Taking a Break

Salam and hi. What? I haven't written any entries since August 2nd? Unbelievable! I should be marking term papers for my students but I need to get away from it just for a few minutes. There's so much to tell and let's see what to mention first. I went to KL yesterday to attend a departmental meeting. I promised myself not to spend so much but the moment I entered Kinokunia, I went berserk! Luckily I managed to control myself and just bought 2 books. One is for my class reference and the other is Love, Eat, Pray! It's a wonderful novel which has been made into a motion picture recently. I wonder if I could still catch it on the big screen or I just have to get a CD.
Anyway, I stopped by Auntie Annie's place and bought 12 huge pretzels. My kids just love them! I think if I really sit down and follow the recipe, I could actually make them or even sell them! Maybe I will try that after we move into our new home. Speaking of that, our new house is almost a 100 percent ready. We are just waiting for the electricity to be installed. After that we have to wash the floor and have a small feast or housewarming gathering. I can't wait.
Early this month my niece got married and the wedding was held in the kampung. It was a wonderful ceremony where I had a chance to meet many of my relatives and friends. I guess we have to wait for a long time to have another big gathering like that because my nephew (the Malaysian side that is) said he needs between 8 and 10 years to establish his career. My kids are also still too young.
Najla had another tooth pulled last night while I was in KL. Steve said she refused to have her 2 teeth filled. I asked her why this morning and she said, "I want to do it with Mak". Isn't that sweet? Speaking of Najla, she is no longer enrolled in a kinder garden because she said she knows everything that is being taught there already. In the beginning we sent her to the nursery just to play with the younger kids but at the beginning of this month she requested to go to Mak Bedah's hous. Kak Bedah is our good friend cum baby sitter for the rest of the kids before. I guess she's happy there helping Mak Bedah and watching TV whenever she pleases.

On Tuesday Steve brought home a lot of novels which we have ordered from the Scholastic Book Club. I think more than half of them are Yasmin's. She's really "wild" reading them now. Harris, Hannah and Najla also got a few books each. I wonder where we are going to put all the young adult novels we have. Since Danial is staying in the hostel, he didn't get to order any. I hope he'll find something he likes from Yasmin's selection.

Fruit Season Again

Salam, hello, hi,

Here I am sitting in my quiet office enjoying a bunch of "rambutan" and some "dokong" fruits. We took a lot from my mom's village yesterday. Normally my family and I would go back to see my mom once a month but since the fruit season started we have been going for almost every week! I feel kind of bad because it seems that eating her fruits is more important than seeing her. But then again, she would insist that we do just that. I think this past weekend would be the last time we go back until sometime before "Eid" which will be around the 11th of September. Anyway, the "durians" are almost gone but "rambutans" are a lot more on the trees. I think the "dokong" will be gone soon too. I forgot to check whether the "mata kucing" were still intact. I am not surprise if the bats have clobbered them all. Wild boars have been having some feasts over durians as well.

Lately, I have been neglecting my blogs as well as my emails and FB. I have a lot to do for my classes. I prefer teaching EOP to EAP because I can actually relate my past experiences as an administrator to my EOP class. But it's a good learning experience for me.

My kids are growing fast and soon Harris will be as tall or taller than me. He hasn't been back home every time we went because he was busy with school activities. He will be sitting for his UPSR soon. I hope he'll do just as well as Danial and Yasmin. I wonder if the Government is really going to abolish UPSR some day. Well, it doesn't make that much difference to me because none of my kids will go to boarding schools at the age of 13! They are still too young to be separated from us. Once they leave the house they will be gone! I want to keep them for as long as I can. Also, with or without UPSR, Malaysians will still be crazy about exams, grades, and tuition classes!

