Alone with the kids..

My hubby has just started his new project which requires him to travel thruout M'sia for the next one year. One year babe.. No kidding..which means i hv to b on my own with the kids four days a week for the next one year. He will b home just for the weekemd. Not so bad...sacrifice le kan..and i think this time is worth the efforts n sacrifices. Insyaallah.

In the mean time, i managed to persuade my sister's neighbour to stay with me during his absence..(of course not for free lah kan...where got free one nowadays. E/thg comes with a price babe..) anyway it was so kind of her to help...that was really great.

See how things go for the next few weeks. Hope i can get used to things n handle them myself.

I need somebody to be home when elissa gets home from school in the afternoon. Otherwise she is home alone for 2 hours until hilda gets home. It's only 2 hours but anythg could happen within just a short period of time (nauzubillah...) and she is too young to be home alone.
That is the main reason for wanting to hv somebody to stay with me., apart from that...to cook lunch for the kids lah...

Well..so far so good..she is doing fine n seems to know what to do around the house. Ringan tulang sangat walaupun saiz badan x berapa ringan. Hehe. She loves to cook. The 'air tangan' also not bad. I hv done my groceries tday n look fwd to see what is happening tmoro.

Till then, good nite bloggers...

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This time it's Kenny Rogers...

After Assunta Sports Day, we all decided to hv lunch at kennyRogers. It was elissa's pick again.



Many pple there...tables were mostly occupied and we managed to park ourselves at a not so strategic spot - next to the sink.

Orders were taken but it took quite s/time for the food to arrive. Yes understood it was a big crowd there..

While waiting for food, my mind started 'boggling'..why can't they expect the crowd tday? Given the fact that tday is the last weekend of the month, (which most pple already recd their pay cheques for the month...gomen sure dh masuk gj..) I'm sure the restaurant operator expects the crowd. Afterall, it is not a new phenomena in M'sia whereby the eating places are crowded during this time of the month bila gj kluar. Takkan tak study the pattern of sales made...which days / weeks of the month that sales are peak.

Lagi satu yg i always pelik is why don't most restaurants or even any services for that matter do not study / look into their own capacity. Contohnya, if u provide a capacity of 50 paxs in your restaurant, u should also employ enough manpower to man the space capacity that u created. Otherwise, it does not balance and your capacity is actually falls back on how many paxs that each one of your staff could handle. If one staff can only serve 5 pple at one time, then having only 6 staff would not be sufficient to cater for 50 paxs. In this case, the capsaity is only (5x6) 30 paxs, not 50 paxs. That was just my 'perkiraan bodoh' that may not make much sense to some pple. But that has been on my mind everytime i encountered similar incidents like tday.

One more thing...the gravy for the chicken was cair. Confirmed..the gravy was not enough to go around. So, cairkan sikitlah.... That is the
trick right?


Wait till i come back again to kenny rogers on a normal day..probably on the 17ish of the month, and i will tell u the different. But that is not good bcoz in business, we hv to be consistently good in servicing our cudtomers no matter at which time of the month or day.

Am not criticizing bcoz i just like to complain or write for no reasons but i feel obliged n really want to see some changes in our service
industry - at least setanding dgn negara luar - at least what we get worth the money spent...

I will also give credits when due.. Sent via iPhone.

My Long Lost Friends

Had the chance to update my facebook the other day. My fb was initially created basically for MIA QE friends - serves as a so called 'forum' - to release tension and to share joyful event, if any.

Surprisingly, there were two invitations as friends from two people whom i had not in contact with for so long- almost 21years. They were my housemate n colleague when we were studying in Boston, US. Carol n i went to boston university while Zamrut (Lut) went to Wentworth Inst of Technology n subsequently to Northeastern Univ, which is also in Boston.

Am so glad that i finally found my long lost friends. They actually looked out for me on FB. It is a good platform to create new friends and also find old acquaintances.

Looking at old photos remind me of good old days...wet cold winter days..can still remember them well... Wish could go back there..insyaallah..it is on my wish list. I really wanna bring my kids there. Wanna share with them how difficult life was during study days..money was absolutely very scarce... Therefore we students had to take part time job.

Also wanna show them the campus, charles river, the downtown where i would normally spend my time when the going gets tough, the Boston Common (the park), the cafe where i used to work for my hard earned money, the apartments and everythg else. Hope they r still there.

Life was difficult then but as a student, it was great experience. We enjoyed as well. Weekends were well spent. That was the best part of it all... Huh cant express them here unless u were there with me...too much good n baddddd memories.,as well.. So long.. Gotta go b4 Got carried away.

