She Turns NINE

Zillion of thanks to Zainal, Din, Muaz, Pai, Johanes, Hanif, YB, Zul, Aton, Amira, Zana, Ifa, Saadah, Dila, Bayti, Baini, Intan, Aklina, Humairah, Athirah, Munirah, Nas, Che Ah, Hana, Fikri, Lokman, Azrul, Shami, Azmi, ASI, Dorin, and Sabrina (not able to come because having her examination) for cheering Afiqah during her 9th birthday’s anniversary. Most of them came earlier lending their hands and creativity, prepared the foods – chicken rice, roasted chicken, coleslaw, beef curry, salads, and desserts.
The above cake was prepared by Aton, Kelantanis who speaks fluent English, Arabic and fair Sarawakian language. She spent half of her night to make this Afiqah’s birthday chocolate cake. It was indeed, nice. Awesome!

Humairah, Nas and Hana prepared the roasted chicken for the Alexandria chicken rice (photo above). Five big sizes of chickens were marinated with their secret recipe (actually, I did not ask them) for few hours and roasted for 15 minutes with 200 degrees centigrade in our oven. Its scrumptiousness, invited us to finish it all. At 22:00 hours, all gone!!

Pai, a genius, smart and decent fourth year student brought the above cake and a box of chocolate goodies for Afiqah and all of us. He looks like nerd, but he is not. I like his decent, witty but matured character. One would be easily cheered and inspired by his words and wisdom.

These set of chicken, beef and ‘sambal Jawa’ or Javanese shrimp paste (I think), were prepared by none other than Dilla, Aton, and assisted by her 4th year friends. The ‘sambal Jawa’ was really the appetizer. As for me, despite high level of Uric acid flowing in my blood stream, I walloped the beef curry as if there will be no tomorrow anymore.

As always mentioned, we do not celebrate birthday. But, what actually behind it was, these smart genius doctors to be missed Nana and the kids so much. The last time they visited us was during the last Raya Open House back in October 2009. Besides that, it was part of their stress reliever before their coming semester’s exam.

Happy birthday to Afiqah. May Allah swt be always with you with all His Blessings, Grace and Mercy. And, to all her brothers and all her Medic brothers and sisters, wish you all the best for whatever the good things that you want to achieve. Our jobs are to make and put our best-concerted efforts together sincerely for Allah Rabbul Jalil as shown by His beloved Messenger Prophet Muhammad saw. And, let the results be with Allah swt. He knows better what is good for us.

TownHall Meeting VI & Our 1st Annual Dinner

Since my presence in the Company in Egypt, this was our Sixth Staff Townhall meeting – the Year End Corporate Performance Review. What different this time was the Team Activity session. Led by an African Band group, the staff was over zealously entertained and benefited from the experiential learning approach introduced by the organizer. Kudos to them…..keep it up dude!

The 'African Tribe' in action, building up their team spirit and camaradarie for future Egyptian generation.

This year, the Management, first time, introduced the Annual Dinner held at the same grand ballroom of the prestigious 5-Star Four Seasons Hotel, Alexandria. Despite the hectic tight one whole day event, staff were very pleased and eager dining with their spouses served by professional and efficient staff. The foods were definitely, superb – commendable!.
During the dinner, there were lucky draws and karaoke session that glued the people to their chairs until the end of the auspicious event. Still many rooms for improvement though the agenda was well organized and executed. And, most of them all, Nana was at her best - dressed to kill! She was so gorgeous and charming.

