I guess everyone have heard that my beloved one and only grandfather passed away 2 weeks ago. 9 months after my grandma left us, left him and 6 days exactly after his 83rd birthday. When all my scheduled plan for my renewing visa process turned haywire and went nothing like I planned, I was devastated. Friends and family provide me comfort by saying there should be hikmah behind all this, for Allah knows best. Indeed it is soooo very true.

If only my schedule goes according to plan, I will be thousand miles away in Bahrain at that moment and will never have chance to say goodbye to Atuk

If only my schedule goes according to plan.......

Things happen the way it happened. I felt so blessed for I was given chance to at least pay my last respect to my grandparents and contribute my doa as I kneeled by their grave.

Recap on the day, we received the heartbreaking news around 7.00 am. He left us peacefullly at 6.55 in the morning. My father was already at Johor for he had some work related matters there and was planning to pay a visit to atuk after he done his stuffs. Sadly, he was late by few hours. Me and my mom on the other hand was in KL. As most of you aware, our returned to Malaysia this time was to settle En Muddy's residency matters. And as per the process requirement, he need to submit his international passport to Kuwait Embassy for couple of days, hence he's passport-less. Ever since the news hit me, I have nothing in my mind except the thought that I have to be in Spore soonest as I can. I need to see him and kiss him for the last time. I have to. I lost the opportunity when my grandmother left and I will do anything I can this time. That's solely my only wish, nothing else matters. Since there's only left me, my mom and my sister, so I decided to drive myself, and left my husband in KL since there's no way he could make it into Spore without his passport. My father will took a cab immediately from Johor.

We left around 8.30 and sort of chasing time. I just made 2 stops, to buy breakfast for the girls and re-fueling my tanks. I am that desperate to see my grandfather for the last time. Again, we can plan, we can speed up, we could pick the fastest route, I would fly if I could but if Allah said jadik, maka jadiklah.. tak jadik, maka tak jadik la. It is fated that we were meant to see his pusara only. We're 30 minutes too late.




So this is goodbye, I cant cry…I cant look down at your face and cry, because I know if the tears spill over my cheeks this time they are never going to stop. Kneeling before you, praying to god that you are okay is one of the hardest goodbyes i have ever dealt with, I know that your away from the pain, I know that your happy now, I know that nothing can hurt you now,but I also know that I will never see you on this earth ever again. I will never get a chance to say goodbye and I will never get a chance not to cry.


Since both pusara of my gramps located nearby, we took the opportunity to visit hers also. As can be seen, they have done built the tomb for her .






To those who happened to know my grandparents well, will know that they're such a lovely couple, never go anywhere without one another. When my grandma passed away, my grandfather had a hard time adjusting life without her. I guess it is just too hard too endure. Even their grave was near to each other and tell you what, even their lot number are rhymed. My grandma's lot number was 2144 and my grandpa was 4144. Separated by 2000 other deceased is not that bad I guess. If this can be called coincidence, so be it but to me, it is a symbol of pure love and Allah knows that fact for He decided to let him go not long after her.

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

All of us redha with Qada' dan Qadar and we accepted the faith that it is time for him to leave. Al- Fatihah to both of my beloved gramps. Though we have parted ways for now, worry not cause I'll be sending you a lot of doa till my own time comes.

Lottsss of love and doa from your grandcucus and grandcicits.....

Today, we had our usual company outing. I make sure I wouldn't miss this trip since I will be going back to Malaysia very very soon with no confirmation on returning date hence this could be my last outing with my girlfriends for at least another 2 months. Secretly, I wouldn't mind not shopping ( if we got to shop plus get together definitely is a bonus lah kann hehe ) at all every Friday outing because I look forward more on spending time with my girlfriends more than anything, as much as my kids look forward to fortnightly ritual play date with their friends. With daily hectic schedules plus schooling plus most of us were living in different area, this get together are basically most awaited event.

For today, the itinerary was Breakfast at McD Salmiya - Shop at Salmiy City Centre - Visit Camel Farm at Ahmadi, and if we're lucky, we can ride on them - Kids free and easy and visit mini zoo at Ahmadi Park - Watch lights at Ahmadi Park.

I shall not touch on the first 2 itinerary since it was just same old story heheh. Today let's focus on 3rd itinerary since this is my first visit ever to Camel Farm. There are so many camel farm in Q8 and the most infamous one I believed was in Wafra. The one we visited today was just a small nomadic farm. It was definitely not a commercialized farm, even the gate was portable and mobilize. I think they moved from time to time. Since it was privately owned farm, the camels was not trained for riding purpose plus they don't even have those pelana things. All the camels was meant for sale, I meant their meat and their milk. However, the gembala was kind and glad enough that we came to visit that they volunteering prepared one camel for us to use for ride and photography purposes despite our constant rejection. We are pleased enough to be able to touch those camels and take a picture. I bet we are not the first group of "tourist" came by.


