Ramblings of a Mami of Two

To be honest, that is a question that no working mother should have to answer. Well hello there, it's been ages! My last post was on 14 June 2017. A year and a half ago. So, so, so, many things have happened since then. In one a half year, I had battled with depression, fought suicidal thoughts, got promoted, in fact, promoted twice (almost!), performed umrah, discovered a whole new me, found out that I love being a boss while at the same time scared of the power it gave me. So, so, so many things happened that as a result, I believe, I am no longer the same person I was a year and a half ago.  Now where was I?  I haven't written for so long that I now find it very difficult to articulate myself. Writing Instagram captions for my children's birthdays feels like an uphill task nowadays that I often resort to " No words can describe how much I love you, baby " because, 1) no words can truly capture my feelings for my children and 2) while I never was a ...

So the streak of long weekend has ended. I don't know what happened last week, but today both kids were extremely well-behaved.  Today, Hakimi made his own breakfast. He asked, "Mami, mami dah buatkan breakfast saya ke?" "Not yet." "Takpe Mami, saya nak buat sendiri". And he made grilled cheese.  Hadi got off the car and walked to the nursery on his own. No drama. He even waved goodbye until I was out of sight.  And both kids hugged and kissed each other before Hadi and I left the house. Hadi was like, "Abang nak pergi sekolah dengan Didi tak?" "No, taknak." "Okay nanti petang kita jumpa ya". How did that happen? No idea.  Could be because I was at home whole day yesterday with them? Not only I was at home, but I actually spent time with them. The night before, I made a car track out of cardboard and spent the whole of the next morning decorating it with them.  Or could be because I bought them...

He left me 14 years ago. I still remember a year before that, I was in UM doing Asasi Program and Abah had just bought me my first handphone. Not quite knowing how to treat a handphone, I switched it off every night because why would you need the phone at night? Who is going to call you in the middle of the night? Obviously, I was wrong. At 7.00 am one day, I received many many texts from my family, one of them from my brother, saying, “ Ajan pergi mana? Kenapa tutup handphone? Abah masuk Hospital Selayang pagi tadi, pagi nanti banglang ambik Ajan .” My heart dropped. The simplicity of that text, the deductions I could make with that one text. I was such a daddy’s girl. I cried for days when he lost half his weight to thyroid. He wasn’t admitted or anything but I cried fearing the worst. On our way to the hospital, Banglang filled me in in a way that didn’t illustrate the gravity of the situation. I only found out how bad it was when Kakgah told me how Abah was d...

Not that I'm complaining, I'm enjoying my freedom of maid-related problems.  For the first 28 years of my life I have NEVER lived without the convenience of a domestic help, except, well, few months gap here and there.  So when in 2011, the aChieaJanie family moved to a little place we call our own, I was, needless to say, VERY overwhelmed by the amount house chores, from being maidless had presented me. Pressure oi. The fact that my husband is a neat freak quadrupled my stress level.  But thank God he's not the lazy neat-freak. When there were just three of us the chores was manageable, each had his own task to do, Ach with the laundry, me with cooking and general cleaning, Kimi with keeping the house mess-free. At that time, the house was neat, well, most of the time.  Fast forward 2 years later when Hadi came into our lives (he's such a great joy!), I was having a hard time coping up with the house chores. Between changing diapers, work, dinne...

I don't refer to Susuibu.com and other breastfeeding mum's groups pages as religiously as I did previously. I just don't want to bitch (silently) those mothers (not all) who successfully breastfeed their children, exclusively for six months or the whole 2 years (congratulations yo!) and at the same time look down upon other mothers who don't do so.  "Kasihannya anak-anak itu, ketahuilah itu hak mereka untuk disusukan oleh ibu mereka... Janganlah disuapkan susu lembu kepada mereka."  "Bukannya susah untuk menyusukan anak, dimana ada kemahuan, disitu ada jalan." "Mengapala disusukan anak tu dengan susu formula?" ********** Dear Breastfeeding Mothers,  Thank you for sharing with us your success stories, for the pictures of your freezers filled with your EBM to the brink. They inspire me to be as determined and as rajin as you guys are. Who don't want to see their baby thrive solely from our susu? It's the b...

It's been a very long time since I wrote about stuff that annoys me. You know, few years ago I always used this space to bitch about a lot of things... say... difficult exams, yucky snow, bitchy friends, people calling radio stations to moan about their sad life, etc. I'd thought of linking you to few of those posts, but the posts are so hateful and the language used was so vulgar, you might think differently of me so I decided against it.  But lately a few things have been bugging me and my brain has been repeating the same sentences over and over again, macam begging me to write those sentences down and I know it won't stop until I really write them down.  You know we, Malaysians are know for our timur values? Yes, we are a sopan bunch, we respect our elderlies, our leaders, we soften our comments to soften the blow, we exchange kuih during festive seasons, etc. These are all good values that I'm happy to be associated with.  But.  I would be happi...

