Aku dan Masa Lalu - 1

Aku kadang kadang merasa kalau dapat diputarkan masa ke zaman kanak kanak ku. Menjadi anak pertama mungkin aku adalah bahan eksperimentasi kepada ibu bapa ku untuk belajar menjadi ibu dan bapa. Lebih lebih lagi kepada ibu ku yang waktu mengandungkan aku masih sangat remaja pada aku, iaitu 17 tahun. Namun itu mungkin dikatakan jodoh, dia berkahwin seawal umur 18 tahun dengan bapa ku yang ketika itu berumur 30 tahun . Beza umur mereka 12 tahun. Seawal umur 18 tahun aku masih belajar, tak dapat nak gambar wanita semuda ibuku mengandungkan aku pada waktu itu. Pada umur 18 tahun apa yang aku fikir hanyalah belajar, berkawan dan nak lulus periksa.

Asbab umur ibuku yang sangat muda itu mungkin menyebabkan aku merasakan aku lebih rapat dengan arwah Nenekku. Arwah nenek ku yang banyak mengajar aku sembahyang, berpuasa, adab sopan orang Melayu dan bercerita tentang rasul. Arwah nenek ku seorang mak andam dan agak dikenali di kampung ku. Arwah nenek juga boleh dikatakan independent sebab dia seorang balu dengan 9 orang anak. Dia menjual kopi dari kebun yang ditinggalkan suaminya, mengandam dan berjual hasil kraf untuk menyara kehidupannya anak beranak. Kebetulan ayah aku anak kedua bongsu dan rapat dengan nenek ku sehinggakan ayahku sanggup berpindah duduk bersama nenekku demi menjaga nenek ku . Basically, aku membesar di rumah pusaka peninggalan arwah atuk bersama nenek ku. 

Al maklum, dulu dulu pelajaran kurang diambil perhatian, kedua orang tua ku tidak berpelajaran tinggi tapi ayah seorang yang sangat bertanggungjawab dan komited dengan kerja. Demi menjaga keluarga beliau lebih rela berulang alik dari Banting ke Port Klang selama 32 tahun menghambakan diri bekerja pelabuhan. Ayah ku seorang pemandu kren di Pelabuhan Klang namun kerana komitednya pada kerja beliau akhirnya menjadi trainer jentera di Pelabuhan Klang. Alhamdulillah pendapatan ayah aku lebih baik apabila dia menyertai syarikat swasts berbanding ketika waktu dia bekerja sebagai guru matematik dan di Lembaga Pelabuhan Klang. Namun masa beliau dengan kami sangat terhad maklumlah kerja di pelabuhan ada shift.

Aku selalu menjadikan dia role model sebab dia seorang yang bertanggungjawab dan ada prinsip hidupnya. Pada dia keluarga adalah keutamaan, dan hutang adalah sesuatu yang paling dia akan elakkan. Seingat aku dia tidak pernah berhutang kecuali hutang rumah teres yang dibelinya dengan harga RM30,000 yang dipinjam dari Koperasi LPK. Oleh kerana prinsipnya yang tak suka berhutang maka kehidupan kami sangatlah sederhana namun cukup serba serbinya. Ayah aku juga seorang yang penyayang dan sangat menjaga kebajikan adik beradiknya dan adik beradik ibu aku. Dia banyak membantu adik beradiknya yang mengalami masalah kewangan waima adik beradik dia atau adik beradik ibu ku. Untuk anak anak pula dia membuat potongan gaji untuk simpanan anak anak dan ibu ku di tabung haji. Makanya, semenjak bayi kami adik beradik ada akaun Tabung haji. Duit tulah kami guna untuk sambung belajar. 

Ibu aku pula aku rasakan dia seorang yang manja dan kurang ilmu parenting, maklumlah dia terlalu muda semasa dia berkahwin namun dia bijak dalam mambantu ayahku mencari peluang menambah pendapatan. Dia berjual kuih dan kerepek bagi menambah penadapatan keluarga. Dia juga pandai main kutu. Jadi dapatlah dia membeli barang barang yang dia suka macam barang kemas, pinggan mangkuk , pergi salon dengan duit jualannya tanpa membebankan ayah aku. Cumanya dulu aku selalu berangan untuk punya ibu yang lebih berpelajaran dan berkerjaya sebab pada aku kalau ibu aku berpelajaran dan bekerjaya mungkin mindanya akan lebih terbuka. Jadi perhubungan aku dengan ibu semasa aku kecil tidak serapat hubungan aku dengan nenek ku. Aku lebih appreciate arwah nenek ku dari ibu pada masa aku kecil. Namun ibu banyak berubah kepada yang lebih baik seiring dengan umurnya yang meningkat. Adik adik ku lebih mendapat perhatian bila umur ibu ku semakin meningkat. Namun aku bersyukur sebab ibu seorang yang cantik, lembut dan penyayang. 

