The Iron Lady.

Almost everyone in this world knows her.

She was the Prime Minister of Great Britain for more than a decade, re-transformed it to a powerful industrialized country. She remained close relationship with the United States that ended the cold war with the Soviets. She even brought the country into war with Argentina in 1982 if I'm not mistaken to regain Falkland.

She was a determined leader. She changed the atmosphere of the political world and also, the economy. Many might not agree with the decisions made during her era, but no one could ever deny her successful, iconic and impressive achievement that she had brought. She is truly a legend, a titan of the modern world, she is indeed, The Iron Lady.
She will be remembered. 

Margaret Thatcher, 1925 - 2013.

Talker or Typist?

Hellooooo people.

Did you know I was a winner of Speed Master competition by Maxis? But that was 10 years ago, and I know it is not valid to be proud of anymore, hehe. And that is not why I write this post even. Blergh.

If you ask me to choose a phone plan, I would go for plan that gives me more text messages and data plan for whatsapp, rather than phone calls. I never like talking on the phone. I would spend most of my time with "ermmm...", "eh.....", "ooooowh...", or worst, completely silent. With my wife even, I guess she spend the most time talking, while I rest my ear listening.

Texting is a better way of communicating. I can reply when I have the answer, I can reply when I am free to. Kan? Even when I am not around or asleep, the message will remain there for me to read. But I know it is not the absolute way, texting still has its own weaknesses, eg, timing of urgency and emotions. But still, texting is the best way kot, it's fun, it's reliable, save more time and cost effective. Right?

Hmmm, now I wonder, what makes me write this post? Sendiri pon tatau. 

Saja lama tak update kot.

Kbai.

Re-managing Life.

Some of you might not know that I've switched my job 3 years ago. The main reason was not the job itself, because, I truly do loved my previous job, but it was the life I was living. The life just could not lead me to the day a I wish I could be.

Years upfront... I would love to have kids, living a moderate family life. I want to send my kids to school every morning, fetch them in the afternoon, have dinner together with the whole family chatting on what was up on that day, doing some work on the laptop while accompanying the kids doing their homework, maybe went shopping with my wife at night or during weekend, going for a playground activities on Sunday morning, 'lepaking' at my parents' or in laws house on holidays. I know that might be a life that is no longer in existence in our galaxy, but that is my absolute aim. To be reliable, every time, everywhere, for family.

Today, I no longer work at night as much as I did, I no longer work during weekends. But sometimes, there are lots and lots to think about work that I forget often, especially anything that is related to family. Physically I am there, but my mind is not. Letting the job and task in the way also does not help so much. I could not assist help from family as time does not let me to.

I know, these are all excuses and It's time to make some changes in life. From this day forward, I will put my activities with family on my schedule, together with all the meeting I have, but family will comes first. Always. I will be home early and be more productive at work so I don't drag the time to complete any task. 

Yes Jaffrey, it's time to change! Don't take anyone for granted.

Tips-tips menjadi pengapit lelaki yang berjaya.

Tengok tak 27 dresses yang Katherine Heigl berlakon tu? Yang dia dok jadi pengapit sampai ke sudah... Tapi takde laa ke sudah, in the end dia kawen jugak. Saya takde laa sampai 27 kali jadi pengapit, tapi 6 kali pun dah cukup banyak ler. Kebanyakkan orang mesti pikir renyah gila nak kena jadi pengapit, kene pegang payung la, kene lap pengantin la, kene pakai baju melayu satu sut la, pastu orang pressure tanya bila ko pulak nak kawen kan... anyhow, semua tu betul jugak. But then, it is still a proud moment bila kawan ko pilih ko jadi bestman dia on his special day kan. Means, you're someone kan.

Walaupun 6 kali jadi pengapit takde la banyak, tapi saja la nak share kan tips-tips untuk jadi pengapits yang berjaya, profesional dan awesome:-

1. Hensem macam mana pun ko, masa kenduri, ko tak boleh lagi hensem dari pengantin. Kalau boleh masa ada bergambar tu ko pose la gaya tak hensem, terjelir lidah keluar ke, rambut serabaikan.. Hehe. Tak boleh blah letak ni sebagai tips nombor 1 kan...

2. Bawak tisu or handkerchief dalam baju melayu blah atas. Biasanya poket atas ni ko letak sekali henpon pengantin tu, pasal biasanya memang banyak orang call dia time tu.

