Emir's leisure time

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Emir’s past time. Notice the art work on the wall?

Weekend Story

It’s supposed to be a week off school for my kids. Having no choice since I couldn’t take days off, and I don’t want my kids to stay home with the maid alone, I enrolled them for a holiday program at the school at additional cost. At least there, I’ll feel less worried because there are professional people who are responsible for them, answerable to me and my kids don’t spent days in front of the tele doing nothing all day. I hope they will be fine with their friends there.

Yesterday we went to 1-Utama. Fatini now has turned into a shopper like me, except that she got no money. She wanted night shirt, dress, shoes, toys and books, or whatever she saw and fancied. I have been trying to teach her the word “expensive” but she kept denying that it’s expensive. She hasn’t grasp the meaning yet. So after some protests from me and whimpering from her, apart from getting a few shirts we already intended for her, Fatini got daddy to buy an expensive doll for her. She was so happy. She called the doll Audra last night and this morning asked “ Where’s my Dollie?” She brought the doll to sleep with her last night and to the school this morning. Emir was sleeping throughout the trip yesterday, safely pushed in the push chair. So we were saved from the antics we normally got from him during such trip. But when he finally woke up, he wanted me to carry him. I always have to carry him, that’s why I always wear my flat heels whenever I go out with them. Well, luckily it was time to go home. But still, since we forgot where we parked our car, we had quite a walk in the huge parking area, me carrying Emir who refused to walk or be put in the push chair. By the time we arrived at the car I was sweating already. Good exercise!

I know it sounds like pampering too much but the kids have so many toys now. Their toys room is so full with toys I think we need to get rid of some of them. Maybe I should do garage sales or give them away to the village kids when I go back to the kampong. Look at these.

Hooray! Lee Chong Wei

Many Congratulations to our country player Lee Chong Wei for winning silver in the Beijing Olympic for badminton. We are so proud of you!!!

A Pair of Everything

I went out to lunch today. I saw that I got no cash so I went to the ATM machine. Nearby was a ToysRus. Well, I haven’t been in one for quite some time. So I decided to just pop in. What’s supposed to be a pop in became an hour long of tour of round and round. As usual I like looking at the toys and will always be tempted to buy for my kids.

When I buy anything for my kids, it must be in pair of something that is quite similar but maybe differentiated by gender or colour. If I buy for one and not the other, the one without will always turned their face to me and ask repeatedly “ Me, what about me….? “ in their soft , disgruntled voice and in Emir’s case with both palms turned out like in the Indian movie. This episode always made me laugh and felt a little regret. Even when I reflected on it, It always brought smile to my lips. If I bought them different set of toys so that they can exchange, it always happened they will both like the same toy and rejected the other, which caused a fight. So I always buy two, therefore, the toys must not be too expensive.

“So today my darlings Mom felt like spoiling you and will surprise you with a big car each for you when I pick you up later.” I am sure they would be so happy.

Honey

I knew honey is good. We always have a jar at home. Rasullullah said that honey cures as medicine. My father had given us pure honey whenever we had chesty coughs when we were small. My husband put Manuka honey in tea. Sometimes we gave Manuka honey to our kids when they have chesty cough. This is the benefit of honey as confirmed by researchers particularly on Manuka honey.

Studies of the chemical composition of honey indicate that it has several major health benefits when in an unprocessed state.

· Apply it on the skin, it will act as an antiseptic, prevent infection and protect the area and clean away infectious cells.

· functions as a powerful antibacterial agent because of its high acidity. Its low water activity disallows development of micro organisms.

· when applied to the skin, provoke cellular growth, rising levels of skin collagen, and antioxidant activity

· can work against antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria,

· promote younger, healthier skin, repairing aged or damaged skin tissue

Let’s make honey part of out diet.