Aku pula semasa kecil ku suka berangan untuk menjadi orang yang pandai dan bekerja dipejabat. Jadi sedari kecil aku selalu berusaha menjadi yang terbaik walaupun aku taklah sepandai mana. Aku ingat lagi, umur ku 5 tahun aku dah boleh menghafal ABC samapai Z better dari sepupuku. Aku selalu show off bila berkumpul raya di rumah arwah Atuk ku yang aku dah lancar membaca dariapada sepupu sepupu ku yang lain. Semua pak cik dan makcik ku pun suka dengan aku . Namun aku selalu di ajar untuk merendah diri oleh ibu ku , jadinya bila nak tunjuk talent tu kadang kadang terbantut. 

Yang paling aku masa kecil kecil, mak aku suka mensedondonkan baju raya aku dengan adik ke 2 aku. Masa tu aku sangat sayang pada adik aku yang no 2 tu tapi dia lebih mendapat perhatian semua ahli keluarga kerana sifatnya yang lebih cerita dan banyak banyak cakap dari aku. Dia juga banyak kelebihan, dia ada lesung pipit di kedua belah pipi dan pandai berjalan di hujung jari ala Bellerina. Sifatnya yang ceria lebih cepat menarik perhatian ahli keluarga dariapada aku yang memang dikenali sangat pendiam dan pemalu. Namun aku seorang kakak yang protective. Semasa di sekolah aku suka nak check adik ku sehingga dia berasa kurang selesa. Tapi masa tu aku rasa sangat bertanggungjawab dan bangga menunjukkan aku seorang kakak. Namun masa berlalu, dan berubah, dia bukan lagi adik yang kecil yang perlu dijaga oleh kakaknya lagi. 

Mission for a Change - New Malaysia

Living abroad is an eye-opener for me. When I met other foreigner and asked me where I am from, I will always be wanted to be proudly mentioning that I am from Malaysia due to its fast development, iconic buildings and it's leadership. But since the 1MDB issue has caught the attention of many around the world, I felt embarrassed and always hope there would be no more question about the origin of my country.  Nevertheless, 9 May 2018 has given a hope to many Malaysian that there would be a change in Malaysia's governance. I was also surprised that majority of my fellow friends here in Saigon which the majority are Chinese were really into a spirit to make a change to Malaysia's governance. Many of us we encouraging each other to go back to vote and make a change. And most of us were decided to go back to cast our vote on 9 May 2018. 

9 May 2018 was a historical date for a new Malaysia where Malaysia now is governed by a new government under Pakatan Harapan and the most historical point was when Tun Mahathir was elected and announced as the 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He is the key to the glory and the key factor that had pulled the vote of all Malaysians who hungered for a change. I believed without Tun's charisma and capability, other parties would not be able to pull the vote, not even DSAI. Tun Mahathir is the factor that Malaysian united. Malaysians owed him for the sacrifice that he did to save Malaysia from drowning in many economic issues and scandals created by the previous leadership.

Syukur, now Malaysia is in a good leadership and new government that hopefully clean from the corruption issue. I pray that Tun Mahathir and his team would be able to gain continuous support from the rakyat of Malaysia and deliver what they had planned to clean all the mess done by the previous leadership while continually improving and developing Malaysia for a better Malaysia.

Tips for Saving

I learned this tips to save from my father. My father was only a heavy equipment operator in Port Klang but he has the very good financial principles back then, that were :
1. Do saving
2. Never get loan if it is not necessary.

1. Do saving
My father did saving monthly from his salary, not only for him but also for mom and us, the children. Everyone of us (siblings) has a tabung haji account. He will opened an account once we were born, so all the gifts money will be deposited into this account. This account was open for the purpose of education and performing haji for everyone of us. My father made an arrangement with his HR department to make a commitment of contributing RM50 per month for each account that he opened for his children and wife. That means every month our sibling's tabung haji account will have saving of RM50 per month including my mother.

