1. I can foresee lots of randomness postings coming.

2. Why is it I only feel like writing when I'm swamped with work, I have no idea.

3. For the first time in my life, I got lucky while shoe shopping. Bought from the first shop I went to, and the 1st design I tried on. Tukar size sekali je. Whole process took 15 minutes! Foresee Dr. Cardin becoming my best friend from now on.

4. On my way out from surau, i bumped into a lady who was in the same training class with me last week. She is this typical lady yang suara lembut2 gitu. She apparently found out that I am pregnant. In her haste (I'm assuming) of making small talk, she said Hi..and then said.. "eh you tak nampak pregnant pun... gemuk je!" I pun terkulat2 lah nak jawab kan. I mean, have u ever had someone who goes right up to you and said, eh you gemuklah? How do i respond to that? Pastu while I'm still terkulat2 fikir how to respond, she gave another remark.. "tapi u dah nak due dah kan?"

I foresee her NEVER becoming my best friend. Ever.

5. Looking forward to go to Seremban 3, to meet with a dear friend and learn about cloth diapers from her.

6. It's 9 minutes to freedom. I love Fridays!

1. Work is drowning me like never before.

2. In every office that I've worked in, there MUST be at least one person who would call me Ainul. Why, is beyond me.

3. I very much think this could be my worst 'morning' sickness ever. For all 3 pregnancies so far, my morning sickness comes in the form of batuk2, always. No loya2, no muntah2. Just batuk. Really bad batuk. I remember it went on for weeks, just like this time. But the 'intensity' was never this bad. For the last 20 days or so.. during the day I'll be relatively OK. Malam, the moment nak tidur je I'll start coughing. And it won't stop until 3a.m. Seriously. After 3a.m. batuk will magically just disappear. And I'll get to sleep only to wake up at 6 for work. I tried tidur duduk, switching off the aircond, minum gallons of warm water, nothing works. Last night, for the first time in this pregnancy, lepas dinner, batuk batuk batuk - muntah! Tapi, surprisingly, I went to bed at 10... and didn't wake up til 6! It was almost unbelievable. What's more unbelievable is, I'm more tired today than I usually am when I get only 3 hours of sleep at night. I am so tired, I wish I can just lie down under my table right now.

4. Mali's Corner's Char Kuey Teow is still the best CKT for me.

5. St. Ives' Apricot Scrub is still the best facial scrub for me. Pregnancy this time brings along some irritating small small jerawat on my face, and my face feels extra oily and comot. (Fact: Anything and everything (good or bad, especially bad) that happens during pregnancy will always be blamed on pregnancy hormones. It helps to have something to blame on, trust me). After just one wash with the facial scrub, my face feels oh so clean! I can now breathe again.

Now that I'm breathing again, maybe I should get back to work. Maybe not.

Afiq turned 4 last Thursday (April 16th). Shahril and I took the day off, first to see the gynae for the baby's 1st checkup and later went to the bank, and later to celebrate Afiq's birthday at his 'school'.

Checkup went fine, alhamdulillah. Baby's then 8 weeks old (now 9 weeks). Bak kata my gynae: "Ok, semua nampak OK. Sorang je". Heheheheh... Ye la, mana la tau kan.. kot2 twins ke kan. Pastu tutup kilang terus. Hehe. Due date is 22nd November 2009 InsyaAllah. :)

Bought a Ben-10 cake for Afiq. Sampai kat sekolah dia je, berkerumun kawan2nya. (Gambar later la ye?). The principal told us, that Afiq is very competitive when learning, and is very quick. Kembang2 hidung mama & ayah dia dengar. Hehe. But somehow he is faster in learning Jawi than Rumi. Memang betul pun. Iqra' dia dah halfway on 2nd book pun. But Bacalah Anakku tu, 1st book tak habis2 lagi. :) But then again, that's my whole point of sending him to that particular school. I want him to learn the Islamic/Quranic basics first. Alhamdulillah, my expectation was fulfilled. He can now recite some doa's completely: doa makan, doa tidur, doa penerang hati. And some verses and bacaan dalam solat 'pelat'ly: Al-Fatihah, Doa Iftitah, bacaan ruku' and sujud (sekuat2 hati baca while sujud... Sub laaaa nak rob bi yal... - when I corrected him, it's Subha, not Subla... he said.. bukannnn.. Umi (the principal) kata, Sublaaa. Heheh. Kids.. Teachers always know better than parents, ek?) O well.. :)

