Yoga

I've attended 3 sessions of Ashtanga Yoga and still couldn't make up my mind whether I like it enough to continue or switch to additional sessions of aerobic/belly dancing. Part of me was saying that I had more fun doing the strenuous step reebok. Another part of me.....the little monster side...was feeling a bit reluctant to quit without giving my best shot and emerged better than the rest. Furthermore....who knows the skill to contort my body into various yoga asanas might become handy one hot night :)

Lets see some of the pros:

1. Increasing Flexibility – yoga has positions that act upon the various joints of the body including those joints that are never really on the ‘radar screen’ let alone exercised.

2. Increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons – likewise, the well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body. Surprisingly it has been found that the body which may have been quite rigid starts experiencing a remarkable flexibility in even those parts which have not been consciously work upon. Why? It is here that the remarkable research behind yoga positions proves its mettle. Seemingly unrelated “non strenuous” yoga positions act upon certain parts of the body in an interrelated manner. When done together, they work in harmony to create a situation where flexibility is attained relatively easily.

3. Massaging of ALL Organs of the Body – Yoga is perhaps the only form of activity which massages all the internal glands and organs of the body in a thorough manner, including those – such as the prostate - that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime. Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder.

4. Complete Detoxification – By gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.

5. Excellent toning of the muscles – Muscles that have become flaccid, weak or slothy are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess flab and flaccidity.

And there is also the benefits of Yoga breathing (Pranayama):

The lungs are to the body what the bellows are to the fires of the forge. The more regularly and vigorously that the air is forced through the bellows and through the lungs, the livelier burns the flame in the furnace and the fire of life in the body.

A vital scientific and therapeutic aspect of yoga is Pranayama. Pranayama is the breathing process or the control of the motion of inhalation, exhalation and the retention of vital energy. By controlling Prana (life force), one can control all the forces of the universe, namely, gravity, magnetism, electricity and nerve currents.

During Pranayama inhalation (puraka) stimulates the system and fills the lungs with fresh air; retention (kumbhaka) raises the internal temperature and plays an important part in increasing the absorption of oxygen; exhalation (rechak) causes the diaphragm to return to the original position and air full of toxins and impurities is forced out by the contraction of inter-costal muscles. These are the main components of Pranayama which massage the abdominal muscles and tone up the working of various organs of the body. Due to the proper functions of these organs , vital energy flows to all the systems. The success of Pranayama depends on proper ratios being maintained between inhalation, exhalation and retention.

I think I'll give it another shot

Amri @ kindy

I went to see Amri's principal about the fight. I really felt like i need to see the boy's parent and apologize on Amri's behalf and hear out what they had to say. They must be mad at Amri. I would too. Or maybe they are thinking of suing us, or suing the kindy or whatever. I really needed to tell everybody that I did not raise Amri to be a bully. Nor did we resorted to any display of violence at our home. Amri had never been physically punished by us.

Well.....the principal said she has already spoken to the father about the incident. The father just laughed the matter aside, saying that boys were a naughty lot anyway. Phew!!!!

Help me

I went to fetch Amri from his Qiraati class as usual, at 5pm. Thought of having a little chat with the owner of the place. So instead of waiting for Amri to come out, I parked my car and went in. Then I noticed the chaos. I was a familiar face at the place so most of the kids knew me. A few of them ran and started frantically telling me something in a rush of unintelligible words and I was screwing my face hard trying to make sense of what the boys were talking about. Suddenly one of them pushed forward a crying boy, nose bleeding and the front of his shirt was eerily bloodstained. I was shocked. Then a boy said, "Aunty, Amri yang tumbuk hidung dia!" (Aunty, Amri punched his nose) What? WHATTTT????!!!

Oh my God!!!!!!!!! My son did this. What do I do now............. Have I raised a bully?

So the boys told me the full story. They finished class early. Amri was playing with a toy and this boy wanted it. Amri didn't agree to that so the other boy hit him on the face. Amri retaliated by boxing the boy's nose. So far...sound like fair play (as far as boys and their antics were concern). But then, how come there was not a scratch on Amri but the other boy was covered in blood. How hard did Amri hit him? Why did he had to hit that hard......... And this was considering that Amri was not on his top form, still under heavy medication and losing a lot of weight. What would happened if Amri were his usual fit self?

The staffs were not much of help either. None of them saw what happened. When I mentioned the bloody nose, one of them simply brushed it aside, saying something like "He's okay now. Boys will be boys" Oh hello.....you were the caretaker. Boys are rough generally, but this was a bloody business. If I were the boy's mom, I would be upset.

So help me God and help me people. What do I do now? Apologize to the boy's mom? Send her a buoquet of flower? Amri already apologize to his friend and I bet things between them would go back to normal first thing tomorrow morning. But us parents are more complicated than that

Back to square one

Again we went to see the pead. Amri carried his neb machine himself. I was hoping the pead would take back the neb machine for good.

Some 15 minutes later, we were seated in the doctor's office. The good news, Amri no longer needed the nebuliser machine. The bad news, Amri did not require the machine because it did not help at all. There was no improvement at all since our last visit. So the doctor prescribed ventolin to be taken every 6 hours. Hope it will work.

Another bad news, Adam's cold made a comeback. So he was sporting a rather nasty runny nose. Back with another prescription.

I had a nasty feeling like I was running in circles.

I'm a nurse (among other things)

Last Thursday, despite Adam having all kind of prescriptions already lined up for him, I still had to rush him to see his pead. This time for the funny, itchy rashes that suddenly appeared on his side and in a matter of hours creeped up to his face. It looked like measles but only affected from waist up. Also the fact that Adam has taken his MMR jab, so he should be well cleared of theose three, right?. Doctor suggested food allergies but I couldn't really put my finger into that. The boys ate home cooked meals and I really was not in the mood for variation of menu. So they ate mostly the same things like last week (and the week before). Salina suggested roseola, but there was no fever. Adam was as active as ever and never stop (or reduced) the squabbling with his brother.

Amri on the other hand, had a really chesty cough that sounded like he was covered in slimy phelgm from head to toe while his nose was forever dripping with greenish snot. Ewwwww..... The regular flimsy tissue won't be enough for his one nose blow. Half roll of toilet tissue worked better. Or kitchen paper.

So there we were...the three of us. The kids were given emergency nebuliser because the pead found that they had difficulty breathing. Adam was wheezing and Amri of course, choked in phlegm. One hour later, we went back with me struggling to hold a cranky Adam, a sleepy Amri and a big bag made of medicines, nebuliser machine and three can of different types of sample formula for Adam to try. Just in case he was suddenly allergic to his current milk. Oh yeah.....and a calamine lotion for Adam. Also a strict instruction to monitor his temperature.

I was officially a nurse.

From then on, I fed them prescription after prescription, took temperature religiously, administor nebuliser every four hours, swathed Adam in calamine lotion, enforced diplomatic control when they boys fight to play with nebuliser machine (read: dua-dua kena denda) and tried to pry the duo apart. Just in case it was roseola or measles...it would be contagious.

Come Monday, I was more than happy to hand back the loaned nebuliser machine. Once the novelty of having a mask on their face worn off and they decided that they did not really looked like ultraman or power ranger with that thing on, nebuliser sessions were nightmare.

The pead however, claimed that there was still about 40% of phlegm left inside Amri so I was to continue the neb for another 3 days. Sigh. Adam's rashes was given all clear, thankfully. Same went to his chest. He was just to continue with ventolin for another 3 days.

And today, I am still tiredly playing nurse while having a headache of my own.

Take a break

Adam was feeling a bit under the weather so I let him sat behind me while I was making thorough check on my notebook which was just back from ICU. You know...the annual event whereby, come February, a notebook would die on me one week before whatever dateline I had at the time. Spooky.

Adam must have feeling groggy from all the multicoloured medicine he had downed after breakfast. He was muttering something behind my back. Suddenly the toy he was cluthing fell down to the floor. I turned and found him peacefully asleep :) Poor little boy.

School Registration

For Amri, that is. He'll be in Year 1 primary school next year. So...end of our days of going for holiday or balik kampung as and when we felt like it. Not yet anyway.We still have this year to go places off peak period.

I dropped by at the nearest primary cchool and filled in the registration form. That was after waiting about 15 minutes for the person in charge to come back to the office from whereever she was. Then another few minutes for her scurried around looking for registration form. I thought I came equipped with everything they need, but obviously, I did not bring a self addressed envelope.

For the benefit of other first timer, here are the list of the documents you need to bring.
1. Original birth cert & a copy of it
2. Original water/telephone bill (non-returnable)
3. Self addressed envelope (with stamp, of course)

Well...I had no problem to drop by again and bring the envelope. Served me right too for not bothering to stop and read the banner that the school hanged at the T-junction. (Honestly...can't they hang at the place where I can park my car?)

What really bothered me was the fact that the administration office of that school had about half a dozen staff around at the time I was there. None bothered to help while waiting for the person in charge came in. What was so difficult anyway to get a piece of registration form and hand them to me. All of them (except the registration lady) were glued to the tv. One of them had her fingers on her computer keyboard but her head was obviously facing the tv.

