Teringin

It’s already six months since my last posting. I wanted to write but somehow things got in the way, like always. It’s not that I was that busy, since my life routine’s still the same. Although my Hasya and Haifa have stopped going for their swimming classes and squash trainings (equals to more free time), I just couldn’t sit in front of this laptop and type. Blame it on the lazy bug, boleh?

Tonight however I feel like writing…hahaha

I’m now at home. Feeling elated at the thought of seeing my family next week. Up north, where my beloved parents and my siblings/families will be gathered. My Ayah and Mak will be there, and I’d already bought the things that my Ayah… in Kedah-meaning - TERINGIN.

He called me up last few weeks, out of the blues:

"Ja, Ayah baru makan benda ni yang Ja kirim tu.."

(Hmmmh, what did I kirim? I remember I didn’t kirim anything for him thru my nephew Zhafri when he went home for holidays in early April)

"Apa Ayah, Ja tak ingat la.. cuba habaq... "

"Ni yang macam kerepek tu.. dalam plastik.. sedaap ... Ayah tak perasan dok ataih meja… bila rasa, sedap sangat".

"Errr ... apa dia Ayah.. "

"Ayah cari kot Aloq Setaq tak dak pun. Sebab paket plastik dia takdak tulih nama syarikat apa. Macamana nak cari kat sini taktau... "

(Suddenly I remembered... The jajans I gave Zhafri when he came to leave his things from UIA before going back for holidays the next day)

"Oh, tu kerepek macam maruku tu Ayah. Ja beli kat kawan kat ofis. Memang sedap pun. Nanti Ja beli kat Ayah".

"Ha.. yang tu la kot.... nanti hang tulong beli no.."

"Ha, nanti Ja bawak pi cuti nanti naa… "

"Satu lagi, yang biskut yang ada badam tu Ayah beli kat sini tak sedap yang macam yang hang beli... yang sana punya rangup.. "

"Oh tu Biscotti Ayah, nanti Ja order & bawak sana na.. " (dalam hati nak tergelak pun ada)

"Okay na Ja. Terimakasihlah. Kirim salam kat Zaki na..."

"Okay Ayah".

I put down the phone & burst out laughing!

Two simple things that my 74yo father wanted or teringin to eat. Knowing ayah, it took some courage for him to call and ask for these simple things. Like my Mak, he too never asked for anything for us to buy.

I'll bring more than what was in the pics. I only hope I have enough space in the cars for that tho..hahaha :)

Raya oh Raya.....

I hope it’s still not too late to wish everybody - SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN! I hope everyone had a wonderful week of Raya with family, relatives and friends.

This year is Kluang’s turn for us. Since there’s no airport there in Kluang, we couldn’t ‘post’ the kids home via air thus we had to travel in two cars. My first time driving this far tau! I was lucky that the traffic was good to and fro. Alhamdulillah.

The Projek Bunga Api on that malam Raya was great. The nephews, nieces and my kids were the project members.. and don’t forget the project manager and directors too ok.... Tua-tua pun main Thunder Clap and Thunder King..hahahaha! Meriah betul main bunga api kat kampung! You could see and hear mercun everywhere! It took us around 3-4 hours to finish everything off. It was fun. My Haziq especially, had so much fun.

Haifa watching the bunga api

Haziq, Hasya, Hanna, Hanis, Haifa and the maids sempat posing sambil main bunga api at their nenek's house di malam raya

My Hanis celebrated her 4th birthday on the Raya day itself. “Hari Raya Happy Birthday Hanis” was her mantra a few days prior to the 20th. Brought her to Secret Recipe that morning and asked her to choose the cake herself, and she chose the one with cherries on top... what else, the Black Forestlah. That 'lil girl blushed when all her siblings, aunties, uncles and cousins sang her the birthday song. She was happy to add more Barbies into her collection. And this time Miss Barbie comes with Master Ken ;)
Nampak sangat muka nervous. Segan sebab ramai orang kot....

