Unnatural Disaster

(Illustrations only. This is NOT my apartment)

 

Things will happen when you least expect them, which is the most infuriating part of all. But then I'm no clairvoyant and don't know what will happen in the future. Well, the thing that happened was more of negligence on me/hubby's part. 

Our current apartment is small but comfortable for two. Our washing machine water outlet is through the second/guest bathroom. So whenever we have guest (which is quite rare), we kind of fold up the long water pipe to the side of the washing machine, so that if they want to use the bathroom, the door can be properly closed. So last Saturday we had some guests in our apartment. Hubby did the needful with the water pipe. That same night around 11++ I decided to wash my clothes. Put everything in the washing machine and I let it run. Before I went to bed, I noticed water seeping in the other bathroom and I just thought it was from the bathroom, so I just mop it up and went to bed.

When we woke up the next morning, lo and behold our apartment was flooded! our carpets were soaked and the floor was wet. The water level wasn't high only like a puddle under my feet but was enough to drench the carpets and legs of furniture and my linens & comforters which i stored underneath the bed in my spare bedroom. We had to spend the whole morning mopping the rooms and making sure everything was dry with the aide of a stand fan. I had to dry the carpet outside on the communal lawn and luckily only took two hours to completely dry (turned it over once). I had to wash all the wet linens and comforters (making sure I had the water pipe in the bathroom!). Phew! It was a long day.

It was a lesson learned - never take your home equipments for granted or you may wake up with some surprises!

Ceri & Belang

Ceri & Belang sleeping together in a flower pot - only in Rompin!

Tomato Bruschetta

This is my version of the tomato bruschetta, which is a hit at any food gathering. Its easy to digest food and really simple to make. You just need a few ingredients : bread, tomato, onion, cream cheese and butter/olive oil.

1. Bread is the most important element of the bruschetta. Normally, baguette would be the bread of choice. But other types of bread would do as long as there's a base for the tomato goodness. This is lovely wholemeal bread from Berjaya Times Square Hotel at 14th floor (RM6). Just cut the bread into 2 inch quarters.

2. Cream cheese (any brand) & pesto butter (to spread on bread)

3. Dice one big tomato and half a Spanish onion, season with salt, pepper and the cream cheese

3. Spread the bread with pesto butter (if you don' have any, just substitute with regular butter or olive oil )

Voila! The end product. Ready to eat.

3 steps to housechores

Not getting any closer to becoming a domestic Goddess, am I?

I hate folding clothes
I hate ironing (bloody hate this!)
I hate sweeping/mopping/vacuuming
I hate dusting

I'm ok with washing the dishes (kind of therapeutic)
I'm ok with washing clothes
I'm ok with hanging the dishes
I'm ok with organizing the cupboard/bookcase/wardrobe

I love cooking & makan
I love TV
I love music
I love books

Passport & Immigration Services

Based on true events

Sunday night: 
Flying overseas the next day at 11.20am by AirAsia with passport validity less than 6 months

Monday morning:
Queue at Immigration office Putrajaya at 7.30am. Counter opens at 8am. Go next door to snap passport picture & photocopy of IC. Queue again with completed form and payment at 8.50am. Passport ready at 9.30am, process takes only 40 minutes. Rush to LCCT and check in around 10.20am. Fly off to destination at 11.20am. Phew*
*Warning: Do not try this in the near future as it may induce anxiety.


In a nutshell
If you are planning to travel overseas, please make sure that your passport's validity is at least 6 months before the expiry date, or you may not be allowed to leave the country at all. The situation above is purely situational. What if the immigration office was offline and they couldn't process the passport? Then you won't be able to fly unless AirAsia postpones the flight.

How to know validity of your passport? Please read this blogspot by Nina Mustaffa.

 

Immigration Services
There are a few ways to renew passport:

Counter
There are some branches which opens on Saturday and Sunday from 8am - 1pm. So even if you are super busy you can still do your passport on the weekend. List of the Immigration offices that opens on weekend are here. This is still the most reliable form of passport update as it takes about 1 hour once you have made the payment (provided that you are early in getting the queue no.).

Kiosk
Person has to be manually there to key in personal info and drop the old passport. However, I was in Immigration office a few times but did not find the kiosk to be helpful as it was always out of service. One time I noticed that the officer would go to the kiosk and take out the applications to be processed manually. So it will take more time than queuing at the counter.


Online
For convenience, Immigration has also set up an online process at MyONLINE*PASSPORT. Very convenient but also at a risk of Immigration to reject application if pic is not up to the standard. You can specify branch and date that you want the collect the passport. However, it also mentioned that it may take two hours to collect depending on branch.


Good luck!

Skype Surprise - Not!!!

Technology is wonderful. But when someone abuse that, it becomes a nightmare. Think hackers, trolls, identity theft, etc.

