Ladies only Breakfast Again

This morning I had breakfast with my fellow friends from my secondary school (of my batch).
There were Nury, Mek Isye, Sally, DR Ana and me.

We met up at the cafe in Hotel UiTM at 8.30, stayed there until the buffet breakfast ended at 10.30am, when we adjourned our discussion to the hotel lobby :-)
We reluctantly departed at 12.30pm :-(

Nury was the only one who had to leave at 10.30, because she had visitors at home. Thank you Nury for coming to our meet despite being so busy herself attending to some relatives who came from Kelantan.

To all of my dear friends, thank you for making the effort to come - especially Ana who came all the way from Ampang and Sally from Selayang!!

Hopefully we can meet up again after Eidil Fitri.

And I hate the Monkeys!

Sunset at Kuta Beach

Last week was a very short week for me. After the AGM on Sunday, hubby, 3 kids and I flew to Bali for a 4-night holiday.

We stayed at Melasti Beach Resort, in Kuta. The place is very strategic, close to amenities, and a halal "Kebab Palace" is just across the street.

In short, what do I think of Bali? Too expensive (food, and souvenirs alike) and just too touristy to my liking. The island is not that big but the narrow roads make driving a bit stressful (even though we had a driver to drive us around!). The average speed was only 35km/hr or at most 40km/per. Except for a couple of short stretches of bi-passes, most of the main roads reminded me of our village roads in my hometown, really!!

So what did we do there?

Monday: checked into the resort at 8pm.

Tues:
Leisure walk at Kuta Beach (north), and visited the Bali Bomb Memorial.
Spent the evening at the new Discovery Shopping Mall that faces the sea. Had "es teler" - nice and yummy. watched sunset there.

Kuta Beach in the morning. The lady tried to talk me into getting massage

Wed: Went to Segarapura, Besakih, Kintamani, droved passed Ubud (too crowded with tourists that we decided not to stop at all), and back to hotel room.

Thurs: Drove passed Denpasar (just to see the place) on the way to Tanah Lot. Then drove south to have a Nasi Padang lunch. Later headed to Nusa Dua (nice beach and lagoons too!) and Uluwatu. Yes, at Uluwatu, a monkey grabbed my glasses! I went blind in seconds! I was about to cry when a young guy (as if it was all planned) gave the monkey some nuts. It threw my glasses on the other side of the concrete wall (facing the sea!). The young man jumped over the wall to collect my glasses. When i went to get my glasses, he told me to pay Rp20,000 to the lady nearby. Was that coincident that the man was nearby to help??? I don't think so!! And for him to fix a price for "helping" me??.... I just hate the monkeys!!

Fri: Last minute visit to the nearby bazaar to get some cheap t-shirts (cheap by quality, not by the prices!!) for the kids. Then headed to the Ngurah Rai Airport (Ngurah Rai was a local warrior). Had RM20 per set meal McD lunch before catching our flight home at 2.40pm. We arrived at LCCT at 4.55pm (a good 30 minutes AHEAD of schedule!!).

SEMESTA's 11th AGM

SEMESTA is the alumni association of my alma-mater. The 11th AGM was held yesterday, at 3pm, at KGSAAS, Shah Alam.

The turn up was relatively good, as compared to last year's, or even to the one before that.
However, I was disappointed to see only 3 out of those seniors(Class of 1977) who had a gathering just the day before turned up for this AGM. The venue being only 5 minutes away from the hotel that they had their gathering and the fact that they are the PIONEERS of the school, I would thought that they would be interested to attend the AGM and to even take over the leadership of the association.

I saw some new faces, and juniors from as young as the Class of 2003 turned up. That is a good sign!! I reallyhope more and more juniors will turn up for future AGMs and also activities of the association.

My best wishes go to the newly elected committee, lead by Dr Nordin (Class of 81) and my own good friend AHA (Class of 78). You guys can count on me for future activities, as I do intend to support and participate as much as I can, just like what I used to do for the past 4 years!!

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition, 18 August to 2 September, 2007

Details: http://www.mifc. com.my/

some of the pix that DH took last night:
(All pics handheld, ISO1600, with Canon 400D + Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8- 4.5 DC, 53mm, 1/80, f/4.0)

Fully-occupied School Holidays! and Welcome to S Alam to my "Sisters from Kelantan"

Yes, the school holidays are back. To us, it started on Thursday, when our no.4 came back from Kota Bharu. Yesterday, I drove alone to Seremban to fetch no.5. Later, last night I drove south again to fetch no.2 from MMU Cyberjaya - he would like to spend the weekend at home with his younger siblings!

