Any plans for the weekend?

Its half way through Friday and I can’t wait to kickstart the long weekend. Not that there’s much planned anyway. I’m making yummy nachos for tomorrow’s barbecue at Mummy’s and Sunday will play dress-up for a wedding dinner. The rest of the days will be pure chillax.. few things need to be sorted out though, like the tailor for our bridesmaids bajus..my pants and skirts need a bit of altering and Iskandar’s pants need a little stitch-up.

Imran’s been going to the new kindy near our place since the start of the year, and as expected, fits in perfectly. He loves the new kids and teachers and is always talking about the parties and fun stuff they do at school. Since he hardly takes his afternoon naps nowadays, I make sure he’s in bed by 9pm and wake him up by 7.15am..he’s also learnt to bathe and dress himself so there’s no more need for deafening screams to get him out of bed and in the shower. It’s pretty much more smooth and organized in the mornings nowadays. What a relief!

Mia’s a bit of a wildcard though. She may or may not choose to cooperate in the morning. But since she leaves home later with Iskandar, she usually gets to roll around and monkey about longer so by the time she needs to get in the shower, she’ll have enough playtime already. She’s super adorable but also quite the manipulator. I know all her tricks so usually she doesn’t get away with anything when I’m around. Unlike my Mum who always falls for it. She’s currently obsessed with Jessie J’s Pricetag and asks to see the video on Youtube ever so often. You should see her sing and shake her booty to the song! It’s too too cute! Some days I just feel like rolling in the covers and do nothing but sniff her alllllll day hehehhehe..can’t get enough!

I end this post with some photos of the kids. Happy long weekend!

Road trip

3 more days to our road trip and there is so much more that needs to be done! Most importantly is the roadtax for the van! I hope Iskandar sorts that out by today. I'm still chasing this maid agent for our refund. I hate how they are always trying to delay the payment, when if its the other way round, they will not give you an extra day's delay in paying up. Bastards really.

Anyway, I'm so excited for this trip and can't wait to get on the road. It's been many many many years since I've experienced xmas at Singapore and I still remember how beautiful it was!I know, i know its not really much of a "dream vacation" but mostly, I'm just glad to get away with my little family. It was a pretty last minute decision too and Singapore seems like the best and closest destination.

We plan to stop by the JPO to see what its all about, since its along the way anyway. I'm only aiming for the Ferragamo outlet je. perhaps get some stuff for the kids too. They are outgrowing their clothes so fast!

BUT, until then, there's a lot of things on my plate i need to clear. I have another survey at KLIA and Cyberjaya. not forgetting the pile of ironing that needs to be done...sigh..seems like I've been on laundry duty FOREVER.

Just so you know

It’s been a while since the last entry. Honestly, there hasn’t been much happening lately other than the usual maid dramas, sick kids, travels, school problems ..normal stuff. But I think for the sake of keeping the blog current, let me just briefly cerita the significant going-ons in my life since the last update..

Went for my first offshore platform visit which was awesome! The anticipation and anxiety leading to the trip was so nerve-wrecking though, since it was scheduled to be right smack in the mid of the stormy monsoon season. It rained heavily at the airport all morning and the flight was postponed several times. But in the end, the journey there and back couldn’t be more smooth. Perfect weather, perfect flight, everything went perfect. The platform itself could be better though. To quote James who came with me, “It’s like living in a house with a 100 teenage boys”.

