Pening Kepala ..

I don't get headaches that often, so I say. So does Nobita too. But when we do get one, it's the sort that makes us wanna hempuk our heads on to the nearest sofa and get someone to hayun a fist to our heads. So, so, so sakit or rather we have such low pain threshold? I have such great and renewed empathy for migraine suffers. My dad takes so many panadols in his life to counter his headaches that he takes them now before the headaches come. Hmmm.

Showers won't do it. Massage won't do it. Even sex won't kill it. Trust me, I've tried. *sigh*

So, I down 2 panadols with a glass of iced water and half an hour later, I re-emerged as Queen Gorgeous again as The Grumpy Witch has gone in hiding for fear of those panadols wielding its white sticks.

Anyhow.

Yesterday, I had a mighty headache. We were at Genting and Aliya MADE me queued and got on this Solero Space Shot. Gosh! I thought I was made of sterner stuff. I thought I could never get scared. This is Gartblue, hokeh! I got on that Nemesis at Alton Towers 3 times in a row and I never turn down any offers for those white knuckle adventure rides. Any!

Boy, was I wrong! First we were shot straight upwards to a thousand metres at least, okay okay ... maybe a hundred or more. The place was very very super-foggy that day and it was really chilly. We abruptly stopped in the middle of nowhere and we might as well were floating in the sky cos I couldn't see anything underneath my feet.

Then the terror begun. We just plunged down, free falling and my heart just stopped. I felt like my insides were left in the fog UP there. My butts were floating in zero gravity and it was an eternity before we were snapped rudely and shot upwards again, slightly lower and up and down and up and down. I screamed shamelessly. *shakes head*

Then Aliya said. "Let's go again, Mummy!" Terbeliak mataku. Anak daraku memang tak takut langsung! Cehs.. I was still doing a count on my insides to see if I got them all back in me and she wanted to go again? Sheesh! When did she turn from my baby to this brave, I can-do-it-all, am-fearless girl ? Gosh! But secretly, I'm so proud that she gets this off me cos MrGart has a serious fear of heights. Even the first floor of Eiffel Tower sent him clinging to the railing.

That didn't cause my headache but the huge harmless looking swings got me. These buai swung you in circles and threaten to propel you in a trajectory should any of the cables snap. That did not deter the girls. Aliya and Asha went 3 times, Adani twice and MrGart and I went once and came out groggy!

Sighs of not-so-young age, maybe. Oh tidakkkk!!

Headache No:2.

Ariz was at school today for his first ever orientation day. And it did not go that well. He sat for 5 minutes and then declared he wanted to go home. He didn't cry though. He just clung to me and punched me to make me carry him. He refused to do anything and everything the teachers of his other classmates were doing, except eat snacks and take the party pack.

Ouch! I can feel the kepeningan for the first week of school. *shudder*

Far From Merry, It's Ugly

Malaysians, that is. Some of us, apparently. Not all, though.

Anyhow.

Since the Kebun trip never materialised, we traipsed down (or rather duduk dalam kereta, emitting CO2 contributing to the worsening greenhouse effect) to the I-KE-A and its big brother I-Ka-No.

You know the long queue near the cashier I-KE-A counters to get cheap ice-creams, we were there. There's this Chinese girl who awkwardly manoevered a "tall" soft drink cup to fit the nozzle for the coffee machine. I thought, maybe she thought it was a soft drinks machine. But no, she pressed "cappucino" and then pressed it the second time since the first fill came up to half of the cup. Hmmm.

Obviously 2 presses caused the hot cappucino to overflow from the cup. BTW coffee cups are thicker and shorter and obviously soft drinks cost RM1.50 per cup and coffee/tea cost RM3.00 per cup. All are free refills and based on honesty basis here.

The girl now was in trouble cos her cup was too full and too hot and she couldn't get it out as it's now stuck under the too-low nozzle. It's not supposed to fit there in the first place, silly! Now, the father came to her rescue and tipped down half the content and walked off nonchalantly. WHAT?

Next, an Indonesian maid came and did the same thing. A well-dressed Chinese man. A rather tackily dressed Chinese woman. An Indian woman can did the same thing too. In fact out of 4 people who used the machine, only 1 paid the right amount. The other 3 wanted coffee but refused to pay the additional RM1.50 and just slithered their way for it. Shamelessly. In full view of the long queue of people who were waiting. I was beyond shock.

I was so shocked. I never thought to do that and there I was feeling like a kid in a new school. Very very humiliating attitude these people have.

Then, we went to I-Ka-No and all the kids joined in the craziness of those polystyrene snow balls at the concourse area in front of the stage. There were kids of all ages and sizes, throwing snow balls and making snow angels on the floor. Men, women, boys and girls were picking up snow balls from the floor and played and played gleefully.

Adani having fun.


Ariz. Wayyyyy too much fun. He was literally on the floor, lying and swimming and generally having a whale of a time.


Ayisha & Adani.


Aliya, looking as smug as ever. Notice the chaos at the background?


We then went outside as Adani & Ariz were itching to go for the pony rides.

There we saw a blackberry-wielding Chinese woman was angrily chastising another CHinese woman who ran the pony-rides business. Something about the pony-lady shouting to the blackberry-lady's son. Something also about the pony-lady was trying to protect the boy from being kicked in the face by the pony where the blackberry-lady ignored her.

Things got seriously bad as the blackberry-lady called up her hubby and her oso-blackberry guy cam charging and screaming abuses to the pony-lady. OMG!!!

I wish I had gone up to the pony-lady and said to her that .. "I believe you. Some people just don't deserve what they have in life."

What ugly lot I saw today and it was supposed to MERRY? Yikes!

The Kebun Trip That Didn't Happen

Today's a public holiday. Adani asked me yesterday what would we do WHEN it snows today. Hmmm .. we don't get snow, dear. We get the sunshine. Yikes!

We (the clan of Cikgu Samat) were suppose to spend the morning chopping down errant bushes and generally maintaining the kebun (or orchard) my dad has kept awsomely in shape well before he retired, somewhere at Rawang.

We're supposed to pick the many different varieties of fruits (durian dah habis season) and vegetables and whatnots. We're supposed to bentang a large tikar under the durian tree and eat breakfast. And probably take shelter in the little hut if it gets a little too hot, whose pillars are the actual ragged trunks of manggis trees originally felled from the same kebun.

The kids were excited to hear that their Wan has populated the pond with some little fishes where you normally pay a hefty RM34 per pair of feet for a little deadskin feast for those poor fishes. Safe to say, they've been saving their deadskin for those fishes.

Me? I'm looking forward to my mom's nasi daun or rather herbal rice made from this pucuk lemuni (eh betul ke?). It's speckled grey in colour with sambal ikan bilis and cucumber slices for condiments. In my effort to poorly meet my mom's effort halfway, I baked 18 of those Mexican Coffee Buns and they're sitting in the kitchen, all 15 remaining buns or less now that Aliya & Asha are downstairs.

But my dad texted me early in the morning to say that the kebun trip was off as they had to rush to Kuantan to attend the funeral for my Pak Ndak's mother who passed away early this morning. Al-Fatihah.

Okay, okay. I know ppl should write about what has happened. Since it didn't, I thought I should write about what would've happened but did not. Hehehe. We are off to some shopping malls now to satisfy some itchy, restless little feet of the residents of the house.

Me? Off to eat those buns.

Feeling Orange-y

I am the office now.

Trying hard to work but not much juice flowing at the mo.

So, I think I should write a post to keep y'all updated on what naughty things I've been up to. And plus, it'll keep MissPB occupied for a minute or two since she's already in her "please update, peeps!" mode. You heard me. Go post an entry. Like, right now. Go. Post. Now.

Bossy eh?

Anyways.

I would've snapped a pic of my Orange Glow Chiffon Cake which I made yesterday afternoon. The came smelled so heavenly while it baked and afterwards it came out perfectly and it's the softest chiffon I've ever made ever. Well, this is my first one, so sue me. Hehe.

Here's a pic from AuntyYochana

Though mine looks slightly browner on the sides with some parts missing. Hehehe and very bumpy top.

We devoured almost a quarter of the very tall cake while watching Transformers last night. The kids and MrGart aren't huge fans of rich cakes, so I thought this is a nice no-fat departure and I was right. They loved it. Phew!

I sliced about half of what's left to bring to the office to delight the girls and thought about snapping pictures, but too late. It's gone now. Eaten. Zilch. None left.

Anyways. I'm sure I'll make this again in the future. It taste really really nice and soft and orange-y and refreshing and just heavenly. Gosh! I need a slice now. Hope the kids wouldn't eat all of the cakes at home just yet.

Well.

Oooo .. I forgot .. I did two more cookies classes at CakeConnection last week, an adult and a kids class. I thoroughly enjoyed the adult class as we had smaller than usual number of students and it was laidback and relaxed. The stduents who came were very enthusiastic and superbly creative too. Check out Mallini's blog on the class and the pictures of the cookies.

The kids' class was alright too. I had 5 kids aged 6,7,8,9 and 10. Yup, all ages. And these kids have to pipe royal icing too. But they were alright once they got the hang of it. But with kids, they would do theirs as instructed but then will plead that I do one for them to take home, or even whine to take my decorated cookies home. Haha. And the stories these kids tell during the 2.5 hours. Oh wow!

Well.

Saturday saw me peddling the kids from Ad-daris, to school (for books) to Masalam to get bags and then home again by myself as MrGart was at some badminton tourney. It was tiring and purse-denting but we had a jolly great time.

Sunday, we're off again to I-Kano for stationeries and we went to get some beddings for the rabbits and whatnots. Safe to say, going back to school shopping is DONE.

