Salam Eidul Adha

Selamat Hari Raya to all from Shah, Maisarah and I. It's been some time since I blogged and there is so much to blog about, i.e. Maisarah turning 2, my birthday fun letter. Well, I'll try to blog soon. Till then, have a happy holiday!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Maisarah is two today. She is a big girl now. If we ask her 'how old are you?'. She will answer 'two years old'. We love you so much sayang. You will always be our baby.

Big Girl wants Big Bird

My baby will turn two years old in 5 days! How time flies these days? Today we went to The Cur*ve to get her a Big Bird soft toy. Why? Well this conversation early Friday morning was the reason.

Shah: (while clearing up Maisarah's soft toys) She doesn't have a Big Bird.
Me: Yes. She doesn't.

During our exchange of words, Maisarah was busy playing with her toys. Suddenly, she says:

'Maisarah nak Big Bird!'

We were stunned. She was listening to our conversation in English and understood it! So we promised her we'd get her one. Now my Big Girl is happy!

From SE Z610i

Something's wrong with my SE G900. Luckily I still have my old phone. Am getting reacquainted with it.

Happy or Sad?

Happy, happy, happy...sad.
Happy, happy, happy...sad.
How to overcome this?

My Poor Baby

My baby was infected with the stomach bug last Tuesday. At around 5 pm my mom told us she vomited. Then that night she was awoke from sleep to vomit twice. We took her to the nearest 24-hour clinic. The doctor was quite unfriendly, didn't offer to explain unless questioned and looked like a foreigner. Anyway, he prescribed medication for fever and vomiting. The vomit medicine was poured into the normal clinic medicine bottle but did not mention what type of medicine. We were a bit suspicious but we gave it to Maisarah because we wanted the vomiting to stop. She didn;t vomit from 12 am to 5 am but now had diarrhea. She purged 4 times that night and at each time while I was putting on her diaper she would sleep due to exhaustion. Poor baby! She was tired from all the purging and vomiting.

The next morning Shah and I took emergency leave and brought her to our usual clinic. I like this clinic because the doctors there are very friendly and would explain every thing about the illness and what they prescribe. He explained to us that Maisarah had the stomach virus and we need to be vigialnt of two things, i.e. dehydration and lactose-intolerance. He reminded us to give lots of water to Maisarah and to change her milk to soy-based or lactor-free milk for 1 week. He also prescribed quality medicine for vomiting, diarrhea and fever.

Alhamdulillah Maisarah no longer vomited on that Wednesday. But her diarrhea still persisted until this morning. But only twice the whole day yesterday compared to the inital four to five times on Wednesday. She is also looking much more lively. But giving her the medicine these past few days was like going to war. We gave up giving medicine last night because she screemed and struggled until she vomited out the medicine. How do you guys give medicine to your children?

Mandatory Course

Starting today I will be attending the first of the Mandatory Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) Course. UNI*TEN has been kind enough to pay for the course and Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) are also kind enough to send their trainers here so that we won't have to go to IEM. This course is only mandatory for engineers who have registred with BEM after January 2005. Hence, I, whom registered at the end of 2005, have been given the mandatory 'sentence'. (I usually hear the word 'mandatory' when it is followed by 'death sentence' so I kind of feel like the BEM course is a 'sentence' to new engineers)

Anyway, it is not a 'sentence' in a bad sense because the course is actually very useful. It's broken up into three modules:

• Module 1 – BEM Safety & Health At Work
• Module 2 - BEM Engineering Management Practice
• Module 3 - BEM Code of Ethics/Regulations

Today and tomorrow I will be attending Module 1. Module 2 will be held next week and Module 3 the week after. I've also got to complete final exam grading by the 15th and also prepare for next semester's teaching. So, there is no rest for me during this end-of-semester holiday.

A-N-1-5-4

Last week while driving to work (well Shah was driving and I was day dreaming beside him), I saw a car with the plate number 'KAK 1-2-2-1' but the font used for the number '2' looked like a 'Z'. So I gathered the owner of this car (or his wife or daugther or female relative maybe girlfriend?) must be named 'Iz*zi'. We've seen this car several times on the same route we travel to work. Anyway, it got me thinking what would I want my car registration number to be if I had the liberty to choose without incuring extra costs?

