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???

Alhamdulillah....

The aerobic centre at BJ will be mine soon. As soon as I could forked out enough money to pay the owner :)
I am just so relieved. After all those hiccups in the beginning. No pain no gain, huh.

Alhamdulillah.

p/s : Now I knew why I couldn't make out what the trainee instructor was saying last wednesday. She was giving cue in Malay. This morning she took over cooling down session where music was softer and we could hear her well. Sound weird though.

I need help

Especially from you girls that attended UiTM Shah Alam from around 90s. Either as students, staff or lecturers. More so if you joined aerobic class at HEP. I need to find my fabulous instructor during that time, her name is Rozie. She taught our lunch time aerobic session. By right, the class was meant for staffs and lecturers only but I attended it anyway. I need to channel the pent up stress of doing CIMA Stage 4 alone somewhere. She was a mom of 5 at that time and looked like she never had any. She was also a dancer with Kementerian Kebudayaan. I leant the rope of aerobic from her, the terminology and hand gestures and a little bit of choreographing. She was good. Years after I left UiTM, I joined many places for my shot of aerobic (great stress diffuser) but none come close to hers. Until I joined the current fitness centre. She's second best next to my current instructor. But still, if she is still practising, I have a business proposition to her.

So help me please.

Body Jam

I went to morning aerobic...expecting something light and easy. Some latin/salsa maybe. Wednesday morning usually was dedicated for some low impact body jam session.

However, my instructor was also a FISAF certified instructor. Meant that she could train new instructor. This morning she had two young ladies doing some practical or something of the sort. They had completed some of the requirement at some other fitness centre. So today they were going to get instructor signature for hilo aerobic or something (me think )

Trainee 1 handled the warming up. Quite okay. We could hear her but nobody knew what she said. So people just followed her step haphazardly. It was just a warming up anyway. Then our instructor took over the class and....started a very hi impact and fast aerobic for the benefit of her two students. Omg.......my stomach was so full of breakfast. Luckily it stayed put. I was practically panting during the last ten minutes and sweated by the bucketful. My pants and shirt were soaked through and through. My hair was flying everywhere because, expecting a dance class, I just wore an elastic hairband. My face had turned maroon halfway through and stayed maroon until way after cooling down. Oh my God.... that was a fantastic workout. Hope to have that again :)
Trainee 2 took over the cooling down. Nobody could hear her. Even if people could actually hear her, none would pay attention. Everybody just wanted to lie flat.

My morning buddies and I decided againts our frequent post exercise roti canai and teh tarik for this morning. Too tired to eat. Good eh? At least, the workout didn't go to waste.

Maid matter

Went to immigration to settle the things for bibik. She'll be flying home to Indon next week, for good. Well...good for her. I didn't think she was fit to work any longer. Even if she wanted to work, I was not willing to renew her service anymore.

Anyway, I managed to convince hubby that I did not need a live in maid anymore (am I mad?). I did not work full time and even if I do work sometime, it is at my own office. Surely I am allowed to bring my kids to my own premise. Amri prefered to stay at daycare though. Adam could stay there as well if I had to attend meetings or err...day out with my friends. I've contacted two agencies to provide me with quotation for house cleaners, so that would take care of household chores.

What else? Cooking. No problem actually. I knew how to work without messing up the whole kitchen. And I have a good microwave. That's a lifesaver.

Well....I'm looking forward to a maidless home. I intended to enjoy it while it last. I might need one though if I were to try for no.3 kid, which is not in the immediate future.

Wish me luck.

Hectic Saturday

I had an unusually busy Saturday. While I was buying breakfast, Azida called to inform me that the kids tae kwon do class was actually at 9.30 am and not 10.30 as was told to me before. I scraped the intention of buying food stuffs afterwards and went straight home to wake Amri up.

Why on earth did I let him stay up till midnight last night. Liat betul nak bangun pagi. Had to shower him myself. Then Adam's turn. Adam was not a morning person so I was quite used to handle his cranky morning self. But Amri usually woke up chirpy and ready to hit the ground running. Not this morning though. Couldn't even dress himself up. Anyway.....I still managed to shove some hearty breakfast into their complaining mouth (all the while Ibu looked longingly at chili padi) and made Adam his milk. Isk...geram betul!

