Hey you guys! How come no one tags me? *pout*

But since I’m feeling slightly floaty airy today, I guess I’ll do it, even if no one reads this. *pout* *pout* *pout*

1. What color is your phone?
Silver and purplish-blackish. Not mine, tho. Nicked this off MrGart. Or rather hand-me-downs. *sob*

2. Who’s the first person who comes up under the letter M?
Mac Dr. A loverboy who has a crush on me wayyyy back in Peterborough.

3. Who’s the last person you called?
Mosh Tino. At lunch telling me, MrGart was already outside picking me up for our Executive COuncil sitting.

4. Who was your last missed call from?
Clipperseep.

who’s just the coolest preggy woman around these days.

5. Who’s the 2nd person who comes up under D?
Danial. Call him Doing. A great, guy, Lollies knows him too.

6. Who’s speed dial 2?
MrGart.

7. Who’s the 3rd person who comes up under Z?
Aha! Zainab. The big kahuna who just got a vee-pee title. Think I;mm in her good book, but it’s anybody’s game. *prays* I have a habit of running into her in the toilet and gets assignments. Sheesh!

8. Who was your last received call?
Roslina. That’s my department’s head. She calls a lot though. Err.. Hope I’m in her good books too. *prays more*

9. Who’s speed dial number 4?
Nobita. My twin.

10. What is your background?
Some phychedelic illusion. Theme number 3 or something.

11. How many text messages do u have?
109! Uish banyaknya!

12. Who’s in your speed dial ?
MrGart, Home, Mum, Twin.

13. What’s the 5th message say in your inbox?
ok. on the way. From a consultant coming for a briefing.

14. Who’s the 1st person who comes up under B?
Butterflutter

15. Who was your last text message from?
Nobita to say that appoitment’s full so she slotted me some other day.

16. Name every person you have text messages from:
Are you out of your blinking mind? *over-dramatic*

17. Have you seen the 101 Chuck Norris facts?
101 what?

18. Who’s the 9th person on your missed calls?
MrGart. He’s stalking me alright.

19. What does the 3rd message in your Outbox say?
0.8 million. * Hmm .. don’t I wish I have that much dough.

20. Who is the first name in your Phonebook?
Aam. Ish kena tukar ni. Tak personal langsung.

Okayla. Tak nak baca pun takpe. Tak menariks pun.

p/s kidding babes and babettes.

Note: You need to read the “Aghast” post to be able to understand this one.

Came home and Asha just arrived and waited for me, smiling ever so sweetly. MrGart told me that he called earlier to ask Asha about the RM100 incident but she said “taktau” to all his questions.

I chose not to broach the topic so soon especially when the little brother and sisters were coming home from the park and controversial issues catch on very fast with kids. Once MrGart got home, we all got into the car to get to D1ncy’s Store (the store right next to her KAFA). Asha initially refused to go, which was unusual and very suspicious but we managed to make her go, no drama.

I went straight to the store while the rest were in Myd1n. Now the story.

Asha’s friend came in with 2 notes of RM50 and brought a big Barbie stationery set to the counter and in fact has asked to pay for goodies for a big bunch of other girls. The shopkeeper was suspicious and asked whose money that was, the friend ratted on Asha who was outside.

When asked, Asha said that it was her money. By this time, the counter was full of goodies Asha’s friends had gathered and wide-eyedly expecting to grab and go. The shopkeeper then told Asha that if she wanted to get the Barbie set, to ask Mummy to come along. She then asked Asha to choose a sweets treat. The funniest part was that she had to break up the party of expecting kids to a huge grunts. MrGart was chuckling when he heard this. My daughter, the generous girl, though good intention’s gone slightly wrong.

I thanked her profusely for spotting this and to watch out for Asha in future. The KAFA’s been very personal in their treatment of the children and I appreciate it.

Home. I told Asha that I know what happened as the Teacher had informed me. But I need to know where the money came from. She said she didn’t know and that Daddy gave that to her. I didn’t want to prolong this and told her that it’s wrong to take something which isn’t yours, even if it’s Mummy or Daddy’s. If her friends were giving her gifts, please tell Mummy & Daddy first before accepting. I asked if she understood what I said which she nodded, averting my stares.

Gosh! This is so hard. I didn’t know if I said too much or too little. So, I thought of having a little chat at night before bedtime. Except that during the homework time, she had a meltdown session with MrGart with her Maths work, after which only sleep would cure, snoot and tears all around. Maybe tomorrow, I said.

So, today, after the emergency Executive Council meeting held during lunch at the Jalan Istana Ikan Bakar Table 2, the COO and the CEO have :

1. Identified root of the problem. Lack of discipline and lack of understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

2. Resolution / Action Plan.

a) All persons above the age of 7 must pray 5 times a day. We have been rather lax with Aliya and obviously this is not such a great example to others.

b) Friday night’s Maghrib prayers wil be followed by a small usrah/meeting. COO (me!) will come up with script and CEO (MrGart) will deliver. Need to remind them what we expect of them and in return what do they expect from us. A family meeting, a regular instead of ad-hocly basis.

c) You-and-me time for each one of the children. Targetting Mummy & Asha time this Saturday while I send her to school.

Hokey. We’ll see about tonight’s progress. I’ll try to talk to her again about this. I really wanna understand this. MrGart thought she took the money from his wallet. I thought it was mine. Shows how we both manages our finances eh?

Well. To all of you who have confessed in your comments, you made me feel better and to those with advices on how to proceed with this, I truly adore you.

