Cake anyone?

Today, I decided to bake cake for my kids. The last time I did that was three years ago and the result was not so good. I do have an excuse for that. My oven was broken and I was trying to bake using my microwave oven. Not bad. Still edible but I was not satisfied because it doesn't turned out to be what I want.


Now, I have new oven so it is about time that I try it. I planned to bake it last week but have to cancel my plan due to something. Since today has been raining since morning and I have nothing to do, I decided to bake the cake that I promised them. So when the boys went to their music class, I took the opportunity to bake it. Don't want too many assistance to assist me in the kitchen.  I only let Zara to assist me since she was at home. 


What do we bake? We baked marble cake and this is Amir's favorite. I did it from scratch and I can say that it was such a success. By the time, the boys came back from the music class, the cake was already in the oven. They can smell it from the front door and their reaction, "Why don't you wait for me. I want to help." Huh! You can see all my boys love to help me cooking but I would rather do it myself. Much easier and less confusion and shouting.


While waiting for the cake to be ready, I cooked for lunch too. Just a simple lunch. Sambal ikan and kangkong goreng. The kids kept coming to the kitchen asking when will it be ready. They can't wait. The moment Zaki saw me taking out the cake from the oven, he shouted to the rest  but I told them to wait first. They were basically standing next to the cake until I cut it. I have to say the joy on their faces when they eat the cake will be one of the memories that will be etched forever in my head. It was such a joy to see them enjoying the cake.


I thought the cake will last for two days but by 5pm, it was finished. While I was taking a nap, Zara (with the help of her grandfather) has quietly eating the cake. So was my hubby and the boys. By the time, I went down, only 1/6 of the cake left and when I served it on the plate, its disappeared within 10 minutes. But I have no complaint. 


Heehee, they have now asked me to bake cupcake this week. I haven't say yes yet but if I do, I bet it will finish within a day too. Let's see whether it will happen....Salam.

My Little Girl is Five Now

My little girl turned five on 15th Jan. We didn't get her anything except cake. That's the tradition in the family. We only have birthday party and doa selamat (special prayer) when they were one year old. 


Actually, I kind of forgot about her birthday. I only remembered two days before the day and to order a special cake is kind of late. Even though, we don't plan for her birthday, somehow, we have an impromptu birthday party. My husband's side came over for a visit and they brought some food with them. So we have nasi lemak, KFC, cake, fruits and peanuts.

She loves to laugh

I still remember when she was born five years ago. It was on Sunday morning and I was in the labour room for two hours. I was watching ninja turtle when she decided to come out to the world. She was  big. The biggest among my four kids. She was born 3.27kg and it was an easy labour. In fact all four were easy for me.


When she was 3 months old, I have to leave her with my husband. I was assigned to Jakarta on short term assignment but my two months assignment ended up to be eight months. I traveled back every two weeks so that I would not miss her and the rest. When I first came back after being away for two weeks, she was still awake. When she saw me, she just stared at me and must be wondering who is this lady? But I have to say that the eight months separation was kind of painful to the kids and me.

Ibu, tengok mata Ya..

I have to say that my little girl  is very brave and a fighter. She is not scared and she will fight for her right. Her older brothers who are eleven and seven will always ended up crying after fighting with her. I always reminded the boys not to disturb her else she will be after them. I just hope that she will not cause problem when she grows up. 


Even though she is fierce and fight with her brothers, they love her very much. They will pamper and protect her. Yesterday when I was at Metro Kajang with them, my seven years old was holding her sister's hand and ran after their dad who was walking ahead of them. They didn't know that I was watching from the side. It kind of touching and cute to see that. 


Zara, ibu doakan semoga Zara menjadi seorang anak yang solih dan berjaya dalam kehidupan, Ya... Amen....

When the virus strikes....

This week is not a good week for me. My kids are still down with fever, stomach ache and cough. Not sure what virus hit them but it has been affecting my kids one after another. First to be hit by this was my little girl. She was down with it last Friday. 

While she was getting better, the virus decided to attack my second son on Monday early morning. BOOM! and down he went with the stomach ache and fever. This boy is a little bit manja. He woke me up at 5am and told me he vomited and cannot sleep. Since I have to go to work, I have to ask my father-in-law to send him to clinic. Throughout the day, he kept calling me at work. 

