Study Leave.

The Bursa Saham of Malaysia has reached the highest level ever in its entire history. As an investor, this is certainly one of the phenominal periods in my life, (the other being post-menopause! he,he,he.....)

I am currently going back to the books to sharpen my skill. Hope it is not too late to relearn something new.

With a maximum exposure to the ticker while trying to figure out the works of black and white candles (instead of the usual aromatic ones), and battling hot flushes at the same time, I will have to take some time off from blogging.

Meanwhile, stay safe, my friends.

Stressed Out

I have put myself in a pressure cooker and need time to disentangle my current position.


Pics, thanks to Salvatore Dali

Ka-Ching $$$$

Ever since he knew what money can do, Imran has always wanted to be a 'Property Manager'.

Perhaps because he saw how much fun there is in collecting the monthly rental income from the properties.
He thought that all those rolls of dough is to be spent on whatever he wishes, after all, there will be more coming in the next month!

He has not been exposed to the capital recovery, maintenance costs, tax payable, tenant harassment, etc..

He aspires to be like Donald Trump. He reads some of The Donald's books on my bookshelf.

Imran already has some basic ideas on how to develop my existing land bank.
Yesterday he asked "How do I get money to build real estates, mama?"

I told him that most of my properties are compliments from the stock market.

Imran: How do I get my hands on it, too?
mama: You can start by either trading as an investor, becoming a remisier or a stock broker....
Imran: What's the Bursa Saham thingy?
mama: That's a place where all traded stocks are listed.
Imran: How do I get them into my stock broking firm to enable my clients to sell and buy?
mama: There is this thing called a CDS account.
Imran: What can a CDS account do?

Aaiyo, Imran, go read the book on 'Pasaran Saham Malaysia' at the study room.

Imran: I've read it. Whatever term I don't understand, I looked it up at the glossary, I was confused with even more terms used to explain it in the first place ...

mama: never mind, go take your PMR exam first, then SPM, then A level, then do a degree in perhaps 'Financial Engineering', then only think about making big money on your own!!!..

I was wondering whatever happens to all the easy, frequently asked questions posed by children his age, once upon a time? ...
And why can't they just be happy with a 'Harry Potter' instead? ...

.

14 years ago, it didn't make any difference whether it was a resort or just a sink full of water!

8As, it was!

Ikram managed 8As in his SPM examination result..

We were invited to the announcement of the exam result event last Monday at the school's hall, and I can say that it was a nerve wrecking experience for both parents and students.

After the occassion was over, Ikram hugged me and apologized for the less than perfect set of results.

Ikram: I'm sorry mama!

Both papa and me shed tears, not because we were disappointed in him, but we realised that he really tried so hard for our sake!

I told Ikram that I'm really happy with his achievement. I suppose that's the best of his ability, especially I know how much effort he had put into it.

Since then, we have done some research, discussing with a few student advisors from various colleges and Universities. We have decided to support whatever that is Ikram plans to do next.

Next Monday, Ikram will start his life as a student doing GCE A level (pre-Med) at Taylor's University College.
We pray hard that in 18months, Ikram will qualify to pursue his studies in Medicine at the International Medical University (IMU) in Kuala Lumpur.
That's the road map for him to focus on for the time being.
This time it's for his own sake.

Congratulations Ikram!
And thank you teachers and tutors who have guided Ikram along the right direction..

Kong-Fu-Wa

The fact that I've always been mistaken for a chinese girl is not something new.

I remember as a young teenager, while taking a bus from Simpang Pertang where my father used to work, to the town of Kuala Pilah, the bus conductors often amused me with:
'lei heui pin-to?'
(where are you going?)

I usually ignore them, or, if insisted for an answer, I will embarrasingly say I don't understand chinese.

Over the years, I encountered a few more misunderstandings, that I made a conscious decision to join an adult cantonese class in the evening after office hours.

As adults, the first few words that we learnt were naturally either bad ones or how to curse and swear at other people.
The lou-si (teacher) usually obliged.
I have quite a vocabulary of them, however, my all time favourite is still that single Tamil quote.

Scenes from our hillarious cantonese class sometimes went like this:

lou-si: 'Ceng man, nei kiu mi ye meng?
(may I ask, what is your name?)
student: Ngo hai Ahmad.
(my name is Ahmad.)
lou-si: 'yi-ka, nei mhou sam?
(right now, you are not very happy?)
student: 'lou-si,toi-m-cui, ngo msyui fook'
(sorry teacher, I'm not feeling well)
lou-si: 'lei yau heui tai yee-sang?
(have you gone to see the doctor?)
student: mei, ngo hai keng par tar djam!
(not yet, I'm scared of big needle!)

