Of Plants and Trees

Well, today won’t be my Indy Day. Postpone to tomorrow. Got so much work to do today. Hanna with her Squash class, Taekwondo class for Hanna, Hasya and Haifa and definitely some gardening for me.

And I loooove Gardening... I love to watch the plants grow, and will be delighted when they mature and produce beautiful flowers and edible fruits. My 'Herbal Garden' or 'Taman Ulam' has found its way among relatives and friends.

The plants in the garden have been neglected for quite a while that I don’t realized that my Pomegranate/Delima tree is flowering! It was two weeks ago that I ‘talked' to it (or should I say 'threat'). Hmmh Delima.. you better do something with yourself. It’s been a year but you’re soo lazy to even produce leaves. Baik-baik, or else you’ll be like the pokok jambu yang tak nak berbuah tu.. you better be careful…

And there are the flowers now.. he..he.. I guess the tips/petua by our old folks are true indeed… TALK to your PLANTS!



These are the Delima flowers

And this is my Hoya, unique isn't it?

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia

Last minute inquiries on PD hotels gave us ‘Sorry... we’re fully booked’ answers. So early this week, off to our favorite local hotel.. Palace of the Golden Horses. Luckily, we managed to get the four rooms either with connecting rooms or a few doors away from each other.

Once stepped into his room, Ayah made Superman’s quick change into his swimming shorts. The children were also ecstatic and followed suit.


Here they are in the swimming pool

Che Det wuz 'ere :)

School Holidays are here!

School Holidays are here! School Holidays to my children will be - plenty of games, a great deal of internet surfing, unlimited time of badminton & table-tennis at home, 'siput-babi' tracking around the house, butterfly catching in the garden, lots and lots of watching DVDs, patronizing Cineleisure to catch the latest films, a whole lot of yummy cakes for the tummy, late night TV movies and most of all - waking up late!

To Me? I like School Holidays coz I could do all those things with my children!

We've been to Summit to catch Iron Man and Cineleisure for Narnia - Prince Caspian. This second Narnia is much better than the first one - well, according to Ayah who doesn't actually 'like' children movies... Tomorrow will be my Indiana Jones day. I've been waiting for the sequel for soooo many years, and finally it's here!

Happy Holidays y'all!

Patience, Hasya and I

I salute all the TEACHERS in the world. God made them full of patience and endurance. My father was a teacher. He started teaching when he was 14. Back then people started working at a very young age. He told us that he started giving his Mak (my Tok) her monthly allowance when he first started working. Until now, he still continues giving Tok the allowance eventhough he's now a pensioner at 71. Tok is nearing 90 (or already in her 90s?) and is still healthy and steady. Slow, but steady. She doesn't have any sickness whatsoever, except for her occasional 'sakit lutut' which she can still manage.

I definitely CAN'T be a teacher/lecturer/instructor. Why? Because I don't have the patience. I could teach a person once or twice. But when it comes to the third or more attempt, you'd hear my voice as far as Uzbekistan.. Yup, I was that bad. My children have been the 'victims' thus far. And I thought they're already used to hearing me blaring my horn, but I was wrong. Hasya - my 4th baby - who's going to be 9 in November - is still as sensitive as she's always been...

I made her cry last night...

Hasya scored straight A's in her March exam, all except Mathematics. Ayah always said that she took up after me for not being good in Math, (he..he.. perasanlah tu...) But I said I was an A student too. Anyway, after getting the March results, I had a heart-to-heart talk with Hasya. I gave her the guidelines and begged her to to ask me whenever she was in doubt. I told her that I wouldn't push her and trusted her to come and see me if she had any questions regarding Maths. I said I'd be very pleased if she could do just that. But she never asked me, and I assumed that she had everything under control.

During Sekolah Kebangsaan exam week, Hasya's style of studying will always be 10mins of reading and 30mins downstairs drinking or listening to CDs like Mila, Adam, Rossa, High School Musical or Vanessa Hudgens. She'll come up to her room after being reminded of tomorrow's exam. Then she'll slip downstairs again and play with Baby Hanis or just watch TV. At 10pm, when all her other siblings are in their beds, she'll stay in her room and study up until 12am. She knows that I'd allow her to ponteng the morning session of Sekolah Agama during exam week at Sekolah Kebangsaan. So she can Stay Up Late and Wake Up Late.. bestnya, she'll say..

But last night, when I checked on her Maths revision paper given by her Maths teacher... I was very shocked to see her answers. She got a nearly-all wrong answers! I was so frustrated with her and started to teach her... and she still couldn't get it. That's when I raised my voice. Not once. Not twice.. And that's when Hasya cried. Right then, I started thinking - What a bad mother I am... For God's sake, Hasya's only 8+ and I made her cry! I asked her to clean up and go to bed.

