Cousin Haslina getting married

It is the time of the year...wedding season! Be prepared to gain a few kgs as well as various bunga telur which may not necessarily contains egg.

On saturday, we went to a wedding at Batu Caves in the afternoon the Ina's akad nikah at night. The akad started after Isyak and lasted till almost midnight. Thank goodness the boys did not tag along. Otherwise, I could just imagine the ruckus they would have created at the mosque, seeing that lots of their cousin were there. Two boys were quite manageable on their own but when they ganged up with a few more kids then even my deadly stare get ignored. Or Adam could get into his super cranky mood when it went past his bedtime that no amount of reasoning could make any difference.

Ina and her brand new hubby, Joe after the akad. Hope they will live happily ever after

Mak dara dan anak anak dara on Sunday reception & bersanding

Most of my relatives from Kedah, Penang and Langkawi were there and needless to say, we were a noisy lot. Can't help it..a lot of catching up to do.

I played host tonight for Mak Anjang & Mak Su's family. So, I had five families, including my own, staying under my roof until tomorrow, which made this day by far, the most happening day/event for his year. I've been pathetically whizzing past the first few month of 2008 without doing anything significant at all.

Anyway. Selamat Pengantin Baru to all newlyweds out there.

Office gossip

Being on top of organisational chart (or near enough) deprived me of one thing, among others, that is juicy office gossip. Existing gossip was understandably guarded from me, for fear it will jeopardise everyone involved though I am not that evil. But it feels a little bit frustrating when a juicy gossip come my way and I am strongly prohibited from sharing it.

International office romance is so juicy. Especially when the ex also come into the picture. And it went againts the so called SOX protocols. And all the head honchos have to get involved.

Well...to heck with the rules. Never been good at it anyway. So I succumbed to the high of it....gossipping. But not locally. Internationally via YM.

Thanks God for internet.

Corporate mokcik had a bad day

At 8.00am this morning, I was ironing Amri's school uniform while participating in conference call Asia-Australia-US. The boys were singing loudly in my tiny kitchen and though the door was closed, their lemak merdu voice could still be heard all the way to Dallas.

*sigh*

Thank God everyone were pretty cool about it. Even came up with their own grandchildren singing antics tales. Huhuhuhu......

But still, the thought of meeting all these people in the flesh after today is pretty much embarrasing. Oh boy..

Anyway, it could be worse. Someone proposed to have weekly video conference instead of teleconference. Duh! Jenuh le mokcik nak melaram pepagi buta.

Baby of the family

Adam, of course. Who else could it be.

Anyway, received a distress call from a friend, Milly. She sent her eldest son to the same place Adam is currently attending. For some reason, instead of enrolling him in January, she decided to start this month. Today, to be exact. The son, whom had spent the first four years of his life in the company of only his mom and maid, understandably, was a little upset by this new arrangement. Add to that, was the arrival of a baby brother that took away all the attention from him.

Dejavu

Didn't I went though the same phase? Gave birth to Adam in January then sent Amri to kindy in April, during the final week of my maternity leave. And spent one week sitting in exactly the same classroom that Milly is sitting now. Handling the same kind of tantrum and seperation anxiety of a pampered four year old. Feeling very worried even though the principal had assured me many times over that this was perfectly normal. True to her word, Amri was okay the following week.

That felt like eons ago.

Anyway, Milly's son, Mustaqim is the same age with Adam so they are in the same class. Mustaqim and Adam had met a few times during morning classes at Seribadan though very rarely. Milly asked the teacher whether Mustaqim could sit with Adam. Teacher was okay with that. But the way Adam reacted did surprised me a little bit. You see, Adam is the baby of the family and he knew it. And he enjoyed the status. Meant that, everyone has to look after him while he played the adorable little boy part. He could be independant and look after himself once in a while but never, ever he is protective of other living soul. No one expected him to anyway. But then Milly said, Adam had taken Mustaqim under his wing. Tried hard to make him stop crying. Let Mustaqim followed him everywhere, even to the bathroom. Showed Mustaqim his injured knee (now just a scar) presumably to make Mustaqim feel better.

I think that is so sweet. Glad Adam is not that full of himself :)

Brought Adam to play with Mustaqim after work. Hope it will help ease his anxiety for tomorrow. But, when two boys met, the newborn baby end up crying every few minutes. Bising bagai nak roboh rumah....

Thanks dear, for dinner

It was my birthday morning and hubby announced that he would be taking the crv. So, that left me with the bloody merc to drive to work. On Monday no less. Grrrrrr.....

My day hadn't even started yet and it was already ruined. Seriously, the merc and I had never get along and I suspected, never will. Some parts of the merc simply refused to work the moment I get into the car, usually at the most unfortunate time. Its only redeeming point was that it had extremely superb sound system. One of these days, I am going to check in both cars into any workshop and had the mechanics dig out the merc sound system and transplant it into crv. Can? Those kind of stuff is simply wasted on hubby....no corporate hotshot blasted their audio system on the road, ok. Jeans clad FC can do that, no problem.

Back to my day. Sent Adam to kindy. Zig zagged the narrow street and nearly crashed into a Jazz, whom I belatedly realised was driven by a Seribadan client. Sheesh. Made it into nkve. And noticed that the sound from outside was getting louder and louder. Checked all windows, just in case Adam opened one and forget to close. Windows okay. Started thinking about tyres. But I knew hubby just replaced a new set yesterday. I was getting even more worried when I could not hear the radio properly. I considered pulling over by the emergency lane but the traffic was heavy and it was not like the car was on fire or in immediate danger of exploding. So I kept on driving all the way to Kota Damansara. Then I was stuck in a bad traffic jam. *sigh*. But then a kindly man in a motorbike honked and knocked my window. And said my door was not closed properly. And I could hear him loud and clear, not the usual muffled sound when you were inside a car. No wonder the highway sound so loud. Hmmmph!!!! For all its automative technology, the merc did not show any indicator on the dashboard when the door was not tightly shut. And, the light was off. When usually in this kind of case, it will stay on thus alerting the driver.

*sigh*

I'm not joking when I said the merc and I did not hit it off. In fact, I nearly had a panic attack when two days ago hubby asked whether I wanted to drive C class. Are you joking???? No way!

Albeit one hour late and nearly having a nervous breakdown, I safely arrived at office in one piece. Had a birthday party later at one-u where i declined to drive, thank you very much.

Spent the rest of the day slamming the merc door as hard as I dared to. One week of this, I might ended up with a toned arm. Heh!
Old photo - one of my misadventure with the merc, at LPT no less.


