Off to Langkawi

Packed the bags,rounded up the kids, get the boarding pass and off we went to Langkawi.....yey!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only that it was not as easy as that.......

The real story was, Amri wanted to bring his laptop, refused to eat breakfast and ended up sulking under the dining table. Adam, whom I painstakingly dressed up handsomely, vomited on the way to KLIA all over himself, shoe included. Hubby made a pitstop at a petrol pump and we joined forces to change Adam into something mismatch and cleaned up the backseat at top speed. Try imagine F1 crews changing tyres etc...that was close enough. I used the remaining time en route KLIA to wipe the puke smell off his shoe, with little success. End of part 1.

Queued up at AirAsia counter to get our boarding pass and checked in our luggage then noticed Amri was lying on conveyer belt. Adam and hubby were nowhere in sight. I cursed under my breath.
Checked in the bag, grab the boarding pass, turned around and saw all three of them sitting nicely in a row looking so angelic and innocent. End of part 2.

Had a bit of time to kill before our flight. Hubby went to gents, Amri went to buy chocolates and I waited with Adam. And waited, and waited and waited and sighed...... at least the boarding pass were with me. I saw Amri being escorted (or chased????) by airport policeman, obviously lost his way after buying too many sweets. No explaination offered. I assumed that he took different exit from the sweet shop and lost his sense of direction. The policeman, seeing him looking lost perhaps wanted to help, but Amri, being too mischievous must have thought the policeman wanted to arrest him, suddenly regained his sense and ran towards me. So it looked like the policeman was chasing Amri. I quickly checked the junks he bought and was relieved to find he did not exceed the allocated fund. In fact, he fully utilised the money to the last sen. Double checked his pocket, just to make sure my namecard was still there. Who knows maybe he'll really get lost one day and suddenly could not remember my name or his father's name. I get a few minutes of break while Adam and Amri were busy fighting for the junks. End of part 3

We boarded the plane, get to our seat and Adam immediately started getting bored and cranky. And the plane was not even taken off yet. When it did take off, Adam refused his milk bottle which made me worry endlessly about his ear pressure. Amri spotted the food cart and bought Snickers. Really...this boy was living on chocolates and sweets today. End of part 4

We managed to reach Langkawi in one piece, attended the wedding and Amri dutifully presented the wedding gift. Both of the boys were half asleep and ate with eyes half opened. End of part 5.

Both boys were highly sugared and were bouncing off the wall while their father and I catched a nap.

This is my answers to everybody's question on why I prefer to travel by car.

No school day

Finally, Amri somehow managed to grasp the idea of school holiday. Phew.....!!!! No more morning meltdown, screaming to go to kindy. However....he kind of thinking that if school is out than the parents would be on holiday as well. Errr..........I spent breakfast time explaining to him that ibu and ayah still has to go to work. All the while watching in horror as his face clouded, the smiley lips gone lopsided and he pushed aside his breakfast plate, no longer interested in eating.

So I took the easy way out.....I changed the topic! I started talking about tomorrow, our short balik kampung trip to Langkawi, the wedding of Kak Cik Ana that we're going to attend and of course, being Amri, he twisted the plan to include a dip in the pool/river/beach or whatever body of water that is available, bath tub included.

Within seconds...the face light up, the voice upbeat and Amri started planning his day.....first he is going to pack his clothes and Adam's clothes in his bag (I made a mental note to search all bags after work, just in case he decided to pack half eaten oreos) then he's going to look for his missing goggles, charge his laptop battery (ish....budak nih...), suruh bibik buat susu Adam 3 botol.......yadda...yadda...yadda.

At least, I got to eat my breakfast in peace.

Temporary Amnesia

Whats gotten into me?????

I went to PKNS, supposedly looking for money changer. Ended up instead at the many stalls selling nice looking blouses, baju kurung, jubah etc etc......

And....of the millions of clothes sold there......I bought a white skirt and a white blouse. White!!!! Of all colours! In my temporary amnesia...I have forgotten about two sticky fingers-forever comot-boys at home.

Oh well....at least I may be able to parade around in white for...say...10 minutes, before the whites turn into rainbows of colours in a shape of little fingers

Amri skip school

Amri slept wearing the new robe bought by Tok Mie for him and woke up this morning looking confused but happy with his new aeroplanes. Note the 's'. So it meant 2 aeroplanes. The other one must be either for Adam or Alif, or perhaps Ikhwan but since Amri had claimed ownership, the doting granparents just let him be.