Today, I had an eventful day too!! Early in the morning, I got an sms from and old school friend (she's 2-yrs my ssenior). She called to inform that there were 8 of them who had just arrived from Kota Bharu. They are here for a re-union of their batch (Class of 1977). I knew about the re-union earlier, but I didn't know who among the 'girls' would attend it, until I got the sms today!!

Soon, I was at the hotel that they are putting up for the night. We had a good time reminiscing the good old days :-)
Alas, all good things will end, and for me, I had to leave them to fetch my son (no.2) from the hospital where he had a doctor's appointment. But I didn't leave them without popping into the hall where they were supposed to have their function. I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet some of the guys too. Zailan, as a member of the organising committee was very kind to me. He even gave me one of their gathering momentoes - a commemorative t-shirt!! Thank you Mr Zailan.

Later in the day (about 3pm), I got a message from my presiden that there was no membership application form at the above function. (Well, the Class of 77 invited Mr Presiden to address them). What an excuse to "make myself busy there, and get a chance to meet the others who were not there, when i left earlier? ;-))

So, by 4pm, I was in the hall with them again. I managed to distributed the forms (after the MC made the announcement about the availability of the forms). Several of them returned the forms with their fees almost immediately. To these friends, I thank ALL OF YOU from the bottom of my heart!!

I am very happy that I got to meet many other seniors. Surprisingly (yes, I was surprise myself!) I can remeber some of their names and recognise many of the ladies!!

(It's a pity I forgot to recharge my camera battery, so I didn't get to use it to capture special moments and faces from the meet! I just hope I will later get to use some of the pix from some of them who were there!)

I got back at 6pm, just to remember that I promised another friend to meet her. So, that was what I did, and came back home at 8pm, just to be reminded that we (the family) planned to go to Putrajaya to see the fireworks display!!!

So, at 9.10pm, I found myself driving to Putrajaya. The fireworks started at 10pm sharp and lasted for 20 minutes. Luckily on the way home, DH took over the driving ;-)

So, I actually ended the day with a bang (of fireworks?!!)

Now it's in the early hours of 19 August 2007. Later today at 2.30pm, we will have our alumni's AGM. I will not be defending my post (Deputy president) and would love to see my adik-adik (juniors) to take over the leadership of the society!!

So, it's time to call it off for now... and i look forward to the AGM later today ;-)

Thank you, Fairuz

Today, I met up Fairuz Jaafar at Bkt Raja Shopping Complex. I went there with my son, Ayi.

Initially we thought we would wait for Fairuz before we adjourned for lunch so that maybe all three of us can have the meal together. However, soon after that we figured out we were too hungry to wait for him :-(

After exchanging a few sms-es with Fairuz, Ayi and I finally went to have a simple lunch at the food court. Even when we were long done with our lunch, Fairuz was yet to be seen. I soon gave up, and decided to go to the nearby pharmacy, when he called. He was at the food court, looking for us! So, we went back to the food court, and had a quick chat there.

Fairuz was one of my mentees when I was a lecturer in UNISEL. He came to see me today to pass me the gift that he meant to give me almost 2 years ago!! It's a very nice Sheaffer pen. I must remember not to lose it!!

Actually it was not so much about the gift, and in fact I had really forgotten about the gift (he told me about it when we met briefly after the convocation in UNISEL last year) when we arranged for today's meet. It's the relationship and trust that we've built up between us over these years that is really precious to me.

I am glad that Fairuz has finally finished his studies and is now working for one of the mobile telephone companies. I wish him all the best and I'd like to thank him again for the baeutiful gift.

The Last Committee Meeting for the 2005-2007 Term

All pix are courtesy of Ahmad Hilmy Abdullah.

In case friends are wondering, two of them are not committee members but they were here because they are involved in the preparation of the upcoming AGM.

Well.. I am referring to my alumni, SEMESTA. Today we had our final committee meeting, in preparation for the AGM to be held on 19 August 2007 at 2.30pm at KGSAAS, Shah Alam.

Unlike the previous meetings, the attendance today was overwhelming!! Some non-committee members were also invited by the committee to sit in the meeting - they will render their help/service during the AGM, and hence their presence today was important to fascilitate the AGM next week.

The highlight of the meeting was the late appearance of Wan Zul (Class of 1982) who is also the big boss of Shakey's Pizza, with pizzas, burgers, and drinks more than enough for everybody!! So we ended the meeting with a hearty lunch, thanks to Wan Zul!!

A friend of ours, AHA, who is also a committee member (who carries his DSLR wherever he goes), managed to snapped some pix of us. His other collection of the pix (with more artistic values) can be found here.

Enough pizza and spaggeti for everyone!

