Confused

As most probably knew, this is my first time ever being in the UK. So far, the stay had been lovely, the weather could be very tricky and people are generally nice.

What questioned me though, has it always been that prominent labels here are made in other countries, such as China, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Thailand etc? I didn't mention Malaysia, because so far I haven't found one. Has this always been the case?

Once in a while, I'd like to purchase branded stuffs for me or the little highness. But then, when I saw that they were made at these countries, it usually dampened the desire to purchase. It's not that I am against these countries or what, by the way. It just made me wonder, if I go to the specific country, say China, would I be able to get the same branded stuffs with lower prices? Are they the same? Or is it a new marketing strategy to sell under-priced or imitation products with higher prices at these branded UK boutiques?

Or maybe I should change my perspective. Those so-called imitations from Thailand or China, are actually the real thing sold at a different country. Begitukah???

Bugged again..

Couldn't get this thing out of my mind, so I might as well put it down in writing..

To me, it is one thing to break the law, but it's another thing to tell it to the world, and worse, brag about it. For instance, if you've decided that you will skip fasting for a few days in Ramadhan just for the heck of it (no dire situation whatsoever), by all means, go on and do it. It is between you and Allah, anyway. But when you do it, and then brag about it to the world, I think you are insulting some people who worship the Holy Month!

It's like, you purposely ran the red light at a junction. No one saw you, and no accident happened. You felt happy, and nobody else cared. You, then, went on and advertised it in the newspaper that you have successfully ran a red traffic light. Would this insult anybody? You bet at least one person would be insulted, a traffic police officer, maybe?

What I am trying to say is, whatever you do, please be a bit more sensitive. It would only reflect yourself in the eyes of the public, and worse, in Allah The Almighty's sight...Wallahua'lam...

Amazed and speechless...

I have just been buzzed by an FB friend. I actually do not know her, but we apparently share a few friends in common. Well, actually it looked like she knew a few of my cousins. So, I thought that she is one of my sedara jugak using a different name...Hence, I accepted her friend request.

The conversation went something like this:
FB Friend: Assalamualaikum
Me: W'salam wbt
FBF: Buat apa tu? (bear in mind that this is our first ever communication)
Me: Takde apa...Duduk2 je..
Me: Ni Nurul ke? (Nurul is the name of one of my cousins)
FBF: Nurul?
Me: Eh sori..Sape ni? Nama tak familiar la. And gambo pun takde.. (Actually ada gambar tapi I memang tak kenal siapa dalam gambar tu..A little girl's photo, so I thought it was her daughter's photo)
FBF: Ini *** la..
Me: ***? siapa ya? ingatkan sedara tadi.. Sebab yang sama2 kenal ni semua sedara..
FBF: Sebab baru je buat akaun FB ni..
FBF: Owh? Ya ke?
FBF: Umur berapa?
Me: (Mula start pelik) 31. *** ni kat mana?
FBF: 9 tahun. Kat kajang. Eh sori nanti chat lagi...kena sign out sekarang.
Me: (Dalam hati) ???? WTH??

So, I dug her profile and voila! She is actually my cousin's young daughter's friend i.e my niece's friend! And that put 2 and 2 together...Alahaiiii!!!

And, in her profile, her age is 24!! I think her parents seriously needs to monitor this girl..hehe...

And to think of it, kids nowadays fear nothing, eh??

Good Morning..

Daniel and I were walking to the town the other day when we passed by a house where an elderly couple and another middle-aged woman were having a conversation while puffing on their lawn. The elderly couple had greeted me a few times in the past, so I smiled at them as I was passing through. The old lady said "Good morning!" followed by the other two, and I said good morning back. Then she said "Good morning young man!!" to which Daniel replied by showing up his right hand (a'la Obama while addressing the people in a speech) while he was looking down...It was a hilarious sight if you were there to witness it, so everybody laughed and we continued our journey.

