I'm back to school .....

Bahija is very happy now ..... why leh ? well, I have a dream - it seem very difficult to achieve , I don't know how and when or even will I be able to make it happen, but as time goes by , I believe God will lead me step by step. Last year , I read an ad in the STAR about special kid education, I cut the ad and kept it till last wednesday - didn't make a phone call to the center at all. I'm an active person, I reckon my life so far, every year is busy lor :) , last year out of In-Kei, got into a new freelance job , got used to customer environment etc etc ....this year , the contract was renewed automatically without any hassle and prompt payment, and dah kamching with my customers liow, so work life is good , manageable for me liow, Praise God for all the blessings......wednesday pastor called me, asked me to go online check out this center...so I did lor. Then called the center, went for course preview today at 2 pm, ended at 4pm....then I made a decision right away - YES, I'll sign up. Interviewed at 4:30pm, paid full at 5pm , and class starts tomorrow :) wow - talk about efficiency , I think I've done well lor. Bahija is going back to school every Sat 12 noon - 2:30 pm ( for 13 mths or more ), I'm getting a Diploma in Learning Disorders Management And Child Psychology. Felt great while driving home lor , then a car passed by - the word 'Jesus' macam smiling at me :) ....I think it's the right time for me to action , I'm gonna enjoy my classes , as I had a great time at the preview, learning so many new things about the children and their disabilities .... do you know that Lee Kwang Yew, Tom Cruise have one of the disorders too ???? yet they are doing well today ..... I hope I can equipped myself better, and be able to help my children more ...Pray for me for wisdom, strength and dicipline to go thru my classes ! Oh, just in case some of you are interested too, please check out this link or contact me yea ...

PJ Hilton choc cake for $25 aje

PJ Hilton is celebrating 25th year anniversary .....they are selling their yummy choc cake for $25 , plus tax and service tax , the total cost is $27. There is no end date for this promotion yet , quick - call PJ Hilton and order :) , need 3 days advance booking !

body shower gel ...

Want to try a good body shower gel ? try this Franch oil shower creme , natural & herbal therapeutic shower creme...it's nice, price also reasonable. 1 litre is $9.90. It's available in Cold Storage, Caring pharmacy and some other grocery stores too ..... during shower, apply this shower creme to the body , leave it for 3 minutes for best results then rinse it off ...

an eyesore .....

This is the the goals of the 9th Msia Plan :-
- to move the economy up the value chain
- to raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation and nurture 'first class mentality'
- to address persistent socio-economic inequalities constructively & productively
- to improve the standard and sustainability of quality of life
- to strengthen he institutional and implementation capacity

Raya weekend, I brought my mum to Ikea. It's been a long time since my last visit. My mum didn't know there's a Ikea's cafe, so I brought her there to taste the 'sweedish' dining experience la. It's cool that now we can use a food stroller to put our food - make life much easier for customers :) ..... after we paid for food , we were looking around for an empty table - what I saw was really eyesore lor ....tables full with rubbish. People ate and left, left with a dirty table spilled with juices, ketchup sauces, napkins, empty dirty plates .....gosh , the whole 'sweedish' dining experience sudah putus steam liow .....Aiyuh , big signs all over saying 'please put the trays back to the tray stations' ..... when the cafe was crowded with people , tables dirty with trash, wow - the scenary wasn't nice at all. We found a table , of course super dirty. Chin Chin Chai Chai ate our afternoon tea, then left. When we left, we put all things back into the tray, I put the tray in the tray station, mum used paper towel cleaned the table - the shining clean white table is all set for the next customers to sit, relax and enjoy their afternoon tea.....
Talk about 'world class facility' - which Ikea has - I like the gadgets they are providing.... yet 'First class mentality' - SORRY lor , entah bila we can get to that level .... times like this, I wish the kiasu mentality kicks in , at least some kiasu-ism can push msians to improve more , kan .....

** addtion : Bahija saw a few folks who cleaned the tables, put the trays back to the tray stations - unfortunately, they were mostly foreigners ( perhaps one day I sit and do survey - check how many msians actually practise self-service all the way )

The issue here is not about self-service or not , it's about being accoutable for things and not being selfish. It is also link to self-dicipline, after we eat at home, do we leave a table full of trashes ? or we clean up ...if we don't clean up , do we create a total mess ???? to the parents out there , education starts from home, even at Ikea's cafe or fast-food chain - teach the kids and yourself to be good citizens ....

1M

My country is very hot on this new branded name '1Msia' ..... we can see this branded name used in food, in places, in sales ....just about anything everything also can link to '1M' la....I'm not in favor of this rebranding, it's just like a marketing strategy sahaja.... anyway , my comment today is I am sad and ashamed to see a big newspaper advertisement or a big billboard on the road , on bus , practically on the public space - usually the models on the ad are only malay, chinese and indian folks... does that represent Msia ? as we always preach about Msia being multi-racial ....our poor own bumi faces - satu pun tak ada ....where's the kadazan, iban, or even the sikh ? To me, rebranding with the wrong representation is even worst .... aiiii

my angelssssssssss

Case 1 - mid July , Bahija went to Penang for a mini vacation , stayed & spent most of the time 'idle' inside the cheap & cozy Tunes hotel. My kind kawan-kawan picked me for lunch, dinner and visit. It's very kind of them , fish and kancil - thanks so much! Kancil also tried to help me find a cheaper hotel at Batu Feringgi ( for my Hong Kong brother and his family ) - so kind of Kancil lor...

Case 2 - mid July also, I was busy trying to locate a cheaper hotel in KL - at the golden triangle area ....I called up my friend who is working at B-Kei. Wow, she helped me booked the B. Times Sq hotel - at 50% cheaper than the published rate , that's a good deal, big savings. Despite the hassle using her employee discount, had to be present while my brother check-in etc etc , my kawan blessed me with the wonderful savings ...

Case 3 - Aug, one evening I rushed home , online to seach for an optical store, wanted to get a new pair of spectacle for my nephew Benji....perfect timing, Ringgit im-ed me...after I shared my story, he recommended an optical store in 1U, plus he blessed us a RM50 cash voucher :) , ambui - happy lah .... we quickly rushed to see Ringgit and got the voucher, went to select the frame and bought it , cheaper by RM50 .... so hassle free, Benji loves his new gaya spec :)

Case 4 - on 09-09-2009 , 9:09:09 am - Bahija was on her bed praying to God , prayed for a few friends and family members....little did I know that - that time , something bad happened at customer site. Yet my customer was kind enough went ahead and solved the issue without calling me. After I went into the office at 10 am , logged on to the system, found out the issue, trying to diagnosed the root cause. We were soooo lucky that the table indexes were corrupted, coz it's easier to recover an index, then a table with sensitive data. Soooo Lucky lor.....Bahija reseached for root cause, online to this good I-kei website, there is a good tool to scan the system, I downloaded a version of it but wasn't sure if I downloaded it correctly ...thus pinged Ringgit, asked him helped me download in binary format. Today, I uploaded, installed, ran the tool , viola - there were many other potential issues in the system which is related to the production tax data. Ringgit - thank you so much for your trouble, your kind effort saved my customers from future hiccups , most of all, we want to solve them asap so that we can celebrate Raya peacefully, PLUS , Ringgit also helps the nation, helps to prevent more damages to the taxation data.

I Thank God for bringing my kind friends to assist me whenever I needed any help, I call them my angels. It's really a good thing to GIVE something to others, and allow others to enjoy, to have joy in their lives ..... Bahija appreciates the kind efforts from all my angels around me :) KAM SIAH !!!

F.R.I.M

I grew up in Jalan Ipoh , most of my good friends are from the Kepong area....I'm quite familiar with this area. Yet for many years, I've never done a hiking trip at FRIM. I always drove far far away to Ulu Langat, Semenyih, Jln Gasing , padahal the nearest to me is FRIM. Always couldn't find the right person to bring me there lor .... aiyuh , mana tahu, my Tai Poh knows this place well. This morning , to celebrate my country 52th Independence Day , I went for a hiking trip at FRIM. It's a nice hike. Enjoyed the company & the time I spent with Tai Poh. My medical report shows that I'm boarder line on Uric acid, cholesterol high at 6.7 - very bad leh. So, better get started to maintain my health ... plan to go hiking every week ( hope la - hehe )

Not granted

Our first grant was rejected, finally received an email last friday late evening - really 'sow heng' , on the eve of the holidays. My partner have had her sad moment. Luckily she's OK now, we'll improve and try again in September :) Jia You !

technopreneur grant

last mth, my partner and I worked on a business proposal, we are trying our luck to apply for a RM150k government grant, from MDEC. Submitted the proposal July. Last Tuesday Aug 18, we were called for presentation, I was away on vacation, thus my partner went alone. Aug 24 was suppose to be the decision date , the date to notify us if we get it or not , I've been checking emails whole day - yet no news ....perhaps the judges are still reviewing , perhaps the good news will come soon , hmmm , of coz I still wish for a positive reply from MDEC , if that happened, it is another path for me , to explore being a technopreneur - though I'm really not a techgy person. Life is always busy for me , I wonder when will I settle down, focus on my dreams .... or when will I ever start planning to work on my dreams , indeed it is one of my weakness , for not being strategic , being a good planner .....hey , still - I'm happy with my life wor :) - that's most important for me lor ...

