Movie matter

Many members were missing from class today, most of whom had went to watch da vinci code. I'd like to go too but certainly not on first day, or first week for that matter. And I don't really enjoy sitting in the arctic gold class. Brrrrr...... I'd be shivering from start till the end. Blanket???? I do not want somebody else's blanket, no matter how sterile. Plus.....watching movie bundled in a blanket did not spell fun time to me.

So I'll wait till next week and see whether I can manage to persuade hubby to go with me.

Sembang pagi

I was discussing some annual dance matters with a bunch of ladies when all of sudden this one kindly lady tap me on the shoulder and asked whether I've graduated yet. I gaped at her.

My first thought : I must have looked so young to be mistaken for fresh graduate

My second thought : Okay....maybe I looked like somebody finishing her phd or her 10th bachelor degree

My third and final thought : Could be mistaken identity case .....

Rearranged my face and told her that...no, I had graduated centuries ago but if she was looking for students, there are two of them in the club. One is Miss A, doing her master in medical something and is currently is attached at HKL. The other is the funky international student Ms S who is a superb dancer but I've forgotten what her major is. I think something to do with drama or theater. Rarely seen though...both of them.

The lady laughed and said that she heard from somebody that I was an ex accountant on looong study leave. And could the ex accountant please recommend any of her jobless friend for a vacancy at her place.

So it happened that she is looking for Internal Audit Executive. Anybody interested, email me your resume. Unfortunately, the company works alternate Saturday and the candidate is expected to travel extensively throughout Malaysia.

Err....I forgot to ask what was the company name. But, it was at Section 26 Shah Alam.

A day for teachers

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY

I helped Amri with present for his teacher as well as a card. He didn't want ready made card. Said he wanted to make it himself and draw his picture at the front and write a few millions words of nice things to his teacher.

After many discarded papers later, we compromised. We made a card using publisher, say a few nice things, inserted his picture and print in colour. He wrote his name and his teacher name by himself though I spelled out letter by letter to him.

A day for mothers

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOMMIES

Another trekking day

This time to the next door Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam aka Bukit Cerakah. Haven't been here for quite some time. The last was when hubby and I organised a reunion for x-PKL students last year. Amri and Adam seemed to enjoy the trip to FRIM last month and kept asking for more. I'm just glad they did. I'd just die if they turned out to be like Auntie Chik's students who peed in their pants during night jungle trekking. They were 12 year olds and for goodness sake, just a feet away from the pavement. Hardly a jungle. God forbid, my sons were not going to be anything like that.

Back to the trip....I planned to walk all the way in but Amri and Adam saw the bus and were so excited I didn't have the heart to say no. Adam especially. Never been on a bus, none that he could remember anyway. We board down at Taman Haiwan and paid a visit to all the animals there.
The kids had a great time feeding the deer. Hubby and I thought all the animals looked starving. They didn't have leftover food on their plate like those animals at KL Bird Park & Zoo Negara.

From animal farm, we took a leisure walk to the pool as well....our reunion spot last year. Luckily Adam & Amri didn't insist to take a dip. Things looked a bit better off than last year.

R&R


Canopy walk. The kids really frightened me by running all the way to the end. Gosh! Thank God the holes in the net securing the sides of the canopy were small enough to prevent the boys from accidently fall through them. Thing is, when they ran, I had to run as well to catch them. Then the canopy would sway like crazy. Imagine a hippo running on the planks...that would be close enough picture.

The boys were too tired to walk so we waited for the bus. Amri was exaggerating anyway.

Amri learning that rice originated from paddy, not tesco

Icecream on hot sunny day

June Tea Dance

Oookaaaay ladies....here we go. The annual hi tea organised by my fitness centre. Could be the last though because the owner is closing down the place *sob*.

Date : 17 June 2006 (Saturday - after school holiday)
Time : 1.00 pm to 5.30 pm
Venue : Holiday Villa Subang (anybody can help me get a better price here?)
Price : RM60 per pax
Dress code : Mama Rockers (die...die...i can't get into jeans yet)
Strictly ladies only

The members ruled out belly dancing because they already did that last year. So, it'll be hip hop and perhaps latin dance show by us. There'll be karaoke, games, contest, lotsa food, lucky draw and of course....dance till you drop.

Come and join the fun! I still have a lot of tickets to sell.

Parent Teacher Day @ Little Caliph

I used to dread this kind of day. Truth was...I still dreaded it a little bit. I knew Amri would never be one of those bright overachievers. Not yet anyway. I was not into pressuring him to excel academically...there will be enough time for that in the future. But I need him to be able to read decently and count money.

I went there late. In fact, i was the last parent. Well...no matter. Teachers could speak to me for as long as they wanted to.

