School blues

So far so good. Everything went smoothly in my household. Note that, our definition of 'smooth' may be a little bit different from others.

Amri woke up at 6.30am, showered and dressed up pretty quick. He was fuss free like that. However, for some unfathomable reason, he wanted me to feed him breakfast. Spoonfed him to be exact. Well, if I had 5 children, this might be the time when I turned into a banshee. But I only had two. One was still in bed. I could certainly afford the time to spoonfeed one eight year old boy. So I quickly showered, changed into office attire and went downstairs to meet the royal highness who has wasted a good 20 minutes waiting for me at dining table. I managed to get 2 spoonful of fried meehoon into him when his van arrived. 10 minutes earlier. The van driver accidently drove a few doors away and took some time to reverse back the bus to our front gate. During that time, Amri managed to eat a few more spoonful of meehoon, drink his ribena and wear his shoes. Then off he went. That was 7.20 this morning.

I had a ten minutes break before I went to attend to son no.2 who really took his time from opening his eyes, to putting his foot on the floor to getting undress. Then he refused breakfast. Then he wanted that ultraman socks that bibik had to dig back from washing machine. Luckily belum basuh. After a little bit of chasing around, bibik managed to put that little laughing tyke in the car and I drove of to his kindy. Only to be told that today was orientation day for 3 and 4 yrs old only. What? Checked his communication book and there it was. A letter from kindy stating the specific date for every age group. Adam's would be on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Signed by my other half. Grrrr!!! So I turned back and sent a very puzzled Adam home.

Well. For a smoother ride, I think I'll just need to readjust a few things. First, see to Amri's breakfast before my own shower time. He refused to be accompanied by bibik. So, for as long as needed to, I'll feed him breakfast. This kind of phase usually will only last a few weeks. As for Adam, no matter who already signed whatever letter, I'll need to read it and commit to memory. Or bberry. My memory can't probably cope with all these things.

Easy peasy

I had it easy this school year. Unbelievably. Minus a little bit of drama in the morning.

Amri woke up easily and was sent to his new school by his father. Pretty much undaunted by new school, new teachers or new classmates. Hubby left him after his break. Amri's only concern was that I should top up his cash card with as much money as possible since he would be eating lunch at school. And he wanted to eat at secondary school's cafe because it sold icecream. By the time i took a sneak peek at his classroom around 3.00pm, he was very much comot (from eating too much ice cream, of course) and exhausted. Poor boy, after 6 weeks of running around, he had to sit still for 7 hours straight. By 3.30pm, class was dismissed and I was introduced to his new best friends. 10 minutes later we were in the thick of huge chaos at school cafe, where everyone going back by school bus gathered. By 4.00pm, I left Amri with his new school van driver and went home. He was too tired to run around so I was sure he would be allright.

Adam meanwhile, woke up at 5 in the morning, grab a towel and went to my room asking for hot shower. Told him that it was too early and sent him back to his room. When I check on him 10 minutes later, he was still sitting on his bed wrapped in towel, pouting and very close to tears. Gosh.... my pujuk pujuk skill was practically non existent at 5 in the morning, okay. Tried to get him into his clothes back, totally failed, then simply tucked him into bed with towel and all. I let him slept until 7.30 and had quite a hard time waking him up. Adoila....fenin mokcik, tau. But things got better after his shower. He settled down in his class happily, sitting beside, who else, his best friend Syafiq. I was quite prepared to request for a change of class if Syafiq turned out in different classroom. But he was okay and I could hear him from corridor, admiring someone's Ben10 water bottle.

Phew!

Brave kids...

Not mine per se . I was just remembering Amri's school orientation the other day. Amri took it easy, probably because he was already in Year 3 and though new, it was just another school. The moment his class was called, he bounded off to join his class teacher and new friends. After an hour, the kids already memorised the layout and in the case of Amri, the exact location of school cafe.

What impressed me most were the Year 1 students. They looked tiny but very brave. None of them looked teary eyed or clingy. And this being a little bit out of the way school, the students must have come from various places. With little chance of meeting you kindy mates. But when their classes were called, none of them hesitated to join their respective class teachers. No one cried or at the very least, looked scared. I couldn't remember being that confident when i was 7 years old. Amri was very easy too last time but he was familiar with most of the kids. They either came from the same kindy or his playground mates.