Hubby took us all to a buffet dinner at Concorde Shah Alam as a birthday treat. The boys made a beeline to the icecream counter as soon as we entered the dining room. On good thing about buffet meal is that, I hardly get a chance to sit down. Just as I was about to put my soup on the table, Amri announced that he needed to go to toilet. Came back from toilet, he wanted ice cream again. By the time I came back with my own food and tried to sit down, he finished ice cream and wanted some other food. Repeat every step with Adam, who by that time, just came back from his own toilet break with hubby. A few times in between that, my untouched plates were cleared off by the waiters.

Maybe if i were to have two more boys, I'd be very slim and fit from all those running around and missing plates.

Thanks hubby, for the lovely dinner. Could we chuck the boys somewhere and go eat dinner with just the two of us please, before I'd forget the civilised way of dining.

p/s: Happy birthday to my cousins, Kak Dewi (20/4) & Abg Caq (22/4) too. Kak Dewi, though just one day older, become kakak due to strict family hiearchy in my clan.

Hujung minggu

Jungle trekked Bukit Cerakah. By bus...hehehe. But we did hiked on foot at some places even though my 7 year old royal highness protested loudly. Hmmph!

Enpangan Air Kuning. Made me feel like I want to take up fishing, just in case I ran out of hobbies in the near future


BJ could be seen from on top of taman herba. Hidden behind the trees on far left are houses in eiseai street, looking down royally to other BJ houses far below


If you hiked down taman herba towards the dead end then hiked up again, you will eventually end up at Jelutong Heights...hehehe. But before you reach there, you'll come across a herd of cows first. I heard that a group of mountain bikers from Mayang Sari TTDI Jaya decided to cycle down the path from Jelutong Heights and encountered the lembus instead :)

Went to visit our new house after the hike. Sorry Nyna/Khairi, we could not drop by as we were errr... not so presentable. All very comot and masam. Next time, ok, when all four are nicely dolled up and accompanied with buah tangan to boot. Heh...adat Melayu jangan dilupa (when it suited me, that is)

Anyway, had a nice surprise at the gate of no. 11. Now that guthrie had sorted out their house numbering system, I started to worry about what kind of neighbours we were going to have. Not that we were neighbour from heaven to begin with, but I'd rather not waste all that money to have some noisy chaps with a dozen extended families as my next door friend, sharing a wall for a few years to come. So needless to say, I was super happy when I saw our current neighbour's car parked at no.13. Though at first (from a distance), I was like, gasp....my neighbour is a bmw driving mak datin...could we be friends? But then, once we parked our car, to my (and her) utter disbelieve/joy, it was this nice family in front of our house that we have known since the first year at ttdi jaya. Even Amri and her second daughter were in the same year at the same school. I think both of us were kind of relieved. She had met most of the neighbours in that street except for us, the elusive owner. Heh!

Well, thank God for this.

e-filing

There!

I've submitted my income tax return. Online. Lets see if I will get the tax refund within one month time.

If it happens before 23rd May (decided to extend one week), then I'll have to buy Kak zhan a dozen of apple besar doughnuts. Or is it jco? Well...lets buy both if it happens by or on 17th May...hihihi.

Economics 101 : Inflation rate

Economic downturn: pray for soft landing
Dr Wong Ang Peng

What? Inflation at 2%? Indeed it is, as reported in Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) – Annual Report 2007, published on March 26. Not only it is at an unbelievable low, it also declined from 3.6% in 2006.

When most countries of the world including Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, China, and the Arab countries have either reported or estimated inflation for 2007 at ranging from 4 to 8%, Malaysia’s at 2% must be among the best managed economies of the world. Deutsche Bank has estimated in November 2007 that the real inflation rate for Klang Valley is 8%.
Is our government flattering itself, or is it typically ‘government speak’?

Inflation rate is deduced from the CPI (Consumer Price Index). Taking a hypothetical case, assuming a cup of coffee is RM1. Giving it a base point of 100, if the price of coffee the following year has increased to RM1.20, which translates to 120 points, by calculation, 20 divided by 100, and then multiplied by 100 to get the percentage. Hence the cup of coffee has contributed to 20% of inflation for the year. Taking into consideration all the consumer prices (food, transport, utilities, housing, entertainment, restaurants, education, health, equipment, etc), and the disparity in prices at different geographical regions, the price index for all consumer items is tabulated for the inflation rate.

Considering that about 30% of consumer items are under price subsidy, the official reported 2% inflation rate may not raise much of an eyebrow. However, upon closer scrutiny of the BNM – Annual Report 2007, the CPI base year has been brought forward from 2000 to 2005. Hence the 2007 inflation rate of 2% was measured compared to 2005 price index. There is certainly a price difference for the cup of coffee based in 2000, 2005, and 2007. When computing the CPI of year 2007 to 2000, and the year 2007 to 2005, two different sets of figures will show.
The above may be theoretical in argument. But the more practical side, based on the following statistics, should sound the alarm bell :
Food and non-alcoholic beverages – 47.1%
Transport – 18.3%
Housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels – 13.9%
Alcoholic beverages and tobacco – 7.4%
Restaurants and hotels – 5.6%
Recreation services and culture – 3.2%
Miscellaneous goods and services – 3.0%
Furnishings, household equipment and routine – 2.4%
Education – 1.7%
Health – 1.1%
Clothing and footwear – minus 2.2%
Communication – minus 3.1%
(The abovementioned items and their percentage contribution to inflation for 2007. Source : Department of Statistics, Malaysia)

The poor and the lower middle income group do not care if the price of golf clubs has declined from 2005 to 2007. It also means nothing to them if the price of a branded T-shirt or a flat-screen TV has declined. They care most when the prices of food items increase. And for 2007, inflation of food items has increased to 47.1%, up from 29.7% in 2006.

The majority of the population who make up the poor and the lower middle income group cannot escape rising price in food items, basic transportation costs and housing and utility bills. These top three components contributed the most towards the inflation rate in 2007. Inflation steals value and is considered a form of invisible tax. In proportion of their take home income to expenditure, it is the poor who have to pay more for this invisible tax.

Our government’s contention is that inflation due to external factors may not be effectively controlled by monetary policy, thus has decided to maintain interest rate at 3.5%, ever since April 2006. This is a flawed argument. External factors alone cannot raise inflation unless money supply also goes up. At a 3.5% interest rate, one of the lowest in the region, it enhances credit expansion. The well-to-do and the business class, be they local or foreign, will be favoured. Credit cards usage are encouraged, and most often people spend beyond their limit. Credit expansion and growth in money supply will bring further inflation.

If it is true that the inflation numbers have been massaged, as widely believed, and that the real inflation rate is to be 6 to 8%, then the artificial low interest rate at 3.5% will cause distortion to the economy by sending inaccurate price signals to producers. Easy credit to property developers can lead to an oversupply situation in many parts of the country. There are already signs as such.

