Week In Review

It was a week fill with event that will keep me on my toes. An interview session, followed by BARDEGG Project Alignment workshop and continued with another interview session.
Continuing from the interview session in Nestle PJ, the agenda for the week was somehow building the momentum towards my real target which was the interview session for HSE Specialist in one of PETRONAS Subsidiaries.
Sharing a little bit of the interview session experience at Nestle, it went very very well, as I have done a little bit of last minute homework for the interview. I would consider the experience of attending the interview as, one of a kind, a new experience attending interview session as it was far different from the sessions that I had before. I am not sure whether it should be called interview session, but instead I would call it a chit chat session.
First, the whole session took about only 30 minutes. That included the time I spent chatting with PJ Factory Mgr most of the time asking about himself. I was not sure whether we have started the proper interview session as the HR Manager was not in the room at that time. That was the time I started the conversation with the FM asking him about his age, how long he has been in PJ and other sort of coffe table talk just to brake the ice. By the time the HR joined us, she was the one who was asking a proper interview questions. To my surprise, towards the end of the session I was told by the HR manager that she was previously from PETRONAS.
Secondly, I did not give my heart out during the chat session as I had asked Azam, the other candidate how bad did he want the job. Though he said he was not so desperate for it, if you drove down from Kedah to PJ, just to attend a one hour interview, it tells you how he probably took the interview with high interest. During the session I could go on telling the interviewers how relevant I am to the plant or vacancy, with my experience managing TPM activity in RTD plant, but somehow I did not. That was after I have considered that my friend needs the job more than I do. That probably the reason why my session ended so soon. After the interview session ended, upon walking through the entrance gate of PJ complex, I was a little bit relieved although it end up so soon. It was as good as I have informed to my friend that he is the right candidate for the job instead of me.

BARDEGG2 Project Alignment
It was the second visit that I have attending workshop at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center. Very easy to go there even you do not have GPS to assist. I can't remember the first time I went there, probably attending event organised by Corporate HSE, now a defunct unit of Group HSE. Various reasons that made me remember everything about the venue. First the green scenery of KLCC park could be easily enjoy by revellers of KL Convention Center. The park is located next to it,where we can see the greenery of the park through the glass wall surrounding the Convention Center. It is far bigger than the glass wall with the same concept at KLIA. The other reason that I remember most about it is the Cafe where we had refreshment and lunch during the workshop. The menu was far more than what you could expect. Free flow of all kind of drinks including can drinks. I was looking forward to sumptous dim sum dishes being offered there. So with both scenery and foods, we could expect that the objective of any workshop conducted there will be met.
BARDEGG project workshop, is a session when the project team convene and discuss among various package owners and stakeholder namely SHELL Non Operating Venture and PCSB Sarawak Operation, in identifying potential issues when the installation and comissioning campaign started next year. Me and the other staff from SKO were invited as our capacity of custodion of SKO Operation. As a custodian we will be consulted on the region requirement and we are expected to raise the concerns which may affect region KPI and performance. I was selected as representative to look into HSE related issue.

Hey There

Finally, the plants that I sow the seed few days ago, showed up revealing the leaves. Hi there...cant wait to see you growing and growing.

A return to the nest we.once belong

Today, is the day when I am going back to the place once we called a second "home", the workplace. Its  for an interview session and the position I am applying for was the old position before I left Nestle,First Line Manager. My interview slot was at 10am, and I will be interviewed by PJ Factory Manager and the HR Manager.
The interview session is the time I am looking forward to, not because I wanted really bad about the job, but it is more of meeting my fellow FLM colleague Norazam, who was also applying for the job. We were both shortlisted by our ex FLM colleague who has now become a Production Manager. Thanks to Azli, the interview session was finally came into being today.
As for preparation, we got many information shared in the Ex FLM Whatasspp group. I also shared with Azarm, few big file on TPM initiatives. Since we were informed at a very late, we could only make do with the slides by scrolling and read the files. As for me,I only managed to scroll down the last pages of Goal Alignment Power Point file minutes before I drove to PJ plant that morning.