Anyway, parents being parents....we were all anxious. As soon as the little ones left to join the class teacher, their respective parents started to tag along. Until the teacher gave this announcement on the microphone:

"Children, please leave you parents behind at the hall. We will be back in an hour"

The whole hall erupted in laughter.

We parents must have annoyed the teachers beyond words.

Saturday rambling

Phew! Saturday is God's gift to humankind. Nevertheless, I still had to reluctantly drag myself out of bed on this rainy morning.

First stop was q-dees. Paid the fees while chatting with some of the teachers. We were discussing on which class to put Adam. Not that it was of utmost importance but most of them knew how very extremely reserved Adam is. So we all agreed on en-graham bell, simply because Adam was familiar with the teacher. Whereas the other two classes would be taught by new teachers. Adam's new teacher was known as pretty strict but the rest assured me that Adam was so adorable that no one would feel the need to be strict with him.

Excuse me, but adorable? My not so little Adam who is capable of inflicting bodily injury to boys much larger than himself is adorable? But then, miracles do happen at school so I leave it to the teachers. If they say adorable, so be it :)

The so called adorable adam meanwhile clamped his mouth shut, pursed his lips and drifted around the building visiting one classroom after another, talking to no one and only answered a greeting from teacher azira. Well, knowing him, that was very good indeed. As long as there was no tantrum. However, I took monday off, just in case.

Next stop - section 6 wet market. One of my favourite place. I stayed away from this place during maidless months because, well, it was fun to buy fish etc but cleaning them up afterwards was not something I look forward to on a weekly basis.

I was glad that my life was finally going to be boringly normal again. At least for a few months.

Oh yeah...I am also coming up with additional new year resolution - I am going to learn how to cook. Seriously. Everything fancier than ayam masak kicap and sup sayur. Reason being, my new kitchen cost a bomb and it will take a full year of not eating out to get a reasonable ROI out of it. Of course, this resolution will inadvartently cause me to lose weight. A lot of weight. Afterall, how good a novice cook wannabe could be? I am so looking forward to this. Where do i start actually...buy a cookbook, chef wan dvd or sign up to cooking class?

Yesterday...

....were spent frolicking at Lumut beach and hotel pool from sun up to sun down. And eating a lot.













You'd have thought that after eight years playing mummy I would have morphed into a somewhat responsible mother over the years and spent an off work day to prepare school related stuffs for her school going child.

Obviously not.

After the boys turned a shade darker then only I remembered that I need to buy a pair of school shoe for Amri's orientation day tomorrow

I drove around Lumut town but unable to locate any shoe shop. But then, I was not familiar with this town. Hubby drove us later to a nearby giant where for some reason, I only bought 1 pair.

We ate a seafood dinner again and arrived at the front door by 11 something. Luckily the boys went straight to bed. Unfortunately, I was not able to sleep until i totally shower off the pool chlorin, the sweat and the seawater from every inch of my skin. It was way past midnight when I hit the pillow.

This morning, to my surprise, Amri was already up by 6.30am. By 7.30am he was ready to go to school and ask me to eat faster. I wolfed down breakfast sleepily while listening to Amri using the exact copy of my usual lines "Could you eat faster please, hurry up please, finish your breakfast now....."

Grrr.....

Well, enjoy your school year, dear.

Happy New Year

I've decided on my 2009 resolutions (or plan)


1. Am going to work in office for only one week in December 2009. Dec 2008 was a complete chaos. Managing new ERP, new house, new school and new maid at the same time was indeed very stressful. Everything ended up badly done. So this coming Dec, I'll dedicate 2 weeks for holidays/fun/balik kampung and 1 week for school stuff. Like buying uniforms, books etc. It was rather dreadful when I was in the middle of a long queue to buy Amri's school books and had to answer 11 calls from 4 countries. Embarrassing even but i still was not about to let go my position in the queue. I knew hubby was not too keen on this back to school part and would rather stay out of it. I on the other hand, enjoyed every second of it. But dashing from school-home-office a few times a week was, at the very least, bad for my health. Thus, i'm going to spend one week in 2009 just looking at uniforms and books. There. Everyone should be happy now.


