Why diet fail

People in my office:

You look thinner. Have you lost weight? Have you been eating well lately? Come eat lunch with me. You need to eat more!

(And I volunteerly follow them)

Instead of:

You look thinner. Have you lost some weight? Way to go sista! You are looking good.

Sigh. This is why diet is so hard.

Peer pressure.

Haha.

posted from Bloggeroid

Resepi maggi kari ayam (dengan ketulan ayam) untuk pengembara

Selamat datang tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian ke laman sesawang saya pada hari ini. Jika tuan-tuan dan puan-puan mencari resepi yang sedap dan senang, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan datang ke laman sesawang yang betul. Jangan tekan tab dan sesawang lain, teruskan membaca artikel ini yang mungkin akan mengubah hidup tuan-tuan dan puan-puan. Hari ini adalah hari bertuah tuan-tuan dan puan-puan kerana mungkin ini adalah resepi pertama dan terakhir di laman sesawang ini TETAPI antara resepi yang akan mengubah hidup tuan-tuan dan puan-puan.

Baiklah, mari kita mulakan...

Saya yakin tuan-tuan dan puan-puan pernah pergi melancong dan mengembara di negara-negara lain. Salah satu masalah yang sering kali dihadapi ialah susah mencari makanan yang halal dan jugak memenuhi citarasa. Oleh itu tidak hairan la kalau ramai yang di antara kita membawa Maggi untuk dimakan dalam bilik hotel apabila letih berjalan sepanjang hari. Tetapi tidak lah kekadang kita rasa muak dan jemu bila asyik makan Maggi atau Mi Sedap atau apa-apa seangkatan dengannya. Asyik-asyik mi dengan kuah yang langsung tidak memenuhi keperluan protein kita. Hanya ada mi dan kuah sahaja. Tidak kah kita terasa nak makan mi kari ayam pada masa tu? Tidak semestinya apabila kita melancong, kita perlu berkorban citarasa lidah.

Maka..... ini lah penyelesaian yang paling senang.

Mula-mula mari kita lihat apakah bahan-bahan yang diperlukan. Dah nama pun mengembara, oleh itu bahan-bahan mesti la senang. Bahan-bahan yang diperlukan adalah seperti di bawah:

Boleh pilih nak buat kari atau rendang ayam.. sangat fleksibel

Mee Maggi mesti la nak kan. Kalau tak bukan nama maggi kari ayam dah. Kemudian beli la kari ayam dalam tin seperti Yeo's atau Ayamas atau dalam kotak seperti Brahim's. Hanya 2 bahan sahaja. 

Dah siapkan bahan-bahan yang diperlukan, sekarang kita mulakan acara memasak. Tiada bawang nak potong, minyak masak atau ayam disembelih. Senang kan? Tengok, saya tak tipu tuan-tuan dan puan-puan.

Langkah pertama, masukkan mi maggi dalam air mendidih atau air panas sehingga lembut. Buang air rebusan dan biarkan mi maggi dalam bekas.

Mi maggi yang sudah lembut

Langkah kedua, buka tin atau paket kari ayam tadi dah curahkan ke atas mi maggi yang dah lembut tadi. Kacau sehingga rata.

Yummssss....

Tadaaaaa... sudah siap! Masa untuk menjamu selera.

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan boleh menjadi kreatif dengan menggunakan pelbagai lagi citarasa dengan pelbagaikan kuah. Contohnya mi maggi ayam masak merah, mi maggi kurma, mi maggi rendang ayam... bak kata pepatah mat salleh, sky is the limit. Cuma hadnya ialah apa yang Ayamas/Yeo's/Brahim's jual di kedai runcit berdekatan dengan rumah tuan-tuan dan puan-puan.

Gambar dari sini. Boleh pilih nak mi maggi + apa-apa walaupun saya tak berapa cadangkan mi maggi dengan sambal ikan bilis. Agak pelik bunyinya. Tapi ini negara demokrasi, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan boleh mencuba jika mahu

Maka tidak perlu kita makan maggi dengan perencah maggi dalam kuah yang sungguh tidak menyelerakan itu.

Selamat mencuba!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eh, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan masih membaca lagi artikel ini? Terima kasih la banyak-banyak. Sangat terharu saya dengan kecekalan tuan-tuan dan puan-puan meneruskan pencarian ilmu di laman sesawang saya ini. 

Saya nak memperkenalkan satu peralatan yang sangat berguna jika tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sering mengembara dan suka makan di dalam bilik hotel. Ia dipanggil travel cooker. Mempunyai 2 voltage untuk keperluan di seluruh dunia, ia didatangi dengan 1 alat pemanas elektrik, 1 periuk stainless steel untuk memasak, 1 bekas plastik dan 1 sudu. Lengkap untuk keperluan memasak.

Saiz hanya 60% tinggi botol air mineral 600ml

Gambar di atas (yang paling besar) membandingkan saiz travel cooker dengan saiz tisu tandas.

