My weekend. Sorry aaa lambat, Konot...

Okay, okay… yeah I know I am late. Nak buat camno… Busy ni ha….

Okay …. Friday had dinner with Amelia and Noreen. We were ambitious, wanting to eat at an Italian restaurant in Ara Damansara. But working women we are, of course the plan was scrapped to dining out in Shah Alam Mall only. Jam and the rain and workload menjadi batu penghalang.

I suggested Asiari and there sat I and Amelia waiting for Noreen to come. She came like 15 minutes after we arrived and we talked and ate and talked and gossiped and then took the night further to Uncle K’s for coffee. I had the tarik though.

Anyway, Kamil joined us around 11 pm after his function and we stayed on until about 12.

Saturday was the usual. Classes plus Amelia and I had had our usual mad scramble to find available spas. Yilek.

Kamil full day again (sian dia) so I stayed home baking a cake to take to my Bab’s. Ha ha…. Mami Ela called to apologise for last week’s mixed up so we fixed another date which was dinner that very night.

Anyway waited for Kamil to come home, fetched my mom and my nieces and drove to Bangsar. It was lovely. Bab’s son Zaf who lives in Dubai was home. It was nice. Didn’t realize that Mami decided to make it a family affair because my cousin Jimmy and his family were there too. Zuri and kak Hanim and their brood were of course there.

We had a merry dinner, full of laughter and jokes and listening to Zaf’s tales of his life in the Emirates.

Zuri, Bab, Zaf and Jimmy. The balding head is my husband's and I was next to him. Apa bendalah si Zaf ni cerita. They always say that Zaf and I are alike. Tang mana please specify buleh ? Kamil kata tang cakap banyak.

Bab's Zuri, Daniel and Kamil.

My lovely Mami Ela who likes to kumpulkan her nieces and nephews eventhough technically we belong to Bab... She is a gem, a wonderful, wonderful woman.

We got up to let the women eat. Ha ha… since they are my cousins, I ate with the men. Anyway, took our happy bantering and conversation to the living room where we laughed uproariously to the delight of our parents. They were so happy to see the cousins getting on so well. Even Kamil gets on well my cousins so my mammy was extremely glad.

Bab dengaq saja kamil dok merepek. Lama2 dia tak larat jugak so he went down to sleep... Ha ha... I sat next to Jimmy. If everything goes well and Allah permits it, I will be joining Zaf's ex-employers. He was giving me useful tips ! Ha ha.

Kamil and Daniel. Kamil suka sebab ada gang kutuk aku.

Went home at midnight again… pheww….and was subsequently woken up by my brother at 3 am because mom was at the hospital. Nothing could sober me up quicker than that. Threw on some clothes and rushed to DEMC, my siblings arriving one by one after me.

Took mom to SJMC again and she was warded at the CCU. She didn’t collapse or anything this time around but they just want to catch the moment she has another of her irregular heartbeats so she was hooked on monitor or a monitor was hooked on her… whichever lah.

Please pray for my mom okay ? She is out of the hospital already but again without any proper diagnosis. Where is Dr House when I need him ?

So of course we survived Sunday by fitting mom in the hospital bit around it. My kids were worried and wanting to visit Tok but no can do. Oh yeah, Kamil had to work that Sunday but he took leave which I am very grateful for.

Nothing much happened really as we spent time worrying and praying for mom’s health. That was more important.

One thing I have to say, my mother is blessed with menantus who love her. Daniel and my own husband and I know if arwah ada, she would be the one yang paling sibuk and paling susah hati.

Sigh……………….

Happy Anniversary, darling....

It is our 17th year Anniversary today. Err…. in the fb I wrote 18th… tapi bila ambik calculator… la ropa-ropanya 17… my bad, my bad…..

Anyway as always, before our Anniversary Kamil got a bit lovey dovey. Lepas 13th of April, he would return to his normal Neanderthal self sure but at least I have like a whole month of him being affectionate.

Oh yeah, it started early for him this year. Usually he starts realizing of my existence a week before the Anniversary….

Ha ha….

When we had dinner at BSC last month ago, we sat next to each other on the bench seat. After we ordered, he suddenly scooted close to me and put his arm around my shoulders. I was a bit surprised but it was nice so I snuggled closer and just enjoyed the sensation.

Usually we would talk a lot, leading to our Anniversary. Reminisce actually. About when we were younger, about our days in England, about the kids when they were babies. I like going though Memory Lane with him. We have gone through so much together, good or bad.

On my part, I just want to be with him. That is it. No clever prose from me. That is the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.

I like to ask why he loves me but he could never give a definite answer. Which I must admit used to pain me to no end when I was younger. But I am happy to announce that it made me smile now, since I am older and much, much (don’t you dare muntah, okay… Amuse me…please) wiser.

Anyway… I got sad when I saw like a solitary grey hair on his chest some months ago. And my heart tore some more when I spotted another one amongst his sideburn. I said to him, “I jumpa you masa you muda you know… Masa kita budak-budak… we were 13. And now you have grey hair….”

And I foolishly felt so bereft for something I don’t even know what. Was it his youth ? Or was it mine that I was so sad for ?

I was watching the telly about a week ago when he sauntered into the kitchen, hands in his pocket, looking a mixture of amusement and wistfulness.

“Stumbled upon your picture kat depan… You were 19 I think gambar tu… “He shook his head and smiled.

Ambiklah… Show me… I said. When I looked at it, I was indeed 19, wearing my favourite polo shirt. I do not know why I love collared t-shirts. Until now, I have like 10 in every colour… (DR, 2 warna putih… ha ha).

Anyway, he leaned on me as we shared the picture. “Your face lonjong sikit masa ni…” Yeah… thank you for reminding me, I was about 44 kg masa tu.. memanglah… Now dah berkg2 over tapi tak tinggi2 jugak.. Height remained the same… yeessshhh…..

He looked at me fondly then smiled and squeezed my shoulder. Then he gave me a hug.

So, he had the same ailment as I have… Don’t know what it is called but the simptom is feeling sad looking at our older partners… ha ha…

I am the type who likes to ask trivial… and I have to admit mostly stupid questions. Like when I asked my friends Shazmi, Anu and Kamil of course, while we were driving off to somewhere, “If you guys ada band, what would you call it ?” They groaned because they know I like to do that. After a long silence and thinking that I would not get an answer, Anu piped in from behind, “3 B… 2 Benggalis and 1 Banjar…” Ha ha… nice huh ? That is why we call them the Bs….

So… you know I just like to ask what I pretended to be thought provoking but what I secretly admit useless questions. Bearing that in mind, I asked Kamil “What is my favourite colour ?” in the car last week.

“Hmm…. colour susah sikit.. But in reality… it is red….”

You know seriously that is a good answer. In reality it is red. I sometimes pretend it is blue or purple. I always reach for red stuffs but chickened out thinking that I do not want my wardrobe to be awashed with red. Eventhough it is my favourite colour, I foolishly fear it could be too bright. He he…. Stupid huh ? Who cares, right ?

Anyway his test was not over. “What is my favourite fruit ?”

Again he went hmmm…. then said, “Pineapples…”

I was just thinking that. I was just thinking how much I would kill for a pineapple right then.

He didn’t write a sonnet for me, but I felt like he just did. He didn’t buy me flowers but I felt like I was holding a huge bouquet of my favourite pale roses.

Hmm… I suppose as we get older, our priorities changed. And we stopped wanting our love life to be just like in the movies, dreaming about the day our partners walk sexily to the office (?), sweeping us off our feet a la Richard Gere in that very, very sexy uniform. I suppose as we get older (and hopefully more mature) and grounded to earth, we understand that…. well… we are not Debra Winger are we, so how come he must be Richard Gere ?

Sometimes when I hear young ladies insists on romance.. I feel like shaking my head for their silliness. Darlings, you think mat sallehs are romantic ? Dalam tv yelah director suruh, balik rumah Mark Harmon (sigh…) pun balik terus nengok tv, tak pedulik kat bini.

Not everybody can do romance. Not the telly and book kind though. You must be able to see that your partners have their own brand of romance. Okay, sometimes it is not that obvious to see, but please look hard.

I once bumped into a friend of mine at KLCC, weeks before her own wedding. At that point I was already married for 5-6 years. She admitted being nervous about her big day, but of course that didn't dim her pink of happiness. “What advice can you give me ?” She asked.

Without any hesitation, this wise woman replied “Do not have high expectations….”

She was taken aback as I suppose she was expecting to hear romantic gooeeyy stuffs.

“But I thought you should have high expectations ?”

