Impromptu party

Sigh….. again I failed to take pictures of me having fun.

My maksu and paksu came home from the States on Monday and is staying with us. Monday and Tuesday were filled with managing their jet lag and going to the banks. So yesterday Maksu approached me while I was ironing my tudung for work, asking me to invite my family over for dinner. She will buy Satay.

Yahoo ! Oh Maksu, I said. Please buy enough for Ian too as he comes every Wednesday. I will buy Mee Hoon Goreng, I said again. My family usually have Fried Mee Hoon with Satay. But…. Maksu suggested wouldn’t it be better if Mummy cooks the Mee Hoon, considering her cooking prowess.

Good idea. Called everybody up and everything was set. Late afternoon Kak Wa called and ask if there is a mengaji session as usual. Definitely, and oh, Kak Wa… please do not have any dinner before you send Harith over because we are having Satay.

Ian turned up first. Then he and Babah went over to Mum’s to get the Mee Hoon. Then Kak Wa arrived with Harith in tow. Then Maksu and Paksu returned with the Satay and the party started.

Mummy came with Syafiq and his daughters while we ate. The kids started mengaji and we brought down the house with our laughters. Sungguh kurang sopan.

Kak Wa went home when ustaz went off and surprisingly Ian left, too. I was shocked because, as I informed him, I thought I’d be ensured of conversations at least till midnight. He laughed and pleaded prior engagement. Okay lah.

Then Marlin, Ita and Daniel came and that is when I remembered the desserts. A bifle (it should be trifle, really but I forgot the swiss roles, so only 2 layers so bifle it was) and orange caramel pudding.

Sembang-sembang. Gelak-gelak. Karaoke session planned and agreed upon so it was a successful night !

Bliss…

Movies X 3

This month of May saw us frequenting the cinemas. Started with Star Trek which was marvellous. Superb in fact. Then the clever Angels and Demons, which had us talking and discussing for days. Last weekend we saw Night At The Museum 2 which was hugely, hugely entertaining. Better than the first one which is kinda weird because sequels generally sucks.

Talks of Terminator started last week already so I know I’d be watching death defying antics by Thursday, at least. Not that I mind it so much since we are talking about Christian Bale. The delectable Mr Bale from Wales. Hmmm…

Definitely not taking the kids to watch Terminator as Adik slept through Star Trek and Night At The Museum 2. Don’t want to waste my money. Plus I think it is rated 18 SG (Sangat Ganas ke ? Is it SG ?).

Not sure about Ian either because he slept through Night At The Museum 2. He said for a little while, but is it really ? Ha ha….

Haven’t done any movie reviews in quite awhile haven’t I ? Okay…

Star Trek. Bloody marvellous. Watched it twice. A must watch. Chris Pine is a better Jams T. Kirk. Zachary Quinto an excellent actor. Btw, when did Uhura and Spock were ever in love ? They kept touching each other in this one… Weird…

Night At The Museum 2. Hilarious. Rugi tak tengok. Bloody funny. Entertaining. Did I say funny ? Well it is ! A bit cheesy too, really… but still…

Angels and Demons. Very clever. Just like Da Vinci Code. Ewan McGregor bloody handsome in black robes. Tom Hanks is a convincing scholar. Go ! Now ! Ian didn’t sleep through this movie so it must be good.

Ha…. There you go.

Wah Wah Wah

I am saddled with a huge problem right now. Well, what else is new, yeah ? The story of my life, one after another.

I have confided to my close friends about this, to my parents for solutions. Don’t ask about my husband as he hears about it everyday. Thank you, babe.

I had been very stoic, I think when I moan about this particular thing after the 30th time. But today, I decided to talk to my cousin, Jimmy, and I don’t know why I felt so emotional, I started crying. I was shocked when I felt the first tears then relieve flooded in.

Abang Jimmy was so understanding, spoke to me in the most soothing manner that I am now convinced that things will be okay. Deep down, I know it wouldn’t, not now definitely but I needed it. I needed the feeling that everything will be okay eventually.

It was not like I have never received sympathy before but I do not know why today, I crumbled. I had needed a good cry for the longest time and when it came, it was so bloody cleansing.

Thank you Allah for my friends and family.

Rashdan and I are old...

Babah and I did what we had never done before in a looonggg time… The longest, longest time. We went on a double date. Sigh…

Babah has a friend A, who is divorced and we both are friends of B who is single. We introduced them to each other about 2 months ago at a party but we were hesitant to you know, push thing further because if things don’t go right, they can only go wrong… Ha ha…

This kind of thing is very scary, could potentially break up friendships so it took us some time to actually suggest a meeting.

The result was a very nice, happy dinner and then drinks (not from the bartender but from a barista, eh…). We went home at 11, tired but happy.

