Wow .. How the week whizzed by this time around !

I have no clue where Monday went, or Tuesday twinkled out, or Wednesday whizzed by or Thursday flapped away.

But am just glad that today is Friday.

It’s one of those rare weekends I can just sit around and just wind down.  Well, not too comfortable cos I have a Birthday cake to do a 5th year old birthday boy Saturday morning.

Letsee.  He’s a Transformer’s fan.  Well, who isn’t eh?  Megan Fox is really hot, man!  If only I could have her tummy.  Dang!  Is that even possible?  Tummies that flexed and toned.

I digress.

He’s a Transfomers’ fan and I’ve gotten an edible image for it.  Now’s the cake.  I’m thinking an All-American Chocolate ButterCake, filled with Ganache and iced with Mousseline Buttercream.  Hmm.

Anyhow.  It’s Ariz & Adani’s year end concert this Sunday and they’re counting the days to it.  That excited!  Adani is always caught practising her dance moves and Ariz talks about some green sticks he’ll be dancing with.

Last night I was at the PC and a chat came through from Mimi, Aliya’s friend takking about her break up with an Azmirul.  Yikes !  Before I could type, does Aliya has a boyfriend, Aliya spooked me out!  Gosh!  She’s 11.  Boyfriends ?  I should be worried.

It’s only 10:31am and I’ve answered about 23 of Ayisha’s sms-es.  Thank God for free sms-es.  She has a spelling competition today and got cold feet and crying.  I made her go anyway but she could skip Ad-Daris this morning.

Then a series of messages about the meanings of the words in her list.  Enchanted.  Hexagon.  Analgue.  Emulsion.

There!

I should start planning for the weekend now.  MrGart is away at Bandung for a golfing session.  *seething*

Felt a little green this morning.  All is well, in the health department, alhamdulillah.  Just need to get out of this stuffy office and get some air and much needed new perpectives.  Haha.  I so understand how screw‘s felt before he left the company.  Err, maybe not entirely, but a good sum.

Anyhow.

This is what I have planned.

I need to pick up some edible image supplies from Arie at KLCC.  Maybe meet up with Mathu to pass some sampels.  I should really pick Cake Bible book for a neighbour.

What do I do for lunch?  Maybe I should call up Sarahpiss and Ken for a lunch date.  Hmm let’s have a think.

Then I think I’ll hop over this place called One Warehouse at Jalan Raja Botwhere apparently it has a huge selection of baking pans.  I’m hoping that they have a selection of cookie cutters too.   Then since I’ve heard about the great Bake With Yen outlet at ChowKit, I might as well drop by.

Stop right there!

2 weeks ago, an itinerary like this would require MrGart in the driving seat.

But heck no!  Not today.  I have this. *gloats*

Hah! MrGart finally got sick of me asking him for directions to EVERYWHERE for the umpteenth time that he got me this. I’m still in the process to start believing THAT voice that asks me to turn HERE and THERE. Somehow, I always ask, is this this turning or the next one. And almost always I’d miss the turn and then the voice would boom “RECALCULATING”. SOmetimes I detect some rejection in the voice.

Anyhow. I’m also shopping for a netbook/book. And I want this or this. Suggestion ?

From Razzle Dazzle Cookies

Traffic seems a little lighter these days and I’m so relieved! It’s the end of the year and people are taking their kids and parents and maids to Disneylands and Hong Kong and Bandung and wherever else my kids have been itching to go, that we have not gone before.

But the most important thing is that the traffic is lighter. Mega important since I’m a Just-In-Time person when it comes to clocking in at work. I can tell you this. The time between 8:00 t0 8:05 can be dissected into many time zones, the most popular and hectic is known an injury time.

Anyways. The whole point of the post is to tell you that I woke up late today at 6:44am and yet managed to swipe at 7:59am. Phew! Major relief!

Ooohh .. the baby pram cookie (see picture) are ordered by Noreen of Little Favors for her client’s cukur jambul.

Let me tell you this. I normally sketch my designs on paper and plan everything. I make a note of how many colours I need, how much flooding icing and how much piping icing. The bags and the box and the ribbons. Very well-planned, even I was impressed sometimes.

But nothing beats sitting in front of a tray of blank cookies with icing bag in hand and start to decorate. This is where the actual differs from the plan and sometimes it works and sometimes it sucks. But for the pram, I was mighty happy.

I’ve always struggled with the prams but I am so glad that the design took off. The ruffles by the side of the prams look contemporary. Hehhe! *feeling smug*

It’s Akma Akid’s 4th birthday and Arliza (who once has attended my Cookie Class) ordered a whole set of HAPPY BIRTHDAY AKMA AKID and an accompanying circus of dinosaurs an other less mean animals, like hippos, elephants and sheeps.