Face Cleanser

I am using this face gentle cleanser. It's very good and price is very reasonable. 118ml for RM16. I read about this product from a Health magazine. It's gentle , a no form cleanser, this is the kind of cleanser which was recommended by my skin doctor many many years ago.

It's available at Guardian , give it a try !!

wonderful Aug ....

This mth is a fruitful month for me and my family ...sister, brother from USA and Hong Kong came back for family gatherings...Aug 9 - we had our family photo session. It's a month filled with many makan :) , until Bahija put on 4 kgs in 3 weeks - Wow ! it's happy fat :) ....

I'm trying to compile some nice photos , publish and share with my friends, stay tune yea :)

about me ...

A lot of friends been asking me where have I been , what have I been busy about .... sorry yea, sorry for keeping you guys in the dark , I got lazy to update my blog , instead spent slightly more time in FB , hehehe.... kek poh checking what others are doing :) ..

sooo fast , it's july liow , aiii - I'll breeze thru this month easily ...next week , my LA sister and nephew will be back in town, then we'll have many family outings, makan etc , my brother and his family from HK will be back to KL as well, we are getting our family photo - that is one thing I always love to have, it's very hard for everyone in my family to come together, it's one of the best moment for my mummy too .... Aug 9 is the photo session , so Bahija is trying hard to exervice, try to cut some inches, so that she could fit into a red blouse and red pant she bought 6 yrs ago - haaa

Work wise, the 1 yr contract expired, yeah, worked as a sole proprietor for 1 year liow, so fast hor. My contract is renewed, waiting for the real salary to go into my bank .... on top of that, was quite busy engaged on a second contract, all that was over, the 2nd contract was awarded last month. Heee...it's good news of course, at least I have some rezeki, have jobs to do. The 3rd contract , is something that I am praying very hard not to be awarded to me, an overseas project and I really really really hope I don't have to go .... money is not everything, I don't want to stress myself too much , lose myself , I need to have a work-life balance lifestyle.

Social wise , been slowly meeting some old friends, met some new friends as well, started the hiking activities if I can spare my Saturday morning. I'm happy to meet my old high school girls , looking forward to our gathering next saturday. I am quite close with my high school girls, guess we have known each other for long time, make it easier for us to talk about anything, everything :) ..... those are good friendship to keep and to grow ..

Spiritual wise, doing OK , spending more time in attending prayer meeting. Given more assignments to help organize camp , meeting etc. However, I am still not ready and not keen to pick up any leadership role....

Vacation wise, started my travel activities too, went to Saigon with Wau Bulan and Water Lily in June - my first trip with them, it's fun ...enjoyed their company. Aug is Manado with Bootidelicious , hope we can make it to the nice boutique hotel ..

Everything is good for me, just that sometimes work issues stressed me out , being the consultant, have to find solution no matter how ..... it's a learning curve for me :)

That's the updates on me , take good care my friends, I'll try to go online more often, ping me when you see me online ....tata !!!!

a breakie

Howdeeeee, Bahija is currently in Penang. Been sleeping a lot, hiding myself in the room, today woke up at 10 am, wow - this is a privilege where I missed so much...thesedays life in KL kind of busy, hardly can sleep till 10 am. It's great ! I am staying in this super cheap hotel , where else besides the Air Asia Tune hotel. I paid $24 for 3 nights room fees, $30 for admin fees, $12.85 for 12 hours air-cond, plus the taxes - total is $ 73 for 3 nights of stay. To me, it's super great value for money. This Tune hotel is at Jln Burma, right in the town center , nearby Komtar , Prangin mall , nearby the new mall Times Square as well. It's still new, the room is clean, the bedsheet is white, clean and soft - very nice to sleep. It's a very simple small room with attached bathroom. There's no TV. At first I felt tooo quiet , after a while, I got to enjoy the quietness :). Ironically, when I paid for expensive hotels, I usually don't spend time in the hotel, likewise, I am spending almost whole day in this cheap room which has no facility at all ..haaa, well, this is my rest lepak do nothing vacation, so it works well for me. Rapid Penang is operating in Penang (PG), this is good for the travellers, we don't have to take the super expensive PG cabs. From PG airport to Komtar, take bus 401, 401A , $2 bus fare - but the fare will be increased soon. FromKomtar , you can walk to Jalan Burma Tune hotel , 5 mins walk. I didn't know it's so near, paid a cab $10 for that short distance, the meter only showed $3.50 of fare ....oh well. From Komtar, take bus 101 to Batu Ferinngi, Tanjung Bungah area. Basically, it's good to stay in Tune hotel, strategic location. From the hotel, walk across to Jln Zainal Abidin, walk all the way till the end, turn left , then cross the road - it's the famous hawker food in front of Sunway Hotel - yummy food !!

I'm glad to meet up with some old friends, and catch up with things or 'gossips' in life - heee. Special thanks to Kancil , for belanja me food and drinks, for picking me, sending me to various places especially to Kim Possible's house , to visit her and her new born baby. My trip will not be so fruitful without you. Thank You Very Much !

house values

I found some brochures dated back in 1992 - 1994, those were the house brochure my brother collected years ago. They were Sime UEP projects - which is USJ area now. Back then, the price for brand new double storey link houses 20' x 60' = RM 112,888 , 22' x 75' = RM 143,888. freehold land, interest rate BLR + 1.25 ( 9.50 %). Today, after 15 years, the Sime UEP USJ area is already a crowded, well developed area, with good amenities as well. The second hand values starts from RM250k and above. I invested mine in year 2000, up to last month - I always commented that I did a wrong investment, though I am contented with what I have. Now, I think back, with RM200k , I can never be able to buy a landed property in Klang Valley liow. My house is RM300k after 9 years. Since I'm renting it out , it's a passive income, a good debt. For my portfolio and lifestyle, it's not a bad investment decision :) , because when I've cash on hand, my hands get gatal, I'll spend lavishly on things that I don't need....so forcing myself to 'kong' house , to own a tangible property which 'may' hedge against inflation is wiser. HeHeHe .....

my first church camp

It's school holidays , 2 weeks break. lesser cars on the roads during office peak hours, plus most of my customers are on leave, no meetings at work during this 2 weeks, indirectly , my work schedule seem a bit relax now , I'm liking it of coz , hehehe.... I'm preparing myself to attend my first church camp, it's the Young Adult camp , will be held in Malacca. I'll be there from Sunday to Tuesday. The theme is 'Making Better Choices'. This is a good topic, all of us need to make decision from the moment we buka our mata... It's June liow, half of the year has gone by , I reckon it's a busy year for me ... I really am looking forward to spending quality time with My Lord, hearing His voice , receiving the messages He has for me ... Hope I'll enjoy my first church camp , hehehe....

moving .....

I Thank God that He blessed me with a CRV , I really loves my sweety, she fit into my lifestyle perfectly well. Next, I also Thank God for giving me a tenant.... yea, Bahija is now a landlord, I moved back to stay with my lovely mummy, rented out my house to a tenant from PG. For the past 12 days, I was so busy packing , cleaning house, unpacking etc ..... May 31 - I handed over my keys to the temporary 'owner' , hope he takes great care of my house. Aii, it's hard to let go, I was reluctant but that's a good decision, extra income. June 1 , Bahija is officially back to Tmn R .... I'm getting fatter liow, as I've got home cook meals , breakfast all prepared for me , yea , such a blessing to have a great mum :) The only thing I would missed a lot is the little private space I have whenever I'm back to my little house, I could do whatever I want in my own little house , with no interruption... well, guess I'll just have to figure out another way to unwind privately ....anyone has any empty condo or house to let me unwind sometimes ????

my 'rubbish'

---> these were my Uni text books , I shipped them back from Missouri , USA .. then stayed inside my bookshelf for yearsssssssssss

--> these were the books from my first company. Those were 'history', I wouldn't be able to subsribe to these books now ..

---> Dec 1999 , I-kei gave each employee an organizer, with a personalized note from the country GM, with my lovely photo sekali ..... I even stamped my chinese name on it , hehehe

Bahija kept all these things for years, some I've never touched them since the day they arrived at my book shelves. Too bad, moving forward, need to upgrade them to 'rubbish' , recycle them as junk , all these books weighed 77 kg , I recycled them for RM 16 only, gosh - those sentimental values , those 'feeling' I had on them cost more than that leh , aiiii , too late - sudah 'recycled' liow ...

denda ....

