Of grooming course

I feeling-feeling that I am under-utilized.

On my short-stint here at dotdotdots.

Maybe I am not proactive enough, that’s why i have this under-utilized feelings. Instead of waiting for people to call me or invite me to meetings/ discussion/ programmes blablabla… I should’ve dengan tak malunya invite myself. Buat je sibuk-sibuk kat rumah orang, biar orang menyampah, nanti orang halau ko balik rumah sendiri. Haha.

Yesterday I was back to home-office (home sweet home? home-office sweet home-office? got it?) to attend a one-day grooming course. Very interesting. Among the things learnt:

• tie-pin is pokcik-pokcikkk
• wearing cuff-links can elevate a person to the highest in the ranking of power dressing
• the ideal width of the belt must not be more that the length of the thumb’s distal  phalanx  (ruas pertama ibu jari)
• the length of the pants must cover until the tumit kasut only, advice: when buying formal pants, bring along your formal shoes
• the tie’s lebar must be around 3-4 inches, less or more than that is considered kureng professional already

Note that the above only apply to men’s power dressing. According to the consultant, we ladies can almost wear anything because we have so many options out there compared to the men. But still, take stock of your working environment before jumping on the adventurous-fashion-train. Check your organization’s dress codes and ethics. Normally any organization will have a chapter on it in the employee’s handbook given to us on our first working day. Or you can always ask the HR people. Or the old-timers at the office.

Last but not least, use your common sense. If the working environment is a professional, dealing with power people-the ministers kind, dress professionally. Safe bet, wear three-piece-suit. I only knew yesterday that skirt ranks higher than the pants for the ladies. Especially long skirt. No wonder the gomen dress-code does not allow pants for the ladies, all this while i was like… ala, tak professional sungguh tak bagi pakai pants, rupanya akak yang kurang professional. Haha. It seems that for the ladies, the more skin you show, the less professional you become. Ha… sebab tu la kena tutup aurat, see what this rule implies? Sedondon betul dengan tanggungjawab kita sebagai muslimah disuruh menutup aurat, supaya kita tidak diambil mudah & murah dan dihormati. Kan kan kan?

Satu akak nak komen (dah lama simpan ni), konpius betul dgn orang2 pi opis pakai tudung belit melampau-lampau sampai jadi serabut serabai pening kepala akak menengoknya. Buat akak tertanya-tanya jugak, ko tak pening kepala ke belit2 gitu sekali. Tu tak masuk lagi bunga/ reben tiga empat bijik me-mahkotai kepala tu, tambah lak kerongsang liplap berjurai-jurai macam ala-ala waterfall gittew, tanglung la, blablabla. Saranan humble akak, save that style only for outings, weddings and occasions, but not to the office please. I myself will not take this kind of dressing (the people) seriously if I am meeting them for the first time. Like what the consultant said yesterday, the first impression matters the most. My say, very true. Once your professionalism has been established, maybe then people will look past your appearance. Masa ni pakai apa pun takpa, org dah kenal. Keje dah dapat, haha. Tapi, masih la kan. You are what you wear. Dress seriously and appropriately, people will take you seriously.

Terbang Helang

Sedap lagu ni…  

Di angkasa nan luas
Terbang sang helang bebas
Menebarkan sayapnya
Sungguh megah lagaknya
Helang mendabik dada
Membelahi angkasa
Dengan gaya perwira

Bila saja engkau menghampiri
Burung lain terbang lari
Kau merasakan dirimu gagah
Hak yang lain tak kau endah
Mengganas kau di angkasa
Dengan gaya perwira

Terbanglah engkau tinggi
Sampai ke mana lagi
Ingin engkau jelajahi
Sehingga kau terlupa
Yang tinggi jatuh jua
Bila tiba ketika
Kau ke tanah akhirnya

Usah kau lupa diri
Bahawa langit itu tinggi
Nanti lemas sendiri
Nanti lemas sendiri

– Khairil Johari Johar, Habsah Hassan, Sharifah Aini

Of my new (temp) office

Setelah sebulan lebih merasa ditempatkan di minOFfin ni, akak suka untuk declare that here is a scary place to work.

