Korea ... Again

Ahmad wanted to see and experience snow, and so does Anis and Aina. And now, Alif can't wait to "go to" the snow. Its Korea again this year... with family of course. Just because of the snow thing and snow is better in Korea than China, I heard. USA and other countries are more expensive. But the most influencing factor was that I wanted to give similar experience to the family to what Korea has to offer from my visit there last year and I wanted to see the country again, out of work scope and have more time to explore.

Ok...people start jumping into Winter Sonata thing as soon as I said that we're going to Korea, especially the guys. I guess people has been equating Korea with Winter Sonata. But I love Full House more. It is more lively and fun and faster compared to Winter Sonata. Right, back to Korea .. it's beautiful, clean and the people are nice. I heard they're nicer to foreigner compared to their own people. There was this elderly lady in a convenient shop who went out of the way to help us (my friends and I) to find the nearest subway station, right after I showed her the phrase book that says "Can you show me the way to the subway?" ... we were talking ducks and chicken but she still find a way to communicate with us to the extent of leaving her shop to show us part of the way .. well, we finally understand enough of her signs and rambling to figure out that the subway station is called Songnae and look out for that sign as we walked.

Anyway...count down to Korea starts again... still waiting for the finalized plan...called the agent many times...but still waiting...Dec 8th .. not too long ...

MAS

I've been traveling lots in the month of October. Planned travel was only for Labuan and Tawau but due to urgent issues, I have to add in Kuantan and Penang in the schedule.

During flight to Labuan, Tawau, and Kota Kinabalu (transit KK since there is no direct flight to Tawau from Labuan or vice versa), MAS has been playing Rabbani's tune "pergi tak kembali". Week after that, on return flight from Kuantan, the same tune was played. I thought "wow, was MAS commemorating almarhum Ustaz Asri by playing his famous song?".

Today (actually 2oth Oct), on return flight from Penang, it was classical Indian tune. Now I got it. The Rabbani's tune must be in connection with Raya but the choice of that song "pergi tak kembali" was probably coincidental with Ustaz Asri's demise. Since it was still Deepavali celebration, they played indian's tune now. I'll have to remember to check out the tunes when I fly to Bintulu & Miri next month... what festival would it be..

He Did it Again

Alif did it again.. actually a couple of times caught. But this time, mummy couldn't resist taking his pictures while sleeping on a chair in the middle of a game at mummy's personal laptop. Bad mummy... instead of picking him up right away, let him be in that bad ergonomic position for awhile longer to allow her to snap pictures!:-)

Once wasn't good enough... need to turn him so that can get better picture of the facial expression:-)

My Aina who Has Turned 14 on the 24th Aug

My first-born - Aina Syasya has just celebrated her 14th birthday last night. Azlin bought her favourite cake from Secret Recipe and we invited the Ariff and Nini and their spouses to come over for iftar to celebrate the event together.

As Aina cut her cake, Ariff asked her to make her wish and she had just smiled. No more the usual whine "umm aaa ee huk" thing coming out from her. She has somehow matured a little bit in her reaction. Aaa.. how my kid has grown.

I still remember the day she was born clearly - in the labor ward when I was so high on Entonox and just follow whatever the nurse and doctor told me to do. She came out with just one push and for first child, it was unexpected to be that easy. Dr Nora said I could do this more often and soon:-) Well, easy delivery does not mean easy to bring up. As I reflects about raising Aina.... there are some "originals" that I can remember about her...

1) She's the only child that we have who cried when the clock strike midnight and can goes on till 2 to 3 am. It goes on for few weeks - we had tried many things - the colic drop, baby rocker. Almost every night she slept on either of us (hubby or me). My in-laws got an ustaz to recite some doas into a small bottle of coconut oil which we had to swab behind her ears and on her eyebrows everyday together with zikir to reduce her crying habits. Somehow it worked.

2) The only daughter with so many care takers when she was baby. It was my SIL at first, then my mom - the first grandchild my mom took care full time, then when Anis was born, we had to send her to day care (my mom wanted to take care of Aina only, difficult to handle baby and toddler with her business)

3) The one who learnt business since baby. Aina was brought by my mom to all places that she did business. When customer paid for merchandize, Aina would eagerly accept it. And, she showed her potential as business since Year 1 in primary school. I think she made some stuffs out of paper and sold it to her friends, I can't recall what that was. As she grow, more ideas for business, like selling printed song lyrics for 10sen, and then made book mark from cross stitch - up to a point that she appoint her own business manager among her friends to take care of the order. Of course, those business didn't last long.

4) Very mischievous as a toddler. The only one that I recall whom the Taska teacher asked if she has problems at home. She was only, I think 18 months at that time. Apparently, Aina feigned sleep during afternoon nap session. As soon as the teacher left the room, she got up, slide open the glass cabinet door and messed up the neatly arranged go home clothes and pampers by littering them on the floor. And then she climb a cabinet where they kept some mothercare lotions and apply that lotion on her friends' hair. To close the deeds, she took off her pampers and peed on the clothes and pampers that she had thrown on the floor. I can imagine how horrified the teacher's are when they discover what happened. Thorough cleaning on the children's hair, some would not have good clothes to go home with and then having to wash the floor and the childrens' clothes because of Aina's deed.