Now is the time to wrap school books, write names on books, organise school books on designated shelves, sew name tags of uniforms, shorten sleeves, shorten kain baju kurung, sew tudung baju kurung and whatever else in between.

Yikes!

Gotta go now ... that little pesky thing called work beckons. Ciao!

Not Been That Far, Just Away

I suddenly realised that I've not been posting anything for the past 8-9 days. Wow! That seems long. Pardon me, though .. as internet connection sucks bigtime where I'm at most days. Most waking hours, that is.

At home, it gets hard to sit in front of the pc and start posting or even plain browsing. My kids aren't the type who cordially let their parents sit leisurely for 15 minutes straight.

There's always drinks to fetch/make/add ice into.

There's always bickering/fights to break up.

There's always someone needing rescues from tight spots that someone always gets himself into.

There's always shouting matched to be referee-d and to say "ENOUGH!" to.

There's always cookies to make, cakes to bake and honey oat bread to make.

So there!

I hope enough excuses for being so silent.

In the meantime, work seems to be on a slow-motion pace. December is always a slow month, the best month. The month when almost all of the bosses will be flying to their choice overseas locations for their much-deserved holidays while small fries like us, enjoy the public pools or the zoo negara. Haha. *grins terpaksa*

This time around, we've done our share of holidays and hotel stays and the remaining days will be spent somewhere close and cheap.

Last night, we were at Hisham's sister's wedding and conveniently and for the first time ever, we sent the kids over to my parents' and only picked them up at 8:00pm tonight. They spent the night away from us, while we were like 20 km away! Wow! Now I know how missKLSentral does this.

It felt good to have the house to ourselves. Very very rare! So, wipe that smirk off your face! We only did what 2 grown ups would do, when left to our devices in a kid-less home! hahah!

But it quickly became quiet. Too quiet.

So, when we picked them up today, instantly it hit us. Regardless how noisy or bickery or annoying Aliya, Asha, Adani and Ariz may get, they are ours to enjoy (or to shout at).

We're home now and the house sure is alive again.

Hajj Beckons

I pray for Elisa, Jeni, Suriati and scores of friends and fellow brothers and sisters who are at Makkah for Hajj during these momentous days ahead.

It does something to one's heart watching the sea of people in white circling the Kaa'bah and it beckons to me.

Insyallah, my time will come with Allah's will. I hope it's sooner rather than later.

Insyallah.

They Probably Want Us To Work ..

The Kompeni, I meant.

I'm back from our 7 days break. Came home from PD late Wednesday with 4 tanned, burnt kids. They all are a shade darker than they used to. Me, too. Sungguh kelabu.

But we had fun. I should post pictures lest Rotidua would scream bloody murder. I have the camera but MrGart downloaded the pictures to HIS notebook. So, I have an empty camera. Hmmpftt!

Asha celebrated her 8th birthday by the pool, down by our baby blue and white villa. She's 8! I couldn't believe it. Eight! We haven't done the cake-cutting yet as I uhmm have not baked her cake yet. *malu* We've been away from the house almost every weekend and I did promise to have a TALL cake for her. So, next weekend, insyallah.

One thing I was most thankful for in PD was that all the kids were able to survive in deep water.

Ayisha was a natural in the water, almost always deeper than she is tall. And she's so at ease with swimming and snorkelling and just floating. And somehow, she's okay with no goggles. I'm just glad she picked up swimming wonderfully as she's always been adventurous and ever ready to jump in water.

Aliya meanwhile, just got better and better. This time around, I bought 3 pairs of fins and 2 snorkelling gear for the kids. And Aliya and Ayisha had their heads under water in the pool most of the time, with their fins kicking while they inspected the bottom of the pool, and other people's bottoms too. Heheh!

Adani used to be very timid and afraid of water deeper than her ankle. But since she learned to swim, she's been more open and she's willing to float and swim and just relax. But she needed her arm bands still, which I'm more than happy to put her in. But the constant bickering with her and Ariz was driving me insane!

Ariz has such strong legs and arms. He's a muscular boy, surely. Try to pinch him and you'd feel his taut muscle underneath the skin. Who would've thought a seriously big and fat baby he used to be could end up so lean and muscular. A boy, alright! He's the only one with no swimming lessons and I doubt that any swimming schools would take him in, at his age. But the great thing about him is his sheer fearlessness. He'd jump in the water with no qualms whatsoever. Other people would stare in disbelief at him jumping into water 3 times his height. But he must have his ring float, which is snug at the waist. Once, he was so excited he jumped in without it and alhamdulillah, I was close by and a lady picked him out. That out him out of water for eaxtly 5 minutes! Apart from that he'd be paddling hard and fast too, to wherever he pleases. He doesn't need anyone to push him either. He's so mobile on his own.

Me, I learned this time around to do breast stroke while my head remained above the water. I gave up free style a long time ago. Too much of a hard work. But I never seem to be able to swim freely with my head afloat. I learnt that if I relax, that it's a breeze really. It always does.

Anyhow. Back to the title of the blog.

Came back to work to a rude shock. The Kompeni has tightened its web security and has now blocked all chats (gchat or skype, forget them), auction sites, social websites (like mukabuku), fotopages (I bet multiply too) and countless other sites! Dang! I just tried picasa and it's blocked too. Grrr!!

This is a pain!

Flat Battery

You would have thought we'd be in the pool again, idling away the remaining time here at pd.

But no. We are now stuck here at a breakfast stall, after I sent mrgart to his hotel and i stopped to buy breakfast and the wish refused to start.

The car spluttered but never more than a cough.

mrgart is here now and where are those aam guys?

Sigh!!!

The Moon Tonight

Today was a blast. The kids spent the morning swimming at the tee-en-bee kondo, waiting for 1pm when we can check in our villla.

The afternoon was spent at the beach and literally getting alll digits all kecut from too much time in the water. The water was clear and sea was calm. Even ariz enjoyed his time in the water.

Anyway, we're waiting for dinner to arrive and i looked up to the sight of a crescent moon and 2 very bright and big stars. Hmm much too big to be stars. Could they be the orbiting satellites? Dunno. But they sure shine so bright.

Beached ..

The beached whale has landed.

In fact, the whole clan descended at this wonderful little resort called Residence Desa Lagoon at PD. Thanks to Sarah-fiz for mentioning the place to us.

Our villa was right in front of that gorgeous pool. It was also sepelaung from the beach. I love the fact that the kids have a larger area to roam while we while away the day, waiting for MrGart to finish his meeting and whatnots.

Pictures courtesy of SpeakingWithMyFingers

I think our villa was the one in the picture. Sweet and cosy. Love the colour coordination.


The villas are on stilts over these fish pond. They looked a bit too green for me though. Saturday morning, the kids gleefully pointed out to me a LARGE monitor lizard aka biawak swimming around. Naik bulu roma ku. Yikes!


The beach. We could actually walk to the beach from our villa on titi kayu and the sand was really fine, unlike the sand at Teluk Kemang which is a little pebbly and rusty in colour. The colour is like my foundation clour N4-Sand Beige. Ha ha.

Unfortunately, we could not spend as much time as we'd like to at the beach. Me refers to Aliya, Asha, Adani and me. Ariz hated and still does hate the beach. MrGrouchy would complain about needing to wash sand off his feet and the big waves, without even getting slightly wet at all. Sheeesh.

The girls managed toc ollect some nice shells this time around, though they'd like to stay longer.

This Monday to Wednesday, we're off at the same place as MrGart is attending yet another official business there at PD. Story of our lives. Cuti-cuti Malaysia di taja oleh MrGart's Kompeni.

Have fun working (or not!) at the office people!

Time Off From Work .. Finally !

Yay!

All 6 letters are now out. The many charts and graphs are all tucked into that thick report. I think I got my 360degrees covered.

I am beyond relief.

Crisis averted.

I kept my cool, this time around.

And tomorrow I'll be beaching myself watching over the kids at a beach and get wet and just let my hair down.

Ciao!

I See It Now

Edited to include pictures courtesy of Gondai.

I have no idea how to start writing this post. But I know that what I felt last night was something worth sharing.

As I'm writing this, I feel tears welling in my eyes. I've been blinded all these years. I say that I'm a Muslim, but I've never truly embraced Islam as what's been preached by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Like most, I was born into the religion and I became complacent. I expected to be rewarded but don't do anything more than what bare minimum was expected of me.

But I have in the past year or so, prayed for His guidance. I began to seek out knowledge and I'm still learning. I have to thank friends and bloggers alike for all you've shared to me so far, knowingly or not.

Anyhow.

Last night, Sheikh Yusuf Estes came to our little BukitJelutong.

Deep in discussion.

I was very eager to see him, to listen to him. I have in the past month or so, been blessed with the CD of the lectures of Anwar Al-Awlaki and I find him very simple, truthful yet engaging. I particularly love the excerpts of Quran read by others and they sound so beautiful. I was listening to CD #14 where he talked about the Hellfire and the hafiz cried while reciting the Ayat. It moved me. Many thanks to Azen for lending me the CDs and to Lollies for pointing him out to me.

Anyways.

The kids wanted to tag along too. I had huge reservations. Mine are rowdiest between 8pm to 10pm. Outside that time, they are mostly less rowdy. Ha ha. Anyhow. We got there and after stern warnings in the car, we all sat down in the packed hall. 15 minutes in, they i.e. Ariz & Adani got restless and began to peck at each other and whine and whinge and whatever else 3yo and a5yo would do, when there's no other entertainment. There weren't other kids around anyway. That's when I got MrGart to ship them home and they gleefully obliged.