Danial has entered 2 debate tournaments and a spelling bee contest since the last time I wrote an entry to this blog. Yasmin has entered a corral speaking and public speaking contest in Terengganu. I am quite envious of my children because they are so active in school. Hannah has not participated in major events yet but maybe she's a late bloomer. She loves to draw and she is still going to the piano lesson regularly. I am curious how Najla will turn up once she goes to elementary school. Speaking of school, she is no longer in kinder garden but she re-joined her nursery where she doesn't have to learn anything in a formal way. She said she was bored with the kinder garden because she knew most of the activities they asked the kids to do. We are not too worried because she can read and write in both English and Malay. Lately, she said she will go back to the kinder garden after "Eid" so that she will be qualified to walk on the stage to get her kinder garden certificate at the end of the year.

We are all excited about our new house. We just saw it this morning. I think it's 80 percent ready. I was told that it could be finished by October. We really hope to be able to move in by November or December. That will be the perfect time because the kids will have their school holidays. Hopefully they will help packing and unpacking the stuff. Argh ... I hate thinking about moving, again! The aches and pains from our recent moving are still very much alive in our muscles and veins. But we hope, this time around it will be different because we are finally moving into our own home!

Reading

Recently I have not been so good at keeping up with my reading. But I am glad I have gained back the momentum. Thanks to Danial for bringing a series of 4 books called the echoes series. I think I started the 1st one last Sunday and now I am just beginning to read the third book. I really hope to finish all four of them before Danial goes back to his school this weekend.

These books are written by Jamilah Kolocotronis, an American Muslim author. Frankly speaking I have never heard of her or read any of her work. I am glad I get to know this writer because I like her books, so far. It's a refreshing change to read English novels based on Islamic perspectives. It's good to read something positive about my faith because I am tired of reading, watching, or listening to all the bad reputation of a religion which is very dear to me. I think we have to be practicing Muslims to feel and understand what I am talking about. There are so many hate sites on the internet. Sometimes they depress me but I am glad my faith helps me to sort my feelings. I definitely can relate to the books by Jamilah Kolocotronis .

School Holiday Activities

I pray that Yasmin will win in the public speaking competition in Terengganu today. She also participates in the choral speaking contest. She left very early this morning, probably around 5am with a group of students. They stayed overnight at their school to make sure that they left on time. I hope Yasmin won't have any trouble without her name tag and her IC. She did send an SMS to Steve late last night but neither of us heard it because we were so tired and were sleeping like logs. While Yasmin was at her school practicing last night, the rest of us went to the theater watching The Karate Kid. The movie ended slightly after midnight and by the time we reached home it was 12.30am. When Steve finally saw the message and called her this morning, she was already on her way.

Last Saturday she participated in the spelling contest at M.S. Garden hotel which was organized by MELTA. There were 18 groups from schools around Kuantan. Hers was one of the four groups which was qualified for the final round and they got the fourth place. They were given the opportunity to choose either scientific or technological terms. In the first round all 4 groups chose technology but during the second one, Yasmin's group changed to scientific terms. I believe they could have won if they chose scientific terms from the beginning. Well, winning is good but it's not everything because the most important thing is their participation.

Before we dropped Yasmin off at her school last night, we stopped by our friend Zul's house to pick Danial from his camp. He joined a 3-day youth camp which I believe was also held somewhere in Terengganu. Steve sent him to Zul's house at 6am on Monday (14 June). I am not sure who drove Danial and his friends but they had to meet at that house. That was the second of a 6-part motivation-cum-character building camp. I certainly hope that that all my kids will be highly motivated adults with superb personality. Who wouldn't?

Hello Again

Hi everyone, I am back! There is so much to share but so difficult to compose. All of a sudden my passion for writing disappeared. In fact I lost interest in keeping up with the Facebook also. But for the past 2 or 3 days I have been checking my emails and messages from friends. I guess my mind is totally preoccupied with monitoring the development of our new home.

Let me see, I guess I will start with my eldest son came home for the school term holiday. So far we just sent him to Johor once, when he first registered there. From then on he came home on his own by the express bus. So far he's doing quite well in his school, keeping busy with many activities. Right now he is at his friend's house having a mini-reunion with his former classmates. It's hard to believe how tall he is now. By the end of the year, I think he'll be just as tall or taller than his father.

