RumbleTumbleMumble

Bye bye Miss Mumbles

2006-02-28T07:35:00.000+08:00

I'm back....to say goodbye.

Yup.

I'm quitting.
For good.(I think)

I took the time off to reflect on my purpose in life (fuuh, deep xia) and it just occured to me that the ones who need my time most are my children.
(gee, how come I didnt know these before...?hhmmm..)

I hate to say this but I've been a bad, bad mom (spank me, Hunny!) and this whole blogging thingythang is really taking up too much of my time and attention.

No good leh.

So...I hereby tender my resignation as Miss Mumbles.

Miss Mumbles shall no longer be writing silly things to *try* make people happy.

She shall be Aisyah's, Nadiah's & Firdaus' IBU from now on and she's trying to do her darndest to be a good one at that..

She thanks all of you out there for your ..readership?
She's had fun writing but it has to stop.

She appreciates all the friendship formed and she'll think of you lovelies out there time to time in between her vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing toilet,ironing and cooking..*yawn*

She had a blast blogging and she thinks you people should continue writing, tho'...

Perhaps one day, when she has learnt to manage her time better, she may come back...

She may, she may not.
She may not even be Miss Mumbles anymore...;)

But anyway, she says goodbye and behaaaave people.....!!

So c'mon now everybody...
"bye bye Miss Mumbles!!"

Toodles

2006-02-09T11:29:00.000+08:00

The above title would have sounded gay if I were a guy, which last I checked, I'm not but anyhoooo, I'll be taking an indefinite break from here...

I've to do something...for myself and for some people I love....
...my children.

So I won't be around much from today.

That also means I won't be bloghopping much (not that I do that regularly even) so if you don't see me for a while, it's bcos I'm busy in the real world paying attention to real important people, okie?

So....toodles, daahliiinks....

Hope to be back blogging soon.

I hope.

Take care and behavaaave.....;)

wet, wet, wet...

2006-02-06T17:21:00.000+08:00

I didnt have the time to take any photographic evidence cos I was busy raving and ranting and wailing and waving the senduk @ soup ladle @ most-feared-rotan-subsitute in the air whilst going into a trance screaming "u buat apaaaa???!! u takde keja lain eh??!! mari sini!! mari siniiiiiii !!! biaaaasa dia eh!!!! siap u ! siaaaaappp !!!"

patotlah senyap.
(no wonder quiet lah...)

for there he was in the kitchen, filling up his plastic cup till the cup runneth over god knows how much...

imagine this..he emptied my 8 litre water dispenser in one go !!

My kitchen was flooded and I had water dripping from the entire surface of the kitchen cabinet..!

Lately he had picked up the habit of drinking from a cup instead of his regular sippy and he got syioklah pouring water non-stop into his cup that he must have gotten into a trance himself watching the water flow that he forgot to click back the dispenser opening...

*rubs my i-no-bluff-you-really-flatlah chest*

he make my blood go upstairs ah just now!!
this boy ahh........aku masokkan NS skarang kang !!! :D

2006-02-06T14:48:00.000+08:00

I stumbled upon this at her blog and I just had to do it...

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Ratna!

While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes dressed up as ratna.
Ratna was first grown in America by the grandmother Maria Ann Smith, from whom her name comes.
The air around ratna is superheated to about five times the temperature of the sun!
It is bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same ratna.
Ratna will always turn right when leaving a cave!
To check whether ratna is safe to eat, drop her in a bowl of water; rotten ratna will sink, and fresh ratna will float!
In the Great Seal of the United States the eagle grasps 13 arrows and ratna!
The pupil of an octopus's eye is shaped like ratna.
During severe windstorms, ratna may sway several feet to either side.
Koalas sleep for 22 hours a day, two hours more than ratna.

later I go see whether I sink or float, hor....

Vroom, vroom..

2006-02-03T11:32:00.000+08:00

Suka korang aku pakai maternity dress, eh?

Sorry.
I'm not taking any pictures of me in that dress.

Dont want to put you people off motherhood..:D

Anyway.
I'm here to talk about my old dream of having a bike license.

When I was 15, I was soooo very much into bikes.
Big, sport bikes.
Like the one my bro is riding now.

I had bike posters all over my room.
Bike posters and bike posters alone.
No boy bands, no cute actors, just bike posters, thank you very much.

Please, it was a whole millienium back, I cant even remember what the models are so don't ask me.
But of coz, back then I can rattle off what bike is of what make, what model, what engine capacity blah blah blah.
I was that much into it.

And of coz, one fine day, I braced myself and asked my dad for permission to take up a bike license.

Normally, my dad being my dad, he'd hit the roof and rant and rave and stuffs would come out of his mouth that are totally unnecessary.

But somehow, when I asked him for permission that day, he took it cool.

He sat me down and guess what he did to put me off taking that bike license?

He casually told me about aaaaaall the gross bike accidents he'd encountered.
(He's a relief cab driver and he's seen his fair share of these things, you see)

He told me of that one time, he found the girlfriend wailing beside her limp boyfriend and when my dad tried to help him, his hand was soft and limp like rubber cos all his bones had been crushed.
c-r-u-s-h-e-d.
It was like holding plasticine, he said.

And then another time, how this fella had his tendons sticking out where his legs/toes used to be..

And then another where the guy was literally like a fish out of water, gasping for life after literally having flown off the highway at high speed...just waiting for death..

And then of coz, there was once, when the whole family was in the cab, we actually witnessed an accident right in front of my dad's cab.

It was at the East Coast flyover after McDonald's and these 2 guys on a bike skidded off the bend and they hit, err, the bend and my dad stopped the cab and got out to help.

I got out to look see look see too but that was bcos of 2 things :

1) It was a bike I like. A blue Honda CBR400
2) The guy was kinda cute. Heh.

But when we neared the guy to give him something to drink, I saw blood gushing out of his helmet.
He still had it on.

And when my dad tried to help him take it off, the thing was dripping all over the place much like when the time my waterbag burst when I was in labour.
Really.

I was like...eeww, eewww, eewwww but that didnt put me off bikes yet.

Anyway.

I begged and I whined but my dad still wouldnt let me.
I thought of taking it up secretly but I had no guts.

Besides, owang tua² kata if you do these things secretly without your parent's blessings, you won't be safe on the roads.
Rite.

Look at my bro.
I *just* discovered he took his license secretly too and I have lost count the no. of times he got into accidents.
Hhmm..

So I buried my dreams of riding one but I still get a high when I see those bikes on the road.
Especially when I see a Vimax.
*swoon*
My dad used to own one, man.
My dad rode a Vimax and my husband merely rode a RD125.
Guess which one I tumpang to work....heh.

But now...now I just gaze longingly at those beauties when I see them on the road.
The passion for bikes had long gone.
I just wistfully imagine time to time I'm riding one of them.
Especially a Vimax.

(I guess I'm getting old when I shudder and imagine how dangerous riding one actually can be...)

And now, if you ask me whether I'd let my kids take up a bike license, my answer would be......

..wait lah.
my kids haven't grown up yet, what.
How I know what to say....;P

I like my dress, you know....

2006-02-02T14:39:00.000+08:00

Guess what?
I'm sitting here typing this in my maternity dress....* G A S P * !!!!!!

Rilek, rilek...
I have not been bunting-nised.
I am merely....I merely ran out of things to wear at home, ok?

And besides, I was kinda sorting some stuffs from the storeroom to be given away/thrown and I saw some of my ol' maternity dresses and I thought that they were too pretty to be...given away and sigh...my itchiness kicked in *again* after visiting Dayak who just gave birth on Monday and so I thought why not? why dont I just relieve that feeling of being pregnant again without actually being pregnant..so there.
*tercungap² aku type*

I'm here in my ol' pretty maternity dress which I wore when I had Aisyah rite up to Firdaus.
Very the berjasa hor, this dress.

It's really pretty with small lil' colourful flowers here and there and man do I have nothing to blog about...;P

I wanted to tell you about Dayak giving birth but I wrote that already a coupla paragraphs back, rite?

Then I wanted to write about my weekend but it was just mundane stuffs like I went to a wedding, went CNY visiting, went Ikea, went to see Dayak blah blah blah...

Then I wanted to write about Hunny's 53 year old technician who's 49 year old wife had just given birth to their FOURTH baby but I'm still in shock and denial so will save that for later..

In the meantime, I am going to join Firdaus for a nap in my pretty, pretty maternity dress.

I just hope that Hunny doesnt come home early and get himself a heart attack seeing me in this thing...

Hanyut High...

2006-01-27T14:54:00.000+08:00

You know, I came from a really terok secondary school and during its heyday, it was the worst secondary school in the east area.
No joke.
We had more gang fights than 'O' level passes.

Despite that, I turned out alrite.
How, I donno.

Ok.
I do.
I thought about my dad slogging hard to raise all of us and how very much i wanted to get out of that minah and mat kawin² territory.

I knew that the only way to get out of such a cengkaman maut was to get good 'O' level results and distance myself away from these such people with such mentality forever and ever.

I believe that education is always the passport out of a lot of things.
Education, not money..tho' it'd be cool to have a lot of the latter.
orang giler jer tak nak duit banyak.

Do you know that in the year I took my 'O's, I am one of only 4-5 Malay students I knew who made it for tertiary education?
Hapra' kan?

But that was not what matters.
What matters is I get away from those people as much and as far as I can.
I just find that their mentality is not going to get them anywhere.
And it did.
They didnt get anywhere.

I mean, yeah sure, during the time I was there, especially during my upper secondary years, I was trying very hard to fit in.
But how to fit in with these minah² rock when I listen to Depeche Mode, Bros, PetShopBoys and read Smash Hits?;P

But still I try.

They asked me to play truant, I did.
Ok, once jer.
I have too much good blood in my system.

They asked me to get into gang fights, I did.
Terror kan?
I had to or else aku plak yang kena pukol.

They asked me to date one of the boys, I tried.
Tried but nothing happened, pheww..
He was too Mat for my liking and too quiet, really.
Good-looking but very Mat.

They even tried to get me to try smoking.
I went as far as holding the ciggie in my hand and then I think I took too darn long, they snatched it away from me.
Pheww.

I did everything they wanted me to do but I still feel that I was not really part of their group.
Not so much a persona non grata but more like, theirs is just not my lingua franca.
Saaapp.

I always try to reiterate to my kids, siblings, cuzzins just how damn important education is.

You can drift away for a while in trying to fit in but you must always come back to what you set out for in the first place.

To go to school to get a good education.
Not to go to school to get knocked up and pick up drugs and such.

Therefore I always find it sad whenever I pass by the secondary school just behind my block every Friday (for that's when the kids are dismissed early) and find myself in a Hanyut scene.
Really.

Young girls (sec 2 at most!) smoking, running around giggling and talking with a truck driver's vocab, girl sitting on boy's lap, girls hegeh²ing with their 'outside' boyfriends, boys whispering obscene-nothings into girls' ears, boys getting into fight with other boys, boys visually 'undressing' girls, used condoms on the floor......I can go on but I'd vomit.

And it's disturbing that even when this makcik (akulah tu!) passes by, they dont bat an eyelid and go on with their very dangerous and obscene activities.
No segan, no silu, no malu.

Aku ni dulu ada tau paisey kalau makcik² kat Bedok Interchange jeling..

And it's worse when Nadiah asks me "ibuuuu...what is that girl doing..?"
Sigh.

I have told Aisyah time and time again to please, please, pleaaaase study very very well for her PSLE so she doesn't have to go to Hanyut High behind.
I told her straight up what I saw and what happens every Friday and even she got squirmish.

I know, it's easier said than done and who's to know my kids won't turn out that way but I feel that as a parent, we also have to educate our kids from young about the perils of teenagehood and it's definitely our responsibility to keep an eye on them and keep track (where possible) on their daily going-ons..

It's not simply and merely providing food and clothing.

Food and clothing does not necessarily make a good child.

I sometimes just feel like telling those kids that hey, I was in their shoes too, trying to fit in, trying to be cool, trying to be one of 'em but merely being the prettiest one or the most popular girl in school or one of the cool ones wont get you anywhere if you ain't got a good head on your shoulders and good results to show for..

Sure, you'd be popular and people look up to you and you're oh-so-cool but for how long?

For long after your 'O' levels are over and when you're in dire need of good qualifications just to get a decent job or have people look at you respectably without disdain nor disgust or just being able to hold your head up high one day requires more than just...being one of 'em....

I know it's tuff being a teenager.
I was one too.
(God, I sound corny)

But hey, if I can make it, so can they...
It's really a matter of whether you want to or even whether you KNOW you want to.

Education, my friend...education.
That's what you all need and that's what you should all want.

Naaakkk !!

2006-01-25T14:30:00.000+08:00

Everytime I attend weddings, I will observe the akad nikah with much anticipation and perhaps a bit of glee? not becos I'm excited the marriage is taking place but I'm excited and anxious over what the kadi is going to ask the bride...!!

You know that part, before the akad nikah takes place, the kadi will go into the bride's room with the saksi and verifies her particulars etc and asks her whether she's agreeing to the marriage blah blah blah....?

Guess what my kadi (Omar Junaid) asked me when it was my time (a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, faaaaaaaaaaar away....) :

"Ratna M******, nak kawin tak ??" (
(the Ratna part had the typical tinge of 'e' as in RatEna which drives me crazy when people do that cos gee, if my parents had wanted an 'e' there, they'd have done it 33 years ago, damn it!! ;P)

Boley gitu?
Ask me whether I want to kawin or not?
Hell yeah, of coz..abuthen?

The thing was, he asked me just like a grandpa would when he askes his granddaughter
"nak gula² tak?"

I almost blurted out " Naaaaakkkkk " !!!

But I had to hold my horses and tell myself this is a prim and proper occassion and I don't think it will go down well with my family, aunts and uncles, cuzzins and friends if I had nodded my head vigorously and answered with glee
" Naaak ! Naaakkk !!"

The kadi would also have prolly said "chet...nak, tunggu besok malam, eh?"

And so I just nodded demurely (bila lagi nak step princess kan?) and he took that as a "yes, go ahead and marry me already!!" and went on outside to proceed with the akad nikah..

Since then, I'd always eagerly hover around the bride to hear what or how the kadi will ask the bride and I think mine was the only case I know so far where the kadi actually said that, in that way..

Not that I minded.
At all.

The kadi made it all very cute and relaxing for me, not at all fierce and stiff and adding on to the already tense situation..

Cute rite, the kadi?

Sigh.

Now, I only hear Hunny ask me "Sayang, nak 'kawin' taaaak??!!"

Gee, and guess what my answer is....

Blardy pants !!

2006-01-23T16:42:00.000+08:00

Aaarrrkkk!!!

I'm fat!!

No kidding.
I really am.

I was miserably trying on a pair of pants I had planned to wear for a dinner engagement last Friday nite when lo and behold, it just wouldn't go up past my knees !!

I huffed and I puffed and I blow...
Err, sorry.
Forgot, family blog lah...

I jumped and I hopped and I heaved and yet, it still didnt get past my knees.

And then I knew it.
I have put on weight.
Ignominies of ignominies.

I was sooo despondent, I almost went into semi-depression.
I cant go into complete depression or else Hunny would whack the living daylights out of me.
He hates me mopping around like that.
But waitseminute, I like to be whacked what..
Ahem.

So anyyyyway.
I got into panic mode and have since cut down on my rice intake.
Drastically.

I now only eat rice for lunch and salad for dinner.
Sambal belacan and kicap cili padi are banned from this household.
(For now.)

I am trying my darndest to stop snacking for that's what did me in.

But err, if people don't see, still can count or not??;P

You want a what...???!!

2006-01-19T11:21:00.000+08:00

Imagine my shock, shock, horror, horror, shock, shock, horror when Hunny casually remarked a coupla days back that gee, he's mentally ready for a fourth kid.....!!

*rubs my already-flat chest vigorously....anjat mak*

mentally ready??
abih all the physical things are done by whom??
*rolls eyes*

this man ah..when I want, he dowan..
when I dowan, he want..
and err, I'm not only taking about children..
ahem...

The reason he gave is, the kids are all spaced out already.
(err, not spaced out like stoned kinda spaced out ok..)

They're all three years apart and this will be the year Firdaus turns three so, yeah, he's pretty ready to have the fourth one..
(order bang, order...)

*still in shock, shock, horror, horror mode*

All these while when I suggested the fourth one, he was the one that went "bbrrrr....."
And now he's going all "gggrrrrr..."

I, on the other hand, am not keen cos...
I just am not anymore.
Period.

Yeah,sure, I still go wistful and forlorn when I see newborns but the thought of going thru the whole thing is really, really tiring for me.

Physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically tiring.
(note: I did not say sexually. Heh.)

I like the stage at which my kids are at now : semi-independent.

No more waking up in the middle of the nite, no more mouths sucking my bedendengs dry, no more monthly jabs, no more frantic guessing what this next cry is all about...
I have had enuff of that.
Honestly.

It's fun to play with babies once in a while but to go thru that whole cycle of caring and worrying is just too much for me.

I'm too fierce a mom, anyway.

And Aisyah's math syllabus is enuff to put me or anyone off parenting, really.
(Simultaneous equation in P3 !!??!!! )

So I gave him a look that said "Hunny darlin'..you had better be joking cos there is no way I'm going to go thru all that anymore" and he just....looked at me.

I hope that look was a "oh, ok then. forget it" and not the "you watch out you, I'm gonna screw you until you vomit² ah.." look...

bbbrrrr....

Dubai 2007?

2006-01-18T12:01:00.000+08:00

We sent off Hunny's parents @ my in-laws at the airport last nite.

They're off to Dubai for a whole month!!
Mebbe more if they feel like it.

My SIL is an Emirates crew, remember?
So she's got an apartment there and that's where my PIL will be staying at..
An apartment on I-can't-remember-which-floor-but-you-can-see-clouds-there..!!

I think they should stay there longer.
Nothing bitchy here, ok.

I mean, they're old and not working.
They really have nary a worry actually.

They don't have small kids to look after at home.
They don't have homework to go thru or assesment papers to mark.
They don't have to worry about work and leave applications.
They don't have to worry about work project deadlines.
They don't have to worry about a lot of things.

All their kids are grown up with their own families, anyway.

So I say, go on, enjoy the change in the pace of lifestyle there...
(err, what is the pace of lifestyle in Dubai eh?)

I mean, they deserve it.
All those years of working hard and raising a family certainly deserves a lavish break where possible.
And this is about as lavish a break as one can get, I think.

If it were me, I'd stay there longer.
Especially if I don't have any commitments back home.

And it's not solely to stay longer so I can shop more.
(that didn't sound rite. I will stay longer to shop more, wat. oh, watever..)

I mean, if it were me, I'd stay there longer to really soak in the atmosphere, to immerse myself in my new surroundings, to people-watch, to tickle my tastebuds, to try new adventures, to discover new places and more of His creations I would otherwise not have the chance to discover...

I would do all that and more.
plus the shopping, of coz.

On the way home last nite, I was lamenting to Hunny how had Aisyah still be in kindy rite now, we'd have definitely joined my PIL for the whole month!!!

Right now, we can only wistfully imagine that we're in Dubai, up there in the apartment amongst the clouds, hurriedly unpacking so that we could go on down and explore the streets outside..

Mebbe perhaps we should change our 2007 *original-unnamed* trip to Dubai instead, huh?

P is for...

2006-01-17T08:38:00.000+08:00

Okay.

So I'm back to blog again.

Question is, where do I start?
Hhhmm...

Ok.
I shall start with...ta daaa !!
Aisyah becoming a prefect.
*rolls eyes*

I am so not keen on her becoming one but she's been very interested in it since she saw prefects in school and when she was selected last week, she was all over the place...!

She didn't really say it out loud but I can tell she was silently begging me to let her be one.
How do I know?
I'm her mother.
I know.
We mothers always know.
We got magic, okay.
Even David Blaine doesn't have this cos darlin', he ain't one..

Anyway.
I donno why I was not keen.

Gee, mebbe it was the way those mean,plastic,minah kawin² girls at school treated me after I became one in Sec 1 that kinda traumatised me.
(I quit after Sec 1..)

I tried to tell her about the perils of becoming a prefect but in the end, I was swayed by all the advice given by some moms at the parenting board I frequent and so therefore, she became one.

*She was so thankful and grateful (wait!don't they mean the same thing?) she kissed and hugged me and Hunny ever so tightly.*

My little prim and proper prefect.

But I told her tho', if her grades were to slackened bcos of this, she'd have to forego that coveted badge and tie in June cos yup, I gave her 6 months to prove to me that she can handle it.

And she had better...

And what prefect duties does she have to do for now..?
Guard the stairs during Assembly..

Duh?
Don't they have metal railings for that..?

SMS me..

2006-01-11T11:51:00.000+08:00

I don't know why and I don't know how (gee, that sounded like some smart lyrics to a corny love song) but I'm seriously losing interest in this lil' blog of mine.
*gasp*!!

It seems that by the time I get to my regular blogging time, I'm all worn out!

I've been up since 5.45am and been doing housework non-stop that I'm not even compelled to turn on the pc anymore coz whatever rest time I can get is, well, for resting !!

And by the time the housework gets done, the house is all cosy and clean and quiet and gee, tranquil even, that I prefer lounging on my cosy bed with my clean bedsheets poring over my books or magazines..