“Well…. if your expectations are based on the telly… then stop right there….” I remember telling her. “You will only be disappointed if he doesn’t come up to scratch to your expectations… Flowers every week… little notes to say he loves you…. If they never materialize, you will be disappointed and that is never good for marriage.

Enter your union with an open mind and the knowledge that he loves you and will love you the way he knows how. Fetching you from your office, going out at night to buy your dinner eventhough he is tired etc. Then if you need more, you coach him… tell him what you want because hell he is not a mind reader…”

Macam bagus je kan aku ?

Belah lah ! Ha ha ha…

Happy Anniversary, my darling Kamil … I lap you so much one.

PS : By the way, Kamil asked me back, what is his favourite fruit ? Jawapannya ialah jambu. Betul !! Tapi dia pi tambah “Buah apa yang I suka tapi tak boleh makan dah sebab selalu tercekik ?”

Ha ?

Well… dia ni memang ada problem sikit. Not lah tercekik but sometimes food doesn’t travel to his tummy peacefully. Mesti ada yang tersangkut sikit-sikit…. But is there any fruit that he had stopped consuming altogether ?

“Cempedak ?”

He shook his head, coupled with his jelingan boring, “Tembikai….”

Huh ?

Ye ke ?

PS2 : Recently he mused, “Kalau kita jahat, Umar dah ambik SPM dah tahun ni…”

Ya Rabbi… itu yang hang pikiaq ?

Bukan saja Umar ambik SPM, hang ngan aku-aku sekali keje kilang tau dak ? Tok sah dipikirkan le benda merepek macam tu Kamil oiii……….

I know how you feel. I do oo oo....

Today a blogger friend moaned about her daughter’s heart break on FB. I was told that her lovely daughter was distraught for not being invited to a classmate’s birthday party. The soft hearted Momma too was heart broken.

Aww….…. I know how the both of them feel.

As a parent, we want everything to be all peaches and cream for our progenies. For life to sail smoothly and good things to drop at their feet. For the rest of the world to bestow love on this great little guy and gal and for no hurt and despair to ever dare reach them.

It is not such a tall order, right ?

Oh but it is.

Life can be cruel. People can be cruel.

And eventhough parents are well acquainted with that fact, and really should come prepared, but when it hit our darling children, we feel like we have just encountered the real world. It feels like a new blow and we are shocked that life can be this unkind.

What to do. C’est la vie.

Abang, once during Standard 1 complained that his ‘friends’ wouldn’t let him play football.

He narrated the story with an angry frown of the unjustice of it all but the momma... oh this momma cried herself to sleep, imagining a scene of him desolately alone at the side of the padang watching his friends wistfully, kicking stones and blades of grass, over and over again.

Anak aku !!! Siannya dia….

Sekarang ni aku dah start sebak balik, okay. Eventhough it was like 3 years ago, but aku rasa macam nak cari je budak-budak tu. What will I do with them once I successfully rounded them all up is a mystery. Because I love children so I don’t think I would inflict pain. Maybe bribe them with chocolates so that my son is included next time. Can he live with the shame ?

And then 3 days ago… oooohhhh….. fresh wound, people… fresh wound.

As I was driving him home from school he told me, “Saya marah lah sebab bila kawan-kawan saya main bola, dia orang tak pernah pass dekat saya….”

Haaaa ? Ye ke, baby hunny bunny chikeboom Mummy ni ?

WAAAAAAA !!!!!

Why ?

“Saya tak tahu…. Dia orang pun buat macam tu dekat A and D1 And D2….”

Owwh…. Even though they didn’t discriminate him alone, his frown and his lowered eyelids, his scrunched nose broke my heart over and over again.

“Korang tak pandai main bola agaknya……”

“But they never let us try !”

Hai lah…..

After a long silence, I said;

“Life is like that sometimes. You cannot win every time and you cannot make everybody likes you. Things will some times go bad and some times they will be good.

You don’t like how they treat you ? Then don’t ever treat anybody like that. Ever ! You are a good tennis player buy if one day there is a person who is not as good as you asks you to play with him, you MUST play with him. MUST ! Eventhough playing with him is not nice, the game is slow and he always, always misses you must oblige him because it is the right thing to do. Because you are kind and you cannot, and would not hurt his feelings.

Even if one day yeah you can play football very well, always include other people who aren’t as good or can’t even play because it is better to be nice than to win. Never follow the crowd. If your friends refused to include anybody, you will not the same. You are a kind person you will play with him. Orang tak nak pass bola ? When you get the ball you pass to him. Remember this.

Remember that day I asked you to secretly give the Disney pens to your friends ? Remember I told you never give out the pens in front of other friends who are not getting them ? This is why lah. You are hurt right now because you got excluded. Jamilah (ye ke aku guna nama ni ? Dah tak ingat dah… ha ha….) hari tu pun I think was hurt because she got excluded.

Therefore I always tell you time and time again, be nice and don’t be cruel. Always take into account other people’s feelings. Always.

Besides, you can’t be good in everything. You are an amazing tennis player, so you concentrate on that. Why don’t next time if you and your friends are excluded again, get another ball and play amongst yourselves. Don’t let them ruin your fun.”

Chewah… If only I listen to my own advice. Because aaa that night aaa…. I shed tears again. This time I kept picturing Abang and A and D1 and D2 running and yelling frantically for their friends to pass the ball to them… tapi tak dapat. Jahatnya budak2 tu !!!

I really don’t know if I healed him a bit, if at all.

Je ne sais pas.

So my darling friend, I know how you feel.

-

WAAAAAAAAAAAAA !

My weekend

My weekend was busy. Sooo busy sampai aku rasa macam sakit belakang ….

Thursday night (I think malam itu lah saat dan ketikanya the famous malam Jemahat itu) Ian came for dinner. I was too tired to cook so Kamil bought Dominos. Too tired to cook sure but actually no time to cook sebab balik je dari office aku pi belasah superb kari ikan bawai kat rumah Mummy. Where got time to cook sebab dok busy mamam ?

Tak mainlah pizza, pizza ni. If I must compare between pizza and kari ikan bawai…. Well very unfair comparison okay sebab pizza lacks the uumpphh factor of kari.

Anyway watched them eat (okay… I did partake a slice of kaya banana pizza… Itu dessert) and reminded Kamil that he promised to buy tickets for Clash Of The Titans. So after bersembang sat ngan ustaz, who I must say looked resplendent in his Hari Khamis baju batik, off we went to Sunway Pyramid.

Menyesal jugak I suggested Sunway sebab punyalah susah cari parking. I was just too tired (and sleepy from the curry) to venture far up to The Curve but then the amount of time I envisioned we would spend looking around to park our car is equal to the drive to Damansara. Alhamdullilah after pooh kanan and pooh kiri dengan ayat Qursi (I dunno whether it was the right choice but it seemed to work), dapat lah kami a decent parking in like 5 minutes.

Jumaat, selepas kelentong budak-budak kaw-kaw punya, we arrived at the mall with 45 minutes to spare for dinner. Biasalah bila makan ramai-ramai ni (well… 3… ramai lah jugak) nobody wanted to decide the venue to eat. Ian and I were like hinting Sakae Sushi but Kamil closed his appetite for Japanese food a loooonngg time ago.

Dalam dok ulang “I tak kisah mana nak makan… You guys pilih lah…”, Kamil’s feet went straight to a kopitiam. Korang pilih lah konon….

Myself memang sejak sekian lama doesn’t really trust new kopitiams, especially bila gambaq kaki katak mai kat inbox cheq… Walaupun got halal certificate one. Tapi … pi lah jugak sebab Kamil dah decide kan. Therefore I refrained from eating anything with soup.

The movie was awesome. I read about Greek mythology when I was small and I found it interesting enough. Therefore I was already familiar with the Olympians and who they are plus their stories. Plus my family watched Clash of The Titans quite a few times when I was smaller. Added plus whenever aku adalah bengang dengan my Mummy, Bapak aku yang tak pernah membantu itu akan announce, “Dah… gaduh dah lagi…Clash of The Titans start dah.. Big Titan versus Small Titan….”

Hmmm….

Anyway, the movie was awesome. Sam Worthington is an amazing actor. Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson need not my praises as their talent is a well known fact. As usual, they delivered. A bit disappointed with Medusa though as in the original film, the Medusa looked more believable, I think.

And I was right. Perseus is Zues’ son and not Poseidon’s. Do not know why Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief suggested as such. In fact if I was not mistaken, Poseidon hated Perseus.

Anyway, balik singgah for some delicious ice-cream and gazing at the night sky. He he.. I dunno why either.

Kamil worked weekend. I hate that. But what to do. Kamil sent the kids to class, I got ready and we rendezvous-ed kat Cili Merah for breakfast. I hated kissing him at the car and seeing him go after breakfast was over. Weekends are for me and his family, not the company.

