When I was surrounded by.....

Today I took kommuter to go home as I don't have my car with me. Well, I sent my car for service this morning, and I thought that it would be ready by evening. At 3.30pm, the service advisor called me and informed that the brake pad and disc need to be replaced.

Since I have not changed it before, I gave the go ahead, and the moment I said proceed, he told me that the car cannot be ready by today. I called my hubby and told him that I would be taking kommuter home since the car is not ready.

I didn’t leave early knowing that the station would be crowded with people. So I left office late as I want to take the 7.30pm train thinking that there would be less crowded. As I had my teh tarik with Yati, I was thinking of how I would enjoy the quiet ride home, and read my BAD BOYS DO book by Victoria Dahl.

I was surprised. When I went down to platform 6. there were so many people waiting for the train. I was lucky that I didn't have to wait long. I went into the first coach, and it was packed like sardines. I looked around and saw very few women in that coach.

“Where are the women?” I asked myself.

I didn't know what happened to the ladies, until I reached my destination. I found out that  KTM has reserved the middle coach for women only.  Ahhh... No wonder when I looked around, I only saw men. I was in the wrong coach.

My dream to enjoy my book was totally dashed. Instead of reading the delicious Jamie, I was hanging like a monkey, holding to the holder and leaning into the rail. Furthermore, I was carrying my backpack and handbag.

When I reached the UKM's station, I was hoping my hubby would be waiting for me. Again I was disappointed. He was not there, as he has to go to the hospital to send his dad first. Ha ha finally while waiting for my hubby, I could enjoy my little Jamie. 

Missing Schoolbag and House Warming Party

Zaki lost his school bag. Could you believe it? Actually he didn’t really lose his schoolbag.  Don’t know what happened on Friday at school that he totally forgot about his schoolbag.

Guess when did he realize it that he didn’t have his school bag? It was on Sunday night when he wanted to do his homework.

Gah! Sunday night! No one in the family has lost or misplaced it before.  The whole Sunday night was spent looking for his schoolbag. Did he worry about it? A little bit. He scared how to tell his teacher about his missing books and bag. I told him no matter what, he still has to go to school and face the teacher.  Finally after searching high and low in the house, he called his grandpa in Seremban, thinking that he might have left it in his grandpa’s car.

Pity the old man! He has to get up from his bed and searched for the bag too. We almost gave up when his grandpa suggested checking with the school’s guard.

Early yesterday morning, my hubby went to his school to ask the guard, and the bag was there the whole weekend waiting to be collected. The guard found the bag and kept it with him. Alhamdulillah for that, otherwise we have to replace the books, and it is not easy to purchase these books because they are loaners and not available in bookstores.

This also will serve him a lesson to  remember his bag.

Oh ya! On Saturday, we had raya open house cum house warming party. It went well, and the food was just enough. Not many leftovers.

Well, the party was to get to know my neighbors. I have move to this new place for almost 10 months, but I didn’t know my neighbors except for my immediate neighbors. So this gave me the opportunity to know them better.

The party was also to celebrate Hari Raya too, and to welcome my families, relatives and friends to my new house. What did I serve them? It was Nasi Minyak, Ayam Masak Merah, Ayam Goreng Berempah, Dalca, Sayur Acar, Satay, fruits and local kuih.

Hah! Could you spot what was missing? No? Yes? Well, there were no Raya cookies there. My kids have eaten almost all the cookies.

Can they cope with the separation?

Finally, I received my flight detail yesterday. Yes, I have been waiting for it for two weeks, and now with the flight detailed in hand, I can breathe easily, and focus on preparing for the trip.

I would be away for 32 days, and my kids would be left behind with their grandparents and with their aunties. I hope they would be able to adapt to that. Their aunties had made some plan for them, and they looked forward to that.

We also did a simulation last weekend. We left them with the grandparents and put Syafiq in charged of his siblings and the house.

We told Syafiq to make sure the brothers and sister do their homework, checked the doors and windows at night, no light on the stove and switched off the lights at night before going to bed.

He did that and text me at 11pm on the status. The two brothers completed their homework while the girl went to bed as usual, and the house was in order. Hah! I felt relieved knowing that I could depend on him.

