After Watching Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, I Realized....

...the actual hero (or rather heroin) of the story is not Sam Witwicky or Optimus Prime or BumbleBee. It's Carly.

After all that happened, it turns out that in order to win the war, it doesn't depend on what technology you have, or what type of guns you have, or what type of car you drive.

It depends on whether you can bitch-talk two "friends" into fighting and killing each other.


''You'll be nothing, but Sentinel's bitch!''

Hah!!




ps: Dania watched the movie with us and right after Carly delivered that line, she turned and looked at me and asked "What's a bitch?"

Thanks a lot, Michael Bay!!

Quick Getaway

The clan is back from a quick getaway on PD. It was a last minute decision to go. I was basically having it up to here with work (pointing to my delicate nose) and the kids were getting restless with one week of holiday and nowhere to go.

My boss had been talking about the Legend Waterhomes ever since she took her kids there. So in the end, I decided to try it out and booked their 3 days 2 nights package. I booked the hotel that had the private swimming pool in the room because knowing En Rashid and myself, we would be taichi'ing each other to go take the kids to the public swimming pool.

Since PD is only 1 hours drive from BBB, we had lunch at home first. I had some errands to do that morning so it was after 3pm when we finally set off for PD. We arrived around 415pm, a bit late because someone was going the wrong way. And had a faulty GPS. And wouldn't let me call the hotel for directions.

Once we had arrived, check-in was a breeze. We had one of the rooms that was overlooking the seabed. The girls immediately noticed the floor "window" as we walked into the room.

Daria was a bit comprehensive of the window. She refused to step on it at first since she thought she might fall through it. She even yelled if any of us stepped on the window accidentally. Hahaha, so cute.

But the main attraction was of course, the in-room swimming pool. The girls shrieked (I use the word appropriately) with joy when they say it. Immediately, they changed into their swimming gear and plunged in.

The 3 of them practically became mermaids in the pool and would have stayed in there for hours. We finally dragged them all out when it was time to get ready for dinner.

Since the package only included one dinner meal and we were still rather full from lunch, we decided to head out instead. It was drizzling but luckily the hotel provided each room with a mighty big umbrella so we didn't get that wet as we walked to the hotel lobby.

We took our chance with the first OK looking restaurant we saw. It turned out not be such a bad choice. The kids had fried mee, which they didn't finish because according to them, it was too spicy. And I had specifically requested for it not to be spicy. However, hubby and I had a good meal; white rice with mixed tomyam, siakap cooked 3 rasa and kangkung masak belacan. Adding in all the drinks and what not, it came to about RM44.

Eventhough it had stopped raining, the kids were too tired out to do anymore swimming. So after watching a bit of TV, they fell asleep pretty quickly.

Look at who conquered most of the bed (it was a King bed). Ambik ko, terkangkang terus!!

The next day, the kids were raring to go swimming again. However, En Rashid and I wanted to go get breakfast first, so we made some sandwiches for Dania and Dina and took Daria for breakfast at the hotel. OK, before you ask, the package only included breakfast for two. Kids (ages 4-12) cost RM37.75 per head for breakfast. And knowing Dina, she would only eat one bowl of cereal and a glass of juice and that would be it. It would have chapped my ass if I were to pay that amount for a bowl of cereal!!

So we left the room for breakfast but took the fat crapper with us (Min, I can't stop calling her that!). I must say the breakfast spread was quite disappointing. For starters, no nasi lemak. They only had porridge which is basically hospital food, so yucks! They had a good salad bar though and made a mean omelet. I liked the omelet!

Good omelet!

Daria had some sausages and potato wedges. here she is thoroughly enjoying her cold, cup of guava juice.

They had special plates and cups for children, which I though was pretty smart.

One of the two buffet counters. Daria kept on asking me to bring back the big boat on display.

Hah, no longer afraid!!

Low tide in the morning. Where's all the water, ibu? And the fishies??

Nevermind, while waiting for the fishies to come back, I'll just do some painting over here. An elephant is purple, right ibu?

It rained mostly during the day so we didn't do much. Watched TV, played games, slept. Since it was a Friday, En Rashid went out for prayers and brought back lunch. This was also Dania and Dina's dinner later in the evening. Don't judge!! They were fine with it.

The dinner buffet was slightly better. They had sate, curry mee and white rice with various dishes. I liked the peanut sauce that came with the sate. Also the curry mee was no bad. En Rashid became a fan of chocolate covered fruits, thanks to thw\e chocolate fountain they had. Oya, the chocolate they used was dark chocolate, so yummy!!!

Someone sure is enjoying her ice cream!!

