Long lost friend

Ooooo so happy, Friday is here again...ahahahah... been busy this week. Loads of things to settle before X'mas, because, the campus will close for 2 weeks (the office I mean). Have something to submit to the office, plus my supervisor will be on break for 1 month (hoooraaayyyy). So, now, I am doing a one-month-advance worth of work before the holiday (ya ka advance). Errrkkk... guess if I went missing for a couple of weeks nobody will notice kan *wink wink*.

Anyway, kenapa title camtu ek?

OK TGI Friday, why, because on Friday, after dinner, I will sit in front of the computer, and begin creating entries for the week ahead. I will auto publish all entries, and will only reply comments on weekdays. Unless I have some stories that I want to share immediately or am stuck with something that I need a break from, then I will be tapping my keyboard and b-log. Other than that, on Friday is the day I will watch movies because there are many movies on show. In other words, Friday is melepak day for me (as if other days I work like mad laaa...ahahhaa).

And about the title... my long lost friend came to visit recently. Dah lama tak datang, kali ni datang.....adeehhhhh sakitnya.



Introducing my long-lost-and-painful friend. Kat dahi atas kening sebelah kanan. Ya..dah tua pun ada jerawat lagi. It has been there for 3 days now, tak tau bila dia nak pergi. Nie jenis yang tak bleh picit, sebab punat takde kat luar (errkkk faham ke apa yang den citer nie). Kalau basuh muka tu, kena hati-hati, tekan sikit je sakitnya bleh denyut kepala.


"Atang, can I use your topicil".
"Alah, nanti 'dia' ilang laaa. Tahan la sikit".
"alaaa...sakit aaaaa"
"hmmm...sabar la sikit....Allah nak kasi pahala tu"
Den diam, dengan muke toye.
"yela...pakai la...nak tido, cuci muka lepas tu letak..."
Den sengih macam kerang busyuk aje.


Thanks to all the peanuts and chocolate I had last week, as a result I got this red thing on my forehead. oooooo...la nie X'mas sale merata-rata, and there are all sorts of chocolates on sale. Who can resists chocolate? Can you.

OK... I have a list of things to write. Then am going to bed early, because tomorrow I have a visit from another long lost friend. Yup this one is a human. Ahahahah.. going to cook something special tomorrow (my definition of special is, ordinary food tapi jarang-jarang masak :D).

Enjoy your weekend.

Book review : "Honk if you're Malaysian"

I saw this book in my dad's study room. "Abah, best ke buku nie?". "Baca lah, it is funny, Along yang bagi abah tu." OK, what ever Along (my sistah) reads is always good, though sometimes is too heavy for me. My sistah and also my brother have this fondness of reading books about politics, conspiracy (eg. books from Jeffry Archer, John Grisham), that I can never or will never like to read (cik, I know you like John Grisham, pardon me aaa). I only love triller, horror and mystery books, that is why my fav authors are Stephen King and Patricia Cornwell. But lately I am into chic-lit after reading Madeleine Wickham aka Sophie Kinsella's shopaholic series.

Anyway back to this book. I found it funny, easy to read, and agreed with most of the story that Lydia wrote in this book. However, I personally think that what ever Lydia potrayed in the book can't represent the whole population. Lydia only wrote about her experience, things that happened around her, and life in the city. There is more about Malaysian than what Lydia has wrote in the book. Nonetheless what Lydia wrote is not wrong, only not accurate.

But I enjoyed the book. If you are looking for a light reading, I suggest you go with this book.

p/s: This is only my opinion. I do not receive any incentive for writing this review (ke ada yang nak bagi gegegegege).

Yaya's masterpiece

Before we went back to Brisbane, I asked yaya to make two cards for her teacher, 1 for Ms Underwood, another for Mrs Mc Call. Since she got a card maker for her birthday, she used the kit, to make a Thank You card for both teachers. I bought a set of brooch for both of them, accompanying the card.

I went to the school on one fine morning. Walking up the school stairs, and walking to yaya's classroom, brought a lot of memories of me and yaya. Once I arrived at the classroom, searching for familiar faces, I saw most of yaya's friends still recognised me. 1 or 2 of them even walked up to me and asked about yaya. I smiled and said yaya is in Malaysia, home with her grandma. Before I stepped out from the house that day, I was determined to not show any emotion, I mean no sad emotion, in order to brace myself from crying . But at that moment, when the kids asked about yaya, I felt weak. I hold the smile and look for Ms Underwood.

