Drilling gold in the middle of the sea

I've been married for almost 5 years. I'm happy with my marriage. I openly talk about it with people that I trust and I'm close with. I'm married to hubby when he was working with Schlumberger as Measurement While Drilling (MWD) Engineer in Kuwait. Thus I followed him there. I'm writing this in a point form since I'm lazy to write in long para.

Positive

1.  The money can motivate you as it is good. They have fix salary plus allowance.
2. Everything is provided. Housing allowance, transportation allowance, kids’ education… name it. You just need to take out money for food.
3. You have plenty of the time for yourself. Talking about independent ladies who have ample of things to do. It gives you the status half married half solo as they are absent most of the time. You can do whatever you want, wake up at anytime, whether you want to bathe or not, no worries on cooking and tidying up the house. In fact, do whatever you wish to do.
4.  You get to travel! And it is free! Usually they have to attend training that will be abroad. It depends on their supervisor; some are nice and put your training in fancy places all over the world. Some are stingy that will send you to the nearest place. And they stay at posh hotel, for your information!


Negative


1. Their absent. Their absent make me sick, a lot of time. He wasn’t there throughout my pregnancy. He wasn’t there for Ramadhan. He wasn’t there on my birthday. The schedule can be suck.
2.  False hope. Not his fault. But my advice is don’t simply take it when they said they will be there at certain time. The timing for them to be at the rig is not fixed. It depends on many factors. Sometimes they thought they can wrap up in a week but it drags till a month.
3. Their safety. You are shit out worrying about them as the risks towards danger are high. They are in red zone most of the time. Pray hard. Don’t stop praying for them.
4. Worn out. They always burn out. Working at rig need a person who is physically fit. That is rule number one.  They work not eight hours per day but at least 12 hours per day. Sometimes it is 24 hours and sometimes 2 days sleepless night in a row. They jump from one rig to another too. An accident that made me really sad to both of us was oneday that I was told by him that he was on the way home. I was super excited since we haven’t seen each other for almost a month. But I received a call from him (I know it was hard for him to make that call) saying that he has to go to other rig as they didn’t have enough engineer. My heart was crushed. It wasn’t his fault. But it devastated me a lot.
5. They are available 24/7. Yes! That’s the deal. So, anytime they be call up to report duty, off they have to go. There were times when we were at mall, almost sleep, while having movies and many other occasions that he got the call to go to the rig.


Conclusion


1. Life is not easy. Sending hubby to the lift is the hardest thing to do at that time. I was dragging my feet back home and close the door of the empty house everytime he left to the rig. 
2.  It has a balance positive and negative, but it is extreme. The money can make you extremely happy but the work schedule can put both parties at extremely stress level.
3. You have to know how to tackle them. They are tired. Give them a break. Try to find the way to make yourself happy. Work, kids, shopping, whatever!

Why my post today is about my past? Because he told me he wants to get back to the rig. I just can’t let it happen as I know how it will affect my life, our life.

And recently there were many news involve people working at oil rig. Thus, it was a generous offer Baker Hughes, thank you so much, but no thanks!

Marriage and ME

Marriage is not a simple relationship. It unique, it’s complicated. Just imagination two different people, with different mindset, are living under one roof. We, even individually sometimes have mix problem and battling with ourselves. Imagine when we have different interest and have to settle for the best.

Human being is not a robot. We have feelings, many kinds of feeling. And it is control with our brain and heart. Sometimes, we might lose our grip. So what are we holing on? Again it comes back to the sense we have, religion!

I admit sometimes I had low time with my husband. Sometimes we quarrel on the pettiest thing in the world and not worth to discuss. But that is not important. The important thing is how you handle it. It doesn’t mean you have to scream to get what you want. Discuss and tolerate. When misunderstanding or different interest takes place and the situation is heating up, you just have to know how to stop. Just relax awhile and collect yourself. Remember what the purpose you have this conversation: to get the best result. Thus, calm down.

Seriously, this is a bloody reminder to me. I love myself, kids, husband, parents, siblings and family. I don’t want to regret with my fool act.

I can’t stop thinking bout the lady that was found dead by her husband in their room, hanging herself at the fan. http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/Dalam_Negeri/20120730/dn_14/Eksekutif-TV9-ditemui-mati

How about her son? Husband? Parents? I know I’m not in her shoes. But I guess I learn a lot from this tragedy and to value more what I have in my life. I have to be wiser in many things. Ya Allah, please guide me. 

The Iftar of Ramadhan 2012: First week

Let me track back of where we get our food for iftar:

Day 1: We were at my Mom's in Sungai Petani. Mama of course cooked delicious dishes. We had ikan bawal with sambal, roasted beef in black pepper, big prawn fried with. We also bought some food at Pasar Ramadhan near Mama's house. The price was cheap and the size was quite generous. The taste was good too.

