Kali terakhir

Waktu lebih kurang begini 2 tahun lepas, kami berenam menunggu van jenazah untuk membawa Mak ke Tanah Perkuburan Kajang dari Hospital Selayang.  Mak disahkan meninggal dunia kerana Acute Pulmonary Embolism selepas 10 hari pembedahan. 

Lewat malam itu...

Suapan pada Mak untuk kali terakhir
Mengelap badan Mak kali terakhir
Panggilan telefon Mak kepada Dik As yang terakhir
Senyuman Mak ukir kali terakhir
Renungan Mak kali terakhir
Panas tangan Mak menggenggam buat kali terakhir
Pelukan Mak kali terakhir
Semua masih segar dalam ingatan

Awal pagi itu...

Kami sentuh tubuh kaku Mak
Kami belai parut badan Mak tanda melahirkan kami
Kami gosok lembut kulit Mak mempersiapkan Mak mengadap Ilahi
Kami tatap raut wajah Mak lembut
1001 kisah membesarkan kami
Gigihnya Mak dan kami saksi
Kami seka air mata
Kami doa dalam hati agar Mak tenang di sana

Apa lagi yang kami dapat lakukan selain Al-fatihah dan doa mengiringi hari-hari kami selepas ini...
Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat kepada Allahyarham Hatimah Abd Gani 30 Dec 1954 - 6 Feb 2012.

Al-fatihah...

'I Love Makeup' Party!

Another entry before I doze off.

As a certified makeup artist, my passion will always evolves around making women look enhanced using simple application of makeup.  Not too heavy as less is MORE!

Come & join my 'I Love Makeup' Party this coming 23rd Feb in Putrajaya for more tips on how to apply your daily 10-minute makeup routine.  As I would love to focus & give my utmost attention to participant along with the DIY concept, the party is limited to only few pax...and the best of all, it's FREE.

Open for registration NOW!!! *wink

Leadership Conference 2014 in The Andaman, Langkawi

Fuh...it's been almost four years until I finally managed to make myself 'available' to update the blog.

Let's start with something short & simple.  I was in Langkawi for Mary Kay Leadership Conference 2014 in The Andaman, Langkawi.  My second time and Feb marks my second anniversary as a Sales Director.

More to write and shall be talking about it soon :)

a bit here and there

The long medical leave will be ended soon. So much to tell yet so little time to write.

Story 1

Jimi’s dad was diagnosed with damaged kidney last 2 weeks. Due to that he has to be on permanent dialysis for the rest of his life. I am a huge fan of statistic, data & fact, and pardon me when I say I am skeptical when it comes to alternative medication to cure the damaged kidney especially when someone told me that it can be cured by simply transferring the ‘disease’ to any other living creature i.e. a goat. Isn't that goat a living creature that we are summon not to abuse by God?

If we are talking about something that even medical personnel couldn’t explain, I seriously believe that we have to seek for alternative, but this…hmmmm I think I rest my case pending the other party proves me otherwise.

Story 2

I went to Plaza Low Yat to pick up my faulty SD card. It was left there since the last 2 weeks because of somebody in that shop told me it could only be repaired by one of the shops upstairs which had been closed by the time we reached there.

I didn’t come 3 days after as promised; instead I gave them some time and came only last Friday. Two sales boys tried to explain on why it was not ready - it was returned back, had to send it back to HQ bla bla and bla.

For me, the explanation couldn’t be accepted since I had given them ample time to get it done. They sit on it doing nothing and that made me upset. I fought for my right demanding for a new SD card as replacement without realizing that their manager was silently listened to every single word I said. The sales boy kept on forcing me to wait for it to be repaired until the conversation was cut off by the manager saying that I was right.

There my new SD card for replacement but I had forgotten to ask for the same brand, only realized it later and wanted to turn back but was stopped by Jimi.

His choice of words - “Don’t be greedy, you’ve got what you came for. This worth RM138 and you couldn’t ask for more! It’s probably more expensive than the earlier card.”