House Makeover Project

It will be a mission day today.  Me and my sister will be out today by car, to look around what adjacent pekans to Kota Seriemas has to offer. My plan for today was to look out for any nearby nursery sort of giving me some ideas of what plants which will be planted at the house yard. I have thrown out the idea of planting vegies to the house owners, mak and abah. As usual, abah would give the thumbs up and mak, will question a lot before giving her approval. I know she really wanted some plants to be planted, be it for consumption or decoration, but the way she interrogating me as if I have other ulterior motives other than what she had. Once she stop questioning, I sensed that she had agreed to it. So off we go to pekan Salak, we arrived there after 5 min drive from the house. My sister drove the car after getting tip off from her "trusted" friend that there will be a Pasar Tani of sort at pekan Salak this morning. We were driving and try to look out for any sign of people visiting pasar tani, but failed. However we spotted a pasar basah, where we could suggest to abah to buy fresh fish there. Next to the pasar, we finally found the Pasar Tani spot, but it was empty. We saw a signage indicating the time for Pasar Tani and Pasar Malam at the parking lots, and to our curiousity the pasar tani will be every Sunday Morning, which is tomorrow. Next we went to a nursery where my sister told me this time with confidence that I could get whatever I was looking for my gardening project. She was right this time. There, I could see lot of plants, pots and gardening stuff. After some querries answered by the nursery staff, and with little money in my pocket, I decided to buy stuff for vegies gardening. I bought packets of tomato, salad and sawi seeds, a bag of fertilised soil and a gardening pot. After we have uploaded all the stuff into the car,we went back to the house.
Later in the afternoon, Deah, Ein and myself headed for IOI Putrajaya. At first I thought we are going to witness the lucky draw going to be held at 145 pm. As I drove the car, my sisters keep mum about it, and Deah was bugging me  complaining  that I drive too slow all the way from the house to IOI City Mall
. I was curious because, why do we need to be there on time if you did not win anything.

Gardening vegies project starts

One lucky customer with the Prize

Deah, you should know what to write. Is it that difficult?

Finally with my driving skills we managed to reach IOI City Mall safely, precisely after 45 mins driving from Kota Seriemas.
It was my first time at IOI Mall Putrajaya. I was amazed by the shear size of the mall. It was evidently clear as I took about 5 minutes to drive around the mall until we reached the entrance to the basement parking. After we parked the car, we quicly walked our way through the mall to be at Home Pro on time. I hessitantly joined the "walkathon". As we were walking very fast, I was still curious why we need to be there on time just to observe the draw. Why didn't we just chill out, look around the malls like other shoppers do.  Finally my curiousity was answered when Deah told me that they were collecting prize because they have won the lucky draw. She informed the staff that she was here to collect the lucky draw. After signing documents and writing a testimonial as a satisfied customer, we finally got our hands on the prize. Deah received the prize, a neatly wrapped box from the General Manager, we presumed and took few photos to capture the moment. We went back with big smiles on our faces, and the prize tucked in safely in the shopping trolley. Thanks Home Pro.

The prize - A steamer

Trip to FSU Nautica Muar

It was day 282 & 283. Having gotten myself to join the investigation team in Johor Bharu on 9th Oct, the investigation team together with representative of the vessel owner mobilized to Jetty Pasir Putih to board a so called Water Taxi to Nautica Muar the next day. We departed early from Renaissance Hotel and reached the jetty at 8am, and we have to wait for the other staff from the contractors to join us. First impression that I had when I reached there was, how on earth are we going to endure 7-8 hrs journey, using the Water Taxi. The facility in the jetty was a far cry than the facility that was once the embarkation point to offshore platforms in Miri, which is Pulau Melayu Wharf. PMW has no longer serve as PETRONAS embarkation point as the Operator license to operate a passenger jetty has been revoked by Sarawak River Board. At Pasir Putih Jetty, there is a proper boat landing jetty, but we have to transfer boat to boat in order to be onboard the designated boat. The water Taxi are docked and moored side by side to each others. As compared to Pulau Melayu, only one boat is allowed to pick up passengers and all the passengers have to cross a gangway to be on board of the designated Water taxi Not much of risk to take if you are boarding at PMW, but generally it was also safe to transfer at Pasir Putih jetty, considering the water of Johor Straits was relatively calm that day.

Before the journey started, I went to the Jetty toilet, and clear whatever remainings inside the gut.  There is no toilet in the Taxi, and you have to endure hours should you have stomach upset in a "civilised" manner. When this has been taken care of, you should have only little issue to deal with when you are already on the boat.