Bahija is a bad girl lately, I always picked up calls while I was driving and no hands-free....today, while I was driving to see my chinese doc, my sis called, I happily picked up her call, talked talked talked, a lorry driver behind me horned me -gave me signals ( I tak perasan ) , when I off ed the phone. turned my face side way - ALAMAK - a police car with 3 policemen all looking at me, siren also sudah ON - aiyuh yuh ... when I parked my car by the road side, the policemen walked around my car , inspected in detail , then asked for my IC & driving license , it's my wrongdoing , thus I asked for saman terus ... padan muka for me anyway ( though sakit hati juga - aii - somehow I need to learn my lesson via the expensive way ). The policemen took very long time to issue the saman, they made phone calls , they checked my car ...for once , I suspected my car ada masalah , as in when I bought from the first owner, it could be a stolen car or sth la , I afraid lah waited inside my car ni ..... after 10 mins , policemen came back , I quickly asked 'ada masalah ker ? ' - nasib baik he hanya gave me a saman .... Today I read newspaper, there was one CRV kena tiru chasis number , the same number was used in another stolen car .... tu la, no such thing as cheap ..when something is way too cheap or below market rate , be alert. For my case, since I was getting a 2nd hand car , I wanted to go thru a reputable car dealer, the car dealer issued me a letter that prior to my purchase, they are responsible for any samans , they settle for me ... I also paid $200 ++ to Puspakom for a thorough checks and report, to assure me that the car is genuine , nothing illegal on it .... of coz I can run around JPJ , Puspakom, banks do the checking myself - challenge is I tak tahu how and where to go .... that is the value of a car dealer lor ....most important , I get my piece of mind :) , my sweety is doing very well, she is performing well , another good faithful sweety la , hehehe

sister big day

My youngest sis registered today :) .... she's married legally , one more new family member. HeHe. Aug is the family photo session , Dec is the traditional wedding ceremony and dinner , plus some parties... hmm, Bahija doesn't has much time to keep fit leh , will try my best lor. Somehow, my appetite increased lately, I love to eat , and hate to exercise or move ....hahaha. one simple word = l.a.z.y ....I better watch out !

my travels ....

Though MAS always advertised for good deals , unfortunately, Bahija just has no luck with MAS. I searched many times, I even wanted to claim my Enrich points, so far, all my efforts were dissappointed, their website is lousy, their price is not attractive to me .. I just couldn't get a good deal out of it... I gave up !! wonder did I do it wrong ? is there any special tips to get MAS deals ???? Likewise, this AA , enabled me to see the world, especially the Asian countries....today I booked 2 flights, their website is really good, I can check my bookings, I do my bookings online at my convenient time... even though I've heard many negative comments on AA , but for me - it has served me well thus far ....I'm with them since the day they started operation, from delayed flights, they set KPI - tracking their ontime schedules, then improved their online bookings, then hand-held check in device at LCCT, then check-in kiosks, then setup their regional call centers, then flights to India, OZ, China , soon USA .... no doubt they still have room for improvements, the good thing is they realize , aware and making plans to improve ...that makes me happy !!! Below is my bookings until march 2010, I'm looking forward to traveling with different group of people .... after all, life is too short and too busy, I get to spend more time with friends and family during vacation time ... hehehe.....

IF .....

Lately, my lunches are more fun , as my ex-colleagues - the I-kei 's friends are working at the same customer site. hehe... I get to meet most of the 'gurus' that I've worked with while I was in I-kei. Today, I walked with a network guru to the carpark. Our conversation surrounded on good old times. He said IF I'm still with I-kei, today he may be reporting to me, I could be a manager handling 20 - 30 folks. Back then, I was identified as one of the successor , and put into the leader of the future program, I told my network guru that I'm happy for those opportunities given to me... until today, I've always appreciated all the trainings, opportunities , ups & downs I've gained from I-kei , which moulded me into where I am today :) , I really have no regrets for leaving I-kei, because that change was needed for me to taste yet another great moment in In-Kei.... Now, most of my same aged I-kei friends are managers, they are doing well :) , so IF I did stayed back , I think I could have made it there la :) .... today I am nobody, no one reports to me , a small fly - insignificant - hehehe. Yet I'm enjoying the lifestyle I like, flexible working hours ...IF I were to be in I-Kei, today I could be a monster, a bad-tempered or super busy woman or I could be a very successful career minded woman - whatever it is , I'm really happy for where I am now :) , there's no 'IF' , there's just 'WHEN' opportunity comes , seizes it !

differences

when I looked back at my life so far , I realized I usually hang out with female, my closet friends are all female usually ....right now, my working partners are 3 gentlemen. I started to observed the way they handle things, they way they react to situations ....it's good to know, because we are just 2 different spices, I'm still trying to learn how to work with men, how to communicate well with men. My partner, his dad is 77 yrs old. just 3 weeks ago , admitted to hospital, after all the scans, confirmed cancer... my partner is the 2nd son, he has 1 elder brother and 1 younger brother, just 3 sons in the family... after the tiring trips back and forth the hospitals and home town , he's back to work , still trying to settle his aging parent at kampung - it's time to think of alternatives, he cannot leave the 2 old folks living by themselves at the kampung.... when he shared his experiences, and the alternatives he wants to propose to his parent... I can sense that son and daughter react differently, somehow deep in my heart , it's good to have a daughter, female is more caring, and connect better with parent ( i think or at least for most of them kua ). Men indeed is logical , if then else with logic - then move forward. Women has more 'emotional' values, perhaps more sentimental ...this is just my 2 cents, of course not all are like this :) ....
While discussing with him, my brain juice also prompted me to start thinking about my mum and teddy bear , life is like this la , while my niece got her JPA scholarship, she's going to University , her Ah Yee me , is also aging and goin to mid-life stages , her grandma aka my mum lagi aging, she's so tiny now ( sudah kecut ) , my teddy bear is also aging ... there are many things to worry actually ... this topic is not new to me, been in my mind since I was young, am I ready for the chaotic moment one day , obviously NOT , given a choice - of course I wish mum and teddy bear live well & healthy forever ....yet I also learn that I can't stress myself on this 'yet' or why worry on something that I don't have a solution 'yet' .... for me, most important is try to cherish the moments I can have now .....

JPA scholarship

At 12 midnite, my sis called me , I takut ingat apa emergency , we don't call each other at or over midnite ..... hehe, it's a GOOD News.  The farewell we did for my niece kind of 'wasted', coz she's not going to Kedah liow, because she got her JPA full scholarship.  My niece is so happy , her dream to study overseas will be materialized pretty soon ....  out of 2000 students who applied for JPA scholarships, she's one of the lucky one,  I'm very happy for her ,  Thank God for the blessing.  Next,  is to find out where will she be going , India ker ?  she's studying veterinary science ...hope it's USA la ,  Bahija just love to go to USA - that's the place where I graduated, where I spent my best of life ....I do hope to attend her graduation at one of the US university .... dream ......

purchases fr Apple ....

Here's the ipods that my family members shared and bought for our nieces.  those clever girls, who had perfect scores in their UPSR and SPM.... the ipods are slim, light macam weighless la... nice ..I'm tempted , dunno can tahan till when  :) 

Joe was given a seat in matriculation college at Kedah - the best science colleage in Msia..she's departing monday morning to her colleage, she is goin to be on her own, learning to take care of things all by herself.  We had a farewell dinner for her ...good moment to chill out together .....

busy busy busy .....

I'm looking forward to this long Labor Day weekend , a well deserved rest , sleep , lepak , whatever not , just do nothing :) .... for myself, as I mature in life , there are more things to do, to take care of , more responsibility , more commitment etc etc ...all these eat up my time :) , I always question my time management capability , last time I used to think that it's my own problem, me lacking the time mgt skills.... TAPI, after trying out for many times, and observing friends around me , I think it's not my problem la ..I think this is the price we have to pay for being 'older' .... one classic case for me , whenever I want to be more financial independent - that mean I need investment , when I pick up one investment , for example unit trust or property or stocks , I need to spend time, effort follow up on those investment, need to know what's going on , when time comes, I ought to make cut-loss or profit locking decisions ....hey, all these need a fraction of my 'time' .... Now, I'm stable with my customer, my work ...looking at expansion , then I have to engage with new businesses, new contracts, new technical skills - learn all the 'how to do' , 'what to do' .....again spend a fraction of my time trying to get more businesses , that also translate to more 'stress' :( ...... there are so many things to do , to learn....a friend of mine is teaching me internet marketing skills , another friend is inviting me to partner with her for a grant application, then many friends are waiting for me to go travel with them .....aiii, all the human on earth has 24 hours only , and I love to sleep, so less time on doing many other things.....at this moment, I'm still single , not seeing anyone , hmm - what happen if I found 'him' - do I drop everything and just go paktology full time ? haha.

After all the rubbish talk , it's time for Bahija to remind herself of this beautiful word 'simplicity' , simple life, simple mind , just being simple :) , busy is good, as in I'm living in a fruitful life .... I need a balanced life , after some busy time, come the lepak time :) , I'm eyeing for my lepak time soon , may that moment comes pretty soon !

movie alone .....

