aChieaJanie

Insatiable

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

This has got to be the sexiest song of all time.

p.s: Sorry for a star-struck post like this. Can't help it.

When moonlight crawls along the street

Chasing away the summer heat

Footsteps outside somewhere below

The world revolves I let it go

We build our church above this street

We practice love between these sheets

The candy sweetness scent of you

It bathes my skin I'm stained by you

And all I have to do is hold you

There's a racing in my heart

I am barely touching you

The moonlight plays upon your skin

A kiss that lingers takes me in

I fall asleep inside of you

There are no words

There's only truth

Breathe in Breathe out

There is no sound

We move together up and down

We levitate our bodies soar

Our feet don't even touch the floor

And nobody knows you like I do

The world doesn't understand

But I grow stronger in your hands

We never sleep we're always holdin' hands

Kissin' for hours talkin' makin' plans

I feel like a better man

Just being in the same room

We never sleep there's just so much to do

Too much to say

Can't close my eyes when I'm with you

Insatiable the way I'm loving you

Turn the lights down low

Take it off

Let me show

My love for you

Insatiable

Turn me on

Never stop

want to taste every drop

My love for you

Insatiable

source

Perancang Lantai

2012-01-27T10:36:00.000+08:00

Terima kasih Perancang Lantai atau Floor Planner (floorplanner.com), kawan dapat salurkan geeky skill kawan sebagai seorang arkitek yang terpendam sejak sekian lama (sebelum amik IT masa di Uni dulu, kawan bercita-cita nak jadi arkitek). Joke aside, Floor Planner ni memang senang diguna untuk lukis plan rumah.

Dalam post kali ni, kawan nak kongsikan layout rumah baru kami. Secara ringkas nya rumah kami ada dua tingkat, sama macam kebanyakan rumah di Malaysia, bilik tidur di atas, dapur dan ruang tamu di bawah.

Pelan Lantai oleh Floorplanner.com

Di aras bawah rumah ini ada dapur, ruang tamu (dan ruang makan), bilik air, dua bilik kecil, stor, yard, dua anjung dan porch yang boleh memuatkan satu kereta. Semua orang yang pertama kali pergi melihat pasti akan pelik dengan dapur yang terletak di depan, termasuklah kami. Kami harap dapat adjust dengan lokasi dapur ni. Dapur ni bersambung dengan bilik kecil (Ajan nak jadikan bilik ini pantri) dan juga yard (akan dijadikan bilik laundry). Common area utama aras bawah ni agak besar dah muat untuk ruang tamu dan ruang makan. Di bawah juga ada lagi satu lagi bilik, buat masa ni kami belum putuskan kegunaan bilik ni, mungkin besar akan jadi bilik tetamu cum bilik studi.

Di atas pulak ada bilik tidur tuan besar (master bedroom :p) beserta bilik air dan kawasan untuk wardrobe. Dalam bilik ni juga ada balkoni menghadap belakang rumah. Ada satu lagi bilik air di atas yang bersambung dengan common area dan bilik tidur (Kimi kata itu bilik dia, kawan pun iyekan saja). Ada lagi satu bilik di atas, empat segi dan tiada sambungan ke bilik air. Common area di atas juga ada balkoni yang menghadap tepi rumah.

Finally, gambar rumah kami! Gambar ni kawan ambil enam bulan lalu, masa pertama kali melawat rumah ni, masa ambil rumah ni tak terfikir pun ia akan jadi rumah kami, tapi Alhamdullilah, kita merancang tuhan yang menentukan. View ni pandangan belakang rumah kami, nanti dalam post akan datang kawan kongsikan lebih gambar dalam dan hadapan rumah ni.

Of Pet Peeves

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

I don't know why but I have a lot of pet peeves that makes me, hmm... somewhat an extremely anal person and really easy to dislike. Okay too much info on self personality but hey, no worries, you either like me or hate me, I'm just being myself.

Pet peeve #1

Chewing with mouth open

I honestly, with all my heart, hate people who chew with their mouth open and make those disgusting chewing sounds, like, chuk chak chuk chak. Every time I'm seated with people like this I pray that it gets over quickly before I make face or worse, puke. (okay that has never happened but that just shows how revolting the chuk chak chuk chak sound is to me)

And seeing the mush of food in your mouth is an even more revolting sight. Please.

Pet peeve #2

Wet public toilets. Malls, offices, restaurants... Euw.

I wanted to say wet toilets but the ones in my house are wet toilets too so takpelah, we're just not born into the dry toilet culture. But if I have the extra moolah I will transform the ones in my new house into dry ones. InsyaAllah, may Allah continue giving me rezeki.

Pet peeve #3

People who do not walk to the dining table as soon as I annouce "dinner's ready!"

There are reasons why the waiters at Max Kitchen offered to help entertain Kimi when we celebrated our anniversary few years ago. You see, food is cooked with pride, and you want people to enjoy your food at their best. Food is at their best when it's fresh and hot. So walking to the dinner table pronto is similar to respecting the dishes, and at the same time respecting your cook. I would love to translate "respect" to "love" loosely in this context.

Unless, you openly announce that you don't mind eating cold food (ie eating food that is meant to be eaten hot when it's already cold... blegh). To that, I have nothing else to say other than, thanks for making my life easier!

Pet peeve #4

People who do not wash the dishes when they know there is no helper in the house

No, you don't pay me to do your dishes. Fine, even if I did say, make yourself comfortable, but seriously please do your part to make ME comfortable to have you around too. Just return the favor will yah?

Pet peeve #5

Kids who cry / demand a lot at meal times.

Mommy, I don't want this. Mommy, make me chicken soup. Mommy, I don't want cold water, I want milo.
You ingat you makan kat kedai ke nak demand lebih-lebih?

Please, by all means, be whiny like that if you want to see flying plates. (Yes, this annoys me to the point of me imagining throwing a plate to the wall. I'm dangerous like that. And yes, no matter how adorable my children are, they will NOT BE SPARED of my wrath)

Pet peeve #6

People who cut queues at traffic lights and motorists who honks to say, "tepi tepi tepi!"

Unless you are about to deliver your child / in an ambulance, then please, your destination is just as important as mine (even when I'm off to the movies). And motorists, dah la tak bayar tax. Mentang2 kalau kau langgar aku, aku gak yang salah no matter what. Besar kepala hek?

Alrightttt enough of negativity in one post. I just need to get it out of my system. K thx bye!

Homework Pertama!

2012-01-17T16:55:00.006+08:00

Hari Jumaat yang lepas, Buat pertama kalinya Kimi balik sekolah dengan kerja rumah! Dia bawak balik sekeping kertas putih yang ada 6 bulatan dengan tajuk Things I Like. 6 bulatan tu ada tertulis food, toy, colour, hobby, song, tv show.

Macam selalu kawan periksa comm book dia, kali ini cikgu dia ada bagi arahan tentang kerja rumah tu. Ringkasnya Kimi kena isi bulatan tu dengan benda yang dia suka (song, tv show, color, hobby boleh dikira sebagai benda ke?) sama ada lukis, tulis, tampal atau apa sahaja.

Disebabkan Kimi cuma ada skill menggunting dan menampal, maka itulah pilihan yang dia ada (kimi boleh tulis dan lukis tapi cuma dia sorang saja yang paham apa yang dia tulis dan lukis).

Petang Ahad tu kami bertiga selongkar timbunan Utusan dan NSTP dekat rumah kami untuk cari gambar untuk Kimi gunting dah tampal. Bila abis semua akhbar tu kami selak, kami cuma dapat gambar untuk tv show dan hobby sahaja. Gambar Upin-Ipin, Kungfu Panda dan Boboiboy dari initisari rancangan TV dan kamera dari iklan Olympus. Itu sahaja, dalam akhbar memang ada banyak gambar food, toy dan song, tapi tiada yang Kimi suka.

Kami berhenti sebentar sebab dah takda lagi gambar nak dicari, dan Kimi dah seronok gunting kertas randomly. Tetiba kawan dapat idea untuk tengok dalam katalog promosi Giants. Sebab kami memang beli hampir semua barang keperluan dari Giants, semua benda-benda yang Kimi suka ada dalam tu. Kawan patut terfikir pasal katalog ni lebih awal...

Untuk bahagian warna yang Kimi suka, Kimi guna paper cutter bentuk daun untuk potong cebisan-cebisan kertas yang ada warna yang dia suka. Ni idea Ajan dan kawan rasa dia sangat cool.

Kawan rasa kerja rumah kali ni bagus, selain Kimi dapat guna gunting dan gam, dia boleh express apa yang dia suka.

Ni ringkasan apa yang Kimi suka.

Food - Oreo dan Susu, Kimi panggil 'Putar Celup'.
Toy - Blok Lego, Kimi mula main sejak dua tahun dan sampai sekarang blok-blok ni masih lagi toy yang dia paling suka. Kami pun ada buat Lego birthday party masa dia 2 tahun.
Song - Chipmunk! terutamanya Bad Romance. Pelik taste lagu dia ni.
TV Show - Kungfu Panda, kawan ingatkan dia suka tengok Boboiboy atau Upin-Ipin, tapi dia kata dia lagi suka Poo.
Hobby - Amik gambar samada guna Kamera Murah atau iPhone Ajan.
Color - Merah. Kawan tak tahu pun dia suka warna ni.

How Discussing the News Makes Kids Smarter

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000+08:00

When I came across this article in New Sunday Times (1 January 2012), my first thought was, oh no wonder la I love reading the news as much as I love reading the sports section (read: not interested at all)! As far as I can recall, my parents seldom (almost never) asked for my opinion / how I felt / thought about things. It was like, I was a minion whose opinions do not matter. Alright, I am of course exaggerating but that is exactly how I'm feeling now.

Richard Addis wrote in the article that discussing current events with your kids improve their reading ability significantly and make them smarter. Quoting Addis:

Reading ability at 15 is a major predictor of success, happiness and wealth and one of the few controllable ways in which it is known that we can counterbalance those two great impostors in the lottery of life: wealth and genes.

In other words, if you keep them up to date, stimulate critical thinking by constantly discussing (debating?) things with them, you are giving them the confidence they need and eventually increase their chances of success, regardless which school they go and the toys their parents can afford to buy (i buy Tesco ones).

If you don't read news yourselves, worry not, there are other factors that could increase their reading ability as well, it's just that news is still the best options:

discussing books, films or TV programmes (thank God Akademi Fantasia is over)
discussing how well children are doing at school
eating main meals together around the table (lose the TV and the iPads)
spending time talking with your children (again, lose the smart phones parents!)

It's quite a long article, but I strongly recommend that you read it. Although I would not be able to say that it is certainly going to work and your kid will definitely be successful, but hey, any kid who can discuss news with you is certainly going to be taken seriously by anybody.

I want my kid to be that kid.

This article was written by Richard Addis, and was published by The Times on 19th December 2011

How Discussing the News Makes Kids Smarter

Parents who discuss current affairs with their children give them a head start in reading, a new report says. Richard Addis visits a college taking the idea a step further

Years ago, in a restaurant near Poggibonsi, Italy, our host, a celebrated tycoon, leant forward amid a gaggle of glazed and etiolated teenagers, stabbed a muscular finger in my direction, and barked: “Right! Who can name the 12 countries of the EEC?”

It was one of the most dreadful moments of my youth. I had not been trained for this. I knew a little about Thucydides and a little about Harold Pinter but nothing about the European Economic Community. At school and at home, news was ranked alongside money and pornography as an improper subject for discussion.

Last month the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the latest data from its study of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries — the Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA report. It shows unequivocally that teenage students whose parents discuss political or social issues with them either weekly or daily score 28 points higher at reading, on average, than those whose parents discuss these issues less often or not at all. When socioeconomic background is taken into account, the score advantage drops, but remains large at 16 points. Other factors too made a difference: “discussing books, films or television programmes”, “discussing how well children are doing at school”, “eating main meals together around the table” and “spending time talking with your children” all helped significantly to increase reading ability among 15-year-olds. But of all the activities measured, discussing serious news and current affairs came top.

How much does this matter? A great deal, say educationists. Reading ability at 15 is a major predictor of success, happiness and wealth and one of the few controllable ways in which it is known that we can counterbalance those two great impostors in the lottery of life: wealth and genes.

Still; the findings did not make complete sense. What could it be about discussing news that made such a difference? My own expensive and privileged education had surely not suffered unduly by giving news a complete bypass until the age of 25. All it meant was that at dinners you sometimes had to perfect the art of looking intelligently dubious and dispassionate — not raving but frowning, as someone dubbed it. In London in the 1980s we considered young people who really cared about news — such as Boris Johnson, Andrew Mitchell and Oliver Letwin — mad. (The proof was they ended up in politics and they became madder still.) To look for some empirical evidence for the OECD findings, however, I went to explore an institution that achieves remarkable results year after year by reacquainting disaffected students with the world of critical thinking, study, reading and debate. MidKent College is one of the largest further education and training providers in the South East, with 15,000 students aged from 16 upwards.

The modern purpose-built Medway campus in Gillingham is all gleaming brick and glass on a springlike morning — a monument to the principle of the new: new day, new starts and new lives start building here, brick by brick. Fittingly, its energetic principal Stephen Grix, left school with no qualifications, joined the college at 15 as a bricklaying student, became a foreman and forged a distinguished career in education only after returning to work at MidKent as a brickwork lecturer. “We’re big, we’re local, we’re flexible, we’re supportive, we’re established” proclaims his publicity. (“We’re exclusive, we’re global, we’re proud, we’re demanding, we’re historic” might come the echo from my old school, Rugby).

The OECD report talks specifically about parents discussing news at home but on this point MidKent, like so many other education providers over the past decade, has had to step into the breach. “Ideally it is parents but it’s often unrealistic to expect that,” says MidKent’s Emma Wilkinson. “It does not matter, educationally, if it’s parents or college who do it, as long as it’s done.”

To get a rounded view on the merits of talking about current affairs, Wilkinson, the programme area leader for higher and academic studies, has assembled a panel of teachers from different disciplines: Steve Keevil, media lecturer; Alison Ackroyd, biology lecturer; and Stephen Batchelor, director of higher education development, gather in her classroom.

All of them are devotees of news and current affairs as a teaching aid and, more than that, as a character-builder. Phrases such as “encourage, stretch and challenge” lace the conversation; there is mention of the inspiring example of Britain’s “skillionaires”, the growing self-made and opinionated vocational elite such as hairstylist John Frieda or Formula One mogul Ross Brawn, both of whom never got within sight of a silver spoon and started off as apprentices.

The panel is clear that giving teenagers of both sexes an enthusiasm for reading starts with curiosity and is fed by competitiveness. News is ideal for this, first because it’s so varied that there is something for everyone and, second, because it’s so freely available and widely shared that it provides perfect fodder for opinion and debate.

“If you tap into their interests through current affairs,” says Wilkinson, fresh from a politics class with 20 A-level students aged 16 to 26, “they seem to get a new ear — so they hear the news in the background or glimpse it out of the corner of their eye and think ‘I know what this is about’ instead of zoning out.” Key to this, in her view, is learning the vocabulary. “You notice that as soon as they get interested they’ll want to know what an unfamiliar word means instead of thinking ‘I don’t know that’ and switching off. They feel great when they come across that word again and can tell you what it means.”

Once something in the news has triggered an interest, competitiveness quickly drives reading to new levels. “Students do this all the time,” says Keevil. “It starts slowly but can have a huge effect very quickly. You discuss something in the news and find you run out of knowledge. We all do. You want to become better informed so that the next time you are on the same topic you can talk more convincingly. You start reading more because you are researching for your next debate.” Whether that happens in the corridor, at home or in the classroom doesn’t matter — what matters is the pleasure of winning and getting respect.

And this leads to the point about which the panel is perhaps most passionate: that however you can trigger the virtuous spiral of curiosity, debate, thinking and reading, it has a huge effect on the confidence deficit that unfairly holds back so many of their students.

“Competition for the best university places and for just about any job is getting far tougher. The only hope is to stand out from the crowd,” Keevil says. “The only hope is the impression you make at interview.”

Stephen Batchelor says: “We have so many gifted and talented students here and it is frustrating when they don’t get into the top-ranked universities when we know they should. They don’t have the soft skills that their peers in grammar and independent schools have.”

Alison Ackroyd agrees: “These skills are especially important for highly competitive professions such as medicine that still tend to recruit from public schools. Everyone now needs the ability to tell a good story at interview and to talk a good talk.”

So is the link between current affairs and reading really convincing? The last word goes to Wilkinson: “Yes. I can certainly see the link. If a student knows about news, everyone in the outside world can take you seriously. Being able to talk and discuss and have an opinion and a perspective and awareness of the world is undoubtedly going to help you to get on and continue to learn for the rest of your life — just knowing about accountancy if you want to be an accountant is not enough any more.”

http://www.theday.co.uk/media-coverage-of-the-day/how-discussing-the-news-makes-kids-smarter

Rumah Baru!

2012-01-12T06:36:00.000+08:00

Pertengahan tahun lalu kami dah ambil keputusan untuk jual Dua, memang rasa berbelah bahagi, tapi kami gembira dengan keputusan yang kami buat tu.

Lepas 6 bulan keluar-masuk dari satu rumah ke satu rumah, tawar-menawar dengan agen, pergi dari satu bank ke satu bank, naik-turun pejabat peguam, akhirnya minggu lepas kami berjaya complete pembelian rumah baru dan ambil kunci dari pemilik rumah. Sangat teruja!

Artist impression rumah kami

Kawan akan ceritakan lebih lanjut tentang rumah baru kami, tapi harini kita tengok dulu 10 Fakta menarik tentang rumah baru kami.

Anjung rumah ni cuma muat untuk satu kereta saja, nay!
Ada cul de sac, yeay!
Lalang lagi banyak dari rumput kat laman, nay!
Ada air panas dalam semua bilik mandi, pagi-pagi dah tak payah berebut lagi, yay!
Ada banyak semut api kat luar rumah, koloni diorang besar, nay!
Dari ruang tamu, kalau lihat keluar rumah, nampak sangat menghijau macam dalam taman, yay!
Dapur dia tak seluas dapur Dua, Ajan mesti kata nay!
Sudut kiblat rumah ni sama macam kiblat rumah yang kami duduk sekarang, yay!
Dapur dengan bilik air nampak serupa guna tiles yang sama sampai ke siling, nay
Tadika, sekolah rendah, sekolah menengah, universiti semuanya walking distance, yay! (tapi bila sampai uni dah basah lencun lah, berpeluh)

K for Kimi

2012-01-11T00:00:00.001+08:00

Oih that is one tak creative title.

I made new sarung tilam for kimi, for his daycare use. The mattress was purchased when he was a day old and it's still being used now. Either anak aku yang tak membesar or the mattress is a big one.

The kain sarung was bought from nagoya at RM12/m kot. Then I sew on KIMI felt applique onto it, sama macam previous projects. The whole thingy took me 9 hours kot muaahahaha. You see, this is one of those projects that you are eager to start, lepas tu i started to regret at cutting out "K". Itu belum lagi trace pakai benang hijau and jahit onto the kain. Rasa macam endless. Each letter took me 1hr to trace, cut, jahit benang hijau and jahit atas kain.

Regardless, I am very happy with the final outcome:

If you look at the picture, the letter M was sewn a bit lopsided... I was disappointed tapi eventually I think it made the whole thingy looked personalised and a bit more comel.

Orait. Satu project siap. Next!

p.s: In case you want to check out my previous felt projects :
Kimi's mobile & Onesie tie
ABC book
Anniversary Booklet

His First Day in School

2012-01-08T23:30:00.000+08:00

... was one hell of a day. But an interesting one.

We woke up early but left late because the schoolboy preferred to watch Mr Bean on TV.

Took us bit less than one hour to get to school, which is normal given its distance from our current house. Anyways, when we got there, he lined up with his new classmates, sat in a circle, listened to teacher quietly, and we thought, oh heyyyy he's doing fineeee! Until...

...the teacher said, "Okay now, say bye-bye to mama and papa"

he turned around, waved and said bye bye to us...

and there it was, we saw waterfall falling down his eyes.

Ohkay.

I was defeated abis, nangis sekali. Ach went to him, hugged him and said it's gonna be okay, passed him to his teacher and gave him some toys to play with. He was alright after that.

So we told him we're leaving and he said.

"Ayah nak pegi work ke?" "Haah." "Okay, bye bye".

Then we left happily.

I picked him up that evening at 530, and he was among the last ones to be "saved". Aku masuk je sekolah, he cried and said gaya paling sayu i have ever heard, "Mami pegi manaaaaa???" Mata dia bengkak okay.

