Wrap-Up of 2013 That Has Been

Assalammualaikum and good day all.

I've previously wrote that 2013 has not really been a good year for me right?

Truth is, it really was a depressing year for me. Especially career-wise. I don't want to dwell too much on that, but basically, if you're doing something that you really like, and good at, you enjoy it. But if you have to stop doing it, you stop finding joy and satisfaction out of doing it. You feel like your talent is wasted and not appreciated.

That's what happened to me. Towards end of 2012, I received a transfer letter as we had an organisational reshuffle, and I was was of the personnels involved. So early 2013 I moved department, and due to it being a new department with no definite KPI, I was left with almost nothing to do. Spend my days surfing the net, and other things but err... work. At first, sure you're happy to finally have time to yourself, and think for yourself because you didn't have time for that before then. But being idle is simply not for me. Too much energy to channel out.

Consequently, I fell sick a lot last year. I found a small lump under my armpit which I dismissed. Then a small boil grew on it, and I had no choice but to get it checked at the hospital. I then had it surgically removed, and Alhamdulillah upon testing, was nothing benign.

I flew home to Kuching end of April for what was supposed to be a 4-day trip home. But I got a sudden heavy fever on the second day I was there, including flu, sore throat and cough. I ended up staying there for 2 weeks. Along the way, I also got infected with conjunctivitis. I had to see the doctors three times throughout this period. It truly was a down moment for me.

Fever? It has become a frequent occurence to me too. When it was hazy back in June, so asthma also made a grand comeback. My body is very much attuned to the weather condition now. Oh well, I gotta take better care of myself.

Towards the latter part of the year, my health was somewhat better, but occasionally, a visit to the doctor was also necessary. I started doing some more work, but still, it wasn't really what I enjoy doing. But Alhamdulillah, it's still work.

I had to do a lot of other things to channel my energy and frustration, even till now. And I only pray that 2014 brings better things to come, especially on career.

That's a but of summary of a year that was 2013.

2014 will be a better one, InsyaAllah...

Till then, looking forward to this in about 2 weeks from now...

Wish me a better 2014 yeah? :)

So.. How Have You Been? On Geneva, London, Bali, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Dubai

Assalam...

I promised that I would start re-updating this space, right? Truthfully speaking, I have not found a full inclination toward doing so. But I try. Alasan saya? I haven't found my lost blogging mojo! Yes, superficial reason, but a valid nonetheless.

So many things I'd like to update actually, to cover the the year-or-so that I have left this space stalled. Main reason being, I was too busy with work especially, to find enough time to sit down and think of what I want to ramble about at that moment of time.

In the time that I stopped chronicling my journey in the UK, slightly over a month after that in late October 2011, I went to Europe again for a work trip. This time it was off to Geneva and London, again. Had a great time, felt very privileged to be able to go, and shopped till I drop!

Here are some snapshots from that trip in Switzerland and London:

Had the honour of dining and meeting the former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when we had dinner at the Malaysian Consulate. It was the middle of autumn, it was cold at times but Geneva's beautiful.

After we were done in Geneva, flew to London for another assignment. Had great fun with colleagues and my boss, and reconnected with the city I left a few weeks before that and I consider homely.

 That was in October till early November.

After that, was caught up again with work, and I started to handle so many things at work. Loved it though cause I felt challenged and I know I was honing on my talents.

Come the new year 2012, work was still something that kept me busy. But early February, I managed to go for a long weekend trip to Bali with my friend Shahida. It was supposed to be a GF trip, but Shireen and Shakie had to cancel going at the last minute. But we still had fun though!

 Throughout the year, I was involved in various tasks at the office. Life was pretty hectic. I was in a relationship. I don't want to write much on that, nor can I recall what else was I involved in at work and outside of it. Alhamdulillah, life was good. Don't get me wrong, it still is. It's just that things have changed considerably since then.

The big trip for 2012 for me, in addition to Bali, was Australia in November. Went to Sydney for a few days, then I flew to Adelaide to visit an old friend, flew to Melbourne and then back to Sydney. I was traveling alone for the first Sydney and Adelaide leg of the trip, then with someone in Melbourne and back in Sydney.

Here are just some snapshots of the trip:

 All of the above: in Sydney.

 With Carol and her hubby Jeff in Harndoff on Adelaide Hills.