When I finished filling in the form, the registration lady was nowhere to be seen. I called the half dozen ladies in front of the tv, saying that I was done. No one budged from her place. None even turned towards me, though one of them mumbled something that sound like 'tunggu sebentar' without even taking her eyes off the tv. Duh. What was so interesting anyway with the tv? Wonder what would happen if these lot were to be SAHM. I didn't even want to start imagine :)

Al-Fatihah

Al-Fatihah to a fellow blogger's mom on her return to her Creator. From Allah we come, to Allah we return.

To Lollies, you've been a great daughter to your mom. Not many are willing to do what you did and much less being given the opportunity to serve their mom the way you were.

Takziah from our family.

Work it out

After all those eating binge at Kuantan, I'd better eat something bland for these few days. Perhaps no nasi lemak for breakfast till Friday. Definitely no nasi beriani lunch/dinner this whole week :)

By the way, the night at Kuantan, Adik & Faizul brought us all to seafood place near a beach. Unfortunately, the seaside was banked up....perhaps to reduce the effect of tsunami like things to the fisherman village along its beach. Too bad....I would sure love to have wide open seaview while stuffing my face. And breathing in the cool night seabreeze.

No matter......the lack of seaview/seabreeze certainly had no effect whatsoever to our appetite. We chose Warung Kak Ana, apparently very popular and selected our seafood. The dinner was fabulous. A big ikan bakar, large squid and huge prawns plus a big bowl of plain rice, accompanied by mixed vegi (for the babies)....and guess how much all that cost? RM75. Not bad for 4 adults (one was preggy, thus constantly ravenous), 1 kid who ate more that the adult, one tot and one baby (who made more mess than eating). The fish was grilled with petai and chilli....which turned out very nice indeed. I've never had petai with fish before. To say we overeat was an understatement.

Maybe I'll just put in extra hours at the gym today.

A pit stop at Kemaman

Finally, I managed to persuade hubby to make a detour to Intan/Arip's house @ Kemaman. I just loved their place. It was a warm and chaotic , with loads of toys & educational stuff for their three kids. Too bad we could not stay long. But it was long enough for us to catch up with each other. The bread pudding was great too :)

Opssss....I forgot to attend Xanna's kenduri cukur jambul for her second child. Sowwiii.......

Out of town

Just to Kuantan visiting Adik & her family. Also to give ourselves a bit of fresh air after battling with flood, ruined cars and sick kids. Adik was doing pretty well, despite in her 4th month of pregnancy and chasing after 8 months old Haziq. Even managed to prepare big serving of chicken rice for our lunch. Thanks dear.

Haziq however, has developed a case of tongue-tie (ankyloglossia). Adik already noticed it during the first few days after Haziq was born but, since he did not have any trouble breastfeeding, decided to do nothing and just wait for it to correct itself. However, more and more people kept on commenting on that and suggesting to Adik & Faizul to bring him for corrective surgery. Well...they finally decided to go see a pead this coming Monday for fear that Haziq may end up with speech problem if left untreated.

Here is a summary of what a tongue-tie is about.

The term actually refers to a condition where the tongue remains more anchored to the bottom of the mouth than it should be, restricting movement. Babies and children with this condition have a short lingual frenulum (the piece of skin that joins the tongue to the floor of the mouth) and it may or may not cause problems with breastfeeding and speech.

A tongue-tie is not always apparent and may not be picked up until your baby has feeding difficulties (see below) or speech problems at the age of two or three.

The good news is that lots of babies with tongue-tie experience no problems at all, either with feeding or speech. However, some babies will have problems with breastfeeding because they won't be able to use their tongue to massage their mother's nipple and areola. If they can't stick their tongue out beyond their lower gum they won't get enough milk. Any of the following can be symptoms of tongue-tie:

• Failure to latch on
• Slipping off the breast while feeding
• Sore nipples, mastitis and/or blocked ducts
• Continuous feeding
• Colic
• Slow weight gain.

A baby with tongue-tie may not have all of the above symptoms and some babies will have these symptoms, but not have a tongue-tie.

How is it treated? This is highly controversial — prevailing medical opinion says do nothing and it will usually right itself by the end of the first year of life. If the baby still has a problem after this period, a paediatric surgeon may consider surgery to divide the frenulum from the base of the mouth (a procedure called a frenulotomy). Others will only perform surgery much later if the child has had speech problems and has not responded to speech therapy. But, in some areas, doctors are prepared to divide the frenulum much earlier if the baby either has problems with breastfeeding or has a sibling with speech problems due to a tongue-tie.

What does the surgery involve? Again, it varies. Some do the division with a general anaesthetic requiring a hospital stay, while in others it is done without anaesthetic on a day-case basis. The procedure itself involves simply snipping the skin to divide the frenulum from the bottom of the mouth and takes a matter of seconds.

Excerpted from Babycentre.com

Another thing to do

Guess what?????

I learnt belly dancing! And loved it to bits. Good at it too....hehehe.

One of those days

I had a weird day, if not what you call one of my bad day (I've had worse, believe me!). First, very early in the morning, I was locked out from my own room after I went downstairs for a few seconds to see to Amri's breakfast. Hubby was in bathroom so I had to search around for the keys. After frantically looking on my table, suddenly it hit me that the bunch of keys were downstairs because we were using them to open sliding door. Gosh! I was already five minutes late sending Amri to his kindy. When I started the car engine, I heard a funny sound. Then Adam pointed out to the back wiper which were wiping nonexisting water merrily. Tried as I might, I couldn't make it stop. So, I just switched off the engine, dragged the two boys out and shoved them inside the crv instead.

Once back from the kindy, I looked for aveo's manual and after trying this and that...managed to switch off the stubborn wiper.

Took Adam to his pead, somehow escaping a nasty episode of nebuliser and were back at home by ten something. The autogate remote was not functioning so had to ring the doorbell. Bibik opened both of the gate, which knocked Adam to his back and narrowly escaped being thrown into a drain. Duh!

Adam took his three medicine then promptly went to sleep. I tried to get some work done and failed miserably. The person at Guthrie I was looking for was as elusive as ever. I was told that today, Mr Elusive has gone to malacca. My paperworks still couldn't proceed without proper address.

I needed to courier out some urgent paperworks so I decided to go to Giant's post office. The kids wanted to tag along, so I readily obliged. The front passanger seat was lowered down previously because I used my aveo to transport rolled up carpet that I collected from laundry. Please don't ask me why I didn't use crv instead.....I honestly didn't know.
I pulled at the seat lever to make it normal again but it just refused to budge. Hmph! Amri was getting panicked. He thought he would be required to lie down at the front seat all the way....hehehe. I pulled again but still it stucked. Must be the side effect after all those flood water. Okay....so I stepped out from the car, told Amri to step aside, used both hand and pulled. Really hard. Gosh!!!!!!!! It moved! But the seat swung so violently it hit my head and three of my fingers were stucked in between the lever and the seat. For a while I was numbed, then everything within my view started to turned orangy for a few seconds and finally the pain hit me. Amri, blessed the little boy, helped to unstucked my fingers and give me a hug. Adam has gone completely quiet. Oh boy..........

In true blue Nae's style, when faced with bad tidings, the first thing I did was to send a nasty sms to hubby. Then I'd fell a lot better. So I did. And made dear hubby worried. So he transfered some money with strict instruction to go pamper myself with facial, massage or something. Oh dear...... Thank you sooooo much but sitting down with a facial was the last thing I should do now. I'd be too nervy and trying to relax would seemed an impossible feat.

I however, did the best thing that worked for me to destress....I went to aerobic. But this time, armed with extra money from hubby and no time restriction, I head off to Bukit Jelutong aerobic centre. Well....if I were to have business premise and possibly a future home there, I might as well join the community now.

My God! I should have joined earlier. For the first time in my life, I had an aerobic instructor who did not make me feel that I might need to quit eating altogether and fire my maid. She had enough meat on her to assure me that she is indeed, human. And the members.....were they friendly lot. Sure, half of them were beautiful datinistas but they all are warmhearted ladies who upon hearing that I came fromTTDI Jaya, asked the right question "How's your car, dear?" I sure loved to shock people with horror stories of our cars.....like some kind of heroics tales of noble battle . Oh...the aerobic centre come well equipped and worth every cent of the fees. They even have morning sessions.

When in stress, sweat it out!

Points to ponder

Had one little chat with a brilliant early childhood educator quite some time ago. A really nice, friendly lady. In fact, she had done most of the talking while I listened aptly, for there were too many great tips going to be missed out it I were to interfere with my little mundane talk.

So, in summary, here are some of the things, aka tips, that we talked about :

1. Your firstborn better be a girl.
2. Failing which, your firstborn should be born within the first half of the year, i.e January to June. The earlier,the better.
3. Failing both, as in my case, you'd better geared yourself up for some out of ordinary coaching towards your child if you have the teeniest bit of intention of sending your child to government primary school.
4. The first alphabet your child should be thought to write is 'c', followed by the rest of alphabet that has the same keystroke as 'c', such as a,d, e, g......
5. Writing capital letter should only be introduced after the child has mastered small letters.
6. Teach the child Malay Language phonetic first, starting with the sound of alphabet.
7. Followed by alphabet recognition, i.e his ABC
8. Followed by English Language phonetic.
9. Preferably no live in maid.

