Random Thoughts

This is it!
Nope, I'm not getting married yet but somehow it feels like that. Though I never had an experience getting married, I think the excitement that I was feeling yesterday and even today maybe similar to what I will feel during my wedding. I'm going home for my vacation and this time, H is coming home with me. It's time for him to meet my family, and luckily it will not be just my immediate family. He will get the chance to meet my aunts, uncles, cousins from both sides because my nephew is celebrating his 1st Birthday. Yes, it's a mini reunion of sort.

I've been dreaming and hoping for this time to come, for him to finally meet my family especially my parents, in person. It's hard to arrange the schedule because 1) my mom, together with my youngest sister lives in the US, 2) his work schedules doesn't allow him to take long leaves and 3) our present situation doesn't allow us. But, God is really good, after years of praying for this time to come, it's finally happening. For me, this is one big development especially from his part.

Looking back, the first time I met H, he was in a relationship and he was very vocal in saying that "he isn't the marrying type and he doesn't want to get married at all, it's not his cup of tea and it's not in his vocabulary". Maybe, that's one reason why his past relationship didn't work out. Who, in her right mind, would want to continue a relationship with a guy who doesn't want to settle down at all, right?

Knowing this fact, that he is not the marrying type while I'm the hopeless romantic who dreams of the most romantic proposals and the most intimate,fun wedding - totally complete opposites not only in that aspect, I still took my chances with him. Maybe I was blind by love or maybe because I accepted that maybe it isn't my faith to be married at all.Or, maybe because I was not that serious with the relationship anyway, thinking that maybe it's just infatuation (haha! at my age!!) or maybe I just want companionship while I'm working here...or maybe I'm not really sure. That time, I was ok with this facts. I was okay with the idea that I'm not going to settle down with this guy, I don't want to settle down here in the first place. But, deep inside me was actually hoping that he will marry me, who would want to spend all her effort and give all her love to someone temporary anyway? Someone told me before, that if you enter into relationship without even wishing of settling down with that person, then you are just looking for fun and fling.And, I always remember that.

Few months into our relationship or I think it's right after our 1st anniversary, out of nowhere, H just whispered to my ear "I want to marry you". I turned my head and looked into his eyes and asked him what he just said. And again, he said the same thing while looking at my eyes, "I want to marry you. I don't want to lose you". Of course, that was not a wedding proposal, it can't be. There was no ring.That time, it was a big development from someone who doesn't believe in marriage, for someone who doesn't want to get married at all. Knowing that he wants to marry me was enough for me, it is until now enough for me. But now, the next question is when? And that question is waiting to be answered, as to when until now i don't know.And I'm dying inside to know when....

Saree

Within four years, I accumulated sets of salwarkameezes and sarees. Most of my sarees are gifts from H and his family.
I enjoy wearing them during weddings and I love the georgette ones the most as they cling to your body and doesn't make you look more bulky with all those yards of fabrics wrapped around your body.

New Year 2012

Happy New Year everyone :-)

I'm late again in blogging as December is always the busiest month for me due to the set-up and preparation of our pavilion in Dhaka International Trade Fair here in Bangladesh which will run for a month.

And H's sister is also here for 15 days vacation. Tried taking their family portrait but I still have to learn and discover what proper settings will be good enough for them because so far, all the pictures that I took, their skin complexion especially H is always dark (no offense meant here). I don't want to use the built-in flash of my camera, but I need to get a good picture of H under poor/low lighting. I'm using 1600 ISO here already just to make their skin complexion lighter but i don't want to see too much noise also. And yes, i'm using a tripod. HELP!

Email Scam, Hacker or Virus?

Yesterday was a very disappointing day for me as my email got hacked.

I don't know how but maybe because I replied to an email notification from Yahoo that looks so legit because it has this Yahoo logo on it and the address looks complicated with that yahoo dot dot dot address, something that really looks like a legit address, but whom am I to know the real Yahoo services email addresses. That's the only recent incident that I can recall where I have to write down again a sort of application form including my password.

Yesterday, I can't log in to my yahoo mail as it is not accepting my password. I thought it's just another glitch from YM, so I just totally ignored it and went ahead with my work. Around 4pm, that's when I received an email send to my office mail from my YM mail with this message:

Hello,

Hope you get this on time, sorry i didn't inform you about my urgent trip to Leicester, United Kingdom for an urgent function. Unfortunately,i was robbed at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash, cell phones and credit card were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports.

Embassy is far from here and my flight leaves this evening but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager isn't helping issues. Well i really need your financial assistance. Please, let me know if you can help me out with £960 so i can settle my bills as early as possible and return home for other important appointment. As soon as i get back home, i would refund it immediately. Please get back to me quickly .

Thanks!


Peachy.

