MAMAMIA, HERE WE GO AGAIN....

Final Entry

2010-01-01T16:43:00.004+08:00

Here's my last entry for this blog.

If you are still interested in my ordinary life, do drop by at my Gratitude Journal.

Last but not least, thank you for following my blog and also thanks for allowing me to take a peek into your blogs.

My fondest memories of the past year....are the ones that include you

We hoped for the best, prepared for the worst

2009-12-24T20:49:00.004+08:00

And Alhamdulillah, she's among these happy faces.

Looks like Mamamia kena tambah satu hari lagi utk puasa.

Sedap sangat.....

2009-11-10T16:49:00.003+08:00

Last Friday, Amir requested for spaghetti bologneise nak bawa bekal sekolah. Depending on his mood, kadang-kadang dia nak bawa bekal, if not he'll just buy from the school canteen.

Dia mengadu, dia tak berapa suka bawa bekal, sebab nanti ramai kawan yang minta. Kalau bagi sikit, they all cakap dia kedekut. Alahai, kesian pulak dengar. Ni pun boleh jadi peer pressure. Amir ni is a slow eater compared to kawan-kawan dia. Yang ni I tahu, coz these boys sometimes hang around our house. Bila hidangkan makanan, I notice AMir baru makan separuh, some of these boys dah ask for second helping. Ya lah, budak lelaki tengah naik ..... Kalau sorang dua yang minta sikit bekal dia ok lah, kalau sampai 4, 5 orang, si Amir nak makan apa??? Itu pun, I always ask Amir to bring extra.. Kalau duit belanja, entah dah berapa kali dengar dia cerita kawan dia pinjam seringgit tapi tak berbayar. Sometimes I rasa Amir ni terlalu berlembut dengan kawan-kawan dia.

Anyway.... made the spaghetti sauce, guna resepi paling senang. Always goes down well with the kids. Kalau tanya tukang masaknya, jawapan nya tak tahu, sebab I tak berapa minat spaghetti bologneise. Pernah masak untuk jamuan, & guests seem to like it, tapi tekak melayu I ni susah sikit nak menelannya....

Aimy likes it a lot. That day she complimented my spaghetti. Memang dia makan bertambah-tambah..

"Mmmm, sedap sangat lah Mamamia masak."

My reply " Mestilah sedap, masa masak Mamamia baca Bismillah.."

Aimy, being Aimy always wants to angkat mama dia " Kalau tak baca Bismillah pun, Mamamia masak sedap..."

Ke situ pulak dia... selalu nak puji mama dia...

To put the record straight, I told her " Tak boleh Aimy, tiap kali nak buat apa-apa kita kena baca Bismillah..."

Aimy "A ah lah.. lupa pulak.."

Glad my kids love my cooking yang tak seberapa ni. Hilang penat...

Banyak vs Ramai..

2009-11-06T09:54:00.003+08:00

Anak-anak tengah minggu periksa. Yang best tu, mak nya pun kena buat revision sama...

Kalau tak join sekali, their revision progress will be very the slow.

Nak minum lah, nak pergi toiletlah... Pensil , eraser serba serbi hilang..

Berbekalkan buku ulangkaji BM yg dibeli dari Tesc* dgn harga RM1.90 senaskah, I sat next to Aimy, to monitor her.

Ni soalan senang, lengkapkan ayat dgn perkataan yang diberi. 5 ayat dgn 5 perkataan. Kacangkan???

Sampai soalan No 3, Mamamia perasan Aimy took very long to answer. Dia dah jawab the rests of the 4 questions, 1 question left, with 1 possible answer. So, apa masalahnya??? Masukkan ajelah perkataan tu dlm ayat tu.

Jawapan yg tinggal "tetamu'
Ayat yang nak dilengkapkan : "Banyak ..................... yang hadir pada hari ini."

Being an impatient teacher , Mamamia bersuara " Apa lagi Aimy, isi ajelah perkatan tu dlm ayat tu. Mana ada choice lain lagi...".

Mulalah nak geram ni, tak kan soalan simple cam ni pun tak boleh nak buat.

"Aimy confuse ni..."

" La, apa lagi yg nak confuse. Kan tinggal 1 aje jawapan tu.."

