Swimming Girls

What hectic weekends we had in this Syawal month! I feel as if Raya was 2 months ago. Never get to fulfill all open house Raya invitations, since we were really busy with the kids’ activities.

Hanna, Hasya and Haifa were frustrated since they couldn’t take their taekwondo tests yesterday. It was because they’ve missed their classes during Ramadhan and the tests were conducted on the same weekend that they were having their swimming competition, which was held on Saturday and Sunday, 10-11 October.

So the red belts will have to wait for at least another 3 months.

This time, the swimming event was Kejohanan Jaguh Renang Kompleks Sukan Negara which was held at the National Aquatic Center, Bukit Jalil. The girls participated again, just for the fun of it. It was quite hard especially when they didn’t go for their training during Ramadhan. I’ve told them that the important thing was the spirit and the experience gained.

Hasya climbing out of the pool after her 50m backstroke

The girls waiting for their heat numbers for 50m butterfly to be called. Haifa tengah nervous tu!

Hanna in 100m freestyle

Haifa readying for her 100m freestyle

Somehow this pic reminded me of leaping frogs! LOL!

They participated in most of the events they’ve been registered in, except for 100m backstroke which Hanna chickened-out the last minute... hahaha... Kesian jugak, especially when they didn’t learn much on two swimming strokes - backstroke and butterfly. Dear Hubby and I just encouraged them to participate, stressing on the fact that Bukit Jalil is like their home ground since they spend 4-day a week there for swimming and squash.

So I was stationed there for two days, and without Dear Hubby on Sunday since he had his high-school class reunion in PJ. The girls had so much fun especially during between-events and lunch hour when they could play with their friends in the pools. Sampai nak luruh jantung watching those other small kids playing around the diving areas - diving... mak aaaiii.. tingginya!

Haifa in her playful mood

Everything went well except for that big, fat migraine that I had on Saturday. The weather was just too plain hot lah. Felt like jumping into the pool with the girls to cool off! Lucky we (the mothers) had a nice spot to spread our mats on Sunday... and the cool breeze really made you wanna sleep... Nice.

Girls Having Fun - Swim and Squash

Hanna has been asking me to see the pictures taken during the swimming competition held on Aug 8-9 and the session with Nicol David on Aug 15. I haven’t shown them yet since I was pretty busy with... well so many things. So I told her to just check my blog today to see some of the pix.

So here goes, Hanna, an entry with only pictures.

These 6 photos are taken on Aug 8-9. Event: SportsExcel-Milo-NSC-ASUM Junior Swimming Circuit Venue: KL Swimming Complex, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras.

Haifa - having fun before her 100m Freestyle event

Hasya - 100m Freestyle

Hanna - 100m Freestyle

Hasya (lane 3) and Haifa (lane 5) - 50m Breaststroke

Hanna - 50m Freestyle

Hanna - 50m Breaststroke

These 9 photos are taken on Aug 15 at Bukit Jalil National Squash Center:

World No1 showing her skills

Nicol giving the kids some tips

Feeding session with Nicol - Hasya's 2nd from left

Hasya and Nicol during feeding session

Hasya's turn - hit the ball ok, not pick the ball...hehehe

Hasya waiting for her turn with butterflies in her tummy

Q&A session with Nicol

Nicol autographing Haifa's t-shirt

Haifa, Hasya and Hanna with the Queen of Squash

OK Hanna? I’ll copy the rest of them (hundreds!) into your external harddisk later, ok?

I'm 43

First off, I’d like to thank all my family, relatives and friends who sent me Birthday wishes and prayers via Facebook, emails, SMSes and calls. Thank you sooo much.... I really appreciate your thoughts and do’as :)

Yeap, I turned 43 three days ago, 15th August. And Alhamdulillah, I feel great about it. I feel truly blessed for being given the chance to continue my journey in life with my loved ones for the past years and many years to come, insyaallah. And I pray that the life of my loved ones and friends be filled with Good health, Happiness, Love, Success, Umur panjang, great Rezeki and showered with Berkat and Imaan. May all of us be blessed in all areas in life. Ameen...

