Thinking Out Loud

Here I am at the in-laws. Kids are asleep and hubby is in Johor. And in the background is sister-in-law's soft (loud) snores...hehe...which sister-in-law, I shall not name.

Anyways, I was planning on doing some reading on renewable energy since the team's intense one month work will start next week. I am totally not prepared. Fortunately or unfortunately I've been roped into this team where everyone else is really smart and know their stuff. I on the other hand....ehemm....The team's task is a rather big one. We're suppose to map out exactly which part of the renewable energy value chain the company's suppose to enter. And of course, the business expectation is for us to enter the most lucrative sector.

But hey, in this country, no renewable energy business is lucrative. Unless you are a foreign company setting up a manufacturing plant. You'll get tax relief, cheap land, cheap labor etc. And what's in for us is a measly number of employment. I understand that the government wants to attract foreign investment. But come on, you're practically giving everything to them at a cheap price, and you tell us they will create job opportunities for fellow citizens. But seriously, their product is not even for the local market. So, the obvious states that they will probably reap in tons of profits. To be fair, the government should give the same incentives to locals doing the exact same thing.

Another hindrance is of course the subsidies. It's like crack cocaine. We are so addicted to it.

Oh yeah, just remembered. I was at a conference recently and this guy from the States did his own testing from the hotel room. He's from an energy efficiency company, so it is his practice to randomly check the grid's stability based on its frequency, whenever he's traveling. And surprise surprise, our country's grid is soooooo not stable as compared to other countries. The frequency was jumping up and down. So what is means is that the grid is having trouble stabilizing itself. Oh you who are in the Planning Division of TNB, please fix this...haha..yes, you.

Ok...I think it's time too sleep.

Eih....wait a minute

'Aatikah has always been wary of strangers holding her. I think I've mentioned before that 'Aatikah will only allow strangers to hold her 10-15 minutes max. Every time someone holds her, she will turn her head to look at that person, turn her head to look at me, get red-faced and start wailing.

But then, we were like, oh like this cannot lah. Tak cool lah ni taknak kat orang. So we kept handing her to people and to test out how much she will last with so and so.

Then suddenly it clicked. After Odah's wedding on Saturday, suddenly she was okay with other people besides me, abah, maktok and makcik holding her. Siap boleh tinggalkan dia dgn the in-laws while hubby and I settle Sa'eed's smelly poop (while we were in Alamanda).

Oh but I hope she won't be as gung-ho as her brother.

Sa'eed is a different story all together. It is quite dangerous, I think. He is not afraid of anyone (except for cousin Firuz because Sa'eed rammed into him and that knocked the daylights out of the little guy....). So much so that he voluntarily climbed into a makcik's car during the nikah ceremony at the inlaw's house while the groom's entourage were about to leave the house. Hmm did that sentence confuse you?

And he didn't even mind spending half the day with Mr. Hubby's aunt's family + Tok Yang. Heh, but when they sent him home, the aunt asked if Sa'eed wanted to follow them home for the night. Sa'eed replied with a resounding shake of the head...nasib baik reti nak duduk rumah time malam :p

Sa'eed the handsome boy in baju melayu with aunties. Pic by Aunt K kot.

'Aatikah si mata bulat. Pic by Aunt K.

'Aatikah si comel ikut template ummi dia...haha. Pic by Aunt K.

Planning

My degree was in Environmental Engineering, but I'm currently doing Strategic/Technology Planning. So what exactly is Planning?

Planning can be viewed as an exercise to optimize resources. We do it subconsciously every day. For example if you need to go grocery shopping, get fuel for the car and settle your bills at the post office, you will plan your route and take into account waiting time (if any), if you need to grab lunch in between, are the places close by and so on and so forth. Once you have that plan in your head, you implement it for the day or even spread the activities over a few days depending on how your schedule is.

In terms of Corporate Planning, there are two types. Strategic Planning and Business Planning. In simple terms, strategic planning is sort of planning for the future (say over 10-15 years) and business planning is more towards short term activities. So for example, you want to be worth RM 500 million within 10 years and RM 1 billion by the time you're 50 (strategic planning) so what you do is you invest in property, mutual funds etc (business planning). But to plan, you need your background information, so this is where the analysis tools come in. Some that might be familiar to you is STEEP, SWOT and Porter's 5 Forces.

On paper, it looks easy enough to do either strategic or business planning, but in reality it is not that easy since you need to do enough benchmarking activities to understand your competitor's own strategic plans so that in some ways, you'll be able to leapfrog their achievements. This is where radical thinking comes in.

