Lighting It Up

As our yearly tradition, everytime we reach the 15th night of Ramadhan, we will start to light up our pelita's around the house. This year, I bought 2 new sets of pelita since the previous one that we had, dah macam so sedih keadaannye. Surprisingly, they are very cheap now. Mind you, this is just plastic pelitas OK. Bukan yang old school besi mcm yg kat kampung2 tu. Bought 2 packets kat Giant on the first week of fasting, for RM3/packet of 10 pelitas. (Not bad huh?)

So semalam, back from work, kitorang terus round area Kota Damansara, looking for a hardware shop - nak beli minyak for the pelita. For RM12, we got a big bottle of Turpentine. Ok lah tu. Cukup la nak nyalakan pelita for malam tujur likur nanti, Insya Allah.

Yang excited nak pasang pelita, none other than Cik Semek. Sibuk duk pi-mai-pi-mai, around garden waiting for Babah untuk masukkan minyak and nyalakan pelita. This is the first time that Nia, is experiencing this. Last raya, she was too small to appreciate the suasana hari raya. In short, I am very much looking forward for this Raya. We're planning to go back to my grandparent's place in Kuala Terengganu - Insya Allah. Tak sabar nak makan nasik dagang and laksa kuah putih and laksam. Yummehhhhhhh!!!

So, selamat menyambut malam ke-15 Ramadhan dan Malam Tujuh Likur yang bakal menyusul.

Update: Projekt Haus

Last weekend sangat lah taxing for us. In order too keep up with our contractor yang sangat lah efficient and pantas membuat kerja, we had to go to Sg Buloh and purchase electrical lightings for the whole house. At first, ingatkan lepas raya baru nak fix the lights. Skali hari Selasa ni. Adoi. Makanya, di tengah2 bulan puasa ni, kami anak beranak pon terpacak la kat kedai letrik tu selama berejam-rejam duk memilih lampu yang berkenan di hati. Perasaan? Exhausted tapi teruja. Yerla. Sapa tak excited kan. Pilih lampu untuk rumah sendiri. Basically takde la susah mana. Yang susah is to make sure that the choices that we made in total will not exceed our budget. Since ade plaster ceiling and such in our living room, we had to purchase downlights and T5 dengan byk sekali. Decorative lights ade jugak. 2 lights at our living area. Another one in front of the stair case. And another 2 at the dry kitchen. The rest, sume downlights - including the bedrooms.

Budget now mcm dah a little bit lari. So, most likely our last installment for the Dry Kitchen Cabinets kena buat 0% monthly installment. Because whatever remaining savings that we have left kena gune for curtains and barang-barang dapur. Adoi. Ini tak termasuk furnitures ok. For now, we've settled with 'Japanese Syle' la untuk furniture. Hehe. Bak kata Ida, "Kayuh slow-slow".He he he. I don't really mind not having any furnitures for now. Cos in my mind, I might as well wait before, I decide to buy anything so that I can have enough money and buy something that I really like (which can be pretty pricey selalunye). Rather than buying something cheapo tapi cepat rosak and takde kualiti.

Nonetheless, hari ni Norien, from Kian Classic, will be going over to the house to mark where our dry kitchen punye plumbing needs to be adjusted to. Then kena mark another extra plug point for our microwave and oven untuk install in the dry kitchen cabinets nanti. By this week, our wet kitchen, most likely akan siap pasang all the wall tiles. The sink & water tap will be fixed. Lantai will be levelled up and tiled. Additional plugpoints (3) will be installed.

Belakang rumah memang tak sempat siap minggu ni - so tak kisah. Cos they need to do the plumbing/drainage for the washing machine and the plug point jugak.

Internally, dalam rumah - plaster ceiling sudah siap. Tinggal nak touch up jer. Lightings sume akan pasang hari Selasa ni. Curtain railing for bawah pon harap-harapnye this week. Yang the rest, kena buat ngen curtain vendor. Tapi for plaster ceiling at the dining area, belum pasang the wood panelling lagi. Itu, still tak siap.

