Living with Sarah

It's now Week 4. It's been raining heavily these past days, I suppose that's why progress has slowed down a bit. View from the front, yes, still haru-biru. The kitchen from the back. The platform I mentioned earlier has been installed. Side view. The patio has been extended with one new beam added. The work now is on the roof. Hubby plans to build a small fish pond next to the patio. Aliyah requested for it. Ada ke dia nak bela ikan keli...

I made roasted chicken with potatoes and buttered rice for dinner today. Very fast to cook, trust me - conventional oven, not microwave. As usual I would make extra - either for Hubby to take as breakfast to work the next day or to give some of the dish to my parents. My mother loves savory rice, tak kira lah nasi apa, and my father, he eats anything I cook with pleasure. My daughter, well, she needs to be "forced" to eat. Her idea of dinner is always roti canai. So is her idea of breakfast. And lunch if she has it her way. And tea too. While Hubby, anything I make for him is always sedap, and then blames me for making his stomach "boroi" nowadays. So, everytime I cook, which might or might not turn out to be delicious, I cook for those I love and I know they appreciate my effort. I might not cook everyday. Sometimes I might be too busy. Sometimes the mood is just not there and we eat out together. If Hubby comes back late, I will buy take-away for him. But I will ...

I am so touched today. Hubby tak kerja today so he offered to fetch Aliyah from school. Such rare opportunity to come back home early, sempat lah thaw stuff to cook and check out the new plant I bought yesterday. While I was doing some gardening, hubby and Aliyah came home. My comel daughter had such huge smile on her face. She came to me and announced that she has a surprise. As she struggled to get whatever surprise she had for me from her school bag, she kept on asking me to close my eyes. OKla, so I closed my eyes and sat down. Then she put this little box in my hand. Oh my God, it's a pair of earrings. She excitedly told me she bought it at the school bookshop for 50sen just for her Mommy. (Bookshop jual macam-macam sekarang?). Then she hugged and kissed me and said she loves me. I am so, so touched. It's just a 50-sen earrings with the "stopper" (betul ke ni?) to hold the earrings at the back missing but she actually bought something she knows I like. So, I put ...

Ask anybody about the current situation in the country and you get more or less the same answer. People are sick of the situation. Penat. Despite all the commotion, nothing actually gets done. What's happening is much more than a circus, it's like a zoo. Betul, betul, betul kata orang after the election last year - nothing much will happen for the next 5 years. But it's real pity that all these energy is being channeled to the wrong place. If only the powers that be use that super energy and focus it on something better, we will surely excel as a nation. Energy banyak, tapi waste on trivial or unnecessary things. Daripada sibuk allocate resources cari kesalahan orang, baik guna resources tu untuk bantu rakyat. Rakyat penat, penat, penat.

Lately, dinner at our home has become a moderate affair. Moderate in the sense that no more heavy dinner like rice with various lauk. I actually have been trying to "promote" healthy food at home for quite some time, but then, my daughter as you all know is very skinny. I need to feed her well. Hubby is also in the skinny category, and him too needs to be fed well. However, one fine day hubby came home asking if I can prepare light meals for dinner because people have started saying his stomach dah jadi "boroi". And I happily obliged. So, now rice is only like once a week, usually nasi goreng yang I like to cook extra so that hubby can bring to work the next morning for breakfast. Usually, dinner will be sandwich either egg or chicken served with fries, or hotdogs with lavish servings of salad topped with mustard and mayonaise. At times spaghetti or fried meehoon. Akak suka, akak suka, sebab all those food takes very short time to prepare. Penat balik kerja OK, and ...

It's almost week 3 and the progress is really speedy. I normally would drive by after fetching Aliyah from school just to see what's new. The current kitchen which we plan to turn into a study. The door and window have been removed and closed up. Hubby at the patio. On the right is the new dining area - with 3 high single windows. The original plan is to put a 3-panel high window but the beam from the original patio made it impossible. So, Miqdam proposed 3 single high windows instead and I love it. Also, the beam actually half protrudes at the new wall. Since Miqdam is my nephew and he knows very well that he will be spending considerable amount of time at our new house, he actually propose that the wall be made thicker so that the beam can be hidden. The windows will have some kind of platform like the ones you can see in foreign magazines where people like to put pots of herbs especially in the kitchen. Double love that! I really hope they will turn out to be like I imagined...