2. Not buying furniture, lightings, cabinets or anything to do with house fitting from June 2009 onwards. Honestly, I've seen and bought enough to last a lifetime.


3. I want to spend more ME time. Be a little bit selfish. Pamper myself silly.


That's about it. Happy new year everyone!

When the going gets tough...

....yours truly ran away! Heheh.

Seriously, I was at my wits end. Nothing went right from the moment I step into the office. Internet connection decided to choose today to act up, something was terribly wrong with some of the servers (probably all of them), all the people i need to talk to were on vacation and...ermm...boss was no where in sight too.

So, after taking the remaining staffs to company year end lunch on behalf of the missing boss, i declared a half day off. It was new year eve anyway. Made a few phone calls, talked hubby into it and went home to pack. We were going to Lumut for an overnight stay so that I, the stressed out FC, could wind down and think straight again. The boys, blessed my new maid, were already dressed and packed.

Actually, it was hubby who was supposed to be at his Lumut office tomorrow for God only knows what. I rarely tag along. Honestly, who would have wanted to leave one office only to show up at another ? But this time, I was determined to stay at hotel with the boys and try to recuperate. And hope that all the servers were up and running by Friday.

Well...after a delicious seafood dinner somewhere at Lumut area...I felt almost human again :)

Home alone

I so love Subang airport. I landed at 7.20pm from KT and was home by 7.50pm. I'll use this route more often from now on, rather than driving all the way to KLIA/LCCT.

Aidil Adha this year was rather quiet and wet. Thankfully, the heavy rain was over. We had drizzle all day long though.

I wonder if my kids realised that their mom was not there at Losong.

Amri is 8!

Though he is still a bit confused - why just 8 years old when Year 2 is already over? He insists that he is 9.


He had a small party earlier at daycare, with Ben10 cake. Poor boy, he wanted a birthday party at home but I did not feel up to it. So we just had a birthday dinner









Birthday boy and his birthday icecream








Helping Cu Nan finishing dinner








An innocent post with Aunty Cik








Tuck in!

More school holiday programmes

Since people are asking, here are a couple more....

Swimshark School Holiday Swimming Lesson
Venue : Pusat Akuatik Shah Alam
Time : 9am and 5pm (err..not too sure), every Monday to Friday
Contant person : Shahir/Marilyn
Contact no : 012-3912513

Smart Reader TTDI Jaya
1. Craft Workshop (4-10 yrs old) RM25
2. Kids Cooking Workshop (4-10 yrs old) RM30
3. Intro to ABC (3-6 yrs old) RM30
4. Drama Workshop (5-12 yrs old) RM35
Contact no: 016-6842834



I think I have a lot more scattered around in my already chaotic house. But by the time I managed to wade through the mess and actually come across anything, the holiday would be long over.

School Holiday Programme

More than ten years ago, when I was still single and working at a Japanese factory, I was always baffled when, come school holiday season, my colleagues would start planning their vacation with military like precision. The three moms and one dad in my department were always gloating about the fact that their departments had two singles who could take over the workload. Our manager was single too but too scary to be counted in. In between the vacations, they'd be busy planning for the children school holiday program, from swimming to ballet to summer camp. Or, if none available, the kids would be carted off for a fortnight stay in kampung with their grandparents, with maid in tow. Of course, packed with loads of activity books that the kids were supposed to complete during their holiday.

I always marveled at the buzz during that period but secretly told my ignorant self to just take it easy when it was my turn. My kids could spend all day playing outdoor or watch tv all day if that is want they want.

Now I know.

I definitely do not want my boys to watch tv all day. It is too dangerous to let them play by themselves outdoor. Playing indoor is dangerous to my bank balance, the boys seem to break everything except the wall.

