The Garties at Pulau Redang

This is turning into a photo-blog since panjangla pulak if nak tulis sebijik-sebijik.

Ariz trying his luck climbing up a coconut tree. *nasib baik tak nampak tangan MrGart propping him up*

We went in a group of 41 of MrGart's office and there were a couple of young trainees who who doing a lot of photo shoots and they were jumping and pose. So, this were the girls' attempt to emulate. Kakaka!

MrGart and his lovely model, Adani. A natural photogenic and a camera lover. She really loves to pose. *risau gak ni*


The morning. One of my favourite pictures. Looks peaceful and they're at ease. The sea looked calm, the kids looked err busyuk but they all look at ease.


Before breakfast and just after Ariz woke up, obviously pining for Mummy and not in the mood to pose.

Adani. The model. She now hates her layered hair. Sigh!

One of the snorkelling sessions. This was at the resort's jetty waiting for the boat. The kids were all wet from mandi laut at 1pm when everyone else was berehat. Tu yang berkilat semacam aje tu. Ariz especially discovered that the life jacket was a great floatation device. Duh!
At the Marine Park. All of these underwater pics were taken by Aliya. Ayisha and ALiya had a blast, snorkelling non-stop. This trip was truly theirs to own. Mummy, kena ikat dengan Ariz dok tepi je .. habis seluar aku masuk pasir.

Aliya, underwater. Enjoying it tremendously.

Ayisha, a natural swimmer.

And that my friends, were snapshots of our wonderful island holiday. We stayed at Wisana Resort, a locally run resort. And the beach was exclusive to us. Was told that the Berjaya beach was shared among 10 resorts. Tapi the sights of flesh, tattoos and beer cans, just didn't agre with me. Mrgart went for mencandat sotong and came back, exhausted from puking. Yikes ! But the huge sotongs they caught tasted super sedap, goreng tepung. Fooh and then lebih tu, buat sambal sotong for nasik lemak. Foohh!

We had fun.

Ariz's Best Friends

Being the only boy and a rather mischievous one at it has a little snag in that the sisters will soon tire of his rough games and they'll retreat from him.

So, these are his current best friends. A bunch of stegos, t-rex and triceratops. A bucketful of soldiers. Semalam aku terpijak sorang, rasa macam nak bercabut tapak kaki. Grrr!! Eh, macam cerita Toy Story la pulak.

Opps, jangan lupa, Ben10 and HeatBlast and FourArm always keep him company. Especially those nights when Mummy was catching up with missed episode of grey's at midnight.

He, by the way, talks to these friends and that never fail to amuse me. At least he doesn't do like this blogger's 5yo son. Aisey, Dilla something. Now dah lupa.

Apparently, she found his found alone, spender-less on the king-size bed with a HeatBlast in hand. Suspicious, she asked and he replied. It's like a trampoline. Referring to his test1cles. I leave it to your imagination, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan.

I, if you must know, was laughing so hard, ppl must have thought I'd gone bonkers. I guess boys are a curious lot. I've caught Ariz "experimenting" with his and quickly made a mental note to mrGart to have a little talk. MrGart has never obliged. Ceh!

Abang Micheal Dah Tak Ada

He's dead. I pray that he died a Muslim. Insyallah.

It was so shocking to hear about it in the car this morning. Not that I knew him in person. But I love his songs.

Jangan jeles ye kawan-kawan .. I was one of the thousands who were at the Stadium who rocked and swayed and shouted at his one and only concert in Malaysia. And that was in *counts* at least 12 years ago cos I wasn't married yet.

I was there with GartRed and a childhood friend, Nazli (whatever happens to him, I wonder). We were so sengkek that where we sat, he looked like a kerengga. Tiny. But the huge screens helped. That was after his Bad album and I remember getting hooked on Man In The Mirror, Black and White and who could've missed You Are Not Alone.

Suprisingly, when I was chatting with friends, somehow BigKahuna mentioned that she too went to the same concert. And since she was sitting so close to the stage (nampak sangat kitorang sengkek), she could actually see him lip-synching some songs. Yikes!

Lucky for us, I could barely make out his nose and that's supposed to be prominent, let alone his lips. Haha.

Anyhow.

I thought he was a great music influence to me. Like Madonna. Yup. I love her. And Anuar Zain. Hmm .. maybe that one I should keep a secret eh?

