Top 3 Secrets

Postsecret.com update their website every Sunday with new secrets. These are my Top 3 picks for this week:

p/s: takde kaitan dengan yang hidup atau telah meninggal dunia

kisah aku yang hyper lepas minum kopi ali jaga

Bulan puasa kali ni agak meriah...plan asal nak bukak posa simple kat rumah je hari-hari so that can lose weight, tapi so far dah puasa ke 20 pun hari ni, baru 3 hari je bukak posa kat rumah sorang-sorang. Maha Suci Allah yang tidak membiarkan aku bersendirian walaupun hidup sendiri...huhu

Dulu-dulu aku memang rajin ajak kawan-kawan datang rumah and even cooked for them. But nowadays memang nan hado sebab malas, last time aku buat makan-makan pun time bulan puasa tahun lepas.....but since I joined a few potlucks already, so memang takde alasan untuk escape bila madam boss keluarkan arahan that Wednesday will be my turn pulak...I think the last time I actually cleaned my house was in December, masa family aku datang Miri, so korang do the maths la dah berapa lama aku tak kemas rumah....

That and ditambah dengan aktiviti aku tahun ni yang memanjang takde kat rumah telah menyebabkan rumah ku agak terabai (except for the occasional sapu²)....so semalam dengan semangatnya pergi beli mop dan penyapu baru...penyapu lama ada, tapi saja beli penyapu baru kat kedai dua ringgit sebagai motivasi. Sebenarnya boleh je upah orang untuk kemas rumah, but being the territorial type, aku memang bermasalah sikit kalau strangers pegang barang-barang aku...friends and family bolehla..kalau nak tolong kemas rumah aku memang dialu-alukan (*hint *hint).

Antara cabaran terbesar adalah macam mana nak mengemaskan kasut-kasut ku....

13 things to unload...

There’s so many things in the last few days that I want to write about…but everytime I wrote about it, I will stop halfway then never got to finish the post…hence, there’s a lot of unfinished drafts…maybe I’ll just write it in point forms.

1. A friend/colleague of mine lost her 6 months’ old baby last week. She’s my age. I know how devastated she must have felt. Inilah ketentuan Allah, to each and everyone of us akan didatangkan ujian untuk meningkatkan keimanan kita. I pray Allah gives her the strength to be strong. (For me, antara benda paling pedih dalam dunia ni is for parents to bury their child). Anak, harta dan segala perhiasan dunia ni adalah pinjaman, bila-bila masa boleh diambil balik.

2. It’s already half of Ramadhan….I don’t think spiritually I’m doing any better than last year. In fact, I think I’m getting sloppier in almost all aspects of life.

3. Standard time to arrive at office nowadays is at 8.30am. Ni semua kes tidur balik after sahur punya pasal (bulan tak puasa datang pukul 8.00 – 8.15am :-P ). So, getting a decent (not so far) parking spot is such a challenge. Have to settle for whichever parking lot that I first found.

4. Thank God in love I don’t use the same approach

"that gal"

baru sampai rumah, kemas-kemas barang untuk esok, basuh baju tapi nak jugak update blog sebab excited...I just bought this and used it today, and I feel amazing! even my friend pun cakap mekap aku cantik hari ni (padahal bukannya pakai apa sangat pun....as usual, no blusher for me)....

ta-da...new addition to my make-up collection....

it took me a month before I finally made up my mind to buy it....but it's really worth it.....hehehehe, ketinggalan zaman je aku ni, orang lain dah lama kot pakai....what I can say is benda ni memang best....meh aku copy and paste dia punya review yang aku google:

It’s a silky pink primer with light reflecting pigments to brighten the complexion, and it comes in an interesting glue-stick like container. You click the base, dispensing the product out of the vent at the top. A few clicks is enough to do my entire face.

Why I like it

I see a huge difference when I use this stuff. It…

• visibly brightens my skin,
• makes my complexion appear more even and smooth,
• helps keep my skin hydrated throughout the day,
• helps my makeup stay put, and
• makes my foundation go on a lot smoother.

