Maal Hijrah 1430

Satu Muharram detik permulaan
Perkiraan tahun Islam hijrah
Perpindahan Nabi dan umat Islam
Dari kota Mekah ke kota Madinah

Atas keyakinan dan iman yang teguh
Kaum Muhajirin dan Ansar bersatu
Rela berkorban harta dan nyawa
Demi menegakkan Islam tercinta

Hijrah itu pengorbanan!
Hijrah itu perjuangan!
Hijrah itu persaudaraan!
Hijrah membentuk perpaduan!

Oleh itu mari semua
Kita sambut Maal Hijrah
Tingkatkan semangat
Tegakkan syiar al-Islam
Untuk sepanjang zaman!
Untuk sepanjang zaman!
Untuk sepanjang zaman!

Selamat menyambut Awal Muharram 1430 kepada semua umat Islam di seluruh dunia. Semoga tahun hijrah baru ini membawa keberkatan dan menguatkan semangat dan iman kita semua. Amin.

Merry Christmas... Not

I heard a really sad thing on the radio on the way to work this morning. It was one of those call-in segments on the morning show where listeners called in and let the whole wide world know their Xmas wish, and the deejays would do their best to "make it come true". Which is a good thing, sort of a M*ke a Wish foundation type thing, right? Unfortunately, in this case it turned out to be a Xmas wish gone wrong.

So, this girl called um, lets call her X, and said she had a Xmas wish for her ex-bf (let's call him Y). Apparently, on her birthday he took her out for a nice dinner. After wining and dining her, Y popped the all-important question to X, to which she responded with a heart-breaking, "Ummmmm.....". Que sound of breaking glass and rain drops trailing down a window. Needless to say, their relationship sort of fizzled and died from that point. But then, earlier this year Y started texting X again and sending regular emails. Now, I don't know what was in those texts and emails but it seems that X got the impression that Y still had feelings for her and wanted to rekindle the relationship. So, X being a woman (we are entitled to change our minds, after all), thought long and hard and decided that she did love Y after all and wanted to propose to him for Xmas. On air. For the viewing pleasure of thousands of Malaysians. Which is where the radio station came in.

The deejays were asking her was she sure that Y reciprocated her feelings and how sure was she that he'd say yes. X was like all confident and was sure that he was still into her, based on his texts and emails. So they called him up. She was like "Hi honey!" and he went "Hi babe!". After dithering on a bit, she popped the question. He went, "Is this some kind of prank?" She said it wasn't, she just wanted to propose to him for Xmas. He was all errrr-ing and ummmm-ing and then said that she must have gotten the wrong impression, he had been texting and emailing her AS A FRIEND (three killer words that have doomed many a relationship, IMO). And he wanted everyone to know that he was getting married next year. X said in a small voice, "Heheh... to me right?" To which Y resoundingly replied NO. Apparently, when they broke up, Y met someone else and had subsequently proposed to the new gf, and was accepted.

X laughed fakely and tried to pass it off as a joke. She was all "Oh I knew about this but I just wanted to play a trick on you! Ha. Ha. Ha." Y asked repeatedly if she was ok, she said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I don't want to talk to you anymore." and hung up. The deejays assured Y that they'd try to fix things and called X back. She was all sobbing and cursing. "That SOB. Why didn't he tell me? *bleep* *bleep*." The deejays tried to pujuk her, and lastly before hanging up one of them said, "There's plenty more fishes in the sea." Insensitive or what? Fishes, I tell you.

Poor, poor X. As a fellow goddess, I totally sympathise. Don't you think that Y was a bit of a bastard as well, leading her on? A listened texted into the show later and said "Women always get the wrong impression." Guess the sex of the listener? Natch.

So that's one poor soul who'll be having a crappy Xmas. If he's got any heart at all (though I doubt it, judging from how fast he bounced back from being rejected), Y might be having a not so merry Yuletide as well. All I can say is, think long and hard before baring your soul on live radio and never, ever put high hopes on the strength of a text message or email. He might be typing with one hand and hugging another girl with the other for all you know.

Happy Christmas to my Christian friends! Be merry, but more importantly, be safe!

Whirl Wind

My life is such a blur these days... I honestly don't know where my time goes. Every day is just a mad rush to get things done. I'm a working mother of two with an equally busy husband (who comes home after work and promptly falls asleep in front of the TV, leaving me to wrestle with the kids over bed-times and last bottle feedings and diaper changes and ironing of clothes for the next day and last-minute dish washings)... ummm but I digress. As I am prone to do. Haha.

Anywho, since the landslide last week and the subsequent declaration that my building was "unsafe", I have been shipped off to Bangi to set up office in my bank's training centre there. It's just behind Un*ten and the daily commute is fantastic! Even though it's like 25km from my house and I have to pass through two toll booths (bwargkh don't even get me started on the tolls!!!!), the half hour journey is just great 'cos there's no traffic jam!! I luv it I luv it I luv it! A colleague of mine car pools with me in the mornings and chips in for petrol (thanks, Mary!). The parking there is free (yay!!) and my office looks over the golf course behind Un*ten. A few days ago we got to watch some poor bloke wade in the pond thingy and fish out sunken golf balls. And we've recently discovered that Alam*nda is just 10 minutes away....

Yes it was all rainbows and roses for the first few days, even more so 'cos half of my department is stationed in KL (including my boss.. :-D). However, after a while the novelty of working in the sticks is starting to wear off. My poor lovely husband sends the kids to KJ every day on the way to work and picks them up after, so I get less quality time with them. The extra expenses (toll, petrol, lunches) incurred is really getting to me, too. We're trying to negotiate some kind of travelling claim but the prospects don't look too bright. Latest news is.. well, we might be there 'till January. Gak!!

It's all I can do at the end of the day to get my kids snugly into bed, finish my chores and collapse into bed. But what to do.. rezeki halal perlu dicari, put bread on the table and all that. I have the weekends, right? Guess I've just gotta stick to my guns and face it. Insya-Allah, it'll work itself out in the end.

The Ground Beneath My Feet

First of all, my deepest sympathies to all who lost their family, friends and valuables in the recent landslide at Bkt Ant*rabangsa. Al-fatihah..

You know something is seriously wrong when the ground beneath your feet moves faster than you do. Yours truly is also a landslide victim, albeit one on a smaller scale than the BA one where the only casualties were 11 cars parked in an unfortunate spot. Still, whether there were lives lot or not, the landslide which happened right outside my office window really shook me.

There we were, happily banging away at our respective key-boards at 5pm and anticipating going-home time in an hour or so, when we received an IM flashed across our computer screens.. something like this: "Slope along Jln So-and-so is unstable. Please move your cars." Not even a minute or two later, there was this loud SNAP sound (probably the divider breaking), a louder whoosh followed by a sickening crunch and a small tremor which was felt throughout our building. Someone shouted "Bukit dah jatuh!". I thought it was a joke until everyone rushed up to the windows and someone else screamed. I squeezed my way to a window and what I saw really turned my blood cold... a huge stream of soil, rocks and debris flowed from the top of the retainment wall down to the parking lot below, crushing the cars beneath. Earlier in the week, D*KL had cordoned off the parking bays at the top of the retainment wall after the ground sunk a few inches. But apparently no one warned those who used the parking lot below between the two buildings.

