Drove down to Johor Bharu last weekend to attend our dear friends’ Zaza and Hardy’s ‘Akad Nikah’ ceremony. We wouldn’t have missed it for anything and as we keep saying, we are so fortunate that Hardy met Zaza. If you are reading this, you both know what I mean.
We left our house in Kelana Jaya at around 6:30pm, Friday evening. This time, we didn’t bring Rahil along and left her with my in-laws.
It was bumper to bumper from the minute we turned into the Federal highway till just after Port Dickson (took us about 3 hours). After PD, I drove quite fast and might have exceeded the speed limit at a few places. Hope I don’t get any summons.
Anyway, we finally reached Johor Bahru safe but tired at around 12am. Hardy had already booked us a room at Hotel Seri Malaysia, Larkin. The facilities are nothing to shout about but at RM100 per night, I guess we can’t complain much. Had some snacks with the groom who looked a bit haggard but was quite cool.
In the morning all of us gathered at the hotel lobby. It was an honor for us to be part of the groom’s party. We left together in a convoy and set off for Zaza’s house from the hotel around 10:40 am in the morning.
For those not familiar with Malay marriages and customs, the Akad Nikah is a verbal contract between the bride’s father and the groom (in this case Hardy) and presided by a Kadi. The most important part is when the bride’s father or representative (in this case the Kadi) says: I marry thee to (name of bride) with the mas kahwin of Ringitt Malaysia*.
The groom has to reply “Aku terima nikahnya (name of bride) dengan mas kahwinnya Ringitt Malaysia * tunai” which when translated to English means: “I accept this marriage with (name of bride) with a mas kahwin of Ringitt Malaysia - - * cash”.
*Mas Kawin: A nominal fee that seals the signing of the marriage contract. It varies from state to state in Malaysia.
The groom has to say all of this in one breath. If not satisfied, the witness can ask him to repeat it again. Hardy did it in one go. I know of some guys who were so nervous and had to repeat it a couple of times before the witnesses were finally satisfied.
Of course there are other formalities and “adat” or customs, which are quite unique to Malay weddings. I will not go into it and will leave it for the newly married couple to write about it in their respective blogs.
The Sultanah of Johor was there too and she looked quite elegant. First time I ever attended a wedding in Malaysia with royalty in attendance.
I talked to Hardy just before they left for Holland yesterday and asked him how married life feels like. His reply: “I feel wonderful.”
Congratulations and best wishes for the newly married couple.
28 November 2005
23 November 2005
Top 5 Malaysian Ecommerce Companies
This is my list of the top 5 ecommerce companies in Malaysia.
I have actually made transactions through their websites. So it is based on experience and has nothing to do with the results of the 11th Malaysia Internet User Survey conducted by AC Nielsen last year.
(In descending order)
1. Airasia.com: AirAsia Bhd. (http://www.airasia.com)
It is actually the first Airline in Asia to implement ticket less travel. Passengers make booking directly buy tickets online and just use a booking number to check in. They beat airlines in more developed countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Malaysia Boleh!
It is no surprise that it was voted as the most popular website for online shopping in the survey conducted by AC Nielsen. In fact in March this year, it was reported that about 55% of ticket sales is generated online. (AirAsia: Online sales have eclipsed offline sales, Star In Tech, 8, March 2005, p. 3).
The website is available in seven different languages, including four on its Malaysian site. Registered members also receive promotions online though e-mails. Makes it the number one e-commerce company in Malaysia.
2. Maybank2u.com.my: Maybank Bhd. (http://www.maybank2u.com.my/)
It can be quite funny when people still associate e-commerce with buying and selling products over the net. Online banking also comes under the broad definition of e-commerce and I can say without fear that, Maybank2u.com.my is the most popular online bank in Malaysia.
I love the fact that besides paying bills online, I can also transfer money to accounts in other banks as well as pay online merchants. We can even top up our telephone prepaid cards.