My five girls - Haifa, Husna, Hanna, Hasya and Hanis in their Baju Boria di pagi raya di rumah Nenek

We went to Pontian on the 2nd day of raya to visit my Pak Chaq, who is my mother’s eldest sibling. What was supposed to be a less-than-two-hour trip became more-than-three-hour trip. Traffic punyalah teruk near Ayer Hitam and Benut! But it was all worth it. The hospitality and company was great, and the food was A+++ I tell you! My Mak Chaq’s really a great cook. I’m sure if she were to open a restaurant, mesti tak menang tangan punya! I wonder why my cuz Che Uda doesn’t gain weightlah...hmmhh... Kena mintak petua nih!

My 86yo Pak Chaq. My Mak - his youngest sibling- would surely want to see this pic

This is my Mak Chaq yang terror masak!

Hanis with her Kak Asma'

Came back to home sweet home on Wednesday the 23rd. Oh.. doing the laundry took us two days to finally wash and dry everything, from the baju rayas to comforters. Lucky that those two days saw the sun in its fiercely hot state.

That's why I'm currently all tanned-up. No, not because of doing the laundry, it was due to the hours spent outside the house on the weekend. Hah, buat lagi gardening tengah panas!

Spending Quality Time

The 2-week school holiday’s finally over. The first week was spent in the hospital and at home since my Haifa and my Hanis were still under quarantine. We had visitors - my parents, my sister and BIL who came to send my nephew off to UIA. The second week was indeed quality time spent with the children and Dear Hubby. We had a great and relaxing 3D2N at Palace of the Golden Horses Hotel. They were in the swimming pool until they changed colors!

Me? I didn’t set even one toe into the pool! And I didn’t even read a single line from the books I brought with me. I’d usually read at least one book every time we stayed at the hotel. But this time, I was just being plain lazy. I took hundreds of photos of my children in the pool and around the hotel when we had our evening walks. Most of the time I stayed on the balconies of our four units, facing the pool and watched my loved ones creating havoc with their antics :)

The kids in the pool with the maids
Watching them enjoying themselves made my heart went soft. And my whole being was blanketed with unagitated state and calmness that was very hard to explain. The breeze that played over my face carried the sound of their contagious laughters, and I sat there feeling such joy from all of that. That was a reflection of a contented life. Alhamdulillah.


My Haifa and my Hasya feeding the fish

The spots on Hasya, Haifa and Hanis’s hands, feet and mouths from Coxsackie were all gone. We brought the girls to see Night at the Museum 2 and Zac Efron’s 17 Again. Watching 17 Again really made me feel so old, and I thought – would I go back to 1983 - when I was 17 - if I were given the chance to do that? Would I make any changes in the past?

Maybe I’d appreciate my family, friends and teachers more, strategize any paths to be taken, look positively at all angles in life and... be more open by letting go of any bottled-up feelings that I had with certain people I knew then. And of course I'd study HARDER! Who knows I’d be multi-millionaire ka....hahaha!


My Hasya and my Hanis


Anyway, later in the week, we did some gardening together. Dear Hubby and I went to Sungai Buloh to get some new plants. Penuhla jugak satu kereta.

The girls helped, of course, especially my Haifa who planted weeds (read: not marijuana!), instead of getting rid of them, LOL!

... and now Back to Work

The one-week school break’s over. I was out of the office for nine days and I’d say that those nine days were quality time spent with Dear Hubby, my kids and my parents who came all the way from Alor Setar.

We went to A Famosa Resort, Melaka. Checked in on Monday and out on Thursday.

Monday night was Cowboy Town night. It was pretty much the same when we were here a few years ago. Was it worth the money spent on the tickets? Frankly I think it was way overpriced. But the children loved the parade show, and that was all that matters.


A Malaysian 'Cowboy' with an Albino snake?







Can't avoid having goosebumps looking at this pic - a Malaysian 'Red Indian' playing with fire. Hasya was the one who pointed this out to me. Click on the pic and look at the 'smoke' behind the man. Spooooky!

We played Tourists on Tuesday. Walked around Melaka town, in and out of the museums, tried the trishaws, and finished it off with a great meal - assam pedas with fried crabs. Yummy!