At the end of a business day, where I have pre-set my phone alarm at 6pm daily ( in case I got carried away with my work, lost track of the time and got late to fetch my daughter from school which did happen once or twice), these are the things I look forward to: 1. The sight of a squirrel. My drive to fetch Aliyah from school takes me to the winding roads of UKM's hutan simpan. I just love catching the sight of a squirrel, usually one would run across the electric cable to the other side of the road. Squirrels are cute and fast with bushy tail. The sight of one can cheer me up. 2. I always wait for Aliyah at the school main gate. I look forward to catch the sight of my niece, Wani, amongst the school children. She always waves to me and mouth - "Bye Mammy!", gives me her most beautiful smile, and then runs to her school van. I love catching that beautiful smile. 3. Aliyah always have this worried face every time she comes down from her classroom. I always try to look for...

Ada orang cerita kat I yang ramai juga friends expressed concern over my well-being - tanya orang tu whether I am OK or not. Kawan-kawan sekelian, I am OK :) Alhamdulillah, very OK. Dulu I tak OK kejap. I was sad, hurt, depressed, angry... At that time, I imagined that my hubby fell for someone yang cantik jelita macam Erra Fazira. Or kalau tetiba terberminat dengan yang comel and petite, entah-entah rupanya macam Mila tu ke kan (bukan macam Memey OK)... And that woman pulak, suara macam sedap I dengar kat telinga. SMS and cerita dia pulak macam hubby I tu merangkak-rangkak cari dia. Ye la kan, akak ni bukan le lawa sangat pun. Dah 35++ pulak tu. Tapi bila I dah jumpa and tengok gambar dia... Hmm... rasa macam impossible je cerita-cerita dia tu. Anak I pun terperanjat. Anak I expected father dia ada better taste than that. Seriously, she said that. And I know my hubby has better taste than that. So, now bila I baca balik SMS yang I dapat masa awal-awal dulu, I ketawa sorang-sorang. Na...

The progress this week - the foundation holes have mostly been filled up. Dah nampak tapak kitchen. Tapak kitchen on the right and the extended patio. The space yang penuh kayu tu I nak buat my "Taman Herba" - to be planted with serai, halia, kunyit, lengkuas, pandan and other stuff for the kitchen. Kat belakang pun dah nampak tapaknya. Bila dinding dah naik, baru the walls will be torn down. The space yang ada pintu belakang tu will be turned into laundry area. We plan to put up a transparent roof guna polycarbonate so that I can jemur kain anytime of the day (or night) without having to worry about the rain.

Ada orang comment kata someone pernah nyanyikan dia lagu Kekasih Gelapku - Ungu dengan nada bangganya. I'm sorry I don't share that enthusiasm. Know what I think? Lagu tu sebenarnya is very insulting atau menghina perempuan. Lagu ni ditulis orang lelaki untuk menipu perempuan dengan membina illusi yang seorang "kekasih gelap" adalah dicintai padahal dia nak cover yang dia sebenarnya nak buat main je. Seriously. Baca, fikir (guna otak) dan hayati lah liriknya dik non. Kalaulah lelaki tu betul-betul cinta, takkan lah tak nak orang tau kan. Dan part yang paling menunjukkan bertapa lagu ni memang menghina seorang perempuan yang membuat affair dengan suami orang ialah this line: "Meskipun engkau hanya kekasih gelapku..." . The word "hanya" tu bermakna serpih-serpih je. Macam, kalau I free, I can see you. If I'm not, very sorry because you are "only/hanya" someone who has no worth to my life. Macam mana akak boleh buat conclusion ni? Akak d...

This morning I took my father to Alamanda - buat roadtax and claim rebate. Kereta dia actually nama I. Selalunya orang kat Post Office Alamanda tu tak lah ramai, lagipun I nak bawak my father tukar his Digi pre-paid plan sekali. When we reached there, orang punya lah ramai. Rupanya counter bukak dua saja. So, lepas ambil nombor I pun bawaklah my father pegi Parkson jap pasal dia nak beli boxer :) It was still early, not even 11am, so most of the staff tengah sibuk bersih-bersihkan their own workspace. So, I pun bawaklah my father to the men's department, tolong dia pilih-pilih (kelakar la jugak daughter tolong pilihkan boxer - nasib baik berpengalaman). He found the ones he liked but then one of them tak ada price tag. So, I pun panggillah sorang salesgirl ni. Dia pun belek-belek seluar tu then told me, "Saya pun tak pasti.". Akak terus lah heran kan. Habih tu ko nak suruh aku buat apa? Teka harga? I told her, "Tolong carikan harga, dik". Then I keluar kejap peg...