Then I looked at my watch. It was nearly 1 pm. "Morning???" I asked myself. Maybe they were mistaken and didn't realize that it was noon already.

Then we brushed shoulders with another lady. I smiled at her and she smiled back, greeting me "Good morning!" Now that couldn't have been a coincidence, right?

I wonder when do people here wish "Good afternoon" then. Our cut-off time in Malaysia is 12 noon, right? Simple. From 12 noon to about 7pm, we wish people "Good afternoon."Hubby said that they don't have good afternoons..They go straight from "Good morning" to "Good evening." People at his work place even called lunch as dinner! I don't know whether it is the practice of the people in this town only or these are common to all Britons...hehe....

By the way, most of the cartoon series here are translated from USA English to British English. I don't really understand this, because for me English is English...hehe... Hubby said Malaysians are thought British English but we talk USA English. That is why we simply don't realize the difference...hehe...

Entah laaaa....

Crazy, crazy world...

Just during my 3 months stay here, I have read about so many crazy things that people do. Some of them were just unthinkable! There was this one case of a man being burnt by some thugs as he was dozing off while sunbathing in a park. Maybe it was a prank played by some naughty teenagers. Nak sangat sunburn, meh kitorang burn ko terus...agaknya laaaa...

There was also a case where an elderly woman was found dead after 5 years at her own home. How could this happen? Nobody smelled anything foul, was it? Or the place had always smelt bad, so that was why nobody noticed another bad smell? They only found her after her down stair's neighbour filed a complaint to the local council for a leak that came from her apartment floor. yikes!!! It just showed that people don't care about each other any more. Even I don't really know my neighbours in this apartment building (except for the guy downstairs who came and complained about the noise Daniel makes). It is a common lifestyle now.

And what about knife crimes? These thugs just randomly went and stabbed people to death! The government is taking step to overcome these crimes, normally done by teenagers gangsd, but from what I read yesterday from an interview, these gangs said, they would only hand in their knives for change with guns. "We kill. That's what we do" they said. SICK!!!! And SCARY!!!! Na'uzubillah!!!

And we haven't touch about racism yet. What people could do because of racism are just beyond belief. It's like we have never learnt from past experiences and still living in pre-historic era.

During one of the subway rides in London, I witnessed an act of racism, though a mild one. We were seated at the rear most area of the coach where the it was linked to another coach. Two guys from the next coach kept throwing small pieces of rubbish into our coach and then laughed out loud. I didn't know what their intention was, whether it was really racism or they were just playing the fool (they looked really foolish, by the way). I pretended that nothing happened and I wasn't bothered by the act. We were going off at the next station, anyway.

Just as we were about to get off of the subway, another Mat Salleh guy looked at us and began shaking his head. He looked pissed enough with the foolish guys' antics. He started cursing under his breath and said to us "What fools are they?" to which my dad said, "I thought they were your friends and they were joking with you." "No, no! I don't have stupid friends like those idiots!" He was really angry.

And as we got off the subway, the guy in our coach stood up, and screamed at the idiots, "What the hell! Bast#&d!!!" and shut the coach's window with a thump. Served them idiots right!

These sick, sick people are everywhere in our world now. May Allah prevent these psycho people from harming us or the people that we love...Ameen...

Tunisia, you said????

From Tunisia.com dated Jul 2008

The Global Peace Index: Tunisia is ranked the 2nd in Africa and the 5th in the Arab countries

Tunisia is classified among many other countries about the level of peace and stability in the world. according to a report done by the Global Peace Index, Tunisia , ranked the 44th at the international level, is the second in Africa after Botswana, and the fifth in the Arab world after Qatar (16th) Oman (21st), the UAE (40th) and Kuwait (42nd).

Tunisia which reached a score of 1698 points, is ahead of other countries such as Greece (57th ) and the United States of America (83rd ) . New Zealand is at the top and is considered as the most peaceful and stable country followed by Denmark and Norway.

