Island hopping

Ajoe celebrated his 22nd birthday alone today. We were still at Langkawi, doing expressed island hopping. Amri woke up unusually early and was ready for another day so the three of us were left with no choice but to drag ourselves up and kickstart another day. Which was truly a whirlwind. Starting with a short splash at Pantai Cenang right after breakfast followed by a visit to Underwater World. Adam was so tired he felt asleep while walking to the car park after the visit ended. We rushed to Tok's house, ate lunch, bathed and changed the kids and drove Pak Caq and Mak Caq to Jetty. But not before we made a pit stop at a duty free shop and grabbed a few chocolates and shoes for the kids. Adam got a cool soft leathered shoes that cost only 30 bucks to replace his puke smelling old shoes. Amri grabbed himself a pair of football shoes. Shopping done, we rushed Pak Caq to Jetty, drop them there, bid our farewell and sped off in search of petrol pump and luggage. Found the petrol pump, drove to nearby duty free mall and bought the most decent bag I could find. Sped off to the airport, dumped our excess stuff into our new bag and shoved the kids towards departure hall. Then I saw tonnes of branded luggages selling at half the prices that I bought....sheesh. Hubby kept reminding me to look the other way, but then I saw perfumes that I wanted to buy but could no longer afford to linger without missing our flight.
We checked in then heard the announcement that our flight would be delayed. I slumped on my seat.

Well...looking on positive side, my credit card was spared another abuse.

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.

Long weekend without book(s)

Sent the maid away and braced myself for a scene from ruined Tinanic for these two days. Picking up after the kids were really not my strong forte but then the sight would not have bothered me much. I'd just closed both eyes and pretended to be somewhere else.

What deeply bothered me was the fact that I would be facing 3 days weekend without a new book other than that boring american journey by colin powell. And MPH Shah Alam only sell junks. Oh well...I might be reduced to reading women mags or ikea catalogue. How much more pathetic could it be.

So be it. I filled my Saturday with what a normal human being should be doing. I shopped for week raw material supply, of all places, at pasar section 6. A sense of deja vu were always there. Years ago, I'd be strolling there with Kak Lin and bought a little bit of everything. Today however, my two bodyguards (minus Adam) trailed behind me and every now and then offered to carry my brimming hand trolley. Occasionally the two bodyguards would be missing, hunting for their own stuff and left me wondering which one of the many hand trolley belongs to me. After almost one hour, I managed to get enough supply to feed a batallion but for some reason, forgotten entirely about breakfast.

Since no book to bury my nose in then I decided to go for the long overdue hair treatment, leaving big daddy to babysit the two stooges. Followed by a trip to Macy afterwards, this time duly escorted by all three bodyguards.

Move your butt

Dunno what's gotten into my aerobic instructor. For today's class she moved us through a very fast pace step till I was scared my little heart would give out anytime. Then followed by guerilla like arms and legs exercise, weight added that I started to consider calling hubby to drive me home, just in case I would not be able to move afterwards. To top it all, the aircond and fan was not working and being aerobic room, no window exist either. Gosh.....I was lucky I managed to reach home without hyperventilating and my legs were still attached to my torso. Phew!!!!!!!!!!

Back to home sweet home

Nothing beats your own home :)

We're back in Shah Alam after 4 days at sweltering hot Kedah. Amri was bruised, scratched and sunburnt from his holiday activities which I didn't want to find out what. Adam was sporting new hairdo and heat rashes all over his neck. I managed to add another kilo to my already expanding girth due to non stop eating binge. Never able to resist mom's cooking :)
All things considered, we were happy and still in one piece each.

Da Vinci Code

Finally ....... I was able to finish this book. It was certainly not on top of my list but then I was down to two unread books. So between Colin Powell autobiography and Dan Brown book, the choice was clear. Heck...it took me one week. It was a great book but frustrating in a way that I could not speed through it as usual. And also the works of Da Vinci that I had no knowledge of.
Maybe I should give it another round and cross refer to whatever painting mentioned in the book. Hehehehe....I'm visioning myself sitting regally in front of internet doing cross refering while reading a story book. Hardly my favourite book reading posture.

See if I could stomach colin powell stuff next week. Oh my..............the long wait for Harry Porter.......

It's my birthday

And I'm giving Malaysia a public holiday :D

I spend 5 hours of my birthday on PLUS highway, northward bound. What a better way to celebrate birthday than to present yourselves to the woman who gave birth to you 31 years ago? The woman who, apart from Allah the Almighty, made it possible for me to celebrate birthday year after year.

On the other hand, I think Amri was more thrilled than I did. Its a balik kamoung trip!!!!!!!!!

Carrot chili padi cake !

The guys at office threw a birthday party for me today, since tomorrow is public holiday and I'll be on leave afterwards. It was a carrot cake that nobody agreed it was carrot. Right...the carrot topping looked more like a big fat chili padi than carrot anyway. We end up with more food than we could possibly consumed, even Suria the big eating machine.

Looking forward to tomorrow..............not so much for the holiday but for the balik kampung trip

Externalzone Football Match

Well well well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For an event that was most discussed over on externalzone, it was not up to my personal expectation in terms of players and supporters. Made you realise the meaning of 'hangat hangat tahi ayam' . But a game was a game. So there we were, at Padang SUK, playing againts Metro Academy. The result came out as draw, which was so-so....nothing extraordinary.

What made the game extraordinary was the stamina of externalzone players....my goodness...for somebody who spent a decade sitting on their ass at least 10 hours per day counting the beans, the strength was amazing. Nel was great, so was Edy, Sid and the rest of the team. The best was Nora's hubby, despite being bed ridden for days due to high fever, was able to play extraordinarily well.

We had the usual outgoing gang as the supporter, Wan Dzul & Xanna with their cutie specky Farra, Khairi& Nyna with their two adorable boys, Nora minus the troop due to fever, Nina the off field goalkeeper with her Putri and Akmal (wonder how she make him so well mannered). Truth was, we ladies hardly watched the game since we need to catch up with one another and make it quick to utilise the 90 minutes football game. Don't ask me who scored the goal, obviously it was not my hubby dearest.

Back on earth

I read my newly acquired book while dishing up my signature kari ikan , throughout football game with the kids and their swimming session and finally, I reached the end after we were back from pusat akuatik. I hate reaching the end. Its like being back on earth with a thump.

Guess I'll make another visit to any bookshop soon :)

Deception Point

Bought that book, by Dan Brown on Saturday morning at Carrefour (where I should be stocking up on household suppplies instead of book browsing) Well...I can't resist. Amri has new CD, Adam got himself new toy so naturally mommy dearest need something as well. The thing about me and books is, once I get hold of a new one, my brain simply stop its multi tasking ability. Result........I could only think of reading a book and NOTHING else. So we went home with my shopping list half done coz I was no longer interested to buy kicap kipas udang or cili sos or detergent. Lucky the diapers were already taken ten minutes before...otherwise Adam would be toilet trained two years in advance.

So I read, read, read, eat, read, read, read..........and skip sleeping so that I could finish the book before Monday.

Parent Teacher Meeting

I did not really look forward to it but I found myself in Amri's classroom on cloudy Friday afternoon talking to his teacher. Truth is, I almost dreaded it because I knew what was coming. But there I was, in front of teacher Rosmawati listening to her pleading to let her give Amri homeworks.
Just in case anybody was wondering....I was one of crazy moms on earth who was against homeworks. So, months ago, I told Amri's teacher to stop giving him homework ( and save me the trouble of hunting the homework book every morning) and not to worry if he still is illiterate at the end of the day. I said it again today.