After the classes, sent the kids home and I hopped on Amelia’s new car (it was gorgeous) for spa sessions. We chatted and chatted until the lady who was massaging Amelia asked, “You two are not Malaysians ah ?”

Eh, apahal lak ?

“Why you speak English and not Malay ?”

Err…. malu bangat so got no jawapan one.

Singgah Butik Ungu yang tuannya dok sibuk soh singgah. Kami pun pi lah…tak bukak pun. Punyalah banyak kami keluaqkan duit, berkepui-kepui okay punya nak membeli, tutup lak. Awatnya…..? Sila jawab… Hang ada bagi opening date ka yang aku tak perasan hang dah bagi ? Most probably lah.

Balik, collected the kids, send them to their class and aku pun masuk class. Cupcake decorating class. Macam nilah, I am not talented okay ? So tak yah lah aku upload gambaq cupcakes aku. Cikgu tu punya dok puji orang lain, mai kat aku, “You punya problem aaa…….. blah, blah, blah, blah…..”

So… it is an eposide that I want to forget. And file under “Failure”. Best not talk about it again. Kamil tengok cake tu with so much dispassion aku rasa macam nak baling satu kat muka dia, nak tengok keluaq dak apa-apa perasaan.

We got ready to visit my Bab but our calls to him went unanswered. Since Mum bought loads of sate for him, we went to Mum’s house to eat the sates ourselves. I chanced upon sup tulang burbling attractively on the stove so we had that instead. Sate masih berlambak dalam fridge sampai nan la.

Singgah Shah Alam Mall for cds, tarik tilam masuk bilik, pasang Cirque Du Freak and tengok dalam 30 minit je before it became unwatchable. Hai… I thought we did buy the Gold Disc and not the Purple Disc.

Sunday we sent the kids together, went to Cili Merah together, then I went to pick up the kids alone. Balik rumah, I felt so bereft to see his car gone. But no time to moped around the house as had to quickly bathed the kids, went to pick up my mom and nieces, then my sister then quickly drove to 1U. Why the rush ? Want to get the before 11.30, before all the car parks gone. Aku kan benci cari parking.

My mother memang terer okay ? We were there from 11 am to 3 pm. Not including lunch. The kids created so much ruckus but my mother still had to ponder about every single thing. I developed bad ache trying to rein in the kids and melayan me Mammy.

Budak-budak nakal. I had to ask them to sit out of Living Quarters. I was on edge trying to stop them from smashing anything. Nampak those lines on the glass ? They were not allowed to cross the line, to get near each other at all. I had to resort to that.

Waaaaaaa !!!!

Went out of 1U to have lunch. I seriously hardly ever ate at 1U. Nothing seemed appetizing enough over there for some reason.

Came home, rest awhile before Noreen came for a chat. While we chatted, Kamil came home. Yeay !

We quickly prayed after Noreen left. Kamil took the long way to Uptown to show me where I have to do my medical check up. We didn’t eat at all Kamil and I. No appetite. Just picked on the kids’ leftovers aje. Went to get cds and was ecstatic when Kamil found Wimbledon. We soooo love that movie. Tapi service was so darn slow, we abandoned it. The guy behind the counter really do not know how to layan customers, okay ?

Tarik tilam lagi as soon as we got home. Turun bawah to iron my baju for work and found Kamil laughing madly watching Brides War or something. Anne Hathaway is really beautiful, okay ? Anak si Goldie Hawn tu entah apa ke namanya tu really cannot lawan her beauty.

Put on Harry Potter and tried to sleep.

Tengok-tengok dah pagi.

NOOOOOOO !!!!!!

He is mine....

I don’t know why kan as we smiled for this picture, I was thinking about waaaaayyyy back when Abang was just my wee baby boy.

Masa tu kita baru balik Malaysia for good and entah ada apa angin kat Malaysia that made him developed a new funny habit. Whenever he was angry or upset, he will smack me on the face. Dahlah tangan tu tembam dan pejal dan padu, sakit tau.

He hardly ever did it to his Babah, mostly me his Mammy yang kena. Seriously I didn’t think much of it. I mean, to me it is just a new habit that my hunny bunny developed and I was sure that he will outgrow it. I didn’t question why he did it, in my head it was just reflexes.

Until one day that is, in front of a group of people who had seen him raining blows on my face quite a few times. One remarked, “Musuh betul dia dengan mak dia…..”.

Ha ? Ada ke cakap macam tu ?

To say I was shocked, well that was putting it mildly okay. I was hurt too.. not by his actions but by the remark. I mean I didn’t even think of it that way at all ! Not at all ! And I just couldn’t understand how could she think that my baby, my own sweet little boy who still could not wash his own bottom, who squels happily everytime he sees me, who could not bear to be away from me, when I was still the person that he loved most could hate me ?

I couldn’t help detect a hint of smugness in her voice and in the people surrounded her who agreed. I seriously do not know if I imagined it or made it up in my understandably upset state, but it seems to be ingrained in my head that she said it out of malice. That the crowd too was crackling with malevolence.

I remember feeling so embarrassed, feeling so inadequate as a mother. Feeling hurt too at the thought that there is a possibility of him to not like me much ! My own wee bairn !

But whatever it is, sampai nya hati orang tu cakap macam tu. Depan orang lain and at that moment I couldn’t help but feeling I was being judged as a bad mother. Macam dah lama dia orang tu dok bisik-bisik “Abang tu bukannya sayang dengan mak dia….”

.

I have to admit my heart was quite broken about that. I felt low and my mind kept going back to that day. Repeatedly. Every visit came with a fresh dose of gut wrenching feeling. Sampai sekarang aku ingat.

Sigh….

A few months after that, I was called away for work in London. I was gone for about 2 weeks and how much I missed him ! It was sooo boring to be in a country that reminded me so much of my darling baby. Every little tighly bundled 2 year olds looked like him. I was even convinced the blonde haired blue eyed little cherubs saling tak tumpah macam dia. Ha ha…

.

Pegi Selfridges and I kept seeing him running around in his soft light blue cardigan.

.

Eh, at this very spot in Boots lah some 7 months ago Abang was tottering about and stumbled.

.

Eh, bukan dekat Marks and Spencer ni ke I breastfed him ?

.

You know... that kind of gila bayang thing going on ...

My boy… my baby boy…..

So imagine my surprise and hurt when I returned, one from the very same group said “Dia tak cari kau pun.. Tak rindu langsung !! Okay aje..”

Sedih, malu semua ada especially when it was said loudly and people looked. Funny because Babah just told me that he asked for me every night. When I pointed out that to her, she just smirked, buat muka tak percaya.

“Dia orang tak cerita pun….” She said.

Why ya ?

Kenapa macam tu sekali nak kecik kan hati aku yek ? Why is it important for you that my son is not properly attached to me ? Or why you want people to think that my son doesn’t love me ?

I could never understand it.

He is my son. Just like I understand my husband loves his mom, please know that my son loves me. If I raise him right, then he will love me forever. If Allah grant me my prayers, then he is anak yang soleh who will never forget his mammy.

He is my son.

Semalam

Made this yesterday, Italian Meatloaf on a bed of pasta. Somebody ordered from me an Italian dish to jamu her family. Dah tak larat makan ajinomoto katanya. To that nice lady who ordered, hope you like what I chose to make and hope it was enough for 4.

I of course made the same thing for dinner so this was Abang's plate. Adik's plate with less meat but more pasta.

I arrived home about 6.15 pm and started cooking immediately. Minced was already nicely thawed. Bibik took them out around 5 pm.

By 7.45 everything was ready.

Nasib baik.

To my fb friends yang baca my status, cerita penuh about Abang and his crush is at their blog, www.aladans-angels.blogspot.com

Ha ha.

Disneyland !!!!

Before visiting Disneyland, fortified ourselves with delicious, delicious croissants and cereal and Kamil's firm favourite, cinnamon bun. I love this diner because it is bright and sunny and ada computer kat tepi with free internet access.

Dah sampai !! We took the shuttle bus to the park and sampai-sampai dah dengar lagu. Excited tak terkira ni tapi control ... malu eh.... This is also where the MTR station is located at. So very convenient, okay ?

Disneyland is soooo cantik. Rasa macam tak nak balik. There were music 24/7, live ones too and I dunno, the atmosphere was just so happy ! Walaupun actually aku adalah nervous because there were stuffs that I expect to wait for me at home, but I forgot about it as soon as I was there. Allah is truly great. Disneyland yang buatan manusia ni pun (of course atas izin and ilham Dia) pun macam dah habis best dah, I just can't imagine how great Jannah will be.

