2010 | so many plans | humbled as a man

Ironic that it took me a month to write my 1st post in 2010.Even more so when it came from a hospital bed.

Yes people,I've been warded.Reason? Back pain so severe that I couldn't get up from bed.

I had so many plans in 2010,even more so that I've taken a sabbatical leave from work to go and 'capture' my dreams.

Ironic that the 1st day of that leave is being spent in a hospital bed.

"Man plans;God decides"...I am a man with grand plans,but I, as a servant to God,am as ever humbled...

Back to reality...

Well, we're back in Malaysia after 4 days of holiday in Bali. Hopefully in several future posts, I'll update on where we went to around the island. It was a wonderful experience for me to just have some time off from a difficult and challenging year so far. And to do that with a person I'm in love with meant so much more. I wish we could spend more time together like this, and hopefully in the future we will.

Anyways, on the way back home, we met the doctor that gave us the flu jab before we went to Bali. He was on the same flight and was surprised that we remembered him. He had brought his young family for holiday and I think he felt the same way we did at the end of the holiday. He summed up things pretty accurately :"well, now it's back to reality..."

We're in Bali...!

Alhamdullilah...we made it to Bali,safe and sound... We're staying at Legian Village Hotel, one of the cheap hotels we found on the internet. Looks okay from the outside, and the live band is playing some decent music at the moment.

If you must know, we're still waiting to get to our rooms...25 minutes after we checked in...oh dear, another delay? Oh gosh, hurry up please...we're hungry and in need of food!

Ah...The 1st shift...

It's 4.30am Saturday.

Yes, you read that right. I'm at the port, on duty for the most hated shift of all : the 1st shift as it's known officially, the midnight shift as it's called by most people or the graveyard shift as it's known overseas. I call it the zombie shift sometimes, as that's how I feel during the shift - I'm not operating at my fullest capacity and I'm half asleep most of the time. Heh...

I don't have the luxury of sleeping in my own bed for the next 5 nights. Added to that, it's the weekends, so I don't get the chance to go out or spend much time with my wife or family since I would be unconscious when I get back home, knocked out from the energy-sapping shift.

During these next 5 working days, I'll be awake at night, and sleep during the day... Eh, sounds more like a vampire la...

fotoINSPIRASI: The End...

It's the end...the highest number of questions came in the session with Ikram Ismail,one of the top wedding photographers. I think it's the most anticipated session among the photographers,as some have done wedding photographies before. Getting tips from one of the best is priceless.

fotoINSPIRASI : Lights please...

Get your lights right...Bustamam Mokhtar went all out to show us what it takes to make it in fashion photography. Not only did he set up a mini studio up there on stage, we get to see him in action shooting a model...3 times. Just watching him set up everything and direct the shots was amazing...I was just blown away...and that's just a simple set up!

fotoINSPIRASI: Lunch...

Burp...good lunch, good company too. Shamshahrin Shamsudin presented his side of photography before lunch, one of the most intriguing for me, i.e. photojournalism. His experiences excites me even more and I think this is one branch of photography I would like to explore.

fotoINSPIRASI - Break!

Break time...queuing up for tea break. Din Arshad started things off. His pix are excellent...meleleh. He even had time to do a quickie photoshoot to show us how things are done...excellent! And the model is nice looking too...hehehe.

fotoINSPIRASI

I made it...! After weeks of waiting with anxious anticipation, i'm finally here at this event. My 2nd event with fototeacher and the biggest so far. I was supposed to have my "partner in crime" with me, but alas today i'm flying solo. First impressions? Lots of young kids...everyone calling me 'abang'..1 even mistook me for a facilitator...

eheh,i feel my age catching up...

Friday Prayers

One of the good things about working here is that there's a surau located at the tower block for us. With the surau certified by JAIS to hold Friday prayers, it's a blessing for the Muslim staff here. We used to drive to the pulau for Friday prayers, which is about 10mins away (the journey to and from takes up 20 minutes of your time...). Not an issue for the normal hours people, but for operations staff is another matter where time is of the essence. Now, it only takes a minute or 2 to reach the surau for Friday prayers. Not that much reason to ponteng anymore... Hehehe.

New uniforms

Finally...new uniforms. Fortunately, the new uniforms is the same design with the ones I have now. So in total I have 6 shirts which would be easier for me to change and wash it throughout the week. We even got 3 pants this time, as compared to 2 pants previously. The quality looks good too.

My only complaint? My full name emblazoned on the chest. Panjangnye nama...Heh...

The wait at the service centre

Finally managed to find time to send my brother's car for servicing. Actually calling the Santa Fe a car doesn't do it justice. The more correct term is SUV, sports utility vehicle. Drove it to port for this week, and had lots of fun with it. It's quite fast for a big vehicle; and other cars, even lorries move out of the way to stay clear from it. Hee...sekali sekala got respect from the lorries quite fun also. Heh.

I don't think I could afford one myself,though. Especially not at the current economic climate. The advise I got from most people is to live within my means. Watch what is being spent on, buy what I need, and less on what I want. So since I don't need an SUV...yet, I'm not buying one. But I do want to add to my collection of camera gears...hmm, must check my duit tabung then. Hehehe.

Back home in BP

Here's the street where my house is. Most of my neighbours are asleep at this time.Only a few of us keeps an odd hours working life, so it does get lonely when you don't get to see the neighbours around. I've to park a bit far away from the house this week; as you can see the road is fully occupied on both sides. Plus, I'm driving my brother's Santa Fe, while he tours Europe for 2 weeks, so there's no place left to park beside my house. The Santa Fe is the biggest car I've driven so far by the way, so it's quite a challenge judging the area around the parking spaces, heh...

Looking at the cars lining up the road, I don't think it can be squeezed inside there anymore, do you? Hehe...

The babies Chronicles:Aragorn & Gimly

A while back, I promised to post some pix of the new babies of Horny. There was a delay because:
1. I was still recovering from Shaggy's MIA that looking at another kitten's pix was torture.
2. One of the babies died, probably because one of the adult cats killed him.
3. Horny ran away with the 2 remaining babies,only to pop up behind the house.

After much thought, I decided to let them roam free at the back and give them food when they're hungry. The babies really like that small carpet...it's where they fall asleep when they're full (or as we always say:kenyang kebuntat!).

More to come...

Mobile blogging...

This is sent from my Sony Ericsson hp...I'm just giving this mobile blogging a try to see if this work.Didn't work at first with my other phone,though...ishk.Thinx would work better with a qwerty keypad handphone (yes,Linda...Ur phone has qwerty keypad).Since I don't have one, I'll make use of what i have lah.Hehe.Fingers crossed...