Ramadan & Eid Mubarak.

Ok. I've been posting this post since the first week of Ramadan, but kemalasan melanda untuk menekan post and I have to re-write again this time. And this is the first week of Syawal. Ramadan and Syawal are the two months in the Muslim calendar which have obviously significant reasons why everyone in Malaysia is celebrating it. And here are my TOP5:-

1. Bazaar Ramadan

Yerp. It's like having an everyday Pasar Malam. Ramai-ramai orang pun sanggup tolak-tolak sambil tarik rambut pasal nak beli nasik tomato RM3.50. Beli kueh, beli air, beli murtabak, beli nasik, beli mee, beli puding. Pastu bila buka, makan 3 kurma, minum air, then kata kenyang. Ikut sunnah katanya. *tiada kaitan antara hidup dan yang dah mati*

2. Raya Advertisement

Kalau dulu macam-macam advertisement pasal raya keluar TV bila dah start puasa, but this year macam tak ada. Pasal jarang tengok tv, cuma tau ada advertisement ni je pasal raya. Ni yang jadi macam phenomenon, sampai popular 2 budak ni keluar HotFM. Tapi serious sedih kan, even budak-budak tu takde pon nangis-nangis. Macam mana laa budak-budak anak yatim ni raya kan... *insaf* Iklan raya ni adalah daripada BERNAS ye, even lori yang budak-budak ni naik bukan lori beras, tapi masih BERNAS.

3. Traffic Jam

Betul, jem stroberi lah paling sedap kalau letak kat roti. Tapi jem kat highway adalah sangat tak sedap hokey. But if highway tak jem, maknanye tak raya laa tu. Biasa highway ni jem kat area towards selatan or towards utara bila sebelum raya, tapi bila dah habis raya, arah lawan laa pulak. Dulu orang kata bertolak awal-awal pagi subuh, tapi skrang ni subuh pun dah jem pe citer.... 

4. Terawikh

Ok. Napa ko letak terawikh no4? Ok. Tak sengaja ye. Huhu. Tapi sembahyang terawikh adalah something yang menjadi satu routine for the Muslims to perform during Ramadan. Terawikh ni adalah solat sunat bulan puasa yang dilakukan secara minimum 8 rakaat, nak lebih boleh. Biasa terawikh ni awal-awal penuh laa masjid, tapi lama-lama menuju ke raya, shopping complex yang penuh pasal ada diskaun baju raya 80%. *ehem, macam terkena pulak kat diri sendiri, ehem ehem*

5. Open houses!

Open house is a must during Syawal. It will dragged till the end of the month. Jadi, memandangkan kau dah tutup dapur masa bulan puasa pasal tiap-tiap hari pegi bazar ramadan, saya suggest kau teruskan lah usaha menutup dapur tu pasal bulan puasa mesti penuh open house. Hehehe.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri everybody!

Maaf Zahir Batin.

Semoga kita berjumpa lagi Ramadan seterusnya, ameen.

It's OK. We're still proud of you.

Tonight must be an emotional night to every Malaysians. 

Our badminton hero, Dato' Lee Chong Wei lost his gold medal to Lin Dan of China, and earn a Silver Medal instead. He then posted an apology on twitter. Imagine all the burden that all 28millions of Malaysians put on this guy. Anyhow, silver is good enough, he did his best and we're all proud of him! :)

London Olympic 2012.

Please tell me you watch the opening of London Olympic 2012.

Because it is simply awesome!

I am sure most of us know the history of Great Britain, especially those Commonwealth countries, but the opening ceremony was an event reminding us all the transitions that they have gone through, their glorious years and people.

The stadium was transformed from a country view of farming and hilly place to an industrial age of Europe. That was superb. They have performances reminding the world of whom they were, what they are proud of, musics that they loved, casts that were legendary (James Bond, Mr. Bean and Mary Poppins!). Even the Queen took part in the gimmick, 'jumping of the helicopter'.

Every Olympic opening ceremony is remarkable at its own and waiting for another 4 years after Beijing to watch this is just remarkable. But I know it would, London has been prepared even since last year when I had a visit there. The stadium was all ready!

Good luck to all Malaysian athletes!

Do you best and make us proud.

Two years after, and still.

I went to Silverstone for a visit yesterday, and that exact moment, I remember it was the date, exactly 2 years of my last day at Toshiba Electronics Malaysia, of what we all called TEM.

(gambar ehsan dari Puan Nana)

And as part of the remembrance day, I went back home, open up the lost lost folder of my photos during the  glorious days at TEM sambil makan coklat. Yerp, this was 3 years ago, we went to Burger King for birthday celebrations. I know we had rough times during work, but seeing our genuinely happy faces, we actually had many good times too. Counting back all the faces there, only 5 left. The rest has gone out, including me.

(This was my place, next to Kak Lina. We were a great team eh...)

I know time has past.

But if I'm an X-Men, what I wish the most for my specialty is to turn back time.

Yes Jaffrey, ko memang psiko.

And yes, I miss TEM :)

Roman Numbers

I was rushing preparing a paperwork just now, and my boss said that the Appendixes should be paged with roman numerals. Ok. That is cool, but when it go through big numbers till 20 plus pages, I got confused.

I am usually good with numbers. Come on, not only that good,  I am a genius.

