Within 1 hour 24 minutes from now, 2007 shall be gone forever regardless of what we have achieved or otherwise.

December has been a rather short month with the flooding back home in Mentakab and Temerloh around 14th December, followed by Aidil Adha, a death of one of our relatives, Christmas, a little challenge with one of my younger brother's daughter. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and lo and behold it's New Year's eve!

What ever it might have been, it's time to wish all of you my dear friends and acquaintances alike a Happy New Year.

May all our dreams we have cherished for so long come true, blessed with continued good health, great times of fun and laughter, prosperity and most of all a peaceful environment to enable us all be the best of our own potentials!

To quote Warren Bennis the 'Guru' of Gurus of Leadership, "LIFE WITHOUT DREAMS IS DEATH". And so we shall continue to dream, aspire and be the maker of our own destiny.

Goodbye 2007. Thanks for the good and bad times. Whilst the good times will definitely be long remembered, the bad times as always shall remain as the true coach and teacher in this journey of ours..

With that let's all embrace the New Year 2008 with renewed vigour and determination to be the best we can be!

Warmest regards,

Yours Truly,

m.a.
KL.10.55pm
31st December 2007.

Grahame, Diana, Benjamin and Kimberley.


Kimberley and Benjamin
Got an email from England. From Diana and her family. And that brought me back memories way back to Penang, USM over 20 years ago.

She and Nirah's mom were classmates. And of coz, by virtue of that became my friend as well. They were the best of friends for reasons only known to them. But one thing for sure, Diana has always been a truly genuinely nice person in every aspect you would want out of a person.

Later on I graduated and they were together in USM for next 3 years. Then we got married and I worked in KL. Diana came to KL to work and stayed with us for a while.



When Nirah was born, she naturally became Nirah's god mother.

Then Diana went to London for her Masters Degree. Met Grahame and eventually settled down.

Nirah used to follow them around when they came back to Penang for a holiday in Penang and Southern Thailand.

Diana, the most unlikeable candidate for a full time mom and housewife did just that after being blessed with their first child, Kimberley.

About 3 years ago, Diana came back to Malaysia with her 2 kids and it was just magic to see her handling her kids. She was really trying very hard to impress the 2 young kids' mind that they had family and friends back here in Malaysia. What a mother!

The 2 young children might not be able to appreciate much at that point of time, but 10-15 years down the road, they would probably love it to have god parents like us here in Malaysia.

We look forward to the day to be able to really let them have the opportunity to experience and enjoy a very different culture back home here in Malaysia where the mom used to come from.

In a way, Nirah is following her god mum's footsteps. She is planning to work here in Malaysia for 3 years upon her graduation next year and planning to go to Canada for her Masters Degree. We are all for it. We did not have the luxury of choice during our time and we really would love her to live life to the fullest and be what she dreams to be. Life has to be lived BIG.

And to Diana, we share your happiness for living the life that you live now. Just remember you guys are always welcomed to come home to stay with us back here, anytime.

Love, from us all from Malaysia.

The doting Grandparents John & Robyn


A... Finally the long awaited news from Brisbane finally came through from our dear friends John and Rob. It has been almost a year and they have been exceptionally quiet. We used to keep in touch every now and then.

And Rob sent us the photos of the new family members as well John Henry and Tex! No wonder they are so quiet 'coz life has been so complete!


Little John and Henry Tex

I met John and Rob way back when I was invited to a speaking engagement for a Seminar in Brisbane Australia in 2000.That was my first ever exposure to speak outside Malaysia.

This couple was nice enough to have volunteered to be my hosts for the couple of days while in Brisbane. After the speaking engagement, they invited me to stay at their house. They made me felt at home right away.

John was extremely nice to have obliged to drive me all the way to the Gold Coast to visit some of the tourist attractions.

My second stay in their home was when I was travelling to Hamilton Island 2 years later. John came all the way to see me in transit at the Brisbane Airport and I just had to stop over at their place on my way back. I just wanted to spend some time with this fine couple.

And life is in a way so peculiar, we can go any where any place and you kind of have that special feeling of 'coming home' when you have friends. Got the same feeling everytime I went to Penang, Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Brunei, Labuan or KK. All, because I have friends there. Oh ya, even Medan and Jakarta too.

And of course, every time they came down to KL we would turn hosts for them. It has always been a pleasure to have them around and we (Mariana, Nirah my daughter and me) enjoyed every second of their presence here in KL.

Everytime Mariana saw some one ordering ABC when ever we ate out, that straight away triggered her memory of Rob who loves ABC.. " Emm.. Rob would have ordered that..."

John has started his own MLM Company in Australia and we are happy to hear that they are doing really well. With the present arrangement that I am in, I honestly would love to invite them to speak at my functions as well here in Malaysia.

Well my friends, really nice to hear from you guys. Looking forward to see you both again in not too distant a future, hopefully.

Greetings from KL,

Muhamad, Mariana & Munirah.