fuel price increase - use COWasaki

swingles

Ponder this swingles...

Someone I know in the office is a 40+ year old female who is still single. She is attractive (pretty face, trendy, slim, free hair, sociable) and financially capable (has own condo, car, good salary) but admitted she was previously very choosy when selecting her potential husband.

Now, she declared that she regretted being so choosy and dropped her criterias, and threw them as far away as she can. At her age she is so desperate to get married that she will marry any decent man that comes along - if only they would ask for her hand in marriage.

People around her are trying to get her a partner... she even requested us to help. But no one seems to want to marry her. She is now in the 'back shelves'.

I see it with my own eyes how this lady wants to be loved, have children, have a family, to grow old with someone. She loves to see pictures of Lyana and Aneesa but can only dream of having her own. Pity.

To the swingles out there... if you have intentions to build a family but being too choosy, consider the story above while you are still 'in the market'. Because once you get past a certain age, the demand can be very-very low and you might even lose hope.

Forever single ones, ignore this unsolicited advice.

stop and smell the flower

Time really flashes by if you don't take time to stop and smell the flower.

Take Aneesa... most mornings when I leave for work, Aneesa would still be asleep. When I arrive home, she's usually sleepy already and would doze off within the next hour. So, I only get to spend a long time with her on weekends.


This is how the children are when I leave for work in the morning. (They sleep in the same arrangement too.)

How she has grown in just 3 months. This picture below was taken this morning before leaving for work today - she woke up early. Aneesa can turn on her own now and look at how strong her neck muscles are. She's can stay like that with her head up for a very long period.

Aneesa 'crawling'

Aneesa can also 'talk' now. She makes noises complete with face expressions when we talk to her - all caught on video so she could see how cute she was. :)

Lyana has grown to be quite a trendy kid herself. She has her own bag of hair accessories, watches, bangles, necklaces, sunglass, etc. She even wear lipstick. Well you know how mothers, aunties and grandmothers like to dress-up little girls. Lyana is no exception and she enjoys it anyway. Kuat melaram si kenit tu.

The fashionable Lyana - look at all her accessories.


I love you, Fareeha and Farzana.

riding to Tasik Biru

Last Sunday we put on our helmet, gloves, riding boots and rode to Tasik Biru. First stop was Halim's house in Taman Coalfields, Sungai Buloh. We then rode to Tasik Biru, had some noodles and enjoyed the lovely lake breeze while listening to people sing through the karaoke. Here's a picture of Ruslan with the lake behind him.

Ruslan enjoying himself.


See that blue bike behind me? That is Ruslan's Honda CBR600 F2. It's a supersport bike churning 100 horsepower and very-very fast. On the Guthrie highway when I was doing about 160km/h, he overtook me effortlessly in a split-second and later confirmed that he was doing about 200km/h at that time. The bike's top speed is approximately 270km/h but I think Ruslan won't dare take the bike at that speed. Am I right, Mr Wuslan?

I obviously wanted to test my bike's new front hub bearing and earnestly accepted Ruslan's impromptu invitation to ride to Tasik Biru that evening. On the highway I manage to hit a top speed of 200km/h. That's the fastest my bike could go, but then again my Zephyr 750 is not built for top speed. It only has 72 horsepower and is built for commuting and town use, so it has lots of torque but lower top speed.

Halim's bike is as Suzuki DR800 dual-purpose bike. His bike can be ridden off-road too and is very tall and commanding. It fits Halim who's tall himself. This bike churns out 70 horsepower from its single cylinder engine (both CBR and Zephyr has 4 cylinders) and was also not built for speed but low end torque which is good for climbing steep slopes. The 800cc engine can propel the rider to a top speed of 170km/h - very fast indeed.

We were back in our respective homes after maghrib.

DIY addiction

"If that guy/gal can do it, I'm sure I can do it too. It can't be that difficult." This thought always flashes into my mind when I needed services or something done that I feel is over-charged.

Take my garden tap which is not working until today. I called a plumber to check it and he said the problem is beneath the ground and to do it takes too much money. So he suggested a different pipeline from the mains. The price? RM150. What?! The answer is DIY. Guess how much it cost me to DIM (D0-It-Myself)? The pipes and glue cost me RM18 and I also installed a RM25 water filter to go with it.

