Towards good health...

Did my medical today, full check up including Women's Wellness package and the Mammogram.  After taking my blood for the tests, went for mammogram, x-ray and ultra-sound.  All went well, I hate the mammogram actually, because it hurts when it presses down your breast !  But then, its very important to do this regularly anyway, so just do it !  I bet the technician who does this has by now seen every shape, size and colour of breasts that comes to her, hehehe.

All the tests that I had to do today, after above, went for eye check-up and the ecg, were quite fast and easy.  Then I had to go see a gynae for my pap-smear and also to change my iud (its lifetime is expiring or already expired - 5 years), and the stupid waiting began.  I waited for so long, more than 1 hr... she had many patients and its 1st come 1st served basis.  Taking the iud out doesn't hurt but putting in the new one hurts la... ouch, ouch.  Oh, just take 2 panadol if it still hurts okay? Okay.  Doesn't hurt so much by now but it is still uncomfortable.  And the iud costs a bomb ! The Mirena.  Worst its not covered by my company insurance.  A big OUCH to my pocket.

Anyway, company insurance covers up to RM395.00 max for the medical. Since I've added the Women's Wellness package and the mammogram, my bill came up to about RM600.00 so later, they will bill be the extra...  another Ouch.

Well, towards good health even if its painful to the pocket. My other complaint is, this doctor is not involved in any of my tests or consultancy...... : (

Bisu

My laptop is still mute... Its been a least a month since the operating system was upgraded to Windows 7.  Somehow, something when wrong with the sound.  Since then, my laptop is very quiet... no sound at all? 

My can't go to Youtube without sound........ 

I've been updating and updating driver but nothing.  Oh... must keep trying and searching for audio updates.

The weekend is here...............

Am looking forward to a restful weekend.... boleh ka?

But there's quite a bit to do.  There's marketing to do, there's 'homework', there's my revision for my arabic and tajweed.  I need to memorize the names of things in arabic.  I always get stump making a sentence because I don't know what the things that I want to use to make my sentence are known as in arabic. What I remember are so limited...  And now that I have new responsibilities that involves in pricing, getting quotations out, preparing the quotes, understanding the pricing in order to prepare the quotes, etc etc.. my time at work is becoming so much more hectic. All this I know is because I'm in transition... learning and getting myself familiar with these new job, and yet I still have to do all the other things that I've been doing.  As for responsibility that I'm transferring to another colleague, I still need to continue doing some of it while transferring my knowledge over. I cannot just dump everything to her, she'll go crazy...

Hopefully, in a couple weeks, everything will get settled and things will start relax a little bit But two weeks is far too long ........ I wanna screammmm, I'm so exhausted, so tired.  I need more sleep, but I have work to do. 

And so I baked a cake, carrot cake, want to do a particular recipe, but read wrong side of the page and ended up with a different recipe. Thank God, it was another carrot cake recipe. Felt like a dump blonde for awhile there. But a cake I baked.

I am so envious of my cats !

Oh well, good nite........

.......... wow, my first ever 'ranting' post !

Work & Evaluation

It's so hectic at work now.... So much to do in so little time.  Everything's urgent. All deadlines are this Friday!

Where I work, end of January means it is CPE time.  CPE = Commitment Plan Evaluation.  CPE itself is a torture. To make matter worst, you have to evaluate yourself! These management people really know how to torture people, I think they were somekind of prosecutors of some sorts in their earlier lifes. And then they expect you  to reason / persuade / influence / entice? (hehehe) your boss to accept your evaluation of your work.  There is, of course, a list responsibilities already listed from the beginning of last year (which they slyly made you agree), these you have to meet or better still over-achieve.  Fening-fening memikirkan ni.  You need to use the right words - words made in these wonderful sentences that will entice your boss into agreeing with you, words to sway your boss into accepting your eval. Ni yang susah ni.. but I have a plan, I will smile when I sit with boss nanti, and he will agree with everything that I'm going to say without even realising it. And he is going to give me a huge pay raise! Muahahahaha. 

So sebelum masuk bilik boss, hembus-hembus dulu ! 

Just Do It !

KL - A City Of Shared Stories http://cityofsharedstorieskualalumpur.com/

It takes a while to succumb to temptation. I was so tempted to try writing a story. That link above, a project by the British Council, MPH Bookstore and Spread the Word, is an opportunity not be missed.  But I couldn't think of anything to write about. And then I remembered an incident that happened before. Once you have an idea, and began typing it out, the words just start flowing. Your limit is the limit of number of characters set by the organizers. Good thing they put a limit or else I bet, some of the submitted stories would be have long winded. So there, I've successfully submitted not one but two stories.  Woohoo!  I do have a third one in mind but I'm still undecided to whether or not put it down to be published...  He he he, now I can proudly say that I have had my stories published !

Blog hopping.. the blogs that started it all

Kak Teh's story (http://kakteh.blogspot.com/) on passing of her primary school bff is so touching, so sad.  Its so great that their friendship lasted for so long.  It was through FB that I'd found a friend from my primary school!  So now, I have one in contact.  But where are the others?  I have another whom I've keep in contact via letters and cards.  No more letters nowadays, but at least, hari raya cards once a year.  The others?  god knows, they didn't even reply to my Hari Raya cards. How to keep in touch like this, communication is 2-ways, they need play a role.  Am so sad...

"There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass," so says Charles Kuralt. (Not that I know who he was.)