My oh my everyone was soooooo thrilled and excited and super psyched and running here and there I think the camel gotten scared at us.



Our excitedness however was not mutual with the chosen to be tied camel since in order to get the camel "prepared" for our photo session and for everyone safety, the shepherd tied both, errrr I meant all four of its legs. As I said earlier, those camels are wild camels and none of them were formally trained to entertained super jakun visitor like us. It is definitely a heart wrenching moments seeing the camel writhing and struggling, and even bahhhhh- inggg to express its anger for being held and tied like that.

As to date, it has been a year and 1 month since En Muddy reached Q8 and as for me, this May will marked my 1st year here. Not much change I must say. We gained a lot of friends in this past one year, we created so many sweet memories and we've been to numerous places. Unfortunately, we still haven't got our Civil ID ( some sort of Q8 IC, iqamah )j ust yet. Without it, we're practically handicapped. Everything needs civil id here just like we need IC back home. Errrr actually everything need money here and then comes civil id. You don't need civil ID to buy food or to shop. All they require was dinar and a lotsss of dinar. However, for most important matters in life, from buying cars, renting a cars, registering school for Alis to subscribing private sattelite cable channel required Civil ID.

I wanted to story about how painful is it for us( and for most of my friends ) in order to get our civil id.

My visit visa expired on 10 March. I had returned ticket to Malaysia on 7 th Mac hence months prior to that mostly we would start planning for my renewal visa. Our choices are either go back to Malaysia or to other neighbouring GCC countries like Qatar, Dubai, Egypt and such. With recent protest issues in Egypt and Bahrain, both definitely out of picture.

Recently, the company informed that En Muddy's temporary work visa had been granted which means he can proceed to next step which is medical checkup...... to Bahrain as per normal company procedure. Why Bahrain? Do not ask me why they need to do medical checkup at Bahrain while they actually applying Q8's Civil ID because I failed to understand this myself.

En Muddy try to argue and requested to re-route to Malaysia given Bahrain's current unstable political condition but was rejected by the company as per them, the protestor was just represent minority group of Bahraini and the protest only took place at certain spot in Bahrain while other places remained peaceful and business runs as usual. So, as a safe precaution, En Muddy sent an email to Malaysian Embassy to Bahrain and getting replied as per below :







As you can see in the email, it is rather major relieved when we actually given assurance by the insider itself that it is okay to travel to Bahrain, plus some insider tips about do's and donts. Anyhow, there's one point we can't afford to comply to.. which is Movenpick as the hotel costs RM 2200 per night. Totally wayyyyy above our budget..

So next step is to extend my returned ticket to Malaysia which is dated 7th Mac to some later date in May. En Muddy called up Gulf Call Center with the regards and was told that in order to get our ticket extended, we need to pay around KD 200 +\-. After converted, it will cost us a whopping RM 2200, almost as equal as new ticket. Given no choice, we proceed still, went to their HQ at Kuwait City and was told to pay KD 43 instead of KD 200 and we were happily obliged.

Phewwww cannot trust this call centre one !!!

Settled one thing.

Now all we have to do is wait for the company's confirmation on En Muddy's air ticket to Bahrain, so that we can purchase ours, but to no avail.

From the date we sent the mail which is immediately after we were given instruction to go Bahrain, until yesterday, En Muddy haven't heard anything. Few phone calls were made, from medium tone to rather harsh tone involved then only we were told that agent at Bahrain refused to take risks by bringing anyone inside Bahrain in current situation.

From what I recalled, this so called protests had been happening way before En Muddy received his work permit and yet he were still instructed to go Bahrain, and suddenly only now they realised that it is rather unsafe to bring staffs to Bahrain?

Pffffttttttt... WTF ! ( please excused my language here, I am so pissed off )

As a result, En Muddy were instructed to re-route to Malaysia for his medical checkup. If my mind served me correctly, this is our exactly first request and got denied!

The implications of this unnecessary small matters turned big ( it is small matters indeed if our request granted in the first place), are ...

1) we need to purchased 3 new tickets that ripped us almost RM 4000 because we already extended our returned ticket that costed us RM 500.

2) we also need to pay fine for overstay in Q8 starting tomorrow 11 March because we were told to wait for green light to Bahrain. KD 2 per head per day. We planned to go back on 12 Mac to minimised our fine but was again instructed to postponed to 14 Mac because En Muddy's paperwork was on the way back from Bahrain to Kuwait and we need to wait for its arrival. Despite our suggestion to courier the paperwork to Malaysia directly, we were given thousand lame excuses. Pffftttttt again! So, KD 2x3x4 = KD 24 .. To some, they may say.. Alaaa dua ratus lebih jek... But to me.. Sebab dua ratus lebih je kan, ko bayar kan boleyyyy ???

