Living with Sarah

1) Pagi-pagi Aliyah dah pegi ko-ko kat sekolah. Stay-back. That's 2 days in a row. Kita kesian kat dia, tapi dia suka je sebab geng-geng dia semua stay-back juga. Pesan kat dia - don't go out! Just stay in school! Anyway, hari ni Hubby telah menurunkan pisang tanduk yang dah masak. Dulu terawal ambik. Kali ni sampai dah masak 2 biji kena makan burung baru sempat turunkan. Alhamdulillah... dah betul-betul masak nanti boleh buat pengat pisang or just goreng. 2) For some peculiar reasons (again), I am back at sending food to my parents. Alhamdulillah. Suka je. Since Aliyah tak ada, I pun tak masak. Beli lah saja. Semalam mee rojak Asik Maju, hari ni mee rojak Haseena Maju for my mother. I told her - nanti bagitau yang mana lebih sedap. Makin putih mak aku ni. Apa la Kak Ros dok sapu kat muka dia hari-hari? Dia suka potong rambut pendek sebab my nephew Along Iwan selalu puji dia nampak awet muda! Hehehe... 3) Today work as usual at the shop. Nothing special planned....

Starting Monday, I don't send lunch to my parents anymore. For some peculiar reasons. Now I am missing the moments. I pray that they will be served nice, hopefully delicious and nutritious meals. I miss making my mother nasi goreng full of veges. Sigh... Anyway, today, lunch is very unconventional - burgers. Hubby bought beef patties from Bob, our neighbour and friend who operates Burger Bakar stall at Nazeem. Aliyah loves the burger and requested it for lunch. So, here's Burger Bakar Mommy style - beef patties grilled with some olive oil, with caramalised onions with a dash of thyme. The only missing element of the burger is sauteed mushrooms. Other than that, life is as usual. One thing both of us now realise is that "handling" a teenager is really a challenge. Our daughter has mood swings. Sometimes I try to accommodate - cheer her up, just talk to her, but then sometimes situation can be tensed. We might be busy and stressed and having Aliyah pout and scow...

Hubby said something with such an honest look, I glanced at him in awe and said to myself - "Good saying lurve!". Bukan senang nak dapat praise from me ok :)... Here's the story... Saturday is always a busy day at the shop. I only had free time at 3.30pm yesterday to send back lunch for Aliyah. Kesian kat dia... In between receiving customers, yesterday we had a visit from a guy from a bike parts and accessories warehouse. We took a look at his catalogue, decided that the items were quite good and value for money, and we ordered quite a big stock. We told him that we were planning to get new stocks on Monday and he said seemed our chance meet was destined. We then moved next door to have lunch (at 4.30pm), and we talked some more. Hubby told the story of how we started the shop. I guess to us, our story is just a simple story of determination, passion, hardwork, sacrifice and dream. Nothing amazing or unusual. But the guy was so impressed. And when Hubby told of the dif...

Nowadays, I try to make sure my mother eats lots of vegetables. Semalam, I masak nasi goreng for her, siap potong carrots dan kacang panjang kecik-kecik. Goreng nasi letak telur 2 biji so that she gets her dose of protein. Bila dah ingredients so-called "tersembunyi", I believe she would eat balanced food. Hari ni, since Aliyah stayed back at her school for her merentas desa practice, I bought food for my parents. Malas sikit nak masak. My mother loves rojak mee mamak. Masa temankan dia makan, I yang siap bebel - "Mak, makan lah sayur tu". She cheekily scooped mee, telur rebus and the "kuih" pushing aside the timun and sengkuang strips. Before I go off, I told her - "Nanti Mak mesti makan tau sayur tu!". "Ye lah...", she said. Life is a cycle...  Lunch yesterday for my parents. Nasi goreng Cina for my mother - sayur dipotong comel-comel, masak lemak cili api ayam and kentang, dan tahu sumbat.