I have to admit that today is the first time I opened this blog after I wrote the last entry. As soon as I opened it, I realized that Yasmin's blog is not accessible anymore. I have to ask her later what she did to it. I know she likes to write but I guess she just doesn't want to share with others. Her trip to Pulau Redang today has been canceled because all her friends who are supposed to go have other commitments to fulfill.

Harris is going to take his UPSR exam this year. I just found out that he's the type who likes to study in a group, kind of like his mother :) He's doing ok with most of the subjects except for the Malay language (the writing part). I do not really believe in sending my children to tuition classes but when he asked to go for Malay subject Steve and I had to agree. So we enrolled him in the tuition center beginning the first week of May. Unfortunately he only managed to attend once due to his involvement in many other school related activities. Last weekend he missed it too because he attended a holiday camp at his school which he really enjoyed.

I do not expect all children to be the same but Hannah is quite different from the others. She seems to be so scared and sad majority of the time. I wonder if I was like that at some point in my life. It has been so long ago that I was at that age, I obviously forgot how I was like then. One thing for sure, she loves to draw pictures. Sometimes I gave her a hard time for "wasting" too much paper but then again she might be the next Monet or Van Gogh. She always remember to give me cards which she drew on her own for my birthdays and mothers' day.

Najla insisted on following me to work and I guess she must be bored because she's asleep near my table. She was bugging me to go to the cafe but I refused. We both ate rice before we left the house this morning. So what's the problem Najla? She has been complaining to me that one of her friends had given her a hard time at the kinder garden. She said the girl told the others not to play with her. That's mean! I am not sure how much is the truth but for a kid that age, that sort of incident means a whole lot. If it happens to me, I just slap the woman's head! Just kidding ;)

Ladies Coach

Kudos to KTMB for providing special coach for ladies in the train from Sentul to Port Klang. I am sure there are some who will not agree to it by saying we are moving back in time etc. As expected we can not please every body all the time but we can definitely please somebody some of the time. I just hope that the service will be provided not only on commuter trains but also on buses.

I am sure some of the female riders who have experienced sexual harassment are very happy. Believe it or not I have an embarrassing experience back in the 90's when I was riding a bus from Bandar Baru Sentul to Bukit Bintang area. I was standing right next to an Indian man who was in his 40s or 50s. He was rubbing his *@# against my arm! Since the bus was so packed with men and women all the way to the steps, I couldn't move to another spot. I do not have to elaborate what happened after that but suffice to say that I had to wash my arm the first chance I got when I arrived home.

It would be great also if we have separate public swimming pools because not everyone has a body which she is proud to flaunt around. If we have for ladies only pool, I for one would change allegiance from walking to swimming in a flash!

I think it's high time that we give choices to women who want to be separated from such animals.
I think those who complained are those who have never had any bad experience like I did or they simply enjoy being molested. Those are the only reasons which I can think of their objection.

Irsyad's Sports Day

Never in the history of Irsyad School having its annual sports day at the Kuantan football stadium. When I was told that this year's event was going to be held on Saturday (April 3rd) at the stadium I was ecstatic. It was a grand event for my kids Harris and Hannah who are still in the elementary school there. I don't know about other parents but to me and my husband, our kids' activities are very important and significant. No matter how busy we think we are they must be celebrated and enjoyed so that the kids feel that they are being appreciated.

Coincidentally on the same day our new Big Boss was scheduled to come and visit our campus in conjunction with the entrepreneurship day function. I went to see my boss to get an excuse not to attend because I wanted to go to my kids' sports day. As expected, the answer was no, and I was very disappointed. Since I am leaving this College real soon, I could have just ignored my boss' request. However, being a good employee as I am (though not many appreciate that!) I still attended the function but my heart was at the stadium. Everbody in my family was there except for Danial. I kept on looking at my watch and finally when the function was stopped for a break, I took off and joined my family. I missed all the games etc but I managed to watch the end of the award giving ceremony. Thank God Yasmin took some pictures.

