my personal challenge kpi to fulfill ....

our pms ( mind u, its performance management system ) consists of  several kpi ( key performance indicator ), one of which is a personal challenge that carries 5% weightage.  it had only been implemented 3 years ago. it may sound fun  .... it CAN be fun  ...  but sometimes u really need to crack ur head to set it, let alone to achieve it !!  hahahaha  ....


my first year challenge was to lose weight  ....  base target at 3kg, stretched target at 5kg.  i achieved my base target  .... okay laa kannn.  the following year, i set to participate in at least 2 treasure hunt event  ... me & my hunt frens went for 3  ....  huhuuuuuuuuu.  & this year ? okay, to go for 1 domestic holiday, 1 international ( this include singapore ) holiday.

its already october  ...  & i have not gone to any yet !  my plan then ? well, the family will be going down to muar for my nephew's wedding on the 20th of this month.  so, we have made plans to put up a nite in melaka on the way back.  we'll go out for ikan-bakar + seafood dinner, to jonker's walk, & perhaps the river cruise.  a fantastic domestic holiday, don't u think ?  ni pi cruise kat amsterdam laa, chiang mai river laa  ...  kat negara sendiri tak penah pon. thats the plan for the domestic hols.

& the international holiday ?  the current plan is, worse come to worst, we'll go down to singapore.  have fun at the sentosa island, universal studio, & shopping !  however, i may be going somewhere next month.  where ?  that, we'll all just have to wait & see  ....  perhaps wait for the pics i'll post in this blog nanti  ....  if jadi pegi laa kannn  .....

so, do wait & see yer !

chiang mai ....

i can't remember exactly when, but i guess it must have been in may 2010 ? 25 of us flew off to chiang mai. let me try to recall who  ...  cho + kak cho, day + nina, abg chin + kak yati + boy + intan + fatin + ain, kak et + abg jack + ika, pak lee + gee + hasif + izzat + jiha, intan + od + amir + jabbar, myself + mira + iman.

sawadeekaap  ....  we were greeted by a thai beauty dressed in traditional clothes & flower leis  .. only it wasn't orchid  ...  tak ada laa pulak amik gambar  .... coz gambar tu kena beli ! me & acif on d bus

 

since there were more than 20 of us, we ( actually my brother had arranged almost everything prior to our trip ) chartered a big bus to take us everywhere. great ! we get to relax, & be free & easy in the bus.

                  first stop  ~  makan time !  a halal joint  ...  & tom yam, of coz

                      putting up a "happy" smile  ~  very hungry actually

that nite we went to the cultural show dinner ( less the dinner tho )  ...  unfortunately, i don't have a digital picture of all of us at the dinner/show  .... so i had to "cilok" these pix from google

              we were pulled to dance along with the dancers  ....  just like in this pic

this must be at the same place we went  ... we sat on the floor, actually, with a space under the table to put   our feet down

                      we even took picture with this "monkey ?", & paid him off, too ...

                my nephew couldn't take his eyes off of the dancers then  ....  kantoi !!     
                                                                      

this we were at the jewellery factory. sapphires, rubies. jades, gold, silvers  .....  i just bought each of us (iman, mira & myself) a silver ruby ring, & locket for the girls. some spouses & parents had a sudden parkinson attack  ~  while trying to sign off their credit cards. some were smart to exit earlier like all of us here  ...  hehehe

the silk worm. yup, we went to the silk factory, & was shown how the silk cloth were made. did we buy any cloth ?  mahal ! but we did buy laa a tudung or two ...

    those manually operated "machines" at the back ~ the silk thread woven into cloth

                    a closer look  ...

other than the chartered bus which took us around during the day, we travelled to town & back with the song thaew (red taxi), 2 -3 at one go  ....  the young cousins would always wanna ride on their own  ...  wait, i see my my brother (their uncle) in there  ... they must have "accepted" him so that he'd pay for the ride  ... for experience, we took the tuk tuk too .... *phew*

it is simply not chiang mai, or thailand for that matter, if you don't watch the elephant show  ....  nope, not the thai girl show  ...  many children around.

              we took pictures with the elephant  ....

              watched the elephants bathe ....