Ms Underwood was suprised to see me there. She asked about yaya, how's yaya doing, how's yaya coping staying behind, and I just told her the truth. I told her that yaya cried the last day she came home from school, about yaya sometimes talked about her friends in Ironside. She even still remember that japanese song she learnt at Ironside. I told her yaya was sad when we left her, but she is doing ok now. Then Ms Underwood said they missed her a lot and she talked briefly about her. And I saw her eyes were getting wet. When I told her that she was not OK at first when I have to leave her, Ms Underwood cleared her throat and turned around, and took a piece of paper from a box behind her. She said, "Do yaya have email? The kids would love to write something for yaya." So I gave her my email and said that I will forward it to my dad's email address cause I didn't remember his address at that time.

Before I left, Ms Underwood gave me yaya's last painting that was done a few weeks before we went home. It was a father's day drawing. She drew her babah, and some description about her babah at the back of the artblock. I gave the cards and gifts, said my last thanks to Ms Underwood and Mrs McCall, and walked out of the classroom, feeling sad but lighthearted at the same time.

Garbage "It's all over but the crying"

Layan music video pulak. This is one of my fav band, Garbage. Kalau dengar lagu nie, mesti nak rewind banyak kali. errrkkkk zaman digital nie, apa perkataan yang sesuai untuk ganti rewind ye?

The killer storm

Maybe some of you knew about the storm that hit Brisbane last Sunday (a week before this recent Sunday). Heavy rain, strong wind, lightning and thunder are normal occurences during Spring in Brisbane. But this year, storm came and brought disaster to one suburb called The Gap. It is about 10km from our home.

On that Sunday, 16th of November, I heard rolling thunder (kat sini la baru faham apa maksud rolling thunder, macam lagu A-Ha. Seriously, it sounded like a full barrel rolling down a hill), at around 4pm. I was ironing clothes at that time. Lightning struck, followed by thunder, and repeating. Then came heavy rain. Strong wind, hollowing, it was scary.

I managed to take some pictures.






I only knew about the disaster at The Gap when one of my colleague mentioned about it on Tuesday, 2 days after the aftermath. It was pretty bad, roof blewn away, people became homeless, many loses, flood, and worst the storm has claimed 1 life. Alhamdullillah nothing bad happened near our house.



Remember the entry about my kitchen floor that was flooded last week. Apparently another place called Ipswich was hit by a storm that night, and it was also bad. According to weather forecast, another storm is coming soon. Just hope it wouldn't bring disaster again.

Movie : Saw 5

We have been an avid follower of Saw. Saw 5 was released on October 23rd in Australia.

So last Saturday we went to Birch and Caroll megaplex to watch the movie. If you have never watch the previous series (need to start with Saw), you will never understand what is the movie all about. Bewarn, this movie is not for faint-hearted (chewah...ada berani ka?).



Verdict: I have read the synopsis before watching the movie, so kinda know what to expect laaaa...anyway in term of story line, props, and trill, I prefer Saw II better. For Saw V, I don't like the ending, coz I think, whatever decision that Agent Straum has to make, he still can't get away, alive.

Thoughts: After reading about the ordeal that Ijah and Zubed were facing, I kinda anticipate people like Jigsaw is real (OK...this is an evil thing to say, I know this is not right... but still). Jigsaw idea of rehabilitation and to give a second chance (if you have guts and strong, after all people said, if you are not wrong, why must you fear) can scare some people, especially people who think they can escape from the crime they have committed.

But always remember, ALLAH is MOST powerful, NOT human.

p/s: Doa Nabi Yunus ketika kesusahan dan penderitaan di dalam perut ikan

"لَّآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنتَ سُبۡحَـٰنَكَ إِنِّى ڪُنتُ مِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ"

Sesungguhnya tiada Tuhan (yang dapat menolong) melainkan Engkau (ya Allah)! Maha Suci Engkau (daripada melakukan aniaya, tolongkanlah daku)! Sesungguhnya aku adalah dari orang-orang yang menganiaya diri sendiri.

(Surah Al-Anbiya: ayat 87)

Abadi di syurga

Tertarik dengan entry Ms Tigris berkenaan "Bidadari Syorga", pagi ini kuatkan diri untuk membaca kisah arwah Zulaikha. Rasa sedih dan simpati ke atas keluarga Ijah dan Zubed, di atas kehilangan puteri sulung mereka ini. Semoga Ijah dan Zubed kuat semangat dan tabah dalam menghadapi dugaan ini. Semoga dengan izin Allah, kebenaran akan muncul juga.

