Living with Sarah

Our little family was having breakfast of roti canai at Haji Tapah this morning when I got a call from Kuantan. Remember we participated in a sebutharga sometime in August? About we got shortlisted , how we traveled up just a few days before Hari Raya (dengan penuh dugaan) for a presentation ... We got the project! Yes, we got it! Alhamdulillah... After the call ended, I couldn't utter a word, my eyes went glassy. I looked at Hubby, who looked back, knew the result from my conversation and said Alhamdulillah... I could only turn to my right and kissed Aliyah very very hard. This is the first time we got invited to participate in an open RFQ and we nailed it. The journey was full of obstacles - we are small so we couldn't spend on prototype - what we demo was actually our own website, the designer ditched us the night before submission date so we modified the design on our own using Powerpoint... And on presentation day, we were against an ICT giant - my ex-employer. This is suc...

We transferred some, got new ones in... The red/pink talapias have been transferred to my brother's pond. They have become big, eat so much and a little big aggressive. Even though I actually like them because they make the pond so lively, it was time to transfer them away. After they left, the kois don't come out much anymore. We don't know why - they missed the talapias ke, they finally found peace ke... But it's so irritating to see them all snuggled away under the rock platform. It's like having an empty pond. So Aliyah then said she wanted new fish and Hubby took her to buy 3 fat goldfish - using her own money. Funny thing was, I always thought goldfish to be graceful and slow but the goldfish turned out to be so naughty with so much energy! Their playground is the rocks where water comes out from the pump where they swim against the current to try to go up on the rocks. With them around, the kois have now started to come out again. Yesterday, we got a tortoise...

A few weeks ago, we bought beef fillets which I marinated and got Hubby to grill. He's a first-timer at the grill. And so excited. But the end result was so-so. The beef was overcooked so it was like eating daging bakar which is excellent if it were to be served with air asam :) Anyway, we tried again yesterday. We bought the fillets last Sunday which I immediately marinated and freeze. Last night I cooked my usual roasted chicken (Aliyah is not into beef), roasted potatoes (saw Jamie Oliver's version - half-boil, penyek-penyekkan sikit then roast), carrots and mushrooms. The potatoes turned out nice but not as crispy because 1) I didn't dare put too much oil and butter as shown on TV and 2) cooking time not long enough. Hubby grilled the beef to perfection - medium well. It took hours to get rid of the nice grilled beef with garlic and rosemary smell throughout the house! My plate... The medium well beef... What's left of the chicken and potatoes...

I've been trying to finish up this book I started writing last year but to no avail. It should actually be quite easy because the materials are from my training, but I kept on procrastinating. However, the book that we (Hajar & I) wrote for MPC has been published. If you are interested, can always get it from MPC :) At least I got that published! Anyway, I have started writing again. Things are very quiet these days, I am a bit restless with these holidays every Friday this month, so I picked up writing again and so far so good. And I just managed to create a blog on what my book will be (insyaallah). My new blog: Pengurusan Laman Web . (Adus, seksa gak tulis dalam BM).

I have this disagreement about driving today. Not going to elaborate on that though. But my point was - be humble in everything that you do. That includes driving. Whenever I get behind the wheels, I have three things in mind. And those three things are the reminders for me to (try to, at times) be humble: 1. I am a mother. I need to stay alive as long as I can so that I can raise my daughter. I can never ever imagine how her life would be if I am not around. That's why I don't really care what people think of my driving. And I don't really care how other people drive. 2. I have a daughter. I need to make sure she is always safe and sound while I am behind the wheels. It doesn't pay to follow your anger or pride or whatever you call it and risk the lives of the people you love. Yes, I do get angry with stupid drivers on the road. But then, let the stupids be stupids. I have better things to think about. There were a lot of times when I was driving the Volvo last time th...

After a week after getting her ears pierced, I got Aliyah to choose any of my earrings for her to put on. She chose my little white gold earrings with teeny weeny diamonds. It was a birthday gift from Hubby a few years ago. She wore it for a few days, including the picnic day. She was so proud and told me she also likes white gold just like Mommy. Yesterday, back from the picnic we found that she had lost the stopper of one of the earrings. I told her it's OK, and got her to wear my silver danglings. But I think she saw I was a bit sad for losing the stopper. It was a birthday gift after all. Last night when I tucked her in bed, she kissed me and told me she's so sorry for losing the stopper. She looked so guilty and close to tears. I told her again it's OK, I can try wearing them with other stoppers. "Tapi tu birthday present Mommy...," she said. "Tak apa...," I said. You should see that look on her face. The regret and guilt.

We took the day off yesterday and finally went for the picnic at Sg Tekala. Of course I made picnic food - nope, not meehoon goreng (Aliyah doesn't like it) but spaghetti bolognese and tuna mayo sandwiches. Cukuplah untuk we all bertiga. We took off at 9.15am and reached there 30 minutes later. It was very early in the morning, not many people were around yet. That's the whole idea! We got the best spot. A huge gazebo to ourselves. Breakfast dulu... We didn't climbed up too far. But still, very nice... It rained the night before so the water was so so cold. Dua beranak tengah contemplate how to get into the freezing cold water. At one point there was this tiny fish that kept on "pecking" at our feet!