The report, which has been elaborated jointly with The “Economist Intelligence Unit'', based its analysis on the situation of peace and stability in 144 countries around the world that revolve around several criteria, including
democracy status , the degree of security for foreigners, level of corruption, government efficiency, the people’s cohesion and integration , international relationships , investments climate , the involvement of countries in armed conflict and the level of military spending.

This is good, right? I am of mixed emotions now....

Will

Have you written yours yet?

I haven't.

Though lately, the idea keeps toying in my head. I mean, life is so short and uncertain, eh? Not that I have a lot of assets and money, though...hehe..

I have named my beneficiaries for my KWSP (what was left inside it, anyway because I kept transferring it to UT) and insurance policies. But the rest of what I have, no.

What will happen to the house, car, cash, company assets and cash when I'm called upon by Allah The Almighty? I would certainly want them to benefit my son for his future. Hubby? Nanti dia kawen lagi susah la....haha....

I recently received a form from Amanah Raya offering the service at RM200 (since I am a Bank Islam credit card holder). I think it is a good offer and came just in time when I was thinking about the whole thing. Might just going to grab the opportunity but then I am not sure whether they can make it in time (I mean the processing and the will writing would surely take time, right?) before I take off to UK. Furthermore, I have not yet finalize all that I have and who should have them when I die into a proper list on paper. Or would they do this on behalf of me? Hmm...

Have you written yours yet?

Alhamdulillah...

I couldn't help but to post this.

Penggunaan 'Alhamdulillah' dalam dunia kita hari ini:

a) A: Aku dengar ko dah dapat baby baru..
B: Haah. Baru semalam..
C: Alhamdulillah...

b) A: Pihak Pengurusan telah bersetuju untuk memberi bonus sebanyak 4 bulan untuk semua kakitangan tahun ni
B: Alhamdulillah...

c) A: Mak, saya dapat Anugerah Dekan semester ni...
B: Alhamdulillah...

d) A: Abah, saya dipilih jadi peserta peringkat akhir AF tahun ni!!
B: Alhamdulillah... (huh?)

I think there is something wrong somewhere here... Tak semua perkara yang menggembirakan kita tu patut diucapkan 'Alhamdulillah' kut.. Ni nak jadi artis pun cakap 'Alhamdulillah' rasanya macam tak sesueiiii kuttt???? Lebih kurang macam lepas dapat tau menang loteri first prize, terus ucap 'Alhamdulillah' pastu sujud syukur..

Apedaaaaa.....

Updated list of 2009 friends' babies

1) Eda
2) Dyda
3) Elly
4) Ainnal
5) Zizie
6) Widie
7) Raz (sudah selamat dapat baby girl.. Ariessa yer? congrats Raz!)
8) Rina
9) Ziah (baby Ameena yang comel...congrats Jiah!)
10) Nina (Lavenderina)
11) As(mahani)
12) Zeti Shaik
13) Farah (Camelia)
14) Am
15) Lin Haida (Kaiesa Humayra Amani...congrats Lin!!)

Hmmm...Ramai pulak girl babies tahun 2009 ni... Bagus...Bagus... Senang nak pilih calon menantu nanti...hehe....

Friends and and their marriages

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been informed by friends who were having some sort of problems in their marriage lives. Strange enough, all of them were the husbands. There was this friend from long, long ago, who had divorced the same wife for the second time and was contemplating reconcilliation but stopped halfway because he was not totally sure that he wanted to go down the road again with the same ex-wife. And along the way, came a long-lost lover, whom has also recently got divorced with 3 kids, and he was seriously considering a marriage with this woman albeit the 'package'

Another friend, whom I see as happily married with a kid, was recently being hunted by a long-lost, still single, lover. I didn't really understand the equation here. What's the ex-lover's motive? Why did this friend obliged to the conquest? What would happen if the wife knows of the situation? (By the way, I am acquainted with his wife)

The third friend, who ditched a woman he said he loved and married another, with whom he got a few kids, came back to hunt the ditched woman (whom by now had already married another guy), requesting her to become his secret lover. Complicated? You bet! Understanding the situation had already make my head went spinning...hehe..

