JUST A FEW UPDATES

It has been quite awhile since I wrote my last post. Why? I can simply say that I am busy like everyone else and its an absolute truth but how busy can someone be? Surely the creature named 'lazy' play a part in it too.... whatever it is I pray to God for giving me still the wisdom to savor happiness, a loose term but joyful nonetheless... but off course for every journey or voyage, the sea is not always calm, the stormy sea did rock the ship to the brink of its demise time and time again ..but as long as the captain has a strong will to see his ship to reside or to berth at her designated place, then come what may, the journey in itself will be worthwhile...


Enough about that, let us come back to the solid ground. Just like AF7 which talks about transformation (not that I take heed about it anymore unlike those glorious AF year i.e. during Zahid's) my small house has also being transformed. Many many thanks to A, for his non sabbatical leave from work for about 4 weeks has given him ample time and ideas to decorate our house..a little bit of painting here and a little bit of drilling there and adding with all new lighting's and carpet plus the new "toys" has given our living room an uplifting place to be...yet there are still few things to be done but with no budget, the rest are to be put on hold.

When I said, sabbatical leave it does not mean that A was fired or retrenched. He left his old company for a long needed break and do things... other things he wanted to do for a while before embarking on a new working journey again...well yesterday was A's first day working in a new place ..... so just expect him to eventually revive his blogs soon.

As for our weekend activities nothing much to note except the following in no chronologically order.

- Watched theater called "Patung Kertas 2" at MATIC. I must say its quite fascinating to watch Datuk Jalaluddin Hassan and Ashraf Muslim and few others as drag queens. However, the "antics" in this theater were much much less provocative to compare with "Air-Cond" that we watched last year.

- Attended AIM in PWTC with Ajib, A and Omar, A's best friend. Love Adibah's ranting with the audience in between commercial breaks for she prayed not to make anymore bloopers which she did during their opening act with Afdlin and Bob Lokman.

- The next day, A, Omar and myself had our lunch at the new Papa John in IOI Mall, Puchong. I always like Papa John's pizzas, second best only after Modesto's. (Domino's still OK, Pizza Hut a big no no............) Nonetheless I keep wondering why many of the Papa John's waiters in here are chubby guys.....ermmm I received the answer via SMS from Panzer concurring with my thought....he simply put it...it shows good food ermmm Fat people = Good food? ermmm I guess so hehehe..... good marketing strategies nonetheless.....

- Made a complaint at Johnny's (Steamboat) in Berjaya Times Square. Why? The infamous dip sauce is no longer thick as usual albeit the same taste. Being Johnny's ardent customer (one or twice a month), the manager helplessly told us that the sauce was supplied by one company and not being made by the restaurant itself....sigh...

- Had dinner at The Loaf in Pavilion and out of curiosity we tried its Japanese fusion set dinner named the Ojyu Plus One which have four type of set menus. I took the Murasala and A's took the Tsubaki. Out came 2 small trays and in it an even smaller or tiny cups of assorted fusion Japanese delicacies. The Japanese really know how to make us not to dislike the food. In each tiny cups or in a spoon, the food tasted yummy but because of its small quantities we appreciated it more after it enters into our mouth, wanting more of it but no longer there.... Funny that both of us swear to go to mamak stall afterwards...

A' s Tsubaki

My Murasala

Complimentary Bread

- The Drinks

On the same nite at Pavilion, we watched a Thai's movie called "Queen Of Langkasuka". On the way out of the cinema afterward, I kept wandering how our neighbouring country can produced such a high quality movie such as this. How so very far backward is our movie industry. It is beyond comparison. Such a shame.......

That is about all for now. We tried to keep a tight budget this month (to no avail, off course) to prepare ourselves for our upcoming trip to Jakarta/Bandung next Friday. Nonetheless , tonite, I will buy A's dinner at a secret place unknown to him to celebrate his birthday today...ermmmmmm

MY ACTIVITIES FROM MARCH 14 TO APRIL 5, 2009

Some recollection of my activities for the past month to date.

14 March 2009 (Saturday) - My Grandnephew Got Married

Yeah it can get complicated if the situation was like this. When my mum was born, her older sisters had already a few siblings of their own which means my mum have nieces and nephews older than herself. (There was nothing peculiar if at one time a daughter and her mother were pregnant during those old days, I guess). Because of that too, that is why I had a few nephews and nieces older than me, so to attend your grandnephew or grandniece wedding means nothing new to me. And to make a long story short, A and me and the whole of my family attended one of my grandnephew's wedding dinner on the above date at Putrajaya.