Me, wanted to say “that’s my right” kept my mouth shut and followed him to the car…

Story 3

Some people are being so childish. I didn’t say that I am all good when it comes to work. But in managing project, there always some fighting going on to get things right, some dissatisfaction on the decision made, some query to be explained, some info to be clarified, all in the name of work and professionalism, and most of us never take it personally.

But some people take it very hard, taking ‘question asked’ as ‘condemning their decision’, taking ‘info to be clarified’ as ‘back stabbing’ and so forth.

We are not young anymore to be like kids, if I was wrong I would apologise, but refuse to if otherwise…

Story 4

My online shopping obsession continues, now it’s for tudung. I bought two online and another one is thru Ida Se. Can’t wait to try it on as it’s going to be a new image of me wearing the so-called famous Ariani style.

Headband oh headband

Lately, I have this new obsession. The fact that I cannot be anywhere else for these few weeks has somehow increased my eagerness to do something different from things I used to do…I am crazy about buying things online…I have bought this for a start...

...and this cute Adeena is wearing it...

Where to buy? Check it here. I saw Sarah (of Milin's) wearing it so I couldn't help myself to get it for Adeena and Zaheen.

All the time in the world

At this age of 30s, seeing other friends with their kids, facing series of nights with no good sleeps but later enjoy witnessing the kids growing up, and so much worth to see so many cute things happen in their daily life, no word to describe how I feel about not having the opportunity to experience it myself. The excitement to see their first step, their first word and so many first thing in life, I guess the luck is not at my side…yet.

Not satisfied with the treatment given by An-Nur, I had shopping around for one gynecologist that can advise me on any fertility treatment needed to help me conceive. Idase’s suggestion to see this specialist, Dr. Marshita ended my assumption on what actually the root cause of my problem…I’ve been diagnosed with endometriosis.

What is endometriosis? You can check it online but basically in my own layman’s terms, because of my uterus position which actually a bit lower that must be pushed a bit up to make sure that the monthly menstrual blood is flown out normally. Due to that, egg would stick to remaining blood and indirectly reduces any chance for pregnancy.

Dr. Marshita and her doa each time she does something really impress me, alhamdulillah all smooth for me. Laporotomy two weeks after that and a long medical leave for the next 6 weeks and I have a long ‘TO DO LIST’.

I’ll share more stories since I have all the time in the world…soon…

MY ‘HELLO STEVIE’...Dec 2009

i luv this moment

after the concert

It was few months before, when Fatin just came back from Germany…the idea to gather alumni for the Year-End Concert. Back then, it was so exciting knowing that all of us gonna make a comeback after about close to 10 years!

But as the time drew closer, the excitement faded away as I knew nothing, I’d totally forgotten how to read my score, the fingering and everything! I even had no flute…I was panic…

Adding up to the fear, Laili who reach the alma mater much earlier called and became the bearer of the news that Jeep was really demanding as always but was not quite like Jeep that we used to know. Things seem to be toppling down on me!

The moment I reach Dewan Budaya, the feeling however changed. I wanted to be on stage and was far stronger than ever. The fear was nowhere clinging on me as I was willing to do everything, just to be on stage, visualizing the moment of the biggest applause, the sound of fan screaming ‘ENCORE’ wanting more…the proud feeling of a performer and the sense of satisfaction, it’s ecstasy.

This was my place, this where I learned the bonding & friendship all the way thru. Some kind of feeling I never had experienced in my entire life. The sense of belonging…I got it all.

We used to say this and very popular among us; “Jeep treated us like Jazz Band was our major, our major came minor and minor indirectly pushed to be the co-curriculum.” We laughed all the time about it and the commitment put on, I’d reckon was far more that the effort we had for our major.

Indeed, I knew, Jeep had 1001 reasons by the fact that we had a reputation to build, to position us to be the best, to be recognized, to be far better than a group of students who had chosen Jazz Band as their co-curriculum just to fulfill the requirement to get hold of THAT certificate.

I forced Jimi to accompany me, wanting him to know things I felt very proud of doing it and the moment we arrived, we walked straight to the hall…
The atmosphere was the same as I could remember, some were on stage busy with the props etc, some just outside to master the ‘spaghetti’, some were chit chatting, some were laughing out loud of something.

