Raya 2014 preparation

None.

No baju raya.

No kuih raya.

No langsir raya.

No sarung kusyen raya.

Nothing for the house.

Yet.

Carpets are all in carpet washing shop. Dont know when it will be ready.

Microwave still at the repair shop. How are we going to reheat the Raya meal for guests?

Tiles at the kitchen are falling down. I do care but I have no time to deal with that.

We took out kitchen cabinet doors - it was eaten by termites - and everything is left exposed. I didnt know when I could sew a tiny curtain to hide the clutter in that area.

The house is currently a shipwreck. Having four active kids in the house, it is impossible for ONE particular thing to be left untouched. Everything migrates. Cushions, towels, pillows, toys, books, even our sofa moves. Putting a vase on the table is impossible. Nazmi will always end up ON the table with flowers IN his mouth.

Last weekend, I manage to clean up our porch. Before, it was quite hard because we have pest infestation issue. There used to be a lot of cock******s, rats and lizards everywhere but after the pest control work, they are gone. I can clean the whole porch without having to run or scream. I am a Katsaridaphobic. 

BUT

My husband manage to do some wiring work for lampu raya. I want lampu raya since forever. 

He also bought a new AC unit for our bedroom. And install another unit at our living room. 

He also finished installed our tiny green wall frame at our grill. I need to do some gardening work after this.

He has also arranged for our neighbour, Aril to re-paint our old gate. We hope it will look nicer in black.Thank you for that.

I have installed a black curtain at the living room but he requested for the old one because he prefers the stripes. "Striped curtain brings all components of the living room together", he said. Wow. I didnt know he is that poetic.

IMO 2014 - Yay!

What is IMO? (here)
My brother went to South Africa (here)

And they have won.

(Click image to enlarge)

Wow this is a quick and easy entry. Two links and one printscreen.
ExxonMobil Malaysia must be very proud!

My Potted Garden

While waiting for buka puasa, Nazran plant ginger and some potatoes. The Green Ambassador in action. 

Those are the latest addition to my existing potted garden. I have both edible and decorative plants. 

For edible plants I have oregano, (dying) basil, (dying) daun sup, onion, rosemary, halia bara, pandanus, tongkat ali, sabung nyawa, limau purut, cili padi bulat and turmeric. Oh yes, ginger and potato too!

Ramadhan at my office

Ramadhan at my office is the best month of the year.

Earlier this month (Ramadhan), we have Ihya Ramadhan event. There were tazkirah, nasyid performance, tadarus with the Hon Minister and Zuhur congregational prayer.

Everyone received a box of dates and Islamic books.

I joined tadarus AlQuran ever year with the same group. We have another 17 pages to go! yay!

Then there was Iftar. I went there with the whole family. TokPa sat at our table and had a chat with my family.

My kids perform full tarawikh that night and they received duit raya from TokPa. We bring home a plenty of moreh's food. See that three small kids with brown baju melayu below? That's them. I didnt join them because I was running around chasing baby Nazmi.

Today, there were Kulliyyah Ramadhan on Halalan Toyyiban (food) and distribution of bubur lambuk and gulai kawah by TokPa. 

I also received a box of dates from UAE's Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, as last year. Today's rezeki. Bubur lambuk, gulai kawah and dates. Alhamdulillah.

Every night throughout Ramadhan, my office prepared iftar for those who stayed back (officers, maintenance office, guards, police officers). 

(still waiting a photo from my friend).

It is a very fulfilling month. I love Ramadhan at my office.

Alhamdulillah.

1M4U 2014 : The preparation

I am the project leader for the Greening of the Urbanscape for 1M4U held in June. Click here for the previous post. For kids, we have organised a Green Ambassador programme. Gonna talk about that in separate post.

Banner / bunting design

I worked closely with the graphic designer on the banner and bunting designs. Honestly I want to do it myself but I didnt have the time. I am a micromanager and I am trying my best to change slowly. I ran here and there to get the approval for the designs and once I have obtained the approval, I ran to the printing shop to get it printed. It took 24 hours to complete.

Button badges

I designed a button badge for the kids, to make them PROUD to be our Green Ambassador. I emailed design to my friend, Tengku Azam, who has a printing company and the badges completed the next morning. I picked them up at 9pm. 

Prizes

On weekend prior to the event, me and my committee went out separately to buy some items for our programme. I am in-charge for prizes for Green Ambassador's drawing and colouring competitions. I bought educational Illusion Science sets and story books for main prize winners and all participants will receive a magic colour sets.

Gardening sets

My committee, Eylia went to IKEA to buy the sets. There was a bit of miscommunication on the figure and she agreed to turned back. I owed her big time. We have chosen the CUTEST gardening set for the Green Ambassadors! I WANT ONE!!

