Thursday, November 13, 2008

Rules....rules....rules.....

What’s with rules? Some will say rules are meant to be followed whilst some will say rules are meant to be broken. So which ones are you? I can say I’m more into the first categorise but with some exception. I’ve been labelled rigid, decent, skema and lurus bendul, right from secondary school time from every one; teachers, friends, colleagues and relatives.

During my 6 month stint on a course, there’s all kind of rules, from the good ones to a downright rubbish ones. But I guess I’ve followed everything diligently. There’s some occasion that I bent a little but not too far. Peoples are doing their job and it’s their job to act the act so just follow la kan. At first there might be some grumbles but its end there. Nothing more nothing less. But I’ve seen some who goes all the way from cursing to plainly ignore the rules.

I guess some seek thrills on breaking the rules; even a plain simple ones. Like wearing batik every Thursday or wearing corporate scarf during monthly assembly. These two rules for me are very plain and simple. If you don’t have enough money for the expensive up-to-date batik, then opt for the cheap or even the fake batik. As for the scarf, we even supplied the scarf; you don’t have to pay a single cent for it. So why is it so difficult to wear them then?

If I can have my way dealing with this I think I might die young for peoples will hates me and you can never know the extend people will react when they angry. But then again, it’s not my fault for you are the ones breaking the rules.

In my previous career with Guardian. I’ve faced with this kind of situation too but it seems that the reactions of those in private sector are different from those in public sector. When I joined Guardian, the executive staff can wear anything *in terms of working attire of course* plus a jacket. This jacket is actually a dark blue blazer with orange lining. The non-executive staffs wear the orange blouse with dark blue pants. Later on the management decided that all staff; executive and non-executive must wear the orange blouse with blue pants with a slight different in design to separate between those two. It caused uproar from all executive staff for its kind of downgrading us. We criticize the design; there’s a bow behind that looks like maternity blouse and the orange colour is too bright.

But when the uniform came, say what ever you want but you just have to wear it. The cutting was weird; bigger at some part and tight at some. I have to fork my own money to alter it before it became wearable. And for 2 year, that ugly orange blouse became my baju raya too for I had to work on raya. Apparently wearing uniform is actually a good thing for I don’t have to think on what to wear to work.

So when I entered public sector, imagine my shocked seeing the staff, refused to wear the uniform after all the privileged they got; special tailored uniform of good quality materials and they even get 2 pair of shoes to complete it. And now with this batik and corporate scarf issues.

I guess public sector have issues on controlling it staff despite being the biggest employer. And due to that, those in private sectors has been criticising the public sector staff as being all sort of thing. Sadly, I have to agree with them. The management of human resource in public sectors are lousy enough that it caused problems in every corner.

I can talk about this forever; the time management, the meal break, the bureaucracies, the list goes on and on and on. Let just stop here. Oh before that, a point to ponder: You are here because I kidnap you on the street and forced you to work here or you are here because of your own choice? If you choose to be here; then the rules are meant to be followed. If it pissed you off to follow the rules, then quit and go where you can have everything your way. Ok!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Raya 08 Part 4 (the later part)

On the 1st and 2nd day of raya, I didn’t go anywhere. Just stay at home and entertain the guest plus washing endless dishes. Since there’s nothing much to do and I’m in no mood to watch TV so I decided to make some pillow using the kekabu that has been on top of the wardrobe for some time. I’m not good in sewing but I guess my pillow does look good. I used old pillowcase as the body and stuffed it with a lot of kekabu. Managed to make 3 pillows on the 1st day. On 2nd day, progress has been slow for I had to sew plain clothes from scratch coz there’s no more old pillowcase to be used. I just can’t believe that I’m sewing pillow on raya but I’m like that. When I feel like doing something, I would just do it; no matter at what time.

Mel and Zack came on the 2nd day of raya with hubby and baby in tummy. Zack is having her 2nd child while Mel her 1st. This 2 girls is my ex-schoolmate when I was in form 4&5. Noor Kamariah@Mel is an English teacher now while Siti Zariah@Zack works as civilian staff at an army camp in Johor.

