Sunday, January 25, 2009

Off to Karachi.... again

So I'm waiting for my flight, my second trip (and most likely last, on this project) to Karachi, Pakistan. I guess after going there the first time around I'm a bit less anxious about the whole trip since I've already seen and experienced myself the environment and the people there. I know there are still a lot of instabilities in areas such as Peshawar and Islamabad, but InsyaAllah Karachi will be safe :)

I'm a bit sad to miss out on all the Chinese New Year excitement this Monday and Tuesday... and all the open house invitations I had to turn down... all that yummy fooooood!!! But hey, there's lots of yummy food to look forward to in Pakistan as well so my tummy will still get its fill haha.

I had some suspense two nights ago when I started feeling crummy myself (after Mummy and Amir coming down with some form of viral fever, I guess it was inevitable I would catch something too)... so yesterday morning I immediately went to see the company doctor and asked for any prescription that would make me feel better ASAP! I didn't want to fly out to Karachi with a fever! I felt worse by the evening, but thankfully my fever broke last night... I was all hot I could feel my heat off my feet. I took my meds, slept early, and woke up this morning feeling much better. I'm still feeling some heaviness in my muscles and joints though, and the tickle in my throat is still there. But at least my temperature's not high and my nose isn't blocked anymore. Would've been totally, majorly sucky if I had to go on the plane with a blocked nose... that'll just kill my ears what with the pressure and all.

Yosh I better pack up now as boarding time is near. Final thing to leave you with:



I'm sooooo looking forward to Coraline!!!!!

Soundtrack: Live football playing on the TV in the lounge
Mood: Anticipative
Location: Emirates Lounge, KLIA
Random thought: Arrrrhhhhh my shoulders.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Time to get fit yo!

Shites!!! This seriously makes me think I gotta get fit like, now! Tercabar wei...




Soundtrack: Live telecast of Obama's inauguration on TV
Mood: Excited
Location: Shah Alam living room
Random thought: Najib's probably watching the inauguration imagining it was him up there boaahahahahaaahahaa.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Catching up on Take That

I spent tonight catching up with anything new on Take That. I didn't know they did an advert for Marks & Spencer! Oh sigh my boys look sooooo hotttttttt




And oooh looky looky I changed my desktop wallpaper (after almost 1 year of using the As Tall as Lions album artwork):


*giggles* Yes it's Jason Orange.... dududuuuu.... Sorry Mak Teh!!! His profile looks too sexy and good and ANYAAAAAA in this picture I couldn't resist. So now when I switch on my laptop I do a mental ruffle of his hair teeheeheee!

Soundtrack: The National - Squalor Victoria
Mood: Reflective
Location: Shah Alam
Random thought: Sudden crave of Cheezels

Thursday, January 15, 2009

To Qik To Tweet For You

Thanks to much web-hopping, I have come across some fabulous stuff on the Internet. Some are just highly interesting reads, some are eye-candy goodies there to make me swoon (read Alex Pettyfer Jason Orange Ed Westwick lots and lots of hot brit boys lalalaa), and some are of the niftiest, uber-cool brainchilds of tech geeks from around the world.

And although I'm now a bit less enthusiastic about signing up for new accounts left and right, I HAVE signed up for two new accounts that I thought are the coolest things ever. First, I now have a Twitter account. Secondly, I created a Qik profile and tried streaming my first live video via my phone. It worked really well and I'm quite amazed at the speed too! However, I need to check with my mobile service provider about the charges incurred to get the videos up. If it's too expensive I think I'm gonna have to scrap the whole Qik thing :P



Oh and for those of you not already using Flock, you HAVE to at least give it a try. Especially if you're already in a loving relationship with Firefox. I downloaded Flock in late September last year and I think it's better than chocolate cheese cake! Never had I imagined the web browser to take on such integration and high functionality and the levels of customization ahhhhh I'm just so in love with it.

Soundtrack: Take That - How Did It Come To This (have had this on loop for hours haha)
Mood: Tired but happy
Location: Living room, Shah Alam home
Random thought: If the sun smells too loud, does the moon sing too bright?

Monday, January 5, 2009

2008 Revisited

I haven't written an entry to recap my 2008 yet... so here it is!

Key events of 2008, grouped into categories and not in chronological order. For chronology, check out a pictorial recap that I made and uploaded onto my Facebook account here.

Come and Go
  • Nina moved into new apartment
  • I moved out of my Putrajaya house and into a rented condominium in Damansara Perdana
  • MakTeh & UncaBob return to KL for a few weeks
  • Hairie completed his studies and returned home from Durham
  • Saie & Cipau move into new apartment
  • Fiqrie left for Singapore
  • Ili left for Manchester

Holidays and Trips
  • Family holiday to Jakarta & Bandung
  • Grads' trip to Singapore (I partially joined)
  • Terengganu road trip with Afiza, Jorge, Wee Kee and Sabun
  • First trip Miri and Bintulu for work
  • First trip to Pakistan for work
  • First trip to Dubai

Marriages
  • Zai & Ulfah got married (and I emcee'd the dinner function with Johan)
  • P.E. got married
  • Azida got married
  • Shahril got married
  • Bobol got married
  • Noreen got married
  • Shahrin & Ririn got married
  • E'am got married
  • Lavinia & Martin got engaged
  • Thomas got married
  • Stella got married
  • Fatim got married
  • Chris & Janenette got married
  • Azwan & Liza got married

