Focus..

On the way to work today, I did not switch on the radio as usual, I need to focus on my journey. I was 5 minutes behind schedule (to get on time to punch card by 8 am) but I continue to talk to myself that I am on my way to get to work on time. I add to the routine self-talk – I am on my way to work the best I can for today, and I am on my way to practice the best presentation to MD today (the presentation is schedule tomorrow morning). While talking to myself, my mind flashbacked to one prominent figure that I believe has given me some insight into the world of research. I seldom talk about this person, because I have my late MD to look up too. I recently found that he is the current National Project Leader for the solar energy research for this country. Very impressive. He was the first person that I report to back in 2002, but eventually I was moved to another section reporting to the current boss (it was 7 years already). What made me think of him? One important thing that I remembered when I first report to him was that he did not mind me working anywhere else besides office as long as I deliver the best and high quality work. He even hinted that being in the solar group will give me advantage as there is no one else in this country is an expert in a very low voltage application (well.. I will be working on dc voltage of 240V only) and I already half way thru that process (I started as an intern with the group for 3 months and accomplished quite extensive work on schematic and application for the panels). He mentioned that the desire to harness the solar energy to something useful has drive him to do things that other people is reluctant to do. Many times that his proposals were rejected by the Board as those people do not see direct benefit for the company. He got seconded to one of the government agencies and slowly his work was supported by various parties. Patience, discipline and determination brought him to where he is now. Soft spoken and very nice man to learn from. I remembered how he coached us how to play car racing game after work, during my internship period.  I wish I can have another mentor like him to help me speed up the whole process of being an expert.

 

Yesterday, we went to Alamanda for quick grocery shopping and on the way to the mall, we spoke about the our new client who has a consultant firm. A good networking for him, and hope to get more work after this. The perfume business is going good; I need some time to reach for the mass but not enough time for the moment without jeopardizing my technical work. We talked about the timing for me to apply for the expert. It was a long way to go, maybe not this year, not after I got my MEE scroll from the univ. I will work up to my early retirement at 45 yrs old, Insyaallah and by that time, I should be earning at least ten thousands per month and groomed at least another 2 successors for the similar field. DH suggested the other way, get into own business after 5-6 yrs of working for the mother company for better income. I don’t know, I am not keen for that anyway.

 

I will be positive in achieveing my mission. For now, I need to finish up the reports and prepare for tomorrow’s presentation. Btw, I reached office at 7:58 am, I am on time :o)

 

 

Application..

I woke up in the middle of the night, and started working on the slides at about half past 3 in the morning. After 3 hours of thinking, writing, compiling and analysing, I was done with those stuffs (with DH help on the statistics), prayed and sleep at 7 am. I had a very bad dream - the precious TAF car was stolen! I woke up because DH told me it was already 9 am. Rushed to get ready for breakfast and settled down to cook an hour after that. I was so damn fortunate that the little ones did not make a fuss last nite, and I managed to pull everything through for submission before my boss went off to Ipoh for some family gathering for a death in his family. Takziah boss.

When I was writing this entry, DH and the kids were asleep but I could not because I drank too much coffee this morning (I did not want to be sleepy while cooking and cleaning up the house). I managed to find a new paid blogging avenue for me (they said USD1 per post paid via Paypal) which I think is a good start for a budding blogger. I don't mind writing fora small pay because I love writing so much. I hope they will accept my application. I decided to write on shopping stuffs because I like to shop very much online and offline. I even subscribed for Shopping and Sales feeds to keep me updated with sales going on around the country. I have live in European countries, a year in USA and now back in my home countries I think I have acquired sufficient knowledge about shopping in many continents. I have been an Ebay seller for a while when I was in the States, in a way that experience brought my passion into shopping and selling things even more. I owned a website selling perfume essence, natural skin care, health care and personal care products and sometimes I sell craft items whenever I have time to upload the stuffs.

Oh dear, it is raining. Gotta go and pick up those clothers. Later.

Weekend notes..

It is past 3 am, and I have not started the slides continuation yet, the fact that I am procrastinating since yesterday morning. FBing is more fun than doing work, when I saw Wardina's beautiful aqiqah pictures for her boy (gossh.. she is 30, and look ever ready gorgeous!). I felt like a deva ju, because just this evening three of us (DH, Najihah & I) were talking about the new baby boy coming in our plan. God's will, we will have one before I reach 35 years old (oh noo.. the biological clock is ticking..) but the prep is already underway (talking about ancient Chinese and Indians conception calendar) and the nutrients. Hahaha. DH's spent the good half day outside working with one of his ol'boys for the analysis while I was multi tasking at home. It was not fun though, as I could not do my work. So, today is my turn, we gonna have breakfast outside and lunch inside (or maybe not?) and I am gonna finish up the slides and email the boss.