We packed the gardening set together with latex gloves and face towel for each kids. 

Souvenirs

We gave a token of appreciation to other agencies. My friend have extra goodie bags for kids from her previous charity event and she decided to distribute them during this event. Thank you.

Competition areas

I printed labels for both competitions. It was held at my office's lobby. There were two sofa sets at the lobby but the handsome logistic team managed to transform the area overnight.

The team worked hard to prepare the tools and three event areas for my program. Thank you! I went back at 10pm on the night before the event to make sure everything is in place for tomorrow :)

Boxes

I came extra early on THE day with 6 kids. They helped me to bring down 20 empty boxes and prepare the venue for herb planting programme for Green Ambassadors. Great job!

I am grateful for all contribution and assistance I received from everybody to make this event a success. Alhamdulillah.

Nazmi and books

We are trying to cultivate reading habit in the young minds. We bought them books, read together, make the Big Bad Wolf a very special event for the whole family and we put books everywhere in the house. Recently, I put a plenty of children and puzzle books in our car, in the slot at the car door to be exact.

Whenever they enter the car, it become automatic that they will reach for the book first. I can see Nazmi started to love books, which is a very good sign.

Tak kisahlah terbalik pun.

Biological clock

As we are trying hard to adjust our biological clock during this Ramadhan, baby Nazmi's biological clock also went haywire.

This is him, arranging books at nearly 2 am. He just woke up and just finished running around the whole house. I am a sleep deprived mom.

My brother in The Star

Taken from:

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Education/2014/06/22/Boost-for-maths-and-science/

Boost for maths and science

Published: Sunday June 22, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM 
Updated: Sunday June 22, 2014 MYT 8:02:12 AM

Thumbs up for maths: Idris (fifth from left) together with Prof Sharifah Hapsah, See and Prof Noor Azlan (third, fourth and sixth from left respectively), and some of the Olympiad participants (front row).

MALAYSIAN students will be able to improve and enhance their study and understanding of mathematics and science, thanks to ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc (ExxonMobil Malaysia), which has contributed RM444,500 towards the promotion of both the subjects.

The company presented RM334,500 to the Academy of Sciences Malaysia in support of the National Science Challenge, while RM110,000 was given to Pusat Permata Pintar Negara, which in turn would use the proceeds for the Malaysian contingent which is competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

“As a technology-based company, we believe that science, technology, engineering and mathematics form the cornerstone of any country’s socio-economic progress,” said ExxonMobil chairman and president See Kok Yew at the cheque presentation held recently at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

“Attracting young people to the study of mathematics and science is thus critical in ensuring that Malaysia’s growing technological needs can be met.”

Also present at the ceremony were Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, UKM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, ASM president Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali and Projek Permata Negara adviser Prof Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin.

In his speech, Idris commended ExxonMobil Malaysia for its exemplary corporate social responsibility in support of Malaysia’s talent development efforts.

“It is with such initiatives that the private sector can help the Government to achieve its 60:40 targeted ratio in the Technical Science and Literature Policy by 2020.”

This year the challenge saw the participation of 2,891 teams from 363 schools nationwide. The semi finals will be held in August at Universiti Putra Malaysia, while the finals is to be held in October.

The team that comes out tops will join the academy’s delegation on a study visit to Stockholm and witness the prestigious Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in December.

Meanwhile, the Olympiad will be held in Cape Town, South Africa.

Each country is represented by six contestants and participants have to solve three mathematical problems within four and a half hours in each of the two days of competition.

From 12,000 participants, Anzo Teh Zhao Yang, Justin Lim Kai Ze, Khong Yi Kye, Shazryl Shafyz Zulrushdi, Tan Kin Aun and Yeoh Zi Song were chosen to make up the Malaysian contingent for this year.

Along with deputy team leader Irwan Iqbal Ihsanuddin, team leader Mohd Suhaimi Ramly* has been training the boys for the past year.

“We’ve held a series of training camps. And we have weekly meetings where they do the mock tests.

“They’re already good at mathematics so the purpose of training is to sharpen their problem-solving abilities in time for the competition,” said Mohd Suhaimi.

*(he is the rightmost person in the photo. the happiest guy)

Huge Mind Map Assignment 01 : THE Assignment

One fine day, I received an assignment from Alvin Ung.

Assignment to be a visual architect. A mind mapper to be exact.

 It was the most intimidating assignment I ever received in my life. I think.

Capture a mind map?
Big piece of paper?
Drawing some visuals?
Visual fun?
I was hyperventilated for 2 weeks. I emailed Alvin at 3.00am for a couple of days just to tell him I cant sleep thinking about of this assignment. lol.

Wanna know what happened next? 
STAY TUNE!

New project : Ramadhan Charity Box

 

I just finished distributing charity boxes to two blocks of building.

I feels good.

Sharp fish