Living with Sarah

A lot of progress this week. Everything will be completed by next week, insyaallah. We plan to get my father to "buka rumah" next Saturday and move on Saturday the week after. All windows have been installed. The lights and fan at living room also installed. The rest will be next week. We selected this pair of nice crystal lights at very affordable price. This shop we went to at Section 5 Bdr Baru Bangi is good. Dylan, the guy we deal with, gave good advise and good price too. We got those lights at half price. Oh, he's the one who drives that Clio Renault I wrote about. Towkey kedai lampu pakai Clio... Ish, ish... The kitchen cabinet has also been installed. Now the workers will complete the cornice and the small red tiles on top of the window. We also ordered this bench for the kitchen. Hubby wants a place for me to sit and rest kalau balik kerja terus masak. We already bought a few cushions to put on top. Kalau susun cushions tu siap boleh baring lagi :) Also good plac...

Unlike last year, this year has been quite hectic for my company. And I thank God for that. Alhamdulillah, sangat bersyukur. So, dah nak masuk June ni, I decided that we should go out and stuff our bellies with good food in return for all the hardwork we've done so far. So last Tuesday, we gathered for lunch at Palm Garden. I actually have only 2 full-time staff - Linda and Hajar (on contract). Others are all I call "Dextra family" or partners. I believe in smart partnership and that's the main reason how I can sustain this business. So, the closest partners now are both my ex-colleagues Atom and Casfian. We "practically" work under the same company. Casfian rents the first room at my office whereas Atom uses my company as his virtual office, well sometimes physical too as he does drop by from time to time. Here are (some hidden) faces of the family: Atom (left) and Casfian. We call Casfian - pak cik - sebab selalu buat kerja last minute and buat Linda's...

Lama tak cerita pasal Bubu. Here's Bubu the kitten in his cage. Dia suka buat pose tunjuk perut macam ni. We keep him in the cage when we go out. Bila balik, dia dengar bunyi kunci je, suara punya kuat sampai kat luar. When we are home baru dia boleh keluar. Very naughty cat. Rumah I yang huru-hara tu memang semua tempat dia panjat. The little balls we gave him, semua entah kat mana dia sorok.

We achieved a lot this weekend and I am so very tired. After breakfast this morning we watered the grass and the pokok lengkuas and pandan we planted yesterday. Today tambah satu lagi pokok - halia. Hubby tanamkan pokok lengkuas at my taman herba petang semalam. Those cowgrass are the squares I dug up at my parents' place. Next week nak kena gali lagi. The barren spot now looks a teeny weeny bit better with some cowgrass, lengkuas, pandan and halia. Next week nak tanam serai, kunyit and bring over my pokok cili and limau purut. Our garden now - spots of grass sebab nak jimat belanja sikit. Andy, the guy from the nursery said they will look better in a few weeks' time. The empty spots are for our future gazebo and pond - yang belum tau bila nak buat. From another angle. That's my little yellow frangipani. FOC from Andy. Another palm tree - the fox tail on the right - is also FOC. He's given good service and price thus far, so let I'm going to promote him. His nursery...

My day started early today. Hubby had to work, so I'm the one doing the chores for the new house. The guy from the nursery was supposed to come plant the last tree - a frangipani - at 9am. I was there at 9am sharp, brought along a plastic stool so that Aliyah could sit. She is so prim and proper, she doesn't like her clothes dirty. But the guy rescheduled. Then, had breakfast with my brother Angah and a visit to the new surau (the one I'm collecting funds for). The work is progressing well with funds from donors. Then, back to the house to wait for another contractor to come install auto-gate. However, now there is this super-huge garbage bin right in front of the house for the debris and I tested opening the gates but they can't be opened entirely. Called Hubby and he rescheduled the installation. Miqdam was also around and he advised to paint the gates first because he needs to take the gates out to be sprayed. After that, went to my parents' place. I then started...

The progress for this week. We target to move in this school holidays. The walkway has been fully tiled. The left side will be pebble-washed. The work at the garden started yesterday. They planted palm trees and now working on Japanese grass. I visited this morning, all work should be completed by today. Hubby putting markers on the places not to be planted with grass. Kerja keras... My kitchen with the red tiles. I so love this. Our bedroom has been painted. Feature wall red, the rest green - Hubby said "therapeutic" green. Err... to whom it may concern, jamban I tak de nak cat warna lain ye.

