Part Two - White Water Rafting

So off we headed to Kampung Chui Chak, Langkap, Perak. The village is made up mainly of ethnic Chinese, mostly from the Hakka dialect group.

With Wase we were headed to the right direction.   Along the way the view was beautiful and so serene, the whole way were paddy fields…..luas terbentang....how far it was? phew sejauh mata memandang. This reminded me of a song by Sudirman.
 

Sawah terbentang dan padi menguning 
daun nyiur melambai angin timur membelai
riak air di kali bagaikan bersedia
membasuhi tubuh mu dari debu kota.

Sayu-sayu terdengar merdu suara seruling

Mendendangkan lagu anak desa

Humming the tune as I digest the yellow/green scenery of the paddy fields. Ada lagi tempat macam ni kat Perak kan....the feeling was indescribable.  A sense of peacefulness. Alhamdulillah rasa besar sungguh kurnian Allah...speechless  but deep inside singing Je T'aime!....Je T'aime! running across the paddy field and have Van Diesel catching up with me, scooping me up with his muscular arms.. ...then.....on second thought, eerrrk tak pe la....bila teringatkat pacat and lintah...hehehe...

Berangan punya berangan,...somehow we missed Chui Chak.....we should arrived after 3 km from the main road. We thought we were there but again, signage is nowhere to be seen.

So we lost Kampung Chui Chak and we were determined to locate the next town, Kampung Mak Teh...and we drove off. Along the way we discovered Kampung Changkat Petai,....I'll be damned! I've heard of Changkat Jong, I've also heard Changkat Jering, but Changkai Petai? We got out of the car and snapped a few pictures and continued to search for Kampung Mak Teh...

Kampung Changkat Petai. How unusual,...mesti banyak pokok petai kat sini agak nya. True enough this place has a lot of Petai trees...it has medicinal effect in controlling diabetes.

 In our quest to locate Kampung Mak Teh, we stopped at the signboard below.

Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil. Penjara Tapah or Tapah Prison was just 200 meters away from the spot we were standing.

It was supposed to be time well spent with the kids but most of the time they were not cooperative. Shakiel was a real pain at times. His mind is at Adeline Resort and paint ball games.

And we continued with our journey until we found Kampung Mak Teh. My other half has a cousin whom we called Mak Teh, so we took a photo and sent to Mak Teh...hahaha...and later that night we had dinner in Sri Iskandar at Restaurant Ikan Bakar Pak Teh...hehehe...Pak teh is Mak Teh's husband. Moving on we found Chikus, Mambang Di Awan, Air Kuning, Lawan Kuda, Kopisan, and Kota Baharu. After all that we headed for Greentown Dim Sum, in Ipoh.

Chikus. Mostly inhabited by local Malays and has acres and acres of paddy fields. Chikus came from the word tikus or rat. Paddy farmers had major problem with rats destroying their crops just in one night. The farmers said it was bad omen which  was brought down on them after they disobeyed some rituals.

Air Kuning. Nothing yet can be found about how Air Kuning or Yellow Water got its name. Maybe the water everywhere was yellow once?

Mambang Di Awan. Once used to be a tin mining town and mostly inhabited by local chinese. According to myth, an English officer by the name of George Maxwell named this place as 'Fairies Among the Cloud' or Mambang Di Awan because he saw fairies flew down from Gunung Bujan Melaka. However another version mentioned that a group of hard working miners after a days work saw fairies came down from the sky. Finally the last version by an historian Chye Kooi Loong in 1886 recorded a charismatic and dynamic Malay leader by the name of Imam Prang Jabor discovered and opened a Malay settlement which he later named it as Mambang Di Awan after the name of Gunung Mambang Di Awan.

Finally we reached Kampung Mak Teh. Just to be sure, we circled the small village before determining with the signage we have found Kampung Mak Teh! No history of how it got its name. The length that we have driven since 5:30 am this morning seems worth a lot to my other half...

Let the picture speaks for itself.

or...wondering...what is Shakira leaning against?...

TO BE CONTINUED....

Part One - White Water Rafting

Not long ago someone said live your life,.."Drop everything and GO!". So this is story of one unusual family holiday I’ve spent.

This all started in the early morning off 17-Dec. We decide to go to the Big Bad Wolf Book Fair. Our initial attempt on 15-Dec failed. Then we found out that the book fair was extended until 21-Dec so  why not spend a few hours there. Indeed we did at 1:15 am and we arrived home about 4 am.

