My Angel.. You are now FIVE!!!

Alisha Soffeya... you are now FIVE years old.

Today was the day when we 1st saw you in this world. I still remembered the moment you opened your eyes when you heard your 1st athan from me. The moment I would never forget, the moment of joy for both of us, your parents...

Alisha's 1st 5th birthday wish came as early as 3.54am on 26 May 2009. It came in the form of SMS. Off course it was not from us, it was from her عم علي.

On her birthday, we took out Alisha to Chilli's. Mind you, she chose the restaurant. We just took her there to have the meal. While we were at Chilli's, we ordered desert and asked the waiters to put candle on it.

The best moment came when the staffs at Chilli's came with the desert on their hand and sang Happy Birthday. Alisha was panicking. She did not know what to do. We could tell from her eyes that she was a bit worried. Instead of smiling, she was upset... hehe. Probably she was overwhelm with emotion? She only overcame her fear when we asked her to blow the candle. She did it in split second. I did not even manage to capture it on camera.Happy Birthday, darling. May you grow up and become the proud of your parents, insyaAllah.

مبروك to RLC Football Team

Proud to announce the advance of RLC Football Team to the 2nd round of QP Chairman's Football Tournament 2009.

Not only had they qualified for the 2nd round, they also did it in style.. They beat Occidental Petroleum (OXY) 10-2. What a night to remember.. Players Of The Night were Ali Musa & Mohamed Juma. Both of them scored 4 each while Mohamed Harbi & Mohamed Derbali scored 1 each.

Unfortunately, all the achievements not without any drama.. On our previous game, we were beaten to the core. We lost 6-1 to Dolphin. I personally called it A 6-1 Night of Nightmare..

However, Allah must be on our side though.. HE rewarded us with our effort & surprised us with pleasant finding. We discovered that one of the players from Dolphin was actually a professional player who played in Qatar League under Qatar Football Federation. It was a breach of the tournament rule. Professional players could only be in the team if they were working with the Oil & Gas companies they represented but not as import players. For that reason, they were penalised & considered lost the game 3-0.

Once we had cleared Dolphin out of our way, the next hurdle was to take on OXY which we considered as an easy task. We knew that OXY lost miserably to Gas Operation (Ali's twin, Jassim played for this team) 16-1. Yes, they lost 16-1. You might think they played basketball... hehe. We managed to win 10-2..

The 2nd round will be a tough game as we will meet AMWAJ. AMWAJ has 2 supermen on its right wing. They run so fast & reach the goal before you can even blink... We had friendly game with them last time...

Whatever it is, hopefully the team will get through to semi-final... The next game will be on 24 May 09.. Will they bow out to pressure or stand tall?

If they sail through to semi-final, it will be the 1st time ever RLC goes to semi-final after 12 years of the tournament life.. Then we can celebrate..

My Wallet, Qatar & me....

I wish I could never experience this moment in my life again... 

At 1st I thought I misplaced my wallet in the house. I took it easy.. It was just me. Took things for granted. Something that my wife always nag about.. hehe.

I could not find it anywhere in the house. Occasionally, I left the wallet in the car. I tried to look for it in the car.. Nothing!! Then the panic started to kick in... Obviously I did not show it to my wife when I told her that I could not find my wallet. I just asked her if she saw it.. She started to drill me with all sort of questions. At that point I felt I was her patient... She asked as if she was taking the history of her patient.. Still I remained cool... At least I like to think I sounded cool to her...

Prior to that... That morning I drove around without any ID with me. No driving licence, no Qatar ID.. Luckily I had some cash with me.. hehe. Another habit of mine.. Keep money everywhere except in the wallet... In this occasion, it was proven that the habit helped. Otherwise I would go penniless..

When I still could not find the wallet. I realised something was not right. If we could not locate it in the house and in the car, it might be somewhere else.. The question was.. WHERE????

From my wife's interrogation, we concluded that I might have dropped or lost it when we were having dinner at Pendarosa with Asings & Kharul.. Scary thought!!!