Anyway, when it was over I went back to my College and continue attending the afternoon session which finally ended at 5 pm. It was a win-win situation because both family and career are important (though not equally important). That reminds me of the speech by Bryan Dyson, the former Coca-cola CEO who said that life is like a game in which we are juggling five balls in the air namely work, family, health, friends, and spirit. He said work is like a rubber ball because when you drop it, it will bounce back. However, the other four balls are made of glass. If we drop one or all of them they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. Therefore, I do not feel too bad for leaving the function momentarily becausel it was a Saturday and we were not given any unrecorded leave or anything like that. Even if we were I was already decided to forfeit my share. Such an angel I am :)

Just look at their faces, how could I not want to celebrate together?

SMSNS Reunion

Last Saturday night was a really special night because it was a reunion for my classmates when I was at Sekolah Menengah Sains Negeri Sembilan. I was so excited to go ever since I was informed of the gathering. My plan was to leave early in the morning so I could spend a lot of time visiting with my friends. Unfortunately, my kids' school had an award giving ceremony on the same day from 8.30am to 1.00pm at Vistana Hotel. Well, it was not a 100% unfortunate because Danial received 6 or 7 awards and Yasmin received 3 or 4 awards. Anyway, after the ceremony ended, we rushed home to perform our Zuhur prayer and left Kuantan around 3.00pm.

As usual, when we traveled with the kids, we had to make a few stops for different reasons. By the time we arrived in Seremban it was already dark. Since we were so unfamiliar with the housing area where the reunion was held, we had to stop and ask for directions 3 times! Finally we made it around 8.00pm. A few of my friends and the teachers had already left. Many more were still there. I think that was the most high school friends I had seen in one gathering. I was surprised at the amount of food being served. Kudos to my friends Siti and Ajim who have done a great job planning and preparing for it. It was really exciting and I hope we will continue doing it from time to time, at least twice a year.

I am quite disappointed because my camera quit functioning just a few days before the gathering. I couldn't take any pictures but I am hoping that my friends will email me some soon.

Busy Weekend

I thought weekend is supposed to be the time when we can rest and catch up with unfinished business. However, things don't work that way when you have 5 growing children. Poor Steve looked more tired in 2 days than he did in the entire week last week! We did a lot of unpacking, rearranging, and throwing things.

On Saturday morning I went alone to piano lesson because Hannah participated in coloring contest at KPTM. Besides, she left her piano books at Da Vinci Art Center last week, so she couldn't finish her theory assignment. Najla was supposed to have art class that morning but she refused to go. She insisted in participating in the coloring contest also. Luckily the art teacher allowed her to do the make-up class at 3 in the afternoon. Both of them won and received a hamper each.On Sunday I took Najla to the telematch at KPTM. She participated in 2 games: filling an empty bottle with water and carrying a ping-pong ball in a spoon. Her groups won and they received 2 hampers. Harris came with us but Hannah and Yasmin went to their art class with Steve. The telematch was over around 11.30 but I had to wait until 1pm to get my present for winning the ping-pong match which was held a few weeks back. I got a medal and a small hamper also. By the time we got back I was tired and sleepy. I always feel that way when I stay out in the sun. That's why I prefer exercising early in the morning.In late afternoon all of us except Yasmin and Danial stopped by the contractors' houses to give our house plan. We are looking for a few quotations before we can decide which contractor to hire. Unfortunately both contractors weren't at home. Missions not accomplished. That means we have to see them this week.

Evil Guardians

What a wonderful site to see. I wish all babies are loved and cared for like the one above. It is very sad and shocking when we read about babies and kids who are being abused or killed by so called parents or guardians. Yesterday I read the sad news about a 3-year old girl who died from abuse by her step father. So now the cycle is complete: the 1st 3-year old who died from child abuse a few months ago was a Malay girl, the 2nd child was an Indian girl, and the one yesterday I believe was a Chinese girl. When will it end?