OKla.....good nite...**yawwwnn***

Ramadhan so far...

Hari ni hari ke-8 umat Islam di Malaysia berpuasa. Sebenarnya, aku plan nak beli food from pasar ramadhan then just buka sorang² kat rumah, then pegi tarawih...but so far, 2 kali je aku bukak posa kat rumah....yang lain-lain tu aku bukak puasa kat Secret Recipe sekali (gara² Putree Sejinjang), kat Kaizen Seria, kat rumah mak angkat aku and 2 kali potluck kat rumah 'mereka yang baru pindah Miri' (sebab tu still semangat lagi buat potluck bagai)...potluck yang sengal tapi best. Mana taknye, ada sekali after buka and solat maghrib kitorang bershisha, then semalam pulak, ramai-ramai tengok SATC2 sambil minum nescafe tarik terbaek dari ladang....nasib baik semalam aku tak posa, kalau tak, memang kurus pahala puasa aku.

As for today, aku plan nak cari makanan kat Jalan TAR...flying to KL pukul 4 ptg ni, esok ada meeting pagi dan petang...plan aku, sampai KL Sentral je terus naik LRT check in kat Nikko then cabut pegi Jalan TAR rembat tudung, kuih raya and kalau bernasib baik, authentic Pantai Timur food like nasi kerabu ke, apa ke... sori tak sempat nak arrange jumpa korang this time around, my schedule is a bit tight...after meeting esok terus kena gerak ke airport before traffic jam, bukak posa pun kat airport jugakle nampaknya.

Sampai rumah will be midnight, then kena unpack and pack lagi sebab hari Jumaat tengahari balik Kuching....huhuhu, wajib balik di tengah bulan puasa, aku homesick (macam mana la agaknya kalo aku kawen or kalo aku kerja oversea ek)....and atas permintaan mak dan adik aku, on Saturday, insyaAllah we'll be having our iftar here:

I've already called and booked seats for my family....8 orang semuanya, mak aku suruh book awal-awal sebab nak duduk mengadap sungai...aku baca blog² orang lain mostly cakap pegi makan buffet ni membazir....aku pun berpendapat sedemikian...tapi sebab ini family aku, dan aku bukannya pergi berjimba² pun, so aku tak rasa guilty sangat...setahun sekali apa salahnya kan....lagipun buffet kat Grand Margherita ni memang best wa cakap lu... tengok entry aku tahun lepas pasal makan kat SINI....hehehe, lagipun aku dah call adik aku yang sorang lagi suruh dia top up sikit, so takdela ranap poket.... :)

P/S: one of my friends cakap after he closed his Internet Explorer tab after visiting my blog, multiple tabs pop out, if any of you are experiencing the same kind of thing, let me know ok.

Grand Old Lady a.k.a Miri Well No.1

a bit backdated, copied and pasted from PC Sign-On.

It was exactly a century ago, on August 10, 1910, that a group of curious local inhabitants of Miri in Sarawak gathered on top of the hill overlooking the small fishing village. Back then, Miri consisted of 20 scattered houses and a few shops.
The villagers were watching a small party of Shell employees and thirty local labourers undertake the slow and laborious task of drilling by the old cable tool method, first used in AD 421 by the Chinese to extract salt. While the occasion was cause for great interest, none of the onlookers could have realised what tremendous consequences the event would have for Sarawak.

random

Every Sunday, PostSecret will post up new secrets...this week's secrets are quite interesting!!
Go check it out HERE. 
I like the secret #1 and #2 the best.

Secondly, do you notice within this few weeks ada banyak kes buang anak? If you backcalculate to 9 months back, those babies might have been conceived in like november - december last year.

Which is during the school holidays. So, sesiapa yang ada teenager kat rumah tu, pandai-pandaila jaga diorang ye....prihatin sikit dengan siapa diorang berkawan, mana diorang pergi, etc... we never know the strength of outside and peer influence.

