budak bulat

aliyah dah bulat sikit sekarang, sejak makan supplement 'abidec' as recommended by ina's cik som. dulu punya susah nak suruh dia makan, whatever we offer, she would say NO! now, sometimes she said, mummy i'm hungry and asked for food.. she' not really a 'rice person', prefers soup and roti and noodles.

tadi masa breakfast, i asked to eat her roti, she said' thats not roti, thats toast!' memang betul pun pagi tadi daddy made her some toast... then she looked at the roti in bread bin and said, 'mummy, thats roti !'. susah betul kalau tersalah sebut apa2..

every petang when i get home from work, mom would give a report on what aliyah had for the day..

yesterday we went to cadbury world in birmingham. after the tour, we had lunch at cadbury cafe; makan fish n chips. all she wanted was chips, dinner roll and mushy peas. banyak jugak dia makan..

she's quite tall for her age, tulang berat... tak sanggup kalau dia mintak 'mummy kung (dukung)!'

fav colour 1 syawal 1430

warna kegemaran untuk baju raya tahun ni ialah....warna BIRU

apparently this year, few families chose blue as the family's theme colour for baju raya.. pure coincidence i guess..

this is us (except me) in blue

my uncle Ayah Cik & wife Cik Zah in blue - forever gelak!!

and the big happy family in blue...

even their cucus - amir and sarah were in shades of blue..

gosh..how they have grown to be lovely big boys and girls (this brings tears in my eyes..). noreen is a mom of two, the boys - iwan & farez are getting married next year; picho has a few years before getting hitched, tinggal zetty who's still the 'baby' of the family. i lived with them (zetty belum ada) for a year or two when they were still in primary school way back in early 90s. they are like my own adik2..i still remember the valentine card they made for me..

and my friend mira & izwan with tasha & hafiz in blue... yang ni memang forever sedondon !! (sorry mira, curi gambar from fb, tak mintak prior permission!!)

raya 2009

1 syawal 1430 fell on sunday 20th september. this year, we celebrated it on the same day as our friends and family in msia.

aisyah lost quite a bit of weight that she could still fit into this dress which we bought before we went back to msia summer last year. aliyah loves wearing the baju kurung which we got from my dearest friend, mrs scavino aka ainol.

coincidently, daddy ada baju melayu biru, matching pulak dengan his girls. as for me, tahun ni rezeki murah, ramai orang bagi baju raya. my friend Lyn gave the fabric masa balik holiday last year and my aunty sent it to the tailor, my mom brought it with her in april. petang pulak, pakai baju kurung batik which my friend wan sharwani gave masa balik last year jugak...and i have another pair of baju kurung which ainol posted..tak sempat nak pakai tahun ni. simpan aja la for next year.

raya tahun ni meriah jugak. this house is more spacious - can accommodate more guests at any one time, weather was good - warm and sunny and also for the fact that mum is around.

juadah raya - mom made nasi dagang beras merah which she brought with her in april, lauk ayam kerutuk, gulai ikan, sambal tumis udang (special request by her son in law), acar and also rendang daging. few days before that she made mini popiah inti serunding daging and karipap and stored in the freezer. i made kuah kacang, belajar dengan kakak & aziah over the phone and boiled nasi himpit & ketupat pulut nona and also baked boiled fruits chocolate cake, recipe taken from Australian Women Weekly which turned out nice. ada tart nenas and kek lapis rempah 'imported' from kak wan & abang yeb.

our malaysian friends - mimi & family, sani & his friends came in mid morning lepas sembahyang raya. then shuif came with som & adib (ina & atan are already back in msia).

we sent out invitation to our 'local friends' a week before, to come for Eid Hi Tea between 4.30-6.30pm. they just tried everything that we served.

lauren put on aisyah's baju kurung from last year's raya (which she got from my friend Yan).

us with lauren & her parents - andy & tracy.