The cozy dim light had no influence for me spotting the familiar silhouette of Laili and Emma, both with their instruments, busy practicing. Zira, at first not wanting to perform, was too busy observing the other two. Envy with them for having an extra of 2 days with the score, I quickly made my way to ‘study’. It was Hello Stevie, specially arranged medley by Jeep, which consists of My Lovely Girl, Isn’t She Lovely, Superstitious and to my surprise, Sir Duke-the-killing-song. We were never good at it, never in our lifetime as a Jazzarian…

It was butterflies again, in my stomach, and Jeep’s appearance in the big hall that night suddenly made it worst. Worrying didn’t bring me that far, with the same brilliant idea used long time ago, we forced Fatin to help us and extra help came where Woi Leng was destined to help us. A team of six; Akeem the doll on trumpet, Emma on saxophone, Laili on trombone and me, together with Zira that had finally given her accord to be among us on trumpet and the last to arrive Elly on euphonium.

With the two-day of intensive sessions, kudos to the two so-called trainers, some convincing sound according to the tempo was produced. Not perfectly but quite there, the ‘spaghetti’ portion was marked to be silently blown; we were ready to HELLO STEVIE!!!

Looking at the amazing audience with Azlan, Azleen and Faridah’s presence, the 2009 Year-End Concert was even more spectacular than ever. All the ‘blood’ and ‘sweat’ were seemed to be paying off!

How long your name is...

Do you know that your name length can create lots of problem in any financial institution?

Here’s one example:

MUHAMMAD NURUL AZAMMI BIN MUHAMMAD NUDRI

For the above example, the length is 40 bytes. It means, field to keep this record must be 40 or more. Let say the core banking system used to open up deposit accounts keeps name length up to 40 bytes. For another system, let say Credit Card system for Credit Card creation is capable to keep customer name up to 30 bytes of length, which means, that system is only capable of keeping the following record:

MUHAMMAD NURUL AZAMMI BIN MUHA

Do you notice that the name is truncated? And there’s possibility of different person sharing the same name.

How does the system differentiate whether the Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nudri is not the same person as Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nordin?

Here’s the important of IC or other identification.

The first 30 bytes of name out of 40 can only provide 80% of accuracy. The name and IC must be the exact match to identify that the Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nudri really is Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nudri and gives the 100% of accuracy that eliminates possibility of tagging CIS to a wrong person.

How do you feel so far? Confused? Can read more? Is this too informative?

What if, prior to opening his first Savings account with the bank, Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nudri does not input his name as per IC, instead, he provides, Muhammad Nurul Azammi b Muhammad Nudri?

And what if, prior to applying Credit Card, since the length for him to input his name is 30 bytes, he provides his name as Mohd Nurul Azammi Mohd Nudri?

The system is programmed to find the exact match which means for Muhammad Nurul Azammi’s next visit to branch to apply for Credit Card or any other product; he will definitely be given a new set of CIS record.

So what’s the implication?

The implication is a nightmare to the bank. Muhammad Nurul Azammi bin Muhammad Nudri calls Call Centre and complaints that he’s not able to see his Credit Card info at Internet Banking.

Why?

Because for Muhammad Nurul Azammi, there’s two CIS exist in the bank. Two CIS records denote 2 different persons for the system. The system is restricted to allow another customer to view another customer’s record to be in compliance with the Central Bank.

So moral of this long story:

There’s a reason why all application forms have asked you to input your name according to your IC number.

It must also be a good reason for the bank to inquire both your old and new IC number as well as other identifications.

Last but not least, keep your kids’ name short, simple and easy to spell. Teller at branch is indeed has the tendency to make mistake while typing info in the system that has indirectly resulted in the duplicate creation and data quality issue.

Those already with long names and unique spelling, be extra careful in filling up your forms…

susah? salah?