In my last entry I told you that I like personalised stuff, stuff that tells stories. Charm bracelets do exactly that. They tell stories that only the owners can tell.  Earlier last year I stumbled upon Pandora & Thomas Sabo, and I fell in love with both ever since. I imagine each charm to represent something special in my life. They will look like ordinary charms to you but to me, they are more than just charms. They are stories. The reason I did not get them was because they are too expensive. Tooo expensive for a cheapskate like me. Fortunately, dear husband tau perangai aku and gave me one for my 29th birthday. I was happy. He gave me the "starter kit"; the bracelet, 2 spacers and 1 charm. Dia kata, the rest isi sendiri.  Baiklah! Sebelum cari my charms, I must first set the criteria: Since ada 3 column (2 spacers), my charms must fall in either one of these three categories: family, for family stories. One for each family member, signi...

I have always been a very sentimental person. I don't show my emotions on a daily basis but seriously, I am sentimental, to the point that it gets mental sometimes.  I adore scrapbooks - I keep things that may seem meaningless to others but tells  a thousand stories for me - I keep movie stubs for most of the movies I'd watched with Ach in RPI, I still have a piece of a Fall leaf from Prospect Park, when Ach and I did nothing but baring-baring on the grass, back in Fall 2004. I still have that piece of  receipt on which  Ach wrote "New York Spring 2003".  I am a sucker for personalised, handmade cards and craft projects - they show how much you care about someone, well enough to spend some time designing the cards. Bila ada celebrations coming up, I would be busy thinking what kind of card am I going to make. Beaded? Quilled? Felt? What design? What is the celebration? What does he like? What do I want to tell in the cards? I'll incorporate all of th...

As usual. Of all the things I want, there will be 1 that is totally unattainable.  Chilli Fries Nasi lemak bungkus daun pisang Lepat pisang mak Soda bandung Kuetiau goreng sogo Kuetiau goreng mak buat Nasi ambeng Gulai labu mak masak Baskin Robbin's mango smoothie Chicken biryani level 7 Shalimar , TROY, NEW YORK Chicken vindaloo Shalimar. And shalimar only.  Source Shalimar Troy Ha, amik kau. Mana nak cari chicken biryani Shalimar??? Omar Khayam tak mau. Tak sama.Tak samaaaaaaaaaaaaa.  Sekian, terima kasih. 

Without mak. Why does it matter?  Because I will be the one responsible to siapkan sahur for the family.  Yes, at 29, when others my own age are already waking up at 530 daily to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole family, waking up at 5 am for 30 days in a year, is really, really a big deal for me.  Spoilt? Yes. Lazy? Yes. Well. Lately. Yes, I have been very very lazy lately. So for all the years that I have lived, I have never been the one to wake up early and prepare sahur for everyone. Okay prolly a few times, when Abah was in the hospital and mak wasn't home, but seriously, can't recall when was the last time I took that responsibility. Usually aku bangun je the maid and mak dah prepare sahur aku tinggal makan je. When I was in RPI  i would either have early sahur or skip sahur altogether, which was bearable sebab it was winter.  Oh my goodness writing this down is seriously painful.  Now that we are living in...

When you're tempted to lose patience with someone,  think how patient Allah has been with you all the time

Yes, the title says it all. Nak tumpang glamor awan nano nano because my little brother appeared in the offcial MV yo! The only reason I even knew of the song is because of my brother whom immediately after the MV was released, gathered us all in front of his PC and proudly showed us the MV.  And mak memang proud habis. Padahal jadi budak jahat pegang kucing je pun.  Oh yeah lupa. My brothaahh is one of the three budak jahat, the one holding the cat, to be specific.  Ach also made an appearance in the last picture. In the form of a black t-shirt.  Anywayyys, okay I have to admit that Awan Nano is a nice song and I was rooting for it to win, eventhough I was secretly hoping that Abang Pejal would win. Just because he is Abang Pejal. But I was happy that Hafiz and M Nasir won, because i think they deserve it.

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?! O...

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.

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. Decemb...

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)

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.

After seven years , aChieaJanie is now complete. =)

By all means, NO, i do not miss this one. IED gave me many sleepless nights! Saje je nak tunjuk gambar i found from RPI's website hihi. Article and picture taken from here