Life sure is unpredictable.

One hour you’re on the verge of your seat, face green from disbelief of what the kids have been up to.

The second, you’re gloating like no one’s business.

Alright. I should warn you guys that should you choose to trudge ahead, there are smugness and gloatiness abound. So, thread carefully and so aim that puke elsewhere and avoid your keyboards.

Anyway.

Letter came yesterday.

“.. congratulations .. University Senate awarded the MSc Degree in Engineering Business Management.”

“Whilst you did not quite reach the high standard required for the award of MSc with Distinction, the Examination Board wishes to place on record its recognition of the OUTSTANDING marks that you achieved in the project component of the Degree.”

There!

As you can see, I can no longer walk out of the room without turning sideways to make room for enlarged and kembang-ed butts. And heck, I’m so pleased with myself.

Alright alright. They didn’t have to rub in the fact that I didn’t make the Distinction list. But I am so happy that I was recognised for the project.

The 3 years was not hellish but rather a whirlwind. My nights and days were unrecognisable and I was in a constant state of studying, one way or the other. But I’m so glad that it’s all behind me now and I can say now that all the hard work, it’s all worth it now that I see these words in front of me. Phew!!

Well, I dedicate this to MrGart who patiently (well at least half the time) took over some of the roles I left in pursuit of a degree. And to Aliya, Ayisha and Adani who spent weekends by themselves without Mummy dearest and also to Ariz who joined me in my lectures in-vitro for the whole 9 months. You’d better exhibit what you’ve leart, kiddo!

Anyway. YES!!!

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Received a phonecall from Ayisha’s KAFA a while ago. Very disturbing. Teacher Hayati explained that the Ayisha before class has asked a friend to buy her some stuff and giving the friend about RM100. I nearly choked on my saliva.

What?

Where did she RM100?

What’s on today?

Fees? Can’t be. We always pay by cheques, never cash.

Did she get the money from a friend?

Did she get it from US?

Did I lose some money in wallet? Hmm .. I thought my wallet’s thinner these days and I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But surely, she didn’t get it off my wallet. The thin wallet could be the normal state of my wallet.

Could this be because last Saturday we refused to get her the bling-bling bracelet which was only RM15.90 but I said that there’re too many bracelets in the house and I ain’t buying more?

Why?

Why her?

Why me ?

Does it has any relation to the incident on Monday when I found somebody’s pencil case in her bag which she claimed that her friend gave to her? I did talk to her about not taking other people’s stuff EVEN if they’re giving it to her. Did she get my point?

Oh no! This is an anti-social behaviour, surely it is.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

*Googles for tips to deal with this*

Taken from ParenTips
———————
The process is simple and straightforward with only three steps.

1) Don’t ask the child for explanations, forget about all the “why did” and “how could” you do this. Merely state that you know the theft occurred.

2) Say that stealing is wrong. Use simple explanations. “Stealing is wrong. You would not want anyone to take your doll. So it’s wrong for you to take this doll.” The child does not need a lecture or sermon on the starving children of ripped-off store owners. Never imply that your child is bad, just that he or she did a bad thing.

3) Establish restitution. See to it that the child takes the object back to the friend or store. Tell the child to apologize and say he or she will never do it again. Accompany the child but don’t tell the owner of the object to be cruel or unduly harsh. It’s OK for the child to feel ashamed but the child should not feel devastated by the parent or the shop owner.

You see, there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we overdo it in our parental zeal to be sure we nip future delinquency in the bud, the child may internalize the feeling that he or she is bad. The child may think it’s hopeless to even try to be good — “my parents think I’m a terrible child.” Instead you want your child to internalize that THE BEHAVIOR OF STEALING IS WRONG.

My little prince, Ariz who didn’t talk a lot a year ago now is a chatterbox. These days we hear these 2 phrases a LOT. Not once or twice a day. ore like every hour or more.

1. “Ayiz tak tit tot”
This we hear everytime he’s in the shower, getting dressed, getting undressed and every occasion which required him to be stark nekkid. Translation is “Ariz tak sakit bontot”. Remember 3 weeks ago when we were both struck by a food poisoning bout, I was puking and he’s been purging like anything. Since he’s still in diapers (*malu*), pursging resulted into very very sore and raw butts.

Now, luckily Eco-na-zine worked wonders and cured the butts and now everytime he’s about to show off his butts, he’ll chant this phrase. Aliya is forever amused bu the “tak tit tot” and asks him to say it again and again and again. And the little boy complies to a gaggle of giggling girls all the time. Sheesh!

2. “Ayiz an-nak a-lik u-mah”
Now this would normally be said with droppy eyes and pouty lips. And without fail will be said in the car whenever we are nearing the entrance to Bukit Jelutong. It simply means “Ariz taknak balik rumah”.

It used to be “Iz n-nak l-lik mmah”. Now he’s adding the second letter. So, it wont be long before we hear the full sentence. Speaking does come gradually. I wonder when he’s gonna start saying Ariz instead of Ayiz or Iz.

Anyway. This is understandbly. He’s the only member of the family who has nowhere to go on a daily basis. Everybody else has work or school. He’s been pining to o to school but I don’t think he’s ready. next year, definitely but not this year.

So, everytime I come home, he’d be climbing into the car and I have to take him for a spin or an ice-cream and everytime he asks “NN-na?” and gets a “Balik rumah” answer, he’d pout and says his favourite chant.

