Salah Potong ...

Monday, December 24, 2007

Nothing life-threatening. So, you guys can sit down now.

It's 5:42 now and we're still at home. I was mem-fitting-kan school uniforms for the girls and since I have smaller than average Asha, a lot needs to be done. Btw, once I was finished, Ariz and Adani fell asleep and MrGart has been nappping loong before I started the sewing.

Anyways.

Get this. While I was mulling over the girls' kain buju kurungs and thinking about the emails about the pahala for a wife/mother who sews her own clothes and feeling good about it. Well, not that good, cos I kept poking my fingers with the darn pins.

I got Aliya and Asha to line up and try the bajus and kains in front of me while I pin the amendments to be sewn. While I mused over "keciknya si Asha ni", I cut all 4 kains about 4 inches off. Then suddenly realised that I tried Aliya's bajus andkains on Asha!

Damn!

Opps .. Ariz's up. Gotta sambung later, kay?

Post Raya

Fooohh lamanya tak kerja ..

Still on leave, unlike SquareAss who's lounging aimlessly trying hard to work at the office. BTW, glad you decided to hop over here for good. We sure miss you. *uwek*

Anyways.

Just had lunch of soto just now and the kids have all now tramped up here and watched Asha's concert video. Jangan kacau aku sudahle.

We came back from Sg. Petani yesterday. Was there since Hari Raya Haji. Selamat Hari Raya to y'all! We missed the korban this year to a shortage of dough and bad planning.

Nothing much happened at Kedah. Took the kids to mandi sungai at Tupah. The girls grinned and bear the cold while my macho Ariz refused flat to get in the water. He hated the stones and upon a lot of persuasion, sat of a big rock and spent the whole time throwing stones. Cehs!

Saturday was spent at my MakTam's place in Jeniang and it was foodie affair. We had sup daging korban cicah air asam, and air lawa. Hati & limpa masak kicap, ikan pekasam, ikan patin masak tempoyak, jellies, fruitcakes, spaghetti bolognese and entah apa-apa lagi la. Pasti aku naik barang sekilo dua. Cehs!

Ooooo I finished the Ayat-Ayat Cinta the much talked about novel. Definitely a novel pembangun jiwa as it was touted. I had much admiration of Fahri and Aisha and Maria. The language although is Bahasa Melayu still sounded a little Bahasa Indonesia to me and I didn't understand certain words. Kena tanya diah nanti ni. But I thought it was beautiful story, weaving many little stories centering around Fahri and it certainly taught me a lot of things I never knew before. Btw, I hardly read Bahasa Malaysia story books and this sure suprises me. May get more, who knows!

Just realised that nextx week school reopens. We've gotten the books for Aliya & Asha, their school uniforms ( 4 sets each), High School Musical bags for all 3 girls, paid Adani's kindy fees and her uniforms. What I need to do now is to amend baju kurung, fix school badges and ooo schoes! We haven't gotten them yet, along with socks. Ni kena pegi Subang Parad@ jap lagi ni.

Opps.. Ariz nak memanggil. I shud be in the office by Wednesday.

Water Babies and Clowning Around

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Dated pics actually. These were taken during our excursion to JB last month. Lucky we were there then, otherwise we'd all be swimming around in floodwaters by now, looking at the recent flood woes affecting Pahang & Johor.

Anyways.

Ariz, Adani & Asha were just ecstatic to discover the bath tub in the hotel and would not miss each get-ready-and-shower time to splash about in the tub. Apa-apala. Asalkan bahagia. Bukan aku yang nak kena basuh nanti. Heh!


Adani in her typical pose.


The three water babies in the tub.

And these are clown cupcakes from the night before. Scrumptious really! They are Nigella Laws0n's basic cupcake recipe and it's truly a fail-safe recipe. Trust me! If I couldn't mess it up.

All Better Now

First of all, I'd like to wish Roti Happy xx Birthday and hope that she has a wonderful birthday she so deserves this year. And I hope that Firhad finds a bakery shop which sells the cake with as many candles as he needs. He he he! Muahs!

Anyways.

Thanks for all your well-wishes. Ariz is better now. He got better as quick as he got sick. On Monday, I took another day off as I woke up on Monday morning groggy as hell, as I was up from 2:30 to 5:00 am sponging him down with a 38.6C temp. But he was just warm, no shivering nor shaking, so I just gave him PCM and skipped the suppository.

By Tuesday morning, Alhamdulillah we went through 24 hours without any fever at all. Alhamdulillah! I'm just so thankful and so blessed that Ariz is better now. And immediately he got back to his mischievious self. Climbing and tumbling over gleefully and becoming bossy again. I was ecstatic to end the Ariz-the-Grump days and my hips can relax from carrying him 24-7. Phew!

