FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: Responsibility + Accountability = Maturity (Success*n)

Once while driving back from lunch with my family, a few teenagers were blocking the road into the housing area where I live. They were talking and laughing while walking along the road. When I honked to signal my oncoming car, a few of them ignored the horn and continued with their laughter. After passing through them and approaching the gate of my house, we saw a flock of birds on my pathway were basking under the sun. Once they saw my approaching car, they flew away without any hassle.

These differences in reaction were observed by my children and I commented to them the differences of reaction showed the level of maturity by both the teenagers and the flock of birds. This is because the first sign of maturity is survival instinct. This can be seen in any of the scientific television series either in the Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic channels. Survival instinct provides us the ability to continue living by being alive and avoiding injury or death. The stronger a survival instinct the more chances for success in live.
A higher stage of maturity is formed by two essence, responsibility and accountability. Responsibility is knowing all the task and duties that one has and having the ability to prioritise these in order of importance for action. It is a manner of ensuring that all task and duties are taken care off completely. Responsibility can either be assigned or assumed but the importance remains the same. The other essence of maturity is being accountable. Accountability is ensuring that all task and duties are taken care off completely in a satisfactory manner without fail.

Once these essences are blended into complex maturity, we will be able to handle several and even multiple challenges. The sustainability of maturity will ensure further development of survival to generate a lot more success in live. Of course certain challenges may not be handled completely alone, maturity will also provide the ability to connect with other network to generate and leverage support. For further reading, please refer to my other article on "Friendship, its benefits to success" and "Diminishing accountability".

To articulate further this concept, I attach a graphic presentation below. 

(Amzzah Naseehah Resources provides Human Capital Management consultancy services in area of training, learning and development. For more details please email to : amzzah_naseehah@ymail.com or call: +6012-5103364)

Freedom to our children

Every child from a parent is a distinct individual. A child may even have the same pointed nose of the father or the same curly hair of the mother, but deep inside, the child is different in many ways from their parents and siblings. Likewise twins may look the same in most of their physical features; however one half of the twin is still different in many ways from the other half.

I have two sons and a daughter. My eldest son was very active when he was in school. He was the school prefect when he was in primary and secondary schools. He participated in many of the school's extracurricular activities as well as competed in many competitions representing his school. He was also doing well in his studies.

My other son however was a quite boy and will avoid attention as much as he could. When he was in his primary school, the only time he represented his school was in an English theatre competition when he was in standard six. In spite of this, I did not label or grade my sons in any way then because for me they are different and their difference is special in making them an individual.

My second son now is in his secondary school and this year he is sitting for his SPM national examination. He had gradually bloomed to be an active student. I attribute this to the coaxing from my wife and I as well as the examples that he had emulated from his elder brother. He was selected to be the school prefect when he was in form two and also joined the school's police cadet. He has also been progressing well on his study.

Last April, I asked my second son why he is still performing his duties as a school prefect though it is already four months down the year. It is very common in all schools, even when I was in secondary school and when my eldest son was preparing for this SPM examination two year ago, school prefects who are going to sit for their national examinations are released of their duty very much early of the year.

He told me that the Disciplinary teacher had instructed all school prefects to continue their duties until the end of the year. I discussed the importance for him to prepare for his exam and he agreed to inform the Disciplinary teacher that he will slowly released himself from duty to prepare for his exam. I told my son that if the teacher needs to speak to me, let her have my number.

After that, I was informed by my son that the Disciplinary teacher was not happy with my son's action. It seems that though most of the students in form five were not happy that they were still performing their duties, none of them dared to go against the Disciplinary teacher's instruction. As my son received my support, he went through it by himself.

In May, I attended the "Parents meet the teacher" session. This is the session to discuss on the children's education progress as well as to share the latest report card. I highlighted to the form teacher about the abnormality of the school still insisting the form five students to perform their duties just as the SPM exam is just round the corner. In fact I wrote a note in my son's report card for the school to take action on this matter at the suggestion of the teacher.