NEGATIVE: I hated it when they started changing fees for transactions but we have no choice. C.K. Hooi pointed out that customers can't use the online service after midnight MST, which is opposed to the idea of online banking as a 24/7 service.
3. Lelong.com.my: Interbase Resources Sdn. Bhd. (http://www.buysell.com.my)
Malaysia’s pioneer auction portal, company has a bit of an identity crisis. Following a rebranding exercise in January 2002, Lelong.com.my was renamed buysell.com.my but I see that it has quietly gone back to using the name Lelong.com.my again.
Never the less, it remains the most popular auction portal despite the entry of the American auction giant, E-bay into the Malaysian Market.
NEGATIVE: Their web is a bit too cluttered for my liking. Could do with a major redesign.
4. Blooming.com.my: Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd. (http://www.blooming.com.my)
One of Malaysia’s first e-commerce companies. Blooming Florist began operations in 1981. They now deliver worldwide through through its membership in Interflora Pacific Unit Ltd.
They allow payment through credit cards or through bank transfers, including Maybank2u. Ordered a bouquet of lilies with orchids for my wife’s birthday recently. She loved it and I am one satisfied customer.
NEGATIVE: The website design is rather plain but I guess it serves its purpose. Could do with a major redesign job.
5. Dominos.com.my: Dommal Food Services Sdn Bhd. (http://www.dominos.com.my)
The ‘Malaysian Book of Records’ has endorsed it as the 1st Fast Food online service in Malaysia. Now if you are too lazy to call for a pizza, just order online. The “30 minutes to customer's doorstep” commitment still applies.
No credit card? Don’t worry! Terms of payment is Cash On Delivery.
NEGATIVE: Limited areas of delivery and definitely not in Kedah.
Would love to hear what you think about the list. Please feel free to share your experiences and whether you agree with my list. If you have other companies in mind, tell me.
I have actually made transactions through their websites. So it is based on experience and has nothing to do with the results of the 11th Malaysia Internet User Survey conducted by AC Nielsen last year.
(In descending order)
1. Airasia.com: AirAsia Bhd. (http://www.airasia.com)
It is actually the first Airline in Asia to implement ticket less travel. Passengers make booking directly buy tickets online and just use a booking number to check in. They beat airlines in more developed countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Malaysia Boleh!
It is no surprise that it was voted as the most popular website for online shopping in the survey conducted by AC Nielsen. In fact in March this year, it was reported that about 55% of ticket sales is generated online. (AirAsia: Online sales have eclipsed offline sales, Star In Tech, 8, March 2005, p. 3).
The website is available in seven different languages, including four on its Malaysian site. Registered members also receive promotions online though e-mails. Makes it the number one e-commerce company in Malaysia.
2. Maybank2u.com.my: Maybank Bhd. (http://www.maybank2u.com.my/)
It can be quite funny when people still associate e-commerce with buying and selling products over the net. Online banking also comes under the broad definition of e-commerce and I can say without fear that, Maybank2u.com.my is the most popular online bank in Malaysia.
I love the fact that besides paying bills online, I can also transfer money to accounts in other banks as well as pay online merchants. We can even top up our telephone prepaid cards.
NEGATIVE: I hated it when they started changing fees for transactions but we have no choice. C.K. Hooi pointed out that customers can't use the online service after midnight MST, which is opposed to the idea of online banking as a 24/7 service.
3. Lelong.com.my: Interbase Resources Sdn. Bhd. (http://www.buysell.com.my)
Malaysia’s pioneer auction portal, company has a bit of an identity crisis. Following a rebranding exercise in January 2002, Lelong.com.my was renamed buysell.com.my but I see that it has quietly gone back to using the name Lelong.com.my again.
Never the less, it remains the most popular auction portal despite the entry of the American auction giant, E-bay into the Malaysian Market.
NEGATIVE: Their web is a bit too cluttered for my liking. Could do with a major redesign.
