Conversations with Afiq this week:
I normally make/receive calls from home at least 3 times a day. Afiq calls before he goes to school in the morning. I call home in the afternoon to speak Mariessa. And Afiq usually calls again once he's back from school.On Monday, while I was at the hospital with my mom, (we were informed at noon about my mom having cancer, so i left work early to join my sisters at the hospital) Afiq called.Him: (dengan suara penuh urgentnya). Mama!! Mama balik la cepat!Me: (suara agak panik) Kenapa??Him: (changed tone to memujuk + penuh harapan) Mama balik la buat burger untuk Afiq...
Laaaa.. ingatkan apaaaaa lah tadi
On Tuesday, I took a day off from work as my sisters and I wanted to see the doctors and specialists to discuss about my mom's condition and the treatment plans available. Later that day, all my siblings came down to Ngah's place to discuss the situation. So I was out the whole day and I told my maid that I was going to be late. At around 7pm Afiq called.Him: (Dengan tegasnya) Mama! Cubaaa mama tengok kat luar tu!
Me: Kenapa? Ada apa kat luar?
Him: Kan dah gelap ni. Kenapa Mama tak balik balik lagi??
Again... ingatkan ada apaaaa la kat luar rumah.
On Wednesday, I was still at the office when he called, probably around 6pm or so.
Him: Mama! Mama cepatlah balik, kan dah nak Maghrib ni! <- Tau pulak tu nak Maghrib. I've always intentionally mentioned the solat (Isya', Maghrib etc) when we were about to solat, but he has never mentioned it til that day. I'm impressed! ;)
Yesterday (Thursday), before I left the office, I gave Afiq a quick call. He picked up the phone, no hello, no nothing, and said:
Him: Mama, kenapa Mama telefon ni? Me: (At the verge of feeling offended. hehe) Sebaaaaab Mama nak cakap dengan Afiq lah.
Him: Kenapa Mama nak cakap dengan Afiq? Me: Sebaaaaab Mama suuuukaaaa cakap dengan Afiq.
Him: (pause). Ohhhh.. Afiq saaaayang pada Mama dengan Ayah. (Note the 'pada'. He's still saying that)
Needless to say, I melted! 
Conversations with Mariessa will usually be like this:
Her: Mama! Mama kat mana <- by default when my kids answer the phone, mesti ingat Mama yang call. Me: Mama kat ofis.
Her: Ayah mana?
Me: Ayah kat ofis Ayah. Her: Aba mana (Aba is abang (Afiq). Mariessa's words selalunya yang belakang2 tu semua jadik silent)Me: Abang pegi sekolah.Her. K.(ok). Baaaaaa. (that's her bye2)
Moving on to another story, On Monday my Aunt texted me and asked whether I'll be rajin enough to bake 50 pieces of muffin for her. Any kind, she said. My first reaction was, "Alamak!". I've baked muffins many times, yes. But never for orders! Excited la jugak actually. But I was more nervous than excited. But saying No to my aunt, is almost not an option.
So I said Yes. She wanted the muffin today. For her daughter's school jamuan. So last night was my baking night.
Took me 2 hours to finish everything. The last hour was actually just waiting for the muffin to bake in the oven while I watched The Amazing Race Asia. :) . I started late (11pm) because I had a terrible headache the whole day yesterday and needed to sleep. Woke up at 11pm when everybody has gone to bed and started baking. While I was baking, it occurs to me that it was exactly what I needed. Baking / cooking has always been therapeutic for me. (Most of the time lah, hehe). And doing it while everyone was asleep was even better. It was like a getaway of some sort. Me in my own world. 
I don't know if the muffins are up to my aunt's expectation. There are a lot of things i need to improve on. But still, I hope she'll be satisfied. I'm really nervous to find out!
I added some extras in the small box, for my Aunt to bring home.
On another note, my mom might be released to go home today. For a week. When she comes back from this leave, she might probably start the chemo treatment. I am still for some reason unable to talk about this at length. At times, I really do feel OK. But at other times, I just don't know how I feel. Thing is, this is not even about me.
Akak wrote something here.
And Ngah, here.
But really, what we feel is a lot deeper than what we can ever express. The fear, the sadness, the hope. The fear of hoping. The fear of the unknowns AND knowns.
If mom goes back to 443 today, we're going back too. The last time I went back, was to get her to come to Kajang to treat her demam yang tak baik-baik. Little did I know that the 'demam' will take her away from 443 this long and this 'far'. I miss going home.