Apparently after this the Disciplinary teacher started to approach my son in a more negative manner until one day she asked my son not to wear the school prefect's uniform and instead wear the normal school's uniform. She seems to insinuate that my son was sacked as I have never known of any school giving such instruction even after the school's prefect relinquishes their duties. After all, it was only six months more before the end of the year and by giving that strange instruction meant that I would have to buy new pairs of school uniform for my son. When my son told me about it, I told him to ignore the instruction and to give the Disciplinary teacher my mobile number as I would like to discuss this matter with her personally. Apparently she refused to give me a call.

She then told my son that he was not fit to become a school's prefect. My son had been the school prefect for the past four years, the longest serving prefect at the school. I immediately went to the school after I knew about this. I managed to discuss this matter with the school's principal and eventually the whole incident was sorted out. The school principal decided to put all form five school's prefects on passive duties and will eventually relinquish their duties a couple of months before the SPM examination.

The whole saga was really different than what I had experienced when I was in school. My teachers showed a lot more finesse in educating the young generation. As any other individual, children require love and respect.

Of course there are bound to be children who may require a lot more attention due to their attitude and behavior, and I believe these are very small in numbers. However, there should be some focus on source of symptoms rather than generalising all symptoms and providing one single antidote.

The teachers and parents should ideally partner in building a young generation of thinking and free individual. Discipline is a matter of pride and it has nothing to do with instructions top to bottom with full compliance and expectating no questions asked. A thinking and free young generation will encourage them to explore the unknown territories responsibly and innovate to progress themselves. We can trust our young generantion.

Facebook - Social network vs. Social friendship

Sometime ago, I had a discussion regarding Facebook with my family during a family's dinner at the UiTM Shah Alam Hotel. We were there after fetching my eldest son from his UiTM hostel. The discussion started after one of my sons shared about one of his friends' opinions that in order to become Facebook friends, both parties need to know each other prior to being accepted as friends.

During the discussion, everyone at the table agreed that Facebook is an internet social network tool i.e. Facebook being one of the many virtual networks other than Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog and many others. We then discussed on the definition of social network. We also discussed on the merit of tagging friendship in Facebook as networking for friends that can be done virtually rather than physically.

I then posted a question to everyone, what is the difference between Networking and Friendship? We discussed several aspects. Among them, network is a lot looser in term of connection to friendship. Friendship of course requires a bit more knowledge of one another and most of the time; the sharing in friendship is a lot more open and can be intimate for some. Friends may also be restrictive in term of number as it is normally small circle. Network in the other hand is an extended friendship where there may be close friendship or just mere acquaintances relationship either directly or indirectly. For example, Ahmad is a close friend of Lim at their former college and via Lim, Ahmad knows Puvaneswary and Mary Pega who happened to be Lim's colleagues at the office. Network does not necessarily require in depth knowledge of one another's background, just mere common interest would be sufficient. The common interest can be hobbies, career or sports.

Right or wrong, most of Facebook's users still restrict their Facebook friendship to social friendship i.e. their day-to-day friends. This somehow restricts the benefit they can derive out of Facebook. Among the benefits from Facebook that one can maximise by having a wide network of friends beyond day-to-day friends are:

1. Sharing of common interest such as tour tips, cooking tips, gardening tips.


2. Sharing of uncommon information such as how to have a pokke Gecko farm i.e. rather than hunting for this wild lizard that is quite common nowadays, one can rear this expensive lizard for commercial profit


3. Business opportunities


4. Career opportunitiesGlobal Borderless and virtual friendship

Of course they are bound to be risk in virtual networking in term of exposing one's personal data to unknown recipients; however this can be controlled via Facebook functionalities and one's protective mind set. To safeguard my personal data profile for example, I will not provide my house address and telephone number in my Facebook account. The other measures that I had taken are

1. Restrict access of my Facebook wall to only my friends. Except for any statement that I don't mind the general public to know such as common discussion but I restrict on my personal or sensitive opinion.


2. I also restrict my photograph access to only my Facebook friends


3. I accept Facebook friends via stringent steps below.

There are several steps that can be taken when accepting Facebook friendship. I had devised my own and will usually use the following:

1. Look at the info wall of the requester - the info provided should be sufficient to create interest for me to accept the request. I will normally ignore a request from someone unknown that only provides that person's name and email on his or her info wall.