At 9.20 am, drove over to Azida's house to pick up her 3 kids. (Note to hubby : I need the CRV back....I have 5 kids, okay). Arrived at ttdi jaya mosque, the place for tae kwon do class, on the dot. Registered Amri and paid all the fees. Adi (Azida's son) already registered last week so the master gave me his uniform. Dressed him up. Looked so cute...hehehehe. Amri ceased his running around to check out Adi's new uniform and promptly went into sulk mode. He wanted uniform too. Told him that he'll get his next week. Then Amri asked me home come i bought uniform for Adi but did not buy one for him. Gee....... Ibu dah fenin! Amri looked like he was going to cry anytime soon and refused to join the rest of the class in warming up. After a few cajoling and sugary promises, off he went reluctantly to join his friends.

Hubby drop by on his way to buy newspaper to see how we were doing and have a few words with the master. Sometime later he just turned and walked back to his car and Adam was running after him. Heading towards the main road. Luckily, Iman (Azida's daughter) saw him. I was busy filling in the forms and oblivious to this. So, another son to be calmed down and given a few sugary promises.

The class ended at 11.30 am. I thought it was supposed to end at 10.30am. I was planning to bring the five kids to BJ Carnival Read Aloud. Tak de rezeki... Luckily I didn't volunteer with Ninuk to read. Hehehe.

Sent the kids back immediately after class. Well...after one ice lolly each. Hubby was off to UiTM by the time we reached home. Then I went out to buy some chicken, vegis and fish for lunch. Lunch would be very late today. Luckily, still had some left over nasi dagang from breakfast. The boys could eat that. Hubby was home just after I finished feeding the boys and forced them to take a nap. Good. We get to eat lunch in peace.....though very late one.

Just after we finished lunch, mak called saying that she already arrived. That was quick! We rushed off to fetch her, taking only Amri with us. Adam was still sleeping.

Was so relieved once we reached home and I managed to get my loooong shower. And happy too that mak was here. I was pretty bored with my own cooking and missed mak's so much.

p/s - thanks kak azi for the laksa....

Celebrating Life

Today was my 3rd month anniversary with the fitness centre. Cool! Measurement day ...hehehe...

Let's see ....I lost only 5 kg of weight in three months. Could have been more if I could stop going for teh tarik after class. Mdm instructor said not to worry because it was body fat turning into muscle and muscle is heavier than fat. Okayyyyy......

Then body measurement. I lost 2 inches from chest, 3 inches from waist, 4 inches from hip, 1.5 inches from thighs and about 1 inch from arms. Not bad eh..... Another 3 months and I would have to change my whole wardrobe.

Stern reminder from instructor : get serious doing the chest press because it would prevent the breast from sagging due to of rapid weight loss.
Yes, madam!!!!

That's all about the losses (in a good way, of course)

Let's see what I gained, among other things:
1. Good mood (the hormon released put me on high the whole day)
2. Plenty of stamina
3. Amazing flexibility
4. Huge appetite (err...not so good)
5. Great friends

Number 5 also translated into what corporate people out there termed 'networking'. Like when people get together for a round of golf only this is cheaper and more intense. Plus you could drop all pretense and just be your silly girly self :)

Adam & Ultraman Nexus

It was quite some time ago, during school holidays. We went to nearby mall to get a few ultraman (dan yg sewaktu dengannya) vcds for Bibik's grandkids and saw the promotion for latest breed of Ultraman. With the receipts from bibik's vcds, the kids were allowed to take pictures with the Ultraman and whatever monster that was there. So they queued with some other kids. But...when their turn came, Amri suddenly had cold feet and to everybody's shock, jumped down from the stage. Adam looked scared too but didn't mind it when the Ultraman picked him up. He maintained his distance from the monster though :)

Later on, I asked Amri why he ran away. He said...the monster was bigger than the ultraman and in any case, he doubted the ultraman could protect him from the monster. Oh dear......I hope this phase would pass soon. I'm pretty sick with all those super heroes. And barney too.

Kenari on the way

Kak Cik wanted to buy a brand new Kenari. Specifically, a hot red kenari aero - auto of course. Personally, I think Perodua cars (except Kembara) are pretty damn good but however, Kenari sure looks weird to me. But Kak Cik was so in love with it and it was her money afterall so who am I to say otherwise. At the end of the day, she was the one to drive it, park in front of her house and admire it from her window or maybe park it right outside her classroom so that she could threaten her students to ohh-ahhing the cute little red driving machine.

Somehow Kak Cik managed to wrangle out a quick approval from Bank Rakyat, she being a not yet confirmed government staff with meagre salary. How huh? So off we went to Perodua showroom to sign her papers. She did things opposite way, this sister of mine. She got her loan approved first then go booked a car. Whatever! There's plenty of red kenari available.