Imran’s school dilemma. We took Imran for a second meeting with Mutiara Intl school, this time it’s Imran alone with the principal. The meeting went well I suppose, the principal was quite entertained with the meeting. While waiting for him, I sneaked around the corridors, just to see the kids and the classrooms sessions. And the difference between this and what I went through in school was tremendous. Maybe I’m just not used to seeing kids being so vocal and loud, confident too. They speak with their slangs and all and you can tell that these kids come from very, very rich families. At that moment I sort of fear on what this could do to a simple Malay boy like Imran. The parent in me is sort of torn between the Western style and the local style of educating. As much as I want him to be a bright, confident child, I do need to make sure he is well educated and can fit in wherever he goes. The kids at Mutiara I saw were 99% foreign kids and it worries me that Imran will be trapped in a clash of cultures and peer pressure. No doubt the curriculum is fantastic and they do make sure kids have a healthy balance of class, arts & craft, sports but at the end of the day, we still live in Malaysia and our culture and theirs are two separate worlds. I fear that Imran will have a tough time adapting to the differences, being so young. And with the staggering fees the school demands year upon year, it is just not worth our time worrying. So after much thought, we decided to stick with the public school and perhaps enroll him into creative classes outside of school, whatever interests him, just so he mixes around with the local KBSR kids as well as the other middle/upper class kids at the private extra classes. I do hope we made the right decision coz I still feel tak sedap hati..

The next week onwards will be interesting for all of us. Imran will be going on a school camp for 3 days which I hope he will enjoy after being stuck at home for the past coupla months. I’ll be traveling a bit to Kedah and for the weekend, we will all pack up n go for a quick getaway to PD..and the week after that we will drive further down to Singapore to spend the Christmas hols. Yes..quite a lot of spending is anticipated and hopefully we will have enough in the bank to last til the next paycheck!

Home away from home

I'm away from home, again. In my hotel room, again. Alone, again.

Last Sunday I had a bit of a meltdown over the finished butter for my usual brekkie (like, wtf right!) and drove out in a dramatic rant to the nearest mamak for an hour's binge session of roti canai + nescafe tarik.

Now that I am finally alone in a different state from all that chaos that is my household, I feel homesick as hell! I miss my two munchkins and bapak munchkin too and would do anything to go back to that Sunday - I would've taken them out with me to the mamak just for that extra moment with them :(

Anyway, I'm only away for 3 days. And it's already end of Day 1. Takyah la over2 drama kan.

So to drown my sorrows tonite, I am bargain hunting online :D hehhehe..Joy. Fashionvalet.net is such an evil site i tell ya! hahahha! Serious damage on my visa this month. But that kaftan was SO worth every penny :)))

Sorrows drowned indeed.

29th Ramadhan 1432

I am one of the handful few at work today. The towers feel so empty and deserted with most people off for the long raya break. Having both sets of parents within the same postcode / street sorta makes raya planning much less of a hassle, in terms of splitting our time between both houses. As usual, will head to Kemansah for buka later, and non-stop stuffing our faces while the kids go crazy with the bunga apis and firecrackers, courtesy of my brother, the pyro expert. An annual event which I so look forward to every time.

So since everyone else in my dept are traveling out of KL for the hols, I felt it appropriate for me to stay in and hold the fort, so to speak. Not that it's that much of a chore, really. The phones haven't been ringing since 8.30am and emails are non too important rather than the normal Raya greetings. Basically, I'm just vegging here looking at the clock..sooo bored!

This Ramadhan is no different than the last, I suppose. Just a little hiccup here and there when the kids fell sick but other than that it's been just normal, long and boring. I'm quite pleased with myself for being able to dodge the many2 buka puasa invitations this year tho! I only went to one at KLConvex which was so disappointing. Makes me sound like a total ungrateful person which is so not the case. I think having gone to SOOO many hotels all around town over the past Ramadhans has made me sorta buffet-savvy, hahaha! So when the food is so-so, I feel like it's a total waste of time and money (not mine thankfully, but that's not the point) no matter if the buffet spread goes about 1km long. I'd rather be home with my husband and kids, eating whatever Mummy tapau-ed for us and enjoying each others' company, any time. And without having a maid at home, this means having to do all the house chores myself, usually I'll be off with the laundry basket, mop and broom after prayers, only to be done by about midnight, if I'm lucky.

