A Childhood Fantasy Came True….

Remember this movie Alien? I would like to refer to the second movie, where a space colony of humans in some distance planet was attacked by these super cool creature and their bodies used as hosts for their ‘change’ process? In that movie, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor from the 1st Alien movie along with a platoon of colonial space marines was sent to this planet to rescue the colonist. One part that I like most about that movie is the sequence when the marines had to descent from the space frigate "Sulaco" using a drop ship which also carries the APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) in her loading bay. This was also the ship used by Bishop the android when he remotely controlled and piloted the ship to fly them back to the Sulaco. I’ve built the APC using a hobby kit just before I left for Scotland and it is one piece that I truly admire. However, I’ve never came across with the scale model of the Drop Ship anywhere.

Drop Ship from the movie Alien - Side View...

So today, as I was window shopping In One Utama, I stopped by this Hobby Shop that specializes in selling toys. Mind you, they don’t trade ordinary toys. They are collectibles and their value can appreciate with time. I saw this very-very cool light sabers made from quality metal casts with highly realistic sound affects. They limit the production and it is retailed at 500 bucks. Or anyone interested to buy a 800 buck Hans Solo’s Millenium Falcon scale model?

Best Gile!!!

I’ve made an investment today..hehehehe.. I bought this diecast 1/72 Aoshima high quality detailed scale model of the Drop Ship featured in the movie Alien 2. How much did it cost me? All I can say that it’s worth every penny. I love how they managed to accurately detailed the scale model to precision. To a hobbyist, it’s easy to appreciate this sort of thing. If you’re not, you might think that I’m crazy.

I felt that I’ve rekindled with my childhood dream. I can tell you that the feeling is priceless. And today, Raidi and Zidani got to see how their father became a kid again. It must be weird and shocking for you boys seeing me playing with this toy. Raidi can finally confirm that he’s not the only kid in the house who can make sound effects and have great imagination. Ayu kept on asking how much did I paid for it. I know you wouldn’t understand this, so I better keep it to myself ..hehehehe. Now I’m looking for the APC that can actually fit into the Drop Ship’s cargo ramp. The shop owner told me that it’s going to be difficult to look for it. But I told him that I’ll start with e-bay!..hehehe.

Drop Ship - Frontal View...

Drop Ship APC Ramp...Got to buy the APC!!!

It’s good that IKEA is having a sale though. I better get a proper displaying cabinet or shelves because I’m pretty sure that I’ll be adding to my collection soon. Well, who say’s childhood dreams cannot come true. Never thought it could be an asset and who knows one day I can even make big profit from it!

Cokelat...

I got this e-mail from Ikmal asking me when I'm going to publish the review on the best chocolate drink or dessert in KL. It's been going on for awhile now, I've been 'hunting' high and low and the search is still going on..finding the ultimate chocolaty experience in KL. So Mal, my review is still in the drafting stage..I know you're a chocolate lover too and I guess your sudden increase in cravings perhaps, had something to do with your impending wedding day?? hehehehe...

Ikmal's e-mail content:

"So Mafiz, when are you publishing your blog/ review on chocolate banana smoothies in KL?

I was just having a most delightful conversation with a lady colleague of mine yesterday, on chocolate brownies, chocolate mudpies and everything chocolaty.

My vote for best choc brownie is
1) CPK, KLCC
2) Hard Rock Cafe brownie

Hot chocolate:
1) Chocz, KLCC
2) San Francisco Coffee

Chocolate Mocha/ Ice blended:
1) Extreme Mocha, San Francisco Coffee (they use Ben & Jerry's icecream)
2) Starbucks Mocha Java Frapuccino (or something like that, it's a new drink)

Choc Cake

1) Choc Chip Banana cake at Starbucks. It's really good.

Choc Mudpie
1) Nando's (it's a new item, apparently it's really good)
2) TGIF

Do you have any other chocolaty tips to share with me?"

Heheheh...right now...chocolaty tips won't do you any good Ikmal....marriage tips?? I've got many!!

Speech Therapy....

This morning I went to the Damansara Specialist Hospital for Zidani’s first speech therapy session. At 4 years old, he hasn’t been able to speak properly. It must be really frustrating for Zidani and I can see that he’s been trying hard to communicate with people around him. At times, due to his inability to speak properly, he can really test my patience sometimes especially when he’s having his usual tantrums. I find it very difficult trying to understand what he really wants.

I know that Zidani is very ‘talkative’ like his brother Raidi, and I feel sad whenever I see Zidani just look, listen and tries to communicate with his brother. Raidi is surprisingly understanding of his brother’s condition and he smiles back to his brother every time he hears Zidani calling out his name.

Hi!..My name is Zidani Ridzwan

Today was Zidani’s first assessment and the speech therapist told me that he needs to attend a lot of therapy. However, at the same time, she stressed that we have to allocate time for him and conduct the ‘therapy’ ourselves. It’s not limited to speech therapy but for his motoring skills as well. So she wrote down some exercises / activities that we could conduct at home:

1. Playing with cars
   Push around the car and make noises which I think you all know how good I am at making sound effects…heheehe
   Set out instructions like “give me car”, “give me bus..”
2. Blowing activities
   Blowing bubbles, candles, tissue / coloured paper
3. Copying funny faces / sounds – do it in front of the mirror
   I’ll teach him how to make monkey faces..heheheheh
4. Turn taking games
   - Ball rolling
   - Ball kicking
   - Zidani takes turn with brother to build lego tower
5. Functions of object with teddy bears..(I think I’ll substitute this with one of Raidi’s robots)
   Teach him how to use toot brush, towel, cup, spoon, comb
6. Sing songs with actions
   Point to body parts – head, shoulders, knees & toes (I better find a karaoke CD for this)

We have to do this everyday, routinely and will be meeting up with the therapist again in 2 weeks time. The session is quite expensive. Like today, for less than an hour session, I had to pay RM250. So if the session is 4 times a month, that’s a lot of money for me to fork out. This is another personal and family reason why I had to quit TM and look for another job. The cost of living is increasing at a very fast rate and with the household income that we made; it was already quite hard to cope with the living expenses, what else to send Zidani for his one to one therapy sessions. So I guess changing job (with salary increments of course) is the fastest way to cope with the rising inflation.

The love of my life......

To my son Zidani, Abah will always put my energy and attention to you. Abah will try hard and anything to make sure that you will live a beautiful life. I don’t care if I don’t get to live a fancy life to reward myself because as along as you need it, I’ll sacrifice what I have for your development. I’m not really worried about you Raidi. You have your mother’s brain genetic make up. Adik has a slight problem with his development and we just pray that he’ll catch up soon. Still, both of you are my only investment and as for the return, I hope I will get it when I see both of you living successfully.

Thank God It's Tuesday....

Every Tuesday night, me and the kamcheng geng will convene at the Dewan PIBG SK Sri Petaling in SS14 to play badminton. Last night was no different. Myself, Dr Mafeitz, Azad and Roslan played our hearts out and most of our badminton shots rasanya la macam world class plaks…hehehehe (angan- angan kena tinggi).

Just after the game..Azad, Roslan and Dr Mafeitz...penat dan lapar!

After the game, the geng will compensate the kilos ‘lost’ from the game with free flowing food, beverages and laughter at the mamak stall in Jalan 222. The food there is fantastic and it’s cheap. Here we do a lot of catching up and have discussions about almost anything, from Toyol to Bunian, Politics to Economics etc etc etc. Old habits die hard huh? When we were kids (aged 13 i guess), we used to play badminton together in the morning at the Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi’s badminton court. Right after the game, it’s either we belasah the roti canai at Warong Selera or go to Azad’s house, cook and eat Maggi or eat Cendol at the Mamak.. Damn it!…even now we still have Maggi on Tuesdays after the game! I hope we can continue doing this, as long as we can take the drop shots. Who knows, maybe one day our kids will continue this Kamcheng tradition!

Dr M and myself at Pak Akob's stall..waiting to be served..hahah..all the hantu belakang tuh!

A New Beginning...

