A long hiatus from blogging. Since back to KL in preparation for the birth, memang malas nak nak tulis apa-apa. Reason being:

-          sibuk balas dendam makan ‘benda bukan-bukan’. Seronok sangat; with my SIL yg memang kaki jalan and knows all good place for good food. Puas sangat dapat makan apa yg tekak teringin.

-          Clearing away unwanted clutter in the house – my house tu dah jadi rumah tumpangan aje since dah tak de penghuni tetap. So banyak jugak lah benda nak kena buat; mopping, dusting and trying to reach every hard to reach nook and cranny. Dah la tak de maid, kena look after budak dua orang tu jugak.

-          Sibuk shopping for the baby stuff (and for everybody else jugak). Kalau dah lama tak balik KL tu, macam balas dendam lah kan. Tengok semua, semua nak beli. Membeli macam tak ingat dunia. Every time balik, every time tu la jugak sales nya start. Ish.

Anyway, just a short update: I’ve given birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday at 6.43 am in S*MC. Alhamdulillah, all went well. Azlan came back just in time to join us. He actually flew back one day earlier after Delaila told me that the baby’s head is already engaged and it will pop out soon. So dapat la satu hari spent with daddy before I gave birth. In fact, the night before I gave birth (I already felt the contractions around 15 minutes apart) we went out to Sub*ng Parade for family dinner at T*IF (dengan in-laws semua) and sempat shopping for some daddy’s jeans dan sempat jugak duduk lepak minum di coffee be*n – all that done that night. That morning, at 4.30 am, bila rasa contractions dah 5 minutes apart, baru lah pergi sepital. Dua jam kemudian, selamat lah keluar si kenit ni.

Alhamdulillah, bersyukur sangat sebab Allah has made it easy for me. Eh, tak de lah senang sangat. Ada ke beranak yg senang? Tapi tak de complications, tak de la lama sangat menderita sebelum delivery dan tak de tear, so tak de la stitches. In fact, this time darah pun tak berapa banyak macam the previous two.

Since the company is paying for the hospital bills, maka dapat la saya merasa dok kat sepital punya suite. A bit more room for kids to melepak around. Aliyah siap bawak dvds lagi pulak tu. Pandai-pandai aje lah dia pack sendiri.

Off now. The nurse has just wheeled the baby in. Feeding time for her.

I don’t know what has gotten into me today. In the mood to splurge a little bit after managed to make few bucks on shares trading – so there, I went out alone to the mall. I went in the afternoon, just before zuhur so the driver could take a long lunch and jumaat prayer. Apa lagi nak buat, kalau tak ke saloon untuk manjakan diri. Actually I was in need of pedicure (hehehee.. dah tak sampai nak potong kuku kaki sendiri – my perut gets in the way now. Ish). Alang-alang nak buat pedicure, buat la sekali manicure, hair spa, urut bahu dan tangan sket, reflexology kaki sket, trim rambut sket along with blow. Berapa habis? Ada lah dalam RM70. hehehehe.. then the guilt in me kicked in – kena lah beli few dvds for the kids yang tinggal kat rumah.

On the way home, sempat pulak singgah to this one store ‘ala-ala ikea’ sebab nak cari birthday presents (the kids have 2 parties to attend tomorrow). Not only I managed to buy the presents, terbeli pulak dah big cushion jelmaan anak singa berbulu yang sangat comel dan lembut – sesuai lah nak baring-baring depan tv and a cake stand. Apa hal plak boleh terbeli cake stand ni? Entah lah. Nampak cantik di pandangan mata. Daddy sure garu kepala tengok. Ya ampun. Apa nak kata, pembawakan budak la kot? :-P

Have a good weekend all.

10 things that makes me happy.

There’s so much in life that make me happy. Yes, I do have my own ups and down but all that doesn’t beat the happiness in me – more of bersyukur in this term, with all the blessings granted. So I guess in this context, it’s more appropriate if I say 10 things that make me bersyukur so much. J

1)       the 2 children I have, plus 1 on the way. They are the best things that ever happened to me. I know I may not be the best mum in the world, but wohooo I have small army here that I can give orders now. The other day, I had a cut on my lips and bleed (resulting from Aliyah jumped from the bed onto my lap – I was sitting on the floor by the bedside); these 2 small nurses had come to rescue taking things in control without me saying anything – Aliff ran to the kitchen to grab some ice covered in tea towel (the best thing to keep the lips from getting swollen) while Aliyah kept on blowing my lips as if to take the pain away. Hehehehe.. manyak best bila ada orang kasik attention macam ni.

2)       I have a husband who treats me good. Never once I have doubt or second thought of why and how I ended up marrying this guy – walaupun he kept teasing me for marrying a mat salleh celup. Bak kata Whitney Houston “I have nothing if I don’t have you..”

3)       Err.. happy because I don’t have a boss to report to? Don’t bother to buy nice clothes to get to work? No office hour to adhere to? Ni lah dia.. I should come out from my comfort zone and do something a bit more. The stock and shares that I have been doing hasn’t given me the pleasure of using that much of brain capacity. Tapi tetap happy sebab dapat duduk rumah and see the kids grow in front of me, without missing all the important events.