I just came back. Alhamdulillah, selamat pulang :). And Alhamdulillah Allah permudahkan urusan hari ni. Tapi the trip there agak mencabar actually. I met up with Amir, our partner, at my office and we drove off at around 9am. I drove and we were met with a massive traffic jam. Crazy, at almost 10am we were still in PJ at LDP. Nasib baik Amir has a GPS installed in his brain, so masuk jalan lain and managed to get onto the highway bound north. And nasib baik akak ada talent terpendam bawak kereta macam driver F1, so we reached the agency at Behrang lagi 5 minutes to 11am. Cool tak akak bawak kereta? I managed to avoid being flagged down by a police road block kerana dengan innocentnya membawa kereta at 110km/h at strategic places, ehsan the opposite drivers yang memberi highlights. At other safe unstrategic places, akak tak tengok pun meter tu. Heheheeh... Dah lambat beb. Meeting pukul 11.30. Semalam baru Hubby tegur I bawak kereta laju. I sent Aliyah to my mother's place, then drov...

I'll be driving up to Behrang tomorrow morning for a presentation to an agency with 2 partners. Wish me luck :)

The end is near, I was promised the end is very near. Quite a lot of activities this week. We met up with Miqdam at the house yesterday evening to finalise stuff. The grills will come in next week. And the rest of the details will also be completed. I wondered for the whole week why oh why that wall on the left is left not painted. Nak kata cat habis, memang ada. Miqdam said the top part does not conform to its pair. Apparently the workers followed the rest of the fence so he wanted it fixed. I see... tak perasan pulak. My nephew is a perfectionist juga... Painting work completed for the concrete fence. We chose green. Taklah match sangat. But then when the grass and trees come in, should look better kot. The new extension has also been painted in orange like the rest of the house. The back portion paiting job also completed. My little princess in her royal chamber. The room has been painted in a nice pink for the feature wall and light purple all around. The princess said she prefer t...

I still can't believe this. It started with a visit to the nursery at Section 15 this afternoon to discuss grass planting for our garden, then lunch at Ayam Penyet near my office and just a little glimpse at the pet shop next to it, and we ended up bringing home a kitten! Yes, a kitten! Blame it on Hubby. Aliyah was with her Mak Long, as usual. We went to the pet shop and next to the door was a cage with 4 kittens sleeping inside. I know Aliyah loves orange/yellow cat but the kittens are dark in colour. One of them - the biggest one with furs protruding out of its ears woke up. I took it out and it warmed up to me immediately, licking and nudging my fingers. The owner, called Pak Cu said, "kadang-kadang, kucing yang pilih tuan dia, bukan tuan yang pilih kucing". That kitten was so naughty running around but it always came back to me. I think both of us fell in love with it right away and we know Aliyah will love it too. So Hubby bought it. We took it back and you should s...

Despite all the commotion, I pray our rezeki will be in Perak. However, our current translation work for the state is on hold. Kejap we translate the speech of the BN MB, then we translated the PR MB's speech, then just when we started to receive some batches of new materials to translate on the new BN MB, the MB sudah tukar. Then, 21 hours later, MB sudah tukar lagi. Haiyoo... bila mau settle down nih? We want to finish up our job OK. Next week, a few of us will travel up to Behrang to do a presentation on KM to an agency. The week after, we'll be going to Ipoh to present to one of the state agencies. I pray our rezeki is there. After painstakingly driving my company for the past 3 years, slowly building its name and gradually getting people to notice and attend our trainings, this year looks good. Through our trainings, we get invitations to present and demo what else we can do. It's a blessing I have a couple of ex-collagues now with me. Alhamdulillah.

It's been a stressful month for me. Ingat nak pegi gym to work out to relief stress tapi asyik tak dapat nak pegi je. I've been working from home since Wednesday because the others were at Residence for our training, but still I worked and worked. And today, since my staff are not at the office, I decided to give myself a day off. And I went shopping. Which actually is so very not me because I'm not a "shopping person". Seriously. I seldom shop for clothes or shoes. I only shop for groceries. Or household stuff. Or stuff for someone else. Or accompany someone else shopping. I used to indulge in this "activity" long time ago - when life was easy and money was in abundance. I mean, not rich la, but then zaman dulu-dulu mana ada hutang - no car, no house, no creadit card, no phone, no insurance, nothing. Salary of one thousand plus was a lot! But after my bad experience when I didn't get salary and was broke, I've always been careful with money. Any...

I had a meeting in KL yesterday. My ex-colleague invited me to join his project. Ada ramai trained people in his company pun he still wants me :) That says a lot lah kan. Hehehe... Akak suka, akak suka. Rezeki jangan ditolak. So, I'll be having 3 projects at the same time. No problem. I've had more when I was working full-time back then. Tapi sekarang macam dah malas sikit. So, need to buckle up. Anyway, as predicted, I had to wait to see him. He's all around KL termasuk menjadi driver kepada boss dia (nasib kau lah Labu). So, I spent the time at Kinokuniya. And found another of my favourite author's book - Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase. Susah nya nak cari his books. And I started reading right away. It feels good to read his words again. It was actually good that I see his boss again (my ex- no 1 boss). He is the only person who calls me "Cik Aniza!".

