Makan Angin Pulau Langkawi!

Plan nak bercuti ke Langkawi ni sebenarnya dah lama dirancang. tapi selalunya mesti cancelled last minute sebab tak boleh nak accomodate everybody. Jadi memandangkan trip ke Langakawi ni sebenarnya nak bawak 'Nenek' Qais berjalan-jalan ... finally kami semua decide to proceed with the trip time Federal Day arituh sebab kalau nak tunggu lagi agaknya sampai bila2 pun tak sampai Langkawi. Lagi lambat pergi lagi banyak idea & list shopping Ummi. Jadi baik lah pergi awal supaya muat kapal terbang bila nak balik nanti :).

Memandangkan kalau nak drive all the way to Kuala Perlis mahu ambik masa 5 jam dan Nenek & Tok sure akan kebas pun*gun*, baik lah semua naik flight jek. Pilihannya dah tentu la AirAsia. Untuk nak elakkan daripada berebut2, kami semua ambil express boarding, nenek tak payah bayar extra sebab senior citizen & qais dapat half price. Ummi & maksu la terpaksa lari macam 'sprinter' nak dapatkan seat yg best sebab by the time kitorang sampai kat aircraft tu, passenger biasa pun dah mula sampai ... tak rasa macam express boarding langsung terutamanya kalau bawa elderly!. maybe AirAsia should reconsider the option or maybe introduce seat number jek. Lagipun, selalunya time boarding tu semua passenger berebut2 macam budak sekolah nak beli kuih di canteen!

Kami dapat good bargain untuk kereta. RM130 for a Serena ... OK lah kiranya. Langkawi dah banyak berubah compared to the last time I was there. That was about 3 years ago and Langkawi dah banyak pembangunan & maju. Ada banyak kedai2 di bina & dah banyak kemudahan. paling bagus ialah highway yang menghubungkan both side of Langkawi, sebelah Kuah dan Padang Mat Sirat/Pantai Cenang. Memang memudahkan. Jarak perjalanan dah jadi dalam 20 minutes. Pekan Kuah pun pesat berkembang dengan projek2 melebarkan jalan & reclamation di pesisir pantai ... pesat sungguh.

Malam pertama sampai tu kami semua dinner di Jai's Island cafe. Sebab ramai yang kata sedap & banyak postings tentang cafe ni. Kalau ikut aku ... hari2 makan seafood di Bukti Malut. Makanannya 'Boleh tahan' & portionnya besar. Memang kenyang makan dan sampai tak terhabis-habis.

The next day, kami cover the whole island dari cable car, Telaga Harbour, Pantai Cenang, Beras Terbakar, Makam Mahsuri, Hot Spring & Tanjung Rhu (Semua dalam satu hari). Ada attraction baru di cable car iaitu jambatan gantung betul2 dekat tip of the mountain ... cantik! Cuma nak pergi boleh sengal tempurng lutut. Qais Amiir jadi budak yang paling baik dalam cable car sampai tangan pun tak nak lepas. Gayat sampai semua orang tak bleh berdiri dalam cable car.

Tempat2 lain lebih kurang sama je. Tak ada banyak perubahan. Hot Spring dah tak berapa panas. yang panasnya bila qais amiir basahkan seluar sebab nak ikut Tok & nenek rendamkan kaki ... panas! panas! habis semua basah. Alang2 dah basah kami biarkan dia melayan perasaan sambil buat breast stroke kat Pantai Cenang. First time mandi air masin.

Second day, agaknya apa lagi kalau bukan shopping seharian di serata tempat di Langkawi ... nasib baik dah dekat sepuluh kali datang Langkawi, jadi semua venue shopping dah tahu ... kalau tak mahu tiga hari baru habis! senarai shopping ummi panjangnya sama dengan runway airport ... dari vision sampailah ke sudu garpu kiriman orang. Agaknya Idaman Suri boleh holiday awal untuk chinese new year sebab sales target dah boleh capai. Itu kira nasib senarai shopping ummi tak macam senarai makcik yang aku nampak sampai Idaman Suri tak cukup plastik. Agak2 kalau custom nak check satu2 mau delay flight makcik tu dua hari.

Sampailah lewat petang kami terus shoot to Airport. Sementara menunggu time nak fly ... sempat lagi makan laksa power kat mana lagi kalau bukan kat tepi airport sambil tengok sunset. Tiga hari di Langkawi untuk tahun 2008. Bila lagi nak pergi? Ntah lah!

Off To The Next StoP!

Satu nasihat boss yang selalu aku ingat ialah "never stay too long in one place". Bukanlah boss suruh aku pindah-randah rumah dan jadi manusia Nomad ... maksudnya dalam kerjaya, jangan asyik berada dan buat kerja yang sama selama-lamanya.

Satu habit yang tak bagus bila kita asyik buat perkara atau kerja yang sama ialah kita akan jadi 'complacent' atau selesa dengan ruang lingkup kita dan mula ambil mudah setiap perkara yang kita buat. lama-lama kita tak dedahkan diri kita dengan challenge atau cabaran baru dalam kerja kita, kemudian kita jadi takut dengan cabaran dan tidak selesa bila berada di dalam 'unfamiliar & unpredictable situation' (Situasi yang tak biasa & tak boleh diduga - Betulke translation ni??).