As my second son lying on bed, the virus decided two is not enough to give me trouble. So during dinner, the virus decided to attack my third son. BOOM! Down he went and he complaint that he stomach is in pain. One hour later the boy vomited. But this boy is different than the rest. He just sleep and didn't call or complaint to me. Easiest to take care.

I thought the attack is over when three out of four kids were down with stomach ache and fever but I was wrong. The virus launched it biggest attack on my oldest. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The poor boy vomited the whole day on Wednesday and I have to rush him to hospital on Wednesday night. He stayed there for 2 nights and doctor said that he can come home today. Thank god, that he's getting better. I can't afford to split my time between home and hospital.

I hope the virus will stop its attack but I'm already feeling weak. Hope it is not the virus attack...

He Made My Day

When I reached home last night, my oldest son, Syafiq asked me to check my facebook.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just check it out," he said. 

I totally forgot about until when I logged on to my Facebook before I went to bed and saw that he tagged me his video playing guitar.

"Hmmm..," I said to myself, wondering whether it the same song that he did earlier. Yes, it was but there's a different than the previous one he played earlier. This one more sadder than the earlier one and the ending was awesome and by the time I finished watching the video, I feel happy after a bad day in office. "Thank you, Afiq."

So here it is the link of him playing My Heart Will Go On, sambung. 

Well, he never has any formal training. He picked up guitar on his own 3 years ago. 

So what do you think? Okay? 

My Love Affairs with Cars

I saw a VW Scirrocco zooming past me this morning and I envy the driver. Well, I have been eyeing that baby but what can I say, it is too expensive for me. Maybe one day, hope not too long, I can own the baby.


Well, I'm not into fast cars but the first time I saw Scirrocco, wow I fell in love with the baby. It such a sexy looking baby. Heh, for now I have to make do with my current VW Golf. It still serves the purpose.


I have been driving for the past 20 plus years and the first time I drive was in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was a totally new experience especially when driving in US. Everything is opposite. Left hand drive car, and the road system is also opposite of our road system in Malaysia. The first car that I bought was Dodge Omni and not bad, it served its purpose - to take me to campus and the surrounding area.


The next car, that I owned was a few months after I moved to KL. I need a car badly to go to work because there was no direct public transport from my house to my office in Taman Tun. So, I asked my late father, to look for a used car and told him that I wanted a Mazda Familia. He found one but the engine was not in good condition and after discussing with him, I settled for Ford Escort. Wow! That car was good and I used it for almost five years before I replaced it with Renault 19. By this time, I'm already married and with one kid.


This baby, Renault 19 and not my son, can really fly. I was sent to work in Malacca for a short period. My family was separated at three different states. My hubby was in KL, my son with my parents in Seremban and I was in Malacca. Since the distance from Seremban to Malacca not that far, I commuted from Seremban to Malacca almost every day even though I was given an apartment. Thanks to the car, I zoomed down the highway averaging, ahem 130-140km and reached the office by 8.30am.


I loved the car but as it start getting older, the engine start to give me problem and oh boy!, it was costly to keep this baby. So I decided to change my Renault 19 to Toyota Corolla. This car is still with us and it will be celebrating its 11 years with us this June. My hubby loves it very much even though I asked him to change to another car.


In 2003, I bought our second car, Hyundai Matrix. We need the second car because my hubby is travelling south whereas I have to travel towards KL. I missed the time where we were driving to work together. We can discussed a lot of thing during that short period. This car also served its purpose as a family car.  


When I was pregnant with my fourth kids, I told hubby, we need to get a bigger car, the MPV. So after scouting around we found the right car, Mitsubishi Grandis, which can carry eight people. We traded our faithful Matrix and bought the elegant and classy Grandis. This car, officially becomes our family car until today. 


In Dec 2006, when I came back from Jakarta, after being assigned there for 8 months, I decided to buy a small car. I reasoned out with hubby that it is not practical to drive a big car, when (a) I'm the only person in the car, (b) the car is petrol guzzler and (c) it is very challenging to park the car when the parking is almost full. My definition of small car was to get Kelisa or MyVi but my dear hubby has different definition. He took me to view Suzuki and VW Golf. Of course, when he brought me to see VW Golf, I told him I want that car and since he is paying, why not. I didn't feel guilty at all and this baby can fly. This baby has been with me for three years and I still haven't get tired of it. I love it very much.