She even recommended some books for kindergartener, which I had to google the net first to get the full correct name of title and publisher. If anybody interested, email me personally.

Well.....seemed that I had everything wrong from no.1 to 9...hihihihi. No wonder Amri struggled for almost three months before he could made sense with his Malay reading materials. He was lucky though that he has superb teacher, who noticed that not only he's been born on the wrong side of the calendar, he was also being thought English phonetics first. The teacher was quick to alert me and I was lucky enough to have half my foot in education line, thus many sources to consult with. I was glad to notice that today Amri breezed through his Malay readers effortlessly, though occasionally pronounced ''i' as in 'i am' instead of 'itu'. He was mightily confused three months ago.

Point no. 1 & 2 would be too late for me and most of my friends,but..............to the newlywed Amin & Suria.....take note you guys :)

Sorry, Amin.

I was feeling guilty as hell. Today was Amin's wedding and apparently we couldn't make it for many reason. One was, Mie & Aboh were coming over to visit their grandchildren. Second, hubby had a presentation to make. Duh!

Sorry Amin. Really, really sorry. Hope you had a grand wedding. I was really looking forward to it. I hate to break my promise like this. Once you come back to Shah Alam, please come for dinner/lunch/tea and collect your wedding present, okay. I really wanted to meet the bride. Don't forget to email me the pics. I'll post it up here and at externalzone.

Once Mie & Aboh arrived from Kuantan, Amri was ecstatic. He's been waiting for his Tok Kie for about a week. Kept on asking us whether it was Saturday yet. Once his TokKie set foot inside our house, Amri immediately turned into Tok kie's shadow, permanently attaching himself to his grandpa. And later bullying Tok Kie to buy him the set of baloons he so wanted.

My car is back

Finally!

My poor little car was ready to be collected. Burnt a hole of 2.9k in my already shallow pocket (or rather....credit card). But still.....it felt good to have your own car back. Like a long anticipated freedom. Oh....all the places I could go by myself now......

But...first thing first. A necessary stop at nearest petrol pump.And guess what!!!! It now cost RM78 for a full tank. Bummer! I'll just walk to all the places I so desperately need to go. Surely Amri wouldn't mind walking to his kindy. If only he could walk faster and not make a u-turn to the playground....

A birthday party and a reunion

I was invited to a reunion disguised as birthday party, or maybe the other way round. Doesn't matter. What matters were...I get to meet my long lost bestest friends from my years at Jenan. Once a group of giggly and not so innocent young girls were now suddenly blossomed into corporate superwomen with kids in tow. At least, I was. The kids part, I meant. The rest, save for Sitot, wisely kept their kids and husband at home. I would too had I known that it was more a reunion than birthday party. Unfortunately.....while grappling with crash harddisk, flood and submerged cars....I was at near loss with the information exchange that was done primarily via email. So I came with my usual entourage.

Lucky for me, I had a darling of a husband who kindly waited for hours for me, despite the apparent fact that the wife had completely, except in size, turned into a foolish 16 year old again and whom had conveniently forgotten that she had a couple of kids wrecking the host immaculate kitchen and terrorising the host's daughter. For that, thank you sooooo much. I promise, once I get my car back, I'll drive myself everywhere.

Ladies,
It sure great to see you all again. Thanks Chem for hosting the party/reunion. Thanks Che Lin, Fit and Sue for organising. Ajie....you still didn't tell me what happened to your blistered hand.

Annoyed second time round

I was at home, nursing an oncoming cold, diarrhea and funny period pain. Hubby was away thus I was left without a car. Which was fine with me, the boys and I were so sick we could hardly walk 10 paces without doubling back to toilet or throwing up on the floor, what more to drive around. Then a friend called saying she was on the way to my house. Well......fine....we did have a gaggle of visitors lately. Afterall, we were the famous flood victims. Very nice of her too....coming all the way from KL. I was kinda happy with the thought of meeting her, since the last time I met her was when I gave birth to Amri.

But surprise......surprise! She was not here to offer her sympathy, much less helping out with the usual aftermath of flood. She brought an MLM lady who immediately launched into sales pitch at the first chance she had. Sheesh. They were here to recruit me as downline, seeing that I now had all the time in the world with my new status of SAHM. As if!!! I should have known better. If she wasn't interested in my life all this years, never attended any of my open houses, not an email/sms and never appeared at any externalzone reunions, obviously she was on to something. It upsetted me a great deal as I was looking forward to an afternoon of catching up with the lost years as well as a friend to comisserate with the state of my house post flood and maybe the irrigation problem at ttdi jaya. See....we people at ttdi jaya sure love to blow any problem out of propotion. But i guess, the whole nation knew about it.

There i was, listening the MLM lady droning on and on about a miracle product that could cure all sickness in the world. If she had her way, we need not forked out the scholarship for our top students to study medicine. The fund could be channelled out to, say, building flood retention ponds at every available land at ttdi jaya. I was sick, my kids were sick, my house was in great mess, my hubby will have to foot a 40k++ worth of car repair bills, my maid was too tired to cook dinner and all these fine ladies could think of was to get my IC pronto for registration so that they could meet their target. How low could people possibly stoop....

Ironically....this was not the first time I ended up with MLM people as guest. I was once received a call from our old neighbour, saying that she was coming over with her families. I was thrilled. I love having guest. I quickly whipped up bubur kacang and cucur jagung and what not for the guests. Turned out, they brought over a saleslady selling a multi purpose vacuum (that could also cure all sickness as well) who went right to product demo the moment she set foot in my house. Needless to say, my old neighbour quickly downed their drinks, declined the bubur kacang and made their exit so fast I didn't have a chance to salam with any of them. Pathetic.

I did not hate MLM people,especially if they are my friends. I did have a few of them in my phonebook and i ordered quite a number of stuff from them. However, people must learn how to distinguish between business call and personal call. If you have something to sell, simply say so. Believe me, I could tune in my brain in a jiffy. I simply did not appreciate being invaded during my personal time and especially not during hard time.

Beware of long lost friend!!!!!!!!!!!

Restoration Day

I was done with cleaning up. Today was for putting them all back together. Curtains, tablecloth, cushion covers etc. The toys, which amount seemed to reduce substantially were back into their toy chests with more room to breath. Dried sofa bases were hauled back inside again. Thank God it did not rain these past few days. Tv cabinet was still a wee bit smelly but otherwise passable. Its three drawers had no trouble fitting in but its sliding doors had to go. All shoes were back into the shoe cabinet. The fridge and washing machine had also miracalously survived the flood. Phew!!!

Well, I still had blocked kitchen sink and my front door couldn't properly closed. My plants too, still had mud caked to the leaves and looked sick. My wooden platform was thoroughly caked in mud as well and the porch tiles were dirty. But all these could wait.

Salina dropped by to visit us, bringing foods, drinks and, I couldn't believe it, toy train for the kids. Oh my God.....thanks soooo much. Amri still couldn't get over the fact that I had to throw away half of his toys and stationaries. The new toy immediately cheered him up. Thanks again Salina, and Amir as well. That was very thoughtful of you.

Cleaning Up - Day 3

Today was Wednesday, the day Amri was required to be dressed in sport attire instead of his normal sunny yellow uniform. He dressed himself up, gobbled down breakfast and was already at front door five minutes later. I grabbed his sport shoes and only then noticed that his shoes was sodden and covered with mud. Well...not only Amri's sport shoes but almost all of our shoes except the ones on the top three shelves. Duh! I've completely forgotten about the shoe cabinet and its contents. I sent Amri to kindy wearing sandal, though admittedly, it didn't bother him at all.

So today was shoes cleaning day. As well as a few other small things that escaped us earlier like the old junks at our backyard and Amri's bicycle (okay...it was not small.) One good thing about this flood, though very inconvenient, somehow managed to make me accomplished the one thing that I had been procrastinating for ages, that is to clean up the backyard. The thing was, I couldn't just put those paint canister, old cabinets, broken electrical appliances and what nots out in my trash can and expected MBSA garbagemen to haul it all up because they would not. And I would also had this guilty conscience that I didn't do enough to save the planet by properly disposing or recycling electrical items. But this whole week, Alam Flora and all kind of recycling collectors would be making many rounds and I could dispose off as many junks as I wanted to.

Somehow, looking at my mini mountain of junks piling up waiting to be collected by Alam Flora, I felt relieved. Like a mission accomplished. Even more relieved when hubby's old CRV arrived.
Phew!!!! Welcome back, old friend. Less things to worry about. At least now, I was mobile.

