Last Day Working Before Raya...

Ofis dah start kosong. Memang patu kosong la kan..sebab yang jantan pi solat Jumaat, yang pompuan pi buat last minute shopping kat level LG ofis. Aku? Tak sanggup nak jejak kaki kat situ. Bak kata boss, tempat tu macam Bermuda Triangle..tau2 je, duit dah lesap dari dompet. Beli ntah apa2 benda.

Cakap pasal boss aku, sian dia. Arini dapat MC sebab kena chicken pox. Alahai..beraya la ngan muka bintik2. Mulut mengunyah lemang sambil tangan merayap menggaru belakang. Nak buat camne, dah nak kena...sapu je la calamine  lotion bebanyak.

Harini ramai yang ambik half day, especially those yang nak drive balik kampung jejauh. Aku? Takde feel nak beraya sangat sebab 1) keje banayk tak settle 2) aku beraya kat Shah Alam dulu so feel nak kena drive jejauh takde pun. Bagus jugak...tak sanggup aku nak dok dalam kete sampai 10 jam. Aku balik Melaka tiap2 bulan (kena stresskan tu!) dok dalam kete sejam setengah tu pun dah panas bontot. Aku suka travelling...tapi part kena travel tu yang tak suka. Hmm, camne ayat tu? Suka pi melawat tempat2 orang...tapi kalau bleh, pejam celik mata je terus dah ada kat tempat tu. Eevnthough orang kata...it's not the destination but the journey that counts...pada aku, journey tu la yang bleh buat aku muntah kelanyah bagai. Please la, someone invent the teleporter soon. Bleh aku travel macam orang2 Star Trek tu je.

Anyway, tujuan aku tulis entri ni nak ucapkan Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin kepada semua orang yang singgah di blog ni. Walaupun bilangannya tak ramai, tapi at least u all bagi komen2 tu..hehehe..terhibur gak la. Aku nak ambik kesempatan untuk meminta maaf bebanyak andainya ada entri2 blog aku yang membuat kamu semua marah ke, sedih ke, terasa hati ke....sememangnya apa yang aku tulis kat sini, hanya untuk kenangan diri sendiri dan bukan berniat nak menyakitkan hati sesiapa. Kepada yang nak balik kampung tu, please drive carefully and arrive at your destination safe and sound. Biar lambat asal selamat.

Sekali lagi, SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI!!!

What Made Me Believe In Humanity Again...

The Japanese are well known for many things. Many admirable things. I wanted to blog about this last week but was too poofed out after terawih.

********************
The earthquake and tsunami that walloped Japan left much of its coastline ravaged, but left one thing intact: the Japanese reputation for honesty.


In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash.

More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along Japan's tsunami-ravaged coast have also been hauled to police centers by volunteers and search and rescue crews. Inside those safes officials found $30 million in cash. One safe alone, contained the equivalent of $1 million.

The National Police Agency says nearly all the valuables found in the three hardest hit prefectures, have been returned to their owners.

"In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Koetsu Saiki with the Miyagi Prefectural Police. "We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools."

Determining who the safes belonged to, proved to be the easy part. Saiki says most kept bankbooks or land rights documents inside the boxes, containing their names and address. Tracking the owners down, was much more challenging.

Total of $78 Million Was Returned to Owners in Wake of Japan Catastrophe

"The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too," he said. "We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to."

Saiki says Miyagi police fanned out across the region, searching for names of residents posted at evacuation centers, digging through missing person reports at town halls, sorting through change of address forms at the post office, to see if the owner had moved away. When they couldn't find the documents, police called listed cell phone numbers, met with mayors or village leaders to see if they recognized the names.

The number of safes continued to increase as the clearing of tsunami debris led to more discoveries. Police stations struggling to find space for them housed the valuables in parking garages and meeting rooms.

Saiki says 20 percent of the 2,450 safes found in Miyagi turned out to be empty. But, the remaining 250 boxes contained much more than cash. Some included bars of gold, antiques, even crafted boxes containing a child's umbilical cord, a common memento of child birth. Police had to delicately comb through the keepsakes, since many of the items were damaged, after being soaked in seawater and mud for days or weeks.

