Undomestic Goddess Tales

January in Beautiful Italia

2012-02-08T13:29:00.000+03:00

ahhh...Italy....the country, the amazing views, the gorgeous pasta, the best pizza, the best cappucino, the beautiful ~~men~~ people, the romantic gondolas, the renaissance buildings, extraordinary museums, the little cafes ...my heart is still there....surreal experience.

"Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy." --Bertrand Russell

Romantic Venice

Fabulous Florence

Beautiful Rome

Ti adoro my Italia!

ps - will write more once I'm back to reality ;-)

In My Daughter's eyes

2011-12-31T23:58:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, December 30th was my daughter's birthday. She turned fourteen.....(yeah, a teen in da house with all the tantrums, mood swings, sweetness and charm!)
Its kinda amusing to have a birthday just 2 days before the new year. I told her, technically she will be fourteen only for 2 days!

I still remember in 1997, how I was waiting for her to come into this world on December 25th , so that her birthday will always be a public holiday! hehehe...Alas, she decided to come out on 30th December or 30 Syaaban, just a day before Ramadan starts :-)

This year, Hubby did something special for Nadia.....a video.... *touching, wipe tears*
The thing is my hubby and Nadia is too much alike, so sparks flies almost every 10 minutes between them! Both are stubborn and temperamental yet at the same time they share the same passion for photography, music and food. Hope she knows how much her dad (and me!) loves her via this video.

Thank you Allah for our children for they make us a much better person in this life.

FuN in the SanD

2011-12-08T12:55:00.002+03:00

Last week, we revisted Thumamah, Riyadh's favourite desert "playground" during winter. The kids had the greatest time while all of us shivered like crazy coz it was damn cold. But I love it! My friends always said Im a crazy woman coz I love the cold weather. Cold weather makes you want to be cozy mozy.... I like! hehehe...

As Riyadh does not have beaches like Jeddah, people flock to the desert for leisure, best time to lepak is during afternoon when its cool and sunny. But by 5pm, its already freezing cold and dark. Last week it was like 5C during the evening. We rented a 'khemah' which cost between 600-800 for half day. Not bad if you share share with 3-4 families. ATVs rental cost like 50-80 riyals per hour depending on their cc and size.

The'khemah"

Frezzing our B**t off!

It was a fun day and here's to many more desert picnic!

Err can I be a model? Model kasut?!

Beautiful Imperfections

2011-11-20T12:14:00.002+03:00

A friend posted this video on facebook. Tears just fell down on my cheeks when I watched this touching video.

"... in the end, it is these small things that matters, the little imperfections that makes them perfect for you... "

Juz becoz it is 11.11.11

2011-11-11T17:21:00.001+03:00

I know its lame but Im one of those that want to commensurate this special and beautiful date. Nak kawin dah kawin, nak beranak dah tak larat, so here I am marking the date in my blog!

So now, what to write about??? Truth is takde benda nak update... As I wrote in my last post, things have been normal.... So mcm takde benda nak update. (actually I like to call it writer's block, more canggih) Anyways..here are some so call highlights of the month...

The most EXCITING thing happened last week, where we adopted two beautiful cats from a cat shelter in riyadh, Open Paws . Yep, these beauties are for free and in saudi persian, mixed breed cats like this orang suka buang aje kalau dah tak nak. What a pity huh...so now there are 3 cats in our apartment. I feel like I have 6 children! These are Ayden and Bella. Comel kan?!

I tweeted last week - "pathetic or exciting...x factor usa has been d highlight of our weekends" yep, believe it or not for now this show is what I look forward to comes the weekend. They do have a few very talented contestants and I for one is rooting for this 60 year old guy, Leroy who look like 30 years old and has a voice like Micheal Bolton . Oh theres's also Josh, Drew and Melanie who I gives standing ovation too each time they finished singing. (yeah..I can get that emotional watching tv, hehehe)

Winter is here! The weather is getting better and better..cooler each day and I'm loving every minute of it! Cant wait to go for a picnic in the desert again!

Ok, enuff of my merepeks for 11.11.11.
( I seriously think this is my most boring entry, huwaaaaa!!!)

Being Undomesticated

2011-10-01T11:01:00.003+03:00

Of late, I have been spoiling myself rotten. Since Eid, my laziness dah naik tahap dewa! There are like tons of things in my head that I wanted to do but nothing come close. Some good days, I managed to achieved few things (homey things la) but then I would slacked again into nothingness.

On daily basis, I completed necessity mundane homey tasks such as cooking, making sure the kids go to school, the laundry business (still hate it!) and what not. I guess this is the down period of my life being in the domestic world. Its kinda diffcult to feel 'high' compared to when u were in the corporate world where u get a pat on the back for a great presentation, for a project well executed, for dealing with urgent matters, for tackling issues professionally etc...

For someone like me who scores an average in the cooking dept and in the home keeping dept, being a housewife makes me feel so average, huwaaa!

Not that I want to go back to the corporate world, dun think I can handle the pressure of dealing with those office ~~bitches~~ datelines and stuff. Just that I wanna feel special and important. Perhaps its the live in arabia that limits what a lady can do. Here, I have to be very dependent on my hubby. As we cant drive, even if I wanna buy a loaf of bread, I need to wait for him to buy it. There's lack of independence in living your life and with that I seemed to have less confidence in dealing with the world.
Sigh...Now; how to get that zest back??? ...to have that ummphh in life like how I used to feel in my 20s *wishful thinking*

Salam Syawal

2011-08-28T03:41:00.000+03:00

Yes, Im still here in the blogsworld! Just that I dissappeared in July to enjoy our 30 days holidays in Malaysia. Ahh..best giler! Then back in Riyadh just 2 days before Ramadan starts.

Pejam celik pejam celik tup tup dah nak raya pulak... How time flies huh...This year we will celebrate Eid in Riyadh and as usual hubby will be working. huhu.... However,this year 'feel' raya ada lebih sikit coz we can now watch astro malay channels, TV3 and TV9 live via the net. Thanks to raacuun.com. Dapat la tengok iklan iklan raya and those raya dramas, hahaha!

Hopefully 'business' will resume as usual after Eid, till then wishing my blogger friends Selamat Hari Raya. May all of us be blessed by the Almighty. As for my non muslim friends, enjoy the break and enjoy makan makan at all those open house events!

For Abah

2011-06-19T13:19:00.000+03:00

The fact that today is Father's day, my memories seemed to drift to those day when I was a little girl and when I had Abah around. The truth is since my early teens, my parents were separated and I practically grew up without a father figure. I only saw Abah once in a while during raya and some occasions. Abah passed away in 1995.

Most of my memories with him was when I was a little girl...and those were the good times. Today, I want to thank him for bringing me to this world and ....

for those happy moments when Abah used to bring me and my sister to the playground at the beach
for his funny 'jungle stories' that Abah used to tell us before we went to sleep.
for the laughter in the house whenever he spoke his broken BM (Abah was a pakistani and altho he has been a malaysian since he was 18 years old, he still has a funny slang whenever he speaks BM)
for being a great cook. My house was famous during raya times coz our friends and relatives would come to sample his famous nasi beriani
for buying us toys that made us so happy
for making his kaw kaw teh tarik for me in the afternoon
for those picnics we had in Tanjung Bungah and Taiping
for my nick name - nurie.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmatNya ke atas roh Abah. Amin!

Yay for June!

2011-06-02T21:54:00.006+03:00

Nowadays time flies like the rocket, no more like a jet plane. It is already mid year and I still remember in January (esp. on my birthday) I had planned to do this, to do that and shamefully very few had materialised. tsk..tsk...

Anyways, as people say you must look forward and not backward, so Im happy that June is here. Why?

1. We are going back for our cuti cuti malaysia vacation on 29th June! *beaming with happiness*
Last year we went back for Eid, but this year we decided to go back in July to have a more relaxing hols. (our holiday is only for 30 days, so must make the most of it!) Am already salivating thinking of those food at gerai makcik, cendol, ABC, kuih muih and yummy homecook food. This year I must go for dim sum and steam boat buffet! We have started compiling a list of 'to do things' and 'what to eat" in KL and Kuching.
This year too, alhamdulilah we 4 siblings are going to have a family gathering at last! The last time my brothers,sis and me gathered was at my mom's funeral three years ago. It is hard to kumpul together gether as one is in dubai, another in Brunei and my sis in Kelantan. We already booked a banglo in A Famosa, Malacca (first time there) and am looking forward to catch up with the family.

2.School is over!
Tripple yay!! My kids have started their summer holidays! Lama gile they all cuti. School will only start after eid, maybe on 10-15th Sept. Im glad we are going back to Msia in July, coz we will be spoilt rotten of staying up late, waking up in the afternoon and doing nothing at home. hehehe...

3. Hubby's birthday is on 5thJune.
Not that Im happy he is a year older, but it just gave me a reason to celebrate.Translated into - looking forward to the makan makan session. I love giving presents too. The headache of looking for the perfect gift, the effort of searching it, well it makes me happy. Unfortunately Hubby does not like people making fuss on his bdays.; so I cant plan a surprise party for him. If not, it would have been a blast for me!

The only thing I resent is I ~~think~~ I have to go on a diet this month. Wanna look good when I see my friends. Oh well.... still thinking.. *munching potato wedges*

Cry baby...

2011-05-07T23:25:00.001+03:00

My hubby said Im getting ~~old~~ sensitive coz nowadays I cried so easily. Not literally crying, but more like tears happily formed in my eyes and cheerfully falling down on my cheeks.

...and I hate that. I can accept if I cried on sad occasions but the thing is I cried the most when I watched TV. (now you know how serious I am on being a couch potato, haha!) The main categories are:

1.Happy moments in movies/drama
Wedding is the worst. Mother and daughter hugging moment. Father sending off daughter to college. When boyfriend proposed, when the underdog team won the game, happy endings.

2. Reality TV.
Yep! despite knowing that most of the scenes are set up to create drama, tears welled out during those winning moments. Worst during elimination. When they miss their family back home. When Pia or James Durbin sang so beautifully on american Idol...hee..im just a sucker!

3. Animation movies

To name a few, Finding Nemo, Ice Age,Happy Feet and recenty Toy Story 3. Gosh! I cried buckets when Andy has to let go of all his beloved toys to that little girl. Tears just ran freely till I have to grab a few tissue to blow my nose!

Off course it goes without saying;

4.Sad moments in movies/drama.

Movies like P.S I love you makes my eyes swollen, no matter that I had watched it three times! Connfession; I have stopped watching Grey Anatomy after season 4 as I cannot tahan the tears that comes out like a broken dam seeing those patient suffering or coping from their illness. huhu....

A Meadow in a Desert

2011-04-21T12:41:00.004+03:00

Last weekend we went to this somewhat 'magical' place 100km from Riyadh; Rowdhat Al Khuraim.
It was magical because it is just like a meadow you find somewhere in Alice Wonderland world. After 4 years being in this desert land and the color yellow is what you see everyday, it was really refreshing to have a picnic in the lush greenery. On that day the wind was pretty cool too so it felt like spring in Europe. The only thing that reminds us we were in saudi was a herd of camels happily grazing the grass...

Blessed

2011-04-10T12:42:00.001+03:00

I was under the weather for the past one week. Life was like sleep, eat medicine, sleep, eat medicine, feeling too hot and too cold, feeling so lethargic and worst of all that bitter feeling in my mouth that would not go away. I think this is one of the worst fever I ever had for a long long time. It also makes me think that at 40, unfortunately your suffering seemed like 40% more too, huhuhu....

During that time, I felt so blessed to have hubby and my kids caring for me. The kids massage my aching body with their small hands. Sponge me when I was feeling too warm. Wash the dishes, vacuum the house and took care of my needs. Almost every hour, one of them will come into my room and asked if there's anything I want. Ahh.... they just melt my heart.

I saw this quote on TV few days ago and it made me think of my hubby and my three children...
"You are the brightest star in the darkest hour"

and yes they are.......

Thought Catalog inspired

2011-03-17T01:18:00.002+03:00

I just read an interesting article from thoughtcatalog.com. I stumbled upon it via a link posted by a friend in facebook. (yeah, where else!) Its a website where people contributes anything under the sun, usually witty, interesting and intellectual funny articles which have become my 'bedtime' stories. Reading them via my iphone before I go to bed is really becoming a bad habit of mine, hope I wont need reading glasses soon!

Anyways, what inspired me to write today is the article I just read just now - Young-people-arent-having-sex-in-New-York . It is based on an article that The New York Observer has run about the supposed sexless lives of twenty-something New Yorkers. According to writer Nate Freeman, people have sold their sex lives for a large following on Twitter, cocaine, and an iPhone. Hmmm...

I find the article amusing yet come to think of it what the writer said is actually true. Im not going to touch about the sex thingy ok, but more on REAL relationship vs cyber friendship. Like he said, he has 300 followers on twitter and more friends on facebook but the truth is meeting them or actually interacting with them away from your from your laptop is terrifying. In the end, you would still spend the nights or weekends in your home, order delivery and chat and lol with your so called friends on the net. Makes me wonder if this is going to be the lifestyles for my kids? That social interaction means social networking. The most you come face to face with a friend/family is via the web cam when you skype.

Come to think of it, more than often, I rather send an mail or chat with my friends rather than calling them. Why? I dont really know, maybe I feel more comfortable that way I guess.. Nowadays, you can make someone happy just by sending them pictures of flowers and cupcakes on the birthday on their facebook wall. You can also have pets who never poo on your carpet and yet loves you tremendously. You see your nephew and nieces 'grow up' via facebook, flick or picasa looking at the pics posted by their parents year after year. You learned about people you just know by google-ing them rather than talk or ask them personally.You can earn your degree without ever going for class and lectures.

Gosh, all these makes me think about Inception! Where one day you can't differentiate between the real world and cyberworld. Huh...I must find a totem spinner asap!

Bugger!

2011-02-17T13:04:00.000+03:00

I THINK I SHOULD CHANGE MY BLOG PROFILE TO "I'M A ONCE A MONTH BLOGGER... OR AN IRREGULAR BLOGGER"

Food for thoughts

2011-01-28T12:11:00.006+03:00

When Im in the mood of NOT cooking which happens quite often, I like to go on food blog hopping. Konon nya nak get inspiration of new recipes to try. But usually it will end up either with me asking hubby to bring us out for dinner coz I feel hugry after looking at those yummy pics or I got "uninspired" becoz there are just too many steps to make a chicken pie and ordered McDonalds....

Pictures from MamaFaMi's Spice n Splendour

It really AMAZED me how they can manage to blog almost daily on the dishes they cooked with pictures that make you drool shamelessly. I would read with awe that they woke up like 5am to cook special murtabak ayam or hot potato bread for their kids to bring to school. If its me, its a rotation of sandwiches, more sandwiches, nuggets, potato wedges and occasionally maggie goreng! tsk..tsk..tsk..

When I read thru their blog, I imagine the steps are something like this...

Cook
Wash and tidy kitchen
find your nicest plates for photo shot
garnished and decorate the dish
take out your slr camera
take picture or pictures
edit picture
upload picture in laptop/pc
write down recipes in blog, step by step
upload pic in blog
asnwers all those comments people ask about the recipes

Phew, just writing those steps, already makes me dizzy! I salute you all lah, for painstakingly creating your food blog be it at fotopages, blogspot or wordpress for the pleasure of readers like me. *standing Ovation*

4 series

2011-01-08T23:54:00.003+03:00

Tomorrow, actually in just 1 hour or so, Im gonna be 40 years old. OMG, 40 years old!! Yep, as Im typing this I can't believe it either! 40 in numbers sounds old! Right now, I do wish my birthday in in September!

Now that Im in the 4 series category (as my friend put it) I dont feel Im more matured. Im still the same old me. Still the one who laugh a little too loud with friends, still in my jeans and t.shirt, still making lame jokes and still dance around in the kitchen when no one's at home (shhh!)

Anyway...like they say, (I wonder who are 'they' exactly!) 40 is the new 30, so what the heck! After all, now Im in the same category as Jenifer Aniston and Salma Hayek *perasan*

The lovely thing about being forty is that you can appreciate twenty-five-year-old men. Colleen McCullough

To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am. (yeah!)
Bernard M. Baruch

May Allah grants me good health and a blessful life in this world and hereafter. Amin!

1/1/11 - 2/1/11

2011-01-02T00:14:00.011+03:00

I dun have anything to write actually, just wanna capture the date on my blog but I only have like 7 minutes before it is gone! Not enuff time to reminiscene about 2010 and not enuff time to wonder about 2011 either. So just this....

Damn! Didnt make it! Its already 2 January 2011. Takpe lah, alang alang dah masuk blog, let me put in a few more pics, kinda like wish wish pics for eveything nice and sweet for the new year. ...and its up to you how you want to see them, after all a picture is worth a thousand words.... *grin*

Im not an Alpha Mum

2010-12-22T13:24:00.002+03:00

This is especially for Oldstock ;-)

Why Undomestic Goddess u say...coz I prefer that cliche compared to slummy mummy! heh heh heh...