AL-FATIHAH untuk arwah Zulaikha.

House hunting

For the past couple of weeks, me and atang have been looking for a new place to call a home. Our contract with the current unit is going to end in January. We are not going to renew the contract because of the rental. We now pay $350 per week. Yes my friend, you are reading it correctly, $350 per WEEK. With that amount of money, you can pay mortgage for a semi-D house in Malaysia. But it is nothing ordinary with the rental price here in Brisbane. Especially if you want to find a house that is closer to university. Not that it matters to me, because my university is right in the city. So technically I can live where ever I like. However, when we moved in at our current home, we want to be near with other Malaysian, plus there is also a musollah (surau) nearby. Furthermore, at that time our option were limited, in fact we didn't have opportunity to enee-minee-mainee-moe, because it was difficult to find a rental unit in vicinity. I have wrote about our difficulty in house hunting in this entry.

Our rent started at $300 per week. At that time, we didn't bother much about the price. The unit is big, with 2 large rooms, a laundry room inside the unit, separate bath and toilet, 2 balcony, a garage that can fit 2 cars and a spare room for storage. In addition to that, it is just a short walk to a bus stop or I can also walk to citycat jetty. We have renewed the contract 2 times, and have been living for 19 months now.

Property in Brisbane is getting expensive. The mortgage price hike is unbearable. And that was why our rent increased from $300 to $320 (1st renewal) and $350 (2nd renewal). So atang and me decided to look for a new, smaller and cheaper place because we knew the rent will increase to maybe $380 when we renew the contract.

So looking for a new place is currently our agenda. Here are the steps that we go through for house hunting:

1. Search for available rental unit via websites (there are a number of websites that provide this service).

2. Before that you must know suburb you have interest in, and your max rental price. You must also take into consider number of rooms, say if you have 2 kids, you can't rent a 1 room unit. They have some rule that you have to abide.

3. Once you have find a property of interest, write down the particular or print out the brochure.

4. Call the agent to arrange a visit to the property. You MUST visit or inspect the property before applying. Sometimes the agent has indicated a date for inspection in the brochure.

5. Visit the property as scheduled.

6. If you are interested with the property, fill in the application form. And you also need to supply some documents to support you application. Documents include photo ID/passport, bank statement, utility bill, your rent ledger, pay slips/fund script etc. You have to meet a specific points (determine by agent, and it is varies across agents) in order to be eligible to rent the property.

7. Submit your application and wait for their call.

8. Repeat this action, until you have succesfully obtain a rental unit.

How tiring right? So far we have call out to ask about 8 units, and visited 5 units (the other 3 have been taken up). And we have only submitted 1 application (1 application for 1 unit). Why only 1 application?.... You have to wait for another entry, my friend.

The carpet is clean now

Yesterday, the property agent called me and inform, that a carpet cleaning service will come at around 7 pm. At half-past 7, atang called the carpet-cleaning-guy, and we were told that he will be arrived at 9pm. So while waiting, atang watched a movie, while I did some reading. Then a lightning has forced atang to switch off the TV, and he dozed off immediately after that.

I felt sleepy too, couldn't stand it any longer, I called it-a-day, woke atang up and said I am going to bed. It was already past 9 o'clock, assumed that the carpet-cleaning-guy couldn't make it, and postponed the schedule.

I might have been dozed off about 10 minutes when I heard atang calling me from the living room "nie, kunci mana... dah datang dah..." Adehh.... I woke up, found my keys and gave it to atang, and went back...to sleep. While dozing off, I heard, "hey mate....yadayadayada..... how did the water get in....yadayadayada...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

And I woke up this morning, the carpet is clean....hoorayy.... still a bit damp, need some airing. Anyway, the carpet is clean. I don't know what time did the process ended. And don't know what time atang went back to sleep. But I know that he had finish watching 2 movies last night.

Thanks carpet-cleaning-guy. And thanks to the agent for pronto response.

"Sekali air bah, sekali carpet ku berubah"

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I will wake up at 2.20 am, to prepare Atang's very early breakfast and some sandwiches for him to eat during his shift. Atang works as a cab driver in Brisbane. His shift will start at 3 am and ended at 3 pm. It is normal, during this early hour, I would practically drag myself, with my eyes half open, into the kitchen.

Once I reached the kitchen, I felt water on my feet, soaking my socks. I was shocked, and the brain immediately sent signal to the whole body, to completely waking me up from my half-conscious state. I switch on the light, and saw water all over the kitchen floor.



