Living with Sarah

It rains daily these past few days. My laundry basket is full to the brim. But isn't the rain just great? I love the rain. My favorite smell is the smell of grass after the rain. So refreshing, so clean. Rain cleanses the earth. Of a lot of things - smoke, dust, sin... But at times I tend to forget - alamak, hujan! Thought of my laundry getting wet. Or if I'm in KL, the potential crawling traffic jam. Patutnya kena cakap Alhamdulillah. Allah turunkan hujan dengan rahmat. Semoga I tak lupa. But the best phrase must be my mother's - hujan? Bersoraklah pokok.

Remember the English tuition classes I give to my niece, her friend and Aliyah? I usually conduct the classes either on Saturday or Sunday morning. Depends. So far I've only done 3-4 classes. Anyway, 2 weeks ago the kids had their monthly test. Here're their results - Wani my niece maintained her B. Scrutinized her test paper and found some silly mistakes. Others are quite difficult for her level ie having to reconstruct jumbled up sentences. OK lah tu for a start considering sekolah tadika dulu Malay medium. If she can just focus, she can get better grades. Shahirah pula, from her normal C, she got a B. That's nice. Heard from Azah her mother was so happy. I'm so happy for these kids. And I do enjoy the classes. Tapi hari ni class cancel. Teacher ada bad headache.

We had 3 days training at our usual place from Monday till today. One drawback about organizing a public training is that you can get heart attack at the 11th hour. We always set our minimum number of paying participants - enough to cover all costs and get some profit. Usually it's 8 - that's good enough. Last week, the number who registered was 12. Nice. On Friday 4.30pm, 6 of them canceled! Each within 15 minutes from each other! Reasons being - tak dapat kelulusan, some HR guy went for long leave and another 4 got some urgent stuff to do (nasib baik that 4 requested for on-site training). Sakit jantung weh... So that leaves us with only 6. Since it's already late, we had to continue. OK la, cover cost, but minimal profit. But then, on Monday we got a surprise. 2 extra participants showed up, with LO some more. Apparently, their training staff forgot to register with us. Alhamdulillah... nasib baik. I actually wanted to tell this story about a driver I tailed this morning...

I tengah tersangatlah sukanya dengan lagu ni. Amazing song. Kalau dengar you heart just soars. Kalau dah Il Divo nyanyi dengan Celine Dion, tak powerful tak tau lah kan. Just the lyrics here... I Believe In You Lonely the path you have chosen A restless road, no turning back One day you will find your light again Don't you know Don't let go be strong Follow your heart Let your love lead through the darkness Back to a place you once knew I believe I believe I believe in you Follow your dreams Be yourself an angel of kindness There's nothing that you cannot do I believe I believe I believe in you Tout seul tu t'en iras tout seul Coeur ouvert à l'univers Poursuis ta quête Sans regarder derrière N'attends pas Que le jour se lève Suis ton étoile Vas jusqu'où ton rêve t'emporte Un jour tu le toucheras Si tu crois Si tu crois Si tu crois en toi Suis ta lumière N'éteins pas la flamme que tu portes Au fond de toi souviens toi Que je crois Que je crois Que je ...

Just finished the book today. Yup, taking my time. It's really hard to say goodbye. After years and 7 books, it finally ended. No more. The closest I can think of was the end of "Friends". Was right about Snape. Was right that all the while he's been protecting Harry. And in the end, he's so much more of a man than the rest put together. Fred died. Ever since the twins did the fireworks stunt and how funny and crazy there are in the movies, Fred and George have been in my list of favorites. It's so sad reading how George knelt at Fred's body presumely weeping. Would George still be as reckless, funny and crazy as before? No one knows. But they were inseparable it's hard to imagine one of them gone. Percy came back. If not because of Fred's death, it would've been such a wonderful ending to the Weasley family. And he has good sense of humor! I think he would team up with George and run the Weasley store. What happened to Umbridge at the end? Har...

Got it! Got it! Went to get my copy yesterday at 10.30am at MPH Alamanda. Sampai naik angin with Aliyah because she was so slow. The book store was very quiet with no queue at all. So I asked the cashier whether there are actually people who came to get the book. She said there were a lot but they came early morning. Saw a girl sitting in a chair cross legged reading the book at the bookstore. I think the parents went shopping and she wanted to be left alone with the book. Hubby said there's a kid reading the book at the British Open golf championship amidst the spectators. The commentators remarked Harry Potter is on the course. I'm half way through. But I peeked the ending. Spoiler Warning: the boy who lived, lived! But quite a number of characters died including one I really like - a Weasley brother. I'm not reading the book as much as I wanted to. I have just completed this document deadline today. Just sent over. And I need to prepare for tomorrow's training. So, t...

