Quantum of Solace

I’m not exactly a spontaneous type of person. I like to be prepared for almost anything – thus, I’m a firm believer of ‘to-do-list’. For any occasion, be it work or outside work related, I will definitely grab a pen and a piece of paper and start scribbling what I need for that particular occasion dutifully. If I have the luxury of time, I will even make small headings and compartmentalized all the details. And yes, that include listing all the stuff that I need to bring whenever I’m going for a trip, be it for business or for leisure. The list is a must. I remember my lists for the outdoor modules during my DPA days could be as long as 2-page-full, with subheadings like – clothes (plus the matching pants and hijab to go with it!), stationery, emergency, food etc. So how would I react if I was caught off hand without my list? Well, this recent event showed that a little spontaneity can be a pleasant surprise, even with a check list-freak like me! We had to cancel our ini

Dah beberapa minggu Malaysia dilanda ombak - ‘Ombak Rindu’ (OR) .  Sana-sini orang  memperkatakan tentang cerita terbaru arahan Osman Ali ni. Kutipan tiket pun dengarnya dah cecah RM9 juta dan filem ini masih rancak ditayangkan lagi. Memang untung besarlah produser filem tu sebab rasanya cerita tu tak makan budget tinggi sebab tak ada stunt, tak ada CGI dan tak ada scene overseas, jadi LHDN silalah kejar pihak-pihak yang berkaitan ni ...hehehe.  Image from: http://photoimagepics.blogspot.com/ Saya & MH pun lambat pergi menonton filem OR ni. Bila curi-curi masa nak pergi tengok, tiket dah sold out , kali ketiga cuba nasib baru dapat. Kata penjual tiket tu, ada orang sampai 2-3 kali repeat tengok cerita ni...oohh patutlah. *high expectation*   Sedikit sinopsis cerita untuk yang belum menonton dan tak pernah baca novelnya - cerita berkisar tentang cinta 3 segi (ke segi tiga?) antara I zzah (Maya Karin), Encik Haris (Aaron Aziz) dan Mila (Lisa Surihani). Macam mana r

I love grocery shopping. I can spend hours in the hypermarkets,  browsing through the racks of food stuff, home appliances, colourful fresh produce, with so many brands to choose from,  we are spoilt with choice, doesn't we? But I dread  check-out counters, hahaha . First, because of the long queue that always be associated with it (once, I had to queue up to 1 hour!) and secondly because of the figures at the small screen. For my fortnightly grocery shopping, I could easily spend about RM500 for a trolley full of grocery stuff. That about RM1,000 per month and could be more if there is special occassions like Eid, feast for guests etc. I consider that amount as ridiculous as there are only 4 adults in our household, plus one toddler. Si kenit Adeelia. More over, MH and I only eat dinners at home on weekdays and we are usually eating out during weekends and public holidays. So where does the money go, really? Picture courtesy of Yahoo Image I have to admit used to be q

Have you ever experience a moment when you feel so overwhelmed with the communication technology that all you want to do is to switch off the device and break free? Yes, we are blessed with smart phones, android, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Tablet, you name it, that come with so many useful applications that are supposed to help to make our lives much more easier. Almost everything that we need is now literally under the finger tips. Eerr or is it thumb? I guess that is depending whether you are an Apple of a Berry person =). But somehow, it is the people (some) who are using it that is not so SMART. Hands up who get work-related calls/SMS/e-mails after office hours, on weekend, during holidays and even to the extreme when we are actually on medical leave? I am not talking about once-in-a-blue-moon situation. I am talking about having to be on our toes 24/7 even if we are not under the very critical service like doctors, police or when there is no life-threatening situation invo

I still couldn't believe that my lil' precious is already 1 year old! It feels like it was only yesterday that I held her in my arms for the first time, and now s he's grown up from this....to this  Day 1  365 days later  Adeelia's real birthday was on August 7 = Ramadhan 7. But MH and I thought that it would be quite a hassle to organize iftar +  her birthday as the guests would be rushing for prayers Maghrib-Isya'-Tarawikh and also because our house was not big enough to accomodate for both eating and solat jemaah for all the guests. So we postponed the plan until Aidilfitri, September 17. Now it became a 3+1 event - Adeelia's birthday, our Aidilfitri Open House and MH's birthday as well! His birthday was on September 13. Even if I had been involved in organizing many events in my line of work, I was a little bit nervous when it came to my lil' precious birthday party. Initially I thought that a kid's birthday party

Dah lama tak update blog, time nak update pula dalam suasana raya..Jadi relevan lah kalau saya cerita-ceriti tentang raya dalam entry kali ini. Bukan tak puas beraya, tapi kan raya sebulan? Itu menurut kata Azlina Aziz lah dalam lagu raya dia. ( Sorry tajuk tak ingat, Suasana Hari Raya kot). Raya kali ini agak istimewa sebab buat pertama kalinya saya dapat beraya dalam erti kata sebagai isteri dan ibu yang sebenar (ye ke?). Aidilfitri tahun lepas sepatutnya raya pertama saya dan MH sebagai suami-isteri. Tapi rezeki dari Allah, terus dapat beraya dengan baby. Kena pula masa raya tu s aya baru habis pantang, kelam-kabut dengan baby semua, preparation raya pun gitu-gitu je. Raya tahun ni pun taklah beria mana. Ala kadar je, cuma dapatlah buat kunjung hormat ke jalan TAR. Padahal belakang office je, hari-hari boleh pergi. Tapi time nak Raya lagi meriahlah kan. Kuih raya pun dapatlah buat 3 jenis - conrnflakes madu, chocolate chip dan my specialty biskut sarang semut. Yang lain bi