I thought at first, my fridge was giving the problem, so I open the freezer door and expected more water coming out from the freezer. But everything is perfectly normal inside the freezer. And then I realised, the carpet is soaking wet.



It was raining heavily that night. Another heavy rain in Brisbane (I planned to write about that great storm that claimed 1 live in Brisbane last Sunday, but will write about it later). Even before I slept that night, the rain sounded like bucket-by-bucket of water thrown onto the house. But looking at the roof, there was no indication of leaking. Only the carpet, near the dining area, was affected. And because the carpet was totally dreanched, the excess water, that couldn't be contained by the carpet, leaked into the kitchen floor.

Atang was taking his bath at that time. Once he was out of the bathroom door, I shouted, "Atang, sini sini....". With shocked, he stepped all over that soaking carpet (tu yang gambar sebelum entry ni penuh ngan tapak kaki, tapak kaki atang la tu...alahaiii). And later we realised that the water came from our neighbour home, because the whole perimeter of the carpet at the wall that divided our home from our neighbour home was drenched. By chance, my neighbour has moved out from the house on Monday. Maybe he moved out because there were some leak in the house after that Sunday storm, we don't know that. But actually we are aware that he is moving to a new place since we got back from Malaysia. Maybe by coincidence.

Anyway....after preparing Atang's meal. I start mopping.


Half an hour later....


I finish draining the water from the kitchen floor at nearly 3.40 am. Subh pun dah masuk. Total volume of water, 2 bucket full (almost to the brim). About the carpet, I can't do anything about it. Need to call the agent in the morning.

Oh yes... not just the kitchen and dining area, one part of the living room was also affected, near the sliding door. And my only Malaysian neighbour, who live right under my neighbour's home is also experiencing the same problem. Hmmm...not exactly the same, because unlike us, water was dripping from the ceiling, but almost all over the living area, dining and kitchen area (macam ada swimming pool aje kat rumah neighbour sebelah nie, jangan2 air bertakung)....

Am waiting for the agent to come and look at this mess. Damp carpet, faham-faham aje laa..berbau....

More pictures in our fotopages.

Weng-weng

Sibuk betul pagi nie. Lepas insiden pagi nie, atang minta datang ambil kereta kat Herston, dekat dengan taxi base tempat atang keje. Kat situ banjir teruk, jadi atang tak bleh parking kat tempat biasa, kena parking jauh sikit, parking bermeter. So, atang mintak sebelum parking meter tu beroperasi pukul 8 pagi, datang ambil kereta and bawak balik.

So, pergi la pagi tadi, @6.40am, dengan Zue, the-only-Malaysian-neighbour yang tinggal kat bawah nie (she also experiencing the same incident with us). Seriau jugak, I have never drive that far, risau bila nak drive balik ke rumah. Pergi Zue yang drive, the plan is to get the car and drive home. Sampai aje di lokasi kereta berada, masuk kereta, nak cepat balik sebab tak nak terperangkap dalam kesesakan orang nak ke tempat keje. Tapi last minute tukar plan, atang suh bawak kereta ke base, kalau banjir dah reda, and tinggalkan kereta kat tempat biasa. Nanti tak payah la any of us gi jemput. Ok gak, so hantar kereta ke sana, lepas tu balik. Sampai umah kul 7 lebih nak kul 8 camtu, terus capai cereal. Lapar giler. Tak pernah kuar rumah tak breakfast, kali nie memang betul-betul tak sempat sebab asalnya nak gerak kul 7 pagi. Tapi takut jem sebab banyak jalan tutup, kami keluar awal.

Sampai rumah menggigil kelaparan. Ngantuk gilosh pun ye... sebab been up since 2.20...lepas subh tido2 ayam takut terlambat bangun. Dalam keadaan nie, I will write better in Malay. I sound stupid if I write in English...gegegegegge

Stay home today, I must

I have to stay home today. Need to call the property agent to come and look at the mess.

OTH Season 4

Yesssss.... I have finish watching OTH season 4. There are 6 cds, and 21 episodes altogether. Total time spent : 15 hours (I skipped the boring part). I think enough for the movie marathon, for now. Am now busy writing a paper and preparing for data collection.

Am not good at reviewing TV series. So don't expect me to that ya... :D. But for those fanatic of OTH (who have missed out the season, especially Ms Taj) go and grab it. I saw a number of episodes available on youtube.

Enjoy the famous OTH theme song, sang by Gavin DeGraw.