So, I instantly checked my YM and still I can't log in. I was able to recover it by changing my password again after answering the security questions. But then all my contacts in my address book and all my emails are gone/erased/deleted. I thought everything is ok already. It was send to all my contacts I think because I received a call from an ex-colleague asking me about that, after that call, I instantly posted a status in my FB informing all my friends and families about that vicious email, and truth, majority of them received the said email. H's sister who was in Canada received it also. She was almost scammed by this email because when she replied asking where am I and what's the number to call coz she wants to check if I'm ok, that email replied back with this email:

From: my complete name To: address of my friend
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2011 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: Awful Trip
Thanks a lot for your response to my present ordeal, its a devastating condition which i found my self .I came in here to attend to volunteer program before this unpleasant incident happened.I have loosed everything on me,all i need now is fiscal cash to settle my hotel bill and get a flight back home. Western Union or Money Gram happens to be a quicker means of sending the cash, and please bear in mind that I'll facilitate your reimbursement as soon as i get back home. Please use the details below to send: Name: My complete name Address: 103 Uppingham Road City:LEICESTER ZIP Code:LE5 3TB Country: United Kingdom Just help me write out the MTCN or scan the receipt and other necessary details. I'm looking forward to hearing you ASAP. Thanks.

Patricia.

(note:i erased my complete name and the recipient's address)
H's sister after receiving this, called a friend in London and asked him if he can go to that address assuming it was the hotel's address, to check if I'm ok. That friend luckily or unluckily was 6 hours away from that place so he told H's sister to give his number to me or where exactly am i so that I can call him instead and we can meet somewhere as I will be missing my flight anyway. H's sister was so worried about me that she just decided to send the money from Canada, she and her husband was on their way out already when her husband told her why not call H first to know if I'm ok already or not yet because it's like an hours ago already, that I should have receive a help from someone else already. They called H and heard the truth, then I got alarmed because I already changed my passwords hours ago before the sister replied to that email so how come she received a reply from that email.

When I checked my mail, again I can't log in. I have to changed my password again. And then once I got home, I tried fixing my mail, because apparently I can't receive emails if someone is using the reply option. That's when I noticed the address. It's going to or sending to address@rocketmail.com that's not my legit email address. I'm no expert in fixing this things, but luckily I was able to fix it. I noticed that under my mail options, all replies are send to this rocketmail address. I changed it and put it back to my legit email address.

I just hope no one got scammed with this email. I'm not in close contacts with all my contacts in my address book, so I will not know if they did reply to that email. I lost all my old mails, even my original contract is in that email and some pictures from friends too. So sad.

Four Years

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.~ Joshua J Marine

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." - Steve Jobs

I completed my four years in Bangladesh last November 24th and it's the same anniversary for my Visual Merchandising Department too, I'm still proud to say that I am the pioneer Retail Designer/Visual Merchandiser not only in the company but also in the country.

It was a long journey with ups and downs along the bumpy roads which was sometimes smooth, long stretch with a sudden curve. The sudden curve happened recently with the changed of management and it's just starting, we haven't reach the peak yet. The transition is always a hard part, others may not be that affected but somehow you get affected if the concern person/department is co-related with you, and that is what happening to me right now. I'm both directly and indirectly affected with the transition as I work closely with the new management and the other department. It's stressful, tiring and hard but then, this are all part of life and work and you just have to learn how to adapt to it.

Some few highlights of the past four years:
-set up our pavilion in DITF for 4 consecutive year and maybe this 2012 will be the last at the present venue

-we created a kid's zone for our kid's furniture with a "Bangladesh village ambience" in one of our retail store, another first concept in this country

-set-up a total of 10 new showrooms and one fashion store, with another 2 furniture showrooms in the pipeline

-had 3 TV appearances; first, a newsflash discussing about the new concept and design of our company. Second and 3rd, a segment regarding colors and designing your home in a Local Lifestyle TV show. I also did the set design for this show.

-met the Nobel Prize awardee Dr. Muhammad Yunus

-had a breakfast meeting with Dr. Philip Kotler

-received a Nitun Kundu Entrepreneurship Award for an Excellent Design of DITF 2010 OTOBI Pavilion

What a journey it has been, I did enjoy it, I'm hoping for the best for the next year and the years to come, both in my career and personal life but I don't know what lies in the future. With the present situation, I'm hanging in there for practicality. I still love my work and I still enjoy it but not as much as before. Maybe there's a silver lining in the dark clouds that I have yet to see. BUt no matter what, I will try my very best to enjoy the ride and color it bright.

LP 177: Sulat Kamay (Hand-Written)I

Ito ang aking sulat-kamay ng alpabeto ng Bangla. (This is my hand-writing of the Bangla Alphabets)

Mga iba pang lahok sa sulat-kamay

Zucchini Cake for Eid Ul Adha

Like what I mentioned before, it's my sort of "tradition" to bake a cake during eid. Last Eid-Ul-Adha, I baked a zucchini cake. It's my 5th time to try this, using the same recipe but until now, i can't still perfect. Sometimes, if i baked two pans, one will turn out okay while the other one will be not perfectly done. I still have to find the culprit for that.

I gave the zucchini cake with walnuts to our host in Sylhet and the one with blueberries, we ate it during the trip.
Bon apetit!