I Am Blessed

Decisions, choices, options!

These are the things in life which you will have to make in order to decide what’s best for you. It is important to weigh the options you have carefully. So when you finally make up your mind, you leave no room for dismay. Like those colorful delicious looking ice cream above. Which would you choose?

It’s 2.10pm while I’m writing this. I should already be on my way searching for PH Floor, 4th Wing, at Sri Pentas. 20 minutes away before I sit with poise, legs crossed, full of charisma in the Interview Room for Corporate Communication Exec position for TV3 – like I have done many times before.

But I am not in the Interview Room. I am still here in front of my lappy, writing my heart away. Yes, I turned the offer down. An opportunity working with TV3, and I turned it down. Good advancement. Bright future. Even better pay. But I turned it down. I must be out of my mind.

But I am not. I have my own reason - a very valid reason – which I am not going to reveal here, not yet. I have consulted my parents, my husband, and I am convinced that I have made the right decision. And I just have to say no.

No regrets, no no.

Looking back, I am blessed to have lived the life I live. I was given with many good opportunities but I had the option to choose.

• An offer to work with DiGi – offer turned down.

• An offer to work as an English Teacher for governments’ school. – offer turned down.

• An offer to work with SPA – offer turned down.

Those are some of the good offers that I have received, but taking all things in, I chose to turn down the offers. Sometimes, it is not just about how well the company is known, or how big the company can pay you. Sometimes, it is just about your passion. And what you love to do. All of which I find in the company I am working with rather faithfully right now, the one and only Exabytes. :) Well, for the time being. :P

Someone used to tell me, don’t work for money. Work for the thing that you love. Indeed, it was one of the bests piece of advice anyone could ever given me. :)

Sure, life has got its up and down. But I know Allah is always there, guiding me, and giving His best, for me and my future.

I know, I am blessed. :)

Bubbly – Colby Caillat

I've been tagged!

RULES:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down NO MATTER HOW silly it sounds.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal.

1. If someone says, "Is this okay?" ... you say?
What About Now – Chris Daughtry
*And then that someone says, “Ko ni bodo ke ape” :P

2. How would you describe yourself?
4 Minutes – Madonna feat Justin Timberlake
* Yeah, I’m all about living in the fast lane!

3. What do you like in a girl?
Because You Loved Me – Celine Dion
* Hmm.

4. How do you feel today?
What You Got – Colby O Donis feat Akon
* Hmmmm.

5.What is your life's purpose?
Cancer – My Chemical Romance
* Ha? Takmaulah cancer cancer ni :(

6. What is your motto?
Taking Chances – Celine Dion
* Oh yeah I’m a spontaneous, kick ass chic alright! :D

7. What do your friends think of you?
7 Things – Miley Cyrus
* Hmm. I wonder what they are. :D

8. What do you think of your parents?
God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You – ‘N Sync
* Yeah, God must have. Mak bapak aku adalah the greatest!

9. What do you think about very often?
When I Grow Up – Pussycat Dolls
* What would I be? Architect? Doctor? Lawyer? Oh, I’m a Creative Writer. Sudah tertulis di lah mahfuz ye tuan2 & puan.

10. What is 2 + 2?
Colors of the Wind - Vanessa Williams
* Ok, I’m officially stupid.

11. What do you think of your best friend?
I Want You Back – ‘N Sync
* Since when did I lose them?

12. What do you think of the person you like?
The Long And Winding Road – David Archuleta
* Haha. Yes, sangat mencabar & menguji perasaan & minda. :P

13. What is your life story?
Traffic – Marie Digby
* Oh ini sangat betol. Penoh pancaroba dan cacamerba.

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I Love You – Celine Dion
* Err yes, to love and never stop loving the important people in my life.

15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Love In The Club – Usher feat Young Jeezy
* O yea baby its getting hot in here!

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Unfold – Marie Digby
* I have had my wedding and it didn’t involve any dancing, thank u.

17. What will they play at your funeral?
I’m Not Okay – My Chemical Romance
* Yes, I’m not okay. I’m dead lah ok, so please, a lot of Yasin, no music please.

18.What is your hobby/interest?
From This Moment – Shania Twain
* Yes, from this moment on, it would be . . . trying out loads of new recipes!

