Manipulative

How someone you know dearly suddenly could turn out to be a manipulative stranger? Being a close friend to get to you emotionally yet they happen to be some kind of an impostor.

They claimed they would separate one personal issue from the other, then manipulated us to pour our heart away. But in the end, with the secret lay in their hands, they used it against you.

Having realized these, we started holding back, tried our best to keep our distance, but we then were accused of being cold. Alas, they found a way to make us feel guilty; we then foolishly, give in.

Whenever we tried to defend ourselves or say something in contradiction to their words, they started being frantic. In order to get back in control, they begin using their high ranking position and tried to make us yield back.

How can you be your dear self in front of someone so deceitful? How can we deal with this kind of people? What kind are they anyways?

This kind of people has an overpowering aura. They can use back what we may have said or did, against us. A slap in a face. They do certainly have something to say to end the conversation with victory on their side. The battle is theirs.

Such a fascinating creature! I am truly amazed.

Cold Feet

I’m not myself today. My thoughts kept furthering away from reality. I really don’t know what is happening to me. I felt listless. I want to have more in life. I missed the good old days.

I’m not even sure whether I want to get married. Am I getting cold feet? Or I just want run away from a complicated life that I’m going to enter into.

I just don’t know.

Salam Aidilfitri

The end of Ramadhan is just around the corner. Tomorrow night, I'll be driving back to my JB with my 2 sisters. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to Hari Raya. I'm just glad that I'll be on leave for almost a week. Gosh I'm aging!!

Anyways, I would like to wish all my friends Salam Aidilfitri and maaf zahir batin.

Have a joyous Hari Raya holiday!

Weekends' Outing

Last weekend, my sister and I went shopping for baju raya and stuff. We went to Jalan TAR. Damn it was so jam but we were too lazy to take the train. Despites the heavy traffic and inconsiderate idiots’ drivers around the city, we managed to find a car park next to Semua House.

I hate going to Jalan TAR area at this time of the month. Most of Malaysians are doing their ‘raya’ shopping at the same day that I do. There were hundreds or maybe even thousands of shoppers with all kind of smells and perfumes. There was this lady who kept holding my waist for support. I tried to let go of myself from her hands. Gosh, what was she thinking?

Anyways, thanks to my grandfather's gene, I'm quite tall to breath easily but poor my sister who inherited my dad's gene. hee hee.

Anyways, we managed to find ‘kebaya labuh’ for our little sister and ‘kebaya nyonya’ for myself. I'm not very fond of the color of my ‘kebaya nyonya’. It's almost bright blue but well, I can live with it.

We finished shopping at 6.30 pm, well not really, because my sister hasn’t found her baju raya yet. But we wanted to go to Saloma Bistro before the break fast time. So we rushed over to Saloma Bistro and luckily, the traffic wasn't so bad. We reached the place within 15 minutes.

Since we chose the buffet package without the cultural show, they gave us a table outdoor seating area. No air conditioner but its still cozy. Later, we found ourselves fully indulged with most of the foods served till we can hardly move.

Overall, we like the food but I think the ambience is more suitable for family gathering.

Here are some photos.

Air Tebu..

Kurma in a box

Satay and Bubur Lambuk

Side dishes - Mee Hoon Soup and Cream of Mushroom Soup (I love both)

Main course

Desserts

Fruits and Rojak Buah

And the bill is.....

Btw, my sister managed to find her baju raya in Giant Kelana Jaya. We went there right after the break fast and she is satisfied. Good for her.

Ramadhan Buffet

This fasting month, my fiance and I has this one routine, having our break fast together twice a week. We would like to try nice food and buffets this month. Fuiyoo kopak duit. hehehe. I thought you can save money during fasting month. Wrong!!

As the organizer of any formal or informal events, (rolling my eyes) I went to search for the nicest break fast buffets that any place can offers.

Our first Ramadhan buffet was in Intekma Shah Alam next to UiTM campus. The buffet lines was at the swimming pool area. A guest entertainer, probably Intekma's staff is there performing the latest local songs for you. They even have song dedications. Hehe. We felt like we are still in school. *giggles*

With RM35.00++ per person, they served you variety of malay cuisines, from murtabak, fried mee, char kuay teow, bubur lambuk, nasi putih, chicken rendang, gulai masak lemak and ulam2.

