Living with Sarah

Insyaallah Ahad ni start puasa. Rasa macam dah ready. Talking about kitchen preparations la. Rabu hari tu dah bershopping di Giant. Sirap dan 2-3 tin laici dan nenas dah siap. Apa lagi ye? Ikan masin, sambal belacan Adabi (segera gitu sebab tak lah minat sangat)... Ramadhan selalunya memang sangat sederhana. Aliyah pun bukan jenis yang nampak semua makanan semua dia nak beli. Asalkan ada popia goreng, dia dah cukup happy. Hopefully this year nak incorporate lebih banyak jus buah yang fresh. Our kedai insyallah akan tutup 5.30pm every day. Lepas tu boleh terus fetch Aliyah from school, gi cari kuih, then balik masak. I foresee it will be a quiet month at the shop. Tak pernah experience bulan puasa lagi sejak bukak kedai. We will use the time to finish up the iBook. Insyaallah. Target lepas Raya dah boleh dapat beta version. Meantime, our baju kurung cotton for kids business dah start balik walaupun tak berapa meriah. Belum lagi kot. Baru dapat 3 orders. Dua dah pos. Telekung cotton ...

Puasa pun belum mula, shopping Raya untuk Aliyah dah settle. Just like last year. So, come Ramadhan dah tak payah nak sibuk-sibuk buang masa keluar. Dah la cuaca panas kan? Shopping awal bukan sebab beriya-iya nak menyambut Raya. Insyaallah, Ramadhan boleh guna buat cari pahala :) Semua untuk Aliyah dah ready except kasut. Baju kurung dah tempah. Last weekend, we stayed at my Kak Long's place and went on shopping spree on Sunday. Mula-mula pegi Subang Parade. Setelah berpusing-pusing dan makan dengan sedapnya, balik sekejap for Zohor. Dapatla beli cardigan dan slippers. Cuaca panas-panas, duduk rumah my sister memang best sebab air-cond dia kuat :). Mata pun jadi mengantuk. Baru fikir-fikir nak keluar balik, Hubby datang. So, pegi Paradigm pulak. We got for her jeans and T Shirts. Nak beli kasut macam letih la nak jalan. Lagipun, makan lebih penting. Makan lagi...

I must admit I'm not good in business. If I am, I would have become rich. My ex-boss once loaned me the "Thick Face Black Heart" book after one particular incident at work. I can't remember a single word from that book. All these while the way I do business is mainly compassionate. The office rental business, for example, is a very good example. Out of the many who have come and gone, only 2 tenants actually gave proper one-month's notice. The others simply faded away. One day they come, the next they disappear and cannot be contacted. Still we continued. Because we have a few good ones who have been with us for years. Alhamdulillah, new tenants come in. But then, we never know... Today, after my staff forgot to pay bills for the hundredth time and caused water supply to be cut (she also forgot to pay Unifi bill, which got the service to be cut too!), I just can't take it anymore. Why be nice? Why hang on for the sake of other people? So I'm going to tak...

1) I notice a slight change in Aliyah. When I fetched her from school yesterday (her first day of school after the holidays), she sat in the car, said Hi and smiled. When we were at Nazeem waiting for our orders, she actually started a conversation. Well, before borrowing my phone to play Candy Crush. Hmm... such a pleasant change. I don't know whether it's the time spent during the holidays together, or her dengue fever made her a bit clingy. When I told her yesterday that I'd be going to KL to meet up with Aunty Yatt for some business and she has to stay with her Abah, she actually asked, "Mommy pegi tak lama kan?". As a teenager, she has been acting like a true teenager ever since she started her Form 1. The usuals - the sulks, the silence, the "really?" face... I really missed the manja kid she used to be. Lately, she has begun to "balance" out her teenage behaviour. I hope she stays this way. 2) I had lunch with Yatt today. Biasanya jum...

We spent 3 hours waiting for Aliyah to see the doctor at Serdang Hospital on Friday afternoon. It was such a long wait. But it was expected. After all, it's a Government hospital. I ni kan consultant. While other people sat talking, staring at the wall, fiddling their phones, reading papers, watching TV... I watched how the system works. Why is the service so slow? Here are my observations: 1) During initial registration, patients were "filtered" - those who need immediate treatment were asked to wait at the reception area. Service here was quite fast. We sat for less than 10 minutes and Aliyah got called. She had her temperature and blood sample taken by a nurse. Then only we were asked to register to the next level to see the doctor. Note: Later, the doctor won't have to take temperature and blood sample anymore. Save time (or not!). 2) Patients at Jabatan Kecemasan were put into several categories. Emergency cases will be treated at the red and yellow rooms...

