Quantum of Solace

It's been a year since I came to this new workplace. It has been great so far and most importantly, I survived my first year here, so...hooray to me! On this day, exactly a year ago, I went to report for duty at my new division and it happened to be on the day that the Ministry was having the Hari Raya Open House. It was a massive celebration and instead of sitting on my desk, I went to meet a few familiar faces and it really helped to calm down my nervousness of being a newbie there. But we got right into business the following day - I attended a briefing in the morning and was being sent to an official trip straight away. It was a trip up north to get to....(wait for it) an open sea! Yes, I got to be on a patrol boat right on my third day. To make it more interesting, my immediate boss who was supposed to be with us had to pull out from the trip due to an unforeseen circumstances. So, it was just me and my subordinate navigating the session with the respective agencies 😅   ...

Quick stats to sum up my January 2023:  #04of2023 #WednesdayWriting

  "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." –  Mark Twain Four years ago, I quoted this gem on my birthday post alongside an honest declaration that I was, at that point of time unable to fully comprehend the purpose of me being here just yet. After 42 times of embarking the journey around the sun, suffice to say, I already figure out the latter, though it was not a smooth sailing journey all the way. In conjunction of my birthday month, here is my reflection of life as a 40-something lass..  Life is like a Birthday Cake   ~ 🎂 People always say that life begins at 40. Little did I know that it was not supposed to mean that life after 40 is going to be a fun and easy one. Of course, by the time we've reached 40, w e got most of the major life events sorted out already – education, love/marriage, family, career and all. Adulthood undoubtfully was an eventful journey ~ burning the midnight oil t...

Ko jolobak ko jolobu Tuai padi tigo tangkai Kalau kono komat jolobu Tak mati badan menghasai Gurindam dulu-dulu jangan ponah dipotikai Tak tahu tanyo dulu jangan goma memandai-mandai -Gadis Jolobu, 2015- Hebat betul daerah Jelebu, hinggakan ada lagu khas untuknya.  Catchy pula tu, sampaikan kalau sebut Jelebu sekarang terus rasa nak menyanyi lagu tu, sama macam lagu Rembau Most Wanted . Genius marketing! Disebabkan dah quote lagu awal-awal, maka tema Cuti-cuti Malaysia kita ialah lagu ya 😄 Pemergian kami ke Jelebu pada 11 dan 12 Januari 2023 lalu bukanlah bertujuan untuk bercuti sebenarnya tetapi berkaitan dengan urusan persekolahan Kakak. Jika diikutkan jarak perjalanan tidaklah terlalu jauh letaknya Jelebu dari Putrajaya, 95 km atau lebih kurang 1 jam setengah perjalanan jika melalui LEKAS. Tetapi memandangkan ujian Kakak bermula seawal 8 pagi, maka kami buat keputusan untuk bermalam sahaja di sana. 🎵  Pusara Gembira di Lebuh Raya Alang-alang dah berjalan tu, k...

2022 in review ~  A lot of interesting things had happened in 2022, but somehow, I did not manage to document it well, neither through this blog nor my social media and now I'm afraid that someday, I will totally forget about it.  "Nothing Is Ever Really Lost To Us As Long As We Remember It"   - L.M Montgomery Therefore, here's some of the highlights of the year for the sake of memories:  The first quarter was very interesting both personally and professionally. For the first time ever, Kakak and I participated in a 5-km run together and it was really fun and we even got ourselves matching T-shirts! I thought of registering ourselves for more running events after that, but sadly it did not materialize, along with our weekly commitment to brisk walk. So, I ended up the year getting much heavier and less fit. *Sigh* Work wise it had been interesting too – after quite a long time being in a sort of dormant status, finally we got the leg kicking with the l...

Another year has passed, another year has come. 2021 was not a great one for me even though for those who were born on the same year with me, it represent a  significant milestone. "Life begins at 40" they said, but it was also the age and year when I lost two beautiful souls -  my brother and my best friend from this world.  But it was not all bad. The loss has taught me a very valuable lesson ~ most things that we thought matter was only matter when we are still alive. It was a different story at all when we are gone. So, I decided to take a lighter approach in life and try my best not to sweat over little things. It just doesn't worth it. Then I  tried to imagine what it's like when I'm gone.  How will people remember me? M ost importantly how my loved ones will remember me? I gave up the former, because like it or not, most people will only remember you as long as you serve the purpose in their life. Take work for example, even though we spend most of our ...