It's more fun doing all that than coming into the toy room to turn on the pc and ...surf.
*yawn*
I'm getting too old for all this, huh?

Sigh.

Nowadays, I find myself switching on the pc to read emails only if someone alerts me via sms about something urgent that I have to read..like this morning.

My dear friend Dayak sms-ed me to read a rather urgent email from her regarding her new maid.

You see, Dayak is expecting her 3rd boy anytime now and her current hubby cum bangla worker has had enuff of housework hence the maid..but she and I are those sort who are not really into this whole maid thingythang.

It's only bcos of the urgency of her situation and the fed-upness of her hubby that they resorted to having a maid.

Anyway, she got freaked out cos apparently, during dinner last nite (i think) her dear hubby somehow tersedak/choked on his kicap cilipadi combo and somehow, her maid promptly poured him a drink and didn't do so for her..which got my dear Dayak all freaked out !

She was wailing (I have to exagerrate, you know) and whining about how insolent that was and the maid must be up to something yada yada yada..

The rest of us, her trusted girlfriends (Tikus and me) and Jai (our honorary girlfriend cos he loves to bitch and gossip with us much more than hanging out with the guys,serious) had to reassure Dayak that she's just being hormonal and gee, if we were the maid, of coz we'd suck up to the boss who pays our salary than his wife (who may or may not be the one paying but gee, who cares..? in the Asian household, the men is king !)

I think she's calmed down by now for she had better be.

(Note to Dayak if you're reading this for I know you are : Kau jangan nak kanchiong, Mah. Rilek babe. Aku dah cakap, kau lagi jembu dari tu maid.Kita sumer lagi jembu dari tu maid. Apa lagi kau nak kita cakap?;D)

Hhmm.
I just paused and re-read this entry and realised I lost my point.
What was I trying to say??

Oh yah.
The thing is..I don't really bother to read my emails or update my blog anymore unless it's really necessary or urgent.

So if you people have urgent emails for me to read, like your maid feeding your hubby rice with her hands whilst sitting on his lap, please do send me an sms pronto.

Thank you.

2006-01-04T16:34:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, I had my first taste of life as an AM-SESSION MOM.
Uh-huh.
Got such thing one, you know..
Donno meh?

All these while, I was the PM-Session Mom.
For TWO years, I was that..until Tuesday.

Here's what happened that day.

5.50AM
My h/p alarm went off.
But bcos I was still nursing a migraine, I set it to 5 mins later.

5.55AM.
The darn alarm went off again and I wondered why Aisyah had to grow up so fast.
Can't she just stay a baby??
Sigh.

Showered and dressed.

6.10AM
Woke her up.
The thing I love about her is that, she had been a super easy baby and is still a super easy kid.
In many areas.
So, when I called her name (once only, somemore) she sprang up and went off to the bathroom.
Takder hek, takder hok.
I was denied a chance to be the quintessential subuh Tarzan.
Sheesh.

6.20AM
She finished showering and solat with ayah.
Waking her up is easier than waking her, you guessed it, ayah.
Heh.

6.30AM
Sat down for breakfast with me.
We chit chat, talk cock sing song until 7.

7AM
I got ready, she put on her socks and shoes.

7.05AM
We left the house.
For the first time in almost 2 years, I walked her to school.
She's normally independent and I'm normally lazy but it was still a wee bit dark and damn, I need the exercise...

7.20AM
I reached back home.
Forgot to climb up the 11 flight of stairs.
Berkobar² nak exercise abih lupa...

Cleaned up the kitchen, start preparing the ingredients for lunch later.
Cleaned the rest of the house.

9AM
Firdaus woke up.
I had to feed this eating-machine first.
Then it was the usual shower and play routine.
Nadiah followed next.
She doesn't have to go to school today as only the nursery students are allowed to familiarise themselves these next few days.
So that means I have 2 small kids to drive me crazy this morning.

1.20PM
Aisyah came home.
Showered.
Solat.
Lunch.
Homework.
Assessment.
Rest and Play.

6.45PM
Hunny came home and life is back to normal somehow.

At this point in time, I am dying to sleep but bcos I still have my wifely and motherly duties (read:prepare dinner, feed the small ones, clean up, do dishes, fold laundry. doubleread: be the house elf) I soldiered on till 11pm for that's when I knocked out.

Migoodnees.
I have been up from 6am to 11pm and my brains felt like splitting whilst my eyes felt like popping and I have the next EIGHT YEARS (P3 to Sec 4) of these in my life!!

*faints*

Hel-looooo !!

2006-01-04T15:32:00.000+08:00

*ms mumbles crawling out of the dust and rubble*

Hel-lo 2006 !!

Wah.
It's been so long I wrote that I don't know where to begin.
*yeah rite*

Oklah.
I begin with the day after I stopped writing.

Friday, I saw myself going to THREE sales in ONE day.
I is the efficient.
Kill many² birds with 1 stone, mah.
Got birds, kill lah.
No have bird, don't kill.
Just play.
Hur hur hur.

Yah, so I went to the Branded Sale, Times Books Warehouse Sale and Metro Warehouse Sale at the S'pore Expo and blew my moolah there.
Spend like there is no tomorrow.
Sign, jangan takot...

I was there with my kids, my mom and my sis.
My mom must also have been one happy lady.
She too, spent like there is no tomorrow.
Gee I wonder where I got that trait from..?
Hhmm..dum dee doo dee doo dee..
Kesian bapak aku banting tulang bawak teksi...;P
Tapi mak gua suka, bapak gua lagi suka per...

Then on Saturday, I attended Nick's wedding.
The event of the whole weekend.

Nick was my class rep @ class monitor during my 2nd and 3rd year at SP.
Big, tall, quirky, funny, witty, smart Nick.

I'll write all about that in another post, ok?
Promise.

Then, there's New Year's Eve.
Gee, what did I do on NYE?
Why...sleep, of coz!!

Actually, I didn't plan to.
I had wanted to bring the kids to watch fireworks but Hunny warned me that he ain't driving into the city on the eve, no way hosay, and besides, the roads will be closed from 9pm to 2 am anyway...so there goes my fireworks plans..

And just as I reached back home after the wedding, I had a monster migraine so popped a pill and off to bed I went.

Besides, I'm too old for all that 'auld lang syne' thingythang..

On NY's Day itself, I attended a wedding that got me all freaked out.
After attending this wedding, the only way to top off this wedding when I plan the girls' is to :
1) get the SSO to play during the wedding
2) have Aussino bedsheet sets to give out as berkats
3) have a deco that outshines even Ritz-Carlton's
4) have buffet spreads that line the whole preimeter of the darn room!!

Migoodness.
I wonder how much did that wedding come up to..?
If this is how weddings will be, I want it sweet and simple when it's the girls' turn.
Maybe I'd set a new trend and have a Mcdonald's party, yes?no?

Ah well.
To each his own.
But the poor dad..
tsst, tsst..

And then there's Monday (rest day) and then there's the first-day-of-school Day, which was yesterday...

And for that, I think I'd better go start a new post eh?

Goodbye, Hello..

2005-12-29T15:09:00.000+08:00

Since everyone everywhere is doing the 'how-my-year-went' and 'what-I-am-going-to-do-in-the-new-year' entry, I shall be unoriginal and join them too..;P

2005 was very...eventful for me.

From the good to the bad to the ugly.

I had Hunny leave us for his Shanghai trip in January, I had that run-in with my SIL but amazingly, things turned out for the better where our family relations was concerned, I had that unplanned NZ trip which has to take the cake, I had a crazy girl's nite out with my girlfrens, I had that outrageous M4M's DnD which was out of this world, I met and made new friends, some I knew from this blog and then some...

So.
What am I going to ask for in 2006?
Gee I donno.
I've been asking for a bigger bust since 1985 but nothing's grown.
Hhmm..

But seriously, I think I will be blogging less, if not at all, in the coming year.

You see, Aisyah will be in the morning session whilst Nadiah will still be in the afternoon slot.
So I think I'll be stretched thin juggling my errands and managing my time.
With Aisyah at home in the afternoons, that means I'll be the one coaching her in her homework and assessments.
*Poor thing*

Which means I will have to sit down with her.
*poor thing*
Which means I have to give up my time on the pc.
*poor me..*
Yeah rite.

But no, seriously, I'd really have to blog less to be able to pay more attention to her studies and her schoolwork.

I do have some things in store for 2006 which I'd like to see myself actually accomplishing it but I'd rather keep 'em private.
No, it doesn't involve flipping more kain pelekats.

And also, I'll be heading off to my mom's place tonite and will be there till perhaps Monday.
waitaminute!
my mom's place oso got internet what...so why do I sound like I will be out of cybertouch?
sheesh.

Ok.
But I will be busy running errands and attending weddings this weekend so if I don't log in here, here's wishing all of you a happy brand new year...

Behave, ok ?;P

The long and short of it...

2005-12-27T16:04:00.000+08:00

I didn't do much over the long weekend.
I think.

But here's what did happen...

* Narnia was good.
Bro, sorry I didn't get back to you on this earlier but it was good, rite..? Your kids enjoyed it? Mine did. I had to go and get the book after that for Aisyah to pore thru the details.

* We FINALLY bought Aisyah's school books, wrote her name and wrapped it.
Now I just need to remember where I put it.

* I actually finished folding the entire mountain of clothes sitting on the girls' bed.
There were so many I think I folded clothes in my sleep later that nite!
Thank god I didn't have any clothes nitemare that nite..like encountering flying
t-shirts and flipping kain pelekats.
Oooh. I don't mind the latter.Really.

* We spent Sunday at the beach, cycling!!
I forgot which millenium was it that I last cycled but ha-mazingly I didnt fall at all!! I can still cycle. And yet Kain Pelekat Man was so worried for me. Cheh. Can't you have a lil' bit of faith in your Kain Pelekat Undo-er?

And even Nadiah the tiny one cycled on her own for the whole hour without complaining! The minute she got off the bike after that one hour, she turned and told me "Ibu, I want to buy that bike..."
Iyerlah nak, order, order....nanti besok bapak kau chop duit.

* We now have our room and our matrimonial bed back!! whohoooo...!!!
You see, all the kids have been sleeping with us since we 'made them' and on Sunday nite, I 'let' them go and now, Nadiah and Firdaus share the pull-out bed in one room whilst Aisyah has the loft bed all to herself in the other.

And Ibu and Ayah can now frolick in bed in peace with no kid in between. It felt like our first nite all over again. Serious.

* My brand new 2 month-old phone went kaput!
I kinda forgot it was hung around my neck and whilst looking for seashells in the sea (abuthen?? in his kain pelekat??!?) it kinda dipped in the waters and the next day,I brought it to the Nokia Centre only to be told it's badly corroded.

I is the serik. I want my old phone back!! It's all Kain Pelekat Man's fault. He bought me the phone, I didn't ask for it. I asked for something else. Hur hur hur.*Looks at watch and counts the hours till Kain Pelekat Man comes back*

* My cuzzin and I are planning for a trip in 2007.
InsyaAllah, if it all goes as planned, whohhooooo....
If it doesn't, it doesn't. Life is not all about that trip anyway.
Hidop takmo shallow, beb ;P

* I called up the neighbourhood police last nite.
Imagine, at 11.45pm, there's a big family playing basketball, running and screaming and laughing, at the basketball court right next to my block!!

It lasted till 12.30am for that's when the men in blue came and told them to leave. Makkaw, dah malam² buta baru nak ada family time main basketball??! Tadi siang buta buat aper? Bukak prezen tak abis²?

* Heh. I must remember to keep track of time when I send Firdaus off to stand in the corner.
A coupla days back, I sent him to the corner, went to the kitchen, made nasi lemak, cleaned, swept the kitchen floor, did the dishes, passed thru the living room (where he's standing) and found him still at the corner, standing there quietly!!

And this morning, I forgot about him again and found him dozing off there, with his heads bopping to and fro ala orang ngantok kat dalam mrt..I think he must have been left standing there for almost an hour.
The cute thing is, he doesn't move off from the corner and doesn't dare cry for help.

And so there you go...my long Christmas weekend with nothing much happening;P

2005-12-22T13:41:00.000+08:00

My Kain Pelekat Man, as I shall call him from now on, will be taking the Kain Pelekat Undo-er, as I shall call myself from now on oso, and the Kain Pelekat By-Products, as I shall call those products of nocturnal kain pelekat flipping sessions, to see the Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe at the Cinema later at the Sunplaza...

*what a mouthful.I bet I can make a movie out of this and use the above as my movie title oso..*

Therefore.........

...shoot, I forgot what this entry was about.

*ponders for a moment and thoughtfully rubs the blackheads on her chin*

..oh, therefore,this is all I have to post today...

Later, I shall come back and tell you all about the lion, the witch, the wardrobe and wonder why such an ingenious writer couldn't have come up with a better
stylo-mylo, chic, intellectual-sounding title for his book...

Imagine, if I were to write a romance novel, I shall title it :
The man, the woman, the bed...

waah..very cheem, rite?

SE7EN

2005-12-20T12:18:00.000+08:00

I owe her this yonks back..

(I feel so juvenile doing this. I *am* a mom, for heaven's sake!!)

Se7en things that scares me
1. Hunny running out of kain pelekats. Oh no...
2. My credit card being taken away..how am I going to practice my signing then?
3. LV closing down! *gasp* the horror
4. Shoes being banned! *double gasp*
6. Flying becomes obscenely expensive. *All hail budget airlines*...
7. Sex becomes rationed. *faints*

Se7en things I like most
1. Hunny in kain pelekat. hur hur hur
2. SALE signs.
3. My home being spick and span which of coz is made IMpossible courtesy of the kids.
4. Clean bedsheets.The cleaner the sheets, the dirtier the 'act'.Ahem.
5. Hunny hugging/cuddling me.
6. My children laughing and playing PEACEFULLY.
7. Leaving the airport on a plane..!

Se7en most important things in my room
1. Hunny
2. in
3. kain pelekat
4. on
5. clean
6. bedsheets.
7. Water bottle.For after.Thirsty, you know..

Se7en random facts about me
1. I'm a nymph reincarnate.
2. I have to have chilli in my food.(Not on my bedsheets lah.When I say I want it hot in the bedroom, I don't mean chilli hot, wat..)
3. I'm a voracious reader.I read anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere.
4. I cry when I'm *VERY* angry.
5. I'm a shoe-whore.
6. I get therapy out of watching the washing machine spin.
7. I hate people who do things slow..by that I mean people who terhegeh²
Eat hegeh², walk hegeh², do things hegeh², decide hegeh²..
These people should be executed with the Hegeh² Gun.
Then they'll die a slow death.
Hur hur.

Se7en things I plan to do before I die
1. Have a good last one with Hunny.
2. Make sure Hunny goes for vasectomy after that.
3. Make sure I throw away all his kain pelekats
4. Make sure I throw away all the clean bedsheets.
5. Make sure Nadiah grows.
6. Make peace with my mom
7. Brainwash my kids "stepmoms are eviiiiil"

Se7en things I can do
1. Make Hunny's kain pelekat disappear.Magic, hor?
2. Make babies. Terror, hor? I so crever. *flips kain pelekat*
3. Make Hunny say 'yes' to a lot of things. Especially nocturnal things.Hur Hur.
4. Write complain letters.My forte.
5. Merajok burok.My specialty.
6. Make friends easily.IF the 'frequency' is rite, I can talk to that person like we've known each other yonks!!
7. Flirt...(Ask my victims)Heh.

Se7en things I can't do (this one a lot, leh. I have more than 7 million)
1. Anything technical.I was a business student only, mah.
2. Eat jamu.Just kill me, will ya?
3. Read manuals/maps.
4. Handle the three kids on my own IN PUBLIC.
5. Touch my mom affectionately.
6. Finish my antibiotics.
7. Live without Hunny and the children.

Se7en words I say most
Ok.
There are 2 versions.
Version 1.1
1. Aisyah!
2. Nadiah!!
3. Firdaaauusss!!!
4. Pick
5. up
6. your
7. toys!!!!!!!!!!!

Version 1.2
1. Hunny
2. Take
3. off
4. your
5. kain
6. pelekat
7. NOWWW !! *slurp*

Se7en celeb crushes
1. the black guy in Third Watch
2. George Clooney
3. Tommy Lee Jones.Don't ask me why
4. Danny from 'Las Vegas'
5. Mike from 'Las Vegas'
6. Donnie Yuen/Yen.
7. Pierce Brosnan.

Se7en people I'll love to see doing this
1. I
2. won't
3. torture
4. anybody
5. else
6. out
7. there..

But then of coz, you people are more than welcome to waste more than 30 minutes of your time cracking your brains to do this..
Have fun..!

edited to add :
Didnt u all noticed that I missed no.5 in Se7en things that scares me?

Ok.
So here's no.5
5. My bedendengs sagging down south.
Waitseminit!!
They already are !!
I can see them in Australia from here..!!!

T,EEN, TIT, ANS...

2005-12-16T18:16:00.000+08:00

No, I am not broke yet.

I haven't spend my Happy Money,as I shall call his b/o/n/u/s from now on, yet.

Even tho' we did go out to town yesterday.

But it was not to spend my Happy Money..

It was for that 'T, EEN, TIT, ANS..TEEN TITANS, LET'S GO !!'
*HELP! HELLLPP! Somebody please get that darn song out of my head!!*

Sigh.

The things we do for these kids.

Sanggop seh lennap (line-up)

From 6pm somemore.
One hour before the show starts.
Which was a good thing we did cos a few minutes later, the line was pretty long already.
How Singaporean.

Then we had to wait in the queue for that one hour and I had to listen to the girls rave on and on and on about Teen Titans dan sumer yang sewaktu dengannyer.

Well, at least now I know who are the five weirdos that make up Teen Titans.
Ahem.
Dowan to ask me ah?

I say, hor..?

Raven, Starfire, Robin, Beastboy, Cyborg.

Rite?Rite?
Correct..?

I so crever...
hhmmpph...
*flips hair ala Starfire*

Ka-ching !!

2005-12-14T13:20:00.000+08:00

Today, I solemnly (don't pray pray ah..serious matter ok) declare that Hunny aka Dr FeelGood is indeed my favouritest person in the whole wide world....

Today, I will do anything he asks me to.

Anything.

Masagge, scratch (yes, he loves having me run-my-fingers/scratch *lightly* his bare body), suap-nasi-dengan-tangan, prepare his ice-cream (please, it is those normal, real ice-cream that normal people normally eat..tsst, menjadi² eh korang) whatever, whatever he wants..

..for today, he will be getting his b/o/n/u/s....

*ms mumbles doing the jiggy*

Hunny, if you're reading this, which I know you don't cos you just..don't, I love you many many, you know...

And that cheque...make it blank please..?;p

Now where's my doctor..??

2005-12-14T12:31:00.000+08:00

Oohhh....get this:
Hunny's porn name is...

Your Porn Star Name Is...

Dr. Feelgood

What's Your Porn Star Name?

no wonder I always, ahem..fall sick.....;p
hur hur..

*looks at watch and wondering whether the Dr will be home for lunch....yeoowww*

Call me..

2005-12-13T18:17:00.000+08:00

And when I act in porn, my porn name will be..

Your Porn Star Name Is...

Busty de Lusty

What's Your Porn Star Name?

*looks down at her changi airport runway and wails*

jauh xia....

The thing is...

2005-12-12T17:05:00.000+08:00

I have this thing for chinesey-looking guys.

I have this thing for chinesey-looking guys with specs.
*looks at Hunny*

I have this thing for chinesey-looking guys with specs and short, short hair.
*looks hard at Hunny*

Ahem.

Hunny just came back from the barber with short,short hair.

And I also have this thing (man, I do have a lot of things huh..???) for chinesey-looking guys with specs and short,short hair in err, kain pelekat.

*looks hard at Hunny and stares at his kain pelekat*

**fyi,Hunny just finished doing his solat in his kain pelekat**

yeowww...ggrrrr....

*siap kau, Hunny...*

**ms mumbles sashaying out of the room with saliva drippin' all over the floor**

Let's play hang-man

2005-12-08T15:49:00.000+08:00

I heard the news on radio whilst I was doing my oh-so-important job of doing the dishes and I just stopped mid-way in my plate-rinsing motion and my heart just bled...

It was the news of the lady who passed away after being beaten to death for over an hour by that animal of a husband..

She was initially unconscious and the case was classified as a domestic quarrel thingy but when she did pass away, it was re-classified as murder.

I donno.

My heart just bled for her.

I wouldnt know shit what she went thru cos He blessed me with a sweet wonderful husband and I ain't saying this for blogging's sake..

My Hunny does spank me.
*ahem*
In ways that I loike.
*ahem..cough, cough...*

But seriously, even if I didnt warn him before our wedding "lay one finger on me and I'm gone.." he's still just not the sort.
Hey, I smack the girls harder than he does.
He just gets very angry and stop.
I go on and on and on..Ariston...
*watever*

My point is, amongst a lot of my life's blessings, Hunny is the biggest by far..
God gave me an *almost* perfect husband.
Really.

Anyyyyyway, I just...don't get this hitting-the-wife thingy.
Very cowardly of the man, if you ask me.
Cheh.
To hit a woman.
Bollocks!
Go find one of your kind, your size and hit lah..pas tu lu tunjuk saper hero..

