Why I love May #3

Okay still on 4th May 2011... But it's too precious not to be captured in here for future remembrance.

I arrived at my workplace 5 minutes after 9am. The minute I placed my handphone on my table, it rang. It rang so loud that I was startled by it. Quickly glanced at the caller name and picked it up, I was smiling. It was my best friend. Every year she will call me to wish happy birthday except when I was in US. We talked for a while and we promised to continue again later. No matter how long I didn't talk to her, the moment we have a time to talk, our conversation never end. Thank you so much Mas Ayu. You are the best!

In the afternoon, around 4pm, my colleagues gathered at the energy hub (aka pantry!) for my birthday celebration. One of them baked the cake the night before. They sang birthday song and let me made a wish before cutting the cake. I was so shocked by this kind of celebration coz I just worked there for a month or precisely 34 days (including weekends). I was so touched and overwhelmed. 

Then on Mother's Day, instead of me treating my mom, I was being treated coz it was birthday last Wednesday and my mom wished it late. Merajuk! Haha... We have a nice small family dinner at Tarboosh in Empire. Great food but not so good service.

Though this year my birthday is not at Niagara Falls or traveling around foreign land, I was surrounded by my darling, my families and my friends. And that worth more than anything in this world. I'm happy happy person.

Ok, this is the last post about my birthday for this year. I know people are already tired reading it by now. Macam dia sorang ada birthday. Haha!

Why I love May #2

Circa 4 to 5 May 2011...

Thank you to my wonderful friends for the birthday wishes.... (Click the picture for bigger size)

 

 

Why I love May #1

This is why I love May...

The background match the bouquet kan. Terima kasih landlord untuk dinding purple. Surprisingly the purple wall looks really good as a background based on experiment by me. Maybe in the future we have a purple wall specially just for family pictures. Hehe..

It's not even my birthday yet, but I got a lovely surprise from my husband.when I came home from work this evening. My colleagues said that the Chinese believe that it's good luck to celebrate your birthday early. So I'm early like 5 hours. Hihi.

Anyway, this is not the only surprise from Mr Hubby, he also cooked dinner tonight. Well, he been cooking dinner for us lately if he's on off day. So it's not a big surprise.

I'm so happy tonight. He kept on asking me when I'm going to eat the Ferrero Rocher. Well, it's not my birthday yet, sayang, so you have to wait. Rupanya ada udang sebalik batu. Hehe...

Thank you so much my beloved husband. I love you always and forever.

My favourite month is here

Yeay! May is here...

Can't wait!

Everybody is a princess on her wedding

I am watching the royal wedding of Will and Kate's replay as I am typing this. It such a beautiful wedding. Beautiful bride with simple yet gorgeous dress and the prince, well, there's nothing to say about him. I used to have a huge celebrity crush on him. I bought like every magazine that has his pictures and my good friend, Sue, when she went to UK to do her A-Level, she posted me a life-size William's face postcard to me. She wrote in the postcard, 'the moment I saw this postcard, I immediately remembered you'. Awww... so sweet. I still kept it. I'll take the picture of it and post it here when I come back home one of these days. But why William becoming bald nowadays? Aiyahhh.. sudah tidak hensem la macam ni.

Anyway, when I watched a wedding, I always looking forward to this moment: the moment when a bride meet her groom. No matter in what religion, there is a moment when both bride and groom will meet for the first time in that ceremony. That particular face-to-face moment will show if they are really in love or feeling awkward. You know why? It remained me of my wedding. 

I remembered during my solemnization, when I was walking to my designated place, at that moment I didn't realized my future husband was watching me. Then without a plan, our eyes met and I only saw his love in his eyes. My heart skip a beat and fell in love all over again. At that moment I realized I made the best decision of my life. Then the whole ceremony was fuzzy to me. Until now, I can recall that moment clearly in my mind and never fail to make me smile.

Oh man, I was on romantic mode one whole day. With all the love songs Fly FM has been playing during my journey to and back from work, lovely dinner with my husband and best of all, all day chatting with him using IM (yup, his company is my company's vendor, so we able to chat with each other.. hehe), nothing can spoil my mood right now. Not even a diarrhea. 

Last but not least, congratulations William & Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Prince William told his bride Kate, "You look absolutely beautiful". The special moment that I was talking about.  Source: Here

Ps: Do you notice a large Malaysian flag in the crowd at the background of the interview segment? Who's that lucky chap?