It took 10 shots before I finally got one of her licking her ice cream. Hahaha, thank god for digital cameras.

En Rashid, full and NOT thinking about work. I hope.

The next day was check-out day. The girls woke up extra early so they could squeeze in as much swimming time as possible. We took them to the outdoor pool, so that they could swim while we had breakfast at the pool cafe.

The hotel had 2 pools; one for the kids with slides and all that and another for adults.I must say the hotel took great pride in their facilities, everything was kept nice and clean.

A reluctant look given when asked to leave the pool. Nevermind adik, we'll come back again soon.

Here's the room we stayed in. Ignore the mess. The beds were super comfy and the pillow super plushy.

From the bedroom, you go through the kitchen to the bathrooms. The kitchen had a microwave and plates and utensils. The bathroom was split between the toilet and shower room. The sliding door you see opens up to the in-door swimming pool.

The buggies that took hotel guests to and from the hotel lobby to their rooms. Mighty useful especially if its raining or when you want to check-out with your bags of crap.

Tired but happy. The girls really enjoyed themselves so I would say the quick getaway was just what we all needed.

Now, it's back to the real world. Next week is mid terms!! Argghhhh...plus finals for the kid's kafa school.

This is Where I Get All Mysterious and S@*t

So I finally made the appointment for this coming Saturday. Until then, I'm gonna try to keep my mind off it. Hopefully. I'll try.

It Doesn't Really Take That Long Anyway...

This piece of news caught my eye today.

Hertz fires 26 Muslim drivers in dispute

More than two dozen Somali Muslim drivers for Hertz at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are being fired after refusing to clock out for daily breaks during which they normally pray, according to media reports.
The 26 workers drive the company's rental cars to and from the airport for cleaning and refueling. They are among 34 Hertz employees suspended Sept. 30 for failing to clock out before breaks.
Eight of the 34 signed the clock-out agreement and have returned to their jobs, company spokesman Rich Broome told The Associated Press Friday in an email. Termination letters have been sent to the rest.
The company made it clear the suspended workers needed to agree to the clock-out conditions by the end of the day Thursday if they wanted to be reinstated, Broome told The Seattle Times.
The firings were first reported by KOMO-TV.
Broome told the AP earlier this month "It's not about prayer, it's not about religion; it's about reasonable requirements."
Observant Muslims pray several times a day.
Hertz said the suspended workers were violating provisions of a collective bargaining agreement and a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached two years ago.
Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said the two sides were unable to negotiate an agreement that would have allowed the workers to return to their pre-suspension status, under which they wouldn't have to clock out to pray.
Union spokesman Paul Zilly said the workers were given an ultimatum to sign the clock-out document.

If Hertz felt some employees were abusing the break policies, it should have dealt with them individually, Zilly said.
The union said the break clock-out requirement is not in the contract and Hertz had agreed during negotiations last year that it would not require it.
The union has filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The union also said it is filing religious discrimination charges with the EEOC.
The union represents nearly 80 Hertz drivers who earn between $9.15 and $9.95 an hour. About 70 percent are Muslims.
Here's the link to the story. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44985725/ns/us_news/#.TqGWM1Zr6So

OK, here's my take on the story. I don't know exactly how long these workers are taking to perform their prayers but in actual fact, it does not take more than 10 minutes for each prayer. Shorter if the person is a guy because for ladies, we need to take off our head covering, take off our make up, take care of our prayer attire, etc, etc. But for guys, the just need to take ablution, make sure their attire covers down to their knees and start praying. Unless the workers were also taking a cigarette break, their absence would only be for 10 minutes, at most for each prayer time.

Plus, if they were working 9-5, then there's only 2 prayer times that they need to perform during working hours; Zohor and Asar. Just 20 minutes out of the 8 hours they're working.

Again, the article didn't say how long these workers were taking off to perform their prayers and I can't claim to know the policies for clocking in and clocking out as we don't implement those in our company (Thank god!). However, I really feel that the company could have handled the situation in a much better way.If a few of the employees were taking longer than 20 minutes for each prayer break, then the company should have handled them individually.

Whatever the outcome, I hope it ends positively for both the workers and the company. And most of all, I hope this doesn't deter other companies from hiring Muslims as their employees.

Peace!

Yer, Tolong Jangan Menyemakkan Bangi!

I saw this in the paper today.

I totally support the ban!! I love the fact that Bangi has nothing. Hahahha...except for a few small hypermarkets, we only have a defunct bowling alley. Which is fine!!! We don't need those stuff to mess up Bangi. I don't want Bangi to become a choked up town like Bangsar or Puchong. I'm fine without the traffic and the chaos. I'm fine with driving 18kn to Putrajaya to see a movie. I'm fine with going to Mines to play bowling.