On one chilling morning

Yesterday was a bad traffic day. It was raining in the morning (it has been raining since Sunday afternoon). The rain has slowed down the traffic, and it took me 40 minutes to reach the city. I have a meeting at 8.30am yesterday. But I arrived at the office at 8.40am, 10 minutes late. There was only 1 colleague in the office. I told him I need to catch some breath, and to print out some emails from my mailbox before going to the meeting room. Luckily that was the first thing I did (not exactly the first thing laaa... coz I went to the loo immediately upon arrival). I checked the email, and there was an email from my sv, cancelling the meeting. Aiyah, the email was not there when I checked the mailbox at 6.30 in the morning. It happened that my sv just emailed it at 8.38 am. So I printed out the email, and quickly went up to the meeting room to inform others. And there sat 4 of my collegues, also aware that the meeting has been cancelled. So much of the rushing haaa....

Anyway, we have a quick chat before deciding for a coffee at Brother's, a coffee shop just across the office.

And over 3 cups of mocha, 1 chai latte, 1 hot choc and 1 latte, we chat while enjoying our hot cuppa in that chilling morning.

"Don't worry, I will look after her"

An extraordinary thing happened on the afternoon, the day that I was supposed to leave Malaysia. It was an unforgetable incident and was so touch and stunned by it. Look at the photo below.



Never during our stay in Malaysia, Lara slept near adik, or any of us. But only that day she did it.



As if she was telling me, "No worries Master, I will look after adik, while you are away".

Cerita Ceriti : Gelagat 4 The Morning Rush

I am currently futhering my study at QUT. The university has 3 campuses, the main campus, where I am attach to, is called Garden Point (GP) campus. It is called GP because, it is situated nearby Brisbane Botanical Garden. It is a beautiful campus, but the campus is small due to limited space. In addition to that, it is located right in the city. Although I am attach to the GP campus, due to limited spaces, my office is located 2 blocks away from the GP, at a commercial building, rented by QUT. And that is where most of the research students are located too.

Getting to the office is not a problem. You can live at any suburb you like, and just take a bus to the city. I mainly take the bus to the office. I can also take a ferry, called CityCat (there was an entry about this along time ago) but since I have no more classes to attend at GP, I now take the bus to the office. Cab is possible, but here, it is way too expensive.

Rush hour is between 7.30 to 8.30. The distance between my house to the city is just 10 minutes driving. But during rush hour, it will take about 20 minutes to arrive at the city. FYI my office is a number of block away from the Queens St Mall, the shopping heaven/hang out for local and tourist. My bus will stop nearby that "longest mall" in Brisbane and I will pass by the mall, to get to the office. So every morning I observed many kind of characters during that wee hour.

Queenslands government offices are also situated, or rather scattered around the city. So during the morning hours, I called it "The Morning Rush", you can see men and women clad in dark suits, walking towards their offices. Some even join their friends at cafe, having their brekkie (that's OZ for breakfast). Some just have a quick stop to get a cuppa, and walk to their offices. Coffee shops, or cafes are just everywhere. At every block, every street, on both sides of street, or sometimes just two shops away from each other. Yes, Brissie are addicted to coffee, or should I say caffein. If they dont have coffee, they will have soft drinks instead.

You can also see a few people, jogging around the city. Not with dark suits though, but a complete jogging attire. I don't know whether they come early to the office everyday, and have a quick run before starting their day. But I assume some may do. Even my supervisor cycle almost every morning before he goes to work. Yes they are health conscious people. Futhermore, with the sun up as early as 6 am now, ones can have a quick jog, if they want too (but not for me :D).

I just need about 5 minutes walk (if I don't day dreaming while walking) or 8 upmost to reach the office. I walk about 2 minutes from home to the bus stop, so total walking distance is about 10 minutes (can somebody convert that to metres...hahahah). It helps burning some of the calorie everyday. So enough work-out for me. ;)

Careless mistake

One thing about living in Brisbane, you should not leave sunglasses at home. Especially if you are wearing contact lenses. The sunlight here is so bright, it can even sting your eyes. If you guys have plan to come to Brisbane, please please please, invest in a good pair of sunglasses.

And so, I have made a mistake, a silly mistake, leaving my sunglasses back in Malaysia. Aiyahhhh....

But I don't want to waste money (kedekut sebenarnya) buying a pair of good sunglasses, so I just bought a cheaper sunglasses at a pharmacy store (I was thinking of asking beloved one at home to mail me the sunglasses). The new sunglasses just cost me $30.



