Living with Sarah

Finally, today, the carpet is installed. So, insyaallah, tomorrow we are finally moving. Must vacuum the dust first, then wait for the training room furniture to arrive. We'll be stationing ourselves at the training room for a while. Until the workstation comes in. That will only happen after the funds are in. Hopefully, the officers processing our funds are always in the office to do their jobs in time. *Sigh* We chose red!

Flowers are currently blooming in our garden... A nice late afternoon view after the heavy rain. Once, this frangipani tree almost died on us. All of its leaves turned yellow and fall off. There was a time that there was not a single leaf on it. But we just let it be and a few months later, little sprouts of leaves came back. This is the first bloom of flowers after months and months. There is another bunch of flowers coming up at another branch. Smells heavenly... I botakkan this Thai Jasmine some time ago when its branches became thin and flowers got less and less. Now new leaves and branches have grown. Looking healthy. This is one of the few new flowers. The halia bara flower. This tree has flowers all the time. Last week we realised that after some time, the flower will grow leaves and roots. All these while, I thought this plant grows from roots. So I cut one and tried to plant it in a small pot. Let's see if it grows. Funny...

Nope, we have not moved yet. How I wish! It's tiring having 2 places to manage. Not to mention having sore eyes looking at the stacks of boxes at the old office and still dust at the new place. Miqdam the Contractor assured us that the carpet will be installed this week - hopefully tomorrow. Then, we are getting the training room furniture in, and then we are set to move. The workstation and the others can always wait. Suddenly, there's so much to do. It's been a quiet January and February - which is a good thing because we finally completed the proposal for that idea I had. Today, Eza and me submitted the proposal to get funding. I pray we will get the assistance. I put the final full stop to the proposal on Sunday evening with such relief. And I was planning to take a day off this Thursday to have some Mommy-daughter time with Aliyah and for once for the past months I planned (and pledged) not to switch on my laptop for 24 hours and have some fun with Aliyah. But then wor...

I did mention in the last post about "this talk about cycling and walking" to the new office. Since my fitness programme has been shelved for months - with all these valid excuses such as deadlines, cough and the likes, I believe I must kick start that programme before my kgs reach that dreaded number on the scale (adalah this number that is very close already). So, this morning, Hubby and me got in our sneakers and actually walk all the way from our house to Bandar Seri Putra (to be precise - kedai mamak Haseena for breakfast - just one block from our new office). Since Aliyah is with her Mak Long, we have all morning. The walk took us 40minutes and the first leg was 3.3km. Not so far but the walk was really challenging - up and down the route that we normally take when we drive. After breakfast (roti canai!), we walked back via shortcuts - through the houses and shops and then turn to Mawar Apartment and down the hill straight to our house. That took us less about 20mins an...

We sold our Latio off to my BIL Abg Din. He is one happy man now. Reasons for selling? Plenty. Now that our new office is (going to be) less than 5mins drive from our home, we'd rather drive the Viva. (There is also this talk of cycling and walking...) We also foresee that we won't be going outstation much this year. So far our maintenance contract with the Kuantan people requires mainly phone and email conversations. We are also quite cash-strapped at the moment. The funds for the new office is delayed, so our money is channeled to the renovation. It'll be weeks before the funds arrive. So, must conserve. It didn't take long for us to make the decision. We were having lunch together last Saturday at Nilai, we talked and then let go. Less than 10mins' decision. It is a very good car and it served us well. Especially the long distances that we had to travel last year. But I don't have much sentimental value on the car. In a way, I actually hate the car. Disgusted...