Around 7pm yesterday I was at my desk doing work on my laptop, and suddenly my skype was blinking with a message. I got a message from an ex-colleague whom I only chatted a few times on skype previously. And this was out of the blue as we haven't chatted in ages - probably about 1 year or so after she left. Her profile picture was that of a cute furry kitten and truth be told I vaguely remembered her as most people, she used her nickname on skype. So we exchanged a few lines and said she wants to call me on skype. To be honest, I didn't want to talk to her because:

 

1. she left the company in a less than ideal way, and 

2. I don't possibly know what she wants to talk about - I was thinking maybe she wants to talk about employment opportunity (as we were interviewing some people but nothing in her line).

So naturally, I hold off for a good 15 mins while I settled my task in hand. Untill I feel ready to face her. She was offline. Then after a few minutes she was online again and placed a call on my skpe. I accepted the call, after a few second waited for the other caller to appear on the web cam. Lo and behold, there was a naked male torso with his *peep* erected. Mind you it was not a very attractive sight. Would help a bit if he has six pack but all I can see was his several love handles. Yucks! I quickly exit the chat but realised that the call was still on, so I had to open the skype box again with the guy still doing things to his *peep* and close it off properly. What a nightmare!

This morning I blocked and report abuse to skype. Hope I never meet that creep again!!

Back from the Dead!

Been on blog hiatus for months - busy with work & KPI, having writer's block, losing my passion to write and share for a while. Been off everybody's blog too. So today when I read La Signora's update, its nice to know that disconnecting from social media is ok. Disconnecting for some real life, but not totally disconnected at the same time. In my hiatus, I was back on FB updates since before I only go online once every 3 months. But after a while, the FB updates by other people and sometimes by myself felt so narcissistic. So I decided to get off FB and back into blogdom.

So the year 2012 is the year of the Water Dragon. I don't even know that there were different type of dragon until this year when I was enlightened by my Chinese colleagues. They have predicted that although its the Year of the Dragon, but the Water Dragon will not be so "ong" for them. They are already moaning about mishaps that happened to them and felt that the whole year it will continue in the same fashion. Personally, I don't subscribed in that belief, but when I fell down twice spraining both my ankles (first incident sprained my right ankle near the LRT station and then a week later sprained my other ankle while doing a jumping activity at home) and another colleague also fell down and did a split, my other colleagues were saying that this is not a good year for our office as so many mishaps had happened early of the year. Hmm....maybe its all just a coincidence.....read here for more info on the water dragon 2012.

One of my favourite things about the CNY was all the "Loh Sang" toast we did with the yee sang dish. I did at least 3 loh sang toast this year and some colleagues did 7 or 8! You can practically buy the loh sang at sushi restaurants and do it at home with the family. The loh sang dish is just a mixture of crackers, pomelo, salmon slice (optional), plum sauce and honey. Its just a fun cultural experience and good food if you think about it. My Loh Sang entry here.

That's all the updates I have for now.

Salah siapa?

Tempat: Surau Central Market, tengahari

Scene: Di saf pertama beberapa orang wanita sedang bersolat, manakala di saf kedua seorang wanita telah selesai bersolat dan sedang membaca Ma'thurat. Aku pula baru masuk kedalam surau setelah selesai berwuduk. Sedang asyik aku mengenakan telekung, terdengar suara wanita yang membaca ma'thurat menegur wanita yang baru selesai bersolat dihadapannya, "Kaki nampak tadi, tak sah solat tu" wanita tersebut terdiam sebentar seraya menjawab "tapi saya dengar kalau tak sengaja tak apa", dan dia berlalu untuk membetulkan rambutnya di cermin, meninggalkan wanita yang menegur tadi terdiam.


Persoalan: Siapa yang berdosa dalam hal ni? Wanita yang tak sengaja terselak kainnya semasa sedang bersolat ataupun wanita yang duduk dibelakangnya membaca ma'thurat sambil memerhati tanpa membuat apa-apa?

Pandangan peribadi: Kalau dah nampak perbuatan tak betul tu, tolonglah betulkan (mana yang sesuai ikut keadaan). Kalau dah kain orang tu terselak, sanggup tengok aje kaki orang tu terdedah sampai dia habis solat, sedangkan kita tahu hukum mungkin solat orang tu tak sah. Kalau dah ada ilmu tapi tak diamalkan dan dihebahkan, tak berguna juga - baca ma'thurat seribu kali pun tak dapat faedah. Dan tunggu sampai orang tu habis solat baru nak tegur, pada saya, bunyinya macam riya' dan macam sengaja nak memalukan orang tersebut. Ini tengok saja benda yang tak betul berlaku tapi tak ada kata nak tolong, semua pakat-pakat tengok lepas tu pakat-pakat melepat.