As expected, he refused to go to kindy. I knew better than to kick up a fuss. Not only it will ruin my morning but my in laws may start thinking that I was half dragon. Despite whatever Aboh said that I should be more strict with the kids, I was pretty sure he would be the first to come to Amri's rescue. All Amri needs to do is scrunched up his face and look sadly at Tok Kie.....and Tok Kie would melt straightaway.......
There's also another reason.....I happened to overheard Tok Kie saying to Amri that if he did not go to kindy, Tok Kie will go back to Tganu. Well....that one was pretty dangerous since both Tok Kie and Tok Mie would be flying back to Tganu this afternoon. I certainly did not want Amri to go to kindy and came home only to find his Tok Kie had broken the promise. More importantly I did not want Amri to feel cheated and started to nag me about Allah hated people who lied, blah, blah, blah.....nanti Allah denda...... :)

As it was, Amri did not go to kindy and spent his morning practically joined by the hip with his Tok Kie

Mie & Aboh back from Umrah

We were at KLIA waiting for Tok Mie & Tok Kie when we ran across Kak Lin, Shitah and Yati, trotting their bags towards departure hall. Wow......this ladies really had a good life though Kak Lin did sound miserable with the prospect of one way ticket to Miri. To think that Yati flew down from JB just for a 3 days shopping trip....wowwwww.....what a life! I was green with envy. But then, I had a good life myself. And the only thing preventing me from flying anywhere for a shopping trip is that I want to drag the boys with me. Now....boys = disaster, period! Anyway, the thing I want so much to buy is not sold in shopping complex :)

By the way, Tok Mie had a grand time shopping in Mecca and the four of us were on the receiving end, being showered with all the trinkets they managed to get hold at. Come to our house people.....and you shall be served with ten different kinds of dates....not that I can tell one from the other

Amri in distress

I reached home after work and immediately noticed none of the boys were playing outside. A moms instinct told me something was up. What now........

True enough, once my face popped at the front door, Amri was wailing. Then showed me his injured kneecap. So what??? No big deal as far I was concerned, a few bloody cuts and scrapes and bruises.... Certainly not the first time. Definitely not half as bad as his scalded calf, and even then he did not shed tears.

So I decided to ask his little friends instead. As it turned out, Amri coaxed his friends into long jump contest over a drain...a big one at that. On one of his jumps, he miscalculated (perhaps...or tripped) and landed inside the drain instead. Kakakakaka......the image was so comical that I can't help laughing at my own son.

Then I understood the tears. Certainly not for the sorry state of his knee, but more out of trepidation. Of being scolded by me, who after the wall grafitty incident, was not as lenient as before. My son was afraid of me. And that's the last thing I wanted to happen to him....being so scared that he didn't dare tell me the truth. The tears was his way to shield questions, of seeking comfort instead of wrath.

I need a break............

Of cars

Being in automotive industry, I have the privileged of getting to know all kinds of cars…from exotic bufori down to humble gen2. But it puzzled me as to why on earth the design engineers at proton decided to put the indicator /light switch on dirver left hand side and wiper switch on the right hand. Come on man…the rest of regular proton cars come with right hand indicator switch. What justify gen 2 to be the opposite?
Dear hubby used to own a bmw with the opposite switches..but then…it was an imported car. Built for use at other country. Does proton designer started to think that a luxury car owner would somehow switch to gen 2? Fat chance! Or mmmm….maybe it was their prophecy that one day…gen2 owner would gradually upgrade themselves to imported luxury car, so might as well start training now. So when they buy their first bmw, chances of embarrasing themselves by turning on the wiper in the middle of hot afternoon while driving their prespectus client around would be nil.

By the way, just for the record, I managed to drive the gen2 from section 26 to proton ctr of excellence without having the wiper and indicator confused, not even once. Yey!!!!!! Guess my unconcious competence is in good working condition.

Received an sms from my boss shortly afterward………." Much that I trusted your driving capability, please do not race that gen2 in front of proton building"
Huh…I thought he was in Penang??????????

Gloomy day and nite

On a whim, I stopped by Giant on my way home from office and bought household supplies that I'd usually buy on Saturday, dragging all my three escorts with me. Shopping alone was so fuss free and effortless but left me with a feeling that I have forgotten something. Milk...check! Diapers...check! Ribena...check! Detergents...check! So what else was missing????????? Most probably the extra 30kg cumulative weight of the kids inside the trolley that I pushed around on my usual grocery shopping trips.