So, I found myself doing exactly whatever my seniors then did. Scouting for holiday programme, arranging vacations, balik kampung trips, intensive mengaji class etc. With military precision. My seniors at the jap factory are now enjoying kids free days (and empty nest syndrome for some). I'd better enjoy this while I still could.

Here are a couple of good holiday program near my place:

Sri Kayangan Language School Holiday Programme
Address: Jalan Opera U2/L, TTDI Jaya, Shah Alam (above Big Food Restaurant)
Period : 24 Nov 2008 to 19 Dec 2008
Time : 9am to 3pm
Activities
Weekly - Tae Kwon Do, Swimming, Yogakids, Computer, Cooking Class, Art&Craft
Daily - Quran/Moral Study, English Conversation, Speech & Drama and a lot more
Fee : 8 yrs and below RM480, 9 yrs and above RM650 . 10% sibling discount. Fees inclusive of food, material & weekly field trip
Contact : Aisha Zanariah Abdullah 016-2831002
Transport can be arranged.
My boys attended this programme last year and for some reason, preferred to converse in English for the whole school holiday. They still kept the art& craft project till now.

Akademi Qurra - Pusat Bimbingan Al Quran & Fardu Ain
Address : TTDI Jaya shoplot, above Pasar Mini Lina (cant remember the street name)
Activities : Daily Quran/Qiraati, Fardu Ain, Intensive Solat, Bahasa Arab
Fees : Rm70
Contact: Ustazah Roslina 019-3401053 (one of the most wonderful teacher that I know of)


Have fun.

My little dancer

Yesterday morning, hubby & I went to q-dees for the final parent teacher meeting this year. Adam had done unbelievable well. We just ignored the straight C's for his Mandarin. But the rest was great. And Teacher Azira mentioned that Adam loves dancing and enjoyed his concert training tremendously. He likes signing too. He has a bestfriend - Syafiq, and always shared food with him. Bless you, Shafiq dear. It is not easy for Adam to make friends on his own, always in the shadow of the very outgoing Amri. Must remember to invite Shafiq & his parents to Adam's birthday party next January.

I am so happy that Adam is no longer the introvert quiet mouse that he was 11 months ago. He now talks a lot in class, sometimes playing a goody two shoe - telling Teacher Azira what his classmates are up to, and volunteers for almost everything. Am also happy that he is developing his own personality, instead of trying to copy whatever Amri is doing at any given time. He finishes 4 1/2 of his english readers (out of 8) which i think is good enough for a four year old.

Before we left, Teacher Azira commented again that Adam could really dance and he has no stage fright. Okay....could be from following me to all those aerobics/hip hop & belly dance classes.

This morning, we were at q-dees again for their fun fair. Adam was excited to go but became dissappointed when he noticed none of his friends were there. Especially Syafiq. Muncung 14 le cik tembam nih. But he did joined the games , albeit unsmilingly. The games were conducted in 4 different classroom, managed by 4 groups of teachers. Every time we entered into a classroom, the teachers would commented how good Adam danced during the concert and how fast he picked up the step. Flawlessly.

Then I entered the principal office for next year reenrollment. The principal gave the same statement. And so does the admin manager there, adding that Adam should be narrator next year since he loves the microfone so much.

Gosh!

I did not noticed that I had one son that is musically inclined. True, he sings a lot at home but so did Amri during that age. To think that I only had two boys to pay attention to. What do I do now? Adam did ask me some time ago whether he could have a drum set for his birthday. But I was thinking about Amri at that age, whom changed his interest almost weekly.

I'll wait and see first.

Rest, recuperate and rambling

SOX Audit was over. Did much better than last audit but still, not good enough.

I am exhausted and stressed out.

I need a break. Something to put my internal system back into its track.

A cardio kickboxing session would be nice. (kick the auditor would be better)

Anyway, since juggling is my main job description nowadays, I'll settle for a few laps during the boys swimming class tonight.

Or maybe not. First, I'll need 3 pcs of 50 cents shilling for locker. And i'll be using outdoor pool while the boys are at indoor pool. I still could not get over the anxiety of leaving 4 years old Adam at 6 feet pool (or more) no matter how good his instructor said he is. The way I see these two rascals pushing at each other...oh no...the instructor will need a few pairs of eyes all around his head to make sure they are not trying to drown each other. Wonder if they will let a non student swim at the indoor pool...