As a whole, I think ( and I am heavily biased, of course), Afiq is turning into a very fine young man. :) He is very mature for his age. (Depending on his moods), he can be very protective (of me, and Mariessa especially). He has accepted the fact that we have another baby coming soon too,which is great. (His first reaction when I told him about the baby, was.... "tak nakkkkk lah!). Now he gives an extra kiss to my tummy, meant for the baby whenever he's giving me a kiss, which is of course very soothing. And he screams at Mariessa whenever she climbs over me, fearing she will press 'baby dalam perut mama' :).

Sometimes, out of the blue, he'll ask for a kiss, saying.. "ehhhh, mama tak sayang afiq lagi hari ni, ohhh mama lupa ye?" (not that I ever forget, his definition of 'hari ni' can actually be a few hours).

He's still wearing diapers at night. Last night I had a long talk with him on how he's a big boy and that he doesn't need diapers at night anymore etc (he's the one insisting to wear diapers, every night). This morning, when he called me before going to school (he was still asleep when I left for work), he proudly told me, "Mama, Afiq good boy. Afiq tak chin (that's his term for pee pee) pun dalam diapers malam tadi, Afiq chin kat toilet pagi tadi!!". A big boy he is, indeed.

Happy 4th Birthday, sayang Mama. Mama & Ayah doakan Afiq panjang umur, murah rezeki selalu. May you be blessed with lots and lots of love and affection, not to forget lots and lots of toys, Ultramans (Max, Dina, Nexus, Gaia and names I cannot remember), Ben-10's thingies (his latest craze), Ferrari's (his collection) and Hot Wheels. :)

All the love in the world,
Mama & Ayah..

It's Mariessa's 2nd birthday today. And what a joy she has been to us!

• When either of us (me or Shahril) sit on the sofa in front of the TV, she will always climb on our knees, adjust herself so that her tummy is right on the knee, and balance herself on her tummy. And she can go on doing that for hours! Once, she even fell asleep on my knee, like that!


• She pouts all the time! Especially when she's sulking. And she sulks all the time!


• When she sulks, she won't ever come to me. She will cry and cry and cry until I go to her. :) Very keras hati.


• She says 'MMMMMaaaahhh" (instead of mmmuuahh) when giving a kiss.


• She teases Afiq all the time. Afiq lets her win 50% of the time. :)


• She LOVES nasik. She can eat nasi kosong and bertambah some more!


• She refers to herself as 'kita'.


• Once, I told her she's Mariessa and not 'adik' (we're slowly taking the title adik off her), she said, "kita bukan ma-ie-cha, kita adik" and then she pouts.


• Her favourite song right now is 'Cinta Adam Dan Hawa' by Misha Omar. She can sing that single line for 15 minutes non stop. And her tunes remain the same. Cinta adam dan awaaa Cinta adam dan awaaaa Cinta adam dan awaaaa....

Can't wait to go back and receive lots and lots of Mmmmmaaahhh from the birthday girl. :)

My Celcom line was barred at about 9pm last night. At least that was when I tried making a call and realized that it was barred! Dah la bar pasal 3 ringgit, tak ikut timing pulak tuh! The sms specifially said that I have to pay within 1 day to avoid barring, and that sms was sent to me at 10.43 AM... aik... 9PM dah bar? Sehari tu.. ada 12 jam je in CelcomLand?

I actually made my payment dah pun at 4PM semalam through RHB online banking. But that will take some time to reach Celcom system lah kan, so i thought, lantak lah. Malas nak bising2. Buang masa & tenaga. It's their loss anyway.

Sampai ofis this morning, baruuuu je plan nak call their Helpless-line tu, tengok2 dah boleh make calls out. Nasib baikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! Kalau tak, entahkan adaaaa yang kena sembur pagi2 ni.

Anyway.. switching to a much better mood and skies, I'd like to say... It's a beauuuuutiful day! Hehe. tak semena2 dak?

Happy 34th Birthday to my husband dearest. Semoga panjang umur, murahhhhh rezeki. InsyaAllah. It feels soooo wonderful to be able to give him a birthday present much, much more precious than anything money can buy. I love you!

