Living with Sarah

Finally, the last piece of unfinished element of our house is completed - the iron rods for the fence. We engaged our own contractor. The one engaged by Miqdam was so slow and unprofessional. Mentang-mentanglah banyak dapat contract, our order macam tak buat jeh. Tu lah contractor Melayu yek. Anyway, it feels really good to have the rods installed. Rasa safe sikit. The rods are painted the exact colour as the gates. The safety rods at the back are made from wrought iron. My little vegetable patch has served me well. Nak cili? Petik je. Tak de sayur dalam fridge? Ambik je sawi kat situ. Pandan, halia, daun limau purut dan serai pun ambik kat situ. Now waiting for my tomato plants to bear their fruits. Tengah berbunga. Pokok limau kasturi is just my knee height but has started to bear little fruits. The brinjal plants - slowing growing but looking good. Just have problem with the cili api plants. Slow sangat nak besar. View at the side. My little frangipani has sprouted flower buds.

Bubu doesn't look like a kitten anymore, although the vet stressed to us he still is until he's 12 months old. He's grown so big. Dulu besar tapak tangan I je... Dah besar anak bujang aku... He seems to have fans opposite the road. Malam-malam, when he's bored, he would go visit our neighbour Rohaizat yang selalu mencuci kereta dia. Or he would go visit Encik Khalid right across the road busybodying himself menengok orang tu buat gardening. A few times I caught our neighbour carrying him around his garden. Teman I buat kerja. Tengah main dengan tali face mask. This morning, supervising some workers installing the iron rods for our fence. He is such a busybody. Suka sangat pose meniarap macam ni. Tengah geram tengok fish.

I nak promo OK. Hari Raya walaupun jauh lagi tapi baju kurung untuk anak-anak dah start kena beli kan. With the H1N1 outbreak, why not shop online. Visit Baju Kurung Cotton for Kids . Ada baju baru which we got them made just before we participated in the Budimas Charity Bazaar. Very nice and comfy too! I have almost all colours for Aliyah. Or, if you prefer to have the products in your hands, visit us at Seksyen 15, Bandar Baru Bangi. Just next to NIOSH, near the 7-Eleven. Call first!

I'm quite surprised actually that Aliyah managed to fully fast the past two days. She has never ever fast the whole day before. Of course playing with her cousins all day long helps. However, as expected, the last mile was difficult. By 6pm she's already down with hunger, counting the minutes to break fast. By 7pm she's ready in the kitchen and planned what she'll eat first. She's so cute.

Hubby and I went over to Kuantan Friday morning to submit a proposal and quotation for a state agency. It was kamikaze. The deadline was 12pm, and we reached the agency at 11.45am, just 15 minutes to spare. So I went to submit (touch), went back down and straight away went back (go). That was the shortest time we spent in Kuantan - approximately 15 minutes. We planned to spend the night before at my eldest sister's place in Kelana Jaya so that we can have an early start, but this web design partner buat hal who only sent his (below par quality of work on my standards) design the very last minute that both of us only got to go back home at almost 10pm. By then we were too tired to pack and drive out, not to mention I was too sick of this kind of behaviour my mood was really sour. What's wrong with web designers nowadays? My regular web design partner screwed up just last month on a project. I built this relationship with the client bit by bit and they trusted us. I spent the who...

We are not paranoids, just taking extra precautions. We now wear masks at public places. Yesterday at Alamanda, we were actually the few who wore face masks. It astonished me that people don't really care less. I tried to buy new masks but the 2 pharmacies I went to are out of stock. Let's do the math - there were like only 20 people at Alamanda yesterday at 2pm who wore masks but the pharmacies run out of stock. So, where did the masks go? Akak heran... Anyway, rumour has it that there are cases of H1N1 at my daughter's school but there is no action taken by the school. Don't we hear about this at almost all places? Whether it's true or not, Aliyah has not been attending school since yesterday. She stays home, only occasional outings like eat out - very very quick meals at places with not many people. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Aliyah is so excited with the coming of Ramadhan. She wants to fast. Last year separuh hari saja.This year she's determined to puasa full day. (Oh anakku yang kurus...). She doesn't really like to eat, so puasa means nobody would force her to eat. Anyway, we asked her where and what she wants to eat before puasa starts. At first she wanted to have dinner at a hotel - buffet. But then I managed to convince her that it'll be a waste of money to eat buffet dinner because she eats so little. (Buffets are a waste of money for people like her and me - eat little, then a few hours later lapar and thought of all the food that we should've eaten!). So, we settled for her favourite - Sushi King. Yesterday afternoon we went to Alamanda for lunch - week day, odd time hoping not many people are around. She can really eat at Sushi King