We have now arrived at an economic crossroad. We need to have foresight and act decisively. Interest rates can still rise 50 basis points to 4.0% and will still not hurt capital investment. Credit expansion should be geared towards infrastructural development and not for businesses of a speculative nature. Easy money through credit cards usage should be curtailed immediately.
The path to take at this crossroads is the one to favour consumer protection and the socio- economic well-being of the masses who are obviously to be impacted most during the economic turbulence ahead.

And when the downturn comes, we pray for a soft landing. The other path will lead to distortion, mis-allocation of financial resources, more inflation, and possible socio-economic ruin.


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/81238

FRIM revisited

While the majority of my cousins and mak ciks pakciks were back at Langkawi for Hanim's wedding, the four of us were jungle trekking at FRIM. Actually, it was only Amri that was supposed to go hiking with Dyslexia Association. But then, we were late in sending him to Dyslexia Centre @ USJ6 so we sent him directly to FRIM instead.

Once there, tak kan nak terus balik rumah kot. So we bought tickets for Canopy Walk. Last time we were here, Adam was too young to hike himself but too heavy for us to carry. The hike up was pretty challenging but there were plenty of things that caught his interest. Plus, he was enjoying having us all to himself since Amri was hiking with his classmates. Needless to say, he behaved like an angel.

Anyway, since this hike was unplanned (naturally), we went almost with no provision. Amri on the other hand, had a backpack fully prepared - a change of cloth, water bottle, insect repellant (sprayed by his teacher), slipper, towel, swimming trunk, kit-kat, cap, pen and notebook. The three of us had bottles of 100+ and my cute little sling bag which contains stuffs that really helpful. Like make-up bag and blackberry. And a camera. Plus some sweets. Cukup lah kan?

















Warming up - makan ice-cream dulu


















Start the hike (easy part) about 10.30am ++












First break. Couldn't believe i went hiking with that cutesy bag. Adam refused to sit on the ground so I had to offer my feet.











Adam so loved this akar berjuntai so we took a few minutes break so that he could swing around.









Reached the top of the hike almost noon but there was a long queue waiting at the entrance of Canopy Walk, mostly from various schools around klang valley. Saw amri coolly walking with his friends. Adam entertained himself by playing with a tiny stream of water and flirting with a groups of giggly girls from MGS. After a bit of waiting, the ranger allowed us and another family behind us to jump the long schoolchildren queue in front of us. Lega......











Adam took the canopy walk in slow and steady stride. Somewhere in the middle, he said to me, "balik nanti kita lalu jalan lain,ok"

View from the top. You could see Klang Valley concrete jungle down there

On the way down, we stopped at waterfall area and Adam could not stand it anymore. He needed to get into the water, pronto. Since we came without his swimming trunk, so Adam went in with his underwear albeit a bit reluctantly. Actually, I felt like I wanted to jump in myself. Next time maybe.

We collected Amri from his teacher at 4pm and went home. Thank you to the Dyslexia Association teachers, facilitators and Shell volunteers. Shell sponsored the events for the centre.

Mok cik tengah panic

*sigh*

I could no longer entertained your highness requests for cambodian maid. My globe trotting (duh!) schedule has been brought forward to mid July, instead of October, with Singapore as my first stop (thank God for that). Which meant, I needed to book the maid like, last week, in order for her to arrive at my doorstep in May at the latest. I'll need about two weeks to decide whether she is whom and where she is supposed to be. Then the rest of May and June to train her doing household chores, cooks and most importantly, the two boys schedule. And everything else that have everything to do with them. Like, who wears what on which day. Who eat what for lunch. Who is allergic to what food. Who takes which bus/van.

Thank God there are only two of them. And thankfully, one at kindy and one at school so that will make it easier to identify the uniforms. Lucky too, one goes to kindy in the morning and another goes to school in the afternoon so not that hard to monitor school vans.

Mind you, Amri does not attend religious school (my decision, so shoot me!) so should be lesser logistics to deal with. Dyslexia centre and swimming lesson? Surely hubby can handle that.

It is going to be a busy year. But I like busy. I just dont like to be away from home. What if hubby makes his own decision on the new house renovation while I was away? What if I come back only to find my head is higher than the cooker hood again?
*sob*

Singapore is okay. Melbourne is...err...not too bad, if I do not have to stay more than a week at a stretch. But US/UK feels like a universe away. Well...thank God I do not have to go to China (not yet anyway).

What I really need is not just a maid but a nanny and driver. And a clone of my important self.

Anyway, surely I can count on my parents. And parents in law, right? And Auntie Chik? Cu Nan? That's what family are for. (someone yelled 'cheap labour' at my YM...tak patut betul)

Hmm...actually, none of the candidate biodatas emailed to me meet my requirement and I am not even choosy to begin with. Except one from an independant provider. But then, I would have to deal with the paperworks myself. Paperworks is the ultimate downfall of me. Oh dear....

I'm having a splitting headache from morning. And wishing I am back at Langkawi with the rest of the family for the wedding. *sigh* I badly want to be there. Why on earth can't Pak Lang wait until the school holiday next month. Isk.

Mencandat sotong anyone?

Nak mencandat sotong kat Terengganu tak?

We have a fishing boat for rent at RM500 per trip, with handsome guide and bait included. Drop me an email if interested.


Disclaimer : mok cik tak bertanggungjawab atas kes mabuk laut, okay

Surat untuk boss

Dear boss,

I do not want to go to either Dallas or Kendal. Period. Reason being my current domestic affair is in shambles. And my other boss at home requests a spanking new Cambodian maid of whom I do not know where else to source. But most importantly, both places are not glamorous enough to justify the travelling time (economy class pulak tu...sheesh).

Rgds,

Your lovely FC

*sigh* wish i have the gut to really send this to the boss

S.O.S

Help!!!

No maid!

But we'll live.

Lost, found, lost then found again....

To our surprise, Amri's bicycle was sitting at our front porch when we came back from watching that Duyung movie. All parts intact. But obviously, an attempt has been made to repaint it.

Bibik told us that someone rang the door bell and when she opened the door, she only saw the bicycle, left at the gate. Hmmmm....

This one is really an amazing bicycle. It was stolen once last year then returned (taken) back after a few weeks. It was stolen again earlier this year but returned the next day and the boy's brother who took it apologized to Amri saying that his brother took it by mistake.