Teambuilding Session while Cruising the Nile

Nile River, regarded as the longest river in the world, shared by 10 countries; Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Sudan, and Egypt. It has two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, later being the source of the Nile’s water. The two rivers meet at Khartoum and splits into two branches or distributaries that empties into the Mediterranean Sea: The Rosetta branch (or Rasheed) on the west and Damietta to the east.
Last Wednesday, 13.1.2010, Mr. Operations Director invited us for lunch (in Egypt lunch is taken at around 15:00 hours until 17:00 hours) on a boat, cruising along Nile River at Rasheed. The main dish was the popular local traditional salted mullet fish called ‘Feseekh’. Feseekh is normally eaten during Sham El Neseem ("Smelling the Breeze"), which is a spring celebration from ancient times in Egypt.
It has a rotten odor that only its true lovers would appreciate. The process of preparing feseekh is quite elaborate, passing from father to son in certain families. The occupation has a special name in Egypt, fasakhan
It was rather a ‘teambuilding’ session for the Management Team with Shareholders Representatives and all the Managers. Besides the Feseekh, the organizer served us the arabic rice, grilled beef, aish, salad, etc.Rasheed town is about 15 minutes from our Plant in Idku. We started cruising around 16:15 hours and adjourned at around 18:05 hours. It was an interesting experiences for all of us especially Adnan, Kamarul and me – the Malaysian. Tom, an American representing BG enjoyed the trip but did not appreciate the feseekh despite his significant years experience in Indonesia. In this release, I would like to introduce some of the prominent figures of our team.
Let me start with; Ahmed Shehata, Operations Director from EGAS and Karem Mahmoud, Deputy Chief Officer from EGAS.
On your left; Abdel Aziz El Khodeir, Manager Asset Integrity. Sitting next to him was Abdel Moneim Shehab our Manager, Support Services.

On the right of the photo: Ahmed Abdallah, Manager Logistic; Kamarul Amar Tajul Arifin, Manager QHSE a PETRONAS Representative; Ahmed Ezz, Manager Production and Captain Sherif, Manager Port Operation a little far on the left.

The lunch time. Like it or not, working in overseas environment, one must have high sense of adaptability, sensible, adventurous, and mental endurance. As the famous saying goes, 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. In this volatile economics condition with many uncertainties, networking is very important and essential. Thus, building it is more critical.

Allow me to continue; on our right is Tom Jeter, Operations Director Advisor, an American from BG who can speak Indonesian language fluently. On his right is Omar Hilal, Chief Financial Officer, BG's Representative. He is an Egyptian but all this while working in the UK and other European countaries.

Captain Sherif Keshk, Manager Port Operation; Sherif Shaaban, Manager ICT; Ashraf Hamdy, Manager Site Port Security.

Adnan Zainal Abidin, Chief Executive Officer, a PETRONAS's Representative who had been with the Company since early 2006; Mohamed Fikry, Manager HSE.

We had a chance trying our fishing skills. Honestly, I do not have either passion or patient with fishing. It is not in my vocabulary.

It was indeed a great experience. Kudos to the organizer, Mohamed El Assy, our Operation Finance Manager. Not to forget, many thanks to Sherif Shabaan for providing me these photos.

The Law of the Garbage Truck

The above photo was taken inside the Silk Bazar, near the Green Masjid, Bursa, Turkey. It is a famous Turkish product available everywhere in Turkey, especially around the tourist spots. Anyway, that was not the content of this release. Today, I received an email from my colleague, KK, on something that you could find from Andrew Mathews’ books/collections or any other self-improvement books, for example 10/90 principle by Steven Covey. However, I found out that his story – the Law of the Garbage was very interesting, hence the obligatory sense of sharing:
“One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport...
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.
My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!
The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.
My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call,
'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.
As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.
Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.
Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ... Love the people who treat you right.
Smile and bless the ones who don't .
Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!
Have a blessed, garbage-free day!"

Experiencing the Greatness Of Allah swt: Part II

The second part of our trip – Experiencing the Greatness of Allah swt was exploring the Islamic Turkey. Turkey is a very well developed Islamic country strategically located on the ‘border’ of Europe and Asia, split by the famous Turkish strait – the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. It is actually a Eurasian country bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Turkey is the successor of the Ottoman Empire that ruled the country from 1299 until November 1 1922. Subsequently, it was declared as Republic of Turkey in 1923 and Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, one of the Commanders during the helm of the Ottoman, became the first President who introduced secular Turkey. 99% of its population is Sunni Muslim. Hence, motivated and lured us to explore the historical spots of Turkey.