Saya pernah menggunakan untuk memasak resepi saya di atas semasa saya terpaksa tinggal di hotel selama 30 hari dan tidak mempunyai wang untuk order room service. Saiz dia adalah kecil seperti di bawah dan sangat padat untuk dimasukkan dalam beg.

Masak-masal dalam hotel

Ada kawan saya yang memasak nasi, telur goreng dan macam-macam lagi mengunakan ini. Ia adalah seperti periuk masak biasa cuma kecil comel je.

Jika berminat nak beli, sila tinggalkan komen dan email, saya boleh tolong dapatkan dengan harga yang berpatutan.   
Periuk ni last sekali saya order ada masalah dengan stok. Maaf, saya dah tak dapat membeli dari supplier saya dah.

Worry

Knowing your husband is sick and you are 1000 kilometres away is the worst feeling ever. I didn't get any updates from him since afternoon and now I'm worry sick about him.

Has he eaten anything?
Has he taken any medicine?
Does he need anything?

This is killing me!

3 more weeks and I'll be by his side everyday.. Can't wait!

There will be happy me only

I was chatting with my previous stakeholder on how I missed supporting their team back in KL. Their team has changed few people including him and he told me it was not the same as previous team that I supported. He laughed when I said his team was very happy and always make me happy whenever I came. He told me that we as human always remember the good memories of our previous places when we are suffering the current situation. We always forgot why we want out in the first place and just because we are familiar with the previous place, we tend to just remember the good things not the bad things.

I never thought of that before. I admitted that I made that mistake too. I only remember the good memories which making me miserable at my current situation. And when I moved to another place, I will only remember the good things of my current situation and again feeling miserable. I know this 10 months of miserable experience that I'm feeling right now will be forgotten as miserable and I will remember the good memories only.

When that happened, I will always feel miserable and never satisfy what I have now. I will living in my past, replaying the good old memories and forgot to live my present life. I will miss the enjoyment that I have now, lost in past and let opportunities to pass by my life. I will hope for better future but didn't do anything at present to ensure future will be better.

Therefore this new year 1435 Hijriah, I want to change that mindset. I will cherish the good memories, learn from bad experiences and most importantly live the present to the fullest. I will not regret what I should have done but fix it now so that there will no regret in the future.

Salam Hijrah everyone. Hope the new year bring more blessed moments and happiness to all of us around the world.

Ya Allah, please give me strength

posted from Bloggeroid

Catch up with reading when traveling

The good thing of traveling almost every weekend is that I'm able to catch up with my readings. The 1 hour wait before flight, 2.15 hours in the flight and not forgetting the delays - gave me ample time to read. Alhamdulillah, managed to finish 3 books and another 2 books in progress. It has been awhile since I did book review, so let's do it.

First book:

The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

Honestly, after reading his first book, Predictably Irrational, I wanted to write like him. I like the way he proved the theory by simple experience on humans. For example (the one that I remember), he did experiments whether those who has experience painful pain before can stand pain longer than those who never had. He invited those who has survived war or painful experience such as burn to put their fingers (or hand?) into hot water and hold it as long as they can. True enough, those who had painful experience can hold longer than those who never had such experience. Throughout the book, there are many experiments that he shared to prove well known human reactions that previously we known but never scientifically proven. Love this book but I still prefer the first one over this.

Second book:

Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor & Saul Singer

When I saw my husband reading this book, I was like why are you reading a book about Israel. He asked me to read the first chapter and I was hooked. Then I realized I didn't know much about Israel apart that what I read in Facebook. Yes, I admitted what Israel did to Palestine people was cruel and I hate them for that. However, this book tells a story of how Israel, started from Jewish immigrants around the world with no country, managed to build a "country" (I still think they stole that land from Palestine) with growing economies and so many innovations. Initially I thought the reason their economy is developing rapidy is because US and other developed countries gave them money and assistance. Then, when I finished ready that book, I realized that it wasn't the case at the beginning of Israel's existence. Also, there's a lot of positive things that we can learn from this book. Totally recommended this for everyone to read.

 Third book:

If I'd Know Then (What I Know Now) by Ellen Spragins

This book collects stories from famous ladies about their childhood challenges and asked them to write a letter to their younger self. Very inspiring and I realized that what I felt during my teenager years wasn't so different from anybody else. So glad to know that I'm normal. hehe. After finished reading it, I kept on thinking what would I write to my younger self. My younger self would be quite disappointed knowing that I'm not an architect. Sorry kid, world is more complicated than what you think. Anyway, this is good book for light reading and suitable for teenagers.

In progress 1:

Superfreakonomics by Steve Levitt, Stephen Dubner and Juan Ibeas

I bought the illustrated edition in Big Bad Wolf. Super cheap for hard cover and coloured edition but the downside is that it is heavy which is not suitable for traveling. I only get to read it when I'm home back in Subang. The first book, Freakonomics which I didn't finish reading (hehe) and now I'm reading the second one. I love the illustrated version as they put graphs, pictures and facts at the side of the page to make it more interesting and easy to understand. 

