The day my heart stopped

2 weeks ago, at about 1.20pm, I had the worst experience of my life. In fact, I almost died.

It all started with a phonecall from my Dad, asking if anyone’s at home. They were outside the gate, to send Imran home from school. No one answered the doorbell, they rang and call a hundred times. Something wasn’t right so I called Iskandar. He confirmed that MIL didn’t take my daughter and the maid out, they should be at home. My mum called after that, saying that my Dad spotted a bunch of keys near the plants and suspected something wrong so he climbed over. Tried to open the door with the keys but couldn’t. Our house was dead quiet.

I tried to keep calm but inside, my heart just stopped. My daughter was left with the maid at home that morning and usually she will come running to the door to welcome her brother home. Something was terribly wrong here. I quickly jumped on the train and headed home. That’s when Iskandar called to tell me that my Dad had managed to open the grill and found the maid gone. Mia was apparently still sleeping in her room, safe and sound. When I heard my phone ring and it was Iskandar I almost didn’t want to pick up coz I was expecting the worse, i.e. the maid took my daughter with her and that I would never see her again but thankfully I found the courage to answer the phone and with such relief, knowing my baby girl is safe and oblivious to what was going on.

For some reason, Iskandar and I both found ourselves not discussing as much on this sudden escape of the maid. In fact, we moved on almost immediately. Got ourselves together, cleared up her room, threw away all her stuff and went about doing the household cleaning as usual. We did not bring the topic up at all, except when family members called upon finding out. That too, we only gave out straight answers, non-speculative. No what-ifs, whys.

On my part, the reason why I chose not to talk about this was because of the feeling of HUGE, ENORMOUS fear that I could have lost my child forever that day. I do not want to recall that day as it would bring back how horrible the feeling was and especially how terrible I felt for failing as a mother to protect my child. It was the most stupid mistake anyone can make, leaving her child with a non-family member, a stranger. No doubt the maid’s been with us for almost 2 yrs and had told us that she intended to stay and work with us for another year. She was, almost family to us. ALMOST. STILL A STRANGER.

Another reason was that I was so shocked at her betrayal of trust. It brought out this deep hatred, and raging anger I’ve never felt against a person, in my lifetime. And I know that talking about it will make the rage and bitterness surface again, and I do not want to waste a single second of my life with such negative emotions. What more on someone as worthless as a maid.

I swear I will never let such things happen again. Never again.

Another milestone for Imran!

One of the reasons I dread coming home from work lately is doing the piles of homework with Imran. I know, it’s for his own good bla, bla, to practice his reading, writing, mathematics skills but sometimes after a long day at work, the last thing I need is the added stress in guiding Imran to write properly, count correctly and color within the lines (biggest challenge!).

I expected the teachers to be understanding to us working parents and leave homework for weekends only, but NOO... So every night, I sit patiently with him, helping him through his homework, which usually turns into shouting screaming sessions when Imran gets frustrated for having to re-do it over and over again, not getting it right, or there’s just simply too much to do, too close to his bedtime. My poor son.

And then last night, I checked his homework to find three pages of reading and writing homework to do..ugh :P..so I set up the table and Imran took out his color pencils and pencils and started right away. And to my surprise, he was doing it on his own!!! My baby boy is READING on his own!! I was so so thrilled but tried to suppress it so as not to distract him with my tears of joy :P but inside, I am bursting with pride. He easily finished the reading assignment and matched the words to the correct pictures within seconds, like a pro. And thanks to that, we finished homework within less than 5 minutes, record time! But most importantly, scream/shout/tear-free :D So clever, my Imran!

So I guess all that stressful hard work did pay off finally. I’m gonna start buying more simple storybooks for him to practice. Thanks to Aunty Dorrine for making us do all that homework :D

Lat

Last Thursday I took my parents out to watch Lat – Kampung Boy the Musical at Istana Budaya. It was my mum’s birthday the day before so I thought of doing something different with her other than the standard birthday card and cake (which I still gave her anyway! From Bisou, no less). Iskandar also took Papa out to watch it coz we both feel that he needs some time out from the chaos of the house renovation and erm..Mummy hehe.