Actually I plan to visit them on the 3rd day but I was busy preparing stuff to bring back home since we’re going to Putrajaya that very night. Yup my plan to celebrate raya here in KL has been agreed by the big boss. The journey started after Maghrib in 2 cars; Abah and mine. The guys in my car piloted by Eman while the girls including me in Abah’s which is better and bigger.

On Saturday the 4th of raya, we went to few houses; Nek Chik & Nek Long at Kg Melayu Subang, Aunty An at Kayangan Height & Mamatam at Tmn Permata. Aunty An , an architect and married to a British man just moved into her new house about a year ago. It’s a nice house with a nice landscape but I kind of lazy to snap photos. It’s a lovely house but it’s too artistic that neither I, Abah nor Mak would want our new house to be built that way. But the landscape is something that we look forward to. The uncle can’t really speak Malay and my family; saved for a few of us can’t really speak English. The uncle is actually a very friendly guy but the language barrier did hamper the communications. Since Tok Ngah is no longer with us, Nek Ngah stays at Aunty An’s for raya so we didn’t go to their house in Keramat. My own Nenek stays with Mamatam at Taman Permata.

On Sunday we went to Mak Long Nor’s house at Bdr Baru Salak Tinggi. Later in the evening everyone headed back to Kuantan leaving me all alone. But they’ll come back again on the weekend for Natasya’s engagement.

Well that’s all for my raya stories this year. Sorry for the very late updates for I have been very busy with all sort of meetings.

Raya 08 Part 3 (the big day)

Then came the big day. Wake up very early and went straight to the kitchen. There’s ketupat and lemang that needs to be cut, the rendang and kuah kacang need to be heated and transfer into the bowl, drinks need to be made and endless stuff to do. As usual ladies will be busy preparing stuff for breakfast and other things while guys will get busy preparing for the prayer. There’s only one bathroom so the queue would take some time.

When the guys were gone to the mosque, the ladies would take turns for shower and get ready. My baju raya was not ready yet so just wear the ones that I haven’t wear yet. This raya, it was Mak who bought my baju raya. For the first time, Mak, Siti, Akak and me will have a same theme for baju raya. It’s purple thus adding on to my purple collection for this year alone.

When the guys came home, everyone was getting ready for the bersalam session. Since Bang Long didn’t join us this time so I’m the eldest and would be the 1st in line. When I was much younger, I didn’t like this bersalam thingy. I would wait till much later and there’s nobody around then only I would bersalam with Mak and it would be a very quick one. As time changed, I’ve changed too. I would look forward into this bersalam session. Holding Mak and Abah hand, looking into their eyes and asking for forgiveness for my sins towards them would really make me feel genuinely remorseful and regretting whatever things that I did towards them. Normally I would become sebak while uttering those words and my tears would flow naturally. A kiss on the cheek would wrap-up the event.

My tears have been teased before but this year there’s something much bigger than that. Everyone after me went through the bersalam session and everything went smoothly until Akak turns. Actually right after I finished my turns, I saw Akak cries. Maybe seeing all this stuff touched her fragile heart. I would cries seeing other people cries too. But then when she went to Abah for her turns, her cries became uncontrollable. She cried and sobbed besides Abah. I cried seeing her but in between that I would laugh and teased her too; so does everyone else. It went on for so long that Ayum have to cut off Akak turn. We waited quite a long time for Akak to subdued but apparently she didn’t.

Mak : Ha tu lah Akak… bila Mak ngan Abah cakap Akak suka bentak-bentak. Bila suruh apa-apa mesti nak hentak-hentak kaki. Kan dah susah nak mintak maaf.

Mak tries to console Akak for I know Mak was touched too; I could see it from her face. Akak; despite being a bit rebellious but she’s very close with Mak. In fact Akak still sleep with Mak even though she’s 14 and she had special bedding stuff matches with Mak’s bed. Abah too tried to console Akak.