2. Never get loan if it is not necessary.
My father bought all his vehicles (Toyota KE, Honda Accord and motorbike) on cash basis. Therefore he never bought a brand new car as most of the time only used car that he can afforded as he paid cash for it.  He will only bought the car when he has enough saving to buy with cash. He will never agreed with interest rate as for him interest rate was not fair. The only loan that he made was for the single storey terrace house that he bought in mid 80's and the loan was not from the bank but from the Koperasi Pekerja LPK in which has the very low interest rate as compared to banks' interest. From his saving he managed to purchased a land and saviour to the family land which was nearly auctioned by the bank due to the failure of his brother to settle his loan.

These two basic financial principles has taught me to manage my financial commitment. I can't afford to hold on to my father's principles but I use it as a guide. From my point of view as per my experience :

Every working people must :

1. Do saving : Regardless how little is your salary , do saving as little as RM1 per day or RM5 a month. Keep your saving in either Tabung Haji or ASB/ ASN.

2. Do loan that could give return to you : Yes all loan has an interest rate and you have to pay for the interest rate but make sure the loan that you make is for investment such as property , ASB/ASN or vehicle (as this would bring you to work - this is a kind of investment). Never commit yourself for a personal loan or loan for marriage (loan untuk kahwin).

As a Parent :

1. Open an account for your children as early as they were born. Try to make a monthly contribution to your children's account via standing instruction to the bank or salary deduction to their account.

2. Ensure that whatever your kids received cash a gift is deposited to their account.

3. Never encourage your children to do loan. There is trend where parents use their children's name to buy property. Their excuse of buying properties using their children's name is for the future of their grand children, but the fact is they are actually burdened their children with a loan commitment that they may not afford to commit in the future. Should the parent wants to help their children to own a property they can help them by open up a saving account when they were young and use the saving to buy a property in the future. Letting your children to buy property you like and binded them with the big commitment beyond his capability to commit on a monthly settlement is very dangerous and may harm their life. Should the parents are wealthy enough to pass down the inheritance to grandchildren, they first have to ensure that their children have enough capabilities in financial. But this somehow will create unfairness environment as not every child has the same capabilities, as such the burden of commitment of loan that the children may not be equally divided amongst them. This will cause jealousy amongst the siblings. Therefore, it is not advisable to get your children commit to the parents' interest. The parents' obligation is to guide their children manage their financial, not let them involve with loan commitment. The children may looks proud of having parents capable enough to buy luxury properties without they realized the burden that they may have to face if the parents are not around and yet the properties are not solely belong to them. The parents should let their children be independent and be responsible to their financial as it will make them appreciate better for they have and will inherit.

4. Encourage your children to saving at their early age as they will more appreciate rather than in inheriting it.

I thanked my father for his guidance as because of his guidance made me  managed to own 2 cars and used to owned a condominium (I made a lot of profit from selling this condominium) without a single cents help from anyone, not even my father or my husband. Now I am free debts after I sold my condominium and still have my 2 cars. Now I am enjoying interest from my FD and ASB. So instead we pay interest to the bank, now bank is paying interest to me.

This is only my 10 cents opinion, a fulltime housewife.

New Activity for 2018

In the first week of 2018 I have attended a Malaysian Ladies gathering at Lotte Legend Saigon. It was a great event with great and fresh food served at their buffet line. It's worth for money as me as a Muslim for sure was concerned about the food. Their buffet did not disappointed me. With varieties of fresh seafood and vegetarian options, definitely satisfy my taste buds.  

We had so much fun and information sharing over the lunch and one of the lady that I first time met during the event had popped an idea for me to sell "Nasi Lemak". I said "Wow" that's a great idea but deep in my heart said "wooo" Can I do it? that's very tough as I never do cooking for selling as yet. But like Richard Branson said, you will never know until you try. While my mind considering the idea , the other lady, she's actually an Indonesian Chinese married to Malaysian Chinese, supporting the idea and naturally announce it to the lunch group that I can cook Nasi Lemak. At that moment, I had no choice but to accept the idea that I am gonna cook Nasi Lemak and karipap for sale. Yes, my first ever business project here in Saigon. 

So, on the 1 February 2018 has marked as my first day of selling Nasi Lemak and Karipap in Saigon. It will be a new life journey for me here in Saigon.  Let me share some photo of my new attempt to cook for selling.