I find it disheartening following the news lately. One was about a local celebrity who manage to complete his 'quota' and the other one was about a certain club who want to teach the wives on how to 'keep' their husbands. Both news came at about the same time. Coincidence? To tell the truth, I am disgusted of both 'breaking' stories. I don't understand how could such trashy stories made into the headlines. Not only that, it also got the 'follow-up' news for days and unmistakably had became the hot conversation topics for many days. And please tell me what good do we get from it? Nothing. Really. Except that the celebrity had officially reigned 'HERO' status (at least from most of his male counterpart) and now we know that pre-marriage course should be held at brothels rather that lecture halls! So now we don't need marriage councellors anymore and perhaps we s hould engage sex workers (not the one from Lorong Haji Taib, but first cla

Bila tin kosong berbunyi, Suaranya yang lantang, nyaring sekali, Orang sekeliling pasti memerhati, Tin kosong megah, bangga sekali... Maka berterusanlah ia berbunyi, Cakapnya berdegar, tidak terperi, Berkata apa, tiada yang peduli, Berbunyilah ia tiada berhenti... Tapi tin kosong lupa... Bila tin kosong berbunyi, Mungkin ada yang rasa benci, Sembangnya panjang tidak bererti, Bunyinya keras, menyakitkan hati, Tin kosong juga lupa... Bila tin kosong berdiri, Dia terhoyong-hayang ke kanan dan ke kiri, Ditolak angin, jatuhlah ia ke tepi.. Tin kosong tidak sedar.. Nilai dirinya hanya pada pengumpul besi buruk, Itu pun jika keadaannya tidak karat, masih berbentuk.. Lain pula halnya dengan tin yang ada isi, Bunyinya kurang, tapi sentiasa dicari, Kerana badannya sarat mengandungi isi, Dipukul angin, tetap tegap berdiri.. Nadym, Hotel Rennaissance KL, 31 Mei 2011

I'm always interested in what other people is wearing to the fact that I could easily tell if the outfit is new. New clothes look more crisp and there is a certain glow on the person who wears it that made me just know that the outfit is new. A gift perhaps? I don't know =) But that is definitely a winning ice-breaker. A simple and sincere acknowledgement on what the person is wearing, such as "That dress looks good on you, where do you get it?" or, "Is it new? The color really suits you," will always make that person blushed a little, and more often or not you will get the standard reply, " Tak adalah, murah je baju/kasut/handbag ni'". But their expressions could't lie. J ust look at the brimming face, half smile - a sign that they are pleased that their good taste is being acknowledged and appreciated. You can be sure that yo u are definitely in their good books now. Spending half of the day at work, I could not help but to analyze what

Kami bangun pagi seawal dinihari. Usai membersihkan diri dan menyucikan rohani, kami menuju ke lubuk rezeki. Meninggalkan anak-anak yang masih lena diulit mimpi. Rasa tak sampai hati, tapi ayah dan emak perlu mencari rezeki. Kami mula menuju ke destinasi. Yang berkereta menempuh kesesakkan lalu-lintas pagi. Yang bermotorsikal menyelit di celah-celah kenderaan gergasi. Yang menaiki pengangkutan awam berasak-asak di dalam bas dan LRT. Tergesa-gesa, rasa tak selesa hanya di simpan dalam hati. Kami menarik nafas lega jika sempat sampai pejabat sebelum waktu. Mungkin masih sempat mengalas perut bersama rakan-rakan sekutu. Itu pun masih tak tentu. Selambak tugasan telah menunggu. Tak perlu pun buat list-to-do! Kadang-kala kami tersalah mengatur waktu. Atau ada perkara lain yang perlu dibantu. Menyebabkan kami lewat sampai ke muka pintu. Bersiap-sedia untuk merayu. Dalam hati menyumpah dan menggerutu, "Mengapa saya tidak keluar 10 minit lebih awal pada pagi itu?!" Kami menuju ke mej

I hit the big '3' on January, or as some nicely put it, I'm now belong to the three-series club. Entering a new decade, of course I aspire to be a better person, in every possible way - a better wife for my husband, a better daughter to my Mom, a better Mom for my darling Adeelia, a better daughter-in-law to my parents-in-law, a better friend to my buddies, a better contributor to my organization and towards our target group, and undeniably a better Muslim. But of course I'm not a super woman , and far from being a perfect person. Depending on the time and situation, I can be quite unpredictable at times. But I guess, as a 30-year old, I have to be more consistent in my undertaking, more mature and I would like to see myself projecting a calm and collected demeanour =). So as a reminder to myself, h ere are some of the things that I would like to tell my 30-years self: 1. Fat is good ~ if only you're referring to your bank account! So save up MORE consistently. A