We went on Tuesday, so their special dishes was 'nasi kebuli' and 'ayam asam pedas'. I have never heard of both meals. Nasi kebuli was okay, tasted like nasi minyak. So nothing new or impressive but I didn't like the 'ayam asam pedas'. Quite bland. My asam pedas was better. *grin*

They also served raya cookies for desserts besides cakes, puddings and local traditional kuih. I love their bubur lambuk, rojak buah and fried mee. If you are looking for traditional malay dishes with a reasonable price, this place is worth a try.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera at that time, so there're no photos to share.

Yesterday we were thinking of having a different menu for our break fast. So we went to this new place called Pizza vs Satay in USJ 9. I searched on the internet about it and the review was good.

They served western and local cuisines. Their specialities is off course (obviously by their restaurant's name) the pizza and satay. And I admit, the pizza is very nicely done, thin crust, hot-from-oven pizza is definitely my favorite. Their satay is okay, but not so much on the sambal kacang. A bit salty.

It is quite nice for a change in tastebuds for break fast. Tired of the normal break fast's meals.

We also tried their nasi lemak yesterday. OMG the nasi lemak was yummy and so was the sambal. But it was too damn hot for me and my fiance definitely cannot tahan the pedas. "sampai kepala" he said. hehehe.

But overall, no complaints from me nor my fiance. We love the food and the price too. With 29.90++ per person you can have variety range of western dishes such as pizza, mushroom soup, pastas, mashed potatoes and grilled chicken. Not forgotten they also served their specialities- satay, nasi lemak with the spicy sambal and chicken rendang and last but not least fried mee hoon. I love their dessert as well - bubur pulut hitam, cakes and their puddings was very nice.

Here are some of the photos.

Among the western dishes on our table




Desserts and their nasi lemak with spicy sambal.
(They used dried chillies for the sambal, no wonder it was super duper hot!) Thumbs up!

Bubur pulut hitam. Yummy, loved this one!

I fully recommend this place! Have a nice meal guys!

My next stop will be Saloma Bistro and Ikea's Ramadhan Buffet. Will update soon. Have a nice buka puasa!

The Exotic Krabi, Thailand

As usual, every year my company organized a company trip. This year, we went to Krabi, Thailand for 4 days and 3 nights. Beautiful place and friendly people! That is their tagline. Krabi is famous with their white sandy beaches, small islands and limestone. With 60% of Muslim population, we didn’t have much problem in finding ‘halal’ foods.

We arrived in Krabi at 10.30 am about 11.30 am Malaysian time. Our tummy had started growling, so the tour guide took us straight to have lunch at the local restaurant. It’s more like a ‘warung’ though. They served duck noodles and seafood fried rice. Well the duck food it’s not halal, so all the Muslim (3 of us) took the seafood fried rice.

Since the check-in time is at 3.00pm, the tour guide then took us to visit the “Tiger Cave Temple” I wasn’t sure about the rules for Muslim entering temples. My intention is just to take photos, so I guess, should be all right.

Tiger Cave

After 30 minutes at the temple, we then went to Krabi town to do early shopping. The bus brought us to “Vogue Supermarket”. I didn’t buy much except for “Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard”. You can’t resist having a cold ice cream in the hot weather. The small blizzard cost me about 190 baht (~RM1.90).

Hmmm.. I love Dairy Queen. Btw saw this beauty shop on my way to the market. Porn De Beaute? WTH??

I went to the nearest fruit market and bought sweet Thai dokong. The dokong is quite big compared to Malaysian’s and cost only 250 baht per kilo for dokong (~RM2.50). Cheap huh!

The bus then took us to few souvenir shops, which was quite pricey. We managed to window-shop only. I really cannot ‘tahan’ the weather. Damn hot! I rather sit in the bus with full blast air-conditioner on.

We reached Ao Nang Bay Resort and Spa at about 3.30pm. Settled ourselves in the room, had a cold shower and 45 minutes nap, we then went to have our dinner at a famous local restaurant. They served Thai cuisine. We make a stop at a local snack and souvenir shop on the way to the restaurant. I bought few sweet Thai snacks.

The dinner was superb. We had steam fragrant rice, tom yam goong, deep fried fish with thai sauce, green curry, mango salad (kerabu mangga), crab meat with curry sauce, stir fried veggie and local Thai delicacies for dessert. It was so fulfilling till can hardly walk. I’m not kidding!