Abah : Cepat lah Akak..... Akak ... ooo Akak.... Cepat lah Akak. Abah dah lapar ni.

We all too keep pushing Akak to go on with the bersalam thingy but her cries became unstoppable thus we continue with our breakfast. Up till now Akak didn’t ask for forgiveness from Mak and Abah. But I know she felt remorseful towards all her action thus she can’t utter the words. I felt for her too for I’ve been there before. For the time being, this incident has become the issue to tease Akak.

Getting ready untuk ke masjid


Like father like son; Ayum berserban di pagi raya macam Abah

A smarter looking Dik Man

Mak & Abah and yours truly sedang bersalam memohon maaf and passing the duit raya

Followed by everyone else....

Except for Akak yang tak henti-henti menangis

All of us except Bang Long yang tak balik raya and Hayat's family yang tak sampai lagi

Nenek and Atok bersama cucu-cucunya

Atok with cucu-cucunya

Meera with her Mama and Papa

Hayat' family

Epoi's family (mind you he's my younger bro ok)

A snapshot of everyone else

Raya 08 Part 2 (the pre-raya part)

The next day, right after sahur, I started my normal duty; cleaning the house. It went on till evening. Got a call from Kak Sobir; inviting me to her place for she’s going home to Kedah on Monday. Finishes up the clutters, then went to Kak Sobir’s place at Indera Mahkota tagged along with Akak and Meera. She’s going to perform her haj soon so was asking me if I got any request for doa; specifically on you-know-what. There’s no one so no name I can give to her. Maybe I should write all my daily doa for her to recite there. The visit was cut short coz Meera’s nature call (the big ones) and we didn’t bring extra diaper. Then the normal stuff; preparing meals for berbuka, went for tarawih and some other stuff.

On Monday I went to service my car with Eman. Had to wait for few hours despite having secured an appointment before and to make things worse; the bills are ridiculous for some normal service. Ok it’s not normal but major service but then again paying nearly RM400 is still ridiculous compared to what other people paid for their car. My sister-in-law who owned a Myvi told me that the most she paid for servicing her car was RM200. And you know what; I have to pay nearly RM80 for 2 bottles of X1R oils that I don’t think made any changes towards the performance of the car. In facts the car became worsened after it (according to the guys la of course coz for sure I’m no expert in that area). Whatever it is, owns a car; Savvy to be specific coursed a burn in my wallet.

On the way back, went to wet market to buy some ketupat’s leaves. I’ve longed to eat pajeri’s so bought pineapples for that. Later on I helped Jannah to re-arrange the hall area. Thalha help a bit only after some nagging involved while all the other boys are nowhere to be seen. The funny thing was we don’t have plans so I think it only finalizes after the tenth time. The sofas and tables is no feather so it took all the energy and I’m really exhausted. When I’m tired, I became stressful. When I became stressful, my anger can be at the dangerous level. When that happens; I nagged all the times. I’m angry at the boys for not helping the girls with the chores. Stories on that will follow later.

On Tuesday we’re more focused on cooking delicacies for raya. I’m very helpful at kitchen area this time; peeling and cutting stuff for rendang and what not; even help Abah cuts the meat. Imagine Abah cuts nearly 13kg of meats; standing. By the time I offered help, there was like 3-4kg left. But still Abah had to supervise me coz I can’t differentiate the veins or lines; wrongly cut meat will make it hard and difficult to chew right.

Because of my super duper diligence on that day, I went on preparing roasted meat for berbuka. Not an easy task having to use mortar & pestle (lesung daa) to crushed and ground all herbs to marinate the meats. One thing for sure; living on my own have sparks the interest on cooking in me. That night everyone was busy preparing the last minutes delicacies; Siti with her Honey Cornflakes and Zakiah, my sister-in-law with her Kuih Simpul (knotted popiah skin stuffed with serunding). I try my hand on both but I guess I’m just not into it yet. Stiff finger I think. Hehehe… but surprisingly Dik Man helped Zakiah knotting the popiah skin. Well done Dik Man. Actually Dik Man wouldn’t mind helping us the ladies just that sometimes he’s more focus on pc games thus ignoring everything around him. Before sleep, I transfer all cookies and chips into the jar.

