achievement

aisyah brought this home the other day, when she went to the Trent fm arena/ice skating for the red nose day.

this week is quite a busy week for her, being the last week before 2 weeks easter break. berapa hari aja belajar kat sekolah.

yesterday she went for school trip to Brackenhurst with few of her friends for the 'lambing season'. dia kata dia nampak an ewe (mother biri2) feeding her newly born lambkins.

tomorrow morning she and her classmates will be going to Wollaton Hall as they have been successful in reaching the final for 'cook off' section of World War II recipe competition. they will be judged by veterans from armed forces.

in the afternoon after lunch, they are off to perform in a music concert at The Albert Hall in Nottingham. she's playing the flute with few others. this is part of the City Council's initiative to give school children the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, towards playing in an orchestra with kids from other schools.

daddy has his fair share of busy-ness as well. he's been off from work last week as he was down with fever. few weeks ago he brought this booklet home to show me what he produced for the company. he's in the safety dept and health & safety aspect is taken really seriously in the UK (sometimes over the top!)

he writes well, suppose aisyah takes after his linguistic, creative & artistic side.

spring is here

am at home alone today. aisyah's at school, aliyah's at the daycare. am accompanied by music on the cd player, playing aisyah's cd collection - 'pop princesses 2009'. the house is really quiet without the girls. could go bonkers if i dont hear their voices for one whole day!!!


spring/summer is officially here as the clock gone 1 hour forward last sunday so we are 7 hours behind msia now. our daffodils, narcissus, grape hyacinths, pansies and creepers have bloomed.


narcissus/pansies


daffodils


grape hyacinths/purple creepers


my easter break started yesterday and i'll only be back to work on 15th april -annual leave 9 days, easter public holiday 3 days, plus weekends dapat 2 1/2 weeks off in total.

how do i plan to spend my long break?? hari ni spring cleaning while aliyah is not at home; putting away warm clothings & shoes till next autumn, putting aside kids old clothing for donation/give away, hope to bake victoria sandwich kalau sempat... the days to come will be spent finalising the itinerary for our upcoming trip and also packing.


back from the trip, tons of work to do. assignment for the msc programme are queing, one to be handed in mid may and 2 for mid june. mana nak mark students courseworks & test papers with continuous hand in dates from end of feb, march, april...may & june will be the hectic months for me. siapa kata kerja cikgu senang??!! teaching hours maybe shorter than people working at the office but the teaching related duties are wayyyyy beyond that...

box of chocs

our neighbour's daughter dropped by this evening, with a box of chocolates to thank us for keeping an eye on her parents house while they were away for 5 weeks holiday back in their home country (India). it was very nice & thotful of them. the chocs were gone in less than one hour!

preparation

preparation for the upcoming trip up north basically started last night. i came up with the list of stuff to bring - food, groceries, warm clothing & blankets etc and tonite, started planning the itinerary for the 8 days break.

yesterday i bought hubby his belated birthday present, Garmin Nuvi 205WT satelite navigation. i suppose thats the most expensive birthday present i've ever bought him since we got married almsot 11 years ago. the sat nav is timely for our trip. at least i dont have to rely on maps so much so that we end up arguing in the car !!!

health check

its in the news today that people over 40s are to get free health check; which will be launched this week. suppose both of us are qualified for that. every 5 years, those aged 40-74 will be offered blood pressure, weight and cholesterol check up. what happens after the 75th birthday? most elderly people here live beyond that age

girls nite out

tonite i took the girls out to Mickey's Magic Show at Trent FM Arena. i thot it was show on ice but it was a stage show instead. bought 4 tickets at £5 each; members' privilege price. hubby was still sick so i asked aisyah's friend Lauren to join us.

it was a good show, aliyah enjoyed the popcorn and watching her fav characters - mickey, minnie, goofy, donald & daisy tapi masih belum kenal cinderella, snow white, ariel, jasmine; they were part of the show too. aisyah & lauren enjoyed it more i suppose.

mothering sunday

today is mother's day in the UK, tak sama dengan kat malaysia sebab malaysians ikut US of A. since hubby's been down with fever since friday night, i kind of expected that there will not be any celebration this year. so as not to dampen the spirit, i decided to take the kids out to town for lunch and some shopping.


aliyah tidor dari dalam bus for a good 2 hours! so aisyah & i had a peaceful lunch at Le Petit Four cafe; then went shopping for me and the kids.

aisyah had tuna & sweetcorn baguette & hot choc

brocolli soup, cheese & mushroom croissant & fries and cappucino

balik rumah, daddy was still terbaring. tak de la harapan nak makan shepherd's pie, so i made spaghetti bolognaise instead.

girls just wanna have fun

took this on saturday morning; been a while since i last joined aisyah at her riding lesson. she's a lot more confident now. she rides with 5 other girls and they really enjoyed themselves.

sorry lah... at the end of the video, ada gambar rumput ha!ha!

happy birthday daddy!

today is hubby's birthday. i baked a Chocolate Birthday Cake, newly tried recipe from http://www.bbcgoodfood.co.uk/. using wholemeal self raising flour and natural yogurt which turned out light and tasty.

ingat nak tunggu lepas lunch baru nak celebrate tapi Aliyah dah tak sabar nak suruh daddy blow candle.

we havent got anything planned for the day. hubby spent the morning mowing and weeding; the kids spent some time at the back garden since it's a glorious day.

lepas ni nak gi beli groceries and then have lunch somewhere in town to celebrate daddy's birthday.