                                          played ball ...

                                          massage  ...

                                         & paint ....  awesome !!

                                          it's truly amazing actually  ....

                                         & the paintings are sold at RMxxx's

                                        posing with the paintings  ...

then we went on a 45mins ride on the elephants  ....  uphill, downhill, along the lychee tress  ... too bad it was off season

                  along the way, we stopped to buy sugar canes & fed the elephants ....

                                   crossed the rivers  ....        

        at the end of the elephant ride, cow carts waited to take us back to the base ...

            lunch time   ....  we were really hungry & thirsty by now

                       then it was a 2km Bamboo-Raft-Trip-Mae-Taeng-River  ....

                        see  ....  complete with the bamboo headgear

either you seat & enjoy the ride  .... or you can paddle & manouver down the river  ...  it is really hard !

the night market  -  a real tourist attraction.  you can get your souvenirs & many other things there. we were there two nites in a row shopping for interesting items ...

beautiful & colorful flowers carved from soaps, & placed in a wooden trinket  ....  i bought 5 pieces

to not buy a piece of this thai silk is surely not complete for a trip to thailand  ... i preferred a plain maroon

                                                colorful decorated lights  ...

                                               silver bangles  ....

silk robes & clothings  ...

after all the adventures & shoppings, we were ready to go home ... it had been truly a great holiday ...  & owh yes, be careful how you greet in thailand  ... sawadeekaap vs sawadeehaaa is not the same

classic ...

i went back to my kampong  ~  ipoh  ~  last weekend for moreh. despite having a copy of my own at home (nampak sangat laa da tua kann ..), i came to realise that i DO have a pic of myself when i was small when i looked at it hanging on the wall. taken in 1966, that made me only 4 yrs old then ...

in the centre is my granddad, habib abdul samad. i was too small to know & remember much about him, but i heard my brothers telling stories that he spoke very fluent arabic. he used to "go back" (we are of arabic descendents) to saudi often with his dad on business trips. he passed away when i was 8.

this is the house i lived in when i told about "orang potong kepala" in my earlier entry ~ a govt quarter bungalow house right smack in the middle of ipoh. my dad was a penghulu daerah kinta masa tuh.

ok, back to the pic. at this time, walaupun i am the youngest in the family, i called my elder siblings by their names  ~  cham, cik, chin, et, lee. no abangs or kak.  one day, my brother pak lee (today everyone calls him that), pointed to himself in this pic & asked me who he is.  i answerd, "lee."  then he pointed to his younger brother & asked who is that. i answered, "abang olan."  he repeated the questions a few times, & i still  answered the same. finally, he gave up, & i never understood why, until many years later.  u see, that brother i called abang  ~  the only one i called abang then  ~  did not live with us. so, i grew up not knowing he is one of my brothers, except that whenever we want to take family pic during raya, we have to wait for him to come.

now back to me not calling my siblings abang & kak. after my dad retired, & we moved to live in our kampong house, of coz he spent all day at home. only then he noticed that i have not addresed my brothers & sister properly. at the age of 11 was when i started to call them abang & kak  ~  abang cham, abang cik, abang chin, kak et, pak lee (coz by now we have all started to him call that).  the brother right above me, intan, is another story.