Babies and Birthdays

  • Rykal's Akikah and 1st Birthday
  • Alham & Fasihah had a baby girl
  • PakBoy & KakLin announced their pregnancy
  • Zai & Ulfah had a baby girl
  • Emir's 1st birthday
Concerts & Events
  • Sold Offiicial Switchfoot merchandise at their Kuala Lumpur concert (hence getting into the show for free!)
  • Explosions in the Sky concert in Ruums, Kuala Lumpur
  • Got free tickets to watch Backstreet Boys at Sunway Lagoon
  • Watched We Will Rock You the musical TWICE, in Singapore
  • Incubus in Singapore
  • Incubus in Malaysia (Sunburst Music Festival)
  • Sunburst Music Festival (list of acts here)
  • Own band performance at Shell IT's annual dinner
  • Goodnight Electric in Ipoh
  • Performed at Shahrin & Ririn's wedding
  • Watched Chelsea FC vs Malaysia football friendly
  • Got free passes to Daughtry live at One Utama
  • ENVY in Singapore
  • Death Cab for Cutie in Singapore
  • Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller & Victor Wooten in Singapore
  • George Michael live in Abu Dhabi (opening by Alicia Keys)

Personal High/Low-lights
  • Bought and took over operations of Hoxe's Bookstore & Cafe
  • Started working with Muna & Eema at Hoxe's
  • Started on a new role at Shell as a Business Analyst with an HR Programme, consquently moving work location. Left Cyberjaya for Damansara Heights
  • Made my first investment in Unit Trust
  • MET AND TALKED TO INCUBUS LIKE OMG OMG OMG!!!! (except for Ben Kenney.. sigh)
  • Birthday surprise party thrown for my benefit, at my own cafe! Haha
  • Punked Bonnie big time on April Fools Day
  • Went for my HUGE family gathering (tracing back 4 generations).. the Abdul Rahman-Maimunah family
  • Passport stolen in Singapore
  • Lost my cat, Misfit, who was catnapped
  • Gained a cat, Coca Fandango, whom I adopted after the mother abandoned it
Phew, that was quite a year (and still I may have overlooked a few happenings here and there)! I can't wait to see what 2009 brings...

Soundtrack: British Sea Power - A Trip Out
Mood: Nostalgic
Location: Shah Alam home
Random thought: I need badminton rackets.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Was going through Kevin Rose's blog and he had this in a list of 'Top 10 Gifts for Geeks':



It's like COOL and CONVENIENT combined! I want one!!!


Soundtrack: Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
Mood: Cheerful
Location: Bed, Shah Alam home
Random thought: I want to buy a pair of badminton rackets

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year everyone!

It's currently 2.41am and I think tonight was one of the best year-end/new-year nights I've ever had! Received several invitations from friends to parties, barbecues or just simple hang-out sessions at their houses to welcome in the new year, but I decided to turn them all down to stay home because tonight, after quite a long time, is the first time my whole family is back in this Section 9 house of ours... all in one place, at the same time!

I woke up at 5.50am this morning to Amir's SMS informing me he'd landed in KLIA from Melbourne. So Izhar, Farah and I all got out of bed early to drive there and pick him up. The minute we were all in the car the conversation had no end. We decided to have breakfast at the Dawood mamak place in Sec.6 and stayed there until 8.30 chit chatting. After dropping everyone off at home I drove out again to the Shah Alam lake for a jog, then came back home, showered, had MY breakfast and rested for a bit.

Around 1.30pm we all went back out again, Farah to join her family for lunch and us three siblings to PJ as Izhar needed to go to the Digital Mall for some computer stuff. We decided to have lunch after at Bangsar, but got caught in the beginnings of the anticipated New Year's Eve traffic jam *groan*. Didn't matter too much to us really 'cuz we still had a lot of story-mory to do haha. Made a bit of a funny booboo when we tried to take a 'shortcut' via Universiti Malaya to get from PJ to Bangsar, but instead got asked by the guards to turn around and go out the way we came from. Not such a long complicated story but you had to be there to experience the funny so I'm gonna skip telling it here :P

After finally arriving in Bangsar, we had our lunch at Nirwana for some good ol' banana leaf rice, and Farah joined us again after her dad dropped her off. I had a RM50 Haagen Dazs voucher that I got from Shell and that expired 31st December '08 so we nipped into Bangsar Village's Haagen Dazs outlet to spend that. Definitely very nice to tuck into rich creamy branded ice cream on the last day of the year, eh? I only had to top up RM15 on the total bill so it was well worth it! Yeay!

Earlier tonight Izhar, Amir and Farah made another trip to the airport and this time it was to pick Mummy and Baba up, who arrived from their 40+ days Hajj trip. I really wanted to go along and greet them at the airport but the car would've been too full by then so I stayed home instead. They reached Shah Alam at around 12.15am and we all went to Syed mamak in Sec 11 for some makan before finally settling in back home, everyone with so many stories to swap and tell we all barely felt the tiredness from each of our long days!

So as I said... I think tonight's one of the best new year's nights I've had. Just the whole family in the living room yakking away. It's just too bad Izhar has to return to Melbourne already tomorrow night, as his course doesn't have a long break and he's already cutting some classes to be home long enough for Mummy, Baba and Amir to return. Sob. But hey, 2 days is better than nothing right!

Here's to 2009 (well technically we celebrated our Islamic new year 3 days ago already so... here's to 1430M too!). May my blessed, wonderful start to this year bring significance to a great year ahead, InsyaAllah.


Soundtrack: The sound of Amir showing his sky-diving videos to Mummy and Baba
Mood: Happy, blessed and content
Location: Family home, Shah Alam