Do I have the time to say i love you.....

I remember her very well. She was bustling around in her office and greeted us all in a breathless and cheerful way she always did as we came in. Aahh…you worry too much, she exclaimed after we told her that Ely had not passed any motion for the past few days. I was feeling slightly embarrassed as the last time we went to see her, it was about Ely’s purging for a few days. It was either this or that, but all involving bowel movement. I was also noting her quaint English accent and was distracted by that rather by the content of her speech.

She asked us to lay Ely on the day bed and she began massaging Ely’s tummy. Hmm… then she proceeded to open up Ely’s diaper and to both Talat’s and my chagrin, simply inserted her middle finger into Ely’s behind! Voila, that did it. Immediately after coming out of the doctor’s office, Ely pooped.

The memory would have been comical had it not been that the doctor was Dr. Haliza. Yes, the one who was found dead in the ravine. I pray to God that she did not suffer before she died.

What can I say, a few months ago, one of my former colleagues passed away. We were not particularly close. Our paths crossed in the corporate structure once and since then we had gone into separate direction for the last 9 years. He died one day after playing golf.

It startled me.

Because it began to strike me that these two people whom were going about their lives with no hint of facing death. No terminal cancer, no advancing old age…just two people going about doing things they had been doing the day before. Strikingly just like me.

Today could have been my last day on earth and I would not even know it. Would it be a day when I gripe about things in the office? Scolding my kids over house chores? Leaving my hubby without a goodbye kiss? Sulking still with my siblings for their past misdeeds? Been meaning to thank all my close friends but hasn’t got down to doing something for them? Not telling my mom how much I love her? Petty..petty..petty…Will people even remember me when I am gone?

Hence, this realization. That I must fill my today with everything meaningful and beautiful. InshaAllah…Hmm… I will go now and buy a few thank you cards for everyone! I will risk being told of buang tebiat…hehe!Ciao!

My every day

If

If today was to be my last day
would you forgive me of my
yesterdays
and would your thoughts of me
be those of love and warmth
as much as mine of you?

If today has passed
I would close my eyes
and think of all the
blessings that God has
bestowed upon us and
all the laughter that we
have shared and the troubles we
have endured

So tomorrow I will start anew
trying to make the best of my every day
so my last thoughts of us
whenever and wherever we may be
of love, happiness and forgiveness
as we tread upon God's earth
by His deliverance and grace.

Reflections 2008

PERFORMANCE TRACKING OVERDRIVE

AYAM PERCIK


AYAM RENJIS


These are things I want to say to:

Laksa Shack:

LAKSAM ORI


I wanted to have Laksam badly and bought 1 bowl from your shack. Mannnnnn it’s super AWFUL. I know business wise you are doing all fine, kudos for you, gal. I ve read about your small shack under the tree story until you have all these shacks. But still, don’t you want to be BETTER???. Let me help you with some improvement ideas:

1. When you make the batter for the laksam noodle, add really hot water to the batter. It will improve the texture and make it firmer and not doughy like what you have now.
2. When you prepare the ulam, don’t use the grater eventhough it’s faster and more convenient than using a knife because the ulam has lost its crunchiness and have become limp sorry excuse of cucumber and ulam thingies.
3. And…what is a laksam without the must haves like daun kesom and bunga kantan?????



Ayam Percik stalls:

Ok guys who sell all these seemingly lovely looking barbecued chickens by the roadside , at Pasar Malam etc. May I suggest two options:
1. Change the recipe- Can you just stop maligning the name of Ayam percik by bestowing the same name to really tasteless pieces of meat ??? Tell you what, please browse for the original Ayam Percik, I m sure the sale will be increased. It’s soooo simple. Heck, even I can tell you how to cook it. I have refrained myself from handing over the recipe to a few stall owners in the past, but what the heck, I will risk being seen as an eccentric woman and will , I swear, go around KL distributing the recipe for free. Hey , better still, I will create Ayam percik.com and sell it worldwide. Hee hee.
2. Change the name-But if you insist, why don’t you just call your chickens Ayam Renjis instead???? Yeahh, yeahh… that will be ok for me. At least I will definitely steer away from your stall!

By the way, one last thing,
Proton- My advice is as follows:

1. Market growth-
skewed focus. It is well known that the quality of their cars for exports are better than the ones sold locally. They should seek the reasons why they want to go overseas in the first place. Get real, why would a European or Australian want to drive a Proton from a third world country when they have a range of other cars to choose from? If you can’t get even your own countrymen to buy Proton, would others be persuaded to?