Lou-si was so happy that her student could string simple sentences out of some words learnt in class that day and turned to another lady.

lou-si: 'Aminah, nei hau mah?'
(Aminah, how are you?)
student: 'Hou, yau sam.'
(I'm well, thank you)
lou-si: 'Nei hai kit mkit fan? Kei to sai lo kor?'
(Are you married? How many children have you?)
student: 'ngo mkit fan cor..myau sai lo kor'
(I'm not married yet..., don't have any children)
lou-si: 'tim kai nei mkit fan'?
(why have you not gotten married ?)
student: 'ngo hou keng par tar djam'!!
(I'm so scared of the big needle!!)

Although our answers sometimes caused red faces, lou-si was happy nevertheless that we could be innovative with whatever few words that we could remember.

Of course now that I go around wearing the tudung, no one speaks to me in cantonese anymore.
As a result, I've forgotten (mkei tak cor) most of what I've learnt.

However, I could miserably practise my dribblet of kong-fu-wa at the night market by asking:
'sin saang, ceng man, niko kei to lui?'
(Mr., may I ask, how much is this one?).
The usually enlightened hawker will say:
'wah, nei sik kong kong-fu wa!!!'
(wah, you can speak cantonese!!!)
mama irma: 'ngo sik kong siu-siu lor....'
(I can speak only a little bit lah...)

With that, I never failed to get a spontaneous discount , no matter how small, from the night market hawker..

The mistaken identity

Last Sunday, I went to Sg.Buloh with papa.

One can really get oneself lost at the nurseries of Sg.Buloh.
The plants sold there are dead cheap, up to 50% lower than the prices sold elsewhere.

Kumar, the gardener, had just cleared a large patch of a heliconia colony at the side of the garden facing my dining area.
I've decided to replace them with aromatic flowering plants.

So, I was there at my favourite "lengcai's" nursery again, collecting the 'kesidang', 'kemuning', 4 varieties of 'gardenia' , 'jasmine' and 'lady of the night' . I've purchased huge plants of 'Bunga Tanjong' and 'Kenanga' from him last month and hillariously sat on one of the branches in the car on our way home for lack of space.

By the time the "lengcai" (handsome boy) finished arranging the plants in the CRV, papa's car transformed into a perfumed garden.

I came across and excitedly bought a very beautiful and intricate 'teratai bali' with leaves interestingly arranged in an array of colourful mosaics, which needed to be placed in a pot of water. Papa was obliging enough to make another stop at the pottery seller.

I returned to the packed car later with a pretty sandstone pot, cursing the salesgirl.
Papa asked why the sour face.

mama: cilaka budak yang jual tu, I asked for a discount, she said 'tak boleh lah ahmoi!'
papa: You should be pleased that she called you ahmoi, what if she addressed you as 'ahsoh'??
mama: 'mou kow cor!' (don't try to be funny!) ,I would have pretended to accidentally drop the pot and left! ha,ha,ha...
.








The beautiful cluster of teratai bali's leaves.

The Red Carpet.

The Malaysian investors at Bursa saham today experienced exiting the red carpet of a different kind...

There was a blood bath on the trading floor, with everyone seeing RED!!.

At the close today,the CI dived 35.8points down, with 1123 counters turning red as compared to only 42 counters remained in the green, bucking the trend.

Congratulations and clap, clap, clap to those who managed not to cry today.
I am one of them, not because I don't lose money together with the crowd, but I've experienced this aftermath once too often.

Just last week, everything looked nice and full of potential.
Lots of stories about investors wanting to quit their fulltime job for easy cash from trading in the equity market.
I have no advice to offer, other than shaking my head.

However, the uptrend gave me the long awaited chance to clear most of the stale bull in my stead.
My portfolio no longer looks like a railway track and I was so very pleased with it.
Unfortunately, with the lower prices, I began to shop around this morning, nibbling here and there, for a good pick.
But the market went down and down and even further down....
I remember Ben's advice not to catch a falling dagger, so I stopped shopping slightly before lunch break.
The onslaught, however, continued until the market closed at 5pm.
That must be the longest trading hour for some investors today.