On the 26th of June 2006, I started working with Telsoft Pty Ltd. It’s a company based in Australia and most of the customers are in the Asia Pacific region. Currently, the company is providing consultancy work for TM in pricing and costing of telecommunication services. It’s not something that I’ve never done before in TM, so it’s not a hard transition for me. Besides, I’m dealing with the same people that I’ve been working with for the past 8 years. I know their business requirements, systems, processes and almost everything. So I guess it’s a win-win situation for my ex-employer, Telsoft and of course to my self.

Me and Dr Jude De Silva, Director of Telsoft...having tea with his family at KLCC

I have signed a two years contract with this company and I hope I will learn and build my experience in the Consultancy business. I would want to specialize in pricing and costing in the telecommunication industry. It’s an industry that is fast evolving and it has a direct impact in our day to day lives. So if you’re not satisfied with TM’s service pricing, you can tell me la… maybe I can do something about it..hehehe…

Hujung Minggu...

This is how I spend my time during most weekends:

8.30 am
Send Mama to the office in KL. Drive back to Kayu Nasi Kandar at Tesco Mutiara Damansara and have breakfast with the kids. Usually we will order 4 roti canai and 2 Milo ice kauw kauw kauw. Sometimes, I get to meet Megat Harris and his wife.

10.00 am
Go back home with pile of newspapers for the father to ‘digest’. Usually it would take me around 2 hours to finish reading the papers. However when Zidani is in the mood, he would ask me to sing Mawi’s and Anuar Zain’s song. So I would karaoke in the afternoon with the kids at home.

Zidani loves to play with the foot massager...
12.00pm…Sleeping time…zzzzzzz

1.30pm
Wake up and drive to One Utama with Raidi. Raidi is now attending computer lessons at Computertots. It’s a one hour class per week and he gets to be exposed to computer softwares and hardwares. Raidi loves robotics very much and he has been collecting all sorts of robots at home. I told him that they are merely hardwares and the robots needs instruction for them to follow. Instructions are build and executed via computers. So we enrolled him to this Computertots and the syllabus includes robotic programming. I foresee that in his generation, artificial intelligence would play a major and significant role in the world so we are preparing and exposing Raidi with the right knowledge. Even if he decides not to go into this field, computer knowledge is still a necessity for him (nanti nak main networking dengan Abah lawan command & conquer senang sikit).

Quality time with Raidi at Coffee Bean..hehe

Raidi in the computer lab...can't wait to start his robotic syllabus

4.15pm
Raidi finishes his computer class. So we will lepak at One Utama for another hour…father will usually do some shopping…sometimes Mama will drop by and meet us up (this usually happens when she needs a new handbag or make up or etc).

5.00pm
Raidi starts his art lesson at the Art Attack outlet next to U Parkson. Here Raidi gets to be creative and tries to develop his artistic skills. Every week, he could choose any thing to build using old newspapers and boxes and he'll get his hands dirty with the paint work. Btw, at home Raidi has a project going on. He’s constructing a life size robot using papers and old boxes. He would usually ask the maid to help him mash, cut and glue the materials together while his brother Zidani will help whenever he can. So his room is full of paper cutting and boxes. Right now, I intend to enroll him in martial arts or football clinics to develop his disciplinary side, teamwork values and mental strengths.

Raidi's Robot Collection....

Raidi having fun at the Art Attack centre...

6.00pm
We would leave One Utama and go back for awhile, rest and drive out again to have dinner. After dinner, I will send the family back home and depending on the English Premier League live matches, I will meet up with the ‘Geng’ to watch EPL matches at the Mamak’s place usually in Kelana Jaya (mana lagi nak tengok kan)…

12.00am

I should be back by midnight. But, kalau ada live matches lagi, I will stay up and watch or listen to them. If I’m not lazy, I would update the blog…

A Night To Remember...

The inaugural TM Group Awards Night 2005 was held last weekend at the Dewan Merdeka, PWTC. It was an event where TM recognizes achievers from SPM performers to the best operating organization in the Group. Something like the Grammy’s for TM’s exceptional achievers. It was one heck of an event and kudos to the organizing committee for their effort. I don’t think many organizations in this country or in this region for that matter have this sort of event where they only usually have annual dinners, family events and stuff like that. Here TM as a role model to other GLC’s (claimed by Khazanah) managed to bring together staffs from all over the Group and for once that night it made me believed that TM is truly a global if not a regional telecommunication player where many representatives from our overseas subsidiaries were present during this fucntion.

The dress code for the night was all black with a dash of orange, blue or red reflecting TM’s corporate brand colours. I personally think that this has brought some feel of togetherness that we are all in a single company and working hard as a team. I picked up Mak at my parents house. She wore a black baju kurung with an orange tudung to match while I decided to wear all black with a dash of red and blue sprayed on my hair! What to do? I don’t have a blue, orange or red necktie to wear, so I went to the saloon and had my hair ‘highlighted’ in red and blue stripes.

We arrived at PWTC around 6pm and there were already thousands of people, all dressed smartly in black. I managed to ‘team’ up with Areehan from Marketing as he was walking around by himself. So we had dinner, mingled around with the others and right after the Maghrib prayers, we were called to board the PWTC hall. The hall was filled to the brim! I didn’t expect that it would be a huge turn out but I guess it’s an inaugural event for TM, so everybody wanted to be part of this. Afdlin Shauki was the MC and he was damn good. He is damn bloody funny I tell you.

Congratulations to those who won the awards. Awards were basically given out to the employee of the year from a different category of staff. We even have the Sportsman/Woman award and the Sportswoman award went to this lady who represents Malaysia in Chess tournaments! I told my friends we better start taking Carom seriously! The winners received a trophy and cash rewards of about RM3k to RM5k depending on categories. Congratulations also to Dialog Telekom our subsidiary in Sri Lanka who won the highest award for the night, which is the TM Group Award.

The stage performance was superb! I thoroughly enjoyed the singing contest in search of the 1st TM Star. Preliminary rounds were held weeks before the final contest and it was professionally judged by Syafinaz, Johan Nawawi, Norman KRU, Siti Hajar and many other well known celebrities. So during the final, we have not only contestants from Malaysia, but from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well and the 10 finalists did very well that night. The first TM star title went to Noriah from the Corporate Centre and I take my hats off to all the contestants for their effort.

There were a few surprises. To me the highlight for the night was not the performances from Anuar Zain (yes he performed that night, and the ladies went all crazy and ogling over him by the stage) and Dayang Nurfaizah (power gila suara dia..pitching tinggi), it was this performance from this band called “The Just Formed Band 4 Days Ago”. Dato’ Wahid, the Group CEO himself led the band and sang 3 songs! The band comprises of other top management and Dato’ Shazali Ramli, the CEO of Celcom is one heck of a drummer! Dato’ Wahid sang Angel by Robbie Williams, Mungkin Nanti by Peter Pan and another song which I can’t remember. This is the man who just had a heart operation last month and he’s already up there showing some ‘action’. Talk about leading by example. Very sporting I tell you.

Dato' Wahid and his band doing some numbers...

Seeing TM staff coming from all our subsidiaries showed that this company has a huge potential to be a regional player. In fact, I feel we could easily become the No.1 operator in this country in the mobile segment. What we need is a more synergistic effort among our group and ‘attack’ the market as one. Cross branding, cross packaging or what ever you want to call it, we just need to click and work as a team. I let the top management to think about this laahh..if I continue writing about this…it will take me 2 to 3 pages to finish..hehehehe

I felt sad and happy. I felt happy because I can see that the company has a huge potential in the future and I believe that it’s moving towards the right direction. That night made me proud to be known as a TM employee and I definitely felt some sense of achievement. I felt touched as for all the hard work and effort that we have put in, I know somehow it was not a waste. That evening was like a Grammy Award for TM’s staff and this certainly put in more motivation for us to work harder.

When Dato’ Wahid sang this Mungkin Nanti song by Peter Pan, it meant a lot to me. To those who don’t know this, I’m resigning from this company soon. June 24th would be my last day as a TM employee. After more than 8 years in TM, it’s time for me to move on to the next phase of my career. Attending the TM Group Award Night was like the icing on a cake for my working experience with TM. I had the chance to share the joy with everybody in celebrating TM’s family successes. It was truly an event to remember and I would certainly encourage those who didn’t come to the Award this year, get yourself a ticket and make yourself available next year. As for me, who knows, maybe one day I’ll be part of this one great family again. Opening up possibilities? Anything's possible!