In progress 2:

Secret Letters from Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Just started last week and I can predict that this book will be done by next week. It is very addictive and the story that the author told really an eye-opener. It made me thinking about choices that I took in this life like for example coming to Miri. The more I read this book, the more I'm convince that this is a wrong decision. I keep on questioning myself what the hell am I doing here? Over and over again. Haih...

I wish I can put a smile on your face instead of on your dinner

One of the shitty thing when becoming a weekend wife is not able to cook for my husband. Not like I cooked every day when I was in Subang, but once a while I did cook for us. So that counts right. Hehe.

So we are in the healthy lifestyle phase (which I hope it will last forever) and my husband currently cook a lot (he lost 8 kg in 2 months by eating right - yes, this deserves a special post from me) which really pained my heart knowing I wasn't there to help him in the kitchen.

Yesterday he whatapps me this picture of perfect yolks of his bull's eyes. All I can do being hundred miles away was to edit it.



Oh man, I'm too old for this long distance relationship. I hope this is the last time we are away from each other. No more I'm doing this again.

posted from Bloggeroid

Evil internet

This afternoon my buddy asked me since I came Miri, did I study a lot for CIPS. I sheepishly said no. Then he asked me what did I do with my time alone here. Honestly I dunnooooo... I checked Facebook, 9Gag, browsing online forums and blogs.. boom, 12 am already and time to sleep.

Then this evening, my friend asked me if I have plan today and I said none but I want to sleep early coz I don't get enough sleep last night and..... boom, now is 12 am.

Come on Mun! Where is your self discipline on internet?

Down the drain that flow to Miri river.... haha

Home: My lifetime project

Building a home is not a once off project. It's a lifetime project. Your house will never be done. There will always an area that need to be refurbished, need to re-arrange and so on. To tell the truth, I'm kinda enjoy doing this lifetime project. And I can't believe that it has been 1 year plus that I started on this project.

This was the journey 1.5 years ago:

Selamat hari raya aidil fitri

posted from Bloggeroid

Balik Kampung.. oo oo oo.. Balik kampung

The first time in my life, I got to feel the stressful feeling on buying tickets for balik kampung for Raya. I used to live at the most 30 minutes driving from my parents house. Then one year, I was thousand miles away, so balik raya was out of question. This year, I wasn't in that driving vicinity anymore, not even 20 hours driving if I want to. The only option I have is air transportation (let's not talk about water transportation ok). 

2 months ago I realized that I have not bought any ticket for Raya. Zainal was reminding me to buy the ticket since early of the year, but me being me, I enjoyed the excitement of last minute stress -_- . Air Asia and MAS already expensive, triple the usual price , so I tried not to waste money on that. Alhamdulillah Malindo Air just introduced the route from Miri to KL. I can use this opportunity to try their service. Honestly they really need to change the timing of the flight if they want to get more customers.

Fast forward to 2 weeks before Raya, while I was happily waiting for the moment to go back to my hometown (read: KL), few of my friends warned me that Malindo Air always cancel their flight. Oh noooooooo... 

So my flight is tomorrow and I'm praying hard that they will not cancel the flight. If they did, I'm screwed. Let's see how it is going to be.

Ps: I'm so excited to go back tomorrow.. Miss my hubby, my house, my parents and semenanjung generally. I better stop now and pack my bag........

Baju Raya Purple

Dear Adik Durratus,

I hope you like the whole set of baju raya we bought for you. Enjoy your Raya!

 

 Ps: Yeah.. sorry about the long letter. It seems kakak is the one that needs all the advices inside that letter more than you. Oh well, please pardon her.

xoxo,

Kakak Comel & Abang Handsome

Race to Jannah

As a kid, one of favourite things to do while waiting for iftar was watching the iftar time announcement around  Malaysia that always shown on TV. I will be like haha, north is so late.. wahh, Sabah and Sarawak can break their fast 1 hour early. I even suggested to my mom we should sahur here and go to Sabah and Sarawak for iftar. In a way, our fasting time will be shorter. That's how my naive mine works previously.

Now, if I can go back to my past, I will tell my 10 years old me, hold on kiddo, you will experience it someday. Haha. 

Fasting in Miri is the same like fasting in West Malaysia. Exept we iftar and sahur early. The best part of early iftar is our tarawih finish early too. By 9.15pm, we are done our 8 rakaat. That plus 15 minutes tazkirah between Isyak and Tarawih. There's one night, the imam skipped the Tazkirah, we were on our way home at 8.45pm. I told my husband, if this in Subang, we are just going to start Isyak. Hehe.

Anyway, the downside is there will no waiting for azan on TV. Every year if you stick to one TV channel you can guess that after this commercial, azan is next. But not in Miri, we are constantly looking at the clock waiting for iftar. One more thing, the bazaar Ramadhan also not as much of variety as in West Malaysia. So, I'm kinda miss that too. 

Well, wherever we are, the most important is the whole Ramadhan ibaadah itself. For myself and all of you, let's make this Ramadhan better than the year before. Ramadhan Mubarak to all and let's race to Jannah!