Khanif the team leader interviewing the witness

We sailed off from the jetty, with many curious thoughts in our mind as none of us has ever experienced travelling in the water taxi in Johore water. I personally looked forward to the trip, as I have not much issue travelling by boat for long hours. My body seems to have adapted to living or rather travelling in boat, after spending countless hours travelling by Fast Crew Boat going to offshore facilities. But I always do take note that that I am also susciptible to the after-effects of boat travelling amid spending few days living offshore. It includes disorientation, drowsiness, "pitching and rolling" effect when you are standing on firm ground. Other than that I should enjoy the scenes during the travel and capture few photos to add my many photo collection of working in offshore. 

We reached Nautica Muar approximately after 2 1/2 hours travel, as compared to earlier estimation of 6 hours. From a far, we can see how majestic is the FSU, but the closer we were to Nautica Muar, all the concerns and stories that I heard about the vessel came back to haunt me. It just made me realized the reason we were here. When the boat nearing the boat landing area at the starboard side (left) of the vessel, immediately I could remember what Sammy have told me about it. The boat landing deck of the vessel is definetly much more smaller than the work boat boat landing platform, and offshore platform boat landing as well. The other challenge of transfering to the FSU boat landing, we literally have to jump the boat barrier which is about 1/2 feet high to land at the boat landing of the vessel,Nautica Muar. Fortunately that day, the water was very calm, which did not require for you to jump to the boat landing platform instead you just have to step on the boat barrier as the swell was not that high, probably less than 1m. To reach the Nautica Muar main deck, it requires you to face few obstacles like you would normally seen on obstacle track i.e climbing monkey ladder, and walk through a makeshift slanting ladder towards the end of the track. Though not as challenging as obstacle track in game show, the thoughts that if you fall from the platform into the sea keep flashing on my minds. The nervousness did not subside as I could see there was a few sign of corrosion at the gratings and ladder, and there is only handrail in the form of chain at knee length as your hand could grab on as I walk and climb my way to the main deck. I slowly collecting the strength and soon realized that,actually it was not that scary since the water was as calm as still water. Once I reached the main deck, It was like you have reached a pinnacle of a mountain. I was overjoyed but manage to keep it to myself. A look at the surrounding of the main deck gave you a slight chill. The vessel was eerily silent, the deck looked rundown and I could see a few equipments lying on the main deck. However a glimpse on the surrounding water, amazed me till now as the scene was very breathtaking. I could still see Johor shore as we are only 4km away. If we were allowed to capture a photo, I would probably take a few shots from the main deck but it is prohibited to do so. I keep reminding myself that I was standing on top of the most hazardous material which was crude oil cargo.

As the day progress, we conducted interview session with the witnesses. Our target for the visit was to establish the sequence of event that lead to the incident based on the interviews that we conducted. In any normal interview session with  witnessess, we need to analyse the facts, like answering puzzle as often we heard conflicting statements from different witnesses when asked to describe the same turn of event, mind also the exact time when the incidence happen. At some point, when were analysing the documents, we had to do a "forensic" analysis in order to establish the fact by removing  weak evidences. Truly a challenging task for the team. Without allowing element of mala fide' in the context of investigation, we just took note of all the words coming from all the witnesses. At the end of the day we want to provide a credible report to the management with relevant way forward which we hope such incident will never happen again. 

We stayed overnight there at Nautica Muar, as per plan and will continue with the investigation the next day. All the member from SK Oil Operation were assigned in a 5 bed-room accomodation. Quite cosy as we had a good night sleep that night. Probably the reason for a comfortable sleeps that we had was probably it was after a long day of boat ride and digesting the information from the interview session, it was definitely a tiring day.  The only slight interruption was probably from the snoring of Khanif. Since his bed was a distance away from others, we just considered the noise as a minor one.

The next day, we started with the site visit where the location of the incident happened. We observed the setup of the ventilation system on the day of incidence and watched the demonstration how the gas testing was done. At first there a few personnel from the investigation team planning to go down into the tank, due to various reasons. Hardy, the team member from Vestigo wanted someone to go down and collect some samples of the sludge. Khanif meanwhile wanted to take a closer look at the scene inside it, in order to get a clearer picture and view. From the manhole which situated on top of the tank, it was pitch black. You can't see anything from the mouth of the manhole. By entering it, and by bringing in torch light, than probably you could get clearer view of  what transpired that day from the witness statement. Initially Akmal, the other team member volunteered to go down, considering he has experience in entering cofined space, unfortunately or fortunately the plan was halted, as we do not want other incident to happen as we were not sure what was below there. So we scrap off the idea of sending someone down, into 20m deep tank.