2. Look at the friends of the requester - there are mutual and non-mutual Facebook friends. Some of the requester's friends may be popular personalities and these popular personalities normally will accept any Tom, Dick or Harry's Facebook request. So it would be noteworthy to also check whether the requester also has other personal friends and how diverse are his or her friends. The diversed friends should also be people whom you would not mind to share your interest and opinion on Facebook


3. Look at the photos of the requester - some people do not put their own profile photo. It is still alright to accept their friendship as long as the requestor's personal info and circle of friends are not dubious and still strike your interest.

In conclusion, Facebook is just a tool for us to use wisely. Facebook add value to life in a manner that it provides benefits for people who are keen to socialise virtually. There are of course no full proof tips on how to utilise Facebook in a safe manner, however an instinct for survival would of course help. Enjoy and discover the infinite world of networking via Facebook.

Investments decision

One of my Facebook friends posted a question to me on investments. He asked me, "How to gain highest return in investments?" It seems someone had approached him on a Gold investment scheme with the pretext that Gold investment is lucrative and guaranteed. Definitely, gold investment is lucrative because gold is valuable and expensive and it is guaranteed because the price of Gold is stable. Well let us look at the chart on gold price trend to see how true are these statements.

2001-2010 Gold Price trend:

The chart shows that the gold price is in an upwards trend for the past ten years. From USD250/ounce nine years ago, it has risen to around USD1,250/ounce, a 500% increase in value! So the notion is true that the price of Gold is stable, however for a long term period! If we look at short term period price trend (short term means less than twelve months, not necessarily within a full length calendar year), gold price at exit points may be lower than entry points. For example if we look at the first column on the left of the chart, the gold price was about USD280/ounce Jan 2001 but it went down to USD260/ounce a year later. So the notion that the returns on gold is guaranteed does not whole water all the time. It depends on once entry and exit from the market.

I am not an investment analyst nor I claim to be one. However my investment rules are simple:

1. invest and save in something that you know about.
2. buy at low price and sell at high price.
3. use your social and religious beliefs as a guide.

With these rules, I had on the past invested and saved in cash, unit trusts, stocks and real estates. I consider myself as a moderate investor i.e. I can only accept reasonable risk. Most of the times I'm saved, but sometimes people and circumtance deceived me. Take for an example. My first real estate purchase was a house in Bukit Sentosa. The company was impressive, the same company that developed the Pandans: Pandan Indah, Pandan Jaya. Bukit Sentosa was suppose to be the 2nd Petaling Jaya. The master plan was really stupendous: schools, a college, a small township and an industrial area. After close to 15 years, Bukit Sentosa is still a township that I know had not changed much. My rental returns is 4% but the value is half of my purchase price!

Compared to my other real estate investments which are paying off, I have an apartment with 10% rental returns and a condo unit with 11% rental returns, both real property values are appreciating, so 2 out of 3 is considered ok for a moderate investor. This brings me to the house that I'm staying in. The house was built 10 years ago with my own design. The land area is 50ft x 75ft with build up area of about 70%. I handled the construction project from its architectural design, contractor selection, construction contract, monitoring of construction progress, Interior Design and Landscaping. My overall cost was only RM70,262. I'm pleased to share my Project costing and my funding plan below.

My project was called Baiti Jannati, this was planned 2 days before my birthday in 2001.

From the above, although I have consolidated all my savings, my funding was short by RM12,ooo. My savings were not much at this point as I have already invested in the apartment while repaying the Bukit Sentosa house's lost and utilising two cars (the other one for my wife's use). However with careful payment schedule and contruction progress reporting, I was able to settled the shortfall with ease by the time the house was completed six months later. At the moment, I have not officially valued my house, however I believe it is worth RM500,000.

What is the point of this posting, one may ask? My sharing is simple. Afford what you can afford, plan and hope for the best and avoid being deceived. Use the time and avoid being hasty. A 1% doubt may save you a lot.

Live is a journey

Live is a journey. This is how I looked back at the time when I left my High School and move on into college, started a career and a family. Some people may have a life journey not in that particular order. Due to different personal circumstances, they may start off their journey with having a career then go to college at the same time they started having a family. However, regardless of the milestones of the life journey, life is still a journey between an origin point moving towards an end point.

