What friendship means?

Let's not talk about travel today. Yesterday I was on medical leave because I had a fever since Wednesday. Because it was after a very long weekend due to public holiday on Monday and Tuesday for Chinese New Year, I still went to office to clear a few things so that it won't miss the deadline. I went to see the doctor on Wednesday morning to get some medicine and then continue working because I thought I could servive. Yes, I survived the day but could not wait to go back at 6:00 pm. I never sleep straight away after I come home from office, but on Wednesday - that's what I did. On Thursday morning, I could not get up. And slept most of the time, all day and night... Over the weekend I went back to Penang with my Mom to see my elder sister and her children. May be the heat, the mandarin oranges, the ice water, the rain, had caused me this fever because I seldom drink ice water.

And today, I have an appointment with dentist in KL. I missed the junction to Putra LRT station - which I'm so familiar with. I have to turn back quite far. But managed to arrive the clinic on time - my appointment was at 9:00 am. But I forgot to bring the x-ray which Dr. Rosrahimi asked me to take at HKL two months ago. I've done the x-ray, but I forgot to take it with me this morning. I guess this is due to my fever, still have headache, sore throat, cough... I have to keep on taking Strepsil to silence my cough. My free advertisement for Strepsil!

Yesterday an old friend sent me sms asking if I'm fine because she dreamt of me the night before. The night before I was just thinking of her, it's been a long time since the last time I heard from her. And I was thinking just how old are we now, getting older and older... how do you look like now? How's your "umrah" the year before? (Just received a voice mail from her before the trip). As I've told all my friends that we are not allowed to use handphone in the office, so I never bring the handphone to office. But people still call or sms to my handphone during office hours. People who never keep in touch for a long time - it's understandable that they do not know my office procedures. Anyway, I still check my handphone everyday when I'm back home. But I don't really like to send sms - I prefer email - the phone keypad is too small and I'm slow with it. With email, we write a lot more and I can type faster.

Back to today's topic - what friendship means? Is friendship mean just to keep a person in the back of our minds, at the little corner of our hearts, and send our prayers through the wind? May be that's one way of friendship, too. But I have a friend with whom I always had a good arguments, we can yell at each other over a disagreement; and at the end of the day, this is the friend who come and visit me in the hospital 3 times a day, who will call me twice a day if I am not well, who will come and take my Mom to visit me in the hospital. I don't have many friends like this, so I'll always treasure the one that I have.

I also have a friend who had helped me financially without question and without security. And when I wanted to pay back the money, she asked me to keep it first in my investment so that I can get the dividend, she would ask for it when she needed it. And I only have to pay back the same amount which I owed her (not with any dividend). Can you get many friends like that?

<- Nice bathroom at Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort.

I don't have many good friends. And I never leave any of my friends. Though we do not keep in touch, but they are always in my heart, in my mind... Last year, on my way to Langkawi, I went to see my classmate and senior when I was in standard one in Mata Ayer, Perlis. It was nice to trace down the memory lane... I've been to everywhere, but they were in Perlis all those years. Of course, we might not be able to recognize each other if we meet somewhere else. I wanted to see more of them again, but I could not reach them. And I didn't even take photographs of the two I met during the short meeting! If ever they read this blog, they can email to me, hopefully...

I also wish that I can meet again with all of my schoolmates at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Alor Setar, Kedah. Half of the classmates went to Maktab Perguruan Temenggong Ibrahim, Johor Bahru. My classmates in ITM - where are you all now? Is anybody blogging? We don't seem to bump in to each other in the internet.

Whatever it is, I pray for the best to all of my friends out there, whether you care for me or not. And to my parents, thank you very much for bringing me up to be what I am today, especially to my Mom!

<-Having an early dinner at Mare Blu (Italian Restaurant) at Telaga Harbour Park, Langkawi with nice view of beautiful yatch.

Convoy to Terengganu

Sometimes ago I had organized a convoy for our office sports club members to Terengganu. Being the President of the sports club (KSSE - Kelab Sukan dan Sosial Elektrisola) at that time (I was with the club for 4 years and retired willingly because I am too tired to do all the job anymore), I'd always make sure that we would do at least one community service activity per year. So last year we all went to Gem Beach Resort in Batu Rakit, Kuala Terengganu for our charity convoy.

It was only a 3 days/2 nights package. We departed Janda Baik at 8:45 am with about 10 cars and 25 motorcycles. We took the new highway to Kuantan. In Kuantan, we visited the orphanage home - had lunch with the children, spent some times to chat with them and played a few games before distributed some souveniers and handed over our contribution for them. We left them with sweet memories and grateful feeling that we still could do this charity convoy year after year.

On the way to Batu Rakit, we had a stop at Tanjong Jara Beach Resort for teh tarik and apam balik. I had organized that with Chef Ann whom I met when I had my holiday with my Mom earlier before the convoy. Chef Ann is a very nice person, the "walking menu" at one of the restaurants at Tanjong Jara Resort. If you go to Tanjong Jara Resort, surely you won't miss her. She's very friendly to all guests.

We arrived the resort around 8:30 pm. Checked-in, greeted with a welcome drink and went to put our bags in the rooms and came back for dinner at the resort restaurant. Dinner was very good. The next morning, the resort staff had organized a telematch for us after breakfast. It was really enjoyable.

After the telematch we all went to Pasar Payang at Kuala Terengganu town - about 35 km away from the resort. After some shopping at Pasar Payang, our group went to Pantai Batu Buruk - another tourists spot at Kuala Terengganu. After we spent some times there, the group went back to the resort for the most awaited waiting for every convoy - barbeque dinner and lucky draw!

Since we received many sponsors from our suppliers, everybody did not come back empty handed. Those who did not win any lucky draws, were given a souvenir each.

On the way back, we stopped at a little village for disabled people - with many kinds disabilities - some are blind, some are parallysed but can sit on wheelchairs etc. They are getting some allowance from the Welfare Department. We spent sometimes with them and handed over some contributions before we continued our journey safely home to Janda Baik.

...will continue with more photos.