Raya 08 Part 1 (the going home part)

Ok I know all the coming entry would be so outdated but due to my workload I just can’t write it as soon as I want. Just bear reading these old stories ok.

Let start with journey home for raya (gosh this is really an old stories). Since Eman stick with his decision to drive home at 3am, so send the car to him right after tarawih. Left Apis with the car full with stuff for raya, and headed back to Putrajaya with Hanim.

Had a very long pillow talk that we didn’t manage to wake up in time to perform the qiamullail. As for the sahur, I had Big Apple doughnut while Hanim had instant noodles. Then settle some chores and packing few stuff while Hanim catching up with her sleep. Can’t disturbed her coz she’ s the one who will drive so let her take as much rest as she want.

The journey kicked-off only at noon. Told Hanim about the famous popiah and she decided to have a try. So instead of taking the highway that is near my house, we took the one heading to town first. Perform the jama’ prayer at Sultan Ahmad mosque then head straight to the bazaar located just nearby. The foods here are way better than the one sold at Putrajaya’s bazaar. But am not in the mood to take photo’s coz the weather was so hot. I bought RM15 worth of popiah. Believe me; it’s not enough ok. The popiah is so good even when it’s cold.


Us

The view along the way

Eat a lot of popiah for berbuka then went for the tarawih prayer with Mak, Abah, Eman and Ayum. At the mosque that we went, there would be a tazkirah session for half an hour in between the prayer. Normally the prayer that I had in Putrajaya would end at 9.30pm while in Kuantan it ends at 10.30pm.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Budak Kelantan

As I expected, the movie was so-so but I had hilarious moment with the dialogue; they used thick kelantanese accent. Although I was surrounded with kelantanese friend since my uni time, few kelantanese closed friends; even my immediate boss is a kelantanese but never was I exposed to that language as I was last night. The language was actually sounded a bit rude to me but the rudeness is somewhat funny too. But of course if ever someone said; “nate puak ni” to me, I would be offended for I would take it as u called me an animal and I’m no animal.

However, there’s 2 scenes that went overboard to me; 1st one when the bad guy, Jaha raped that stupid girl who ran out from home and 2nd one when Jaha after taking some pill kuda, lie down, touching his crotch and said, “kalo ado tino sedak ni” which I translated as “it’s good to have s*x now”. You all can beg to differ but I hate to see muslim artist doing all that unnecessary act. I know some will said they are just being professional and giving the utmost commitment to liven the character. However, put that professionalism and whatever thing aside; the thing they did is just wrong. Berdosa tau tak!

Just like when I watched Ayat-ayat Cinta recently. The hero was portraying virtuous muslim. We can see him recited the quran and doing all the ibadah. However, when he married his best friend, Maria, he kissed her on the mouth during a scene. I just can’t accept that for it shows like you’re playing with the religion. I just don’t get it; it just like when you said liquor is haram and you drank it right after that.

Ok better stop at that as I know some of you will start to think that I’m just weird. Weird or not, a sin is always a sin right. Ok back to Budak Kelantan story.

There’s one character; a fat and dark guy. They call him Bak Bong. I just can’t understand why En. Afnan and En. Nasrol laugh so hard. I see Bak Bong as Bak Bong. Only kelantanese can understand this it seems.

And I feel that Buchek, the hero was downright stupid. How can he; being such a good man can just let his friend, Jaha do all the bad thing. He can at least say something; or if he can’t he should just left him. And his stupidest act ever was when he decided to pass his girlfriend to Jaha. That guy took drug, sleeping around with all kind of ladies and he even confessed that he sold some ladies that I’m sure Buchek know what Jaha mean. So no matter how pure his intention was, he just plain stupid. Full stop.