Received this last night, from a best friend allllllll the way in Austria. 
A basket full of goodies.
Accompanied by this:
Guess what's inside!
It's aaaaaaa....mooncake!
Not one, but two of them!
I really, really like this book of do'as. Interesting doas inside it, too. The size is just perfect. I'll start carrying this wherever I go.
At first i thought these were chocolates. Lepas bukak baru perasan that they're actually dates with some nuts in it. Those that are covered with sesame seeds, i have no idea what those are. They tasted like dates too actually, but mixed with some other things.
And of course the card that came with all the goodies. :)
And the basket? Oh, it's soooooooo cantik!Guess who were the busiest going thru the goodies??
Nasib baikkkkk ada 2 mooncakes! Kalau 1 je... confirm berebut! We haven't open it yet. They sent the package after berbuka time last night, so we were still full. How long does a mooncake last eh, does anyone know?
To Fadhli, thank you very much! That was very thoughtful of you, as always. :) We'll see you in December ok?
Well.. this is what I did yesterday while waiting for iftar (buka puasa) - ambik gambar budak2 berdua ni...
Mariessa dengan toncet2 nya, at her favourite spot in the living hall. She sometimes will sit here, at the bottom of the stairs.. goyang2 kaki while singing. U-huh, i tell you, she can sing! Ask her to sing, and she will. Lagu apa, masih belum dikenalpasti.
Cuba kira berapa toncet semuanya? That's her lepak place also. The sofa. She has also tried getting into the toy chest. So far masih belum berjaya. Once she almost tertonggeng nak masuk dah dalam tu. Almost. Afiq the Ultraman (sometimes also Power Lenjes) came to the rescue.
Now she (depending very much of course, on her mood - oh, this girl has shown early signs of having mood swings. I wonder where she gets that from.), will smile when she knows I'm focusing the camera on her. Like this.
But of course she gets cheeky after a while. Like this
See? what did i say about her having mood swing?
(Kak, I think she looks like you masa you kecik, here kan?)
Orang berbuka dengan kurma.. dia pun makan kurma...
Afiq's current style of smiling for the camera. Usually it's accompanied by some Ultraman's gestures.
Do they look alike? I can't tell. Mostly people tell me that Afiq takes after Shahril, and Mariessa after me. Bak kata orang jolobu.. Afiq ni byk ngikut ayah eh, tinggi sok ni! Mariessa ikut bolah pahang. Macam muko mak eh, bulat!
While browsing through the many pictures I have, baru teringat that I wanted to do an entry about us going to kebun2 durian to (obviously) kutip durian a few weeks back. Between my husband, his mom, his Wan and his uncles, they have a few kebuns scattered around the kampung. When we went back, it was almost the end of musim durian already. So tak lah byk sgt 'hasil'nya. Not that I mind anyway. I eat NO durian. Tempoyak, YES! Durian- No. Dodol yang perisa durian tu -No. Santan Durian / Serawa (?) - Yes. Weirdly picky, I know.
Annnyyywaaay... First we went here. It's extremely curam here. Can see a smaaaaall stream down there. That's my MIL in brown tudung. Nampak tak? Betul, adaaa! Kat bawahhhhhh nun. I stay kat atas only. Hehe.
First kutipan dah byk ni. Yang betul2 elok, makan. The rest - buat tempoyak. Oh trust me, Wan (Shahril's granma) punya stock tempoyak... 2 tahun belum tentu habis! Ada freezer KHAS for tempoyak ok? Kalau jual lah, we'll be tempoyak millionaire!
Next, is my favourite, favourite, favourite place.
I don't need to explain why, do I?
Have I told you that this is my favourite place?
Ok, What do you think Shahril is up to, here?
Can you find him?
There!
Now, THIS is the reason why I only stayed at this side of the stream. Confession time: ME. PHOBIA. TITI. No macho me. I know.
Isn't this like the most subur pokok cempedak you've ever seen? Well, it is for me! Maybe we can be cempedak millionaire next. Once we've succeeded with the tempoyak, of course.
This was the last kebun we went to.
The last 2 durians for the trip. Alhamdulillah
Last2, penuh boot Waja tu dengan durian, langsat & cempedak. After that it took me berpuluh2 helai daun pandan, and beribu2 semburan Febreeze to get rid of the smell. Pening kepala, first sebab bau durian yang sgt harum itu... later sebab bau durian + daun pandan + febreeze. Fikir pun dah pening!
