baby dompot

soooo geram tengok gambar terbaru Sarah Amelie Scavino, ainol & eddy's girl. she must be about 8 months old now. i got these from oya's album on fb, taken when they had lunch at Michaelangelo for oya's '23rd birthday' on 23rd may (oya's always 23..)

who does she take after - daddy or mummy? which language will she choose - malay,english,italian, french?

this is oya - picture taken during her trip to colorado last month for her brother's graduation

first cohort

after all the chaos, stir frying, saute-ing and burning the midnight oil, i completed my first cohort of the masters programme and the weekend classes will be back in september..

spending the weekend in classroom when its sunny and warm outside is not my idea of fun at all but thats what i endured this weekend...

yesterday we got the marked coursework on sustainability and i was quite pleased with the marks for the fact that i only spent 48 hours to do the work in the midst of marking my students coursework. then we were given some pointers on coursework and exam for the 'design, value & cost' module. the marks for strategic finance exam will only be released after the exam board meeting on 1st july - i will be really surprised if i pass and if i dont, i wont be dissapointed.

today's module is organisational behaviour. theories on management, leadership, 0rganisation bore me but somehow today's lecture was made interesting. we did few tests created by management gurus to determine what kind of person we are - introvert, extrovert, innovative, adaptive, planner, worker, motivator etc..

there's too much to do, time is really really not on my side...

• hand in date for the coursework on value & cost is 14th june. the task is quite straightforward ie to produce a report on Value Management - nature, purpose and barriers to its implementation in UK construction industry. my problem is whether or not i can meet the dateline. i spoke to my programme leader yesterday, for a possibility of getting at least 1 week extension as i've got 200 scripts of students coursework to be marked by 3rd week of june for the exam board meeting on 1st july.
• coursework on design & value to be handed in on 27th july. i honestly couldnt think of what to do for this one - there is no exact task, we were asked to examine 'design related matters to suit our own specialist interest' . this is very subjective but we have to be creative to make it objective. a QS asked to think like an Architect??? hmmmm
• 2 pieces of coursework on organisational behaviour - Self Analysis and Organisational Analysis using the organisation theories and diagrams etc..these to be handed in on 2nd Sept.

over and above those 3 assignments, we have exams in sept on design, value & cost and organisation behaviour and thats not all... my 'teaching portfolio' for the post grad certificate in higher education need to be submitted in sept as well.. THERE GOES MY SUMMER HOLIDAY..

work hard? NO! work smart? MAYBE! play hard? ABSOLUTELY!

Thomas

mummy - Thomas! she shouted the moment we arrived at Midland Railway Centre in Butterley and saw the 'Day Out with Thomas' banner.

Monday was bank holiday and we took the kids (& the adults) for the day out with thomas. few days in a year, Thomas will go to several places countrywide and offer his services. i've always wanted to go on a steam train and nothing better than going on thomas.

aliyah was ever so excited to see Thomas - live!

we took a short trip on Thomas, then went on Daisy to Swanwick Junction railway museum site.

from Swanwick Junction, led by Darcy through the country park on Golden Valley Light Railway

on Daisy back to Butterley

look at those eyelashes!! i miss those wooden train doors which go bang! when you shut them!!

one satisfied customer!

Dow-wa

that is aliyah's favourite tv character at the moment. who is this Dowwa? she's Dora The Explorer who is a bilingual heroine (english & spanish) who lives in a computer and loves exploring with her backpack, map and her best friend Boots the monkey.

both our girls are tv addicts since they were babies and they did learn a lot from the box but we make sure its only the good things that they picked up!

during aisyah's time it was barney, elmo, tweenies, dexter's lab and she picked up most of her vocab from tv. now that she's almost 10, she moved on to the tween stuff such as High School Musical to Hannah Montana. her tv time is only up to 9pm, then she goes to her room and reads till she dozzes off at 9.30pm.

as for aliyah, its thomas, fifi, peppa pig, in the night garden, pooh and mickey & friends, little einstein, handy manny and her current craze is Dowwa (Dora). she even picked up some spanish words & count up to 6 in spanish.

excellente!

tribute

i found this poem on the web and ironically, there are some similarities between me & the author which made me decide to put it on the blog.

