Life Update

There's so many topics for me to blog but until now .. you know la. I want to continue the story of my life pun tak terbuat. Anyway...here's some update

1) Its almost 3 months now .. Kak Su, my live-in helper will be returning from her hometown this Sunday night. Semoga Allah permudahkan. Can't believe that I had survived without a helper for almost 3 months already. Of course, most of the housework was done DH, but hey, I did my share too... I was gonna blog about what happen when she wants to go back to Indonesia about 3 months ago, it was kinda funny. Maybe I will, much much later...

2) Aina has finished her PMR. And is now back in her school in IQKL, Taman Tun. She extended her PMR leaves for another week by banging her feet and broke her nail :( I can still hear her scream in the clinic when the Dr gave her the anaesthetic shot on her 2nd toes. It was 4 shots, I think. She got to continue with her Hafazan, the last 'tasmik' was 5 or 6 months ago. Her request to learn Japanese language during the weekend has been rejected by DH .. the time is not suitable.

3) Anis is having her final exam now. She has been so so.. into the Korean language. Unfortunately there is no class available for her. I taught her a bit, then she took my book, and my dictionary and then continue learning the language online. Hmm... her interest in studying has reduced a bit though she did claimed that she studied, enough. We'll see. We need to get her transfers to SAMTAJ next year, and this final year exam result is one of the tool to get her accepted , if she does well....

4) Ahmad... still get hungry soon after meal. He needs to lose weight, much more now so that he can be faster while playing soccer. Favourite past time now. Soccer in PS2, soccer shows in TV, soccer everyday after school and now we send him to soccer club every Sunday. It is run by ex-Malaysian player, very dedicated group of coaches, teach out of interest. Now, he wants to alternate his Tae Kwan Do with soccer instead of taking on the TaeKwanDo at different center. We don't want him to stop now .. he's doing so well in TaeKwanDo - red belt now. Study wise - he asked for Math tuition pulak. He's already on BM and Science. BM because he needs it, Science because he likes it. He was ok on his own with Maths, but lately ni, dah menurun prestasi dia. Anyway, I told him I'll think about it, plus I don't know any Math teacher yet for him. He didn't manage to get highest score in final exam this year and had in passing said, "tak payah la pergi Ihtifal this year"... much to his Kakak's dissapointment.

5) Alif .. we just talked with his Taska teachers yesterday. Anak manja tu.. He has shown tremendous improvement in the 2nd half of the year, but he is still slow to pick up new lessons. More because of focus -suka khayal. Main feedback was .. he needs a one to one lesson to excel. His good friends are mostly kids that are nice, no troublemakers. Almost never got punished for any wrong doings, and most of the time speak English in school and keep reminding his friends to speak English. So much so, that he had problems with his Bahasa. Well, speaking is not much of a problem, more on the grammar. He did direct translation in some phrases. Did not know Mango and Grapes in Bahasa and had his sentences arrange wrongly.... one funny thing that i recall, he spelt "daun" as "dawun" - that's how he pronounce "daun" anyway. At 6, masih pelat a little bit when he speaks in Bahasa.

Dancing Shoes

For my line dancing friends....some of the designs available

Colors and materials that you can choose ... sikit je yang I display kat sini.

Ajun's Shoes ... (material - N1)

Growing Up in Kampung Bharu (Kg Baru)

* This entry .. and all under this tag is dedicated to my children... who were always curious about my stories in the old days. Of course, friends, you're welcome to read too:)*

I was born in HKL - Hospital Kuala Lumpur, formerly known as GHKL (General Hospital Kuala Lumpur). The first in the family born in KL. My elder brothers and sisters were all born in either Besut/Jertih or Kuala Terengganu. So, technically I can be called "orang KL" but I am also recognized by the State as "Anak Terengganu" since my parents are from there ...

My father (arwah in Jul 1992) was transfered to KL in 1969 and it was a hassle for my mom (Che') with 4 school going children to go back to Terengganu. Between my brother (Pok Awi) and me, there's a 5 years gap and 2 years for every other brothers & sister except for my eldest (Che' Long). So, I was born in KL and raised initially in Kg Baru - which is now, I think spelled as Kampung Bharu.