Refreshed under waterfall in Lambir

Continuing healthy lifestyles that we just adopted few weeks ago, this weekend we set our foot to another national park. This time around it is Lambir Hill National Park. It is quite near to Miri City, around 30 minutes of driving. Apparently it is a famous spot for waterfalls for Mirians.

We arrived there at 9.30am and was very ambitious on the trail we wanted to go. The admission counter lady suggested us to go to Latak Waterfall, around 20 mins trekking. But no, we wanted to go Pantu waterfall which add another 30 minutes. She smiled and said yes you can go there too but cannot swim there. 

Feeling confident, off we went. The trek here and Niah was so different. Niah was walk in the park kind of trek as it has wooden track all the way and the track was on the same level. But here, it is a jungle track, you know with roots and all that. Even though it is just half of the Niah track distance, but the difficulty level is way above Niah. At one point, we need to climb stairs that was steep and high. Omg at that time I realized how I really really need to work on my stamina. After the stairs, we met the tree tower. The national park build a tower beside a huge and tall tree so that we can see the national park from tree canopy view. Unfortunately it was closed. It was such a bummer coz I was looking forward for that.

Ready to explore

One of the many waterfalls along the way

The virgin forest

The tree tower that was closed.. booo..

Feeling not so happy of the tree tower closure, we continued our quest to find Pantu waterfall. At that time, there was no signage and we didn't know if we are at the right track of not. The map given was not helping at all as it was so simple and drawn not to scale. After 15 minutes, we decided to turn back and moved to Latak waterfall. 

One of the many bridges

 This time around we need to descend the stairs and turned to another trail. After 10 minutes or so, we arrive at Lantak waterfall. SubhanaAllah, it was so beautiful. There was a family already in the water enjoying the cold refreshing river. We were in our bathing suit but after 45 minutes of walking, we weren't sure should we just skip the whole swimming thing.

Latak waterfall

 But thank God we didn't! We had the best time swimming and just sitting in at the waterfall. The water was cold and refreshing and the best part was that it has sandy bottom which make it feels like at the sea. It has been a while since I went to waterfall, so it was such a wonderful feeling.

So peaceful, refreshing and cooling

Happy people

Can you see it? We found small shrimp that look like a lobster

Time to go back

 And we decided that this is our new favourite spot in Miri. Maybe we can do a monthly thing here. Hehe.

Korn Corn

At 10.45 pm, a manly voice was heard saying, 'yang, rasa nak makan something tapi bukan coklat'.

Thank you Tupperware steamer. Another option for quick and healthy (if I omit butter) supper.

posted from Bloggeroid

The T junction

There is a time in your life where you need to make huge decision  for your future. It’s always between these two choices: either I want to stay with something I’m familiar with or I want to do something new and always wanted to do. And always in human nature, we prefer to do something we familiar with, whether that something we familiar with is something we like or don’t like. We always scared with the unknown but at the same time we want to try new things in the comfort of the old ones.  

When I come this junction again in my life (for some reason my life journey always meet this kind of junction), my usual competitive and adventurous inner voice will always ask to take the something new turn. However, I also want to do the familiar things, brush up a bit, add more meat and become an expert. But I don't have any passion in the this familiarity. I do it coz I need to do it as what people expected me to do it. I’m no expert but I quite good in things that I don't have passion in. So should I stick to the things that I know?

I don’t know, for once I really want to venture something that I really like, but I don’t know if what I like will help me in the future. The last time I took something I like had me into trouble of getting a job that I enjoy. But then, that particular inner voice keep on telling me that if I do something that I like, I will enjoy it and I will do it great. I agree with that. I really want to be great at something. Something that worth sharing to the world, something that can help someone in this world. I want to be that person.

So what will I choose?

A trip to Niah Cave

Today...

I visited the oldest recorded human settlement in East Malaysia dated 40,000 years ago.

Walked 8 km non-stop for 4 hours (ok, with 5 minutes break in between) with my left ankle that still not heal.

Climbed hundreds of stairs in dark with bats and swiftlets' feces covering the trail.

And...

I was amazed with the breathtaking view of the nature.

Awed with the greatness of Allah's creation.

Thankful with the opportunity of time, money and most important, health that Allah still give to me.



I can't feel my legs right now and I don't want my hands to be the next one to get tired, so I'll let the pictures tell my story.

Crossing the river with 1-minute boat ride

yeay.. Eager to start the journey.

Entering Trader's Cave. That bamboo sticks hanging from the rooftop was used by people to collect swiftlets' nest.

And the journey began into the cave

This is how dark is the cave. Please buy a good torch light.

For some reason I kinda like light in the hole here.

Gan Kira, just before the Painted Cave. Painted Cave was closed, so this was the last stop before we need to turn back.

View along the way to the cave (3 km walk)

Creatures along the way

And time to head home....

May Bliss

May almost comes to the end and I didn't have a post published on my favourite month. Ish ish ish. As usual, May always my busiest month (alasan!). So many events happened in May 2013, whether personal event or country event.