Kesimpulan: Lain kali kalau ternampak saudari seIslam yang sedang bersolat terselak kainnya, tolong lah tarik kain supaya kakinya terlindung. Tak payah tunggu orang tu habis solat baru nak tegur. Mungkin kita yang memerhati tanpa membuat apa-apa pun dapat dosa sebab mendiamkan (no action) perkara tersebut.

Wallahu a'lam - Allah lebih Maha Mengetahui

Wardrobe Malfunction!

When I think about wardrobe malfunction, the Janet Jackson incident at the Superbowl a few years ago comes to mind. Be it intentional or accidental, these incidents can be very embarrassing indeed, both to the "doer" as well as the onlooker!

Opppsss!!!

I think most of us will experience wardrobe malfunction at least once in their lifetime. Personally I've had a few of those mortifying moments but the one that stuck out the most from my memory was the one I had at the office a few years ago.

The story goes: a bunch of us were on Friday break and was just killing time before we commenced our duties. I was standing at the entrance of my cubicle while some of my office mates (which included one male immediate supervisor) were sitting on a sofa in front of my cubicle. We were yakking away when suddenly *poof* my black sarong skirt suddenly went down to the ground. I didn't even feel that the skirt was not on my hips anymore because I was wearing one of those corsets that covered my tummy down to my thighs and stops just above the knees. Fortunately, I had that on, else it would've been a more "exposed" free show for my colleagues. Anyway, my colleagues were screaming and pointing at me then I realized what had happened and bent down quickly to pick up my skirt. I was mortified because my MALE boss was there and wished that the floor would open up and swallow me so I could avoid the awkward moment. However, with my colleagues laughing I forgo the thought and joined in the laughter. 

We were perplexed as to how the skirt came off. For one, I was standing and not doing any rigorous movement that could warrant the skirt off. And secondly, my skirt was the zip and hook type. How did it became unzipped and unhooked, thus falling down?? My theory was that, because I was wearing the corset, my waist could've been smaller than the measurement of the skirt thus with some movement, somehow could've unhooked the skirt, and probably unzipped it too. And because of the corset material was made of some kind of spandex covered with satin, I couldn't feel the movement of the skirt when it came undone. I think the satin layer may have contributed to expedite the velocity of the skirt downwards.

Anyway, I was stuck with my male boss for the evening as we had to go to some emergency meeting outside. Embarrassing moments aside, I had to maintain my professionalism and just do my work. I guess the situation forced us (ha!) to overcome the incident. Of course, we never talked about it, ever. So that kind of helped, too :p

Garden stool for indoor living

I love this lime green garden stool. I first saw it in snippets of Samantha Pynn's tips on Astro HD channel 706 Lifestyle on how to refresh a living room. This stool is multi-function and can be used either for indoor or outdoor, as a stool or coffee table - put two of these stools side by side and voila!  it can become an instant coffee table, replacing the conventional coffee table. A fresh and modern idea that I can easily adopt for my (future) home.

More ideas on how to use these garden stools indoor, here and here.

Buying a home or just a house?

Appalling! That's what been going on in my head when I surfed the net for prospect home to buy. I do not get the mentality of home owners that feel the need to showcase their house in very messy conditions. Do they think that prospect buyers would want to see how messy can a house get - with clothes lying around, helmets in the house, dining table full of clutter?? I do understand that some of the houses are rented out but if the home owners or agents are planning to snap pictures, I would highly suggest that they inform the tenants to clean up and clear the room of unnecessary clutter.

I don't need to mention the atrocious curtains and furniture coz its a matter of style and taste, and furthermore we are not buying the house fully furnished! The bedroom and bathroom is none the better - beds unmade, clothes on the bed & floor, dirty bathroom, tiles missing on wall in the bathroom. Just makes me want to gag thinking about it.

Another thing that bothered me was that some houses have really, really loud color. I get it that they may want to have a feature wall or a splash of color in the house but some of the colors are really bright that they are almost fluorescent that I think you would need wear a Ray Ban inside the house. I always thought that this was just a mistake on the part of home owners that they may think of some color but ended up with a totally different colour. Maybe the tone of colour that they bought was a tad too bright and ended up with fluorescent paint all over the house. And maybe they think that "oh well, since I already bought buckets of this paint might as well finish it off" and proceeded to paint the rest of the house in similar colour. That's how home owners ended up with a fluorescent house, in my opnion.

When you see makeover shows like Flip This House or The Style Department on Astro, the house is given a makeover a simple as giving it a fresh coat of paint, de-cluttering and re-positioning furniture to emphasize the space so that prospect buyers can see the potential of a home.