It has been a few days full of anxiety for both of us. Aliyah recovered from her fever on Wednesday last week. Well enough to take her to the movies. But she still got tired easily. Thursday morning - I found rashes on her hands and feet. We went to the clinic again and got her blood checked. She was OK, just her skin was really dry. We suspected those were reactions from her allergy. Friday morning we got the test result. Her platelet count was only 100. Doctor siap tanya nak dia refer hospital mana. So I did what a mother would do - first, lecture her for not drinking enough water as I asked her to. That platelet count was so low and dangerous. I guess after seeing me went mad, she got the message and started to drink. Hubby went to search for pucuk betik, I went to buy crabs. Let me tell you a secret. I never, ever cooked crabs before. I don't really eat crabs. Kalau keluar makan, biasanya Hubby akan bagi sikit untuk I rasa sebab tak reti nak makan. Apa tah lagi nak masak. I b...

Expectation mungkin terlalu tinggi. Apa tah lagi ada nama Angelina Jolie. Mungkin terbayang aksi peperangan hebat ala LOTR atau The Hobbit. Walaupun cerita hanyalah satu versi The Sleeping Beauty. Mungkin X-Men lebih best?  Aliyah pun tengok tanpa banyak reaksi. Dia sebenarnya agak irritated. Ada mak budak duduk di belakang yang sibuk menonton tetapi membiarkan anak kecil berlari-lari naik dan turun tangga. Bila penat, pegi minta susu dengan emaknya sambil tangan melanggar kepala orang dewasa tanpa rasa hormat. I dulu masa Aliyah kecil bawa tengok wayang akan pastikan dia duduk diam. Bukan kita saja yang bayar tiket, kan? Nasib baik tahap kesabaran agak tinggi. Lepas tengok wayang, lunch di Secret Recipe. Saja nak layan selera Aliyah lepas demam. Tapi still makan tak banyak sangat. Niat hati nak belikan baju. Cepat sangat dia tinggi. Baju banyak yang dah senteng. Tapi baru keluar-masuk dua kedai dia dah penat. Masih tak cukup sihat. So, teruslah balik. Harap dia sihat cepat-...

Since last Friday Aliyah demam. Lama betul dia tak demam. Bila demam macam pelik pulak. She still insisted to follow us to the shop. So, siap bawak tilam biar dia boleh tidur. Risau sangat-sangat kot-kot kena demam denggi. Alhamdulillah, hari ni dia dah OK. Just nak satisfy her tekak, lunch bawak pegi McD. Boleh tahan selera. Order McChicken, ayam goreng, sundae strawberry... Tapi yang dia makan cuma ayam saja. Lain-lain bawak balik. Hajat nak makan sangat tinggi. Tapi badan tak cukup sihat. Semoga esok dia akan sihat sepenuhnya. Nak bawak pegi tengok wayang :)

Cuti kali ni tak ke mana-mana... Kesian jugak dengan Aliyah. Tapi, nak buat macam mana kan. Payment semuanya sangkut. Bila follow-up - akan usahakan very soon. "Very soon" is very subjective. Can be one day, one week, one month... Alhamdulillah, Aliyah is very understanding. This week dia sangat rajin ikut ke kedai. At least hati tak lah risau sangat. Dia suka bukan apa - kat kedai food is abundance. There's the gerai at corner near Asik Maju yang jual the most awesome goreng pisang and kuih-kuih. A bakery just opened a few weeks ago, so kerjanya asyik pegi beli cookies. So, plan untuk girls' getaway with Aunty Linda terpaksa dibatalkan. Plannya adalah untuk hop into Linda's car and drive north to Penang. No itinerary, no fixed place to go, just drive and enjoy the journey. Agak-agak hari dah nak petang, cari tempat nak stay. Adventurous gitu. Sigh... let's see if we can get the payment within these 2 weeks. Asalkan before bulan puasa, boleh lagi.

I am just saying... Kalaulah sesebuah persatuan Muslim itu sangat concern, passionate, kecoh dan membuat press conference dengan "idea-idea bernas" tentang pressing social issues seperti suami degil tak bayar nafkah anak-anak kepada bekas isteri, atau ibu tunggal & fakir miskin yang susah dapat bantuan dari Pusat Zakat atau JKM, bukan kah lebih bagus... Dan kalaulah sesebuah persatuan Muslim itu study hukum agama sebelum buat press conference dengan nada emotional siap nak tukar darah kepada yang lebih suci, bukan kah lebih elok... Dan kalaulah isu-isu coklat dengan DNA khinzir ini ditangani dengan teratur oleh pihak berkaitan iaitu dengan menerangkan langkah-langkah yang akan diambil (langkah A, B, C) dengan jelas kepada orang awam tanpa menunding jari kepada sesiapa dahulu, bukan kah lebih bijak... Sekarang? Sekejap halal, sekejap haram, sekejap halal. Sekarang? Sekejap ada DNA khinzir, sekejap tak ada. Yang menang? Syarikat coklat. I am just saying...