Pasir Berdengung July 4, 2009

Another trip to the singing dune with the Malaysian lot, most of whom I don’t even know since this trip was organized by the association. This is our third time here. The tune of the dune or rather the ‘roar’ is supposed to be heard better in the summer when the moisture level in the sand is the least. Mind you, P.Ramlee was one wise man when he quoted ‘negara pasir berdengung’ and now we know why it’s called as such.

The average weather these days is in the high 40’s. The unbearable heat of the summer is definitely here and it’s here to stay for at least 3 more months. Alhamdulillah, our picnic spot by the curvy dunes was somewhat shaded from the glaring sunlight. The haze though unhealthy, managed to filter some of that heat after all. Kids and newcomers to Doha had fun sliding down the dunes and feeling the vibration of the pasir berdengung while one preggy mummy sweated breathlessly. After Maghrib, we had our mini BBQ. I was allocated with lamb this time and also brought some spaghetti and my special kuih lapis. Haha, since when did kuih lapis become my specialty??  Somehow this pregnancy has brought the kuih-tradisional-crave to me and walla, suddenly kuih lapis, lepat pisang, buah melaka & apam have become regulars in my household!

I am only halfway through and already so exhausted by any sort of outdoor activities. And 5 kgs up too! To top it off, the office called several times today while I was taking my beauty nap, asking to submit some slides required for tomorrow’s business planning workshop within an hour. Like I got nothing better to do? I know I shouldn’t be complaining as this hardly happens in Qatar. Lain lah kalau kat KL where siang malam, weekdays or weekends, work, work, work! But hey, this is Qatar isn’t it, nobody works on weekends I’m telling ya!

Ikhwan’s Colourful Party June 20, 2009

Ikhwan’s 5th birthday fell on 11th June 2009. Mummy was too tired to host a party at home this time around, so we finally decided to have the party at Ray’s Reef, a kiddies playplace. Kids had so much fun on the bumper car, bouncy castle, painting and other games & rides. But the happiest kid was of course the birthday boy who was counting days since the last two weeks. We couldn’t get the place booked last week, in fact the place was booked all weekends in June when we went to enquire. Luckily someone else cancelled her booking and we managed to get a slot.

Kids played party games including passing the parcel, musical chair and collecting the straws. Highlight of the day, the cake cutting, was especially splendid as they provided a sparkly candle – somewhat like a small firework on the cake! This was followed by the party poppers which popped out colourful confetti. Very festive indeed.

Happy Birthday Ikhwan! I know you had a great time at the party! (err.. tapi bukan tiap2 tahun boleh buat kat tempat camni tau..)

Entrepreneur Wannabe June 17, 2009

Last weekend, a ‘Pasar Malam’ was jointly organized by the local Malaysian association and the Malaysian embassy. Held at the embassy premise, visitors to the pasar malam had the opportunity to buy lots of Malaysian goodies while ensuring that they officially register with the embassy through the special embassy counter set up in conjunction with this event.

Tables were ‘rented’ out to sellers ala-ala tapak pasar malam. Our friend Zalman booked a table with the plan to sell kuih-muih tradisional. So I decided to tumpang one type of kuih at his table just for fun. Somehow at the last minute we got more ambitious and decidec to JV on something bigger. After much brainstorming, we settled on mee rebus, and got another friend, Umi, to also join in on the kuih-muih.

The whole of Friday morning, we gathered at my friend’s house to prepare the condiments and pack our food together. Being the amateurs that we are, and with the objective of suka-suka rather than profit making, we were very conservative in the quantity. In case lah tak laku. What we didn’t know was that the event had found its way to all the major newspapers in Qatar, hence the promotion was huge. The crowd flocked the stalls as early as 5pm while the sellers were sternly warned not to begin any transactions till 6.30pm. But how could we the humble sellers turn away our obviously interested customers? Needless to say, our goodies were sold out in less than an hour and left many with disappointment! The first half hour was simply hectic. The four entrepreneurs of the day - me, Zalman, Ima & Umi tak menang tangan melayan customers. It was really exhausting, my feet and body ached all over but the satisfaction of selling out our food was gratifying!

Like I said earlier, we did it for fun and boy, was it fun! Now we, along with our other friends are dreaming of what we will sell at the next event and have bigger ambitions of getting 3-4 tables on a major JV. Everyone is hoping that the pasar malam will be regular event seeing its major success but then again, people may get bored if it’s too frequent. So we wait and see what’s next.

Costume Day June 11, 2009

Dressing up in fancy costumes is one of the things that kids just love doing. As it is, pretending to be different characters is what they do everyday anyway!