Surprise....surprise! Amri had done fairly well. He read well, suddenly becoming good at hafazan & qiraati class, a lot less troublemaker and flunked math grandly :) Well...I guess I just had to teach him math my way. Somehow, he had acquired a longer attention span, perhaps due to maturity and peer influence. He was overpossessive of his stuff, which surprised me, because at home, he was a big mess and couldn't care less of his things. Teachers said he kept his things neatly at his locker and did not hesitate to get into fist fight if any poor soul ever touch his stuff without his permission. Really...that was new. Perhaps because at home he has bibik to pick up after him and his only rival is Adam...whom he considered to young to be punched.

I just hope that Amri would try reasoning many, many time first before he decided to punch anybody's nose. I'm getting really nervous now.....

Twist of fate

I went for morning aerobic and the instructor told me that the buyer for her fitness equipments was hospitalised for brain tumor. Emergency operation this Friday. Due to that, the instructor was postponing her plan to close down the centre until her buyer get back on her feet. Oh my....

I didn't know what to feel. It was bad that the buyer ended up with brain tumor. And a big one at that. She was just 42 and so full of life. Already had her fitness centre at Bangi fully decorated. Just waiting for the equipments. She'll either has to postpone or scrape it altogether.

Well...if she postpone than I'll have to postpone my plan as well. If she scrape her plan to open her own fitness centre, then perhaps I could buy the equipments from the instructor and do something with it.

Just wait and see.

Oh no....

Hopefully I wont get addicted into this. Found it at Elisa's blog, decided to try out and gee....can't snap out of it. Already Amri was harassing me to do him & Adam. Did the picture look like me? Perhaps so....after deducting 50% off my current weight and age :) Well...who cares. It was fun. Amri certainly agreed it really looked like me. Most probably because that was what I was wearing now...hihihi. The luxury of blogging and wearing whatever ridiculous clothes that took my fancy....aaahhhh.

That was not entirely true however. I was dressed up in gym suit because I needed to go off early to aerobic today. The ladies were having a meeting for annual dinner/hi tea or whatever they'll decide later. See....my fitness club has annual dinner :) And I was the committee member. Truth is, I'm not entirely sure of what am i supposed to do/organise. Belly dancing contest?

M.I.A

Nothing to do with chartered accountants anyway. I was referring to stuffs in our house that went missing-in-action from time to time. I have come to accept that as another facts of life when it come to living under the same roof with two undiciplined boys and not so competent maid. Many small items have went missing before...watches, cds, dvds, ring, feeding bottle, toothbrush, books, hairclips, broochs, screwdriver, lipstick, thumbdrive and a million other stuffs. More often than not, I'd be able to find them after I ransacked the places where the maid and the boys dumped stuffs in. Or they simply reappeared with no reason.

Well....not this time. The wretched pen decided to stay MIA even after I turned the house upside down. Not once, not twice...but many, many times. Every nook and cranny. Sheesh!!!! As if I didn't have anything better to do.

But then...the search itself was not difficult. It is a small house anyway. What made it a bitter pill to swallow was the fact that a peek inside my bags was deemed necessary in order to locate the stupid pen. Have I gone that absentminded not to notice that big ugly pen inside my bag which only carry a pilot pen at its most extravagant days?

Yes, admittedly...most of HIS belongings ended up as HER stuffs. Sunglasses, notebook, digicam, books, bank account, camera but honestly....a pen? Didn't it fell under the same category as belt and briefcase and shoes? Expensive and showy but hardly a unisex stuffs.

Maybe I should reconsider those web surveillance thingy. Or send the boys and bibik to 5S training.

One unlucky Sunday......

Somehow, I decided to do grocery shopping on Sunday even though I could very well go at any time on any day from Monday to Friday. When Tesco was practically empty. And, I dragged the two boys along as well, which was very normal to me but actually just adding to the extreme crowd on that Sunday.

I bought a trolley load of stuff and obviously had to let Adam out of the trolley to give space to 10kg of beras, 2 jumbo size diapers, 1/2 dozen of formula and practically something from every shelf at tesco.

So 2 boys walking by my side. As if! I had never been lucky enough to be able to walk elegantly while my two boys followed at my heel. Never. Not in a million years. I'll forever envied the mothers I saw everywhere with their kids that never seemed to step out of line. It simply will not happen to me. And I accepted that.

Back to the boys.

I walked three steps and noticed Amri was dawdling behind looking at some plastic watch that he already had one. Waited for him to catch up. Then Adam wanted me to carry him. Adjusted my bag strap and lugged 16 kg of a son on one hip and looked behind to ask Amri to hurry up.