these are our new friends - eva & scott from leicester. eva is my brother's friend and we 'met' on facebook.

these are our new friends - elizabeth and graham; they lived in msia for few years, graham taught medicine at UPM. they live in our neighbourhood, we met in august at the bus stop, strucked some conversation and became friends and i invited them over just so that they could re-live the raya celebration in msia.

helen, steve (kamar & richard's boss)'s wife and their 4 year old unidentical twins - surprisingly the girls love nasi dagang..

richard (kamar's immediate boss) and jane have been our raya guests for the past few years.. they never turned down our invitation!!

everybody enjoyed the food (makanan semua habis - Alhamdulillah tak membazir) and the company..its kind of a gathering of the nicest people we've come to know. we invited Gill who would have loved to come except that she's got guests for the weekend. otherwise it would have been more meriah...

unlike our counterpart back home, raya was just on 1 syawal, the next day - monday kerja macam biasa...

buku raya

while most people back in home land are in raya mood, sibok membeli baju, kasut, kuih etc for raya, i bought books to celebrate our raya..

few months ago, there was an offer in whsmith bookstore - if we pre order Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol, we got Simon Kernik's Deadline for free; and thats not all....we only need to pay £7.99 for the hardcover copy of The Lost Symbol while the original price is £18.99. i prebooked the book for kamar as father's day present, the book was out on the shelves yesterday and i collected it this morning. and while in the shop, biasa la browsed through whatever offer they have and found a catchy titled book which is new on the shelf and was selling at half price from £6.99.

kids books were on offer too - 3 for 2. so i bought 2 horsey books for aisyah from Pippa Funnell collection and 1 book for aliyah - Dora loves Boots (her monkey). since aliyah's book is the cheapest of the 3, i got her book for free. i also bought 2 mental maths exercise books for aisyah. well, she cannot get away so easily. as much as we support her interest in horse riding and books, she has to work hard and earn her keep.

salam aidil fitri

to all kaum kerabat & sahabat handai who've been following our blog, here's wishing you Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, Maaf Zahir Batin.

this is our 4th consecutive year celebrating raya di perantauan. Alah bisa tegal biasa.. dah kind of used to having a quiet raya.

this is the first time my mom raya with us. i think she'll be alright, a bit of a change from the usual hoo haa raya either at my sister's place in KT or my aunty's in KB. last year kakak was here. so juadah raya was johore style. so this year citarasa kelantan la pulak.

more update on raya after sunday lah ya

21 again..

yesterday i turned 21 again.. Alhamdulillah sehari dua ni masih sihat walafiat to go out to work & study while managing the household and looking after the kids and their father. as our anniversary and my birthday is less than a week apart, we had a small celebration at iftar.


i requested for nasi kerabu complete with the accessories including ulam2 with daun kesom which we have 3 pots in our back garden, telur masin and ayam panggang. also mom made ondeh2 and popiah inti minced meat. ina & family came for iftar and its really a nice feeling to see how ina & shuif and also som enjoyed the nasi kerabu that they had second helping.

i baked the chocoholic's choco-yet cake; never have i ever baked a cake on low temperature (gas mark 2) for 2 hours, glad that the cake turned out well and nice.


baik nya.. baring berdua sambil tengok tv..

aliyah and her best friend, Atan. this time main baik2 betul, lansung tak bergaduh..

my birthday present from kamar (and the kids). the thing with both of us, just like other married couples (i think), we normally ask each other what we want for birthday/father's-mother's day. i told kamar last month that i would like a bottle of perfume since my last one - J'dore which he bought in Paris during our trip in 2007 dah lama habis and i've been using those small bottles which my friend Yan and kakak gave me. Idole is one of the latest in the market but its a bit pricey.

before we went out in the morning, i looked at Boots online and ada offer 50% off on some brands. DKNY So Delicious 100ml is reduced to half price at £22 so i told Kamar just to get me that one cos that smells nice too. but then, when kamar & the girls went to the perfume counter, DKNY So Delicious dah sold out.. so he got me the Idole instead. it was a pleasant surprise indeed!! thanks darlingsss..