19. What is your biggest fear?
You Got It – ‘N Sync
* Got what?

20. What is your biggest secret?
No Woman No Cry – Sean Kingston
* Oops pecah rahsia aku dulu tak straight. :P

21. What do you think of your friends?
Better Off Alone – Marie Digby
* No no no, I didn’t mean to say that!

22. What will you post this as?
Bubbly – Colby Caillat
* Boringnya title.

****************************************

With this, I officially tag 3 people :

a) syikin!
b) hermy!
c) adam!

Buat, jangan tak buat. :P

Sick Poser on the Loose!

Okay. I know I’m supposed to write about my spanking new house this time around, but I can’t help it. I have got one interesting news to share with kamu semua.

Get this. I found another sick poser trying to be. . . me! Urgh. Wont this ever going to stop? Masa sekolah rendah ada. Masa sekolah menengah ada. Masa dkt U (hmm lemme think. ok, takde. because MMU people are cool and wont do immature things like that haha!). Tapi baru2 ni, thanks to cik syikin, one of my best sidekicks, who informed me about this website which really surprised the heck out of me! Here’s the snapshot of it. (Click on picture to enlarge)

This psycho actually used “miss aienthara” as username and well, even though there aren’t any pictures of me (THANK GOD!), or aien in there, but, there are pictures of my nephews and nieces taken during last raya. But the last time I checked, that pic was already removed. Tapi gamba my brother-in-law’s car still ada lagi. I mean, this person must really know our family members priddy damn well to steal these pictures and put it up on his/her website kan! Haihs.

The thing that disgusts me is, the way he/she writes! SANGAT DISGUSTING ok. The words written. The topics discussed. The words used. Urgh. Mcm org takde life.

I mean, please. Get your own freakin identity lah ok. Don’t go prancing around pretending someone that you’re not. Question is, should I write to this psycho and ask for clarification or not? Hmm.

God I hate copycows.

Not Your Usual Honeymoon Trip

Unless you are a beach bum or a water enthusiast, I do not really recommend you to Tioman Island for honeymoon, especially if you are planning to stay in Berjaya Resorts with just the two of you.

Everything is expensive there okay. Check this out :

Hotel food. We were advised prior earlier not to have meals in hotel, but since I was craving for breakfast in hotel this one day, this is what we had to pay.

breakfast/person : RM45 (so, x2 = RM90)

Transportation. Unless you have won medals for your school’s “Merentas Desa”, don’t dream of finding a place to visit or lepak-lepak by walking distance. You need transport to move anywhere. Yes, the place is not mobile at all.

transportation/trip : van RM35 (so, x2 = RM70), motor RM15/hour or RM80/day

Food. Oh here comes! Get this. Although there is a nearby restaurant near Berjaya, takkan lah hari2 nak makan situ kan. And the place aint that cheap either. So if you plan to eat elsewhere, expect this :

just plain white rice/plate = RM2 (so, x2 = RM4!)

and.. are you ready for this?

telur dadar = RM7!!!!!

WTH! Shopping and other activities tak payah nak cakap la kan. haihs.
However, on the contrary side, the beach is just so breathtakingly beautiful – sangat biru & clean ok! Not the kind of beach you could find in Penang anymore. :P

And the fishes were beautiful, colorful and friendly! But since I am not much of an aquamarine type and would rather spend my whole day shopping rather than 1 hour of snorkeling (hehe), we did not really go all out into exploring more snorkeling spots. We spent much more time exploring each other on the bed instead. Whoops! Hehe. :P

I can’t wait for our second honeymoon in Club Med’s Pulau Bintan, Indonesia soon though. I hope it’s as priddy and blissful as I imagined it would be! :D :D :D

In the meantime, here are some pics all the way from Tioman, and until then, xoxo! :)

we swam with the beautiful fishes in the blue, blue sea!

"merepek betol lah. breakfast mcm gini je pon RM90? masak sendiri pon lagi sedap. urgh."

Golden sandy beach!

our chalet. . . and a little peek of the inside-room action! heehee. :P

Next update : My spanking new house!

Miss Busy.

Okay. Here’s the deal.

I have been getting an insane deal of msgs, SMSs and IMs requesting me to upload my wedding pictures. So I figured that I’d save everyone some time & credit and post a short update on the absence of my long-awaited wedding pictures and why.