I don't usually hate things. Because I am a nice person. I always accept things as they are. However, just recently ie late last year I started to hate certain things. The hatred is so very pure and the feeling of despise is very strong that I might punch someone on the face if I ever see that person. Like today, I got so angry I slammed my fist on my desk because this guy screwed up resulting in my company domain being expired even though I paid in advanced. Imagine if I slammed my fist onto someone's face. Nice. Anyway, these are the things I now despise: 1) Ayer Keroh. Because someone stupid works there. 2) Lagu Kekasih Gelapku. Because someone with otak kat &*%^ idolizes this stupid song. 3) Cerita Melayu yang conversationnya menggelikan telinga like "saya perlukan awak untuk menceriakan dan mewarnai hidup saya". Because someone emails someone else such meloyakan words. 4) Kereta Toyota Caldina. Because someone said that's her dream car ada hati ajak someo...

I'm so happy this week. The workers have started painting! They completed the 3rd bedroom - in Apple White. Very nice. Smells nice too. The kitchen is now in progress. We selected this orange shade for the kitchen. In the bright afternoon sun, looks kinda "peachy" colour. Nice. The doors are now red. So are the railings of the stairs! Miqdam raised his eyebrows when I chose red at first. But I said I want a bright house. I don't want too many "safe" colours. The water filter has been installed. This will solve my laundry problems - no more brown spots on whites when there's water problem. The Chinese guy who installed this said to Hubby - "sekarang mandi tak payah pakai sabun!" Haiyaa... itu macam ka?

Here's a warm wish to all my friends who are mothers out there. Happy Mother's Day hot mamas! My family celebrated it a day earlier - today. At around 3.30pm, the clan gathered including my eldest brother Angah. My father baca doa selamat and right after, the cakes were attacked. A glimpse at at the damage done. What's left of the carrot cake. Kak Ros said this tastes even better than the ones she always buy at a bakery near Tesco. The kids especially dug into this. Well, the grown ups too!

Have not been baking for quite some time. Too busy. Ada opportunity hantar cakes to a co-op pun dah dekat 3 weeks tak dapat nak try hantar first batch. But I'm saying Alhamdulillah all the way. Busy is good. Having 2 projects at the same time is good. Having people calling us asking us to do presentation is good. Dapat atau tidak does not matter (of course we try our best lah). Alhamdulillah again... However, today I abandoned all work and projects to bake 2 cakes. My sisters and I planned a get-together to celebrate Mother's Day and also group birthdays tomorrow. The cakes are my contribution. So today, Linda and I baked Carrot cake and Chocolate Moist cake. Not cuppies this time around, but round cakes. To tell you the truth, we are not qualified in baking. The only class we attended was this cupcake deco demo last year and the class sucked. We tested recipes from the Internet and some were given by friends (yang sure sedap punya). We learned from YouTube on how to frost and ...

The movie is coming soon. I'm rereading Angels and Demons.

I dropped by this morning. Progressing well. The concrete fence has all received the under coat paint. Not outer paint, I silap. Apa la... This morning the workers were working on the plaster ceiling for the kitchen. The tiles I chose for the wall at the kitchen top. They arranged the design on the floor first. Really hope these look nice on the wall and suit the kitchen cabinet Walnut colour we selected.

Got a rose with a tiny white teddybear the day before yesterday. Aliyah bought it at the school's pusat sumber (pusat sumber pun jual barang?). She barely contained her excitement when I fetched her from school. This time around she learned her lesson well. She kept the flower in her bag. Yesterday she came back with a Mommy Day's card she created at her art class. It's now securely pasted on the fridge. Her card and rose She told me during art class everybody created cards with drawings of flowers and loves but one boy got scolded because he drew picture of a monster (I suspect it's a dinosaur or some Ultraman villain). The teacher told the boy, "Kesian mak awak dapat kad gambar rasaksa (betul ke eja ni?)". I actually don't agree with what the teacher said. No wonder budak-budak sekolah nowadays tak berapa creative. So what if that boy drew a picture of a monster. I'm sure his mother knows him well that he's crazy over monsters and will him love w...