Next I packed our stuff. Left the house in God's hand and headed north starting our journey by the old trunk road to Teluk Intan.  It was dark and the road was mostly ruled by huge lorries and trailer containers. As sun started to  rise and  you can see the beautiful formation of clouds and the sun seeping through bring out the beautiful shade of  colors. Along the road we were surrounded by mist. Magnifique!

 

 

We arrived Teluk Intan at 8:30 am. Our first mission was to look for the famous Gerai Pak Ya. Pak Ya’s shop located at No. 10 Jalan Laksamana is quite hidden from passer-by. It was said that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Malaysian Deputy PM) has stopped for breakfast here on several occasions. As we were still unsure of the exact location we decided to park and walk. It just so happens as we stepped out the car we saw a family of three came out for their car and somehow my instinct said "Follow them". Ka-ching!!...and we found Gerai Pak Ya! At least I thought so. There was no signage to confirm my instinct.

Gerai Pak Ya.

 With the leave green colored wall I instantly surfed the internet. Yes this is the right shop! Always follow your first instinct! Gerai Pak Ya’s specialities are the nasi lemak bungkus and half boiled egg. In a day he can sell 300 packets of nasi lemak and 500 eggs.

Nasi lemak bungkus (RM1) for breakfast.

Obviously the expectation was high. The nasi lemak bungkus was fine. My other half said the half boiled eggs were, "Sedappp...hmm sedap..". The teh tarik was supposed to be the main attraction was way too sweet according to my other half. I had kopi susu and again it was very sweet to my liking that it left tingling sensation in my teeth.

Kopi susu was too sweet.

Breakfast was RM14.50 and after I paid we headed to the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan. After 46 years this is my first visit here….The leaning tower was built in 1885 and it was initially housed a water tank that supply water to the town area. It was also used to report time and serve as a beacon to guide ship into Teluk Anson Port. The tower drew comparison with the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.  So Italy is in my List Things To Do Before I Die. Tak dapat pergi Italy, for now, the one in Teluk Intan will do….hahahaha….After taking pictures and walking around the tower  we decide to make a move.  

The Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan.

Our next journey is going to be an exciting one…we will journey up north heading to Parit and making stops along the way.  Why? Well we want to capture towns with interesting or unique names, and our first stop is Chui Chak.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Thank you, you are so sweet.

I arrived work 9 am sharp this morning. I was looking forward for today since it is the 'All Dressed Up Day'. This means no jeans and T-shirt on Wednesdays. Started the morning by completing 3 cases before I decided to eat a small pack of nasi lemak and  I cannot miss my cafe latte in the mornings.

Not long after that my tummy started to send me signal...ladies and gentlemen let me present Rock you like a Hurricane! Whether I like it or not I had to allow the guitar scratching and drum beat....I packed my stuff and told Salyna, I am going off and need to go to the clinic.

Sitting in the clinic waiting for Doctor Linda, I almost passed out. Regained my composure and after half and hour I was called in the consultation room. Its a case of diarrhea and gas attack. She said don't work so hard and take time off...duh? what does work got to do with me getting a diarrhea? I was prescribed some medication and was advised to drink 100 plus to restore my dehydration hmm....then was given one day medical leave which I immediately snapped and forward to Salyna as proof.

Upon reaching home set my bags down and pour myself a glass of 100 plus, grabbed my notebook, mobile and stepped on my bed. I just want to crawl under the covers....I doze off. Dreaming of peacefulness....

I know Shakiel has been in and out my bedroom to check up on me...I too weak to acknowledge his presence. Lunch time both kids said they are hungry. Laying in bed with my eyes closed I gave instruction to Shakiel of what to do.

Later he came back with 2 slices of bread and on the side was mutton curry and cheese paneer. He said he brought me lunch....OMG, I am so touched. I wasn't even thinking of taking lunch today but my angel....thank you so much.

He sat at the edge of my bed and waited me to finish my food. I said thank you adik and this is what he said made my tears roll down, "Tak pe saya buat macam mummy buat kat saya bila saya sakit...".

Thank you sweetheart. God has answered to my prayers. You are so sweet Adik. I will never forget this moment.

I am confident?

On and off I like to change the picture in my whatsapp application. Just for fun.

I am a very private person and I don't go out necessarily unless I had too. My other half said I'm snobbish. No I am not snobbish. It is just me being me. You're married to me so you have to accept me for who I am. You are you and I am me. Yes in every sense we are different but you do not have the right to say I am not confident just because I do not display my sweet looking face on whatsapp....!

Indeed, I do not enjoy displaying my sweet and innocent face. What I display is how I feel at the moment of time. I am a creative person and I appreciate art. I like the changes in expression and last night i saved this.