The packed hall at Jalan Adang.

Well.

The Sheikh was insightful. He was funny. He was filled with one-liners and he joked around a lot. But when he was serious, he was serious.

At one point, he asked if there was any hafiz (those who memorise the Quran) and no one did. His face turned ashen and he said that this was scary. Even in remote American towns he's been to, there would always be 3 or 4 or 5 hafizs. I shuddered.

He asked too how many of the audience were Muslims and how many weren't. Only 6 non-Muslims were present and he bellowed "Do you not care for your non-Muslim friends? Why didn't you bring them along tonight?" I was shaking my head, ashamed of myself.

As expected there was a yoga question. FYI, there's been a fatwa or edict issued in Malaysia banning Muslims from practising yoga. The question asked about how to explain the fatwa to the non-Muslims friends. Simple. You don't have to. Fatwas are issued to Muslims. Non-Muslims may do anything that they please. But Muslims, you must abide by it. And never question a scholar's issuance of a fatwa to another scholar, for second opinion. You must go back to the one who issued it for better understanding. But, above all, doubtfulness of a scholar indicates signs of disbelief and that's dangerous.


The Moment of Truth.

The defining moment for me was this young Chinese guy who posted a question and then was invited to join Yusuf on stage. He brought his Quran with him and he asked questions about them and Yusuf answered them as simple and as truthful as he could. When he uttered the Syahadah, I felt a pang of emotion in me. More like I was stabbed from the inside. It felt so strong, it emanated from my heart to my body that I quivered. I had tears in my eyes and I had to wipe them away. That was such a beautiful moment. To have been there listening to a non-believer uttering the Shahadah, I felt an undescribable joy. I do not believe I've ever felt that way ever before. Alhamdulillah.

So, there. I believe there's a point in time where one just takes a step back and re-assess one's life. I think I might have stopped dead in my track and looked back. I hope I'm not too late.

Yours truly.

Icing In My Tudung

You, you, you, you and you! *hugs you all*

Thanks for your kind words and moral support for me to step out in another different realm. I truly appreciate your words and thank you for believing in me, even when I'm so unsure sometimes.

*kesat air mata and shhhrroooooooot!*

So. Saturday came. Me slightly jittery. Was up till midnight the night before baking the cookies for the class. Each student was to have 6 cookies to decorate upon and take home to parade. I made regular sized floppy-eared bunny, butterfly, dinosaur, teddy bear and duckling. Then I made a swarm of bees and a school of little fishes.

Met the 10 year olds and 11year olds. Kimberley's the youngest at 8 and very very expressive. She exclaimed loudly at a juncture that "I know how to make rubber!". Hmm. The only boy in class, Haziq was a smart kid who's pretty vocal too.

Anyhow, the making of the cookies went smoothly, though a little boring for them. It got significantly livelier when they were using the cookie cutters to cut them. THe incidents of the dolphins who lost its tails got them all laughing in cackles.

The class got even more excited once they have piping bags of icing in their hands and they excitedly went about squeezing icings on their dinosaurs and butterflies and throwing sprinkles and dragees. While munching on some of the cookies. I felt very comfortable by then, even relaxed. They were doing good stuff. Although initially, piping icing was pretty hard on small hands, but they managed it well.

Things got rowdier when the parents turned up and they were even more excited that their kids. Understandably, I guess.

All in all. I think the class went well. Shyamala was a real big help, in the kitchen as well as in her eye contact with me on how to move forward and all.

But I blinking FORGOT to bring my camera. So, am begging Shyamala for pictures of yesterday. You should see the cookies the kids made. Some of them were really good. Sarah who's pretty slim has the most amazing control of the bag and her creations were amazing for a beginner.

I felt such pride to see the results.

I can definitely do this again. *especially after looking at the cheque. Hehehe*

Teaching Kids To Bake ?

You've got to be kidding me? I heard that, MOSH!

Anyways.

For the benefit of all 9 of my blog readers, I've been enlisted by CakeConnection which is located at Jaya One, PJ to teach their Cookies classes. I actually love the place. It has lots and lots of cookie cutters and they were very acoomodating to get me the cutters I so desire. Shyamala and Nancy are just great women and great bakers too. I went there once to be greeted by the sweet smell of orange butter cakes for their class. Came home desperate to make one but fell asleep thinking of smelling it. Heh!

This Sunday is a 2.5 hours class where I'll be guiding 8 kids to bake sugar cookies, make royal icing for pipinga nd for flooding, color them, and techniques to decorate them cookies. The theme is Animals. I'm still figuring out which animals to choose and how to decorate them.

Next Saturday, I have 8 adults and I'll do the same class, more details I would imagine and more elaborate techniques, I should say.

Now.

I am nervous. I've never taught a bunch of people before. Let alone, this is about baking, it's not about coal or gas or electricity where I think I know my stuff. I am beyond nervous here. Whatever were they thinking when the owner called me up and asked if I could do this. And I said, YES? Whatever was I thinking?

*takes deep breath*

Hokeh!

I think I can do this. I know I can. I hink I'll be great. Like what Day loves to say. Sharing is caring. I love to bake the cookies and I love decorating them more. So, what better way to spread the joy of making them ?

p/s I hope the kids would like me. And I so hope the adults would find me alright. Now, which tudung to wear? Pink, I think. Must appear hip. Must appear trendy, retro, but stylo. Must look slightly whimsical too. Decorators should appear whimsical. No?

Friso Brings My Family Out

This is so out of character for me. But diah & bear's invite just tugged at me.

Family day. The topic.

What should I blog about?

We, as a family never have a designated family day. Because every day IS a family day. But of course these days, when the girls are bigger and Ariz is off diapers and can more or less behave himself reasonable well for a 3 year old, our weekends are more structured.

I think we struck cinemas off for a good 8 years of our marriage and we're back in the business. I've always loved the big screens. I remember going to the cinemas every Friday night when I was at Uni. And now, we go as a unit, all 6 of us. Caution though. Pick your movie. HighSchoolMusical-ish works wonderful. Madagascar's always a great pick. Pick your time. Do the 11am shows and they'll be eager-beaver, otherwise you'd end up guiding sleepy kiddos out of the cinemas.

I read Lollies's family adventures in the wild. It's funny how her being away in a barren desert,far, far away from our tropical land, has been to all these nature-infused attractions. And we have not.

I'm almost ashamed of ourselves. I think families evolve.

First, then the kids are younger, we frequent tthe pets/animals zoos/sanctuaries/petting zoos and places like that. Then we're at the cinemas where they can appreciate magic being played in front of you, apart from reading them in books. Then I guess, once they've gotten slightly older, nature walks/treks/camps should start to be included.

I guess we're almost there. If I can convince Ariz to wear his shoes all the time that he doesn't need to pick every single thing on the floor/earth to be investigated. If I can convince Ariz that creepy-crawlies are there to creep and to crawl. So leave them be. No need to be stomping on them. I cannot tell you how many dead insects he has stomped upon. It's almost he hunts these, completely unperturbed by them.

Of course, the girls need to realise that animals and nature are good things. Things crawl and things creep and no need to scream your lungs out for Mummy or Daddy to come rescue you from that little beetle on the wall, minding it's own business.

You think we're ready for nature?

Weekend Project

I made 25 if these yesterday. For Salehah and for a wedding. Hope she likes them. I contemplated with using fondant or royal icing for the white base. And I decided that royal icing was better.

And I left them flooded cookies in the girls' room for close to 10 hours under air-conditioned room for them to dry and they dried perfectly. Alhamdulillah! I was so happy with them.

Roti Dua !

Traditional Challah is a family of Brioche i.e. very rich bread with butter and eggs. Mine were supposed to have braids but they puffed up so much, the braids were gone.

Preposterous Service

An email I replied this morning to ask me for an Authorisation Letter just to block my line for the phone that was missing 13 days and founda dah pun.

Aku punyala bengkek, I think I'm forwarding this to the papers soon, if I do not receive any feedback or apology within the next week of so.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Dear CikAdikYangBalasEmailSaya,

I am utterly dissapointed in PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC's service. True, the line is under my company's registration. But surely, in cases of emergencies, PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC would do all it could to assist its customers to block the line as need be i.e. suspend the line first, THEN ask for documentation. Is it not?

I MUST reiterate here that I sent an email on the 4th November 2008, 2 hours after the phone was missing in Singapore AND I called the C-areline at around 8:00pm, 4 hours after the phone went missing to further ensure that the line has been blocked to prevent any unauthorised use of my line, as what has been advised by PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC in such circumstances. I was assured that the line would be blocked in my call, however, no reply to the email was received until today, 13 days later.

However, I was sorely SHOCKED and DISSAPOINTED that on the 5th November, upon getting the information that the phone has been returned, I called to unblock the line and I was told that the line WAS NEVER BLOCKED AT ALL!

After an email AND a phonecall to your c-areline, nothing was done. Preposterous!

Imagine if my phone has fallen to the wrong hands and the unathorised usage would have cost my a lot of money, which PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC would immediately deny and penalise me if I do not pay up.

And sadly, your reply to my email to pursue this emergency and urgent matter came today, which is exactly 13 days after I reported the phone missing. APPALINGLY BAD SERVICE FOR PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC.

I plan to send an official complaint over this matter and I demand an apology as I believe that such offhand manner to which PhoneCompanyBeginsWithC handles its customers' emergency matters are in TATTERS and do not wish this predicament to fall to some other innocent paying customers like I have.

Thank you.

Kiko and Kiki

We are now proud owners of a pair of 2 months old rabbits, as of yesterday.

A brown boy rabbit named Kiko and a white, pink-eyed girl Kiki.

