Can or Cannot

My new dig from behind my desk. The discussion table, my vital green tea mug (never say coffee or the good doctor will punish me), my biscuit tin (over the months everything from kuih raya to local biscuits have been in there) and my monitor can be seen. The blinds behind the table is hiding a very busy main road across a parking lot.

From behind the discussion table. Photos of the family behind me. Years ago Sofia asked me if I have her picture at the office. Yes I do, my dear, of your Mama, Along and you. They are now putting a dark tint plastic layer on the glass to the left of the photo, behind the blinds, that is why it is in a mess, it is still unfinished. The desk should be more to the left, pretty much against the blinds. I need a coat hanger - my jacket, which is partly visible as a dark triangle on the right of the photo, is hanging on a pool cue.

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Because of the wall of fire @ firewall at the office, I have not been able to update my blog but lo and behold, today can one.....

Many things have happened since I last wrote. I moved into my new office from my temporary new office at the new building. I got a "corner lot", with glass on two sides but that comes with a setback - the morning sun is too bright (even though it's cold outside) that I have to resort to covering one side of the glass walls with black cardboard paper. That is my to do list. A room about 4 times the size of the previous one, a big desk and cabinets to put all my stuff on and in and a big table with 4 chairs. Plus the 2 chairs in front of my desk and my own chair, that makes 7 sit-downs and I could hold meetings/discussions/pow wows here all the time. Done that. Things could be good at times. Gawd..... this here new office building is mucho mucho mucho better than the old one......

The weather has been playing the bloody fool with us. Only snowed twice so far but so thin. Like none at all. It's kinda of chilly in the morning and it gets to about cool by noon and late afternoon. But then just like an ice cream, when you think that you have it licked, it drips all over you. Bring warm clothing whenever you go out. The last thing you need is to be caught outside with no warm clothing. It freeze severy part of your body, especially that. Of course it's the fingers or nose or ears, what did you think I was implying?

Spoke with Lina daily and Nazzim is home for the Chinese New Year. the house is nearly full again. Nearly. From my daily pow wows with Da Boss, I'd probably get a trip home come 20 February. Do I dare to ask for 10 days worth of leave (which translates to a 2-week period at home)? It depends if he is here or otherwise. Ah well, nicer things have happened and it could happen too you know?

Many happenings here, a few maybe worth writing about. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. That will be about Sofia and that school in Seremban, yes, that all girls school in Seremban and the night me and my posse cooked beef curry for a bunch of VIP's who came here when we simply had to have some Malaysian food for them. That might be good.

Like I said, hope I can access this here place and update this here place once in a wee while. Later world.....

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Hotdog Poser

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Believe it or not, I cooked fried rice before going to work this morning. Before pergi kerja tu, biasa nak minum air pun tak sempat. Complete with vegetables, ikan bilis, eggs and a frankfurter, not any ordinary piece of hotdog but the tasty, spicy one. Yummy. For three people lagi!!! Ni malam tadi punya ceritalah ni. Pak Lah datang from the training centre, ate at my house but we overestimated the amount of rice that we three would lantak and we got left over with a mountain of rice.

"Ni nasi goreng besok sedap ni.......", adalah wise guy cakap.

So kenalah goreng nasi. I guess when I went to bed last night, I must have been like that donut man - "have to masak nasi goreng pagi besok, have to masak nasi goreng besok, have to...."

The next morning, got up, took out all the things from the fridge, the cabinets. Sliced the onions, the frankfurter and the kobis. Warm up the magic wok, in the meantime had a cuppa of old town white coffee (I am not supposed to drink coffee but once a day against seven or eight times a day previously should be OK ain't it?), heat up the oil, the perencah and etc. etc. etc. and of course after my Yul Bryner, a wokful of fried rice ala dudae simboyo. Spoon licking good. Done with the cooking, while waiting for the rice to cool down a bit, rushed into the shower (masa tu dah berus gigi, OK?) and showered. I got dressed, warmly lah, sojuk now OK? I scooped the nasi goreng up into three tupperwares. One for me, one for Pak lah and one for Aziz. Gave one to Pak Lah ("I biasa tak breakfastlah...") - jangan ngada2, (Oh, tapi pukul 9 or 10 I makanlah) and carried the remaining two to the office.

After the morning operations meeting, before the risk management meeting, makan punya makan, I noticed that I only got two pieces of the spicy, yummy frankfurter, maybe the size of a 20 sen coin. Ini tak adil, aku tipu.....

I called Pak Lah, "Pak Lah, nasi you banyak tak daging dia?"

"Banyak, I pun heran kenapa banyak sangat...."

Makan jambu, tak guna betul. Ceduk punya ceduk pagi tadi, punyalah nak cepat, ada tupperware dapat banyak daging, ada dapat tak ada daging.......

Ciiissss.....

I need some more daging spicy sedap.....

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Just Another Day

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It has started to snow today, the first snow this year. The weather is so unpredictable. It would be cold for a few days and then it would heat up again.

It was a typical weekend day for me. I went out for dinner last night, then for a few drinks with some of the guys and I arrived home just after 1 am. The book I am reading now kept me awake until about 2.30 am before I decided that I’d better sleep lest I’d waste away the daylight hours today. I woke up at 8 am for solat subuh, the sun does not come up until 8.22 am, went back to sleep and woke up again at 11 am famished. I cooked some rice and Lina’s ikan bilis goreng berlada never tasted so good.

While eating, I got a call about an accident offshore and we have to evacuate someone from the rig. There goes our statistics this year. I just needed to know that the injury was not life threatening – and it wasn’t, ten stitches and some bumps and bruises. Made sure all who needs to know does know about it and went about setting up the investigation team. They’ll go today – a holiday here (Memorial Day) and too bad it will screw up someone’s weekend. I knew that when I saw the drilling manager’s name on the call ID, it wasn’t going to be good news. Not at noon. If it is a few hours before noon, it could be an invitation to lunch. Had it been a few hours before dark, it could be an invitation to dinner but not during lunch time and dinner time. Which means, I have to eat my own cooking!!

Spoke with Lina as usual whenever I am in the office. What else, about the childrenlah. And oh, my niece Aina delivered her first child, a daughter on Hari Asyura. That is my sixth grand niece/nephew. She’ll be sharing her birthday with Sofia, who was born on that day too. Nazzim was born on Awal Muharram. I have to find out what day I was born according to the Muslim calendar. Lupa weh….

I think I’ll go home now and conjure up some ayam masak lemak cili api……

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