Unrelated to the previous post.

It's about the coming trip to NY.

My seats for the NRT-ORD sector have been automatically upgraded to First Class! Both ways!

Weeeheeeee!!

Seven levels of Jannah.

Seven levels of Nar.

Seven, malam tujuh likur.

Seven wonders of the world.

Seven deadly sins.

Se7en, the movie.

7 Up.


Tomorrow, our 7th year of togetherness.

How time flies.

Happy 7th anniversary babe.

I'm tired.

Not from the fasting but more from my lack of sleep. I can't hold down a decent sleeping pattern eventhough I vowed to sleep earlier every night. It still ends up the earliest being midnite after a commute, the cool down, the late shower and prayers and the habitual hot drink.

Even before leaving the Kompeni, that would've been my sleeping pattern. At least, I have a room of my own to sneak in a good afternoon nap. Heck, it even had a 2-seater sofa before it was moved to the reading lounge. Over here, it's only a cubicle. Not even a surau for me to sneaky-sneaky. Yesterday, I only realized I had dozed off after I had dropped my handphone onto the desk. While reading a message. Ughh.. And today, I have a 2 o'clock meeting. A double ughh.. I can bet my hairy armpits that I'll be having a hard time trying to stay awake, or at least to show that I'm listening with my eyes closed.

I've always wondered how some people can boast that they only needed 3 hours of sleep, or even 2, and yet still be superachieving or active. Caffeine? Red Bulls? Viagra? I can barely function with less than 7 hours of sleep every day. Okay, I still can but with a miserable, groggy mood. But with 2-3 hours of sleep?

There was this time while travelling on my summer vacation during the student days that I was microsleeping while driving. It had been a long night, we were driving from Boston to Ottawa. Now that I remembered, it was more like New York City to Ottawa, with a day stop in Boston. The hotels were full and we were behind schedule. My shift was from NYC to Boston, late night. Arrived in Boston dawn, had a brief R&R at a lake somewhere before subbing the duty with another buddy. I was a zombie during the whole Boston tour. Then somewhere between Boston and the Canadian border, I was back on driving duty. Late night again (back then, I prefered night driving). We passed Montreal on the way to Ottawa just after day break, only stopping at a petrol station for a fill-up and pee-break. Noticing that the alternate driver is still dozing and I was still feeling 'fresh', I continued with the driving. Only to be shouted at minutes into driving on the interstate by my wife (my 'crush' back then, who was on navigator duty) when she saw me driving with me eyes closed. I had microsleeped. Luckily my arms didn't pull the steering wheel to the side. A quick pit at a trucker-gas-station-park-thingy, and seconds later I was happily dozing away at the back seat.

Heh..

Deja vu. Had I written that before?

Lack of sleep.

It's infectious.

It's irritable.

Friday.

Unofficially casual wear day.

Jeans & t-shirt.

2.30pm.

Balik, bas pukul 4 petang!

One of the benefits in the Kompeni that I used to work for was a subsidized housing loan for all employees. At a flat rate of 4% p.a., similar to what all government employees are enjoying. A very lovely perk to enjoy, you get cheap house loan, the property is insured for by the Kompeni and there's no floating BLR to worry about.

It goes without saying that if you resign, you have to forgo this benefit. Settled in lump sum, or refinanced to a commercial bank. Meanwhile, in order to hasten your action, the Kompeni will revise the rate from 4% to 7% upon your resignation.

Fine by me, it's not for me to enjoy forever. What irks me the most, is the Kompeni's lackadaisical attitude towards it. I'm sure I'm not the only one going through this because it was whispered to me by one of the banks when I was shopping around for a loan that even if I were to ignore the settlement, there's no way the Kompeni can claim it from me in the court of law.

Why?