Just last night I asked papa if he wanted to invest in a counter.
I've done a lot of research on it, and full of certainty that it will be the star counter of 2007.

Papa said he has some RM50K of petty cash stashed somewhere, if it's OK for him to join the fun.
Thank God you are not in yet, papa,
or else your petty cash will by now become pitty cash....
(slap forehead and try to let out that not-so-funny laughter...)

Tudungs and Such.

Like most ladies my age, I was not brought up as a naturally tudung wearer.

We didn't go to school wearing the compulsory white scarf as they do now for all muslim students in the public schools in our country.
In fact, we were happily trodding the corridors of our school in mini skirts uniform, and white shorts for PE classes.

If I remember, the serious tudung wearing in our community only started when I was in form 2 in 1971, when Rafiqah's sister, who was our senior, went to further her studies at UPM and came to visit us at school donning one.
Those days, it was classified as joining the Dakwah and one is thought of as being a follower of an extremist group if you go around with your head covered.

Of course now, time, perceptions and the span of our religious knowledge have changed.

The decision to start covering up was not made without a prolonged debate with myself.
There were lots of skirts to discard.
And the short sleeved blouses will be such a huge waste....

Until one day when I was waiting for Imran outside the school, his very young friend at standard two asked:
Kenapa mak awak tak pakai tudung?
Imran asked me how to answer him?
I didn't have any plausible excuse worthy to be understood by an 8year old!

Later, I went for an umrah trip, got used to covering up for 2 weeks whilst there, and it gave me the best opportunity to continuously wear the tudung from then on.

Since tudung has been a part of my costume, it has become easier for the hubby and my sisters and my friends to get me a gift whenever they travel abroad.

The collection multiplied faster than a pair of hamsters.How do you store them?

A friend told me that she hang them around an unused lamp shade, which doubled as an interior decor. But then I'll need a lot of them all over the dressing area.

I tried to clip the same coloured scarves on to a hanger, but they are so difficult to be retrieved and chosen from whenever I need to use one.
Papa once brought me to the hawkers' street at Jalan Tuanku Abd. Rahman where there were many tudung sellers.

They hang their wares around a circular metal stand.
Papa wanted to get me one but I thought it would look horrendous at home!


For the moment I've solved the problem by using this canvas shelf which I bought from IKEA.
It comes with a velcro top which you can strap to the wardrobe's metal bar where we hang our other clothes, and a covered box at the bottom where we can keep those nice chiffon beaded and drycleanable scarves out of sight and protected from dust..
























Of course I have to be very disciplined in storing each piece back after wearing one. And I better not be in such a big hurry in the morning, or else the whole organized work, according to hue and colour will turn out to be like this after a week......






















Well, actually my shelves did look as chaotic as the picture above, before I sweatingly sort them out in one whole hour yesterday..

I had a dream.

Last night, my grandma who has left us last Ramadhan came and visit me in my dream.

It was so vivid and so real.

The moment I saw her, I went and hugged her hard and reminded her that we have not met for about 3 months.
She looked fine, standing upright and without the pain which she was having before she passed on.

I asked her how it was to be staying at the other side of the wall.
She told me she is doing OK.
I asked too whether she was harrased in any way by the Angels. Grandma confirmed there was no such experience. She managed.

I remembered telling myself in the dream that it was perhaps because grandma was such a very nice lady when she was alive. She never hurt anybody's feelings, never forget her prayers and always willing to help.

She told me that her daughter, whom we called Acik, is now looking after her. Acik passed away in 1996 . Acik's husband who died in 1997 is also there with her.

I asked if she has met my dad.
She said she had. Infact my dad was the first to wait and welcomed her in the alam barzakh.
I thought I saw my dad's shadow there in a distance with grandma.

I cried and asked that she send my salam to my beloved dad and to inform him that I still miss him badly.

Grandma told me not to worry as everybody is alright except my dad is a little disturbed by a knowledge that a certain relative is currently in trouble. That's so like my dad. He was always so concern of everyone when he was alive. She mentioned a name.

I must remember to call my mum today to find out if that person is alright.


Al-Fatihah to all our dearly departed.

Passport Photo.

I have yet to hear someone says that she is happy with how she looks in a passport-sized photograph!

If it comes from any of my daughters, it will be either
'hiii, teruknya, tembamnyer!, or
'why is my one eye bigger than the other'?, or
'yikes, why do I look like Bibik?!!, or
'OMG, benci lah, buruknyer!!!.....

papa: dah rupa hang macam tu, nak tukarq jadi lagu mana pulak??!!...