Since our move to saudi in 2007, my skills as the home manager has been increasing at the SLOWEST rate! I told hubby that more than often I felt I really suck at being a housewife. The worst thing is he just nodded and said its ok...that means its true! Huuwaaa!

My friends who were in the coporate world too before they moved here have bloomed into Domestic Divas! They came up with great yummy menus (like the ones you see on tv or magazines) for their family, baked their own bread, learned how to sew, make clothes for their kids and cushions for the house and at the same time keep their house spotless neat and clean 24/7. All their clothes including the ones they wear at home are iron and pressed always! Best of all, these are friends who have small kids running around the house.

Thats them... me I guess the only thing that has improved is my cooking skills and it does not include cooking gourmet dishes ok! Just basic food and occasionally cucur kodok or goreng pisang! My battle with the laundry is never ending. It has been 4 years and the dirty laundry pile is always about less than a metre high! At first there was one laundry basket now there are two. I secretly hope there wont be a three! ...and pliz dun talk about ironing. I think hubby's office shirt looks worst after I ironed it. Another huwaaa!

Seriously talking about all these really makes me feel that I fail miserably in handling the household chores. Im always strugling on the domestic threadmill. I dunno, maybe its my nature that I'm not really keen on having a spotless home coz whats the fun in that if you cannot make a mess when playing with the kids or if you cant sit on the comfy sofa in the living room coz it is reserved for guests only.

So when I stumbled upon Sophie Kinsella's book The Undomestic Goddess that really struck my heart, coz Im not an alpha mum ...hence the title of my blog.

The thing is maybe Im this way coz I have to confess Im a procrastinator. A really bad one. Also there are so many other ~~fun~~ things to do at home like facebook, blogs to read, chatting on ym and skype, watching TV, download movies, playing games on iphone. Time just flies when you ~~are having fun~~ have tons of other things to do.

Oh well, I am what I am.... as long as Im a Supermom to the kids and a Superlicious wife to my hubby, Im blessed!

Alas, the love affair ended...

2010-12-17T19:50:00.002+03:00

I think Im blushing right now while Im writing this post. That day, so eksyen telling the whole world I wanna leave blogspot.
Thought Im gonna say good bye for quite a while but Im back here. tsk..tsk..tsk...

The thing is I went to tumblr.com. Ever heard of it?

Actually I heard about tumblr (how do u pronounce it anyway?!) from my 13 years old daughter .
(should have already guess why it is so pupular among teens!)
Anyway, at first rasa cool jugak when I register for it but after a few days there, I see that all people do there are post pictures. Tons and tons of pictures and quotes. Tho some of the pages are interesting but I found them kinda meaningless after a while.

I miss my ramblings here and off course my witty, smart and entertaining blogger friends. I enjoyed going on blog hopping spree here coz there are many interesting ~~lunatic~~ people who blog!

So here I am, back at this space.
Still an irregular blogger but hey, what the heck, just like Natalie Cole's song -
Its good to be back!

p/s changed my blog title to undomestic goddess tales - I think it suits me better!

I found a new love!

2010-12-09T13:35:00.000+03:00

I need something new, something exciting to thrill me, to lighten up the passion again.

Perhaps, its the mid life crisis Im experiencing as in exactly 1 month Im gonna be in the 4 series, hu hu hu...

Found something new on the net, looks interesting and inviting.
I will be there for a while to experience it.

This space will still be here, first love maa, cannot just let go!

Au revoir for now....

Biskut chipsmore, kejap ada, kejap takde

2010-11-07T11:36:00.010+03:00

Ahh.... Im so full of shit opps I meant guilt when it comes to blogging. I love my blog, I enjoy posting all these merepek stuff, yet it takes me eons to post something. Off course I have to blame it on something... ;-)

First, it has to be Facebook! After nescafe, FB is my next caffeine. Usually I planned to just check out the latest news but then time flies (like 3 hrs has passed!) and its already time for me to cook lunch. Curse you Mark Zukerberg! By then, my kids have come back from school, then its homework time, TV time, bla bla bla...

Second, the weather. It has been getting colder by the day you see coz its winter time in saudi now. The day is so short! It gets dark by 5pm and I felt like I dun have enuff time to write stuff coz there are alwiz other stuffs that I have to do first like the laundry, vacuuming, eating, chatting with friends, bla bla bla....Hibernation seemed to set in as well coz it is SO cozy under the duvet.....

So how now brown cow?!!

I'm back!

2010-10-12T08:17:00.005+03:00

Hello!Hello!

To those few who frequent my blog(are there?!!)
Im still alive and kicking ;-)

Was back in Malaysia for Raya and now Im back in my home sweet home in this dry and sandy country.

A lot of catching up to do in the blog world. Miss reading updates from blogger frens la...

Must adapt to being the home chief again. In other words - the chef, the cleaner, the nanny, the tutor, the laundrette and etc....

Ramadhan is here again!

2010-08-11T01:26:00.004+03:00

Dapatkan Mesej Bergambar di Sini

Kakak... not!

2010-08-05T22:01:00.008+03:00

It irked me the way some people simply call everyone "kak" or "kakak". Not that it made me feel old but I feel that its more of that person wants to feel/look younger. Got what I meant?

For example, I have this so call new friend introduced to me. Her eldest daughter is the same age as my eldest and her sons ages lebih kurang mine. She kept calling me kak Noor (what the ....!)

It send shivers thru my spine coz she is just like 2 years younger than me ( I checked her profile in facebook!) Secretly I think she look older than me as well! (ha!ha!ha!) Then I noticed she calls almost everyone 'kak'. Ggrrr..

Among friends, it is seldom that I addressed myself as kakak. I always used the word "I" even tho they may call me kak noor out of respect. I guess its becoz of my family upbringing where among my siblings we dont call each other abang or kakak. My eldest brothers are 5 and 4 years older than me and I call them by name. I dunno why, maybe becoz my late dad is a pakistani and we spoke english most of the time at home. So it doesnt sound so rude when I call my brothers by their name when its in english.

We also used "I" when we addressed ourselves to my late parents or aunties. So to call someone kakak or abang sounds a bit too intimate for me. Off course I dun call hubby abang! hah!

Back to my story, it doesn't bother me if someone who is like 10 years or 5 years younger wants to call me kakak but just 2-3 years difference? huh....common, must be ada udang disebalik mee!

Im very careful before I call anyone kakak. Those who automatically addressed themselves as kak Ani or kak Shima, then I know its okay to call them kakak. Usually I'll ask them, nak panggil apa ye... while grinning sheepishly.

Oh well, Im just glad that til today no one called me makcik yet!... and I hope that day will only comes when I become a grandmother!

New Apartment

2010-07-20T12:26:00.005+03:00

Guess what? Im blogging from our new apartment, off course still in Riyadh lah!

We are now reside in a slightly spacious apartment where the kids have their own bedroom. Alhamdulillah!

Hubby's office is just 15 mins away. Yay!

I love the way, sunlight comes in the windows after 2 1/2 years of staying in a house with no sunlight and view. (our previous apartment windows open up to a wall!)

We finally have curtains (from Ikea you..) on the windows!

I love the space but I'm not fond of the unpacking which is still going on. Merely because we have not bought a wardrobe for the master bedroom yet...for now our wardrobe is the box, heh heh heh...

Hopefully I'll be more domesticated in this new house...semangat baru! (tho i have doubts coz old habits are hard to die!)

Once Im done with the unpacking of our stuffs, will post some pics. Till then...adios amigos!

Part 2- Why Men Love World Cup 2010

2010-07-04T12:15:00.010+03:00

Interesting piece of news from Yahoo!Sports, so now we know......

Wed Jun 30 02:51pm EDT

Larissa Riquelme is incredibly popular for some reason
By Brooks Peck

Sometimes television cameras at sporting events turn their powerful focus from the field of play to the giddy and/or inconsolable masses in the stands. And sometimes that focus sticks for more than just the few seconds until a beer ad can be readied or the athlete with a torn meniscus can be dragged off. In the case of Larissa Riquelme, that focus is sticking and has quickly heaved her to international popularity with at least half the population that has seen her.

Described as Paraguay's No. 1 fan, Riquelme is a model like so many others you've never ever heard of but seen pictured in popular alleys of the Internet. Yet because of her emphatic support of her national team and the hypnosis she holds over cameras far and wide, she now overflows from the pages of leading sports sites like Spain's AS.com, Italy's Corriere dello Sport and Brazil's Globo, and has become one of the most popular names in search engines and on Twitter
First rising to global popularity as she cheered on Paraguay in the opening-match draw that shocked their Italian opponents, Riquelme intrigued viewers with the curious yet prominent way she carries her mobile phone. As Paraguay continued their improbable run, finishing atop their group and advancing to the knockout stage, the cameras continued to seek her out, even as she watched a continent away, back home in Asuncion.

Of course, her assertion that she will run through the streets in nothing but red and blue bodypaint should Paraguay somehow win the World Cup isn't hurting her quicksilver rise, which will probably outlast many people's memories of Paraguay's impressive run.

Now I know why so many men cried when Paraguay lost to Spain last night....tears welled up in their eyes coz their hope to see Larissa running through the streets in her body suit was crashed! ;-)

Why I love 2010 World Cup

2010-06-25T23:58:00.008+03:00

The world Cup 2010 is my first "hands on" experience watching the game. All this while I will only know from hubby which teams are in the finals. The next morning will check with him which team has won. However since we came here, my hubby has brainwashed me to watch English premier leagues and has converted the whole family to be a Liverpool fan! Tho football is an interesting game to watch, yet I do have to admit most of the time the interesting part is watching the players ;-)

Usually a typical conversations between hubby and me while watching football games go something like this.....
(Please note that most of the time my questions and statements were not entertained)

Eh, who is that handsome guy with jersey no 9?

Huh..that guy should be a model instead of a footballer

Dia ni dah kahwin ke belum?

I wonder why he has no girlfriend?

I think that guy is gay lah!

whoa, look at that six packs!

How come Gerrard (England's captain)looks like he had a haircut from the mamak shop despite his salary being $$$millions per week?

You said he is just 23?!! Hmm...he looks like 32!

Their jerseys looks so ugly la...

Why Kaka tak nak trim his eyebrow eh..he will look much better! (now thats another guy who got paid millions)

eh dah goal ke?

Between me and the ladies

Did you see when Torres bukak jersey tadi??*pengsan*

Did you see when Ronaldo bukak jersey tadi??*pengsan*

Beckham is so gorgeous gile! *drool*

Did you noticed how most players are wearing 'fit fit' jerseys....*drool*

My bestest moments - when they exchange jerseys between teams, ..coz you got to see those mighty bods, heh heh heh....

Saudi women threaten to breastfeed drivers

2010-06-21T22:34:00.004+03:00

Now this is what I call CONTROVERSIAL NEWS!

I didnt know about this crazy thing till one of my friend in msia jokingly emailed me and asked if he can be a driver for princesses in saudi... hhmm, men! I asked him why and he said he heard there was a fatwa saying that saudi women are allowed to breastfeed their drivers to make them their sons! This is really crazy and embarrassing!
Off course I googled the news and here it is....

************************************************************************************
News Society Saudi women threaten to breastfeed drivers
Jun 20, 2010 at 07:55
Breastfeed to bypass sex-mixing ban -scholar

DUBAI - Saudi women seem ready to adopt a controversial fatwa as they step up their campaign to achieve the right to drive in the conservative kingdom, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Sunday.

The fatwa, or religious ruling, allows women to breastfeed their drivers and turn them into their sons.

"We either be allowed to drive or breastfeed foreigners" will be the slogan of the campaign the women plan to launch, journalist Amal Zahid was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Zahid said their decision follows a recent fatwa issued by a renowned scholar which said that Saudi women can breastfeed their foreign drivers for them to become their sons.

"As every Saudi family needs a driver, our campaign will focus on women's right to drive," she said.

A Saudi scholar last month suggested women donate their breast milk to men in an attempt to get around the kingdom’s ban on the mixing of unrelated men and women, and his words have sparked controversy.

Sheikh Abdul Mohsin al-Abaican, a consultant at the Saudi royal court, issued a fatwa stating there should be symbolic bond between unrelated men and women who regularly come into contact with each other.

Breast milk kinship is considered to be as good as a blood relationship in Islam, Gulf News said. Saudi woman Fatima al-Shammary, told a local Arabic daily, that the fatwa was "ridiculous and weird".

She added: "This fatwa has become a hot topic of debate among women. Is this is all that is left to us to do: to give our breasts to the foreign drivers?"

Another Saudi woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Gulf News: “Does Islam allow me to breastfeed a foreign man and prevent me from driving my own car? I have not breastfed my own children. How do you expect me to do this with a foreign man? What is this nonsense?"

Another woman said the fatwa should also apply to the husbands who should be breastfed by housemaids. By doing so, all will be brothers and sisters," she said.
(this really cracked me up!)
***********************************************************************************
By the way, it was clarified later that he meant that the breast milk is to be given in a cup, yeah, rite! It came a little bit too late coz this has somehow become a rather sad joke and gave bad impression on muslim women.

As far as my understanding, condition from the prophet are only for BABIES....NOT ADULT MEN!!!! The bonding of families happened only when you breastfeed babies only up to he/she is 2 years old or 3 times until the baby is full. Seriously, not matured adult men! If it involved adult men than thats already like those xxx rated movies!

It is indeed sad to see how this so called scholar can be sitting on the religious council :-(

On the other hand, I dont really understand why these saudi ladies wants to drive here. I bet many msians women would like to be in their shoes to be driven around by a driver. My msians frens and I are actually enjoying the fact that our hubbies need to drive us around :-)

Rasa macam 'mem" sometimes coz even when you want to buy a loaf of bread, your hubby needs to drive you to the grocery store, heh heh....

Imagine not having the tension being stuck in a traffic jam instead you are at the backseat checking your iphone or chatting with your friends. The fact that you can asked your driver to send you to the shopping mall anytime you want (thats what they do here), wait for you patiently (imagine if hubby has to wait for you-he will be fuming with fire!) pick you up in front of the mall, cool the car before you enter as you sit at the back of your luxury car. Also, as a mom, you dont need to pick up your kids to and fro from school or tuiton class or anywhere everyday! You dont need to go to the market, carry those heavy groceries bags! Its actually a luxurious way of living compared to other women elsewhere! .... Well, people always think that the grass is greener on the other side!

On the other hand, maybe the saudi women wants the freedom to drive because all the other women in the world have the freedom to do so. Well, its gonna be interesting to know their feedback if the day comes. I guess the excitement will be short lived and they may want to go back to being Ms Daisy.

Untitled

2010-06-09T00:50:00.006+03:00

Can I blame it on the heat? I think Im turning into once a month blogger! hu..hu...
kenapa, mengapa, entah lah! Maybe I should change this space into status update or a tweet instead of a blog.

Untitled

somehow stories I wanna blog about felt meaningless
somehow those stories in my mind vanished into thin air

yet.....
I miss hanging out in the blog sphere
I miss those blogger frends who touched my heart with their stories
Blogger friends whom I never met but seemed like an old buddy

..and that is why Im still here
regardless that I blog only once a blue moon
regardless of this ridiculous nonsense so called poem!

As dry as the sahara desert....

2010-05-16T12:43:00.001+03:00

Dry spell is here again..idea kering...hu...hu....

Stamps

2010-04-17T12:20:00.007+03:00

The other day I was revising social studies with my youngest son Haekal who is in grade 1. The subject was about post office. I asked him to spell “stamp” and he said “s t e m” . I said no...and he said ye lah dalam science kan spell macam tu..stem yg kat pokok tu...Gosh, I don’t know whether to laugh or be alarmed.
I then proceed to explain to him about letters and stamps. Im not so sure if he totally gets it. It makes me wonder then if all these babies born year 2000 onwards will know what letter and stamps are. In this world of emails and chats online, why would they need letters anyway? You can also apply online for college, universities and for jobs.

At least a few years back, (make it like 5 years back actually!) I still received Raya cards once a year via the mail. But of late, I did not receive any ‘real’ raya cards anymore, just the raya greetings e cards ones on lines. Nowadays the only letters I received at homes are banks statements and those junk mails, without real stamps!

I still remember masa kecik kecik dulu, the joy of waiting for mr. postman...to hear that ring ring on the bicycle and later to hear the roar of the motorcycle of mr postman. Checking our red mail box for my letters. Ahh....those good ol days!
I used to have a few pen pals from the Big blue marble show ; ingat tak cerita tu? I had pen pals from US, Norway and the Philippines. They are really friendly and luv to write beautiful letters to me using fancy writing pads and colourful envelopes. It was such a great delight whenever I received their letters.