It's tomorrow! MPH Bookstores around Klang Valley will open at 7am tomorrow. Can't wait, can't wait! The Internet is full of stories of leaks. At least 2 online stores have been slapped with lawsuits. Some 1,000 people out there have read the Book 7 due to the mistake in delivery. A few books have appeared on eBay selling at $250. One video on YouTube showed the book cover and some pages that looked like the actual text. But don't know whether real one or not. Another video has a narration of the supposedly Book 7 storyline, with the guy citing exact pages. But the story is so ridiculous I think it's just a joke. Mayhem. Over a fantasy book. I think I'll go over to MPH Alamanda tomorrow to collect my book at 10am. Must not be seen too eager. But then Alamanda is not One Utama or KLCC, so I don't expect too see a long queue. And like the last book, I would read it so slowly, don't want to finish the book too fast. Sayang. The last time Fairuza got her boo...

I just came home from watching Harry Potter 5 with Aliyah. We wanted to watch it last weekend but couldn't get the tickets. As usual, hubby said you two go ahead first lah, so Aliyah and I went to watch it after school. Just like the previous Harry Potter movies - things are so, so rushed. Some scenes contain combination of 2-3 stories while some important stories were not there. As a result, we get a choppy movie. Of course I can't expect everything in the book to be there. Still it was good. Professor Umbridge was excellent. I tried to imagine her while reading the book but couldn't get any character close enough. The irritating girlish giggles and her "hum, hum" were so good one can't help but to hate her. Luna Lovegood was good too. But I had imagined some one crazier than that with even crazier clothes. One scene really had an impact on me - the scene when Bellatrix killed Sirius with the killing curse. I had imagined the arch and Sirius falling into it w...

2 days to go! I think Snape will be the hero in the end. He's been hated for the past 6 books, but there's so much to him actually than people realize. I think he was secretly in love with Lily, Harry's mother. So when he revealed the prophecy to Voldermort which in turn made that evil guy kill both Harry's parents, he felt so guilty and vowed to destroy the dark lord. I think la...

I'm starting new category - Makan-makan. Once in a while you actually find a gem of an eating place. So, I nak share places yang foodnya sedap (ikut tekak I lah). Today, Linda and I had lunch at this Restoran Kampung at UNIKEB, UKM Bangi. Their main attraction - ikan bakar with air asam, sos sambal and cili api with kicap. Memang sedap, macam-macam jenis ikan bakar sampai ikan talapia bakar pun ada. I tak pernah jumpa tempat lain, ikan lain tu banyak lah. I actually tak makan ikan tu, Linda yang suka. Other lauk yang sedap there are kerabu mangga (with lots of cili api slices) and kerabu perut. Yang lain lauk kampung biasa which are also very the sedap like ikan kering masak lemak cili api with nenas, ikan sembilang goreng garing cili, and many, many more. This place memang kena sangat dengan my tastebuds because I love cili api and the food here are like swimming in them. Today I had rice with ikan sembilang goreng cili, kerabu mangga, terung goreng cili with a bit of kuah masak l...

It's been such a long, long time since I went for a girls outing with my friends. Had a so-called one last Saturday - just that hubby and Aliyah tagged along. And we had such a good time. I must do it more often. All these talks and gossips and ideas and concerns... A girl needs her girlfriends no matter at what age. Anyway, the outing was "attended" by girlfriends who are single - they are either not married, or divorced. I was the only one with hubby and kid along. It was a mixed feeling to me, I mean these girls are successful, professional women who make a lot of money and they have carefree lives. They hop over to each others' condo every other night and go out as they please - movies, shows, etc. Life seems to be pretty interesting compared to mine. And they can afford to be impromptu whereas I need to plan my time around my family needs. More about that later. The outing started at 3pm with a meeting with Yatt. Yatt is Dextra's other director, so I see her ...

Miss me for the past 2 weeks? Hehee... Let's see what happened... Went to Kuantan last week for a meeting. Good one. One thing I realize is that I've fallen in love with the East Coast. The moment masuk highway East Coast saja you can feel the air is fresher and a little bit salty. And the jungles are denser and greener. We stayed for the night at Shahzan Inn opposite the mosque. They actually grouped almost all their agencies nearby so one can simply park near the mosque and walk around to do errands. I was amazed that the car park was not full. Kalau kat sini, sah-sah dah jam. I walked from the hotel to my meeting place, with my laptop bag pack and got curious glances from people around. Tak pernah tengok orang macam aku ke agaknya? I hope things will materialize and I will have more visits there. 2 days after that I got allergy attack. Never got that before ever in my life. Until today still don't know what caused it. I just remembered having spaghetti at Petronas, then ...