3. Masa kenduri, make sure ko dah ada girlpren. Kalau ko takde girlpren, make sure pengapit pompuan tu single jugak. 

4. Oh ye, kalau kawan ko ambek pakej kat ko, maknanye ko jadi pengapit masa nikah ngan sanding skali... masa nikah make sure ko bawak sarung angpow extra mana tau pengantin lupa bawak untuk bagi tok kadi ngan saksi. Ni tanggungjawab wajib untuk pengapit ingatkan pengantin masa nikah.

5. Cakap pasal nikah, ko jangan lupa study soalan-soalan lazim tok kadi biasa tanya, mana tau pengantin tak dapat jawab, ko bleh jadi hero tolong jawabkan. Nanti mesti pengapit pompuan tgk ko dengan bangga, "wow, hebat pengapit laki ni, harap-harap dia single". 

6. Masa tengah sanding, laki biasanya dok sebelah kanan. Bila ko dah ada belah kanan, pegang kipas guna tangan kanan jugak. Kalau guna tangan kiri nampak macam terlalu bersahaja. Masa kipas tu jugak, make sure sync dengan pengapit pompuan kipas.

7. Masa lap pengantin, jangan lap macam guna tuala baru lepas mandi. Touch up touch up je jangan rosak mekap. Hehe.

8. Masa dok makan tu, potongkan laa ayam untuk pengantin, takut baju pengantin kotor lak kalau dia yang potong sendiri. Kalau pengantin ko tu makan udang, nasib ko laa nak kopek udang pulak kan. Kalau durian lak atas meja pengantin, hambek kau...

9. Bukan je ada tisu, barang-barang lain yang mungkin boleh ada dalam poket pengapit adalah  pin, moisturizer, perfume (yang takde alkohol pasal biasanya pengantin akan sembahyang sunat lepas nikah).

10. Kalau boleh, pengapit datang awal, pastu pengapit balik lambat. Nampak komitmen ko kat kenduri tu sebagai orang penting.Mana tau tiba-tiba mak pengantin nak kenalkan kat anak pompuan dia pulak kan...

11. Kalau ko dibayar lebih daripada biasa, ko tolong la plan kan bachelor party untuk pengantin. Hehe... Pergi laa genting ke, pantai ke... bukan strip club ye. bukan...

12. Kalau pengantin tu pagi-pagi dia kena pergi tempat mak andam untuk pakai baju ngan sampin, kalau sempat pegi ikut sekali pasal biasanya pengapit memang kena tolong pegang tempat-tempat yang sepatutnya mak andam tu pegang. Haha.

Huh. Kalau elaborate lagi ni boleh buat buku kot. 

Jadi sesapa yang berminat untuk ambik kursus pengapit, boleh laa contact kat email. kat blog ni pun boleh. Hehe.

Kepada semua pengantin yang dah ambik perkhidmatan saya, tengkiu laa ye. Hehe. Sorry kalau ada salah dan kurang.

Dah kepada pengapit-pengapit saya, tengkiu jugak sudi jadi pengapit dan melayan kerenah saya. :-)

I am a husband.

Exactly a month back, on the 1st of Februari 2013, I got married.

Now I am not only a son, but I'm a husband too. There are questions from friends on how does it feel being one, the best answer to it is none other than 'amanah', a responsibility of a promise that I've made to God that I will love, guide and cherish the beautiful lady I called wife for the rest of my life.

To my dear wife, thank you for letting me be the one.

I love you.

Bali, Indonesia.

It's been a while since I got married eh? Yes people! I'm a proud husband to my Cik Puan (from now on, the title of my wife in this blog would be Cik Puan, which means "Mrs", hokey). But this post is not about our wedding, not about the preparation, not about the excitement of marriage. This is about our first get away together, nak sedapnya, our honeymoon le.

We went to Bali, Indonesia. It was a last minute plan. I booked our hotel at the night of our kenduri, and our flight is the next day. Main redah kromo. Usually before going for a tour or visit ke hape, I would do my research on that place, where to stay, where to eat, how to travel. This time was totally out of plan. Being in a wedding restricted me from any planning other than the kenduri. So the planning only started the day before our flight. Searching through tripadvisor, I did manage to get a room at Rama Candidasa. 

