Keep Alive

“abg update blog lah”. Our life here quite dull. I choose to hole up at home after work during this summer. It is too hot to be out there. Sunglass is a must, so I bought mine the cheap one at Mark and Spencer, and Versace for my wife. Ladies always wanted the best. At first I tot of buying branded one as well, but looking at the mirror a few times, it didn’t make me more handsome. So why wasted so much money on it right HaHa;

I guess it is fair for Mel to have it since I did not give her any gift but lunch for her last year birthday. I do not want to spend much on unnecessary stuff and I opt for brand if I really can afford it. One thing I never forget is to give her birthday card. So for her birthday this year, we celebrated at Apple Bees restaurant together with Nuar’s family. Nuar’s birthday just a day before Mel’s. Mel and I used to share meals here because the serving is a lot. But this time we ordered separately because we wanted to taste different meal, and end up we had to tapau and bring back home. We forgot to take our pictures together, because I was busy snapping everybody else. It was funny while we were making our order. The pinoy waitress suggestion wasn’t good. I love to have steak with half done, but she suggested “medium-well”. “more bloody sir” burst us into laughter. Her “medium-well” turned out to be too well. Then when Mel ordered rib eye, she promptly said, “No good. More bones” HaHa. Nuar at first wanted to have the same meal, changed it at the last minute. The taste was good, so Nuar was regretted with the choice made and until now, he keeps insisting his wife to be there again, just to have that rib eye.

Last Saturday, a new guy from Celcom just joined. His first statement arriving in Doha was very funny. “Boleh tak aku resign. Aku nak balik lah”. HaHa. “Ko blom sign lagi, ko nak balik esok pun boleh”. Everybody heard of that conversation was laughing. During summer, Doha airport is not welcoming at all. The airport is dull. Once landed, you have to take bus to the terminal. With temperature more than 40 degrees, the only thing popped into your mind. “Negara apa lah ni panas jer. Nampak padang pasir”. “Aku kelaur je dr kapal tu, aku rasa mcm duduk belakang bontot bas jer.” another statement from him that burst us into laugher again. He was lucky anyway, because he wasn’t alone on his first day. Isyam waited for him and brought him back and we have makan-makan there. After a few days being here, and if somebody brings him to a few shopping malls around here, he will fall in love with Doha slowly.

I was a bit lucky, because I had been to worst. When I was at TAB, I had to be in Guinea in West Africa. My first trip was 3 months and the second trip was 1 month. I felt sorry for those living there. Gain independence in 1956, but not even one traffic light was working at their capital city. Colonized by France and the only thing they left were their language. Nothing to do at all. I felt like being in a big jail there. It was so bad. So coming to Doha wasn’t so bad. Although they just gave me google map to find my flat, I managed to find it. Yea, I’ve got to drive on left for the first time and I got a lot of honk that day.

Ermm.. last night we chatted with mama through yahoo, and she could see us on web cam. I tot I lost 2 kilos, but mama asked Mel to take care of my diet. She said I’m gaining. “Jangan makan banyak nanti besar macam ayah”. HaHaHaHa.

Will try to update more soon….

Reunion

I guess majority of us are happy to be part of iTTM. We could remember very well when our lecturers told us we are cream of the cream. Even though I did not get 10A1, but to know that I was in the same boat really elated me. I felt less cream after Mohaini confronting my results :P

We were happy not because, we had party a lot, but we had very strong friendship and all of you had beautiful heart. Each of us has our own story and nostalgic memory of being there. iTTM was special, because only 3 batches managed to be there. And what makes our 95 batches more special because we knew our senior and junior pretty well.

To bring back those memories, we should have our reunion. We started with pot luck at iym’s house last time and it was doing well even though we planned at the very last minute. Now we are going to make it big and official. It’s not easy to do this. We need commitment from each of us. Without any commitment, this event will not happen.