5) A child who does not want to get into any hardship at all, if she can help it. At 4 years old, she wanted to be the stepsister of cinderella. Because cinderella has to do a lot of work! Never mind the ending part - which the movie only show a little. What carries the impact more is the hardship that cinderella has to go through:)

6) Refused to eat fish. Was even proud of being able to hide the fish served a the daycare under her plate to avoid from having to eat fish. In primary school, she learnt to eat only vegetable and gravy whenever fish was served. And still able to maintain her chubby appearance!

7) She wanted to enter Sek Men Tahfiz IQKL (then was just IQKL) because there is aircond in the classroom, not because she wanted to learn Quran more. She used to cry whenever I asked her to do her recitation of the Quran, so I was really confident if she can survive in that school. At that time, the school rented part of Al-Ghufran masjid for academic purpose until they have their own building, so, there's aircond in the classroom - this actually fits her principle of no hardship! Now, she is already attached to the school, so, doesn't matter if there is no more aircond ever since they had moved to their own building.

I think I remember more about Aina and Alif compared to Anis and Ahmad. I think I should write similar thing about each one of them - to be fair....

The Airport Mess

There were 2 theories I heard - about the problems with flight delays at KLIA, or for that matters, International airport.

One was - due to typhoon. Because of that, the connecting flight needs to be rescheduled, and thus cause the delay. Another theory was because MAS wants to save some costs by maximizing on the plane usage. Don't know which is true or if neither was true.

Ever since I took on this new job a little over a year ago, I've been traveling around Malaysia, on MAS at least once, every month. Almost all of the international airports in Malaysia - Johor, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and finally, Penang - I've gone through, on a domestic flight.

Last week was the first time that I had flight delay on both ways. Destination was Penang. The budget airport taxi driver told me that there was once he had work inside the airport to ward off the "ulat" attack and most of the time, he saw that flight to and from Penang was frequently delayed. Of course, I wasn't paying much attention then. But true enough, I was scheduled to fly off at 0910am and without warning or announcement, I found out at the boarding gate that it has been delayed to 1040am and the gate has changed. No reason given. There is another flight to Penang at 1045am - imagine that! I met an acquaintance in front of the new gate - that's how I know.

I booked my return flight on the next day at 08:40pm but with the intention of catching the earlier flight if we (my colleague and I) can finish our work early. We made it, got onto the 5:25pm flight which was a little bit late, probably due to some high level Indonesian guests - there were special welcoming committee it seems at the departure/arrival gate. We only get to board the plane at 5:25pm. I was happy to be able to get home early, the flight was full and I was lucky to be fast enough to get in - there were only 5 seats left according to officer at the check-in counter. My friend, whose ticket was class W due to the mistake made by the incompetent girl at the travel agent had to pay a fee of RM100 to change to earlier flight. So we board the plane, the plane reverse and getting ready to move on and then, nothing happen. Then, we heard the announcement from the pilot that the plane could not take off and right now is being pulled back to the base due to one engine could not start up. Alhamdulillah, it happen while we're still on the ground. After spending about 10 minutes inside the aircond-less airplane, the pilot asked us to leave the plance and take our valuable belongings.

I got down, wait at the rows of chairs in front of the departure gate. There were no instruction whatsoever given to me on what's next. No announcement - I was watching for it. So, I just sat and wait. Then I saw people started to swarm the counter at the gate - thinking that these are people who wants to get on transfer, I just ignore. After about half an hour and no further news, I join the crowd and the line and found out that one of the line is the queue for a meal coupon. That's bad news, that means its gonna be longer before we can get on the plane. I asked the counter lady on what plane are we supposed to take. She just told me to come back by 8pm. I think they must want to put us on the 8:40pm flight. Back to the original plan but with my colleague wasting RM100 of company's money - technical error is not covered, no refund!

We were given a meal coupon to be used at Coffee Bean outside the departure gate. Found out later at Coffee Bean that its only worth RM23. RM23 at Coffee Bean - not much of a meal that you can get. Enough to cover one coffee and a muffin, a cake would make it more than RM23. They don't have the set meal deal. Anyway, coming back to the real issue - I went back to the counter before 8pm and was re-assigned to the 8:40pm flight. The seat number was just scribbled onto my boarding pass. Went to the new counter and waited. Again, I didn't hear any announcement about boarding in the plane, but there were huge commotion at the gate. You couldn't really determine which line you're supposed to take to board the plane. There were these 2 guys from the same flight I was in just now, scolding the staffs about how they were not told anything at the previous counter and were just asked to go to this gate that we're at and then, only to be told that they could not get on that flight because it was already full. And he goes on and on while I just second guess on the realy line that I had to follow to get on the plane.

Once I get through the line and into the plane, I heard another not so nice thing. Somebody had her seat taken. Double seating. And one of the boarding pass is holding a seat number scribbled in pen. I was getting worried for a moment. Oh no, please don't let that happen to me too - I want to go home. Alhamdulillah, it didn't happen to me but to another guy who were on the same row with me - tough luck! So, there's 2 cases of double seating that I heard off. The plane then, could not take off on time - another 20 minutes delay because of this "unforeseen" circumstances. Oh wow, what a fiasco going in and coming out from Penang. This is the first in the one year that I had started traveling with MAS on domestic flight. I had experienced similar delay with international flight, thought that domestic is much more organized from this one year experience.