PM came last night with his new Persona. Nabilah went outside with him, while we were at the Pasar Malam. After dinner, we spent a good one and a half hour watching Thumbelina, the new Barbie's movie that DH brought this evening from his work. I love so much the beautiful blooms and did hope that Twitterbees really exist so that I can ask them to plant trees (and flowers) and make them grow faster. How I wish that I have green thumb to start with. The lawn is empty, and I have only 6 vases of flower to be precise. Emm.. something to think about during long holiday - tree planting. Btw, we did participate in the Earth Hour, just that ours was like Earth Minute - because the lights off only lasted a minute before the kids screaming asking whether they can switch it back over and over again. And I was working in the kitchen at that time, so, it was a good excuse of just a minute of darkness.

The slides.. must finish them before the kids wake up in the morning in less than 5 hours (wait, it is already morning.. yawnn)..

Writing work

The bosses are all gone; somewhere else for the review meeting, but my work is far from completion. I slept throughout the nite after nearly 20 hours waking up and working on my computer. I got the reviewer job with Coyle Hospitality for reviewing hotels, restaurants and spas. Something that I really look forward to do it whenever I got the assignment fit for my need. The pay is quite a lot, considering it is in US Dollars. Unfortunately my application for translator post did not get through yesterday (wrong email address, my fault), and I am sending it again today. There are still problems attaching documents in my Gmail, maybe because the traffic is bad. Nowadays they scrutinize every site that we visit so, need to be careful on that. Yesterday I spent a good 6 hours on the internet searching for writing gigs and manage to fill up 3 forms and one survey (in which the reviewer post offered). So, today I am gonna work smarter and finish my slides presentation for the boss and do some more writing work.

 

Najihah was down with fever yesterday. I went out early this morning; hope she is ok by now. DH already started his annual leave of 4 days, and he will not be working starting April. We will face budget constraint this month onwards, probably for 2-3 months. The fact that someone you have trusted to be your friend betrayed you is quite difficult to swallow. That is the reality of life; no one can run or hide from it – trust no one but yourself. Everyone has their own agenda. From now on, I hope DH can keep in mind that he has no more trusted friends except the ones from his secondary school, or A-level. Even his co-worker has turned their back on him when he really needs help.

 

May Allah bless us all; provide us with courage to face another tough journey ahead. Amiin..

Resources

What are resources? They are things that do the work, or help with the work. They are tools, in a sense, to get things done in an appropriate manner and duration. It can be money, softwares, and human. What will happen if one does not have resources but was force to do the work as effective as when they are enough resources? I am pretty damn sure that the unlucky person will be very unhappy. Unhappy person brings low quality results. This is what exactly I am feeling now.

 

Ok, the servers are here and I have asked the main technical person to get involved in the installation. This person happened to be in another section, obviously the IT section which actually a support service section for the company. I am not well versed with the IT part of the installation, as I am an electrical engineer. I deals with the end result, the data. I need someone that is capable of pointing out that this is right, this is not and suggest improvement to be executed. It is at the same time, lessen my burden of having to dissolve every bits of information during a short period of time. Well, fair enough, I am the one who asked him in the first place. Then came the boss, mentioning that my team should be independent and someone to take care of it without being too dependent on his staff. OK, very well. Then, why on earth that his section is called support service section? They have put in research somewhere in the middle of their section name, not that I can remember because most of the things that they do does not come up very much in R&D projects. They still have problems with the MPE version (it was deployed last Jan? Haha). Duhh. As far as I can remember, I have only asked this very nice gentleman for two major breakdowns for the past one year. One was when the disks was out and need to set the database to another disk, and the other when the database was corrupted due to power failure. That is all, and he did not even ask me for appraisal at the end of the financial year, because the work is too little. Oh dear, this boss is definitely a nuisance. I did not ask him for petty things like please check the server for me, is it working or not. No, I only asked help for major problems. Ok, then there will be this problem – I wanted to go online for the historical data services after the server has been installed and running. Well, I don’t think that this boss will allow me to assign his staff to do the work because they are so busy at the moment. I am very disturbed and annoyed. Breathe.

 

I am still annoyed.

 

Disturbed.. breathe again..

 

 

No, still annoyed.

 

 

 

Better stop typing.

 

 

 

 

Very bad Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

Duhh… grrrr… Stop. Period. Breathe again.

 

 

 

Early riser...

I woke up early at 4 am this morning; not remembering how on earth I went out from the kids’ bedroom and slept in my bedroom, with my glasses neatly placed on the headboard. DH was asleep when I realized he has been working late and previously slept in the guest room. These days, our sleeping times are greatly reduced to 3-4 hours a day. For me, it was not because of my endless office work but the endless house work to do. I sorted out the mails, calculate book receipts for tax rebate, found missing documents and managed to fill in several contest forms for 7Eleven (yes, I really want to go to Tokyo this time..) when I realized it was already 6 am. Time is getting shorter and faster day by day (petanda akhir zaman) and I am now really working day and night to get things in order. Najihah woke up earlier than her sister. Her eyes were already ok, after two applications of prescribed eye drop and cream. She helped me with floor sweeping, and picked up small things on the floor. Amazingly, I was calm today despite that I have to help Nabilah with her bath (usually it is DH task) at 7.30 am and still arrive on time at work before 8 am without excessively speeding (I drove 25km to work everyday).