I think I’ll call this design Patchwork Alphabets.  Truth be told, before I jumped into this cookie-business, I was once and still am an accomplished quilter.  Okay okay!  5 quilts do not necessarily earn me the title.  So sue me!

Anyhow.  The alphabets gave me a reason to tinker with a huge box of alphabet cutters sitting on my shelf.   MrGart has already given up asking me about utilising things that I buy.  Yikes!

Truth be told too,  although the alphabet cookies were simple enough, I ran into a cookie disaster.  Seriously, ppl do get complacent.  I did.

You see, the white patch I did on every cookie, that turned out to be too thin and even after 6 hours of air-conditioning, it just won’t dry.  Not the whole cookie, just a little teeny-weeny patch.  I threw out the whole happy-ness and started again.  Alhamdulillah, the second round went well, except that I missed out one “H”.  *ampun*

These are a sheep that I did, using the rosettes to mimic its fleece.  I never liked black icing, feel that black on food seems a little sinister, so that explains my sheep has blue eyes.  hahaha.

The elephant.  Okay okay.  Maybe elephants have long, swishy tails instead of curly ones like a piglet’s.  Yikes!  Should really listen to my 4-yo Ariz then.  Sorry Arliza.

The place. Fina and Yus called me for a little “discussion” over roti canai this morning. I was already at the local eating place and said yes, promptly. So, they picked me up and out tummies had a discussion over some gas pipeline issues and we just discussed matters close at heart. Hahah.. Ye la tu!

The choice of kuah/gravy. Sometimes if you’re lucky, there’s tomato chutney too. Yummeh!

The best roti canai around. Seriously. The only snag is that it’s so small that even a small eater like me can rip apart 2 pieces and still can smile.

I don’t take hot drinks. Not in the mornings, not during pantangs, not during anytime at all. Hmm maybe during the coldest winter nights, I would, but in this hot tropical humid weather. I need ice! The more the merrier. So. I always, always wherever I go order a teh ais (ice white tea). Why tea when I’m such an avid fan? Simple. I’m saving my coffee quota of the day for my favourite Nescafe. An addict. I know. *hangs head in shame*

I’m not sure about you. But if you’re a parent and you have kids between the ages of say, 7 to 12, then I guess you’d be hit by this cube craze.

Apparently, it’s going around. Aliya reported that every *exaggerated obviously* kid in her school has one and is busy cube-ing. And she only wants the one from the pricey toystore .. the Toys R us.

I did try to accomodate her. But even the pricey toystore ran out of the cubes. Not just the one here at MidValley. Even the one at KLCC. Gosh! The only ones I could find was RM89.90. *eyes popping out*. You serious!! For a twisty cube? You’ve gotta be kidding me!

So, I googled around and found a cheaper option here at http://kids.net.com.my. MrGart hopped over and picked them up. Phew.

Anyhow. True enough, AFTER we’ve bought them, apparently there are shops nearer to my place that sell them, cheaper and closer. Hmmmpph!

This is the final post I did at my previous blog at http://gartgrowls.blogspot.com. I’m switching over to this blog permanently, insyallah.
———————————–
Dear fellow growlers,

Alhamdulillah, my blogging years have touched 5 long years and although I’ve changed platforms a few times and names too, from modblog to efx2, efx2blogs and wordpress and blogspot, it does not stop me from blogging.

Well, the rather sad part is that, I think I may need to just jump ship and abandon this blog and continue my blogging at blog.razzledazzlecookies.com . No particular reasons why.

Just that it gets hard to put up 2 different presences, one where I’m blogging as myself, unadulterated. And the other, the baker part of me. So, it’s time I guess, I realise that why 2 blogs ?

It’s the same me. I may bake, but I still pick fights with the tailgaters (in my dreamworld). I may decorate cookies but I still abashedly spill all about my misfortunes. Who can forget, the incident when I forgetfully and mistakenly left 2-year old Adani in the car under the hot afternoon sun ? And to you and you and you, who looks up to me as a benchmark of a Queen of Murphy’s Law, I still am me.

So, there. If it’s ain’t soppy yet, I don’t know what will. This is as soppy as Gartblue would ever get.

Conclusion. The layout of this blog is screwed and I’m jumping ship over to my blog. So, come with me and discover more mishaps.

Ideally, I would be writing about cookies, posting pictures of decorated cookies, ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

But nope.

Not this morning. I’m just gonna yak about the weekend of nothing by binge-ing on food and more food.

In my defense, it’s the last weekend for Syawal, the celebration month in Islam and it’s the last call for folks to hold open houses and next weekend, we all go back to cooking lunches and normal sunday lunches again.

