Aliya turned 11 yesterday, 9th January 2009.
She's ecstatic to reach this age. I'm actually aghast to realise that I have a daughter who is 11 years old. Never mind that she's about 1 cm shorter than me and will easily overshoot me in about a week. Never mind that she can now wear my shoes and is smirking all the time too.
I'm at work today. Cancelled my leave today as I thought the kids would be okay. Ariz & Adani were to go to school with their favourite aunt, Nobita and that took the edge and whine of Ariz. Called Nobita and Ariz was rather cembeng a bit when Nobita dropped off Imran & Adani at their classes. But when Teacher Fazillah took his hand, he willingly let go. Alhamdulillah. Now life can go on.
I feel helpless.
I feel such disgust and utter hatred to what's befallen our brothers and sisters and children over at the Gaza Strip.
I feel such strong emotion and could not stop tears from flowing from my eyes at the mere sight of children, young children the ages of Ariz and Adani, bodies broken and burnt from the shelling and the fathers whose legs are paralysed at the sights of their dead children, sobbing at their feet.
May Allah grants mercy to our stricken ummah.
May Allah brings down its soldiers onto these musyrikin.
But we, the ummah should collectively do something. I was listening to Sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki this morning (the Muhammad saw's Makkan Period CDs #10) and he was discussing the commercial embargo imposed on the Banu Hashim & Banu Mutta'lib by Abu Jahal. This was when Banu Hashim refused to hand over Muhammad saw to Abu Jahal.
The Quraishites imposed the infamous sanction and caused sufffering among their own for these difficult 2-3 years. But one Hisham bin Harith (who's not part of Banu Hashim but has maternal relatives in Banu Hashim) went to Zuhayr bin Al Muhayr (not sure of the spelling here) to plan for ways to stop the embargo, seeing the suffering their fellow relatives endured. They were in such hunger that they would just grab leaves of the trees and eat them.
Anyway, Zuhayr asked that Hisham get him another men, and then the fourth and then the fifth. These 5 brave men then, during the Quraishites Assembly near the Kaabah started the ball rolling to stop the embargo. And they did.
The lesson here is that, one man CAN do something. It just took one man to start it all going and in the end the embargo ended. By the time, they wanted to tear the agreement posted inside Kaabah, they found that termites has eaten it all except for the name of Allah. Allahu Akbar! Soldiers of Allah, only Allah knows.
He also mentioned that since the time of Musa a.s., Allah has not sent any miracles to any ummah. Therefore, it is up to us to unite and work together.
I'm not sure what I could do, but I know I could make du'a to Allah for the victory and the lessening of the suffering. And I know too that what little money I could spare would help. I hope you do too. Insyallah.
We're home. Let me tell you how Lil'Garties' first day of school went.
Ariz.
I made dua to Allah to "permudahkan segala urusan" today and Ariz was suprisingly okay today. Minus the first hour spent clinging on my hips and then I switched class to Teacher Rani's Titanic class (it's a bit pessimistic to be naming a class after a sunk ship, dontcha think?).
This class has about 9 boys out of 15 and Ariz agreed to sit in the class. We snuck out and went for brekkie with fellow parents and came back at 11:30 and upon dismissal, we came running to me, tears streaming down his cheeks. After a great big hug, he started to ease and smile again. He said he "cried sikit" aje in the class and no mention about tomorrow. Hmm. I'm hopeful. Alhamdulillah.
Adani.
Adani will be in a new class today, Teacher Jaya's class who's rather strict but a very efficient teacher. A veteran at preschool, Adani went in the class nonchalantly and kissed me goodbye. Once class is dismissed, she came to me a little teary-eyed. Yikes! First day, I said to myself.
Ayisha.
Standard 3. While waiting for Ariz, MrGart arrived at the preschool with Asha in tow, tears streaming her face. She has refused to join her class at KAFA and now under a stream of threats by MrGart. Sigh!
She's getting ready for SKBJ now and she seems alright. Agaknya esok kena suruh diorang ni naik van/bas, sebab kalau Mummy/Daddy ada, semua jadi kememeh.
Me
Just tired. We're off to fetch Aliya and send off Asha to school. Then send Aliya to KAFA and then maybe take a nap-beramai-ramai before fetching Aliya again at 4:45pm.
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*
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!!!
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.