The girls must think that rabbits are like dolls. Barely 4 hours in, I found the rabbits sitting on a baby head rest (the one you put on strollers) with blankets. Sheesh! And not to mention, the numerous pictures taken of the rabbits so far.

Ariz last night, in the dead of the night, came down all by himself and reported to me that the rabbits were still not sleeping. MrGart was sheepishly mumbling something about nocturnal habits of some animals who produce offspring like they do, farting.

I'm kinda okay with this arrangement. Because :

1. Rabbits stay in the cage. Thry don't wander. They don't irk neighbours. They don't scratch my sofa and I will unlikely find dung suprises elsewhere in the house.
2. Rabbits don't shed hair. Big plus!
3. Rabbits food won't cost us an arm and a leg. Pellets aren't that expensive either. BTW, I thought I could feed it green stuff or maybe carrots. But apprarently these kacukan rabbits eat only pellets and maybe occasionally cucumbers. They should not walk on earth. What????
4. Rabbits don't need to be entertained. Like MrGart like to say, they eat, drink, sleep, eat some more and then get some "fun" and have babies. I retorted that that sounded like him.
5. Rabbits don't need to be petted to sleep or need that much TLC before it starts bawling its eyes out for lack of love.
6. Rabbits' poo are in little neat balls which can easily be washed (not by me, obviously) and does not stink all the way to the heavens.
7. Rabbits are rather cheap too.
8. Rabbits are not territorial and won't mark its territories and start to pee all over the place.
9. They are cute and cuddly.
10. They keep the kids' entertained for the long school holidays and off our backs with their constant demands to go here and there, do this and that and the perennial whinings of "Boring la".

Boleh pakai ?

It Was Lost No More

Yeahhh!

I couldn't believe it. But my phone's back with me again. In one piece.

Working. And not a scratch on it. Tho minus its cover. But definitely in one piece.

Alhamdulillah. And heapfuls of thanks to Azen for getting it from the cab company and into my palms again. I hope I could do something for the honest pakcik driver who turned in my phone.

Careful next time , you said?

At Home ..

Woke up this morning, dizzy. In fact, I've woken up few times durin g the night as Ariz was fidgety and fussy. He ran a temperature and whenever he gets a fever, I shift into ALERT mode. Light sleep, ear thermometer by side ready to stick into hos ear every 5 minutes, the V-oltaren supp ready. Febrile fits are still my nightmare.

I called the office and said that I would be off on emergency today.

Anyhow.

Ariz finally decided that sleep would be impossible. Sat up in his 38.1C body and loudly declared that he was going to school. Hmmmm. When he's made up hi smind, no fevers gonna keep him home. Yikes! This could get ugly.

Dressed, Ariz in Adani's gymwear, Adani in her school uniform and me in ah well, not particulaly ravishing looking, we set out to school. He remembered that he forgot his book and his favourite TopGear magazine. So, I made a deal with him and we left to get supplies.

But after all the bribes to make him less eager to go to school )when he's not suppsoed to yet), he wailed and he screamed when he realised that we're going home. Argghhhhh!!!

Susah sungguh la. Bila kena pegi, tak nak. Bila tak payah pegi, beriya-iya la pulak. Adoi!

Excuses Expired So far :
1. Kawan Ariz semua tak beli beg sekolah lagi. Next year, kita pegi okay?
2. Kawan Ariz tak dapat baju sekolah lagi. Next year, kita pegi okay?
3. Classroom Ariz tak paint colour black (his current fav colour) lagi. Bila siap, kita pegi okay?
4. Auntie Manjit (van driver) kata next year, kita pegi okay?
5. Classroom Ariz belum siap lagi. Roof and walls are not ready yet. Next year, kita pegi okay?

Luckily, we only have about a week left for this eager-beaver kiddo of mine.

Suggestions ?

Girly Design Wanted

I've resigned to the fact that I kinda suck when it comes to designing websites. Big time!

It's the time factor that I don't have. It's probably the lack of creativity and sparks that I suffer from. But my RazzleDazzleCookies website is .. well .. sucks! And severely and entirely not terribly pleasing to the eyes either.

So, there.

I need help.

It's a cookies website, so I'm imagining pinks and browns, probably polka dots, with swirls and curvy text. Ultimately girly layout. I thought it would simple with the free layouts around the web, but heck, it's not. I know that NOW.

So, you out there. I don't have tonnes of money to pay for your precious creativity and sheer brilliance. But I think I can spare some dosh. Don't let that discourage you eh?

So, if you think you can, please help! Please? Pretty please ?

p/s Now back to Me, Me and more Me stories. Hor hor hor !!

Down and Out at KotaSinga

Update: Phone IS found, people. Alhamdulillah. The chatty cabdriver returned it to the company and Azen is gonna get it for me. Yay!!

MrGart nearly bit my head off last night. Takutttt!! But I'm just so relieved.

---

Was about to blog about my 3 days here at the KotaSinga.

But I'm just too disraught about .. LOSING MY BRAND NEW PHONE!!!

Hokeh!

*take deep breaths*

*more, deeper breaths*

I think I know what happened.

Asha called from school and by the time I picked it up, I lost the call. Our cabdriver was very chatty, asking about the 3-sided Vice Presidency fights for the KelabMelayu. I left Faiz to do the talking, reminding myself to put phone back into my handbag. I could not remember if I did.

Well, I checked in. Bought some chocolates, bought some lipstick & eye shadow and headed straight to the Lounge. I need to shower, actually cos when I checked out from the hotel, I was very late and had to time to shower.

I only remembered to check where my phone was while I was in the shower and it was NOT there. I turned my handbag (which was huge, mind you) inside out and still the phone was nowhere to be found.

I asked the Lounge girls to call the number and no one answered.

So, this is what's gonna happen.

MrGart is gonna murder me. He gave me this phone. He is so gonna skin me alive. Before that, once touched down, I need to cancel the line and once home, find my faithful, faded N95 phone again. Then MrGart can start murdering me. Sigh!

But seriously. Au sungguh berdukacita. I was having a blast with the phone. It's my new best friend. We're just getting acquinted and we're clicking alright. Now, I've lost it!

Dah takde rezeki, I comfort myself.

Bummer!

Anyhow, need to make my way to the Gate now and board the plane home.

Jittery Over Exams

Today is Aliya & Asha's first day of the PKSR 2 (Penilaian Kebangsaan Sekolah Rendah, eh, macam tak betul je ni?).

Anyhow. I pray that the girls will do well this time around. If you recall, both girls have done rather poorly in the PKSR 1. *shudder*

Aliya, this time around has gotten very studious and has taken all the initiatives to study without my telling her and all. She's also started to read her books in between school and KAFA and even reading storybooks a lot too. Alhamdulillah.

Asha, has improved leaps and bounds this semester. I couldn't help to think that she's finally reached that milestone where she's developmentally ready and she wasn't before. I know the excuse of being a December baby kinda is stale already, seeing some thriving December babies around. But seriously, she finally is there.

Asha's reading a lot these days. Magazines, books and her spelling is just awesome. ALhamdulillah too. When I think about it, the time when I pushed her and pushed her, and we'd be in tears, maybe I shouldn't pushed her so hard, so far. She wasn't ready then. But she is there today. Insyallah.

Adani meanwhile has been getting remarks of being very matured for her age, she's intuitive and she's really smart. Adani started reading on her own early this year, slightly over 4 years old, which was unusual for us. She's so hooked on Dr Seusse' books. She loves the sing-songy nature of the books. Her favourites are It's Not Easy Being A Bunny, One Fish Two Fish, Cat In The Hat, Fish Out of Water and she's starting on Horton the Elephant. Good thing, I love Dr Seusse books and we have almost a whole collection of them.

Adani too is very very intuitive. She can read people's mood very well and she'll adjust her reaction to it. She can sense if I'm in a foul mood and knows not to cross me. But her weakness is also her princess-y demands. When she wants something done, she wants it and will not take NO for an answer. And she loves to pick fights with Ariz which almost always will end with her crying.

She danced in her concert yesterday. A Kuda Kepang dance and boy o boy. She rocked! She swayed her hips, she strutted her bottoms and she twisted and turned and twirled and she really stole the show. WHooohooo! Joget jangan tak joget! Mana dia dapat joget tu pun, aku tak tau. But sungguh teruja! When I get the camera, I'll post the pictures, definitely!

Ariz meanwhile is nagging us to send him to school for past many months. On mornings he woke up early, I've had to dress him in Adani's gym wear (he once of twice insisted to wear Adani's dress!), get his bag and socks and shoes on too. Manjit, the van will come over and he'd call me later whining that Manjit wouldn't let him on the van. I would tell him that his class is not ready yet and his friends are still buying bags and books and shoes. Next year he will go to school. Of course, "next year" means tomorrow to him. Sigh!

Well .. what a lengthy post and it's not even jittery. Ha ha .. I've gotten more relaxed when exams are in the corner and I've learnt to take things as they come.

BTW, Saturday we were registering the kids's 2009 KAFA and we're RM1,221 poorer. Wanted to register for Aliya's tuition but the fees, uhmm we'll come back, we said! Yikes! Next year could be a challenge. 2 kids at kindy, 2 kids at KAFA and school expenses. Kids sure don't come cheap these days, eh! Hmmm ..

Girls and Money

I posted in my blog before about Asha and her "generosity" to buy ALL of her friends tidbits from the stationery store upon finding out Daddy gave her RM50 instead of RM1. I had to pick my jaws off the floor when I first learned of it. Wrecked my brain to find reasonable explanation and settled on Daddy's mistake of handing out wrong note in the dimmed room. No hanky-panky there. Pure mistake on MrGart's side.