So, Saturday, we had 2 open houses and funnily enough my first Laksa Johor this year. I didn’t have any the whole month, neither did people make them anymore. Funny! Then we hopped over to Mosh’s open house and Athyra’s birthday bash. My girls were holed up on Athyra’s big sister Alyssa’s room throughout the 2 hours we were there with their girlfriends and mummy and daddy had a blast cathing up with friends and food.

Sunday, was a bigger binge-ful day. The Bukit Jelutong masjid held an Open House and from experience, food would bejust excellent!

We had a table for the 3 hours and hardly moved, except to get more food. Haha. I think I had about 5 bowls of sweet cendol, a plate of the most scrumptious kuey tiow goreng and many many sticks of truly tender chicken and beef satay.

My twin, Nobita baked baked macaroni the way my mom would and although we kinda gate-crashed her house, we had a tupperware for dinner.

So there. I am guilty.

I’m still here, folks!

Just a little bit busy with .. what else, cookies!

I have a gazillion of pictures to upload and stories to tell. And most importantly, I have a new Cookie Boutique design which is about, but not quite ready to be live. Hence, the quiet.

Anyhow, this blog will be transferred to http://blog.razzledazzlecookies.com as the main address will be dedicated to the Razzle Dazzle Cookies Boutique.

So, you can still follow my rants and my disastrous.

Talking about disastrous. Even after more than 1500 cookies, I managed to have a disastrous night last night. I thought I should know how to make my icings to a T but NO! .. my white icing turned out too thin and after 5 hours of drying, my alphabet cookies were still wet, while their counterparts, the dinosaurs and dry and ready to pack!

Arghhh!!!

So, must start over tonight. *pulls hair out*

Anyhow.

Just a last minute annoucement.

The next Cookies Class will be held at Cake Connection next Saturday, the 24th October 2009 at 10:00 am till the 12:30pm. Last check, there are 8 confirmed students. Max is 10. So, hurry and register with CakeCOnnection.com.my.

In the meantime, I shall wallow in self-pity for my disastrous night. Haha.

Yikes!

Almost a month of not updating the blog. Gosh! I must have been in a daze.

*thinking of an excuse*

*thinking hard*

Ah well! No excuses, really. Just plain M-A-L-A-S !

Anyhow.

To recap the last month. Ramadhan is over quite uneventfully for us this time around. I wanted to focus on more of ibadah this Ramadhan hence the lack of anything else. Not even kuih raya or cookies.

Hari Raya was kinda muted. We spent the first Raya at my parents’ in Gombak and hopped over to Seremban where the rest of the clan congregated. We had a big family meeting in view of the looming crisis in the family and insyallah things are sorted out now. Unfortunately, we did not take a single Raya photos this time around. I wonder why.

2nd Raya to the 4th, we spent it at MrGart’s hometown.

Came home on Friday to a messy house and no maid and a 300 pcs of cookies to do. Alhamdulillah it workd out fine. Being without a maid means picking your battles. It’s okay to step on stegosauroses every few steps but at least they’re on the floor, not beneath a mound of dust. Eh ?

Anyhow.

Andes came home last Monday. Alhamdulillah. We are so blessed to have her with us for the past 7 years and although not without trials, we are better off than most. Insyallah. What I can say here is that, it’s hard to get a good maid, but to maintain a good one takes effort. Seriously!

My meeting at Danang, Vietnam on Tuesday was postponed due to Typhoon Ketsana and I am just thankful that the meeting was called off at the very last minute especially when I saw a picture of Danang, flooded this morning.

The Earth was indeed angry yesterday. I pray for the peoples of Indonesia, Samoa, American Samoa and the Ketsana stricken victims. Life indeed is a test.

Gambar hanya hiasan. Ariz, Adani & Ayisha in their super-hyper mood.

Wet, rainy season’s here, my friends.

And it rained super heavily last night, before iftar yesterday and more days before. Alhamdulillah. *must remember to make dua when it rains*

So, when it rains, you know what follows la kan. Leaks!

Gosh!

We have leaks. Inside, outside, tepi-side all sides.

We have them outside, nearly missing the shoe rack. We have them indoors too. There are 3 lines of leaks snaking down in my master bedroom’s wall. There are 2 more down in the upstairs living room. And there’s one near the PC. And in the girls’ room too. Arghh!!

I guess I have to resign to the fact that the house is rather in need of repairs. It’s 11 years old, mind you. Aliya was still toddling around when we moved in here. Now she never lets anyone touch her hair and she’ll myspace-ing away most free time.

And the girls for the past week have been jumping the gun on it, demanding to rearrange the sleeping partners. Aliya wants the room she’s sharing with Ayisha TO herself. Ayisha wants the same. Adani proudly declares that she’s not afraid to sleep by herself. And me, I woke up last night to a sound of something drop somewhere and immediately worried where the girls are.