You look at my boy ! This was our second day and second time watching the High School Musical parade. First time we sat down on the cold floor and took off our shoes so tak sempat lah Mamat ni nak join menari. The second day, he was prepared. Berdiri siap-siap and when they invited people to dance, berlari ke tengah. Kamil and I tak terkata apa...

The parade. Best giler... There were songs and dancers and people were smiling and happy. Rasa macam nak keje sini... Dancing-dancing gak... But not like this lah... Segan aku... Nampak tali bra... Keh keh....

Macam ni okay lah.. Comelkan ? I did notice one thing though, the performers there smiled all the time !! Sengih aje... Tak penat ke ? Aku nengok penat ..... Sian.... I don't suppose you are allowed to have a bad day. The workers and performers were always talking in cheerful tones, always waving at people.... Always cooing at babies and kiddies. I suppose they have cuti mood kot... Mood tak best tak yah datang keje.... Therapist sign cuti....

On the raft the Tarzan's tree house. Nice.... I love this.

To migraine sufferers, please do not attempt to ride this. Aku pening okay. Teringat kisah seram masa naik tea cup bangang ni kat Goose Fair, Nottingham.

Adik's favourite ride. He he.....

Piirah Mabuk a.k.a Adik was even scared to take pictures with the princesses ! Sebab dah beratur, Kamil and I went on aje. Sambil-sambil tu dok pujuk-pujuk Adik to join us. I wanted to see them closely. Very pretty ok. We managed to persuade Adik and Abang at the end. These two very elegant ladies bercakap pun macam princesses betul, I was falling in love with them as they talked to my kids. After the pictures, Piirah Mabuk cakap, "That was not sooo bad...." Memanglah.. Princess mana yang makan orang ? Princess pun takut ke ?

While waiting for his parents queuing up to take pictures with the princesses. "I am not taking pictures with THEM !" Ewaaahhh.... Anyway, this pic was taken before a couple took pictures with HIM ! Berpeluk bagai ngan Abang siap shake hands. Terkejut beruk and tergolek dog and tercengang kucing lah Kamil and I wondering Disney movie mana anak kami berlakon ?

This was the most dangerous ride ever !! Abang and Adik drove the cars and mak bapak yang teman kan dia org macam nak nangis sebab budak-budak dua ekor ni tak tahu steer. Kenapalah Disneyland tak mintak driver's license sebelum bagi depa duduk kat driver's seat ? Why ? Why ? Why ?

This was Abang's favourite ride. We went like 5 times. It was a good move going after the school holidays as we didn't have to queue for long. Not like when we went to EuroDisney. Nak nangis beratur.

This was our first ride in Disneyland, at Tomorrow Land.

Ha.... dengan Pooh dia tak takut. Siap sembang-sembang and lambai-lambai. She said because Pooh only eats honey and he is very soft. Pooh doesn't eat people. After Pooh we went to take pics with Mickey. Dengan Mickey dia menjerit. I didn't know Mickey eat little girls for lunch ! Apa ra.....



At the shops. There were plenty of shops but all sold the same stuffs. So tak payah lah susah-susah check out all the stores. Sama aje and seriously a bit boring. Although I have to say they do a have a different shop for jewellery and blow-glass products.



He he.... thanking Kamil who paid for the trip.

This was our second day, waiting for the fireworks. Second day was very, very cold. Rasa macam fall going to winter punya sejuk. Luckily they sold hot chocolate by the road sides.




Sleeping Beauty castle at night. Nice, huh ? Whatever it is, my camera could not capture the magic and true beauty of Disneyland.

Emot at the airport, on the way home. Casualties of our forgetfulness was my expensive Decleour face wash that Kamil left in the bathroom, the Mickey bottle stopper Abang left at Popeye's (Popeye's at the airport is halal ye. Adik who was relieved that we finally get to eat meat, asked me, "How do you know about this place ? How come you know everything ?" Ha.... tulah... Mummy knows about everything), and Kitty, Adik's companion for many years tertinggal kat airport Malaysia. Mummy je tak lupa apa-apa.

Tipu... I did. I left the camera at the Disney shop at the hotel. Luckily I remembered almost immediately and ran back to the shop. And luckily, I left it on the counter and the very honest cashier kept it for me. Jangan marah sebab aku peluk dia walaupun dia adalah lelaki. It was reflexes.

Nothing happened during the weekend unless you want me to tell about my frequent toilet trips...

Tak payah lah cerita pasal weekend dak ?

Bosan okay sebab it was filled with images of me in the loo.

Biasalah aku. Pantang tinggalkan Tanah Malaya… perut mesti meragam. Pi lah tang mana pun, bila balik sure well… you know lah.

Balik dari England je aku okay. Maybe because the tummy is used to the food or the air there. Sah lah aku ni dah morphed to half English half Malay walaupun pungkok ku tetap hitam.

Keh keh… berapa ramailah yang muntah …

Anyway, Hong Kong is … hmmm….. okaylah. That statement doesn’t include Disneyland okay, Just Hong Kong in general is… well okay. Would I come back ? No..

I dunno whether these episodes what made me feel a bit cold towards Hong Kong but it started as soon as I arrived at the airport. I approached the tourist information counter and asked the best way to go to the hotel. The lady said, take taxi.

Okay, I hear you but from my children’s laushe (aku tak tau macam mana nak eja, but laushe is their Mandarin teacher lah), there is an MTR that stops at Disneyland, where our hotel is. So Kamil and I studied the map, the MTR route and I approached her again.

Muka dia kali ni memang saja nak mintak kena lempang. “No…” she said, giving me this disbelieved look because I dared asked her again and muka tak nak layan aku dah.

Okay, takpe… minus 1 point for Hong Kong which is really not my lost.

Kamil bought yummy Meiji chocolate to pecahkan duit and we walked to the taxi stand. The lady manning the taxi info counter was courteous and helpful.

We approached the rows of taxis and one guy asked me the destination. I mentioned Disneyland and he gestured to a taxi at the front row. Looking at the taxi driver, my heart sank. Mamat tu muka macam nak kena sepak, okay. Bukan dengan tangan, but dengan kaki.

Tanya nak pegi mana macam tanya “ko curik wallet aku yek ?”.

Aku terpinga-pinga jawab Disneyland. Apa hal Mamat ni ? Lepas tu dia start. Mengomel sorang-sorang cakap Kam Cha berulang-ulang kali. Dah lah tu, bawak sikit punya laju we were thrown about in the car until Kamil barked us to wear seat belts. 4 orang kat belakang with 2 seat belts available only.

The journey was horrendous. I kept thinking that we are never gonna see daylight again and that was truly our end. Especially when I looked in the rearview mirror and caught him looking at me with such hate and contempt, it sent shivers down my spine.

Is it my tudung ?

Or you have a wedgie and you are blaming me for it somehow ?

-
I prayed to Allah SWT for help and when I saw him taking the lanes to Disneyland I started breathing easy. It was terrifying. Even the kids could sense the hostility and kept quiet.

What a waste because we were suppose to feel excited about coming to Hong Kong and enjoying the sights. Instead, we had a ride so terrifying I almost cried when I saw the hotel.

Kamil dengan bangangnya bagi dia tip.

Boleh ?

Kamil said it was my tudung. Yeah sure but why aren’t you angry with Kamil gak ? If I am a Muslim, then my hubby is one too lah, you bloody wanker. Pandai lak ko cakap Thank You dengan dia... Lempang kang ! WAAAAA !!!!

I seriously cannot think of any other reason for his shameful behavior because I didn’t say anything to him except to say Disneyland.

Is Disneyland a swear word in Hong Kong ? Then they shouldn’t have built one there !

Twat ! Tosser ! Mangkuk ayun !

So maybe that was why I don’t feel like going back to Hong Kong. I dunno.

Look at the pics, okay. It is easier with pics.

Baru sampai... excited tahap gaban.... Please notice Kitty in her hand.

Sejurus sebelum jumpa the cabbie from hell... Hidup ku sungguh ceria ketika ini...

Times Square, Hong Kong. Munching on excellent breads. Abang was very understanding about halal issue but Adik was not very receptive. She kept insisting to have pepperoni pizza lah, chicken chop lah and mee... Sorry darling, mee tak halal. "What ?" She asked, face all berkerut-kerut with irritation, tak paham and tak happy.

Nathan Road, where the masjid is and halal food in abundance. But all Arab and Indian food. Nak halal dim sum dalam masjid. Sayang, kita orang tak sempat rasa.