Okay, enough of my rambling on my passion with cars. I hope one day that Scirocco will be mine and my hubby will changed his car to a bigger Toyota? Insyallah...Salam.

Happy but not really happy.

My empty living room

I blogged about my new house last week. You can read it here. We have been here for 2 weeks but we are still unpacking our things. But one thing for sure, my new house is empty. There is no sofa in the living or family area, no dining table and my fridge is also empty. Well to say it is totally empty is not right either as we do have some chairs that we brought with us from our old house. 

My brand new kitchen is also fully equipped. Ready for me to show off my cooking skill but I can't because the pots and pans are still at the old house. I need to get my hubby to bring it back to Bangi so that I can start practicing my cooking skill again. Not that I'm a great cook but I'm kind of sick eating outside.

My garden

I like my new place. The neighborhood is quite and clean. The only thing that I don't like is the network coverage. The 3G coverage really sucks. I can only get the 3G network if I call from outside my house or when I'm in my room. Because of this, I cannot access twitter or FB from my phone anytime I like. Every time I want to access twitter or FB, I have to strategically find a spot where I can get the signal. This really frustrated me. There are also times when I'm at the kitchen, I cannot make or received calls. Did I complaint to the service provider? Yes I did but so far, no improvement.


My friend, who came over to visit me commented that the network coverage by the Service Provider is very bad in Section 7. It is common knowledge to everyone but not sure why nothing has been done to improve the services. I guess there is an alternative service providers that they can subscribe too. But for me, I love my current service provider. I want them to improve the network coverage. I don't want to jump to another service provider. Sheessh, some of you may know why I love the service provider very much. 


I hope it will improve soon and btw, when will UNIFI be available at my area? I am so green with jealousy when BFF has UNIFI installed at her place. Dear UNIFI service provider, please expedite your rollout to Bangi. Love, me.


Okaylah. Enough of rambling from me...See you soon. Salam.

New Year , New Environment and Loving It

I have not updated my blog for quite sometimes. I have been busy with works, my parents and also with moving to my new house. December last year was the toughest month that I ever experienced. I lost my father in December and I felt it especially when my family came over to my new house last Sunday. 


I still remembered when I told my family that I'll be moving to my new house, Abah asked from his hospital bed,"Abah invited tak?" I replied, "Abah, I'm rushing to get it done for you." Unfortunately, he was gone before my house was ready. Mom was very sad when she came last Sunday to my house. She knows that Abah always wanted to come and see my new house. Whatever it is, I will do Tahlil for Abah soon in my new house.


Last week of December, I has been very busy with my kids and getting them ready for the new school terms. This year, Zaki is in Standard 1 and it means new school uniforms, new school shoes and bag. He had his orientation and placement exams on 30th December. Thanks Allah that he made it. He has no problem adapting to school life except it is a battle to get him up for the school in the morning.


Not only Zaki adapting to new friends and school, Zara and Amir also has to adapt to the change. Luckily they have no problems with new schools and friends. Zara was very cute on her first day in kindergarten. I just dropped her off in front of the school and without looking back, she confidently walk inside and sit next to her new friends. Oh! I'm so proud of her.


Amir has a new experience too. Since the school is only 120 meters away from our house, he now has to walk to school every morning. It will be good for him so that he can lose some weight. I think he already had since his school pants is already lose and he needs a belt now. 


The only person who doesn't need to adapt is Syafiq. He still goes to the old school in Saujana and the person who needs to adapt to this routine is my hubby. He has to send Syafiq every morning to school and they have to leave the house by 6.45am otherwise he will be late to class.


For me, it is a new experience too. All my kids are away in school in the morning and the house is very quite when they are not around. It gives me the opportunity to clean the house before I go to work and also I value the quietness of the house. It's heaven.


Okay, enough of me rambling about my kids and  before I forgot, Happy New Year to all. May this year brings you joy and happiness...salam.