There was also one day when it was raining heavily so I decided to fetch Amri and his bicycle from school by car. And I saw a few bigger boys, could be in Year 5 or 6, playing with Amri's bicycle ( and some other bicycles) a little bit further off from where he usually park his bicycle. Then I saw Amri walking towards them and asked for his bicycle back but the big boys just ignored him. Amri was looking around him, presumably hoping to see a teacher or anyone and caught sight of me. When the boys saw him telling me about them, they quickly abandoned all bicycles and left the school compound. Hmmph! Anak sapa lah tu............ But, better not be prejudiced about it. You never know what's happening on the other side of the story.
















Well, sometimes I couldn't help but feel wouldn't it be fun if I could install a GPS on that bicycle. Just for the heck of it. Or convinced the school to install cctv, rather than spending it on that mosquito breeding pond

Genting Highland Day 2

Wonder how many rides it took to satisfy these boys?








Anyway, we had a great time playing bowling, the only thing that of interest to me there. I haven't played for the longest time. And even last time, it was just an intro. Did not enjoy it last time as my hand were not as strong plus the old injury made me extra cautious. Well, thanks to all my fitness trainers, I now had a pair of strong hands and relatively healthy bicep/tricep and whatever else were there.

The only thing is, I played at my best with loud music on. It was my source of energy and concentration. While hubby on the other hand, get annoyed and packed up to leave once the music started blaring. *Sigh*

School holiday - Genting Highland

We could not afford the time for long holiday so this will be it. Definitely not my choice of place but the boys loved it.

Genting was pretty cold (colder than I remembered) and wet. Though fortunately, not heavy rain. The girl at outdoor theme park counter warned me that if it rained heavily, people had to vacate the area and no refund would be given. Okay....okay!



Warlords with their baloon swords


















Dinasour park















Amri is 125cm tall. Too tall for kiddy ride, too short for adult ride. So video game, then

School holiday - Duyung

The boys were not well in the morning. Both of them were having diarrhea and kept on purging. I suspected the culprit was the water from Wet World from yesterday outing. It just occured to me that, though it probably had more water than PADE, I could not smell chlorin. Well, yes but just a little bit. It was nowhere like PADE where you could smell the chlorin even from the parking lot. So, minimal chlorin, insufficient (and horrible) toilets, people jumping in with their jeans and saree plus the usual school holiday crowd and you get the drift....

But then again, it could be that the boys had eaten something bad.

Fortunately, they were quite okay in the afternoon. So we (read : managed to drag hubby out of his office) took them to Cineleisure to watch Duyung.

It was a fun story, as long you keep your mind simple and switched off your brain for two hours. Highly recommended if your purpose was to entertain a couple of kids under 10 and wanted to avoid too many questions. Amri totally loved it. I guessed his own vivid imagination could accept it very well. Adam yawned throughout the movie but perked up during the aspalela song. From that moment onwards, he kept on repeating it with Amri occasionally joining in. Hmm...this one really loves to sing

School holiday - day 2

The boys were pretty restless. To a certain point, so was I. So I took half day off for everyday for the rest of the week to enjoy the company of my two boys. Three boys, if I could drag hubby away from his work.

With so much excess energy, we decided to go to Shah Alam Wet World. Believe it or not, despite being Shah Alam resident for oh so many years, I had never been to this place. Yes, I bypassed it on my occasional walk at the lakeside but never felt like checking it out. Neither did the boys asking about it.

It was raining heavily when the boys and I arrived there but I decided to go ahead and bought the tickets. By the time I came out from the changing room, the rain had stop and the two boys were already inside one of the pool.

The place was quite okay. Lots of lifeguard, which was very important when I was the only adult handling two waywards boys. Though Amri could managed himself inside water pretty well now but still, he was just 5 inches over 4 feet.

Well....we had a great time. No photos to share because i was busy splashing in the water myself.

Anyway, their toilet was filthy, dark and reeking of cocroach. The changing room, while big enough to accomodate the crowd, had some shower doors missing. In fact, there were more shower cubicles without door than the ones with door intact. Also, the lifeguard were pretty lenient and let people get into the pools wearing coloured t-shirts, whatever pants people happened to wear and even sari. Ewww.....

I dont think a second visit is a good idea. In fact, I'm going to strike off this place from my to do list if my nieces and nephews (dan juga anak anak angkat saya) were to come over for holidays unless they beg for it.

The boys slept all the way home. Lucky I did not make any plans to drop by anywhere.

School holiday - day 1

The boys were very happy. Tok Kie was coming over. They did not even eat breakfast at home, instead both chose to eat nasi lemak (yg tak sedap) at KLIA while waiting for Tok Kie's flight to arrive.

There'll be no balik kampung trip this time as I was pretty tied up with work. So was hubby. But the boys absolutely had no problem to keep each other entertained.

Post election day

It was pretty good, I guess. Dinasours are on their way out. We'll see the outcome in the next five years.

Spent most of the days either reading the newspaper or surfing the net.

Pilihanraya ke 12

Selamat Mengundi!

Mine will be at Section 6, Shah Alam so i will not be joining the crowd at highways. It will be business as usual. That is, breakfast-send Amri to USJ6-shop at pasar Section 6. Most probably I will vote first, then only stock up at the wet market. Or if the queue is too long (more than 5 people), I'll go back and cook lunch first. Will drop by on my way to having fun somewhere later. Hopefully the boys will behave.

Last time I voted, it was during my maternity leave. Hubby had taken Amri with him to vote at Terengganu. What a freedom. I went out to vote and only came home when my breastpads had reached their maximum limit :D

Vote well, everyone

And again

Amri's bicycle was stolen again. I said again because this was not the first time. It was stolen once last year and Amri was so upset about it. We bought him a new bicycle but he still wanted his old one. But one day, hubby came across a boy in our neighbourhood, riding that bicycle. It was modified but unmistakeably Amri's bicycle. Upon hubby's interrogation, he admitted that the bicycle was not his, but was borrowed from his friend. He later showed hubby where the friend's house was.


Amri and his latest best friend, Aqif












When hubby told this to me, I was imagining that the poor boy was probaby living in a rented house somewhere in TTDI Jaya, with at least 10 siblings and single income. His parents probably could not afford to buy a bicycle for each one of them. I was quite prepared to just forget about it and let the boy had that bicycle. As it turned out, the boys's father was a Finance Manager at a some highway management co (Litrak? Elite?) and his mom was just as well to do. And no, he did not have 10 other siblings to fight with. Hmph!

We took back the bicycle, of course.

Okay, I knew finance managers were a busy lot, but wouldn't you noticed an additional bicycle at your own house? Especially if you did not buy it. Every single finance manager I knew had eyes like an eagle.

Well, Amri was happy to have his bicycle back. The bad boy had the cheek to come to my house, along with his sidekicks and harassed my maid. But no damage there as bibik stood her ground.