Just keep them out of Bangi. Buat semak je!!

Kenapa Tak Reti Guna Kepala Otak?

Ni gambar aku ambik masa kat surau ofis semalam. Korang nampak minah tudung purple tu tak? Serious aku terasa nak bagi panampar je kat dia semalam. Dok surau, memekak je dok gosip ngan kekawan dia. Padahal bukan tak nampak orang lain dok solat kat situ. Bleh tak..ko dah sudah solat tu, ko cepat2 bersiap lepas tu belah. Jangan dok lepak lagi kat surau tu, gosip hal orang lain ngan lorat Kelantan ko tu, sampai orang lain nak solat pun terganggu. Yang aku geram, dia bleh merengek kuat2 kat kawan dia sebab pakai eyeliner tak cantik.

Ala. Siannya. Eyeliner pakai tak cantik yer? Meh sini, aku cucuk mata hang ngan eyeliner tu!!

Dari aku start solat, sampai dah bagi doa, dia dok merengek kat tepi tu. Masa aku tengah bersiap pakai tudung, aku toleh, tengok dia dok makan plak!

Banyak hudus muka ko!! Sapa ajar makan dalam surau ni?? Sah2, banyak poster2  kat situ dok ingatkan...jangan bercakap atau makan dalam surau. Ko tak reti baca ke apa?

Sori la, tapi aku memang pantang orang macam ni. Jenis tak hormat orang lain. Nak kata mak ayah tak ajar...aku rasa mak ayah dia ada ajar, ustaz/ustazah kat sekolah ada ajar. Dia je yang tak reti makan saman!! 

Dina's 7th Birthday Bash

I better write about this before it becomes stale. We had the birthday bash last Saturday at home. It was a small occasion, we invited only a few of Dina's friends and classmates. After much deliberation, we decided on a theme...

ANGRY BIRDS!!!!

Did you make the bird sound when you read that? Hahaha..

We set the party to start at around 11am and end at 2pm. I figured 3 hours of having a house full of hyper kids was enough.

The first activity lined up was a coloring activity. I had printed out several pictures of the angry birds (and some pigs) and pasted them onto manila card boards. I also had several small angry bird pictures the kids could paste onto their finished product. I made sure there were enough crayons and color pencils to go around. This activity was great because it kept the kids in one section of the living room, relatively quiet. Heee.

Then it was cake time. We had to wait for my brother and SIL to arrive as I had asked Aida to pass the cake to them.

The cake was a hit with the kids! And Dina was so happy. Everyone ooohh'ed and ahhh'ed at the small birds and pigs, complete with slings and tiny bird eggs to go.

A picture together before everyone sang Happy Birthday. That dude on the far left is my 3 month old nephew. How cute is he?? Oya, those angry bird t-shirts the girls are wearing was bought that morning. Hahahha..last minute purchase from the shop across the road. Sib baik ada.

This picture was taken and edited by my brother using his iPhone. I love it coz it looks like a sketch. Also Daria looks extra chubby in this photo..haha.

Daria the Destroyer messed up the cake before we could stop her. Luckily she only messed up the letters and not the cake itself.

The kids were all trying to "book" a bird to eat. Hahaha..I told them to share, the birds were made out of pure sugar!! The last thing I need is more hyper kids in the house.

Everyone have cake!!

Here's Min with her 2 nieces (pink dresses). She was only one of the two adults who stayed throughout the party. The rest just dropped off their kids at the gate. She was suppose to come as General Pig but her pig snout paper mache project became an epic fail. Reluctantly, I let her stay for cake. :P

After cake, was a game I called "Kill the Water Bottle Pigs". Basically I had printed out pictures of the free pig and taped them to a few empty water bottles. The kids had to try to knock all of the "pigs" down using the angry bird plush toys I had bought for the party.

A simple game but the kids had a blast! It looked easy but was a bit tough for the smaller kids. In the end, we lumped all the water bottles close together, to make sure everyone had a chance to "kill" all of the pigs. I gave out angry bird erasers as prizes for those who succeeded.

The games were only meant for the kids but apparently someone didn't get the memo. Siap tak bagi budak potong line tu..sabar je la. Hahhaha..

Early signs of too much sugar in her system. Huaarrggghhhhhh!!!

Once everyone had succeeded in winning an eraser, we moved on to opening the presents. Dina got a lot of really cool stuff. Lots of stationary and color pencils to last her a lifetime. Hahaha.

