GPS for the Soul

Mom has been trying to talk to me these few days and I've been keep missing the window time to call her. My mom is also busy women too, you know (hehe). I have specific window time to call her since she woke up very early in the morning and sleep early.  We don't call each other during day time unless super important things to discuss. 

So on Monday night I returned her call and chit chat a bit. Usually it will be all about her. I hardly share my stuff with her. But that night I have made a special request. I asked her to pray for me. Pray that things will go easy for me for the next two days. When mom asked if anything to be concerned, I just said that work is challenging now and I may have not able to deliver. 

Suddenly it reminded me to the old school days. Mom has always been busy to make sure we have food on our table. But on major exams, even though she did not able to help us to study, she never forget to fast and pray for us.

Thank you mom. It has always been a blessing to have you :)

The Unknown remains Mystery

Somehow, I miss grandma. Her 'being' that always be the centre of everything.  Strong yet you can feel her vulnerability. Oh how I miss talking to her. The good old days. Days when we have less things, but loads of love.

Time flies and I'm getting old. Knowing that, I try to write as much as I can in this blog. Even kadang kadang lebih banyak merepek or only to save some quote that I like. Coz I know I can never turn back time. Good or bad or nothing, me write something. 

If umur saya panjang, in average I have 20 more years to go. If i have kids, maka mungkin saya hanya ada masa sehingga umurnya 20 tahun. Kemudiannya mungkin saya sudah terlalu tua, mungkin juga nyanyuk atau telah tiada.

Saya berharap moga saya dapat kongsi kisah blog ini dengan mereka. Mungkin saya tak punya cukup masa utk bercerita seperti grandma. But I do hope if they miss me, they have this blog to go to. Maybe I will tell them about this blog when they're 18 years old and about to embark their own adventure of life. May they have great common sense to guide them in life.

Oh... I sound really old already. The truth is, I miss you, grandma. Al-Fatehah.

About Time, the movie

I love Rachel McAdam. She somehow has a magic power whereby even the movie is super duper boring, her warm smile will shine through the  movie.  

Beside Rachel, I have watched three other famous movie from Richard Curtis and love Love Actually the most. So I can't wait to watch this movie with a hope it will be as good as his previous movies.

Turns out, About Time is as good as Love Actually. Nothing super extraordinary.  Its about Tim, ordinary man trying to makes his life count and extraordinary. 

Can't help to be emotional towards the end of the movie. If I could turn back time, having more time to spend with my late father at the hospital might make a difference. 

Life will never be perfect. Noticing and aware our surrounding, may lead us to appreciate the little things even more.

Ooooo October is here :)

and I'm trying hard to stand still. I have bad relationship with time.  Seems like I have never had enough of you. You fly so fast and I'm tired of catching up. Where have you been? 

I realised it has been almost a month I did not watch you Mr TV. This i consider as change. Never i imagine myself not having enough time even to switch on and watch TV for 5 minutes. These days, when I open my apt door, all I wanted to do is hop on to bed, melurus kan badan yg letih tidak terkata. Nikmat bagai. Tak mampu nak buat yang lain. Work seems demanding. Oh.

Last weekend, I was at Sepang for work and perhaps a bit of leisure.  The super hot sun doesn't help. The preparation for tele-match that evening was challenging.  Walking under the hot sun back and forth,  carrying heavy stuff memang menduga. Pergh... hebat penangan sang matahari tetapi di gagahi jua dengan senyuman yg manis tetapi plastik didalam melayan kerenah mereka. Rasa lemas pun ada tapi apakan daya, semua ini telah dibayar belaka.