Maaannn, I can't even describe how I felt! Bertabahlah mami!

Lepas tu I took him to Alamanda, beli icecream and he was his happy self again.

Let's hope next week will be better okay?

Before we left the house on the first day. Sibuk tengok Mr Bean.

Before dia nangis. Rupa nak nangis dah ada sikit2.

After school. Kasi reward ice cream.

What Happens When You Let A Kid Who Can't Read Use Your Smartphone

2012-01-06T13:01:00.001+08:00

He made a call to Ontario, Canada
(from Malaysia)

A quick search on google led me to a website to an electronics company... it's a fax number by the way.

Eh, ada business electronics ke sayang?

A Mommy's Fear

2012-01-03T13:30:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow Kimi will move on to another step in his life.

He's going to school, playschool that is.

I remember my first day in school. I was a crybaby back then (no surprise eh?), Mak and Abah not only stayed for the whole day, they also sent my elder brother to stay with me for the whole week and made my brother teman me on the school bus. w00t.

I remember my anxiety that day, surrounded by a bunch of strangers, some of whom weren't very kind, without the comfort of my parents' protection. Who do I talk to? Who should I ask for help? Teachers seemed too intimidating while "friends" were busy with their own problems.

But of course, I got through.

Would my son face the same thing?

Will he be able to mix around and make friends? Is he going to be the darling one or the annoying one? (Jangan tipu la, cikgu2 mesti ada sorang dua dalam kelas that they wish weren't there. The ones whose hands raised are purposely ignored.). Is he going to be the talkative one or the one who always choose to seat at the far corner of the class, hoping that the teachers won't notice him? Will he be able to adapt? How long will it take for him to adapt?

Will the long commute to and from school tire him? Will I be tired too? Will I be able to keep up with his excitement, sharing with me stories of his day at the kindy on the way back home?

Will he be able to catch on his ABCs, 123s? Will he be a good student?

I know I worry too much, too early but I can't help it. Tomorrow, our whole laidback life will change, like forever. (okay, drama queen alert!).

InsyaAllah everything will be alright. InsyaAllah.

Baby No More

Kalendar 2012

2012-01-02T09:30:00.000+08:00

Kawan nak ucapkan selamat datang kepada tahun 2012. Sepanjang tahun ini, kawan akan jangkakan banyak perubahan akan berlaku pada kami, Kimi mula bersekolah, kami pindah ke rumah baru dan beberapa lagi plan kami untuk 2012 yang sebahagiannya Ajan ada tulis di post sebelum ini.

Di awal-awal tahun ni, ramai yang mencari-cari kalendar tahun 2012. Walaupun semua kita dah ada kalender iOS atau Android ditangan, bagi kawan perlu juga fizikal kalendar, sama ada yang atas meja atau gantung di dinding. Setengah-setengah orang kalendar ni perlu untuk buat plan, untuk lihat waktu solat, untuk tengok jadual lumba kuda, jadi deco. Tapi bagi kawan senang ada kalendar macam ni untuk coret-coret dan letak reminder.

Tahun ni, kawan dah designkan kalendar untuk kami sekeluarga. Kalendar tahun ni kawan letakkan ayat yang Kimi pernah cakap sepanjang tahun 2011, kebanyakkannya buat kami sekeluarga pecah perut. Macam contohnya dia pernah kata, "Kimi good boy, Kimi tak jahat macam girl", entah dari mana tah dia dapat konsep boy=baik, girl=jahat, kawan masih musykil sampai sekarang. "Kimi tak tido, cuma kelip", dia cakap lepas kawan kantoikan dia tertidur masa tonton Puss in Boot di panggung, bosan sangat kot cerita tu sampai tertido, tapi dia tanak mengaku dia tertidur. Ada jugak oneliner kesukaan dia macam, "tau pun..", "yelah tu.." dan "ingat-ingat..".

Kalendar tak lengkap tanpa senarai cuti, tapi selain hari-hari cuti 2012, kawan letakkan juga hari-hari yang penting seperti hari jadi, anniversary juga yang penting hari ibu dan bapa.

Okay, resolusi 2012 dah ada, checked! kalendar, checked! 2012, here we come...

p/s: kawan kongsikan PSD template file kalendar diatas tu di sini. Kalau nak guna fon yang sama, boleh download fon percuma di sini. Selamat tahun baru semua!

What I Want To Achieve in 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Welcome 2012!

Time for new resolutions.

Personal:

Must, MUST, lose the 3 kgs (ntah2 dah 5kg dah by now) that I gained troughout last year.To do that, I MUST eat start eating healthily
I must, must, must increase my monthly savings from almost nonexistent to xx.
Must be a better Muslim by not missing my prayers and praying on time, to always think the best of other people i.e. reduce mindless gossiping.

Career:

I must not procrastinate.
I must be a good colleague (pun tak mau explain)
I have a few that i dont feel like blogging on.

Family:

This one I must get back to you sebab this one kena jointly develop dengan ach.

Ach:

Must be a good wife to Ach. (too broad tapi takpelah, I dont have to explain)
I must make my family eat healthily (which is why I WANT a countertop george foreman grill), less oil, less white carb, less fat, more fibers, etc.

Kimi:

Kimi must be able to recognize all alphabets by the end of the year, i hope he can read too that he will be going to school. I dont want him to just be able to sing "ABC", I want him to recognize them too. He does recognize several alphabets now, A, B, C, D, F... but I have been to busy and too tired at nights to proceed with the rest of the alphabets.

I must admit that I do envy those parents with kids of Kimi's age who can sing ABC, 123 effortlessly. Ye, I am that shallow. I am the typical parent who somehow, still emphasize on the number of As they can score and their class positions. Of course I will say, "That's alright baby, you've done your best" but deep down inside I wish that was him on the stage taking the best student trophy every year.

Kids nowadays are too clever. D'ya know that UTM's entrance requirements for this year was 3.2 something but because everyone gets 4 nowadays, that entrance requirement does not mean much? Sending him to RPI (so that we can visit hehehehe) is something that we can dream of if both of us don't earn six figures salaries annually. Yes, I am THAT shallow thank you.

Must make him eat healthier homecooked meal (think of bentos!)
Must be more observant of his needs and spending more time with him
Must teach him to sleep in his own room so ach and I can reclaim our bed.

Alright that's a mightly long post, and a scary one too. Eleh, 2012, kau ingat aku takut kat kau ke?

2012, bring it on lah!

2011 In Memory

2011-12-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

Earlier this year I resolved to achieve 4 things. I managed to achieve 3/4.

Lose 3 kgs and the excess belly fat

I am no thinner then what I started off. In fact, I gained a solid 3 kgs together with excess belly fat. I don't know what happened there. I started getting active for some time, went to the office's gym every alternate days, jogged every weekend... not surprisingly that habit died after puasa.

To have Kimi potty-trained by 1st-Q.

achieved this

in June. I know I promised to write about it, but I totally forgot so I'm sorry.

Anyways, till late last month, Kimi still used his diapers at night... Sometime in between then and this month, he no longer needs to pee at night and now, we're off diapers, for good. Yeay!

Pay off my credit card debt by 2nd-Q.

I paid off my credit card by 2nd Q, but old habits die hard, I used the good old plastic friend again and again and again especially after the need for a wardrobe change.

Something something that unfortunately cannot be shared publicly.

That something-something was actually me resolving to find another job in 2011. I landed on one late February,

tendered

and

started my new chapter

in March. The new job is seriously challenging, but very interesting. I am tested in many, many, maaaanny ways tapi takpe. Its a learning curve. If anyone from SCM is reading this, honestly, that place is an excellent training ground, seriously.

Some really bad things happened too, but all in all, it's a good year, although I would not want to go back and repeat the same year.

Let's move on.

Lets face the future, not dwell in the past. Keep good memories, and learn from mistakes.

A Good Change

2011-12-30T13:00:00.000+08:00

(Mereka berdoa): “Rabbana (wahai Tuhan kami)! Janganlah Engkau (Allah) sesatkan hati kami sesudah Engkau (Allah) berikan petunjuk kepada kami, dan kurniakanlah kepada kami rahmat yang langsung daripada sisi Engkau (Allah). Sesungguhnya Engkau (Allah) adalah al-Wahhab (Maha Pemberi).”

source

Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.

All praises for Allah for his guidance and blessing.

Please do not take your guidance away, please keep me in the right path.

Anniversary Week: The Gifts

2011-12-20T18:45:00.000+08:00

As I told ya last week, its the year of Appliances.

On the 7th, when I got home from work, Kimi ran at me and ajak aku naik atas to our bedroom. Ach jerit "Kimiiii jangan bawak mami naik atas!" while giving him the death stare. Kimi cepat2 cover and said, "takde ape ape mami.. jom turun balik jom."

Gelak besar aku.

That night, we took mak for dinner at Sekinchan Ikan Bakar. Before we left the house, Ach gave me a heavy box, an envelope, a kiss on the cheek and said, Happy Anniversary. Kimi pun sibuk-sibuk, kissed me and said, "beytu mami!", that's I love you too mami in his language.

I brought the box into the car, Kimi cakap, mami bukak la sekarang. Bukak, kimi nak tengok. I opened the box, and got this black thingy. Ach kata its a power surge protector. So I ws like, oh okay. Maybe I need this in my house. Yeay! Thanks husband!

We ate ikan bakar, got home, I gave ach a power drill, because I know he wants to DIY a lot of things when we, insyaAllah move into our own house soon. Initially I wanted to get him a countertop grill, you know, George Foreman's style but couldn't find a nice one jadi I settled with a Bosch power drill.

I was so happy, snapped our pictures with our presents and wanted to diptic and IG our pictures, tapi ach cakap, "Ey, naik la bilik dulu, nak instragram pun jap2 lagi la.." or something like that. Okay fine, so we have unwrapped each others presents, time to ~~unwrap each other~~ sleep and read kimi his bedtime story.

Both of us naik tangga, I was leading the way , Ach was tailing me. Aku bukak pintu bilik, switched the light on and "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" aku tergolek atas katil kimi and cried. Because apparently the surprise was not over yet:

Uiyo.

Uiyoooo.

Uiyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

And he framed the Graph of Ajan too!

I was ecstatic.Rasa nak loncat-loncat katil. Loncat lagi dan lagi dan lagi dan lagi! Happy gila. You can count on ach to give you surprises like that! I was speechless. Now I'm too excited to move to the new house so I can start using my kitchenaid w00t w00t!

Tapi rasa macam.. haih. Murahnya hadiah aku in comparison!

Anniversary Week: Another Quilling Project

2011-12-07T18:41:00.001+08:00

Can't afford to buy my husband an iPhone. Hehehhe.

Anniversary Week: 4nniversary

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000+08:00

Selamat ulangtahun untuk kami.

Kalau anniversary kami macam movies series, kawan nak guna tajuk post kali ni sebagai judulnya, curi idea daripada Scream series. Alhamdulillah dah 4 tahun kami bersama, moga berkekalanlah bahagia hendaknya sampai bila-bila.

Macam tahun lepas, tahun ni kawan dan Ajan dah sediakan beberapa post sempena anniversary kami tahun ni.

Tahun lepas, kawan ada kongsikan timeline kisah kami berdua, dari mula kawan kenal Ajan sampailah ke jinjang pelamin. Tahun ni kawan sempat lakarkan graf untuk mengambarkan serba sedikit kisah tentang Ajan sepanjang sembilan tahun kawan kenal Ajan, dari masa dia masih single hingga dah hidup bahagia bertiga sekeluarga.

graph of ajan

Kalau dulu di masa awal perkenalan, kami ber-saya-awak saja, tapi sejak mula bercinta, kawan panggil Ajan bie/babes dan masih kekal sampai sekarang. Dan sejak ada Kimi ni, kadang-kadang kawan panggil Ajan mami.

Satu fakta menarik tentang Ajan ialah dia sangat bangga jadi anak jati KL. Sejak lahir memang tinggal di KL (walaupun most part of Gombak dalam negeri Selangor, Taman Melewar ni saja dalam KL). Cuma 4 tahun Ajan keluar dari KL dan jadi New Yorker, dan insya-Allah tahun depan dia akan keluar dari KL sekali lagi.

Sekali lagi, kawan nak ucapkan Selamat ulangtahun untuk kami. Semoga moga berkekalanlah bahagia hendaknya sampai bila-bila.

Anniversary Week: My Prayers for Us

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000+08:00

Ya Allah,
Thank you for the wonderful four years you have given us.
Thank you for a wonderful child that has brought us closer than I had ever imagined we could ever be,
Thank you for the many fights, the unspoken wraths, the silent days and nights,
But most important of all, thank you for blessing me with someone to fight with,
And to make it up for.

Ya Allah,
Please bless this little family of mine,
Please let us be like this till the end of time,
For I cannot bear to be apart from the ones I love.

Ya Allah,
Please forgive me for all the wrong things I’ve done,
Please do not let this family suffer from my sins,
Please shower us with your mercy and your love,
For I love this family more than I love myself.

Ya Allah,
It has been four wonderful years,
Please let there be many, many more wonderful years for us.
I love this family more than I love myself.

My Prayers for My Husband

2011-12-06T00:00:00.000+08:00

Ya Allah,
Dialah cahaya hidupku,
Yang membawa aku jauh dari kegelapan yang menyedihkan,
Dialah kebahagiaanku.

Ya Allah,
Dialah semangatku,
Yang tak pernah putus asa dengan aku,
Dialah pendukung aku.

Ya Allah,
Dialah gelak tawaku,
Di saat aku duka,
Dialah kegembiraanku.

Ya Allah,
Dialah teman aku,
Dialah suamiku.

Ya Allah,
Berkatilah suamiku,
Rahmatilah suamiku,
Murahkanlah rezeki suamiku,
Jauhkanlah suamiku dari dukacita yang menyakitkan,
Kurniakanlah dia kebahagian seperti mana dia membahagiakan aku.

Ya Allah,
Andainya aku yang terbaik untuk suamiku,
Jadikanlah aku isteri yang baik
Jadikanlah aku isteri yang solehah
Kerana aku ingin membahagiakan dia seperti mana dia membahagiakan aku.

Happy 29th Birthday, Dearest Husband.

Love,
Wifey

aChieaJanie, 3rd June 2011, Impiana KLCC

Anniversary Week: Fourth Anniversary

2011-12-05T13:30:00.000+08:00

Whoa.
Four years.

Yeah, our fourth anniversary is coming soon.

According to Wiki, (try googling for Wedding Anniversary), fourth year is the year of Appliances. Last year's was leather.Last year, Ach gave me seven handbags. Yeap, you read that right, SEVEN. One handbag a day up to the anniversary day itself. Didn't blog about it for fear of sounding too happy macam kanak2 ribena or monyet dapat bunga. You see, I dont like to spend my money buying bags (branded or non branded, sama je). The last time I bought a branded bag (not designer bag) was hmmm, 4 years ago. Tak sampai hati nak belanja RM500 for a piece of leather. Ada some of the bags yang aku gantung je dalam almari sebab sayang nak guna.

Business Card Holder that Ach use as hiw wallet till now

Anyways, yeah, this year's theme is Appliances. Kalau ikut traditional gifts its linen / silk, tapi since we are we are planning to move into a new house next year, appliances sound more relevant. So I like the idea of giving each other appliances. I didn't request for anything, sebab I don't generally ask for anything muehehe. I'm just like that.

Ach had already given me a red Lenovo laptop that I love to bits. Not a big fan of Macs (big mac including!), so Ach took note of that. I assume that is my present for this year la, takkan la dia nak beli lagi barang lain for aniversary kan?

So thanks Asben, I love it! Although I did not do the chicken dance or use it every night to surf the net (iPhone does the job equally well), please know that I do love it. If you could spare me extra few hundreds to purchase few softwares pun lagi best, but kalau takde pun I am already a happy wife. =)

I'd bought Ach something that I cannot reveal because I haven't given it to him yet. =D It's a tough job choosing stuff for him, dah la his birthday and our anniversary are only one day apart, (birthday = 6th, Anniversary = 7th). Nasib baik we have agreed to not give each other presents on birthdays. Yeap, you read that right again, we do not give each other presents on birthdays.

I'm doing away with mushy, retrospecting, walk-down the-memory-lane stuff this year. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I am running out of things to write if I choose to write that way every year.

Okay toodles.

Grateful Kids Are Healthier. Studies Find Benefits in 365 Days of Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T15:15:00.001+08:00

Let me summarize the long article:

Teach our children to be grateful for each day they live, for every little thing they get. Every night before bedtime, get them to recap their day and list all the good things they've had and they've done.

This will teach them to be grateful with even the littlest thing that we adults often take for granted.

This will not only teach kids to be grateful, but they will live a healthier lives too.

Ya Allah Ya Tuhanku, thank you for what you have given me. Thank you for the air to breathe, thank you for family to love, thank you for food to eat, a house to live and thank you for everything.

------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thanksgiving, everyone in my family goes around the table and shares what we're grateful for. There answers range from sentimental to appetite-driven (my personal go-to: semi-soft cheeses). It's one of my favorite parts of the holidays and something I only wished we'd carried on every day of my childhood.

That was before I heard about the additional health benefits. According to multtiple studies, gratitude is mentally and physically nutritious for kids.

"We know that grateful kids are happier [and] more satisfied with their lives," explains Hoftra University psychology assistant professor Jeffrey Froh in an article this week in The Washington Post. "They report better relationships with friends and family, higher GPAs, less materialism, less envy and less depression, along with a desire to connect to their community and to want to give back."

That's not all. It's also believed to boost immune systems and lower blood pressure over time. In a Temple Univeristy study, patients with hypertension lowered their blood pressure just by calling a "gratitude" hotline everyday. If it's that effective on adults with health problems, imagine what announcing the good things in life at early age can do.

In a study of early adolescents, Froh found that kids who journaled daily about their good fortune, over a period of two weeks, were less prone to depression and more satisfied with their lives overall. And that optimism and satisfaction made them more likely to take care of themselves physically in the long-term.

Pyschologist Robert Emmons, author of the book "Thanks!", explains it this way: "Our emotional systems like newness, [but] we adapt to positive life circumstances so that before too long, the new car, the new spouse, the new house-they don't feel so new and exciting anymore. Gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it. "

But like anything else, gratitude takes getting used to. Developing a 'thanking' routine, from journaling to dinner time shout-outs, is an essential element to all the studies that noted improvements in patients.

A straightforward assignment for kids and their parents can kick-start the uptick. For starters, write down five things you're grateful for every day. If you can't think of five things, hone in on the senses, suggest Emmons. What is the best thing you've heard, tasted, touched, seen and smelled that particular day?

"You can also use concrete reminders to practice gratitude, which can be particularly effective in working with children, who aren't abstract thinkers like adults are, " writes Emmons. "For instance, I read about a woman in Vancouver whose family developed this practice of putting money in gratitude jars. At the end of the day, they emptied their pockets and put spare change in those jars. They had a regular reminder, a routine, to get them to focus on gratitude. Then, when the jar became full, they gave the money in it to a needy person or a good cause within their community."

Turning a New Leaf

2011-11-14T08:46:00.001+08:00

Hopefully sampai bila-bila.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2011-11-08T13:00:00.003+08:00

... which WILL, undoubtedly land you in awkward moments.

Yesterday, Kimi and I went for a train ride. He was ecstatic i tell yah! Lompat sana sini, talking very loudly in excitement (Mommy! Kita masuk tunnel!; Mommy! Tengok tu kita tinggiiii!; Mommyyy! Lajunyeee train ni!; alright you get the idea) sampai everyone was looking at him. Attention seeker. Malu wey.

At the KLCC station, a lady came in and sat opposite us. The thing about her is... she has, how do i say this, weird teeth? She has one teeth jutting out (okay i feel terrible already!). I kinda knew what was gonna happen next, so I prayed;

Oh God please conceal my child's eyes of this view and spare me the embarrassment.

I think I had sinned that day because God didn't answer my prayers. It couldn't happen soon enough.

Mommy! Kenapa gigi orang tu patah? Kenapa gigi orang tu macam tu mommy? *sambil tunjuk orang tu*

Holy crap mana aku nak letak muka aku ni?!!! Aku nak gelak, well, I did gelak tapi cover-cover. That was awkward, because I know for sure she heard him sebab there was nothing subtle about the way he said "gigi" and pointing to "orang tu"!

Kimi, mommy bawak iPad. Kimi nak tengok Transformers tak?
Mana iPad mommy?
Ada dalam bag. Jap lagi kita dah masuk train lagi satu, mommy bagi Kimi tengok.
Kenapa kita nak masuk train lagi satu? Mana train tu? Kenapa kena tunggu?

