Living with Sarah

It's hubby's birthday today. Pagi2 worked together with Aliyah to create a simple birthday wish. The day is still early, we'll be going out to buy stuff and I'll be buying him a gift. Rezeki murah sikit this week. Got payments and hubby dapat Raya bonus, which sipi2 kena kat I. Anyway, hubby bought me a new handphone for my birthday! This sleek, (slightly heavy), black N80. Yesterday we went Raya shopping for Aliyah at IOI Mall and he went missing for a while. Rupanya he checked out N70 phone kat kedai bawah. I was a bit reluctant at first. Trading in my phone for a new one quite a hassle because of data transfer. I am so dependable on that phone. If data in my calendar and contacts go missing, then that's it la. Not to mention bank account numbers and many, many more. (FYI, I don't even remember my hubby's phone no.) So, need to plan. Hubby mula2 macam merajuk la, ingat I tak nak his gift. Helloo... that phone against my old phone yg selalu jatuh bersepai, ...

Yesterday morning I was on YM with my sister. She sent this Surah (can't remember what) and wrote - "Kalau tak nak husband kawin lagi satu, baca surah ni dan niat kat 'jim' biar dia tak kawin lain". She obviously found that from somewhere. So I replied, "Kalau dia nak kawin satu lagi, biar je lah. Tak kuasa..." Ye lah kan, kalau lah dah mampu sangat, go ahead. (But of course before I drill stuff into his head the things he'll be missing. Never mind.) Anyway, hubby and me are in the midst of changing our old battered Kancil to Viva. We even went for a test drive last weekend. Hubby's trying to save up on petrol consumption, especially with me yang bulan-bulan macam sabut - kadang timbul, kadang tenggelam ni. Before this, during our OK times, rajin lah pegi test drive nice big cars. Saja je - Camry, Citroen, Honda, etc. So, yesterday night, I was watching TV when hubby came, sat next to me and put his hands on my knees. He said, "I have a conf...

I think selagi that beast who killed Nurin is still out there, I will be carrying this heavy thingy on my chest. Every time after solat, al-Fatihah for adik Nurin and I pray and I pray for the killer to be captured. Please dear God, please give our police force (yg after my painful experience, taklah so respectable sangat, but whatever...) the leads and brains and evidence and strength and help to catch the *&%^ @# beast. He must be captured now before Nurin's story becomes history. Before other children become victims. And now I am extra, extra careful. I'm always holding Aliyah's hands when we go out. Try not to leave her out of sight. And I can see other parents taking the same extra precautions. Even though, there are still those who take things lightly. Linda said this morning she came across a little girl of my daughter's age coming back alone from the shops across a road near her apartment. She was obviously sent by her mother perhaps because she was carrying...

I always think my daughter is the most considerate little girl in the whole wide world. If she wants anything but we couldn't buy - cannot afford or tunggu gaji Abah or whatever - she never ever throw tantrum melalak guling-guling atas lantai. Never. She would listen to our reasons and she would say OK. Sometimes she argues giving her own reasons but she would accept our final decision. We went for Raya shopping at Alamanda yesterday, for Aliyah of course. This year we decided, with Aliyah's consent, that there is no need to buy new baju kurung for her because last year's are still in very, very good condition having only worn not more than 3 times. We'll only be buying for her a dress, a pair of shoes, jeans and T shirts. First stop, Reject Shop because saw some nice girls T Shirts there dulu. We bought her 1 pink T Shirt that costs RM16.90. Next, Bata sebab I saw a newspaper advertisement this nice Bubblegummers shoes yg looked lebih kurang macam the one she wanted at...

She's finally laid to rest today. The parents have accepted the fate that the body is of their beloved daughter. I can't really sleep last night. These thoughts about her kept coming to my mind. How was she treated the whole time she was taken? Image her being so afraid being held captive at a foreign place. Imagine her crying for her mother and father hoping they would come to save her. Image her screaming and brutally assaulted by strangers with blood coming out of her mouth. Was she kicked? Was she punched? Imagine her in pain because she was not given her medication. Imagine her being hungry and thirsty not being fed. Imagine her sleeping on a cold cement floor, whispering for help. Imagine all that happening to our children... Kita ni, malam-malam check on our children while they sleep, selimutkan dia kalau sejuk. Pasang ubat nyamuk takut anak kita kena gigit. Luka sikit cepat-cepat balutkan. Demam sikit cepat-cepat hantar klinik, ubatkan. Kalau dia demam teruk, siap doa s...

Yup, it's my birthday today. It started perfectly. A (annual) midnight birthday wish from hubby. And well wishes SMS kept coming starting sahur time. This morning I got news from Linda that that company will pay, partially that is, the project that ended last December. (Kalau impose interest, sah-sah dah double). I checked my account and found I got July salary from that company. Alhamdulillah pasal dah broke. Hubby said he'll treat me to a nice dinner tonight. But then, read news about the missing girl - Nurin. The police confirmed the dead body they found in the sports bag is her based on DNA tests. Now that the dead girl has a name, and the name is the 8 year old who's been widely reported missing, I just... I close my eyes and I still see the dead face. And I just can't imagine the torture and suffering she went through the whole time she was kidnapped. It's been a month she went missing. It must have been hell for her, with her sickness, brutal treatment, sexua...