Hokeh!

Then Asha's friend's mother came ding-donging at the front door. Unannounced. Should I worry ? Hmmm.

She came in, Sarah, her daughter almost dragged herself in, head bowed with an expression of pure torture. Hmmmmmmm.

Mine was the 3rd house she's been that evening, she began. She's still in her work clothes and it's almost 8:30pm. I was desperate to make 4 trays of brownies for Aliya & Asha's school do tomorrow. I was also sticky and in work clothes too. I was hungry and needing to get dinner.

Anyhow. Her story was l-o-n-g.

But I will spare you the pain and cut it really short.

Her Sarah, a Std 2 schoolgirl has been rather entreprenuer-ish. She drew pictures of a super car (don't ask me if it's a Porsche or a Beemer, believe you me, I asked and she din't know), wrote RM1 on each and made 4 copies of them each at 10 sen a piece. She was selling them for RM1 to innocent, wide-eyed boys at school. She was caught, obviously as the school was weeding out unauthorised selling and buying at school.

Go pick your jaws off the floor, folks!

This is the interesting bit.

Sarah lied about making the copies at home. I shuddered to think that Asha conspired by making the copies at our house, which I knew she knows how to. But no, that's not the case. Phew. Apparently Sarah paid to make copies at the same stationery shop Asha was caught dishing out goodies to her friends.

The mother doesn't give any pocket money to Sarah at all for KAFA. Hmm.

So, where did Sarah get her money?

House No 1: Mom's a fund manager for a bank. Sarah's been getting 50 sen from her daughter on a daily basis.

House No 2: No details on this, but I guess we can call her FundManager Junior 2.

House No 3 (ours) : Asha's been giving Sarah RM1 every few days. And the best part is that, Asha made Sarah her proxy. Remember Asha was caught although it wasn't her fault, just her misguided generosity? Well, I think she's now rather shy to go into the shop after the incident. So, I think she made Sarah a deal, or Sarah made Asha a deal. Asha gives her her money. Sarah goes and buys stuff and gives Asha a sweet or two and keeps the rest as payment.

Dang!

So, apart from a Fund Manager Jr 3, Asha is also a proxy master! On a losing end, pulak tu!

Folks! Jaws off the floor, please. You'll trip someone if you don't.

In the end, Sarah returned RM10 to Asha and apologised. We talked to Asha and the rest about not giving money to other people as well as receiving money from other people with no good reason.

Side Story: The mother also regaled me with a story of a 5 year old at Adani's tadika. He's been handing out Raya angpows with RM5 and RM3 to friends, telling them that the RM3 were to be given to younger brothers or sisters. The recipents' parents sussed this out and alerted the teacher who immediately acted to collect back the money.

Either GenerousKiddo is :
1. A philanthropist who gives out his OWN angpow money OR
2. He found Dad's stash of undistributed angpows and seeing how delightful kids are at receiving angpows, emulated the parents and took the stash to school.

You choose?

p/s Rasanya masa zaman aku sekolah dulu, takde benda-benda camni tak ? Adoiiii .. pening kepala makcik.

Roaring Away the Afternoon

Amelia the Butterfly and Ariz the Tiger, at the Bukit Jelutong Masjid Open House last weekend.


Ayisha and her painted face. She's so pleased with them, she didn't wanna wash it off.



Even Aliya couldn't resist. She opted for a half face with crowns and stuff.


I just realised I didn't have Adani's full frontage picture, so I guess this would have to do.

We had fun. The kids had fun. I had great food. Rojak & cendol Karim's were just outta this world. The company was great, the food's better. We all went home, content.

I Walked That Stage

It was a solemn ceremony alright.

In the absence of my parents and all other siblings (all of my family are over at Alor Star for cousin Yazzir's wedding. I'm still bitter, but that's another post altogether), we decided not to take the kids. It was 6:30am when we left home, anyway. We'll take a family picture, I said.

So, robe in hand, I arrived to a sea of people. There were only 25 of us, Master graduands. The other 400 odd graduands were the diploma holders. So, we stick out like sore thumb with our cyan sash and robe and the mortarboard. The diploma holders only have the robe.

Anyways. During the assembling stage, we joked around and we laughed, reminiscing how unreal this moment was, looking at the hardship we all went through to get here. The sacrifices and the lost sleep and the worrying. But we got here alright. I was sad to learn that my 3 other friends didn't make the list. That left me the only Perempuan Melayu Terakhir. Ha ha ha. Isaac, who's the best student for 2008, who was also my best buddy in almost all the modules I attended was cracking jokes every few steps. Very much the same Isaac.

Isaac and me, before he was whisked to be interviewed (by the guy standing behind me).

I was robed. Mortarboard placed behind my turqoise awning. Procession began. I felt pride, I had goosebumps, walking down that aisle. I am here. I made it. I made it.

When my name was called for Master of Science in Engineering Business Management, it was unreal. I walked up, shook the hand of Amanda and we exchanged pleasantries and I stepped off the stairs safely and walked around the hall to admiring faces along the way. *perasan*

Yay! My only regret was that my parents weren't there to witness this magical moment with me. Part of the motivation for the Master was to have my parents watch me and be proud of me, when they didn't have the chance during my first time in Manchester. But, hey .. I think they're proud still. *bitter still*

Anyway. This is very out of character for me to be posting my own pictures in this blog. But due to the overwhelming demand, who am I to resist? Ha ha ha.

MrGart and me, squinting in the bright sunlight. Mak oii, panasnya robe tu. Tapi kerana cool, aku tahankan jua. Lihatla awning ku, masih curvy! And the kebaya matched the sash's colour. Ahaks!

The whole gang, or part of them. They're really nice and good-natured people. Sane people, really. I just stick out like a sore thumb. But we got on perfectly. The one in red robe was our PQM lecturer, not my favourite subject, definitely.

Back to normal life, I guess.

Rehearsal Story

Tomorrow's a big day for me.

After the long 3 years of bslogging away the books and the notes and the messed up and karat brain, I finally will walk up the aisle and receive the scroll for my Master degree.

Today I was at the Rehearsal and boy o boy. This was a BIG event. Very ceremonious, mind you. A culture shock, I had.

The last graduation I attended at UMIST, UK was kinda low-key. We came, were given robes, he high-fived, we laughed and we joked around. We walked up and receive the scroll in whatever pose or whatever style one prefers. The mood was joyous and utter relief.

Here in the Boleh-land. We were told that the graduation ceremonies are solemn in nature.

You shall stand at THIS SPOT. Then THAT SPOT. Then THE OTHER SPOT. You shall walk THIS way. Stand on THAT cross. Curtsy THIS way. Turn your head THIS way. Hold out your hands to receive the flat SCROLL this way. Turn it so the logo faces THIS way. Then walk off the stage, smilingly. NEVER jump, and never wave. Then walk ALL THE WAY ACROSS the hall to your seat.! Hmmmmmmmm..

This is so new to me.

Very very ceremonious. Almost cultural. I'm the granduand number 2 to be walking up and I told Isaac who's the first and the best stduent for 2008 to better not screw up and make me look bad. Ha ha.

Being the number 2, I sit at the very front row, 2 steps from the Gamelan team. Entertainment, I thought.

Anyways.

Hope I won't trip tomorrow, insyallah.

p/s How does one wear the mortarboard when one wears the must-not-scrunch-awning tudung ? Should I wear bawal instead ?

Tudung Frenzy .. Gulp

I confess.

I succumbed to the tudungs by the Munawwarah. I've resisted them for so long. Since masa dulu-dulu, when they had that serkup thing. Which have vanished completely from the shelves or rather tables at the shop. Dulu 1 outlet, now 4 you!! Gua teruja!

Anyway. I accompanied a friend looking for a jubah during Ramadhan and came back with 3 tudungs! Such such weak resistance I have. *hangs head in shame*

The moss green is my penultimate favourite. I wore the pink one during Raya and gosh, people just couldn't look past my tudung. Penat aku cerita aku beli kat mana. Pressor! Nasib baik diorang kata aku cun, kalau tidak, memang la.

Tapi seriously. I've seen the tudungs before. Especially on a lot of you here. *points to you, you, you and you* But the prices scared me uhm rather shitless. But the thing is that, once you've tried one on, you start to make sense of the price tag and you start to see it in a different light. Berpinar-pinar gitu.

I for one, has very ticklish neck. Those tudungs where you wrap around your neck and slip the ends at your cheeks are major no-no for me. I'm already squirming at the mere thought of them. Can't have anything near my neck. If MrGart is afraid of heights, I can't have anything on my neck. Call it a neck-ophobia for lack of a better, more accurate jargon for it.

So, the tudungs just eliminate that for me and they look really really nice. The colours are retro too, very classy and none of those blaring or glaring primary colours. The only way I can describe the colours is using at least 2 words. The one I just bought for Nobita is kinda mossy green-ish with a tinge of pink-ish and beige-ish too

Anyhow. I've burnt a rather huge hole in my imitation handbag. So, I'll just go and ogle over my new purchases and hope that MrGart misses this post.

BTW, the pinkish-purplish-vogue-ish no-belah tudung I just bought is OH-SO-GORGEOUS! Hehehe.

Slow Slow La Ni ..

Is what Ariz would always say when I remind to walk instead of run. But instead of slow-slow, he'd say llo-llo which sounds very very cute.

He's really a talkative person these days. I seemed to recall worrying about him not speaking much. Seems aeons ago.

Anyhow.

Is it me or MukaBuka is so the very s-l-o-w these freaking days?

Dang!