Anyway, it was such an awesome show!!! I was so so impressed, especially with the boy who played the young Lat. What a talented bunch of actors and good singers the cast were. And not forgetting Douglas Lim, whose dancing got me laughing till my sides hurt. And I must say, this is the first time in my life that I’d say this, but that Awie sure is funny, and is such the perfect person to play the adult Lat. My only complain, which is nothing really, is that I wish the show was shorter coz I had a bit of a struggle to keep my eyes open – it had been a long day at work for me and I was exhausted by the time I reached IB, no thanks to the traffic jam. And I wished they elaborated a bit on how Lat “lured” Pa’e to return to his kampong with the kids, after the huge fight with Pa’e at the hospital when Lat missed the birth of his 4th child. She just turned up at the kampong with all the kids, which is totally strange given how angry she was with Lat.

Most of all, I’m glad that my parents and Papa all enjoyed the show, it was so hard to get the tickets as they were sold out to the last show next week!

My daredevil daughter

I was awaken in the wee hours of Monday to sounds of Mia screaming her lungs out. Literally jumped out of bed and scrambled out our bedroom door, only to find Mia standing outside, tears streaking down her lovely eyes, screaming. As I quickly picked her up and cuddled her in my arms, it suddenly hit me – how the hell did she get out of her cot???? The cot gates are pushed up to the max highest level and I thought it would be impossible for a 21-month old baby to climb out. I mean, seriously. I don’t think even Imran can climb out of the cot, it was THAT high. I prayed that somehow the cheap Ikea rug cushioned her fall a bit, but I searched her head and body for bumps but didn’t find any. Thank god. She calmed down after a bit of cuddling and I gave her a bottle of milk which she finished happily afterwards. She couldn’t sleep again after all that excitement and since my alarm clock is due to go off in about an hour I decided to let her cuddle with me in bed for a bit. Until today I cannot comprehend how she managed to climb out. Anyway, I’m not taking anymore chances and I’ve laid down a thick comforter with pillows on the carpet next to the cot in case she decides to be adventurous again. At least until I can find a nice decent toddler bed for her..for now, I’m just thankful that my little munchkin is safe and sound despite her little mishap.

Quick update!

Since our camera went kaput we have been forced to minimize taking photos of the kiddies and stuff we did, limited by the memory space in our camera phones. Which is really unfortunate coz it means not being able to capture the moments they cross their milestones. Imran, has become quite a pro at going to the toilet nowadays. No more tears of protests, he just goes without being told and does his thing, and the washing afterwards (hands only lah, I still have to help him to wash his bum). I won’t forget that day when he came up to me and said “Mummy, can u hold my Sugus please? I want to go pangsai”, and conveniently plops a half-chewed Sugus in my hand! He does a lot of things on his own actually, come to think of it, from switching on the PC to find his online Ben10/Spiderman/Batman games, brushing his teeth, dressing himself, getting his snack from the fridge to fixing his car seatbelt. Eating is still a struggle but much, much better than those days. You can see he quite enjoys food and has acquired a taste for mamak food!

As for Mia, wow, I’m so so surprised with how fast she’s growing! She’s turning into quite the character, diva-like, sometimes, not that we mind coz she’s so cute and all, with those big eyes, demanding us around! Yes, she gets what she wants, this pretty princess. Lately she’s becoming more demanding, making me stay with her in the room at bedtime until she falls asleep. She screams bloody murder the second she sees me trying to sneak out, which I did anyway, but magically enough, settles back to sleep when I don’t come back in to soothe her. Very auta! She’s very chatty (in her own language) and I can imagine having to layan all her “But why, Mummy?” questions when she’s old enough. Oh and don’t she love to dance!! Put on any music and she’ll start bopping up and down, shaking her little diaper booty n all!

Together, they drive us crazy sometimes, fighting over toys, lollypops, anything! But I know Imran adores his kid sister and enjoys teasing her and singing with her, esp. her favorite song, Twinkle2 Little Star and they both are Bieber fans!

These two “monkeys” and my gorgeous husband is such an enormous blessing in my life and to ask for more would be just plain greedy. But I know rezeki di tangan Tuhan and I can only hope for the best for my family.