" Kan Mama cakap, kalau 'orang' kita guna 'ramai', bukan 'banyak'. 'Banyak' untuk benda..."

Dush... Looks like I'm going to fail my BM paper. Aimy is correct, right???

Apakah kebitaraan sekolah anak anda?

2009-11-03T16:27:00.004+08:00

Satu hari tu, dlm kereta, sambil menunggu si anak yang belum lagi habis kelas, mata melilau membaca semua papan iklan yang ada kat tepi-tepi jalan. Ni kira tahap bosan melampau lah ni....

Selalunya ada bekal suratkhabar or magazines, so ada lah benda manfaat nak dibaca. Kalau tak pun, suka tengok gelagat budak2 sekolah & mak bapak budak sekolah. Macam2 peel ada.

Dlm banyak2 papan tanda tu, ada satu papan tanda kat dinding sekolah , caught my eyes. Rasanya dah lama ada sign tu, but all these while tak pernah pay attention to it. Berulang2 kali kena baca, still tak boleh paham what it's trying to convey. Baru ku tahu, ada benda yang aku tak tahu...

The sign reads

" Kebitaraan akademik

- Bahasa Malaysia

- Pendidikan Agama Islam

Kebitaraan kokurikulum

- sukan memanah

- sukan badminton

Most of the words tu, I tahulah. Tapi, tak pernah dengar 'kebitaraan' tu...

SMS Acu, cikgu BM. Here's her explanation;

"Bitara tu Unggul. SBP sekarang ada yg naik taraf jd kluster so tiap2 sek kluster ada bidang or bitara msg2. Mcm skola acu bitara ragbi, muzik n sains."

Ohhh.... that's something new yg I belajar. Bitara ni macam "niche area" lah....

Persoalannya, perlu ke ada all these category ? Actually, I'm a bit lost among all these jargons. Dengan sekolah klusternya, sekolah bestari / bistari(?), sekolah integrasi, sekolah wawasan, dan ntah apa-apa lagi.... What about the sekolah satu aliran, jadi ke tidak agaknya???

And at the end of the day, how will it benefit our sons & daughters???

Baru 5 tahun...

2009-11-02T15:50:00.003+08:00

My youngest girl, just turned 5 last week. Just a small celebration among us.

She loves the gifts that Papapia got her. Telescope tu memang dia request, but unfortunately, puas kami meneropong, tak nampak pun bulan, apatah lagi bintang.

The carousel musical box was a surprise for her. Lepas ni, she doesn't need to borrow Mamamia's musical box lagi.

The cake, specially ordered from a blogger who happens to live near Alia's tadika. Ni kira one of her birthday wishes, nak cake gambar Princess. She's so in love with her cake, sampai we all nak makan part yg ada image princess tu, dia tak kasi potong....
May all your dreams come true....

Why Not Me??

2009-10-27T08:09:00.001+08:00

Ada masa-masa, when things don't work out the way I want it to be, mulalah I mengeluh sorang-sorang , "Why must this thing happen to me?"

Itu baru benda kecik2, belum any major disaster, dah nak mengalah.

Ah... I'm such a weakling.

Ya Allah, give me the strength to face all challenges that life throws at me. Amin.....

Here's an email that's very inspirational;

ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed:

'Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease'?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

'The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?'

Highly recommended Books...

2009-10-22T10:00:00.001+08:00

Last weekend we went to MPH, kakak bought her Chick lit books. Orang dah merdeka lah katakan, apa lagi nak buat??? Her fav writers are Cecilia Ahern & Sophie Kinsella. Mamamia pun boleh tumpang sekaki. Amir pulak beli 2 Rubic cubes. At this point of blogging, satu dah hancur berkecai. Apasal lah barang2 sekarang, senang sangat nak rosak? The rubic cube I used to play dulu, baling kat dinding (sebab frust tak boleh nak dapat the right colour) berapa kali pun, tak da nak hancur. Alia got herself some poster colour, paint brushes ( ntah berapa banyak berus lukisan dah ada kat rumah tu?) and some 'pink coloured' book. Dia ni tengah peringkat, anything pink is good.