St Paul's Church












The A Famosa








Wednesday was Water Play day. At first I was a bit disappointed with the Water Park since there were only a few spots for the kids to play, but then Dear Hubby layan them for seven hours with repeated rides and water playing. Seven hours, and they continued playing for two more hours in the pool when we got back to the villa! Kids!

Their Ibu? Sunburned. A terrible one this time. Should’ve known better. Should’ve squeezed more sunblock from the tube. So now I’m suffering - this itchiness on the face.... urrgghhh!! But it’s oklah, I actually had a great time. Loved every minute of it. The kids also enjoyed their break. Also took them to watch Race to Witch Mountain. Great movie for the kids to watch.

I guess now I'll have to deal with my sunburned skin - it will take around two to three weeks for these spots to disappear. Hopefully.

And this morning I woke up with mixed feelings. Going to work today will be such a hard thing to do. Hanis has been clinging to me since last night and an hour ago she held both my hands – Jangan bangun Ibu, sleep dengan Hanis please.

Alahaaii... this is normal whenever I took a long leave. I know she'll cry again when I send her to her kindy afterwards.

Sigh.

Unwinding in PD

We had a good 4D/3N time in PD. Although it was raining here in the Klang Valley, the weather in PD was great. Clear blue sky all the way except on Friday morning when it rained about 3 hours. It was such a relief that the kids, their cousin Hani and their Tok Mi and Tok Wan could enjoy the beach and the pool.

**1st pic: Hanis - the sand castle enthusiast!

It’s a good break for both Ayah and I actually. After what happened in my office the week before (I’ll write about this in my other posting), the sea breeze really put the sadness into coma. We got the time to unwind, loosen-up and relax.

Alhamdulillah.

**2nd pic: Hasya, Hanna, Haifa and their cousin Hani building the sand castles....

The only drawback was the 'not-so-clean' beaches along the Teluk Kemang area.

I wished they were cleaner... like Penang and Langkawi beaches....
or California.... (dream on!)

**3rd pic: Here's Haifa 'surfing'..hehehe...














**4th pic: Hanna, Hasya, cousin Hani, Haifa, Haziq, Husna and the maids in the pool




Luckily, the pool was okay.







**5th pic: Mak (Tok Mi) watching over her grandchildren...

Now we're back home. Mak, AYAH and Hani already went home yesterday.

Today was spent at the Sekolah Kebangsaan, Sekolah Agama, the Uniform shop, the Bookshop etc etc... and now everything has been bought and ready for the kids.

We made a stop at the Cineleisure and watched Cicakman2. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed...

Whatever it is, I'm all charged up and ready for work tomorrow.... One more thing though- to complete it up,... I think I'll go get myself a Chinese massage :)

Cupcake 101

The girls have been pestering me to bake some cupcakes for them. I’ve baked them a few times before, from scratch. Somehow, I never get to master the skill. I think, if I were to enroll in a cupcake-baking class for one whole semester, I’d still fail to make them right. I'm pretty certain of that :(

The cupcakes would always turn ugly on me. No matter how much I spoon the batter into the paper lining, the end result would still be hideous... Sometimes they’d tilt to one side, other times the batter would flow down to the baking holes in the tray and made a mess of everything... urrggghhh!

So this time, I just bought the ready-made cupcake-mix. And hired 4 girls to do the decorating part. The cupcake came out horrible as usual.... *sigh*.... but the girls managed to make them look much much nicer with the decorations.

Here are the 3, 6, 9 and 11 year old girls’ handiworks:


They had so much fun with the piping, choosing the tips, preparing the colors and planning the design. I just let them go wild with their imaginations.

There was only one drawback though - a messy kitchen afterwards! But it was sure worth it, since the most important thing has been accomplished - the happy girls enjoyed themselves, and I'm very sure that they loved every minute of it!

And ooh... they also get to pass my Cupcake 101 class with flying colors... :)

School's Over - Party time!

I hope this time this entry can be posted. It’s been five loooong days of ‘fighting’ with Blogger. There was nothing wrong with my Streamyx but I just couldn’t post a new entry in my blog. It really was a pain in the... ehhhmm... neck.