Rama Candidasal Spa and Resort, located about 80km from the airport. It took us about 1-hour drive to get there. However, the time was totally worth it as Candidasa was  located at the rural side of Bali, and it is totally quite, peaceful with privacy. The hotel is absolutely beautiful, with amazing sunset view. The warm treatment and services made the stay even better. The room was spacious, comfortable, clean and awesome. However, as our trip was a short one (2 nights), we didn't stay much at the hotel. We went out at day time for tour, and got back by sunset. If we ever got there again, I'll make sure we'll spend at least a day at the hotel.

Our driver/tour guide/photographer (his facebook page... promote sikit) fetch us in the morning to go places where he finds interesting and the distance is within our 2 days trip. On the first day, we went to the rice terraces of Ubud (same concept as what I found in Philippines),  watching the Barong Dance in culture village of Ubud, visiting the Batik outlet and factory and silver wholesaler and manufacturer. Other than that, there are many other cultural villages that are focusing on wood carving, stone carving and craft making which every single villages has their own specialty. Sebijik macam satu daerah satu industri like we have in Malaysia, but this one is really implemented within the each villages. Bagus gila. Nak carik silver, dah tau mana nak pegi. Nak batik, dah tau kampung mana pulak pegi. Easy eh?

My favorite place of the day is our lunch stop at Kintamani. Kintamani is located on the hill side where the temperature is a bit cooler that other parts we've been in Bali. While having lunch, the  breathtaking scenery of Mount Batur and the Lake Batur made the lunch even tastier than it is. Haha, memang korang akan cakap overrated kan, tapi masa honeymoon mungkin semua benda pun best kan. LoL. And our last stop of the first day was the coffee farm. For Cik Puan whom her favorite is coffee, then this place excites her the most la kan. For me whom a guy yang tak minum kopi terpaksa laa try minum semua kopi yang ada untuk tunjuk laa appreciation kat orang yang dok tuang banyak-banyak untuk kita try. What I found Bali differs from other tourist places I've been like Vietnam or Thailand, the people here would assist and explain to you on their products, they let you try without any hope that you would buy them. They even accompany you back to your transport and leave you with a friendly wave of goodbye even if you leave empty handed. Cool kan.

The next day, the final day, we went to Pura Tirta Empul, the temple with holy water, Pura Tanah Lot and Kuta, where the happening places are located at. The beach in Kuta is just superb, but a little bit hot. Cik Puan tak larat cuma duduk bawah pokok je pasal dia kata panas sampai mencucuk-cucuk. Hehe. 

Anyhow, what I can define about Bali is, it might not be a shopping heaven, but the scenery and the experience is very much worth it. The people are very warm, super friendly and very proud of their culture and heritage. A well remembered trip. For those of you who are planning to go there, then I suggest you get your tour guide first, get their advice, and I'm sure they will let you know the best place to stay, the best place to visit within your budget.

I'll definitely come again someday...

Counting Days : 14.

Tik tok tik tok.

14 hari je lagi, tapi belum rasa apa-apa lagi. Mungkin hati numb sangat, tapi  bila orang dah asyik remind, makin cuak jadinya. Lagi-lagi dengan kad yang dah dihantar. Bila korang tengok kad, rajin kan aku dok tampal-tampal semua nama ngan alamat. Tapi... idea ni sebenarnya tak bernas ye. Saya ulang, tak bernas. Penat kot wei. Buruk mana pun tulisan, next time korang kawen, tulis sudah ler...

Memandangkan banyak my parents dah settlekan pasal hal kenduri, my part jadi kecik-kecik punya je. Bab-bab hantaran, dulang-dulang, kad kahwin, photographer, videographer, baju-baju, pelamin etc. Tapi even tak terlibat sangat hal kenduri, bab-bab makan, khemah, teknikal semua tu, still ambek tau jugak. Tanak laa tiba2 kita pakai putih, khemah merah, pelamin hijau. Jadi sarkas pulak kang.  (terbayang jap... geleng-geleng kepala)...

Plan kahwin ni kan kekadang buat terpikir gak pasal orang-orang bisnes ni. Industri kawen ni besar gak kot, catering, photographer, khemah. Cash flow dia besar kot. Ni la kan peluang usahawan-usahawan melayu nak carik makan kan. Tapi kan, bila tengok attitude kebanyakan usahawan ni memang banyak kena improve, dari segi masa (kekadang janji pukul 1, datang pukul 5) and documentation, macam nak mintak quotation pun seminggu tak dapat-dapat lagi, tapi tiap2 hari sms kata nak email (blurgh).