Now they want to sleep in their own rooms by themselves. What happens to all sleeping in my our room? Why ? Why ? Why? *overdramatic mode*

I guess kids do grow, even if I’d like them to grow a little slower now, but I have to face the facts that they’d be needing privacy soon.

BUT GIRLS! CAN”T YOU JUST WAIT A FEW MORE MONTHS?

Grrr .. We’ve started to plan and get people in discussion on ideas for the Gart’sAbode1 and newly acquired Gart’sAbode2. And construction works ain’t starting at least after Raya.

And these girls have started shifting things around and memeningkan kepala Mummy.

Arghhh!!

Suffice to say, my office is a WRECK ! A sick building.

And what could be worse is that, it’s infested with rodents, in all manners, flying, crawling and balancing.

Let me count them all, just to sure that we qualify for a Petting Zoo criteria and maybe we should start charging fees too.

Cockroaches. Hmmm dah beranak-pinak dah. Tak kuasa nak kira.

Rats. One died in Bobby’s room next to mine and it reeked to no end. One’s been ransacking the pantry and I’m sure it’s like the Ratatuoille, you see one, there’s a whole clan somewhere.

About 2 weeks ago, we had a swarm of langaus in the office. Not the fast-evading lalats. These are at least 3 times the size of lalats and they are heavy and rather dumb too. We spent one morning swatting these and they’re mighty easy to swat. For some or another, although there were everywhere in my department, at the height of it, there seemed to me significantly more in my room. *shudder*

I freaked out. We closed the door and sprayed ridsect, by the bottle. And from the window, we all stood and watched them dropped dead. And shortly after, a band of cockcroaches came out dizzy and dead too. Sigh!

I came the next day with gloves and dettol and literally scrubbed the room down. It smelled like a hospital for the whole day.

Langaus don’t appear if nothing’s dead. And the last time the rat died, there werent’ any. So, I said, someone must’ve died, maybe the AKP assesors. Heh! But there was no smell. But we secretly thought and talked aloud too about the musang’s family that’s been plagueing the building.

Gina thought it died somewhere. By end of the week, the mom or dad, came to Gina’s place and shredded some papers under her table. Pee-Pee-A ke? Ni musti musang spy aI-Pee-Pee. Hehehe.

Anyhow, after a trip to kerteh, laden with keropok of all manners and shapes, Shabbir left his at the office, only to find the next morning, that it has been eaten by the musang. Fina spoke about her apple which cikmus ate and the pear which he left teethmarks on. Gina spoke too about seeing a long bushy tail balancing itself on the gypsum cubicles tops. *naik bulu roma*

So, this morning we were shocked to come to the office to the sight of a musang in a trap. The building maintenance guys fixed a trap, a specially ordered trap since these musangs are pretty nasty. And it’s the anak that was caught since it’s only about the size of agrown cat. *shudder* Apparently mak bapak dia lagi besar and cantik. Shabbir named it W.Muna since the guy said it’s a girl.

It snared and it hissed and it banged its head toward the walls. It chewed the spring of the trap, trying to pry itself loose.

By this time, a small audience was already oohhing and ahhing and arghhhing. Shabbir fed it biscuits and shredded kurma only to have to it hissed and snared back with teeth and fangs, nastily displayed. Brutal giler.

Fina was pleading for the maintenance guys not to kill it. It’s kind of pretty too, with stripes of grey on its black body. I thought musangs should be purplish!

Anyhow, like I said. This is a sick building.

Gambar hanyala hiasan. Lil’ Garties jakun tengok fountain kat Hospital Ampang, nampak sangat kat rumah tak ada. BTW, avoid hospitals at all costs, these days.

It’s Day 3 today.

And suprisingly, the Gart’s household stayed at home the whole of the weekend. Wow! The only places we went to were the bazaar ramadan at Bkt Jelutong to get some air or some kuihs or some rendang for sahur and of course the Pasar Tani for replenishing the depleting haiwans and dauns and the masjid for tarawih prayers.

Partly this was because I wanted to hop over to Mak’s for buka puasa only to be told that my younger sis, Eni and family were at her inlaws in Tganu and that maybe next time lah. Frust giler! Kena masak sendiri.

I vow to cook something less complicated this Ramadan to free more time for me to do other things. Like I masak canggih sangat la all these Ramadans. Hehe!

And I think we can make it to masjid every night since we’re not looking at many buka puasa dos elsewhere, insyallah. The kids too have been cooperative.

Aliya and Ayisha prayed with me through to 8 rakaat of Tarawih. Last night because there was a kuliah, they even did the witir jamaah. Although I kept telling Ayisha to try to keep still in solat and not sway or look around or even raising both hands to close her mouth when she sneezes or tucking in her wild hair. Haish!