The Hole In My Heart (by Luann Matthaey; 2008)

To me, one who dies lives on and on
never to be seen..but only to remember

the dreams that he had, would never come true
the love that he spread, could never be expressed

but I as his child truly understand
the pain he was in before he was put to rest

(the author wrote this poem to her dad after he passed on in 1978 at the age of 39. she was only 16 then. even after 30 years, she could still feel the hole in her heart is still as big & fresh as he had just passed away the previous day)

my dad passed away in may 1977 at a young age of 39 when i was only 14. it was a few months before i sat for my LCE. life wasnt easy after he died and honestly, i couldnt imagine what life would be like for me & my siblings and our mom, where would i be or what would i be doing now; if not for the moral & financial support from my grandparents, granduncles & grandaunties, uncles & aunties. for that, we've always been close to our family & relatives. believing in Qada' and Qadar, jodoh, ajal, rezki semua ditangan Allah swt keeps me sane.

the reason for this soapy post is simply because this month marks the 32nd anniversary of his passing and not a single day went by without including him in my doa. i still miss him dearly..

Alfatihah

fun sunday

it was indeed..

ina & family arrived in the afternoon, jamu nasi lemak for lunch. then we left for Junction 28 outlet for a shopping spree... wahh macam real!! was really pleased with my purchases - slippers for my mom & aunty, bath mats & door mat, pvc bag (for work), books for aliyah, toiletries... thats all.

got home at 4pm, hubby was getting ready for the Spring bank holiday BBQ.

besides ina & family, our other guests were mimi & family. they are the only friends we have here (there's one more - sani but he's golfing). i found one new friend thro fb who is actually my brother's friend; Eva who lives in Leicester but i'm yet to invite her over to notts. tunggu la dulu bila dah free sikit.

atan & his brother adib

aliyah & atan; berebut nak press the bubble machine/mimi & ina

at 8pm, ina & i and our spouses went to the movies, the wives headed for 'ghosts of girlfriends past' and the guys watched 'star trek'.

we had a good time, good food, good company...

steam..boat

i'm talking about steam generated engine boat (like steam train), not steamboat yang orang makan tu!

yesterday afternoon, we went on a steam - boat ride with hubby's boss Richard & his wife Jane. they had this 'one of a kind, over 100 years old' boat for almost 30 years now.

the day was brilliant - sunny & warm, lots of boat owners took their boats out, the river trent became quite busy- there's even a traffic light on the river bank!!

we passed a row of lovely houses on the river bank, with their boats parked outside their house.. there were lots of parasailers, canoers and i saw one of my students parasailing and he called out my name when he noticed me!!

we had a picnic on the boat - i made sandwiches & marble cake, jane baked lemon cake & chocolate cake; there's a unique cylindrical brass kettle on the boat and jane made tea.

hubby had a taste of 'locking' and 'unlocking' the canal gates.

we had a good time! thanks richard & jane for having us on your boat..

where to?

decision! decision! decision!

its spring bank holiday; long weekend ( i get another extra day off on tuesday). weather forecast - sunny and dry for the weekend. yesterday i've listed a few places to go but couldnt really make my mind up. hubby always leave it to me to decide where and when to go, he will just drive.

initially, planned with mimi to have another 'rombongan cik kiah' to take our golden girls for day out, either

• 3 hours drive up north to whitby & robin hood bay
• one hour drive down south to cambridge.

then it crossed my mind that while my sis & cousin are here in the summer; we plan to take them to cambridge and yorkshire as part of the itinerary.

so mimi & family went to cambridge, us....???

few other places which are within an hour drive, came to mind

• crich tram village, matlock bath, heights of abraham in derbyshire; or
• cadbury's world in birmingham or
• national space centre in leicestershire..

then i also browsed the net for 'day out on thomas the tank engine' . we managed to get tickets for day out on thomas but not today...

since its a nice sunny day, might as well spend it outdoor.. while thinking of where to go, hubby received a phone call from his boss, richard. he & jane have been wanting to take us out on their boat on the canal for sometime and today is a good day ... so thats what we'll be doing this afternoon!

tomorrow is day out with ina & shuif. in the afternoon, ina & i are going out shopping at the outlet (not been to the shops for ages..) and at night, we are going to the movies. me & ina are going to watch 'ghosts of girlfriends past' and the guys are going for 'star trek' in the same cineplex, around the same time.

home grown

these are our home grown peonies; inherited from our landlord. when we first moved here, there's only one bush of peonies, now we have 3 .. they are starting to bloom now.

bits & pieces

i took some photos of the kids few days ago and some earlier. aliyah normally clings to daddy when the latter comes home from work; even wants to sleep on daddy's 'big stomach bone'.

guess what this is ...