Giving up on homework topic, teacher Rosmawati decided to tell stories instead.

Story 1
Teacher : Amri, has you finished your work?
Amri : Noooooo
Teacher came to inspect Amri's work...........and saw a blank page
Teacher : Amri, why didn't you do anything on your book?
Amri : Amri busy lah teacher...............

Story 2
Amri : Teacher............Edmund beats me.....
Teacher : Amri......Edmund did not come to school today
Amri : Teacher.......Asha beats me.....
Teacher : Amri, no more talking please. Nobody beats you. You are sitting alone at teacher's table.
Amri : Teacher.........Affin beats me...........

Story 3
Amri : Teacher....Amri hungry
Teacher : Eat your macaroni
Amri : Ada sayooooorrr..........
Teacher : Vegi is good for you, makes you strong and healthy
Amri : Nanti Amri hensem macam ayah ye............
Teacher : hahahahahahahahahahah...............

Story 4
Teacher : Amri...what are you doing?
Amri : Amri colour........
Teacher : What are you colouring?
Edmund (who sat next to Amri) : Teacher...........Amri colour my book.....waaaaaa...........

Okay.......I hope I do not have to see the teacher anytime soon

Breakfast at section 3

Truth is, nothing is too extraordinary about the breakfast dishes there. In fact, sri ttdi which is within walking distance from my house offers ten times more choices and seats. But that place was where, many many years ago, I decided to accept a breakfast offer from my now much loved husband. The offer came quite some time before I could muster enough guts to accept. And when I did finally accept, I was chaperoned by Yati. The feel good factor was so great that I decided to ditch Yati for the next breakfasts :D Sorry Yati dearie, you are a great friend but I wanted him all for myself....ha ha ha!

This morning we were there again, having our breakfast date, chaperoned by two young boys who were zillions times more difficult to ditch than Yati. Not that it ever occured to us to leave them behind, by the way. Amri was asking why we did not go for our breakfast 'atas rumput' as usual :) Well...what do I say to a 4 year old who can't understand the word nostalgic yet .... "rumput basah, sayang!"

On another note...........Amri is now practising for Externalzone Football Club match of the year ever since dear hubby took out his football boot and bought a new ball. Question is...when is the game?

This is not a joke

To answer the questions I've been bombarded for weeks....YES!!!!!!!! I have decided to join back the rat race. Reasons are aplenty. Partly because I have housing loans on my name. Partly because I am a better mom if I do not spend all day with my kids. Also because I think I need to build up my asset base before I jump to fast track.

But this time, I am joining a slower pace of race. The day when I will join fast track may come early or late, and it is fine with me.

Heck..........whomever could understand what I am blubbering about here must have either very close to me or read the same book as I did. (Or errr...the person is my husband:D )

I missed having the two boys tagging along with me everywhere I go.

I'm locked out!!!!!!!!!!

Why am I blogging at 7 in the morning? Because I've been locked out of my own room!!!!!!!!!! By myself. Something has gone wrong with the lock that I did not noticed when I sneaked out to go downstairs to tell bibik how to cook fried mee (as if she didn't know yet).

Hubby is snoring blissfully inside and I definitely do not want to knock because I'm pretty sure the person who'll first hear the knock will be Adam. I've given up trying the zillion key one by one. Knowing my luck, I could have surfed a thousands website in the time it takes me to find the right key.

So hear I am...blogging in the wee hour while listening the gibberish from secondary school teacher next door. Eh...I thought they only speak gibberish on Monday assembly? My only company is Kak Zehan on the msn msgr.

Perfect Sunday

I looooveee this kind of Sunday. No MBA class in the way, no greenish snot from the two boys and having breakfast at section 3. Well...truth was, we bought the breakfast at section 3 and ate at the lake. No way we could squeeze all four of us into the already crowded shop. The catch is, if we dine in, we'll get regular nasi lemak served in a plastic plate. But if we take away, the nasi lemak would be packed in banana leaf, which i'd never be tired of. So take away we did, complete with spoon and drink and apam for Adam, to our regular breakfast spot at the lake. After breakfast would be playtime for as long as the boys could play. They were free to get dirty, sunburnt and if they wanted to, roll on the grass by all mean :D

Then back to home sweet home, which by now would be sparkling clean in our absence. I'd be playing chef with two little assistant permanently sticking by my side or behind. Its a wonder these two boys never get drenched in hot oil or boiling chicken curry.

We ate lunch then slept the afternoon away then out we go again. Today would be a birthday party at a poolside, which meant, no trip to pusat akuatic necessary.

I wonder how long am I allowed to have this kind of Sunday before the boys get too busy with their own lives. I hope long enough!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

It was supposed to be an equinox day today. Sure, I am very aware of it but I think the media sort of overplayed the issue. So what if it was hot today? Heat stroke???? Fat chance! This is Malaysia, a tropic country. Equinox or no, it was already boiling hot. Today would just be another hot and sweaty day. To help pushing up the temperature were MBSA workers under strict order from their bosses to chop down oxygen producing trees and replace with plastic coconut trees.

The kids and I played outdoor as usual. It is most unlikely for the already sunburnt boys to suddenly collapse of heatstroke. Unless it was 20 degrees on Sunday and suddenly 40 degrees on Monday. As it is, it had been over 37 degress for days...or was it weeks.

Some nerve he got

Tok Kie was here, due to a meeting tomorrow. The good thing was, I was let off the hook by the boys who decided to harass their tok kie instead. The bad news by the way, I missed out all the fun at Bukit Jelutung organised by Ninuk. And being in the state of mind I was right now, I really needed a lot of entertaining.

I heard about this friend....mmm no, I wouldn't call him a friend...an ex-friend is more like it. This ex-friend whom I heard last year cheating on friends money is now back on a bigger scale. No longer targetting cash strapped friends for a few thousands. The ex-friend is now targetting MNC for hundreds over thousand by forging signature on cheques. My goodness..........!!!!!!!! And he has been arrested! and bailed out! Is this what Amin was trying to tell me on the reunion day? I think so. Lotsa nerve to end up living life like that. For what? Imagine raising a child with ill gotten money, wouldn't the bad feeling enough to put people off? Sheesh....he did buy me lunch a couple of years back.

Whereever he is now and whatever he is doing at the moment, I hope one day he'll realised that success was not measured by car or cash but rather the state of blessedness you're living and hope he'll be able to turn a new leaf.
Nobody is a saint but no harm trying to be one. At the very least, it is definitely better that being a devil.

Hot mommy

The ladies at my aerobic class had concern other than selberian diamond today. Suddenly they were very interested in current weather. And deeply concerned that their kids would be exposed to an extraordinarily hot weather this coming Monday. To add to their worries, it would be the first school day after term break. So these pretty mommies were discussing on what to do and what not to do on Monday. One mommy decided to chauffeur her kids around, which to me sounded like a good idea, looking from her kids point of view. Most probably the kids would end up at Starhill after school. Another mommy planned to take the easy way out by declaring no school day for Monday. Lucky kids!

Thank goodness nobody asked what my plan would be because I certainly did not have one. Amri will go to kindy as usual and by evening both of them will play outdoor unless it rains.

I am getting younger!!!!!!!!