Yeah people might saw me laughing like I don’t cares about others but deep in my heart, that’s how I felt. I think I’m also turning into one of those who said something is downright wrong but you still do it. Hehehe….

So right now, I’ve been starting my dialogue with “tak Americalah…”

Tak Americalah makan nasik bungkus

Tak Americalah kalo ajak guna wakil
*only En. Nasrol understand what this mean*

Tak Americalah bla bla bla…..

How much American I can be huh?

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

After some time.....

En. Afnan and En. Nasrol invited me for a movie tonight. The choice; Budak Kelantan. Hmm not sure how the movie would turn out but I’m anticipating the language if not the story. Like what En. Nasrol said;

Tak americalah saing ngan set-set sejid

Hahaha… let just hope this two guys won’t end up using thick kelantanese accent or vice versa. Me in kelantanese accent? Gagagaga

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

How to go down?

I shouldn’t be doing any entry actually for I have this important paper to work on but something happened yesterday and it’s funny ok.

Yesterday while waiting for berbuka, I played with my phone. Suddenly a friend called.

Eny, sekarang ni kan lif sampai kat lobi je lepas pukul 7 kan. So macammana aku nak pegi kat parking?

Ada tangga kat situ. Keluar dari lobi tu and pegi belah kiri ada tangga turun bawah.

Tak de pun. Aku tengok tangga kecemasan ni cuma ada naik ke atas je.

Bukan yang tu. Keluar dari pintu lobi yang depan sekuriti tu, belok kiri. Kat situ ada tangga nak turun bawah, terus sampai parking P*M.

Oh ok. Aku terpikir macam manalah aku nak pegi kat kereta aku ni.

All the while, I heard the sound of her heels. Imagine this friend, walking so fast in her heels, looking for the staircase while talking on the phone. I can see my self doing that too minus the heels of course. And I’m sure the mind would have been thinking on all sort of situations like; what if there’s no exit to downstairs at all? How am I going to get to my car? How am I going to go home? Who can I ask for help if there is really no other way for me to get to my car? All that plus grumbling against my department for imposing the new rules. But I guess this friend is a calm person so she might not been thinking like I would.

And actually I myself also didn’t know about the staircase if not because of yesterday’s morning incident where the securities forgot to unlocked the door at 7am.

Want to know who that friend is? Clue: Yanti’s BFF.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

BIG meeting

The BIG meeting that makes my life so miserable this past few weeks is scheduled at 9am today. Besides taking minutes, I might have to present all 5 papers; just like previous 2 meeting. Hopes it'll be a smooth journey.

**********************************************************************

updated :

Alhamdulillah everything went well. Kering tekak ni presenting maklumbalas and all 5 papers. Now that the 1st BIG meeting are done, got to consolidates all 5 papers; edit here and there with info gathered at the meeting, add on some other stuff and work on another paper; for another BIG meeting next Wednesday. This time had to present it to the kayesyuu who have eyes on every details. Imagine guys; I'm doing this 4 times a year.
And the minutes too. I hate writing minutes!
Well by next week, when the 2nd BIG meeting are over, then only I can updates stuff on my raya stories.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

What I'm doing now

Gosh I got way too many work piling on me after the raya holiday that can’t update the whole raya story yet. Been itching to updates but the paper works need constant attention so have to concentrate on it of course. Every night, my sleep was disturbed with nightmares on work related stuff. Due to that, I woke up very tired every morning.

And as usual, working on paper works will make my stress level go up up up and not away. And to make the matter worse; I’m on my own. Neither guidance nor advice from you-know-who. Not that I can’t do it on my own but sometimes I need a view from someone who claimed to know everything for that person have been so long here doing the same stuff. I did ask my PT to help me occasionally but she got other stuff to do too. Can’t revealed too much here coz I never know who read my ramblings quietly. But I guess some of you do know about the situation that I have here right. I’m just afraid that I might explode one fine day. That is not good to me and my career path and I pray that it will never happen. Please help me God for I know every challenges given upon me are only so to make me a better person.

Ok continue later. Got to continue back pressing my brains for ideas.