Event organizer

Since I came home June last year, I found myself voluntarily being an event organizer. From my mom's and dad's birthday dinner, my girlfriends' gathering to baby shower. I don't know how I landed on this role but by now, wherever we wanted to gather, my girlfriend would asked me to organize.

Honestly, I am not an event organizer material. I'm impatient, not so good in handling difficult people, indecisive and don't know how to say no. So why I become one is still a mystery. Actually the first time I organized a gathering, it was so easy. It was less than a week notice and turned out everybody free on that day and walla! the gathering happened. Then I thought maybe it wasn't so bad. So I took lead on our next outing which was visiting Intan and her baby. It was supposed to be very easy. Fixed a date and time, and off we go. Buuutttt... There was drama. I have to let my friend handled that drama coz I was scared that I might say something stupid and spoilt the friendship. At the end everything turned out well.

So this time I was 'assigned' to organize the baby shower, I was excited. I never attend a baby shower before, let alone organized one. So I thought I would be simple where we going to have lunch or tea and that's it. But a week before that, Intan called and asked me how the progress. Then at that time, I panicked! I have to think about the decoration, games, door gift, themes etc. So I asked Intan if she can help me buying gifts and choose the games. The rest I'll do it. Like the last one, the drama queen emerged again. But this it's more complicated as it involved budget and preparation. At the end, I have to absorb all the cost coz she decided not to come at last minute.

That's the thing about being an organizer, sometimes you have to be the black sheep, telling your friend they can't bring their spouse coz this is all-ladies event. Sometimes you have to deal with people who are not flexible, wanting everybody follow her way when everyone has agreed on a decision. Sometimes you have to absorb the cost coz someone decided not to come last minute. Sometimes you have to do all the thing alone coz nobody volunteer as this is more of volunteer role, I rather have someone volunteer to help rather than I ask them to do it. So far Alhamdulillah, I have friends who always willing to volunteer and help me. But the most important of all, you need to find a date and time where everyone can attend it.

This is different than planning your own party. When you plan your own party, you just set a date and start organize the party. You don't have deal whether the date is free for everyone, whether the location is fine with everyone and so on.

So anyway, deep down inside I really enjoy doing this, that's why I always volunteer. But sometimes I just wish, not an impossible wish, I wish that people will cooperate with me. Especially that particular people. Please don't make my life harder by making last minute decision and say something that make people feel guilty. Everybody has different problems and challenges in life, but it doesn't mean that yours was the worst.

That day I was so angry that I told Intan that I wanted to resign being an organizer. She said I will be an organizer for life in our group and she will propose that on our AGM. We have an AGM? Hahahaaha... Wait, do I have to organize that? Haha..

But at the end, when all the ladies come together, laughing, gossiping and having good time, all the hardship of putting this up just melted away. I just glad that my friends trust me for all my decision and thankful that I have such a wonderful close friends.

On a positive mode

Alhamdulillah this is the second week of my new job. Love everything here. The system, the people, the learning opportunity and the location. I always love working in Cyberjaya. In previous job, when our client was in Cyberjaya, I actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately my ex-team did not coz it's quite far from them.

Why I love Cyberjaya? There's no trafic jam (yet! At least for now) as the building was still not high rise and the place to eat is just around the corner (though the selection is not that many but not bad). Furthermore, the nature of businesses and companies that located here make it kind of matrempit-less. Not forgetting the diversity of workers here and a lot of the companies here have shift work thingie, it doesn't feel so quiet at night. But the best of all, Mr Zainal is working here too! Haha.. So when he has to work at the night shift, we can have early dinner together before I headed home. At one time I have to attend a late conference call, we have a dinner first before he headed home. The bad news is, we don't carpool to work =( coz the our work schedule is different and like he said, even if it's the same, he wouldn't want to carpool with me coz I always late! Bluuueerrggghhh..

Anyway, we also have moved. This explained the lack of updates due to limited internet access. I hope TM will not break their promise and install our internet access on the said date. Seriously I can't handle another month with limited access. What I mean by limited is the unreliable 3G signal at 17th floor. At this moment I wish we are not at this high level but the constant cool breeze make me feel lucky to be in this unit.

The cold shoulder thing has been resolved too. By not doing anything. Haha. After awhile, everybody starts to think rationally again and everything fine back. Well, air dicincang tak kan putus kan?