Saya Sedikit Sedih

Nota Kepala : Hari ni mood sangat tak bagus, so tak sempat lak nak cerita pasal the awesome Redang.

Bukannya apa.

Saya ni takde la cemerlang sangat kat ofis. Boleh la cari makan. KompeniKedekutLetrik ni, saya dah lama dah putus harapan untuk di-reward atas dasar kecemerlangan. Dah bertahun-tahun dah. Even sebelum MissKLSentral resign lagi.

Tapi sejak dua tiga menjak ni, ramai pulak kawan-kawan saya yang resign. YY for one, has finally thrown in the towel and called it quits. Years of trying to weather it, obviously not working sunny enough.

Everytime, sorang kawan resign, saya termenung sendiri,

Kenapa aku masih kat sini? Adakah aku kurang talent berbanding dengan mereka? Adakah aku ni tak marketable langsung? Terlalu niche sangat ke kerja yang aku buat selama ni?

Nagai is out there menggeleng kepala sebab dah bertahun-tahun dia suruh aku resign but aku masih disini.

Let me tell you this. *cakap mat salleh la pulak, since nak tunjuk aku ni marketable, kalau x terer, goreng jangan cabar*

The only thing that's keeping me here is my passion. I love what I do. I love doing the things I do. I love my job. I love my colleagues. I love the exposure I get from the job. I love that I get the opportunity to do what I thought I couldn't but the bosses thought I could and I found that I could. I just love it. And I love my bosses.

Bukan la nak bodek. Boss-boss aku selama ni are the out-of-the-box types. Liberal ones and I love their outlook of life. Never bureaucracti, never picky and never ones to sweat over the small stuff.

Tapi kan, lately. It doesn't feel that way anymore. Boss pun dah lain. *sigh*

In fact, aku today am in my lowest ebb that I think I've ever been in. Nak jerit pun ada. Nak nangis pun ada.

Moments like this memerlukan satu pinggan warm walnut brownies dengan vanilla ice-cream with 4 spoons to share among friends. Or Zen's little cup of tiramisu. Or Chilli's Molten Chocolate Cake. Kalau dah terdesak pun, that 5-minit chocolate cake dalam mug boleh la.

Sigh!

Nota Kaki : Takde motif langsung post ini hari. Rugi je if you're already here. Mintak maaf la.

Rants, I Have Not Done In A While

Have I?

Was doing some bloghopping and I realised that my blog has recently become boh-ring since i have not rant and I've not cuss-ed and I've not bi-atch in a while.

Hmm.

Progress?

Note: To you and you, apasal gelak guling-guling? Kelakar ke?

Whoohoo ..

I'm back! We're back from Pulau Redang. Arrived from KT at midnight and Aliya &Ayisha were up till 1am, finishing up homework and Adani was crying this morning for some unfinished coloring homework. I then had to call up Teacher Badri to warn Teacher Jeya to be "kind" to her today.

Have tonnes of pictures, some remnants of my horribly disfiguring heat rash and 4 very happy and tanned kids.

Tapinya.

Am swamped with work, right now. So will need to excite you guys later la.

Ciao.

*macam cicak kudung*

Hari Khamis Yang Mengantuk

Uwarghhh !!!

Mana tak mengantuk, tido lambat.

Waiting for my meeting to start now. Uwarghhhh !!

Note: Must take a short nap karang since balik karang nak start journey to KT. Uwarghhh !

Re-dang

*grins*

At the cost of skiving one day of school for the kids, we are leaving the haze-stricken city to this island.



and this will, insyallah what I will be looking out to on Friday morning.

Lil"Garties Up and Personal

These were taken last weekend. Tapi tak cukup sorang i.e. the Lil'Garty1, sebab she's gotten quite concious now about her pictures being taken, sbb takut x cun. *nyampah*

This was the 3rd try to snap Ariz's picture, but he kept shoving his much-begged and whined "Missing Link" toy. So, just imagine how he looks la. BTW, Ariz & Adani's pictures were taken while we waited outside Sogo, tunggu pintu bukak since it was barely 10am. Tak pernah-pernah tunggu pintu bukak, macamla nak shopping sangat.

Since Aliya & Asha were toting bags into the ESQ seminar, Adani would not wanna be left out. Posing!

