Karaoke nightt

I still remembered in NY when I asked a friend if there were any karaoke joints that doesnt sell alcohol. His reply was "I dont believe people will karaoke without being drunk". I think Malaysians beg to differ cause its one of our favorite past times. Well not me but most of us anyway and maybe the wife (she is so in denial about singing). "Ala malu laahh.. tak nak ahh" will always be the initial ice breaker. Give her the mic and she might not let it go.

I have never understood the syok-ness of karaoke but I really had fun last weekend. Its more of being in the company of great friends and letting out your inner music soul while acting out retarded. Shahrul and Su without a doubt was really up to the task with the dancing and gaya2 meneran- seems like they had planned ahead with the song choice and practiced at home. Wafi was wafi.. doing nothing is entertaining enough but if you add food (in this case the popeyes chicken) to the picture its better than seeing people drunk. Jal was also sporting and god damnnn he does look like on of the alleycats not to mention his voice - sampaikanlah salammm cintaaku padanyaa broo!!!

Hope everybody else had a great time like i did. Maybe next time more people can join in. Emmm looking back.. I understand why my friend said people only karaoke when they are drunk.

Family Farewells

Note: I'm referring my mom siblings as nenek/atuk and my cousins as aunty/uncles more so for the kids.

Sob* sobbbb*... this is the hard part of leaving... saying good byes to the family. Last Saturday we went "All day atuk + neneks visit" on my side. Started by picking up Nek Fauziah in PJ, then visited Lola (my mom) + Atuk Jol + Aunty Wawa in KD. Then we headed of to my real kampung - Gombak to Nek + Atuk Langs +aunty Ecah nostalgic house not forgetting to eat all her food. Later on we went to Nek + Atuk Ngah's house meeting the buff uncle Afiq and aunty Tilla. Lastly visited Nelly (Nek + eli) with aunty angah and iza at Ukay perdana.

It was a very fulfilling day not to mention satisfying (but wished i can meet more cousins). But our happiness was bitter sweet realizing we are leaving them behind. Isskk...ishkkk tissue pleeasseee. But the gist of it, they are always there to support us in our decision to migrate, we are surely loved and will be sorely missed. So i cant write much about it cause it'll make me sad. So enjoy the pics.

btw.. Nelly was asking me if i have single friends to introduce to Angah (25 years old). The above pics with black checkers shirt. Anybody interested?? Promo baiknyaa ni angahh.

The string of farewells has started...

I still can't believe that last Friday was my last day at the office!! I still think that I am coming to work today. It is exciting, but also sad to leave the office where I spent almost 7 years of my life. You can find work everywhere, but the friends that you bonded with are irreplaceable. I know some of them in college, and the circle keeps growing with the new hires coming in. The geos really have a close knit circle, and nothing can beat that!

Last Thursday, the department threw me a farewell party at Tupai2. It has been a long time since we've been there, so it was great to have the party there. The theme is pink and white, no wonder why lah. Three tableful of us, from geos and our comrade engineers. Our table, the VVIP table, ordered plenty of yummylicious food. It was really a feast! Here are some pictures..

Waiting at the lobby

Posing in front of the restaurant

Giving a farewell speech.. didn't know what I was talking about.. hehe
Everyone in pink.. Thanks for being so sporting!

Group photo of everyone!

Later, Nana, after all the trouble of getting lost (almost to Bangsar), 'surprised' me with this beauty cupcakes!!! It was very pretty, all pinkish purplish affair, very girly! Even after the heavy lunch, we can still eat some cupcakes! yummy!

The lovely cupcakes.. GOOD LUCK MATE!

The girls posing with the cupcakes..

The party didn't end there... The next day, which is my last day, we celebrated Nana's birthday at Secret Recipe AvenueK. It was supposed to be a surprise party for Nana, but Nana being cheeky knew about it beforehand. Well, we had fun anyway, this in time purple and lavender. Yeah, we geos coordinate in color! haha..

with the birthday cake..

Everyone squeezing in...

A few more pictures in the office.. spent the whole day bidding friends farewell.. Here is with my close friend, Amy, my mentor and best friend, plus the person getting all my mess :) Amy, even within this short period knowing you, I really really enjoyed your company. Really gonna miss our morning 'meetings'. Hope you'll do OK with work, with Ainul being a new addition to the group.