My interest in bloggings started a few year back. I don't remember how I started reading blogs. I don't even remember how I got introducted to the first blog that I read. But I began reading them regularly. And I would think to myself, wow, these ppl are so good at writing and their lives are so interesting that they can write their stories down almost everyday.  And they got lots and lots of ideas to start with.  The first ever blog that I followed was by a chinese doctor, Dr Liew (http://drliew.net/).  For an MD, our Dr is such a tech-person. His posts are on his clinic and his nurses and views on everyday news.  Well, I don't agree all his view but they are his opinions, and he has a right to them.  A good one today (In response to what's going on in the country right now),

A man came home from work and his children ran to him and called out “Ayah! Ayah!”
His neighbor got very upset and said to him, “Can you please tell your children not to call you ‘Ayah’?”
The man asked, “Why?”
The neighbor retorted, “Because my children call me ’Ayah’ too. They might get confused and mistake you to be their father.”

Then, I started following Pokku (http://www.bustamann.blogspot.com/) and Kak Teh.  I started blog-hopping and started read many many other blogs, from all over the globe.  One day I found one that turned out to be someone from the office.  Then, another day I found another one that turned out to be family....

Back to Pokku. Pokku blog is all about Terengganu dolu-dolu and on GanuSpeak i.e. speaking the Terengganu style. Most of Pokku's stories would be using the GanuSpeak whenever there are conversation. One time I actually even followed Pokku's on-line radio, and had a good time chatting with him on-line. It was fun, I was known to him as 'Orang Taiping'... but that was it.  But I will forever love this piece from Pokku, posted way way back in October 2004;

Like I mentioned previously, mujo encapsulate a philosophy in itself. It means one should thank God that it is not worse. Time for an illustration.

(Cut to a scene of 3 village ladies in their kemban washing clothes by the village well)

Mok Long Selamoh: Guane doh adik mung Mek?
(How is your brother Mek?)

Mok Teh Som :Bakpe pulok adik dia?
(What happened to her brother?)

Mok Long Selamoh: Laaa! Mung dok tau ke Som?
(You don't know Som?)

Mok Teh Som : Dok tau setarang kita.
(I don't know anything)

Mok Long Selamoh: Adik Mek ni kena langgor lori kemareng.
(Mek's brother was knocked down by a lorry yesterday)

Mek Beso : Bukang lori Mok Long, beng ikang!
(It wasn't a lorry Mok Long, it was a fish van)

Mok Long Selamoh: Mujo bukang lori!
(Lucky it wasn't a lorry)

Mok Teh Som : Pah tu? Terok ke?
(Then? Was he seriously injured?)

Mek Beso :Kaki patah sebelah......
(One leg was broken)

Mok Teh Som : Mujo dok patoh dua dua
(Lucky both legs weren't broken)

Mok Long Selamoh : Tu pong mujo dreba beng dang brek.
(It was lucky that the van driver braked in time)

Mek Beso : Mujo beng tu dok laju..
(Lucky the van wasn't going fast..)

(Fade to black.)

If both legs were broken, the response would be "Mujo dok pecoh pala" (Lucky the head wasn't broken). If the head WAS broken, the response would be "Mujo dok mati" (Lucky he didn't die). If the worst happened and the brother died, the mujo would still surface.

"Mujo lah bukang adik kita" (Lucky it wasn't my brother). You get the drift.

Mujo. A nice word. Adopt it. Embrace it. It will preserve your sanity.

Gebu, our kitty cat...

This morning our apartment guard came over to our unit and spoke to my hubby about a white cat.  All that my maid could hear was the guard mentioning 'white cat', 'gebu', 'cat from this house'.... by then, she had all sorts of thoughts going through her mind. An accident is foremost in her mind, she was so scared, so gabra already. Gebu is her fav.

Then, my hubby went down to our neighbour's and then he called up for my maid.  It turned out that our little adventurer (and she's not that little anyway) has gotten herself stuck in between my neighbour's glass sliding door and grill that's been covered with netting. She'd gotten herself pretty well wedged inside and couldn't move at all, poor thing!  A long umbrella, my maid managed to pull her out of her predicament.  Took her home and gave a good bath.  She was so dirty, so smelly and so so traumatised. She stayed home the whole day today!  He he he.   And all this while, I was blissfully sleeping in my warm bed, dreaming of something that I can't remember anymore..............  well, it is Sunday!

My theory was she was chasing after a mouse and got herself stuck.  Hubby theory was she was running away from Lily (our wheel-chaired bound neighbour, and know to be not so friendly toward cats!).  Well, it could be both but only Gebu knows what actually happened, right?

Below is Gebu with brother Lembu.  They both 2 years old. See how her fact and feet seems to get darker and darker.  Gebu is siamese mix-breed obviously but why is Lembu totally different?  They were born of the same mother and at the same time... How Lembu got his name? In another post...

الله‎, Allāh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Allah (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh, Turkish: Allah, ) is the standard Arabic word for God. While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, in reference to "God". The term was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.
 

The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) differ among the traditions. In pre-Islamic Arabia amongst pagan Arabs, Allah was not considered the sole divinity, having associates and companions, sons and daughters - a concept which Islam thoroughly and resolutely abrogated. In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. All other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah. Allah is unique, the only Deity, creator of the universe and omnipotent. Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-ʼAb ( الله الأب, "God the Father") to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage. There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible.

I personally do really see the reason why we should not let others use the word Allah. From my very uneducated point of view, I think we should let them. We should be generous to share the name Allah with others, whether they are muslims or not. I'm kinda proud when I hear non-muslim refer to God as 'Allah'. When I was small, those old uncles when they want to refer to god when they are making a point,  they would say, 'itu Tuan Allah sudah cakap... ', etc etc.  Besides, I've been told that, when we say something over and over again, it becomes a Doa. So, let them use the word Allah, let them repeat the name Allah (swt) over and over, again and again, everytime they read their publication, then it will become a doa and who knows God willing, one day it might just open their hearts to the true one and only Allah swt..... Look at it as a 'dakwah'.  Insya'allah.

2010... whatever you've got in stored for me, I'm ready...