Honda Civic (8th Generation) Vs Proton (2nd Generation)

Lawa gileee keta ni.....

On Friday afternoon, I went to the Honda showroom in Tmn Tun and damn it!! It was love at a first sight for me as I saw the much anticipated 8th generation Civic. As I entered the showroom, one of the sales guy straight away greeted me and ushered me to one of the displaying unit. He started to explain about this new model and I listened attentively. The on the road price is about RM117k for the 1.8 litre model and RM130 for the 2.0litre. To some this is a bit pricey. But to others, especially those who appreciate Japanese built cars would feel it’s worth every penny. I know however that ‘manufactured’ price is much much lower and if it’s not due to the high import duty and taxes, the car could have been owned by many-many Malaysians with a discerning income. I somehow feel that we Malaysians are in a way ‘robbed’ of our rights to enjoy and consume high quality products especially foreign made cars on the pretext of protecting our national automotive industry. I’m all for this national agenda really, but at times, if you think about it, as much as we want to be a player in the global car industry, as a consumer, I want to have the power of choice to purchase goods of my own preferences. The government is trying hard to create a level playing field for the local manufacturers to compete with other global producers. But somehow, I feel that this ‘protection’ had been given for a bit too long at the expense of majority of the end users.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect and I will always support this national aspiration but without a proper implementation plan and most importantly a clear timeline to achieve the objectives, it will be a waste of billions of public funds and labour hours which could have been channeled to other national projects. I guess it was a risk worth taking by Tun Mahathir back then to springboard Malaysia into the manufacturing forte. Who would have thought that a nation of rubber and tin exporter could produce its own national car? So to be competitive domestically, the Government introduced many protection policies towards the national car project and as a result, Proton cars are considered as the staple choice for majority of Malaysians car users. Since this is a national agenda, the Government has the responsibility to ensure that the outcome or the result of this effort, comparable with the global benchmark. This is the only way how our national producers can ever compete with other car exporting or assembling nation. Years have passed. Although I have witnessed tremendous improvements in our national car, I honestly feel that it is still not enough. We are still way behind the Japanese or even the Koreans and what I’m afraid of is, nations like India or China, who have just started their own national car later than us could leapfrogged Malaysia in the next couple of years.

So where did we go wrong? How come after nearly two decades in this arena, we can’t still directly compete with other global players? Have we achieved what we have wanted in the first place? I have a feeling that the sense of achievements in this national agenda have been felt completely on the first day when the first national car rolled out of the factory. That was it! We have made it! We have produced our own car and on that particular day, they could tell the whole world that we’ve done it. Everybody was impressed at that time I’m sure that many of us can still remember the year when the first Proton Saga was unveiled in the local media. It really was a glorious moment for many Malaysians but the stories were told short of the company’s plans on how they intend to be an advance manufacturer for years to come to able to produce high quality products meeting the stringent international standards and competition. During the initial years, with the protection that was given by the government, Proton factory mass produced the national cars and it instantly became the best selling model in its segment. The problem is, mass produce capacities, have little room for innovation and quality. So to inject more ‘creativity’ in their production line, they’ve invested in Research and Development capabilities and acquired well known brand with the hope that transfer of knowledge and technology could spurned the innovation cycle. Sadly, I feel that this has come a bit too late or not effective when it should have been part of Proton’s set pieces from day one.

So how much longer will it take for Proton to able to produce cars at par with the other well established names? People could say that we are still in an infant stage (after 2 decades still infant ka??) and other nations have been in this industry very much earlier than us, so we should give Malaysia more time to evolve in this industry. To me this is not right. By the time we reach the level where other advance manufactures are today, our foreign competitor could be two or 10 steps ahead of us! Instead, to be able to compete globally, we must always be one step ahead of them! But the question is when are we going to able to do this? When is Proton going to be able to produce world class cars and not pricing it discriminately? I hope I will live my life one day and able to say that Proton is at par with Honda. But until then, today, if given a choice to buy a Proton car or a Honda, with the household income that the majority gets, I guess we wouldn’t opt for the later due to obvious reason. The price disparity is too mind boggling when the cost of manufacturing the two brands of the same segment can be said as competitive. The price we pay for a Proton Gen 2 car in Malaysia today could be worth equivalently to an 8th generation Honda Civic baught in Japan!

So why am I babbling about all this? HHmm.. for me, the acquisition cost of a brand new Honda car is too costly. About 3-4 years ago, I bought this Accord Inspire and it had many-many features that only the luxury car segments have. Since I can’t afford a brand new model, I opt for a second hand unit. But you know la..second hand cars requires lots of ‘tender loving care’ Last week, the car broke down again. This time I’ve to transplant the gearbox and the engine as well. I’ve spent thousands on this car on maintenance alone and I’m going to spent more for this latest breakdown. So that’s why la aku tengah sakit hati niii…. Pegi tengok civic baru, pastu bila pikir betul-betul, the car can be purchased at Proton’s price if it is bought in Japan! Rasa rugi pulak beli keta Honda 1st hand. So I told myself, tunggulah nanti, beli second hand civic jelah! Hehehehe But who knows…kalau tak tahan..ikutkan nafsu…and kalau nak makan pasir….Inspire kata pergi…Civic kata marii!! hmmmm..tapi kalau nak tunggu Proton buat kereta macam Honda..lagi la berjinggut!!!

Opening Up Possibilities...

February is the first month where I had to manage the entire domestic billing operation for TMW’s division. I am today responsible for the production of bills and accounting recognition of revenue and expense for the services that TM rendered to its wholesale customers. It’s entirely a different segment from the retailing business as it involves billing and settlement relationships with other license operators (MAXIS, DIGI, etc ), ASP’s, ISP’s, resellers and others. From traffic minutes to space rental/ co-location charges, I have to ensure that these services are properly billed and accounted for the company’s monthly profit & loss and balance sheet. I’m contributing to the recognition of annual revenue of more than RM3billion for this division.

About a year ago, this department that handled the billing operation, consist of a Manager, 5 Executives and 6 Non-executives. When I came in, the management decided to restructure this department into 2 separate units. They removed all the executives post, maintained the number of non-executives and had 2 managers in charge of two separate billing functions. In other words, each manager has at least 3 non-executives directly reporting to them. The rational behind this is to increase productivity of staffs, reduce redundancies and I guess to justify our importance to the company. So there I was, for about 4 months, since August last year, had the experience to work in an operation unit when all this while I've been working in the Costing department doing analytical and strategic assignments. I just told myself that anything new, will be hard initially. It was tough really switching perspectives to an operational environment. I’ve learned that one need to be very-very organized and must be highly attentive to detail. Nevertheless, it’s a valuable and essential experience as I had expected that one day in my career, I would be doing operation and learn many new things from this. If I were to do strategic functions again after this, believe me I would appreciate better the implications that it would create to the operational layer or the importance of inputs from the people on the ground before making or proposing any strategic decisions. Because almost all the time, these are the people who have direct contact with the customers, these are the people who makes things happened and most of the time, unfortunately these are also the people who get the blame when things turned ugly. And the worst thing is, we are constantly bugged by auditors assessing our compliances status to statutory requirements when in the first place, the whole setup is running based on models adopted from other Operators with a not so successful or business proven concept, claimed otherwise though by the Consultants. At least I’ve proven to myself and the rest that I’m adaptable and I could fit in this part of the organisation. To me it all boils down to attitude.

