As a start, we all went back Kampung last Sunday.  Nek is getting really really skinny. She refused to eat and took only sips of plain water. We are so grateful that she has a capable helper. In fact, Nek only asked for her helper; not me, not my mom, no one else. Nek would be at ease once she sees her son, Pakcik Ahmad.

Pakcik Ahmad has been dedicating his life to Nek. Whatever he does, decision to be made, he'll get an endorsement from Nek.

My mom said now that Nek is at home, Pakcik drops by every morning before he goes to work. Then later in the evening, he'll bring Makcik to see Nek. On each visit, he never failed to recite Yaasin and few other Surahs at Nek's request. He reminds Nek of Allah's promises. He says "dari Allah kita datang kepada Allah kita kembali".  He says a prayer for Nek's recovery, asks mercy from Allah and that Nek shall be relieved from pain, in front of Nek.

I think to myself, how keewl is that? To hear your son prays for you while you are still breathing, to take comfort that you have raised your son well, to be able to say 'thank you' for the prayers.

Sejuk perut Nek dapat anak macam Pakcik Ahmad.

=====

The Prophet Muhammad s.a.w taught that 3 things continue to benefit (believing) person even after death:

1. Sedekah amal jariah - charity deeds

2. Ilmu yang di ajar - benefical knowledge that the person left behind

3. Doa anak yang soleh - supplification on his behalf by a righteous child.

 

I hope my children pray for me and their father. I hope Firhad learned a thing or two from Pakcik.  I hope all of us become anak yang soleh.

Insya Allah.

 

Had lunch alone at Maulana because somebody forgot to switch on his handphone

While syiokly eating, found a string of hair in between rice and chicken. Urgh. It still amazes me why I keep coming back to this place especially for breakfast (must be because of its Nescafe kaw).

Luckily I have Impiana, the magazine to kill my time while waiting for the rain to stop.

Did you buy this month's issue?

Check out the house banglo featured on the cover page. The owner, Desmond Ho is a Baba from Melaka which explains where he got his idea from.

Chanteeqx gilerrrr! All wood. The window, pintu pasak (pivot), fences, the ceiling (pun timber tau) oh goaatttss! I wanna lepak like his mother (page 031).

Drool Drool. Sungguh climax.

Now please excuse me, I think I wet my pants.

Hah!

We were engaged on this date.

And I'm pretty sure he forgets. Die! Die! Die!.

(Me too actually, until I saw the calendar)

Last Saturday, my friends and I had a blast dinner at Restoran Rumah Thai. I have not seen them for years. One with bigger hips to show, another with 2 adoring little girls, a successful entrepeneur and a happy jolly single friend (so jaki, huh!!).

Dinner, last Saturday - ring a bell? It was AF Finale night. Totally slipped off my mind until a friend set a condition; "I won't go if there's no Astro". Aiyoo..so plans were made after the restaurant owner, Nazmizan confirmed that the restaurant is Astro-ready.

We had a set of 4-6 pax dinner. There were lemme see, 6 dishes all together in the set. First, Ikan kerapu masak masam manis (I think, I'm hopeless at identifying ikan so bear with me). The ikan was HUGE sampai terkeluar dari pinggan with asparagus on the side, crunchy on the outside but fresh and juicy inside.

There was golden buttered prawn, mind you these are no small kuci prawns. The prawns are amazingly sweet unlike those dry, soggy I usually encounter. Oh! i love the presentation, single rose made out of orange peel. So alluring.

There was also mouth watering kerabu mangga.  The mango was crispy, masam- pedas at a perfect tolerant level with sprinkles of grinded ground nuts.

Barbequed pandan chicken, my fav! Its a dish where chicken pieces are marinated in coconut milk and spices and is then deep fried. It could be messy, so if you're on a date try to avoid this dish but otherwise its a must for Thai dish.

We also had a plateful of kailan ikan masin. Good plain rice with this dish alone is enough for me.

And what is thai food without sour and spicy tomyam? aaahh..... i luurrrve tomyam. It was a bit sweet to my liking however i'm not dissapointed with the ingredients - prawn, cuttlefish, chicken and lots lots of onion rings.

Did i miss anything? We were also served varieties of sliced fruits, i'm not sure if its on the house. It was just right to fill a hungry tummy while waiting for the food to be served. Oh yes, ade ground nuts in small bowl - Naim's fav.