Around 1.30pm, the party started to wind down. I gave each kid a helium balloon to take back home.

Together with a party pack. Each kid got an angry bird stationary set, an angry bird notebook and a lollipop.

While waiting for the parents to come, Dina and her friends took some pictures outside, with the plush toys.

My girls. Sigh...they're growing up way too fast.

Menu-wise, I kept it simple. Bihun with egss, nuggets, egg sandwiches, multicolored jellies and cake. For drinks, I made punch. I bought some colorful plastic cups (red and yellow) to tie in the angry bird theme.

We played a few more games since some parents were a bit late in picking up their kids. We played "Put the Birds Back in their Nest". Basically I took the box the cake came in and asked the kids to try and throw the plush toys into it. Anyone who could get at least 2 birds into the box got an extra lollipop. After that, we played "Bomber Angry Bird" which was a varied version of Pass the Ball. I used my iPad to play the Angry Bird theme song as the music for the game.

All in all, the party was a success. The kids had fun, the adults got to eat in peace and Dina was very, very happy. Here's to another birthday party next year..well, maybe.

ANGRY BIRDS!!!!

Apparently I'm An Uptown Girl...

..because that was the only song I knew in full during the Westlife concert last week. Muahahaha...nampak sangat dah tua, lagu Billy Joel jugak yang ingat.

So, like I mentioned in my previous entry, Noresh and I went to the Westlife concert last Friday. I think for both of us, it wasn't a die-hard-fan kind of decision but more of a "I need a change of pace" kind of thing.

I had a 3-5pm meeting that day but was determine to leave office early. Noresh had suggested I arrive at her house before 6pm and she would drive us both to the stadium. Luckily, my EVP wasn't feeling all that well that day so the meeting ended just on time. In fact, thanks to my expert driving skills, I reached Noresh's house before she was even ready to go.

The drive to the stadium was rather smooth and lucky for us, we got a good parking space, not too far from the entrance. Dah tua maa, must save energy for the concert! Haha. We had to queue for like 20 minutes before we were allowed in. Oya, have to add that the people handling the gates wouldn't allow stuff like cameras, umbrellas, even those colorful, glow sticks in. Which is fine except there were people selling those glow sticks not 5 meters away from the gates. If they were not allowed into the concert hall, then the people handling the gates should have not allowed people to sell them either!! Imagine, fishing out RM10 (I think that was the price) for a glow stick, then having it confiscated at the gate. Sheeeshhh!!

Being the non-fans that we were, we had bought the cheapest tickets available. Itu pun nak RM100 gak!! Nevermind..once in a while. Can't believe the last concert I went to was when I was still studying in the US.

Since we arrived rather early, we had a lot of time to kill before the concert started (8.30pm). This is where our seats were from the stage.

Giller jauh, but at least they had those two jumbo screens at the side of the stage. Those seats in front (blue section) costs RM599 or something like that! Crazy!! And it was rather packed when the concert started. Some people apparently have money to burn.

Camwhore moment. Actually we were getting anxious for the concert to start. The boys were late!! In the end, the concert started at 9.15pm. Both Noresh and I were already yawning at that time.

Anyway, the showmanship was good. The boys really knew how to interact with the crowd. There was one part of the show where they invited this dude and his girlfriend up on stage. Before they sang the next song, the dude gave a short speech then got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend!! So sweet!!! everyone was cheering them on. I think the gf started crying or something. Oya, and she said yes! Hahahhaa...

I must say, Nicky looks super cute in real life. And Mark and Shane sound exactly like in their albums. Super voices. And Kian had everyone say hi to his unborn child on videotape. "Hi Twinkle". Too cute!

All in all, it was good fun eventhough I only knew 3 out of 10 or so of their songs. Haha. Now, if only NKOTB would get their fine butts to Malaysia, that's one concert not to be missed!!

ps: I have some videos from the concert, taken using my handphone  but won't upload them coz you can hear me singing in the background. And Adele I am not, so I'll spare you guys the torture. Hahahhaa!

Belum Masuk Gear...

I think we're already in week 4 of the trimester and I'm still trying to find my bearing. For this trimester, I have Consumer Behavior (CB), Marketing Research (MR) and Strategic Management (SM). So far, classes have been ok, just the workload is gonna kill me soon. I particularly hate (maybe hate is too strong a word)..ok, dislike SM. For one thing, the prof likes to "terjah" people, making us all on our toes throughout the class session. That is soooo not good for my internal systems. Second, he gives us weekly assignments, that take forever to complete. OK, maybe not forever, but when you're stuck in gear 1 like I am, it seems like forever.