Why? Coz all my teenage years symptoms were back. Zits were sprouting out all over my face mercilessly. I had dandruff. I had period pain. I suffered from terrible pms that left me feeling murderous. My once steady hormons were now raging and causing havoc to the whole system.

But worst of all, my long gone gastric made a comeback. With a vengeange. While I was fighting the traffic jam on the way home. Alone. Of all the places. I used all the red light stops to double over and tried to regain my composure. Never before in my life since I received the driving license that I were so deeply thankful to the red light. But a mere 2 km from my home, on the last hurdle of traffic light, I broke down and cried. Not just because of the pain. But being in pain and alone.

I spent all night doubling over on my bed, alone again because dear hubby brought the boys to the guest room to allow me some space. Somehow, it heightened the blues.

Selamat Pengantin Baru

To Pak Caq....my all time favourite uncle! We all missed arwah Mak Caq sorely but no one would have missed her more than you. It has been two years and we could only guess how lonely you are in the big house.

All of us are very happy for you and hope the new Mak Caq will take good care of you and make you happy. To Ida, congratulation and hope you two get along well. To Kak Zehan, now you have a mom in law and Sarah a grandma. To Kak Dewi, you've been one amazing lady, shouldering the big part of the show. Now you can take a break.

Congratulation!

Back on cyberworld

Finally, my streamyx is up though the wiring left much to desire. Now....where did I save my previous unposted blogs? I shall endeavour the rest of today to upload whatever that has been collecting dust in my harddisk. Maybe it's not just dust.....hehehe...

I think I did not get the terms 'lady of leisure' right. In anticipation of my stay at home mom status, I went all out and did everything under the sun. I paid a year worth of aerobics class fee, bought a stack of new books that I had always wanted to read, joined usrah circle at my neighbourhood, joined the ladies swimming club and almost signed up for open water diving course. I've been eyeing that cool racing bicycle as well and hoping dear hubby would buy for me. Even after the family day ended, I was still trailblazing around town, occasionally went swimming with Amri or to the playground with Adam. I did not even have time to visit Kak Yana at HUKM with her newborn baby. Then a dear friend kindly pointed out, lady of leisure did not sign up for more seminars than the number of days in a week plus accepting whatever projects happened to pass by under her nose. Lady of leisure is supposed to be strolling around stupidly at Starhill then goes for manicure. Occasionally the lady will tee off at nearby green with her friends of leisure too.

By all means, leisure sure defined differently by both side of my brain

SAHM

I am officially a SAHM. But...when I quit my job, I was under the hallucination that I could be a lady of leisure. Or so I thought. Turns out I was busier than during my working days. What with the ex-external family day and my assignment, even the trustworthy Compaq decided to give up on me. So people, my birthday will be in April and I'd like a new notebook as a birthday present. Flowers not necessary since I wouldn't have colleagues to show it off plus the delivery man would collapse if he were trying to follow trailblazing kinda day.

I am still waiting whether one fine day I could wear tai-tai shoes.

Reunion 2005

Well......I am the organisor. But right now I wished I were not the organisor. Because by becoming an organisor, automatically I would be disqualified from entering any contest and I did not qualify for lucky draw as well coz I'll be the one who would be drawing the lot.

Too bad...really bad coz the prizes are tempting. I did want the dvd player in my room coz I am sick of fighting over the right to use it with Amri. Plus..I want to watch dvds in peace alone in the comfort of my room and my many pillows. Too bad.......


Hampers courtesy of Crossworld Management boss - Shamarul


DVD player courtesy of Zalghani & Co and another hamper and gift from Crossworld

Oh well...maybe next time somebody else would be organising the reunion and I will get to join the lucky draw contest. Not that I have much luck to begin with.............

A place only Amri loves

I had to admit it....Amri loves Agrotek Resort and keep asking to go there again.....but only him. I definitely am not going to step in there ever again. And many people keep asking me about the place too and whether it is suitable for a family day kinda gathering. Well...it depends I guess.

I for one, found the place not up to expectation....especially the electricity part. Umm...maybe a decade ago the lack of 24x7 electricity would not deter me at the slightest. But as at now, I have 2 small kids who need my tender loving care, one of which would sweat profusely without aircond during his nap time, which would lead to ugly rashes. The rashes that after the trip needed days of Elomet to go away instead of the all rounder Bephanten everybody could use last time. So, I must say that if the kind of family day that you have in mind involves kids that has not gone through NS training yet...then this is not a suitable place. Because apart from aircond and fan, kids usually need plenty of warm water for their milk. Oh...by the way, the resort did not provide tea making facilities. And even though they mentioned in their leaflet that their restaurant is open 24 hours and no outside food is allowed inside the resort.....by all means..bring your own supply of foods and drinks because the restaurant only operates after 6pm.

But the part I hate most was the karaoke at night. It was so ever annoying, like paying my way to lose a good night sleep.

Amri however, totally disagreed with me. He slept through the night like a log, and woke up all geared up for another dip in the river.


Amri testing the water


Amri taking a dip


>
Adam not too happy with icy cold water

Helppppp!!!!!!!!!

I am in serious trouble. My dateline is getting dangerously too near and I haven't been writing a single line of the book. Duhhh......and the Compaq decided to crash at this time...of all the time in the world! Oh my....oh my....and whatever I am supposed to write, business plan I am supposed to submit, cashflow I am supposed to project...crashed together with the harddisk. Who in this part of the world is good enough with antique notebook please raise your hand. I need to recover whatever files in there. They are my life and my future $$$$$. Help!!!!!!!!

Southbound trip

To JB...of all the places! But we have many friends and families there. Tok Mie and Tok Kie tagged along for this trip, supposedly to meet their many cousins. Amri was very thrilled, thinking we'd be going to that no-electricity-jungle again.

We stayed at M Suite, a very nice and spacious hotel for a very reasonable price. And...it has electricity...hehehe! Whatever happened to good old Nae that can slept soundly on the ground with twigs and thorns for mattress.

JB did not have much to offer, I'd rather shop at any of Klang Valley spacious shopping malls. But whattheheck...we're supposed to visit people. And I managed to see Kak Azu, her hubby Ali, their son Aiman Haziq and Lela plus her husband. All these peoples that I haven't see since my graduation but very close to my heart. I'd love to meet Yati too but can't seemed to get catch her on the right time.

Despite the warning by Yati to watch over my little tornado, he still managed to create havoc at..of all places...the crowded City Square. To JB people....please forgive us...coz my little tornado decided to wee wee on the basement, while waiting for the slow lift to arrive at basement and brought him to the toilet. To add to the excitement, it was the last piece of clothing that we had. And Kak Azu had to bring us for cloth shopping. Can't believe I ended up buying clothes at City Square....duh! And Amri, Adam and Aiman simply could not stop bickering for that one balloon. Trust Tok Ki to buy only one! The basic rule of thumb is...if there are 3 boys on board then get three of everything.

And then it was time to say goodbye to JB people.....thanks Kak Azu and Ali for the special lunch. May I have the recipe for that blackpepper prawn please :)

Amri decided not to let me know that his shoes was wet as well and he did not have anything to wear until we arrived at our first R&R stop. Fine....then we went barefoot...which was allright with him too. And he went barefoot happily until we reached our final destination - Nilai 3.

Nilai 3 did agree with me...being the cheapskate I am. First thing I bought was a pair of shoes for Amri. Then I went on a binge with Ummi...grabbing a lot of cheap kids clothing and whatever we could lay our hands on. Cool...... think I'll make another trip soon.

