dailyramblings101

Remember my post yesterday? About Hubby who might lose his job?

He called me at 10.00 am, after his meeting and told me that there was no need to worry. His job and the company is safe and will be continuing business here in Malaysia. What a relief. I joked that I don’t to cancel our Astro (cable TV) subscription now that he still has a job. (I’m such a “cheerleader” LOL)

I asked him whether he’d reconsider the previous job opportunity that came his way (in a Malaysian Company) but he’d kind of showed no interest in, and he said that it would be better to wait for the current company to offer him a severance pay then start looking for a job. The company offered VSS (voluntary separation scheme) to staff late last year and did trimmed down the number of staff. The company is now concentrating on its core business and deciding to shut down non-essential section of the company such as its privilege banking.

As I wrote earlier, Hubby didn’t seem to be top worried. It was me who got quite jittery with the prospect of Hubby losing his job. I’m glad all is well but I think that it is prudent for both of us now to start re-evaluating our lifestyle and our career path. For the time being, I start with not spending frivolously and save more $$$!

It is one thing to lose a job and be able to bounce back relatively unscathed, but what about those who couldn’t? From my observation, it is harder to bounce to another job as one’s age progresses.

Well, if worse come to worse, we can always go back to my hometown and join my mom’s cleaning business.

I left home early for work today. No, I don’t have anything scheduled in the office or work to finish but Hubby needed to be in the office early at 8.00am and I decided to leave early instead of staying at home.

The Company he works with will be coming out with an annoucement this morning (right about now, I believe) on the future of the company. I read in the news that the Company are pulling out their interest from Malaysia altogether and that may result in unemployment to all employees in Malaysia branch. That will suck indeed but what can we do? Just bite the bullet and soldier on.

Yeay! I’ve finally experienced a fast internet connection at home. Well, actually I feel it was faster tonight than ever before. So, all the waiting for 48 hours for the upgrading paid for us, Maxis wireless broadband users. I just hope that the speed will be maintained for days to come and not only for these few days.

Not so good news for Telekom Streamyx’s users, though. It seemed that there is a disruption of internet services from February 18, due to circuit fault on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) between Kuantan - Katong in Singapore and Shantou - Tanshui in Taiwan linking Malaysia to the United States (US). Telekom expects the complete recovery of its services by 5 March 2009. Telekom will make further announcements on the progress of the restoration works. So for those affected, hang in there!

I’m ready to bang my head in frustation today. First, I can’t surf the internet during my lunch break because of server upgrading exercise at the office. Then, same thing happened at home.

I had hoped to do my visits to all my favourite blogs and do some drops on EC, but again, the internet connection let me down. I called my service provider, Maxis for some answer and they informed me that it is due to 3G upgrading service and may last from 24 - 48 hours. OMG! Imagine having to deal with a crappy internet connection for 2 days. I’m going to have an EC withdrawal!

Did any of you Maxis Broadband subscriber facing the same problem?

Both Hubby and I had always wanted to change broadband service provider but each single provider seems to have their own limitations and drawbacks. I’m not keen to pay for my modem with Celcom, and this one new kid on the block P1 W1max which seems quite good but has very limited coverage. We have to opt for a wireless service and we have two homes as our base. I don’t think paying for two landlines is a good idea.

I’m crossing my fingers for a better connection tomorrow.

My son loves to draw. He loves to doodle. He also loves to make up some storyline to match his drawing and present the stories to us. He enjoys play acting too and it was quite fun watching him do that. He also loves music.

He sings, he story tells, he draws and we encouraged him by making sure he have plenty of books, drawing pads, pencil and colour pencils, sing songs and listen to his stories. We believe that this is one way for him to express his feelings and to make him be comfortable in sharing his thoughts. During his kindergarten’s days, his teacher even put his name to enter story telling and colouring contest. What we can do is help him practice and support him.

When I was small, I didn’t have the luxury of expressing myself through art. Drawing is greatly frowned upon in my home when I was small. My mom would make sure I didn’t waste any time with frivolous activities such as drawing, story telling or even reading non school books. Which is ironic as I grew up wanting to be a cartoonist (unfortunately I didn’t manage to turn this dream of mine into reality) and am actually a voracious reader having spent my daily allowance not on food but saving them to buy books. Mom on finding them, would throw the books out. I also didn’t listen to music all that much (my first Walkman was actually Hubby’s - then boyfriend - as he gave it to me.

But unlike my mom, I’d like Son to enjoy music and I have hopes that at least he’ll be able to play one instrument.

How do you encourage your children’s creativity?

Friday is always welcome because not only that it is the last day of the working week, it means that we get to go back to our own home for the weekend. (Remember my posts about living with the in-laws, earlier?)

My in-laws house is a convenient place to crash during the weekday due to Son’s schooling and it sure is nice to be able to walk to work instead of our previous 30 minutes commute by car  from our own home. But for convenience, there is other price to pay. For one, my in-laws house is near (soooo near) to two railway tracks. The KTM Komuter (that’s the inter-city train service) and the LRT (Light Rail Transit).

Our own home is rather secluded and quiet and the apartment complex is a low-density apartment. For that prized atmosphere (which was the main criteria for us when choosing a home -  low density area and peaceful), we get inconvenient access to public transportation and taxi drivers charged a ludicrous fare for an eight minute ride from the train station to our home.

It is so nice to be at home, even for a couple of days and be able to do whatever I want and wear (or not wear, in my case) whatever I want! (Farting and belching included ) That’s why nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed getting us (yes, all three of us) out from our home during the weekend! We’d rather enjoy our home than trawling the mall on weekend.