We departed for Ataturk International airport, Istanbul at 15:50 hours from Terminal 3 Cairo. The weather was excellent, there were less hustles at the airport, and the EgyptAir flight number MS 735 that bridged us between Cairo and Istanbul was good. I mean, except for the toilet, the service, foods and seats were not bad. The one third loaded Aircraft 737-800 reached the Istanbul skyline around 17:50 hours. We were flying above the Sea of Marmara and supposed to land at 18:00 hours, but suddenly the pilot informed us that they have to delay the schedule due to heavy traffic. The plane was hovering around the Istanbul sky, circling for about 40 minutes and finally, we landed at around 18:40 hours.
Alhamdullillah, the immigration and security clearance were excellent. Despite thousands of passengers or visitors flocked the counters, the flow was very smooth and fast, mainly due to the efficient and friendly officers using high-end system. If I remembered it well, there were at least 10 counters opened to handle the crowds. As backpackers, we did not carry big luggage, thus we went straight out from the arrival hall to the airport reception area. On the way out, one of the Transportation Supervisor (I think) displayed my name and we approached him, informing him I am going to the Atlantis hotel. He ushered us out of the reception area to the waiting bay and 3 minutes later, a big high-end van came and transported us to the hotel at Sultanahmet district. Alhamdullillah, things were smooth as planned.
Our first impression was; wow……..amazing! Along the way, we went through the corniche highway parallel with the fringe of the Se of Marmara. We passed through the well-known Kumkapi Fish Market and the ‘gate’ of the old Istanbul wall.

We finally arrived at the Atlantis Hotel, situated in the heart of the most popular and busiest spot of Sultanahmet district. Will talk about this later. The staff was very efficient, informative, reliable and friendly. However, unfortunately, I have to pay a little bit more because of the high-high peak season – the New Year eve. Other 3-Star hotels around the area were fully occupied.

After 5 minutes, we were already in our rooms!. With the remaining optimum energy level that we had (at that instance) and to optimize our time, amid the chilly weather (about 14 degrees centigrade) we dared ourselves exploring the surrounding Sultanahmet – merely to see the night life on the eve of January 1.

Actually, there was no intention to celebrate January 1 2010 here. We already had our New Year celebration 1 Muharram 1431 weeks ago in Egypt, anyway. It was merely coincidence, so to speak, but the intention was to experience Friday Prayer in one of the important historic Masjid in Istanbul. Nevertheless, talking and sharing about the night, there were much scene or abnormal activities around the Sultanahmet as what we normally saw at KLCC Park or Padang Merdeka back in Malaysia or in any big cities around the world. There were patches of fireworks displayed around the famous Aya Sophia and Blue Mosques, there were only few people on the streets, and the atmosphere was pleasant.

TP1: Sultanahmet at Night

We did not have much time. Despite the freezing night, we set up our agenda for the night sight seeing around the Sultanahmet’s popular spots. Our hotel was just 3 minutes walk around the restaurants area and 4 minutes to the Sultanahmet’s Tram station. There were all sorts of restaurants, souvenirs shops, groceries shops selling Turkish delights, etc., tour or travelling agents within that 100 meters radius of the Atlantis Hotel. In general, the surrounding scene was amazing.
We went to Sultan Ahmet Square or Hippodrome or Atmeydani in local Turkish, mean Horse Square. It is located in front of the famous Sultan Ahmet Masjid or the Blue Mosque. It was once the sport and social center of Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire and was once used as a Horse Racing track then.
Honestly, there was nothing much to see there except the remaining historical monuments: the Obelisk of Thutmose III from Egypt; Walled Obelisk built in the 10th century; and Serpent Column casted during the Persian wars in 5th Century BC. In 1900, the German Government built another ‘monument’ called the German Fountain or the Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain to mark the German Emperor Wilhelm II’s visit to Istanbul in 1898. Actually, we just passed through the square to have a close look of the Sultan Ahmet Masjid.

At that time, around 21:30 hours, the Masjid’s main gate was about to close and visitors were not allowed to enter the premise, probably because of the 2010’s eve. We took several shots outside the fence wall of the Masjid. Adjacent to the Masjid, is the Islamic Art Museum or Turkey. We spent sometimes admiring the building architecture and it was one of the best spots to shoot the panoramic view of the Sultan Ahmet Masjid.

I took a few shots of the Masjid from the North West, while Nana and the kids went to the amphitheatre garden opposite the Hippodrome. The full moon of Muharram helped lighting up the garden while the chilly breeze of the Marmara Sea cheered and energized us.

Around 10:30 hours, we went to the Hagia Sophia, pronounce as Aya Sophia, through Basilica Cistern or Yerebatan Sarayi (Sunken Palace) in local dialect, and relaxed at the garden in between the Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmet Masjid. I will share my knowledge about the two prominent features of Istanbul, which had attracted million of visitors around the globe.

There were many stray cats playing at the garden. However, they were healthy, good looking and friendly stray Turkish cats. They did not savage the thrash, instead some kind fed them with good branded cats’ foods.