OK, what did I do on my birthday?

Well, the Saturday started off early in the day with Dear Hubby and I doing our marketing at Pasar Tani Kelana Jaya. Then went to my office to get the birthday gifts I left in my office drawer for my maid Tini who happened to share the same birthday with me.... only she’s 20 years younger...hahaha... Rushed home to fetch the girls for their taekwondo class, left them with the Master, did some errands and had brunch at the ever-so-packed restaurant.

I saw something I haven’t eaten for years – pulut+kelapa-parut+ikan masin. Not my favorite though... but I suddenly had this vision of my Mak’s cooking and this was one of the menus she‘d usually do when requested by Ayah. I’m not a pulut eater, so I couldn’t finish it. While pushing the plate away, I suddenly went blurry eyed. Teringat Mak pulak ...huhuhu...

Went back to the complex to get the girls, got home, showered etc and left for Bukit Jalil National Squash Center to meet up with the Squash Queen– Nicol David! Hanna, Hasya and Haifa were so excited to see the World’s no1 (I'll put some pix in my next post).

Went to Amcorp Mall straight from Bukit Jalil to check out some ‘things’ for my birthday gifts. Didn’t materialize tho’, instead we ended up buying some DVDs and had an early dinner at Salero Negori.

Came home, bought 2 cakes (one for me and one for Tini the maid), showered etc and had the ‘cake cutting ceremony’ at 9pm.

I was dead tired when my head hit the pillow that night. But I couldn’t help smiling when I realized how great it was to be able to do all these. Syukur came to mind. Syukur Alhamdulillah for the opportunities given to me - to taste the sweetness or the bitterness in what life has to offer, with great companies to share them with.

(I think I didn’t imagine having a few more of those crow’s-feet when the clock struck 12 to mark the end of my special day, but I'm pretty sure I fell asleep that night wearing a smile).

Oh, here’s an excerpt from the 14-A4pages birthday ‘card’ given by my cheeky Haifa:
You are my Stars
You are my Heart
You are my Love
You are my Moon
You are my Flowers
You are my Butterflies
You are my Sun
You are my Dragonflies
You are my Diamond
You are my Camera --- aiik?
You are my Everything
(Ibu, masa Haifa punya birthday, please belikan icecream cake. Selepas tu, belikan Rabbit, Cat, Hamster, Parrot, Bird, Fish, Burung Pipit and Frog)

LOL!

Manchester United Asia Tour 2009

No, I’m not a football fan. And I don’t watch any football matches on TV except when Dear Hubby persuaded me to sit with him in front of the TV while he watched the Chelsea dudes doing their things. I know a few of the Clubs names and their players, but that was it. My knowledge on footballs stops there.

So when the second match between Malaysia XI and Manchester United was announced after the cancellation of the MU-Indonesia match, Dear Hubby was initially keen to go but somehow changed his mind later. It was when we went to Bukit Jalil on Sunday for the girls’ swimming lessons that we decided to go.

You know why? The booth selling the match tickets was right in front of the National Aquatic Center! Eh, macam, nak suruh pegi saja! Dear Hubby asked the girls, siapa nak ikut? Only Hasya was interested. So after swimming a good number of laps, took a shower and performed his solat, Dear Hubby went outside and got into the queue. It apparently took him an hour to get to the counter, and bought the 3 tickets.

After coming back from work yesterday, Hasya came to me – Ibu, I have no Baju Merah lah Ibu. I said – Oh Hasya sokong MU lah ya, not Malaysia? I only got a sengih from her. Of course I didn’t have any with MU or Nike-AIG t-shirts for her to wear, so I took out her red F1 Ferrari t-shirt. At least she got to wear it this year since we didn’t get to watch F1 last April (..huhuhu..). Anyway, Hasya’s mother decided to be neutral – so she opted for brown! Malaysia boleh, MU pun boleh!