That was one year ago. Bad boy and his thugs were already graduated to Form 1. Probably stealing motorbike and training to be a mat rempit.

Amri on the other hand, was happy with 2 bicycles but it was very clear which one he prefered. He cycled to school except for a few weeks when he took Sharlini missing case very badly and was too scared to cycle. Even with bibik escorting him to and fro. He was scared that bibik would be kidnapped as well. The phase lasted a few weeks then he was back on the wheel.

And now it was stolen again. *sigh* but Amri taken it pretty well. It happened at his school and I still did not make any report to the school admin yet. Shall I? Heard from teachers that it was pretty common. And a neighbour said he once came across a couple of boys trying to break a bicycle lock.

Dear God, please,please, please, do not let any of my boys turn out bad like that. I wouldn't know what to do if my boys start going around school and housing areas stealing bicycles and harassing maids.

Enough with that. Lets move on to latest favourite pastime of my boys - fighting. Nope, no longer just verbal shouting match and a few rough tumbling. It had evolved to full bloody street fight. Well, it started with verbal fight allright. Somehow, despite being our official motormouth, Adam always lose this kind of match. Probably because he was just four yrs old and has yet to acquire a variety of vocab. He knew it and was annoyed because he could not win. So he boxed Amri's mouth. End result - Amri had a bloody upper lip and Adam had a bloody knuckle. Both were wailing loud enough to give me migrain.

I was not too sure what caused the fight and which one of them started it. So we decided to penalise both. Hubby and I went out for teh tarik without them. Which caused the wailing immediately turned into full volume bloody murder scream.

Haiyoh....Maybe I need to look into sound proofing my house

The high and low of life

Someone tried to talk to me regarding her worries about her high blood pressure and the effect of it should she decided to try for another baby. Somehow I made light of her predicament, asking her to start exercising instead. It was very, very wrong of me to do that. And I am so sorry. Didn’t know what was wrong with me that morning, seeing that my office server was down and I had nothing better to so I should be able to talk her through her worries in a more helpfull way. But I did not and I regretted that.

Anyway, to make up for it, I decided to blog about high BP, of what little I know about it. If any medical expert reads this, feel free to correct me.

As a general rule, anything 140/90 is considered high. It meant the force against your artery wall when the blood is pumping is higher than normal. A very high blood pressure during pregnancy will limit the oxygen supply to fetus so there’s the risk of poor fetal growth there . Apart from that, there will be a risk of premature separation of placenta from uterine wall. In other word, low birth weight , premature birth or God forbid, stillbirth. And there is also pre-eclampsia to deal with, which could be fatal for both mother and baby. However, I have no doubt that this situation could be fixed with medication and proper medical attention. The only bad thing is that you may end up having to attend more pregnancy check up. Just remember to consult doctor and gynae first before conceiving that little one

Exercise? Well, it is good in a way that it will make your heart stronger. When the heart is stronger, it can pump blood with less effort. So less pressure on the poor arteries. On a moderate case, exercise alone is enough to keep the BP in control. Good for someone who is very indiciplined when it comes to taking medication everyday. But, just because I say so, please don’t just hop on to a treadmill and run for 5km daily. Check with any good doctor first and get the green light. Then start it easy. Increase the pace gradually. In two or three months, it will help put some stabilizing effect on the blood pressure. By all means, stop and run to the doctor if there is any chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath or your heart skip a beat (but not due to your kids jumping down the staircase, ok). And no, I do not recommend yoga. What I meant by exercise is your regular cardio workout like jogging, swimming, walking, cycling or ermm belly dancing pun boleh kot.

Food? Perhaps go easy on salt and start increasing calcium/magnesium intake. I remembered my mom, whom also has high BP, initially prepared 2 sets of meals. One is low salt/low fat menu for herself and a normal one for the rest of us. But over the years, we all ate the same low salt/low fat food, which I still practice till now. Just excuse my occasional eating binge under the disguise of company entertainment.

One last thing is, to get a different doctor to check your BP, under different circumstances. (read : without feeling like murdering the boss, the hubby, the kids then blowing up the rest of earth). It may give different reading now that you're feeling less murderous.

Ref: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Mengada-ngada

I was paying Amri's swimming lesson fees to Marilyn in her tiny office at PADE, when suddenly Amri said to her,

"I do not want to join Cikgu Shahir's class. I prefer Cikgu Hafiz"

"Pleeaaaseeee.....can I go back to Cikgu Hafiz's class?"

Marilyn was stunned for a second before she broke out in loud guffaws.
"But Cikgu Shahir is very kind and very fun. Plus, cikgu Hafiz has to teach other class" she said kindly to Amri, whom by now looked very close to tears.

I was seething inside.

"But Cikgu Shahir is nasty".

And guess who would appear at the doorside at that time, if not the so called Cikgu Shahir himself. Adussss...........

To my relieved, he just laughed merrily, ruffled Amri's hair, grab a bagful of colourful balls and rushed Amri along to poolside. Surprisingly, Amri just followed meekly in his wake.

Amri was allright, actually. Just in one of his annoying mood when nothing you said would make sense to him. When I swam nearby half an hour later, he was paddling happily with his friends, wearing new swimsuit and his paddlepop coloured swimcap. The cap still made me cringed but I must admit, it was easier to spot Amri that way. When the only visible part of the kids were their cap and goggles.

Boring, ordinary Sunday

I was back to normal. And had an ordinary Sunday for a change. Cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. Beginning to feel like a goddess of some sort..hehehe. Oh...I even cooked for tea. In between, cought up on my reading, sorted out the boys junks in their room and get them a haircut.

For some reason, all the barbershop at ttdi jaya were closed. So we went to giant. Luckily not too many people in the one and only shop there. It was manned by two indian men so one man took one boy. Amri tried his luck by telling one of them that he wanted a mawi cut. Duh! Lucky none of them could understand. The haircut took quite some time, what with two fidgety boys who decided they could still fight from their side by side poisition on a very high stool placed by the barbers. At least, verbal fight. Nasib baik itu barber tak accidently (if not intentionally) cut their ears. Anyway, we managed to come through the haircut without too much damage and rewarded ourselves with a mango juice each. Then, the really, really heavy rain poured down. I parked the car quite far and nowhere near the covered walkway. So we decided to wait out the rain. But the rain kept getting heavier and it was already maghrib time. I had no qualm whatsoever to walk in the rain but I was worried with the contents of my bag - company blackberry, personal phone, a cheque for my claim, thumbdrive and what nots (I love carrying lots of junks). On the other hand, if the rain went on much longer, we might have flash flood on some part of the road leading towards ttdi jaya. Not to mention that the two boys might get hungry and insisted a kfc meal again. After much hesitation, I stuffed my bag underneath my tudung and dragged the two boys with me.