People started grabbing their belongings and running out of the building. In the confusion, I managed to save my work, switch off my PC, text message my husband, grab my handbag and even retrieve a tupperware of strawberry tart that I'd stashed in the fridge. I held hands with one of the kakak from my department all through the lift ride up and manged to walk calmly to the emergency evacuation area. We had to walk past the fallen area.. almost half the road was gone! A friend from another department called me to check on me (thanks Alina). The security personnel were urging us down the hil to safer ground and I just went with the flow. I did not know that there were so many people in the 3 buildings! Suddenly I realised that I didn't have a way to go home as my husband would only finish work at 6pm, and given the horrific traffic jam already happening below he didn't have a chance in hell of getting there by 8pm. I quickly called another kakak from my office who managed to get me a ride to the LRT station in her friend's car.

In the LRT, I texted my dad and called my mom to teman me because I was feeling weird and n shock. Who knows what would have happened to me in that state, right? I would've probably missed my stop and gotten lost. At the interchange, I called my BFF when I boarded the monorail to Bkt *. She entertained me with various gossip all the way to P*villion where hubs was already waiting for me. To cheer me up, he took me for a nice, comforting KFC meal. Comfort food, indeed.

Later that night, I got a text from my boss telling me that our SM had granted my department a free holiday the next day as we didn't have a designated offsite office. Yippee!! All through the night and the next day I received countless calls and texts from concerned friends and family. My grandma called me three times, she was so worried and excited! Haha.

This morning I reported to the first building which was declared out of the danger zone. My building and building #2 was declared temporarily closed for a tentative 2 weeks-1 month! I went to my office to collect my belongings and saw the stream of mud had flowed down to the entrance of my building. 2 weeks indeed. Hmph.

I'm being relocated to Bangi tomorrow. Jauhnyaaaaaaa...

Home Sweet Home

Yes yes I'm still alive and blogging. Practically a month has gone by since my last post, yeah? Been pretty busy ever since all my family members successfully recovered from the flu bug. God, that was a horrible episode. Hope the bug doesn't come by visiting any time soon again, thank you very much.

First and foremost, we've finally moved! My parent's "innocent" hints got to be a bit too much ("Babah tanya what are your moving plans? Lama² tinggal rumah tu tak elok pulak...."). The winner: "Bila u pindah nanti I'm turning your room into a surau/reading room. Let me just measure for the carpets..." Okay already. So we got a lori sewa (an adventure in itself), packed up our stuff and shipped out right after Deepavali.

I'm glad to report that the kids took to the new house immediately. The best thing was that Eez started sleeping in his own room ALONE from the first night without a fuss! Of course, the TV my hubs put in there didn't hurt. We had set up his bed with new underwater-themed sheets from I*kea (Eez is fish-mad) and his fav Elmo blanket, arranged his books on the shelves and he immediately settled in. We were a bit apprehensive (and sad, on my part) to let him sleep alone in a new room in a new house so soon, but he just calmly told us to close the light and shut the door! But he did allow us to put the baby monitor on in his room. It was a bit of a struggle to get him to switch the TV off at first but now he's an absolute angel at bed times. I turn the TV off, he gets into bed with Friend and the Power Rangers figurine of the day, has a bottle of milk (yep, still a baby at heart), permits me to kiss and tuck him in and falls asleep by himself. Of course, I check on him about 20 times before I go to bed myself!

It's great to be living on our own again. Sure, the morning rush to drop the kids off and get to work is a bit mad, but we've become used to it by now. Everything in the fridge is ours, we have total command of the remote control and we can eat what we want! At the moment our downstairs area is completely devoid of furniture except for a patio set which temporarily serves as our dining table and two carpets. And we still have to buy curtains and a washing machine (currently we send our clothes to Laundry KJ. Haha.). But don't worry, I will have you guys over for makan-makan soon, only let me buy kitchen appliances first!

Cheers!

Tis the Season for Tissues and Ibuprofen

Yep.. it's that time of year when practically everyone whips out their tissues and sniff, sneeze and cough away. The time when bosses start tearing their hair out when staff attendance is low ("Boss.. saya MC. Demam."). The time when you complain in a pitiful voice that your head feels like it's in the clouds, your throat tastes of cotton, your joints ache and your nose runs like a faucet and the other person says knowingly, "Yeah.. tengah musim ni. My sibling/friend/parent/colleague also has it."

I finally succumbed to the flu today after son#2 and my dad were struck down by it during the past week. First came the sniffles yesterday. I manfully popped a couple of P*nadols, clamped a tissue to my nose and went to work. By the end of the day my nose was permanently red and threatening to peel due to the constant dabbing with a tissue. When I woke up this morning, my head was heavy but I didn't have a fever (tested myself with kids' Safety 1st thermometer - only 36.9 degrees). I dallied in getting ready until my mom told me to go to work because "dah banyak sangat cuti dah!". Errr.. well I do get 30 days annual leave and I've only been on MC 5 days this year! Went to the office, had breakfast, swallowed 2 P*nadols and started work. Sneeze sneeze cough cough dribble. Repeat every 5 minutes. The sub-zero temperatures brought on by the air-conditioning did not help at all.

Finally, by 11am I'd had enough. I was practically comatose at my desk. I finished up my report, emailed it to my UH and got permission from my manager to go home. Yeehaa! Got my MC from the panel doctor with about 5 different types of medicine. After a quick lunch with BFF and friends, I headed home for the safe haven of my bed. #2 was taking a nap when I arrived, thank God, so I managed to escape to my bedroom undetected. #1 was awake upstairs and wanted to play. I said in my most pitiful voice, "Mom's sick. Mom nak tido." He looked at me suspiciously and said, "Sick? Ubat?" I immediately showed him my little bag of drugs. Satisfied, he nodded and granted me permission into my room.

I contemplated taking my medicine before I decided to take them. I had flu pills, fever pills, the vile cough syrup and lozenges. Now, I have a natural aversion to pills since I discovered I had an allergy to certain types of pain-killers. A few years back I suffered from particularly bad cramps and was prescribed Voltaren. Little the 80's cartoon. After one dose my eyes puffed up and I had to take another day off to wait for them to subside. After I had #1, my doctor gave me Synflex. This time, my entire face puffed up and I looked like I'd been crying for a week. Ever since, the strongest painkiller I've taken is Ponstan. Anyway, I swallowed the evil little bitter-nak-mampus flu pills and cough syrup and crashed into bed. Within minutes, I was out. During my coma-like sleep I was vaguely aware of hubs coming home and working on the lap-top beside me, my mom coming in looking for pyjamas for the kids and #1 coming in a few times to whisper excitedly that "Mom's sick!", "Mom sleeping!" and "Wook! Mom's ubat!". Whether he was talking to himself or someone else, I'll never know.

I woke up 4 hours later feeling like I'd swallowed my pillow during my sleep. I hate drug-induced sleep. You wake up feeling like crap. I dragged myself out of bed and forced myself to take a shower since I vaguely remembered sweating profusely at some point in the afternoon. After a nice nasi ayam dinner which I could hardly taste, I felt somewhat human again. #1 has taken to giving me impromptu hugs and pecks on the cheek, his way of comforting his poor sick old mom, which is nice.

I will be a good girl and take my meds again before bed tonight. I have to go to work tomorrow since it's the company's Hari Raya open house and I've promised the kakaks at the office that I'd drive them to PWTC where it's being held. Let's hope my tastebuds have revived by then kalau tak rugi je all the yummy food!

Baking for Dummies

Taadaa! THIS is what I spent practically the whole of today doing. I must have watched too much Nigella lately to think that even I could whip up a cake in less than an hour like her. Have you ever watched her shows? She scoops out ingredients at whim without proper measurements, whips them all together, bungs them in the oven and everything comes out looking professional and delicious and perfectly done. So I thought, hey, she makes it looks so easy. Let me bake Ray's cake by myself.. the perfect solution since I'm on a pre-Raya budget, it's too short notice to order a cake and we're all sick to death of SR cakes anyway...

