Birthday Bash Blog

AINA TURNS 5!

Papa brought everybody to Shangri-la's Lemon Garden last Saturday. Buffet was excellent. Mama was eyeing the Ice Kacang since we stepped into the restaurant. Orang Peru jangan jealous...

Birthday Girl was proud to finish her chicken wings.

Three stooges at the Lobby.

With a yummy gleaming flowing chocolate fountain at the bar, everybody went grape-dipping. Comot boy had to use 2 napkins because he kept licking the chocolates.

Abang "Mawi" was in his own "world!". Makan banyak tak sudah-sudah. Chicken wings, sushi, udang besar 3 ekor, roti canai...

Complimentary cake on the house - for being a Shang member, we got this soft, moist and creamy chocolate cake to bring home, tak larat nak makan there. Birthday girl couldn't wait to go home and show off her cake to Achik & Atam.

No candles provided though - had to use tealights because somebody was too eager to blow them candles! Look at his eyes...

This is my priceless cake!

At the end of the day, somebody was proud to have a double celebration...

Hectic Week

It was a hectic and busy period last week, with adrenalin rushing especially the very last minute I was submitting my tender response all the way to Cyberjaya. Managed to get there 10 minutes before closing time, I hope we didn’t get a ticket for speeding at 130 km/h.

On Aina’s birthday, I had meetings back to back, but luckily my last meeting ended at 5pm. So I took the opportunity to get her something cute for her birthday while frantically trying to settle my mobile bills as the line was already barred because I haven’t made payments in all those frenzy. Since we are not doing anything for that day, I figured a little surprise would make her day.

Found something cute and useful for her in Memory Lane, a face towel in a cylinder box with Mimi the Cat character from Patrick and Friends. So happy Aina was with that little gift, she actually held the towel closely in slumber that night. Hmmm, the pleasure of pleasing a child, it’s the little things that matters. You don’t have to get them expensive gifts…something practical and meaningful would be great for them. Happy Birthday Aina!

Overwhelmed!

Have you ever thought of going back to your mother's tummy again when things start to be so overwhelming for you to face? I'm actually wishing that now, infact I already wished that this week would just skip. I got:

• a big tender to respond by Wednesday of which I have limited help and knowledge
• a presentation for a government conference I need to prepare for my CEO for Thursday that actually need to be submitted today!
• two conferences coming in July that I need to coordinate the details now
• to look for resources for a project in the US a.s.a.p.
• to look for a replacement maid fast and all those agents have not gotten back to me yet
• to plan for Aina's birthday that's on Thursday but celebration has to happen on Saturday (I don't mind doing this of all the things above..)

And I don't think I have enough time to do all these in a week!

Civic Minded

As I was driving under the hot sun yesterday (mind you my aircond is still kaput!), and of course sweat are running down all over my body (gross ain't it?), there was this red hatchback Honda Civic just wheeled in to my lane. You can guess what type of driver it is just by looking at the car (I'm discriminating here, but hey it's also generalization based on my experience).

We were coming to a traffic light at the Jalan Bangsar-Dataran Maybank intersection, when I saw the driver smoothly extend his right hand out the window, holding a red plastic bag.

At that gesture, my mind is already signalling my mouth to say something - this is when I long for that ever mind-reading/speaking horn!! I know what he's going to do, and I know it's a HE because of the hairy hand.

Then slowly he loosened his finger-grip of the bag, and subtly the bag flew away, on to the road.

What a CRAP! He's aware of what he's doing, but pretentiously made it such that the bag konon-knon flew away lah! Aiyoo, I hate this type of people. Selfish enough to throw garbage on to the roads, but aware enough not to dirty his car. CRAP!

Infact, they are a lof of people out there doing all sort of grossly stuff, one particular thing I hate is spitting, and sticking gums at public spots. Yuckks!

And if you observe them properly, these people do not look un-educated.

So what made them missed that particular civic education?

A Driver's Wish List

Ever wonder while you’re driving, the things that other people do just trigger some wish list in your mind? Well, here is my wish list, after 19 years of driving:

Gadget: A mind-speaking horn
Purpose: Some people just don’t understand the basic rules of driving – so they need to be mannered. Since our hands are not that quick as our mouth, a device should be available to scan our brainwave and convey the message to the horn.
Example: “Excuse me, orang lain dah jenuh queue, tolong la jangan potong”

Gadget: A rear mirror flap at the back bumper, triggered by a push-button
Purpose: There are a lot of un-alert night drivers with high-beam on, just annoying the front drivers. When mirror is triggered, the un-alert driver will immediately respond to his/her own bright lights. Also works for those who don’t turn on their lights at all. Hey, we don’t have this gadget with our current vehicles, do we?

Gadget: Branched-wheels – Inspector Gadget kind of car wheels
Purpose: Works miracle if you want to save gas and most importantly TIME, in a downtown KL traffic jam.

Gadget: Automatic sweeper/cleaner for carpets & seats
Purpose: A mother driving hungry kids need to concentrate on the road. This gadget will save the kids from being shouted at, eventually improve mother-children relationship.

Gadget: Engine that runs on water
Purpose: Will definitely save my RM 120/week petrol money. Can use that to buy a new pair of Scholls...he he..

Cheeky Moments

Enjoying the scenic harbour view..

Splash time...

The Ride

I guess what the kids enjoyed most out of the KK trip was the airplane ride and swimming in the pools. Anyways, those were the only driving factor for them to open their eyes at the twilight hour on a Sunday morning. Just whispered in their ears, and the sleepyheads quickly pranced out of bed.

"Do you want to ride the aeroplane?", these are the magic words.