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A litttllee bit about myself....

A mum who doesn't want to disclose much about herself just took the your favourite fruit tells your secret...!!!!!!!!!!! quiz

and got the result: PINEAPPLE..

PINEAPPLE: You are quick to decide and even quicker to act. You are brave in making career changes; if that is what is to your advantage. You have exceptional organising abilities and are undaunted by the size of the task at hand. You tend to be self reliant, sincere and honest in your dealings with others. Though you are not given to making friends very quickly, but once you do, it is for life. You rarely, if ever, make romantic overtures. Your partner is often impressed with your sterling qualities but disappointed in your ability to show affection.

Credit given when it's due...

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We r on our 'weekend get away'...not far away...but far enough to enjoy the weekend with just the five of us...

We are spending our weekend at Duta Village Resort, not far away from home. Children enjoying themselves ..simply bcoz they get to be away from home..doing something diff from their routine weekend...

Why Duta Village?? because of our membership with the TancoResort since 1999...on a time sharing basis...which had cost us quite a big sum..not to mention its annual fees and its maintenance fees..Why Duta Village again?..bcoz its near..very near from home..

In the afternoon, we decided to take a drive around the area..that is along the stretch of Kg Balok up to the Gebeng / Kuantan Port junction. On the way back to the resort, we saw KFC Balok. I felt so 'jauh hati' with KFC. But my hubby suggested that we gave it another shot at KFC Balok...(whether the service is different or consistently the same as the one we had at previous location )..oklah..we gave it a try..So..we had our 'minum petang' cum dinner there...guess what??

To my (and the kids') surprise, the service was damned good, fast, polite and superb..the surrounding was customer friendly..and one important thing that i need to emphasize here was its BREWED..AROMA..RICH AND HOT COFFEE was puurrfect..that was what i called COFFEE...the 'specification' was accurate to my taste. My hubby agreed with me that it tasted good.

Hubby passed a remark that i should write another entry in my blog to compliment the good service rendered by the staff. I think that was a good idea. Why not? Furthermore..credit should be given when it is due...why wait?..here it goes..

p/s: Looks like my hubby has been reading my blog...who told him about my previous entry? i didn't..Oppss..well, Its great to know that he has been reading it..

Brewed..aroma..rich..hot coffee..hmmm

It was sunday and elissa had a special request that we had bfast at KFC. (chose not to disclose which location.)Such a small request, i thought..and i felt obliged to honour it. So off we went to the place for bfast..Pa didn't join us as he had more important thing to 'honour'...mesyuarat kejiranan...

Honestly, i didn't feel good about having bfast at KFC. Never had bfast there..While strolling to KFC, which was just opposite our normal bfast spot, I was thinking what would they serve for bfast..anyway..i didn't want to dissappoint the girls.. i mean Elissa..(as Hilda would normally has no preference over where to eat..)

To start with..there was only one counter opened. The lady taking the order was also the one who had to run around, in and out of the kitchen to collect the food. There was another lady behind the counter busy folding the take away boxes. The line was not too long but wasn't short either..about 3 customers before me. But the fact that the lady had to do so many things by herself had actually slowed down the line. okay lah..i could tolerate that..although the manager on duty was there too..but never bothered to use a bit of his intelligence to do something about the service..pple keep coming and when i looked behind..there were at least another 4 customers hungrily waiting in line..

i had finally been served..ordered 2 milo but was given only one cup..ordered two twisters but had to wait..so we were given the number instead. While waiting in line just now, i had fancied a great taste of its coffee as promoted on the menu..it's written as BREWED..RICH..WITH AROMA..HOT COFFEE.. wow..couldn't wait for that..
But to my surprise..when i looked at the coffee that was served..it was totally different..very..very..'thin' coffee..so cairrrr...when i put in one sachet of creamer, it looked so 'ugly' and u can tell how it would taste...urggh..not up to the standard..as they claimed..

I got pissed..tetiba 'meroyan'..hangin tetiba..and i waived at the manager on duty who was lazily walking towards me..i complained about the coffee..and he said..cair?? macam tak percaya..then he took the cup and brought it to the counter, put in more coffee and handed it back to me..i thanked him and the guy didn't even say a word..not even a sorry from him..he left without saying anything..hah..marah kat aku lah tu..aku nak marah dia tak tau..Huh brother..I paid for it..for the lousy service..the least he could have said was sorry..well customers are always right..agaknya the guy belum grad lagi..dying to know from which college or university he is from..the face dont look familiar..definitely not from ikip training.. haha

well..tu lah..our service industry is still way..way..way..behind..