The full moon of Muharram brighten up the night helped setting the scene. Subhanallah

Hot Sehlah - Turkish Milk, anyone. One cup was 1 Turkish Lira. There were few of these vendors offering the drink to keep your body warm and definitely healthy.

Some of the restaurants, pub & bars, Leather Factory, etc. Attractive looking Promoters will politely explain you what they have to offer and if you are influenced, they will usher and seat you in.

This was one of the garden that we visitied and relaxed. And, this one is actually above the popular Yerebatan Cistern.

Hagia Sophia's main dome and one of its four minarets from the Cistern Garden.

The view of the Sultanahmet businest spots taken from the park near Hagia Sophia. Awesome!

We spent for almost an hour at the garden while enjoying people characters, the gorgeous Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmet Masjid showered by neon lightings, the fountain and the landscape of the garden. We tried the Turkish Sehlab sold by local young teenagers on their portable stall. It cost us around 1USD and we met a ‘Tea-man’ named Mahmoud, who had been supplying various types of tea since more than 10 years. He was very friendly and spoke very fluent English. Well, all the Turkish that we met were friendly and helpful.

There were many benches in the middle of the garden for visitors to admire and appreciate the view of the Sultanahmet Masjid and Hagia Sophia. One can call Mahmoud - the Tea-man, to quench their thirst for a cup of tea or any other stimulant for 1 Turkish Lira.

Around 23:20 hours, we went back to the restaurants area looking for foods or anything that could dampen our hunger. Restaurants, Pub & Bars were fully occupied by the foreigners and locals alike, ushering and waiting for the count down of 2010.

One of the stationaries stalls or I called it tourist stations. One could find anything essential for tourists, such as, road maps, books, travelling guides, etc. Some of these stalls were selling tit-bits, drinks, sandwitches, etc. There are very attractive and clean.

Some of the locals selling localy made winter attire or accessories, such as hand gloves, scarf, etc.

The German Wilhelm Fountain at the Eastern entrance of the Hippodrome or Sultanahmet Square.

1 minute before 00:01 hours of 1.1.2010, colorful fireworks were fired around the Sultanahmet for around 5 minutes. Surprisingly, there were no shouting, yelling or any crazy stuff, and there was no the usual traditional countdown thing. People were well behaved at where we stood in the middle of the busy spots. Despite the hype, there was no grand happening around the area.

I was looking for Money Changer. One of the stupid things that I did – looking for Money Changer on the new year eve?! …in my head, I believed there must ne one or two Money Changers operating 24 hours especially around this tourist area. I met group of friendly Turkish near the old entrance of Yerebatan Cistern. There were 5 of them. I asked, “Excuse me, is there any Money Changer around this area still operating”. One of them responded, “What do you change?”. “US Dollar” I replied him jovially. The other friendly nice looking guy comforted me,”No Money Changer open now, but you don’t worry, all shops and restaurants here accept US Dollar”…”Ask them first, you don’t worry”, he continued. “Really…Thank you”, I replied him politely. Just before I wanted to capture the garden scene, the first guy, joking but frankly, invited me to see his friends with beers on their hands and said, “You see, the modern Muslim….you see what I mean?..he.. he….he…Muslim ah!..!!” He laughed and I gave him my cynical smile, thanked him and moved on. Let me reserve my comment at this juncture.

Before we knocked off, we went to one of the many Tour Operators and agents that opened for 24 hours, the Marco Polo. I peeped in and saw a man at early 50’ with narcotic-source material – cigarette on his fingers. He invited us in and I greeted him. We shook hand he invited me to sit. In front of him, there was a big 10’ X 6’ size poster of Malaysian Airline System (MAS) aircraft Airbus 777 boosted my self-esteem and pride. “You must be the premier agent of MAS, do you?” I expressed my thought to him to break the ice in which, he responded proudly, “Yes, we are…we had received few recognition from them…..””How can I help you?” he continued. I said, we would like to have an excursion tour to Bursa. Prior to that, he introduced himself as Nadir, Manager of the agency. Spoke excellent English, has vast knowledge and experience of the business, Nadir offered us good package to Bursa. He said, “If you are agree, I will give you my price – the Manager’s Price – 61 Euro per person”. The normal rate was 90 Euro per person. We made up our mind, cut the deal, and finally made payment, after he explained us the package, etc.

We went back to our hotel at almost 01:00 hours. All the kids dosed off 5 minutes after entering our rooms. We were extremely exhausted.