And when I read the news that her brother-in-law came back to the house and managed to steal a glance inside (he wasn't let in cos the police were there already) and saw several teeth on the floor, I just.....felt so, so, so heart-broken and sad for the deceased lady.

Imagine the pain she must have endured.

Imagine her misery.

Imagine her cry for help.

Imagine her heartbreak.

Who would have thought that they'd one day die at the hands of the one the love..?

I know domestic abuse is pretty common..I've seen some..but in this case, where the spouse actually dies as a result, is just too blardy friggin' much...

And don't gimme that "hey, I was drunk,I didn't know what I was doin'.." shit.

In the first blardy place, what business do you have getting friggin' drunk..?

And this..piece of crap that he is, had the audacity to ask to see his wife's body for the last time before she's placed to rest in peace...

Like...makkaw....
Sorry..I just couldn't take it.

Bottomline : I want to see him hanged for murder.

Harsh, you think...?
A'ah.
The shit he did to her was harsher.

My poor baby..

2005-12-07T14:35:00.000+08:00

Aarrrkk!

Nadiah had a bad fall!!

She was at my mom's and was out with her sis and my sis when she fell.

She was in fact in the middle and her hands were held on either side by her sis and her aunt and yet she fell, her face smacking the pavement first, with nothing to break her fall..!!
How that happened, I have no idea.

Apparently her mouth bled profusely and get this : 4-5 of her teeth were knocked inwards at a 45 degree angle!!

I had no idea how bad it was.

Aisyah apparently called her dad on his mobile while he was in a meeting and my mom called me a few minutes later to tell me but nobody raised any alarm bells so I thought it was a minor, normal fall where gums normally bleed and thought nothing further about it...

Until my brother called me later at nite and told me they're bringing her to the dentist!

And I was wondering, whatever for...
I mean, if it was just a small fall and her teeth shook, hey, that's pretty normal to me.
Stuffs like that happen to kids all the time..

And then it was only later that he told me about 4-5 of her teeth were bent inwards and there was a lot of blood clots in between her teeth and that she's been crying helplessly *from all that shock*, I guess..

And then I started to worry.

I mean I am at my own home and she's at my mom's and I know she must be in pain and I'm all worried and restless and I can't sit still and of all days, Hunny came home late and he was actually tired for he's been on the road for the most part of the day..

But he sensed that my heart's not with me and he told me to let him rest a lil' and then he told me to pack and off we went to my mom's...

And I was bracing myself to see Nadiah without freaking out...

And when I did see her, my heart just cracked..

Her mouth was so big, so swollen and her teeth was all...aiyah, i cannot describe..
She still had lots of blood clots in between her teeth and her speech is not clear at times..

Thankfully the dentist saw no need to pull out her teeth.
What he did was to just pull the teeth back into alignment and he did say that if they do drop, they'll just drop normally like babies' teeth do...no urgency for an extraction at this point..

Pheww..

Even the vain patient told her aunt before they left for the dentist that :
I dowan to bogey....(I dont want to be toothless) in a very heartbreaking voice..

Sigh.

I'm just glad her teeth didnt need to be extracted and that after all that, she's pretty okay..

I just...sigh..it's a mommy thing...your heart just breaks to see your kid in so much pain and you can't do anything *much* about it....:(

The Crimson Tide

2005-12-06T17:02:00.000+08:00

I know this might embarrass her "like oh-gawd-i-cant-believe-she-did-that-where-am-i-now-gonna-hide-my-*cyber*face?!!!" embarass but peduli haper aku, who cares....she's the one who got it, not me...
*cruel smirk*

I can't believe it finally happened to her.

I thought I just helped to bring her back home from the hospital just yesterday...?
No?

I remember the day I did bring her back home from the hospital with my mom.
My dad had to work *as usual, tak abis² keja* and since I was the eldest, I was next in line in the line of the responsibility line.
Watever.

My dad did send me to the hospital to fetch my mom I think but he had to leave rite after that so there I was, with the baby in my arms and my mom by my side.
Mak aku ni pon..dah branak bukan tau nak dokong anak dia.;p

Man, come to think of it,I must have looked like a teenage mom who had to discreetly leave the hospital with the angry/disappointed parent by her side and the fatherless baby in her arms.
Hur hur.

And in the cab ride back home, I remembered looking down at her and seeing just how beautiful and tiny she was and it felt magical...like..magic.
Watever.

I mean, here's this tiny person who's so cute and adorable and looked at peace snuggled in my arms and to think I was all depressed when my mom announced her existence some 9 months back...

Imagine..my mom got pregnant *AGAIN* with her FIFTH baby when I was in my friggin' SECOND YEAR AT POLY !!!
makkaww...gua tak leh angkat...sungguhmemalukan.com

Why embarrassing, you ask?
Bcos I'm already EIGHTEEN, for heaven's sake !!
I'm a teenager for heaven's sake..!!
I was in a new world of boys and new friends and all that shit and life was cool and suddenly my mom told me she's pregnant again, for heaven's sake !!

Corny but my world kinda spiralled when I heard that news..

Like..dude..how uncool is it to have a pregnant mom by your side and have your uber hip friends tease you for it..?
*flips hair ala Brenda from Beverly Hills 90210..gawd, do u remember that??*

I was so darn depressed I was mopping around with a long sulky face full of attitude ala Brenda the next couple of days in school but this thing that my ex-bestfriend (ok, ok, one day I WILL tell you why we're ex-bestfriends..!!)said to me just freaked me out the way only 18 year olds can be freaked out..

So, like there I was in the lecture theatre staring into space wondering how the hell did my mom get pregnant *again* when she, my ex-bestfriend lah, my mom doesn't go to school with me mah.., said to me :
"Kau ni apasal ahh...? Asik monyong ajer...
Asal? Mak kau ngandong lagi eh??" *smirk*

And then I gasped and I looked at her and her jaw dropped and she looked at me and I think we both screamed in unison and just freaked out like...you guessed it, 18 year olds do..
Heh.

I mean..how did she get that?
Later we both laughed and giggled nervously (very 18 year old-ish) and she was like 'dude...I can't believe it. I mean, what can be more depressing than that ?' and I was like 'wah leow weh, how can you ever guess? but u're rite dude, it's the most embarrassing and depressing thing that can happen to us, rite..?'

and we went on with our laughs and nervous giggle that lasted all thru our 3 years in poly...

After that, I stopped mopping around cos I didnt have to carry that burdensome, embarrassing secret of having a pregnant *again* mom.
Heh.

Fast forward 14 years later.

I have recovered from the embarrassment of my mom being pregnant and giving birth.
Alhamdulillah.
Heh.

The lil' bundle I helped to bring back home has all grown up..much taller than me.
She just celebrated her birthday a coupla weeks back but that was not what I was going "aaawww-she's-all-grown-up-now" about...

She has just earned herself membership to the uber exclusive Crimson Club.

Heh.

And the jokes she had to endure...
Tsst..tsstt..

Thank god my mom gave birth to me first.
And thank god my mom's no longer pregnant.
I hope.
Heh.

Crimson Tide Club's Newest Member..

2005-12-05T15:17:00.000+08:00

I'm on a roll, can't you see...?;)

Next topic : PSLE results.
Heh.

I used to think, or rather assume, that kids who came from an English-speaking family would have some sort of edge over kids who don't.

HUMBUG!!

I know of a family where both parents were typically educated till 'O' levels and everybody speaks English but year after year, their kids only made it to the Normal stream...
(they got kids who take PSLE year after year...their kids are born 1 year apart lah dey...!)

so tell me, where did their engrish ranguage prowess come in??

and they are a growing number of typical family with such backgrounds..
Heck, I think most of us came from such backgrounds..!!

And then, there's my cousin Wisno.

His dad, my favouritest paman in the whole wide world, is a mere technician who was VITB (remember VITB? remember those VI boys in their tight mat-rock brown uniform pants??!;p) educated and his mom was a village lass from Tanjong Pinang, Indonesia who spoke no word of English till today.

He's the eldest of three siblings and they all speak Malay at home and everywhere.

Holidays are spent back at his mom's kampong.
No enrichment classes, no tuition, nothing.

He himself is a rather playful mischievous boy.
Everytime I see him, he's always up to something.
Disturbing the peace, disturbing other lil' cuzins, disturbing the peace *again*, playing computer games, disturbing the peace *AGAIN!!!*, playing and more playing.

And what did he score for his PSLE last 2 weeks?
A solid 259, 2 points short of entering RI.
A* for all subjects save for English which he scored an A.
(Still way better than those kids from the english-speaking family that I know..heh)

I am so blardy proud and astounded with his results..!!
I mean, I know he's smart but I didn't know he's that smart..!!

I'm just plain amazed.
Given his background, I thought others from much better ones will do better.

Once again..humbug!!

This boy has proven that you don't need educated parents, English-speaking background, enrichment classes, tuition and what crap..

You just need to be...intelligent.

All talk and no action ain't gonna get you anywhere, honey.

Like that other family I mentioned...
All talk and yet nothing...

So...would I advocate speaking English at home, still?
Hell yes...I still do.

I do believe it will give the kid some sort of edge, some sort of foundation.
But merely able to speak English, good or otherwise, aint gonna get you anywhere if you're not gonna do anything about the other subjects..!

I believe in Wisno's case, he was born an intelligent child who didnt need much.
Even from such a family background, he still managed to excel.
No outside help, no intervention.
He was just able to do it.
Why and how, I don't know.

That doesn't mean I should stop my kids from going to tuition or speaking English at home or doing assessment papers but I think at the end of it all, some luck and genes and karma do come into play...

..don't you think so..?;p

2005-12-05T13:22:00.000+08:00

I attended a *big* birthday bash yesterday for a friend's two year old girl.

I say big cos for a mere birthday party, there were over 100 invitees..
macam keja kawin dah.

It was all fun and good...

And then I saw the MOUNTAINS of birthday prezzies for the birthday girl!!

Makkaww....what need does a two year old have for millions of gifts??!!

I mean..if it were a 4-5 year old, perhaps yeah, I can understand the kid opening up and playing with one gift after the other after the other...but a two year old?

Heck, half the time, they're content with playing with the BOXES those toys came in..;p

I'm not against birthday parties but I feel they should be done practically..such birthday bash where the birthday kid would definitely get MILLIONS of prezzies should prolly be reserved for when the kid is perhaps bigger and able to enjoy all the toys...

..but then again, to each his own.

It's their kid and it's their money...heh.

..I just cannot imagine that lil' cute one opening up at least seventy wrapped prezzies and playing with all of them...

..her parents can open up their mini Kiddy Palace store at the rate they're going...;p

If I were to hold a birthday bash for the girls one day, which I don't think I ever will (I am sooo not going to go thru the headache of planning and CLEANING UP..!!), I think I'd be more thick-skinned and ask for cash vouchers instead..especially book vouchers for Aisyah..

I think that's much more wiser and practical.

I save the guests the headache of deciding what to buy and I save myself the headache of wondering what to do with prezzies that aren't very suitable or appropriate for my kids...

pandai kan aku...??;p

2005-12-05T11:39:00.000+08:00

I 'exported' Nadiah to my mom's place last nite and today I will be sending Aisyah off for her first ever sleepover at her place where all the other 6,7 and 8 year olds will be at...

How hip..

Back then, if I had so much as ask for a sleepover, I bet my mom would have gave me a resounding NO.

How..typical.

And so now, later, I will be left with one kid.

Anybody knows of a camp for two year olds where I can 'dump' Firdaus at?;p

2005-11-30T15:14:00.000+08:00

Hey...I was going thru some stuffs and I found old pix of the girls...
(yes, those people who made me want to run away from home..)

I can't believe they were so small...
what happened to them??!

Why can't they stay small and nice and clean and peaceful and neat??;)

this was taken at my mom's place.
Nadiah was merely 4 months back then.
Look at her cheeks.
I think they were a kilo each side..!!
No wonder she cant even sit up properly without leaning to one side.
Heh.
And her hair..it's always like that..she was called the Trojan Baby by a lot of people, especially her babysitter.
And Aisyah was only 4!!
Imagine...4 !!
And now she's 8.
Aiyah..why grow up so fast leh...

Another old pix of the girls.
I cant remember how old Nadiah already is at this point.
But must be a lil' bit older cos she can sit up on her own already..
I love this pix..
Life was so much simpler back then when they were smaller..

I love this pix too.
This was during Nadiah's cukur rambut.
Yup, I know she's a tad too old for it but it was my sis's wedding and my mom told me, why not just do it at one go..so we did her cukur rambot for her when she's like gee, 9 months old?!;p
This is pre cukur rambot..you should've seen her scream during!!

2005-11-30T13:41:00.000+08:00

I am going to run away from home.
Uh-huh.
You heard me rite.

I am so going to run away from home.
It doesn't matter where, I'll just run.
It also doesn't matter that I've forgotten how to run after not doing it dinosaur years already.
It also does not matter that when I *do* run, I do feel like a dinosaur running..

*bangs head on the wall*

I just vacuummed and mopped the whole darn house yesterday and yet today......
Can you hear my heart break..?
Can??

Their Milo drinks just had to drip all over the place today, not yesterday.
Their noodles just had to be squashed on the floor today, not yesterday.
Their toys just had to come out and mess the living room today, not yesterday.
Why can't these things happen yesterday, pre-mop session?
Why??
Whyyyyy???!!!!

Who says being a stay-home mom is chicken dodol punye keja??

You come here and try doing my job and see whether you still have your sanity at the end of the day.

Aaaarrgghhh!!

I have FOUR WEEKS left of school hols ??
Not four DAYS???!

*packs clothes in kain pelekat to hang at the end of kayu stick and prepares to run away from home*

2005-11-29T17:18:00.000+08:00

Driving,it seems, have turned my otherwise good-natured Hunny to a
pai-lang beng, somehow...

I've noticed it and it's happened quite a no. of times, the most recent being yesterday..heh.

There we were, on the middle lane at Sembawang Road and this car was practically crawling and friggin' hogging the road..he was so darn friggin' slow, even the vans behind him gave up and overtook him...

...and then along came Hunny...we were behind him and my husband being my husband, didn't give a hoot and high-beamed the tortoise...and guess what he did?

He perhpessry braked ahhh..!!

I'm sure if my Hunny were a true-blue beng, he'd have muttered KNNB..but alas, alas, he's only half a beng...so no such expletive escaped his mouth.
Heh.
(I didn't say what escaped mine, did I?;p)

And what Hunny said next was typical of a makcik² quarters who lost their cool..or rather, the way he said it...

He exclaimed "Ohh, dia brake ehhh?? Brake eh...??!!"
Siap...!!

And he promptly accelerated and swerved rite in front of Tortoise the Great and slowed down and braked!!

Way to go, my beng, way to go !!

And he kept up like that and it was now the tortoise's turn to high-beam him and yet my hero kept at it until we literally had to turn to our lane heading to our carpark.. but not before he stopped at the left lane to stare at the tortoise when the latter sped past...

Garang xia....

My hero.
*Swoon*

Heh..he does that to such drivers..we once had this pakcik in his new Sunny who, makkaw, practically tried to *seboleh-bolehnya* cut into our lane at about 45 deg angle out of nowhere and I thought we were gonna have a highway accident and practically jumped out of my seat and even when Hunny horned and honked at him, pakcik muka sardin seh, bleh continue trying to cut into our lane....

..and what did my beng do? He chased after the pakcik sardin and pakcik actually got a lil' bit scared cos he tried to slow down and hide behind a lorry...

at this point, Hunny the Beng was 2 cars in front of him and he actually waited for the lorry to overtake him so that he can be just rite in front of the pakcik but the pakcik kept changing lanes to avoid him..

At that point, it felt like wayang xia...I felt like being in some movie car-chase thingy thang...it came to the point where Hunny actually waited at the road shoulder to chase after the pakcik but I kinda calmed him down and told him to just let the pakcik sardin go..

I mean, even if we can corner him and get him somewhere, what are we gonna do?
Pack the pakcik in a sardine tin???;p

But seriously, I think long-term driving seems to have this effect..it just takes its toll on your patience and you morph into something you normally aren't....

Even Hunny said as much...he says he gets stressed sometimes and it doesn't help that there are lots of these tortoises and pakcik sardins out there...

I don't know whether you can effectively term this as road-rage..road-rage to me is when you literally come out of the car and whack the blardy tortoise but it is sometimes funny/scary/amazing seeing how beng-ish my husband can be when he has to deal with such situation...

migoodness, can you imagine how things will be if I one day start driving..??!

You'd see a frantic makcik tudong with eyes-practically-popping-out-of-their-sockets waving her hands in the air and winding the window down yelling "KNNB" when a tortoise crosses her road...

*gulp*
takott eh??

2005-11-25T17:00:00.000+08:00

We took the girls out shopping (yawn, what else is new...?yawn) yesterday after their ayah came back from work..

We dont need real reasons to shop, as you can see.

When it comes to shopping, where's there's an itch, hell, we'll scratch it.
Yah.
Like whatever.

So.
Before this, Hunny and I had decided that we'd let the girls spend a small portion of their H.R.R.O.I.

Oh.
That stands for Hari Raya Return of Investment.
Right.

Anyywaay...

We told Aisyah that she can spend $16 (8 yrs old + $8) and Nadiah gets to spend $10 (5 years old + $5) and they went all berserk.
Well, almost.

The best part was watching them DECIDE on what to get, just so they'd get their money's worth..especially Aisyah since she's more calculative in such matters.

We helped them by telling them how much each thing costs..whatever they got their hands on..
We'd go "aahh..this is $10 ! Enuff oready.."
or
"This one is $12..you still have $4 left..so what are you gonna do..??"

Nadiah was easily bought.
Everytime we announce something is $10, she'd grab it.
Even tho' she already has something similar at home.
We always have to keep asking her, "are you sssuuuuree you want this one???!"

Of coz, Lil' Miss Itchy Backside changes her mind as soon as she sees another $10 item..
*rolls eyes*

Aisyah was much more careful in her decisions.
She kept asking herself tuff questions like gee, does she really need that item, is it useful...*yawn, boring, boring..*
We had to follow her in and out of many, many, maaaanny shops before she made up her mind...

Nadiah was sold at Mini Toons.
She grabbed 2 items and went over-budget by a dollar.

So did the sis.
But hey, I think the dad earns enuff to afford that $2 excess.
Heh.

Aisyah finally settled on a Winx Club pack at Kiddy Palace...*phewww*
She was soo happy with her purchase that when I woke up this morning, I found her drapped in her new bag and stuffs.
So kemarok.
Heh.

But all in all, it was a fun nite for Hunny and I as we watch the girls frown, think hard, light up, calculate, ponder, worry over how to spend their money...

At the end of it, Aisyah told me "It's so difficult to make my decisions.."

Aahh..now you know, eh?

Having money is easy..it's the spending-it-wisely part that's a headache sometimes.

(Please don't bother asking Nadiah. Apparently she buys things without thinking much. She grabbed similiar stuffs to what she already has at home...)

Nadiah's Loot..

Aisyah's

2005-11-24T13:07:00.000+08:00

Somebody.please.help.me....!!

Anybody!
Anybody, pleaaasseeee!!
Pleaaasseee..!!

I am tearing my hair out and it is only the 4th day of school holidays??
Aarrkk..!
HELPPP!!

I have, lemme count, 37 days of school holidays to live thru...
Egad!!!!
*faints*

Anybody wants to borrow/rent my children?
Anybody?
In fact, forget about renting, I'll let you have them for FREE this hols..I'm being festive here, so c'mon, take up my offer...p.l.e.a.s.e!!

Sighhh...

I suppose I just have to fine-tune my breathing exercise and learn to calm down A LOT when they...start.
when they start anything....
normally it starts off with playing....and then it will snowball to something horrific and scary..like squabbling, bickering, arguing, whining, complaining...
*shivers*

I told Hunny, if he should ever come home one day and find the children at home abandoned all by themselves, that means I have had enuff.....

*ewaahh..maner punyer lawa...*

2005-11-18T17:56:00.000+08:00

...And so the school year has ended....
phhewww..
We made it thru safe and sound and sane.
I think.
The children are.
I'm not sure about myself, tho'...
Hhhmmm.

Today was Nadiah's last day of school party and Aisyah's Prize Presentation Day.
I had to rush thru to both but with my superhero aka Hunny around, it was pretty ok.
Had he not been around...tsst..tsstt..I wouldn't even be here to blog about it.
I'd prolly be at the police post making reports about missing child(ren).
Or missing .. anything.
Or could it be the kids reporting about missing ibu.
Hhhmm...

So.
The holidays have started.
Deep sigh.
How am I going to entertain these...children..?

You know, Hunny was this close to deciding to go Dubai for a holiday!
This close.
Sheesh.
And then he had to change his mind.
Haiyyaahh..
All becos Firdaus is too small to enjoy the trip.
Dude...who cares what Firdaus enjoys..!!?!
It's what I enjoy that matters...duhh!
*rolls eyes sampai kerror*

His parents will be holidaying there next January for a month or so.
My SIL happens to be an Emirates crew so she's stationed there, you see.

Lodging is pretty much a settled issue.
We just have to fork out for the *discounted* airfare and shopping and food.
Which is pretty affordable, if you ask me.

So we were contemplating about joining his parents for a holiday there and then he had to change his mind.
Haiiiiyaahhh..
This man, ahh..