40 Degrees of Separation

Saturday, December 15, 2007

From the office, that is.

I've been kept from the office since Thursday. My love-leh mischievious lil' boy came down with a snifffles, a runny and comot nose and has been for the 2 nights, running a 40 degrees fever on me, every 6 hours.

Adoi!

And biasala. My normally working ear thermometer refused to work, even with the mahal than normal lithium batteries on. So, last night I had no choice but to get new themometer. Sengkek babe!

And to make matters worse. Ariz simply refuses to take meds. Makes me wonder. All this time of begging of meds only work when one's well. Bila sakit tu, siap kena pelekoh (to quote Mrgart). 2 adults has to restrain him and I had to squirt a little, manage his bubbling and his hissing spits! Dang! I just hope enough got into him.

Tonight, I surrendered and succumbed to antibiotics for Ariz. Right now, I still smell of Zithrom@x from the struggle half an hour ago. He's chirpy and active now and I pray that he'll sail through tonight with no 40 degrees fever.

The past two nights, I was in constant alert mode. I checked him temp at least 50 times during the 39-40 degrees periods. This time the virus or bacterial his body is fighting are hardier, I think cos even after a supp up his butt, it took more than an hour of sponging down to get him cool again. And Ariz threw a HUGE tantrum every time I had to sponge him down. He cried and I would cry too. Sedeh woy! Kesian. This time apart from getting lembik, he would shiver, violently. That makes it doubly hard to sponge him when he's crying out. "Mummy, cold, Mummy, s-juk".

Anyway. Pray for his speedy recovery and I hope we'll pass this through with no febrile fits. Insyallah! *ngantuk*

Eye Candies

Thursday, December 13, 2007

I dunno about you guys but I've never thougt of myself as being married, old and not worthy to appreciate eye candies in the form of gorgeous men.

It's not that I'm in some strange ways dissatisfied with my life and it's not that I'm looking for something MORE. It's just like looking at flowers. Checking out new species of flowers, a new breed, an eye-catching at that too.

Anyways.

Before MrGart threw me yet another murderous look, a disclaimer here. MrGart is by far and wide (he!) is the handsom-est guy ever. He knows it and I know it. We are a happily married couple. Have been for 11 years and 13 days. We are content.

But I love looking at other men, no intention to do anything whatsoever. Just looking. Remember the looking at flowers, new breed metaphor. It's like that. I'd love to guess what theire lives are like.

Anyways.




Enter MysteriousGuy #1.

He came with his whining, cutesy 4 year old girl who joined Aliya, Ayisha and Adani (now out of the class)'s swimming lessons. MysteriousGuy #1 has the soppy, droopy looks on his face. His eyes are not unlike those of the Hush Pupp1ies' dog's, very please-hold-me, and i-need-you as well as you-are-my-everything just oozes out of his eyes. He's not muscular, but slender. He walks with such a lazy stroll and his hands are just screaming hold-me-comfort-me. Yup, THAT type.

So, since I was doing nothing the whole hour by the poolside (light 's a but dim for reading), I imagined that this guy was a divorcee. His wife ran off with another man, his best friend, maybe, that's why he's so solemn and sad.

And for the first 3 lessons, he came alone, holding his frail little baby girl's hands and looking away so full of thoughts. Well, imagien my suprise when he turned up Tuesday night with none other than his wife. At least I think she was. But they didn't hold hands, or anything like that. In fact on the last few minutes, both of them were sitting side by side, each curled their legs AWAY from each other. AHA!

Now MysteriousGuy #2. I know his name, I know where he lives and he knows I'm amrried with 4 kids, especially when I brought Ariz to him last night for his fever. Not so mysterious but triggered MrGart's jealousy. MrGart didn't know that while I was in the consultation room, I found out that he lives in BJ, he rarely goes out, he's attached to Hospital K1ang. He's drop dead gorgoues I can you that! So, when I was very friendly-ish bid him Goodnight before we left the clinic, MrGart launched into his "oo dulu kata I hensem, dah boroi sikit, mulalah tu".

And then the kids joined in.

"Mummy ada boyfriend baru ke?"

"Nanti Mummy kawin dengan Dr R, Daddy pulak jadi doctor" - Adani's jibe.

And a whole lot of boyfriends talks.

Hmmmmmm .. Ooohh I almost forgot.