We of course did a post-mortem of them two when it was just us. I said, “They were trading insults within 30 minutes of meeting each other… I think that is a good sign…”

“Really ? You think so ?” He asked.

“Ermm… I dunno really. I think it is good because they seem comfortable enough to put one another down….”

“Ye ke ? Like this lah…. Let us not jump to conclusions. We have been out of the dating game for a very long time, so we don’t know what is what…. Maybe it’s good maybe it’s bad… I don’t know…!”

Sound advice, Babah. Sound advice.

Babah and Gizmo

Okay, remember how I do not want to have pet cats anymore due to my extreme broken hearted-ness (if there is no such word, forgive me...) when Pit died ? Well I sort of want one again when my sister brought a new Moggie home. Well he wasn’t called Moggie then. Marlin called him something like Juice or something lame like that but I have a very clear rule when naming cats. Grey ones will always be Nicky, white ones Pit, orange ones Moggie and white with spots of colours Gizmo. Any other colour we will coin a new name for it. Therefore when new Moggie came home with a beautiful (but with a rather melancholic face) black Persian, they called him Coffee and I was okay with that.

Anyway new Moggie is all nice and orange and reminded me of my old Moggie. This guy is Persian whereas my Moggie was just a normal non-pedigree kind but the colour was soooo him. And I suddenly realised how much I miss having a cat.

When I first saw Moggie, I rushed to him, wanting to hug but I held back… but once I did, oh-oh… I sooo want one.

I approached my husband about my desire to be a cat-owner again but since he is rather allergic to cat hair, totally refused. I asked Marlin to find me a white one nonetheless but since she found a RM 700 one, I refused to cough up the dough. Babah ever more so.

I had wanted to borrow Nicky (they call him Bubu but he is gray so Nicky he will be) however since Nicky thinks himself human and a recluse at that (he refuses to leave the house. He stays upstairs, commuting between the rooms only), I can’t considering he will shed his hair all over the house which then will very much effect Babah.

Then, next door neigbour’s cats had a fight at our patio and shat all over the furniture, the wanting sort of died. Hate cat crap but I can’t let Neti do all the work herself, right so I helped her and afterwards scrubbed and scrubbed my body clean. Urrghh !

Babah laughed at me and re-iterated why he didn’t want one. Kotor lah, bulu lah, scratch our furniture lah then… his allergies. Fine… changed my mind already at that point anyway.

Then last week I came down early morning to iron my tudung and heard a strange sound. Ignored it but when it came quite frequent, I asked Neti and she opened the door and pointed to an itty bitty cat mewing. No mommy, pretty much alone and very much noisy. No wonder the sliding door and the back door were shut when I got home the day before and again that very morning because the kitten wanted so much to come in.

Looked so pitiful so I asked Neti if she has any fish left. She produced one from the fridge and gave it to the kitten. I reminded her in no circumstances is she to let the cat in because of Babah’s allergies.

Came home and he was still there. When Babah came in the kids rushed to him with stories of the squatter and excitedly showed it to him.

Babah : Dia sorang-sorang ke ?

Kids : Dia takde Mummy and Babah dia….

Babah : Sian….

Babah looked at me and I looked at him and we both raised our eyebrows. Night time he started mewing again so Babah checked on him. “Kenapa sayang ?” Eh… mula dah…. “Dia sejuk lah….Siannya..” Hmmm…. Babah found a small box and I took our skankiest towel out and fashioned out a bed for him. Babah wanted to put in some milk for him but being an experienced cat owner I gave him a bowl of water instead. Before we retired, Babah did a quick check on him again. Hmmm….

Next day, he was allowed inside and Babah had started addressing him as Sayang already. Hmmmmm…..

Yesterday we came home late and were greeted by Gizmo. I said to him, “Nak masuk rumah lah tu… No way, okay…..”

Babah said, “Nak masuk ke ? Tak boleh okay… duduk kat luar dulu sebab nanti awak o-ok…” oh-so lovingly. Hmmm….

I pointed to our patio and said, “Pergi tidur situ… Kat situ ada tilam….”

Babah actually carried him and put him on the bench. Hmmm…..

This morning when we were about to leave for work, this happened.

He played with the cat first.

Then as we backed out the driveway, he started following us, much to Adik's and Babah's delight.

"Dia nak ikut lah..." Babah repeated over and over again.

He actually stopped outside the gate the see where Gizmo is going. We only resumed our journey when he was satisfied Gizmo stopped looking at us pitifully, still very much inside the house.

Kata allergic.... He he.... So now he has a name, Gizmo and apparently we have a cat now. Hah !

Melaka

Our Melaka trip, ages ago...

Sorry the pictures came late, so all the words and sentences I crafted in my head were long gone. Better do it with pictures, eh ?