My father rented a single story house, which linked 3 houses together. Our house was on the far left if you're facing the house. It came with 2 bedrooms with a long living room. The dining room which was at the back of the 2nd bedroom was converted into a room - for the boys (Pok Awi & Pok Mil). There's only curtains used as divider. Since the living room was long, my father converted one third of it as another room for the big boys (Pok Din & Pok Mal). The other 2 thirds were used as dining and TV areas. You can see from the sketch below how it was... this is about as much as I can remember. I lived in this house from the time my parents took me back from Hospital until I was 9 going to 10 years old .. we moved during school holiday after I had finished my standard 3 -- so, that would be in 1979. About 10 years in that house.

As long as I can remember, we always have relatives living with us in that house. You see, I think, we're probably the only relatives who lived in KL. So, whenever any of our relatives from Terengganu had business in KL, our house would be the place for them to overnight. We also had young ladies relatives - close or distance, or their friends who were either studying or working sharing the room with my sister (and I). Well, maybe with my sister first. I moved our from my parents' room when I was going to be 7, I think. Must be about that age. I remember being in the room with my sister when I started school.

Life in Kg Baru was fun and hectic for young kids like me in those old days. I woke up early every day. First thing to do, always, after waking up is to take a bath. Rule of thumb at home was, no bath, no breakfast = no food (you see kids - how lenient I am with you!). Yes, no food, even if you'd brushed your teeth:) After breakfast is always play time when it isn't school day.

My "playgroup", depends on my mood on that day, may range from as close as across the drain neighbor, near "gomen paip" (government's water tap) neighbor or "madrasah" neighbor. There were few others - like those near the place where I went for my quran or near the shops.

Most of the time, I'll play with children within the 1km area of my house. I had big pool of friends to play with, so , I never ran out of friends. Can't recall much what I've on those days. It's normally from morning till late evening. Seldom I went back home for lunch, that's why I was skinny when I was a kid. There's no computer or console games yet in that mid 70's. I think we played congkak, "teng teng" (?Hop-scotch?), konda-kondi, galah panjang and of course, the legendary "masak-masak" (?house play?).

Galah panjang was one of my favourites, we don't have much space for this near our houses, so, normally my friends and I will go near our Sek Agama Rakyat at Jalan Raja Muda Musa, I think, and play galah panjang at the playground compound behind the school. It's about 10-15 minutes walk from our houses. We used the sepaktakraw/volleyball court as our base to play with. No need to draw the lines ourselves. Of course, most of the time, my team will win. In those good old days, there's not much games you can play with by yourself. Most of the games are team games, need a number of people to play with, otherwise it wouldn't be much fun. The same games were played during our P.E. session (you call it Pendidikan Jasmani @ school now).

When we played masak-masak, we don't have those fancy plastic utensils that children nowadays play with. We collected the piece of tin covers from cans. And for cups, maybe some cups that were thrown, or coconut shells or we made it ourselves from thick leaves. I cannot recall exactly which one used the most. One of my friends will have blades for us to cut the leaves - part of our cooking rituals. These leaves are everywhere - several colors, but mostly green and shape. We can take without making the owners mad - there's also many that grown wild. Sometimes we took the leaves from shrubs until it grew bald, and nobody cared!...

* to be continued*.....

Thinking of the Mockingjay

I had just finished reading the final book of the trilogy The Hunger Games. The story still lingers in my head since this afternoon - right, finished the last few pages in the office, during lunch break! Can't wait any longer - tak tahan! Yea, that's right, I pre-ordered the book online via MPH. It was supposed to be released on the 24th Aug and on the 25th, the book arrived but due to the courier issues and there's no one home to receive the book, I only get the book on the 28th. Nevertheless, it was worth the wait for me. Of course, I had to give way to Aina who was home for the long weekend the privilege to read it first. But while she was reading it, I did stole a few chapters when she took a nap or when she did other than reading or holding on to the book. And finally, I got to read it on Sunday the 29th.

Aina was a bit disappointed with the endings, a bit simple, unsatisfactory. And she demand a continuation, a 4th book! But hey, you can't have the story goes on and on. There's no more hunger games to play and the victors are all scarred and lived with nightmares that was the side effects from the live games and the aftermath.

