Of Kekasih, Passion & Interests

On the subject of Kekasih, my latest pursuit of happiness about this subject comes in the form a horror serial on TV3. Normally, I only watch interesting Malay movies & series, and my opinion is that the filmmakers and screenwriters in Malaysia are getting better now. Kekasih Ku Seru comes with an interesting plot and cinematography, and for the past 3 months Mama has always been looking forward to Thursdays. It’s just that this serial always have some new upturn in the story line that makes me wanting to find out more. The best part is my princess Aina will always remind me every Wednesdays to make sure I come back early on Thursdays. And on Thursday afternoons, she will call me to remind me again.

Somehow my boys become so penakut lately. Everytime we watch it, Adam & Amir will be under their pillows, and Amir insists not to sit nearest to the window. He he..I guess he doesn’t want to see glimpses of Waris there.

Actually, Mama pun penakut with all these horror flicks, but since the actors are all familiar faces in the local movie scenes, Mama pun dah tak seram lagi. In fact, the first few series really made me jumped off my seats and woke Aisha up because of my terperanjatness. The horror scenes are almost equal of those Korean horror stuff.

On a serious note about it, it provides subliminal messages about the culture we Malay folks tend to inherit. The stereotypes, the black magic (Saka) that some people may not understand and how it is forced on to the descendants. While watching it, do remind your kids about the background of black magic and how we shouldn’t be influenced about it. Do watch it, and this week will be the series finale. You can catch the back episodes on TV3 website. Hmm, TV3 should gimme credit for promoting this.

MY REAL KEKASIH

Moving on…my real Kekasih actually surprised me with a gift last week, as I just got my birthday present in August. You see, my Kekasih is hardly around with me and kids. He’s always working, and working, and seeing clients, and entertaining…hopefully jangan salah entertain la. The average time he’ll be home on a weekday would be at 11pm. I do envy some people who always have their husbands around, cooking together or just be home having dinner like the ideal family. So, when he comes back early, it would be a nice surprise.

Really, I have to make appointments to see him during workdays and even weekends activities have to be booked. So, we always try to make it up by having breakfast or lunch anytime our schedule can accommodate. It’s kinda fun too, because we are like “curi-curi” jumpa. I guess the gift was to make up for all the time he’s not around, and for the times that I feel like I’m the only parent for the 4As.

Guess which one of those 3 at the bottom was the gift last week?

MY INTEREST

I’m on to a new project (that I like doing). Now looking for ideas and concepts for my cousin’s wedding in December. My other interest is to gubah hantaran and floral arrangements. And since my youngest Acik & Achu are not showing any sign of settling down yet, I look forward to any opportunity to help decorate the wedding hantaran.

In fact, I’m onto decorating the girls’ room also. So many things planned in my head, yet very little time I have. Been wanting to go to SSF to get new flowers as well as I want to re-do my living hall’s floral arrangement. Which reminds me of the time we had our flower shop. I have been out of touch doing the floral arrangement which I used to do with my partner at the shop and it’s always fun having to arrange all the big orders for all the datins in Shah Alam. Let’s see what I want to do this time. Should I stick to the old English or classic theme, or get more vibrant colors for my all brown & earthy-toned hall?

We used to give themes to our promotioal events, like this round was 'Simply Magical'. I'm thinking of having some of these concepts in my new arrangements.

And we also named our arrangements, so that it will inject some buying psychology. Like this one above was Summer in Cambridge


This one was Sunshine Dream

I forgot the name to this one as this was an order from one datin.

Forgot this one too.

Pink & Roses

Summer in Cambridge II

Montana Summer

Romance & Passion

I miss those days, when it was tiring but fun selling all those arrangements & pots & hampers. I think when I have the right partner who is as talented as my previous one, I think I want to do it again..

Simply Inconsiderate

Today Mama hot betul, bukan apa, when I reached my office parking this afternoon, my favorite spot was occupied. But I'm not upset about that.

Basically I'm a sucker for parking spots that are near the elevator areas. So as usual I went around looking for the nearest spot. And how unfortunate today it was kinda full. So had to look for the next best spot. Yes, there was one particular spot I was aiming while going around, but HECK!! I got really upset because next to it was this particular flashy brand new Honda Accord that actually occupied almost a quarter of the empty lot. Tell me siapa yang tak hot? Nama je bawak kereta besar-besar, sepatutnya educated la kan, tapi tak respect orang langsung.

