Mohd. Thaqif Adham

He's my nephew. My sis's third son. He's 4 years old...and very talkative. Last weekend, he came up with all sorts of riddles.....among them are.....

1. banyak, byk, byk ikan....ikan apa yg boleh berenang?
2. byk, byk, byk spiderman.... spiderman apa yg boleh melekat kat dinding? His older brother, Syafi answered, "Cicakman!!!". He replied..."Salaaaah...... Spiderman lah!"
3. byk, byk, byk spiderman itam....spiderman itam apa yg boleh lawan spiderman?

the last one is my favourite....
4. byk byk byk ironhide....... ironhide apa yg boleh bertukar jadi ironhide? I answered "autobots?". He replied... "salaaaaah........ IRONHIDE la!"

duh....

New Hobby

Swimming. Yup..thats officially my new hobby. Now that I can swim (yes.. i know how to swim now), I'm planning to go down the pool 3 times a week. Hopefully i can burn some fat and loose some weight. My skin is tanned now... although i apply the sunblock lotion every time before i swim. I think the sun block can only last less than 2 hours and i usually swim longer than that. I'm thinking of getting a new swimsuit, a long sleeve one.

During my swimming lessons, i learn 1 new thing. There are 2 types of people. People who can float easily, and people who can sink easily. I categorize myself as 'float easily'...which makes me difficult to learn how to dive. Everytime I try to dive, my whole body will float to the surface. So I need a lot of energy to maintain my whole body in the water.

I guess thatll be my focus...to learn how to dive.

Manie Pedie and Harry Potter

Yesterday I was 27 years, 1 month and 14 days old, and that was when I had my first manicure and pedicure experience. I was fasting yesterday...and I had to go to Alamanda to buy some groceries. While waiting for Maghrib to come, I was too weak and too hungry to walk and decided to pay 'The nail parlour' a visit.
I dont want to go into the details, enuf by saying that it was a waste of 1 1/2 hours of my life, not to mention the waste of RM90.

While having my pedicure, i was thinking about 'Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince'. I read the book the day it was published. Now that the movie will be out tomorrow...do I have the heart to watch it..knowing wat exactly to happen?

Hmm....i guess its not a priority....it can wait, unlike Transformers when it was finally out. We saw the movie on the first day it was aired.

My 1st swimming lesson

Before I continue, those who are professional swimmers or at least know how to swim for the past 1 month, plis DO NOT continue reading this. It will do nothing to u, but to bore you to tears, or to embarrass me beyond control. Seriously. Stop. STOP!

Ok. I'm taking swimming lessons now, yup, in an attempt to get slimmer. Yesterday was my first class (if I exclude the lesson I took when I was 14, it was only an hour anyway, i cannot really count that). Well the truth is, there was no instructor yesterday, she was on leave. But since i was there with my sister, bringing my brand new swimming suit, I can't just ignore the pool, can I? Lucky there was a colleague of my sister's whos also taking the swimming class and yesterday was her 5th time, and she agreed to teach us the basics. Cool.

So the lesson began.... first step, breathing technique (bubbling as they called it)... I tried that a couple of times and decided that it was not important. I mean, everybody can breathe, I've been doing it since I was born. So I skipped that. The next step was to learn how to float. Well, in my experience (in my swimming lesson when I was 14), I was able to do this. So i didnt think there should be any problem doing it now. True enuf, I managed to float, (only my hands were so scared to let go of the edging). But I let go anyway, just by an inch.

The third step where I thought was the tricky part. The 'landing' technique. Its the technique to land on the base of the pool from ur floating pose, without ur hands touching the edging. I know its simple guys...yes I know. And why are u still reading this if you know how to swim? Didnt i tell u this entry is only to bore you and embarass me?

But now i can do it. After 15 minutes of self training, now I know how to land properly. and now that I know how to do it, its actually very simple, I dunno why did I have a hard time doing it the first time. Come to think of it, its not becoz its difficult to be done, its the difficulty of conquering your fear, the fear of drowning, aquaphobia or so they call it. Becoz, to be able to land using the right technique, you must let go the edge completely and use your both hands to balance your body while standing up. Once u do that, you can swim. But then again, I can't. Hua hua hua..... At least not with the right technique, unlike the Olimpic swimmers (not even close, the comparison can only embarass me even more).

Becoz now I know why I should learn the breathing technique in the first place. Its to help you to breathe while u swim. All I can do now is swimming while holding my breath. So I can only last for at most 2 minutes (i didnt really time, so maybe less), then I have to stop to catch my breath.

Lesson to learn here guys, is to never skip lessons. There are always reasons behind the sequence of every training.