What about my 2nd girl? Dia ni jenis masuk kedai jadi rambang mata. Sekejap pilih ni, sekejap tak jadi. Dah sampai cashier nak bayar, dia boleh tukar fikiran, nak tukar lain. She was the last to complete her shopping. When she finally decided to get 2 books, buku ala2 Hannah Montana tu, everyone was so lega... Kalau kedai tu tak start switching off the light, nak tutup kedai, she would have spent longer time.

Saw this book with an interesting title on the shelf. Told Papapia that I'm thinking of buying that book for him.

His reply was; "No need, I should be the one writing the book!!"

Nak tahu buku apa?

When I googled, the reviews for this book is 5 bintang. Bila googled lagi, rupanya buku ni pun ada adik beradik dia.

Tak nampak pulak buku ni kat MPH hari tu, kalau tak memang dah beli kot. Not that I'm an unHappily Married woman, tapi nak jugak belajar "how to get more out of your relationship by doing LESS". LESS tu yang penting tu!!! Next trip, nak cari lah.....

Didn't get anything for myself, due to a few reasons. Satu, sebab one of my book shelves dah nak roboh. Agaknya, letak lagi satu buku, guarantee rak, rak,rummmm. Sebenarnya, kat rumah tu banyak lagi buku yg beli dulu, tak habis baca.... Anyway, the chick lits that Farah has been collecting pun ada.

Ada satu buku tu, yang memang dah lama beli, belum gak habis2 baca lagi. Bila rambut dah beruban ni, mata yg dulu rabun jauh sekarang dah naik pangkat jadi rabun dekat, jiwa tu dah lain. I guess it's high time, I make time to really appreciate the contents of this book.

The Miracle of the Qur'an

Brothers and sisters, to increase your Iman

Read the Miracle - read the Qur'an

Recite it everyday and to recite it be proud

For the word 'Qur'an' means to recite aloud

And this is to know - for those who are keener:

Around 28 Surahs were revealed in Madinah

The Book from Allah - the Lord of the worlds

Over 6000 verses / 77,000 words

Read it with respect - notice the auras

Al-Fatiha to An-Nás - all 114 Surahs

In this Book, 25 Prophets are mentioned by name

Came at different times, but the message the same

The verses revealed over a 23 year span

Sent from Allah, through an angel to man

He gave us a message and this is Islam

So read the Miracle - read the Qur'an

InsyaAllah....... Nak study the Tafseer

Read the fine print!!!

2009-10-20T10:17:00.007+08:00

Pagi-pagi lagi dah dapat call dari Credit card centre, informing me that my cheque for payment kena 'returned' again.

Again?? Last month my cheque has been rejected. So, this was a replacement cheque. I didn't call the bank to find out why the first cheque was rejected, assuming the mistake was on my part. Sebab pernah dulu tersalah isi date, tahun 2008 I tulis 2009. Well, mistakes like that..
Bank pun tak da pulak call, nak explain kenapa tak terima cheque tu. Maybe it's their costs saving procedure, clients yang kena call. Kalau lambat bayar ke apa, bank boleh claim finance charges & late payment.

Kalau tak silap, masa tulis the replacement cheque tu, I dah confirmed kan betul-betul that all particulars dah isi betul-betul. Signature pun dah cantik. WOrds and figures correctly matched, date pun betul... Pelik jugaklah kenapa kena reject lagi.

Again, no call from the current account department!!!

Asked the credit card girl, who has been very helpful and kind enough to waive all the finance charges for late payment, what was the reason given. Dia pun kurang pasti, except that the reason stated was 'invalid cheque'. Why invalid, dia tak tahu. Dia kata maybe sebab I guna old cheque book, maybe dah expire.

Aiik, sejak bila pulak cheque book ada expiry date. Memanglah my cheque bbok ni dah lama, I seldom issue cheque. Selalunya payments are made by 'orang itu', 'orang ini' tahu belanja aje...

So terpaksalah call the current account dept, yang I memang bercinta nak buat. Becoz it's not easy to get their general line. Kalau dapat pun, kena dengar the machine list out all extentions' numbers then only kita tahu which number to press. Dah dapat extension, kena dengar pulak their promotions or jinggles before someone pick up the phone. Kalau nasib baik, which is jarang-jarang or kadang-kadang, you'll get the correct officer. Kalau nasib tak baik, you'll be transferred from one staff to another, kena cerita balik your problem dari A-Z. Nasib lagi tak baik, while being transferred, the line get cut. So, the process starts again.