We however, did not run to the car. We just walked happily with the boys occasionally jumped into puddles. No point of runnning. We were drenched to the bones the moment we stepped out of giant. Thank god I did not drive the merc, otherwise the owner might not be too pleased having three wet bodies inside his car. The boys were having the time of their life and, ermmm come to think of it, actually, I did too.

Recuperating....

I was in a worse condition than I thought. I reached home about 5pm yesterday evening and went straight to bed. Something I rarely did. When I groggily woke up, Amri was nagging me to go to Burger King. But since bibik already cooked dinner, we ate at home first. However, Amri breezily ate another meal at Burger King later, barely one hour after dinner. Really, that boy had a bottomless stomach and a very indiscriminating appetite.

This morning was a different story. It was raining heavily and I really, really had to make a huge effort just to move an inch of the bed. Brazed the heavy rain to send Amri to his weekly session at USJ6 Dyslexia Centre and then to my own weekly session at Section 6 wet market. While piling the basket with vegis, I felt lightheaded then came the nausea and for a moment, at the brink of passing out. Gosh! If I didn't knew any better, I would have thought that I were pregnant. As it is, I was pretty sure it was one of my low BP, taking a dip lower than usual. A bottle of sport drink later, I was okay. At least enough to see me through the rest of my weekly purchasing. Back at home later, again, I went straight to bed. And woke up near panic because it was 12.20 and I was supposed to fetch Amri by 12.30. Called hubby and thankfully, he was already on his way to fetch Amri. Phew!

The nap had done what it was supposed to do. Put me back on my feet. So after lunch (that I cooked) we went to the warehouse sale and Amri got his new kickboard. As expected, he did not stop at just kickboard but instead, added to his pile, a swimming cap (which colour made me cringe) and a swimsuit (really cheap). Actually he wanted a floatie and a punching bag as well but at my rolled eyes, put it back cheekily. Apa da....
Went to Subang Parade afterwards where Adam was pleasantly surprised to see a live barney, albeit a bit slimmer version. He trailed after barney and tried to pinch him a few times. Since he was happy to trail after that purple dino, I was able to escape to speedy video without both of them. Thank god. Now I had that dvd that i had wanted for quite some time - Memoirs of a Geisha. Already had the book anyway.

Cooked dinner as well, though a bit in a rush since hubby and cu nan wanted to leave early to watch football match at shah alam stadium. They were back an hour later though, because of a power outage. Hmph! But actually, despite of earlier announcement, the game was not cancelled. Perhaps because the footie fans there start throwing things by that time :D
I was glad I just stayed at home and watched my newly acquired dvd.

Back to earth

Phew!

This was tiring week. But I survived 4 days of trying to stay alive inside a small conference room with a bunch of Caucasian men and three very stubborn Japanese. My only communication to the outside world during these few days were through a few YM conversation, and even those were stolen moments while I pretended to look attentive and clever while simultaneously typing away on the minuscule blackberry.

My nihonggo was more rusty than I imagined. This was so embarrasing. My only excuse was that I haven't spoken a word of it (except whatever on restaurant menu) for eight years. Hmph!

And somebody needed to knock me on my head! I did not even noticed that Amri had his swimming test last night. We were in even in the same pool. Only that Amri and his group were at one end of the pool while my friends and I were in the middle. I was tired to begin with and simply exhausted after a few mini laps around the pool. Nope, I could not managed 50m non stop. Not this week. Went straight to bed after came back from pusat akuatik and woke up in the morning smelling faintly of chlorin. *Sigh*. Swimming is hazardous to your skin and hair. Anyway, thanks to Mdm Gart whom despite juggling three plus one junior swimmers by herself (didn't see Mr Gart last night) had indirectly managed to let me know about it. 12 hours later, that is.

Well, glad the week was over. I promised Amri a new kickboard if he passed his test but I doubted that cheeky boy will stop at just a kickboard. Coincidentally, there was a sport warehouse sale somewhere in Bandar Sunway. I could use a few new stuffs myself. But first, I needed to catch up on my beauty sleep.

Two years ago

It rained heavily in the evening so we fetched Amri and his bicycle from school. It would be too dangerous for him to cycle.

Mdm Gartblue got it right, it was that time of the year. Creepy wasn’t it? But was it only two years ago? I felt like it was a lifetime away. Read her entry here. Trust her to keep track of all historical event in Shah Alam.

Here is my entry two years ago - Shah Alam Flood Serious backbreaking cleaning up followed for weeks afterwards. And car repair costs that I wished I could forget. I could send Amri to a posh private school for four years with what hubby paid for his merc repair. It was not even working properly after that.

Well, heavy rain no longer sent me into a panic mode, unless it involved a flash flood on the road that I needed to use (and I was unfortunate enough to be driving the merc). Seriously, car makers should make all cars flood proof.

Midlife crisis

Not mine, though. But I'm surrounded with men in various stage of midlife crisis. And it is starting to drive me up the wall. You wouldn't believe that all these nonsense are coming from well educated men. Mr. OM, who could come up with the most complicated engineering design within minutes were having doubts about his position in the organisation. And lately his insecurities were extended to his other benefits, i.e accomodation and company car. Honestly, I wouldn't dream of taking all those things away from him. Pretty soon, he would be having nightmare of me or anyone else for that matter, taking away his phone, his room, company credit card or probably his reading glasses.

What happened when Mr OM met Mr SS, who himself was having his own crisis? It was like having two extra boys to look after. Add a few more men to that equation and I am quite ready to throw my own tantrum. My only mantra this few weeks was 'if I could handle Amri and Adam, I could handle these men'.

I am quite prepared to ignore the long face,the sulking, the childish emotional outburst, the power struggle and the occasional signs of depression (read: alcohol) but all of these are putting strain on company operation. In the absence of a GM, it is up to me to make sure things are under control. What am I supposed to do? A friend said, men going through midlife crisis are best left alone. But I can't do that, can I? I need all of them to run the company.

*sigh*

Anyway, God still have mercy on me. Just when I thought I'd be in real trouble this week, with Japanese guests coming over and another couple of middle age Big Bosses flying down from US to meet the Japanese, a few things begin to happen. Mr. OM is down with conjunctivities and some other cornea infection that he ends up with only 50% vision. Thus, he is safely confined at home for now. One less man to deal with. Big Boss no.1 has urgent matters at some other continent so he is safely on the other side of planet earth. Mr Power Hungry is sent to offshore and will be there for the next two weeks. Mr.SS is playing hide and seek with first ex-wife due to alimony matter and is under court order to present himself somewhere so he'll be occupied for quite some time. Hopefully the court will find him guilty of not paying alimony and chuck him in jail for a few months. Two others are sent for training at UK and I hope the brits will keep these two frozen until I managed to catch my breath. Err...what season is it now over there?

