kenangan dan impian

Today is the last working day for 2006. For me, it was yesterday. Hari ni UL, sakit belakang lah pulak. Saya pulak, aktiviti kat rumah ni, samada I do something or I sleep. Unlike the rest of the household, I don’t watch TV that much. Maybe cerita House or a few programmes from Ch 11 kot. Senang cerita, tanpa TV, hidupku taklah miserable mana.

I’ve lined up a to-do list for today. Taktaulah berdaya ke tidak. Kain dah soak dalam washing-machine. Pastu nak kemas wardrobe and get rid of things yang dah tak pakai tu. Same goes with the kids’ wardrobe. Banyak sangat baju yang dah tak muat. Kakak pun komplen baju dia nampak pusat. Alhamdulillah,.. kalau dia ada perasaan malu sebegitu. Pastu nak kemas cabinet dapur. And before the kids balik petang karang, I need to wash the toilets, sapu dan mop lantai. Beg balik kampong tak boleh kemas lagi. Kena tunggu Kakak sebab dia dah kata nak tolong. Kalau dia balik, beg dah siap pack, alamatnya panjanglah muncung tu nanti. Oh, kena pegi shopping sikit. Bekal buah-buahan anak-anak, bekal esok, diapers dan susu Iman.

Speaking about Iman, semalam dia pulak menunjukkan bakat seni lukisan. Dulu kakak dah conteng dinding (newly painted masa tu, mind you) dengan crayon kaler oren. 4 tahun kemudian (which was semalam), adiknya pulak conteng other part of dinding dengan crayon jugak. Kali ni kaler purple (zarid, akak kan takut nak play around with colors.. budak2 ni yang tolong tambah kaler kat rumah ni ha). I’ve tried to remove those scribbles. Dengan catnya sekali terkopek. Dengan perasaan yang agak bengang (sabar… sabar… anak-anak itu anakku jua. Mereka hanya ingin mencuba…), cari kat internet petua. Katanya tekap tisu dapur kat tempat contengan. Pastu iron dengan seterika panas so the crayon would melt and be absorbed by the tissue. Residual tu, boleh lap guna soda bikarbonat (yang guna buat kek tu kan?)

Esok, we’ll be going east balik kampong. Syok. Ada org jadi pelik kenapa saya excited nak balik rumah inlaws. I guess after 6 tahun kawin, tak kisah dah nak balik mana pun, janji fair to both side of parents. Adik-beradik mdh semua perempuan, selain dia. So maybe fakta tu membantu saya. Selain kami berkongi minat yang sama – makan!

So, 2006 bakal meninggalkan kita. Bagi saya, 2006 merupakan tahun yang lebih baik dari 2005. 2005 banyak kisah duka, penuh emosi dan tekanan. 2006, walaupun 6 kali kami berhimpun di APSH dan setiap bulan pasti ada trip ke sana, hati saya lebih senang. Mungkin sebab Iman dah kurang menangis (saya lagi tahan dia membuas daripada dia menangis). Antara yang manis 2006, kami akhirnya honeymoon after 6 years of marriage and 2 kids. And awal tahun, Iman mula menapak langkah2 pertama. Pertengahannya pula, dia mula memanggil saya ‘oooommmiii’. Si kakak pula menunjukkan sifat lebih matang. Lebih bertanggungjawab, lebih toleransi, banyak membantu kerjarumah selain memberikan saya ‘home spa’ dengan ‘kiddy massage’ nya! Ummmm… dengan hanya menulis ini, saya rasa airmata bergenang. Bahagianya saya. Cerita dengan suami pula, tak perlulah panjang lebar. 18sx dan 18sg pula nanti! Setelah lebih 6 tahun, bermacam-macam kami kongsi, hatta pin tudung saya pun dipinjamnya to remove something that got stuck in between his teeth! Kami juga berkongsi berusgigi, boxer short. Tidur sebantal bila anak-anak ‘merampas’ semua bantal yang ada, makan sepinggan, minum secawan. Betul, kalau ada yang terserempak kami waktu pagi bersarapan, cuma ada satu pinggan dan 2 sudu. Bagi saya itu tak pelik, ia dah menjadi kebiasaan kami. In fact di rumah, nasi goring atau mee goring akan dihidangkan dalam satu pinggan besar dan kami makan secara berjemaah dengan anak-anak!