Shared it with my other half. He said, "You are not confident in yourself that's why you don't put a picture of you." Hmmm well that picture described my burning desire. Look at the eye brow.....that's me! The red represents heat and the blue is sweat.

I found this, "There are so many other people out there who will tell you that you can't. What you've got to do is turn around and say "watch me". So for you my other half I changed to a real photo of myself on whatsapp.

Jangan get upset if I spend more time on my mobile. Obviously now people will recognize me and it does disrupt my privacy. I am a confident person. If I haven't been we would not lasted this long, especially this passed 4 years.....I have sacrifice so many thing I wanna do....So please evaluate yourself before you passed judgement on other people.  Capisce?

Yay! I passed...

Yay, I passed my level 1 of french DELF exam and my classmate shared the below picture which was taken right before I walked in the exam room. We were given 10 minutes to prepare for our oral exam. I did not noticed when this was taken but cool....thanks Hamizah. She said she found it displayed in DELF Malaysia page.

I posted on my facebook, "Ok. Done with french oral exam. I was sweating throughout d 7 minutes...everytime i dont understand their question...i would go je ne comprend pas...hehehe...how do i feel now? I wanna eat a bucket of ice cream...".

It's been a while since I sat for any form of exams (well with the exception to my medical exam check up every 2 years) and this time I can't avoid it.  The exam was conducted on 2 Sundays: first the written, listening and reading and second was the oral. How did I study? Hard!

Alhamdulillah, I have to thank Audrey, my french teacher who has been very resourceful.To Dato' Shake and Lara Fabien whom helped me on sentence structure and pronunciation. To Shakiel who helped me with the flash card...the one word I remembered and used was creme glacee (ice cream) in my oral examination. To my other half and Shakira who without their support I would have not made it to Alliance Francaise both Sundays. 

Now I am on my way with level 2. Semoga di permudahkan.

WHO Dinner and Dance - The 80s

The event that everyone was looking forward. This year our Dinner & Dance was held at Eastin Hotel. I booked a deluxe room and dragged along the kids. Have we got news for you....This year's performance, yes, we won, again. Woo Hoo. Sorry can't show the video since the capacity is too large to upload here. But you can click here, http://youtu.be/D8Q7vRVTgMY

That's me on far left.

I was not involve in the beginning except helping out with the Bake & Sale to generate money for costume rentals. I prepared pulut kuning and chicken rendang and chicken rice. 

I also came out the idea of the cloud which i designed and created by myself. 

And then I contributed to the idea of the boombox as our background. This bunt-ting cost RM270.00

I think I contribute a lot. Suddenly 5 days before the dance performance, I was unanimously voted (without my knowledge and presence) to become the Floor Manager. What?!? Pourquoi? Moi? Can I say NO?

OK Fine.... but give me control over the female models. They were stiff as a stick. Sorry but it is a critic-kan membina....My responsibility is to make sure the floor runs smoothly. All costumes and equipment are properly tag and store properly until the performance day. On the performance day, I had to make sure pulak all costume are properly hanged and arranged. Attend to their dressing and make sure no flaws during the performance. When I work I do take my work seriously. And the best of it all is to work with the models.

Malangnya atas sifat2 ketimuran ramai yang segan and malu depan orang lain. My advise always become the character like in the song. Tak lama malunya 30 seconds je....Overall I was very happy with Whitney and Joan Jet...they follow what I said....Thank you and you all did a brilliant job.

Till we meet again,....watch out....we're going for a hatrick!

New beginning, again...?

It has been too long since I posted anything here. I have so many things to share but when I am in front of this laptop I just went blank.

Credit to Google images and jimjones.com

So after 6 months of acting position, I am back to my normal routine. You know, I love what I am doing. Work and laughter filled my days at work. Tak boring when you have Kat and Salyna around. I have been picking up pieces where I left off and continue with new assignments as well. Alhamdulillah, I have established a good rapport with our colleagues in the AFRO Region. I received numerous praise for my attentiveness in assisting and updating staff members on contract status. Its the time of the year that thing are a bit slow in the contract department.

Come Jan 15, there will be a restructuring of organization. A new team is established which is the EURO and SEARO. Both regions was separated from the existing AFRO Team. And I made a decision to leave AFRO and migrate to EURO/SEARO. I have my own reasons for doing it. Anyone interested to know the reason behind it can 'pm' me....muahahaha.

Memang sayang nak tinggalkan AFRO Team but life has to go on...It's been 3 years with AFRO Team and they are a huge and complicated continent. I learned so much during that span of time. But I have to move on...i see it as a career advancement. I am excited to begin and set a new standard for EURO and SEARO. We have approximately 1000 employees in both region. Wish me luck. I need all the luck I can get.