Talking about writing pads, I have not seen writing pads in stationeries shops anymore esp.in Saudi. Teringat dulu dulu, I love to go browsing at the writing pad and envelopes section. I do have a collection of writing pads and envelopes. Ada yang bunga bunga, cartoons and mushy mushy ones. Some even comes with perfume! (handy during courting time!)

Once the letters were written, I will have to ask my mom to drop me by the post office to weight the letters which are going to overseas. Aerogramme comes handy to when you want to reply fast and cheap way. During my time it was like less than RM0.80 kut per aerogramme.

During raya paling busy.....shopping for raya cards is just a thrilling experience. Im the most rajin one in my house to send raya cards to almost all my aunties, cousins and friends. I will also have stamps readily available at home. It was a great joy bila dapat guna stamp cantik aka commorative stamps compared to those normal hibiscus stamps. During that time to post raya cards was only 0.20cents!
It has been ages since I myself went to the post office. I don’t even know any of my family’s or friend’s house address if I want to send them anything via post. I only have their email address!

I also wonder if kids nowadays list down collecting stamps as one of their hobbies. During my time, almost all of us were collecting stamps! Each one of us will proudly display our stamp albums and exchange stamps with each other. Is collecting stamps a dying hobby or it is only for the old now...

Perhaps the next time I go back to Malaysia, I should bring my kids to the post office!

Janadriyah Festival

2010-03-29T00:22:00.027+03:00

Since we lived here for the past 3 years, this is the first time we visited Janadriyah festival. At first hubby was reluctant to go esp. when he heard the crowd was huge coz hubby is not a great fan of being hurdled in a crowd. However after we saw pictures posted on facebook by some of our friends, rasa teruja pulak nak pegi. It was the perfect timing as hubby was off on sat.I bet if we had to go during the weekend,(here weekends falls on Thurs and Fri) I would not be successful in coaxing him to go! Sure enuff, the crowd was average on Saturday and we had a very relaxing and enjoyable day.

Janadriyah festival is a rich cultural presentation of the past and present of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is held once a year, usually between February and March. During the festival, traditional activities such as folk dances, camel races, arts and crafts exhibits as well as poetry readings are showcased for the entire duration of the festival.

For the first time, we can just snap photos everywhere! In saudi, it is a big no no for you to take pictures in public places. In some instances, men are jailed for taking pictures n public places. So you can imagine our surprise when people there actually wants to pose for the camera!Some kids even asked hubby to take their pictures. Mula mula hubby takut takut jugak nak pakai his D90 but then we saw there were quite a number of visitors clicking their cameras and hps, baru lah rasa confident nak take pictures of the festival.

It is something like those espo in malaysia with exhibition from the ministries, universities, banks and museum. Off course there are souks or markets where you can buy all sorts of 'treasures'. Most souks sell fascinating antiques or replicas of it, traditional items such as pottery, tikar and antiques jeweleries. Food stalls are plenty too.

To me, the main attraction of the festival is the cultural exhibition and the history of the kingdom. It is interesting to see how different states in saudi, has slightly different cultural background.

We went there after asar as it opens at 4.00pm. During the first week of the festival, it is open for men only. Families can go during the second week. It was an awesome experience as this is the first time I felt relaxed being among the arabs. Surprisingly most of the people we met or brushed along the streets are very friendly and people seemed to be in a merry mood everywhere.

I guess being at the festival, shows a different side of the locals....the lighter side of the local people, their warmth and friendliness. Usually in the city, the locals tend to be a little bit uptight and macam sombong sikit but not in Janadriyah. Prhaps it is also because at the festival the people are mostly from outside Riyadh. At the Ministry of Justice exhibition where the Apache heli, tanks and planes are the army guys were very friendly. They painstakingly tred to explain to us in english about the exhibition and helped the kids get up on the tank and heli to take pictures. I am impressed!

We luv the sword dancing show. The men looks more like warriors rather than dancers!
The only music instruments they used are the drums and something like kompang.

One of the best thing here is that at prayer time, all activities come to a halt and all shops and exhibition centres are closed. The activities resume usually after 20-30 minutes of break. Men will have jemaah prayers at almost every corner (they prepare carpets/rugs). As for women, there were also prayer mats placed strategically or you can just pray anywhere convenient for you. Here it is easier as we are already wearing the arbaya, so we can conveniently pray in our arbaya.

Insyallah next year if we are still here in riyadh, we will definitely love to visit the Janadriyah festival again. Tak puas pegi sekali coz there are still so many houses and exhibition we didnt get to see.

Dreams

2010-03-14T10:10:00.006+03:00

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)
Annie Lennox

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world
And the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Today I woke up late again...and I blamed it all on the continuous merepek dreams that accompanied my sleep. Kesian my kids kelam kabut bersiap to catch their transport to school. Luckily they made it and it goes without saying, no one had a shower this morning!

Ever since I can remember, my sleep has always been accompanied by continuous dreams...and these dreams they go on and on till I wake up. I dont really like it coz sometimes it makes me feel kinda dizzy. I would wake up and say "whoa! what a dream!" The worst part is even when the alarm went off and I usually have a snooze of 10 mins, my dreams can quickly catch up!

I wish my dreams are sweet and short, but that never happen! My dreams are usually the adventurous kind, it is always about spies, finding things or someone, sometimes just wondering about with lots and lots of people. The main thing is there are always people in my dreams... People in my dreams are usually strangers. At times there are people I know and people I love and lost.

The scenes in my dreams are usually busy and there are a lot of things happening at once. Sometimes the heroin in these dreams is me or I am someone else. Sometimes it is just like Im watching an untitled movie. U know the feeling of you know you are in a dream but you just cant wake up....

But if people ask me what my dreams are about, I can't really tell them in detail. There's no intro, no ending kinda dream...the thing is Im not the type of person who thinks about 101 things before I go to sleep, Im not really the worrying type..so it puzzled me why do I dreamt of these weird non stop merepek dreams... as far as I can remember, it has been ages since I last had a nice dream that makes you smile when you wake up....

Anyway, thats that. Im not a believer that dreams has any actual meanings or it may represent something..it is just some sort of "entertainment" while we are sleeping. Just that, I do wish I could enjoy a "feel good" dream sometimes instead of having meaningless dreams almost every nite....

Note to : Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Brad Pitt, Johhny Depp; you are invited into my dream anytime of the day! :-))))

February 2010

2010-03-06T01:25:00.030+03:00

I bet if this blog is a furniture, sure dah bersawang teruk! It has been a month since my last posting. Well, Im back to 'dust' the empty spaces...

4th Feb
We got a pet cat!!! Accidental pet that is! ..and a Persian one too!

Our apartment is really small and having a cat in riyadh never came across my mind. But on that fateful nite, we saw "nemo' outside a pet shop looking so pityful and sick, we decided to take him in... at first we agreed that our friend che na will take care of him for us as they live in a villa and already has 2 cats and we will sponsor his needs. heh heh..mcm dekat zoo pulak! Then one weekend, we took him home coz the kids have been begging us to do so, and all of us just fell in luv with him. The rest is history...Nemo is now officially our cat and stay with us 24/7. Tho we had to sacrifice one toilet for him, its worth it! Seeing Nemo sleeping besides me as Im typing this is just pure joy...

9th Feb
We were off to Istanbul with our family friend che na and zainal for 8 days!! It was superb, one of the best vacation ever and Istanbul is such a BEAUTIFUL city. Doesn't matter where you turn to snap a picture, the outcome is always surreal. Istanbul is one of the city that I don't mind visiting again...the people are friendly and good looking too! heh heh....

This time, hubby had the chance to use his new D90 camera..so it was click click here and there and we have to wait patiently for him when he tried to capture every angle! Nasib baik la ada my 3 kids kids nak jadi models! I do luv all the pictures...gotta admit hubby may have a natural talent in photography :-)

Another out of the world experience was when we visited the ski resort in Uludag, Bursa which was about 4 hours drive from Istanbul. The kids and the parents had a blast in the snow. Puas semua orang berguling guling dalam snow...my kids actually held out their tougues to taste the snow drops! At last my kids' wishes to play in the snow came true...alhamdulillah....

Im not sure when I will blog about our trip to Istanbul tho I would love to...coz Im quite bad at sharing travel stories. How I wish Im like those globe trekker host on the Travel channel babbling naturally about their trips! Even our trip to Gold Coast last year pun tak masuk posting lagi! *blush*

18th Feb
I had my tooth pulled out! Oucchh! On my last 2 days in Istanbul, I suddenly felt a sharp pang in my tooth. It has been years since I last had a tooth ache and it was quite bad. I had to take painkillers every day. Luckily the pain struck me at the ending of our vacation...Once we arrived in riyadh, I went to see the dentist and its nerve wrecking. Never overcome the fear of visiting the dentist since I was a little girl! The x ray showed that I had a wisdom tooth on the upper left side and it is poking my last tooth. As the tooth was already in a decayed condition, the dentist had to pull it out. hu..hu.. Now I pray that my wisdom tooth will come out nicely and will not cause me anymore visit to the dentist!

23rd Feb
We went to Al Khobar (4 hours drive from Riyadh)to relax at the beach and to eat at the Malaysian Kitchen restaurant! The timing was good as that day we had to send our fridge for repair and no fridge means no cooking at home! Puas hati makan kat Malaysian Kitchen sampai 3 kali! We had mee kung fu, keowteow goreng, ABC, nasi paprik etc etc etc...
It was wonderful to be able to relax at the beach while watching the kids enjoying themselves playing and swimming at the beach.(on a full tummy!)

25th Feb-28 Feb
Demam, flu, batuk etc....first it was me. Then it was hubby...syukurlah the kids were ok. I guess it was the change of weather coz it was freezing in istanbul and when we came back to riyadh it was already warm. Sand storm were frequent too and we were caught in quite a bad sand storm on our way back from Khobar. Alhamdulillah all of us dah sihat now. At least I think I lost 2 kgs after I came back from our vacation. Yay! owever, by now the house dah macam kapal pecah!

March 2010
Life is back to normal. Life is more merrier at home with Nemo. Hubby had a good rest after his 3 weeks leave. We already bought our balik raya tickets for this year!Yay again!! ..and it is something that we really look forward to as this will be the first time we will be celebrating eid in malaysia after 3 years in Riyadh.

Normal also means Im still battling with my laundry madness... Im back at this space and Im back on the domestic treadmill. ..and I count my blessings for all that.

RipStik, anyone?

2010-01-28T19:18:00.010+03:00

What is RipStik? Definitely not a yummy steak :-)

Starting end of last year, the ripstik has been the latest craze to hit malaysian kids in Riyadh;including mine.

The RipStik is best described as a cross between a skateboard and a snowboard. I felt that Ripstik is more difficult to ride than a skateboard or bike. Needs really good balancing skills as they have 2 rotating wheels. But the kids luv it and as usual within hours they already can expertly maneuver the ripstik.

The board cost SAR99.75 here and so far the only store that sells them is a hardware store called "saco" (something like Ace hardware store in Malaysia) Most probably they are not the original ripstik from US, the ones we bought were most probably made in China.

With ripstik being the latest craze for malaysian kids, all the ripstiks in riyadh were sold out! My guess, more than 50% of the ripstik was bought by malaysian :-)

Nowadays, whenever we are going to the park, the kids will 'angkut' their ripstik. Luckily Haekal is not yet interested in the board, so for him we will bring his 4wheel bicycle. It wont be long for him to start trying the board I guess...coz nowadays whenever there are gatherings, almost all the kids will be 'ripstiking'!!

January 9

2010-01-12T12:46:00.018+03:00

Age is not important unless you're a cheese -Helen Hayes

On January 9,2009 I turned 39! (it rhymes huh!)Ahh...my last year of the 3 series years.Ha!ha! I would love to say that 38 or 39 it does not make a lot of difference to me but sadly it does especially on the joints and the almost non existence metabolism rate!

To me the actual age difference depends on these categories - when you in your early 20s,late 20s, early 30s, late 30s and so on. I can feel the difference in maturity (still questionable!),energy/stamina, hormonal changes, mood swings, weight and dress size coz there is a big difference when you change from being in the 'early category' to the 'late category'. Those in the late category will get what I meant ;-)

Here are some pictures on the birthday event....normal stuffs je. Yelah dah tua ni tak kan la nak buat party besaran besaran pulak!

My Al Malaz geng with the birthday cupcakes hazita made for me...a lovely surprise for me coz masa tu we all tengah lepak makan bbq kat rooftop. Tiba tiba my frens kluar and nyanyi lagu happy birthday. *blush*

These are the dishes we had at Alnafoura seafood restaurant, birthday dinner....first time makan kat sini. Seriously I think the food look much better than they taste!

Blogging about this post, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling coz I got to share my special day with my loves ones... becoz I got to share everyday of my life with my family and friends. I count my blessings everyday and bersyukur sangat sangat to Allah becoz Dia kurniakan rahmat to me for these past 39 years and I can only doa that rahmat Allah dipanjangkan lagi untuk tahun tahun berikutnya. Amin.....

"From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents. From 18 to 35, she needs good looks. From 35 to 55, she needs a good personality. From 55 on, she needs good cash."
Sophie Tucker

Blogger identity crisis

2010-01-03T22:46:00.002+03:00

Today I spend almost half the day surfing the web for new templates and layouts for my blog. I almost lost my blog twice. Made me a nervous wreck!

Some templates did not work, some look ugly. In the end, as you can see, I chose the "old fashion safe" layout mode. It it similar to my blog layout when I first started a couple of years ago I think.

Sigh.........................

......of vampires and wolves

2009-12-13T20:58:00.017+03:00

What can I say? Im one of those millions of fans of Twilight saga. I have finished reading all four books and most probably Im gonna read them again especially the last book, Breaking Dawn.

It has been ages since I last have this passion about reading books...the last time was when I started reading 'Interview with the vampire'. I got hooked and started reading all the books Anne Rice wrote on Chronicles of the vampire.
Anne Rice books are more of a classic vampires stories....and it became more exciting when they made the movie with Tom Cruise as Lestat and Brad Pitt as Louise. *Melt*

Somehow with the Twilight saga...the story of Bella, Edward and Jacob ignites the "first love" feeling everyone experienced once in their life....it brings you into a hypnotic world of being in love and being loved. In this case by the most awesome vampire and a wolf!

Tho both movies, Twilight and New Moon were quite enjoyable and the cast were deliciously selected (ha!ha!) the books are definitely better. The stories are more exciting and happening in the books. I can understand that it is hard to cramp everything from a book into a one and half an hour movie. Nevertheless it is still exciting to watch the movies and I can't wait for Eclipse to come out in 2010. Funny how I can connect so well now with my 18 year old niece and my friend's teenage daughters when I said the password: The Cullens or Jacob ;-)

Mom, can I skip school today?

2009-11-10T07:27:00.011+03:00

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about kids and school. Here in Saudi, many parents are worried about the lack of good education system. Whist I do agree with them but I don't see schools as a tool to guarantee your kids' future endeavors.

The thing is I personally view education as a part of learning experience that consist of sharing knowledge, friendship and discipline in life. To me,being top in the class does not guarantee a successful career nor do they guarantee top notch positions in companies. Just look at those millionaires like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Micheal Dell (Dell computer) and Milton Hershey(Hershey choc) These guys did not even finished college or high school!

We cannot depend on the school or put the teachers 100% responsible for the success of our kids in their life and future careers. High school is just a ticket for entries to college or universities. While your Degree or Masters is a ticket for you to gain entry to the corporate/business world. It is sad that our country emphasis so much on how many As you get as compared to your skills, your interest and personality. The As do not teach you to be street smart nor does they prepare you to face the harsh realities of the world after school.

Often,I think my view of my kids education kinda surprised some of my friends! For example I'm not really anxious when my kids missed school sometimes just because they were tired or had a light flu. (my kids should really appreciate this!) As long as they catch up on the work they miss, that's all I asked. STUDY SMART, that's the key. As long as dapat maintain above average ok lah. Alhamdulilah for my kids all three of them were top in their class last year, ha ha...I swear I was not pressuring them to study study study! I only motivated them to study and told them to do their best. I also do not believe in forcing them to study long hours coz we know the brain's attention span after 1 hour. Therefore, take a break, play ps2 or chill out and then continue.

As for tertiary education, why put pressure to yourself by entering unis that are very strict in their grading systems and where you have to compete with all those geniuses? Why put yourself in that kind of misery? Choose universities that makes you comfortable and gives you flexibilities and most importantly pursue the course that you are interested in. You have so many choices out there, get the education but still have fun :-)

Like yours truly, I chose Sheffield Hallam University because during my time, it was one of the very few uni that uses american grading system. That means I can study in UK but I had the luxury of american grading systems. Lega banyak tu coz I don't have to remember lessons I learned in one year for my final exam! American systems follows semesters, so I had less headaches during my studies. Most importantly it was one of the BEST experience in my life.