It’s been 5 months and I finally got the courage to write about it. I lost my second brother, E on May 4 th , 2021 on the 22 nd Ramadhan. His demise was tragic, but there was nothing that we could do about it anyway. I believe that was the best for him. It was God’s plan for him. Just like the rest of his life. And our lives as well… ***** E is my half-brother. We used to live together under the same roof when I was very little. Then he went to live with our relative. He continued his studies at a boarding school in Kuantan. I remember our trip to see him there once, it was at night. That was all that I remembered though. I could not bring myself on how to explain the relationship that we had as siblings. We were not that close that we could joke around with each other, but he was always there. I would see him from time to time. I remember he would come over to the house occasionally, but I could not really remember the conversation that we had, or the things that we did together as a...

Beberapa minggu lepas ada ujian yang datang menimpa. Biasalah, kalau namanya hidup, mana pernah berhenti daripada diuji. Cuma ujian kali ini datang dalam bentuk yang amat berbeza – diri ini terpalit dan terbelenggu dengan suatu kerumitan yang bukan ditimbulkan sendiri, bukan dicari, di luar pengetahuan dan perkara yang berlaku itu tidak pernah terfikirkan. Butiran insiden itu tak perlulah dihuraikan di sini kerana agak peribadi. Cuma sebagai seorang yang agak berwaspada dan tidak keterlaluan boleh dikatakan punya daya firasat atau instinct yang kuat, bila terjadinya perkara ini, soalannya ialah “Kenapa?”   Tipulah jika dikata hati ini tidak kecewa. Tipulah jika dikata tak menyumpah dalam hati. Perasaan marah, geram, keliru, risau semua bersatu. Apa yang dirasa di jiwa dan yang membelenggu di benak tak terluah dengan kata-kata. Lebih pedih sebab diri ini tiada daya untuk mengubah apatah lagi menghalangnya. Dalam pada melayan perasaan tu, tiba-tiba timbul dalam jiwa dan fiki...

Life in 2020 was something that we never imagined before – the Government asked us to stay at home in order to flatten the curve or in other words to contain the spread of COVID-19.  Never in my life would I’ve thought that we could be heroes by just staying at home. No need to wear cape or have super power, just slip into your PJs, minding our own business at home and making sure to have very minimal physical contact with the outside world. Well, I guess this is every introvert’s dream 😆 But then again, what we thought to be a short-term stint, turnout to be much longer than what we had anticipated earlier on. The PKP or MCO had started since the mid of March and was supposed to be until the end of the abovementioned month. Little did we know that based on the assessment of the situation by the Ministry of Health and the National Security Council, the restriction order was extended to another fortnight, then another…. and it continued to be extended on for a good 56 days i...

Genap sebulan isu ketiadaan air di Lembah Klang yang menjejaskan pengguna di 7 daerah selama 4 hari , 'acara' ini diteruskan lagi pada lewat 4 Oktober 2020 dan kali ini melibatkan  274 kawasan dan menjejaskan 1.3 juta pengguna  termasuk kawasan rumah dan tempat tinggal saya.  Isu gangguan bekalan air tidak berjadual ini bukanlah isu baharu dan sebagai pengguna secara jujurnya saya telah berada pada satu tahap untuk tidak peduli tentang apa jua punca gangguan tersebut kerana skripnya sama ~ pencemaran sumber air oleh kilang atau penternak haram dan seumpama dengannya sehingga mengakibatkan gangguan air.  Sebagai pengguna berbayar yang kami mahukan adalah kepastian bila bekalan air boleh disalurkan semula dan jaminan bahawa ianya benar-benar selamat untuk digunakan.  Realiti apabila ketiadaan air ~ hidup masih perlu diteruskan. Kami masih perlu ke pejabat, sekolah dan masih perlu makan/minum. Tiada cuti khas tanpa rekod yang diberikan untuk membolehkan kami 'lari'...

How it started On top of the national political turmoil, the happenings on the second quarter of 2020 was something that we never imagined of except in the movie.  Who would have thought that the whole world would be shaken and stood almost completely still because of a virus! Yep, the Coronaviruses (65–125 nm in diameter) had cause nothing but chaos since the first outbreak was reported sometime in December last year. The case was first discovered in Wuhan, China (well at least it was what the scientists believed to be) and within a short period of time, it has become a major outbreak.   Despite of it becoming a pandemic, the virus itself was not entirely new. The earliest reported case was in the late 1920s and human coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s. It was interesting to know that the scientists named it ‘Corona’ which is Latin for crown because of its spiky surface.   When we first heard about the case, we said to ourselves, “Wow, that’s bad”....