I was planning to travel during the Chinese New Year weekend holiday when papa alerted me that my passport is valid for another 5months only.
Alamak, got to go to the Immigration office to renew it.
Worse still, I'll have to go and pose for a new passport-sized photograph.

In an effort to minimise the trauma, I first went for a facial treatment, hoping that the wrinkles will temporarily disappear.
Alas, 2 mini pimples appeared the very next day.

After trying to do some magic infront of the mirror, I drove to my favourite Fotoshop near my office yesterday.

Eric the photographer, told me that my beautiful silk scarf can't be featured in a passport .
'It has to be black, kak!'

Aiya Eric, I was hoping that the flowery scarf will camouflage my face!

Eric offered a black pasar malam scarf used at his studio.

I spent a few minutes trying to put the rough scarf on top of my head and cover the sides of the droopy cheek. It didn't do too well, but I was lazy to drive home and get a better black scarf.

After giving unsolicited instructions to the patient Eric on 'not too bright, not too close, try to make it blurr',
'Let's see how your smile turns out, kak'!

We took a look at the result on the computer screen and I wanted to hide under the studio bench.

mama: Heavens, Eric, I don't look like I'm attending a funeral, I appear like I'm at MY own funeral!!

Eric promised that he'll do some touch up.
'When do you want to collect your photos, kak?'

mama: take as long as you need to make it 'appear' better, Eric!

Well, if all fails, I can always blame it on the black scarf!

Congratulations, Dilla!

I must congratulate my daughter Dilla for passing her Module D of the MICPA exam last session.

I knew it was very difficult for her to cope with work and continuing with her professional studies all at the same time, nevertheless, amidst sweat and tears she made it!!!

So, it's back to the grinding stone, so to speak, this March for the Module E.

After which there will still be the Module F!!!

Faster faster finish them all Dilla, so that you can start learning how to cook and do your own laundry, and clean your own room....
I think you need to know at least the basic stuff before you can attend the kursus perkahwinan next!!!!

Har,har,har.....

Cat and Mouse!

If I have not decided to complete my last month's account reconciliation today, I would have stayed in bed for another day !

Both papa and mama woke up blurry eyed this morning.
All because of our cat, Bella!

Last night, Bella came in through the balcony of our bedroom with a mouse in his mouth!

I was frantic and told Bella to throw that fella out into the garden.

But Bella had other ideas, he wanted to show his prized catch to ChiHua who was sitting pretty on my bed.

Soon I heard the both of them squatting under the 3-seater, discussing the poor creature placed in between them with their ouuow and eeaeaw....

Papa told the 2 of them to get out of our room, that's when Bella let slip the mouse who took the opportunity to quickly run for it's life.
Just imagine the commotion caused by 2 cats trying to catch a mouse in the room full of furniture, and my bed!.
They heard mama shouting with
'careful with my curtain!...
hey, my vase!!!...
No, not my lamp!!'...

Finally, the mouse managed to climb up the curtain railing and the cats gave up because they are just too plum to climb up as well.

Bella decided to take a break and curled up on my bed.
Papa took a clothes hanger and thrashed the mouse with it. It fell to the floor and ran towards the exercise machine with papa chasing after it.
Now it's Bella's turn to watch papa played with the mouse.
Papa had little success when the mouse headed straight under the bed with Bella having no more interest in it.....
It was already 12midnight when we managed to convince ourselves that we could catch some peaceful sleep with Bella on the bed and a mouse under it.

Alas, it was not to be, as at about 2a.m. we heard a loud thud from under the bed.
Bella caught the mouse and with it in his mouth jumped up and presented it to papa on the bed!
'Look papa, I caught the mouse for you'!!....

I shrieked and papa did a silat step.

Both Bella and ChiHua had the mouse in-between them to play again at the wee hour of the morning.

We went back to sleep with the door wide open.
we didn't find our 2 kids and their live toy in the room when we woke up with red eyes this morning.......
The maid said that they were at the garden.
I hope they have not turned someone into breakfast....
Uuurgh! I'm not kissing you today, Bella!!!

Try your luck

Kak Wati, the office cleaner, whispered softly to me while wiping my table this morning:

Boss, tahun 2007 ni Kak Wati tak di naikkan gaji?

