big rocks, small rocks and sands

Ini bukan entri rock kapak atau rock leleh yer..muahahaha

My office colleague shares a touching story this morning and I immediately log in to Blogger and write this post since I got some free time now (all bosses are not around ;p). Here is the story that he shared:

Can I Borrow $25?
A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?'
DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.
SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily.
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.
SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.'

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down , and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often

The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

'Are you asleep, son?' He asked.
'No daddy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.
'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25 you asked for.'
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you daddy!' he yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the father grumbled. 'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied.

'Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.' The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love. If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Reading the story I straight away relates this with another sharing from my boss on how we should prioritize our works based on rocks and sands terminology. It's like this, in one day when you come to work you should list down all the works that you need to do on that day. Then categorize each work into whether it is big rock (very urgent and need to be done immediately, if not will have high consequence), small rock (not very urgent but still need to be done by that day) or just sands (not urgent, can wait until tomorrow). I'm sure despite our busy schedule and all, there are works that actually can wait until tomorrow right? And this is the whole point. You don't actually need to stay all day at the office to get everything done. You just need to prioritize and get your big and small rocks done by the end of the day, and if you have time settle some of the sands :)

To get better picture on this big rocks, small rocks and sands, imagine you have a big jar that you need to fill with all big rocks, small rocks and sands. You need to fill the jar with all three types of elements given and all of them must fit to that jar. So imagine if you put your sands first, then your small rocks, followed by big rocks, by the time you want to put your big rocks, most probably the jar is already full and no space left for the big rocks and maybe you have to find another jar. Now imagine this, you put yur big rocks first into your empty jar, followed by your small rocks and lastly your sands, definitely there'll be enough space for the sands in between the big rocks and small rocks right? Same goes for your work, the jar is actually your working hours. Try to get your super urgent works done first then only you entertain your not-so-urgent and not-urgent matters. InsyaAllah there'll be always enough given working hours without you having to stay at the office until late hours :)

Relating this back to the story shared just now, the big rocks, small rocks and sands terminology can be applied to our personal life as well. To our family and work to be exact. You need to really know what are the three things that represent the three elements (big rocks, small rocks and sands). For example my big rocks definitely my immediate family, my small rocks is my daily work and my sands are my side business, not-so-immediate family and others. Different people might have different prioritization and hence different definition of their three elements in life.

Go back to the story above, for the father, his big rocks maybe his work because he needs to support the family and it's very important for him to perform well at his work and keep his job in order to do so. Then only come his family which represent the small rocks. And for most of us although this arrangement is ok for us as we are still prioritize our family and know how to balance between work and family, do remember that our children can be our small rocks BUT for the children, we are their big rocks! Super duper bigggest rock ever!!! Just like the story above, the son is saving money just to have a dinner with the father. He's doing that because his father is everything to him and he'll do anything to spend time with his father. Very touching indeed...sob...sob...nak balik rumah main ngan izma sekarang juga!!! Hihihi

Although I claim my big rocks are my immediate family, sometimes I feel guilty also when I go back home in the evening, I watch the Korean drama (;p) instead of playing with Izma...or watching the Glee-athon during weekend...huhuhu so much regret! Ok insaf2 balik ni bawak Izma jln2 and play with her until she asleep :)

So peeps, what's/who's your big rocks, small rocks and sands?

Izma Dictionary and Thesaurus

Izma turned exactly 18 months last Wednesday. Not much progress on her height and weight but her vocabulary becomes wider and wider everyday. She surprises us almost everyday with a new word. It's so true they say that baby's brain is like a sponge absorbing everything they can and register it there immediately. So be extra careful next time you want to say something not good in front of your babies. They sure pick them up quickly and next time you know they say those words to you back or worse, to other people. Confirm time tu malu nak mengaku anak ;p

It's so exciting seeing her developing her verbal skill and hence I want to record all her vocabularies as of now. So that next time you see her and she's blabbering alien language at you, you'll know what she means. I'm one of the experts now :) So here we go, Izma Dictionary and Thesaurus, go make a copy before you see her ;p

Starts with the best la kan:

Mama = Mama (yeay me! :))
Yah = Ayah
Dik/Cu = My youngest sister; she follows everyone calling her 'adik' ;p but when asked mana Cu?, she'll point to my sister and said 'Cu'
Pah = Opah
Tuk = Atuk (both sides)
Wa = Wan (my MIL)
Nak = Nak/Want
Ak = Tak nak/ don't want
Shik = Nasik/ rice
Shik mak = Nasik lemak (her favorite!)
Ti = Roti
Uah = Buah (most favourite!!!)
Shu = Susu/ milk or her kasut/ shoes :) - this can be confusing sometimes
Ba = Bam (baring)
Jo = Jom
Pu = Lampu
Dah = Dah
Hot = Panas/ pedas (mama yg kejam suka bagi dia mkn benda pedas ;p) And it looks like this is the only English word in her vocab as of now in the list. A true Malaysian.
Two = Two
Ti = Three
Four = Four
Juk = Sejuk
Nini = Nenen ;p
Be = Bird
Fish = Fish
Cat = Cat
Dog = Dog
Bit = Rabbit
Bo = Dibo
Do = Tido

Ok that's all I can think of right now. Yeah most of them are single phrase except her favourite 'shik mak'...hehe it's so fun hearing her saying all those words. So cute! :) Definitely need to record all these down and remember the moment :))

The big girl :)

Folic acid

Coppp i'm not pregnant...yet. But yes, i'm already on folic acid. I started taking them about 3 weeks ago just as preparation to conceive. Yeah i'm on trying mode already now. Just in trying mode but never actually try yet.hehe originally the plan is to start trying by this month but something came up. We were not feeling well that is.

During my 'fertile' period and hubby was around, Izma had a very bad fever. Reaching 39 degrees for a few days. And later the whole Cheras clan got her virus. We all came down with flu, cough, sore throat and fever including hubby, myself an even my mom. Very strong virus huh. So there goes our plan for this month. Mission was canceled and aborted. Saje je Izma sabotaged our plan :p so will try again next month. Try to try if you know what i mean. Hopefully hubby will be around during the right time :) but we are not actually in the rush so we'll take our sweet time. Definitely no pressure :)

Copppp back to the main topic. So why bother with the folic acid when you are not pregnant yet? And not even started trying to get pregnant. Well as i mentioned it's for my preparation to conceive. Apparently folic acid can helps you conceive. Or so it claims. Maybe it makes your womb strong or just make a good environment for conception. I don't really know but i'm doing this as to follow my friend's advice. Before i was married she had advised me to start taking folic acid if i want to get pregnant right away. Considering my age at that time i straight away went to the pharmacy and ger them! :) and Alhamdulillah i got pregnant during second month of our marriage :)) maybe not so much on that folic acid or not at all but no harm trying right. I have nothing to lose. Just consider it as one of the supplements la kut (eventhough i chose the time to have this supplement..hehe).

So that's about it i guess. Maybe (if rajin) i'll try to google up on this folic acid to find out if it's really can helps conception in any way. And again, if rajin :p so guys toodles for now! Want to go plan my timing for the mission :)

i've been hit!!!

Yes, LITERALLY!!! On a Monday morning!!! What can be worse than this to start off your supposed-to-be energetic week??? Well, yeah I'm really looking forward to start the week off as I have a 2-day good lunch workshop at Doubletree by Hilton Hotel on Monday and Tuesday. And I went out early on Monday morning so that I could reach early and follow the whole flow of that workshop from the beginning. But then yeah, something came up. Something that I least expected of at this kind of time. Somebody hit my car!!!!! Grrrr!!!!!

I was driving dengan penuh berhemah di jalanraya, at Jalan Tun Razak to be exact and it was massive traffic jam at that time which is usual thing in the morning. Approaching the tunnel in front of RHB Building (if I'm not mistaken) suddenly I saw through my mirror the car behind me was coming quite fast and he was aiming to get to the right lane. And I was there all static and all innocent and suddenly banggggg he hit me on his way to the right lane!!!! Dengggggg

At that time I was so angry because I really saw it coming but there was nothing I can do because I was in the traffic jam, we all were! And that guy still have the gut to merempit in between the traffic! Grrrrr!!!!! So went to the side, called my hubby just to update him, exchanged hp numbers with the pesalah trafik, he gave me RM50 because he didn't have cash that time, promised me to settle later and still there is still one major thing  forgot to do which is to record the other car's registration number!!!! Dengggggg #2

