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Showing posts from December, 2009

Ending the Year with a Blast!

Our little family was having breakfast of roti canai at Haji Tapah this morning when I got a call from Kuantan. Remember we participated in a sebutharga sometime in August? About we got shortlisted , how we traveled up just a few days before Hari Raya (dengan penuh dugaan) for a presentation ... We got the project! Yes, we got it! Alhamdulillah... After the call ended, I couldn't utter a word, my eyes went glassy. I looked at Hubby, who looked back, knew the result from my conversation and said Alhamdulillah... I could only turn to my right and kissed Aliyah very very hard. This is the first time we got invited to participate in an open RFQ and we nailed it. The journey was full of obstacles - we are small so we couldn't spend on prototype - what we demo was actually our own website, the designer ditched us the night before submission date so we modified the design on our own using Powerpoint... And on presentation day, we were against an ICT giant - my ex-employer. This is suc

New Inhabitants of the Pond

We transferred some, got new ones in... The red/pink talapias have been transferred to my brother's pond. They have become big, eat so much and a little big aggressive. Even though I actually like them because they make the pond so lively, it was time to transfer them away. After they left, the kois don't come out much anymore. We don't know why - they missed the talapias ke, they finally found peace ke... But it's so irritating to see them all snuggled away under the rock platform. It's like having an empty pond. So Aliyah then said she wanted new fish and Hubby took her to buy 3 fat goldfish - using her own money. Funny thing was, I always thought goldfish to be graceful and slow but the goldfish turned out to be so naughty with so much energy! Their playground is the rocks where water comes out from the pump where they swim against the current to try to go up on the rocks. With them around, the kois have now started to come out again. Yesterday, we got a tortoise

Grilled Steak & Potatoes

A few weeks ago, we bought beef fillets which I marinated and got Hubby to grill. He's a first-timer at the grill. And so excited. But the end result was so-so. The beef was overcooked so it was like eating daging bakar which is excellent if it were to be served with air asam :) Anyway, we tried again yesterday. We bought the fillets last Sunday which I immediately marinated and freeze. Last night I cooked my usual roasted chicken (Aliyah is not into beef), roasted potatoes (saw Jamie Oliver's version - half-boil, penyek-penyekkan sikit then roast), carrots and mushrooms. The potatoes turned out nice but not as crispy because 1) I didn't dare put too much oil and butter as shown on TV and 2) cooking time not long enough. Hubby grilled the beef to perfection - medium well. It took hours to get rid of the nice grilled beef with garlic and rosemary smell throughout the house! My plate... The medium well beef... What's left of the chicken and potatoes...

Web Mgt Knowledge

I've been trying to finish up this book I started writing last year but to no avail. It should actually be quite easy because the materials are from my training, but I kept on procrastinating. However, the book that we (Hajar & I) wrote for MPC has been published. If you are interested, can always get it from MPC :) At least I got that published! Anyway, I have started writing again. Things are very quiet these days, I am a bit restless with these holidays every Friday this month, so I picked up writing again and so far so good. And I just managed to create a blog on what my book will be (insyaallah). My new blog: Pengurusan Laman Web . (Adus, seksa gak tulis dalam BM).

Take a Drive

I have this disagreement about driving today. Not going to elaborate on that though. But my point was - be humble in everything that you do. That includes driving. Whenever I get behind the wheels, I have three things in mind. And those three things are the reminders for me to (try to, at times) be humble: 1. I am a mother. I need to stay alive as long as I can so that I can raise my daughter. I can never ever imagine how her life would be if I am not around. That's why I don't really care what people think of my driving. And I don't really care how other people drive. 2. I have a daughter. I need to make sure she is always safe and sound while I am behind the wheels. It doesn't pay to follow your anger or pride or whatever you call it and risk the lives of the people you love. Yes, I do get angry with stupid drivers on the road. But then, let the stupids be stupids. I have better things to think about. There were a lot of times when I was driving the Volvo last time th

Lost of a Tiny Thingy

After a week after getting her ears pierced, I got Aliyah to choose any of my earrings for her to put on. She chose my little white gold earrings with teeny weeny diamonds. It was a birthday gift from Hubby a few years ago. She wore it for a few days, including the picnic day. She was so proud and told me she also likes white gold just like Mommy. Yesterday, back from the picnic we found that she had lost the stopper of one of the earrings. I told her it's OK, and got her to wear my silver danglings. But I think she saw I was a bit sad for losing the stopper. It was a birthday gift after all. Last night when I tucked her in bed, she kissed me and told me she's so sorry for losing the stopper. She looked so guilty and close to tears. I told her again it's OK, I can try wearing them with other stoppers. "Tapi tu birthday present Mommy...," she said. "Tak apa...," I said. You should see that look on her face. The regret and guilt.