On personal event, this year both of us, has celebrated our birthday by joining the 3 series club. No more in-the-twenties age group range. Honestly I didn't feel a thing. It's not like at 12 am on the 4th May, my wrinkle double up la kan. Age is just a number but what matters are the insides. Managed to gather the busy people of my family to have nice dinner at Bubba Gump Citta Mall on my birthday.

My talented 7 years old niece homemade birthday card for me. So sweettt

The family that eat together, stay together :)

On the second day I turned 30, I used my right to vote for our 13th General Election. One of the most controversial election in Malaysia's history, and it happened a day after my birthday. Haha. Now that we have chosen our representatives, I do hope that this political issue can be closed and now let's unite in developing our country. 

Towards the end of May, I have to sit for 2 CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply) exams in Kuala Lumpur and that means I was back in Subang Jaya. Yeah, 2 weeks in Subang felt like heaven. You have no idea how I miss my own house and my town. Oh man, I really can't wait for this 1.5 years to end.

And at the last day of May, we are going on a vacation. First vacation of the year! Yeay... The frequent weekend flying has cheated me on being on vacation but the truth is we didn't go anywhere this year. Oh, except Brunei. Ok, Brunei doesn't count coz it's just a day trip.

I wish May never ends which means I don't have to go back to Miri. But that impossible right? Blerrrgghh...

Happiness found in handbags

Sometimes I just don't understand women, which include myself. I don't understand what is the relationship between handbag and happiness. But I do understand that new handbag can bring so much happiness that cannot be understood by men. Hahaha

I'm in the cloud nine now coz few minutes ago, I just clicked 'submit order' to an early birthday gift for myself. It has been sometimes since I bought a new handbag. I worked hard last year and this year, I need to award something to myself isn't it. Hehe.

Masya Allah Mun, semua ni duniawi sahaja. Tapi sekali sekala boleh la kan :-)

posted from Bloggeroid

The agony

I miss my husband so bad that I wish I can pack my stuff and fly home right now.

I really hate this feeling I have every Sunday night. My inner voice keeps on screaming I dont want to be here, I want to be with my husband. Then it keep on questioning me why am I here. Is it worth it?

I should be next to my husband and not here.

Ya Allah, please help me and please make my strong.

posted from Bloggeroid

When a man loves a woman

Since Hallyu Wave has spread across the world, Korean dramas are shown in all tv channels and Astro even has 2 dedicated channels for the K-Drama fans. Honestly, without embarrassed, I admit that I'm one of them. Their drama is so addictive and bring you out of your current mundane daily life to another world. Me being me, I'm only watching those romantic, funny and melt-your-heart kind of drama with handsome and pretty actors and actresses. I avoid those serious and thriller type of drama. If I want to distract myself from my daily life, might as well goes to the extreme happiness rather than making you depress right.

From the drama that I watched, I noticed that their romantic-ness are somehow over the top and obviously not realistic in real world. In real world, men will not do things like that. Sometimes I'm scared that some naive ladies out there who dream of having a man that will do what the actor did in the drama. I once read in forum that a guy wrote that he was sad that his girlfriend wanted to break with him coz he was not romantic. And the worst part, the girlfriend actually used K-drama as a benchmark of romantic-ness. Haih.. we need to differentiate what is entertainment and what is reality.

In reality, this is what a man will do to show that he loves his woman (based on personal experience):

1. Accept that she doesn't know how to cook and patiently teach and help her with cooking
2. Ate whatever she cooked even it taste really sucks
3. Charge her iPad/phone at night so that she can use her iPad the next day with full battery
4. Switched on the light when he went out for his night shift so that she will not come back into dark home
5. Support her to follow her dreams
6. Be her shoulder to cry on when her dreams face challenges and motivate her to not give up
7. Pick up and send her to airport every week
8. Bought network wire when she complain the hotel wire not long enough
9. Spoon feed her when she sick
10. Wait patiently for weekend to watch the new episode of tv series so that they can watch together
11. Skip futsal so that he can spend the all night with her before she moved
12. Quietly buy breakfast for her before she wake up
13. Remember what she likes and dislikes
14. Hate people who make her sad
15. Help her with the house chores
16. Make sure her car is in tip top condition
17. Kiss her before he leaves for work everyday
18. Provide 24/7 computer technical support
19. Never fail to call her everyday 
20. Become her biggest fan and biggest critic
21. Concern about her safety
22. Don't let her carry heavy stuff
23. Hold her hand when walking
24. Always on her side even the world is against her
25. Remember her favourite songs
26. Frantically search for her when she is not by his side in underwater
27. Make sure she always gets the best
28. Guide her when she's lost
29. Accept her during PMS
30. Cuddle her tightly every night
31. Keep a portion of his favourite food for her so that she can taste it
32. Buy her supplement so she will be healthy
33. Encourage her to be healthy
34. Respect her belief and principles, never force her into anything
35. Love her unconditionally

The list can go on and on and on. Actually the list is based on my husband. I'm so lucky to have him as a husband. He never lavish me flowers, jewellery, poems, poetic words, but his love is clearly seen in his action and decision for me. That's usually not capture in drama. So be wise and appreciate your husband.