its A Bit Funny

our aliyah's vocab memang la dah banyak for her age (she'll be 2 years 8 months soon) but sometimes tak faham apa dia cakap cos pelat sikit..but most of the time, her pronounciation is really clear.

the other day she was jumping on the bed when i was changing her nappy. so i asked her to stop jumping but she refused and giggled instead.

i said 'its not funny'
she said'yes its funny'
then i said 'no its not!''
and she said 'ITS A BIT FUNNY MUMMY!' haiyaaa....

she likes to watch Dora The Explorer on telly who's bilingual - speaks english & spanish. tadi i bought her a book entitled 'Dora loves her grandma' simply becos nowadays aliyah spends her daytime with my mom and i dont want her to forget her mummy tok when the latter goes back to msia next month. she asked me to read the book for bedtime reading.
she learned the word 'Abuela' (grandma) and i asked her 'who's your abuela?'; she said 'mummy tok'.
and when i asked her to count the number of star pockets on one of the pages, she counted 'uno, dohs, tres, quattro, cinco! (one, two, three,four, five in spanish). she can count up to 10 in spanish which she learned from Dora & Handy Manny on tv..

dulu ramai orang kata tv is not good for kids but both our kids learned a lot from telly - we as parents have to monitor what they watch or play on the internet.

Choco-yet cake

tadi after meeting at Aisyah's school, i took the bus to Beeston, jalan2 kat kedai. bought books for the girls and also for Atan's 3rd birthday. then kamar fetched me from the shop and we drove to Sainsbury's at the Castle cos our usual Beeston branch tutup for the time being for renovation.

this morning i was flipping thro the pages of Australian Women's Weekly Cakes Biscuits and Slices with Aliyah on my lap. she asked 'mummy, are you making cakes?' and i asked her back, which one would you like and she said 'the choco-yet' one and pointed 'The Chocoholic's Chocolate Cake' and refuse to barge. so tadi pergi la beli barang2 buat 'choco-yet cake' for tomorrow and i plan to bake 'Boiled Raisin Chocolate Cake' for raya. also promised Aisyah that we'll be making some biscuit raya on sunday. hopefully the cakes will turn out well sebab dah lama pencen baking.

we saved our grocery shopping for today sebab nak guna £5 voucher for purchases more than £30 which is valid from 10th sept for just a week. lagi pulak nak dapatkan voucher 5p off per litre of petrol if we spend more than £50 on groceries. our trolley was full, used up 4 recycle shopping bags which cost us (not that much) more than £50 and dapatlah petrol voucher. so kamar dengan happy nya isi minyak full tank at 98p per litre instead of £1.03 per litre (harga minyak dah naik balik semula...); he made a saving of £3 for full tank.

a meeting with Mr Gard

this is the continuation from last post.

today the parents of Class 5 (year 5 & 6) had a meeting with the class teacher, Mr Gard. it was a good one, especially at the beginning of the year so at least we know what the teacher expects of our children and us, the parents.