Life is good :)

One step closer

to that elusive bikini bod!!yes i've finally dragged my lazy ass to the gym and signed up. thanks to my colleague who agreed to be my gym partner. love u syaff! anyway, i started yesterday with just a light workout and learning to work the weights with the gym instructor. felt so good after that i decided to be brave and join the step aerobics class today.. AND DAMN it was GREAT!! no doubt the steps were tricky to follow but soon enuf i was bopping up n down w the rest of the class. it was awesome! sweat buckets!i can't wait for next week's class but i hear its gonna be cancelled coz of the long CNY hols..boo!!

anyway, with all the gym excitement, i did a major boo-boo..forgot to tell iskandar that i need him to do the money transfer thing for the maid by today..coz apparently the lazy banks of cambodia will be closed until after CNY and her family needs the $$$ to buy stuff. he was SOOOOO upset with me coz he alredi told me much earlier today was gonna be a crazy tight day with meetings n de big interview after lunch. i dunno lah, lately my memory seems to be slacking quite a bit. i remember the littlest detail but miss out on the major important stuff.

another thing he scolded me about is how it seems to him that i'm always forgetting my priorities when it comes between the kids/maid and work. NOW THAT I CANNOT ACCEPT. i forgot one thing and it means i don't pull my weight in this family?? that's just bullshit! BUT..at the risk of snapping and saying things i will regret later, i shall bite my tongue and say nothing. agree to disagree, right? sometimes it's just not worth the time arguing. ill just let it go, like water under the bridge.

just tucked my little angels into bed and gonna tuck myself in next. it's been a long day.

good night world.

Notorious I.M.R.A.N.

Argh!!! it's been another crazy night w imran again! lately he's been testing our patience to the max! earlier tonite, as usual he took close to 2hrs at the dinner table and when i went upstairs w Mia, he took his bowl to the kitchen and dumped the food in the bin! I was so pissed upon finding out but even more fired up when he flat out denied doing it! So for another night, I sent him up to his room for early bedtime, not before giving him a smack.

Days like these i wish the kids are all grown up so i can have some peace and quiet at home. They say it gets worse and i can't imagine what's worst than a 5-yr old imran. a 6-yr old imran??

Anyway, on to the positives now. I bought Mia a shape-block toy today, you know, the one where you're supposed to match the block to its right shape hole. and to my surprise, she got it right less than an hour of playing! she's so smart. sometimes i forget she's only 1 and a half. i'm teaching her shapes now and she's learnt star (her favorite) and circle. She picks up the blocks one by one asking "o-this?" as in "what's this". It's so adorable melts my heart every time :)

Just by writing this post it must be clear to anyone reading who my favorite kid at the moment is. Don't get me wrong, I love them both to bits and it's a horrible thing to think it, let alone write it for all to see. I just wonder which part of parenting did i get wrong or is this normal for kids his age. I'm limiting his tv watching and have stopped sending him to Tokmi's house after school, when i noticed he'd picked up bad language from hanging out w de bigger kids over there. But so far I see very little progress. I do talk to him about this negative behavior and it seems at that time that he understood how much this upset me. Seems like he's forgotten his promises again. I hate to repeat myself over and over again like a broken record. But he's only 5 and maybe he needs more "positive reinforcement" instead.

Ok, I'm gonna look up options on "positive reinforcements" now before I call it a day. Hope it works.

Wish me luck.

Good nite.

That time of the year again

It's the last week of 2010 and the office is literally empty. There's only 5 of us in today. My email inbox hasn't been blinking with new msgs for the last hour and phone's pretty quiet too. So glad for the much needed silence in the office after the much chaotic past few weeks.

As it has always been with the past year ends, it is time to reflect on the happenings of the year. I think i've pretty much had a good year, with its fair share of bumps and bruises along the way. Career-wise, I believe I'm on the right track though I know I still have quite hurdle in getting the lady-Boss' confidence in my abilities. Imran, believe it or not, sorta opened the door for me straight into her good books! He charmed the tudungs off of her during our company outing last weekend!It was really strange seeing Imran chit-chatting away with her, as if she's Tokmi to him. So till today, she's always talking about how cute and sociable my son is, to our colleagues and work friends :) Yeay Imran!

Life at home has been pretty good too. I can't really complain though I know we can improve on a lot of things. No thanks to my little fender-bender last month, all the savings for the new fridge and washing machine is now rerouted to pay the workshop. Despite that, we did manage to squeeze in an awesome Europe holiday and family vacays with the kids so I guess it's not so bad after all.

