Am I A Gold Digger?

(Or Murah Rezeki Bila Mengunjungi Masjid)

 

How should I start my story…

The story began on monday when Foo didn't turn up for work because he got fever. Shuhairy on the other hand had been busy as he had to juggle between his work, extra work, another extra work, exams and also preparation for his wedding. So he basically went in and out of the office all the time.

Came the lunch hour and I were left alone in the office. I felt bored and decided to go to Uniten Mosque for Zohor Prayer before having my lunch at the food court nearby. On my way there, I met my Ustaz who was also going for his lunch. That day he was alone since all other staff at the mosque went elsewhere. So I decided to join him for lunch. We both ate Arabic rice, which comes in a huge portion. We then talked about ourselves and about how I opened a new blog for our neighborhood mosque. He then asked me to make one for the mosque in his neighborhood. Then when we're done eating, he paid for my meal which was to me, quite costly. Hurm… This one is acceptable because he kinda paid for my favor.

The next day, The same thing happened. This time I asked the Ustaz if he had his lunch but unfortunately, he already had his. So I walked out to the food court to have my lunch. Then came my Head of Department (the Boss of my Big Boss who recently came back from Mecca) I greeted him and selamber-ly asked him if he had his lunch. He said he haven't and invited me to join him. Bagaikan "pucuk dicita ulam mendatang" I said to myself "I don't have to eat alone today, at least I got company." So I followed him to the food court. Actually, I am not really close to him as I would with my Ustaz since I was his student for only 1 semester and we never lepak together before. This time we went to the mamak stall beside the arab stall. We took our food and then when it comes to paying for the food, He said to Kabir the cashier to include mine together. I said "Tak payahlah Dr… Seganlah…". Since he insisted I just let him paid but since I was not the type who took advantage of the generosity of others, I cancel my plan for banana smoothie (walaupun if I wanna order also can) and opt for plain water since he had the same.

That was okay but the thing that makes me felt bad was that he finished his meal first and had to wait for me. Then, after the meal I just thanked him and we parted ways. That makes me feel that I'm using him so that I can get free meal.

But, Thinking back what had happened the past 2 days kinda showed me what my mother had always reminded me that when people visit the mosque often, God will be generous upon you and will provide you with livelihood in ways you would never expected.

Industrial Training Online Log

Day Eight

8.30 p.m. ~ I'm still in my office.

Today has been a pretty stressful day for me. Not because I had a lot of work to do but for being in a very tight position. So tight in fact that I almost choked myself. Came to the office in the morning in the heavy rain. But, I'm not as gloomy as the weather as I was in full spirit to work. I came earlier than others, stamped my attendance and got out to greet other people (who came later than me of course). Then I came into the office just to find Foo's leg all wrapped up. He said that he sprained his foot and could not follow me to the site.

As soon as I had set up my workstation, I went on to work straight away. Printed few documents and went up to the EAC room. Then I went to my boss's room to pass some empty files given to him by those upstairs. Then I went back to my office. From the first encounter with my boss, I started to feel that something is not working so well. My full spirit had spilled and now got only some left.

Shortly after that, my boss came to my desk asking about the task that had been given to me. I said there are some that I had done and some others which I have yet to complete since I've been concentrating on the ISO forms for the past 2 days. (Actually I don't have mood to open my Soil Mechanics book to search for the info. I was hoping that I could somehow magically get a copy of the soil lab manual which I can copy straight away). He asked me can I finish it by that day itself? I was not so sure that I can finish it in one day since it involves a lot of work and I kinda promised Dr. Lee which is my boss's boss to bring his PhD student to get some soil sample. The thing was that I forgotten to tell him on the day we made the promise with his boss. Then he started giving his lectures about him being my immediate supervisor and I had to report solely to him. He then tried to call Dr. Lee but the line was not answered. Then he said to me to try to delay the site visit.

I immediately started on the new task given by my boss but having not eaten anything since morning, I felt really hungry. Then Shuhairy asked us to join him for breakfast so I followed him. Foo on the other hand wanted to go see a doctor regarding his sprained foot so he did not follow us.

We went for breakfast at La Rizz in Sungai Merab. After I ordered so much food hen only I realize that my wallet got left in my car back in Uniten. So, terpaksalah Kamal (Shuhairy's funny talking friend) paid for us all. I'm really sorry for that.

