Living with Sarah

Time flies. Rasa baru je cuti raya, dah start kerja balik. Back to the real world. I'm putting photos here. Mood tak ada lah. Got a story to tell, also later lah. Wana, Wani and Sarah pasang pelita malam tujuh likur. Wana, Wani, Sarah and their Abang Ijam. The eldest cousin with the youngest ones. My brother-in-law Abang Din, hubby and my father. My father pakai samping glamer, dapat hadiah kat masjid. Sarah with her Pak Ngah. It was a good Raya. Went to visit some old mak ciks and wans and atoks. Sedih la jugak when the old people you know dah tua, sakit and even nyanyuk. Wan Ramah, who used to stay near my mom's place, is now 95 years old. When I was in college, my parents used to visit my sister in JB and spent their weekends there. Wan Ramah would come over to our house to accompany me. Around 6.30pm, she would come over with her bag filled with telekung and change of clothes. I think she must have been 80+ then. She said takut I duduk rumah sorang-sorang, mana lah tau. Mas...

It's Sarah's birthday. She's 5 years old today. Dah besar... Sometimes rasa tak percaya that I have a daughter. I mean, there are many things in life that I know how to do, but there are millions of other things in life that I really don't know how to do like sewing, ironing, cleaning the house, cooking difficult-and-time-consuming Malay food, etc. But taking care of a child until she's now this big? Wow... that's an achievement!. Now that she's this big, this bright, this talkative, this beautiful and this good-natured and good-hearted, perhaps I've done a fairly good job... I've successfully raised a child! Sarah opening her birthday presents The day is still early. We have not even bought her cake yet. Since it's Ramadhan, we didn't buy a cake for her to celebrate at school. It's also her assessment period so better not kacau the teachers and other kids. Yes! Assessment as in EXAM. She's only 5 and she has exams. Even that I've...

I usually don't drive to KL. Many, many reasons why - reduce pollution, save money on petrol, toll, parking... However, the most important reason is because KL drivers are crazy. The moment they sit behind the wheels, tanduk setan started to grow and they become totally different people. I'm not going to elaborate on that. So, my main mode of transportation to the city is the train, usually the KTM Komuter. It takes about 45mins to 1 hour to reach KL from Bangi. That is a long, long time to spend on a train. Itu pun if the train behave that day. The KTM Komuter has this really bad reputation - the trains are never on time, slow, always break down... But like it or not, I always have to take them. I always bring a book to read on the train. Last year I read 14 books from May to December - all on the train. This year kurang sikit because I don't take the trains that often. To and fro I spend about 2.5 hours travelling, ample time to do the readings. When they say Malaysians r...

Hubby planned a secret rendevous just the two of us to Alamanda to buy Sarah's presents. Her birthday is this 19th - Thursday. So, yesterday afternoon we dropped Sarah at my mother's place and spent the next 4 hours finding her presents. Actually Sarah has told us what she wanted so buying them was not that difficult. At first, she only wanted chewing gum. That's it! (I told Afu and Aimy and they really laughed their heads off). I asked her what she really, really want for her birthday and she actually said "chewing gum". Lain? "Chewing gum je," she said. (Punya la baik anak aku ni). She has always wanted to chew gum but we didn't let her. Nanti messy, kena kat baju satu hal pulak. After much insistance and arguments, hubby finally said she can but when she turn 5 years old. So, naturally that's what she wants for her birthday. Then she saw the Barbie doll I bought for Wani and she added another item to her wish list: chewing gum and Barbie doll ...

It was a weekend of gastronomic pleasure, well, actually more of binge on food like no tomorrow. It started on Saturday with our annual buka puasa session with Zameen and his little family. For 3 years in a row, we had it at the Islamic Arts Museum restaurant. Excellent food, excellent place. The main attractions - lamb herbs and meatballs, and poached salmon. Like Zameen always said, "Makan salmon tu je dah break even!". They serve the salmon whole and we dig like crazy. Come to think of it, we go there every year and watch each other's child grow. I remember when we booked the table with 2 high chairs. Then last year there was Mohram playing music and both our kids - Sarah and Syafiq Aiman stood up on the table and dance. This year they have grown up - Sarah is 5, Aiman is 4. They are almost the same height. This year no dancing on the table though. Both were so shy-shy cat. Then both fathers took out their PDAs and the kids started to scribble and compare each others...

I have this old scale near the bathroom. The plastic that covers the numbers dah tercabut, so I drew a black line with a pen to replace the indicator. Since I more or less know how much I weigh, I adjusted the needle so that it is +2kg. So, all these while Sarah is always about 18kg. But then yesterday at Dr Wong's clinic, she actually weighs 16+kg, not 18. Hmm... so that means, the old scale is actually correct! And that also means that I am actually not 6Xkg (biarlah rahsia...)! Hah! I've lost weight.