Luck was on my side this morning, 1 attempt terus dapat the current account officer. Tanya dia samada cheque ada expiry date ke? She said, no. But, yes, there's a but.... Effective 1st Sept, the bank punya system cuma accept their new design cheques. Which, of course I wasn't aware of. Rasanya I'm not the only one.

When I asked, why wasn't I informed, dia jawab " Oh, we've already published in newspaper & dalam monthly statement pun kami ada informed"

So, customers punya salah lah...

Memang I seldom read Banks' or Companies' Announcement. Sebab selalunya, they have nothing to do with me.

And all those fine prints in the monthly bank statements pun , I tak ambik kisah. Bila dapat statement, I cuma tengok the bottomline balance. Manalah tahu , that Million Dollar fund promised by that total stranger dari Nigeria tu dah masuk!!!!! Boleh tukar status jadi Jutawan.

Usually those fine prints, are their promotional statements, suruh bukak akaun ini itu, beli investment itu ini, yang memang I have no interest in and wouldn't want to waste any time reading.

So, looking at previous month statement, saw the notification, which I've circled in Red.

Kenapalah Bank ni tak highlight betul-betul,?? Cuba print in red or better multi colored, sure I wouldn't have missed it. Rasanya, I'm not the only one........

Hish, menyusahkan. Now, I've to settle my credit card payment, which was due yesterday, in cash!!! Sebabnya, my new cheque book belum collect lagi.

Lepas ni, terpaksalah make it a habit baca those fine prints.

In order to read those fine prints, I'd better go to the optician & get my reading glasses asap. Sigh, the eyesight is already giving sign I'm ageing, gracefully........

Kata-kata peransang buat anak-anak...

2009-10-10T09:44:00.003+08:00

Sebelum anak-anak melangkah masuk dewan periksa, kebiasannya ibubapa akan memberi kata-kata perangsang dan nasihat supaya mereka tenang dan tidak gugup.

Ada yang kata just a simple " Good Luck", "Buat betul-betul", " Baca soalan betul-betul, jangan panik, Don't worry..." dll.

Ada jugak yang sempat lagi bagi syarahan pendek, yang Mamamia rasa akan menambahkan tension dan gelabah si anak.

As for me, I always keep it simple, "Good Luck & Selawat banyak2....."

But I guess ( to me lah ), Papapia said it best . This took place masa Farah nak mula PMR exam recently...

" Just do your best. Don't worry about scoring straight As. Utk Papapia, you have already scored all As, I've seen how hard you studied."

Isn't that very comforting & motivating???? That melt my heart......

Don't leave home without them....

2009-10-08T08:57:00.002+08:00

Apa agaknya 3 perkara penting yang pelajar2 wajib bawa ke dewan peperiksaan?

Rasanya, semua dapat beri jawapan yang tepat ie IC, exam slip & alat tulis.

To ensure students do not misplace their exam slips, pihak sekolah telah men'laminate' kan slip tersebut. It is the size of an A4 paper. Kalau hilang jugak, tak tahulah ......

Utk mengelakkan pelajar bawa nota2 kecil yang tak sepatutnya, every students are given a transparent plastic pencil case. Pihak pemeriksa memang boleh nampak segala macam pen, pensil yg dibawa at a glance.

Nak tulis formula atas eraser pun tak boleh dah!! Sekolah dah provide a brand new eraser yang putih bersih, & there should not be any writing on it.

On their first day of PMR yesterday, they had exams dari pagi sampai petang @ 4.10pm. During lunch break, students were advised to remain at school. Kalau rumah dekat pun, pelajar dinasihatkan jangan balik.

The rationale, according to a teacher, pernah ada kes, tahun lepas, pelajar balik rumah, tidur , tidur & tidur. He/she overslept & terpaksa pihak sekolah cari sampai ke rumah. But then again, yang kat sekolah pun, ada jugak kes tertidur. The student was found sleeping in the library, padahal exam dah nak start....

Macamana lah pihak sekolah tak pening kepala, bukan senang nak kawal students yang ramai. Untuk calon PMR tahun ni aje, sekolah ada nearly 500 students. Mestilah dalam ramai2 tu, ada satu dua yg buat hal.......

Berpeluh-peluh.....

