I am finally back at work after wondering for a while into some dark places at the edge of Kuala Lumpur. Or was it the outer space? I just could not really recall... LOL!

Now I am back to my "Office Sweet Office" in Puchong!

All I need to do now is sit still, do some work, blog a little bit just like this entry and then see how things go from there.

It was raining cats and dogs and maybe some chipmunks as well this morning. What is it with cats and dogs when it rains? Anyway, As usual, under such weather condition, I would turn on my headlights for safety reason even though it was still quite bright despite the downpour.

The rain was reduced to drizzle as I reached the office and not wanting to go through the hassle of taking out the umbrella, I rushed out of the car and dashed to the office. If Diah were there, I am sure that I would find her chasing after me with an umbrella... You know, like one of those scene where someone chasing a cat that just stole her fish... By the way, why do we ask a cat or a person or anything for that matter, to stop when we are doing the chasing with some object that can be used as weapon in our hand? That really beats me... Would you stop?

Anyway, 4 hours later, after lunch, I decided to get something from the car and as usual, while searching for something in the car, I would turn on the engine and the air-conditioning. What do you expect. This is a hot country and to stay a minute in a car under the hot sun would be like taking a sauna with your clothes on... I put the key in the ignition and twisted it and I could not see the usual red indicators that would normally come up whenever that is done. Then I remembered that I have forgotten to switch of the lights. That's it. The battery was dead as flat as a roti canai from a mamak stall... For those who doesn't know what roti canai and mamak are, just google it up...

Lucky for me that the car accessories shop where I bought the battery was open. I went over there and told them about how good the battery that they sold me but now it's dead because I left the lights on. Accompanied by some cynical laughters, the shop owner agreed to get one of his boys to resuscitate my battery.

For a fee of RM5.00 or less than $2.00, the battery was back to life again...

That was not the first time I did that and I am sure that would not be the last. That was the same reason why I didn't want to take the umbrella out of the car because when the rain stopped, I would forget about the umbrella and left it wherever I was last.

In this case, I was amazed by the rain that had stopped and the morning that was bright and beautiful. How could I remember about some headlights? Sometimes I wonder. What if I were a pilot and I forgot to put the landing gear down when landing the plane. Anyway, the plane would have warned me but my old car just kept quiet and die...

Whenever Pasha went under the weather, the first thing that we would check was his temperature. Previously, we only used the traditional thermometer to do that. It's the one with the mercury enclosed in a glass capsule. I have always had problems finding where the mercury stopped at.

Recently when Pasha was not well in Jakarta, we got to use a digital thermometer and it was much easier to use and more accurate as well. However, the only problem with that unit was that the tip was not made flexible and therefore it was hard to keep it in place as Pasha would wriggle a lot once he knew that there was something sticking up his armpit. As a result, we would have to repeat the reading a couple of times before feeling satisfied.

When we got back to Shah Alam, we looked around and finally we got ourself a flexible tip digital thermometer. So, we bought the MT1931 produced by microlife as shown in the picture. We would have bought the ear thermometer but the price, which was almost ten times more expensive, put us off.

However, this unit serves us well enough. We had put it under a few test where all the twisting and contorted motions from Pasha did not affect the position of the tip and therefore, we can easily get his temperature.

By the way, they said the oral and rectal methods are more accurate but if we were to use it orally, chances are Pasha would bite the tip off and rectally is simply a big no-no. No way that we are going to stick that thing up his you know where...

Woo Hoo! I have got a new toy! It's a Sony Ericsson K530i! The phone was given out for free... Yup! I am not kidding. It was given out for free by Maxis to its One Club members. So, you might be wondering about what the catch is to get such a freebie. Well, there is a catch.

You must subscribe to maxis 15o plan for 24 months and if you decide to cancel, you need to pay back the remaining number of months left under the contract at a rate of RM 100 per month. Let's say that you have 12 more months to go, you must pay back RM 1200 penalty to Maxis.

Anyway, I have decided to go for it due to three main reasons. The first one is that the phone is FREE! The second reason is that my phone bill always exceeds RM 150 per month and the last reason is I need to replace my aging Nokia 6020 that have served me well for years even though it had been subjected to many bad and rough treatments.