 

Sometimes, it just takes one hour a day to keep things in order in my house. And sometimes, I do think that I should be working from home and take care of my family first before I take care of other stuff. Oh yes, I still have to estimate the budget for May since DH is not going to work in April anymore.

 

 

 

Of radio DJs..

This week will be the final week DH in the office. He will be taking his leave until next week and temporarily out-of-work but still very busy. Final exam is nearing plus I am having quite a busy week ahead with the project closing. Still not feeling very well today, hoping for a better health tomorrow. This morning, I came across Bidvertiser, an avenue to get paid for blogging thru advertisement but I could not put in the HTML code into my blog. I found one of my entries has comment from eBay Silver Power Seller Tom who sells a bunch of Coach stuffs online (thanks Tom!). I am still looking for pre-owned designer bags (if I can get a Coach, that’s even better). I need to buy a check wallet because my current purse has lost its zip (normal wear and tear after 8 years of usage). It was raining outside when I came to the office. Hopefully I can get out during lunch for purse shopping.

 

Ok, move on to more serious matter. This morning, I could not stop myself feeling pity to those DJs at one of the local radio station who keep cutting the caller to be straight to the point while giving comment but somehow deliberately discuss the issue with more ‘known and familiar’ caller in which this people got more time to chit chat over the phone. I was a bit irritated because it has happened few times already. As if there was double standard in the way they handle the callers. Pathetic, I should say. I wanted to write in their feedback system that this thing must be stopped and perhaps they should choose more relevant topic to discuss such as the economy sluggishness, education or poverty; rather than discussing why plagiarism still happening in the internet era and how to overcome it. It was an old talk. I do like, however, when they discussed on the wealth management, faith and religion studies which I seldom heard anywhere else other than at ‘kuliah’. Another thing is the news reader, she talk in very poor ‘slang’ which made me turned of the radio because I could not bear hearing her talking like a 4 yr old. How on earth that this radio station choose their news reader? Then some of the DJs talk very fast as if she wanted to show off that he or she can talk very fast and very well but stumbled upon words which made my ear aches more.

 

I hope for a better day, and I still hope that someone will pay attention to how they talk on air because the listeners are very well educated nowadays.

 

Of current project closing...

I am having a very bad headache of which I did not know the origin. I slept late last nite and today is the result. I wanted to go out and meet my collaborator for discussion but I could not stand the heat outside. The house was too hot during the day and I decided to stay in the office and finish up the work. Another 3 days to go before the deadline, and I am very unhappy with the whole idea of getting the report to finish on time. I could not get on the net on this computer and ended up with eye sore looking at LCD for quite a long time. I wanted to buy Mozart CD and I guess there is still time to go and buy one for me. Now I am asking myself, why this time I was so lazy to get the report done and at the same time I knew that it will be a very bad consequence that I did not finish the work as per contract date. To satisfy myself, I listed the reason why:

1. This project is not my favorite project.

2. This project comes from other people of which I had left them to carry it out while I was gone for a year. I came back and the proposal was still there, so, I ended up taking it as a challenge.

3. I could not see the immediate benefit that the company will gain from the work, other than I will be very capable in doing the analysis and design for the high voltage substation, meaning more work for me, with less resources.

4. I am not very much keen in working on the ground anymore, this is a black art and being involve in this matter will bring me down to the ground as black art artist more often that I like too.

5. My true passion will be the environment, I love environment and dealing will all sort of mother nature stuffs. Although ground is part of mother nature, I could not extend the level of my passion to the ground compared to other stuffs from nature.

6. I am not an engineer anymore. I am going to be a fashionista. Period.

 

Six reasons and I could not think of anymore. This project is worthwhile doing only that I could not bring myself to be passionate about the subject any further than ‘this work will gain me my MEE and the key to my PhD’… there must be someone that will advise me to further it to PhD but no thanks, I will return to environment and mother nature as I am forever a naturalist.

 

End of story. I am still searching my Coach and maybe I just drive to Alamanda and buy another Sembonia for the time being, until I got enough for a beautiful Coach bag. I wish I am in the US with lots of money and I will start a Coach bag supplier business instead of being a ‘black art artist’ in my own country. Hahaha..

 

Can we change it?