Then we went to Bank Rakyat for her to sign her loan papers. First we had to wait for the officer. Followed by waiting for the officer to search the whole building for papers. Honestly, it seemed a tad strange to me. Credit department has its own floor so why go bother those downstairs with their busy (?) operation of catering to more people than chairs while opening only two counters. Can't they just keep the papers within the related department. It's not like my sister needs to open new account or deposit anything. Well...I've never worked in a bank so I wouldn't know the way things get done there. But I've taken enough car hire purchase with various banks to remember that the longest it took was 1.5 hours. And that was because I came during the officer's lunch break.

We spent three hours there. Sheesh! Luckily there was a bookshop and a restaurant downstairs. The beriani was not bad :)

On the other hand, Amri was thrilled that finally someone in the family was going to get a RED car. He always likes red car but I've already had one red satria six years ago so don't feel like going for another red.

Went to Section 13 pasar malam for the first time in search of small sate but only get a weird one with chunks of lengkuas all over the sates and funny looking peanut sauce. Now I sorely missed the ttdi jaya sate seller. Where is he?
Bought a murtabak. And cendol. Whoa....I went on an eating binge the day my aerobic instructor was off.

Yeeehaaaa!

Yey!!!!!!!!

Mak just called and said she's coming over this Saturday! Woohooo......lalalala. I'm so happy. The kids would be off my back and hehehehe ..... good food. I so missed mak's home cooked meals. Sure, I could cook pretty decent meals nowadays but lets be frank here...the only person who actually had anything nice to say about my dishes is Amri. Only Amri. And that is probably because right now he was going through ravenous phase where anything I come up with is good enough for him, as long as it is a curry with plenty of potato.

Now, on the other hand, was that normal for a 5 year old boy? To eat that much carbo. I get worried at times when I noticed that I've cooked enough to feed eight adults for one meal. But actually it was eaten (and finished) by 4 adults and 2 kids with one particular kid consuming the major portion of it. If I didn't cook a lot then Amri would supplement his lunch/dinner with bread, cereals, ice cream, biscuits, pudding, fruits or anything he could get his hand on. It was kinda scary to see a pint size body consuming that much food. What if he grow up to be obese. What if he'd develop bad eating habit for the rest of his life. But right now, he is fit and physically active boy. A bit skinny though. I took comfort from knowing that everything about Amri is seasonal. So maybe he is stuffing his face silly now but will be totally off food in the forthcoming months. Then people would start hear me wailing on a different issue.

If anybody come across me at Tesco/Giant with trolley brimming with foodstuff, believe me, it is for two weeks supply.

Happy Fathers Day

To all fathers. And fathers to be.

I'm still recovering from yesterday's event and didn't feel like throwing another party. I'll just take it easy and let the kids harrass their father. It is afterall, fathers day. Father child bonding day:)

To those who asked me about the pics for the hi tea...I'm so very sorry. It was a very private function....strictly ladies only. So...the pics were...ermm...to say sexy was kind of understatement. They were for private circulation only. Just the members.
Anyway....will it be enough if I say....it was size 8 jeans. Low cut. *smug*

The annual hi tea of my fitness centre

Really...it was the best i ever had. The best that I ever organised too. And I had quite a fair share of it.

I went early to help out and dragged my reluctant neighbour cum x-senior, Azida, along. I was alarmed at the hours she kept at her workplace and also her two hours max sleep time per night. A sure fire way to get early burn out or, God forbid, heart failure. So this tea dance was a perfect place to unwind. If she didn't fall asleep, that is.

So...off we escaped to holiday villa subang, dressed to the nines in denim and boot (yes...I could finally fit into size 8 low cut jeans), determined to have a good time. Spotted two other committee members cars along the way so I just followed behind them. Good thing I brought Azida with me, she was so helpful with our loads of gifts and she manned the registration counter too. Thanks a million Kak Azie. I'll help you with the wretched costing after this, I promise!

The turnout was good, the food was so so but nobody complained because, it was afterall, a fitness centre event. The members couldn't be bothered with food. Everybody was too busy head banging and swinging their hips on the dance floor. Wonder where these people got their energy. Mind you, we were not talking about 20 something girls. They were 40s and 50s. Except Azida and I. And oh...their daughters.

All the games and contest we planned, the dance we choreographed, the music we compiled and everything else went without any glitch. I was actually a bit sad when the party winded down and people started to leave. I loved the planning part of it. We sat down later to have a drink and cake courtesy of holiday villa and congratulated each other for the biggest and best party the fitness centre ever had.

Hopefully we could have another one, next year. Pray for me people, that I'd get to take over the place.

Went home to an empty house. The boys had gone to a birthday party with their father. Excellent! I was dog tired from half a day of hip swinging.