At this moment all I can said is everything did goes well and a big thank to the Almighty who always be by my side though sometimes I'm can be careless. ALHAMDULILLAH...

Home is where my heart is

I can see the world outside

I just need to get pass this cold glass

And I'm free

Even though I'm just a bug 

I have feelings

I have dreams 

I yearn to lead my own life... 

               even they hate my existence.

The little girl asked...

A 10-year-old girl: Can I join a trip to Malacca organised by my sekolah agama this coming school holidays? Ustaz and ustazah will join too.

Dad: No, you can't. There will be boys and the teachers won't be able to monitor all of you.

A 10-year old girl: Hmmm... Ok.

A 11-year-old girl: Dad, can I go to the Girls' Scout camping organised by the district Girls' Scout? Only few  girls are chosen from my school.

Dad: No, you can't.

A 11-year-old girl: But why? There would be no boys. It's all girls camping activities.

Dad: The teachers would be able to take care all of you. You might not be safe.

A 11-year-old girl: Hmmmmm... Ok.

A 12-year old girl (still trying her luck): Can I join the camping organised by school at the end of the year? It's for all Standard 6 students after finishing UPSR. Almost everybody is going to go.

Dad: No, you can't. Remember what I said about the boys.

A 12-year-old girl: Hmmmmmmmmm... Ok.

Dad: If you really want to go camping, I'll bring you one day.

That girl refused to join any uniform club at secondary school as she knew she won't be able to go anywhere for any activity.

A 16-year-old girl: My club is having an overnight activities at school this weekend. Can I go? I mean, I have to go coz I'm the secretary of that club. We will stay overnight at school and of course teachers will be there.

Dad: No, you can't. 

A 16-year-old girl: But dad, my teacher made it compulsory to attend this.

Dad: It's ok. I'll fetch you when the activities are over at night and send you first thing in the morning so you don't miss anything. I'll talk to the teachers.

A 16-year-old girl: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

A 18-year-old: Weeeeeee.... I got a good result for my SPM. I'm going to apply to further my study oversea.

Mom & Dad: *Quietly praying she didn't get it*

A 18-year-old girl: I can't believe I was rejected. All my friends is going away! I work hard for this and yet... T_T

Two years later that girl found out that 'somebody' that knew 'someone' in the committee asked that 'someone' to reject her application. She was furious.

And... At 19-year-old, that girl still hasn't experienced any camping with her dad. One day her dad told her to go any camping she was interested in coz he's quite old to bring her. At that point, that girl felt that she was too old to experience camping for the first time while her friends were seasoned campers. 

A 27-year-old (married, have stayed overseas for 1.5 years and traveled alone more that twice): My husband and I will move out and rent a house near our office by end of this month.

Mom & Dad: *2 weeks of silence treatment to them*

That 27-year-old was accused of being ungrateful by others because she wanted to move out to build her own family with her HUSBAND. 

Suddenly all the bloodbaths, wars and protests across the world in the name of freedom make sense to her. People will do anything for freedom. And she will.

Pray for Japan

Now, every time I felt life is hard, I thought about all the photos of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan and I thank God that Malaysia hasn't been involved in any devastating natural disaster. I remembered all the stories of the brave and resilience Japanese people faced this disaster. How they help each other even though they are not in the best comfort. 

Sometimes I wonder what happened if disaster like this happen in Malaysia? Nauzubillah. But are we ready for disaster management? Are we as brave, as discipline, as tolerance as the Japanese? I hope we are. I still have hope for Malaysian. And I am praying this will not happen to Malaysia.

For now, I stop complaining and start being thankful for everything. I'm sure Allah has His own plan for me.

These are satellite photos before and after the earthquake+tsunami in the area that was hit.

North of Sendai

North of Sendai

Sendai

Source: NY Times

I pray that the nuclear crisis will not be as bad as Chernobyl and will be fixed soon. 

Launching of Discovery Shuttle

Discovery Shuttle has landed yesterday, 9^th March 2011 at 11.57 am EST (12.57am Malaysia time). That would be the end of her 39^th mission (STS 133) and also the last mission before her retirement. She had racked 240 millions kilometers since she started 27 year ago and spend 365 days total in space.

Why I’m so obsessed with this space shuttle? Because I was there in Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch her 38^th mission launched. Mission Discovery STS-131 was launched on April 5 2010, at 6.21 am EST. It was a dream came true for me. Sorry Disney, NASA can make dreams come true too, you know.