And he forgot the whole gigi story.

While I struggled to keep a straight face and not burst into laughter gaya ROFLMAO. I dared not look up until we got off at KL Sentral.

MALU WEY!

Ultraman the Alter Ego

2011-10-29T14:01:00.001+08:00

Kimi : Ultraman, cakap sorry dekat Makngah.
Ultraman : Sorry Makngah.

Mommy : Apesal Ultraman kena cakap sorry dekat Makngah?
Kimi : Sebab Ultraman kopek cat dekat rumah Makngah.

Ach and I : ????

Happy 3rd Birthday, Baby

2011-10-28T00:20:00.000+08:00

Yes.

He's still my baby.

It's only the third year, but I'm already running out of things to write! Macam mana ni?

Alright, let's start with what he can do at 3 years old:

He can ride his balance bike on his own. Totally balanced. Siap boleh angkat both legs off the ground and not fall. Huiyo. I could only ride the bike without supporting wheels when I was 10. Yep, I wasnt born to be an athlete.
Is seriously talkative. He can talk like an adult, that's why it is really fun talking to him. And the stuff he says nowadays are totally random. "Kimi baik, Kimi bukan girl!" Eh? Who has been feeding funny ideas to you baby? Or try this: Ayah: "Kimi, kakak sofiana buat apa?" Kimi: "Sapu sampah". Ayah: "Mommy?" Kimi: "Mommy tido!". Argh!!!
He can pronounce L clearly but fails at S, F, H ("eh"), C ("ci"), K ("tay").
Eats like an Italian. Spaghetti aglio olio. Blegh. No yummy, spicy melayu food. Apa ni Hakimi???
Can concentrate for as long as you take to blink an eye.
Can be a safety freak sometimes. Will insist everyone to buckle up in the car. He will not stop reminding you until you do. Will always remind us to drive slowly. "Ayah, jangan bawak kerete laju-laju nanti polis saman!"
Knows the concept of saving.
Loves reading.
Loves to cook and bake. He can name you the ingredients for a cake, one or two if not all. He knows you need butter and eggs to make cakes and muffins. =)
He loves, loves, LOVES cakes. All kinds, all flavors.
He loves cheese too. He can eat 3 pieces at once.
Is on his way to becoming a domestic god just like his ayah. Boleh harap lah if you need an extra pair of hands. He helped ach clean after we mowed the lawn. He helped mop the floor too.
No longer wants to eat at his high chair but instead, he will stack 5 stools and climbs up.
He hates durian. Yeay!
He wants a baby brother. I'm not sure if he knows what it really means to have a baby brother, but he keeps saying, "Mommy, nanti kita pegi Disneyland dengan baby boleh?". I know, I wanna give you that baby brother too, honey. Next year, insyaAllah.

Okay that's enough. I can fill the whole page if I continued typing. You get the idea, Hakimi is all grown up. We're sending him to the kindy next year. Aih, time flies.

At least now he still needs me to sleep, although all i needed to do is sit on the bed with him until he falls asleep. I used to sleep with him on his bed tapi Ach tak bagi dah... I wonder why.

I'm happy that he still needs me, and he would continue needing me until at least 10 more years. After that, kissing mommy before sleep is an embarrassment. Oh well. I would still love him anyways. Before he reaches ten, I'm going to kiss him good night every single night.

Hakimi baby, for the gazillionth time, Mommy loves you very, very,very much. Mommy sayang Kimi. Sayang sangat.

Happy 3rd Birthday sayang. Please be a good person. Make me proud of you baby.

Much love.

His birthday dinner @ Mak's place on 8th October

Kimi and Cuzzies

Quilling!

2011-10-27T13:15:00.025+08:00

The blogosphere is pretty quiet nowadays… the links on my daily read feed only change every two or three days. Or is it just me?

Oh well, nevermind.
I’ve always been into crafting. I’ve done a couple of craft projects in the past, appliques for Kimi’s rompers, Kimi's felt mobile, his felt ABC book, our third anniversary booklet.

Now I’m past the felt phase… because I’ve found quilling. It’s totally addictive yo. I keep finding occasions just to have reason to quill (bunyi macam orang nerd. I always have nerdy hobbies). Since I was not born creative, I had to google “quilling patterns, quilling cards” and just copied other ppl’s design sebab nak design sendiri tak reti.

You see, quilling is just like drawing, only harder because you have to translate drawings into blocks of shapes. So, tiru orang punya lagi senang. Takpe, bukan aku jual pun those cards.
So far, I’ve done 4 projects, actually 5 but I didn’t give one to anybody so it doesn’t count.

My very first quilling project was for Ach’s father’s day card. I used whatever I had in the office that time and made a quilled bottle and what felt like gazillions teardrop quills to fill in a huge heart shape. Nothing fancy, but I still found it cute.

some of the quills dah rosak Kimi tarik

Project no. 2 to 5 were all done this year, between Sept and October. Hahaha. I’m addicted I tell yah! Proj. No. 2 is for a bestie’s new born baby girl. I made a stroller, baby bottle and a painfully leceh capital-K (the baby’s mommy called her Baby K, hence the letter K). I made this when I was in China. You see, I had wrongly estimated the size of the stroller that the final shape overflows its frame, while the bottle frame seems too empty. This made the card looked unbalanced. Nampak sangat aku amateur quiller.

That K is a pain in the ass. Still... I would make it again. =)

Project No. 3 is for Ach’s Graduation Day. I made orang in graduation robe and cap. Actually in the final card that guy is holding a scroll, tapi tak sempat snap the pic. I’m really proud of this one sebab I did the design all by myself. The initial design was wayyy more complicated than the final one, I was supposed to be in the card too… I wanted to quill myself kissing him on the cheek tapi takpela, macam susah sangat je so I scraped that idea.

The tassle is my fav part. Took me hours to quill the letters.

Project no. 4 is for Nureen, my niece’s 10th Birthday. Actually it's her birthday today, so Happy Birthday Nureen! I'm happy that my obsession has rubbed off on Kimi, he was the one who requested to "gulung-gulung" this card.

Those are supposed to be balloons. Do they look like balloons to you?

There are actually another two cards, one is completed but I haven’t given it to the recipient while another one is a dinosaur in progress. I’ll post em up later.

So there you go. My latest obsession.

Oh, I get inspirations from http://www.allthingspaper.net/.

After almost 4 years

2011-10-24T14:51:00.000+08:00

... that I finally, finallyyyy, saw Kimi and Ach both enjoyed my food. The same food.

I know Ach has always enjoyed the food that I cook (either that, or he's a good actor), but for Kimi, I've always had to prepare different set of milder food. Eg: Ach gets ayam sambal, Kimi gets soup ayam.

But last night, Tuhan turunkan wahyu suruh aku masak spaghetti aglio olio (sp?) ikut resepi sendiri... Mostly because i didnt know what to cook. But I was surprised to see both of them ate like they had never eaten for the past 10 years!!!

Kimi voluntarily kissed me on the cheek and said, "Thank you mommy masak sedap!" and Ach pun sama kissed me and said, "TQ Bie!". They finished their serving in 10 mins. It was a small serving tho.

Eh? Ehhh? Since when did this happen? Why did this happen? I am so not used to this!

I was overjoyed. The feeling could easily beat the feeling of getting a new job.

Seriously.

Haih, the joy of being a mom and a wife. The smiles of my two fav boys can turn even the worst days to awesome ones.

Masalahnya is, I was raised with gulai lemak, sambal, cili and all things spicy. Spaghetti olio olio what? Looks like i'm gonna have to get my tekak used to bland italian food now.

Yashica EZ F521, Kamera Murah Kimi

2011-10-07T01:00:00.000+08:00

Kami jumpa Kamera Murah Kimi! It's a Yashica EZ F521 or Digital Holga (some people said, but i beg to differ).

Kamera Murah ni fit hampir semua faktor-faktor yang kawan senaraikan sebelum ini. Sebenarnya, jumpa kamera ni pun secara kebetulan, Ajan dan kawan sebelum ni dah keluar masuk dari satu kedai ke satu kedai nak cari kamera untuk Kimi tapi tak jumpa. Yang kami berkenan semuanya lebih budget kami. Cuba browse dalam Mudah dan kebetulan hari tu ada orang iklankan Yashica ni. Tawar-tawar sikit, kawan pun setuju beli kamera ni untuk Kimi.

Kotak Yashica yang berbahasa Jepun

Kamera ni sangat-sangat minimum features dia dan sangat mudah nak guna. Saiz kecil dan sangat ringan sebab di buat dari plastik (murah). Kalau pegang, memanglah terasa macam toy camera. Gambar-gambar dari kamera ni tak lah sharp, lebih-lebih lagi kalau kurang cahaya, tapi kawan rasa cukuplah untuk kamera pertama Kimi. Cuma yang kawan tak berapa gemar, kamera ni guna bateri AAA. Satu lagi, Kamera Murah ni takde camera strap, jadi kawan DIYkan camera strap untuk Kimi.

Mickey Mouse lanyard dan key ring untuk Camera Strap DIY

Kimi sangat gembira bila kami tunjukkan Kamera Murah dia. Dia pun dah lama tunggu Kamera Murah ni, "Mami, Kimi behave nanti dapat Kamera Murah kan?", selalu dia tanya setiap kali kami minta dia behave. Pagi tu, masa kawan kejutkan dia dari tidur dan tunjukkan Kamera Murah, excited betul dia. "Terima kasih Ayah, terima kasih Mami, Belikan Kimi Kamera Muyah"... Hmmm cair kawan...

Muka Happy Kimi

Kimi dan Kamera Murah

Thank You Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T12:19:00.000+08:00

I have never been a fan of Apple. In fact, I'm still not one now. I didn't even know who Steve Jobs was until Ach gave me the iPhone 4. When I got it, I wasn't sure how to react. Eh, best sangat ke menatang alah ni?

Now I can't live a day without my iPhone, though I still think that iPad is an overpriced toy. Useless, at some point. But I digress.

Despite being a non-fan and non-believer of the coolness of Apple's overpriced stuff, I must admit that this iPhone of mine has worked really great for me, especially those times when I had to travel for work. Thanks to Facetime and iPhone's wonderful apps like twitter, instagram, viber (the most awesomest of all), the thousands of miles travelled felt closer, in fact, almost non existent. Although there was one time that iPhone made it harder, when Kimi refused to do Facetime with me and shoved Ach's phone in the almari. Then he cried for the longest time and and the evil ach boleh tak disconnect the call?! Of course, I could disconnect it myself but i didnt.

And because of iPhone, Viber was invented and made my calls and texts back home cost nothing when it would've costed me hundreds of ringgit to make the same calls via telco network. Case in point, in February 2010 when I was away in India my phone bill charges came up to RM400. I didn't have to pay anything when I was in India the second time this year. I even managed to show ach the streets of india, live, bila one of the shops tepi jalan had unprotected wifi. Talk about the world is flat, baby!

Anyways, here's a big, fat thank you to Steve Jobs for making my travels much, much, much easier for a mom-of-one and wife-of-a-loving-i-cant-stand-havin-my-wife-away-husband. Your (and your team's) creation has made the impossible possible, made difficult things much easier, and most importantly, you bring distance closer. In fact, you made distance almost impossible.

And for that, I thank you, dear Sir. You've touched my life in places that really matters. May you rest in peace.

I was in India, Jul 2011. The call was made before their bedtime.

That time when he refused to even look at me. I was in China, Sept 2011.

Kamera Murah

2011-09-22T17:14:00.000+08:00

I wish this kamera is murah...

Ajan dan kawan perasan Kimi suka betul dengan kamera, samada untuk ambil gambar mahupun diambil gambar. Dia selalu mintak phone kami dan app favorite dia ialah Kamera. Jadi, kami pun lama rancang nak belikan kamera untuk Kimi, untuk galakkan minat dia (dan jauhkan dia dari phone kami) Maka bermulalah pencarian kamera untuk kimi.

Faktor utama kamera untuk Kimi ialah harga. Kami tak nak la beli RM800 kamera dan pecah bersepai tak sampai seminggu. Lagi pun kalau kamera tu harga dia rendah, dan lepas seminggu Kimi decide tak nak guna kamera tu, takdelah rasa terkilan sangat. Kami letak harga maksimum RM300 untuk pencarian Kamera Murah (kawan rasa boleh dapat dalam RM200).

Selain faktor harga, kawan juga cuba ambil kira faktor-faktor lain untuk pencarian Kamera Murah ni. Kalau boleh kawan cuba cari kamera yang rupanya mirip macam SLR - badan warna hitam, ada lens besar dan ada dua point (kiri dan kanan) untuk strap leher. Kawan juga cuba cari kamera yang simple to operate and maintain - menu dan butang yang simple serta menggunakan bateri lithium-ion (kalau tak jenuh nak kena beli bateri baru).

Kawan tahu memang hampir mustahil untuk dapatkan kamera dengan semua faktor-faktor ni, kalau jumpa memanglah tersangat ideal.

Free Beaches and Ruins

2011-09-21T09:53:00.001+08:00

Malam tadi, lima minit sebelum tengah malam, kawan pergi ke laman AirAsia, ingat di hati cuma nak jenguk-jenguk sahaja, manalah tahu boleh dapat tiket percuma sempena promosi Free Seat diorang. Tapi lepas 2 jam menunggu-mencari-menunggu-isi borang-menunggu-retry-retry-menunggu-retry-retry-retry, kawan dapat juga tiket untuk cuti-cuti kami tahun depan.

Masa mula-mula masuk to okay lagi, boleh layar laman tu macam biasa, memang banyak tiket percuma. Sebelum tu kawan dah tengok cuti 2012, nak cari masa yang sesuai. Dalam masa 10 minit kawan dapat selesaikan pembelian ke destinasi pertama. Lepas tiket pertama disahkan, terasa nak cari tiket lagi, so kawan buatlah carian lagi, tapi kali ni kawan kena kena tunggu dalam 'Waiting Room' lebih kurang 15 minit sebelum hasil carian kawan dipaparkan. Masa ni laman AirAsia ni sudah tersangatlah lembabnya. Kalau tiket pertama tadi kawan cuma ambil masa 10 minit, untuk tiket kedua dan ketiga ni hampir dua jam baru selesai. Masa ni pun kawan dah ngantuk sangat. Lepas dapat conformation email, kawan foward email tersebut ke akaun TripIt kawan dan call it a day.

Trimas team AirAsia untuk 18 (3 destinasi to-and-fro untuk 3 orang) tiket percuma kami (ofcoz tak termasuk fees yang puratanya RM25 satu tiket).

Selamat Hari Raya

2011-08-29T20:20:00.001+08:00

YouTube Video

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin to families, friends, acquaintances, officemates, ex schoolmates...

Everyone.

Much love,
aChieaJanie + Hakimi
1 Syawal 1432

Fostering Grassroots Innovation

2011-07-14T00:00:00.005+08:00

Recently, I was given the opportunity to attend Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia’s Malaysia-India Grassroot Innovation Workshop. It was an honor to be there listening to the Grassroot Innovation Guru, Prof. Anil Gupta himself talk. Before I proceed, lemme tell you what “Grassroot Innovation” is.

“Grassroots initiatives are innovative networks of activists and organisations that lead bottom-up solutions for sustainable development; solutions that respond to the local situation and the interests and values of the communities involved. In contrast to conventional, incremental green reforms, grassroots initiatives seek to practice deeper, alternative forms of sustainable development.

The initiatives involve committed activists who often seek to experiment with social innovations as well as using greener technologies and techniques in areas such as housing, renewable energy, food, and alternative money. They frequently seek to create new social institutions and ‘systems of provision’ based upon different values to those of the mainstream. Examples include community renewable energy initiatives, eco-housing, local organic food schemes, and community currencies such as time banks.”

Source: Grassroots Innovation

Too long? Thought so. In a layman’s words, these are innovative solutions created to solve day-to-day local issues. Real-life examples:

Example 1:
Need: I wanna make homemade organic fishcakes
Issues / problem statement: Deboning a fish takes too much time.
Solution: Picit ikan guna belakang tapis. Big bones takde, isi ikan pun dapat
Commercialised solution: Tapis with berat, material, design, i.e. saiz lubang big enough to get maximum isi ikan with minimum effort.

Example 2:
Need: Separate egg yolk and whites for baking
Issues / problem statement: How la to separate? They come together! Can use hands but not hygienic.
Solution: Pecahkan telur dalam something that would hold only the yolk and let the whites turun.
Commercialised solution: Egg separator yang beli dekat kedai bakery tu.

p.s: If my interpretation of the above is wrong, tolong betulkan ye. Tq!

Solution macam ni orang2 yang involved in that kerja je yang terfikir sebab they are the ones who would come up with solutions to make their jobs easier. These creative people are everywhere. Sekolah, kedai2 jual nasi lemak, office people, you, I, they're EVERYWHERE! Tetapi, makcik2 student sekolah, you and I yang creative2 ni maybe takde business acumen. Reti pikir je. So it’s someone’s responsibility to go look for these innovations and find someone to support their commercialisation. This is how the model can work: Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia is doing. YIM = find. Business incubators / TPM = support. Gomen, angels and venture capitalists = fund.

Jadi kalau ade sape2 yang rase dia ada solution creative tu, pegi la contact orang yang berkenaan okey! Prolly they can get you somewhere. Kot2 dapat jadi millionaire ke.

Alright, I started the entry to write about children and innovation. Turns out the intro itself is too long. Nanti next entry aku tulis pasal children and innovation, ok?

p/s: the above picture are only some of the agencies that incubate and provide funding. There are many others that do the same thing. For list of business incubators, can msg me. For list of funders, visit SME Info Portal.

p/p/s: all pics are from google. I googled "orange men".

Resolutions - Update Item No. 2

2011-06-29T01:18:00.001+08:00

Target:
To have Kimi completely potty-trained by April 2011.

Status in February:
Kimi would only tell when he needs to do No. 2

Status now:
He is COMPLETELY off diapers.

Alright, except for long jouneys, but that's because I am not willing to take the risk of having my car smelling like poo. Selfish, I know. Sorry.

The last time I bought his diapers was a month ago and they're still there in his drawer.

Alhamdulillah. Thank you Allah.

Dua Sold!

2011-06-27T00:58:00.000+08:00

Ya, secara rasminya kami dah 'homeless'. Minggu lepas kawan tandatangan S&P untuk melepaskan Dua kepada pemilik barunya. Macam tak percaya je, belum sempat lagi nak duduk dah kena jual.

Sebenarnya, memang mengikut perancanganya kami akan pindah tahun ni, renovation semua dah siap dan tunggu nak masuk saja, tiba-tiba kami tukar fikiran. Ada beberapa sebab yang mengubah fikiran kami, salah satunya ialah jarak dari tempat kerja; kira-kira 45 minit dari pejabat kawan dan 35 minit dari pejabat baru Ajan. Lagi jauh jarak pejabat dari rumah, lagi banyak masa tersia-sia atas jalan, makin banyak CO2 yang kami lepaskan, makin tinggi bajet minyak kami dan makin rapat Kimi dengan bibik dia. Secara ringkasnya lokasi Dua agak kurang praktikal bagi kami.

Walaupun agak berat hati, tapi kawan dan Ajan rasa ia yang terbaik untuk kami sefamili. Kami harap dapat sama-sama cari yang lebih baik sebagai pengganti.

Dalam proses penjualan rumah ni kawan rasa sedikit bertuah sebab prosesnya berjalan sangat lancar. Tak sampai sebulan semua dah selesai. Sebab ini pertama kali kami jual rumah, agak gelabah juga mula-mulanya. Macam-macam bermain di kotak fikiran, "macam mana kalau tiada siapa nak beli rumah kami", "macam mana kalau harga rendah sangat", "macam mana kalau kena tipu..." Tapi Alhamdulilah, sehingga kini tiada sebarang masalah..

Post yang akan datang kawan akan kongsikan serba sedikit proses penjualan rumah dan tips-tips yang kawan pelajari. Tapi buat masa ini kami gembira dengan keputusan ini dan berharap pemilik baru Dua turut gembira dengan rumah baru mereka.

All Sexed Up

2011-06-23T13:21:00.001+08:00

I was seriously left behind when it comes to the music scene that this particular conversation bear witness to it:

Nads : I went to paramore last night
Me : Where is paramore? Is that like a new mall or something?
Nads : *sedikit dumbfounded with my nenek-ish response*

But I’ve always had a legit excuse for that. Or at least, “20 mins in the car does not give much time for many songs” sounded a like fool-proof excuse. Of course I conveniently forgot to tell her that I only listened to Mix, where they play songs for people who refuse to move on to the 2000s. Anyways, I’ve switched to Fly the moment Mix signed JD and Dilly on.