Then Shuhairy brought us to see the property in Sg. Merab that he's gonna buy from his uncle. The plot of land still got trees (and lots of them) on it. So he told me about the planning for development of the plot of land and asked me if it's okay to do so. I replied that it depends on the area and that you have to conduct a proper study to determine that.

Later we went back to the office. As I walk to my office, I saw Mr. Haidar, the Iraqi PhD student waited in front of my office door. I was hoping that he would go to meet Dr Lee who is his supervisor but apparently he didn't. He had been waiting for 45 minutes in there to see me. I felt really guilty for him so despite the order by my boss to delay that visit, I decided to just go for it and make it a really quick one. I told Haidar that we kinda have a situation in the office and that I cannot be gone from the office for too long. So I brought him to Desa Malawati in Hulu Klang to get those samples. Actually I regretted taking the sample fron that site since the procedure are very tedious. But it seems that Haidar is really determined to get his sample. We got inside the project site through the gate at the back near the workers cabin. We then snuck through the dark alleys in between the cabins, walking past those indons singing karaoke while some others were eating. After getting our sample, we quickly fled the scene before the site supervisor realizes what happened.

While I was on my way to the site, I got a phone call from my boss. He sounded really upset since I disobeyed his order. He asked me "Kan saya dah kata suruh tangguh? Kita tengah … blah blah blah and so on and so forth" He asked me about the moderator forms which I did earlier. I said that I gave it to Ridhwan and he put it in the shelf. So maybe he can ask Ridhwan. He then said "Takpelah" while sounded really frustrated. Haiiyooo… I feey really bad. My full spirit has now totally gone.

After getting the samples for Haidar, we quickly went back to Uniten where I drove like a madman. I almost met an accident where a car in front of me suddenly brakes hard that smokes came out from the tyres. Luckily nothing happened and I continued mt crazy driving until we reach Uniten.

I sent Haidar and his samples and head straight to my office. the time was 12.30 p.m. I quickly got inside and start to do my task of doing the soil test description.

Industrial Training Online Log

Day Six

On this day I followed Foo to the office. My brother sent me to his house in Puchong and then we went together to the office. Upon arrival at the office, I was given a set of forms to be filled and to be signed by each lecturer. My boss looked somewhat kelam-kabut on that day and he wanted me to finish filling that form as soon as possible so that I can get the signatures of the lecturer quickly.

So I began my work calling up lecturers to confirm up details about their subjects. One by one the forms got printed. Foo also helped out with the typing.

Then Achong and Afiq came to our office. Actually they just got out of their apartments as it was due for them to surrender their keys. So they needed a place to sit and do their work. Since they are both my best friends, so I let them share my huge table and also my electrical port.

After that, nothing interesting happened and I continued to finish my forms till it's time to go home.

 

Day Seven

Today I arrived late to punch my attendance by 1 minute due to the unnecessary u-turn that just had to be made by my brother. If not, my record would have been pretty clean with all blue inks printed on the card.

Then I got out again explaining to my brother the way to KL from Uniten. After that, I quickly went inside the office, set up my workstation and finish up whatever not finished from yesterday. Alhamdulillah within minutes it was done and just in time before my boss came in to check on my progress.

Then it's time to go and chase after lecturers for their signatures. By lunch time, the job is done. I then gone to Bangi to have some soup and bun together with Achong, Shuhairy, Afiq, Foo and also Qayyum. Stayed there and sembang-sembang for like 45 minutes then head back to the office.

Then I was instructed to file those forms in the EAC room. What am I supposed to do? So I asked the akaks-akaks from the storm centre to help me locate a new file for me to put the forms in. Hahaha.

Then I left the room to my office to prepare the label for the file. Sesampainya saya at my office, by coincidence, my boss came and ask us to join him for tea. Went for tea until 5.30, went back to the office just to find out that Foo is waiting for me to get home (since I carpool with him). So I packed my stuff and joined him to travel back home.

But the story was not over yet…

At the car park, as we're gonna step into Foo's car, He said to me that by next week, he's gonna get the new car that he ordered. He praises the dealer for being so efficient. Then he stuck in his car key and tried to start the engine. He twisted the key but nothing happened… He tried again but still nothing happened. Aah sudah!!!... The car heard the news and got really upset. So apa lagi? Terpaksalah me and Achong who happened to be nearby push the car to get it started. I had to push the car while wearing my leather shoes on that rugged tarmac. Habislah my shoes. Anyway, after several attempts, Foo managed to get the engine to start and we all can go home.