I don't like my kids to feel school as a burden...I want them to enjoy school and have fond memories of it. What I do is I motivate my kids to want to learn, to enjoy studying as they gained knowledge and to have fun too.

To me, we always have the choice, to do it the easy way or to do it the hard way. You decide, let your kids decide.

Little white lies

2009-10-28T08:49:00.004+03:00

I think compared to men, more women lie to their friends and to their love ones. Between friends, Mothers to their children, wife to husband and between sisters and cousins. Im not talking about lies to cheat on your husband or lies that caused a bad relationship but more of little while lies....

Scenario 1
Girls nite out at a cafe. One of your girlfriend is wearing a new dress that doesn't do her justice. Worst still the dress makes her look fat. After a cup of coffee, she asked around flaunting her new dress "eh what do u think of my outfit? Lawa tak..I got this on sale u know..its Zara"
Im sure the answers from her girlfriends would be...
hmm, it looks good, I noticed it since u masuk cafe tadi...
Oh..Zara ye, mesti la cantik...baju mahal!
while smiling and belek belek baju dia dgn bersungguh sungguh....

scenario 2
Your friend invited you to have dinner at her house. The chicken curry unfortunately was quite tasteless. She smiles at you and asked anxiously; how do you like the curry? Its my mom's recipe u know..people just luv it. Most probably you will smoothly say; uuhh I luv it,..memang sedap betul, sama macam curry kat Pelita, maybe even better!"

Best of all while lying,you dun even fidget an inch! In fact you gives her an thumb up sign!

Well, I think in general women lie becoz they are too NICE. They have GOOD intentions. They do not want to hurt their friends and their love ones feelings. They love them too much.

As for men, they may choose to just say aaahhh,uuuhhh when you asked them "do I look fat in this dress" while quickly tuning up the volume of the TV and pretending to be engrossed in the documentary.

Conclusion: men and women 2x5 je!!!! It's just that men chose to use a few syllabus while women makes sentences.

What say you?

Ramblings at 1.05am

2009-10-14T00:44:00.009+03:00

I blame the intermittent internet connection for slacking sluggishly in updating my blog. There are like zillion things that I wanted to write about, there are new layout designs that I like to try out, there are links that I wanted to update at the right hand corner, there are many pictures that I wanted to share. Believe me!

I blame facebook for the 2 volcanic mountain of laundry that look like they are going to explode soon

I blame the TV for showing good movies when I was just about to clean the house. hence dust are thickening on the shelves

N O T !!!

Truth is as some of you may already know I am a procrastinator! Worst, I have embraced it and am living comfortably with the status. hu..hu....

Now that I’m older, I realised I have been one since I was a teenager! At that time I don't know bombastic word like procrastinator! But in a way, I have been blessed and lucky coz somehow I managed my way around and was above average in my studies and my work. Instead of labeling myself a procrastinator (the more I type it, the more the word sounds so robotic!) I like to say I WORK SMART :-)

Unfortunately work smart does not really applies to houseworks...this is my 3rd year being a full time stay at home personnel and Im still having a hard time managing the daily household chores!

Today I made a promise to myself that I must fold at least one basket of the laundry as our wardrobe looks almost empty now! But here I am at 1.05am, blogging!
Hu.. hu...this means tomorrow there will be 3 volcanic mountain of clothes! Yikes!

Anyway, this is one of my favourite poster from www.despair.com. I simply adore it!

I guess this explained it all huh... ;-)

Our 3rd Aidilfiti in Riyadh

2009-10-04T11:01:00.014+03:00

The first year we celebrated raya here, it was on a small scale basis as we all masih baru and belum kenal fellow msians lagi. Anyway, still terasa kemeriahan hari raya and was taken back tengok the ammount of raya dishes on the table!
The second year, we went full scale...hosted raya open house at arina's house with two others, masak macam nak rakk since the nite before and the food was too much..sampai tak habis walaupun ramai dah tapau. Letih sampai 2 hari!

This year, our raya celebration in riyadh alhamdulilah still terasa kemeriahan 1st syawal. Tho hubby still has to work on raya nite (12 hrs pulak tu!) he brought us to arina's house late afternoon for the raya gathering. This year we all buat pot luck so we didnt have to masak byk byk...but as usual, food sampai tak cukup table!

Most importantly kids were happy coz ramai kawan and this year they received duit raya from a few aunties yg cukup creative design sampul raya sendiri. Haekal just tickled me when he said, "wow" dapat duit raya arab!" he thought duit raya must be in msian ringgit!

Few days after that we also have small open house between friends and just last weekend a big scale open house at a rest house. The kilos are stated to show too! hu ..hu..

I am thankful that we have lots of msian friends who are just wonderful here..they are the ones tat made raya meriah and life bearable here...each time we all meet up, there will e so much fun and laughter....enjoyed every minute!

However this year, it was kinda a sober celebration for us...for hubby it was becoz his wallet was stolen in Makkah just a few days before eid! His Iqama (ID), driving license etc were gone. It was really a trying period for him coz in this country when ur a foreigner, they just dont want to help you. Can you belive it the police did not want to issue a police report/note to say that his wallet has been stolen???
(will write abt this in my next post)

As for me, after our third year beraya di perantauan, terasa rindu pulak nak rasa suasana beraya di negeri sendiri..nak dengar lagu raya berkumandang di shopping malls sambil bersesak sesak shopping baju raya, nak beli kuih raya and nak beraya dengan families. My kids have been saying how much they miss beraya at their nenek's house too...therefore we made a promise if all things are well, insyallah we will go back to msia for raya next year. Its about time huh! Am already looking forward to it!

**Surprisingly they have fireworks shows during 1st-3rd day of syawal in Riyadh!

09.09.09

2009-09-09T02:41:00.003+03:00

When I realised that it is 09.09.09 today, the first thing that comes across my mind is I must post an entry in my blog! Saja nak capture the date :-)

Im not a person who is hooked on numbers cuma no 9 ni special sikit as my birthday is on the 9th January. Therefore naturally I luv no 9.

Here are some interesting facts I read on yahoo.com about why people are buzzing about the date today:

1. Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

2. The sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

3. Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

4. Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

amazing huh! Therefore we can conclude people who were borned on the 9th is also a special person ;P

....with that I end my post on 09.09.09.

Teringat puasa zaman kecik kecik dulu...

2009-09-06T21:11:00.012+03:00

I dont know why but this past few days my mind keep on drifting back to my puasa experience when I was in primary school, basically abt 10-11 years old.
My puasa experience takde la anything special..but it gives me a warm feeling when I remembered about berbuka puasa with my whole family. Those were the good ol times...

It has been like 3 years (since we moved to Riyadh)) that I didnt have a family gathering with all my siblings. There are only 4 of us. My 2 elder brothers and my younger sister. Now that my mom dah takde, the chance of having that luxury seemed out of grasp... It doesnt help too that my eldest bro is residing in Dubai. My 2nd bro is residing in Brunei and my sis is in Kelantan. I dont know when we can ever berbuka puasa bersama sama or beraya bersama sama on the first day of Aidil fitri, sigh...Perhaps one day, insyallah!

Anyway, back to my memories of berpuasa di zaman kanak kanak,I cant help but to notice how different Ramadan was for me then, compared to what my kids are experiencing at present.

If Im not mistaken I started fasting only when I was like 10 years old!*malu* My kids started fasting full day at 6 years old! At 5 years old, they started to fast half day. I didnt even push them to fast, but they themselves were eager to do it.

Well, during the 1970s, keprihatinan on islamic teaching and values were quite lacking esp in Penang. Kat sekolah pun, kalau tak puasa, selamba je pegi beli makanan kat kantin. Given that I was in an all girls school lagi la tak rasa segan coz no boys! Masa baru start puasa full day, I made frequent visit to bilik air, bila masuk bilik air tu, kumur kumur "tertelan" air. Keluar bilik air, segar je muka!:-)

Berbuka puasa time was off course the best part...my mom will always cook special dishes during ramadan. Dulu kan takde pun bazar ramadan...so kuih muih are all home made. Best thing is buat satu jenis kuih je, then hantar kat jiran jiran sekampung. Dapat balik abt 3-4 jenis kuih! Wonderful huh! 10-15mins before azan, makanan semua dah terhidang kat meja. We will tune the radio to radio Pulau Pinang and will wait not so patiently for the quran reading to end...By then, my brothers will start filling up their plate...while my mom still akan sibuk kat dapur..(we were indeed a spoilt bunch!) Bunyi azan je from the masjid near our house first thing is to gulp down the drinks! I normally minum air sampai kenyang!

As a kid, to me Hari raya was the main agenda therefore Ramadan is like a transition for hari raya. Lepas buka puasa...time orang pegi solat terawih, me and my friends will start main bunga api and mercun kat kampung, bukan nya nak join pegi terawih. Pemikiran dulu dulu, solat terawih hanya untuk orang tua...(teruknya la!) I still remember pernah mercun roket we all terbang and masuk dlm kain pelikat pakcik yg tengah berjalan nak pegi masjid! We all semua berlari lintang pukang nak sembunyi! he.. he...

I also remember, usually after 1-2 week of puasa, my mom will bring my sis and I to campbell street penang to shop for baju raya and kasut raya. Baju tidur pun kena baju tidur raya. Stoking pun stoking raya! Tho our shoopping never consists of expensive materials, mostly from bazars je, me and my sis were would be beaming coz we got all new things! Dah penat shopping, we will berbuka puasa at our fav restaurant-Hameediyah. Tak pernah kat tempat lain! Mamak kedai tu pun dah kenal our family and will serve us the 'usual' yummy nasi kandar dishes. Nikmatnya tak terhingga!

Reflecting my childhood Ramadan days, it is such a different experience for my children now. Haekal, my youngest son who is 6, has started fasting and actually knows the benefits of ramadan and its meaning. My two elder kids, nadia (12) and syafiq(10) not only fast but are also reciting the quran during ramadan(of course kena paksa la by me!) Solat terawih comes naturally during ramadan. On days we dont have terawih berjemaah, they will do it on their own. Alhamdulilah seemed like for them, Ramadan is more meriah than Eid. Perhaps it is also becoz we are in saudi arabia now and they follow more of the saudi ways in celebrating ramadan and eid.

Alhamdulilah over the years Ramadan has became more significant to me. I have to admit the 3 Ramadans we spend in Saudi arabia were the most fulfilling and meaningful ones...Im glad my kids had the experience to fast in saudi...walaupun kemeriahan bazar ramadan and moreh after terawih are greatly missed but I feel they experienced Ramadan at its best here.

One thing for sure , my kids are so much better than me on fasting and observing ramadan. Alhamdulilah!

Alhamdulillah, Ramadan datang lagi...

2009-08-21T20:03:00.007+03:00

Alhamdulillah, kami sekeluarga dapat menyambut Ramadan yg mulia sekali lagi...Azam tahun ini, insyallah nak tingkatkan ibadah dlm bulan Ramadan especially on my Quran reading...

Tahun ni, as bulan puasa is during the summer heat, our iftar( buka puasa) time will be about 6.20pm. (macam time buka puasa kat sarawak) Tapi syukur alhamdulillah coz the kids are still on their school holidays so tak lah they all rasa penat sangat. Hopefully this year Haekal can start fasting full day :-)

Fajr is about 4.10am, so we all akan bersahur dlm pukul 3.30am. Kalau ikut style last year, we usually stay up till sahur time and sleep after solat subuh. It is much easier that way coz tak penat nak gerak my kids bangun for sahur!

Menu buka puasa...hmm, masakan biasa biasa je lah. Maybe on my 'mood masak" day ada le kut some kuih! This is also a good opportunity for hubby and me to shed some kilos we gained masa kat msia last month. Not much confident tho, coz as far as I can remember, I never shed a kilo during fasting month! hu..hu...

This will be our third year berpuasa in Riyadh. Hopefully next year we all dapat experience berpuasa dan beraya di malaysia. Insyallah!

May Allah make this Ramadan a blessed one for all of us!

Back to life @ Riyadh

2009-08-15T10:27:00.004+03:00

Finally Im back home! Yep, riyadh is like our home now coz in KL takde rumah! On the last day of our 5 weeks of super fantastic hols, I told my friends that surprisingly I am looking forward to the peace and quiet in Riyadh. My friend Yati said shows that I have fully satisfied myself tis holiday. Heh... heh....

Tho bila time nak check in kat KLIA via saudi airlines, we were jolted back to the reality of how cerewetnya org arab ni..kat check in counter tak nak beratur,gaduh tak nak bayar excess etc...sampai kat airport riyadh lagi la...most faces we saw are grim and no smiles! The customs just campak our passport dgn muka malas! Told Lan, this is our welcome gifts to life in the desert! hu..hu...

Anyway, Alhamdulilah the hols went well esp. our first family vacation to gold coast, Australia. We luv every second!!! In Msia, I managed to meet up with most of my friends, spend quality times with families and also had fantastic time being on my own.

Now that we are back in riyadh, for the first few days I felt that the days are quite long! Macam tak tau nak buat apa pulak!..and it is DAMN HOT here! The tap water is still very warm up till midnight. Just imagine that...

Domestic matters..hmm..I almost forgotten how housework never ends..slowly im picking up my pace ;-)
Just cleared unpacking stuffs from 6 big bags! For that, Im proud of myself coz usually I only cleared bags after one week!

Best of all, Im back online! Be it in the blog world or facebook! ...ironically I think Im communicating more with frens and family via cyber than when Im in KL....

Gonna post more soon, till then I have to sort out hundreds of pics first!

Seaworld, Goldcoast

Neither here nor there

2009-06-12T01:49:00.004+03:00

Since the last few weeks, days seemed to pass by in a blur...I'm not sure why, but I guess it has something to do with the fact that we are going back for hols in Malaysia this coming July 30th! *beaming and grinning like mad*

This is our first 'real' holiday in Malaysia since we came to Riyadh in April 2004. We last went back home, March 2008, on the sad occasion of my mom's passing...on that note, I feel a pang of deep sadness as this time, when we go back, my mom is not there...no more balik kampung in butterworth at my old but lovable rustic house.

This time, I will be missing my second brother too in KL as he and his family berhijrah to Brunei April this year. My only sibling in Malaysia is now my sister who is staying in Machang kelantan. (my elder brother is in Dubai)
I'm excited on the prospect that we will be driving to kelantan to visit her and Im flying off to Brunei to visit my bro. Banyak nya nak travel sana sini!

But then on the other hand, when I see how excited my kids are, I am happy too..Ido look forward to meet up with my family and friends and of course on the top things in my list-eat everything! These are things that are making me feel like I'm neither there nor here kinda feeling...Every day, I keep thinking about our plans in Malaysia, about places we want to visit, about the food we must eat, about meeting friends,tengok wayang etc etc etc....

We will be going back for about 5 weeks and this time I actually came up with a planner of things to do with dates and notes. A pat on my back! (I never ever did one but it really does come handy-put things in perspective)

Oh yeah..got to mention that I'm grateful to hubby coz he actually let me stay SOLO in KL for a week. Yabadabedu!!! Hubby and my kids will be in Kuching during that week. Muuaaahhh!! luv him for that!

I have not started packing, too early kan...but on daily basis I will be on the net checking out places to visit as we also plan to go for a short vacation insyallah. I'm also busy checking best flight deals, hotel deals coz there are quite a few domestic travelling for us i.e KL- Kuch-KL, KL-Brunei-KL (I will visit my bro there) and also that dream vacation :-)

Nowadays I think I sleep smiling.....

Health Certicate - Hands not suitable for Housework

2009-05-18T08:51:00.005+03:00

Yesterday I went to see a dermatologist as the eczema on the palm of my right hand is getting worse.It has been an off and on thingy for me especially since I became a full time domestic goddess.

When the doctor saw it, he smiles and said to me and hubby, "well...you know what is the best medicine for it, no?" I grinned and sambil menjeling my hubby, I said "no housework?" sheepishly. Best thing is the doctor add...."or maybe your hubby needs to get you a maid". I could have hug the doctor!

Off course the real medicine is out of the question (hu...hu...) so instead I got a cream and he advised me to wear gloves while doing all the house chores. Two gloves mind you coz latex is also not suitable! First wear a cotton glove and then the rubber glove.

Hmmm, I dun think Im going thru all that trouble to wash few glasses and plates, last last pakai my bare hands lah jugak. After all I dah ada ubat, when the eczema becomes bad, just put on the cream. Prevention is better than cure policy does not work for me :-(

walking back to our car last nite, I said to my hubby, "tangan I ni belongs to tangan orang kaya eh?" He pretends not to hear it! heh heh......

p/s oh...myy eczema is also easily triggered when I clean fish,prawns and other seafood stuff :(

Remembering Mak on Mother's Day

2009-05-10T00:50:00.005+03:00

This morning I received mother's day wishes from my one and only sister in Kelantan. Suddenly tears welled up in my eyes when I thought about my loving mom. It has been a year and 2 months since she passed away. All those wishes in facebook, on tv about mother's day makes me miss her so much. In fact rasa jealous pun ada bila tengok orang peluk their mother...