Help me God....I am too young for this. I want to go back being just an FC and enjoy my life.

So. The forecasted bleak week is actually turning out to be quite fun. And I'm invited by the Japs to a dinner with belly dance show.

For brief explaination of midlife crisis, read here

I just hope, after being so understandable with these men, I will be allowed to show up at work one day and claim that I am having a raging PMS and feeling a wee bit murderous.

Perkampungan Hadhari

At Pulau Wan Man. Which was very near to my in law's place. We could even walk there if we want to but it was a newly constructed place so it was barren of shady trees and extremely hot. Actually, that place was not really completed yet. But some peole were in hurry to show off Masjid Kristal, which thankfully, looks nicely done. There were supposed to be some miniature replica mosques from all around the world but sadly, were not fully ready yet. Not that they were impressive anyway.

Stragely, people arrived in droves to visit the half completed place. Some parked their cars by the roadside in front of our house. And prepared to walk all the way in their lovely dresses and high heels. Once, I even considered renting out umbrellas and flat shoes. Poor visitors, they didn't know better. I am pretty sure the place will be grand once it is fully completed, provided whomever building it will remember to plant lots of shady trees, provide covered walkways with plenty of dustbins, plant green, green grass and finish up the roads properly. And of course, clean toilets.

We did visit the place. But we went there at night, very near closing time. It was less dusty at night but still happening enough. Masjid Kristal was awesome, especially at night.The towers were emitting light which changed colours every few minutes. It was simply breathtaking to look at. But of course, as were other grand mosques of Malaysia, it was not designed to have natural ventilation. Which is sad because of its position by the riverside, it could have all the natural breeze if designed properly. Instead it would be a power guzzler, with the lights in its towers and internal airconditioning. Stunning, nontheless.

Give the place a few more years, with proper care and maintenance, it will be a lovely place. I'll visit the place again the next time we did our 'balik kampung' trip.

Amri and Alif


Life was a bliss, but only when you were on holiday at your parents or in laws place. They boys were nowhere in sight but I was perfectly sure they were well taken care of. Just hope that they did not do too much damage somewhere. We were in and out of the house with just the two of us (like..ermms...10 yrs ago?)But....if one of the kids were to follow, just resign to the fact that all six of them will follow. Heh!


Adam enjoying himself at masjid kristal

Anyway. Syawani will be 10 on 14th Feb so we decided to celebrate it earlier. So hubby and I were out hunting for cakes, party stuffs and spaghetti things. Adik did cream caramel that though not up to everyones standard, it was perfect to me. I love the not too sweet and slightly burnt sugar taste. Honestly!

We attended the other wedding (groom side). By today, I had already talked myselves into relaxing my silly dress anxiety.

eh...where are the rest of the photos?

Another side of moi

When we arrived yesterday, Mie announced that there will be a wedding tomorrow and another on saturday for us to attend. For the friday wedding, we were to be a part of groom entourage.

Yikes! I did not bring my baju kurung. Or anything remotely formal.

In the past, these kind of things rarely bother me. I'd just borrow a dress or two from any of the ladies in the family (non family members pun boleh). But somehow, over the years I've morphed into someone very private and at times, snobbish. The laid back years were gone. So I dragged hubby to town (Tganu roads/traffic still baffled me), bought a dress and a tudung to match then only began to relax. Until the next morning that is.

For some reason, the wedding would take place around 10.30 am. The earliest wedding I had ever attended. So we were to be at groom's place by 9.30am. At 9am I realised that even though I had a nice blue tudung and baju kurung (embroided lagi), I did not have suitable handbag and shoes. I had a sling bag (need both hand to pinch/drag two boys at the same time)and a maroon sandal. No time to go out and buy another. So, I just borrowed my sis in law's black pump and made do without a bag. And felt out of place and extremely self concious all the way from Losong to Gong Kapas and back.

Confirm, I am vain!

To make my silly vanity worse, both boys refused to come with us. So I had nothing and no one to take my mind off the missing shoes and bag.

Sigh.....how did I turn into this person? Next time I'll travel with the whole wardrobe with me. To think that I used to travel with just one knapsack...

Anyway. We ate nasi minyak at 10.30am. But then, this is Terengganu. Nasi minyak is practically breakfast.

From Cherating to KT

We had another fine morning of sun and sea. Took the boys to the beach after replying a few emails and gosh...it was already very hot. The boys played happily for quite some time before suddenly Adam screamed. My heart skipped a few beats.

It was nothing actually. Just that he stepped on some siput sedut like creatures that were still alive and moving. But when Adam was scared, there was really no point of trying to comfort him. He kept on screaming, ran all the way from beach to the poolside with Amri and I behind him and straight to a shower booth. He then proceeded to turn the shower full volume and vigorously scrubbed his feet while still sobbing sadly. Amri just stood by gaping at him and trying to comprehend the babbling that came with the sobbing. Apa daa... Half a minute later, he was fully recovered and jumped into the pool.

Intan & Co came to visit us on Thursday afternoon and took us out to a sumptious gulai kawah lunch at a well hidden place. I wouldn't know how to go there again on my own. God... I'd surely put on weight if I were living here. Food were really cheap. Last night we had ikan tombak bakar plus some other side dishes and vegis and it came to only RM38.

Bade farewell to Intan and her troops after a very heavy and noisy lunch (read: 5 kids) and drove straight to KT. Amri and Adam slept all the way.

Adam and Irfan. Amri was too busy eating to join in the photo


OUr compulsory stop. Lemang by the roadside

A night at Cherating

Amri came back from school on Monday and told us that school would be off on Wednesday. Cool. I frantically searched online for a place to stay overnight at cherating and managed to secure a place at Suria Cherating. Never been there before but hubby said it belongs to his friend's wife, plus it provided wireless broadband so it was good enough.

Actually, it was pretty good. We were given welcome drink and a ground floor room. It was small but open directly to a beautiful garden equipped with children playground and a pool on the left. Long sandy beach was just a shout away from the pool and garden. The boys were super happy.

View from our back door














The boys alternating between the pool and the beach. I'm a bit scared of the wave actually.
















