Souled Out

Shame on me.I was supposed to write about Being Me months ago but now I remember only 30% of the take away from the conference. I also havent been reading blogs that I regularly read before, not even Vivy's.Last I heard was that she got hitched  and that the reception was you know, grand.

So I just came across a very inspiring interview with Alber Elbaz on Wall Street Journal today and thought that I share some wisdom of this Moroccan-born who refused to lose his weight. Macam bagus je kan baca WSJ. If you have no idea who Alber is, well he's the uber talented designer of Lanvin. And if you dont know peanuts of what Lanvin is, most probably because you cant afford it.

If you have been flipping through fashion magazines online or offline, Alber Elbaz definitively is something rare.One who thinks that fashion should "feel" like its a family business, Alber doesnt believe in hierarchy,in a pyramid of people reporting to other people. I love it that I can totally relate when he said that "Family is the only place where you feel comfortable enough to make mistakes, and in creation,mistakes are important. They drive you forward". Im not particularly sure how to elaborate but to simply put it,your family is your best critic. Your family SHOULD know you well enough to know whether you're doing the right thing,the right way.

I quote "I always say that if you really want to know the truth you have to go to the basement because thats where things happen. If you look for the truth in the penthouse,usually it's fake".

My understanding :-
1. Bukanlah maknanya theres no need for an organization chart, but you know, sickeningly, most people (especially in the corporate world) at the bottom, do more,work more and suffer more (haha) than people at the top.
2. This means that the people at the top, deserving or not,have found the answers to their burning questions before they reached their current positions.
3. I've said this before, and am gonna say this again, as a reminder to myself at the same time. Don't wait for too long. I learned that waiting have cost me a lot of pain. Inside.

I quote "Today we have to relearn how to be small again. It's not just about marketing,but about creativity again,about returning to intuition,to emotion. We have to bring joy to people - that's the essence of the job".

My understanding : -
1. Dig deeper inside your very core to find the ultimate definition of happiness.
2. Sadly, I feel that the yearly appraisal back in my old workplace WAS mostly marketing (didnt mean to sound so negative but this is sickeningly true)
3. There's nothing more awesome than bringing joy to yourself and the people around you. I'd tell u perfect examples but it's gonna be sekajang Pak Malau, so I save a story or two,for later ye.

Somehow working on my own has made me even more emotional than I was ever before. Highly likely the result of too much noise of people around me (I am assuming), yet to find their exit strategy. Stop whining, start praying, real hard. The answer wont show up at your doorstep the next day but it will, one day. It's only a matter of time.

You may not need to leave your 9-5 job like I did :P

 

Lanvin Spring Summer '12

Those silk chiffon dresses are just sublime.

Been There, Been Everywhere

I really miss this page. I have been everywhere, all over, between managing the restaurant, the daily operations(cashier,akauntan tak bertauliah,eksekutif pemasaran,minah despatch,tukang angkat kerusi meja) and so much more, I have purposedly ignore this page. I apologize to myself. One cannot give birth to a baby and not feed the baby well right. So this baby is kind of terencat tumbesarannya.

So inilah akibatnya sebab nak buat semuanya, kalau nak cuba rasa pahit dan manisnya hidup orang takde EPF, terjahlah dunia berniaga. Nak kata dah jadi millionaire,belum juga. Tapi itulahnya, masa terlalu pantas kan.  Daripada tak pandai twitter, dah dapat dah reply twit dgn Kim Kardashian.

Masa mula dulu, niatnya cuma nak buka kedai, serve orang makan. One thing will always lead to another. Never say never, and never say tak boleh. Walaupun tak terbayangkan macam manala bila betul2 dah tak bekerja, I always say "boleh". Luckily for me, my family have always been there,my safety net. Ingat tak takut ke pandai-pandai je berhenti keje pastu terus berniaga. Takut lah kang takleh bayar duit keta,duit rumah. Sedar atau tidak, sebenarnya, Allah tu selalu sangat permudahkan jalan. Eventhough bila kita tengok macam payah je, Allah tetap permudahkan.