Here comes the married couple.

My grandnephew looked so young and
I felt ermm...not so young

21 March 2003 (Saturday) - Hot Air Balloon Festival (Putrajaya)

On the way to Putrajaya, A and me stopped at Nasi Beryani Putrajaya right after the Kajang toll house. We ate the herbal chicken beryani. Its was just OK by me but A did not like it much because of the herbs. Reached Putrajaya afterward. Our ambitious intention was not only to watch the hot air balloons but also take a ride in one of it. With no knowledge of the festival activities, obviously we did not know the scheduled planned. And because of that it was unfortunate that we arrived too early only to find out that the balloons were still deflated and there will be no open ride on that day....Darn. To make matter worse, it was too many people and the heat was unbearable. We only managed to watch the airshow and decided to leave before the balloons were up.

A managed to catch this on his camera

28 March 2009 (Saturday - Earth Hour Campaign)

Such a historical night. Where is the best place to view KL in its darkness if not the highest place possible, right? Taking a cue from Is, A and me went to KL Tower and again thanks to Is, with the help of his friend who works there, the ticket to the Observation Deck was only RM5.00 per person instead of the normal RM38.00.

Now you see it ....

Now you don't...

Most of the people at the Observation Deck were foreigners. There was an exultant feeling when people cheered each time they saw one after another buildings lights in KL were turn off starting from 8.30pm. The loudest cheers came when KLCC's lights were turn off level by level just in front of our eyes...awesome sight. With no lights for one hours, I don't know what my fellow Malaysian were doing at that time. My wise brother has a prediction on this. He said to wait for another 9 months to see miracle happens i.e the maternity wards in Malaysia will be full with new born babies....wink wink...(not applicable to certain kind of people for sure, the unmarried one, I meant)...

Wonder what was A's looking at, ermm skodeng yek..

The lights on the Observation Deck were closed too.

Nothing to do in the darkness so we
took pictures of ourselves. Boleh?

Left KL Tower at 9.20pm and it was still in the dark.

Afterward, together with Wan, Panzer and Faiz, we went to E-box Karoke in Endah Parade until 2.45 am and then had our drinks at Mirasaa Seri Petaling. Went home at 3.30 am.


29 March 2009 (Sunday) - Third Birthday Celebration

I have posted my first birthday celebration before here. After that, there was one more small celebration with my sister's family in which I am close with. I brought them to dinner at Papa John, Berjaya Times Square. Then on 29 March 2009, in conjunction with my elder brother's birthday, my sister in-law decided to make it a double celebration together with mine. I considered it to be my third birthday celebration. So this below pictures were taken at their house in Shah Alam.

Nice surprise, instead of 1 cake we had 4
(3 from Secret Recipe and 1 from dunno where).

these lovely cupcakes were too beautiful to eat

One of my cute niece gave me this..

This is not one of the gifts ..yeah blame it on me
I envied my schoolmates who rode mini coopers back then in the 70's...

4 April 2009 (Saturday)

After A's finished his classes, we went to IKEA to buy a few small unimportant things. We then shopped at DIY (Ikano) before having our dinner at Penang Village next door. I like the comfy place and the food was quite good too.

For starters we had Pie Tees and Rojak Buah
(The Rojak Buah was not in the picture, already finished..)

A ate Pineapple rice. I normally am not fond of it,
but this rice is exceptionally good and aplenty too.

I ate Langkawi Rice. Why the name I dunno.
The taste was just OK but I like the chicken and the acar.

The Inchi Kabin Chicken, if i am not mistaken...sedapppppp!!!!

The drinks were nice too. I drank Ribena Syrup and A had Air Cendol. Overall a nice dinner.


5 April 2009 (Sunday)

I received an invitation from ZainJB at 2.00am for an outing at Congkak River that afternoon but I had to declined since I got prior engagement. My brother has been asking for one of A's cat for quite sometime so on this kinda sad day, A and me sent Intan (its a male by the way) to my brother's house in Subang Jaya. After making sure that he was OK we left and headed to Subang Parade looking for a place for our late lunch. There, we saw Swensen's and decided to give it a try.

What was left of a tomato soup, A's starter for lunch

A nice and simple Onion Soup for me. Actually this soup comes with
the main course but I liked it so much and ordered one more

A ordered Chicken Burger

I ordered Ratatouille Chicken - a new speciality dish

We end up sharing this Coit Tower for dessert.