In normal sense, a successful journey would require four elements. These will be

1. planning
2. provisions
3. direction
4. assessment

These four elements are required as we are provided with limited resources. Resources such as time, energy and money are limited regardless of the quantity one has.

Time is limited as opportunities do not stand still and need to be grabbed on the go. It also does not help us as opportunities are also being sought by others who are also in a rush to complete their life journey. There is golden opportunity, second or third opportunity or just a normal opportunity, each brings different value to different people. The more one grabs opportunities, the higher likelihood one will attain success. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange grabbed the opportunity to set up a whistleblower website with amusing gossips of important people freely talking their mind to other important people all over the world. This he does in the pretext of free information and has been one of the most popular world news towards the end of 2010. Though he was in jail with a rape charge, however he is currently talking to people who want to publish his story for USD1.3 million! I believe this is not the end of his venture into making money.

The other resource, energy; is also limited as it comes with one's youthfulness. High energy comes with a youthful body. This must be true otherwise you will have Wayne Rooney playing for Manchester United until he is 60 or 70. Imagine that.

In the other hand money is also limited as a lot of people would want to take it away from you either via legal or illegal means. People who would want to legally take the money away from us will be the shopkeepers at the mall, mobile phones charges, tolls at highways, the Utilities Company, etc, etc. People who would want to illegally take the money away from us will be pyramid syndicate pretending to be MLM operators, other conman, pick pockets, thieves and robbers.

Coming back to the four elements of planning, provisions, direction and assessment mentioned earlier which are important to ensure a successful life journey. Planning will consist of a target or several targets with rough or detail plan to achieve it or them. Target without plan is mere dream. However if target and plan are combined together, the likelihood of it being achieved will be higher. Planning will also include identification of external forces that may post a threat to the journey. The more proactive this identification, the better.

As in other journey, the second element; provisions; will be used to ensure that the journey is sustainable. If you are driving from KL to Penang, you will need a well maintained car, fuel, money for food lodging and shopping! A mobile phone or I Phone, I Pad or what have you is also important to be connected via facebook :). In a successful life journey, provisions will be a good education and a high drive to succeed. A good education will be the key to open a career opportunity while a high drive to succeed will be the key sustainer to climb the corporate ladder.

The third element, direction; is like a compass or road signs in a journey. To travel to Penang from KL, one will need to take the North South Highway or Federal Freeway towards the north. In life journey, direction is to generate the effort to plan for the next move in a career. If you are working and started off as an Executive, you need to direct your effort immediately for the next move to a Managerial position. Likewise if you are venturing into a small scale business, the next direction is to make yourself ready to venture into a medium scale business and then a large scale medium.

The fourth element, assessment; is like a map or navigator to gauge whether the journey is still moving towards its target or targets. This is important as a slight degree of error will take the journey off its target. In life, assessing the other three elements planning, provisions and direction will ensure that journey will end up with a success. Just like other journeys, there will be external factor that may post a threat to the journey plan, provisions and directions. For example in a career, if the coveted job is not within the particular organisation you are in, a career move will be one of the options to take. If you are in business, if a business transaction is deem to fail, it would be better to abandon it and scout for another. The requirement to make amendments to planning, provisions and direction may be minor or major. The decision is entirely yours with or without consultation with others.

Have a nice trip in your life journey :)

Patience and blessings

In this world of broadband and super lightning speed of information sharing, people tend to expect that everything will be equally speedy and fast. Of course if this is possible and achievable, it will indeed be speedy and fast. However certain things are slow and times consuming that require patience and perseverance in order for it to be possible and achievable.

Most people rely more on their ability, strength and intelligence to achieve their targets. Some of them achieve their targets and some will not. What makes this difference is still a mystery to some. What I am going to share with you is based on my own experience in life.

Some nights ago I had a guest to my house. He is young with a start up family and had just changed his job. He had come to share with me his vision and targets to improve the standard of living of his family and himself. He works as a gym instructor in a reputable Health Centre with good earnings and benefits. I got to know from him that professional gym instructor requires certification from international fitness bodies through certain exams. Most of gym instructors in Malaysia lack this certification as it is not made compulsory by most Health Centre. However, with proper certification, a gym instructor may fetch higher salary at reputable Health Centre. This certification is similar to professional accounting certification that requires study fee, exam fee and membership fee.