he pointed few issues :-

• school uniforms - the school kids have to wear proper uniform, black shoes not trainers. for PE, the children should only wear normal tshirt and trainers, nothing flashy or designer stuff..
• punctuality - the kids have to be in the school ground by 8.55am. apparently the school has to send the daily attendance to the education dept of city council and last year's class 5's attendance was quite bad that the school received a 'not so nice letter' from the council and the school could get into trouble if they dont monitor the punctuality or regularity. i know some kids arrive late at school; tak tau la how these parents manage their children or it could be the parents yang tak boleh bangun pagi nak siapkan anak2 ke sekolah.
• the negatives and positives - the kids get +ve if they do something good, and -ve if otherwise. if the kids get more than 3 -ves in a week, then they will get warning and if more than 5 -ve, the parents will be informed. if they get 3+ve a week, they will get a cert by end of the week and if continuously good behaviour, they will get a 'gold award'..
• the homework - only once a week, on friday to be handed in on wednesday... untungnya dpt homework just sekali seminggu, kalau tengok counterparts kat msia yang ada homework everyday mau ternganga budak2 kat ni.. Mr Gard pays particular attention on Maths. i saw the homework that he gave Aisyah today - lots of mental maths on big numbers & decimals. to be honest, i dont think i could do those sums mentally.. i could solve them on paper though!! and there's literacy homework as well. parents are encouraged to sit down with the kids to do their homework but honestly, i wouldnt know how to help her with the homework. what they learn now is so different from how we did during our school days. but her daddy, as usual, is very patient with her and normally helps her out. shame on me .... despite teaching 'maths related subject' at uni..
• reading - the kids have to read everyday and write in the log book and parents have to sign off once a week. parents are encouraged to read along with the kid once a week so that the kids know what they are reading about. Aisyah's been an avid reader, she reads before she goes to sleep and anytime she's free (whenever she's not on the pc or watching telly). i just bought her a new book to add to her horsey books collection. i do check on her and asked what the book is all about.
• finally, he said that if the children tak pakai the suitable uniform or PE kit or tak buat homework or lambat datang sekolah; its not the children yang kena detention but the parents will be receiving letters for not reminding the kids or not managing them well. i agree with his ways.

memang la kita hantar anak ke sekolah to get education but we, the parents are the real educators and education starts from home...some parents cepat melatah, cepat aja nak marahkan teachers if the kids dont do well at school. we as parents shape our children, teachers are 'tools' to educate. so, for me & kamar, we always believe that we are responsible for our kids well being.

back to school

the schools' new year 2009/10 started last thursday and all the kids are back to the normal 9am-3.30pm routine. aisyah is now in Year 6, the last year in primary school. even though there's a much bigger (and claimed to be one of the good schools in the city) school near where we live, we decided to let aisyah stay in the same school where she's been for the past 3 years. the only downside is, we have to take the bus to school in the morning. kat sini tak ada bus sekolah macam kat tempat kita. so, while i'm still not teaching until october, i send aisyah to school, we leave the house at 8.30am and walk to the nearest bus stop to catch the 8.40am bus and we get to school about 5 minutes later. nak jalan boleh, about 15-20 minutes tapi memandangkan sekarang ni bulan puasa, kesian la pulak. after she goes into her classroom, i take the bus to work. this arrangement works for the time being, but when i go back to teaching, kena lah tengok macamana pulak depending on my timetable. anyway, susah2 pun just for 1 year; infact less than that lepas tolak term breaks.

last year (meaning before summer holidays), before the school term ended Aisyah & her year 5 classmates received a letter from Mr Gard, their Year 6 class teacher. it goes like this :-

Dear Nearly Class 5 (Year 6)

Welcome to Class 5. My name is Mr Gard and I will be your teacher next year. I have written this letter to tell you about me and about what I expect from you.
I am a very young man (thats how he describes himself !! give him some credit laaa) and have been a teacher for a long time, mostly working with year 5 and year 6 children. I am married and have two children Emma who is six and Jack who is two. Jack does not sleep well so, unfortunately for you, I am sometimes a little bit grumpy
the most important thing which i expect from you is that you aim high. all i want you to do is to do your very best in everything you do in your last one or two years at Firbeck. i like children to have fun and enjoy themselves in my class but that does depend on you allowing me to do that.
have a nice summer and be ready for lots of hard but hopefully enjoyable work in September.