Next things I did was, rolled up the hideous smelling carpets and stuffed them inside the crv (oh...the joy of having huge space) and sent them to laundry shop. Then...i took a leisure drive around TTDI Jaya and couldn't help but felt really sorry for what others had to endure, especially those at single storey area. Wonder how much all those school text book that I saw drying up would cost them. Funnily, spotted a few pretty ladies in high heels and extravagant tudungs making their rounds visiting the affected houses. Helping? I doubted that. Too dolled up to be much of help. Well...could be distributing donation,who knows.

When I reached home, Ba'e and his wife were there, visiting. Thanks guys.

Adam started vomiting and Amri, sniffling.

Cleaning Up - Day 2

Most of the major works were done. The sofas were sitting on the porch drying up. Carpets (thank God I only owned two small pieces) were hanging on the wooden fence, smelling so foul I had to hold my breath everytime I had to bypassed them.

We had washed the floor and the house looked almost livable. Bibik whipped out an old tikar from dunnowhere so that we could rest our tired muscle once in a while. Kamarul & Zariah came to visit and offered one of their many cars for our use. Thank you soooo much.

Between hubby and I we had filled in numerous forms from Welfare Department and whatnots. Did government really going to hand disaster aid to us...... Well, just wait and see.

The tow truck from Chevvy service centre came in the afternoon to tow my car away. Most of the affected cars in the area had already been towed away. What was left at the neighbourhood were either borrowed cars or lucky cars that managed to escape the flood.

Cleaning Up - Day 1

I didn't even know where to start. The mess was huge. But seeing as bibik already started to clean up the kitchen and hubby was immersed in both cars so that left the living room to me. Easy peasy. Hauled out the big heavy sofa to dry up. Threw the kids toys that were beyond repair. Threw all cd cases. Washed the remaining toys and vcds. Washed the wall. Took down the curtains. Running up and down to my room to check on the boys.

Erma, my senior at UiTM cum hubby's classmate dropped by with huge container of ice cubes, about half of whatever the bakery displayed on their shelf and four power rangers vcds to the boys. Gosh...you're an angel, honestly. The vcds and cakes kept the boys entertained in my room thus I was spared the job of running up and down every 10 minutes or so. It kept them away from the disaster area as well, which, knowing my kids, would just increase the workload tenfold.




Ninuk smsed with offer to do my laundry. I felt like bawling my eyes out. We had angels for friends. Thanks, Ninuk. Azri came with lunch and Cu Nan showed up again with drinks and fruits and of course, ready to work. We we so blessed.

The Famous Shah Alam Flood

By the time bibik woke us up....it was already too late to rescue the cars. But we managed to haul up small stuffs from living room to upstairs and of course, foods. We watched from my bedroom window as the water kept on rising steadily even though the rain has stopped. Cars alarm went off everywhere, including ours. Especially ours since we didn't know where was the battery for the merc was located. Our washing machine was floating merrily beside the floating fridge. I didn't want to think about repair/replacement cost now.

Thank God, my kids were pretty easy going. We did not have electricity for the whole day. Adam of course, wouldn't mind cold milk. Amri could eat honeystar/cococrunch straight from the box. That was the only good thing for having a lazy me for a mom....the kids had a laid back parenting style where travelling with a thermos was unheard of. In fact, the kids had a great time camping out in my room, wearing swimming trunk and eating biscuits and donated meehoon accompanied with mineral water. Even Adam was eating more than usual.

By lunch time, hubby had to wade through a waist deep water to get food from the mosque. Thank you to kind hearted souls out there at TTDI Jaya Mosque who cooked our lunch. A boat from Bomba would also passed by from time to time to check whether we had enough to eat. In fact, we actually ate more than usual. Well...kind of storing enough calory to burn during cleaning up the next day :)

When the water receded to knee deep, I finally relented to the gazillionth pleading from the two boys to play in the murky water. Yuck! The were having a ball of a time. Splashing water all the way from living room to the gate. The boys spent a few hours in the teh tarik water and only reluctantly came out when I started to physically dragged them out of water and into bathroom. Well...gotta clean them up before it was too dark to see the dirt. The electricity was still out.

Nighttime came and again we ate donated dinner, fetched by Cu Nan, by the candlelight. The water has receded to ankle deep outside the house while inside the house, all that left were bloody patches of thick mud everywhere. The boys conked off, the earliest in history. Hubby and I sat amids the strewn sofa cushion and started to chat the night away. Then all the phones started to ring off the hook. Oh yeah! It was 8pm and we were in the news. Shocked families and friends sms/called with sympathy and offers to help. Some offered to pick us up to spend the night at their houses. Aren't you all sweet......:) Thanks Ninuk, Salina, Anisa, Nadia, Intan, Ayu and everybody. We appreciated the sms/calls and all the offers. Sure did entertained us for the whole day. Talking about the doom sure help to ease the pain of looking at our cars and furnitures.

Electricity was back by about 10pm and hubby immediately went to work on cleaning up. I, on the other hand, decided to sleep it off till tomorrow. Never in my life was i in hurry to clean up and certainly did not plan to start today.

Motor Cu Nan

March Wedding

I received 2 wedding invitations for the same date - 18 march. One by normal post and the other via email. One at Tmn Tun KL and the other at Tampin. One is a dear friend of hubby and the other is a dear friend of mine. And I want to attend both, Insyaallah.

I must remember to buy 2 set of wedding gift...no problem there :) But the one in Tampin was so dear to me as he was part of my growing up years. When I get married, for some reason, he was not able to attend but he took the trouble to buy me a wedding gift and search high and low for other friends who would attend my wedding so that those people could carry it for him. He gave me a nice set of cutleries, which I still used to till now. So, in addition to whatever gift I'll be buying for him and his future wife.....I'll get him a cutlery set as well :)

Congratulation Amin on your forthcoming wedding day!

On the road KT-Shah Alam

Well....end of holiday. We packed our bags, exchanged lotsa kisses and hugs and off we drove back to Shah Alam. Took the Jerangau Jabor route, which meant I would not be able to make a pit stop at Intan's house. Hubby was clearly not in mood for detour, so be it. Left KT sometime before 10am and reached Shah Alam sometime after 4pm. Okay, I guess. The kids slept most of the journey away so it was rather uneventful.

Home sweet home. The best place on earth for me is my own bedroom.

On the road Kedah - Tganu

Left for Tganu sometime after 9am. We decided to take this Timur Barat route. Didn't feel like calling it hiway. It was clearly not a highway, or at least not the highway that I was used to. We stop at Bukit Bunga because I heard so much hype for that place that spelled retail theraphy. Sound like my kind of place. Well....somehow i found out it was not my kind of place. It was rather dusty,hot and one shop was just a replica of the next. Couldn't find anything interesting to buy, which surprised hubby a bit :) Since i was already there, I bought some fruits as buah tangan. Okay.....now that I've seen it, I didn't have to think about it anymore.

Reached KT about 4pm and found Adik & family were still there.

Later on, Adik & co left for Kuantan about 6pm but called 2 hours later saying they were caught in very bad traffic jam and was still somewhere at Marang. They gave up the idea of driving back to Kuantan and drop by at Gie's house for dinner and returned to KT later for another night at Mie's house. Wahhh.....ramai juga orang Tganu staying outstation ye...

On the road Shah Alam - Kedah - Penang

We left sometime after 6 in the morning but still...a bit of traffic jam at Rawang. Seemed like the whole of klang valley were making their way out of town as early as us. The boys went back to sleep as soon as we hit the highway and only woke up when we were already in Perak area. As usual, Amri was gung ho about stopping at R&R. He just loves R&R . The food was so so and since there were more travellers than usual....even our nasi lemak ran out of eggs. But to Amri, it was still the best :)

Arrived mak's house close to 12 noon and of course, no lunch. Luckily Ajoe was there to tapau some lauk for us.

Left for Bayan Lepas airport at 4pm and reached there sometime after 5pm. An airport staff told us the flight arrival might be delayed to 7.30pm. Alamak!!!! parkinng was full so we parked a little bit out of the way. Couldn't find mak anjang and co but met with Mak Cik Esah instead. She said her friend from airport called saying that the flight would arrive at 5.30pm. Aik...pulak dah. Well...it was soon 5.30 and no announcement of arrival coming so we decided to grab something to eat at nearby cafe.
Shortly after 6pm, Adam decided to poo poo and i had to practically drag him into the toilet. Honestly......just how many fire extinguisher a 2 year ols had to inspect to be satisfied enough? While i was changing Adam''s diaper, mak anjang called to say mak and abah had arrived. Already????????? I gave up dragging Adam, I just hauled his 16kg self to the cafe where hubby & mak cik esah were still eating. Eh....mak cik esah was missing. Never mind lah...she's a local, she'd know where to find us. Dragged Amri & hubby to where it looked like arrival hall. So many people waiting for their love ones coming back from mecca at such a tiny airport. Finally I spotted them. Mak, Abah, mak anjang & pak anjang. Pak anjang had special pass that allow him inside the airport anytime, so mak and abah did not need to follow the queue. Oh...thank God....mak's knees and joints surely could not cope with all the waitings. Hugged Mak & Abah. mak looked so different. Abah was still coughing like mad. Amazingly, Mak was okay. Just a bit of dry cough for the last 2 days. Her gout, diabetis, hypertension and what not was not acting up at all.