We were going to dine out but hubby was still not home when I reached there but arrived while I was having my quick shower. I dressed up with lightning speed, went downstairs and declared ready to go. Dear hubby...looking totally exhausted and still in his work clothes dragged himself out and definetely not having a good time. Suddenly the food was no longer appealing, the restaurant seemed to be too crowded and I so desperately wanted to be home. Another not so nice night....that made two nights in a row

Looking forward to a new day tomorrow........hopefully a happy day

Mommy monster

I went home from office only to find that Amri has decided to use the dining area wall as his whiteboard. Big ugly scribbling of mostly no.2 and no.3 were all over the wall, written with blue marker. Where on earth that he got hold of a marker..........
I was totally pissed off and at a lost of what I was supposed to do. Shall I punish him? Most probably yes, looking at dicipline point of view and I definitely should draw a clear line at the do's and donts. On the other hand....it was just a wall and it did not cost much to paint it. And Amri definitely did not think that he was doing anything wrong as he was proudly presenting his modern art work to me.

But heck...much that I love Amri unconditionally, I also love my wall. And I do not want to raise a future graffitty lover, though he may turn out to be next da vinci.

Since I was againts physical punishment (though caning him would definely made me feel better for five minutes), so I did what I knew worked best.......he was grounded in his room while I took Adam for a drive. It would drive him nuts and hopefully the message would sink. I needed time out myself......as far away from my now ugly wall. Amri wailed and screamed in his room. By now my neighbours must have thought that I was physically abusing him

Then I noticed Adam was quite warm to my touch.....the onset of fever and its associates... but nevertheless was very happy with the prospect of going for a drive with ibu. I drove around the neighbourhood twice then decided to take Adam to see his doctor. Nothing too bad...the doctor said, just an oncoming cold. Great! No need for antibiotic. All the better...I was not in the mood to administer medication.

When we reached home, Amri had taken his shower and changed to his pj...probably by bibik...but still sobbing in his room. Dear hubby was still in Lumut....all the better....nobody to rescue Amri for the time being. I played with Adam all night then when he nodded off to lala land, curled up beside him and crashed out...hoping for a better day tomorrow. Things will always look better in the morning.

I found the scoop!

Three quater down the can of Enfagrow, I finally came across the silly milk scoop. This time being a procrastinator did me good, because I was really looking forward to write a nasty email to meadjohnson. However, need to teach bibik a bit of maths then, 1 scoop for every 60ml = 1 scoop for every 2oz .....sheesh.....

By the way, Adam was 15 months old today and the way he was gulping down his formula, I may have to buy 4 largest can per month.

Ummi & Aboh go for Umrah

Ummi and Aboh were off to KLIA sometime after 6 in the morning, hardly eating the breakfast other then a cup of tea. Hope they will have a good time doing their umrah and ziarah.

Amri woke up asking for Tok Kie, as expected. Adam wandered from room to room, looking for people to entertain him (or vice versa) Guess he was a bit confused, one day the house was full of grandparents and the next morning, all were gone. The house seemed too quiet and no exotic smell coming from our kitchen. Bibik was cleaning up the big pots and pans to be kept on the highest cabinet for another year.

This must be how parents feel when their children left the nest.

Happy Graduation Day to Kak Cik

Mak & Abah were off to the convocation very early in the morning, that even Amri had not wake up yet. And when he did, made a fine job of screaming the house down looking for Wan. I very nearly shipped him off to Q-Dees stark naked coz he refused to wear the uniform himself or let anybody dress him....other than Wan. What with that burned mark on his leg, botchy face from crying for Wan, uncombed hair........he looked pretty much like the ugly, neglected and much abused kid :) I however...was resigned to the fact that I will not be able to have nice, clean looking kids, at least for a couple of decades or until they managed to find themselves nagging gilfriends, whichever come first. I'd welcome nagging gilfriends with open arms...suit them right. Adam meanwhile wouldn't get into his clothes without throwing big time tantrum and even then its pretty much like stuffing an alive octopus into a small bag. But at least, he didn't look too dirty, at least for half an hour.