 Adelaide

 Melbourne

 Back in Sydney. Hard Rock Cafe, tempat wajib pegi no matter where I go. No, not everything in those bags was for us. We received many requests from friends asking us to buy this and that over there.

 Aiya... gambar senget! How to straighten it?

 One of my lifelong dreams come true: being with koala and feeding the kangaru

 Cute penguins!

 Blue Mountains in Sydney. But it was extremely foggy so we couldn't see the Three Sisters at all!

Anyways, that was in November.

Alhamdulillah, come December pulak, I was assigned to be with the Malaysian delegation to Dubai pulak for another international ITU event.

 Alhamdulillahh... Ada rezeki naik Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world. But if you're gayat, jangan la naik ok? :)

 Like seriously, how to rotate the photos? See? I haven't been blogging for too long, now that they're sort of using the new format, I have no clue how to deal with this small matter!

  That's about it what I've been up to, travel-wise, during the 1-year odd that I haven't updated this space.

Will fill it up some more Insya-Allah..

See ya!

And.. I keep Apologising Over and Over Again

As-Salam... Seriously, I should take this blogging business seriously. But in my defence, I've been extremely busy before this that sometimes taking a breather was difficult. So many things have happened, changes in self, work, relationship, and basically, life happens. But now I've got more time in my hand, and I hope to be able to fill up this page again, Insya-Allah. Till then, let me get my creative juice flowing, and be back soon!

So Very Busy

Hello,

My apologies again for being errant in updating this space of mine. Truth it, the office life is getting more hectic. Never mind, this is what I signed for when I accepted the offer at this new place. I have to keep up with the pace, and I still consider this, 5++ months down the road, still a learning period.

Busier still is my weekends. I barely have a restful one nowadays. My kids rarely see me staying put at home both on Saturdays and Sundays as I'm always out. but Mummy's doing it for our new palace la sayang;).

And yes, my Saturdays and Sundays are filled with activities related to the house. Just a quick update:

1. My tentative date of moving will be end of this month. Tentative is the operative word here.

2. I'm getting some works done to the house. Among them:
a. A new partition between the kitchen and the dining area. I'm installing a
sliding door as I want a limited access to the kitchen, especially from my
furkids.

b. Installing glass panel throughout my stove area all the way to the front of
the kitchen sink. Hope it turns out ok. By the way these things are being
installed as we speak.

c. Instead of installing another sliding door/window to the backyard, I'm
settling for an outdoor wooden blind. I reckon this will bring more air and
still keeping my privacy;)

d. A sky-high shoe cabinet!! Hehehe..just exaggerating! But nice to have that
space to store my shoes, in case I decided to buy even more shoes in the
future!

e. An 8-feet wardrobe in the master bedroom, with full mirror and an extra table.
Self-explanatory methink.

f. A storage bench along my distended living room windows. I'm especially
excited about that, cause that means I will be able to relax and read my
books whilst enjoying the lake view ouside that window:)

g. A TV panel from IKEA. But I'm kinda bummed that they cannot instantly send
it to my place as when I went there last Sunday, a few items ran out of
stock, so they have to wait for it to arrive before sending their contractor
to install it at my place. I have a definite design that I want, which
explains why I didn't bother looking at other places. Hmm...come to think of
it, maybe I should, huh?

h. I'm getting the walls repainted, and the feature wall be wall-papered. My
friend Nora and her husband are doing it for me as they're having their own
wall-paper/home deco business. She's also my de-factor project manager
actually. I'll definitely show you how things turn out, and if you like what
you see, and want to do the same thing to your house, don't hesitate to ask
for her phone number from me ya!

Some other things I haven't really decided yet, like where do I want to place my dining table. That is among my biggest dilemmas right now. Not to mention that if I were to put a pendant/hanging light near the entrance, it won't be proportionate to the supposed placement of the dining set. Oh well, that can wait I think.

I'm also not very sure about acquiring a coffee table. I'm excited about my brand new sofa though:)..In actuality, I got my existing sofa re-upholstered. It's really a big relief to be able to save up on more than RM2k to get a new sofa. That's because all this while I've been asking around, especially furniture stores where most of them would shrug me off and said I might as well get a new one instead of getting it re-dressed.

Then I found an ad for this service, and the price they charge took me really by surprise. Alhamdulillah, dapat jimat banyak you!