Tahun 2007 yang bakal menjelma tak lama lagi, saya berharap akan dapat menyempurnakan impian-impian saya. Mungkin 2007 nanti saya akan mempunyai sebuah kereta kecik saya sendiri dan saya akan berjaya memandu dengan jayanya di KL. Saya mahu lebih berjimat cermat. Saya berdoa keluarga saya sentiasa sihat-sihat saja. Saya juga memohon Allah kurniakan kekuatan kepada saya dalam dunia pekerjaan atau memudahkan ruang untuk saya berpindah ke bahagian lain pula. Apa-apa pun yang bakal berlaku, saya pasti Allah merancang yang terbaik untuk kita, walau seteruk mana sekalipun ia kelihatan. Oh, saya juga teringin sangat nak tengok lama saya menghijau dengan rumput dan berlanskap sederhana tapi menarik.

Ops, washing machine dah siap memutar kain.

Selamat Eidul Adha.
Selamat Tahun Baru 2007.
Selamat Membayar Harga Tol Baru juga!

year-end sale

I have lots to jot but I have little time to spend for that.

Anyway. Short note.

I’m selling this 2.5seater. It comes with 2 small throws (which, somehow are not featured here). The frame is still sturdy and cushion still firm. HOWEVER, it may need new slipcover. It has grafities (crayon) ~ courtesy of Cik Nurul Athirah and some marks of God knows what. Bought from Homelife about 3 years back for RM800.00
(just a note - my jumping kids do not jump on this, they attack the one in the living area)
SELLING AT RM300.00

for sale

close-up on stains

kesan crayon lukisan si kakak

However, I do not provide transportation. As a consolation for that, I’m giving these two lazy chairs for free. Likewise the sofa, the frame is still sturdy but they need new slipcover. Bought from IKEA about 4 years back for RM200.00 each.
FREE with PURCHASE of SOFA ABOVE




Interested? Just mail me at lester88@streamyx.com or ti109822003@yahoo.com.


Oh, tercicir pulak. I'm also selling this CD rack. Bought from IKEA forapproximately RM70-RM80.
SELLING AT RM40.00


btw, my house is in Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, Cheras, near Balakong.

No, the baby car-seat is neither for sale, nor it is free-with-purchase. I still need that.

short notes

:: Chubby baby Nurul Atiqah (not to confused with my Nurul Athirah because this one belongs to Pn Siku|at) was admitted to Hospital Pantai, Bangsar due to high fever and asthma. Pn Siku|at is on leave, continuing from where her MC stops last week. Let’s pray that Atiqah will recover soon.


:: Been busy, like I had expected. Report is done and being compiled. Yesterday was 5s inspection day. I’ve been clearing and tidying and cleaning so that my cubic would comply with whatever criteria that are being spelt out. The consolation was that we are allowed to have a drawer or two to be labeled as PERSONAL and those are excluded from inspection. Soo, you may have guessed what I did. My PERSONAL drawers are filled to the brim! I am not naturally berserabut. Well, I may, when I do my job but I always clear my table before leaving the office.


:: The kids are well, alhamdulillah. We’ve moved back into the master bedroom. It’s no more master bedroom actually. We’re sharing it with the kids. Sleeping quarters is more like it kot? Kakak has wonderful appetite nowadays while Iman is a bit ‘shrunk’ than he was. He’s been on cookies diet and refused most heavy meal like rice or noodles. When he finally agrees to those, he eats only a bit. But he’s still on 7-8 bottles of milk. We’ll be visiting Dr Nasir’s clinic this Friday for his usual follow-up.


:: Okay peeps, have a wonderful week ahead. In case I won’t be able to log on again until the weekend, have a happy long weekend ahead, eh!

honeymoon's over!

honeymoon's over! the kids are back.