As promised mak su came with nasi tomato and curry mee for lunch, celebrating kak cik's graduation and farewell party to Abah & Mak who will go back to Kedah and also to Ummi and Aboh who will be going to for their umrah trip tomorrow. I was getting very itchy in the office, waiting for anybody to arrive so that I could go home and stuffed my face. I did escaped later but it was more like tea time than lunch.

Glad to be accountant of leisure

I dropped by at Q-Dees and paid Amri's concert costume fee. On a second thought, I bought new gym uniform for him too as the current gym suit was starting to resemble a cross between kitchen rag and painter suit. Why on earth people at Q-Dees HQ came up with white as a colour for gym shirt? I made a mental note to peek at other kids gym suit first before I started blubbering away at the choice of colour. Who knows, perhaps other kids (or their parents) managed to maintain a spotless white t-shirt and only yours truly was oblivious to the washing technology.

Kak Cik appeared during dinner to give Abah & Mak their convocation entrance pass then off she went again but not after gulping down dinner at lightning speed. Huh....who said teacher was a leisurely job? I, the supposed to be busy from dawn to dusk accountant has to be the teacher's despatch tomorrow, sending her mails to post office and bank in her cheque.

I hope Ida got the job, at least to get CW off my back. This is getting ridiculos already (though extremely hillarious to other ex-infinitium)

Family reunion part 2

Gie & co have gone back to Terengganu but Mak and Abah just arrived all the way from Kedah to attend Kak Cik's convocation. Amri was ecstatic. All the people that has set forth in this world to pamper him to death were here, ready for battle. Adam couldn't care less...the more the merrier. Bibik was scratching her head trying to wade through the logistic problem. And Ida thought I was having a homestay program at my house. Sabor je lah minah ni............

To add to the circus, two families of unexpected guests drop by during lunch time. I was soooo ever deeply embarrassed for not being able to offer lunch on the spot. Oh my.....I wish they had called first. Hate not being able to feed guest to the brim.

Feeding the army

Made a trip to Pasar Section 6 again in the wee hours of Saturday morning, minus the escort, both of whom still snoring blissfully. The thing was, both hubby and I were extremely lazy when it came to drawing cash from ATM machine. And it happened this morning when both of us were going around with little cash but hoping the other would have enough to buy this and that. Like a couple of broke teenagers, we chip in and managed to come up with 100 bucks...hahahaha.....hardly enough to feed both of us, let alone an army who would invade (and already invaded) our house for the next few days. Okay....impoverise...impoverise.....I was supposed to be good at that.
But found out later, not good enough. My trolley was not brimming as usual and I wanted to buy a lorry load of fruits......sob, sob, sob.....

Darn!!!!!!Should have stop at that maybank kawanku.

Family day began

With the arrival of Aboh, Ummi, Gie & Co! They lost their way again, but this time funnily enough, they ended up nearby my office. Rescue task was easier then, I just had to drive straight and asked Gie to turn around then led them safely home.

By nightfall my house was a total bedlam. Amri and Ikhwan decided to bicker every step of the way. Adam and Alia toddling around like nobody's business. My freezer was out of anything than could be cooked up and eaten by the army. So we made a two car konvoi to Thai Village and stuff ourselves silly, with Ummi worrying endlessly whether I had eaten enough or Rokiah had eaten enough. Despite my effort to preorder everything, the kids still turned the place into a chaotic madhouse a good 3 minutes after we arrived. Boys.........
The owner must have been tempted to include some extra charges of inconvenience into our bill by this time, with the kids trying to catch the live fishes inside the tanks with their bare hands plus the racket that could even have awaken the dead, let alone Shah Alam prim and proper diners. On the other hand......I was practically left alone by the kids to gobble down my food in peace so can't be complaining, can I? The way I see it, the kids can hide under the restaurant's table for as long as I need to finish my food.

Battle of the courses

It was interesting to read the reply to Sid innocent posting of uitm accountancy faculty advertisement. One one hand, yes.......we can't beat what's been pre written as our destiny, fate, takdir or whatever. Question is, does academic qualification falls under prewritten category? Death is.

I've been there, done that and so was Sid and many others that have made it. Yes, it was tough to go through every stage of the exam. Afterall, the exam was designed to put you a cut above the rest. You won't be called chartered accountant for nothing, babe. You have to sweat through it.