Meanwhile, I am still searching for my dream home in this challenging time and budget :p

A Day in Sepang F1 Circuit

Being someone who is involved in the meetings industry, we are required to source out for unique venues to organize events or to recommend to clients. We had the opportunity to inspect the venue with the H.H Tham, Head of Commercial, Sepang Circuit, and was pleasantly surprised that the F1 Circuit is not only selling race track but now they have expanded to selling facilities available on the venue. This circuit is highly suitable for incentive groups - to do activities on the circuit such as tour of circuit, driving lessons, race-off, special tour & tailor made events.

The Grandstand overlooking the F1 Track

Perdana Suite overlooking the rooftop

Roof top

The Race Control room is normally off limits to people not involved in the race, however, we got special access into it. We were told that during race period, owners and race managers would be sitting in this small room (can fit about 30 pax) to monitor the race going on at the tv screen. Owners/race managers can contest the outcome eg penalty to drivers, accident, emergencies.

Paddock Club has 4 large air-conditioned walls with attached tv panels on the pillars. Ideal for product launches, cocktail events even sit-down dinners.

Paddock Club overlooks the grand stand

VIP Suite at the Grandstand

The Paddock Suite is situated above the car garage

Media Centre - can fit 400 media with overhead TV screens. It can also be converted to a lecture hall or if for seminar hall for briefings

A view of the grandstand from the recer's view

Space behind the paddock is large enough for 3k pax with stage built. Again cost for staging outdoor event includes marquee, catering, stage, AV, lightings, etc

The Helipad where the Rain concert was held could hold 100,000 pax or more. Great for outdoor events eg carnivals, concerts. Equally big budget needed to stage the outdoor events for tenting, platform, sound system, etc


And the winner is.......yours truly!

Childhood daydream

When I was little, I always daydreamed that I could fly, literally. Back when I was in Kelantan when I was 9 years old, we used to live in a bungalow house surrounded by a small orchard overgrown with bananas and red and yellow rambutan trees. We used to see foxes crossing the lalang field on the side of the house or get the occasional house calls from small snakes or a crossing biawak, whom I think were confused with this house in its path to the other side.

We didn’t have many friends outside the house. So we had to amuse ourselves with our toys and made up games. I used to climb the railing on the second-storey building which was near the balcony, and it was quite a climb as there were no safety net below but we were determined to go to the front part of the house  which was actually the roof for the porch below, and then we would play and probably had some sort of picnic there. Or I would stare out the windows to look at orchard the below. I’d always dreamed that if I jumped out the window, then I’d be able to fly. God’s angels would break my fall and bring me to safety. I was tempted many times to jump out the window from the second story bungalow, each time the temptation was bigger than the last. But each time I grew more cautious of the inner voice, I didn’t know if that was my conscience urging me to be more sensible or was that my fear, preventing me from jumping out the window. Maybe it’d be a different story if I’d jumped. 

I guess the imagination of a child is boundless, but as the years passed they grew up, and that's when they gradually lost the magical feeling of dreaming and thinking that they could doing anything. They had to make the decision whether to jump or not to jump...      

The Kampong View : Kedah

Gunung Jerai, Yan, Kedah

Wouldn't it be nice to have a view of the mountains when you wake up everyday? 

This view is picture perfect from my aunty's house in Sg Petani, Kedah, where it is surrounded by paddy fields. You can almost breath the mountain air, and let me tell you that the clean air was refreshing to the point that it made me dizzy.

Kellie's Castle - Part 2

The Castle is indeed grand and eerie at the same time. The rooms for the children were quite sizeable and there were connecting passages behind what was supposed to be the bathroom and there were (what I think) is the escape or emergency stairs in the connecting passageway. It is quite an interesting architecture with its hidden nooks and crannies - especially on the lower roof top. Another unique feature is that the rooms are connected by an outside corridor - much akin to the hostel corridors, and one can really feel the eeriness when walking thru the corridors.

The daughter's room Proposed bathroom in the daughter's room The connecting passageway between the daughter's & the son's room and there's a staircase in the middle

Visitors were warned not to make much noise when entering Kellie's daughter room as it was said that her spirit still roams the place. I was told that there were strange happenings in the castle, when foreign film crews came and erected camera on a tripod to capture any supernatural activities during the night, they found in the recordings that it was knocked down by a white being - presumably Old Man Kellie himself. Paranormal crews from local and overseas have been coming in droves to study this phenomenon.

Prayer altar with imported stones & marble from India A favourite place for wedded couples to take picture - where the picture was taken was on the lower rooftop, the couple are on the third floor and people can still go up on the upper rooftop, above the third floor (albeit the "gayat" feeling you get on top of a high building without security partition on the sides)

The elevator shaft for the 1st bucket list in Malaya

If you are a fan of history & paranormal sightings - then a visit to Kellie's Castle would not disappoint.