Ayisha on 2nd day, before she went it. She's so skinny these days, aduhhh! Aliya ran away, refusing for her picture to be taken. Hmmpph!

Pukul Berapa Sekarang, Bapak Harimau ?

Pukul karang !

Heheheh

This morning, I thought I was late since when I glanced at my dashboard, the clock showed 7:28am (hampeh, lagi lambat from semalam by satu minit) and my fuel tank was nearning E, very very close.

So, I drove as usual, singing to Anuar Zain's (after IKIM's Ustaz Zawawi's Major Signs of Kiamat short leacture). After Subang Toll, I stopped to refuel and traffic then on seemed a little heavy. But I figured, since I was already late, I might as well enjoy the morning.

Then it hit me, eh, takkan la Ustaz Zawiwi bercerita sampai dekat 7:50am. Check phone. Heh! Sapa pulak yang menekan-nekan jam dalam kereta ku. It's actually 8 minutes cepat! Fooh, makcik terpakca mencilok sedikit sebanyak. So alhamdulillah, clocked in at 8:04am. Yay! FYI, kitorang now (atas kebaikan hati orang2 tingkat 3) ada grace period of 5 minutes before you're officially late and screwed.

Anyhow. The story of this post is that, we have many many time-showing devices in the house. From watches (MrGart and the kids aje, since I stopped wearing watches since I carried Ayisha, about 8 years ago) to wall clocks, alarm clocks that beratur atas shelf, hand phones and the latest addition is a azan clock that my mum gave us.

There's only one little snag.

MrGart is a believer in cheating time. He thinks that if he sets the clock 10 minutes early, he gains 10 minutes. I for one, NEVER subscribes to this school of thought. I in fact, have tried in vain to tell him that it doesn't work like that. But I like said, IN VAIN!

So, now, the clock upstairs is 15 minutes late (which is seriously mengabui mata). The digital clock downstairs tells the right time (according to my phone, according to the RedFM), the azan clock typically is later than the azan from the masjid (this could be due to salah baca, bulan ni bulan berapa) and the clocks in 2 cars can vary between +2 to +15 minutes.

If my kids aren't confused yet, I am so proud of them But I am confused.

Today was much worse, since ada orang fiddled with my car's time yang +2.

The immediate concern is that upstairs clock has got to be fixed, but it's so high and there's a huge TV cabinet that I need to spread my thin self over before I can blardy reach it. So MrGart's perfect for the job. It's just that he doesn't think anything is wrong with the constant confusion of what time it is now, at all times.

So, how now brown cow?

Weekend Kalut

Inspired by Roti's experience in her ESQ's training, I vowed to go myself. But since moolah's a little short, I figured I'd send in the girls first. Insyallah, kalau ada rezeki, I will go.

So, early Saturday morning, MrGart sent Aliya & Ayisha who were actually excited to go. Either the uneventful school holidays were boring them to death or they're just genuinely excited. Heh! I didn't sit through the parents' session that morning as I was teaching a Baby Shower Cookies Class at CakeConnection. I should blog about it cos it was one of my lively classes with 9 students. It was certainly fun and the cookies decorated by the students were just stupendously gorgeous.

We picked the girls up at 7pm and MrGart brought us to Al-Rawsha, Jalan Damai, Ampang for dinner for a bit of kebab and chicken madan (eh tak sure pulak la). Food was good but I was so in love with these never-seen-before bottles carbonated drinks. We ordered strawberry and pineapple and they came in unopened twist caps bottles. I twisted it and hurt my palm. Aliya then figured out that you need to press and twist. Duh! But it was good. Food's great, I love bread and kebabs. The kids didn't each much, they just wanted to play at that spin-a-round swing.

Anyhow.

On Sunday, I snuck into the hall during the parents' session and I had such an awesome experience in what short time I was there. It was lively, energetic but most importantly I felt the grace of Allah and it was certainly deep. And it was just an hour. I'm not a cry-er but the minute I went in, I felt a little sebak.

We shopped a little at Sogo, since we were at Maju Junction (my first time ever there) and Ariz conned me and made me pay RM103.80 for an Omnitrix. Grrrr!!! We then, broke and hungry left for my parent's at Gombak.