I am very the busy now. I have this proposal and sebutharga to send this Friday. Have to drive up to Kuantan again... Penat... next daynya nak puasa dah. Then there is another proposal to do with Hubby also due Friday. Very interesting project kalau dapat. Insyaallah dapat... I love doing Web consultation. Anyway, please pardon my lack of postings ye. Nak cari rezeki :) Apa lagi... Let's see... Hubby has been playing around with pond and buying "toys" ie this small bridge, castle and stuff. He has added 2 more kois - gold colour. So, every night we will both sit at the pond watching the fish swimming and talk. Business discussions pun buat kat tepi pond OK :) The bridge and castle. By now, we basically know the "perangai" of the fish. The kois - berlagak sikit. They come out late afternoons and nights. The talapias - funny bunch asyik makannnn je. The small orange fish - suka bully. They like to torment the tortoises. The 2 tortoises - one very very shy, asyik m...

Our pond is finally ready to receive its inhabitants. On Thursday morning, Hubby cleaned up the pond and rearranged the stones. My brother Angah gave an advise - put kulit nenas in the pond for a week to get rid of the cement toxic. That afternoon, we went to buy some fish - three little koi, two ikan bandaraya and a couple of little tiger fish. The pond looks too big for such few fish, so Friday morning, we went for more fish buying - ten little orange fish that I forgot their name, two tortoises and a couple more ikan bandaraya. Then we went to Angah's place and got eight baby talapia merah/pink. I think we are done with populating the pond. Never thought watching fish swimming at night in the pond can be so calming. The three kois - each of us picked our own fish. The orange fish is mine, the middle one - orange and white - is Aliyah's, and the black spotted one is Hubby's. This young lady lurves her littles fishes.

Dear Airasia, Thank you for sending me those emails and SMSes on your current promotions. I have been receiving them almost daily now. I once received an SMS at almost midnight I was so worried it might be an emergency. I appreciate you giving me humongous airfare discounts - cheaper than free - good one. And the airfare to Bali at RM69 I must say is really really tempting. If only I can grab those and fly off to the magical island with Hubby for our second honeymoon. However, I regret to say that we are going no where and have to decline the offer. I hope you are aware that there is this deadly virus called H1N1 spreading around like wild fire now all over the world. People are infected by the thousands and the death toll is climbing. The last thing I wish to do is to sit in the confined small space of an aircraft for hours fearing for my life and then taking a vacation with a mask covering my nose and mouth. You know, I fear H1N1 more that I fear your airplane going down and breaking...

Our fish pond is finally completed. Hubby has been "modifying" the pond by arranging the stones and "gluing" them using 3-in-1 cement. In fact, he's now quite an expert in such ponds you can engage him as a consultant :). I picked the green plant. Don't know the name though. The plant has very rough texture like bamboo leaves. That's the landscape consultant arranging stepping stones and planting grass at our garden.

Just some stories of the event on 8 August. It was a hot day. The kids from Nurhikmah came a bit late. They straight away went into the surau for a motivation talk. Aliyah and her cousin Nurul joined the talk too and they excitedly showed me some of the activities they did. The kids then had lunch and during that time, we distributed the goodie bags. There were a few extra bags and they were given to some other kids who came to the surau. There was this one girl from the home named Amira whom my brother and sister-in-law fancy. A few years ago, they surfed Nurhikmah website and fell in love with this very cute little whose face was at the homepage. The next day, they went to the home to make some donations and they actually met the girl at the door - the very same pose she had on the website. Last Saturday, my brother pointed the girl to me. She's 7 years old now, still very cute. That's her in green tudung having lunch. Her plate was full of huge heaps of nasi minyak with som...

