Living with Sarah

Everyone would agree that 2014 was such an eventful year. For our country. For me, as a person, a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur, a daughter, a sister... I sailed through the 12 months of ups and downs. Reflecting on the year, the downs that I experienced seem like a lifetime away. There was a time, about three months I think, that both of us had to endure such hardship in terms of our finances. The only source that kept us living day to day was from the shop. And our shop is just one year old mid last month. It is still new to generate much profit for us to even rake in some decent salary. But we endured. Alhamdulillah... I can also say it's been a boring year. Most of the time we spend at the shop. But you can be amazed at the many types and characters of people who patron our shop. The best are friends who come to support the business and strangers who later become friends. They make the shop lively and worth running. I'm not going to touch on the other type of people w...

Alhamdulillah we managed to gather 248 little air kotak. The drive was too short a notice, and the items I insisted on collecting was simply air kotak. I got inquiries to send other stuff, but I have only 2 hands and an old body (cough, cough...). I can't afford the time, energy and allocate space to collect items. My friend Rose came after work to collect. She'll be joining a mission tomorrow to Kuala Kerai and Besut. Rose dear, saya doakan awak dan team awak selamat pergi dan kembali. Allah swt sahaja yang dapat membalas kerja-kerja kebajikan yang awak lakukan. Masa ni belum masuk kotak. We bought milo, soy bean and chocolate / strawberry flavoured milk drinks

Mysa Bike Hub sedang mengutip sumbangan dalam bentuk air kotak sedia diminum untuk mangsa banjir di Pantai Timur. Kutipan selama 2 hari (29/12 hingga 30/12) ditutup jam 4 petang pada 30/12 utk membolehkan bantuan dihantar segera. Sama-samalah kita membantu saudara-saudara kita yg dilanda musibah. Terima kasih

1) We closed shop for 2 days (Thursday & Friday). Dua hari yang terasa sangat lama. Rasa macam weekend, yang tentunya bukan weekend. For us yang waktu kerja tak sama dengan orang makan gaji ni, cuti yang jarang diambil ni memang digunakan dengan sepenuhnya. It was family time for us :) 2) On Thursday - keluar dating dengan Hubby. He bought 2 tickets for us to watch The Hobbit at Alamanda. Aliyah memang tak nak tengok for the 2nd time. Sedih, katanya. She insisted to stay home. Terserempak dengan Azam & Azura with their kids. Lama sangat tak jumpa. Lepas tu aktiviti mencari laptop baru for me :). I've been using my Dell Netbook since our days in Sek. 15. Bayangkan punya lama. A new laptop is definitely due. Finally settled on Lenovo Flex i7. Such huge laptop - 15.6". Tetapi laju macam lightning compared to my old Dell. I was poorer by RM2800. But it was so worth it. Semoga boleh digunakan dengan seoptimum mungkin untuk mencari rezeki :). 3) Semalam patutnya buka ked...

They say it's one of the worst floods ever experienced. For someone yang tidak pernah dilanda musibah banjir, the photos shared on social media sangat menginsafkan. Kat Bangi ni, paling teruk pun mengomel sendiri kain tak kering, pagi-pagi tak dapat nak ride sebab hujan, hujan lebat customer tak datang. Benda-benda yang remeh. Sangat remeh.  Tak dapat nak bayangkan macam mana orang-orang yang rumahnya di landa air deras secara tiba-tiba. Tak sempat nak capai apa pun. Lari ke bangunan tinggi atau bukit. Tengok rumah sendiri hancur dibadai air. Sejuk, dahaga, lapar sampai 2-3 hari baru dapat bantuan. Ya Allah, kau lindungilah mereka... Dalam hati memang ada rasa bersalah. Terutama sebab dah dua hari habiskan masa di shopping complex. Beli barangan yang sejak berbulan dulu dah plan nak beli bila dapat payment. Enjoy makan kat tempat yang dah lama tak pergi sebab keadaan kewangan tak berapa mengizinkan.  Hulurkanlah bantuan yang mana terdaya. Kalau ada duit, bagilah dui...

Time flies really fast this school holidays. It's Christmas tomorrow, New Year next week, then it's back to school for Aliyah. Then the normal routine will start. Next year, it'll get slightly hectic. We registered Aliyah for tuition yesterday. Three nights a week (Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays), 6 subjects. We believe time has come for her to get a bit more serious with her studies. Professional help is needed. Form 1 was very relaxed for her. So much free time. On second thought, we, the parents, are the ones who need professional help. As much as we think we could help Aliyah with her studies (both parents ex-teachers tak kan lah tak boleh kan?), we just couldn't afford the time and being disciplined. Yesterday, settle beli kasut dan socks. Today, a stop at school to buy books. Quite a long queue. Then, bought tudung and kain sekolah. Now, tinggal tunggu my second sister siap jahit baju sekolah saja. Next - kena start buat daily schedule for next year.