Back to this entry, so now that I listen to Fly and only Fly, I can proudly say that I am quite updated nowadays. But I can’t say I love many of the songs. Especially the heavily auto-tuned Ke$ha and BEP songs. They annoy the hell outta me. Especially Ke$ha’s. But I’m not writing about the auto-tunes.

I’m writing about sex-themed songs. You know, stuff that black rappers and *gasps* Enrique Iglesias sing. Lemme give you examples haaa:

Example 1

Here’s the situation, been to every nation (whose nation bhai?)
Nobody’s ever made me feel the way that you do
You know my motivation given my reputation
Please excuse me I don’t me to be rude

But tonight I’m loving you

Example 2

I see you winding and grinding up on that floor
I know you see me lookin at you when you already know
I wanna love you (Do they mean the same as “I love you”?)

Example 3

You feel like paradise, and I need a vacation tonight
If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me? (hold what?)

And many others that have skipped my mind now.

Why has sex got to be the main theme of these songs? I know sex sells, but, you see, as a woman, I feel insulted that you only see us as sex objects and all you want is sex us up. And you sing about it in such an indecent way. Although, I bet Dr. Rohaya Mohamed of OWC loves this. “You shall sex your husbands like a first class whore.”

Whatever happened to those days when women are objects of affection, always loved and adored? The days when men serenade us, swearing to take care of us no matter what happens? Whatever happened to:

“I swear, by the moon and the light and the stars”; or
“I’ll never break your heart, I’ll never make you cry”; or
“And I will take you in my arms and hold you right where you belong”
“And I know I just need one more chance to prove my love to you”.

Or if they have to sing about sex, they make themselves sound hopelessly romantic like:

“I’ll make love to you, when you want me to,
And I’ll hold you tight, baby all through the night”

Sweet la sikit bunyi dia. I wouldn’t hesitate stripping and jump in the bed terus la macam gitu. Eh, TMI pulak.

How did these songs get on our airwaves anyways? Not just get on our airwaves; they’re being played like 75 times a day that I terhafal lagu Enrique Iglesias. The censorship board think we are too stupid that they censor obvious things like “anu dalam botol”, “krumania”, “ice cold beer” in Pink’s Perfect, but they don’t think we’re clever enough to spot the sex-laden, double meaning songs? And that we wouldn’t notice that if you replace “love” with “f**k” the song would’ve made more sense? Or we’re not clever enough to figure out that “if you seek amy” is what you’ll say when you spell “F.*.*.K. M.E”? Or they just think that we don’t know the word fuck exists and is widely used in Malaysia.

We live in a sex-driven world. No wonder kids as young as 14 (yes, you’re still a kid, adinda evans. Duit beli spender pun mintak mak bapak lagi) are fucking their boyfriends now. My God please save me and my family from such disgrace.

But please la, we need to do something or else there will be more adinda evans.

Or i just need to stop being dirty minded.

The accident

2011-05-12T21:51:00.000+08:00

Alright, this ain't the first time that I burst my front right tire, in fact, its the third time this year. And it's only May.So why does this one deserve a blog entry? Because:

it happened on a Sunday
it happened at my office parking lot
I handled everything on my own.

Details:

I had to work last Sunday. On Mother's Day alright. Sheesh. So I left home at 9, all the way driving with my eyes half shut. The only thing on my mind was to park my car and grab a can of coffee at the vending machine. Because really, I was super sleepy.

So naturally when I arrived at the car park, the only thing I saw was my parking spot melambai-lambai towards me. Tetiba I noticed another car parked at my spot (I have a designated parking space), somehow I was thrown off track and in a split second my kepala was panicking macam, alamak, where the hell do i park my car? Tetiba, BAMMMMM SCREEEECCCHHH SREEETTTT BEDEBUM.

I had run over the curb and burst my tire.

Yeay.

I parked my car, got out, stared at the tire and termenung mengenang nasib. Haiii la Ajan, banyak sangat ke duit tahun ni sampai asyik burst je tire? What I did next was IG-ed a pic of the burst tire and then called my husband. Way to go IG.

I told Ach that he doesn;t have to come as I am 100% confident that I could change the tire on my own, forgetting the fact that I was wearing a skirt. But anyways, I went ahead and did it on my own, with additional help from a pakcik guard who saw me. He helped me lift the tire off the wheelbase and the rest I did myself. All the while with 3 guys staring at me.

I felt like I was the sexiest woman alive. Too bad I wasn't wearing a short skirt, or else I really WAS the sexiest woman alive those guys had ever seen, after michelle rodriguez.

Once I had the donut on, I marched proudly into the office and showed a friend my greasy hands.

Lepas tu, after getting some help from a friend who lives nearby, I drove to Puncak Jalil Utama, found an open Goodyear and got a new tire. Then I drove back to office, sambung kerja, and went back home into the arms of my proud husband.

Okay, itu je. The reason I could change my tire is because it has happened too often that I would be a really bebal girl if I didnt know how.

That is the bloody curb that I managed to langgar

Underneath the pintu of the driver seat. Kemek abis. Now I can hear bunyi bergesel everytime I open or close my door.

Can you spot a hint of red paint on the bricks? =)

Baking Again

2011-05-09T00:00:00.001+08:00

It's been a while. Apparently, it's not just me, the blogosphere has gone quiet for quite sometime now, and I think it only has twitter to blame. (and crazy desk jobs, perhaps?)

Anyways. I'm still alive, alhamdulillah. Both ach and kimi are doing well, too.

As the title of this post said, I am baking again. Finally. If you've been following my blog all these while, you might have read that I've made several attempts at baking, either from scratch or using pre-mixes, but 80% of the time they never came out right. Batat je semua. I gave up and declared myself hopeless.

End of last year, Mak's oven played up after close to 10 years. I replaced the old guy with a basic oven, the cheapest that I could find in Giant and wasted no time testing it out the next day.

The first cake I baked in the oven was a crunchy-topping lemon cake. Anddd lo and beholdddd, that was the first cake I'd baked in yearrrrsss that came out perfect!! I almost had an orgasm the moment I bite into the fresh-from-oven cake. My faith in baking was renewed.

Eversince, I bake almost every week. And all of them came out perfect. So far, I've baked my fav crunchy-topping lemon cake, zesty olive oil cake, rainbow cake, orange cake, durian cake, and, a pineapple upside-down cake. Pineapple upside down cake y'all. I believe I can conquer the world.

Uuuu yeh.

No wonder aChieaJanie laki bini makin bulat.

By the way, I bet that cake woulda looked much better in this:

*ehem ehem*

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T00:00:00.000+08:00

to Mak.
Sorry Mak, I don't have fancy gifts for you, nor am I planning a huge makan-makan like last year. But it doesn't mean I love you less.

I love you Mak.

One month late

2011-04-03T00:00:00.001+08:00

So far, i have:
- learned what MIM is
- never, but once, failed to punch out before the sun sets
- been stressed unnecessarily
- managed to hike my phone bill up, gila banyak!
- seen hopeful companies pitching for funding and realized that its a wonderful feeling to be able to help people
- attended a networking dinner alone. Went back with a few cards and secured potential visit.

I have many more to come.

Birthday Wish

2011-04-01T00:00:00.003+08:00

He would've turned 72 this year. Mak said, his birthdate does not matter anymore.
It still does, to me.

Semoga roh arwah Abah dicucuri rahmat.

Love, Ajan, Akmal, Kimi

Mak Pergi Umrah

2011-03-31T13:41:00.000+08:00

Selamat pergi dan balik, Mak. Semoga Allah lindungi Mak, Banglang and family, and semoga diberkati Allah.

p/s: tolong doa ajan dapat baby girl ok?

Bedtime Story

2011-03-29T00:00:00.001+08:00

Kimi sekarang has acquired the habit of reading a story book every night before he goes to sleep. Finally!!! After a year plus of me reading to the dinding and bantal, Kimi now will listen to the story I read to him from cover to cover. Yeay! And lagi best, he wont let me stop at one book. Usually he'll ask for 2-3 books sampai he gets tired and will sleep on his own.

Currently his fav book is "The Great Paper Caper" by Oliver Jeffers. It's about a bear who steals tree branches from the forest to make paper planes. I dont know kenapa Kimi suka, aku pun sebenarnya dah nak muntah baca buku ni everynight for the last two weeks.

Actually we have 3 other titles by the same author; Way Back Home, How To Catch A Star and The Heart and the Bottle. Memang kitorang collect pun buku by him. Kimi pun suka all the books. We stumbled upon his book by accident at the BookXcess and we became fans eversince! The storylines are simple with absolutely stunning graphics. There are 5-6 titles, we're still looking for Lost and Found at Amazon.com and Half.com. Memang ada, tapi mahal, compared to BookXcess at least. =(

Eversince we discovered BookXcess, we make sure that we visit it at least once every two weeks and let Kimi choose his own books. Yknow, if you involve him in the decision-making process he'll appreciate the stuff you buy him better. Trust that he will take care of his stuff sebab he will appreciate it. Hopefully we manage to retain his book-reading interest sampai dia besar!

Note: Sebenarnya pegi library pun boleh, lagi murah! Its just that I havent returned the two books I borrowed and macam segan nak pegi lagi hihi.

picture source

Bila stressed...

2011-03-24T13:16:00.000+08:00

Pandang luar...

Tengok ikan...

Nampak biawak instead...

Lagi stressed. Buka phone, tengok muka anak lagi best.

In conclusion, kerja mana2 pun stressed. Kerja lama2 lagi stressed. View dinding or pond, kalau nak stressed stressed juga. Tapi, no matter how bad things get, its all ok bila tengok muka anak.

Jadi, jaga la anak. Kerja boleh cari lain, anak tak boleh cari lain.

Of thank you and sorry

2011-03-22T07:08:00.000+08:00

Last night, kimi and i were reading his bedtime storybook when suddenly kimi turned to me and said, "thank you mommy belikan buku mi".

No problem baby, I'm glad you like it.

One day, he wet his pants. This was a few months after i had started potty training him. I was quite upset sebab he still hasnt grasped the concept. I guess my frustration was shown all over my face sebab kimi said again and again, "Sorry mommy, sorry mommy".

I was touched. The kid said sorry when i was the one who should apologize for not respecting his learning pace.

I fought my tears back and said, "Don't be, it's not your fault. Not anybody's fault. We just have to work harder, alright?"

I suppose my tone still sounded of frustration, because he replied, sorry mommy.

One day we were bidding goodbye to his atok at kampung. Kimi refused to let go of his atok and kept crying, nak balik rumah atok!

It was late on a sunday evening and we still hv to brace the 200 km drive to kl. Naturally i was tired and my patience was wearing thinner. He kept crying and refused to get into the car. I pinched him hard.

I buckled him in his seat. I promised him that we'll let him stay at kampung during the school holidays. All the while fighting the urge to yell at him. Kimi again saw my face and said, "sorry mommy".

I am deeply ashamed with myself. My son has more control of his angers than i do. He doesnt mind saying sorry when he doesnt have to. He says thanks for the little things.

Lets hope he will grow into one fine young man. And that i have better control of my angers like he does.

I Open at the Close

2011-02-28T00:40:00.003+08:00

Earlier this year, I had set four resolutions that I have to achieve by the end of the year. It's end of February, and I'm happy to share that I have achieved resolution number 4, which is "Something something that unfortunately cannot be shared publicly".

Last year I had decided to add colors to my resume. So I resolved to get a new job in 2011.Alhamdulillah, that could not happen soon enough as I will start Chapter II of Ajan's Career this week. Well, technically, it should be Chapter III, but Scicom didn't count because i was there for only 4 months. Not long enough for me to even remember the menu at the cafe.

I remember the first day I joined the organization (hereinafter to be referred as SCM) four years ago. My first assignment was writing Minister's speech for the company's annual dinner. Speech as in, FULL TEXT speech, alright. Due to my limited knowledge and experience of the organization's roles and my limited vocab (despite years of blogging, kesian), I found that assignment terribly, terribly difficult.Thanks to my boss who had patiently vetted through my countless draft speeches, I managed to complete it But come dinner night, Minister decided NOT TO READ that speech and I was like, bloody hellll was it that bad that she didn't even want to read it?! Four years later, speech writing is still the most difficult assignment that I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemy (or maybe I would).

My first job (hereinafter to be referred as SCM) has taught me a lot of precious lessons and has helped me know myself better. I found out that I work better with clear-minded people. That people that may seem nasty can actually be excellent mentors, if you look beyond the negatives. That good leader don't always make nice friends. That being a boss means making unpopular decisions, which always make you seem like the bad guy but not necessarily one. That I work better under guided pressure. That I like working with numbers. That I enjoy using Excel. That I'm quick at adapting to new softwares. That I love doing mind-mapping. That I actually can create good rapport with people despite me being an awfully quiet and reserved person. That I can turn networks into good friends. That what I think about people's perception of me is not always right. Most importantly, I know that I don't work with hidden agenda. I work because I want to work. Ikhlas, orang kata.

I have also learned that no matter how bad the situation is, it's not all that bad if you have good people, even better, friends, around. I've laughed and cried with them. I've made silly jokes to them (and often, about them). We've hugged each other. Oh, and two of them had kissed me on both cheeks and forehead. Yeay!

I'll miss that place. After all, given the time I've spent there, I should be calling it home and home, second home. I'll miss the people I've worked with. I'll miss my cubicle neighbors. I'll miss my colleagues who always make silly jokes about each other. And I'll miss making jokes about them too. I thank Allah that our paths had crossed, that Allah has opened their hearts to take me in the first place. But I have to ask you God, why do you have to make me too sentimental? I could do with being a bit more macho, you know?

I hope that the Chapter II will be better. After all, that's why we all move on right? In search of a better opportunity, better life.

So Chapter II, bring it on baby!

They even made a slide show about me! Aren't they sweet?

Twitter Rants

2011-02-16T18:00:00.003+08:00

Yeayyy Kimi's successfully potty-trained...

2011-02-14T13:00:00.002+08:00

but he only knows how to do no. 2 in the toilet. Well, I've won half the battle already!

Anyways, he seems to only be aware of the need to stay clean of his poop, not his pee.Lemme share with you our potty-training journey so far:

We started a couple of months ago, by just telling him how awesome it is to stay clean from his poop and pee. We also taught him what to say when he wants to pee, "Mommyyy mommyyy Kimi nak pee! (or yak)! Toilet jom!" And he'd happily repeat this, without really understanding when or how to use it.
Occasionally we would get him to go commando (i.e. without diaper) for half a day, scheduled his toilet trips every half hour, and taught him how to position himself comfortably on the toilet seat.
Then magic happened. Sometime between a couple of months ago and last week, I suppose Kimi began to be aware of his bodily functions. Last week, he told me that he needed to do No. 2. He came to me and said, "Mommyyyy nak yakkk. mommyy tulet, tulet!" sambil pulling my hand and lompat2 gaya panic. Then it happened. He did no. 2 as soon as he was on the toilet! I felt like lompat-lompat while yelling, oooo yeeehhh victory! Victory!

Of course, our journey was not without a couple of accidents and funny stories:

Kimi does not like having his stuff fondled even by me teehehehe. But I had to clean him kan, not like I am molesting my own son! Everytime if i were to clean his stuff i.e. balls Kimi will always say something that vary in between, "Mommy! Jangan pegang tau!" and "Mommyyyyyyyyyy, dah dah dah". Ahahahahahahahaha memang kene berenti gelak dulu la kan??
Kimi will pee first and tell later. Despite the many, many, manyyy efforts to tell him to do the other way round. So if you're ever in my house, be careful if you walk on the carpet in front of the tv, the store room, or the kitchen. Aha, jokin. Of course aku dah bersihkan.
He is quite a penggeli kid. Every single time a poop comes out, he'd get me to wash his bum. Even when he's not done yet. "Mommyy, dirty! Basuh basuh."

So it looks like I've tackled number 2. The only problem is, he won't tell me if he wants to do number 1. This, I don't know how to tackle. He seems like he's not aware of number 1. I'll need to work harder on this.

Two more months to go.

18 Things You Can Get Rid of Today

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

Mak, jom kita kemas rumah tiap2 hari sabtu. Kalau jual boleh kaya mak.

Just Say No to Too Much Stuff

Stuff. For many of us it's worse than any four-letter word. That's because "stuff" can weigh you down and hold you back, says Gail Blanke, author of Throw Out Fifty Things. And, in the end, much of what we accumulate in life isn't all that important. As Marilyn Bohn, author of Go Organize!, points out, "No one ever says, 'I wish I'd kept more stuff.'"

Still, getting rid of our discards can be a challenge. Carla Eskelsen, a mom in Farmington, Utah, admits she had trouble letting go of stuff until she figured out how to manage her "pioneer DNA." Once she figured out that donating and recycling "honored" her pioneer ancestors, she found it much easier. "It's about sharing and blessing others instead of keeping it all for yourself," she says. Here's how you can share and bless others with all of your stuff—and end up with a cleaner, more peaceful home while you're at it.

1. Kitchen Utensils

Is your utensil drawer so full you can barely open and close it? You're not alone. When Robin Austin started cleaning her kitchen in preparation for a move, she found she had plenty of duplicate utensils, the result of a new marriage that combined households and six kids. Many of us also buy new utensils but forget to get rid of the old.

Here's a smart way to figure out what you're really using, from Motherboard Mom Jeanne Smith, Overland Park, Kansas: Toss everything—all the spatulas, rubber scrapers, pie servers, and so on—into a box. As you use a utensil from the box, put it back in the drawer. After a month, check what's left in the box. Keep those once-a-year items that remain in the box, like a turkey baster or candy thermometer. But donate the rest.

2. Coffee Mugs

Another item many moms find hogging valuable cupboard space: coffee mugs. "We had over 20 coffee mugs," says Kansas mom Dawn Schnake. She and her husband each chose four mugs to keep and donated the rest to a church rummage sale.

"Even if you received something as a gift, it's okay to let it go," says organizer Marilyn Bohn. "You only need to keep what works for you."

3. Plastic Containers

Mary Pankiewicz, owner of Clutter-Free and Organized in east Tennessee, suspects that plastic containers have a secret life (probably hanging out with those AWOL socks and hangers). How else can you explain why so many lids and bottoms don't match up? She suggests holding a "lid party" to match up those errant tops and bottoms. Pankiewicz recently took her own advice. "I had 25 lids with no bottoms and six bottoms with no lids," she says. After swapping with friends, she recycled the rest of the mismatched items.

4. Little-Used Kitchen Stuff

When was the last time you used that Bundt pan? If it was months ago, maybe you should give it to a friend. That's what Suzy Ayres and a pal did when they performed a joint kitchen cleanup. They took everything out of their cabinets and only put back what they used regularly. "The things that we left out that didn't get used much, we had to choose. If we put one thing back in the cabinet, we had to pick one thing to donate," Ayres says. The two also traded items: "She had lots of muffin pans and I didn't."

An added bonus to the plan: They now know what's in each other's kitchens, and don't need to buy some of those rarely used items, like a Bundt pan. "We've been trading the same ice bucket back and forth for years," Ayres says. "I can't even remember who it belongs to!"

5. Vases

Got vases from the last three Valentine's Day bouquets? Take them back to the florist, says Marla Cilley, who lives in Transylvania County, North Carolina, and runs the flylady.net, an Internet site devoted to housecleaning and organization.

"It takes away your creativity and takes over your mind," Cilley says.

6. Food

Cupboards full of food you're not sure you're going to use? Some solutions:

•Check the expiration dates on everything in your pantry, fridge, or freezer. If it's about to expire, put it on the menu for that week, says professional organizer Bohn.

•Motherboard Mom Dawn Schnake gives her sons what they call "muffin pan snacks" to get rid of those almost-empty bags of cereal, crackers, and chips. She fills each of the 12 muffin cups with a different snack and throws in some veggies, cut-up fruit, and cheese cubes. "The boys think they've sat down to a feast," she says—and she gets her pantry cleaned out.

•If you know you're never going to use an item—and it's still good—give it to your local food pantry.

•Have an "Eat Out of the Pantry or Freezer" week, says Marla Cilley, flylady.net. You'll be surprised at how creative you can get with your menu planning when you're only using the ingredients on hand. She also suggests this as a way to inspire creativity and frugality: "When you throw away food, imagine you're throwing dollar bills in the trash can!"