I have created a survey form and please spend your one minute to fill it up. Based on this survey, we know how to plan this event and make it a successful one. Everybody wanted to attend but when it comes to commitment, only a few will turn out. 5 ringgit could be a small amount to some of you, but some of us will see it big. We want it to be realistic and affordable to everybody so we manage to see those that we miss so much.

Let's make it happen!!

Selamat Hari jadi

If we are in KL, definitely we would be having barbeque for couple of times. It becomes a must event for my in law family. Mother’s day, father’s day and all family birthday must be celebrated. I used to sponsor “secret recipe” to these special events. We save some bucks now HaHa. Just kidding. (Mel’s sisters and brothers reading this. so I’ve got be careful with my words :P)

June is month of celebration. Sisters’ birthday (Mel and her two sisters [zura and zai]). I guess my in law planned very well. oppss. Sorry because I couldn’t join you all this year. Anyway happy birthday to my beloved wife and sisters and may all your wishes come true.

I came to realize those born in June are a good people. Of course, I say so because Mel born in June 19 and a few people that I know well born in this month as well. Pit, wira, and Nuar. They are good people. Basically, these people do have a few things in common.

But I’m still wondering why Tip born in June as well HaHaHa. May be Tip could justify this. [ Jgn marah tip ]

Anyway Mel already got her birthday gift and Selamat Hari jadi kepada makcik makcik dan pakcik pakcik yang lahir pada bulan ini.

Sejarah Gerik

aku jumpa dr internet, tapi kesahihannya aku tatau la. tapi kat gerik mmg ada jalan Tun Saban lah. Reman2 tu pulak baru sekarnag aku dengar :D. Tapi mmg sedara2 aku asalnya dr Patani. Itu jer yang aku tahu.

Dari catatan sejarah, orang yang mula-mula membuka Gerik ialah Tun Saban iaitu anak Tun Perak, bendahara Kesultanan Melaka pada awal kurun ke-16. Semasa kejatuhan kerajaan Melaka ke tangan Portugis, Tun Saban berhijrah ke Hulu Patani dan kemudian berpindah ke Belum, Gerik. Beliau menjadi ketua masyarakat di Belum.

Gerik bersempadan dengan Negeri Reman di utara. Raja Reman menceroboh masuk ke Gerik dan menawan Klian Intan dan Kroh (Pengkalan Hulu). Menjelang kurun ke-19, sebahagian besar daerah Gerik telah ditakluki oleh Raja Reman. Pada tahun 1902, sistem pemerintahan beraja di Reman telah dihapuskan oleh kerajaan Siam dan daerah Gerik menjadi jajahannya.

Pada 9 Julai 1902, kerajaan Siam telah membuat perjanjian dengan kerajaan Inggeris untuk menyerahkan Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan dan Terengganu untuk bernaung bawah pemerintahan Inggeris. Perjanjian tersebut telah ditandatangani di Bangkok oleh Sir John Anderson (Gabenor Negeri-negeri Selat) dan Setiausaha Luar Negeri Siam. Antara syarat dalam perjanjian itu, kerajaan Siam hendaklah juga menyerahkan balik daerah Gerik yang telah diambil oleh Raja Reman dahulu kepada kerajaan negeri Perak. Istiadat penyerahan daerah Gerik itu telah berlangsung di Kroh pada 16 Julai 1909.

Asal-usul Nama 'Gerik'
Kira-kira seratus tahun dahulu, tempat sekarang yang bernama Gerik itu masih diliputi hutan belantara dan masih terletak bawah pemerintahan Raja Reman. Dalam tahun 1870, beberapa orang telah datang dari Patani mengikut Sungai Hangai, lalu meneroka hutan di kuala sungai tersebut bagi dijadikan kampung. Mereka diketuai oleh seorang tuan bernama Tok 'Ad (Tok Sa'ad).

Tidak berapa lama selepas itu, Raja Reman yang bernama Tuan Jagong datang berburu gajah di Gunung Tujuh berhampiran dengan Kuala Kenderong. Baginda mendengar cerita bahawa tidak jauh dari situ ada kampung orang terletak di tengah-tengah hutan.

