新年快乐 Happy Chinese New Year !

Last year christmas was on weekend, new year was on weekend, now chinese new year also fall on weekend :) great timing eh, more time to prepare, to lepak. This year the master chef is taking medical leaves, so each of her kids cooked some dishes - and viola - we had sumptuous reunion dinner. Welcoming Dog year ! .... to all my readers, especially those who are far far away - Happy Chinese New Year, may we enjoy this year :)

Dream car

Someone mentioned about Usd 199 mthly instalment to own a brand new Honda Accord :( ..... aiiii - my heart so sore , so 'kek sim' ...and I dreamt of my dream car ... Deboss once said this to me 'if one can afford to buy a car, it is not a dream car anymore ....it is an affordable car'. Hmm, quite make sense also lah. The kesian part is Bahija cannot afford any car now :( - tu lah, can mimpi of my dream car nia .. My dream car is a splendid SUV - the Nissan Murano ... I fell in love with this dude last year July when I was in USA. Thesedays, I can see quite a few on the road .... it is about RM 258k here. In USA , it is only USD 30k. USD 30k - people there is buying high end luxury car .... RM 30k we buy kancil nia ....

book vs movie

I finished reading Memoir of Geisha last year October, last friday went to watch the movie. I truly enjoyed reading the book with the details, with good description .... movie is a short version and not the same ... I think one who read the book will find reading the book is more interesting than watching the movie .... Next, I'm waiting for 'Da Vinci movie - to test my liking. Currently, I'm reading 'the broker', let see if Hollywood will make this into movie or not ...

first experience with rehab center

Jan 12 Wednesday night when I read about this article, my heart straight away signalled me to help donate food to this rehab center. Went for grocery shopping Saturday night. Sunday , I drove to the center, not wanting to be alone, I brought Teddy Bear along - he sat behind the driver seat. Bahija has done multiple donations to various homes, this was the first time to rehabilitation center.

When I arrived at the center, and when I saw those men walked towards me to collect the food, some of them have tattoos, some of them are very huge - geee - Bahija actually got scared. I know everyone deserve a second chance, yet my normal human mind injected 'fear', 'second viewpoint' about them in my mind .... I decided not to walk into the rehab center, not to leave my contact, plus was in a rush - everything happened so fast .. the guys kept saying 'thank you' and smiled at me....I just replied my usual smile and zoomed - got into my car and drove away from the center.

Now, when I relook at them, I'm indeed glad to see the co-ordinator who was a drug addict - is serving God, and giving helps wholeheartedly to those who wants second chance. Some of the residents are good looking, well built. I think Bahija will return to the center in future, may be next time I'll be more 'open' and more prepared to at least communicate with them :)

I'm wireless ....

Dec 17, 2004 - Bahija got her broadband installed....

Jan 17, 2006 - Bahija managed to setup her wireless router....yahoooo - so great, can carry notebook anyway , now I'm blogging from bed leh - hehe. However, I feel that the wireless speed is slower wor

Feb 17, 2008 - something will have to happen to align with this auspicious date :P

Jan 16

Today I'm 1 year old :)
Today is my eldest niece Josephine's 15th birthday
Today my mum did her cataract surgey
Today start my temporary housewife job taking care of mummy and teddy bear
Today I received a new set of furnitures

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

Oven

My sister has this oven - still packed in a box for years, never been used. I took it out from the box, and started using it ...hehehe, i learn to like oven liow. It's so useful ..... thesedays, I bake salmon, cod fish, chicken, prawn using that small portable electric oven...very efficient. Marinate the fishes or meat, then set oven timer and bake them for 10 - 15 mins, 'multi-threading' can multi-tasks while baking food, watch TV, clean dishes, shower etc ...then DING, food cooked and dinner is served. I also started baking cakes and brownie - of course not expert yet, just using the ready made cake mix nia. Tonight, I baked chocholate walnut cookies - wow , as I'm blogging now, my whole house is full of Famous Amos's 'smell alike' punya aroma :) .....

Thanksgiving ....

Today, Bahija received a very good news - I finally accept the fact and believe that 'this thing' is real :) , sometimes I don't believe what others told me until I see it , touch it with my own hands or eyes.... today , I just want to give thanks .... Thank You So Much. Bahija is indeed grateful.

2005 sms from Habibi

Dec 31, 2005 Egypt time 9:55:26 pm , KL was 7 hrs ahead - this sms message is directed to Ringgit, Anti-Ringgit, Ms Peace and Bahija.