Anyway, I finally got home about 11pm. The budget airport taxi driver whom I had booked to pick me up at home (rather he booked himself and I let him be) had to reschedule his trip to KLIA twice because of the delay but he still have to wait for me because he has already registered in the system that he'll pick me up and has already been charged RM6 because of that booking. Its an automatic thing according to him. Well, it was a loong long day for me and I was dead tired when I reach home. I heard from my other colleague that it seems MAS has been having this flight delay thing for the last 2 weeks. And I learn that the daily 6:40pm flight Penang-KLIA that was published had never happened - it was probably gimmick and the passenger had to re-arrange either go into the 5:25p flight or the 7:30pm flight. Why bother putting it on schedule? Things people do for business....
You guys know how to conclude the story ...:)

Another Rambling

Again, lots of things to do and lots of things to write. I even pen those things that I want to write, in a note pad taken from hotel(s) and then stash them back into my handbag and forget all about it. Go home, feeling tired than necessary and when there's time to do stuffs, ended up with either watching drama series (hooked Grey's Anatomy S5 at the moment) or trying to finish up one of the Korean drama or playing Sudoku on facebook. Oh well, things should get better in a few days time.. I think...

Let's just list those things to write... I should get around to do it somehow...

1) Those MAS mess in Penang - where you're already on board and get towed back to the hangar - don't know if this is the right term
2) Alif's 5th birthday - ok, this is way way overdue
3) Anis's Spell It Right - over for more than few weeks, maybe more than a month
4) Reunion?
5) H1N1 and the respirator and the haze-- well, I should comment on this, taking from an Industrial Hygienist stand point of view, the one who should know more about respiratory protection from particulates (haze) and other contaminants yang sewaktu dengannya -- its my bread and butter, duh! Break my heart to see and hear the TPM says -- wear surgical mask to protect yourself (from what? the droplets?)
6) Alif's blob about not kissing me when I become a grandma coz its gonna be yucky!
7) Should I write about air pollution that I experience in Penang? Its kind of work related thing, maybe I shouldn't. But those who live or work in that area would know - maybe I should, maybe somebody will pay attention and do something about it
8) The dilemma I'm having - trying to pick the best affordable package for the family trip to Korea in December - should we go for it or not. Muslim package which is more expensive or normal package and then live on maggi mee or vegetables dishes .. hmm, would the pandemic situation prevent us from entering the country? oh wow, big decision here

That should be enough...would I ever get to write even one tiny wee bit about these ? I guess I have to abandon all of the Sudokus and korean drama and Grey's ...or just do everything and further reduce sleeping hours.. hmmm...

Forget-full-ness

I am one of those absent-minded person whose mind wonders around and hard to focus on things at hand. Have to work extra hard to complete a task at hand. Because of this, there are times I got into trouble or almost there.

Yesterday morning for instance, as I walked towards my office door, I realised that I do not have the key to the office. Realising my ambitious wish to wear small handbag but still maintain the contents, I've had the bag which was improperly closed at my feet while driving. It could have spilled some of its items , so, I went back to car park to look for the keys inthe car. Not there. It was imperative that I got into the office the soonest coz I had to leave for KLCC for another meeting and I sooo need to get at least one email out before I leave. And it has to be this day that I did not have the keys that my office mate had to come in late! I went to Security to get spare key but it wasn't available. The only place to sought for spare key was the Facilities - and it has also to be at that time that they're having their tool box meeting and I was a bit shy to disturb their program because of my forgetfulness. Resigned to the fact that I would not be able to get into the office until office mate arrived, I moved to the Surau, very close to office. Hah! There .. hanging at my personal locket were a bunch of keys with Missouri-Rolla keychain. No doubt - those are my keys! Alhamdulillah.... Phew... I must have left that after solat the day before. Too many things to do after solat - fold the telekung, put on mositurizer, socks, scarfs, employee badge, jacket, and keys would be the last one to take, I must have lost count and just left right after put on the employee badge. That's a Rm40 key to duplicate and I definitely do not want to lose it!

That's just one incident - that recently happened. A couple of times, I paid for stuffs and my thoughts quickly moved to my next pursuit, that make me forgot what I was doing at the moment and I left the shopping stuffs at the counter. I was lucky most of the time that somehow I was reminded to turn back or the cashier was fast enough to catch me. But there was a time when I had not been lucky... we went to shop while on travel, coz we were running low on children clothes. I think it was in Kuantan, or Terengganu - must be one of those places. When we got back to the hotel and looked for the clothes, we couldn't find it. I did not want to admit it, but chances are, I might have left it at the counter after paying ... didn't matter whose fault it was, the blame from DH would still be mine ... "lalai!" that was the common phrase thrown at me.

Oh well.... any good improvement tips?

Sunset at Sandakan ... from Sabah Hotel

1st trip to Sandakan... nothing much to see from just from a one day one night working trip but the chances to snap few breathtaking sceneries from the hotel's window is not something to be missed...

I tried to capture the bird from my telephoto ... the distance makes it look like a blotted thing in the sky...

Behind the tree ... as the sun set, different type of panorama can be seen.... maybe because it was closer...

A little bit deviation from the topic... the village set up near the work area...

Ahmad and Alif

Ahmad Sirhan and Muhammad Alif Safwan.

The big brother is Ahmad and the younger one is Alif. Ahmad because when young, he can't pronounce "Sirhan" well and as he grows from baby to toddlers, his "activeness" need to be reduced so, we started to call him Ahmad. Because of that, he feels that he owns that name. When Alif comes around, the name "Ahmad" is forbidden to be used because thus why Alif has a Muhammad instead of Ahmad to accompany his name.