Ketika Raja Reman menghampiri kampung tersebut, baginda mendengar suatu bunyi yang ganjil terbit dari perdu serumpun buluh. Baginda memerintahkan supaya dipagar keliling perdu buluh itu dengan sasak dan menyuruh orangnya menggali di situ untuk mengetahui apakah benda yang mengeluarkan bunyi yang ganjil itu.

Setelah habis digali hingga ke pangkal perdu buluh itu, maka kelihatanlah berpuluh-puluh ekor dekan sedang menggerit umbi buluh. Oleh kerana umbi buluh itu sangat keras, maka terbitlah bunyi yang berkerit-kerit apabila digerit oleh dekan-dekan itu.

Raja Reman telah menamakan tempat itu Kampung Gerit. Sebutan 'Gerit' itu telah digunakan beberapa lama dan kemudiannya sebutan dan ejaannya diubah daripada 'Gerit' menjadi 'Grik', kemudian menjadi 'Gerik' seperti yang digunakan sekarang.

dekan : sejenis haiwan seakan-akan tikus; masih boleh ditemui di hutan Belum

$20

someone forwarded me this and I used to delete spam emails like this. but I believe you will read it if I put it here ;-)

Sometimes we just need to be reminded!

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by
holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked,
"Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you
but first, let me do this.
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air.
Well, he replied, "What if I do! this?"
And he dropped it on the ground
and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
"Now, who still wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air
My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it
because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives,
we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt
by the decisions we make and
the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless.
But no matter what has happened or
what will happen, you will never lose your value.
Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased,
you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know,
but by WHO WE ARE.
You are special - Don't EVER forget it."
If you do not pass this on, you may never know the
lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to,
or the hope that it can bring.
Count your blessings, not your problems.

Pak Lah to Wed

HaHa, for some reasons, I don’t have much idea to keep on blogging. My true companion is here and she helps me through all the hard time. So I’m always in unemotional state and when I was about to express my dissatisfaction towards anything, she calmed me down. It left me with unexciting stories to share :P

Thank God, after almost 5 months of bombarding and shouting, alas we managed to solve the electricity issue. We had to spend around 1K for the agent and 2k for the hotel. I hope my company will reimburse all the expenses. If they don’t, it will be another round of fighting. HuH.

Living here, you don’t have to worry much about your work; in fact you have a lot of time with your families. But like it or not, we have to go through all these hassles at the beginning. A lot of foreigners come here to make a living. This country can accommodate professionals and low class workers. Their own people can’t afford to run their own country. I just couldn’t imagine, what will go on here, if everybody left for good. But it won’t happen. For those from India, this country is like heaven because if they return, their life will become worst. Same goes to pinoy. As for Indonesia, besides maids, they have a lot of professional working at O&G. Definitely, Malaysian coming here to earn more. They did not suffer back home.

I went to mini market near to the airport yesterday to buy chicken, and a few bottles of juices, then one Nepali asked me. “Indonesia? Filipina?”. (common question) and I said “No. Malaysia”. Then he said “Malaysia? We want to go to Malaysia. Why are you here”. I don’t want to prolong the conversation because I wanted my chicken to be cleaned, and I could go home faster. I left my car outside with the engine on. Event though I believe nobody would steal it, but I still worried if anything happened. So I just smiled at him and pretending searching other stuffs while he was cleaning my chicken. Actually quite number of them working in Malaysia before, and when they found out we are from Malaysia, they will praise Malaysia a lot. For this, we can’t deny Tun Mahathir contribution to Malaysia.

Oo ya, a lot of things happened involving high profile figure in Malaysia lately. Our Raja Muda (gerik is in Perak OK) just got married with beautiful Tuanku Zara, Razak Baginda (Najib 's defense think tank) was charged for abetting the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya (Najib allegedly got involved in the case but he denied such speculation as just merely the rumors). and the latest hot news, Pak Lah is going to wed this coming Saturday with Jeanne Abdullah. His ex-Biras. I guess every Malaysian is happy to have First Lady and for him. It’s not easy to be alone at that age anyway.....