Honestly, momentum nak menulis pun turun sangat-sangat. By the time sampai rumah, peruntukan masa untuk berehat, selak Quran (kadang2 tak pun), buat kerja surirumah sikit2. Sandar kepala atas sofa, dah pukul 11 lebih. Flip2 channel, husband pun panggil masuk bilik. Dulu2 masa mula2 tulis, selalulah husband merajuk sebab asyik tido lewat, sekarang ni, dah habis idea nak pujuk. Untuk elakkan merajuk, baiklah kita pun join peluk bantal. Lagipun TV dah takde citer best2 sekarang ni ek.

So lepas ni, kita nak buat macam2 lagi project dengan adik-adik. Kita dengar dalam "Two & A Half Men" semalam "Better do the simpler stuff well,than to do the fancy stuff badly". Kita mula dengan yang kecil dulu kan. Tak susah mana pun manage restaurant ni, susah lagi lah masa keje kat Petco dulu ;)

Kita rasa, kawan2 semua pun sama bz, sampai tak sempat nak keep in touch . Macam nilah life org business kecik. Tunggulah esok kita ada drebar hehehe, kita hang out hang out OK. Alamak, ada ke orang ingat kat kita lagi ni?

Kritika & Me - Unplanned animal prints shawl. We can never not talk about fashion can't we?

Owh ada lagi gambar tapi tak upload lagi from my BB. Ramai sangat kawan2 yg continue to support by coming over to our place during Ramadhan.

Ex-Munshian. Duduk kat atas jalan after Iftar.

 

 

Seriously explaining something to Rosman & Nazih.

 

Ada lagi ramai yang datang, tapi as usual I am not the one holding the camera. Kalau amik gambar pun, muka tak semenggah. 

Am positively looking forward for more happenings.

Last but not least, Happy Independence Day and enjoy your 3 day-weekend!

Debunga wangi

Intan Marliana loves flowers and everything about planning a wedding that she decided to venture in the wedding service industry by making hand bouquets and centerpieces. I am quite sure that she will be adding more to her portfolio soon.

Ni memang kerja tangan orang kreatif. Kalau tangan saya, takkan jadi macam ni. Jadi mangkuk ayun ada kemungkinan.

Lovely kan?

Happy birthday Hafiz!

Today is Hafiz's birthday, who is going to get hitched soon. Yang bestnya, semalam, 29th March was his fiance's birthday. Kuasa Allah sebagai "adjustment bureau" yang menemukan these two lovebirds. Can't believe the boy in the blue cap is going to be someone's husband kan??  Disaster sungguh pemilihan pakaian masa budak-budak. Tak salahkan ibu bapak sebab masa tu Globe & Kamdar pun dah kira hebat. How we wish we had better fashion sense. My husband pun kata kalau dia tengok gambar ni dulu, dia sure reject. Ceh. Nasib baik dah pandai stylo mylo sekarang :P

So anyway, I'm keeping the checklist close so that I would be able to jot things down whenever there is updates on the preparation. As of today, the hardcore items like baju pengantin, tempahan dewan, katering (for sure takyah risau), goodie bags, photography & videography semua dah settle. Tinggal the minor-minor details je yang kena follow up and make sure takde benda yang tertinggal.

Nikah

Date  27/4/2012

1. Pakaian Pengantin

2. Make up pengantin

3. Photography & Videography

4. Hantaran

5. Hand bouquet 

6. Family yang follow

7. Hantaran boys

8. Waktu bertolak from Ampang - to confirm

9. Siapa siapkan pengantin lelaki

10. Siapa drive pengantin lelaki 

11. Pengapit pengantin - both

Reception - Bride's side

Date 28/4/12

1. Pakaian pengantin

2. Make-up pengantin

3. Photography & Videography

4. Family yang follow

Reception - Groom's side

Date 6/5/2012

To make sure tak miss every details, kita breakdown under beberapa cateogry such as, F&B, Dewan management, Pengantin, Family, Order of events etc. 

Things like susun atur meja keluarga pengantin belah perempuan pun kena plan, walaupun majlis adalah semi-formal. To make sure things run smoothly, lets hope that things tak akan constantly be changing to the last minute. Apa-pun kalau benda yang terlalu remeh dan tak menjejaskan perjalanan majlis, takde lah nak pening sangat fikir.