'When a greeting is sent from distance, u can't hear the wishes, u can't see the smiles, but u can sense the care that truly comes from my heart. Happy New Year"

My 2005 .....and 2006

2005 was an amazing year for Bahija. Been thru a blessed great year - I'm truly thankful for that. Family thingy - all went well - had the biggest party for Mummy in August :). I've fulfilled my promise of spending more time/focus with my ageing mummy. At work - I've had the opportunity to grow into new area, and worked with nice, supportive folks. In terms of traveling, I've been to a few new places / countries this year - the reason why I felt that 2005 went pass so fast , coz I had great things to look forward to...My friends around me were mostly doing well. Janice got married and migrated to Taiwan, TaiPoh came back home for good, Yaya got her status. Sanguine was passionate about her new job. Ringgit in cloud 9. My F.R.I.E.N.D.S' gang, Miow Miow, Teddy, Kancil, Dockers' Pant - all of them are doing so well. My Bulatan friends - have babies and happily married, HT and JT settled down in OR with jobs ....Actually, the most important event happened to me in 2005 was my reborned - awesome experience walking the path to taste/to learn what 'faith' is ? ... words can never described what I've gone thru ..as a baby here - I want to start 2006 - being thankful for the blessings, the inner peace that I've had so far, and to continue growing my faith...

Abstract from Chong Sheau Ching's article - "When we bring gratitude back to our lives, it sparks an inner joy and heightens our perspective. Gratitude is a very simple concept.If we're not grateful for what we have, it will never be enough - or good enough. When we don't feel grateful for our lives and for the people in them - and when we don't articulate and share the appreciation - our loved ones and others feel it and know it. If you are able to incorporate a deep sense of gratitude into your life, you'll notice an enormous difference. All it usually takes is looking at things a little differently. Instead of the flaws, focus on the beauty. Marvel at the gift of being alive." Happy New Year to ALL :)

christmas

Bahija's first 'real christmas' ..... the parties started 2 weeks before - lots of makan :) Stuffed Turkey with cranberry sauce was so yummy. I had this > 12 yrs ago in States when I was celebrating my white christmas with Louise and Gary at Jefferson City. This year, Emily and Benji didn't come back from LA, I only have local family members with me. I cooked nasi lemak , curry chicken as my family christmas dinner. Everyone agree that for 2006 - I should prepare the turkey and gift exchange program - Bahija is so pleased that my family is with me - remembering Father.

sweet day

This week is nice, after work hours fully booked. Bahija is kind of lepaking, slow down a lot, dun really have mood to work liow - hehehe. Previous years, this day, this time, this week - usually Bahija was on leave on vacation. This year entah what happened, I didn't think of taking leave wor. I'm done with christmas shopping, done with christmas dinners preparation. Now is waiting for the time to enjoy the flow & the events :)

Anyway, THANK YOU to all my sweeties who have sent me SMSes, emails, phonecalls from around the world. It's nice to receive Hello, wishes from those who remembered me despite your busy schedule :) - so kam tong ...serious !

Tonight, a group of my old friends ajak I dinner with them. I cherish and treasure my gathering - as always - it'll be in my memory book too ...

customer service

Bahija just completed her christmas shopping, setup her christmas tree last weekend - now I started to have the festival mood liow. Last Monday was a public holiday for Selangor, Bahija rushed to post office in Ikano, unfortunately I forgot it's located in Selangor, so it was closed. But there is a vending machine outside the post office, thus I bought the pos laju envelope and stamps. Things were working great - I put my letters and all into the pos laju envelope, wrote the address, sealed ....then I was stucked ....so obvious, my brain is single threaded, I processed 1 thing at 1 time.... until the last step - when i need to drop the pos laju letter ( which guarantee next day delivery) - then realized there is no yellow color pos laju drop box ...aiiii - incomplete transaction, they should have thought of this little yellow drop box :) ... i didn't find any comment box either - else I would have dropped in a little note - 'please provide the yellow drop box next to the vending machine'..

missing the point ......

The 2 weeks, the hit news topic is 'chinese woman mis-treated' ...we, as public, read the news, felt ashame of things like this happening. Kancil is in China now, pity him, this news just spread there this week, now started to broadcast. When Kancil introduced himself from this country, people at the back commented on this case liow. Malu or not ? Put yourself in this shoe now, can you imagine how you could introduce yourself from Msia ?