After the visit to the incidence site and many information that we gathered through queries during the visit, we headed back to the war room to continue with the interview session. As the interview session progressed and hearing the other witnessess account on the incident, we finally concluded the investigation at 1400 hrs. With the information which we had gathered, disected and analysed for past two days when we were on-board, we shared recommendations and way forward to ensure the unfortunate incident will never happen.  As they say, one incident is one too many.  I personally think after going through the expirience, those marine and contractor has received my utmost respect. Their hardship amd danger that they have gone through,it shows how important for you to plan your work amd fully understand hazards involve and the most important think is to know what does your procedure says. The lesson learn apply to all regardless what job are you doing. Follow the recommendations, you will ensure the safety of your aubordinates will not be compromised. Enough said.

At 1530hrs, we parted our way and headed down to the boat landing at the sea deck. We needed to go through the same drill that we had when we climbed our way to main deck the day before. Everything went smooth, as we have already anticiapated the hazards and what to look out as we climbed down. Once everybody was on-board on the water taxi, we sailed off our way back to Pasir Putih Jetty, the same embarkation point.

A Typical Day at Subang Skypark

Day 282
Staying overnight at the new house.
53 min travel from Kota Seriemas to Subang Skypark. Reached Skypark Subang at 325pm. Last visit to Subang Airport was the time during trip to Langkawi in 2008, during Nestle time. Boarding soon. Process of checking in just the same as Mas or Air Asia.
At long last bought a luggage bag to replace the old one. A Barry Smith Travellers luggage at a knock down price, 50% discount with 3 years warranty of the handle and wheel. Knowing that my future with the compary is full with uncertainties, define

tely will fully utilize it during offshore or outstation travels.

Day 281....

It is Friday, a day when everybody looks forward to whenever the week starts. A typical Friday to me is the day for me to prepare myself to get ready to fly back to KL, normally evening flight. I went back to KL last week, after an "eventful" week last week in Shah Alam, so I supposed to be in Miri this week following my usual timetable. I would normally fly back home every two weeks, however I received a call of duty from my boss, to go to Pasir Gudang in Johor to join the investigation team and be part of the team members. I would rather not to indulge into the details of the accident in this entry,as it still pending for investigation and information is deemed confidential at this point of time.
As the appointed Tri-Podean in the team, I was preparing the day with tools for the investigation to be carried out. I asked my brother-in-arm, Lelan on how to develop the tripod beta for an incident. He gave everything and tips to use A Tripod Beta shared version and download the program into my laptop.
The Team leader has been busy liasing with the staff on the preparation to do site visit at Nautica Muar, an FSU. As the conversation and discussion continue in the Whatsapp Groupchat , we were told that we need to board a water taxi and would be travelling for 3 hours for us to reach Nautica Muar, the scene of the incidence. Everybody was so surprised to know about it, as an office based offshore staff to travel in water taxi and on top of it traveling long hours to reach to the destination. As  the person responsible of the safety of the team, I queried about the traveling arrangement to my boss, asking his opinion whether is it allowed to travel in Water Taxi for long hours. Sharing his recent trips using water taxi to a drilling rig, he advised to look into fatigue issue should it be the only option.
Upon hearing the advice from Hj Tarmizi, I informed about the discussion point to my Team Leader, Khaniff. He just took note on the advise that we should stay overnight on the vessel to ensure that we will have enough time to conduct the investigation without compromising the safety aspect of the team. I do not have grudges about it, rather I am quite nervous about the trip as it will be the first time for me to travel on water taxi, smaller boat than the fast crew boat and endure long hour. I do anticipate a choppy sea state as we are entering monsoon season. The other concern for me is that I remember that my colleague Sammy once informed that he had to jump from FCB to the boat landing of the FSU, and he did mentioned that he was quite nervous about it. Nautica Muar was located near Kumang Platform, where my collegue Sammy being assigned to. He had said that was the only time he went to on-board of the vessel, and he will never again set foot on the vessel if it is only for a routine visit.