But being away for a month will be a real challenge to them, especially for the younger two. They are very close to me, and I’m not sure what would be the impact to them later. I can only pray to Allah that nothing wrong with them when I’m away.  Insya Allah.

From now until the day I leave, I would have to prepare them for the separation.  Amir and Zaki seem to understand what I would be doing and where I would be going, but my little girl has not. She thought that I would be going for a short trip, and can come back as and when I want to. I really hope that, by the end of October, she would understand where I would  be and for how long.

So for now, I have to focus on them. Entertain them; spend as much time as possible with them, and slowly explained to them the benefits of this journey and why I have to do it, and pray to Allah that I would attain the Haji Mabrur.  Insya Allah.

May Allah bless us…. Amen.

When too creative can cause trouble

Aduh hai! Zaki has been very creative. Too creative for me to be proud of.  It is not creative in writing or drawing, but creative in causing trouble.

Well, what did he do? He cut his hair with his scissors. Just a spot on his hair and its not a small either.  It can be clearly seen from far.

I don’t know when he did it, but I do know it was yesterday. Normally we didn’t let him keep the scissor, but because of school works, we gave him expecting that he would cut the pictures and paste it on his books, and not his hair.

When I saw it last night, I was speechless.  He thought he looked good. When I told him that I had to shave his head, he went, “Nooo.”

Luckily, it was just one spot. What happened if it is more than one spot? It would be really disaster.

I don’t know what will be my husband reaction when he sees Zaki’s hair.

It is not the first time he had been creative with scissor. He cut his school uniform pants, his pajamas and few other things. He reminded me of Syafiq at his age. He too cut his school pants, but not his hair.

Because of this creativity, my husband and me didn't want to give them scissors, but most of school works required them to cut and paste pictures. Ugh!! I hope he will not cut Zara's hair because Zara has been complaining about her hair.

Ahh!!! That's the story of my kids. Without them, the house will be quite, and if they are around, my house will be the nosiest in the neighborhood.

Oh! I'm in pain....

I’m on medical leave today. I hurt my backs two weeks ago when I fell down at Ikea.  For two weeks, I was okay until yesterday in the office when I felt slight twitched on my back.

I thought it would go away, but it didn't. The pain had gotten worse last night. I couldn’t move or turn. Every move I made, it hurts. The whole night I didn’t sleep. I guess my husband didn’t either because I made a lot of noise.

And today, I had to walk very slow. It was the slowest walk I ever had because every step I took was very painful. My hubby took me to the Emergency Room at Hospital An-Nur, and the doctor referred me to my Orthopedic Surgeon in Ampang Putri. He gave me painkiller to reduce the pain, but it was not enough as I still felt pain every time I made slight move.

I thought I could use my ING at Ampang Putri, but ING declined saying that Hospital An-Nur is not their panel. I need to go to my normal GP to get my referral letter.

I was stumped. I didn’t go there for fun. I was in great pain, and I need to see a doctor immediately. Since I was in pain, I didn’t want to make any fuss. I just want to see the doctor and get my treatment. I told the receptionist that I would pay myself. However, I would not stop pursuing this with ING, as the cost of the treatment was more than 3 digits.

When I went in to see my doctor, the first questions he asked me, where was the  pain and do I felt any numbness along my leg. I said no numbness just pain. After more than 30 minutes of discussion and lectures, he gave me a bunch of medicines, and one of it, would have caused me nausea, dizziness and drowsiness.

“A-ha,” I said. “Now I know why the last time I felt dizzy every time I took my medicine.

“Yes, it would do that to you, but for only three to four days. So please, don’t stop.”

Ughh!! I hate to take medicines, and the doctor said two of those medicines, I need to take it like, forever. Ahh!!! It reminds me of my dad and mom and their medicines’ boxes.

Oh yea! On the brighter side, I was given four days of MC...Yeah!!!

A weekend at Masjid Sultan salahuddin Abdul Aziz

I was away with my husband during the weekend for 2 days 1 night stays. It was not a vacation. We attended the final practical training for our upcoming Haj trip in October.

The event was held at the Masjid Sultan Salahudin Abd Aziz in Shah Alam. There were 4,000 plus people attended to the event. Well, the training was actually a simulation for all the rites that we have to perform there. It is also a good training for my children to adapt themselves to be without us for a month.

