2008 in review...

Gosh... where do I start? :)

I moved to another dept. And I've never been this busy in my life! So was it a good move? hehe... it's alright. Although I didn't expect to be so melancholic about the move though. Never thought that I was that attached to 10A.

2008 also marked my 10th year of working. How time flies... Upside: Got 4 extra days of cuti and higher employer EPF contribution, woohoo! Downside: stayed in office until 6:45am to finish up on annual report, blurgh...

Did some renovation (actually more of the tail end lah since the work started in Nov07). Got myself a nice big room with ensuite now :)

Got extremely excited about David "word nerd" Cook. Am still using his *always be my baby* as my ringtone.

Tried the garrafura *ikan makan kaki* thing. So geli yet fun!

Kinda cured myself of my fear of heights (all those tower climbing paid off, hehe). But I still get jelly legs though, cuma jantung sikit kurang degup degap...

Treated myself to some new toys ;) Garmin nuvi, Canon 450D and my latest purchase Sony Ericsson C902. Toyed with idea of buying one of those mini laptops... next time lah. Still haven't bought that mattress that I've been dreaming about though.

Experienced some pitter patter of the heart with someone... haha! but it was clearly just an infactuation. Cured within a month ;)

Makan... oh, did I! haha... All sorts of places and food. Love 'em! But since Nov08, made a pact with Abg & Ina to not eat rice. Well... I'm not 100% abstaining lah. Have my once a month nasi lemak ration and occasionally have a bit of rice when I go for kenduri, nasi daun pisang, ikan bakar etc... sikit jer ;)

Watched a movie every weekend during summer with my siblings. That was fun!! But after that, I'm *behind* on my movies balik :(

Got cultured! I went to watch Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Lady in Black, Mamma Mia. Can't get enough of them musicals :)

Travelled sikit (relative to previous years)...
April - Yogyakarta & Borobudur
May - Cotswolds (England) & Berlin - Munich - Bavarian Alps - Romantic Road (Germany)
July - Terengganu and lots of keropok lekor!!
August - London & Cambridge (for work, but sambil menyelam minum air, hehe)
November - Hong Kong

And finally, I'm most proud of my involvement in BNM Volunteers :) It is so satisfying to be involved in something so meaningful. Oh, and also for having my pix selected to be published :D

being "in love"...

At heart, Muslims place more priority on this world than the Hereafter although this world is cheap and temporary compared to the Hereafter which is eternal and more beautiful.

The old adage is true: love is blind. Once you love something you become to blind to everything else, no matter how beautiful and special the others things are.

Like a person who has fallen in love with another, they forget everything else, they forget their family, they forget to eat drink, they forget their work and so on so forth. It is because of this love that they are willing to suffer any hardships and face any risk.

This is what has happened to those who have fallen in love with the world and forgotten the Hereafter. They are willing to face all sorts of risks and difficulties, and sometimes are even willing to die for it.

But for the Hereafter, which is more special, even though it is easier to work for it, people feel that it is more a burden because they do not love it.

May Allah bless us and our families with the coming of New Year... and by that I mean 1430 Hijrah

hadith...

The Prophet SAW used to tell his companions, "Renew your faith".
He was asked, "O Messenger of Allah, how do we renew our faith?"
He said, "By frequently repeating 'La ilaha il-Allah'.

Ahmad

quotable quotes...

If we had no winter, then spring will not be so pleasant
If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome

Anne Bradstreet, poet

THAT question...

After dinner, I lepak2 chatting with Mama and Papa.

I don't quite remember how the question came about, but THAT question was posed again.

aaarrrggghhh!!!!!

lambaian kaabah...

I came home from work Friday evening last week and sat with Mama who was watching one of her favourite dramas on TV.

"Jom pergi umrah. First flight on 15 Jan... Mama dah kira dah. You only need to take 7 days leave because of CNY. Seats selling fast."