Adik super duper penat. Walaupun we took the MTR but the walk underground from the station to the outside world was horrendously long. We spent an inordinately large amount of time walking underground, not seeing the hustle and bustle of the real world above.

In the MTR back to Disneyland. Nice kan ? Adik tanya, "Mummy why all Mickey ? Where is Donald's face or Pluto's face ?" Entah.... teruk kan ? But I told her because it is easier to draw Mickey's face. One large circle and 2 small ones.

Disneyland MTR station. Nice...

Dining at the hotel's restaurant. Nice..... Ada jual nasi goreng, which they put as nasi goreng but got pork one. Char Keaw Tiaw also got, no pork but got chicken. We ordered everything sea food. Gout le kami.




Best tau.... depa bagi sofa as kerusi makan... Aku apa lagi, teruslah landing.... sambil tengok movie (Disney one of course) as per the picture above.




Melampau kan ? Sauce pun squirted the Mickey Mouse way. Itulah Adik, macam mana nak buat sauce muka Donald Duck ?




Shrimp pizza, sea food carbonara and veggie burger.




Play room. Very nice, so many activities for the kids.





The pemandangan kat luar.



Masa kami dok syok-syok makan, tiba-tiba Adik stood up and shouted, "GOOFY !!" Ya Rabbi. All the diners looked at her, okay. Mak Bapak budak ni punya malu, terus tak naik-naik muka. So we quickly ate and looked for Goofy. Tangkap gambar.

Tengok, kesian Goofy pening kepala. Adik lah. Menjerit berbagai bila Goofy nak peluk dia. Abang pulak tak mau lepas and dakap Goofy kuat2 after the picture was taken. "What is your problem ?" I asked Adik. "I thought he wanted to eat me..." What ? Dan bermula dari saat itu, I called my daughter by a new pet name, "Piirah mabuk ..." Menjerit excited panggil Goofy pandai, tangkap gambaq ketaq pulak. Piirah mabuk..

Weekend yang boring

Ya… this is the story of my unremarkable weekend.

Friday sampai rumah aje terus bersiap. Nak pi 1U kata Kamil. Jarang Kamil ni merelakan diri penat-penat keluar balik right after sampai rumah, so kami bertiga pun apa terus lah bersiap.Takut he changed his mind. Mana nak tau. It happened before, okay ? We left right after Maghrib around 7.50, sampai dalam 8.20, walked to the cinema dalam 8.30 beli tiket pukul untuk 9.20 mlm and terkejut beruk tengok lagi 15 minit nak masuk wayang.

Aku nengok wayang pukul 9.20 on the dashboard tapi bila beli 9 pulak. Bila depa tukaq, na ?

Budak-budak merengek sebab lapar. Aku tau perangai depa ni, nak makan kat a proper restaurant padahal makan cinonet je. They just want the novelty of sitting in a restaurant je tuh. Luckily nampak kedai kebab so kat situlah kami tala for a quick bite.

Masuk-masuk aje adalah dalam 1 minit before si Alice pun keluaq.

It was a good movie. But Adik was a bit spooked so she wasn’t happy. It is a bit dark lah. So dark in fact Kamil terlelap dalam panggung. Hmmm…. ingat Ian je boleh terlelap masa orang dok hingaq bingaq…

Saturday Kamil worked and we were left to our own flurry of activities. Made meehoon hailam and re-heated Thursday night’s meatloaf. Put the meat on a bed of pasta in tomato sauce. Kamil loved the sight of it and polished it off. Takde sapa makan meehoon hailam ku.

After Maghrib, we drove to Mid Valley. Ramainya orang tok sah ceritalah. I was adamant not to eat at any western food joints so I steered my family to Little Penang Café. Susah jugak pegi tempat2 macam ni sebab takde kids’ sized plate. So I let Adik ordered and finished off her leftovers. Sian mak, kan ?

Susahnya nak cari kasut untuk Abang. We had to find tennis shoes for him therefore Babah was determined that we buy him proper tennis shoes. Jogging ka, cross country ka hapa ka tak mo. Pastu dibuatnya pulak anak dah besar and therefore cannot buy kids’ size already… Ha ha….. Kena pegi adults.

Oh, aku adalah naik angin kat Metrojaya. Kamil who saw the tell tale signs of my angin coming out of me ears ran away before I blew my top. How I know ? Sebab sebelum aku nak angin, aku pandang dia dulu, dan tatkala aku selesai dalam 2 minit lepas itu, kalih-kalih tengok dia dah AWOL.

Sungguh cannot count on him to support me.

Sunday morning Kamil again pegi kursus haji. Nasib baik tak pakai baju Melayu dah, kan Kak Kay ? I made cookies and by 11.30 we went to Subang Parade pulak for lunch with the ILs. Atuk belanja makan Baskin after that and seperti biasa mummy le kena habiskan Adik punya. Pilih Chocolate Chip pulak tu. Yuck. Gemuk dengan makanan tak sedap is soooo pantang for me okay ? Tak de makna nya….

Kamil took his parents to visit a sick relative at the Selayang Hospital so the 3 of us tengok tv. Takde buat apa-apa pun. Kamil brought home briyani for dinner but it was so podeh, budak-budak pushed their plates away.

Terpaksalah we went out to buy sliced cheese for me to make grilled cheese sarnies. Abang melampau tau. He had 2 sets. Hmmmm……….

Oh… got diarrhea for some reason. Since about 5 pm. Mula-mula it was just the rumblings of the tummy then it started to create havoc.

Risau gak. Tomorrow I will be on the plane.

My sleep was interrupted with my frequent sojourns to the loo. So am soooo sleepy right now. Sakit badan pulak sekarang. Di harap peristiwa di Bandung tidak berulang kembali. Rugi tau !!! Kali ni betul2 rugi !!!

Funny thing, Kamil watched football semalam so I went up with the kids and baring2 with them while waiting for them to sleep. Plus the toilet is nearer… ha ha.

“Mummy sakit perut lah…….” I said, sitting up after a very inpleasent attack of spasm.

“Sakit ke Mummy ?” Asked Adik…

“Yalah… I cannot tahan already….”

“Awww…. Come here…” she said, pulling my body to lie down, patting my tummy while she murmured nonsense.

As I was enjoying the TLC, I heard her whisper to her brother, “Is she gonna die ?”

“Noo………..” Came the bored reply.

He he….

Dah orang tepuk-tepuk tu, no matter lah how small the hands are, of course le aku terlelap until I was awaken by a hand shaking my body.

I opened my eyes to see Adik looking intently at me then she patted me back to sleep. Aku katup je mata walaupun dah kira mission impossible nak lena balik dah.

“Fuuhh.,… Abang…. I thought she was dead…..” Kata Adik.

He he …..

OOHHHH ! Ada cerita keji yang berlaku kat aku selepas balik dari rumah SIL (rumah kami internet yilek.. I will explain why...) and sebelum we berangkat to Mid Valley. Can;t write about it now.... nanti-nanti aku tulih. Aku dah 2 hari sakit hati ni !!

Aku kona baik punya

I broke his watch hari tu.. Well bukanlah pecah kan.. just the fastener went a bit wonky after I dropped it. He got upset because that was his last one. His usual leather strap one battery dah kong. His black getah strap one, the getah strap putus… And now with this one also rosak at the strap, he has to use what he calls his orang tua watch.. a present from his dad.

So dia chom when he went to work. Luckily when he returned, he was trying very hard to stop smiling so I knew he has gotten over it. I have never been so glad to see a pair of nose (huge one at that) kembang kempis tahan senyum.

“I kena pegi Parade ni nak repair jam…..” Cakap buat-buat merajuk.

Hai lah Kamil. Aku tak tau lah hang ni spesis apa. Kalau hati dah sejuk tu, sudahlah… Why you want to pretend to be angry one ? Aku tak paham betullah… Apa hang ingat aku tak tau ka hang dah tak marah ? Dah 17 tahun yang oiii… 17 !!!!!

I made roast beef for the kids and when ustaz came, we prepared to leave. But then he still maintained his purak-purak marah, buat muka sombong. Eeeiii…. !

“You senyum dulu baru I ikut…. Kalau tak, I don’t want to go….” I threatened.

He rolled his eyes and handed me my tudung. “Smile !!!” I ordered. Bibik yang gelak. He just stuck out his tongue. I sighed and followed him out.

In the lift, he sighed and geleng2 kepala. Saja kan nak provoke aku. Me being me said, “I know you saja nak sabotage I….” He perked up at that and looked at me with a disbelief face.

“Can’t you just apologise for something you did ?” He demanded pulak.