True Love (and other lies)

Thats the name of the 344-pages book that i've been reading for the past few weeks. On my usual standard, I can finish a 400-pages book in 3 days (usually less). I mean...thats just normal, isn't it? For non-busy-salary-earners, they should be able to read a 400-pages book in less than a week. Well, my friend Delle can finish Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, cover to cover, overnight. Top that!

The reason for me not being able to finish the book within my standard timeline, despite the fact that I have plenty of time, is becoz its just too boring. I have 2 more books lying untouched on my desk at home but I just can't start with them yet, at least not without finishing this one. Its just the unwritten policy of mine which every book must be read cover to cover before starting the new one. This is just to ensure that every spending on books will not be wasted.

I bought this book at Street Mall in Cyberjaya where they sell stuff on corridors every Friday, and they were all cheap and discounted. It costed me only Rm18. So why is it boring? Well becoz everything was obvious. There was no sense of suspense and intense in this book. Its a straight forward story. Reading on a page can give u the idea of whats going to happen in the next 20 pages.

Ok....I'm not trying to be a spoiler or anything like that. Believe u me, if u read this book, u can tell yourself. It was about a woman named Claire that met a guy on a plane on her way to London, from New York. The guy's name was Jack. Claire was going to London on a work-related assignment and at the same time wanted to visit her bestfriend, Maddy who also lived in London. So...during her hours in the flight with Jack, they got connected, sparks was in the air, and Jack had told Claire that he was going to London to end his relationship with his girlfriend. So..... do I have to tell you who was Jack's girlfriend? Aww come on....

So on several chapters later, when Claire had spent a few days in London with Jack, Maddy was no where to be contacted. And suddenly one night, she called. She was devastated. She just broke up with her boyfriend....guess who? Aww come on.... It cannot be more obvious.

On a totally separate scene in a different chapter, a few days before thanksgiving, where Claire had informed Jack earlier on that she'll be spending it alone, while on her way back to her apartment from work, Claire had been greeted by a stranger. She didnt dare look at the guy's face as her experience had taught her that the pervert might do something more extreme if they made eye-contacts (the writer had tried to make this scene to have a suspence effect, while the actual impact was really the opposite) . So when she was about to open her apartment's door, the guy touched her hand and she reflexively assoulted him with a stun gun. Well...who do you think the guy really was? Oh please.... surely you can tell.

As conclusion, I have no interest on finishing this book, or at least I will do it in a very, very, very, very....slow way. Maybe 1 page a day.

Big Plate Restaurant

U may have heard bout this restaurant, u may even have been to this place, some of u may have no clue about it, but to me.... this restaurant is not just a regular place, it's something more.

My husband and i went to Big Plate last nite. This was the second time we went there together. The first time was way back in 2003, on our second date, which also our first dinner. So last nite, we went there once again, no particular reason, nothing to celebrate, we just wanted to have dinner and he had this crazy idea to drive all the way to Kampung Melayu Subang. So I guess since we were going to that special place of ours, I might as well wear something special. Well, it was not exactly an expensive dress or glitter pair of heels, it was just a red t-shirt with matching tudung that i wore the night we went there the first time, 6 years ago. Lucky it still fits.

So I ordered a big plate of Ayam Shah Alam, which turned out to be the roasted half chicken with mount of side dishes, and my husband ordered the set of braised lamb which turned out to be very nice. As the name implied, the meals were to big for us to handle. Just like last time, we managed to eat only half of what they served. They were impossibly large, yet the taste was delicious, and of course everything was fattening.

So thats that. Once again, my diet was ruined, and this time by a big plate of a very well taste roasted chicken.

Celcom Broadband

I did mention in my previous entry that I'm now working in Putrajaya, rite? Well, in Menara PJH to be exact. But wat I forgot to mention was the fact that the internet connection here was very limited. They block most of the sites, and all of the entertaining ones. I can't access FB, i can't use YM or Gtalk or any of the kind, I can't download songs, so my life here was practically boring.

But there's always an alternative available. Broadband. yup...it'll cost me some cash, but for the satisfaction of life, for FB and YM, and to make sure that I will not die due to boredom, i'm more than willing to commit the monthly charges.

So last sunday I went to digital mall with my husband. After spending almost 2 hours doing some surveys.... I finally settled myself with celcom broadband. There were several packages available, and there was a promotional discount for the modem. So I was OK with it and enrolled myself.

Now I can enjoy my working life with FB and YM like always. So far (today is my 1st day using this service, its too early too judge), i dont have any complaint with the connection. The connection is stable and quite fast.