Years ago, Bahija blogged about not able to go movie alone ...she only did that while she's out of town or overseas.... this is not true anymore, haha...perhaps aging process made her less 'thick face' ....tonight , Bahija watched a movie alone, it's quite a relaxing moment, simply because I didn't have to arrange with others , check who has time to watch, when to watch , wait for others, then dinner or drinks - if I were to go with a gang, the total movie time will probably take the whole night .... now I did it alone, at my convenient time .....Tonight, I seorang in the cinema watching a movie all by myself, kind of cool ....It's an international series, a lebanese movie titled 'Caramel' , a movie about a few women surrounding a Beirut beauty salon....eye opening for me , as I've never watched a Lebanese movie, didn't know that their language mixed with French punya , I only know caramel is used in dessert, it's a wax agent lah , in our country , the indian or some chinese folks use thread as threading - remove hairs from the face or eyebrow, in Lebanon, they use caramel, interesting. I also learned about 'vaginoplasty' ..haaa.... Some review said "Life for these women is not easy or especially fair, and each of them faces moments of humiliation, loneliness and potential heartbreak. But in the best melodramatic tradition, their toughness, good humor and loyalty see them through".... This AR smsed me, said hope I won't be like Aunt Rose, the seamstress ..... aii, the ending last scene hit me hard, of course I also hope that won't happen to me 'that way' .... wonder if I have any choice ......

me and the 'I'

I had dinner with a friend, while we were together hanging out .... she received a call , being offered a job in Cyber. Hoo Hoo ...I'm sooo happy for her lah. I 'kek poh' , quickly smsed her introducer ...the introducer asked me , when is my turn pula ? ....hmmm, after giving a thought, is it possible ? Let me give you a summary ...my first job with I-kei , second job with In-Kei , currently I on my own , my customer is IRB ( Inland Revenue Board ) , thus also 'I' wor :) ...perhaps Bahija is just so attracted to 'I' company ..... Perhaps I should compile a list of company name starting with 'I'

my April Fool day - part 2

I forgot to mention sth ...April 1 , Bahija was celebrating my new black sweety too, she's 6 mths with me liow ... during this 6 mths, she brought me to Cameron Highland twice , she's a real sweety, I enjoy her so much, like the 4-wheels drive, the higher seat, love the huge spaces ...she also has a picnic table :)

Today , I went back to my own house to collect something. Suddenly noticed the floor was wet ..ingat mana bocor , buka my room - wow , saw a huge hole on the roof , tiles missing and ceiling rosak. I so naive, thought the wind or cats caused the hole .... called my brother in law, he came and inspected, told me my house kena broke in la ...someone broke in thru the roof....I'm blessed, because it was about to rain that time, I quickly called a contractor, the boss came with merz and well dressed - all his staffs were busy with other projects, since it was about to rain, the boss came to rescue me. He went up the attic , helped fixed the roof tiles , got himself all wet , so pai sek , his good work saved me a flooded room....

Then , because of this incident, I had to call my next door neighbour ( they moved in 4 weeks ago, I never talked to them until today ) .... pinjam ladder from them, then got their cellphone number....chit chat and found out that they are east malaysian, very good , humble couple. I told them I wanted to rent out my house , and they are interested to help me find tenants, eg their east malaysian friends

I think this is a blessing in diguise, 1st-ly, Thank God that the thief didn't manage to step inside my house , 2nd-ly, I wasn't at home else I freaked out lor , 3rd-ly, in times of emergency, I got the needed help from family , contractor and neighbour. 4th-ly, I got to know my new neighbour well, they invited me over for a chit chat. 5th-ly , my neighbour is helping me to get reliable tenant ... 6th-ly , some exercises cleaning my house

Oh, neighbour said my house alarm went off 3 times yesterday around 2pm... we suspected the thief broke into my house at that time lor ... so all happened on April Fool day , hehehe... Bahija had a memorable April 1, 2009 ....

my April Fool day

It's a painful April Fool day for Bahija :) ... went dinner with R, AR and Bootidelicious. Bahija worked full day today, had fruits and malay kuih for lunch at 2:30 pm. Right after dinner at 8pm, my tummy super sakit ...walked a bit until we reached Starbucks , I went straight to the loo, very susah and painful. Then smsed my members, asked them to bring me to the nearest clinic, I needed jap liow

What I like about tonite was that - I celebrated my 13th anniversary with my close friends (ex-colleagues as the matter of fact ) , we had good fun time together, besides the usual sweet fun chit chat moment, tonight , Bahija got to experience the painful moment as well, and my fellow friends were helping me with those difficult time... we learned from Dr.AR about LOMOTIL , very powerful pill to stop diarrhoea. Dr.AR carries this useful pill 24 x 7 leh, he 'lou-sai' kaki :P . Anyway, at the clinic, the doctor also prescribed this lomotil. I took 2 pills and able to drive home safely without 'emergency' call ... Dr suspected I ter-makan 'bad food' during lunch, our body usually takes 3 to 4 hrs to process the meal, then signal the body about the abnormal condition. Tonight , I realized that my kawan Dr.AR is not bad , can be my walking doctor liow :) - cham lor , Bahija keeps calling Dr.AR on all sort of sick related matters liow :P

Food poisoning is not fun at all ...but I've got a cleaner body now - hahaha. TaTa , signing off for a good night rest and sleep !!

Ice Wine ....

Bahija read about ice wine some time ago ......I've never tried ice wine, curious how it tastes like la...tonight Bahija had dinner appointment @ Solaris Mont Kiara. I arrived early and shopped at the Cold Storage there, suddenly saw this ice wine, quickly bought it la, free 2 wine bottles sekali... so so now , when can I officially open it ??? who wants to share this moment with me ???? Right now my thought is perhaps April 1 evening :)

Nyonya dinner ....

My little youngest sis attended the nyonya cooking class @ Hartamas ( RM 100 ) last Saturday ..tonight she tried her new skills...lots of hardwork. It's neat to have the whole family gathered together, and Makan Besar :) - a fun time to reconnect with each other... Yummy nyonya food too :- nyonya chicken, nyonya fish, and eggplant with shrimps

Tonight, we had fun time chilling at my sis new condo. Hmm, Bahija had the thought of staying in a condo liow....smaller space, easier to manage, shld be more secure, plus new place, cleaner , as compared to mummy's old house , costly to renovate ....hmmmm

apple ipodS ???

First of all, Bahija still hasn't own an ipod yet :( ....

Secondly, my KL 2nd niece - JAS got all As in her UPSR exam.... last week, my KL 1st niece - JOS also got all As in her SPM exam .... yeah, this family very dahysat :) , Bahija remembered very well she went broke promised to get them ( 3 sisters ) gifts if they did well in their exams. So far, in all the major exams, all 3 of them seem to sapu all As la , hee

Thirdly, thesedays, all of them started blogging, hahaha, so this Ah Yee gets to 'secretly' read their blogs , know what's in their mind, very cool indeed. hehe. So, JOS and JAS , both of them eyeing for ipods , of course la , ipod is cool...even their old Ah Yee also eyeing ipod ...

Apple Msia store is available now , I could order an ipod , get free encraving too .....but but but dilemma , takkan I buy 3 ipods , aiyuh - that is RM599 x 3 - mahal lah.... plus ipod is considered luxury item for a schooling teenager wor , right ? I am afraid that their parent will not be happy with this Ah Yee for spoiling them, not showing good example for being thrifty , why must it be ipod ? why not ipud ? why not other way cheaper brand ? .... aiiii

cheap printing ....

Bahija wants to share some info on printing .... if one doesn't do a lot of color printing, it's not worth to buy and maintain a color printer on our own.... the ink will get dry out easily , and color ink not cheap as well , color printer is cheap, but maintenance is high.... Thesedays, color print is cheap. For a good quality A4 size color print - no limit on how many colors , it goes by size...A4 is $1 , A3 is $2 - my friend can get cheaper than my price ... there are many printing places now. Those in KL , can go to Jalan Brunei , near Jalan Pudu , behind Berjaya Times Square area ....those in Subang, can go to SS15 - near Taylor Business School. I go to SS15 , there are a few printing shops along the road , they do photocopy, printing, binding ....using latest technology. Those days , things that I photocopied, kept for few years, the ink faded. Now I switched to digital photocopy, the shop owner said ink will not fade la , let me keep my documents for few years and test it out yea :)

OKU parking lot..

Today, I went to University Hospital, PJ with my lovely mummy, she had doctor appointment....While I was driving around the parking complex to get a parking space....I saw a young teenager girl quickly parked her 4-wheel drive on a OKU ( Orang Kurang Upaya ) parking space .....just in case you don't know what is OKU parking space , the parking space is colored in blue or in other bright color with a wheelchair logo - to signal people that those spots are specially reserved for the less fortunate folks..... so , the young teenager sapu one OKU space. Then next, another indian couple also sapu another OKU space , in my mind , I thought they could be old folks who couldn't walk well, so OK la, let them parked.... so I purposely waited for them to get out of their car, entah-entah both of them could walk very well ..... that was an inconsiderate act, again, for their own benefit - they simply parked their cars at OKU spots. It's very common that OKU spots are easily taken up by the normal folks.... when the 'real' OKU folks come, they couldn't find any parking ....aiii
Over at General Hospital ( GH ), KL ...this kind of scenarios SELALU happen, until GH has to hire a guide, stand in front of the open air OKU parking lots, jemu matahari , sweat under the hot sun , station at the OKU parking spaces, put up signs, chained the spaces - and manually open the parking spaces when a genuine OKU folk drives in ..... if not, none of them get any spaces. GH is open air , the road , the buildings are not well built for handicapped .... it's extremely difficult to wheel someone along the road , from the public parking spaces to the hospital. I tried once , killing me ....

Thesedays , a lot of the shopping malls, new business commercial areas have started to build and reserve OKU parking lots, of course , being us, the first class facility, third class mentality - a lot of abusers around the town , I just wish all of us set an example , start to educate folks , make them aware that having a pair of healthy legs, being able to walk is a blessing, please park nicely , be considerate and bless the less fortunate folks ....

I wish I could or dare to confront the teenager and the indian couples today , told them that their act was wrong .... I didn't - haaa, i was rushing for my time, but I'll set a prayer for them, by all means , they'll learn this lesson very soon :)

Help the needed community .....

