She's 18!!

Heh.  its my girl's birthday today.. pejam celik pejam celik dah pun 18 ;D

Pensively waiting beside her sleepy abah

Happy birthday my darling, may your wishes come true <3

Last nite was the farewell dinner for both my pengarah & his deputy. yup both of them will be retiring a few weeks of each other, leaving the dept in a rather precarious 'leaderless' situation.  not really a smart move by the movers & the shakers but i guess it was somehow overlooked.

Speeches by officers involved.

Being quite an insignificant member in the grand scheme of things, i dont normally need to attend such functions but this time i did. from time to time the kelab sukan gives back to its members and the society by way of contributions & awards. and last nite, member's children who had obtained good results for SPM 2009 was acknowledged for academic excellence by the presentation of a certificate & cash incentive. AH was among the lucky few but unfortunately i had to represent her bcos she couldnt make it. it was after all the middle of a work week.

Flowers, certs & cash incentive for AH.

The farewell was simple but well organized considering the frequently changing dates. i'm sure it wasnt easy to find a suitable date convenient to both officers.  our pengarah has always potrayed himself as a quiet, dependable person and his speech was quite poignant, subtle but the message was clear nonetheless.  work as a team and strive towards a common goal.

Golfman met up with a couple of old friends from way back in his college days in itm as well as in nec.  the changes that we see in others will inadvertently cause us to reflect upon the changes in ourselves.. which is a good thing i think bcos we're usually the last ones to realise what we have become LOL.

I guess the food didnt quite agree with the golfman bcos we made a detour instead of going straight home.  a stop for his char kuey teow fix hehehe.

He 'carbo loaded' so we jogged this morning ;D

Being happy

Its tough to think of anything else when we're down in the dumps, but when theres nowhere else to go, theres sometimes a faint ray of light peeking out at you from the dark endless tunnel. if you dont see it then go search for it bcos the nur is definitely there, buried somewhere in the shadowy hollows. follow it and it might just lead you out of the cold

As Bergen bluntly puts it in his I get it post, accept life, accept the Lord's will and just get on with it.

Bersyukurlah. choose to be happy. its better than being sad.


To my dearest darlings AF, AI & AH.. when things dont turn out the way you expect them to (as they often will) dont be too sad.  life goes on no matter what so hang on and try to enjoy the ride. insyallah the Lord takes care of His own <3

Endomondo

First time i took my phone with me on a run, and with it the use of endomondo.

A short run by all counts bcos by the time i had dinner ready it was past 7 and maghrib was hot on my heels.  i cut across the main road into the fringes of seksyen 11, past seksyen 10 and back into seksyen 9.

Duration  - 0:26:31
Distance  - 3.46km
Avg. Speed - 7.4 min/km

Hey this endo thing is pretty cool.. at least to a gadget challenged makcik like me la.  i normally run unencumbered. just my car keys when i do the tasik loops so having the phone with me was rather distracting. but if i was to consider juney's crazy plan wanna increase my mileage then i'd better start exploring the roads of shah alam.

Now all i hafta do is find a pouch that wont bounce so much when i run -_-'

Mid Sya'ban

HADIS MENGENAI MALAM NISFU SYA’BAN 

(http://ekhutbah.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/kelebihan-puasa-dan-nisfu-syaaban/)

1. Daripada Makhul daripada Malik bin Yakhamir daripada Muaz bin Jabal daripada Nabi S.A.W telah bersabda: Sesungguhnya Allah ta’ala memerhati makhlukNya pada malam nisfu(pertengahan) daripada Sya’ban maka Dia akan mengampuni semua makhlukNya melainkan orang yang syirik atau orang yang bermusuhan.
( Hadis ini isnadnya Hasan dan dikeluarkan oleh Ibn Habban, Al-Baihaqi dan At-Thobarani ) 

2.Daripada Hisham bin Hassan daripada ( Al-Hasan daripada) Usman bin Abi Al-’As daripada Nabi S.A.W telah bersabda : Apabila tibanya malam nisfu (pertengahan) daripada bulan Sya’ban, pemanggil akan memanggil : Adakah daripada mereka yang memohon keampunan maka nescaya diampun baginya ? Adakah daripada kalangan mereka yang meminta maka akan diberi? Maka tidak ada seseorang yang memohon sesuatu melainkan akan diberi melainkan penzina dengan kemaluannya ataupun orang syirik.
( Hadis ini isnadnya Hasan dan dikeluarkan oleh Al-Kharaiti, Al-Baihaqi dan imam Sayuti ) 

Ready or not, its almost upon us.  Ramadhan Al Mubarak.