They are not the bestest friends but as brothers they can be good to each other... some of the time ..

They declare "war" among each other most of the time, but there are time that they act brotherly towards each other-- especially when playing cars or robots or "lawan-lawan"...

Most of the time they displayed "do not disturb" me attitude mood towards each other....and when boundary crossed, the smaller one will start crying while the big brother will try his best to stop him for fear of reprimand (most of the time, its over use of "energy" from his side that cost the younger ones to cry)

But you can never deny their relationship as brothers when they're asleep.
The synchronization was just too similar to contest .....

Ahmad's New Look

Another one of my child join the speckie group. Ahmad Sirhan. We had to persuade him to get the glasses done for him. He refused and was actually in denial because he said wearing glasses will make him look like a "dork" or a "nerd". So, he refused saying that he is not short-sighted, just a little blur on the sight:-)

We got his eyes check and was surprised to find out that the power is actually high - 175 on both eyes. Anis couldn't see at all without her glasses, Aina only wears her glasses when necessary. Ahmad, like a good boy he is, listens to mommy and daddy and wears his glasses most of the time.

I don't have much hope that Alif will not be joining the speckie group, it's probably a matter of time.

Long Silence

Its been awhile since I last wrote, no its more than awhile. I just can't seem to bring myself to abandon other not so important things and do what I think I must do. Self -control. That's what I am lacking now. I had planned to complete my commitment but it didn't happen because i can't control myself into doing what I should do but instead I did what I like to do - such a waste of time. I know I am being vague. But its like "membuka pekung di dada" - how do you say that in English(?) - opening one's wound (?) if I started recounting how many planned must do things that didn't happen because of me, doing thing that I like that really is kind of a waste of time.. oh well....

...all by Myself

Umi: Let's mandi
Alif: No
Umi: Jom la... Umi mandikan
Alif: a -a -- NOT A CHANCE!
Umi: ??? (ni mana dapat ni?)

10 minutes later

Alif: Umi, tolong buka
he was wearing long sleeve t-pajama, he's sweaty so, a bit difficult to pull it up on his own.

Umi: Alif nak mandi? Waa... bagusnya. Mandi ngan Abah ke?
Alif: nop - I'm going to bath, all by myself!

"I can do it all by myself!"
"I think about it all by myself!"
"I did it all by myself!"

Those are Alif's favourite phrases if you ask where he learn some of the things he does...

To do..

Things to do this week (and that includes weekend)...

1) Download Iron Empress ... ah! That one is a killer - really loves the history it portrays, of course watching on the big screen give much more satisfaction) --- On going (the real player keeps on finishing the task without completing it for some parts)

2) Register for the basic Korean lesson at ICLS -- Done (can't believe I really did sign up and pay up!Class starts on 30 May, once/week but am gonna miss first class coz that my BIL's wedding day)

3) Try burning more Korean songs in the 4.7GB Disc - hope that it'll be able to play on the car's DVD. This should occupy my 2 hrs drive to Kuantan tomorrow -- Have not even started yet

4) Write checks to pay up all the scheduled payment for my debts -- not yet

5) Pack up for the Kuantan trips tomorrow -- this one just before going to bed tonight baru nak buat

6) Catch up with work emails to confirm tomorrow's schedule. Got early Monday meeting before moving on to Kuantan (am gonna take Azlin's Camry for the trip)

7) Call Kak Lin (my neighbor) and go meet up with other neighbors to confirm Kursus Jenazah at my house on the 10th of May. Need to get at least 10 people to start the class -- will do this in the evening

8) Pick up Aina in the afternoon and then, send her back in the evening before curfew over at 6pm

9) Finish up the dress for Ariff's wedding and also the skirt for line dancing -- don't know if can do this or not, asyik tak de mood je.

List goes on...I'd better stick to this one first. What about things for the children? Need to do cook and keep since not going to be home for the next 2 days -- rendang dah "kau-tim" for one day, lagi sehari? Aaa...let Anis masak la the second day tu:-)

My Glamorous Dancing Shoes :-)

Finally, my dancing shoes are ready - special order with the Line Dancing teacher. I was so excited, tried and used it right away in the class. Managed to dance with it without falling and still sweat it out. That was real fun! Doesn't matter if the dancing portion was not good, what's most important was that I enjoyed myself while exercising and still look good! Good for self satisfaction -- ha ha , syok sendiri!

Kerana Pizza

I baked pizza 2 nights ago. Kids and Abah love it. So, I try as much as I can to make it at least once in 2 weeks or weekly, if I feel extra rajin. When pizza is done, the first person to appear in the kitchen to appreciate it was normally Muhammad Alif Safwan (going to be 5 soon). He wanted to eat the pizza right away.
I told him "wait, pizza is hot".
Then he said, "aa....I want to eat it, now, right now!"
Me: "Careful, this is hot. Let's go in front. When its cooled down, you can eat it".