4)       Since I don’t have job that I keep – the stress level is also minimum. Dulu, adoi lah, tak senang tido malam, phone must always be my side in case ada system problem. Kena pergi kerja tengah-tengah malam to put in fixes or new enhancement to system. Tension wooo.. sekarang ni the tension is altered to a different level – so I guess I am happy (that way).

5)       Happy to be where I am now. Though it’s not a very canggih town with all those up market malls, but the life quality here is to bargain for. No bad traffic, abundance of green areas for the kids to run around and I would say it’s a healthier life we have here (less time spend at the shopping malls, patut lerrr). Kat KL, mana pernah terfikir nak hayun kayu golf? Nak join sports club? Pergi padang just to have a bit of ball kicking (oh, Aliff now is attached to his new aussie footie, lantak lah – bukan reti main pun, janji keluar peluh)

6)       Happy sebab husband baru belikan sebijik tepon baru after my O2 tu dah near to the death term. I got rid of the O2 and in return another phone to alternate for our maxis’s numbers. So dapat 2 phone baru – tak happy ke tu?

7)       Above all that mentioned; I am happy for we have food to be put on the table, we have time for each other, we don’t need a big house nor a fancy car to make us happy (tak ada hutang nak bayar at the end of the month sebab kereta & rumah semua dah settled) and most importantly we happy for the blessings given to us from Him. Alhamdulillah. Errr.. pointer number 7 incorporates the rest of the pointers too. So dah cukup la seploh ek?

Wokeh Nonie. I’ve settled my debt to you – have answered the tag. Hari ni macam free la pulak sebab tak payah masak dinner. Hehehee.. hubby tak dak, gi JKT. Can’t wait for him to come back tomorrow for he has promised me a bottle of Ribena. Wife dia yang pregnant ni sengal nak minum ribena tapi BPN tak dak jual. Hahahaah.. boleh gitu? (ada kedai yg brings in imported stuff tapi out of stock plak. I bought ribena from this shop hari tu – pergghhh harganya boleh dpt 4 botol ribena from KL. Bila check the label – oh, patut lerr.. made in UK. Cis!)

Wow! Lama nya tak update blog. Time really flies fast. Not exactly laid low in March, but because I was away - spent almost 3 weeks hols back in KL. This trip was particularly extra busy with wedding – my sister’s wedding! Eh, eh, Irma tak invite pun kengkawan datang the wedding ek? Sorry lah, betul punya lupa daaa.. sbb it’s not my wedding kan, so the invites tu macam tak ambil pot. Busy hal yang lain. Hehehehe..  but the wedding was great, all went smoothly.

March also has seen us being hit badly with financial bleeding. Every time we are home, memang tak sah kalau expenditure tak hit 5 figures. On top of that, the KLCI pointers yang turun mendadak – akibat pilihanraya forced me to put up a brave face. Gila aa.. tu la degil , tak mau dengar cakap suami. He has been nagging me to let go a few of my non performing counters and because of my own stubbornness, we were looking *gasp* at loss (on paper lah) of sebijik kereta kelisa. Adeiii lah.. I am ashamed to show anyone my portfolio. Ngeri tengok.

Speaking of pilihanraya, I came back just few days before the event. Yay! First time in my life I get to exercise my rights to cast the vote. Berat hati sebenarnya nak pergi sebab tak mau queue lama-lama tapi rupa-rupanya end-to-end it only took me less than 10 minutes for the whole process. Wow! Bagus tu..

I am now 30+ weeks pregnant. Have another 60+ days to go before the EDD. Call me overwrought if you want – because I am. Mana nak fikir the household yang di BPN, my delivery in KL and the arrangements. Sedih pun ada. Everyone in the family has to make some sacrifice. The plan is for me and Aliyah to go first in early May (since my due is in early June – can’t fly after 35 weeks). I can’t take Aliff with me since the school term will only ends in late June. So daddy and Aliff will fly back to join us in late May – hopefully in time for the baby’s grand entrance (or exit??). I have to entrust the running of house in my maid’s hand – making sure there’s food to eat on the table and Aliff’s welfare taken care well. At the same time, I am seeking a temporary maid to help me out back in KL. Aiyoo.. mana nak korek temp maid ni?? I can’t bring my maid back with me because her passport is expiring and it’s a hassle to renew it – tak cukup masa. Plus we have to drag her to m’sian embassy in JKT to get approval for temporary access to M’sia. Susah nya!!! I wish we have an embassy here in BPN. Senang cito.

I am also thinking of ‘exporting’ my MIL to BPN to help out. So at least, Aliff has got company. I can’t bear the thought of leaving him alone with maid while daddy at work. It’s not fair for him. Hoping with nan around, she can help out overlooking his school work and takes him to extra curricular activities.

Adoi lah.. see? No wonder I am always have headache lately. Plus both kids are hyper in arguing now. Every single thing pun boleh argue. It’s really annoying at times. Macam nak tertanggal telinga. This morning, in the car on the way to school – Aliyah was showing a scratch on her foot and said “abang, look at my scratch..” Aliff took a quick look and said “nope, that’s not scratch, that’s scab..” and it’s all started. Ini yang bikin darah mummy naik nih. Grrr.. Tapi bila fikir balik, eh, betul lah tu. Hehehehe.. the scratch that Aliyah had has form into scabs. So who is winning here?