2009-10-06T08:24:00.003+08:00

Pagi-pagi lagi dah berpeluh-peluh hari ni. Ni semua si arnab punya pasal....

While I was at tke kitchen sink, looking out the window, saw two happy bunnies hopping around in the garden. Alamak! dah terlepas lagi si arnab ni.....

Orang lain pagi-pagi sibuk bergegas pergi kerja, Mamamia main kejar-kejar dengan rabbits. Oh, what a life.......

Managed to catch one, put it back in the cage. But, a short while later, saw there were still two rabbits hopping around. Kita tangkap satu, yang lain pulak keluar!!! Hish, tak kuasa dah lah....

At this point of writing, they are still 2 rabbits on the loose. I'll leave them to the kids balik sekolah nanti, baru tangkap.

Other than that, kalau mulut boleh berpeluh, sure it has sweat buckets hari ni.... I'll try my best not to nag the kids pagi2 before they go to school. Tapi, mak mana yang tak berleter, bila tengok si bujang yang belum siap mandi, baru nak terhegeh-hegah trying to complete his homework??? I thought I saw him working on that homework malam tadi. Rupanya, tak siap lagi, dia dah tidur. Sambil buat kerja sekolah, sambil tengok TV, sambil main Rubik's cube... How lah!!!

Nasib baik lah, dia sempat siapkan sebelum ke sekolah. Meanwhile, I need to think of punishment & langkah2 pencegahan, supaya perkara ni tak berulang lagi.

Alia not going to school today. It's her exam week, tapi dia selsema lah pulak. Just hope she'll recover fast & doesn't pass the germs to Farah, who'll start berpeluh sejuk tomorrow.

Her PMR week starts tomorrow. We try not to pressure her in scoring straight As. We are happy enough to see that she's been putting all her effort preparing for the exam.

Buat Farah, "Do your best and let Allah do the rest." Our prayers are always with you.

Aidil Fitri tahun ini

2009-09-29T16:40:00.005+08:00

Lamanya Mamamia tak sign in account blogspot ni, sampai nyaris-nyaris lupa password dia.

Anyways, snippets ( macam Chedet punye blog tu...) of our hari raya Aidil Fitri in pictures.

Seperti biasa, pagi Syawal, episod salam-salam minta ampun, and for the kids, inilah sesi 'salam ada makna'. Somehow, ada pulak yang bersedih di pagi raya tu

. Alia, sedih & merajuk sebab tak dapat salam first or was it she refused to be the first to salam.

Sebelum melawat rumah sedara mara, the first house the kids visited was the Rabbits House. Banyak dosa agaknya dengan rabbits ni. By the way, tahun ni, tema baju raya kami is grey & off grey.

Sorry ek, kalau ada terkasar dgn you all....

Anak-anak bergembira di hari raya. Ni kat rumah Mak Uda. Perasan tak, baju Alia tu, slightly big for her. INi case, nak matching punya pasal & dah tak kuasa nak shop around lagi... Anyway, kids cepat membesar kan, bolehlah pakai lama sikit.....

On 2nd raya, we made arrangement nak beraya to relatives houses, convoy ramai2. Pukul 10.30pagi, Nenek called. Ingatkan nak suruh we all cepat, rupanya lain pulak cerita. Nenek called to inform that Acu, my youngest sis, just rushed Atok to hospital. Atok complained he had diffficulty breathing. I called my sis, but no answer. After a few attempts of phone calls that went unanswered, baru teringat yang Acu's hp rosak., SMS aje boleh. So, I tried SMSing her. Still tak berjawab. After an hour has passed, Nenek telephoned and informed that Atok was okay, nothing serious , cuma kepenatan aje. Ahamdulillah..... Nenek explained that Acu dalam kelam kabut tadi, tertinggal her HP at home. So, whatever we had planned for today, dah cancel.

Ni entah raya ke berapa, beraya di rumah sepupu. Sementara mak-mak & bapak-bapak berborak, anak-anak sempat habis satu round main Saidina.

Kawan-kawan Amir yang ramai datang beraya ke rumah. One of the groups....

Raya-raya jugak, sembahyang tak lupa... Alhamdulillah..

Ramadhan tahun ini....