Situation:

My celcom bill last month was 103.30. Since I made my payment at the Celcom Kiosk (my first time, unlike online payment I usually do previously), I only paid RM100. Machine doesn't accept anything lower than RM10 notes kan, so logic lah. Fine and dandy.

My celcom bill for this month arrived yesterday. Amount RM101.95. No tunggakan. (I myself forgot about that 3.30 i owed Celcom). Tup tup, pagi ni dapat sms from Celcom, saying that if I don't pay that 101.95 by TODAY, my line will be barred. What the hell????

So I called Celcom, to ask them what's going on here. It turns out, they are going to bar me for that THREE ringgit and THIRTY cents tunggakan since last month! Like what???? (Tak kira lah berapa ringgit cik, asalkan melebihi 35 hari, kami akan bar!)

So I asked the Celcom guy, whyyyyy lah didn't you guys put the tunggakan in my current bill, so I would be reminded that I have a tunggakan??

The answer? : Ohhhh, sebab itu tunggakan dari bulan lepas Cik. Bill yang Cik terima tu, untuk bill bulan ni.

SO I naturally asked lah. So, you nak masukkan tunggakan tu bila? Tahun depan?

Tell me what kind of common sense Celcom people are using? They must be from outer space!

I then, told the guy not-so-nicely-anymore, that they should (by common sense used by people on this Earth) state whatever tunggakan of last month(s) in the current bill, so that the customer will be aware and NOT wasting the customer's time calling Celcom Helpline yang sgt lah tak helpful nya, just to find out that the customer owes them THREE *&^%$#@% RINGGIT ++!!!

He had the nerves to tell me (when I asked to speak to his supervisor, apparently he IS the supervisor), to just go to Celcom Branch to complain. I said, "Oh, and waste MORE of my time? No thank you!"

My biggest disappointing discovery since I moved to the new office is that blogspot is blocked! I didn't bother checking other sites. So it was a pleasant surprise when (after almost a month now - shows how dilligent I've been at work lately, ehem) I accidentally found out that WordPress is NOT blocked! Hence, the birth of this new blog of mine.. you know, just in case I have the urge to write and No I cannot NOT write about what I want to write about and NO I cannot wait until I get home to write about what I want to write about. That DOES happen sometimes. Maybe once in 4 months. But no harm preparing for such times, isn't it?

Let's hope the skies are always blue, and I get to find time to write as much as I really want to. (hey, it rhymes!)



p/s: Guys, change-lah to wordpress, so I can read your blogs! Eheheheh.

No... I'm not mourning the entire time I'm away from blogosphere. Truth be told, I've not been away pun sebenarnya. Just away from my own blog, maybe. :) No, it's not that I've been busy with work either. I've been having wayyy too much time in my hands actually, that I've been delaying writing. Typical me. Bila rasa time's running out, baruuuu nak buat semua benda.

I'm just going to put my thoughts in point form this time. Easier.

1. It's my 2nd last day in our KLIA office. (read: having lots and lots of free time during office hours). Come Monday I'll start working in our HQ in WM, going to a 'whole new world', doing a 'whole new thing'. A fresh start. I'm excited. And nervous. And scared. And excited. Yes, excited twice. Saja.

2. Ummi was admitted to HUKM again after spending a few helluva days at 443. She cooked, she ate, she jalan2. She even went for a marhaban thingy. Then she got realllly sick. Unlike other times, she did not get better after 2 days in HUKM. She got really bad, but when we least expected it, she got better. For 2 days. Today, she's back to being 'bad'. Her health is going through a roller coaster. So are our emotions.

3. Took Afiq to see the Upin Ipin Movie. It was good. Got a lil bit too scary for Afiq in the middle though. I had to tell him that Ultraman's gonna show up soon to fight the 'raksasa'. It worked!! :D.

4. I've been googling and youtube-ing Hugh Jackman and Simon Baker all 2 days. (Yes, THAT much time) I have NO idea why Australian men look and sound good this week. Last week was Michael Vartan week. Before that it was Jude Law.

Going to HUKM in 10 minutes. Maybe another entry tomorrow.