MrWifeyNuclear has challenged to a gazzilion number of WordTwist games and I have not been able to rise to his challenges cos the MukaBuku refuse to load or even if it does, it gets stuck on a page I've to wait and wait and wait.

But don't me wrong here. I ain't sitting here at the office staring at MukaBuku all the time. I work too. I work smart, did I tell you before?

Anyways.

I've googled about it and I think most ppl think MukaBuku has too many applications installed like Who's Your Face Most Likely Look Like? and Give A Penny Back and Screw The Management, Sign the Petition. So apparently these meaningless applications are slowing the the homepage loads.

Ah well.

MrWifeyNuclear can sit and wonder if ever he's gonna be better than me. I'll let him suffer until I get my hands on the games.

Till then. I'll keep pressing the F5 and knock my head against the table.

p/s Am supposed to be having ayam golek with MrWifeyNuclear. Aku dah lapar dah ni. Cissss!

Knackered

penat nya lahai. We just came home after a wedding and 2 open houses. malaysia might as well declara today as hari open house sedunia.

Think everywherwe we look, we see some jamuans. The roads are jammed up cos people are scurrying from one place to another.

Anyhow. Food was good. Ihad fun.

But

Yummeh

Okay okay, that's not exactly how my bread turned out. But it was very very close. Very!

I would've taken a picture of it but it was 10-ish last night and I got lazy to get the phone. I could've taken the sliced bread topped with butter and jam I brought in this morning, but they're all devoured already. So, heck. Imagine okay?

It's called the Golden Honey Oat Bread and it's such a big success to me, I'm grinning stupidly now. It's soft, it's brown, it's raised, it looks like bread and it was hugely puffed. I am so pleased with my self. And it tastes wonderful too. Yippee!

I guess it helps that I searched high and low for Vital Gluten Wheat (click here to find out where you can get it in KL) and finally found it at Pastrypro. Honestly, I've never made breads this soft, but then again I don't make a lot of bread, anyways.

Well.

I'm not sure how the kids would take to the not-so-white slices of bread. But Ariz was munching a slice last night. BTW, since MrGart was not at dinner, I made chicken soup with pasta and put it teensy-wensy daun bawang in it for color. That caused a big pick-greens-off-my-soup debacle with Ariz & Adani. Sigh! Aliya & Asha are big enough to stuff the greens under a pasta shell and quickly chuck the offending greens in the sink when they're done. Grrrr !!

Wish I'd brought more in cos I pine for some now. MrGart had 2 warm slices of the bread when he came home from his badminton session last night. He grunted. Approved!

Feel Like Some Sushi

California rolls.

Miso soup.

Shishamos.

Uwaaaa .. diorang dah tinggalkan aku!!!!

Excuses Mexcuses

Ariz needs a haircut. Fullstop.

He has sideburns reaching way below his ears. And his hair has surpassed his collar too. His sisters are calling him ARIZ-A now.

What's worse is that, a month ago, he took a pair of scissors and nipped off a bunch of hair at the top of his head, so that needs attending to.

But he refuses to have a haircut.

First, he ran out of our friendly barber mamak at BJ.

Then he screamed bloody murder at the barbers at TTDI Jaya and Tesco.

When we were at Kedah, we thought, let's try the Malay barbers. Until he saw the typical barber shop's chairs and started to throw himself on the floor, screaming and dangerously tugged himself away from me, trying to run away.

Last night, we were at a neighbourhood's salon for Aliya, Ayisha and Adani's haircuts. Ayisha & Adani wanted shoulder length hair, their fringes were left the same length. They look much much neater and cuter too. Ayisha suddenly acquired cheeks! Adani looked plumper and chubbier. I negotiated with Aliya to trim her long hair. From 2 inches off, we struck 1 inch off. Fine.

Then I said to Ariz. "Boleh potong rambut tak ?"

Eyes buldged. "Mummy!! Ariz BOY la! Mummy girl. Ariz kan BOY!" He had this incredulous look on his face that made me feel like an idiot. Ha ha ha.

"I know, but auntie tu pun boleh potong rambut boy jugak, kan ?"

"NO. Iz nak potong rambut dengan TOI" "WHAT??"

Note: He has this fascination with Toi, the AF6 guy. Ariz dresses himself with a t-shirt and an unbutton shirt with jeans. Like Toi, he said.

Then he mumbled some dissatisfaction of the whole ludicrous idea of him getting a haircut at a girl's place and I heard the name Toi being mentioned every now and then.

He then puts on my large Guess shades.

Sigh! Anak jantan ku sorang.

Angry, Bad-Tempered and Cross

It's been such a long long no-blogging time for me.

Opps. Before I ramble on, Selamat Hari Raya to all 16 of you my loyal blog-readers. I seek your forgiveness in any wrongdoings I have done in my action, in my speech and in my writings too. Mintak maaf ye.

That out. Now's the story.

I've been really sick the past week or so. Very very very rare for me, this has been. Viral fever, which started with MrGart 2 days after we came back to his place and it quickly hopped on to Ariz, Adani and Ayisha and even me. I thought I was made of stronger and sterner stuff. Nope. I succumbed to it too. Aliya was left holding the fort.

Ariz had a febrile fit episode on first raya night. He was 40C and I was very very alarmed. For the next 2 nights, in my spinning head and fatigued self, I watched him sleep, unable to let myself fall asleep, worrying if his fever would spike and induce yet another scary fit episode. Alhamdulliah. That's the only one.

We came home on 3rd Raya and picked my parents from their 34-days umrah. All went well. On Monday, I stayed home and slept on that couch all day long. Btw, Andes was still away on her Raya leave and luckily MrGart was on leave. I felt absolutely rotten. My whole body ached and when I coughed, my chest might as well explode. It certainly felt like it. Such humbling experience.

Ariz was still feverish and since it's already day 6 or 7, I obliged to Zithromax for him and Amoxy for him. We never take antibiotics. But I was worried about the prolonged fevers and secondary infection for Ariz. Me, I wanted to feel anything other than utter crappiness I felt at that time. But, I had a bit of a reaction to the antibiotic, ulcers and sore gums. I also lost my appetite, thought that's not such a bad thing.

Anyhow. I'm back at the office to a loadful of stuff to do. Feeling better now. Hope the ulcers and the sore gums would heal soon. I've also lost close to 5 kgs in the past week that I've been sick.

Well. Ariz is well now, still snotting every now and then. The girls are better too. And the maid is back. The house is back to its spotless condition and I can stop being the angry, bad-tempered and cross rhinoceros that I have been.

Chorus from Ariz's fav song in Animal Jungle CD (picked up from Mothercare a zillion years ago but much much loved and sang along to on countless car trips) :

Rhino, Rhino ..
We're very sorry please
We thought you were
Angry, bad-tempered and cross,
We didn't mean to tease

Rhino, Rhino,
You must think we are mean
You're the kindest,
The nicest
The friendliest beast
The jungle's ever seen.

Stranger On The Train

I was on the train yesterday afternoon. I picked up these three pre-ordered books I've been waiting for from Kino at KayElCC. Earlier I decided against driving into KL and too the train instead.



Anyhow.

On the journey from KLCC to Abdullah Hukum, I sat and hugged my 3 heavy books and planning on a myriad of things to bake and decorate. I hardly noticed this rather old-y person sitting next to me, about 60 or so, I think.

I fidgeted and he moved, giving me more space to which I smiled warmly at him.

Then he asked me what I bought from Kino.

"Just books."

"Mahal ke ?"

"Boleh la jugak. Saya dah order buku ni lama dah."

"Buku pasal apa?" ...

And then he asked.

"Boleh tanya sikit? You ni mesti belajar kat UK ke US ke ?"

"Errkk. Hmm betul la tu."

"Dah ada Masters ke?" Eh pakcik ni, bila masa pulak dia baca blog aku ni.

"Lepas ni taknak buat PhD ke ?"

Hah! Then all the way from Masjid Jamek to Abdullah Hukum, he elaborated explained why one look and he could guess my education level and that I'm a great candidate for PhD. But I was intrigued. He mentioned that it's not about reconition. It's not about being celebrated, and not even for the title.

There's just not a lot of orang kita perempuan pulak tu yang ada PhD, particularly in technical engineering area. And more interestingly, he said that think about the pahala yang akan dapat bila dapat PhD. Evertime you write a paper or a book, as long as someone is using the book for his/her benefits, you get the pahala. Teaching someone a skill is one of the best ways to share your knowledge.

I never think of it that way. Truthfully, I never imagine myself pursuing my doctorate. Myabe I will, maybe I won't but at this juncture of my life, right now. I just want to take a step up my career and focus on the family and my baking. A long-drawn thesis is not on the agenda just yet.

Anyway. It's cool to think that I could strike a conversation and learn something new everday.

When I left the train, we said our goodbyes and I never knew his name. Nor did he.

Thought I Had Help

I don't often blog about work. Unless it's one of those venting-off sessions where expletives are commonly blanked off and replaced with kid-friendly expressions. Of which there were many.

Anyway, I already have a life working full time, so the blog aims to just channel my energy and whatever left of my creative juice flowing. Hence no work blog.

But this is a whiny post, so excuse me.

Well you see. I recently changed portfolio. I used to have a broader scope but now I'm focused on 2 major fuels in the industry and everything around it, the price, the volume, the tonnages, the problems, the people, the markets and the highlights. It's a lot of hard work, mind you. I was doing it for the whole of last year, as part of my job, but it soon grew to be a menace, so, I was put here to manage it and put my finger on it, lest it goes astray and the house of cards would come down.