Items to bring along whenever I need to travel offshore.

  

Day 280 of 2016

Today, not much can be written as I have already sign up my name to attend Safe Handling Of Chemical and Noise Awareness Training. Hj Tarmizi require all his staff to go for the training, to build-up the staff competencies in HSE related topics. He emphasized on  training, as we are expected to know requirement not only of your respective section, but others as well.
Trainer is Benedict, aka my Ping Pong Padawan, He is sort of the trainee for me as he was very fond to know how to play Ping-pong as I do. He managed to keep the class awake due to the way he conducted it. Seems like a seasonal trainer, he was not too focus on the details and technical parts of the training, as the details was too much to digest in  one day. He share the requirement of CLASS and UHESCC and the relevancy to our Operations.

Ben doing his thing as the Trainer

Group Photo Standing L-R Me, Ben, Abid, Lelan, Leo, Syukri, Matius, Hardy, Hisham, Jalang, Steeve, Eng, James, Jason

.

                        Sitting L-R Noi, Sabrina, Raidah, Liza, Jezebel and Felicia

In the afternoon, I had to escape from the class so as to attend a short discussion with Incident Investigation Team Leader in his office. The team convened in his room, discussed what is the plan to conduct the investigation. We will be heading to Pasir Gudang, Johor to conduct the investigation. Destination Floating Storage Unit Vessel Nautica Muar

Start the Countdown Clock...

As I have shared in the previous entry, my days in PETRONAS are numbered, so as what I could have sensed. Yesterday received email notification from HR that my Structured Interview session has been postponed to a later date due to unavailability of Assessor. It sorts of providing me glimmer of hopes, aside from the postponement news, that I would probably continue my work with PETRONAS. This morning in my FLM Whatsapp chat,received sad news about one of my ex-collegue from Nestle, his job is made redundant due to his company( Tyco Int) being bought over by other company (Johnson Control). In fulfilling my previous commitment, whatever the future holds for me with PETRONAS, I will start to update in this blog my daily activity. Starting from today.

6.10.2016
This morning started early going to office. Ever since my new big boss join Sarawak Operation, we have started to have a tazkirah session. I remember when it was started, idea came from Leo, OH Exec. I was given the task to lead doa recital. Not taking seriously his request, I was hesitant to do it, giving execuse that there is no such doa to start an exercise. Not that I do not know to recite doa, i just x want to join the early morning exercise session.

Screenshot of Whatsapp how it all started

That day, I supposed to recite the doa but somehow I came in late with my expectation that the Tazkirah session will end just at the right time as I entered the office. Roslee took over the doa, and I was obliged to do the taskirah as to switch with the task earlier assigned to Roslee. At first Roslee has prepared some material for tazkirah, funny enough he has prepared material which i vaguely remembered touched on solat, which most of the non-muslim friends would struggle to understand. I had to pass his material and was asked to share on PTW. Well, that was a topic I am most familiar with, but I decided to share my unfortunate experience at Miri Airport with everybody on the importance of Risk Assessment. As I gave the talk. I remembered clearly how the incidence revolves. , I slowly collecting what I remembered on the day of the incident, once I started to talk. When you consciously drive through entrance parking boom, I think nobody will ever forget about it. So I shared story on how I ram into the parking boom' and did some simple analysis of what went wrong that day. Point of my talk was not to rush whenever you do your work.

Tazkirah by the "Syeikh", a time of reflection. Notice how Hj Tarmizi react, as if he committed the same crime as I dis for hitting the entrance parking boom.

The session continued with Leo leading the crowd with his self-descriptive exercise, with him having to explain the benefit of each of the movement in his exercise his shared. Instead of having the people warming up the bodies, loosening tense muscles,  we were laughing our hearts loud to all the explaination and the words coming from him. Leo was known for mispronouncing people names.

It was apparently clear after the session ended, Hj Tarmizi decided that it will be a weekly routine activity. He insisted it to be done as to ensure that all the staff at least once a week to come early and spend a solid 8 hours in the office, as what being specified in the work contract.

As hard as you thought that it will be a one-off event, Hj Tarmizi has agreed that it will become a weekly agenda. And SO IT DOES. 