Yanti would like to have a water-feature in our garden. She said it would be soothing to hear the water run. So we went to Sungai Buloh to search for a small one that would fit the garden. The price? RM500 after bargaining, for the water-feature alone. The answer is DIM. Went to Ikea and bought a white basin at RM39, some wood at RM10, paint RM7, and niceties RM70 (the jug and pebbles). The plants were free... from in-law and Nurleena. Here's the result. Lyana loves it. She feeds the fishes everyday.

Our water feature - where ten RM0.50 fishes live and play.

Then the carpet grass in the front garden. I called a landscape man to our house and he quoted me RM4.00 for a piece of 2'x1' carpet grass and from his calculation I would need 40 pieces. I would also need sand and some special fertilizer, he said. Then there's labour charges too. "Tapi untuk abang, saya caj RM300 aje lah." Thanks, but no thanks. I went to Sungai Buloh again and bought the carpet grasses at RM2.50 per piece and needed only 30. I planted them myself, without sand nor fertilizer. There's so healthy now I am considering to trim them. Total cost = RM75.

Lately, my Zephyr's front hub made some noises and wasn't running straight. I went to the big-bike workshop and they wanted RM400+ for parts and labour to repair the wheel hub bearings. Earlier, I had ordered a Zephyr's Haynes Repair Manual from the internet which came from Australia at RM180. It was the best thing I bought for my bike. Ever since, I have been making minor repairs like brake servicing and exhaust cleaning on my own. Back to the hub story... I went to Kawasaki Sunrock in Segambut and bought spare parts at (guess what?), RM89.10 only. It was 2 sets of bearings, 2 circlips, and 2 oil-seals. I made the repair myself.

My Zephyr and its hub being repaired in our porch.

"We need hot water la, abang." No problem - DIY. Cost = RM199 for the water heater at Tesco, RM15 for a metal hose, some wire and a plug head. I was quoted RM400, which include installation for the same setup.

The water heater in our bathroom.

Moving the Astro satelite dish would cost RM100 to dismantle from the Arcadia condo where we used to stay and another RM100 for installation in our Shah Alam house. My cost was RM30 for 10 metres of Astro cable and some wall clips to hold the wires to the wall. Dismantling and installation cost = RM0. I climbed the roofs at the condo and house myself and did the wiring.

Initially, I was forced into DIY because I just won't allow myself being 'slaughtered' and robbed in the middle of daylight for services I believe should be charged at much lower prices. Then I started to enjoy it. Now, I'm so enjoying it. It is very fulfilling to be able to do it myself - my own... my precious.

You should try DIY too. Maybe something easy first. And if you need advice on DIY, ask Azad the DIY addict. I also have a fat DIY book. :)

CPI 2004/05

Fyi, Statistics Department released Malaysia's Consumer Price Index (CPI), commonly used to depict inflation, for 2004/05 has increased 3.0% year-on-year.

This means that the value of money has depreciated 3%. In other words, your RM1 won't be able to buy the usual basic nasi lemak panas, in relative terms. Soon, a packet of basic nasi lemak will be sold at RM1.30.

Maybe its prudent to check if your 2006 annual salary increment exceeds 3%. If your salary increased just 3%, means you're just breaking-even. Because even with the increase in salary amount, goods are getting more expensive as well. Worst is if your increment is lower.

The all industry national average salary increase for 2006 is 5.57% based on Watson Wyatt's All Industry Compensation Survey, so if you get that or higher, you're alright. Which also mean, the next round of nasi lemak/koey teow will be on you. :)

bukit tinggi

It was quite a while since we went for a holiday - me and Yanti needed a vacation. The last one was when we went to Penang to send my bro-in-law, Azlan, to further his med-studies. After a night in Penang, we proceeded to Alor Star, UUM Sintok, Bukit Kayu Hitam and spent the night in Alor Star. That was mid-2005. Then, all travelling was on hold until Aneesa was was born and safe enough to travel.