Today is Book Day at DMBS – a day where kids are required to come to school dressed in their favourite book character. Kids were up bright and early, excited punya pasal. Bukan setakat kids yang excited, Mummy also had fun dressing them up. Ikhwan decided on his favorite superhero – the Power Rangers of course (though he only watches them on TV and DVD and had never read a single book about it). Myisha the girlie girl could not decide to go for either princess or fairy but finally decided on fairy. I was told her whole gang was made up of princesses and fairies. Dina was the toughest of them all – a 10 year old is no doubt no longer interested in fairytales but more into teenage sort of stories. She is actually the bookworm in the family, forever reading her fave author Jacqueline Wilson. Nak dress up as Hannah Montana takde blonde wig pulak. After much deliberation, I finally suggested for her to go as a ‘teacher’. Co-incidentally, she has a lot of Roald Dahl’s collections including Matilda the genius girl raised and trained by her teacher Miss Honey. Complete with glasses and a scarf around her neck, and high heels too, she looked oh so grown up!

Check out their pic posing in their outfits

The privileged few May 22, 2009

The privileges of a local in our country and a local in this country are worlds apart. This year, as the financial crisis sweeps the globe, my company has decided to freeze recruitment, promotion and training – for the foreigners that is. As for the locals, they can virtually get anything they demand for, at a click of a finger.

So for the past few months I have had the opportunity to interview lots of locals. Sad to say, I have had to lower my standard of expectations while I struggled to make my selection. More often than not, they hardly come close to my criteria, I end up leaving the big boss to make his selection. Every company here has a target for localization i.e. percentage of local employees. So desperate are we that it is the potential employee that holds the bargaining power rather than the employer. The candidate can cherry pick which employer best suits his/her needs while the employers compete and try to sell themselves in order for the employess to select them! Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

The remuneration of a graduate entrant will make us Malaysians gape in horror. A package in the range of 20-25k riyals is typical for an entrant with no experience whatsoever so long as they have a degree and the requisite passport. Imagine that, with a house and car naturally provided for by their rich daddies, this amount is basically for shopping, shopping and more shopping. And yet they complain endlessly that they are underpaid..

Recently we had one such local joined our department. A fresh grad she is, but the way she ordered people around her on her first day at work including her impatient demands of a laptop and a Blackberry quickly became the talk of the department. By the first week, everybody in the office knew about her family connections and surprise, surprise, she’s already going on an overseas business trip within one month of joining.

As a foreigner working in this country, we expats must always know where we stand. We can be here today, and elsewhere another day. Incidents such as the above are their way of life. So closing an eye and moving on is what we do. Janji kita tak menyusahkan sesiapa and do what is expected of us. If tomorrow the lady in the above story suddenly becomes my boss, I have no choice but to accept. This quirky little things add spice to life as an expat.

12 weeks and counting May 19, 2009

I guess the time has finally come for me to share the good news with all my friends – a new addition to my family in 6 months’ time! Today, I enter into my 12th week of pregnancy – estimated due date 30th November 2009.

I found out about my pregnancy 2 days before leaving for my Umrah trip. I first did the home test, followed by a confirmation at the doctor’s. I was 5 weeks preggy then, so the whole road trip to Saudi left me drained out of energy, sprinkled with nausea and fatigue throughout the journey. The experience this time around is rather challenging as I feel tired all the time, with no mood to work, no mood to dress up or put on make-up, no mood to even shop! I have no appetite to eat as everything seemed tasteless or bitter. Perhaps I’ve forgotten how it feels since it’s been too long since my last pregnancy or age is simply catching up with me!

The doctor’s visit here in Doha is another experience worth sharing. Unlike in Malaysia where you visit a dedicated gynae of your choice, who examines you monthly and have all the facilities in her clinic, over here there is no such thing. On the outlook, the Al-Ahli Hospital looks as canggih as Ampang Puteri, but the same cannot be said with the facilities nor the service. The ultrasound is done at the radiology lab - by a sonographer mind you, not a gynae. I had my first ultrasound at about 9 weeks, everything was normal Alhamdulillah, but the male Indian sonographer wasn’t what I expected. Such a rich country Qatar is, and no ultrasound facility in the gynae’s clinic? The ultrasound furthermore, isn’t done at every visit like in Malaysia. I had to be put in queue for 4 weeks to get an appointment. Apart from that, the other routine blood and urine tests are the same though I quietly wished for a Filipino nurse over Indian or Egyptian ones every time, due to the rough way the latter is known when handling patients. Stories of blood splurting out during simple blood test are enough to frighten this scaredy old mummy.

Kids are excited to find out that mummy is having a baby especially Myisha who has been having this secret wish all along. Dina the smart one has started searching over this subject over the web and questions of amniotic fluid has since arose. Gosh, how I dread the time when the ‘birds & the bees’ story will come into play. When I was a child, my parents never touched this subject and left it entirely to the school teachers. But then again, in those days we never had the wonderful world of www nor the science and discovery channel to help educate us.