Will start bulding up the kitty again next year for our upcoming (mis)adventures. Oh yeah, and a new phone. And digital camera. And a Moroccan holiday :P

The best things in life

Blogging away from home tonite. Arrived in Kerteh this lovely Sunday morning for a meeting tomorrow..and feeling depressed and homesick as hell becoz of that! No doubt the hotel is nice and the beach is gorgeous. But looking out the window at the kids splashing in the pool made me ache thinking of my children back home. Can't wait to take them away for another "almost beach holiday" this coming weekend!

Anyway, talking about kids, a coupla people i know popped their own babies this past few weeks.. one worth mentioning is my sister, who gave birth to their third last week. The most cute little babygirl ever..besides mine of course. Kinda surreal watching her bathe and change the little bub..her last baby happened like 8yrs ago! She totally forgot how to breastfeed n stuff but good thing is that my mum's around n her baby is quite easy to handle. like most babygirls i know :)

We've been doing a lot of things with the kids lately and i'm so enjoying the time just hanging out with them and talking about anything and everything. Mia is learning really fast and she can recite the numbers 1 through 10 and sing her favourite song "Twinkle2 Little Star" pretty well! I always forget that she's only 1 and a half..But she's still so painfully shy among strangers. She avoids eye-contact with anyone she doesn't know and if she can't hide behind me or anything else, she will just close her eyes!!

Imran's quite a good big brother too..although sometimes he does get a little rough with his babysis. U can talk about anything with Imran nowadays, he's such a good conversationalist! Today I told him that he can't go to Tokmi's house tomorrow coz Tokmi's not feeling well, so he asked me, "Oooohh..that's why I can't go to Tokmi's house.. Tokmi got flu?? oooo..Tokmi dah makan her medicine?It's ok mummy, I will stay home and watch Kuzco with Mia" His tone is full of concern, so endearing.

I'm thankful to have this two little angels around me and I really don't know if I can feel any happier than I am now.

Quarantined!

My kids and I are under house arrest as we are all infected with HFMD..ugh, as much as I love not having to go to work all week, it's kinda annoying coz there's not much else I can do at home, besides watch TV, go on facebook and goof about with the kids. i'm pretty sure we got it from one of our relatives whose kids had it few weeks ago. daym..never really thought we would end up getting the disease. imran recovered pretty quickly but the little girl had it worse. the ulcers keep popping up under her 'langit-langit' and she had a tough time trying to eat or drink. it hurst even when she's tring to soothe herself to sleep. nothing works. which means me n the dad haven't been getting much sleep as she was fretful and cried most of the night. But yesterday she was lil bit better and today she's almost back to her usual cheeky self. she won't let me check or put bonjela on it so im just guessing that they must have healed. am switching her milk to pediasure again just to get her appetite going again.

The doctor advised to get our bodies loaded up on Vitamin C and lots of water so have been giving the kids bottles n bottles of juices. The spots on our feet are still there but i didn't see any new ones coming up so i hope we're on our way out of this. Hopefully we'll be ok by the weekend. I need to get better too coz i just can't afford to miss Jasmin's wedding reception again!!

Just venting out

I can’t believe we are approaching yet another December with all the celebrations..time for kindy concerts, school holidays and the rush to clear up work for the financial year followed by clearing of all the remaining annual leaves. Not that my life has been exciting or anything but even with the normalcy of our day-to-day routine , I still feel a little overwhelmed that I have lots to accomplish before I say goodbye to 2010. For instance, the gym subscription which I’ve kept on postponing due to whatever reasons..the neglected garden that’s looking more and more rainforest-like by the day..banking in the kids’ duit Raya..updating our insurance portfolio to include Mia..sending our clothes to the donation center..the list goes on. Note that most if not everythg on the list requires a sum of money to kick-off which is perhaps the main factor these have been pushed to the backburner for now. Despite the pay increase, I’m still finding it tough to keep up with our expenses.. seems like there is always something happening that needs major attention / fixing / replacement. Last month it was the TV, the coming month’s pay will be for a new washing machine and the month after that would have to be the fridge. Hrmphh.. I know I shouldn’t be complaining coz this money problem is a never ending miserable cycle. Even with the yearly pay raises and bonuses, somehow it will almost always be followed with issues that requires huge amounts of money and plops me back to square zero again.

