Living with Sarah

Aliyah spent last weekend with her Mak Long at my parents' place. Dia malas nak ikut both of us go see our kitchen cabinet guy. Then, malam ajak dia pegi dinner and do some grocery shopping pun dia tak nak ikut pasal cousins dia ada. Lagi best main-main jadi Totally Spies than go buy grocery with us boring parents. So, us the childless couple pegi lah Alamanda on Saturday night. We had a nice time together and at one point realised how "old" we already are :). It was the night of FA Cup finals but Alamanda was still so very packed with people. Our nephews semua pegi stadium tengok bola. We went to Nando's for dinner and had a nice long couples talk. By then it was already 9.30pm, so we went to Carrefour to do grocery shopping. But then we just realised that now Carrefour closes at 10.30pm, even on weekends. Alamak, why la? Cost cutting kot. Boringnya. Baru nak pilih pillow cases baru for Aliyah time pun dah dekat 10.15pm. So, we decided to come back tomorrow. On the w...

When I was sick last week, Hubby did all the monitoring of our new house. I datang pun dengan mind yg not working so properly. This morning baru I really go and had a good look. The workers are working elsewhere today. Miqdam must have an urgent project to finish. Ini actually gambar last week. Hubby kutip shards of broken tiles yg dia later nak buat stepping stones for the garden. This was taken last Friday. Hubby balik kerja terus clean up the windows yg dah tinted tapi kena plaster ceiling sikit. Hubby I ni memang rajin jaga barang :) Cornice for for living area dah siap. Hubby yg pilih design cornice ni. Too many design options I pening. Tiles for kitchen top dan siap and yg dlm half way thru. Last Saturday we finalised out kitchen cabinet design - we chose yg terus sampai ceiling pasal I tak nak habuk kumpul kalau yg 2 feet punya tu. Macam-macam benda boleh terkumpul kat atas tu... Not much difference in price - a little less than RM1K. Worth it lah buat. Plaster ceiling & cor...

My eldest sister selalu pesan kat I - kalau nak tau kebenaran rajin-rajin lah recite nama Allah Al-Batin. Al-Batin maknanya "hidden". Kalau selalu recite dan doa mintak Allah tunjukkan kebenaran, insyaallah the truth will be revealed. I baca dengan niat nak tau the truth about that "incident". Of course I believe my husband but then again, I thought macam mana pun, he is still a "man". Many times I actually doubt him. So, I niat baca semoga Allah tunjukkan kebenaran so that I can be at peace. Alhamdulillah, the truth was finally revealed. And Alhamdulillah I handled everything my way that in the end now, I just feel so blessed that we are still together, stronger and so much more in love. I read this somewhere today: "If you can get past it you might find it makes your marriage stronger". We weathered past the typhoon and now the skies are crystal clear. I sleep well at night with my husband's arms around me. Anyway, the truth I told you abou...

I just got a call from the clinic - my platlet count has gone up. Alhamdulillah... So, tomorrow morning no more taking blood samples. I've been a regular face at the clinic for the past 5 days, every morning ambik sample darah. Aliyah sampai dah tak kisah tengok jarum cucuk lengan I. And if I see another 100 Plus bottle, I'll throw up! So, tomorrow I'm going to work. Finally! I'm fully-booked tomorrow. Morning meeting with Hajar... then after Friday prayers meeting with Atom... then a new project a friend just offered (this guy always, always calls me when I'm sick)... final draft of that guide book... preparation for the new project early May... then perhaps can slot in time to draft summary for our book to present to the publisher... more phone calls to make hope to get a couple more projects... I need to work all out to pay for the house, and ehem, who knows a dream car! Hehehee... It feels good to be healthy again. It's not 100% yet, but this feels really go...

Tiba-tiba teringat one piece of paper I found last year where my daughter wrote about our jobs. It goes something like this: Ibu saya bekerja sebagai seorang boss. Bapa saya pula bekerja di pejabat dengan bossnya. Update by Aliyah's Mommy: Boss bapa saya bukan lah ibu saya ye!

I've been sick for the past week. I'm still at it actually, having the worst viral fever ever since last Thursday. My platelet count is low but does not "qualify" it as dengue yet. But it's still the same - the body aches, headaches, red spots, etc. Anyway, Hubby has been taking care of me. Yesterday he even fried chicken for dinner. Achievement tu. And I've been a regular visitor to this clinic - have to go do blood test for 3 mornings in a row now. I hope today's results is OK. I've not worked for a week now I feel so restless.

Setelah agak slow and steady this past week, tiba-tiba minggu ni progress laju lah pulak... Windows semua dah tinted. Concrete fence pun dah siap. Tiles kat kaki lima patio dah start semalam. Hari ni sure siap nih. Tiles for kitchen top pun dah start. Sink dah ada. Miqdam bought yang 2 bowl besar and 1 small bowl in the middle. Nice... Bila tiles kat dinding dah siap baru boleh panggil contractor kitchen cabinet datang ukur.