XL Size

we have upgraded our multimedia & telecommunication package to XL size for £58 monthly. this gives us XL TV with 160 top digital channels (which we already have - bukan tengok semua channel pun!!), XL landline which gives unlimited UK landline calls 24-7 and the best part which is going to turn our dearest fren, Sapi dark green with envy, is up to 20 MB broadband from our previous 2MB. the difference in cost is £10 per month from what we've been paying since the past 3 years.

when opportunity knocks

our first born has been really lucky in the sense that she's been given the opportunities to do all sorts of things at school, for school and with school; even outside school hours.

over 3 years she got chosen to go to places with her friends; under the teachers' supervision and we hardly paid anything... i can recall few major ones:-

1. when the kids broke for summer in 2006 (i was in early pregnancy with aliyah), she went for 3 days school outing; out in the morning and back in the evening; to Newstead Abbey, Nottingham Castle, etc.
2. she was a school council for a year, had to attend council meetings with reps from other school and then chosen to join our local MP for a day trip to London, visited the Parliament House got to go into the house of lords & house of commons; and then visited the Museum of Natural History. her daddy accompanied her on the visit and they really enjoyed themselves.
3. in 2007, year she & her school friends watch theatrical show "Dick Whittington" at Nottingham Playhouse
4. she was chosen to attend Latin classes (oral & written) at Nottingham University every monday after school for 1 hour for 12 weeks. this is after school club; which is organised by the school, taught by final year language student at the uni. at the moment i dont really know where this is going; but she may apply her knowledge later on when she grows up - who knows what she wants to do - law? medicine? veterinary?
5. today she's at Nottingham Ice Arena for the whole day, celebrating Red Nose Day/Comic Relief Day with few other kids from school. there will be quizzes and games and of course ice skating.
6. yesterday she came home with a letter from her teacher, that she's chosen to go to Rural & Environmental Science Farm at Brackenhurst, 12 miles away from notts. the kids will learn about the lambing season for their science subject. NTU runs courses at Brackenhurst on rural and environmental science which focus on environmental management, food, animal nutrition, agriculture and horticulture. this is more like Universiti Pertanian Malaysia in Serdang when it first started as purely Agricultural university. (my late dad went to Institute Pertanian, which later changed its name to UPM)

i received this weekly e-news at work today ...

Lambing season at Brackenhurst

The School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, has a working farm and every year between the middle of March and the end of April around 200 ewes will be giving birth.
The flock includes a variety of breeds, including pedigree Galways, Suffolk cross mules, an Oxford Down ram and a Charollais ram.
It is a very busy time for students and staff, and a time to learn new skills.
Despite that, the School welcomes visitors during the lambing season and encourages them to participate in tasks such as feeding bottle fed lambs.
There will always be a team on duty and colleagues from across the university are welcome to visit. Weekends are best for family visits.
Staff development days may be organised too. These will involve delegates wearing suitable clothing, and they will be supervised as necessary by the farm team.

true story

i've not read anything as hilarious as this one.... which apparently is a true story! got it from msn news & weather online

Nagging wife up for sale
© ITN 2009

A builder became so fed up with his wife's nagging that he put her up for sale in a trade magazine.
It situation came to a head when Garry Bates' wife Donna snapped at him as she watched Dancing on Ice.
The 38-year-old, from Ebley, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, placed the unusual advert in Trade-It, describing his spouse as: "Nagging Wife. No Tax, Not MOT. Very high maintenance - some rust."
Mrs Bates, 40, was put in the Free to Collect section of the magazine where he also advertised his fishing tackle.
Despite the less-than-flattering pitch, Mr Bates was inundated with calls from men offering to take her off his hands.
"I didn't think anyone would ring up but I've had at least nine or ten people calling about her. It's gone mad. There was no one I knew - just people asking, 'Is she still available?'," he said.
"She was nagging me for doing something small, while she was watching some rubbish on TV. So I just thought I'd put an ad in to get rid of her. She's seen the funny side of it now though!"
The self-employed builder said his wife laughed at the anonymous advert before realising she was the one on special offer.
She gave him "a bit of an ear-bashing" after the prank was revealed, he admitted.
But the pair, who married last June, were soon laughing together about it.
Mr Bates is now on his guard as his wife, who works for a plumbing firm in Gloucester, is out for revenge.
She said: "I don't think I do nag him - we're newlyweds. He just doesn't do what I want him to, that's all.
"If you get offended by something like that you shouldn't really be married, should you? I accepted it as the joke it was.
"I'd been watching Dancing on Ice and he was on his computer because he doesn't like it and gets bored. The next week I was looking through the magazine because my son's Playstation was in there.
"I said to him, 'Someone's put their wife in there! That wasn't you, was it?' He just smiled because he's a dark horse. I couldn't believe it.
"Revenge will be sweet though, and I've got something planned for him soon."
The couple married last year but have been together for six years. They have two children each, from previous marriages.

happy 13th birthday

we were at mimi's for dinner to celebrate her son Daniel's birthday. bukan ada orang lain pun, cuma kami 2 families. mimi masak pulut kuning with rendang daging, grilled chicken with potato salad & coleslaw and mee goreng; atas permintaan ramai.

jarang boleh snap gambar daniel senyum!

the girls, tisyia & aisyah and aliyah & iggle piggle

lepas dinner melepak tengok movie The Lakehouse and InBruges; till 12 midnite baru balik.