For those of who who wants to know the story line - read here - http://ulatbukuinthecity.blogspot.com/2010/01/hunger-games.html . This blog gave a good summary of the first book. It really is an entertaining book. Somewhat predictable but with lots of surprise elements as well. I can really feel the bonds that was built between the 2 main characters - Katniss and Peeta, throughout the story. Catching Fire - that's the 2nd book of the trilogy even more engaging which brought the bonds between Peeta and Katniss stronger. The ending of Catching Fire clutched my heart and made me want to read more - can't really wait for the Mocking Jay to appear. I had to wait over 2 months for that. The Mocking Jay was full of war and strategy and gruesome ending of lifes. The twist in Katniss's character is a little bit disappointing but not enough to make you put down the book. She is still the strong , willful girl and full of fights.

Anyway, if you love futuristic , adventure, technology, thriller and a little bit of romance in a story book - this is the series for you to read. It is meant for young adult, but for an "old lady" like me, I can still appreciate them:)

Astro and Rain

Rain is still affecting Astro's broadcasting ability ... yea, with advance technology and Beyond... it still matters. Though with Beyond, it is not as bad. Anyway, Alif, the 6 yrs old, understands this very much. And this knowledge is the essence of his foundation whenever there is bad reception on the TV .. until one day...

We were driving back and Alif's watching a movie on the portable DVD. It was raining quite heavily. And the scratched cd starts giving the breaking sound and what's not. It wasn't showing well on the portables. And Alif starts saying ... "ala hujan"

Me: "Why hujan (rain)?"

Alif: "Memang la, kalau hujan (of course, if it rains), the pictures will be bad"

Me: "No la, it's not because of the rain, its the CD. It must be scratched coz you didn't keep it properly"

Alif: "No, you're wrong Ummi...if it rains, the pictures always go bad. We just wait. It'll get better."

Me: ???@@# -- whatever

The Hunger Games

I've been drawn into the Hunger Games trilogy...by my daughter Aina. It was .. really really amazing! It didn't look interesting at first but as Aina enticed me into reading it, I had built an expectation. And it didn't let me down. I got drawn into the 2nd book, which I think I finished in a day! And now, can't wait for the Mocking Jay which will come out in the USA and Canada and must be the UK -- on Aina's birthday, Aug 24th. Are they gonna have a pre-order thing in Malaysia too?

Year 1 - 2011

A new islamic integrasi school was built and has started operation since Jun last year. It was very near to our house, less than 5 minutes drive with smooth crossing over the going to be busy street going out of our housing area. As usual, to enter any Islamic Integrasi school, there'll be entrance exam. We had registered Alif who was born in 2004 for that school and now, he has to take and pass the entrance exam, scheduled on 29 May at 0830hrs.

29 May -- 0800hrs
We, Alif and I, arrived to the school. The letter said, to be there by 8am. And the letter said, there won't be any further notice, we're just to go to the school as stated on the exam card (that was given once you registered). So, I parked in front of the school compound, outside the gate. There were 2 cars already there. There's like no life at all inside the school compound. Didn't look like there's anything going on. Hmm... wait awhile.. Aa... there' s someone coming out from the school compound just as I alighted from the car. He asked what's going on.. and there's more cars coming. By then, there's at least 5 cars in front of the school. I told him about the exam. Then he mentioned that as far he knows, it has been postponed. He's just a canteen guy, went to the school to pick up his catering stuffs. Good thing that he got the sense to straight away contact the headmistress who told him that it is postponed to Jun 19 and that JAIS had already sent letters to inform the new date. She didn't sound friendly at all from the one-sided conversation that I heard -- "suruh diaorang balik". Well, of course, we have to go back , but that kind of tone, I don't like it at all. Maybe it's just the catering guy punya words, I shouldn't judge her from another person's mouth.
Anyway, I left. And I guess the others left as well.

1 June
I finally remember to bring the registration letter to office to enable me to make the call to JAIS to confirm. And to give my peace of mind since I didn't get the letter. But guess what, the number given in the letter - "Penyelia Integrasi" with office phone number turns out to be bogus number. The operator announced "telah ditamatkan perkhidmatan". Cannot be... I dialed again, same reply. Then I called the number given for the school. Both are handphone numbers. The first number brought me straight to voice message. The second number was answered by a lady, who turned out to be the headmistress herself.