Oh, lately I always see posts shared in FB about a good husband needs to do this, this and this. It is always about husband not being good enough and I will judge you if you share that. I will assume that your husband is not doing what you shared no matter how much you try to comment back saying "oh, my husband is the best, he's doing this bla bla" coz if your husband is ok, why you need to share and tagged his name at the first place? If I'm the husband, I will be pissed - why ask him to do things publicly on things that he already doing which giving an indication to public that he's not doing it?

I miss my husband T_T. Can't wait for Thursday!

Things that I miss

Things that I miss while living in Miri:

1. My husband
2. Eating with my husband everyday
3. Sleeping with my husband every night
4. All activities that I do with my husband
5. Gardenia bread - all kind
6. My colleagues in Cyberjaya & Damansara Heights
7. My family
8. My friends
9. Fly FM
10. Ikim FM
11. Good food
12. My dryer
13. My bathroom
14. My bedroom
15. My kitchen
16. In short, my house
17. Unifi

Things that I did not miss while living in Miri:

1. Traffic jam
2. That's all

The first 30 days

Today marked the 30th day of my arrival to this 'quiet' town of East Malaysia, Miri. It has been a roller coaster ride for me. I thought I will survive this with a breeze, especially after living in US for 1.5 years and used to be away from home. Boy, I was wrong. Every place has different challenges and I sometimes underestimated what I will face.

Week 1

Arrived in Miri on Sunday afternoon alone as I didn't want to feel comfortable to have someone with me. I checked in into my temporary accommodation that the company has generously provided to me. I chose Marriott Resort and Spa as I wanted to be as comfortable as I can, even though the hotel is the furthest hotel from the office, which is 20-30 minutes away driving (in Miri standard, that is far). The first week was the honeymoon week. Everything was a new discovery to me. I excited to see boats, river and sea on the way to office and everyone at the office was good to me. What made it better was the fact on Wednesday one of my good friend in Cyberjaya came to work in my new office and made me less officesick.

That weekend, was the long Chinese New Year weekend and my husband came over. We had a good time exploring Miri and the neighbouring country aka Brunei while enjoying Marriott's facilities. Together we shortlisted areas that I should looked into for my permanent housing here.

In short, I can imagine myself doing well here and whenever people asked me how is the new place, my answer was good.

Week 2

Week 2 went by quite fast. The first 2 days were public holiday and Zainal was here, so whenever he by my side, I'm always ok. The other 3 working days were quite quiet as many people took the opportunity to have long holiday. At this time I started to have officesick. I started to miss my old colleagues and friends, missed to have lunch and chat with them. It was not helping that I still haven't given any jobs. I ended up reading all the material in company website and even managed to finish a 50 pages manual.

That Friday my parents arrived and weekend was not so bad. As usual, there's nothing much to do in Miri except driving around and Brunei. At least I wasn't lonely that weekend and it has been awhile since I spend time alone with my parents and this was a great opportunity.

Week 3

This was the week that I discovered things going down the drain emotionally. At third week of working in new office, I still haven't have lunch buddies, not even one. Not even one person asked me if I want to join them for lunch. Everyday I need to ask around if I can join them. This is where I realized there's 2 kind of friendly -  a genuine one and a fake one. The lowest point of the week was when I was so down and lonely, I drove to McD drive thru with tears running my cheek, bought my lunch and parked at the side road to eat it. 

However Allah has answered my prayer that day when I met a friend who moved here from Cyberjaya and we made a pact to become default lunch buddy. I realized she was having the same issue with me and that made me feel better as I know I was not alone in feeling this. 

This has definitely lighten up my sadness a bit but I still didn't have any works in the office. I raised this to my supervisor and she asked me to use this time to myself while she sort out my portfolio. At this time I was restless at office, I started to think more about this job. Is it worth it? Why am I doing this? Is this what I want in life? When I started thinking like this, I know this is not good.

Alhamdulillah Zainal came that weekend. Not seeing him almost two weeks added the stress and made me emotionally wreck. At least being with him for one night released a huge amount of sadness and loneliness that I have been carrying all week.

Week 4

Finally I started to do my work. The real work. Business invited me to join him in a meeting in KLCC which means I got to go back home! Even for less than 24 hours -arrived in KL at 10.30pm and my flight back to Miri the next day at 9pm, it means a lot to me.. But it is definitely recharged me. This week brought me more good news. My car has arrived and so were my stuff. Finally familiar things! Ditched the new car that my company lend to me to drive my old faithful Gen 2. It felt so good to be with something that I familiar with which remind me that I'm not far away from home.

That weekend I went home. It was so good to be home and I missed everything about home. And that is how I survived my first month here.

Oh, 18 months, please come quickly and let me finish this as soon as possible.

The day is (almost) here

Phew... first hurdle has gone. Household items and car are on their way to nearest port (I'm guessing Port Klang) for their own new adventure in the sea. Mine will be tomorrow. I haven't packed a thing and all I have is two empty luggage with food surround them. I'm so worried about not able to have decent food there than having more important stuff packed. Haih, priority Mun!

