sombre

friday was raya haji. as mentioned in the previous post, i didnt prepare anything sebab kena gi library. tak tau la berbaloi ke tak time spent mentelaah kat library compared to how i did in the exam.

somehow i felt kinda sad sebab tak sempat nak call mom before leaving for the exam. i did call her on raya morning though and mintak dia doakan. and knowing mom, she would perform the solat sunat for her anak2 and cucu2, regardless whether yang nak exam tu umur dah senja like me, or her 2 grandsons who are sitting for their SPM. tambah sedih bila tengok gambar depa semua makan daging korban buat bbq, sup tulang, sup ekor, sup kaki etc etc.., terpampang kat fb!!

pagi ni kamar went to the butcher, bought some lamb chops and grilled them for dinner and had with mash & vege..after dinner, i did my fortnightly ironing while kuah kacang & nasi himpit nona bertenggek on the stove.. baru rasa raya, a bit overdue!

all lit up

the xmas lights were lit up in the city two weeks ago and it was only last nite that we had the time to take the kids out to see the lights at Old Market Square and joined the crowd at the german xmas market.

we had a guest on friday nite. Sharina, kamar's ex staff at Air Asia was on a week long holiday. she was in scotland for few days, then off to london for few days before taking the coach to notts. she left for manchester airport this morning to fly home. so sempat la kamar & the kids bawak dia jalan2 on saturday, as i was having my weekend school.

the organisational behaviour exam was over yesterday afternoon. dont know lah.. there were 6 questions to do in 3 hours. i attempted all the questions but some of them were incomplete which dissapointed me. then sambung law classes pulak.

kamar took the kids out to the riding school then home for lunch and drove aisyah and tasha to Nottingham Playhouse to watch Beauty & The Beast Pantomime. i finished at 5pm, just in time to meet the girls at NP and walked to Old Market Square.

today ada class on new module - Project Planning, coursework to be handed in end of jan, same time with law coursework. there goes my xmas holidays! the exam is in mid april. the class was interesting, belajar semula buat critical path & gantt chart which i did during my undergrad days, over 20 years ago. ingat2 lupa..but it makes more sense now.

yesterday chris mentioned, once we finish the classes & exam in mid june. we can then start doing the dissertation for submission in september; kalau pass semuanya boleh lah grad next november...boleh ke grad ni??.

pain & ache

i think age is taking its toll on me. for 2 consecutive nights i came home with sore legs, not feet. sengal 'tulang kering' if you know which part of the leg it is. last nite i was practically dragging my feet walking home from the bus stop. maybe its the cold weather. today, to add to the sore legs, i had stiff neck since morning. nasib baik ada tukang urut tak bertauliah who also cooks dinner..thanks dear! tonite he cooked chicken teow chew porridge, lauk ikan bilis goreng, telur dadar hiris halus (ganti telur masin), kacang buncis goreng kicap and lobak asin. he couldnt find the ikan tenggiri jeruk in the pantry.

budak kenit ni tak makan sangat, puas pujuk.. suruh close eyes and open mouth and she had a few suaps.

hari ni ada 2 x 2 hrs tutorials and 1 hr lecture but i managed to endure the pain, maybe because i had fun with the students. kadang2 memang nak menyinga aja with them especially those yang dah lah tak pandai, malas pulak tu.. no matter how much effort we put to make them learn, they find everything is amusing. sometimes i just laughed it off with them, all because they dont see whats shown before their very own eyes. those who main2 and borak2 jer dalam lecture/tutorials, tunggu la first test before xmas break nanti.. tau la langit tinggi rendah.

this week i get them to quantify roof construction & covering; the real challenge is to get them to visualise the sloping nature of roof and i used my 'silly paper roof model' which eventually paid off.

keluar la semua trigonometry and pythagoras theories which i learned in secondary school 30 years ago. sometimes these students are making things harder for themselves, benda tu bukan nya rocket science or nuclear physics ke and when they realised its not that difficult, they thot i was pulling their legs..
tomorrow is another long day, classes from 11am till 7pm and by the time sampai rumah dah dekat pukul 8. malam esok, nak mintak chef masak tagliatelle carbonara with smoked salmon lah.

all day friday kena mentelaah kat library to compile my notes and whatever management theories , in preparation for organisational behaviour exam on saturday. this weekend ada classes, just when sanak saudara & sahabat handai meriah menyambut hari raya aidil adha, i will have to berkorban in my own way..tak apa lah, dugaan..

sapa kata mudah jadi cikgu & student??? cuba angkat tangan sikit..

the kids' day

today tasha turns 15, its unusually quiet birthday celebration for her, away from her siblings. but i already made plans since last nite.

last nite kamar picked me up at 5pm from the library and we headed off to our usual jaunt - tkmaxx to get a birthday present for tasha. she was eyeing for the Ed Hardy backpack when i took her window shopping the other day but she said its expensive (at £30). so last nite, kamar said just get it for her birthday then. and of course la, bila dah beli untuk tasha, kena la beli untuk adik2 berdua tu. its been a long time since we bought toys for the kids, we both think they deserve a treat for being good girls..we found a rocking horse for aliyah which suits 2-6 yr old, reasonably priced at £30. as for aisyah, its the difficult age to get presents that suit her but we found Hannah Montana DVD game at £8. we kept the presents in the car till all of them have gone to bed last nite.

ada orang tumpang ownership..