Kak Wati spent 15 minutes daily in our office. Her daily chores include sweeping the floor, mopping the front office entrance, washing the toilet, clearing the rubbish and that's all.
Within 15 minutes she will disappear and continues her cleaning job at other offices within our office block.

mama: Kerja Kak Wati ada apa2 tambahan tahun ni?

silence.

mama: Kak Wati dah menepati KPI?

lagi panic, apemenda nya KPI tuh?

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs are used to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action. KPIs are frequently used to "value" difficult to measure activities such as the benefits of leadership development, engagement, service, and satisfaction.

Kak Wati must have thought kat Malaysia ni kalau kerja mop lantai dan nak mintak tambah gaji pun kena tahu KPI?

But Kak Wati's strategy is acquired only through her expertise in manouvering the broom, thus:

Tapi kawan2 Kak Wati yang kerja kat ofis lain semua dah naik gaji tahun ni.
Diorang kata kenapa Boss Kak Wati teruk sangat?

mama: Lain kali kalau orang kata Boss Kak Wati teruk, Kak Wati jawab Boss Kak Wati yang paling handal berniaga, dia tak suka bazir perbelanjaan kalau tiada faedah kepada syarikat!

Kak Wati dah kerja 10 tahun tau Boss!

mama: OK, sebab dah 10 tahun buat kerja yang sama, Kak Wati dah banyak kumpul duit dari syarikat saya. Jadi tahun ni gaji Kak Wati kena potong!

Kak Wati: Tak pe lah Boss, tak naik gaji pun tak aper, asalkan jangan potong....

Kak Wati keluar pintu dengan muncung yang memoncong. I better don't use the washroom today, it's very likely that it remained uncleaned this morning....

What's in a Name?

2 weeks ago, my Property Agent, Patrick came and sit infront of me in my office.

He saw my eyes were on the computer screen and knew what I was watching.

Patrick: MI, my friend told me to buy 'Satang'!

mama: What the heck is 'Satang'?

Patrick: He said the company obtained HUGE contract from the government!

The sucker that I usually am, automatically keyed in "Satang" on the search column and saw the stock being traded at RM1.14/RM1.15

mama: Contract with the government is one thing, can collect payment or not?

Patrick: If YOU don't believe in the government, who else will?

mama: I don't like the companies' name. I don't understand what it means!

When you are fully invested in a running market, you get very anxious and jittery, and tend to find every possible excuse not to commit to any new purchase unless you have the chance to switch.

Today the counter trades at RM1.55. The chart shows that it's at the verge of a breakout.
The Target Price?
I don't know.
I'm too shy to ask Patrick to ask his friend to ask his friend's friend to ask his friend's friend's friend.......

What does it mean?

It means that I've foregone the opportunity to gain 40sen profit which translates to RM400.00 per lot.
I usually keyed in my trade at a 10 lot basis,
It's a cool RM4,000.00 in 2 weeks, flushed down the sewer,

just because I don't like the name!

Only The Lonely.

I came home to a very quiet house last Saturday.

Imran had extra classes and decided to stay on for a group study at the library,
Ikram went out for lunch to celebrate a friend leaving for further studies in Australia,
Tasya was nowhere to be seen, perhaps out with a friend who came over from down South,
Dilla is at work (what else is new??).

Only the sound of the maid at the far back of the kitchen, kelentang kelentung, doing the laundry.

The only family member available was papa, doing his packing in the room. He was leaving for Medina the next day, fetching the last group of pilgrims coming back from the Haj trip this year.

Suddenly, I got a panic attack!!!

mama: papa, what is to happen to me if even YOU are no longer around? I'm so frighten! I don't want to live alone like my mother in her humongous house, doing nothing!!!....

I started to figure out what I should do:
-fire Kumar and do my own gardening, or
-collect as many stray cats as I possibly can and let them live in my house, or
-adopt abandoned babies to keep me occupied.

Somehow they all seem to be for the wrong reasons,

mama: papa, help!!!
what am I supposed to do if I don't have you as a companion anymore?
well, assuming that you will die first!..

papa: You can go to the mosque and pray for my soul!..and go visit my grave..

mama: Like dat? Life not so interesting anymore lor. In that case let me die first lah. I malas want to go and visit your grave!

What will you do then after I died?

papa: Ha,ha,ha... There's so much of new interesting things to do:
- **%^.....
- #@*!.......
- *&%^#......
-^%*$#!%^......
- *&^#$%&^........

items above are all censored in order to preserve my sanity!