Ok talking about this is making me even more depressed. I know things do have their way to work their own way out and all. it’s just that I wish for once, money can be struck out of my list of problems :P

New chapter

Yesterday was my first day at Level 55. Fresh out of bootcamp, brain all washed and shiny :P The day went by so fast, with meetings filling up half of it and the rest just with getting the computer and network stuff up and working and getting to know my new colleagues and the office. All in all, it was a good first day. Met with the GM boss-lady and was kinda taken aback with her remarks about working with females. She mentioned that female staff always tend to give her problems and thus do not last long in her dept. Like, wtf? Anyway, i'm just gonna take that in stride and just go with the flow.

My workscope is nothing different that what i've done before, just that this time it's only confined to the O&G business. Something i would need to master as quickly as possible. My boss and SM are cool fellas. The type yg pijak semut pun tak mati. But they are also sharp and very2 intelligent. So I really2 have to learn the business inside out fast to keep up with them.

Thought of going in today to just familiarize myself with the work but was discouraged by the boss-lady as it "gives an impression that you are not managing your time well". i mean, seriously?? when half the time i will be traveling, u can't expect me to be up to date with the paperwork due unless i come in on some saturdays. haiyah..maybe that's why they give me a laptop instead of a desktop. so i can work from anywhere. but ive always thought that the best time to get work done is on a weekend, when the office is quiet and the phones ain't ringing.

Anyway it is saturday today and i will heed her advice and spend quality time owed to my munchkins for going away for 2 weeks. The boss is always right, right?!

My life as a tai-tai

I'm on a short break before starting at the new job. Was so looking forward to the tai-tai week ahead but now that it's here, wow, tai-tai-ing is not as leisurely as I thought it would be! Am practically up and about by 7:30am making sure Imran's up and showered, screaming at the maid to wake up and prepare the kids' milk and giving Mia her bath before sending off Imran to school. Well Iskandar still drives him there but I make it a point to at least send him to the car, put the seatbelt on and flykiss him off. Then it's back to the laundry, playing with Mia, chasing after the kid until about 10:30am when I tuck her in for her nap. A quick shower, FB and some news updates later and I'm off to fetch Imran from school. Make the boy's lunch and drive to LB for a lunch date myself with Iskandar. After lunch is a dash to Jalan TAR to buy some material, the tailor for J's bridesmaid baju, a bit of grocery shopping before its time to head home n prepare dinner. phew! no leisure whatsoever! But it's all good and i'm loving every second of being around my kids the whole day. Something I would truly miss for about 2 weeks when I hv to go for the P bootcamp on Friday :P

Yesterday managed to squeeze in a quick catch-up over drinks with my girls J, N and H. Oh well, not really quick as we end up leaving the restaurant way past 10pm! But it was fun as always with the girls..Aside from my family, I can't imagine my life without my girls :) xoxo! Here's to growing old together, bitchy as ever! :D

I can't wait for my gaji to come in coz I hv like a million things to do before Friday and there's just no more time! No choice but to get an IOU from Iskandar to start me off with the tailoring and bootcamp stuff. So annoying. They promised it'll be in on Monday but it's already Tuesday and nada!

Ok, gotta go, it's time for Mia's milk and nap..this tai-tai's me-time is o.v.e.r!

The return of Syawal

Once again, Syawal returns..and this year i am celebrating with many-many more blessings than the years before. Syukur alhamdulillah. I'm so excited to wake up to the smell of my morning coffee and butterfly kisses from my two little angels, to seeking forgiveness from my husband and parents, to the sounds of kids screaming and laughing and coming again and again for rounds of duit raya..to the beautiful spread of Raya goodies prepared by Mummy and all the ladies of the family and catching up with relatives and friends, old and new amidst mouthfuls of ketupat, rendang, spicy gulai tempoyak, lontong and all sorts of cookies and sweets.

This year, I will be preparing simple Soto Johor for Raya brunch with my inlaws before heading to my parents'. Of course, the mandatory ketupat, lemang and rendang will be part of the menu too. standard stuff, but then again my in-laws are not really big in eating so yeah, lucky me :)

This Ramadhan we have been busy doing up the house a little bit..filling up the empty walls with paintings and pictures that we got many many months back but never had the time to properly frame up..replacing the old flower arrangements with new ones and throwing out a bunch of stuff we don't use anymore. Also took time to sort out our wardrobe and donate those that don't fit (me) anymore. One thing good about Ramadhan is that I get to spend more time at home doing all this spring cleaning stuff. Which also means more space in the wardrobe for new stuff! :D

Thank god for all that lunch money saved, we have enough to get each of us two new pairs of baju kurungs and baju melayus..a new pair of shoes and songkok for imran. i can't wait to dress the kids up on Raya morning, they're gonna look super duper cute, in their little baju melayu and baju kurung, i bet!