Honestly, I have got insanely huge amount of pictures to share with all of you and for maximum pleasure (heehee), I really need you to be patient! :P I have separated my wedding pictures to 6 albums (yes I told you they are massive!) and will upload them gradually either in my Friendster page, my wedding website, or just.. here! There will even be one surprise exclusively for you who have been following my blog write-up, so keep checking my 3 official pages yea! ;)

And as for my update, well, life has been very, very hectic ever since I got married and even before I got married (with the preparation, wedding website and all). Anyway. After the reception at my side, a week after, was the reception at Johor. Then a week after that was my honeymoon trip to Tioman Island. A few days after that, I had to start working and had tons of work piled up just waiting to get my hands on them. Besides, since my *ehems* husband (gotta get used to using this title! :P) and I are weekend-husband-and-wife for the time being, we had to rotate and see each other on weekends until I get myself transferred to KL after Raya. That’s right people! Yours truly will be moving to KL for good this time! :D So yeah, life has been very hectic with even more responsibilities to cope up but very exciting altogether for me!

However, I do pray that I do have the time to update and catch up with you despite the busyness in my daily life routine, but until then, I wish you a very blessed Ramadhan and a month full of grace, peace and patience.

Happy fasting, everybody! :)

Next update: Tioman Honeymoon Trip!

Whooppy!

guess what people? i was just doing my usual things in the office when suddenly, my boss dropped me an online message through MSN!

here’s the snippet of the conversation :

Mr Chan says : just to let u know I have passed ur probation period
Mr Chan says : u shall receive a letter shortly from KY
Mr Chan says : Congratulations and Excellent, Good Job for the past 3 months
Thara says : oh, thank you mr chan!
Thara says : this is great news! :D
Mr Chan says : I will raise ur salary to XXXX
Thara says : oh! thank u!
Thara says : i am actually rather overwhelmed, i dont know what to say! haha
Mr Chan says : those who work hard deserved to be rewarded well :)
Thara says : thanks again mr chan. i will double my effort, i promise! :)
Mr Chan says : good to hear that :)

and a few minutes later . . .

vooish! i am officially confirmed!

and confirmed = raise in salary. and raise in salary = more income. and more income = shopping time!

hahaha. the joy, the joy! oh Queensbay Mall, here i come! ;)

Anticipating 08/08/08!

05/03/05 : first date to Princess On Ice
25/03/05 : officially an item
08/02/08 : officially engaged
08/08/08 : *drums her fingers not-so-patiently on the table*

MySpace Countdown

i wish the clock would tick faster. i wish somebody could speed me to august. it’s two-months too-long!

oh alright, alright, i’ll behave now.

Not Just Another Fairytale

I was going through my private blog that I used to share with my cousin Haniza, and came across this post I posted wayyyy back, when I first started to know aien. It was about our first date actually, and I thought it’s time to share with all of you out here. :)

a lovely evening, lovely event, lovely ending. :)

dear diary,

last night was one of the nights when everything was so right, you didn’t want it to end. it was magical, almost perfect. went out earlier with dee dee to buy a new dress for me for last night’s event. it did cost me a fortune, but it didn’t matter. i wanted last night to be different, i wanted last night to be something that i could remember my whole my life ; i wanted to be a princess. and it was worth it. i felt like a princess, and was being treated like one last night, infact. :)

aien [the guy who took me out] picked me up in the car that took my breath away. and since we barely talk in class, i thought the journey was going to be an awkward one. but boy was i wrong. there was so much to talk about, it felt like we've known each other for like, years! and then, we reached the place. org ramai gila mmg tak ingat la kan. the show had started. saw mickey and minnie waving and skating on the ice. chomels gilaaa! the show was like a short sketch of Aladdin's story, Snow White, CINDERALLY [the best!], beauty and the beast, Little Mermaid, Mulan, the list goes on. i kept squealing, that at one point, i forgot that the person beside me was aien, not little pony. heehee =P but i couldn’t help it! they were ever so priddy, so graceful on the ice, i couldn’t stop myself! =P owh and the popcorn! sakit hati gilaaa.. they sold the popcorn for 10 bucks okay? GILA TAK? it was my mistake that i ASKED for the pop corn dulu, baru tanye the price.. habes, when org tu dah handed the popcorn to me and asked for 10 bucks, takkan nak kata "ehh bang, tanak la.. mahal la pulak" kan? so we decided to split 5 bucks each, and i swear to God, it was the tasteless popcorn i’ve ever tasted! GSC punye popcorn lagi sedap okay. eee sakit hati gilaaa.