The mover packing my things

Take care car... You'll be my best friend there and I need you to be healthy. No one will come at a phone call away anymore.

Hubby asked what do you want to eat for dinner tonight? Immediately I said Carl's Jr coz I don't think there is Carl's Jr there. I just received email from my new boss that GSC just opened there and everyone was excited about it. Good timing!

Honestly, I don't know what to expect. I will embrace what may come with open arms. And trying to remember what I did in US that I finally able to feel comfortable and less homesick. Good luck to me!

The surprise farewell

I thought today was going to be another normal weekend. We were planning to have a lunch with Zainal's ex-colleagues at The Curve and maybe some shopping after that. We arrived 15 minutes before 1pm and since Zainal said they were planning to meet at Marche around 1pm, we walked around the flee market to see if I can find something for my company's Crazy Hat Party this Thursday. I guessed Zainal was hungry so he suggested to go to the Marche right away. 

Upon entering Marche, I saw a lady that was smiling and waving at me. I thought I've seen this lady before but is she Zainal's colleague? Then I saw Intan and Dhira and I was like, hey, you guys are here! Don't know that everyone decided to eat at Marche today. After that I saw Sue, Sara (she's the lady that smiled and waved at me!) and lastly Mas. I was like heyyyyy.... ape ni? One of the lady, couldn't remember who said, surprise!! This is a surprise for you. I was like ??????? I was speechless. Didn't know what to say and saw the cake. Tears was just at the corner of my eyes but I hold back of course (don't want this to be a joke later.. haha).

The cake and the gift basket

I was never in the position of being surprised. I don't know how to react and what to do. I'm actually quite blur the whole lunch. I couldn't even think of what to eat. I was actually surprised and overwhelming with so much love thinking that my girlfriends took time to organize and make it all the way to The Curve. And my husband, wow, he can really keep a secret and knows how to cover the whole surprise lunch.

Thank you so much for the best surprise farewell lunch. I love you, ladies. You make me harder to leave thinking that I'm leaving such a wonderful best friends. Last but not least, the gift basket. Love it! The truth is, most the items in the basket are the items that I'm planning to buy, including the basket. I'm bringing all of that to Miri :)

Love you gals :)

The anniversary dinner

For us, celebrating our anniversary is something that we always look forward to. We tried to plan a holiday somewhere around it and if time (or money) not permitted, we will have a nice dining plan out. For this year, holiday was not planned as I will be moving soon, so we decided to have a good dinner to celebrate our fifth anniversary.

I told my husband to surprise me. He ruled out any buffet as I'm on my PB diet and finally he told me that we are going to Tanzini in G Tower. Honestly that was my first time hearing that restaurant and after looking at the online review, I was excited to go.

Tanzini is situated at the 28th floor of the G Tower and has 2 floors. The Upper Deck is serving the set course meal only and the lower one is the ala carte menu. Husband chose the upper deck as it is more private and have better view. 

The set menu consist of 4, 5 or 6 courses that you can choose. We chose the 5 course meals and beef and lamb as our main course. Then I ordered their specialty drink, Tanzini T - black tea, strawberry (with real strawberry floating), mint and pomegranate syrup. I really looovveee it. Husband ordered apple juice with lemon glass and it's just ok.

The first course was smoked salmon. It was delicious. In fact it was one of the best course that night. Then the waiter served our starter, mine was dried scallops with something something and Zainal was duck with something something. Well, it was ok. Next was the baby kailan soup with crispy chicken. He poured the soup in front of us to ensure that the crispy chicken didn't not turn soggy swimming in the soup. Between the soup and main course, the waiter served us watermelon sorbet to rinse our taste palate before the main. I don't like sorbet, so I didn't enjoy it. Then our main was served. I chose lamb while Zainal chose beef tenderloin. My lamb was so tender with some grill taste outside. It was so yummy. Compared to husband beef tenderloin which I think is just average, the lamb is better. Lastly was the dessert. The huge disappointment. It was a scope of ice cream on top of chocolate cookies and reddish. The ice cream and cookies was ok, but the reddish, omg, seriously just spoiled my whole experience of the food that night. Maybe I don't like reddish but man, that's not dessert!

For left top: My delicious drink Tanzini T, smoked salmon, the starters, sorbet, Zainal's beef tenderloin, dessert and my lamb. In the middle is the kailan soup.

Despite the limited food choice in the upper deck session, I love the restaurant. The ambiance was so romantic, with high ceiling glass ceiling where you can see KLCC in front of you. The couch as the seat where we can cuddle (if only the waiter stopped coming checking on us) and the hanging round lights in the middle of the room made the whole place very cozy. You can also hang out at the balcony before you leave enjoying the soft breeze of KL night skyline. There were 2 couples including us only for that night and made us felt like we own that place. 

The ambiance

The service was excellent. The waiter was very attentive, checking on us so many times, explaining what is the dish that have just served and took time to take a lot of our pictures. The best part was when we ordered a beef dish, he came back to us and told us that dish was marinated with wine. So he told us to change it and gave us different menu. 

