A pile of books

Saw this pile on my office desk this morning...

My favourite non-fiction writer.

Gahhhh!! Went into ecstasy mode sekejap hahahah. I felt a bit sad actually parting with Blink, such a pleasant reading experience. Soo, having this pile of Malcolm Gladwell's book...over-dosed laaa.
Thanks to an office mate, who's lending his books to me.
Nak setat yang mana satu ni...?
And it's Friday...cloud nine..

A surprising page turner -BLINK-

This is the first time ever, I read a non-fiction book and found it sooo engrossing! Quiet a number of my colleagues have read this book and even read this writer's other books. Kita baru nak baca akakaka..

It says that we have 2 minds actually - unconscious and conscious. It also teaches to trust your snap judgement and when to use it properly.
I cannot help thinking about my two seniors and their frequent clash of opinions. No wonder lah, one is keen to use unconscious judgement and the other being very organized, prefer to present her case using conscious judgement.
Why not marry both minds, takyah gaduh2, make them sekepala eh?

Tanya Sampai Puas Hati...

I like this ayat which I found sometime ago, sempena kes Wardina mempersoal isi kuliah Ustaz Don Daniyal.

Surah Al Baqarah:260

“Dan (ingatlah) ketika Nabi Ibrahim (merayu dengan) berkata: “Wahai Tuhanku! Perlihatkanlah kepadaku bagaimana Engkau menghidupkan makhluk-mahkluk yang mati?” Allah berfirman: “Adakah engkau belum percaya (kepada kekuasaanKu)?” Nabi Ibrahim menjawab: “Bahkan (aku percaya dan yaqin), akan tetapi (aku memohon yang demikian ialah) supaya tenteram hatiku (yang sangat-sangat ingin menyaksikannya).”

So, apa lagi...kalau musykil, mintak pencerahan sampai tenteram hati. Sedangkan seorang nabi pun boleh mintak pencerahan daripada Allah. Kita2 insan yang nipis iman dan kelabu asap banyak benda ni, kena la lagi gigih mintak pencerahan kan.

Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival

I was searching the net on scholarship offers for post-graduate program, when the search results directed me to Yayasan Sime Darby site. Benda lain pulak yang caught my attention. Kakakaka
Yep, Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival. To be held on 13-14th September at KL Performance Art Center's building and ground. Soooo activities - dance, film, theatre, music, traditional, contemporary. Rambang jugak la mata. Yasmin Ahmad's movies included - Sepet, Gubra, Muallaf.
With so many activities, I decided to settle on one which really stood out (in my eyes) coz Sheila Majid & Zainal will be performing...*squeal!!* All admissions are free actually but for a ticketed shows, a person can only collect personally 1 ticket, on first come first serve basis. Thankfully, there was a limited online giveaway ie 2 tix per person which I signed up and dapat yoooUU *squeal!*
During lunch hour break today, I drove to KLPAC nervously takut sesat barat. Nasib baik ada Waze.

What a nice place this KLPAC. Especially the building!
'The impressive KLpac building has in fact a long history. The railway warehouse was in Sentul Park, a piece of land which came under YTL ownership with the acquisition of another company. The remodel features glass windows along the front of the building, as well as a walkway leading up to the building. In the 1800s, the building was a wood-crafting workshop and sawmill. In 1906, it became part of Sentul Works becoming the region’s most important railway depot & workshop. It then was bombed during tail end of WWII but was soon rebuilt. It was converted into a makeshift golf clubhouse in the late 1960s, but became abandoned in the early 1990s.' Wikipedia

The interior is also very nice, lapang and very colourful.

*Squeal!*

D-day, 14th September

Husband was out-stationed and thankfully his flight back was on time (flew out from Heathrow). The plan was to wait for hubby to arrive at home and drove together to KLPAC. Event started 830pm and I would prefer to be there perhaps 30 mins before the curtain call. Mr Mike of KLPAC did advise to be there early since parking spaces are limited, thankfully we could still park at the roadside even though we arrived around 8pm.

I love the Colonel's Mansion, located at the park's entrance. (Photos from : http://savoirvivrekl.blogspot.com). Night time was even more spectacular, with strategically located lights. The mansion seriously looked creepy and yet hauntingly beautiful. Wished I had more time (and night photo-shooting skill) to take photos.

Waiting excitedly for show to start

The show opened with a Hand Percussion performance. Very thrilling! My heartbeat somehow resonates with each sound of the drums.