OK, OK, I've changed my mind about volunteering to die first!
I will compile my new to-do list later.

S.O.S

Imran reminded us over dinner last night that February is fast coming.

papa: Huh?!? So???..

Imran: Don't you remember what happens on the 23rd??..

papa: What will happen?

Imran: It's MY birthday!!!!

papa: So, it's your birthday, what about it?

Imran: We are supposed to celebrate the one and only special day in the entire calender of the year!!

papa: I thought mama should be celebrating as on that day 15 years ago, she was done carrying you in her tummy!

Imran: It's mama's happy day too.

papa: But you have no idea how much pain she went through. We should be buying presents for the mother on our birthdays!!!

Imran: But mama doesn't want anything on my birthday. Besides, she already is happy enough to have a son like me!! I brought her a lot of joy and happiness....
(I am so used to this kind of emotional manipulation, after all, my career as a mother spans over the past 25 years...)

mama: what do YOU want, Imran?

Imran: I'll e-mail it to you tonight. Thanks, mama!











What in the technological world is this????






.

Deja Vu

I read with trepidation a comment made by a young investor (I assume he/she is young) in a comment box of a blogger that 'he has made enormous amount of money in the stockmarket lately that he found it foolish to work for a living'.

Careful there, mate!
Been there, done that....

It was such a euphoric atmosphere back then at the end of 1993 when no one seemed to be interested to work. The telephone switchbox at the office was jammed up by outgoing calls to the designated line by Telekom to check the price quotes of shares traded at the stock market. Everyone talked about the share market. The fishmonger, the taxi driver...Even Lat came out with a cartoon of a lady about to give birth to her baby, but was still busy on the phone giving instructions to her remisier.

I don't envy anyone, as I too made my first million during that period.

It is said that when everyone talks about how easy it is to pick up cash from the stockmarket, it is the time to get the hell out of there, before it is too late, before you get burnt to ashes together with the rest..

It took only a short Finance Minister at that time to come out with a statement that he bought shares in the stockmarket only for his coffee money, that the whole market came tumbling down from it's peak, in January 1994. It went down and down and made severely worse by the regional financial meltdown in July 1997. Almost everyone lost money. It was a matter of whether you lost some or you lost all, together with your CD handbags and Ferragamo shoes..

Last night Papa asked: where are you now?

mama: I'm on the first step of a runaway train.

papa: why so?

mama: In the event that the train is about to runover a small stone on it's track, I'll be the first to jump out!!!
I'll catch the train again later when it is safer.

papa: stay safe, mama!

mama: we'll do. Pray to God, you ain't gonna see me do a repeat of the folly of 10years ago.

A First New Year's Posting.

So, eleven days into the new year and I've not put up any postings yet!

I better get started with at least one, before I get booted out of Kak Teh's listing at the Sentralstation...

I was trying to remain insanely focussed on my stockmarket trading due to a certain conviction, that whatever profit I make in this first month of 2007 will go towards the Malaysian flood victim's fund. I have been reading up enormous amount of texts during the end-of-year break, resulting in my back and forth strategy to corner the market.
I might as well made known to Tauke Saham Chap Ayam, Wise Ben, and Zen Trader that I've been snooping at their blogs too for assurance.

Meanwhile, I missed the opportunity to gossip about Dilla who is having a tough time in her career as an auditor. Auditors are an abused lot at the end-of-the-year peak period, and it so happened that this time it coincided with the Hari Raya Haji as well.

She was supervising the stock taking of mozarella cheese at Dom*n* on New Year's eve.
Bluek!
She vow to never eat Dom*n* pizzas again for as long as she can still remember the smell....
Poor girl.
And she had to be there in person to acknowledge among others, the number of fresh sharks' fins stock at an Internationally owned 5* Hotel on Hari Raya Haji!!..

Dilla: mama, they came in that triangular shaped fin, simply cut off from a live shark! How could we eat them.....

Great, give her some more stock taking duties, and my pencilthin daughter will soon convert to be a full pledged vegetarian.
And in no time she will be reduced to the size of a taugeh!

It's OK Dilla, you won't have to do all those 'back breaking' assignments anymore once you become a partner of the firm in 3 years' time,

Cannot, meh?!
Menager osso cannot?!
Aiseh, die lar like this!
gotto continue counting belacan, lor!..(in your mng suit and coach handbag???)....