See you soon,
Mr Gard.

note: Firbeck is a relatively small school with facilities for special need children (deaf & disabled children), total of about 160 children from nursery to juniors (between 3 or 4 to 11 years old). there are 30 children in aisyah's class (class 5); 20 in year 6 and 10 in year 5. i dont really know how they work that out but the children stay in the same room but learn at different level.

i sometimes wonder how many teachers in our public/state/private school in our home country or over here for that matter would spend time writing such a letter. Mr Gard has been a Year 6 teacher at the school for a good few years and he's been really good with the children. he teaches maths and Aisyah was chosen to do Year 6 maths with Mr Gard when she was in Year 5, so we got to meet him last year during the teacher-parents evening.

internet is back on!!

yeay... we're back in the 21st century!!

when i got home from work at around 6.30pm, kamar was at the computer table. he said that when he switched on the pc, ta daaa ...the internet and side bars were all working. MAGIC!! tu la nama nya rezeki tak nak habiskan duit kat PC World to fix the pc/internet connection.

aliyah was happy cos dah berapa hari tak boleh main game playhouse disney on the pc, aisyah dah berapa hari tak harvest kat farmville/barn buddy on facebook.. the good thing that came out of the 3 days without internet was the quietness when the kids were not arguing for their turn to go on the pc...

11th anniversary

yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary, nothing special was planned. i dozzed off early on saturday nite at 11pm and woke up at 9.30am (which is very unusual of me cos i'm a morning person), maybe the after effect of sleep deprivation for being awake for 24 hours thursday thro friday to finish off my assignments. aisyah made a lovely card and of course aliyah tak nak kalah, so kakak had to draw a heart on a piece of paper to give us..


we went for a movie in the afternoon - the inglorious basterds which starred Brad Pitt alongside english, french & german actors; the movie was about the group of american rebels who became guerillas to fight the nazis for murdering the jews in world war 2. its fictitious, not based on true story whatsoever and very brutal as well, definitely not for the faint hearted..

we miss the popcorn and coke !!

after the movie, we just came home, mum wasnt feeling well but she managed to cook 'gulai darat tulang/daging' and i fried some vege and also made 'kueh malas' - thats the kelantanese version of cucur bawang plus bilis with taugeh, kuchai, daun bawang, makan dengan kuah chilli with kacang, macam kuah rojak.

i'm so blessed with the important people in my life - my other half and the kids, my mom & siblings & my aunts and uncles and their children, my inlaws - kakak, yeb & kak wan and not forgetting kamar's other brothers and sisters; and praying for many wonderful years to come..

by the way, today is abg yeb's birthday..kamar never got round to call him cos our internet was down and we couldnt use voip stunt

internet went kaput

last friday, the day that i had to hand in 2 courseworks for my msc, the internet went kaput while i was searching for some articles and pictures on the web to finish off my 'design & value' coursework. that happened at 11am. the plan was to complete that and then moved on to finalise organisational behaviour piece, so by 2pm boleh la pergi submit kat uni.

i had to call kamar and he came home, tried to 'godek'2 the internet connection etc and called virgin media, the service provider who told us that it would take 2-3 days before they can tell us what really went wrong! i dont have 2-3 days, i only have 2-3 hours!!

so kamar, being the 'calm' other half of me, called Richard (his boss) whether or not it would be possible for me to complete my work at his office cos they have colour printer and all. so off we went and i managed to get everything done by 3.30pm, kamar drove me to uni and so nice of richard to let kamar goes home early.. well, i suppose sebab ada orang tu did a bloody good job at the office baru ni and not too much for me to call him the company & department's 'anak emas' .. well done!!

early raya present

balik from library petang tadi, mum told me there was a parcel from 'dazzle' @ mrs scavino..

apa dalam parcel??

baju kurung raya for the kids & me!!

just when i thot that the kids have to wear last year's baju kurung this raya cos i didnt 'tempah' from msia.. thats what we call rezeki!

thanks mrs scavino for taking all the trouble to shop & post the lovely baju kurung. daddy has baju melayu warna biru (same colour tone as the kids' baju), so tahun ni boleh la dia melaram dengan his girls..