I had this plan with Linda - when we get M3, we plan to drive north to Penang, spend 2 days there and eat. That's the plan. Eat! But then, M3 came 2 weeks later than expected. This week dah Christmas, next week, New Year pulak. So, we agreed that timing is definitely not right. Perhaps the final payment - M4. So, we planned a day of shopping yesterday. I have put aside a small portion which, in a way, can be considered a small bonus since Linda has been with me for years and had endured all the hardships I've been through. Tak lah banyak. Boleh la beli 2-3 pasang baju. In the end, my teen daughter was the one who benefited from the outing. We went to Paradigm Mall - brave through the traffic jam. Plan asal was to go to SS2 and devour Nasi Kandar Kayu (feeling-feeling nasi kandar Penang). But then, it was almost noon when we reach PJ that we straight way went to the mall. Lunch at Chilli's (Aliyah's choice). Then shopping time - Marks & Spencer (that's the on...

Hubby took one day leave from work yesterday. He's been working daily for the past 3 weeks. A well-deserved leave especially that we finally received our M3 payment. Itu pun, pagi pergi kedai kejap siapkan satu bike. After that, a short meet up with my two sisters yang dah sangat lama tak jumpa. Then, off we went to IOI City Mall. Main objective is to get ourselves a new TV. Our current TV dah 8-9 years kot. Orang lain dah lama upgrade to flat screen, we are still watching the bulky 29" TV :). My philosophy - selagi boleh guna, tak rosak, why change? Now it's due to be replaced sebab the edge of the screen - I think a few inches in - dah start to get blur. Bila scroll info tak boleh nak baca nama program! Anyway, it's a belated birthday celebration for the three of us too. Lunch - Tony Roma's for the delicious ribs. Sampai malam kenyang tak habis. Then, HomePro. Actually memang dua tempat tu je. Jalan dengan Hubby memang macam tu. Less place, but more time spent ...

Chiko the kitten has promoted himself to become the shop supervisor. Typical morning would find him waiting for us at the front of the shop. Sometimes he made stops at the shop next door. Sometimes, he would sleep at Alif Tomyam until the boys open their shop at noon. Then, the supervisor would come over. He would eat, play, make a mess with the papers we crumple to become balls, bite us (playfully of course, but my hands get scratches), and when he's tired, he would sleep. He would jump on to our laps to sleep. Such manja kitten. There is a secret place he would go if he doesn't want us to bother him - under the big fork box under the stairs we use as storage. More often than not, our customers get very delighted to see a kitten in the shop, especially kids. I would always say that's our shop mascot :). It's really nice to have a kitten around even though we don't take care of him "full-time".  Pagi-pagi dah tunggu depan kedai...  Main dalam k...

Aliyah and I watched the final Hobbit today. On the first day. As always. And as I was typing this, my heart is filled with great sorrow. That's when you know you've watched a great movie. Both of us almost forgot about today. How could we? The 18th of Dec is the D-Day which we have anticipated eagerly for the past months. But then, things have been quite hectic around here, and the date totally slipped our minds. Yesterday Linda came in and mentioned that The Night of the Museum will be on 25th. And I then wondered when The Hobbit will be. Aliyah's eyes suddenly went wide and she said, "18th!". Hubby couldn't join us but bought us the tickets. So, there we were, mother and daughter, kiasu I must say! It's such a sad story. Three of the dwarves died. The last 15 minutes just broke our hearts. I had tears running down my cheek. Aliyah said she cried a little and complained - The Lord of the Rings tak ada yang mati pun! Quite true. For such a thick b...

Mysa Bike Hub is now officially the Authorised Dealer of KTM bikes. Along with 6 other dealers around. Just been brought in by our partner. So far, quite a lot of inquiries. Very positive response. What's so great about KTM bikes? Originated and made in Austria. Very sleek. Very sexy, kata Hubby. Price range a little bit on the high side but if you look at the specifications, the design, finishings and the details, they are so worth it. Check out our FB: www.facebook.com/mysabikehub for the models that we offer. Or just drop by Mysa Bike Hub in Bandar Bukit Mahkota, Bangi to appreciate their beauty :). We provide good packages. For Myroon 29ner carbon bike, we give away free Sports Cam worth RM429.00. Good deal huh! If you come and mention Living with Sarah, I guarantee you 5% discount on all KTM bikes :) The KTM Myroon 29ner Carbon

