Hubby and The King

Congratulation! You've made it after years of hard work. And to receive the scroll from The King himself....it was an honour. Especially that when The King is young and goodlooking. We are so proud of you. Btw, what's next after MBA?

Thanks a lot but no, thanks

Well, I'd never have thought so but it seemed there were many people out there who get really concerned when I was down with migrain. Honestly people, it was not that bad. Except for the second day (and night). Even the doctor said I had misdiagnosed myself (i'm very clever, remember?) and had firmly told me that all I was having that time was severe headache. She further said that I did not have the usual symptoms of migrain (of which I had totally forgotten, except for nausea) and proceeded to lecture me of the evils and dangers of self diagnose. So there goes my clever self.

Since the doctor said so, I guess I do not need all the health supplements offered to me. But thanks soooo much. I never knew that there are more than 8 person on this earth that read this blog. In fact, I doubted that even my husband read this :). And to actually read and acknowledged that i was not well and offered help.....it was so sweet of you guys. Please do not hate me but I really was indicipline when it comes to supplement taking. I did not even take my pregnancy supplements let alone now. My kitchen cupboards could testify to that...I bought all kind of supplements sold by friends in various MLM but hardly ever take more than a couple of time, no matter what good that the products promised

Anyway, the pretty doctor told me to cut down on coffee (oh no!), get enough sleep and exercise more (are u mad, doc?). That's all. Well, I did not check the doctor's credential but hey, the painkiller she prescribed worked. And fast. I was back on my feet the following day. By that time, I found out my brand new maid had already made herself at home. She figured out herself how to use washing machine, rice cooker, microwave, tv, vcd player and the boys' name. Once I was out and about, she gave me a long list of the missing groceries i needed to buy. Gosh! Not bad for someone who did not go to school at all. I must thank her previous employer then, for training her well. But first and foremost, thank God i now finally had a decent, if not competent, maid.

*gasp*

Ouch!

I'm thirty three today.

note to hubby:
no need for pressy, just preorder HP7 for me :)
there...u got off very easily

Nescafe Kickstart

Somehow I missed out the final. I did not really followed the series from the beginning but became intrigued later when among the chosen were two girls from fitness industry (if you do not mind me generalising 'dancing' as one of fitness categories).

I was rooting for Ninie. Nope, not because she is a Malay. I am no racist okay. But because publishing takes a lot of gut to do. What more publishing a yoga magazine plus a vcd. Not only you have to worry about magazine contents but you need to shoot a movie as well and looks pretty in it. Hell, that was one amazing feat. Granted, she has some celebrity friends to pose for her but, only to that extend. I doubted any of them is able to help much or see Ninie through for the next few issues. Now, contents and shooting aside, Ninie would have to deal with prejudice from public, specifically from the less informed muslim. It was all well in Klang Valley and some other cities, people have been exposed to yoga as another form of exercise for quite some time . Yoga is a very in thing now and almost everybody was into it or at least, plan to. Sadly, the craze and the information that come with it did not really reached every part of malaysia. So, I could almost see the tought bubble that formed : What???? A Malay/Muslim girl doing the sun salutation??? Isn't that ........... you fill in the blank yourself.

Somehow, I feel for her. So I felt it was pretty unfair that the other girl won. For God sake, she was only opening a dance studio. What so hard about it? If a boring accountant with two left feet like me could run a studio, so did everyone else. Anyway, since the winner was partially chosen by SMS vote, it was not really a surprise right? Joo Nee is pretty and oh..how she could sway her hip:)

But still, Ninie should have been the winner. She has great ideas, she works hard and she still has a long rough road to travel. The cash prize will definitely help a lot but I guess, it was not meant for her. Bravo, Ninie!

A muddy kind of day

For all I’ve been writing about aerobics, people must have thought that I have seen and done it all. No! I’ve never been to outdoor mass aerobics. It is where the many participants would be dancing in the open air (like padang bola or community hall) and the instructors (usually more than one) would stand in front stage, facing you.

TTDI Jaya residents had one yesterday morning in conjunction with Syabas launching their new water metre. No offense to those who enjoyed outdoor aerobics but I found it terribly uncomfortable. First, being in public place meant that you would have to dress decently. In my case, complete with tudung and long sleeve t-shirt. After five minutes, I was soaking wet with sweat. Secondly, being resident in now famous TTDI Jaya could only meant that the ground was forever wet with rain. It rained heavily the night before so instead of nice grassy football field, we had a wet mushy muddy ground that not only soaked through my dainty cross trainer but splattered me with mud from head to toe. (After a round of aerobics, netball game and searching for Amri at drawing contest) And I decided to wear white top, shoes and tudung for the occasion…ceh!

Also the presence of men in the group did make me a bit worried, because you know, as what the politicians often preached about, we women should never entice the opposite sex (duh) with any sexy move. And aerobics dance had evolved to be very sexy indeed. We do not want woman exercises to be banned from this country, no?

Well, I should have stayed with studio aerobics. I did not really enjoy being mud splattered from head to toe and sweating like a pig. And I hate not having firm traction on my feet because being a big momma I was, I had a fear of slipping and toppling over the cameraman who for reasons known only to him, kept his videocamera zoomed to me and not even bothering to be subtle about it. Did we know each other?

And this morning when I reached Seribadan, I felt so lucky. I’ve taken this place for granted because I owned it. I actually loved its wood flooring, mirrors, airconditioners, stacks of clean towel, drums of cold water and most of all, the privacy it offered which enable me to dress up in almost anything. It was tiny studio but sufficient.

Anyway, I’ll give it another try sometimes but I’ll check the ground first. Plus, I’ll wear everything black. It should be fun if the ground was not mushy and I didn’t get confused without mirrors.

Lost and found

I am so glad that little Yin was found and returned safely to his parents. It must be a huge torture, knowing your child is somewhere out there but unable to reach to him, hug him close and keep the child safe. And those people who unashamedly said things like the parents were too busy shopping to look after the kids, well....lets just hope the same things will not happened to you when you become a parents. All kids are different. Some are more adventerous than others. Some will stay meekly beside mommy and trail obediently once the mommy moves. But most are not. My boys are not and so are the majority of 5 years olds I know. I am constantly vigilant and I take precautions. Like putting my namecards in the boys pocket. Drilling the boys on what to do if they are lost. Teaching Amri to memorise my handphone number (he asks for a handphone instead). Despite all that, Amri still managed to get lost but fortunately at a familiar ground. He knows enough to get help from the staffs at information counter. I refused to brand myself a bad mommy because of that. But I'll definitely kick myself if it happens again. Or repeated by Adam. Thing happened so that we could learn, right?

I hope Yin's parents will face the future bravely. You know, things like when you want to visit a shopping mall again, well meaning friends and relatives will surely advise againts it. Or you develop a phobia for it. But you can't hide away forever. Lets face it anyway and learn from the past. Like cuffing your kids to the trolley (i'm kidding!) or look for a more child friendly mall. When there is a will, there is a way. Surely when a woman need to shop, she'll be triple creative?

I've never had migrain in my life. So when I had a bad headache on Saturday, I just brushed it off as lack of sleep. Which was true enough. But I didn't expect it to last for more than a couple of hours, let alone days. Usually a nice short nap will take care of it.

But not this time. Nap did not cure it. Neither did Panadol. A good long sleep at night did not even reduce the pain. Anyway, Amri had telematch at his school on Sunday morning. So I dragged myself out of bed, asked Adam to shower himself and drove to school. Luckily the school provided tents and chairs. Adam however, did not appreciated being out of bed so early and in one of his black mood. He refused to walk and demanded to be carried, giving reason that the ground was wet and slippery and he did not want his shoes to be dirty. Oh well...luckily hubby was there to lug his son around.

I survived the telematch and a breakfast afterwards then hit the sofa as soon as I reached home, leaving hubby to manage the boys and the house for another day.

Or so I thought.

By Sunday evening, hubby had his friend sent over a maid. Gosh! I was unprepared for a maid. Maybe I bullied hubby with too much housework that he thought he'd better get a maid:) The maid's room was being used as a laundry room and looked more like rubbish dumping ground. I tried in vain to clear up the mess within an hour that hubby's friend said the time he needed to reach our house. While a maid is a maid, I did not believe in giving a rubbish dump as her room, never mind where she came from, be it a hut without floor or whatever. And also, I wouldn't feel happy unless I feed my guest but I really did not feel like cooking. So I sent Amri to buy goreng pisang...heh!

