Living with Sarah

It's the eve of Merdeka. Unlike thousands of other Malaysians who throng the streets to celebrate the occasion, my little family stays quietly at home. I was in KL for a meeting and went back with hubby. At 5.15 sharp we left EPF and thank God tak jam sangat. We were thinking of watching the fireworks at Putrajaya again - it's the Japanese team's turn sure best - but then it rained and I'm pretty sure that nice picnic spot must be wet and puddled. Years ago when I was very young -Form 4 - I was part of my school's team to do formation during Merdeka celebration. That was the last few years before Dataran Merdeka was transformed like it is now. Dulu it was a just simple field. It was really fun. All Form 4 students at my hostel actually performed coincidently though we all came from different schools. The KL students from CBN and BBGS did the logo formation (Linda, my good friend/staff included). They were the ones who did the Malaysian flag, the year's logo, etc...

Final day. After breakfast, pool time till 10.30. After that kemas-kemas and checked out. Before driving off to the airport, Aliyah said her bye-byes to her fish friends. We received warm goodbye from the guy from the car rent company. Memang baik-baik orang Langkawi ni... In the departure hall, we queued up behind a Mat Salleh family from Ireland. The rest of the passengers dok melepak-lepak duduk, but we wanted to ensure we get a seat together. Ni nak cerita pasal orang Arab (again!). There are quite a few Arabs there, but none of them bothered to line up. So, ingatkan express boarders. I noticed an Arab couple sitting in the next lane - at the MAS seats. Ingatkan naik MAS. When asked to queue up, barulah orang started to stand in line. Since we all memang dah berbaris, so orang-orang lain tu line up behind us lah kan. Some of the Arabs went to the express boarders line and then got asked to queue up in our line. Ko ingat line express tu pendek pasal nak bagi ko special privilege? Bi...

Rancangan Langkawi trip tergendala sebentar. Just came back home from watching Fireworks Festival at Putrajaya. Awesome! Amazing! Mesmerizing! Or as in Aliyah's own words - "sakitlah jantung Aliyah". After my tuition class, I sat at my parents' place talking with the clan. Miqdam my nephew was also there. He got a call from a friend about the fireworks display. So we talked about it for a while and he suddenly said, "Jom Ateh kita pegi tengok!". He said he knows the exact place with good view where we could watch the display. OK lah. Called hubby who was at the driving range and we agreed to meet up after Maghrib. We went in 2 cars, Miqdam with Iqah, Azah and the 2 kids, and Aliyah joined them. On the way we stopped to buy burgers. When we reached there, there were already thousands of cars along the road to the PCC Putrajaya. Miqdam led us to the road next to a polo field. Many, many cars were already parked but we managed to get a space to park and nice sp...

After breakfast, Aliyah and I took a walk to the nearby fishing village about 200m away. There we found that the island hopping fees is cheaper than at the hotel. As much as I want to go on boat, we had already plans for the day to go to GeoPark for cable car ride and our rented car was on its way. So 3D/2N is not enough actually. We drove to GeoPark at around 11am. Nice place. Besides the cable car, there are other attractions like rabbit and deer and elephants. Horse riding village is just next door. The queue for cable car ride was long since it's the school holidays. Locals get discounts by producing MyKad. Anyway, here's when our trip got a little bit nasty. We were queuing up in the long line. Behind us was an Arab couple probably on honeymoon. Not far in front of us was a Chinese family bringing along 2 blind men, maybe their relatives. There's one staff going up and down the line and suddenly came and led the Arab couple to the front. After a few minutes we saw them...

Pictorial entry... Aliyah at the boardwalk on the way to hit the pool She's the only kid in the adults pool Giving her fish friends bread Her fish friends. Dunno what the name is Cable car view from below Aliyah & hubby in cable car. It rained in the morning, so quite foggy outside Busy bagi rabbits makan at the GeoPark Dinner at the boardwalk. Nice ambiance

The day started early. I woke Aliyah, just whispering "Wake up, mandi. We are going to Langkawi". I went to get her towels and by the time I looked back, she's already taken off her clothes. Sepantas kilat. Kalau kejut bangun sekolah punya lah susah. My father came to send us to LCCT. After breakfast of roti canai, off we went. Surprisingly, checking in was a breeze. We had more than 1 hour to spare so we wondered around the small terminal. Serious, got nothing much to do or see there, let alone place to sit. So we took turns sitting on the trolley. In the departure hall we had a pleasant surprise. Ran into Cik Mat Khusairi, an old friend / boss from my NST days. What a coincidence - same 30 sen tickets, same flight to the same destination, same little family of 3 with one little girl, staying at the same place - walking distance to each other's hotel, same length of holidays... I think he's stalking me. (Cik Mat, you jgn stalk I OK). I've never flew with Air...