Ini teori aku saja. Ok chow.

jadi mak andamla kunun

Ingat tak aritu aku sibuk-sibuk cerita pasal mekap, pasal kena jadi mak andam untuk majlis bertandang adik aku kat Betong, etc? The photos below are quite self-explanatory.

color palette tu aku beli time Stage ada sale last month

BEFORE:

AFTER:

4 HOURS AFTER:

*gambar ni nampak gelap sikit sebab Adin pergi letak sunset mode  -_-

Anyway, aku rasa sangat lega sebab berjaya jugak mekapkan puan pengantin ni....kelakar jugak bila ingat balik a few weeks before kitorang praktis mekap kat rumah pastu gaduh2 manja.. so far, sedara-mara aku ngan sedara-mara adik ipar aku suka tengok mekap ni...adik ipar aku pun suka sebab nampak soft je muka bini dia and aku pun tak tepek banyak2 mekap kat muka dia...pengantin lelaki aku letak loose powder ngan lip cream je....nak letak blusher takut kena tumbuk dush dush...

Thanks to Cik Farina for the useful tips you gave me ya!

Jom Bermukun, Bergendang, Berpantun

These are some additional pantun collections I got from an article on the "Sarawak Malay Gendang" or the more commercial / traditional name, "bermukun". I wish to have a chance to actually learn this old art of entertainment but living in a city and a busy life schedule don't really help. For those who wants to know more about the "Sarawak Malay Gendang", go google it or let me know so that I can forward the article to you.

Meanwhile, enjoy the pantuns:

Apa dijeruk buah belimbing,

Kurang masin tambahlah garam,

apa dijenguk di luar dinding,

Kalau sudi masuklah ke dalam.

Satang kecil si Satang besar,

Sama timbal Pulo Sempadi,

Dari kecil sampai ke besar,

Belum pernah memungkir janji.

Sudah pasang air di laut,

Obor-obor tidak bertulang,

Sudah datang malaikat maut,

Dalam kubur rasa nak pulang.

Api apa di Tanjung Batu,

Api Pak Jenal tukang perahu,

Anak siapa sidak dua itu;

Rupa kenal nama tak tahu.

*this one my dad recited to me once

Sudah datang kapal sepeti,

Singgah di pasar membeli benang,

Sudah datang si buah hati,

Perut lapar menjadi kenyang.

Ke darat berlumba kuda,

Ke Satak Jambatan Gantung,

Bila kulihat wajah kekanda,

Hati beramuk dengan jantung.

Asam paya buah di hutan,

Dalam sepompong masak sebiji,

Sungguh kacak wajahmu tuan,

Dalam kampung payah dicari.

*this is the dance during the "mukun"

The pantuns above are called "Asam Paya Rhyme" - one of the various rhythms for the "mukun" pantuns... another example given is the "Labuan Rhyme" :

Labuan pulo di laut, sayang Labuan pulo di laut,

Khabarlah berita, khabar berita pula yang tumbuh,

Take-A-Nap

Entry ini takde kaitan dengan penyakit mengantuk dan nak tertidur di bulan puasa....ni nak cerita pasal tadi masa lunch time me and my friend were browsing the net for our accomodation for the upcoming trip to Thailand...it took us quite a long time to decide where we want to stay in Krabi, so when it's time to decide where to stay in Bangkok, I decided to just stay at Take-A-Nap Hotel, according to NN's advice who was just there with Azim last month.

And to my delight, look at the rooms that they have!!

Central Park - inspired

bunga-bunga & warna-warni

of gluttony.

image: www.annabellemagazine.com

If you saw my facebook status, you would have known that I really worked hard to 'ganti puasa' over the last few days...nasib baik sempat ganti habis by 28 Syaaba'an...so it's not 'hari syak'...I swear I won't put it off until the last minute next time....

Anyway, since I'm not fasting today and it's the last day before the fasting month, I decided to have a food feast, coz some of the food that I like is not that appropriate to eat for 'buka puasa / sungkey'.