Well...I now had a new unordered maid. She was someone else maid since January so all I had to do is pay levi and change employer name. Thank God she was not too unfamiliar with housework because I really did not feel like training anyone at the moment. The rest I would dealt with later

Doctor prescribed me with a stronger painkiller that actually worked. Finally, I could move a bit faster without seeing stars. And I could drive to Seribadan, which really cheered me up.

Ooops.....

It rained heavily around 4pm and by 5pm my front neighbour took her car to somewhere higher. I on the other hand, had other problems. First, I had to drive through the rising water to Bukit Jelutong and opened Seribadan for evening session. I also had to fetch Amri and Adam since hubby was going to be extra late.

So by 5.30pm I drove through the water in front of ttdi secondary school (thank God for a 4WD) and reached Seribadan just fine. Although there was some funny sound coming from CRV's engine afterwards. Or was it just my imagination? Got everything nice and ready for weekly hatha yoga class then off to Amri's school. I drove straight to the front gate only to see a closed one. Then vaguely remembered husband telling me something about closed gate and no parents allowed to drive into school compound during his PTA meeting (but why though). I was contemplating the safest way to reverse the car without causing a massive jam or pile up when suddenly the guard opened the gate for me. Cool! Thank you very much. I drove in quickly before he could change his mind.

Azida called me while I was walking towards Amri's classroom. The bell rang. Yakety yak...chat, chat..joke somemore, saw Amri sitting nicely in his classroom waiting for me then walked back to the car with Amri in tow. Gebang gebang with Azida some more. Offered to fetch her daughter as well but she declined, said bye bye then shoved Amri into the car before he could jump into any pool of water.

Made my exit without a hassle. For once, the traffic was orderly. Reached the traffic light at the junction and while waiting for green light, I contemplated the nice and orderly school traffic today. No parents making funny turn or blocking any exit point. No children running around wild. And...Amri and his classmate seemed to be sitting nicely even without a teacher around. They can't be that good, can they?

Then it hit me.

Oh my God......

The school was not over yet. Today is Tuesday. According to new timetable, school finished at 6.40pm on Monday and Tuesday. I fetched Amri during second last period bell, I guess. Alamak!!!

Hehehehe

Hantam sajalah labu.... Will apologize to the teacher tomorrow. Hope the last period teacher didn't think that someone kidnapped Amri and went to make a police report.

Parenting 101 - Variance Analysis

Three months into primary school (Amri, not me) and guess what.... I saved loads of $$$! There was only one off minimal fee in the beginning of the year and that shopping spree with his school stuffs that cost quite a lot because Amri and I got a bit carried away. Plus I didn't really know which one is really needed so I bought them all. And those funky stationaries were kinda cute.

He no longer had high monthly fees as were his kindy years. Amri's pocket money only cost me about RM50 per month. His Qiraati class cost only RM40 per month. Weekly Tae Kwon Do class is RM18 per month. School itself has no monthly fee. No school bus expenses because I ferried him to school, hubby fetched him and he cycles to Qiraati class. No tuition class whatsoever. I doubted there'll be any tuition teacher on earth that could knock some sense into his head. Plus I already figured out how to tutor him. Pretty easy actually. Just turned everything into monetary term. If he couldn't figure out what is 6 + 6, just asked him what is RM6 + RM6. Trust me, he only took a few seconds to answer.

Sometimes I wonder how his brain works.

Well, the findings of the analysis is, primary school is good on the wallet. But not too good on other matters. Junk foods, foul languages, heavy bags and who's idea was it that school uniform needs to be WHITE shirt and WHITE shoes?

Adam the photographer

Found a lot of pictures taken by Adam, either using digital camera or my previous handphone. Some are pretty good, like this one here. Not bad for a three years old. Of course, there were also millions of junk photos

Amri at the backseat of my car. Just fetched him from tae kwon do class. He is the ever willing model for Adam :)

This is me, driving. Adam took this one using my old handphone. He kept asking me to smile, which I found very difficult to do while navigating Malaysian traffic. The best I could do is grimace.

Again....

Sigh

Banjir lagi....

Though not as bad as last year's flood. It only reached our car porch. But still, if the rain went on for a few more hours, I am pretty sure the flood would have reached our living room, if not the whole ground floor. Amri and his friends have a field day though. They were having loads of fun cycling through the flood water and getting drenched from head to toe :)
Adam however, is still at bed, thank goodness. Otherwise he'll be out there with Amri as well and I could just imagine another round of coughing-vomiting-med-doctors bill.

I am stranded at home in the meantime

Rain rain go away...

...and come again a little bit at a time.

So much so for a draughty season forecasted.

11.oopm : front neighbours started removing their cars to a higher ground.
11.20pm : next door neighbour removed their cars
11.23pm : i smsed amy and milly who lived at mayang sutera, asking about water level there
11.29pm : amy replied "alih your car cepattt"
11.43pm : kak azie called to check on me
11.45pm : smsed hubby to come home by boat
11.47pm : a neighbour rang the door to remind me that the water is rising
12 ++ : dozed off then awaken by warning siren, car horn and somebody using a heller to inform people that, really, the river was overflowing again
12.21am : martin rang the bell and checking whether i was aware of the situation.
12.30++ : hubby was home and set to removing our cars to mayang sari
12.47 : azida called to make sure we were okay
1.00am : went back to sleep
2.am++ : rain get heavier and water reached our porch....alamak! started to move a few stuffs upstairs then tried to go back to sleep
3am++ : cheryl called

I was not sure what time the rain stopped but the water stayed there.

Off duty...

I was feeling rather disoriented. First, it was school holiday so Amri was home and did not require my chauffeur service. I was also relieved from my duty as his alarm clock. Second, Adam was home as well, with a bit of temperature but still in his usual sunny self. I took two days off from work which at first, with the plan to tag along to Lumut with hubby and let the boys run wild at his national service camp. But the plan changed when hubby had other things to attend to, Tok Kie was here visiting and Adam was a bit off colour, all in one go.

So here I was, with practically nothing to do and feeling very weird. I used to rush between Seribadan, home, school, factory, daycare then seribadan again and now I had nowhere to go. The boys, as usual whenever grandparents were around, left me totally alone. I cooked, took a nap, surf internet, read one of my new books and it was not even lunch time yet.

I might as well enjoy this :)

Where's everyone?

Pretty quiet around here today. Peaceful. It is SCHOOL HOLIDAY!!

Both Amri and Adam are at daycare. Even next door kids were gone, probably balik kampung.

I feel like celebrating! But I'll start by taking a short nap first.

Books Galore

Other ladies received jewelry from their husband. Not me. I got a fully sponsored and chauffered trip to MPH distributor sale. And what do you expect when this makcik was let loose on a book sale? Hehehehe. Enough to say that I was so relieved when hubby carried my purchases for me. It was a rather heavy bag and quite a long walk!

Somehow, Amri was into books as well. Now and then he'd refused to trail obediently behind me and plopped himself beside a boxful of books. I was worried sick to leave him by himself but thankfully he did not budge at all. Not even one inch. However, he turned up his nose at whatever I picked out for him to read, preferring those Spiderman, Batman whateverman books. He even picked out a couple of Barney books for Adam, whom was contend to wait outside and eat icecream with his ayah.

I got the latest Kinsella's shopaholic series as well - Shophaholic and Baby! I read one of her book a couple of years ago and love it so much that I bought the whole shopaholic series plus her two other books. They were entertaining. Just the right stuff to read after a hard day at work.

I wind down by reading, okay. Preferably with my feet up. But actually, anywhere is fine for me

p/s: I finished the yummy Shopaholic and Baby on the next day, 2am. 10 hours after purchase time. But there were a trip to Kelana Jaya office and burger king Sg Buloh in between

note to hubby: Thank you very, very much. Also the reason I prefer a nearly 3000sqf built up house rather than one with large compound is that, erm.. I need a whole room to store my books (and your books too)

TGIF.... now breath!

Thank God it is Friday. Thank God it will be four days break. I was so exhausted. Adding Amri’s schedule to my already chaotic one was no joke! I think I need a maid, a driver and a personal assistant. We will be out of town from tomorrow to Tuesday. And it would be a nice break from school, seribadan and everything else in between.

Adam however, decided to give me a break after the hiding in bathroom incident. He even packed his own daycare bag, which I had to do spot checks just in case it includes smuggled items (VCD power rangers, my lipstick, icecream). And to answer eiseai question, I didn’t know what actually happened to Adam’s cheek. He came back from his evening ventures with bruised cheek and said his friend bite him. He seemed unconcerned so we just let it be. If it bothers him, we’ll have to hear about it for weeks so if he decided not to kick somebody ass about it, that was fine with us. It was just a tiny bruise, nothing like Amir though.