Another nice song. From Grey's Anatomy Season 2 episode "Into You Like a Train". This is the song played when the 2 passengers of train accident got impaled by a pole. They could only save one - the black guy named Tom while Bonnie, the girl with more extensive injuries, had the pole removed non-surgically from her stomch and later died. So, so, so sad when she asked McDreamy to tell her fiance her last words. Later, Bailey and McDreamy were in the elevator with McDreamy having this awful look. Bailey stopped the elevator, McDreamy turned and cried. After a few minutes, Bailey asked whether he's OK. He composed himself, with his eyes red and puffy and said "Yes". Bailey pushed back the button and then they went separate ways. Sedih, sedih... Back Where I Was by The Hereafter it was summertime we had too much time we got ourselves in trouble we went to the beach then we crashed our car then we crashed another and when it hit me i could not think i decided i s...

My little family and me will be off to Langkawi tomorrow for a holiday. Remember the 30 sen tickets I managed to grab months ago? The time has finally come. It'll be Aliyah's first experience flying. And our first experience with AirAsia. I really hope things will be OK. I've asked hubby to run and grab seats. We'll be there from Monday till Wednesday. We're supposed to stay at Aseania. Saw the photos of its pool on their website and know Aliyah will love it. Hubby booked at Matta Fair. But then 1 month ago, the travel agent said they couldn't get us the hotel. After much arguing, we finally agreed to Langkasuka Beach. Looks cool too with nice white sandy beach. A better hotel I was told. Then, a few days ago, they called hubby saying that hotel too is fully-booked. What the *&@#... But then they said they will put us at Awana Porto Malai with the same charge as Aseania, and I instantaneously said OK. I mean, that's one hotel you know will not disappoint...

I was in the Smart Tunnel yesterday morning on the way to KL for our Time Management training when something funny happened. I was listening to a song on the radio when suddenly the song just stopped and the voice of a man loomed over. The man gave a full salam "Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...". I was so shocked. The voice sounded like the "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" guy with sad, slow and solemn note like he's announcing the start of bulan puasa. I switched station and found all stations carry the same voice. My first reaction was - "Oh my God, someone died. Someone must have died but who?". The "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" proceeded with salam sejahtera greeting and all the while my heart was beating like I've run a mile. "Please don't announce a death", I said to myself. This must be real bad as all radio stations carry the same thing. Then, the "Penyimpan Mohor Besar" said - "laluan ke Jalan Tun Razak...

I've not been updating this blog. Because I've been busy for the past week downloading Grey Anatomy episodes. I'm crazy about the show. I've missed so many because I only started watching the show at the end of season 2. All the while I thought it was another ER. One night I watched one episode and that's it I'm hooked. Now I'm trying to download all season 1 and the first half of season 2. Amazing, amazing story. It's one of the few shows that one can sit down, watch this crazy bunch of doctors and interns and actually laugh and cry with them. And the individual characters are developed brilliantly. Of course having McDreamy around really helps... And the way he looks at Meredith, oh my... That's the kind of look a woman would want from a man - the look that promises that the man will care and love the woman no matter what happens. Anyway, I've been a having a blast of a week. Some positive vibes are around. I'm constantly on my toes. Even ...

I just read Cinta won the best film for Malaysia Film Festival. While it might not be the best movie around, it's actually quite good. I watched it several times on Astro Showcase a few months ago. It's nice that finally Malaysia produced a movie of my liking, even though the director is not a Malaysian. So is the screenplay writer I think. If I were given a chance to produce a movie, I would come up with a movie that : 1. has several stories, inter-related and not-related at all, at one time - like Cinta, Love Actually or the Korean movie I like so much Sad Movie, or 2. has a lot of things going on but everything happen in one day like Oscar - that's one of the funniest movie I've ever watched. That would be a real challenge. Anyway, back to "cinta", real love is unconditional. Of the 5 or so stories in the movie, the best is the love story between the old couple - Rahim Razali and Fatimah Abu Bakar. So sincere. And based on companionship. I remember years ag...