Hi all , previously I've briefly mentioned about a community project that is setup and run by my church.... Here, I want to promote it again .... it is called CareMart .... please click on 'caremart' link... the link show u the map and direction to go there....it's a mini supermarket , for all the grocery you buy , you are donating all the profit to the less fortunate folks. We have a list of legitimate recipients , they are poor or hard-core poor families .... they come to CareMart and buy their items at a very very cheap price. The items they can buy at discounted price are rice, bread, some canned food , washing powder, Milo , milk powder - the necessary items, whereas items like coke, nescafe no discount, as those are 'luxury' items.... If you are thinking of gifts for friends, perhaps can get CareMart vouchers :) , there are RM10 and RM50 vouchers.

This is a community project , we are not Giant, Tesco or Carefour , we don't have the capability to keep huge stocks , thus can't keep the price as cheap as them....the selling price is whatever the price we bought from the supplier with some profit margin. The profit goes to charity. So, when you go CareMart , please don't compare the price as those 3 big boys lah , we can't compete with them, plus we are not in the business to compete with them anyway ...the objective is very different :)

So , again .... those of you who have a lot of cash to spare , who doesn't know what gift to get for friends or family , perhaps go for "CareMart vouchers " :)

Any easy way to add label ????

Bahija is thinking to label my blog posts ....do I have to edit every post, and add the label one by one ??? is there any short cut ? add one by one banyak kerja leh , sampai 2004 leh , alamak ......

far far away from home ....

2007 , Bahija was in USA , had a great bday in CA - unforgetable .... 2009, my friend, Dragon Bootidelicious is in USA now, hope she's OK there alone, far far away from home, from her hubby , from her little baby girl ... she celebrated her bday there, hope she have had a great one....perhaps drank some champagne at Empire State Building , or Statute of Liberty ...... oh no , may be not .... may be her work place is far from the tourists happening places leh ....may be she gets to play with snowman nia .....can't wait to hear her fun trips pretty soon .....

Faith Factor

Sunday Star under Fit4Life section, there is an article about 'Faith Factor' - can faith really work miracle and heal the body ? there are some scientific explaination...some of coz still mystery. It's quite a good read, try read it ..... this article covers chant, meditate or pray.
I'm still a new baby christian, it's my 4th year now :) , I've had the privilege of attended some seminars, workshop, 1 healing session, prayers marathon...have heard some marvellous stories, indeed some are miracles. I've seen elite knowledge workers whole heartedly believing in Miracle, knowing that God will grant them the miracles. 2 weeks ago, I attended 'Hearing God's voice' seminar, the speaker touched my heart when he shared his experience in healing an epileptic child, a child who had 5 seizures a day. Since the healing prayer, the child had 1 seizure in 2 months time. Wow , that's something. This speaker is highly motivated, it's very encouraging to listen to him, to look into his eyes, or even to walk up to him and had him lay his hands onto my tired burdened shoulder .... Now, I have a long way to go on faith journey, good thing is that I'm improving , the joy comes when I'm able to receive the message that God wants me to comprehend ...trust me, it is ! Hallelujah ... For this simple Faith, I've told God that I want to give a public testimony , I want to stand in public and share a miracle I've been asking for , that is to heal my Teddy Bear , either stop or reduce his seizures tremendously.....for the past few months, I've been demotivated, feeling very tired and frustrated that after changing multiple medicines, his fits wasn't reduced yet gotten worst. I'm out of ideas, in the midst of considering his brain surgery option....yet in fear. I'm glad that He sent this great man, Marc Dupont to my church, helps up-lifted me a bit :) ..... F.a.i.t.h is just 5 characters, yet it is extremely hard to master, I shall continue to pray :)

不 通 气 part 2 ....

This time , imagine you are driving on a main road, busy 2 ways traffic main road.... there are yellow lines on both sides..Now Msian traffic rules, yellow line means not to enter , not to stop, not to park .....in short all the NOT TO. So imagine , on a busy traffic period, cars parked both sides on the yellow lines , then next to the stationed cars, another car stopped just next to it ( like double parking ) - why the car stopped - waiting for someone or someone out from the car to go buy something .... This leave a small pass thru way for the cars on the main road, then slower traffic, then jam.....

I wonder how their brain is built on ? how did they develop their brain ? did they drink the same milk powder as I did ?? or were they alien from other space ? It's bad enough that cars already illegally parked on the busy main road, add on top of this, there are still many inconsiderate drivers who simply stopped their cars anywhere they like , at their convenient, their behaviour caused so much troubles to others, many folks stucked in jam just because of them wanting 'easy way' for themselves. Then the geram part is , didn't they themselves also encountered the same situation as well ? I wonder what's their heart beat or temper level when they themselves were in my shoe today , stucked in long jams, wasting so much time and petrol , WHY ? because others simply stopped the cars anywhere they like ....

I am praying that people has some sense, has some good civic-minded juices. Don't do the things you don't want others to do on you. For example, I hate those drivers who purposely drive outer lane , then at the junction, insisted to cut queue and sqeeuzed in, padahal there are a lot of drivers patiently queueing behind on the correct lanes...these kind of drivers thought they are smart, they know how to save time. Aiiii. I hate those behaviour, thus I keep reminding myself not to do this.... if circumstances happened that I needed to cut queue, I keep waving my hands as signs of appreciation, as well as sign of apology. I make sure I don't abuse it.

If more malaysians learn to embrace this ' 通 气' attitude, our society will be a much happier one to live in .....this is my prayer item tonight !

不 通 气 ...

Thesedays, I am spending a lot of my time at my mum's house, for simple reason, mum's house is only 5 mins away from my work place....jimat cost and masa :) . Early morning, she always complained to me about her inconsiderate neighbours, strories goes like this , 7 am - the elder generation will walk the dogs around the neighbourhood , then let the dogs 'poo poo' ...they conveniently want their dogs to shit anywhere except their own compound, then the 2nd shift 7pm, this time their sons or daughters came back from work , the younger generation pula yang walk the dogs , again , letting their dogs shit everywhere.... My poor little petite mum, she takes care of the whole household, she faithfully doing marvellous job taking care of Teddy Bear, on top of that, every day at 7:30 am, 7:30 pm - she always has to go check around our house , just to make sure there's no poo poo in front of our house , so that when her daughters drive their cars out of the car porch , or drive in to the car porch , we won't 'accidentally' terpijak the poo poo .... my poor mummy faithfully been cleaning all the poo poo , those are not good smelling poo poo , OK , disgusting ....

When I was studying in USA, I observed the americans walked their dogs , and the dog-walkers brought along a rubbish bag , or I call it 'poo poo' bag ...they cleaned up the poo poo and threw the bag into a dustbin. Everyone happy and clean. My brother stays in Hong Kong , I observed the same practise, all the dog-walkers carried a bag to clean up the dog shits. It's a happy clean environment.

Over here in my home land , I just find this 'dog' thingy ridiculas. The owner so pandai , make the dogs shit at others' place , happily easily bring the dogs back to their own clean house. How considerate it is .... some of my mum neighbours who don't have dogs , they complained to DBKL, complained to certain authorities - because they are geram, so am I. Then the funny part is , when those dog owners knew about the complaints, they dare to be upset with us , they dare to bad-mouth us , HELLLLO ! what kind of logic is this ? you dirty my house with your dog's shit, yet when I complained, you came and angry with me ....therrrrrrr !!!!!

气 死 我 !!!

my black sweety is sick ....

This morning, Bahija and Teddy Bear were on their way to church, Teddy Bear is attending special kids class thesedays, he is improving a lot, he is learning to draw straight lines, to say some english words such as apple, papaya, orange, sleep, listen , it's a great joy seeing him improving week by week.... me, being his sister and teacher, I'm very proud of him, really am .... my goal is that he can write his own name. Anyway, side track liow... so today , a friend called me to pick her, thus I detour from my usual route, on the way to pick her ....mid way, met with an accident... 'BANG' - alamak, I've tried my best to sway to the right side. My black sweety no major damage, but stratch on the left hand side lor - back to end :( , tyre wheels also kena .... Aii, just hope the repair won't cause a bomb ...because the person who hit my sweety is my church pastor leh, the accident wasn't my fault at all. I was on my fast lane going straight. Yea, I also terperanjat, haaa.... shall I say it was a divine appointment for both of us..the funny part is that I am feeling pai sek to claim from pastor , and worrying that the repair costs would be high ..... however, I can't do anything leh, guess has to repair and claim as it is.... my black sweety is new to me, and she was looking extremely sexy prior to the accident ...aiiiii

pray for our country

April is a significant mth for someone , and for us - the msians. There's a change of power... thesedays, we can see the various political issues in P state, there's the tamil community with the sensitive race issues , the 'A' word not allowed to be used in catholic publication ...Tonight, my church prayed for the above, we are praying for this whole week too, people need to have wisdom and peace in their heart, to do the right things ..... especially our leaders. At the end of the day , me , as an individual msian, I really wish for a peaceful, fair community... As I sang the song related to Malaysia, I want myself to be proud for being Malaysian. May God bless us this, protect us during this critical moment.

privillege abused ....

Last December, AR went for a vacation in London. Bahija quickly emailed him, asked him to help Bahija's friend, to purchase some LV bags. Bahija owed a BIG THANK YOU to Ringgit. Ringgit is a true great friend, friend who dare to comment, help to make Bahija a better person :) ...I truely value my friendship with R & AR... So so Ringgit told Bahija that AR would have no issue if Bahija wanted to get the LV bags for herself, coz AR and Bahija friends ma , as always AR has been a great helpful friend.... however, this time round, Bahija was asking a favor for another person , a stranger to AR , to spice things up, for commercial purposes as well, resell those bags....When Ringgit hinted to Bahija, Bahija 'ter-realized' how insensitive she has been ....she abused her privilege liow. I totally agree with AR and R. AR , I'm very sorry for that incident. I'm smarter now - haha. Hope I've learned a mini lesson here, and no repeat in the future ....

employed vs self-employed ....