All business travels are off limits for the next 6 months. First on the list of cancellation is the trip to Washington DC end of the month. But trip back to Malaysia for Raya is still ON. Can’t wait for this trip as it’s been ages since we last went back and lil sis will be having the engagement-of-the-year a week after Raya.

Many have asked me if I have started craving. Truth is, am not sure about this whole craving thingy. In my past pregnancies, I don’t recall having such urge for certain food, or perhaps it wasn’t recognized by me, resulting in baby Dina drooling for most of her first year – kata orang tua2 sebab tak dapat makan apa yang diidamkan! Wallahualam. But one thing for sure, the appetite for mangga muda and the likes of it is definitely there. And ohh, susahnya nak cari kat sini, I even had to make do with green appples cicah kicap & cili.

Boy or girl does not matter to me, as long as the baby is healthy and cukup sifatnya. Hopefully things will get better as I enter into the second trimester. I desperately need to put on weight! Pray for me and my baby’s health, my friends.

Happy 11th Anniversary April 25, 2009

Happy Anniversary! Totally love my anniversary prezzy. Wanna know what it is? Hmm tak yah lah nak announce kat sini.

Thank you dear, for the wonderful gift. But more importantly, I thank you for the 11 beautiful years you have shared with me. 

For all those times you stood by me
For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought to my life
For all the wrong that you made right
For every dream you made come true
For all the love I found in you
I’ll be forever thankful baby
You’re the one who held me up
Never let me fall
You’re the one who saw me through through it all

You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn’t speak
You were my eyes when I couldn’t see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn’t reach
You gave me faith ‘coz you believed
I’m everything I am
Because you loved me

Umrah Road Journey April 17, 2009

    

Syukur Alhamdulillah, kami sekeluarga telah selamat kembali dari mengerjakan ibadah Umrah. Truly an indescribable experience to say the least.

The road journey from Doha-Madinah-Mekkah began on Thursday 2nd April 2009 after Asr prayers. Convoy 10 biji kereta jemaah dari Qatar berkumpul di depan Hyatt Plaza and began to hit the road on a 20-odd hour journey. The journey between our start point till border point took less than an hour but the clearance at the Qatar-Saudi border took longer than expected, hence we decided to stop for prayers and dinner immediately after the border as the night crawls in on us. Dinner was potluck picnic style by the roadside, lit by our camping torches. The journey continued from border to Hofuf and straight on passing Riyadh heading on to Madinah amidst the drizzling rain and cool morning chill. Hubby was struggling to stay awake throughout the long drive and managed to pull through with only petrol stops and an hour nap after Subuh prayers. It was Friday afternoon by the time we reached Madinah. After grabbing our late lunch and a short rest, we headed to Masjid Nabawi.

Our ground package in Madinah and Mekkah was arranged by a Malaysian travel agent. This included hotels, meals and ziarah. Therefore, both hotels in Madinah and Mekkah served Malaysian food for our rombongan. Breakfast ranged from nasi lemak, meehoon goreng, mee goreng and so on. Lunch and dinner were made up of 2 dishes per meal ranging from tomyam, sup tulang, masak lemak, ikan sambal, kurma kambing, kari ayam and so on. Free flow of cold and hot drinks too. Both hotels though small in size, were reasonably clean and most importantly, strategically located across the street from Masjid Nabawi in Madinah and Masjidil Haram in Mekkah respectively.     

We spent two nites in Madinah and managed to slot in visits to the Masjid Quba, Jabal Uhud, perkampungan Yahudi, Bukit Terbakar, Bukit Magnet and Quran printing factory. Bukit Magnet was rather interesting as our bus glided on the road at top speed on free gear, energized by the magnetic pull. On Sunday afternoon, our group made our way from Madinah to Mekkah, with a stop bermiqat di Bir Ali. There are several miqat points surrounding Mekkah – these are the points where one starts to berihram and berniat umrah prior to entering the Tanah Haram.

As we entered into Tanah Haram, a calm yet nervous feeling began to surround me. The traffic in Mekkah was chaotic, we had to drive really fast while cars from left, right and back tried to ‘cucuk’ their way thru. As we reached our hotel, we had to quickly unload our baggages while the car had to be parked by Hubby almost a kilometre away. It was about 11pm when we reached the hotel but we decided to immediately join another Malaysian group from the same travel agent that was about to leave for Umrah, led by one of the Ustaz. The kids were all geared up after their nap in the car so off we went at about midnite, to perform our first Umrah. An overwhelming feeling enveloped us as we took in our first view of the Kaabah. Alhamdulillah, we managed to complete everything in less than 3 hours.