The training started from 2pm, and during the registration, we were divided into 8 big groups. Every one was asked to wear ihram, and for the men, they have to wear. It is jus a simple two pieces of white cloth which has no stitches on it. The organizing committee kicked off the day, and after the Asar prayer, the practical training started.

The first training was Tawaf, circling of Kaabah, seven times. It was about what do we need to do and what kind of prayer do we need to cite. Wow! I was sweating especially, and by the time I reached the final laps I was very happy.

From Tawaf, we did a practice on Saie. It is another 7 laps of walking between two distances, which is known as Bukit Safa and Marwah. I did okay here too, and I was glad that my knee and my back didn’t cause any problem.

After the training, the leader answered questions from the group before we break for dinner. Ah, Dinner! We have to collect it under the tent where it was packed in a container. It was rice with fried fish, beef curry and one vegetables. I didn't finish mine as I was too tired to eat.

I took the opportunity to take my bath, which I was glad to. There were a limited number of shower stalls, and I have to queue for 20 minutes. The event continued after the Isyak prayer with a forum and followed up by more practical.

I started to feel pain in my back, and I told my hubby that I needed to sit. At that time, it was 12 midnight already and to end the night, we were given coffee or tea before calling it a night.

Hmmm… I wonder where to sleep since so many people. Some slept in the mosque, some around the corridor and for us; it was near the escalator at the main entrance. There were not so many people there. Before that, there was an announcement made that the next event would start at 4am in the morning.

Well, it was a challenge actually to sleep. First, I’m not used to sleep without pillow, and secondly my back and legs started to hurt. In fact, I had difficulty to sleep that night, and I don’t know when I finally slept.

When I got up, it was almost 3am, and I quickly took my things to the toilet again. Whoa… there were so many people already there. I had to wait for 45min before I can have my shower again.

The second day event started with qiamullai and followed by the morning prayer. After the prayer, we met again at the lower level of the mosque to continue with the second day activities. I was not really looking forward to as my back was getting really painful.

When they announced that there’s a change in the plan, where it would be replaced with Q&A session instead of practical training, I was relief. The Q&A was done very well, and any doubts and things which we were not clear, were addressed by panels of experts.

After the breakfast session, we continued with the session. It was basically, a feedback session where the head of the programs, provided feedback based on the observation made.

The event ended at 11.30, and the closing ceremony was graced by the Tunku Panglima Besar who represented the Sultan of Selangor.

By the time we reached home, it had been 1pm, and the kids were very happy to see us. After spending 20 minutes with them, I took my nap. It was the longest nap. Four hours of sleep.

Funny faces and pictures

There is an application on iPad2 called Photo Booth that my kids love to play with, and it produced funny looking pictures. The application can produced 9 different pictures, and you just have to select which version you want to capture.

Eventhough there are nine type, my kids love to take their picture using the stretch and the squeeze methods. Here is how they look like using the squeeze...


Zaki with his alien's look. Look at his happy face and his big head, small nose and small mouth. Will you run if you see him at night?

Wow...he really has a big head. In fact, he can share his brothers' songkok.

 Zara an alien girl. I can't see her mouth, but it is there. She looked happy here because she got my iPad. Sneaked it out from my room. Hah.. she's the only girl, and my hubby little princess....

Syafiq looks like a cartoon - using the stretch mode. A sad looking boy... with a big eyes, big nose... Ahh... he was taking a break from his study. Yup, he still has a few more papers to go through in his trial exam...

Amir with a stretch option too... He looks like a happy boy, big mouth, big nose and big eyes. He loves to laugh, and his laughter can be contiguous.

I have a lot more of their pictures either in squeeze, stretches or twirls. Sometimes when I need a good laugh, I would look at these pictures. It never fails to tickle me.

Zara and her Hari Raya gathering

Zara had a Hari Raya gathering at her school today. She had been looking forward for this since the teacher told her last week. When she got the letter on Monday, she called me and asked her brother to read the letter to me.

And when I reached home on Monday night, she was waiting for me with the letter. The moment, I sat down she showed me the letter, and asked me to read it there and then. She was very excited about the gathering.

She already planned what she wanted to bring and wear. Last night, before she went to bed, she told me that she wanted to bring nugget. “Nugget?” I said as I planned to pack curry puff for her, and she nodded. I try to convince her to bring curry puff, but she refused to budge.