So, I asked to confirm that the exam was indeed postponed and to confirm on the new date. I told her I went to the school last Saturday only to find out that there's no exam.
Her answers was -- (in Malay) - "We had send letter to all about the new date".
Well, I said, I didn't get the letter.
Then she said, "Was the address you give correct or not? We had sent to all 250 candidates already". Her tone was like annoyed, irritated. She then gave the school number and telling that this the the Gurubesar's number.
Like I shouldn't be calling the Gurubesar ke?
So then, I was, short of being a little bit rude, which later I mildly regret it (actually, kind of not) ... I said, "Puan Gurubesar, saya TIDAK terima surat, sebab tu saya pergi sekolah last Saturday. Of course, saya bagi alamat betul. Sekarang nak confirm je, tarikh baru."

Oh well... when the letter send was not received, was it always the fault of the person who give the address? There's many reason it could get lost on the way and if the address was written wrongly, it could also be the person who re-wrote the address on the envelope make a mistake. I had instances where my neighbor's letter down the road had gotten into my mailbox.

She could have just apologize first that the postponement caused this trouble to the parents, and give confirm the new date, instead of first trying to put the blame back on the parent! In the first place, she should have expected that some letters may get lost, arrived late and so many other possibilities that the intendees may not received it - then, the school could have taken the initiatives to put a notice on the gate to inform the change of plan. But no, nothing of that happen. I was already biased on my perception of the school when I visited it last year for Ahmad to transfer there. With this, it added on to the not-so-good perception. But because it was so near, and so convenient to send Alif there, I'll give it another chance la.....maybe it'll improve ...hmm...

Kids and Asrama

I used to have this need to get away from home and getting into boarding school was a way ...years ago, once upon a time. I didn't get to go one, though I tried. When I was 12, on my own, I went to the Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah (District Office for Education?) to appeal so that I can get into one. My Penilaian Darjah 5 (Standard 5 Assessment) results was not excellent, but good enough, I think. But they wanted my Dad to do it and my Dad won't. He told me that an appeal is not appropriate, you got to get in on your own merit. I worked hard for SRP and gotten excellent results, but still no offer. It was the time when priority was given to rural kids. Anyway, I got into TI Penang which has boarding facilities and after going through such experience decided now, that for my kids, 13 is still too young for boarding school - not if I can help it. Azlin agreed with me, even so since he went to RMC at 13 and experienced the full scope of it.

Anyway, that was our hope. It clashes with what we had decided for our children, though. We wanted them to stay in religious stream, and its what they wanted too but choices are limited. Aina had to stay at full boarding school. Since she wanted to study Al-Quran, there's no other choice. Anis on the other hand, worked hard for her UPSR so that she can stay at home! She saw what big sis missed, and she decided that home is better. She aimed for SAMTAJ at Sect 11 Shah Alam. But with JAIS restructuring the school allocation, she was offered Hisamuddin, Klang. It is still near to our house, but totally out of the way. Transport is an issue. Since the school ends at 2:30pm, neither of us can pick her up on time. We applied for the dorm just in case. And she got the offer. Just when her friend's mom who stayed at Bukit Jelutong offered ride home, she decided to try out the dorm.

Anis - registration day

So, that was that. Initially she was adapting well. Food was good, according to her. But it was really really busy. Said she didn't have much free time. After 1st exam, she started complaining. Didn't have enough time to study, too much activities and then come the food was bad, room was hot, etc. etc.. The caterer keep on serving fish and sometimes the fish was bad. No more her favourite soy sauce - kicap habhal. Other word - she's not happy there. It's May and we had to start looking at options again.

SAMTAJ was the first option - it's about the same distance but at least it is in the same area - Shah Alam, so, looking for transport would be less challenging. Unfortunately, when I visited the HEM Teacher, she can't accept anymore transfer students. The classes there are too full and advised me to try again year end by going straight to JAIS. Whatever. Azlin told me to try using the best student things to get her accepted, sure the school wants to get best student in. But that was different. That was primary school. She hasn't proven much in her current secondary school.

Since, SAMTAJ is out, at least for this year, we started looking for other options. Azlin asked me to pick her up early on Friday she got to spend the weekend at home. Go and ask every single bus or van waiting for students there, if any would be willing to send her back home. Fat chance! Not a good option since the school ends early on Friday and that'll mean I have to miss my Quran lessons.... actually, I don't think I am up to that task. More because of circumstances which I do not want to delve here.