We had an unplanned birthday bash for my father yesterday. My eldest sister with her family came back - my father sembelih 3 ayam kampung+hutan which belonged to my brother-in-law. So, he came to cook ayam masak lemak cili api. My eldest brother Angah & family came for their usual weekend buka puasa. Then my little family joined the crowd. We went and bought a cake from Secret Recipe - White Chocolate & Macademia Nut cake, nicely decorated wishing my father happy 72nd birthday. I called Miqdam to join the crowd and he happily said yes especially after hearing about the cake. So, buka time was a chaos with like almost 20 people crowding the meals. My father cut the cake and right after people seemed to forget about laksa or mee kari or murtabak. Everybody attacked the cake. Delicious. After Maghrib, Wani, who berpuasa dengan penuh cabaran sekali, at one point actually geram sangat with the cake, decided to simply cut the cake on her own and scooped it with her hands. Dah tinggal...

Time: 1st day of Ramadhan Location: My parents' place Time: Petang My Father: Gigi Sarah yang kat depan goyang tu bila nak cabut? Me: Dentist kata kalau tak ada gigi baru tumbuh, biar dulu pun tak apa. Aliyah: Kenapa nak kena cabut? My Father: Gigi sekarang tu namanya gigi susu. Gigi tu sementara saja. Bila dah cabut, ganti dengan gigi kekal. Gigi kekal kuat. Aliyah: Gigi Atok gigi kekal? My Father, sambil tunjuk gigi dia: Ye la, tengok ni. Dah tua pun gigi kuat lagi. Ini lah gigi kekal. Aliyah, went near her Atok and commanded: Atok, bukak mulut. My Father: Kenapa pulak? Aliyah, dengan tone yang bossy sekali: Bukak mulut, nak check gigi. My Father opened his mouth. Aliyah: Gigi Atok semua gigi kekal kan? My Father: Ye lah Aliyah: Apasal kat situ, situ dengan situ tak da gigi? My Father dengan tone (cucu aku ni kenapa la suka tanya soalan cepumas?): Atok ni dah tua. Gigi kekal pun dah tercabut! Aliyah: Heheheheee...

September is the birthday month for like 1/4 of my family. Popular month. There must be something interesting happening in December... Anyway, here's the list of September babies (and in-laws) in my family: 9 Sept: Azah, my sister-in-law 10 Sept: Izzat, my nephew 13 Sept: My mother 14 Sept: My brother Azli (Happy Birthday!!!) 17 Sept: My father 20 Sept: Me and my eldest brother Suhaimi (yes, we share birthday and we are 12 years apart) 30 Sept: My hubby (and yes, I am 10 days older than him) Yesterday was my mother's birthday. Budget pun tak berapa ada, so I bought her a birthday cake saja. Went to her place and told my daughter and Wana that it's Wan's birthday. Dua ekor budak kecik tu terus lari pegi dapur and wished my mother Happy Birthday. Terharu my mother :). I gave her the cake, wished her, kissed and hugged her. She's 69 and so frail now. But it feels so good to kiss and hug her. When I wanted to go home, she came over and kissed me. Sedih I...

Ramadhan datang lagi... Just nak wish everybody Selamat Berpuasa, selamat beribadat. It'll be a quiet month. I'll be finishing those translation work hopefully sign off before Raya. Duit pun dah kurang, payment tak masuk... Hmmm... duduk office saja lah. Minta maaf kalau ada salah silap, terkasar bahasa, etc. Some links on ibadah puasa: Fadhilat Ramadhan Indahnya Ramadhan My little company will be doing another round of collection for anak yatim, this time around will be for Nur Hikmah , insyaallah. But we won't be doing for Ramadhan though. Ours will be collection for school stuff for school year 2008. There'll be a lot to buy ie school uniforms, shoes, bags, stationery, books, etc. Even though the Budget made education [so-called] affordable to all, it is still expansive for unfortunate people. I'll keep you posted on that when we start the campaign soon.

This morning while waiting for Aliyah's bus, I cleaned up our mailbox of junk mails and all those plumbing and renovation call cards and also those unstoppable skim cepat kaya flyers. One of the many flyers was this PAS cawangan Serdang Merdeka edition newsletter. I ni bukan lah nak write about anti-PAS vs pro-Government stories. It's just that what I read in that newsletter really pissed me off. There was this list of items written under the title "Merdeka kah kita?" (or something like that). So, adalah this long list of negative happenings / situations in the country. Among those which made it to the list were: - ada 250,000 kes murtad (apakah yang kerajaan lakukan?) - rakyat merempat di negara sendiri - orang politik semakin kaya, rakyat semakin miskin - and many, many more which I already forgot My first question when I read that was - ko tanya kerajaan buat apa, tapi ko sendiri ada ke buat apa-apa? I really don't understand these people. They only whine and...

I now have all Grey's Anatomy season 1 and season 2 episodes. Since I started watching the series quite late, I spent the last couple of weeks watching 1-2 episodes per day. Memang lah best. I love Bailey. She is simply - a Nazi. My favourite part is when she got pregnant and the Chief kept on tailing her about her residency. Finally she got really fed-up and said: "You blind moron! Can't you see I am pregnant! Men!". And then she said something about how men just drains one up even from inside a woman's womb. And she said this to her own boss! She's good. Even McDreamy said: "The Chief don't scare me. But Bailey scare me!", when he operated on Bailey's husband. Anyway, just want to share one particular episode that sums up a mother's feeling in totality. It's about this woman with a teenage girl who's got lung cancer. She's dying but she put up a strong face in front of her daughter pretending she's not so sick. Alex the ...