After that, I went straight to the living room, didn't check if he followed me or not. I heard him in the living room later on playing with Ahmad, the next thing I know he started crying. At first, we thought it was a fight with Abang Ahmad. He wouldn't show or tell us what's wrong, just keep on crying.
Abah: "Alif langgar meja?"
Alif: "Tak...saakit"
He curled up and hide his arm. After much coaxing, we manage to see his arm - it looks a bit red with some pinch mark in the middle. Didn't occur to us that it was a burn mark. We thought it was a scratch or something. To coax him to quiet down, I then gave him a piece of pizza. Quiet for a short while, then he continues crying. Then, I guess something was wrong. He wouldn't be crying continously if its just a pinch. I started to put two and two together, holding him on my lap, I ask
" Alif kena pizza?"
Alif: "hu hu...ha!"
Me: "Alif pegang bekas dia ke?"
Alif: continue crying, cannot talk.
Quickly I rushed him to the sink to cool it down. Luckily it hasn't really blistered yet. Azlin make some ice water and bring him to the guest room and coax him to allow us to soak his hand inside the ice water container to numb/cool the pain. After sometime, it worked and he started to laugh and talk again. This ice bath really work to numb the pain but it didn't last long. We tried tooth paste, didn't work. In the end, I had to run the ice water on his hand until he fall asleep that night.

The next day, he woke up smiling and said it didn't hurt anymore.."dah hitam!". There look like scratch thing becomes a long black line and didn't hurt anymore.

Watch Out if You're Parking Your Car in Putrajaya

Nowadays non-residents cars are no longer allowed into Parcel D in Putrajaya. If you had business to run at the government office there, you're gonna have to either take a cab or a bus there. If you wanna drive, go all the way to Park N Ride near Alamanda, take the bus route 900 or 901 and pay Rm0.50 into the slot machine at the driver's side.

If you somehow, managed to be there early, you will actually get through the security. Coz during early hours, when the government officers are rushing in to work, they don't stop you at the gate, even if you dont have the right stickers. Probably because not all officers got the special stickers to stick to their cars, maybe. Anyway, you'll have to drive all the way to back of Blok D3 to park, that's the only parking area that is opened and have no label on it. I got there about 7:50am today. The parking was almost full. Cars started parking in front of my car (not fully blocking though) at the non-designated parking area. By the time it was 8am, all the slots were taken, even the non-designated spots.
I got out and head towards my meeting place, and saw this amazing thing. I heard about it but had never seen this before:
This car must have been parked there over night. It looked like it. The roof had some flower drops on it. There was a car in front of it but only this car was full of A-4 size stickers. See closely what the sticker says:
This sticker was pasted on the front windshield, the back, driver's window and also at the rear passenger's window at the other side of the car. I was a bit malu to go around and take a look if the car was actually locked (well, there were few people passing by) but didn't see any from the driver's side.

When I passed by the area again after the meeting was over, about 11am++, the car was still there. This time the sticker at the driver's side had more pen written notes on it. A passer-by commented that they don't really need to put that much sticker on the car! I went the other side..and was actually amazed at how the car was literally locked and can't resist taking this picture...

Update On the Current Happenings...

Things have been pretty hectic lately with work that some of the time, the children, the house and even the husband was at some point neglected, a bit (or maybe a bit more)...I was behind in my deliveries and am trying to catch up, that's why. Just gotten myself a breather...

AINA
Came back home last weekend because of her cough. Took her to a GP again, who then prescribed a stronger antibiotic coz the ear was still in pain. At least then, I noticed that at least, the last 3 GPs that I've seen for my children in the last one month, explained or maybe kind of justified to me why they're prescribing antibiotic for cough, or sore throat+running nose. Years ago, even not for children, they just give antibiotic without even mentioning that they're giving ones to you. Oh, Aina is now into juz 8 of her Quran hafazan...wow! she spent almost the whole of last year to finish 4 juzuks and now, within 3 months, she finished almost 4 juzuks! 2 pages a day now. Can't really describe how I feel but its unbelievable to think that she can really do it, that she proved us wrong, again! Like most people said, never underestimate your child!

ANIS
This March exam she said she doesn't have the confidence that she'll get to be the top of her class. Few Bs or low As in her marks. She seems a bit out of space or less focus in her studies and maybe distracted with so many other things. I'm just worried that she lose track of what she's supposed to be focusing on...today - she forgot that she's having science tiusyen. It's the only extra class that she's taking - and that is because of her own request. ok, I am at fault too for not remembering that - I kept on thinking that she needs to do her Hafazan that I forgot her tiusyen class. Abah balik, mengamuk la dia...

AHMAD
Follow up from Aku Sebuah Basikal, he now needs to find more karangan that has that titled as part of his correction. At least he showed the effort to look up from the 350 Contoh Karangan UPSR that I bought for Aina 2 years back. When that failed, he just stopped there and didn't even ask for help. Just now, I searched via google and found quite a number of samples of "Aku Sebuah Basikal". I showed to him, but after reading 2 samples of the biography type karangan, he said, "eleh...semua tu sad ending, boring!". I guess maybe that's why he did not end his story in the exam. Oh, he found out that I actually did published his karangan when I asked Nini if she had read his karangan in front of him (while he was playing with Aisya). As expected, he got mad and started to cry a little bit but as he scooped rice into his plate, he soon forgot that he's supposed to be angry. I guess that's that.

