* merely human *

Story 1 : Glasses

I woke up at 4 am, thinking I should do something productive today. I went to the toilet, washed my face, went to the kitchen to make a hot milo and turned on my laptop. I tried to find my glasses, but there was no where around the room, the kitchen, the living room, the toilet.

I hate it when I can't find my glasses.
I squinted my eyes while trying to find it, but I can't see clearly.

If I am a spectacle, where would I be?

Gah.
*I typed this without my glasses on.

Story 2 : Secretgroup's Photo

Two days ago, I was given a task to collect all my colleagues' photo for our website. Assuming most people probably wanted to retake their photo *I am included, I hated the old ones, I voluntarily offered to take everyone's latest picture.

Here is the challenge :

1) I am not a good photographer when the object is other human. In 2009, I tried several freelance works in weddings and events - I found out that when I take photos I became awkward and they became awkward. I make people feel uncomfortable. Ha.

2) Some people are born photogenic. Some people are super shy, and I will become even worse than them.

3) Some people just love to be photographed, this is very helpful & challenging, *because I were to blame if any pictures taken will make them seemed fat/dark/anything possible to be critiqued.

4) Some people will only blame me for how they looked. *Okay not some, one particular person, I personally think he did this on purpose. No problem, I will still bring the camera next week.

Anyhow, I love the result and the experience and the fussiness and how adorable everyone was : each and every one of them was very unique & different when they had to stand in front of the camera. That was new.

There are some pictures that I need to retake, and some people that I have not take yet.

Story 3 : Fatso Awan

Awan sleeps in my room at most nights.

Around 4 am, I will sleepily be awake by Awan's heaviness on my stomach. She will lie/sit/other yoga-ic postures to lick her whole body's fur until maybe she feels clean & well-licked, then she will sleep somewhere else.

This happens almost every night.

My rough hypotheses on why Awan needs to be on my stomach while she does her fur-licking routine :

1) Maybe it is easier for her to do odd postures while lying on my stomach, than on the flat floor.

2) Maybe it is just for her amusement to wake me from my sleep.

PS : Awan is quite heavy now.

Last weekend, our SecretGroup family went to Janda Baik, Pahang for our yearly Rejuvenate 2013 to recap last year's achievements, whether we reached our target or not, to roughly discuss this year's goals, also to improve our bonding and working skills.

We went to Suria Hill Resort in Janda Baik after the Friday's prayer. The beauty of our little family is how well-planned we all are in doing something, roughly speaking from the outsider's point of view, although I have never worked in other company before to make this comparison. I loved how we all were given a handout with structured timelines, grouping plans, additional notes, maps, and such things. Precious little thing.

We arrived in the afternoon and were given shared rooms.

Here is a summary and some photos ! :

Activity 1 : Zubedy , MAD program

Our highlight event was on the second day, a program with Zubedy : Making A Difference ( MAD ) by Mr. Anuprakash. Yes, 'the' Zubedy, famous Anas Zubedy ! If Mr. Anas came on that day, maybe I'll have a hard time focusing on the program :D Anyhow, the one day program was filled with talks, open discussion and group activities.

We learned about artificial boundaries, our true potential, P1 - P3, whether we know things that we should know and how to achieve our goals, excuses, and those little sub-titles in most motivational program. I loved the program, I learned a lot and I feel recharged. Most of us did. Somehow reminders like this trigger what we already know deep inside our heart and it showed us the important things in our life. It was not like other ordinary motivational talks, because I didn't feel sleepy at all *which was a great sign, because I know I can't listen to long lectures on anything.

Activity 2 : BBQ , Back-to-School Themed Dinner

Last year's Rejuvenate, we had a movie-themed night, where everyone wore costumes from any movies. This year, it was a school-theme dinner. I had a hard time finding school uniform, it has been almost 10 years since I left school. *how fast! So I chose to wear Kadet Remaja's tshirt with a green beret. Some of us chose to wear school uniform, teacher, gardener, etc.