But now I regret buying it (itu laaa...stingy). Because the tip of the handles have caused pain on the right side of my head, just behind the ear. It in fact has caused some small bumps behind that ear.



See that metal tip that sticking out from the handle..... Adeehhhhhh... How laaa??!! I only wear the sunglasses only if I can't stand the heat (sampai mata berair jugak la). I'll try to stay away from the sun for the time being until...... I haven't decide yet on what....

I want my old sunglasses back. Can anybody lend me a flying carpet?

5 times 7

Since the kids are now in Malaysia, my schedule has changed in many ways. Now I spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, of the weekdays, in the office. I will take the 7.30/7.40 bus, and joining the morning crowd that mostly consists of government's employees, to the city. I have observed many things happen during this early hour, and will write about it in different entry.

This entry is just to show you guys what my workstation looks like now.

5 months ago...

And currently....

Pictures of yaya and thirah to motivate me, and to remind me the reason that I am here.

sob...

THANK YOU

Thanks to all for your support and believe in me. I am so lucky to have friends who are caring, although for some of you, we have never met in person, but that doesn't stop us from sharing ones thought and opinion and also to care for each other.

To all my friends, new or old, thanks for being there for me.


click for more

ITPS dinner

Following the Doc Consortium, the group organised a dinner at Stamford Plaza. Joining us are our family, spouses, partners, etc.







The meal was superb. Malay dishes, kari ayam, kurma kambin, ikan sambal, beef rendang etc.

More pictures in my fotopages.

(Apology for a brief entry, am out of words. Experiencing writer's block)

I can never explain....

This is the hardest decision that I have ever made in my life. Am sure by now you guys have noticed that it was just me and atang back in Brissie. My situation have forced me to make this decision. It is so difficult to explain, and I dont wan't to talk about it, no more, after this. It was difficult for me to commit, let alone to explain it.

I just want the kids to be in good hand. To enjoy their life like normal kids. I am not saying that they were not enjoying their time in Brisbane, but I often blame myself for spending less time with them.

I miss them terribly.....just hope that everything will be back to normal, soon.

ITPS Doctoral consortium

My research group held a doc consortium last Thursday. It was a one day event, and I was worn out at the end of the day. The purpose of the event is to get feedbackof our research from academician cum researchers outside QUT. We did organised a similar event last year. So it has become an annual event.

This year the research group has invited a prominent IS researcher from Univ of British Columbia, Dr Andrew Burton-Jones and Dr WuiGee from Univ of Southern Queensland.

It was a great opportunity to share your research with outsiders, who have no knowledge about your research (other by attending conferences) as well as to get feedbacks from them.

More pictures in my fotopages.

Bird's eye view

Approaching Brisbane, I managed to take these pictures. The sun was rising.

Forgot to change the time when the above picture was taken. Brisbane is 2 hours ahead from Malaysia.

Haa dah betul dah. Because now is Spring, the sunrise at 5am.

I experienced jetlagged for 5 days this time. I could only got up after 9am, feeling fresh and was only able to doze off at night after 1 am. And have to wrestle to wake up for subh at 4 am in the morning.

MYOB

I was on the phone with a good friend of mine, who have for a long time been keeping to herself lately. I don't want to bother her, she is very busy with her study. Only sometimes I managed to catch her thru YM and Facebook. So today I called her just to say hello and keep in touch.

We had a long chat. We talk about study, life, and mostly about backstabber. Yes BACKSTABBER. This is one thing that I will NOT TOLERATE. You see, we are a small community here, and most of us are employed, academician, and pursuing PhD . But I just could not understand, why some people like to make up story, and talk bad about others. Why negative news travel faster than positive news? If you don't know the true story, why don't you ask the person yourself? Don't you realise that you are creating FITNAH. What is your gain from doing that? Don't you know that life is like a wheel? Your time will come one day. Don't you have anything else to do? Are you looking for attention/popularity?

Stop being a BACKSTABBER. You do not win anything for that. In fact you will always be a LOSER.

I know some people talk bad about me. But why should I care. Do I cause a problem to you? Please laaa.... if you don't want to know the real case.... so please.... MYOB.......

Finally.... see you again Malaysia

Alhamdullillah....finally we are leaving Malaysia soon. Aiyah, I am out of words laaa.... how fortunate I have some pictures to describe the day.





Tu semua mereka-mereka yang stranded bersama kami..... Tak sabar untuk masuk waiting room.