& it was at this age jugak la i baru nak tau the positions of my siblings, from eldest to myself. then baru la i tau that pak lee is the elder brother to abang olan. now i know why pak lee asked me the question repeatedly  ~  why i panggil adik dia abang, & i called him by his name only.  you see, whenever abang olan came to our house, i was told to call him abang, but nobody told me he IS my abang.

since many, many years back, we have all grown very close  ~  even among the children & grandchildren.  we have had gatherings makan2, gone for holidays locally & abroad, ramai2. & as usual, we rock the place, even at & during weddings !!  no family is without some kind of conflict kan, especially a big one like ours, but all of us manage to bridge that.  i know my mom & dad would have been very happy & proud to see how we are today.  i wish they are with all of us now. 

miss you sooo much, abah & mak  ....  my sedekah alfatehah everyday.

europe 2007 ...

my sis asked me back in 2007, "where would u wanna go in france  ...  venice, milan, paris ?"  huh ? are WE going to france, i asked myself silently. for someone who have never been to france, i chose paris la, kann ?  the eiffel tower is one of those places i dream of going. asyik dok tengok dalam tv jer  ...  not becoz its the most romantic place in the world pon. so the 5 of us - my sis, ika, mira, iman & me - flew direct to paris a few months after that.

so my dream came true. we sampai paris late afternoon. 'bonjour', the cab driver greeted us softly that we hardly heard him. dia cakap on the phone pon we all tak dengar. he dropped us off at our motel, & i sort of practiced the very little french words i learned, 'merci beaucoup. au revoir !' after a lunch of maggie, we (ika, mira, iman & me - my sis rest kat hotel) went for a walk around the hotel area. cantik gak. we found printemp, window shopped, & went back to the hotel to freshen up. by then, my sis dah recover. so we took the train, turun kat champ de mars station, & walked to the tower. the nite view was breathtaking ! the tower was lighted all the way up. & lucky for us, the que to go up pon tak panjang. dhamira stayed back - gayat rupa nya, with my sis yang dah pernah naik before. i just couldnt believe myself that i was there ...  on top of the eiffel tower.

early the next morning, we took the metro train from chateau de vincennes, & got off at tuileries. then walked to musee du louvre. we gathered at the lower ground floor for the tour guide who took us, plus a few others, to major/important parts of the museum only.  it would take days if you want to tour the whole museum. we were really amazed at all the big paintings, but there is only one that we were looking for ....

    the mona lisa  ... we did take pics of her, but somehow cant find it in my fb album
                                yang ni i cilok from google image  ...  huhuuuuuuuuuu

before we left the tour group, i saja2 tanya about the holy grail. she said, "owh u mean like the one in the movie 'the da vinci code ?' i remembered she told the whole group what i asked, & everyone sort of laughed, but cant remember what she answered.

the next morning pulak, we took the train to the same place, & looked for the tour bus office - disneyland, paris ! we had the choice of going to either the disneyland park, or the disneyland studio park - the girls chose studio park, since they had gone to the disneyland park in LA before. we spent a whole day there. towards the evening, it drizzled, & got a litlle too cold to go round the park. so we ended staying indoor at studio 1, till it was time to leave.

the arc de triomphe  ...  another a-must landmark to go to in paris. no, we did not go up the arc. just close enough to take pics. u see that lamp post behind me - not the tall one ? ika had a good fall climbing it. sampai polis tu tiup whistle !  hahaha ... 

on the way back, we got off at chatelet station, changed train to st michel. we crossed the river seine, & walked to the notre dame cathedral.... kinda reminded me of the hunchback & the beautiful gypsy, esmeralda. it was another amazing sight as they lighted up the whole cathedral. then we went shopping at the rows of souvenir shops at the side of the cathedral. happy !!

shopping in paris is not complete if you tak sampai champ elysees, the rows of high end boutiques. however, we were too "scared" to masuk. hahaha ... we all just walked by jer. we did not even masuk the 3 - 4 storey LV store ! we decided to stay back a while here - lepak kat mcd - to catch the arc view at nite. as soon as the ligthts were on - the arc & the trees - we went out to the streets to take more pics. then we went back to the motel to pack all our stuff.