That aside, been thinking to take Ayisha & Adani off their English class as their favourite Teacher Claire’s no longer there. Maybe even ALiya’s off her Mental Arithmetic cos I think she’s getting bored. That earns us free Saturday mornings. Maybe Tae-Kwon-Do ?

And I think I’m putting Adani into English Kum0n, succumbing to her persistent request since the past one year. I think she’s more than ready and we’re financially ready too. Heh!

Anyway, to those of you in Shah Alam, need suggestions of what to do with them on Saturday mornings? The girls wanna do ballet, but it’s a bit far. Need suggestions.

Hmm let’s see. Last entry was on the 24th Dec 2007. Foohhh! That’s a long time for me to not be blogging,

Reasons? Hmmm.. M Disease I guess, coupled with the hectic pace of life in the recent weeks. To compensate, I actually posted a long entry about a week ago, sumamrising a 2-weeks period of the last shcool holidays. Then, the efx2 went a bit haywire and I found out that I lost that one post.

Anyway. This is my very first entry in 2008 and I’ll start anew.

Aliya turned 10 last week, the 9th January 2008. My baby girl! What happened between the days I held the cute-sy smallish baby girl in my arms, afraid if I’d do her wrong and the tall, lanky girl with a ready-smile, feet as long as mine, I wouldn’t know.

And to have a daughter aged 10 years to me is mind-blowing. Well, since Wednesday was a schoolday, I planned a little family get-together on Thursday, the 10th January. It was a Awal Muharram and the whole gang came over. I’ll post pictures once I get back to the office.

I’m at home now, while Ayisha is napping and MrGart took Aliya, Adani & Ariz to our apartment in Tr0picana to jegil-mata to our tenants. It’s 6:45pm and I should really get dinner started, but yesterday I had a really tense moment with the maid, with a lot of yellings and since the house is rather quiet, I don’t feel like going downstairs and face her.

There really isn’t anything wrong with our helper. After all, she’s just human, so am I. But it’s really hard to ‘tegur’ her at all. Last week, I said to her that I thought it was too much that she took almost every weekend off to visit her relative since she came back from last Raya. Especially when I’m already giving her 2 trips home every year. I wasn’t angry or anything, just matter-of-factly only. That earned me a cold week.

Yesterday, while I was steaming apams, she asked why I was being cruel to her. I got annoyed and I wanted to explain to her my position, except that she kept interjecting here and there. So I asked her to keep quiet while I talk and then she it’s her turn, I’ll listen. Nope. Then my emotions got the better of me when she couldn’t stop peppering every word I said with her defensive words. I screamed and yelled myself hoarse at her, trying to keep her quiet.

So yesterday, I said it’s up to her. My primary concern was to give her a job so she can support her family. If she wants to leave, the I have to choice but to let her go. But she can only leave empty-handed in April, since she at the moment owes me RM1300.

She locked herself in her room last night and this morning when I left for the pasar too. I came home around 9am to a quiet house and went about dealing with the wet haiwans and once the kids were down, Andes was still locking herself in her room. Aliya opened her door and she’s not there!!

Damn! We thought she’d run away. I really thought so. But her clothes were all there. The back door’s keys were missing too. But I refused to believe that she’d run away. She wouldn’t do that to us.

True enough, she came home around 10am through the back door, eyes swollen and went straight to her room. Foooohh!

About 5pm, I received her SMS apologising for yesterday and asking to continue work with me. I replied telling her that I want her to work, but she needs to be able to take criticism when she’ wrong.

Alhamdulillah this episode ended on a good note. I was very very worried about having to get a new one right now and worse if I needed to get one like for tomorrow. But I still feel quesy about facing her while cooking, Nak buat camana, I ain’t the touchy-feely kind of person and I don’t deal with emotions well at all. MoshTino would be great at dealing with this. I suck greatly. I run away from it and refuse to get involved. So cold-hearted, I am.

Opps. Terpanjang pulak. Gotta go.

Before I end, for the 2008, blogging-wise, I pledge to blog more often and more intelligently, I hope. I hope to blog for more earth-shattering issues and world-changing views rathet than the bickerings I have with my helper or what Ariz puked at dinner or which part of Adani that Ayisha has pinched blue-black.

And of course, I hope to tingkatkan amal, ilmu dan iman. Psstt that’s straight from InaAli (boleh pinjam tak?), I borrowed that quip from her in one of her posts on UKS. I thought it’s aptly perfect. That’s what I aim to do in the year 1429 (betul ke ?).

Amal. I will usaha to lipat-gandakan my amal from now on. Senyum itu adalah sedekah juga dan if I think I’m sengkek, there are sengkek-er people than me. If I think I’m tired, there are other people who have relentlessly sacrifice themselves for others.

Ilmu. I aim to increase my knowledge about Islam and particularly of our beloved Prophet Muhammad. I’ve been such an avid fan of books of all genres but have never really read up on Islamic scholar. Will strive for that this year. Will also listen more to the airings of little kuliahs on ikimfm. Little nuggets of information works wonders.

Iman. Kalau dunia, kita kena tengok orang yang dibawah kita. Tapi kalau hal-hal iman dah akhirat, tengokla orang yang diatas kita. I aim to lipat-gandakan my iman this year, to perbanyakan sembahyang, zikir dan puasa. Insyallah. Ya Allah, bantulah aku untuk mengingatiMu, mensyukuri nimkatMu dan memperbaiki ibadatku kepadaMu.

Insyallah.

