An Anniversary to Remember...

On July 26th 2007, I was invited to attend a Charity Dinner hosted by MNC-CIGRE and MNC-CIRED at PJ Hilton. The dinner were organised by both of the non-profit engineering societies to honor thier members and at the same time to collect fund for Majlis Kanser Nasional (MAKNA) through sale of dinner tables for local companies associated with the power industry.

Coincidently, the dinner date also fell on our 18th anniversary and I took the oppurtunity to bring my other half to the dinner. The dinner was supposed to start at 8.00PM but we only arrived at the location about half an hour past due to bad traffic. In fact, on that day, I have to cut-short a meeting with the big-boss at about 6.50PM and have to asked her permission to leave as I need to go home first and pick-up my other half to the dinner. Well, from the office to BJ, it took me more than an hour to arrive and no thanks to the the congested traffic due to heavy evening rain and thus delayed our journey to the hotel.

As we arrived, the dinner was just about to start. I guessed, many people were also late due to the rain. Most VIPs were already arrived and as we stepped into the ballroom, and were asked to share the table purchased by APS and were greeted by Dr Sallehudin and also his wife. After short speeches by Vice-Chairman of MNC-CIGRE and the chairman of TNB, the dinner started. I could not really recall how many courses of chinese dinner we were served but enough said that I skipped most of them after the third course. There was a 2 piece live band entertaining the 400 plus guests and I would say that they were not bad in what they did !

Since the dinner was meant for charity, the organiser has decided to let key VIPs to sing using the karaoke machine on the stage. Well, for a VIP to sing, the guests were asked to bid on how much they would willing to pay for the singing. Chairman of TNB got the highest bid that night at RM3000 and the pledge was made by one of the IPP guests. I was also asked by the organiser to sing a song but I decided not to for many-many reasons.



here was also a mocked cheque presentation ceremony held where the organiser presented an amount of more than 30K to MAKNA chairman. This amount did not include the amount collected during the karaoke singing by the VVIPs. I think the organiser may have collected close to 40K alone that night !




To me the highlight of the dinner was when I received an honorary award as tribute to my service to the MNC-CIGRE until I 'retired' from the Secretary position early this year. I was given a new Canon G7 Digital Camera of which I was asked about this choice some two weeks before this. Chairman of MNC-CIGRE himself gave the 'award' to me and I am very honored to receive such recognition.




The dinner came to end at about 11.30PM. My other half was quite happy to accompany me as she also got to meet her friend whom she met when we were in Amsterdam 3-4 years ago. Well, so much about our annivesary celebration. I think this is one anniversary that will stick in our memory for long...Alhamdullilah. Oh yeah, the morning of the same day, MNC-CIGRE organised a free 1-Day Forum on Power Technologies open to the public. About 60 people from the power sector industry and also from the universities attended the forum. Several international speakers were invited to give talks on the future of power technology and I would say the forum was a resounding success judging on the full-capacity crowd filling up the ballroom..

Bidding Farewell..for now

We had a small gathering in the office today honoring four of our colleagues who have been transferred to other departments and subsidiary of the company. The four are Mamat, Yoke Wai, Sutree and Mat Jan. Out of the four, Mamat and Yoke Wai were with me in the same unit. Both of them are excellent employees of TNB and have been a great help and contributor company. Mamat spent slightly more than a year working with me before his transfer to Sabah while Yoke Wai spent only three months after her services are required in the newly form department within the company.

As for Sutree, I have known him since early 2000 but so far he has never reported directly to me at work. Sutree also is a very hardworking person and his knowledge in the area of power quality cannot be surpassed by many in the company. Mat Jan is our IT technician and he is always helpful and dedicated to his work. Alhamdullilah, he is now promoted but sadly he is transferred to the IT group for a new position and assignment.

As usual there were many people at the gathering including the two bosses from the first floor. Our VP also came to have the lunch together with us and I can tell that everyone was very happy with the food being served, nasi beriyani, ayam merah, beef rendang, kari dal and some fruits and sweets.