My dreams tak lah tinggi. My dreams are always something out of my reach but achievable if I were to work a little bit harder. Itulah namanya cita-cita. Kalau dream something yang tak mungkin tercapai namanya angan-angan Mat Jenin. This is about my dream car. I'm not really a car person. My purpose of having a car is to drive it around and get me to places. Anyway, my first dream car was Satria GTi. I sangat suka kereta yang "gembol" iaitu rendah, agak debab dan laju. Before I got married I drove a 1.3 Satria. After I got married, I sold it and share kereta Iswara my Hubby. After I got my Masters, teringin nak tukar kereta. Selepas diracun oleh my nephew Nizam, we bought Satria GTi yang sangatlah best itu. I bagi nama dia - Si Gembol. I loved that car. It's 1.8 and Lotus technology yang awal-awal tu. Rumors has it that the later versions dah ditone-down sebab polis komplen tak larat nak kejar Satria GTi. Rumors la kan... Kalau lepas bayar tol kat Sg Besi, belum jalan ...

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Rain, rain go away, come again another day... Week 10's progress not so good. Quite slow due to the rain. But it's OK, we are patient... Yesterday we went to a nursery near my office and finally found a nursery which gives us the best price to tanam rumput and a few trees. Alhamdulillah, in the course of our house renovation process, we are actually blessed to have met good people. Our contractor Miqdam is excellent. The shop we bought the lights and fans for the house is also excellent giving us good price and advise. The aunty at our regular furniture shop is also excellent helping us choose the right kind of furniture with our kind of budget. Now the Indian guy at the nursery is another excellent supplier. We managed to get half the price that we scouted around previously. We are now "seasoned" with this business of house renovation :) Hubby having a smoke with the workers. They are doing details on the fence - this skirting. The skirting completed. They have sta...

Progress quite slow lately. Except for the wall / concrete fence that is already plastered, the details have yet to start. The workers are finishing up the last "big works" before going into details. I usually stop by every other day but Hubby goes over every single day, even on days he comes back late. Sungguh bersemangat. We have selected the paint for the rooms as well last week. Most will be earth colours and some reds on selected walls and yellow for the kitchen. Our room - also earth colour. Aliyah chose purple and pink, as predicted. As you wish my little princess... The wall separating us and the neighbour completed. The wall / concrete fence also completed. The irons rod not installed yet. The wall at the back also completed.

The guide book is finally finished. We did it! Hajar and me! In about 3 weeks. It's A5-size. Originally was supposed to be around 72 pages including cover but ended up being 82 pages, and maybe more as we intent to add a few more items to make it user-friendly, provided the client agrees of course. Last year we completed 5 books ie training materials for our ex-employer. I think we can really do it - write books. If only we can focus and really put our mind into it. And that's what I intent to do. We'll write some books! Err... next month! If I can't change the way our local Govt websites "behave" via my trainings, perhaps a book might do it. Perhaps I can just get someone from Mampu to read it and make the whole agency realise that their website guidelines simply suck, and that their policy for compliance makes our Govt websites like those of the dark ages. Sampai bila la awak semua nak sibuk cerita pasal piagam pelanggan la, misi la, visi la, your boss' ...

My dear friend Enida describes a marriage in such a simple and beautiful way - Porta La Distancia ?. Precisely what I have in mind. Dan orang tua-tua kata, kalau tak paham jugak baik terjun dalam lori sampah. Because that's where such person belongs. Marriage is much, much more than those "little excitements" that one can brag about. And one's mind (and her little brain) can be so shallow to the brink of being stupid and ignorant in believing that if one's husband feels so strongly about his wife, that the man is actually controlled by the wife, or stayed together because of the child. I often wonder how can one be so intellectually-challenged to believe that six months of love affair via SMS and telephone can easily break a decade-old marriage. And that six-month period qualifies her to declare that she knows the man better than the wife. Stupid is such a nice word to use.

I'm doing a short campaign to raise funds for the construction of a surau currently being built at the Taman of my new house. The campaign is until 15 April 2009. See below my email to friends and the text of the campaign page on FaceBook. ---------------------->>>> Dear friends... Surau Al-Ikhlas Taman Impian Putra is a surau currently being constructed at a new "taman" where I'll be moving to soon. It's located next to Bandar Seri Putra. It's now being constructed using donations from the residents and some other individuals. My eldest brother is one of the AJK surau and the contractor building it. The surau is in need of funding. The AJK has applied for financial assistance from relevant authorities, however, in our country "politik dan ugama tak boleh dipisahkan". Twice their paperwork was rejected due to - "the location of the surau is in the DUN controlled by the opposition, and the Govt's policy is not to help developments...