So this morning, I fulfilled her wish. I fried the nuggets for her, and while I was frying it, she came down. Wow! I was surprised because it would normally be difficult to get her up for school. Usually there will be lots of drama.

She also told me that she wanted to wear the new baju kurung. Her dad gave her the old baju kurung, and she refused to wear. Her argument is that teacher said everyone must wear the new baju kurung. She defied her dad, and went to her wardrobe, and took out the new baju kurung. Her dad just shook his head.

Don’t you ever wonder that our kids listen more to the teacher than us? Every single word that came out from the teacher’s mouth sound like a law. If I said the teacher was wrong, she would defend the teacher. That’s how loyal she is to the teacher. It is not only her, but the rest of my kids too.   That’s why, teachers have to be careful what they said and do.

When I came home tonight, she updated me on the gathering. She was happy because her nuggets were very popular among the kids. She further said it was fun, and there's a lot of activities.

Haha…I bet school would not be fun anymore next week, and the drama would definitely continue, again tomorrow morning.

Luck is not on my side!

Ughh… So far, it has not been a good week for me.  In fact, it started since Saturday last week. I was stuck in the stupid traffic jam for hours on Saturday. Maybe people were still in Hari Raya mood, and lots of people were hosting open house. So they would be going from one house to another in their cars, and clogged KL roads. Well it's free food, so enjoy it while it last. Hei! Hei! Makan, jangan tak makan!

Because of the traffic jam, my poor son, Syafiq, has to wait for us for almost one hour at Ara Damansara, and he was alone. After we had fetched him, we headed to Ikea, and for once, it was not that crowded. We managed to get parking easily.

But my joy was short lived. On the way to my car, I slipped and fell down at Ikea’s parking. Luckily there were not many cars or people. Zaki who was with me, saw me fell, and he quickly said,” Don’t move.” He ran, and called the rest.

When the rest of the kids came, I already stand up. Heh! I would not lie down on the dirty floor and embarrassed myself. Eventhough it hurts my butt and shoulder, but it was not so bad.

On Sunday night, we went out for dinner and groceries. The kids wanted KFC, and the best place to go was Warta, since Giant and KFC are in the same building. Parking was also easy to get.  When we reached KFC, there was a long queue at KFC, but the restaurant was basically empty.

Since I have few KFC discounts coupon from Hotlink, we decided to use that. The coupon entitled us to have 5 pieces of chicken, 2 burgers and drinks. When it was our turn, the guy told my son that the burgers are not available because they had run out of the bun. Furthermore, there were only 4 pieces of chicken left, and we had to wait for 30minutes if we wanted more. “OK,” I said, and by the time, the chicken ready, it was almost 10.00pm.

I thought my nightmare would end on Sunday night, but on Monday, it was worse. I was stuck in the traffic jam for more than 1hr 30min. The traffic jam was due to dress rehearsal for Malaysia Day, which is on 16th September. The traffic jam started before the Sg Besi Tol, and knowing that I would be late for work, I text my bosses.   Heh! I was not the only one. One of my bosses were also caught in the  jam. In fact, the whole KL was caught in the Monday morning jam.

And, my bad luck continued on Monday night too. I was stuck in the office until 8.10pm with Mr. Han to run through some financial numbers, while my family was waiting for me at home to visit our neighbors.  When I reached home at 9pm, I just dumped my bags and laptop and went out with them. I didn’t get a chance to freshen myself.

And today, I was caught in another bad traffic jam, but this time it was due to a very heavy rain. Since I was fasting, I thought of leaving the office around 5.45pm, but there was no way I could leave my office in heavy rain. I only left office after 6pm, and by then the traffic jam was already started.

Since I have to fetch Syafiq from his friend’s house, I didn’t make it in time to break my fast at home. So, I decided to break my fast at McDonald with Syafiq. If the other three kids know about this, they would demand I took them to McDonald too. Sheesshhh, Don’t tell them, okay!

Oh! I’m not sure how Wednesday going to be, but looking at my to-do list and my calendar, it going to be another busy day.  What about you? Are your days better than mine? I hope so.

Salam.

Kampung Ku...