Our PM asked for private investigation and if need to, if we are wrong - go apologize, do something to remedy this issue. However, the police force officer insisted to find out who was the culprit who took the short movie and passed around..he is more interested, angry to find out this culprit, then to do his internal investigation to find out the truth , the tudung lady etc ..My pastor commented - he is missing the point. Gee, he is either missing the points here or he is trying to cover up the real truth, the shame - sometimes I feel like nak 'cekik' those folks who are high power, yet buat and talk nonsense...

A comment posted on 'The Star' which was related to this topic - said that 'we are now like Americans'. Hmm, Americans treated Iraqi badly, Iraqi is their enermy - so treat them bad still make sense.... but we pula doing this to our visitors, humiliated our visitors - so we are not like Americans, we are worst than Americans leh. Next, tudung lady - a law enforcer - suppose to be a religion worshiper - what was in her mind to have done such an act ? where is the basic human sense ?

entertainment

:) last year - Bahija gila 'Phantom of the Opera' , especially December - went to watch the movie version many times. This few days - suddenly hor - I'm surrounded with musical information , hehe

November(this weekend), a lot of my friends are watching 'Snow Wolf Lake' musical from Hong Kong casts.

December - 'Perhaps Love' is a another Hong Kong/chinese musical movie version - this one local cinema ada - so Bahija cheap2 will go try see see look look ..

'RENT' musical - Karen Mok is playing lead role in this musical, kat Singapore - I 'boh lui' lah ..

Then, AR told me 'Producer' is out on Movie version too ...I hope this movie is shown here locally , checked Gsc upcoming future movie lists - tak ada 'Producer' yet ...

woman and flowers

Today is my eldest sister's bday. Eldest bro-in-law aka her hubby is away on business trip to Switzeland ( yah, he called home and said this "life is not complete without visiting Switzeland" ) My sister mentioned many times that buying flowers, sending flower bonquets are a waste of money. Today, I gave her a surprise -sent her '16 delicious Ferrero Rocher Chocolates arranged into a Hand Bouquet together with peacocks & statice' ...she's thrilled....her colleagues envied her - thought that her hubby so sweet, so 'romantis' sent her flowers :) HaHaHa...she smiled happy mood whole day.

Moral of this story and proven result, we - female or venus somehow like flowers lah, even though some women may say that buying flowers seem like a waste of money bla bla bla , but you know - when a woman receive flowers - I'm sure her heart is flooded with sweet blood - the feeling is cool :)

Today I broke record la, bro-in-law never send her flowers leh , aiyah - I ter-jumped queue. Personally, I dun agree in over-doing this, yes, this pleasing gimmick is expensive (money can be well spent in other better way)- but sometimes - this is what I call 情趣 ...got to have this once a while , to spice up the life mah

7As

Bahija punya Msian niece #1 scored 7As for her UPSR 2 yrs ago. Today, niece #2 also scored 7As. WOW , pandai hor ! I sudah 5 mths ++ didn't go to movie theatre :( this is not a good sign leh. This saturday, celebration for nieces - all of us are watching HP4 ....next Chicken Little , hey, my fav movie kakies - where are you ???

Next year niece #3 will sit for UPSR - I think she'll be under tremendous pressure trying to keep up with the good record. Hope she is the easy going, do her best and doesn't stress herself too much type of kid lah

my jp trip

Firstly, big thank you to Anti-Ringgit - for his 'Insight Guide to Tokyo' and a few brochures, and Sanguine - for websites and emails...

Day 1 - Oct 31, arrived Tokyo Narita airport at 7:30pm Monday night. Both of my phones not working in JP, luckily cellphone rental is not expensive - found ABC rental at airport having 50% promotion - 250 yen (RM9) per day, the costly part was the call charges - 200 yen per min for both local and international calls. Then, paid 3000 yen ( RM 110 ) to board airport limosine bus to tokyo Ikebukuro. It's 2 hours travel time. When the bus passed by Roppongi , I saw I-kei building :) Though it's 9pm at night, I still could see a lot of people working late in the offices, meeting rooms still packed with people, attending round table meetings. My airport bus stopped at Metropolitan Hotel. I paid 650 yen (RM 11 ) for 0.5 kilometer of cab ride to my motel ... mahalnya.... I did it bcoz it was dark at night, I didn't want to spend time dragging a luggage wandering on the street looking for the motel. Cab in Japan - no need to open or close the door - it opens automatically. I stayed in Ryokan Kimi in Ikebukuro- the cheapest I could find within Tokyo, 18,000 yen for 4 nights ( RM 610 ). Ryokan is traditional Japanese style motel - a super small room with tatami mat(www.kimi-ryokan.jp) - the place was clean, simple, strategic location, reasonable price. I like the tatami bamboo smell whenI entered the room - but I didn't find the staffs friendly at all. Oh, this place has curfew hours ....close and door lock from 1 am to 7 am ..aiii, Bahija couldn't visit Tsukiji Fish Market at 5 am - to see the tuna fish bidding and trading fun time.