Finally, all the luggages and air zam zam were already inside hubby's car trunk and mak was already half way into the car when mak cik esah made her sudden reappearance. Heh....! More hugs and kisses then off we go home.

Arrived at mak's house sometime after 8 and guess what?????????? No dinner for us. Bertuah punya adik adik. I shoved Ajo out with the mission of buying dinner which turned out to be a n hour long wait. Duhhh...

All in all....I'm mightily glad mak & abah were back and all are well. Minor sickness could be dealt with later

AidilAdha @ Home Sweet Home

Happy AidilAdha everyone!

No balik kampung trip this time. For many reason. First and foremost, Mak & Abah are at Mecca, performing their haj, so that one particular kampung definitely has to be ruled out. What a balik kampung trip without grandparents to spoil your kids rotten. There was also the ultra hectic schedule at both of our workplaces to juggle with, which translated to working on Monday. Yuck!!!!!!!

Celebrating AidilAdha at our own place was less grand, mostly because I was a complete failure at kitchen. Sure, I could boil packets of nasi impit...but that was all to it. To make matter worse, my great chef of an aunt, Mak Su, has moved to Terengganu for good, leaving me without a complete guide of Cooking 101. Okay...I did have back up caterers but none could match Mak Su. To think that today Mak Su would be cooking for the whole Losong clan was enough to make me check out airasia.com

Well....have a wonderful AidilAdha! We'd be celebrating Adam's 2nd birthday in advance some time this afternoon because I was afraid that by 12th January, I'd be buried so deep in work (read: trouble) that by the time I checked out the calendar, it was already march.

Happy Birthday to Kak Cik

Have a wonderful birthday sis! Hope you get well soon. So sorry that you fell sick on your birthday. You could always drop by at our house tomorrow and join Adam's birthday celebration to make up for it. That is, if you don't mind sharing his batman birthday cake.

Back to kindy

It's a different kindy for Amri. I decided to switch kindy mainly for the reason that the teachers at his previous kindy scare me (not Amri). The way they reminded me of what's in store for PS3 class, one would be forgiven to think that Amri was sitting for his SPM this year end. The kindy was great, Amri was there for two years doing his PS1 & PS2 which were mostly sing song and play games. PS3 however, was designed to prepare childrens for Year 1 of government school. Which was, in fact, a practical thing to do. I however, decided not to stress myself (and Amri) with another year of homework and dreaded parent teacher meeting. That's all.

So i sent him to Little Caliph. Which was everything I could hope for. No homework, no school bag required, and Iqra class under one roof. Plus the principal was a genius gym practitioner. Amri was happy with his uniform, which bibik said looked like pyjamas :)

Hope all goes well.

It's the time of the year

When I get to play mom of four! Yes...my niece and nephew had flown in from Kuala Terengganu on Tuesday night to spend the rest of their school holidays with Amri and Adam. Once a year, I get to act like a seasoned mom, not unlike Ninuk and Gartblue and Azida. Maybe I'll also post a pic of all four of them here like gartblue. That is, if i can get all four of them to stand still at one place for a few seconds.

I have yet to plan their rezdenvous but I think the trip to KLCC Petrosain and Aquaria is a must, judging from Kakak's enthusiasm. Sampai menggigau!

Mak & Abah go to Mecca

The morning started well enough. There were many guests. Kak Cik and I fed them well (or so we thought). Both of us could not locate the plates and cutleries and cup. Adam managed to break one glass. The house was in complete mess. Amri went missing. So far so good......

A neighbour recite adzan and du'a and both mak & Abah boarded our car and off we go to Bayan Lepas. Only to make emergency stop half an hour later because Adam decided to puke out a bottleful of milk. Which was actually the order of the day. We were used to it. The only problem was that some of the vomitted out milk had dribbled to mak's dress, whom was sitting beside me. And mak would be travelling with that dress. To Mecca no less. The nine hours plane ride. The many many hours at Tabung Haji complex. The many many hours after arrival before they check in into their hotel. Oh my God...................

We furiously tried to wipe mak's dress down with wet wipe, which was heavensent at time like this. Lucky for us, Adam vomited out right after he downed the big bottle of milk so it had no chance to cuddle and turned sour yucky smelling yet. Okay...done with that. But still a little bit problem. I was drenched in puke....heheheheh. Eeeekkkk!!!!!!!!!!!

Saw to Mak & Abah checking in and stuff at Tabung haji complex. Thank God there were Mak Anjang, Pak Anjang, Pak Cik Tajul and Pak Teh Ali there as we were completely clueless. Stayed around till Dzuhur time then made our move since Mak & Abah would need to get ready for their solat. Drove around Penang and got completely lost looking for Holiday Inn Batu Feringgi. Duh. The authority there needed a refresher course in signboard placing. Managed to check in one hour later, dead tired and smelled wonderfully of puke.

This was one of the rare occasion when we ordered room service and was delighted by such thing.

Amri 5 Year Old

A letter to Pak Caq

Dear Pak Caq,

Ida might think she'd be able to hide the fact from you and knowing her, the bright and mischievous young lady, she'd find a way. But I just wanted you to know that, Ida managed to get her hand scalded by a pan of hot boiling oil. So, do not be surprised when you see her with err...discoloured hand. I also wanted to inform you that, I did try to get her to see a doctor but she insisted that her hand would heal by itself. Much that I love her, I do not intent to argue with a tae kwon do expert. Therefore, please forgive me for not doing much other than suggesting to her that I could fetch her from office or commuter station and bring her back to my house for further reprimanding.

Your fav niece,
Nae

Caught off guard

Amri yelled from his bathroom saying that he did not any more toothpaste. Fine, I grabbed one from supplies cabinet and handed to him...half expecting him to whine about the unnecessary ritual of brushing teeth. Instead...he took the toothpaste from me and exclaimed "Wow.....new toothpaste!!! And a big one!" I was dumbstrucked. He then proceeded to peel out the box, get the tube out and squeezed a dollop on his toothbrush. His face lighted up again. "It's mango!!!!! Thank you, ibu." I was still dumbstrucked but managed a teeny weeny "Welcome"

This little person always amazed me. Honestly, there was nothing fancy with the toothpaste. It was the same brand he's been using for years, just in a bit bigger tube and different flavour. I'd never knew a new tube of toothpaste could be so exciting to a five year old. Nor would I imagined it to be. It was a reminder to me that I still had so much to learn. Even if I were to be a mom fifth time round, I'd still be amazed with those little monster...ehhh....angels.

We were invited to another birthday party at McD section 3. Well....Amri still had not recovered from his frightening experience with McD clown (or was it a bird?) last year, who appeared at play area while Anisa's girls and my boys were playing. The girls screamed and ran, which was understandable. The clown/mascot/big bird really looked ugly, with its dirty costume and all. But I really did not expect Amri to scream and run and keep on being frightened till this day...hihihi. Poor little thing. Just hope he does not sue me for phychological damage twenty years down the road.
However, no clown made any appearance but I still felt sorry for Amri and the birthday girl as well. Asya, whom is also Amri's classmate at q-dees was pretty sick and obviously did not enjoy her birthday. Hope you feel better soon Asya.

I finally managed to collect my gendong from Ninuk. However, there were only two left. So I bought one for Lah. Sorry kak Zehan & friend...yours had to wait.

Syawal? Zulkaedah?

I thought with Syawal ending yesterday, there would be no more open houses to attend and I would be able to watch over my food intake (and my expanding girth) even more closely. The meagre kgs that I lost during fasting month kept threatening to make a come back. Plus, I had like a few millions things to do, most of which were kept being posponed week after week.

I attended Little Khalifah open house (kindy) in the morning, feeling very pleased with the way they incorporated montessori and genius gym methodogy into the syllabus. Grabbed a few bites then rushed off. I would have to come back next week to register Amri. Hopped into hubby's car and off to Kelana Jaya. Rushed home one and half hour later and took kain batik terengganu for Amri's nenek and a new bottle of milk for Adam then off to Lestari Puchong. Second open house for the day. I was half suspecting it to be a birthday party since the date fell outside Syawal so I came prepared with birthday presents for both kids. The host was hubby's ex housemate whom had helped him a lot when he was in deep trouble years ago. The wife was a great cook and not surprisingly, single handedly prepared all the sumptious galore except for two items. All the while still maintaining the zen state of her kitchen, instead of turning it into a warzone. Amazing! I wouldn't be able to do that even if I were helped by an army of maids. Hubby met another ex housemate and chat away merrily. I used the time to get a third helping of everything...hihihi.

Hours later, we bade farewell to the host and made our way to Puchong Perdana, visiting Amri's ex babysitter whom had become like a family to us. Amri gave his nenek the kain batik we bought at Terengganu. It has become a ritual. Every year we'd buy a pair and presented to her though she'd probably has a whole wardrobe full of them batiks.