It's an open secret that the Kompeni's lawyers never really put a claim on the property at the Land Office in favor of them by virtue of being the financier. Especially for refinancing cases like me when I refinanced it from a commercial bank to the Kompeni. Since the Kompeni did not put a claim at the Land Office, the land title still bears the earlier bank's name as the favored party. Which, I don't have any house loan balance anymore to begin with. Which means, I could just say adios to the Kompeni, not a pay single sen to them, not having to refinance to a new loan and definitely no more monthly installments.

At all.

Forever.

But I'm not gonna do that. It's not my money to begin with. So now, I've got to ketuk some kepala at the Kompeni to hasten this icky procedural thing so that my new financier can release the payments. So that the Kompeni won't be charging me this 7% until God knows when. So that I can be at peace knowing that I've settled my hutang with the Kompeni. I also have to knock some senses into these people on why should I be charged with the 7% beyond my 30 days obligation when I've done all I can to get a new loan yet it's being delayed by the Kompeni's own stupidity? Lawyers who didn't do their work, bosses who never check what is going on in their offices. Nyusahkan orang lain je adanya.

If you're still with the Kompeni and has a company provided house loan, go check with the legal office. Force them to show proof of the land charge is still in your name and in favor of the Kompeni. I bet you my hairy armpits that the document at the Land Office only bears your name and non in favor of the Kompeni.

Beyond that, it's up to you.

Only now he's telling us. Refer here.

After bermillion dah masuk akaun bertahun-tahun.

And PAPA as always, is in denial.

Ceh..

D-Day at Permatang Pauh today. I'll just catch tonight's news for the score. Not that it really matter who's the winner going to be. Politicians are politicians, no matter what their flags are, or their colors, or their skins. To me, they're all alike.

Merdeka is around the corner, and I only got to watch this year's Petronas ad over at NST's site. It has become an event on its own every year. Everybody is excited as they wait to see the latest ads. Not just for Merdeka but also for many other national and religious events. It is one of the best ad series, with good storytelling and the messages are protrayed subtlely yet clearly. This year's Merdeka ad is of no exception, combining the messages that we need to save for the future, live within our means, dream big and work hard to achieve that dream. I was awed after watching the ad.

Will the Merdeka message penetrates the minds of my fellow countrymen?

I am..
31 years and 1 day old.
With a thinning head of hair.
And streaks of white hair on the sides.
Not forgotten, a swollen waist and and love handle (the stomach, you dolt!)

I am..
Blessed with a sexy and loving wife.
Entrusted with two cheeky boys.
Thankful to be where and who I am today.

I am..
A work in progress.
With mortal sins.

For all of my imperfections, I am still a superdad to my kids and a hero to my wife.
For all of these, I won't trade them for anything.
For all of these, I am thankful.

I am..
The idiot on a Monday morning who still hasn't started his tasks yet.

I am..
31 years and 1 day old.
With a thinning head of hair.
And streaks of white hair on the sides.
Not forgotten, a swollen waist and and love handle (the stomach, you dolt!)

I am..
Blessed with a sexy and loving wife.
Entrusted with two cheeky boys.
Thankful to be where and who I am today.

I am..
A work in progress.
With mortal sins.

For all of my imperfections, I am still a superdad to my kids and a hero to my wife.
For all of these, I won't trade them for anything.
For all of these, I am thankful.

I am..
The idiot on a Monday morning who still hasn't started his tasks yet.

It's Friday again, but I won't be going back to KL as I'd normally do. No meetings, no trainings, no nothing. DIdn't walk up to the office with my usual weekend bag. I'll be here for the weekend.

The new iPhone is now available here from today. It looks cool, and a few thousand people have registered to be the first few owners of the unit. Too bad no unbundled units available, one must sign up with a mobile plan in order to get a unit which costs between $0 (yes, free) and $500. Maybe I should just get a PSP to be my commuting buddy instead.