To the four, you guys have been great to us. Your departure will be sadly missed but what is more important is that your contribution to the company will increase and duly appreciated by all.

Dinner & Appreciation Night

On Saturday night, me together with my other half attended the IEEE Malaysia Annual Appreciation & Award Night 2007 at Blue Wave Hotel Shah Alam. We were actually occupying the table bought by MNC-CIGRE as a kind support to the IEEE-Power Engineering Malaysia which last year had also brought a table during the MNC-CIGRE Person of the Year Award dinner.


The dinner was supposed to start at 8.30PM after arrivals of VIPs but when we arrived there at 8.10PM, there were still not many people inside the banquet hall and in fact we were actually among the early birds ! This situation might have happened because it was actually raining outside and probably many guests were still on their way at that time. Nonetheless, at about 9.00PM, the dinner finally started, half an hour later than scheduled time.


There were several VIPs joining the dinner including Dato' Aishah Rauf and husband, Dato' Zainal Azirun and wife, Dr. Philip Tan and several professors from the local Universities. The table purchased by MNC-CIGRE was supposed to be occupied by ten people. However, due to a last minute change, four seats were unoccupied. Nonetheless, this was not a big problem since the dinner was a seven course Chinese and some of us were really hungry especially that we have to wait until 9.30PM before we can start eating. There was a brief dinner presentation show done by the hotel staff using the 'Beauty and Beast' popular song ' Be our Guest' just before the dinner and I thought this is something catchy and unexpected.


The outgoing Chairperson for the IEEE Malaysia, Prof. Dr. Norman Mariun of UPM gave the opening remarks and later announced that the new chairperson for this year would be Prof. Dr. Mohd Nasir Taib from UiTM. While the guests were having their dinner, the organiser made several announcements honoring the IEEE members who have contributed to this society and presented them with token of appreciation in the form of plaques. There were also several rounds of lucky draws but so unfortunately, my other half and me were not lucky enough :-) Perhaps, next year our luck could be better insha'allah. Oh yeah, sitting with us on the same table were Sharifuddin and wife, Zamri from SIEMEN and Dr Aznan the technicall adviser to the CEO. Only Zamri got something to bring back from the Lucky draw to the delight of his wife definitely !

Sweet 35 !

Today our unit celebrated the birthday of Mr Hasbi a.k.a Zinedine Zidane in the office. Although not everyone was there, I thot the celebration was very joyful and full of graciousness. Our Chief Engineer himself read the doa' and what a touching and memorable doa' it was. Today it was a chocolate cake treat with some nachos and keropok. Understandably, two of our members are away thus the budget to have a big party was slightly unachievable. Yeah, but what is important is not the food but the thots :-)


Hasbi has been with us for over a year now. He is known to be 'fatherly' like, cool, composed and collected and nicely fit as the trusted and dependable first-officer. So far I have never seen him losing his temper nor I have I observed him to act against his fitting image. What I observed though that he is losing his hair rapidly by the day and now the image is changing to a more mature and contemplative individual.



To Hasbi, please celebrate this birthday with the thought that each passing day is a blessing from Allah. As we grow, we are nearer to Allah than to our own selves. Remember, rumah kata pergi, kubur kata mari..."Happy 35th Birthday"

Birthday & Life

We had a simple belated birthday celebrations for Ziha and Hisham at the office today. Hisham's birthday is on the 29th January while Ziha's falls on the 16th January.

We could not do this small gathering earlier as we normally do for the OS section due to conflicting schedule at the office. Besides, earlier this month, Ziha was attending the Asean Residential School for two weeks in UNITEN. I was also told that our friend Danial's birthday actually is today and according to Hisham, Danial's is about 8 hours younger than him !