Then, my parents, my eldest sister, my aunt, my cousin and my niece will be coming over on this 30th supposedly to help me with my move. But I guess I don't want to trouble them too much and instead get everything settled before they come over so that they can just help me settle in la. So excited, and will definitely baca doa, azankan and buat doa selamat sikit-sikit before we actually sleep in the new place.

That's all for now. That explains my kemalasan to update this blog, eh? Sorry no pictures in this entry as well, maybe next time. Till then, later ya!

Project Kitchen: Chickloaf

Hellowww..

You know meatloaf right? Well, last Sunday, I made chickloaf. Instead of using minced meat, I used minced chicken.

I've always liked meatloaf. Tapi bila check kat internet, ada macam-macam version. But basic ingredients are always the same-ground beef and bread.

So what I did was improvise, as usual la. So let's check out what I did in the kitchen last Sunday.

Nak prepare, kena standby-kan bahan-bahan dia;)

1 packet of minced chicken (usually it's meat), grated carrot (saje-saje sebab nak habiskan stok carrot hehehe..), low-fat milk (tau-tau je la apasal kan..), 3 bijik telur, slices of bread. Berapa slice nak pakai, depends on the kepekatan combination bahan-bahan yang lain tu. Then as usual, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar to taste. Bawang putih dan bawang merah-cincang. Ikut suka la nak berapa banyak:)


Combine all the ingredients, except for milk and bread dalam satu bekas.


Pour in the milk pulak. I'm the type yang masak tak berapa sangat ikut measurement. But I reckon I must've used between 3/4 - 1 cup of the milk. Gaul lagi:)


Lepas tu, carik-carikkan pulak roti ke dalam adunan ni. I think I used about 5-6 slices of bread. Buat sampai texture dia ala-ala adunan roti jugak.


Then transfer it into a butter (or margarine)-greased loaf pan and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes.


Ni la rupa dia lepas keluar dari oven. Tunggu kejap bagi dia sejuk, then it's ready to serve!

By right meatloaf is a main dish and is usually served with brown sauce. Tapi sebab malas nak prepare other things, I didn't have salad or veges to eat with it, and certainly not with that brown sauce. So..

Makan dengan sos cili je la!! Hahahhaa...dah namanya tekak Melayu, makan kena la ikut stail Melayu kan?? Hikksss...

The next day, yesterday, I brought the rest of this chickloaf sebab kitorang ada breakfast potluck kat office. Ye lah sempena dah nak puasa ni, so masing-masing bawakla something.

Ingatkan surely chickloaf ni tak laku, takut colleagues tak gemar nak makan ke, Sekali tu laku jugak, cepat je habis hehehhe...Siap ada yang komplen tak sempat makan;)..Alhamdulillah. Ada rezeki kita share dengan orang la kan?

On another note, hari Sabtu ni dah nak ambik kunci rumah. Seronoknya! I can't wait! Praying that there'll be just minor defects which can be rectified very soon, or better yet, no defects at all.


Selamat menyambut Ramadhan everyone! Semoga ibadat kita diberkati di bulan yang mulia ini, dan dapat limpahan rezeki yang tak putus-putus dari Allah. Mintak ampun dan maaf in case anything I wrote and rambled here ada sakitkan hati sesapa, they are really tak disengajakan.

So anyway, back to the chickloaf, bon appetit!:)

What a Bad Week

Heyaa...

This week has not been kind to me. I can only count two great things that happened, one being the house situation that I blogged about last Monday. The other one happened yesterday, which I will write later.

Wednesday was particularly a bad day. I was really busy at the office, running here and there as we had a photography session at the office, and I co-coordinated the whole session. Ended up leaving the office at around 6.10PM. That was OK by me (though I had planned to go to the gym after that for my 7.05PM class).

Once I reached Sunway,right after breezing through the SmartTag lane, there was a big jam getting towards the LDP Hanging Bridge. Via the electronic board found out that it was because of a stalled car. Oh well, c'est la vie, so I thought. Didn't expect I would be in that similar situation soon.

Whilst moving at a snail's pace there, I noticed that my cool aircond air had changed to hot smelly air. I started getting nervous, and I told myself that once I reached home, I'd definitely add water to the aircond tank or whatever you call to keep the engine cool. So I just winded down my window and switched off the aircond.

Then, just as I was driving down the Hanging Bridge, suddenly my engine went kaput, then dead! Just like that!! Allah mak!!Apa nak buat ni??? I started to panic, and tried to switch on my engine. I also quickly hit the hazard light button, indicating to the cars at the back that I was having a problem. To make matters worse, my phone ran out of battery. Alhamdulillah, soon after a young man on a bike stopped in front of me and looked back. I quickly waved to him, asking him for help.