Next would be touching up of the house. Nak kena re-paint all the smudges, bla bla. Washing, cleaning and polishing of the tiles. Installation of dry kitchen cabinets, bedroom wardrobe, stove, hood and oven, grill fixture and touch up. And dekat blakang rumah, last would be nak pasang that poly-carbon roof.

And who said renovating a house is an easy work? Poning ade la. Talking and discussing and haggering with the contractors. Nak get the cheapest price but at the same time I still want the quality and workmanship. Then kena survey bermacam kedai, bermacam barang, bermacam harga. Sampai naik poning. At the same time, asyik duk tengok kat bank account balance for checks and credit - to make sure our money is sufficient. Harap-harap zero hutang. Insya Allah. So far all has been paid in cash. My motto is: Biar susah skarang, jangan susah kemudian.

Overall, we're having fun doing the house. Penat lelah pon untuk rumah kite jugak kan. Biar la kite yg penat, as long as we get what we want. I really hope that the end result will be as good as what I have in mind. Insya Allah.

PTPTpu

3 days ago, I received a 'love letter'. It says I Have to settle RM12,742.35 worth of outstanding study loan amount that I have with PTPTpu. I do admit that when I first started working, I couldn't afford to pay the big amount of monthly repayment which is RM470 out of my mere RM1900 gaji at MISC. So for a couple of years, the study loan went away unserviced by me - and it keeps on piling!!!! The interest rate is so darn bloody high, they've pegged it at 4% with a fix monthly processing of RM150 - thus bringing the monthly repayment to such big amount.

Menyesal amik PTPTN? Definitely. My CGPA in college has always been more than 3.00. I could've applied for a JPA scholarship and save me this trouble. But at that time mcm sedikit bodoh and I didn't have anyone to advice me on how to go about the application with JPA. Arghhh!!! Tension.
Makanya, skarang pening kepala on how to pay this stupid loan with PTPTpu. Saw at the website that we can withdraw from our EPF 2nd Account. So, lega skit. Call la EPF, then sedih balik. Apparently, that policy is only applicable for PTPTN agreement from year 2001 onwards. And my agreement was signed in year 2000. So tak eligible. What the tooootttt.... Kenapa ada diskriminasi ni woiii...Ya ampun...savings memang da kapuuutttt due to Projekt Haus...adoiii....of all the times, the letter has to come in Fasting Month...Stress.com.my

Called PTPTpu again, this time begged them cakap there's no way I can afford paying the 12k at one go...so I will definitely have to make a mthly repayment....which means there will be things that I have to cut down balik nanti...shaiiitttt...

Overall, PTPTpu has never been a good experience for me...dari time belaja - sentiasa delay in paying my tuition fees sebab derang lambat release duit to the college....until now, charging me a hefty sum sampai rasa burden pulak.....in fact i realized that for my brother who went oversea on JPA loan pon is paying much lesser than I am to PTPTpu...double-shaitttt....

Makanya, I will save as much as I can for Nia's Education Fund, so that she wouldn't have to go through all this in the future....PTPTNpu tidak membantu saya....uwaaa.....membebankan ade la....:'-(

'Commercial Mindset'

Dikir Barat in Kerang??

yesterday, we had Cindy Miller in town for our staff engagament...kebetulan, the bosses wanted to have a learning moment for the 5 behaviours that Peter Vosser announced during his previous webcast...makanya, entah macam mana, i ended up with a team, to perform on 'Commercial Mindset' in the form of dikir barat....

At first, it was pretty funny, because the dikir barat needs to be in English in order to be inclusive for all those Mat Salleh yg tak reti cakap BM ni....so, we had to came out with a new set of lyrics using the Wau Bulan tempo....funny? sangat....

Overall, it was fun - not as what I expected it to be....and I actually enjoyed all the practice sessions very much....helped me to bond with the new friends I made after my move here to CBJ....so, attached are some pictures during our prep and believe it or not....our team was chosen as No.1....weeeehuuuu.....the Mat Salleh definitely likes traditional Malay performance rather than some fancy cartoon animation like what the rest of the other teams did...eheheh...bangga? yeahs....eksyen?...a lil bit...muwahahahah....