His vision that he shared with me is to be a gym instructor having the highest professional certification from the best international professional body. With this he hopes that he will earn a lot more and will be able to better cater the needs of his family. At the same time as he plans to sit for the next highest gym instructor certification, he also plans to start up a small business with his wife who is expecting their next born. So with the higher earning and the business, the family income will be higher than what it is now. However he does not have enough funds to implement all these plans. With this limitation he plans to make a loan and had come to me for an advice.

After listening to him, I planned my conversation to include the topics of vision, targets, priorities, capability, opportunities and risk. Firstly I congratulate him for having a clear vision and good targets. I told him that these are important for everything that we intend to do either be it our work or our life. After having visions and targets, I shared with him the importance of prioritizing the targets by looking at one's capability, other option of opportunities and the risk that is involved in the targets.

Looking at his situation, I told him that he needs to think of what is coming to his and his family. Firstly, he just changed job and currently earning quite well, his wife is expecting their next born and they are trying to start a business. I asked him whether he is able to handle all these changes with ease. He seems to be confident, however he could not answer me on what will be his plan if these do not work out well as he intended.

I then related this situation to how he would act as a gym instructor in coaching a new comer to the gym. He would first coach the new comer how to make stretches, warm up and start with the easy routine. After the new comer is able to handle these, only then he will teach the much more strenuous exercise until the new comer is able to handle all of the gym apparatus with ease. By then, the new comer will become a regular and would probably handle his or her routine by him or herself and will seek guidance from him once in a while.

I then concluded that in life it is more or less the same situation. We need to take some slow and some fast steps. As long as we have a clear vision and good targets, we will have to prioritise our tasks as we are provided with limited resources in term of time, fund, strength and ability. We will also need to find other opportunities as an alternative plan if the initial plans did not work out well. Last but not least, we will need to be aware of the risk involved in planning and implementing the plan so that we may avoid pitfalls and overcome barriers.

With a parting statement, I said, however all these will also require patience and blessings from Allah the Almighty. The blessings determined how contented and grateful one is with his or her achievement that Allah is pleased with his or her effort.

n.b: Allah in this context is the God of All in the Universe

Instant and convenient culture

While I was driving through my housing area a week ago, I noticed an advertisement printed on an A4 paper, laminated and hung at a lamp-post which says "Work from home. Earn RM2,XXX to RM4,XXX per month, call...". Then yesterday I read in a newspaper, "Bang Wok (I have changed the name) cannot promise that you will earn RM1 Million, but you can start earning more than RM5,000 per month by ..."

All seems to be easy enough. The notion is simple and attractive, just follow what the advert suggested, and one can earn four digits income. There are also schemes that offer those who join it becoming millionaire within a short period of time by either investing in something that sounds so unbelievable or just recruiting certain number of downlines.

Most of the people whom I know well, had been in one of these schemes, in fact too many of these schemes. After one failed, they will join another, then another if that failed too. Seems that money is not everything to them, it is the dream to earn big money or becoming a millionaire that seems to be much stronger than anything else.

Is it true? Well I don't know because I have not met a Millionaire who had joined these schemes. So far I have only met people who are on a relentless pursuit to become Millionaire or earn big money instantly with a little effort.

For me, this is the product of an instant and convenient culture. Just think, most of the people of this generation had been brought up with the fastest car, the fastest broadband, the easiest remote control, the easiest internet banking, the lightest hand phone, and the list goes on and on. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper can be taken along the street or delivered to the house as well. How instant and convenient.

With this culture, working hard and long is so unattractive to us Malaysian. Everything should be instant and convenient, the money should be big as well, nothing worth it other than big, instant and convenient money. So who then will work hard and long? The foreign workers of course! Cleaners and Domestic helpers are from Indonesia or the Phillipines, Contractors and labourers are from Indonesia or Nepal.