He was not there. Not around the place either. Not at the foodcourt or playground. Sigh! I was more annoyed than worried. And cursing myself for doing my shopping on payday Sunday. I, who was lucky enough to be able to shop during weekdays. Duh!

I was not too worried about Amri. He was 5 and knew his way around tesco. Plus, I already drilled him of what to do in situation like this. That is to look for a guard and give him my namecard. Which I always put in both of their pocket.

But apparently, all of the guards were upstairs while we were downstairs on the way to car park. And Amri had changed to another pants just before we came out of the house so he did not have my card with him. Also it was getting late and Adam was sleepy and refused to walk. He was whining for milk too. Sheesh.....

Just when I thought I'd better pop up at the main tesco area upstairs and report to the security, Amri was seen walking in escorted by three young men. Hmph! He was already at car park. He did not cry though. But started wailing when I reprimanded him sharply. All the way to home. Apologizing profusely. Honestly, I've never seen Amri feeling sorrier than that and apologizing earnestly.

CIMA Members Day @ FRIM

Believe it or not..the four of us actually woke up early, that is, 6.00 am. But only managed to haul out of bed at 6.40am :) By 7.05 am...I threatened Adam to leave him behind if he did not get his butt off the bed and into bathroom pronto.

Arrived at FRIM sometime after 8am and had our breakfast there. No...CIMA did not serve breakfast. It was bibik who packed fried meehoon into three disposable containers plus disposable forks.

Activity while waiting for other accountants to show up

Gotcha bug!

The activities were Treasure Hunt, Canopy Walk, Monster Fish Feeding and a bit of jungle trekking at Keruing and Salleh trail. The kids were supposed to have clown later in the afternoon but it was replaced with carricature artist. They had fun anyway. Lunch was great... beriani with chicken, butter prawn, bergedil, papedom..the whole set.

Adam going the opposite way during jungle trekking.


Amri at Rumah Terengganu.


Ibu......hungry!!!!


We brought Adam & Amri for a quick dip by the river while waiting for the group who lost their way at Canopy Walk. It was neither in itenary nor was planned by us. It just happened that hubby spotted a stream nearby our lunch area. So Amri jumped in with his underwear and Adam was butt nekkid :D

Do we have a date?

Amri's kindy was having Maulidur Rasul celebration today so the afternoon Qiraati class is cancelled. This will relieve me from my 4pm and 5pm driver duty :) Seeing that today is my birthday, so....do we have a date, dear hubby? Post Friday prayer lunch somewhere around MidValley, may be...

The good and the bad

My aerobic instructor broke the news that she was considering to close down the centre. She even had a potential buyer for the equipments. We were like....what?? WHAT???? Are u serious?

Oh boy....that was bad news. Very,very bad news. I was very fond of the place and of course, its members. They were not fitness freak. Just a bunch of makciks and mak datins having a good time together, everyday. Sharing a good laugh every so often. And teh tarik after morning session. (How la to lose weight like this...). Most of the members have been around for years while some are newcomers like me. Even so, I love the place to bits and tried my best not to miss any class. Even my days are scheduled around its timetable. To the extend that, while hubby was property hunting at the neighbourhood, I put in my requirement as within walking distance to the fitness centre...hahaha!

On the other hand....it was good news to me. I was eyeing that place for ages. If I can get over my crush with belly dancing etc....i should be jumping with joy. Come July, the place could be mine and the possibilities are endless. Since whatever i had in mind does not involve cramming the place with furniture, then I could always turn it into an aerobic centre during free days. And call back all the members. And hire the instructor by hourly basis...since she's the one we all so love. Of course it will not be the full fledge fitness centre like it is now coz I'll have to make do without the equipments. But it will do.

I hope she is not closing down the place. But I also hope she'll close down and I get to take over the premise.

Woo..hooo!!!!

Had an early birthday gift. Hubby gave a wireless router for my broadband and also was kind enough to send a guy to configure the stuffs for me. Thank you soooooo much. The guy took 2 days to configure the network stuff and I was itching to do it myself. However, the guy works for hubby's friend and I figure it would be a good training for him. If he could do the works while fielding the harassment from two kids, then he is fit for the job. Somemore, small stuffs like splitter and what nots could mysteriously gone missing forever once Amri or Adam swept past.

I finally managed to get online, wireless, this afternoon. Couldn't wait to bring this notebook everywhere....wakaf, bedroom, kitchen....not that I have a big house anyway.

Love ya hubby! I'll do the hardware installation at your factory for u :) FOC, of course.

Yoga

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

Lets see some of the pros:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think I'll give it another shot

Amri @ kindy

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

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

Help me

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

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

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

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

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

Back to square one

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

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

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

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

I'm a nurse (among other things)

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

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

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

I was officially a nurse.

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

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

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

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