Industrial Training Online Log

Fifth Day

It was a Friday and I don't know why on earth during that day I don all black. I wore Black Nehru-collared shirt, black slack and black shoes. Maybe it was the only shirt that resembles Baju Melayu especially the collar part. Hahaha.

That day was also the day me and Foo started carpooling together. We arrived at the office quite early and got ready to start work. Not long after that, came my boss inviting us to go for breakfast together. So we went to Upten in Shuhairy's new car. After sitting in Upten for around 45 minutes, we went back to the office. At the office my boss said to me that I need to help him finish the ISO thingy. So I said okay to him.

When we got back at the office, I saw some of my friends preparing to do their final FYP presentation. I went to greet them, have a little chat and then return back to the office. Shortly after that, bothe me and Foo were called by my boss to follow him to do the job he asked me before. We went to Pn. Irfah's room. There we met Dr Lee who then asked us both to go to his room. We stayed in Dr. Lee's room for like until almost noon. We talked about many things which most of them involves him repeating the same point over and over again. Ahhh~~ How tiring having to pretend that you're interested in discussing such things. Takpelah… anyway.

After we managed to get out of Dr. Lee's room, we went back to our office and tried to get back to my boss. But apparently he got busy with his FYP students rehearsing the points for the presentation in the evening. I went there and lepak together with them seeing them discussing about which point needed and which are not needed in the presentation. After that, My boss said that he's hungry nad wanted to eat some Arabic food. So, we all together with Faliq and Hamzah went back to Upten to have some Nasi Arab. There, we had a little chat and then I got to know that my boss used to live in Rapat Setia in Ipoh which was neighboring Hamzah's house. Then I also got to know that Hamzah's father was my dad's office mate bach in the days. Hurm… Could it mean that we used to be friends when we were small like I was a schoolmate of Pakdin's when we were in standard 2? Maybe… Maybe not… I couldn't remember. But What I am sure of is that both our fathers quitted Jabatan Kajibumi and went on our different career path. His father went on to be an engineer at TNB while my dad ventured on his own establishing a contracting company.

Aih melalut pulak dah…

After lunch we went for Friday prayer, and then went to Amanah to lepak there for the last time. I didn't stay there for long and went back to my office instead. Then Achong came and lepak in my office until it's time for us to go home.

Haha. Practically my day last Friday was filled with waiting and discussing things. Nothing much done on that day.

Craze Over Music...

Well as we all know, Malaysians are all crazy about singing and music. The testimpny to this is the fact that we have no less than 5 reality TV shows which concentrates on producing more singers (Quantity YES but Quality is another story). Here are some advertisment of a reality TV show which I feel quite funny to miss. Enjoy!!







All the videos above are from Malaysian Idol but the one below is a different kind of Idol. The first time I saw this video, it sent chill down my spine.



Thisis the video of the late Mona Fandey, a singer cum bomoh who cold bloodedly killed a state assemblyman in her house and cut him into 13 pieces. After months of trial and several controversies later, she was sentenced to death by hanging. I hope those who were produced by these realty shows don't end up like her. Ngeeeeeee..

Industrial Training Online Log

Since I was too tired and sleepy yesterday to write anything, this post is made for my day three and day four of my Industrial Training.

Day Three;

Whoaaa, this time I manage to wake up early to get into the bathroom before 7 o'clock. But I might have stayed extra long in there that I only manage to depart for work at 7.35 a.m. Takpelah still sempat what… half an hour. Yaa right, memang tepat – tepat half an hour plus 1 minute I punched my attendance which was at 8.06 a.m. Dah… my first entry, I got merah already. But nevermind, My boss said the latest I should be in office is by 8.30 so it's still ok lah. I entered my office and saw everyone was there already and I was still the last one to arrive. Turnes out that Shuhairy came at 6.00 a.m. to mark our test paper (He was our lab instructor until last week) and Foo just got in a few minutes before I do. So I did the usual thing I did for the past 2 days (open my laptop and check my email) and then finish up the filing. After that My Boss came in and gave me more documents including a copy of a BQ (bill of quantity) to sumbat into the already full file. Then I got email after email that I have to respond to and those are all regarding one single thing, the notes of the discussion made yesterday. Haha. Then on request of my boss, I went up to the third floor to the big boss' room to ask for the previous minutes of meeting (together with my FYP log book and also Foundation Engineering test II paper which I scored badly but anyway at least half of the class got their marks like I did).