The stashing of cash in safes isn't a unique problem in Japan, where many people prefer to keep their money at home, but Saiki says the number of boxes is especially high in the coastal region where fishermen make up a large part of the population. Fisheries companies prefer cash transactions, and keep employee salaries in safes, he said.

The number of lost items recovered has declined with every month, but Saiki says his department continues to receive a handful of safes a week.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/honest-japanese-return-78-million-cash-found-quake/story?id=14322940

***************************

Can you imagine? I mean the people who found the safes and valuables would also have been victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Not for one minute did they even think about keeping the money and using it for their own purposes. There's no Finder's Keepers mentality there. If it's not yours, then you need to return it to its rightful owner.
 
Again, I just can't express how impressed I am with the Japanese. Maybe to them, this is not a big issue. But to me, who have seen on a daily basis, the selfishness of mankind...it made me stop and think. And continue to be impressed.

China Trip - Day 2

Okla, we continue my China Trip. I just need to jot this down for memories sake.

We started off Day 2 with a visit to the Host Company's exhibition center. It was an interesting visit, if not very technical. I guess I understood 50% of what was being discussed. I'm more of  a visual person anyway, all these technical solutions never really catch my interest anyway.

The rest of the team, apparently understanding what was being presented. Heee.

Me, trying to understand. Hmmm....

The staff going out for lunch. Despite going out in the hundreds, it was so organized and efficient. Like clockwork.

The luxury coach from the side. Giller best!!

This is where we went for lunch, a Chinese Muslim restaurant. It has really good food. Best of all, it had....

....roasted lamb!!! It was so good...

...we gobbled the whole thing up!! Like the carnivores we are.
After lunch, it was back to the hotel for prayers and a quick rest. Then we headed back to the Host Company's offices for more presentations.

Video conferencing demo, among other things.
We spent another 3 hours or so at the demo center, then it was back to the hotel for a quick bath, prayers and getting ready for dinner.
We were taken to an Indonesian Seafood restaurant for dinner.

Being seafood, the food was rather interesting. We ate squid, prawns, fish and jellyfish. Yum yum!

After dinner, we were taken for a treat....super foot massages!

We all took the specialty, ginger foot massage. I didn't take any pictures during my massage because I fell asleep half way through. It was that good. I woke up when they placed the ginger strips on my calves because it was super hot!! After a while you could feel the ginger seeping into your skin. Within an hour, our feet were revitalized and ready for more the next day.

Day 3 later!

Matta...

Hilang mood lak aku nak sambung cite China. Nantila...kot2 semangat aku datang, aku sambung story. Time tu sure dah basi 2-3 bulan. Nasib la kan.

Last weekend patut kitaorg balik rumah in laws aku. Tapi tak jadi sebab MIL aku nak mai plak ke sini tengok akak ipar aku masuk hospital. Sian SIL aku, kena admitted sebab low placenta. Dah tu senang sangat bleeding. Doctor tahan sampai nak bersalin. Kalau bersalin minggu depan takpe la kan...ni lagi 2 bulan!! Dok la bed rest kat hospital tu sampai muntah kebosanan. Aritu aku ngan En Rashid pi melawat, memang giller bohsan. Dah la TV jenis siaran hujan. Setakat ada TV1, TV2, TV3 dan siaran hujan..hehehe. Aku cadangkan dia beli iPad..paling tidak dapat la main Angry Bird sampai terror.

Ni aku tengah sayu dengar suara anak kucing menangis atas bumbung jiran belakang rumah aku. Anak kucing tu kena culik ngan monyet aritu. Oya, aku tak cite lagi hal monyet bangang yang dah start terrorize area rumah aku ni. Dah 2 kali dia masuk rumah aku...sekali tu dia ranapkan bilik air aku yang kat tingkat 2 tu!! Habis semua towel2 aku hitam kena tapak tangan dia semua. Sib baik aku tutup pintu bilik air tu, kalau tak, mesti dia dah masuk bilik aku. Satu keje aku nak ngejar dia kluar bilik aku lak.