A few of us who are quite new in the office have a lunch appointment today with the office's Big Kahuna at a nearby Italian restaurant. It's either this or Chinese food. Pasta for fuel, plus from the menu they seem to have a wider choices of non-non-halal meat for me to chew on. I just have to excuse myself 30 minutes before the end to run off to the mosque for Friday prayers. Sempat, sempat. It's about 10 minutes walk away. Oh yeah, I was confused about eating crayfish so I tried searching the net which made me off-kilter a bit. The sentence read "Crayfish is a shellfish, the same way crabs, prawns & lobsters are so it's haram". I was like "huh?", only to realized that I had stumbled into the other sect's forum. No wonder I was confused about crayfish all these while. Someone must have given me this misinformation and I've never bothered to confirm it since I'm not a fan of the shellfishies due to my resdung. So pasta with lobster and crayfish for me today, wuhooo!

My first 'unofficial' official lunch with a few of the team members here was at a Peranakan place. Non-halal place of course, but I had fish, otak-otak and some veggie with the rice. I was almost turned off with the sup itik-&-kaki babi on the table, but pejam mata saja lah.

Some people may scoff at me joining the colleagues at these places, but once in a while you just have to join them. It's a social and an official thing, plus you don't want them to see you as an anti-something-something. As long as they understand that meant no non-halal food for me, which they appreciatively do. They got used to me declining their invites for the daily lunch at the nearby foodcourt, what with the non-existence of a proper halal stall. To make it easier for them, I just told them I tend to have my lunch after my mid-day prayers at the mosque so I don't want to impose on them.

It's easier here because there are halal eating places for me to choose. It's totally different when I was studying, sometimes to a point that a few who studied at the Commonwealth countries couldn't understand. Where we studied, it's not easy to really find a proper halal place unlike the UK or OZ where there are in abundance. So we had to 'close one eye' to the kitchen: the grill, the pan, the spatulas (ngeh?), the glove. As long as what we see on our plates are veggies, eggs, plants and fish. Same as when we're travelling on our vacation, or like when I'm on an official business trips. Larat ke nak cokek maggi, instant Campbell's and roti tiap hari?

Luckily it's the final 2 weeks of Ramadhan when I'm in NY for the training and meet-my-real-boss session. One less 'hassle', no lunch required. I could hop over to the American diner or the Persian/Arabian (wasn't too sure) place near the hotel later in the night.

Have a good weekend, y'all. I'll be taking the family to the Singapore Zoo tomorrow. Yes, they're here for the weekend. Nyeh! Nyeh! :P

Just as I was about to go see the big boss (for the office, not my immediate boss) about something he asked me to cuba-try-test-tengok on Friday, he got a conference call. Wuhooo..

A great weekend was the pick-me-upper that I needed after last week's emotional conundrum. I still got to learn to ignore some of the ill-thinking. Spent time with the family. Met my relatives at my cousin's wedding in Kg Melayu Ampang, although for a short while because everyone was busy. It took me only 30 minutes to drive from Subang to Ampang, in a Viva with 4 other passengers. Wuhoo! Caveat: toll was RM6.70 heheh.. The bride's kenduri was last weekend near Jalan Kuari. It could be on tv, my cousin, the groom, is now happily married to one of the Channel 3's show host.

Sunday, went to Gart's regular Pasar Haiwan, Sayuran dan Pelbagai for the weekly fridge updates. A former mate (office, not any other) mentioned earlier that another former mate (office, again) is holding a house warming event on the same day. Couldn't attend, sorry. Besides the berpasaran, we had other things to do in one day before my return trip later in the afternoon.


Forgotten about the new EPL season starting on Saturday while me and the wife was out bercanda. And totally bummed out when I came back down here that there's also no free EPL matches on the telly. Must subscribe to a pay tv channel. This, and the broadband service that I conveniently didn't even bother to shop around.