"At the end of the day, all you've got is your story, so try to make it a good one" - Australia

It's 9 minutes past midnight, and I just came back from the handing over of maais. I should be tired and sleepy after spending 14 hours in the office packing, but strangely I'm not. All I could think of is writing this down. I need to remember what happened today (technically yesterday, since it's past midnight), and I want to remember how I feel.

We got the 90% confirmation that it was not going to be us the day before. It was no surprise. In fact, we would be surprised if it was. And I remember thinking, I was sad. But I didn't feel it.

So, 10 am this morning off I went to Subang. To pack my stuff. It's amazing how much (garbage) you can accumulate in 5 years, really. Still, in my head, I can 'feel' that I was sad, but my heart is not feeling it. So I thought, good. I'm going to be alright with all this.

8 pm I left Subang for KLIA. I am responsible for the handing over of the workstations there. Started going around at 9. Finished at 10.30pm. All went smoothly, just as expected.

Then, I drove home. As I reached Putrajaya, all of a sudden, tears started rolling down. And I just could not stop crying. I could not stop thinking of how crazy it was. Do people cry over a system like I was? Was I not the most crazy, emotional, probably weird engineer ever? I was crying over the lost of a system maintenance? How crazy is that?

And then it hit me. I did not just cry because the company had just lost the tender. I was crying because apparently, maais means a lot more to me than I ever realized.

I felt lost.

5 years ago, I was a desperate IT executive looking for a new job. I hated my job then although I really liked the company. I hated my superior. Try not hating a guy who had loudly announce to the Finance Manager right in front of everybody, that No, the girls (there were 2 of us) do not need a raise, because one is staying with her parents thus does not have a lot to pay for, (-that's my friend) and another one does not need a raise because well, she walks (damn four kilometres) to work so she doesn't need those extra money to pay for a car! (-that's yours truly).

Aaaanyway.. I got this new job after 2 gruelling interviews and miracles after miracles happened. I cannot tell you how proud I am to finally becoming an engineer. It's all I've ever wanted to be.

So, after being told before I left the company (by the same jerk of course) that I was, among other things "an extra luggage" to the company, you can understand why it was a miracle for me to finally feel that I was useful. That I was needed, and that I am good at what I'm doing. Maais gave me that. It gave me hope. And on top of that, I have a boss who never fails to tell me every single time that I did a good job. No matter how easy the task really is. And he pushes me to do better and better every time.

And now, maais is 'gone'. I am forced to start over. And I am scared.

Right this moment, I don't want to think about what good this change can bring. Right now I just want to mourn upon my loss, so tomorrow I can put a closure to this beautiful journey I've had for the past 5 years. And so with that, I can hopefully start an even better journey. Amin.

Last night, I transferred some songs from my phone to Shahril's notebook. (We were testing the new bluetooth adaptor for the notebook). Then I played the bagpipe song on the notebook. Afiq who was watching TV then, ran to me and said, "Ada pedang ke?", sambil tengok the notebook screen.

I can't recall (told you my memory is lousy) when was it that Afiq heard the song. So I asked him, "Afiq pernah ke dengar lagu ni?" He answered, "Pernahhhhh". I asked, "kat mana?"

He paused. After a long.. 'hmmmmmmmmm" while rolling his eyes... He said, "Haaaaaa.... Penantin!!! (pengantin)". A few seconds later, "Uncle Mel kan penantin, ada pedang2?"

Then I remembered. During Amel's reception, we had that bagpipe music and the pedang2 guys. It was just that one time, and Afiq remembers the music! And that was last May!

Now I can't get the tune out of my head.

Before I begin, let me just clarify that I am not expert in this matter. And I'm not THAT particular either (as you can obviously see from my writing). BUT, I can safely say that I know the basics. And I AM particular about whatever basic knowledge I know about the English language.

This morning, I called the company who is in-charge of the network at the airport. I was greeted by one of those voice operator thingy. Don't know what it's called. You know, the one who's telling you to press 1 for Bahasa or 2 for English kinda voice. Only thing is, this voice did not ask me to choose the language, it's only in English. No problemo.

Next I heard this:

We ARE apologize, all our officers are busy at this moment!

Aiyoyo!!! And this voice is repeated every 30 seconds, I'm not joking! I hang up after the 6th time, it was giving me a headache and I felt embarrassed just listening to it!!