Ryokan room, bought sushi and sappora beer from Family-Mart ( like 7-11 store ) . Hot green tea is free from ryokan





Day 2 - woke up early, thought of locating In-kei to dial in for meeting, In-kei is somewhere in Marunouchi, but I knew I cannot locate this office ....plus it was Deepavali holiday - people should be cuti back home...so I happily rushed to join Grey Line Tokyo Day Tour. First visited Tokyo Tower, then Meiji Shrine ( Nov 3 was Culture Day - lucky loh, managed to see their traditional way of praying and some other unique offerings), Akasaka Guest House, passed by National DIET Building ( their House of Parliment ), then enjoyed a pleasant walk through East Garden of the Imperial Palace. On the way, passed by I-Kei again - funny, I-Kei logo on the building is black and silver background. The logo on the front entrance is white on red background - what happen to the brand logo blue and white ? Then had yummy 2000 yen lunch at Ginza. Ginza is the most expensive business district. Japanese businessmen usually bring their customers to Ginza for high end expensive food, then adjourn to entertainment area Ginza. After lunch, I enjoyed a nice 30 mins boat ride to Asakasa on Sumida River, here - could see the blend of old and new Tokyo. Reached Asakusa Kannon Temple - famous temple in Tokyo, crowded with people and stalls. There are 2 major religions in JP, Shintoism and Buddhism. Shintoism doesn't has a praying object - it believe that everything has a spirit, eg Mount Fuji is a holy mountain. Buddhism like what we have here, chinese culture, temple. Most japanese are not strong in religion, they are usually bi-religions - celebrate whatever , then on Dec 25 - all japanese turn into Christians, as they celebrate Christmas in a big deal ( this was the joke told by my petite tour guide). After Asakusa, passed by Nakamise, Harajuku, Kappa Bashi, Akihabara. Bahija end the tour at Ueno - went to Ueno night market.

Day 3 - Boarded bus to Mt Fuji - 3 hours from Tokyo. We can only go to Station 5 of Mount Fuji - 2400 meters. The trekking trail starts from here. Nice panaromic view driving up there.

Mt Fuji


Next, drove to a nearby city - Hakone - this is a famous hot springs resort area. Again, passed by I-Kei - impressed leh, I-Kei has an office in this small resort area. Took Hakone Sky Gondola to enjoy the view of volcanic Hakone Mountain ..niceeeee. Then, we went to Owakudani Valley ( the valley of Hell) - here we saw steam escaping from the rugged mountains of Owakudani, sulphur smell as well. This is the place where we tried Onsen Tamago (an egg boiled in hot spring water). Next, took pirate boat cruise on Lake Ashi. Relaxing :) I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) return to Tokyo (30 mins). It's amazing watching the high speed bullet train passing by - zzzzooommmmm. yet, when I sat in the shinkansen, it was so comfortable and stable , felt like the speed of 100/km only leh ...padahal it was running at 400/km ...Arrived Tokyo, I went to Shibuya. Shibuya has a lot of shopping places. Sanguine suggested Shibuya 109 mall, I went in - hmm, felt so bad, felt so ulu, so kampung girl. Those japanese girls who shopped in this mall - their dressing and hairdo were so 'IN' , I obviuosly couldn't fit in :)

Day 4 - It's a holiday in JP - Culture Day - a lot of folks praying in Meiji Shrine. I saw quite a number of women wearing kimono. I like their kimono culture - make the woman in kimono very lemah-lembut, neat. Bahija didn't want to spend RM 500 on train ticket to Kyoto - thus decided to just lepak in Tokyo, so walked around Shinjuku and did some shopping. So, I went to Kinokuniya, Takashimaya, Isetan, Seibu, Tobu .... hmmm, things are way too expensive for me. Only saw one small 100 yen shop - bought some food to bring home. Everywhere was jam-packed with people - crowded. I didn't enjoy those heavy crowd - made me pening - loss appetite ( old liow ) ....so completed my tokyo trip by 5 pm and went back to Ryokan to rest, and packed for home sweet home. I was so eager to go home liow