Amri had one of his tooth extracted a few days ago. It was loose for quite some time but Amri refused to let it go because it will make him look ugly. Well….he does looks ugly now, without one front teeth but fortunately took it pretty well. Most probably because it made brushing teeth and biting easier. He did not ask for handphone anymore as at today but decided to resume his pleading to let him cycle to school. He had been doing that since his second day at school.

The thing was, we made a mistake of saying that (then) he was not that skillful with bicycle. So, he decided to work on it. He practiced everyday, before and after school and all weekends. He was so into it that soon, the neighbours kids followed suit. Even our front neighbour, whom a bit overprotective with his 8 & 9 years old boys, let his boys cycle around with Amri. One week later, both boys chucked out their training wheel. So people, please avoid my street after 5.30pm because it seemed like all TTDI kids with bicycles, big and small, were all there. One good thing was that Amri get so good. I will just shut my eyes whenever he decided to show off his stunts. Duh! That was not the way it supposed to be. Anyway. We still did not allow him to cycle to school. For two reason actually. First, Amri now had pocket money so having a bicycle will enable him cycle to nearby grocery shop after school. I do not want that. Second, he’ll have to pass in front of secondary school. The traffic was terrible. Parents were parking their cars on the pavements meant for the pedestrian and bicycles. And parents who stop the car in the middle of the road once they spot their kids, never mind if there were other cars trailing behind. Also parents who made u-turn as and when needed. Plus those who reversed their car while chatting on mobile phone. So these primary school kids will have to zig zag in between the cars while keeping their eyes open for other possible errant drivers. Talk about teaching road manners to children. Yesterday, I saw a cute silver Swift backing into a girl. The girl fell from her bicycle but not injured. The Swift driver just drove off, uncaring. Didn’t even poke her head out of the window to check. No, I don’t think Amri is that street savvy.

So, sorry Amri. I know you are good but still, you are just 6. We’ll talk about this when you turn 8, okay. In the meantime, just bear with me as your driver.

Parenting 101 - Purchase Requisition

I was kind of expecting this request though. I knew it was coming, sooner or later. But Amri did take his time. About two months. So this afternoon, on the way to his school, Amri asked me whether he could have a mobile phone.

Whatever for, I asked.
Amri : So that Ibu wouldn’t be so mad at me for ‘borrowing’ your handphone.

Mind you, when he said ‘borrow’ it meant running away with my mobile phone. Twice. First time, he quietly slip my handphone into his Qiraati bag during our mad scramble for breakfast (read: ibu was running late for everything). Coincidently, on the very same morning, one of my instructors called in sick. Since no one pick up the call (Amri and handphone were already at Qiraati class), she sent me an SMS. Somehow, Amri deleted the SMS. Needless to say, I was fuming mad. Not only I turned the house upside down looking for my mobile phone, I also didn’t have a clue that my instructor wouldn’t be turning up that evening. Of course, Amri was grounded for that week. No bicycling for the week and no cartoon.

I thought it would put a stop to it. But it happened again. One sunny afternoon a few days ago, I noticed my handphone was again missing. Spent a few minutes checking inside my car and bag then decided to call my own mobile number. Unsurprisingly, the call was answered by Amri, with teacher’s calm voice and kids screaming at the background. Went to his school, straight to his class and demanded my handphone back. Asked the kindly English teacher if she could give a few stern words to Amri on my behalf (I doubted it, she doesn’t look stern enough), shot I-am-going-to-murder-you look to Amri and left, temper flared. Wouldn’t surprise if fire and smoke came out from my nostrils. I spent the rest of the day devising many ways of diciplining Amri. However, one hour of good workout at Seribadan later douched the fire. Plus looking at Amri’s sad face after being grounded again by his father. I decided just to have a good talk with Amri.
So help me God, I am a softie.

I am still wondering whether Amri should get his own handphone or not. Frankly, I think he is too young for it. He may be in Year 1 but he is, afterall, still a six year old boy. And acts/thinks like one. Plus, didn’t handphone a banned item at school? Though more than half of his classmates bring one. But they may need it for valid reasons, like missing their transport or the parents needs to let them know that they will be a bit late. Or the car was parked properly a few kilometres away (as if). I don’t really see a reason why Amri needs one either. He lives three minutes away from school, being sent and fetched by parents and has a mom who could reach his classroom in two minutes if she wants to. There was one day when hubby was waiting patiently for Amri at the back gate while Amri was waiting at the front gate and it was already 20 minutes after the bell rang. And his class teacher called me asking why Amri was still at school compound. Meaning that, there really was no reason to worry. Teachers were always there. And they had parents contact numbers listed somewhere.


So, this mom tells his son again to give her another good reason why he needs a mobile phone (in a no-nonsense accountant tone).
He said “ Untuk call ibu lah …. nanti Amri risau kalau tak cakap dengan ibu. Kalau ayah balik lambat, nanti ibu tak happy sebab ibu takde kawan nak sembang sembang. Kalau ada handphone, bolehlah ibu sembang dengan Amri”

Good enough reason?

I’ll leave it to hubby lah.

p/s: I was pleasantly surprised to see Amri’s classroom to have only about 30 something kids (or less). On registration day, it was 42 kids.

Parenting 101 gone awry

It was 10 minutes to 1pm and I was nagging Amri and Adam to hurry up and get inside the car. Amri to school and Adam to daycare. School started at 1.05pm and Amri had the tendency to wander off all over school before he actually arrived at his classroom. So needed to go earlier to satisfy that wanderlust. However, Adam was nowhere to be seen. I yelled for him but no one turned up. Checked his room and bathroom, he wasn't there. Not in guest room either. Checked my room and heard him singing from my bathroom. The door was locked. Asked him to come out because I needed to send Amri right now. He refused. I asked why. Because he didn't want to go to daycare. Promised him an ice cream if he come out now. He said no, thank you. Threaten to leave him home alone. He said, okay....bye! It was 1.02pm and I had no choice. Locked the door and leave a word with next door maid to keep an ear out for Adam. Sent Amri to school.

I was back 5 minutes later and found a dining chair near front door and Adam inside downstairs bathroom doing his big business. Asked Adam what the chair was doing there. He said, he wanted to take the keys to open the front door (plus grill) and go cycling but he needed to take care of his big business first. And could ibu please come in and wash his bottom because he was done now. I was speechless.

After putting his short pant on, Adam continued his interrupted activity. I simply watched because I needed to know how far could he go with the complicated lock and key. Amri was 5 when he figured out how to unlock that padlock. Adam was a bit advance I guess. He managed to unlock after a few minutes while singing Alif, Ba, Ta.... Somehow I got a feeling that this was not his first time.

Having succeeded the front door, he then proceeded for the gate. Which was easy peasy. It was auto gate and the switch was right beside the door. Since he was already standing on a chair, opening the gate was never a problem. Having passed his hurdles, he put the padlock and key properly on nearby coffee table and drag the dining chair back to its place. Grab his bicycle and went off. I allowed him a few minutes before putting my foot down and told him to get back inside the house. Lucky for me, it started to drizzle and Adam hurried back inside.

I was having pretty mixed feeling. First, proud that Adam was so brave staying alone, independant with his toilet business and clever with the locks. Second, scared of what would happened if I were to take longer than 5 minutes. What if Amri's school was 15 minutes away? what if Adam didn't need to answer nature's call? What if there was a fire? Or he slipped in the bathroom, or he could fell from the chair (well..that one happened everyday).

But still, a little bit of revamping is needed here. Say...a more complicated door access system? A combination of pin number and retina scanning maybe. A guard outside the gate? A key to all bathroom perhaps. Or just locked the keys in a safebox. Orang lain simpan jewelry, kita simpan keys :)

I couldn't help but felt a bit amazed at how Adam did his strategic planning. Of all the place in the house, he hide in my bathroom. The only place without key. Once locked from inside, there was no way I could enter, unless I wanted to try the old U days trick...use a card. But that was time consuming and I was not about to sacrifice my credit card.

While I am typing this entry, Adam was playing alone happily in his room. Singing, no less. And sticking Amri's dragonball stickers on his bedroom door. I bet Amri would be fuming mad when he get back from school this evening :)

Al Fatihah to adik Anis

Click here to read the news

It happened at Amri's school. I just couldn't imagine how terribly sad the mom after the phone call from school. It was of course, Qada & Qadar but still, I couldn't help but wish that teachers are equipped with first aid training. Not just teachers, all parents should know about it.