The first thing that came to mind was:

 'A-N-1-5-4'

since that would closely resemble the exact spelling of my name (i.e. anisa). But I know the Perak J*P*J must have given this number out ages ago.

The next that came to mind was 'A-N-3-3-5-4' (for aneesa) but that too would have also been used. So, the only possible number left is 'A-N-E-3-5-4'.

What would you choose as your car registration number?

P/S: Last Sunday, a few days after I thought of my ideal car registration number, Shah and I drove by a car with the registration number 'A-N-1-5-4' near the May*bank branch at Section 9, Bangi. To the owner of the blue BMW with the registration number above, if you want to to sell your car let me know ok?

P/P/S: This was a scheduled entry. It seems like I have a lot to blog about lately. We'll see if I have enough topics to continue doing scheduled entires in the spirit of livening up this blog. (Does the word 'livening' exist?)

Thirty Facts about Him

As a belated present for my Shah, I have promised to write a post on thirty things about him. So, here goes:

1. He was born at home by a 'bidan kampung' (village midwife) and he was such a big baby that his mom fainted due to sheer effort to bring him into the world.
2. On his first day to kindergarten, he had to go to school alone on the school bus because his parents were quite busy. Luckily the bus driver was a very nice man and told him when to get off the bus.
3. He went to Tadika Tabung Derma Guru in Kangar. Then he went to Sekolah Seri Indera and then Sekolah Menangah Derma.
4. He has a best friend whom he calls 'Pak Su' and they have been best friends since they were small children.
5. He used to go cycling around Perlis whith his best friend through all the 'jalan kampung'.
6. He likes to go fishing with his best friend too. Once when they were fishing in a storm drain, they say a spot of oil on the water surface. They though it was a whale and they quickly ran home because they were scared.
7. He also plays football at the field near his house. Once while he was playing, there was a cobra on the field and they all ran away.
8. He is a boy scout from primary right up to secondary school.
9. Once while he was on a boy scout camping trip, his father came to their camp site with packed food for him and his friends. He tiold me he was ambarrased by his father's actions but I'm sure his stomach and his friends were happy to get the good food
10. His parents used to bring him and his siblings on several road trips around West Malaysia from Perlis to the east coast, down to Johor and back up thorugh the west coast.
11. He went to Sekolah Alam Shah for a few months when he was in Form One but left because he didn't quite like living in a boarding school.
12. When he was in high school, he wanted a Le*Run mountain bike but instead his father got him a bike with no brand.
13. He was the best student at MRSM where we were both studying. He also was the best student in the batch of Mechanical Engineering students who graduated in 2001 in his University.
14. He likes sport and working out to stay fit. But now he has no time to work out.
15. A few months before he was to fly off to Nottingham for his degree, he was diagnosed with vertigo. This was due to an incident while he was exercising at home. He is still suffering from vertigo, almost 11 years after the first incident. 
16. He always worries about me. When he has to go away for business trips he will worry when I have to drive home alone from work.
17. He doesn't like cheese cakes.
18. He also doesn't like pasta.
19. He was introduced to sushi after we got married. Now sushi is his favourite.
20. He is an early riser, he can't sleep when the sun is up. That's why when we lived 5 minites from the office he would clock-in at the office by 6.30 am which is one and half hours earlier than the required 8 am clock-in time.
21. He is a punctual man and he doesn't like to wait for other people.
22. He has excellent memory. He remembers everything that happens or everything that he sees. You might say he has photographic memory.
23. He likes animals and he wished he had studied zoology instead of engineering.
24. National Geography, Discovery Channel and Aninal Planet are his favourite TV channels. Especially when there are shows on snakes.
25. He likes to play video games. When we were doing our PhD, our house was broken into and they stole his PS2. He tried living without the PS2 for one month but he couldn't. So he got himself a brand new one.
26. He is the second in his family but he calls himself 'Adik' when talking to his mom. his mom calls him 'Adik' too.
27. He likes to cook but lately hasn't done much cooking since we're living at my parent's place. As I mentioned many times in this blog, he cooked a lot when we were studying. He used to cook for me when I was busy with my PhD.
28. He goes crazy when he starts cleaning the house. Once he starts, he can't stop. He will tackle every nook and cranny. His favourite chore is vacuuming.
29. He loves me but he likes to call me by names other than my given name. For examples some times he calls me 'Jotun', 'Kia Sedona', 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', 'Bianca', 'Anianca', basically anything the is weird and the longer it is the better.
30. He is very generous when it comes to me and Maisarah. he doesn't mind spending money as long as we are all happy.