Talking about our home, we are thinking of refinancing our home. Our existing home loan is already half paid for, but the interest rate we got using an Islamic home loan is quite high at 8.5%p.a. With the base lending rate (BLR) getting down and home loans package getting more competitive, we thought it’ll  be better to change our loan to a more competitively charged rates. Even if the BLR going up somewhere in the future, we still be saving $$$ than staying on with our current home loan. We’re hoping to finally settle and be mortgage free some time in the next 3-4 years. Wohooo!!!

I had the opportunity of meeting *lynne* of A Malaysian Abroad yesterday after work. She was at Coffee Bean MidValley to meet up with her ex-schoolmate, and as I work in MidValley area, it was easy to arrange for a short first time meet with her.

Though I have to apologise to her for all that calories that came with that minuscule cake I brought along! But I thought it is a very fitting cake for her (see photo above of the footsteps) as she had been traveling may million miles (well, not exactly, but you get the picture) to return to Malaysia from Chicago and also driving around town due to her full and hectic appointments!

We took photos, which I’ll e-mail to her later (Lynne, maybe next week lah kot ) but both of the photos are kind of blurred.

We had a nice chat for half an hour and then I walked back home as both Hubby and Son were waiting for me to go to Pasar Malam. *lynne* was nice enough to mention about us meeting in her blog. Thanks lynne!

Ooops! No entrecard dropping for me today from this site. I was simply hard pressed for time today, what with running to the Chinese Embassy, then running to get a few more items for a department get-together, going to the Bank to cash a cheque to pay the caterer, making sure caterer served all the food in order and making sure everyone had food to eat and are mingling with each other. Phew!

Being out in the hot Malaysian sun even for a few minutes (getting down from the car and making my way to the Embassy at Plaza OSK) was enough to sap me out of my energy. Then being on my feet for another couple of hours got me a very tired feet indeed. My stamina level is so low.

At the department gathering for 90 pax, I was practically running from one end to the other just to check on the staff and guests. Sometimes, I hate being the organising person as I seldom get to relax and enjoy the food at any of this do. And no drop during my lunch break today!

Back to today’s Entrecard dropping activities; I did make drops from my other two blogs (which had less drops that this site. This site usually had more than 300 drops daily - that’s why I may have yet to return your drops : because I already dropped 300 for the day) but I couldn’t find the time and energy to do so for this site tonight- need to check Son’s homework and get some sleep too later. Sorry! I’ll make it up tomorrow.

For info, I try to return every single drop except on some site I took offense with.

Photo: Pasar Malam in front of FIL’s apartment at Jalan Bangsar

Pasar malam (Malay for night market) is a bargain-hunter’s paradise where you can find practically anything under the sun from T-shirts, seafood, toys, fruits, vegetables, dried items and even “designer” stuff like handbags and VCDs and DVDs of the latest movie in town.

These Pasar Malam are open-air shopping bazaar where street vendors set up shop on designated streets. The streets are closed to traffic from the early evening as the night markets typically starts at 6.00pm till late at night.

Pasar Malam differ from the morning markets because morning markets is when you typically go for “wet market” looking for groceries and fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.

What you can find at the Pasar Malam? Groceries items as mentioned above, dried items such as dried anchovies and salted eggs, eggs of all grades and prices, onions and even canned goods. Pasar Malam is a boon for working people like us, who might not have time to shop during the day and you sure can’t beat saving some $$$ shopping at Pasar Malam!

You can also find clothes here, new or second hand, handbags and shoes, household items such as blankets, towels, wok (frying pan), containers and baskets.

Kids would love the toys on sale and there are usually a guy(or gal) selling helium filled balloons of the latest cartoon characters that make the kids want one.

What I love most about Pasar Malam is the variety of cooked food sold there. It is a weekly highlight from my family to go to a nearby Pasar Malam and buy cheap cooked food like Laksa, Fried Meehoon or Rice, Satay, Nasi Lemak and so much more. And after buying all that food, we need to quench our thirst and Pasar Malam have many drinks to offer like soya bean, cincau, watermelon and so much more.

If you ever visit Malaysia, make a point to visit a Pasar Malam!

Yesterday, I put up a post about Tugu Negara. More information today.

As I mentioned earlier, the first Monument was a Cenotaph and on the Monument it is written “To Our Glorious Dead” with dates of the First World War (1914-1918), Second World War (1939-1945) and the Emergency (1948-1960).

The monument was later replaced with the Tugu Negara or National Monument, an idea mooted by Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, in 1963. The bronze figures of soldiers standing and supporting their fallen comrades are the work of sculptor Felix de Weldon, who also did Washington’s Iwo Jima Monument and it is regarded as the largest bronze monument grouping in the world.

Tugu Negara was completed and officially opened on February 8, 1966, by the Yang DiPertuan Agong. A wreath-laying ceremony takes place at the monument every July 31 on Warriors Day attended by the King, the Prime Minister and heads of military and the police to pay their respects to the fallen heroes by laying garlands at the monument.

Apart from the bronze figures that almost all visitors make a beeline to, I found that the military plaques decorating the ceiling at the pavillion quite interesting too. I can’t find any information there, but I presume that they are all in honor of all the Military Kors that took part in fighting for Malaya.

In my opinion, they shouldn’t be put so high up, because I had neck pain trying to look at the plaques. It would be nicer if the public can view them at a more comfortable angle an appreciate the fact that not only Malayans fight for our freedom but also soldiers all around the world.