The next morning, we went for a boat trip to 4 Islands: Raylay Beach – sightseeing and rock climbing, Chicken Island – snorkeling, Tup Island – picnic lunch and swimming and Poda Island – swimming and resting. It was fun and extremely hot. Instead of sunbathing, I showered myself with sunblock lotion. *grin*

On the boat to Raylay Beach. That 'thing' is part of a ceremony for a goddess @ Raylay Beach





Snorkeling @ Chicken Island A friend took the marching fish using her water proof camera

Ang-moh having a hard time doing the rock-climbing @ Railay Beach.

On the third day, we rented a jeep, a very tiny jeep to go sightseeing. I do not know how Thais can actually squeeze 6 people in that jeep. Our legs and back went numb just after half an hour journey! But for 900 baht and since it’s the only vehicle left to be rented, we just go on with it.

Pity our friends had to squeeze at the back of the jeep for the entire day. And the weather was hot!

With a not very friendly map and confusing signboards, we managed to get to the first stop, which is Gastropod Fossil. It is a shell cemetery beach. I’m not sure why it was called that way. We couldn’t get in to the beach; well honestly we don’t want to waste our 200 baht to pay the entrance fee. Ridiculous! They do sell a lot of shell-made souvenirs. I spent my money on the souvenirs instead. I even bought myself a chime made from shell. Kinda nice.

Scenery from the shell cemetery beach

After sightseeing and had our ice-cream at the shell beach, we continued our journey to the next province to visit Emerald Pond and Hot Spring. The journey took about an hour. We stop at the town to have lunch. After having my ‘phad thai’, we went straight to Emerald Pond. It is a crystal clear small lake in the midst of a jungle about 20-30 minutes walking distance, but it worth a sweat. The water was refreshing and cooling. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Swimming at the Emerald pond. Crystal clear water.

Then, we went to Hot Spring about 5 minutes drive from the Emerald Pond. You can even feel the heat from miles away. We tried to jump to the hot spring, but it was too hot. We then realized that we need to dip our body slowly in the warm-hot water. After that it was heaven! A good therapy indeed!

Mineral content of the hot spring

The rest of the day ended up with shop and a good massage. We went to a place called “Palm Tree Massage” which offered 300 baht ~ RM30.00 for an hour of aromatherapy massage. It was good.

The next morning, we flew back to Malaysia. Kinda miss Krabi now.

Loss

My deepest condolences to my friend, Mieza and family for their loss. Her mother passed away on 1 Ramadhan 1428H.

Al-Fatihah

Happy Fasting

I would like to wish all my Muslim friends - Happy Fasting! May you have a wonderful and peaceful Ramadhan this year.

Jangan puasa yang yok dah lah. lol

Btw, I just got back from Krabi Thailand. Will post some photos soon.

Baby Iman Umar

I would like to congratulate my good friend Ckin for her newborn. Baby Iman Umar was born on Aug 26th, 2007. Mommy is doing fine and hopefully getting better each day.

I feel very happy for Ckin. With her wonderful hubby and new love of her life, little baby Iman, she's living a good life now. A happier life. Alhamdulillah!

Iman is like a magnet. So geram!! I feel attracted to him and very touched by him. Not in a wrong way ok! lol. I just so want a baby rite now. But can I skip the labour part? huhuhu..

Here are few of his photos.

We tried our best to wake him up. But he "tak layan". Sleepyhead Iman! lol

The Engagement

with my niece - Putri Balqis Afiqa
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Was eavesdropping
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With my brother and sisters.

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With my elder brother's family

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With Kak Lin's family

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Hantaran (Bride)- Ckin's creation

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Hantaran (Groom) - elly's creation

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The Updates

Hey, sorry for not updating my blog. These past few months had been the most hectic months for me. Two colleagues were on maternity leave, moving to the temporary office in Sri Hartamas and also I had to manage two events in a row all by myself. But lucky for me, I have a part time staff to help out and she had been a wonderful assistant.

Now things are getting better, everything runs quite smoothly despite of few hurdles. My two colleagues just got back from their long leave, with babies in mind every minute. Poor the two mommies! Our events also just ended and it was successfully organized. The turnouts were good. Thank you to all the help given from my helpful colleagues.