Ada hikmah di sebalik kejadian ini.

We left Malaysia at half past 7 pm, Tuesday, 28th October.

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused"

I received an email from an AirAsia guest support officer regarding to the delay this afternoon. I was so surprised, caused I was writing about the delay in this blog, so as if they have accidently came across the entry. Or it might be just a coincidence. Anyway the email reads......

-----------------------------------------------
From: guestsupport@airasia.com
To:
undisclosed-recipients:,
Show All
Subject: AAX Flight Delay Insurance Letter / D72602 / 27 Oct 08 / KUL-OOL

Dear Guest,

AirAsia X regrets the inconvenience caused by our cancelled flight.

Please find herewith a letter from AirAsia X for the purpose of travel
insurance claim.

While this situation is caused by circumstances beyond AirAsia X’s
control, we apologize for the inconvenience caused.

We truly appreciate your valued patronage and we look forward to welcoming
you back again real soon.


Thank You and kind regards,

Elijah

Guest Support

AirAsia Bhd.

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Am sure many passengers have made complaints about the delay. Look, I admit it is a frustrating experience. You are not loosing money, time, but, your patience is also being tested too.

However, I always look at the bright side. We can't predict things, and we can never always assume things will come in your way smoothly. Always remember, eventhough you have design a clear, crystalise plan, it all depends on Allah will. And think of the difficulty that others are facing. You will find yours are not that critical compare to them. I always see the "glass half full". Things happen for a reason. In my case, the unfortunate event turned out to be fortunate in some way, such as, instead of landing at Coolongatta Airport which is 1 hour drive to Brisbane, we landed straight at Brisbane Airport. Plus with the price of an AirAsia ticket, we onboard MAS charted plane (a special service plane, even the stewardess were wearing different uniform from the normal batik uniform) with MAS hospitality as well. How lucky we were.

But I do hope AirAsia will improve their service. I have no problem with the service on board the plane. But I was really disappointed with the situation that we were facing the other day. They should have had a contingency plan installed, so that when this kinda situation happens, they know what to do, how to react, and how to inform people. It is like an "action plan".

And one more thing. Do any of you know about the "more than 2 hour delay" rebate? Well, apparently that do not applicable to AirAsia X.

Still no news

The next day, at 9am, we went down for breakfast. Mat Salih were everywhere, at the lounge, outside the hotel, at the dining area. There were some having sun bathing outside the hotel. The hotel was actually a shop lots converted to hotel.


We met a Malay couple there. They were going to Sydney for a holiday. And we also met a Chinese family. Both of them were worried about their connecting flight. Aiyah... sure burn la...they just hope AirAsia would arrange something.

I was also worried. I was schedule to present about my research on Friday, 31st of October. I haven't done the slides yet. I was planning to do the slides when arrived in Brisbane.

Luckily the Nasi Lemak was yummy. Asking around, nobody knows what is the situation.

We were told later, at around noon, buses will pick us up at 2pm. The AirAsia has charted MAS airplane that scheduled to leave at 4pm that afternoon. Apparently they could not fixed the problem with the AirAsia plane. This is one good news to me and atang, because that means we will arrived at Brisbane airport, instead of Cooloongatta.

TBC again laaa...

Nobody tells us what is really going on

After we finished the ikan bakar at Nyonya's place, my bro sent us back to the airport (dlm ati rasa nak patah balik Seremban je). We were supposed to board the plane at 11.15pm. However, looking around, it was unlikely the plane would leave at 11.45pm. Everybody was so anxious, nobody was around telling us what is going on. The AirAsia hostesses were giving out free burger for everyone. But since we just had a heavy dinner, we didn't take it.

We waited, feeling haggard. Luckily me and atang were sitting in front of a TV. There was a Tamil film showing at that time, I don't know the title of the film, but it was a wicked funny film. At least something to divert our attention from worrying about the flight.

Almost quarter after 12 am (Tuesday, 28th October), there was an annoucement telling that the flight is cancelled due to major mechanical problem to the airplane. Sudden uproar took place. People was frustrated OK. We have been waiting of 4 hours, wondering what is going on. Until they decided to cancelled the flight. More than half of the passengers are Caucasian. A handful of passengers have small kids with them. There are also a number of old citizen. Aiyah.... kesian betul....