Fooohh lamanya tak kerja ..

Still on leave, unlike SquareAss who’s lounging aimlessly trying hard to work at the office. BTW, glad you decided to hop over here for good. We sure miss you. *uwek*

Anyways.

Just had lunch of soto just now and the kids have all now tramped up here and watched Asha’s concert video. Jangan kacau aku sudahle.

We came back from Sg. Petani yesterday. Was there since Hari Raya Haji. Selamat Hari Raya to y’all! We missed the korban this year to a shortage of dough and bad planning.

Nothing much happened at Kedah. Took the kids to mandi sungai at Tupah. The girls grinned and bear the cold while my macho Ariz refused flat to get in the water. He hated the stones and upon a lot of persuasion, sat of a big rock and spent the whole time throwing stones. Cehs!

Saturday was spent at my MakTam’s place in Jeniang and it was foodie affair. We had sup daging korban cicah air asam, and air lawa. Hati & limpa masak kicap, ikan pekasam, ikan patin masak tempoyak, jellies, fruitcakes, spaghetti bolognese and entah apa-apa lagi la. Pasti aku naik barang sekilo dua. Cehs!

Ooooo I finished the Ayat-Ayat Cinta the much talked about novel. Definitely a novel pembangun jiwa as it was touted. I had much admiration of Fahri and Aisha and Maria. The language although is Bahasa Melayu still sounded a little Bahasa Indonesia to me and I didn’t understand certain words. Kena tanya diah nanti ni. But I thought it was beautiful story, weaving many little stories centering around Fahri and it certainly taught me a lot of things I never knew before. Btw, I hardly read Bahasa Malaysia story books and this sure suprises me. May get more, who knows!

Just realised that nextx week school reopens. We’ve gotten the books for Aliya & Asha, their school uniforms ( 4 sets each), High School Musical bags for all 3 girls, paid Adani’s kindy fees and her uniforms. What I need to do now is to amend baju kurung, fix school badges and ooo schoes! We haven’t gotten them yet, along with socks. Ni kena pegi Subang Parad@ jap lagi ni.

Opps.. Ariz nak memanggil. I shud be in the office by Wednesday.

Nothing life-threatening. So, you guys can sit down now.

It’s 5:42 now and we’re still at home. I was mem-fitting-kan school uniforms for the girls and since I have smaller than average Asha, a lot needs to be done. Btw, once I was finished, Ariz and Adani fell asleep and MrGart has been nappping loong before I started the sewing.

Anyways.

Get this. While I was mulling over the girls’ kain buju kurungs and thinking about the emails about the pahala for a wife/mother who sews her own clothes and feeling good about it. Well, not that good, cos I kept poking my fingers with the darn pins.

I got Aliya and Asha to line up and try the bajus and kains in front of me while I pin the amendments to be sewn. While I mused over “keciknya si Asha ni”, I cut all 4 kains about 4 inches off. Then suddenly realised that I tried Aliya’s bajus andkains on Asha!

Damn!

Opps .. Ariz’s up. Gotta sambung later, kay?

Dated pics actually. These were taken during our excursion to JB last month. Lucky we were there then, otherwise we’d all be swimming around in floodwaters by now, looking at the recent flood woes affecting Pahang & Johor.

Anyways.

Ariz, Adani & Asha were just ecstatic to discover the bath tub in the hotel and would not miss each get-ready-and-shower time to splash about in the tub. Apa-apala. Asalkan bahagia. Bukan aku yang nak kena basuh nanti. Heh!

Adani in her typical pose.

The three water babies in the tub.

And these are clown cupcakes from the night before. Scrumptious really! They are Nigella Laws0n’s basic cupcake recipe and it’s truly a fail-safe recipe. Trust me! If I couldn’t mess it up.

First of all, I’d like to wish Roti Happy xx Birthday and hope that she has a wonderful birthday she so deserves this year. And I hope that Firhad finds a bakery shop which sells the cake with as many candles as he needs. He he he! Muahs!

Anyways.

Thanks for all your well-wishes. Ariz is better now. He got better as quick as he got sick. On Monday, I took another day off as I woke up on Monday morning groggy as hell, as I was up from 2:30 to 5:00 am sponging him down with a 38.6C temp. But he was just warm, no shivering nor shaking, so I just gave him PCM and skipped the suppository.

By Tuesday morning, Alhamdulillah we went through 24 hours without any fever at all. Alhamdulillah! I’m just so thankful and so blessed that Ariz is better now. And immediately he got back to his mischievious self. Climbing and tumbling over gleefully and becoming bossy again. I was ecstatic to end the Ariz-the-Grump days and my hips can relax from carrying him 24-7. Phew!

From the office, that is.

I’ve been kept from the office since Thursday. My love-leh mischievious lil’ boy came down with a snifffles, a runny and comot nose and has been for the 2 nights, running a 40 degrees fever on me, every 6 hours.

Adoi!

And biasala. My normally working ear thermometer refused to work, even with the mahal than normal lithium batteries on. So, last night I had no choice but to get new themometer. Sengkek babe!

And to make matters worse. Ariz simply refuses to take meds. Makes me wonder. All this time of begging of meds only work when one’s well. Bila sakit tu, siap kena pelekoh (to quote Mrgart). 2 adults has to restrain him and I had to squirt a little, manage his bubbling and his hissing spits! Dang! I just hope enough got into him.