So I ended up in another parking spot at the below level. And disebabkan keberangan Mama pada orang yang sungguh la selfish, Mama sanggup jalan ke spot tu and left a big note with the message "PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE BY NOT OCCUPYING 2 PARKING SPOTS, THANK YOU". And do notice Mama masih berbudi bahasa menulis nota itu. Kalau ikut hati, memang nak sumpah seranah, tapi sebab Mama tak mau anak-anak Mama jadi macam tu, maka buatlah apa yang sepatutnya sebagai seorang yang berbudi bahasa.

I owe Amir this post

Sept 24, 2008 - bulan puasa. Mom was still maidless masa tu. Sorry Amir, tak sempat nak buat posting for your 5th birthday. Anyway, as usual, we don't have big celebration, enough to mark that you are a big boy now.

Lucky I found this little cake, 350gm, siapa la nak habiskan bulan-bulan posa ni..

My 5-year old Amir, ya Allah, please let Amir be a good boy, listen to Mom & Dad, jadi anak yag soleh, tak gado2 with kak Aina & Abang, rajin pi school, rajin buat homework...

Siapa la yang main dengan phone Mama ni, adjusted the white balance setting?

Some people are happy dapat celebrate birthday walau kecil-kecilan.

Ini Amir tengah inquire dengan Mama what is pahala & dosa. Tangan kanan pahala berat...

Rumble & Mumble

Whilst others are busy celebrating raya, I was busy managing the new maid's arrival. As always, Mama being the ever independent mom of four, had to round up everybody (except Abang who decided to follow Acik) on Saturday before Raya to wait for the maid at Jeti Pulau Ketam. And as usual, Papa was always working, this time in Seremban. The maid was scheduled to arrive at 3:30pm, so by that time, we were already there.

And Mama, who hardly waited at the jetty for maids coming in at peak time of the balik-raya madness - never anticipated the crowd. So with baby Aisha, Amir & Aina, Mama had to do 'muka-kesian' at the police-officers and RELA guards the entrance. So they showed me a parking spot just beside them.

When we got off the car, the guards warned me that any ferry coming in will be held at the jetty, and they can only come in once the crowd leaving for Indonesia is cleared by the immigration. So after a few checks and waits at the ferry operator, somebody finally told me that they could actually clear the maid for me if I leave the a copy of the immagration letter for a RM20 fee - that after 2 hours waiting uncomfortably with my 3 kids!

So I was asked to come after buka puasa... and so in between the rush to cook for buka puasa and settling the baby, we did, this time leaving Aisha with Acik while waiting for Papa to come back from Seremban as Acik had to go pick Achu up.

When we got there, the maid was already waiting. I could imagine the exhaustion she had from travelling and waiting since morning. But upon the introduction formalities and such, she popped me the big question - "Anak ibu ada berapa ya?" I was surpised as I already introduced the 3 who followed me. Apparently she said that she didn't ask to to take care of small kids, and if any, only 2 expected!

Adoi! Pusing kepalaku! Quickly I texted Papa that we have to psych her up upon reaching home. Later, we found out that we were also "conned" by the Indonesian agent. We asked for a single lady no kids, we got a janda with 3 kids. And she wanted to take care of only 2 big kids. Reason being she does not want to be reminded of her kids who are now with the gambling ex-husband.

So both expectations were not met. We start to worry already and we realized we need to keep reinforcing the idea that she needs to start fresh and forget the past. But deep inside, I have major doubts, not to mention her hardly smiling face and reactive mode of working. For the first few days, she didn't even try to make friends with the kids, especially Aisha. How can I expect to leave Aisha with her? Even with the laundry, I already told her how to separate the colors, and everyday she'll keep coming back to me with which cloth goes where.

Last Monday, I found her still sleeping at 6:45am when we were busy upstairs gettingready for school. Anyway, I'm still giving her the benefit of the doubts, until yesterday. I asked Aina to send to her room some school uniforms to be ironed, and what did Aina get? "Kakak penat, kakak nak rehat."

That was yesterday when I was still on leave. I took care of Aisha's bathing and stuff. I cooked lunch while she prepared the ingredients. Not so much of work and she did that. I started missing my previous maid, and in fact, Papa did suggest to try calling her back. And I did last night, and was pleasantly surprise that she wants to come back now that her father has recovered from whatever sickness he had. She needs to seek her sister's blessing first and will get back to me soon.

This morning, while I was rushing to go to work after prepping Aisha, I called her to take Aisha while I was getting into the car. Guess what the response was? "Tunggu bu, habiskan jemur kain." Never before my maids did that to me and I was in a hurry some more.

That's it! I want my previous maid back! This current one has too much too ask but too little to give.