Aku dah pernah panggil dah Animal Control mai tangkap monyet tu. Takut la wei...aku ada anak kecik yang comel gebu. Kot monyet tu berkenan nak buat kawan, dia gigitnya nanti...tak comel gebu la anak aku lagi!! Tapi time orang2 tu datang, monyet tu lesap lak. Cam tau2 je ada orang nak mai tangkap dia. Dua hari lepas dia colek anak Terra bawak naik aras bumbung. Menjerit2 Terra tengok anak dia kena kidnap dek monyet lahanat tu. Dah tu, monyet tu biar je si anak kucing tu kat atas bumbung. Aku rasa dia ada kat salur air tu, tapi tak nampak. Dengar suara dia dok nangis panggil mak dia je. Siannya...si Terra lak tak tau camne nak panjat ke atas tu. Dia pun dok tiak2 panggil anak dia. Isy...agak2 kalau aku panggil bomba selamatkan si anak kucing tu, melampau ke? Aku ni mudah sensitif la plak...aku rasa esok lusa mesti dah tak dengar suara anak kucing tu dah. Mau mati kelaparan dia kat atas tu. Isy..takleh pikir....*sob*.

Oya, tajuk entry aku konon nak cite hal aku pi Matta Fair ngan En Rashid tapi dah malas plak. Sebabnya, aku dah dengar suara anak kucing tu makin sayup. Isy...aku nak pi suruh En Rashid pujuk aku kejap. Sedih plak!

I'll Never Let You Go Jack!!

I don't know whether to cry or laugh my t*ts off!!

Sigh...Jack! Wake Up! There's a boat! There's a boat!!

China Trip - Day 1 Continue

So we continue my trip to China. After resting a while at the hotel (I almost fell asleep, the bed was divine!), we headed out for dinner. The Host Company had prepared a luxury coach for us, to take us around the city.

My colleague and me camwhoring in the coach. Maybe the bosses who were used to such VIP treatment were unfazed but I was impressed. The seats were heaven and they could even be rotated to face each other, so practically you could have a meeting in the coach. Like Air Force One! Hahaha...

Korang pernah tengok lampu kalimantang dalam kereta? Pernah? Complete with mini bar and a huge TV screen. Each window had its own remote controlled blinds.

On the way to the restaurant, we saw a lot of interesting buildings. I have to applaud Shenzen for being so architecturally amazing.

The entrance to our dinner tent. The Host Company took us to this Middle East restaurant. Already from the outside, it looked impressive.

The table setting. I think the tent could accommodate 10 - 12 people for a private lunch/dinner.

Among the food that was ordered. Everything was so yummy. I really liked the coconut palm drink. Everyone else thought it was too creamy..hehehe...more for me then.

This is the view outside of the tents. I don't know what a castle has to do with the Middle East but it was rather impressive, nonetheless. This is were the public can sit down for their lunch/dinner. We didn't have time to explore the castle though as we were suppose to go see a cultural show (which we were already late for!)

The entrance and map to the cultural show. I think the place was called Shenzen - Window of the World or something like that. Since we arrive at night, most of the park had closed except for the cultural show. From the reviews in tripadvisor, the place is a wonderland so it was a pity we couldn't visit it during the day (kompeni hantar pi keje la wei...bukan bercuti pun!! Heheheh..)

Some pictures from the show. I took quite a few but I didn't want to miss out on the action so there was a lot I didn't record. The show was amazing!! The stage was multilevel and even had a fountain come out of it at one time. The dancers were amazing and had spectacular costumes on. Eventhough everything was in Chinese, they had a big screen TV to one side with English translations so you could follow the storyline.

Our VIP seats were smack center!! Best seats there.

Live horses!!

The props were amazing!

The Water Lily Queen arises from below...complete with fountain!

Cool laser effect!

The finale!

After the show. The place cleared our pretty quickly so we all stayed back for a while to take pictures. Our tour guide told us the Chinese characters above said "Amazing China". After seeing the show, I couldn't agree more.

Final group photo before heading back to the hotel. You could purchase a DVD of the show from one of the vendors there. The price was OK, about CNY40 each (they had DVDs for the day show and the night show).

More on Day 2 next time.

The Author Totally Gets It!!

Found this article while I was site surfing during lunch.

Hands raised if you've ever suffered through #1!!

Which is why....no thank you, not ever again.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19298_7-terrifying-things-they-dont-tell-you-about-pregnancy.html

China Trip - Day 1

OK, so I was suppose to bring the girls for Terawih tonight but it started raining. Plus, En Rashid is outstation so it didn't feel right going without him, eventhough he had already given permission. Nevermind, hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better and we can go then.