I managed to collect RM603 for the goodies. Alhamdulillah... so many generous friends and relatives out there. Thank you so much! Two friends contributed bags; and packets sweets and chocolates. Altogether managed to prepare 55 bags. I have about RM100 balance. At first wanted to give the balance as angpows but I was so busy today I can't get the money changed. So, the balance will be given directly to the surau. The green bag on the left and its contents - a packet of stationery, a notebook, a book on solat (various from Tarawih to Hari Raya to Dhuha) and a packet of sweets & chocolates. The goodies bags... Aliyah helping out.

Mas' hubby posted her condition on Facebook this afternoon - 5 hour operation successful. She's now in ICU for 48-hour observation. Alhamdulillah...

Linda and I went to visit my friend Mas yesterday afternoon at SJMC. I was preparing myself for the worst. All morning images of my friend Mas and our memories together kept playing in my head. We were together at ATPN (84-88) and attended the same school - Sri Aman PJ. She's my best friend all those years. I remember we used to send each other letters written in unimaginable materials - sometimes tissue papers, "kertas turas", any kinds of papers the crazier the better. The letters she wrote on kertas turas (which we smuggle from science lab) would be in circles and I would complain of headache after I read them. These letters emerged at times of crisis - sometimes we had misunderstandings or merajuk or marah at each other, sometimes we wrote about our teen crushes, or even talk (mengumpat la tu) about another friend! By the end of our Form 5 year, each of us had this huge stack of little letters that we send each other. Linda and me were at the door of her hospital room...

I just got news that my best friend at school - Mas - is now hospitalized at SJMC. She just got to know a week ago that she has brain tumor. She's scheduled for surgery this Friday. I was so so shocked. We were very close back in school. She actually resides in Sudan for the past year following her husband working there and she would come back during holidays. In fact, she's back here on holidays. I'll be visiting her tomorrow insyaallah. I pray she gets well very very soon.

We were invited by the Budimas Foundation to participate in their charity bazaar last week. They found us via our baju kurung cotton blog. I thought it can be a good experience and a hands-on training ground to do sales. So we joined. It was so much fun. Besides our baju kurung we got stocks of cloths from my sister-in-law Lia (takziah to her for the passing of her sister...). I can't say we sold a lot but we did get almost RM2K for the two days (Thursday & Friday). I am quite happy. And the people from Budimas were so nice and friendly. We might do this again in December for another charity drive.

My little family watched Harry Potter 6 last Saturday afternoon. If you ask me, I think it is one of the best so far. Some people say it's quite boring. But you need to read the book. I appreciate the journeys back via the Pensieve, the spectacular view from the tower, etc. And Professor Slughorn - exceeds expectations. He was so so good. That blurry look at times with the little grins are so brilliant. And the dejected look he gave Harry before he gave his memory was so powerful you can feel how sorry he was to be the one giving info about the Horcrux that led to the demise of his favourite student. I already told Aliyah the storyline - during my bedtime stories. She knows Dumbledore will die. But the shock of it did affect her. She said she did cry a little and she was still sad when we went back home. She said Dumbledore was a great headmaster and wizard. Oh wow... deep. Anyway, there were a few girls sitting in front seats who laughed so loud during the funny scenes. And when D...

The Surau Al-Ikhlas at my place will be celebrating its 1st anniversary next weekend (8 Aug), so there'll be activities ie booths by PNB, Amanah Raya, etc, ceramah agama and lotsa stuff. You guys of course are cordially invited. One of the activities will be entertaining anak yatim from Rumah Nurhikmah. I am in charged of preparing gift packs for them. I am thinking of giving them bags (the colourful ones like those you usually get when you go to expos) and filling them up with stationary - pencils, pens, writing pads, etc, storybooks, maybe dictionary and stuff. So far I have managed to collect RM310. Still need more. There will be about 50 anak yatim, so I'll be preparing 50 bags. If you are interested to do some good deeds and contribute, I would appreciate it very very much. I was told the kids are in the range of 6-16 years old. Most of them in primary school. Let's make them happy. If you are interested, drop me a note via email. Thanks! God bless.