Royal Visit to Malaysia

Note: Pictures taken from Tune Talk instagram, Tian Chad tumblr and twitpic forwarded by people I follow.

Welcome to Malaysia! Royal couple meeting Malaysians

Kate and her white scarf in front of the KLCC mosque

Royal smiles! (But Malaysia is hotttttt!!)

Hello girls. Heyyyyy Sexy laaaaaadyyyyy!

I'm just posting these pictures to mark the day the royal couple's visit to KL. They're spending another day in Malaysia --- in Sabah to enjoy our beautiful nature. 

IWD: Tribute To Minah Karan

Yesterday was International Women's Day. I got to wish a few women I know and by lunch time my mind started wondering and remembering all the women I've met in the past and we never crossed path again.
During my second year doing my Bachelor's Degree a few of my housemates decided to work during semester break. Three of us went for job interview at an electronic factory in Balakong. We were staying in Taman Muhibbah then, so Balakong was just 10 minutes bike ride from our place.

We got the job as operators. The interview was hilarious. My friends told me to not reveal to the interviewer that I was a student. So, I pretended that I was a jobless woman living nearby and when he asked what I was currently doing, I told her that I just stayed at home, watch TV and did some sewing (and that was actually the truth - those were my activities during semester breaks!)

Two of us started work the next day. I quit on the second day. My friend was mad at me because she was the one doing all the homework to find the place and taught me how to excel the interview. I quit because I couldn't stand the environment. We were all sitting in lines, doing repetitive work, which was making my fingers and back hurt. While working, the women around me were all gossiping, cursing, fighting with each other and during short breaks most of them went to reapply their make-up. Some of the boys there were bullying some of the girls and there was one particular guy who was trying to his luck on me. I told him off. He never came near me again that day.

After quitting that job I went to another interview at another electronic factory in Seri Kembangan with my other housemate. We got the job and we didn't even have to lie. The manager knew we were students. He welcomed us because he wanted undergrads to have a taste of working life. And it's cheap labour too. I think we were paid RM400 per month, which was good enough. I paid the rent and bought a few pairs of clothes with that money.

But still, we had to do the usual repetitive work. I remember the factory was producing computer chips and cell phone parts. I was assigned to a line that assembled really tiny LEDs and their tiny housing. I was told it was for Ericsson cell phones. My guess was they're battery indicators. If you still remember those days, when the battery was full, the green LED will flash. If it's orange, your battery was weak and needed recharging.

At this small factory I got to know three girls who happened to be siblings: Along, Huda and Lynn. They lived nearby and we went to their house a couple of times. The three of them had no resemblance at all. I was quite surprised to learn that they're sisters. Along was in her mid twenties, Huda was 19 and Lynn was 18 that year. But all of them looked much older than their age.

The three of them fought a lot, even during operation hours. Lynn would call her elder sisters' names and Huda cursed the most. Along is the quieter one but she loved to pinch people. After a short gossip session with her, you'll surely bring home a few blue black spots. Lynn was a tomboy. She dressed, walked and talked like a boy. Huda told me that her younger sister had a few girlfriends. During one of our short breaks, I asked Lynn about it but she denied being a lesbo. She told me she just liked girls.

One weekend they invited us to have lunch at their house. The three of them were staying with their parents. The house was quite small for 5 adults, they were sharing rooms and the mother told me that Lynn was still sleeping with them. No wonder she's still the youngest, I told the mother.

That day Lynn sat next to me after lunch and told me that she's envious of us. I asked why. She said she wanted to have higher academic qualification but her exam results were not good enough and her parents couldn't afford to send her to any private college. In her tomboy voice she told me,
'Aku benci tau korang dapat belajar sampai university. Tapi aku kena keje.'

There's no better advice I could give her than,

'Kau keje lah kumpul duit, bila dah cukup kau sambunglah belajar sendiri.'

Well, it's quite easy to advice a tomboy because I don't have to find flowery sentences to start with.

'Oi, blah la kau. Berapa tahun aku kena keje kilang ni nak kumpul duit?' She gave me a soft punch on the shoulder and I just laughed.