Emir

Emir came back from the nursery yesterday with a big sore bump on the left side of his head. When I touched it, he cringed and said Ouch! He didn't want me to touch the spot. When I forced an inspection I saw it was red and swollen. How he got this? According to them, he was crying and bang his head on the floor. Knowing his energy it must have been a strong thud on the floor. I was concerned because it’s on the head. Last time, on the eve of HariRaya he had fractured his elbow while playing. When we reached home, I tried to put ice on the bump but he didn’t let me. In the morning I put the minyak gamat. Emir, Emir! He’s so hyperactive like any growing up healthy boy. I can get so worried about him sometimes.

He’s not 3 yet , but he’s so active and he’s so bright. I sent Fatini to the Furqan class on Monday and Tuesday night. At first Emir came along and not supposed to join. But he went to the class and started reading after the teacher. I decided to enroll him. And now after only four weeks Emir can recognize and read the syllables already. I normally will sit outside the class just out of their view and I could hear his soft voice reading in front of the teacher. That’s my boy! My Ustaz!

Remote operation

Since my mother is away, my father is basically looked after by the maid who was already hired specifically for him. Before my mom was always there to manage her. Now my sister moved to my mom’s house during her absence to oversee everything. So I called this morning to check on the maid alertness. Conversation translated to English.

Me: Bibik, how’s Datuk ?

Maid: Good, good everything is good. Everything is good.

Me: What is good? Don’t tell me everything is good and when I come back this weekend, Datuk is not good.

Maid: What I mean is Datuk is like normal. No bad things happened.. Cik Uzir (the nurse) still comes in everyday. He said Datuk is already good. If he doesn’t come in I will call him.

Me: Did you turn Datuk every 2 hours at night? He needs to otherwise he will get the bed sores.

Maid: I did. Last night I woke up at 1 am and then 4 am to turn him. I moved his bed to near my room because I am scared anything will happen to him while Wan is away. Datuk is behaving strange nowadays.

Me: What do you mean strange?

Maid: He never called me before. But nowadays he called me a few times, “Bibik, bibik!” when I answered he said “ It’s nothing!” Sometime when ill people behave strangely means something bad is going to happen.

Me: That means good sign! He’s talking because he’s not in pain. Nothing bad is happening. What about Datuk's food? Did you give him his meals? What did you cook?

Maid: Yes, I give him food like normal. Breakfast milk and bread. Afternoon is rice and dish, evening milo and bread. Supper is milk. Kakak (my sister) cooked the lunch. Today is chicken with rice. Yesterday fish with riice. No porridge. I cooked the rice a bit softer.

Me: Okay la bibik. You make sure you look after him. He is under your responsibility now. Do you understand that?

Maid: Yes, yes, kak. I know.

I hang up. I hope the maid is doing what she said. I know I am doing a remote control here. But so far I see for the past year she’s taking care of my father well. Despite all her faults and blunders which we overlook as long as she treats my father well.

Livelihood

Work is necessary.

For me work means differently at different times of my life. When I started working after finishing my University, fresh face and innocent, work meant achieving an ambition. An ambition to be a professional. To start earning to help my folks. To become independent. To be adult. To explore the world of working. I was not a student anymore. I was done with studying and exams.

Then in the next stage, work became an obsession. An obsession to perform. To do well. To further my career. This was the busiest time of my life. I only worked and slept during the 24 hr day. Work was my life. Without work I was nothing. I can work overtime without any pay. Nights or weekends did not matter.

Then after a few years, with the experience gained and the youth, my market value increased. Work meant traveling overseas which I liked and enhancing living experience. Making more money. Work meant applying my capability and experience. Work became a status symbol for me.

Now, work means something totally different. Work means being away from the kids. Work means I couldn’t take care of the kids myself to see them grow in front of my eyes. Work means I have to let others did my duties as a mother. Work is a sacrifice I made. Work is just to earn my living.