Then straight after that, my boss came to my desk and took all the things he gave me earlier in the morning (except for a receipt for me to do the claim process). He said it's not that he didn't trust us but it's the procedure and he might have overlooked it. To me, I think there has been some misunderstanding in the way they handle the thing. It is true that the documents were supposed to be a secret one but the secret thing about it was only the pricing guide and not the scope of work to be done. We are supposed to be given an empty BQ and not the one filled with all the numbers. Surely it will cause conflict of interest especially me with the position that I'm in right now and it's well known to everyone within the project team. Haha. What position I'm in to cause the conflict of nterest? I don't know… or better said I malas wanna write in here.

After that I said oklah. What to do. Dah memang the procedure like that so I cannot do anything about it. So I continue my work. Then came in Ms Sivadass to give me the BQ I asked from him. Alamak, again!! Hahaha I have to asy to him sorry but we are not allowed to get hold on the BQ anymore until the project has been awarded. And then he said that's the reason why he had been holding it off me for days. Laa… well, he should have said it earlier. So we don't have to go through any of these troubles. Hahaha.

Well anyway, enough with the procedure problem. So, me and Foo went out for lunch with Shuhairy at COE Foodcourt. There we met Kamal, Cheng, Mr. Arabi Nawwaf Saud Al-Qadi, Omar and also Dr. Bashar. So I had lunch with Dr. Bashar, my most feared lecturer… hurm… nice.

After lunch came back to office and met Dr Lee. He explained why we cannot have this and that. It's all done to avoid complain by the contractor later on. Then he said the very word that have been said by the two person who met me before, " It's not that I don't trust you…". Haha, takpelah… anyway, of course they cannot trust us. We are the temporary staff and we are not even trusted to handle the photocopy machine, apetah lagi nak handle big things like BQ.

Then, the rest of the day went on like normal until we got home. It's just that since Foo live just by the highway where I travel every day and we just parked our car was left in the parking lot untouched from 8 to 5.30; we made a pact to carpool together starting tomorrow.

Day Four,

The day started pretty early today, I got out from home at 7.15 a.m. and went ahead to pick up Foo. After winding up and down the 'Bukit' and got to the highway, I got the shock of the day. The highway was surprisingly empty on a Thursday. Normally the exit from Putra Heights will be blocked by the cars lining up to turn into USJ but today there's hardly any vehicle turning into the junction. In 10 minutes I've reached Foo's house. After waiting for quite some time I got a call from him saying that I should go first because he kinda misplaced his wallet and I got makeup test to attend. So I went out to the highway again. The time was well past 7.30 a.m. but the road section is still pretty clear. In Transportation terms, if on other days I would consider the highway stretch to have a Level of Service (LOS) E but today it might have gone up to LOS C which is quite significant. So I happily drove my car (as my boss would say – "While singing Uniten song") and still manage to arrive in Uniten and punched the attendance at 7.46 a.m. Waahhh!!! First time weiii~ arrive earlier than everyone else in my office. But still I couldn't beat my boss (He got his own room so I don't see him, I just saw his car).

Shortly after that, Shuhairy came. He straight away printed the test paper and handed it over to me. So I got 1 hour to finish it. I do, do, do, do, and manage to finish the exam by 9.30 a.m. (hahaha Jangan marah…) Then me and Foo (who arrived while I was doing my exam) went out on site visit (or better said in search of one). In case I haven't mention, today, we are on our special assignment by our big boss to search for samples of Kanny Hill Formation and sandy Weathered Granite soil. He had asked me to do it like two months ago and he asked me to take a day off to search for it. The assignment was actually given to me personally but I dragged Foo along coz since the starting, we have been doing pretty much the same thing. It's just that we don't do it together (he has his own set of the same documents to file). So today is pretty much our get – along – and – do – stuff – together – day.

First stop, Upten Foodcourt. Fill up the tanks with food before start doing physical work. Then we move on to our next stop, the Hardware store. We have to drop by the shop since I was too old (I was like 70 to 85 years old) to remember to bring a shovel and some plastic bags to collect the sample. Or else how are we gonna transport the sample? So I have to buy some plastic bags and a shovel. Luckily the shop sells clear plastic bags loosely and is sold by its weight. So I bought 100 grams of the stuff (around 12 pieces of plastic bags) and a scoop (since my gardening scoop has already bengkang-bengkok so why not get myself a new one).