That conversation took place in 1996. Two years after graduation I was back in Seri Kembangan because I was craving for Pisang Sira sold at the Pasar Ramadhan. While walking towards my hubby's car, a girl on a bike called out my name. I turned to look and it was Lynn.

We shook hands and asked about each other's life. I told her I was recently married and working in Damansara. I asked about her and she let out a big laugh.

'Aku tengah final year Diploma ni. Akupun nak jadi pandai macam kau!'

Well I was so happy to hear that. Apparently, she took my advice and continued working in the factory to save money for her education.

Ever since that day, I never looked at all Minah Karan the same again. They might be doing those boring repetitive works and underpaid. But deep inside many of them have ambitions and the drive to be better.

Happy International Women's Day you all!

Pesanan special sempena nak raya

Okay, korek punya korek punya korek.... ini satu je gambar yang aku jumpa yang ada muka lima-lima orang (dan posing agak senonoh). Take note: must snap more family pictures this raya. Selalunya, bila nak snap gambar, asyik-asyik muka Wazif ngan Zarif je yang banyak. Memang gila glamer dua-dua orang ni.

Family picture kat Avondale Rd. Lancaster. June 2010.

Maka bersempena dan ramai orang berduyun-duyun balik bercuti di kampung ni, saya ada beberapa pesanan penting (kalau nak buat checklist pun boleh) supaya hari raya kita lebih meriah dan happening:

1. Baju raya yang nak pakai kat kampung tu biarlah yang tahan lasak. Sila strike out silk kaftan dari list anda... hahaha. Ada harapan boleh tersangkut kat buluh lemang tu.

2. Kalau anak-anak tanya mana bunga api tahun ni, cakap kat diorang bunga api ngan mercun sekarang ada banyak radioaktif. Kalau diorang tak tau apa tu radioaktif, boleh tunjuk gambar mangsa bom kat Hiroshima & Nagasaki dulu.

3. Kalau tidur kat rumah kampung tu tidur berselerak kat ruang tamu, pastikan position anak bini anda yang sebenarnya so that, kalau bangun pegi toilet malam-malam takde lah confuse nak tidur semula kat sebelah mana. 

4. Masa on the way balik kampung, memang mengantuk bila drive sorang-sorang. Jadi, tukar-tukar pilot & co pilot setiap jam. Boleh? Hehe...

5. Mari tukar duit shilling kat bank untuk tahun ni. Dah boring lah letak duit kertas dalam green packets tu. Kalau duit shilling ada sound effect sikit.

6. Kepada kanak-kanak yang datang beraya semata-mata nak duit raya, kalau boleh lepas bagi salam semua berdiri tegak dalam barisan kat luar pintu pagar. Senang sikit nak bagi lima posen sorang. Sapa yang mengaku dia nak makan kuih je boleh masuk dalam dok kat kerusi (ya Allah, zalim jugak aku ni..)

7. Cara untuk mempastikan ketupat dan lemang sentiasa fresh dan tidak basi ialah dengan memasak lemang/ketupat yang baru pada malam raya pertama, kedua, ketiga, keempat dan seterusnya sehinggalah semua sedara mara dah kembali bekerja dan tak larat nak beraya.

8. Pada hari raya ketiga, juadah yang paling afdhal disediakan untuk menjamu tetamu ialah Nasik Lemak dan roti canai. Gerenti ramai orang datang.

9. Pada hari raya keempat, budak-budak semua dah mengidam nak makan KFC, sebab dah muak tengok ketupat/lemang/rendang. Maka orderlah KFC beberapa barrel untuk hari tersebut.

10. Jangan cuti raya lama sangat kat kampung, takut nanti ada pakcik/makcik yang sound, "ko ni dah kena buang keje ke hapa? Lama sangat cuti nya..."

Eh, aku sempat tulis 10 pesanan je ni sebab dah nak kena pegi masuk meeting. Yaaaaaa..... saya masih bekerja. Selagi tak keluar muka penyimpan mohor besar Raja-Raja kat TV tu, selagi itulah saya akan bekerja. 