Bad Design

I am prone to falling whenever I walked on the public pavement or footpath. Along the road, at the gas stations, in the park, everywhere in this country. It happened so many times I developed what is called a weak ankle condition. Any slightest variation in the ground level will trip me. Wearing heels don't help but I'm addicted to shoes with heels. So I was always careful when walking, I always fear the fall. But here in this area, dangers surround me.

The last time I trip and fell on all fours was at the gas station just a couple of months ago. I was trying to pressure up the car tyres. While going around the car, I lost my balance due to a groove on the station pavement. I scratched my knees badly. I still have the scars. I didn't sprained my ankle but it hurt like hell. Not to mention the embarassment that accompanied the pain. Both my ankle and my ego was hurt badly.

So this afternoon I walked with two friends. One of my friends tripped and fell flat on the pavement. I felt so sorry for her. Her purse flew a couple of feet away. I didn't manage to catch her, neither did the guy walking behind us. There was a groove on the pavement that tripped her. This footpath is really bad. You can find all kind of faults. It has 45 deg slope, 30 deg slope, even 60 deg slope, nicks here, groove there, ripple here, wavy there, small holes, big holes, you named it. But this is a path hundreds of people use everyday to go to lunch during the office break. It stretches over 3 to 4 km joining from building to building. I don't know how many people have suffered the falls on this stretch. The path is not pram friendly ( really don't try to push a baby on a pram here), not high heels friendly, not pregnant women friendly, not elderly friendly, even not anything friendly.

Where is the responsible party or is this not their concern?

Bowling Results

I was ranked 54 from 72 participants! Great ! I feel good I was not the last entry on the list!
Anybody wants to challenge me for lower scores...?
Now that all my body aches are almost gone, I can give an opinion on this sport. I think it's a good sport using the major muscles group but it is unbalance. I used my right arm to throw and lots of pressure on my left leg. The bending also hurt my knee. Next time if I ever play again, I will use my left arm/right leg to balance it out.

Calling

Today at about 3pm, my mother and my sis in law Intan is leaving for Madinah and Mecca to perform Umrah. The trip is for 12 days. May Allah bless you two and hope that you both be blessed with good health there, safe journeys and obtain Umrah yang mabrur. Amin...

Overloaded

I was so exhausted. My time was activity-packed since Thursday. The Friday night I had the dreaded bowling. We had three rounds each person. The first game was terrible but then I caught up so the overall performance was considerably okay considering the nil practice. But I ached all over my body as a result of exerting myself. I decided no more bowlings for me in the future.

On the following Saturday morning, we got up early to attend the family day at Bukit Kiara which was the company event for families. It was a fun morning and my kids enjoyed the petting zoo and the games. It was also tiring for me because Emir wanted to be carried all the times. He was a little bit nervous seeing so many people around. We stayed there for a couple of hours. It was getting warm as well. So we left and sent my kids to the drama class in the afternoon. By this time I felt like a walking zombie already. My kids seemed to still look energetic.

Later that evening we were supposed to attend a wedding function at the Crowne Plaze. I quickly cooked for the kids dinner and then had a shower, had my hair done and changed to my old kebaya. Still fit. Got the selendang. Looked in the mirror, hmmm like Mak Datin... Okay lah.

Finally we departed leaving the kids with the maid and prayed that they would be safe. The wedding was good. The food was brilliant. Very young bride and briddegroom. May they have good long lasting marriage. Met lots of old friends. Finally left for home. After reaching home before midnight, I found the kids were already asleep. I was so relieved I could go to bed straight away. I was dead tired by this time. I couldn't move a joint without feeling sore on the muscle.

On Sunday morning I had a masseuse come to my house and had that much needed body massage. Oh ! The activity was not finished yet by then. My husband had a few friends over during lunch time. Finally at 3 pm I had the much sought slumber and finished off the weekend watching the Olympics on TV.

Flex that muscles a bit

Did I tell I was to play netball last night? It is the sports week for my company and when I was chosen to play for my department, well why not!. The last time I played was in the ancient time when I was in the primary school. At the time I played for the school but sekolah kampong je…
See our pictures in action.