Tomorrow is the last day of Ramadhan and the city is already deserted :) am looking forward to the smooth drive home and quiet KL at least for another week or so.. which is also a good thing coz i can pack up my stuff at my workplace and move as much things as i possibly can when people are not around..in time for my resignation on Sept 24th.

A blessed Syawal indeed..:)

Another big decision

Again I am presented with a tough..tough decision to make. Why things have to change just as I am nicely fitting in with the not-so-new "family", I have no idea..perhaps god really has a plan for me. Change is good, and yes opportunities like this will never come around twice but I do not expect this supposedly no brainer type situation would put me in such confusion and sadness. Everyone I confided in says I'm nuts if I don't seize this chance and my family especially thinks this means a better future for me n the kids. I guess there really is no decision to be made then.

But..how do I say goodbye to this other family of mine?? The people who have accepted me so graciously and share their jokes and troubles and home-cooked food with..

Time is running out and I really do need to break the news soon. I just need to figure out how...Gosh i wish I can have a "flash forward" and see what's it gonna be like in my future! Nervous!!

Stuck

Iskandar's left for Delhi for the week so the kids n i are dumping ourselves at Mummy's house. this was expected to be a great arrangement as i hardly hv time these days for chit-chatting with my mum. BUT..to my annoyance, my mum's house is booked by a production house to shoot some lame-ass Malay drama. AGAIN. for those who know me, would know that my mum's house has been a pretty common scene in so many cerekaramas. Even some videoclips, Chinese, Tamil and Filipino soap operas too. Guess that makes it pretty cool but after the hundredth drama, i'm so over the excitement of seeing celebrities do their thing in front of the camera. and right at this moment, they are shooting a scene in the living room where i think the female actor is suppose to naik hantu and get into a huge screaming fight worse than kimora with her cheating husband or something. she's so effing loud and it's really pissing me off as my kids are trying to sleep up here! Mia was startled so many times and screamed at each take. worse still, i didn't even get to see my mum as we are all trapped in our rooms as long as they are shooting. AND we have to keep the TV down too. SO SO SOOOO annoying.

im still awake coz i'm waiting for Iskandar to get online. haven't heard from him all day and am getting a little worried. sambil2 tu i'm browsing for tips for my Strategic Interview happening on friday. reading others' experiences about it, i'm getting even more freaked out!

am feeling a little hungry but can't get to the fridge downstairs for obvious reasons.. urrrgggghhh..wish i'm back home now!!

Mia is 1!

And how so very proud i am of her!Her walking's more stable now and she can even walk backwards a few steps! her giggles and laughs are supercute and infectious, just can't get enough of that toothy grin and cheeky smile. She's so precious to me and i hate leaving her every morning to go to work..can't believe she's already a year old.

Last night we got our families together for a small birthday party for the girl. i managed to order all the party stuff online and iskandar put up the baby pink balloons and banner saturday morning. for her cake, i ordered birthday cupcakes from +wondermilk which are just heavenly things and were too pretty to eat! the kids had a great time with the cousins.. we were worried that there would be more adults than kids but we had to keep the crowd small due to the space constraint.. but the kids, though outnumbered, definitely had more fun than i'd seen them last! they were all over the place (and each other!), we had to break up several kiddie fights too! so cute! got mia dressed up in the prettiest dress, fit for the prettiest 1 year old in the world :) she was so well behaved and laughed and giggled her way all through the night.

For my baby Mia Aleena Putri, Mummy's so so proud of you, you are and always will be my little angel.. always know that Mummy is here for you no matter what. there's nothing i could wish more than for you to have the best in life. you and your brother are my breath, my reason to live. love you to bits, little angel..Happy Birthday.