That was the first thing that struck my mind when DH told me that someone has been digging his past from the net. This person is so low, that he has a heart to tell DH that he will tell the authority if DH did not follow his order. Some kind of blackmail, isn’t it? It was not that DH steal anything for anyone, he just had to make up the resume so that he looks good and got the job. I though this kind of thing only happen in a movie but it is happening in front of us. So, I quickly erased the pages (all of them) and started to think of using pseudonym for my online business. Who knows that someone else might found my site and said, “Look, she has an online business selling perfumes and such. We need to report to the bosses so that she can get fired”. It is a scary world out there, and I am not going to give up on finding extra cash doing what I like. I can trust no one but myself. Everyone has an agenda of his or her own. The most appropriate thing to do is trust your instinct. We cannot change a person, his or her behavior but we can change ourselves. I mean myself. I can be whatever I want that brings me happiness. That’s it. DH gonna work on freelance basis until he sort out the major problem hopefully by end of the year, and for the time being, I must save as much as I can, spend as little as I can and chart my development to get my desired millions before I retire.

 

There goes my Coach, my Bonia and my Carlo Rino, down the drain. Maybe the next Mega Sale, I will get to buy all of them. Now eyeing for Ivy League for my pre-PhD proposal, which will cost me – RM0. Hehe.

Of Coach..

My boss will kill me if he knew that I have been recreationally surfing the net for Coach bags. I am a Coach fan, but I am yet to own one until now. Coach designs are very modern and contemporary suitable for every working lady. I have been affiliated in a sense to Bonia, way before I am married but somehow Bonia designs are not to my taste anymore. I remembered the first Bonia soft leather handbag that my dad gave me for my birthday present just after I entered the university. I have been using the handbag until now, even though I got another Bonia as a wedding gift in 2003. The original bag stays the way they are forever. DH gave me a black Bonia purse in 2002 that lasts for almost 6 years before the zip gave away. Bonia prices are affordable for my salary but Coach bags are very expensive in Malaysia. The smallest will cost about half a thousand Ringgit, the new designs can be up to thousands in KLCC boutique. Once, I was in Penang Airport and there is a Coach retail outlet but I am too scared to enter because I just want to have a look at those bag i.e. window shopping not the real handbag shopping. I have been surfing the net to look for bargain Coach bag of which I fear its authenticity esp on Ebay and Lelong or even Mudah. I have asked around for reliable authentic Coach online seller but somehow only few sell design that I liked. I have been in USA for a year, but it never crossed my mind that I should buy Coach at Macy or Target because that time I was so into Ju-Ju-Be diaper bags for my kids. Now that they are older, carrying a Barney backpack for them is very undesirable. I wanted to find something roomy enough for 2 sets of changing clothes, two bottles, packed formula, and pack of baby wipes, my purse and mobile phone. That’s it. Ju-Ju-Be Be Smart bag is nice but very expensive considering it is actually a diaper bag and I could not find any seller here in KL that wanted to bring designer diaper bag except for Kate Spade’s, Oi Oi’s (just to name a few) because the demand is not there. I am still contemplating whether to save and spend for authentic Coach or just get a fake one which is really cheap.

 

I should be a designer bags blogger instead of an engineer writing a boring report everyday, because now I think I knew more about Coach, Etienne Agner, Liz Clairborne, LV etc compare to what is in the soil that contribute to the lower earthing resistance.. emmm..

 

Dream Coach for today: New Parker Leather Riley E/W Tote (list price at USD$428.00). *sigh*

Compassion..

I was down with flu on Tuesday. With the kids at home, and not much rest as expected, the sickness became worst on Tuesday night. It was my turn to take care of the kids, while DH went to the night class. I blamed the wrong medicine for causing my headache and stomach pain while having sort-of-PMS syndrome with the kids. Luckily they understood and did not make much fuss about it until bedtime. I slept earlier than them, hoping that they will eventually fall asleep by themselves. What I really hate when I sick was that DH never show sympathy on me, kept on telling about tons of work load to do and those sick people at the office blackmailing him and how he cannot take leave to care for the children. I had to bear his never ending complaint with my headache. What I really wanted was he drop by home during lunch and pack some food for us, as I have no mood to cook with my runny nose and very bad headache. And that is exactly what I said. I could not understand why it is sometimes very difficult to say things to a man, even if he is your own husband. I slept through the morning after breakfast with the girls, and they played in the living room with their friends. Woke up at noon and no sign of DH yet but the girls were starving. I cooked very simple meal for them, and they ate heartily. Near to 1 pm, DH came back without food and he thought of getting the girls out to buy lunch. Very bad plan, as the girls were already eaten and they are ready for naptime. There is no way that I can be sick more than this morning, so, I took 3 times more doses of Vitamin C (Redoxon.. my fav) and gulped in Hiraq Jeli Gamat, Chrorella, Vitamin B plus and EPO. Really could not depend on DH to help me out while I am sick. This is the third time that I felt abandoned because of sickness, and I really pray hard that I am free from major sickness because I knew that I will be left alone with the misery. No compassionate partner for shoulder to cry on. I wanted to get better to play with the children better. Later in the evening, my runny nose was gone and no more headache. I can cook, read story book and even help them print out the cartoons from internet while waiting for DH to come home. It was such a relief for me.