We ordered 2 bowls of lovely ice-cream for the kids to keep them occupied. But you know what, the place is kids friendly. It has a water fountain with couples of gold fish. Naim even saw a shark! heh. The kids were amazed,  I tell you. (what is it with running water and kids?). Naim keeps throwing small pebbles onto the pond that the owner was speechless (I guess that's why we didn't get much discount, heh).

The set costs at a reasonable RM130 excluding drinks. About RM25 per pax. There are other sets to choose. The restaurant also offers ala-carte. We were told that the chef is a local, formerly from Restoran Nelayan. Woaa..really thought the dishes were Siameese-made.     

Okay confession time, most pictures (most) are taken from google image. I took some photo but hey, im no artiste like Didi, I don't even know how to handle cameras, digital or not. Over expose la, lack of clarity la. Shame on me. But rest assured, those pictures are not far from the actual, I promise.

To conclude, the restaurant is a must-go-to. Great ambiance!. It opens for lunch until midnight. The location; along MRR2 before the turn off to Taman Melati, from Ulu Klang. Ever noticed the Fire Station? There's a stretch of new shoplot next to it.  Yupp, it's there. I think the the whole stretch is yellow in colour but with haze and gloomy sky, im not really sure if passers by could tell.  

Picture on the left: the inside view of the restaurant. Happy kids not included. Right: Exclusive bar cum cashier counter. Not monkey bar, okay.

Look empty, huh? It's because of; First it was AF night. Secondly, the restaurant was closing and if it was not because of Nazmizan, we would have been thrown out from the restaurant.

With all due respect to all Akademi Fantasia fans...

Can anyone tell me if they could agree wholeheartedly that Mawi, the winner of Akademi Fantasia 3, could really really sing?

I have asked around, and no one said to me "Yeah, he could sing" not "Yeah, he could sing quite well" or "Yeah, he could carry a tune if he wanted to"

So, I would ask you (if you did vote for Mawi), why did you pick Mawi as a winner in a supposedly singing contest?

go ahead, flame me.

On Wednesday, around 8pm my car kene pecah. A laptop was taken together with Firhad's digital camera. All else is intact. Oh my make-up pouch was also inside the pc bag, the new lipstick glaze i got from Didi is also gone..gone.

I was shaky, but I am okay now. Alhamdulillah (lips less glossy tho).

I left the car by the roadside, infront of a college entrance nearby a surau, for less than half an hour. I went to a nearby pasar malam to buy fresh chicken....stupid me. It's a mobile pc, the company expects me to carry it around, kan? 

I conclude that our local investigator/police is nowhere near C.S.I in terms of searching for evidence. It's not "we follow the evidence" principle but it's more of "biasala ni, ramai dah kene" kinda attitude. Probably because this is not a homicide case, only a notebook with NBV of  RM1 and ..eley setakat camera tu....

I don't care about the notebook, it's what inside that matters most. Maklumat sulit, tak faham ke? Information that should not fall into third party. Isk Isk Isk

Oh yeah I have back-up. The last was err one month ago.. stupid me.

The Investigating Officer (IO) took several pictures of what used to be a window, didn't even bother to look on the inside. Dust Dust for finger print. Nope, none found. Only partial and compromised finger print. They even got the M.O wrong.

I'm sure Grissom would have asked Sarah or Nick to collect the shattered glasses to look for prints or blood ==> DNA. They would have said "We will have to take your car, maam". And they will smoke, spray some liquid in search of blood, put on the big orange glass for traces of siemen...err not that they will find any..but efforts, they would have put in more efforts.

*sigh*

After a lady Sergeant took my statement I was asked to read the whole thing then to sign on a column that states 'tandatangan saspek'. Huh? I am a suspect now, is it?

Look on the bright side; I am now entitled for a new laptop!

So people, never EVER leave your notebook in your car!!

Probably I was not that forthcoming in my last post.

It probably was due to me being extremely pissed about the Akademi Fantasia. Probably it was because of the fact that I kept thinking about it that pissed me. I do not know. But I do know that I could not pass by a record shop that does not have the final concert CD blaring out of its speakers. And probably it was just my luck, it would have Mawi singing.

Or keep hearing Othman Hamzah's song being completely decimated by the World himself.

Or glancing at a headline of a tabloid paper and discovering that the headline is about Mawi's fiance having complete faith in him, that he won't be blinded by the glare of fame or whatever 'godaan' it would bring.

Or hearing about how Mawi said to Hani of some talk show on Astro Ria that he does not want to think about marriage now, but to concentrate on his new-found career first.

Or actually having to listen to how excited my friend was when he bought a bottle of 'Minyak Angin Mawi'

yeah...WORLD LA KO.