Tokyo is too crowded, just another big cosmopolitan. Subway is full of all walks of people at any time ... during peak hours - sandwich trains - people running around, some quite rude. Genereally they bow heads a lot, some quite polite too...Japan population is 120 million, 10% 12 million in Tokyo. 6000 homeless folks ( this I dun understand, 6000 is a small number, yet the authority didn't take care of this social issue - we can see the homeless sleeping on the garden opposite Imperial Palace). Average commute time to work is 1 hour subway/train one way. Property is way too high, a couple usually get married at 28 - 30, then at age 35 - buy a property outside Tokyo. Office worker average income is USD 45 - 50K annually, 20% income tax. Fried rice KL standard is 500 yen there ....Toyota is always no 1, whereas no 2 or 3 cars are either Nissan or Honda. Favourite car is Toyota Corolla - USD 15k. But their challenge is parking space. To own a car, must have car park first. Suicide cases is increasing, 34k cases last year, 2 yrs ago was 30k - victims were young executives - they couldn't handle the situation after being fired or lost a job - 'face' issue - felt shamed....aiiii - given up valuable life just because kena buang kerja ( stressnya this society )... japanese also spend a lot of in wedding ( USD 20 - 30 K ) , they prefer ang pow USD 300 for one, USD 500 for 2 person. I definitely don't want to attend any japanese wedding - pok kai. Japanese diet is very healthy - breakfast sushi rolls, lunch sushi or noodles, dinner same , drink a lot of green tea. Life expectancy is longer now - men is 78 yrs old, women is 85 yrs old - there is a proposal to extend the retirement age. This society also facing a big issue - higher silver-hair population which needs more maintenance funds... Overall, it's a fruitful trip to see, to learn about a new country, frankly, I wouldn't want to stay in Tokyo. The positive side of this trip is that - Bahija enjoys her traffic jam back home now - at least traffic jam also - I can sit in the car listen to music, read newspaper without sandwich with others - better, cozier....Do you know what is the nickname of Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ????



Japan Richard Gere .....





Changgih toilet service from 'TOTO' - the manufacturer of this toilet seat. I say Innovative. During winter / autumn time, when you sit on the seat - it's warm ... felt so good warming your buttock. Then urine also malu suara loud, there is a music button, while urine, push that music button for music ( so that others cannot hear the urine sound), after complete the business, choose the cleaning method- water flush out to wash, then to air ....like massage kind of feeling -hehe. Aiyuh, I can tell you, my first trial, I spent > 5 mins inside the loo , hehe. I wish we can deploy this kind of toilet seats in MY - then our toilets won't be so dirty. Hmm, may be I should go talk to TOTO for distribution rights ...

come - holy spirit

I just logged on to check my emails ... first email popped up - 'welcoming the holy spirit' - WOW. Tonight, I attended prayer meeting - because I need to pray for strength, family protection and wisdom, plus church mega Hebron project. Prayer title was 'Come Holy Spirit' - so I closed my eyes prayed and prayed, Come, Holy Spirit, I need You; Come, sweet Spirit, I pray; Come in Your strength and Your power; Come in Your own special way , after quite some time of focused praying...... then entah how, I spoke in tongue ....it's still a shock to me as I'm blogging , I'm not sure if I really can speak in tongue now or some other illusion .... need to clarify this with my mentors later ..... but so kiew , as I was driving home , thinking hard, worrying , confused - here I am, received the word of the day in my mail box 'welcoming the holy spirit' :)

PM

Thesedays, colleagues around me kept pouring out their frustration on work, especially on the role of project manager. Their PM play 'tai-chi', not accoutable for their own job roles ....Now, I myself is one of the victim here. Personally, PM is not an easy job, one has to be able to oversee the whole project, able to control within the project, good in managing, documenting, people management, build relationship, making sure the project is profitable or successful, also must know how to escalate. My coming project, consider as 2nd class key player and a free volunteer, yet don't know the project status. Asked for updates, info come piece by piece, sien. What is the role of the PM ? The PM never keep me in the loop of the overall project status, there could be a project status meeting or checkpoint or something - I dunno as I didn't get invited or there could be none may be. Working along - there are many many components missing, not in place, kelam-kabut .... for a simple project implementation chart and timeline - I also didn't see them being published. This worry me that my company is challenging us to move to xx million revenue company, aiiii - an obvious gap - people are not utilizing their best skills / resources. Here I am ada free time to blog, coz I'm sien and dunno when can I start my setup, and for 2 days, my project team members all Missing In Action ....