Misfortune In Paris : 28 April 2011 (Thursday)

Was travelling to Paris with my lovely wife, inspiring and ever joyous daughter and my "adik Ipar" ashraff.
The plan was for a family holiday outing to Disneyland and some sightseeing of Paris town. This is the 2nd time we went there.

Since my wife still got work to do, our original plan to embark on our journety early morning (after subuh) was delayed to almost 1 pm.
Following the GPS without really looking at maps made us use the "kampung" road in swiss. We got detour and enter Geneva town when it was rush hour and then got stuck in the inner road for quite awhile. The result we reach Paris about almost 11.30pm at night (10 hours driving).
Upon reaching Paris, the car tire got puncture very much near the hotel we were staying (less than 50m away). I run into the road curb and the tire burst. Open the trunk, and there was no spare tire. Instead they put the new tire repair patch which is useless if it is a major tire wreck.

Luckily the apartment caretaker comes to our aid (frederick) and promised to assist us in the morning. Obviously this was an expensive mistakes which will  put a dent to our pocket.

The next morning went down to buy croissant for breakfast and the car that I park last night was not there....yikes. Inform frederick and he told us he take care of it with quite a worried face. We decided to proceed with our site seeing  heavy heartedly.

After about 3 - 4pm got the called from frederick that the car is okay and need to change 2 tires for safety reason as we are travelling quite far. The total bill amounted to Euro 450.00 , 200.00 for the tyres, another 200.00 for towing and alignment etc and 50 euro as tips for frederick for his assistance.

The lesson learnt from all this was
1. My wonderful wife was never "berkira" about money unlike myself...
2. I have bad eyes at night
3. Paris road do not have the white border at the brim unlike in italy, malaysia or most city in the world :).
4. Allah is giving dugaan untuk memberi rezeki yg lebih murah. Considering the sins I made ...aku bersyukur yg tiada yg lebih buruk berlaku.
5. I love my wife and daughter more and more.

Lost My Brand New Nike Lunar Eclipse

18 February 2011

There goes the shoes that I just bought in Subang Parade on the 1st of January 2011 (meaning the shoes is approximately 49 days before it was taken away from me).

Sometimes you just have a certain liking towards certain items that you bought.
No doubt it wasn't the ferragamo , zegna nor gucci shoes that I had ( It cost me about RM 536.40 each as I bought 2 pairs, one for me and one for my lovely wife ,totaling to RM 1,072.80) which cost higher (doesn't mean this shoe price is cheap, just that there is other which is more expensive), but it gave me a feeling of newly refreshen ways of doing things...I don't know how to put it on words...perhaps some will understand what I meant.

Went out of the mosque (after friday prayer) , and the shoes wasn't there anymore. I look again and again. Am quite sure I put it at row 4, then called my newly found friends bapak rahman (Indonesian). He was nice enough to help me look for it and even informed the mosque personnel whom I guess felt a bit ashame of the incident.

Finally, told Rahman that it was no longer there and perhaps the mosque can borrow me a slipper while I go and get me a new set of shoes. Went to one shop that sells cheap Chinese made shoes. I later decided to invest a bit more and get me an adidas LA Trainer at another nearby sports store.

IT was shameful that I lost the shoes and the incident happened at a mosque and sadly this wasn't the first time either. Lost a brand new redwing in damansara mosque once as well.

 No doubt , people will say why did I wear a brand new shoes. My call was that I was bringing it to the house of god...to pray and submit myself to all mighty Allah. Things happen though, it is not the religion but the person that made others misinterpret the religion...Islam is a beautiful religion

Just remind myself, perhaps god is "mencabar/menduga" for all my sins and perhaps giving me better "rezeki", insyallah.....bottomline, I redha, and thank him....there could be worst challenges isn't it?

DOWN MEMORY LANE 2

 Bercuti di melaka.... buruk rupanya baju batik nie

 me my beautiful wife and ....errrrrrr

 my family and my adik ipars...ashraf and taufiq in penang ....holiday while attending wife's cousin wedding

 Kak wani tag along to penang. She change a lot when with us. Basically her dressing and appearence as well as academic. My wife did a good job.