Workout Log

2k 'synchronized' jogging with golfman ;D

Breaking the jinx

Juney & me, we'd almost given up on ever meeting each other. seems that every plan we made never saw the light of day and it's become a running joke between us that we needed to mandi bunga just to break the jinx LOL.

Well thank god it didnt hafta come to that (although soaking away in a tub filled with fragrant petals aint such a bad idea actually lol).

We finally broke the jinx and met up at the jogging track of seksyen 7 yesterday.

Surprise surprise.. juney had azza in tow. both of them had only recently lost their 'virginities' at scklm 2010.  both are now proud marathoners!!

Juney & Azza (ciloked from the anak mami's blog lol)

We had a blast bergebang while we walked our way to a total of  about 5km (juney is still nursing a bad knee) and it continued right into brunch. poor juney & azza must have had an earfull bcos boy, was i full of Q's lol. i've pretty much been doing this running thing on my own and have never really had the chance to have a heart to heart with other female runners :D

We gotta do this again la gfs.. and this time we must take pics hehehe.

In the face of too much

.. food!!!

That will be the downside of ramadhan. ironic isnt it that food would be overflowing the very month that fasting is observed. when our main focus should be of penitence & worship.

Worse part is, even when you put up a fight, you get so easily sucked into the bottomless pit of excess.

Talking about food & excesses, i remember this book about weight-loss. its pretty simple and advocates just 4 basic rules:

1. When you are hungry, EAT
2. EAT WHAT YOU WANT, not what you think you should.
3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthful.
4. When you think you are full, STOP.

What i found intriguing about it was how it corresponded with the prophet's teaching. if one were to truly comprehend its meaning, its a reflection of familiar hadiths and sunnah.

Rasulullah ate enough to keep him going, but no so much as to make him fat. Ibn ‘Umar (ra - may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The believer eats in one stomach whilst the dis-believer eats in seven.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (5081) and Muslim (2060).

Rasulullah taught his ummah something to protect them from diseases caused by eating and drinking. He said: “The son of Adam does not fill any vessel worse than his stomach. It is sufficient for the son of Adam to eat a few mouthfuls, to keep him going. If he must do that (fill his stomach), then let him fill one third with food, one third with drink and one third with air.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (1381), Ibn Maajah (3349); 

It is the sunnah to eat slowly and chew properly. Slow eating reduces the consumption of food, as it postpones much of the meal to a time when the absorption of nutrients begin to produce physiological signals of satiety.

"O children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer; eat and drink, but waste not by excess. For Allah loves not the wasters."

- The Holy Quran, 7:31 

And it also puts the responsibility of our bodies back to us. for it to work we need to be in touch with ourselves and to be truly honest.  really needs major rethinking here.. when was the last time we actually listened to what our bodies are saying? but once its in place, the benefits are huge. me, i'm still struggling.

Ramadhan is almost upon us... lets all make the most of it.

Lord give me the strength & resolve to give it my best.

Withering hearts

When you reach my age, you've seen most of what the power of 'love' can do.  it can make or break, end in tragedy or celebration, and bcos it involves other than ourselves, its not totally within our control.

I see love transcending barriers & hardship.  i see love spreading comfort & solace. but then i also see the heartbreak & desolation. and it especially saddens me when families are torn apart in the name of 'love'.

It takes two to tango. and it takes two to make 'it' happen, whatever 'it' is.

Nothing about love is ever predictable.  and for that very reason, it has always been used as an excuse for a change of heart.  "i love you" one minute "i just dont love you" the next, making it perhaps the most abused word on the planet.

I'm no authority on love and like everyone else i pray that love & goodwill will forever wrap me in its comforting folds. but i do know this, that when love is taken to the level where vows are exchanged, there will be commitment & responsibilities attached to it.  change of hearts come with a price and some pay quite dearly...  and i'm not just talking about RMs here.

When love wanes and our 'empty' hearts scream for sympathy & attention, should we then conveniently seek another? when love becomes a habit, should the promise of excitement lure us away from a life built together?  and how could it be within an instant, what was once a safe haven is now the deepest depth of hell?

