Flight Schedule

Yesterday cik HB showed me the flight itinerary he has received from his office to fly to Germany. Though I don't really feel that 6/9 is coming very soon but when he showed me that, then only I have realized that 'Oh! Dah dekat rupanya nak pergi sana'.

Cik HB has to book the flight by now. He's not doing the booking process of course, all will be done by his office but he needs to confirm the flight's date and time. From the itinerary, there are 4 flights to choose from but none of them is MAS and none of them a direct flight as well. Hmmm...why no MAS, eh? Shouldn't government use the national air carrier? Or is MAS expensive in comparison to others? Well, MAS or no MAS, we can't say much, it's not paid by us. It's good enough we still have few options to choose from.

The options we have:

1. Kuwait Airways : KL-Bahrain-Frankfurt
2. Gulf Air: KL-Bahrain-Frankfurt
3. Thai Airways : KL-Bangkok-Frankfurt
4. Emirates Air : KL-Dubai-Frankfurt

Thai Airways is definitely big No-No. And flight at noon also not in our consideration. So we chose Emirates Air. The departure will be at 12.55 a.m and we would be arriving there at 3.55 a.m (Dubai's local time). Then the next flight to Frankfurt will be at 8.25 a.m. I guess that's the best time to be on flight with two small kids. Hopefully they would be sleeping all the way. And it's fasting month! Gosh, it's going to be challenging...

Plan Re-schedule

Soon obviously is pretty much soon......hahaha (in reference to the last statement of my previous post) I can't help it, I have this urge to blog, so here I am again.

Dear cik HB is supposed to go for his BTN course tomorrow. And because of that, my mum came to stay at my house to accompany me and the kids. But yesterday morning he called me, sounded pretty much disappointed, saying that he couldn't go to that BTN. Apparently the clerk who is supposed to confirm to the BTN on cik HB's participation, did not do so and because of that the place for cik HB has been taken by other people. Karenah biroksi sungguh, kan?

The thing is, we have nicely arranged our plan for August (We even typed it, printed it and pasted it on the fridge door). 9/8/08 should be the target date we move things out from our rented house in Melaka (but we intend to keep the house until mid-Sept, just in case). Other than that, we plan to go back to KB much earlier before my SIL's wedding to help out. Now that cik HB has to go for BTN course on 7/8, and to wait for the result to come out and then handling all the necessary documents, looks like we have to reschedule our plan. And how I hate reschedule...arrggg!!!

And time is running out.....late BTN's result, means late KPT's letter leading to late money to receive! Can we really fly to Germany on 6/9 as we have planned? Hmm....just wait and see lah.

Counting Days...

Only this week and next week.....yeeha!!!!

But I have to limit my time on the Net in order to finish all my outstanding works before my last working day on 31th July. Furthermore, my PC is cranky now, apparently it has some problems related to Window memory low and if I'm online, my PC keeps shutting down on error. So if I were having some works with Excel or Words, they are just gone missing. Well, Words not that bad cause the recovery system is good but Excel....huh!

So friends, if you don't see me on YM or blog has not been updated, you know why. I have to work hard, ok....

See you soon......

Trip to Perlis

Month of July is really month of traveling. A week before the Perlis trip, we went back to KB for the wedding and since we felt it was necessary to attend the groom's wedding reception in Perlis, we went there too although it meant we have to spends lots of money on the traveling cost.

I don't travel to the northern area much. So I find that traveling to Perlis by driving is very tiring and so far away (tiring here not because I drive, but entertaining the two 'cekadak' girls). No doubt KB also is very far from the place we are staying but I get used to the route already so I don't find it that long anymore.

But thanks to PLUS that provides good facilities along the highway. R&R at Sg Perak is superb! The architecture is beautiful and the place is complete with escalator. Probably that is why we pay so much for the toll, huh?

We actually were in KL that Friday morning until noon because of the visa things. We left KL around 2.30 pm and we arrived at Alor Star at 8.30 pm. But we took the wrong exit to go to Perlis, instead of Alor Star(S), we took Alor Star (U). Cik HB called so many people to ask for direction. One person gave another idea and another person gave another thing. Of course both directions will send us to Perlis, but we wanted the most effective and shorter route.