Yesterday, after my family finished our Yasin recital, I decided to let myself feel. Akak, Ngah, Alang, Ipik and Uteh were trying to get Ummi to stand up. And I just sat there, on the chair by the bed. Could not move. Could not speak. I kept thinking, when was the last time I had a real hug from Ummi? When? WHEN?

And that makes me angry! Why are there soooo many things in my life that I cannot remember? And then it makes me sad, trying to remember how it felt to be hugged by Ummi. Not me hugging her. I thought I can feel the warmth, but I just don't remember.

My sisters remember better:
Akak remembers.
Ngah does too

I don't normally write about my thoughts when I'm still thinking (about something in particular). I usually wait. Most of the time, by the time I finish thinking I dont feel like writing anymore. But this time, I feel like writing my rather jumbled up thoughts.

What happened was, the boss came with the bigger boss to my office today. And what they want to 'discuss' was our next assignment should we not win the next tender. You see, our contract with the client has expired last october. We're now running on a 3-month extension. And this extension period too is ending at the end of the month. And the chances of us winning it for the 3rd time in a row looks somewhat slim this time. So, just in case we don't win it, the 3 of us (yes, there are only 3 of us in the team) will be relocated.

I've been thinking about it too and had in fact discuss it informally with the boss. I was hoping to be transferred to KLIA. Distance wise is not much different from Kajang-Subang, but traffic and toll wise, it's superb! Work wise.. Ok-lah kot. But I thought that was the best bet.

But apparently the bigger boss had a different plan for me. He told me he has 2 positions to offer.. and both are going to be in our HQ in WangsaMaju. Now, I am very fond of WangsaMaju for some reason..but working there is not something I'm looking forward to. The first position he mentioned is something I KNOW I dont want to be doing. I tried that for about a year before joining this company 5 years ago, and that was probably the most miserable year of my life! But the 2nd positon he was offering sounds a lot more interesting. It will be a totally new thing for me and he realized that, but nonetheless, interesting. (At least that's what I think for now after doing a bit of a research).

I'm feeling a little apprehensive right now. I must have been in my comfort zone far too long than I thought. Five years ago, I was hired specially for this system we're maintaining now. The company had won the tender for the first time, and they were in a desperate need for an engineer. I was to join the team of only 3 people led by a very experienced (expat) senior engineer. And I was told to learn as much as I could from him. I know I haven't learnt it all, but I've learnt sooo much from him. And he is, without a doubt the best boss I've ever worked with. I have now (of course -after 5 years) understood the system almost inside out. The system and the end users (harder to understand and work with of course - them human). And I've been happy.

It is as if I'm living my dream life. The work is exciting. When there is a problem, we work like the world is crashing on us! But when everything is going smoothly, there's very minimal paper work to be done. And I could be writing blog entry one after another and no one cares! There are times when I had to go to sites at 3 am in the morning and found out that the 'real' problem is solved by just rebooting the workstation (which the user didn't want to do on their own and insist that I should come, otherwise some flights might be delayed - that's exaggerating, but just a little, trust me.) Or there were weekends when I cannot be out of KL/Selangor area because my boss is not in town and somebody has to be on stand by at all times. But really, it's too small to compare to the luxury of the (non-existent) workload.

I'm a little nervous thinking about working in a 'real' office environment. Sitting in cubicles... having your notebook screen exposed for the rest of the world to see, should they want to! Oh my! You guys cannot imagine how fun going to work has been for me is, really!

I go to work wearing T-shirt (provided by the company) on most days. When I feel like wearing something a little formal, I'll wear the corporate uniform. We don't have punch card or anything equivalent to that these days. My work starts at 8.. and on days that I'm running late (not often of course, I AM after all very particular about punctuality), all I have to do is sms my boss and say that I'll be a lil late because bla bla bla.. and he'll answer (without fail everytime) with an sms saying 'k'. :). If I need to go home earlier than 5.30... I just have to tell him, and off I go. In my 'office' which is actually a server room, we sit in a line... and nobody can read from behind my shoulder. And in front of me, there are 3 workstations and a very old and almost obsolete tandem server. It's freezing cold in here sometimes, but the company provided us with a jacket each, which the people at the HQ don't get. As I said earlier, there are only 3 of us in the team, so I've never felt 'rimas' here. And I like (for no reason at all) being the only girl here. I do.It makes me feel special. And nobody cares if my tudung does not suit my baju.