Aliyah doesn't really share our enthusiasm for the shop. Quite understandable actually. She's now a teenager. FB, TV, friends - more important than being at a bike shop. She prefers to stay home, do her own thing. Whenever she stays home, I will make sure she has everything she needs. Along with a long list of chores she needs to do. Sometimes the shop demands us to be there longer than we intend. And I would feel really guilty for leaving her alone. But I would make sure I fetch her and take her out. And she will have her own pick. Sometimes it's roti canai at mamak. Sometimes it's dessert at Secret Recipe. Her current favourite - banana split. She finished this off, and said she's still hungry. "Nobody eats banana split when they're hungry!". So right after, we went to buy some plump bananas. And that night I made her a huge bowl of banana split Mommy style - split bananas with 3 huge scoops of vanilla ice cream with Hershey choc sauce. "Sam...

I think we have opened shop for 2 weeks straight. No holiday. Not even Sunday. Not even public holidays. Even though our operating hours say differently! Today, it's totally close shop. Hubby pun tak sihat. I guess age has taken its toll! Hehehe... And for the first time in many, many months, I simply switched off my alarm clock to get maximum sleep time. Lunch pun panaskan leftovers in the freezer. Then, after dah tak tahan lazying around, took Aliyah to Bangi Gateway yang dah lama buka tapi belum berpeluang pergi. Niat nak belikan dia tudung tapi tak ada yang dia minat pulak. Akhirnya, grocery shopping at Jaya Grocer. But it feels really funny today. It's a Friday that felt like a Saturday. Saw some FB posts people went for short vacations. I really have lost track of time. Must get myself a table calendar.

1) I just recovered from another round of insomnia. Seriously, what's up with the body? I get it at least once a month. It can stretch up to 2 days of no sleep. Imagine more than 48 hours of not getting any sleep. With work as usual. Tiring. Finally resorted to sleeping with Aliyah in her room just for a change of bed. Before sleep layan dia tengok LOTR. She's so happy... :). 2) Things at the shop are progressing very well. Alhamdulillah... Last Sunday, a group of usual cyclists started their cycle from the shop up to Kg Jeram Kedah and back. We provided nasi lemak for breakfast. One good thing of having them start and finish at the shop is that - they would become tempted to leave their bikes for service. Come Monday morning, I was presented with this!  Penuh service bay... 3) Alhamdulillah... I really feel blessed to be able to practise this flexible working hours I'm currently enjoying. My Whatsapp group of good friends are always full of "traffic jam...

I was very worried that Aliyah would not like her new school since her BFF moved to another school. The first week she went to recess with friends from her Year 6 class who are mostly in other classes. After a few days she told me she doesn't go out with them anymore because they have got themselves new friends. Kesian juga... I can imagine the stress. She was a bit down but not for long. Because she got herself a couple of new friends sharing the same interest - fantasy movies and books - The Hobbit, LOTR, Harry Potter... Both are from other schools - one from Putrajaya and the other from an international school (hah! that explains it!). Now she loves going to school. I told her this week ada 2 public holidays and she said - "Cuti? Aliyah nak sekolah...". Am so glad she's enjoying her new school :)

One thing about having a bike shop is the satisfaction of running it. At times sales are high. At times sales are low. There was once (early days), we had only RM5 of sale for the day. Alhamdulillah, people have started to know us and we have growing number of customers. However, what satisfied us I believe is the spirit of helping. Especially kids. We have this group of kids that frequent our shop. And they are one of our best "advisors". They tell us what we should stock up based on their interest, they ask questions, the dreamily touch the bikes that like, they make faces at the glass wall snooping the bikes that aimed, and they even become our "spies". They tell us what items we sell lower or higher than the other shops. One even told us - his friend bought a bike at that other shop. Very cheap but after 3 days, the bike is "rosak". Cannot ride anymore. I told him, "that's why we sell quality bikes but slightly higher price". And he agree...

I'm posting my ad here. Thinking of letting go the office. Now can't afford the time to run around to manage 2 places - the office and the shop. So, anybody interested to continue my office rental and co-working business, do contact me. I spent almost RM50,000 on renovation and other related expenses. Letting go for RM10,000 only (which includes me getting back my deposit to the landlord). I must say it's value for money. Take over the business, promote the place to get more people renting, take care of the office - we call cleaner to come in every week, and insyaallah you can make money. Insyaallah, kalau usaha dan rajin. Please jangan jadi macam some people who called me - "how much you collect each month, eh, macam tak cukup je nak collect untung, tak nak lah". Please, kalau nak untung, kena kerja. Inilah namanya "berniaga". Berusaha dan berkerja. Currently collection is about RM2000+. Rental is RM2000. There are many vacant workstations and one vac...