But exam was what it is, merely an exam. It was designed by mere mortal with brain capacity more or less of an average joe albeit more resilient to the call of tv, a date, sport, movie or what not that seemed to occupy the major part of our time as an undergrad. Since it was designed by human beings, whom by most part were constrained to their office, the easiest way to get through the exam was to understand the examiner culture. Which is to say the students need to know the education system in UK. The next best to do thing is to understand how the Brits think since the exam papers are designed by them. Surely students can't answer it Malaysian style, study-to-pass-the-exam mentality toppped with haphazard English and expect to pass. Most importantly, you can't just read one text book and hope to score an A, and then when you failed, blame it on the fate. The higher the level you are at means the more you have to read & research and the broader the horizon of your mind should be.

Having all that safely under your belt, now come to the next issue....attending class! For god sake, unless you are born ultra genius, you can't hardly understand the concept of FM by staring at the book (and blame on the fate later on)

All that done, welcome to the world of professionals where job offers find you while actually you are contemplating to build your own empire.

Congratulation

Congratulation to Kak Naz and Hatta on their sixth wedding anniversary. I still remember going to the wedding with Nyna, Khairi, Kak Lin, Nizerque etc etc by commuter to Seremban and had a great time. Couldn't possibly forget the melodious gamelan played live all day long.

Congratulation to Azu and Ali on their fifth wedding anniversary. I attended their wedding with my brand new husband and sporting a 4 months old bump. Since no morning sickness ever significantly invaded my system, I had a grand time feasting. And managed to catch a few minutes of gossiping in bilik pengantin with Nyna, also carrying Haziq, unknowingly of course.

Congratulation to Kak Zehan on the birth of the second child, a boy no less. Looks like you're having a pair over there :)

Congratulation to Kak Rosni on the second pregnancy after 11 years! Hahahaha. You're as good as a green preggy mom. Why on earth did you ever asked me for the amount to budget for the baby. Surely I do not have one. Babies expenditure could not be budgeted, at least not by me. Babies simply put a hole permanently on your pocket and no matter how you budgeted for it, chances are, you'd be over your budget even before the baby arrive. But oh.....the joy they bring to you.....priceless! That is, until they decided to become colicky and holler all night long.

I'm stumped over a bottle of formula?

In a moment of blurred sotong, I bought the largest can of Enfagrow for Adam, never knowing whether he will drink it or spit it out. To add to the blur, no scoop is provided inside. So how do I measure the amount of formula per 1 oz of water? I read and reread the fine prints all over the can and noticed a sentence - 10.6gram for every 60ml. Sheesh........does meadjohnson really think there is a mom on this earth that will fish out a weighing machine from her overstuff kitchen cabinet and measure 10.6gram x 4 = 42.40 gram for a bottle of 240ml? Emmm..maybe there is...but definitely not me. My solution was to rummage for a cute little spoon that the origin escaped me, took eight scoop, pour inside the bottle and voila.........a drink people called formula was done! Adam gulped it all down and seemed not in danger of collapsing in some kind of fit due to poorly prepared formula by his blurred mom.
Perhaps I do not need to write a piece of my mind over scoop issue to meadjohnson afterall. Oh....what the heck.....I'll write it anyway.

Botanical Garden

Brought the kids to Botanical Garden, Putrajaya. Haven't been here for ages, our last (and only) trip was when Amri was still a tiny tot , toddling in between the rocks and trees and inspecting every minute detail of the fallen twigs. It was different then, most of the structures were still under construction and the place was almost unknown to the public. Today however, we were in for a surprise. Well..plenty of surprises to be frank. First and foremost, the parking was almost full instead of our lone car years ago. When we went to the counter for our ticket, there was a short queue. Granted, it was quite late and nearing closing time. Turned out they offered many kinds of package, guided tour, bicycle rental, paddle boat etc etc. Suddenly we wished we were there 2 hours earlier.

We took a tram tour, even though initially we planned to just take a walk and give the chance to the kids let off a bit of steam. Half way through I noticed many bicycles passed us by and to my pleasant surprise, they also rent out kids size bicycle plus all the safety gear and.......baby seat, to be attached to the parent bicycle rear. And a twin bicycle too. This was getting soooo coooool!!!!! Amri was so crazy with the tram trip he practically whined for more once we reached our final stop. Adam however was running wild in circles so we decided to double back on foot and let the kids run their excess energy off. No worries about drinks either, more than enough vending machine and restaurant.

I made a mental note to come back in another 2 weeks, this time earlier and armed with camera.