Tonight, I surrendered and succumbed to antibiotics for Ariz. Right now, I still smell of Zithrom@x from the struggle half an hour ago. He’s chirpy and active now and I pray that he’ll sail through tonight with no 40 degrees fever.

The past two nights, I was in constant alert mode. I checked him temp at least 50 times during the 39-40 degrees periods. This time the virus or bacterial his body is fighting are hardier, I think cos even after a supp up his butt, it took more than an hour of sponging down to get him cool again. And Ariz threw a HUGE tantrum every time I had to sponge him down. He cried and I would cry too. Sedeh woy! Kesian. This time apart from getting lembik, he would shiver, violently. That makes it doubly hard to sponge him when he’s crying out. “Mummy, cold, Mummy, s-juk”.

Anyway. Pray for his speedy recovery and I hope we’ll pass this through with no febrile fits. Insyallah! *ngantuk*

I dunno about you guys but I’ve never thougt of myself as being married, old and not worthy to appreciate eye candies in the form of gorgeous men.

It’s not that I’m in some strange ways dissatisfied with my life and it’s not that I’m looking for something MORE. It’s just like looking at flowers. Checking out new species of flowers, a new breed, an eye-catching at that too.

Anyways.

Before MrGart threw me yet another murderous look, a disclaimer here. MrGart is by far and wide (he!) is the handsom-est guy ever. He knows it and I know it. We are a happily married couple. Have been for 11 years and 13 days. We are content.

But I love looking at other men, no intention to do anything whatsoever. Just looking. Remember the looking at flowers, new breed metaphor. It’s like that. I’d love to guess what theire lives are like.

Anyways.

Enter MysteriousGuy #1.

He came with his whining, cutesy 4 year old girl who joined Aliya, Ayisha and Adani (now out of the class)’s swimming lessons. MysteriousGuy #1 has the soppy, droopy looks on his face. His eyes are not unlike those of the Hush Pupp1ies’ dog’s, very please-hold-me, and i-need-you as well as you-are-my-everything just oozes out of his eyes. He’s not muscular, but slender. He walks with such a lazy stroll and his hands are just screaming hold-me-comfort-me. Yup, THAT type.

So, since I was doing nothing the whole hour by the poolside (light ‘s a but dim for reading), I imagined that this guy was a divorcee. His wife ran off with another man, his best friend, maybe, that’s why he’s so solemn and sad.

And for the first 3 lessons, he came alone, holding his frail little baby girl’s hands and looking away so full of thoughts. Well, imagien my suprise when he turned up Tuesday night with none other than his wife. At least I think she was. But they didn’t hold hands, or anything like that. In fact on the last few minutes, both of them were sitting side by side, each curled their legs AWAY from each other. AHA!

Now MysteriousGuy #2. I know his name, I know where he lives and he knows I’m amrried with 4 kids, especially when I brought Ariz to him last night for his fever. Not so mysterious but triggered MrGart’s jealousy. MrGart didn’t know that while I was in the consultation room, I found out that he lives in BJ, he rarely goes out, he’s attached to Hospital K1ang. He’s drop dead gorgoues I can you that! So, when I was very friendly-ish bid him Goodnight before we left the clinic, MrGart launched into his “oo dulu kata I hensem, dah boroi sikit, mulalah tu”.

And then the kids joined in.

“Mummy ada boyfriend baru ke?”

“Nanti Mummy kawin dengan Dr R, Daddy pulak jadi doctor” – Adani’s jibe.

And a whole lot of boyfriends talks.

Hmmmmmm .. Ooohh I almost forgot.

These love-leh cuppies are called the Black-Bottomed Cupcakes a.k.a Bontot Hitam. Ha ha ha ah ha! Sorry babes, I just couldn’t help myself. It’s chocolate at the butts and creamcheese topping on top. Bontot Hitam .. ka ka ka ak!

Baked these last night in gratitute to Norlizma, Amin, ZulMN, Day, Mosh, Hez, Haiza, Aini and a few other who I frantically managed to pester to find ONE lousy but super-important 1998 letter which finally miraculously turned up. PHEW!

This is not a friendly territory. And an alien one at that too. At least to me. Especially for me with my three gorgeous girls.

But I guess this is a welcome relief from months of seeing him with a nekkid Barbie under his arms, pushing a purple stroller.

And this is definitely a major phew from months of persuading him to take off that purple tudung off his face, while he feeds a green teddy from a small pink cup and Ayisha & Adani tending to a sick teddy on the same bed.

PHEW !!

There was a time when he was into lions (from Narnia) , zebras, elephants and eagles, I was kinda of happy for him being developmentally sound. Until he really thought he was one of these animals. Remember the roaring and growling to EVERYBODY and crawling under tables, and eating off the floor and licking EVERYTHING.

And since we never have robots, or these Power Rangers or GranSazer things at home, he was never really introduced to them. Except at Nobita’s place. Her Imran and Irfan are staunch fans of these laser-fighting tight-wearing undies warriors. I’m not a big fan to these things and am more worried about the violent nature of it.

It never caught on.

Until Transformer the movie came up. Even I was a sudden fan.

Ariz was transformed. Everything is a o-bot (robot). Even the transmission towers dotting the landscape of the country are o-bots. We succumbed to the fascination, especialy MrGart. WHo has bought a small squadron of these robots at home.

Boys really do take these things at heart. He plays with them contently. He takes a robot and bangs them against the lion. Again and again.

Last Saturday, while we shopped at Tesco waiting for the girls from their English & Maths lessons, he made me pick these up. Nasib baik murah!

