Living with Sarah

There's a kitten that has been at the shop for 3 days now. On the first day, it came into the shop at around noon. We gave him food and he stayed till late afternoon. Then he left. We saw him playing next door. After Maghrib he came back. We decided to keep him at the back for the night. Since he's clean and cute, we suspect that he might be thrown out or perhaps got himself lost. The next day, he's still at the back when we opened shop. He stayed till late afternoon. Then he went around and didn't come back. I guess he knew if he sticks around, we would lock him at the back. But that's the safest place for him. No cars, very warm and comfortable place... Today, we couldn't find him anywhere. Hubby said - "Tu la yang malas bela kucing". Because we have started to feel bit sad as we couldn't be found. After lunch, he suddenly appeared. Now he's sleeping. For now lah. He's about 2-3 months old. Very active. Very manja... Nak bawak bal...

This is Me - Social Media-ly. I prefer blogging. Because I love to write. And I document things that happen in my life. Well, those that can be documented lah. This blog is my life's timeline. I started in 2005 and until now, I write at least 1 entry every month. So, my history in this blog is seriously long. And good thing about writing is - I can let off some steam, I can track things that happen in the past, I can look back at stories and photos. So that I will NOT FORGET. Get what I mean? I use FB to read other people's postings. Sometimes I troll people (hah!). I'm also on FB for business purposes as I manage a few Pages. But I don't really post much on FB. To me, posting on FB is like being in a room full of 200++ friends and shouting my head off hoping someone notices. It's just not Me. And a post on FB weighs such huge responsibility and expectation. What if nobody comment? Would I be offended? What if many people comment? Would I be able to handle? What...

I think I've not cycled for almost 3 months. After my fever, kena batuk yang teruk. Jenis batuk yang alternate. Sekejap problem tekak - throat inflammation. Lepas elok, bronchitis pulak. Then tekak balik. Then bronchitis balik. Last-last Hubby tengok The Doctors, one of the reasons for prolonged cough can be acid re-flux. So, I have started to control by having more alkaline food and not eating too late. Nowadays, walaupun kadang-kadang batuk juga, tapi much-much better. Anyway, for someone who has not exercised for almost 3 months, kira OK lah juga. Route road starting from Bukit Mahkota-Nilai3-Batang Benar-Sg Kembong-keluar Bukit Kubur Cina. Total 22kms. Kali ni Hubby paksa naik. Siap dia tolakkan basikal sampai start point on the right yang not too steep compared to the left road. Route made from cement, yang ada belok-belok, so psychologically, tak rasa steep sangat. The last few meters menolak juga. But I am confident, the next time insyaallah boleh kayuh naik terus!  Tu...

1) I finished 1Q84 last week. Finally. Read it a few months ago, then I stopped. Mainly because it's such a hassle to read in bed without my specs. After Inferno, I picked it up again, and finished the remaining 2 volumes in under 3 weeks. This is the first Haruki Murakami book that I didn't straight away read the book again after finishing it. Nak kata tak best, OK. But not too intriguing as the rest of his books. Sekarang tengah baca Norweign Woods for dunno-how-many-times. Rasa macam nak pick up Kafka on the Shore back. And as predicted, Aliyah hasn't even touched The Hobbit! 2) Last Saturday, after I escaped from my own bedroom, went to have lunch with Aliyah at Subway, and then to Bangi Gateway. I ni kalau stress, I don't go shoes- or clothes-shopping. I go grocery shopping. After seeing Aliyah carrying 2 boxes of her favourite TGIF mozzarella cheese sticks, I thought, why not just buy something for us both to enjoy. So I picked up a lamb shank! The frozen one ...