Although we are not the type of family who celebrate mother's day religiously or expressive in our feelings, on occasions we do bring her out for dinner. Now I wish I celebrated mother's day every year with her. I feel so terkilan that now I don't have the chance to really show her how much I love and appreciate her. I feel so terkilan that there are so many things that I wanted to share with her, to buy her things and to take her for umrah and vacation and all that just remains plans....

The thing is when we were younger, I guess it doesn't really occur to you how much your mom means to you....but as years go by, we became mom ourselves and we reflect back to our days with our moms and the appreciation and love grows and grows coz now we know how much they sacrificed for us, how much they put up with us...that is why I feel so sad today coz now when I'm no longer shy to say directly I love you mom, she can't hear me...

I'm lost for words to show my gratitude for what she has done to us, for always being there, for loving us unconditionally... I do hope even though I could not show her my appreciation in this world, Allah will hear my prayers for my mother.

“Wahai Tuhanku! Cucurilah rahmat kepada kedua ibu bapa ku sebagaimana mereka telah mencurahkan kasih sayangnya memelihara dan mendidikku semasa kecil.” [al-Isra’ 17:24]

In loving memory of my mother, Salmah bt Yahaya. At my home in Bagan Jermal, Butterworth. Taken a week before I moved to Riyadh, march 2007. That was the last time I hug her in person.
Mak,I miss you so much...

My boy is six

2009-05-03T10:36:00.011+03:00

April 23rd was Haekal's bday. He turned 6 this year but I had to confess in my heart, he is still the adorable 'baby' of ours. Oh well, being the youngest, I guess he will have that privilege forever ;-)

Thanks to our family fren, aunty zura, she did those cute little cupcakes for haekal and we had a small makan makan at her house that day with friends.

We bought Kabsa from nadec and makan ramai ramai on the saprah. Berselera betul makan macam tu! Off course there are also pizza, donuts etc etc.....

For his 6th birthday, Haekal asked for bakugan set - his and syafiq's favourite game at present.(trust the Japanese to come up with the latest craze!)

His favourite game apart from naruto and bakugan is football. Hence he is hubby's best buddy. Im amazed that he knows the football players from different clubs and he can also name the teams/clubs despite not being able to fully read yet! His favourite team is Brazil and hubby is coaxing him to become Liverpool fan tho to haekal only Brazil is the best! Hmm....another kaki bola in the house!

May Allah grants Haekal iman and takwa, good health and a beautiful life. Amin.

Why chicken breast?

2009-04-16T01:58:00.003+03:00

I don't know why but this has alwiz been in my mind- not that it bothers me, just that I wonder why...

Why do we say chicken breast when chicken does not have breast?

I googled it and and this question was actually put up by someone in the net.One person explained that originally, the word "breast" referred to the whole chest, that is to say the front of the body. So that's why we are stuck with chicken breast.

What do you think? Can you imagine if we call it chicken chest instead?

Bowling @ Riyadh

2009-04-08T16:19:00.009+03:00

After almost 3 years tak main bowling, imagine my excitement when we found out there is a bowling centre here in Riyadh and it is open for families. Happpy gile! Bowling is the only game I can actually play:-)

When I was in kuching, I used to have to join bowling kakis and we played inter companies competitions. I am not a pro, my usual score is between 130-140 je. Those were the time when me and my bowling frens sanggup skip lunch, instead we went to the centre to bowl! I even had my own bowling bowl..that time bowling was my passion...

Back in Riyadh, The Universal Bowling Centre (UBC) has 30 lanes. Lane 19 to 30 are for families and lane 1 - 18a re for singles (men). We are separated by a wall. However, our hubbies are allowed to play with us at the family side.

It is also hari ini dalam sejarah for all of us ladies as here we can actually adorn our arbayas and bowl in jeans and t.shirt! Mula mula rasa pelik pulak, somehow kinda feel naked without the arbaya but I cant imagine myself bowling with the arbaya hanging around my feet- sure tergolek dog!

But some arab ladies do bowl in their arbayas and I really salute them! I would have trip over the arbaya each time I throw!

Im not sure how much it cost now to play in Msia but here, one game is SAR20! Damn expensive! The balls are not really in good condition either, banyak dah crack and shoes..eemm, I leave it to your imagination coz socks are not compulsory!

The men are smitten by a Colombian lady there..semua berebut nak register nama! Other staffs are pinoy ladies. Surprisingly, the cafe served Coffee Bean drinks!!

Apa apa pun, we had a fabulous time, ramai yg baru first time pegang bola and so lokang is their target! Our kids enjoyed themselves tremendously. They also have this small art centre where kids can do arts and craft, arcade games and a pool table. Not bad.

All in all it was great FUN to throw the ball, see the pins going down, to cheer,to laugh and to high five with frens!It is definitely the place for me to chill out!

My constant battle with the laundry

2009-03-22T08:22:00.003+03:00

It has been almost 2 years since I changed my career to a housewife/homemaker and I want to declare that I fail miserably in laundry business! Of all the jobs I have to take care of at home, this is something that I procrastinate all the time. I could never finish washing the heaps of clothes that keep on piling up and neither could I finish folding all the bajus! Washing clothes is not that bad coz i can just chuck em in the washing machine... but the thing I really detest is folding the clothes.

I rather cook, kemas rumah and clean the toilet. Yep, I dun have a good working relationship with laundry. :-(

I told my kids, how I wish soon someone will invent a machine that can fold all the bajus neatly. I will buy it at whatever cost! With shame I gotta admit most of the time, we have to rummage thru my laundry basket to find clothes/socks etc to wear for the day. *blush*

Right now, here I am staring at the pile of my laundry waiting to be clear and here I am blogging and facebooking, trying to ignore that laundry basket.Hu hu....

Multiplication

2009-03-15T11:58:00.003+03:00

Received this in my mail...best giler!

The day the sky turned orange

2009-03-10T15:48:00.010+03:00

*Above pictures from hubby's email* - SURREAL huh.....
This happened at noon time today...in just minutes, Riyadh sky turned orange. The above pictures brilliantly captured how the sand slowly blanketing the city....memang menakut kan...

Today, the hottest topic in FB among the ibu ibu in Riyadh is the sandstorm. This one is different becoz the sky actually turned orange. It is kinda scary too....
All of a sudden, the sunny sky turned into dark yellowish/orangy color. I actually forced hubby to go outside and take these pics!

It made me feel insaf sedikit...betapa besarnya kuasa Allah. If He wants it to happen, it can just happen by a blink of the eye. I am glad we were all safely at home just now.

Been ages!

2009-03-05T18:58:00.002+03:00

Gosh it has been almost a month since my last post. There were many stories that I would luv to post here but then....macam takde masa pulak! My time management as a housewife sucks!hu hu......

I do hope to find some time to jot down some notes about this and that...about our trip to Makkah and Jeddah. About the fun we had bowling for the first time in Riyadh without arbaya! About the kids, about the food, about the weather...whatever!

MUST FOCUS....FOCUS I MUST!!!

Time after time..

2009-02-01T11:49:00.003+03:00

I dunno why but when it comes to the new year, usually for me the first 2 months just flew like a jet plane. Tho I am a stay at home mom now, it has not change. It is already 1st of Feb now and it seemed like Jan days just flew whoosh right in front of my eyes!

Over the years time does seemed to be going really fast...or is because we are getting older and hence moves slower than things that revolved around the world? ha..ha..

Just that i realised, dulu kalau nak tunggu yr friend for half and hour it seemed like 2 hrs and u will be fuming mad. Now, when yr fren called, she will be late for an hour or so, u just said ok..coz by the time u finished yr mug of coffee at the Coffee Bean while browsing yr facebook or chatting with another fren or blogging, she is already in front of you and you go like, eh cepatnya u sampai...tho 1 and 1/2hours may have passed.

I think the internet is the culprit for all my procrastinations..(gotta to find something to blame it on!) especially the facebook thingy! Often I told myself I'll go in only for half and hour, but then.. 1-2 hrs may have passed and I would still be happily checking out pics, writing comments, chatting with frens on FB. There goes half of my day...

I think sooner or later, I would not be surprise that there will an episode where Dr. Phil will try to put housewives on rehab to clear their addiction from faceboook!

On a serious note, I need to remind myself to handle time more cautiously,to manage time more professionally so that I can achieve more in a day and feel good about it. Insyallah!

January ramblings

2009-01-13T15:45:00.004+03:00

Its ironic that as I grew older by the years, I always feel that I don't change much from the inside. I meant, I don't feel that I am so much wiser(a little bit maybe), that I have matured enough to set a good example for my children or I had become a better human being. I still feel like I am when I was 30(call me delusional! heh heh..)..and yes I still procrastinate, a lot!

BUT then, my body is another story. I told friends who wished me Happy Birthday few days ago that tho I still feel 'young' (perasan!) my body feels like it needs a major overhaul! Often I have my dose of aching waist, legs and my back esp after I done some mopping or cleaning the house. Maybe the thing is I dun exercise at all since we moved to saudi, hence my stamina is lacking. The heaviest exercise I do is walking in the malls and climbing stairs to my frens house!

I always ber-angan angan to be that energetic high stamina woman who hits the gym in the morning, with lean arms and tights. Its more of a wishful thinking I guess!
I had my share of hitting the gym 2 years ago...and I do enjoyed my workout and the feeling u get after it. I felt so energised and healthy. But off course it lasted like 5 months only...there were so many excuses not to go to the gym esp. when one is dealing with me- ms. no discipline ;-)

I also like to ber-angan angan that if I could choose how I want to live my life(just for the fun of it) I would luv to be more of an outdoor girl, who play more sports, climb some mountains, camping and maybe try some extreme sports. I like to feel the adrenalin rush...it makes you feel so alive! I guess the closest experience I had to that is taking a ride on the roller coaster. Ha!! ha!!

Yet sometimes I wonder if I take my life so easily, that I take things so lightly. (I dun take life for granted tho coz I appreciate every single day) Juz that that maybe I should kick myself in the b**t and do something worthwhile, achieve something more in my life so that I wont have any regrets when I'm much much older....

Whatever it is most of all I'm thankful to the Almighty for giving me this life that I treasure, for my loves ones, for this health and for who I am.

Who knows maybe on my next birthday, I will be climbing some mountains!

January 9

2009-01-09T11:57:00.003+03:00

Nadia turned Eleven!

2008-12-31T09:41:00.014+03:00

My eldest daughter, Nadia turned 11 yesterday, Dec,30.
I am thankful to Allah for granting us a lovely and sweet daughter. May Allah take good care of her and may she be a solehah daughter.

Nadia is the pillar for her brothers, they depend a lot on her as she is independent and is alwiz there for them. Off course sometimes the three of them are just like cats and dogs!

Nowadays nadia luv shopping for sweet girly stuffs and accessories.Hmm,prelude to teen years I guess! She is also quite fashionable despite being quite tomboyish when it comes to playing games with da boys like basketball and football!

Happy Birthday to my daughter and here's to many wonderful and loving moments.

Picnic mania!

2008-12-24T18:44:00.016+03:00

During our first year here, we noticed that the locals luv picnic. The difference is they will gather for a picnic anywhere they seemed fit! On the roundabout(yep, i saw this in Jeddah) near the road side and one popular picnic place is IKEA's car park!

As the parking space is huge, most of the parking space are empty. Usually in the evening, families will gather there, kids on their bicycles, ladies on the mat with their coffee pots and guys will be barbecuing! All these happening at the car park! There's no great view, except the Panda hypermarket on your right an the highway on your left. Then again they look so relaxed and fully enjoying the picnic.

The locals luv to go for a picnic in the parks and beaches too. Kalau last year we all gelak kan the locals for berpiknik di sana sini, this year it seemed that picnic has become one of our fav past time!

Since the start of the cold season, we now have an official picnic mat which is ever ready in the car. We had great time berpicnic wth friends at Salam Park(something like Tmn Tasik Titiwangsa), at a small park near our house (taman dlm kawasan perumahan je) and even berpicnic in the zoo! Latest picnic hot spot during this cold season - the desert!

It is a refreshing outing for the family,apart from enjoying the cool breeze (at least I feel there are some oxygen going thru my brain as most of the time we stay indoor) kids can run around, men play football but no change for the ladies tho, still makan and makan! As usual, following the famous msian style, food must alwiz be more than plenty! Normal menu - BBQ chic wings, lamb, kebab, nasi lemak, bihun goreng, nasi goreng,cakes, snacks,crisps etc etc etc...

Here's to more and more picnic days! One of these days, we will try to have our picnic at IKEA's car park juz for the fun of it!

Congratulations to my cousin fariza!

2008-12-19T12:40:00.001+03:00

This engagement is a sweet prelude to a beautiful wedding soon :-)
Congrats to Fariza and Amirul!

Musim sejuk yang kurang sejuk, NOT!

2008-12-18T01:02:00.003+03:00

Opps, I think I spoke too soon about the weather not being as cold as I expected coz since I updated my blog with that post,the temperature has been decreasing and I have started to wear socks and sweaters in my home! (padan muka ku!)

Anyway,here's the latest weather forecast for the next few days:

Weather for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
7°C
Current: Clear
Wind: NW at 14 km/h
Humidity: 25%Thu

16°C | 2°CFri

17°C | 2°CSat

18°C | 5°CSun

From BBC-Weather

Thursday:
sunny, Max Temp: 14°C (57°F), Min Temp: -1°C (30°F)

Friday:
sunny, Max Temp: 14°C (57°F), Min Temp: -4°C (25°F)

Saturday:
sunny, Max Temp: 17°C (63°F), Min Temp: 4°C (39°F)

So now, without shame, I gotta to admit musim sejuk memang sejuk!

Musim sejuk yang kurang sejuk

2008-12-16T00:46:00.004+03:00

This year, I feel that the weather is not that 'freezing' during this cold season in Riyadh. Is this the global warming effect??? :-(

In the mornings, the average tempt is about 10C-15C but rises up to 23C during noon time. At nites it get cooler at about 8C -10C again. It is nice weather tho, to be outside, to feel the sun with the cool breeze blowing on your face. Terasa macam kat London pulak!

Last year, checking back my entries during the cold season, we were wearing sweaters and socks in the house! This year, it is like juz nice temp in the house. No socks required except early in the mornings....

I dunno, maybe we have acclimatised ourselves to the cold weather as tis is our 2nd year here?

However as usual, it is lovely to see colorful flowers being planted along the road, it gives a pleasant brightness to the dessert view. With the cool weather and the flowers, it feels like spring in Deccember!

..and only during cold season you can see the arab men in dark color jubah (thoub) usually in shades of grey or brown. On other days, it is always the white thoub 24/7 for the men, at work, shopping malls or restaurants. As for the ladies, no change-we still wear the black arbaya ;-)

Hopefully, the days will be cooler in January. Saja seronok nak pakai gloves and jacket!

Mental Blog?

2008-12-10T10:11:00.004+03:00

I have been neglecting my blog for quite sometime now..I dunno why, bukan takde mood nak post anything, juz that there is like a mental block whenever I want to write. I guess this is what happens to those writers during their 'dry season'. (hhhmmm, macam la I ni professional writer!)

Lets see how long this phase will last...maybe I will create another blog under a different identity (jeng!jeng!) or maybe I will come out from my shell and start blogging again coz I d miss it.

A times I do feel like I want to create a totally different image/identiy of my blog, coz my blog is more like a diary of events. Aaahhh, too much thinking!

I have not been visiting my frens' blog too. In a glance there are so many stories I miss out. Gotta start mingling in the blogging world again!

Cerita terkini

2008-11-04T07:53:00.007+03:00

Gosh...it has been more than a month since I last wrote in my blog. Cerita pun macam dah basi je. he he.....I thought that when the kids started school, I would have more time in the morning, but the again when school started, things became quite hectic at home. What do u expect after 4 months of pure leisure and laziness! So here's some bits and pieces, juz for the record....

1. Haekal's first year at school
Haekal started his first year at school on 18 Oct 2008. He is in KG1. There are about 10 other kids in the class. On the first few days of school, he shed many quiet tears, put up his sad face and keep asking me, "can I not go to school, why do I have to go to school" questions...Susah jugak nak convince him on why he has to go to school...I think he misses his moments with PS2 very much! Alhamdulliah, now, Haekal is enjoying school. In fact Im surprised that he is quite talkative in his class! Im relieved that he is doing well in school and most of all that he likes going to school. Lega!