So during the past week I began gathering the ingredients and planning my design. I did some research on the web. Apparently the easiest birthday cake to make is a layered butter cake which you could then decorate however you want. Looks simple enough. Excited though I was, even I wasn't confident enough to make my own cake from scratch (not even using the "idiot proof" recipe I found on eHow), so I bought some butter cake mix from my local bakery supply shop yesterday. Got the eggs and butter. Good to go. This morning I was digging around in my mom's supply cupboard looking for cake tins when I discovered she didn't have the right size. There was a couple of square tins, some 10"s and something that appeared to be 9.5". So, another trip to the bakery supply to get a cake tin (they were out of 8"s so I got a 9" and at a 10% discount pulak tu, good deal).

This is how it went:

Oven pre-heated. Measure measure, mix mix.. everything's looking good. Poured batter into my 9" and mak's 9.5" (besar sikit takpe, boleh trim, I figured). Bunged it in the oven, set timer for 45 minutes. Went to check on the kids, put Ray down for a nap. Remembered I forgot to add in vanilla essence (wasn't in the recipe on the packet, but I usually add it in for extra flavour). Takpe kot. Came back almost an hour later, cakes still looking suspiciously wet and uncooked. Let them bake for another half hour. Cakes risen, but still looking pale and wet. Maid pointed out that the oven door doesn't close properly, letting out the heat hence oven not heated properly and cakes taking forever to cook. Damn. Yet another half hour later, cakes finally beginning to brown with nice smell wafting from oven. Some time later, cautiously opened door and patted nearest cake. Seems firm. Poked a skewer in which came out clean. Removed cakes from oven and set on wire rack to cool. Mixed up a batch of buttercream mean while, tinted it blue. Almost dislocate shoulder mixing the the colouring in. Mak helps to remove 1st cake from cake tin which comes out perfectly. Elder sister attempts to remove 2nd cake but it collapses in a soggy mess. Scoop everything back in and put it in the oven for another half hour. Meanwhile, lightly ice 1st cake to seal in the crumbs.

Remove 2nd cake which has gone all crusty on top. Once cool, remove from tin. Is cooked but uneven and lopsided. Trim off the bumpy bits and cautiously place 2nd cake on top of 1st cake. Nephew comes in and laughs at cake. Ignore him. Lightly coat 2nd cake with icing to seal in crumbs. Just remembered that had originally planned to put blackcurrant jam between layers. Crap. Too late now. Slather icing all over cake to create illusion of evenness. Elder sister comes in and helps decorate cake by poking Sm*rties into the sides. Nephew and niece look on hungrily from the sidelines, lamenting the fact that they're fasting. Haha. Finish off poking Sm*rties to create no "1" and sprinkling hundreds and thousands all around. And voila! My first cake is done.

After buka, Ray cut the cake with help from Eez. The cake was pretty good with the exception of everyone saying the icing was too sweet. Hmmm better luck next time. I had fun though baking this cake even with all the unsolicited advice and angst and stress. So with the 1st ghastly experience over, maybe next time I'll do better. Like Nigella.

Living In The World Today

Have you ever just woken up one day and felt really worried about your future? I do, most of the time these days. Just watch the news and read the papers. The increasing rate of inflation with prices going up, up, UP! The declining state of our society with the escalating crime rate. Rapes, murders, muggings, robberies, kidnappings, tainted food, pollution, crooked politicians.. What kind of world are we creating for our kids? I wonder.

Once in a while I do tend to get morbid and a tad depressed, so bear with me, please.

Do you live in KL? Do you have kids? Do you own your house? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you'd understand how hard it is to actually survive in KL nowadays. Even with both my husband and I working full-time, we're barely managing to stay afloat. That's the sad sad truth. I read somewhere that even if you earn RM3k in KL, you're considered poor. Seriously? It definitely feels like it. Honestly, I don't know where it all goes sometimes. House payment - RM1,xxx. Car payments - RM1,xxx. Broadband. Phone bills. Utility bills. Growing up formula. Diapers. Clothes. Credit cards (gakkkkk!). I don't know how my parents managed to raise 5 kids on their civil servant's salaries. But then again, things didn't cost as much as they did today.

I always dreamed that once I had kids, I'd stop working and look after them full-time. You know, be a housewife. Or a SAHM, as it's trendier to say now. The way things are going now, looks like I'll have to put that dream on hold for... a few years, if not forever. Sure, my husband does earn a decent sum, but it's clearly not enough to support our growing family in KL. We can't rely on our parents too much for help.. segan lah. I know some lucky lucky people who are fortunate enough to be SAHMs. I envy the hell outta them. They get to raise their kids themselves, be present at each stage of their development, go for school-runs and be totally involved in every aspect of their kid's lives. They have spare cash to shop, buy fabulous things, go on exotic holidays... Maybe their husbands are loaded, maybe their parents supplement their income, I don't know. It's still an unbelievable life to lead for someone the same age as me.

Sometimes I blog surf and read about some of these fortunate moms griping about their "imperfect" lives. One complains her husband spends too much time at work (gotta earn that cash for u to spend, baby). Another laments the fact that her children are taking over her life and she has no time for herself (err.. hello? SAHM?). Another mom hints that her husband will be buying her yet another high-end brand handbag but she wants a different brand (important for the school-runs and mommy brunches). The winner is definitely the super shopaholic mom whom we all love to hate. It's exactly like all those chick-lit books we love to read so much. Sometimes I have to refrain myself to tell them to stop whining, take a look at the real world and get a life. Or maybe I should just stop surfing the Internet altogether.

In the world of have and have nots, the grass is always greener on the other side.

** Please note that these are just my thoughts and I do not intend to offend anyone, SAHM or otherwise. It's probably my PMS talking. Some of my best friends are SAHMs and the most wonderful people on Earth. **

They're My Babies and I'll Spoil Them If I Want To

A friend of mine once asked me if I'm fair to my kids. Before I could get offended, she quickly explained. She has a beautiful baby whom she loves to bits. Her family simply dotes on this cutie as this baby was the long-awaited cucu due to a past personal family tragedy. She has all the pretty dresses a girl could want, toys galore and all the in and up-to-date baby paraphernalia. My friend does want more children, but at the moment she can't imagine dividing her love and lavishing it on another person, not even a second offspring.

"Are you going to have a big party for #2's first birthday like you did for #1?", she asked.

"No," I said. "Can't have a party 'cos his birthday falls during Ramadhan. We'll just cut a cake or something."

"Won't he feel offended?" she went on to ask. "Like when he's older?"

Hmmm. "I hope not, once we explain the situation to him." I replied. "He's still special. We'll have parties for other birthdays. It's not like his birthday will fall in Ramadhan forever."

My friend presses on. She asks if #2 gets the same toys and clothes as #1 did. It would be uneconomical to buy everything new for #2 since #1's stuff are perfectly fine and usable, I tell her. They only have 2 years between them and they're both boys, after all. I do buy #2 his own toys, though. It's just that I try not to be wasteful. I grew up wearing hand me downs and I turned out alright. In my family of four girls and one boy, my parents had to be prudent and economical on their civil servant's salaries. So we used each garment to the fullest and shared whatever we could. My dad did get us our own teddies and B*rbies, though.

It doesn't mean that once you have your second child, you love the first one any less. Or you love the first child more than the second child just because he was there first. To me, a mother's love is boundless like the ocean. There's plenty to go around and it's automatic. Once the doctor places that warm bundle in your arms, automatically the love just blossoms. The toys, clothes and accessories are just material possessions. Your kid could be decked out like Little Lord Fauntleroy but it wouldn't mean a thing if you didn't spend time with them.