After a couple of months in this department, I’ve managed to make some assessment. I finally saw the linkage between operation and strategy. To put it in simple terms, in my opinion, strategy is survivability in a highly competitive market like this. No doubt that we need strategy to drive and direct a company towards its mission and vision. But in our urgency to achieve these goals, to me it’s a fatal error when Management tries to push the organisation and sidelining the learning organisation strategy. I know that in today’s world, organisation must be able to move with great agility to adapt to the external ‘environmental’ changes and at the same time conduct periodic ‘health’ check and make adjustments when and where necessary. I believe that the long term survivability of an organisation stands on its ability to evolve from within where the people themselves are the change agent adapting to external environment or be the market leader themselves. Selling products and services that meets customers demand is an essence to any profit oriented organisation but creating new demand or market perhaps is an art and the next step for an organisation to stay ahead of competition. To me learning comes from within. Everyone in this company in a way or two is also a customer to this great company. It’s an untapped pool of knowledge and experience where the company can leverage on to drive its growth by selling innovative products and services. Practice what you preach is the best phrase to encapsulate what I'm trying to say here. The company must firstly educate all it staff on the benefits of the service and allow them to experience the service themselves. All this while, when a service is launched, it is always the customer that knows about it first but we have always forgotten about the other customer which resides in the company that ensure the service is uninterrupted, bills are produced timely, complaints are handled carefully and customer is taken care off. How can we really sell these services to customers when majority in this company have not heard about this product? Some of us are only lucky enough to be part of the trial and testing phase just before the launching of this product. Dapatla..buat test sikit-sikit..

My point is, competition will not go away. It is here to stay whether we like it or not and it's not going te get any easier. Most management would want to see the company bring results but at times, unfortunately due to their 'contractual' nature of appointment, they deploy short sighted strategy which probably brings short term gains. Increasing sales via discounts and price war, cost reduction and prudent spending have always been the right strategies. In the long run however, I think innovation is the key to survival. TM with a strong workforce of more than 20,000 people with many international presences, has an untapped resource that could take the company to the next level. This resource lies not in the network capacities that we have invested or the technology that we have acquired. This resource is called Human Capital. Practice what you preach. If you tell your customer that your service will benefit them greatly, then give it to the staff for them to experience it too. There are many great advantages to this really both in the short term and the long run whether from the sales or the technical support point of view. But the benefits that I would like to stress here is in relation to the learning organisation aspect. When the staff gets to use these services themselves and experience it first hand, we automatically want to ensure that the service we put in is of great standard and quality. We would expect that customer service is of world class and we would expect that what we get is off great value. This way, we would know ourselves where the weaknesses are and if we’re lucky, before the external customer complaints, we might have tweaked the error based on ‘internal’ inputs. Sounds effective huh? But this not the real advantage that I’m trying to highlight here.

As a learning organisation, we must learn and unlearn. But how do we want to learn if we’ve never experience it in the first place? If we internally act as users of services that we sell in the market, in the long run, we could always have the advantage of offering innovative products and services. With the involvement of the internal customers, the whole organisation acts as a giant R&D engine that churns out ideas or suggestions for continuous improvement and at the same time and more importantly, be the market leader that create trends and new demand stemming from innovative products and services. We have many companies today trying to be the number one operator in the country gauged by the number of subscribers that they have. But when the market saturates, what will happen? Invest overseas? Acquire companies? Or ask Malaysian’s to double their population so that we could create new growth domestically? It would be great if the ambition of being the no. 1 service provider in the country as a short term or medium term target, coupled with the long run objective of making TM staffs the most up to date and tech savvy population in Malaysia. I believe that innovation is the key to long term sustainable growth and survivability. There would come a day when there’s too many technology available that the operator have to create new demand to generate growth. To inculcate this innovation culture in an organisation, we must allow the staff to have the experience first. Treat the staff like a customer. Let them use and experience the services themselves. We would learn from each other from these experiences and share the knowledge to improve the services. Being technology savvy, we would always want to be ahead of the general population. We want to be seen as the trend setter. In a highly competitive and saturating market, tapping niche or segmental market is the key to growth. To stay ahead, we need to be innovative and innovation through experience is an ideal strategy. This way, the organisation could innovatively evolve from within and hopefully, in time, drives the market and not the other way round like what we are facing today.

Its just senseless telling people how great your product is, but you yourself are not using it. You might fall to a different market segment, but we do have products for all the segments right? A good example would be the 3G technology which MCMC report has suggested that there is a lack of awareness among customers about its benefit and there’s not enough effort by the Telco’s in creating demand. If you think that is terrible, try and ask the people in TM, I bet majority of us don’t even know or realise the full potential of this technology. Macam mana customer luar nak tau about 3G kalau internal staff pun tak tau pasal 3G? Wouldn’t it be great if the service is provided to all TM staffs and with the different demographics that we have in this company, wouldn’t us be a great sample of the Malaysia population? A great sample that would provide feedback on what kind of services do we really expect from this service? A service that caters for all walk of lives? We usually know what technology to acquire, but most of the time failed to excute the right deployment strategy. To mitigate this risk, perhaps the service should be deployed to the internal customers(staffs) first. Nothing to loose, staffs will be happy, if they're not, complains will come internally and not from the external customers. It is difficult if we are championing 3G to the customers when they can see that TM staffs are not users of this technology themselves.So this is a positive point in the marketing sense la. You practice what you preach, then it's easier for others to follow. Again this is just one immediate advantage from learning through experience.

I’m just worried that things are just going to get tougher in the telecommunication industry. Our competition comes not only from the big players like MAXIS, DIGI and TIME, but includes other ASP’s Resellers like Redtone, Nasioncom which charges customers at VOIP rates. All the while, we are pressured at providing the cheapest rates to callers and this has led to price wars that could only hurt the industry as a whole. And all of us in the industry are feeling the pinch today. The solution is, to fight your margin by identifying the key market segments that provides the highest contribution to the company. By identifying which products and market segments that provides the biggest margin, the marketing and sales effort should be concentrated here. It is not viable to put up more resources to segments that contribute lesser and lesser margin as it gets more expensive to service the customer as the volume increases. However, still, managing the right customer and product mix is considered as the short to medium term approach in sustaining growth.

I just hope that there would be awareness in this company that the industry that we are in is to connect people. Communication is an essential medium and it’s already a necessity for most of the people in this world. We are actually providing the platform for human being to make an emotional connection with each other. We drive the convergence of communication technology with the people. It’s ironic however when TM as one of this ‘platform’ provider to the world, most of the time, failed to connect and bring the technology to the people within the organisation. Sad as it sounds but do note that we are in the process of change and hopefully with these changes, we would be opening up possibilities to greater achievements. But if only we could tap the potential that Human Capital could bring, I think we can not only open up new possibilities, but we could go beyond the impossible!

"NOTICE"

Busy gile aku...bz with work...bz at home...tak sempat nak update Blog!!!

My workstation....damn berserabut!

My 'play'station..best gileee

Should I or should I not…

I got this one hobby that I really love… Model building!! Yup.. I think some of you guys know how much I like gluing, cementing, painstakingly paint these military miniatures. It’s a hobby that I’ve picked up since I was small. I think it’s in my genetic make up where I can seat for hours, reading instructions building models. My late grandfather was an avid model builder. From pirate ships to sports car, he kept most of his collections in a drawer. There was this huge model yatch that he build alone and I think It didn’t take too much of his time to complete it. It’s so big that he had to display it on top of a cupboard far from my reaching arms..hehehe. It was so detail and accurate it even had metal chain as the replica anchor, not plastic.

Geramnyeee aku tengokk.......

So last night as I was waiting for this live Chelsea Vs Arsenal match on Astro (don’t’ want to talk much about this) I took out my old airfix kit and open up this F-15E 1/48th scale model. I bought this kit along time ago, I think way back in the year 2000 along with the customized ejection seats!! Before Raidi was born, I had loads of model collections. In fact, the first year of my marriage was filled with model building! Hehehe. If I can recall, that year alone I’ve built the M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank, Bradley’s armored personnel carrier, an amphibious assault tank and I think the most satisfied piece was this Israeli’s Merkava main battle tank. Honestly this MBT is so unique as it combines the functionality of a personnel carrier. It has a small hatch at the rear of the tank to dismount a small number of troopers and I believe this is a crucial function for the Israeli where most of their combat is conducted in an urban theatre. The shape or cutting of this MBT alone is enough for me to admire this great steel beast. Not to mention its weapons, armor and counter measure systems (for more details, check out http://www.army-technology.com/projects/merkava4/.) Paint it with the dessert yellow color scheme; you get an accurate scale model of the Israeli defense force backbone unit. Another MBT that I admire and I’ve build it twice mind you, was the British MK Challenger MBT. I was satisfied with it because I managed to put on the camouflage scheme based on the actual unit.