This is my 8th months of being a sole proprietor .... I'm still learning , still adjusting ... At this point, I'm still positive about this arrangement, it's a new environment for me to explore. I don't know how far I could go ....just glad that I have this opportunity to try things out

Employed vs Self-employed
EPF, medical vs none
mthly income vs may not be mthly
fixed working hrs vs flexible
lots of colleagues vs solo
lunch kakies vs solo
BE form vs B form
PCB (potongan cukai bulanan) vs pay once yrly
EA form vs none
Bonus vs no bonus

One of the thing I realize is that , I don't have EA form, when I walk into the bank to apply for half a million loan , the bank most likely will reject me , because I'm new in my sole proprietorship. Bank afraid that I may not get my future business income .... Due to this reason, one of my friend decided to quit and go back to his employment environment, so that he can continue to apply more loans from banks , especially now , since loans are cheap ( according to his strategy lah ) ....

housing loan ....

After my previous post of BLR 5.5%' , I have another idea to share .... Like I said , right now the BLR is reduced to 5.50 or 5.55% ( confirm with your bank ). Those of us who bought properties > 2 yrs ago , our conventional fluctuate loan deal most likely was BLR + 1 , BLR - 0.5 or something within this range , that translate into 5% to 6.5%. The best way to tackle this is , after the locking period, call the bank loan department, ask if the bank could do you a favor , for rewarding a loyal customer, help you to reduce the loan interest rates. Whenever my locking period expire, and if I don't have intention to fully settle the loan, I'll call the bank and ask them to reduce, so far so good, the bank will entertain, the only drawback is that , bank will enforce another new locking period ( 3 to 5 years ). For those who opted the fixed or islamic loan, the rate is fixed for the whole tenure , say if it was set at 7%, it would be 7% for the whole tenure... Time like this , sometimes is good to review, re-calculate the penalty cost, and survey the refinance package , if the new bank can give you a better deal , which resulted huge savings in interets, then by all mean, do the refinancing ...

For those of you who need a loan calculator , one which is easy to use, can dump in any amout of loan any time , and still be able to show you how much interests paid .... ping me - email me , I'll send over to you :)

financial stocks , anyone ?

I have been keeping an eye on these 2 counters , a beginner , trying to make some sense out of the stock market , haaa ....

MBB year lowest was $4.74 ( within the last 52 weeks ), year highest was $9.92
3/3/2009 - MBB day lowest was $4.78
4/3/2009 - MBB day lowest was $4.84

PBB year lowest was $7.85 , year highest was $12
3/3/2009 - PBB day lowest was $8.35
4/3/2009 - PBB day lowest was $8.10

My guru taught me , how low is low ? how high is high ? these depends on the individual's taste bud.

completed property

my work partner just bought a completed property recently ...this is one of the program pushed by our government , whereby the developer built the properties first, then sell after completion... It's good for the buyer, as we buy what we see, we get what we can see and touch .... however, one area to look out is - a completed unit , once deposit is down, developer expects full payment within 14 days ...The buyer has to ensure the loan, S&P , contracts all can be completed ASAP. because there is no more progressive payment here... once loan approved, must rushed for S&P contract ...so that payments can be channelled to the developer right away. Remember, usually from the loan offer letter to completed S&P - it takes min 1 to 2 mths or so, so how ??? I think the buyer need to highlight to the developer , must ask for further extension - as in free interests or no penalty extension... In this case, sometimes a completed unit come with Strata title , available for title transfer ....this will complicate things again, because engaging lawyers , ding dong with Land office for the title transfer usually takes 2 to 3 mths .....without all these, bank may not want to release loan to developer ...again, as buyer, is there any protection to shield from penalty charges ???

just be careful, if you are thinking of buying a unit from this kind of program ....

RoomService.com

This is one of the thing I heard from the workshop I attended a day ago.... RoomService to your door step , how convenient, how cool it is ... I knew room service is available in the hotel. Now you can get it to deliver to your house , should rename it to 'HouseService' eh ...

I think Bahija likes this service a lot, as I'm quite lazy sometimes, sometimes I just like to hibernate at home, wake up with pj, then on computer chatting, surfing, working, or do housework ....just enjoy staying at home, and not wanting to take a step out of my house... time like this, I can logon to RoomService, check out the menu - be it Chiles, HardRock Cafe, Italiannies , chinese or tandorie or anything that is available ...click and order...then yummy food delivered to my doorstep within 1 hr , with extra RM10

I haven't try it yet, will give it a try very soon....for extra $10 - I think worth it , save me petrol , parking, hassle of driving to the restaurant, still can wear my pj :) ... Hope the food still taste good when it reaches my hand , I'll update you once I've tasted this yea :)

BLR of 5.5%

Bahija is in the midst of re-compiling her finances .... since I'm self-employed now, no EPF , no medical ...everything on my own , suddenly missing a huge chunk of '$$$' ....thus, I need to spend wisely, save more for the rainy days ......

I have the privilege to be a housing loan customer, it started with high BLR, it was like 9%, 7% back then ...my loan started with 13.3% , gradually dropped to 7.3% , then 6.8% ....

1998 - 13.3%, 9.05%
1999 - 8.25%, 7.8%
2000 - 7.8%, 7.7%
2001 - 7.7%, 7.3%
2002 - 7.30%
2003 - 7.30%
2004 - 7.30%
2005 - 7.30%
2006 - 6.80 %
2007 - 6.80 %
2008 - 6.80 %
2009 - 6.80 %

Right now, for a new housing loan, the offer is BLR - 2.4%, BLR is revised to 5.55% , so that means a new housing loan is only 3.15% ONLY !!
How much is FD rate now ? it's only 2% , inflation rate is 4 to 5 % ...

So, what am I trying to say here ? Haa, I also dunno yet :) , wish I am a smart investor ... however, looking at the simple math, it's better to get a housing loan for 3.15% own a property , than to keep money in FD, may be ? hmmm

For those of you who are thinking to apply a housing loan, check out HLB new loan - it's similar with Standard Chartered flexi loan too, combine the current or saving accounts, daily rest and the money u put in saving/current - actually help in reducing a lot of the interests ( at the end of the tenure ) ...worth to consider. Banks are very creative theseday, keeps lauching new and better programs, and if one listen carefully, understand and abide well, it does help in the total interests amount paid

2 1/2 hours jam ....

Today, I took a day off , went to KL Sentral attended a free workshop. Good that I went, heard some neat information from the industry folks ..... Finished workshop at 5:30pm, it's heavy rains...down pouring. waited for a while, then quickly rushed to car , was carpooling with ZE. The minute we exited from KL Sentral and entered Jln Maharajalela ...we were stucked in jam, all the way to Jalan Duta .... for 2 1/2 hrs , we were wondering what the heck happening ....thought the construction of Duke Highway causing the massive traffic jam .... luckily ZE's parent was on the way home, they called and hinted us to detour from Jln Duta , took Hartamas - Segambut a bit - then Jalan Kuching ....

so tonight, many many many folks stucked in jam, some even worst, some car owners practically lost their cars , seeing their cars submerged in the water ...the root cause was the KL flood. This time flood in Jalan Ipoh Batu 1 onwards, including PWTC and surrounding .... aiii , KL flood is getting worst ...

Sunday night, my own house Bkt Rimau entrance roundabout - also flooded ... someone seriously need to look into this and take a wise action , to reduce the suffering, instead of 'tidak apa' attitude :( - the flood is a 'human-created' flood , I am very sure it can be avoided

a movie .....

Bahija is very grateful to Ringgit, Ringgit suggested her to watch a movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' ...tonight I went with a friend. HooHoo, indeed, it's a nice movie, showed me some Indian culture , perhaps some of the story could be real as well , especially story on the children, so kesian ....Ringgit said this movie won Oscar best picture and best director. If you have some free time , try catch it !

Sth for Wau-Bulan ....

Wau-Bulan , I'm almost done with your gift :) .... a preview here :-

When are back in town ? give me a ring , need to bring your 'travel sweetie' to see my guru, measure and finish this end product :) ....

knitting ...

Viola , Bahija completed this knitting work on CNY eve. My sweet mummy already pakai this, went to Harbin, China....and balik liow. She had a fantastic time. Lucky her, last day of tour was a snow day, so she got to experience snow for the FIRST time...even though she's 73 yrs old, her first time with snow , also the same like mine ...played like a small young kid :) ...laughed, slept on the snow , played snow balls, threw the snow ..she liked the tour very much. Fun time always come to an end in a faster speed ....she has to plan for her next off time aka vacation. Bahija will start on next knitting project ... will share later la :) , it's not that difficult to knit, quite fun when watching TV, the free hands can knit knit knit ...

AR ...

In my dictionary , AR stands for Amazing Race - a TV race program which I've stopped watching for quite some time ..... Another AR stands for Anti-Ringgit , today AR sent me 2 commens ( last one was ages ago ) , AR , I miss your sarcastic comments, and please la , be nicer to people la ...Bahija is pleased to welcome AR back to reading my blog :) .. here is the latest photo on my knitting process - counting by inches as days go by ... To AR , who always spend time in cold countries , you jealous that Bahija didn't self-knit you one of this , is it ???? :P

a gift for my mum ....

