kembangan for a test drive. You know so that she would be familiar with the routes to take when she drives the car tomorrow to work.

Working the whole day at the factory and taking 3 trains to Pandan Indah, that was super tiring. We only got home around 12:40 in the morning. The great thing about today though, I drove home with my brand new car. Just seeing my name on the vehicle registration paper just gave me an enormous sense of pride. I couldn't afford to own a car before. My last loan application was rejected in cold blood by the bank. So yeah, today I was quite proud. It felt amazing.

23 August 2011

After visiting a coal power plant in Port Dickson last week, today I visited another factory in Sungai Buloh for work. Guess I will be going to a lot more factories after this. It's what I do now, selling programmable logic controllers to power plants, factories and similar manufacturers.

But today, today I didn't sell anything. Just following a colleague to do some testing & commissioning. Poor guy didn't know too much about this new product so he was virtually clueless and got hantam cukup-cukup by the client and our boss. That's life man. Maybe next time it'll be my turn. Today I didn't learn anything because everybody was like so busy doing their job. My friend here was too busy attempting to do something. He didn't even go out for a break until 7 in the evening. I know your enthusiastic and shit with your new job but there's more to life than work man.

It's like learning chemistry or accounting, this new job of mine. I knew very little and what's more, there's no one here to teach me anything. They don't have the time to for now, at least. Sure I can learn to do anything if only somebody is there to teach me. Plus I had to start from the bottom up because I'm like totally noob with all this PLC thingy and don't expect me to learn everything by myself.

Give me something to do, give me a plan and give me the resources and support to achieve it. It's all I ask.

Right now I don't feel so good about all this. In the future, who knows.

22 August 2011

Adam Farihin. Skinny. Not very tough. Somebody give him some more food to eat.

Well, I won't worry too much about him. I was exactly like him when I was his age. And then eventually I discovered food. Glorious food. How good they tasted. As I grow up, eating, too much, my body started to expand exponentially with my age. By the time I'm 12, I turned into this chubby kid who had too much to eat.

So did my elder sister. In fact we the 2 eldest member of our sibling seemed to look bigger than our younger brother and sister. Maybe it's because we conquered the table every dinner time and gobbled up all the good food before anybody else. That's how we became fat. I'd like to change that now. My sister? Maybe there is still hope ha ha!

So I don't worry too much about Adam Farihin's skinny outlook. He has all the time in the world to grow bigger and stronger. Maybe he should start by pumping iron like his dear old Dad.

Today by some divine intervention we all woke up a little bit late for sahur. Hence the tart cookies in the picture. I bought that for RM11.90 from MyMydin. It tasted horrible. Not all cookies are created equal. Remind me not to buy any from them again.

Hmm, it took a template change to make me blog more. I love this new theme by the way.

21 August 2011

The next Yuna?

I'm pretty sure she would like to be her very own brand of music and style.

Cute.

What's next, cinta Twitter?

20 August 2011

This particular semester for IM110 has been crazy. The gap between seminars were cut to 2-3 weeks and all of our lecturers seemed to enjoy giving us multiple (really difficult) assignments and tests every other class. Add that to the fact that some of us just switched jobs and we were inundated with work, including me, I don't fancy maintaining the same awesome result that I got last semester. At least that's how I felt like.

That said, I think all of our lecturers this time around were pretty cool. They were quite understanding with our career and other commitments in life so most of them were pretty flexible when dealing with our late submissions for assignment and lack of activity in iClass. In fact some of them were even in our shoes once upon a time ago.

Now that we finished our finish class of the semester (and submitted a dozen assignment and sat for one test every class) we are finally free to concentrate on Hari Raya. At least until our final exams come nearer at the end of September/early October.

19 August 2011

That tragic feeling when you pressed all the buttons on your precious little phone and they just refused to response.

I'm having that tragic feeling right about now.

Why baby, why?

18 August 2011

The malt drink that is halal one moment and not the next.

Now it's halal again. I do hope they will make up their mind for certain this time. This is getting ridiculous.

17 August 2011

So Adam Farihin, 7 years old has been fasting for real this time around. At least on and off. He has no problem whatsoever with fasting during school days but the moment he saw his little sister eating or drinking at home during weekends, his faith just crumbles into a thousand little pieces. Even if it's just one tiny sweets. The temptation is just way to great to overcome.

At 7 years old, don't we all? I remember giving in to that delicious, iced cold grape drink at one o'clock in the afternoon when I was about his age. At 7 years old, I don't expect him to go the entire length. It would already be great if he could do at least half for now.

16 August 2011

You know your 3 years old daughter has grown up a bit when she started to wear her mom's make up and dress up regularly with her new dresses.

Next thing you know she'll be asking for a mobile phone.

1 August 2011

1st August 2011 is the 1st day of Ramadan for many Muslims around the world. This year we tried to get our 7 years old Adam to fast for the whole day. He did woke up this morning go straight to shower and had sahur with us. By 2:00 PM he couldn't resist the fried noodle cooked at the nursery so there goes his 1st day of fasting.

1st August 2011 also marks my 1st day at work at my new office in Puchong. Moments before I arrived there I was slightly nervous to say the least. It's not often that I check in to a new office. Although the office didn't open until 9:00 AM, I got there half an hour early thanks to a surprisingly smooth traffic. When the door finally opened, I went straight into training to grasp some basic knowledge of the products and business here. At the end of the day, my 1st day here was not that bad after all. All my new colleagues are warm and friendly. One guy was concerned enough to ask if I have any place to 'semayang' which I did in the meeting room by the way. Being in a new place with me as the sole Malay staff can be quite a challenge. But I will have to adapt. My new boss was also quite understanding as he allows me to go back half an hour early this fasting month. Oh I will probably have to change my look and appearance again. Everybody here goes to work in the company's uniform and so will I once I get them. Seriously, I felt rather awkward in that shirts and pants. Happy fasting everyone.