Living with Sarah

Lepas balik from MAHA and had a good lunch of asam pedas kat Seksyen 16 Bdr Baru Bangi, we went back to my parents' place and terbongkang. Penat weh... Then at 5pm we celebrated Wana's birthday. Not many are around. Small celebration je. Birthday girl dengan cake yang dia mintak. Nampak macam puas hati. Miq the contractor and tourist guide baru bangun tido. Acara memotong kek.

Dah buat plan to go to MAHA since last week. Saja nak bawak my father jalan-jalan. We went there in 2 cars. Seawal 9.15am we all dah sampai. Parking was easy, tak lah penuh tapi kereta banyak. Breakfast kat sana and then jalan-jalan dengan diketuai oleh tourist guide Encik Miqdam. Dia memang berkampung kat sana for the past week sebab dapat contract pasang lampu. The trip was fun la jugak. Hubby and me sempat beli pokok ciku and a small pot rosemary. But then, by 12.30pm my father nampak macam penat je, so we decided to go back. Only managed to cover 1/4 of the place - kawasan penternakan saja. Itu pun dah penat gila rasa. We plan to go again this Tuesday - kalau tak banyak kerja la. Still penat nih! Buah nangka madu yang sama besar dengan badan Aliyah! Dah namanya kandang lembu memang la bau. Interesting to see various kinds of cows and goats. Lembu besar dua kali ganda lembu biasa pun ada. Rabbit farm. Machinery section.

I just finished making a birthday cake for Wana. Her birthday is actually on 30th but celebrating today. My anak-anak sedara dah tak nak beli kek kat kedai sekarang. Dok order from me. Tak cantik pun actually. Sebab "customizable" kot :). Wana ordered last month. Siap nak colour purple macam Abang Ijam punya wedding cake. And vanilla cake. So here it is... Not symmetrical and horrible writing. Lesson learned - next time must wear specs when icing cake. Akak rabun dekat lah uols. I sandwiched this cake with some icing mixed with blueberry jam.

I got the news from ex-ITP FB status. My ex-boss Lim Chong died in flight on the way back from assignment in London. It was certainly such sad news. I couldn't really sleep last night. I thought of my days working at ITP - my "real" first job. And of the kind of person LC was. I remember during my first week, I haven't gotten my PC yet and had to rotate using other sub-editors' PCs and on one busy day all PCs were occupied, he got me to use his PC. So there I was sitting in his cubicle, on his chair, using his PC while he sat across me checking print-outs. He smiled saying that day I was the boss. I remember he would chase us to go home early on Wednesdays especially after heavy issues. I remember he would wait for all of us to go back home, no matter how late it was, before he himself went home. I remember visiting him after my issue came out when I was the OC to ask for his opinion and he would stumble and stutter (in giving his comments) and finally say "O...

Things have been hectic for the past 2 weeks. Finally this translation work has passed the critical stage - stage 2. Now there are less than 200 pages more to go. So, even though I still makan translation, tido translation, at least things look brighter. The end is near. I always ensure that my projects are completed within timeline. Kalau salah client tak apa, jangan salah kita. And kalau salah client tapi kita pun sama menumpang salah, pun tak apa. Can always blame it on the client! Hehehe... Payment is on the way. Alhamdulillah... There are a couple more reasons for such hectic days. My adrenalin rush has been at the maximum level for the past few weeks. One - we have this idea that we are actively pursuing. It is still at the idea stage but progressing well. Insyaallah if things are well, it will be our main source of steady income. I pray this will be a reality. My motivation is Aliyah. I must do this for her. She is the source of this idea and inspiration. At times when my energy...

We managed to watch it today. As usual, it's quite easy to get tickets at Alamanda. We actually bought the tickets yesterday. Nak book online macam serik sikit sebab bila collect selalu dapat seat tengah even though yang atas still banyak. Might as well go a day earlier and buy tickets. Some people say this installment is boring. You just have to be a Potter books fan to appreciate I guess. To me it was excellent. A bit draggy but then that's what the first part of the book is like. All these horcrux stuff + intro to deathly hallows = quite a lot to grasp. There will be more to understand and associate in the 2nd part especially about the wands - of Voldermort's, Harry's, Dumbledore's and Malfoy's i.e. who took whose and in the end who really possess the elder wand. Have to wait 6 more months for that! Of course being a movie there are a lot of differences compared to the book. But this movie followed the book quite closely compared to the previous movies. And t...

Food galore. But I didn't snap a single picture. We went back to Melaka on Tuesday afternoon. Brought along Nurul & Fathiyah. The roads were clear. Then, the usual task of cooking, well I helped kacau rendang si Mijah. Bila rasa je - aik, apasal rasa macam rendang akak selalu masak je? Padahal recipe orang lain! Tangan orang yang mengacau rendang tu yang determine rasanya kot... That night the others started to come back. Rumah full house. This Raya was a BBQ event. We had BBQ in Melaka first on the afternoon of Hari Raya - beef, chicken, siakap, prawns & squids. Memanglah sangat yummy. Since the pit was a make-shift yang sangat comel, it took some time to cook everything. At 2.30 Miqdam called asking when we'll be coming back sebab dia dah nak start pasang api dah. With tummy stretched to the maximum, we drove back to Bangi, and arrived just in time for the first batch of BBQ on the pit. Another round of BBQ food. My BIL Abang Din sempat menyalai daging. Dengar kata na...