I didn't know Anis's parents personally but I hope they are okay. Al fatihah to her.

I did occasionally get phone calls from Amri's teacher but they were mostly to complain that Amri was missing from his class. Now I think, any phone calls from school sure to make my heart miss a beat.

The myth about sweat

I wanted to post this in Seribadan but nothing happened after I clicked the 'publish' button. So I publish it here in the meantime....

What’s the Sweat?
MYTH ONE : If you’re not sweating, you’re not working out.

There are a lot of misconceptions about sweat. Hear this fact: Sweat has only one purpose — to cool the body. When your body temperature rises as a result of the energy production required by exercise (or the heat of the day), a couple of responses are triggered. First, the heart beats faster to move blood around the organs more quickly to absorb heat. At the same time, capillaries just under the skin dilate so blood can be closer to the skin surface, which is usually cooler than body temperature. If these cooling mechanisms aren’t enough, your sweating reflex kicks in — something like a built-in shower. Water from the blood moves to the skin surface through a network of more than 2.5 million ducts, or sweat glands, in the skin. When this “sweat” — which is composed of 99% water and 1% salt and other protein and fat-based metabolites — evaporates, it cools the body and leaves a salty-tasting residue on your skin.
You’ll notice the sweat if you live in a humid climate that deters evaporation. You may never think you sweat in a dry climate, where the same workout, at the same temperature, produces the same amount of sweat, but is not noticed because it evaporates so quickly.
Although sweat has no odor itself, when it is combined with bacteria on the body, it’s time to roll out the deodorant to combat the unpleasant odor associated with sweat.

MYTH TWO : Sweating helps you lose fat.
Some people still come to the gym wearing sweater suits designed to make them sweat profusely. If asked why they are using this gear, they often respond, “To sweat off fat.” Had they said, “To lose weight,” they would be accurate but misguided. Any post-workout decrease in weight is water-based sweat, not fat. Fluid replacement returns the scale to a pre-workout reading. The danger in this thermal approach to weight management is that any sweat produced cannot evaporate and cool the body.

MYTH THREE : Sweating rids the body of toxins.
There are no toxins in sweat. Toxins are removed by a healthy kidney and liver working full time to counter all we do to abuse our bodies with poor exercise, eating, and lifestyle habits. The body isn’t detoxified when it sweats. It’s overheated.
Sweating dehydrates the body. A dehydrated body is prone to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Lost fluid must be replaced. Drinking water is a good place to start. A cup of water before and after your workout and sipping your water during exercise will suffice..

Source : www.walkabout.com

Adam is 3!

Just three? Judging by his size and manner, five is more like it. But three it is. Three years ago, I felt some mild contraction and took my time eating breakfast and all...thinking that Adam would take his own sweet time to come out. I was wrong. 45 minutes after epidural, Adam popped out. Everybody said the epidural was just a waste afterall, I did not really need it. However, i am a big time coward when it comes to pain so even if the labour pain took only 15 minutes, I would still insisted on epidural. Hehe. No offence to supermoms out there, ok.

Adam @ 3 months old

Adam @ 5 months old

Adam @ first birthday

Adam @ 2 yrs 11 months

Well, no party yet today since hubby is still at Lumut. Maybe Sunday, Insyaallah.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Amri goes to school - part 2

I now strongly believed that the real reason Amri becoming so gung ho about going to school was that few hours of freedom from me. Definately not because he couldn't wait to score straight As. Couldn't be about making new friends either since first, most of the kids come from ttdi jaya and second, Amri made friends easily that more often than not, my house was a playground for half of ttdi boys under 10. Occasionally he brought back girls but always one at a time.

That few hours of freedom also came with a few ringgits of pocket money. What more could a boy ask? He had so many things to buy in his list that RM2.00 seemed to be not enough...duh. Knowing Amri...I did not let him loose at any shop with money on his own....until now. The nearest he get to buy anything on his own was the occasional purchases I allowed from the ice-cream man. And that was rare. My freezer was always well stocked with ice cream unless during the time Adam was having severe cold/cough.

Well...he seemed to seize this newfound freedom wholeheartedly. Like he's been waiting all his life for this moment. Yesterday, hubby and I decided to see whether Amri would be okay at school canteen. Had a big shock myself. Several hundreds hungry kids, from year 1 to year 3, muscled their way to buy whatever food they could lay their hand on, pushing away anybody who stand on their way. Gosh! Remember jusco members day sale? Or tesco first day sale? It was like that. . Amri was frightened initially. So I resolved to pack his snack from tomorrow onwards. But 10 minutes of staring at the crowd later, Amri seemed to know what to do so he joined the cut-throat scramble at canteen counter. All my six years of lessons to Amri about good manner, queing, waiting your turn etc flew out of window instantly. Hmph!! A few minutes later, he emerged with 2 pieces of nugget. Then back to the mad scramble at drinks counter. Again he emerged with a glass of iced drink, amazingly without splashing half of it on himself. (But how come he sloshed his drink everywhere at home?)
Being a big eater, Amri couldn't be happy with just two pieces of nugget. He wanted the plate of fried mee or better still, chicken rice. But the bell rang and he ran back to his class. Checked at his classroom later and he was not there. *Sigh* But I came across my old schoolmate way back at jenan....Zain Azraie. Wonder how he noticed me despite being 20kg heavier and a metre wider.....

Today, I decided to stalk him during recess time. But I already packed him a chocolate bread and boxed soy bean milk earlier. However, when hubby and I reached there, we were informed that the recess time for Year 1 was brought forward half an hour earlier to avoid yesterday's mad scramble. Well...good I guess.

After school, Amri reported that he ate his choc bread and soy bean, plus he bought a drink and a burger. How did he ate all that within 25 minutes recess time?

Amri goes to school

Turns out, my moody angst ridden six year old teenager is actually, well...6 year old kid going for his Year 1 at TTDI Jaya Primary School. He was excited. So excited that he managed to wake up early, on his own, despite going to bed extremely late last night due to shouting match with his cousins from Penang. Adam however, was in his usual bad mood whenever he had to wake up early. Thankfully Amri would be in afternoon session for the next three years. We really were not morning persons.

New pencilbox. Hopefully it will last more than a month

Actually today was just registration day. Pay the fees (RM129.50 here), listen to briefing by teacher which we ignored because we couldn't hear a thing and wait for Amri to sit for his diagnostic test. Punya le slow mamat sorang nih jawab test...jenuh kita menunggu.

Muhammad saying goodbye to Amri. Add a big bear hug for good luck:)

Went home as soon as Amri completed his test. Kak Zhan and co left earlier and somehow I felt bad because they had to leave early because we were off early to Amri's school. Anyway, since they (or maybe only Kak zehan) were having lotsa fun at Ikea then it was quite allright :)

Muhammad, a very demure Sarah, an extremely excited Amri and bad tempered Adam

Amri's little teeth

2 days before

Truth was, his front teeth were a bit loose for quite some time. We could see permanent teeth sticking out underneath. But Amri was adamant to keep his sacred front teeth for as long as he could for a very vain reason - he wanted to look handsome at all time. Especially now that Adam spent half a day everyday snapping Amri's pictures. (Yep....Adam is a pro with digital camera).







Amri however, found it quite amusing to play with the loose teeth with his tounge. He might have overdone it a bit that night when all of a sudden I heard hubby yelled for me to come down. One of the teeth has dropped on the floor and Amri was panic stricken because he could see a bit of blood oozing out. We gave him cold water to rinse his mouth and he was quite allright afterwards. But he kept checking his mouth on the mirror and complained that he did not have enough teeth.







One hour later, we found him asleep hugging the handheld mirror. Vain!

Little Feet

First, about Amri's visit to dentist yesterday. Yes, it turned out he has a small but deep cavity on one of his molars. Nothing that the kindly Dr Aishah couldn't fix though. She was great with kids and able to pacify a nervy Amri long enough to clean up the cavity and put a filling in there. Amri was as good as new 10 minutes later. Thanks Ninuk, Azida, Gartblue and friends for recommending her. Convenient too, since the clinic was just 2 minutes away from my house.

So since your highness was back to normal and started rummaging the fridge every few minutes, I decided it would be a good time for a day out. No Ninuk, you wouldn't want these two boys in your house or you'd feel a free bellydance session is too cheap a price to ask :) As it happened, hubby's briefing at masjid wilayah was postponed to thursday so he decided he could join us. Cool!