So that's how it started. I've been harbouring hopes to pay tanah suci Makkah another visit since my last was over 15 years ago.

Checked with boss, OK can take leave. On Monday (I had planned the leave some time back) I went to the travel agent, got a salinan of my surat beranak for visa-muhrim purposes (couldn't find the original even after selongkar the whole house... Mama had misplaced them).

So... insyaAllah, I'll be heading there next month. I'm quite excited!

over indulge?

I haven't been clothes shopping for a while and recently when Ina ajak pergi KLCC sempena Malaysia Savings Sale, I tagged along. Was very happy to discover that I could buy clothes my size off the rack at quite reasonable prices. And a few days later, while waiting for my salinan surat beranak (story to be told in a another entry), I shopped some more at the Ms Read outlet in Maju Junction.

Today, bila nak hang the new baju in my wardrobe, I realised why I haven't been shopping. I already have too many clothes!! Kalau wardrobe and hangers tu boleh menjerit, agaknya I will scream "stop stuffing us!" :p



I also realised that I shouldn't buat any more new baju kurung since I'm running out of hangers. So what? One might ask. Just get more hangers. You see, I'm a bit of "looney" when it comes to hanging my bajus. They must be in specific types of hangers, arranged according to colour. A good mechanism to prevent me from buat too many baju baru since I'm restricted by the number of hangers that I have... and those hangers I brought back from Australia dulu. Sini takde... well, I've not come across any lah.

It's an illness I realised... Uji and her obsessive nature with hangers. Oh well... one must have some vices.

So OK... no more shopping or buat baju baru for me. Unless if I do some spring cleaning and hand over my clothes to another home.

Except for that 3 pieces of kain yang dah dibeli and tinggal nak hantar kat tailot je, hehehe...

what a difference a year makes...

1 year ago RBS paid $100bn for ABN Amro

Today that same amount would buy:
Citibank $22.5bn
Morgan Stanley $10.5bn
Goldman Sachs $21bn
Merrill Lynch $12.3bn
Deutsche Bank $13bn
Barclays $12.7bn
...And still have $8bn change.

With which you would be able to pick up GM, Ford, Chrysler... and the Honda F1 Team!

^_^

i love to travel!

I've visited a number of places in my love. Each year I plan and hope to go visit some new places. Sometimes I re-visit a place that I like... usually because work brings me there (eg after a long gap since my first visit, I've been to London 3 times in the past 2 years, NY 3 times, Washington DC 4 times). Not that I mind, because those cities are absolutely wonderful :)

I found a website which helps mark countries that I've visited. I'm surprised that I've visited a total of 20 countries... a mere 8% of the world, and about 5x the number of towns or cities.



I got a world map together with my recent subscription of National Geographic Traveller. It's still lying in my drawer where I keep a lot of junk, waiting to be hung on that empty wall next to my wardrobe. I plan to stick pins (or something of that nature since I don't actually own a corkboard) for every place that I've visited.

I also did a quick test to see what type of traveller I am. The description sounds quite right, but the "top destinations" and "places to avoid" seems terbalik. Venice, Paris and Tokyo are definitely on my "places to visit" list (I've visited Paris twice and hope to go there again next year). Tahiti is intriguing, I'm quite satisfied having seen Uluru (in Alice Springs) from up above on a flight back to Malaysia once and have no idea where Ciudad Perdida is :p

	Your travel type: Travel Yup The Travel Yup likes exotic and adventurous travel, but prefers big cities with fast paced life. He has a keen interest in other cultures and always brings home a few souvenirs. Shopping in Bangkok, getting a tailor made suite in Kuala Lumpur, that's the kind of thing the Travel Yup is into. Even though he likes to get away, he prefers his travels to be comfortable.
	top destinations: Alice Springs Ciudad Perdida Tahiti	stay away from: Venice Paris Tokyo

get your own travel profile

Insyaallah, if all goes according to plan, I'll be paying Baitullah another visit next month. Went to get my meningitis jap today at Pusrawi (shot given by a rather dashing Dr Razlan Shah... had he placed his stetoscope over my heart, he would have heard the pitter patter, hehe...) and got my *stop menses* pills since the trip will be right smack when my *monthly* is expected to give a visit.

