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Showing posts from October, 2015

Check-up

I went for a follow-up at Annur Hospital yesterday. It's been 2 weeks since I last went there due to my vertigo. The diagnose then came as BPPV. My supply of pills was finished and I still have that vertigo when I get up from bed. And since I am such a malas person, I didn't do the head exercise much. I was told it does take some time for the vertigo to go away. And I got one-month supply of pills for that. I then described my prolonged cough. It been months and months now. Sometimes bila batuk rasa nak menangis sebab lama sangat tak hilang-hilang. The specialist did some tests. He inserted a camera down my throat and nose. Alhamdulillah, he said no tumor whatsoever. Because that can be one cause of having scratchy throat. Just that I have abnormal amount of phlegm in my throat, nose and eventually it went to my chest. Hence the reason why I was having asthmatic symptoms. The diagnose is allergy. To what? Non-conclusive. So I got 3 more medications for that. Alhamdulillah i

Day 4 - Hot Spring

It's the last day of our holiday. Pagi-pagi bangun dengan rasa tak percaya. Cepat sangat masa berlalu. Straight to breakfast dan lepas tu terus ke hot spring. Terjumpa dengan Pakcik Hj Said yang memang station kat situ. Dapat banyak tips - lembut dan cantikkan kulit dengan lumut yang tumbuh hanya dalam air panas. Katanya royalty pun dok mintak lumut tu masuk dalam flask. Lepas tu dia ajar cara-cara nak rendam kaki sampai lutut (or rendam satu badan) dalam air panas. Selalu kan dok rendam sikit-sikit. Yang akhirnya tak berjaya pun sebab air rasa sangat panas. Petua dia senang je. Masukkan terus dan dok diam-diam. Jangan bergerak, dia kata. Which was very logical. Scientifically, udara panas or air panas akan ada kat atas, yang sejuk di bawah. So, kalau kita masukkan kaki sikit-sikit, memanjang la kena air yang panas sebab kat atas. Kalau terus terjah masukkan kaki sampai bawah, and just stay put, yang kat bawah tu tak lah panas sangat compared to kat atas. Bearable lah. Pandai lah

Potensi Bahu Tegang

Kerja translation yang urgent itu sudah bermula. Sejak hari Jumaat dah mula dapat file. Sikit-sikit. Hari ni patut dapat semua 35 pages. Setakat ni dah siap dalam 20. Plus minus mungkin ada lagi 20. Urat bahu dah mula tegang dan keras. Adoi... ada potential kena penyakit biasa - urat belikat keras. Alhamdulillah, kerusi kesayangan dah diambil dari kedai, jadinya selesa sikit buat kerja. Ruang "work from home" di bawah dah mula menampakkan rupa. Itu untuk Hubby. Ada meja baru. Drawers dan cabinet dari kedai dah disusun. Kipas dan lampu dah ganti baru. Tinggal karpet je belum ada sebab hantar cuci. Once in a while I might go downstairs to work. Boleh tengok TV sambil kerja :). Doa semoga kerja smooth tanpa banyak masalah. Jangan last minute baru dapat semua cukup. Tak tidur malam nanti nak kejar deadline 27/10 :(

Day 3 - Sungkai Here We Come

We left Penang by ferry. Our Google Master said the frequency of ferry was 20 minutes. And we thought, why not! After the cross, we headed straight for Sungkai. Traffic was quite bad. I took the wheels half-way. It was not a nice drive. And for the first time since we arrived in Penang, we felt hungry. The roti canai and fish curry was supposed to be for lunch, but it was already past 4pm. Good thing we had the vadey to alas perut. Sedey tau tinggalkan Penang... We reached Sungkai at 5.15pm and met up with Ude, whom after receiving our messages went to buy Nasi Buluh. Now we have Nasi Buluh (teamed with ayam panggang madu and ayam goreng rempah) and roti canai! Punyalah banyak food. And sangat sedapppp... Anyway, we checked-in. The rooms and villas at Felda Hot Spring Sungkai are now half price until 21 November (if I'm not mistaken). For the villa, we only paid RM250 per night compared to RM500 original price. The villa was oh so awesome! It was huge, more than enough for

Tersentuh Hati

I read this on FB yesterday. And it lingered in my mind the whole day. Baik sangat hati budak ni. Semoga Allah rahmati keluarga dia. Semoga Allah anugerahkan mereka dengan rezeki yang mencurah-curah, yang banyak lagi halal. Semoga anak-anak keluarga ini membesar menjadi anak-anak soleh dan solehah. If I can meet up with this child, I will hug her, kiss her and tell her that she's the nicest child any parent would ever dream to have.