I've heard of middle age crisis. But my friend are all in their 30s. What causes all these complications? Is there really a quarter life crisis as well?

For now, I can only be their ears. Offered some of my thoughts, but not going to do more than that. Will just look and see what will happen and hope for the best for all of them.

Babies of 2009

I realized that a lot of my friends are expecting new babies in 2009. Just for fun and to make a list of future daughter-in-law (kwang 3x), I want to make a list of these friends who will be receiving their bundles of joy in 2009, insyaAllah. In random order:

1) Eda
2) Dyda
3) Elly
4) Ainnal
5) Zizie
6) Widie
7) Raz (sudah selamat dapat baby girl.. Ariessa yer? congrats Raz!)
8) Rina
9) Ziah
10) Nina (not Nahlah, in case you are wondering..hehe..)
11) As(mahani)
12) Zeti

Sapa lagi ek? Couldn't think of anybody else la pulak. List ni nanti kena update pulak on the gender of the babies..hehe...

Dugaan..

It is not that easy..

In about 3 days time, InsyaAllah we will be heading to Jeddah, Madinah and Mekah to perform the Umrah. This will be our second time performing Umrah, being the first time when my late brother was still around in 1998. The troop this time will consists of my dad, my mum, myself and my son, my sister, her husband and daughter and also her parents in law. I am a bit sad because Hubby couldn't tag along because of his work schedule. So does my youngest brother who had just started work and couldn't take leave.

I would like to take this opportunity to seek forgiveness from all of you whom I might have wronged. Maaf Zahir Batin and halalkan segalanya, ok?

When you have decided to go, it is not like when you plan to go for overseas holidays where you can plan, pack and leave. This is a journey to become Allah's guest, and He decides whether He wants to welcome you or not. You got to have strong will power, and mental and physical preparation for this journey. It is not THAT easy.

There were a few hurdles that I had to overcome as it grew closer to the planned date. Alhamdulillah all were solved although I did rigorous running around all over the places for the past one month and at times I just wished i could give up. I must also mention that I have lost my 3 years old watch (received as wedding gift from Hubby) and my sister lost her handphone on the same day after we stopped for Asar prayer at a mosque in Muar the other day. Co-incidence? Maybe. But He knows the best.

Note to myself: Must do more Solat Taubat and istighfar

And to top everything, yesterday Hubby informed me that he will come home on the 12th, just 3 days after our departure for umrah. We will miss about a week to be together before I am scheduled to return on the 20th, InsyaAllah. And he will have to return to Ho Chi Minh on July 2nd. I am sad. Dugaan Allah, I have got to be strong.

For the mean time, kena kuatkan semangat, tabahkan iman. Fokus untuk jadi tetamu Allah. Semoga Allah permudahkan segala urusan di sana, dan semoga kami semua selamat pergi dan selamat kembali ke tanahair. Amiiinnn...

Friends, please pray for us!

Fuh! Tiup habuk sket...

Lamanya tak update blog. Have so many things to write but just didn't have the mood and time. Need to jumpstart the blog again so that things stay here and I could read about them during my golden years (kalau panjang umur..hehe)

As of now, I am catching up on work, clients' requests, house spring cleaning, dan macam-macam lagi benda yang nak dibuat. And yes, only myself and Daniel came back from Ho Chi Minh City last Apr 20th, because Hubby's stint there was extended to at least until Oct 2008. That means he'll be celebrating Ramadhan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri there, man!

It was quite a dilemma actually whether we should come back to Malaysia or not. Since Hubby was not coming back with us, we definitely don't want to beraya separately from him this year. That would only mean that we would be going to HCMC again a few months down the road and terasa rugi pulak bayar return flight tickets again when we could have stayed there until Oct! But then, I have so many things to do back home, and although the world is without barriers now thanks to the internet, it was quite hard to handle business from far away. So, with heavy heart, we came home.

