MY FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING @ JAKARTA, INDONESIA

The 22nd Meeting of the Working Group on Data Sharing, Analysis, Dissemination, 

and Communication of ASEAN Statistics (WGDSA)

 

24-25 July 2024 at ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, Indonesia

Honored to represent Malaysia at my first (and alone) International Meeting. Alhamdulillah and thank you to my Superior (Puan Romiati), my Division Director (Puan Ezatul Nisha), and to our Chief Statistician (Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir) – also not to forget, my family for this opportunity. Looking forward to more International engagements in the future. InsyaAllah.

ANUGERAH PERKHIDMATAN CEMERLANG (APC) 2023

 

Alhamdulillah. After 5 years of sweat and tears, i finally received the Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang (APC) 2023. To those who not know, APC is an award given in Malaysia to recognize and honor government servants for their excellent service. You did not get this kind of award often. Generally, one will receive like once every 3-10 years depending on their performance at work. And yeah, 2023 was my year to finally be awarded with this. 

My profound gratitude goes to my family and my BKS, DOSM team. It will be a lie if i said that i never expect to receive this APC. APC is like one of my goals while being a government servant. This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the tremendous support from my family and excellent efforts from everyone in my team. To many more APCs and other accomplishments of us in the future. 

Next goal: Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP). InsyaAllah. 

DUN SARAWAK BUILDING FROM EVERY ANGLE POSSIBLE (INCLUDING ME)

It's always an exciting time to see your friends especially the closed ones getting married. And for this time around, thanks to Muliani for inviting us to Kuching, Sarawak for her wedding. This was my first time going to Sarawak and i loved every bit of it. I don't often go out with colleagues from work, but i'm really glad we did this time.

Barakallah Muliani & Hubby! May your wedding day be the start of a lifetime filled with love, joy, and countless blessings. Wishing you both a beautiful journey ahead together till Jannah. Congratulations on your special day! 

MY FAVORITE LYRICS: THE ERAS TOUR SETLIST VERSION

In honour of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (TTPD) coming out tomorrow, here I compiled my favorite lyrics that are close to my heart from Taylor Swift songs: The Eras Tour Setlist version. I just had to do this before we move on to the black-and-white, break up album; TTPD :')

“If I was out flashing my dollars, I'd be a bitch not a baller. They paint me out to be bad, So it's okay that I'm mad” – The Man

“All's well that ends well to end up with you” – Lover 

“In this moment now capture it, remember it” – Fearless 

“I should've asked you questions. I should've asked you how to be. Asked you to write it down for me. Should've kept every grocery store receipt cause every scrap of you would be taken from me” – marjorie 

“But you'll find the real thing instead. She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred” – champagne problems

“I made you my temple, my mural, my sky. Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life” – tolerate it 

“You must like me for me” – Delicate

“For you, I would cross the line. I would waste my time” – Don’t Blame Me

“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time. Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time” – Look What You Made Me Do

“Long live all the mountains we moved. I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” – Long Live

“And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? Just between us, did the love affair maim you too? Cause in this city's barren cold. I still remember the first fall of snow and how it glistened as it fell. I remember it all too well” – All Too Well

“I persist and resist the temptation to ask you. If one thing had been different would everything be different today?” – the 1

“Who knows, if I never showed up, what could've been. There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen. I had a marvelous time ruining everything” - the last great american dynasty 

“Back when we were still changing for the better. Wanting was enough. For me, it was enough. To live for the hope of it all. Cancel plans just in case you'd call” – august 

“And you know damn well. For you, I would ruin myself. A million little times” – illicit affairs

“I didn't have it in myself to go with grace. Cause when I'd fight, you used to tell me I was brave” – my tears ricochet 

“And when we go crashing down, we come back every time” – Style 

“Cause darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream” – Blank Space

“Someday when you leave me. I bet these memories follow you around” – Wildest Dream

“And time can heal, but this won't. So if you come in my way, just don't” – Bad Blood

“And by morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean” - Clean

“I don't start it, but I can tell you how it ends. Don't get sad, get even” – Vigilante Shit

“Baby boy, I think I've been too good of a girl. Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve. I think it's time to teach some lessons” – Bejeweled 

“And the touch of a hand lit the fuse. Of a chain reaction of countermoves. To assess the equation of you. Checkmate, I couldn't lose” – Mastermind 

“Karma's gonna track you down. Step by step, from town to town. Sweet like justice, karma is a queen. Karma takes all my friends to the summit” – Karma 

MY MOST FAVORITE RAYA PHOTOS SO FAR

I've always wanted an intimate, adorable and full of happiness photo of me and my daughter to be captured. And to be honest, i already pictured a lot of poses in my mind but it never yet to become reality. But this year, Aqisya started to learn and love to ride on our back/ shoulder (piggyback) whenever we were sitting while she was standing on the bed. And i realized that every time she's on a piggyback ride, she will smile from ear to ear and laughing her heart out because she's just so happy about it. 