I knew there were launchings and landings event in the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) but I never thought that one day I’ll be witnessing it. We even missed visiting KSC during our Florida trip due to tight budget though it was one of my places that need to visit in US.

It so happened one of my friends in Duke told us about his experience watching the launching of space shuttle and I was hooked. He suggested why don’t we do a road trip to Orlando and watch the next launch. I immediately said yes and recruited few of my friends to join. Recruiting my friends was easy, the hard part was to convince my hubby. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of driving 8 hours to a same place again when we just visited that place 3 months ago. I convinced him that my friend will drive and we will just pay for petrol and such. Then I excitedly explained to him why this is important to me: the fact that my childhood ambition to be an astronomer, the fact that I always wanted to have a telescope but it’s too expensive for 14 years old, the fact that I love everything about space (except Star Trek) and I can show him evidences of the number of books on astronomy at my home when we come back. Finally he gave in and I told my friend to buy us 2 tickets.

The ticket of the launching usually sold out within hours of opening. In fact in 2010, the tickets were sold out within 1 hour after it was opened to public because the announcement by Obama that the space shuttle program will be discontinued soon. NASA will have to finish up whatever missions for 2010 and they will no more space shuttle program. Besides Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour also will be retired soon. So that was another reason why I should watch this. My friend managed to get the tickets as he bought it within few minutes the online counter opened. I was so happy.

The thing about space shuttle is they really really need to emphasize on the safety of their crew. If they think the date that chose wasn’t suitable due to weather or technical problems, they will postpone. Initially the launched was planned on 18^th March 2010 but it was postponed to April 5 2010. When they postponed the date, all my friends decided they didn’t want to go. Man! I was devastated. I have two options: 1) to abandon the trip and burned my tickets or 2) just proceed with the trip with my hubby. After much deliberation (and the fact that my friends went to DC for cherry blossom also interest me at that time), we decided that we should proceed with the trip (cherry will bloom every year anyway!).

On the April 4, we drove to Orlando. Since hotel in Orlando is cheaper than Titusville (the closest town with hotel), we decided to stay there. Also the Halal food is abundant there. From Orlando to Cape Canaveral took around 30- 45 minutes only. We arrived around 6pm and after checking in, we went for dinner. Immediately after dinner, we slept for few hours coz we planned to drive there at 1 am. Crazy I know, coz the launching only at 6.21am EST. But we wanted to get a good spot & parking.

Upon arriving there, I grabbed my sweater and my orange blanket. Zainal refused to bring his sweater and even food. I forced him to bring some Gatorade, biscuits and bottled water. I know it was in Florida, The Sunshine State but this was at 1 am in the morning and the temperature can drop further. Guess who is right? Guess who has to wear my orange blanket at 3am? Huhu…

The ticket we got entitled us to enter Kennedy Space Center the next day too besides that night itself. There is another ticket, more expensive, where you actually can watch the launching nearer than anybody else. There were shuttle buses that brought these ticket bearers to a place that was closest view you can get to see the space shuttle shot up. That tickets were harder to get coz usually the agents would buy it first and sold it at higher price. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy that ticket. My ticket entitled me to watch it at KSC Visitor Center, which is the next best thing. 

At the Kennedy Space Center, you can felt the atmosphere of excitement. There was a big screen showing the current situation at the launching pad. I saw the astronauts were putting their space suits and get ready since 3am. My husband remarked when seeing that:

Husband: There’s a reason why you are not an astronaut.

Wife: why?

Husband: Coz after all the staff put you in the space suit and get you ready, suddenly you need to go to toilet.

Wife: Hahahahahah…. You are right.

Oh well, I can never be an astronaut anyway. 

We walked around the space center taking photos with the rockets, exhibitions and shopping there while waiting for the launching. The store was so cool! There’s so many stuff I wanted to buy, including the space blanket, but I ended up with a magnet and an envelope. Boring! Then we realized that more people have arrived and we need to reserve a spot for us. I was thinking of reserving a spot on the grass, but morning dew has wet the ground. So we sat at one of the picnic table. We shared that table with a Canadian family who came all the way from Canada.

At rockets garden

With one of the shuttle exhibited there

The crowd

Then the moment has come. 15 minutes before the launch, we could see International Space Station visible like a bright star over the Cape skyline. I thought it was normal practice, but it’s actually a rare occasion. Everybody was ‘oooooohhhhhh’ and ‘aaaaaahhh’ while looking up. I was thinking it was a welcome gesture by the staff in ISS to the Discovery. What a wonderful sight.