Afterward we went window shopping in Subang Parade....I am impressed with the new building face lift albeit this is considered one of the oldest big building in Subang Jaya... We then went to a big electrical shops in Taipan with the intention to buy an Air Purifier, and being me with the uncontrolled impulsive buying and with short amnesia on our poor economic climate instead of buying just Air Purifier I ended up buying "things" worth more than RM6K...my wallet koyak again...gulp...

I was eaten, he is next....huhu

SO VERY TRUE IN LIFE

I have a lot on my mind of things to post but unfortunately due to time constraint I have to KIV it and wait for a suitable time instead. Nonetheless, today, my office mate sent this email to me which I found worth posting. It simply shows us the reality of life as brilliantly illustrated below...

Sometimes you can reach too far! And when you find yourself over-extended and you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of, there is one thing you should always remember.........

Not everyone who shows up......

....is there to help you.....

ermm funny but its true...the person that you think you can trust to help you in your worse condition may turn around and take advantage of your condition to his/her own use. So be careful on who you call for help and how sincere they are or else you may end up like in the same position above...get screw up.......yulp....

SMOKING : PART 2

As an addition to the the previous post, I only like to add one more image in which I found in the net quite sometime ago. My deepest apology if this image or picture may be offensive to those heavy smokers out there. I am sure most of you have already seen much more gruesome pictures in the newspaper (on the cigarette pack if you are in Thailand) on the effect of smoking but I guess nothing should have said more than what has been mentioned in the previous post.

WILL POWER OR NOT: QUIT SMOKING THE OPRAH'S WAYS

I watched Oprah today and the topic was about how to quit smoking. The infamous Dr Oz was there too. Even if I am not a smoker per se, this topic is very relevant and important to my friends who have in times tries so hard to quit but fail to do so. After watching it, I went to Oprah.com to copy and paste most of the topic discussed here inter alia about understanding how a smoker feels, what are the effects of smoking and how to quit according to steps given.

Its a bit long but I hope it can be of some help. So here goes:-

Dr. Oz says the hardest thing about getting the 45 million Americans who smoke to quit is that they already know how bad smoking is for them—every pack actually tells a smoker about the dangers of premature aging, disease and death. "They seem like very rational people, right? They find a way to work, they get up in the morning, they can do all kinds of things. Yet despite being so rational, they keep trying to kill themselves," Dr. Oz says. "This is an effort for us to understand the biology of addiction."

Smokers continue to smoke not because of a lack of willpower, Dr. Oz says, but because of fear. "People are scared of what's going to happen," he says. "First of all, if I do it and I fail, I may be less worthy. And if I do it and succeed, am I going to be normal?"

One thing most people don't consider is how smoking affects their brain. After each puff, the nicotine reaches your brain within seconds. "They go to this part of the brain just above the ear … called the insula," Dr. Oz says. In the insula, the nicotine opens your brain's receptors and allows dopamine to flow in. "Dopamine is the ultimate addictive element in our body," he says. "When we have really good sex, dopamine comes out. When we have a double chocolate cheesecake, dopamine goes out. You do drugs, dopamine gets stimulated. … Cigarettes are as addictive as heroin.

At 29, Aubrey says she's smoked for more than half her life. Those years of smoking have already done some damage to her body, both inside and out. If she continues to smoke, the damage will only intensify.On the left is a computer model of what Aubrey could look like in 30 years if she stops smoking now. "You'll age a little bit," Dr. Oz says. "Your hair will change; your skin won't be quite as bouncy. But when you have four grandkids, you're still going to look pretty hot!"On the right is what Aubrey could look like if she keeps smoking for the next 30 years. "The smoking sucks up nitric oxide, a very important chemical that gives your skin bounciness. It also destroys the arteries of the body. So you see the wrinkles, especially this pattern of wrinkle around the lips? Very typical of cigarette smokers."The difference on the outside between "nonsmoking Aubrey" and "smoking Aubrey" pales in comparison with the difference on the inside. "The inside of that woman … is not just rusting out the infrastructure of her skin," Dr. Oz says. "She's rusting her kidneys, her heart, her brain, your fertility, your sexuality. It all goes the same way."

Dr. Oz's call to all smokers is not beat yourself up because you haven't been able to stop smoking. Instead, arm yourself with tools so you'll never want a cigarette again.

Danielle is a 28-year-old mother. "Every time I try and quit, my husband always says, 'Who's stronger, you or the cigarette? Who's stronger?' Every time, the cigarette's always stronger because I always go back."