So now, our year-end holiday is pretty much Dubai-less.
Which pretty much leaves me with...trips to the zoo *yawn* library *yawn* park *yawn* beach *yawn*

Apa fasal itu Dubai bukan blakang esbok ana dahh..??
Ana baru berangan mau main dekat itu fadang fasir....

2005-11-16T14:03:00.000+08:00

Omigod..

I just realised when I really, really sat down to listen to the rest of the songs in Alexandria and really, really, really studied all the lyrics that it's all a spooky, uncanny repetition of a situation I was so familiar with a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

But I suppose it is a common situation for young people to find themselves in..
Three sided thing...decisions, decisions, decisions..
All that pleading, imploring...
It's all so familiar...

She already belonged to another when he came into her life..
She thought they were just friends..
Until he asked her "why did you make your choices so early?"
And her world spiralled and spinned and she didn't know what to do..
"I love you truly, madly, deeply.." he said
"...but I hate you just as much..."
She had chosen the other...

2005-11-15T12:49:00.000+08:00

Ok..you all know how I dont really listen to Malay songs and the like, rite?

I mean, listening to RIA was also a once a year affair thingy..something I do during the fasting month and Raya period..but it's also during this time that I sometimes come across some gems of the music industry..

I mean, for a non-listener like me to actually like a song, I think that should mean a lot for that singer/composer..
Heh.
It says a lot about that song, doesn't it..?

So..
I know I might be way back-dated but I am here to rave and rave about peterpan.. !!

I is in luurrvee...

They're a power rabak band from Bandung, Indonesia..
If you like Coldplay, you'd like them.
Period.

Very melancholic, very deep, very cair kalau dengar lama²..
Heh.

I first heard their 'Di Belakangku' on RIA (I think) and I was already swooning..
And then last week, they played 'Tak Bisakah'..and I was sold !!!
I fell deep into obsession with the band after that..

There's just something about Indonesian band/songs..
They're more poetic, their songs are simply beautiful without trying too hard..

Imagine..I was shopping at JB's Giant yesterday when they played 'Tak Bisakah' and there I was, knees all weak and the next thing I knew, I was in the cd shop paying for 'Alexandria', their current cd which has that song...

and imagine, I just cry listening to the song and it's simple but deep meaningful lyrics...
It brought me back 14 years ago and I still think this song applies deeply in that situation I was in back then...

Imagine..I was helplessly crying buckets last nite at 2am when I was all alone in front of the pc and listening to this song over and over and over and over and over again....

There's just something haunting and poignant about this song...I can't help it.

Hatiku bimbang namun tetap pikirkanmu
Selalu, slalu dalam hatiku
Ku melangkah sejauh apapun itu
Selalu, kau didalam hatiku

Ku berjalan, berjalan memutar waktu
Berharap temukan sisa hatimu
Mengertilah, ku ingin engkau begitu
Mengerti, kau didalam hatiku

Dara, kau menjadi hidupku
Kemana, kau tahu isi hatiku
Tunggu, sejenak aku disitu
Jalanku, jalan menemukanmu

Tak bisakah kau menungguku
hingga nanti tetap menunggu
Tak bisakah kau menuntunku
Menemani dalam hidupku

fuuhh...cair xia..
simple but deep..

edited to add : I owe YOU many² !!!
Thank you many² for the practically-kena-pimpin-tangan-step-by-step instructions to insert this song in my blog..
I am now in peterpan heaven....
I heart you, babe...

Enjoy..!!

2005-11-15T00:52:00.000+08:00

I'll tell you what is Raya sakan..

Raya sakan is when you go jalan Raya dari pagi hingga ke petang hinggalah ke malam buta...pas tu continue besok pagi *buta* lagi, hinggalah ke petang hinggalah ke malam buta again....

..now, that is Raya sakan....

if that is not Raya sakan, then I donno what is....*rolls eyes*

Suffice to say, I've been out since Friday nite and ended only on Sunday nite (interspersed with breaks of coming home to sleep and change) ...and I'm still not done yet...
*gulp*

I was out with the mommy gang on Friday nite and then Saturday saw me practically touring the entire island (we went from Tampines to Sembawang to Jurong West dan sumer yang sewaktu dengannyer..) and Sunday was just the same, if not as bad....
Heh.
But I loike..

But you know what I is like the best..?
I is not working..so I is don't have to drag my ass off to work on Monday morning after all that Raya-sakan-shebang-whatchamaycallit...

As for the pix...I is pelan² kayuh uploading, gee, lemme see...300+ pix at my fotopages...
so you all can also pelan² kayuh go there and see...
please...really, pelan² kayuh....

2005-11-11T13:22:00.000+08:00

I'm brimming with motherly pride...

For someone who has a feather-brained mom, I think Aisyah survived primary school pretty well...

I mean, I keep forgetting when's her exams, I always miss her oral exams (I'd ask her and she'd roll her eyes and go "it was over last week, ibu..!!") I don't check her bags, I always have to do mass signing of books/forms at one go cos it's all accumulated over donkey months, I don't sit with her whilst she studies cos gee, ibu's gotta watch CSI/America's Next Top Model/Amazing Race/Survivor/Boston Legal/Frasier/Arrested Development yada yada yada...
(ni macam punyer mak pon masih exist...)

..and yet she *somehow* excelled in her studies...

please, if you haven't already known by now, this is my blog...I shall gloat/bitch/moan/whine/sing for all I care...ppffttt..

She told us her results and her allocated class next year and all about her prize presentation Day next week and I was just going "aawww.....you survived me..."
heh.

I know, I know, it's merely P2 exam results and nothing close to those PSLE stuffs and most kids prolly breeze by getting such results but given those stuffs she had to go thru (me), I'd say she managed pretty well...

Hunny and I were so darn proud of her, we're going out to get her a lil' something as a reward for surviving us, more than anything else..

But being the practical mom that I am, I had to sit down and negotiate/advise her against asking for/getting that Bratz Camera thingy (which she has been hinting at since her birthday) cos how practical is it when you gotta keep buying film and pay for developing etc...?

I also had to advise her against asking for those trolleybags either cos like duh, why would she wanna push/pull around those things..?? so leceh, so kiddo...

So later, mebbe we'd get her this new Barbie (again..*yawn*) doll thingy that comes with a notebook, purse yada yada yada..(she just showed the trailer of this new toy on Kids Central to me just now)
aiyah,so..girly...
*rolls eyes*

Ah well..anything for a kid who can survive having us for parents....;)

atta' girl, atta' girl...

2005-11-10T13:51:00.000+08:00

Thank you for all your birthday wishes for Nadiah..
She still hasn't grown much this morning..
Hhmm..

Anyway.
We've been staying home since Monday.
No visiting whatsoever...but of coz, all that will change when the weekend comes..
I am almost always fully booked over the weekends..
(ewaahh..mana punyer lawa..)

Tomorrow, I have been invited to his sister's place and another mom's place from the local parenting group.

Saturday, we'll be out the whole day going out with my dad's clan.
Yes, that humongous group of people you saw at my fotopages.
And that's not even the complete set.
I will try to take a big group shot of AAAAALL of us this Saturday and show it to you..

Sunday is my Budak Plaza's outing..
I miss those yesteryears of Raya outings with them..when we were all carefree and single and flirting with *almost* each other..

All *almost* 30 of us in 1 big bus, jalan satu pulau tak ingat pagi tak ingat malam...heng sana heng sini...
That was fun..the teasing, the jokes, the flirting, the silly riddles session we have at the back of the bus...

Now....now it's merely 7-8 houses all done within a day (compared to the 20+ houses we have to cover over 2 days..) in all our own cars (no fun, really) and with all these tiny lil' things we've all accumulated over the years called children who are the very reason Raya outings is no longer carefree and fun...not when you have to lug around their diaper bags, their milk bottles, run after them, make sure they're eating properly etc...
fening..fening...

I managed to find only 2 of the many old Raya pix with the budak plaza..
I mean..these are the only 2 I managed to scan..

Raya 95'..

Raya '96 .. a few months before I got married..last flirting session with the guys...heh

2005-11-09T12:50:00.000+08:00

And ta daaa ... today is Nadiah's birthday..!!

She's turning all of five today and as usual, nothing much to show for it..
You can browse thru all her pixtures from, gee, 3 years back and you'd see that she's still the same size!
Really..no bluff..

FYI, she still can wear an 18month old size..and she still can fit in her dresses from 2-3 years back...

But of coz, all's fine and fair in..err, the attitude department.
She may be small but ooohh boy, her attitude is very much that of a five year old, thank you very much...

I gave birth to her 5 years ago at 8.45am after merely 10mins of contractions and pushing...

Easy birth....
That was the only easy part about her...heh.

The birthday girl 5 years back...

..and 5 years later..

and while we're at it, here's the sister...8 years back..

and 8 years later...

2005-11-09T12:19:00.000+08:00

wow.
we're almost a week into Raya-ing already eh..?

Where did the whole week go?
hhmm...

I'd like to recap with the mother of all recaps..

Eve of Raya
----------------------------
I didn't sleep after sahur. Started my cooking straight away. Did the satay goreng, followed by my rendang and sambal goreng. Finished everything by 9.50am. I is very, very happy. And then, at about 12ish, I find myself off puasa duty again. Lermak... Did some small stuffs here and there. Napped in the afternoon for a while cos my migraine came too.It was really a pretty relaxed eve for me. Most of the stuffs were done way before. Went to my mom's place at nite to drop off her kuihs. Decided not to go Geylang. Too old for that kinda thing. (Besides, I still have the three kids with me..)

Hari Raya
---------------------------
The whole picture shebang can be found at my fotopages.
Niways..it was pretty routine but I like routine. I am a stickler for routines.
I woke up at about 7ish in time to see Hunny off for his solat and then I got myself showered and busied around the kitchen. Got breakfast ready and the kids all got up one by one and I told them to "hurry, hurry..nari Raya..." gee, like they didnt know that already.Hunny came home and I went to salam him straightaway. Him on the sofa, me kneeling at his feet.The same stance since we got married 9 years back.Then the girls took their turn and then it was breakfast time.After that, it was the traditional Raya prezzies time. We have this tradition of giving them Raya prezzies as 1) a reward for their fasting efforts 2) as a Raya cheer...just like X'mas cheer. To just give a gift for the sheer joy of it. After that we got ready to start our visiting and this year we had to end early cos Aisyah has an early Hari Raya concert to participate in the next day..
Sigh..bikin potong stim orang nak beraya jer....

2nd day of Raya
--------------------------------
We stayed home even tho' Hunny's on leave. Aisyah's at school the whole entire day so we only managed to go out at nite. Off to my uncle's and Nadiah's old babysitter's place.

3rd day of Raya
--------------------------------
Today is Let's Visit the Senior Citizens Day. Hur hur hur. Really, we have a lot of old people to visit lah. So we did. Halfway thru, we found ourselves at Dayak's place, uninvited somemore.Dayak had an open house for her colleagues and Mel's but who cares, we just had to gatecrash.
Dayak my fren, mah...
Dayak, u my fren, rite??;p

4th day of Raya
--------------------------------
We parked the car at his mom's and hopped onto the mini-bus for lo and behold, it is Jalan Raya with In-laws Day today. Tiring xia..soooo many houses to visit but that is what Raya is all about, what. Visiting. But today I was in a terrible state. I had the flu!! Was it bcos of all that rendang ayam....?? Hhhmmm....

2005-11-04T14:15:00.000+08:00

*pant..pant*...

penat oy gua upload 122 pix !!
Tu pon ada dah kena delete..imagine..I started with 179 of 'em..!!

Anyways, you can find 'em here, as usual..

but if korang malas nak go thru all 122, here's some..

i like this shot..they look like they're about the same age..when in fact the sister is 3 YEARS OLDER !!

..blom aper², dia dah tido..aiyah...

first birthday celebrations

my siblings..all 5 of us...
from left, my 4th sis, me, my bro, my 2nd sis and the youngest one.
I'm the eldest..

my parents with their cucus...

candid shot while getting ready..

my dad's clan...

2005-11-04T09:47:00.000+08:00

To all my readers (ewahh..maner punyer celebrity, nohh..) and lurkers alike (heh..I know you people exists...*evil grin*)...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin...

From the Mumbles...

Selamat Hari Raya everyone..!

..they can't wait to go out..

double celebrations as it was their birthday bash too....

I gotta go upload 179 pix...so will come back later and tell you aaaaaaall about my day yesterday....

2005-10-31T01:32:00.000+08:00

I is very, very happy..

The 2 most stressful chores are over and done with.
1)I can now spot things in my fridge and not have a cardiac arrest when I open it
2)My new curtains are up.

80% of the stuffs that needed to be done are already done.

My kitchen's scrubbed clean, my room's furniture are all polished, things are back in their proper space and I am pretty Raya-able..

Hunny's on leave throughout the entire week and boy oh boy, can you see my wide grin..?
Pak'kal bulan posa,nyahh..

However, I'd be busy running errands today.

First up, I'd be going JB again to stock up on *more* keropok ikan sambal.
I don't think the 2 packets that I *already* have would suffice.

I can finish those 2 packets by myself in 1 sitting so imagine when my family's clan comes over to visit.
(All 10 families would be out jalan-ing raya together on the 12th..last I checked, all 42 people can fit in my sempit-rabak house, no worries..)

I think I'd need 2 more.
No, make that 3.
Or maybe 4.
Or should I just buy the whole darn stall?
Hhmmm..

Then, when we reach back home, I'd have to :

1)collect my pre-ordered selendang from Tampines
2)send kuihs to my mom in Tampines
3)send his mom's stuffs to Whampoa
4)mebbe collect Firdaus' shirt at Upper Serangoon
5)buy henna powder from Lil' India
6)drop by the henna gig.I'm dying to have Lezard's work on my hand.
7)buy spices from that Sing-A-Song-of-Sixpence..

Hhhmmm..

Suddenly, I feel tired already..

2005-10-30T01:23:00.000+08:00

OMIBISKOT..!!

I suddenly realised I have more kuihs/cookies than containers...

I just did my container inventory check and I have only 6 small containers and 1 large one....

..but I have :
1)Kuih Tat
2)Kuih Makmor
3)Chocolate Chips Cookies
4)Chocolate Tots
5)Oat Cookies
6)Chocolate Truffles Cookies
7)Kuih Suji
8)Mini epok²
9)Mini popiahs
10)Keropok Sambal Ikan
11)Rempeyek
12)Cheese Fries

*gulp*
dasyat eh..?

Aahh, well...another excuse to go out shopping again...

At the rate I'm going, aku rasa kalau orang datang aku kena bentang tikar mengkuang...

2005-10-27T02:10:00.000+08:00

I've made four types of cookies so far..2 more to go and then I can really, really Raya.
Nevermind that it's not even Raya yet..
Aku yang buat, akunyer sukalah...

I've snippets of updates to do..

gee, where do I start...

Aisyah
I must be the most...terok mom I know.
She came back with her exams schedule a coupla months back and I did make a mental note as to when her exam dates are...I just didn't register when they really, really are.
I mean..I thought 25th,26th and 27th Oct is like...next week or something..
I only realised that it's THIS WEEK..!!!
And I didnt even realise that it started on Tues...!!
I only realised all that on, gee, Monday nite??
I also realised she didnt have a copy of her spelling list which she'd be tested on today.
I just realised that yesterday...

Akulah mak champion..
Saper tak dapat aku rugi, nyahh..

Nadiah
My lil' whiny Nadiah actually managed to fast full days!!
She started last Thurs rite..?
Then Friday she lasted till 5ish...so was Saturday..
But from Sunday to Wednesday, it was full steam ahead...
Of coz, steam evaporates somehow..
She broke her fast yesterday at school..
It must have been tempting to watch your classmates eat during snack time...
Still, I'm proud of her.
She's so tiny, she still reminds me of her toddler days...

Raya Preparations
Err, nada.
Nil.
Don't ask me why.
Hunny promised me it will all start this weekend..
I hope it's one of those promises he keeps.
I'm panicking already...!!

Sleep
Sleep is really a rare precious commodity.
Corny but true.
I now sleep from 6am till 11am.
That's all.
No noon naps, nothing.
If you see a panda-ish woman going around during Raya next week, please be nice.

Ria 89.7FM
Look.
I don't listen to Malay songs, radio..you know that rite?
But I have been listening to Ria lately for the sheer need to listen to Raya songs.
Unless you people have insomnia and need a cure for that, don't bother listening to the other station.
And I must say I am wow-ed by the djs at Ria.
They are...good.
Lively, funny, dynamic, witty, wicked..
They're good, I tell you.
(but please don't ask me which djs I'm referring to..cik ni dah tua, maner cik ingat, telinga pon dah tak kuat, nak...)

Shopping
I just realised (again) that we don't have lampu lap lip!!
Apparently Hunny threw the ol' ones cos they don't work anymore and he forgot to tell me about it.
No wonder gua tak semangat nak raya sangat...
I told him firmly just now "We have to go Geylang and get new ones!If you don't let me, I nak lari rumah.."
Err..actually I didn't say that.
I just suka² wrote that.
Yes, I is itchy hands.
But I did tell him we need new lampu lap lips or I WILL merajok...
Actually it doesnt take much to get this man shopping..just mention shopping jer.
Really.
He will get excited by himself.

Bloghopping
I'm so sorry peeps.
(did I just say peeps? Like how secondary-skool-ish is that..??)
I am still in lemau mode.
Nak update gua dah lemau apa lagi nak bloghop.
One day...one fine day when I become kuat power again, I will come a-hopping, a-tagging, ok?

Now
Now mata gua dah kelat.
I think I wanna go nap for a while.
Man....where is the Enter button..?
gua tak nampak ahh...

2005-10-25T15:44:00.000+08:00

I am supposed to be baking cookies...
Hhhmm...what I'm doing here, I have no idea...

Anyway, Sherry babe,this is for you..
go see the 20th oct entry..

2005-10-25T00:17:00.000+08:00

My weekend was...gerek sehh..
(eeww...how juvenile..)

Let's see..I had iftar with the cools moms from M4M..I had a last-minute impromptu iftar with my kakis at my house which saw me scrambling to clean the house and I had a unique iftar on Sunday nite with the Club18 guys...at the beach!!
Uh-huh.
You read right.
We iftar-ed at East Coast.
Cool.
Way cool.

I will post the pix later at my usual place.
You know where.

Meantime, I will have to ignore my lil' blog here for a while.
Apparently, I have not started baking yet.
Ok, except for one just now.
I baked kuih suji.
I still have to bake my kuih tats, oat cookies, cornflake macaroons and mebbe chocolate chips..
And I want to do all that before this weekend.
So that's about 1 cookie each nite.
Hhmmm..

So.
I will not be around much.
I will be busy baking my a** off in the kitchen.

So.
ta ta.
(dah malam dah...donno what else to write..)

Kuih Field Report

2005-10-21T15:48:00.000+08:00

This is Miss Mumbles reporting from Angsana, JB yesterday.

How did we ended up even going to JB yesterday?
Well..Hunny and I woke up late.
(Gee and I wonder why....)

It was so late, it's like...redundant for him to even go back to the office for 1/2 a day..

And I figured, since Aisyah is not schooling (PSLE marking week, remember?) and Nadiah is not taking her O's either and Hunny is home and it is a weekday, why don't we just pack everybody into the car and set off for JB which is like..at my backyard..?

And we did.

First stop was City Square but that was just to get some lil' stuffs for the kids...some random stuffs for the dad and gee, nothing for the ibu..
hhmmpphh..

And after that, we whizzed off to Angsana.
I've always loved going there.
It's got everything.
Period.

And now that Hari Raya is around the corner, you really, really can get all your Raya stuffs there under one roof..

We reached Angsana at about 6ish..just perfect timing to go to Kenny Rogers and 'chop' our seats.
How very Singaporean.

And I could tell 3/4 of the patrons there are Singaporeans cos at 6.15pm, everyone was merely lingering at their tables and just earnestly studying the clock.

So, being very kiasu-ly Singaporean, we did just that.
We got ourselves a booth seat (very important when you have these things called children) and waited.
It was only 6.15pm so imagine the waiting I had to do till we get to 6.57pm.

And we waited and waited and waited.
At about 6.35pm, I suddenly realised a long q had formed at the counter so I panicked, naturally, and joined the queue.
Thankfully, I got my orders and managed to go back to the table with still 5 mins to spare.

And ooohh..we had one 1/2 chicken platter and one 1/4 black pepper chicken platter.
You know how the food looks like there, rite?
*sluurrp*
And if you don't, happy imagining..
Heh.

And after the chicken was deboned soon after, we went kuih-hunting..

OMIBISKOT !!

You can see kuihs of all size and colour all the way from the left to the right and if you're not careful, you might :
1) just buy 'em all
2) get a migraine just deciding.

I was one of the lucky few.
I didn't get any of the above.

So..I just went up and down the aisles and finally found a stall that sold these chocolatey kinda cookies.
5 boxes for RM100.

And then, I got these small lil' popiahs and small lil' epok² oso.
The popiahs, I tell you....pedas giler!!
I tasted one and it burnt my tongue for a good 10mins.
Slamatlah korang yang tak kuat pedas kalau datang rumah aku Raya nanti..

And I got those cheesy fries chips kinda thing.