During our practice session at the office gym studio - with almost full costume

Discussing the final run of the Dikir Barat before the actual run

Amy presenting the points on Commercial Mindset to the audience before the show starts

Me receiving the MYR50 voucher gift from Cindy Miller

Team picture with the Leadership Team

BFF

Nia & her Best-Friend-Forever cum "Abam" Feveret - Fawwaz Danish

Checklist

Need to complete Hari Raya shopping for Semek and Babah by next weekend. Cos wiken Merdeka nanti dah nak balik Batu Pahat. And after that its too close to raya - and I hate shopping in thick crowd.

Some checklist, for Semek's missing items:

• Baju Kurung - Check
• Jeans - Check
• Slack - Check
• 3 pairs of Dresses - Check
• 4 pairs of top - Check
• Leggings - Check
• Socks - Check
• Panties - Check
• Kasut Raya - Pending
• Hair Accesories - Pending

Adoiiii....I didn't know that Raya can be so costly for a small kid. Mummy pon ade 3 pasang baju kurung je. Angan-angan nak beli a pair of caftan mcm tak menjadi je. Isk isk isk. Kasihkan anak punye pasal.

Maya's Getting Hitched

In continuation from my previous entry, as planned, we successfully threw a Bachelorette Party for Maya.

The guest list consists of only close friends of the Bride-to-Be and we had the party at Italiannies Private Area, One Utama. There was a lot of laughter and giggles and I can say, the bride kena bully agak teruk by us. But all of this is in good faith. He he. Overall, all of us had fun and here are some pictures to share with everyone.

The tiara that the Bride has to wear

The Victim...hehehe...

The cuppies...

Spek Mate Itam

Nia ade spek mate itam skarang.
Mummy and Babah belikan from Debenhams.
Nia suke sangat pakai sampai naik kereta at night pon nak jugak pakai spek mate itam.
Nia rasa cantik kot, sebab pakai spek mata sampai muncung-muncung mulut - taknak kasi spek mata itam jatuh.
Mummy rasa Nia nampak macam Saloma gitewww..
I Loike!

Ramadhan Menjelma Kembali

I love the holy month of Ramadhan. I think it brings out then best of everyone. Maybe because of this feel-good moods, you get more endorphines being released from your brain and making you feel even better than the other months. Even when I was a kid, entering the month of Ramadhan memang lah sangat mengujakan. We have buka puasa with the family. We have the oh-so-malas-but-still-have-to-wake-up Iftar. We get to walk to the surau beramai-ramai for Terawikh. We get to buy baju raya. We got to smell duit raya baru. And prepare the ang-pow packets. And kuih raya, and the lampu lip-lap. Wahhhh! So many things.

But basically, all in all, its the month of holliness. For us to be charitable to the less fortunate. To read more of the Quran. To stop bitching about so many things. To be as good as a Muslim is supposed to be as preached by our Prophet. I hope this year would be better for me and my family. I hope I will have the time to khatam Quran and to try and wake up at night for Solat Sunat. Those are plans and hopefully mampu la untuk buat.

So for everyone - Salam Ramadhan dari kami sekeluarga.

Kira Jangan Tak Kira

For awhile, I've been having this debate with myself and have actually been discussing the same with Fahmi jugak. We are thinking of Junior No. 2 but at the same time the thought that our centre of attention will have to be divided to 2 babies is tearing me apart. Nia is still so small and she just reached her 17 months milestone today. If we were to get pregnant now, by the time Junior 2 comes out, of course Nia will then be 2 years plus. But still, I feel so sad that she has to be a Kakak at such a young age! But on the other hand, we plan to have a big family. Maybe around 4-5 kids. And my target is not to get pregnant after the age of 35 years old - so that we won't be too old by the time the youngest wants to get married. At this rate, that would mean that we will need to get pregnant every 2 years of cycle time! Whoa - talking about kilang pengeluaran yg sungguh cergas!