But not with Romans. Caesar might have sentenced me to death if was ever his advisor. FOr me, Roman numerals usually comes till 13, which is XIII and no further than that. So, I checked in the wikipedia to study and do my deep research. Yes, a very deep one. And it came up, that they are really that simple.

Ok. All you have to do is to remembers these basic symbols.

1 = I

5 = V

10 = X

50 = L

100 = C

500 = D

1,000 = M

3 = 1 + 1 + 1 = III

4 = 5 - 1 = IV (1 is located in front of 5, if it is for subtraction)

And there you go. See, I am really that genius.

So, example, what is 674 in Roman?

500 + 100 + 50 + 10 + 10 + (5 - 1)

D + C + L + X + X + IV

DCLXXIV

Genius! Haha.

I really think I should write a book. @@

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Yes. This may sound stupid. The American President was actually a vampire hunter.

Beware Edward Cullen!

I watched the movie of Abraham Lincoln, not the one about his biography being the President, but this one is  how he became a Vampire Slayer. Amazingly, all facts here about this legend were all correct, the wife, the son (Willie who died). It differs only how his son died, yes, what else, bitten by a vampire. Not forgetting the Civil War, the political adventure etc.

The writer was a genius, to be fair. How he arranged the facts of stories were put nicely, make sense and could be accepted, even it involves vampire. But, people, please... please don't ever put in your mind that this was actually true, even it could be, but it's not. Abraham Lincoln is truly a legend. He abolished the slavery system in America, which is HUGE contribution to the country, and to the world. Remember him as that.

... Wait. There is one thing which might not be true. In this movie, the vampire could not kill another vampire... But Edward Cullen totally can! Boo yah!

Philippines 2012: Sagada, The Mountain Province

After Banaue, we stopped by in Sagada, The Mountain Province on our way to Baguio. We past by at the highest point of the highway, which is 22,000 feet high!

Sagada is popular for its hanging coffins. It is still the funeral practices and burial customs for certain minority groups. 

The coffins were first put up at the mountain cliffs before the body was put inside later. The reason why they were buried in such ways are to bring the deceased closer to heaven. Not only the hanging ones, there are coffins that are stacked together inside a cave which are believed to exist the last 400 years. 

Besides the coffins, Sagada is also known for its outdoor activities such as hiking, cave exploring, nature hikes, waterfalls and water rafting. But as we are not in proper attire and not having the time, we decided to pass all that and proceed our journey to Baguio.

The scenery is simply breathtaking. 

But the road, it's breathless. Hehe.

Philippines 2012: Banaue

I'm currently on my 10 days trip to Philippines to attend my cousin's wedding. Right after that, my family and I decided to go for our own tour to the Northern part of Luzon, and the first place is Banaue. It took us 12 hours to get there from my mom's hometown. Kebas-kebas jugak punggung dibuatnya. Nasib baik masih berupaya untuk ke toilet.

Anyhow, Banaue is popular for its rice terraces. It is currently one of the heritage of UNESCO which is believed to exist since the last 2000 years. The weather is cooling at 20 degrees and at night it is even colder. There are no big hotels to stay though, but the good things are, there are homestays and inns. They are cheap. We got ourselves a homestay of 4 bedrooms, a hall and a kitchen which cost us only RM200. The homestay is located exactly next to the terraces which we can have a nice beautiful scenery at our room the whole day. As it is cold enough, we never need a fan. (There is no fan actually, at all).

If you like activities and want to learn about the natives, then you can help yourself by going to the Natives Inn. It is about 30 minutes drive from town and there are various activities like canoeing or pools for swimming, a hall and native home at one RM20 per person.

At town, you can find some foreigners of backpackers. It is small, but it's a place you can find market, souvenirs, restaurants, transportation of jeepneys. However, it's a shame that the amount of tourists here do no reflects the actual beauty of this place as maybe the location is a bit far with low connectivity. 

First Impression.

4 years ago, on my first day at work, my (former) boss told me that he could judged a person by his walk. The way a person walk represents how aggressive he or she is. I'm cool with it as I knew at that time I was quick. (But mistakes came often too :( )

Today I past by someone from the office, with her head low, dragging the feet all the way to the office in slow motion. I know that we're going through all the Monday blues, but having that 'slow'

attitude is not acceptable. Alahai...

Although many claim that we could never judge a book by its cover, first impressions are very important. Everyone should look good, be confident and fun.

On the other hand, looking 'good' is very subjective. To me, red does not match with green, at all... but to some, they think that it was a match made in heaven. So don't judge too much, keep it to yourself, even in something that looks ridiculous or stupid, as long as they feel good in it, then it is cool. 

But still, walking like you're carrying a 100 kilos of burden on your back is not cool.

I repeat, not cool.

Ok... Ok Jaffrey, stop judging.

Caution.

Jika denganmu salah

Ku tak mahu yang benar

Jika denganmu rebah biarlah ku tercalar

Jika denganmu kabur
Ku tak mahu yang jelas
Jika denganmu hanyut
Biarlah aku lemas
Walau dilanda ribut
Ku sanggup kerna ku mampu
Kita berdua bersatu

Ni lirik lagu Kumpulan Forteen, Berdua Bersatu.

Saya tak ada lah baik sangat or pandai sangat jugak, tapi tak ke jahil je bunyik lirik nye?

Biar salah, biar kabur, biar lemas... asalkan kita bersatu?

Come on.

Kalau nak feel bercinta, ok la, tapi biar berpada-pada liriknya.

Sekian, terima kasih.