2. What they should do;
a. Technical - increase the technical credibility of their products.
b. Quality-since they also source components locally ( the main culprit for shoddy performance) the monitoring of the local vendors’ performance should be done systematically with consequence management in place.
c. Market focus- get real mannn, just sell functional cars at cheap price. You don’t have competitive advantage. Either sell cheap or make your cars really strange like Juara. Btw, I actually have seen 2 juara on the road in my lifetime. Is’nt that amazing??? Oh yes, btw, forget selling to all those mat sallehs, convince us to buy Proton the second time first!
d. Strategic planning to be conducted by Proton’s top management on an annual basis. Even if you already have it, it’s clearly incorrectly done. I can facilitate your sessions for free, man!!!!!
e. Intelligent leadership- since I don’t mince words, I will say to you straight. Change the management of Proton groupwide with intelligent people at once. And I mean AT ONCE.

Wowww Tak da ideanyaaa

I m still away from home huwaaa... It's amazing that last week I was so full of ideas and copiously wrote that working paper for some ministry n now I cant even write a decent summary of an articleeeeeeee!!!!
Maybe I should rest lah.

Kuantan was a good break n as always, I missed the beaches. But after the third day, everyone was eager to get back home. I was contemplating finding a job in Kuantan. I want to be able to afford a bigger house and a shorter distance to beautiful places...sigh..

Anyway, nowadays I am quite hooked to Facebook, which has made me stationed at the laptop more often than usual.

Hm, now the school days start again. Zarith is somehow feeling dissatisfied at getting 7 As and not straight As as many of her friends did. She had registered herself and her brothers to the tuition centre herself yesterday, vowing to herself that she would do extremely well for SPM . When I went to buy Haniff his schoolpants, the shopgirl was asking abt Zarith's whereabout who used to buy clothes for her siblings, many times before. Secretly I harbour some guilt, for taking her out of boarding school. If she had stayed there, she would have gotten better results. Being at home, she had more distractions than she would otherwise would have as compared to being being secluded in a regulated environment.After her major surgery last year, she slowed down a lot and I didnt have the heart to pressure her. Before her results came out she asked me if I would be disappointed if she didnt get 8 As and I told her all that was in my heart.


That she had been the most responsible daughter one could ever have, that she is able to be close to her siblings and her parents in her formative years, that she s developing a very close bond to all of us, that I would be able to counsel her in so many areas. Those are the things that I want her to have when i took her out of boarding school. I have always been proud of her. She has been the tower of strength in my hours of difficulties... To me she is the most wonderful daughter one could ever have. Even when she becomes grumpy n revert to being a child as what she really is.

Often when I lay sick in a hospital bed, I was thinking about my mom or my siblings who never visited me. I was sure that if all of us had somehow grown up together and not sent off to boarding schools at 12, I would have some concerned brother and sisters by my bedside.My mom would somehow miss me and vice versa. I am very conscious of not ever missing my family and always putting roots at any new place I would call a home. I wondered if I would have made better decisions concerning my life if my parents were around. I wondered if my life would have turned out differently. I wondered if I would have become a better sister, a better daughter if I had stayed home. Sigh.. I just hope that my decision concerning Zarith has been a the right one.

It's time to cook lunch. Even blogging is a nice break. :)!!! Happy new year everyone. I made a resolution even before new year, actually. To make the best of my every day and to remember that every journey is a series of short distances....

Reminiscing school days

I brought Zarith to Concorde today just to meet my old friends from hi school. But mind you, we are certainly not old. It's a welcome respite and a good beginning for my year end holiday. And now at last I can sit down and write something..yeyyyyy...

Basically these were the people who shared the same misery with me in high school. Apparently their memories were better than mine, all I could remember were the many tribulations I had to endure, like evading school prefects' detection by hiding in lockers ( we were so determined not to go to afternoon preps), also horrendous toilets ( it's a recurring nightmare for me, seriously), raiding the school lab for some obscure reason and of course, really bad food.

While enduring all these, those who academically scored less than us got to watch tv and eat good home cooked meals. You have to admit, there is some irony there.

Nevertheless, good memories we do have.Maybe of the chickens we had to ceremoniously cut during Friday formal dinners ( flying chickens, we called them. Self explanatory), maybe of the many teachers we did harrass to tears, maybe of the many parties we had ( playing spirit of the coin in between classes), the endearing terminology we had for everyday life stuff..the many hantu stories we related to each other. Ah its time to sleep now...

Elly