Bila mula2 kita bekerja, kita akan belajar banyak perkara & kemahiran baru. So, knowledge & kemahiran kita bertambah. Tapi kita kena selalu muhasabah sebab after certain period, bila kita dah kuasai hampir semua pengetahuan & kemahiran tersebut, kita dah tak lagi belajar perkara baru ... sebaliknya kita akan mengulangi pengetahuan yang sama yang kita dah tahu. Learning 10 knowledge is not same with learning one knowledge repeated ten times.

Macam bila kita driving everyday ke tempat kerja. Mula-mula kita belajar selok belok jalan ke tempat kerja. Kita akan cuba cari jalan paling dekat & shortcut supaya kita sampai lebih cepat. Tapi lama2 kita dah dapat route tersebut, kita akan ikut route yang sama hari2 sampai kita dah hafal dengan setiap junction, traffic light, buildings, kadang2 sampai tahu kat mana potholes dan bila nak masuk lane sebelah mana. Masa tu kita dah tak belajar dah jalan baru, kita cuma mengulangi ilmu yang memang kita dah tahu. lama2 ikut jalan yang sama kita akan bosan (Or at least aku akan bosan).

Atas nasihat tu lah aku ambil keputusan untuk cari knowledge & skills baru ... bukan untuk siapa tapi untuk aku sendiri. Bila ada peluang yang datang menjengah ... aku dengan sedaya upaya gabannya terus menyambar peluang tu. Hopefully aku akan belajar lebih banyak perkara-perkara baru. Maka, tahun ni bermulalah lagi journey yang baru bagi aku. Another challenge, with another team with another set of people. Dalam environment kerja yang baru. Ngehehehe ... Goodbye lah workstation aku ni. Memang banyak pengalaman (Dan sampah semasa aku ada disini) ...

Thank you to may former bosses, who have taught me a lot, shared their knowledge, impart their thoughts & opinions, coached me .... Boss & Puan are a wonderful boss to work with and i have the utmost respect to you both ... to my colleagues, it is a pleasure to be working with every of you all, we learned a lot from each other and none of us could have been where we are now had it not been because of us all keeps together, stays together & committed to each other. And TQ! for lunch & Sheaffer ...

Ni lah dia ... 'barang-barangan'ku yang terakhir yang berusaha ku bawak pindah ke workstationku yang baru. Aku pindah ni malam2 ... sebab tak bayar sewa.

Birthday UmmiQais @ Bukit Tinggi

Last January 10th was UmmiQais birthday. Initially i planned to celebrate her birthday like usual, surprise dinner with all cecipanz. However, since Ummiqais often complaint about pressure & 'tension' at work, i decided not to go the usual way of having dinner this time. Why not we celebrate somewhere away from KL, somewhere quiet & really peaceful so she can relax & have a peaceful time.

After browsing, i found a perfect place that is very near to KL, beautiful scenery and certainly quiet & peaceful. Just the right choice for ummi to relax and have some time away from KL (And off from work). The place is Colmar Tropicale Bukit Tinggi.

Bukit Tinggi is actually quite a nice place. It is not far from KL. We reach there after about 40 minutes on the wheel (Could be shorter if you drive faster). The place is not as big as Cameron or Genting, but is actually an isolated area by itself with a small town in Colmar, enough for you to survive for few days. It has couple of tourist spots such as Botanical Garden, Japanese Tea Garden, horse riding and rabbit park.

Colmar is the main area in Bukit Tinggi. The hotel & shops are all in this area. Theres few restaurants and cafe, souvenir shops as well as playground & game zone. Theres also open stage for show. The price of foods are slightly premium but theres few options and we often took the cheapest one (Apart from we make sure we stuff ourselves enough during complimentary breakfast to make sure we survive past lunch). Theres afternoon, evening and night show at the open stage and we seldom miss the "Russian Culture Show". It is entertaining and sometimes 'daring'.

We had a good time and ummi definitely enjoyed herself during the stay. Oh! and by the way ... the initial family holiday turned out to be rombongan cik kiah when ummi agreed to bring maksu, paksu ujang & makwa together to Bukti Tinggi. Though its not 'us' time ... we all actually had so much fun there. Everybody was having a good time ... ESPECIALLY QAIS AMIIR ABQARI .... tengok la dia .... Our Qais & rabbit!

more at our album kat Bukit Tinggi!

When Work Take So Much Out Of Me!

Dont wanna sound like a crazy workaholic but sometimes (Especially in these few weeks) i tend to be obsessed with work. When i have work piling up on the table, i suddenly turn into crazy monkey jumping up and down trying touch into everything. Sometimes i feel dumb not knowing where to start and how to prioritize! I don't even know when to catch my breath. There's so many to do and there is not enough time to complete all. Luckily this month we have 29 days ... at least i have one extra day to work ...

While writing this (3am), i am clearing my emails with headphones & loud music buzzin' my brain. I swear my eyes are so small i cannot see the entire screen. YES! my life is that terrible now that i have to finish some of my work at home (Which i will always try not to do previously). Even at home i usually manage to only read half a page before world went dark and brain suddenly shut off.

I have not been to futsal for about a month now (Actually except Thursday yesterday which i purposely intended not to go to watch TARA2 final). Poor me having to live this kind of life these few weeks ... SERONOKNYA KALAU BOLEH TIDUR TERUS SAMPAI TIGA HARI!!! ..... Got to get back to yawn! yawn! worzzzk zzzzzz yawn! ywan!.