(break ... pergi mentelaah for few hours, back at 6pm..)

this morning i woke up early to bake a birthday cake for tasha. panjang cerita buat cake hari ni. mesin penimbang buat hal..i was so blurrr that i failed to realise the quantity of the ingredient was far too much. sudahnya, the first cake - choc fudge cake tak masak. so lepas menggodek the penimbang, it did what its supposed to do and i baked another one - chocolate brownie cake which turned out lovely, gooey and moist, ate it with double cream and raspberries

sehingga menjilat jari.!!

we had brunch, i made beef stew which we had with naan bread. after makan, i went to the library and was home at 6.30 pm and cooked dinner - pilau rice, tandoori chicken, naan bread, popadom with accompaniment - mango chutney and pickled lime.

exam lagi?

my saturday was spent at the library again, preparing for Organisational Behaviour exam on coming saturday. going through the past exam questions - they are quite tricky with lots of application of management theories, i'm not really sure whether or not i can nail it..

i was at the library from 9.30 and after 3 hours of mentela'ah, i took a break and had lunch at Costa Coffee - delicious mozzarella cheese, basil and tomato panini and small latte. lepas lunch sambung balik till 4.30pm.

esok pun pergi library lagi sebab banyak lagi belum cover. sorry ya anak2, this weekend tak boleh kemana-mana. lagipun weather tak berapa elok - wet and windy. weekdays memang tak sempat nak buat any revision sebab sibok dengan teaching and housework and when night falls, my brain will just be too tired to absorb anything.

spoke to my mom earlier, mintak dia doakan that i can do the exam.. after all these years, even though umur dah senja pun, somehow mesti nak mintak mak panjangkan doa as it gives me some kind of comfort..

congratulations

i wasnt aware that UPSR result was out on Thursday until i received a text from my dearest friend at 6am, that her daughter scored 5As... congrats Tasha and parents - yan & hasni and brothers - putra and hariz for the moral support. i called her immediately to get the details...

then bukak facebook and found out ramai pulak anak2 fb friends yang ambik UPSR - congrats to Ann & son Ameer and also my cousin Jimi & son Haris; both dapat 5As.

i couldnt believe my eyes/ears when i found out what the parents give their kids for their achievement, seriau betul... it makes me wonder how will we reward Aisyah if she does well in the SAT in may next year; of course tak boleh match what my friends/cousin give their kids.

next month, PMR results pulak keluar and our niece Tasha is one of the candidates.. tungguuuu...

mummy, where's my boat?

saturdays prior to 28th of november would be spent in the library.. orang lain beraya haji on 27th or 28th nov, i will be 'berkorban' in the classroom, sitting for Organisational Behaviour exam on saturday and learning about adjudication and ADR (alternative dispute resolution) on sunday. i dont go to library on sundays cos its opened only from 2-7pm. for me, if i want to start doing my work or studying, it would have to be in the morning.

on sunday afternoon, we drove to Langham to see adib. he was so happy to see aliyah, i think he must have missed atan who is back in msia; but soon he'll be joining his brother. cik som prepared lunch - nasi putih & kari ayam, makan dengan sambal oelek.. and what i fail to understand, how aliyah would eat rice with sup ayam/sayor yang cik som masak. kalau kat rumah, susah betul nak makan nasi, puas pujuk!

after lunch, we drove to Rutland Water south shore, had a short walk to Normanton Church Museum. Rutland Water is a favorite spot for angling and water sports. bila tengok banyak sail boats, aliyah sibok tanya 'where's my boat mummy?'.

it was a sunny day after all. the past few days had seen lots of rain across the country and the midlands was not spared.

fairies & leprechaun

lately we found few toadstools in our back garden.. fairy tales associate toadstools with fairies and leprechauns. so does that mean there are fairies and leprechauns in our back garden?

cerita dongeng mengatakan 'leprechauns are little make believe fairies that live in ireland, they make shoes for the fairies and if you can catch one, you can make him tell you where he hides his gold' wow!! shall we atart searching for one?

cuci

kamar & i had a good laugh watching CUCI the movie on dvd which we got from msia. we enjoyed it - a simple story line, with a good balance of humour and meaningful message and not just slapstick comedy. the actors are good - awie, ac mizal, hans and afdlin with erra and umi aida.

friends and relatives in msia were talking about CUCI the musical at Istana Budaya and i reckon that deserves 'thumbs up' .

tapi yang paling tak tahan bila tengok 'the making of ....' bila Harith Iskandar introduced the movie as 'ku ki..' a filem by 'hani saac'..