Di ruang rindu

As you most probably notice, you are listening to one nice song here. This song sung by letto
one of the uprising band from Indonesia.

"Yang ‎menarik, meski tergolong band pendatang baru, sebagai sebuah grup ‎musik, Letto paham benar bagaimana mendekatkan diri dengan penggemar. ‎Salah satunya dengan berkomunikasi dahulu dengan penonton sebelum ‎melantunkan lagu. ‎"

Here is the lyric:

dan aku mulai takut terbawa cinta
menghirup rindu yang sesakkan dada
jalanku hampa dan kusentuh dia
terasa hangat oh didalam hati
kupegang erat dan kuhalangi waktu
tak urung jua kulihatnya pergi
tak pnah kuragu dan slalu kuingat
kerlingan matamu dan sentuhan hangat
ku saat itu mencari makna
tumbuhkan rasa yg sesakkan dada
*kau datang dan pergi oh begitu saja
smua kutrima apa adanya
mata terpejam dan hati menggumam
di ruang rindu kita bertemu
* bertemu

Sungguh sakit kepala

Betul2 mental 2,3 hari ni. Bayangkang dpd Januari sampai sekarang issue letrik aku tak selesai2. Sampai nak tercabut urat tekak aku bergaduh ngan org sudan ni. memang penipu. kaki belit. buat kerja sikit tapi nak upah besar. Cakap pun besar. Bila bercakap nak menengking nengking. Sakit hati sungguh. Di sebabkan takde letrik, mel hampir sehari duduk dalam rumah menidurkan diri sampai lah aku balik bekerja. Aku terus check in hotel berdekatan. Sakit kepala dan sakit hati. Aku dah penat gaduh ngan agent nih. aku bagi tahu bos, aku akan balik flat tu bila letrik dah ada. Pedulilah dgn harga hotel. sapa suruh buat arrangement mcm ni. Ni kira aku baik lah ambil hotel harga 455 semalam. Aku boleh balik jalan ke kaki jer ke flat dr hotel ni. so kalau lupa baju ke, air ke, aku berjalan kaki jer ambil. Hotel ini tidak berbintang.
sepanjang hujung minggu, kami duduk saja kat hotel ni. not bad lah with the price. it is more to studio apartment. tapi aku masih merindui flat aku itu. Tadi aku call lagi si sudan tuh. dia cakap dia akan settle kan by today, tapi asik duduk sebut komisen dia. he wanted another 500. dah la aku dah kasik 500 last 3 weeks. Kalau aku check doktor nih, sure darah aku agak tinggi.
mel pulak cool jer. "ala abg duduk jer lah sini selagi letrik takde". senangnye dia berkata2, aku lah yang pening nak asyik call si sudan tu. Harap2 hari ni settle lah, so aku boleh balik flat aku.
weekend ni spt weekend yang lain aku rasa makin bosan betul. semalam pergi main boling tapi byk nya masuk longkang. aku rasa saingan aku tak bagus lah. jadi takde motivasi kah kah kah. lepas tu saingan aku buat mi kari. pastu syam and zul's family datang lah ke suite kami utk menjamu selera. Ok jugak spagheti jadi Mi Hehehe. mana nak cari mi sini jadi terpaksa lah pakai spagheti jadi kan mi. Last 2 weeks masa pergi rumah syam aku tertipu. aku ingat mi betul rupanya, bini dia rendam spagheti dalam kunyit. ceh
aku pening lah. aku rasa mcm nak bercuti. rasa mcm nak balik gerik. aku tgh duduk bayang suasana kampung aku yang nyaman, sejuk dgn ada air sungai dibelakang rumah aku. ahhh sudan tu call. dia nak bagi tahu kesengsaraaan dia menanti org dtg ke flat aku utk menghidupkan letrik. sebut pasal komisen. dulu aku bagi 500 tak buat kerja. Kalau aku ada power lah, aku hantar dia balik negara dia jer.