2. Rain!
Yesterday was the first time I experienced heavy rain in Saudi. Mot of us, yg dah lama tak nampak hujan, were sms-ig each other excitedly about the rain. The locals lagi lah, I had the chance to go out for a while yesterday and it was an amazing sight to see- most kids are playing in the rain sampai basah kuyup. Many adults are standing at the pavement, watching the rain (I think they wish they can play in the rain as well!)and with only 2 hours of light rain, the roads were flooded causing quite a massive jam. You see, here there are no drains at all. Therefore when it rains, water has no where to flow. Tu la terus jadi banjir kilat. Here's sum photos I snatched yesterday using my mobile...

3. Winter is definitely here!
Since last week, temperature has been going down and it is getting cooler by the day. Im loving every minute of it coz I luv the weather tho it does looks gloomy outside. At night, it is about 17C and during the day about 20C. yesterday, I wuz busy mengeluarkan long johns, jackets and sweater from the luggage bag. The days are getting shorter, now magrib is at 5.10pm. People are expecting that this year winter is going be quite extreme....Kita tunggu dah lihat k!

4. US election
Believe it or not, I'm hooked on the US presidential campaign. Somehow I found it interesting and entertaining! Kat msia tak pernah pun mengikuti perkembangan politics but now I watch CNN on daily basis! It is really interesting to see the media/internet coverage on both candidates, the way they are campaigning, the humor and the sarcasm on the elections. It is like watchinga TV soaps esp. news on Sarah Palin! Tomorrow it will be a big day and hopefully the right man will win! Hint Hint, I luv Blue! heh..heh....

Summary Syawal @ Riyadh 1429

2008-10-18T12:25:00.011+03:00

It has been 18 days since 1st of syawal, therefore I hope my short summary on our syawal celebration here belum 'basi' lagi :-)

Gotta admit, of late I have been spending my time in facebook, uploading raya pics, commenting and tagging pics etc etc...sampai ter-ignore my beloved blog here.

Alhamdulilah, our second year celebrating syawal here tetap meriah and meaningful. Kemeriahan Hari raya terasa seperti di msia except minus our families and relatives.
We didnt miss the usual raya dishes coz semuanya ada! This year we also had takbir raya session on the night before Eid, at arina's house, so amat terasa ke syahduan 1 syawal.

1st Syawal
This is the first time we got to celebrate pagi raya at the Malaysian Embassy in Riyadh. It was a simple celebration, yet makes us feel at home with the raya dishes like rendang, satay and lagu raya yang tak berhenti berkumandang. Off course another thing that makes you feel like you are in msia was to see friends in their colorful baju melayu and baju kurung minus the arbaya!

2nd Syawal
On second day of Syawal,we joined with two other friends, Arina and Ayu and held an open house.As our apartment is very the comel, venue is at Arina's house. We estimated there will be about 150++ guests. I prepared rendang ayam, kurma daging, kuah kacang and nasi minyak. Arina and ayu prepared almost 1000 cucuck of satay! Mlm raya we all beramai ramai tolong arina cucuk satay sambil bertakbir. For all of us , it was our first experience cucuk satay, selalu order and makan je! Other dishes prpared by arina and ayu were lontong, mee rebus, nasi himpit and of course kuih and biskut raya. Alhamdulilah ramai kawan kawan yang datang and it was a success. I bet our families would sure be amazed to know that we managed to cook all the dishes by ourselves (without maid mind you!) and managed to host an event like that. Kalau kat msia, sure catering je!!

3rd and 4th Syawal
We decided to hit the beaches during the raya hols. Here most companies are off for 2weeksfor Eid. Cuti raya for govt is 3 weeks! Hebatkan? Unfortunately lan dapat cuti 2days je. Uhuks! Fortunately dapat jugak we all bawak our kids to the northern region-Dammam, Jubail and Al Khobar. These places are famous for the beaches. It was only a 4hrs drive from Riyadh and we went with Arina/Zainal and masetura/LJ families. The kids had super fantastic time and I luv Jubail!! It has a beautiful and clean beach. Rasa peaceful sangat. We all took our sweet time, lepaking at the beach and on the second day, picniking at Al Khobar corniche (waterfront). we will definitely go there again soon!

5th syawal
Life is back to normal.... I have gained like 2 kilos, hu hu....thks to moreh during ramadan and raya open house gatherings. Gotta start exercising! Am trying to get hubby to buy me a threadmill ;-)

Psst,If you wanna see more pics,juz go to my facebook profile k :-)

1 Syawal 1429

2008-10-01T02:12:00.003+03:00

Dapatkan Mesej Bergambar di Sini

MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN, DENGAN INGATAN TULUS IKHLAS DARI KAMI SEKELUARGA.

Shopping after 12am

2008-09-22T08:24:00.004+03:00

In Riyadh, during the Ramadan month, most shops remain closed in the morning. All food outlets are also closed during the day and they only start business after the Asr prayer which is about 4.30pm.

Only after the terawih prayers, you can see people flocking out the streets, cars jamming the roads and shopping malls bustling with business. This scenario will normally start after 9.30pm.(after terawih prayers) As the shops opened only in the evening, most shops stay opened till 2am!

Today I had the privilege of go to Aloweis market or the arab souk with my ladies friends(zura & nani). They wanted to find some scarfs to bring back as souvenirs for their friends back in msia as they ar going back for hari raya. We went out at 11pm (zura hubby drove us there and become or body guard, he he...) and we were surprised that the street are jam packed with cars and it is not even the weekend! Looks like the people here are the same as us in msia. shopping for Eid/Raya is a must!

Arab souk is a place where u can find lots and lots of arbayas, ladies clothes and nick knacks(now you can also buy mercun and bunga api (fireworks) there. It is like any bazaar in malaysia. Parking spaces are crowded(that's why hubby does not like going there) U have to bargain the price to get value for money and there are always so many people there!

I wish I could take pitures of the souk but here picture taking in public places are usually prohibited. You can go to jail or that! Even if we took photos outside or in the mall,usualy sorok sorok je with our hp.

Today we enjoyed our escapade as we went out without the kids. We walked in into all the shops we fancy, checked out the arbaya latest fashions (so many, rambang mata!) and my friends got to buy the souvenirs they wanted.

We didn't realised that its was already 1.30am when we finally went back to car! The Souk is still bustling with people. Even at that time, trafic were quite heavy and shops are still open for business. I arrived home at 2am, grinning sheepishly at my hubby :-)

Like my friend suza said, it seemed like in Riyadh, during ramadan month, malam jadi siang and siang jadi malam. I can't agree more! I still feel amazed that we can shop at the wee hours of the day. No wonder mornings are very quiet! Everyone is catching up on their sleep during the day ;-P

Mixed feelings

2008-09-19T02:47:00.003+03:00

Starting this week, most of my friends are busy packing and buying souvenirs for families and friends as the are going back for hari raya in Msia. Our daily terawih sessions will stop this coming monday too as some has gone back and others will be busy packing. Hu..hu...

Tho they are still lots of my friends who will be celebrating their Eid here, I can't help but feel a little bit down to say goodbye to those going back home! I guess all of us will alwiz connect Hari raya = balik kampung = gathering of families. This will be our second year celebrating Eid in Riyadh. It's not bad actually as there are many open houses and at times you feel like you are in msia except minus your family and close relatives.

Truth is I am relieved that we are not going back to Msia for Eid this year as I cannot imagine hari raya without my dear mom. This will be our first hari raya without her. I cannot imagine raya without eating her main dishes that shecooked for us every year..nasi minyak, rendang, ayam masak ros etc etc...I cannot imagine that we all tak dapat salam tangan our mother pagi raya. I cannot imagine not eating her yummy home made cookies she made for us, in short, I just cannot imagine Hari raya without her presence.

But on the other hand, raya does makes u think about home, about being with families and about all those dishes and kuih raya back home. So feeling a little bit homesick today..and hence I'm posting this in my blog. (I also think its my time of the month, that's why feeling melodramatic again!)

Anyway, being me I will make the best of it coz I want my kids to have a wonderful Hari raya no matter where we are. I already bought some bunga api and pop pop for them (yep, u can buy em here!) and in a few days time I'll start my biskut raya project! Insyallah it will be another great syawal for us and for all of you!

Ramadan and RTM

2008-09-12T23:59:00.003+03:00

It has been 13 days since Ramadan. Alhamdulilah, so far so good. Puasa kali ni lebih bermakna and meriah for our family compared to last year as this year we have terawih prayers with friends on daily basis. My kids are having the time of their life I think as since the start of puasa, we sleep only after subuh prayers i.e abt 5am. On some days even haekal fasted coz he woke up at 4pm, by the time mandi etc, its already 6pm and time to buka puasa!

As for me I dun want to tell what time I wake up (malu!) ample to say once I wake up, its time to cook the dishes, to make some kuihs or snacks for buka puasa and moreh and in between clear the laundry and do some homey stuffs.

Apart from that, I'm so glad that we can watch RTM 1 and RTM 2 on TV here in Riyadh. During Ramadan month both channels run on 24hrs. With the time difference of 5 hrs boleh jugak catch up lots of the programs shown.

I know back home, we never watch RTM at all!! But here, RTM is like having Astro ceria u know! Esp. during ramadan time, I'm like hooked on RTM- kononya baru la ada "feel" ramadan di Msia, watching cooking programs, religious/Al quran program, iklan ramadan and drama drama ramadan. Of late they keep on showing ramadan based drama that are quite touching, my kids will be laughing at me when I wipe my tears while watching these dramas. Ha ha...

Gotta to admit the dramas/programs shown on RTM 1/2 is not as canggih as those dramas on Astro or TV3 ! I dun know why, somehow the programs showns on these channels are like B or C rated. But beggars can't be chosers! At least time Raya nanti dapat jugak tengok drama Raya and special movies. (crossing my fingers they will shown some new malay movies) while we eat our rendang and nasi himpit :-)

Ramadan 1429

2008-09-02T04:55:00.004+03:00

Alhamdullilah, Ramadan datang lagi.This is our second year fasting in Riyadh. Although Ramadan here is not as "meriah" as in Msia, I'm glad that this year we could join our friends to do our terawih prayers. The plan is to rotate the terawih prayers within our homes and off course the children and orang bujang luv the moreh (sajian kuih muih and drinks)after that! Terasa jugak la macam kat msia...

Some facts on Ramadan here are:

1. Off course takde bazar ramadan dengan jualan kuih muih and lauk pauk berbagai variasi.

2. Tho the roads are light up with lamps etc, kat shopping malls takde la promotion besaran besaran jualan Ramadan or Raya. (Shopping malls and shops here don't play any music in their stores- so no humming lagu raya masa shopping!)

3. Terawih prayers in the mosque are attended mostly by men only. Not many ladies goes for terawih prayers here. Also there are very few mosques that accommodate ladies during the Ramadan month.

4. Terawih prayers here are normally done in 8 rakaat and without bacaan selawat.

5. Office hours are reduced to 6 hours. They start at 10am and by 3pm-4pm its over! Most arabs don't turn up after zohor!

6. Last but not least, no big promotions on Buka Puasa buffet! (that Im thankful coz I feel back home, the buffet is over promoted and overly priced!)

This year is it also an advantage for the kids as they are still on their summer holidays. I'm glad coz its not that tiring for them compared to last year. In fact they are having a blast I think! They stayed up till Sahur time, sleep after Subuh 4.15am) and wake up at 1pm-2pm. By 6.15pm, it's already buka puasa time! Syafiq and Nadia said they feel fresh during these two days of fasting and they wonder why!

As for me, the start of Ramadan, makes me think so much of my late mom. This is our first Ramadan without her. Still feeling the big chunk of emptiness whenever I realised she is not around anymore. I still remember dulu boleh jugak call tanya mak masak apa hari ni or asked her for recipes....sigh..I really miss her so much....

Apart from that, I can foresee that I'll be craking my brain on what to cook and kuih apa nak buat on daily basis :-)
Please note that the kuih are only during my rajin mood days!

Till then, Wishing all muslims a blessed Ramadan and dun eat too much during your buka puasa time ;-)

Juz a little update

2008-08-28T12:53:00.010+03:00

As usual I alwiz feel a little bit guilty when I have not post anything for a while...off late our life starts at midday so it feels like we only have half day je. Memang malas dah tahap gaban/maksimum kata orang!

Also of late we have not been anywehere that is interesting enuff to shout about in the blog. Most of the time,we are at home (im ok with that actually coz its too hot outside!) We have small gatherings of makan makan and a few shopping spree with ladies friends.

Summer sales is almost over now as most of the shops dah start selling new arrivals. Sale in Riyadh ni boleh tahan and really worth going for. Its not like sales in msia where the sale stuffs are more or less the same stuffs/clothes from the last sale and the discounts are fixed at 10% 20% or 50% on certain items only. Kat sini usually the sale is on the whole store!

As a start, they will put up a sign that says "25% discount on all items". After 2-3 weeks, u see " 50% discount on all items". Then u see further reductions/price slashed to 75% discount! Memang rasa mcm nak beli semua benda! U can see on the price tag, they normally slashed the price like 3x...for example I bought a nice blouse from Banana Republic. Original price was SAR189. Second price was SAR99 and when I bought it it was SAR55. Makes my day!

Just that if u wait longer for the price to go lower, u may not get the size u want. On kids clothes lagi la geram...Mother care, Pumpkin patch, Next, Gap semua sale gile gile...Most clothes are priced at SAR35-50 after discounts. No wonder the arabs here, beli baju pakai trolley. Yep, really, most clothes shops here have trolleys and I have seen a lot of them buying clothes penuh trolley. Too much money to spend I guess!

Tu belum lagi cerita on designer labels. I can't tell much about it coz I dun shop these items :-) But from what I heard, they price after discount memang worth it!

Till then, a few days to go till Ramadan. I am looking forward to it - dah lama perut ni tak rest, asyik makan je. Also good time to focus on Ibadah. Need to search for recipes for kuih muih traditional too for buka puasa...no bazar ramadan here, u want,u cook! Let see if I can overcome my fear of buat kuih traditional yg nampak senang nak buat tapi susah nak jadi...among those in my list, kuih lapis, kuih seri muka and kuih talam. Wish me luck! Till then.....

123 Booktag

2008-08-18T18:20:00.009+03:00

Firstly I'm so excited about this. This is the first time I've been tagged in a blog. Thanks to Fadhil. Secondly I'm curious as a cat to see how it's gonna turn out.

~Start Copy Here~

Instructions:
1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences after the tag chain.
5. Spread this tag to as many people as you can.

Book Tag Chain: 1) Only The Good Stuff, 2) What Simply Works 3) Reflexes 4) A Great Pleasure 5) Color It Green 6) Emila’s Illustrated Blog 7) Just Observations...
8)Nurie 9) You’re next

~End Copy Here~

I chose Daughters of Arabia by Jean Sasson.

Just finished reading it 2 weeks ago. It is actually a sequel of her first book, Princess which is based on a true story of a royal princess in Saudi Arabia. The book is banned here as it exposed the women's lives behind the veil inside the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Here are the three sentences after the fifth sentence.

While in Geneva, Lawand has disgraced her family by becoming involved with several young men. In addition to her sexual involvements, Lawand had become addicted to cocaine. While moving secretly out of her room one evening, Lawand was captured by the head-mistress who called her father in Saudi Arabia,with a demand that he come and collect his wayward child.

Hmmm....intriguing? Go and get the book! By the way, I'm going to tag Swahili

Masuk angin

2008-08-15T01:25:00.004+03:00

Yesterday Haekal made me laugh with his innocent remark. Before I go into the story, let me remind you that here, food like biscuits and keropok stay crispy for days (tak masuk angin kata orang tua) even without putting them in an airtight container coz the humidity is very high.

So last night, Haekal took a cream cracker biscuit from the kitchen table. It has been lying there on the plate since morning.

I asked him if it is still crispy.

He took a bite and said yes.

I said to him, bagus la tak tak masuk angin.

He then replied :

RUMAH KITAKAN SEMUA TINGKAP TUTUP, TU LA TAK MASUK ANGIN!

I just cracked up!!

Makkah, 7-8 August 2007

2008-08-14T22:23:00.015+03:00

View from 2nd floor of Masjidil Haram,after Fajr prayer.

Alhamdulilah we all sefamily dapat buat umrah sekali lagi last weekend. This time we all convoy dengan family mus/dina and Meor/zura. There were 11 kids altogether so the kids had lots of fun this time :-)

Malaysians kat sini normally travel to Makkah on weekends. We will start our journey on Wednesday nite about 9pm. Makkah is about 800km from Riyadh and the journey will take about 8 hrs if you are driving abt 140km per hr. 140 speed kat sini kira dah slow...most cars on the highway pecut like 180, maklum la kereta power semuanya! Usually By fajr we will arrive at Taif and after our fajr prayers we will drive to Miqat-Sail Al Khabir untuk niat umrah. Then we proceed to Makkah (which is about 40 mins away), check in our hotel (which is usualy about 15mins walk to Masjidil haram) and proceed to do our umrah.