2008 , Bahija didn't travel anywhere with mum .... 2009 - also quite hard to bring her for a long overseas trip, as my nature of job now requires me to be on-call and on-site support...not as flexible as the In-Kei time, aiiii :( 2008, my mum learned to travel by herself, she read the travel advertisements, and called the agents herself , settled everything and travel alone by herself, without her daughters. Last year, she joined the travel tours to Guilin and Hainan, China. She's a cool mum , at the age of 72 years old, she learns to use digital camera, roaming handphone :) I'm very proud of her. She even enjoyed her photography, her new friend taught her how to look at the focus square box , to capture the best shot .... I felt sorry that I couldn't bring her travel more often thesedays .. This year CNY day 10, she's goin to China Harbin alone , to see the ice scruptures ....it's COLD there. I just want to get something special for my lovely mum , thus ....I'm knitting a scarf for her , in time for her to wear during her icy cold Harbin trip :)

It's quite fun to do knitting ....again, put on some lovely songs, sit quietly and knit it , relaxing my mind too :)

possible plans/projects for 2009

Besides the 15 P's from my pastor .....here are some of the area I'll be looking at as well ...this mean A LOT of praying , I have to pray and Seek God , one thing I've learned .. if the OK is given by Him, no matter how difficult , how un-easy, how un-glamour the tasks / projects are - eventually - all things will come to a good end - because that's what He wants me to do :)

1. Move house project - to rent or to sell , or do nothing ?

2. Engage and take on another big work project ( contract ) , or smaller projects with other customers ?

3. Evaluate Teddy Bear brain surgery option , this idea is 'hinted' very strongly to me by a good passionate doctor , it's time I need to seriously consider and influence my family

4. Personal investment project - have to start doing something ....

5. Enrol in special kid education / training ??? can I afford now , am I ready, is the timing right for me now ? should I ??

Those of you who are reading this , if the holy spirit is called upon you to pray for me , I'll be delighted and please help me .... come share your thoughts whenever you have anything for me ...THANKS !

Financial management

Today it's a fruitful day for me, a great start for the year .... Sanguine Queen introduced a new friend to me. This financial guru , I'll call him HMK. HMK shared a lot of personal experiences. Some of them are common sense, we probably have read them many times from newspaper, magazines or even the investment books such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Public Mutual investment book etc etc .... we really should be diciplined , take some time out , sit down and work on our own individual excel sheet - to find out how much is our yearly expenses ? how much do we need for retirement ? how are we goin to start prepare for it ? If we never plan for it , it will not happen ..... financial management is a core activity each and everyone of us should do, it's just like a company , before year end closing - there's ledger balancing, closing etc , then P/L profit / loss sheet , then budget planning, business plans etc .. Tonight , I took the time , prepared my yearly expenses , what a shock ... I'm admitted to ICU already , need to see ICU doctor, so that I can move back to normal ward pretty soon...

Now, I'm telling myself "If I fail to plan, I'll fail to save , and eventually I'll fail for my retirement plan too ...."

HMK - you really rock ! a kind passionate soul who is willing to share his experiences and knowledge , plus his self-created tools. Sanguine and Bahija are so glad that one of our wish is granted, to meet a financial-savy friend :) - Thank You Lord ...

01-01-2009 sunrise service

This morning, woke up late and rushed to church , arrived late 6:45 am for sunrise service. The message was 'Entering 2009 with Faith' ... 15 things I want to do ( a faith check up ) :-

1. Passage study ( book of the bible )
2. Person(s) I want to emulate
3. Person(s) I want to see saved , brought back to the Lord
4. People I need to encourage
5. Principle I want to build into my life
6. Purpose ( long term spiritual goals ) I want to see achieved
7. Plans ( short term goals - spiritual and non spiritual ) I want to make in 2009
8. Prayer I want answered in 2009
9. Protection I need in 2009
10.Price I may have to pay to grow, to mature ...
11.Poor who need my help
12.Prosperity in God
13.Personal relationship with God
14.Pursuit of excellence
15.Presence of God in my life - the key to all keys

This is the list from my pastor - the 15 P's ... Bahija doens't know what principle should I build into my life ? Do you have any ideas for me ? if yes, drop me a note yea ...

My 2008 ....

The beauty of blogging :) , I read my previous blogs My 2006 vs My 2007 , to refresh my memory.... I have details for 2006, but nothing much for 2007 .... hmm, 2007 was all in my memory now ... it's good to keep some details , I guess...
So, here's the yearly report for 2008.....it's a VERY long winded version, I need to capture my major events.

January
For the first time, Bahija crossed to this new year with a gloomy mood, knowing that after June'08, she'll need to change her career path , and had no clue of what to expect from 2H of 2008, deep inside her heart, she had some fear ..

February
CNY day 1 early morning - received another 'saman' , an expensive Ops Sikap $300 summons , it's a clear sign to warn Bahija not to speed in future.

Mid Feb - Bahija attended a forum in church, when this man 'Lim Guan Eng' walked in, I asked my sister "who's him ? " ...my sis gave me a blank look. From that forum, I started to learn a bit about politics, about my little role as voter. It was a wonderful forum. Since then, I actively learning politics in Msia. Took the opportunities to discuss and asked my In-Kei colleagues during lunch. Fruitful short learning curve, within 3 weeks - from a political-idiot Bahija to a 'more-savy' Bahija, I'm proud of myself.

Feb 27, my youngest sis went thru her brain surgery, to remove a super tiny blood clog. We Thank God for all the prayers, wishes. It's a smooth surgery and recovery .... Again, Bahija appreciated the great family support, having a caring family makes things easy for all :)

March
First week of March - attended open talks organized by opposition parties in USJ 12 and Penang Han Jiang school - eye opener for me :) . Han Jiang Penang was a big crowd. I went with cab, and at 11 pm, I took an overview, noticed that the crowd was way too huge. Thus, I quickly got myself ready and left, afraid that if I waited till the talk ended, I may got stuck and no transport to go back to my hotel. As I rushed out from the school, the roads were all jam-packed with people and cars or bikes and policemen... now I takut, alamak, how on earth was I suppose to go back to my hotel in 1 peace safe leh. I quickly prayed. Right after my 'Amen' , suddenly a cab was in front of me in the middle of the road. I knocked and opened the door. In the cab, I heard christmas songs ... then I smiled. it's not easy to find one who played christmas songs in the month of March. I myself love to listen to christmas songs... christmas songs calmed me....Right there, I knew he's God sent angel to rescue me and sent me back safely to my hotel. Later, the driver told me he's off duty, and usually he didn't use that road to go back home from his parent's house, for that night, somehow he detoured and got stucked in the jam. I smiled and told him, that night his mission was to pick me :) Praise God !

March 8 - Helped in USJ 4 school voting counter. My job was to check the voters' name and IC No, ensure they are legitimate. I enjoyed the counting moment ... happy when 'rocket' is shouted out loud. It's tiring day for me, yet fruitful, I witnessed the voting process, ALSO , for the first time , I VOTED for my country , I did what I needed to do as a Malaysian Citizen :)

March 9- Bahija started a EE program organized by her church ( Full Gospel Tabernacle ) , it's a 13-weeks intensive training, with on-the-job trainings too. It's an eye opening for me, I've went thru the hurdle, ups and downs during this whole journey, the devils like to 'kacau' us when we want to do something for our Father Lord ...hectic weeks in 3 mths - yet I've managed thru , oui

March 23 - My First F1 experience @ Sepang F1 Circuit. Went with my US colleague Ms Frog and handsome son, it's a hot hot hot day, we bought the Grand Stand seats leh, costed me a BOMB. I'm not a racing car fan, couldn't appreciate the super fast speed car - zoomed and disappeared from my eyesight for a while. It's a good experience to taste the atmosphere. I'll go F1 provided it's free :)

March 24 - 28 - My In-Kei US team was in Penang, for the first out of US Face-to-Face meetings, and I think it's the last too. I had fun meeting them, we, the local girls were very tired as we worked 2 shifts, day shift - working, off-work shift - as tour guides ....Face to face meetings are very effective, thru those time , I got to meet their spouses, their likes and dislike , style and behavious - these are good and beneficial for a good working relationship ... ( unfortunately mine didn't last long - as my exit date from In-Kei was June 30 )

March 29 - Attended a wedding in Penang. During the prayer time, I closed my eyes, saw yellow and red lights flashing in my brain ...then suddenly my mouth opened and spoke in tongue - Hallelujah ! It's my spirit-baptism moment, I could pray in tongue liow ...haa

End March - Sayonaro to most of my Cyberjaya In-Kei friends and colleagues. It's very sad moment leh. Bye to my Sanguine Queen, she's the first cubemate I met in Cyberjaya. She helped me to adjust to the old time ATD + 1 work environment. ( I'll blog about her one fine day ). Besides Sanguine, I also have to say bye-bye to many others. aiiii

April
After Q1, entered Q2 , my heart was more 'un-peace', started to have strong fear of my future after In-Kei ....couldn't focus much on work anymore, everyday carried a 'lepak' 'chin chai' mood to go to work lor, stopped to take on new job tasks, everything pretty much passed over to Dockers' Pant and Fish, no mood for In-kei's work. Cyberjaya office was like a 'fridge' - super cold, super quiet , lack of human chi .... trust me, it's very pethatic , depress to go to office under those situation ...sometimes lunch also no kaki to go with :(

April 9 - Seriously needed to hear from God, hear his direction, need to know what He has to say ...attended 'Hearing God's Voice' class, it was an awesome training for me. Enjoyed the class so much, I learned to be sensitive to hear from God ....