Then the countdown began.

"It's time for you to rise to orbit. Good luck and Godspeed," launch director Pete Nickolenko told the astronauts right before liftoff.

"Let's do it!" replied commander Alan Poindexter.

And off they go and the rest is history. Let’s pictures tell my story (after long introduction…hehe) :

The sky in the morning after the launching was unusual but beautiful...

We walked around to exhibitions that we missed (or too tired and sleepy) to go...

See who is wearing the orange blanket.... hehe... Inside one of the space shuttle...

Sleepy & tired & ready to go back

And guess what happened on our way back? 2 hours of not moving traffic congestion to Orlando. ARRRRGGGHHH...

Must be my lucky day

Finally, after 27 years of living, I won a lucky draw.... =)

At my friend's twin second birthday...

All the kids there must be hating me.

I don't care, I WON SECOND PLACE IN LUCKY DRAW!

Take that little kids!

Muaaahahahahahhaha (evil laugh)

What was funnier, third & second place won by Subang girls! The others might think that my friend do it on purpose, but believe me, we were just that lucky... haha... (Look how happy we were)

Ps: Dear God, please keep away adult like this at my future kids' birthday parties.... ;)

Baja di taman hatiku

Heard in the office today:

Dalam hatiku ada taman, dan kau adalah baja untuk tamanku - JHK

Sounds so romantic right? Not if you are the 'baja'. Coz 'baja' made from urmmm... Poo?

Hahahaa...

Yeah, we have crazy bunch of people.

Great and simple teambuilding tool

Every team and company would love a strong team relationship in their team and company. This is because great team bonding can creates great results. But sometimes it's hard to create one without having to spend so much money in sending the teams to courses and paying trainers to build the bridge. However, I discovered a great and simple teambuilding technique. All you need is a room and a round table. Yes, only round table, not square, rectangular pentagon or heart shape table. Force all the team members to use the round table as their work station (ask them to bring all their stuff including laptops) and make them work there for at least 1 month. After few weeks you will realize that the team will bond together and the walls between them is longer there.

I noticed this new idea when my office has to be evacuated as we are renovating it. So we have to move to our subsidary company for time being. We are given a meeting room with round table as our work place. Imagine 6-7 of us using the round table for few weeks. First few days, everybody was not comfortable and complain about the chairs, the smell of the room and even the view. Slowly after that I realized we started to talk a lot while doing our work. We discussed everything under the sky including the origin of drag queen, building our own country, celebrities gossip and even our own personal lives. Without we realized it, we started to have lunch together, buy food and share it and even have our own private joke. I noticed that a colleague that used to have lunch alone started to join us, two colleagues that weren't talking due to conflict (but only talk about works) started to have casual conversation and other teams started to motivate another team. We even have our official drink, which is Toastbox's Teh C (Starbucks & Coffee Bean are forgotten now).

You know what the effect of this changes, productivity has improved. People are no longer going home before 6.30pm and staying late doing work is not longer a burden. Everyone is having a good time while doing work. I no longer feel drag to stay at the office after 6pm when works was crazy. We even reminded each other about solat time.

This is the result of round table. It has no edges or borders to show whose area is it. We share the same space and after a while, we learn how to respect each other and also enjoy the works. So give it a try and see if it is working for your team. But unfortunately this method only work for team below 10. If more than that, it won't be easy to place everyone in a table and a room.

Football again

I grew up with a dad who loves discussing sports. It doesn't matter if you are a daughter or a son, as long as you have him as a father, you are entitled to join in the discussing and should be able to tell him what was the score of last night's match. So I grew up knowing sports news and started to read about it so that I won't be left out. But my dad attempts to get me into sport was a failure. It started with golf which failed miserably on the first day, then squash which was not so bad but was not enjoyed by many, and then there are few other sports that I halfway joined. Hey, at least I tried right. Huhu.

The first game I installed when I got a computer when I was 14 was Premier League Manager. Why? Coz Zainal played that. Haha. We were classmates and when I asked him what game was good, he said that. Apparently he didn't know much about girl at that age and I was blinded by our *ahem* friendship *ahem* and played that game. That was the most boring game ever. What you do was trying to manage a team and then watched the player played (more like tiny dots moving around) and suddenly the results came out. After few weeks I gave up. Without I knowing it, I actually learned a lot about football.