First: They gave me this big room (3 times my workstation di tempat asal, itupun tak berapa lama lagi akan didownsizekan, che’ ta kan?) to bertapa in, with a nice view of the bridge where mayakarin in her latest movie stopped her sports car to rant about her two-timing fiancé. I’m not used to having this much space alone. My imaginations will start doing overtime, and mula la akak nak paranoid sensorang. Sebab tu la right on the dot pukul 5 akak clock-out, bukan sebab akak malas keje, tapi sebab TAKUT duduk dalam bilik besar sorang2. *eh, iye ke ni?*

Second: The building’s big, thus the location of one place to another is quite far. Maksudnya (fav. word Syifa lately), toiletnya jauh weiii!! Sampaikan nak minum air pun TAKUT, sebab lepas minum nak buang malas nak jalan jauh-jauh. Satu lagi, perjalanan ke toilet juga adalah sunyi dan meNAKUTkan. Di dalam toilet juga sunyi dan SCARY ditambah lak dengan lokasi toilet itu sendiri di tempat-tempat tersorok. Akak TAKUT kena batu karang lak dok keje tahan-tahan nih.

Third: Surau is also the same, jauh + sunyi = TAKUT.

Fourth: The people here are experienced, worldly, sophisticated, professional (same meaning je sume ni, akak saja nak feeling-feeling terer guna big words nih *ingat joey tribbiani*). I’m AFRAID I am not up to their standards. Inilah keTAKUTan akak yang terbesar kat sini.

New Club for the ‘Kids’

I think that club is redundant. I wonder, what will be the activities of the club? Will public screening of porns be among the activities organized by the club to teach the members on how to be ‘obedient’? Ngehngehngeh.

My two pennies worth, communication. Nak apa, cakap. Husband wants something, tell the wife. If Princess Leia turns you on, go get the costume, tell her that you would appreciate it very much if she can wear it this coming malam Jumaat. Nak makan ketupat sotong kalu, habaq. Kalau saya taknak buat, bukan sebab malas, I’m just monitoring your cholesterol intake maaa…. *kelip-kelip mata kat somi*

Tak payah la sampai nak masuk sokhabar kot kalau setakat nak bagitau pakaian seksi untuk pasti suami puas.

Kata-kata hikmat

Someone who has been married for 25 years told me a marriage is about completing each other, not expecting to bahagi task sama rata. Synergize bak kata pokcik Stephen Covey dlm buku dia yang famous tu:

Habit no 7: Synergize – Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.

Dear husband, at the risk of sounding corny, you complete me. 🙂

Orang-orang

One

Satu maghrib yang hening, while I was performing solat, Damia and en.somi talked about a house that we went to that afternoon.

en.somi: Cantik tak rumah tu?

Damia: Cantik… tapi kenapa kita nak duduk kat rumah orang cina abah? Kita kan orang putih?

Two

This one was quite recent.

All channels (all channels = Ceria + Disney + Playhouse + Nickelodeon + Cartoon Network, only those are allowed at home if the kids are around) were in Christmas mood last week, memang la kan… thus the Christmas tv shows merata-rata. Anak aku yang banyak cakap ni pun sibuk la nak celebrate Christmas, dok tanya bila kita nak ada pokok presents bagai. So I told her we are Muslims, we don’t celebrate Christmas, ours are Aidilfitri  after a month of puasa & Aidiladha where people go to Mekah for hajj and those that don’t go can perform korban sembelih lembu kambing semua tu. She went ‘oh, ok!’ and stopped questioning after that not-so-short explanation.

Then, last weekend, a friend of his uncle came, one nice pretty lady, a kindergarten teacher pulak tu. I was in the kitchen doing what cannot remember dah when I heard this conversation…

Damia: Kakak, awak celebrate Christmas ke Raya Aidilfitri?

Kakak: Mesti la Aidilfitri…

Damia: oh… jadi awak ni Muslim la, sama macam saya…  kita tak boleh kawan dengan ummi saya tau, sebab dia orang Korea. – dengan muka yang penuh kudus, she continued explaining that my sister likes anything Korean, from the movies to the food to the languange etc, sebab tu la dia orang Korea.

Ahaks!