“I did that already but you saja je nak prolong this thing… So bila pikir-pikir… now I know… you saja nak sabotage I… I honestly thought that it was my watch (I really did) that is why I picked it up. You let the watch pretended to be mine. I picked it up and then tiba-tiba je jatuh because you dah letak minyak sikit bagi dia licin…..You purposely nak bagi I jatuhkan jam you. I know you did that !”

His face was more than incredulous. He he….. “Why would I want to do that ?” He asked with a surprised face.

I inhaled and started, “Because I have been perfectly without any mistakes these past weeks so you tak puas hati. Therefore you saja je nak cari bahan nak gaduh so you hitched up that plan… You are itching to get angry at me but you can’t because I have done nothing wrong. I have been like an angel so you dah fed up tunggu I buat silap. So now …. you dapatlah alasan nak marah I. You kan suka marah I ?”

Terkebil-kebil mamat tu tak nak jawab. He he…. Barulah dia tak berani nak buat muka ‘aku orang teraniaya’ lagi.

Then dia gelak.

And he shook his head with amusement.

“Kenapa you nak kena menang ?”

It was my turn to be surprised. It was not about winning, darling. It is about you marah-marah I lah. You know at work, I was really susah hati because I was afraid you would be stewing with anger the whole day ? And keep on being angry when you come home ?

Boringlah kalau you balik marah-marah. Kita nak seronok-seronok… tak mau dok masam muka.

You know, I think about 2-3 days ago the kids were watching Percy Jackson (Adik is sooo in love with Percy) upstairs and we were watching the telly downstairs. Suddenly we heard thunderous footsteps coming down where Abang bravely showed his father the tv remote, now very much broken.

I was shocked because I didn’t think he was brave enough to show it to his father. Macam menyerah diri okay ?
Abang’s face showed no emotion.
Adik menyorok belakang Abang.
Kamil did the expected and started membebel. “See, dah rosak dah. Tak boleh guna dah…”

Hearing that I interjected. “Dah Kamil… sudah lah… They didn’t mean it. It was an accident. You guys pegi tidur now….” Kamil paling pantang kalau barang rosak. So better aku selamatkan anak-anak aku dulu.

When they were gone, I tried to soothe my husband. “Please take into account that your son was honest enough to show it to you. Kalau I… seriously… I akan campak dalam tong sampah and tak mengaku sampai mati…. But he didn’t… Please remember that…”

Kamil had in it in him to laugh. He is not a bad person but then he gets angry if things get broken (dia kelentong je pun nak takut kan budak-budak tu… Remote tu tak rosak pun… Dia siap sambung tengok Percy Jackson where the kids let off).Unnecessarily angry. And this guy can really membebel okay. Punya lah dahsyat sampai aku dah terbantut nak membebel.. Aku dah tak reti sebab aku tak pernah ada peluang.. Dah tak pernah practice kan ? Asyik dia je.

Like yesterday, he he… that was funny. Setelah aku menjatuhkan jam si Kamil boleh lagi I dropped my handphone as I got out of the car.

My children who were waiting for me gasped.

I too gasped.

And wailed.

“Oh dear, Mummy… Is it all right ?” Asked Abang.

I tried a few buttons and was relieved when it seemed to work. So I nodded.

“Huuu… nasib baik… Kalau tak Babah mesti marah….”

I looked at him and smiled.

“Babah kan… he gets very angry if technology got broken kan ?”

Apa dia ? Technology got broken ?

He hehehehehheheh heheheheheh hehehehehhe !

Kah kahkahkahkahkahkahkahkahkah kahkahakah.. !

Darling, sebab Babah gets upset if a technology he owns got broken lah Mummy kena kona tang lain bila jam Babah rosak. Bagi dia terkedu sikit so that he was too shocked to get angry….

Aduhai lah….

Weekend ala-ala Nigella

Salam…..

My Monday routine so here we go.

I had an order of shepard’s pie and tarts from one customer. One other customer requested for 100 pieces of cream puffs. Yikes !

I can’t panic sebab nanti kerja tak siap. Due to my bursting to the seams fridge, I hunted for strawberries on Thursday. Plus you can’t buy strawberries early on because of its delicate and easily bruised nature. Went to my favourite hotspots but can’t find any of those lovely Korean ones. I stopped buying New Zealand lah, Cameron lah because they are not as sweet as the ones from Korea. As usual, luck is not on my side since I couldn’t find them anywhere in my town.

The fruit specialty shop siap habaq they refused to receive anymore Korean strawberries because they get bad easy and he went on and on how he opened 3 boxes of them and only could sell half a box worth.

Opppsss..

Tried again on Friday but again nada. Not even in Subang Parade so when I found some cut up ones at RM2.50 a pack, I snapped them all up. Tak kisah lah mai dari mana pun, ambik aje. Takut den kalau tak dak langsung.

Made the pies. And learnt my lesson. Will not cook for customers while Bibik is around because how she fretted ! Banyak nya garam, she told me once. Then when I added flour, she went tsk tsk when I throw in more salt. Banyaknya… takut Bibik… she said again.

So aku macam got confused and seriously doubted my ability to produce lovely pies. I found myself sneaking a few spoonfuls of garam while she was not looking…

I just laughed when she nagged because if I don’t laugh I might snap. And I hate losing my patience. Plus she has been good this one. Like when I asked her to peel the potatoes and boil them for me. Then I unexpectedly had to go out (Adik suddenly developed a fever and stomach ache therefore to the hospital we must go) so I told her never mind lah Bik, just dice them and then soak in salt water. When I return I will rebus. It is hard to mash cold potatoes okay ?

However when I came home, I found the potatoes boiling in a vat of water anyway, on a small fire for it to cook slowly while waiting for me. In addition to that she peeled the onions and the garlic siap-siap, without me telling her to so how can I marah kan ? She definitely saved my time and made things easier for me.

She then wrestled them masher from me so I was reduced to standing by, watching her and flavoring the tatters. She ignored my “Pergilah tidur Bik, udah malam…” So definitely cannot marah so terima jelah kritikan-kritikan dia.

Sigh…….

I froze the pies, made custard and chocolate creams then sleep. Oh.. this guy is a repeat customer. Last time he ordered, I filled 2.5 kg worth of minced in 2 rectangular disposable aluminium pans. Saja nak buat buat aku sasau, the shop was out of the said pans. Boleh ? Hari tu masa tak mau guna berlambak. Bila time aku nak guna saja habih. Saja tau !

.

So I filled them up in 4 round ones instead. Cukup-cukup aje but doesn't look as much as when they were in the rectangular ones. Hope he believed me when I said it has the same amount of ingredients as last time.

Heard Adik waking up her Babah in the middle of the night, heard them went down but I just continued sleeping because while I cooked just now, Babah slept on the sofa. So he had his fill of sleep already. By the way, Adik gerak Babah not me… so nasib le.

It turned out she got hungry as we only had rolled roti canai (like the ones we had masa kat LCCT itu hari Ya and DR) for dinner so Kamil made his daughter kaya toasts. Sayang Babah, kan ?

Since Adik was ill, no piano lessons which was really a blessing in disguise as I can cook at a more sedate pace. Picked up Abang from his tennis class though and bought breakfast.

Tart shells were ready since Monday so while the choux pastry were in the oven, filled them up. The custard ones turned out as expected with the blueberries but my chocolate creams got all watery from the sliced strawberries !!!

I saw the berries sank and I despaired because it wasn’t suppose to be like that !!!!!!! Strawberries are unpredictable okay and therefore WAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!

The cream puff lady came first. She was happy and she kept popping them in her mouth as we talked. Err….. okay. This lady is a regular customer and her cream puff is a bit special because she likes them a bit hard so that, as she puts it, “My teeth has something substantial to chew….”. Okaylah, whatever that works for ya.

Everything was ready by the time the second customer came for his food. I knocked RM 10 from the bill because of the wrteched berries. Hope everything, including the tarts are okay. Gave him some of the cream puffs because there were extras.

Since we had a late breakfast, we skipped lunch. Babah had a huge breakfast so he skipped lunch too. Babah felt like going out so after Maghrib we went to the Curve for wayang. I knew we wouldn’t get any ticks tapi layan jelah.

I was right of course. We jalan-jalan a bit where I bought cheap but extra comfy shoes and as I was membebel where can I get leggings for my daughter, stumbled upon a stall selling children’s pantyhose. Okaylah. Bolehlah… pantyhose pun pantyhose lah but they are very, very pretty with flowers and heart shapes all over.

We had Tony Roma’s for dinner. We shared a sandwich, Babah and I. They serve gargantuan proportions those people and we learnt our lesson so we shared a sandwich and it was good.

I watched Percy Jackson again with my daughter, whom I suspect is in love with the said Percy. I dozed off after like 10 minutes of the movie but woke up when she got up to switched off the telly after it was over.