Should I or should I not re-start this hobby? I asked myself this question last night but the answer was obvious. I should not. This is one hobby that needs full attention and concentration to detail. I can get very addictive to this really. Once I start, it’s very hard for me to stop and I would live in my own world just like a frog under the coconut shell. Besides, the kids are still small and I don’t think they can give the same appreciation to these models like I do. Not just yet. Berkecai nanti semua, that’s what I would do if I were them. I can see myself starting this hobby again later, maybe when the kids are in standard 5 or 6. It’s a suitable age for them I think. Believe me, there’s a lot of benefit in model building and I see it as a character building tool. I myself feel that it had helped me to be a detail guy, patience, meticulous, rule abiding citizen and perhaps artistic. To build the models, you have to refer to the step-by-step instructions although at times you need to skip the ‘rule’ or bend it..hehehehe as long as the objective is achieved. Besides, at the same time, you get to learn a lot about the model that you built in the real world. My dream would be to build a model of the USS Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Best gilee...I can imagine the texture of the landing deck! Or the details in the hangar or service bay!! I just wish those days ada digital camera so that I can take pictures of the finished ‘product’. Damn!! I think now I got to find a digital camera with a macro function!

A View From Above....

Last Monday I attended this one day seminar in Menara KL. It was supposed to be an awareness program for Accountants in TM about Corporate Governance and best practices for operational control methods. But it turned out to be an ‘exciting’ session where the organizer, the Group internal auditors had a very tough day answering questions fielded by the participants. Mind you, these were the people who used to be treated with the auditors so called ‘fair’ view year in year out so I guess, it was a great opportunity for us especially who’s involved with operational matters to turn around the table and express our ‘fair’ view on them.

One interesting comment from the floor was about Auditors role in being pro-active in the company in ensuring adequate mechanisms are in place in ensuring corporate governance flows throughout the company. Instead of coming in annually or even quarterly to conduct their auditing activities, which personally I see it as very re-active, with the best practices knowledge that they claimed that they have, they should be able to prevent any organisational structure failure and systems or work processes control weaknesses from the beginning. They always know during every audit when there is actually inadequate or ineffective segregation of duties for example to avoid misuse of abuse of power and authority. Our argument was, all this can be avoided if during the development stage of any organization structure or systems development for that matter, the auditors could come in and provide consultation based on their ‘deep’ knowledge pool and ensure that appropriate control measures are in place.

This is one preventive and pro-active approach to ensure good corporate governance practices in TM. What really irritates me was that they actually said that they are only willing to come in and give their opinion upon invitation! They have their reasons la kan where as far as resources are concerned, it is quite difficult for them to be this proactive. Tapi there are many other ways to implement this kan? For a start, they could develop a policy or some guidelines for us comply before approving any organization structure. What I observed usually, corporate governance had always taken a back seat during any organizational structure development process and always, empire building or self interest takes priority. Sometimes, in an operational org. structure especially, when there is a ‘right sizing’ campaign, I feel that auditors can play a very influential role in providing justifications on the amount of resources required to ensure adequate control, check and balances methods are in place in the structure.

Perhaps the management could have more faith and trust gathering feedbacks from this ‘independent’ body and use this info to influence their decisions. Kalau kita yang bagi feedback, dia kata kita nak kembang kan empire or nak dapat grade lagi besar. So auditors, where were you guys masa kita buat organizational restructuring exercise?? Didn’t get any invitation?? I believe that you guys can help us make things right from the very first time..after that, you can always conduct compliance audit. Think about it, wouldn’t you have less auditing work if all these measures have been in place from day one?? Or maybe that’s the real problem is it? No more or less work to do as a result of being pro-active? I don’t deny the importance of auditing, however, I just wish that there’s some paradigm shift in their mindset. The stereotype view that we always have is that auditors are like ‘spell checkers’, providing opinions on compliance. I personally feel that they could provide more preventive ‘inputs’ rather than corrective. Apa-apa pun, that day, I get to enjoy the view from KL Tower and of course , free food!

Lights Out For United???

I didn't watch the game last night but from what I read in soccernet, it's enough to know that they went down fighting. For the first time in a decade, MU will not be contending in any European matches as they were beaten by Benfica and finished bottom of the group table. Well, anything can happen in football right? Just like when some team out of the blue can win the Champion's league or the Euro competition for that matter, MU also can get beaten this way. But it's all about winning right? As it turns out for MU supporters last night, football is not always a beutiful game. For now, it's a moment when you should prove yourself to be the true and honest supporter of the team called Manchester United.

Year End Closing...

Been very busy la in the office and at home. Year end closing is usually busy for accountants like me. Furthermore, my maid at home sudah balik but got a temporary one before yang permanent sampai. So I'm very occupied at home as well as in the office..and got no time to update the blog..takleh tulis panjang-panjang. Orang putih cakap, a picture speaks a thousand words kan? So this time, I'm posting more pictures as a substitute to my writings..hehehe

Ibdil, Dato' Wahid and me...TM Raya Open House, Menara TM

At Wan Edrin's house during Syawal..Raidi suka datang rumah Uncle Edrin..aheemm

For more pictures, go to my photo link!

The Hari Raya Voyage Of A Super Hero Robot - Part III..2nd & 3rd Raya

Starblog entry 04112005, Some where in the Federation’s Galaxy –

Today, the 2nd day of the moon calendar Syawal, Master Raidi and his family traveled to the Johorian Galaxy. Early in the morning, Mother made sure that everything was ready with the kids. Father made some final checks on the Sonata and after all the cargo had been loaded, he went through the space travel plan and did the pre-launched checklist for the last time. However, the ship’s sensor indicated that the propulsion system is low in galactic leaded fuel. At current level, it could only take us up to the N9 Galaxy, less than a hundred light years away from the Federation’s Galaxy. So at about 1000hrs Father punched in the new coordinate into the ship’s navigation system leading to the nearest refueling port. I cross-checked the coordinate with my GPS (Galaxy Positioning System) and it showed that Father navigated the Sonata to the D’Mutiara Solar System near the Tesco hyperspacemarket. I put my self on high alert as my GPS indicated that where the fuel port is located, nearby lives a King who’s known to stuffed homo sapient with unhealthy fast food. I don’t know why, but many people love to patron these places. The King is very generous as he gives unlimited fizzy drinks and this made me worried. Besides working on the security detail for Master, I had to make sure that Master consumed the proper diet so that he would stay energised and healthy for this journey. As we approached the fueling port, my MALI (Mentekedarah Alert Level Indicator) scan indicated that the whole family was at level 3-4!!! Well, I can’t blame them really as they’re just humans. So before Father refueled the Sonata, He docked the ship near the King’s landing pad. Master Raidi & Zidani went straight into the Kings residence and they wallop the whopping burger and fries. I stood on guard and provide security cover along the parameter.

Master Raidi having fun at the Burger King Restaurant

After refueling the Sonata, Father navigated the ship to land at the Forum Condosphere near the klcc solar system. Here lives Master’s grand uncle and his family. Father wanted to visit his uncle before jumping into hyperdrive towards the Johor Galaxy. Tok Masod or better known as Tok Hafiz is suffering from lung cancer. My bio scan showed that he has a weak heart as he just came back from the hospital for his cancer treatment before Raya. He’s been in and out of the hospital lately and from the look on his face, I can see that he’s fighting this terminal disease strongly. Bedridden in his bedroom, he was happy when he saw Master Raidi and his family visiting him that Raya afternoon.