We no longer subscribe to Astro. Mulanya oleh sebab-sebab yang tertentu. (Ehem, ehem!) We had a little family meeting and decided to suspend Astro for some time. Personally, I have grown tired of Astro. The programmes are being repeated over and over again and there are advertisements (sometimes too much!). If you subscribe to movie channel, you can see a certain pattern. Kalau holiday season eg Christmas, end of the year, then you can watch quite good movies. But certain months, the movies shown just menaikkan blood pressure. And yang tambah menaikkan darah is the Malay channels. Too much programme yang tidak berkualiti dan asyik nak buat orang ketawa tapi tak kelakar (to us lah!). Balik-balik muka pelawak-pelawak yang sama. Rasa buang duit je bayar every month. So we turned to HyppTV. For extra RM50 a month, besides Unifi yang Hubby dah upgrade that gives us Sports channel, we get almost all channels. Walaupun channels kurang dari Astro, tapi there are lots to watch. At any time ka...

Hari ni I cuti :). Dari last week dah plan nak check out the new mall in town - IOI City Mall. Plannya nak pergi sama-sama dengan the usuals. Tapi tak juga muncul-muncul, so pergilah berdua. Let's see... nothing much lah. Unless you are young and into activities like ice skating and doing dunno-what in District 21. Kalau zaman-zaman bujang dulu, maybe dah buat rombongan Cik Kiah dah :). I promised Aliyah to take her shopping. So, ke tempat baju-baju style dan saiz dia - H&M, Padini and Uniqlo. There are lots and lots of eating places. Very interesting. But then, we ended up at Kenny Rogers. Oh so boring nya. Reason being - we wanted to try the Korean restaurants tapi tengok the menus macam portion too big. Kalau tak habis sangatlah membazir. For such eating activities kena pergi dengan geng-geng yang boleh menghabiskan makanan walaupun perut sudah penuh iaitu Nizam dan Hubby. Ada a few places yang nampak interesting but the number of tables and chairs pulak macam tak bagi ora...

Hari ni I jumpa dua orang yang menjengkelkan. The attitude people have these days! Astaghfirullah... 1) I was lining up at KFC this afternoon. KFC sebenarnya tak ramai orang. Depan I di kaunter ada one family. Maknya tengah place order. Anak teenagers perempuan 3 orang disekeliling. Dia dok tanya sorang-sorang nak makan apa. Sorang anak yang umur dalam 2 tahun, kakaknya dudukkan atas kaunter. Kaki yang berkasut boleh Maknya biarkan di tempat orang sajikan makanan. Sigh... But that's not it! I was looking at the menu. Dalam kepala tengah plan nak beli apa untuk Aliyah. I can understand a mother with many kids needs time to order. And I am a patient person. Then, one of her daughters looked back, saw me looking at the menu, then pergi bisik-bisik kat Mak dia. The lady turned around, looked at me, jeling I, pandang depan balik and said, "Hai, kena sabarlah!". I was so sure she meant her words to me. Naik juga darah. I waited patiently in case she turned back. Nak juga ...

The kitten has been with us for more than a week now. Rekod yang bagus. And a routine has been set too. The night before we close shop, we would put out food and water at the back, and lock the kitten outside, within the grill. He would stay there for don't-know-how-long, maybe play or sleep in his box. Perhaps until he got bored. He is very smart because he has found a way to escape. We guess he jumps on top of the cans of paint, grabs the plastic garbage bag Hubby uses to store old tube and tyres and then jumps out the grill. The next morning when we come to open shop, we will find him in front of the shop. Well, his presence can be in the morning or sometimes afternoon. I think he must have gotten a nice place to sleep. We will then feed him, and he will spend the rest of the day in the shop - playing or sleeping. I think this "arrangement" suits both parties perfectly. Well, as long as we don't have too high hopes of seeing him every day. Cats are, shall I say, ...

It rained almost the whole day yesterday. A cold Sunday. When it's cold, the stomach grumbles. I made simple bubur nasi ayam for lunch yang membawak ke dinner. And goreng berlada cili api ikan bilis dan bawang. Such a nice complement to the porridge. Bila makan, boleh berasap telinga dibuatnya. Sambil masak bubur nasi ayam, supervise Aliyah buat pai susu. The recipe was given to me by my Kak Lang. Once, I made small version of the pie using muffin pan. The taste turned out to be similar to Portugese Egg tart. Bila buat versi besar, lain sikit rasanya. Panas-panas terus potong! The three of us finished the pie off in a day. Compliments to Chef Aliyah.