7. Spices

They don't mold and don't appear to go bad, but spices don't last forever, not even cayenne pepper. (Cinnamon's an exception to the rule.) "Dried is one thing, tasteless is another," says organizer Blanke. Give your spices the smell and taste test and if they've gone bland and boring, dump them. To find out how old your McCormick or Schilling brand spices are, go to http://mccormick.com/Spices101/HowOldSpices.aspx. And when you buy new spices, mark down the date on the package with a Sharpie.

8. Receipts

Computers were supposed to usher in a paperless society, but it hasn't happened quite yet. "Most of us are still drowning in paper," says organizer Pankiewicz. She suggests an annual cleanup. Check with your accountant about how long to keep important papers like tax returns but, in general, materials that support tax returns (receipts and so on) can be tossed after seven years.

9. Magazines

Do you have a stack of magazines by your bed that you haven't read? If two months have passed and they're still sitting there, consider donating them to a retirement home, hospital, doctor's office, or school. Many take magazines for art projects (if not for reading material). If, like former magazine editor Cherie Spino, a mom of four in Toledo, Ohio, you "can't throw a magazine away without reading it," do the flip-and-rip. Spino rips out recipes or articles she wants to keep and throws the rest into the recycling bin. She's putting the recipes in a binder.

Organizer Bohn suggests tearing out articles and putting them in a folder you can grab when you know you'll be sitting and waiting (think doctor's office). Or, if you're a tech-lover, you can get many popular magazines as an app for your phone or electronic reader.

10. Mail

It's a common bad habit: Grab the mail, flip through it for anything interesting, and then set it on "the pile" that accumulates until the day you start searching for overdue bills. "Scan and stand" is the system recommended by organizer Pankiewicz. "Standing is the trick," she says. Don't be tempted to sit down: Bring in the mail. Leave your coat on. Find a place by the wastebasket, recycling bin, or shredder, and stand and handle each piece of mail. Put bills in a basket or pretty gift bag, take magazines to where you read them, scan any newsletters and bulletins for important information, and discard the rest. "Your goal is to make the mail disappear," she says.

11. Unread Books

"Books are our friends," says organizer Blanke. "I know my husband won't ever get rid of his dog-chewed copy of Rudyard Kipling's Kim that he's read 50 times." So, keep your favorites—the ones you'll read again or you use for reference—neatly in a bookcase. In fact, if you're a book-lover with a big collection, a whole wall of books can make a dramatic statement and keep them organized. But, if you have lots of volumes that you have no intention of reading any time soon, donate them. Blanke suggests giving them to www.booksforsoldiers.com. "You really are paying it forward when you donate things," she emphasizes.

12. Clothes

Here's a sad truth: You're probably not going to lose the weight to fit into those 10-year-old clothes you have in the closet. Just give it up and give them away, says Pankiewicz. This doesn't mean you're giving up on ever being healthier or thinner, it just means you aren't going to be held hostage by some old clothes that don't fit, need repair, or were on sale (but you never liked). Donate them all and we guarantee you'll feel "lighter."

Need closet culling tips? Here's what some Motherboard Moms do:

•"I can't stand to have a closet full of clothes that I don't wear," says Michelle Speak, mom of three in Parker, Colorado. She sorts through her clothes each season, weeding out what she hasn't worn, although she'll make a few exceptions for items like skirts that she wears infrequently.

•Mom Suzy Ayres has an easy way to tell what she's worn. At the beginning of a new season, she turns all of her hangers around backward. After she wears something, she puts it on the hanger and turns it around the right way. Anything still turned backward is donated at the end of the season. "Right before cooler weather hit this year, anything I knew I couldn't part with, I wore it so I could put it in the 'save' pile," she says.

13. Kids' Clothes

Michaela Freeman, a mom in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, keeps clothes for her children a year after the end of each season in case things still fit. What doesn't is passed to friends with young children. "How can you put a price on helping another person?" she asks. She's benefited as well. Friends with older kids pass clothes on to her youngsters.

14. Kids' Artwork

Of course every piece of artwork your child ever did is a masterpiece. But that doesn't mean you need to keep it. If it's not something you want to put on the wall or in a portfolio to save, take a photo and toss it. You can develop a digital "art gallery" or put photos in a photo album and you'll take up a lot less space. After all, think about it: If you keep four pieces of paper per week per child, by the time they've graduated from high school, you'll have one huge collection, points out Bohn. "Take a picture and let it go!" she says.

15. Electronics

Power cords, USB cords, and other paraphernalia for electronics clog up our desks and cabinets, says Chris McKenry, owner of Get It Together LA!, a professional organizing company in Los Angeles. "It's a jungle," he says. "And there's not room for the things you need."

Sort through that "jungle" and match cords to gadgets. Old cell phones can be donated to women's shelters. Other old electronic items, like some printers and computers, should be properly recycled. "It's against the law in some cities to put electronic waste in the trash," warns McKenry. Check with your city for E-waste collection sites. Ditto for old VHS and cassette tapes. McKenry suggests transferring them to your computer for digital storage and then putting the tapes in E-waste collections.

16. Linens

"Most of us have way too many towels and sheets," says The Fly Lady. "Some people no longer even have beds that the sheets fit!" She recommends two sets of sheets per bed and keeping the extra set under the foot of the mattress or in a drawer in the bedroom to free up room in the linen closet.

17. Medicine

Check your medicine cabinet for expired prescription and over-the-counter drugs, but don't flush them or throw them in the trash. Instead, take them to your local pharmacist for proper disposal.

18. Toys

Start teaching your children early to donate the toys they're no longer using, says organizer Blanke. "I know one mom who tells her kids Santa won't come until they give away the toys they're finished with." Here, other Motherboard Mom solutions to too many toys:

•Carol Showers Brown, mom to three in Manassas, Virginia, also taught her kids to donate toys. "We lived in Bangkok and the orphanages there were so grateful for toys, even used ones." Her kids would fill a basket with toys to give away several times a year. "It worked really well because the kids picked out what toys they were ready to part with," she says.

•Remember that preschool song of "Clean up, clean up"? At Diana Dawson's Austin house the song was more likely "Wade through it," she says. That's why she set "dump-it deadlines"—if the kids' stuff wasn't picked up by a certain time on a certain date, she would gather their things and donate them. Sure enough, the first time she had to follow through with her daughter. "The most difficult were the books on the floor, and I donated those to her elementary school," Dawson says. "The school librarian told her she appreciated the donations and other kids enjoyed her books." Her children and a group of neighborhood kids also put on their own garage sale of their toys to raise money to adopt a family at the holidays.

•Mom Michelle Speak has donated many of her children's toys as they've outgrown them, but not all. "I've kept the toys I can imagine my grandchildren would play with." Put the special, keepsake toys away in a well-labeled box.

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/momentsofmotherhood/18-things-you-can-get-rid-of-today-2440361/

Ajan's First Sewing Project

2011-01-27T13:20:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, all of a sudden, I had this urge to sew an apron for Kimi. Why apron? Because he loves to help me in the kitchen. Am I worried? A little. But, Jamie Oliver's a great cook isn't he? And he looks normal too. Besides, I needed to sew something and apron was simple enough for a first timer.

I started snipping off at 9 p.m Sunday, using the only kain that mak would allow me to cut (it's actually an old, faded and badly stained kain alas meja). Two and a half hours (and a messed-up sekoci in mak's vintage SINGER sewing machine) later, Kimi was already parading his apron, while pretending to cook natik dowen for Ach. Ahhh... what a pretty sight. Kimi playing pretend-cooking, I mean. Not the apron.

Mommy nak matan ape?

Btw, the apron fits him perfectly! Fine, it's from a piece of alas meja and the seams are all senget benget macam ular kena palu, but still! My first sewing project. I am gila proud of myself. I even sew a little pocket in front, for him to put his sudu and what not. Not bad for a first timer.

Tam-tam the monster wants to get in touch with his feminine side too!

Alright. Ach wins. Sewing can be fun and it doesn't send me back 200 years back. It's as modern as twitter. And I bet I can sew better than I can cook.

Next project, a real apron. For me =D

Thou who Smoke At Public Places Shalt Be Called Idiots

2011-01-24T13:58:00.000+08:00

I wont even bother pixelating your faces.

Resolutions

2011-01-14T18:07:00.000+08:00

According to Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, you have to make your resolutions known to public to enhance the possibility of you actually achieving them. Its called "the commitment". So here goes:

In 2011 I will achieve these:

1. Lose 3 kgs and the excess belly fat
2. To have Kimi potty-trained by 1st-Q.
3. Pay off my credit card debt by 2nd-Q.
4. Something something that unfortunately cannot be shared publicly.

I will report No (1) in December 2011, No. (2) in April 2011, No. (3) in July 2011, and No. (4) as soon as its achieved.

Eh, tu je?

Takpe, Babauta kate, set goals one by one. Focus all your efforts into achieving one goal at a time. Well. There are 12 months. 1 month gone, 11 months left.

There, I've said them. Good Luck!

This time, I was the one who was sick

2011-01-11T13:16:00.003+08:00

Kimi:
Mommy jom main.

Me:
Mommy demam la sayang. Mommy nak tido.

Kimi:
(putting his hand on my cheek)
Mommy, hot! Kejap eh.

He ran to the back, i honestly had no idea what he was up to. Barely five minutes later he returned with a white plastic bag in his hand.

Kimi:
Mommy, makan ubat. Eh alamak mommy. Jap eh.

And he ran to the back again. This time he came back with a teaspoon in his hand.

Kimi:
Ok mommy makan ubat dengan sudu.

Me:
Alaaaa sweetnya baby mommy! Tapi ini ubat kimi, not mine.

Kimi:
Takpeee, same.

Me:
*Tears rolling down my cheek*

mommy sayang kimi

My Hyper Son

2011-01-10T00:21:00.000+08:00

YouTube Video

Who also happen to like singing and dancing.

2010: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

2010-12-31T09:42:00.000+08:00

January:
Maidless for the first time!

February:
Incredible India, the incredible eye opener. Away from Kimi for two weeks.

March:
Bubble tea madness. Whateveor happened to the craze tho?

April:
I lost my car key. Without me even realising it.

May:
I realized that I really, really love my Mak. Not that I don't love her before.

June:
I turned 27. Eh I just realized there's no birthday post??? Oi?? Maybe we were busy with Dua's kitchen renovation.

July:
Ajan tengok bola!!! Oh, and Ach finally joined aChieaJanie. Finally, after seven years. Quite weird ey, considering the blog's name?

August:
aChieaJanie's seventh anniversary, Hong Kong holiday

September:
Raya. There was only three blog posts, 2 out of 3 were twitterish post. Busy kot time ni.

October:
Jalan-jalan pusing Asia, Kimi turned 2!, kimi-less again. Wah, seemed like October was an eventful month for me.

November:
Naik kapal terbang lagi. Jakarta this time.

December:
Kawin dah tiga tahun. Alhamdulillah.

In conclusion, 2010 is a great year for me. In terms of me and my family, that is. Career-wise, hmm. I've committed lotsa career suicide this year. But, the blog's not the place for that story, no?

But anyways, despite all the challenges, nervous breakdowns, me snapping in two about a million times, 2010 is not a bad year.

So yeah, bring it on 2011!

Anniversary Booklet

2010-12-23T15:47:00.000+08:00

Being me, I like to give Ach handmade cards. Quite unfortunate for Ach, since I am the least artistic person he will ever meet, he would have to settle with sloppy handmade cards. Hihihi.
So our anniversary gave me another opportunity to make one of those cards.

Initially I wanted to make either beaded cards or quilled cards, tapi both projects sound too difficult and time-consuming. FYI, I had done both cards and oo em ji I wouldn't wanna do it again. Then I decided to make a felt card. Then ding dong ding dong I decided to make an anniversary story booklet instead of a card, and I'd use felt for the cover. I am brilliant I tell yah.

Next challenge is how to tell our story in few pages. Since I am not the world's best artist, kimi prolly draws better than I do, I have decided to use existing Love is... strips that would fit into my storyline. Gigih ni aku cari satu-satu and edit dekat photoshop. I hope they don't take legal action against me. Lepas dah jumpa pictures to be used, I designed the cover and arranged the pictures to tell our story.

Final Product

Left: the design on paper, Right: the actual cover

Page 2 and Page 11

I'm actually very happy with how the booklet turned out, that's if I close one eye over the super messy stitches lah. It took me 6 hours altogether to finish this baby, and those six hours really paid off when Ach loved it. At least I think he loved it. =D

Next project? Tak tau.

Sick

2010-12-21T03:24:00.001+08:00

It's 3 am now.

Kimi's vomited 3 times. Aku kan memang jenis panic tengok anak aku sakit.

Me:
Kimi, macam mana ni, mommy exam esok. Mommy tak boleh cuti. Sapa nak jaga kimi ni.

Kimi:
Ape. (weakly)

Me:
Kimi cakap ape?

Kimi:
Ape.

Me:
Kimi cakap takpe ke? As in takpe mommy pegi kerja?

Kimi:
Aha. Ape. (very weakly)

Me:
(nangis)

Anniversary Day: Can't think of a better title besides, Happy 3rd Anniversary!

2010-12-07T00:00:00.056+08:00

Honestly, I'm running out of romantic mushy mushy words to use here. I gotta start reading more Nicholas Sparks books, I guess. The Wedding was a good start.

By the way, it's our 3rd Anniversary today. Time flies when you're having fun. For the past week we've written about us (a bit too much, sometimes? Kimi wont have any problems telling our grandkids about us), how we met, what we did... The only thing I think I should write but did not is "Why him". 'Cause I don't know why.

It just feels right. He makes me feel good. Don't ask me how and in what ways, because I don't know. He just knows me. In and out. Like the back of his hands. Better than I know myself. It feels like, if anything happens to me, he wouldn't leave me high and dry. I feel safe with him.

Oh well. Too bad you ladies out there, he's taken. He's mine.

He loves me. And I love him too. =)

Happy Birthday Husband!

2010-12-06T10:30:00.002+08:00

I hope you like your present. =)

Anniversary Week: Photoshop dan Kami

2010-12-06T00:05:00.109+08:00

Posting kali ni masih pasal kisah kami dulu-dulu. Cerita pasal salah satu aktiviti yang kami suka buat bersama. Masa kami mula-mula rapat dulu kami selalu abiskan banyak masa dengan aktiviti inner nerd kami, berphotoshop. Agak lamekan.

Kawan memang agak incline untuk suka pada art sejak dari kecil lagi. Kawan mula guna photoshop ni dari zaman sekolah lagi. Jadi tahu lah serba-sikit pasal photo editing ni. Ajan pulak pada masa tu baru nak mula berjinak-jinak berphotoshop. Jadi, kawan ambillah peluang masa tu untuk kongsi serba-sikit apa yang kawan tahu. Sebenarnya tu cuma alasan kawan untuk spend masa dengan Ajan.

Masa tu kawan dapat perasan yang dia ni sangat fast learner. Sampai satu masa tu, Ajan lagi banyak kongsi tips & trick Photoshop ni. Dia memang tak pernah gagal impress kawan dengan teknik baru, short-cut baru. Time tu kawan pulak yang segan, anak murid lagi hebat dari cikgu. Ajan pulak yang ajar kawan pasal Pen Tool, Brushes, dan macam-macam lagi.

Masa setahun kami on long-term relationship, photoshopping ni antara aktiviti regular kami. Lagi pun tak banyak pun aktiviti lain yang kami boleh buat sama-sama masa beribu batu jauh berpisahkan.

Sekarang ni sejak dari 2005 kami dah jarang berphotoshop. Cuma sekali-sekala tu kalau ternampak Ajan tengah buka photoshop, kawan cuba nak sibuk-sibuk join sekali. Teringat pulak macam zaman dulu-dulu...

p/s: gambar-gambar ni antara gambar yang kawan buat untuk Ajan zaman dolu-dolu..

Anniversary Week: Dating dating

2010-12-05T14:04:00.000+08:00

Since our first date, ach and I were unofficially an item. By unofficial I mean, ach never said "Jom kita couple!". We just got closer and closer, and sorta assumed that we're dating.

Our dates were just like normal dates. Dinner, movies. Nothing out of ordinary. We usually went to Crossgates Mall, beli ticket movie, pegi Johnny Rockets makan chilly fries, Route 66 and minum strawberry milkshake.

My favorite dating spot would have to be Prospect Park. There was this one summer, I cant recall which one, we ordered chinese take out and makan dekat park. Lepas tu we just spent hours there, buat hal masing-masing.

That was when you've been spending a lot of time with each other that we could even enjoy each other's companion even when we're doing our own things in the same room. Paham ke?

On special occassions (birthdays, anniversaries) we'd go to Outback Steakhouse. Makan roti tah ape name. Sampai harini I still crave for that roti. Nasib baik its available, tho not free macam dekat Outback sana.

Ach, to me looks like someone serious, not someone you'd mess with, tapi la kan, he's a hopeless romantic sebenarnya. I hope I'm using that term correctly. And, this para is not something that I'll elaborate further. Macam a bit PDA hihihi.

Back to the dating stories, nowadays, our dating-dating definition has to be modified. Of course, we still do movies and dinners, alhamdulillah, tapi I'd feel a bit guity leaving that little guy at home for too long. Jadinye dating-dating dah tak lama sangat. Unless you'd consider jalan-jalan with Kimi as dating, then of course, we date a lot!

Takpe. Dah tiga tahun, we're still good. We're still having fun. The sparks are still there. Alhamdulillah.

Anniversary Week: Our Timeline

2010-12-03T16:33:00.001+08:00

Semalam Ajan dah tulis kisah date pertama kami, salah satu milestone besar dalam perhubungan kami. Banyak lagi milestone sepanjang kawan mengenali Ajan ni dan kawan baru sedar yang kronologi kisah cinta kami berdua tak berapa jelas. Jadi kawan rasa Anniversary Week kali ni merupakan masa terbaik untuk ingat kembali macam mana uda bertemu dara, mula bercinta, ke jinjang pelamin.. macam tipikal kisah cinta..

2002

Spring: Kali pertama kawan duduk semeja dan berborak dengan Ajan. Masa tu di Common Dining Hall. Memang tradisi, freshmen belanja senior makan disitu.
Fall: Ajan hantar email ke komuniti MASA RPI, minta tolong uruskan logistik RPI International Fest. Kawan reply dan offer untuk tolong Ajan. Dari situ kami mula rapat.
Winter: Date pertama kami.

2003

Spring: Moving ahead from "hanya kawan" dan mula spend lebih masa bersama.
Winter: Kami pulang ke Malaysia untuk cuti musim sejuk. Pada malam new year, pertama kali kawan berjumpa keluarga Ajan. Kawan ke rumah Ajan untuk makan malam.

2004

Summer: Kawan berpindah dari rumah sewa di Congress Street ke RPI Student Housing. Ajan pun memang dah duduk di situ. Jadi kami jadi partner memasak bersama. Hari ni Ajan masak, esok kawan masak, lusa Ajan masa, tulat pun Ajan masak juga...
Winter: Percutian panjang pertama bagi kami. NY ke Los Angeles - San Francisco - Las Vegas - San Diego.

2005

Summer: Family kawan datang ke NY. Pertama kali Ajan berjumpa Ma dan Ba.
Summer: Kawan pulang ke Malaysia maka setahunlah kami ber long-distance relationship.

2006

Jun: Ajan pulang dari New York. Kawan masa tu dah bekerja di Cyberjaya. Boleh kata sejak Ajan balik, setiap minggu sekurang-kurang dua kali kawan berulang dari Puchong ke Gombak.
Ogos : Kawan propose Ajan dan dia kata "Yes"!
September : Officially kawan dan Ajan bertunang. Kawan bawak 9 dulang hantaran, Ajan pulangkan 11 dulang.

2007

December : Hari bahagia kami berdua...

Selepas itu bermulalah kisah hidup kami berdua sebagai suami isteri yang kebanyakannya kami dah ceritakan di sini. Cepat betul masa berlalu. Rasa macam semalam je kawan mula berkenalan dengan Ajan. Terus terang kawan katakan, melihat balik kisah-kisah lalu ni buat kawan raca macam dalam mimpi. Semua nya berlaku terlalu pantas. Tahu-tahu sekarang ni dah tiga tahun kami berkahwin. Moga berpanjanganlah hendaknya.

Anniversary Week: The First Date

2010-12-02T10:30:00.001+08:00

5th December 2002

It was the last day of Ramadhan. I was a freshman. He was a sophomore.