Went balik kampung after work on Friday, stopped for dinner of nasi bubur in Kg Baru (I can't even remember the last time we ate there, probably Iman wasn't even born yet). then proceeded with full stomach to Temerloh. With speed that could caused us summons, sampai kat kampung approximately in an hour (do your own calculation). The kids jumped about while screaming the hearts out at the sight of us. That's what I like about children. They're sincere and they show it. After bath and prayer, we slept hugging the kids tightly, albeit Iman's rather smelly head from sweat.

Saturday was spent hovering over my recipe book. We did Nasi Daging for my family. This time around we used tulang. Boiled with ginger for aproximately 2 hours, the dish was even better than last time when we used all meat. The accompaniment was solely daging goreng. Thinly sliced and fried with bawang besar and bawang putih. And tadi pulak we left the kids meraung-raung while we shopped for sotong. It was raining. Even if it was not, bringing the kids would not be a good idea. One will ask too much while the other will be touching, grabbing, or even throwing things about.

We left at about 5p.m. Atok, Wan and Mokkucu were obviously sad (a phonecall later confirmed that, they were all so sunyi, they say). Reached KL in 2 hours. It was drizzling and the road slippery. PLUS, banyak kereta. Alhamdulillah, we came back safely. After Maghrib mdh went to clinic as he develops mild allergy while I did a round of laundry, swept the floor and tidied the kitchen. Oh, back in my kampung, the water heater was faulty, washing machine broke down (i have blisters on my fingers due to manually washed kain baju) and the fan refused to change speed even when the dial was rotated.

I foresee busy weekends until Jan2007. Next week 24th Dec, InsyaAllah, we'll be following mdh's uncle for kenduri bertunang his eldest son. The following week will see us going east for Aidil Adha. In between, I have reports to submit and that will keep me busy throughout.

That would be all for tonight. I need to press clothes for tomorrow.

the cost of raising kids in KL

Went to Atfal yesterday morning. Picked up Kakak's report card and discussed about her emotional and intellectual development. For a person who missed 36days of schooling, I'd say her results were quite good. If only she attended all.. But then it's all written in Qada' and Qadar and I am accepting this wholeheartedly. I just hope she'll be healthier so that her pre-schooling would not be interrupted too much. The relief was that her teacher is confident she'll somewhat land among the top (in her tadika, at least) and she expects Kakak will not have major problem starting her Standard 1 in 2008. To her, Kakak posseses good self confidence from the way she socializes. She asks questions in class. She shows interest in what others do. She participates. Her concentration span has improved tremendously (she still daydreams tho, but much lesser). As for Iman, he's matured where socialising is concerned. He'd wait for abang2 and kakak2 transit then he can mingle around with them, looking at their books or busybody-ing with their homeworks. He, like I expect, throws less tantrum there. If he does, he'd attack Nor (poor.. poor... Nor) and runs amok to her.

We were also given list of fees for 2007, which left us checking all balances in all our saving accounts. True, to us the middle income parents, the sum costs a bomb (by our standard lahh). But alhamdulillah, we can still afford it. Tho not in 'graceful' way - which means cutting down expenses somewhere else to accomodate this. I'm not boasting but I'd like to give some kind of idea, financially, to parents who have kids about the same age like mine. So, if you're sending your kids to tadika in 2008, start saving from now! (note ~ nasihat kpd mereka yang bergaji seperti kami. mereka-mereka yang dapat gaji sorang satu 5-angka tak payahlah kot!) As for Iman, he'll be 3 next year (sebenarnya baru 2tahun sebulan, sbb dia lahir hujung tahun) so he'll have activities also. Among which - waterplay. Kecutlah anak kuu!! Anyway, I think once Kakak starts her primary, bulk of the expenses will be gone. Provided that we don't send her to private school.

the fees we're gonna have to fork out. Iman's yellow, Kakak's blue.