The AirAsia management has arranged a hotel for us. But before we could leave the airport, there was some misunderstanding incident happened between AA staff and the immigration. We were told later that, according to the immigration department, our status in Malaysia is not valid anymore, because in the record we have left Malaysia. Somebody told me, if we committed a crime, we have an alibi to defense (I don't know about this la... need to ask my sistah for confirmation...). We saw airport staff, going up and down, to settle this matter. At that time, some passengers had even sleeping on the chair. I myself felt like laying flat on the chair. So tired and sleepy.

Nearly 3am, we were able to leave the airport, and walked to the awaiting buses outside the airport.





We reached the Nilai Hotel at around 3.30am. I really felt like zombie, couldn't think straight. But I still can hear clearly from Atang, how he wished we could go back to Seremban instead.

TBC...again

One Tree Hill

Are you One Tree Hill fan? I am. Ooohh I got the idea of writing about OTH from Ms Taj. Thanks Ms Taj for reminding me about this TV series that I used to follow.

I have totally forgotten about OTH. I have been an avid follower of this TV series before. I couldn't remember the last season that I have seen. Maybe season 3, the one that Lucas was diagnosed with heart problem. Oh is it season 3? A quick search on OTH at Google, informing me that OTH is now season 5. That means I have missed 2 seasons (if I did watched the 3rd season).

This is one of the character from OTH. Lucas hehehhehe.... He is one of the reason why I couldn't/wouldn't miss the show (don't worry you guys, Atang knows I have crushed on him). Thanks to StarWorld via Astro for having the rerun of the OTH if I missed the show.

And this is Peyton. I knew she and Lucas will eventually be together. I don't know whether the TV series is here in Brisbane. It definately not in the regular TV channel. Maybe in FoxTel (FoxTel is like Astro).


Today is Atang's movie selection day. You will get cheaper price of renting a DVD at Leading Edge Video only on Tuesday. Am thinking of tagging along Atang today, search for OTH box set (I think I saw it last week) and slip it amongst Atang's stack of to-rent DVDs, hoping that he will rent it for me.

Oh...another TV series to catch up, The OC.

The flight was delayed 1 day

Last week I have mentioned that our flight was delayed for 1 day. Now I will tell you a story about our ordeal at LCC terminal on the 27th October, the day that we were supposed to depart for Brisbane.

On that unfortunate day (but fortunate in other circumstances), we left Seremban at close to 6pm. We were schedule to leave Malaysia at 9.40pm. We left early because we didn't want to be caught in the traffic jam, due to Deepavali holiday. We took the Sepang trunk road (alahai lupe la jalan tu...tapi jalan dalam, lalu Salak Lama, Nilai, Sepang). Arrived at LCCT around 6.40pm. Oh yes, we were sent by my-in-laws to the airport. Upon arrival before check-in, I look at that big black box that displayed the flight itinery searching for our flight information. I was suprised when I saw on the board, next to our flight #, it said "cancelled". Eh betul ke nie? I did double, triple checked with the travel itinery, all particular is the same, except the departure time. I assumed it was a mistake. So we went up to the counter, and check-in.

Later we joined Along, and in-laws (all atang's siblings were there, except one of his brother) for a dinner. Along said, lets have some last McD dinner. After the last meal, we waited for my bro to arrive, and soon my sistah, my BIL and newphew, haziq have to leave because they had an open house invitation to attend. So when my bro arrived, we went to Dome for a cuppa.

At 9pm, we said goodbye to my bro, and went to the waiting room. Normally we will board a plane, at least half an hour before the flight leave right. But went we arrived at the waiting area, people were still sitting down, and it was already quarter after 9. So I tought we have missed the calling, so we went up to the I counter for query. So happened at that time, the AirAsia people were about to annouce about the delay. It was expected the new time schedule at 11.45pm. Immediately atang called my bro, wondering whether he was still nearby. Lucky for us, he was still within the airport area. So we asked for the transit pass, and went out to meet my bro. My bro took us to a restaurant for a second dinner, this time at Nyonya Ikan Bakar (sedap nie... nak rekomen tapi lupe kat mano).

TBC....

A cake for a friend

I just finish baking a simple cake for a friend. We are going to visit her this afternoon (actually as soon as I publish this entry). She was Athirah babysitter, and since we got back to Brisbane, we haven't visit her. She sent a sweet delicacy the first day we arrived here, last week.

I have something to give her, for remembrance. She and her family are going back to Bali, Indonesia, for good.

Just a simple orange cake.

That just took half an hour to prepare. And 1 hour to bake. Oh the cake sunk in the middle a bit. My mistake, I adjusted the temperature will cooking. Silly me.