Home Maker / Part-timer

I'm officially a home maker / part-timer. We no longer run the bike shop. It was excellent on the first year, but things started to decline last April when GST was implemented. Then our ringgit fell and for us with low capital to buy stocks... It was difficult. And to sell things was also difficult. Price of things was kept to a minimum but still people kept on asking for discounts. I guess at one point, when I received this customer from hell who persistently asked for discounts and then came back to the return what he bought because it didn't fit his child's bike and demanded his money back without feeling any guilt, I took it as a sign from Allah that I am not fit for to face this kind of people. I would love to just sedekah the item to him if he came on a motorbike and showed signs that he was poor. But he drove a car and he was rude.  We did stock clearance sale, managed to make some money, used it to pay debts to some people. The rest of the stuff, our bike sh

Day 3 - Georgetown Street Arts

We finally managed to spend time in Georgetown at places we originally planned. We parked near Nasi Kandar Line Clear as we wanted to go to Pasar Chowrasta. We ended up buying vadey again at a street hawker near the police station (we bought some yesterday and they were awesome!), and then bought jeruk at the street next to Chowrasta. Like I said before, we met very nice and friendly people in Penang. The kedai jeruk we went to belonged to this Abang who is a cyclist (waahh... boleh connect gitu!). He once cycled to Scotland with 3 other guys and the newspaper cuttings were all over the wall. He even suggested some places we should go to eat instead of the "cut-throat tourist places", he said. We promised next time :) We then followed the direction he gave to go to Lebuh Chulia to see street arts. And what a wonderful time we had. Walaupun terpaksa jalan jauh (ada bikes for rent tapi we didn't have much time to spare), we managed to see a few. At one point, we were at L

Day 3 - Bye Batu Ferringhi

11 Oct 2015 Our last day in Penang. Already? We concluded 3 days/2 nights in Penang is not enough. Even us yang sangat hyper ni pun tak dapat cover and makan banyak benda. We checked out early in the morning. Terus angkut beg masuk kereta then baru cari breakfast. We decided to try that stall yang Tini suggest tu. And we found it! The description - gerai tak ada nama, depan dewan, grill saja. We ordered roti canai and kari ikan, one each. And the taste... waaaahhhh... sangat delicious. The fish was fresh, the curry not too sour (unlike kedai Mamak lain). And you know it's delicious when Aliyah actually ate the curry instead of her usual dhal. If you ever in Teluk Bahang, go get your dose of roti canai with fish curry here. Thumbs up! We even tapau 12 pieces of roti + 6 ketul of fish for our Sungkai lunch later. Tengah elok duduk-duduk tiba-tiba dengar orang jerit Hiiiii!!!!. I looked at the girls, none of them was talking. Rupanya kat sebelah I, Tini stopped by on her motorbike

Aliyah is 14 Today!

It's my little girl's 14th birthday! Dah anak dara :). Nothing much today since we have given Aliyah her birthday presents weeks ago. School is closed again due to the haze. Very bad today. And so is tomorrow. Since I'm still cleaning the kitchen, and Hubby took the car, we just stayed home. Lagipun Aliyah just had a dentist appointment last Saturday. Gigi sakit after the dentist tighten the braces. Nak bawak makan luar pun tak boleh. Around 3pm her friend came and surprised her with some cakes. Bagus juga ada kawan visit. I was already feeling guilty because we didn't do anything on her birthday. Happy birthday my little darling :)

Day 2 - The Beach

After we reached the apartment, siap solat semua, terus turun pergi beach. Crazy energy aunty-aunty ni semua. Aliyah pun dah melepek penat! Mula-mula ikut jalan yang biasa orang dari Sri Sayang pegi beach. Tapi baru nak lalu nampak monyet pulak! Lain macam saja rupanya, terus tak jadi. So we went through this middle road in between Rasa Sayang and the next hotel. Cadang nak mandi tapi tengok orang lain tak mandi sangat. Teringat dulu-dulu pernah holiday di Ferringhi nampak jellyfish. So we just sat by the beach tengok orang paragliding. After about 30 minutes, we went back. Tapi ada satu pakcik ni tanya nak paragliding tak? Of course we didn't want! Tapi entah sapa gatal tanya yang macam empat segi tu apa pakcik? Ohhh... tu donut namanya. I pulak mengada pegi tanya, "Berapa pakcik?". RM45 sorang. Si Jay pulak mengada tanya, "RM40 boleh pakcik?". "Boleh lah! Jom!", kata pakcik tu. We all looked at Jay yang dah pucat. Jay pun try nak cover, "tak