We asked Anis to do her homework also - in looking for potential transport home since she wouldn't want to consider going back with her classmate from Bukit Jelutong. Sending her to school can still be worked out, just a little time sacrifice. Finally, she gotten me the contact of another friend who also stays within our home's vicinity and I had made contact. Alhamdulillah, it looks positive. I'm sure Anis will call me back the next day for reports. She was really looking forward to moving out from her dorm. That means, this coming Friday, I had to do the admins and physical work to move her out officially from her dorm.

I am so looking forward to have my daughter back home again:) For the company and also.. ehem...to help me out in the kitchen. At least when my helper goes back to her country for her long holiday, there'll be someone who I can depend on to look after the boys.

(ps: Pix above - Anis with her Tokoh Murid trophy which we got to keep for a whole month before returning it back)

Unifi at 2 and a Half Storey House

We just gotten ourselves into the so-called fast lane, virtually - the high speed broadband service, by Telekom as well. My streamyx is still on. Unifi is in together with streamyx - at least until they start charging the service or until we can decide which one we want to keep.

The installation, because it was the first time in our area and our house being the first one in the area getting this service, took hours to complete. They need to do a little bit of hacking at our ground floor to kind of connect to the Telekom port outside. Inside the house, it's just using the electrical line to distribute the signal (if I got this right). The team started work at 10am and didn't finish until 8pm! So many unforeseen and technical issues. They still have to come back another day to fix the IPTV issues.

The premise is 5MB with Unifi compared to 512kb that I am having with streamyx. But for a house as tall as ours: (it is supposed to 2.5 but it is almost like 3.5 storey with its high ceiling and all), was a challenge to get the performance at its peak. So, the main port is plugged in at the lowest end of the house, and then we have the adapter port with wifi router is placed at the boys room at the back side of the house on floor 3.

Verdict: Signal was mediocre and speed was acceptable. Speed test showed somewhere around 2.6-3K MB from the my bedroom - also at floor 3 and distributed evenly within the room on the top floor. If we put the adapter and router at the living room on 2nd floor, the signal is stronger and speed wise, you can get up to 4.8k MB for download speed and more than 5K MB for upload speed. That was awesome actually. The downside of it, signal and speed was much lower than streamyx at the boys and girls room at the back of 3rd floor. So, to be fair, the secondary port (adapter) was placed backed at the boys room. Sacrifice the speed a bit, it was still good though comparatively. Friends, when I watch the online korean drama at any channel, it is still real-time. I don't have to wait for it to load for hours. Just at a click, after few seconds the movie will run without a glitch. Of course, if the server hosting it is also ok-la. Youtube has an even better response. Downloading thing is very much time efficient.

So, the next thing to figure out is how we can place the secondary port to the 2nd floor, which is closer to the main line at the ground floor and have the router at 2nd floor talk to another signal device (which I have no idea what that is - all depends on dear hubby) so that it can boost the signals and performance at the 3rd floor. Oh, the service comes with IPTV. But so far, we haven't used that one yet. They hasn't resolve the small screen issues, plus it has to go with the router, so, that's troublesome. Astro is still the preferred provider for now. I think, higher chances, actually definitely we will stick with Unifi.

I am thankful that at least we have high speed services for the consumers now, even though at limited areas. I used to bitch about even China has high speed broadband - a friend of mine says at 8MB lagi. It was a good move the government made to promote and make this happen. I hope Telekom will not mess this up and continue to provide services with quality. I am glad that Shah Alam is one of the 4 areas that they (Unifi) started to cover. And I am glad that I live in Shah Alam to see that happen:) ha ha.. soon, I will say goodbye to streamyx - tak payah nyanyi potong lagi... the fiber optic is on!

The Darndest Thing Again

Where do kids learnt all the phrases that they utter? Family? TV? Friends? Teachers? Maybe, and maybe books. My not-reading-yet going-to-be-6 year old son, Alif said this to me just now...

"Mummy, when you're older and your husband die and you're old too and cannot move anymore, can you give all your money to me?"

What triggered this comment?

He was watching transformer toys demo in youtube and loves the toys sooo much and keep on bugging me to watch to so that I'll be convinced that they are good toys and get them for him...so, I said, that needs lots of money which you haven't earned yet...yes, that triggers his comment after much sighing and whining on how good the big transformer toys are, especially Optimus Prime.