Sedikit kecewa sebenarnya dgn resort yg sepatutnya gah dgn standard 5 bintangnya. Manakan tidak, bilik yg termurah bermula dgn harga lebih rm 500. Tetapi, honestly such a let down. Tidak sampai ke expectation saya. Oh bukan mengharap sehebat Maldives tetapi banyak sangat rasanya utk diperbaiki agar 5 bintang itu setimpal. Kebersihan bilik yg kurang cermat, ada lumut hijau di lantai, paip air yg leaking, aircond yg  tidak sejuk, kurang pilihan makanan di restaurant (menu lunch dan dinner hampir sama... hari hari ada nasi ayam), cutlery yg tidak mencukupi, staff yg tidak attentive dan shuttle cart yg tidak mencukupi.

Anyway, letak lah saya di mana pun.. pasti saya dapat mencari kegembiraan. View laut dari bilik amat amat menenangkan di tambah dengan susun atur dan deco bilik yg menarik adalah key selling point. Superb. Moga dgn pengambil alihan management baru - Avani, things change for better.

Sharing few photos below :)

Belon utk tele-match

Infinity pool. Nice.

Bread pudding nya memorable.  Hari hari makan

Almost dark

Go fly kite :p

Awesome Sunset

After hard work, treated ourselves with yummy seafood for dinner outside.

Arrived home around 4 pm and slept till 12.30 am, woken up by the heavy rain. 8 hour of sleep. Teramat sangat penat. Ganti balik for NZ trip. Realised that even expensive bed doesn't feel as good as my bed. I need my bed to really sleep.

Now I understand why my late grandmother has difficulty to stay away from home. 

Good night peeps. Tidur lena.

North NZ : It’s wet, it’s cold, but Spring is here :)

16-22 Sept 2013

In summary, we have travelled 1,800km. Not enough time to cover the northernmost tip of cape Reinga and the less travelled road on east cape.

We decided to booked only the necessary.  The car and one night stay in airport hotel. The rest of the itinerary, to be decided on day to day basis :D  Planning for a trip requires a lot of effort and time and can be frustrating too especially to get everyone into the same 'plan'. 

It was a wise decision since we're busy with work prior to the trip. Surely it has added a bit of additional work and stress on finding the hotel on every night (since the availability is lower) but it definitely works.

Truth is that I was a bit hesitate for this trip. But looking back, I'm glad to be back here despite the cold and wet weather. They said that Oct will be the perfect time. The weather is more settle and the flowers blooms. But for me, there will be no perfect time for travel. I have learned that the opportunity and chances comes little. I have to grab and make it perfect. 

First time travelled in spring, I'm so happy to see the flowers. It's super pretty. Come rain, shine, snow and rainbow... thank you NZ for the priceless journey. 

ps - not sure if I have time to blog about North NZ, but will see. Now, get ready to work :) Good morning. 

12 hours.... in Brisbane

Transit in SIN seems pleasant since Changi Airport gave me what I want - Free Internet,  Sofa and Movie channel on TV.

Flying with Qantas was also pleasant. As its not a budget airlines, standard blanket, pillow, meals & entertainment were given. Since I booked special halal meals, I always got my meal earlier than other pax. Nice. Movie selection was not bad either. 

One thing that I like about Qantas safety video is that they use their own staff to brief, from real captain, stewardess, cargo and safety staff. Its kind off good effort to show the back end people that supports the airlines.   

Arrived Brisbane early morning and purchased data card so that I can move around easily.  Since its still dark, it gave me enough time to do my research and replied some important emails and whatapps. 

Haha.. Baru nak fikir nak pergi mana. Tak sempat to do my homework earlier. Since I'm on solo, I'm easy. The plan was to wonder around southpark Brisbane. Menapak mengikut arah kaki melangkah. I always heard that Brisbane is where rich people buy house and live there.   

It's not cheap in Brisbane. I only have AUD 150 cash in hand. Return train tix to city, data card and storage for bag already AUD 55. Cancel lah plan to buy hop on hop off bus tix which will cost me another AUD 35.

Since it's beginning of spring, the sun shine bright and the wind makes it colder. There are plenty of cafe's around the area.

Also, well known man made beach in the city - Streets Beach. Most of the kids seems having fun with the water meanwhile the adult berjemur di tengah panas.   