Instead of my all time fav midvalley megamall, we decided to go to tgv bukit raja. Less crowd and hopefully not too many people decided to watch the same movie. Yup...we were right! Those who watched Little Feet with us mostly came accompanied with young ones. Mostly girls. I think this movie would very much appeal to girls. The penguins are cute and fluffy. The songs were good, I hope it was onsale. Amri by the way, lost interest half way through and went off to play with similarly bored boys. Adam started to fire off a few millions questions to, thankfully, his father so I got to enjoy the movie in peace.

This movie is highly recommended to parents with daughters. Dont bother to bring the boys unless they were under 3 and still not yet weaned from pingu.

A birthday and an anniversary

It was Amri's 6th birthday yesterday. And our wedding anniversary. So we planned to have a birthday cum anniversary dinner somewhere last night.

Anyway, the plan went awry even before it started. Shortly after I reached home from my workplace (or lepak place) Amri was crying inconsolably saying that he had toothache. Now here, Amri was a bit of a drama queen. I've been through too many drama to actually pay much attention to it. Furthermore, Amri was diligent in caring for his teeth. He dutifully brushed his teeth twice daily, sometimes more. As far as i know, all his teeth are still intact with no sign of cavities whatsoever. The only thing is, the teeth look weirdly small compared to his growing jaw.

So i ignored the wailing. Hubby however was concerned and tried to validate the claim by checking his teeth and gum. Not that he could notice anything anyway. But the wailing continued all the way to our dinner place. It was not like Amri to cry over a pain or injury that long. Or even cried at all. So I was beginning to get concerned. Sent SMSs to a few supermoms that I knew. They suggested salty mouthwash and paracetamol for the pain. Tried it and managed to pacify Amri long enough to eat quick dinner. No candle blowing or singing. Surprisingly, Amri polished off his dinner plate and his drink. Biar betul mamat sorang ni......

Amri insisted to see a dentist after dinner so we checked out a few clinics around that area but all were already closed. It was quite late, by the way. Amri however had forgotten to start crying again so we just drove home and made the boys slept as early as possible.

This morning i sent sms again to the same supermoms. Amazingly, they all suggested this one dentist that was so near to my house. I was so grateful. Brough Amri there immediately but was disappointed over the long queue. So we made appointment for 4.30pm today. Hope all goes well.

Belly Dance Workshop

I'm organising a 3 hours belly dance workshop at Seribadan next month (16 Dec). Anyone interested, just email/call/sms me. Due to space issue, I'm limiting the class to 20 pxs. But worry not, if there are more than 20 people who want to dance with me, I'll arrange for one more class the next day.

Print the voucher above to get the discount :)

Homemakers Day Out

Of course, with kids in tow.

Intan & brood were staying at Xanna's since yesterday. So we tought, a day out at KLCC wouldn't be so bad. I had promise Amri & Adam their LRT ride for quite sometime but never get around to actually took them.

I was 30 minutes late. Been waiting for the house cleaner before I could get away. Intan & Xanna bought us Petrosains tickets while waiting for us which was very fine with me.

Adam and Amri were extremely excited with their annual LRT ride. But nothing beats the excitement of meeting their friends. They ran around wild, which made the harassed looking Xanna looked even more pained.


Xanna & Intan helping Irfan into a tilt machine








Amri & Adam with their passion - CAR (like father like sons)








Filmmaker at work











Dania and Farra. Xanna's little princesses. So between the three of us, we have 7 kids. Of which, six were intented to run away as fast and far as possible. Preferably lost in the crowd.

Went home around 4pm. Amri and Adam slept during the LRT ride home. Luckily it was easy to wake Amri up and asked him to walk. Adam however was a different story. So I ended up carrying 19kg Adam all the way to car park. Adoi la.

I arrived just in time for 6.15pm aerobics. It was bodyworks class so i gave it a miss. I've done enough cardio and weight training today to last for the next 36 hours. Berat tau 19kg tu. I only played with 5 and 8 pound weight at Seribadan.

School Holiday Survival Tool

This is one of them. I have a lot more but lets reserve it for next month :) I'm pretty sure there'll be a few more groups of little house guest in the weeks to come. It rained heavily everyday so we were a bit time constrained when it comes to taking the kids somewhere. God help me if I were caught in a flash flood somewhere with 5 kids in the car.

Little House Guests

Batrishia, Adam, Irfan, Amri and Afiqah




The superb parents - Intan & Arip from Kemaman

Sunday stories

I was looking forward to a lazy sunday. No need to make any trip to market because I wanted to sleep in late. Followed by a long breakfast plus Sunday newspaper. Then a lie in with a book. Would think about lunch only when somebody said hungry.
Hubby was already so kindly volunteered to buy breakfast.

It didn't quite turned out the way it supposed to be.

I had a good serving of yummy spicy nasi lemak. Then pop in a cute kuih cara while reading sunday star. Munched. Then noticed a funny taste. Spat out the kuih cara on my plate then probed it open. Yuck! YUCKKKK! It had a cockroach egg in it. Ewwwww....... All my breakfast promptly ended at kitchen sink. I was retching so bad that I felt the acid was flowing out as well. Yuck! I brushed my teeth like ten times, gurgle and all but still.....yuckkk! Lost my appetite for breakfast and ended up eating the kids' pringles instead. All that sodium did quite well to wash off the taste.

The kuih cara was bought at pasar tani shah alam, by the way.

Went to Bukit Jelutong afterwards. I was thinking of going to seribadan and collect my textbook (and read up on nutrition) but there was a wedding reception there and the place was jam packed. So we headed straight to Tropika 2 showhouse - one of the many houses at Bukit Jelutong. Not bad. All corner lot houses were booked, not that we could afford one anyway. A few end lots were still available at around 750k++ but to me personally, end lots felt like an intermediate house with extra land thrown in. You still could not enter the house from the side or park your car there. But still, you could have a koi pond if you were into it :) For a maid less me, intermediate unit was good enough. Enough bedrooms for everybody and possibly a library for me. Maid's room was a tad too small in my opinion but since i do not employ one, that shouldn't be an issue. That room was big enough to be my laundry room (read : the place to throw in all washed laundry until somebody has to dig into it to find a pair of sock). Kitchen...okaylah...for somebody who spent less than 30 minutes cooking each time. The porch looks big enough to park crv and merc side by side so that settles one of my concern. Plenty of windows for the boys to climb. Will we buy it? Dunno yet. Still waiting for money to fall down from trees or sky or any other unimaginable rezeki tergolek.

Best part of the day? An sms from Intan saying that her gang and her would be arriving at our house tonight. Woohooo........ Our good friends from Kemaman. Amri was excited to meet Irfan again. Adam couldn't really remember the kids but seeing that Amri was so excited he decided it must be wonderful indeed. We rushed home from sweltering tropika 2 to prepare for a grand welcome. Kemas guest room etc etc.

Because of all the rain and traffic jam, Intan & her family only arrived sometime after 10pm. So we stayed up till late at night catching up with each other. Macam dah takde hari esok.

Last one for today......Happy Birthday to Kak Lin and Happy Anniversary to Khairi&Nina

Amri has graduated

from kindergarten :)

He'll be in primary school next year. Time really flies.

Mission Accomplished

For Amri’s white t-shirt, that is. Following eiseai suggestion, I headed to giant yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, couldn’t find any that was of Amri’s size. So, to tesco instead. Found one that could fit Amri nicely but it didn’t have a price tag/barcode on it. The rest was either too small or too big or long sleeves. Not a big issue though. I took a size S t-shirt together with Amri’s and paid using the size S barcode. Mission accomplished with one big icecream each as a reward. And that heavenly choc cookie that was coated with oats :)

Amri will be having his rehearsal today and I’m supposed to collect him afterwards at Shah Alam Museum Muzium Sultan sumthing sumthing Shah). Where is it, actually? Guess I’ll just have to tour that part of Shah Alam until I found something that resembles a museum. Help....

This time of the year

Its concert time again. Amri will be having his concert cum graduation day this coming Saturday. As usual, I need to look for part of the costume. But this year I had it easy. I just need to come up with white t-shirt. Easy huh! Compared to last year when I had to hunt for black shoe. It wassn't easy buying shoes for Amri and still is. He has extra wide feet that even without colour restriction is difficult enough to find, what more when narrowed down to only black. Clothes however, was always easy. Amri has shed most of the baby fat and grown taller instead of wider like moi. Buy anything that is labeled 6-7 years and it will fit him perfectly.

