my faithful helper

aisyah's been a very good and reliable helper. whenever she's at home, she helps looking after aliyah; feeding her, playing with her and bathe her (under supervision). aliyah simply adores and obeys her sister.

syukur Alhamdulillah. hope they will look after each other (and us) when they are grown ups and both me & hubby dah tua.

baby Noah

this morning we received a photo of Noah, Tini's son. dompot betul baby Noah. Tini is Abang Nim's daughter.

Hamidah Mincher aka Abg Nim is hubby's cousin, anak Wan Kamariah/Aunty Teh who is tok Wan Rahim's younger sister. all the 4 generations reside in Perth, been there since the 70s. i know lots of hubby's family members read our blog, so, they get to see the picture of abg Nim's latest cucu. Abg Nim has 3 other cucu - Yasmin (Shem's daughter) and Aisyah & Sabrina (Hamir's daughters).

the last time we saw them all was during our holidays in perth & western australia in 2004. tini just got married then. we celebrated our aisyah's 5th birthday at hamir's place.

i'm still puzzled why the johor family address some of their female family members 'abang'. eg kakak is known as abang yan, arwah mom in law was known as abang neng.

aliyah's 1st birthday party - part 2

the party's over. birthday girl pun dah penat and had gone to la la land; in her party dress, which my best fren Yan gave.

the guests - raudhah arrived from sheffield in the afternoon. ina and kids and the kids'nannies, jenny and som got here from langham at around 3pm. mimi & family came at 5pm and makan2 started cos semua dah lapar. sani came with his friend halim, a QS in dublin a bit later.

the food - laksa johor, pulut kuning with rendang daging, popiah crabstick, konnyoku jelly.

'bird's eye view of the food'

birthday cake - i ended up baking 2 cakes. first the nigella choc cake; same as what i baked for aisyah's 8th birthday. disaster hit cos the pink icing was a bit runny. i used plain white choc (instead of 72%dark choc as in the recipe) sebab nak buat pink coloured icing. punya frust...so decided to bake another cake; mocha fudge cake. supposed to be covered with coffee icing but decided to use choc cake covering. cake was a bit dry. so decided to serve both cakes.

even tho guests tak ramai but everyone enjoyed the food, had good laughs. everyone had few servings of laksa and aliyah loved the pulut kuning. semua food habis - tak membazir.

aliyah & atan 'bersekedudukan' in the play pen

birthday girl enjoying her birthday cake...

aliyah's major achievement for the day - she climbed all the way up the stairs on her own, no one noticed she was gone. i was in the room, solat maghrib. som saw her when she was on her last 3 steps. luruh jantung when i heard of it. my hero....

aliyah's birthday presents - 3 in 1 toilet training system from mimi & family; dress from tracy, lauren's mom; drinking cup & spot's special days story book from gill; sponge bob bag pack from raudah, cash from sani and last but not least, gold bracelet from ina & family (which she took back to engrave aliyah's name at Timpson's, the jeweller). great big thank u to all.

aliyah's 1st birthday party - part 1

we are going to have a small makan-makan for Aliyah's 1st birthday this evening, around 5pm. tetamu dah dijemput - herlina & kids (shuif has gone to london for a friend's birthday party), mimi & family and sunny boy (it was sani's birthday on 22nd jan).

last nite after work i went to toysrus with hubby to get party pack. theme for aliyah's party- Fifi and the flower tots; evrything from birthday banner, table cover, paper plates, serviettes, bubbles, loop bags and last but not least; birthday card from us all. then off to sainsbury's to get party goodies and baking stuff for birthday cake.

proposed menu - laksa johor (aunty yan masak), pulut kuning (mimi's mom masak), rendang daging, popiah crabstick, jelly, choc cake and carrot cake.

when we had Aisyah's 1st birthday party in 2000 at our Impian Selatan apartment's club house, it was more like a kenduri, complete with 'bunga telor' - red apple wrapped in kain net. party bags berpuluh puluh, food penuh meja - for adults and kids. dapat presents penuh almari.

her daddy said, kesian Aliyah....

Aliyah is 1

Aliyah is 1 year old today. how time flew.

i cud still remember the shock when i found out that i was pregnant. it was 7 years gap between her and aisyah. i would not have thot that i could bear another child after 40. i could still remember when herlina came for a visit and announced that she was 5 months pregnant. at that time, unknowingly i was probably 4 weeks pregnant too cos atan is 4 months older than aliyah. both herlina and i concurred that midlands water really has magical powers... as my colleagues say could be due to change of weather, change of job and change of water!

when atan first met aliyah

at my first checkup with Dr Khash, our family GP, he assured me that i would have a beautiful baby. when i went for checkups at Queens, i felt really 'elderly' especially when surrounded by teenage moms. being 'an elderly mom' has its previleges - i was referred to specialists consultants who did lots of tests for spina bifida, downs etc; all FOC. the only test that i refused to do was the amniosynthesis. i was really 'berserah kepada Allah swt' and prayed that the baby in my womb would be a perfect healthy baby.

i had an easy pregnancy, put on just 10kg thro out (and lost all), walked a lot and more relaxed & fussed over at work.

our last holiday before aliyah was born - at the cotswolds, xmas break 2006.

my mom and kakak arrived from msia few days before aliyah was born. i opted for c-section due to previous history with aisyah. hubby & i went to Queens Medical Centre in the morning, waited till 4.30pm before 'walking' to the labour room. the docs and nurses had to attend to emergency cases before 'elective' case like mine.

relaxed..... while the docs & nurses were 'taking the baby out' on the other side of the screen.