Tomorrow, I will start consuming lots of vitamins for my health again...

Busy weekend..

It's already Tuesday. I had a busy Monday and super busy weekend. We brought the kids to Kak Ngah's house in Gombak because of the kenduri and had a family movie of Superman Returns past midnight. The kids were up till late, and it was the first time they had the luxury of sleeping late. Sunday morning, I dragged them to Bandar Kinrara for Open Dance Day at Living Arts, contemporary dance school. The center has class for Little Dancer, and Nabilah enjoyed being in the class despite that she is a first timer for such class. I lost RM10 (the entrance fee was non-refundable, duhh!) since Najihah did not want to join the class and just sit with DH observing the class routine. After 15 minutes, and a trip to toilet, I brought Najihah to Art Safari, the next door shop for sand art and she had her time painting the aeroplane. DH waited for Nabilah, and later they joined us at Art Safari. The good thing that the dance class is in Giant and we can headed straight to the food court after the tiring workout. Maybe we can enroll both of them for the art class but only Nabilah for dance class. It may be a good idea to start with Musikgarten instead as both of them are very keen with music. I still want to find a dance class for Nabilah nearer to our house, maybe in Kajang or Bangi. Will have to start while I still have the adneraline pumping in for extra activities during weekend, when I am lazy I will stay at home and draw with them until they are bored, and I am bored too.

 

Monday starts the school holiday. The girls is having one week off until Friday, and we forgot to find a babysitter. The neighbour's helper went away so, we could not get her to help with the girls. We ended up taking time-off for the week and alternating days for taking care of the children. I had a long meeting with DAM until lunch and went back home just in time for the girls' naptime. DH cooked nasi ayam hitam, with the girls (amazing!) and they loved his cooking as always. I have a Gapbuster assignment in the evening and we went to Warta KFC for a snack. I need to fill those form now, or else will forgot to do it later on and get penalized. It was indeed a very busy weekend and Monday for me.

 

Side note: Zarina from Dubai will be coming home today. Hope to see you soon somewhere before you take off again..

Of boxes and luxury bedsheets..

The servers came in today before lunch. I was very happy to see those boxes and could not stop smiling while unloading the heavy boxes from the truck. We had quite trouble time on this procurement starting from the approval, up to the delivery. In getting those boxes here, I had encountered many sleepless nights handling (and leading) various parties work that includes finance, asset management, tax exemption (MOF), insurance, logistics and numerous others. Although my colleagues at various locations work effectively, but when it comes to handling the vendor's late delivery, I was the one who need to aggressively push them to meet our target. It doesn't help when in between the delivery, there was change in power at the other side and you were the one the boss chase when it is due. It was a bittersweet memory in carrying out the responsibilities of huge capital expenditure. Insyaallah we will install and commission those in May and most importantly that the expenditure must be utilized this year.

 

Being a very happy bee today, I forgo the idea of seeing AO for GIS work and headed straight to Sleep Focus Stock Clearance Sale nearby my house at Desaria. Although it is a 3-day sale (until Sunday 15^th), I went to see it today because I did not want to drag the kids to the sale anymore like last year. They were damned tired and exhausted because of the heat (the sale was at car park area). This stock clearance sale was quite small. Many pillows, comforter sets and bedsheets on sale but very few ready made curtains, which I was looking after. I managed to find a pair of brownish French pleats ready made sliding door curtains from Novelle for less than RM90 per set. It was a bargain indeed. I went ahead with 6 bath mats and 2 towels from Ann Taylor, one set of luxury satin rose colored queen bedsheet (450 threads) from Jean Perry for RM100 and a very cheap RM25 pair of deep red pillow cases from Jean Perry too. RM371 for an hour shopping of luxury brands home furnishing, very cheap. Now I need to stop thinking of buying any Coach or Carlo Rino handbags until the next hefty check from my outstation trips. I can only buy a Bonia, but maybe will settle with the purse first before I can grab any luxury handbag from the store.

 

The funny thing that I observed was there was a big bus coming from Customs Department and they actually made trip to this warehouse from their office! I saw nurses and many government servants spending their Friday lunch break at this clearance sale. May be next year I will consider changing our deep red Silk Satin queen comforter set, if there are any offer from the same warehouse.

 

I am thinking of bringing the kids to Open Dance Day for Ballet class at Living Arts, Puchong this Sunday 15^th. Need to start finding weekend activities besides swimming, otherwise they will be bored and started to made funny things at home. Hope will make it to the class at 11:30 am. Nabilah should be excited. I hope so.

 

It's Friday, I need to work some more to make up for lost shopping time during break, and will go for another trip this evening with DH and kids to buy groceries. Another working weekend for me.