Lepak, makan nangka yang gemuk-gemuk and super-succulent, courtesy of pokok nangka yang sungguh renik yang berbuah dengan sungguh ganasnya. Foohh ... meleleh air luur.

I digress. :)

Well, we came home very late, lepas hantar nangka gemuk-gemuk kat GartRed. Lepas tu tidooo.. Penat.

He's Doing a Solo Concert

*gasps*

*despair*

*termenung sebab MrGart would never in his lifetime be seen in the same room as MrCroonAndMyHeartSkipsABeat*

*sigh*

Edited: Dang! Tickets yang murah dah habis .. uwaaaaa ! Guess today will be spent imagining how it would have felt sitting in the gallery, having him croon to me. Despite his popularity consensus or none, I love him still. The only little snag about him is the way he sings, makes it a little painful to watch but I love the mouth twitch and how his mouth just go senget sebelah and his closed eyes. Foohh .. tangkap leleh babe ..

The Haze Is Back

I hope not with a vengeance. *yikes*

But it sure was hazy when I set out for work this morning. Bkt Jelutong is quite green but I looked at the horizon and it looked awfully hazy.

Not unlike the cold fog in the frosty mornings at Crescent Park, Peterborough where I walked each morning to go to college which dissapeared when the sun warmed the air and thawed the frost. I half-expected to see the veil of fog lift before my very eyes but it just lingered on. I saw few joggers today, instead of a batallion of them usually. I did not envy them today.

Right now, Bangsar is shrouded in a thick haze. Good thing is that I don't smell the smoke like I did in BJ on Monday. Yikes!

And reading the papers this morning further dampens one's spirits too.

The haze is back.

WHO declared a pandemic on the flu.

Possible water shortages and rationing in store for us.

And the worst is that picture of the bini-pm dengan ex-president-singkapoh. That made the hairs on my back stand straight. Who's scarier? Definitely the stodgy woman. *slaps hand*

Anyways. Late last year, I had the priviledge to sit through an Energy Lecture with the man in the picture, the slitty eyed, old man. And I was in awe of him. The minute he walked in, you could feel his presence, strong and unwavering. When you hear him speak and his gestures, he's very commanding and very opinionated and very much influential. He spoke from his mind, never needing a full script like most politicians do. Even in his frail frame of an old body, his mind was ever so sharp.

But the haze is back, people. It's back. *sighs*

Gumbira

Semalam (or was it the day before), front pages of the dailies were about whether English should be made compulsory to pass for SPM. It was a poll, I read and not yet a decision. Brickbats aplenty, I should think, for the one asking.

Personally, I think it should be okay. Walaupun saya cakap English boleh tahan la, tapi saya rasa English ni senang sikit la dari bahasa ibunda saya, dari segi SPM. But to make it compulsory for all walks of life, yikes!

Let me tell you this. The minute you make a subject a MUST to pass if you wanna pass the exam, you have problems.

Bahasa Malaysia is not a hard language, seriously. If you're speaking it la. But if you're taking an exam on it, I can tell you, it's a killer. The objective questions can kill you, but the Karangan will just chew you up and spit you out. Mercilessly.

It's oh so darn hard. Did I tell you that during my trial-SPM exam, I passed with Grade 2 (which is major sin because you a pass is Grade 1) because I got a C7 or was it C8 or F9 on Bahasa Malaysia. What made that especially hard to swallow was that I scored all As for everything else, including the killer Physics and AddMaths and just the blinking BM.

And to add salt to injury, my father is a BIG BIG proponent of Bahasa Malaysia. He used to mark STPM Bahasa Malaysia papers and I once peeked through the answer sheets and gaped, susah siot! Lepas tu gelak sebab bebudak ni desperate siap tulis note note "Cikgu, saya sudah 2 kali ambik STPM, tolongla passkan saya".

Anyway, going through Aliya's BM paper pun it's quite tough. I've had to peek at the answers to confirm my guesses.

Sigh ..

And that 's why saya berazam nak blog dalam BM every now and then. Boleh ?

BTW, the title GUMBIRA is the state of me at the moment. Nak pegi Midvalley la ni. Ciao!

Saya Rasa Sungguh Tidak Rajin

Pagi tadi, masa meeting, Yus instead of saying "idiotic move", he said "tidak bijak". And I thought that was really bright.

Hence, the "tidak rajin". Positive!