Providence may have some hand in our lives but in the end, its all about making our own choices.  bcos as long as we're living & breathing, theres no excuse not to go through our lives with eyes wide open.

Just call a spade a spade. whichever way we look at it, love has never been spelled as l-u-s-t. it is what it is.

Fire.. better not go playing with it.

Ya Rahman Ya Rahim hanya kasih MU yang abadi.

Workday humour

Hik hik ;p

Did i mention that AH bullied me into taking the stairs the last time i dropped her (plus bags of stuff) off at her appartment in casa subang - ALL 10 STOREYS of it (P1, P2, P3 plus 7 storeys)!!!!!!  Heh, they really should do something about managing the lifts during peak hours.

But then again, ask adidas, impossible is nothing aight? ;D

New tricks for old dogs

I have an extremely sore derriere right now.

Something quite unexpected.

I thought with all my running (cewah konon lol) i would just breeze thru yesterday's walkathon but boy, was i ever wrong!!  i completely forgot that although both deal with forward motion, the mechanics are different.. and so are the muscles used.  apparently walking uses a lot more of the gluteus maximus than i'd thought lol ;p

I now waddle like a duck. serious.

Saturday nite saw my head spinning with so many possibilities.  golfman would be off to a golf tournament so that would leave me with time to do away as i wished. my options - the sunday morning session at the dataran, or the usual plodding round the tasik, or giving the anggerik walk 2010 a try, or go intai2 my gf at dataran merdeka where the siemens run was being held.  after giving the matter some thought, i decided it just wasnt the right time to meet up with juney bcos its her daughter's maiden run and they'd surely want to bonding2 together la.

So i was thinking, why not give the walkathon a try? sunday morning lenggang kangkong wasnt such a bad idea and it would be quite a new experience for me (cant even remember la the last time i was in a walkathon lol).

As usual, there was a little drama in my otherwise monotonous life, perpetuated by me of course. i got to know about the walk thru a friend on friday and information was pretty scarce.  i had nothing much accept for what was detailed out on the form. it was open to all malaysians and there was no fee involved - it was for free but you needed a bib to participate and for that you needed to register.  there were several categories and mostly it was for a distance of 6km.  flag off was at 7 am @ the kwsp/umno selangor building in seksyen 11.

Simple right, but i got it mixed up somehow.  i parked my car at the state mosque bcos i thought the event was held at dataran merdeka shah alam.  when i reached the area not only was it in semi darkness (around 6.45am) but there wasnt anyone there either.  oh maybe a lost soul or two but not the crowd i was expecting.  luckily i had the presence of mind to bring along my participating form (which i had faxed earlier) so i was able (with a lot of difficulty bcos of my failing eyesight the font was too small) to make out the details.

Thats when i realised i was at the wrong place!!

With only 10 mins left, i had no choice but to run bcos although it was actually just round the other corner,  it was quite a distance to cover in such a short space of time.

Ha ha ha. to cut the story short i shouldnt have bothered. when i arrived registration had only started and me, who was soo very the lambat, got herself the first bib no. for the women veteran category - 001 in bright yellow (yes its colour coded lol).

Throughout the event, it became quite apparent that time didnt appear to be the organizer's main priority. so used to races being flagged off on time, the wait seemed endless to me. after an unnecessarily long & elaborate senamrobik session (15mins would have suffice as a warm up session), the 'gun' finally went off at 8.30am.  yup. an hour & a half from the stipulated time.  but of course i cant complain much bcos it was after all a free/community activity.

 Lining up for the 'senamrobik' session

Thankfully the weather was good, making the 6km walk not the scorcher i had anticipated.  all along the way i had to keep reminding myself that i was in a walkathon and not to break into a run lol.  walking fast is NOT as easy as it seems (thus the sore butt ekekeh).

I finished good.  on top of the usual medal & cert, i even won me some cash money for coming in 2nd (not much but 200 is still nothing to laugh at)!! hehehe.. yup, there was nobody more surprised than me that morning. and although i actually missed getting myself a shiny new red bike for not pushing harder (bikes only for all 1st place winners), i'm happy bcos it never crossed my mind that i'd even get a placing!!