4. Blooming.com.my: Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd. (http://www.blooming.com.my)
One of Malaysia’s first e-commerce companies. Blooming Florist began operations in 1981. They now deliver worldwide through through its membership in Interflora Pacific Unit Ltd.
They allow payment through credit cards or through bank transfers, including Maybank2u. Ordered a bouquet of lilies with orchids for my wife’s birthday recently. She loved it and I am one satisfied customer.
NEGATIVE: The website design is rather plain but I guess it serves its purpose. Could do with a major redesign job.
5. Dominos.com.my: Dommal Food Services Sdn Bhd. (http://www.dominos.com.my)
The ‘Malaysian Book of Records’ has endorsed it as the 1st Fast Food online service in Malaysia. Now if you are too lazy to call for a pizza, just order online. The “30 minutes to customer's doorstep” commitment still applies.
No credit card? Don’t worry! Terms of payment is Cash On Delivery.
NEGATIVE: Limited areas of delivery and definitely not in Kedah.
Would love to hear what you think about the list. Please feel free to share your experiences and whether you agree with my list. If you have other companies in mind, tell me.
21 November 2005
Goblet of Fire
Caught the latest 'Harry Potter’ installment (No. 4 in the series), ‘Goblet of Fire’ last Friday with my wife, brother-in-law, sis-in-law and her husband at TGV, 1 Utama.
I was wondering how they were going to reduce the 750 pages long book to a few hours movie. But they did it. For example, the several pages long Quidditch World Cup was reduced to a few minutes screen time.
If you have seen the movie you will see that it has some scenes that were not in the book. They have also changed the story line a bit. If you can identify these scenes, it will prove that you are one great Harry Potter fan.
I know some people think that it is a kiddie movie and wondering what all the fuss is about. However, a look around the movie theatre confirmed my suspicion - most of the audience was composed of adults (including us). This movie is rated PG-13 in the US. Yeah, there are a few scary scenes. However, I think it is rated U in Malaysia and I saw a lot of very young kids with their parents.
Overall - an enjoyable movie. You can somehow feel the trauma that the teenage characters go through when they go through the ‘neither children nor adult’ phase – when hormones start surging in their veins.
I was wondering how they were going to reduce the 750 pages long book to a few hours movie. But they did it. For example, the several pages long Quidditch World Cup was reduced to a few minutes screen time.
If you have seen the movie you will see that it has some scenes that were not in the book. They have also changed the story line a bit. If you can identify these scenes, it will prove that you are one great Harry Potter fan.
I know some people think that it is a kiddie movie and wondering what all the fuss is about. However, a look around the movie theatre confirmed my suspicion - most of the audience was composed of adults (including us). This movie is rated PG-13 in the US. Yeah, there are a few scary scenes. However, I think it is rated U in Malaysia and I saw a lot of very young kids with their parents.
Overall - an enjoyable movie. You can somehow feel the trauma that the teenage characters go through when they go through the ‘neither children nor adult’ phase – when hormones start surging in their veins.
17 November 2005
Email Mistakes and Solutions
My organization allows us to access our mail through our online portal from anywhere in the world. However the problem is that the online email interface is not very user friendly. It also lacks a “sent folder”, so I don’t have a record of emails I send out. Another negative is the limited e-mail space quota – only 29 MB. And with all attachments we receive everyday, it doesn’t take long before we receive the dreaded “Over quota” message and emails sent to us won’t reach us.
In my office, I use the fabulous Mozilla Thunderbird email client.
In order to save valuable space, I had set the “server settings” (Tools> Account Settings> Server settings) to delete the mail in our server once I have downloaded them to my computer.
Big mistake!
During the recent holidays, I was in Kuala Lumpur and needed to access some of my old email and logged into our online email server. To my horror, I found that apart from the latest email; all the older ones had been deleted from the server.
I realized that this could have been disastrous. For example, what if my computer had suffered an unrecoverable crash because of a virus or something. All my email communication would have been lost.
As soon as I got back to my office, I changed the settings to “Leave messages on server” (Just tick the box).