In a telling exercise, Danielle adds up how much her smoking addiction has cost her—it's $22,428 over 14 years. "Wow, that's $22,428 that I've spent on cigarettes—$22,428 that I've spent on killing myself slowly," she says.

"I see the autopsy of people. I've seen their lungs; I've seen how black they are, what it does to them," he says. "I've had medical examiners show me what the effects of smoking are, and I still smoke. That's how powerful it is."

"I can give you all of the numbers—there are 250 toxic chemicals in cigarettes, and 50 can cause cancer. But you know all that stuff. That's why we don't want to spend a lot of time on this show telling you all the bad things that can happen," Dr. Oz says. "We want to dive into the root reasons of why we don't change."

Using real human lungs, Dr. Oz shows the havoc smoking can wreak. The healthy lungs of a nonsmoker, he says, look pink and supple. "It's not as pink as it usually is because it's been preserved," he says.

Dr. Oz contrasts the healthy lungs with the damaged lungs of a smoker. Dr. Oz says this lung's moth-eaten appearance is evidence of emphysema, which is a condition of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He also points out a lump that denotes lung cancer.

"People keep thinking it's about cancer. Cancer's the tip of the iceberg," he says. "Emphysema and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Emphysema is a chronic (long time) lung disease that get worse over time. " I googled to find out what it means.

Dr. Oz explains that smoking causes changes in the lungs that can lead to emphysema and COPD. "It's the biggest reason that we have lung problems in this country," Dr. Oz says. "[It's] the number four cause of death, and people never hear about it."
Air taken into the lungs enters little tubes called alveoli. "They're like little bubble pops," Dr. Oz says. "As you smoke, you break down those barriers and you pop them. So you take these very nice grape-like structures and you turn them into these big sacs that no longer can exchange air with the outside world. Then when these coalesce and come together, they form these large blebs on the outside of the lung. … That air is not helping you because it can't get into your body and exchange with your blood. So literally as these blebs get larger, they push the normal lung away and you suffocate yourself."

With all the life-threatening effects of smoking, why can't smokers just stop? Dr. Daniel Seidman, a leading expert on smoking addiction at Columbia University Medical Center, says people have conflicting thoughts about quitting. "You have the smart brain that's cultured and educated and understands that [smoking is] going to hurt your family and hurt your body," he says. "Then, you have the old reptilian brain that wants what it wants when it wants it. You're at war with yourself."

To end the war, Dr. Seidman says you must "wave the white flag" and admit you need help in ending your addiction. "Smokers are not all the same. Some people can quit on their own and relatively easily, and some people will say it's the hardest thing they ever did. So they need the tools, and they need to make the effort," he says. "It's not just about the motivation—they have to make a commitment. They have to make the effort and need some guidance and outside help to be successful with it."

Once you've made the decision to live a smoke-free life, Dr. Oz, Dr. Seidman and Dr. Michael Roizen suggest following a four-step plan.

Step 1: Face the truth.

Take the quiz to determine what kind of smoker you are. Dr. Oz says learning how out of control you really are is an important realization. "Once you realize you're out of control, it helps you build your commitment and be willing to make the effort so you're not smoking at all," he says. "If you're smoking a little bit, that cigarette's going to make you want to have the next cigarette, and it's not going to go well."

(The test: How soon you wake up and need to smoke, do you sweat in the shower, how long cant you stand and need to break to smoke when you are in a meeting - this was an additional thing not covered in the oprah.com but what I copied down during the show time).

Step 2: Prepare yourself mentally and physically to quit smoking.

Dr. Oz says it's imperative to set a "quit date"—your first day of breathing free—between two weeks and a month ahead of time. During those last few weeks before your quit date, Dr. Oz says you should prepare yourself for a life without cigarettes.

An addiction to smoking has physical, social and emotional components, Dr. Oz says, so it's important to have a battle plan on all fronts. To begin your strategy, Dr. Oz suggests writing a list of all the reasons why you want to keep smoking and a list of the reasons why you want to quit. "Help that reptilian brain that Dr. Seidman was talking about at least retreat a little bit so the smart, higher brain can start to do its job, which is to get you to do the right things," he says.

Get some ideas for your smoke-free strategy.

If you smoke out of habit, Dr. Oz suggests taking up a healthy, new habit—like walking—in its place. "The most common reason women give for not stopping smoking when they're young is weight gain," he says. "So the first thing we want you to do is start walking, because if you don't get on a weight reduction program, if you stop the cigarettes, you will gain weight."