aliyah was born at 5.32pm, weighed 3.52kg, 52cm long. that nite, it snowed for the first time in 2007. i was up and about the next day and discharged after 2 nites in the hospital. it was a great improvement compared to when i had aisyah when we had to stay for 5 days in the hospital. birth registration was done in the registrar's room (by appointment only), at nottingham registration office on shakespeare street which is outside my office, 4 weeks after.

aliyah, minutes after birth

no medical fees... it would have cost us RM?000s in Ampang Putri, for the same treatment and facilities.

aliyah is really a blessing to us all. even at only 1 year old, she is so close to aisyah. her face lights up when aisyah enters the room or comes home from school.

bakewell revisited

yesterday we went for a day out in derbyshire dales after aisyah's riding class.

first stop was in bakewell, about 1 hour drive from nottingham. the last time we went there was in summer 2006 when i was at the early stage of pregnancy, this time around aliyah is almost 1 year old.

bakewell is famous for 'bakewell pudding/bakewell tart'. they are simply delicious, nothing like what they have in boxes sold in the supermarkets; even mr.kiplings bakewell tarts are nowhere close to the original stuff. there are 3 major shops selling bakewell pudding, claiming they have been there for generations. whatever...but for such a small town, there were lots of people, car parks were full.

we then went to ashford in the water, a small beautiful kampong, 1 mile away from bakewell. its such a quiet village and the kampong people just stayed in. we met few people who, like us, went walking in the woods. the kids love being outdoor, walking on the footpaths, enjoying the view and introduced aliyah to sheep...

kakak is here..

kakak (hubby's eldest sister) arrived from msia on saturday and will be here for 5 weeks. the moment she got into the house, after makan, terus mengemas dapor as we expected! aisyah is having a good time with aunty yan, aliyah is still getting acquainted.

we've made plans for the weekends that she's here. really hoping for better weather! its been wet, windy and miserable for the past few days.

countdown to spring break 2008

8 weeks to go before we break for 3 weeks easter holidays!

we just had our xmas break and are just 2 weeks into the new term and i'm already counting the days for our next break tsk!tsk!tsk!...but thats what life is all about and part of the british culture. going away for holidays/short breaks is a norm and they book holidays well in advance.

most accommodation are booked by now for spring/easter break. i've been making email enquiries for the past few days to several places and managed to get one or two places still available. where do we plan to go? north of the border.

while we are there, maybe boleh pergi tengok 'farm land' for our retirement plan ha!ha!

billy bag

i got my very first 'billy bag' today ... from tkmaxx.

finished morning lecture at 12 noon, had 3 hours break before the next lecture at 3pm. i just needed a breather and what can be more therapeutic than walking to the shops and browsing!! the uni/my office is in the city centre, just 3 minutes walk from victoria shopping centre and the new trinity square where the new tkmaxx store is. i dont normally go the shops during my break cos i simply didnt have the time but today...what the heck !

tak sia-sia pergi tkmaxx today. lots of 'billy bags' on the 'clearance' shelf. billy bags are quite pricey. the one i got, rrp (regular retail price) is £70, tkmaxx price at £30, now down to £10. apa lagi, pegang terus....its big enuf to put files and lunch box as well.

also ada banyak portmeirion place mats and matching coaster sets. bought one set, simpan for future use or maybe bagi present kat sapa-sapa.

Salam Tahun Baru Hijrah 1429

Today is a new year for muslims. Hari tu baru wish you all a Happy new year, now we would like to wish you well for the muslim new year - may Allah bless us in all our endeavours and forgive us our sins, and give us good health to strive for His blessings.

Don't forget - 10 Muharam sunat puasa! - 19th January.

tried and tested

today is 'work at home' day. managed to get some marking done. while aliyah was playing obediently in her playpen, i managed to sneak into the kitchen and baked 'yummy scrummy carrot cake', recipe from my ever so faithful 101 cakes and bakes.

in one of my postings, i wrote the recipe down for my dear cuz, noreen.

now i can vouch that the recipe is 'fail proof' and true to its name... its really yummy. i dont have enough icing sugar for the topping so i looked for soft cheese icing from website and found one which uses soft cheese like philly, butter and bit of icing sugar.

this is the result....

few days ago, i baked jaffa drizzle cake and it was refreshing. its basically orange cake, when cooked, drizzled with orange juice & caster sugar. once the cake has cooled down, drizzle with melted chocolate. mmmmm.........

back to school/work

today is the first day back to school for aisyah after 2 weeks xmas holidays. and for me, its back to white board & power point presentation after 3 weeks break. i had not been well through out the holidays and still sniffy.

what have i achieved during the break after balik from cuti2 england? i managed to finish one piece of PGCHE coursework. yeehaa...all done in 2 days; buat essay 3500 words. one down, one more to go; which is half way thro and i promised my course leader that i will hand it in the next time we have class ie on 23rd. jan. for the 2nd module (this year), need to do 2 courseworks and a portfolio, all to be handed in sept 2008. gotta start cracking! dah janji dgn hubby, my aim for this year - to complete my cert in higher education.

lorra lorra things need doing, lecture notes to prepare and also housekeeping to do...
kakak (sis in law) is arriving this weekend for 1 month holiday. i'll be busy this wednesday (no lecture, work at home) kemas rumah, prepare her bedroom etc.

tahun baru, rambut baru

aisyah had been wanting to get a hair cut since the new school term started in september last year but i told her to wait till new year.

wanted to get her hair cut on new year's eve but we did not make any appointment, so kena tunggu lepas new year. just a matter of 2 days, tak kisah la.

aisyah, feb 2006

the last time she had her hair cut this short was shortly before we came to UK in january 2006, 2 years ag0. in less than 2 weeks time, we would celebrate our 3rd year here.

see what 2 years had done to our first born....

dec 07

jan 08

It's 2008!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

We would like to wish you all a happy new year from all of us here in Notts!

Drive safely and take care!!!