These love-leh cuppies are called the Black-Bottomed Cupcakes a.k.a Bontot Hitam. Ha ha ha ah ha! Sorry babes, I just couldn't help myself. It's chocolate at the butts and creamcheese topping on top. Bontot Hitam .. ka ka ka ak!

Baked these last night in gratitute to Norlizma, Amin, ZulMN, Day, Mosh, Hez, Haiza, Aini and a few other who I frantically managed to pester to find ONE lousy but super-important 1998 letter which finally miraculously turned up. PHEW!

Project Rainbow Cake

Monday, December 10, 2007



Last night's results.

Forgot to do the clouds at the foot of the rainbow but I guess this was alright. Ayisha beamed and the kids were swooned.

He he he.

Me. Smug.

Being a Boy

This is not a friendly territory. And an alien one at that too. At least to me. Especially for me with my three gorgeous girls.

But I guess this is a welcome relief from months of seeing him with a nekkid Barbie under his arms, pushing a purple stroller.



And this is definitely a major phew from months of persuading him to take off that purple tudung off his face, while he feeds a green teddy from a small pink cup and Ayisha & Adani tending to a sick teddy on the same bed.

PHEW !!

There was a time when he was into lions (from Narnia) , zebras, elephants and eagles, I was kinda of happy for him being developmentally sound. Until he really thought he was one of these animals. Remember the roaring and growling to EVERYBODY and crawling under tables, and eating off the floor and licking EVERYTHING.

And since we never have robots, or these Power Rangers or GranSazer things at home, he was never really introduced to them. Except at Nobita's place. Her Imran and Irfan are staunch fans of these laser-fighting tight-wearing undies warriors. I'm not a big fan to these things and am more worried about the violent nature of it.

It never caught on.

Until Transformer the movie came up. Even I was a sudden fan.

Ariz was transformed. Everything is a o-bot (robot). Even the transmission towers dotting the landscape of the country are o-bots. We succumbed to the fascination, especialy MrGart. WHo has bought a small squadron of these robots at home.

Boys really do take these things at heart. He plays with them contently. He takes a robot and bangs them against the lion. Again and again.

Last Saturday, while we shopped at Tesco waiting for the girls from their English & Maths lessons, he made me pick these up. Nasib baik murah!



And this was where we were and what he did, while we waited.

I have a boy, alright!

Bacteria Macteria .. Me Gone Bonkers

Thursday, December 6, 2007


Let's not make any mistake.

I have tonnes of work, but I just can't stop thinking about this.

You see, I read that if you theoretically speaking, take every single bacteria from the face of the earth, and down it's core and spread them all over the earth, even the seas, they'll cover a depth of 15 meters all around the earth. Makes me squirm!

And there are peculiar things about them. One I know that that they divide super-rapidly. One single bacteria is able to replicate about 280 million times when we are barely completing one single division. And 1 in every million division will result in a mutation which most times just die off.

But sometimes, the mutation gives them an edge, an advantage and probably an immunity against an otherwise potent antibiotic. And the magical is that the bacteria who gains this info, SHARES it with others. Unlike some people who kedekut ilmu. Ha ha ha .

And that's how a whole species of a bacteria becomes immuned to an antibiotic which normally kills them.

There!

Now I can start to work. Bit late eh?

Embergris

Or was it ambergris?

Anyways.

It's what's been accumulating in the sperm whale's stomachs whose staple diets are giant squids that no one has ever seen before. When a sperm whale eats a giant squid, the beak which is indigestible accumulates and over time turns to embergris.

And guess what?

This enbergris is used as a fixative in perfurmes. So, next time you spray our Channe1 Number 5, or Eternity M0ment, or take a whiff from your man's chest of Dunhill, remember that one of the must-have ingredients are giant squid's beaks!

Yikes!

Teeming With Trivial Points

You know I mentioned that I'm reading Bill Bryson's A History of Nearly Everything. Very slowly, I should say, since I'm also reading 5 other books at the same time.

Anyway, very slowly too cos I love it too much and I keep going back and forth, back and forth. You see, I'm a sucker for scientific titdbits. I love facts about the planetary system, the black hole, the Big Bang, how dinaosaurs dissapeared off the face of the earth, the Earth's core, the unicellular beings whose number outnumbers us greatly.

But this book tells me about the metals in the earth's core and about theories how life began on earth. I'm a scientific person, I love to think how things come together but I also am a failthful servant of Allah. And I know Darwin's theory is wrong, but this book tells me a lot more than that. It tells me that although man now, knows more than we did 200 years ago, what we know is what Allah lets us know. It's nothing new to Allah. It's his rules and his creations, like us too, God's creations.