Drive safely dan jangan nakal-nakal.

e-Filing oh e-Filing

It's that time of the year again my dear friends. Heard over the news today that e-Filing is now open. I'm writing this as a friendly reminder to myself to do my taxes early this year. Last year was the first time I did e-Filing. As a true Malaysian, I did it at the very last minute. It was when so many taxpayers were complaining and screaming in the blogs/papers/radio/TV on the e-Filing website response time. I jumped on the bandwagon (filing tax late), didn't complain though as I know I was guilty for procrastinating.

I don't know whether the system has been fine-tuned or upgraded but I'd like to urge all employers to produce the EA forms early, all insurance companies to post the annual statements immediately and all taxpayers to be more responsible and file our taxes within a few weeks upon receiving the EA forms.

I know for sure that the servers hosting the e-Filing are huge, powerful servers and the system implemented costs our government millions of Ringgit (EVERY YEAR - remember... LHDN has to pay for annual maintenance of hardware, software and application). Regardless of the hardware spec and application/database architecture, the system was not performing up to taxpayers expectation last year. All I can say is that the system might be high end and sophisticated, but our decision to do e-filing on the very last minute made the system suffer.

Last year, after the e-Filing was closed there were so many people writing to the mainstream newspapers, expressing their dissatisfactions, which I didn't agree with most of them. It's not fair to blame LHDN 100% on the website's response time. How many taxpayers we have in the country? 5 million? 6 million? We are all given 1 months ++ to access the system and do our tax filing. The system (I suppose) was designed to handle heavy traffic and loads for a period of 1 month ++ every year with the assumption that there'll be random spikes throughout the period. It's a huge waste of Government's money if the system is designed to handle 12 million web-based transactions over a period of 2 hours (assumption: 6 million e-Filing X twice data entry). It would have been an overkill. The hardware alone could have cost more than 50 million Ringgit Malaysia.

So, I'd like to make a plea to all taxpayer to not put this off till the very last hour. It is something that we all can do and it's not that difficult. Don't let the Government spend more money to upgrade the system just because of our behaviour.

If we still procrastinate this year and complain about 'slow e-Filing system', I think I will propose to LHDN to have a numbering system implemented next year. That might work as it will ensure taxpayers key in their data only on the days allocated to them. In a way there'll be load distribution. But, do you think Malaysians are ready for it? Lagi tension tau.... hahaha...

Ciao baybeh.... the geeky IT engineer signs off.

UPM and durians

I submitted this short story at CitiOfSharedStoriesKualaLumpur:

It was a breezy Saturday afternoon in 1997, a year before I graduated from UPM - University

of Agriculture, Malaysia. My flatmates and I decided to go for a volleyball game at the University's expo site - also known as Bukit Ekspo. Its lush green plus a few man-made lakes made it a famous spot for students to hang out on lazy weekends. The athletic ones would jog or cycle around the area. It's a huge compound where the university's annual Convocation Expo would be held.

Bukit Ekspo is situated about 1KM from the main gate and we had to take our motorcycles. There were four of us riding two Honda bikes. Back then, we didn't have much money to spend on expensive shopping tours at the Kuala Lumpur city so we spent most weekends together at the flat, went gossipping at the library or did power walk at Bukit Ekspo. However, that Saturday we decided to play volleyball.

There were durian trees planted along the main road to Bukit Ekspo. I was once told there were more than 10 types of durian that can be found in UPM area. It's an agricultural university where many researches take place, so it's not a surprise to have that many durians.

It happened to be the durian season. We saw green thorny durians high up on the trees as we ride our bikes along the lonely main road. Most cyclists and power walkers would take the alternative routes as they're shorter. We slowed down and finally stopped our bikes just to admire the king of fruit hanging on the trees. The fence along the road was high; so all we could do was stand by the road side and salivating for a taste of durian.

'Let's pray at least one durian would fall,' said my friend Nonie.

'Let's pray that four would fall,' added my other friend, Fid followed by small laughters.