Agrotech Garden Resort

Finally...the much awaited short gateaway was here. And it was so full of dissappointment. Oh yes....there was a river. But not the kind of river I had in mind. Growing up in kampung, I was kind of looking for a very wild, untamed river. But I got a timid, shallow one instead. But the kids love it. Huh.....city boys...what did they know!

The chalet was okay though....with frilly bed, a daybed and another daybed at the balcony and clean bathroom. But of all horror.....nothing could be worse than not providing electricity during daytime. Halloooooo.........much that I love the wilderness, I badly needed a fan (aircond would be too much to ask), a powerpoint for my charger and notebook and light in the bathroom. It was so boiling hot inside the chalet that we decided to dip in the river until dinner time.

Now..the river. Back inKedah, that kind of river would be called alur coz it can't qualify as river. It was too tame, too shallow and too commercialized. They built a concrete bank for it which was so ugly. Moving forward, we discovered that the restaurant drainage system was let out to the river....double eeewwwwww.... We managed to find a perfect spot but it involved carrying two heavy kids via rocky stream. Dunno how...but we managed the feat.

The nights were even more horrendous. Instead of the sound of night creatures singing you to sleep, we got a sound from generator plus the fumes, an equally bad sound from water pump and mother of all horror....karaoke!

That was it....from now on I'd go back to holidaying in hotel room.

Not another manic monday

Coz my supposed workplace was closed for cny. Shall I call it workplace or ex-workplace? Kinda like the idea of playing SAHM for a while...though the title was too noble to me. I might ended up causing permanent phsychological damage to the boys.

Decided to go for an outing with Amri and noticed that when the attention fell on him completely, he could be the most angelic kid on earth. Made a pit stop at Giant and Amri asked whether I was going to buy a gold bangle again.....geee.....how much you think it cost dear? And I certainly not going to buy jewellery on my own.

A Sunday to laze

We were supposed to wake up early and shop at pasar tani for our weekly supplies. But heck.....it was nice to wake up on Sunday morning and went back to sleep. And that was what we did. But then...bibik was on her day off today and if I did not move my butt off the bed then we might have starved. Grudgingly, I made breakfast with Adam while dear hubby went shopping with Amri.

The kids and I lazed around the house for the better part of the day while dear hubby presenting his piece of mastermind at uitm. Getting bored out of my mind so I decided to take the kids for a drive. Ended up at Azida's house. Ended up discovering that another baby is on the way.......wooowwwww....congratulations! Mannnn...that was real fast :)

Timing...Malaysian way

We were invited to a birthday party at 3pm which we agreed to attend, rsvp days in advance and promptly showed up at the doorstep at 3.00 pm. Nobody was there to greet us, I had to practically asked whether this was the correct house and the right date. When we were finally ushered in, the party did not look like it was going to start within the hour..or within 2 hours. The host dissapeared to the kitchen, leaving us to fend for ourselves. Not even drinks of plain water was offered. 15 minutes later, another guests appeared and fared no better than us. Another 15 minutes, we were offered some cold drinks and cold food. We ate, we talked among ourselves and decided we couldn't be bothered to wait for the birthday cake or cake cutting ceremony. At the rate things were going, we might ended up waiting for a zillion years before we get to sing birthday song. So we made our exit.

Perhaps the host had never throw a party before. Or perhaps the invitation email that was sent to me should have read 3 hours after 3pm instead. But sheesh.....I was looking forward for an afternoon of good food.

Time to go

And say goodbye. It has been nice to be around but when to choice was between the three love of my life and big bucks, I did not even have to think. The choice was already made. I knew what made me happy.....so I said goodbye. And felt good about it

Seperation anxiety going to seperate with us?

Looks like it because last night I managed to have a shower without Adam gone to hysteria. Though after the shower I found him on the dressing table , transfering my brooches into the Bali lamp with Abang Long pretending to babysit him.

Later into the night, I made a few (hundreds) trips to the kitchen to cater for your highness (aka Amri) never ending requests for foods and no banshee wail coming from the living room. On one of the many trip to the kitchen, Adam followed us but stay behind later to play with fridge's tray. So far so good .....comparing to a few days ago where I could not even take three steps to the coffee table without Adam turning into a banshee. And it is not just the mengada-ngada cry babies are so famous off but a full blown earth shattering scary holler. Complete with Bollywood scene where he will cling to my leg with tears streaming down his little face, begging me not to go to the coffee table......as if I were going to leave him forever.

Much that I feel honoured with such VIP treatment, as if the whole world would stop functioning if I were to dissappear from the sofa for three minutes......it really stressing up especially if your other half did not notice that yours truly has not been moving for three hours and needed a glass of water like yesterday.

I really hope this is it....Adam's wobbly steps to independance. I do not mind playing the less important cast as long as I am free to roam about in my own house.

Differences between local bank and foreign bank

1. Local bank took at least two weeks to get back to you with a proposed financing rate tailored to your requirements. Foreign bank needed less than two hours

2. If you request something out of standard practise, say Overdraft at BLR+0.75% the officer will first raised his eyebrow, then stuttered to say that the request will be brought into loan committee meeting next week. Foreign bank officer said, "Sure madam, but there will be a locked in period of 5 years". By the way, the local bank loan committee will of course said no.

3. Asked the local bank officer for his email address and you'll get an incredulous look again. A foreign bank officer will point to his email address at his namecard and said " Email me if you need any clarification or you can also buzz me at my YM. Id is xxxxx"

4. Mentioned any feature about business ebanking to a local bank and you'll get answers like "Umm..ugh...actually..no..really...the mgmt said the features are not safe enough...you know lah..so many hackers on the net so we decided not to develope them" Foreign bank will replied with "Sure ma'am the features has been in used even before the internet banking came to Msia. We can syncronise the features to intergrate with your back end ERP system"

5. Asked the local bank officer " Can I place REPO?" The answer " Cannnnn....our rate is the best in the country wannnnn" Then asked again " Can I place Repo from our accounting system which we will connect to your e banking facility without any hardcopy but with full audit trail and the amount is pooled from our various subsidiaries current accounts all over Msia which is to be disbursed back into respective accounts upon maturity?" You will definitely get a stunned silence for an immediate answer. The definite answer will come to you three weeks later in a form of very formal full page letter just to say NO. Repeat the same question to a foreign bank and you'll get this reply "Yes madam, we are able to do that with a minimal fee. We can also do fund sweeping between different accounts for any length of period. How many currencies are we talking about here?"

Manners please

This is not about my kids manners because they are hopeless in this area. One will throw away his milk bottle to the nearest people's head after he is done and the other one doesn't understand the concept of Ps and Qs. This is about adults manner, as was discussed by a few people in my egroup. One member has a neighbour who think he is so above the common people that he can't open the front gate by himself. Instead, he blared his horn repeatedly until his maid opened the gate for him. Very convenient, huh! Except that the neighbours were so damn annoyed.