I want to post photos of us in HCMC and write about our short stint there, but as the time now is waaaay past my bedtime, I need to put my wants to another day. I have another long day tomorrow..huhu...

Counting the days

On this date next month, I will enter the big Three-Oh. No more twenties ok? Will officially be a 'remaja tua' hehe..

I hope everything is changing for the better, in line with the 'wisdom' that I should have acquired for the past 29 years. May all my dreams for next year come true, and may Allah continue His blessings for me and all of us.

Fear

I have been cancelling my weekend plans to go to KL for weeks now. The fact is, I really need to go to L*w Y*tt Plaza. There are numerous items that I need to buy for my client. My printer cartridge is also running low.

But, due to some selfish and arrogant people, I fear for my safety nowadays. You can never be too sure when they might strike next. What if I happen to be at the wrong place and the wrong time?

For certain race, had they TRY to plan something like this, they would have been sent to Kemunting Camp under the ISA. Sometimes, they were just locked there when there is even a SLIGHT suspicion that they are trying to plan something that MIGHT evoke riot.

But I am so surprised that when the other race rioted, demolished things, hurt other people, became violent in broad daylight, all they got was court sentence, fine and the next working day, a bail. No wonder these things keep materializing every other weekend!

I am never racist. I mix with all walks of live and all races are my friends. But I HATE these people who ruined the peace and jeopardize other people's safety. And the claims? OUTRAGEOUS!!!

So, please Mr Ministers! Do something..MORE EFFECTIVELY, PLEASE!!! I need to buy things at LYP!!! And I want to bring my baby and my parents to Aquaria some time very soon!!!

Kenapa yek?

I have always got this thought in mind: Why do men who claim that they are not happily married to their wives always have many children? These men always have affairs outside of their marriages, giving impressions that they are not happy, not satisfied with their wives, not content with their marriages bla..bla..bla.. Tapi tengok anak berderet-deret. Kenapa yek?

Is it obligatory for them to have children out of an unhappy marriages? If their wives don't satisfy them whatsoever, why do they bother to 'do' it? Or why bother marrying them in the first place?

But then again, tu semua alasan je nak ada affair kat luar, kan?. Ego booster kut?

Angkasawan Negara

I have been meaning to post this entry since the day he went to outerspace tapi asyik la terlupa. I followed the live telecast when he shot to outerspace and couldn't help feeling a bit of jealousy. Don't you?

Doesn't matter whether he is an astronout, cosmonout or simply space ship participant or whatever. The most important thing is, during next year's Hari Raya, he could tell people "Last year I beraya kat luar dunia (bukannya luar negara, ok?)" Ahh..So jealous...

Anyway, takziah to him too for his loss.

Muhammad Daniel Hafiz bin Nurhazlan is 19 months old today

How time flies..And how small has he become..I seriously think he is underweight compared to the size and weight that he was born in..He simply refuses to eat despite being very active and always sleeping late at night. I am quite concerned about this..Must consult his paed immediately.

Anyway, today I attempted to bake Hari Raya cookies using the microwave oven for the first time. Had to use the microwave oven since we do not have the conventional one here in the temporary place that we are staying in now. Had to surf through the net to ind the time and temperature conversion from the conventional oven recipe to suit microwave cookies baking. Terpaksa try and error @ belasah je lah. Of course Mum helped me a lot with the preparation since she is on leave today. It turned out quite good (and tasty, too) hehe...So, siapa nak rasa, marilah datang rumah Raya nanti ok?

And we have decided that we are not going to send baby to the babysitter's house anymore. Well, hopefully I can manage him while doing the business lah. Since I am home most of the time, and just go out when the needs arise, it is just not worth it to send him to the babysitter's house. Eversince I stopped working, we have never sent him for a complete one month cycle, but we still paid the fees in full.