Household Financial Management by the Housewife

Ever since I became a housewife, I have lost my fixed monthly pay that I earned. However, I am lucky enough as my husband giving me monthly allowance which is not including the household expenses such as groceries, and family entertainment. Even though, the allowance amount is not as much as I earned when I was worked, it is more than enough for me. My husband will bank in my allowance in RM base on current exchange rate.
In the first year we arrived the rate was RM3.60  and  my USD allowance  fluctuate based on the currency rate . What did I do with this amount? As I promised to myself after I started work, I will give my parent pocket money. And before I agreed to quit job and followed my husband to Saigon, I told my husband that I have an obligation to support my parents as my parents are not as fortunate as his. But I never asked specific amount for my allowance. What I wish is just his consideration from him to give me some pocket money, so that I can share and continue share some of my pocket money with my parents. An amount of monthly allowance  is actually  a bonus for me as I can do some saving out of it. Surprisingly,  even though the amount of my allowance is much lower than my salary that I had earned, I did much bigger saving than before.
Ok, first what did I do with my allowance?. The following is the distribution based on my priority:

40%    - for my study. As I am taking Master in Management course and art class.
10%    - will go to my parents
25%    - personal saving
5%      - personal life insurance + my daughter's education & life insurance
2.5%   - my daughter's saving
5%      - sponsoring my brother's uni's expenses
10.5% - credit card and Digi's bill ( normally less as most of the time I only need to pay the Digi's bill as i hardly use my credit card). I always make myself use a debit card as I will only spend as what I have only.
2%       - my personal needs and entertainment.

So, basically I use my allowance based on the priority and will only spend for my personal needs and entertainment should I have balance which is about 2% from my allowance.

For the household my husband has allocated around 20 mill vnd  or around USD900 for household. Normally we will allocate it for the following expenses :

Utilities bills (electric, water, tv subscription , internet)       - 30%
Groceries                                                                               - 40%
Weekend outing & family entertainment                      - 30%

So basically, as housewife, you should not only know how to clean the house and cook but most importantly managing your financial household.

I hope this would benefits other housewife and husband too.

The Sunset View from my Balcony

This photo was taken from the balcony of our new apartment. You can see the Thao Dien area and the red bridge of Ho Chi Minh City. I love the color of the sky and it looks like a painting on a canvas. 

Apartment's Design Facilities and Services from The Perspective of User's / Owner/ Tenant/ Residents/ Housewife

Since I got married I used to live in an apartment or condominium. Frankly, I am not sure what's the difference between condominium and apartment as I knew both are high rise residential buildings. I've been living in a service apartment and was owned one condominium back in Malaysia. Here in Vietnam, we also living in an apartment and hardly heard people mentioned about condominium. In Vietnam the term most heard for residentials are, house, villa, apartment and hut. 

Ok, this writing is actually my opinion about the design, facilities and services of the apartments that I've lived in and I've seen and observed. Back in Malaysia, we currently have what they called it service apartment in Damansara Perdana. When my husband bought the apartment (we just engaged at that time), my thinking was the apartment will be facilitated with services such as in-house cleaning (day-maid) service, laundry service, etc. That time back in 2005, with that price and size of less than 100sqm, I could consider it as a mid range service apartment. This block that we lived in is considered as a commercial block of the residential complex that contained another 2 blocks, that they called it condominium. This mean in this residential complex, it has 2 condominium blocks/buildings and 1 service apartment block/building (this is where we were lived in before we moved to Vietnam. We still live in this apartment when we go back Malaysia during the school holiday).
Back to my expectation, I am expecting those services provided when moved in when its completed. We moved in after my the delivery of my daughter. It was a disappointment when it was not turned out as what I've expected. According to the developer, the meaning of service apartment for this particular building was a commercial building as the address can be used as both commercial and residential, while the condominium address can only be used as residential address. It turned out that we have to pay higher assessment tax as compared to the condominium building. I feel we've been conned as the actual promotion did not reflect the actual scenario. What the..................May be someone professional can be best explained to us about all this. But it was ok to us as long as we have a place to live safely. For your information, our service apartment has no reception counter and we can only pay management fee at the management office where all the building and technical management are stationed. The management office is operated with an office hour 9a.m - 6pm with 1 hour break at 5 days a week with alternate Saturday operation. This means we can only communicate and do transaction during operation hour as mentioned.