 

Cheerios everyone!

 

First client

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend my weekend advertising DH new venture on freelance work at several classified ads database. Alhamdulillah, we got our first client this morning for editing and proofreading an essay. I shall include this service at nabilahouse.com and update his e-portfolio; hopefully more work is coming as DH contract term is ending in April. More good news will be on his interview offer at Agriculture Institute (or something like that) coming Monday afternoon. I do hope too, EBTEC will offer him research work on Energy Economics stuffs (of which I am way too behind on the knowledge compared to DH), plus series of research papers to be published. From my online research, they are quite a number of freelance Economists in the West but I have yet to find any from the East. Maybe freelance for this kind of work is not yet a demand in this side of the globe. But who knows, unless you try. I am a freelancer-wannabe but I am more to generic writing and craft person despite of my everyday work in technical field – earthing design, lightning data and its related stuffs. I guess that is the way I channel my frustration of low motivation and high work load to something fun and exciting to think about – writing.

 

To end this note, I posted the ads that went off to my.88db.com.my database for free last week (that is free advertising for the site too)

 

“I provide services on editorial, translation (BM to English and vice versa), proofreading and consultation/writing for thesis, research paper and assignment. More than 10 years experience in economics, business management and research work for universities and industries. Advanced knowledge in SPSS and EViews softwares. Masters in Economics from UM, highly recommended by UM lecturers for editorial work. Resume will be sent upon mutual agreement.

Contact Rafdi 019.244.5118 or email at rafdina(at)gmail.com for further details.”

 

 

Policy

One of my colleagues wrote on the blog that some kind of guide or policy should be introduced on information dissemination channel in this office. Well, for me, I have enough of guide and policy in this office that people does not follow. Having these two things in the blog, will limit the amount of interest for people to write. I don’t want to get nuisance email about sports club activities, or shall we vote for this or that. Very tiring to clean up my inbox every two months. The blog is there to write about anything that you want. I do agree not many people has lavish time to write there, but it won’t take much time to write three lines of news about your team achievement. Borak at canteen take longer time than that. I don’t understand why there is still person who likes being in-the-box rather than outside-the-box, when they are actually working in a research organization.

 

Pity them. What can I say *sigh*

 

It's Tuesday..

I think starting work on Tuesday is a good change. Instead of having the normal Monday blues every week, Tuesday morning was a better start for me. Three weekend days are not a bad idea after all. The kids got plenty of rest at home, and woke up fresh this morning. They even made some funny faces with each other, kissed me good byes on both cheeks and had fewer tantrums. The drive was a breeze except of unusual number of cars on the highway, although I went off earlier that half past seven. I did not do much work, although I brought along most stuffs like papers and notes, but I woke up at 4 a.m. for two days in a row. This morning got my attention of doing the internet researching part but I could not start working on the graphs. Need some motivation, need some push. It was hard enough to do things that you don’t like, and it was even harder when you have to do it, instead of you want to do it.

 

 

Weekend Monday..

It's Monday and we are having extra holiday because of Maulidur-Rasul. The past week was tiring, and the last two days were even more tiring. I woke up at 4 am to do some work, left some data in the office and dunno what to do with the rest. As usual, I am the kind of putting in less effort when the work loads up, unless I have very good reason to keep going. I put off writing for the past days because of the short working time I was having and the important meeting on last Friday. It turned up well, and we gonna get the invoices amounting to RM400K this year. Although it is not my money, the feeling of getting it done was amazing. The only left was to show them the list. The list. I have to produce the list by April, next meeting.

While my project is in a stand-still mode, I did follow through the data project. Not much to my satisfaction, as the team will be going out next week for site. I gave them short schedule and to be back by Friday for another project work. Sounds that I will be tied to the lab next week, while trying to squeeze in the database work. I should get a freelance coder to do that instead. Thinking about freelance work, DH told me that the Uniten's new Energy Economics section at the main campus is asking new project proposal and he is gonna submit two proposals for them. Good for him, I put in several ads on his work as freelance economist should the contract ended as we expected.

Some exciting things about the kids. Nabilah flooded the kitchen on Thursday which made me furious and cried looking at the amount of disaster she made. To top it up, Najihah's itchiness was totally unbearable for me as she asked me to scratch her back after flooding the hallway. Thursday was flood day in this house. That night, I folded overloaded laundry basket for after-Penang-trip clothes, could not do any 'intelligent' work anymore.

Liza's wedding reception on Sunday at Kajang's Village View was cool. That was my first time attending wedding reception at a local restaurant. You can actually say it was a lunch reception instead of wedding reception. Tomyam, ayam bakar bungkus and kailan ikan masin were among delicacies served for the guest. We had full plate of ayam 'bungkus' of which DH took for us and I had to finish them off. The kids enjoyed carps in the pond with hanging bridge. Lucky that I forgo my cousin's wedding at Keramat (I really dislike to see them at this point of time) which most probably the normal tepung tawar event.

