Self Reflection

And today I decided to change the blog to the darkest color of the day. It must be a personal reflection, I told myself after I completed it..

Do you find that sometimes you yourself dont know what make you tick? That after living with yourself for so long you dont actually know your own self?

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The School Break

And we went to PD / Melaka last school break (bukan macam setengah orang cuti pergi Melbourne, Syedney, Bandung, or China etc etc kan..)

Things I find charming..

This is a clothes boutique. Inside there is a beautiful spiral staircase leading up to the first floor. I'd love to tangkap gambar but unfortunately the owner said no pictures please..

These roof tiles are very distinctive.

This is a hotel in an old and beautiful building with lots windows with wooden shutters.

Things I saw and love..

Bright terompah on the street - we bought a couple; never bought any terompah in my life! Now we make great noise on the porch in one of these.

A toddler walking on the beach in these cute car shoes..

Things I hate..

Unsightly besi, payung and bangku littering on the beach (it is all about the money) that there is not even space available to spread our own tikar. Tak boleh ke buat beach tu cantik macam Malibu ke Saint-Tropez ke.. These operators really spoil the beach actually.

And last but not least, how can I survive a holiday without the grown up kids, nevertheless..

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I Dont Think We Should Do This Again

And we did something crazy last night - on a weekday, on a school day...

Iman came home one day last week and asked if we would want to watch Transformers. Her office would buy the tickets (of course we would have to pay from our own pockets) - and she said it is on a Wed night so ticket would be at a discounted price. And it would be a first evening show too.

The boys were excited about the movie.. so we said yes, let's go watch. We were told it was an 8:30pm show. It seemed a decent show time. I have to leave office on time but I guess I could still make it. And Eirfan doesnt have class on Wed evening and we should be home not too late for Thur classes and to the office.

So yesterday I left office early enough for people to raise their eyebrowses. I said it is 1st Rejab and everyone at home is fasting; which is the truth - therefore I have to go home on time. The sky was dark. It started to drizzle when I got to Bangsar. By the time I got to Ulu Klang, traffic was terrible. Trees had fallen onto the road due to heavy wind and rain earlier in the area. To make matters worse there were at least two accidents on the road. By the time I got home it was almost Maghrib already.

Luckily everybody was ready and after buka puasa we quickly left for GSC at Pavillion - which is already almost 8 by then. A black sleek BMW driver took the parking space that was rightfully ours! When we got to GCS, we found out the show is at 9. So we were not late after all.

The boys love the movie. I personally prefer the first movie. It has a charm in its own way. We got home at midnite. In a blink of an eye Eirfan was snoring quietly away.. I dont think we should do this again on a weekday.

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Murhpy's Law?

And unfortunately this is about work too. Yes I know, again. However this is a post on work but with a different flavor.

It's like this. We are going through a series of system upgrade. There's a lot of methodology about it. Lots of school of thoughts. Lots of arguments. And definitely lots of testing and work.

We made through the development and QA testing with some (cough, cough, lots?) of hiccups. But we finally completed all tasks with the testing beautifully done (konon; hint : anything we are involved in would definitely be beautifully done).

Then came the crunch time - the upgrade of the prod server itself. We were told to treat the downtime like a normal system down time due to maybe electricity failure at the data center - which actually had happened a couple of times - despite the extensive DR process we had covered and massive plans for user notices. We abide by the instruction, siapa lah kita kalau dah bos kata tak payah kecoh-kecoh?

The d-day was last Fri. The system was schedule to be up at 8:00 am last Mon. Unfortunately today, close to midnite Thur, the system is still inaccessible by the users.

We were instructed to come in very early this morning for final verifiations before the system opens to the users. Unfortunately that didnt happen. Then we were told it'll be up at lunch. Didnt happen either. Maybe tonight at 10 or so. Zip. The last words are maybe tomorrow morning. Early.

I pray for the sakes of the Technical team that it will really be up tomorrow morning. Bukan apa, kesian kan budak2 yang teruk kerja pagi petang tak balik nak up kan jugak server tu. If we are restless about this, I have no doubt whatsoever their pain is thousand times over.

Remember Murphy's Law? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Namun qada' & qadar semua nya di tangan Allah. Berdoalah.

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Books, Books And More Books Part 16

And I finished this recently.

If I can write a book I'd love to write something like this (or even better, his Travelog Haji) so that I can maybe tuliskan secebis cerita yang mungkin dapat meninggalkan sedikit kesan, walau sebesar zarah sekali pun, di dalam hati mana-mana insan. Tapi hidayah tu tak sampai seperti yang dirasai oleh penulis.

But then again I suppose you wont get it if you dont look for it or work for it.

Nevertheless I still prefer his Travelog Haji over this. Travelog Haji tu power sampai boleh menitik air mata. Baca lah kalau belum baca. And again, it is not specifically pasal pergi haji. I feel it is more about berdoa, berserah kepada Allah and percaya semua yang terjadi adalah kehendak Allah.

Baca lah.

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Time Out

And whilst enjoying a quiet day at home doing nothing (do read that as ONLY busy doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, tidying up after the 4 boys and all those boring stuff moms do but Insya'Allah banyaaaak pahala..), I thought of the top ten places I'd like to visit.

Any shrink would have a field day with my story - boring doing the at-home stuff therefore dreaming about a getaway. Typical la.

Nevertheless, here's my countdown of the exotic-but-not-necessarily-paradise getaway places..