 The maid has always been treated like family. She is my lovely daughter good friend and sister as well

 batrisya and cousins...adam and her uncle ashraf and uncle...errrr...anak uncle lan

 tisya and papa

 tisya and mummy

 its shaheeda's birthday i think

 Nice chili crab. Wanie meet her sister whom are working in singapore. batrisya as always ....:)

 Wanie...her sis and my daughter

Batrisya's birthday. Buat at our house in taman tun.....next to my wife is my mother in law's maid. the shrek is ashraf....berpeluh dalam tu ..

DOWN MEMORY LANE 1

Putreri Nur Anna Batrisya bt Azlan tengah berangan. Dining area of our taman tun house (2nd house,before we were staying in sri gombak)

 With Aris at Bandar Utama

 With Sara , Batrisya's best friend at Tadika Dyana. Her mommy is also my wife's college friend

 With My wife cousin's, unties etc.

 Another Batrisya berangan moment

 Bapak Batrisya exotic moment pakai kain.....very rare to see this (with kain I mean)

Batrisya with mummy and her atok kb

 Family portrait...in vietnam restraunt in One utama.

 Me and lovely wife at chinese restraunt in mandarin oriental hotel

My birthday

House Renovation

 Enlarging the gate from 12 feet to 16 feet. Hope this will makes it easier to park.

 Side roof and a hint of the enclosed patio

 Moving the small door from the left to the right side.

 Enclose patio. Perhaps later onn can add 2 fish ponds at the side and some water falls. Insyallah god give some "rezeki"

 Entrance to the dry kitchen bay

 Dry kitchen bay. Kitchen cabinet seems to be quite a substantial investment.

 Steps modification for exit to the back area.

With the hole hopefully there is more natural lights coming to the wet kitchen

Cars I owned before

 Alfa Romeo 168 in asian region it is called but officially it is a 164 (chinese don't like the number 4 hence the replacement to 8. I did a lot to make it to look like this. My first flare with italian cars.                                          

 Bought this for my wife. Sold it when we left for Italy. My loving wife love this car so much. Wish it was in purple as she always joke it to be in purple. Well can't have everything in life. I provide to the best I can afford.

 My toy. Sold it and replace with a harrier. Maybe aged and being slightly wise makes me change to a more practical car.

 Very reliable workhorse. a slight hint of image with lots of practicality. Either this or a european car.Maybe this is the start of the ego vs Modesty. Sold it when moved to Italy.

 Bought this as a family car (since having the coupe as a toy car)..perhaps one day will have a toy car again. Sold this too when moved to Italy to a nice chinese lady living in Port Dickson. Back then it was inpractical even having 2 units 4 x 4 but what can I say, cannot sell the isuzu earlier as the loan was to high. lesson learn;
i. buy when you can afford
ii. Try paying at least 30% down payment for ease of selling.
iii. Don't buy difficult to sell car.

a car I bought for my wife while I drove her wira around. During the early years of marriage. Maybe I do have this modesty after all since start of my ever so haywire carrier as a so called businessman/opportunist.

Prior to this I do also have a proton saga, kancil  and a satria gti as well as other arrays of cars that I used during my short stint as a used car sales (while working in Petronas).

Rat Race or Otherwise

Since I decide to come to Italy for a semi long vacation, it has always been a struggle in the brain either it was a right decision to keep low for a while and not to get entangled with the ever stressful rat race.

My definition of a rat race : a strong urge to compete with peers,family members etc to achieved a certain degree  of image/status especially in terms of wealth and also perhaps designation.
The ability to have things before your peers does so (expensive cars and watches) , travel around the world in business class (if working as senior managers in conglomerate for example), lavish your love ones etc.

Even though it has been  a decision to avoid the rat race, for a person whom has always push himself to the limits, it is easier said than done. Occasionally, the urges did comes especially when you read what your peers or colleague is achieving back in Malaysia (and I lost the opportunity to shine as I am not around). Ego has always been a factor for me and almost all men.

I envy people who can really take the modest life..take things easy and not to be bothered of the rat race. Even though I am doing it now, believe me it is not easy doing so. Maybe, what they say not to think of people above you but rather to look at how unlucky some people are not having anything at all is the remidy to it.

Family is more important .....always convince yourself this move will bond your family more.The sacrifices for the love to the family. ...yet...in due time do need to go back and join the race....perhaps not as diligent as before...but adequate to live a "senang" life with the love ones.