Where did he learn this, I ask....and his famously consistent answer was ... "I think it all by myself!"

PhD? Maybe...maybe not

To do or not to do? I work in the field where mastery of technical and vast knowledge is a requirement to succeed. From day one, after graduation, I had ventured into the field of Industrial Hygiene also known as Occupational Hygiene in most countries. I went in by chance -- its the job offered to a fresh grad who didn't really know what she's getting into. Acceptable as long as the job was within vicinity of the town I lived and pay was good:)

Anyway, I had 2 choices if I choose to continue locally. A little bit of a background... continuing education in the field as specific as Industrial/Occupational Hygiene in Malaysia at any level, is not possible now. There is none offered yet. Maybe demand is not high... most of my colleagues went to UK or USA for their Masters and stopped there. So far, no academician that I know of pursue this field for their doctorate degree... well, somebody told me, just recently 1 UKM staff now, doing her PhD in this field in Australia.. Anyway, going abroad is not a choice due to family reasons (and also career reason). My choices if I were to try and do a PhD in Malaysia are:
1) take the general PhD from UiTM or UPM - not specific to IH but can be a related study in the science field. Be prepared to be totally independent (I heard this is expected for a PhD candidate) and maybe for help or advise, I have to get it from my own external network. or...
2) Wait...few more years maybe, the program will be offered in Malaysia. Who knows, the current project with UiTM that I am working on with my colleagues will materialized, and we will have post-graduate course in this field and thus..more research available in Malaysia...very ambitious of us actually.

If I were to pursue this ... lotsa things I guess, I have to sacrifice, if I were to start on this within this 1 or 2 years...
1) Reduce or totally stop the pleasure of watching TV especially the Korean drama series that I enjoyed so much :(
2) Maybe quit the Korean Language course that I am in currently. And this relates to number 1 actually. Watching the drama helps me with listening practice (ha ha!).
3) I will have to switch from more pleasure readings (novels of course) to little pleasure readings and more academics, text and journals reading ... ahhh..
4) What about family? vacation? what do I have to sacrifice?
5) Maybe at some point, I have to take unpaid leave or work part time only? Can I afford it?

At this age... I don't know if I still have the physical and mental power to do hard study. This is actually part of my "retirement" plan though. To teach/lecture. And to do this, I need to have that academic qualification. I do not plan to work full time till retirement age...hopefully, when the family is financially stable with enough savings, I will not need to work full time. Part-time lecturing is something that I look forward to ...

To do or not to do...? *sigh*....

Kembali Senyum

Phew...many moons has passed. My head has been itchy with so many topics to write and share but my hands are a bit slow to respond...thus, the long silence. Alas, here I am, back to this blog....

While driving back home today, I had song collections played on the CD player. Alif requested for the song "Kembali Senyum" by Izwan Pilus, adapted from a popular song from korean drama Full House. That's one of his favourite, he said. And he continue to sing along in his own way:) I asked:

"This is a love song... so, who do you love?"

"I just like the song, mummy", he said, avoiding the subject.

Ok, I didn't push for it and sang with him...

Then he said.."Can you keep it down, I'm trying to to listen!"

Wow...this kid! So, I asked, "why, Ummi nyanyi tak sedap ke.."

After a short pause he said..."uhuh..."

I say.....ala, memang nyanyi tak sedap pun , saja memancing, maybe he'll be back to his sweet talking but didn't mean it:)

Well...this is Alif's rendition of Kembali Senyum while on the plane ride to Seoul last year...he hummed the song while having it played on abah's device.

Camera For Sale

I have this whole set of Canon EOS 400D digital camera with lens 18-55mm which I bought about a year ago. It is still in very good condition. I've asked a camera shop on its value and he gave me about RM1,500. That's just the camera and its body. On top of that I have the Canon telephoto IS (Image Stabilizer) lens which is about RM600 value now. And Nissin flash gun made for Canon which value for about RM500.

All these are for sale, of course, price is still negotiable. If you take the camera - I'll throw in the camera bag, tripod and the 2GB CF Card (SanDisk). And the guide book on Canon EOS400D which I bought at MPH.

Interested? email me at wansabrina@yahoo.com for further contact:)