One for the album: Rushdan, Shakey's Pizza's own WanZul, K Gee, me and Salwana

Pix of "My Heroes"

My heroes arrived home at 3am this morning (I went to fetch them at LCCT).
They must be very proud that they made it!!

DH and Bok with KC in the middle

Bok doesn't know what the black signboard says!

Bok dancing his way down

Bok looking back at the peak, knowing that he will not come back!!

Back home, later today, our Aina was delighted when dad gave her her favourite fruit, specially airflewn from Kota Kinabalu:

Aina admiring the tarap fruit

A Quick Lunch Meet

Last Thursday, I joined some of my friends for lunch at Kenny Roger's Mid-Valley Mega Mall.

The occasion?? Our classmate Halim (who works with Aramco, Saudi and is back in Malaysia for his annual leave) relayed the message that he would like to meet up with us, and of course "belanja" us for the lunch!

Despite very late notice, there were 5 of us who made it : Zuhdi, Mat Puji, Mat Kamil, Norita and me, and of course Halim!!

Some pix:

Mat Puji and Kamil done?

Mat Kamil and Norita

Zuhdi struggling to sms with his problematic phone.

Halim with kids and son's fren.

Pakdin is Getting Better...

Now, that's another nice piece of news... From where? From the Farisian's Flickr site.
Semoga Pakdin cepat sembuh...

Pakdin, if you get to read this, I hope you'll forgive us for not visiting you again for this week or so. Naim is busy conquering Kinabalu Peak and will only be back very early on Saturday. We will try to visit you again when he gets back..

They Did It!!

Honestly, I hardly slept last night, thinking of DH and Bok (our second child) at Laban Rata, on their way up to Mount Kinabalu. They were supposed to hike up the last leg early this morning. I have been waiting for their news since I got up at 6.ooam this morning.

And, the long awaiting news came at 9.57am, in the form of an sms from Bok:
We did it. A bit slow, but we did it nonetheless.



Right after reading the sms, I called Bok's hp (DH's is maxis', no coverage yet), and managed to talk to DH :-)
Knowing that he didn't prepare well for the trip (only daily walks and no jogging or cycling exercise prior to the expedition), I am really happy he made it!!

Got this pix (taken and sent using pda phone) later (click on the pix to get a lightly better image):

Good Luck!!

This morning I sent dearest hubby (DH) and son, Bok, to LCCT. They are on their mission to conquer Mount Kinabalu. Would they succeed?? Only time will tell :-)

A Brief Meet With Lina Kar

This is my 4th meet with Lina Kar, and it's the shortest too (about 10 minutes only)!
Firth time I met her was during the recent Alumni's Futsal. Ireen introduced her to me. Somehow, when we met for the first time, we clicked well immediately :-)
Maybe part of the reason is because his father was my Geography teacher when I was in Form 5. The second time I met Lina was on the day before the Career Day in our alma-mater, third time was during the Career Day. However, during those early visits, we never got the chance to have a pix of us taken. So, today we managed to do so :-):

And what better way to have the pix than this?

Actually we were on our way south to visit our son. It was a mum's pleasure to bring her son a "snack plate" from KFC and catch up with latest news :-)

How's life, Mae?

Get Well soon Pakdin!

At 4.30pm, DH and I visited Pakdin at HUKM.

He appeared very weak (he was still on mhorpine!), but being Pakdin, he's still eager to greet us and keep us up to date with his latest condition, and to relate to us the operation that he underwent yesterday. The operation was to remove his left kidney that was damaged and cancerous yesterday.

Many fellow alumni are getting the news about Pakdin's condition, and tomorrow more friends plan to visit Pakdin. I hope that this will cheer him up and help him to recover faster.

Get Well soon Pakdin, and I hope that the test will show that the tumor that they took out from you is benign.

Welcome Home Friend

Welcome home to an old friend who works in Saudi. He's back for the summer holidays, even though not for too long. It was nice to be able to meet up with him, with several other friends yesterdy at Dr Nordin's place.

Our Dear Friend, Razali

Salwana, Dr Nordin with Jazlan

Ezani and me

Thank you to Dr Nordin and missus (Salwani) for playing hosts, and also to Jazlan who brought Razali to Shah Alam.

Catching up with latest news as well as recalling good old times takes quite a long time (and is actually never ending). Hence the evening tea meet was adjourned to a dinner meet at a nearby hotel!



We reluctantly left the restaurant just before midnight when we noticed that they were ready to "close shop" for the day....
(Hashim, Salwana & Ezani were not featured in the pictures at the dinner.)

Pictures: Courtesy of Dr Nordin!
(I left my camra at Dr Nordin's