Done Moving

Finally we are done with moving. Now comes the hardest part, to unpack and rearrange things. It has been 12 days but our living room still looks like it has just been hit by a "twister". We planned to label all the boxes and pack items according to their importance etc, etc. Unfortunately things don't work out that way in this life for us. Only the first few boxes were labeled. Then we took a break from packing, and suddenly, boomed! It was time to get everything out! So we gathered all the junk into huge plastic bags and started piling them into our car. Now we are paying for it. We can not find things when we need them. We said " the next time we move, we have to be more organized". Yeah, yeah, sounds familiar?

We are still adjusting our routines at this new place. Harris said he has trouble getting up in the morning. At the old place he was the first kid to get up. I guess the main reason is that the internet is not working yet at this new place. Usually he would play some internet games after he did some math problems in the morning. That brings me to the topic of our super frustration with TM (Telekom Malaysia). We followed the proper procedure in that we filled out the form and submitted to them a week before we moved, along with the RM50 fee! They were supposed to reconnect the line on the 1st of April at the new house. We waited for 3 days and nothing happened. So Steve decided to call them and was told it was "under investigation", or in lay man's term "nothing was done yet"! A week passed by and still nothing happened. Steve went to the office and talked to someone at the customer service counter. The response was "there was no line". What? We just moved around the corner for heaven's sake! Surely there is a line. If nothing else they could just use our old line! Then the person asked Steve whether the housing area is new. Gee, that was really pushing it too far. Today, it's the 12th of April and the telephone line is still not in. We are really upset!

Back to School

Danial has gone back to his school in Johore. Yasmin, Harris, and Hannah are in school and Najla is in kinder garden. We sent Danial to the bus station last Sunday after having him home for the whole week during school holidays. I took off from work that whole week also to do some packing. We managed to pack many boxes of books and some have been sent to the other house. We are still moving little stuff which can be transported in our car at nights. The big ones will be moved this Saturday. I have sorted out lots of toys and children clothes and I managed to get rid tonnes of them. Some were given to the nearby nurseries, and others were sent to an orphanage. My house is in such a shamble and I hope no one will stop by unannounced.

Yasmin spent the first half of the school holidays with her friend and our friend Husni in KL. She had a great time iceskating, an activity which I have never ventured in my life. Although busy, we managed to sqeeze in 2 movies, Alice in Wonderland(AiW) and Percy Jackson & the lightning thief (PJLT) on Saturday 13 March and Wednesday 17 March. Yasmin watched AiW with us but she missed the second movie because she was already in KL by then.

Poor Harris reluctantly attended a 2 day UPSR clinic which was organized by NST and held at Shah Putra on Saturday March 20 and Sunday March 21. He said it was boring and he was a little upset when he got home that Saturday. But then again everything is boring to him except for playing with computer games! I asked him to attend the session on Sunday but we would get him at lunch time. Surprisingly he agreed. I guess children are different. Danial and Yasmin didn't have any problem at all attending seminars or motivational camps like that. We just have to wait and see how Hannah and Najla will react when their times come.

That Saturday morning, while Yasmin, Hannah, and Najla attended their art class, and Harris was at the clinic, Danial and I went shopping for a ricecooker and a vacuum cleaner. My old ricecooker always gave me trouble lately so I decided to get a new one so I could make "nasi minyak" on Sunday, on Danial's special request. When I mentioned our shopping trip to Yasmin she said, "So you had a mother and son bonding time huh?".

We are so involved with this moving bit that we have been neglecting our agenda to build our new home. I have made copies of the newly approved plan but haven't found time to contact the potential contractors. I think I will settle one thing at a time. Come April, I will have more time to deal with it.