Said our goodbye sooner than planned because Adam had soiled his second diaper and I did not have any more stock in hand. Upon reaching home, bibik told that our neighbour invited us over for their open house do. Quickly showered and changed the very comot boys and made our way to another open house of the day. Since it was almost Maghrib, lets just call it our dinner :)

Phew!!!!!!!

A birthday and an anniversary

Happy 5th Birthday to Amri Siddiq!!!!!!!!!

He arrived 5 years ago, 10 days overdue, bundled as our wedding anniversary gift.

Today however, Amri and I celebrated our big day by ourselves. Ayah was not around until much later in the evening. We went out gallivating around town followed by an open house at Section 2 .

Happy Anniversary to darling hubby.

Our Annual Aidilfitri Open House

Nothing special actually...just our annual eating galore in conjuction of Syawal. But it was a great excuse to see friends and families and catching up with each other. Things like, who arrived with a new member in the family or going to be new addition in a few months, who work where (surprisingly, quite a number will be going to middle east), who has put on more kgs than moi etc etc. Most of the guest were the usual crowd as previous years but somehow ended up driving around in confusion looking for our house. Reason? We changed the gate & fence to what i called pagar sultan melaka :) Hehehe...sorry guys. Didn't know that my previous senget gate was a landmark of its own.

The foods were okay but I wish I had time to come up with something better. It was planned to be on 27th, thus celebrating Amri's birthday and our anniversary at one go but unfortunately, dear hubby would not be around so we had to brought forward the date. Of course, my regular caterer couldn't make it so I had to make do with any available resouces. The birthday cake for Amri arrived very late as well so we had to shelve the birthday do as well. Oh boy..... Amri did not mind though.....he did not find the idea of people singing happy birthday to him and him blowing the candle and cutting it anywhere near FUN. He was very contend with cutting the cake with only us as witness and Adam to help him butchered the cake

All in all the open house was just as usual, starting around noon as lasted all the way into midnight peppered with rain in the evening. Anyway....we noticed something interesting about Amri. Somehow he had acquired a good host skill. He waited for the guest at the gate (in the rain, of course) greeted them complete with customary salam, showed them in and brought foods for the kids. If any kids were giving their moms a hard time, he would brought a few toys to pacify the kids. He even helped to guide one crying tod to his mom who was occupied at buffet table, albeit a wrong mom :) . If he had time to spare in between entertaining his friends, he would pack some sweets and chocs to the parting kids, and of course...duit raya. So..to those people who arrived late and you kids did not get any chocs, sweets and all the junks, you knew what happened :) I'l make sure to double the stock next year. I honestly did not know where Amri picked up this peculiar skill. We certainly did not throw party every few weeks for him to pick up any PR lesson. Perhaps it was the in things for kids of his age. Perhaps he tought it was his birthday party

Battle on

Back to work. Ready to battle on. Surprisingly, I did not suffer any post holiday blues. I was feeling very refreshed, battery fully charged and quite anxious to get back to office. This would be a hectic week but it's fine with me. I'm all geared up and ready for war...hehehe. At least, my room looks like a warzone. But....but...I draw a line at dressing up and meeting people. Puhleessee. This week I just want to dress in old pants, bury myself with the mess on my table and speak only to my potted plants.

All will be well.

Goodbye Losong

We were finally ready to leave around 10am. Made a few million stop along the way. I was wondering what if I were to have 5 kids....how many millions more stop I would have to make and how many times would I have to change clothes because my precious kids decided to puke on me. But I guess, its all worth it.

Reached home sweet home at 6.00pm. Missed my home and my new pagar sultan melaka :) Immediately started the Aveo engine. Went to nearby shop later for some raw material to cook but all were still closed. Very well, cooked canned sardine and egg soup for dinner. Plus salted fish from Pasar Payang :)

Final Day

I was contemplating a dressed down day, after days of dolling up and prowling about. It would be nice to be back in rags with a laptop on my expanding tummy or a book. And eat simple food. My tummy could accomodate a whole set of PC if I carried on the eating binge.

Ummie however, wanted us to attend a wedding at Bukit Payung. Well...okay I guess. It had been quite some time since I last attended an east coast wedding. Plus, I could drop by at Kak Emy/Abg Ipin place which was somewhere there. Better still, Amri had dissappeared so no need to bring him along.

Turned out, Kak Emy was back at Air Itam for her cousin's wedding. And the wedding we attended was simple one since it was on the groom side. We ate, said thank you to the groom's parents plus the customary salam keruk (a hand shake with money attached) and left. When we reached home, Amri was still not back. So I quickly changed into rags and we went shopping at Pasar Payang....yey!!!!!!!!

Truth is, I rarely shopped at Terengganu. There is nothing there that couldn't be found somewhere in Klang Valley..though at higher price. This day however, I was in shopping mood. Plus I wanted to buy my stock of anchovies and salted fish. A pair of silk dress wouldn't hurt either.

The stall owner was shocked when I said I wanted a kilogram of the nice ikan bilis and the whole of that big ikan talang masin. Had to repeat a few times though. By the time I finished my shopping list, the pakcik was grinning from ear to ear. He must have been thinking.....who was this idiot that bought everything without even haggling a single cent. Haiyaaa...forgot la..plus it was already very cheap I wouldn't have the heart to ask for discount.

Guess who we met at Pasar Payang foodcourt? Our next door neighbour...Kak Mala & Abg Rajman minus the broods. It really is a small world.

When I reached home, Amri didn't even realised I was away.

That night, Adik went back to Kuantan. Hubby packed half of our stuff and left the rest to me. He knew perfectly well that I would have left the packing to the very last minute. In the meantime, I was making a list of damages done by my boys. Amri broke one cookie container and burnt one of Alif's book. Adam has broken one cookie container and one drinking glass. Must remember to replace them all on my next trip.

Eid-Ul-Fitr Day 3

This was a day for long distance trip. Sorry Ninuk, couldn't make it to your house this morning...the itenary was very full. After a short chit chat with hubby's friend who came visiting with his family, we were off to Kijal. ('we' = aboh, hubby, my two boys, kakak - my niece, alif - my nephew and myself). 4 kids on board equals double trouble but, what the heck! It was raya afterall.

First stop was Nina/Khairi grandparent's place at Kijal. By my standard, it was not far. But the lack of highway or at least 3 lanes road made it a verrrry long ride. And also the fact that I carried four kids :) Actually, the traffic was kinda heavy probably because some of us outstation folks were making their way home, whereever home is. Nina/Khairi was kind enough to meet us on the roadside and lead the way to their place. As expected, my kids managed to create chaos. Adam touched a fragile cookie and noticed how easy it breaks into pieces. He then proceeded to grind a few more into powdery substance before Nina noticed it. Amri, being non-dairy person...dengan tak malunya requested for ice tea, instead of the served drinks. Once taken a few sips, i didn't know how it happened, but he managed to pour the whole mugfull onto himself. Duh. Sorry Nina but I knew you, of all people would understand :) Yes, I did carry a change of clothes for both of the boys but I was reserving it to a more serious case.

Next stop was an aunty's place at Dungun. Nothing untowards happened because the place has huge compound and all of the kids were playing there. Amri immediately joined them followed by Adam. Kakak and Alif joined after getting my green light. I finally had a breathing space and sipped my drink in peace. Another stop was at an uncle's (deceased) place. It had a moderately huge compound as well plus a bicycle so Amri and Adam immediately went for it. Again, kakak and Alif waited for my approval before they joined my boys. Hmph...wish my boys were half as good. Amri came inside sulking because Adam managed to wrestle the bicycle from him and sat skulking at a large easy chair beside his Tok Kie. Before the host could even offer him a drink, in a blink, the chair toppled! Whoa....that was two days in a row. What is with him and chairs lately. And of course, it was also a houseload of guests, though less formal than yesterday. And again, Amri took his time under the chair, waiting in no hurry to be rescued. Aiyoh.....

On the way back, we stopped at Gie's house in Marang and the kids helped themselves to ice lollies. While every other kids there were happy with one ice lollies each, my two boys had to bicker for one extra ice lollies. Duh....

Night was bbq time. My boys created enough ruckus to drive me up the wall at normal time. But tonight however, there were many people for the boys to harrass so hubby and I sat back, relax and stuffed our face with all the grilled offering.

Aidilfitri Day 2

Since yesterday evening the merc ended up with two flat tyres, hubby went out first thing in the the morning in search of tyre shop, hoping that it will not involved any odd parts. I stayed at home, serving foods and drinks to visitors and praying hard that whatever problem was with the car,none that couldn't be fixed then and there. Between hubby and myself, we had enough car and road hiccups lately to last us a lifetime.

Turned out, the tyres were just out of air...gee..hihihi. It really scared me, what with Eid holiday and today being Friday, which was also a weekend over here thus most of the workshop were closed

So, proceed with raya plan, albeit a few hours late. We, including Aboh and Mie, went visiting relatives houses and sampling delicious food here and there. There goes my diet plan......hahaha. We went home earlier though, since the men needed to go for their friday prayer. A four cars konvoy of close kin from Dungun arrived shortly afterwards. Thank God Adik has arrived from her in law's place so I had extra hand to serve foods and drinks. Turned out, one of the anak buah was working as a trainer at hubby's national service camp. Hmm...what a small world.