Sometimes we have to make choices, and I know I made the right one last week.

Memoirs writing..

I received another request for services using the new software. Someone asked their contractors to seek out our verification on their data. Another work to be delivered the next 3-4 weeks and my schedule is already full. I took an hour to reflect back on my tasks when I spotted this month Reader’s Digest. I subscribed to the magazine for the past one year, sometimes missed reading it back to back but today I found one article on Memoirs Writing very interesting. Over the years, I had a dream of publishing my own autobiography but it is time consuming. I wanted to write about my experience caring for my first child almost alone for 2 years, but yet to start any of it. I ended up writing on this blog on my day-to-day activities, on my children moments and sometimes I write on reflection and lesson learnt from my mistakes. I have been writing memoirs in my own context. I remembered writing on DSS when he passed away, how I was really affected by my parents’ breakup and the series of sickness that I faced when overly stressed by the day-to-day work. Thanks to this blog, it has been easier for me to write whenever I want to via email and eventually I recall it as a good therapy for my endless stress-related activities. I do not like politics that much, I don’t bother about which celebrities is getting hooked or should we banned from eating at KFC. I am not a fanatic of any brand but I do like Bonia and Scholl to start with. Writing memoirs are fun, and I should be happy that at least I am in the right path.

Side note: Happy birthday to Azma! Hope you have a great time in Dubai with the family...

Headache..

Got headache for two days because of the data. Too many missing ones, not plotted, not complete etc. How to finish the report? Very tiring seeing those 0% completed. This morning, while sorting out the data, I was thinking of making one choice: lab or project. I do both for the time being. Giving up one day for my study (which usually end up doing office work too!) the work still mountain high. Some people say delegate your work but I end up doing it all over again because they did it differently. Maybe I need to learn how to give instruction. Gerammmnyeerrr… need to finish the report by today. Compile everything and make a summary. That’s all I need to think for this afternoon.

 

 

Weirdo..

I am writing again. Sorry but I have to write on this. There is one weird researcher at this office who likes to check out other people. This man came to my room and asked for the ISO procedures. I helped him only to notice that these ISO procedures were prepared by him some time ago, and now he asked me about the same stuff. I wonder whether this is a new ISO Audit style. Anyway, the interesting part to mention was he asked about my birthday and started to analyze my personal character. I laugh at some of it, but somehow I knew there is something that he is trying to conclude. What I can say is that, he may not have many friends to start with and do not know how to interact with people. Very pathetic. I jokingly told him that I knew my groups' birthdays and he asked me to email him the info. Duhh, go find some work-lah, don't get 'menyibuk' on other people life. Sometimes when you were given less authority for your work, not well recognize by others, you will eventually be like him. Nauzubillah.

--
Best Regards,
Noradlina
http://rafdina.blogspot.com/

Part 2 - Bukit Merah trip...

I wrote this entry last nite via gmail but could not open my eyes past midnight so I stopped. Unfortunately, the office network still having some problem and I could not access the internet again. Funny though, this morning when HM came to see the data, the network was fine. Anyway, I wanted to write about our Bukit Merah trip on the way from Penang. We checked out from the hotel around noon, because the pool was under maintenance and the kids cannot have their pool time anymore at the hotel. After another long bathtub time, we finally got out from the hotel. Najihah got her chances to ride on trishaw two times – going to Chow Rastra Market for 'jeruk salak and buah pala' and coming back to hotel. It was early morning, the sun was not that hot, at least that was exactly I told myself while riding the trishaw. I pitied the very old trishaw man, he started his journey to work as early as 4 am until evening, braving the hot sun and plump customers for a mere RM7 (in our case to the market). I am really grateful that I have a decent job and pray that I do not have to do such work in my old age. We took a ferry across the Straits of Malacca instead of normal Penang bridge. The kids were happy on their rides and slept all the way through Bukit Merah.       

 

The Bukit Merah trip was unplanned. I wanted to go back home but DH said we should stop at the water park while we are passing there. Got a superior room suitably furnished for a small family like us, and checked in for one night for RM200. Cheap enough for weekend corporate rate. One queen sized bed and 2 single beds. The girls had lots of fun at the pool that evening. The next morning, we started as early as 10 am into the Ecopark via sky lift cable cars. I rode with Nabilah, while DH with adik. Najihah was ever ready scared of the sky lift cable but eventually she waved to us at the end of the journey. The view was amazing, you can see the sea and greeneries hills from the cable cars. The Ecopark was, sadly, not well maintained, few cages have bad smell but the 'rangers' were friendly. I was surprised to see a dinasour-era fish that eats human and the biggest 'ikan air tawar' in the pool with carps swimming around it.