Jalan-jalan post

I've been carefully planning a 10-day holiday for my family since December and finally it happened at the end of May! Yes i know this post is way over due but it would be a huge loss if i don't write about the whole experience with photos to proof! afterall, i was the one who did all the crazy planning work!! Yup it was crazy, looking for flights, hotels that suit the budget, cheap cabbies, checking the forex every single day.. esp. when ure organizing for a big group! But i must say that the trip was PERFECT..

Our first destination was Dublin where we stayed with my youngest sister. It's a nice city but nothing much to do except exploring the shops and parks. its a very windy city and the nights were chilly!

Barcelona was just magical..can't get enough of the unbelievable, puzzling Gaudi architecture. The Spanish guitarists busking on the streets were just as i imagined it..talented, handsome young men! shopping was awesome with Zara's and Mangos at every corner..prices are dirt cheap and there's an outlet too!! And the tapas bars along La Rambla were perfect to spend the hours just people-watching.Bliss... promised ourselves to return with the kids once the piggy's replenished..hopefully one day.

London was same ol busy, bustling London..which was lovely with the perfect sunny summer weather. It seems like all of London are on holiday too, judging by the huge crowds at Covent Garden, Trafalgar Sq. etc. The beautiful weather is just too nice to miss out on i suppose. Of course, it had to rain non-stop day in day out on one of the days we were there..but that was only for a day and the rest of the time was simply perfect.

Of course we missed the children like crazy while we're away..and of course they didn't miss us at all! :P everytime we called home to talk with them they're always too busy playing, sleeping etc..sigh.

And of course what's a big family vacation without a bit of drama? hehehe.. Iskandar almost missed the whole trip due to dengue! my sister and her many hissy fits, the lost shopping bags, and we almost missed our flight home coz we left one of our luggage at our hotel!!

After so long

of not updating this blog i really dont know where to start!! a lot has been happening past few weeks, it's been one helluva crazy roller coaster ride that i'm still on! but it's all good, tiring as hell but good. work's been taking me around from bangkok to ipoh to jb to singapore and soon another roadshow will start. most likely the east coast next week. i still haven't unpacked my little trolleybag can u believe it.

Both the kiddies have been up and down with the cough and cold..my poor babies. imran's missed school this whole week, just to make sure he's cleared of the cough completely. just can't think of what parent sends their sick kids to school only to infect the other kiddies!! damn you, irresponsible, sorry excuse of a parent! Mia's even more kesian, the coughing's disturbing her sleep..i do hope she gets better soon. breaks my heart to hear her coughing way into the night..

Oh, Mia's started to take her first steps!!! i just can't believe how fast he's progressing in her motor skills. she started standing about a month ago n if she's distracted with a toy while standing up, she will take little steps without even realizing it. but when she does, i think she sorta freaks out a bit with the movement and sits down again. it's soooo cute to watch..

Tonite is Saturday nite and i'm all alone with the kids..and maids...n Kat :P. Well only iskandar is away. aaaanyways, i'm just gonna have a quiet nite in with my Lovely Bones. i've read halfway and it's such a page turner but i just had to stop at about 3am while i was in bangkok or risk missing my important meeting the next day!

So..hopefully it won't be too long before my next update again..good nite..

New career

Started my new job after about a week plus of tai-tai-ing and work's been on fifth gear ever since! and here i thought that my first week working at a GLC would be easy-breezy-goyang -kaki :P and for the first time in a long time i don't find myself checking the clock every other half hour as i was always having my hands and head full with paperwork to do, client portfolios to study and meetings to attend. and it's such a great feeling, to be part of a young, energetic team again. it's only my first week and i've already started leaving office at like 7pm - 8pm! it's not good i know, i should learn to manage my work better (and my boss) and try to get home before the kids' bedtime. imran's already showing separation anxiety symptoms when he insists i go to bed with him and says things like "Mummy, no need to go work ok" or "Mummy, sleep with imran ok, jom" with that big eyes and adorable pleading voice.

My teammates are a friendly bunch of jokers. i could see that my boss has done a good job in putting together a great team. they tell me about those crazy times they had to stay overnite at office due to tender submission, constant travelling, etc. but they did give me the impression that it's all good and not a burden at all coz the work is exciting and my boss gives everyone equal opportunity to learn and lead the team for each and every project. i love that they've been genuinely helpful and friendly to me, despite my blurness, being new. i hope to catch up with them soon.

Wishing myself all the best of luck for the next week - it's gonna be another crazy one! Nite-nite!