Meet-my real boss-and-training trip to Schenectady is on for mid September. 2 weeks of puasa for me on my own over there. Good news 1: shopping raya at malls and outlets over there. Good news 2: my boss has already pre-approved my raya leave. Good news 3: I can stop over in KL on the way out and back from the training. Now, that saves a lot of money and one less hassle to plan for raya trip. This is so cool.

Heh.. Who cares who wins in Permatang Pauh. From a non-partisan viewer like me, all the circus going around the by-election only further proves my thinking that politicians are all the same. Plus, a lot of my countrymen are becoming even more taksub-er by the day.

Bad news:
I got the flu. Viral flu.

Mild news:
The doc gave me an MC for 2 days.

Good news:
Monday's a replacement holiday, so it's going to be a long weekend break

Very the hampeh news:
My bus departs at 5.30pm, and all earlier ones are sold out because of the above.


Gotta go, before the office kicks me out for spreading germs and virus. Have fun people.

My throat was slightly sore towards the end of yesterday. Stopped at the mini mart near the apartment but there was no orange juice except for lime and lemonade. I settled for the lemonade. Popped 2 paracetamols after a late dinner and I went to bed after having my usual hot drink before bed.


As expected, I woke up with a slight fever and runny nose. The weather wasn't so kind the past few days. It was extremely hot, no rain at all. At least the night was still cool, but that could be because my apartment is on the 6th floor. At least, no haze yet over here.


If the fever worsens, I might have to hop over to the nearby clinic. Hopefully they'll give me the day off and I could sleep through the fever. Should I dare to dream that they'll give me two days instead, and I can swap the bus ride to an earlier one? heheh..

The wife too woke up with the same symptoms this morning. Can viruses be transferred over the phone lines?

The weekend was great.

Spent time with the family.
Dinner and movie date with the wife at Chilli's and TGV KLCC.
Dark Knight was great even though we were about 2 weeks late.
Sunday's body scrub and massage at IREE was great too.
Bus ride back down south was trouble and jam free, even at the checkpoints.
Catching a cab back to the apartment with no midnight surcharge was a bonus.

All else being fair, I am thankful.

But then, Monday morning blues hit right at you in the face.

Ughhh...

It's a cycle that's going to be a norm.

Monday blues, Friday wuhoos.
Solo activities on weekdays, group on weekends.
Train to work on weekdays, bus to home on weekends.
See office, leave office.
See family, leave family.

If you're an engineer, you should know that anything cyclical will need routine inspection, check ups and maintenance. With neither, things will breakdown.

Let's see how long we'll last with this North-South cycle.

Drive myself deep inside Hulu Langat to get to Lembah Azwen to pick up my wife who'll be attending her company's weekend motivational camp. I have never been so far into Hulu Langat before, let alone to this resort. The closest was to Batu 9 to accompany a friend due to a sudden death in his family. That's like, 8-9 years ago. A quick search using wikimap showed it's about a couple of kilometers away from the IKBN, with a turn off that goes through a kampung. I'd better give myself more than 1 hour to get there, in case I miss that junction.

Another task: pay my Citi credit card balance. I ran up the balance (and Tiger's) quite high the past few months due to my not-so-smooth cashflow. That should leave me with about 2k more to go for the Tiger's. Excluding the huge sum I'm owing my mum, I'm on track to liberate my credit card balances. Wuhuu!

Another no less important task is to sit down with my wife and work out our finances. The current house, the new house completing next year, the plan for the family, moving to down here or not, current and expected budgeting, those stuff. That's gonna be a big headache.

For someone who used to work as a planner, I don't really have a proper plan for me and my family. Financially. That includes my wife. We're ad hoc and reactive. We don't plan what or how to go for the next step, most of the time we reacted after the event. Family vacation to OZLand: sell shares after purchasing the flight tickets and booking the accommodations. New house: scrummage through our savings (or whatever there is) and roughly go through our expenses after signing the S&P. Moving down here: still no definite plans although I've been here almost a month. 3rd kid? Family car replacement? Adam's school plans for next year? Other stuff? Ouch! We're that bad.

