MOHE Briefing

All good things must come to an end. I am not sure if working with company X is entirely a good thing for me but it certainly is coming to an end. But before the end is here, I was sent to attend MOHE's briefing on student data collection at PICC yesterday. The session was specifically held for all private higher learning institutions. Last year they did it according to zones and I attended the one for the east coast zone which was held in Terengganu. Due to financial reason the Ministry has decided to do it annually at PICC only.

In the letter of invitation, it was stated that the session would start at 8.30 am and end at 5.00 pm. The driver picked me up at 5.30 am and we raced to KL in the darkness of the dawn. As expected we were stuck in a jam at 3 places along the highway between Ampang and Cheras. The driver was not happy with the jam because he didn't want me to be late. Surprisingly I was more relax probably because I had a hunch that the organizing committee would serve breakfast first and I was also confident that I was not the only one to arrive late.

Sure enough, when I arrived around 9 am, every body was still enjoying food in the lobby and I was told that the briefing would start at 10 am. Well, patience is always a good virtue. Since I was starving, I helped myself with a plate of fried rice noodles and lots of fruits.

The first session was quite interesting and many participants asked questions at the end of it. Then all of us adjourned to the next ball-room for lunch at 12.30 pm. The letter said the lunch break would be from 1 to 2.30 pm but it was changed to 12.30 to 2 pm instead. I am not sure whether the second speaker was boring, or I was too full, or I was just sleepy because of starting the journey so early, I really had trouble keeping my eyes opened through out the afternoon session. I wonder if anyone noticed me nodding many times. Finally at 2.45 pm the briefing session was over. Guess what? There was more food! Many people die due to starvation around the world but in Malaysia people die due to the opposite reason.

Since I was still full from eating lunch, I remained seated in the hall with a few others in the row behind me. A few minutes later a guy who looked like a technician at PICC told us to go ahead and take the fressh flowers which were used to decorate the stage. He said " If they are taken, they will be thrown away". I thought the Ministry had financial shortage but why such wastful thing to do. They were beautiful peach colored roses and yellow daises. I took 6 stems of the roses home and they are in my kitchen at the moment.

Since I thought I would be ready at 5 pm, I told the driver to go to wherever he wanted to go as long as he came back by 4.30. He decided to go to our HQ in Cheras and I had to wait for an hour or so for him to get me. It was not too bad because I had a chance to talk to my colleague from different branches. It was raining really hard on the way home but thank God we arrived safely in Kuantan around 7.30 pm.

Exam Workshops

Usually workshops for final exam preparation would be held in KL due to its central location. However, this time around it was held in Kuantan, at the Grand Continental Hotel from March 5 until March 7. Between 60 and 70 lecturers were involved and I was selected as one of the secretariat members. The schedule was packed, from 8.30am until 11 pm, with short breaks in between. I thought of commuting from home to the hotel for the 3 days it was held, but it was kind of silly because KPTM provided us with rooms. It was such a torture looking at the refreshing and inviting swimming pool which was right outside of our workshop hall! Below are pictures of some of the participants. Any faces which are familiar to you?

Workshop at DePalma

Anis, Dilla, Che Wan, and myself attended a 4-day workshop at DePalma Hotel in Ampang from 14 to 17 January. Each KPTM branch sent 4 or 5 representatives except for KL because the organizers and the facilitators were from KL. Like the previous one we had at Chempaka, the schedule for this workshop was packed also - from 8.30 in the morning until 11.00 at night. By the the 4th day, all of us were so eager to leave and get back to our loved ones. However, it was great to see some familiar faces again.

Below are the pictures of some of the participants.

ISO Workshop

The View from my hotel room

Some of the participants

Last week I was sent to KL with 3 other staff to attend a workshop on ISO at Hotel Seri Cempaka. We left the College on Monday around 8.30am. We were supposed to check into the hotel at 3pm but we had to go earlier because 2 other staff were assigned to send exam scripts to UiTM Jengka and Shah Alam. On the way to KL we had to detour to Jengka and our friend Rahman (one of the lecturers) was generous enough to treat us for breakfast. Thanks Rahman. We arrived at the hotel just a few minutes past 1pm. Since the first slot (a simple briefing to all participants) was scheduled for 4.30pm, Dilla and Ruzlina invited me to go "throw" some money at Jaya Jusco. I am not a shopper by nature but I ended buying a pair of sandals because they were on sale and are so comfortable to put on.

The schedule for the workshop was so tight. We were cooped up in a room from 8am to 10.30pm with a few breaks here and there! After 3 days of writing, reading, and editing the necessary produres, we were ready to hit the road back to Kuantan. The workshop was over around lunch time on Wednesday (18 Nov) but we couldn't leave until after 5pm! We had to wait for our accountant who was attending a meeting at our HQ. We had to do something or the waiting would be so unbearable [:)]. Ruzlina, Dilla, and I went to Tesco to "throw" some more money (which we didn't have! hahaha). I bought some locally made chocolates ( which were quite tasty) for my kids and 2 books: "Travelog Dakwah" by Prof. Kamil Ibrahim and the Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

Writing Travel Pieces Workshop

I would love to be a writer someday. When I saw an advertisement in the NST about the workshop called Writing Travel Pieces, I signed up to attend. The workshop was conducted for 2 days, on July 4 and 5. There were 39 aspiring writers who attended the session. We were lucky to have a very knowledgeable and experienced facilitator named Padma. The guess speaker was Putri Zanina. There was an article written on the workshop in the Monday NST.

An NST article written about the workshop (Monday July 6)

The first day we covered the following topics:

• What it takes to be a travel writer,
• Writing travel stories
• Tips on effective travel writing,
• Travel photography,
• Getting published, and
• What editors look for in articles

A field trip to China Town was scheduled for the second day and we got to choose one of the three subjects to write on: the Central Market (CM), shop houses near or around Central Market, or the Sze Ya Temple. We were paired together to work on the assignment and my partner was Maimun, a lady from Johore.

We took lots of pictures, observed the activities in and around CM, and interviewed a few shop owners. I took the opportunity to visit the Temple although I was not writing about it. It was a really nice experience because that was the first time I entered a Buddhist temple.
The field trip lasted for 3 hours. When we got back to the “class room” we had to produce our story based on what we have learned. The stress level was high. It felt like I was taking an exam! We were given a certificate of attendance before we took a group photo.

We gained a lot of knowledge and useful tips on writing travel pieces but my most favorite tips are “leave your temper at home and take your sense of humor with you” when we go traveling. We were also told to “fire on our five senses – sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound” in order to be a great writer. As usual it was hard to say goodbyes to all my newly acquainted writers wannabes. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. I have contacted a few of them, some responded and others kept silent. Oh well, I guess they are busy with other things, or they were out of credits.

Pictures of my newly met friends

Hmm... This is no ordinary friend

Below are some of the friendliest and very helpful NST personnel