Living with Sarah

1) Pagi-pagi Aliyah dah pegi ko-ko kat sekolah. Stay-back. That's 2 days in a row. Kita kesian kat dia, tapi dia suka je sebab geng-geng dia semua stay-back juga. Pesan kat dia - don't go out! Just stay in school! Anyway, hari ni Hubby telah menurunkan pisang tanduk yang dah masak. Dulu terawal ambik. Kali ni sampai dah masak 2 biji kena makan burung baru sempat turunkan. Alhamdulillah... dah betul-betul masak nanti boleh buat pengat pisang or just goreng. 2) For some peculiar reasons (again), I am back at sending food to my parents. Alhamdulillah. Suka je. Since Aliyah tak ada, I pun tak masak. Beli lah saja. Semalam mee rojak Asik Maju, hari ni mee rojak Haseena Maju for my mother. I told her - nanti bagitau yang mana lebih sedap. Makin putih mak aku ni. Apa la Kak Ros dok sapu kat muka dia hari-hari? Dia suka potong rambut pendek sebab my nephew Along Iwan selalu puji dia nampak awet muda! Hehehe... 3) Today work as usual at the shop. Nothing special planned....

Starting Monday, I don't send lunch to my parents anymore. For some peculiar reasons. Now I am missing the moments. I pray that they will be served nice, hopefully delicious and nutritious meals. I miss making my mother nasi goreng full of veges. Sigh... Anyway, today, lunch is very unconventional - burgers. Hubby bought beef patties from Bob, our neighbour and friend who operates Burger Bakar stall at Nazeem. Aliyah loves the burger and requested it for lunch. So, here's Burger Bakar Mommy style - beef patties grilled with some olive oil, with caramalised onions with a dash of thyme. The only missing element of the burger is sauteed mushrooms. Other than that, life is as usual. One thing both of us now realise is that "handling" a teenager is really a challenge. Our daughter has mood swings. Sometimes I try to accommodate - cheer her up, just talk to her, but then sometimes situation can be tensed. We might be busy and stressed and having Aliyah pout and scow...

Hubby said something with such an honest look, I glanced at him in awe and said to myself - "Good saying lurve!". Bukan senang nak dapat praise from me ok :)... Here's the story... Saturday is always a busy day at the shop. I only had free time at 3.30pm yesterday to send back lunch for Aliyah. Kesian kat dia... In between receiving customers, yesterday we had a visit from a guy from a bike parts and accessories warehouse. We took a look at his catalogue, decided that the items were quite good and value for money, and we ordered quite a big stock. We told him that we were planning to get new stocks on Monday and he said seemed our chance meet was destined. We then moved next door to have lunch (at 4.30pm), and we talked some more. Hubby told the story of how we started the shop. I guess to us, our story is just a simple story of determination, passion, hardwork, sacrifice and dream. Nothing amazing or unusual. But the guy was so impressed. And when Hubby told of the dif...

Nowadays, I try to make sure my mother eats lots of vegetables. Semalam, I masak nasi goreng for her, siap potong carrots dan kacang panjang kecik-kecik. Goreng nasi letak telur 2 biji so that she gets her dose of protein. Bila dah ingredients so-called "tersembunyi", I believe she would eat balanced food. Hari ni, since Aliyah stayed back at her school for her merentas desa practice, I bought food for my parents. Malas sikit nak masak. My mother loves rojak mee mamak. Masa temankan dia makan, I yang siap bebel - "Mak, makan lah sayur tu". She cheekily scooped mee, telur rebus and the "kuih" pushing aside the timun and sengkuang strips. Before I go off, I told her - "Nanti Mak mesti makan tau sayur tu!". "Ye lah...", she said. Life is a cycle...  Lunch yesterday for my parents. Nasi goreng Cina for my mother - sayur dipotong comel-comel, masak lemak cili api ayam and kentang, dan tahu sumbat.

Aliyah doesn't really share our enthusiasm for the shop. Quite understandable actually. She's now a teenager. FB, TV, friends - more important than being at a bike shop. She prefers to stay home, do her own thing. Whenever she stays home, I will make sure she has everything she needs. Along with a long list of chores she needs to do. Sometimes the shop demands us to be there longer than we intend. And I would feel really guilty for leaving her alone. But I would make sure I fetch her and take her out. And she will have her own pick. Sometimes it's roti canai at mamak. Sometimes it's dessert at Secret Recipe. Her current favourite - banana split. She finished this off, and said she's still hungry. "Nobody eats banana split when they're hungry!". So right after, we went to buy some plump bananas. And that night I made her a huge bowl of banana split Mommy style - split bananas with 3 huge scoops of vanilla ice cream with Hershey choc sauce. "Sam...

I think we have opened shop for 2 weeks straight. No holiday. Not even Sunday. Not even public holidays. Even though our operating hours say differently! Today, it's totally close shop. Hubby pun tak sihat. I guess age has taken its toll! Hehehe... And for the first time in many, many months, I simply switched off my alarm clock to get maximum sleep time. Lunch pun panaskan leftovers in the freezer. Then, after dah tak tahan lazying around, took Aliyah to Bangi Gateway yang dah lama buka tapi belum berpeluang pergi. Niat nak belikan dia tudung tapi tak ada yang dia minat pulak. Akhirnya, grocery shopping at Jaya Grocer. But it feels really funny today. It's a Friday that felt like a Saturday. Saw some FB posts people went for short vacations. I really have lost track of time. Must get myself a table calendar.

1) I just recovered from another round of insomnia. Seriously, what's up with the body? I get it at least once a month. It can stretch up to 2 days of no sleep. Imagine more than 48 hours of not getting any sleep. With work as usual. Tiring. Finally resorted to sleeping with Aliyah in her room just for a change of bed. Before sleep layan dia tengok LOTR. She's so happy... :). 2) Things at the shop are progressing very well. Alhamdulillah... Last Sunday, a group of usual cyclists started their cycle from the shop up to Kg Jeram Kedah and back. We provided nasi lemak for breakfast. One good thing of having them start and finish at the shop is that - they would become tempted to leave their bikes for service. Come Monday morning, I was presented with this!  Penuh service bay... 3) Alhamdulillah... I really feel blessed to be able to practise this flexible working hours I'm currently enjoying. My Whatsapp group of good friends are always full of "traffic jam...