And this was where we were and what he did, while we waited.

I have a boy, alright!

Let’s not make any mistake.

I have tonnes of work, but I just can’t stop thinking about this.

You see, I read that if you theoretically speaking, take every single bacteria from the face of the earth, and down it’s core and spread them all over the earth, even the seas, they’ll cover a depth of 15 meters all around the earth. Makes me squirm!

And there are peculiar things about them. One I know that that they divide super-rapidly. One single bacteria is able to replicate about 280 million times when we are barely completing one single division. And 1 in every million division will result in a mutation which most times just die off.

But sometimes, the mutation gives them an edge, an advantage and probably an immunity against an otherwise potent antibiotic. And the magical is that the bacteria who gains this info, SHARES it with others. Unlike some people who kedekut ilmu. Ha ha ha .

And that’s how a whole species of a bacteria becomes immuned to an antibiotic which normally kills them.

There!

Now I can start to work. Bit late eh?

Or was it ambergris?

Anyways.

It’s what’s been accumulating in the sperm whale’s stomachs whose staple diets are giant squids that no one has ever seen before. When a sperm whale eats a giant squid, the beak which is indigestible accumulates and over time turns to embergris.

And guess what?

This enbergris is used as a fixative in perfurmes. So, next time you spray our Channe1 Number 5, or Eternity M0ment, or take a whiff from your man’s chest of Dunhill, remember that one of the must-have ingredients are giant squid’s beaks!

Yikes!

You know I mentioned that I’m reading Bill Bryson’s A History of Nearly Everything. Very slowly, I should say, since I’m also reading 5 other books at the same time.

Anyway, very slowly too cos I love it too much and I keep going back and forth, back and forth. You see, I’m a sucker for scientific titdbits. I love facts about the planetary system, the black hole, the Big Bang, how dinaosaurs dissapeared off the face of the earth, the Earth’s core, the unicellular beings whose number outnumbers us greatly.

But this book tells me about the metals in the earth’s core and about theories how life began on earth. I’m a scientific person, I love to think how things come together but I also am a failthful servant of Allah. And I know Darwin’s theory is wrong, but this book tells me a lot more than that. It tells me that although man now, knows more than we did 200 years ago, what we know is what Allah lets us know. It’s nothing new to Allah. It’s his rules and his creations, like us too, God’s creations.

There are a lot of things we have yet to understand like how giant squids become the sperm whale’s staple diet when no one’s seen one ever. And we know more about the surface of Mars than we do our own sea beds.

But the more I know, the more I affirm my belief in Allah because it really is a miracle, this Earth we’re all sitting right now.

Allahu Akbar!

We’re back!

I’m back and what a whirlwhind trip that was.

First of all, the camera, fully charged was left taking pictures on top of the TV cabinet at home. So, all these were taken by MrGart’s N95 and since I’m not a huge fan of phone cameras, I just stayed away from taking, just standing in one or two.

Anyways.

Spent 2 nights at JB. Danga Bay was a BLAST!! Giler happening! Both nights were spent there. Dinner, rides, train rides, walks by the seaside. And of course the kids drained MrGart’s wallets with wanting to get on EVERY ride there was. I physically bodily took him away from his favourite brown horse ferris wheel.

We spent Saturday night at my auntie’s place in Jasin, a bungalow in a middle of nowhere and I had goosebumps but it was good meeting relatives. Sunday was spent driving from Jasin to Ayer Keroh. Ariz saw the bullock carts after we had lunch at the eMcD and we went for a round. Busuk! Another leg from Ayer Keroh to Senawang, visiting my Mak Ndak and ailing Tok. After devouring the late lunch of udang galah, we hopped over to Nilai 3 where my Mak Ndak, Mak Lang and the soon to be engaged cousins were and met up.

Then another leg from Nilai to my twin’s place at Cahaya Heights to pick up the maid and finally, home sweet home. Penat!

I’ll just let the pictures tell the stories then.

Ariz on a horse. He rode on another horse an hour after this.

Ariz & Asha on one of those kiddie roller coasters. Apart from Adani who looked absolutely terrified on these high-speed rides, the others were laughing very loudly and happily, while we parents, counted the remaining money left.

Ariz suprised us when we rode the bike effortlessly and managed to avoid hitting other bikers. Atta boy!

On the bullock cart, right after the black bull smacked Asha with his tail, trying to hit a fly. Busuk weh!


After the drama of “Nak naik” and the excited faces on the bullock cart, Ariz was screaming to get away from the bull, Aliya put on a brave face, trying to laugh at Ariz, Adani clung to me for dear life and Asha stuck to Aliya. Cehs!

Busy busy Monday I had yesterday doing absolutely everything.

Anyways.

Asha is now taking English lessons from the kewl Teacher Claire, together with Adani. I swapped Asha over to English from Mental Arithmetic as she needs to firm up on her spelling pretty soon. Aliya is still doing her Mental Arithmetic by choice. I picked them up on Saturday and had a long chat with Teacher Claire.

Adani is assessed by Teacher Claire a self-starter, eager stduent and with appropriate attention span which makes it easy for her to concentrate and progress. Ayisha on the other hand, has short attention span and is very easily distracted. It’s not that she doesn’t know the stuff, she just finds OTHER stuff more interesting to look at. And I had to agree with her, and kicked myself in the backside for not realising this sooner. I suspected Ayisha of everything, worse things but this, though very obvious, just whooshed by me.