I was awake at 3am and suddenly had the urge to see Hasya. So she slept crying.. this I know because her pillow was wet. I hugged her in the darkness of the night and whispered "Sorry ya Hasya... I love you but I made you cry...You'll do your best ok..". In her sleep, she smiled at me.

You know I love you Hasya... you just have to be patient with me.. :)

My Haifa

Two days ago..

Haifa : Ibu, Ibu sayang Haifa tak? (dengan muka sedey..)
Ibu : Sayaaang sangat... awat Haifa tanya?
Haifa : Sebab Ibu marah Haifa..
Ibu : Mestilah Ibu marah... Haifa kan bagi ikan laga 2 ekor tu mati... kesian Adik Hanis, ikan-ikan tu dah tak ada...
Haifa : Tapi kan Ibu, masa Haifa letak fish tu atas meja, fish tu hidup lagi lah Ibu. Lepas Haifa masukkan balik dalam bekas dia baru dia macam tidur je... Haifa tak buat apa pun...
Ibu : Haifa, fish kena breathe dalam air. Kalau tak ada air, fish tak boleh breathe, sebab tu dia mati... Haifa keluarkan fish 2 ekor tu dari bekas & letak atas meja, memanglah fish tu tak boleh breathe...
Haifa : Ibu janganlah marah Haifa..
Ibu : Ibu dah tak marah dah. Kan ke Ibu dah punish Haifa tak boleh main Handphone Haifa for 1 week?
Haifa : Ok (buat muka sedey lagi...) tapi boleh tak Haifa nak icecream? Ibu : Ok.. tapi jangan berkecah ok..
Haifa : Yay!

That's my Haifa. I've always expect the unexpected from Haifa. She once squeezed a goldfish to its horrifying death when she was 2+. At 5, she wrote "I Love My Family" using a permanent marker on the polished tile in the living room. There were many things that she'd done that made Ayah and I often wondered -"How did she come up with that thing?" or "How could she do that?" or "She promised- but she still did it" or "It's unthinkable, that thing was ok an hour ago".

Last Friday I bought a family of porcelain chickens - 3 chicks and their dad&mom. They were sitting 'happily' on the grass. Two hours later, the 'dad' was gone. Big sister Hasya came running telling me she couldn't find the biggest 'ayam'.
I said, "Ask Haifa". "Hasya dah tanya, dia kata tak tau".
I called her, "Haifa, mana Bapak Ayam tu?" (oops, not that "Bapak Ayam, ok!)
"Haifa tak tau..." came the answer.. siap dengan muka pitiful dia.
Recognizing that reaction, I said "Haifa, tell Ibu the truth, did you break the ayam or not?" And she burst out crying.. air mata meleleh-leleh... kesian pun ada... anakkan... but I want to get the truth out of her.. "Haifa, Haifa letak mana?? Just tell me the truth. If you tell me the truth, Ibu tak marah" ni suara dah tinggi ni.. and her tears dah menderu-deru...
Belum sempat Haifa jawab, Hasya said" Ibu, Hasya jumpa dah ayam tu dalam bilik Hanis, Ibu. Kat belakang katil. Dah patah kat ekor.. tapi Haifa dah letak cellotape & sembunyikan kat belakang tu"..

Oh..no wonder - half an hour before, when I was reading the newspaper in the family hall, she came and hugged me so tight I could barely breathe and said "I love you Ibu"... rupanya dia dah buat salah...

That's my Haifa.. My princess who's always writing "I Love You" cards, "Ibu & Haifa" drawings and notes. Haifa, my fifth child. My unpredictable girl. My full of varieties girl.

I love you too, Haifa!

Happy Wesak Day!

To all my Buddhist friends, Happy Wesak Day!

To the rest - Have a wonderful holiday!

Tun M keluar UMNO....

I was shocked when I received a text message from Mak in Alor Setar that Tun M (or Tok Det as my children would call him) has just announced that he's no longer an UMNO member... You can read about it here.

Tok Det, I'm sure you have your reasons for this. As I've always said to Ayah (my hubby), you've always been a man who thinks outside the 'boxes', not just a 'box'.

I hope to God that whatever the outcome may be, you'll stay strong and potent...

My First Blogging Experience

Assalamu'alaikum and Good Afternoon to all...
Wow! Finally I have my own BLOG! I've been wanting to write my thoughts ever since I started blog-hopping... but I was such a coward to ever have one..heheh..

Well, today, out of the blues this courage came to me... hey, today's a good day - why don't you start one today? Well, why not... and that's how I gave birth to this amateur blog, today May 7th 2008.

So.. please bear with me, ok... I'm crawling but hoping to be able to be here everyday...

Glad to be here :)