I rather enjoy CB class coz it's a lot of discussions and I get to talk a lot. Hahaha. For MR, it's interesting but damn, there's so much to read and remember. Plus it's a research class so the assignments are all research-heavy. Drag!!

It's nearly 1am right now and I'm stuck on my 3rd SM assignment. Really, it's not like I wanted to do it last minute. What with work and the kids, I hardly have time for anything else. Sigh...ok, back to hitting the grindstone. Happy sleeping everyone else.

Last Weekend...

Well, the Westlife concert was fun. Despite the fact I knew and could sing along to only 3 of their songs. They have a new album?! Sigh...so not up to date. Anyway, thanks to Noresh for dragging me there. Was a nice change of pace for me.

On Saturday, we had Dina's birthday party. And I'm happy to report that everything went fine!! In fact, the kids had so much fun, doing the coloring activity, playing the "kill the pigs" game, the "send the birds home" game and the "bomber bird" game. Oh, and they lorrvvveeeed the cake!! Thanks to Aida for all her hard work. And thanks to all those that came. Dina was grinning ear to ear the whole time, she was very happy to say the least.

I have pictures and videos for all of the above but will have to wait until later to upload. Work-a-calling!!

RIP Steve Jobs

Heard the news from Min this morning that Steve Jobs had passed away.

For us who's lives revolve around gadgets and technology, it is indeed a sad moment. An icon of our generation is gone.

RIP Steve Jobs. Thanks for all the iGadgets.

Dimsum Dinner Date

Last Tuesday, En Rashid took me out for a dimsum buffet dinner at Holiday Villa, SJ. He found the deal on Groupon and since he's a dimsum freak, he bought 2 coupons and dragged me to follow him.

Our dinner reservation was at 730pm but we only left the office at around 7pm, thanks to En Rashid getting stuck in a meeting that started at 630pm!! Grrrr...

However, thanks to his great driving skills, we arrived at the hotel with 30 seconds to spare. Phew! Though I seriously doubt the restaurant would have denied us access just because we were a few minutes late.

There was quite a crowd when we arrived and LOL, most of them were there thanks to the Groupon deal. En Rashid and I were ushered to a table smack in the middle of the room where the servers then started laying down dozens of dimsum containers.

This was only from the 1st cart. I think there were 3 carts altogether. yang aku tau, banyak giller dimsum dia letak atas meja. Terkuzat kejap tengok.

Sukanya dia!!! He had been looking forward to the dinner for so long....layan je la.

I dunno the names of any of the dimsum but I took pictures of those that looked interesting. I particularly liked the one that had seaweed wrapped around it but it was all gone before I could snap a photo.

This cheeky monkey was not invited for the dimsum dinner but she's featured here because Heather requested so. Heeee...hope you like the flowers, Heather!

A Full Week..

Yesterday: Sent off my parents for Haj. Uwwaaaa....they'll be gone for 45 days. I miss them already!! My mom was showing me where she kept all her jewelry and stuff, in case they don't come back and I was like "I don't care about your jewelry!! Wadda ya mean you might not come back??!!!"
UWWWAAAAA!!!!

Today: Dimsum dinner date with hubby. We bought the coupon via Groupon since FOREVER but only now have the time to redeem it. I hope it's worth it. Hubby's a dimsum freak so he's looking forward to the meal. I'll reserve my opinion until later.

Tomorrow: I have class and tons to read up on still.

Thursday: Assignment #2 due! Haven't started a thing yet but they say procrastinators always churn out the best work when they're stressed. Muahahahhaa,..

Friday: I'm going to see Westlife!! Wuuhuuu!! I haven't been to a cencert since FOREVER. Must brush up on my Westlife lyrics...nanti dapat nyanyi setakat chorus je.

Saturday: Dina's birthday party!! Have bought some stuff for decorations and goody bags but still need to do the invitation cards and other stuff.

Sunday: Really need to concentrate on studying!! 1st SM exam is the following week. Mati la, satu haprak pun tak prepare lagi!!

Time To Start Planning

We've decided on a theme for Dina's birthday party. Since we intend to keep it small (just invite her friends selected classmates), I intend to make it a bit more memorable in terms of decorations, games and party gifts. Thing is.....do I have the time?!!

I've been surfing sites all day collecting ideas. I would really love to have (make?) a pinata but I seriously doubt my creative talent in that area. I'm keeping the food simple because kids do not come to parties to eat. Hahhaha...but I'll have something for the adults, just in case the parents would like to stop by.

Dina's been looking forward to her party for months so I really hope everything goes as planned and that she'll have a great time celebrating with family and friends.