Highway into Makkah

Makkah town

We normally aim to start our umrah in the morning,the earlier the better as it is not that hot. This time we started at about 9am. However masa summer ni, pukul 8 pagi pun panas terik, so we just have to braced ourselves in the sun and quietly concentrate on the tawaf, instead of focusing on the heat. Syukur kali ni, masa buat tawaf, it was not that crowded therefore we completed our tawaf in about half and hour.

For Saie, we did it on the second floor this time. As masjidil haram is still on renovation, the ground floor is very crowded and filled with dust. This is the first time we did saie on the second floor, and to our surprise, it is very peaceful and cooling. Alhamdulilah we completed our saie nicely and the kids had the best time running between Marwah and safa and none of the kids complained they are tired!

Saie on the ground floor-the crowd reminds me of Hajj time

After we completed our tahlul, we treat the children (adult too, cant resist the temptation!)ice cream! Nothing beats the sweet cool sensation of having ice cream on a hot day!

The men posing with their oman kopiah - sempat shopping at night after isyak prayers.

Friday afternoon, we headed back to Riyadh. Along the highway Riyadh-Makkah-Riyadh and amist the desert there are a lot of petrol stations cum resting places. But before you go ahhh...do know that these so call rest areas are not like our R&R in Msia...kalau tak biasa, u cant even stand in front of the toilet! Sad to say hygine is not in their dictionary here..our motto, act as tho u smell nothing, see nothing!! Horror I tell you..kalau tak emergency memang tak pegi toilet. Tempat makan, are normally for singles only and they only serves drinks and nasi kabsa. There are only a few restaurants with family seating areas. But at night, tak ramai orang, so we ladies boleh la jugak lepak kat luar kedai, bersantai dengan angin dari padang pasir...

A typical petrol station/rest area. Petrol station kat sini tak canggih macam kat msia

Lepak kat luar kedai makan ala ala berpiknik gitu

Insyallah hope to go again for umrah during Ramadan or in the near future. One thing about Makkah, once you have been there, you want to go again and again... :-)

Syafiq!

2008-08-05T08:46:00.009+03:00

Syafiq is the smart elect in the family. Besides his obsession in PS2 and PSP games, he is very much interested in National Geographic and Discovery Science. I'm quite impressed with his general knowledge, he knows a lot about animal species esp. reptiles, space and sciece theories. One of his ambition is to be an explorer.The funny thing is he wants Nadia to teman him in the jugle coz he said he is afraid to be in the jungle alone!

The farewell card he created for Mak nek and Pak nek.

He also likes to crack jokes and at times he can irritates you as well with his sarcasm! At the same time he can also be so sweet and sensitive...he always said "if I'm big like ayah, I will send you to the spa so you can relax and have a good massage" aww...my heart just melt at that!

Anyway, here's a few picture of Syafiq that just crack me up every time I look at them taken a few weeks ago. Trust Syafiq to come up with such eccentric,funny and creative ideas!

My friends over the years....

2008-07-27T22:56:00.006+03:00

Eleanor Roosevelt.

I am fortunate that along the years I have met a lot of good friends,some friends I have known since my primary and secondary schools. Friendships that are still going on strong with each passing years and across the miles...I have shared a lot of wonderful great moments with these friends and also difficult and sad times.

Therefore I cant help but felt somewhat a bit depressed today when I received a sms from a good friend of mine that she has an early stage of ovarian cancer. She is a strong gal and I'm glad she is doing well despite the fact that she is still recovering from her operation and had to go for another operation in the next two weeks. In addition she also has to undergo chemo therapy. Listening to her just now, laughing and making jokes...I felt her strength and I really respect her for just being her! My prayers are with her and I know she will get thru the dugaan given her positive outlook on life...

The thing is after talking to her this morning I started to think about my friends and how our lives turned out...alhamdulillah some of us are happy, in good health and spreading their wings high. But for some life is not that smooth along the way. I have friends who are now single moms, struggling thru life to make ends meet. I have friends who are kind hearted,great personality and pretty but still single. I have friends who have to go thru the headache of their love ones having another affair after years of happy marriage. I have friends who have lost, loved and broken hearted.

It's amusing that somehow as we grew older our lives dah jadi macam drama minggu ini. I myself never imagine that I would lost my beloved mom so soon. Those scenes from some movies tiba tiba jadi reality in our world, within our families and friends. So we can say that the disclaimer "cerita ini adalah rekaan semata mata" mungkin tak 100% betul huh!

But then again, despite having said all this, me and I know my friends out there still counts their blessings coz these are great and strong women.Despite what they went thru, they still brings cheers to those around them, they still smile and they continue to rule the world! My friends, you know who you are.Carpe Diem, seize the day and Live Life! I just feel so blessed that I am your friend.

Searching for identity or....

2008-07-23T01:49:00.002+03:00

As some of you may noticed, of late I have been changing the layout of my blog. I'm not sure why, perhaps I searching for an 'identity' to label my space here, perhaps I'm a fickle minded person (hmm...) or perhaps I just like to try new things.

Actually I think I'm the type of person who can't stick to a routine. (fortunately I'm very loyal to my love ones and friends!)Let me list down some examples here:

1. When I used to drive to work, at least once a fortnite, I must change my route just for the fun of it. My reason; simply becoz I like to change my scenery while I drive.

2. I can't work for 2 months straight without taking leave or medical leave(selsema sikit pun dah good excuse for me!)I just had to break my routine of going to work continuously! ha..ha...please take note that I do delivered my work professionally ok, alwiz had above average appraisals ;-)

3. I cannot stick to one brand when it comes to toiletries such as shampoos, bath gel, facial wash, moisturizer etc etc..even if I have a favourite brand, I will rotate the type (eg. citrus bath gel this month, green tea bath gel next month)

4. I had this problem of turning up to classes everyday without fail since my university days. There are days when I was already on the bus, with my books in hand and suddenly this little voice will said to me, why dun you have a break, you have been to those lectures for one week in a row. So I will get down half way and do some window shopping instead. (so teruk huh! Luckily I graduated!)

I could go on and on...even when it comes to bigger decision like where to stay, I feel blessed that we have moved about during the past years. 6 years in Kuching, 4 years in KL and now in Riyadh. I'm looking forward to maybe after 1-2 years, we will moved again to somewhere interesting.

Luckily I'm not the type who get bored easily with clothes, handbags,shoes, perfume or watches. Hubby sure pengsan kalau camtu! I usually have 2 pairs of shoes and will wear them till they are worn out. Handbags pun kalau dah suka tu, pakai yg sama je. Clothes lagi la, I dun really fancy shopping for clothes esp now that its quite hard to find a size that fit me nicely.Ha..ha...

So now back to my blog layout, until I'm satisfied or till I find my blogger identity (is there such thing?!) you may find something new on it or it may stay the same...I hope it doesn't gives you headaches! Instead, I do hope it makes a pleasant surprise :-)

Resipi Laksa Penang

2008-07-21T17:18:00.007+03:00

This post is specially dedicated to Swahili :-)

This is my version of Laksa Penang.Recipe ni I got it from arwah my mom. Dah lama tak buat laksa coz here as I mentioned in my earlier post takde daun kelsum and bunga kantan. Without these two ingredients, the kuah will not be kaw kaw punya.

Bahan bahan

1 packet of laksa noodles
*In Riyadh you can get laksa from Msia in Panda)

1 kilo of fish (selalu orang pakai ikan kembung, i prefer to use ikan selar kuning, more tasty for me)

Daun kelsum
Bunga kantan
1 biji bwg merah
5-6 biji cili kering/cili merah (depends on how pedas you like the kuah to be)
1 inch of belacan
5-6 asam keping

For garnishing
Timun
Nenas
Telur rebus
Mint leaves
Cili api
Otak udang (if you like)

Now the cooking part

1. Rebus laksa in a big pot of water sampai lembut. Jgn terlalu lembik, nanti tak sedap.Ikut step mcm rebus spagetti.

2. Rebus ikan dgn air. I usually put a few asam keping untuk hilangkan bau ikan.

3. Once ikan dah masak, take out all the tulangs and ambik isi je.

4. Blend isi ikan.(campur sikit dgn air ikan tadi)

5. Blend half of the daun kelsum, bunga kantan,onion,cili and belacan. (B)

6. Then heat the pot, pour in the fish and the blended ingredients(B). Add some water, not too much coz nanti cair sgt. U can add water later if kuah terlalu pekat.

7. Put in asam keping, garam and a little bit sugar. (ikut cita rasa masing masing)

8. Add in remainder of daun kelsum and if you like bunga kantan too.

9. Biar sampai mendidih, kalau kuah dah rasa masam take out the asam keping coz it will make your kuah extra masam kalau biar lama.

10. SIAP!!

Usually my kuah will be thick coz i blend the daun kesum and bunga kantan. For me it's more tasty. Normally kalau kat kedai, they will just boil the daun kelsum and bunga kantan together with the kuah.

Thats it!!! Sapa sapa yg try, let me know k and kalau boleh hantar sample sekali! ha..ha...!!!!

ps - those pics are taken from photobucket, not my laksa dish!

99th floor @ Kingdom Tower

2008-07-17T11:44:00.012+03:00

As we are most unlikely to go back to msia for a holiday this summer, I plan to visit more places i Riyadh. However as it is too hot to visit the desert or the zoo, my targets would be shopping malls in Riyadh. Heh..heh....interesting huh!

So last week we actually went to Kingdom Tower, the tallest building in Riyadh, maybe in Saudi too. As you will notice later in the pictures, saudi does not have many skyscappers like other cities...so the tower is a main tourist attraction even among the local people. Kingdom Tower has 99th floor. To get to the top, first we had to take the lift to 77th floor, then change the lift to go up to 99th floor which is the sky bridge.

Extending 65 meter in length, the Sky Bridge which is a steel structure weighting about 300 tons sits on top of the 300 meter height tower, rising 918 meter above sea level and overlooking the whole of Riyadh, its unique position gave it the advantage of being one of the most important attraction point for tourism in KSA.

The trip to the sky bridge passes through two elevators, first elevator will take about 50 seconds to reach the height of 180 meter to the Transfer level, and second elevator will take less than 40 seconds to reach its final destination the Sky Bridge.

Unfortunately the day we went up there , it was hazy so we couldn't realy took clear pictures of the view. Usualy it becomes hazy when there is a sand storm in the desert.Frust jugak....Anyway it was a wonderful experience jus being up there, enjoying the view for miles and miles away....

On the ground floor, they call it Al Mamlaka,reminds me of Suria KLCC. Two anchor tenants are Saks Fifth Avenue and Debenhams. Most shops are designer boutiques such as D&G, Coach, Aigner,Emporio Armani etc etc...which we all rasa segan nak masuk coz we know sure tak kena layan punya!

Al Mamlaka also host Ladies only floor (2nd floor) Here, ladies can put aside their arbayas and tudung and walk freely as no men are allowed. It is fully managed by females and contains over 40 stores. There are a lot of cafes too for the ladies to lepak with their friends. It was a weird feeling to see ladies wearing normal and colorful clothes with their hair down coz all this while it has alwiz been all black for us!(I'm sure most guys are wishing they can sneak up there to see arabs chics! ha..ha...)

Pictures below from www.kingdomcentre.com.sa

Riyadh Galery Mall

2008-07-16T23:46:00.004+03:00

Last week, we went to one of the newest mall in Riyadh, Riyadh Galery Mall.(Shopping malls are growing like mushrooms here) We luv the mall coz it's totally different from the rest- new retail shops, more seating areas and best of all they have a beautiful landscape on the ground floor with water fountains and plants. When we were there, at the centre court, terlupa sekejap kepanasan kat luar tu :-)

I was also surprised to see that in the mall, people actually sit in mix areas as here normally at food court and cafes, there are segregation between singles (men) and families. At last, boleh jugak ladies and families have a good cuppa on the terrace.

Definitely my fav mall for now!

Air Guitar, anyone?

2008-07-07T16:43:00.005+03:00

Last night, me and hubby discovered something new,a new vocabulary for us - AIR GUITAR. We were about to go to sleep about 2am when I switched channels for last check on any interesting shows coz I was not feeling sleepy yet and there was this movie/documentary titled - Air Guitar Nation. (found out today after I googled it that it was an award winning documentary released in 2006)

At first we were laughing coz it was funny to see those contestants playing their imaginary guitars like a rock star. Hubby of course being musician says its crazy way for people who cannot play guitars to feels like they can play.

Bu strangely enuff, we were hooked to the show till 4am! Ha ha....It was quite interesting actually (of course strangely funny and amusing) to see contestants acting like a real rock star on stage playing an imaginary guitar, and u should see their outfits-outrageous! The documentary/movie was about finding the 1st US air guitar champion to compete in the Air Guitar World championship in Finland(dun play play...its a yearly event you know, watched by thousand of people from all over the world)

C. Diddy (David Jung), a samurai warrior clad in a Hello Kitty breast plate and red kimono was the US champion and proceed to become the winner of the Air Guitar championship in Finland. Despite his comical appearance he is entertaining and ada gaya when he perform. Check out this video! Kelakar gile!

My first attempt masak Laksam (Laksa Kelantan)

2008-07-03T00:11:00.005+03:00

As most of u know, I'm from Penang so naturally my favourite laksa is Laksa Penang. I'm drooling while typing this! Sayangnya kat Riyadh ni u can't get Daun kelsum and Bunga kantan to make the kuah, so dkat setahun I tak makan laksa penang! Fortunately this year I was able to savour laksa penang a few times...thanks to my friends like nani and elin who alwis have their daun kelsum and bunga kantan stock frozen for the occasion.

Anyway, back to the laksam story, my second fav laksa is Laksam or laksa kelantan. Its my hubby's fav too. Kalau pegi pasar malam, sure pesan laksam. After almost one year tak makan laksam, one day imagine my delight when in one of the makan makan event, I saw laksam! It was sooo delicious and best of all it was made by a good friend, Arina. (selama ni tak tahu pun dia orang Kelate!) On popular demand, she had a gathering at a house last month to show us how to make laksam.

The kuah is not so hard to make as it is quite similar to laksa penang. Just that laksam ada santan.It's the mee that need your TLC and kesabaran yg tinggi as u have to kukus piece by piece! With my so call periuk kukus lagi la,had to use small plates so u can imagine how long it took us to get a that much of mee in that tupperware! But it was worth it!! My first attempt ada kureng sikit as the sauce is not that thick. My mother inlaw pun hepi dapat belajar buat laksam when she was in Riyadh. I heard she already made laksam in KL!Wah...Hebat huh!

Kat bawah ni I copy and paste the recipe for kuah laksam from Arina's email. Org yg dah pro macam Arina ni, masak semua pakai agak agak je, so sorry la takde sukatan ye!

-bawang merah (banyak)
-bawang putih (sikitje)
-halia (amat sikit)....
-asam keping
-serai (diketuk)
-kerisik (I didnt use kerisik)
-santan (kalau kurang santan, ikan jadi tak sebati ngan kuah, akak haritu pakai santan 600gm utk 2 kg ikan)
-lada hitam
-garam
-gula
-ikan ( direbus ngan air yg sikit , letak garam sikit, api perlahan)

Cara2:

1.Blend bawang merah, putih,halia, lada hitam, masukkan dalam santan

2.Ikan rebus tadi diasingkan isi dan tulang, blend berasingan,...masukkan isi ikan dan air tulang kedlm santan yg sama...
.....tulang jangan....susah nanti cari klinik....

3.Masukkan yg lain2tu ke dalam santan...maka bolehlah direbus hingga mendidih
.....mak pesan, toksah masak lama sangat kot2 pecah minyak nanti kurang sedap
....tapi akak tak puas hati, jadi apa akak buat, rebus dulu semua tadi ngan santan yg cair skit.
...bila dah didih baru akak masukkan santan pekat dan masak lagi hingga didih.....
...semua bahan sebati dan betul2 masak dan santan pun tak pecah minyak ..yabadabadoo!

As for the mee laksam, caranya is just cairkan tepung beras dgn air, susah nak bagi anggaran berapa liter air but it has to be cair mcm air (ha ha!!)

Then kukus dalam piring/talam kecil for 3 minutes. Angkat and gulung. Dah sejuk sket, gunting. Begitu lah kira kiranya...

But I bet for those of u in Msia, its much easier for u guys to just go to pasar malam or gerai makcik and beli 2-3 bungkus laksam kan!!

*Click on the pictures to see comments*

:-(

2008-06-30T22:41:00.004+03:00

They said life has to go on.......but somehow part of your life comes to a full stop when you lost your love ones.

"And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
Kahlil Gibran

Lazy summer days

2008-06-27T18:44:00.004+03:00

I have been ignoring my blog for quite sometime now and I feel guilty about it. I kept thinking of updating my blog with this story and that story....and yet it remains at that. I suck at blogging!!

