Dear Abg Iqie, Abg Afeeq & Rayna...

Dear Abg Iqie, Abg Afeeq & Rayna...

Mummy and Daddy love you so much. And we want you to know that we are proud of you. Remember that every day of your life.

Not long ago, mummy sat down in a hall listening to one ustaz. He talked about messages that mummy and daddy could write to you guys now for you guys to read when the three of you have all grown up. So this is me, writing my first message to the three of you.

Abg Iqie, you are the eldest. My hope is that you will grow up to be anak yang solleh. I also hope that you will be a great leader to Abg Afeeq and Rayna. If you wonder why I have appointed you to be the Ketua Solat at home, that is the main reason :). You are already a confident boy and you always listen to mummy and daddy well. You are so matured already beyond your age. You are the leader already to Abg Afeeq and Rayna.

Abg Afeeq, you are fun to be around with, and playful too. You get along with other people very easily. My hope is that you will grow up to be a responsible person besides being anak yang solleh. I also hope that you will be someone that people can rely on. You are already a very creative boy. You can design anything you want with your lego and some of them are very impressive. But I hope you would listen to me and daddy more often and mind your words too. But you know what... I love it that you like to kiss me and hug me all the time. And I actually look forward to your phone calls, the ones that you always make in the afternoon when you are at school. You make me feel loved and cherished. I also like it when you always tell me what you want to buy me or give me when you are all grown up, places where you want to take me and all :)

My princess Rayna, you are the brain of the family. It's always a joy to see how you love doing your homework without being asked, and reading your books. I always pray that you will be anak yang sollehah. I actually love it when you always want me to put you to bed - our 5 or 10 minutes bedtime rule before I leave your room. That makes me feel special. Your pre-school teachers said you are very bright and an excellent student. I am very proud of you.

You three are the most precious and important things in mummy and daddy's lives. Remember that we love you so much and that we are proud of you.

Till my next message, yours always,

Mummy

Wake Me Up When September Ends

The title has nothing to do with what I'm writing about today :) I just like the song and it happens to be September.

 

The three of them are growing fast. They now have responsibilities at home. Towels are to be hanged after shower. School shoes are to be washed every Saturday. They now wash dishes after meals. On weekends, they clean their rooms and help vacuum the floor. I can't wait for them to be able to cook :p

 

Afeeq is still the laziest, but he is always the one who volunteers to wash the dishes. Rayna is into colouring nowadays. And Abg Iqie is into everything.

 

And those are my life.

 

Ieja

 

 

 

Tidbits of the Three Tots

Abg Iqie is now into computers. But he can only switch it on during weekends. The no-device policy during weekdays still applies.

Afeeq is losing his baby teeth! Two of his front teeth are already missing and he looks funny :P





Rayna can already read - English and Bahasa books. And now she always has a book in her hands.

And me... I had an eye operation with Prof Muhaya about a month ago. And my eyes are now adjusting to the new eyesight. It was a big change for me. I still try to adjust my glasses on my nose although it's not there anymore :P  But I'm getting used to it. Just came back from a follow up meeting with the optometrist and she suggested that I wear glasses only for driving and my eyes would need about six months to adjust. Oh well...

I have also started to cycle indoor. Let's see how that goes...

Ieja

A Comeback After So Many Years

OMG... has it really been two years? My last post was in June 2013. I guess I was not that great at doing something consistently :P

Anyhow, this is a comeback from the grave. A lot has happened and a lot needs to be recorded. Let's just do a summary.

FAMILY

I cannot be happier! Those three rascals are basically growing so fast. Iqie is now 9 years old, Afeeq 7 and Rayna 5. They are like everything to me... my air to breathe and my light in darkness. My heart could just explode with so much love for them. I could go on, but I think you get the message. And they talk non-stop. 

Iqie is much more inquisitive than before. His questions range from science to religion. I am sometimes amazed at the questions that come out of his mouth. From "who is Najib?" and "how does GST affect us?" to "what is metal?" and "how do they make glasses?" kind of questions. And a lot more... And he still cries easily. May Allah bless him. He has a soft and kind heart. Quite obedient. I guess him being a prefect helps.

Afeeq is jovial. The happy-go-lucky kid. He's the kind that people come for fun or to make them feel good. He's always bursting with energy, moving non-stop. Highly inquisitive as well in an active sort of way. He can get away with not doing anything at all when everyone else is busting their butts. Highly creative. He can make up his own games and create anything that is out of this world with his Lego. A softer side of him - he likes me to hug and kiss him. He likes me to hold him. He's also the kind that will tell you that you are being too hard on him (I get that a lot from him). I learned that I need to treat him as an equal.

Rayna is the princess in the house. She's active and not too girly (thank god). She looks tough and highly competitive in a positive way. Of course all parents say that :P. To public, she is soft spoken and doesn't talk much. Her teachers commented that she does her own things at school and doesn't seem to be interested in other kids. What does that really mean? But with us, she just can't stop talking. She's also a hugger. Big hugs, small hugs, you name it. She can just go behind you and hold you tight. 


WORK
I guess things could have not been better. After I've got my heart "broken" by my last employer, I'm now with a more shariah-compliant organisation. Alhamdulillah... I guess I'm heading towards the right direction. All in all, it took me three years to come into full circle of what I intended to become. I guess you can call it a calling, but I've been given the chance.

That's it for now I guess. 

Liza

Managing Your Stakeholders

I came across executives, managers and in fact senior managers who just don't bother to vet through and validate their work before it is sent to their superior or worse, the senior management team. Data is not validated, summarised, and presented well. I would say avoid giving raw data to them (unless specifically requested), instead give insightful statistics. Something that your superior or senior management team could relate to and use to make informed decisions at one glance. That is how you could add value to them.