ALIF
Alif has been showing good progress in his attitude to go school. He no longer cried in the morning when its time to go to school, though he always find excuses not to go to school the night before or tricked Mak Cik into believing that he's having a holiday tomorrow. Last night he asked me to feel his forehead because he said he got headache from going to school! But when I told Mak Cik to boil some sausages for those going to school tomorrow, the headache immediately go away! He still sometimes, take off his pants in the middle of the night even though he didn't wet the bed. Maybe because "terkicit" sikit and he felt the pants a little bit wet, so he took it off and then go back to sleep. He still lay his toys, particularly his cars on my side of the bed or around abah who is asleep while he's doing that. Almost every night, while I tried to sleep, after pulling on the comforter blanket, I can hear few things dropped hear and there from the bed.
Oh! and he said he doesn't need another baby in the house coz he already has a sister - Aisya is his sister. She's been upgraded from a cousin to a sister. She's the first thing that he looked for just when he got down from the car every evening(at times, even while getting down from his car seat, he had already started calling for her). Tak tau la what will happen when Aisya no longer comes to our house on daily basis if Mak Cik decides to go home for good this year.

As for me...one thing for myself that I tried to consistently maintained even my schedule is erratic, is my line dancing class every wednesday evening. Contingency, Tuesday evening, masak extra so that the children can get their dinner on time and for abah - lambat sikit pun tak pa la...I've learnt tens of songs and dance steps that will make my body sweats and enjoying every moment of it - even when I had to dance with sprained ankle once upon a time. You guys should try it. It's supposed to be a very good exercise for the brain as information transfered from left brain to right brain as you try to dance the steps in different face of the walls. Really fun too!

Karangan

Ahmad has always had an entertaining ways of telling stories. Simple but funny though he never meant it to be funny in the first place. The children had just finished their March Exam...just got the papers back. Ahmad, in the first place do not want me to see his BM-Penulisan paper...afraid that I would be mad at him for getting just a B for it.

ok, so , I managed to get the papers - on pretext so that I know where he goes wrong....Read this:
Question: Tulis sebuah Karangan bertajuk "Aku Sebuah Basikal" - this was his chosen question among 3 choices....
So, here's the karangan:
Aku sebuah basikal yang dilahirkan di Kilang Shah Alam. Setelah dilahirkan, aku dipamerkan.
Aku dibeli oleh seorang budak sekolah rendah dengan harga RM50. Dia menaiki aku ke sekolah setiap hari.
Aku dinaiki oleh dia untuk bersiar-siar ke tempat2 berdekatan dengan rumahnya. Kemudian, dia membawa aku berjalan-jalan ke bandar.
Selepas beberapa bulan, dia pergi bercuti bersama-sama keluarganya. Malangnya aku tidak dapat pergi bersama keluarganya.
Selepas dia balik daripada bercuti dia menaiki aku sekali lagi. Aku dinaiki untuk pergi bersiar-siar dengannya di sekeliling kawasan rumah dia.
Beginilah akhirnya cerita hidup aku. Cerita aku habis begini sahaja.

Well? What do you think? I laughed till I bend down. The teacher comment at the end of the story "apa akhirnya?" and gave him 20 out of 30 points.
I guess because I laughed, he took the paper away from me and wouldn't let me read the third question that he answered - for fear that I would laughed again. When I tried to cajole into giving in, he started to cry. Alamak...why la my big boy is such a cry baby? Do I need to put him into some psychological consultation to cure him of his crying habit ?-- he would cry for such small things, like, when its difficult to take out his shoes or when his bag is so heavy or when he is in a rush to watch his show on tv and the pants wouldn't give in for release from his body and there were many other instance (sendat sikit nak buka:). Apa nak buat yek?

ps: yacut - kalau baca cerita ni, jangan ketawakan Ahmad depan dia- nanti dia mengamuk and nangis pulak kat umi...merajuk tak habis

TV or Book Influence?

Alif has been counting down his birthday for the past few weeks. The understanding on birthday concept must have spurred from the birthdays celebration at his Taska. However, he wanted to have "mummy" and "daddy" (that's what he called us whenever his mood to speak in English comes in - Umi now becomes mummy) around for his birthday celebration so , it must be done at home:-)

This morning, Azlin asked him what he wants for his birthday. And he answered, "I want a dog!"
I laughed out loud. Alif who is scared to hold a cat due to an incidence of being scratched (he called it - "cat garu Alif") now wants a dog for his birthday! I wonder where this one comes from? Hmm...cannot be Thomas or Handy Manny, it could be the Clifford cartoon on TV or book that we read to him. I must say, need to be more careful with story selection or maybe this is good time to explain to him about the dog thing...

Driver's Frustration

Don't you feel like having a feature that can immediately convert your car into high speed with impact protection bull dozer when you're in these situations?

1) When there is one small car who parked almost in the middle of the 2 parking lots. And worst's still, that's the only lot available, forcing some people to park illegally on the side and making the lane becomes smaller and congested and you really really had to drive slow and mindful of both sides to pass through?
Felt like having those conversion feature and slide in beside that car that allow me to push that car to its right place

2) Cars parked on one side of the road, reducing a 2-ways lane into a one-way street. And suddenly, there's a car coming towards you and there's no way for either of you to move forward except one has to give in and reverse all the way to almost where you're starting off. Grr...!
ok - with those feature, I can just bulldoze the parked car to...ehemm...to wherever I like.

3) Cars who blocked the intersection that in the end, nobody can move. Especially at small intersection or small turn. Some people just do not know how to give in or wait for a short while to create an opening for cars who wanted to make a turn or cross when the car in front of them cannot moved. If they hadn't blocked that opening, at least, somebody get to move instead of everyone get stucked. Not that the car who wanted to turn (tu) or cross will cut their queue pun!
This one - I have to be at the one who wants to turn - with the conversion, I can make a sandwich out of the cars who block the intersection.