There are a lot of things we have yet to understand like how giant squids become the sperm whale's staple diet when no one's seen one ever. And we know more about the surface of Mars than we do our own sea beds.

But the more I know, the more I affirm my belief in Allah because it really is a miracle, this Earth we're all sitting right now.

Allahu Akbar!

Water Babies

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

These are my 3 girlie water babies, busy kicking in the water during their lessons last night at Pus@t Aku@tik Sel@ngor.



Aliya can actually do breaststroke well, but she never finishes her free-style, so I guess she might as well start again. The class was pretty basic for her but I guess she'll just have fun then. When she goes up her levels, then she'll start getting competitive.

Asha refused lessons with Instructor Lee, 2 years ago together with Aliya and since she's the free willy type, very the adventurous and jumps into deeper water with just the chest-squares-body-harness float which only she is comfortable to use, I guess she'd better start learn proper swimming strokes and she loved it from the wide grins on her face last night.

Adani is the cautious one, look before you leap kind. But we're taking a chance here since both sisters are in, let's just slot her in. She's not afraid of water, none of my babies are ever. But she's very safe. She wouldn't thread on places she's never ventured before i.e. "I'll stay in my float if I can't feel the bottom of the pool" or "I'll hang out at these steps". True enough. Last night, she refused to join the class but in half an hour's time, she came and said that she was ready to join and there she was having a bubbly time. I was glad that she took hold of her fear and realised it herself cos I don't think forcing her would do it.

By the way, the entry level is called the JellyFish level. They're not expected to do much, just emulate what jellyfishes do, with extra pair of hands and a few tentacles short.



Now, Ariz, Ariz, Ariz. He's the fearless type. We introduced water to all the 4 kids as early as 6 months old and almost twice a month, so I guess if they're fearless, they were trained to be so. None of the was afraid of water at all. But with Ariz, lucky us, we drilled into him to put his ring float on when he jumps into the water. So that really a comfort to me,though you can't blink when he's in the water. He hops, he jumps, he runs and jumps into the pool. He flip-flops and he splashes. He really has a whale of a time in the water, this one is.

And if anyone needs swimming classes, he and Asha do. But they've refused Ariz. Too young, won't be able to take directions. True true true. So, there he was last night, swimming around by himself.

By the way the pool was abuzz with activities last night which suprised me tremendously. There were about 7 lessons simultaneously in the 2 pools outside, from beginners, intermediate and even advanced swimmers. I did not peek into the indoor pool. My oh my! Shah Alam kids sure are busy in the water, eh?

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia .. Phewww!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

We're back!

I'm back and what a whirlwhind trip that was.

First of all, the camera, fully charged was left taking pictures on top of the TV cabinet at home. So, all these were taken by MrGart's N95 and since I'm not a huge fan of phone cameras, I just stayed away from taking, just standing in one or two.

Anyways.

Spent 2 nights at JB. Danga Bay was a BLAST!! Giler happening! Both nights were spent there. Dinner, rides, train rides, walks by the seaside. And of course the kids drained MrGart's wallets with wanting to get on EVERY ride there was. I physically bodily took him away from his favourite brown horse ferris wheel.

We spent Saturday night at my auntie's place in Jasin, a bungalow in a middle of nowhere and I had goosebumps but it was good meeting relatives. Sunday was spent driving from Jasin to Ayer Keroh. Ariz saw the bullock carts after we had lunch at the eMcD and we went for a round. Busuk! Another leg from Ayer Keroh to Senawang, visiting my Mak Ndak and ailing Tok. After devouring the late lunch of udang galah, we hopped over to Nilai 3 where my Mak Ndak, Mak Lang and the soon to be engaged cousins were and met up.

Then another leg from Nilai to my twin's place at Cahaya Heights to pick up the maid and finally, home sweet home. Penat!

I'll just let the pictures tell the stories then.


Ariz on a horse. He rode on another horse an hour after this.


Ariz & Asha on one of those kiddie roller coasters. Apart from Adani who looked absolutely terrified on these high-speed rides, the others were laughing very loudly and happily, while we parents, counted the remaining money left.


Ariz suprised us when we rode the bike effortlessly and managed to avoid hitting other bikers. Atta boy!


On the bullock cart, right after the black bull smacked Asha with his tail, trying to hit a fly. Busuk weh!


After the drama of "Nak naik" and the excited faces on the bullock cart, Ariz was screaming to get away from the bull, Aliya put on a brave face, trying to laugh at Ariz, Adani clung to me for dear life and Asha stuck to Aliya. Cehs!