Not surprisingly.....I have that neighbour from hell as well across my house. I have absolutely no idea why neighbours from hell insisted to padlock their tiny gate at all time coz as far as I know, even Amri and his friends are able to easily climb the standard gate, let alone full height adults or well trained burglars. These neighbours must have thought they would die a painful death if they were to get out of their car and opened the gate themselves. To top it up, the poor maid must reached the gate within 3 seconds, otherwise a third, fourth and fifth loud horn would be blaring off repeatedly. I could just imagined, the maid, washing up upstairs bathroom and all the while tring to be alert to the sound of a horn and out of the blue, a horn was blaring and poor maid scurriying downstairs, fumbled with the many millions of front door keys, grill keys and what not only to realise later that the horn was coming from a cooking gas delivery lorry.
Why on earth can't the neighbours from hell install auto gate if they were so hard pressed not to step out to open the gate themselves. If it is a rented property....fine....take out your gate and autogate motor when you decided to move or your landlord chased you out (hopefully). If you still need your maid to open the gate within three seconds then call to remind her three seconds before you arrive. Otherwise, just wait for your maid to reach the gate without blaring the horn repeatedly because, unlike you, we lowly citizens do have babies at home. And babies need their nap. A napping baby does not like the sound of your horrible kancil horn, thank you very much. Even for some of us who do not have babies at home, we still do not like your kancil horn because it is so damn rude to be calling your maid with your horn. I believe good manners are applicable to all races.

Spot the difference

One stark difference between Adam and Amri was about sleeping styles. Amri was pretty laid back, adopting my younger years easy going attitude. He will sleep as and when he needs to where ever he is, be it on the floor, on his feet, shopping trolley, staircase...you name it, he can sleep on it. He is known to sleep through wall hacking when he was one month old.
Amri sleeping on Tok Ki's couch at Losong

Amri slept while eating macaroni at dining table
Adam on the other hand....is a tiny version of adult, pampered me, where everything must be prim and proper before his body can be put down to sleep. And no..he will not go to sleep by himself. You can pat his bottom for hours, sang a million song and he will still wail sadly because he is sleepy but is unable to drop to sleep. If I were in kampung, the whole neighbourhood would be arriving at my house by this time to set up a buai. Adam needs fresh and warm breastmilk, cozy place (read: ibu's lap), aircond at the right setting and all should be quiet and serene. Woe betide if I were to transfer him to his babycot.
Seen here poor Adam trying to sing himself to slumber

Wonder what will it be if I were to have a few more kids.

Planning for next holiday

CNY holiday is coming soon and my office would be closed for the whole week. Judging from dear hubby schedule....I believe balik kampung trip is out of question :(

So...here I am trying to cheer myself up by googling for a short holiday somewhere nearby only to discover that all the places I wanted to go are fully booked. But surprise...surprise...I've found a perfect place, recommended by a friend. The good part is, it cost only a fraction from the other holidays cost. The better part is, the place is in Klang Valley, which means, dear hubby can dash off if he is needed (gee...this really sound like i married an ER doctor). And...the best part is.....the place has river and waterfall!!!!!!!!!Yeyyyy!!!!!!!! Real river and waterfall without driving six hours to Lata Bayu in Kedah. The boys will be thrilled. It is so pathetic to see them fighting over tiny bath tub at their bathroom.

I think I'll just confirm it straight away, with or without dear hubby approval.

Back at work

Obviously, not too thrilled! Still wishing I'd have to wake up for breakfast only. But guess what? This company pay me salary to get my butt off the bed and off to office :) So here I am....back to blogging at office. Well.....I still can look forward to Chinese New Year holiday for a bit more fun!

The hunt goes on

It was nice to wake up in your own bed but then, you'd have to get breakfast going on your own, from your own kitchen. Unless.....unless you were blessed with a hubby like mine, whom upon seeing my zombie like state, offered to buy breakfast...so that dear zombie wifey can get back to sleep.

Somehow, I managed to drag my zombie self to toys r us to get that sacred safety gate. Found it all right. But did not buy....hahahahha! I am the self proclaimed cheap skate. The price put me off straight away despite my vow to never look at the pricetag. How could I. I am born to be accountant. For somebody who mentally calculated the cost while putting groceries into supermarket trolley, not looking at price tag was a big sin. Hubby gave a ridiculus look, giving up attemps to understand the costing concept from my point of view. But then, there was another factor that put me off. The design of that gate! It has horizontal bar in the middle which I knew right away would be a piece of cake for Adam to climb, having mastered the art even before he started cruising. To top it up, it was decorated with small holes...I guess to make it easier for a less athletic babies to climb :) I got my handfull of latches anyway.

To cater for my cheap skate mindedness, hubby drove me to a furniture shop at Kg Subang. The shop did not sell the gate in a sense that it did not keep in stock. But the shop was willing to take up orders and I were shown the pictures to choose the size. Coool........and the price was just RM80.00 plus the design was exactly what I had in mind, which was the same like we had four years ago wayyyyy back at Puchong Perdana. It would be ready in 2 days.

For some reason...furniture shop really attracted me and we ended up touring the lower half of the shop and bought a new wardrobe for the kids. Of course, it was a cheap wardrobe but it will do because a few years from now Amri wouldn't want a mickey mouse wardrobe in his room anymore.

End of holiday

Back in Shah Alam after almost 7 hours on the road. Wish LPT were all the way from Kuala Terengganu coz it suck to drive on single lane road, behind a 40kmph overloaded lorry. Also, it was cruel for the highway mgmt to close a R&R stop but still charging the toll at normal rate. We had to exit at Kuantan to fill in petrol after the fuel indicator was flashing bright red and no petrol pump was in sight. We had to exit again at Maran in search of toilet because one of the troop member needed to go badly, Adam had vomited and R&R stop were closed. Halfway on the highway did we managed to find an R&R that provided food and toilets.

Looking forward 2007 when the LPT stretch from Kuantan to KT would be ready.

Breakfast at Terengganu

One of the Terengganu culture that I embraced wholeheartedly is the breakfast affair. Most of Tganu family do not cook breakfast but flock the shop or pasar instead, ours including. I love the small portion of the serving because it allows me to enjoy a few different dishes without resorting to throw away the uneaten portion or sharing with Amri. My favourites usually nasi kapit kuah kacang, laksam, pulut lepa, nasi minyak and all time favourite - satar. Amri loves non spicy mee goreng or meehoon goreng and can eat both at one go. Hubby of course, the ever popular nasi dagang in cone shape banana leaf.

This morning however, none of the above is available. Everybody is still celebrating AidilAdha, which is a big time affair at this part of the world. Not even one shop is open and my favourite food haven, Pasar Chabang Tiga is deserted. I therefore, resigned myself to eating oily roti canai bought by dear hubby. Afterall, ummi will cook nasi minyak for lunch so not so grand breakfast can be forgiven.

I think today's lunch menu will be nasi minyak with gulai daging and daging goreng a.k.a sambal tumis daging for klang valley folks

A big city kid

We were visiting the old folks around the neighbourhood, house hopping from one place to another. Then we arrived at a dear old granny house, and the stench of chicken dropping was overbearing. For a while I almost cover up my nose but a few seconds later the stench made me homesick. It reminded me of growing up in Tok's place 25 years ago where reban ayam was one of the hot spot to play hide and seek. The whole kampung was one big, fun playground where the worst thing that could happen to you was being fool enough to play under a coconut tree laden with matured coconuts. The feeling of homesickness hit me hard and I lost my bearing for a while.