And I got those fish crackers with sambal..? you know?
I ate them before and it's one of those things that once you start, you can't stop.
(Corny xia..)
Really.
Got a kilo of that.
Now I'm thinking I should get another kilo.
Hhhmm..

And I got some more kurma.
Remember the 2 kilos of kurma I bought before Ramadhan?
Finitto.
I had to get another 2 kilos.

And what else..
Oh.
That was about it.

I am so fully loaded I can start to Raya now...

2005-10-21T15:39:00.000+08:00

She's fasting again today, so far...

..and when I asked her "adik, you can tahan or not..?"

..she said "boleyyy...of coz can, why not? ..puasa what..!!"

amboi..champion, nohh!!
baru posa 1 hari dah kerek..!!

*****

edited to add :

dah aku kata...berboal tak bleh champion, hidop jangan kerek, nak...

she 'succumbed' 5 mins ago at about 5pm..she told me her tummy aches..*rolls eyes*

2005-10-21T01:38:00.000+08:00

It's been 8 hours since it happened and I cant believe it either but it did happen, that's for sure...

Nadiah, my tiny weeny whiny lil' thing fasted the whole day !!!
It's her first attempt ever at fasting...
and get this : she didnt even sahur !!!

This morning when I woke up, somehow she came up to me and told me she wants to puasa like kakak oso..
So I let her.

But throughout the whole day, at almost every hour, I kept asking her whether she really can tahan..seeing as it is that she didn't take her sahur..
(and seeing as it is how tiny she is, I was afraid she might just collapse and break and crack out of dehydration or sumthin'..)

She kept assuring me that she wants to continue and so again, I let her be...

1 o'clock turned to 2..2 turned to 3, 3 turned to 4, 4 turned to 5 and she still insists on fasting....

At 6+, she actually asked for a drink..but before I can even offer it to her, she went "ooopps, no, no..I puasa, you know..."

And so she did...

And before I knew it, it was maghrib oready and there she was, beaming like a chesire cat, so proud of herself..

Hunny and I kept heaping mountains and mountains of praises on her (she thrives on this,I tell you..) and I even got her some special lil' treats like a small box of chocolates and tiny Barbie jewellery as a form of reward for her..

And she told me she wants to do it again tomorrow....
Of coz we are all so happy and proud of her but my question is :

where am I gonna get some more Barbie jewellery???!!

2005-10-18T08:32:00.000+08:00

I have been feeling pretty sluggish this past few weeks...
hhmm..must be old age catching up...

As such, the state of my house mess has also been catching up..

Somehow, I am someone who does work best when I am angry/fed-up/pissed..
Wahh..when the above happens, I can suddenly become Wonder Woman (minus the tiara..the girdle stays tho'..) and wipe the whole house clean...!!

Like this morning...right after sahur.

I was kinda pissed with the sticky floors and all those thingythang around the house that right after subuh, I whipped out the broom ( I can't vacuum cos the rest of mankind are asleep) and swept like I've never swept before...

..and then, I scrubbed the floor..

Mind you, I don't use those conventional mops cos I is geli with such things.
How do you wash those mops thoroughly, huh?

With a normal cloth, I can just wash and rewash the darn thing and I'd know that my floor is really clean...

So, there I was, at 6 o'clock in the morning, bent over scrubbing the floor like an over-worked maid.
Heck..I am an over-worked maid!!

And after that, I did the dishes...

And after that, I actually made bagedils !!

Yup, I peeled 'em potatoes, sliced them up,fried them, sat on the kitchen floor, pound 'em up and then...of coz, I gentel-ed them up...

So now I have one big plate of bagedils.

Err..actually, I donno why I made them.
I have no idea what they are for.

I just thought..hhmm..today I wanna make bagedil...

So now..I'm trying to figure out what to do with them...

Oh Ok.
I figured out oready.
(I'm very fast and good and figuring things out..donno meh??)

I is going to make soto ayam for buka today!!
uh-huh.
soto ayam with bagedil and kicap cili padi.

*gulp*
I have 10 hours more to go before buka...??

*****

On another note..

Oldies

What is your style of 'hijab'? (for ladies only)
brought to you by Quizilla

me? Oldie??!
*faints*

2005-10-15T01:58:00.000+08:00

Man..I sooo miss this place.

I know, I know..I shouldn't whine about it but sighhh....I really wish I can go there again.
I really do.

It's pretty surreal actually..whenever I recall that I had been there..

Sometimes, when I recall that I really had been there and that it was all over and done with, I get..pangs of sadness I cant even begin to describe.
I'd go like "really ah? we went there..? maaann..!!"...

It was really surreal.

Imagine..years back, whenever we saw the 100% Pure New Zealand ad on TV, Aisyah and I would sigh oh-ever-so-loudly for we knew it was beyond our means, beyond our reach.

New Zealand was far, far too expensive.
It was, like one of those countries we know we'd never step foot on.
Like Iraq or Palestine.
Wateva.

And early this year, when his group of friends first broached the idea of going there for a holiday, Hunny and I gave each other the look that said "oh well..just too bad we have to miss it..how can we ever afford it...siighhh"

And when those group of friends talk about wanting to do skydiving and bungee-jumping, we just smiled along and merely listened on to their conversations..never once bothering to...bother.

Cos we knew we can't afford it.

And even when we all met up rite on the morning itself before we went into the NATAS Travel Fair in March this year, I knew we cant afford it and that we were just there to get some brochures for, gee, maybe GoldCoast or something.

GoldCoast is still way affordable than New Zealand, thank you very much.

Until we stumbled from one booth to the other and we found out about the SGD818 promo on Air NZ.

Even then, we weren't really bought..

Until we saw the campervan thingy and the adrenalin started to flow..

Even then we were still contemplating..

Until the rest of the gang told us, hey, we're all going to opt for the interest-free credit-card installment payment thingythang..

And then it made sense...we don't really need to pay $4.3K upfront !!
We can do it over the next 12 months...and then, right then, we were SOLD !!!

Of coz until the day we actually boarded the flight, we were still in a daze and went round going "really ah? we paid for it ah..? we booked the trip ahh..??"

In fact, till today, we still go round in a daze and go " "really ah? we paid for it ah..? we booked the trip ahh..??"

Sigh.

It's still very surreal.
I get dizzy whenever I see the pictures from the trip (which funnily I have yet to develop and put into the albums..it's a painful process, if you ask me..)
There's this wincing in pain whenever I recall anything about the trip...

..cos it was way, way, way over...

Way over.

I try not to think of the snow, the weather, the mountains, the green rivers, the beautiful creeks...

I try not to miss Arthur's Pass, Franz Josef Glacier, Milford Sound, Cadbury Dunedin, Lake Wanaka, Lake Wakatipu ...

I try not to think of my cosy,cosy campervan with the overhead sleeping compartment which I shared exclusively with Firdaus...

I try not to think of the first nite we shopped at Northland's 24hour supermarket, all excited, stocking up on groceries for the south island leg of the trip, buying this and that and getting excited just being in a foreign supermarket, grabbing all those foreign chocolates and candies off the shelves, all wired up to begin the trip in the campervan...

I try not to think of the fun the four families had, the fun and laughter we shared, the jakun-ness we all experienced together..

I try not to think of cosy cold nites we gather together to cook our meals and discuss the next day's routes whilst the kids ran riot all over the campervan park..

...and I try not to think of the monthly credit card payments that we still have to settle till, gee..April 06 but really, who cares...for it was worth every single cent to have been in Kiwi Wonderland for seventeen friggin' days...!!!

And then I try not to think and think about being back home.
Ouch.

2005-10-14T15:21:00.000+08:00

Heh.

I was just talking about this in the parenting forum with Kuntum and it brought back sooo many ol' memories...

I'm sorry I just have to write this in Malay..

Err..this happened in 1984..back when I was in Primary 4.
Citer ni benar² telah terjadi..tapi ni citer sekret..tak bleh bilang owang lain tau..sekret tau..pwomise eh..??

Taim tu, bulan posa....kita balik skolah.
Hari tu panaaaass, nyah...
Terik betol.
Tak bedek.
Tapi kita try lah kan nak maintain..

Tapiiii..sesungguhnyer kita budak permery skool..

Kita masok dapor...nampak lah si esbok tu tengah rilek one korner.
Abih, sajerlah kan bukak esbok tu (walaupon dah tentu² tengah posa and kita takder bisness nak bukak esbok)

Sekali...jeng jeng jeng...kat satu sudut nun jauh-pon-tak-jauh sangatlah kan, kita nampak ada satu piring penuh ngan buah lychee...dah siap kopek plak tu...
Tetiba, tekak ni menjadi² plak haus dia...

Abihkan..dengan 'magic'nya, kita TERambik satu biji buah lychee bertuah tu, kita pon TERmasokkan dalam mulot kita...!!

Pas tu kita pegi kat tingkap, kita exen lah tengok² keta, motor kat carpark bawah tu...macam indah pandangan hari tu..padahal kita tengah kunyah tu lychee macam speed demon sebab takot mak kita masok dapor...

Fuuuhh....nikmatnya lychee tu hari tu...
macam dunia ni, kita yang punya...

tak pernah umor lah kita rasa lychee sedaaaaap cam tu...
in fact, lepas hari tu, sumer lychee lain kita rasa tak lah sesedap and senikmat lychee tu....

padahal kita tak braper feveret ngan lychee...

siigghhh....

those were the days...

kadang² masok toilet, kumor²...e'eh..TERminom sket...
kadang² suapkan adik tu nasi goreng, e'eh..TERsuap diri sendiri...

and...tadikan, kita buatlah air susu blend ngan kurma pas tu tarok susu pekat sket...lepas kita dah blend, kita tuang kat jag....fuuuhhh...dia punyer creamy ngan dia punyer froth.....maintain..maintain....sesungguhnyer aku dah tua bangka dan berposa.....!!!!

2005-10-13T02:23:00.000+08:00

I am happy to announce that she has given birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday at about 1ish...
(heck, she was too giddy with the gas to remember the time so don't blame the messenger! heh..)

She had to go under the knife after being in labour for 5 hours and ain't much happening down there....and that baby is a bouncy 3.1kg.
Ok.
I have to pause here for a while.

Why do they have to refer to it as a bouncy/bouncing baby..?
Last I check, my kids didn't bounce out of me, what...
I had to puuusssshh with all my might and for the most part, they kinda slipped out..they didn't bounce out from down under to the cot or anything like that, what..rite? rite..??
Your babies didn't bounce either rite..??

And if it's any reference to their weight or whatever, I also don't recall my babies bouncing on the weighing scale or anything of the like...rite? rite??
Man..these doctors have to be more creative, for heaven's sake..!
Bouncy...cheh!

Anyway...back to the original story.
It's a baby girl, all of 3.1kg and she goes by the lovely, lovely name of Aishah..!!
Yup. Just like mine.
Aishah...
Sigh..
(Nor, now you make me want to go have another Aisyah, leh...)

So there you have it...

I am planning to visit her soon...and if I see any bouncing anywhere, I will let you know.
Uh-huh.
You heard it from me first...;p

2005-10-11T15:39:00.000+08:00

OMIBISKOT !!

I just started fasting yesterday after being off-puasa duty since last week and of all days, I made an arrangement to meet up my mommy friends outside yesterday..when it was SCORCHING HOT...!!

I am not complaining about anything...it's just that, I have a tendecy to have this killer migraine when the weather is too hot...add to that, I just started fasting and man, I can just kick myself...

I came back home yesterday with no time to nurse the migraine for lo and behold, it's already 5+ in the evening..so I cleaned Firdaus up (who stank BIG TIME from his sweat and the bazaar smell and what not..), did my stuffs, prepared for iftar, sent out the dishes to my neighbours that by the time I did sit down to break my fast, I was practically panting and swooning from fatigue and that migraine..

And today, it's still here..
And I feel so, so, so lemau...very biskot-like, you know...

I didnt learn my lesson.
I went to do some grocery shopping just now..in this scorching weather again!

My head felt like...not a head.
Wateva.

I didnt bother with the housework...any housework, for that matter..
Hunny knows very well that when not an inch of housework is done, that means his wife is really, really...sick.
Like unwell sick kinda sick..not sick, sick...
wateva..

So..it's almost 2 hours since I broke my fast but yet, the throbbing is still there.
Err..the one in my head.
*gawd*
wateva, again..

I sooo need the air-con tonite..I so do !!

2005-10-08T12:00:00.000+08:00

I love weekends during the fasting month...I am almost always not home, for I am almost always 'booked'(ewaah, mana punyer lawa..) for iftar sessions with family and friends..

Today, I will be having iftar with my parents-in-law.
Tomorrow, it will be at my parents' place.

Next Saturday, it will be my big clan's gathering at my sister's place.
This, I can't wait.
I always enjoy any gathering with the big clan.
Four generations under 1 roof, 9 families altogether and that's about 42 of us...
I just love it when all of us are together under one roof..never a dull, quiet moment..
So, that's next Saturday.
Sunday will be iftar with my buddies..Dayak, Beruang, Tikus, Jai..the lot..

The following week after, I have made arrangements to go to JB with Dayak and Jai to iftar at Putri Pan Pacific and then accompany them to 'borong' ready-made kuihs for Raya.
They'll be buying, I'll be merely looking.
Ahem, I make my own kuihs, thank you very much...

And so far, those are the dates I'm booked for.
I have to set aside 1 date for Hunny's Club 18 and then we're pretty much done.

The weekend just before Raya is normally a busy one so we try not to go out (yeah rite..!) during that period unless of coz necessary..(which is always..)

As for today, I will prolly just drop by her stall to grab some mini pizzas and some other stuffs to bring to my in-law's place.

I'm afraid of going to such bazaars...very dangerous, you know.
I always end up buying enuff to feed the entire block...!!

2005-10-07T15:43:00.000+08:00

Ok.Ok.

I know, I must have been one of the last few to discover it but hey, better late than never rite..?
And ok, ok.
Corny, I know.

Anyway..it was like, 2 weekends back, when I was at Toko Warisan that I heard this beautiful children's nasyid CD playing in the shop..I was so mesmerized, I just had to ask the very jaded shopowner what is that cd he's playing..

Jaded shopowner answered me back monotonously.."I look, I see !"

I almost didnt get him.
I thought he was talking about him looking and seeing something cos hunny, he sure ain't looking or seeing me !!
pfftt..!!

So I proceeded to go round and round the jaded shopowner's shop to look for the cd but I didn't find it.
I went back to jaded shopowner who also happens to be jaded cashier and asked him nicely (cos I don't want to get his I'm-very-jaded-about-every-darn-thing-in-life syndrome) where can I get this cd when lo and behold..he pointed out a stack of cds in front of him....

Edit to add:
Oleh krana ini bulan posa yang mulia lagi suci, I shall not include what went thru my mind when he pointed where the cds were...maintain...maintain.....

I took one and paid the jaded-everything man and left.

I hope I don't have to go back to Toko Warisan very often.
There's nothing very toko-ly nor much of a warisan from that shop, in my opinion..

So.
We went back to the car and I asked Hunny to play the cd immediately.

And from the first song to the end, I donno why, I cried helplessly listening to the songs...

They are beaaauuutifully simple yet deeply meaningful.

Ok.Ok.
I have gotten over the part where I cry at every song but there is this one song that I just can't help but cry when I listen to it..
I can't remember whether it's 'my mother' or 'your mother'..but yeah..the song about your mother..

Masyallah...the lyrics are soooooooooo touching, I just cry.
I've heard that song countless times now but I still cry.
Of coz I have to do it discreetly or Hunny will see and tease me about it..
So whenever i cry, I pretend to be busily inspecting all the other cars whizzing by on my left...;)

Anyway...if you have ten dollars to spare, do go buy this cd.
It's a nasyid cd for children..simply written with catchy tunes...it's soo catchy, my girls memorised the songs from the 1st time they heard it...

Look.
If I, Ms Mumbles can fall so deeply in love with this cd, so can you....;)

go, go buy !
And if you meet jaded shopowner, don't bother asking him where the cds are...
And please tell him there's this old chinese saying...

"If you don't know how to smile, don't open a shop...."

2005-10-06T21:39:00.000+08:00

FINALLY !!!

My browser puasa oso, you know...*rolls eyes*
Pfftt..!!

I know, I know..you all are sick and tired of my bedendengs...err, the story of my bedendengs, I hope..not the bedendengs itself..!!

How has Firdaus been without his mimilk..?
So far so good.
He's survived the past week, he's still running and kicking, we just sent him for his check-up at KKH yesterday, his ECG looked good so, yeah, I say he's ok without his mimilk...
I'm the one who's still aching and longing to nurse him again.
I have been entertaining thoughts of nursing a newborn at my bosom and my, my, my...what a tempting thought...
(Dear God, please let it remain a thought, please..I cannot take the headache of having a newborn to take care of all over again, pleeeaasseee...!!)

Last weekend, I actually completed my Raya shopping.
Never had I actually completed my Raya shopping before even Ramadhan started..!!

We went over to Angsana at JB and we got my selendang, Hunny's baju kurong, his samping, Firdaus' samping and we're done..!!
My outfit has long been ready and I just need to collect the girls' outfits from the tailor soon. I hope.
We are ready to Raya.
Yes we are.
We just need to, err, puasa first.
Then we can rraaayyyaa..!!

Anyway.
I am off puasa duty since yesterday.
Yup.
Tell the whole wide world I'm pms-ing.
Uh-huh.
(It's actually more for me to keep track/record of how many days I am going to have to pay back next year, you see....I always lose track...I is old, remember..?)

But it's still tiring for me.
I still need to get up early to prepare sahur for Hunny and Aisyah and accompany them whilst they eat...and then wash up later after they're done.
Makes no difference being off puasa duty, actually.
I still have to wake up again at about 8ish later in the morning for lo and behold, there is a certain little person in the house who wakes up pretty much about that time and goes into mechanical mode saying " mamam! mamam! mamam !!"

Ok.
I have to rush off now.
Suddenly I remember I have to watch this week's episode of Child of Our Time.
And suddenly oso I donno what else to write.
I hope to be back later.

Ta ta..

2005-09-27T21:39:00.000+08:00

Okie..updates are in order..
(updates have been ordered by some people..)

Weekend came weekend went..
Last Saturday alone, I had the pleasure of meeting *almost* three moms from the the local parenting board..

The one that I didn't get to meet is actually Zaiton's daughter.
The legendary Zaiton from the silverscreen of yesteryears..
Remember Eton and Bang Sudin?
Main ketok² botol 'calling' for each other..??
Yup...that Zaiton.
I mean..err, I was supposed to meet her daughter..not her.
Zaiton.
(Ok, now I'm confused as to whom I was supposed to meet actually..)

I also braved the camera and soundman from Kids Central and risked appearing on TV when I accompanied the girls for the Jobs for Junior Party at Tampines Mall.

The girls managed to choose front row seats and there I was..cheering and clapping with the rest of the kids there.
How uncool.

I am a mom, for heaven's sake!!
Not some...eight year old who's excited about meeting the host of Jobs for Junior and much more excited to be waving at the cameraman..
(For the record, I did not wave at the cameraman.Really.)

I managed to stay home on Sunday cos Hunny had this bowling tournament at his workplace thingythang and man, it feels weird to not have him around on a weekend..

Even the kids woke up and looked for him.
He's that important during the weekends.
Really.

So we just lazed around at home..I made roti john for breakfast, did lotsa ironing and we went grocery shopping at nite.
(B-O-R-I-N-G!!!)
And I learnt my lesson.
(Never shop for groceries at Ntuc on a Sunday nite. Never.The queue is similar to those of teenage girls queueing up for F4's concert tickets..)

Yesterday, my sister came by.
My fourth sister.

The one who doesn't look like she's remotely related to the rest of the family.
She looks more..chinesey? japanesey??

In fact, her nickname at home is Jepun.
My dad says she's his Japanese daughter.
She really looked Japanese when she was a baby.
She still *almost* does.
And I look *almost* Italian.
*chokes*

She's Nadiah's favouritest aunty in the whooooole wiiiiiiiide world!!
Nadiah explicitly told Aisyah "Cik Nira is my aunty...Cik Ayu is yours,ok?"
And I am whose..??

Naturally when Aunty Nira is around, I became a persona non-grata and my rules ceased to exist, just like that.
Like magic, you know..

But it was fine by me.
My sis sent Aisyah to school, brought the other two jalan² the whole afternoon (which was why I can cook in PEACE) and in the course of that event, of coz she kena 'ketuk' by the kids..they came back with sweets, balloons, stickers, toys...
Raya dorang...

And then it's today.
Today I did my final 'payment' of my fast.
I was not sure whether I 'owed' 7 or 8 days from last year so to be on the safe side, I did one extra day.
Just in case.
Later if I fall short, how am I going to pay back in the grave, rite..?

And tomorrow, Firdaus turns 2years,1 month old.
And tomorrow is the day that I have set to be THE day that I am going to once-and-for-friggin'-all wean him off my breast.
Oh please don't go prudish on me and go eeeww, eeww, ewww..
Half of you either actually own a set or have access to a set..!!
*rolls eyes*

So what I did was err..to 'scare' him off my breasts...
I told him this morning when he came a-looking for his 'milk-milk' that ooohhh..there are bugs on my breasts!!