2009-09-13T07:36:00.005+08:00

Coming towards its end, and Alhamdulillah Ramadhan tahun ni has been smooth sailing, so far lah.... Belum lagi terlajak sahur, budak-budak pun tak susah nak dibangunkan. The fact that there has been quite a lot of holidays in between, has made it even easier for the kids. Masalahnya, budak-budak ni dah jadi burung hantu ( nasib baik bukan hantu). Suka berjaga malam.

Bila hari cuti, budak-budak ni would be awake, sampai after subuh baru tidur. Tu yang tak da masalah nak wake them up for sahur, sebab memang dia orang belum tidur!!!

Buka puasa has been a simple affair. Ada jugak buka kat luar, much to the dismay of my eldest anak dara. Dia tak suka berbuka kat luar, sebab leceh bila nak perform maghrib. Mamamia pun prefer buka at home, berbuka di luar adalah satu proses yang memenatkan!!! Sebabnya, with small kids, Mamamia is the one who has to make the various trips to the buffet table. Tu belum masuk trip ke toilet lagi!!! Dah nak time buka, masa tu lah ALia will have her nature call. Kalau budak besar, boleh jugak suruh tahan, being a 5 yr old kid, mana dia reti. Kalau reti pun, buat-buat tak reti...

Last Saturday, AMir wanted to buka at Nandos. Mamamia pun called lah, to reserve a table. Nandos kata tak boleh place reservation over the phone. Instead, kena pergi sana, make a personal booking, and bila dah book meja, kenalah at least one person dok tunggu meja tu. The girl said, if I want to do that, it's advisable to be there by 6.15pm. ( That's more than an hour before buka. Tapi tak palah, maybe boleh window shopping sementara menunggu). We reached Alamanda Nandos @ 6.25pm. All tables were taken. Next choice, Beryani House next door, fully booked too. Next, Fish Manhattan , serupa, penuh. Next, Secret Recipe, what do you expect, ditto. We checked out another 2 eating outlets, with the same outcome. Finally, jumpa one restaurant yang kami tak pernah tahu ujud, dapatlah meja kosong. Food was so-so. Not going to repeat this same mistake.

Last Thursday, again, si Amir nak buka with Pizza Hut but kakak wanted nasi goreng. Memang dah lama tak makan nasi goreng. Made nasi goreng & around 6.10 p.m called 1-300-882525 for pizza delivery. Mamamia tak khusyuk sembahyang Maghrib hari ni, sebabnya way after berbuka, Pizza tak sampai-sampai lagi!!! Rasanya dah bagi ample time... When I called around 7 pm tanya " DIk, mana pizza akak?". Their answer was " Maaf kak, budak kami baru nak keluar, kejap lagi sampai...". 5 minutes after azan Maghrib, called lagi sekali " Dik, mana pizza akak?" (Higher pitching) " Sorry kak, banyak delivery, kejap lagi sampai..." Around 8 p.m baru pizza betul-betul sampai. Dah tak oven-hot pizza lagi. Kalau ikut hati, memang nak marah and suruh dia replace another order aje. Nasib baik bulan Ramadhan... kena banyak bersabar, tak boleh ikut bisikan syaitan. Bukan ke syaitan dah kena ikat? Kalau masih nak naik angin, that's not the working of the satan, but could have been the devil in me... Possible??

Home improvement / house renovation??? Nanti Mamamia kena buat another entry (kalau rajin) Tapi alhamdulillah, dah siap. Kalau ikut agreement, siap before puasa. But, we last saw Ah Chong the contractor, last week, 2 minggu dah puasa.

Papapia promised the kids, bila renovation completed, they'll get their wish.

On the 10th day of Ramadhan, kami buat reban. No, not reban ayam, tapi reban arnab. That's their wish, nak bela rabbits. Hopefully, all these 5 rabbits akan panjang umur.

Sunyi aje rumah ni......

2009-08-15T08:07:00.002+08:00

'Rumah' ni memang dah lebih sebulan been neglected. 'Rumah' kawan-kawan pun dah lama tak singgah.

Sebabnya......

Rumah yang ini tengah huru-hara

After years of contemplating nak renovate our porch, kami akhirnya memberanikan diri to go ahead with the project.

What do you know.... Huru-hara hidup.

Kami buat sikit touch up to the front part of the house, sikit aje.... Tapi, satu rumah jadi kelam kabut.