Day 2 - A Whole New Experience

After The Spice Garden we went for lunch. We wanted to try one of the stalls mentioned by Tini, the Spice Garden saleslady, but we found the place already closed. We then drove on until Teluk Bahang. We stopped at the dam, noted the waterfall near by (lain kali datang nak pegi!), then went back and stopped at this shop selling coffee, tea and chocolates. With growling stomach, we went back to Spice Garden and had lunch by the beach just across the road. Laksa Power namanya. The rest of the girls said very, very nice. I'm not a laksa fan so I ordered Mee Udang instead. Even though not as delicious as Mak Jah's Kuala Sepetang (obviously!), it was still good. We concluded - the food in Penang was simply outstanding, even a dish not "tasty" by Penang standards was so good people would queue for it in KL! Kat dam pun nak amik gambar! After that, we went back to the apartment to leave the car and take the Rapid bus to Georgetown. Penang's public transport was ver

Day 2 - The Spice Garden

After breakfast we headed to The Tropical Spice Garden, just a few kilometers away. All of us love gardening especially herbs and spices, so the place was a must-see. Masyaallah, what a wonderful place it was! The staff were so friendly and helpful, the place amazing, beautiful and well-maintained. We abandoned audio tour device after 3 spots and ventured on our own. We mainly followed the express route but went out of the way to see interesting plants and trees based on the map. Jay brought along her monopod and we went wefie crazy :). I don't like taking photos and I am not photogenic. But then, what the hell! We were on a holiday and it didn't matter as long as the memories were captured :). Interestingly, Aliyah enjoyed herself as well. We ended the tour at the gift shop and brought back spices - the actual cinnamon not cassia, blended spices (I bought tandoori masala), dried stevia leaves, etc. We had a chat with the saleslady, asking her where best to eat in Ferringhi

Day 2 - Breakfast at a Bus Stop

10 Oct 2015 The next morning we planned to hunt for nasi lemak for breakfast. Our itinerary actually got screwed up because of the change of hotel. We were now in Ferringhi, not Georgetown, so we have to find our way around the area. I Googled. Found a blog that said - best nasi lemak in Batu Ferringhi. I compared the photo the guy took from his hotel balcony. Looked very familiar. Went to our balcony, and lo and behold!, we shared the same hotel! The gerai nasi lemak was just in front of our hotel right at the bus stop. So we went. And we got much more than nasi lemak. A whole variety of other nasi like Nasi with Kari Daging, meehoon, and stuff and best thing - a huge spread of kuih-kuih. The environment was also quite pleasing ie lots of crawling plants and cool shade despite us getting the shock of our lives. Not once but twice!   The nasi lemak was simple yet delicious. And the kuih-kuih also looked simple but very sedappp... Those 3 huge animals were the first shock!

Day 1 - We Reached Penang

After the delicious meal at Kuala Sepetang, we continued our journey. Waze was such a big help to us despite me forgetting to increase my depleted mobile data. The notorious Penang traffic jam was kind to us and we weaved through to Batu Ferringhi. Another mysterious encounter happened. I sat behind Ies who was on the wheel, giving her instructions up to the meter. So there I was glued to Waze reciting - 300 meters, 250 meters, 100 meter, 50 meters... We were close to the placed we booked ie Holiday Homestay Apartment. Our car turned left to the road indicated with me saying - 30 meters... arrived at destination! We looked to the front and fell silent. The road was a dead end, very quiet with bushes and trees up to the slope of a hill. And right under a tree among the thick bushes was a "small red house". Emm... a small Chinese shrine. Everybody looked at me. "It says here we have arrived", I said. Jay, who throughout our adventure was our Google master and the on

Day 1 - The Journey Began

9 Oct 2015 The day began as early as 6.45am. Linda came the night before so that we could go together. Hubby sent us to our meeting point with Ies at Petronas near Hospital Serdang. Next stop, to pick up Jay at her house in Puchong Perdana. The car boot was already full by the time all our luggage was stored. Masalah juga ni. We had sandwiches in the car with the plan to stop at R & R Sg Buluh. Our first "adventure" began - Ies "missed" the left turn North (Ipoh) and took the right turn instead (Kuantan). OMG! We wasted about 30 minutes finding our way back to the route and then missed the exit to the R & R. Haiyooo... that's what happen when you have 4 chatty friends on board! We then stopped at R & R Rawang instead for breakfast. After that the next planned stop was Mee Udang Mak Jah at Kuala Sepetang. On the way, another obstacle came our way. The hotel I booked called to say that they have to cancel our reservation. Haiyooo... tak pernah den