 

We squeezed in to see Animal Show where parrots, monkey and otter did the animal tricks. Nabilah was brave enough to come up front and volunteer to assist on magic trick for the Red Parrot. At first, I thought she was just playing around but when no one else volunteer, she quickly step out and down the stairs to the stage. She answered each questions confidently, her name, her age and where does she comes from (she said Kuala Lumpur), I am very proud of her. Too proud that I forgot to take a video of her on stage and took photos instead (well, the battery is too low for another video). She took photos with her parrots but adik refused to have any. We went ahead with the rest of Ecopark, that I wish someone will took care of its animal living place better in the future. Came out from Ecopark via the same skylift cable car, and straight to the Water Park (had to buy another swimsuit for adik as she insisted to have the same color with her kakak – blue). The kids were over enjoyed the water slides (including me!) and since we kept all our belongings in the locker, we lost the time. It was at half past two for lunch at Bubble Restaurant (although adik did not want to eat, she wanted to play more) where we had fried rice, nuggets, hot tea and ice cream for desert. Another hour of fun, and we went out at almost 4 pm. The kids slept almost immediately when we started the journey home.

 

It was a fun trip as I never like water in the first place, always fear of drowning but when the kids enjoyed the place more when both of us were around, I set my mind to enjoy the time being with them in the water. Hope to get swimming lessons for all of us later on. Arrived home at 9 pm, the washing machine was my first stop. Last nite I completed 5 times washing loads, cook the meal and seeing my kids to sleep.

 

A weekend to be remembered, hopefully more to come.

--
Best Regards,
Noradlina
http://rafdina.blogspot.com/

Ikea again..

We have finished assembling the furnitures tonight, with the toddlers' help on the bookcase and on our own for the large Vika table. It was awesome seeing your dull study room transformed into a smart looking workspace. Off white and birch veneer, soothing colors to start with. Just nice for both of us to do our work in a quite small 7' by 9' room. The home planner from IKEA was a big help in arranging the furnitures before we travel to the store at Damansara. I just wish they open online store in the future, so that I can buy other stuff without hassle. The room is ready now, I love the woody smell of IKEAs and definitely will be eyeing other things after I got my hefty paycheck at the end of the year. Amiiinn :o)

A trip to Penang

I got the opportunity to visit Penang leisurely this time. I have been here for several occasions due to site work at Guthrie but it was always a day trip visit. Flew in early morning to Penang, do some work at Guthrie and catch the last flight back to KL. It was tiring. This time I brought my family along to Hotel Bayview Georgetown Penang for a conference presentation. My paper was scheduled on the 2^nd day so, we traveled on the 1^st day of conference. I tried to catch the 2^nd session in the afternoon but arrived too late and we went straight to the pool instead. The girls were ecstatic to be in the water and they were amused by the bath tub. They had another long session of hot water bath in the bathtub that night! Lim Guan Eng officiate the conference on the second day, just before my presentation session. It was very informal meeting. Photo session with the minister was a mess! We let overseas presenters to take photo with the minister and I just could not wait to finish my presentation. Ten minutes and it was over. Very short presentation since they did not schedule it properly, I guess. And there was only one session where they crammed Mathematics, Computer Modeling, Civil, Applied Sciences, Electronics etc. There were just a handful Electrical paper and most of it was just Academic papers from Masters and PhDs students. It was a good experience though, the 3D tetrahedron simulation from Nonaka-san was awesome. I waited until lunch time and had a conversation with another colleague expressing that he gonna ask for inter-department transfer. Another loss for the unit but I guess the boss doesn’t care much. I could not believe that one of my previous colleague resigned because he hated the boss so much. What a shame! Only if he could be more positive to take challenges ahead of him.. mmm..

 

I went to USM in the afternoon for a discussion with DFA on the data. She was so ever friendly to invite us for dinner that night at her enormous house in Jawi. We spent couple of hours in her house and went straight to Hotel afterwards. On the 3^rd day, fewer participants were in the session but I stayed and listened to a couple of interesting papers while finishing my work. The internet connection cost a lot, so I decided to forgo the web for a while. The conference ended in the afternoon and I asked DH to drive to Tesco Gelugor for lunch. The kids and I had a yummy Yong Tau Foo Penang style with very delicious soup. Shop a little bit and decided to go ahead for Bukit Bendera instead although I left the camera at the Hotel. We boarded the Ventricular Train up the hill, hopped on to another train in the middle, took about half an hour to reach the top. We were about 700m above the sea level on top of the hill. The kids were amused by the view and the train itself. The old Chinese photographer offered to take our picture for a small fee. We walked up the hill, prayed in the mosque and the kids had a snack at the nearby restaurant. Downhill trip was faster but the kids were already tired, Najihah did not get her nap and Nabilah kept on asking for accessories. Whatever lah..

 

It was a nice family holiday after all. Will write on our trip to Bukit Merah following this visit shortly…