Anyhow. Boss cuti semalam and hari ni, so saya sungguh kurang bermotivasi. Bukanlah sebab Boss yang memberi motivasi, tapi, dah dia takde, tak payah ler terkejar-kejar. Yes ? No? Maybe?

Eh, dah lima suku. Balik!

Slightly Hazy These Days

Not my state of mind, dear .. it's the weather!

Or rather that was Fina's excuse for not attending the official gathering 2 hours ago. The excuse I bought and made my own. Hehehe!

Right now, thunder clapped in Bangsar and Adani in her 4th phonecall to me today reported that Bubbles, the cat has just came in the house, all wet from the rain. Hmmpptt! Guess B.Jelutong rained earlier, eh? Somehow, although I feel that Bangsar and Shah Alam are not all that far apart, when it rains, it never seems to rain at the same time.

I've sat in car drenched from the rain and 20 minutes later, arrived at BJ all sunny and bright.

I've driven home, eyes squinting from the glare of the evening sun to a pouring, thunder-clapping and lightning touching the earth at BJ.

Anyhow.

We're back home now and I'm at work. We spent 4 days up north and it was hmm rather uneventful. I made 6 batches of sugar cookies for a total of 200 cookies due this weekend. And my finger is burned for holding too many hot cookie trays. *ouch*

So, while the cookies were taking shape in the freezer, we took the kids out to movie. Failing to get tickets to the NightKatMuziumBukanNegara, we managed to get 4 tickets for us, gals to watch Hannah Montana and 2 tickets for the boys for Terminator.

Hahah. MrGart gulped fearing that Ariz would look for me but I assured him that it's robots, mean robots in high tech bikes and guns and lasers, Ariz'd be okay. I also purposely did not tell him which cine we were in, fearing him come and hand Ariz over. Haha

So, us, girls, 3 popcorn buckets and fizzy drinks sat down peacefully in a hall full of teenage and tween girls. Hardly a guy around. Aliya was excited and Ayisha was trembling with excitement too. Adani was so eager to just get away from Ariz, Adani's perennial tormentor.

The movie began to a chorus of ooohhhs and ahhhhsss from crazy, fanatical girls. Everytime scenes like this came on,



I've had to roll my eyes to a bunch of comments of the girls next to ours about the guy's so cute, Hannah's really pretty and all the other girlish-ly comments on tweens can make. *uwekss*

All 3 sisters enjoyed the movie tremendously. I was only looking forward to the "climb" song. That was pretty good. All in all, storyline ain't unique at all, but it did sell well cos it's Hannah Montana!

BTW, Aliya & Ayisha have officially kicked Daddy from using their bathroom. It's off limits to Daddy now. It's theirs!

Blew That Fuse

I feel bad.
I blew my fuse.
I lost my temper.
And that's after much deep-breathing and telling myself that I would just listen and not take any position.
What how could I not?
And I lost it.

And this is what happens when you lose your temper.

First, you head spins.
Then your face feels like a massive aneurysm waiting to spurt dark red blood all around.
And then you have a out-of-body experience.
I heard my voice went sharp and deep.
Then I started to stress of every word and kept tapping my palm with my fingers. Very very firmly.

Then guilt will come swiftly, unlike anger which creeps up on you ever so softly. Guilt comes unannounced.

I feel bad.

School Is Out

Yesterday was the beginning of a 2 weeks school holidays for the kids. And I can vouch that the bickering and the restlessness set in very early, even on Saturday. Hehe

Mimi & Farah, Aliya's bestfriends slept over the night before and Adani & Ariz fought for Aliya's attention. Ayisha wanted to be included as well. In the end, I concluded that our house may not be the perfect place for sleepovers for tween girls. Too much distraction.

Did I tell you that Ayisha failed her Math paper this PKSR1 ? You see, this took me a lot of courage to write because I felt seriously like a failure myself when I saw her paper. The only consolation is that she can do the addition or subtraction or multiplication or division BUT she completely does not understand and unable to resolve the problem. So even if the calculation is right, it's all wrong since that's not what the question was asking. Sigh! *termenung kejap*

Anyways.

We are driving up north on tomorrow night as MrGart has a work engagement on Thursday and we will bunk down at my auntie's at Alor Star for a while. We should be back on Saturday. The girls have been pressuring us to take them to Genting Highland. But in light of the current non-cash-rich situation we have been for a long time now, that's a little too over the top for us.

