Living with Sarah

Weekend yang agak memenatkan. On Saturday, we played host to Melaka clan who gathered to discuss matters on my SIL Mija's wedding. Dari pagi dah start kerja - pegi beli lauk and stuff to cook. Buat potluck. As tuan rumah, I cooked nasi minyak suka hati, siakap sweet sour dan acar/jelatah. Mengemas rumah saja dah 2-3 jam. By the time Angah Mas sampai, baru nak goreng ikan. Alhamdulillah this time around timing semua OK. The table was full of yummy food - satay Kajang, asam pedas tulang, kari ayam, talam keladi... Memang 2-3 round lah mengusung pinggan.  So, kerja dah dibahagi-bahagi. It's about 2 more weeks to go. Sekejapnya rasa...  The next day pergi wedding Zurai, anak Kak Mah yang babysit Aliyah masa kecik. Semua surprised Aliyah dah besar. Actually - dah tinggi! Then, spent time with my parents. Sempat mengintai kebun I yang dah lama tak jenguk tu. Wahh... cempedak, pulasan, mata kucing, pisang, semua tengah meriah... Bagitau my father yang apparently dah lama tak m...

Today pasang boxed grill kat belakang. Alhamdulillah, barulah rasa selamat sikit. Dan paling penting, pekerja-pekerja restoren belakang tu tak boleh lagi melepak betul-betul belakang pintu. Siap letak meja kerusi buat kerja kupas bawang, jemur ikan kering bagai. Dah berapa kali we all datang siap cuci kedai diaorang buat tak reti je. Some people... Next - kena tunggu siap glass wall and partition (yang masih belum habis plaster dan cat). After that, we can clean up all the mess (again!) and start paint works. Plan to do ourselves. Insyaallah boleh...

Terbaca kat FB sekolah Aliyah results UPSR will come out next week. Terus kecut perut Mommy Aliyah... Sedang cuba buat mental therapy pada diri sendiri - it's just an exam... the first of the many that are to come... Whatever Aliyah's results may be, dia seorang anak yang sangat baik dan rajin. Dia dah buat sehabis baik yang dia mampu buat. Parents dia pun dah usaha sebaik-baik yang mereka mampu. Dan cikgu-cikgu dia pun semestinya dah buat sebaik-baik yang boleh. Semuanya di tangan Allah swt. Abahnya dulu dapat 5A. Sangat bagus sampai boleh masuk MCKK. Mommy Aliyah not as good - dapat 3A2B. Alhamdulillah sebab ikut Atoknya pindah Sabak Bernam, dapat masuk Yayasan Selangor dan bersekolah di sekolah yang bagus ie SM (P) Sri Aman, PJ (which actually would be the school she would've attended if she continued staying in PJ anyway!). Aliyah pulak? She will pave her own course. And whatever the road she will take, she will surely have both of us supporting her all the way... 3...

Hari ni turn Hubby pulak mengulang ke kedai. I rehat sikit OK. Pagi-pagi Sam Cermin punya orang-orang datang plaster board of that little office. Baik-baik orangnya mintak sekali tolong plaster filler kan lubang kat dinding peninggalan developer. Lampu pun dah habis pasang. Cat pun dah beli tadi. So, buruh kasarnya will be both of us. Should be fun painting the walls :). Buat sendiri lah kan mana yang boleh... Ya Allah, mudahkanlah urusan kami. Semoga berjaya bukak kedai very very soon...

Progress on the shop is actually quite slow. The first month - nothing much done due to the passing of my MIL and also the staying low due to financing issues. We didn't really approach anybody. At one point, I guess the way out was no where to be seen. But come Hari Arafah - at the time when it is said that prayers are answered around 5pm-8pm - I prayed and prayed that assistance will be given to us. My thought was - perhaps there is a way for us to get funding via bank loan or something. Less than a week later, Hubby's friend of a friend called him up and offered to partner. And the rest is history. We have now formed a partnership, started a company and now renovation of the shop has started. I believe this is the help given to us by Allah. And I pray that we can work together in harmony. We really hope we can open shop latest by end of the month.  The partition for office. Lights and fans have been installed. The entrance to the restrooms will be covered with a door. ...

Yesterday we conducted a "bukak kedai" - got my father to come over, baca Yassin, solat sama-sama and doa selamat sikit. Alhamdulillah, dia kata everything looks OK. Timing pun ngam-ngam katanya. Garam pun cukup-cukup. Siap baca Yassin, doa, did the tabur garam thingy, siram air Yassin, terus Maghrib. What he didn't know was I was driving around like crazy - from kedai patah balik rumah ambik screwdriver, packed telekung, sejadah, etc, bawak sekali Aliyah. Then, at 6pm (janji nak fetch at 6pm!), baru selesai Asar, gi tapaukan my mother food sikit, kena singgah office pulak sebab suddenly Aliyah said she was not sure she switched off the air-cond or not, so kena naik office and memang air-cond was still on! Haiyoo... I am so so angry when it comes to stuff like this. So, panjang lebar lah marah pada Aliyah yang I feel very irresponsible sebab dah pesan and dah reconfirm. Alhamdulillah I teringat nak tanya sekali lagi whether she really is sure the air-cond is switched of...

Semalam Aliyah pergi hiking trip ke Gunung Angsi. Dia cuma bagitau the day before. Dia kata nak pergi sebab kawan-kawan dia pun pergi. Surat pun dia tak ambik, terpaksa mintak kawan dia photostate, dan Hubby kena tunggu kat sekolah pagi tu untuk sign surat. Gunung Angsi? Very familiar. Tough climb. But I guess both of us thought the kids will go climbing a certain easy route. Yang boleh "lalalala"... (my expression of easy is "lalala"). So, we were not worried. I spent the day at Nilai 3 with Linda - scouting for stuff for my SIL Mija's wedding and also stuff for the new venture. I had my phone in my hands in case Aliyah called saying she's arrived at school. I reached the office at 4.30pm, then it started to rain real heavy. Masa tu dah tak sedap hati. Surely kat sana pun hujan ni... I went back home at 5.45pm, still no call from Aliyah. Hubby tried calling this Cikgu yang selalu kita orang contact kalau Aliyah pergi trips, but he couldn't be reached....