Di Ambang Merdeka

It's almost 10 pm now. I'm sitting in a cafe @Ampang Waterfront with Noris, Ed, Wani & her mother. The four of us are really, really occupied with surfing the Net while MAMA (Wani's mother) is obediently keep us company.

In about 2 hours, Malaysia will be 50 years old and the Government has been preparing for a grand celebration. Millions and millions has been spent and will be spent to ensure that the celebration is a GRAND one!

While others are excitedly rushing to Dataran Merdeka or other celebration points, I'm thinking of copying Rina's plan for Merdeka celebration, which is going to bed early. The princess is already on her bed, preparing herself for a beautiful dream.

I asked a friend of mine this morning, what merdeka means to him. And he gave an interesting answer, "Nothing".

Well, I was not in the mood for a debate so I decided not to probe further. I just stopped there. A few minutes later, a colleague of mine stopped by at my workstation to inform me that the mother of one of our colleagues has passed away this morning after spent a few days in ICU due to a heart attack.

Around 10 am, a group of us got together and went to Subang to pay our respect to the arwah. She has a small family and she lost her father years ago and now she lost her mother. As the eldest, she has to be strong and arranged almost very thing since most of her family members are in Kelantan.

When we arrived at the Subang Jaya (Section 15) mosque, she was in the midst of bathing her mother with the help of bilal perempuan and her assistants. Because there were a small number of male Muslims, my friends and I helped what we could such as lifted the arwah up and placed her on a proper table to be kapaned. Then, lifted the arwah up once again and placed her in the casket and carried her inside the mosque for prayering. Since some of our non Muslim colleagues can't enter the mosque due to unsuitable attire, we decided to go to the cemetery so that they too can pay their last respect to the arwah.

I made a couple of interesting observations. Firstly, I impressed how well a couple of Liza's Chinese relatives paid their last respect according to Islamic teaching. Secondly, I had the opportunity to be in a bilik kapan. Last but not least, it was my first time seeing a jentolak being used @cemetery.

I totally agree with FND that as a muslim we really need to learn all about jenazah, especially people like us, the eldest male in the family, so that we know what to do and how to do it correctly when the time comes. I should include this in my resolution list!

I'm getting tired and I think it's timely for me to sign off. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Malaysian, "Selamat Hari Merdeka!" And have a productive weekend too.

And Al-fatihah buat arwah.

Uda & Dara

We have so many things in common. We looooooove to talk and talk and talk. The eldest in our family, we shoulder our responsibility seriously. And we're on the same page when it comes to marriage.

It has been a long time, since the last time I went out with her. And I really glad that we had dinner together last Sunday night @Bora Ombak.

We both shared our stories - all sorts of stories - family, friendship, happiness, betrayal and the finale was L.O.V.E.

I really admired her courage, strength and positive attitude. Like what ReenaZack said the other day, she really a confident woman now! Have I said that she's attractive too?

I think I've an idea how hard it is to give birth!

(Picture was taken from Wikipedia)

My team and I are working really, really hard (not to mention extra hours) to complete the development of a new online system. It really tested my thinning patience.

After the vendor has rectified this error, that error popped up. Addressed that error, another two errors appeared. Oh, my God... it was like a never ending story. And I'm really, really tired!

A friend of mine said why must I still involved in this project, when my flying date is just around the corner!

I hope I can just drop everything and concentrate on my preparation to restart a life as a student. But this project is so close to my heart and I really hope that I can safely and successfully deliver this baby. And then, I can confidently and comfortably let other to nursing it.

I arrived home slightly 5 minutes after midnight last Friday (Saturday? Friday? Saturday whatever lah) and no one at home. I guess both of my housemates slept at their families'. I quickly cleaned myself, sent a couple of SMSes to my friends (including to my Bukit Tabuh buddies) and straight jumped onto my bed. I slept like a baby until my alarm "screamed" at 5 something in the morning.

I made my bed, got myself a quick shower, performed my salat and quickly did my laundry. While waiting for my laundry, I cleaned the house and fed my fish.

By 9.00 am, I've already in the office, excitedly testing the system for countless times. Minutes later, my boss and another colleague of mine joined me scrutinised this yet to be born baby!

"Do you want caesar?" I said to my boss.

She quickly said "Nope. Normal."

I replied, "Push harder, then."

Luckily, she has time a stupid joke! Ya Rabbi... susahnya! Ops... penatnya!

p/s: Went to Hisyam's reception in PJ with Fezal & Mus this afternoon but can't stay long because I got text from my boss to quickly come to the office.