But on the other hand, career wise.. I do know that it's time for a change.

But who knows kan.. kalau ada rezeki we might just WIN the tender! (I prayyyyy so) That means another 3 years here. We're getting 2 new ppl to join us (this is if we win), there'll be shifts, and NO driving thru MRR2 to get to WangsaMaju. Hehe.Oh and the best part if we win is that, I can still wear t-shirt to work!


Oh well.... Que Sera Sera...

First of all, let me just say.. I've been wanting to write. Honestly. There are soooo many things to write about. About feeling and not feeling, about going places, about friends, family. About everything and nothing. If my thoughts can be automatically transferred to my blog, I'd have an entry every 5 minutes! But alas...

So, once upon a time.. probably back in October, I stumbled upon a great deal from MAS and jumped on it! Spending not even RM700 for the 4 of us to go to Labuan and come back to KL from KK is definitely a great deal, don't you think?

Dipendekkan cerita, we went there last week. I've always wanted to go to Labuan & KK. The only 2 states in Msia I've never been to. Shahril has been to Labuan numerous times, for work. And I hate not being able to imagine what Labuan is like when he talks about it. (Good excuse to go there, kan? Hehe). And KK is the birth place of my sisters. I just had to go there and see what it's like. Just because.

A month or so before going, I found out that a TKC friend was staying there. Amazing what Facebook can do to lost friendships. (Not really lost actually, but I've been out of the loop for some reason). So what started as dinner plans, turned out to be more! Jaja very kindly insisted that we stay at her house. Not only that, she also offered us to use her car! Murah betul our rezeki in Labuan. Thank you Ja!

We stayed only one night in Labuan. (We drove around the island in about an hour or so, imagine how small it is!) I-dee, another TKC friend who's teaching in UMS Labuan joined us for dinner and brought along the most delicious buttermilk crabs I've ever had! Oh just thinking about it makes me drool!! And she bought me a bday cake too! Thank you very much I-dee.

We spent the night catching up.. like we've never left off in the first place. And believe it or not, we haven't seen each other since we left school, and that was back in 1995!! Ok, maybe I should not really emphasize that I left school FOURTEEN years ago! :D

To Jaja... thank you for having us. I can never be as good host as you have been to us! (She even packed us food when we were leaving Labuan for KK on a ferry!) It was really, really nice seeing you girls! I'm already pestering Shahril to make his work trip to Labuan soon so I can tag along! Haha.

The 3-hour journey via ferry from Labuan to KK was uneventful, thank God! Afiq & Mariessa slept most of the time although it was freaking cold.

I love KK. I do. It rained most of the time we were there, but it was great nonetheless. We stayed in a nice little hotel called D'Borneo Hotel. A walking distance from the Pasar Besar KK, the Philipino Market, and the Pasar Ikan Masin (I think that's what it's called). I have a feeling we were probably the only locals staying there as we were surrounded by Mat Salehs during breakfast on both mornings!

Didn't shop too much this time. Just some pretty pretty pearls (oh they are sooo cheap!). Will definitely go there again! Soon. Hehe.

And now, I think I'm addicted to 'going away'. Is that possible? I've been thinking hard today about where we should go next. I've already found an excuse - it's our 5th wedding anniversary this May, so we should go somewhere. Just Shahril & I. But where? Suggestions pls? Not too far. (I'm reserving the travelling part for Moscow, echeh). No more flights pls. Where can KTM first class coach take us? Or maybe that Executive Coach or whatever they call that nice bus. Is Redang nice? Or Tioman? Or Perhentian?

It was definitely one heck of a week, right after I wrote my last entry. Like I said, I was looking forward to go for a picnic on Saturday in Ulu Kalong, but the night before the picnic, Afiq suddenly developed a fever. First we thot, sikit je lah. But on Saturday morning, right before we went to Ngah's place to berkumpul before going, Afiq was scratching his body, all over. Rashes naik. Badan pun naik merah. Never happened before.

So we went to Ngah's place, send some things there, just in case we cannot make it. Went to Klinik Mesra in Bangi. Dipendekkan cerita, the temp was 39C! And the Dr said, the rashes 'came' out because of the high temperature.