We’ve got a good spot at the wakaf, if we get there early. A good place that Ariz can find me without disturbing too many people and I can give him my chilling stare if I find him throwing stones or talking too loudly or running around. He makes friends easily and always can be found a band of boys that short. Adani, meanwhile sticks to her girlfriends and Jehan comes up tops.

MrGart told me that on the first night, Ariz stayed through the Isya’ and only disappeared just before Tarawih started. Last night, he bolted at the 2nd rakaat Isya’. Adani was obedient enough to ask me if she could be let off and play and I usually say yes. Rather than having her tergeliat-geliat and tergedik-gedik kat situ.

Anyhow.

This Ramadan like most Ramadans, the temptation is not always the food or the drink. It’s always the temper. I’ve gone over the bridge a few times and it’s only Day 3. Sigh! I can only improve, insyallah.

A little snag this year. Our office canteen will be closed for renovation for 3 months.

Good, cos we’ll be having a brand, spankingly new canteen soon.

Bad because, kat mana nak beli foodie for buka puasa. I don’t like the bazaar Ramadan too much since I think they’re way too pricey but I don’t have enough time to cook properly when I get home. So, the solution is to buy a lauk or two and a sejenis kuih or two, at a reasonable price from people whom I know and supplement with a main dish I will cook at home.

So, canteen tutup. So how now brown cow ?

For feeling mighty suspicious if you read this on your tall, dark and handsome, not to mention sexy hubby’s phone ..

“Abg nampak sangat faham”

Dah la nombor asing, xde nama and it was sent at 3:47pm and is that word read Abg?? WTF?? Faham? Faham what? What am I missing here ?

I threw patience and understanding out the window and brewed a mighty storm. I vividly remember I threw the phone down after I shoved it to him with an ashen face. I actually must have looked like Gollem in LOTR, or better still, the Ice Queen in Narnia, when she realised Aslan has assembled his army to fight her and that spring has come and melted the winter away.

I digressed.

Well, to make matters lagi kelakar or even more suspicious, MrGart couldn’t remember who it was, muttering something about a meeting and he was nodding off and that’s about it, one of his colleagues.

Storms brewing still.

The next day, he called me from his office with the background buzzing of office talks and he said that he remembered what it was now.

Apparently that was a long audit session and he slept and that, that rather DAFT person sent that message sarcastically to say that, his nodding meant that he understood.

Hokeh!

I get that. But what still annoys me like mad is that what business does one have in a professional office environment to be calling anyone, let alone someone’s husband Abang? I mean, it’s not like that is an environment where you should be calling anyone, for that matter, Abang.

I feel like going over and ketuk that person’s head for sending out that message to MrGart. I ain’t KillKillDieDie but any sane person would feel exactly how I feel.

So, to you out there, for you own safety, think before you do something stupid like this because I ain’t standing by watching this unfold and I will put a stop to this, even if I have to pull a lot of strings. I will.

*bunyi macam threat, tak?*

*lipat sleeve tangan, flex muscles, checks knucles, practises punching*

It ends. It’s been promised that way.

Dah lama pulak tak ber-blog. Dah nak bersarang dah blog ni. Bukannya apa. Mula-mula tu, M-A-L-A-S tapi lepas tu, I realised that ramai dah kawan-kawan bloggers ku yang tak update blogs diorang. So, herd mentality sikit la.

But I figured, I love to write and yesterday, Clipperseep emailed me an excerpt from the post I wrote about Adani’s stitched chin, where she cried and I thought, something I write makes little dents in people’s life, so I should continue to write. It’s a community service, I guess.

*even if the community begs me to stop pun, I WILL write. Hehehehheheh. Evil!*

Anyways.

Too much has happened since August 3rd.

Adani’s stitches have come off. She held her fort at Stitch #1. Stitch #2 saw her eyes squinted and lips pursed. Stitch #3 let out a little yelp from her pursed lips. Stitch #4 , 5 and 6 saw the whole of the ER reverberating with her high-pitched screams. Aliya told me thta everyone who waited outside the Treatment Room was shocked to hear her scream THAT loud.

I begged the doc and nurses to let us come back again tomorrow, in tears cos I felt her pain. But alhamdulillah, they were off eventually and we wiped the tears off her pretty face and we hugged for the longest time and she’s back anew. Alhamdulillah.

*telinga sedikit berdengung sbb Adani jerit tepi telinga ku*

I had a telling off from Mak. Not sometthing I’d like to elaborate here. But it hurt nevertheless. I’ve gone passed it to see the merits of that. I shall abide.

Ariz, we realised is such a talker these days. He yaks and he growls and he grrs and he screams and he shouts. Most of the time to his Autobots and Decepticons and his batallion of lions and tigers and goats and toy soldiers. Other time for everyone else to change the channel to his fav Cartoon Network. But he’s still a little pelat. Oyang (orang) and mayah (marah) are still the order of the day.