Master Raidi together with Father, behind them is Raidi's grand uncle

At around 1230hrs, the family left the Condosphere and Father took the Sonata straight into warp speed. After traveling for about 400k light years, the Sonata reached the Skudai solar system and landed at the resident of Tok Hamid space pad around 1600hrs, Skudai time. Father’s grandmother greeted us with a smile as we walked through the space hatch towards Tok Hamid’s resident. I noticed that the other Ismail’s clan was not at home as they were busy raya’ing around Johor. After unloading all the cargo, Father sat on the couch, rested and had this fabulous foot massage using the Ogawa machine. I was busy monitoring Master and his little brother as they were playing with the piano, running around in and out of the house and playing catch with this Persian cat that belongs to Master’s untie Khai. This cat was actually a gift from her boyfriend. And I tell you, this cat has an excellent defensive system! Sharp claws, pontianak like fangs and the best thing is, the cat is capable of discharging toxic gasses as part of its chemical warfare capabilities! (seriously, busuk gila kucing tu kentut). I continuously monitored Master Raidi and Zidani movements as they waited for the other grand uncles and unties to come back from their raya visits. They also expected their grandparents to arrive soon from the Federation’s galaxy that evening.

Master Zidani playing with the cat..

At around 1700hrs, I picked up an urgent intergalactic message from my home planet Cybertron. It was good news!! The galactic high council has decided to give us a pay rise and a bonus pay along with other goodies including higher food and lodging allowances, security and dobby fees, subsidies gas & fuel along with free internet access for all the employees at home!! This certainly will be the most memorable Hari Raya for me and my fellow defender robotic warriors (p/s: this story has no connection or what so ever with me getting an increment or bonus from TM)

On the 3rd Raya eve, right after dinner, Master and the rest of the Ismail’s clan flew off to the Gudang Sand Dune system located about 20 light years away from the Skudai solar system. There, they visited Father’s grand untie (Tok Da - my grandma sister). At Tok Da ‘s house, I saw father eating Samprit almost non-stop, and Master Zidani eating Pringles with Mother! Of all the Raya goodies on the dinner table, they just can’t live without Pringles. I did a bio scan on Mother and results showed that during the fasting month, her stomach had been digesting Pringles almost everyday! Based on her spending records, she’s been bulk buying Pringles from the Mydin space store somewhere new her work place.

Master Zidani busy reading with his granduncle...

At Tok Da’s house, Father noticed this antique cupboard near the dining table. There’s something about this furniture that made Father really captivated. I captured an image of this cupboard and cross referenced it with Father’s memory bank. This furniture actually originated from Father’s great grand parents home in Wadi Hana, JB. This is the street where Master’s grand parent (Tuk Seth) and his siblings, the Wadi Hana legacies grew up. When Father was small, during school holidays, he sometimes stayed at his Tok Nyang’s place in JB. Kg. Wadi Hana used to be the settlement for the malays of Arab origin in JB. Today, the street is no longer there as it made way for development back in the early 90’s (Dr Mafeitz and both the Megat brothers have been there…we went for a short trip to JB during school holiday and stayed at Uncle Hamid’s place).

Antik gile..

We went back to the Skudai solar system just before midnight and the whole family slept soundly, obviously tired from today’s Raya visits. As the family slept, I took some time to do some test check on all my systems, just to make sure that they’re running perfectly. I checked my mailbox, and saw an e-mail from my fellow warrior friend. He mailed me a photograph of both of us taken during our last UN mission in a troubled galaxy plagued by a civil war. He also wrote to me how he lost his leg on duty, apparently due to a freakish accident when he’s jet booster pack malfunctioned while on a recon duty. I advised him to submit his claims to Socso the soonest.

Me and my buddy warrior..picture taken during a UN peacekeeping duty


Star Blog entry 05112005, the skudai solar system, Johorian Galaxy

On the 3rd day of Raya, Father prepared himself early that morning. As the kids and Mother stayed at home, Father along with his parents, cousins and his grandmother went to the cemetery to visit his grandfather and great grand parent’s graves. Over there, I spotted one visitor wearing this tall ‘songkok’. It reminded me of Father’s friend Dr Mafeitz when he visited us at home on 1st Raya. I thought Dr’s ‘songkok’ was tinggi, but damn! Check out the height of this guy’s songkok!


At around 1100hrs, Master Raidi, Zidani, Father & Mother along with Master’s grand parents, went to the Kg Melayu Majidee solar system to visit one of Father’s grand untie. After chit chatting for about an hour, and as the kids started to become very restless, we decided to flew back to Skudai. After lunch, the family rested for a couple of hours and at around 1600hrs, Master’s family loaded the Sonata’s cargo bay with their luggage. They were preparing to leave the Johor Galaxy to travel back to The Federation’s Galaxy. After saying goodbye to everybody, we left Skudai and went straight into warp speed heading North via the PLUS intergalactic spaceway. The journey was smooth but like any other Raya seasons, we will usually get stuck along the Senawang-Seremban galaxy route. Just before 2000hrs, Father docked the Sonata safely at our moon planet home A’Baki. Everybody was glad that we managed to come back safely from this raya trip. Exhausted, satisfied and relieved are all the expressions that I can see from Father and Mother’s faces. As far as the kids are concerned, it was obviously tiring for them. They’ve clocked allot of traveling light years and I’m sure it was an exciting experience for them.

As the family started to rest for the night, I was beginning to wonder about my position, my posting with this family. I really hoped that I can continue to serve and protect this family as I’ve grown closer to them especially Master Raidi & Zidani. Being a professional bodyguard, I think I’ve conducted my duty diligently this time. Unlike my previous posting, I’m somehow emotionally attached to this family. I don’t know whether it’s a virus infection to my CPU or perhaps I’ve developed to being able to have feelings. The question of whether I could stay longer with this family depended on the decision by the Intergalactic High Council based on the Family’s feedback and recommendation.

At about midnight today, I received an intergalactic transmission. Guess what?? The security council had decided to offer me a permanent position as the ‘Jaga’ for Master Raidi!! I was really glad to hear about this offer and I immediately send an email accepting this once in a life time job offer. The pay is good, the job is challenging, so what more could I asked for. I just hope that Master Raidi will always find me as a loyal and well serving guardian. I would take a bullet for him. That’s my pledge to my Master . From the look on his face, I know that Master never ever regretted having me by his side and he could always depend on me when it matters most.

Master Raidi's (centre of room) hologram providing feedback and recommendation to the Intergalactic High Council..

An Open House At Taman Jasmin, Kajang...

Myself and Azlan went to En Mat's open house in Kajang last Saturday. En Mat (his real name is Hammad Azizi Hashim) used to work with TM as the CFO of Payphone before he took the VSS. Some time ago, the three of us worked in the same Costing department for a couple of years and after that, he spent some years in Bangkok working as the CFO for one of TM's overseas subsidiaries.When I started working with TM, my father personally 'handed' me over to En Mat and told him to take care of me and make sure that I don't break my arms, legs something like that. He was the first Manager that I reported to in TM. The geng went through thick and thin with him..hehehe.

Me and Azlan both are hardcore MU fans and En Mat is a 'converted' Chelsea fan. He had enough of MU's 'politics' so he decided to joined the Abramovich's revolution bull sh*t. As you can see, this wasn't a normal Raya visit..hehehe. It's a very 'special' visit. It was only about a week ago when Darren Fletcher headed in a screw ball over Peter Cech unreaching arms and John Terry's monkey like attempt to save the ball from crossing the line. MU won by a single goal margin that night but it was enough to break Chelsea's winning streak. The straw that breaks the camel's back?? Only time will tell.

Arsenal fans should be thankfull really, because if it wasn't for MU, Chelsea might even break their long run unbeaten record as well. Azlan mentioned that now MU is known better as The giant killer.

Despite the loss over MU, En Mat (with glasses) was more than happy to entertain us. We should have worn MU away kit la that day!!

We had a great time chit chatting about the good old days in TM together. He told us about his plans for the future and InsyAllah, he will be performing his Haj this coming Raya. So we should be calling him Hj Mat soon!

Last Weekend (Sunday) Raya Month...

This is how we spent our Raya weekend at Abah's (Atuk Seth) house....

Me, Raidi and Zidani arrived at Abah's house around 12 pm on Sunday..it was hot and sunny..Ayu coudn't make it, as she was attending her MBA lectures in KL.

Zidani trying to open up the front door..He just loves to visit his Atuk. Even at the junction turning into Athinahapan 1, he would be shouting and clapping his hands in excitement.