The worst and the latest incident was when it decided to take a swim in a toilet bowl last month. I would spare you the details on that but amazingly the phone is still in a decent condition.

Back to the new K530i. The 3G capability is a feature that I would like to try especially when my sister in law in Jakarta just bought the same phone before the Raya. The main purpose is for us to make video calls so that they can talk and see Pasha at the same time.

I have my 3G service activated and the phone configured but I could not make any video calls yet. I called up Maxis and asked the lady how to check whether my phone is configured for video call correctly or not. She asked me to check for the 3G icon on the phone and I asked her how a 3G icon looks on a Sony Ericsson. She as me too look for something that looks like 3 boomerangs. Boomerangs? She must be kidding me! I told her that I have not seen any boomerang on my display so far.

She asked me to test by sending a MMS message and that went okay. Finally, she said that 3G signal in Shah Alam is still not that strong for video calls and they are expanding the coverage bit by bit. That really hisaplah apa2 pun...

Anyway, I need to get to KL and see whether I could get boomerangs to appear on my phone or not... Boomerangs?

Any 3G Sony Ericsson user out there that can confirm about this Boomerangs stuff?

Okay... So the 3G experience has kaputted! Other than that, a few things that I like about the phone is the bigger and brighter screen and the multi alarm function so that I can set multiple alarms at one go without having to set them as appointments in the calendar. The 2 MP camera is quite good and the radio is awesome! The availability of the Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) slot and Bluetooth™ added more plus points to the phone.

The part that I don't quite like or may be not used to yet are the messaging functions such as, the space button is at the bottom right instead of the center as in a Nokia and the keypad is a bit hard to press at times. It would be easier if you have a small hand. Ladies would not have that problem. Other than that, since the phone is quite new, there are very limited accessories around. I need to wait a bit for a plastic casing or the screen protector to come.

In general, I would say this new toy is really not bad at all and let see how it will respond to the same handling that the 6020 had gone through.

Aidil Fitri or Eid ul-Fitr is around the corner and we are making a head start for the celebration as soon as tomorrow. Woo Hoo! We will be flying off to Jakarta after iftar tomorrow.

This year we will be spending the last week of Ramadan and the first two days of Raya (see Eid ul-Fitr above) with Diah's family in Jakarta and then we will be spending few more days at my parents in Pahang. I have been busy at work the whole week and Diah has been busy packing our stuffs for the trip.

Since the arrival of our beloved baby Pasha, we have no chance to travel light anymore. We always ended up with at least three suitcases. Whether we like it or not. If we are away for a few days only, it would still be three, but the smaller size bags instead of the big suitcases. Why do we need three bags? It is because that we love to have lots of things to carry around whenever we travel. No way! Here is why we need three bags...

For this trip, the first big bag would be for Diah's and my clothes and everything that is related to that. The second big bag is the place where we would put an air bed complete with a foot pump, Pasha's yellow ducky bath tub, diapers and toys, some souvenirs for the parents, brother and sisters and few other things.

If you are wondering why we are bringing along our air bed all the way to Jakarta, it is because that we are anticipating some relatives would be coming over as well. Therefore, there might not be enough bed for everybody and since we have this portable air bed, we might as well come prepared. If only we have a tent as well, then that would be superb!

Back to the bags, the third slightly smaller bag would contain all Pasha's clothings and some of his stuffs. You see... One bag just specially allocated for Pasha alone and Diah is a mother who would make sure that everything for the comfort of Pasha is available anywhere, anytime...

Enough about the bags. For the last three nights we have been out shopping for some stuffs for ourselves as well as for the family and tomorrow, we only have one last thing to buy before we leave for the airport. The last thing in our list is the roasted chestnut.

Roasted chestnut is my MIL's favorite snack and she has been reminding us not to forget to bring back some to Jakarta. Chestnut in malay is not buah dada (boops) ya... It is buah berangan! So, this is one fruit that you must not do a direct translation on.

Lastly, we would like to wish all our muslim friends...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Maaf Zahir dan Batin from the three of us!