*Sigh*

I'll just grab a book then and curl up somewhere at the poolside.

I'm thinking of taking up aikido. Perhaps after the outstation business trips season is over. Want to join?

It is only 9am and yet..

Please God....help me go through the rest of today. It is early yet but already I feel like throwing a big tantrum.

The microwave died on me just when I was rushing to get breakfast going.

My blackberry refused to start up after I left in on the charger the whole night. Was there a power surge or something?

I have a SOX audit this morning.

I had less than 3 hours sleep.

My laptop failed to detect LAN connection so I have to rely on wireless network.

So help me God.

Pizza online

I had a busy day. The big boss was out of town and so did the bogger boss at home. What is it with these two guys? I felt like they were planning their travel itenary together just for the fun of seeing me in the deepest trouble I could find myself in at any given time.



Since I had to rescue Adam from his daycare and be at home before Amri arrived from school but none of my report were completed yet, i decided to work from home. If I were to work from home, I did not want to spend the 'home' time looking for dinner and get drenched in the process. Plus, I needed to finish up quickly before we had to go out again for the boys swimming lesson. So i ordered pizza online. Clever me.



Only that, it rained heavily. It took me an hour to reach home. Pizza delivery only took 20 minutes. Fortunately, I've already paid the order by credit card. So the pizza boy left it on my doorstep. I must admit, it was rather a happy occasion to reach home and found a box of pizza smiling at you right on your doorstep.

Reunion 2008

To sum it up, we had a great time!

This time round, the reunion was 90% organised by hubby, while I just helped out a little bit here and there, thanks to my chaotic schedule. Anyway, hubby did just fine on his own. It was a smaller crowd this year and we opted for potluck. Which we all agreed was a good option because we ended up with huge varieties of yummy foods. Add to the fact that we were picnicking by the poolside :)

A big thank you to all that participates and very sorry because we were not able to give out vehicle pass to everybody. Priority went to those with babies/toddlers and who brought heavy food. Mind you, we even had a watermelon, still uncut by the end of the day. Thanks to Erma and hubby for handling the registration and collection. Thanks to May/Azlan for the bagful of pressies. All kids ended up with one pressie each :)

Due to one of the organisor too busy to think up of suitable activities, the reunion ended up as a makan a lot + sembang a lot session. All kids (except Amin's tod) were safely in baby pool so the parents were left in peace. Amri, Adam and Irfan refused to enter baby pool and opted for adult pool instead. which caused quite a commotion when the other children started to follow. I didn't know how other parents did it but all kids were back safely into baby pool after a few minutes. All except these 3 boys. Grrrr. But since no other kids attempted to join them again so we just let the three boys enjoyed showing off their half baked swimming skill.

We had trouble to get the kids out of the pool and enter the drawing contest though. But they were out eventually. After 4 hours inside the water. Gosh...these kids!

Anyway, we had loads of FUN. It was so lovely to see you guys again. Lets do another one soon. Something like this. A combination of pools and plenty of food. Perhaps somewhere where we all could drive and park right beside the pool. Bukit Cerakah is great but to carry the loads (kids+ food) on foot is pure torture. Lets get a beach resort instead.

For anyone interested to organise a small get together at Bukit Cerakah, the rental is pretty cheap. Pool (baby + adult) is RM200 and poolside (2 pondoks with powerpoint & fan) is RM100. There is also a cafe nearby for extra food/drinks. Changing room & toilets are horrible though.

Amin, Xanna & Intan....dont forget the photos, ok.
Sis May, thanks for the foods & watermelon
Edi & wife, we love the nasi impit
Whomever brought the mee....it was lovely. Adam ate twice.
Xanna, the choc cake was heaven
Amin, the pudding was just perfect on a hot day
Kak Azi & Nelina...you guys missed a lot..hehe

Kids at baby pool

My genius senior, Erma - volunteering as treasurer for the day. Thanks, Erma












Amin & family. Next time bring swimsuits ok.