But where do I find white t-shirt? Giant ada ke...or tesco?

By the way, Amri will turn 6 on 27th Nov. I just can't believe he is just 6. The way he manipulates people around him to get what I refused to give him made me feel like he is 5 going on 16! But sometimes I feel like he is just a baby. More so when he is scared about little things like loud thunder, dark room or that I would go for a drive without him.

FISAF Training - Day 4

A whole day of practical lessons.

Unfortunately, I've not been exercising since 20th Nov. Plus with my 10 days raya holiday which I spent either eating (a lot) or lounging around either at my parents place or my in law's like a belched hippo. Needless to say, whatever muscle strength I had acquired was slowly evaporating, plus a stamina that was not even half of usual.

Anyway. The coughing & runny nose rescued me. Because the trainer was concerned that I looked (and sounded) so sick, and my blood pressure drop down to a dangerous level (theoretically) I was excused from most of the show. But the trainer, a petite Germany lady, was pregnant and she was so fit. So the ego made a show. Instead of admitting that I was sick and would be unable to perform most of the stuffs, I joined in the show. If a preggy lady could do it, so could I. Plus, I've practically lived with below average blood pressure all my live.

Trouble started from the beginning. For a fitness testing module, I was deemed unfit, due to my low BP, erratic heart beat (blamed it on the cough syrup & that flu pill) and a whole lot more. Resistance training was a nightmare. My lunges, squat and whatever posture done were horrible. At one time, I couldn't stand up from a lunge position. Then came the weight. Even with the lightest dumbbell, my arms felt leaden. Duh! Don't even get me started on bodybar. And core conditioning lesson? My body didnt have a core anymore. It was just leaden arms and legs plus a painful head :)
Adoiiiiii.....I couldnt have picked a worse time to attend fitness course.

The good thing was, I made lotsa new friends. A super cool salsa dance instructor, a yogi from Ipoh, a super fit japanese lady, another super fit japanese+germany+portugease+american expat, a chinese professor, a bunch of fitness instructors from CF which I certainly could count on for emergency replacement instructor and an ex accountant from sabah who owns a travel agency and promised me a 'friend' rate should i ever wanted to tour sabah. Cool!

FISAF Training - Day 3

It is a Saturday. Obviously, the traffic was so clear and smooth. If only we could have this kind of traffic everyday, I wouldn't mind commuting to KL every day. Dream on!

I was still unwell but definitely better off than yesterday. Since today was supposed to be all theory day, I was dressed in jeans and boots. Didn't bring any gymwear. Of course, it turned out a bad decision. The instructor decided to put in some practical stretching so there I was, on the floor with my jeans and all. Luckily I was not the only one. Duh! Anyway, I was finally ablle to enjoy the class and made some small talk with the others without ending in a coughing fit. My cough still peppered the class steadily throughout the day but I didnt think the others minded it very much. Except for one yogi, the rest surely were not used to quiet classroom.

errkkk...I polished off one packet of hacks! Wonder how many hacks in there...

FISAF Training - Day 2

I was a wee bit better.

But anatomy class was giving me headache. A big one. By lunch time, my head was pounding and the fever was threatening to make a come back. I cancelled lunch date and spent lunch hour crashing at kinokuniya instead. With a mighty cup of coffee. And a nice book.

FISAF Training - Day 1

Well...I seemed to be always falling very sick during the most inappropriate time. E.g ...during my wedding (hubby's side)though everybody thought I had a nice glow throughout the day (seri pengantin konon....i was burning with hi fever), while relocating my office from kelana jaya to phileo damamansara, while taking care of adam during 8 days hospital stay, the whole fasting month when amri was almost 1 (i lost 6 kg though and looked good on hari raya), heading a joint marketing blitz with jaring & lord of the ring movie and now......an intensive 4 days fitness crash course. Help me God...

I zoned in and out of nutrition lecture, promptly vomited out my lunch afterwards (luckily nora couldn't make it to our lunch date)and tried desperately to stay alive during flexibility training. One good thing was that, flexibility training required to to mostly stay on the floor, which for me, was waaayyyy better than being on my two shivering feet.

I made it home in one piece though

She's back!

My previous aerobics instructor cum good friend cum fitness mentor cum personal trainer is back in town, albeit for a week only. The person who, within 3 months managed to singlehandedly knock off 6kgs of my weight :)

Happy is an understatement.

She joined today's class, but not as instructor. More to meet the members than to exercise actually.So, I'm going to con her into teaching bodyworks class tomorrow. Yey!!!!!!! Miss her so much

Amri is fasting

But not for the whole day. He break the fast at about 3pm. Nevertheless, we were impressed. More so because during sahur, he only managed to drink half cup of his favourite tea and a few mentos. But then, training this pint size big eater to fast is really going to ruin us financially :)But promise is promise, especially when he exceeds expectation. So he was rewarded with a toy of his choice.

Ramadhan is back

Alhamdulillah...we are blessed with another round of Ramadhan

On the other hand, I think fasting month in Malaysia is more of a food fest month. So much so that I didn't cook much come ramadhan, prefering to buy. Come to think of if, the whole family seemed to eat more during this month compared to other time. Isn't it ironic? Ramadhan should be the time when we let our body detox itself, instead of dumping multiple amount of toxic on it. And solat terawih? Other than collecting extra good deeds during this holy month, solat terawih is also a great workout. Forever missing out on yoga class? This solat is all about yoga movement and more, that is if you take the effort to do it properly. Not the popular rushed version, but a proper one, with all the surah being read with the correct breathing. Do it and you get the reward physically and spiritually.
Now, who volunteer to babysit my boys so that I could go to mosque?

And...who could teach me how to teach Amri to fast? Bribe/reward does not work. Peer pressure does not work. Long story about how Allah love kids who fast does not work either. So how?

Amri was born on 1st Ramadhan, 6 years ago. Happy Birthday to Amri!!!

Merry-Go-Round

The Hatha Yoga class at Seribadan was such a big hit that I finally decided to add one more yoga class, this time for morning slot. I hired a new instructor. Since she's coming all the way from another fitness centre at subang Jaya, i went to great length explaining the road to Bukit Jelutong, right down to the number of traffic light, junctions, etc. Only to find out that she was from TTDI Jaya afterall. To be exact, her house is behind my next door neighbour.

Great.

She'll be teaching power yoga from now on

Keropok Lekor

Hello earth...I'm back! But only for a brief visit.

Here is the latest news....the authentic keropok lekor was finally out in the market. Distributorship application is now officially open (except for Putrajaya, Segambut & Section 13 area which were already taken up). Contact me personally for details of distributor and consignment price. Order 50kg in one Purchase Order and you'll receive one week free pass at Seribadan Aerobic Centre :)





Retail purchases available too but do let me know first before you drop by at the factory so that I could reserve a few packets.

Seribadan Aerobics Centre - The Visual

Adjustable bench for Step Aerobics



Dance floor ... eh no ... aerobics studio :)


Fitballs, floor mats and yoga mats


Weights of all pounds for bodywork session








Drinks and towels















Kiddies area

Little Caliph Sport Day

I was busy MC-ing the sport day for Amri's kindy on Saturday morning, so sorry for those whose phone calls I didn't pick up. No, I was not a professional MC of any sort but I was a master of last minute arrangement. So I agreed to be the MC with less than 24 hour notice.


Starting the event




Where's everybody?


Blue Team


Amri & Osman


Amri in action


Mdm MC misusing her mike to cheer her son :)



Prize giving ceremony

Friday evening class

Today would be dance aerobics. So see you gals at Seribadan this evening, 6.15pm :) You gonna love this class. The instructor would be Azizah.

I'm kinda proud with Seribadan. For such a small time aerobic centre, it has three FISAF certified instructors on its payroll.

Seribadan again....

YOGA
We had yoga class on Tuesday. With new instructor. And three new members. Thanks Mdm Gartblue for showing up :)

I used to skip yoga class previously. When I was just one of the members. Not a chance this time :D . Plus, I have acquired enough flexibility during the past few months to actually enjoy the session now. That, and a bit of cheating help too hihihi....

I was glad and really relieved when old members love the new yoga and new instructor. They were used to Ashtanga Yoga in the past and now it is Hatha Yoga. Change is good, no?