Mini Reunion @ TC

Thursday 12 March was our friend As' birthday so she asked me if we could get together with a few friends somewhere in town. We named a few possible places but in the end we both agreed on going to Telok Chempedak beach on Friday after work. She contacted Musab and Yani while I contacted Niki, Madhi, Amba, Lynnette, Tipah, Azie, Gie, Syamala, Ahmad, Joyce, Intan, and Gamini. They were all sounded excited to join but in the end only 5 of us actually showed up. Syamala had to give tuition, Joyce was too busy, Amba was tired, Intan was planning on going back to her "kampung" and Gie is no longer in Kuantan! Ahmad and Tipah said they were coming but only God knows what happened. I guess Niki was caught in the jam on the road as well as at home with her kids. Somehow, Azie, Lynette, and Gamini never replied until today. I wonder what went wrong. Oh well, maybe next time. We had a grand time anyway except that As had to leave early because her son had a terrible pain in his ear. Here are some shots at the beach.

Artist

As soon as Yasmin comes back from school she would lock herself in her room and does one of the three of her favorite things : reading novels, writing in her diary, or drawing cartoon characters. Sometimes I get a little upset especially when I am tired and would like for her to help out in the kitchen or do something around the house. But, when I see some of her drawings, like the one shown here, I feel that my frustration dissipates completely. She is definitely more talented than I am. Lately we had a discussion on what she would like to do in life. She said she loves mathematics and science but she would like to further her studies in art so that she can draw, paint, and write when she graduates.

3 Categories

Last week I heard a talk on IKIM radio station. The speaker said that there are 3 categories of people that we must see or visit as often as we can:

1. those who are sick/ill so that we value our health
2. those who are in prisons so that we appreciate our freedom, and
   
3. those who are dead in order for us to be grateful that we are still alive.

2010

We are already in the second month of the year 2010. This year certainly brings a few big changes to my family. The biggest change is not having Danial in the house anymore because he is now enrolled at a boarding school in Johore. We had a very hectic schedule on the weekend of 9 January because of sending him to that school. We hadn't even finished unpacking our mess from our month long vacation in the US then, and yet we had to pack again to go to Johore.

The second big change is that we have to move into another house. Our landlord informed us that he needed the house for his son who will be doing a practical training sometime in April. We have been renting his house for 14 years. Wow, it has been that long! Although we have bought a piece of land several years ago, Steve and I are never in the hurry to build our own home because the rent is very inexpensive. You would never get that price if you were renting in the Klang Valley area. We asked our friends around the neighborhood and we found another rental house which is a duplex. Since we are so used to staying in an old but comfortable bungalow-style house, it's going to be quite an adjustment to do in terms of space considering the amount of junk we have accumulated all these years. It's ok because it's only temporary until we build our own house. I haven't even started packing anything yet. It's so overwhelming and I have no clue where to start! I think I will begin this weekend because it's going to be a 3-day Maulidur Rasul holiday.

The next big change is of course the adventure of building our own home! I was informed that the plan which we submitted to MPK has just been approved. I have yet to see it. I believe it is with the person whom we hired to draw the plan. I am too busy at the moment and will only be able to see the draftsman when Steve is back from his trip to an international school in Bangkok.

The final big change is my career. I will not say much for now because it's still too overwhelming to say and broadcast it worldwide.

FORUM PERDANA EHWAL ISLAM

Salam and hi to all. I came across this info a while ago and thought of sharing it with whoever is interested in joining the program.

• Sekolah Kebangsaan Bunut Rendang,Kuantan dengan Kerjasama KRT Taman Sri Indrapura,akan menganjurkan Forum Perdana Ehwal Islam bertajuk peranan ibu bapa dalam memastikan kecemerlangan anak2 pada hari jumaat ini 26 Feb 2010 pukul 9.00 malam bertempat di Dewan Utama,Sekolah Kebangsaan Bunut Rendang,Kuantan(Bersebelahan Taman Sri Indrapura)
• Ahli Penel Terdiri Drp:
• 1)Ustaz Hamdan Yusi Yusoff.
• 2)Ustaz Mahmud Mat.
• 3)Ustazah Intan Salwaa Hassan.
• Kepada muslimin & muslimat di jemput hadir.