I had my faithful engineer Hez with me before, helping me to stem over the brouhaha over the many issues we have. I've entrusted her with things I knew she could perform without my supervision. Then I left that post and came here. So I lost Hez.

I then gained a new engineer. Call him Helm. He's one of those very upbeat, eager-beaver and gotta-get-moving kinda person. I kinda like him. But I get the nagging feeling that he's not too interested in what I do and what he's to do. Though he hid it well.

Anyhow. Last Friday, I learnt that Helm has resigned. He's gone off to Ukraine to accompany wifey. Good reason I guess. I would resign too if I have a spouse in a foreign land. Heck! I'd resigned too if MrGart could whisk me off to a strange land where I could explore their bread and the country.

Well. The point is that. I have no assistant now. Uwaaaaaaa. Dang!

Friends of BJ Masjid

Pictures are courtesy of Friends of Masjid Bukit Jelutong.

Whooaaa !!

That's my first expression upon reading the email on the commencement of the baby-sitting cum entertainment for kiddies service at the Masjid so mothers can pray in peace and not feel too guilty for bringing the kids too.

And I whoooo-ed some more cos for once I made a difference of a simple post in my blog. Read We Braved the Masjid and Not Last Night. It's something I felt so strongly about but have no means to enable it. Until this year, when Ariz is already 3.5 years and as what mothers would say, life begins when your last child hits 3. Ha ha !

Anyhow. My post travelled a bit and got into mainstream Masjid BJ's communication loop and quickly gathered momentum and last night it came into being. Whoever says I only blog for petty issues. I'm so proud to be a jemaah at my masjid. It's the community, it's just the can-do attitude all around.


Well, we arrived last night and went straight to the room. Hasnah & Dr Saadiah stood with bags of goodies in their hands. Unfortunately, my kids are the clingy type and Adani refused to stay. I made Aliya & Asha stay with Adani and I had to take Ariz along for Isya'.


The reluctant Adani.

Before Terawikh, I snuck out and borrowed Aliya and get her and her friend to cajole Ariz to go there. Yay! And both Adani & Ariz stayed in the class throughout the Terawikh.


I knew this was a sure-fire way to get Ariz to stay.


Ariz & rakan sebaya.


Adani still looking reluctant.

I think last night was a HUGE success. For the past week or more, I have persevered and brought them all to the masjid every night and have resorted to let off Aliya to keep the rowdy Ariz in check. There were still kids milling about behind the safs at the anjung, but it'll be a matter of time before they all get whisked over for fun times with Auntie Hasnah & Dr Saadiah. Meanwhile, I can pray in peace and quiet.

Full Moon And Howling Kids

We came home last night from the Masjid, eager to dig into the soft kaya buns I bought from my office and me, to plonk myself on the sofa watching Lipstick Jungle.

It was a short drive.

When we entered Kubah area, it was pitch black. Hmmm..

Driving into our street. Still pitch black and some neighbours were already outside, escaping the heaty indoors. A blackout!

Daymmmnnn !!

I was in telekungs, hokeh! And it was getting hot. Chitchatted with Raz and then after a while, I went and changed into a tudung instead. The street quickly turned into a street event with parents chatting and kids with torchlights laughing and chasing each other in circles.

It wasn't really pitch black as the moon was very bright. It was 16th Ramadhan and it's full moon. Alhamdulillah. We could see the surface of the moon clearly and it was an awesome sight. When was the last night you gazed at the moon, marvelling in its glory ? I couldn't remember.

Anyhow. By 11:45pm, Adani was already sleepy and clingy but the lights were still out. So, we decided to take a drive around to just knock the kids into slumber in the air-cond. Alhamdulillah, by the time we reversed the car, the lights came back on! Lega!

Night night ! I love you, my air-conditioner although you're taking too much of our budgeted 400kWh a month limit!

A Suggestion to Abang Polis

This morning while driving to work, there was an unusually long jam towards FedHighway KL-bound, coming from Subang NKVE Toll Plaza. Since June 4th, the jam dissapeared to my delight. I guess petrol was expensive and ppl were car-pooling. And now that the price is slightly cheaper, there're more cars on the streets now.

Anyhow. Even if there was a jam, the queue would still be moving. This time. It was NOT. Then it moved for a while and stopped again. Hmmm.

Once I've entered into the smooth FedHighway, I saw the root of the problem.

A traffice police man. A blinking policeman. *reminding self cussing is strictly prohibited during Ramadhan*

Get this. I was driving in a dedicated slip road, into FedHighway. The lane is not merging into the other 3 lanes. In fact, the lane could not cause any jam at all. But the other drivers from the other 3 lanes are the ones trying to crash our lanes.

And what did this traffic guy do?

HE BLINKING STOPPED THE TRAFFIC FROM THE SLIPROAD TOLET THE LANE-CRASHERS INTO OUR DEDICATED SLIP ROAD!!

Daymmmmnnn!

I felt like stopping by his side and tell him this.

"Pakcik?" *eh silap*

"Abang?" "Abang tau tak by stopping traffic, sekarang ni dah ada queue yang mega panjang all the way to Subang Toll? Lepas tu kan, backlog ni dah block traffic to Klang-bound traffic and even to Kelana Jaya. Abang paham tak what right of way means? Polis-polis traffic macam abang ni, saya harap dah pergi kursus-kursus on traffic management. Bukannya apa. Saya rasa abang MEMBURUKKAN keadaan ada la. Langsung tak membantu. Jadi, saya nak cadangkan, supaya abang balik ofis saje la. Tidur lagi baik. Buat orang sakit hati aje. Boleh ? "

Do you think he'll ticket me ?

Head of Security Again. Sigh!

MrGart is away. Until tomorrow on a type test trip. I groaned and I whined but he went still.

Well, I mulled over whether we could do Terawikh at the masjid. The previous night, when we went there, the kids behaved relatively well. And the jemaah's thinning at this period of the Ramadhan. I guess, people are visiting relatives or staying home to lend morale support to the UPSR kids. BTW, congratulations to the UPSR candidates and also to the parents. Glad you guys made it out in one piece. Hope the mind is not in tatters!

Anyhow, I decided against the masjid and prayed at home instead.

Last night, as usual, I got all girls to sleep in my room. Ariz is already a permanent resident there, anyway. I was a bit more nervous last night after the sad, scary news of the botched robbery turned ugly at D'Kayangan yesterday morning. Al-Fatihah to the mum and I hope the girls and the whole family would remain strong in the face of such grief.

On a different note, I made these recently. These 50 cookies were for Hanna Sofea's birthday party at school, MrsZee's chirpy, pint-sized 5-year old. We personally delivered them cos she has just delivered her 4th child, Az-Zahra about 3 weeks ago.

Oohhh newborns smell so good.

A close-up of the the Birthday Dress.


In pink. Notice the embossed message. Yeahhh! New toys!


And white. I love the white ribbons and the solver dragee.

Anyway. Congratulations MrsZee on the new bundle of joy. Heh! Sama kita nampaknya. And to Hanna Sofea, hope the party was fun. I know you are.

Thankful and Feeling MSc-ish

*feeling rather smug*

I just came back from BATC collecting this *points up* and the official transcript.

Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.

To finally see the certificate and to hold it, caressing my embossed name and the degree awarded to me, it's just an overwhelming feeling.

All those long hard 3 years. The weekends I had to pry myself away from the the little girls, slogging away and sometimes nodding through the 10-hour lectures. The sacrifice we all made. MrGart had to fend for the kids by himself, often stashing them with the maid at those playlands that costs a bomb, on days I had to attend lectures.

The wee hours of the nights I spent poring over the assignments and books and project materials. The frequent sneaking out of bed, trying not to awake Ariz but he'd woken up anyhow, sensing I was not with him and the cycle of nursing/study/sneak out began again.

The days I walked into lectures with a huge tummy carrying Ariz.

But it wasn't all that gloomy.

I made tremendous friends. I made great contacts. And I had GREAT, GREAT fun. It's not half truth. That's the truth.

I love the lectures. I thrive in that environment. I love the simulation games we played. I love the lecturers, hmm well 7 ot of 9 at least. And most of all, all the lectures, they kinda transported me back to lectures at Reynolds C9 Hall of UMIST.

After 10 years being back in Malaysia, hearing the accents of my British lecturers and their quirky and often off-the-cuff remarks just brought me back to those wintry days at Manchester. I love the fact that they made me think out of the box and I love the chats we had during breakfast/lunches/teas and sometimes dinners over how life had been for me then. Reminiscence.

But most of all, I love the fact that I finally got the degree.

Hmm. Enough gloating eh?

But now's the payback time, I guess. I just completed my 10 years of contractual bond of service to the Kompeni, now with this, I'll be here for the next uhmmm 5 years. Yikes!

I ain't worrying about that now. For now, I'm just exhilarated to finally have 6 letters after my name. He he he.

Gartblue BSc. (Honours) Comput@tion, UM1ST; MSc Engineering Business M@nagement, W@rwick University.

*smug still*

A Bright Sun Shiny Day

Just looked outside my window.

The sun is shining. The wind is howling and blowing and I see people milling about smiling.

What a great day!

I'm off to get my MSc transcript that's just arrived from Warwick and admire my results. Ha ha.

p/s this reminds me of a typical summer day in Manchester when we would lounge about at the part, chasing the sunshine and sit out just to chat. Those blissful days!

Thumbs Up for PLUS

I'm impressed.

Remember I mentioned in the last post about me being slapped with a RM44.80 fine by PLUS, deducted in my TnG card ? Amin this morning told me that it took them 5 whole months to refund him. Yikes!