Our herbs and veges are thriving. The mint plant has spread all over the Edible Garden. The rosemary has also flourished. So are the kesum plants. We read there is a Car Boot sale near our place every Sunday. Even though we have not visited it yet, Hubby suggested an awesome idea - why not we grow our herbs and sell them there. Just for fun. I walked around our garden and realised that we actually do have quite a lot of edible plants! So, I have started to grow the edible plants that we have into small pots. One or two plants per day. I need more soil and pots. The peria/kambas... Only one. Good thing the white flies are not around. Should be able to pick this, say Friday. Goreng dengan ikan bilis cili api sedappp... My project: the small pots of mint, misai kucing and pokok kari. I have no idea how to grow the basil and rosemary yet. Next in line - lengkuas, halia, pegaga and kunyit. Daun pandan? Maybe not lah. But we have this huge huge bunch of it. Anyway, if you are interested, I c...

A joyful news indeed. Kebetulan sama date dgn opening of office. My staff Hajar gave birth to a baby boy yesterday at 2.30pm. Our company's first baby :)

Finally the office is ready to be "opened". We came in the morning to clean up but work was still going on. Only managed to work on the 2 rooms and the toilets. Dust was still everywhere. We left and came back at 6.30pm. There were so many changes! (One thing about Mr Miqdam the Contractor is that he would barely make it for the deadline, but transform everything at that short time span. Always gives me heartburn...) The roller shutter has been installed. The walls at the back have been painted cream. The whole wide place has been cleared of the many "contractor stuff" except for just a few and swept - not so clean, still dusty, but swept! The rest of the team couldn't make it. So, there were us (my little family), my father and my two nieces. Now that the office is officially opened, we can start moving our stuff. Really hope we can move in next week.

No more cats I said! But my little girl is so lonely without a cat. She said she's so used of having a cat and misses having one. Yesterday night, after dinner, she wanted to drop by our Vet's place. I just waited outside. No way I'm going to look-see look-see a cat. There was this conversation between the Vet (Dr Saudi), Sazali and Hubby and finally I got called in. There was this little cat on the counter - 3 colours, female. Cute. Naughty. Yea, yea... no feelings. At first. Then, they started to tell stories about the cat - named Hop Kitty (what kind of a name is that?). She was brought to them a few months ago by her owner - with literally a hole on her head and wounds here and there. Apparently, she was beaten. When she got well, the owner took her back. A few weeks later, Dr Saudi and Sazali were eating at this mamak restaurant at Seri Putra when they saw this Pakcik kedai trying to beat a small cat with a stick. Sazali said he quickly saved the cat and brought it bac...

We celebrated my Kak Long and youngest niece Azwa birthday yesterday. They share the same birthdate. There are 2 more sharing of birthdates in our family - me and my brother Angah, and my anak sedara Wani and Along Iwan. Anyway, the celebration was supposed to be a surprise party for my sister. My nephew Nizam asked last week if we have any plans for his Mom's birthday. Since I have very soft spot for this nephew of mine, I organised. But then the night before, my Kak Long smsed saying she won't be coming back. Punya la kelam kabut I contacted Nizam. Finally he had to tell so that my sister would come back. So much for a surprise party! For a gathering not organised by my Kak Long, the turnout was quite good. All my siblings were back. That matters. Yang 3rd generation tu, tak pa lah. It was a BBQ. On Friday I got the stuff from Giant - lamb chops and chicken and got them marinated. No seafood this time. Malas nak mengerjakan udang and sotong. I cooked spaghetti (sebab senang),...

It was Aliyah's first merentas desa last Saturday now that she's in Tahap 2. The few days leading to the merentas desa, her friends came over to practice. I don't know if running around our block and gulping bottles of ice orange Sunquick can be considered as "practice"! But it was nice to see her having fun with her friends. That morning, I was actually worried sick. My little girl will run/walk 4kms today. That's such a long route. I was so worried she might get cramps or fall or worst - faint. Apparently Hubby shared the same feeling that he wore his sports attire and actually followed the activity. They came back at 11am with surprising and delightful news - Aliyah not only finished the race, she got number 25 for Std 4 girls! And her house - Yellow House - got first place! Medals given to numbers 1-20. That's not so far off. I guess, as parents we always worry about our kids to the point of underestimating. I was so proud of her :)