Take care, all! Hope to see you again in the future.. our company is small, we surely will cross paths again! :)

My idea of good home cook meal

I went to my Mak Lang's house yesterday. I love it there.. I loved going there when I was 5 and I still love going there now. This is due to numerous reason especially the authenticity of the house.. I will write more about the house later... but the food, I tell you its the same type of food for the past 4 generations in the house. Minang kampung all the way!! Every time after I take my first bite I fell like the the food critic guy (Hugo) in the cartoon Ratatouille when he tasted the tested dish - reminiscing the joy of the food since childhood. I know everybody has that feeling... brings all those memories back..

So here is what I thought that made it great:

1. Served on a table that is older than myself
2. The table has to be pack where you can barely put your plate on
3. Not less than 3 types of sambal - sambal udang petai, sambal manis ayam, sambal tumis, sambal nak makan ngan tahu sumbat, sambal semalam ada dalam fridge for emergencies
4. All the accessories in reach - kicap sebelah, fridge belakang je, pinggan + cawan kiri/kanan.. everythinglah dont have to get up until u finish.
5. The same original ingredients from the same pasar for decades.
6. At least 5 types of snacks on the table - roti 3/4 jenis, biscuit, wafer dan lain2.
7. Ice still buat sendiri dalam tupperware - so u can get the biggest ice you need
8. Weird combinations of lauk for those who crave creativity - Nugget cicah kuah lemak cilipadi ikan tenggiri.
9. Introduced to those cheap stuff (chocolate, snacks) but tastes at par with ruffles, Lays etc.
10. Most importantly - MADE WITH LOVE

So heres a bit about what I like about my ideal home cook meal.. I sure will miss this.. not so the rip off nasi lemak/ roti canai at the stalls. Do share on your thoughts on the matter.

ps.. I'm telling you what I told my Mak Lang before we left - "I would rather eat here than any other grand hotel"

First separation - Waja tersayang

Yes, i used to kutuk my old waja a lot (especially realizing the cost vs performance of our car industry - car tax is the biggest fraud in malaysia) but without a doubt it has done me and the family a great deal of service. From the first ride of our new borns, to the sleeping comfort in the hot midday sun , the muntah/sheeshee/popoo incidents even our dates before marriage.... it sure has done a lot. Apart the occasional small parts that keep coming off (literally and frequently) it never had any big problems (engine and so not). Proves the proton engineers are doing a good job but not so with its purchase of vendor parts (croniii.. but lets not get into that).

Being nearly 7 years old this august (yes we got it before we were married and a month after coming back from our studied).. our loan balance was really small but we still decided to let go cause we need the money to bring to oz. Got a friend in the office that helped me tolak to a car dealer.. which i believe we got a really good price with the minimal of hassle. To tell you the truth the business transaction (checking loan balance, condition of the car, paperworks) took less than 15 minutes.. we were talking longer about migrating issues of mesia. Bada boom bada bing.. the check was handed to us there and then after signing some papers. Really loved the convenience - kalau kenal org memang senang (mesia style). Being paranoid and eager.. we banked in the check the first chance we got. Done and dusted, just hope no summons creep up.

So heres to the waja.. still cant get used to not seeing it in the driveway. Miss you mate!!

Easter Egg

The only thing we know about easter ... is the easter bunny and the easter egg. While trying to instill some artistic creativity to the kids, we decided to let the kids make an easter egg (being part of the bangsar village kids activity). Well its a lot easier than making a bunny. They seem to enjoy it although ours was the messiest among the rest. The important thing is they had fun.

So heres some pics of our prized egg. Imagined if we had to decorate an easter bunny.

Zareef's temper flared when Zara meddled with his creativity

Selling stuff off

Seeing that we are leaving, we wanted to sell some of our stuff off. Some suggest that we have a yard sale. Some advice to go to a second hand shop. So before getting into all that, I would like to advertise it here (the easiest/cheapest way).

I dont know how to describe each and every thing... so lets do this, anybody who wants anything from us or think we might have it why dont you leave a comment and ask. I guarantee the price would be dirt cheap. The purpose is not really to make a hugh profit, just wanted to cover some cost to replace stuff when we get to melbourne.