At that point, I asked my wife if she ever received SMS from QNB for the usage of my credit card on that day... Over here in Qatar, the moment you charge your purchase to your card, you will be notified through SMS of your spending almost immediately.. Extremely super efficient SMS banking system we have in Qatar. My wife's mobile number was the official number the bank had for notification through SMS. The fact that no SMS came through to her was a big relief. It just meant that my wallet was out there and nobody used the ATM and credit cards for spending spree...

We decided to go back to Pendarosa to try our luck... I was a bit embarrass to ask the Manager On Duty. Certainly I did not want to look stupid (غبي)... To my surprise, the Manager On Duty admitted that his staff found one wallet under the table a night before. He did some simple check to confirm my identity.. I could not believe that I got my wallet back!!! I thanked Pendarosa staff for being honest.. Keep it up..

I was such a big relief to get my wallet back with EVERYTHING intact. Not a single Riyal missing from my wallet.. I told the Manager that if I were to lose my wallet in Malaysia, I would never see it again.. But here in Qatar, things are different. Hopefully it stays that way.... That also reminded me of Ali who always left his Lexus with engine running whenever he went into shops to buy something. I always told him that if he did that in Malaysia, he would never see his car again.. EVER..

Ironically... During the dinner that night, Asings talked about how he lost some money in Malaysia to email scam or better known as Phishing Scam. I was jokingly said that he needed to pay Zakat to 'clean' his money.. It must be very painful for him to lose the hard earned money to unscrupulous guy.... Here I was joking about it.. I sometime could be so insensitive...

For me, I considered myself lucky to have my wallet back, Alhamdulillah. I better be extra careful next time... I may not be that lucky next time..

For those who are still unaware of the phishing scam, be careful and don't fall into the trap... I copy this message from Maybank2U website..

Police alert!
 
NEVER respond to any phone call / SMS / email requesting your bank account details

NEVER reveal your bank account details / ATM PIN / Internet banking password to anyone

NEVER follow instructions from unknown parties to do banking transactions or make changes to your bank account details

NEVER be a victim of schemes that sound too good to be true

RLC Team Made Its Debut

RLC means Ras Laffan Industrial City. It is for those who do not know what RLC stands for. It is where my office is..

The match was the 1st match after almost two months of training.. It was on 28 April 2009 ie last week.

Getting ready for the championship was not easy. What made it more challenging was to get the players who worked on shifts to attend the trainings. What made matter worse was that the coach, Ali was also a professional player who had commitment to his club. Even then, the coach seemed more committed & discipline than the players...hehe. I suppose it took a lot of discipline & hardwork to be a professional footballers. Else, everyone would be a professional footballers. I was very sure I would not be one.. haha. I could never play football.

The good thing about having involved with the training was that I had already lost 5kg, I still needed to trim 4kg more... With the tournament had been in full gear, I might not be able to fully participate in the trainings. The coach & players now concentrated more on tactics & strategy. I was really going for fitness.. I could still join them for early part of the training ie fitness part of it..

All the preparations were for QP Chairman Football Tournament 2009. It was officially launched on 22 April 2009. All Oil & Gas companies operating in Qatar had been invited to participate in the tournament.On its 1st debut on 28 April 2009, RLC team fought hard till the end. At the end, they had to settle for a 3-2 lost to Gas Operation, Maiseed. It was an interesting game with RLC team controlled the 1st half of the game. Unfortunately, luck was not on RLC side on that night.

They have two more games for the 1st round. Hopefully, they will win and qualify for 2nd round.

Thank you all..

What a pleasant surprise!!! Another birthday present arrived at the door today from Azerdills. Accompanying the present was a card that would keep me going for the next few years.. hehe.

For this year's birthday, presents came at different times. The earliest was about 1 month before my birthday. It was from Alisha & my wife. The second came 1 week before my birthday from my brother..

Today's present was the latest, might not be the last..hehe.. I don't have to mention about my birthday present I bought for myself which arrived from Malaysia on my birthday itself.. Thanks to Kharul Panjang for being the excellent courier. Not fogetting the birthday present & luncheon hosted by Meorfai as well as the nice black tie presented by Naguib.

Thank you Dood for the present. It was rather unexpected... Sorry to miss the dinner last night... Duty call..haha. Otherwise, it would have been a grand present giving ceremony.I just can not wait for the next birthday...