Last picture were our sweet kind referees.

A treat for me

Today I went to KLCC during lunch. Despite an invitation to join my friends for lunch, I turned it down, prefer to go for a quick shopping. Since I am in the process of changing out my wardrobe, I decided to go to the second floor where the ladies boutiques are. I went into one after another. It is the sale time. Despite the sales of 50%-70% offer, the clothes are still too expensive. Normally I won’t go to the sales rack. See, the sales people are always scrutinizing whether you are worth to be served. (Yes, I still sense that state of mind when I go into certain shops.) I will just go to any rack (berlagak kaya sikit) and check the original price. If more than RM1200.00 per piece even if the clothes are 70%, I still won’t bother to check any further. Normally they don’t give 70% to the nice outfits only the left over ones which could not be sold due to odd size or something.

I don’t know how, but somehow I got myself into this particular boutique. There were 50-60% sales. I decided to just browse through the rack and found the original price per shirt is mostly below RM700. So 50% will be RM350 or mostly the price will range from RM300-500 after sales. That’s acceptable to me as long as they look good on me and the quality is long lasting.

Some of the fashion design was quite funny, which at my age I wouldn’t put on (people would laugh at me if they see me wearing those). It’s like a hole here and a hole there. I didn’t even know which are the sleeves to insert my hands into. Anyway I picked up a few decent looking ones, checked the prices whether they are within my budget and went into the fitting room. When I tried them on, most of the shirts I picked fit me nicely. I don’t know whether the mirror there was doing tricks on me. You know la sometimes you try the shirts at the shop, they look fine but when you finally put it on at home, they don’t look so good anymore. This happened to my dinner dress last time. Anyway I found some of these shirts really fit me well. And size S at that. It couldn’t be true but the sales person said the size is ok. Well maybe it was the cut. What I like most is that I think the shirt design makes me look slimmer.

The boutique owner was so happy with me when I decided to buy a few. Chit chat with me la…get my phone number for future updates on the latest collection etc etc. I managed to come out of the boutique smiling carrying my shopping bag minus some $$$$.

Economics

Yesterday my Unit Trust Consultants paid me a visit. To explain to me what is happening to my investment. I have put quite a substantial amount (by my standard which to some people maybe peanuts) into this investment hoping I will make better returns than what I would get from the banks.

With the current situation in the world and in the country itself, all my current investment has accumulated negative profits. Their advice to me which I already know actually but pretend a little bit like I don’t know is

1. don’t panic ( I’m not )
2. do cost averaging, meaning buy some more units when the price is low, therefore I will recover faster and make more profit when the time come to sell (makes sense, I will think about it)
3. the China funds will increase because the Olympic is just around the corner ( I really hope so), otherwise wait for Chinese New Year time
4. the economy is expected to start recovery next year
5. the price cycle is 3 years (I guess that you will have the opportunity to sell every 3 years)
6. historically the share market always revives back no matter how low it gets to

After briefing me, I told them firmly to take care of my investment because the money came from my hard work earnings every month not from some inheritance or lottery prizes. I hinted a bit of threat to pull out and a little bit of helplessness to reduce the effect and got some promises that my funds will be taken care of.

Actually looking back historically (I just started with them early last year), they have been taking care of my investment and able to give me between 9-15% return for less than a year for the funds that they sold already but they were smaller sums. I am waiting for my bigger funds return and hopefully to be able to trust this system as an investment tool.

Appreciation for my children

I am so jealous! Yes, that green-coloured envy. Which knows no bound! And recognizes no logic! Angelina Jolie has got twins, Jennifer Lopez has got twins, Julia Robert has got twins. How come all these women got themselves twins? Pregnant once and got two babies. I know they are rich, I know they are young. But so do me! (just kidding).

I couldn’t help but browsing through the websites for Angie’s babies photos released by the website this morning. Beautiful babies.