This explains why in exams she’s pretty much exceeds her normal home and class work cos she has to concentrate under strict supervision but when she’s asked to do something, unless you’re centimeters away from her, it doesn’t get done or it does in a long time and shabbily sometimes. And this also explains why she’s having a bit of trouble progressing in her Kum0n in that she knows them at the required time, but wastes time being distracted.

I really like and trust this Teacher Claire as she seems genuinely interested in the girls’ progress and she takes special regard of Ayisha, even putting her on her lap for Asha to focus on the task at hand. And Adani & Asha adore Teacher Claire. So, pardon my bulging eyeballs when she told me that the whole of December she’s not gonna around and a replacement teacher is coming in her place. Sigh!

Anyways.

Intervention with Ayisha. TV in the house is turned off between 9 and 10 at night, every night, well, probably with the exception of the Kum0n nights. And everybody ages 4 and up will READ through this hour. Anyone below, depending on moods and temperamental will do as he pleases, though reading normally takes his fancy.

The hour begins with kum0n for 15 minutes, then the reading begins.

But it all did not go so smoothly every night. The night before, I sat with Ayisha yelling at her for 20 minutes while she does her English exercises. I think I yelled myself hoarse and felt really really bad that night. She cried a bit but impatience and sheer lack of control on my side, egged me to yell some more. If I had been a bit more apathetic and see that she was trying, I wouldn’ve been a better teacher and a better mother. I yelled at my own daughter! Preposterous. I should be shot and I still call myself a mother.

Yesterday’s drive to the office, I thought about this and it hurt that I did that again and again and again, no matter how much I vowed never to do it again. MrGart has accused me of being so MrsGoodyTwoShoes in my blogs that I never published things that are demeaning to me. I did not retort back cos he wins anyway. There’s not much that I can do except to again and again not to lose my patience. But it’s a hard thing to do when you’re being smothered with every other requests in the house when all you wanna do is to help the one who needs it most. Women they say are great multi-taskers, but we do it at the expense of our sanity and that sanity often hangs by a thread before it snaps.

There are 2 things that MrGart says that hurts me the most. One is that he thinks that I’m a fake for not telling ppl that I am a mean mother to my kids and the other is the way he describes to everybody how easy it was for me to give birth to everybody and that I don’t deserve the attention I do because I was on epidural. It’s bad enough that I have to fend myself from ppl who think that I’m such a woos for taking epidurals, to have myself described as such by a person closest to me is almost cruel.

Anyways.

I suddenly feel sad and gloomy which I think a trip to MidV’s Metr0′s Preview Sale will cure soon. Hmm.

Remember I blogged about the moment of insanity MrGart suffered and in that instant agreed with the kids to get a bird?

It was an English budgie and I’m still not sure whether it was a he or a she. I never really had a chance to snap a pic of that bird that set us back RM300, that did not include the fanciful cage and the paraphernalia the girls got that little Birdie.

Birdie’s wings were clipped, cruelly, I suspect so that it would be able to fly very high and very far either. I knew this AFTER the purchase, lest I’d throw one of my thou-shalt-not-hurt-God’s-creatures sermons.

Anyway, wings clipped, Birdie was supposed to be tame and to make it even tamer, we’re supposed to take it out of its cage daily, caress it, talk to it and generally shower it with love. Theoretically, that it. The truth is that, ALL the girls are afraid of any animals or creatures. Aliya would crouch her shoulders and in constant position to scramble should the bird attacks her. Adani would stand away from the bird and just instructs MrGart what she would like to have done on the bird. Ayisha is yet another bird-lover from afar.

Ariz is excluded in this picture cos we don’t want him NEAR the bird. As much as he likes it, he’s fearless too and if Birdie just walks around, he’d tailgate it and tries to hold it. I’ve had images of a crushed Birdie, neck twisted in a sordid manner, mangled by my schweet little prince. *shudder*

Anyway, this is a long way of telling you that it was a mistake. I hate pets. I don’t have a fondness over animals, which I did have when I was child. I guess when you switch roles from a cared-for to the one that cares for, another liability is what you’re trying to avoid. Birds are smelly, and I have a soft heart. I don’t like the fact that Birdie lives in a cage. I feel it’s so cruel. And I don’t like to be the one feeding it when it’s hungry and having to think of it everytime. But for the kids, I gave in. That, and also they wanted either a hamster, dog or a cat. So, a bird is a HUGE compromise.

Well, my parents and sisters dropped over at my house and suddenly we realised that Birdie’s gone. It’s highly unlikely that the bird opened his own cage from OUTSIDE, so someone did it for him. That someone has not been smoked out yet, maybe ever.

Well, MrGart and others for a search and rescue. But how the heck do you find a bird? 2 hours later, MrGart spotted it high up on a branch of a tall tree’s 30 meters from the house. He called to her lovingly, which I laughed it off. Soon, it flew to another tree and since it was getting dark and us, being clueless on how you entice a bird to get back into its own cage, we caved in. If it’s meant to be, Birdie will come right back to our lawn.

It’s been 5 days and the cage’s quiet and Birdie is hopefully happier on a branch of a tree somewhere. He’s an imported British budgie, so I guess he’d better learn the local dialect fast, eh?

Me? I’m mourning the loss of Birdie deeply. Sadly. I’ll miss him/her.

YAYYYYY!

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen far too many road blocks around KL. Intensified yesterday and today, and I bet will culminate during the weekend in support of the planned much publicised rally on Sunday.