During the next few days, we managed to perform Umrah a couple more times. The Ziarah provided by the travel agent was quite comprehensive. We managed to visit Jabal Thur, Jabal Nur, Jabal Rahmah, Padang Arafat, Mina, Muzdalifah, Muzium Kaabah, Muzium Purba, Ladang Tenusu Unta, and few other interesting places. Also a tour of Jeddah city including Makam Siti Hawa and Masjid Al Rahmah also known as Masjid Terapung which had a fantastic view of Laut Merah. As we went by each place, our tour guide ustaz briefed us the history and story behind each place. Very enriching and heart-touching indeed.  

On Friday afternoon, after spending 5 nites in Mekkah, we left back for Doha after performing tawaf wida after solat Jumaat. The journey to Riyadh took a whole nite through. As we reached Riyadh during Subuh time, we decided to stop over in Riyadh city for breakfast. Thic city is unexpectedly jam packed with cars at the wee hours of the morning. We made a breakfast stop at Ikea – reminds me of the unplanned stop at Ikea Abu Dhabi over a year ago – similar in a sense that we had spent the whole night in our car and arrived Ikea in an ‘unshowered state’…

Ikhwan finally got his hair cut in Mekkah, well, not entirely bald, but a very close #3 on the shaving machine. Hubby and his friends also shaved their hair off. It is an amazing experience to meet people from all walks of life from all over the globe brought together by a common purpose. We are thankful and blessed for the opportunity to perform our Umrah. I pray that our ibadah diterima Allah swt and hope to step foot in Tanah Suci again someday..

13 wonderful days April 1, 2009

Mum & Dad have left back to KL last nite, ending the 13 wonderful days spent in Doha. The house suddenly feels so quiet. No more Mum’s yummy dishes for dinner and the mandatory tea-time. No more chilling in the guest room doing nothing but listen to their juicy gossips from home. Every single day of the last 13 days has been filled with activities ranging from shopping, sightseeing, picnic outing and surprise, surprise – sand duning!

On their first weekend here, we drove out to Inland Sea to give them a taste of the desert. I had warned Hubby again and again to take the easiest route so as not to shock the parents. But to my surprise, the ride was smooth and ‘pretty calm’ apart from the normal one or two nervous slopes. In fact, I think they actually enjoyed it!

The other days of the week were spent mall hopping – City Centre, Villagio, Hyatt Plaza and Landmark – all the major malls were covered. Souq Waqif, Souq Dira and Souq Asery were a must. Dad seems to be into cufflinks these days while Mum couldn’t get enough of abayas. I even discovered shops which I would not have gone to if they weren’t around.

Kids were enjoying the quality time with their Tokmi and Tokdi while I was busy savouring Mum’s cooking. She made her specialty acar telur to bring to Leo & Nanie’s kenduri doa selamat event last weekend. I managed to scribble the recipe this time around and will definitely try it soon. And on one Saturday morning, lempeng with home made kuah dal –  aahh, the simplest dish can be the most rewarding. Also my late grandma’s favorite ‘bistik daging’ dish on one of the days. Uwaaaa!! Memang betul kata orang, air tangan mak sendiri memang tiada tandingan.

The only disappointment was the trip to Dubai which did not take place due to unforeseen circumstances. Mum was sooo looking forward to see the much hyped shopping haven. Tickets purchased. Hotel booked. Car reserved. But if it’s not meant to be, then it isn’t. Hopefully next time, they will have another chance to come here again.

Antara Doha dan Jakarta March 21, 2009

Jakarta is just as ‘macet’ as I remember it and the two-day forum was as packed as I had expected it to be. But having the forum in Jakarta was a nice change of environment. Me and my colleagues from the MENA countries were treated with 1st class treatment by our host in typical Asian style hospitality. We were chauffeur driven from day to night, served with authentic Indonesian cuisines and believe it or not, followed around by our ’in-house papparazi’ everywhere we went.       

The forum was initially planned in Bali but had to be changed to our host’s office in Jakarta due to Bali having a ‘vacation flavour’. The last thing we want is to be accused of having a blast in a resort while we actually work our ass off. Anyways, it didn’t really matter much to me, in fact I actually prefer Jakarta to Bali, at least I get to see my nieces and nephew that I missed so very dearly. It was a rather brief ‘hi & bye’ as they left for school while I left for work early in the morning and they were asleep by the time I got home. I also managed to catch up with an old colleague / friend that I have been keeping in touch with, even after I left my old company. I absolutely loved the food in Indonesia and savoured every drop from mouth watering kuih-muih to delicious dishes and did I mention hard-to-resist durian? Fuhh, best giler! I also brought back to Doha 2 boxes of kek lapis and 2 boxes of bika ambon. I didn’t realize how heavy the cakes were but definitely well worth carrying along what with the stopover in Singapore with the 4 boxes in tow…