But, here in Vietnam, I found that, if you live in a service apartment means that the management of the building will provide a house keeping service and some with laundry service.The normal apartment doesn't has the housekeeping service and normally the management fee is lower than the service apartment's management fee. Besides that, there is no different between the normal residential and commercial residential. Every each of apartment complexes has their own reception counter that serve the residents, regardless it's a service apartment or non service apartment. Basically, it's a part of the facilities provided which included in the management fee without discrimination of types of  apartment you lived in.
In our apartment that currently we are residing (Imperia An Phu Residences, developed half way by Korean developer with a Korean Design), its reception operates as early as 7 a.m and close at 8.00p.m and some will close at 9.00 p.m. The reception is still open during lunch hour (I believed they practice rotation break). This reception counter is specifically will give service to its residents it term of many things such as paying the bills (electric, gas, water, internet as well as tv cabel), arranging transport, posting/delivery of parcel, management of facilities (common hall, recreation room, library, tennis court, gym, etc). This reception counter will receive complains too, e.g resident has lightings or air-cond problems, they would just go to the reception, logged a report and the reception will arrange technical team to inspect and fix it. Should the fixing needs an exterior service, they are willing to arrange for the residents.

In Malaysia, we may only see a reception counter for the selective higher end condominium or exclusive condominium or its a combination of hotel and service apartment. The normal condominium or "service apartment"/ apartment, mostly have no reception counter. Any complain about the facilities will be handled by the management office. This is where the residents can see the chaotic, behaviour of the building manager, where the clerical, vendor and technical came in and out and at the same time serving the customer/ residents, somehow it looks not that professional for me who has been used to be served by a proper channel of residential building management. I am not sure why building managers or building manager service provider unable to provide this proper service to the residents. It is not only our "service apartment" that doesn't have the reception but the condominium I bought also did not have the reception counter for residents. I think, the reception counter is important as it is located away from the management office. This is important as it will develope a gap between the customer to the internal management.
As a resident or user/customer, I would not need and should not know about the internal problem of the building management. The gap also play as the confidentiality safety to the building manager. That's why it is more appropriate to have a reception counter away from the building management office. For me it is inappropriate that the outsider observed or listen to the internal management activities and conversation. Well, I do not know about others, but for me it looks more professional when you have a reception counter away from the management office in order to attend and assist the residents' complain and request. Sometimes I feel weird as most of us know that Malaysia is more developed than Vietnam but in this particularly issue, I found the service and facilities I get in Vietnam is far away better than I get in Malaysia.

Now about the design. I've been living in an apartment that has Korean designed as it was developed by Korean developer and soon will be moving to an apartment developed by local Vietnamese developer. I was living in an apartment developed by local Malaysian developer , had owned a condominium developed by Malaysian developer and has experienced the ambiance of apartment developed by Singaporean developer in Malaysia. Apartment's design of all these apartment did give me different ambiance and feels when I was in it.
Amongst of all apartments that I've experienced in it, I found the Korean designed is one of the best and most practical. Here we are not talking about the quality and workmanship as yet. Here, I am talking about the design in particular.Why I said the Korean design is the most practical? I think the Korean design is the most practical because it take into consideration of the Asian's aesthetic culture, the technology and the practicality. For example, in our current apartment, the layout of the unit has the shoe space.
Mostly in  Asian culture, they will take off shoe prior entering the house, so this apartment has designed a shoe area as you enter the apartment that separates the floor of the interior space. As such you will take off you shoe at the shoe area as you entered the unit but not yet reaching the interior layout such the living room, dining or kitchen area for example. At the shoe area, the built a show cabinet to store shoe that you seldom use and some space for slippers and shoes that you regularly use. This shoe area is lit with dedicated lightings.
Next, this apartment unit has a practical size for each section ( living room, toilet, dining, kitchen, store, laundry, compressor area) that ease the maintenance of each section and comfortable to move. Another point is keyless entrance which very very practical as you only use one access card for the turnstile, the lobby door and the unit door. Without this access card you are unable to have an access even to the complex except the reception counter. Each unit door is using coded door, that means only residents has the individual pass code to access their particular unit. This is very important for safety purposes. This means, 3 layers security check with or without vehicle. In each unit, it is installed with visual inter comm. That means you can see and recognize your expected guest from the inter comm monitor. The inter comm monitor is not only installed at the wall but also at the mini tv installed in the kitchen. This is so practical as the housewife who is busy cooking in the kitchen doesn't has to run and check or open the door of the expected guest from the main inter comm monitor. You may also just press the open button for the door from the toilet if you are in the toilet. The inter comm device installed in the toilet also has etiquette button if you don't want the outsiders listen to the toilet flushing sounds.
Their landscape of common area, kids area and swimming pool area was designed and built practically for recreation, exercise plus kids and disable friendly.