I've done some calculations:

Junior 1: Deliver @ 27 yrs old (2009)

Junior 2: Deliver @ 29 yrs old (2011)

Junior 3: Deliver @ 31 yrs old (2013)

Junior 4: Deliver @ 33 yrs old (2015)

Junior 5: Deliver @ 35 yrs old (2017)

This means that assuming that they all get married at the average age of 26 yrs old, both myself & Fahmi will be at the age of 53 by the time Nia wants to get married and 61 yrs old by the time Junior 5 gets married. *Phew*. So would mean latest, I would be a granny by the time I'm 54 or latest 56? Ha-ha-ha.

But then again, 5 Juniors will mean that we need to save a whole lot of $$$ for each of their School Education, University Education, Health Insurance, Extra Classes and Marriage Fund. Whoa!!~ Ini tak include any miscelleneous expenses, holidays, field trips, bla bla bla.

How lah? We might as well move out of KL and live where the cost of living is awhole lot cheaper - some kampung anywhere? Bole ke kitorg duduk kat kampung? Yikes?!. Or migrate to a place where they can pay us more and allows working flexibility for parents. *Sigh*. Or maybe I should be a SAHM who runs a business portal from the comfort of my living room? Hu-hu. Any ideas?

Basically, my concern is still:

Kesian Nia who has to be a Kakak at such a tender age - Fahmi is telling me that every parents must feel the same way when they are trying to get Junior 2 rolling along since Junior 1 has always been the apple of our eyes. I really hope that we can still be fair in terms of attention and so on - although its pretty hard to judge since it is very much subjective. Nonetheless, this should not stop us of from having our own plans, right? ^_^

It's Been 2 Years Already?

Pejam celik-pejam celik, dalam sedar tak sedar, today dah genap 2 years, arwah Abah passed away. Rasa macam baru jer jadi semalam, Mama kejutkan kitorg sume from sleep, time Abah tengah nazak in their room. I remember jumping out of the bed and running to their room. Then nampak Abah dah terbaring kat atas lantai in the room atas pangku Abg Iz on his left and Mama on his right. And it was me and Fahmi kat hujung kaki dia.

I can still hear Mama and Abang Iz duk berbisik kat telinga Abah untuk mengucap. They were whispering to him to say "La Ilahaillallah". And I can still hear Abah telling us, how painful it was. Then I remember him holding Mama's hand and told her to get a wet towel and dab on his forehead. All the while, badan Abah dah start to get cramps and his legs are all too cold under my touch. Within that 45 minutes, I remember mulut Abah tak stop, duk berzikir "Allah....Allah......Allah....". And the last I remember was him, looking all around us - tenung muka kitorg one by one, at first at Abang Iz....and Fahmi and Me....and last but not least, he looked at Mama and stared at her all the while, sambil berzikir and tears on his face.

Finally, I remember Abah tengok ke atas kepala dia and sambil kitorg berzikir around him, we can actually feel him leaving his body. I can still hear, the last choke of breath that came out of him mouth. And how my mom looked and the first thing that she calmly said after that - "Iz, Mama rasa Abah dah tinggalkan kita sekeluarga, please help me to call everyone."

I never talked about this to anyone as I felt that it was too private to be shared. But I was actually quite glad that Abah passed away pretty easily in comparison to some other people and he was amongst all of us who loved him dearly. I was glad that we were around to teach him the Zikrullah. And I was very glad that Mama was right next to him when he passed his last breath - as they had been together for more than 39 years.

To Abah, if he is still around, I am pretty sure he would be really proud to see how his children have turned out. To know that he now has 10 wonderful grandchildren who still remembers him and somehow favours Aki as compared to Wan since Aki allowed them to climb up the pokok behind the house and Wan is "Boring" and is still being refered to as the "Hulk of the House" even till today. Hehe. I still misses him very much and I don't think that will change much. I miss confiding my problems with him and to discuss the alternatives that I might have. I miss the sight of his back reading in his library at home. I miss the smell of his oh-so-strong minyak attar every day before he goes out to the surau for prayers. I miss the sound of his voice, reciting the Quran whilst waiting for Fawwaz sleeping downstairs.

Al-Fatihah untuk Arwah Abah - because without you, none of us will be who we are today. And I hope that all of our prayers reaches you and lights up the place wherever you might be right now. Love you Bah!