So this Raya, i asked my husband to take a photo of me with my baby while she's on my piggyback ride. And yeah, the results were just as good as i hope it to be. Aqisya was smiling so bright though she was actually does not even cooperate during the whole Raya photoshoot with the family. Haha. 

I already set this photo as the wallpaper of my phone and Aqisya's iPad. I might even frame this so i can see it on the wall everyday. To many more cute and lovely photos of us until the end of the time, Aqisya. Love, your Mommy who loves you so much.

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR @ SINGAPORE 2024

I always tell myself that I should go to at least 2 concerts to check my bucket list. That two are Taylor Swift and Blackpink concerts. And guess what, I got tickets to both concerts! I went to Blackpink concert on March 2023 and Taylor Swift on March 2024 which was very recently.

At first we were hoping for Taylor to come to Malaysia but of course she didn’t. So me and my best friend, Sarah decided to just go for it to Singapore (by hook or by crook haha). Singapore was the only stop for South East Asia meaning that all of us here, be it from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, etc, had to go to Singapore for The Eras Tour. There were 6 shows from 2nd - 9th March 2024 at the National Stadium.

We were not taking things for granted the moment we knew the tickets will be on sales. We searched high and low for the best ticketing service to secure our tickets. And we found @thiccshopMY on X (Twitter) which her success rate was quite high even with the previous Coldplay tickets. So yeah we hired her for only RM50 per ticket. Her name was Miha and she was very friendly and helpful. She even helped us joining the presales by opening an UOB Bank account. But unfortunately the queue was like 1 million people online and we didn’t secure any tickets directly on TicketmasterSG. Sobs. 

However, lucky for us and thanks to the Klook Package (we had to buy the tickets with a 4 or 5 stars hotel booking together). We get to secure our tickets (CAT4) as easy as ABC. The tickets were on sales at 12pm and I secured our tickets at 12.02pm (?) Out of the world! That even we were like, “is that it? are we really going?” haha. I saw so many people were in hard time to secure the tickets and even didn’t get any tickets in the end. Therefore, we’re just so grateful and so happy for this. 

We renewed our passports and bought our flight tickets to Singapore as early as possible. I think it was around like one week after we secured our concert tickets, we already done with our passports and booked our return flights. Haha. We were so excited though we were broke at the same time. Lol.

We went to Singapore for 3 days (3rd - 5th March). Our concert was on the 3rd March (2nd night). Singapore was very expensive due to our currency being quite weak at present. 1 Singapore Dollar was equal to RM3.50. Sobs. But we went there to have fun so yeah. We arrived at Changi Airport around 10am and filled our tummy with delicious biryani rice at Anjappar Restaurant. And then, we went to see the Jewel at Changi Airport with our own eyes, and we straightly go to check in at Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel via MRT. After we settled down at the hotel, we went to the National Stadium Singapore at around 3.30pm and entered the Stadium very early around 4.30pm. Haha. Please excuse us for being so excited and paranoid (the reason why we were so early) at the same time lol. 

So, the concert. 

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. 

How do I start to write about this core memory? 

(Sigh in post-concert excitement). 

The Eras Tour is not your average tour. I have gone to my fair share of concerts (I am very selective tbh, I didn’t just go to random concerts), but I have never had an experience as amazing as this one. The Eras Tour was legit something straight from my wildest dream that became a reality. Taylor’s performance was euphoric, spectacular, jaw-dropping and everything! I mean, I’m not even sure anything in life will ever compare to the feelings I had during the 3+ hours when Taylor Swift performed her heart out for us. The dancers were magnificent, the outfits were pieces of art, the lighting, choreography, the stage, trading friendship bracelets with fellow Swifties, the deep feelings to every line of the lyrics and all the little things I probably missed; all created the performance of a lifetime. 