Comparison of Apartments' layout and its facilities:

From a housewife point of view:

Being a Malaysian living abroad would not allow you to own a property but giving me an opportunity to experience living nomad from one apartment to another. It gives me an opportunity to compare the quality and practicality of design and floor plan layout of the apartments that we rent and we owned back in our home country.

From my observation, most of middle to upper level of apartments in HCMC is much more practical in terms of floor layout and safety system as compared to apartments built in KL and P.J. 

I took example  the range of years (2000 - 2010) that the apartments were built. In P.J and Subang (Emerald Perdana (completed end 2004), Perdana View (completed around 2004 - 2006), in Damansara Perdana and Saujana Residency (completed around 2006 -2007) in Subang Jaya).  

1. Intercom System
First, we look into the security system aspect. Both Emerald and Perdana view were equipped with an intercom system (voice only-wall phone) but surprisingly, Saujana Residency that were priced higher than Emerald and Perdana and built lastest than Emerald and Perdana is not equipped with an intercom system. Can't you see the hassle when the guest is coming over?. the guard has to call the owner /residents on their personal mobile to inform and to ensure the guest prior allowing them to enter the building. Comparing to HCMC, all of apartments built within than years range  have been equipped with intercom system. I believed when they built they thought of the possibilities of potential tenants, as their target potential tenant is always expatriate/ foreigners as primary tenants, locals as secondary tenants. As such, all apartments there were equipped with intercom system at least voice type, some with both visual and voice intercom system.

2. Kitchen Layout
Emerald Perdana and Perdana View have a better floor layout better than Saujana Residency as they have better air ventilation where both have kitchen that attached to the drying are which was open , while Saujana does not has a proper drying area, or if they called it drying area, however it was a closed area attached with its closed kitchen. The design only provide a small air window ( is not a window actually) at the drying area. These are the poor element that contribute to poor ventilation in the kitchen area.  Comparing with apartments in HCMC, even though some of apartment do not have drying area (for the design without drying area, normally the dryer will be provided or the washing machine will be placed at the balcony), normally the kitchen is open concept or has a big window for better ventilation. Most apartments in HCMC have open concept kitchen and if it is a closed concept kitchen, it would be attached with an open concept drying area to keep a better ventilation.

3. Reception Area
Emerald Perdana and Saujana Residency, these two apartments do have reception area or lobby area. Their lobby area are nice and spacious but unfortunately not being full utilized for the benefits of the residents. I hardly see apartment's lobby has seats and reception counter in KL, P.J, Shah Alam and Penang.Badly design, Perdana View doesn't has proper reception area at all. Most of residents of apartments in P.J,Shah Alam, K.L and Penang have to pay bills themselves via online, post office or service provider counter. Maybe in the service apartment there is a reception counter that could accept payments of utilities bills for its residents but so far I never encounter any as yet in Malaysia. In Malaysia, most of the time residents pay their service charge at the management office which is serve as service counter and building facilities management office as well. Here, in HCMC most of the lobby would at least has a chair or sofa for its residents to sit while waiting and most importantly each apartment has at least one small reception counter to give service to residents. Some of the reception counter can accept all utilities bills to ease their foreign residents. And most of the time the management office for the building is located away from the reception counter. This is important as it doesn't mix the customer service operation and building facilities operation. As a resident would you care to think about the building's operation?. I just care where to pay the bills and service charge and I don't like to be bothered by other staffs' conversation behind the service counter.

For this posting, I think it is enough to give some comparison as I am not the expert to analyse. It just an opinion that come from an observation of a housewife who spend most of the time at home.

New Year 2018 : New Apartment

We had such a fresh opening of 2018. We moved to a new apartment, as such a new environment and new fresh neighborhood for us. At first it was hard for me to accept that we had to move out from Imperia, but my husband told me that it's a time for us to change and enjoy a new environment since we had a chance. I was hoped that the new environment would bring more good things and more happiness to us. 

True enough changes give us a fresh new life. The space of the new apartment is much smaller than our previous apartment, however it is much convenient here at our new apartment. It is just a few steps to the shopping mall, convenient stores, halal butcher and choices of supermarket. 

My plan for 2018, start collecting collection for my painting book and finish my master project paper. The rest I leave it to what Allah have planned for me. Insha Allah.