Mr Organisor and his corporate gang






Organisors










Adam & Irfan











Yummy foods

xPKL Reunion cum Family Day

*copy and paste from externalzone yahoogroup*

Venue : Pool Side, Camar Rimba, Taman Pertanian Malaysia, Shah Alam (aka. Bukit Cerakah)
Date & Time : Sunday, Nov 2, 2008. 9.00 am - 1.00 pm

Events :
1) colouring & drawing contest for kids
2) water activity for kids (pls bring suitable cloth for their splashing time)
3) animal visiting and feeding session
4) makan makan for adult :)

1)Invited members:All former students and lecturers of UITM Pusat Kursus Luaran (ACCA,ICSA, MICPA, CIMA)

2) How to reach Camar Rimba:
Buy the entry ticket (RM3 for adults,RM1 for 6-12 yrs kids, free for kids below 6).
Take the bus, advise the driver that you want to go to camar rimba. The driver will drop you near the taman haiwan. You need to take a 5 minute walk before reaching Camar Rimba.

3) Things to bring:Your own food since its a pot luck event. There is a nearby stall, just in case you wish to order simple foods.

4) Cover charge:RM10 perfamily, to cover site rental, some drinks and gifts to our kids. Pay on the day itself.

5) Souveneir exchange - Please bring a beautifully wrapped souveneir for gift exchange session. Neither big nor expensive. Just a token for friends

Queries - pls email Mr Organiser - En Mohd Sidki Hasan (ACMA, MBA)

It is a sunny day

Good, isn't it? After weeks (or months) of battling with congested road due to flash flood somewhere, we are now blessed with a few days on sunshine. It was hot but it was allright. Up until last Friday, I was seriously considering to buy a cloth dryer. Or maybe a washer cum dryer since space is going to be quite an issue at my next house. In fact, I was already comparing between bosch and electrolux and wishing both companies would come up with a nice looking model like LG. A maroon washer would surely liven things up in my tiny kitchen :)

Well, anyway. Since the sun was out and loads of laundry were dried up naturally, I think I'm going to shelve the washer/dryer plan get a maid instead. Have to. My poor kids are now breeding lices on their cute little head, courtesy of some friends at daycare. And I am due in HK by mid December and I seriously do not want to ask my mom and MIL to come again.

Sigh! How did other moms made it look/sound so easy? To have a family, a career, a little bit of travelling, no maid and a hobby or two and still being sane enough at the end of the day to answer a few schoolwork questions from the kids...

Happy deepavali to my indian friends

Accounts mapping

I think it was a mistake when I decided to bring in the SL7 team to our office rather than I flew to Melbourne and did these things there.

For one, my big boss didn't feel the need to stay in office (or in Malaysia for that matter ) if I were around. Thus, all daily stuffs were automatically diverted my way. Obviously, big boss feeling was mutually shared with my bigger boss at home. Needless to say, household management were mine too.

I might be boasting about my multitasking skill numerous time but to pull a stunt like this, you'll need to be a qualified magician. The kids riled me up, ruined my schedule and the big boss was emailing with this and that requests. I ended up getting very bad tempered and equally useless at home or at office. I locked myself inside the meeting room with the Aussie team at office and then locked myself inside master bedroom at home.

Well, I completed the mapping beautifully and the two boys were still alive. Please pat me on my back.

I think I'll agree with doing the training at Hong Kong. Anywhere else for that matter. Or, if we were going to do it in Malaysia, I'll book a hotel + meeting room. Not just for the visitors, but for me as well.

Aidilfitri this year

Quite a quiet one. Tok was not well. She did not even recognised me anymore. Met some of the cousins but not all of them.

Amri and Adam had loads of fun though. Plenty of duit raya and bunga api as well as their favourite food. Amri was a little bit uncertain though during breakfast. He wasn't quite sure whether he was allowed to eat but the food spread were there waiting. So he gingerly nicked one ketupat. The another. Then after asking around for a gazillion times whether he could eat...he then really sit down and has a big feast. And that was before solat. Another round of feast after solat aidilfitri. Wonder where did all the food went to.