For #2's birthday tomorrow I'll be baking a cake. After iftar, we'll sing him the birthday song, hug and kiss him and take lots of pictures. So that when he's older, he'll see that he did have fun on his birthday.

Apa Nak Jadi?

The state of our nation's politics are a big joke. I can hardly bear to read the newspapers or watch the news anymore without laughing. Or gagging. When is it all going to end? Next week? In 2 years? We've got enough things to worry about and now this is happening right on our door-steps.

.

.

At the risk of being blocked, or worse, that's all I'm going to say.

Stuff = Junk?

It's amazing the amount of junk one can accumulate in the space of 3 years. In this case, the first three years of my marriage, that is. After we moved out of our rented apartment last year and back to KJ when hubs had to work in Singapore, our mounds of stuff prompted my mom to build a whole new store room for us. Even then, some of belongings spilled over into the dining room, discreetly packed in boxes and shoved up against the wall. And this was after we actually sedekah most of our big stuff (e.g. fridge, sofa set, book case, vacuum cleaner, gas tank) to various people.

So we called in some movers, cleared out the store room and dining room and sent it all to our new house. My mom was so happy to finally get her dining room back that she immediately asked some friends over for lunch. Twice. And we just moved our stuff this past weekend.

I'm taking leave for 3 days this week. Earlier today I went round to the house with my mom, her maid and my two kids to unpack some of the stuff. Eez promptly discovered a box of some of his toys (how does he do that?) and set about cluttering up the living room floor. We unpacked the kitchen stuff and stowed away the rest like books and such to unpack later once we get the storage sorted out. At the end of our unpacking session we ended up with a mini-mountain of used packing paraphernalia whose sheer size amazed us. Now I've got a thing for boxes and have a small collection of them in various sizes which I really sayang to throw away (with the excuse they might come in handy next time), but even I couldn't see any reason to keep old crockery and C*rningware boxes so we tore them up and stuffed them into the garbage compartment to be picked up by the local garbage men. I did feel a twinge of guilt and realised that I should have recycled but by then the kids were tired and cranky and my mom wanted to go grocery shopping, so I made a mental promise to do better next tome.

Tomorrow I've got to make the trek to MPSJ to change the ownership of our house for cukai pintu purposes. Also, I've got painters coming in to paint the downstairs area and front gate. I'm ignoring my mother's suggestion to paint everything white (sorry, Mak) and instead I've picked out colours that I like from the catalogs. I hope that they turn out okay... after all I might end up with migraine-inducing walls which I detest and make everyone hate me and wont match with anything, right? We're doing the lower floor first. Later, when cash-flow permits, we'll do the upstairs.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Mi Casa... Finally!!!

** View from the sliding doors which overlook the minuscule front yard **

After months and months of endless legal wrangling, reams of paperwork and parting of ways with cash in various denominations, we finally received the keys to our house yesterday. I didn't notice it until a friend pointed it out - the date was the all-auspicious 08.08.08! So now I can honestly say that something good happened to me on that date.

I went over to see the house today to install new padlocks and check for any defects. Apart from a few busted light bulbs and the thick layer of dust on the floors, the house is in good condition. I really salute the previous owners for taking such good care of the house. It just needs a good cleaning up, a new coat of paint in the living room and on the front gate and we're all set. We're not planning any renovations just yet so we can start moving in pretty soon.

So now my mind is already occupied with figuring out how I'm going to decorate. Isn't that the best thing about having a house? The previous owners had already installed kitchen cabinets and built-in wardrobes in 3 of the 4 rooms, so we just have to buy our basic furniture and appliances. I've been busy online looking up various ID sites and poring over colour palettes. Hubs doesn't blink an eye when I suggest painting the living room pink. I honestly don't know if he's just humouring me or ignoring me!

One thing I do know is I don't want to go beige and brown. Not that I have anything against those two colours personally, it's just that it's just so... cosy and boring and neutral. Like my mom's living room.. *snigger snigger* . We used to have a maroon and grey living room but my mom remodeled it over the years and changed the sofas, carpeting, flooring, wall colour and curtains until everything somehow or the other ended up being either beige or brown. My dad complained about bumping into furniture that blended in with the walls and floor. My sisters complained about the browness of everything. Even Tom our ancient cat blended in with the carpets and got stepped on. So in a moment of temporary madness bought on by brown fever, my mom decided to paint the hallway walls green! Not a nice, light, minty apple green. But a really GREEN green reminiscent of Amazon rain forests and cows rolling in the meadows. Which of course next to our brown living room, looked horrific. Even Eez said confusedly, "Mom... blue?" To which I patiently replied, "No, sorry.. it's green." Three days later, my sister texted me at work: "green walls are gone! back to original beige colour." Hallelujah. It feels like home again.

So anyway, I can't wait to start on our house. God knows if we'll ever have any spare money ever again and when we'll finish, but we'll get there. Granted, the front yard is the size of a postage stamp and the you can cross the rooms in four big steps, but at least it's all ours. I would love to have something like this:

Isn't it pretty? Insya-Allah....... aminnnnnnnnnn.....

Entourage

I read this article recently, and it kinda freaked me out a little. As a full-time working mom, I do depend on others to take care of my kids. Yes, we have a maid (or rather, my mom does) who helps look after the boys and do the housework, but it's my mom who mainly watches the kids. Through some kind of excellent timing and God's will, my mom retired right around the time I gave birth to #2 last year, so we were able to pull #1 out of the day-care center he attended and keep him at home with the baby. It's only when my mom goes to her religious classes or mengaji that the kids are left home alone with the maid. In the afternoons and evenings, my sisters are home from school/work, so the boys are always surrounded by at least one member of the family practically at all times.

Whenever I'm at home and during weekends, I try not to depend on the maid too much to look after the boys. Indeed, even my mom "advises" me once in a while to look after my own kids when I'm at home since I work all day. My mom says, "What will happen if something happens to this maid? Like the old one when she had to go back suddenly?" She tells me to create a stronger bond with my kids. Let them depend on ME and not on other people.

Sure, of course I want to! And I do the best I can, from bathing to washing to changing to feeding to putting them to bed. As often as I can, all by myself. I treasure the time spent alone with my kids and my husband. I'm lucky that R is about as hands-on with the boys as I am. He helps bathe #1 (belum berani to do so with #2), feeds them, prepares their bottles, looks after them when I need some mommy time.... When we go out, we take the 1-1 approach: if I'm holding #2 or pushing his stroller, R takes care of #1. And vice versa. Die la if nak take care of both of them alone, right? #1 is at that bouncy, jumpy, run-around disobedient age. I don't have elastic arms and eyes in the back of my head, I know my limits. I can take both boys out on car-trips by myself but so far I haven't brought both of them on outings alone yet. I can handle them separately, but not together at the same time in a public place! That would be mommy suicide.

To me, I guess, you have to set boundaries. You have to know your limits. Sure, there's Supergirl and Wonder Woman but they didn't have kids! Don't be afraid to ask for help but don't take advantage of it either or you'll end up being over-dependent on it. Like when I was planning #1's party recently. I knew there was no way in h*ll I could go it alone since I work and am pretty much useless, so I roped in MIL & SIL. MIL cooked pretty much everything (honest confession.. some hostess I am. Haha.). SIL helped with the decorations. Honestly, the only things that were 100% mine were the party packs and the Kung-Fu Panda Pinata. Which took me like 4 days to make. In the end we all had a good time and no one was overly burdened and we all still like each other. See?

I try not to focus too much on the fact that my kids spend more of their waking hours with other people instead of me. If I did, I'd go crazy, kill my boss and blow up my office. Then I'd be sent to jail where I'd get to spend even less time with my family. Yeah, there are some days when I feel like I can't cope with everything and I feel tired and depressed and hopeless. Everyone has their bad moments. So I take each day as it comes and hug my boys when I can.

