Living with Sarah

Subuh this morning I heard loud tapping noises from the back room upstairs where we put Mimi - isolated her in Aliyah bathroom until she gives birth. She wanted to go out. She then rushed out and went under the bed sniffing here and there. Aliyah's old baby mattress fell down under the bed and I told Mimi - "Nak beranak kat atas tu pun boleh!". Then I closed the bedroom door. This morning, I went to feed her and found she actually has given birth - relaxing on the baby mattress nursing her babies. I saw 3 little kittens - mostly black with whites. Black and white! More black than white! Adoii... Tak apa lah... Hope she can take care of the kittens. Now there are 6 in the house. I have yet to tell my story about another kitten we adopted an orange tabby Aliyah named - Tabby. He looks exactly like Kiki masa baby. One rainy night this Ramadhan we heard meowing of a kitten very near to our house. Aliyah and me went out to investigate with a torchlight. It was still d...

This mess I'm in will, insyaallah, be over soon. I'm buying that person's share of my company. And then things will be back to normal as before. And I believe rezeki adalah anugerah Allah swt. And I will continue praying.

I think this has been the best Ramadhan thus for - for my entire life. Perhaps the challenges and hardships I'm currently facing has its blessing in disguise. I am more at peace and calm. And I love the feeling of craving to perform the solat sunat. Such a beautiful month.

I put aside re-reading "Sophie's World" (which still proves to be a difficult book to finish) in favour of this old book - "Liar's Poker" - which also proves to be a difficult book to finish because of the dog-eat-dog world of the US stock market. I can never admire such profession of making one rich or bankrupt in matter of seconds. My long talk about fantasy books with Megat H to a meeting a few weeks ago made me dig back my old books. At one point during my uni years, I was crazy about fantasy books. Now I'm re-reading "Servant of the Empire" - the 2nd in the Empire trilogy by Raymond E Fiest and Janny Wursts. The book was one I rented from an outlet at Subang Parade (my favourite rent-a-book shop) and never returned. After reading about a quarter of the book, it just doesn't feel right. I need the first book! My online search found the book no longer available at MPH. So, I Googled and finally managed to get this PDF copy, which I...

We had a gotong royong session at my parents' place to paint two rooms of the house - Hubby, Nizam, Zura and me. For amateurs, the end result looked quite ravishing :). Nizam - for someone yang tak pernah pegang roller, kira ok la. Boleh la cari makan! And as a reward, we had a scrumptious iftar meal of lauk kampung cooked by my BIL Abang Din who went back to Pasar Sari Temerloh that morning - masak tempoyak ikan patin, masak sambal cendawan kukur, gulai daging kerbau... Excellent!

Let's see... We rearranged the stuff of our house. Since we now have bicycles that cannot be simply be left outside (nanti orang curik!), we have been putting the bicycles inside in front of the main door (which we actually seldom open because we normally use the side sliding doors). We finally decided to change the layout of the furniture to suit the space for bicycles. So, the weekend before puasa we got to work. The study has been moved to the back room. Aliyah has proven to be very independent in doing her homework, so we don't really have to watch over her shoulders. Now, the TV, DVD player and PS2 are now moved to Aliyah's room - to the corner that used to house her toys. Nowadays, her toys are permanently in containers. No more Barbies and stuff. A better place to put the TV since she can play with her friends in her own room. The sofa bed at the back room is now at the previous study. Very cool place especially in the afternoon. The bicycle space and the yellow sofa...

Asam pedas ikan pari - our main dish for iftar on 1st day of Ramadhan. And I suspect will be the dish for quite a number of days in the month just like last year. It's Aliyah's favourite. However, both of us are not really a fan. Tapi makan tu boleh lah... So, yesterday after work, Aliyah said she wanted me to cook ikan pari. Aisey, akak ni malas betul lah nak masak ikan ni. Bukan apa, selalu tak jumpa ikan yang fresh. Tapi yesterday rezeki Aliyah, dapat beli ikan pari yang agak OK. So, memasak asam pedas lah akak... Bawang semua tumbuk ok... Tak yah lah masuk blender kalau tak sampai segenggam... Dah siap masak dalam periuk. Demi anak tersayang. I don't really call this asam pedas. Masak asam is more like it.

It's 1st Ramadhan finally. A blessed Ramadhan to all. So far so good. Work as usual. No scheduled meetings for the next few weeks - for now lah. I pray this blessed month will bring us good fortune.