Continued with our raya plan after Friday prayer, this time to hubby's best buddy whom unfortunately was at his brother's house. So we went to the Dato's house and met Kamarul, Zariah and their kids there. Amri was obviously tired but refused afternoon nap. Result.......he sat on a swivel chair and managed to topple over in front of a housefull of very prim and proper guests. Hahahahaha....kesian anak ibu. Nasib baik tak rolled out of the sliding door terus (it opened to a neat koi pond)

Next we went visiting another his long time buddy from Kusza, Wan Zul, whom now became a lecturer there. Hmm...expecting no.3 kid soon.

Called Ninuk but she was still doing her raya round somewhere in Chendering :)

Eid Mubarak

Started the day earlier than usual. The boys had no problem to wake up earlier than normal, they had been early riser since Monday...mainly to play with their cousins. Official Eid breakfast for our family would be nasi dagang but Che' Non had already sent nasi minyak and a few more that I did not know where it came from. Amri already left to the mosque with his Tok Ki but by the time Eid prayer started, he was back at home, saying that too many people were there.

After prayer, we entertained a few guests then off to Che' Non's house followed by neighbours houses, most of whom were related to us. Then back at home for the kids' afternoon nap. Followed by more eating and visiting.

This Eid-ul-fitr was a lot better than the past few years. Last year was spent indoor with heavy rain as did the year before. The year before was worst because not only it rained day and night, the whole household was also sick with diarrhea. On top of that, I was seven months pregnant with a miserable state.

This year is great

Happy Birthday to Mak

Wishing you a very very happy birthday and to let you know that I'm missing you so much. Here I am, at my in law's place in Terengganu, trying to remember how to cook rendang and couldn't help wishing that I were at your kitchen at this moment. The ketupat palas, rendang ayam, serunding daging, nasi impit, kuah kacang ..... I wanna go home!!!!

Okay, maybe I should learn to cook properly.

Happy Deepavali

The deepavali spirit did not reach this part of Malaysia, mainly because the whole kampung was populated by Malays, all of whom were busy with Eid preparation. Back in Shah Alam, deepavali would be more meaningful, with two of our closest neighbour celebrating it. And also some of my office members.

The merc were fixed by afternoon and we were back roaming the street while avoiding town centre which would be jam packed with people doing their second last minute shopping

Being lucky during unlucky time

The merc was seriously on strike. Lucky for us, there was a service centre open. Unluckily for us, the part needed was called oxygen sensor upstream bla bla bla which in short, was not available in town. Lucky fo us, hubby's assistant was still in Klang Valley, thus could be counted on to hunt for the oxygen thingy. Unlucky for us, the part cost an arm and a leg so, no way the efficient assistant would pay cash on his own and the shop did not accept credit card. Lucky for us, banks were still open and hubby managed to wire the required fund to his assistant account. Unlucky for us, there was no way the part could reached Terengganu in time, be it via DHL or Poslaju or any courier available in Malaysia. Lucky us again, we come up with a brilliant idea of giving it to night express bus driver to carry the part all the way to Terengganu. It would reach Kuala Terengganu by Tuesday morning.

Phew!!! Couldn't imagine celebrating raya without a car, with the many promises I made to practically half of Terengganu people to visit them.

Balik Kampung!

Yey!!! To Losong!

4.30 am - Woke up and made nasi goreng ikan masin and sunny side up eggs for sahur.

5.30 am - Dragged half asleep, half awake Amri to bathroom and later dressed him up in no better state.

6.00 am - Managed to shove everyone and every bag inside the car

We started our journey sometime after 6am, but made a u-turn 30 seconds later because hubby forgot his watch and another u-turn two minutes later because yours truly forgot her handphone, which was deep under the pillow...serving as alarm clock. One more stop to fill petrol at nearby Esso and off we go at about 6.40am

9.30 am - Reached Taman Balok Sejahtera, Adik's house. Gave Adam a quick shower and Amri his honey star breakfast

10.10 am - Resumed the journey, plus Adik and Haziq

1.30 pm - Reached Losong....yey!!!!!

Alhamdulillah, we reached Losong safe and sound because the merc decided to go on strike later on. Hmph...no wonder the air-cond sucks.

Packing day

My Eid holiday officially started today. Hubby as well. But we were taking it easy since there were a lot to pack. 8 days worth of clothing for four..2 of which need at least four pairs per day and 1 has contingency plan for ad hoc meeting with who's who and yours truly who get comot easily in the kitchen, raya apparels, gifts to families, toiletries, raya cookies, laptop (tummytop?) , medicines, makeups, camera, duit raya, bla bla bla..... I might as well moved the house to terengganu.

I went to Giant with Amri to buy formula and diaper supplies for Adam and ended up at MPH again. So..one book each for ibu and son, a little sumthing for kakak and a set of colouring book and sticker for the rest.

Went home just in time when hubby arrived from god-knows-where. Hop into his car and went to 1-utama to collect my free handphone. Drop by at Tmn Tun for a little banking matter. Passed by in front of sri munawwarah and was very tempted. Hubby asked whether I wanted to drop by. I looked at the kids...still had not eaten lunch and badly needed a nap. So i regretably declined and we went home. Next time boleh pergi....

Fed the kids and took a nap with them. Then packed and packed and packed. Usually I'd just packed one hour before departure time and if anything went missing, could just buy at the destination. But this is Eid holiday. I wouldn't want to be caught with err..missing toothbrush or diaper and had to braze the holiday season traffic of Kuala Terengganu town. No way! Needless to say, I managed to turn not just my bedroom but the whole second floor of our house into a nightmare.

Amazingly, almost everything was packed before midnight.

Note:
Found out a few days later that I had forgotten to pack sampin for both father and son and my videocam. Hehehehe. But I did not forget my usb cable.....

Nice surprise

I practically dragged myself to office today, being so not in mood to work plus I was still sleepy. Grabbed the letters (one raya card and tonnes of bills) from the coffee table and took them to office. If I couldn't work then I might as well write cheques for the bills in advance. Opened one reminder looking letter while wondering what payment could possibly be late. And surprise!!!!!!! I won a Samsung handphone from a credit card contest. Woohoo........ I've never win any contest before. Read one more time and another time. No tiny prints anywhere, so obviously I did really win a handphone. Read very carefully again....and remembered the transaction....the amount I spent for nieces and nephews baju raya :) Gee.... out of the mamy millions transactions I did that day, mostly for my own stuff....that one particular transaction got me a new handphone.

Needless to say, I was so happy I couldn't work at all

Iftar with Intan & Co

Since I missed out last night's iftar with Intan, I decided to make it up by taking them to any ramadhan buffet in town. Hubby was already outstation but that was okay. We kinda took turn to have iftar with Intan & family, I guessed. Funny how it turned out this way.

The trouble started when I couldn't find any available place. Concorde was booked two days in advance. Same went to Quality Hotel and a few more. Even hotel uitm was fully booked. I was ready to hang my head in my hand when suddenly I remembered Grand Blue Wave. Not exactly my choice, never heard any good review of the food plus parking would be at that scary basement next to bangunan umno. Ewwww..... but I had no choice. Called them and was so relieved to hear a yes. Didn't realise I was kinda desperate.

Went home early even though the weather was so bright without a drop of rain. Called Amri and asked him to get ready. Once I reached home, Amri hopped into the car and I was pleasantly surprised to see him properly dressed in black jeans, black shoes and denim shirt. What???? No underwear and socks??? Suka hati kau lah nak......as long not that spiderman rags again.

Reached there allright and the basement parking was actually okay. Brightly lit, well maintained and no water leaking from somewhere. We were quite early and Amri went straight to ice cream counter and helped himself. Intan & co arrived shortly afterwards and we had a grand time chit chatting. Amri and Irfan hit it off like old friend and soon they were racing up and down the stairs. Intan and I were too busy catching up with each other to bother and Arip was sick so he just let the kids have their way. Their two little girls, Afiqah and Batrishia soon followed suit.

Ended up the day with solat maghrib at the hotel's surau. The kids played with ablution water while the mommies were in prayer. Sheesh.....!!!! Intan whispered to me later "how come the other kids are so well behaved but our kids seemed to spell trouble everywhere?" I dunno, Intan. Maybe we were a troublemaker a few years back. Remember the boarding school days? Remember the undergrad days?

Nightmare on Batu Tiga Street

I woke up feeling elated. Intan & Co were here all the way from Kemaman and they were coming to my house for Iftar. Yey!!!!! I spent first half of the day mentally doing the menu. I did not plan to cook anyway, bibik was finishing out the raw material stock in the freezer in preparation for the upcoming balik kampung trip. She only prepared a simple chicken soup for the kids.