Amri in power ranger pose


















Anyway, just in case people (all five of you who read this blog) thought I was one of the tai-tais that could set off to a holiday destination at a whim, the answer is NO. Not only I was overload with my own unfinished works (too many CNY lunches) but I was (and still am) also taking over the management of the company in the absence of a boss. Anyway, no escaping from work as I was well equipped to work from any part of the world, provided it has internet. Plus, I am the self pronounced last minute queen. I worked best in haphazard condition and the boys and I could go a few days with a few basic essentials missing. Or at least, they could.

note: maxis broadband network coverage is worse than hampeh in this part of the world, luckily the resort provided wireless broadband for free.

This is the ultimate reason I could escape from office

Jalan jalan tengok kem khidmat negara

Hubby works for a national service camp, conveniently located at a little place very near to Lumut (read : beach). And the camp had an open day today where parents were invited to take a closer look around, have meal at their dining hall and watched performance by the trainees. So the boys and I tagged along.

Those teenagers were superb. There was one very energetic Indian dance show that I enjoyed tremendously. Wonder where they had that kind of energy. But then, they were teenagers. Amri loved the dikir barat, though I found it utterly boring. Adam had a meltdown because he did not win a lucky draw hamper. Ceh!

Had lunch at their dining hall, which to me, who grew up at boarding school followed by college hostel, felt it had a lot of room for improvement. But compared to the time before hubby took over the management, it was pretty good. The rest of the facility were okay, though it looked more like a boarding school than a training camp.

By the way, could the new management plant some trees and grass please. The place was scorching hot that my Adam si putera lilin broke out in very nasty heat rashes. It was so bad that it looked like Adam was bitten by some very poisonous bugs. When 3/4 of Adam turned maroon from the rashes, I braved the unfamiliar road and head out in search of a clinic. Ended up in front of a pharmacy somewhere in Sitiawan, about 20 minutes later. By that time, Adam was peacefully asleep and the rashes were totally gone. 20 minutes in airconditioning car cured that.

Checked into marina cove resort after another 20 minutes navigating my way very confusedly out of sitiawan.

Back to kitchen tales

I have three cakes suppliers. People I regularly ordered cakes from, be it for own consumption or as a gift. One is a neighbour but she has moved to trendy upmarket BJ and has yet to finish redecorating her kitchen and made final decision as to where to place her oven and stuffs. So until her grand tropika 2 kitchen is up and running again, I have to look for other alternative

The second one made heavenly cakes but has serious time management issue. If I do not die from overdose of her marvelous cakes than I'd surely die of panic attack when she still does not turn up with my orders a couple of hours after the agreed time. Or murdered by my hungry guests. But her cakes is something to die for....

So come the third one. She makes pretty cakes but the taste is so so. But my boys love them to bits. So if it made the boys happy, I'd order them by the dozens, never mind if I had to drive quite a distance to collect them. But then, the lady rang me up saying that she had to attend this meeting or the other and the cakes would be a few hours late. The she called again and said the cakes would be ready on time because she will rush home and let go her lunch/tea break so that she could bake the cake. And she'd go on and on until it made me feel very guilty for ruining her day just for the cakes. So I cancelled the order. Immediately she changed the tune, everything was running well now. Hmmph!
By the time I reached her house to collect the cakes, her kids were lining up by her car to go out for dinner. And she started again on how she did not have time to cook dinner because she was busy baking cakes. Duh! I'd never ever order from her again. She probably did not bake cakes as a source of income but rather as an annoying hobby.

Probably I should start baking my own pretty cupcake. If mdm gartblue could do it, surely I could too. It can't be that difficult. Sigh!

So if you people still want the contact numbers, sms me. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Pets

My boys want a pet each.

Amri wants a dog

Adam wants an elephant

Ibu wants to scream

Kiddy party

Since we already had a party last month, it only made sense that Adam's party should be at his school with his new friends. He was also super happy last Thursday when one of his classmates celebrated her birthday there so I knew, it was just right for him.

Since I had enough of spiderman/superman/batman theme to last me a lifetime, I decided to do everything spongebob this time. At least, spongebob is funny and no one died in his story. And considering that the guests were a bunch of 4 year olds (most are not yet 4), I went for cupcakes. And they are so cute......

Amri and Adam decided that they wanted another go at candle blowing so they took one spongebob each, stuck a candle, get bibik to light them up and blew them again. All these despite both of them were already asleep on the way back from collecting the cake

Cute little spongebobs ready to be sent to Adam's class

Since the boys like the cupcakes so much, I took 10 pcs from the box and put aside for them to eat. By the time I took out the plate, only 6 were left to be arranged.

For some reason, Amri said he wanted to do some maths on the laptop. At dining table. Fine. It was late and I was sleepy. So I said goodnight to the boys and reminded them not to stay up too late.

The next morning, there was only one spongebob left on the plate. Luckily they did not eat the whole boxful.

Adam turns 4 years old

My baby has turned 4 in a blink!
However, the birthday boy was so sleepy he could hardly blow the candle. The long face however, was due to his royal shyness, i.e malu kat waiters. We had spent the day visiting a sick cousin who had just came back from a 24 days coma at Hospital Temerloh. And both boys spent the travelling time either bickering or at each others throat. Amri was still nervous at the sight of all the tubes and life support machine but that was understandable.
Anyway. We had a birthday dinner, with Cu Nan and Auntie Cik as well. Auntie Cik had her birthday on 9th January so they practicaly shared the party.




Birthday boy and birthday girl.















Birthday boy enjoying his sweet treat, an icecream brownie . Birthday girl wouldn't touch it though.

Birthday present from Cu Nan. Ibu and ayah had no time to get him a pressy yet...apa lah nak jadi.

All smiles now. He loved the racing cars so much he he slept with them. And had nightmares about Amri taking his new toys from him two times where he cried so loud he had me rushing to his room without really opening my eyes.

Adam goes to kindy

He was very excited but still, not a morning person. Quite a job to wake him up, get him into the uniform but still failed to put any breakfast into him. He just drank his milk.
All of us, Amri, hubby and I would be there for him on his first day

Despite me imagining the worst, Adam was very okay, especially after his teacher gave him and his little friends some balloons to play with and put on music. I was worried because he used to be accompanied by Amri everywhere. Amri was the outgoing extrovert one, while Adam was simply reserved. He did not make friends on his own but rather just went along with Amri's friends. So this is the first time he did things on his own.



He was rather quiet in the beginning but at the end of the day, he had already made friends and seemed to be enjoying himself. I was very relieved that he did not cry and insisted to go home. Though he looked rather uncomfortable when a few classmates started to howl. I stayed around and took a sneak peek now and then. Adam would gave me a little wave and a big smile everytime he spotted me

School ended earlier at 10.30am since this week would be orientation week. I sent him home and the first thing he did was grab his milk bottle and lie down on his hammock to enjoy. Shoes was taken off by me.