Projekt Haus

I've been wanting to post an entry about our sucasa for awhile now but didn't have the chance to do so with all the other happenings around us. As I've briefly mentioned before, we are getting our own place at Denai Alam under the development of Sime Darby. After 2 years of wait, we finally got the key to the house 2 months ago. Feelings at that point of time? Excited! Happy! Exhilarated! Proud! Sume skali la - in a combo. Happy that the house is finally ready. Proud as a new home-owner. Teruja and bla bla bla. Typical first time org beli rumah la jawabnye.

So, we already have a plan for the house and have been saving every penny that we have in preparation for this. Mainly, I requested to Hubby that I want the kitchen to be renovated. Basically to split the existing dry kitchen and add on a new area for our wet kitchen. So, that can be considered as the most major change that we'll be doing to the house. Due to budget constraint, we decided not to knock down the current kitchen wall. But to build up an area surrounding it - extending the whole section to the end of the land area.

We scouted for the best contractor, and when when we first got the initial quotation from the first contractor that we approaced, I almost popped my eyes after hearing the cost of it. Mind you, this is just normal contractors without any elements of Interior Design and so on. Taking in advice from the people who have done this before, of course, we went on to a few other contractors in order to ensure that we are getting the best price offered and to make sure that we wont be cheated by the one that we will decide on. So far, the cost of the renovation comes within the same range of MYR20+k. *Phew*. That's one pricey kitchen I must tell you.

After a few weeks of scouting and surverying and tired feel and cranky moments - we finally decided to engage Stilux Design & Renovations Sdn Bhd. Their office is in Sunway Damansara - so its very convenient for us to go and visit them. The Site Supervisor is friendly and seems determine enough to please us. And the Design Partner, is considerate enough and we were able to get a good bargain out of it.

For the cost of MYR20,500 we will get:
1. House extension for wet kitchen (width 5 feet x length 10 feet)(Inclusive of tiles for the wall and floor, concrete kitchen top, melamine kitchen door, 3 feet window sill and downlights)
2. Plaster ceiling in new wet kitchen
3. 4 electrical points in wet kitchen
4. 1 electrical point, water pipe and close drainage system for washing machine
5. 1 wooden door
6. 2 lighting point for back door and outside the gate
7. 6 feel high concrete fencing

8. Plaster ceiling for dining and living area (manholes)
9. Wiring for downlights in dining and living area

10. Curtain railing for all windows and sliding door in living area

This is the best that we got as the rest are asking for over MYR20k and that is just for the wet kitchen without the countertop and plaster ceiling.

Will try to update the pictures on the progress soon - stay tuned.

Earning a Cent to Feed the Family

For those who are close to me, you might have heard me talking about the Single Framework which will mean a slash to the amount of money that I'll be taking home at the end of the month. Alhamdulillah, I must say, that Allah has better plans for us, just before I was served with the formal letter from HR to inform on the change of my T&C, I received a good news informing that I have been offered another role within Kerang, under the Downstream IT wing. *phew*. I must say, keterujaan yg melampau sampai I cannot stop smiling the whole day.

So last Monday, there I was reporting to work for the first time in CBJ office feeling as though it's my first day in Kerang all over again. Siap sakit perut ok nervous.. Ha Ha Ha...

All in all, I think it went pretty well. Yes, the environment is a whole lot different. It's much more quieter here compared to my old place. Women tends to be the minority in the IT world and so I ended up being friends with more guys than ladies. So kena cari gang baru now.. Huwaaaaa!!

Workwise...I've started going thru some KTs, and sitting in a few meetings. Attended townhalls and engagement sessions, a team lunch, and cultural event - all this within the first 4 days of work. Not bad indeed. Still trying to sort out some of my access issues. Lappie is still giving me a problem - last resort is to get GI to re-image the damn machine for me.

Nonetheless, I still miss my crazy-fun-loud team back in WCP. Who wouldn't, after spending 4 years with those lots. He He He. But I do hope that my current job will give me more satisfaction than the previous one - Insya Allah. So I am now, no longer a HR-person but I'm now an IT-geek. Gosh! I can't believe it that I would actually leave HR behind. Ooo well - all in the name of earning a cent for the family!