Last Monday, we moved back to our renovated office. The shifting period was pain in the ass but we survived. At last we are sitting in a beautiful office with a good Fengshui. I hope the Fengshui really works and we will get a good amount of bonus this month, with all the shifting, traveling etc, damn we need the money! ;)

One more thing, I had been zipping my mouth about this one huge thing in my life. The engagement! I am truly sorry about it. My apologies go especially to Sue and Nic. I am truly sorry for not telling you girls. These past few weeks was the most hectic and stressful weeks for me. I had to take care of both families’ feelings, mine and his, even though his family despises me, still. :(

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to postpone our engagement from July 28 to August 11 and finally to August 12. It was such a disappointment at first, but then it all came to my senses; there are good reasons behind all these obstacles. “Ada hikmah di sebalik”

The ceremony went quite well, despites all the delay – my fiancé had a car trouble, my dad was impatience and poor Izham, had to wait all day and tried his best to squeeze in for good shots in my small room. I can’t wait to see the outcomes. :)

Everything was good. Thank you to my family, for supporting me emotionally and physically, especially Syimi. Special thanks to Ckin for sponsoring the chocolates and preparing my lovely “hantaran”; and Izham for being the wonderful photographer despites of my blurriness.

Thanks a bunch.

The one with the "Idiots’ Driver’s Day"

This past 2 days had been the "idiots’ driver’s days". My statistic research is telling me that almost 90% of drivers were being remarkably idiotic, inconsiderate son of a bi**h and f***kingly blind. Those bast**ds seemed to somehow either had just passed their f**king driving license or do not have any license at all.

I wish those bast**ds will die horribly and rot in hell!

.....................………………..………………....................

Inhale......

Exhale….

Inhale……………

Exhale…………...

Long Inhale……………………..

Relieving Exhale………………..

Felt good. Finally.

The one with the massage

I’m getting busy and busier. My department is doing some renovation starting next week. Temporarily, we have to move to our partners’ office in Plaza Damas for about a month or two. At this time, my colleagues and I are busy packing up our stuff to bring to the new office. I have to pack files and other personal things for my other two colleagues who are on maternity leave and not to forget thousands of marketing collaterals. Urrghh tired.

Yesterday, I managed to packed few stuff and dump it to the server room. I was relieved when I realized how few things left need to be packed but at the same time, I realized that my back hurts badly. I guess it’s due to the lifting of those heavy boxes. I’m a superwoman kan! I was too proud to ask for help kot. Well to be honest, whenever I tried to ask men to help me carry all those heavy boxes and then they gave me a look. The “she’s so weak” look! Sometimes it will be the “Hey I’m busy” look. I hate that. At the end, it will be my lovely self who carrying the boxes. But most of the time, they will help me.

With my back aching badly (damn I feel old), I desperately need a massage. After work I went straight to the massage parlor nearby my office and chose a Thai Massage for the treatment. The Thai masseuse hardly speaks English. The only words she knows are “lie down”, “oil massage”, “Thai massage”, “tea” “pain” and “thank you”. But it doesn’t matter, she was good. It was painfully good. A bit painful but overall, my body felt lighter after the session. The only annoying thing was the next door customer, a man, who kept burping and farting through out his session. He was so loud. Gross.

Whatever it was, I think I need another one. But RM60 per hour is a bit expensive for me, even though it was good. I think I’ll go for the early bird package which is RM78 for 2 hours. Maybe next month!

The One with the Blacked-Out

Didn’t I tell you that I passed out at home last month? It was horrible. I was so-called “blind” for a moment. I sat at the toilet for hours and moaning in pain.

It’s all started with the pricking pain inside my tummy. I thought I need to go to the toilet and so I did. As I sat on the toilet bowl, the pricking pain traveled fast to my head making me giddy and a bit nauseous. I thought it was because of the rush of blood to my head, but the grogginess was painful and continuously. All of a sudden I couldn’t see a thing. All my surroundings turned green. I was panicked. The pricking pain in my tummy was still there and my head spinning crazily. I felt like throwing up but it did not come out somehow.

The headache became worse by seconds. I tried to lean myself against the wall to stop the pain in my body. I struggled to put my head in between my legs but the piercing pain, the headaches, nausea and the blindness were still there. I can’t even hear myself crying out loud, but I was.

Somehow I know that I had to do something to stop the pain. I forced myself towards the shower and turned it on to the maximum pressure. I set myself on the bathroom floor, sitting under the shower and groaned in pain.

