Pantai Kelulut

There was a hidden beach near Gie's (my bro in law) house at Marang, that was so lovely. We wouldn't know how to find it if not because Gie was kind enough to be our tourist guide..he heh.


Adam, terrified of Mr Crab and hating the feel of sand under his feet, stayed close to his Ayah


Having lotsa fun frolicking at Pantai Kelulut. Caution: no changing room or public bathroom in sight


A slightly less terrified Adam. Though later he used a quarter box of tissue paper to wipe the sand off his feet and slipper.

From Kedah to Terengganu

View at Lebuhraya Timur Barat

Isn't it gorgeous day?

I was hoping that some elephant would crossed the road. I've seen them once before. We also bypassed Belum Forest Resort, near a very picturesque Tasik Banding. I would have like to plan a stay there and I was pretty sure hubby would have love it but the two boys were a lot more of city boys than I thought. I have no idea though how to make them fall in love with nature. Didn't help that lately my idea of camping trip is about pitching a tent in front of a nice, air conditioned chalet. Somehow, it seemed important to me that the two boys are introduced to the joy of fishing, swimming in a lake, paddle a boat (definitely not a speedboat)and everything else that I've enjoyed in my childhood. Oh well...one step at a time, I guess.

We dropped by at a lovely beach near Merang for our lunch. There were some fishermen just arrived with their bounty but I was not quick enough to capture that.



An hour after we arrived, I was down with fever. Probably because i was coughing pretty bad after the bucketful of rambutans. Anyway, if I were to be ill, this was a perfect place for it. I could sleep all day and no one would bat an eyelid. The two boys would disappear with their cousins and hubby was definitely having a good time with his family.

We were still in Kedah

The weather was good enough today for us to step outdoor.

Took the boys to nearby waterfall. Adam hated all the rocks and sand. He wanted a swimming pool like river..duh! Amri did not mind the rocks but insisted on his goggles. Bantai je lah....mana ada budak lain kat situ yg mandi sungai pakai goggles. I need to expose the boys more to outdoor, I think.


Then we decided to pick some rambutans ourselves, ignoring the protest from makcik esah and the fact that paksu already had a pile of rambutan ready for us to tuck in :)




Until Adam was bitten by some kerengga.

So he decided to use his slingshot instead. Boleh?
Actually,he was getting awfully good at using that thing, after 2 days of training. Mak gave him some buah cenerai to use as bullets so that he would not cause too much damage.

We were in Kedah

Since yesterday, that is. We were at Lumut before that and it was horrible. The hotel was not only full, it was overflowing. There were 4 different groups of family day event there from various part of Perak. And some people did not just stop the definition of family at just wife and children, they needed to extend it to include parents, grandparents, tok ngah and the whole town. Adoi la...I doubted even the refugees camp meal time could rival the scene at breakfast buffet table. And don't get me started with people jumping in fully clothed into the pool...ewww...

I think I need to copy BeingNormal and only go for holidays off season. Anyway, we had a good time at a wedding in Lumut. It was why we were there in the first place.



Well...I've never been so glad to see my parents house and especially my bedroom with the nice comfy bed and no one to disturb me. The boys were well taken care of and were having lesson of slingshot techniques from their Wan. Jakun sungguh anak mak.

It was so cold here....felt like on top of Cameron Highland, minus the tea and strawberry

Pemadam

Adam is pretty annoyed. Someone in his class at q-dees calls him pemadam.

Poor guy. Heheheh. Can't help you there, I'm afraid :D

Adam during his chicken pox time

Holiday!!!!!!!!!!

Starting tomorrow of course.

We'll be away for one week. Not too sure though if vacation is considered as taking a break. I'd usually ended up even more exhausted. Plus being with the boys 24x7x9 days seriously will drive me to the brink of sanity.

Nevertheless, I'd gladly welcome the change of routine and scenery. We'll be doing our Shah Alam - Lumut - Kedah - Terengganu - Cherating route. Maybe a stopover at my Kerteh office, if I'm in the mood for it. Or go interview the new salesman if the boss agrees to go with me.

My plan for the holiday is to eat a lot and sleep a lot. And leave the mess to hotels staff (or my parents) to deal with.

Dare I leave the berry behind? Oooopps...

Outsourcing

Do you know any freelance consultant that deal with Petr0nas license? I need someone to deal with renewal. Am too busy (lazy) to do it myself.

Poolside babysitter

Here I am, at PADE poolside watching Amri and Adam frolicking in the water. Only that their class finished about 45 minutes ago. The reason why I'm still here is that, one of Adam's classmate is still waiting for his mom to pick him up. He was crying initially until Amri brought him to me and I told (lied) him that his mom went to tesco to pick up a few groceries and will be back soon. Truth is, I don't know where his mom is but I've caught a glimps of her when I arrived.

I do not have the heart to leave him here with the instructors without even his change of dry clothes. So I let my boys play with him. Hope that will help. The boys are more than happy to keep him company.

Isk...isk.

Another roof over our head

Long, long time ago, we rented a cute little house at Puchong Perdana. The house no was 11. Then we moved to no.9 TTDI Jaya where we lived happily until a big flood ruined my tiny front yard and beloved neighbours started to move away. So would we, perhaps by year end. To another house at another area (konfim tak banjir). The house no is 11.

We really did run in circles.

Now you know what number our future house will be, if ever. My new house, very unfortunately, is overlooking d'puncak houses. Which look lovelier each day :D

Escape...