10. Greek Islands (seem like paradise with the blue ocean and white washed buildings; and taking cruises around the islands)

9. Anywhere, Italy (love the olives, pasta, lemons, cheeses - but not blue cheese of course - and the anchovies)

8. Andalusia (almost magical with the historical buildings and places)

7. Egypt (would love to cruise on the Nile and see all the ruins. Oh, and belly dancing of course)

6. Serengeti (just cant get the beautiful colors of the place out of my mind)

5. Marrakech (the sun, the people, the market. I can almost smell the food)

4. Istanbul (love the mosques and the place where east meets west)

3. Mount Kilimanjaro (isnt the mountain so haunting in a way?)

2. Big Sur (was told it is the most beautiful place; like there is romance waiting. Yeap, as if..)

And the number one on the wish list is...

1. Rocky Mountains (cant describe to you how beautiful the place is. In winter, in spring, in summer but most of all in autumn when the aspen leaves would turn gold and would flutter in the windy Sept / Oct chilly days..)

Scrreeeech - so let's get back down to earth here.

So yeah, other than working hard in cleaning, washing, cooking it would seem I also had worked very hard on my day dreaming today.

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Years Speeding Us By

And suddenly things are picking up in life. Let's not mention work for a while longer - I am on leave!

I have lots to update after the lull in the last month or so. But like the schematics of a database (what else would I liken things with but a database structure?) I like to keep things neatly arranged and catalogued in different tables and thus blog posts would be written according to topics..

Anyway.

I love this photo. It reaffirms life is wonderful, if indeed I need any reaffirmation on that, that is. Let me be a cliche and ask, where have all the years gone?



And I pray for them that days ahead would be as wonderful as it is on this day.


Life is so uncomplicated at 20, dont you agree?

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And Life Just Goes On

Work hasnt improved much. And I find that dwelling on that fact wont get me anywhere. Got to move on. But that is surely easier said than done.


And life goes on.


We fetched Ilyas for the last time from his studio aka his second home for the past couple of months or so last week. His blanket and pillows and clothes and mug and workstation and .. were all at the studio. For a while it was like eat, work and live at the studio. He's finished his degree. Sedih pulak dia kata nak tinggalkan university.


I said that's life, yang. It moves on whether we are ready to do so or not.


Eirfan is much pleased with all his adorable abangs being home and double celebrated over the fact that his eldest abang will not return to college anymore. Last weekend his friend rang our bell and said something like, you better come out and play today or else.. And I chased him out of the house to play too.


He is having his exam this week which is so tough for him when his abangs are around and hooked up at the computers around the clock. And he is being forced by his mother to study. Bertempik mak dia sebab tak boleh lepas pandang sikit or he'll be huddled in front of any of the computers too. I cant wait for the school semester to end.


Life is slowly returning to normal. I am reading again, something serious this time. I find this particular book precious in a way that I want to savor each word written. Read each page slowly, taking my time pondering over the contents. Menyelami perasaan penulis. I'll post that when I am done with it.

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Life At This Point

So the boys are home again. The fridge is filled beyond its max capacity. I thought of going for my morning walk at 7am today but the boys almost begged for breakfast. I was happy to skip the walk anyway.. (fyi, that's the kind of relationship I have with healthy lifestyle..)

Had a chat with my sister - my mum had a fall in the bathroom! Alhamdulillah the xrays showed no broken bones. Nak jadi jugak, walaupun berjaga-jaga.. She's ok except for multiples aches here and there.



I think there is something wrong with me. I have erratic palpitations for the past few days. And I have lost my appetite in some way (it's time I should, you mean..?) I think I should go see what's wrong with me if these persist.



And I finished the beading on Siti's baju last week. The photos are here. I am starting to sew a couple of baju raya but that's progressing a bit slowly.




And I am visiting a couple of friends to ask about moving out of my toxic office. I cant seem to come to term with 'isnt life wonderful?' while working there - because life is hellish. Enough said.

I have also picked up gardening again. We redesigned the pond we have at the back of the house (it was taken over by the frogs for a while..) I love the new water feature, maybe I'll post a gambar of that soon.

The cempedak tree has lots of fruits. I've cleaned the mess from my vege patch too (unfortunately my patch only have ubi kayu, daun kari and serai..) The pokok cili has squigly leaves and no cili.. yet (alway the optimist, I am).

I was bad too - I burned the dry leaves that we had raked from under the cempedak tree (how environmental friendly is that..?)

We went to Sg Buloh last weekend too. I was looking for a bougainvillae aka bunga kertas (although my mum called it bunga bulang all my life) with multiple colors. The medium sized tree with multi colored flowers and prominent bright red ones cost anywhere from RM400 - RM1,800! Seriously I cant afford those.

I bought a cheap bougainvillae instead, with no flaming nor lush red flowers. I had dragged Iman & Eirfan with me to see the plants. The pictures are courtesy of them.



Isnt life so stagnant at a certain point of time?

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Memory Lane

I never did want to do this - to attend the hitea to celebrate my school's 120 years anniversary. But after being bombarded by calls and emails from the organizing committee, I relented (like I have a choice?). But thinking this is also a drive for the school charity, I softened further and thought why not?



Disregard the table no 23 - we are the class of 1980. That is like 30 years ago. And that is how long since I've seem most of these long ago friends. Actually they have called me numerous times for tea, makan-makan, karaoke - you name it, but the recluse that I am, I have always declined.




That's the school badge. I almost didnt remember what it looked like. But boy was my memory refreshed. We sang the school song too. Those good(est) old days!




This is a few of the girls with our fave teacher. She was cool (even at the time when the word cool refers only to the weather or water that you drink).





I deliberately put this here too. Just to proof that we had fun. This is a couple of the girls dancing on the floor. The stage was full and we didnt feel like getting cramped up there. So we let our hair down and dance away. We laughed like school girls again and talked till we are all hoarse. Boy was it great to feel like 17 again.

I'm actually glad that I forced myself to go. We are arranging for a smaller group meet up again soon. I had sure had a lot of fun. 17 was a good age.

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