So since the girls are asleep, I have some time to update about my work trip to China. There were 7 of us in a group heading there, plus one from the Host Company who was from the Malaysian office. We took the flight to Hong Kong then were shuttled into Shenzen, China. The trip to HK was uneventful but I finally got to see the movie Sucker Punch. Loved it!! Emily Browning was fabulous in that movie, I don't care what the critics think. I also got to see a little bit of Never Let Me Go but was only halfway through it when we touched down in HK.

Once we landed in HK, everyone made a mad rush for the toilets. I don't know why that is...it's always the toilets that become the first place of attraction. Hehehe. After everyone had relieved themselves, we headed out to search for our rides into China.

The Host Company had prepared 2 Alphards for us. Giller perak!! I've never been in an Alphard before so excuse the photo sharing.

Sebagai mem, kita harus la conquer seat belakang. Muahahahhaa!!

Getting out of Hong Kong was a breeze. Getting into China however, was horrendous. We were stuck at the immigration for nearly an hour!

Apparently, they had like 20 lanes there but most of them were just for show. All the Alphards had to line up at 2-3 lanes and open their boots and make sure everyone's faces could be seen by the immigration officer. A bit of a nightmare. I can't imagine how those people who work in HK but live in Shenzen (and vice versa) do it everyday.

Once we had cleared immigration, we headed straight for the hotel. We stayed at the Pavilion Hotel, Shenzen. It was a very nice hotel, strategically situated right next to the Digital Mall. The guys were already salivating, thinking about all the gadgets they were going to buy.

The check in counter. I don't understand what the background motive had to do with Shenzen, or China for that matter, but I liked it!!

The big ass chandelier. They put fresh flowers in the lobby everyday. It smelt so nice walking by them every morning.
When we got to our room, it was surprise to see the following.

Prayer mat, complete with compass and a welcome gift (China silk scarf).

The bed was huge...and I had it all to myself!! Bliss....

The bathroom was nice and cozy and had  all the items required.

Nice big closet to hang all my clothes and place my shoes. Love the robes, they were so soft.

The room was rather big, I could easily fit another bed in it. Sigh...at that time, all I could think of were my babies at home. If only I could have brought them with me....

The view form my room. Even with all the construction going on, Shenzen was still a very green city. The tall one in the background is still under construction but will be the tallest building in Shenzen once its finished.

After taking a breather, we headed out for dinner. Which I'll write about more in my next post. Time for sleep!!

Sakit Tekak!

Masa kat China, sihat giller. Balik je, terus sakit tekak, perit giller sampai nak telan air liur pun pedih. Pi jumpa doctor, dia bagi ubat hisap, tapi makan time malam je. Sayang la nak tinggal puasa sebab tekak ni je. Lagipun tekak tengah tak best, bukan bleh makan hebat2 pun.

Letih sebenarnya pi outstation ni. Semalam aku MC sebab dah tak mampu nak paksa diri nak pi kerje. Last2 aku bantai qada' tido sampai kul 12. Kepala berdenyut, terasa denyut dia sampai ke tekak. Bleh ke? Parah betul. Ntah apa pekenan orang China tu dah kena kat aku. Yang tak bestnya, dah 2 malam aku tertinggal terawih. Dapat pi malam pertama tu je. Isy, malam ni kena usaha pi. Sian, Kaklong ngan Kakngah dah excited nak pi masjid.

Arini dah ok sket, cuma tekak still perit. Cakap pun takleh paksa2...so main bisik2 je. Boring betul, dah la ada meeting. Jarang aku diam je time meeting. Ada aku dok belakang main soduko kat handphone je kang.

I'm Back...

...from Shenzen, China. Went there for a business trip. Had a very nice time as the vendor treated us all like VIPs. Hehehe...however, it was rather tiring and since today is also the 1st day of fasting.....YAAWWWNNNNN...I'm so tired.

But work must continue. Hopefully I'll be able to blog about what happened there. Synopsis: We ate a lot, we met a lot of people and we shopped like crazy. Muahahahhaa....

Later...

oya: SELAMAT BERPUASA to all my Muslim friends and family members. Terawih jangan tinggal!!