Today, it was BSE4 Section turn to host the session. The tazkirah was done by Jalang sharing his take on the roles of newly promoted manager. I don't see the topic was any relevant to most of the staff, but for the benefit of the doubt, we just listened to what he was sharing. Hj Tarmizi somehow gave his take on his topic as he was not fully agree on the roles of the Section Head as shared by Jalang. His idea was that as the managers, he should be doing as what the Exec is currently doing. His thoughts resonate very well with us, seeing that the company has to be lean, as it needs to evolve with the new business environment today.

The exercise part was later on lead by the new Department Trainee, Jason. Taking the cue from the viral Apple Pen Pineapple Pen song, Jason modify the exercise to suit with the Mantra of our department. Imagine this, Pocho-pocho dancing step in APPP song and the lyric fill with the company initiatives. It goes like this

"I obey Rules, I have Zeto, aah...Zeto Rules". Another Line of the lyrics touched on the Safe Worker

To conclude the tazkirah session that day, Hj Tarmizi gave out present/s to our newly wed Environment Section Head, Miza. Never thought she will get presents that big, since I think I don't give any contribution to the tabung to buy the present. Probably Liza might have missed me as I was out of the office. Anyway, congrats Miza.

What is the next move.....

At this point of time, it was obviously clear that soon  I will be saying Good Bye to PETRONAS and Miri. Rumours about the contract personnel and West Malaysian jobs are circulating and become a must topics to be discussed over lunch hour. Looking at it, I match the profile of those staff PETRONAS will have to release in order to fulfill the company obligation in reducing overhead. Whenever the topics being discussed, i just lend my ear, try to keep the insecurity feeling with thoughts that finally I will be going back to my hometown. I did not feel the heat as much as the others as I know few of my colleagues was in the worse situation compared to me. I somehow have been preparing for the past 1 year and have come out with a plan or two, should my contract will not been renewed. A plan will remain as a plan until I have the guts to execute the plans but with considerable thoughts. I just need to plan how to sustain for the whole of next year. Should the situation turn from bad to worse, I will need to let go one of my properties, to keep my head above water. Below are few of the options that I have plotted out. The plan is based on the current trend at the point of the entry.

1. Take a rest, continue further with my study, probably with Master Program and just rely on my savings. I could do odd job in between it. But odd jobs will not be the 3Ds job because I am not patriotic enough to answer the call from Zahid Hamidi for his fellow citizen to occupy the 3Ds jobs. Sorry Zahid.
Odd job which I am thinking of eg Uber driver. However I need to get a car, less than 7 years old if I need to be registered as Uber driver.

2. Go into business. Yes business. I have been planning to venture into food business, a food kiosk,  located at Kota Seriemas. I would not reveal too much on the details, as I foresee that some of the menu will be the first of its kind being offered.
This option, as i have calculated is workable. I can have a support from my sister or mom on the food preparation. But there are many challenges remains. Few of it are common, risk that you need to take if you want to jump into Food and Beveraages business. Stories like how your business will be affected due to issue which is beyond my control keep bugging me. I just hope with carefull planing and good management of operation will help the business to sustain. The point is I need to start it in a smaller and manageable scale. No point of doing it big but later you see the business goes down the drain due to whatever reason.

3. Look for lower wage job. Since I would propbably heading back to KL, I will have to look for work around KL or Nilai. How much is the offer, I will just have to accept it. Not that keen to work back in Operation, working in factory. But if I have no other choice, I just have to grab it.

A New Place To Call Home

It was the moment that the family has been waiting anxiously for the past 2 years. We finally got the key to our new house addressed in Kota Seriemas Nilai. Too many stories behind it if I can recall starting from the booking of the house, where we could not get the booking fee until the day we move in into the house.  As i said, we have been waiting anxiously for the house due to a slow process of financing the house. The financing part was split between my father and me. It has to go through a slight complex arrangement as it involve the selling of my father house to my sister, Deah. I have not much issue on getting the loan from bank, however the selling part of the family house did encountered few bumps and roadblock. I never knew that bank look into BMI when they wanted to offer loan to my sister. Alhamdullilah, abah's preseverence and follow up, the bank transaction was finalized last month and finally we got the keys to the house afterwards.