One of the Best Trips Ever

Alhamdulillah, the road trip planned was a success, despite many, many obstacles. It was almost cancelled, then planned to be postponed due to the health conditions of all of us due to the haze. However, orang kata semangat setia kawan tu sangat kuat, each of us strove to get well - segala ubat, vitamins, madu, etc dimakan supaya we are all healthy by 9 Oct. At the last minute I decided to take Aliyah along. Our house is still being repaired. The washing area and kitchen are in a mess. And all those dusts are not good for Aliyah. And she had a lot of fun. Plus lots of tips on how to break 101 rules in a hostel. Well, if she ever enroll into one. It was a trip full of adventure but at one angle sangat dipermudahkan oleh Allah. I'm still amazed at how we managed to cover a lot of places and eat a whole lot of food throughout the journey and yet, at the same time, we managed to spend a lot of time resting and talking, reminiscing our school days. We also met friendly, nice and hel

Sometimes Wounds Never Heal

Sometimes you get wounded, for no apparent reason. And the pain grips at your heart like you are dying. But day by day, as the wound heals, the pain gets lesser and lesser. Till one day, the pain goes completely away. And the wound becomes a scar. Or so it seems. Are you really sure that it has become a scar? Or is it a wound concealed by a scar? When this happens, your body has become immune to the pain. But sometimes, when something brushes against it, or you accidentally bumps the scar into something, the pain comes shooting back. That's when you know the wound has never ever healed. It's just there. Waiting.

Hubby's Birthday Lunch

There was no celebration on Hubby's birthday last week. That was the day he sent me to the hospital. Lepas tu dia terus pergi kerja. Balik pun buat kerja. Deadline memanjang. Yesterday, I dah sihat sikit walaupun tahap jerebu di seluruh negara dah sampai tahap bahaya sampai sekolah pun kena tutup 2 hari. So, decided to treat Hubby to a birthday lunch. Semua safety precautions diambil supaya kesihatan I akan menjadi tip top menjelang hujung minggu ni. Mask pakai walau di dalam kereta.  We had lunch at Alamanda TGIF. Honestly, tak pernah mengalami service yang agak teruk from TGIF. Something must be wrong somewhere. From kitchen to the frontliners tak ada communication. Food pun not so good. Macam over-cooked. Except for the clam chowder yang sangat yummy. To cut my story short, Aliyah's meal was free, and so was the dessert they offered as apology.  Lepas tu Hubby's turn to buy Aliyah her birthday present. Bila bawak dia pergi Swatch terbeliak mata. Terus nak jam baru

Early Birthday Present for Aliyah

Aliyah's birthday is still a long way to go. But then, we almost always get her present early. And also, because getting her present is always the most difficult. Now that she's a teenager, we really don't have any idea on what to get her. Dulu-dulu senang, bagi Barbie doll saja. When we ask her, she doesn't know herself. Mula-mula nak bagi watch, since her watch yang dia pakai sekarang ni sensitive sangat, kata dia. Tertekan sikit jam tu mati. Selalu dia kena adjust time. Tapi bila nak beli as present, dia tak nak pulak. She did mention "shopping". Anak aku ni kalau bawak shopping, memang tak boleh control. She did hint something though, so I got her exactly that yesterday. Dalam keadaan tak sihat macam sekarang ni, semalam gagahkan diri ikut Hubby lepas Friday prayers. He dropped me at Alamanda. Urusan penting: 1) Bayar credit card yang tak reti-reti nak sabar. Orang dah separuh mati sakit tak boleh bangun, kau asyik call dan hantar SMS threaten nak proce

Terjatuh Sakit

I have been having this persistent cough since Ramadhan. Jumpa doktor dah 3-4 kali, beli ubat farmasi pun dah berbotol-botol. Tapi still tak sembuh. I promised Hubby I'll go for check up this week ie on Tuesday. Sekali tu memang kena pergi pun sebab suddenly kena vertigo. Walaupun tak seteruk yang pernah kena that one time before. Bangun tidur Monday morning, bukak saja mata terus rasa bilik berpusing. Oh tidak... Vertigo is not something easy to deal with. Kalau kena migrain ke, sakit kepala, masih ada cara nak kurangkan sakit. Tapi vertigo menyerang tak ada warning. Sangat dangerous kalau masa tu sedang driving... Tapi Monday tu main belasah saja. Still mandikan my mother walaupun masa tu rasa floating dalam bathroom. Tapi by noon dah rasa semacam. Malam tidur dengan posisi tengak 2 bantal kat kepala. Pagi bangun dengan both vertigo dan migrain. Hubby bawak pegi Hospital An-Nur. Apparently, my BP was very high ie 150/100. Aiyoh, rasanya tak pernah tinggi macam tu. I was given 3