"Ajan dah bukak puasa?"
"Dah buka dekat Commons tadi."
"Jom teman Amal buka puasa. "
"Boleh gak. Ajan tunggu kat bawah."

I called myself Ajan. He called himself Amal.

It was winter, it was cold. I was wearing my favorite Applemint black tank with my favorite grey cardigan. He was wearing his dark blue long sleeve with yellow stripes. Not one of my favorites. It was still too early to have favorites, anyways.

He came to pick me up. I saw his Putra from my room window. Cary 304.

I met him downstairs, near the dump bin belakang Cary Hall

I grabbed the only handbag I had, a denim Marie Claire handbag. I rushed down the stairs. He said hi. I smiled and said hi back. He opened the car door for me. I thought he was charming.

We arrived at Shalimar 15 minutes later. I ordered chicken vindaloo with naan, he ordered chicken tikka masala with plain rice.

We sat by the window, under the neon Shalimar sign

We chatted and chatted. He's the eldest of six, I'm the fourth of five. He's a straight A's student, I scored C for Teknologi Kejuruteraan. I was the chatty one of course. I still am.

After he sent me back that night, I smiled and said to myself, "Ada chan ni."

And that, my friend, was the start point of our roller coaster ride for many, many years to come.

Anniversary Week Kami

2010-12-01T17:04:00.001+08:00

7 December 2007, rasa macam baru je semalam kawan dan Ajan get married. Macam tak percaya, diam-tak-diam dah hampir 3 tahun kami bergelar suami isteri. Minggu depan, genaplah 3 tahun perkahwinan kami. Cepat betul masa berlalu. Orang kata 'time flies when you’re having fun'. Betullah tu, tiga tahun ni kami betul-betul rasa gembira!

Kami rasa nak berkongsi kegembiraan kami di sini, kawan dan Ajan akan dedikasikan seminggu ini untuk berkongsi cerita kami berdua sebagai suami-isteri. Welcome to our "Anniversary Week".

Sebelum tu, biar kawan imbas kembali apa yang berlaku 3 tahun lepas. Setelah lebih setahun bertunang, kami pilih untuk melangsungkan perkahwinan pada 7 December, satu hari selepas hari lahir kawan yang ke 25. Ikut Nabi Muhammad SAW kawin diusia 25 tahun :).

Akad nikah dijalankan pada kira-kira pukul 10 malam 7 December, di rumah Ajan, di Gombak. Kawan dinikahkan oleh abang Ajan, Banglang dengan abang dan adik Ajan sebagai saksi, Bangcik dan Shafiq. Alhamdulillah semua berjalan lancar. Malam tu kami bergelar suami dan isteri yang sah. Keesokkan harinya, majlis resepsi keluarga Ajan, juga di rumah Ajan. Seminggu selepas itu, kami ke Yong Peng untuk resepsi rumah kawan pula. Selesai semua majlis, kami terbang ke Bali selasa seminggu untuk bulan madu kami dan the rest is history...

Stay tuned, untuk lebih cerita di Anniversary Week kami...

Seven more days to Seventh to become Three

2010-11-30T05:29:00.000+08:00

source

Homemade Playdoh

2010-11-24T22:49:00.002+08:00

I've read somewhere that I'm supposed to buy Kimi stuff that will boost his creativity. Playdoh is on top of my list but those in Toy's R Us are very expensive lah!

But worry not, I have found the perfect recipe for home made play doh that wont burn a kawah comet in your pocket. It doesn't take long to make too. So here goes:

Ingredients
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoon cream of tartar (find it in the spice section)
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Methods
Mix first 4 ingredients in a pan. Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes. Dough will become difficult to stir and form a “clump”. Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes–add food coloring during kneading process. Play dough will keep for a long time stored in a covered plastic container or plastic sandwich.

The amount of doh is just perfect, tiap2 warna ada cukup doh for kimi to play with. I find the texture and elasticity of the doh tu macam just nice. The only problem is, different pieces of doh don't stick well. So kaki dinosaur tu asyik tanggal je. Tapi takpe, it's waaayyy cheaper than the original Playdoh and I can make a house of it if I want to. =D

Enjoy!

Source: http://mommyfootprint.com/the-perfect-home-made-play-dough-recipe/

Cost analysis:
1 cup of white flour : ~20 cents
1/2 cup of salt : ~30 cents
2 tbsp cream of tartar : RM4
1 tbsp oil : negligible
1 cup water : free kalau duduk dekat Selangor
couple drops of food coloring : negligible
Love and effort put into kneading your own playdoh : PRICELESS
Total : RM4.50

Original playdoh + love from mesin kilang : RM30 for 567 grams

The homemade playdoh. Cantik kan?

Kimi and Pakcu main playdoh

Kimi's ulat

Buzz's catch of the day

Blogging Mojo Lost

2010-11-23T11:38:00.001+08:00

The blog has turned into sawang labah2. Sorry la babe I tak jumpa benda interesting to blog about.

Aku Cinta Padamu

2010-11-05T00:02:00.000+08:00

Salam sayang dari Jakarta kepada Malaysia.

Mommy rindukan kamu berdua! Nantikan kepulangan mommy ya!

Air Asia Team Lotus

2010-11-04T00:07:00.002+08:00

"Bie cuba tengok flight tu?"

Kawan tanya kat Ajan sambil tunjuk ke kapal terbang depan kami semasa kami sedang menunggu pernerbangan ke KL dari Tan Son Nhat Airport, Ho Chi Minh tempoh hari.

"Naza dah ada kapal terbang ke?" Jawab Ajan spontan.

Comel lah isteri kawan ni. Tapi memang bukan silap dia, memang ada logo Naza besar kat tepi kapal terbang tu. Bukan Naza saja, logo Proton, Maxis, CNN, Tune pun ada sekali di sisi kapal terbang bewarna hijau kuning ini. "Kali ni kita balik KL naik Lotus" senyum kawan pada Ajan.

Lotus touch down di HCMC Airport

Masuk saja dalam kapal terbang Air Asia terasa seperti dalam motorhome Team Lotus. Semuanya bertema Lotus. Kerusi warna hijau dan hot seat pula warna kuning. Tali pinggang pun warna kuning! Kawan harap-harap juga flight attendant beroutfit seperti gadis litar, tapi mungkin suhu dalam flight tu terlalu sejuk untuk itu berlaku...

Untuk jalan-jalan kali ini, kawan boleh kata yang kami pulang bergaya dengan Team Lotus

Hijau dan kuning mengantikan merah

Jarno, Hekki dan Fairuz 'bersama' mengiringi penerbangan

Pit #18 dan #19

Flight 'Naza' di KLIA

Poskad : Ho Chi Minh

2010-11-01T18:14:00.001+08:00

Poskad ni kawan beli di Bến Thành Market(bawah ni gambar salah satu pintu masuk ke pasar tu). Pada hari pertama di HCMC, kami berjalan-jalan di sekitar bandar hingga ke Saigon Central Post Office. Cantik senibina klassik pejabat pos ni. Kawan rasa pejabat pos paling cantik pernah kawan lihat.

Poskad : Floating Market

2010-11-01T18:10:00.000+08:00

Kami pun tertipu dengan kecantikan Floating Market yang selalu digambarkan seperti gambar dibawah. Realitinya, indah kabar dari rupa.

Poskad : Bangkok

2010-11-01T18:08:00.000+08:00

Poskad dari destinasi kedua kami di Bangkok. Poskad ni dikirimkan dari Suvarnabhumi Airport. Kebanyakan lapangan terbang utama ada mempunyai pejabat pos sendiri. Kalau sepanjang berjalan-jalan tak sempat nak hantar poskad, boleh cuba alternatif terakhir ini.

Poskad : Krabi

2010-11-01T18:04:00.000+08:00

Trip kali ni kami dapat kirim poskad di setiap destinasi yang kami singgah. Bermula dengan Krabi.

Makan-makan Birthday Kimi

2010-11-01T00:00:00.001+08:00

Initially, we had planned for a breakfast picnic party, 30 October 2010, at the Taman Metropolitan Kepong, to be attended by only family members, you know, because I'm a family person. But unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, it didn't stop raining until 9 am so we had to abandon our initial plan and have it at Mak's House instead.

Theme:

Kimi loves his blocks a lot. So we thought it's fitting to have a lego-themed party! We bought everything blue, red and yellow, even the snacks and jelly were in those colors! Ach went out of his way to get napkins, cups, fork and spoon and straws in those colors. Comel ok?

Raisins?! Ahahaha. You know I'm a freak when it comes to feeding my son. Jadi, all jajans and candies are banned from the party, hence, the raisins. Hehehehe.

Cake:

Baking has never been one of my best qualities, hence, to spare everyone the misery of eating my batat (poorly-risen) cake, I asked my boss (yes, you read that right, my Boss, as in the one I'm reporting directly to) to bake a custom lego cake for Kimi. Her husband and her did a WONDERFUL job on the cake! It was really colorful and Kimi loved his cake. Even my guests were amazed, but prolly thats because we dont go to many themed-parties here. The cake was a steal too, thanks Puan!

Cake Lego

Decoration

This was my (and ach's) first time organising a party that requires balloons, so we were a bit clueless in the beginning. To show you how clueless I was, I thot those helium balloons only cost me 50 cents each. Belon = 50 cents, helium free. Sebab helium = gas. Kalau tiup pakai mulut kan free? Get it?

Apparently those balloons cost me RM5 bucks a piece. There is a cheaper option which would've cost me RM2.60 each but that one only lasts for 8 hours. If you need helium balloons, you can go to Balloon Buzz (www.balloonbuzz.com.my) or Party@World (go to Ikano or Solaris).

Up!

Lari...

Food:

Since we were supposed to have a picnic party, I thot it would be cute to pack nasi lemak in blue, red and yellow papers but haha! mana la pulak aku nak dapat kertas bungkus nasi lemak in those colors? So I settled with the more traditional brown paper, but, thanks to Ach's brilliantness (if such word exists), we have colorful paper bands with Kimi's own lego stickers wrapped around the nasi lemak bungkus. Brilliant, I tell you! I had my guests asking where I get those custom-made nasi lemak wraps.

Guests:

Like I've mentioned before, the party was supposed to be for family, both Gombak and Yong Peng, tapi since dah buat dekat rumah, Mak pusing satu Marmar 2 and invited her mengaji students. One of them was the VIP of the party, Abang Naim.

Abang Naim is Kimi's best friend. Aku sangat terharu ok tengok the way Abang Naim layan my son, he was like a big brother to Kimi. He came, he fed kimi nasi lemak, pengangkan air kotak untuk Kimi, cakes and what not, all the while with his right hand in cast. Apparently last week a mat rempit ran over his right hand...patah tangan, siannn. When I asked Kimi what happened to Abang Naim right hand, Kimi jawap, "Tulis-tulis!". Because abang naim had conteng-conteng on his cast. Haha.

Alhamdulillah, all of mak's students datang, so we had more guests. By the end of the party, kanak2 tu semua were ravaging Kimi's toy box and rumah aku jadi macam nursery. Takpe, janji meriah.

Kimi and Abang Naim

Birthday Boy

Kimi's Friends and Cousins and Uncles

Conclusion

Alhamdulillah, it went well, despite the pouring rain and certain people being pissed by silly reasons. Oh well, a party aint a party if nobody get pissed, kan?

Thanks to everyone, especially Mak for making it a success. From Kimi, Thanks to Atok Baba, Tok Ma, Ummie, Cik Ayip and Ayah Jat for coming all the way to Gombak from Yong Peng. Thanks to Kimi's Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, especially Makngah, Pakngah, Pakcik, Makcik Murni, Pakcupit, Along Umar Rawi, Angah Rasydan, Alang Asyraaf, Kak Tasya, Abang Naim, Kak Nureen and Farah for your support. Thanks to Kak Nureen and Farah for the awesome presents. Thank you to Paklang for your well wishes too.

Lupa, Kimi cakap thank you to Abang Naim for coming!

Tiuppp!

Potong cake

That's Our Boy!

Muka comel tak jadi

Kimi-less

2010-10-31T04:30:00.005+08:00

Kimi,

Semalam kimi balik kampung tinggalkan mommy. Seminggu kimi tinggalkan mommy. Mommy sangat sedih, kimi pegi je mommy nangis. And nangis, and nangis and nangis lagi. Mommy tgk cat, mommy nangis, tgk woody, mommy nangis, tgk anak org, nangis. Mommy tidur malam2 mommy peluk bantal kimi and tam tam kimi and nangis.

Mesti kimi ingat mommy gedik. Biarkan.

************

Itu mommy tulis semalam. Hari ni, dah pukul 4 petang dah ni, mommy belum menangis lagi. Ahahahaha mommy tengah joli honeymoon dengan ayah kimi. Jap gi mommy nak pegi shopping lepas tu gi jogging. Maybe malam karang mommy pegi tengok movie.

Since semalam, mommy tak call lagi, sebab mommy tau kalau mommy call mommy will cry. Takpelah, biarla kimi have fun dekat Yong Peng. Mommy pun have fun dekat sini.

Take care baby, mommy miss Kimi sangat!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Kimi!

2010-10-28T00:00:00.069+08:00

Eh macam baru semalam tulis sappy post for his 1st Birthday. Can't believe i'm already writing for his 2nd!

Kimi,

Do you know that you're the most adorable 2-year-old that I have ever known? Of course, I don't know how much weight that sentence carries since I'm your mother and I'm supposed to say things like that. But really, you melt my heart even when I have reached wayyy beyond my boiling point! You're still the cutest and most adorable baby I have ever met or seen, not even Suri Cruise or Shiloh Jolie-Pitt could beat you!

Kimi tau, ada this one time, about a month ago, you were being totally annoying and mommy tak tahan sebab kimi sangat naughty, that I actually slapped you for the first time? Sorry Baby, but I was tired and you were jumping and pulling my hair trying to grab my attention. You cried, sat at one corner and wept sorang sorang. 5 minutes later you came to mommy and said, "Ami, luk. Alam. Muah". Mommy nangis. Sebab cair. Tak jadi marah.

Lepas tu, Kimi ingat tak kita selalu jalan-jalan and mommy would always dress up during weekends? Whenever mommy tengah sikat rambut depan mirror, you'd always come to mommy, touched my skirt / pants / tops and say, "Ami, awa!" or, "Ami, tik!". Yes, awak memang kaki bodek. Tapi mommy cair jugak nonetheless.

Kimi tau, kimi at two years old, you're actually on your way to becoming little Akmal? You always insist on susun kasut whenever masuk rumah (ami, tutun atut!), you're an early riser and is always annoyed if mommy is still asleep (ami.. tappp! tapppp! nanunn! - sambil pukul muka mommy), you always make sure that the sejadah is lying flat on the floor, takde kedut2 senget2?

And kimi tau tak, sekarang ni, you really love to sing? Your favorite song is "Tanya Sama Pokok". It goes like this, and you only know the last bit of every sentence:

Tanya sama po...pok, apa sebab go...yang,
Nanti jawap po...pok, angin yang gon...tang.

Tanya sama a...nin, ape sebab gon...tang,
Nanti jawap a...nin, tanyalah a...wan!

Lepas habis lagu kimi selalu tepuk tangan and say, "Yayyy!"

After kita balik from Disneyland, Kimi sangat suka Goofy. Sekarang ni, Kimi suka tengok cerita Goofy and Wilbur. You can watch that video over and over and over again every night until you fall asleep. Mommy pun tak tau macam mana you can not get bored watching the same thing like a gazilion times. Prolly because it's got two of your favorite characters, Goofy and Wilbur the belalang. Before this Kimi tak suka pun tengok tv, you couldnt sit still even for a minute, tapi since dah kenal Mickey and Goofy, Kimi somehow suka pulak tengok tv. Mommy tak tau whether that's a good thing or not. Too much of TV is not a good thing, tau Kimi?

You see Kimi, kalau boleh mommy nak jot down every single thing about you tapi tangan mommy dah lenguh nak type, and mommy need to help ayah dry our swimming suits (including yours) sebab tomorrow kita nak pegi Ho Chi Minh.

Apa-apa pun, Happy Birthday Baby. Mommy loves you very much. Very, very, very, very much. Please be a good son, okay.

Love,

Mommy.

written on 16 October 2010, 11.18 p.m.

Paragon Inn, Bangkok

scheduled to be published on 28 October 2010

Ohh Kimi, mommy lupa! Do you know that, at two years old, you're already a traveler? I know you won't remember them, so here are your pictures for you to see.

******

Kimictionary Reference:

Ami : Mommy

Luk : Peluk

Alam : Salam

Awa : Lawa

Tik : Cantik

Tun : Susun

Tap: Wake up

Nanun : Bangun

A..nin : Angin

Gon..tang: Goncang

8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Indochina

2010-10-22T16:04:00.000+08:00

8 hari, 7 malam, 6 passport stamp, 5 penerbangan, 4 penginapan, 3 travellers, 2 negara, 1 pengembaraan. What a number!

Kami baru pulang dari pengembaraan kami ke Indochina. Pada mulanya kami rancang akan melawat 3 negara, tetapi pada saat-saat akhir terpaksa lupakan hasrat untuk ke Myanmar. Jadi untuk kali ini, kami hanya sempat ke Thailand dan Vietnam sahaja.

Plan asal, kami terbang dari KL ke Bangkok, dan keesokkan harinya ke Yangoon. Selepas dua malam di Yangoon kami pulang semula dan menginap lagi dua malam di Bangkok. Selepas itu kami berlepas ke Ho Chi Minh (HCMC) dan kembali semula ke KL dua malam kemudiannya. Itu plan asal. Namun dua hari sebelum ke Bangkok, Air Asia membatalkan penerbangan kami ke Yangoon. Pada masa itu kami belum lagi mendapatkan Visa ke Myanmar. (Kawan akan ceritakan percubaan kawan untuk mendapatkan Visa Myanmar di lain hari, satu lagi pengalaman yang menarik). Tiada tiket dan tiada Visa, jadi kami ambil keputusan untuk ke Krabi. KL-Bangkok-Krabi-Bangkok-HCMC-KL. Ini destinasi perjalanan kami kali ini.

Lapangan Terbang Suvarnabhumi yang moden

Kami sampai ke Bangkok pada pagi Selasa. Kawan sangat kagum dengan Lapangan Terbang Suvarnabhumi. Senibinanya minimalist dan moden pada masa yang sama masih mengekalkan identiti Thai. Arca dan kesenian Thai boleh dilihat di merata-rata tempat di sekitar lapangan terbang ini. Dan ia sangat bersih. Malam pertama kami tinggal di @Hua Lamphong, Hostel di depan Stesen Keretapi Hua Lamphong. Malam itu kami berayau-rayau di sekitar Silom. Sempat juga membeli-belah di Siam Square.

Chicken Island Krabi. Nampak tak kepala ayam?

Keesokkan harinya kami ke Krabi. Ajan beach junkie, dia sangat-sangat gembira apabila kami sampai di sini. Ketika kami sampai hujan turun sangat lebat. Staff hotel memberitahu yang sekarang musim hujan di Krabi. Hujan + Pantai = Bahaya + Tak Cool. Nasib baik, cuaca menyebelahi kami, keesokkan pagi, suria muncul. Kami mengambil bot dan melompat dari pulau ke pulau. Bermula dengan berenang di Tub kemudian snorkeling di Chicken. Pada tengah hari kami lunch di Poda dan selepas itu kami ke Phra Nang Cave yang penuh dengan monyet-monyet jinak. Dalam perjalanan ke Phra nang Cave ni Kimi dah terlena diulit mimpi... Petang tu kawan dan Ajan bergilir-gilir ke mencuba urutan Thai. Murah, lebih kurang RM20 sejam.

Semua berdiri menyanyikan lagu Phleng Chat Thai

Setelah dua malam di Krabi, kami kembali semula ke Bangkok. Kami tiba di Bangkok agak lewat, terima kasih kepada kesesakan lalulintas di Bangkok. Setibanya di bilik hostel kami di Hua Lampong, Ajan dan Kimi terus terlena. Senja melabuh lebih awal di Bangkok, kira-kira pukul 6 petang, hari sudah gelap. Kami ke stesyen keretapi di Hua Lamphong untuk mencari makan malam. Alhamdulillah terdapat satu gerai makan Halal di situ. Sedang kami menikmati makan malam, tiba-tiba terdengar bunyi wisel di seluruh stesyen keretapi tersebut dan tidak semena-mena semua orang berdiri tegak dan mula menyanyikan lagi kebangsaan Thailand. Rupa-rupanya setiap hari pada pukul 6 petang dan 8 pagi, mereka akan menunjukkan tanda hormat dan menyanyikan lagu kebangsaaan di situ. Sangat menarik, terfikir juga alangkah bagusnya jika di Malaysia juga berlaku perkara yang sama.