'I don't think it's time yet,' said Mar who looked like some scientist scrutinizing each fruit.

'If they're meant to be ours it would fall,' I tried to sound optimistic.

We stood there checking one tree after another and silently prayed in our hearts that the durian would fall. Fid, who was a student doing a Bachelor Degree in Agricultural Engineering told us that many of the durian trees there were the D29 type which also meant that they're among the best in Malaysia. Nonie and I were doing Electronics and Computer Engineering so we have no idea what type of durian we were staring at. We only recognized the thorns and the smell. We couldn't even differentiate Malaysian durians from those imported from Thailand.

After a short briefing on durian by Fid we decided to continue our short journey to Bukit Expo before the area got too crowded with people. Just when I was about to kick my bike's starter we heard a thud. All four heads turned and we screamed in unision, 'DURIANNNNNN!!!!!'

Miracles did happen and prayers answered. They materialized in the form of a falling durian. That was the most beautiful durian I ever saw on the ground. It's the durian all of us have been salivating and praying for.

We didn't want to waste any time so I took out a screw driver from underneath my bike's seat. It took me on thirty second to open the durian using my screw driver. In the absence of a big knife or 'parang', a screw driver always came in handy in any durian situation.

The four of us sat on the grass and enjoyed God's gift from the sky. UPM is such a rich and generous university, students can get durians for free!

Aku Budak Kampung Kau Budak Kampung - Part 2

I strongly believe that one of the best Tourism Ministry-DBP Joint Venture efforts would be to produce a simple translation book for tourists. We want more foreigners to come and visit the country, so let’s not just be happy with just educating them on saying Terima Kasih, Selamat Pagi and Jom Makan. It would be more beneficial if they could learn the Bahasa Daerah as well.

Besides being able to produce more reference books, we’ll also get to document our very own Daerah words which I’m sure nobody has ever made any effort to write them down – even in our very own private journal.

As a Malaysian citizen (who has voted twice during PRU) I feel obliged to document some of the Daerah words widely used in Bera, Pahang. Tourists coming to Bera can always refer to my blog should they need to search for some of the words.
Well, it would be best if I could have all these translated to French, Latin and German but I only know some English. So, here are some of the words most commonly used in my kampong.
My first installment of ‘Mari belajar bahasa Daerah Bera’ can be found here.

Wok me
Meaning: You all
Example of usage: Wok me datanglah ke rumah koi pukul 11.30 karang, boleh tolong basuh pinggan.

Bertebeng
Meaning : loitering, hanging around in a group doing nothing
Example of usage: Janganlah asyik bertebeng nunggu simpang ni, apa kata wok me pegi masuk PLKN?

Perentan
Meaning: appropriate time
Example of usage: “Seman, jadi-jadilah main bola tu. Dah Maghrib ni, bukannya perentan nak terkinja-kinja tengah padang tu,” Makwe Limah menjerit kepada anaknya Seman dengan nada yang sangat marah.

Melukoh
Meaning: of women sitting with widely spread legs that their undies are showing
Example of usage: Orang kabor, Munah tu tak berapa betullah otaknya, kalau dia pegi kenduri, tengah-tengah orang ramai te lah dia duduk melukoh.

Keme’en
Meaning: too particular or being too calculative
Example of usage: Dollah te memang keme’en orangnya, sebab tu payoh nok ngajok dia datang nolong masa khenduri tapi dengor kabornya ada orang nak lantik dia jadi Bendahari Pemuda, elok sangatlah tu.

Chengengeng
Meaning: have tendency to break down and cry, over sensitive
Example of usage: Anak Leman yang lelaki te chengengeng mengalahkan budak perempuan. Lembik mengalahkan bapuk pulak te.

Hantu paku
Meaning: of people who always need to follow/tag along with another person, group.
Of people who tends to become copycats.
Example of usage: Hantu paku betullah awok ni. Kome pegi Giant, awok nak ngikut. Kome pegi Bali awok nak ngikut. Kome beli selipar merah, awok beli juga yang sama.