Ala-ala lebih kurang macam ni la my car terberenti kat highway!:(
Oopss..pix courtesy of Google ya

I told him my phone battery went dead and I needed to make phone calls. Without hesitation, this adik took out his SIM card and lent me his phone. I called my friend who told me to call my car insurance hotline and ask for towing assistance. Around the same time, the highway patrol truck came and asked about my situation. I told them I don't know what went wrong and that I was calling for assistance. Memang panic gila la time tu! It was the first time something like this happened to me, so obviously I was panicking!

Then they got me to slide down and going to the left side of the road. Once I could not slide down any longer, the highway truck towed my car further up to a bus stop in front of the Western Digital factory.

I was faced with many choices on my next course of action. I could either get my insurance tow service to come and take it to the workshop, but only the ones in their panel, and which could only be examined on the next day. I didn't know the extent of damage, or failure to my car, so I thought if it could be rectified that night, I could waste the whole next day. Then I decided to just called up my friend's mechanic in Mutiara Damansara to have a look at my car. He then sent his tow truck to get my car. We waited for quite a while and in the mean time, I chatted with the young man who selflessly helped my out.

This adik's name is Farid, and he is a trainee at MPH in Midvalley. So if you go to to MPH Midvalley, please know that he is very kind and a well-raised kid. Congrats to his parents! He just completed his Mechanical Engineering diploma course in Terengganu, and currently training at MPH.

Anyway, once we reached the workshop, the mechanic examined my battery, but couldn't find anything wrong. Just when I thought I could leave and that it was just a minor damage or a false alarm, he found the real cause of my dead engine. It turned out that my engine broke down due to my own carelessness too, it was drying up!! The engine was on the verge of overheating, and it had to be thoroughly inspected. Kalau nasib lagi malang, kena overhaul!! Oh tidak!!!!!:((

Thanks Googs!

Once we settled everything, I asked my friend to come over and fetch us from there and send me home and Farid back to his bike which he left at the bus stop earlier. I could not thank Farid enough for his kindness. He didn't hesitate to help me when I needed help, eventhough we were strangers.

I only reached home at close to 11PM, and on the next day, yesterday, I had to take the emergency leave.

Then yesterday, I walked to Damansara Perdana commercial centre to go to a bank. On the way back home, as I walked on the sideway, I heard a loud wailing of a kitten from a drain. Thank god it was sunny yesterday. I found a kitten trapped in that drain, And I really have no idea how he got there.

If you know me, you'd know that I'm a regular kitten rescuer. Naturally I couldn't leave this little one behind, could I? Then as I was bending down calming the kitten down while trying to reach him through the iron cover, another young man on a motorbike stopped to ask what was going on. I asked him to help me retrieve the kitten.

After much persuasion, we managed to grab him by his tail and I took him. This young man also offered me a ride as he was heading towards the same direction. Alhamdulillah, thank God for making it easy for me to do good things to this little munchkin.

I brought him home, fed him (I always have my 'kitten rescue kit' on standby), bathed him and gave him a dose of deworm syrup.

So please, anyone out there, if you know of anyone who is looking to adopt a cat, please don't hesitate to adopt this one OK? This one deserves a loving home:)





Now that I'm reflecting back on the things that happened to me especially a couple of days ago, I don't know if it really has been a bad week for me. Sure, the blessings are aplenty-I could collect my house keys, and I rescued a kitten. But then again, the car problem overshadows other things.

On the other hand, I am really thankful for the help that I get when I was in my time of need, espcially by Adik Farid's willingness to stick by my side. His parents have indeed raised him well. He didn't have to do anything, he was just there for me. Sometimes, you never know how big an impact a stranger can have on you, and better still in the most unexpected ways. People whom you think you can always depend on may not have time, inclination, or capability to help you. The same thing for that young man who helped me to retrive that kitten from the drain. Had he not stop by, I might have to leave it behind cause I definitely could not reach down to get that baby. For that, I'm thankful that I always meet 'helpful' strangers instead of those who may have bad intention towards you. I pray to God that I'm always protected that way.

Anyway, enough rambles for this time. I will not spend my time and energy thinking too much about my misfortune this week, and instead count my blessings and praty that it cointinues. Have a great weekend everyone!