Mangsa, Mercedes Kompressor mata bulat (bukan nama sebenar)

my one-day-off dream

Weird title, no? It's actually just my dream of having a one day off during working days and have a date with myself (euwwww ;p). Or if you like the 'me time' day. One day is enough and perfect for me. So I'm going to list down the itinerary details of this dream day which I don't know yet when. But most probably on a fine Wednesday. I don't know why Wednesday but the idea of having to work for only 2 days then have a day off then work another only 2 days and off again is somewhat nice :) You don't get it right? It's ok let's just go to our itinerary ;p

So here are the details of my one-day-off dream:

1. Breakfast at Starbucks Coffee KLCC until late morning (have to go out early as usual so that my mom won't suspect anything...hahaha jahat...and oh with office attire as well...casual office attire ;p)
2. Have my facial at Aster Spring KLCC (or is it no longer there? huhu) or other Dermalogica outlet
3. See my dentist for scaling treatment (haven't done this for 2 years!!!! euwwwww ;p)
4. Hair treatment (maybe?)
5. Shopping
6. Shopping
7. Shopping

So if you notice I had allocated 3 shopping sessions which indicates 3 different shopping spots. Nice rightttttt. But if I have any other important administrative that I need to settle then it will override my shopping activity. So I'll left with only 2 shopping sessions ;p And of course I'll add in a nice lunch and lots of snack times! Weeeee.....

Actually that's about it la. Tak macam dream pun kan. Boring jek...haha but for me if I can just do all those thing, i'll be so contented and will definitely relieve all my stress. Actually the above activities used to be my routine activities during my single mingle life. I never missed my dentist appointment, had my facial almost every month, hang up at Starbucks with friends until late night (only girlfriends ye hubby ;p) and of course shopping every other day...haha over lak ;p

However those activities are no longer in my priority lists since I got the mom title. I never got the leisure time to spend on myself as most of my time are devoted to that chubby little girl and that chubby little hubby :) I'm not complaining here ya, it's just that I had realised that my priorities had changed 360 degrees (fuiyooo) and I'm doing more things that I love most doing like spending time with my two chubby buddies :) (that's why la I pun become chubby tauuuu)

So yeah I got my lists done. Now it's time to choose the perfect day for my one-day-off dream day! Just thinking about it makes me smile :))) Can't wait!!!

Ho Chi Minh ~ ho ho ho

Did you know what happen? I had write a beautiful entry on my ho ho ho trip last Sunday but somehow I lost it and I am very frustrated until now. I wrote my entry at my phone and after a lots of beautiful paragraphs I decided to save it as draft then continue later. But then I don't know what button I had pressed wrongly and all my beautiful karangan disappeared!!! (sorry perasan beautiful, you won't know anyway ;p).

So here I am again, trying to redo my essay on 'Percutian saya dan keluarga ke Ho Chi Minh'. No mood. Seriously. But the show must go on (really?). I had skipped my Bandung and Singapore reviews so let's do justice for this once and for all. All for one, one for all....hehehe

Ok I think I gained my mood already but I'm warning ya, this entry won't be as beautiful as my previous draft which had disappeared (annoying kan to read the word beautiful again and again, and there you go again ;p). Well let's start now. For now no photos will be uploaded since I was too busy with my shopping meeting hence no time for photographing. Not to worry, i'll hijacked hubby's photos from his camera and phone. He took quite good photos actually. Not much but enough to get the essence of Vietnam, particularly Ho Chi Minh city itself. Good job darling :)

Now only I want to start my story-telling. Just to brief you, it was just a 3-day trip and it's my business trip actually. Hubby and Izma tagged along and they got to enjoy a little bit more of Ho Chi Minh while I'm enjoying myself with my meetingsss. Yes I have 2 meetings on a 3-day trip. So can you imagine where I got the time to even shop? Hehehe you'll be surprised ;p So our flight from KL was on Tuesday, 15 Feb (yes, that's like one month ago ;p) afternoon and we reached Ho Chi Minh city airport at around 5pm local time. Hubby's uncle's driver picked us up at the airport and we reached Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers at around 5.30 pm (btw Saigon is the previous name of Ho Chi Minh city; sometimes they still refer to Ho Chi Minh as Saigon). And without further a due, we got ourselves into a taxi for our first shopping trip at 6 pm! How efficient! Despite the super duper nice room (we got a room at the tower side since the standard rooms are full), we still managed to keep the shopping spirit high! (note: we = I, me and myself) Ngeh ngeh ngeh. And the best part is we have a very good tourist guide for our trip, who happened to be my boss actually, remember it's my business trip...haha he had been attached to Vietnam office for 6 months in 2008 if I'm not mistaken and so yeah he's the expert. He still remembered all the streets and places by heart and can even pronounced the street name perfectly. We are so lucky!