Condolence

Al-fatihah to Hilda's friend's mum who just passed away yesterday afternoon. She was suffering from diabetis and other complications.

Hilda was very quiet yday after she learned about the news. My hubby n me took her for 'ziarah' right away. Quite a sad moments for her as Raudhah is a close friend of hers since small. We wamted Hilda to be there for her friend...to lend her shoulders to cry on and anything that she could offer during her friend's difficult times.

This is what life is all about...May Raudhah is able to cope with it. This is a trying time that every one of us would go thru.

To Raudhah, uncle n auntie r always there for u.. for anything at all.

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Learn...re-learn and unlearn

Was watching an interview with Paklah held by TV3 tonite. Nothing so extraordinary or extravagant to quote from the conversation... To me it was an 'easy listening' while putting my son to sleep.

However, there were a few lines that i thought was rather 'catchy' to me...

"orang kita terlalu gullible..mudah percaya atau terpedaya dgn cerita2 yg didengar dari orang lain tanpa usul periksa. Kita terima semuanya bulat2..".

Gitu lah lebihkrg kata2 paklah. Walaupun not verbatim, but it was s/tjing to that effect.

Although i am not a big fan of his, i totally agreed with what he said. Kita suka mendengar tanpa menganalisa, suka memandang tanpa memerhati, suka bercakap tanpa fakta. Itu lah kita...

Kenapa jadi begini? Sebab kita suka ambik mudah dan suka terima benda2 yg tak memerlukan kita berfikir lebih.

• Tak payah work hard, but i work smart....
• Bukan nak ngadu, tapi i am just updating my boss..
• I bukan nak take over your job but i am just covering u up.

Itu lah antara statements yg digunakan oleh orang-orang lain kepada kita dan ia boleh mengelirukan sekiranya kita cuma tahu mendengar tanpa menganalisa dan memandang tanpa memerhati...Lebih mengelirukan sekiranya ia datang dari subordinates kita.

Kasihannya KITA...kalau masih tak sedar2 bahawa diri kita sebenarnya telah dipergunakan oleh orang2 itu..

That's why we should keep on learning, re-learning and unlearning...endlessly..

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The Intrinsic Value of Life...

MANUSIA walau di mana jua dan bila2 masa pun akan sentiasa hipokrit dan mengamalkan resmi lalang.
Malangnya mereka inilah yg menerajui sesebuah organisasi. Di manakah kesedaran mereka2 ini. Tak boleh kah diwujudkan satu organisasi yg sihat dan bebas dari semua itu?


Inilah 'nilai-nilai murni' yg kita bakal semai dan perturunkan kepada anak2 kita dan generasi2 baru. Kenapa kita sudah tidak matang berfikir? Kita rasa kita cukup professional dlm tugas kita tapi kita lupa yg kita mungkin 'terpijak kaki kawan' sebelah.Kenapa nilai2 murni dan kematangan berfikir sudah tidak dijadikan ukuran didalam membuat sebarang keputusan?

Kita menghadapi tanggungjwb yg besar utk menerapkan nilai hidup atau nilai diri yg sebenarnya kepada anak2 kita. Masalahnya, terlalu sukar utk kita perturunkan kerana tidak byk contoh2 yg baik disekeliling kita yg dapat kita tunjuk kpd anak2 kita. Apakah itu nilai murni? Kekadang kita sendiri pun tidak pasti.

Sifat ketidakadilan jg telah kita terapkan di peringkat taska lagi.

It was only the other day that my five year old son complained that he was forced to take nap at certain hour when another friend of his was left awake n was free to do whatever he wanted to do. Later we learned that the boy was the son of the kakak pengasuh. Today my son came back n complained again that he was not allowed to bring his toys to 'school' but it was okay for THE boy to do so.How do i explained this to my son? That this is the fact of life that he has to go thru?.. That it is okay to be biased? That what he is going thru is normal? I felt guilty for allowing it to happen to my son. He kept asking his dad why he got different treatment. Double standard so to speak.

Pity my dear son for having to go thru the 'bitter' side of life this early. Maybe this is part of learning process. He learns, re-learns and unlearns...But as parents, we have bigger roles to play. Bigger than what we could think of.

Our current financial crisis is nothing compared to the crisis that we put ourselves through.

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