However the reality is not quite instant and convenient. The challenge in life is to attain, maintain and sustain whatever that we do, be it in business or employment. This requires working hard and long. Likewise, I believe all those schemes are true if one is able to attain, maintain and sustain, but I believe it is not instant and convenient, as nothing is so easy.

The "Balik Kampung" myth during Hari Raya

When I started working more than twenty years ago, people know me as someone who has no kampung (hometown) as my mother and I lived in Gombak i.e. KL. So applying leave during Hari Raya (Eid) was a challenge then as I was first a bachelor and second, I have no kampung to go back to.

When I got married, I married a nice Gombak girl. Hence my kampung status then did not improve as I am married but both my wife and I have no kampung. My wife is better off as her school where she teaches normally closes during Hari Raya for a week.

As time went by, I insisted to take leave during Hari Raya. My colleagues who have kampungs teased me saying that I should sacrifice for them, so give them a chance to balik kampung as I am already a local. So one time (this was probably 15 years ago) after Hari Raya, I asked one of my colleagues who took leave to Balik Kampung, where did he go during Hari Raya.. he told me he went back to his parent's house, prayed the Eid prayer in the morning and then stayed at his parent's house until he came back to KL. Then he asked me where did I go during my Raya leave, I told him on my First day Raya, I visited 15 houses including my Mother's and Parent-in-law's house. Second day Raya, I visited 7-8 houses and I related him similarly every day of Raya until I returned to work.

This Raya is my first Raya where I update my FB hj malek with my Raya visits (prior to that I have been a long dormant FB user). I shared photos and short snippets of my 7-day Raya celebration on FB. When I came back to the office, many at the office commented that I really had my Raya as they were following my FB postings. Well I told them, that has been how I celebrated my Raya, not only visiting parents and siblings, but uncles, unties, second uncles and unties, cousins, second cousins, neighbours.

So Raya for me is not about taking the journey of Balik Kampung, which is the beginning. Once you Balik Kampung, then the next step would be to visit your relatives whom you had not had a chance to meet them because everybody are busy nowadays and stay far apart. This is the true meaning of Raya and Balik Kampung.

Eid Fitr Shopping at Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Lagoon.

Click here for more Eid Fitr Shopping at Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Lagoon.

2nd Year family outing at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam

This year my family and I went to Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam once again for our Eidul Fitri shopping. Unlike last year (see my posting Family outing at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam Sunday, 31 August 2008) when we were there before the fasting month, this year we purposely chose a fasting day i.e. yesterday, Saturday 8th Ramadhan to do our shopping. Also unlike last year, only my daughter followed my wife and I, as my two sons had other plans. We went there very early in the morning and reached Kompleks PKNS just a few minutes after 10.00 am.

By the time we reached the ground floor foyer of the complex, we could see a lot of people. There were about 100 booths selling baju kurung (a traditional female attire), jubah (robes) for males and females, tudung and selendang (female head scarves), brooches, songkok and kopiah (a traditional male head gear), capal (a traditional male sandal) and many other things related to Eidul Fitr. These exclude the permanent shops on the ground and first floor of the complex.

Our purchases were a lot less than last year as I only bought a kopiah, my wife bought two pair and my daughter a pair of baju kurung. Today the three of us accompanied by my second son went to our usual shopping place, Alpha Angle at Wangsa Maju. My wife commented that the baju kurung at Alpha Angle is much cheaper than Shah Alam. We both agreed probably this year would be the last time we will do our shopping at Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam.

The more than 100 temporary booths set up at the foyer of the Kompleks PKNS, Shah Alam (top)
Metres of cloth hanging from high above creates the atmosphere of shopping (top).

"Gelap mata" or "pejam mata", both show how intense is the shopping (top)
The packed people on the Ground Floor forced us to go to the 1st floor where there were a lot more space for shopping in comfort. Warisan Hawa Collection (top and the following photos) is a boutique selling batik. My wife bought a pair of baju kurung here.

The most expensive shoes I have ever bought

Ever since I returned from performing my umrah, my knee pain had become unbearable. I started experiencing the pain while exercising at the office gymnasium (refer to my post Leg~sercises on Saturday, 23 May 2009). At that point, I just dismissed it as just fatigue.