The day when the family walk in the house

Once we received the keys, it is time to execute the plan to furnish the house. With careful planning and not forgetting the tight budget, we plan so that we will do simple renovation in the kitchen and fill up the living rooms with necessary home furniture. Key word here is tight budget. Though budget is always be the primary concern, we have at our own  disposal furniture from my house. We have been thinking how to transfer my things from my own house, less than 5 min drive, and where to put and arrange them in the new house. Considering all these, here come the conflicts when we want to stuff the house. My mom idea is to stuff with minimum furniture, simple arrangement will do because she wants to retain the spacious ambience for the house. Then Abah idea of furnishing the house is, it must be made of kayu jati, yg berat-berat, so do the sisters. Instead of ceiling mounted light with 3 bulbs, they want chandelier. With IKEA having lot of simple cabinet and dinning table practical to the modern design, they want Jati instead, So now, you can see how the conflict reveal. We just have to wait in a year time, who's idea and authority that the family will oblige to when the house are fully furnished by then. Definitely there will be lots of bargaining, long faces and noises coming through until the process of furnishing the house completed. Until then, let's wait and see. Afterall it is stil Work In Progres

Front View of the house and its proud gate keeper 

 

The mandur supervising the work

                     

And guess who is the coolie

Yesteryear is Today

You have been longing for kampung ambience, meeting your relatives and having a feast of delectable food, but you have no kampung to go, no more grandparents to visit....where do you head to.

Sarapan

This year, Keluarga Tok Haji Abu after a long time that we have never gathered with the whole families decided to have our Hari Raya gathering. Location wise there is less option to choose especially during Raya. There are few considerations before we decide to pick  the venue.

• We can't go to our usual gathering spot at Pengkalan Balak,as it is no longer attractive to hold our Family Day there.
• Venue must be in the area where all the family members could reach within 1-2 hours.
• We need to consider also that we can beat traffic jam on our way there. Reason being we should do it and wrap the event in 2 Days and 1 Night in keeping to the true spirit of Hari Raya gathering, as the time is so precious. If you spent half a day on the road, you know what you will miss later on.
• It has to have proper amenities and facilities i.e swimming pool, dinning hall to house 60 over pax, air-conditioned room and ample parking space. On-board entertainment not really required.
• price, price, price. 

Well, the planning was not much of an issue. We have done few family gatherings before, in a larger scale and coupled with many more challenges. I could remember the preparation that we made in the first ever Family day we conducted in Ancasa Hotel in Port Dickson, i think back in 2009. The venue was initially proposed by Poksu, having learn from his side of family who has conducted  their family day. It was a simple one but full with joys. But soon after the event ended, we decided that it should be annual affair to hold the event.

I have below in my collection some of the photo and videos to capture the moments.

Tok Haji Abu giving his remarks in the 2nd Family Day

Promotional Banner to make other family feeling envious.

Abah chairing the Family meeting tabling the Tok Abu Fund

One for the Family Album. Notice about Tok Abu hand gesture

                                   

Makan Time

Mandi

      

Basically after we have organised many of such events, we have come to a conclusion that below are all the needs for all the family member which need to be met

•  The kids and adults needs swimming pool or dipping in the sea to cool down.
•  The Elders, Pakcik Makcik enjoying the BBQ and strolling along the beach.
•  The ladies...need the make-up and camera for Wefie. Man just watch and learn

So this year, after careful thoughts and intense yet friendly discussion in Whatsapp Group, we are heading to Desa Balkis in Kuala Linggi for Hari Raya gathering.

Date: 5 Syawal 1437 H (9th Jul 2016)
Venue : Desa Balkis, Kuala Linggi Melaka
Time : 12 pm (reach Office waiting to get the rooms' keys)

I will let the photos and the captions to describe how enjoyable the gathering was and its event which took place this year        

Rumah Mama where it houses our family

Mak Andak on her way to her house. Bye

Lighting at night on the tradisional houses

                                                                                         

Pak Anjang and family signing Kad Hari Raya

Poksu and Moksu collecting the memories living in kampung at the serambi (balcony)

                                    

Unboxing the rice cooker, the only utinsil which everyone forgot to bring. It should be Mak Anjang since she wanted to prepare Nasi Arab that night

The BBQ Chefs in action. 

Family photo for the night

The Elders discussing family affairs and wedding plan of Aiman, Salihin, Shukri and Liza.