The collection Aliyah got + her pocket money entitled her to a = Sony MP3 Player! (From a starting budget of RM68 [yg China punya] telah meningkat naik sehingga RM159). So, di sini akak ingin mengucapkan terima kasih byk2 kepada semua yang telah menyumbang kepada tabung bantuan pembelian MP3 Player Aliyah Maisarah. Aliyah was so so happy. Now that she's asleep, I'm now listening to this fantastic tiny sound system. (Secara tiba2 mendapat inspirasi utk ke gym semula - must make my own folder in this player).

When Nurul got an MP3 player as birthday gift, Aliyah told us she wants one too. Most people say an only child gets all her wish. But not Aliyah of course. We don't comply to all of her royal wishes. We told her she needs to earn it - via saving up her pocket money + other money that she might get from other people such as those gifts from her grandparents, the pisang money, the recycled cans & plastics money, etc. So, she has been diligently saving up for the past weeks. I actually foresee she will save up enough some time early next year. But then, as always, rezeki dia alhamdulillah selalu murah. She might be getting her MP3 player next week! Let's see - her Pak Ben gave RM10 for her (belated) birthday, she got RM20 from her Acik Jal because she got good results plus the RM20 she got here and there, plus her own savings of about RM15, and today my father called me asking how her end of year results are. He promised to give all his grandchildren RM10 for each "A...

It is a day of exam results. My niece Nurul got 3As and 2Bs for her UPSR. I had just dropped Aliyah at school today, made a U-turn and saw her waving frantically. Took her home - with me being the first person she shared her results with. (I think she's one of the few who didn't have parents with her at school today). With the rough times she's been going through this year - parents separating, siblings problem, financial constraints (can't afford to go to tuition), and many other stuff, that is such an excellent result. I am very proud of her. To me - that is the "true" results of a student - so so so much better than the "drilled" down students who scored all As who are byproducts of tuition centers. Aliyah got her report card today. She got no 10! She got her BM, English, Maths, Science = A. And her BM Penulisan = B. The other subjects not counted in overall marks are all = A (the usual Arts, etc), Agama = B, and Arab C. I think this year she has ...

Time sure flies. Rasanya macam baru je Aliyah masuk primary school. Her days as a Std 3 pupil will end in 2 weeks time. She got the result of her last paper today - English. Apparently, with my expectation low, she became more relaxed and she actually got A for all subjects except her Agama which is B. Quite an achievement I must say considering she didn't study much. Not to mention her not being well for some time. Must get her a nice present. Yg selalu tunggu kat pagar is her Abah. At times we take turns. Dulu fetching her from school was usually my sole task. I really worry about her heavy school bag lah... Hope tak affect posture.

A day of eating and eating excellent food. The pictures tell the story. Lunch lauk kampung - masak tempoyak ikan patin & ayam kampung masak lemak cili api by Abang Din. Know what, of all the trips we took to Kuantan, never ever did we eat ikan patin there. Sebab my BIL masak memang sedap, so we always wait for him to cook for us whenever he buys ikan patin at his hometown Temerloh. The verdict - tengoklah my father mencapai mangkuk lauk tu! Nurul cutting the cake. This is one of the best chocolate moist cake I've ever made I think - very high in cocoa & coffee, less sugar, very fluffy butter cream (thanks to Hubby yg sama tolong) with also less sugar. Acara buka hadiah. We all (us & my Kak Long) shared to buy Nurul MP3 player. Punyalah dia excited dapat! The kids kept on menempel onto Zura - their latest cousin. My mother got her wish - menyambut pengantin baru.

Just finish icing this birthday cake for my niece Nurul. The party will be today. Sekali dengan makan-makan menyambut Nizam & Zura. My mother dah 2 minggu sibuk nak buat this makan-makan sebab lepas kenduri hari tu ramai down tergolek with fever sebab penat sgt. Right now my Abang Din and Kak Long are cooking ikan patin tempoyak at my Mom's place. Sedapnya... They came back from Temerloh yesterday. Patin Sg Pahang. Tadi dengar kata tengah bersihkan ayam jugak. Sure ayam kampung masak lemak cili api tu. Today akak tak tolong masak ya. Penat lah. Datang makan je dan bawak cake. Chocolate moist cake. Nurul requested nak cake warna pink. Since some of us don't really like chocolate (yes, yours truly actually don't eat chocolate - quite rare for a woman huh!), I made another cake - carrot cake. Hubby yg request actually and dia dgn rajin tolong parut carrot and ice the cake with cream cheese topping. Wah, sudah pandai ya.

Montel and debab describe him fairly! Selalu tunjuk terrer dengan lari laju kejar burung (never get a single one!) and panjat pokok (takut tak dapat turun je). Early mornings he would jump onto our bed and sit at the headboard looking out of the window. Hubby came home one day to this. Fat huh!

Besides her Atok, Tok Ya and Abang Nizam, Aliyah's Mak Ngah Mas and Nenek Melaka also gave her some cash for her birthday. We limited her spending to only RM50 and deposited the rest into her bank account. She must have accumulated quite some cash by now. All the money she gets from her grandparents and uncles and aunties I make sure she save up. Even the few bucks every other week that my father gives her as tokens after he sells off bananas from our kebun pisang (err... my kebun pisang!) and the recycled plastics and aluminum can (and err... I collected those!), I would save up for her. I would keep until there's at least RM50 and bank-in. And true to her name (Aliyah Maisarah = ketinggian kekayaan) she actually is very "murah rezeki". Alhamdulillah... and she's very thrifty too. Albeit having weak knees at the stationery section of a bookstore. Anyway, she got to spend on her rollerblades gear: a helmet and palm, elbows and knee guards. Quite cheap actually. Bu...