In today's topsy-turvy world, you have to get help where you can get it. Tak kisah la... from parents ke, family ke, friends ke, domestic help ke... But don't lose sight of the ultimate goal which is a close-knit, happy, healthy family. Treat everyone as you want to be treated in return. Be kind, be courteous and never diss other people because of the way they handle their lives. SAHM ke... WAHM ke... WOHM ke... we're all mothers and we all deserve each other's respect and support.

If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail

Honestly, I really hated motivational quotes like this post's title. Remember in Year 4 or 5 they'd make you write a quote in your exercise book in cursive writing (who uses cursive nowadays anyway???) and then you'd get to draw a colourful pattern at the bottom of the page. One that stuck in my mind after all these years is "buat baik berpada-pada, buat jahat jangan sekali" which I had to write down in Year 5 courtesy of Pn Eshah. Firstly' cos I still don't know exactly what berpada-pada means and I remember I did this really cincai cloud scallopy pattern that I got scolded for.

Wait a minute.. what was this post supposed to be about? Oh yeah... planning!

At the moment I'm planning my son's 3rd birthday party. Remember when I said that I didn't plan to do the big party thing this year? Looks like I will be throwing a party, after all. Though my parties tend to be more open-house sit around and makan-makan affairs, we've still got a lot to plan. Any mom who's ever organized a birthday bash for her kids will understand the stress, anxiety and sleepless nights it takes. And that's just planning the gift bags! There's the cake, the food (which has to cater for all types of palates - kids and adults and must not contain anything kids can choke on or be allergic to), decor (balloons, streamers, banners), the entertainment (the birthday kid knocking the cake off the table doesn't count), the guest list (nak ajak boss ke tak???) and so on and so forth....

At the moment I'm stressing over the gift bags. I don't really have much time to browse and plan and draw charts and hold family meetings since I work full-time and all. So far most of my planning has been at work where I curi-curi Google with the screen minimized and covered by spreadsheets and make quick notes on random bits of paper which I stuff into my handbag to be deciphered later at home.

I have been to some fantastic birthday parties where the moms really outdid themselves. I'm giving most of the credit to the moms since I know that all the dads did is shell out the money and say, "Suka hati u la, yang!" like they're supposed to. Hahaha. So I do have high expectations to live up to, I suppose.

Please please super moms.. I need help. Tips? Suggestions? Suppliers? Anything!!! I've got 2 weeks to pull it all together.

Happy Happy Happy

Aaaahhhh... July. To me it will always be the month of birthdays.. mainly 'cos mine's in it! With our extended families, there's a family member's birthday in practically every month, but July's the multiple whammy:

Jan - Ms M (honorary sista)
Feb - Dida (kid sista) and Tom our ancient cat
Mar - FIL
April - Eza (my kakak)
May - my Babah
June - hubs
July - Erfan (my nephew), MINE, Eez & BIL
Aug - SIL
Sept - Ray, Shasha (sista #3)
Oct - my Mak
Nov - hmmm... none (yet)
Dec - Ayim (my neice), Aizad (bro), MIL

Not to mention our assorted cousins, relatives, friends and kids-of-friends scattered thru out the year. We have a few birthday do's lined up this month, just about every weekend in fact.

We're actually not sure yet what we're going to do for Eez's 3rd birthday at the end of the month.. Probably a small party with close friends and family which will be held at the IL's in M*wati. I can't find the time or energy to plan a full-scale birthday extravaganza. Mine will certainly be relegated to a family dinner combo with BIL's birthday.. something low-key and simple. Gifts optional.. actually hub's has already given me mine. Which is lovely and something I really love!

I've been going thru a roller-coaster of emotions for the past week or so. I mean, I'm entering a new decade! I'm not going to be in my "late twenties" anymore. The big 3-0! Crikey. I'm going to be ticking the ">30" or "30-39" age group boxes from now on. Sure sure age is nothing but number. You are as old as you feel. There are some days when I get home from work and both boys are still going on at full steam at midnight and I feel like I'm 60. But there are other days, good days, when I'm on a date night with hubs, just the two of us... and I feel like I'm 18! And there are the days when the four of us are enjoying some family time and I look at my beautiful boys and think I'm just the right age.. 29 going on 30 with two wonderful kids, a loving husband, a stable job and a house on the way.

We'll see what tomorrow brings yeah.. now I just have to figure out what I'm getting everyone.

Child Labor

I managed to escape from the office quite early today, due to it being a Friday (4.45pm cabut time for bank employees) and my boss still on cuti. When I got home, I was struck with a sudden urge to wash my car. Mind you, it hasn't been washed in a while and was taking on a slightly dingy, crusty appearance. Practically every time my dad sees my car in the day-light he'll give me a mini lecture on the importance on keeping my car sparkling clean and polished at all times. Sometimes I feel like answering, "Sure, Babah, I understand. But not all of us have drivers who wipe and/or wash our cars practically every day." Instead, I just nod dutifully and promise to get my car waxed next weekend.

Anyway. Since I was already home, I was too lazy to drive out again to the local car wash. So I decided to wash it myself! A brilliant idea! Why not? Rather than forking out RM8 to the friendly I*ndon boys to do it at the local place, I could not only save said RMs but also get some exercise to boot. I haven't washed my car by myself in about 5 years thanks to a brother who was willing to trade for driving privileges and later my dear hubs who took over the job.

Eez was looking sad and forlorn 'cos my mom and adiks had left for PD for the weekend so I decided to let him in on the action. After outfitting him in a pair of H*uggies Swim Pants (nasib muat lagi) and a T-shirt, we dug out the necessary supplies from the storage closet and set to work. At first Eez didn't understand why my car needed a bath, but later he got the point when he saw the "yucky bubbles" slipping down the side of the car. He washed the whole driver's door, one wheel and half the bumper of my mom's Honda parked beside my car (totally unnecessary but it was a good effort nonetheless) before deciding that playing with the bubbles in the bucket was much more fun.




He was so absorbed in his task, he refused to smile for the camera. An hour later, I had a sparkling clean... well, cleaner car.

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Last weekend I bought some strawberries at the C*urve Street Market. 3 boxes for RM11, quite cheap, no? 3 days later, my finicky adiks had consumed just one box so rather than let the rest go to waste, I decided to try and make some strawberry butter. I'd read the recipe some where and it seemed easy enough. The strawberries were a bit tart ("Cuaca panas at Cameron kot!" my mom said) so I improvised on the recipe. I added more strawberries and some honey and a dash of lime juice. I was quite pleased with the result. I let it sit overnight in the fridge and proudly unveiled it to my adiks the next day. They were like, "Eeeew gross!" but after seeing Eez belasah 3 pieces of toast covered in the strawberry butter, they soon changed their tune.

I had planned to get a picture of my butter when it was all smooth and lovely and fresh but unfortunately my adiks got there first. Here's how it looked after it was attacked by wild animals:

This butter would taste fabulous on some hot scones.... But since I don't know how to make scones (yet), toast will have to do. Sedap, I tell you.... I have a new philosophy on eating. There's a world food crisis going on so I've decided to ditch any attempts at dieting and enjoy my food at all times, guilt free. To hell with the calories. Haha.

A Nite at the Theatre

Brava! Brava! Fantastico! Magnifico! Bellissimo!

All in all, whoever missed it either season... rugi rugi....

An Uneventful Friday the 13th

I'm just not in the mood to do anything productive at the moment. You ever get that feeling that all you wanna do is just sit around and do absolutely nothing? Today was one of those days.