By the way, new members could now show up 15 minutes earlier for basic course from the instructor. No, not just you Mdm Gartblue :) It was open for all newbies. Which I think would benefit me as well. I've attended like..ermmss...perhaps only four sessions in the past..hahahaha. I couldn't even pull a sun salutation by myself, let alone contorted my body into all those impossible pose.

ABT
Stand for Abs, Butt & Thigh. Come to this class if you want a strong, svelte body. People swear by this class for great bedroom tyrist. So much so that a few members told the instructor to squeeze in a little bit of ABT session on a hilo aerobics day. This happened on one morning when only my clueless assistant was there and I was at home battling with Adam. So, sorry to other members who didn't get full hilo that morning.Anyway, I swear that this class (ABT) was the ultimate reason I managed to squeeze into pre-baby jeans. Since now there is a new funky instructor for this class, I was counting on her to get me into my pre-husband jeans.

WEEKEND CLASSES
There would be two new classes on Saturday. Kickboxing & Bodyjam. The former was recommended to those who were going through a hard time with their boss. The latter would suit those supermoms going through brain jam at their workplace. Both classes are for beginners

My history with aerobics

Read an interesting post at Gartblue’s blog and felt compelled to write this piece…..

My first stint with aerobics was when I was doing my CIMA Stage 3. It was a tough time and I had my fair share of stress but nowhere to release it. So I joined UiTM aerobics class which by right was supposed to be for staffs and lecturers only. It worked like charm though at that time, I couldn’t be bothered with weight issue. I was rail thin and more often than not, my weight stayed below 45kg. Which was considered underweight for my height. After two months, I was no longer panting in the class. My concentration improved tremendously and doing number crunching all day long was a breeze. The stress disappeared. I slept like a baby at night and woke up feeling so fresh. Even dining hall food seemed good :) I continued with the classes way into my Stage 4, which was stressful enough by itself without the added problems the faculty decided to push into my way. I had an impossible schedule but managed to squeeze in the aerobics classes though it meant I had to almost fly from my class at business school to admin building where the aerobics class was. Then flew back down to dining hall to gulp my lunch before sprinting back to my room for a quick shower and getting ready for afternoon class. But I made it.

One year later, I started working and faced an entirely new version of stress. So, together with a few colleagues, formed a jazzercise club at the office. (Yes, a decade before jazzercise is known by Malaysian, we already danced to it) The management let us use one of the training room during lunch hour. The number of members kept on growing. The club and volleyball session after office hour kept me sane during those crazy years where I learnt office politics, lost love, newfound love and independence. I was still skinny though. Life was pretty good.

Then I get married. And had babies. As well as new job. The new demanding job came with a boss who loved having meeting either at pizza hut or burger king. Go figure! I now went to aerobics with the sole purpose of losing weight.

After getting bored beyond words with the aerobics classes at Pusat Akuatik Shah Alam plus having an awful time one fine day, I joined another aerobics centre which was nearer to my house – Seribadan.
And I lost weight, I lost the many, many inches, I gained many new friends, I was fit, I was strong and I had never been happier. I loved the place so much that I bought it.

It was not just about losing weight. It was a meeting point. It was where you meet your friends and neighbours. It was where your kids play while you were having fun with your friends on the dance floor. It was where you hang around while your kids attended Kumon and English classes.

Anyway, here are among the benefits of aerobics. Mind you, Seribadan offered Yoga as well and Pilates too (starting soon).

1. The most efficient and healthful way to control weight. An aerobic exercise burns fat, while building muscle. This may mean less dramatic weight loss, but since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, the result is longer lasting.

2. Following a regular aerobics program gives you a sense of commitment and control - two positive mental attitudes that help counteract stress. Aerobics also relax tense muscles, thereby relieving your body's stress response.

3. Regular aerobics increased the body’s production of endorphins.

4. Better coordination of muscles, and an increase in strength, flexibility and stamina. While improvements in these areas certainly help athletic performance, they also help reduce the risk of injury: Stronger, limber muscles are less susceptible to strain and sprain.

5. Exercising for 20 to 30 minutes three times a week can reverse years of cardio-neglect. In fact, consistent, regular exercise actually strengthens the heart, resulting in more blood and oxygen flow throughout the body. At the same time, aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

6. Achieving fitness goals leads to self confidence, improved body image, self awareness and esteem. In addition, the discipline necessary to accomplish personal fitness goals can have a positive effect on your professional career.

7. Boost the immune system, meaning better work performance, and fewer missed days of work and school. Exercise increases blood and oxygen flow throughout the body, including the brain. Those who exercise react more quickly to stimulus than their less fit counterparts, pointing to a possible link between motor and intellectual skills.

8.Enjoy life!!!

Break time...

Phew!

It has been a hectic week. With the boys, aerobic centre, missing cleaner and God know what else. Right after the last class on Friday evening, I was quite ready to collapse. But I've been missing proper lunch for three days in a row so tonight would be payback time, I guess.

Beriani kambing for dinner. Plus the sirap bandung. And mee bandung.

If only my instructor could see me. She'd scream surely :)

I missed the post morning aerobics teh tarik sessions too.....

A new day

Miraculously, I survived my first day of singlehandedly running Seribadan Aerobic Centre just fine. Except for a teeny weeny glitch...the aircond remote control was out of battery. At first, I thought there must be something about the aircond that I didn't know yet so I called the previous owner, Azizah. She arrived to my rescue 5 minutes later armed with new batteries....hehehe. I suspected that she has put herself 'on call', expecting SOS call from me anytime of the day. Aren't she sweet .... I must have done something really nice in the past to deserve all these kindness from her and her friends.

I'd better learn all the tricks of the trade quickly.

Note:
Thanks K.Azie for showing support and for introducing your friend :)

Scatterbrain on the loose

Went to Alam Sentral and found out that hubby's previous neighbour had opened a booth selling blouses. Cool. Maybe I'll drop by again when I am less pressured for time. Or wait till I lose another couple of kgs :)

Amin called asking for his free sample of keropok lekor. Sheesh! I have forgotten about that. Omg....I've given them all to Azida. Sorry Amin....really, really sorry. I'll reserve some for you when hubby's factory run another trial batch. One packet for each broken promise I've made to you & your wife this year. First, I promised to attend your wedding but I did not. Then I've invited both of you to my house for that sinfully cholesterol laden char kuew teow but I ended up serving keropoks only. But then, you both turned up 2 hours early, I didn't even buy the ingredients yet :( There was also one more wedding gift that I bought for you guys but I didn't know where is it now. It was supposed to be hidden from my boys but I hide it so long ago that i couldn't even remember where.
That made for three packets right?

Amri's sweetheart - part 3

When I came back from aerobic, Amri gave me a handful of cute jambu air (rose apple). Then he said, matter of factly, "Anis said to wash first before you eat".

Eh?

Anis?

Since when?

I thought it was Ika all the while.

Apparently, he dropped by at Anis's house on his way back from playground and Anis's parents told him to help himself at the jambu tree.

OMG.........

Seribadan Aerobic Centre

My much awaited Seribadan Aerobic Centre is now open for registration. Print out this post to redeem your one free trial session from Monday to Friday (6.00pm to 7.00pm).

All classes are taught by FISAF certified female instructors.

Location : Dewan Guthrie, No.7, Jalan U8/20, Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam

Class schedule:

Morning (9.00 am to 10.00am) - Intermediate Classes
Monday : Bodyworks
Tuesday : Latin & Salsa
Wednesday : Hilo Aerobics
Thursday : ABS (Abs, Butt, Thigh)
Friday : Step Reebok

Evening (6.00 pm tp 7.00pm) - Advance Classes
Monday : Step Reebok
Tuesday : ABS
Wednesday : Ashtanga Yoga
Thursday : Bodyworks
Friday : Hilo Aerobics/Latin & Salsa

Night (7.30pm to 8.30pm) - Beginners Class
Monday : Bodyworks
Tuesday : Pilates
Wednesday : Step Reebok
Thursday : Hilo Aerobics
Friday : ABS

Weekend (9.00 am to 10.00am)
Saturday : Latin & Salsa
Sunday : Belly Dancing

Fee Structure:
Full membership : RM150 per month (unlimited classes)
Limited membership : RM100 per month (five classes per week)
Non-member : RM15 per class
NO ANNUAL FEE

Place is limited to 20 pxs per class so email me to book your slot.

Cheers,
Na'aimah Mohd Nawawi
Seribadan Aerobic Centre

Amri's sweetheart - part 2

Amri insisted to walk alone to kindy. Since the kindy was just around the corner, we decided to let him go by himself. I was planning to stalk him on his way but boy....could he be so fast. By the time I was at the gate, he was gone. I checked with his teacher later and teacher said, yes, he was there allright. I breathed easier then.