3) since as our actual schedule is to go back Malaysia on May for my sister in law's wedding, I had extra returned ticket on Q8-KUL. If En Muddy's medical checkup matters took more than 2 weeks, looks like I'll be staying at MYS until May, hence we need to get a refund for those returned tickets, if only the airline company agree to refund. If they refused to refund, then we had to purchased new one way ticket for me and girls KUL-Q8 and we're talking about another RM4000 here, else we can say goodbye to our returned ticket. We're not that rich yet to throw few thousand bucks just like that !

For now.. The outcome is we will be going back to Malaysia on 14th Mac, exactly En Muddy's birthday. We will be using Etihad so there'll be 6 hours transit at Abu Dhabi, maybe we can celebrate his birthday there.

Only those who have had to go through this experience will understand my frustration. No matter how thorough your plan is, no matter how many months earlier you take, trust me there are always unexpected unnecessary obstacles you need to face. This isn't anymore about how good planner you are, this is more than that. This is about something beyond your control and do expect for the worst cause that's the only way you'll be prepared.

For those who have been experiencing this, my hats off to you for your patience to endure all this and to those who about to go through this, or have plan in future, you had my best wishes and good luck, coz you definitely need luck in this.

I am certainly not blaming everything on the company because I believed certain things are beyond their control either. However, there's few loopholes and windows can be improved to better state since this is definitely not their first time handling visa matters. They should understand the systems better and they definitely should see it coming...

Disclaimer : this hair-pulling, backbreaking, mingboggling experience unfortunately only applicable to those who working under same consultant with En Muddy. Apparently, other Malaysian under others company have it much much easier way, within shorter time. They're such lucky dudes !

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I had so many birthdays to celebrate in March as in most of my family member's birthday fall on March. Almost half of them. Start with Erin on 3/3, followed by my mother and sister on 6/3 and later on En Muddy on 14/3. And this is only close family, belum masuk cousins, nieces and nephews lagi..

Anyway, on less serious note, I always believed that 3 is my mum's favorite numeric. Why 3 you may ask.. It is because all my family birthday related to 3 or in other way of putting it, all our birth date are sifir 3.

My mum - 6/3 = 3x2/3x1

Along - 6/6 = 3x2/3x2

Mine - 12/6 = 3x4/3x2

Adik - 6/3 = 3x2/3x1

My father - 27/9 = 3x9/3x3..

Am I making any sense here or not ?

Hehehehe I know I know.. It could be some co-incidence but this is my belief since I was small. What to do, kecik kecik dah suke merepek...Org suruh hafal sifir, lain yang de buat. Math tak pandai pandai pun..

Back to intended topic...

Anyway, today... 6/3/2011 is my mother and my youngest sister's birthday. Yep, they shared birthday. My mom gave birth to her youngest girl on her 32nd birthday. It is indeed double celebration for our family. I remembered that day as the most happiest day in my childhood, not only because I finally had a baby sis, but also because I got to eat so many cakes belong to my mum but she couldn't have it.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to wish both of them Happy Birthday. May many many many many many many many more good and great things comes their way. Stay healthy and happy cause I really look forward to post about your 68th and 100th birthday, Insya Allah.


To Mama and Baby on your birthday,

Hope you know how much you’re appreciated
And how much you’re loved.

Happy Birthday !


XoXo,


Angah

Kisah nyer smalam dalam peti ais ade 2 ekor rangka ayam sahaja. Beli pun sebab niat nak buat meehun soto at first. Dari sumer bahan complete, sampai kan tinggal rangka jek, meehun soto tak jugak terbuat buat. Daun sup dengan daun bawang pun dah ala ala kena demam kuning jek. Therefore, terhasil lah Bubur Nasik untuk lunch smalam. Orang pantai timur called this Nasik Air. Selalu kat Kampung Bharu org makan dengan cendawan, ikan kering, kangkung belacan and whatnot. Tapi dek kerna kan bahan bahan dalam fridge tak berapa nak meriah, maka hasil nyer pun tak meriah jugak la.. Akan tetapi, sesekali makan ringkas ringkas macam gini, sedap jugak.






1st time masuk kedai ni walau dah beribu kali lalu. Once sampai, En Muddy pun biasalah, nak foursquare kan location der, tup tup dah ade mayor for this spot. Siap ade comment tulis overpriced. Rasa macam nak tukar restaurant lain tapi waiter de dah siap lap lap meja kerusi sume, tak sampai hati pulak. Duduk je la.. Kalau worth it , datang lagi.. kalau tak worth money, anggap je first and last experience.