I was also thinking that it would be cool if I could save all the mail onto my Flash drive so that I could access it anytime. Then I suddenly remembered a post on Cheeaun’s blog about portable applications, which you could carry around on your flash drive. Well he did mention John Haller's Portable Firefox but there was nothing about a portable email client. No problem!
Googling ‘portable Thunderbird’ took me to John Haller’s Portable Thunderbird page. Thanks a lot John. You are the MAN.
I downloaded the application into one of my unused Flash drives (128 MB) and gave it a trial run. It’s amazing. Now I can access my mail from any computer. All I have to do is just plug in the flash drive, and load Thunderbird directly from it.
WARNING: Remember to set the setting on the ‘portable Thunderbird’ to “Leave messages on server” or you might face the same problem of missing mails from the server.
I now have Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird (with 102 email messages) running on my Flash drive. And you won’t believe it - takes up only 23MB space.
In my office, I use the fabulous Mozilla Thunderbird email client.
In order to save valuable space, I had set the “server settings” (Tools> Account Settings> Server settings) to delete the mail in our server once I have downloaded them to my computer.
Big mistake!
During the recent holidays, I was in Kuala Lumpur and needed to access some of my old email and logged into our online email server. To my horror, I found that apart from the latest email; all the older ones had been deleted from the server.
I realized that this could have been disastrous. For example, what if my computer had suffered an unrecoverable crash because of a virus or something. All my email communication would have been lost.
As soon as I got back to my office, I changed the settings to “Leave messages on server” (Just tick the box).
I was also thinking that it would be cool if I could save all the mail onto my Flash drive so that I could access it anytime. Then I suddenly remembered a post on Cheeaun’s blog about portable applications, which you could carry around on your flash drive. Well he did mention John Haller's Portable Firefox but there was nothing about a portable email client. No problem!
Googling ‘portable Thunderbird’ took me to John Haller’s Portable Thunderbird page. Thanks a lot John. You are the MAN.
I downloaded the application into one of my unused Flash drives (128 MB) and gave it a trial run. It’s amazing. Now I can access my mail from any computer. All I have to do is just plug in the flash drive, and load Thunderbird directly from it.
WARNING: Remember to set the setting on the ‘portable Thunderbird’ to “Leave messages on server” or you might face the same problem of missing mails from the server.
I now have Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird (with 102 email messages) running on my Flash drive. And you won’t believe it - takes up only 23MB space.
14 November 2005
The Message
One of the victims of the Jordan blast was Hollywood producer and director Moustapha Akkad. He died on Friday from the injuries sustained in the attack while attending his daughter's wedding.
An American national living in Lebanon, Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1935.
He was the executive producer of the horror movie Halloween (1978) and its seven sequels.
He directed a movie about Prophet Muhammad and the early spread of Islam, Mohammad, Messenger of God (retitled The Message in the US)(1976) starring Anthony Quinn as the Prophet's uncle Hamza.
I first saw this movie just before I converted to Islam and had quite an impact on me.
Another famous movie which he also directed was the Lion of the Desert (1981) again starring Anthony Quinn in the lead role as Omar Mukhtar, the Bedouin Hero of Libya.
Akkad was in the process of producing a movie about Saladin and the Crusades.
A sad loss.
An American national living in Lebanon, Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1935.
He was the executive producer of the horror movie Halloween (1978) and its seven sequels.
He directed a movie about Prophet Muhammad and the early spread of Islam, Mohammad, Messenger of God (retitled The Message in the US)(1976) starring Anthony Quinn as the Prophet's uncle Hamza.
I first saw this movie just before I converted to Islam and had quite an impact on me.
Another famous movie which he also directed was the Lion of the Desert (1981) again starring Anthony Quinn in the lead role as Omar Mukhtar, the Bedouin Hero of Libya.
Akkad was in the process of producing a movie about Saladin and the Crusades.
A sad loss.