At least, we've planned for a couple's spa and massage for Sunday at our friend's boutique. Wait, which pocket are we paying this from?

After doing a cross-island office tour, at the invite of my supervisor and to accompany the visiting HR big dog, we rushed out to the world's biggest turning wheel, the Flyer.

It's tall, it's huge, it's humongous. It's the tallest man-made object down here, or so it seems. I didn't bring any measurement devices to compare the height with a couple of nearby tall towers. How lucky we were that it was a clear and bright evening, and we got to see, everything downtown, the sea and lots of flats and apartments. That's how big the land is down here.

Okay, so I got to ride it for free, and I'm not gonna complain. I did have a good time, I've always loved looking at the Earth from up above, an aerial view of things I'd normally see at ground level. Plus I get to gel with my new colleagues during the ride and the office dinner which was nothing to shout about by the way, the grilled tuna was dry and the rest, I couldn't eat a pinch. The cranberry juice gave me a bad headache later that night. Anyway, that was made up by a couple of drunk colleagues. Oh, and a couple of hot young things on tight baby T's and skimpy hot pants that could very well be boy-shorts worked our group up all the way. I guess, it wasn't that boring after all.

On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend the ride if you have kids in tow like I do, two rambunctious and boisterous boys who can't sit still for more than 2 minutes. 5 minutes, tops. It takes 30 minutes to complete the ride, at a slow and very smooth sweep of the skyline. It's best if you're planning for a romantic evening, newlyweds or otherwise. Be forewarned that it costs a bomb to get on that. If I can recall, that's about 20+ dollars per adult and slightly less than that for kids.

By the time dinner was over and the post-dinner get drunk session was done, it was almost half past nine. I dreaded taking the free shuttle to the nearest transit station, which will cost me another 1+ hour of my time to get home. I decided to take the taxi, which meant a quicker trip by more than 30 minutes, and way expensive because we're still in the CBD. They have this complex way of setting the taxi fare: location, time of the day, congestion charges, types of car. The last one, I didn't realize until I got on the taxi. Heck, who would've thought a newer sedan will have a slightly higher starting charge than an older one? Isn't that supposed to be meant for a bigger MPV or van, or the Mercs? Pay lah, what else is there for me?

Ni belum lagi cerita pasal the driver. Efficient and willing to take the fastest route, or so he claimed. Yet, very opinionated especially towards some of the non-faired locals. Oh well, the things you get to see, meet and listen to.

Got in at 8.45 this morning, on purpose heheh.. There's an office-do later this evening, so that should count as working hours. There's a team-building of some sort, visiting the largest Ferris wheel, followed by a dinner in the vicinity. The dinner was planned for at a Mexican restaurant but I supposed they don't have any non-red or white-meat. So for today, they've changed the location to a sports bar (bra?) & grill place. Either way, it's fishies and plants for me unless I slide out to the halal eatery next door.

The landlords were home when I got back from the office. They're stopping over for Maghrib and to hand me a few things. Thank God I didn't mess up the place, or else I would've given them second thoughts to having me as a tenant.

The message I got from home this morning: "Ibu, kenapa ibu pakai baju kerja. Adik cuti hari ni, kita nak pergi ambik ayah kan?". Ooppss. We gotta re-word the explanation to him. It's always "Ayah balik rumah bila adik cuti". Today, the two boys are staying at home because my wife is worried about a couple of suspected HFMD cases at the kindy. Amir being Amir, he's thinking that I'll be home today since he's on holiday. It's unconfirmed though, the suspected HFMD cases. It could be normal rashes or fever, but the kindy are not taking any chances and have done a good job of making sure that the toys are cleaned up properly and checking all the kids for signs of the disease. They've been sending out emails to notify parents and ease our fears but the wife is being extra cautious anyway.

That should be manageable, the Amir Confusion Paradox. It's not so much of a problem except to reassure him once in a while of what's going on.