Izma's third trip to oversea!

 

 

Welcomed at the hotel by this traditional 'band' on their traditional costumes (haruslah super duper slim to fit into that Vietnamese suit!)

The hotel

So our first shopping heaven was Hong Anh Collection boutique at Ly Ty Trung street (pronounce: Li Ti Ceng - learned from my boss..hehe). Summary of this boutique: full of Malaysians!!!!! They even have signboard in Malay languange like 'Sila simpan invois pembelian anda'...huhu seriously...so it's like a mandatory pit stop for Malaysians that visit Ho Chi Minh. They sell telekung, baju kurung pahang, baju kurung moden, pretty jubah, long sleeve blouses, baju melayu, tudung ariani, etc. Bottom line is all their clothes line are so close to Malaysian hearts...haha and the most important part is they are so so so cheap! Maybe a little bit pricey if you compare to the other stores in Ho Chi Minh but they have a good quality of stuff. So it's really worth it! Got myself a baju kurung pahang, a few blouses, a glamorous jubah with a matching baju melayu for hubby. Really nice the baju melayu although the cutting is a bit off but still can wear...anyhow he'll wear it once je kut for his cousin's wedding soon. So penjimatan yang terbaekkk :) And I also bought a few telekungs for my office colleagues. None for myself coz not really to my liking. I prefer telekung from Bandung :) Oh also, Hong Anh closes at 7pm so just imagine us bought all those in just 45 minutes! Expert level!!!

After shopping spree, went back to hotel, change into my new blouse (ehem2 tak sabar2 ;p), had dinner with hubby's uncle. He is the project manager in Vietnam office and her wife just joined him there that very week. So we were lucky to see both of them. We had dinner at Four Seasons restaurants. Not to worry peeps, halal restaurants are everywhere in Ho Chi Minh city especially at the Sheraton Hotel area. There is a mosque beside the hotel and along the way are mostly halal restaurants :) Back to Four Seasons, we had a la carte dinner consists of rice (wajib), ikan siakap tiga rasa, ayam goreng kicap, telur dadar, kailan goreng ikan masin and satay. Yes the menu stated exactly those menu in Malay language. Rasa macam mkn kat Warung Dusun gearbox and tomyam in Bangi...hehe but the taste not as good as back at home. Then went back to hotel, hubby went to change our USD into millions of VND (Vietnam Dong). Who wants to be a millionaire? This is the place besides Bandung :) Multi-millionaires in fact *ka-ching*

So second day, after breakfast I went to PCVL office for my meeting. But somehow our counterpart is having another meeting so we went back to the hotel and decided to come back after lunch for the meeting...weehuuuuu shopping time!!! We managed to had a walk around our hotel area, bought some souvenirs and had lunch at Saigon Halal Restaurant. I had nasi lemak (cam xde bende lain nak mkn kan ;p) and hubby had nasi goreng kampung. But I tried an interesting drink here which is the lemon soda. They just give a can of unsweetened soda, slices of lemon and a small jug of syrup. Mixed all together into an iced glass and there you go! Yummeh!!! Hubby also love this drink and we ordered this for every meal (except breakfast ;p) ever since :) Then later I went back to the office and had my meeting...bla..bla...bla...

In the mean time, back at the hotel hubby took a cab and went to Hard Rock Cafe with Izma and got themselves nice Hard Rock t-shirts. Sooo jealous!!! Izma was enjoying herself walk walk with ayah until she felt asleep during their trip. So they went back to the hotel and waited for the shopping queen to return...hihihihihi

Then later that evening, we went to Hong Anh...again...hehe bought a few more blouses then went to Saigon Square. But not much catch here as according to my boss Ben Thanh will be more interesting so I'm saving my energy (and money) for the Ben Thanh trip the next day :) However there is something interesting as well here in Saigon Square which is the Russian market they call it. I'm not sure whether the whole Saigon Square is the Russian market or only the upper level as we saw the signange RUSSIAN MARKET and there was an arrow pointing towards the upper level. What was interesting at the Russian market was that they have a lot of branded stuff and they are all original and the most important part is they are very cheap!!! Hubby found this Timberland shoes and thought it was a fake. But he got a closer look and lifted the shoes and told me it is certainly an original Timberland shoes but soooo cheap. The thing is most of the US branded stuff are made in vietnam so that's why they are cheap. Not sure about the quality but who cares right? It's original so the quality should be there. And it's cheap so don't demand much on the quality la kan. Besides Timberland, they have lots of kids' branded apparel like Gap, Osh Kosh, Guess but most of them are for kids and only a few for babies. And I think it is boys' heaven as I found a lot of nice boys' shirt but none for girls. Very hard to find Izma's size as well so she just got a few t-shirts...fuhhh selamat! ;p