Susah ke telefon mak tanya khabar
Susah ke nak telefon mak pagi raya pohon maaf
Susah ke jenguk mak di kampung sekali sekala
Susah ke teman mak pergi pasar bila balik kampung
Susah ke teman mak borak bila ada masa
Susah ke bagi mak seringgit dua tiap2 bulan untuk duit jajan dia
Susah ke adakan masa untuk mak masa mak masih ada

Susah ke?

Salah ke mak beli cincin sedangkan dulu emas tak pernah lama lekat kat badan mak sebab selalu di kedai pajak gadai
Salah ke mak beli baju sedangkan dulu mak tak pernah mengeluh tak cukup duit untuk baju sendiri
Salah ke mak mak kumpul duit tiap2 bulan utk beli apa yang dia ingin sedangkan dulu semua duit hanya untuk anak
Salah ke mak mintak sedikit kasih sayang pada anak yang paling dia sayang

Salah ke?

some respect

Even though you have a Master Degree in IT, it doesn’t permit you to know every single error happened in our system! It doesn’t give you any right to charge the programmers that they are damn stupid for putting such error code to be displayed to customer!

All these are teething problems which always happen even if the testing was done thoroughly and compliance with the statutory body. Even the yellow giant got hit with huge problem and had resulted in the rolling back to old platform some times back.

I am neither giving any excuse nor providing any justification but please, for any complaint next time, please do it with more respect. As much as we want to improve our system, we are bound to be some kind of human who have some feelings and need some respect!

breakfast

Soft sound of someone humming happily can be heard the moment I walk out from the car. Windows are wide opened and so does the kitchen door.

I walk thru the unlocked grill of the main door just to find Jimi is washing the dishes and breakfast is ready on the table. My tiredness due to the implementation last night seems to collide when I see his smile welcoming me home. It is just a small help but this means the world to me!

The new enhanced Website & Internet Banking

It’s foggy out there, the sound of aircond dominates SRC Room at Bangi. Sleepy and extremely tired as any worker would be for working since yesterday’s morning, I am now praying hard and hoping for the slight website problem to be fixed as soon as possible.

This is the third implementation and the final cut to migrate all Internet Banking customers to the new enhanced system. How I wish I could be laying on my bed dreaming for another shopping spree at Bandung! *sigh*

All the sweat and blood seem to be paying off!

Piala Malaysia 2009

“Despite having 30 minutes of play left, the Kelantan fans started heading for the exits. They also made their displeasure known by letting off firecrackers, throwing litter onto the track, tearing down their banners and setting fire to the plastic seats in the stadium.” The Star Sunday, 8 Nov 2009

I am not a fan but this always happen if Kelantan were in the picture…hmmmm.

Another night at SRC

Now a clock at SRC Room, IT Centre Bangi shows 2.12 a.m. on 11 Oct 2009, and I am waiting impatiently for a green light from PM for Internet Banking verification on production environment before another implementation attempt since yesterday’s was failed due to some stupid technical errors.

Akmal vs. Izzul

There was a kenduri yesterday before Ramadhan mak organized for our late grandparents and Irsyad.

Unexpected scene of Izzul’s capability to ‘make friends’ and Akmal’s reaction towards his approach. I didn’t have the opportunity to capture the moment as the camera was with no SD Card and my inability to notice that the card was removed earlier by Encik Azammi

Izzul now can crawl; he manages to move his body up ahead. Akmal can now talk, his vocabulary getting more and more by each day passes.

Izzul crawled towards Akmal, tried to play together with two plastic lids (look at how creative boys can be), Akmal sensed danger, slammed one of the lids to Izzul’s face. Immediately, the smaller cutie-pie turned a dangerous monster by pulling Akmal’s shorts and bite him until his mama separated both. Akmal cried for the pain and kept on screaming ‘Ayut ayut’ (read as ‘Takut, takut’), Izzul cried for the revenge yet to be pleased. We laughed like mad, knowing that Akmal, used to be known as our version of Sarip-Dol-Gangster-Kg-Dusun lost the title to his dear cousin…

Do you nag?