There was a flea market in the area. Mcm mcm ada especially the art thing. Found out that there is actually free ferry service heading to few tourist spot called city hoppers. Apa lagi terus lah. Singgah botanical garden, hoping to see flowers. Ok la. Not bad but Christchurch botanical garden has a lot more :)

Penat sudah. Terasa rasa sangat mahu pulang ke airport.  Cuaca panas bangat. Rasa tak keruan sudah. Singgah Max Banner utk makan waffle choc nya yg sgt famous dan enak itu. Lepak sekejap sebelum menaiki train heading airport.

Ambil bag dan terus ke arraival area since awalpagi tadi nampak ada tempat utk shower. Lega bangat rasanya dapat mandi. Tidak sabar mahu ke Auckland hotel dan tidur.

Two things that I always do when travel are to buy internet card (when the price is reasonable) and to travel light. I always hand carry my luggage. I always have fear it get lost somewhere,  I don't have to waste time to wait for my bag and it save me some money :) The flip side of it, I cant buy many stuff for souvenirs (as if I buy so many things pfffttttt). As such fridge magnet is always my first choice for souvenirs. For these 9 days trip, I manage to capped at 7kg for my trolley bag. Yeay! Otherwise I might have to check in or have difficulty to place it up on the compartment head.

Arrived AKL at midnight and immediately rang the hotel at freephone for shuttle. 20 mins later, settled myself and have my precious sleeep on the bed. 

Back in New Zealand through Brisbane

This trip was not in the plan. I was hoping that my visa to Uzbekistan will be approved few days before Syawal. Unfortunately, not. Perhaps no travel during Ramadan heh!   

So the so called plan B trip, is on. Was putting so much effort on finding my tix. I was like trying to every possible route to get the cheapest and at the same time covering 2 countries (if possible). Since the decision making was in Aug, the flight tix price was no longer cheap.

While searching,  I can't help to hope if there is any error on the airline's website so that I would be able to buy at super cheap price or if I have siblings working with airlines so that I get family price... hmmmm... berangan- angan mat jenin je la heh.

Finally,  purchased my tix which was quite ambitious. Haha. It was my longest journey so far: KUL - SIN - BNE - AKL - SIN - KUL. 

Breathe in, Breathe out

Exhale... Inhale.

I was about to explode, like a time bomb.  Luckily,  I'm able to keep my mouth shut. Or else I will be in trouble. Perhaps my pair of eyes are really different. I always see things differently. My pair of eyes are now tired. Need to have a fresh view.

The baggage becomes heavier. A lot more. I don't want to carry this. If I were to climb a mountain,  surely I left the baggage one by one along the way until in the end, I do not know what's left.

Oh well, I'm getting old. No more happy hour in my dictionary.

On the other note, can't wait for my next travel. I love my work so much that I need to create a distance from office. Pffftttt.

The first part will be solo, I like. Being alone is what I need now. Enjoying the luxury of freedom, trusting stranger and get lost. I guess I'm not a people person. Being social is not my thing. That's why I can't relate myself into it.

Perhaps I need to change, to be 2.0.

Luxury Items

List of luxury items that I can think off and not in order
- time
- money
- health
- accumulated value of pahala
- doa
- knowledge
- opportunity
- family
- friendship
- travel
- forgiveness
- excellent English, spoken and written
- excellent pronunciation, tajwid and understanding while reciting Al-Quran
- my space
- sleep
- sleeping on my own bed (yes... nothing beats my own bed)
- and many more

Reason for this post...if only...

Merdeka Celebration

with my love ones.

Five days old of lil boy - welcome to the world, love. It has been a blessing Syawal having you with us. Its been a while for us not to hear lil baby crying. We have so much love to give you, lil boy :)

Puteri turns 10, entering the double digit. Cheeky and playful as always. Adoring cats so much and never forget to mail me raya card every year. My doa is that you always makes your parents proud ya.

Hello September :)