When he come back, I casually asked him about his walk to kindy. And I was gasping for breath again.

Apparently, he made a slight detour and end up at Ika's house. Ring her doorbell, greeted Ika's father with salam and asked whether Ika could walk with him to school. Guess he didn't fail badly in manners 101. Amri told me that Ika's father let them walk together to kindy. But real story was, Ika's mom walked both of them to kindy because Ika would be staying back at kindy's daycare so she had a big bag with her. Though her house was practically behind the kindy, they still had to walk downhill for 10 steps and uphill for another 10 steps. No shortcut.

Well.....I'll be stalking Amri from now on.

Amri's sweetheart

After months listening to all kind of stories about this one particular girl, Amri finally introduced me to his girlfriend, Ika. On one fine day after Qiraati class, Amri push forward a fiery looking girl, who screamed at him with all the grace of a chainsaw, and said...." Ibu, this is Ika". The girl, cute as a button, nearly went crashing into my car from the force when Amri pushed her. Goodness! I failed miserably to teach Amri some basic manners.

The young lady however, managed to skid just in time to avoid crashing into the side of my car, pull herself together and came up with a totally cheerful "hi auntie" before storming back inside. Isn't she sweet.....

Didn't know a boy could get a crush this early though :)

Superman Return

This was not a movie review. In fact, apart from 15 minutes of the ending, the rest was lost to me.

Anyway. I'm sure it was a splendid movie. The thing was, hubby and I brought the boys to the cinema for the first time. I was a selfish mommy, I never wanted to go to cinema with kids in tow. They were better off at home watching vcd with bibik.

Not this time though. I am maidless. Amri has grown up a lot. Adam has acquired attention span of more than 10 seconds. I no longer needed to wait till weekend and risked annoying the entire Klang Valley movie goers with my childrens antics. So there we were...the four of us, at gsc midvalley on wednesday afternoon. We decided againts gold class because we were not sure how long the kids could sit still. Most probably they would be running around after half an hour or insisted to go out. It would be waste of money then. We also did not want to annoy others who paid good money for a little bit of extra comfort. Plus, it would be too cold for Amri (but not for Adam).

Well ...... it was none like I imagined.

I imagined Adam would be scared of the loud sound but he was not. In fact, it didn't bother him at all. But it did bother Amri.
I imagined Amri would be so enthralled that he'd forgotten to speak. Nope. He was talking and asking questions non stop right through the end. And he was loud. And so did Adam, who added loud cheers everytime mr superman did some stunts. Sigh.
I imagined that Adam would cry and insisted to be taken out after half an hour. He did not. But both of them kept on switching places that annoyed me beyond words. I believed it annoyed others as well. Adam did cry though, some time before the ending because Amri needed to go to the toilet so hubby took him and left Adam with me. Now, where Amri goes, Adam goes. Adam yelled for Ayah but I guessed he couldn't hear him since both of them was already halfway up. So Adam gave out his loudest wail. That got Ayah coming down to get him so fast I didn't have time to put on Adam's shoes (which he kicked out earlier because he wanted to wear his new sandal). So with both boys out to gents with their ayah, I got to watch the ending in silence, about 15 minutes. Then after everyone were gone, I gathered our shopping bags and stuffs which were spread over four seats, shoved everything inside and went to search for the boys.

Tired lah taking these two boys to movie. I should have trained them since they were 2 months old, then it wouldn't be so hard. But.....I think I could do this again. Perhaps in a couple of months. But I'd be fully prepared. Like reserving seats as far away from others as possible. Making sure Amri emptied his bladder before the movie. Buying two seperate carton of popcorns so it'd be one less thing to fight about. No shopping before the show, unless it was entirely my stuff. Huge lollipops so that the boys would have something in their mouth and that would not make talking easy (masking tape could do too). A dozen bottles of Adam's milk. And...learn to calm down.

Now I remembered....

Yesterday I remembered what was niggling at me since last Saturday. I have forgotten to attend the parents talk for soon to be launched Islamic Intergrated School sumthing sumthing at Section 7. The owner was also Little Caliph kindy founder. Now, I was really impressed with what they did at Little Caliph and specifically the way Amri benefitted from the program but ..... section 7 was quite a distance away. Too bad. Amri would sure love to join that school. Plus, I am a bit frightened with national school curriculum. It sure didn't feel like a fun thing to go to school like it used to be during my school going days. More like a burden. Or pressure. Hmmph!
Well......poor little Amri just had to grit his teeth and made the best out of it, I guess. Remind me not to pressure him to score straight As next year, okay. I don't want to fall into that race. In fact, both hubby and I kinda agreed on that.

Anyway. We ate breakfast at a restaurant nearby the mosque so that we could just drop Amri for his tae kwon do class later. Luckily, Amri ordered nasi dagang tganu from nearby stall for himself. Good for him. Need all the carbo in it to run and kick for two hours. Last week he was out to class with only a piece of toast and by the time the class ended, he was so ravenous he wanted to buy all food in sight.

Sigh! It was a quiet weekend. Hubby was off to some hi tea he organised (we are so into organising hi tea this year people...just dont ask why) so it was just the kids and I. Amri was showing sign of oncoming cold and refused to go anywhere. He just wanted to watch tv all day long. Great. Boring with a capital B.

Welcome to big three oh club

....to my dear cousin, Kak Zehan :)

It's not that bad really. It actually adds credibility to your resume...hehehe. Have a good time anyway. Hope Abg Ijam gave you a pleasant surprise :)

Happy 30th Birthday!

Note to other readers :
I am older than the birthday girl but due to family hiearchy, the title 'kakak' is deemed necessary.

Quiet Wednesday

Mak & Ajo left for Kedah very early in the morning :(

I'll miss mak terribly. The boys too. We wouldn't be able to visit her as much as we wanted to this year. What with the frozen food factory just kicked off and my aerobic centre would soon followed.

The house would be so quiet.

Hubby sent Amri to kindy and took off to office(s). I took Adam with me to aerobic class.

Maidless and relieved

Sent bibik to LCCT in the ungodly hours of 5am in the morning. Duh! Why on earth did I entertained bibik's request to fly to Bandung instead of Jakarta. And where are the maid agencies when I need them. The thing is, the agents used to be superb, until i started to refer them to my friends. Then it went downhill. Not only my friends get cheated, I ended up arranging bibik's departure by myself. I just hope I get all the procedures correct. That I didn't mistakenly blacklisted her or something. Who knows if she needs to come back to malaysia in the future.

Anyway. I'm happy. I'd be maidless from today onwards. But one less liability to deal with.

The daily cleaner will start coming this Thursday.

Ajoe was here

This brother of mine was finally ready to step into real world. Meant that, he finally ran out of extra courses to take at Kuittho so he had no choice but to haul his body, soul and stuffs out of Batu Pahat and go somewhere. Thank God he'd finally disposed the self assembled go-kart.

The boys were happy to see him. Another poor soul to bully. Starting with a drive around the block and of course, as personal driver to Amri. Sending him to kindy and everywhere else he wanted to go.

Mak would be going home with him tomorrow. Sob! The kids would harass me instead.

Little Red Kenari

Picture for the benefit of Abah who missed all the fun yesterday. We went to have lunch at Pak Andak's house this afternoon. 2 cars though because kak cik would be going back to her own house. But she refused to let mak ride with us.

Half busy Saturday

Sent amri to tae kwon do first thing in the morning and changed him into his new uniform. There. No more long face. He and Adi could kick each other happily now.

Left four of the kids there and brought Adam with me to drive Kak Cik to collect her spanking new Kenari. Woohoooo.....new car. Mak tag along as well.

Collect the car and headed home. Mak decided to ride the new car....hehehe...and made kak cik nervous like hell. Drop by at grocery shop to buy some potato and took a peep at the tae kwon do's class. Still progressing nicely. So we went home first. Kak cik wanted to pump petrol so she volunteered to collect the kids on her way. Saw some kids already on their way home from tae kwon do so we decided to pick up the kids first. The class finished a bit early, I guess.

When we reached there, Iman was already sporting a long face, presumably after a fight with the boys or maybe chasing after Adeena. The boys were having even longer face, because the icecream seller was not there.

Kak cik pumped in full tank and took us for a ride...hehehe. Amri was beyond thrilled. Finally...a red car!

I got a feeling I have forgotten something. What? What???