Instantly, he had this 'I can't-believe-you-let-bugs-onto-your-breasts-ibu' look..!!
Then he had the 'how-the-hell-did-those-bugs-get-in-there-anyway?' look..
and then I gave him the 'really-got-bugs-on-my-breastlah' look..
And then we just simply looked at each other.
And before I knew it, he avoided my breasts like plague...!!
IT WORKED!!

((FYI, when I was nursing Nadiah, I weaned her off by applying axe oil (minyak kapak) on my bedendengs..
She tasted the oil and told me to 'close'!!
Close your bedendengs, ibu for I shall henceforth not take a sip out of them evaaa..!!!))

He hasn't suckled since morning and even tho' he occassionally asks for it, I'd remind him of my bugs-infested breasts and off he ran..!!

But rite now, I am feeling all sad and melancholic cos that means there'll be no more 'bonding' session with him when he suckles.
(B-o-n-d-i-n-g...not b-o-n-d-a-g-e....that's another session with an altogether different person...)

That means, for me, that his baby days are over.
He won't be so dependent on me.
I won't be able to comfort him when he's afraid, when he's hurt, when he needs ibu's exclusive comfort...
And since my baby factory's production department is shutting down, he'll be my last baby whom I will nurse and that...made me a wee bit sad.

But like Hunny said,8 years of breastfeeding three kids, I have to stop somewhere...

But I'm still just...sad that I have to 'let go'...

I am weird so I think I will have a lil 'ceremony' later to say bye² to my bedendengs.
Not that I am chopping them off.
I'm just saying goodbye milk-filled bedendengs and hello empty saggy ones...:(
sob.

I am sooo going to make those three start a Send-Ibu-For-Breasts-Reconstruction-Surgery Fund when they're all grown up and working..!!!
I demand it..!!
hhmmpphh..

2005-09-23T19:15:00.000+08:00

Ahem..

*wink..wink*

See my new entry on the right panel..

All designs of coz, courtesy of my hennaguru

I figured..since I do this on a weekly basis, anyway...;p

2005-09-23T00:36:00.000+08:00

I think I blog better when the rest of the human race here at home are asleep..

For one, there's no one tugging at my top and peeking in it.
And nope..that's not Hunny..that's Firdaus looking for his "milk!milk!..there!!"
Of coz it's there, Firdaus..your ibu's breasts aren't detachable,you know..

Did any one you catch Child Of Our Time..?
What a brilliant, brilliant series..!

I just started watching it last week and I got hooked.
I've now given up watching Lost..having been lost myself, trying to keep up and catch up...

The show is unbelievable issin't it?
(Not Lost..the Child thingy..)

For one, again, it triggered my itch for baby no.4, which I hope will remain to be just an itch I won't be itchy enuff to scratch..!
(By the way, me thinks there's a Itching-For-Another-Baby bug going around..judging from the 'itchy' responses I get from the earlier post...be careful you moms out there..you have been warned..)

It's so cute watching these harried moms (mostly moms than dads) frantically trying to rein in their resolute, determined toddlers...

Of coz I can afford to be amused..I'm not the one with triplets or some terror of an 18month old who just wouldn't stop harrasing his mom..

It's amazing to see the different methods of discipline and the varied responses/results that comes with it.

(How come MY method of discipline was not amongst the common method ah?
Mine is the wave-rotan-like-mad-in-the-air-and-bellow-some-fierce-sounding-words method..it works, ok...just ask Firdaus..)

Oh, I forgot.
These are ang-moh families.

Did you see the one where the mom was actually patient enuff to compromise, going "You want to put it in the bag?" (when the toddler was throwing tantrums and wanted to go swimming at nite, having taken out her swimsuit and all..and she actually listened to her mom and off they went to look for a bag to put the swimsuit in..)

Had it been Firdaus throwing a tantrum at 9pm at nite asking to go swimming, I'd prolly had adopted, ahem, MY method of discipline (please refer above) and go "YOU WANT ME TO PUT YOU IN THE BAG???!!"
Heh.
I is not ang-moh, ok..

But really..it's an eye-opening show for me..for anybody, actually...for us to learn about the different methods of discipline, child-raising and to be able to catch glimpses of other people's different cultures and ways of doing things at the same time..

Thursday nite is going to be fun for me from now on..
(not that it never had....like duhh...thursday nite *rolls eyes*...)

Lost can get lost, for all I care..

I now get to see other like-minded parents, half-way across the globe, dealing with the same problems I am actually going thru..

Rite now, mine is dealing with Firdaus' favouritest word in the whole wide world : NO!!

Sigh..
This boy had better learn to stop using that word frequently or I will go look for that bag !!!;p

2005-09-22T12:58:00.000+08:00

I hate this.

Hunny has to go on an overseas work trip to France and Germany.

Soon.

Like in a coupla weeks' kinda soon.

Benci ah..!

The trip has been shuttled back to and fro last year, to last June to next May but suddenly, he informed me a coupla days back that the director wants it to be done pronto and they're prolly looking at sometime in mid Oct to go..!!!
benci! benci! benci!!
*sulks and tries very hard to pout like Angelina Jolie*

I mean..I am already a big friggin' scaredy cat.
Then, it's going to be the fasting month..
Then, there's Aisyah's exams coming up..
And then, again, I'm a big friggin' scaredy cat..
Aaarrgghhh!!!

I know, I know..others have it worse but I still want my Hunny, you know...
I can't function without him.
I really can't.

Why did he have to be in charge of that project...why,why,why...??

Ok.
On the brightside, I know he's going to go shopping for our stuffs there.
He did on his previous trip to Spain and Germany and boy, he came back like a Santa Claus...
I'm gonna have my magazines galore, chocolate feasts..the kids are going to have new toys and funky clothes but I still want my Hunny..!!
I don't mind foregoing all that as long as he stays put and doesn't have to go..
Sigh.

I now have to wait for tomorrow ... that's when he'll have a meeting with the necessary people and they'll confirm the dates and such...

Sob.

I want my Hunny...!!

2005-09-22T01:21:00.000+08:00

Ahh...finally some semblance of sanity returned to my head and ladies and gentlemen, I have once again found things to write about..!!
yay-ness !!

Sigh.

Here's the thing.

I don't know whether it's hormones or too many newborn pix I've been seeing or my giving away those babystuffs away lately but gasp!!
I have been itching for another baby !!!!
OMIGOODNESSME!!!

Serious.
Heck, I even dreamt of baby no.4 the past few days!!

It's a girl and by jove, she's beautfiful!!
She's got mocha skin, big beautiful eyes and curly...waitaminute!!
where did the CURLY hair part come from??
Hunny and I both have straight hair..!!
But nevermind..it's merely a dream...
Anything can happen in a dream.
(I can even look like Angelina Jolie if I want to, in a dream..!!! Hell, I AM Angelina Jolie in my dreams !!)

But I have been dreaming of the baby twice oready leh..!!
Sigh..
It must have been my giving away the babystuffs...mebbe the 'spirit' of those stuffs came back to haunt me in my dreams in the form of a baby, no..??

(I gave away my cot and stroller and some baby toys and clothes and now I want another one, so help me God..)

I told Hunny about it and his I-knew-it's-coming reaction was
"in your dreams, sayang..literally in your dreams!!"
Pfftt..!

Sigh.
Ok.
Let's see whether I'll dream of that baby again tonite.
If I do...damn, I had better scramble and look for a new babycot soon!! :D

2005-09-21T19:29:00.000+08:00

Because I have nothing better to do and nothing much better to write about....

Casual Cotton

You are Casual Cotton underwear. You're plain,
normal and practical. People choose you because
you can always be relied on and you rarely
bring any surprises. You like to accompany your
owner in all sorts of activities and your main
purpose is to stay dry and not to chafe. Even
though you always want to perform your best,
you like to be modest and simple and you don't
care about being showed off. But remember,
tighty whities can be hot too.

What type of underwear would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla

2005-09-19T13:24:00.000+08:00

I.SURVIVED.MY.SATURDAY!!!

..without once ever stepping out of the house, can you believe that..?

So far, everyone survived my weekend cooking and Hunny's wallet remained intact..

What did I do that day..?
Hhmm..we did manage to springclean the house but we know it's not going to last us till Raya ... but still, I'm pretty happy with the results so far..

I made a very heavy decision of giving away my cot and my stroller to a couple who's expecting twins..
It's not that I regret it or don't like giving things away but I'm friggin' sensitive and attach too much sentimental value to things that I have a hard time disposing them...
I can't even throw away 1 half of Aisyah's old faded bootie...the other half of which has long disappeared!!

And so, before the family came to collect the cot, I took pictures of it and said my goodbyes..
Yup, I actually did.

I thanked the cot, I said my goodbyes and I teared a little, recalling the day when I went to get it, Hunny assembling it at home with me very big with Aisyah, decorating it days just before I gave birth and placing my newborns gingerly in it whilst they are still sleeping, dreaming of heaven, where they came from...

Sob.

I miss my cot !!!!

Sigh.

(Dear cot, where ever you are, I hope you take care of the new babies who will be sleeping in you..be a good cot....don't crack under pressure, ok..?)

Anyway.
Oh.
Back to my weekend.
It was actually pretty fun just staying home and cleaning up.
We even had a DVD fest later at nite with all of us sprawled on the 2 mattresses out on the living room..

I lost my train of thoughts cos this Firdaus is on my lap now, tugging at me here and there..
Nyibok jer..

Here's some snapshots of my day..

2005-09-17T10:13:00.000+08:00

I.am.staying.home.TODAY !!!

This is real.
This is not a hoax.
No bluff one.
Serious.

No shopping, no jalan², nothing.
Just plain staying home today.
How un-me.

I donno how but I found myself saying these foreign words to Hunny a coupla days back "nevermind lah, this Sat we stay home ok..? then we springclean the girls' room.."
Even he got shocked.
He was "Hah???YOU?? STAY HOME??!! you ok or not, sayang..??"
Hhmm.
Apparently, I am not okay.
Cos the normal me wouldn't say such...things.
(lemme recall, was I on medication that day...?hhmm...)

And so, I find myself staying home today and eiikk, s/p/r/i/n/g/c/l/e/a/n/i/n/g !!!
Me...who is allergic to dust.
That's another random fact for you.
I am allergic to dust.
I can get very bad sniffles when I enter dusty rooms, come into contact with dust or just do...dusty things.
I once had the sniffles for 3 days running when I went to Beruang's weekend home in JB.

Anyways.
So.
I will be staying home today.
Gasp!
That means I will have to cook later today.
Another random fact again.
I am allergic to cooking on weekends.
I can cook up a storm Mon-Fri but ask me to cook on weekends and I became lemau..

Why, why, why did I say those words to him....WHY???!!
*bangs head on wall*

Wish me luck to :
1) stay sane indoors
2) NOT get the sniffles
2) cook something edible for the human race here at home

Meantime, enjoy your weekend..!!

2005-09-15T13:13:00.000+08:00

I first got hooked on henna art during the last fasting month..when I passed by some stalls at the Geylang bazaar doing it and I saw the intricate artwork on the satisfied customers' hands..

My girls begged me to do it but how am I going to pay $5 per hand (x 3 including mine!) just for henna...?
I got no money, you know..
I is not working...
Heh.

And somehow, I think sometime during that period, I got to know her..and I got much more deeply hooked on this art.

She has to be one of the best henna artist around.
Heck, she's my henna guru..!!
You can see her beautiful artwork at her gallery.
You'll be swooning, I tell you..

She was patient and generous and kind enuff to guide me thru the art and gave me pointers on a lot of things..
When I started out, my 'art'..if you may call it that, was, you know..typically wobbly and funny but after learning more from her, I find that it's getting easier.

I'm not saying my drawings are getting nicer..
If they are, it's only because of her..cos I used her patterns.
Yes, I am that daft when it comes to creating my own patterns..

I can copy a pattern with ease but I can't come up with my own.
My creative juices have long dried up..
I wonder what juices I'm left with.
Heh.

Nowadays, I henna my hand almost every week..sometimes, twice a week...
I find it very, very theraupetic..
It's a cool way to de-stress after a whole day of tending to three small kids and a smaller house.

Focussing on the intricate patterns somehow calms me down..
It's like...yoga, to me..
Watever rocks my boat lah..

Even Hunny is very supportive of my new hobby.
He has a practical reason.
He says "I don't mind you spending $1.50 on each henna cone as long as it makes you happy..and it's only $1.50, phewww....!!"
He knows I could very well have taken up online shopping as another new hobby too..;p
That's why he's verryy supportive..
Smart man..

It also helps I have two very willing volunteers who'd sacrifice their hand for their ibu to practise her art..

This was what I did last nite..I was soo darn tired and I knew I just had to henna my hand to de-stress...

Before..

After..

Really..it's nothing compared to Jewel's work..or even
her's..
You should go check them out...

2005-09-13T22:59:00.000+08:00

Sigh...
I should have known better..

And now that I have known better, ladies and gentlemen, do not ever ask your mentel little daughters to come into contact with scissors...

All I did was to ask her to help me keep the scissors in my drawer.

She did.

But not before she cut her own hair!!

We discovered the 'crime' when I came into the room and the evidence was there for all the world to see.
(Apparently, she's still not good at covering her tracks..)

For a moment, I forgot who the usual suspect could be.
I actually summoned her elder sister but I know she's more sensible than that..
Only when I saw her lil' face crumpling up from guilt did I realised what had happened..

Nadiah, Nadiah.....
Sigh...the things you do...

see how short she cut her hair..??

too bad Nadiah, ibu have to chop it all off...

..don't worry babe, it WILL grow soon.....and stop sulking, for heaven's sake!!

2005-09-12T13:53:00.000+08:00

Ok.
I know my husband is a generous man when it comes to my shopping needs but sometimes, he does go overboard, you know.
(Of coz, I actually like it...how can I not...you think I stupid, issit..?)

It's just that sometimes, when he's in a verryy indulgent, extravagant mood, I wonder if he is..you know, like not well or on medication or something something..

Hhhmm..

You see, yesterday was my 'point-point-choose-choose' spree.

It turned out to be him pointing and choosing and buying it for ME..!

Ok.

First up, he got me a new handphone..
Like duhh..?
Do I even need one..?
I mean..I'm the housewife here.
I'm content with my 2 year old 7100.
He's the one who's in dire need of a new handphone.
(He's still using the old...darn, I forgot the model no. I'll update you people later..)

He dropped me off at Orchard Point's OG whilst he went off to the Starhub roadshow, on the pretext of getting a new phone for himself.
But when he met up with me later, he gave me the phone and said "For you.."
Duhh..??
I don't get it.
He insisted on still using his old phone as he doesn't see any problems with it yet..until I pestered him and he gave in to using my current phone..

Later, we passed by Levi's and he dragged me in.
According to him, apparently, I am in dire need of a new pair of jeans.
And make it Levi's, please.
(I didn't know this....*gasp*!)

So I found myself trying on jeans and voila, the alteration got done, the jeans got paid for and I finally own a new pair of Levi's after donkey years.

Hhhmm..

And when I went in Gramophone, I got myself Metallica's ..And Justice for All but when I was about to pay, he came up and waved Coldplay's X&Y in front of me, going "nak tak? nak tak..??"
(If only he asks me that at nite..)
He was practically whisking cds off the rack and offering 'em to me.

Hhhmm.

And at the JL's toy dept. I literally had to stop him from buying a new set of Polly Pocket's for Nadiah...simply becos she had been eyeing the toy for quite some time and he was feeling "why not?"..
Apparently, he was really feeling, "why not..? just get it..." yesterday.
If the girls knew what their ayah was thinking, I bet they'd have their own point-and-choose session.
Thank God we were not at Toys r Us.
I had a feeling he'd get Firdaus some big toy cars or something.
And I mean BIG.

Am I complaining?
No.
Dont be stooopid.
It's just that, he really surprised me yesterday.
Small lil' things that he'd normally not entertain, he indulged us yesterday..
Aisyah got a new Barbie card pouch thingy thang for school.
Heck, even Nadiah who doesn't NEED a pouch, new or otherwise, got one too yesterday!!

Sigh.
I should've gone to Ngee Ann City yesterday.
Then mebbe I can point-point-choose-choose at Tiffany's....
I loike..

2005-09-09T15:57:00.000+08:00

Pheww..!
Can u believe it?
Today is the ONLY day out of the whole week that I don't have anything planned for??!

I am more tired and drained out than any of the kids having their school hols rite now..

Today is my precious rest day before tomorrow's kenduri at my wak's place and Sunday's point,point,choose,choose spree at Orchard...
Heh.

Yesterday?
Yesterday was tiring but fun.
I reached home at about 10+ after being out since 1pm..

Yesterday, I got to meet some lovely, lovely ladies who were kind enuff to have a crazy woman(who was trying her hardest to maintain..)in their midst..

My favourite lovely lady is
her cos, ahem...she blanja us, you know..
I didn't see it coming so that made it all the more sweeter.
Thank you, wak...
I lup you many many....

The other lovely ladies, minus the Rafeaah kenna Buang, were the cute sherry babey and the pipi-mintak-nak-kena-cubit Linda..
I was looking forward to meet another lady but she couldn't make it..
Mebbe next time when the institute let me out on medicattion, I'd meet you ladies again, eh..??

The fun was a lil' short cos I had to rush off to Parkway Parade after that cos 1) Hunny is driving me there 2) I am shopping for baby gifts for ta da....my dear friend Tikus has given birth already!

I present to you, baby Yusuf !

I met Dayak and Beruang at the hospital and we spent a good 1 hour ooohing and aaahing over the new addition to our Lil' Plaza Collection.

After that, it was off to Mak's Place for dinner where we spent another 1 hour oohing and aaahing over the food there.
Burp.

And then it was back home.

And now I am tired.

I have only today to recuperate and get things ready for next week when school starts.

My day tomorrow will begin early and end late..as usual.

And so will Sunday.

Omigod.
I'm starting to feel very tired for Sunday already...

edit to add:
hahahhaa...sorry larling..
patotlah macam kurang eh...??
rupa²nyer aku 'tertinggal' kau....
tu lah..dudok lagi korner² jauh dari aku...:D

2005-09-07T00:21:00.000+08:00

Help..
When is school starting back again..??
Please helpp..!!!

Heh.

I suppose it's actually not too bad lah..
Aisyah is pretty reliable and helps me with the housework.
It's the other two that gives me cardiac arrest.

Anyway.
It was so hot and sticky this evening that I just had to bring them swimming.
I called Hunny at about 6.15pm and he picked us up straight after work.
Pretty last minute kinda thing.
Oh who cares...it's the school hols and I prefer swimming at such god-forsaken hours.
Less people to share the pool with.

I've packed their bags for their sleepover tomorrow.
Somehow, I felt kinda sad packing their stuffs.
Oh yes I know I yell and nag and scream and scold but they're still my babies and I will always miss them when they're not around.
I always do.
It's a mommy thing.

I'm sure Hunny will again gleefully tell me to relish them being away but somehow, deep inside, I can't.
I just can't.
I will pine away for my babies until I see them this Saturday.
Sigh.

Ok.
Enuff moping around.

I've been tagged..!!
Heh.

Ok, brader..here goes...:

Three Random Facts about myself you don't know:
-----------------------------------------------

1. I have three nipples
2. I cross-dress on weekends
3. I used to be a man.

No?
No good?
Aiyah..you mean you want real stuffs ahh..?
Ok.Ok.

Again, three random facts about myself you don't know...yet.

1. After I've showered/washed my hands, I will not touch anything I deem dirty...
Not the wiping cloth, not the kitchen counter, not even my children if they haven't showered! And not even Hunny. If he wanna come near me, man, he had better scrub himself clean and then come sashaying to me...!!

2. I am very, very friggin' sensitive, actually.
I will remember every single word you said that caused my heart to ache and bleed. I will not show it but I sure as hell will remember it...for life. I cry myself to sleep over words/actions that have hurt me the past 32 years of my life from people as obscurely related to me as possible.I cry easily tho' I don't show it often.

3. I am verrryy sarcastic.
And good at it. I can use it as a joke, in a joke but I can also really use it to lash out at you. I may be this funny, fun person, wateva but go ahead, cross my path and make me mad....you'll get to meet Ratna the Bitch. And she ain't pretty.

Heck.
I still prefer my 1st batch of answers.
Heh.

Hhhmm..
Now that I'm done, I'm supposed to tag 5 others.
Gee, now, now, who shall I choose..??

Ah.
Ok.
You people, you've been tagged.

1) blurqueen
2) herda
3) jewel
4) kak lin
5) basikal man. you know who you are. and I ain't shutting up or shaddaping up.
watever.

Go on, go on..

2005-09-05T00:53:00.000+08:00

It is not often I get to blog in peace without little people running about/around/over me..

My weekend has been tiring.

Tiring's good.

Tiring means I had things to do as opposed to a quiet weekend.

Quiet, more often than not, meant that, gee, I donno..mebbe I had a tiff with Hunny and sulked the whole weekend or we really have no plans and therefore chosed to stay at home.
blerrgghh.

But last weekend, I had places to go, people to meet, money to spend, things to buy, shopkeepers to make happy...

Friday nite, I was off visiting my lil' (ok, ok..YOUNGER) brother at the hospital.
His lungs collapsed.
Something like that.
Nothing serious.
I don't know for sure whether it's un-collapsed itself but they seem pretty alrite and he's already back home yesterday.