But no babies in the world can equate my babies Fatini and Emir. My two beautiful babies whom I got via two separate wonderful pregnancies. Who are growing up beautifully, healthy and smart. Mommy loves you so much darlings.

Nostalgic photos of Emir when he was born and Fatini a toddler.

Nervous about bowling

I have a bowling match this Friday. It is the company inter-department sports competition. I am not a sportswoman. I bowl once in 4 years maybe. Since there are not enough people to represent my Project department, so I said yes to the invitation. It’s not an individual bowling. If it is i wouldn't be worried. It’s a group bowling whereby the points from each person in a group of four will be added up to determine the winner. That’s what made me nervous. I don’t want to become the geek who brings the downfall to the group. To make it worse, the Director is in my bowling group.

I really depend on luck in this game. I don’t know the techniques. I pray every time I want to throw the bowling ball. Please, please, please… let me strike …. at least one pin ...

Well, since I don’t have the time to practice, I thought at least I should know some theories with regard to this game. Theory that I try to remember

1. step forward with right foot, swing the ball like a pendulum
2. extend left hand out for balancing
3. swing ball behind as far as it can go, elbow straight
4. bent left knee, slide forward, roll the ball off the hand
5. after the ball is released continue swing the arm forward

Hope I will live to tell the tales ….

Sunday Delight

I always love it when families come visit us. It makes me happy to be remembered and I feel like an honour every time even though sometimes it's just a pop in.

So on Sunday, my mum came with my sister Liza, hubby, and little cuties Maisara and Uzma. Faizah also came. Most importantly (he, he...) they came with home cooked dishes specially cooked by Mum. Wow, to have mum-cooked dishes without balik kampung. This was great! They came all the way from Melaka. This family get together was done to celebrate because my mum will go to Mekah to perform Umrah next week. She's going with my sis Intan (menantu mithali), Faizah's mummy. She was not able to make it yesterday (rugi ...) due to a prior set engagement.

My children were so excited with grandma Wan and cousins coming. Emir and Fatini did a show (singing and dancing) for us all. Emir enjoyed the attention so much, he persisted to repeat the show 4 or 5 times until everybody became bored (but mommy can watch you over and over again Emir, you were such a delight!).

The children were having fantastic time in the toyroom playing all afternoon. Finally they bid farewell as dusk approaching.

Recovery

Weekends present the best time for me. Be able to spend time with my kids. Wake up together in the morning. Cuddling and talking. Observing them. How they developed so well! Hearing the word mommy, mommy uttered throughout the day. It's so therapeutic for me. We don't do too much activities during weekend. Apart from the weekend speech & drama class for an hour, all we do is just spend time at home. Play, eat, watch tv, nap. Recovering from the weekdays.The important thing is that we spend time together. Time that i value.

Heal the world

This morning as I was driving to work and as my car crawled along Jalan Tun Razak in front of the PNB/TH building at its most busy period (peak hour) I looked at the road side at the people. I saw people were walking hastily to work. A few construction workers started to go inside the construction area nearby.

Then in the midst of the hectic situation I saw a man.

He was bending over the rubbish bin lcoated on the roadside. By the way his clothing looked, I assume he's homeless or very very poor. He was dirty and unkempt. I saw him taking a bottle out. Put it down on the ground. Then continued searching. Searching either for something to sell or something to eat. I was thinking , he's some body's father, or some body's son. Tears welled in my eyes.

He's still dignified. Oblivious to people around him. Not caring for people looking. Why should he? He's not a thief!

How come he's not given any help or taken to shelter? It's so sad to see people can be so poor still exist in this city.

I was given this song to practise with my children in preparation for their year end concert. The message is clear if you care enough.


There's a place in your heart
And I know that it is love
And this place could be much Brighter than tomorrow.
And if you really try You'll find there's no need to cry
In this place you'll feel There's no hurt or sorrow.
There are ways to get there
If you care enough for the living
Make a little space, make a better place.

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place for You and for me

(Song by MJ)