Inspiring moments

I met 3 interesting and inspiring enterpreneurs today.M is from Cambridge, Ir Dr. F is local but was trained in NZ and then Oz.Wht a coincidence!Prof B is from London.I hope the workshop we hope to do together will work out.

Pelik juga how they are connected but they are strangers to one another.I came out feeling motivated and stronger.These successful people said they'd had more failures than successes before making their first million.Ahhh..wht a feeling.Dr Alizi and Dr Harris were laughing at my CERDAS stories over lunch.Prof B pun tompang sekaki.Haha.Mmg funny.

And I found a tukang urut who urut the hell out of me..sakit bukan sedikit but we agreed to meet again.:)

I enjoyed listening to Mehboob's talk and even more listening to Dr Fauzi's stories abt how he began until he gets to be so big (people travel from all over the world to learn from him and his org)

I can only say alhamdullilah that I had the opportunity to meet and know these people closeup.

Breaking news

a lot! a lot!

1.The new Manager is here.Trained as an engineer and has an MBA.I pray to God he will stay a couple of years with us.

2.Auditors came to report on their findings.We agreed the balance sheet/s prepared earlier were faulty (I warned them at the beginning).The new Manager and CERDAS team will revise and send a more accurate one.

3. All our progs made the profit of range 30% -72%.I have spoken with my Dean to regularise some events (to be parked under CERDAS.It's so easy to make money then).

4. Some chilly sauce has caused ripples.Haha.

5. Gimme projects with dough!

6.March and April: busy months with visitors from all over, London New York Manila Adelaide etc.Wough, fening.

kaboom!

and I have changed someone in the household into a rabbit! (Tanjung pulak hilang sejak semalam and I am so upset)

Don't wanna talk about it.

All day meeting with the SBU gang (we planned for a get together soon..Prof Ismail ajak durian party...I pretended to like it sebab semua org excited.hahaha...I don't like durian that it has become a family joke..on both sides..my family and Nik's cos' everyone is crazy about durian.)

CERDAS is still a pauper in comparison with the rest (told Prof Faris..nasib tak negatip..yang lain tu sibuk suruh kita bayar cukai 30% tu..haha..5 years tax-free OK?).A couple of SBUs have joined the millionaires' club. The new Manager dropped by semalam and today and seemed to have lots of ideas already.We can only pray that it would be a good year this year.

Petang : dropped by to listen to a panel discussion on the Arab Spring. Interesting juga.Told them to read Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion.

A group of visitors from Yogyakarta (funny lot). One thot I was in PR, for passionately promoting IIUM. :))
Topics: Anies Baswedan, impact of reformasi, expanding middle class in Indonesia (yuppies), dev of arts, films and literature.I find it much more interesting having conversations wih Indonesian academics than say Msian academics. Muahaha..jgn marah!

Tersenyum sorang2 berjalan balik ke kulliyyah (the group was teasing me and I nak tergelak over a remark made by one of them :I am proud of IIUM") dan tiba2 Ali Adoun muncul siap bertali leher!

How long has it been? 2008? 2009? (some get-together with the family every now and then but last year, very rare).Biasalah Ali (who'd go..wallahi..no Prof Faridah, no alumni...hahaha) Tadi pun...we were discussing the Arab Spring.I shared with him my thots.He went wallahi ...you are right...wallahi I miss talking with you. :))

And this is how I become a passionate spokesperson of IIUM...

nb. Teja came back this morning.Bibik recited yassin 3 kali for her return.May Allah give peace to Bibik.

Post Spore trip

Wough, the whole trip was tiring.Midnite flight to KL.I got Nik to pick me up (tak larat nak mengangkut luggage turun naik train to KL Sentral.Lucky besoknya Saturday).

Besoknya: I could barely pick myself up.Rang up my Arabic teacher, telling him I'd be late.Penat woh. Dah la tak sempat buat homework, teacher buat lawak pulak and asked us to buat ayat in Arabic cerita balik lawak dia. I tried buat shortcut...tak jalan.

I thought tahun ni punya conference tak seseronok the first one I attended.Kirp was so kind to introduce me to the conference masa Kanika and team nak present their Krash Pad project (which impressed most at the conference.I had the Msian Deputy High Commisioner, an academic from Melbourne coming to me and wanting more collaborations.Good for the kids at Krash Pad and Kanika and team.We didn't expect the project to snowball like this.Syukurlah)

There were new faces and new sessions which I did enjoy.Marina Mahathir's keynote on Islam and Feminism was good, I thought (dia takda la sentuh benda2 sensitif in her address e.g safe sex pakai condom even for Muslims).

Hani (a new friend, lecturer, film maker, activist) showed us horrific short films about women trafficking and forest brothels in Spore.Rasa nak marah lah bila tengok mcm tu.The law makers bukan nak bertindak.Authorities yang patut protect, buat apa je?

I had to leave early but plan to return for the Broadway show playing till April.Wicked!(nama musical ni)

Back in Singapore

This is my New York of the East. :)

Got in very late tadi (I malas nak kensel class). There's a new boy in town dari England in my Master's class.Orang putih Muslim.He's a History major tapi entah macamana nak join my Renaissance class.Mula2 my students termalu2 but lama2 mcm biasa. Budak Thomas ni pun OK.Byk ilmu dia which we can tap also like the ancient Egyptians dah lama pandai bercukur so Tun Mahathir was wrong to say the Prophet (pbuh) tak bercukur sebab takda gillette masa tu.

Datin Seri Marina Mahathir will be the conference's keynote besok.But I'm looking fwd to attending workshop percuma on management...(I was told I boleh attend percuma....haha..me cheapskate!) Malam kita dine at Swiss restaurant.Jangan jeles....

I'll update my findings.Watch this space.