13 November 2005
a cacophony of sounds
I was minding my own business
waiting for the bus
watching the world go by
drifting in my own universe
No! Nobody disturbed me.
I suddenly realised how noisy it was
a cacophony of sounds
and the smell of automobile fumes
No! It was not sweet.
It was kind of strange
It was kind of funny
Why hadn't I realised that before?
(came to me yesterday)
waiting for the bus
watching the world go by
drifting in my own universe
No! Nobody disturbed me.
I suddenly realised how noisy it was
a cacophony of sounds
and the smell of automobile fumes
No! It was not sweet.
It was kind of strange
It was kind of funny
Why hadn't I realised that before?
(came to me yesterday)
09 November 2005
And miles to go before I sleep
A lot of friends and other regular visitors to my blog have been asking me why I stopped blogging and when I would be back again. Well! I am finally back.
If you are wondering what happened, read on………..
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions. Words can’t describe the feeling that I have now – it is as if I am floating on top of a cloud.
I am really and truly happy. Maybe it is due to the fact that my wife and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary recently. Or maybe it was because my daughter Rahil turned 2 in October, followed by my wife’s birthday 3 days later. Plus my parents were able to come down from Kota Bharu to celebrate with us.
If you thought that I was enjoying myself all this while, then it cannot be further from the truth. There were times I went into the blogging mode, like the time I read about the abandoned smiling baby in a bag. But I had to focus…..
I finally sent off my revised PhD proposal to my potential supervisor in UK. The next task was less taxing - revise and redo a paper for a journal, which I have since resubmitted. And just three days ago, we finally completed a chapter (co-written with my wife) for a book, a joint project with some lecturers in the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya. The book is due to come out somewhere near of the end this year.
However, the biggest update.
People close to me know that I have running around Government offices for quite sometime now.
Only my wife knows the frustration, the tension, and the uncertainty we went through. I almost gave up
I FINALLY GOT IT!
That’s the biggest reason that I am happy. Happy may not the right word. Delighted or ecstatic would be the better expression.
I kept telling people, “I see some light at the end of the tunnel”. Now, I am out of that tunnel and into the sunlight.
My mind went numb when I heard the good news and I didn’t know how to react. In fact I was not ready to believe it until I got the letter in black and white. Then it finally sunk in – “Yes! You finally got it”.
I will tell you guys (those who don't know yet) what I am talking about when all the formalities are complete.
Tags: milestone
If you are wondering what happened, read on………..
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions. Words can’t describe the feeling that I have now – it is as if I am floating on top of a cloud.
I am really and truly happy. Maybe it is due to the fact that my wife and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary recently. Or maybe it was because my daughter Rahil turned 2 in October, followed by my wife’s birthday 3 days later. Plus my parents were able to come down from Kota Bharu to celebrate with us.
If you thought that I was enjoying myself all this while, then it cannot be further from the truth. There were times I went into the blogging mode, like the time I read about the abandoned smiling baby in a bag. But I had to focus…..
I finally sent off my revised PhD proposal to my potential supervisor in UK. The next task was less taxing - revise and redo a paper for a journal, which I have since resubmitted. And just three days ago, we finally completed a chapter (co-written with my wife) for a book, a joint project with some lecturers in the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya. The book is due to come out somewhere near of the end this year.
However, the biggest update.
People close to me know that I have running around Government offices for quite sometime now.
Only my wife knows the frustration, the tension, and the uncertainty we went through. I almost gave up
I FINALLY GOT IT!
That’s the biggest reason that I am happy. Happy may not the right word. Delighted or ecstatic would be the better expression.
I kept telling people, “I see some light at the end of the tunnel”. Now, I am out of that tunnel and into the sunlight.
My mind went numb when I heard the good news and I didn’t know how to react. In fact I was not ready to believe it until I got the letter in black and white. Then it finally sunk in – “Yes! You finally got it”.
I will tell you guys (those who don't know yet) what I am talking about when all the formalities are complete.
Tags: milestone
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