Raidi and Zidani helping themselves with Raya goodies. That day, Raidi's tuk Nyang, Uncle Hamid and family from JB, Aunty Alok, Aunty Oyah joined us for lunch at Abah's house.

Raidi & Zidani loves to play at the stairway...

Can's wait to play badminton with my kids.. maybe one day he'll beat the other Kamcheng Juniors..hehehe

Raidi & Zidani playing at the backyard... And guess what they wanted to do?

Playing with water at the back of Atuk's house...

We had Soto, Raidi & Zidani loves Tuk Kiah chicken soup..

They became tired after more than an hour of playtime... Both fell asleep on the same sofa, 'fighting' for the best spot to enjoy the air conditioning.. At around 4pm we left Abah's house and I sent the kids back home. I drove straight to KL to fetch Ayu and visit her uncle at Bandar Tun Razak.

Later that evening Wan Edrin and his family visited us at home..while wifey was shopping with her mom at One Utama. Told Ayu to come back early as Edrin is coming for Raya, however she and her Mom forgotten where they actually parked the car!! So they spent almost an hour looking for the car..

The Hari Raya Voyage Of A Super Hero Robot…Part II – 1st Raya

Star Blog entry 03112005, Human rental biosphere, somewhere in Aloq Staq solar system –

It was 0630hrs, Master and his little brother was still asleep as Father woke up and took his shower. Today is the 1st day of the moon calendar Syawal. According to the family’s traveling plans, Father will pick up Master’s great granddad who was staying at Tok Endak’s house about 8 lightyears away south of the Aloq Staq planetary system. He then will travel back north and attend to their Solat Sunat Aidilftri at a Mousqe along Jalan Pegawai. Father quietly prepared himself for the day, wearing his purple coloured traditional Johorian galaxy clan baju melayu with black songket. Damn! If only my optical sensors are working, I could capture how handsome Father was that morning! (heheheheh). As he left the hotel room for his early breakfast, I sent out a lookout drone to follow Father. This way, I should be able to observe him everywhere he goes. Meanwhile, at the hotel room, Mother woke up and made preparations for the day. Good thing that Mother had everything ready the night before. I saw Master’s complete baju melayu suit hanged by the wardrobe. I scanned them, and checked for any hazardous chemical and biological substances. Glad that it was properly sterilized and pressed.

The drone reported that Father had a great breakfast down near the hotel lobby. He had a couple of toasted bread, a plate of ‘fat rice’, half boiled Gallus Domesticus eggs, loads of vitamin C juices and some fruits. For a homo sapient of his size, Father has a big appetite. It’s no surprise though as my ‘MALI’ – Mentekedarah Alert Level Indicator sensor indicated that on a scale of 1 to 5, he is at level 4!!. This particular human being never failed to surprise me.

This morning, Master and Zidani had another round of playtime in the bathtub. But it wasn’t for long as Mother hurriedly prepared them for the day. At 1030hrs, Master, Zidani, Mother, Wan and Aunty Linda was supposed to meet up with Father at Tok Endak’s house. Zidani today wore a turquoise baju melayu while Mother put on her purple silk kebaya. Everybody that morning looked just great! I followed the family to the hotel lobby for breakfast. It was mayhem I tell you. Master and Zidani was a handful for Mother. The floor was literally covered by cereals, rice, fruits, breads etc… The hotel staffs have this disbelief look on their faces as they realized that it is going to be a long morning for them. Well, I know how they feel, but with me around, I don’t think they would be able to do anything. I watched the staffs like a hawk and always ready to make a move if I sense any suspicious activities.

As I guard the family having breakfast, the Drone that I sent earlier to observe Father reported that he was sitting in the Mosque prayer’s hall listening to the Khutbah. At times, he was nodding his head, acknowledging that he understands and appreciated the sermons. However, as I zoom closer, Father was actually dozing off!! Abruptly moving his head as a sign of sleepiness!! Damn! He’s good. He fooled the Drone.

At around 1045hrs, the whole family converges again at Tok Endak’s house. Here, I saw everybody shaking and kissing each other hands as they wish happy hari raya and asking for forgiveness. Master was a bit reluctant to ‘salam’ everyone. He told me before that he doesn’t really fancy ‘old’ people. I understand where he’s coming from. He expects everybody to be like his friends at his pre-school. Kids, they just want to play. As the rest of the family members chit chatting, I had to closely monitor Master and his little brother playing catch with a couple of Gallus Domesticus (you haven’t got it? It’s a scientific name for chicken). They seemed to be fascinated by this animal, running around and yelling about something. I tried to translate what they were talking about and I guess one of them was shouting to her kids to take their bath immediately as they wanted to go beraya. Moments later, Master whispered to the Father that he wanted to go to the movies. He told Father that he wants to see this animated movie called ‘ayam kecik’. I saw Father frowning his forehead, as he tried to make sense of the movie title that Master had just mentioned. Master wanted to watch ‘Chicken Little’ so Father promised him that as soon as they get back to the Federation’s Galaxy, he will take Master to Planet OU at the Dsara solar system to watch this movie.

At 1130hrs, the family left Tok Endak’s house. Both the Sonata and Perdana Star Cruisers headed north to the Baling Solar System. Traveling at warp speed, the ship cruised along the planetary route and arrived at Tok Ngah’s house 45 minutes later. This is the house where Master’s grandma (Wan) used to stay during her childhood school holidays. At the porch of the house, I scanned some biological beings trapped in cages hanged from the ceiling. They were colorful and noisy sometimes. Master and Brother again fascinated, this time by the Psittaciformes (burung kakak tua). At the same time, I saw Master and Zidani crunching away some peanuts and kerepek. Mother only stopped crunching them when we wanted to leave the house. Around 1215hrs, we headed back south to the Aloq Setaq system, back to the hotel. They wanted to take their luggage and check out of the hotel before 1400hrs. After checking out, both Cruisers traveled to Jln Pegawai about 5 light years away from the hotel. They visited Tok Embun (Raidi’s great grandma) who lives together with Cik, Mother’s aunty. Just after 30 minutes, the Cruisers lift-off again, and this time they headed south back to the Federation’s Galaxy.

We arrived at the Federation’s Galaxy just before 1900hrs. Instead of heading back straight to Abaki moon home, Father directed the cruiser to A’hapan moon base. This is the home of Atuk Seth and Atuk Kiah, Master’s grand parents. Here, Father and Mother greeted their parents with hari raya wishes. But I saw both the Atuks were tired as they have been entertaining guests since morning. Besides, on Raya eve, they frantically cleaned the house from dusts and rearranged the furnitures due to the on-going renovation on their house. Although tired, they were happy to see us back from the Kedah Galaxy in time to celebrate 1st Syawal with them. As Atuk Kiah and Aunty Tasha prepared dinner, Mother made sure that Master and Zidani had their bath while I saw Father lepaking on the sofa, eating samprit like nobody’s business. Around 2000hrs, the Perdana Class Inter-Galaxy cruiser arrived at the A’hapan moon base carrying Wan, Nenek and Aunty Linda. About 15 minutes later, both side of Father’s and Mothers’s family had a raya dinner together.

After dinner, father received an intergalactic transmission call from one of his friends who lives at the B’JTong solar system. I trace the call and it was actually made from a nearby solar system. In fact it was originated from the A’Baki moon, the same moon where Master lives. Apparently, he was at his mother’s house. Father’s friends wanted to come and visit us for Raya and Father willingly invited them to come that night. So about 2330hrs, Father took us back to A’Baki moon anticipating that his friends would arrive soon. Just after clearing the ship’s cargo bay, Father’s friend called him again and told that some other friends are coming too. Father quickly went into the kitchen and told Mother to take out and serve everything we have from the cryogenic chamber. Curious, I decided to do a profile on Father’s friends. “Oohh ooohh…” I said. I quickly prepared myself for this as the profile indicated that most of Father’s friends are at ‘MALI’ 4-5 (Mentekadarah Alert Level Indicator). My plan was to slow them down as much as possible by putting up many obstacles and traps in the house. I’ve also run a search on their star travel blog and one of the homo sapient (Dr. Mafeitz), had been pulonning the whole day so I guess he should be at a range of ‘MALI’ 0.5 to 1. Fiqar and the rest should be around that level too. I continuously monitored the situation.