I should sign out, get some panadol and hit the hay for a quick nap while they are both at school…

Random facts.

I was tagged by cik Meen kita. Succumb to her, here it is

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List 8 (eight) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of this post and list their names.
4. Let them now they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

Point number 3 and 4 tu, err.. sapa-sapa rajin nak buat, boleh buat ok.. dipersilakan..

These are more of random facts about me here in BPN..

1) I cook more now

The amount of cooking I have done since we moved here probably beat the amount I had done in my marriage life back in KL. I only noticed how much we have been spoilt with abundance of food selection back in KL with variety of eateries yang bersepah-sepah. Ecewah, lagi pun dulu I kan kerja.. hehehe.. (excuse ke tu?) Kat sini lah baru belajar nak masak roti sendiri, making ravioli from scratch, punggah segala reseipi kuih-kuih melayu tu (seri muka, karipap etc), buat sendiri salsa – sampai panas2 tangan sebab chopping chilies sebab teringin nak makan. Mana nak cari ‘shortcut’ kat sini? Ha, nak kutuk? Kutuk lah.. hehehehe..

2) I buy fresh food from the wet market (on my own)

It was a horrific experience when I first arrived here. Kena tipu bulat-bulat – they knew I was an outsider. But not anymore (walaupun mungkin still kena tipu jugak sikit-sikit). As compared to last time, mana rajin nak pergi wet market pun. Dulu dok ulang carre4 yang dekat rumah (and sometimes from cold storage) tu aje lah for all fresh products.

Now? Hheheheeh.. those dark alleys in the market sudah ku harung. Dah tau dah selok-belok. Siap dah buat kawan dah dengan sellers kat situ. In fact, on days that I feel more energetic, I would go to a more dilapidated wet market sebab kat situ harga lagi murah.

3) I eat bird’s eye chili raw.

Ok, may be for some it’s not big deal.. hahaha.. but it is for me. If we buy kuihs here, sometimes it comes with chilies. Masa mula-mula dulu agak pelik. Takkan makan murtabak dengan cili padi? But now, ohh sungguh enak kalau makan tahu isi (our favourite here) dengan cili padi.. crunch, crunch, crunch. See how much I’ve ‘indonesianize’ myself?

4) Queue from the side, not from the back

This does get me to the wits end. Penat-penat aje beratur from the back, suddenly someone will come, stand next to the person who is first in line and squeeze from the side and gets in. eh, eh? Cam gini ke beratur?? The first time it happened to me, the driver came to my rescue as he saw me standing there clueless. Hehehe.. dia pun queue dari tepi and let me in. oh, gitu ek? Tak ada orang marah ke? So from there on, I’ve picked up the skills, tengok tempat lah.. tempat yang agak kureenggg sikit, memang kena beratur cam gitu.. hehehehe.. pelik, pelik tapi benar..

5) My friends are from all walks of life

Apart from the international circuit (the expats community), I am also referring to the locals. These people that I met everyday when I go shop at the supermarket, wet market, groceries store, toys store, cd store, saloon, spa centre, restaurants etc – they remember faces and names very well. No, no, I am not special that they remember me.. nothing along the line at all.

The kids names are well carved in the head for those who serves at the hotels we frequents. “hello Aliyah, hello Aliff.. apa khabar?” ; bukan satu hotel, ni 3 hotel with different cafes yg kami selalu pergi.. ayooo..

At the supermarket, if they see me alone, they’ll be asking “di mana aliff, ibu? Sekolah ya?” “aliyah nya ngak ikut ya?”

I stepped into this spa centre that I haven’t been for a long time and be greeted straight away “mau massage ya, ibu irma?” opss..

Most recent, I made a call to this car rental service and asking for a quotation. The guy who was at the other end of line asking if this is “mrs xxx, from mesia” padahal all I said that I rent a car from them last year and wondering if they could give the same quotation. whoaaa.. korang ni memang terrer gila aaa..

Maka saya consider mereka semua ini kengkawan saya kerana mereka tau nama saya & family. Personal note to myself: don’t make a mess with them, otherwise..

6) saya deprived magazines

I don’t read local magazines (except when I want to kill some time at saloon – dah tu aje yg ada). Every opportunity when we are out of town to a more civilized city will see me grab whole heaps of them to bring back. Tak ada lah banyak pun, I am only loyal reader of oz woman’s day and reader digest. So segala back dated magazines of the above pun akan ku angkut pulang. My husband has learnt about my deprivation. So if he’s in jkt, he will buy some for me. Yippie, keep my sanity level back up again. Ntah apa-apa aje bunyi nya kan? But this is the ugly truth.

Alahhh meen, aku boleh korek 6 aje lah.. lagi dua tu kira burnt la ya? Hehehehe.. nak cepat nih, nak pergi ambil aliyah from school.

But in a nut shell, I love my life in here. It is a lot simpler, less demanding and more quality time spends with the kids (and husband).

Cau cin cau..