After discussing it for a while, we decided we could still go to the picnic. Kot2 lah Afiq will feel better kan. Usually he's like that.. bila dah bagi ubat.. terus hilang sakit.

Ulu Kalong was nice! Best sgt! The chalet was simple, tapi best. Air sungai dia.. laaagi best! But Afiq didn't get better. After probably 2 hours, we decided to bring him to KPMC instead.

Kat KPMC.. Dr checked, still very high temp. Put him on drips because he was already dehydrated (refused to eat & drink). And he was given an injection for the rashes to stop him scracthing. Mula2 tu OK.. but baru je habis separuh the drip, he started to garu2 again.. and the temp went up. So Dr kata, kena admit. By then, i think it was 8 pm or so.

After settling in, Mariessa & I went back to pack for Shahril & Afiq. Then tapau-ed dinner (had to wait for an hour, tension betul! Kena sound 2-3 round cashier tu, nasiblah. Dah kena pangkah itu restoran Cik Kiah). Had dinner in the hospital room. Went back home with Mariessa at about midnight. Mmg penat!

Next day, Alhamdulillah Afiq was discharged. Terus elok! So dapat la kitorg balik Jelebu for Raya Haji.

Ptg raya Haji, balik Kajang semula. Next morning I flew off to Kuching. Flight was delayed for an hour. Work in Kuching was ok, thank God. But the moment I got to Kuching, start batuk2. Came back to KL on Thursday night. Penat and not feeling well.

Batuk batuk batuk the whole weekend. Bangun2 pagi isnin.. Mata pulak merah2! Pegi KPMC.. dapat MC.

Hah.. mengingatkannya pun penat! But despite the pegi sana pegi sini, we're doing just fine. For the first few days tu, rasa mcm buat laundryyyyy je non-stop. Byk betul! Laundry and ngemas, takde lah lain. Funny, but so far I've enjoyed ironing the clothes as well! Folding not so much. Maybe it's because of the new iron. (Dont ask what happened to the old one. Not my fault, really. Honestly. Hehe). Takde baju2 berlonggok dalam bakul ok? I'm sooo proud of myself. Yey Me!!!

Am looking forward to hopefully an uneventful weekend. I'm still coughing badly. Shahril, Afiq and Mariessa are starting. Sigh!. My voice is so serak & sexy now. Nak cakap pun susah.

Some not-so-recent pictures of Afiq & Mariessa, to brighten up this otherwise mundane entry.

I'm happy and proud to report that so far we're doing extremely well. :)
I know it has only been one day (being maidless), saja je ngada2. Kasik can la k? ;)

My maid's flight was delayed from 1850 to first 2110 and later 2145. We waited until she has gone through the immigration and then we left LCCT. By the time we get to Ngah's house, it was already 8pm. It's still (very) early by general standard I know.. but for us, it's considered a little late.By 'us' I mean.. Shahril, me and the children. We don't really go to bed THAT early-lah.. but usually.. by 8pm or so, on weekdays that is, we'll already be in the bedroom playing with the children while trying to catch the news... or.. sometimes, all of us will already be asleep. Tu sebab kalau lepas pukul 8 je.. mata masing2 pun dah kuyu.

Am looking forward to tomorrow's picnic with 443 clan. Dah lamaaaaaa tak pegi picnic. We're going back to Jelebu on Sunday and coming back to Kajang on Monday. Then on Tuesday I have to leave for Kuching until Thursday for work. This will be the first time Shahril is going to handle Afiq & Mariessa alone for 3 days! I'm pretty sure everything will be fine. Bonding time with the children eh? :)



Have a good longer-than-usual weekend, peeps. Selamat Menyambut Aidil Adha. :)

In a few minutes, I'll be going home.. to fetch the children and the maid, and then we're going to LCCT. Am sending my maid back for cuti.. for, let's see.... 44 days! (Mcm org dalam pantang pulak bunyi nya, hehe).

As much as I think it will be chaotic from now on, I am actually looking forward to this. To do everything my way albeit the kelam kabut that comes with it, I'm sure.

Print out the list of things to be put inside the children's bag every morning so we wont forget anything. Check.

Plan and jot down everyday schedule. What time to wake up (earlier by half an hour), when to do laundry, ironing and what nots. Check.