I didn’t go back to my kampong on the second day of raya. Instead, we went back on the third day of raya. I’m glad that we made that decision because the traffic jam on the second day was really bad. It started from Paroi all the way to Kuala Pilah. The traffic only eased up at 11pm.

Since we left Seremban quite late, we reached our kampong around noon. I thought I was the last to arrive there, but instead we were the first. As usual, we stopped at my Alang’s (my mom’s youngest sister) house first to say hi.

After that, we went to my mom’s house. My mom didn't stay there. My Angah (my mom’s sister), who is a widow stayed there alone. Eventhough she is alone, my Alang is there to keep her company.

My mom house is an old house. She inherited it from my great grandmother. The house was built in 30’s by my late great grandmother, and it was made from kayu cengal. 

If you are not familiar with Negeri Sembilan’s customs, the properties are inherited by the female members of the family. There’s a reason to it, like protecting the women. The women would still have a place to stay if her marriage failed or her husband died. The women would still have a means to get her food by planting rice or farming.

Since my great grandmother had only one daughter, her properties automatically belong to her daughter. Unfortunately, she passed away at a young age, and the properties now belong to my mom and aunties.

Whenever we went back home, we will always go back to my mom’s house. It is a big house, but with only person living in there. The only place that being occupied in the house is the lower level. My Angah only occupied the lower floor where there were two rooms and a kitchen. The upstairs area was not occupied.

The original structure of the house has been modified by my dad. The original kitchen was on the same level with the main house, but in the early 70’s, he tore down the old kitchen and replaced it with half bricks and half wood and added two rooms.

The house is surrounded with trees, mainly fruits trees. We have mangosteen next to the house, rambutan in front and at the back of the house, durian trees, langsat, duku and others. Unfortunately, we seldom go back, and didn't get to enjoy the fruits.

About 200 meter behind my house, there was an old grave. Not sure whose grave was it, but when I was young a lot of people come to pay respect. The marker of the grave is a living stone or known as megalith stone where it grows. I have not been to the grave for more than 15 years, so I can’t say whether it is still growing.

About a kilometer behind the house, there's a hill, and there lies the Chinese cemetery. Did we get scared of the Chinese cemetery? Haha...not really, maybe we were used to it. Are you?

When he expects me to know the answers...

Tonight, Zaki asked me to help him in his Arabic homework. Seriously, I don’t know what to do when he showed me his schoolwork. I have no basic knowledge of Arabic. Therefore, I found it tough to teach him, and he didn’t want anyone else to teach him except me. Anak manja.

So, as not to disappoint him, I took the book and looked at the homework.  I have no clue what to do as the instruction is in Arabic too. But I know that he needs to fill out the missing letters.

I looked at the previous page; the questions were to arrange the words in order. When he saw me, staring at the page, he said, “That’s the name of the day in a week.”

“Oh!” I said, and still couldn’t connect between what he said and the homework.

I flipped few more pages from the exercise book, but I still have no idea what is required. Finally, I asked him to bring the textbook.

“You won’t find the answer in the textbook,” he told me and handed me the textbook.

I didn’t say anything. I took the book and opened it up. Nothing looked similar. After some times, I gave up. I closed the book, and stared at the exercises book again, hoping for some clue.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared somewhere, and I could see some connection between the previous page and his homework.

“A-hah!” I said excitedly. “This page and this page is the same. It’s about the name of days,” as I pointed to the two pages.

“Yes. Didn’t I told you earlier,” he asked.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I told him how to do his homework, which he happily does it.

Nowadays, the young children are lucky. They have the opportunity to learn Arabic at the young age. When I was their age, I didn’t get to learn Arabic at school. There was no Arabic subject offered at all.

But it was not to late for me to learn the language with them. As I teach them, I also learned, but the only problem, I would forget what I learn few months later. Ahhhh!!…. I’m old already.

What a long wait for dinner!

Last night we went to Chan Abdullah for dinner. This is my husband’s favorite restaurant. When we reached there it was a little bit late, around 9pm, but we were not really hungry. We had our tea at 5.30pm, so the kids were okay to have late dinner.

When we reached there, the place was not that crowded like usual. Maybe it was because people were still on leave. My hubby headed straight to our favorite corner, a round table for 6 people.