Actually almost every nite I will have some tots about; I have to write this in my blog, put this picture bla bla bla...but when it comes to next day, I'm stuck with either house works or err..facebook. Yep, I must admit, I'm addicted gile to it! Its pathetic really coz I'm like practically hanging out in facebook, poking friends, kononya sending them sweet gifts etc etc...but it does make me happy. heh..heh...

Anyway, as the title suggested, after my parent in law went back on 14 June, 2008, I had been like so lazy. Rasa malas je nak buat apa apa...nak masak pun takde mood and no idea. Kesian my kids, I feel like I'm not setting a good example to them.

Basically our routine at home since they started their summer hols are somewhat like :

Usually bangun tido at 11am.
Breakfast between 11am to 12 noon. In between that, I have to check facebook and emails. Also tried to catch up with my frens on YM before they leave their office. (yeah..and they said they are working hard!he..he...)
Then I cook lunch and we try to have lunch at 2pm.
Between 2pm - 6pm, it s like tak tau buat apa time...kids will be lying on the floor, looking at ceilings, at times they watch TV, played their games, internet and gaduh sesama sendiri.
After magrib/isyak(depends on how late we had lunch) prepare for dinner and watch TV.
If hubby works on day shift stimes we go out to malls. If not just lepak at home. Interesting huh!

In between all these off course I'll be on and off surfing the net. Also tried to teach my kids something but usually it will last only like 15 mins!

Off course must mention for the past few weeks, weekends had been full with makan makan gathering. I'm not complaining but the food spread are increasing dangerously and the are like so many variety of food that u must try. How am I gonna loose any weight!!

Just the other day, I was talking to my fren (she has been living in Riyadh for 5 years) about how bad I feel no doing anything worthwhile in my free time..she said that's normal here. Musim panas rasa malas, musim sejuk rasa malas,so conclusion is sepanjang tahun rasa malas. Ooucchh!

Katak di bawah tempurung

2008-06-08T16:19:00.005+03:00

Saturday morning, hubby, Nadia and my parent in law went to Madinah for the weekend. They were on the 5.25am flight. They are coming back tonite. So me and my boys got the home for ourselves the whole day yesterday and today.

I can claimed that yesterday was my laziest day ever! The three of us watch TV, surfed the net, the boys played their games, I watched TV again and that's about it! I actually felt like we were the only people on earth at times! You know, those houses that have something like a basement with stock of food in case there was an emergency...well, I felt like we were living in that scenario yesterday and even today.

The thing is my apartment is at the back, so our windows open up to walls.(sad huh!) So we cant see whats happening with the outside world. Thats why tiba tiba teringat pulak, pepatah macam katak di bawah tempurung....he he...

Today have to be a bit rajin la, have to kemas rumah,do the laundry and get dinner ready for them. At least the time flies when you are doing chores :-)

Tomorrow by hook or by crook I HAVE to go out!! Need to see the world and people before I go nuts.

Long hot summer days...

2008-06-05T00:25:00.007+03:00

After 2 weeks of acting as the tuition teacher to Nadia and syafiq (actually more of a garang & nagging guru besar!)I can finally breathe freely now that their exams are over. Yahoo!!Yay!!Yea!

If only they knew how lazy I was during my school days..sometimes I do feel that being parents you tend to tell little white lies to your children (or it is juz me?) hoping to instill in them some good values. Such as....

a) Mama dulu kalau exam, mesti dah ready awal awal...bukan last minute mcm u all ni (last minute is my fav thing till my univ days!)

b) Dulu mak mama tak payah pun leter kat mama suruh study...I know when I have to study.. .(yeah..rite!)

c) mama dulu tak pernah dapat marks teruk....mostly As je. (Biggest lie ever!)

Gosh, typing these I can really feel my cheeks getting very warm....hope they will not read this till they graduate!

On another note, It is also the start of their long summer holidays. They are actually having 4 months off!! The new term will starts only on October 11th, 2008. Now when I think of 120 days of hot summer days in Riyadh...I'm sweating. At least with them at school, with home works and sum studying to be done, they keep me on my toes. But now with 24hrs x 120 days nak buat apa ye....

most of our frens are going back for hols in msia. For us our fate is yet unknown as hubby is so tied up with work and we just went back last march. I'm praying and hoping that by some sort of miracle we can at least spend one month in Msia instead of spending the whole summer hols in the desert.

One thing for sure I know I have to 'berebut' laptop with the kids as their main activities at home besides watching cartoons, PS2 & PSP is surfing the internet. Mcm kat cyber cafe pulak! Anyway, here's to summer days in Riyadh!!

..and the Idol winner is...

2008-05-22T13:46:00.005+03:00

DAVID COOK!!

Despite counting on David Archuleta to win, I'm happy that David Cook won. He won by 12 million votes!! (Kaya gile orang yg ada share in Idols nih.) He deserves it coz he rocks! As Simon said it last nite - either finalist would have been a worthy winner.

The 2 hours show was entertaining. I had to wake up at 3am to watch it and Im impressed that I did! Now I know why hubby sanggup bangun awal pagi nak tengok bola
;-)

Lucky for me, my good friend, Shamina in KL was also watching the finale as she was on leave.(8am there) So while watching, sms were happily flying between Riyadh and Subang Jaya. Commenting and kutuk-ing the show like nobody's buz!

Had fun watching the idols and kinda sad dah habis...lepas ni nak follow citer apa pulak..not much choice here in Saudi. Maybe I should start my marathon on Prison Break and Grey Anatomy latest season::)

May the best man wins!

2008-05-21T15:56:00.007+03:00

I watched American Idol finals live juz now. Last week I can't decide between the two Davids but after watching the final, my heart goes to.......drum roll plizz!

David Archuleta!!

My heart juz melt listening to him singing all 3 songs. Gifted with a beautiful voice, he is so humbly cute too :-)

David Cook is not bad either, he is a great performer and entertaining, juz that for me personally there are already a few David cook out there...he kinda remind me of Chris Daugthry (must admit I like Daughtry better)

We'll see who the americans will vote tomorrow, in the meantime I'm keeping my fingers cross for Little David! Yea!!!

Haekal is Five!

2008-05-10T22:31:00.008+03:00

Last month, on 23 April 2008, Haekal turned five. We did a small makan makan at our house and bought a cheesecake for him.

At five, Haekal still cakap pelat. He still cant say "K" , it comes out as "T" and he cant say "G", it comes out as "D". However since we came back from KL last march, he can out of the blue pronounce RRrrrr clearly. Wonders!

Example:

Kakak = Tatak

Bagi = Badi

Puding Jagung = Puding Jadung (I alwiz luv it when he said it!)

He is so into games (PS2,PSP, Gameboy and my hp) what can I say, turun temurun from his dad and his bro, syafiq. If u asked him about the characters in Naruto, dragonball or devilmaycry,he knows every single one! He also luv football. Be it on PS2 or in the field.

He is independent, yet still manja. Still drinks his milk from the bottle. Playful, cheeky,loving and funny. He is very attached to his bear. His bear's name is Mr.Grey but he called him Mr.Rey.

Till now we are still unsure if he is left handed or right. When he plays football, he mostly kicked with his left foot but when he plays badminton, he used his right hand! When he write, he uses his left hand. So now, we just let him use which hands he is more comfortable with. Thank god he uses his right hand when eating!

Haekal, You are my sonshine! :-)

I do miss tis space

2008-04-21T00:05:00.002+03:00

I feel like it has been ages since I last blog about my life here...Gonna start soon coz I do miss it.Juz tat I dunno where to start. For a while most things seemed to be at a stand still. Yet the world still revolves and life still goes on. There have been happy moments actually and I felt a bit "tenang"after we came back from Makkah last week. Syukur alhamdulillah.

Bits & pieces"

1. I am still sad. I feel like I have lost my sense of directions somehow.Every time I tot of my mom's kind and smiling face, tears will just fall. Can't help it.I miss her presence so much...
2. I feel lost that I could not share my life story in Riyadh, my kid progress etc etc to my mom like I usually did over the phone since we moved here.
3. At the same time, my kids still makes me laugh and keep me on my toes.
4. Hubby has been supportive of my gloomy moods.*Appreciate it*
5. My parent in laws are here so I trying to be a good menantu ;-)
6. Trying not to wake up so late, now that they are here
7. Laptop at home rosak, so limited time with internet for the past few weeks. Driving me nuts! Cant wait to get a new one. Hubby hope ur reading tis! *wink*
8. Missing my family and friends back home quite a lot lately..
9. Missing kemeriahan di msia too!
10.Berkobar kobar nak update my blog. To share stories and pics with u all :-)

Till then....

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

2008-03-31T22:48:00.003+03:00

The Prophet

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward, not tarries with yesterday.

- Kahlil Gibran

The saddest day

2008-03-31T21:58:00.003+03:00

March 4, 2007 (26 Safar 1429) marked the date I lost my beloved mom. It was unexpected for everyone as she was in good health and I last talked to her just a week before.

I dun really know what to write here. In my mind, there were times when I wanted to write a memorabilia of her coz she is one in a million and how loving and caring she was. Mak raised the four of us mostly on her own as our parents were separated when I was 14 years old. But at times, I wanted to keep those memories all to myself. To hold them tight in my heart....maybe when I'm ready one day...

What I do know is that we miss mak so much coz mak was alwiz there for us, mak never judged us. Mak has always given us her unconditional love that only a mother can give.

Life is not the same after March 4. Yes, I laugh, smile and crack jokes but there is an empty feeling inside.....coz I guess in our life, whatever we do we alwiz want to share it with our mom, you alwiz want your mom approval, you alwiz want your mom to be proud of you and you tot you can give back what she has given to you....

With her passing, a big chunk of me is empty. No matter that we are now mothers ourselves, we are alwiz the little girl when it comes to our mom.....

Mak, you will always be in our doa, semoga Allah sentiasa mencucuri rahmatNya untuk mak.

Mak,you will always stay in our heart....we are what we are because of you.

Kuih Lopes-jadik!!!

2008-02-29T10:36:00.004+03:00

takde daun pisang so pakai aluminium foil and cling film je!

I'm hepi and proud to report that my first attempt to cook kuih lopes menjadik and its so yummy!!

Best of all it is so easy coz pakai microwave je. All these while during my rajin mood, I could not try many recipes on tradional kuihs coz most of the recipes requires you to kukus the pulut and I do not have periuk kukus.(mcm la rajin sangat!)

But now after the success of my kuih lopes via the microwave, yours truly bersemangat nak try other recipes like kuih seri muka. Bila nak buat?heh..heh... dunno yet. Gotta wait for my rajin mode!

For those who wants to try, you can click here- http://www.myresipi.com/top/detail/804. if that doesnt work, go to www.myresipi.com and search for lopes perantau.

Kidz at the feast

2008-02-27T12:01:00.008+03:00

Kidz havin a blast at majlis kesyukuran for Batrisya and Myra!

Ramainya anak anak!

Havin fun with their goodies!

Nadia & Adda - people said they look like sisters!

Ala ala mardi grass theme!

The feast

2008-02-27T11:33:00.004+03:00

Told u all in my last posting that last week, we had makan makan gathering 2 days in a row and all of us were bloated like ikan buntal...Well, call it deja vu if u like but we are having another feasts again today and tomorrow!

Ironically, I meet up with friends here more often than I do with my family back home in Malaysia. Maybe my kids have grown more closer to their friends here than with their cousin. Maybe then, we should have more makan makan gathering during the weekends to bond family ties instead of waiting for raya only??

Another thing about makan makan here, its so easy coz we all pakai paper/plastic plates and utensils. So tak payah nak susah payah basuh pinggan after that and no worries of the need to serve the food on your best china, Pyrex or whatever. In fact bila masak bubur or curry, just put the pot on the table!! HEH..HEH...We alwiz joke tat if our mothers saw the way we serve food here, sure they all horror!

Here are sum pics to drool over.....

Weather report

2008-02-23T17:10:00.002+03:00

last week I tot the cold season is over. Penat je pakai 2 lapis baju and kids with their jackets, kluar rumah panas pulak! In fact it was 25C! Nowadays it is hard to predict the weather....some days it is sunny and warm and other days it is windy and cold! Now it's not so bad coz during the day, the temperature is abt 20-25C. Tapi malam is still bearyyy cold - at 10C. Riyadh is cooler than other places coz Riyadh is at the high grounds

Tho i like the cold season aka masa untuk bermalas malas and tido, I kinda welcome the hot climate back coz I dun tink i can survive longer with all these malas-ness feeling I've been experiencing sepanjang musim sejuk nih. Off course the craving for food increases naturally too!I'm happy to learn that I am not alone coz talking to my frens here, they are all experiencing the same syndrome masa musim sejuk @riyadh. Phew, lega!! Most of them yg biasa bangun pagi, now go back to sleep after the kids and hubby goes to school and work coz it is too cold to do anything.(jangan jeles ye kawan kawan yg still working 9-5 jobs!)

The thing is in our house it's alwiz cold! In fact now I'm still wearing a sweater and a jacket. I'm amazed at my kids tho, they all selamba je in their shorts and t. shirts at home. I guess that's the BIG difference between kids and and aging adults! Our metabolism rate is almost non existence!

Been drinking more coffee these days...average 3 mugs a day. Sigh....me and my caffeine addiction! (I'm beyond help I guess!)It does not help too that of late there have been more than a few makan makan gatherings in riyadh. Last week, we had makan makan gathering 2 days in a row and till today I still feel bloated! The food spread is like super duper hebat (kalah hotel buffet spread!) and of course the ladies esp. have to rasa every single dish/dessert even though your tummy is sayin enuff!enuff!!heh..heh....

At this point, my fingers are feeling almost numb now, sejukkk! ....I think I'm gonna have another mug of nescafe :-)

See ya in my next post!

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-02-13T12:22:00.001+03:00

Road Trip - Jan2008

2008-02-11T23:36:00.027+03:00

Last 3 week, we went for a long road trip. Riyadh-Jeddah-Madinah-Riyadh. It was a wonderful journey and we all enjoyed every moment of it. We went with Onna & family. My kids were so happy coz they have their frens traveling with them :-)

We went to Makkah first to perform Umrah and that the drive was about 8 hrs. We reached Makkah at about 6am. Alhamdulilah at that time , Makkah was not crowded as most of the Hajj pilgrims have gone back. It was really wonderful to be able to complete the tawaf in about 5 mins!

After lunch, we headed to Jeddah. It took us only 1 hr to reach Jeddah. Jeddah is dubbed as Paris of the Middle east....I guess coz Jeddah has lots of romantic venues such as the beach (here you can actually see couples walking hand in hand strolling along the beach - which is rare in Riyadh!))and many fine dining restaurants. My kids were so excited abt Jeddah as they cant wait to go to the beach (the Red Sea) and thats what we did most - lepak at the Corniche or the water front. The beach has clear water and the kids had a blast playing at the beach! Jeddah is an old city, not as modern as Riyadh but I find that people are more relaxed there. You can see hundreds of families having picnic along the beach, even kat tepi jalan or on the roundabout. I kid you not!!

The Corniche, Jeddah

They will sit on their tikar, with their coffee pot and some with their barbeque sets. Looks like people in Jeddah main activities are picniking! Berbeza dgn orang in Riyadh, main activity is spending time and $$$ at the shopping malls! I guess their life is more relaxed and another thing we noticed is that the drivers are not as crazy as drivers in Riyadh!
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Kalau boleh mandi, memang dah terjun dah!

We spend 2 wonderful days and 1 nite in Riyadh, siap ada jamuan makan lagi thanks to hubby's fren, Nizam & family. They lived in a gorgeous compound that make u feel like u are living in US.... With a swimming pool in front of their house...and lovely gardens in the porch..Hmm, we all telan air liur je!

View of Jeddah-Madinah Road

After Jeddah, we then moved on to Madinah. It took us 4 hrs to reached Madinah. This is my second time in Madinah and I luv Madinah! I cant explain it but Madinah gives you a peaceful and wonderful feeling when u r there. Hubby felt the same too. We spend only one day in Madinah (from Sat afternoon to Sun afternoon) tapi of course sempat shopping jugak! (actually too many shops but too little time!!) Sempat jugak beli 2 arbayas...he..he...Seronok shopping in Makkah or Madinah coz almost all the shopkeepers can talk BM!! So senang nak tawar menawar harga.

Masjidil Haram, Madinahimg id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166386816626488322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZgjWQ_sKVoY/R7Kxb-FIdAI/AAAAAAAAAXg/h5NaRiAbLyE/s320/IMGP2315.JPG" border="0" />

Ada Bakso di Madinah!!

In Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah the temperature was pleasant at about 20c. But we when finally reached Riyadh, had "temperature shock" coz the it was very the cold! The temp was about 12 C. So of course balik from the trip we all ber-hibernate......heh..heh....

View of Madinah-Riyadh road