After that we excused ourselves as my boss continue his spree...hehe hubby's uncle invited us to have dinner at his service apartment. Forgot the place name but I really like his apartment. Quite spacious with 3 big bedrooms and spacious living room. We had Viatnamese signature dish, the noodle soup with beef and lots of i-don't-know-the-name veges...hehehe seriously lots of them. No wonder the Viatnamese are all slim. Veges and fruits are abundant and fresh and very sweet. Hubby's aunt made fried rice on top of the noodle...huhu lots of food...burppp kenyang*pengsan*

So the next day a.k.a. our last day I still have my meeting in the morning. Our flight was at 4pm that evening so I was very panic! Panic of thinking that I might not be able to have my visit to the most important part of the trip (besides the meeting of course ;p), the Ben Thanh market!!!!! So I plan with my boss to finish our meeting by 11am and leave the office immediately, by hook or by crook! Semangat! But guess what? I was the one who prolonged the meeting until almost 12!!!wawawawa why la me so semangat?huhuhu so we were rushing back to the hotel after the meeting coz haven't check out yet. Arrived hotel, do my final packing, checked out and had our lunch at D'Nyonya Restaurant just beside the mosque. It is another Malaysian restaurant and we had our lemon soda for the last time...sob..sob...i'm missing my lemon soda now...

After Zuhur prayer, we kept our luggage at the hotel concierge and went straight to Ben Thanh. So my first mission was my kain of course! Hadn't got a chance to buy any for the past 2 days. I aimed for the Vietnam silk that is. This is to cater for the 'orders' from my friends. To tell the truth I didn't have any idea what type of material that I should buy and how's the price gonna be. But I knew that they are cheap according to word of mouth...hehe so there we were stopping at the first kain shop that we found. And the only kain shop that we managed to stop by actually. And yes they are certainly cheap for a good and nice material. I bought around 8pcs if I'm not mistaken and mine is actually only 1 pc from those. Yes more reason to go there again...and again ;p

After finished my important mission, we follow the leader (my boss ;p) to the nuts' stall. Bought cashew nuts and dried jackfruit for our office colleagues. They are so cheap!!! But due to warning from hubby on our potential extra baggage I managed to grab only 1kg of cashew nuts and 1 kg of dried jackfruit...sob...sob...I really want those pistachios and the other nuts there but what to do kan...next time la hubby k? :) Then our last stop in Ben Thanh was at the shop that sold smocking dresses for kids. I love love love this!!!! Rmabang mata tak hengat looking at those beautiful and colourful dresses and cheap$$$$$!!!! 1 dress is just USD8 which is equivalent to around RM25!!! Cheap cheap cheap!!! Izma was the happiest girl as she got 4 of them!!! And they are all so adorable :) And we also bought Izma a Vietnamese suit...a pink one! :) (since the Mama takde size nak beli kan so Izma on behalf la ;p). And that's it. A really sweet ending to our shopping spree experience in Ho Chi Minh city. Definitely will come back for moreeeeeee!!! :))

Then we went back to the hotel to get our things and repacking to make space for our Ben Thanh stuff. Proceed to the airport and welcome back to Malaysia home sweet home~~~

2 years...

...and counting :)

Happy anniversary to me n my beloved lovely hubby! I luv u soooo much!!! XOX

Well hubby is in Kerteh right now attending a course so no candlelight dinner for us tonight :p

But izma n i are going to join him this Wednesday! Yippie! Cuti2 ganu :) however on that note i'm going on a flight to kuantan alone with izma..then hubby will pick us up at the airport..wawawa nervousness! Remind me to pack loads of chocs to calm her in case of anything..huhu just this once ok ayah, pls, pls... After that no more chocs for her :)

Update on 16 March 2011: Got this pretty lovely treat from hubby for our second anniversary!!! Thanks so much lalinggggg :)))

A bouquet of lots of white lilies and sweet baby breaths :)

Made the entire office smell lovely :))