welcome, london ! the first time dulu, we tumpang a friend's apartment on edgeware road. this time we stayed at the berjaya eden hotel in bayswater. its a block away from the malaysian hall. so, ada gak la gi breakfast or tea kat situ. the portobello market pon is a walking distance away. we passed by notting hill, tapi tak jumpa pulak the bookstore yang hugh grant & julia roberts berlakon tuh ... haha. on the other block, banyak kedai2 souvenir & makan pak arab, so makan is not a problem - the girls asyik beli kebab jer laa. satu kedai souvenir tuh siap letak sign "pelawat dari malaysia diberi 10% diskaun" !!

the thing is : everytime gi london, tak singgah trafalgar square memang tak sah kann. & the big ben pon somehow will always be in view. so, amik jer laa gambar.

the london eye. the first time we were in london back in 1998 (?), this was not even up yet. so, i took iman with me. dhamira kan gayat. i thought i saw the eiffel tower from up there ... & believe me, i wasnt the only one ! i googled, & we all cud have mistaken it for the crystal palace tv/radio transmitter ... hahaha

                         i wanted to see the change of guard, but went on the wrong day  ...
                                      so, the horse guard parade pon gud enough

the market is like our petaling street here  .... but very gothic. can be a little "scary" gak. clothes were cheap, so the girls went on a shopping spree here

dhamira is a of the arsenal. we saw it on the tube route, & made our way there

                                                     we joined in her excitement  ...

we spent 4 days in london. then we packed our stuff again & flew to rome. sampai late night. so we sewa a cab to take us to the motel. mula2 on the way tuh, the driver was on the phone, chatting away very loudly. when he suddenly exclaimed, "mamma mia!", we all laughed. later he asked us why we laughed. we told him that we were beginning to really feel we were in rome. & he taught us that "ciao" means hello. my bil had flown in directly from kay el, & waited for us at the main door of our residence. it was way past midnite. too tired to do anything else, we just washed up & hit the sack.

the next morning, we took the metro train from tiburtina to termini, the central station. then we walked over to exedra hotel (the hotel which the movie "the jumpers" was filmed at) to board the hop-on-hop-off tour bus. we went round the city & enjoyed all the beautiful landmarks & ruins of the roman empire. & also the traffic jam. among the interesting sights were the colosseum, st peter's basilica, forum romanum, palatine hill, castel sant'angelo, vittoriano, & many more names unknown of.

one evening, ika, mira, iman & me went out to the colosseum. the view was really awesome just as soon as we got out of the underground train station. we were right across the colosseum itself ! once again i cudnt believe that i have reached another world landmark. i thank god, & my sis & bil, for giving me this wonderful opportunity. we took pics with the "gladiators", & they asked us "apa khabar", & said "terima kasih" too.

early one morning, we left tiburtina - not without taking a glance at those handsome looking italian cleaners first, changed train at the termini, & headed to ottaviano san pietro. we walked briskly to this wide, steep stairs where there were a few groups of people gathered on the steps. owh  ... its the tour group. we were in vatican city ! it is a country by itself completely surrounded by the city of rome. the tour guide led us to the musei vaticani, which is part of the st peter's basilica. apart from the amazing large paintings, the ceilings & floors were also covered with colorful painted tiles. i dont know how to describe, but u can certainly google.

then we got to this place we have heard the name often in history classes - the sistine chapel. we were requested to not speak, at least not loudly, & forbade from taking pics. but some ass****s just dont respect the rule, & was warned - otherwise asked to leave. we got to see with our own eyes michelangelo's drawing on the ceiling.

we finally got out of the museum, thank our guide, & walked on the st peter's square - the location of one of the mission impossible movies. outside the square, there were stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs. of coz we did a little souvenir shopping there.

owh yes  ...  during the hop-on-hop-off tour, we got off at piazza de trevi, & went to the fontana de trevi, another tourist spot in rome. this pic did injustice to the fountain becoz the brightness sort of glared the beauty of the sculpture. & yes, we found even better souvenir shops there. since that it was our last day there, we spent our last euros till enough to last for expenses at the airport. ika, mira, iman & me bade farewell to my sis & bil as we headed for our flight back to kay el, while they made their way to fly off to spain. jealous much !!