Amri, on the other hand, was a different case altogether. He looked green from the stench and on the verge of throwing up. Upon reaching the front door and greeted with more rotten smell from inside of the house, he refused to step in, saying that he wanted to play outside. My heart went out to him, looking so miserable and green faced, standing forlornly outside the kitchen door and obviously was not playing. But blessed him, never once he mentioned about the horendous smell or said anything that could embarrass the owner. And when he could not stand it anymore, he yelled for me asking whether we could go home because the chickens were going to attack him. We took pity of him so I quickly made up excuse and went home.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha

Today is Aidil Adha but our cow can only be slaughtered tomorrow because too many of them.

Last night we stuffed ourselves with satay, bbq pari and at the last minute, prawn. And this morning breakfasted with Mie's signature dish - Nasi Dagang with gulai ikan kayu. And nasi impit plus kuah kacang.

Amri was having a blast of time and hardly inside the house, which was very fine with me.

The start of holiday

The HP alarm went off at 5.30 am but I promptly went back to sleep. It was to early to wake up, the whole world would still be asleep at this ungodly hour. But then, I suddenly remembered that we were supposed to be travelling east coast, yours truly was expected for breaskfast at kuantan and lunch at losong and god help me...I haven't packed yet!!!!!!!!! With that, I jumped out of bed, shoved my clothes into the bag, grab a handful of kids clothing and threw into the same bag, dumped an armful of diapers into another bag followed by everybody's toiletries, zipped them up and ready! Ready for the first batch of bag, I meant. Coz I have another batch that consisted of camcorder cum digicam, notebook, their respective charger and paraphernalias and books. These were the most important stuff that followed me whereever I go and I can't live without them. Next step were easy though, shoved the kids inside the car, in their pajamas.

We reached Balok, Kuantan a good three hours later. Thanks to adik, despite being pregnant, cooked up friend mee, boiled egg and sandwich. Not to mentioned, hot water for Adam's bath. We took off after the kids were scrubbed clean and smelt nice again. This time adding Adik and Faizul to the entourage.

We took Jerangau Jabar route which were dead boring but cut the time by one hour. Which was a good choice since Adam insisted to drive and bawled his heart out most of the time for being denied his right to sit behind the wheel. Sorry dear, not for another 17 years.

Finally, reached Losong by 2.00 pm, nauseated from constant bawling and covered from head to toe with greenish snot, courtesy of Amri and Adam which no amount of Transfor Factor is able to fight yet. But the lunch spread that awaited us worth every minute of the torture. There are everybody's fav dishes laid out. And so many that there had to be laid out on the floor, coz it would need two dining table to hold all of it.

My holiday has blissfully started.

Living for tomorrow

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!It is the time of the year where my troops will make our way back to Losong for 6 days :D *big clap* . 2004 had seen the number these trips significantly reduced, and 2005 will fare almost the same, mainly due to that mba crap every other weekend and my even bigger crap of job spec (read: no official job spec) which limit my ability to be away for a long period of time.

I luuuuv these trip either way, east coast or up north and definitely a lot better than going for expensive vacation . For one, being a food lover, I could have my favourite foods laid out at every meal time without even ordering them, and cooked to perfection. Another, there will be constant supply of babysitters round the clock and plenty of entertainment for the kids. The only thing I will need to provide is breastmilk :) . Accomodation would means the whole house, plus the house next door plus the old house. I do not have to worry about kids meal, it will be taken care off splendidly...tailored to individual needs. And laundry is not a problem. I foresee five days of catching up with my reading and putting my feet up.

There'll be plenty of people to see and chat my heart out. Plenty of foods. Lotsa places to go, stuffs to shop, though I do not really fancy shopping in Terengganu. Most importantly, I get to catch up with my in laws. Adik already called, confirming our itenary for tomorrow and offering her fried mee for breakfast. Oh yeah, we'll have breakfast at Kuantan tomorrow. Can't wait to see her new house. It will make my day if I can catch anything askew :)

I'd better call up Lah and ask whether she wants anything from Klang Valley though I doubt I would have time to shop. Hopefully CRV's windscreen is restored by now.

Business One

I viewed a product demo from SAP yesterday and though it cheered me up considerably to finally find a perfect solution...a few things still bug me. First, there is no FA register...the accounts staff will murder me for this. Second, it can't do group consolidation. Which I think is quite a crucial feature since I depends on it to be able to do other non job related things during office hour. :) Third, it is not web based thus we have to figure out something for overseas subsidiaries. But then...the oh-so-goodlooking-consultant (with a Queen English to boot) assure me that all the features will be available in June. So...I guess this is it. Good enough for me. I gave this product an extra star for the perfect English because I am sooooo sick having to sit through Chinese English, Manglish and what not.

My One Year Old Adam

Adam received his MMR jab on Saturday morning and was in daredevil mode, i.e no crying! But then, he has never cried for any of the jabs. His statistic : weight 10.5kg, height 75cm......growing nicely despite his food strike.

The conversation with his pead :
Pead : Has he start walking yet?
Me : Yes, 6 steps
Pead : Talk?
Me: Nope
Pead : Sound like Mama or Dada?
Me: Nope
Pead : Shake hand?
Me: Nope
Pead : Stack up toys?
Me : Nope
Pead : Spoonfed himself?
Me : Nope

Gee....this pead really knows how to make me worried. Just to make myself feels better, here is the list that CAN be done by Adam, though it will not be included in any parenting book as a milestone.
1. Climb the staircase all the way up then all the way down by holding to the railing
2. Climb the sofa and up to the window grill
3. Turn the tv volume up and down
4. Rearrange heavy, solid wood dining chair
5. Change tv channel by remote or manual
6. Dig out AAA battery from any appliance and eat
7. Play inside kitchen cabinet
8. Make a call from my handphone
9. Throw away ayah's glasses
10. Kiss his mirrow reflection....oh-i-love-myself-so-much!

Whoa...that are quite a number of accomplishments. Now I can rest easy and be sure that my little man ia developing naturally.

My house is a one big playground

My house is in dire need of babyproofing. With a full blown toddler in action, I bade farewell to my all fragile junks that I have no idea exist in my house if not for constant sound of broken china and the wail of stressed out bibik. So I spent a weekend hunting down the once familiar items in my household 4 years ago:
1. Safety gate for staircase
2. Safety latch for sliding glass cabinet
3. Safety latch for drawers
4. Safety latch for fridge/oven
5. Safety latch for cabinets
6. Power point covers
7. Anti skid for chairs
8. Whaddya call it that can hide cables from view and little fingers
9. Door stopper
10. etc etc
To my horror...I can't manage to find any single one of the items. For somebody like me, known as information centre by close friends and who always know where to buy things...this is embarassing!
Okay....I will give another attempt this coming weekend. But this time, I will go straight to ToyRUs, made a beeline to BabyRUs section and grab the whole list. I swear I will not look at the price tag because it will put me off buying those items and before I know it my little daredevil would be rummaging the knives drawer. And the cost of sewing him back together would certainly exceed the cost of the items.

Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!!!!!

Dear hubby bought me a brand new microwave. Hoorayyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And a combo microwave at that! Thank you, thank you, thank you........! Gone are my worries on where to find repairman to fix my old oven. Plus with all the heavy duty cooking at my kitchen lately...the microwave was a lifesaver. Now...where is my recipe book and muffin cups :)

Is cycling for me?

I wanna buy a bicycle, like the one being used by my neighbour where a child seat can be attached at the back. But dear hubby had another idea...he want to get the bicycle that 2 person can cycle it ...whatdya call that thing anyway....
Nevertheless, I tried picturing myself cycling around my neighbourhood....hmm..perhaps asking Kak Azi to join me. Or..hehehe.....I cycle to her house, ate one of her latest cake then cycle back to my house to burn the calories. Sound good!!!