Prepare mentally to do house chores. Check. (prepare ok, prepare.. One can only hope. hehe)

I am excited. It's a little funny I know. It's not like I don't have a good relationship with my maid. I do. She's ok. We get along well. Ada la masa rasa nak marah, of course.. but nama pun manusia kan. Tambah yang jenis temperature mudah naik, like moi. Haha.. But yes, I'm looking forward.

The only setback is.. I am sooooooo not looking forward to lipat baju.. and lebih2 lagi gosok baju. Oh tidak!!!

Any volunteers? Momster? Hahahahah...

Woopss.. Shahril's here. Chiow!

So I've been slacking. Perasaan nak tulis tu actually membuak-buak. (Exaggerating a little there, but ada la sikit2). But Ya Tuhan, malas nyaaa.. A lot has happened since the last entry. Unusual amount of travelling, in comparison to our normal Kajang-Subang-Shah Alam for work and Kajang-Jelebu or Kajang-Temerloh for balik kampung. This month (November that is - mana la tau kot2 this entry gets stuck as a draft til December kan), on top of the normal places we go to, we managed to add Kulai, Genting, Bangkok, and Vietnam to our list! Kulai & Genting with Afiq & Mariessa, Bangkok just me and Shahril, and Vietnam Shahril alone. And I think December will see me going to Kuching to troubleshoot right after Raya Haji, maybe a short trip for Shahril to Labuan for work, and in January the 4 of us are going for a trip to Labuan and KK. We sure do have a lot to look forward to!

Our trip to Genting was supposedly just for me and Shahril to konon2 unwind. To get away. Feels like we've been working so hard (okay, so that part maybe is more relevant to Shahril than me.. hahaha).. and with all that has happened these last few months, we thought we needed a break. But just a few days before our Genting trip, I was instructed to attend a seminar in Bangkok. Pujuk2 Shahril to come with me, so in the end tak sampai hati nak tinggal budak2 berdua tu byk2 kali pulak. So they came with us to Genting.

Genting was OK. Started on a rough note.. with hundreds of people checking in at the First World Hotel. We reached there at about 1200.. and had to take a number to check in. Almost 300 numbers before our number is up! I'm not kidding! Patah hati betul tengok numbers tu. True they have like almost 30 counters.. but still! Took them almost 3 hours to clear that 300 ppl before us. Pheewww..

Dapat2 kunci.. pegi kat bilik.. the key won't work! Punya la sakit hati. So I had to go back to the counter to complain. Wahhh!! got queue also you know to complain! Beraturrr lah lagi. Kena tukar bilik pulak. Sampai kat bilik.. mmg betul la orang kata.. kecikkkkkkkkkk giler bilik kat sana! If we had known we were going to bring the children along, I dont think we would have chosen the hotel in the first place. In conclusion..I dont think we will ever stay there again.



Tak larat dah nak tulis. I'll let the pictures tell the story k? (Tiba2 mood malas dtg, hehe)

Ummi was supposed to start her chemo last Monday, after a week break. However on Monday, the doctors who were checking on her found reasons to do further checks on her liver.

She was released to go home for a few days again, until we can get the appointment to do liver biopsy. She's been staying at Ngah's since last Friday until today.

Akak brought her to HUKM today, to be warded again. Liver biopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.

Akak read the doctor's report and it stated there that the myeloma has progressed to Stage 2.

I seriously, in all honesty.. didn't think it was THIS aggressive.

I am devastated.

The whole day yesterday, all I could think about was 1) baking something. Anything. I just need to bake. 2) Our upcoming trip to Labuan and KK, which I am soooo excited about.


So i surfed, and surfed.. looking for a recipe that looks promising enough. And I found this. After dinner terus buat this muffin sambil sekejap2 lari gi tengok The Amazing Race Asia 3 on TV. This muffin is said to taste exactly like Kenny Roger's Vanilla (Original) Muffin. Thing is, the only muffin I remember (and loved dearly) from Kenny Roger's is their Corn Muffin which is no longer available. What a shame. Sedap giler itu muffin. Annnyyyway, the muffin turned out good albeit too sweet for me. Itu pun dah reduced from the recipe. Next time have to reduce the sugar some more.

Muffin ni tersangatttlah senangnya nak buat. Ingredients are simple, method is even simpler. And to have the whole house smelling of Vanilla, is just divine!