Yesterday we did the last of our Raya shopping, got Imran his shoes, songkok and butang baju. Had chicken and salmon teppanyaki dinner at the newly opened Tokyo Street at Pavilion which was SUPERB!! Can't wait to try the Japanese sweets next. Forgot what they were called, they look like mini kuih paus with sprinklings and come in many different fillings and look so so pretty! They were sold out when we got there so they must be really good too. I hope they are open during Raya!

Attack of the Rotavirus

The kids and Iskandar were down with rotavirus last week. Yes, yes, the kids’ paed would be laughing at us now for not taking the rotavirus vaccine jabs for the kids he tried so hard to push us to take. Its just that the vaccination costs a bomb and rotavirus is such a foreign disease to us, therefore we take for granted that it will not get to our kids. But it did, and big time! All my nieces and nephews had it, sis in law and bro was down too. Worse, my mum in-law, BIL and the maid was also infected. Poor things! All of them had the same symptoms, V&D, nausea and mild fever. Thankfully I was spared of all the “action”. My body, I must say has been quite “robust” for me in that I rarely get tummy aches like this, touch wood. Some ppl would say I have “lining perut besi” hehehe.

Everyone has recovered from it. Imran still acts as though he has it, purposely refusing food and stuff and blaming on his tummy when he’s perfectly fine (I can so tell when he’s pretending so please don’t think that I’m not taking him seriously). He had a bit of a tumble last Monday and we had to rush him to TTMC to get his forehead fixed. The gash was big and deep, I feared that he would need stitches but the “pretty doctor” (imran’s nickname for Dr.Ellyza) said that they will just fix it up with glue. Wow really! He was really brave throughout the gluing process, thank God. I told him that the pretty doctor is fixing his head with a laser so he can be like Ben10. Saja, just to distract him a bit. He was so proud of having been “laser-ed” on his head and was happily showing off the “Ben10 laser” mark to his friends at school.

But my Mia is having the worse time, what with the rotavirus and then she contracted the flu pulak. Vomiting and coughing away all day and nite and refusing food and milk. Not her choice to refuse but she knows that she will start coughing and everything she ate will come out again. Vomiting really hurts so she end up not eating anything at all except for a few nibbles of cookies and bread. I insist that she finishes her dinner every night just so she has some sustenance. But as for milk, she’s totally not taking any at all.

This was how she looked like when she had rotavirus, my poor baby.


So yeah it’s been a little crazy at home, with the sleepless nights and cleaning/mopping/cuci tilam sessions in the middle of the night. She looks better this morning though so I think we made it through the worst part.

I’m still not taking the rotavirus vaccination for the kids though!

Bye-bye Kat

Our beloved Kat died on the wee hours Saturday. Part of me died with him too. He was much loved by us, ever since he came into our lives as a baby kitten 3 years ago. He ventured out some nights though I’ve warned him many times not to. His love for the outdoors never seem to be hindered with all our efforts to keep him in the house. And it was during one of his nightly escapades that he was killed.

When I checked his body the next morning I couldn’t find any cuts, bruises or injuries that would give me a clue as to how he died. I just hoped and prayed that death came quick and did not hurt this beloved Kat of mine. I could not contain my tears as I wrapped him up in his favorite bath towel and laid him in the grave Iskandar dug, in our backyard where he liked to run around while I hang the laundry.

The day went by so slowly and I kept tearing up as I cleaned his food bowl and kept away his treats and canned fish. I missed him terribly in the afternoon where he’s always sprawled on the floor, sleeping or just cuddling up to me when I take my nap on the couch. I miss Kat and I wish I was kinder to him when all he wants was an extra bowl of fish..a cuddle..or just to hang out with me. I know he’s in a better place..and Robin is showing him the ropes up in heaven where he can do this all day...

Thank you Kat for loving us..we all miss you.

* this entry was actually written about a month ago..but I only managed to put this up today. A lot has been happening in our lives lately that's been keeping me from updating my blog.
More to come.