It's a tradition that I take Aliyah's photo on first and last day of school. Today is the last schooling day for 2014. For her at least. Esok Form 1 direhatkan. She has been enjoying school. Actually, enjoy being with her friends. So, dia agak tidak happy now that the holidays are here. It's been a challenging year, for me as a mother, this year. Having a teenager in the house can be a pain in the neck. We started the year on shaky ground. A few times I got so frustrated that I cried. I guess, no matter how much I try to understand the new Aliyah, I got overwhelmed by other stuff that made handing a teenager such a difficult task. And on her side, I guess suddenly being a teenager with BFFs all around made her slightly arrogant. I call her treatment to me "the talk to the hand" treatment. But then, the 1st term of school holidays actually changed our relationship. When I dragged her to the shop every day, forcing her to spend time with us. I guess when she was d...

I got locked in twice this year. Twice! Malang sungguh nasib. A few months ago terkunci dalam bathroom. Alhamdulillah Aliyah was in my room, so panggil Abahnya. Berlubang pintu kat tempat lock dibuatnya. Last Saturday, tengah siap-siap nak keluar bawak Aliyah lunch, pulas je tombol terus tau I was locked inside. Pintu bilik pulak. Tak kunci pun. Agaknya rumah-rumah zaman sekarang ni lock semua cheapo made in China yek? Bahaya tau. Aliyah call Abahnya. Abahnya mintak tolong Along Iwan fetch dia. Tapi Along Iwan dengan gagah berani datang terus. Zaman-zaman kat ITM dulu selalu bukak pintu guna metric card. Kad tak ada, swiss knife ada lah. So, sambil-sambil Along usaha, I pun usaha gak guna swiss knife. At one point dah nak terlepas. Tapi rabun punya pasal tak boleh betul-betul slide in the knife. Jadinya, Along keluar tingkap bilik Aliyah dan masuk tingkap bilik I. Bagus juga rumah corner lot ni. Atas bumbung je. Dia try 3 kali terus boleh buka. Fuhh... Anyway, I think I have cleith...

Seriously fed-up. Fed-up sebab semua benda kena buat. Company sendiri kena jaga. Company dan kedai orang pun kena jaga. Entah banyak mana sacrifice nak buat pun tak tau. Bodoh kan? Memang bodoh gila. Elok-elok ada office sendiri lawa-lawa, very comfortable, meja besar, siap ada sofa, tapi bodoh. Pergi sewa kat orang lain, sendiri duduk kat office kecik, meja pun goyang-goyang sebab dah pernah kena hentak sampai satu kaki plastiknya pecah. Share pulak dengan barang-barang stock. Tapi, kerja jugak. Redha jugak. Buat proposal, buat writing work. Sacrifice tak habis-habis. Bila sakit. Demam ke, sakit kepala ke... Still pergi kerja. Still hantar anak pegi sekolah. Still pergi beli makan untuk yang tersayang. Still ambik anak balik sekolah. Kalau weekend, still bangun juga buat breakfast. Tak ada siapa nak jaga. Kena jaga diri sendiri. Memang bodoh nak mampos. Sacrifice tak habis-habis. Sampai bila nak sacrifice macam ni tak tau la.

Our iBook is almost finish. Sikit... lagi. We presented to the grant committee last Monday. Alhamdulillah accepted. Siap suggest buat macam-macam lagi. Ye la, kalau ada fundingnya, memang macam-macam idea ada dalam kepala nak buat. Now is the wait for the disbursement. Katanya end of the month. Or may be first week of next month. I pray we will get it very very soon. This last mile is such a drag. So, after this we need to launch it. Hopefully we have enough spare to print the physical book as well. Hari ni gigih research cari software untuk buat AR. Apparently, now, there are free ones available. I created one and it worked! Cuma quality tidak berapa bagus. This means I can save at last RM5K from paying a mobile developer to create the app. Akak dah boleh buat sendiri uols. Akak suka, akak suka. (Tepuk tangan 10x!) One hour of hard work. Now I can take a break!