There were 2 ladies, machoOO

Then ala2 broadway show came. They guys sang 'Cant take my eyes off from you' and the ladies sang 'Mama Mia'. Cute.. :)

It was followed by a duet. Sedap nya suara. Aiyoh...so nice lah that song. A love song. I was so frustrated trying to identify the song coz it sounded so familiar. When the male singer uttered 'Christine...' then I knew it! It was the love song from Phantom of the Opera. I looked it up after the show. Song title - All I Ask of You. Dah jadi macam ulat dalam kepala lagu ni these few days...keep playing on and on.

Raoul : Christine...That's all I ask of you...

Then the full company put on a last rendition of 'Can You Hear the People Sing' from Les Miserables, all garbed in black.
Next - a symphony orchestra by KLPAC orchestra. Lady conductor..girlll power! Unfortunately, I could not recognize 3 out of 4 songs...too bad. Got a littleee sleepy hahahaha, except the parts when an orchestra member squeaked a rubber ducky ehehehe. Thankfully, the last orchestra played was 'My Way'. Segar balik.

Next performance was by ASWARA? Well known I guess since half of the hall cheered loudly for them. Honestly, I was reminded of a contemporary piece in So You Think You Can Dance except depa2 ni tak boleh lah nak dicompare dgn SYTYCD kan...song was a bit haunting...I think Gregorian chant or something. In between dancing, they ran, skipped, convulsed, threw themselves on the floor. Me and hubby shook our heads through out this piece. Hahahaha..tak tercapai akal fikiran weiii..

A band called Monoloque performed in the next segment. Boleh tahan jugak la lagu2 dia. But the lead singer is definitely a bit eccentric. Pakai tanjak siap...Main terjah je nyayi, sometimes off tune a bit, sound system berdengung. Siap mintak maaf to the audience because 'we dragged on and on yesterday. Kitaorg dah naik sheh..' or something. The finale was really theatrical..it was loud and noisy. Drummer, guitarists went crazy with their instruments . The lead singer, he just punched the keyboards randomly, dragging his hands accross the keyboards here & there. And the funny thing was, the audience clapped, cheered, roared, woot-wooted, they loved it! It was hilarious and yet heart-warming coz to me, it really shows that this event was very supportive of artistic expression. Express it all you want babe! Wooohooo!!!

Jeng..jeng..jeng..next performers did not require introduction...the main reason why I wanted to come to this event. Zainal & Sheila laaa!

This was the seond time I saw Zainal performed. Surprisingly, half of the time, he did a stand-up comedy and he was really funny. I should have recorded it, but forgot to do so, busy laughing okay. Suara tak payah cakap laaa..maintain sedap. Everybody was shouting for him to sing Hijau. His answer ? 'Itu National Anthem, memang mesti nyayi punya.' Memang pun hahahaha.
Sheila was very elegant. Lawak pun lawak elegant. It was cute the way Zainal and Sheila kidded with each other. She got all of us standing up, clapping and singing together to her 'Sinaran'. Serak2 suara den weiii. Next year, will be her 30th year in show biz (can you believe that..) and there'll be concerts lined up. Stay tuned!
Owwhh...forgot to mention. Harith Iskandar was the emcee. No picture..Too busy paying attention to his jokes...ngehehehe..
What can I say. best huhuh! Ticket free and I got to see all these great performance. One thing I noticed, the hall was actually not fully occupied. Honestly, I think the organizer kept this event low key. Otherwise, people would be flooding the place. Free ticket some more, so there must be people (with tickets) who thinked tak rugi pun kalau tak pergi. Well, their loss!
Hah...it's a bi-annual event. See you in 2 years time.

Celebrating Merdeka a bit differently

Sale! Sale! Apa lagi, shopping time :)
Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan.

Alang2, mai pasang lagu Warisan (Sudirman)

Disini lahirnya sebuah cinta
Yang murni abadi sejati
Disini tersemai cita cita
Bercambah menjadi warisan

( korus )
Andai ku terbuang tak diterima
Andai aku disingkirkan
Kemana harusku bawakan
Kemana harusku semaikan cinta ini

Betapa
Dibumi ini ku melangkah
Keutara selatan timur dan barat
Ku jejaki

Aku
Bukanlah seorang perwira
Gagah menjunjung senjata
Namun hati rela berjuang 
Walau dengan cara sendiri
Demi cinta ini

( ulang korus )
Ku ingin kotakan seribu janji
Sepanjang kedewasaan ini
Ku ingin sampaikan pesanan
Aku lah penyambung warisan


As usual, kindergartens would grab the opportunities to liven up the environment. You know kids, they are easily bored. So, Huda's kindy had a Merdeka celebration this morning.