Furthermore, I am still unsure whether I will still be here by the middle of the month. Might be following Hubby to his new location immediately after Hari Raya or a bit later. I don't know. Still undecided and since we don't know the condition of the new place yet, we still cannot plan properly. Anyhow, hoping for the best.

On the business front, things are looking good and enquiries kept pouring in, resulting in me finding it a bit hard to handle everything. Takpelah, bersusah-susah dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian, kan? I'm just hoping that the money will come in soon!

Hidup atau mati

I came across this article in a newspaper early one Ramadhan morning right after sahur, and ended up tergelak sorang-sorang pepagi buta..hehe...

"BELI KOMPUTER HIDUP ATAU MATI 01XXXXXXXX"

Ada 2 perkara yang mungkin kita fahami apabila membaca iklan ini. Pertama, adakah kita masih tidak mahu membeli komputer tersebut setelah diancam sedemikian rupa? Kedua, adakah penjual komputer tersebut menjual komputer lusuh, komputer yang hidup atau mati?

Memang komputer merupakan keperluan hari ini lebih-lebih lagi dengan sistem pendidikan masa kini yang banyak menggunakan alat teknologi seperti komputer. Namun, janganlah disebabkan terlalu ghairah untuk melariskan produk mereka, penjual sanggup menggunakan bahasa yang sedemikian rupa sehingga boleh dikatakan agak keterlaluan. Seronokkah kita apabila membaca iklan berbentuk ugutan seperti ini? Apakah pincang atau terjejas kehidupan kita jika tidak membeli komputer itu?

Selain berbentuk ancaman, perkataan "hidup atau mati" hanyalah digunakan untuk benda bernyawa atau bernafas dan bukan untuk komputer, sejenis alat elektronik. Mungkin juga bahasa iklan tersebut bermaksud penjual menjual komputer terpakai, sama ada yang "hidup" (boleh digunakan) atau yang "mati" (sudah rosak).

Ek elleh!! Entah apa-apa laaa!!!

I was at a bank yesterday for a counter service. When my number was up, I went to the counter and greeted by a nice lady, whom I assumed was the manager of the bank. Suddenly, an Indian guy came up to the lady and stated complaining:

Indian Man (IM): Excuse me. I would like to place a complaint here. I think your security guard is very rude!

Nice lady (NL): I am sorry?

IM: I was sitting there with my fiance. Then your security came and asked me to keep my hands to myself. Come on lah! She's my wife ok? I have been here for many, many years now and I had always conduct myself in a proper way. I think she's really rude.

NL: (Smiling) I am sorry, I am sorry..

When I left the counter, I saw the IM with his hands over the shoulders of his fiance/wife (yang mana satu ni dey?) with an arrogant look as if saying "Look! I am still doing it and don't you dare prohibit me or I will report you to your boss again"

My 2 cents worth:

Both parties are wrong in a way or two. First, the security lady might have sincere intention so that proper conducts are being practised in a common area. She might have witnessed something bad, thus she reprimanded the couple. It was Friday, anyway. Tapi, yang security ni pun satu gak..Dah tau mamat tu non-Muslim, abaikan je la..Maybe it's not wrong in their society to do such thing. Macam la kalau kita gi overseas and nampak couples kissing on the roadside..Takkan kita nak pergi marah orang tu pulakkan?

Yang mamat IM tu pulak, benda macam tu pun rude ke? Takkan sampai nak report ke manager kut? I thought she was rude because she didn't answer questions regarding the bank's services properly ke etc. Dah tau kat tempat orang, behave la sikit cik abang oi! Leave your groping actions at the privacy of your own area/home la..Dah kena tegur nak marah-marah pulak..Diam-diam sudah la...

I remember once me and Hubby was reprimanded by somebody working at one of the LRT stations. That time we were still engaged and we were sitting quite close to each other because of the limited seats. We realized that we might have gone a bit overboard in a public area, and we obliged, but we didn't go and marah back at him for his teguran. And, we certainly didn't even think of reporting him to his superior!

Ala..Leceh la lu mat!!!