Muddy Puddle

For the past few weeks, Aliyah would say to me everytime we go to Aisyah's riding classes, "Can I jump in the muddy puddle, daddy? Can I? Can I?"

Not just any muddy puddle but a BIG muddy puddle.

I suppose if we were in Malaysia, it would be VERY BIG muddy puddle (flood waters) in Kota Bharu.

Well, to be a kid again.

the stepping stone

on sunday morning, we drove to Ilam (pronounced eye-lam) at the peak district, just 45 minutes drive away from the house. seperti biasa, bawak bekal 2 types of sandwiches - tuna & egg mayo, mee goreng, snack and drinks.

when we were walking on the field towards Dovedale at 11-ish, met so many walkers already making their way back to Ilam. banyak cow & sheep poo cos we had to walk across the farmland..

it was a 2 1/2 hours walk round trip from Ilam Park to Dovedale Stepping Stone. for more info, see http:// www.peakdistrict.national trust.org.uk/content/pdf/ilam_park.pdf

had sandwich lunch at the foot of Thorpe Cloud. mee goreng makan dalm kereta kat car park.

nothing can beat a cup of hot chocolate..

when we got back to Ilam, someone saw an icecream van and asked for mr softie.. dalam sejuk2 temp around 7 deg C tu pun ada orang nak makan icecream!!

Ilam is just a small village, most houses are alpine style cottages, built in 1830s, designed by George Gilbert Scott who is most famous for imposing Gothic cathedrals and The Midlands Grand Hotel at St Pancras Railway station in London.

aliyah was really good, she walked all the way to Dovedale, on the way back to Ilam tu dia mintak 'kung' cos she was tired. tu pun we managed to pujuk her to walk sikit2. dalam kereta balik kerumah, semua zzzzz except the driver..kesian!!

it was indeed a good day...

our young guest

last nite we drove to stanstead airport to meet our young guest - Anna Nattasha, kamar's niece.

we asked her parents, cik mad & kolin few months back if Tasha can come and stay with us after she finished her PMR, spending cuti sekolah while helping to baby sit Aliyah. it was good to know that she agreed to come over and doesnt mind travelling alone.

she's 15 but pint sized.. aisyah had always been close to Tasha and her youngest sister Anisha. Aliyah took to her cousin quite easily. today i was working at home, riuh rendah dia main dengan Tasha as the latter pandai melayan budak2.

apa kiriman orang kampong?? packets of konnyoku jelly, boxes and boxes of alsa jelly crystals from kakak and kolin for kenit. kat sini susah nak dapat halal jelly crystal, either to eat macam gitu aja or for making trifles. i made 2 trays of konnyoku jelly hari ni and aliyah must have had 1 tray to herself!!

makan setahun pun tak habis ni!!

for aisyah, her cik long (my sister) kirim few packets of keropok udang & ikan.kamar got 2 packets of asam from my sister and we got tart nenas from kak wan. last but not least packets of teh tarik aik cheong for me from kakak... thank you all!! (no ikan bilis this time sebab stock masih banyak)

we've got few things planned while she's here but we can only do it on weekends, weather permitting.

the scavinos were here

last weekend tak sempat nak update blog on our guests who came all from msia via Turin.

my friend Ainol followed her hubby Eddy who's attending a conference in Genoa and took the opportunity to visit eddy's parents in Savigliano, near Turin. trip sekali ni was their baby Sarah Amelie's visit to meet her paternal grandparents & greatgrandparents and relatives. you know how the italians are - very close knit and dote on their anak cucu.. Ainol ajak we all meet them in Italy cos her mom in law, Franca selalu ajak we all to her place but since term just started and i cannot take time off and kamar dah kehabisan cuti, i proposed that they come over instead and Eddy agreed!

we met them at Manchester Airport on sunday 3pm.. before pergi airport, i've already cooked nasi ayam with ayam jeruk (my signature dish). we arrived home at around 6pm and terus makan.

baby Sarah warmed up to our girls rather quickly. Ainol could sit down and eat at the kitchen table while chatting away with me, while Sarah played with the girls. she's been really clingy in italy cos there was no small kids to play with. we let the kids scatter the toys.. tak kisah lah rumah messy pun asalkan the kids are happy.

i took monday off to take them around, tuesday & wednesday while i was at work, Aisyah jadi tourist guide as she's on mid term break. they left for london on thursday morning and took the flight home on friday nite.

hope to see them again sometime..