Since we took Alor Star(U), cik HB's friend suggested we got into the highway back and headed towards Changlun. So we did that. I was told by my SIL that the groom's family had reserved us a place to stay at a homestay in Kangar but then cik HB drove straight to Kuala Perlis cause he claimed his brother said we were wait for him to fetch us there (Our families from KB had arrived much earlier). It was already 9.30 pm and everybody hungry. And the girls had been so cranky for quite some time by then. But cik HB refused to stop until we reached Kuala Perlis. At Kuala Perlis we finally stopped for dinner at one food place by the road side (I refuse to call it a restaurant, you'll know why). The place was actually horrible but we were tricked by the colourful neon lights installed outside. When we got into the place then only we realized that the place was dirty. But since we had sat down and it was already late for dinner, we stayed and ordered food. Cik HB asked from the waiter boy whether he can use their toilet. I also had the urge to use the toilet too, but looking around the place, I was sure the toilet is horrible. When HB came back, he whispered to me that the toilet was extremely horrible. My HB isn't someone so fussy so when he said that, I believed him.

Waiting for the food to be served also took very long time. I think about half an hour later it came and very disappointing. My HB ordered a mix tomyam but he only found chicken with fats in it. I ordered paprik fried rice but was given white rice with paprik. And again with chicken fats. My two SIL ordered nasi goreng kampung and another plate of nasi goreng cina for the twins to share. Both fried rice tasted the same!

Since we were hungry, we finished it off though not happy with the taste. I was aghast when we were told that the price for everything is RM26! No, I know that wasn't so much of money but it was expensive in comparison with another food places that I have been to. Generally, it priced at RM5.20 per person for 5 dishes. And for the drinks, my HB had teh-0, one SIL with ice-tea and another 3 drinks were only plain water. Sorry if I sound so stingy in this matter but it just doesn't make sense to me....I know goods price has gone up tremendously nowadays due to the oil price but in Kuala Perlis, could it be that much? When we ate in Bangi on the way back to Melaka, it was cheaper than that ok!

Ok, that was the story of the food. Apparently, nobody said that we were to wait at Kuala Perlis. I don't know how cik HB got the idea about the Kuala Perlis thing but when we called my BIL back, we were supposed to go to Kangar. Ayoo!!! Luckily Kangar is not that far from Kuala Perlis. We finally there at 11 pm and met my BIL waiting for us at Putra Palace Hotel. Then he took us to the homestay where the rest of the family stayed. Since there were many of them and the house already crowded, we chose to stay at Putra Palace Hotel which offered good rate. we checked-in at the hotel at 12 midnight.

But sometime around 1.30 am, when I was about to sleep, my stomach suddenly felt churning. So I rushed to the toilet. Once I was done, Nabihah said she wanted to poo and she too seemed like having diarrhea. Then Nabilah. Then me...and the exercise went on several time between 3 of us until we finally slept at 2.30 am. At 3 something it was my HB then. 6.30 am, Nabihah woke up saying she had pooped in her diaper. I was wondering whether my two SIL also having the same problem and was confirmed that they too, had diarrhea when one of them called me at 8 am. I couldn't tell what had caused us the diarrhea, whether the food pack that I cooked for lunch ( we had fried chicken, prawn chilies with petai and mix vege) or that horrible food place in Kuala Perlis? My two SIL insisted that the food place is the culprit. Tapi tak baik tuduh2 kan?

Saturday (12/7/08)

It's the groom's reception day somewhere around Kangar. The foods were scrumptious, first time I ate papaya curry. Then there were grilled fish, ulam2 and matched with sambal belacan. Makan tak ingat dunia rombongan kami...hahahah.

Makan beradab

Yours truly berposing sebelum makan...hehehe

Posing with couple: from left, cikHB , FIL, K , MN and me

After the reception, we went back to the homestay. The aunts discussed where to go for sightseeing and shopping. One aunt wanted to go to Padang Besar and another aunt opted for Wang Kelian. We didn't want to be part of the rombongan cik kiah, so cik HB and I, one of his brother and the wife talked about going to Langkawi and stay there overnight.

Part of the KB clan

But when we got back to the hotel, the twins and cik HB fell asleep and plan to go to Langkawi was cancelled. It was not the right time to go. No point going there on late afternoon, then tomorrow morning has to rush back to Melaka.

But in the evening, we went to Padang Besar on our own. Rombongan cik kiah apparently had gone there much earlier so we didn't bother to join the group. Nothing much in Padang Besar. It's similar to Rantau Panjang and I think Rantau Panjang is bigger. We just went around the area and I ended up buying some jeruk and nuts for souvenir.