April 15 - 18 - HP sponsored my eldest sis for an event trip to Bali Nusantara - 5 star Grand Hyatt hotel. Bahija took the opportunity, claimed mileage points joined her. I spent 3 full days on the beach, read books, had quiet time with God. The goal of this trip , was for me to have peace in my heart, and to hear from Him. Praise God, when I took my step of faith, God talked to me, He told me He's taking care of me, that I shouldn't be a lost child, shouldn't be in fear. He's in control. I brought a few books to Bali, one of them was a gift from RotiTelur, Monica and Ringgit ... God spoke to me thru that book :) . Third day on Bali Nusantara beach, a phone call came, I picked it up. It's a job offer - sound very good , fit what I needed, at that moment, I've sensed my peace , it's truly a blessing when I knew well that I was hearing His voice and getting the right message ( this job offer later came to a reality in July - God is GOOD ! ) ... I went to Bali as a lost child, sad. But I left Bali energetic, filled with hope and faith , and PEACE ... heee

May
This month busy at work - not for 'real work' , but to settle all the personal outstanding items such as medical checkup, dental claim, employee PC purchases, stocks handling, HR personal data updates, backup all my data, clearing data on the In-Kei's T42.

One POSITIVE thing was badminton ... Bahija consistently persistently played badminton almost everyday after work , actually during work , haa - from 4 to 6 pm. I've lost so much weight ..looked slimmer and nice - haaaa , OH, most important, from a dummy badminton player, my gurus praised that I've improved substantially - haaaa

Another GREAT thing - my wish was granted. Many moons ago, I had a wish to go Europe Contiki tour. Been talking about this for many many times, all NATO ( No Action Talk Only )...for some reason and good timing. I managed to secure ticket, and timing was OK - thus Sanguine Queen and Bahija adopt the 'JUST DO IT' attitude - we booked our Contiki tour spontatuously

June
First week of June - pretty much settled all my In-Kei tasks.

June 8 - Sunday morning completed my EE final test. night time - to KLIA - vioa - Amsterdam :) , I was off to Europe for 16 days :) .... Sanguine and Bahija have had a marvellous Contiki tour in Europe. I am soooo happy , sooo glad that we made it , it was such a memorable fun time for me forever. ( just a bit dissappointed that as of now, I've not uploaded the Europe photos , nor prepared a travellogue yet )

Deep in my heart, I knew this trip was blessed by God. He completed one of my wish ...because I was full with many activities ...it's amazing that the timing and flight ticket all worked out well out of sudden. THANKS Father !!

June 26 - Sayonari to Europe :( , landed in KLIA 6:30 am, rushed home , showed, then rushed to KLIA again, took a flight to Penang. My USA boss was in Penang for my exit day. I had farewell dinner with my Penang teammates.

June 27 - THE DAY arrived. It's my last day with In-Kei. My ex-managers, some good friends went to PG12 , bid farewell and took photos with me :) ... that was my 2nd exit , my 1st exit was I-Kei June 2002 - back then, I was very close with my team, thus farewell wasn't easy. This time round, In-Kei , the decision was made back in Nov 2007, dragged till June 30, 2008 - it's a long time , I suppose the mood already gone as time goes by ...my last day with In-Kei - I wasn't as 'sad' as it should be lor ....

July
Officially jobless....Initially thought could lepak for 3 months, rest and relaxed, take a missionary trip in September.

July 3 - received call, to attend meeting with business partners. Discussed the job tasks and details

July 9 - signed contract, meeting with my customer the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri

July 10 - officially started my freelance consulting services work - aiii - fast and I didn't have much time to lepak , haaa. This was the job opportunity that came to me while I was in Bali talking to God. So this is a deal I couldn't let go ....

August
Super busy month , learning to adjust to new work environment. Busy with church activities, plus LA sister and nephew also back to KL visited us.. this was the month which started to drag me off track ... some negative emotional side effects started to stir within me :(

Aug 7 - 9 - escaped to Pulau Lang Tengah , great fun time with Josh, Jar , Ice Kacang, Lily and Benji. During this trip, I lost a battle, shamed on me - where's Milan ? I said France - from a person who visited Milan before , malu betul. I also officially annouced that I retired from banana boat , Bahija will not ride banana boat anymore , I'm too old for this sport , scary ....

September
Problematic month , started in August , dragged into September ... emotionally unstable, I've all that I needed, yet I wasn't happy .... not contented, that's the big issue. I was lacking something still, no inner peace. One of the main reason was me being single. All these years, I've been taking the 'single' status quite well, just not now , I struggled within myself. Started to skip QT , skipped bible reading, gradually slowing down my walk of faith as well .....struggled to lift up myself .....

Good News - despite me backsliding , God still treats me well, He blessed me with my Black-B. It was such an easy smooth buy ....welcome to my world - Black B :)

October
Problem carried forward from Aug, Sept, I even felt depressed every Sunday after my special kids ministry. I was sad to see the special kids, to hear of their problems, their family issues etc etc...sundays seem like a dark cloud day for me - I dragged myself to church now...Luckily I had a short break to Hong Kong during Raya weekend. I'm such an expensive woman, I need to fly far far away to be by myself, away from family and friends, and read some good books ....gila hah. Anyway, solo in Hong Kong , besides some shopping and good yummy food, I spent most of the time reading books. Again, I have to say , God is Good. Yet another time, He sent the right books as my rescuer. I felt so much better after Hong Kong trip.

November
I started to settle down in my work. Emotioanlly, I was also feeling better, gradually lifted myself up step by step ....I've asked God to come help me, guide me thru this down moment. I was alive again, hee

December
Thank God ! Bahija is back to herself , I'm out of the miserable 'recession' moment. I'm doing well with my special kids now, I repented, prayed, asked God to help me enhance my walk of faith. God stopped talking to me since August, personally, I really missed His voice. This month, I seriously went for altar call, seeking Him into my life. Of course, now I'm back to have a relationship with my Father. He talks to me now, or rather I shall say I'm sensitive to His voice again, I can sense his message when He comes to me :) That to me, is very intimate and important .... so I'm super duper glad to march forward to 2009 with my current healthy state :) ...

Happy Blessed 2009 , May all of us have a joyful, healthy and contented New Year !

more active ....

To all my readers, some of you have stopped reading , bcoz as of early this month, I hardly updated my blog ..... but I'm back on track again, Dec 2008 - by far has the most entries .... a few more blogs to come , before I end it on 2008. Reading back, this is my 4th year on blogging - wow ! not a bad record ...it has captured lots of my thoughts , heee - I'm glad I started it !

My Facebook is way too crowded with too many folks , some I hardly known him/her, yet they keep asking me to add them , aiii - what to do - add lor ...it's a public space for me :)

Geee, I had coffee at 1pm today wor , not after 3 pm , why am I still up and not in bed :(
aiii, guess I am so reluctant to let Dec 31, 2008 just passing by easily .......

Dec 25 ...

Christmas is to celebrate Jesus's birthday ....when I celebrate my birthday, I received many gifts from family and friends ... so to celebrate Jesus birthday , I blessed some kids and some friends with some gifts. However, I think the most important thing is to please Him , what shall I do , or get for my Father Lord ..... I don't know what He wants...haa. I started my bible study very seriously Jan this year , it was progressing so well , until June :( ...then I stopped, then the chapters all piled up , now I'm still in Ephesian only , aiii , so many more to go , I doubt I can complete it. So after being a christian for 3 yrs , water-baptismed last Dec , I still haven't finish reading the whole bible. Started in 2007 - I stopped after Q1. 2008 try again, now it stopped in Q3. Hmm, at least I've improved some. HeHe Guess, I shall tell my Father that for His 2008 Christmas gift , I'll start my bible reading 'again' and hope by Dec 25, 2009 - I can proudly tell Him, I've delivered what I am saying now :)

Morning, went for christmas service at 9am.

Lunch, at Monica's house for the traditional christmas gathering , we used to have a big group of F.r.i.e.n.d.s ...now most of them out of countries, nevertheless, we still had fun. Ringgit and Ms World blessed me a great gift , they are so thoughtful , now I remember them everyday .....

Tea, church again , dressed formally in baju melayu because PM Pak Lah was there ... he as usual lambat lor. I spent time chit chatting with his outriders - tall and 6-packs , well built - haa. Met some folks from Jabatan Filem Negara.

Dinner, at my youngest sis's place for christmas dinner - mamamia - yummy dinner with lovely company ...also celebrated my birthday 'again' ....

After dinner, we watched the singaporean movie '钱不够用II, Money Not Enough Part II' ...it talks about singaporean life, getting tuff, want to earn more money , and family issue. It's a very touching movie. I insisted that my family watch it together. It's a good bonding time. We even had a mini post-movie discussion to talk about the known issue that every household will have to face one day ...'what to do with our ageing parent ?' ...next time I blog on this topic yea.