Reducing the 4 lanes of the Federal Highway to just 2 lanes on a Friday morning rush is just cruel and frustrating. Guess their mission to thwart and dampen the eager rally-goers’ spirit and enthusiasm is partly achieved.

Anyway, road blocks on massive highways are one thing, but road blocks on deserted lanes in front of neighbourhoodly shops are another. Last week, we headed out to Ar-Rafi in Sec. 13, Shah A1am for dinner and amidst the turnings of the small, lanes there were 4 whopping roadblocks. I purposely did not include the sighting of a policeman hiding behind a TeeeNBee feeder pillar with a notebook and a walkie-talkie. Now, I’m not sure whether it’s reassuring or it’s unnerving.

Heavy police presence is sometimes welcomed and some to a certain extent induce a false sense of security and subsequently complacency in the community. But it also means that there’s a bountiful of criminals living amidst ourselves and it’s chillingly scary. Especially when the dailies’ frontpages splash murders of innocent children, hapless mothers, fathers, suicides and even our celebrated MrSecondSpaceman was not spared the brutality of our so-called civil society.

I quiver and I shudder at the future my children are facing. Sigh!

True. True. True.

The end of my glorious golfing days ended today. A total of 1 month and 2 days of actually holding a golf club.

3 years back, at the height of MrGart’s fascination in golf, I was intrigued. I’ve always shared interests with him, sports-wise.

When he was hooked on snooker, I was there on the snooker table, aiming for the cue ball using the spider cue. We went for countless snooker sessions at Peterborough downtown, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. We watched Jimmy White and whoever-that-redhead guy was. Now, he’s off snooker, I think since I don’t think he knows where his prized cue is at this point in time and I think the belly’s making his target more difficult these days..

When he was into football, well he was never off it, ever. I followed him to countless matches, Manchester United matches and even in Europe, during our Inter-Railing backpacking trip, we walked all over Milan for Juventus’ home ground.

So, naturally I thought I’d be great at golf. Bought the set. Practised at the local driving range. Missed more than I actually hit. By a yard. Went to our neighbourhood’s pitch and putt for a session. Failed miserably. Thought a bigger course would do me justice. So we were at uUPeeM course, full of mosquitoes and I was a disaster.

Thought I’d give it another round but was abruptly cut short when I found out I was preggy with Ariz. There!

So, a week ago, I listed the golf set on eeBay and oh my! It was a hit. In the end I had 6 people actively outbidding each other 52 times to get their hands on it. I asked for RM300 and ended up with RM557.50. Yay!

Anyway, today casa1238′s friend came to pick up the set he bought for his wife and he’s very kind too, even inviting me to his home in Miri, if I happen to be by.

Well, I hope casa1238′s wife will be happy with the golf set. I hope she can put it to a better use than I was ever. As for me, no more thinking of golf. I’m into baking now. Something the gals at my office appreciate better than golf.

One teeny-weeny measly hour of no TV in the house last night bought me :

1. 2 repeatedly read books with Ariz & Adani.

2. Completed and checked kumon worksheets.

3. Discussion on what Ayisha name means and Aliya regaling us of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)’s marriages, the ages of the wives and all.

4. Sirah revision for Aliya’s KAFA’s exam today.

5. Sleeping kids by 10:00pm

6. Nursing & sleeping Ariz by 9:45pm and Mummy’s explore into troposphere, about Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit & whathisname Celcius. In case you’re wondering I’m still on my Bill Bryson’s A Small History of Everything. Exactly my type of reading pleasures.

6. 2 hours of Internet time for Mummy.

This is soo gonna get permanent.

psstt even when the curfew’s lifted, I was too engrossed and missed House at 11pm. Cehs!

As promised, here are 3 pictures of Adani, courtesy of Ninuk a.k.a Uqbah’s Mak. Our pictures are so glap that if I post them, sungguh kurang berkesan.

Adani, in her typical pose. In the dressing room before the performance.

Uqbah the elephant & Adani the dancer. BTW there’s only 7 girls and 15 boys in her class, so I guess she’s entitled to 2 boys at any given time. Heh!

Stretching before her Madagascar.

My baby’s a big girl. *wipes eyes*

This morning Asha’s being rather difficult. She told us last night that Teacher Sharmila said that there’s no school today. I nicely told her, I did not think so, to a furrowed brows.

So, I called up MissKLSentral to confirm. Yup, I was right.

So, this morning, dressed and ready, MrGart suggested she bring a smaller bag to school and that triggered a “that’s my bag” and “mummy.!”.

Well, I left MrGart’s to his device and left the scene with Adani in tow. MrGart called me later and said that she was bawling her eyes out in the car and that they went and saw mainly bigger kids at school and he sent her home. Heh!

Well. Adani still has 3 more days of school next week and there’s a letter about a party and pot luck. Hmmp! Nak masak apa ye? Adani was talking about a BIG butterfly cake. Uh-uh!

Aliya’s been feeling under the weather lately. She has cold and was sniffing last night and slept early. She was a little warm. She woke up about 11pm and promptly went downstairs, almost sleep-walking-ly and sat on the sofa in the darkness, in tears. We followed her and directed her to the kitchen for her nurofen & promethazine.

Aliya has a habit of that actually. Especially when she falls asleeps not in her own bed and when we wake her up for her to move into her own bed. She’ll mumble and walks elsewhere and we haveto physically take her to her bed.

Teringat kat Najwa, roti‘s daughter. Is she still sleep-walking ?