I am consciously trying to remember and not be the car whom somebody want to bulldozed into.

It Just Dawned on Me...my kids!

My kids! I just realized how big they are now. That will also translate to ..me supposedly will have to be busy for the next following years, starting from this year. Why? Thanks to the current education system, I will have one national exam after the other, for the next few years...

Well, to begin with, in this year, 2009 - Anis who is 12 will sitting UPSR&PSRA;
Then 2010, Aina will in Form 3 and will take PMR;
By the time Aina is done, Ahmad will turn 12 in 2011 and will need to sit for UPSR&PSRA (I dont think they plan to abolish the exam just yet in 2011), oh! Alif will start Standard 1 in this year as well;
Then, 2012, Aina and Anis - both of them will need to sit SPM and PMR while at the same time, early of the year, we'll get busy getting new school for Ahmad;
Alhamdulillah, we'll get a breather in 2013 before going back to exam year again in 2014 with Anis taking SPM and at the same time Ahmad will take his PMR....

ahhh...alhamdulillah Alif is 5 years apart with Ahmad...ideally, having children 2 years apart, is a good spacer - for having children only la... But on the other hand, when they're all grown up and schooling, this is what we're going to have to go through - blessing in disguise, in a way. It'll keep both mummy and daddy busy, if they choose to. I don't know if I am going to be fussy when the children is going to take PMR. But for UPSR -- alaa...I think that is not really a big deal, dont force or pressure them too much, let them learn their lessons on their own. Not a good approach huh? At least it gotten DH angry with the results that Aina got for her UPSR last time - not really because of the results, but the attitute that she shows and how me, as a mother do not spend enough time to make sure that she did what she was supposed to do. But in the end, Alhamdulillah, things still turn out ok for her... as I said to him, mesti ada hikmah why Allah did not give Aina 5As -- if she had gotten the 5As and Mumtaz in PSRA, she might not ended up in IQKL and if she had gotten into JAIS school, she will not be doing the Huffaz program...ya da ya da ya da.. Things turn out as Allah had plan it to be :-)

Getting to Know Jalan Sultan Ismail during Traffic-Mare

~6pm : Reached Bukit Bintang traffic light and cross to get on Sultan Ismail

6:20pm : Still in the middle of the cross road and slowly inching to position my car on properly on Sultan Ismail

6:46pm: Just managed to cross Jalan Raja Chulan. I think at least 3 monorails had pass by overhead.
6:54pm: Underneath the monorail station. I've gotten 2 cars trying to sneak in front on me from the left. Let them in and they move all the way to the far right lane and slowly dissappear from my sight.

7:04pm: Finally passed Crowne Plaza monorail station and only realized that it's not a 4-lane road. I was actually in the middle of lane 2 & 3. Far left was actually self-made car park from some inconsiderate convenient people.

7:13pm: Hooray! I've moved about 400 meters in 10 minutes. Some achievement!
7:33pm: My pedometer still read 51.4 as it did at 7:13pm. I sure hit on accelerator but the meter didn't show like the car moved. Man! Less than 100m in 20 minutes.
7:44pm: Finally, 51.5 - moved another 100m after another 10 mins. Now l learnt that KFC has their own Wisma KFC on Jalan Sultan Ismail. A building as tall as Shangri-La.
7:49pm: Now, I get to move another 100m. There's Restoran Jepun Munakata and Restoran Seoul OK selling Korean BBQ opposite Wisma KFC (which is still ahead of me).

8:00pm: I finally reached the intersection to Petronas Twin Tower, infront of me was Shangri-La. I think its Jalan P.Ramlee. It was packed jam, no way I can cross the street without being inside the yellow box at the next green. Cars coming into that side of the road from all over - left, right, front and u-turn cars.

8:13pm: I had moved almost 1km now. Situations gotten slightly better. I saw traffic police now. Just realize that I didn't turn on the headlight - well the road was all lighted and it was still daylight just now, wasn't it? I had reached Sheraton by now and still queuing at traffic light.

8:18pm: Finally reached Maju Junction Mall intersection

8:30pm: Since it was a long queue to go into Jln Kuching heading to Jln Duta, I choose to go through Jalan Parlimen and now gotten stuck at the roundabout - is it Dato' Onn Roundabout? I dont know if I should go back through Damansara or Jalan Duta at this point...but I dont trust the traffic anymore even if it is clear - it may be bad just before I know it.

I finally hit Jln Duta tol at 8:52pm and reached home at 9:15pm. What a long drive. Nasib baik Allah gave me the excuse from solat - otherwise, don't know how to manage solat on the road.

A Long Detour to get to Shah Alam

It was drizzling, left over from an earlier heavy rain. I finished the training and group discussion at about 5:30pm and hit the road some 10 -15 minutes later. About 1/2 km into Jalan Tun Razak (TAR) from Jalan Pinang, the traffic was at stand still, non-moving. Several cars started to make a U-turn. I weighed my decision - to follow suit or stay on. After about 15 minutes, didn't look like it would get any better and it would still be a long crawl once I hit Jalan TAR heading towards Jln Duta. So, I decided to make a turn near Prince Court with my phone GPS turned on as guide in case I made wrong turn. I found my alternative route and head towards Jalan Sultan Ismail. I thot this'll be a shorter and faster route with less play on brake and accelerator since it's gonna be just waiting at traffic light and go.