I'm not lovin' it!

This is about my bad experience with the poor service (unprofessional too) of McDelivery, illustrated in the following three emails sent to a number of parties, including McD themselves, Malay Mail and Utusan Malaysia. I placed an order @7.34 pm and received my order @9.18 pm!


My First Email @ 13/08/2007 21:15

I placed an order @7.34pm today with order number 42410, with total amount of RM35.24. But after waiting for one hour, I called the 1-300-13-1300 number again @8.37pm to check on my still unarrived order but was informed that they will call me again after checking with The Mall outlet. I've been waiting for more that 15 minutes now but no courtesy call from McDonalds and now I'm so starving!

Only at 8.53pm, I received a call from staff of Jalan Silang store to ask me to wait a bit more for them to send over my order. And I was informed that The Mall store rejected my order because my workplace is too far for them to service and it was raining too.

What a lame excuse! Maybe I should stick to my more reliable old buddies - KFC or Domino Pizza so that I don't have to starve myself for more than an hour and 30 minutes for a decent meal.

My Second Email @ 14/08/2007 08:33

I don't mind if when my balance is short (it's only 1 cent anyway) although during the ordering I've indicated about that I'm going to pay with RM50 note.

But what pissed me off even more is when I did not get what I've ordered for. I've indicated clearly that NO ice with my soft drinks but unfortunately... I guess I was speaking to the wall. All four of my soft drinks came with... (suprise, surprise!!) ICE. If the food comes much earlier, we could have give the drinks to others.

What a night with no singing of "I'm Lovin it!"

My Third Email @ 15/08/2007 18:27

After waiting for more than 36 hours, Mr. Kay from McD (03-27*296**) called today at 10.46 am to apologise to me for the poor service I received from McDelivery on last Monday. I've politely accepted the apology and requested the company to nurture the habit of making courtesy call to customers if they can't fulfil what have been promised.

p/s: For your info, another established fastfood restaurant took less than 24 hours to respond to my complaint in October 2006.

Test of Maturity?

(This article was first published on http://badril.blog.ekawan.com/)




Bising isu Negarakuku. Oleh kerana sibuk, aku tangguhkan dulu.

Isu ini adalah ekoran kurang ajar. Aku tak maksudkan biadap tapi tak kenal maka tak cinta. Tun Tan Cheng Lock kenal bangsanya, sbb itu dia berjuang, buktikan bangsa Cina bukan pengganas spt yg dianggap British.

Meng Chee adalah seorg drp sebilangan yg gopoh & pendek akal. Dia mungkin nampak (mungkin juga tak) ada yg tak kena dgn situasi politik, ekonomi & sosial kita. Dia bersuara sbb percaya bersuara itu hak asasinya. Tapi dia tak cerdik kerana bersuara dgn betul adalah berdasarkan fakta bukannya generalisation.

Yang respons pun ada yg cerdik, ada yg tak. DS Ong Ka Ting percaya bersuara perlu ada adab & menangani isu ini perlu bijak. DAP percaya semua org boleh bersuara kerana itu hak asasi kita biarpun org lain terluka. Bagi aku dua2 ada ciri demokrasi. Tapi yg mana dekat di hati? Definitely not what Meng Chee did!

Oh, my God! I almost forgot birthday of one of my best friends, Ojot! By the time I realised it, I was already @Fraser's Hill and kept dialing his number but failed. I know it's a lame excuse and guys... please do not follow this bad example.

My dearest cousin... I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy belated birthday (his birthday was on 11 August) and good luck in your undertakings. Semoga murah rezeki, ceria dan bahagia sentiasa dan vogue selalu!

Bro... let Along buy you dinner, please...

I received a phone call from one of my girlfriends this afternoon, to convey her intention to make me the emcee for her wedding reception in January 2008.

"Don't worry, sayang. It's not going to be a National Service. I will write you a check."

"It's not about money. If it is you or Etty or Mus or Fezal, don't worry... I will do it for FREE. But unfortunately, I don't think that I will be around at that time because I will be on study leave starting middle next month!"

"Yeah... I heard that too! Sedihlah... kau takde di hari perkahwinan aku!"
Well, according to the handbook sent by the University, I will be having the Christmas vacation from 16 December 2007 to 14 January 2008. I need to consider a few things before I can decide whether or not to come home during the semester break. If HR insists of me to return on whatever reasons, then insya-Allah, I will be at her wedding. If not... Ya Rabbi! I really don't want to miss one of my best friends' wedding.