Not five minutes later, the waiter came and “dropped” the menu next to me. I was shocked because it was kind of rude just to drop it, but he didn’t realize what he did. I said to myself, “Would this be a night of bad services? I hope not.”

Basically we know what we want, but as a habit, we still looked at the menu. Who knows? There might be newly added dishes on the menu. We then ordered Char Koay Teow for Zara and Amir, and for Zaki, myself and hubby, we ordered rice with black pepper beef, vegetable soup and fried chicken with salted egg. As usual, Syafiq would be saying he’s not eating, but I know him very well.

For the drinks, we ordered Lime juice for Syafiq, Laici for Zaki, Syrup Limau for me, Chinese tea for hubby, and ice water for Zara and Amir.

After waiting for 10 minutes, the drinks came, and Zaki was the happiest. There were four big laici in the drink. The kids patiently waited for the food, but after thirty minutes, Zaki and Zara were getting restless.

After waiting for almost an hour, I lost my patient too, and asked the girl how long we had to wait. She went in to check, but never came out and update us with the status. Another 10 minutes passed, and I called the guy who took our ordered. Without checking what happened in the kitchen, he said it won’t be long.

By this time, most of the drinks were finished. Zara also looked so sleepy, and Zaki kept on asking where’s the food. Finally after more than an hour of waiting, the foods arrived. Zara and Amir got their Char Koay Teow, but Zara didn’t want hers.

Next, came the rice with black pepper beef, and when I looked at my plate, there was one long strand of hair. Ughh! I called the girl and returned the rice back to her. She took it to the kitchen, and after 5 minutes came back with new rice. I hope that they throw away the previous one and gave me a new one.

Since the vegetable soup and the fried chicken were still not ready, we ate slowly. The fried chicken only came, 10 minutes later and the soup 15 minutes later. When the kids saw the fried chicken, everybody wanted it. Syafiq who initially didn’t want to eat changed his mind.

Everybody enjoyed the food except Zara. She didn’t touch her food at all. She totally lost her appetite to eat. No matter what I said or her dad said, she refused to eat. We couldn’t let the food goes to waste, right? So who did you think eat Zara’s Koay Teow? Not me but the two older boys. 

Normally, they would not be so slow like last night. I'm not sure why. Maybe most of the workers were still on vacation, but whatever it is, the food was very good.

Since Zara didn’t eat, on the way back, we detoured to MacDonald and get her French Fries, her favorite, which she happily ate it at home. Haha! Someone didn't go to school this morning because she overslept. No more late night for her!

Raya and Dodol

I’m back to work today. There were only a handful of people in the office.  I wished I could go for a longer leave.

Anyway, I’m done with visiting my relatives in Seremban and Kuala Pilah. Eventhough, we didn’t get to visit all, but I managed to visit my aunties and my Bang Zahir. I also went to my husband’s kampong to visit his grandma and auntie.

Now, we are back in Bangi, and so far my kuih raya (cookies) are still not been touch except for the oats and cappuccino biscuit. It was almost gone. Zaki must have been eating it because he loves it very much.

This raya, I managed to get a few traditional kuih. I have dodol, wajik durian and kuih rose.  Thanks to my mom. She ordered dodol for me from my auntie, who without failed will made dodol for sales every raya.  Lots of people ordered her dodol.

I love dodol and so are my kids. Every raya, I would look for dodol, and my mom knows that. If she didn’t order for me, she would keep some for me from her portion. She knows her girl very well.

Anyway dodol is not easy to make, and not everyone can produce a quality and tasty dodol. In general, it took almost eight to ten hours to make dodol. It had to be cooked outside and in the big and thick kuali besi or wok.

The ingredients are quite simple. It is made of rice flour, palm sugar, white sugar, coconut milk (a lot) and ‘daun pandan’. The ingredients will be mixed and cooked together in the kuali, and the dodol has to be cooked in medium fire. It needs to be stirred non-stop.

Initially you can take a rest, but the moment it becomes thick and sticky, you have to, continuously stir it until the dodol is cooked.  You need all the strength to stir it so that it would not stick to the kuali. That’s why you need quite a number of helpers to help in making the dodol.

Some people like the newly cooked dodol, but I prefer the one that had been kept for a few days when it was already hardened.