Then Saturday was of coz that Virgo's Birthday Bash which was the most gerek way to spend a day.
With my kakis.
I left Dayak's place at 11.30pm after actually contemplating to sleep over.
Too bad I am pretty anal where clean undies are concerned.
I must, I need new ones every single day.
There.
Some things you didnt know about me.

Sunday I had a wedding to attend.
I met an old secondary school friend there who was more excited meeting me than me meeting her..!!
Heh.
But she was one of the few nice ones from back then so it is nice to meet her and have a chat.

And after the wedding, we actually dropped by *gasp!!* my mother's place.
Somehow, she was pretty normal.
(Read: ok and nice)
I didn't stay long tho' but Nadiah sure did *almost* cry the house down going :
"I want to sleep at nenek's house..I dowan to go home...I want nenek!
I want to sleep here.."
Oh well.
I've decided to give them a discount and let them sleep over sometime this week.

And then, the creme de la creme.
We went to Geylang.

Yes, yes..go on..roll over and laugh...

Oh for heaven's sake...where else can I get my supply of tudongs and all the tudong paraphernalia then..?
And those nice loose tops..?
Miss Selfridge's..??
Duhh..

So anywaayyy...
There you go.
My long tiring weekend.

And it has only begun.
For woe be me, the school hols are here and I have little people to entertain/feed/clean.

One has to be sent for a jab later and gee, I have a feeling Mr IAMTERRBILEATBEINGTWO is not going to be nice afterwards.

He really is terrible-at-being-two cos just as he, you know, turned two, he became this velcro baby who'd WAIL whenever I leave his sight.
Uh-huh.
He did it..just like that.
When he turned two.

Before, he's pretty fine if ibu leaves the room but now, he cries heaven and earth when I seem to go further into the horizon.

Sigh...

Now, where's that 'minyak kapak'....??? *evil grin*

2005-09-02T13:41:00.000+08:00

Heh.
This is long due, Jin but here goes..

"What Were You Like" meme

20 Years Ago: (1985 - I was 12)
------------------------------------------------
Hhmm.
20 years ago, I was sitting for the all-important PSLE.
Die-die must pass, ok..
Or else kena pelangkong by my parents.
And that wouldn't be a pretty sight to behold..

10 Years Ago: (1995 - I was 22)
-------------------------------
I got engaged this year to Hunny. Simple affair. Nothing spectacular happened this year. Only my engagement made the mark.

5 Years Ago: (2000 - I was 27)
------------------------------
I went back to work and a few weeks after starting it, I realised that I am pregnant with Nadiah!! heh. What a pleasant surprise..
The whole going back to work thingy was tuff cos I had been a stayhomemom for 2 years before that so everything was a culture shock for me.
And this second pregnancy...veryy bleerrghhh for me.
I kept wanting to eat and yet felt nauseous at the same time.

3 Years Ago: (2002 - I was 29)
------------------------------
I cant remember much what happened in this year.
Of coz, I'm now a mommy of two girls.
I've stopped working the year before and have since retired.
Oh.
And in May this year was the last time I visited KL.
Hhhmm..must go again.
Must meet Jin..heh.

Last Year: (2004 - I was 31)
----------------------------
Aisyah started Primary School.
Eekss.
Suddenly parenting became extra stressful!
Nadiah also entered Nursery.
Parenting has always been stressful where she is concerned..heh.

This Year: ( 2005 - I am 32 )
-----------------------------
Ooh..the highlight has to be the unplanned-for NZ trip!
I'll remember that till the day I die..

Next Year:
-----------
Insyallah, I'd be a better wife and mom.
Have to learn to wake up extra early cos Aisyah's in the morning session.
And errgghh, Hunny has an overseas trip slotted next year.
I hate that.

10 Years From Now:
------------------
Who knows whether the world will still be around, huh?

2005-09-01T14:28:00.000+08:00

*sniffle, sniffle*

I am sick....woe be me.....

I think the whole partying mood from last Friday thru Firdaus' birthday outing thru mine on Tues has taken its toll on me and I'm now down with the runny nose and sore throat.

I hate sore throats more than anything else.
It really bugs me.
Heh.
Pun intended.

Anyway...

I can't sit down, relax and recuperate yet cos *gasp* I have yet another party to attend this Saturday and this is one where die-die oso, I must attend for it's the budak plaza's Virgos Birthday Bash !!

If you must know, Beruang, Dayak and me share the same zodiac sign.
We're all, ahem, groovy virgos born in the August/September range.

Beruang is older than me by 5 days and Dayak is the youngest, with her birthday on the 9th September, tho' not the smallest in size, literally.
(Haha woman..I know you're reading this.)

And so since we've all been missing each other's company (like what else is new..tho it's actually an excuse to meet up and hang out) we've decided to hold a birthday bash at Dayak's place this Saturday afternoon.

There'll be food, there'll be kids, DVDs to watch, two pregnant women to make fun of, Beruang to laugh at, more kids to keep a lookout for...I say, we'll have one helluva partaaayy....

But seriously, I don't need the cakes and the food and the prezzies to make my day.

It's always the great company that's enuff.

And these people are great company.
Period.
No walls, no pretense, no facades, no masks, no nothing.

We'll just be our ol, regular, loud, vulgar selves..
Just like when we were 17....many, many, many years ago in a galaxy far, far away....

And now, I've got to hunt for prezzies for the other two...;p

Gee, what can I get them...?
Platform shoes for the vertically-challenged Beruang and mebbe some permanent hair straightener(if there is any) for Dayak....she of the curly-wurly hair fame..

2005-08-31T12:29:00.000+08:00

So what happened when I turned 32?

Nothing much.

They say, life goes on, you know..

And so life did.
Although it was a lil' bit easier cos Hunny took the whole day off (he took childcare leave cos he said he got 1 big child to take care of) yesterday and there were some things that I didnt have to do as usual.

Like waking up a wee bit earlier to prepare Nadiah for her school trip to Sentosa, sending and fetching her from school, showering and taking care of Firdaus and making breakfast...

Sigh.

Lovely.

But those aside, I still had to do a lil' bit here and there.

But 'tis ok.

I get to have Hunny around the whole day (which always makes my day, mind you..) and he took me out shopping (which...err, wait a minute. what else is new..??)

Oh well..we zipped down to Far East Plaza to get some stuffs, walked over to Isetan Scotts and then Tangs and then back to Far East in about 3 hours and then we had to drive back up to fetch Aisyah from school and then it was off again to Causeway Point for the quintessential birthday dinner at Swensen's.

And what did I get for my birthday ?

Nothing.

Hold your horses, now...

It's not that he didn't want to or forgot or whateva...it's just that he doesn't know what to get me after 15 years of celebrating my birthday (likewise for me..)and I myself donno what I want!!

Nowadays, my presents don't come wrapped in pretty boxes with pretty bows..

Nowadays, I just point and choose and then he signs for it.

I loike.

It's just that yesterday, I didnt see anything I'd like to point and choose.

Hhhmm...there's always this weekend...and the next..and the next...and the next.......

2005-08-28T02:20:00.000+08:00

I actually stayed up late tonite (err,this morning..??) just so I can post this in time since I'd be out later the whole day celebrating...

It's his 2nd birthday today !!!

Happy Birthday, Firdaus !!!

Oh Firdaus....Ibu loves you so, so, so very much...
I hope you get completely well soon...
I hope you grow up to be a good Muslim with a good heart..
Muka handsome, duit banyak, hati busok pon tak guna, nak...
(Err, that loosely translates to, face handsome, money a lot but got bad heart oso no point, son...)

Today, when you wake up, Ibu, Ayah and your kakaks are going to whizz you off to a birthday lunch with ayah's kakis....(the ones on his body and the ones from Club 18) and we are sooo gonna partay again!!

And ahem..ahem...cough..err, it's also cos 2 days later, AHEM !! AHEM !! COUGH ! COUGH!..it's also going to be Ibu's birthday too....

AHEMMM!!! AHEMM !! COUGH !! COUGH ! COUGH !!!

Ahh.
Anyway.
Here's a pix of the birthday boy for now...and later after today, I'll post his 2 year old pictures....
I mean, those pictures of him TURNING two year old...not those I've kept for two years...I wrote comprehensible English, didn't I??

A coupla months back..sometime in April this year...one of my favourite shots of him

has he grown much..?
Gee, I donno..I see him everyday, I dont think I noticed....;p

2005-08-28T02:00:00.000+08:00

O.M.I.G.O.D !!!

I got possessed by some demon or something something last nite !!

For those who've read the reports on the going-ons at the DND, that was NOT me..
Y'all know how it's the Hungry Ghost month now and all..??
That must be one lost *and hungry* ghost that overtook my body, my mind and my soul..
Poor me..

But seriously, it was omigodonehelluva nite, man !!
I didnt expect to have soooo much fun *after so long* and then some.
(I leave the 'and then some' part to your imagination, thank you very much..)

It was exciting, it was sensational, it was outrageous, it was....100% GEREK !!!

I think what made it all the more fun was the sporting mommies who were there...
Imagine if the moms had been boring, walking zombies..
I'd have left after saying my hellos...

But it was not.

To all my old and new kakis, you people sure do know how to rock and boogey eh??

And I must say, the Redwan siblings are a warm, cosy bunch..they make me feel like I've know them for ages...I mean, hey, I sure as hell can joke with them like I've known them for ages....!!!;p

To Wati and friends, small world aye..??
Too bad we didn't get to sit down and talk further..
I is the excited, you...
Dah lamer I tak buat keja cam nie....:D

You know, I had my reservations about attending this DND prior to this but I was telling mah self, hey..I am just a normal, warm-blooded human being who just happened to be a mom and who just happened to want some great company and great fun *after being terribly deprived of it* and yeah! I did it !

We are all in the company of other moms...save for the 3 husbands who I think must have went "darn, why did I freaking agree to attend this ??!" :D

It was a splendid Moms Nite Out and not only the moms came out..all the horns and fangs and tandoks what-have-you oso came out !!

To all the moms who made it happen, THANK YOU.
YOU MADE MY NITE.

But the biggest thank has to go to another mom who didn't attend but made it smooth sailing for ..my Hunny.

Thank you very, very, very much,
sister..

She offered to have the girls over at her home FOR THE NITE and left Hunny to handle the one and only mamat...

If she hadn't, I'd have came back home to a half-dead husband, really...

But I didn't...cos you can't expect a half-dead man to come a-fetching me now, do you...??;p

Thank you Hunny...for sending and fetching me....and listening to me yak on and on and on about the whole event.
Without yawning.
I think.
(Gee, it was dark, we were about to sleep so how would I know whether he yawned or not, rite..??)

P/S : I didnt bring my digital camera with me as I ... gee, I donno, don't quite feel like it cos I have this thing for being 'not-careful' but you people know where to sniff out 'em pixs, dont you...??;p

2005-08-26T16:01:00.000+08:00

Dear all..

Miss Mumble will be getting ready soon.

She will be leaving the house at approximately 5.30pm later and return God-knows-when.

When she does remember to come home, either :

1)she'd be too conked out and fall asleep
or
2)she'd still be on a high and update you all on what telah happened..

Miss Mumble foresee it is most likely going to be no.2
Miss Mumble has great foresight, you see..

Now, she has already put her two children to sleep.
No, not that kind of sleep that vets do to stray cats..
The kind of sleep where one was barked at to sleep and the other was breastfed to sleep.
That kind.

Her room is all cold and cosy now, thanks to the one and only air-con in the house..
She will be taking her shower soon and lathering herself up with her favourite Ralph Lauren's bodywash.
Then, it's make-up time.
Her feveret, you...

Then on comes the outfit and her tudong (periok) and her accessories.

And then she'd wait for her knight in black shining corolla to fetch her..

And off she goes..

P/S: bila aku nak game ni nak siap..?
asik ngadap ni pc jer...

ok bye !
chiow chin chow !!

2005-08-24T21:52:00.000+08:00

Just so you don't have to see my pix below when you come to this page, I am going to write today...

And gee, what can I write about..?

Oh of coz I'm still on a high just thinking about the DnD on Friday nite..

Who won't..?
I'd be meeting all these moms I've known for the longest time...people I've met online but have never met in person.
Well, some at least.

And then of coz, there's always the prospect of dressing up and making up..!!

I mean come on..I'm a girly girl.
(I think.)

Which girl/woman/makcik wouldn't like to look good, albeit once in a while, you tell me??
We all do...it's human.

The only times I get to really dress up and make up is mostly during Hari Raya and that only comes once a year..so hell yeah I'm excited about dressing up on Friday..!!

My one worry is just how in the world will Hunny handle the three kids...
Hhhmm...I'm really wondering now.
(Issit even safe to leave them in the care of their dad..?? hhmm..)

It's not that he can't take care of them.
He can.
I think.

It's just that..he'd be all flustered and he'd start hollering at the top of his lungs..
It doesn't help that all my neighbours on this 11th floor already know all my childrens' names..
(from all that hollering, of coz..)

I envision this :

Either I come home and all of them are tucked neatly in bed, off in slumberland or
I come back home and they are all still running riot in the bedroom, messing up their study table, screaming their heads off...

..and I have a half-dead hubby in 1 corner...

Gee I wonder which is most likely to happen.....

2005-08-22T13:49:00.000+08:00

Sudahlah tu korang....let's leave Mrsbeki alone for now...she needs to wash up and dry up per....

Korang tak abis² nak canon dia...biarlah...dia pon dah kawin, dah halal, dah anak tiga dah....and for all we know, out pops No.4 thanks to last Thurs!! hahehehehaha..

This week, I am aaaaaall excited.

"I like to move it, move it, you like to move it, move it, we like to move it, move it, we like to MOVE IT !!!"

I am doing the jiggy cos this Friday is THE day...the MOMS4MOMS Dinner And Dance Nite and boy, I can't wait for Friday..

If you don't see me here time to time it's cos :
1)I'm busy polishing up mah grooves
2)I'm ironing the outfit
3)I'm getting the make-up rite
4)I'm *trying* to make up my mind on WHICH shoes to wear
5)I'm deciding on the choice of bags
6)I'm trying to figure out which tudong style

What an exhaustive list.
Well, at least for me.

For it has been eons since I last went to a Dinner N Dance.
Errk.
I think the last one was..in 1994?

Man..that was soo last millenium..

Half the time, I couldn't even recognise myself..!!
I am so used to the fat flabby me *staring back from the mirror *, I had to keep telling myself "the thin one! the thin one..! u were the thin one..."

2005-08-19T14:51:00.000+08:00

You've prolly read the nice, decent things that happened at the gathering from her and her..

Now, it is time for me to tell the truth and nothing but the truth...*evil laughter* (siap kau Mrsbeki...!!)

I was the first to arrive at her house (all thanks to my chauffeur, but of coz..) and so I set about preparing my 1/2 prepared fishball soup in her kitchen, talking and yakking away like there's no tomorrow..(like what else is new..) and went on and on talking and yakking away when the rest of the moms came...

In fact, we all went on and on talking and yakking and laughing like nobody's business ('cept for ours, but of coz..) when suddenly, I felt a presence beside me that made my hair stand...

..It went past so quietly and so swiftly, it sent most of us into shock...especially ME..

I thought it was an apparition but it was real!
In the flesh...
Dripping wet..(waitaminute..??! was he dripping wet, mrsbeki..? gee, I suppose only you can answer that, huh??!! kwang kwang kwang..!!)

...for lo and behold, MrBeki was in the kitchen toilet all the time and whilst we were chatting in the dining room, he came out quietly and made his way to the bedroom, freaking all of us out !!! :D

Basket Mrsbeki didn't tell us he was in the house!!
and she let us talk and laugh like hyennas in heat..!!!
Oohh tidakk...kemaluan telah berlaku....!!!

And she had the cheek to make fun of me..but of coz, it came back to her....heh..
for there she was, casually remarking me for 'asyik naakk jer..' when I casually realised "what was Mrbeki doing in the house in the afternoon and TAKING A SHOWER??!!"

Jeng jeng jeng...!!!

So now tell me who's the one who "asyik naakk jer.." ???!!
(rilek beb...takmo marah², nanti 26th kau kena jual..)

But all that said and done, we had a swell time yesterday..

The highlight, but of coz, was when Jewel turned up..
Macam celebrity, nohh...kita sumer jakun....
heh..

Ladies, thank you for the great company and power food..*burp*

Lenkali takmo makan tu sambal sotong lah...tak sedap...aku sorang jer bleh makan....

2005-08-17T14:20:00.000+08:00

While we're on the rock and roll, I thought I'd like to talk about my other pet group
Metallica.

Funny.
I've heard soo much about Metallica from the mat-rock boys in my secondary school but my typical reaction back then was "memekak jer group nie..."

..until one fine day, I was at SP's plaza and a group of *yet again* mat-rock boys started strumming the guitar to this lovely, lovely melody that was so, so soothing yet so, so haunting.
To me, at least.

It was hypnotizing to me and I was curious about this song they were obviously *trying* to play.
I started asking around and was told they were playing Metallica's Thee Unforgiven.

Somehow, I found myself buying the cassette not long after.
(Did I just tell you how old I am for having known just what the *bleep* a cassette is ??);p

And from there on, I was hooked...
I then went on to buy all their previous albums and really,really got into Metallica.
Hey, I went to their concert at the Kallang Indoor Stadium on 13th April, hokay..
Don't pray pray...

Oh ya boy.
I sooo remembered that day.

I had asked my parents for permission earlier, much earlier, to go to the concert but they gave me their typical answer : No and their typical reason : Wait people molest me.
Duhh..??

But somehow, I just had to brave myself to find ways to go to the concert..and I did.

I remembered buying the ticket at the last minute with my ex-bestfriend, giggling all the way to the Sistic Counter and going "I cant believe we're doing this !! hehe hehe hehe.."
Please excuse us, we were only 19 back then.
(ouch..that was painful...recalling that I was *that* young)

On that day, we went to school as usual but were decked in concert gear..read : boots n jeans.
We were all excited, friends who were going were excited, even our decent, quiet classmates were excited for us..
The atmosphere was feverish and we're not even at the Indoor Stadium yet.
It seemed that on that day in SP, everybody who's anybody, was going to the concert.
Especially those mat-rock boys from the plaza.

We went there with my ex-bestfriend's ex-b/f and his bro and his lil' cousin (whom I later discovered had a crush on me! horrors....!! the chap was only in P5 at that time! hahaa..) in a car !!

Which was cool cos timing was of importance for lo and behold, I had *gasp* told (read: lie lah...abih nak hidop per...) my parents that I have a 'project' to do and I'd be back late.
Yeah rite...banyak aku nyer project...

Anywaaaayyy...
The concert, if you asked anyone you know who went, was MAGNIFICENT!!!
Power rabak !!
It was electrifying, it was exciting (cos I got to see soooo many boys that nite), it was way, way cool.
Way cool.

Imagine Metallica playing life and loud in front of you...
Aahhh..I still remember that nite..
I had been Metallica-nised.
(As if I hadn't been Metallica-nised before...)

If you asked me to trade that nite for a million bucks, I'd say naahh..

Oh.
The funny thing was, when I got home that nite, around 11plus, my mom opened the door while my dad was watching tv in the living room.

Till today, I remembered that nite too well cos it was one of those rare few nites they were somehow sporting and understanding enuff.
Very rare oyy..
In fact, I think this was the ONLY nite they were like that..

I say this cos when my mom opened the door, she asked me her typical "Asal lambat?" (Why late..?) and I remembered mumbling quickly that I had project....and what my mom said next stumped me...

..."project kat Kallang..??!!"

but she actually had a small smile when she asked me that...!!

The best part was they didnt even questioned me anymore, any further..I managed to go into my room, hi-fived my sister who was dying to ask me more abt the concert and shower up...

I think that nite I slept with the biggest smile plastered on my face.

I, R**** M******, watched Metallica perform LIVE in concert...even if my parents had given me a lashing back then, it didnt matter.

Nothing Else Matters...;p

2005-08-16T13:45:00.000+08:00

I am not being a snob but I don't find myself very Malay-ish.

For starters, I don't listen to Malay songs.
Any Malay songs, for that matter.

Second, I don't watch Malay movies/dramas/horredy (that's comedy..but they way they do it, it always turns out horrendous..so it's horredy for me..)

And third, don't ask me anything about the Malay celebrities..be them local or those from the region.

But then again, there's always exceptions and first-times for everything.

No, I didn't start listening to Siti SaccharineSweetNurhaliza.
(Aww please don't lambast me for that...)

The only Malay songs that I listen to, for now, is those of Amuk's ...

oh yeah, baby...gimme Amuk anytime...

So I was a wee bit sad and disappointed when I discovered, albeit very late, that they actually came to town for the Konsert Rock Gerek or something something...
Man, had I known earlier, I'd prolly have gone.
I think.
Heh.

And the only reason I managed to find out about it was when I actually channel surfed one nite and switched on to Suria *gasp!!*

And there was Bandi Amuk performing P.Ramlee's 'Jangan Tinggal Daku'....
sigh...

Why do I like Amuk..?
Firstly, they're heavy.
I don't like 'em ballady groups who profess to play rock musics.

But mostly cos their songs are actually...err, how do I put it?
Lagu nasihat...??