We may just go to one of those theme parks, the top in THEIR list is Sun-way Lag-oon. Hmmm We'll see.

Apart from that, nothing much is planned. The girls are slated to attend the ESQ for Kids session on the 13th June and we're going to Pulau Redang on the 19th June. So, I hope the kids will not be too restless until the 19th JUne.

Yikes!

Tanned And Tired

The weekend was 2 real hectic days for us. Ceh ceh ceh .. macam AJK pulak bunyinya.

The Bukit Jelutong Karnival was held at the padang 2 blocks away from our house throughout the weekend. We've had a karnival almost every year but this year took the cake as it was significantly bigger with corporate sponsors particularly TM. There were many many white tents and there was a huge air-conditioned domed tent hosted by TM where there was a stage for activities.

Saturday.

We set out early. Had Mee Udang Banjir. Delicious! And wandered about. My excursion was cut short as Ariz saw a Kuntum mascot, then a Blue Hyppo and then a clown! Sigh. Even Teacher Badri couldn't calm him down. He just wanted to go home. I obliged.

Aliya, Ayisha and Adani were freely going around meeting friends and playing games and stuff. I looked around and there were a lot of boys and girls, of whom I've seen them grow and I feel somewhat contented that this was why we chose Bukit Jelutong. The camaraderie was real and the community is so alive.

Neighbours and friends were abound. This is akin to Ramadhan at the Masjid. The air os festivities and the air of familiarity. And the venue was very very suitable. Apart from dekat rumah I ler. The newly built d'Bayu has great impressive toilets, I learnt. And because it was sited at a slope of a hill, it was instantly bayu-ed i.e. banyak angin.


The padang where the football matches were held. Saturday we had the MBJ United International Football Tourney 2009 for the Under-7s to the Under 14s. BTW, MBJ stands for Masyarakat Bukit Jeluong. Apt, isnt it?

Our very own Under-11 won. yay! I'm waiting for Ariz to be mature enough to participating before calling myself a SOCCER MUM!

I saw Koreans, Brazillian Football School, Vietnam or Laos and some other international schools participating. And all manners of coaches, many of them sporting huge huge pot bellies. Hahahah.

Sunday saw the many veteran matches for residents. MrGart spent the whole day at the field, plotting his fellow neighbours how to win. Hmm, they did win 3rd place, but not without injuries.

I was in blue tudung, sitting out waiting for MrGart's tug-of-war event, with friends and beighbours. They girls have just spent a small fortune and had to sit out with us since Mummy's completely dried up (money-wise).

Saturday night, we milled about there again, for performances and fireworks display. The weather was cool and kids were running around on the field, under the moon. Parents chit-chatted as usual.

There were a few Shuffle competition and I stood gaping. Fooh .. these boys sure have such hairstyles these days. Ruffled hair, highlighted and some have red hair. Hmm. BUt they shuffled well, I thought. Ariz was all eyes. The girls too. *rolls eyes*

Ooooo .. Sheikh Muzaffar, the astronaut was here too, for a few hours and I got to ogle and drool over him in person but not close enough to shake his hands, for fear of ter-hugging him. He's really gorgoeous in person, no touchup!

Sunday morning, I was out at 7:30am with Ras for the Taichi, Line Dancing, Aerobics and Poco-poco. And I had BLAST!

Taichi was subdued and I was sweating profusely. Aerobics was great but the poco-poco was the best fun. We twirled and we whirled and we stepped and we spinned. The instructor was great and the participants were very cooperative. The Line Dancing was all over the place for us, non-line-dancers so we just danced freesstyle in the middle of the stage. It was truly fun.

BTW, I emerged from the 2 days of karnival, tanned and penniless. I had 4 new tudungs (damages best left unknown for fear of MrGart's volcanic eruptions) and I spent a small fortune on some supposedly original crocs at half the price. For me and each of the girls. A neighbour was selling off her grown children's toys and she;s known to inly buy original ones. Grab grab grab. I even got an IKEA kiddie round green table for RM45. Hahah. A steal, really!

So, to those *points to Combi & Elisa* who are still mulling over where to stay, consider BJ. Disclaimer: I welcome any commision.