I had a normal (read: boring) day at work. Due to some spectacular alignment of the planets I was able to balance both my MYR and JPY accounts (yawn.. don't ask) by 3pm. So I just sat around looking busy, opening multiple windows on my screen and fiddling with a bunch of papers on my desk just in case my boss poked her head over the partition and saw me. Honestly, normally I'd go look for other work to do or help someone else out, but on this particular day I just couldn't be bothered.

Hormonal? Nope, not due for anything at the moment. I'm just having a down moment. I'm a woman. I'm entitled. You know how a woman's heart is deeper than all the oceans (or something like that?). Totally. Men just don't understand. It's like that Monica song, "It's just one of them days... la la la la la la la.."

It's 10pm. Right now Ray's sound asleep. Eez is at the IL's in TM, having been kidnapped earlier in the afternoon. Hubs is on his way home from work and just called to invite me out to a late night supper. Since it's a Friday, my youngest sis is still awake and enjoying a Police Academy marathon (which we've watched a kajillion times but she still laughs at all the jokes, anyway). So I'll get her to keep an ear out for Ray in case he wakes up and go out for some Mama & Papa time with the hubs.

Hope to see you all later in a lighter mood.

Black Gold

It has begun... Prices are up everywhere. But seriously, petrol up by 78 sen??? And the price will be reviewed monthly? WTF???

Our salaries are already over-utilised as it is what with car payments, insurance, our kids' milk and diapers, grocery costs.. and by the end of the year we'll be paying for our new house and can add utility bills to our monthly expenses. We can hardly put anything away for savings! And next year Eez will be going to kindergarten, so that's at least another few hundred bucks per month.

It's alright for some people.. You know the adage, the rich get richer bla bla bla.. My parents have been civil servants their whole lives, so I didn't exactly get everything handed to me on a plate. But I try not to be bitter. Itu semua rezeki masing-masing, after all. I have to work. And for working people like me who depend on personal transportation, it's seriously bad news. My husband works in Putrajaya which definitely lacks efficient and fast public transport from outside the city. I work in KL, but to get here I'd have to take the LRT and a bus or a taxi, which basically adds up to what I pay for parking and petrol anyway.

So this means cutting down on luxuries. No more impromptu road trips. Shorter holidays and if any, closer to home. Less eating out. Less SHOPPING!!! OMG OMG OMG... how will I survive???


** I'm typing this post from my office PC which uses an ancient version of IE, so please bear with the wonky settings! **

Lets Go To The Movies

I am a certified movie addict. Besides reading, one of my favorite past times is watching movies. I have an amazing memory when it comes to movies. I can practically remember every character, costume and dialogue from some of my all-time favorites. Actually, this trait runs in my family. Between my siblings and I, we can quote line by line almost the entire script of Grease and Seniman Bujang Lapok! If only I could use that same talent when it came to studying for my exams, I'd be a rocket scientist by now.

It's not that we spent hours and hours watching videos or going to the cinema when we were kids. Most of the time, we'd be fighting like cats and dogs but when it came to movies, all 5 of us would bond. We had the same taste in movies and watched practically everything. We rented a lot of videos. Our dad would only let us get 2 at a time so we'd take turns in picking them. Romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle. Musicals like Grease. The Star Wars movies. The Karate Kid movies. The Superman Movies. The Indiana Jones movies. We especially liked oddball comedies like Beetlejuice, Cry Baby, Edward Scissorhands, To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything - Julie Newmar, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and a whole lot more.

Even until today, my sisters and I tend to randomly quote lines from movies. It drives my husband nuts as he doesn't seem to get it most of the time. He thinks I'm weird. Ha ha! But he does indulge me in my love for movies. We go out on date nights almost every week and catch the latest movies. He doesn't like chic flicks, so I settle for a DVD copy to enjoy at home. I don't like overly violent movies so he gets a DVD. Our first date movie was Johnny English! Not very romantic, I know. I continued to go to the cinema throughout my pregnancies, to the protest of MIL who feared her grandkids would grow up being kaki wayang like us!

We just watched the latest Indiana Jones movie and I must say, I loved it! Watching Harrison Ford crack his whip again was like going back to my childhood and seeing him for the first time in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I totally remembered which Indy movie his love interest was from, too! (Raiders, fyi). I sometimes avoid movies based on books that I've read since I already know the plot. Some of them fail to make a smooth transition from paper to the big screen and end up shadows of the original script. Others, like the LOTR movies, leave out big chunks from the original story-line and end up a tad confusing and disappointing.

Summer's coming up... the best time for summer block busters. Can't wait.

Life on Planet Mom

This is actually my third draft of this post. I've switched on the laptop a few times before in the past few weeks with the sole purpose of updating this blog but something ALWAYS comes up. Someone needs milk, another needs a diaper change, one of them wants to go to bed, someone needs me to find a certain pair of socks (you have a dozen pairs, man... just pick any of 'em for crying out loud!!), someone wants me to read his "fish book" or put on his "watch fish tv"... so I turn off the laptop again and promise myself to go online the next day. Or the next.

I love my life as a mommy and a wife, I tell myself everyday.

So the abbreviated version of my recent life's events. Last week, Eez took a fall down the stairs and bumped his head somewhere, sustaining a cut just below his left eyebrow. Which needed stitches, of course. While we were waiting to be admitted at DSH, Eez was jumping on and off the plastic waiting chairs and playing catch with the other (supposedly) sick kids in the A&E prompting a nurse to remark, "Oh... patut la dia jatuh." Cringe. So he got patched up (under general anesthetic, no less), we came home and by the next day he had gone back to jumping off furniture. When I received the bill the next day I almost had a coronary. The one night stay in a double-bedded room (no singles were available), the consultations, anesthesia and minor surgery cost more than my delivery bill for Ray at the same hospital!! Thank God for employee medical plans.



A week later, the bandage is off and all that's left of the wound is a 3/4 inch thin red line and half an eyebrow that is yet to grow back from the surgery. Thank you, Dr Razak for your fantastic work. Definitely value for my employer's money!

Last week, I took my car to the mechanic for balancing and alignment. It was okay for a while but then a few days ago I heard a low humming sound whenever I speeded up or took a left turn. Even my friend commented on the noise when we went out for lunch yesterday. So today, I drove back to the mechanic and told him about my problem. Incidentally, this is the cleanest mechanic I have ever met with an almost spotless workshop. Weird. Anyway, one of the other mechanics took my car for a test drive to figure out the source of the noise. Five minutes later he came back scratching his head. After a brief conversation in Chinese, all the while shooting me "crazy lady" looks, my mechanic instructed me to go for a drive with the other guy and point out the sound. Which of course, did not emerge even once during our spin around the block. By then I was seriously starting to doubt my own sanity. I explained that I heard the sound whenever I drove fast or took left turns. Then yet another mechanic took my car for it's third round of the day. When he came back he jacked up the car, manually spun the wheels a few times and pronounced that the bearings of the rear left tyre was shot and needed to be replaced. Hallelujah! I wasn't imagining things after all. An hour and RM75 later, I drove out of the workshop probably to the mechanic's relief. Apparently mechanics aren't like paediatricians where you're encouraged to bring in your kids if you even slightly suspect something is wrong, even if there isn't.

Oh, and my almost house! Miracle of miracles, we finally signed the SPA two weeks ago. I gathered all the necessary documents and reports and after a few harried phone-calls to my not-so-friendly HR rep, I submitted my loan application two days ago. So now the nail-biting time to wait for the loan to go through. Judging from all the money we've had to fork out on the kids various expenses, lawyer fees, deposits and car expenses, I predict that my house will go largely unfurnished until next year.