We started the 'party' at 3.00 PM and there were also several other members within the OPP unit joined in and celebrated together. I had to leave the party early as I had to attend an MNC-CIGRE meeting at KL Sentral. For Hisham and Ziha, Happy Birthday and may Allah bless both of you always and give you the best in Dunya and Akhirat..Amin-Ya-Rabbil-Alamin

....Jika kamu berbuat kebaikan, (maka faedah) kebaikan yang kamu lakukan adalah untuk diri kamu; dan jika kamu berbuat kejahatan, maka (kesannya yang buruk) berbalik kepada diri kamu juga. Oleh itu, apabila sampai masa janji (membalas perbuatan derhaka kamu) kali kedua, (Kami datangkan musuh-musuh kamu) untuk memuramkan muka kamu (dengan penghinaan dan keganasannya)...-Al-Israa' Ayat 7

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Till Death Do Us Part...Part 2

Dan orang yang tidak mempunyai kemampuan berkahwin, hendaklah mereka menjaga kehormatannya sehingga Allah memberi kekayaan kepada mereka dari limpah kurnia-Nya..Surah An-Nur Ayat 33

On Sunday afternoon, my son and I attended the wedding reception of my friend Nizam at Masjid Negeri Shah Alam. My other half was not able to join us as she was busy preparing and cooking as we were also planning to visit our daughter as SAMBES later in the afternoon. Nizam is my golfing buddy at KRTU and actually I was introduced to him by others during one of our weekly outing there. We were supposed to be there at 11am for the akad-nikah session but for some reasons were a bit late and missed it. Met Zul at the parking area and we went straight to the banquet area for the reception buffet lunch.


The reception for Nizam's wedding was well attended by his friends and relatives though not as large as Amin Majid's wedding during christmas day.This is actually his second marriage and his newly wedded wife is a medical doctor. I took the oppurtunity to snap some photos of him with his new bride and I can tell from his face that he is a happy man again...





Semuga Allah merestui perkahwinan mereka dan dilimpahkan rahmat dan barakah yang berkekalan...Amin Ya-Rabbil alamin

Happy Birthday Faizal !

I know Faizal since he joined us as a contract staff under the SKS programme way back in 2002. Today, he is a fully-employed staff with excellent attitude towards his duty and great future ahead of him. And, he also turns 29 today. As for me, in few more days inshallah, I will complete my 19 years in service and will start the 20th year of my career in power sector industry.

I have learnt so much in 19 years but one thing for sure, the more your know, the more you have got to learn. However, among the most valuable things I learnt is to listen to other opinions and listen intently before making any decision. We are not the passer of judgement but rather a decision maker of which this ability has been bestowed on us by Allah. This is what Allah has reminded us in Al-Quran Surah Az-Zumar Ver 18 " yang mendengar perkataan lalu mengikuti apa yang paling baik diantaranya, mereka itulah orang2 yang telah diberi petunjuk dan mereka itulah orang2 yang mempunyai akal"

For Faizal, Happy Birthday , and for the rest of us, at whatever stage in our lives, one thing for sure is that we will have to face the consequences of whatever decision we have made or will be making. Only for a muslim, our decision is always guided by iman and taqwa. Wallah-hua'lam.

Wedding

On Christmas day of 2006, me, my wife and our four kids attended the wedding of my office mate Mr Amin Majid in Kajang. It was a lovely occasion attended by many familiar faces from the office as well as by those from the power sector industry. The reception was well attended and its evidenced by the capacity-crowd canopy shades where the dining tables were located to serve buffet-stylelunch

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Like everything else in life, marriage is part of the big circle of life that almost everyone will experience. To those just got married or about to get married, marriage is full of excitement and joy. In reality, marriage is an institution of total commitment, sincerity, sacrifice and perseverance. Being a muslim, the concept of 'lillahi-taala' helps in making a marriage a commitment to Allah and thus benefits not only your spouse and kids but the whole mankind in general with joy and happiness.

To Amin Majid, "Selamat Pangantin Baru" and May Allah bless your marriage always.