Hubby completed the sketch of his garden design. And last night we had dinner with Miqdam to discuss progress work and also the new idea. So happen that his workers just finished the fish pond at the bungalow he's currently doing, so we might go have a visit this weekend. Aliyah might be getting her little river and bridge after all. This Saturday an outdoor water filter will be installed, so there will be people coming to clean up the water tank and set up the water filter. Hubby jumpa one hardware store kat Seri Putra ni yang boleh bayar installment. Bagus... Hubby's sketch. Boleh la kan :) Design dia ada stepping stones, cengal gazebo, fish pond/little river with bridge and stepping stones, the trees to plant and a putting green.

Week 13 already? The end looks so near yet so far. Our refinancing process baru nak start next week between the 2 banks. Reason? Affin Bank kata too many applications for refinancing. Letih la nak cerita pasal banks ni. So, we probably will get our money in 2 weeks' time, if we are lucky. Today Hubby took me to this nursery yg byk jual cengal products. Excellent place. Kalau ada duit, memang macam-macam boleh buat kat garden tu. Now we are having second thoughts about the little fish pond we put a little deposit the other day because at that nursery, we saw this beautiful small man-made river complete with a tiny bridge across it. Aliyah sure suka punya. She did request one actually! So, Hubby tengah mendesign the new idea for our garden. We plan to have Miqdam do the basics ie dig out the pond and cement it, and we do the finishing DIY way. Save cost. Anyway, we visited the new house in the morning, then deposited Aliyah at my parents' place - Mak Long dia ada. After our trip ...

Aliyah brought back a white stereofoam cup stuffed with wet cottonballs and 1 biji of kacang hijau from school last week. She said her science teacher gave each student 2 seeds, but she lost one. They are supposed to grow the seeds. The seed she brought back macam tak bagus sangat took so long to grow, so I got her a few more and got her to grow them in another container. Presenting: Aliyah's first science project - menanam pokok taugeh!

Snow the Mommy cat gave birth to 3 kittens about 2 weeks ago. Now the kittens have taken residence at the back of our house. Very naughty. Mok, the "eldest brother" pun sama tolong menjaga. Mok yg on the right - he's very fat! Snow nursing the 3 kittens - 3 different colours - orange, white & black. But all wear "white socks" Aliyah playing with them

Aliyah walaupun demam ajak we all pegi Alamanda sebab dia teringin nak makan cheezy wedges. Sampai sana Hubby tak da perasaan pulak nak makan KFC. We saw a new restaurant yang replace The Coast - Bayou. So, Hubby ajak try the food. Aliyah bila tau ada pasta, memang fav food dia. So, we tried. I feel it's so-so and service is quite slow. Sebab baru kot. We had garlic bread and mushroom & chicken soup for starters. That was quite good. Aliyah's favourite. Because of that she didn't finish her fettucini carbonara. I had stuffed chicken mushroom, so-so je because the tomato basil sauce on top of the mashed potatoes was too overwhelming. Hubby had steak - usually steaks can't go wrong. I like The Coast. It's actually similar to Chillies but the food there are cheaper and in smaller portions. Love the mashed potatoes. Nak gi Chillies jauh. Once I asked the waiter and he said most of them are from Chillies KLCC. Diaorg started their own business kot. Now dah tutup bosa...

During my quiet time with Hubby last weekend, when we talked about us, one topic that surfaced was - Hubby said he doesn't believe I was sincere when I once told him that I will allow him to marry another one if he wants to. I told him the offer still stands - but: 1) he needs to comply to my "requirements" ie he needs to pay for the cars and the houses, pay for Aliyah and my expenses, pay for house expenses like groceries and bills - all of them where I don't have to contribute a single sen (ye la, kalau dah berani nak kawin satu lagi, mesti lah berkemampuan betul tak?) 2) I will give my blessing but I will be sad for rest of my life (at this point he actually drew me close and kissed me - ehem, nak pujuk lah tu) 3) I didn't tell him this but the woman mestilah yang I approve and must not be some stupid married woman and hypocrite who sends her compromising photos to another man (macam mana nak jadi isteri yang baik kalau belum kahwin dah buat benda-benda pelik) ...

It's been a while. Busy lah. Just finished 2 days workshop at Residence and I am bushed. Pancit. The viral fever drained all energy apparently and I struggled to try to keep up appearance - like I'm really enthusiastic and enjoying the training whereas I was actually down with bad headache and lack of stamina. The training rooms at Residence do not have good ventilation and if I have eyes that can see microscopic stuff, I'm sure the dust on the carpet are like one feet high and we are actually swimming in them. So, all through the training my eyes were watery and my forehead felt it's being ripped apart. But then, the show must go on kan... what to do. I must say it was not one of the best workshops I conducted, but it was surely one with a full house participants - 17 people. I was not really satisfied with my performance but I pray they learned something out of it. And Aliyah was not well. It's her turn kena viral fever pulak. She was on MC for 2 days, went to sch...