The pain disrupted my normal life much to my disappointment, I could not go to the gym and walking about at home and office became so painful. My doctor then sent me for a knee x-ray and the diagnose was minor Osterioathritis (see below for the test result and click here http://www.footsolutions.com/arthritis.htm for more information on athritis).

I then had to use a walking cane to support my knee, take some pain killers and supplement, last but not least, go for weight reduction. One of my colleagues then recommended me to Foot Solution, a store specialising in customized shoe solutions to improve comfort and body alignment and help achieve better health through the feet.

At the store, Steven the Footcare Consultant interviewed me and ran some tests on two sophisticated machines and here are the results.

He then proposed a very comfortable pair of shoes suitable for my foot shape with a customised footbeds with a price of RM1,400 per pair. Wow!! I said to myself. Nonetheless I went ahead and bought the pair as I am desperate. It would be fully ready by Monday. I will share more on my experience wearing the shoe later.

For more information on Foot Solutions in Malaysia, see below.

Leg~sercises

Hmmm.... you must be saying "Leg~sercises?", what is that? Well I'm not claiming I'm a body builder nor am I a gym instructor. I just coined the word to share with you one of my routines at the office gym where I got to exercise my leg's front and back muscles. With age catching up on me, I'm experiencing mid-life challenges such as knee and back pains, so the routines are some sort of a physiotherapy for me. As I'm also planning to perform my umrah in two weeks time, these are also my preparation to perform the physical activities at two of the three holy sites of Islam i.e. Madinah and Makkah. However, none of my preparation will be complete without full dependence to Allah swt.



I hope and pray to receive an opportunity to experience His empowerment and absolute strength with abundance of mercy to his creation at the holy sites. Ever since I return from Hajj in 2006, I have gone through several tribulations on my faith and my daily ritual. I hope Allah swt will once again provide me, my family, relatives and friends the opportunity to perform the umrah with ease and calmness. Grace upon us His mercy and grant all of us the return of the forgiven and steadfast servants. Amin.

Petrosains family tour @ KLCC

Family Karaoke at Red Box, Mid Valley 1 February 2009

Sunday 1st February, my sister-in-law's family and my family attended a wedding reception at Subang, Selangor. Thereafter, my family and one of my wife's nieces stopped at the Gardens, Mid Valley. At first we wanted to watch the movie "Sifu dan Tongga", however we changed our mind as we passed through Red Box Karaoke. All of us then spent our afternoon karaoke-ing over there.

Actually karaoke can also be a recreational event for families and friends. Apart from the normal pop songs, the Red Box Karaoke centre also offer Nasyid songs. Nonetheless, there are also Godliness, righteousness and neutral pop songs that can be chosen from the list. Among a few are "Kekasih Awal dan Akhir" by Jamal Abdillah, "Mentera Semerah Padi" by M Nasir and many others.

Please click here Nasyid "Ummi" (posted in my spiritual blog e-hasanat) for one of the songs that my family and I sang that day. We were off key, off pitch and off melody, but I still hope you will enjoy it. The song is about mother and I dedicate the song to my late mother, my late grandmothers and all mothers in the whole world. May Allah blesses them.

Islamic Economic Development Festival, Mid Valley Exhibition Centre, 22-26 Jan 2009

My family and I visited the festival yesterday. There were numerous stalls at the festival providing information from government agencies such as JAKIM, YAPIEM and YADIM. There were also stalls by several local public and private universities. Exhibition on products produced and marketed by small and medium Muslim industries were also available. These include food, electronic gadgets, household goods, garments and health supplements.

The organiser also organised games at the main area of the festival. Some of the stalls such as IKIM and Berita Harian also have their own scheduled events at their stalls. There were a lot of people there yesterday. I bought several books covering Islamic management from several stalls that offered great discounts, some up to 40%. My family bought food and health supplement products.

Tomorrow is its last day. I recommend those who are interested in locally produced products to visit the festival, definitely worth your time.