Ayisha has got me worried sick when she was feverish but she’s all better now. We’ve stocked up on surgical masks but one day, she told me that hers was soiled when she sneezed snoot into it, and she din’t bring a spare one. *sigh*

Aliya has 41 friends on her MySpace. *geleng kepala* And most of the time if she’s standing still, she’d be shuffling or doing the Miley Cryus’ dance steps. *pening* Now all the girls and the little boy shuffle whenever they find themselves standing up.

MrGart has been questioned by me and been given dirty, murderous look by me when I found a suspicious text on his phone. *I’m still watching you*

And me, I’m preparing myself, emotionally and mentally for Ramadhan. Lollies gave a booklet of lecture series of Ramadhan and I thought that was exactly what I needed. *muahs*

Now, going back to the title. This year has been a very sad and sorrowful year since I’ve received news of so many of us who lost their fathers, brothers and friends.

It started with Naimah’s father, then Zul passed away, then Azizan’s father and Khai’s brother. Not to mention Michael Jackson, Yasmin Ahmad and the late Ustaz Asri. My mom told me of my sister-in-law’s brother who collapsed and died. And last Sunday, Haiza lost her father who left so swiftly. And last Friday, I received news of Rashidi, who in 1999, started work at our office and he never failed to greet me, everytime he saw me, passed away at the age of 29, leaving behind a wife who’s due to give birth to their very first child this week. And I’m sure there were so many others.

Deaths are harrowing, but they serve as a reminder to us all. A little kiamat to us, to remind us that our time is short and it’s not ours to begin with. Start with the end. Death. We all will. Yang sudah pergi, kita doakan Allah permudahkan perjalanan. Kita nanti, bagaimana pula? That’s what my Harfiyah Ustaz says to us, everytime he hears of a death.

Al-Fatihah.

Okay. *tarik nafas panjang-panjang*

Remember this ?

And of course that was Bloody Weekend #2. We had Bloody Weekend #1 and #3, all courtesy of Ariz. I’m still trying to pick the all of the pieces of me, after those trips to the ER, bloody-ly.

Anyhow.

This was completely unexpected. It was Adani. My princess-y Adani. My Adani.

I was in the shower and I heard shouts and shrieks. I thought it was Ariz so, I continued lathering me with soap. Heh! Then MrGart knocked on the door rather urgently and I came out to the sight of a wet and bloody Adani with a towel on her mouth. Bloood was trickling down her body. Then I saw the gaping wound right under her chin.

Yikes! It was GAPING ! This was nothing like what Ariz had. This was like 3 of Ariz’s combined into one. It was deeper and longer and I could see the white flesh. I thought I saw bone too.

Well. We rushed to DEMC and luckily GartRed was nearby and she came by too. That helped cos I got instant attention and went straight in and the doctor attended to her immediately. Nepotism? Sue me!

Dr Amarjit cringed and said that I had 2 options. Either stitch her up with LA or she goes under. Going under means a full GA and I was not too keen but right there, there’s this boy being stitched up because he fell in a longkang and the way he screamed, the whole of Shah Alam could hear. I decided GA.

But a little later the doc came and said that maybe we should try to stitch her up there, with LA. I kinda agree since Adani has always been very calm and composed. She takes instructions well too. So, yes it was.

She was prepped up and the minute the LA needle went in, she cried and wailed but never moved. I was squirming like a jellyfish. I nearly cried too. Tears were welling. Sungguh mengharukan. I wish I could take away the pain from her. My baby!

GartRed was a jellyfish herself. too Cringing. Good thing Adani was looking up and did not see our aghast and jellyfish-ed faces. It took 2 shots to numb her chin I felt like hitting the doc when I saw the needle under her skin.

Then the stitching. This was my first time and it was the most horrendous thing to have to watch. Especially when the subject was my own.

The short curved needle looked mean. The dark blue thread looked sinister and when the needle jabbed her skin, I felt parts of me died. Adani was numb by this time and I was holding her hands and I asked her to close her eyes and she obediently did so. She was so calm through it all, I was so proud of her.

She had 6 stitches in all to close the cut and once it was all done and plastered, she hopped off the bed and reminded me that I promised her to pierce her other ear and domino’s pizzas and a couple other bribes I rattled off in my unnerved state. Yikes!

Last night, when she was sleep and after my Isya’, I was a puddle of tears.

The images of brave Adani and her plight came to me emotionally. I was holding my fort so well throughout the day because I wanted her to feel okay and there was enough drama without me disintegrating too . But when all’s well, it came to me in a rush. I felt so blessed and thankful for all that’s given to us. And I prayed for His mercy and I felt deeply in my heart that He heard my prayers. Tears streamed down my face and I felt really humbled by this.