Anyway, presenting Nurul Athirah's aquarium project..

taraaaaaa.....

empty nest

we are so missing the kids! came back to an empty house at approximately 10p.m. last night. yep, we went back balik kampung as planned and left the kids to enjoy themselves wrapping their grannies and mokkucu around their little fingers. while we drove away in silent to KL (not forgetting to mention mdh's silent tears as we sped through), Iman had fun jumping about on mokkucu's bed and kakak got my mom to fry her egg and fish for an early dinner, which is not normal within my family circle as we, most of the time, have dinner after berita time. (and that is my side of the family. my husband's usually eat before 9p.m.)

anyway. kakak is one melodrama girl. she accused us (sort of) will have fun without her around. this was her script over breakfast. 'haa... suka hati lah tu. kakak takde nanti. bolehlah tengok berita ke, cerita abah ke, apa ke' (we have this arrangement where she can only watch channel 61-64 while we're busy tidying-up or preparing dinner after work, afterwhich she has to surrender the black-box to us for so-called 'cerita abah' or 'cerita ummi')

when it was parting time yesterday, her eyes were a bit teary. she hugged me tightly, saying she was saaaaaddddd to let me go. actually I've asked her many-many times if she wanted to change her mind and follow us back but berkali-kali jugak she insisted on staying. she said she'll miss me but she would want to spend the week with atok and wan and mokkucu. then she raised her hands and drew a big heart in the air with 'i love you'. awwwww..... she can be so awfully sweetttt at times, isn't she? she told us not to worry as, in case she misses us, she'll look at our faces in the photos. Iman was indifferent tho he seemed to be sensing something was going on. but that was before my mom offered to bring them to visit opah (my aunt).

we'll be going back to fetch them this coming Friday. in the meantime maybe we should go out, just the two of us and have sometime for ourselves. you know, eat out, frolic about and do nothing in specific. we're supposed to be honeymooning, aren't we?

me, from her perspective.
see that tick-boxes on the left? they are for my doings. i got only one box with 'x' (that's for not taking good care of the pokok bunga we have). therefore, with only one 'x', I was given a long necklace with a big star pendant. this, sent me over the moon. a little gesture from a little girl that means so very much to me.

confusion confusion

Confuse.. confuse. I need a maid but I don’t want a maid. Camne ek? Kakak akan start sekolah in 2008. We feel that tak sesuai dia balik ke nursery after school. Tapi, takkan nak suruh dia balik rumah sensorang? Having a maid around meaning we’ll be losing our privacy. Ye lah, selama ni dok lepak terlentang terbungkang kat living area tengok TV. In God knows what and do God knows what! Tapi rasanya I cannot be selfish. I have to put my children before my whims and fancies.

I need a maid but i don't want any. I need a small car but I want a Neo. I'm being quite a confused lady of late, huh?

In fact, a few days ago, my SIL who’s living in Jakarta had found a girl who was willing to work for us. I repeat – GIRL. She’s just 18. Kang muda2 sangat pun tak reti jaga budak (which is the main reason of having a maid around) or sibuk nak bercinta. Kang tua sangat nanti, kita pulak kena jaga dia. Adehlah. But anyway, we’ll eventually have someone around at least 6 months before Kakak start her primary (Bila anak start sekolah, almost everyone yang saya kenal, terasa tua!). My cubic-mate, Rahmah told me that I need to sacrifice when it comes to raising children and this time around, my privacy.

I am the type of person who folds clothes to equal size according to the type of clothes. If so happen I’m folding scores of tshirts, they all would be of equal size when I finish. Same goes with lots of other things. And never-never jemur kain, without first ‘kirai’ the kain. I won’t like it. Do you think the maid will have difficult time with me? I’d rather quit working actually but the situation doesn’t permit just yet. Berenti keje while earning at least at par with what I’m earning now?

Too much to ask, eh.

Note ~ I’ve lost one of lunch partners who decided to embark on the journey of slimming down. Glad to still have the other around. Zarid, bila kita start nak gi exercise nih? Smah, amacam, kalu nak lagi best, diet sambil exercise. Jom.. jom.. jom..

it came to my senses

Finally I came back to my senses once I got home yesterday. You see I was browsing through all protons, which were showcased at ground floor here in my office. It felt as if I had to have that shiny orange 1.6 Neo. My emotionally-reasoning was based totally on,.. well,.. emotion…

1. Between Neo 1.3 and Savvy 1.0 – the difference is just a few thousands.
2. Between Neo 1.3 and 1.6 – the monthly installment difference is barely RM50.
3. Well, it’s hip and young and vibrant.