Well, before this post goes on and on and on and on... I'd like to wish all mommies a Happy Mother's Day. Our hard hard work is appreciated, really. A toast to all mothers, young and old... keep on doing the good work of raising tomorrow's leaders!

Update to this post on 29/5: Apparently this self-injury thing runs in both families. I forgot to mention that my husband has a scar in the exact same place due to a fall he took when he was a kid. I just realised it after Dotty asked me when I saw her 2 weeks ago. Today, I had one of my monthly catch-up phone calls with my grandma. She reported that my dad also has a small scar above his eye which he got when he fell as a kid! Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa...

Dying Inside

Okay.. I will try not to make it a habit to let whole months lapse before I post a new entry. Promise. :-D

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My mom always told me if I didn't have anything nice to say, just keep quiet. So I really should stop tempting myself on purpose. Like right now I'm semi-watching the weekly concert of this local reality show that has that "fever" catch phrase. Like really, does anyone actually take this seriously? Is it really a matter of life and death that you have to dissect every single aspect of these kids lives and trash them on national TV? I really really kesian these poor fools who willingly put themselves up for public ridicule like this. Like last week that poor girl with the obviously sweaty arm-pits? So sad.

I have to admit I was caught up in it during the first season a few years ago. I was single, had lots of time on my hands and not much of a personal life after work hours. I faithfully watched the daily updates and stayed in every Saturday night to catch the concerts. I even cried once or twice when my favourite contestants were booted off the show. It was a novelty being the first show of it's kind locally and EVERYONE was into it. Then came season two with all it's outrageous sponsorships, surprises and scandals. I started to get menyampah because it was all kind of staged and I finally came to see what a load of bollocks it all was. Once season three started, I really couldn't be bothered. Buat sakit hati je tengok. The contestants could hardly sing, the "top" ones were appalling and the judges were over the top. Like their opinion really mattered. Haha.

The later seasons have turned into instant cash cows encouraging people to vote via SMS with weird sponsorship deals thrown in. The kids are obviously acting, the clothes are atrocious, the songs are boring and the judges.. ooops, "pengkritik" are as loud as ever. They like to play the good cop, bad cop and cop on the fence routine a' la A*erican Idol. And what's up with the pancing undi taktik of bursting into tears at the drop of a hat? Are there really all these 20-something kids who've never ever been away from their parents? Are all of them really sad and tragic and this is their last chance at making a better life for their families? And what in the world does ready-made asam jawa have to do with singing?

So of course la one cannot help but kutuk whenever the show is on. But surprisingly come Saturday night the whole family gathers in front of the TV to watch and comment on the show. I keep saying, "If all we're going to do is kutuk, baik kita watch something else. Buat tambah dosa je." But we never do change the channel... so God help me, I have to be extra nice and recite extra long doas to make up for my weekly bitch-fest. Hahahaha.

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Sorry if anyone terasa, but I hate blogs where all the bloggers talk about is where they shop, what they bought and gloat about it. So you have the money and resources to stock up on designer goodies and fly off to glamorous locations with nary a care in the world. Like your kids for example. Not all of us do. Please try to avoid rubbing it in our faces.

Like there's a certain blog that I desperately try to avoid. It does nothing but piss me off. Ms M and me, we never have anything nice to say about this particular person. I have personally met this girl a few times (I attended her wedding even) and our families are connected. But to read what goes on in her life is mind-boggling. Her family is the nicest, humblest of folks but this girl is so outspoken and flashy you really can't describe it. She's made it her life's mission to single-handedly raise the country's economy. She shops like there's no tomorrow, snapping up serious designer stuff without batting an eye. If her posts are anything to go by, this goes on every week. However I'm not sure if it's her rich daddy's or her husband's money she's throwing around. As far as I know she doesn't work and is a SAHM to her young child. However, I have recently discovered that she uses everything once or twice then sells them to her friends and families. So it's a kind of roll-over deal with her, I guess.

I don't read her blog if I can help it. Once in a while though, if she buys something really fabulous or extreme Ms M will text me and together we'll rant.

Stop it stop it stop it, me. Really. Be the better person. Keep your bitchy thoughts and comments to yourself. Or so I keep saying. Sigh.

Happy Days Are Here Again!!

Okay okay.. I've been out of the loop for quite a while. Been so busy and stressed and have loads on my mind that I hardly have the energy to fire up the old laptop at the end of the day.

I really didn't want to say anything until everything was 100% confirmed. It's simply this... hubs is moving back to KL! For good! Hip hip hoorayyyyyyyyyyy!!! A few weeks ago around Maghrib I got a call on the house phone from a harrassed-sounding young lady named Wati. She said she was working for a certain 5-star hotel and had been trying to get hold of R for ages. Before he went to SG, hubs had interviewed at this hotel for the post of Chef Concierge. Apparently they were too late in giving their reply or something, so hubs headed to the MO in SG who's offer came first. Now, months later, this hotel is calling up R to offer him the job.

Kebetulan hubs was due for a return visit the next week, so he went for yet another interview at the hotel. They were like really laying it on thick, like "Your wife and kids and family is here... you tak nak kerja balik sini ke?" So hubs demanded better pay, better benefits and the freedom to pick and hire his own staff. They must have been pretty desperate 'cos they agreed!!

So hubs zipped back to SG to tender his resignation and tie up all his affairs. Then last week he called me and said he received another job offer from another 5-star hotel in KL!! Wow, double the rezeki anak this year, Alhamdulillah. So he's going for another interview when he comes back next week.

In answer to your question, that's why I'm house-hunting, Ms F!

To tell you the truth, I'm feeling a bit pressured to find a house ASAP from my mother. Really.. macam kena halau je. Haha. But the terms are my new place has to be close to KJ 'cos she insists that I send them to her place when we go to work. Every where close by is like really old or too expensive. The ones within the meagre budget my staff loan permits are quite far away.

So I am open to suggestions. Really.

So Long, Sucker!

Eez recently said his final goodbye to a dear friend - his beloved pacifier, Ting. That little sucker has had many incarnations over the years and served Eez faithfully as a comfort companion over the past 2 ½ years. The last one, a clear teal blue plastic soother, finally got so raggedy and bitten and holey that Eez started saying, "Eeeewww Ting yucky!" every time he put it in his mouth. I didn't get him a new one on purpose on the advice of my mom and MIL 'cos we all thought it was high time he gave it up. He started asking for it less and less during the day and has survived two whole nights without it. I finally chucked it in the bin yesterday with a slight feeling of guilt at Ting's unceremonious funeral.

I had a love-hate relationship with my son's pacifiers. Yeah, people say they're gross and contribute towards orthodontic problems and kids end up depending on them and bla bla bla... but those people have never had a baby constantly "hanging" until your nips feel like they're about to fall off from all the sucking! I did my research and got so-called orthodontist approved (and probably the most expensive) ones from Av*nt, which Eez really loved. He liked the shape and texture kot and refused all other brands I bought. Ting was actually a real life-saver at times... especially at night when Eez just needed a little comfort. Some well-meaning people tried to get me to stop giving Eez the pacifier but I preferred to let Eez stop in his own good time. I mean, how do you expect a toddler to go cold turkey on something he's had all his life?

There are different schools of thought on pacifiers. Some experts say that babies don't really need pacifiers in the first place and get into the habit of having one once they've been introduced. They can effect the alignment of a toddler's teeth and impediment speech development. Others say that pacifiers are alright as long as the baby still has his milk teeth. I started to get worried after Eez developed a slight curvature in his teeth but his speech hasn't been effected so I didn't mind so much. Besides, he looked really cute when he "senyum belakang puting", as his Papa called it.