Off to work then, and get my nostrils cleared up. The morning commute was marred by someone who kept farting in the train every 3 stops.

It's Friday again, and my new tour is almost 2 weeks here. Friday also means that I'll be commuting to KL after office, and today I'll be taking an earlier bus. Last week's trip arrived in KL at 1.30am.

What have I learned for the first 10 working days?

1) Moving to a new country is a hassle but no less traumatic than moving to a new home.

2) A new office with a new set of colleagues isn't that traumatizing. You'll learn to adapt to the new surroundings and make new acquaintances.

3) The company's name is daunting, well respected and could bring jitters to newcomers, but it's not as bad as I feared it would do to me. They're not far off from where I was before in terms of working atmosphere, but they do expect you to really outshine when the crunch time arrives.

4) It gets a little lonely once in a while after office, but once you've nailed down the right routine, it is bearable. There's always the weekend trip to look forward to.

I suppose four should be good for now.

Beyond that, I've managed to do things that I rarely would've done back then. I walk a lot more: to work, to lunch, to prayers, to shop. That should be good for my health and minimize the waistline. If before this there was a surau right in front of my room, now I have to walk for 5-7 minutes to the nearest mosque. I get to join the zohor jamaah too, another plus point.

I get to read on the train on the way back. I could try on the mornings too but it's too packed with barely enough elbow room. That brings me to the next point: I get to exercise my eyes a lot more. Enough said haha..

There's always a silver lining to something. You may not see or realize it now, but it'll come up someday. So if you've been thinking about change but are afraid, don't be fearful. Follow your dreams, your instincts, your guts (p/s: it has no correlation with size). Have faith and belief that Allah will show you the way. InsyaAllah, if it's meant to happen, it will happen.

Finally, the locals here. They don't just invent and define the word 'kiasu'. They embrace it, regardless of age, sex and brain capacity.

There was a slight drizzle this morning on the way to work, and that wasn't helping me any further. Forget about any sense of personal space whenever you're traveling on the MRT, or that you may have to jostle with rude people along the way.

I am still tired from last night's bus trip back down south. It was smooth all the way except for the snag before reaching the Tuas CIQ. The bus queue was excruciatingly slow moving and took us about 40 minutes to reach the parking bays. Inside the CIQ, the queue was non-existent, a blessing. It still took me until 12.30am to reach the apartment.

While on the way, the wife called me just before reaching JB. Amir was a bit disjointed, searching for me before bed time. He's ok actually, he knows I'm at work far away but he's still a little confused. Once in a while, he'll cry out for me when he jumps into our bedroom, still thinking I'm there. He still thinks that I'll be back later at night. One time, he rushes to the door at the sight of car lights turning into the house next door. Another time, he was angry with the house help for making hot drinks at night when I wasn't even home yet. Boy, it's gonna take a while for him to fully adjust.

Adam? He's as good as he can be, so used to being left on his own. Plus, he's at the age that he could easily grasped complex ideas and thoughts. He's the boy that I had to leave for 2 months when he was barely 3 years old.

All else being fine, we as a family are slowly adapting and adjusting to the current weekday arrangements. I'm trying to make it a point to travel back home every weekends so as to make the boys, Amir specifically, a bit more adjusted and relaxed. I need to adjust a lot too. It gets kinda lonely going home to an empty apartment when I was so used to listen to my kids laughing, talking, screaming & shouting every night. Not forgetting, missing the warmth of my wife sleeping next to me.

Who ever said it's going to be easy?

I had Wendy's yesterday, but Carl's was definitely better.

Meatier and tastier.

Burgers, ok. Nothing to do with any sexual innuendos.

Although, the current hot topics in the country isn't something to be proud of. Who knows who's telling the truth, or who's the victim. It's their words against the other side's.

All else being equal, politician will do what it takes to secure their power and position.

Yikes