Then we head straight for Kenny Hill (nowadays known as Bukit Tunku. Kenny hill formation is named after the rock formation on this hill) to find any project which involves excavation which we can gather some soil sample. As usual, for every visit to Bukit Tunku, I will have problem finding a junction into the area. After few wrong turnings, I decided to enter Bukit Tunku through Jalan Duta as I did on my previous visit there. This time I entered through Langgak Tunku Off Jalan Duta. Before I get to get any deeper into the area, we saw a hoarding fence. "This is a good sign", so I turned around to have a better look and JACKPOT!!! They're doing excavation works!!! So we quickly parked the car, get our safety helmet and got ourselves into the site.

At first I asked an Indonesian worker if we could speak to their site supervisor, but he said they don't have their supervisor there then I asked if I could have his number and he said "no number". Then I said, "Tak apalah kalo gitu' cume gue mau ambik sedikit tanah disini mau buat experiment di universitas". So I gave him a plastic bag and he immediately filled it with the soil. After thanking the Indonesian guy, we were about to head to the next site when there came a smartly dressed but with worried – looking face guy from inside. He greeted us and we immediately greeted him back. We said to him that we are from Uniten on an assignment to find some Kenny hill formation. His reaction was somewhat relieved to find out that we are from University and not some authority enforcer. He then said to me, "You sure ke sini Kenny Hill Formation?" I replied to him,"Takkanlah tak pulak, sini kan Kenny Hill". So he agreed to let us get some more sample from his site and also agreed to help us out to get our ten bags of sample and gave us his contact number.

Yess… First mission completed. We then head to the second site which is situated just beside Intan Kenny Condominiums which confirms our claim that Kenny Hill was in fact Bukit Tunku. This time, since the site supervisor is a Chinese, Foo took the lead to approach him. And both supervisors in both site turns out to be very warm and friendly. So in a very short time our assignment in Bukit Tunku is over.

We head next to Hulu Klang area where I suspect we would find the weathered granite. And we did find it in Kemensah area. It didn't take long to get the sample but since the area was much bigger than Bukit Tunku, the search took slightly longer time to finish and also because the site we approached was run by a big company, we didn't get a very warm welcome. After collecting the two samples needed we headed back to Uniten to have our lunch.

After lunch, we head back to the office and sat in our cubicle doing nothing (since I didn't bring my laptop, there's nothing much that I can do in the office) until 5.30 p.m. punched the attendance, and head straight home. Tomorrow we're gonna start carpooling. Say yes to environmental friendly method of travelling to work!!

Industrial Training Online Log

Day Two of my Industrial Training.

First thing in the morning, I got kantoi-ed with my boss for coming late to work. In fact, I came so late that I only arrive at the office at 9.20 a.m. Kesian pulak at Foo for having to wait for me since I held the office key.

Upon entering the room I began the process of taking over the new cubicle. Move the furniture here and there, get a chair for myself, call the cleaner to clean the room and voila!!! I got my own space for me to work in. Yay!!!!

After that brief cleaning process, I began my work for the day. Continue filing the documents and sorting out the relevant documents from the non-relevant ones, and emailing my boss for the documents I have yet to receive.

Then my big boss came by the office. He wanted to introduce to us our new lecturer for the department. Aarrgghhh.. I forgot her name… well nevermind… anyway I didn't have the chance to talk to her yet. And she got her own room. Only Shuhairy talked to her sharing some knowledge about Uniten and also the system here. Haha. My boss also came by and he sempat to ask me to come out with a note about our discussion yesterday with TNB Transmission.

After that distraction from the job, I continue my day with the copying the files process. I had to copy all the documents that Foo has but I don't. So I took all the documents and take a short walk across the lobby to the COE office. Got myself into the office and head for the photocopy machine. Hehehe. I tested on many skills of copying. Normal put-all-in-tray copying, one page – by – one page, A3 plan copy, and also double sided copy. Hehe kiranya I get to know the machine.

Shortly before lunch I started on the notes of the discussion, stop a while for lunch with Arechong, Afiq, Foo, Faliq and Muazan. Came back at 2 and continue finishing the note and emailed everyone. At 4 my boss came and made some comments on the note I made. Hahaha. Have to make amendments to the note and email everyone again.

Finally, got back at 5.30 p.m. drop by at Upten to Ta-pao some Hanith Lahm (Arabic rice with lamb) and head straight to Dad's office. Usually on Tuesday and Thursday every week, we will be having a religious class which is sponsored by my dad (that's why it's held in his office). It's open to our friends and family and the best part is, since the thing is sponsored, it's free for everyone else. After the class only that I head home.