Permata harapan negara

I also had the pleasure of watching the latihan perbarisan this morning, while commuting to work.

Scary looking, huh? :D

Raya Gathering @Dataran Underground

I never knew that there is something literally under Dataran Merdeka. The name is Dataran Underground. I was not alone, most of my colleagues admitted the same thing. As usual, seronok je dapat makan2 free. Lagi2, kalau buat kat tempat luar biasa sikit. Excited jugak la when we made our moves to the place.

The place is not yet fully occupied. More like a bazaar down there. Souvenirs, muslimah dress shop, baby stuff shop. Food court - need to explore this one in future, kenyang melantak sampai malas nak explore.

I saw a restoran nasi arab. And there is a chocolate museum (that sells chocolate) tapi cuma ada 4-5 chocolate making equipment je kuttt..I'm a chocolate lover, tapi tak tertarik langsung nak masuk.

Hah..berbalik kepada kisah raya gathering. Standard raya food, except...laksa sarawak ooooooOOOiii sedaaap nya. Macam tau2 je makcik teringin nak makan laksa sarawak. This dish was specifically requested by our SGM who is a chinese Sarawakian. Excellent choice Mr Pau! Had two servings, huhuhu...nak lagiii. Pulut with kuah durian...mmmmpphh..sedap nye. Pulut tu dah digumpal siap2, clever...clever.

Bila food sedap & perut dah kenyang...rasa macam floating in happy2 place...*high*

Jaundice Scare

For the past 1-2 weeks, I was getting paranoia coz when I looked at Umar, his skin had this yellow tinge. But I kept this paranoia to myself, since no one else seemed to notice it. Last Saturday, I mentioned about it to my mom but my mom saw none of the yellow tinge...at first. Later however, she said 'Macam ya jugak nampak kuning.' Press Umar here, press Umar there. Yep, I did a lot of Umar pressing.
Monday then, coming back from work, I entered our home, saw Umar and his yellow tinge. I told hubby 'Let's go to clinic and have him checked.' Hubby told me that dia tak perasan pun Umar kuning. Tak kisah lah, I was worried and had this need to make sure that it is not jaundice. While waiting for our turn at the clinic, I pressed Umar's palm and foot sole. Only then hubby noticed the yellow tinge.
The doctor also did a lot of pressing. Luckily the kid was all happy and smiling through out the examination. One thing was pointed out by the doctor ie the whites of the eyes. Umar's were...well..white. Jaundice will cause the sclera of the eyes to turn yellow too. Nevertheless, he also noted the yellow tinge and told us to proceed to Hospital Emergency and have his blood checked.

Umar dgn kulit yg kaler tak best...Mata putih, ok

So we went to the SDMC Subang Jaya's Emergency. Poor guy was pricked for blood samples - 2 blood samples! Tapi tak nangis pun...most probably he was too engrossed with the different surrounding and happening.
We finally met the med officer around 11pm and explained our concern a bit. The first thing that he asked after membelek2 Umar, 'You bagi makan apa?' I was ready to naik angin at this point of time (what..? I tak reti bagi makan anak sendiri ke?). His next question stumped me. 'You bagi makan carrot ka?'. Errrr...yes, with rice porridge, together with pumpkin? The doc bulldozed an explanation, something to do with beta carotene bla..bla..Wellll...we do consistently feed Umar rice porridge+chicken+carrot+pumpkin. For a few seconds, I had trouble taking this in his explanation and I was like, eh really ka? Talk about a jaundice threat being undone by a mere carrot. Again, the MO said to wait  for the blood test results (bilirubin & liver function test) just to be sure and call tomorrow morning for the results. Ok, go home for now. We went home dengan agak terpinga2.
Morning came and I called the hospital. Results...all normal. Lerrr...Oleh kerana masih musykil, I googled yellow skin and carrots and found lots of articles about it. No harm done, except you will be aesthetically challenged by looking a bit yellow :P Penat makcik dok paranoia. Apa2 pun, alhamdulillah..