I am back at office! Without doctor's consent.

The boss is kind enough to ensure all staffs will go and have their chicken pox vaccination so that I could escape from my house arrest, guilt free. I love my home, I really do and I like to occasionally skive off work just like anyone else but after 10 days being confined to 1500sf space, it starts to get suffocating. If only I were to have an interest in interior design or housekeeping, my house would have gone through a complete makeover. Wishful thinking. The fact was, I could not even motivate myself to plug in the vacuum cleaner.

So here I am, back to my habitat. In the morning, I resolved to stay put in my room and only step out when absolutely necessary. But half an hour later, I found myself office hopping, in the disguise of catching up with latest activities. Like I didn't read emails for the past 10 days. Truth was, I craved the conversation. And I miss the pressure. I thrive under pressure and 10 days of playing brain dead is not good for my health. Duh.....

Okay. Now that I finished harassing all five people here, I shall lock myself in this 100sf shoe box for the next four hours and try to get some actual work done.

Let me out of here

I went to see a dermatologist at a nearby hospital this morning, with 100% faith that he would give me some kind of magic potion that will fast forward the process of skin repair and new skin regeneration. In other word, I am vain enough not to be seen with chicken pox scars all over my upper body. I put all my trust in science so that by tomorrow, the last day of my medical leave, I could go my merry way everywhere. Not just office, of course.

Anyway.

The good doctor took one look and declared I am not fit to go back to human civilisation yet. He wrote a new medical leave certificate from 1st August to 8th August. Gee....thanks so much doctor. Now, what would I do that long with just my pitiful self for company? Bear in mind that I am without a maid and my house looks more like a dumpsite than a cozy abode. Plus, not having someone to boss around is bad for my health.

*scream bloody murder*

Work from home again then, I guess. Or I could still go to office, lock myself inside my room, put a 'Quarantine' sign on the door and shoo everyone away. But then, I could still hear the laughter, the usual banter or occasional pizza party. And I'd feel very lonely.

Sick of being sick

I am so miserable that even the prospect of starting 2009 budget process once I'm back to office seems like a whole lot of fun now.

I took a sickie...

Gosh!

It has been quite some time. I was super busy chasing my own tail. But thanks to my current bouts of chicken pox, I was kicked out from the fast lane and been put under house arrest for the next nine days.

Now I found myself with plenty of time on my hand. Accompanied with zillions of nasty red dots and splitting headache. But very little choice of things to do.

Where was I?

The shock of petrol price hike came and went away gradually. People will adjust. That's what humans with half a brain do. Protest, scream or topple the current government if you must, get it out of your system. Then we all could go back to drawing board and think for a solution. Like how not to depends on oil price for our livelihood

Our new maid came and disappeared. I expected chaos. None happened. Everyone took it in stride and adjusted pretty quick. Perhaps the boys were borne with some flexible genes ingrained. And we happened to be the lucky parents who had them.

The much anticipated date for Jacobs Walk of Life came and gone. Nothing happened. I actually had a new adidas backpack for the event. Which now became Amri's swimming class bag. *sigh*

Adam's chicken pox came and went away in less than a week. Mak came to our rescue, thankfully. Adam was a model patient. Not a peep about being kept indoor for five days at a stretch. Ate, slept and drank a lot of milk. Watched a lot of tv too. In fact, we had to physically dragged him out from his perch in front of the idiot box, kicking, screaming, wailing and sobbing, so that the rest of the family members could have a decent lunch out.

My new boss came and look set to stay for a long term. I like him already, even if he removed me from my cozy pad beside the pantry to the furthest windowless corner in the name of confidentiality. He took over the extra workload which I had miraculously carried with me for the past six months. I am now, officially, just a financial controller. No more frazzled nerve. No more 3 am phone call with news of broken in site office. No more feeling near hysterical because I've forgotten to bring blackberry to Amri's swimming class. I feel like I could do a financial report with one eye blog hopping and another eye shopping and fingers on YM. God bless my new boss.

So what do I do now?

Many happy returns

And a very Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. Hope to share a lot more of your birthdays in the future. Looking back, no one could deny that you have achieved a lot within a very short time.

Enjoy it.

And a happy birthday too to my brother, Ajoe and brother in law, Nan.

Hi Tea at Bukit Bandaraya

Very early in the morning, I ran across Nyna on my weekly 'raw materials' shopping at Section 6 market. And she told me that Kak Azu would be coming over to her house this afternoon. Great! I invited myself then and there with the promise to bring spaghetti (about the only thing I could cook rather well).

In between attending a wedding at Section 2 and giving in to the boys request to see Air Force team showing off their rather ancient planes, I managed to cook the so called spaghetti and brought it over to Bukit Bandaraya :). But not before having a near heart attack when my instruction to our new maid to boil another packet of spaghetti ended up with her boiling a packet of angels hair. Anyway, she's only been around for just a little over two weeks.

Amri, Haziq (Nyna's), Adam and Aiman (Azu's)

Meeting these friends were fun. Like the good old time doing CIMA/ICSA. Even more fun when 3 sets of kids tagging along. Which unfortunately, equal 5 boys + 1 girl. Kesian Aliya...the only rose among the ultramen. Where's Aliya's photo?

Tiga mak dara pingitan

Tuan tanah (Khairi) and us

Ali & Azu

Thanks to Nyna & Khairy for having us. We should do this again.

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.