I mean, they write intelligent lyrics that don't harp and whine about puppy love; boy meets girl, girl dumps boy, boy now cannot live life properly yada yada yada...

Senang cakap, lagu dorang tak kental lah beb...

One of my favourite has to be Akar dan Bumi..
The lyrics is very powerful and empowering.
Like I said, it's more like a lagu nasihat...

The song goes somethin' like this :

Bila menari dongak ke langit
Langkahmu sumbang salahkan bumi
Silap sendiri tak dipeduli
Terbiar sudah membuta tuli
Baru ternada menyesali diri

I just find the words very deep, very meaningful and it's waaay far from all those crappy sappy puppy love bullshit....

I heart Amuk, you know....;p

2005-08-15T11:48:00.000+08:00

It's Monday already...??

Gee, I didn't notice...what with my head buried deep in the beginning-of-the-week mess that I have here in my house....
Laundry to hang out, beds to make, floors to vacuum, furniture to wipe, children to feed, husband to entertain....;p

The weekend came and went, huh?

That always happens to me..half the time I didnt notice it was here till it's Monday and I am frantically looking for clean pair of socks for Aisyah..

I spent a good part of my Saturday 'hunting' for a new tudong/scarf/selendang/whatchamaycallit...

You see, ladies and gentlemen, I have a groovy Dinner and Dance to attend on the 26th and man, I have to up the glam factor, y'know...

I've got the outfit and the shoes all down pat but this whole tudong thing is veryyyy tricky.
Very.
I hate this part of dressing up, actually.
To find the right colour of tudong to match your outfit can prove to be a migraine-inducing affair.
Trust me.
Been there, done that..

So on Saturday, I went tudong hunting at Arab Street and I spent 2 hours just trying to find the right exact shade.
It didnt help that I was being anal.
I had to have the right shade.
Exactly the right shade.
Not a shade less, not a shade more.
Susah seh jadi pompuan...

2 hours and I *still* couldn't find it until ta da...!! I passed by a fabric shop and something caught my eye...it was the perfect shade of gold and I just had to get it.
I just had to.
Who cares if it's not even a tudong in the first place...
I can sew the edges later...
Right now, what matters is that it's the perfect shade..
I was happy.
The apek was happy.
Hunny and the kids were happy too.
Case closed.

....but now, I have to find the perfect bag.....!!

Aaarrggh....the price of glam...

But I ain't complaining cos I know I'm just going to have a superb groovy time..
This is what I call a Mom's Nite (All)Out.....;p

We're human beings too, remember..?;)

2005-08-12T14:03:00.000+08:00

Did I tell you what happened to me on National Day??

I got formally evicted from my parent's place.

Well, at least my things and the kids' stuffs got evicted from my parents place.

Apparently, they cant spare any more space for our things in their *gasp* big, spacious 5-room flat..

Mind you, theirs is one of the rare few 5-room flats in Tampines which is as big as any executive apartment.

So in this big, huge flat of theirs, they cant seem to find space to fit in my kid's clothes, our towels, mine and hunny's spare change of clothes and best of all, the kids' toothbrushes...

That's rite...even the toothbrushes got the boot.

My dad says our stuffs took up soo much space and makes sooo much mess.
Uh-huh.
Our stuffs which conveniently fit into a small box.

Watever.

Best of all, we actually had a National Day gathering planned at my parent's place for after asar but on that very morning, only on that very morning, I was told that my parent's are having this kenduri in the morning, actually.

I was not told earlier, I was not invited.

(My mom didn't have the courtesy to tell me in person.My younger sis actually called me.)

Gee, I must be the apple of my parent's eyes..

Apparently, my parents had the courtesy to formally invite my aunties, my uncles, my cuzzins but didn't even bother with a phonecall for me.

Swell.

I don't get it. I just don't get certain things some time.

But the best part ??
My dad had the....gall to ask my children to sleep over that nite at his place.

I mean, c'mon..you've packed up our stuffs nice and cosy in those bags and now you want us to sleep over??
Make up your mind, dad...
Make up your mind...

2005-08-12T13:25:00.000+08:00

O.M.I.G.O.D !!!!

You people just HAVE to watch Crash..!!
Pleasssee............!!!

It has *straightaway* become my Movie Of the Year..
It's so, so, so good.
So good.

I suck at movie reviewing cos hey, to begin with, it's not my day job so please just do yourself a favour and go catch the movie.

Ok.
Waitaminute.
Has it been shown already or is it showing now or not shown yet??
Cos, err..*ahem*, I didnt catch it at the cinema, you see..

But please...since we're still on this whole National Day week and in the racial harmony mood, this is the movie to watch.

It'll teach you a lesson or two on racism and racial harmony which we can all use...

2005-08-11T15:56:00.000+08:00

Today is his last day of MC..

How has it been having the hubby at home for 4 days straight..??
I wish I can say it was fun....you know, fun in the way married people know how...but alas,alas, my 'patient' spent most of his time sleeping...

This morning he had to go back to the hospital for another round of blood tests...the results came out pretty ok.

Apparently he has a low count of white bloodcells...or was it high..? Or was it low blood..? Damn, I can't remember..
I didnt accompany him today, you see, for :
1) The kids start school today
2) I can't wake up in time
3) I'm having a splitting migraine.

So he had to go to the hospital by himself just now.
I'm just glad it is all really nothing.
Nothing serious.
Just plain lack of white bloodcells.
Watever..

So what is my patient doing rite now..?
Why, it's his favourite hobby, that's what.....
It's men's universal hobby, from what I gather...
The men call it a nap..
Like I've said before, I call it Sleep of the Dead.

He told me he only need 1 hour or so...

Yeah rite...

Let's wait and see, shall we.....?

2005-08-08T21:22:00.000+08:00

This morning, my heart practically stopped when he came back from the doctor's and told me he's been directed to go to Tan Tock Seng Hospital's A&E..

(It didnt help that, err..we are having that thingythang called a tiff and I wasn't on talking mode to him..)

He had been unwell the past week.
He has this on-off fever and headaches and lethargy which I plain attribute to him being....him.
Heh.

And he has been having these lumps on his neck and armpit and I'm always dead paranoid about lumps, having found some on my breast a coupla months back.
Ok, that's another story for later...

So this morning, when he came back from the doc's, he was just...in this despondent mode with his face cupped in his hands looking all forlorn.
And sick.
And when he mentioned 'hospital', it just triggered my panic mode...

For that not-so-split and many² seconds, I saw myself losing him.
Me with the kids, without him.
It was an unbearably painful imagination, even if it was for a few seconds.

I regretted all the things I've done to him, said to him...
I wished that I can tell him the things I have not yet told and apologised for sins I had conveniently forgotten about..

We made our way to the A&E almost immediately and spent a good 5 hours there..
(Aaah...the efficiency of gahmen hospital...)

When he went off to collect his blood test, I stayed behind with the kids whilst they ran loose and let off steam...all the while praying to Him not to take him away from me...

How can a very healthy man like Hunny need to go to A&E, I kept asking myself....
But then I remembered, very healthy people have dropped dead for no reason too..
It happens..

When he called me on my mobile a lil' later and told me to meet him at the pharmacy, I was a lil' bit apprehensive.
I couldn't bear to look him in the eye.
Wait a minute...I normally don't look him in the eye either.
Not when I am fuming mad with him...which funnily, I was still ... you know...feeling.
Fuming mad.

When the kids and I finally reached the pharmacy, I braved myself a line of question and asked him gruffly.."so, how?"
He told me he's been given 4 days of MC and that, alhamdulillah, it was nothing.
The doctors suspected it to be a case of dengue, that's all.
Phhehewwwwww....
(And there I was, all melodramatic in my mind, thinking of cancer, leukaemia, Hep B, name it, I was imagining it...)

If I hadn't been still stubborn and mad, I'd prolly had whooped and hugged and kissed him there and then with joy..

Alas, all I can do was sit in front of him and played with the children.
(I don't get women, really...I don't.
Wait a minute!! I'm one ??!!
Damn, that explains a lot..!!);p

So much for being worried huh...??
And so much for being angry huh...??

This is what I call one of 'em cases of extended-pms...
The vessel's long gone but the waves are still ripplin'....;p

2005-08-01T12:19:00.000+08:00

My darling pc had her time of the month last week, so please excuse my absence.
(Apparently her time of the month and mine do not coincide together...)
I mean, yeah...if you don't already know, even pcs have their time of the month..at least mine does.

Actually....all the data in my pc was gone.
Wiped clean.

Please, I beg of you, don't ask me HOW..
I am one of those ISO 9002-Certified PC Idiots who still exists in this century.
The only thing I know is how to turn it on, surf and then turn it off.
All other maintenance *yawn* thingythang is Hunny's concern.
Dont even ask me what system this is....I am that idiotic where this thing is concerned...
Like watever....

What happened was that when I turned the pc on (yay!! I know how to do that!!) last Monday, it couldn't even start..!!
Hunny tried reformatting the darn thing but something's still amiss...
And I felt that all was lost...that I would have to give up my cyberlife when lo and behold, my darling LATEST, NEWLY-DECLARED BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLLLLLE WIDE WORLD (god, what an exxageration) Asma@Dayak offered to come by over the weekend and do stuffs...
Please, again I beg you, don't ask me what the stuffs are...
She did it, I sat by her side doodling with the henna on my hand...all the while listening to her bewildered gasps and endless nagging about my stoopidity.
Watever, woman...just get it done.

And so, on Saturday, the 'surgeon' came by with her 'doctor' who is also conveniently known as her hubby and her kids and she did her thang with my pc and whoohoooo...I got my cyberlife back..!!

All hail Asma the IT Queen...!!!
It pays to have IT whizzes as friends, you know...
(If you aren't one or don't already own one, faster go and find one..!!)

Apart from coming over to...do that thing with my pc, it was also a great way to spend our Saturday..just hanging out and chilling with great company.

I'll tell you how comfy we are with each other.
When she comes by, I always roll out the 2 mattresses for her...
We can just laze around on the mattresses in front of the telly...be it at my place or hers..
(And it's also becos she's now a dugong in the making...you know, being preggie and stuffs...hahh!!)

But hey...she's now my NEWEST, BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLLLLLEEE WIDE WORLD aahh...!!

Mah, if this thing goes kaput again, I'll fetch you hor...??;p

2005-07-22T14:46:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, I was hit by the Housewife Blues.
Yes, we housewives/houseslaves/houseelves do get the blues too...once in a while.
It's no easy work just merely sitting home and shake legs, hokay.....

I donno why but I just kinda snapped.
Nope, I didnt drown any of my kids in the bathtub.
I dont own one to begin with.
I just snapped cos I realised...I haven't been cooking new, interesting dishes in a long while...

It's always the safe xxx-masak-kicap, xxx-masak-soup, xxx-masak-lemak, xxx-masak-watever-is-not-spicy...
yawn.

I mean, it's not bcos I cant take the hot stuffs but bcos I have to take into consideration the children's palate.
Their chinese genes somehow is pretty dominant in their food choices.

So on that Tuesday, when I took out the frozen beef from my deep storage freezer, I just placed it on the kitchen sink, went back to the living room and sat there, almost, almost crying cos I dont know what else to do with the beef.
I was sick and tired of cooking daging masak kicap or daging masak sop...
I sat there for the longest time wondering why, why, why......how, how, how...

After what seemed like an eternity, I called Hunny and told him, his in-house chef is not gonna cook ANYTHING that nite and please, please, please can we get out of the house to have dinner outside.....
Of coz, being the nice man he is, he agreed without hesitation.
He's a smart fella.
He knows what hesitation might bring.

So after work, he bundled all of us into the car and off we went out for dinner..at *yawn* Burger King.
(I seem to not like what they like to eat and vice versa..)
Got me self a nice bowl of Laksa after that and did some grocery shopping, during which I told myself, I am not going to cook the same ol, same ol stuffs anymore and ta da....

......I found myself slaving in the kitchen yesterday cooking Daging Semur Bali, Ayam masak Opor Hijau and Sambal Tumis Empat Sekawan.
(Mak ai..namer klassik seh...)

Surprisingly, Aisyah loved the ayam a lot.
A wee bit hot but she said, "ibu...you cook, power !!"
I can feel all the tired muscles relax...

And becos I am on a roll, I thought of making pengat durian and banana muffins later...

Kalau dah rajin, over.......:p

Oh.
And moral of the story:
Dont let your cookbooks collect dust lah dey...
Take 'em out and go try some..!! :)

2005-07-21T12:37:00.000+08:00

It was just last week that my little brother (don't ask me why I use the word little. He's always been little to me. Ok, I'll use kid brother from now on then..) graduated from NTU.
Oh..he was the pride of the family but of coz.
My parents were prolly over the moon with his graduation.
The only son, the only U grad.
The first one in either side of the family to be a uni grad...
Aawww...

I'm proud of him, of coz.
Proud cos hey, this kiddo is really smart.
He may not look like it (somehow he's more mat looking that smart looking..) but his brains are really good stuff...
And he's mah brudder...

But I had a lil' wee bit bitter feeling kinda thingythang going on when I heard of his graduation.
The bitter feeling didn't stem from him graduating...it stemmed from the fact that my parents were not as supportive and encouraging when it came to my education a long,long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

When I was in that mere thing called poly, my mom especially (like what else is new) always had some fault to find with me.
Nothing I do seemed rite.
And when I do something slightly wrong (in her warped context of wrong), she'd berate my poly education and say stuffs like "yah, so smart oready rite..? yah lah..some people in poly already now, what....so clever oready wat..."
Very duhh, rite..??
But that's the kind of shit I'd get everytime I supposedly do something wrong.
I come home 10 mins late, I get that.
I come home 1/2 hourearly, I get that.
I have homework to do, I get that.
I have projects to finish up that require me to stay up late, I get that.
Heck, I get that even when I am about to start revising my work at nite...!!

Sometimes, she'd get my dad on her side and taunt me with silly things like "Alah, baru poly dah ngada² eh bang..belom masok unibersity...agaknyer kita ni dia dah tak pandang eh bang....sombong!!"
Someone please help me translate that....

I get that kinda shit a lot.
Almost everyday.
Tell me how motivated can you get when your own biological parents say such stuffs to you..?
I lost all my good study juices just hearing that.
The moment Hunny proposed, I said yes cos :
1) I really wanna be his wife
2) I really wanted to sleep with him. Heh.
3) I really wanted to get away from my parents pronto.
It doesn't matter that in the process, I have to bury my desires to further my studies.
Imagine if I made it to U and they still give me that crap day in day out.
Boley giler, siak!!

Sigh.

But what happens when their only son gets in U..?
Oh..they treat him right and royal.
He doesn't need so sacrifice his precious revising time to do housework.
He doesn't need to attend family functions if he has big papers coming up.
He doesn't need to do a lot besides study.
And oh yes...he doesn't get taunted.
The differences a mere penis makes...
Hah.

Oh well.
No matter what, I'm still very proud of my kid brother.

You made it, ijam !!
I know I've never said this before but I am really proud of you..of everything.
It's just that I can never find the right words to say..
Congrats..!

him and my dad..

2005-07-15T12:52:00.000+08:00

Contrary to popular belief, I was not away on a Hanky Panky Marathon.
Really.
Takkan asik nak ajer eh, X..
Awak pon...
I do have other hobbies, you know...contrary to popular belief.....;p

The flu bug hit me *again*.
Really.

It became horrible yesterday and I just had to pop by the doc's..

Which is the topic of my discussion today.

Why some doctors ah, like....1/2 pass lidat...??
Speak Engrish oso like 1/2 pass.
Dressing oso 1/2 pass.
Did they pass their exams or not..?
How do I know I'm getting the proper medication..?

This doctor I saw yesterday, was pretty slack but worst of all, he was pretty condescending.

I think he was pretty surprised I spoke any English, if at all..
Me, the makcik with tudong, housebound with small kids somemore..
He was speaking to me in 1/2 pass English, talking down and I just had to talk back to him in proper sentences complete with some stiff uppity-crust kinda words...

I don't get it...
Issit becos of my race?
Issit becos of my tudong?
Or issit becos he has Dr as a prefix...?
Chehh..

Some of these doctors I've encountered really need some basic customer service skills, really.
Just becos you're a doctor doesn't mean you can be patronizing..
You have to learn some basic manners, you know..
Like saying Hello and Thank you...
And smiling...
And being nice.
Genuinely nice.

But most of all, don't take your patients for granted.
Not all of us were born housewives..
We actually went to school, you know..
You know? School..??
Where we learnt ABCs and how to speak Engrish...??
Pffttt..!!!

2005-07-12T13:20:00.000+08:00

I am happy to report that the crap feeling is gone.

Of coz, the crap feeling was there in the 1st place cos :
1) The Husband was sick (hence no hanky panky on a lazy Saturday afternoon)
2) The Husband was sick (hence no shopping on a lazy Saturday afternoon)
3) The Husband was sick. Period.

Boring xia.

I mean, what was there left for me to do..?
Take care of the kids and *gasp!!* cook on a weekend??!!
*faints*

But alas, alas, that was what I did.
I had to cook and I had to take care of the kids and I had to stay home.
Minus the hanky panky.

In the meantime, the hanky panky-nee spent the whole afternoon sleeping.
Oooh, what a turn-on.

Hence my tantrums.
Yeah, we wives are a lil bit difficult to comprehend sometimes.

We can just throw tantrums without telling you what the *bleep* it was about in the first place.
We are very good at that..really.

So I threw tantrums and pulled a really long face that could've swept the entire void deck clean..

And I was determined it would stay that way the whole of Sunday too...

...until he came and cajoled and pacified and whispered sweet-nothings-I-think and I was sold!!

Just like that.

Wham! Bamm! Alakazam..!!

Whooohoooo....!!
*jiggyyy*

And I became happy and nice all over again...;P

Married life is good, you know....
*ahem*

cubalah...

2005-07-09T15:45:00.000+08:00

Today I feel like crap.

Today is crap.

Everything is crap, crap, crap.

It doesn't help I miss being here ...

Crap !!

2005-07-08T17:19:00.000+08:00

Aha'..!!!

It's interesting how the word 'noty' can trigger so much reaction....:D

It makes me wonder...who's the noty ones here..?
Aku ker korang...??;)

Nah.
My noty blog will remain under wraps.

Like I said, I'm enjoying my new sanctuary.

It's like finding a new cave and discovering you can dance naked there, scream all you want, hey, sing even...and yet when the time beckons, just sit there quietly and enjoy the peace...no pandemonium, no hysteria, no onlookers..

Just me.

But hey, who knows...you might just get an email invite from me to visit it.

But if I ever do that, I think only the equally noty ones would qualify...;P

Relax lah...

2005-07-07T16:20:00.000+08:00

Aiyah you all...

I is still here lah..

And err, I is still notchet start reading the book leh...
Haiyah...berboal champion...

I had wanted to.
Niat important per..

I did want to read.

Then he called me and again, he got on top, I lay below and .... we watched DVDs again..him on top on the sofa, me on the mattress below with Firdaus...hel-lo..!!

And those 9 books still lay there by my sidetable collecting these wonderful thing called dust...

On another note, I was just wondering...if I really write how I really want to write, would you guys be able to take it..??

I mean, I find my writings to be rather lame and decent and nice of late.
I think.

And I just squirm when I realised, hey, that's not me.

I'm not decent and nice.
Lame, yes.
Decent and nice, noooooooo..

I asked myself, can people really take it if I write about..gee, I donno, my little tiffs with Hunny, bitching about some people I know, how my day really was, just being a plain old bitch, talking about *gasp* being horny and stuffs like that, would people really mind..?

Oh sure, it's my blog and I should feel free to write as I please but the thing is, I know most of my readers personally and I've met up with them a coupla times.

They've seen me, they know me..heck, some of them even know Hunny..!!

So how can I write exactly the way I really want to write (read: how I really actually am) without 1/2 of them gasping for breath and falling off their chairs going "wah leow Ratna...!!" :D

Heh.

I guessed as much.

And so I think I will continue to write lame, decent, nice stuffs here for the general public's reading pleasure.

It's ok.
Don't pity me.
I have another new, noty blog to keep me occupied and really, really write what I really, really want to write.

Oooohh....;P

Zhai zhien..bye bye...

2005-07-05T18:44:00.000+08:00

Imagine waiting 2000 years searching for the mother you love because your love knows no end...
And to only have her back for merely one day..just one day.

To be contented to spend the day making her coffee the way she likes it, to get her to play a game of hide-n-seek with you, to have her bake a birthday cake for you, to cuddle up and sleep her last sleep with you...

Sob.

I tried so hard not to cry.

+ + + + +

On another note, I think I am going to stop writing for a while.

I donno.

Running out of things to write lah.

I find myself writing nice, proper, decent things here, I'm *almost* no longer myself...

Almost pretentious.

(err, actually I'm merely pms-ing. see how women get when they're pms-ing...tsst, tsst..)

And so I will kinda take a break to go back to my other love.

Reading.

I have these 9 books waiting to be read and tonite, I'm going to pick one up and dive right in.

There's something about reading a book and getting all engrossed in that world that I cant find elsewhere.

And I miss that...a lot.

So, I will be away, catching up on my reading.

As for this blog, I will come back time to time.

I think.

I hope.

+ + + + +

I felt soooo juvenile when I got this...

but it's goooood.
really.
cubalah....