We had to take this trip to send Mail off to uni. He had done the first leg of his studies in India so now continuing in Melaka. After India, Melaka seems much nearer plus we love Melaka for some reason so all of us wanted to go.

In the hotel room, watching Mail made a fool of himself. But since he was still fresh from India at that time and having him around seems like a novelty, he could basically do nothing wrong. But now macam dah basi sket.... so Uweekkkk !! Ha ha.








After a satisfying (and terrifyingly expensive) lunch at Kak Mun's. Kids done with eating but grownups were still slurping the last vestiges of ais kacang and what nots.

At breakfast the next morning. Nobody took pictures of us playing in the pool, well because we were busy playing ball and making noise and laughing. Babah wanted to have a pool fight so he forced Mail to carry Marlin on his shoulders which he did so successfully. Me ? Well as soon as I got on Babah's shoulders, got a bit gayat and started screaming blue murder. He had to dump me (unceremoniously I must add) back in the water to shut me up. Danial wisely decided not to play ....

Go cart. Oh, this place brought so many lovely memories. It is still the same place we used to go to 16 - 18 years ago. Now they have beach buggies which were nice and ... errm... dirty. Mud splattered all over so be careful.

Racing like we used to. Only now Syafiq can go solo as last time he had to take Ijat with him. I won every race last time. Now....

Babah who had never go-carted before won every race. He who used to scoff us with derision when we reminisced about go-carting won every single one. Menyampah. WE hated his smug face.

"Ita main kotor !! She pushed me to the side and I had to drive on the grass ! Blah, blah, blah...." Yeah, yeah but you won anyway right, so shut up lah...

Posing sebelum main....

Tok's three girls..

Mucking about again. What else ?

Langkawi 2009

Babah, bless him, treated us to a trip to Langkawi last month. Actually he was treating himself more than us because he had so wanted to go. He had never been you see, and everybody else seemed to have, so I suppose he felt left out.

Anyway, we boarded the plane last month and off we soared through the big blue sky to Langkawi.

Well... we arrived around 7pm.. so not big blue sky per se....

Stayed at Holiday Villa and hired a Nissan Sentra. Pictures would be best to describe our trip.

Checked in and asked the bell hop the best place to eat. He suggested Mangga, a walking distance from the hotel. Very nice....

Babah and I saw the waiter delivered this delicious looking sotong to the mat sallehs next to our table. Asked for the same thing and it was totally delicious ! Sotong bakar Pulau Langkawi.

Woke up early and checked out the beach. We were lucky that we got a room on the ground floor. We have the view and easy access of the gorgeous pool and the lovely beach.

The breeze, the air, the nature was so different, so fresh. Away from industry. A good change for us.

At Pekan Kuah buying chocolates and chocolates and chocolates. Minah kecik tu dok chom sebab nak balik lompat dalam pool.

Wildlife Park. Very nice. Behind my monkeys are baby ducks and their mommies. Aww..... so cute....

Gorgeous pink flamingos. Amazing.

Feeding the rabbits. They were definitely ravenous as they came charging at us. Adik was bitten. Abang after was too overwhelmed by the sheer number of rabbits scrambling to get fed, said "They think I am their mother !! They want me to feed them lah Mummy !!"

It was beautiful. Babah loves it. I am glad. He totally deserves it.

PS : It was embarrassing, really. The last time we took Air Asia was like 2 years ago when we went to Bandung. At that time, we have to fight for the seats just like riding a bus. So imagine our surprise when our tickets showed our allocated seats. I had to ask loads of Air Asia people and other passengers to make sure I read the tickets right. He he…

I think the most beautiful man made scenery in Langkawi. It was so clean and well maintained. We were ogling the yachts.

Mucking about at the beach. Lovely....

Babah nak sangat pi tengok statue helang besaq... Pi lah.... dah mai, na....

Underwater world. Worth every penny. Well kept and beautiful.

Petting (?) the fish. Adik was game....Abang as usual...can get disease lah, itu lah ini lah..

Lunch before we head to the airport. Right in front of the Underwater World. World of advise, don't ever eat here. Hygiene is a foreign word to these people.

Sawah in Langkawi. On the way to the airport finally saw a lorry selling laksa Kedah. Punya dok pusing tak jumpak. Dah nak balik baru muncui !

Ayam dan juke box

I was marinating chicken for our dinner yesterday when I was suddenly reminded of an incident that happened years ago at a time when there were a row of shops in front of Melaka Parade.

My family loves Melaka. Don’t know why. When we go, we usually stay at the Equatorial and eat at Kak Mun’s restaurant, in front of Melaka Parade (now she has a shop next to it).

My family comes from the land of the curries but it doesn’t mean we do not like Assam Pedas and Kak Mun serves one of the best.