Picnic at Sg Tekala

We took the day off yesterday and finally went for the picnic at Sg Tekala. Of course I made picnic food - nope, not meehoon goreng (Aliyah doesn't like it) but spaghetti bolognese and tuna mayo sandwiches. Cukuplah untuk we all bertiga. We took off at 9.15am and reached there 30 minutes later. It was very early in the morning, not many people were around yet. That's the whole idea! We got the best spot. A huge gazebo to ourselves. Breakfast dulu... We didn't climbed up too far. But still, very nice... It rained the night before so the water was so so cold. Dua beranak tengah contemplate how to get into the freezing cold water. At one point there was this tiny fish that kept on "pecking" at our feet!

Aliyah's Piano Lesson

She has started her lessons for about one month now. So far so good. Very rajin to go to class. We try to send her early so that she can have some time practicing. Well, except for last week when I actually forget class starts at 3pm, not 3.30pm. Today she happily said, her teacher told her she learns quite fast. She looks so cute playing the piano... Oh, this was one of our girls activities - putting on face mask before bedtime.

Movie: My Spy

After weeks, I'm finally quite free this week after that presentation on Tuesday. We have not been taking Aliyah anywhere yet, despite our promise. Today, I took her out for a movie - only us mother and daughter. The movie - My Spy by Afdlin Shauki. My daughter is now a huge fan you see. It's a so-so. A lot of adult jokes and vocabs. In the dark, I silently hoped Aliyah didn't ask any questions. The "twins" - Carmen Soo and Daphne Iking were so hot. So was Hannah Tan. Several eye-popping cleavage scenes. A PG13 rate. Aliyah laughed out aloud anyway. My daughter also gave it a so-so. She said Papadom was much better. Setem is also much better (we watched it on ABO). If you want to watch it, put your expectation at a low gear.

Pedas Level One

I cooked masak asam ikan pari for lunch just now. It's Aliyah's favourite. Mommy: Nak tambah kuah lagi tak? Aliyah: Tak nak. Pedas sikit. Mommy: Tak pedas sangat lah. Mommy masak letak cili sikit je. Aliyah kan dah terrer makan pedas. Aliyah: Mommy ni... Aliyah ni Level One lagi tau. Mommy: Huh? Level One? Aliyah: Ye la, Level One makan pedas. Tak boleh makan pedas sangat lagi. That shows my daughter plays too much PS2. And Facebook games.

Song: Jangan Menyerah

My current favourite song. I was driving one day with all these thoughts in my head. I was at the brink of extreme nervousness and break down as for the first time in more than one year, I have quite a gap between projects. Some things are within grasp, but not yet, and we never know as anything can happen... My head was spinning. And then out of nowhere that dreadful woman's words came crashing to mind and I felt my heart being crushed to pieces. When one is at her most vulnerable, such things happen you see... And this song came on air. And I took a deep breath and thank God for I am blessed with many of His gifts. Jangan Menyerah - D'Masiv Tak ada manusia Yang terlahir sempurna Jangan kau sesali Segala yang telah terjadi Kita pasti pernah Dapatkan cobaan yang berat Seakan hidup ini Tak ada artinya lagi Syukuri apa yang ada Hidup adalah anugerah Tetap jalani hidup ini Melakukan yang terbaik Tak ada manusia Yang terlahir sempurna Jangan kau sesali Segala yang telah terjadi Tuh

Aliyah Got Her Ears Pierced

I met up with my friend Yatt today. We spent half the day at a workshop getting new tyres for her car. Not so exciting activity, but we spent the time sitting opposite the shop kat tepi tembok talking. Aliyah came along so to compensate for her boredom, after that we took her to get her ears pierced. I actually can't remember how the idea came about. So with the encouragement of Mommy and Auntie Yatt, she braved herself and the result - very cute. Here's one very happy girl.

Recipe Book Project Part II

It finally started. I'm stuck with this proposal so putting some energy into the recipe book project is a nice distraction. Aliyah took a peek and she loves it. I tried writing a recipe but my handwriting has not improved and looked like my signatures on cheques and invoices. So I decided to type instead, put some graphics where necessary, print, cut and paste the recipes onto the notebook. Faster. Less mistakes. Cleaner. Nicer. I also cut coloured papers and wrote some notes. A little personalisation by Mommy. Lovey dovey intro for my precious daughter. This carrot cake recipe is simply delicious. I used to buy carrot cake from my ex-colleague Marina. She then gave this recipe, which I then found almost the same one on a website. Of course she has adapted certain ingredient measurements to her liking. This carrot cake tastes better than Secret Recipe's. Serious.

Ipoh Trip

I was in Ipoh with Linda and my niece Atiqah on Monday & Tuesday. We organised a training for the state Govt. Training still going on until Friday by our trainer. I left Aliyah in the capable hands of Hubby. Know what, I don't like Ipoh at all. It's such a confusing town/city. The signboards are not driver-friendly. After hours of driving, I finally got the drift - when the signboard shows "Turn Left", you turn left NOW. Unlike the signboards here in KL/Selangor where when it says turn left, it means you turn left at the next turning. I spent hours finding our way around. We felt like in twilight zone - if you think of the place you wish to go, you will never find it... you will find it eventually though. But if you think of going elsewhere, you will find that place you wanted to go just now in a jiffy! But then you find the new place you wish to go hours later. And we didn't really get to eat the good food in Ipoh. Our timing was out due to our schedule, and