We ordered Chicken Wing with Ranch Sauce, Grilled Shrimp, Mini Burger for the girls and Blue Cheese Burger for En Muddy. Kemain tau dah tekak ganu, kemain ade hati nak order blue cheese bagai.

Hasil nyer... agak mengecewakan. Chicken Wing tu macam kite goreng kunyit kat rumah then siram je dengan Ranch sos tu. Tak sepadan harga. My grilled shrimp turned out not so bad. Most satisfying dishes that night. Udang agak besar walau 5 jek de bagi. Tapi takleh nak marah sebab de dah sebut siap siap dalam menu memang 5 jek. The vege can improve sebab rasa cam tak fresh and overcooked. Mashed potato pun just so-so. Nothing WOW about it. Mini burger for kids pulak... hmm just mini burgers heheh.. ade tomato, bawang, cheese sekeping and beef patties. The bread texture agak keras, dah jadik ala ala macam pau malaysia. Blue Cheese En Muddy pulak, let just say he ate his Blue Cheese Burger without the blue cheese. This is the 1st time I ever saw he rejected food, which could only means, the taste was really off. Well what were you expect from blue cheese kan? It is supposed to taste and smelled rotten-like, not ? Agah sangat nak order cecanggih...

In overall, the foods and presentation didn't impressed us, hence no picture heheh. The only thing that drew smile to my face was below image taken from my Lipton Tea sachet I ordered.

I love to read, I kid you not. I read everything from magazines, old newspaper, books, novels to ingredients on my groceries and toothpaste tube. However, I don't really get to read much eversince I migrated due to magazines and books are quite pricey here. My husband fully understood this hobby of mine and how I am in dire needs to read, therefore, he subscribed few magazines from iTunes for me monthly, which will auto-uploaded into my Ipad, which happened to be soooooo kewlll. For now, we subscribed 4-5 magazines monthly, 2 for me and 3 for him. Each mag cost less than $ 10 which to me, quite a steal considering we didn't have to spend anything on cab fare, fuel and energy.


Our monthly mags subscription so far...


I am pretty sure you can guess which one is mine and which one belong to him. Next in line are going to be O, Her World and Cleo.

Anyway, I just finished reading my Feb edition of Reader's Digest and there's one article I really think worth to share. The article was about this 80 years old study titled For A Long Life, Watch Your Attitude. Basically it reveals some surprising secrets to longevity. There's one point I would like to highlight here because it is proven to be truth.

" RUN WITH THE RIGHT CROWD "

To make yourself healthier, the best thing you can do is to think about the kinds of people you spent your time with.

Can't Agree More !!! ( sambil hangguk hangguk kepala)

Simply put, people in your lifes, those who you mingled around, socialized with, will indirectly reflects who you are and who you might be as a human being. Thus, it is important to pick your crowd wisely. Should you run with positive peoples, who is always injects positive vibes to your life, I believed you will be healthier and happier physically and emotionally. But if, you were surrounded with peoples who always spread negatives input, you will lead yourself to a very stress and depress way of life, whether you like it or not, whether you realised it or not.

Personally, I always said this to myself, if I didn't like people to talk bad about me, behind my back, I need to stop giving them things to talk about. In short, watch my attitude. Believ me, it's always started with you no matter how much you love to blame on others.

And, I always believed in this principal...

" If there's only one particular person having issue with you, it could be because of personal differences that incurred between you and that person. However, if 9 out of 10 people who knows you, having the same issue... Maybe, just maybe.. You're the one that need major attitude check "

So, good luck running with the right crowd that leads you naturally to a healthier patterns of life. That's a gradual but effective way to change yourself !

Credit to the writer Beth Dreher for the excellent write up.

P/s : As a muslim, the basic foundation for healthier life is always solat, say your prayer and be faith to Him. Then comes other things.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

For Erin Saffiya, on your 3rd birthday.

So far, this has been your journey...
















I wish for you that whatever you want most in life, it comes to you, just the way you imagined it, or better.

I wish your birthdays happened more, So I could let you know, How very much you mean to me, And so I could tell you so!


It is true that you could be tad too bossy and super diva at times.

It is also true that you may be a pain in the neck to your sister.

Despite all that, our home will be too quiet without you and your big sis definitely won't survive a day without you.

May you grow up to be a righteous and successful Muslim, both in this world and in the next. May Allah guide me and grant me patience to nurture and you and your sibling in the way that is most pleasing to Him.

Mummy, Papa & Kakak love you lots and lots.

Big fat hugs and kisses from us to you on your birthday..





Poem By Joanna Fuchs