Last Saturday morning we had our final photoshoot for our iBook project at our partner CODE's office. Ustaz Faris demo cara-cara betul dan salah rukuk dan sujud. Sambil demo dia turunkan ilmu sikit. Apparently, some of the ways yang kita label as salah are actually sunnah. Dulu-dulu Nabi saw kita buat. Tapi as time goes by, certain ways are recognised as more "correct" than others. Mengikut mazhab masing-masing, of course. Contohnya, berdiri dengan tangan in a certain way yang kitab-kitab kita belah sini kata salah, are actually correct. Just because mazhab lain buat, kita tak boleh kata salah. Ustaz guna perkataan "acceptable". Satu "majlis ilmu" yang ringkas tapi belajar banyak. Sempat jugak our photographer tanya soalan pasal duduk antara dua sujud. Dia kata badan dia besar, nak duduk macam yang disarankan memang tak boleh. Jadi Ustaz demo satu cara duduk yang orang kita kata salah, tapi sebenarnya sunnah sebab Nabi saw dulu buat. Ustaz kata kalau...

Aliyah invited her friends to hangout at our house today. Dengar cerita aktivitinya adalah main playstation dan penny board. Itu saja? So, I planned an activity which in turned benefited me :). I got them to bake a cake! Bukan apa, dah berhari-hari plan nak buat trifle. Tapi cakenya belum juga dibuat. Since ada 3 orang anak dara in the house, bagus juga buat kerahan tenaga. Builds character OK. So, I wrote the recipe on a paper, put all the ingredients on the counter, switched on the oven, and let them do the rest. Well, I did come down once to have a look. Quite resourceful kids. Pandai cari sendiri hand mixer (malas nak keluarkan mulanya). Turned up quite nice. A bit sweet for my liking but dah lama nak makan old school cake yang panas-panas...

I am in need of a new handbag. It must be of medium size, light, most importantly, safe to carry around. I have been scouring handbags during sale but me, being me, I always can't find the right one. So, senang cerita, check out lah Zalora. Sambil-sambil buat kerja, boleh shopping :). That's where you can find various  beg tangan terkini designs to suit your personal style. My style? I'm a simple person with simple needs. Anyway, let's check out several types of handbags first, shall we? Number 1 - the Shoulder Handbag. Very common for any women to carry. And my type of handbag. A shoulder bag is not only simply tailored but designed to suit many fashion taste and can fit all our belongings. Yup, (almost) everything! (That's why my handbags are always heavy!). Shoulder handbags are very versatile for any occasions and settings. For that professional look, opt for the classic leather bag. Or get a patterned colour shoulder bag for casual outings. I lurve the bl...

Ever since I started working on my own years and years ago, there never seem to be any specific day to rest. Unlike normal people. So, Sunday is actually not so different from other days. Sometimes I work, sometimes I don't. Just like any other day for that matter! Let's see... nothing much happened yesterday. Nak pegi cycle, pagi-pagi sekarang hujan pulak. Hubby dah 100% OK. His bike pun tak ada apa-apa yang rosak :). Cuma weather belum mengizinkan. So, spent the time cooking. Anak dara yang janji nak tolong asyik mengelat. Turun dapur 10 minit, lepas tu hilang. Dia yang sibuk sangat nak masak trifle. Bahan-bahan dah beli... Aliyah actually cuti this week (since Friday last week). Form 1 direhatkan sempena SPM exams. Next week turn Form 2 pulak. Everyday I bawak dia ke kedai. As long as she's in front of me, hati rasa senang. Cuma assignment yang I bagi dia belum start lagi. She doesn't read much. That worries me a lot. I cuma bagi simple assignment - this short holi...

This morning we delivered 3 more Merida bikes to the Cyberjaya client. Sumbatkan semua dalam Sorento Along Iwan. Alhamdulillah, the bikes came a few days earlier than predicted. With additional order of 3/4 padded cycling pants. Also sold today is my Orbea 26" bike. Archot's friend bought it for his autistic son. So happy to see him riding around the parking lot trying the bike. Semoga manfaat :). Muat-muat saja masuk Sorento