Then I have a Manchester United fanatic fan as a brother. He patiently taught me what is offside and now I can proudly yell offside without being wrong. *smile proudly*

So when I got married, it wasn't hard at all for me to understand the football needs of my husband which including converting me into supporting and knowing his favourite team. But most importantly to understand that it's ok he wanted to watch the game with his friends tonight even though he is super tired and sleepy. Coz Chelsea is against Liverpool tonight yo! And Torres just moved from Liverpool to Chelsea... like few days ago...

Another football related story: There are 3 teams in my family - Manchester United (little brother), Chelsea (hubby) and Liverpool (dad & big brother). That day, my dad bought a Liverpool jersey and my mom found it ridiculous for my dad to wear it while my dad found it embarrassing to wear it coz Liverpool kept on losing. He gave it to my big brother but he found the size was quite small for him. So dad wanted to give it to my lil bro or hubby which both of them wanted to make it kain pengelap kaki. Then dad took it back and left it in his wardrobe. Guys! -_-

Let's make me a winner

This is a sticky post...... newer post below...

Dear my valuable readers (not so many but you are valuable to  me), please help me winning this competition by voting for my post.

All you need to do is click this link -->  Let's Make Munm a Winner!

Then scroll down the list and look out for no 30.

Click 'like' and hurrah! you make me the happiest people in cyberspace.

Quick, do it now coz the closing date is 30 January 2011.....

I know you guys would do it for me coz you are the most amazing people EVER! 

Thank you so much! =)

Eh?

I have tried it before and I can't update here using Blogger. But suddenly can. Why meh?

This is going second testing post with a picture.

Ok, fail to upload picture.... Hmmmmm...

Blogging on the go

I just realized that Blogger doesn't has an apps like Wordpress. What a bummer. Just I thought that I can blog anywhere now with my favourite toy right now. But Blogger has this mail to blogger thingie. Should give it a try and update blog more.

Ok, this is just testing post, but I don't know why I need to write so much. Haha

19.01.11

I'm using Penultimate Apps & using Boxwave stylus which is so awesome.

I'm really looking forward for something then......

When I'm happily waiting for something like a PUBLIC HOLIDAY.

Plan what I want to do that day with my loves one on a PUBLIC HOLIDAY.

Then suddenly last minute, people told me to work on PUBLIC HOLIDAY, without early notice.

I'm super bengang, ok.

Please tell me early so that I won't plan anything.

Tetiba mood semangat di waktu pagi hilang dan rasa sangat bengang.

On strict Datuk Kame training programme

Throughout my life, I only own 1 laptop, the one that I'm using right now. Back then in undergrad years I was a pro-desktop. Nothing in the world can convince me that laptop is more practical than desktop especially I always traveling between home and college. Actually I used that reasoning to convince that I don't need a laptop and of course, no money to buy one too. Haha. 

Then I borrowed my mom laptop for final year project, mainly to write my thesis. I found it more practical and what a life saving device especially when I was alone in my college room watching 'Desperate Housewives' back to back while lying in my bed. But the semester is almost over and I don't think it's convenient anymore to buy it since I'm moving out the college and will live at my house permanently.

My first job was at manufacturing company and I don't need a laptop. I used the desktop the company and I was happy as a bee (bee is happy creature right? I don't know, but it rhymed just nice with happy). Except during six sigma training where I have to borrow my beloved hubby's laptop (with a lot of terms & conditions, how to take care and so on). 

So when I decided to continue my study in United States, I realized, I need a laptop. Thanks to my mom scares on the tight ruling of US airports, I decided to buy one in US instead of in Malaysia. So my personal IT specialist aka husband list down what specifications that I need - latest processor, graphic card, wireless port etc. I surveyed TigerDirect, Newegg and few other websites. I finally found my laptop - have all the specifications that I need, within the price range and Lenovo. The reason I chose Lenovo because they are part of IBM and IBM known for making a durable laptop. So I thought since this is my first laptop, I need to have a strong one for me to learn how to take care a laptop. Because honestly I'm not the most delicate person in the world.