On side note, I always respect and have a high admiration to restaurants that are very sensitive to their customers religion belief and inform them the ingredients. I found out that how I dress, for example like me which is wearing a hijab, always save me in restaurants. Few restaurants that I went, Tanzini, Alexis, Chocolate Bar at Marina Bay Sand in Singapore and few others, has warned me that certain dish in their menu has alcohol as ingredient. The funny part is they informed me but not my husband (in the case of Chocolate Bar). So I always believe if we dress as a Muslim, we will be respected as one too.

Back to the Tanzini, overall the food and the ambiance there was above my expectation. I really enjoy our dinner last night. 

Thank you husband for the great dinner and as my lifelong companion. Happy 5th anniversary and may our love last till Jannah. Love you bunch <3 p="p">

The marriage numbers

19th of January is our 5th year wedding anniversary.

We dated each other for 5.5 years before we got married.

We knew each other for 5 years before we dated.

Therefore, we have known each other for 15.5 years. Which means we have known each other more than half of our life.

:)

Still no peace

When I told my husband about her, how she made this and that, my husband just smiled and said, when you hate someone, everything he/she did is wrong and will make you angry. Why don't you just sit back, watch her burn herself and walk away?

Well, I just can't. Every little thing she did to me just so annoying and making me so stressful. Of all the people I need to handover, why it has to be her? I remembered people used to warn me about her. I thought I don't want to judge so early, be neutral and let me experience myself. Ya Allah, how true what people said. Masakan pohon bergoyang tanpa angin..

She's like a knife stuck in my heart. Everyday she twists a little bit and slowly tearing my heart. Some days the knife goes in deeper, crushing my lungs leaving me gasping for some air. Leaving it there cause pain, trying to remove it cause pain too. At the end, my motivation slowly dying.

Why la some people are like this?

I think I need to stand up and stop being bullied.

So how do I start?

Finding my peace

I just want to leave this place with good memories and less heartache. After one and a half years, the last thing I want to do is to leave a bad impression after building up a good reputation. Of course, it was not that simple. People still want to make my heart bleeds with irrational decisions.

I used to ignore everything and focus my energy to the things that matter. But then, when the replacement came, suddenly I realized I'm a black sheep. Everything I did was a mistake. Every now and then I heard complaints and dissatisfaction about me. The complaints came from someone that didn't matter much but clearly important to him. No complaints came from everyone that matter, but did he care. Of course not. Comments and feedback was very satisfying from everyone that matters but to him I'm just a headache. Ah, I forgot that pleasing him is more important than getting the job done with everyone that matter. 

Even at the last days of my service, the unthinkable still happened. Few people volunteered, but he chose me. Yes me. To organise my own goodbye. What on earth people organize their own farewell? Clearly bedazzled most of the people, but I kept on repeating this mantra to myself to keep my sanity, everyone is different and we should respect. Again and again. It just happened that the person with authority that is different flock.

Oh well, I'm doing this for Allah, to please only Him. Allah will take care of me, not him. I have given my best and leave everything to Him.

I will find my peace soon. InsyaAllah.

Wonderful 2012

There is only one word to describe 2012: Alhamdulillah. All praise to Allah. So much has happening in 2012, even though I have ups and downs, but the amount of love I get from Allah and people, is just unbelievable.

We traveled a lot this year. It's like a revenge for 2011 for the lack of traveling. The highlight of the year is Umrah. But the worst of 2012, the hospitalization after Umrah.

Well, let's recap 2012:

1. We travel a lot, on average of once every 3 months:
1. January : Bali for our 4th anniversary
2. March: Umrah
3. May: Penang
4. August: Alor Setar
5. September: Langkawi
6. November: South Korea
2. Hospitalized coz of Influenza B - then doctor took the opportunity to do endoscopic procedure since I always have stomach problem. Who would know the equipment I used to repair during internship become my diagnostic tool.
3. Alhamdulillah no death in the family this year.
4. Steep learning curve in my career. But it was very satisfying. 
5. No diving trip this year :(

I guess that's all this year. I see only 2 common themes: Travel and work. And sickness. Haha. My stakeholder actually put this twice in my performance review this year: She needs to take care of her health. Ok, that will be this year resolution.

I always looking forward to do each year reflection (this blog tradition) just to remind myself to be thankful of all the things that happened in my life and as a learning to improve myself. On a sad day, I will search this list every year and smile at all life experiences that I have been through.

Complicated

Husband: When are you going to buy all the stuff that you want to bring to East Malaysia?
Me: Don't know yet.
Husband: So you want to do it last minute and rush everything? Oh wait, do you have checklist things to buy?
Me: No.

Husband looked at me. I'm feeling scared.

Me: Ok, I will do it today. I'm confused what thing to bring. Should I duplicate everything I have here?
Husband: Or you can bring things from here rather than duplicate everything.
Me: But then when I come back here, I don't have all the things that I need coz some are there.

Husband looked at me.

Husband: God, your life is so complicated, isn't it?

*Grin*

Ok, I better do the checklist ASAP.