We were there one day, years ago. I remember that I had finished eating and my parents were busy choosing fish to be brought home. I was just relaxing and looking at my sibling crowding a juke box right in the middle of the shop.

Suddenly….. “I want to dedicate this song to my sister, A …” Came the very loud voice of my brother Syafiq. I was shocked and am very sure my eyes bulged. People, and I mean Kak Mun’s other customers looked at me.

I smiled reluctantly because deep down I know it couldn’t be good. I remember I sat up straight when he made the announcement and quickly decided that I should slink back just in case.

But… before I could, the first note of Ayam, by Jalil Hamid reached my ears and my brother started flapping his hands. People roared with laughter.

I blush easily, people have commented on that but I am so sure I went maroon that day.

Damn, I hate him.

Hmmm…. actually writing about the juke box reminded me of a separate incident.

Last time, when we were dating, we always go out with Amelia. Actually when Amelia and her husband were dating, I was always the third wheel…

I have many recollections of sitting in the front passenger seat with Babah driving and Amelia leaning in between from behind (very much like my children) and me leaning forward from behind, hands resting on the two front seat with Amelia and Sib in front. He he..

Anyway, one day Amelia, Babah and I were eating at Lot 10’s food court. There was a glistening, modern looking juke box near us and we were very excited. It was still playing a song but we approached it anyway, reading the song selections. We chose a song, Babah put in 50 sen and we waited. Our song didn’t come.

Dissatisfied, we put in more money, chose more songs but none of the songs we chose were played.

Dejected, we went back to our table, cursing and condemning the thing.

We were about to finish our food when we heard Babah's favourite 98 Degrees Song. Next came the song I chose, then Amelia’s. He he… we laughed out loud when we realised that we just have to wait for our turn.

In the telly sure whenever somebody put a coin in the jukebox the song came immediately, but this is real life.. We just have to wait in line….

Hmmm………

Furniture filled weekend....

We had no rest last weekend. And since it was a long one, I am so tired today. I have been yawning non-stop.

We didn’t do much Friday morning. Had breakfast then I found what looks like a nice furniture shop at Ara Damansara in Impiana. On the way there, Babah’s sister called and invited us for lunch.

Found the place, but wasn’t that keen on the furniture shop however the other shops in the same vicinity were very interesting though. I salivated on beautiful picture frames and Babah was very, very keen on a drawer chest. Rushed back to Shah Alam at about 2 as the kids were pleading hunger. However when we got to Wawa’s house, none of the whiners were interested in eating much as the call of the cousins were far greater.

Wawa only invited us and Abang Kamal’s sister Kak Ya and her family. Since we do meet like that all the time, we settled in for a loooong chat. So long that we went home close to midnight.

Ha ha ! Terrible.

The very next day, Kak Ya promised to come over for a visit. She hadn’t been to our new house yet so therefore I started my day very early.

Went to pasar at 7 and found putu mayam. Yeay. Baked cakes and prepared the flours for puri. Chicken curry burbling on the stove by 9 am. Send the kids to piano, then art then rushed back home as Kak Ya was to arrive at 11.30.

Showed the house to Kak Ya and Ain while Hannah, Hakeem and Caca played in the library. Everybody settled in the kitchen and I served the warm chocolate sandwich cake (again, I know but my colleagues liked them so much, they brought it home. So I figured I could do no wrong with it… ha ha) and lemon iced cake (Kak Ya and her kids loved it and tapau-ed it home… so yeay !). Oh, plus the putu mayam.

While they ate, I made the puris and served it hot to them. Got great reviews so yeay again. Luckily Babah fetched the kids so I had a very nice, relaxing chat with my guests. Got a surprise though when Babah came home. He apparently swung by Ara Damansara and bought a 4 wicker basket drawer chest from that place in Ara Damansara ! It went so well in the kitchen, I am very please.

After they left we stayed home and relaxed. By night time, the call of the tummies came again so off we went to Uptown. Came home with loads of cds. By 9.30 all of us snuggled on the sofa to watch Penelope. Nice.

Next morning Babah wanted to look for more furniture so after breakfast went to this wonderful Jati place in Puchong. The place is amazing and finally, I brought back a side table for my living room.

Went for lunch but Babah was by now so bitten by furniture hunting bug, we sent the kids to Wawa’s house and went around town again. What a lovely time we had, going round and round without the kids complaining.

Brought back another coffee table from our trip… but by then it was a bit excessive already. Oh, did I tell you we bought a mirror at Shah Alam Mall on Friday ? Yikes ! It was definitely too much...

Jubei came with a mission at 6 and stayed a while.

Anyway, had a light supper of nasi, sardin and telur dadar. Kids went to bed and Mummy and Babah watched He Is Just Not In To You. Went to bed at midnight again and yawning like mad today.

But I had fun, so it doesn’t matter really.

Hmmmm…………