By afternoon, it was raining heavily. Hubby signed off from YM saying that he'd be going home earlier since Kelana Jaya traffic would usually became horrible after a few hours of heavy rain. I was busier than usual. My usual monthly deadlines were brought forward due to deepavali and eid holiday. If those were not enough to put me in state of panic, there was also a nasty US legal dispute to deal with. I had enough trouble understanding the lawyer who insisted in speaking in legal jargon, let alone comprehending the contents of three thick files piling on my table. Sigh.... wish I were out there, shopping with Intan or maybe just sit gossiping in her hotel room.

By 4.30pm, I packed my thick legal files and called it a day. Brian called saying that the road in front of Proton was flooded so he was stranded at Proton. Alamak! I was planning to use Elite hiway. Could see the long queue snaking to the road in front of my office. That bad! So, I turned to the other way, which was actually nearer in distance but requires a lot more daring stunts. Big mistake! I saw red once I reached past Sek Men Teknik Shah Alam. But the traffic here was always unpredictable so I braced on. Nearing the junction, I heard the news that the road in front of sugar refinery factory at batu 3 stretch was flooded. Big flood. There was no way to turn back at that point. Oh my.... I should have listened to radio from the beginning instead of blaring the CD. Called hubby and rattled off my menu for him to buy. I won't have enough time to stroll at pasar ramadhan if I ever made it home.

Feeling very gloomy, I just crawled along together with other drivers. At one point I saw Kak Rosni, my ex colleague, on the opposite side of the traffic. Waved at her and she waved back. Exchanged pained grinned at each other. She was on the way to Kak Nor's (another ex colleague) house at Section 20 for iftar invitation. Kak Nor purposedly invited her, knowing that Kak Rosni who was heavily pregnant, would never make it to her house at Damansara Damai for iftar and being in not so healthy condition, she'd need all the help she can get.

Called hubby again and heard the merry sound of our kids at the background. Plus Intan's kids, there'll be five of them. I could imagine the chaos. I so wanted to be there. I wanted to bawl my heart out.

As I inched forward, the adzan came from a nearby mosque, announcing the time for iftar. I was beyond caring about food and guests. I had another problem. The fuel indicator was flashing steadily for the past ten minutes. I was getting panicky. If my car ran out of petrol in the middle of this crazy jam, the whole of Klang Valley would cursed me to death. I inched to the left lane. Didn't want to have dead car on the right lane, do we? As I neared the left lane, I spotted a petrol pump just metres ahead. Alhamdulillah.......and blessed my aveo too for lasting all the way of nearly 45 minutes , though it was barely 2km. It was a new car and I didn't yet know how long it would last, especially during massive jam.

Sometime after 8pm, I reached the end of the queue and a few good samaritans helped to divert the traffic away from the knee deep water. Arrived home around 8.30pm, a good four hours after I left office. Adehhh.....cam nak patah pinggang den...nasib baik kereta auto.

Little black shoes

I thought by having boys, instead of girls would make my life easier on one part, i.e. shopping for children attires. There were definitely not that much choice to start with and boys, being boys, surely couldn’t care less whether the black pants match their red t-shirt right? I’ve spent many happy years dressing Amri in clothes digged from bargain bins and once from a shopping spree at Nilai3. No harm done.

Some few weeks ago Amri however needed a pair of black shoes. Fine…easy peasy! Or so I thought. We spent a Sunday morning at a mall for that and I almost ended up having blister on both feet from walking up and down the huge mall. I was already cursing my new sandal by then though it escaped me on why I decided to wear something with heel on shopping trip. Must have been my temporary amnesia again.

As it happened, the mall was certainly not short of places selling nice black shoes. Even Jusco has a lot to offer. Only thing was, Amri inherited my feet, which is wide. Thus, the problem in looking for the right size. It was either too tight or too hard. Another problem was, Amri is a boy. The shoemaker/shoe manufacturers certainly prefer to make girls shoes. For a pair of boy shoes, there will be about hundreds for girls. Not fair!

Some few millions of tried shoes later, we finally found a nice pair at a nice shop being staffed by nice girls. The girls fawned upon Amri, bringing him black shoes after black shoes while I sit back and drooled over a few nice pairs of strappy sandals and boots. Next time, next time! Amri finally made his choice which I had to veto out because it had complicated strap that I was pretty sure Amri would have to spend half an hour just to put on his shoes later. I chosed a pair with simple straps that cost a bit more but would save me the time taken to wait for Amri and getting annoyed with him. Amri sulked. I was happy. The quest had ended.

I have 'beautiful' nose

The ENT specialist took a close look at my nose and exclaim "BEAUTIFUL!!!!!" I grinned from ear to ear. Who else in this universe would say that to my nose...hahahaha. Well anyway....here is the full story...

Some weeks ago, I was convinced that somehow I got myself a bad case of sinus. The symptoms were all there - the constant sneezing, phlegm, runny nose and worst of all...headache. I received many free consultation and of course, miracle products to try. But the sinus insist to stay. I saw the GP from time to time until I felt slightly alarmed when she sent me for x-ray. Whatever for...my chest was okay, as far as I knew. Then came a day when I realised that the so called sinus was getting pretty annoying. It put me off cooking, because the smell would trigger the non-stop sneezing and worst of all, I was losing sleep too, due to blocked nose. I hate losing sleep. I need my beauty sleep or else my brain refused to function properly come next day. That was good enough reason to push me into a hospital, seeking the ENT specialist. After much poking with a tiny camera into my erm..beautifully swollen nose..he proceed to declare "My dear....you have a sensitive nose. Not sinus. But if left untreated, could lead to sinus" Errkk.... I honestly did not know how out of the blue I managed to get sensitive nose. Too much perfume perhaps.

A week, 12 antibiotics tablets and a nasal spray later, I was almost as good as new. Almost. Because, even though the ENT specialist already announced that I indeed have beautiful nose, the nasal spray would have to continue for two more months. Fine...whatever you say, doctor. As long as you tell me I have beautiful nose.

Welcome back Ramadhan

Ramadhan is here again. A blessed month. A month to clean your soul and your digestion system. Provided no indulgement at pasar ramadhan followed.

Amri was born on 1st of Ramadhan, 5 years ago. Happy Birthday, Amri!!!

Neighbours from hell

Upon reaching home, I was greeted by our neighbour's daughter with stories of how this boy threw sand to Amri and that boy broke a part of Adam's scooter. Sigh! Neighbour from hell. Both boys are brothers with parents whom thought the best way to communicate with maid is via car horn. Hmph! Bibik was seriously upset and was telling me at bullet train speed on how bad the boys were. I managed to catch a few intelligible words here and there and concluded that one of the boys ruined our gate as well. Duh! Obvious was it, where the boys get their genes?

I ran a quick check on Amri. Bibik managed to get the sand out of his eyes so I just rinsed off what was left on his hair. No damage done to the eyes. Took the boys for a drive to cheer them up. I needed cheering up myself. This particular neighbour could really get on my nerve sometime, what with their obsession with parking their car at my parking space (so that they can enjoy empty car porch) while hubby and I had to negotiate through a narrow space that was left. Duh!!! Talk about selfish. And now this. Honestly, I couldn't care less with the broken plastic scooter. It was cheap stuff I bought from Giant anyway. And we really were planning to change the gate, so no problem there.

Anyway, I've decided during my drive to let Amri work it out himself, whether he wanted to punch the boys nose or look for other kids to play with or made up and continue playing. As long there is no bodily harm that will land Amri (or Adam) in ICU, that is. Of which, I may need to enlist the service of the many lawyers in my address book.

My old friend

After years of faithful service, my trustworthy Wira gave up on me this morning. Great timing. To play dead on a hectic Monday morning. I considered calling AAM but decided likewise after checking my membership card and noticed the expired date. I just could not afford the time to look for the new card. Not that I know where to look for in the first place. I called hubby instead, who thankfully, was not too far off. Hubby made a u-turn, sent me straight to office, with enough time to prepare for my 10 am meeting. Phew!!!!

Again, dear hubby had to fetch me from office. AAM mechanic came and true enough...the battery was dead. Come to think of it, the battery had rendered a great service indeed, because it was also bought from AAM some time in October 2002. Gee... that was three years. The chatty mechanic told me that since I last purchased the battery, the price had been increased 8 times. Huh! Also a long lecture for not warming up the car 30 minutes each day. 30 minutes????? The drive to my office took about 15 minutes, so how? Drive around the block for another 15 minutes, I guess. Thank you sir, but I think 3 years are good enough record, otherwise the battery manufacturer and distributor may go out of business.

Thanks to AAM, my car was back to life some 15 minutes later. I considered myself lucky to never having a dead battery outside the comfort of my own porch. Never even outside my gate.

Anyway, I need to bade farewell to you, my dear friend Wira. You have been a great companion, seeing me through many roads and wrong turns, traffic jams and of late, becoming a guinea pig for the r&d inventions. I hope your new owner enjoys the e-cool, e-window, e-light, vibramat and vibratile as much as I do. If you had stayed around a bit longer than you could have had the x-lite (halogen light, okay?) fitted into you. Then you can beat that monster E240 high beam. I'll still be seeing you sometime, I guess, since the ownership just move to the company, not to a stranger. Forgive me for scratching your body last week. Wrong turn again!