COUNTING THE DAYS

I want to have this short piece documented. Suddenly I realised that very soon Monsieur A will be back to Malaysia for a short break. Hmm...I did not make any entry when he left.......

He left for France on the eve of 1st November 2007, it is just over 4 months now! From the calls, chats, emails, SMSes, etc (what else?), he said that his progress is good. I am making doa that he will finish his research before the due date, ie one year from October 2007. Huh....huh.....still a long way and a long wait.

Being a temporary 'single mother' for the past 4 months was a real test! What more, my maid fell very sick just a few days after Monsieur A left for Nantes, and I had to send her back home. (Home is Indonesia, of course). A month ago, Arifah, my eldest daughter met with an accident. When I recall the night that I received the call about the accident....I cannot imagine how I survived that night. It was due to Allah's help that I managed to calm myself down and also to calm Monsieur A. Otherwise...... I don't know what stupid decisions I would have made that night. It was the 6th of January 2008! Hmmm...Arifah does not seem to remember the date!

BTW, Monsieur A will arrive KLIA on the 7th March 2008, Insha Allah (God Willing).

TIARA BEACH RESORT

I had a busy week at Tiara Beach Resort Port Dickson from the 28 - 31 January 2008. My unit had a Coordination Meeting with the Officers and Clerks from the State Education Office all over the country.

The meeting was related to one of the exam boards that the Ministry of Education Malaysia administer, ie. the ABRSM. We were honoured to have the ABRSM Regional Consultant for South East Asia, Mr Bill Thomson, to attend the meeting.

Bill was also delighted as he got to meet his old acquaintances like Sukhaimi, Johnny, Latifei, and Mdm Chen, just to name a few. We had Thai dinner on Wednesday night. And on Thursday morning we had a formal meeting - Bill spoke to all of the participants about his function in Malaysia. All the participants introduced themselves to Bill - I was glad to discover that all our officers and clerks could speak good English. It is just a matter of getting used to it, especially at formal meetings like this one! (smile everyone!!!)

At the end of the day, I have to admit that all of us, especially me and my unit mates were very tired. To my Head of Unit - we understand that the challenges that you had to undertake from this meeting were indeed not easy. It is your duty to remind officers/clerks if they go off course.
Personally, my wish is that those who attend our meetings will benefit professionally, else we will be answerable for our actions.

WORST ACCIDENT IN THE MODERN HISTORY OF MALAYSIA

My apologies to those who are reading this entry. It is a very negative title for an entry right? But this is the talk of the town since the "Super Express" belonging to Syarikat Kenderaan Bukit Gantang became a "Super Horror"!!! At first I heard that there were 20 deaths, unfortunately, a few days after the accident one of the seriously injured victims (a three year old child) passed away. That gives a total of 21 deaths and almost ten people injured, I think.

Everything that happened has been fated. Yes, true. But to discover that the "Super Driver" had 13 summonses and two warrants of arrest for traffic offences is beyond human comprehension. Obviously some authorities in my country, Malaysia, which will celebrate its 50th year of independence, are not doing their job :(

Forget about the call for the setting up of a royal commission to investigate accidents involving public transport. Set up a ROYAL COMMISSION (Suruhanjaya Bebas) for this and for that!!! It is a waste of public fund. The public is tired, angry and feel cheated by the so many royal commissions being set up only when the issue is being debated. What happens after a few months???

Today, slightly a week after the tragedy of the “Super Express”, the newspaper / television is still reporting about accidents involving drivers of express buses who have summonses for road offences. I wonder if this is happening only in my country or there are other countries that you can get such ironic and absurd news!

COLMAR, FRANCE

19th-20th May 2007 (Sat-Sun)
Upon arrival at the Frankfurt airport, we drove to Colmar. We rented an Opel Corsa that we travelled in for the next nine days of the holiday. It is a cute, 2-door car. Sufficient for the two of us.
The distance from Frankfurt to Colmar is about 290km. We took more than 3 hours for the journey because we stopped a few times to take pictures. Really can't miss the opportunity to click the camera which was at my disposal since Monsieur A need to have both hands on the stearing wheels! The good thing is that we did not have to pay a single euro for toll!
Colmar is situated in northeastern France. Colmar's attractions are its crooked houses, half-timbered and painted, on crooked lanes – all extremely pretty.
Initially, we did not plan to sleep in Colmar. But both of us were just too exhausted to drive on. I suppose it was the jet lag and the walk around Colmar that made us just want to sleep and rest for the night in Colmar...
The next morning..., imagine a Sunday morning! Of course most people are still in bed... but we had to be up early since it will be another traveling day. But before we left Colmar we were lucky to be able to wave at some adventurous lot who were having fun in a hot-air balloon. We had a fun time waving at them!

MY HOLIDAY

I was away – away as in out of the country from the 18th – 28th May 2007. Monsieur A and I were in Europe. During the 9 ½ days, we were in 4 different countries of Western Europe. The countries that we visited were France, Germany, Austria and Chez Republic.

Although it was a busy period for me at the office, this trip was something that I really looked forward to. Actually, Monsieur A was having a conference in Vienna, Austria for 2 days on the 21st and 22nd May 2007. My friend was teasing me saying that the trip was like a honey-moon for both of us. Another honey-moon after 22 years of married life...

It was just the two of us. We left the children who were in the midst of their mid-year exams. Unfortunately, Monsieur A also left the poster that was meant for the Vienna conference at the KLIA Mc Donald’s. But luck was with him, the organizing committee in Vienna was kind enough to have his poster printed in colour out-put and it was done for frei (frei is ‘free’ in German).



BTW, if you visit Austria, you will not be able to visit Vienna because over there Vienna is referred to as Wien (pronounced Vin).

We really enjoyed ourselves albeit somewhat exhausted because of the non-stop driving from one city to another. Oops…I did not drive at all although the car rental company said that I can drive using the Malaysian Driving Licence. We also walked or ride on the tramp or train in the cities.

I will try to post pictures and write on our holiday experience in my coming entries! Watch out, ok! For now, you can recall your geography knowledge from the maps that I have put up!