Kids Playing with Fireballs

As Father was re-heating ketupat palas in the kitchen, the guests started to arrive. Din and Suhailin with the kids (3 of them) landed first. They sat patiently while waiting for the husband and wife Dr Mafeitz and Dr Haniza, Fiqar and his son Ilhan. About 10 minutes later, the rest of the guests arrived. Dr Mafietz went straight into the kitchen greeting Father and wished each other Selamat Hari Raya. As I did my ‘MALI’ scan on him, it was upgraded to 4! Father was awestruck by the Songkok that Dr Mafeitz was wearing (tinggi gila). Fiqar wasn’t that lucky that night. He was injured from one of my mines that I planted to slow the guests down (dia pijak mainan Raidi). However, he was still all right, looking at the way he eats the ketupat.

My night vision and heat scanners was busy monitoring the humans

I had a security mayhem monitoring everybody’s movements. The kids were enjoying themselves watching power rangers vcd. After awhile, Master took out his toys and the house became a nursery. The kids love to play with Master’s ‘fireballs’ (bola kecik kecik). I had to use all my sensors and scanning radar to watch over the kids making sure that they are safe. Around 2300hrs, the guests left the house and Father and Mother was happy that they managed to entertain their guests. After cleaning up, the whole family went to sleep while I stayed up and did my rounds, patrolling the parameters.

Tomorrow, the family will be traveling south to the Johorian Galaxy. Before that, I will do my repairs on my optical sensors and make sure that its in good working condition. It was a hectic day for me, but no untoward incident happened. It was a great celebration for the family. I guessed I’ve done a good job looking after them and I’m sure the Galactic High Council would be happy to hear this. Somehow, I’m going to miss Master and his family once this assignment is finished.

Kamcheng Junior..

Just got an sms from Azad this morning...

"Alhamdulillah, we have a baby girl, 3.2kg at 8.08am. Yanti and baby is fine. Fyi, we r in darul ehsan medical ctr, shah alam"

Congratulation dude!! Will come over to visit you and your family soon..combo raya!

The Hari Raya Voyage Of A Super Hero Robot…Part I – Raya Eve

This is a blog entry of a super hero robot called Kody…the protector and guardian of Zulkarnain Raidi and his immediate family during Hari raya…

Star Blog Entry 01112005, Planet OU (New wing) -

Today, I was commanded to take a new security assignment. The Galactic High Council had posted me to this earthling family, to serve, protect, guard and provide security to them during the Hari Raya holidays. I was told to wait for my contact at the Star Port r’us, planet OU at the Dsara solar system. There I waited eagerly and patiently for my new master. I was quite nervous initially after reading my master’s profile as he is known to be highly active, volatile, demanding and highly intelligent as well. His immediate family is not that ‘bad’ at all. Master Raidi has a younger brother, Master Zidani. My mission priority is to provide security cover for Master Raidi and Master Zidani and at the same time provide close observation on their parents, relatives and friends. Of course, it’s also a mission protocol for me to execute any instruction given by my master. This is a code red security mission (equivalent to DefCon 4). It’s a crucial period really, where the family will do a lot of traveling and meet many people. So it’s a tough assignment. But this time I’m equipped with the latest weapons and defense technology. My generation of robots was manufactured and loaded with various highly sensitive detection sensors and I’m able to have instant access to all databases known to human being (JPN, FBI, CIA, Yahoo, soccernet..etc). I’m confident that with all this weapons at my disposal, I would be able to conduct my security duties, deterring any possible threats and counter any sort of strikes.

After I’ve made contact with Master Raidi and his Mother, I sensed that Master was very happy to see me. We made our way to his home planet traveling on a PWira-Class Taxiship, an inter-planetary cargo cruiser that took off from the planet OU star port. As we traveled at impulse speed, I received the family traveling itineraries from HQ and was reminded to be extra cautious during this festive period. HQ granted me to activate all my active and passive sonar, scanners and radar as we have to be extra vigilant. I had my bazooka and bomb blasting guns at safe mode and my laser sword always ready to be drawn out to draw first organic and non-organic blood.

Me & My Master, Zulkarnain Raidi at his home planet moon Abaki..

At home, scanners indicated buzzing activities as the family prepares to travel to their hometown on Raya eve. This time, they are celebrating their first raya at the Northern Galaxy or better known to some people as The Kedah Galaxy. Knowing this, I had to download a new software patch for my speech recognition program as the Kedahans speaks with a different dialect. There if you ask for ‘air’, they will look at you with one kind of a look and immediately they know you are not from around that galaxy. The program that I downloaded indicated that you MUST always say the word ‘air’ as ‘ayaq’.

Star Blog Entry 02112005, On board Star Ship Sonata –

Today, we traveled north on a Sonata Class Inter-Galaxy cruiser. Master’s father navigated the cruiser along the PLUS planetary route traveling at warp speed. The journey was smooth and my Master and the little brother slept for a couple of hours. On the way to the Kedah Galaxy, I realized that my digital optical sensor was faulty!! Damn!! Without it, I can’t really have a complete view of all the events and surroundings. I can only depend on my audio scanners and sensory equipment. I’ve reported this to HQ and they told me that the replacement parts can only be transported to the KL Galaxy. So I can only replace it when we get back to my Masters home. Loqlaq betul aku ni laaa..(digital camera tertinggal kat rumah)

Master Zidani at the ship's bridge, making final checks on the cruiser before launch.

We reached Alor Setar Galaxy around 2 pm. My environmental scanners indicated that it was a hot day with a temperature of around 33-35 degrees (aku rasa laa..tapi memang panas gila). Before we checked in into the hotel, Master’s mother wanted to drop by Planet Pekan Rabu as she wanted to buy some goodies, mainly food. She bought something for Master’s great grandmother in JB. I can’t remember what it was, but basically it was food, dark in colour and it comes with a shape of a human ear (aku panggil kuih telinga keling).

After the short stop over, we cruised straight to the hotel. As we landed at the parking bay, my radar detected a Perdana Class Inter Galaxy cruiser nearby. I ran a search on the Cruiser’s registration with the JPJ and it was registered to my Master’s grandmother. Immediately I heard Master shouting to his grandma as if he had not seen her for quite sometimes. Master wanted to go to the swimming pool and he tried to persuade the grandma to take him to the pool. But Mother told him that it was late already and instead he could play in the bathtub. Master was not happy with this, he started to shout and cried. Seeing this, as I sense danger, I was more than ready to take out my gun and start to launch and assault, protecting my master. Master started to get physical with the mother and mother tried to talk him down but failed. I took out my gun, aimed it at mother, I had a locked on target but suddenly, as I wanted to pull the trigger, my radar picked up a signal, it’s another human being closing in very quickly. Maybe the human wanted to know what the commotion is all about. I immediately withdraw my gun, switch it to safe mode as I realized it was the father in close proximity. I had to stand down as I know very well that my firepower is no match to his blazing ‘gun’. (Hahahahahahahahaha). Father managed to slow talk Master and he agreed to play in the bathtub, instead of the swimming pool. Hhmm..I noticed that Father is very skillful in negotiations. I wonder, perhaps I should have a closer observation on him and get to know him better.

That night Master Raidi had a hell of a night. Playing in the bathtub with his brother, as Father tried to sleep. I guess he was tired from the long journey and my MRI (Medical Radar Indicator) scan indicated that Father is having a bad headache. So he slept quite early on Raya eve and let Mother took care of Master Raidi and Zidani. Later that night, the whole family slept well and had a good rest knowing that tomorrow is Hari Raya. As I sent my Hari Raya wishes to my family in Cybertron, I switched on my infrared and night vision sensors, standing by and on-guard.

Although my first day with my Master was uneventful, it’s enough for me to know the family better. I know that Master Raidi is very very active and he is very fond of his brother Zidani. I noticed that anywhere that he goes, he seemed to attract a lot of attention either due to his cute looks or loud and high pitch voice. This is a security nightmare for me. But I’m always ready and able to protect him when needed. I hope he will have a joyous and safe Hari Raya.