Kalau barang ko cantik, tapi timing ko fail, aku lebih prefer barang yang kurang sikit dari ko, tapi timing dia bagus. Tu lebih reliable, and boleh dipercayai. Kan?

Hari ni sms satu videographer, senang je, satu malam dah settle, dapat quotation and confirmation. Senang keje kan.

Sap sap soi.

Okeh, mari sambung countdown. Dub Dab.

Eh jap. Ada tak aku cite aku dah nak kawen?

Aku dah nak kawen weiiii... :-)

UTC Perak.

For those of you who didn't know, UTC stands for Urban Transformation Centre. At the moment there are 3 of this kind of centers, Pudu, Malacca and Ipoh, Perak. At the moment, I'm in UTC Perak, and it is 9.00 o'clock at night, and these offices are still open for public. UTC opens at 8.30 am till 10.00 at night. There are Registration Department for Identification Card, the Immigration Department for passports, JPJ for licenses, Local Authority for summons and taxes, everything under one roof. And they are open even after office hour. Now we don't have to sneak out of the office to pay bills, cos we can go straight here after work, of maybe after dinner to do all those things. It is very convenient at a high class facility. It is located at the Ipoh market, former building of Super Kinta.

Not only that, there are also utilities company like Telekom Malaysia, Lembaga Air Perak, Tenaga Nasional Berhad. Everything, all in. Post Office, Gymnasium, Library are all here as well! Hebat kan. Hehe. Macam kena bayar je buat promosi ni. Anyhow, there are improvements that could be done, such as the parking space and food stalls. It takes time, but I'm quite optimistic on the function of UTC.  Totally convenient. Come and have a visit. Maybe boleh exercise sikit kat gym, it cost you only RM5 for the 1st hour and RM1 for the next hours. Klinik 1Malaysia is also here, RM1 je sekali dengan ubat.

Other departments in UTC are PDRM, Jabatan Perancang Bandar dan Desa, Bahagian Perumahan Awam, PERDASAMA, Lembaga Tabung Haji, Indah Water, Yayasan Pencegahan Jenayah, Pejabat Daerah dan Tanah Ipoh, Pusat Kerjaya Amanjaya, K-Perak, PEMUDAH, Jabatan Agama Islam Perak, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, SME Bank, Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita Keluarga dan Masyarakat, Klinik 1 Malaysia, Klinik Pergigian Malaysia, Kedai Buku 1 Malaysia

Pre-Husband's Re-Financing.

Being a husband is a big responsibility. Finance is one part that I find crucial to be looked at before I got myself into marriage, and I believe all men are the same. So today, I downloaded MoBill Reminder app on my tab to get everything organized. Yes people, I am so Monica! Hehe. Tapi kalau tak tengok citer Friends sila abaikan ayat tu.

Now the money flow needs to be observed,addition of expenses like nafkah, households, home etc are the responsibilities of a husband. With this, terpaksa la cut cost sana dan sini. First and foremost, I changed my phone plan, again. I stopped my broadband and get a plan with bigger data plan. Previously I was in the red zone, then I moved to the blue territory, but now I'm the yellow man. If you get what I mean. Maybe the coverage not as good as in the blue territory, but still, I could save more. I strongly suggest abg-abg and kakak-kakak kat luar sana to revise your mobile plan the latest every 2 years as the plan gets cheaper and more convenient.

Next is to check other expenses like insurance scheme that I've been with for the last five years and my investments for me to roll. Now with this app, I could check all the finance flow, for me, and the future family :)

The End of Merlin

For those of you who didn't not know, season 5 will be the final one for Merlin the series. Damn you Merlin!

I'd started watching during the third season, and I've just downloaded the first and second season for me to catch up. Now, they have announced that this will be the final season. Thank you so much to the producers for stealing my excitement!

Anyhow, I watched the finale last night. It was heartbreaking, sad, but an expected one as what happened was already written in the history. I know the show will never differ from its actual as the characters are all the same as what was written, Modred, Arthur and Merlin. I never know why, but I found the history of Britain is somehow fascinating. I wish I could find a book where explains everything, because Arthur and Merlin is  written in some literature but the are no physical evidence of their existence. 

Ok. For those who are not patient enough to wait for the season finale of Merlin which will air in Malaysia somewhere in February I guess, here's some spoilers of the ending. Tadaaa~