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 ..