Most of the work that needs my utmost attention basically has reduced a bit. More to come but at least today I managed to finally jot something down…

Nothing much to update and as to that I'll definitely make you reader falls asleep with me-whining-over-my-never-ending-story about my work. Ohhh it does make my staff feel stressed as a matter of fact. How they hope that some day I got hit by amnesia and not to persistently follow up (push) on things (I keep on putting) on their plate. How they wish that I would not be in the office just to raise my voice (another way to say yell) when didn’t get what I expected right after a series of stressful meetings which always hold up my neck on numbers and timeline.

I feel really bad when I do that. I really am. I know my boss fells the same each time she does that to me. And she normally apologizes…

So out and loud, I extend this apology to all my team members, as I know in some instances the task given haunted them as much.

Having said all these, I am not giving any of my ‘nagging’ energy a rest until they have a good grip on what they do now.

Oh! (a bit sidetracked) I have no idea why the layout of this blog suddenly looks very different. Tried very hard to change it, the drag and drop feature decided not to function. Kui, help me out…please!

we keep it that way until now

Some people just can’t just keep their mouth shut. Regardless of my statement, excerpt from the previous story:

…We made a quick decision that night not to consult any of Jimi’s family members nor aunt as we afraid for things getting worse. We keep it that way until now…

It is in plain English that should be read as: DO NOT TELL FAMILY. If so happen that you are one of those, do not tell parents or other relatives. Hmmm penatlah…tetiba yg tak penah baca my blog knew how to read one…

1, 2 & 3

One
Long-awaited moment in my life, finally on 10 April 2009 we officially moved to Putrajaya. My toll and mileage to work had been cut down by RM2 and about 20km per day…

Two
The first kenduri held here in Putrajaya was for Irsyad. Attended by close friends and relatives from Jimi & Su’s apart from mine, we didn’t expect the high turnout since Jimi told me that most of jemaah masjid were out of town because of the long weekend. But alhamdulillah every single guest had the opportunity to taste my mum’s special beriyani kambing…

Three
I learned it hard way. I swear from now on there’ll be no ‘Tolong Melayu’ or ‘Tolong sedara mara’ ever in my life. I don’t care if this made me less Malay or what-so-ever…I had enough.

There’s a story…

Ahmad Irsyad bin Abdillah

1 April 2009

I first kiss his head
It is cold and pale…
I touch his tiny fingers
All I got is the same way…
I look hard at his face
Hoping for him to smile
But all I see is just his lips blue and dry…
Dark spots on his chest
Proof of his pain
Spread down to his little legs…

I cry a lot
I just can’t hide
Try to be as calm though I know I can’t

Why baby Irsyad
Why my nephew
Since there’s a lot more baby to choose

But heaven is the promise
For him to be from Almighty
Until reunited with mommy and daddy

…to be continued…

Lu pikir la sendiri...

I am watching 2nd concert of Akademi Fantasia 7th Edition right now. The so-called most popular Reality TV in Malaysia that captures a lot of attentions and followers. Millions are obsess and for some just to fulfill their Saturday night with some light entertainment. Me, fall under the 2nd category.

I did not watch the first concert. But I heard their voices are not that bad though. Of course they have to find their own strength and charm in order to position themselves in the industry.

What annoyed me the most is the two groups nearest to the stage, mixture of boys and girls jumping up and down konon2 memeriahkan lagi concert, the latest feature Astro introduced in this edition which I’ve seen it before, if I am not mistaken, Anugerah Era. I don’t know what they call it…but the girls, a lot with veil don’t even know how to give at least some respect to the veil. I am so offended. I bet most of unveiled women respect the piece of scarf more and think it thru million times before even commit themselves to it. It’s a huge responsibility…and every single act has to portray what the true Islam is.

I am not saying that I have dressed up the way Islam wants me to be. I know I’m not. Have to improve a lot…bit by bit, that I promise.

The attitude I observe among the younger generation is becoming bad to worse. Hmmm rasa macam makcik2 pulak entry kali ni. Pakai tudung tapi tak solat, pakai tudung tapi kutuk orang, ngumpat etc baik ke dari yang tak pakai tudung tapi solat, jaga kata2, buat hal sendiri etc?

Quoted from Nabil “Lu pikir la sendiri!”