Such a responsible girl. And tahan mata kau yek nengok movie sampai habis ?

I woke up with her by my side and Abang next to her. Kamil was walking around the room, banging the cabinet doors as he bustled about, preparing for kursus haji with his parents at the mosque.

I opened my eyes and he was looking at me as he passed me by.

“What ?”

“Nothing…”

Huh ! Yeah right.

“What ?”

“I tidur sorang-sorang kat atas tilam…….”

Hai… tengok bola lagi. Katil kena hijack, don’t blame me. You should have claimed your place awal-awal, okay ?

Then……

“Butang baju Melayu I mana, yang ?”

WAAAARRRRGGHHHHH !!

Pantang wei laki aku tanya soalan ni. Plus this is the second time he asked me okay in a span of one year.

I showed him where it is and told him to not come home if a kadi is involved.

Luckily he came back 15 minutes after he left. “Abah pun tak pakai baju Melayu so buat apa I pakai ?” he said as he tore his t-shirt off.

“Laa… dah habis akad nikah terus kawin koboi ke ?” I asked his retreating, khaki-ed back.

His smiles made me wanna scream. Padan muka aku.

I had breakfast with just my kids again. Bibik seperti biasa tak nak ikut. Suka hati lah Bik. Went to the market and bought groceries. Bumped into my mom who fretted when she saw her grandchildren weighted down with plastic bags on both arms.

Cucu buat taktik kotor by buat muka kesian. Jaga hangpa.

I got a call for an order for my chocolate cake. The customer wanted to black forest it instead of putting fresh strawberries. Lega gak aku as I cannot vouch for strawberries anymore. She had earlier ordered chocolate tarts with peaches to be picked up today, so this is an added request. She then called again to add 100 cream puffs to her order.

Aku macam panik-panik and told her I do not have the kotak to house all her orders. She begged so I told her I’d go and look for the boxes but if I failed, she had better make her own arrangements.

Kamil got home all smiles and that was all I needed to get him to take me to Jaya 1. As soon as we entered Federal Highway, his mom called and invited us to lunch. Kamil made a hasty turn off the highway to collect the kids and made our way to Sari Ratu.

We were full us, the kids and I so we didn’t eat much. After thanking their grandparents, we straight away went to Jaya 1 but unfortunately, the shop was closed.

“You dah pegi sek 13 belum ?”

“Tutup….” Said I confidently.

Kamil shook his head but drove to sek 13 anyway. Yeah… well…. it was opened. Macamana aku yang pelanggan tetap tak tau ?

I so wanted to golek-golek with my husband but since my customer said she is coming at 4, and it was already 2 pm, I started my work. I love cooking so I was happy because Bibik was busy with the ironing and can’t help. I had a lovely time tinkering and padding around my kitchen, mixing and measuring (I hate measuring actually), berangan jadi Nigella…. But smaller version sure…Ha ha… gelak aku. Again with the kelakar bangsat.

I was like so very teringin makan mee kari so I asked Bibik to boil some chicken in the afternoon. But after I had blended all my spices, I found the soup with an extra ingredient, a dead fly floating about.

Again, want to marah aaa ? She is an old lady plus … she had been good otherwise. The only way I could unnerve her was by asking her to throw away the now septic soup.

“Sayangnya….”

“Nak buat macam mana… tak tutup betul-betul …..”

Hope she learnt her lesson.

Kamil ajak dinner at this kopitiam that I do not want to go before because they have no halal logo. They have acquired one now though so I had no choice but to honour his request. And it was a horrible experience. I am defintely not going back.

More on that next entry, okay ?

Sleep after that. Well actually after watching Max Payne. Halfway that is because I couldn’t, just couldn’t keep my eyes opened. Sleep, snored a bit I suppose in between and woke up !

And kena marah ngan Kamil because I dropped his watch. The damn watch now refused to fasten on his wrist.

Swinging bowl lah ! I had a wonderful day with Kamil yesterday. He was being attentive, he was being sweet and now this.

Ada aje…

Hmmm……………….

Do they never learn ?

I have always been a fan of Biggest Loser so when Biggest Loser Asia began, I became even more a kipas.

I don’t know why I love it so much. I just do. It is amazing kan seeing all those weight lost, isn’t it ? The determination and the actual sweat generated, dripping from the noses and the foreheads… Amazing… Okay and a bit yucky too.

Another reason why I like it is because I sort of got sedar diri a bit when I see them exercising, sort of motivates me and made me more aware the existance of my stepper, lurking in a very dark corner of my kitchen. And my bulges and stretch marks hidden behind my clothes. You try to ignore it but macam ada beacon that went Bip ! Bip ! Bip ! no matter how hard you tried to stifle it. Therefore I was forced to take it out (the stepper yeah, not the bulges…) and use it.

So it’s good. It's good.

Anyway, I of course was waiting for the finals in trepidation. Apart from wanting Aaron or Carlo to win, I really want to see how they turned out. Plus I was willing for Aaron to be as slim as Carlo because seriously, he still looked tubby when they left the villa for good.

But then those who crowded their telly at 9 pm was dissapointed because Astro made us wait an hour, forcing us to watch the repeat of last week’s episode.

Then when it finally was on air… oh…kecewanya daku !! Sebab nampak macam cheap production mana ntah !

The sound system was bad.
The picture quality was terrible. Terkenang MuzikMuzik 83 terus. That kind of quality.
The stage set up was also at its minimal best. Macam nak tak nak buat aje. Hot hot chicken shit, okay.

The show was missing the WOW factor.
Not enough music.
Not enough pomp and finery.
It was neither ostentious nor magnicent enough for a programme of that stature. It is an international programme but it looked so cheaply made.

We even almost missed the announcement for the winner of the do it at home contestants, okay. Like it was nothing special, nothing to be celebrated about. Sangat-sangat hambar. Drumrolls ka, or flashing lights ka, confetti rain ka or bunga api ka was not in the picture. Macam takdak budget.

The one that I was most embarrassed about was the lack of cheers when Jill and that gorgeous hunk of a trainer… which I have forgotten his name… (ha ha… tak gorgeous sangatlah tu kalau boleh lupa nama) from the original Biggest Loser in the States appeared on screen.

People should be screaming. There should be some noise. It should be a happy occasion but instead it was a very sedate one, like watching Forum Perdana.

-

I thought technology is cheaper now and so much more advanced so we are spoilt for choice. Or maybe if you lack the idea of how to add grandeur, you can always pilfer ideas from other programmes right ? I mean don't tell me you can't even think of drumrolls ? Actually when I think of it, it looked more like they didn't have enough time to plan it properly, like the work of procrastinators.

To say that I was disappointed.. well sure… that was that… but I am more embarrassed than anything else because it was done in Malaysia okay. We got the honour of hosting the first Biggest Loser Asia in our country and we failed to properly celebrate that. Jaga hampa if Thailand or Singapore or the Philippines made more effort and spent more money and a lot of thoughts when they host it next.

I hate being paled in comparison with anybody. Whatever it is, they failed to excite me, when I am easily excitable. Ask my husband... Ha ha !

Talking about that, I watched ‘Did You Hear About The Morgans’ last week. Let me tell you, don’t waste your time because it was awful.

It was very, very predictable, and just like the Biggest Loser Asia's finale, the movie looked like a half-hearted effort. Jalan cerita sangat hambar. And there was no chemistry what-so-ever between hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.

All the good lines were taken by Hugh so SPJ looked like a humourless cow. Hugh was witty and funny but the scripwriter and director forgot to add in appropriate responses from her. So it was all wasted away for us to laugh and cringe with embarrassment from the lack of reaction.

But the non-existant chemistry between those two was most excruciating to watch. Their kiss was so ntah hapa-hapa, I pitied both of them and us the audience.

Sangat mengarut.

I am embarrassed of me....

Couple kat Subway.

The husband was still handsome. Very handsome in fact.

But the wife was so selekeh, I thought she was his mother until I heard the children addressed her as Mummy.

Kamil insisted she was his mom, I many, many times assured Kamil she is definitely not because of what I heard. They have like 3 boys and 2 girls. The eldest boy looked 15 and the youngest girl looked about 3 or 4.

Maybe it was wrong for us to do this. I mean to discuss them and all but we were so compelled to do so. Why ? Entah… Melayu kot… ha ha…

Anyway (please put your disbelief aside when you read the subsequent sentence okay ?) I asked my husband, “You ingat Mamat ni ada affair tak ?”