I'm really looking forward to the trip... my second. The last time was 13 years ago, when I was a much more innocent and dosa-less. I hope that the trip will help purify my heart and soul and make me a better and God abiding servant. A lot of sin have been accumulated since...

In preparation, I should start doing more of what is expected of a good Muslim.

so effing hilarious!

I'm 2+ weeks late, but better late than never.

Caught news about it while watching Channel E, but didn't manage to see it until just now.

Justin Timberlake doing "Single Ladies" in leotards and high heels... OMG!! That was just too funny!!! The man can move and shake his bootie... oh yes!

I wish I could watch a clearer version, but for now, this would have to do ^_^

i'm on cloud nine!!!

Tonight I checked email on my Hotmail account. Something that I don't do very often because that's my secondary email address.

To my big surprise, I received this email...


Your photo in our new cloud handbook?‏
From: ian@cloudappreciationsociety.org
Sent: Wednesday, 3 Dec, 2008 8: 39 PM
To: kakijalan@hotmail.com

Dear Ruziana,

We're emailing to see if you would like your photograph to appear in a brand new publication from The Cloud Appreciation Society.

In the spring of next year, we are producing a book called The Cloud Collector's Handbook, which will be a humorous and instructive tour of the skies that we hope will help convince the world at large of the beauty and wonder of clouds.

The book will be a pocket-sized publication, which cloudspotters can carry around with them, and will be beautifully designed with full-colour images throughout. It will also work as a sort of game: you collect points for the different clouds that they spot. The rarer the cloud, the higher the points.

We have been carefully going through the thousands of images on the society's photo gallery pages, and feel that your one, linked below, is a fantastic example of its type. If you were willing, we would love to include this image in the handbook:

http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=2924

Since the book is only pocket-sized, and we have so many photos that we want to include (around 120), all the images will end up being quite small. But readers would be able to refer to the relevant pages on the website to see your fine photo it in its full glory.

Would you like it to be included? We are not able to pay, but would give you a full credit on the page that it appears, and we would send you two copies of the book when it comes out in the spring. If you are not already a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society, we would, of course, give you life membership. It goes without saying that you would retain all copyright of your image.

If you’d like the image to be a part of this fantastic new handbook for cloudspotters, then do please email Ian Loxley, at this address, to:
A) say that you "authorise us to include this image, credited to you, in all editions of The Cloud Collector's Handbook" and
B) send a high-res version of the image.
We would obviously not reprint the photo anywhere else without your prior permission (though we would ask that it could be available (with full credit) to illustrate any reviews or articles about the handbook, when it is published).

Many thanks and very best wishes from,

Gavin Pretor-Pinney,
Founder,

and Ian Loxley,
Photo gallery editor,

The Cloud Appreciation Society
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/



I pun apa lagi... Smile selebar-lebarnya. Too bad it's already 2 am otherwise I would be screaming happily to announce my new "celebrity" status to my sister and brother.

I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY! and proud :D

Who would have thought... a photo taken by chance, while peering out the window somewhere above the South China Seas (I think), would be selected for something like this?

I must say (walaupun this is considered masuk bakul angkat sendiri), that it is a beautiful shot... with the light, and puffy clouds. It's so out of this world. Just looking at it gives me a sense of serenity.

But this is all the great work of Allah SWT, who had created this wonderful world that we live in. It was with His grace that I was afforded the view and opportunity to capture it for others to see. I still remember the feeling when I first saw the sight... unbelievable amazement and rush of amazement and wonderment of His greatness. Subhanallah...

So friends... let me share this with you. I hope that you'll find the same joy as I did on that eventful day 2+ years ago...