Old RM 1 Coins

I don't know how many of you still remember these old one Ringgit coins. My late father loved to collect and keep the new ones in huge cracker cans. Sometimes he also stored them in tea dust cans or even tobacco cans. He passed away in 2003 but my mom just found 30 of them stashed away in a small tobacco can when she was cleaning her bedroom last month! She asked me if these coins can still be traded. Since I had no immediate answer, I took them home and showed them to the bank workers. They did not have an answer to my question either but they suggested that I bring the coins to the Central Bank in KL. I wonder if any coin collectors out there want to buy them from me.

CNY Holidays

I wonder how it feels to have a permanent 4-day weekend. We sure had a grand fun this past Chinese New Year 4-day weekend. My family and I went back to our kampung in NS and my mom was so excited when she introduced to me her "foster grand children" from USM. Apparently someone in my village had arranged an outreach program for about 60 USM students to stay with foster families. My mom "adopted" 2 girls (one is a pharmacy major and the other is a physics major) and my sister took in 2 boys - a biology major and ... (I forgot what's the other boy's major). They had such packed activities that I hardly saw them except at breakfast and dinner times. They climbed all the way to the top of Mount Angsi. I must admit that I have never climbed that mountain because I am not much of a jungle person. I hate creepy-crawlies so tennis courts and pingpong tables are my territories.
At the same time my cousin from Singapore also came and spent the entire 4-day weekend with us. It was so good to have him with us because we haven't seen each other for years. That was his maiden solo travel to our kampung. I think he really enjoyed himself being away from the hussle and bustle of the big Lion city. My husband took him to a miniature version of Angsi climb. They went to our small rubber estate which is very closely located to the Angsi mountain. After checking on our rubber trees, Steve decided to take my cousin hiking along the path which has been cleared by the National Electricity Board personnel. They had such a wonderful conversation that they lost tract of the way back to our estate. Luckily they didn't get "lost" for very long.
On Tuesday morning we had to drive all the way to JB to drop my cousin at the bus station to return to his hometown. Then we went up to Senai to send my eldest son back to his school. After everything was settled at his hostel, the rest of us continued our journey to Kuantan. The moment we arrived which was a little after midnight, I realized that we had been on the road for more than 12 hours. Time really flies when we have fun.

9th Birthday

We celebrated Hannah's 9th birthday early last month. We had our normal rituals which involved cutting a homemade chocolate cake followed by a pizza dinner at one of the "fatty outlets" in town. In the past we frequented the one in Ktn Parade but this year we went to ECM. I think that was the first time or maybe the 2nd time I went to that mall. It looks nice from the outside but it's not as user friendly as I would like it to be. Other people seem to be enjoying that place. I guess it's just me because I am not a shopping freak. This year I decided to bake 2 different shapes of cake: one was a regular round one and the other was a heart shaped. The kids liked the heart shape and Najla has already requested to have one for her birthday which is coming up next month.

Cooking Class 5 Nov 09

I am having a tough time putting things in writing since my vacation last month. However, my mood to read is unbelievable! I have been reading all kind of stuff lately, both fiction and non-fiction. This entry is meant to be published before I went to the US but it was kept in the draft folder.

I went for another cooking lesson which I believe was on Saturday December 5, 2009. We made "apam balik", egg tarts, butter rolls, and watermelon smoothie. I hope Lin will teach us more yummy goodies soon. Those who are interested in joining the class can contact Izad at 0139388797.

Hello Again

Outside of the Mosque after Friday Prayers Y and H on Mom's deck
Kids Sledding
Kids with Snowman
D & Y Enjoying SnowSalam and hi to everyone. Wow! It has been a month since I wrote my last entry. My family and I just got back from visiting relatives in the US and boy it was freezing cold! It is sad to leave them because we don't get to see them often enough but I am very happy to feel the warmth again. My skin is definitely thanking me for the moisture from our humid weather. The exact time spent for the complete journey from our door to my husband's mom's door is 48 hours! No wonder our bodies are screaming with pain and not to mention the sleepiness. But all in all it was well worth the effort.