Why do I think that, I don’t know. But I rasa macam kesian sangat because she is letting herself go. Her hair was messy, her clothes were ill-fitting, her feet were shorned with ugly flip-flops and her face… I dunno… She looked so old okay ? The husband looked like he is in his early forties while she looked like she has gone well beyond 50. Serious.

Maybe she is ill. Orang sakit usually looked disarray.

But the fact remains I wondered if the husband is faithful. Probably because they didn't seem to acknowledge each other's presence.

We always think lowly of the male species kan ? We always question about their ability to be faithful, we think they are always lusting about other younger women. We think they only think with their dicks. There I said it. And eventhough we are enraged about that fact, but we grudgingly accepted that it is what men do.

Because sometimes we blame the wife, especially if she is letting go of herself. I just did. Hell I don’t know him but I still question if he was being faithful on account of his wife’s appearance. Like it is okay for a man to stray if his spouse is less than vogue-y.

I think probably I was reeling from my discussion with Kamil about darling Kak Yatt’s entry. Kak Yatt wrote about an acquaintance who wanted to take another wife because his current wife is uninterested in sex. He claimed there is no love involved with this other woman, it is just about his needs (Kak Yatt, I hope I am telling this right ?)

Biasalah aku, bila ada lelaki yang buat perangai, Kamil yang kena bambu. I told Kamil the story, and asked, “Is sex that important to men ? Can men have sex without love involved ?”

To my utter shock and despair my husband answered, “Well if you keep having sex, you might fall in love with her….”

And aku naik angin. Because he once remarked he can’t understand men sleeping around and renting (he he) prostitutes because he claimed he can’t do ‘it’without love in the picture.

And a few gazillion years later, he changed his mind. Now apparently he can do it without any feelings and horrors upon horrors, if he does it with the same women enough times, he might develop some tendre for her.

To say I am dissapointed, well it just doesn’t cut it right. I became enraged. Me … benda yang ntah hapa2 pun boleh jadi gaduh. That is why Kamil gets a bit wary everytime I come home from any outing with my girlfriends as I might come home hating men from my girly conversations. My happy self could get corrupted when I hear a friend's mother's sister's mother-in-law's aunty's friend got heart broken because of a the male species. When that happens, I will usually take it out on the only man I come home to, him.

Why is it important for us women to look pleasing for our husbands ? Even if our husbands are sporting girths wider than the wheel of a 16 tyre-wheelers, we women who walk by his side must look impeccable. Lelaki, laku aje. Perempuan ni ha yang cepat past sell by date, I am told often times enough. Cess. Why ?

Why is it that we never looked twice at the sight of a perempuan lawa yang pegang tangan mamat selekeh ? But wondered if the opposite happened ? So are we thinking lowly of men or women here ?

Aku yang .. (well I cannot claim I am a feminist because feminism confuses me) kononnya without prejudice (well… I would like to think that I am) pun can think like that.

So when I see her, I evilly thought, who would want to sleep with that ?

Haru kan aku ?

Because when I stood in front of the mirror not 2-3 hours after that, noticing the stretch marks and the bulges, I thought, “Who in the right mind would sleep with this ?”

Macam aku lawa, kan ? Macam aku vogue.

Ha ha….

Dah…. Toksah tengok-tengok orang bila makan. Concentrate on your food and train your eyes downwards.

Dah lah panas

Yeah… I will have to save my discussions at Subway’s entry for another time.

I had a more pressing story to share.

Semalam, di zaman-zaman moden with teknologi yang canggih ini, kami dok dalam gelap malam semalam.

When I saw the gate opened oh so slowly dengan lemah gemalainya, I figured that the electric was off. It happened sometimes when it rained. Old house and not 3-phased yet but I had taught Bibik how to deal with it if the main switch ever kicked.

But it turned out the whole jalan was experiencing power cut. Called TNB or whatever they are called currently, and lodged my complaint. I am one of many I was told. Okay that was about 6.30 right ?

Then saw a fire truck passed by. Complete with the little Bomba van. My anak-anak (plus maknya sekali) was macam beruk mak ye, excited giler nengok fire truck. We nosily looked at where they go but didn’t see any fire.

Hmmm………

Kamil came home with candles. Since it was nearing Maghrib, saw that Aunty kat depan ada lampu although just one source which is quite funny. Neighbour sebelah kiri pun pasang satu lampu aje. Sebelah kanan the whole of his ground floor is lit up but their second floor remained shrouded in darkness. Kami punya ? Gelap ataih bawah kiri kanan.

Aunty kat depan kata luckily she has one socket that worked so she depended on that. Hearing that I quickly tried our sockets but none worked. Cess.

Called TNB again after 1 hour. The hour they promised that things will go back to normal, the hour that they claimed we would be catapult back to civilization. But the answer remained, “Dalam tindakan, ya puan.”

“But… neighbours saya semua ada lampu… Saya aje tak de….”

“Puan… puan dah check main switch tak ?”

Haram. Have you been talking to my husband ? Was he the one who told you I am such a ninny ? I am a bloody engineer tau dak ?

Hmmmm…..

Went out to have dinner, leaving my freshly bought dory melting in the sink. Before that bathed in candle light with very, very low pressured water because no electricity means no water pump. Damn ! Kids were crowding me. I was bloody rimas because of the heat.

Balik and the house still gelap. WAAAA !! Sat lagi Mark Harmon nak mai !!!!! Plus it was too hot. I don’t mind not having light but I really need my fan at least.

Called TNB again and I was informed that one tiang letrik caught fire on our street so that was why we were experiencing this madness. “Kerja-kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan, ya Puan..”

“Tipu !” I answered.

“Saya tahu ada kebakaran, tadi bomba dah mai… Tapi kalau awak kata kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan… tak ada pun. Saya baru aje round satu jalan ni… check neighbour mana yang ada lampu tapi tak nampak pun orang korang. Lori takdak, motor pun tak dak… Jadi macam mana awak kata kerja pembaikan sedang dilakukan sebab saya tak nampak pun !”

Terkedu jap mamat tu. Sian dia. Bukannya dia yang doing the repairing kan ? But it was almost 10 and it was very hot and sticky. Badan rasa belangaih semacam. Kamil sat outside to try and grasp any kind of wind that passes by, no matter how little but I cannot tahan bau taik Gizmo ! Menusuk hidung dan kalbu ! Dengan gelap nya, dengan panaih pastu bau taik kucing pulak. Sapa yang tak angin ? Sapa yang tak sasau ?

I started my tirade on TNB and aku bising kat Kamil sebab tak reti train kucing dia. Adalah sekali dalam gelap-gelap tu aku tersepak Gizmo. Tak nampak kan…? Last time I checked, I cannot see in the dark. Gizmo menjerit aku menjerit. Si Kamil boleh dia panggil kucing dia, pesan jangan kacau aku sebab satgi aku sepak dia lagi ?

Wei, tak sengaja lah !

I sort of slept on the cold floor. No, I didn’t achieve REM because although my eyes were closed and I thought I was sleeping, I could hear the going ons around me. And I heard the TNB lorry came. About time to ! Kata satu jam. Dari pukul 6.30 tadi janji 1 jam.. ni dah pukui 10 dah… 1 jam hapa ? Dekat pukui 10 baru nak mai repair ?

Aku punya lah dok berguling ataih lantai when suddenly the light came on ! Yeay ! Kamil kejut budak2 but tak sempat sampai ataih, we were in darkness again.

Apara.

It went 2-3 times. Sekejap terang sekejap gelap. Aku punya tension tok sah cerita lah. I called again TNB and told them about my neighbour yang dok rumah sensorang. Sian Aunty. She was so glad when she heard my voice. She didn’t know how to call TNB and she was hoping her neighbours did the calling. Nasib baik I teringat to check up on her.

And then finally, finally at 11.30 pm, the lights went on, the fan whirred and the air-cond blasted the very much needed cool air.

So I made my complaints at 6.30 and precisely one hour after that, at 11.30, the problem was fixed. Please say you noticed my sharp sarcasm.

As I lay on my bed, I suddenly felt grateful towards modern life and a bit sad that we are depending too much on everything to work out perfectly. It takes only one element to fail and we suddenly couldn’t function.

So thank you Allah for channeling your wisdom to .. err… whoever founded electricity. Benjamin Franklin probably. Or maybe Michael Faraday…. Thomas Edison I think invented the first generator. Or perhaps this Italian who guy invented the first battery, Volt something… that is why we measured the force that drives the electric current in Volt.. in honour of him… Not sure.

Maybe a combination of these great minds that we are so comfortable right now. We cannot live without energy… Well at least I can’t and therefore, right now I am very humbled by kuasa Allah.

And let there be no more power cuts on Mondays because I have to see Mark Harmon at 9.30.