I usually update my blog after midnight, so, "alignment" date pun dah lari. Anyway, yesterday, Sunday, was the furniture hunting day for Hubby and me. Aliyah spent the night with her Mak Long on Saturday night. Her chicken pox is getting better. Mak Long dia ni memang cari peluang je nak kidnap anak I buat teman tidur dia. Then, the next morning mesti dua-dua "gaduh", sorang kata yang sorang lagi baca doa tidur kuat sangat, yang sorang lagi pulak tidur lasak la... So, knowing Aliyah is in safe hands, and also knowing Aliyah would rather stay with her Mak Long than driving around with us doing things she has no interest in, we went alone. We finally completed our curtain hunting. All materials for curtains bought, including the tapes for the rings which we managed to get at a very cheap price. I hope Linda will "experiment" well. This will be her first time doing the ring-style curtain. We then went to several places to look for a few pieces of furniture w...

Today was a sister-sister-sister outing day for me. One of those rare times that I actually went out together with my two sisters - my Kak Long and Kak Lang - at the same time. My Kak Lang tengah nervous ada orang nak datang merisik Atiqah, so we went out to buy some gifts for the rombongan coming next week. We spent the entire afternoon at Alamanda, and ended our outing with a nice dinner. Hubby was left home alone. He's nursing his backache... the kind of pain that I get whenever I get my monthly thingy. It's funny actually. Ever since I gave birth to Aliyah, he actually shares my monthly pains. I suspect that during my pregnancy, which was a terrible ordeal for me, Hubby might have doa something to lessen or share the pain I suffered. Maybe lah. You know, these husband-wife thingy can work in mysterious and mystical ways. How can one explain that? But it does happen to him every month. And another funny thing is - I actually do feel lesser pain than before. That's why I ...

It's week 9 now. It feels like forever pulak. Bila boleh pindah nih? Pictures this morning taken after breakfast. The wall is almost completed. Cepatnya diaorang kerja. This is actually the cheapest kind of wall we can get. But I actually like this because it doesn't suffocate. I hate the trend nowadays where walls/fences are more than one's height tall, it feels like a prison. This is half concrete, half iron rods. I can still see people outside, and people can still see what's going on inside. Look at the angry clouds I captured! Hubby plans to install electric gate, one fine day, dunno when. Bila ada duit lah. So, there is a need for a small gate at the side. The porch from another angle. The white boards are plaster ceiling for the kitchen. Our bedroom. Our jamban, if someone needs to know.

Cik Sri Siantan, Saya ialah isteri orang berumur penghujung 20an sipi-sipi nak masuk 30. Saya berkenalan dengan seorang suami orang bernama H. Sebenarnya atas soal kerja, saya telah menolong H dan H telah mengoffer untuk belanja saya makan seperti mana dia telah mengoffer 50 orang lain yang telah menolongnya atas soal kerja. Saya pun pergilah berjumpa dan saya dapati dia seorang yang friendly dan caring menepati ciri-ciri yang saya cari pada seorang suami. Saya pun menipu H dengan mengatakan bahawa saya single-mingle dan akan kahwin lagi sebulan-dua dan saya tak pasti sama ada nak kahwin atau tidak sebab bakal suami adalah pilihan keluarga. Padahal saya sebenarnya dah kahwin sejak tahun 2005 lagi, alignment body saya pun dah lari. H yang caring ini telah menasihatkan saya agar memilih suami yang saya suka kerana perkahwinan itu forever, tapi sebab saya dah kahwin saya pun berpura-pura tarik tali kejap nak kahwin, kejap tak nak dan akhirnya kahwin terpaksa. Selepas itu saya buat cerita ...

It's week 8.75 la lebih kurang, not 9 yet. Yesterday I came back from my training session with the sun still shining brightly at 6pm and went over to the house to see what's new. The patio has been fully tiled. Fantastic. We love it. The whole patio thingy was my idea but the tile design was Hubby's. Shades of dark brown dan light brown also but different colour from the porch. Our budget actually does not allow us to build a wall around the house. We are contented with just the green wire fence for now. But my nephew said to finish up everything before moving in. Easier. He said he'll do the wall first and later we can discuss the pricing. Yesterday we found he's already started on the foundation for the wall.

I've been wanting to write about my nephew Miqdam aka our contractor and how proud I am of him. This is a living example of someone so young yet so "seasoned" with life. Miqdam is the eldest son of my second sister. Both his parents are "Arqam" people. When he was a kid, he's one of those kids wearing those huge and heavy serbans you can see around bus stands selling magazines. He's been transferred to numerous schools, their schools of course. It started after I got married. He came back from JB for my wedding and ever since, he would try to come back often to his grandparents' place. One day he didn't go back. He stayed and wanted to take his SPM here. But he couldn't transfer to a school because he was not "officially" schooled at a Govt school. Hubby and me registered him at a tuition centre at Bdr Baru Bangi. But then his father came and took him away, this time to Kelantan, to one of their sekolah pondok. A couple of months la...