Well, those are the facts about my hubby. He has done the same for me too, i.e. list thirty things about me, which will be published here on my birthday in December. I have not seen the list that he's made so I'm very excited to see what he has written.

The Result of Marrying an Engineer

In my earlier post I mentioned that last month both Shah and I have been tracking our monthly expenditure. So, yesterday while I was busy invigilating (on a Sunday and with an upset stomach to add to the misery), my hubby was busy preparing the expenditure analysis, or what he calls 'The Auditor General Report'.

The report consists of 8 pages containing 6 figures and 1 table as you can see above. Below are some excerpts from the report:

SUMMARY OF MAIN POINTS OF THIS AUDIT
This family is a middle class family consisting of a 30 year old Daddy, a 29 year old Mommy, and a 2 year old Baby.

For October 2009:
• This family only managed to record a saving of 17% of their total monthly income. This can be considered as low. Ideally, according to the Daddy’s target, the intended savings should be around 30% and this family will have to work towards achieving that target.

• The remaining 83% of expenditure are broken down into four main expense groups, which are:
     o Daily meals – Meals during working day, for example breakfast, lunch and drinks
     o Commitments – Monthly payments on cars, houses, bills etc.
     o Basic needs – food and other household stuff, health products
     o Entertainment – unnecessary things to keep this family happy

• FIGURE 1: Figure 1 shows the daily and cumulative expenditure in terms of the percentage of their total income. Three notable peaks can be seen in this figure.
        o The first peak, which is the highest of all three peaks, was when they pay all their
           monthly commitments, which is usually at the start of the month.
        o The second peak, around 17th October is when the Daddy celebrated his birthday.
        o The third peak corresponds to a weekend where they had separate luncheons with the
           extended families from both sides, and the couple had a date which included more
           shopping.
        o It is worth mentioning that smaller peaks are visible when weekends come, for example
           near 10th October ,17th October, and 24th October.

Finally he concluded the following:

o The Top 5 expenditures are:
      1. Shopping – Daddy: 17.27% - its not normal, but its Daddy’s birthday month
      2. Cars: 15.92% – Two cars, normal
      3. Eating out: 8.55% - NOT NORMAL
      4. Contribution to Parents: 7.75% – Normal
      5. Food stuff: 6% - Can be increased to reduce ‘Eating Out’.

His analysis is so detailed it's not a wonder that he is an engineer. And to top it all off he is so excited with his analysis to the extent that he was wondering if it can be published in a journal (that is the academician part of him). So if you want to hire this part time 'financial auditor', please get in touch with me.

Why Am I Here on a Sunday?

Where am I you ask? At the office! Shah and I are here because our subject's final exam will be conducted this afternoon. Thus, we must be at the office to be at the exam hall during the first half hour, be on standby just in case there are any queries from the students and finally to collect the scripts at the end. to top it all off, I am also on duty as the standby invigilator if any one doesn't turn up. I'm praying hard that I won't have to invigilate.

As usual, we left the house early because we know that if we leave at 12 pm Maisarah would cry. So we were out of the house before 7 am. We went for yummy porridge breakfast at La*Rizz again. And now we're at the office. Shah want's to get some work done while I just want to use the internet.

Today is also my mom's birthday. We're going off to the Mi*nes later on because I need to get a present for my mom. I'm not sure what to get her. If nothing comes to mind before 12 pm then I think I would just get her favourite bath products from Crab*tree & Eve*lyn.

Well, that's all for now. Bye!