Well, I was at their counter near Subang during lunch. I was prepared to tell my sad story of being hustled and jostled, and my Swift being a short car, the SmartTag didn't register bla bla bla.

So, I was pleasantly suprised when the nice lady behind the counter smiled and handed me a form to fill in. She then proceeded to tell me that if I needed the refund quick, I could go to KLSentral and get cash on the spot. Here, they would post the cheque in a month. A month!

I was alright with a month. She zerorised my TnG balance which was negative 30.40 and I topped up the card and she said the cheque of RM13.40 will arrive in a month.

Wow!

In 10 minutes I was out the door and headed back to the office.

But then again, thinking back, does this happen VERY often ? Or worse, senangnya la hai nak tipu. I'm not sure how one can beat the system on a TnG or SmartTag, but the fact that it's fairly easy to get refunds.

Anyhow.

Alhamdulillah. Life can go on.

p/s A few years back, I had the same predicament and was slapped with a RM30 fine. I never did ask for a refund for reasons, I cannot remember now. Sheeshh!

Day 8 of Ramadhan

Letsee.

I'm proud, alhamdulillah to announce that Ayisha at 7-will-be-8-in-dec has been fasting straight since Day 1. She has the largest eyes during sahurs and has not qualms about waking up and eating at odd hours. Last year she did 14 days, off days were due to sakit perut, fevers and excusable events.

She has such a weakness for food smells. I made french toast with cheese for Adani & Ariz on saturday and she was visibly drooling and pined for it. BUT. But she didn't ask to break her fast. She made me promise to make some for her during sahur. Yes sir! Even when the lil' ones were munching fries in the car, she held her forte. I'm so proud of her, my little princess.

Aliya has been fasting too. She's a veteran and only missed 2 days last year, due to fevers. This girl seriously is liat to bangun. She'd be the one to menggeliat sana, menggeliat sini, baring balik and then baru la nak bangun. Aliya has a habit of sleep talk too. If she's asleep in front of the TV at night, waking her up to walk up to her room requires, strict hand-holding. Otherwise, she'd go open the front door, or to the kitchen opening up the freezer, whatever it is she remembers from the fragments of her dream. But she's never sleep-walk before, alhamdulillah. Teringat Najwa, roti's princess.

Adani has been "fasting" at school only, according to her. Hmmmm.

Ariz is .. errr not fasting and eating in front of the sisters as only Ariz could do.

Meanwhile, I've restocked the fridge and freezer on Sunday. I aim to cook at least 2 dishes a night which one should last into sahur. I aim to make various mee hailam, mee goreng, mee siam, mee singapore, mee udang (err maybe not) too so as not bore the fasting girls.

Last night I made bubur tak lambuk (no coconut) and soto. The kids lapped at it and sejuk hati aku bila makan camtu. I should also add here that our office canteen opens about 11-ish to scores of customers. The laukpauks are fairly reasonable and the best is that I know them and their food quality. So, I normally get a bizzare lauk or two i.e. the ones I'll not likely cook like siput sedut and some kuihs.

Today I bought their keladi asam pedas and daging masak kicap kot. Looks gorgeous. The keladi is a must. Menjilat jari! Tapi yang makannya aku seorang saje, as MrGart doesn't eat any asam pedas or fanciful ingredients like keladi. Rugi kan ? I have kuih kaswi, kuih lopes and seri muka but with pulut hitam. He he he. Serba dua. Itu aje la. All those cost me RM8. Great!

I plan to masak kurma ayam malam ni and pisang awak semalam boleh digoreng. Campur dengan air sirap. Baru pukul 11:30am ni!

Anyhow. Opps I should also mention my day started badly.

First I woke up late. Err own fault. Then Ariz woke up and I had to bawak dia pusing. Then there's a huge jam at the BJ toll plaza. Worse, while I was going through the Smartag lane, the 2 cars behind me were jostling each other and was super-close to my rear, so my Smartag didn't beep but I was through. Hmm.

I had an uneasy feeling and was at TnG lane at Damansara only to be stopped when the indicator flashed RM 44.80 to charge to my card and I've negative value. WHAT??? Apparently, my Smartag didn't register at BJ and coming out with no record of coming in, I was penalised for RM44.80. I was advised to register a complaint. Dang!

That done. A car stalled and my lane stalled until I switched lanes. The traffic was horrendous. I arrived at 8:14am, sheepishly very late. Sigh! Today is also MrGart's first day at his newly transferred office in Putrajaya. Sigh!

*bau keladi asam pedas kat sini. hmmm ..

Not Last Night

No we did not go to the Masjid last night. After I was so gung-ho about it. I posted my previous entry in the UmmikuSayang group which was almost out of character for me and received mixed feedbacks about the issue.

Ninuk patted me at the back and cheered me on and I so love her for that. She seems to understand my worries and if she could learn to just relax and take one step at a time, then maybe I should too. After all, she's the one with FOUR boys and I only have Ariz. I'd have to say that Ninuk has been one pillar of inspiration for me, which is a big thing since Ninuk is really small in size but great in impression. He he !

But there are different views too.

Lily seems to think that despite our good intentions, rowdy kids are a distraction. Fullstop. One good point I think she raised was that although us, mothers, are used to and have learnt to ignore the noise and the antics of our kids while we pray, not all are like us. Particularly the elderly ones or those who have forgotten how kids are just being kids.

Irda, I think tried to marry them both and she said that to weigh between distracting other jemaah and not to wait out too long until it's just too late to assimilate masjid with the kids. Aha! How's that? How do I know?

I figured that the only way to know is to jump.

Insyallah we'll brave ourselves again and join the masjid's terawikh soon.

Last night, we had to miss it cos Adani was throwing a long drawn-out princessy fit. I found out from Naimah that there's a mini bazaar ramadhan in front of Mai-din and we went there to get air aje. But ended up with 4 more bags of non-air stuff. On the way back, Adani insisted that I read a book for her. Which would be okay but I seriously can't read in a moving car. I'd get a headache that wouldn't go away without the help of the friendly pan-a-dol and I'd go all grumpy if i get headaches. Lagipun, the ride home lasted like 4 minutes. Bukan jauh pun.

But of course, being the princess that Adani is. She scrunched up her face and wailed and whined and teared up and threw herself on the floor. I tried to console her once we're home and I could start reading again but she's already launched her don't-touch-me-i'm-bitter-as-hell mood. She stared and she whined and she wailed and she cried. Girls are such great divas and drama queens.

By Maghrib, she was still at it and no amount of pujuk could do it. I just ignored her after few attempts. Magically, around 7:50pm, she stood up and smiled and joined dinner. Ceh!

Ariz was in his sugar-high last night. I baked a batch of big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookies the night before and I suspected that was the root of the sugar. He ran in circles, he smacked everyone. He climbed the chairs and tables and screamed at the top of his lungs and then he yelled some song away. Obliterating havoc we had last night. One was wailing. The other was like lipas kudung.

So, MrGart went to the Masjid without us and we all did our terawikh at home, amidst chaos.

I guess some nights are just on eh?

We Braved the Masjid

Or was it the other way around ?

Anyhow. For the past *counts* *gulp* 10 years, I have not been to a masjid. I haven't been there for Terawikh, Hari Raya, Raya Korban or even their classes. It's almost shameful, really because we have in BJ, one of the most active, homely and great mosque around. *head hungs low*

Everytime Ramadhan comes, I pine to go. But then again, looking at the brood. I hesitated.

First, there was Aliya. We were living with my parents at Gombak and some nights I managed to sneak out with my twin, Nobita.

Then Ayisha came. We've moved to BJ and maidless. So, no question about that. I've heard about the meriahness of the masjid and I bit my lip.

Then Adani came along. Andes was here. But sneaking out of the house after a whole day OUT of the house for work was just not on for me. Even though Adani was a very very obedient baby, I couldn't risk bothering the other makmum but I couldn't bear to be away from them, even during the nights.

So, Ariz came along. This little boy was a very very boisterous little dynamite. Couldn't sit still. Picks a fight with each one of the sisters at least twice a night.

But he's 3 and a half years old now. Big enough, I deemed. So, last night, we took the plunge. We bundled them all in telekungs and MrGart put on Ariz's baju Melayu for him (which distracted him from wanting to wear telekung too) and we went to the masjid.

Boy! It was meriah allright. There were so many people around. Kids? Quite a number too. I managed to get a spot for us at the anjung, at the every end, almost luar. For ease of controlling the kids.

Aliya and Ayisha were very good and did all 8 rakaats without being distracted.

Adani did 2 rakaats of Isya' and then spotted Nabilah, her friend from school, then Jehan, another friend and by 3rd rakaat was whispering their names. Once Isya' was done, they're already outside, chitchatting loudly.

Ariz during Isya' was staring at me, making funny faces, then he sat and moved my sejadah with his feet. Then he started to hop hop hop around a whole short saf I was in. Grrr !

Then the commotion began. Adani's group grew larger, I never knew where these 5-yo girls emerged from. Ariz found Dhamiral, a friend of our street and they were LOUD! I hissed and I pssstt-ed. But they were loud still.

But the good thing was, 8 rakaat of Terawikh was not all that long. It was over before I thought it would be. That quick.

I met up with neighbours and friends I haven't seen for a while. I asked CheDa whether it was alright for me to bring the kids. She didn't mind. I asked Teacher Asiah too, but she was in the same boat with her 3-yo daughter. I asked Teacher Aliza and she's alright with it, telling me that she's done with small kids and laughed it off.

I thought it was all right, actually. I'd like to go again. I love the idea of "mengimarahkan" masjid but I fear that I'm distracting other makmum. Hmmm ... Should I brave it again?