Today is..

..my birthday.

Nabil, the great asssistant

My parent in law has a satay restaurant in Parit Raja, Johor.

During our last balik kampung trip, we had our breakfast at the restaurant. Nabil went early with my parent to set up everything, around 6.30am.

When we arrived at 10.30am, we was pretty exhausted. He said he has helped Tok Umi (my MIL) to take order (photo below) and clear the table. GOOD JOB, NABIL!

One must have a high level of confidence to do what he did there. I am impressed by his social skill at this age.

Pop Corn Magic

My husband bought me this.

Just put in a handful of kernel in the silicone container, pop it in the microwave for two minutes and your popcorn is ready. You could coat it in any flavour you like.

1. Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup; oil-popped popcorn has only 55 calories per cup. When lightly buttered, popcorn contains about 133 calories per cup. Popcorn is a whole grain, making it a good-for-you food. Popcorn contains fiber, providing roughage the body needs in the daily diet (Source : here)

There. So you wont feel guilty about eating.

Door-to-door service

Today, my office library has visited my division for their Door-to-Door Service (read, a group of librarians push a trolley full of books and you can borrow any four books for two weeks). I LOVE THEIR VISIT! I took the opportunity to return the magazine I borrowed earlier (how cool is that? - they sent the magazine to you and they collect it from you when your are done reading it). If that does not make the laziest person to read at least one book in one year, I dont know what else does.

The interesting part of this service is the librarians not only bring books from our library, they are bringing books from the National Library's collection too!

I borrowed two books from the National Library. 

Keep it up library!

Good neighbour

If you have been reading this blog, you know I have good neighbours. I know they will be there whenever I needed them, no matter how awkward my request is. This was last week:

Never in my life I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE THE C**KR***H in a plastic container. Nabil was so happy to get that thing for his science experiment the next day, he smiled in his sleep.

Magazine delivery

My office library will notify everybody via email on the latest magazine available in the library. We just have to pick up the phone, call them and the magazine of your choice will be delivered to your room within five minutes. I just got these delivered to me. Excellent service!

I missed this issue of The Economist earlier because I was away attending Research Methodology course for two weeks.

Work-life balance.

Nabil's English Project - My Picture Dictionary

Watercolour pencil and thick black outline make his work looks neat.

Huge Mind Map Assignment 04 : The Conclusion

I was truly grateful to be chosen to perform this task. It was a quantum leap for me. From mindmapping / sketchnoting on A5 to visualised the whole discussion of the top management, on huge papers, for TWO DAYS. I thanked  Alvin Ung, the author of Barefoot Leadership, who has hand-picked me for this task =)

Yes, I know, no blue box on my face

Allah knows how panic I was a week before the event. I didnt know what to anticipate. 

But I did it. Right until today I cant believe I've nailed it! I need to improve on the colour scheme, layout, font thickness and everything. I am still learning. 

This was during the wrap up session. Mr. Ung presented every map to the management, to recap what they have been discussing and debating from the first day and night until the end of day two, and to see whether they have achieved the objectives of the retreat, by looking at the content of these mind maps.

Some of the maps are ok. Some not even up to my standards, but considering the time given, the intensity of the discussions and the size of the paper, I am quite happy with the outcome. 

Huge Mind Map Assignment 03 : The Tools

The most crucial tools for me for this assignment are Kurecolors and a big fat black marker. Grey Kurecolor is important for shading purposes.

My tools. Kurecolors are mine. The rest are provided by the organiser. 

Huge Mind Map Assignment 02 : The Artist Platform

I finally posted this two-year-old draft because I have promised my English teacher today that i will show her the huge mind map. Today is the last day I see her and my handphone was running out of battery. 

First, read about the Huge Mind Map Assignment 01 (here).

Huge mind map assignment - sounds interesting, yes? I was invited to be the mind mapper / sketch noter for the top management meeting in Malacca. The instruction given was simple. Mindmap the whole thing. 

And "the whole thing" is actually a long list of discussions and debates on international trade, import, export, GNI, GDP, investment, local industries, SMEs and the list goes on.

This is the spot where I supposed to work. I called it The Artist Platform. It is located in front of the hall. 

This is the view from the Platform. Well, that was during group presentation. Before, the boards were not there. I need to see their faces/mouths in order to capture everything they said. Mindmapping is about capturing the gist ON THE SPOT.

This is the (self-proclaimed) artist at work. In her most decent position. I was writing, colouring and drawing like mad because I need to stick the paper onto the wall, once the last person finished his last word. They will go through the map after the discussion. 

The initial plan was for me to draw directly on the paper pinned to a panel but the panel is quite high and I am short +_+. So the markers slanted down a bit and no ink came out after a few strokes. So, I opted for a platform.

The platform comes with the gravity. 

Sweet revenge: food

I was feeling under the weather for almost two weeks. 

I didnt do much house chores during that period. My neighbour came and helped me to fold three baskets full of clothes and after that she hanged another basket of newly-washed clothes. What would I do without you, Maton :)

Good neighbour is hard to get.

No, that's not what this entry is all about.

(Well, I have this tendency to talk about something else first whenever I blog about food)

After two week having lunch/dinner at my parent's because I was not feeling well, last weekend, I woke up and the first thing I did after Subuh prayer was mixing pizza dough. Nazran helped me to bake pizzas. This is the second one. The first one finished in a minute. I spread tomato puree with Herbes de Provence, capsicum, tomato, chicken bits marinated in barbecue sauce and cheddar cheese.

Then we had what Kelantanese called colek.

My mom went to the market and bought us young mangoes. 

My version of colek (fruit dip) is the mixture of soy sauce, coarse sugar, shrimp paste and grounded bird's eye chili. You'll taste sweet, sour, salty and hotness from the chili in every bite. 

At night, I made fruit cocktail with mango pudding. No photo.

MRM's Design Competition 2014 and 2015

I have told you that I am a registered designer with Malaysia Design Council or Majlis Rekabentuk Malaysia (MRM) (here).

Last month, my Secretary General, the Board Member of MRM was invited to the Prize Giving Ceremony for Design Competition 2014 and the Launching of Design Competition for 2015. She couldnt attend so I have attended on her behalf. 

The Hon Deputy Minister of MOSTI addressed the crowd and oh boy! doesnt he the funniest politician you have ever met! He is so humble, down to earth and extremely FUNNY! 

Actually I have the plan to participate in 2014's competition. I have drafted the entry in India and plan for my husband to submit it on my behalf but I was quite busy in India and I couldnt finished it on time. Not my rezeki, it is okay. After the prize giving ceremony, the Deputy Minister launched the new design competition for 2015. You can get the details here. 

Then, we were invited to visit the showcase by the winners. I was very surprised to see the level of execution by the students when it comes to their prototypes. Some of the prototypes looks like it was manufactured in a factory! (well, most of industrial design schools has workshop with all these machines and special cutters for prototyping purposes, fyi).

One of the winners is my junior in KAED (below, right). I snapped his photo and sent it to a few lecturers in KAED, including the Dean himself, who happened to be my active WhatsApp companion. You make us proud, brother!

Hard to sleep at night?

My brother introduced me to MIT OpenCourseWare a few years back. I found it very useful. I could listen to lecture (audio / video) on any subject, be it economy, art, architecture, physics. Anything. 

My lullaby every night.

Please donate if you found it useful :)