"Mana aeroplane?" Amir was asking, and I told him to get ready first and we'll go to the airport to take the ride.

And when we were ready for the cab at 4:50am, Amir decided to plant his feet down. "Nanak naik that car, nak car ni," while pointing to my car.

Had to explain to him that my car will be lonely at the airport because we're going to leave it there anyway. He bought the idea, but then was covering his nose the whole trip to KLIA LCCT.

"Smelly!" was his complaint about the smell of the cab, you know that kind of pungent smell whenever you take a cab.... And he kept doing that even before we board any cab that we took in KK.

After checking in our luggage, we had a lean breakfast at McDonald's, also trying to rush the time for boarding. Since we know that you can't bring outside food on Air Asia, we made sure the kids are fed. But at 6 in the morning, they could not have more than a hash brown and a slice of sausage.

The comes boarding time, we actually missed the call for passengers with kids because of the toilet visit. I didn't want any of them to make a scene in the plane later.

Upon seeing the Airbus on the tarmac, all three of them are already excited, and rushed ourselves to the staircase as it was drizzling. Since we were quite late, we only secured 1 row of 3 seats, while the other 2 had to be at another row away. Of course, them kids were fighting for the window seat! And Aina got the seat, while Abang sat with Papa, with the promise that they will swap places later.

Once settled, and the plane towing away to the runaway, Amir started to unbuckle his seatbealt and wanted to take the window seat. I have not been been able to sit still since the time we boarded the plane, and now Amir wanted to get out of his seatbelt! And it's already take-off time! I had to hold him down to his seat saying that the plane would be racing soon. That actually kept him down for a while until we were in the air.

The thought of catching a nap in a 2.5hr flight had to be parked aside. Amir kept getting in and out of his seat, going up and down the aisle and switching places with his brother and sister. If this is how he's going to behave in an airplane, I told Papa that we should definitely postpone our dreams of taking them to Disneyworld until Amir is mature enough to sit still at least, maybe when he's 8 years old!

Thank God Air Asia in-flight menu is limited! I'm glad it's not a flying Tesco, otherwise we would be broke to the bone...

Holiday in the Land Below the Wind

Actually it's work cum holiday. It was an offsite meeting with my clients, and my principal wanted to hold it away from the office, so they decided to go to Kota Kinabalu. At the same time, my clients could also meet my other client based in KK.

Since my brother works for Air Asia, and got free tickets to spare, I decided to take the opportunity to take the kids along, and forced my hubby to take time off from work, so he could babysit them. So it's like a free holiday for them. After all, it has been quite some time since our last holiday in Cherating in 2004. The kids were definitely excited, and it would be the first airplane ride for Aina & Amir.

We stayed in the Pacific Sutra at the Sutra Harbour Resort, with excellent view of the sea. Amir especially liked the sailboats that were docked at the Marina Club, but of course we didn't have time to go island-hopping due to the time constraint.

It was also Amir's first on the cab, and on the free city-shuttle bus taking us from the hotel to town. KK is a flat city, calm and quiet. And since it's famous for the cheap ikan bilis and ikan kering, we hunted those items down first at the Central Market, next to the Filipino Market. You can actually get good grades peeled ikan bilis at RM13 per kg, compared to the peeled Pangkor ikan bilis sold at Giant for RM22.90/kg.

At the Filipino Market, the eye-catcher was definitely the crystal accessories and pearls. Of course the pearls are no way close to Mikimoto pearls, but some people got attracted to those accessories. Somehow I just didn't know what to buy from there. It just didn't click. We just got a few tree-bark pencil cases for the kids.

Adam of course just couldn't wait to go into the pool. We arrived early on Sunday morning, so Adam was incessantly asking when we could go swimming. Earlier on, I was pleasantly surprised because it was easy waking the kids up at 4.15am and asked them to take their shower. Of course it was Aina who woke up first. Perhaps it was all due to their eagerness to board the plane to go to some faraway land.

To me, as long as the kids are happy being somewhere away from home during the school holidays, it's good enough for us parents. Though it was just a 3-day 2-night trip, it was great for them.

I haven't elaborated on how Amir behave on the plane...next entry!

Blazing Hot!

The weather has been very hot these days, and of all the time, my car aircond chose NOW to malfunction!

I was at Cyberjaya last Friday, and after my meeting, went back to my car that was parked under the hot, blazing sun. Turned on the aircond, and woah! It was not cold at all. Turned to full blast and still the same. Touched the steering wheels and it felt like a pot just came out of an oven. Ok...I said to myself, let's roll down the window...and wallah! The driver's window is also jammed.

I ended up driving to my workshop in the hot sun, mind you, my window can't be wound down, so imagine the heat I had to bear all the way from Cyberjaya to USJ. By the time I got to the workshop, with my tomato-red face, my mechanic already knew what's wrong with the car. This is not a mere aircond-out-of-gas problem, it is the internal coil, which will cost me almost 2K! On top of that, my mechanic doesn't want to install a local coil, it has to be original because they provide warranty for 6 months. And I have to leave the car there for a day because fixing it is a major exercise.

The mechanic told me that I'm lucky because the aircond never failed for 10 years, and considering a continental car, the rate he gave me is considered low. Another 3 series that's barely 2 years old is also having the same problem and it costs the owner a whooping 7K!

It's just that I have to bear the heat for another month because I need the money to replace my maid next month, and that is also going to cost us a bomb! So I have to skip the repair this round, maybe plan it for next month. So I asked him to just fix my power-window. But my oh my, even with the window down, the heat is unbearable!

And this is just the worldly heat, and in the afterworld, the heat of hellfire is 70 times more than the worldy fire! Oh Allah, please save our souls...