Then I tried to picture myself cycling around with one of my boys. Amri would be thrilled.....sitting at the back of the bicycle. But then he is close to 17kg.....haaa...I barely managed to carry my weight around and then now add 17kg to the equation? Plus...he'd rather cycle than be the passenger. I can now imagine fighting tooth and nail with him for who get to cycle first. Yup...we may have to take turn. Unless....dear hubby is willing to buy a new bicycle to him too.

Another scene would be me, cycling around with Adam at the back. After two minutes he'd get bored of sitting still. Then just to entertain himself, he'd pull my tudung from behind and eat it. Another two minutes , he'd attempt to stand up. Once he managed to stand up, the next logical step would be to jump down.

Oh my...so much for the fun of cycling. Perhaps I should kiv it for a while, instead of eliminating it altogether from my 'things to do' list.

Blackout!!!!!!!!

I took the morning off to make sure Adam would be okay. He still had a bit of temperature but otherwise his normal self. Sent Amri to kindy and decided to walk him to the classromm for a change. My mini man proudly lead the way to second floor and happily stopped in front of a wrong classroom door...with a big grin on his face. Just when I started to wonder where Amri ended up every morning of his school days, then then grin was replaced with a loud laugh followed by "Ye ye...Ibu kena tipu...!!!" Gee...where did he learn this......

Upon entering the classroom he proudly declared to his teacher that he had done the homework :) So teacher asked " Good boy...may I have the homework book please" Amri replied "Tak de...dah hilang!" Teacher just laughed merrily and dug inside Amri's Barney bag herself. Guess that she was born to be a preschool teacher ...to maintain that serena aura around a classroom full of five year olds.

Since Adam was recovering and seemed happy, so I decided to get back to office. Noticed that all traffic lights on my way were not working and suspected that something was amiss. True enough, upon reaching office, the whole Klang Valley was out of electricity. Duh!!!! What were TNB think they were doing? Running a coffee shop? Shouldn't there be a plan B should something like this happen. While I am not badly affected, other than being bored out of my wit without my internet connection...others out there may not be so lucky. Some might be trapped in a lift...some might be locked in by electricity powered door access system or car park access system. And I could just imagine the traffic chaos out there. Lesson never learnt!!!

Adam's First Birthday

Adam celebrated his first birthday by falling sick. He was having high fever that required two suppository to bring it down. Nevertheless...he was the usual sunny Adam, happily attacking his birthday cake exactly the way I predicted it..i.e. candle first.
. We sang birthday song and he happily clap for us. Amri, as predicted, claimed the ownership of the cake from that point onwards.
. He took over the role of cutting cake while Adam happily ate his birthday candle.

Unfortunately, Adam crashed out shortly afterwards due to his fever. Amri on the contrary was so gung ho over his homework and insisted that we finished off the whole book....whoaaa....!!! No party tonite I guess.

Homework!!!!!

Amri came back from kindy with a dot to dot homework book!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh oh ....... Ibu is in trouble. I was planning to spend the evening celebrating Adam first birthday and playing photographer. It is compulsory to capture those priceless moment when your one year old baby ruin the birthday cake beyond recognition. Afterall...they are one year old only once. I still remember Amri's first birthday and the mess he created with his chocolate cake. I am wiser now...therefore I'll just remove the tablecloth (do I have any? ) plus I have bibik around to clean up ...wooohooo......one less item to worry about. And I'll dress him in kitchen rag.

Okay..this is what we'll do. First, ask Amri whether he wants to do his dot to dot homework or not. If the answer is yes then we will take..err... a few minutes while waiting for my old Compaq to boot up to complete it. Then another few minutes while waiting for it to dial up to Jaring. Once the line is established then the homework is considered done.

If the answer is no...then good for him (and me). Its party time tonite. And ayah will not be around to act spoil sport.

On the other hand...I wonder if Amri knows what homework means. Or whether he knows what he is supposed to do with his homework book. Most probably he is just as clueless...hahahaha

To quit or not to quit

Now I remember why I felt like quitting my current job even though I have great bosses, even greater big boss and nice co-workers. I also enjoyed decent ICT and though not as fancy as I used to deal with, I have been allocated good enough budget to turn it around. I can't complain about salary either since most of my working hours is spent pleasurably online...surfing a.k.a researching, IM or..BLOGGING!!!! No reason to quit, huh?

But I have a reason to quit. I despised the morning traffic at NKVE Subang toll. It is inhuman to be cooped up in a car for 45 minutes when the distance between office and home is a mere 13km. If it is not bad enough, my clock out time has to be extended by 30 minutes to make up for the half an hour I lost on the road. A short stretch of road at that. And it is not my fault at all. And I have nothing better to do at office either, but a million other things to do at home. It is a good enough reason.

Oh where is my baby.......

Adam will be one year old tomorrow. ONE! Already he is his own person, with his own favourite foods, prefered songs, temperaments and ugly bunny teeth. People said he looks like Amri when he was that age, but to me he is totally different. Amri was outgoing, pretty independant (at least during that age) and prefers solo playing. Adam is more reserved, strongly attached to me but knows how to share and play in group. But one trait is common, both are CLIMBER. Both are able to climb up and down staircase even before they can crawl. Both are expertly negotiating their chubby legs over door and window grills before their first birthday. Both can climb out from their babycot before they take their memorable first step. Where did this trait come from? Beats me...I have no idea!

My mind is full of mental pictures of Adam, wrap in hospital blanket...being azan by his ayah...so tiny yet the holler was so strong(even with the videocam volume put into minimum)and Adam wriggling out of bedung painstakingly wrapped by Tok and Adam being shaved and stayed botak for a long long time and clingy Adam who will get hysterical if ibu goes to bathroom. The tiny baby which I pushed out to the world one year ago will no longer be a baby tomorrow.

Though I will sorely miss the soft baby smell of his hair, the warmth of his little body snuggling beside me and the tiny mouth which is forever looking for a chance to breastfeed ..I will welcome Adam the toddler with open arms tomorrow. The funny Adam who play hide and seek at every chance and give me an wide wet open mouth kiss.

My baby is growing up.

Happy Birthday to Auntie Chik

Today is Auntie Chik's Birthday. Unfortunately we do not have a chance to celebrate it, yet. Hmmm...perhaps we should do a double celebration with Adam. I am starting to imagine a nicely decorated birthday cake, with lighted candles on top and the three of them fighting on who get to blow the candle. Three because...Amri would surely join in, it does not matter if he already has big birthday bash because he simply will simply refuse to understand the explaination. Adam would fight to eat the candle, by hook or by crook. Auntie Chik will get to blow the candles...after Adam and Amri finish with them.

Mom times out

I just looooove Saturday. Because through unspoken mutual understanding with dear hubby, I get to stay in bed for as long as I wished to and never has to worry about breakfast for everybody. For....hubby will arrange for breakfast with any of the mamaks at ttdi jaya and get the kids out of my way (read: out of my bed) though Adam will usually continue to snuggle contentedly beside me. And later...much, much later, I get to hog the bathroom for as long as I wished to without any kids banging and screaming at the door. When I finally have to descend from my throne to take a real life view of downstairs event, dear hubby will whisk me off to any place that I want to be. Or in the rare event that playing chauffeur is not possible, dear hubby will offer the use of his car, alone...which is even better.