After arriving in US, I realized that my laptop of choice has sold out! I was devastated. I need a laptop ASAP and I can't waste my time by searching another model again. Thank God I have a very nice landlord. She took me around Durham finding laptop for me. Until we arrived at Circuit City (which later filed bankruptcy 2 weeks after I bought the laptop and closed down 567 their stores). I saw my dream laptop. Not the same model but a higher range of model and the price was above my range. However, the store offered me the display set with discount and they said the display set was only 1 week old, they will give full warranty and reformat the laptop before giving it to me. So I thought why not, and I bought it.

Zainal came 2 weeks later after my mom went home. The first thing he said was this laptop was heavy. I was still in honeymoon phase with my laptop immediately disagreed with him. I was in denial. Few weeks later I started to think my laptop might be a bit heavy. But few months later when I have to run across Terminal 1 in JFK Airport to Terminal 8 to catch my plane, I realized, my God, this laptop weight a tonnes. I swear I almost fainted by carrying this laptop only. I have come with full realization when I have to carry this laptop when walking to our hotel in Las Vegas and again in San Francisco. God, I wished I left this laptop and not carrying it all over west coast. I didn't care about checking my email and Facebook anymore. I. Just. Want. Not. To. Carry. This. Elephant. Anymore.

The pervert Datuk Kame or Kame Sennin with his turtle shell

Now I'm working where I have to use this laptop as my work station and brought along me whenever I go, I started to devise a mindset. I can't left my laptop anymore and it needs to be with me all the time. So whenever I have to carry this elephant, I imagined myself undergo a training programme with Datuk Kame. Haha. You know the one that he asked Goku to carry a heavy turtle shell around. I imagined that one day I can jump so high , run so fast without this heavy laptop on my back. I might even manage to do 'kame hame haaa' if I practice enough. Huhu. So there you go.

Kame Hame Haaaaa..... I know you have try before, in case there's going to be a fireball coming out, right? Huhu

So before you buy a laptop, make sure that weight is one of the main areas that you look into. If not, let's join Datuk Kame fitness programme.

Marvelous May

CST Production and Lyndarahim Kuala Lumpur is having a contest. Bloggers and Facebookers just need to describe their dream weddings and the most creative one will be chosen a winner. I actually have been waiting for CST contest coz I missed the last one. I mistakenly misread their closing date. Haih. However, this contest is a bit tricky coz I already have my dream wedding! I would not changed anything about my wedding if I given a chance... umm... ok, maybe 1 or 2 things I might change. But the wonderful people at CST soothed my worry when they said I can describe any other event.

I have this one event that I really want to organize since I got married. It's the combination of our birthday and anniversary. You see, both my husband and I were born in May and our anniversary fall in May too. This year we will turn to *ahem* years old and if you divide the *ahem* number into 2, you'll get the total number of years we have known each other. And.... this year is our 9th anniversary! (Note: it's not our wedding anniversary ya).

If I were to organize this event, how do I do it? These are the summary:

• Where? In the park (coz I love nature yo!)
• When? May 2011, after sunset (preferably after Maghrib)
• Who? 10-15 of our closest friends and their partner (so around 20-30 people)
• Theme? Chill, relax and forget about all your resolution (yea, I'm still on New Year mood)
• Food? 3 course meal with free flowing dessert and candies (birthday party should have a lot of candies)

Let's get into the details.

First, the venue

I would choose this place if we are in New York. We were there last spring and it was awesome in May!

We were fooling around at Central Park, NY

But, nevertheless, we are in Malaysia now so any park with big, strong and canopy-like trees will do. Preferably in Petaling Jaya & Subang Jaya vicinity coz I know my friends are lazy to drive further than this (ok, I'm the one who are lazy, not them actually... hehe). I will decorate the tree with lots, when I said lots, I really mean abundant of christmas lights hanging from the tree until it will light up the place. The long table that can sit 30 people will be placed in the middle of those trees. When the guests are sitting down, they will feel like they are dining under a huge fireworks. Awesome right.

(this picture is actually the night version of the earlier picture but I think it's in fall/early winter from the lack of leaves on the tree branch. Source)

Disclaimer: that are not worms hanging on the trees. That are the christmas lights

Secondly, the food

Good food is the way to your friend's heart. Because I love my friends so much, I would like to order 3 course meal from Tony Roma's for everybody.....

KIDDING!

Unless everybody agreed to pay for their meal. Haha. I will choose equally delicious restaurant to cater our food. So everybody that RSVP'ed that they are coming will need to choose their food choice before the event. So on that day, everybody will get their own choice of food.