That night, we were invited by the K's (the groom) family for dinner. Apparently the reception held during the day was at the K's grandmother's house (ini mesti kes cucu kesayangan) and the dinner was at the K's parents' house. Again, there were a lot of foods and all kueh and deserts served.

Sunday (13/7/08)

We left Perlis at 10 am after saying goodbye to KB clan. Arrived at Melaka at 10 pm. It was very long journey and we had stopped several times and dropped my 2 SILs in KL and Bangi.

Debate

My interest on the political issues is actually very minimal. I read the newspaper, hear the TV news and get to know the latest update of our politic scenario, but that's all. But I am never obsess or excited when it comes to politic.And I can't believe it either that I'm going to write about politics now and probably having myself risked to be caught by ISA...hahahah

When Anwar Ibrahim is accused on sodomy crime AGAIN! I have the urge to read more and find out more on what is going on. 10 years ago, I didn't believe any of the crimes prosecuted on Anwar, much less now. But I always understand, politics is a dirty arena. People would do anything possible for power and money.

So when it was announced that there will be a debate between Penasihat PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (DSAI)and Menteri Penerangan, Datuk Shabery Cheek (DSC)and would be broad casted on TV, I was so excited.But one thing I wondered was, why Shabery Cheek? Why not the PM himself or TPM or at least the financial minister? Oh ya, the financial minister is PM himself, isn't he?

Ok, I'm not good at summarizing on the debate itself. Go and watch it yourself from youtube or any other sources and conclude. But I find that DSAI is truly someone with caliber and charismatic. He's indeed a good debater and public speaker. And "kudos" to Shabery Cheek for having guts to challenge DSAI for this debate even though I find his speeches is very much not convincing. And if the BN Government is very transparent to give opportunity to the Opposition/PKR to publicly speaking on this oil issue as stated by Shabery, why was it not aired on RTM itself? Shabery Cheek is RTM's boss, and funny...it didn't show live in that channel? It was shown in Astro Awani only. And how many Malaysian citizen has Astro at home? What about those who live in villages and remote areas? Is it so transparent as claimed by Shabery?

Our politics scenario is getting unpredictable it seems. No doubt UMNO/BN has done a lot for the country but it's not the party to be blamed now, it's the people who manage it. Maybe whe should change those people, huh?

I want to live in peaceful Malaysia but not with corrupted leaders....

Visa

We off to Perlis on Friday (I'll write about my trip later). But we had to dropped by at the German embassy in KL. They had called cik HB few days earlier saying that now they need the financial statement to be translated into Deutsch. Our friend who is going to Aachen, Germany did not have to do this, in fact the visa for him and his family is ready for collection. And they only did it 2 weeks earlier than us! But we are aware that visa application is handled by the state (ours is Hessen) that we are going to, so the requirements may vary accordingly.

For one document to be translated means we have to spend more money.One page costs us RM70 with the translator and another RM99 for the embassy to endorse. Expensive, huh? Previously, we had spent hundreds of ringgit to translate some documents into Deutsch. And the translator must the one certified by the embassy. Meaning, even if you can write in Deutsch, you can't do the translation by yourself. Hmmm...so much for procedures..

Now we are wondering whether they are going to ask for more documents to be translated. As far as we can remember, the only document that is still not in Deutsch is my degree cert.(Oh! This is also an interesting (and weird too!) part about Germany visa application, that the accompanying spouse needs to be at least a degree holder)

I just hope that there will be no more issues with this visa application. We are running out of time now and expect that we could get the visa by mid-August.

Which One?

I am contemplating between taking a decent way of leave application (i.e fill up the form and see whether the boss will approve it) OR just take emergency leave. Tomorrow I'm off to Perlis. And I only have 1 more day annual leave to spend. Coming Saturday is my working Saturday and I have no more leave to spend. But I can substitute that Saturday with another 2 Saturdays to come before I finally leave my job. Even if he still doesn't agree to this arrangement, I'm willing to treat that half day as unpaid leave.

The thing is, I'm not sure whether that evil boss would agree, knowing how much he likes to make my life miserable.If I go and see him and konon-konon nak discuss, he would shout at me first, thus will make me feel bad the whole day and night.

So, I'm thinking the best way is just to go on emergency and then SMS him. If he wants to be angry, at least I already did it. So the hell with him!!! Besides, I'm leaving soon, so what the heck?