Well, finally school’s over. The kids are all at home. You could hear their laughings and screamings from the NeverNeverland. I was tempted to put up a sign at the main gate that reads “Come join our party! It’s open 18-hour a day!” :P

School holidays to the girls when their parents are working would mean – art&craft sessions, food, TVs, DVDs, food, CDs, magazines, food, fightings, singings, food, games.... And that wasn’t typo when I mentioned ‘food’ several times - I guess somebody will crack the scale by the end of December..hehehe...

There were three events to go to last Saturday. One was the Sekolah Agama Penyampaian Hadiah for the top 3 students for each class. My Hasya was one of them but she wasn’t able to be there on that day. Her piano recital was also scheduled the same morning, and the taekwondo test in the afternoon. That was the 2nd time she didn’t get to go up the stage to receive her prize. The first time was her Ibu’s mistake – they reached the school 2 hours late!

The concert/piano recital went well. Hanna, Hasya and Haifa did pretty good. The taekwondo test went well too. Now that everything’s over, except for their squash classes, the girls are enjoying themselves like there was no tomorrow. I think if I were to stay home with them, I’d have to adjust my patience-o-meter to the maximum possible.

I could hear them laughing silly over SpongeBob on TV now. And it’s already 12:05 am! Bad mother! I guess I better go now and persuade them to sleep lah.

Or maybe I should stay up with them and watch the moody Squidward bullying Patrick?

Here and There

My weekend plus the three days that I was on leave were wonderfully spent. My three older siblings (Bemmie, Benjie and Kak Anim) with their families came over. The main reason was to attend my cousin’s wedding on Sunday, this time on the Groom’s side. Although my dear parents and my younger brother and his family couldn’t make it, it was still 'perfect’ for me.

Saturday night was BBQ night. Since it was already 4pm when we decided to have the BBQ, this time there were just just prawns, crabs, squids and Honey BBQ Chicken Wings - served with Sos Chili Thai and Argentine Salsa Criolla (TQ Farina!). I also prepared Bubur Durian and Baked Tuna Cheese with Pasta. There were also fruits from the orchard brought by Benjie. Ayah set the tent up for the children to play in and the noises that the children made was like a kenduri!

The next day was the real kenduri in Semenyih. It was good. We met our relatives from up North and kudos to my cousin (the Groom’s eldest brother) and his wife(and her family) to have gone through so much and made the kenduri a success. Since both their parents have died (alFatihah) this eldest sibling took the responsibilities to make it happen for the younger brother the Groom. And I was lucky again to witness another Silat Pengantin and the Gamelan – played by a group of young men. We were entertained by the used-to-be-popular singer – Zaiton Same’on. I couldn’t help feeling pity for her who obviously is now a has-been :(

Monday was Berjaya Times Square indoor-theme-park day. The children just loved it although there weren't as many games as there were in Genting. That was my special child Haziq’s third time there... and I was rather nervous coz he didn’t want to eat anything while we were there. Too excited maybe :)

And guess who slept like a log that night? It was me, not my Haziq. Penat!

Tuesday was Zoo Negara day.


It was my 2+yo Hanis’s first time there, so you can imagine how happy she was seeing the animals she saw in the books for real! My special child Husna was all smiles as usual.


The animals looked so much better since the last time we went there. The smell in the air was ok. There were many Minah/Mat Salleh volunteers doing all kinds of work in the zoo. I wondered where they came from.

Anyway, this Orang-Utan was funny though – he actually posed for his picture to be taken!

Wednesday was Wall-E day at Cineleisure. Since Ayah wasn’t on leave, I brave myself to drive my car for the first time. Made it finally :) Hanna and I wanted to watch The Mummy but Hasya, Haifa and Hanis wanted Wall-E – so they won. But on the way back, I heard Haifa reading out loud what she sent via sms to Ayah : “Wall-E tak best lah Ayah.”

La pulak....

Anyway, I'm sure all of us had fun during the holidays. And oh, I'm going to catch The Mummy before school starts.

Ok now, back to work!

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!