Mati hidup balik

Last week Tuesday, Damia came home, said: teacher saya dah mati, kena langgar kereta. Where did she got the news? Seemed like everyone at school (her friends) were talking about it. Perlukah aku percaya? If it was really true, surely the principal would have informed us the parents. That was day one.

Day two, I asked was her teacher in? She said no, teacher masuk hospital, sore throat. Okay, that was more believable.

Day three, no school. Report card day, so I went to the school. Met the said teacher. It was true that the teacher had sore throat and on medical leave for two days. Not true that she was dead on day one and hospitalised on day two.

Friday came, nothing about the dead-day-one-hospitalised-day-two-teacher.

The next Monday, kelmarin, while we were having dinner, eagerly innocently: Mama, hari ni teacher saya ada. Dia dah hidup balik.

Thank you

I am at the moment feeling a bit down. Dalam keadaan ABC (Allah bagi cuti) ni, takleh nak solat/ ngaji untuk tenangkan hati, jom kita kira:

aku masih bernyawa. selagi ada nafas untuk tarik dan hembus, Allah dah kata ada rezeki untuk aku tu. Alhamdulillah.

en.somi, who is patient, understanding and never complains. especially during this rough period, brought upon by this lovely wife (ahem!) of his. always by my side, through thick and thin. Alhamdulillah.

my parents are still alive. and healthy. and always willing to help whenever and wherever I need them to. sometimes, I don’t even have to ask. Alhamdulillah.

smart and healthy kids. Alhamdulillah.

job that helps me pay all sort of things that I need to pay. allow me the freedom to choose. to provide opportunities to my kids. to provide the best for their care, insyaAllah. Alhamdulillah.

banyak lagi, tak tersenarai. kesihatan. kewarasan. good friends. family. extended families. tempat berteduh. kenderaan. peace. banyaklah, tak tersenarai!

Ya Allah ya Tuhanku, give me strength, patience and wisdom.

“Allah tidak memberati seseorang melainkan apa yang terdaya olehnya. Dia mendapat pahala kebaikan yang diusahakannya dan dia juga menanggung dosa kejahatan yang diusahakannya. (Mereka berdoa dengan berkata): Wahai Tuhan kami! Janganlah Engkau mengirakan kami salah jika kami lupa atau kami tersalah. Wahai Tuhan kami! Janganlah Engkau bebankan kepada kami bebanan yang berat sebagaimana yang telah Engkau bebankan kepada orang-orang yang terdahulu daripada kami. Wahai Tuhan kami! Janganlah Engkau pikulkan kepada kami apa yang kami tidak terdaya memikulnya dan maafkanlah kesalahan kami, serta ampunkanlah dosa kami dan berilah rahmat kepada kami. Engkaulah Penolong kami; oleh itu, tolonglah kami untuk mencapai kemenangan terhadap kaum-kaum yang kafir.” (Al-Baqarah: 286)

Syifa

saya suka makan timun yang kat tengah-tengah tu

kosentrasi kena tinggi kalau nak makan timun

Di tengah-tengah middle

Being the middle one is always hard. Anak tengah, orang tengah, middle management (pengurusan tengah?). Having anak-anak buah and at the same time being an anak buah, can sometimes be exasperating. Sebab dah pernah berada di bawah, aku kadang-kadang terlampau memihak kepada orang bawahan. Tapi sekarang bila menjadi orang ‘tengahan’ (?), berpeluang mendekati, mendengar dan terlibat sekali dengan perbincangan, buah fikiran dan pendapat orang atasan, aku juga mula faham kenapa sesuatu tindakan itu diambil oleh orang atasan walaupun kadang-kadang pada orang bawahan nampak tidak masuk akal. Orang atasan look at things as a whole, orang bawahan pula only see one or two parts of that whole and orang tengahan might have access to at least 1/3 of that whole.

Kesimpulannya, orang tengahlah susah sikit, sebab nak sampaikan dan jalankan action plans orang atasan dengan cara yang sesuai dengan sikap/ masalah/ strengths/ weaknesses orang bawahan yang kadang-kadang memeningkan/ menyakit-jiwakan.

Bosssssss………………………. tambah gaji mungkin?