Day 2: As we were coming back to KL and we started the journey at around 1pm, I decided to not to cook. Hahaha.. I know... I know.. the reason is lame. But I still have no mood to cook. Plus I was eager to try out food at param. We chose Wangsa Maju Param to buy our food for iftar. The familiar people selling the food this year. same as last year. The menu was the same though the stalls was in a long line. Hubby was craving for gulai nangka. So he bought RM2 and got around 3 pieces. Also same goes to me. I bought kerang at RM2 and got only a scoop of it. And the taste was sucked! Even the RM2 murtabak was like a pancake. Damn! I ban PARAM Wangsa Maju for this year's Ramadhan!

Day 3: We've been to this PARAM before. The food was alright. We hope it won't let us down for this year round. We went to Wangsa Melawati Param. It stalls line was shorter than the Wangsa Maju's but the food looks more deceiving. Hubby still looking for his gulai nangka. This time around, he bought it with rice and just cost him RM6! It included veggies as well!! I got my rice packed with sambal udang and it was merely RM3!! How wonderful! The taste was good too:) But the murtabak's taste was quite dissapointing. It's ok. We have plenty of time to get a good one:)

Day 4: Since we had a good experience yesterday, we went to the same Param today. We went to the same stall and I had the same menu. Beside, we have cucur cempadak. With RM2, you got 5 pieces. Generous? Not at all!! But its ok for the craving tummy:) Back home, when I opened my packet for iftar, it was so shocked to find that the rice is almost mouldy. It's ok. It's only a part of it. We had watermelon juice as for drink. Alhamdullillah!

Day 5: We decided to cook!! And it was a disaster! Hubby did spaghetti and I made lasagne. I didn't even taste my lasagne. The cheese just don't get it right! Damn! I was hungry throughout the day! Damn! Never to cook again!

Day 6: We went to Danau Kota and I had nasi beriyani! Nyumm!! Hubby had nasi camur. Also nyum!

Day 7: We bought food at Danau Kota's PARAM and break the fast at my in'laws'. It was great! The food was fine. Good to be surrounded by family. Apan was at home too.

Multi-Tasking

Who never perform multi-tasking in their life? I bet everubody experience muti-tasking in daily life, e.g brushing your teeth while under shower or watching television and eating at the same time. 

I appreciate time so much. I value every second that I have. And I always believe that I can achieve a lot of things in a short time if we plan it well. I hope my confession wouldn't leave people with wild judgement on me. Actually I always count each time I make steps, e.g when I'm putting on clothes or the time I spend in the shower. 

To be frank, I 'm quite proud that I can do multi-tasks in many tasks! I always brag about this to my husband. 

However, I just found a thing that I can't do it together with other stuffs: EATING!! Since I have kids, usually I can't eat in peace. Normally I have to stop in the middle of it to do other stuffs; e.g giving them food, changing their diaper, becoming referee and many more. I lose weight since I'm becoming a mother and right now I'm INVESTIGATING the reasons of my weight loss. I figure out that multi-tasking while eating is one of the culprits because at the end.. I wouldn't finish up my food. 

Conclusion: NO MULTI-TASKING WHILE EATING!!!

New Environment

Today marks 5 days me working at MERCY Malaysia. I'm a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Officer under DRR Department, under Operation Division. Currently I have no Head of Department as Puteri, Aishah's friend, left. So the acting HoD is the Operation GM. There are 4 officers including myself, an assistant and an intern. I have two projects under my belt and is looking to add more project that will keep me super busy.

Today also, I'm the only one left in the department as some are out for mission, training, and also on leave. I have nothing to do except for browsing the blogs, jumping from one to another. Currently, the leftover in the office are enjoying watching movie (I don't even bother to ask for the title) and I'm here on my desk, scribbling this note.

Life has been crazy since I started working on Monday. Travelling by LRT and has more than 10 stations to stop, make me tired. I always arrive early to work, say at 8.40am because I want to leave early. Juma will fetch me at Taman Melati station as he already at his mom's once I start make my journey back home. Usually I'll be super exhausted once I reach home and off to sleep at around 9.50 pm.

Lunch is not much hassle as in Ampwalk last time as Pasar Seni offers variety of food. I have my lunch gang already, or if I have no choice, I'll go with Takako, our GM. I know already which places offer good price for food. I like eating at my desk as I'm a very lone ranger type of person but a makcik made a complain on it.

So far, I'm enjoying my work in Mercy Malaysia. It's a new challenge and I'm up to it.

My outfit on the very first day

Afiq is Getting Married

I have four brothers and zero sister. 

I love them equally.

But I have a brother that we've been close since we were kid till now. He is the person that I'll call if I'm in emergency. He is a person that I'll share news about anything, bad and good. He is a person who will listen to my crap talk. He is the brother that understand me in and out. 

And he is getting married.

I'm shocked with the news. I'm happy for him and at the same time I'm sad that I'm losing him. 

After all..... we had grown up and that part and parcel of life. 

All the best, adik!