For the past 2 days, daily schedule ada perubahan sikit. In the morning, Hubby either cycle to shop, or I send him. He doesn't come back in the afternoon. I stay home, cook, get Aliyah to have lunch, send her to school, send some lauk to yang tersayang, have a short chit-chat, then go to the shop and have lunch with Hubby. So far, so good.  Yang tak goodnya cuma my iBook project stagnant for almost 2 weeks. Seriously can't find time to do it. Ada time, idea tak ada pulak... Kena kuatkan semangat! Two bags of food. Today's lunch - kari ayam nyonya dan tahu goreng dengan taugeh disiram kuah rojak. Penat dan huru-hara sebenarnya especially at "peak hour" ie 12.00-12.30pm. Hari ni lagi lah sebab kena bawak Aliyah cari T Shirt putih plain for her PE class in the morning. Anak dara I ni suka bagitau last minute! 

We have started on a few daily schedule alternatives. Hari ni - Hubby went to shop, I stayed home, cooked lunch, Hubby comes back from shop at 12.15pm, we have lunch, then send Aliyah to school, then we go to the shop. He seemed to like this alternative better because of the home-cooked lunch :). Walaupun lauk sangat simple ie kari ayam dan sayur kobis tapi obviously tasted better than eating out. Insyaallah will "implement" this while we try to understand our customer pattern/behaviour. What I'm trying to include is cycling. For now can't seem to fit that in. By the time balik rumah memang dah flat. Esok pagi-pagi morning pun tak larat nak bangun awal. Must try to sleep early and wake up early for morning ride macam dulu-dulu. At least dapat 15kms and come back home at 9.30am pun dah cukup bagus. Really need to get healthy. It's my new year resolution. A good friend from ATPN had a stroke last week. Late last year, a friend from ATDI - the boys' hostel - ha...

Hari ni suasana kedai agak slow. So, selepas seharian semalam membuat accounts dan report untuk tokey-tokey kedai (very detailed you, hari ni siap buat sales graph lagi errkk... tapi kedai baru bukak 3 minggu mana ada sales trends yet!), hari ni nak hilangkan pening dengan share cerita menarik masa wedding Ejat dan Ekin. From my point of view lah! 1) Masa the rest were at the mosque waiting for akad nikah, my Angah and Kak Ros dok risaukan both of us. "Kesian kat Ateh Fairuz & Ateh Nizah kena jaga caterer kat clubhouse. Mesti banyak kerja...". In truth, both Hubby and I were sitting around doing nothing because the caterer was very efficient. I sempat balik rumah ambil phone yang tertinggal and then ke KTM fetch my Acik Adol. Lepas tu barulah rajinkan diri susun gift packs. Yeay, we got the easiest work! 2) Backdrop pelamin tumbang! The incident will be the talk of town for years! Setelah berdiri kukuh selama semalaman dan sepagian sehingga jam 1.30 petang, elok-elok ...

Happy New Year 2014! Today, Aliyah took her first big step into secondary school. It's her first day. On Tuesday the school conducted Orientation Day which nothing really happened. Today is the trial day for all of us - how to organise our time now that we have a shop to manage. The schedule today - breakfast at home, open shop, lunch (for Aliyah, tapau for Hubby and me), Aliyah gets ready for school (at the shop with all necessary stuff ready) and send her to school (she requested I send her on her first day). She was very quiet in the car while I tried to cheer her up with stupid stories and plans. I know she's very nervous. And she misses her friends. Her best friend went to another school, while the rest, I guess she has not found them yet! On the way back memang rasa sebak. Tears started to well up. My little girl has grown up... This was taken on Tuesday on her Orientation Day. I always thought her primary school was an excellent school. The new secondary school - v...