Rabbi yassir wa la tu’assir ya karim.

p/s The stitches looked fine and dry this afternoon when we changed the dressing and the stitches looked less mean. Am dreading Thursday when the stiches are due to be off. *gulp*

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Hehehehehe ..

New gadget. It’s called Livescribe and it’s the funkiest little thing.

Hehehehe..

Well, this is what I’ve planned for the class I’m doing this Saturday at Cake Connection. We’re doing the Wedding theme and I was blown away by the number of students who’ve paid up for it well in advance.

Whoohoo!!

Image via Wikipedia

Hmm .. Naib Johan is still CHAMPIONS, kan?

Anyhow, since EnScrew has retracted his doubts of me and futsal should never be in the same sentence, I feel no need to lepuk him for a bout a week or two, unless he shoots me another official letter la. He joined us for a training session on Friday and squashed his own doubts and I suprised myself and pulled a muscle or two too.

Well, leaving EnScrew topic now.

Anyhow. Sunday, we had the tourney, official Division stuff. We were short of a ladies team and Fina quickly assembled a team, inclusive of me and mosh and some other sporting gals, plus a few import players. Someone wanted to name us BELASAHAN for reasons best not to be elaborated, but someone wiser came up with Wonderpets purely their lyrics. I’ve never heard this song but the lyrics in BM is really cool.

I, for the live of me, never thought I’d be good at futsal. Although I should add that I spent the whole of my 5 years in the UK, following all the games of Manchester United, including chasing Ryan Giggs through the Arndale Centre while he was evading the papparazzi and parading

Cover of Giggs

through the Old Trafford when they won their Treble, the day before my Final Year exams.

But I never touched the ball. Until Friday.

Image via Wikipedia

Apparently, I played a good defence and striker too, but pancitness took the best of me and I pleaded to play defend. So, all the 4 games yesterday, I played full-time at defend. And managed to not let goals through to Mosh, our goalie. Except when we played the real champion team, Naimah and the gang. Intimidated siut! And we let them scored 4 goals. Chit!

I felt like my lungs were about to burst from the sheer tiredness and pure unfitness of me. But I did hold my fort kinda well and we managed to win 2 games, drew 1 and lost 1. That gave us the 2nd place. NAIB JOHAN! Whoohooo. Moshie kecundang in his team of Perut-Jalan-Dulu. *lari*

MrGart brought his team too but the men’s teams were super fast and scarily ganas. Yikes!

We came home yesterday, me with kaki lebam kena sepak dengan penat ya amat, tido sampai petang. Bangun lagi sakit! But I thought we had fun, tremendous fun!!

Whoohoo .. We Are the naib Champions!

And yes, MrGart is walkng fine this morning. *specially directed to curious Roti*

And me too, if you’re wondering still.

And no, there’s not much celebration yesterday either.

Since it was a Tuesday and the girls have tuition and Ayisha needed te be picked up and 9 and Aliya at 10 so, no birthday dinner and no cutting cakes either. Maybe tonight.

Walaupun, the sidekicks of SarahFizz and Ken, brought a cake during a morning meeting. Yay!

Anyhow.

Being 36 feels .. uhmm .. the same. Although MrButterflutter clearly pointed out that 36 sucks as a number since it’s rounded to 40! *what?????*

But seriously, it feels no different. No different than when I turned 24, 18 or 31. But that’s life, eh?

Well, am in a very long and tiring and boring akp session the whole day today .. so wish me luck. kamarul is looking extremely bored and azlan is counting the hair on his arm. that bored!

ciao!

Today is the day. The 12th anniversary of me and GartRed’s 24th birthday! Geddit?

Hahahaha ..

Ye la tu, if I were 24, I’d better not be beating round the bush. When I said so this morning at a meeting, these engineers who make and break the country mind you, added it up very intentionally wrong! Cehs!

So, there.

For you mathematically challenged folks, I’m 36 today. Yikes! But it’s just a number. *gulp*

And thanks to fb, my phone has not stopped beeping since morning. Yay! Thanks for remembering today.

And to GardRed, Happy Birthday to You!

*going to get coffee, black*

Ish! Dah naik bersarang dah blog aku ni. Lama eh tak update. Bukannya apa, saje je nak letak gambar Anuar Z@in kat top page. Bagi roti nyampah sikit je lagi … hehehe

Anyhow. Am going for a overnight to Kerteh to the place where you see the gas flares on top of those structures. With a bunch of colleagues, fun ones may I add.

Yay!

Am so looking forward to this. We’re doing the pool this afternoon. Mosh is planning for a skinnydipping session at midnight and I’m so locking myself in the room. Bukannya apa. Takut my innocence kena zap!

