Handover Notes

Uh!Oh! It's time to prepare the handover notes....

But handover to whom?

Had a small talk (very short one!) with that evil boss just now. I think he's in denial stage that I'm leaving....hahaha. Bukan perasan dia suka saya tau.....I think he knows I hate him. But he needs me!!!

And why do I said he's in denial stage? Because he refuse to discuss on the works that I have and suppose to pass to somebody. I tried to discuss about it earlier in the late morning, but he shut me up by saying 'until the day you leave'. Hello!!!!! That day is in 2 days and I hate last minute things, ok! And not that he was busy...he was playing solitaire, mind you!

I know without me around, he would be helpless (not only me saying this, but the whole project team). He's the remote controller. And what is there to remote control when the human device is not available?

Client needs report? Info?

"Ros, prepare bla,bla, bla, I want it tomorrow"

Client visits site early in the morning?

"Ros, this En. A is coming tomorrow. You entertain him"

And all minutes of meeting, progress report, bla and bla....I wonder who's going to do it.

As far as I'm concerned, the HQ has not said anything about sending somebody to replace me. And looking at the condition now, I don't think they would because the works is not so much now. Resident Engineer should be able to do these works without his ARE.

I love to hear if he is in the mess later on (mmg ku tidak punya hati yg baik). It serves him right! But I know if he's miserable, he will mess up other people too. Like, probably asking the supervisor to do stuff he's not supposed to do. And this project is like my baby. I should take a good care of it though I'm not staying to see the plant commissioning.

So, handover notes is a must!

Is That So?

Ever since I put my resignation letter almost 2 months ago, I receive lots of questions, remarks and comments from people around me. When they heard that I have resigned, the question they'd ask was 'So which company you going to join?', instead of asking 'Why do you resign?'

When I told these people that I'm not going for a new job, but I will be a full time housewife (without telling that I'm going abroad), here are some remarks I got:

"Staying at home? Are you sure about this?"
"You have the cert. and experiences. Why you want to waste such things?"
"Your husband must be rich that now you can quit your job and stay at home, huh?"

Hmm....looks like being a housewife is a degrading move to these people.

Then, they heard that I quit my job because I'm to follow my dear cik HB furthering his studies and I receive these comments:

"Can't your husband go alone? Why must you sacrifice your career?"

"Since you are there and doing nothing, why don't you further study as well?"

"Try get a job or do business, don't waste your time there"

Hello! Doing nothing? Don't they think that taking care husband and kids is a job as well, though it's not a paid one (but we're paid by pahala if we are sincere about it, right?).

So is it wrong if a graduate mother leaves her job simply because she wants to give priority to her family?

My two precious girls

I too, heard these phrases number of times before (not meant for me, mind you!):

'Belajar tinggi-tinggi, akhirnya duduk dapur jugak'

or

'Penat2 mak ayah hantar belajar tinggi2, berhenti jaga anak, buat apa?'

Actually if dear cik HB doesn't further his study abroad, quitting job definitely not in my plan, at least not yet. Because other than helping in paying our daily expenses, I'm also giving monthly allowance to my parents. And now with increasing price of almost everything, of course, I would choose to be working.

But it's a married life, when one spouse gets a better chance to upgrade his career, don't you think that the other half must sacrifice? And to live separately for 2 years time......I think I would be so selfish not to follow dear cik HB and it's not fair to the children as well. Besides, there is no financial problems for the family to go along. And we have done some calculation, with the money that cik HB will receive, we can still give monthly allowance to both sides of our parents.

And my career is not at the peak too, I'm still the underpaid engineer, I hate my job, so what's the big deal about quitting my job? Of course I'm aware that if I'm not working for 2 years period of time, chances for me to get the job that I have now is very slim. Anyway, I never thought of working back as engineer. I'm thinking to further study after we come back or I would find a job that is not so demanding. My priority now is my children. I want to spend more quality time with them.

Anyway I don't intend to put aside the idea that I should be studying or working while I'm staying there. I'll see how are the things there. If the opportunity is there, why not?

Whatever it is, I am redha with the choice I make. So 'shuh-shuh' all the negative remarks!

How Sad.....

My heart sank when I read news on a father who suicided after he murdered his two small children. (For more details read here)

I don't understand. First of all, he's a Muslim and self-suicide is a big sin in Islam. Secondly, if you want to be dead, why must your kids die too? I understand this guy was miserable because of his marriage is falling apart. His family said he was a doting father and took turn taking care of the children. How could a doting father kill his own kids? Is this a way to protest to the wife that he didn't want a divorce? To make the wife suffer her whole life, thinking that she is the reason for the death of his husband and children? Like, the news of a mother who killed her kid to revenge her adulterous husband?

True enough we do not know what is it actually going on.....

But one thing for sure, we must have strong iman while going through our life. Life is very challenging, it's up to each of us how we would face it.

Semoga Allah s.w.t melindungi kita semua.......

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.