 Nestle & digi vans

Finishing lanes

There were also lots of freebies & give-aways... free flowing milo & popcorn, hampers & stuff for the lucky draw, balloons & pouches from digi (the main sponsor i think).  yours truly was also 'lucky' enough to get something for the lucky draw - a chunky summer-ish bag.

Alhamdulillah, tak la ku sangka.  not too bad for a morning's walk eh ;p

[I'm also considering more power walks in my routine to tone up my glutes heheheh]

Coffee break

I'm bogged down with work.

I'm stuck in here when i'd rather be out there!! and in my mind's eye whenever i think of running this is what i see:

But then i start to think, will it ever get down to this?

*cough cough cough*


Weh la weh, tersedak kopi la pulak ekekekeh ;p

Broken connection

The pc at my office suddenly went kaput on me and the ICT guy has officially declared it as 'unfit for use' aka 'JUNK'.

Its been more than a week but thankfully i'm now finally reconnected via an old recycled pc (while i wait in line for a new one).

Recycle pun recycle la, asalkan bole buat keje (with a little surfing on the side lol) ;p

I was away for a 3-day team building session at Kalumpang Resort & Training Centre starting the 8th. and although it was a welcomed break, it sadly clashed with AH's registration at Taylor's. t'was the first time that my baby's leaving home and i wasnt around! but on the bright side, it gave golfman the opportunity to finally play an active part in his children's life. it can never make up for all of his absences; those crucial times that he wasnt around but at least it would be a start and an experience in itself, for both parties.

Would you believe, my baby girl's just in casa subang but i still miss her terribly!! nak buat macamane, bongsu girl la kan :)

But.. hafta reign in my feelings, musnt spook her out. its her time and she needs to find her way.

Ma doakan yang terbaik untuk anak2 mama semua. semoga berjaya & bahagia dunia akhirat.

Mini jumble sale

Yup KUB was given the green light to proceed with our own little jumble sale. as a means of collecting funds for our annual activities. and me, instead of contributing used clothing or goods, was asked if i could cook up something to sell.. namely cream-puffs.

Heh, producing enough puffs to make selling viable filled me with trepidation.. i only had a mini oven to work with since my regular oven stopped working (pukul brape la dapat tido ni nanti). but not to disappoint, i agreed and ended up not sleeping a wink (dah agak dah lol).

We opened our booth at the lobby in time for the long lunch break. and the SUK crowd was extremely supportive of our venture bcos before long we had to call for extra staff to lend a helping hand lol.

And our pengarah was kind enough to check on what we were up to have a look-see ;p

Glad to say, the mini jumble sale was a roaring success and the boss was mighty pleased with the collective show of support and cooperation by all of us.

Lordy i need my sleep *yawn*

Plod on

Golfman's been down with flu since Monday but have been dragging himself to work so that he can settle as much of the 'unfinished business' as possible. his last days are fast approaching and there seem to be 1001 things to do.  they even threw him a farewell lunch yesterday, the running joke being, "to be eligible for this sumptious kari kepala ikan treat, first you need to quit the company!!".

Har-de-har-har *cue the dripping sarcasm*

I just hope its a smooth transition for him. a man takes great pride in his ability to provide and no matter what you say, is greatly affected by it.

I've been overshooting my morning schedule lately and have had to trim my runs to suit the limited time frame.  its been mostly 2-3kms only and although its better than nothing, it hasnt been all that satisfying. today was no exception.  by the time i waved golfman off to work, i was left with exactly 30 mins to play around with - if i wanted my usual 4k and still make it to work, there can be no warming up, no cooling down.  but with the recent spat of rest days i've been having, i knew i just had to go for it.

And that very desperation was probably what got me going.. bcos surprisingly, i found myself shaving off almost 5 mins from my usual time!  gawd, thats a big big thing for me.. and its so unbelievable i'm not as happy as i should be.  why? bcos for me, 4k in 30 mins is almost carved in stone.  no matter what i do, i'm usually able to cut the time by only 1-2mins.  so i dunno. maybe my watch turned faulty or the double loop that i did was a couple of metres short.

Takkan la kot *still pondering*

But whatever it is, i was pushing myself (a rather rare occurence bcos i like staying in my comfort zone lol) and it did turn out to be a darn good run.  plus i made it to work with 2 mins to spare.

Just peachy ;D

Workout Log
4k/26mins?/TSA