Family Trip to Penang 10-11 January

My family and I were in Penang Saturday and Sunday 10-11 January to attend a wedding reception one of my staff. Along the way we stopped by at Teluk Intan, Perak and met my ex-room mate during Hajj season 2005 (see photo below taken at the hotel lobby in Makkah then). We also stopped by at UiTM, Bandar Seri Iskandar in Perak to meet my wife's nephew who had just registered into UiTM about two weeks ago. I also took the opportunity to take a photograph in front of Golden Sands Resort, Batu Feringhi, the hotel where my wife and I spent our honeymoon in November1991, more than seventeen years ago.



We could not visit the other parts of Penang but the opportunity to spend quality time with the family during the journey was refreshing. The experience of travelling on the Penang Bridge to Penang and taking the Penang Ferry on our journey back were valuable experiences for my three children. The slideshow below shows our photograps during the trip.

Malaysian Funniest Home Video

This is the video which had been long awaited for by a group of viewers of my blog, just read their trail of comments to my posting 2nd Badminton game at Setapak High School 27 Dec 2008 below before you watch the video

• 'Ammar said...
  the middle one is the sharpshoter because his score the most excellent the right one is the blocker because no one can get trough him the left one is dribbler.my father didn't put the badminton video because someone fart in the game
  30 December 2008 22:47
  hjmalek said...
  he he he.. wait until I put the fart video, then we know who farted in the game... he .. he.. he..
  30 December 2008 22:52
  hana_kitty98 said...
  yes.it's really funny..kalau sape tonton dan dengar video ni mesti ketawa terbahak2..ha ha ha.... sebab saye yang rakam video ini...
  30 December 2008 22:56
  hjmalek said...
  hana... ada problem sikit masa upload video tu, mungkin kalau upload into youtube dulu baru ok tak... let me try
  30 December 2008 23:08
  tensai said...
  basketball game kedua sape menang?asal x letak?hjmalek ni ltak yg mnang je..haish..
  31 December 2008 16:31
  hjmalek said...
  basketball game kedua pemain kami dah penat, lagipun dah nak balik. so kira cincai lah lepaskan game... kalau nak this week kita main baliklah...
  31 December 2008 18:12
  'Ammar said...
  beside that someone fart there is one man rolling on the court that why he not put his video
  31 December 2008 18:49
  hana_kitty98 said...
  ade problem ke atau x nak letak gambar sebab nanti orang tu marah??jangan tipu ya Hj Malek nanti i do something kat Hj Malek..he he he..
  31 December 2008 22:42

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kampung Baru but not at Kampung Baru

On the eve of 2009 New Year, my family and I had our dinner at the Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kampung Baru cafe at Platinum Walk 2, Danau Kota, Setapak. The restaurant had just started its operation on 23 December and is open daily from 11am to 1am, more news here NST Online » Local News » Nasi lemak chain expands . We tried their tasty nasi lemak toppings of chicken rendang, fried chicken, fried beef liver, squid and cockel sambal. They also serve beef rendang topping and noodles. The ambiance is fantastic i.e. upmarket trend, a far cry from its original birthplace in Kampung Baru. A very nice place to enjoy meals with family, relatives and friends. Check out our photos below, our faces show how delightful the experience was... he .. he..

New School Term is here again

Sunday 28 Dec, my wife, my daughter and me went to SRI Al Amin Gombak to purchase my daughter's text book and uniform. Yes it is the school season again. We reached the school at 9 am and were ready to go by 9.30 am as we were early and had beaten the que. As always SRI Al Amin is well organised in handling this sort of events, kudos to the school. Keep up the good work.

2nd Badminton game at Setapak High School 27 Dec 2008

As I have mentioned last week in my posting "Badminton game at Setapak High School 20 Dec 2008 (26 years after I had left it)", my extended family were back this week to play badminton at Setapak High School. However I missed another nephew, Udin who said he was coming but did not turn up.

I played four double matches and won two of them. The victory was sweeter when I trounced Zaid, my eldest son, and his partner Ibrahim, my brother's son in straight set. Zaid had beaten me last week but I did not provide him any more leniencies this time around. A game is a game :-)

We then played half court basketball. My team of Ammar, Sufian and me won a tough game against Zaid, Safuan and Ibrahim. It was another sweet victory for me against Zaid and his team.

We will be back again next week Saturday 3rd Jan at 9 am for our next tough matches.