Selepas kenyang mengisi perut, kami menaiki MRT ke Chatuchak Weekend Market. Nama pun weekend market, kami pergi pada malam Jumaat dengan harapan Jumaat malam juga dikira hujung minggu, tetapi kami hampa, hanya satu-dua kedai sahaja yang dibuka. Nasib baik terdapat pasar malam yang lebih kurang sama di Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Di sini pun kami dah tak larat nak melawat semua kedai. Kalau kami tiada limit masa dan budget, satu hari pun tak cukup untuk berbelanja di sini. Bagi kami yang kesuntukan masa dan budget ni, 2 jam sudah mencukupi.

Dari satu temple ke satu temple dalam renyai-renyai hujan

Antara puluhan perahu-perahu menjual cenderahati di floating market

Hari terakhir kami di Thailand dihabiskan di sekitar Damnoen Saduak, kira-kira 40km dari Bangkok. Kami bermula dengan jalan-jalan melawat dari satu temple ke satu temple sebelum ke Floating Market yang popular. Kawan percaya yang ramai orang akan mengaitkan Bangkok dengan pasar atas air ini. Selalunya floating market ni digambarkan penuh warna-warni seperti dalam poskad ini. Kalau dilihat dari poskad tersebut, semua perahu-perahu itu menjual sayur-sayuran dan buah-buahan. Tapi apa yang kami lihat di sana jauh dari yang kami sangkakan. Kebanyakan perahu menjual cenderahati yang harga jauh lagi mahal dari yang boleh didapati di pasar-pasar malam. Malahan tambang untuk menaiki bot tersebut juga sangatlah mahal. Lebih kurang 1500THB (RM 150) untuk seorang. Nak masuk Disneyland pun tak semahal itu. Tempat ni kawan boleh panggil sebagai perangkap pelancong. Semuanya mahal-mahal belaka. Kalau nak juga ke sini, kawan cadangkan skip perahu tour, pergi terus ke pasar tersebut dengan teksi. Di pasar tersebut sekiranya ingin merasa untuk menaiki perahu, boleh lah cuba cari perahu untuk rakyat tempatan (tidak berbumbung dan menggunakan pendayung). Jauh lagi murah dan lebih asli.

Tinggalan kereta kebal Amerika di tengah-tengah hutan di Chu Chi

Destinasi terakir kami kali ini ialah di Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dahulunya pada zaman penjajahan Perancis dipanggil Saigon. Namun apabila merdeka, bandar ini diubah nama semperna nama Presiden pertama mereka. Bagi rakyat tempatan, mereka masih memanggilnya Saigon. HCMC merupakan syurga beli-belah wanita, termasuklah Ajan. Bag, aksesori, kain baju boleh didapati dengan harga yang jauh lagi murah dari di KL. Malah sepanjang 3 hari kami di sana, kami bertemu dengan ramai makcik-makcik yang datang ke HCMC untuk mendapatkan stok perniagaan kecil-kecilan mereka di Malaysia.

Selain untuk tujuan membeli-belah, bandar ini penuh dengan nilai sejarah. Di ceruk mana kami berada di bandar ini, pasti kami nampak nilai sejarahnya, samada dari senibina, arca-arca, mahupun kesan peninggalan perang dengan Amerika. Kami berpeluang melawat muzium kesan perang Amerika yang memaparkan kekejaman perang yang masih dirasai hingga kehari ini.Kami juga berkesempatan menuju ke daerah Chu Chi, kira-kira dua jam dari HCMC untuk melihat sendiri perkampungan bawah tanah yang dibina Viet Cong untuk berlindung semasa perang. Yang ini sangat kawan kagumi. Bayangkan mereka membina rangakain terowong bawah tanah sepanjang 200km (lebih kurang dari KL ke Batu Pahat) menggunakan tangan tanpa bantuan jentera. Kawan cuba masuk dalam jalinan terowong yang berselirat itu, 5 minit sudah cukup bagi kawan. Sempit, panas, gelap, busuk. Tak dapat bayangkan bagaimana mereka hidup di situ selama 35 tahun!

Kepenatan menunggu kapal terbang pulang ke KL

Setelah 8 hari berjalan, kami pulang kembali ke Malaysia (menaiki Lotus!) pada hari Selasa. Ini trip paling panjang kami setakat ini. Kawan nampak yang banyak perkara baru yang Kimi belajar sepanjang trip kali ini. Harap-harap perkara yang baik tu dia boleh kekalkan. Okaylah, sepatutnya entry ni ringkas, tapi dah panjang meleret pulak. Nanti kawan dan Ajan akan tulis lagi terperinci tentang perkara-perkara menarik sepanjang trip kali ni.

Conversation with Google

2010-10-22T00:00:00.029+08:00

About Gender-specific Stuff

Me :
Hey Google, I have a 2-year old son who likes to cook.

Google:
You mean, your 2-year-old can cook?!

Me:
No, he likes to play pretend. He acts like he's cooking. Using my mom's pots and pans and kettles and whatever he can get his hands on. That is driving my mom crazy.

Google:
Get him a kitchen play set then. Like those in IKEA.

Me:
I've set my eyes on those too. But aren't kitchens for girls and trucks for boys? Then again, I want to send a message that its ok for boys to cook! That it doesn't make them less of a man. Guys who can cook are sexy, y'know?

Google:
Heh. According to Joan Bramsch, founder of EmpoweredParent.com, for parents who want their child to play with toys meant for the opposite sex, the best ones can be found in the kitchen. "For a little child, a parent begins by providing pots, pans, plastic containers, empty oatmeal boxes, wooden and plastic spoons and turners," she says. "Since many toys mimic real-life jobs, let the parent share these chores with the child, and eventually they will discover the child's interests.

Me:
Ahh. So it's OK I guess.

Google :
As long as they're not pink.

Various Things I Learned After Two Years of Mommyhood

2010-10-20T16:08:00.000+08:00

About raising a kid

Kids respond better to positive words. eg. "Baby, promise mommy you'll behave tonight." instead of "Kimi jangan naughty tau nanti mommy puk". 85% of the time he will behave. For the other 15%, terpaksa la marah when you've passed your patience threshold. Sebenarnya they are testing you, they just wanna see how far they can go.
They like to get involved with whatever it is ur doing, like pushing the luggage trolley. They like to feel important. It keeps' em well behaved too. eg. "Kimi, mommy nak pack barang. Kimi tolong pack toys kimi and put them in this bag boleh?"
Kids will be happy if you said you trust them to behave. More often than not they WILL behave. But sometimes hitting them does the trick just as well.
There is nothing much to worry about if your kid doesnt wanna eat at mealtime. They will eat when they're hungry. But this is made easier when he can talk, because he will let you know when he's hungry.
You're not a bad mom if your kid doesnt wanna eat the food you cook and prefer someone else's cooking (e.g. MIL's). That only makes you a bad cook (nothing to worry about too, they'll get used to that after some time).
No body knows whats best for the kid, including me.
Internet is always right, at least 90% of the time
Traveling with a toddler is not as hard as it sounds, you just need to keep them well-fed, happy and occupied. Paying couple of extra bux for that upgraded air Asia seats helps too.
Three-wheeled strollers are awesome, esp. Quinny Zapp. Sorry, I'm being biased here.

About being mommy as part of a community

Never brag about the kid's achievement (eg. Anak you jalan masa berapa bulan eh? My son pandai betul! Baru 11 bulan dah boleh jalan! Jalan laju je pulak tu! - yeap, so is mine. and millions of other normal kids). Other people don't really care. Yes, by all means, talk about it. But never brag. Bear in mind that some kids are late bloomers.
People will always wanna offer their advice, unsolicited most of the time (guilty as charged!). Just say thanks, u appreciate it and give em your sweetest smile. Never discredit anyone. (Pantang tak boleh minum air?! Says who?!)

About being a mom:

I care a lot about how others perceive me as a mom. I wanna be a good mom.
Being a young mommy is cool. Especially when you get those "omg u have a kid?! But you look SO young!" remarks.Hehehe.
Wearing babies is cool too.
Breastfeeding is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I have ever done as a mom.
I am not one to let my children eat junk food. Not under my radar that is.
I dont want a Thai daughter in law.
No day is a bad day when you come home to a bubbly child, who always waits for you at the front door.
I go out of the way to make sure my son is happy.
I can actually be a very patient person! Seriously, having a child is the best way to test your patience threshold. It should increase over time, btw.
I never thought i could love someone so much! Turned out i could.

City of Angels, End of Strife & Saigon

2010-10-07T10:26:00.000+08:00

City of Angels, End of Strife & Saigon

Bangkok, Yangoon dan Ho Chi Minh City, ini destinasi jalan-jalan terbaru kami. Jika semuanya berjalan seperti yang dirancang, kawan sekeluarga akan cuti-cuti Indochina dalam masa terdekat ini. Dalam perancangannya kami akan terbang dari KL ke Bangkok, kemudian ke Yangoon dan destinasi akhir di HCMC sebelum kembali ke KL.

Kawan sekarang ni sedang study pasal trip ni. Jadi kalau ada cadangan lokasi mana mesti kami lawat, hotel mana mesti kami singgah, restoran mana mesti kami cuba atau sebarang tips, silalah kongsikan di sini. Menarik nak dengar cerita you all semua...

foto dari sini, sini dan sini

Touch me!

2010-10-05T10:56:00.000+08:00

One afternoon, during lunchtime:

Me    : (Fiddling with my *ehem* touchscreen *ehem* phone)
Boss : Eh, phone awak ada word processing functions tak?
Me    : Tak sure aaa boss. Maybe ade, kena download kot.
Boss : (Proceeded to show me her phone with all microsoft office's software)
I can do this with my phone!
Me    : (Touched boss' phone screen)

Boss : Yang kamu pegi touch screen phone saya buat apeee? Phone saye pakai keypad la kodok!
Me    : (Sorok bawah meja)

KKK

2010-09-27T17:26:00.000+08:00

KKK : Bukan Ku Klux Klan atau Krusty Komedy Klassic, tapi Kosa Kata Kimi!

Macam-macam Kimi dah cakap sekarang ni. Pada umur 99 minggu (lebih kurang 1 tahun 11 bulan) memang patut pun dia dah pandai cakap macam-macam. Kimi dah boleh diajak berbual. Kalau bagi arahan dia dah boleh buat dengan tepat (walaupun tak 100% lagi).

Kawan perasan Kimi ada sikit masalah nak sebut perkataan yang akhir dengan 'I' macam 'Nasi', 'Money' dan 'Mommy'. Itu yang Ajan geram, sebab Kimi boleh panggil kawan, 'Ayah' dengan jelas tapi sampai sekarang tak boleh nak panggil 'Mommy' lagi. Dia cuma panggil samada 'Mom' atau 'Mammom' (atau 'Nenen').

Kawan rasa sekarang ni Kimi dah boleh cakap lebih 100 perkataan. Campur Bahasa dan English. Bawah ni serba sedikit KKK, dan terjemahannya.

KKK	Terjemahan	Maksud
Lish	Please	Perkataan pertama Kimi. Nak mintak apa pun dia akan cakap Liiissshh.
Ayah	Ayah	Kawan lah siapa lagi.
Mom, Mommom	Mommy	Panggilan Ajan.
Bo	Boy	Kimi tahu yang dia budak lelaki, kadang-kadang kawan panggil Kimi Boy juga.
Nenek	Nenek	Nenek Kimi belah Ajan.
Tok, Baba	Atuk Ma, Atuk Baba	Dua Atuk Kimi belah kawan.
Cucu	Susu	Minuman kegemaran dia lah. Samada dalam botol atau pun dalam kotak (Dutch Lady).
Mamam	Makan	Nasi, roti, cereal, segala makanan yang dia suka.
Nana	Banana	Pisang, buah yang dia suka.
Ka,Brumbrum	Car	Kereta, Kimi ni sangat suka jalan-jalan, kalau boleh sepanjang masa nak mintak naik kereta jalan-jalan.
Ceiceh	Terima Kasih	Lepas cakap Piisss dan dah dapat apa yang dia minta.
Shu	Shoe	Kasut, terutama kasut Croc dia.
Buk	Book	Kimi ni sangat minat buku macam Mommy dia.
Wek	Work	Dia tahu setiap pagi dia kena tinggal ngan bibik dan nenek dia sebab Ayah dan Mommy pergi Wek
Bo	Rainbow	Pelangi.
Mun	Moon	Bulan, Kimi ni sangat suka teruja kalau nampak bulan.
Ta	Star	Malam kelmarin dia tunjuk kat langit, lepas tu cakap Ta Ayah!
Deh	Best	Kalau Kimi suka apa yang dia makan atau buat, dia akan cakap Deh
Wuit	Duit	Duit kertas atau syiling. Kimi tahu yang dia kena bagi duit dekat kedai dan bila sampai kat tol. Lepas ni nak ajar menabung pula.
Cat, Miooo	Cat	Pantang nampak kucing Kimi ni, penyayang kat binatang.
Bid, Chipcipcipp	Bird	Burung (yang terbang)
Tote	****	Burung (yang tak boleh terbang)

Ada lagi banyak KKK, tapi yang atas ni lah yang agak biasa. Sejak dah pandai cakap ni senang sikit nak tahu apa dia mintak. Kalau malam bangun takde nangis-nangis lagi sebab dia dah boleh kejut ayah dia dan cakap Cucu lish...

Cantik

2010-09-17T09:18:00.000+08:00

One night...

Ajan : Awak sayang saya tak?
Ach : Sayang.
Ajan : Nape awak sayang saya?
Ach : Sebab awak cantik.
Ajan : Tapi ramai yang lagi cantik dari saya.
Ach : Aah. Tapi saya tak dapat diorang.

Cis.

Salam Aidilfitri

2010-09-10T06:54:00.000+08:00

Dikesempatan ini kami memohon ampun maaf atas segala kesilapan kami selama ini. Semoga Aidilfitri ini diraikan dengan amalan kesederhanaan dalam penuh kegembiraan. Salam Aidilfitri dari kami sefamili.

Hong Kong Day 5: The Day Goofy Bullied Kimi

2010-08-27T00:00:00.001+08:00

It's our last day in HK, but our flight wasn't until 6 p.m. So we checked out at 9, left our luggage at the Hotel's Bell Services Desk and headed to the Disneyland. Since we've covered pretty much everything on the first day, we decided to dedicate the second day to take pictures with as many Disney characters as possible!

That morning I spent 45 minutes queuing under the scorching sun just to take picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse! While I was queuing, ach and Kimi suka suki took pictures with Chip and Dale, the less famous characters. They didn't even need to queue ok!

Mommy queued for 45 minutes for this shot ok.

Ayah tak queue!

Next we went to Tarzan's Treehouse since tak sempat naik on the first day. Lepas tu we had early lunch / late breakfast at the Tahitian Terrace. I forgot to mention that Disneyland Hollywood Hotel DOES NOT provide breakfast. Or maybe you gotta pay extra for the breakfast or something. Aku tak tau la pulak that part. Anyways, me being asian and especially of indian descendant, was so happy that Tahitian Terrace provides Indian vegetarian meal complete dengan roti canai lagi! A set cost us HK$58.

@ Tarzan's Treehouse

After lunch we went to Mickey Philharmagic again. Kan the day before Kimi was scared and ach had to take him out. Jadi the second day I took care of Kimi outside while ach enjoyed himself. Actually we tried to bring Kimi in but he was still scared makanya terpaksa la Mommy keluar.

Petang tu we took pictures with Rafiki, Timon, Eeyore, Mickey, Pluto, Minnie and Goofy. Initially Kimi was a bit reluctant to approach the characters, takut la tu. Tapi lama-lama he got really excited about it, even masa queue lagi he kept saying, "Lam, lam!", as in he couldn't wait to shake hands with the characters! I didn't even need to accompany him to the characters anymore! Dia sendiri pegi approach, dia sendiri pegi salam and hug the characters. Haih... adorable betul.

Rafiki and Timon

Pluto

Hugged by Mickey

Kissed by Minnie

When it was our turn to salam Goofy, Kimi extended his hand to salam Goofy. Lepas tu Goofy main acah-acah dengan Kimi, he, too, extended his hand tapi bila kimi approach dia move ke belakang a bit. Then when he hugged Kimi, he held on so tight and wouldnt let Kimi go sambil ach and I pun acah2 babai Kimi. Comelnya kami! It's no surprise that Kimi remembers this the most, everytime sebut Goofy or when he sees his pictures with Goofy, he would run to us and hugged us tightly while saying, "Ti! Lam! Luk!".

Kimi's New Friend

Kami habis pusing-pusing and jalan-jalan taking pictures by 1 p.m. Sebab dah penat, we stopped for cold drinks at one of the restaurants. Luckily for us, it was near the Mickey's WaterWorks Parade route which was about to start jadi we managed to secure a good spot, which also meant we were getting wet from the water splashes of the parade! Kimi enjoyed this one too, tho he kinda hated being wet.

After that, we went back to the hotel, took our luggage and headed to the airport for our return flight.

Alhamdulillah, the flight back home was OK, it wasn't a full flight so again we managed to get the whole row for ourselves, Kimi behaved quite well and nasi lemak pak nasser never disappoint.

*********************************************************

Phew. Finally, I'm done with my Hong Kong stories. I hope I didn't bore you with the long writings of my holiday tehehehehe. I don't blame you if you're bored because I know my writings were too long.Honestly I always tried to make them shorter but I just couldn't! There are so many things to share with you that I just couldnt skip anything, well, not that much at least.

Well, anyways, this will be my last post on HK (maybe ach has other posts planned). IMO, Hong Kong is a very interesting place to visit. Just, please, do not go in the summer because it's really hot there. Unless you don't mind sweating. And, 5 days seemed long in the beginning but turned out to be too short. InsyaAllah kalau ada rezeki lebih we'll return to HK. =)

Thanks to Ach for taking us for the holiday =) And thank you to you for reading my holiday stories. Much love!

Saya to Kami

2010-08-26T00:00:00.002+08:00

After seven years, aChieaJanie is now complete. =)

Hong Kong Day 4: Welcome to Disneyland! (officially)

2010-08-25T13:30:00.007+08:00

Welcome to Disneyland!

Fantasyland

We started the day with the Fantasyland and our first ride for the day was "The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh". Since it was still early, queue was short and in 5 mins were already in one of those buggies. Kimi's reaction, or rather, the lack of it, was pretty disappointing.Prolly he was still getting used to it. The fact that he's scared of the dark and loud sounds does not help too. Some parts of the ride were pretty dark, especially when they were trying to create the rain and thunder sounds. Harus la dia tak berapa nak enjoy.

In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Much smaller than the ones in LA and Florida.

Lepas tu we went on pretty much every ride in Fantasyland, the Cinderella Carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and of course, my all time favorite, It's A Small World. Kimi was pretty anxious on the Cinderella Carousel and by the time we were on our third ride, It's A Small World, he was pretty excited already. We skipped Mad Hatter Tea Cups sebab I've always hated bumper rides. Pening kepala.

He looked anxious kan?

Queue for It's A Small World. Nasib baik air-conditioned dalam ni.

Golden Gate Bridge next to Lady Liberty!

Then there were two shows, The Golden Mickeys and Mickey Philharmagic. Kimi slept during The Golden Mickeys and screamed during Mickey Philharmagic 3D show. He screamed, "Wolap, wolappp! tut!" (gelap, takut!). Apa nak buat, ach had to bring him out leaving me to enjoy the show alone.Yes, selfish saya ni tak keluar sekali hihihi.

We had lunch at the Royal Banquet Hall. We ate seafood fried rice and fish and chips. All that, plus two bottles of water cost us around HK$150, which is our RM75. Not bad la the food kalau dapat makan ayam halal lagi best. Unfortunately, they did not offer any halal food so we had to stick with fish and vegies.

Adventureland

After lunch we went to the Adventureland to watch Festival of the Lion King, which IMO was the best show we watched the whole Disneyland trip, not like they had that many shows to offer anyways. The show's about Simba's Birthday Celebration, and they kampung folks decided that they would recreate Simba's childhood to entertain Simba The King. What's interesting about it is there were life-sized elephant, giraffe and pumba (pumba ni binatang ape?). Not only they were life-sized, but they move live life ones too! Hebat wey Disney's animators! Kimi and Ach, who both have soft spots for talking animals, enjoyed the show alot.