Well, I was wrong. It was clear traffic from Jalan Pinang to Conlay to Bukit Bintang. But upon reaching the traffic light at the Bukit Bintang - Sultan Ismail intersection, the TRAFFIC-MARE begun! The traffic light, I think had turned greed at least 3 times on my side and I was still slightly three quarter at the cross junction - not really out of Bukit Bintang and not really in Sultan Ismail either. The situation didn't get any better even with cars behind started hitting on the hon - as it it'll the car to move!

I sure had a lot of things accomplished in the car in my bid to go home using my alternative route.

1) Luckily, I was equipped with entertainment ready - got to read few stories on Lydia Teh's Honk if You're Malaysian. Ironically, the chapters that I got to read talked about Malaysia driver!
2) Bored with reading and always have to look up just in case I get to move forward, I started to look around - what are the other drivers doing in a time like this? One guy was nose picking ..gross! and in another car, the lady kind of slump close to the driver, getting cuddly even when there's another passenger behind them. And there's smokers who just continue to smoke. Motorcycle snaking their way through the cars..
3) With the OST from Boys Before Flowers playing on the CD player, I took out the note pad from hotel and started to clock my movement.....

Well, one thing I learn for sure -- don't change route in a bad traffic day. It won't make much different anywhere as long as you're still in KL. It might be worse on the alternative route. I reached home at 9:15pm. Sure beat the 3-hrs stuck on Federal Highway due to rain that I experience once upon a time, years years ago.

How Would you React...

We went to MPH yesterday and let the kids bought books to their hearts' contents (well, almost!) since the whole store is on sale.

Before we finalize the sale, either Azlin or myself would give a stamp of approval on books that the kids can buy. It stumped me when I saw a book titled "Panduan Bercinta dan Berdating" on Aina's hand. Felt like laughing out loud in the store when she tried to justify the purchase with statement "I want to to show it to my friends to give them some sense - so that diaorang sedar". Maybe that was just an excuse? She's been off-boys all these years, ever since she started school. Hmm...what's going on?

When My 4.5 yrs old Boy Went Missing...

It was supposed to be a good outing day...Alif was the only child at home. Anis and Ahmad went for their leadership camp in Banting and Aina had some extra class and couldn't come back for outing. Alif hadn't been out of the house all the days that I went to JB for work - so, he cut school again coz Azlin was not sure of his schedule to be able to pick himup on time from school.

So, we went out for breakfast at Kopitiam near our house ... then to Giant to buy some rations for Aina. After we're done shopping, while paying at the cashier, Alif took the chance to play with the kiddie rides. We let him play for awhile and while waiting, I went to look at some products near the newstand. The next thing I know he's no longer there and so was our shopping cart, so, Azlin must have been successfull persuading him to go back. I thought that they must have been back to the car, so, I walked straight to the car, the same route we went in. When I couldn't find them at the car, I called Azlin, and he informed me that they're at playground - very brief and precise, just a 3 sentence conversation and I walked back into the store.

The moment I saw Azlin, he was already kind of panicky, and just mouthed Alif...I turn around and started looking. Running up and down and still couldn't find him. We went out to the exit doors - of course, different doors, we split - a couple of times to make sure that he didn't go out. I keep on praying to Allah - please let us find our child. Don't let him go missing on us. How could he have gone missing, with just split seconds - while Azlin was answering my call with only few words muttered? In the end, I went back to the middle exit and asked the workers who were there to look out for Alif - small boy with short hair and wearing yellow shirt with short. Just after I had finished describing him, the girl pointed out Alif , "tu tu kak!". He was walking briskly, which was not usual of him, he's usually like to run, and seems to be talking to himself or maybe singing? And after I shouted his name, he turned around and walked coolly towards me before I hugged him and scold him and asked him where did he go all at once. We stayed there, hugging each other, for few more minutes while I called Azlin to let him know that I've found Alif. Alif was very calm. He didn't cry at all - it was mummy who about to cry.

When we're back in the car, we had reflected the situation back. Alif was trying to get his turn at the playground and Azlin sat/stand watching him at near dunkin donut. Then he took my call, the moment he put back the phone on his belt, he couldn't see Alif and he looked at all the children at the playground before he realized that Alif is no longer there. That was the time he start panicking and look for Alif outside the playground and met me when I was just about to reach there....

Lesson learnt:
1) Never stay too far away from the child when they're playing - it's important for the child to know where you are, just as important that you keep an eagle eye on his whereabout. This happen coz Alif couldn't see his Abah, and he said he went to look for Abah and for the car. Luckily he didn't think well enough to go look at where we parked the car, otherwise, it would have been worse. I thought of that too...
2) Need to reiterate every time we're going to the public to make sure the kids remember that they're to stay put at where they're supposed to be and not go around outside the compound to look for us - in case they can't see us -- but could a 4 yrs old understand and remember this?
3) I thought of puting on bracelet or necklace with our numbers on Alif - if we are to go out again. Dont know if this is good idea or not - but Alif disagree. He just smiled and shake his head and said those are for girls only!

I pray that this will never happen again. Alif is maybe forbidden to follow us to Giant Sec 13, Shah Alam until he is bigger ... much bigger - or maybe we just dont go there anymore is we have Alif with us - too much distraction!