Ciao.

*suara sangat serak dan hati sangat gumbira*

Let me tell you this.

Am glad that my kids didn’t get to see me clapping, gasping, screaming and singing at the top of my voice and generally swooning at the very sight of Anuar Zain.

And am so glad too that they didn’t get to me waving my hands up in the air and whoohoo-ing every time Anuar look at my way.

Am relieved that my kids or MrGart didn’t see me with my swoon-ed expresion on my face, hands on my chin, head tilted in a dreamy kind of way, when he belted Mungkin and Terman Terulung.

Am so relieved too that they didn’t see me screaming and giggling happily at the very sight of him taking him his jacket and THEN .. his tie. And they didn’t hear me when I screamed “ME” when Anuar asked if anyone would help him take off his tie off.

Phew!

It’s 5:19pm and an unusual time to find me still sitting in my room.

Normally, by 5:15pm, I would’ve dashed to the car headed for home.

But. Jeng jeng jeng…

Tonight is the Anuar Zain’s concert. Yay! And I am going. With GartRed, since MrGart has developed a sudden allergy over the sights of MrCroon’s meneran while he sings and for the life of him, he could not tolerate seeing MrCroon’s whites of the eyes while he belts out his ballads. So Gartred it is.

Where is she?

Anyhow, thought I’d gloat a bit, while I wait. No?

Here’s what kept me busy last night. 50 of these.

The theme was silver and white. And I am so so glad that the silver worked. Heheheheh! Serious. I’ve never done silver before, something about metal fear. But I did an Aztec Gold before and it was a blast.

Nah! Close-up. Obviously still swooning over my silver.

This is turning into a photo-blog since panjangla pulak if nak tulis sebijik-sebijik.

Ariz trying his luck climbing up a coconut tree. *nasib baik tak nampak tangan MrGart propping him up*

We went in a group of 41 of MrGart’s office and there were a couple of young trainees who who doing a lot of photo shoots and they were jumping and pose. So, this were the girls’ attempt to emulate. Kakaka!

MrGart and his lovely model, Adani. A natural photogenic and a camera lover. She really loves to pose. *risau gak ni*

The morning. One of my favourite pictures. Looks peaceful and they’re at ease. The sea looked calm, the kids looked err busyuk but they all look at ease.

Before breakfast and just after Ariz woke up, obviously pining for Mummy and not in the mood to pose.

Adani. The model. She now hates her layered hair. Sigh!

One of the snorkelling sessions. This was at the resort’s jetty waiting for the boat. The kids were all wet from mandi laut at 1pm when everyone else was berehat. Tu yang berkilat semacam aje tu. Ariz especially discovered that the life jacket was a great floatation device. Duh!
At the Marine Park. All of these underwater pics were taken by Aliya. Ayisha and ALiya had a blast, snorkelling non-stop. This trip was truly theirs to own. Mummy, kena ikat dengan Ariz dok tepi je .. habis seluar aku masuk pasir.

Aliya, underwater. Enjoying it tremendously.

Ayisha, a natural swimmer.

And that my friends, were snapshots of our wonderful island holiday. We stayed at Wisana Resort, a locally run resort. And the beach was exclusive to us. Was told that the Berjaya beach was shared among 10 resorts. Tapi the sights of flesh, tattoos and beer cans, just didn’t agre with me. Mrgart went for mencandat sotong and came back, exhausted from puking. Yikes ! But the huge sotongs they caught tasted super sedap, goreng tepung. Fooh and then lebih tu, buat sambal sotong for nasik lemak. Foohh!

We had fun.

He’s dead. I pray that he died a Muslim. Insyallah.

It was so shocking to hear about it in the car this morning. Not that I knew him in person. But I love his songs.

Jangan jeles ye kawan-kawan .. I was one of the thousands who were at the Stadium who rocked and swayed and shouted at his one and only concert in Malaysia. And that was in *counts* at least 12 years ago cos I wasn’t married yet.

I was there with GartRed and a childhood friend, Nazli (whatever happens to him, I wonder). We were so sengkek that where we sat, he looked like a kerengga. Tiny. But the huge screens helped. That was after his Bad album and I remember getting hooked on Man In The Mirror, Black and White and who could’ve missed You Are Not Alone.

Suprisingly, when I was chatting with friends, somehow BigKahuna mentioned that she too went to the same concert. And since she was sitting so close to the stage (nampak sangat kitorang sengkek), she could actually see him lip-synching some songs. Yikes!

Lucky for us, I could barely make out his nose and that’s supposed to be prominent, let alone his lips. Haha.

Anyhow.

I thought he was a great music influence to me. Like Madonna. Yup. I love her. And Anuar Zain. Hmm .. maybe that one I should keep a secret eh?