Next, the decorations

Forget flowers as the table centerpiece. The theme is to break our resolution, remember? So I would put desserts, chocolate and candies in the middle of the table using beautiful jar and container. Brownies, cupcakes, M&Ms, Hershey's, Ferrero Rocher and fruit tart are being nicely placed in the middle of the table along side candles to swell the mood. My girlfriends will kill me for ruining their diet but that's what friends are for, right - presenting good things in life ;-)

Original pic source

Source

Each guest will have a personalized cupcake with their name at their respected seat. At each chair, a huge flower pouch that contains more candies will be hanged and this is the goodies bag for each guest.

Original pic source

Next, entertainment

Ahhh... what is a party without entertainment? I would have a live band playing softly (I have no idea how they will do that - maybe just instrumental) in the background during the dinner coz I hate going to some place that are very loud that you need to shout to talk to people. But when the dinner is over, the band will take over and dance floor will be open.

Remember when you are a kid, birthday party make you sugar high and you end up running around endlessly? So I want to bring back that fun memory except we are not going to run endlessly at the end of the night. That's where the dance floor comes in. We need to burn back all the excessive sugar intake by moving our body. Since this party is only open to close friends, I'm sure my friends will be more opened and get their body moving with the music. Most of them are already married, so enjoy yourself! When is the last time you dance with your partner?

Last but not least, video booth!

I would love to have a picture booth, but since CST Production is going to sponsor, let's take it a step above and make a video booth. Every guest need to get into that booth, wear the magic hat (or singing hat) and start to sing or act or both or do whatever you want to do (but no 18SX please!) That would be awesome.


Another details...

Guest can wear whatever they want as long as they wear something and comfortable in it. Ladies, I suggest you to keep your stilettos at home and wear your wedges instead. You don't want to your heels poke through the grass at each of your step. That would be annoying. But for me, I would like a white flowing dress that look casual yet elegant. Nothing too sparkly or fancy.

For the cake, I really want those beautiful fondant cake with fireworks cake candle. Nice right...

Original pic source

But most important, all I want is that everybody is having fun, enjoying themselves while celebrating our important days of the year.


By the way, check out these talented people:

2010 in summary

I'm not going to act surprise that I haven't been updating this blog for almost 2 months. So many happened in this 2 months and they deserved separate posts (hopefully soon).

But not to break this blog tradition, I will review my 2010. Seriously 2010 is the most emotional year that I have so far in my life. I'm not exaggerating.

Let's recap:

1. I spend my whole 2010 with my husband. Yup, not a single day without him.
2. I spend first 6 months of the year in United States and another 6 months in Malaysia. Adil
3. I got my first paycheck in USD (even though the tax cut almost 30% of my paycheck, at least I got some extra money to travel)
4. Travel a lot.... from east coast to west coast... using all method of transportation; plane, car, train...
5. Meet a lot of new wonderful people along the way
   
6. Played paintball (I've been waiting to try this for a long time, but never had a chance)
7. Snowboarding for the first time and immediately fell in love with it. Unfortunately that might be the first and last time I'll be snowboarding. Unless Malaysia opened a place for that
8. I got a nephew, named Akeem Zarif who was born on 31st July at 3.85kg. Very big and cute baby. Hehe
   
9. Graduations! First of course, my graduation (May, happy that I finished on time and can come back home for good), then Zainal (he technically done in 2009 but the convocation only held on August 2010), my older brother (after 5 years of Master, finally he is a specialist. I noticed that almost all the Master receiver for medical, like my brother, didn't look too excited (unlike my friends and I last May). I assumed doctors lost their excitement after they have to endure 4-5 years just to get a Master) and not forgetting, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law who graduated the same day with my brother (they were in the same faculty anyway). And my younger brother finished his study in December. It seems that everybody in my family finished their study in 2010.
10. New job. Not going to discuss on this. *mood turning to sour a bit*
11. Lastly, the most painful events: Deaths, like 6 of them.

• Early April: my uncle, Pak Ngah
• Late April: my beloved grandmother, Mek
• Couldn't remember when: my aunt (not so close to me, still)
  
• Late September: my sister-in-law, Kak Zura
• Late November: my next door neighbour, Aunty Merican
  
• Early December: my beloved uncle, Pak

What an eventful year. I hope with the ending of 2010, no more death in our family. Hopefully new addition instead. So I started this new year with a lot of hopes and dreams.