but besides the popcorn, everything was just.. right. went for dinner after the show, and i learnt a whole lot about him along the way. i don’t know why he opened up so easily to me like he did last night, but i felt honored. :) and when he sent me to my block, we said our goodnites and just as i was stepping out of his car, he asked in a very cute way, "eh kejap, you nak present tak?" and i went like.. "HUH?" then he turned and took something from the backseat anddd... handed me a box which has... a princess Barbie in ittt! heee.. =D okay so im not gonna lie. i was flattered, and touched. hehe ;) eh surprise surprise ni gua mmg suka bebb.. apa lagi bab bab prezzie prezzie ni.. lagi la meloncat! haha =P and of course it didn’t just stop there. D'UH. =P he got back and msged me and we spent the next few minutes msgin each other until we both got sleepy. ;) i don’t know where it leads from here, but it was indeed, one of the best nights in my life. :)

and as all you might have guessed, 2 weeks later, we got together, and it has been 3 years 2 months ++ since! :)

Do You Love Your Job?

I do! I love it so much, I even do a hula dance every morning before going to work! Ok, that’s a lie. But really, I love my job! As all of you might know from my previous post, I work as a Creative Writer in Exabytes Network, the top webhosting provider in Malaysia. It has only been a month plus since I first entered Exabytes, but I find myself fitting in so well here, I feel that I may have finally found my supreme comfort zone, at last! :) It probably has got a lot to do with my love for writing, but I have never felt this way about a work place before!

I have worked as a graphic designer with the great Studeo Grafix, a branding company. The reason why I find Studeo Grafix great is because I have never known such great bunch of people, lead by an even greater leader, Wesley, in my entire life. They deliver super service, professionally too! But I could not stay long – all because I could not seem to find any time to myself while I was there. It was hard for me to leave them, though. I found that somehow, there was a bond created between all of us even if it was for a very short time. But I will be getting married soon (ngehehe, jangan jealous!). And if half of my day is spent in the office (I used to go back at 10pm every night. Sometimes at 1am in the morning), I thought, who would be taking care of my lonely husband at home? buatkan dia pegi carik tina laen kat luar? tak gila aku? Hehe. But I don’t blame them, though. It was the nature of the job actually. I have asked around, and it seems that working really late at night is memang normal for graphic designers. Besides, they have even asked me way earlier when I was interviewed if I was ready to go back late at night, and I said yes, but I guess I was wrong, so yeah. I have always had high regards for Studeo Grafix and the people in there – and I still do! And if it wasn’t because of the long hours, I might just be on my way of becoming the next great graphic designer there. But fate has other plan for me, and so, here I am, building my career as a writer in Exabytes, hopefully for good this time! :)

I’ll be honest. Before I started with Exabytes, I was pretty nervous. Not about the job scope – about the people there! I went to their blog before, and noticed there isn’t a single Malay employee in there! It is not that I have anything against those of different races, but it’s just that, I do get irritated when they start speaking in their mother-tongue language, which would in the end, cause me to “watch a very bad badminton game” stupidly, and so I worried that I would face this problem in my new working place! But still, I put up my brave face, gathered every ounce of confidence I could muster, and went to the office, hoping that my new collogues would be as nice as those in Studeo Grafix. I entered the office (I was actually late on my first day at work btw!), scanned the office as quickly as I could, and sure enough, not even a single sawo-matang skin detected by my retina.

Therefore, being the only Malay in Exabytes, I thought I was going to be treated differently. But boy was I wrong! I was actually given a warm welcome by all the staffs there even on my first day at work! Once I was stationed at my place, I was surprised to be greeted by at least 5 bleeping MSN chat windows at my screen, welcoming me! And a week later, I was selected to be in one of the board members for the weekly marketing team meeting! Which, ehems, makes me one of the important figures in Exabytes, of course! ngehehe. My nature of work in Exabytes covers almost everything that has got to do with writing. I write press releases, newsletters, articles, meeting minutes, memos and blogs! – the reason why I started to have my own blog! And me being in the marketing team gives me the power to voice out anything I feel is necessary besides contributing ideas to the company! :D Anyway, here’s the list of some of the reasons why I just loveee being in Exabytes!