In addition to preventing weight gain, Dr. Oz says walking has other benefits in your battle to breathe free. "If you've got a program that makes sense for you, and you're feeding your brain the right nutrients … you'll lose weight, and you'll be alert and ready to make these difficult moves like stopping cigarettes.

Step 3: Visit your doctor, find support and prepare for your first smoke-free day.

Before your quit date, Dr. Oz says you should talk to your doctor about the different medical options that can help you remain smoke-free. You can ask your doctor about several medications and aids.

Chantix, a new drug (block nicotine) and Wellbutrin were mentioned in the show but not stated again in the Oprah.com. They also did mention about the side effect such as nausea, fever, migraine and a few other effects but I forgot to write down.

Step 4: Protect yourself against a relapse.

So you've taken all the steps, your quit date has passed and you're breathing free—but you feel like having just one more cigarette. What now?

Turn to your support system. Whether you and a buddy decide to quit together or you find a support group, you should have someone to turn to when the cravings rear their ugly head.

Find support for your smoke-free life!

So how do you avoid those relapse triggers? Being assertive can help you stay out of social situations that might tempt you to light up. "When your buddy calls up and says, 'Let's go down, grab a drink together, and then we'll go over to the movie,' you've got to say, 'You know, I love you, but I'm not doing that because I know what's going to happen if I do that.'"

When you're really in a crunch, Dr. Oz says you should also have some last-ditch escape mechanisms to steer your focus away from cigarettes. "It can range from other things to put in your mouth, like cinnamon sticks or tea. File your nails," he says. "Do something that distracts you at those times of crisis."

At first, a person who quits smoking will feel some discomfort—but the doctors say that's okay. "We are not comfortable being uncomfortable," Dr. Oz says. "[But] that is the single best way to grow in life. You all have the beautiful opportunity to get through cigarette smoking, which is going to make you a lot better equipped to deal with other realities in life."

When you're preparing for your quit date, you should be ready for the discomfort withdrawal can bring. Dr. Roizen emphasizes that while you might feel bad at first, you will feel better in about a month. "When you first withdraw from a drug—and nicotine in cigarettes is a drug—you feel bad. It's like withdrawal from anything," he says. "That's why we give [some patients] the [nicotine] patch to help you feel a little better. But it's not the same high. When you inhale it, you get a much higher level. And so over time, you withdraw from that, you replace it, and you end up feeling normal again."

Aside from physical symptoms, which usually are temporary, Dr. Seidman says you must deal with the emotional issues that come with quitting. "Sometimes there's other things hiding behind the smoke," he says. "You might have problems with your mood or anger or other things like that. And if it doesn't get better, it's important to realize that whatever's wrong with you, smoking is not the best medicine for you."

MY BIRTHDAY MAKAN-MAKAN 8 MARCH 2009

It has been nearly 2 weeks since my birthday and it has been a week since the day I celebrated my birthday with my old and close friends. First and foremost I would like to thank all my family and friends who gave their wishes. Secondly, many thanks to all my guests who came to my makan-makan petang last Sunday. Really appreciate it. Thanks for the nice gifts too..hehe... It was a small and intimate gathering. True as what Ben told me..the gathering bring back fond memories... My intention to do it at the pool side of my house was non other than to make it more laid back kinda thang. Also, I thought because of the afternoon heat, any of the guests might want to dip into the pool to cool themselves but I guess wrong. They were not prepared to bring their swimming apparels or either too shy to strut in their swimming suit( or to show their swimming skill? hehe...)

Special thanks to my partner in crime, the superhero batman

Still cutting the cake for the guests, I love the white chocolate macadamia

Other guests eating and chatting away..

The food for the makan-makan petang

Food again...

Nope, the initial "S" is not for Snake...
and its not a birthday present either...
The snake belong to Azhar (looking at the back)
and its already hungry ermm..

Till we see again for next year gathering...InsyAllah...xoxo...........

TAGGED BY SANKAI

I was tagged by Sankai and below are how to answer and get result on the personality test...

1. Open this website : http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

2. Take the Personality Quiz

3. Copy Paste the result to your blog.

4. Tag your friends including me :)

My Result

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You like to flirt and behave seductively. The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms. But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:

You are full of energy and confidence. You are unpredictable, with moods changing as quickly as an ocean. You might occasionally be calm and still, but never for long.

A big grin after reading the result...to those who really knows me may beg to differ... I take all this as a fun thang...nothing more than that.......

With this, like it or not..I will tag Awis, Wan, Lie, Dzeng and Rizal....