Unfortunately....this lovable Saturday only happens once in a blue moon. The bet are off if guests are in house coz the lady of the house is needed to ensure smooth household operation. And the lady of the house always double up as event organisor and ambassador at times, thus necessiting the honorary presence at functions and family affairs. The lady of the house is also required to take over the job of the man of the house every other weekend, like it or not, which to the lady is a small matter of multitasking.

All in all...saturday is always welcome, loveble or otherwise.

TGIF.........

T.G.I.F........especially with schools reopen. I noticed the road traffic is worsening in the morning, even though it was past 8.30am and I cant really figure out the correlation of school being open with 9am traffic. The traffic on my going home journey was much worse, since I had to pass through the front of secondary school, whereby each students would have one car waiting for them. And since each driver of the car still could not figure out how to park their car at the designated parking lot...so they just stop their cars as and when they spot their passengers. The passengers, being true blue Malaysian, took their sweet time to cross the road, dumped their empty coke can into the drain, waived goodbye the classmates, unwrap a KitKat and threw the wrapper on the grass, open the back passenger door, dumped the rock heavy bag, close the door, open front passenger door, heaved the body inside, close the door...and not yet ready to go. Because the drivers has to light their cigarete/repair their lipstick first...gosh!!!!!!! Whomever said Malaysian are considerate and unselfish lot must have visited Malaysia either in his dream or via internet only.

My NotSoSmartTag

It was very annoying when you drive through SmartTag lane, expecting to beat the clock and then the oh-so-smart tag failed to beep. Or...in other word...the reader failed to read my tag. Even more annoying when the siren that supposed to alert the toll plaza staff failed to emit any sound at all. And you have to sit there...fuming..blaring your horn a few times until anyone managed to pull their weight across. Even so..it would take them 90 seconds to reach my car with their lenggang mak limah walk while number of cars kept piling up behind me. And the staff still had the gut to say that my now not-so-smart-tag was too HOT! What!!!!!!!!! What am I supposed to do about that? Get PLUS to build covered highway? Or attach umbrella over my car roof?

While I admit that it will not be easy for the engineers to come up with heat resistant intelligent tag, at least the toll plaza staff could have the sense of urgency to move faster instead of my best recorded time of 3 minutes 16 seconds for the whole process to complete.

Tough job....being kids

Upon reaching home yesterday evening, I was greeted with a weird scenario. That is, no kids playing around the area. Since the kids were not around, their respective bibiks were also not there, thus adding to the eerie atmosphere. The only persons occupying the street were Adam and his bibik, both seemed bored out of their wit. Even Amri was not there, but that was because he followed ayah to god-know-where.

My first thought that, there must be a new and extremely fun playground nearby and all the kids were there. But that was out of question....I've been driving around the neighbourhood frequent enough to notice even a neighbours new gate, let alone a new playground. The busybody me took over and sent a few sms around to ask the whereabout of peoples kids...huh...I should have work as ketua kampung or the sort :)
The replies promptly came back...all with mostly the same answer...their respective kids are dead tired from school and did not have the energy to step outside. Other answers included, kids were still at tuition centre, kids were in afternoon session of school this year or kids were having piano/ballet/iqra lesson.

Whoa....being kids were tough job. I thought my job was tough enough and I complained about long working hours to no end. But I got to disappear from office at 6pm only to return back at 9 the next morning. I had all the nights to myself plus one quarter of my day was spent blogging and the rest surfing the net. No homework to do and if I were reading, it was for silly pleasure (read: Harry Porter range). And I get paid at the end of the month. Thank goodness I was a kid during 80's

But then...what would happen to Adam and Amri in a few years time? I guess they would be caught in the ratrace as well. Since I do not foresee my boss giving me increment that would enable me to send the kids to private school...then I think the next best options to do are:
1. Give them stamina training ala national service module
2. Eliminate any academic like expectation from my head, so that the kids do not have to get straight A's thus eliminating the need for tuition class
3. Brainwash my kids that they are smart enough to capture everything in class and regurgitate it during exam.
4. Start a campaign for revamping of Malaysian education system

Maybe I'll just blog about it...

As normal as can be....

I actually braced myself for another onslaught of teary eyed preschooler today, mentally preparing myself to be saintly patience while summoning up all parenting techniques I somehow managed to conjure up somewhere inside my numb brain. But was I surprise, because after only a bit of whining, my precious child actually settled down and joined the activity. I was actually dismissed from the class :) So I went downstairs and decided to chat with some of the mothers there, whom are mostly my neighbours but I haven't seen them for ...ummm...two years perhaps.

Glad to be on the road to normal life again....

Cranky mom

A reader once emailed to me and awarding me the title of Cool Mommy. Thank you very much, anonymous reader, but unfortunately today...I'm losing it. I started the day on the wrong foot, so to say. Beginning with instruction to bibik to cook mee goreng and chicken soup which turned out to be mee soup and still uncook chicken. Of which Amri took one spoonful and declared not nice and began to get cranky because cool mommy promised him his favourite mee goreng last night. The cool mommy was getting cranky too because she was hungry but hate mee soup in the morning and she was running late but cranky son was still unhappy with his breakfast plus cranky baby was whining and refused to be put down. Cool mommy was sleepy too since clingy baby refused to be bottlefed all night and the flu pill was still in cool mommy's blood stream. To avoid any tsunami like event in the house, cool mommy shoved cranky son, without breakfast into the car and off we headed to kindergarten, which was already jam packed with big, luxury cars that cool mommy has to park three streets away.

Much to cool mommy's horror, cranky son decided he no longer like his kindy and his classmates and refused to sit in his classroom unless cool mommy sat beside him. An inch of movement would trigger a wail louder than a banshee which would be promptly followed by a few smaller version wail from his classmates. Cool mommy managed to survived two hours wailing session by sending nasty mms to cool daddy.

Cool mommy decided to take the easy way out and bribed cranky kid with whatever he wanted from the stationary shops, including two boxes of clay model. Sheesh!!!! Then off we went home only to find that bibik still has not cook any single thing other than boiled water. Oh my goodness..... Again, cool mommy survived the ordeal by sending nasty sms to agent, whom was kind enough to take cool mommy side. Excellent PR skill, I must say. After telling bibik to cook CHICKEN SOUP for the hundreth times today, cool mommy decided to just buy the lunch for cranky son, for fear cranky son would be found starved to death by his cool daddy.

For the conclusion, cool mommy hereby declared herself as no longer a cool mommy. Cranky mommy sound more like it. I just hope nobody would mess with me in the office today, coz I'm in the right mood to snap people's head off.

End of holiday

It is going to be quiet again. Mak and abah back to Kedah. Ummi, aboh, Alif and Shawani back to Terengganu. Ajo back to Kuittho. Kak Cik to her new school. Amri will be back to school tomorrow. And I'm looking forward to another holiday.

Hello 2005!

Kak Cik, the school teacher

My dear sis...reported to work today at Sek Keb Ulu Kelang, accompanied by our usual entourage i.e. myself, the boys, hubby, mak, abah and Ajo. Another ad hoc team member is Pak Andak, coz he is the only one who knows the whereabout of the school.

The students would be in for a surprise....for what seemed like a cikgu bedah type is actually the best student for her batch, and has the passion for teaching deep in her vein. She's great with kids. Adam cling to her as much as to me. Amri worship her and want her to be his school teacher :)

All the best auntie chik!!!!!!!