(Photo ~ takde kaitan dengan entry ni. last time berbunga was like 2-3 yrs ago so when it flowers again, tersangatlah excitednya kami)

Upon seeing my kids running to greet me I realized I need to get back to the basics of having my own small car. SMALL, I repeat. It was supposed to help us save some petrol expenses and to save that ‘saved’ portion and not to spend on something else, in my ‘emotional case’ yesterday, it was obviously on monthly installment. Then it won’t make any saving point, right? Savvy is like a need while Neo is a want. It’s only a second car anyway. We won’t be driving it long distance. I bet it won’t even leave KL! (and I am not even hip, vibrant and young. Told you, I’m boring)

*slap* *slap* *slap* *came back to my senses*

We’ll be visiting Perodua and maybe Naza before finally deciding on either Savvy, Kelisa or Kenari (thanks IV for the inputs) or MyVi. We’ll see lah how.

Anyway, much to her grannies excitement, Kakak is so wanting to spend a week or two with Atok and Wan. We’ll be sending her off this weekend BUT if she changes her mind on Sunday, I’d be more than happy to bring her back to KL. So far, she’s still holding on to her decision PLUS she insists that she has to have Iman around while in kampung (much to their grannies ‘gasps’ and ‘laaaaaa…. pulokkk’ and their Mokkucu’s ‘Iman???.. Kakak sorang je tak boleh ke?’) See, how famous that little fellow is. It’s not that they don’t like him but with him and and his antics and activities, he’ll sure have them on their toes all the time including sleeping time. For all you know, in the wee hours, you’ll be awaken by his cries with him nowhere in sight. Just look for him in the kitchen, near his formula can, he’ll sure be there. Gosh, I miss them already. Anyway, that will permit us ample, peaceful time to frolic around.

Honeymoon eh?

updates on this and that

It's almost 9p.m. now. Finally I got my hands on the laptop. We planned to have dinner before picking-up Kakak and Iman but ended up at McD drive-thru. It was badly congested at Tmn Connought. Oh, there's a new McD outlet opened recently at Suasana, one that we went just now. By the way, tomorrow Jusco Cheras Selatan will be opened. It's barely 2 minutes drive from my front gate. This is not so good... don't you think? Contrary to that, that's among the things that motivate me to get my own small car anyway! We'll check-out the outlet later.

Anyway, I was away for a 2-days course in Phileo Damansara, (where you park your car at RM2 per hour and the season parking is at RM200 per month). The course has 'teambuilding' and 'motivation' in its tittle. After 2 days, I am a bit confused. I had thought the course was supposed to instill workgroup-spirit amongst ourselves, instead we were taught the theories of it. The consolations - we got to do a bit of physical activities, a few guessing games, a chance away from the office and good lunch. And self-discovery. I am not what I think I am. It surprises me at finding out that my first priority in life is not my family. It's moral judgement. Not bad eh? So, by 5.30p.m. today, I concluded my first 'orenbijak' course.

A little bit about the kids. Iman vomitted almost every night. I guess he's being overfed. He indulges about 3-4 of 8oz from 8p.m until the morning. When refused, he'd stood in the kitchen, holding his bottle and won't budge. Sometimes I make just 6oz but when I do, watch out. Your head, your back, your knee or whichever your body part, depending on your position. He usually grunts and throws his bottle and God-knows where it'll land. That always happens with 6oz formula. Kakak, still has obsession for horses and ponies apart from barbie and her princess tales. She was wondering the differences between a pony and a horse. I, use the most obvious fact to answer that, the size. Ponies are smaller, horses are larger. Thanks to her little ponies and Brietta (sapa2 yang tengok The Magic Pegasus would know this) which I used as demo. Plus, I told her horse is kuda in Bahasa and pony is kuda padi. Recently she watched 'Little Ben' where Ben is actually a 40yo man but his size resembles the one of a baby. She told us excitedly 'orang padi, orang padi'....

OKlah, enough ramble for today, I need to sort out laundry and set the washer to finish at 6p.m tomorrow.