Things that we think might be good buys are:

• Jati katil and wardrobe
• TV 21 inch LG
• fridge - the best fridge ever
• my bench + weights - agak complete set
• my acoustic guitar + amp - already taken by haziq
• Waja car - anybody can top 22k (second hand dealers offer)
• various baby stuff + preggy mother stuff
• almari kecik2
• sofa
• carpet
• dining table
• pinggan mangkuk
• books - lots of them

If there are still stuff that we cant sell, we are going to have a yard sale on the 18th of april. Time to be determine and we will inform you in the future.

Hope to get a great response especially on the bigger stuffs. Pics are available upon request

Boss, I quitt!!

People always ask why I quit my job. I have wrote a lot about it before. The details are here. I have been complaining about it for a longggg time but since my scholarship 7 year bond is up this coming september and cuti pun 125+ days (cuti banyak sebab takleh amik cuti) or so, I took the earliest date to quit - 1 April. You cant imagine how long I have wanted to submit that golden letter of resignation. Unfortunately the drama that I have imagined (bosses pissed off or somewhat) didn't come to reality but the kepuasan of freedom was still there in my heart. Bosses tried to act all cool which was fine... but later I found out they had an emergency meeting because of this (Me and AZ leaving).

Better yet, because of this... HR GM called us up asking why and all that, the CEO knowingly the reason we quit asked the 5-men policy (suckiest decision ever) to be reverted back to the 6-men immediately by sms to our GM the very same day he knew the details. Bergegar jugak lak management. Even the HR GM, our GM, Chief engineer with our new VP set up a meeting to rectify this issue with all of us. CEO dah marah baru lah nak kisah kan!

Even papers were sent upwards regarding our department structuring without proper channelling (bypass the new VP- pissed him off real good). Kesimpulannya AZ and me were really satisfied that our point got across. The shouting and grunting for the past 1.5 years were ineffective.... we just had to quit.. together. We wish we could have done it before but the bond was holding us back. Although its a lost to us but in the end it was a gain to our successors and the rest of the department. No doubt good things came about from this. Hope it turns out the same for us too.

ps.. one more funny thing in TNB, you dont notify that you want to quit instead you have to "memohon meletak jawatan". Yes you have to get their approval to quit. If they dont approve it you cant quit. Good luck doing that to me.

Difference between boys and girls

One day Zareef got really mad when Zara stepped on him. He said " Sakittttlahh Zaraaaa... you stepped on my bird".

I butted in and told Zara "Zareef is a boy, bird dia sensitive"

Zareef added "Haaa.. Zara tak tahu. Zara girl takde bird. Zara ada bontot jeee.. sampaiiii depannnn!!"

Lawakkk gilerrr while me and the wife laughing our bontots off.

Quit my Job and moving on to Melbourne

Note: Its been a while since our last post. So heres a few post to make up for lost time.

Melbourne - beautiful ain't it?

This is an informative posting especially who knows us personally. Yes the whole Zazamazu is moving down under.. Melbourne specifically. Not so surprising since Bo leaked it online already here (his defense is - tak letak disclaimer takleh bagitau, aku buat lah) - susah tul lah blogger ni. No harm done cause those who are important to us already knew. My mom was the hardest to tell but she gave the best reply of all. After being silent for a moment she said "Baguslah muda2 cari rezeki untuk keluarga, nanti dah tua2 susah". It was a big relief especially just after my dad's 1 word reply - "pergilah!"

We have been wanting to migrate to australia a few years back, actually I went to the migration agent way back in dec 2007 - rough/frustrating times during my career. But after learning more about the process we had to put it off until the end of 2008 due to my 7 year old bond with TNB (timing and all that). After being inspired by Sheri and Hafis, tq guys for all the advice and encouragement... we went for it and lodge/engage our application with the migration agent (global migrations solution) costing us in total more than RM18k. Yes a big investment and gamble but alhamdulillah we got it. I got really worried when the FBI check came late (got trouble with the law back in NY a few times) but when I knew FBI check was clean, it was just a matter of time. It was really a hassle with the IELTS exam, medical check up, all the documents involved but we pulled it off.

So building up to our move, I tendered my resignation and currently on leave. Although effective date will be 1 october, I have my 120+ day leave. So sekarang goyang kaki makan gaji buta!!. what a life. Have a lot of things to do prior to the move like selling things off, getting things in order and all that but i'm still free and schedule is very flexi. Up for anything boysss.

I will write more on my resignation and selling stuff off. But as for now I'm getting ready to a all boys outing to melaka for the weekend..

YAHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! bestnya life aku sekarang.

So I leave you with a description of the Australian flag as I am educating myself too.