I'm soooo relieved Eez has finally kicked the habit. I can stop carting the little bugger around in my hand-bag when we go out and I don't have to worry about Eez misplacing or losing it anymore!!! Oh wait... Ray's got a pacifier, too. Dammit. Another 2½ years to go then!

There's No Place Like Home

Okay okay I'm updating my blog!! Due to a series of mishaps and malas episodes I've neglected my poor blog for a month. First of all one by one my family members succumbed to the flu virus that was going around recently. Eez got sick first - fever, snuffly runny nose, cough, the works. Then Ray started to cough suspiciously. He developed this little manja-manja cough which made us unsure whether he was really getting sick or he was just "testing" 'cos he laughed after every cough. Soon he started getting snuffly at night so I endured another 2½ hour wait at the paed's to set my mind at rest. Immediately after that, I got the flu and a cough. Then the virus jumped ship to my sister pulak. So at one point all 4 of us were on flu/cough medication, rolling around the house like a pack of drunks. Hahaha! My mom certainly had her hands full that week, let me tell you.

Aaaahh and the onset of February bought a spate of lovely public holidays which fell on Fridays. FT day was the first long weekend. Hubs managed to get cuti and came back for four days. The only blot was I had to come back to work for a few hours on FT day for the month-end closing. So I balanced my accounts at super-speed and left by noon before my boss could dump more work on me! The rest of the weekend was spent jalan-jalan, makan-makan, catching up with friends at KLCC (love love love the pizza at CPK).

Then we went down to be with hubs for CNY weekend. We drove down to JB with my Mak Uda who works in Shah Alam and my Mak Tok who was visiting for a while. While all my Mak Tok's other cicits call her "Nenek", my son has bestowed upon her the ultra-hip title of "Grandma". So all the way back to JB it was "Grandma, nak makan!" or "No, Grandma. My pillow!". Mak Tok loves being called Grandma, definitely the first in her kampung to be called that!

Singapore was quite dead during the 1st two days of the lunar new year since most of the major shopping malls were closed. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how empty Orchard St was. A complete opposite from KL where even though half the city is away balik kampung, the malls and shopping spots are still open full swing! The malls being closed was a good thing actually since I wasn't able to shop! Hubs was relieved at that.. hahaha. We did manage to go to Sentosa Island for an afternoon to indulge Eez in his favourite past time of fish watching at Underwater World. Not too sure about the value for money there 'cos it wasn't as big as I'd expected and the crowds (mostly tourists and foreign workers on leave) was horrendous.. then again I've been spoilt by Aquaria and our own Underwater World at Langkawi. We also managed to catch the Song of the Sea light and water show for a fantastic price of $6! A great ½ hour show which really took our breaths away. Eez was totally awed by the whole thing while Ray... well, Ray slept through the whole thing since it was way past his regular bed-time. Before heading back to JB on Saturday I managed to squeeze in a trip to Orchard St and bag a pair of Itti & Otto heels (my new favourite brand of shoes) which was on sale at R*binsons.

We headed back up to KL on Sunday. What's a trip back to the nation's capital without a traffic jam or two thrown in? OMG the whole of the N9 stretch of the highway was so jammed up. Over-heated cars and two buses lay forlornly by the side of the road as we inched our way along. The whole trip took 6 freakin' hours. Ray was out of sorts for a while but soon settled down to sleep. Eez was safely strapped into his car seat and was on good behaviour the whole time. As long as he got his milk and Friend he was perfectly happy, entertaining us with his whole reportoire of nursery rhymes and his own made-up song of every single word he knows from family members to animals to food to everything in the world. Have to tape that one some day, could be a hit!

So there you have it, folks.. what I've been up to lately. Now it's back to the daily grind.. I missed 2 weeks of yoga due to being sick and the holidays, so I really really should go today. I can just feel that Hershey Sundae Pie adding inches to my waist.....

Happy New Year Again...

I just dropped hubs off at the Aeroline terminal at OU this morning.. so ends another short visit. This time hubs managed 2 nights in KL by taking a 2.30pm bus straight from work on Tuesday. Oh when will S*pore finally implement a 5-day work week? Hubs had originally planned to take three days annual leave but had to shorten it at the last minute due to inevitable office politics. Ada je orang nak buat hal and have to get kicked out from the concierge team.. this time not just one, but two!

In anticipation of hubs leave I'd already applied for AL yesterday and Friday. Miracle of miracles, my leave was granted. Usually my work-place has this warped view on taking ALs.. apparently you can't take leave before and after a public holiday. And you can't take leave around a festival season that you aren't celebrating. Even if you're the only one celebrating the festival in your effing unit! And you can't take leave during school hols if you don't have school-going kids. Isn't that weird? Anyway, rupa-rupanya my boss approved my leave because he had a hidden agenda. He applied for leave starting from the last week of January right up till CNY!!! Unfair or what? Not only is he taking leave before AND after a PH (Hari Wilayah on 1st Feb), but he's also on leave on CNY week which he is definitely NOT celebrating. So, me being the immediate officer under him will have to man the unit for 2 weeks. Freaky or what... if this guarantees me a huge pay rise and super-duper bonus takpe jugak.

So, well... after hubs came back on Tues evening we packed up the kids and went to spend a nite at the IL's in M*wati. It was already quite late by then so we managed to escape the horrible after-work-raining-buckets traffic jam. Since it was raining, we had to forgo our planned midnite supper while getting the car washed so my car is still super dirty. Wed morning woke up late. Ray was already up bright and early, babbling non-stop to everyone and the ceiling fans. After bathing and feeding him (Eez was still asleep), we left the kids in the care of MIL and SIL and headed here on Jln Yap Kwan Seng for brunch and also to tapau some chicken hor fun for our dear family friends whom we would be visiting later at HKL. The parking at the hospital was horrendous, as always. We circled the entire complex twice before a kindly security guard let us into a parking bay marked for employees only.

The couple that we were visiting are actually long-time family friends of my ILs and are honorary family members. Three weeks ago they suffered a terrible accident in Kuantan when their car was hit by a some Mat Salleh guy. Drunk or what, tak tau la. Their front passenger, Auntie's father passed away on the spot due to massive injuries. Uncle and Auntie suffered broken arms and legs while their daughter also sustained severe facial injuries besides broken limbs. All three are currently warded back at HKL. Uncle still has some operations to go through to correct his legs while the daughter still has corrective surgery scheduled. Hubs was almost crying while talking to Uncle (thank God for the masks we had to wear to prevent infection). Even after suffering such terrible injuries Auntie and Uncle remained upbeat as always and still asked after every member of our respective families as if we were chatting in their living room instead of a sterile hospital room. What really humbled me was seeing Auntie performing her prayers in bed with her broken arm and leg in casts. The phrase "Alhamdulillah" frequently peppered her speech and she was so calm and serene it touched my heart.

After the hospital visit we headed to Pavillion to catch a movie and "dating", as my PIL put it. A phone call confirmed that the babies were doing fine with MIL so I didn't feel too guilty about leaving them behind. The movie was reasonably good which was surprising since normally I don't like Nicholas Cage. Then we lined up for twenty minutes to get JCO donuts (yes, they ARE that good). We bought two dozen of the little buggers for IL's and my family. RM35 on donuts! But totally worth it.

So.. hubs has gone back and my long weekend stretches out in front of me. Luckily I have Ms M's tea party to look forward to tomorrow (what to get as a gift????). There's also a birthday party of the grand-daughter of one of MIL's friends on Saturday but I don't think I have the energy to endure another society party so Eez is going alone with MIL. I think I'll just laze around the house and bug my sisters to accompany me on illicit trips to McDonald's...