How exactly do we think radically? If you've taken chemistry before, you'll know that a radical is an element that disassociated itself from other elements. For example let's take oxygen - O2. If the two Os disassociates, you'll get two O radicals. That is actually how you form ozone. When the O radical meets O2, you'll get ozone, 03.

Aaaaanyways, if you take that as an example, you can rightfully conclude that to think radically, you need to disassociate yourself from the norm.

Hmmm....what is the point of this post? I pun tak tau. Just writing my thoughts, I guess. Sorry if I have bore you...heh

One of those days

Oh tidak.

I am so the very stressed.

Sarah, jom gi retail therapy on Friday. Let's ditch the nikah petang tu....muahahahahaha...kidding :)

On the homefront, En. Hubby is at home babysitting the kiddies because Makcik is unwell. En. Abang did the babysitting for us on Monday and Tuesday. Thanks ye my bestest big brother in the world.

Happenings

Haha...baru seminggu tak update dah ada suara suara bingit suruh update blog...so, hambik ni.

Sa'eed

What can I say about this little kid? His vocab is expanding, but still on one word 'sentences'. Favorite word is probably 'nak'. Semua pun nak. My sister in law is getting married this weekend and the living room is filled with candy. So of course Sa'eed would point everywhere and say nak nak nak nak non stop. Once he gets a candy, he will sit quietly and eat it. Then the nak nak nak nak frenzy start all over again.

Sa'eed absolutely loves to go jalan-jalan. One time he was asleep and I was half awake. Abah was already off to work. I suppose Sa'eed was half awake too at that time coz when he heard the car engine immediately he woke up and said shhh shhh (meaning shoe).

In the eating department, he is a tad bit more picky. Give him a plate of rice, fish and veggies, he would want to finish up the veges without eating anything else. Kalau ada egg or tofu lagi dahsyat. But ok la, at least he eats healthily. And he loves fruits also. He can easily finish half a papaya or 2 apples at one go.

Heh, and I seriously think we need to go on a shopping spree for him. He's fast outgrowing his clothes for 3 year olds.


'Aatikah

Hmmm...this little lady is more on the emotional side. Currently she won't last for more than about 5 minutes with people she's not familiar with. She'll cry like she got beaten or something. Oh I hope this is just a phase.

And currently she can sit unassisted, but someone will have to put her in the sitting position first. But of course she will topple here and there after a few minutes. She also loves to grab objects and put it in her mouth. And she has started to become more mobile by rolling.

By right she can start on solids, but I'm keeping that to a minimum since she's already 'solid'...haha...and of course so that she maximizes her milk intake. I have about 3 liters of frozen EBM and she's the only one who consumes it in the house...Lets not put all that output to waste ya.

I think Sa'eed absolutely adores his sister. Nak peluk lah, nak angkat lah. And he has learnt to agah her...quite amusing to see. She doesn't seem to mind the affection, except when she's not in a good mood lah.

Hmmm....I thought this entry would be quite long...but after a week out of the office, I have tons of things to catch up to....workwise ye, bukan gossip...haha.

Are we worthy?

Last weekend I received a very heartbreaking news. My friend's husband's sister's baby died in the womb...at 9 months. She was due in a few days. Apparently the baby's umbilical cord broke in her tummy. That news was very much difficult to digest..even though for the life of me I can't remember her name and I've only met her once.

To have a person grow inside you is a very exhilarating experience. Every day you think about whether you've eaten enough for him/her to grow and wondering if you're doing the right thing traveling to and from the office everyday. As you feel the baby kick, you shriek in delight and wait in anticipation for that moment to come even though sometimes it does hurt. Towards the end of the pregnancy you feel the kicks and movements ever so often and sometimes you dread it. But when you can't feel it anymore even for a second, you keep telling the baby inside you to keep on kicking. And once baby gives you even a little nudge, you heave a sigh of relief.

When the baby is born, you trace your fingers on the outlines of her face. You welcome into the world with love and care. As the nurses wrap her up, you just stare at your baby, hoping to be able to hold her as soon as possible. Her newborn scent wafts in around you and you bask in the happiness of holding someone you've been wanting to meet for the past 9 months.

But to have that feeling taken away from you is unimaginable. I can't imagine what is running through her mind when the baby is no longer inside her but yet the baby's not with her. For 9 months the baby was growing and connecting with the mother. For 9 months the mother's heartbeat was the loudest and most reassuring sound. And for 9 months she built her hopes and dreams for the child in her womb. But after a split second, it was all gone.

That got me thinking as to how lucky we are, alhamdulillah. To have 2 beautiful kids within 3 years of marriage. Indeed we are blessed, and hopefully the kids are lucky too to have us as their parents.