Festival of the Lion King. Simba, the giraffe and pumba all moved like they were real animals!

Next was the Jungle River Cruise. The queue was unbelievably long but luckily they queue was split into two, one for chinese speaking guests and the other one for english-speaking guests, which was considerably shorter. I think we only queued for 20 mins, when guests in the other lane queued for 45. The cruise was, well, ok, except that, when we were nearing one of the water explosions, an old man fell to the cruise floor and had a heart attack! He looked like he was dying but that god he didnt. Oh, and our skipper sounded horny with her "Ohh yess, hmmm, yesss".

One of her most memorable quotes was, "If you like the cruise my name is Coco, if you dont my name is Mary". Haha, cute.

By the end of the cruise all three of us were burnt out already. One mistake that we did was going to HK in end of July when it was scorching hot. Panas gila I tell you ach macam mandi peluh.

Dah penat da time ni.

Tomorrowland

I have never quite liked this part of Disneyland. Takat Space Mountain yang too challenging utk aku tu... takpela terima kasih je la I'd rather ride on It's A Small World for the second time. Btw, we didnt spend too long here.We headed back to the hotel at 6 p.m. Balik, makan dinner dekat hotel, which cost us another HK$58. Tidur-tidur dulu... main-main, makan-makan, mandi-mandi.... that's the advantage of staying at Disney's hotel... lepas dah mandi kami keluar balik at 8 p.m. utk tengok the fireworks show for the second time. Huyehh.

Hong Kong Day 3: Disneyland Fireworks

2010-08-24T18:40:00.001+08:00

Disclaimer: What happened was totally accidental. Wasn't planned at all!

Background setting:
Ach bought us a 2-day entrance ticket to the Disneyland.

The story:

Later that night, we went to Disneyland to watch the nightly fireworks show. I thot we were gonna watch it from the outside. Sampai je dekat entrance gate, confidently, ach hulur ticket kitorang. Maka kami pun dapat la masuk. But then, somehow i felt uneasy... I said to ach:

Ajan : Yang, kalau kita masuk malam ni, kira ticket kita tinggal satu hari je la kan yang? Tak ke?
Ach : Taklah. Mana ada.

*three seconds later*
Ach: Eh... hmm... Jap. *Ran to the gate girl and dissapeared*

*20 minutes later*
Ach : *all smiles* Bie! Kita dapat masuk free malam ni!
Ajan : Hahahaha. Good job husband!

What happened in those 20 minutes he dissappeared:

He found out that our 2-day ticket dah tinggal jadi one-day ticket. Memang sangat logic la pun kan? Kiranya we've used our first day ticket and instead of dapat masuk hari 4 and 5, kami masuk hari 3 dan 4. Maknanya, kami dah rugi satu hari. Eh tak payah explain pun memang dah macam sangat logic kan?

Btw, ach argued with the manager and said that he didn't know that and kept on arguing that it's not fair for us since we get to only enjoy 20 mins of our first day ticket. Blablabla back and forth, the Guest Manager gave us two new 2-day ticket AND free entrance that night.

Quoting that manager, "You can enjoy the fireworks show tonight for free!"

The wonderful view

The fireworks show was spectacular. I really enjoyed it, I have always been a firework junkie. It gave me this familiar feeling... the last time I watched the show was on New Year's Eve, 2005 (approaching 2006), that time I was with my boyfriend. Five years later, there I was again, watching the same fireworks show above Sleeping Beauty's Castle, with the same guy who's now my husband,while holding my adorable but sleepy son close to me.

I shed tears of joy that night.

My life is complete.

Oh btw, feel free to try this trick if you visit HK Disneyland. But please, do so at your own risk. =D Ahahahahahahaha.

The kid's rare happy shot

Thanks to those who invented timers on cameras!

Hong Kong Day 3: Part I - The Day Kimi Knew Who Goofy Is

2010-08-23T00:05:00.001+08:00

The much awaited day finally arrived!! We’re going to Disneyland y’all! Oh and we’ll be staying at Disneyland Hotel! Double yeay!

But, check in at the Disneyland Hotel wont be until 2, and our check out time at Hop Inn is at 11.30, and the train ride to Disney Station won’t take more than 1 hr. So we decided to kill the time by jalan-jalan at the Kowloon Park, 15 mins walk from Hop Inn. Ye, kami jalan tengah2 panas tu. HK memang scorching hot in July.

Anyways, Kowloon Park is like our Lake Garden, with the Bird Aviary, Tasik Kura-kura, all the normal things you’d see in a park. Except that, they have Wifi. I know, wifi at the park? Picnicking here must be awesome.

Ach and Kimi @ Kowloon Park

After lunch, we headed to the East Tsim Sha Shui MTR. Getting to HK Disneyland from Tsim Sha Shui was pretty easy, only two train transfers and you’re already on board the Disneyland train! The trains were unbelievably comel, the windows were in the shape of mickey’s head, and the seats were velvet, and they have mini statues of disney’s characters.

Kimi and Mommy

TIngkap dia cantik kan?

At the Disney’s station, we took the shuttle bus to Disneyland Hollywood Hotel, where we stayed for the next three days. =D Seriously, thanks to Nads Tamzil for this idea, we loved, loved, loved the place. There are two hotels near to Disneyland, one is the Disneyland Resort Hotel and the other one is Disneyland Hollywood Hotel. The former is the more expensive one, it does look nice and majestic on the outside, while the latter is the slightly cheaper version, but takde ape pun yang kurang, IMHO.

We were informed that July – August is HK’s cuti sekolah, which explained why the hotel was quite packed. Luckily check in process didn’t take long, minutes later Kimi was already jumping up and down on the bed. Our room was huuuuge, it feels like a bungalow compared to Hop Inn. The design reminds us of Hollywood’s glam.

Kimi in his bathrobe. Comel sangat please.

Testing the bed, ey kid?

We spent our evening at the pool. The pool was meant for kids, the deepest point was at my chest, but I’m short. It could be your knees or something. =P

This is when Kimi had his first encounter with Disney’s character. At approx. 6 pm, Goofy came to the pool with his bathing suit. Other kids were rushing to shake hands with him, but Kimi, being the timid person like his mom, stayed at the side. I know he wanted to salam Goofy tapi gaya-gaya mahu tapi malu. But later with some encouragement from mommy, he inched towards Goofy and finally extended his hands!!! Well done, baby!

Goofy spent some time in the pool with the kids, this time including Kimi. I tell you, nothing beats the feeling of seeing your kid THAT happy! I think Goofy made an impression on him, Kimi really really likes goofy, because when goofy was leaving the pool, Kimi literally climbed outta the pool, RAN after goofy with his hands extended while shouting, “Ti, ti, lamm, lammm! (Goofy, goofy, salam, salam!)”. OMG seriously sangat adorable!

Later that night we went to Disneyland to watch the nightly fireworks show. Will write about this in another entry.

Poskad : Hong Kong

2010-08-17T20:13:00.002+08:00

Setiap kali kami berjalan, kami akan cuba untuk menghantar poskad ke alamat kami sendiri. Kali ini semasa di Hongkong, kami telah menghantar 3 keping poskad ke Malaysia.

Poskad ini dibeli, ditulis dan diposkan semasa kami berada di atas The Peak. Kebetulan pula terdapat vending machine setem dan peti surat di sana.

Permandangan di atas poskad tersebut adalah HK Island pada waktu malam. Kad ini Ajan pilih mungkin sebab malam sebelumnya kami pergi menonton pancaran lampu-lampu ini di A Symphony of Lights.

Cari Kontraktor

2010-08-16T01:11:00.000+08:00

Kawan rasa ini merupakan perkara yang paling sukar dalam sebarang proses ubah suai rumah. Kawan dengar macam-macam rungutan rakan-rakan tentang kontraktor mereka. Ada yang cabut lari lepas dapat deposit, ada yang buat ala-kadar dan cincai, ada yang asyik minta naikkan harga dengan alasan barang dah makin mahal. Macam-macam yang kawan dengar tentang pengalam rakan-rakan lain ubah suai rumah. Sebab tu dari awal, kawan nak pastikan kawan tak sama tersilap langkah dalam proses ni.

Kawan akui bukan senang nak cari kontraktor yang boleh puaskan hati sampai siap ubahsuai sebab tu kawan senaraikan dulu apa yang kawan mahukan. Kontraktor tu nanti mestilah

Harga Murah
Harga merupakan faktor utama yang kawan kena fikirkan. Kalau boleh cari yang paling murah. Kawan rasa apa saja yang kawan boleh buat sendiri, kawan buat sendiri, dengan tu boleh kurangkan harga keseluruhan projek. Lagi satu tips untuk dapatkan kontraktor yang murah, cari kontraktor yang buat semua kerja. Dia tauke, dia juga kuli. Kalau boleh jauhkan dari kontraktor yang nampak segak bergaya dan datang naik Wish, Caldina, Alphard atau lain-lain kereta mewah yang sama waktu dengannya.
Kualiti
Biasalah, kawan kan orang Asia, cheapskate tapi nak yang kualiti tinggi. Satu je cara nak pastikan kualiti kerja kontraktor tu, pergi tengok sendiri projek yang dia tengah buat. Jangan cuma dengar je cakap diorang ni, pergi lihat sendiri. Kalau kontraktor yang korang jumpa takut-takut nak tunjuk kerja yang dia tengah buat, cari kontraktor lain.
Reliabiliti
Kawan nak cari kontraktor yang boleh dipercaya. Memang susah nak cari, tapi kalau dah jumpa, kontraktor ni boleh jadi kawan. Lepas-lepas ni kalau nak buat kerja lain boleh cari dia lagi. Pada kawan, paling senang nak cari kontraktor yang boleh percaya dengan tanya pada keluarga atau rakan yang boleh percaya. Ringan-ringankan mulut bertanya pada rakan atau saudara yang pernah pindah rumah. Kalau takde, satu lagi cara ialah rajin-rajin tanya dekat jiran-jiran sebelah yang baru buat ubahsuai rumah. Kalau rumah tu dalam kawasan perumahan baru lagi senang, tengok kiri-kanan mana jiran yang buat ubahsuai.

Tiga faktor ni cukup bagi kawan dapatkan kontraktor untuk rumah kami. Dah ada panduan ni senang sikit nak cari mana yang terbaik. Kawan buat temujanji dengan lebih 5 orang kontraktor. Masing-masing ada kekuatan dan kelemahan sendiri. Harga pulak macam-macam. Masa mula-mula tu memang agak kekok sikit. Tapi dah lama-lama dah biasa, tahu apa nak tengok dan tanya.

Kawan cadangkan, jangan buat lebih dari satu temujanji pada masa yang sama. Buat asing-asing untuk setiap kontraktor. Kalau boleh, mula dengan kontraktor yang paling kurang dikenali, kontraktor yang rakan kita recommend kita buat akhir. Sebab dah hujung-hujung tu kita dah mahir sikit untuk nego.

Satu perkara lagi, kalau boleh jangan layan kontraktor yang cari kita dan tawarkan macam-macam. Selalunya kalau di taman perumahan baru, penuh mailbox kita dengan pamplet diorang. Kawan tak baca satu pun. Terus campak masuk tong sampah. Mereka ni agak aggresif, kalau nampak kita baru masuk rumah tu, berkerumun diorang tawarkan macam-macam. Kalau boleh jauhkan ye, sebab kebanyakan mereka ni Mahal, Tak-Berkualiti dan Tak-Reliable.

Hong Kong Day 2 Part II

2010-08-13T07:07:00.000+08:00

We went out at 3 pm I think, after all three of us had a nice sleep. Some people might think that this is a waste of cuti time, taking naps while were on a short holiday. I'd agree if it were just me and ach, but it's a different story when we're traveling with Kimi. For the whole family to have enjoy the trip, it's important that you keep everyone happy, especially the baby. As long as the baby's well-fed and well-rested, then all of us are good to go.

That evening we went to the HK Science Museum. It's about twenty minutes walk from Hop Inn, kinda far, but when there are so many things to see along the way, tak la rasa lama sangat.

On our way to the Museum, we stopped at one bubble tea shops, it's called Gong Cha. Dekat HK ni ada banyak gila bubble tea shops, jalan sepuluh minit dah jumpa 2 kedai, there;s only so much ach and I can drink la kan... btw we bought the plain milk bubble tea and... sedap gila. Better than Tea1 in Yong Peng. Kimi likes the bubbles, not the tea, which is good or else he'll be hogging our tea. =D

Minum bubble tea!

Back to the Museum, the entrance ticket cost us HK$25 each, and interestingly, it's free every Wednesday. It's not a big museum, ada tiga floors and it's very interactive, bak kata ach, more items to see, touch and play with. I think ach and I were more interested to try the experiments than Kimi, dia syok lari-lari je. The exhibits cover banyak topics, like, electricity and magnetism (reminded me of my EE days in RPI), maths, transportation, energy, and yadda yadda. You know, science stuff.

You're supposed to complete the circuit and the train will move

A farmer needs to get across a river. He has a boat to use to get across but only 2 fit in the boat. So he can only put the chicken, or the fox, or the corn in the boat to take it across. But he needs to make sure the fox doesnt eat the chicken and the chicken doesnt eat the corn. How does he get them all across the river without one eating the other?

One of the most interesting exhibits is the Energy Machine, its like those Rube Goldberg Machines. It demonstrates how potential energy is converted to other forms of energy through out its track. Okay, this involves science jargon, aku tak reti explain since its been many years since I left school. But it's interesting, they say its the largest in the world, tinggi dia lebih kurang bangunan tiga tingkat. Awesome, ey?

Then there's this amazing Levitating Water Exhibit. It's amazing because it makes the water droplets look as if they're flowing up and down. You can see the individual droplets, some flow upwards, some flow downwards in slow motion. Seriously amazing.

Macam manik pintu kan?

Mommy got shrunk in the Funny Room

Tah, apehal tah dia macam ni. Over excited kot.

Si Hensem (again, I leave it to you to decice)

All in all we spent about 3 hours here, sampai kaki dah penat tak larat nak jalan, itu pun banyak lagi tak cover. We went back to our room by bus, had our dinner, get some rest, and went out again at 8.

Later that night we went to the Temple Street Night Market, one station away from Hop Inn. It's similar to our Petaling Street, there are t-shirts, table runners, magnets, key chains, perfect place for tourists to get their souvenirs.

Okay, itu je, end of day 2. It was a very, very, very tiring day that I'm amazed that I didnt lose any weight after all those walking. Sigh~

aChieaJanie Turns 7 Today!

2010-08-12T00:01:00.001+08:00

Today marks my 7th year of blogging.

I know, I was surprised too when I checked the date of my first post, that was on 12th August 2003. That was SEVEN years ago. I know it's been quite some time, but seven?! Has it been THAT long?

Looking back at my old posts, I am really glad that I've grown a lot over the years. I can’t believe how childish I was (still am, sometimes) back then! Most of my posts reflected my immaturity and narcissism. They were all sarcastic, littered with cusses, and some were downright depressing. (a post with a picture of slashed wrist? What was I thinking?!)

You see, back then, blogging was a way for me to express myself and my views, which were always negative ones. I attacked people quite a lot too. I was an angry, me-against-the-world girl who blamed everything else for everything that went wrong in my life. The lecturers, TAs, family, good friends and even boyfriend were my regular targets in the blog posts.

Those targeted at good friends (of course, we were good friends but girlfriends always bitch about one another!) were usually written in sarcastic posts, or sometimes i’d take some friend quotes off the internet like friends in need are friends indeed or something like that. Posts like these usually came out after some fights and by posting entries like that I was hoping that the relevant people would terasa. Ek eleh. Gila bitchy, coward dan juga immature.

The depressing posts usually came out after the exam results were announced. Yeah, I gotta admit i wasn’t among the bright ones in RPI, but even after acknowledging this, I never took the exam results with grace. Usually a week after I’d be super depressed that all I thought was committing suicide. Okay, jap, I didn’t really wanna die, saje je making statements. I thot it was cool letting myself out and transparent like that.

Then there were occasional posts targeted at my then-boyfriend now husband. Okay tak payah la explain yang ni karang mengantoikan diri sendiri. Dah kawin dah pun tak relevant lagi.

In between the angry and depressing posts, when I wasn’t mad at anything, I’d write about what I did, what I ate at RPI's Union, what I felt and sometimes what I wore or what Elle wore to class.... Eh. Whyyy. Ohh whyyyy. Of course there are occasional posts about how fun my holidays were. But happy posts were rare.

To tell you the truth, I myself can’t bring myself to read my old posts. The way I wrote, bitched about A LOT of stuff, viewed and analysed the happenings around me... I can’t believe I had that much of negativity in me. Haih. And I cant believe I had such a blatant disregard towards the feelings of people around me. Sukati aku je nak belasah orang dalam blog.

I am glad that I have left that phase behind.

I noticed that things started to change when I got married and gave birth. Suddenly, the world seemed to be brighter place. Like suddenly I have a lot of reasons to live and be happy. Yesss I know it’s cliché but it’s true! Tho i wish that my entries can be more varied from cooking and being a mommy and wifey to mountain climbing or diving, I am actually very-very happy with what I have now.

In seven years, I have moved from someone who abused her blog for distasteful reasons like perli-perli people to someone who writes because she wants to share good things with people. Because she believes that by writing, she's in a way contributing and at the same time, she hopes to inspire people. Wah. Talk about being over ambitious aku ni.

Btw, I've always enjoyed blogging. Maybe when I become someone famous one day this blog can be published into a book. The Stories of aChieaJanie - the Couple that Changed the World.

Wahhhhhhhhhhh berangan!

Hong Kong Day 2 - Part I

2010-08-11T09:58:00.000+08:00

Our first destination of the day was The Peak, which is similar to our Bukit Bendera here. Getting there from Hankow Road was easy-peasy, it was only a few minutes walk to the Tsim Sha Shui MTR station, 2 line switches and we were at the Central Station in less than 15 mins.

The happy kid on his way to the Peak Tram station

We arrived at the The Peak Tram Station at 9.30 a.m in the morning. There are two types of tickets, The Peak Tram Ticket is for those who'd only like to get to the Peak, while The Peak Tram Sky Pass consist of tram ticket and entrance to the Sky Terrace, the highest 360° viewing platform in Hong Kong. The tickets, even sans entrance to sky terrace, was quite expensive IMO, so we just two adult return tickets for HK$36 each. Kids below three ride for free. Thank you to Ach and Kimi who are both early-risers, we managed to get there really early, sampai nak board the tram pun tak payah beratur. Best.

Before boarding the tram

The 15-min ride uphill gave us the chance to savor HK's breathtaking view. Gila cantik view from the tram. To the left and right of the rail ada lots of hillside apartments, bungalows, which I bet my fingers costs berjuta juta ringgit, sebab memang cantik gila. Most of the apartments have glass walls for them to enjoy the HK view. Sorry la gambar takde, sebab 1) Aku memang afraid of heights, jadi memang takdenye aku nak pusing belakang to take pictures 2) Ach busy pegang kimi.

Unlike Bukit Bendera, there are quite a lot of things to do on the Peak. There are two shopping malls, Madam Tussaud's pun ada, they even have nice restaurants (atas ni ada Bubba Gump!). Anyways, we spent around 2 hours dekat sini, we had our breakfast at Burger King, jalan-jalan pusing cari postcards... talking about postcards, this is our first overseas family vacation, so we try to start a tradition sending ourselves postcards bila kami jalan-jalan. Ach will write about this later. In fact, I think I've seen the draft.

My boys @ the Peak

Oh, did I mention I had the scariest escalator ride on the Peak?? Right, I've said before that I'm scared of heights, so anything that involves ridiculous heights scares me, OK? This one particular escalator, it's freakin long, it's located on the 4th floor of the shopping mall and it's facing a huge glass wall which overlooks the HK Island. And, if you look beneath the escalator you can see floor yang paling bawah sekali. So, when you're on it, it's as if you're going straight down to HK Island miles and miles down. Honestly, that escalator ride feels like forever! Kejung kaki aku.

Scary kannnnnnnnn????

It was around 11.30 when we left the Peak. Memang nasib baik we arrived early, sebab queue nak board the tram going uphill panjang gila lipat2 lapan kali kot. Kimi time tu memang dah lembik, so we decided to get back to our room and let kimi rest. Before that we stopped to the damn-expensive India Palace one floor down and had our lunch, lepas tu tiga-tiga flat atas katil.

Will sambung in Part II.

Selamat Berpuasa

2010-08-11T00:23:00.000+08:00

Selamat menjalankan ibadah puasa kepada semua.