Ultimately, objektif untuk meraikan tetamu dalam satu-satu majlis especially wedding reception is to make sure that :

1.  Tetamu dapat tempat duduk selesa, bersesuai dengan venue yang dipilih
2.  Makanan memuaskan, eventhough tak mungkin dapat memenuhi selera semua, tapi biasanya orang makan je kan sebab dah namanya pun jemputan.
3.  Tuan rumah layan dengan baik,
4.  Lagu tak terlalu memekakkan telinga. Penting ni sebab selalu experience pegi wedding lagu macam tak sesuai untuk majlis kahwin.

What we are trying to do is maintaining konsep kesederhanaan. Coordinating an event memang seronok, since wedding ni ada timeline yang panjang, so banyak masa untuk buat preparation. Dengan rasa rendah hati memohon keberkatan dan dipermudahkan segala urusan sehingga selesainya majlis nanti. InsyaAllah.

Something Blue

Inspirations. I think what we need more of is not just money but jealousy. If we are more jealous, we would do anything to get what we want.

Might not be too suitable for our unpredictable hot weather, but this is just beyond. 

Never a dull moment

One of the things that I really take with pride as a restaurant owner is the experiences that I get serving different backgrounds of patrons. To me, falsafah penyediaan makanan ni simple je. Serve the food, just like how you would like it to be served to you. Ala, macam do unto others as how you would have them do to you. Something like that. Be it the taste or the presentation. So, when you know what and how you would like your food to taste and look like, hey, you can open a restaurant already!

Just the other day, our customer brought his friends, a pair of American Indian husband & wife, whom also are very strict vegetarians. Terang-terangan our menu kebanyakannya berunsurkan ayam, daging dan kambing. Segala jenis haiwan ternakan gitu. So it was rather challenging for any vegetarian yang menerima jemputan dibelanja di kedai kami, one thing for sure orang yang mengajak tu sepatutnya aware yang kawan dia vege and orang yang diajak, tentu tak mau turn the friend down. I managed to convince the couple to have our rice with the dalca, yang sememangnya berisi sayuran sahaja. In fact, selama ni kalau ada customer vegetarian, memang diorang takde choice lain. Maybe we should include one or two choices of vegetarian dish? However, this lovely lady ordered a plate of rice and rojak buah with extra cili padi potong. To my surprise, she finished her meal berlaukkan rojak buah. I can only imagine how would that taste. Kuah rojak petis ditabur ground nuts lepas tu gaul dengan nasi briyani saje.  Mungkin ok kot, it was just me yang tak boleh terima kombinasi tu.

On another occasion at our outlet in Ampang, sepasang Korean membelek2 menu dengan khusyuk. Mungkin memang lapar sebab hari hujan, the guy seolah-olah push the girl to order fast tapi the girl just can't decide which one to order. Bila hujan, maknanya cuaca sejuk. Lepas the guy order "Mee Kari" (dengan fluent bahasa Melayunya, mungkin dia dah lama duduk sini) dia order juga "Beer". Dengan harapan dapat memanaskan badannya kot (betul ke beer memanaskan badan pun?) Then I smiled. And his lady friend kind of shuush him which in return he said "Sorry Sorry" sambil menyusun 10 jari tunjuk minta maaf. He was undoubtedly forgiven.

Oh well. There are too many other unforgettable moments that we made through 2011. Tahun pertama in the business, terlalu banyak yang kita belajar. Experiences are too valuable you can't even find them in those university textbooks. Nothing beats real life expreriences kan. Some sweet, some maybe bitter. I would say, when it comes to managing the ups and the downs, there is no real format that you can follow. It is important that you develop the perseverance trait inside of you. I read from other successful business people that it is really the key.

"In an enterpreneur's life, it is always the matter of juggling, whether the chicken or the eggs come first" - Sahar Hashemi, Coffee Republic. 

Mr Chow Miami . Extravagantly stunning. 

Laksanakan tuntutan jiwa

After much consideration, I am channeling my personal views to Bomb Diggity. Ruz Aladdin will have its own official website soon, InsyaAllah.