As the drops of water fell on my head, I was shivering. The water didn’t stop the headache. I was weeping under the shower, hoping the pain will stop. After a few minute, I started to notice the surroundings became much clearer and clearer. The coolness of the water didn’t do much pain anymore, it had eased the lightheaded that I had, but the drowsiness didn’t end there. In my head, I just wanted to go back to bed. So I grabbed my towel and wrapped myself into it.

My body felt very warm as I crawled myself into bed. I sent a text message to my boyfriend and cried myself back to sleep.

I did have a light fever and my body felt very weak and drained afterwards. I didn’t go to the doctor though. My only doctor was the two tablets of “Panadol Actifast”.

That was the second time I passed out in my entire life.

The One with the Tax

27 April 2007

I did my first tax today. I felt so stupid. At this age, doing my first tax payment and it was such a headache too. But with helps from my colleagues, I did complete the form within an hour. I went to LHDN in Kelana Jaya, parked my car at the stadium and went through the busy crowd to submit my form. It was packed with the last-minute tax payers who struggled to complete their submission. Just like myself. And at last I did it! My first tax submission! Am a big girl already! *grin*

The facelift

I am so bored today. My other teammates are on maternity leave. I have no one to gossip with, and the work is piling up. BORING! *yawn*

I was bored with everything. Even my blog was such a bore stiff. Well, I’m giving my blog a facelift anyway. It’s just a minor facelift to give it a fresh look.

I will post new chronicles soon. I had everything jotted down in my laptop. I will publish it online tomorrow. Now let me continue with my surgical procedure.

Hectic 2007

Sorry for not updating the blog. Gosh, I'm pretty much overwhelmed with every single thing at the moment. Busy with work, unpacking stuff, furnishing the new apartment which I'm still trying adapting to the new environment, and most probably I will change to a new job as well. InsyaAllah. Just verbally confirmed no black and white yet. So still 50-50.

Oh man, there are so many things to do and there will be tons of work to do also. I just hope that I can cope with all this stuff going on at the moment. I've got brain freeze all the time. And there it is. Its coming again. Brain freeze!! Urrghh.


Now where was I.. Well lets just cut things short. At the moment, I'm busying preparing write-ups for upcoming events which will be in March and May. I'm still busy unpacking my stuff at the new house. I loved my new place. Cosy and inviting. I just bought a new Slimfit Samsung 29 inch television and a washing machine, Samsung also. Even my fridge is Samsung as well. I totally didn't plan on that.


I bought a Queen bed set from a colleague which it turns out to be a King bed and it comes without a frame (the one where to put the mattress on). And the queen mattress which I bought is definitely too small for the bed. The picking up process also was so damn complicated. I had to go to her house in Hartamas to pick up the queen bed set, then I had to ask the lorry to go to her friends' house in Tropicana to pick up the mattress - I totally didn't know about this. She did not tell me. Urrghh.. (She sold the mattress to her friend but I'm not sure why the friend didn't want it anymore-but now I know *roll eyes*) and then went to Bukit Jalil to pick up my stuff and finally to Kinrara, my new place. Ended up I paid the lorry extra lah. But the guy already charged me quite cheap. 80 bucks for the whole trip plus manpower. But I paid him 100. Ok lah kan.


After expressing my dissapointment to my colleague who sold me the bed, without any persuasion on my side, she willingly gave me her king sized mattress for free. I didn't even asked for it. But well, it's free. So I accepted with open arms. ;)

But then, to make thing worst, the King sized mattress turned out to be too big for the bed pulak. Gosh. Troublesome. But I managed to squeeze the mattress to fit into the bed. Instead of placing the mattress the correct way, I had to turn the other way round, by placing the side of the mattress as the top. If you know what I mean.

But despite all the hassle, I love my new bed. It's huge. I feel like dwarf lying there. I can actually sleep posing as the Vitruvian Man on my bed. hahahahahha. Ooh btw, I had to use 2 queen sized mattresses as my bed-frame and put the king sized matress on top. Wasted 2 mattresses man!

Oopsie I need to continue to do my work. I'll update soon with the photos of my new house probably. InsyaAllah.

Really sorry to my friends coz didn't even have time to sms or call. We'll meet up soon k! Am in a rush. Daa..