Just disregard that in the three years of AF, the principal was three of the most highly-regarded music mogul in the industry. That the students actually took vocal classes. They have Fatimah Abu Bakar, Marlia Musa and Linda Jasmine as their teachers. Not just any two-bit thespians.

The fact that the winners, (well, at least two of them), still can't sing for nuts just mystifies me. And the fact that the response to the WORLD phenomenon was absolutely mind-boggling.

Why?

Okay, it was more of a popularity contest than a singing one. Why bother with the big-names of the music industry in the faculty then? Why bother with the Diari, Imbasan, Prelude or whatever crap they have? Even a weekly magazine? Parade them like a Miss Universe contestant then.

Admit it, we all KNEW that Mawi would bag it from the beginning.

Still, we gave him support, by watching him, talking about him..even vote for him.

When we knew that he does not amount to much. He was just the best amongst the pool. Maybe. Big Maybe..

Probably the biggest chip on my shoulder now is that how easily we were manipulated. We were forced (or not, depending whether you're in denial or not) to change our schedule on Saturday nights. Spend couple of hundreds hunting and buying the concert tickets. Spend a few more for lodging because you're from out of town. Installed Astro just to have the fever. Some people spend millions to avoid getting the fever, but we spend to catch it. And the fever ain't that good in the first place. We're not talking about Woodstock which unearthed Janis or Jimi here.

And a few people in sombre suits driving flashy cars is laughing to the bank, again. And they'll do it again next year. And the year after that. And they know that they will be having their hands in our pockets again. And it is not to jingle some keys at that.

So instead of telling me whether you have voted for The World or not, tell me what is so appealing about Mawi?

For now, excuse me while I slap my colleague in front of me for playing 'Gadis Melayu' on his I-Tunes.

As you all might know, Rotidua's laptop was stolen last Wednesday from her car. (No, it wasn't your car Kak Liza, it was ours) Although an important person in her company, it is not enough for her to escape the chiding from her superiors. But, the company recognised the importance of a mobile PC for her.

So, the company decided to give her another laptop. Only this time, it would be a lighter one. So she could always carry it around.

They decided to give her an i-Book G4 from Apple.

Regardless whether rotidua could realise the possibility of an i-Book G4, loaded with its video editing software and most importantly, digital outputs, I was rubbing my hands in glee just thinking of having a Mac in the house.

"But it only have a 12" screen!" she complained.

"But it's a Mac! a G4!" I reiterated. I might as well have been talking in Greek judging by her reaction to that statement.

Finally, we went to Macasia in Great Eastern Mall yesterday. Now, if you are a Macintosh user and you want to convince a Windows user, bring them to an Apple centre. (It would help if they are shopping for a new PC and they have the cash). Rotidua was greatly impressed by the i-Book. Once she realised that you can run Microsoft Office applications on a Mac, she's sold.

The only setback now? She could not find a handbag big enough for the i-Book.

Anyone with a Jelly Kelly that needs a new home?

It's nice to know that your hubby is happily announcing that his wife has a new notebook after she was robbed. (Talk about risk management..huh)

I woke Kakak up this morning at 7am. Carried her to the balcony (its her 'thing') so she could see the sky, the school bus. Then rushed to bath her. Dressed her up, swimsuit first. She got swimming class every Monday, you see. Tied her hair "Ibu, kakak nak macam coconut". Okay, okay.

In my life there are only a few people i can really laugh with. Really really laugh. Like ketawa terbahak-bahak sampai nangis, sampai sakit perut. Ketawa yang tak sedar diri or sampai tak keluar bunyi. That kind of laugh. 

My HR Manager has many ways to break the ice. During today's interview, one of the candidates was too nervous or probably do not even bother if she gets the job or maybe she is a highly intelligent person but pretended to be dumb for whatever reason. We could barely hear what she said and she kept replying "Aaa?" to our questions.  So the HR Manager after perusing through her resume asked "Do you know why there is no turning to Kampar in PLUS hghway?". She is from Kampar, Perak. This poor girl after giving a loooooong thought shooked her head. Then the HR Manager said, "Sebab ade bukit besar tak bley tembus".  Next question, he asked "Dekat Arau ada apa?" (She studied in Arau). By this time, we conversed in Bahasa just to get her to be a little more interractive. Again, dia geleng-geleng only this time he managed to get her to speak, she said "Tak de apa". At least that's what I think she said. The HR Manager was expecting 'Istana' as the answer.