Lama tak letak lagu kan? Hari ni I nak letak lagu Yovie and Nuno - Janji Suci. I actually like their songs very much. And more often than not, lyricsnya boleh relate with my life or relationship. And this is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard. Apa hal lak tetiba jadi romantic ni? Entah lah. Masa pegi Kuantan hari tu, Hubby dok ulang nyanyi lagu ni kat I all the way... Hehehee... Sumbang tapi suka, err... tapi, dah kahwin pon! I told him, lelaki yang nyanyi lagu ni memang ada self-confidence yang tinggi pasal dia perasan yang dia lah terbaik untuk perempuan tu. Janji Suci - Yovie & Nuno Dengarkanlah wanita pujaanku Malam ini akan ku sampaikan Hasrat suci kepadamu dewiku Dengarkanlah kesungguhan ini * Aku ingin mempersuntingmu ‘tuk yang pertama dan terakhir Jangan kau tolak dan buatku hancur Ku takkan mengulang ’tuk meminta Satu keyakinan hatiku ini Akulah yang terbaik untukmu Dengarkanlah wanita impianku Malam ini akan ku sampaikan Janji suci satu untuk selamanya ...

Last Saturday, Aliyah and me took my eldest sister out for birthday lunch at Alamanda (dah tak de tempat lain nak pegi yek?). Aliyah was still coughing and to cheer her up, took her to Sinma beli clips and work on her hair. Cute huh? Pink clips with bow and false brown hair. And she really loved the look. I MMS the picture to Hubby while he was playing golf and he said: "Lawa pulak saya tengok...".

I took these pictures this morning. A glimpse of what Week 1 has to offer: View of our house from the road. It's a double-storey terrace corner lot with quite a big yard. We bought it at discounted price (launching price) of about RM230+. Very, very reasonable price considering the space. However, it's quite basic with little furnishings which we need to do on our own. But where can you get a corner lot at that price these days? The new foundations. We are extending the kitchen about 13 feet. Current kitchen too small. We need more space when families and friends come over. Next to it will be a new bigger patio where I berangan nak duduk-duduk petang-petang minum coffee with a book in hand watching Aliyah play. The kitchen will be extended right up the the fence. Those are holes for the new foundations. The new patio will be here. The front area is quite huge. We plan to build a putting green :). My eldest brother Angah who lives 2 blocks away joked to build a putting green at ...

Finally, it started. Even though our refinancing process is still in progress, the work has started. Thanks to my nephew Miqdam, the contractor, yang bermurah hati untuk meng-finance it for the time being until we have the money plus my own money yang I always simpan with my eldest brother that he will use whenever he needs project financing. That's an excellent investment. My brother uses that money on average 3-4 times a year for his projects and I get about 10% profit from financing his projects. At the last count, I actually have about RM15K stashed with him. And that was from a humble start of just RM200 years ago! Good huh? Anyway, both of us are now busy - last week scouting for the best quotation for the kichen cabinet. And this morning, we surveyed tiles, and kitchen and bathroom accessories. Sangatlah penatnya. The house is in real mess now which will turn really ugly in the next few weeks. Hopefully, it will, at the end of April insyaallah, turn out to be the dream home ...

I'm working from home today. Aliyah demam since yesterday. Hubby took care of her yesterday because I had to conduct a training. Today she's still not well. Baru je cakap pasal she's been healthy for quite some time. So, I dah masak bubur ayam for her. She's resting in front of the TV. Just now she was so determined not to take a nap I asked her to. She said, "Aliyah rehat je boleh tak?". I said, of course but lie down. 10 minutes later, she was asleep. My company had our first training this year at The Residence @ UNITEN on 4th and 5th. Participants turn up not so good. Two people didn't show up. But it is still so early in the year anyway. As it was my 4th time conducting the same workshop, I was not too stressed out. And surprisingly, I actually managed to enjoy the food. Our usual hotel is closed for this whole year for renovation, so we had to find another hotel that is reasonable priced, provide good service, offer good food and most importantly - do...

It was a nice little vacation. Of course the person who enjoyed it most was Aliyah. I just can't forget that surprised look on her face when we took her to the hotel. Priceless! We checked-in at Palm Garden Hotel after Friday prayers, brought our stuff and surveyed the facilities. It's a nice hotel albeit we had problems with the door key. And surprisingly not many people so the pool was actually empty except in the mornings. We then fetched Aliyah from school and told her we were taking her for jalan-jalan. I think she was quite puzzled because she was still in her school uniform. Along the way Hubby layan her talking and she was telling us stories about her friends and the school right until we reached the hotel. The lobby We took her up to the room and she was making remarks what a nice hotel it is and how she wish she can stay there. We opened the door and she was so surprised seeing the her stuff was already there including her floats and swimming board. Of course la she j...

I got a pair of dangling earrings for my anniversary present. Since I dah bagi hadiah, dia pun kena lah bagi kan... I told him what I like - something dangling, something classic, not too long or too extravagant, just something sweet I can wear at home. So, hubby recruited my little comel Aliyah and they both chose these: Purple earrings with purple & pink stones. (Aliyah chose it, what can you expect - sure either purple or pink punya!). I love it!