That’s the beauty of The Eras Tour; there is a Taylor Swift for everyone. There is at least one song specially related to everyone. It was that night, at The Eras Tour, that I finally realized all along, there was an invisible string tying me to Taylor Swift until the end of the time. Damn. It was too good. Really.

To sum it up, The Eras Tour concert was an absolute blast! The energy, the music, the whole vibe, it was all just amazing. As we left the venue, still buzzing from the experience, i swear that Taylor Swift is a true superstar and seeing her live was something we’ll never forget! I really wish to see her again in the future if God didn't forbid. 

Since we were already in Singapore, and what it is that Singapore has but Malaysia doesn’t? It’s the Universal Studios Singapore (USS)! Haha. I never went to USS in my whole life so yeah this was the perfect time to go. We bought the ticket pass also on Klook that cost us RM302 per ticket. I was thinking on purchasing the express pass at first, but the express pass was also cost around RM300 which to me was not worth our money since we were not planning to ride on every single attraction there. So yeah. Let’s spend the money on foods instead haha.

Our initial plan was to go to USS very early in the morning after our breakfast at the hotel. But since we didn’t eat our breakfast because it was served at a non-halal restaurant in the hotel. And we were also spending our sweet time on bed watching all The Eras Tour videos, so we checked out from our hotel at 12pm and arrived at USS around 2pm.

Thank God it was Monday so it was not as crowded as we fear it will be. The queue for the rides were also ok and acceptable to our timing. I loved all the quality time we had together there, and I enjoyed the rides as well especially the Transformers ride which had me a bit spellbound. And we also bought all of our souvenirs for our families here in USS. 

Alhamdulillah everything went very smoothly for both of us since we arrived in Singapore. During our final night, before we went back to the airport to rest and wait for the early morning flight, we even went to the Merlion Park to see the iconic lion-mermaid of Singapore. Haha. We were very tired but we’re happy and that’s everything.  

However, as a wise man once said; you cannot claim you best days without a hint of some worst parts in it. And here comes the worst part (drum rolls): we missed our back-to-Malaysia flight. Sobs.

It was so stupid and funny at the same time because we arrived at Changi Airport so early like around 11pm and our flight was in the next morning at around 7am. We had our dinner, embracing our sweet final moments at Changi Airport and even fell asleep there. At around 5am, we already checked in our luggage and passed the custom security check. It was still very early hence no gate was assigned yet at that time. So Sarah fell asleep again and I was going from shop to shop inside the departure area.

I think it was around 6.30am that we both were already freshen up but I told Sarah that our flight was at 7.35am at Gate 10 so let’s sit and have a chat for a while. So we sit, eating $3.50 croissants, talk about random things and went to the toilet and everything. Because we thought we were early. Damn.

And when we arrived at our gate, the gate was already closed! That’s when we realized we were being dumb all this while. I thought 7.35am was the boarding time but it was actually the departure time! This was the part when we both got panicked and even got into a little fight with each other because of the pressure we created ourselves since we were not trying to be calm at all. Haha.

But alhamdulillah, we got home with the next flight at 12.10pm. Thanks to Sarah’s credit card. Lol. This mistake costs us around RM1k each sobs. Moral of the story; always double check when is your boarding time and when is you departure time!  Because it can cost you loads of money if you read the time wrongly. Sigh.

Overall, thanks to this experience, this trip will definitely be a core memory to us both. And we will remember this every time we travel with airplanes. Haha. Alhamdulillah for everything. I hope we get to do this often. InsyaAllah.

NEW YEAR, SAME ME

It's typically at this time of the year, people will set new or resume their one-year resolutions and goals (obviously). But as for me, for this new year 2024, as i will be 31, i don't fancy finding a new me anymore. Because i don't want to pressure on myself with big things (at least for now). 

I realized that being a grown up, being a mother, we will always have a mandatory, never ending to-do-list everyday. We have a lot on our plate all day but we never really feel 100% satisfied or happy with our days. At the same time, i already achieved so much in the last 10 years (Alhamdulillah). 

But still, that doesn't mean that i didn't set any plans for 2024. It's just that, life seems to go so fast hence this year, i want to try to live in the moment by worrying less for things that are beyond my control, appreciate more on what i have, spend more time with people that matter and be true to myself at all time. So, here's to a new year and the same old me (but better). InsyaAllah. 

Oh Allah, please bring this year of 2024 upon us with faith, happiness, prosperity, safety, security, protection from the devil, Your pleasure and endless blessings. Amin YRA.