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.