This time, we decided on a short trip up Bukit Tinggi. It was only a 45 minute drive up from Shah Alam. We stayed at the Bukit Tinggi Golf & Country Club. Reasonably priced and so-so styled. I was expecting more, actually. Genting Highlands is many times better.

The 'attractions' were:
1. Rabbit park/farm. At least Lyana enjoyed it. There were other animals too like deer and donkeys (who were horny most of time... hahah).
2. Japanese Garden - that place was nice. I like the serene ambience. I enjoyed that.
3. Colmar Tropicale - had lunch there. Nothing to shout about. Hot! Even at 1500 metres above sea level.


At the resort.



Lyana loves the rabbit. They're so cute.


Night was abit chilly. But apart from the cheezy street-stage dancers, the place was dead.


Colmar Tropicale - French influenced design.

I think I'll need a really strong reason to go back up there.

thank you for visiting

First it was Fiqar, then Ibdil and latest Wan Edrin. Thank you for visiting us, your attendance and presence was highly appreciated.

Sorry Fiqar, we had no digital camera yet during your visit. :(

Guess who this is? (Hint: Randy from American Idol)















The girls (& mommy), main masak-masak.


Oh, those yummy tarts. Thank you, Wid. They're the tastiest home-made tarts ever!

fishy business

When you are on leave for a long time, things can get fishy - literally. Heheh..

After sending Yanti to work yesterday and sorting out my phone line (more on this), I passed by a monsoon drain in Shah Alam where I always see people either netting or fishing at the monsoon drain. Usually after work, I will pass this area and thought that there must be lots of fish here to attract so many anglers.

Since I was in no hurry to get home, I parked my car and went down the slope to see what these guys were up to. There were 3 people - 2 collecting fishes from the net, while the other one was throwing a jala - also catching lots of fishes. I struck some conversation with them and found out that they were fishing since 8am and after 2 hours they already have half a sack of fishes (roughly about 100 fishes and about 20kg of fishes. Wowsers! I didn't expect it to be that many.

Anyway, I then found out from one of the guys where to buy a jala and jaring in Klang town. After seeing them catch so many fishes, I was so hyped and excited to do the same so I immediately drove to Klang following the directions given. There, I bought myself the jala and jaring (both are fishing nets) at the cost of RM105. Investment well made.

Later in the afternoon, at about 4.45pm I went fishing. Within just 30 minutes, I managed to catch about 20 fishes, as you can see below. Half of the fishes in the blue pail was eaten during dinner (yumm!) while some were kept alive in my small water-feature. Unfortunately, the water-feature was too small for the fish which kept leaping out and would have been ant food if I hadn't put it back into the water, so I sent all 6 fishes to Ruslan's house for rearing in his large pond. I'm sure the fishes will enjoy the larger pond.















Now the 'fishy' business with TM... The letter below speaks for itself. Fyi, it was sent to The Star and New Straits Times on 26 Jan 2006 and we immediately got a call from TM the next day informing us that our line is ready for registration and provided a reference number. I went there yesterday to register our line. Today, the contractor have installed the phone line. Tomorrow the line would be activated. All in just 3 days.

But why TM? Why wait for me to complaint to the media to take action?


No phone service/line in central Shah Alam?

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to highlight that area Platinum 7/43 in Section 7, Shah Alam has not been installed with telephone lines by Telekom Malaysia (TM) until today. We have submitted several requests since October 2005 when we moved in, while our neighbors mentioned that they have requested for the telephone lines since June 2005 and nothing has been done until today. The excuses TM provided was unavailability of major phone lines connecting to the area. It was hard for me to understand how a multinational company harping on “opening possibilities” has yet to ‘open any possibility’ for us to have a phone line.

If TM can promote kampong areas having phone lines on television, how come houses in central Bandaraya Shah Alam do not have phone lines? What gives? Appreciate your/The Star’s help in taking this to TM because we have heard enough excuses from TM.

Thank you.

fukuls # 2

Last Tuesday, we had the whole hall to ourselves because it was still chinese new year holiday. It shows that we were the only Malays who have court bookings there.

Anyway, we had fun and broke lots of sweat. See ya next week for fukuls #3.

The champions with Nurleena superimposed.