8.15 am: It's the centenary (100 years) celebration of Miri's oil well No 1 today...so there's a big breakfast for everyone at the lobby...I had 2 roti jala, a currypuff and a (small) quiche, with a cup of milk tea.

kisah cintan-cintun

while blog-walking today, by coincidence terbaca benda cintan-cintun kat blog orang lain.....since sekarang ni tengah ala-ala mode di awang-awangan....macam bestla pulak kan....so, enjoy reading!!!

Kisah Cinta Internet: http://qarlista.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-we-metmy-version.html

Ni pulak poem yang dibaca masa Chelsea Clinton punye wedding... sooo deep and beautiful, FK put it in her blog. Feels like having it printed at the back of my wedding card....hehehehe....verangansss....


The Life That I Have by Leo Marks


The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

of my sis' wedding and being a clown

Just a few short notes:

1. Am so happy that the wedding is finally over. Mom & Dad had been preparing for it for months now and everything went relatively smoothly.

2. Had little sleep over the last few days. Finally can sleep some more since I will be on leave until Tuesday.

3. Even though I can sleep now, but I still woke up at 3am....partly because I have the whole big room to myself (Zue, ko tau kan bilik aku tu besar mana) and partly because I need to 'berak'.

4. The dress that I made for the wedding is a bit too big....dah suruh my tailor alter, but because of the limited time, didn't manage to do it properly.

5. I had to wake up early and send my sister to the bridal saloon for makeup, so I decided to had my makeup there as well.....I ended up looking like a clown. Muka aku ni dahla merah, diletaknya blusher pink.....aghhhh kat mana ko belajar mekap mak andam oii......I wanted to wash off as I came to the house....but the khatam qur'an already about to start and guests started to come and I had to run errands, etc...seriously tak sempat....dahlah gincu kaler pink magenta letak kat bibir aku in full glossiness.... aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! after aku dah lap-lap pun...I still look like a fool. But it didn't stop me from enjoying the day though....it's my sister's day after all, it's not about me...I need to take a break from being a diva after all......

but of course, that doesn't stop me from thinking I look horrible in the pictures.....benci benci benci....here's some snippets...the ones where I wore the peach scarf, is when I do my own face (which is nothing much), but I think it looks much better than the clown that I was made into.

OK. I finished downloading my personal frustration. Will blog about the wedding later, on a much happier note, after I got over the shock and humiliation of looking at my photos. The fact that I didn't have the time to go shopping for a new scarf for my dress didn't help either. OK. End of post. Layan the pics.

me and mom during the akad...usually I cried during my friends' akad....but not this time, even though after that looking at mom's emotion made me shed a tear or two

I'M ONE, WHERE'S THE CAKE?

Idiosyncrasies turns one on 30th of July. I planned to write a special entry just for that, even planning to write it earlier and auto-publish...but at that point of time, I thought it's a bit OTT and I'll have time to write....I didn't know that I will be super busy that I didn't even have time to update my FB status (hahahaha, penting ke?)

Before I even have a blog, I used to write my thoughts, wishes and dreams in my bedside journal. A turn of event made my dreams crumbled I couldn't bear to write in it anymore. I bought another book to write but it's never the same. This blog started as a way for me to express myself, and I found myself liking it. It has also been key to my emotional and spiritual healing (hahahahaa, konon macam spiritual guru), and eventually as a medium to share my thoughts to my friends....(sakit tekak kot kalau kena ulang-ulang cerita ngan semua orang)..I didn't put any visitor counter or live traffic feed in here, so sometimes it came to me as a pleasant surprise when friends that I don't expect to know about this blog, actually follows it. :)

Like what I wrote when I began my new journal, "For good things to begin, something has to end." In fact, a lot of good things has happened since then and I thank Allah for all the graciousness that has been bestowed upon me (and also for the 7kg that I put on since then). 

Alrite. I'm going to write a new post, something I need to unload....