We were running late and had to have a quick bite of 1901 hot dogs while waiting for the green at the traffic light. Managed to get to the stadium in time... and here’s the first pic we took while at the gate entrance :

Hasya, Mr and Mrs Engku Emran and Dear Hubby (cropped!)

The big screen

Malaysia XI players on the big screen

MU players on the big screen

United before the game, Owen : 4th from left

O'Shea and Berbatov

Ferdinand, Rooney and Anderson

Macheda and Evra

Fletcher and Jonny Evans

**note : I'm not sure of all the names... belasah sajalah!

"Hmmmhh... how come there are only 5 balls? I thought we brought in 50?

Malaysia XI and United - grand entrance

Malaysia XI, Malaysia Boleh!

United We Stand

The players - Malaysia XI and MU

Giggs after taking the corner

O'Shea - taking the alcohol test - walking the line ..hehe..

SexyBack... oops... Tosic's back

Seconds before Owen scored a goal. You can see my excitement juz by looking at how 'sharp' this pic is!

Owen (again) after an unsuccessful attempt

Sir Alex, the Man!

Malaysian youngsters, post-game. Okaylah tu - First game 3-2, now 2-0. Yang mahal tu experience!

We left the Stadium Nasional Bukit Jalil at 11:15pm, reached our housing area at around 11:40pm and had a late night snack at Kayu for its Roti Telur Bawang.

Conclusion : I enjoyed the game. Hasya did too. She said that she didn’t know that football game could be that interesting. Dear Hubby said that the match wasn’t as good as the first match he saw on TV on Saturday, but still, it was not bad after all ....

New Experiences ... and a New Lens ;)

The weekend’s over, and those two days were pretty hectic for me.

Dear Hubby and I went for a wedding in Segamat on Saturday. Lucky that the groom has given us the detailed instructions of the route to his house via sms, or else we’d never have found the address. It was a good (and looong) six hours of driving thru estates and small towns. And guess what, I got to see Mount Ophir or Gunung Ledang for the first time! If only we got time to spare, we’d have stopped and embraced the beautiful sceneries and gulped in the fresh air...

We came back at 4pm just in time for the kids’ swimming lessons. They had to skip their taekwondo class in the morning so that we could leave earlier for Segamat. Hasya came to me and told me that the baby birds have grown some fine feathers and their eyes opened. So I took out my camera to take some pix and heard something crashed. I was so stunned to see glasses everywhere on the terrace floor. At first I thought my camera had broken. Luckily it was just shattered glasses which used to be the filter. Lucky, lucky me! Only the filter! What if it were the lens??

Apparently Dear Hubby didn’t place the lens cap properly that morning, thus letting the filter exposed to its rounded ends. That was how the filter shattered. Anyway, since we need to use the camera on Sunday, I must get me a new filter.

Dear Hubby sent the girls for their swimming lessons, and I.. dengan kepenatan segala had to mandi etc and left for Subang Parade.

I came home that night smiling. I got myself two new Hoya 58mm filters ... and..a new lens!!! Yay! The lens that came with the camera was a basic one – 18 to 55mm. The newly bought one was a basic one too - 55 to 250mm - but at least I can do a lot of zooming from now on.

Happy happy me. Self-bought mother’s day gift, and thank you Dear Hubby for approving :)

Came Sunday. My Hanna, Hasya and Haifa’s first swimming competition which was held at PADE Shah Alam. We were there at 7:30 am. Many swimmers and parents were already there when we arrived. All three of my girls participated in 50m breaststroke and freestyle. So you can imagine how busy their Ibu clicking away with her new lens...hahaha....

But it was very tiring. Very very tiring especially the waiting-for-the-event game. However, watching the girls trying their best really made me proud. It was indeed a good experience and exposure for them, and their parents as well.

I came home hopelessly wishing for a good body massage. Too bad I was too exhausted to leave the house to get one. I just couldn’t let my maid Nani to massage me, eventhough she was a kampong masseur back home in Indonesia. Segan... better a stranger than a person I know.

So I conked out for a good 2 hours on Hasya’s bed instead!