I seriously believe that you should be careful when you deal with your superior or the senior management team. Wrong impressions could be formed that would not do you good. I came across raw data with numbers and colour codes that I didn't understand. Documents with no headers or titles. Jargons that just made my eyes spin backwards. 

What I would be looking for would be just a simple breakdown data by department, by categories, or just a simple percentage. A header or a document title would be very useful. Some analysis on the percentages would also be nice. And if the situation warrants, some recommendations would be great too.

Funny how some executives just cannot read their stakeholders well. What they would find useful in a report. They are not being fussy or difficult. They just don't have the time to massage the data given in the report. A dashboard type of report will be very appreciated by them as they could see the different trends, glaring issues that would need to be brought up, anomalies, etc. They could then use the intelligence that they have in front of them to make decisions, plan ahead, etc.

Other things that we could do to ensure our stakeholders are well taken care of include finding out in advance how they would like the statistics to be presented to them. In terms of the layout, font / font size, filtering, etc.

Just some of my observations... After all, our superiors and the senior management team would be the ones who would be looking at our performance at the end of the day. So, why would we want to give them the impression that we have low emotional intelligence?

Ieja

Life As It Is

It is that time of the year  again where employers review their employees' work performance and reward them accordingly. And of course, all this is at the discretion of the employer. So, in self reflection, do I feel like I have done my best in 2012. And do I feel like I have been rewarded fairly by my employer?

When I came onboard, I told everyone that I had never experience such extensive appraisal on my work performance. Sure I've been appraised before and sure I've been rewarded with bonus. But I had never felt this kind of level of intensity that people feel about year-end appraisal and about bonus payout as when I am with this company.

When I got my first bonus with the company, I said alhamdulillah and was very happy. I felt that my effort in that particular year was well rewarded. And I kept saying that it didn't matter to me because I had not experience this kind of monetary reward before. Furthermore, I was promoted within a year I was with the company. So, there shouldn't be any complaints, right?

Then, come the second year. I was rated as a high performer still, and the same bonus payout exercise  was done. Then, the letter came with the bonus figure. And this year, I didn't get the $$ as good as last year, and that didn't feel good. I thought, hang on... I performed better than last year and why my bonus was not as good as last year then? There is doubt...

My reaction was perfectly well understood (after a few days of self reflection). I had a good taste of bonus payout, and my expectation had gone up one notch. And when my expectation was not met in terms of $$, I was disappointed. What I failed to remember in the first place was that:

1. bonus was solely at the discretion of the employer. They have the rights not to pay any even if they make loads of money that year.
2. When the employer decides to give bonus to the employee, they have the rights to determine how much.

So, as much as I dislike the fact that I didn't get as much as last year, I forgot that I had not had this for a long time, and that I should be grateful for whatever that I receive. And that whatever amount that was credited into my bank account and was shown on my pay slip, I should have said alhamdulillah first and say thank you to my boss (which I did a bit later, and still was the first one to do so according to him). I should have also not succumbed to the culture of "I deserve the bonus, the company must pay bonus, and I deserve to get more or better bonus despite my average performance."

Thank you Allah for the rezeki you bestowed upon me.

Ieja

How's Life Treated Me So Far

I started 2013 in a high spirit, having had sent Abang Iqie to his first ever primary school, and Afeeq to his kindergarten. 

Then, on the second week of January (13 Jan 2013), I received a call in the middle of the night from my sister in Rawang telling me that my half brother Musa bin Ahmad had passed away in a car accident. We rushed back to Kluang and witness his burial. May Allah bless his soul.

When we came back to KL, I just had such bad feelings about things. I had the urge to talk to my dad about things, but I never made the attempt. I called him a few times after that, but didn't manage to talk to him. There was one time though, I think it was on Wednesday, 16 Jan 2013, that he called me back. We talked briefly, then I passed the phone to my three kids as he always wanted to talk to them, Abang Iqie especially. 

Then on that fateful Friday (18 Jan 2013), my sister text me saying that Abah was warded in the hospital. I called my mum and we talked for a while. Then, I called Abah himself. We had a good chat, and as always I tried to make him feel bad about his smoking, and he jokingly said that he had threw all his cigarettes away. But he also mentioned that he was affected by a few of his friend's deaths after my brother's departure. The whole while we were on the phone, I could hear him trying to catch his breaths. Before putting down the phone, I told him to get some rest and that I would be seeing him soon. 

After talking to him, I just couldn't shake that worry away, like I already knew. And I actually cried in the office. My heart actually sank, and I immediately called my eldest sister, begging her to go back to Kluang and see how Abah was doing in the hospital. I was crying all the time. And when I was doing my Asar prayer, I felt that tingling feeling in my heart, and I was crying in my prayer.

Later that evening, my eldest sister called me to tell me to come home, to see Abah. She said that Abah didn't really look that good, that he was not his usually self.

When I was in the car with Hubby, I told him what I felt and that I wanted to go back that night to see Abah. But he dismissed my feeling saying that I got carried away, and that it was probably nothing. We had an argument in the car, and I will never forget what I said to him then. Though I was still feeling unsettled, I didn't press the issue.

Later that night at 2.30 am, 19 Jan 2013, the call came from my sister saying that Abah had been called by the Almighty. Only He knew how I felt, and how crushed I was...

Six days apart from arwah Musa bin Ahmad, and buried side by side...

Ya Allah, ampunkan lah dosa mereka.

Ringankan lah siksa kubur dan neraka.

Kau tempatkan lah mereka di kalangan orang2 yang beriman.

Al-Fatihah 

Mohd Syirhu bin Ahmad

Nazri bin Ahmad

Musa bin Ahmad

Ahmad bin Jaafar