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!

Amri's Concert Day - Part II

So we went to the concert, Adam included. Now I realised what I should do. I should have invested in a kindy and have concert every month. Those cute little angels were amazing. Even Amri looked kinda cute. I took my hat (or tudung) off to the teachers. It sure was a hard work to train those hyper kids. Amazing how Amri's teacher managed to get him to follow the instruction.

Amri's concert day

Goodness.....Amri was supposed to be at his kindy by 7.15am for his concert. Adooiii....we really are a family of non morning person. Our day started at 9.00am the earliest. Why did the teachers need the kids to be there at this ungodly hour. Kelana Jaya was only 15 minutes away. Even bibik has not cooked any breakfast yet. Not that Amri could stomach anything that early anyway.

Well.....we did manage to send him by 7.10am and the gate was not even opened yet. But a handful of kids and two teachers were already there so we left Amri under their care and proceeded to eat breakfast at mamak's place.

This is Amri inside the car, dressed in his concert costume but only half awake.

Hi Haziq

We managed to reach Kuantan safely amids the very heavy rain all the way. Reached Pantai Balok allright but got a bit lost looking for Adik's house. It all looked the same in the heavy rain. Turned out, Ummi, Gie and his family were there as well. Ummi must have either missed her latest cucu terribly or simply doing her spotcheck on Adik. Amri was happy to see his cousin Ikhwan whom he seemed to occasionally called Irfan. Irfan was Intan's son whom we planned to see in Kemaman but unfortunately has to be cancelled. Amri was forever getting these two fellas mixed up.

Well...finally managed to meet my latest handsome nephew, Haziq Mikhail.
Adam was ecstatic, which prompted others to hint at me. Sorry guys....I definitely had no plan to bake any cute little muffin this year. Or next year. Hint to me again the year after, coz I may have second thought.

Thought that the two boys would love a dip at Pantai Balok, which is practically just behind Adik's place. Unfortunately, it was a time of low tide so the beach looked very ugly and very far away. Luckily none of the boys were too gung ho about going swimming this time.

Out of town

After weeks of mundane work and school, day in day out, finally the boys and I managed to squeeze in a break. This afternoon, we'll be going to visit my newborn nephew at Kuantan. Well.....truth is the nephew is already two months old. Somehow, we did not manage to visit him during the first two months of his life. *sigh* guilty as charged, your honour...

However, this will be a short trip because Amri will be having his annual school concert on Sunday morning. So, we have to be back before that. And speaking of concert.....teacher Rosma said this morning that Amri's costume is not yet ready. Gee.....then when an I supposed to collect the costume?

Sorry to Intan of Kemaman because the boys and i will not be able to drop by at your place. We are already cutting it fine as it is. And hubby reasoned that he and your hubby (Arip) already met a few days ago so they already did their catching up. Duh! Lotsa hugs to Irfan and the girls okay and hope you all enjoyed Irfan's school concert. I promise to drop by during raya trip, Insyaallah and bring as many books as possible to make up for this.

Now...what do you buy as present for a two months old baby? The one I have look more suited to a two days old infant. And to the new mom.....breastpump? Parenting mags?
Hahahaha...spoken like I really have a few hours to shop.

Full house till Sunday

I have a full house again. Cheers!!!! Its been quite sometime since I had guests. Except Kak Cik, Ajoe and Nan of course, but they did not count as house guests. They are....hmmmm...sort of permanent resident. Except that, they did not take up full time residence. Whatever lah...point is, they come and go as they like.

Well.....back to the full house. We have Che' Non, Hisham and Nazri (plus a friend) all the way from Terengganu. Che' Non is Ummi's sister. She lost her only daughter due to a road accident sometime in 2002 and her husband two months later, due to post kidney surgery complication. She was devastated but the whole family rallied up to her, giving strong support. Che' Non is pretty strong herself, putting up brave front for the sake of her other kids, learning to be a breadwinner after being a housewife all her married life. For that, I respected her.

It's good to have Che' Non back to our house again. This time for a merry cause. It's Nazri's convocation day this coming Saturday. Che' Non must have been very proud and a wee bit nostalgic. Afterall, the time we sent Nazri off to UiTM, the late Ayah Ngah was still around, teasing me to no end about my temperamental red Satria. This time, only Che' Non is around to see Nazri receiving his much deserved scroll, though duly escorted by Hisham.

Che' Non has been through a lot. She deserves to be happy now.

Lata Bayu

Just imagine the ice cold water, the lovely big green trees, the sound of waterfall and birds chirping away merrily.....

Warming up. The boys, who were more familiar with swimming pool, were rather overwhelmed by the big river.


Let us go together...




The floaty was abandoned

Ibu....fish!!!!!!!!

Having fun!

Bukit Merah Laketown

I went through the photos in my camera and noticed that I did not have much. Hmmph! It sort of difficult to remember without the photos with my limited memory capacity. And not that easy to retell the holiday as bedtime stories to Amri (and Adam if he can sit still). Amri did not fancy the usual bedtime stories or books. He insist on real life story, with him as the hero. So naturally, photos serve as story book with the story teller reliving the story of trips, cousins, grandparents, aunties and uncles. And sometimes the kindy story, which are fully made up since hubby and I are not quite sure the going ons there.

Wellll....have to make do with what I managed to capture

On the boat ride to visit Orang Utan Island. Managed to wrestle Adam into the life jacket for a few minutes then off it went. Amri meanwhile was fascinated with the safety wistle.

The oldest urang utan at the island. Amri was convinced that this particular orang utan was actually one of his friend

Fish feeding at orang utan island



Back from orang utan island and landed at Ecopark. Lotsa animals to see but Adam was dead tired. So we skip the walk and went to skycycle instead.

Adam feasting on ice cream beside the duck pond

The boys crashed out. Amri loved the sofabed and wanted one in his bedroom.

No pictures at all for our time at waterpark. The cameraman, i.e yours truly were too busy enjoying and splashing herself silly to bother with camera. If fact, I did not even bring the camera to the waterpark. Which i kind of regret a bit now. No photos of our paddleboat trip too...that one was fun!

The waterpark was the first that we hit shortly after we checked in and remained there for the rest of the afternoon. The kids loved the place. I enjoyed it too though the scatterbrain me forgot to bring towels. Don't ask how we managed :)

A mind well rested

I'm back!!!

It was a good trip. We were back at Kedah visiting my parents and grandmother. Felt like being away for years. Mak was recovering well and has resumed most of her usual activities. She is still under 'pantang' though and has to stay away from seafood, chicken and lamb. But it did not stop her from cooking Abah's fav - sambal tumis udang plus petai, almost everyday.

Tok however was a different story. She was getting from bad to worse and lately, became bedridden. It was sad to see the once very active person being confined to her bed and needed help to even get to the bathroom. Knowing her, being immobile was the most difficult thing in the world. She is the kind of person who prepared her coffee from scratch, i.e from picking the coffee beans from their trees to the steaming hot cuppa.
I wished we could do something, like looking for another doctor, specialist or even traditional medicine. But then, like Abah said, every way I could think of, and more, were already tried or at least been considered by Abah and PakCik Tajol. Her age, being 80++ was no help, the risk were high.

We managed to squeeze in a short stay at Bukit Merah Laketown and the kids were really thrilled. Days of chasing after two excited boys really did me good, physically and mentally.

Thanks a million to dear hubby for the trip :)