• I am doing something that I love. So going to work does not actually feel much of a chore, but more of a fun way of filling up my time instead. :D
• I get to have my own personal HP laptop.
• I get off work at 5pm daily! (but since aku ni budak baik, aku keluar jugak la pukul 5.20pm everyday. heeee)
• I am surrounded by a bunch of laid back, friendly young people, most of them around my age!

And no, I don’t have anything against the.. uh, elder generations either, but, kamon lah. takkan laa aku nak borak pasal nintendo wii or facebook dgn pakcik makcik yang kadang komputer pon tak reti nak “on”. kan? haa. :D

But yeah, I just love what I am doing now for all the reasons I mentioned above and more! :D You can check out more of our fun-filled family activities here to know what I mean! :)

Here’s a picture of the big family and I on the last Earth Day celebration. Uh-huh. We all went green the wholeee day just to show our dedication to "saving the Mother Earth"! a’ah, sampai cenggitu skali kitorang punya sayang kat alam sekitar ni nyaaah. Hehe.

And oh yes, you can never rock in green as well as we did! nyeehee. Needless to say, I don’t find working in Exabytes as a job, but more of a career instead! ;)

Until you hear from me again.. Long live Exabytes! ;)

She Blogs!

I’ve always had a passion for writing. I started writing my very first poem in Malay as early as the age of 8 (as I can recall), and it goes something like this : (Ehems ehems. I haven’t even started reciting the poem, and already I’m blushing to roots!). Ehems!

"Kapalku, berkilat berseri,
Hingga seorang pon ku tidak kesahi,
Jangan jangan, jangan kau sentuh kapalku,
Ikan ku tarik-tarik, hingga habis,"
..

IKAN KU TARIK-TARIK HINGGA HABIS? Ikan ku – WHAT? What the hell was I thinking?! I must have had one of the wires loose from my brain socket or eaten a bowl of boiled frog eggs and gone retarded - I DONT BLOODY KNOW! But yes, I was that creative, I could even make A. Samad Said cry if he ever stumbles across this brilliant masterpiece, for all I know! Heeeee heeeee.

Even after that horrendous (but brave!) attempt on the Kapalku poem, I still kept on writing. And I have managed to compose a few more poems after that, even a novel! In English this time lah tapi. Hehe. I wrote my first romance novel wayyyy back when I was 17. (eh, mistilah romance novel nyah. masa tu kan dah pandai jadik ulat bulu sket, so.) I do not know where I got the inspiration to write from, probably from all those mushy novel junks those eeeeevil authors have successfully fed into my brain, (the Sweet Valleys, Love Stories, and Full House – Stephanies), but I managed to write one of those too-good-to-be-true romance novels myself.

Here’s to prove it! :D

I’ll be honest. All the while I was writing the novel, I was imagining the main character was ME, and the life she has, was.. well, the kind of life I want to have. Ehehe. I must have been fed to eat the frog eggs alive this time while I was sleeping for even dreaming for that to happen, but hey, a girl’s gotta dream, and she’s gotta dream big right? :D

Even back in campus, when we had assignments to do, I made it sure that I would be the one to handle the documentation part as much as possible, just because I know I can at least contribute something rather than typing the codes madly, not knowing there are heaps of errors waiting to be debugged. Oh btw, I suck in programming, so don’t even dream of asking me anything about programming or all that you will get from me is, cout<<"go get a textbook and get lost!"<<endl; Wehehe! :D

And then one day, I was introduced to this BLOG-thing which is supposedly to be the IN-thing since the last few years. But I never wanted to blog – at least not for the public to read. I was always against it because I never really believed in exposing my whole life drama for the world to know. Until.. the day I became (get this) the sole Creative Writer in Exabytes Network - No.1 Webhosting Provider in Malaysia which needs me to do a lot of blogging - that I started to blog! Hee hee. Yes, dears. The Creative Writer in Exabytes now is the same budak beringus that got laughed at when she first wrote her "Kapalku" poem which she composed with.. much pride and determination, actually! hmphs. But yeah, blogging for Exabytes blog has somehow encouraged me to have a blog of my own, and so, here I am! Ranting my heart away! nyak nyak nyak :D

Although I did not take up Journalism during my study years, my love for writing has brought me this far. And even though I know my writing skills isn’t as half good as some of the people I know, (you should meet my cousin, Haniza) but I’m contented and thankful for what I am today. :)

And so, how did an IT graduate turn out to be a Writer again? Hehe. Like they always say : All you need is love! ;)