Dengan wayar berselirat,

No need to mention the dust.... it's like everywhere....

Last week, masa hujan lebat, this whole area was flooded. AIr mencurah2 dari siling. Rupanya the drainage pipe tertutup dgn plastik. Even the carpet was soaking wet. Mamamia urut dada & tepuk dahi. The kids??? Excited, dapat main air!!!

Recently, Alia complained to Papapia, "Papa ni asyik tidur bawah aje...."

What to do girl, Papapia kena jadi 'Jaga'. We've been having sleepless nights. Mana taknya, kalau sebelum ni boleh tidur nyenyak sebab pintu dah kunci, grill dah padlocked, alarm dah on.... but now, we have to sleep behind this, flimsy plywood door!

InsyaAllah, by next week, boleh tidur nyenyak balik. Our nightmare should be over.

Really looking forward to Raya and of course, Ramadhan.

May Allah grant us the opportunity to welcome and make full use of Ramadhan.

Selamat Mengimarahkan Ramadhan.

Our notice board...

2009-07-01T16:50:00.001+08:00

Rasanya it's safe to assume that most of us use the fridge door as the notice board. It's the most convenient place. Normally, I'll put up the school's memo, takwim sekolah, exam time table, grocery list, articles from the newspaper which I want the kids to read, invitation cards etc... Macam2 ada...

Notice that newspaper cutting??? That is meant for Amir .. Tajuk artikel tu "Online addiction is a disease". He was getting too addicted to the internet.

As for the kids, kadang2 they'll put up their artwork there.

To my surprise, recently I found this on the fridge's door.

Cut out from the newspaper, movie showtime.

Nak tahu who put it there?? Siapa lagi kalau bukan Alia, who was so looking forward to watch 'Monsters vs Aliens'.

And in view of the current happening, somebody ( I guess it's Farah), did this....

I guess when we pay a visit to someone, and if we have the chance to look at the items on their fridge's door, we can already have a rough idea of what's the activities of the family. Betul tak??

So, kawan-kawan, what's on yours??? Eh, betulke grammer ni? But, you know what I mean kan??

Happy Papa's Day!!!

2009-06-20T15:52:00.001+08:00

A special entry for Papapia.

I found this poem in one of the websites. Reading it, remind me a lot of Papapia. It is soooo Him!!He pampers the kids a lot. Some lines have been edited accordingly.

Can I Carry You ?
© Brad Anderson

I guess that I can hold you
one more time before you grow.
And tell you that I love you
so that you will always know.

Please let me tie your shoe again.
One day you'll tie your own.
And when you think back to this time
I hope it's love I've shown.

Can I help you put your coat on?
Can I please cut up your meat?
Can I pull you in the wagon?
Can I pick you out a treat?

One day you might just care for me,
so let me care for you.
I want to be a part
of every little thing you do.

Tonight could I please wash your hair?
Can I put toys in the bath?
Can I help you count your small ten toes
before I teach you math?

Before you join a baseball team
can I pitch you one more ball?
And one more time can I stand near
to make sure you don't fall?

Let's take another space-ship ride
Up to the Planet Zoor.
Before our Cardboard Rocket
doesn't fit us anymore.

Please let me help you mount the horse,
while you're still too small to climb.
And let me read you stories
while you're young and have the time.

I know the day will come
when you will do these things alone.
Will you recall the horse rides
and all the balls we've thrown?

I want you to grow stronger
than your Papa could ever be.
And when you find success
there will be no soul more proud than me.

So will you let me carry you?
One day you'll walk alone.
I cannot bear to miss one day
from now until you've grown.

Looonnngggg break!!!

2009-06-18T16:17:00.000+08:00

That was one looonnggg break... from blogging.

Bila dah lama sangat break, nak start balik engine, susah betul... Nak kena guna jump start cable.

Ni kira warm up lah, entry will be short & maybe in point form.

So, what were we up to masa cuti sekolah???

1) Hari Kecemerlangan Sekolah-sekolah Berasrama Penuh.

Managed to pujuk Papapia to bring us to SSP Cyberjaya. Mamamia nak tengok basketball match. It was the group match SSP vs STF ( 2008 champ). Kalau zaman kita dulu, this event was known as PPM, where all the boarding schools get together, nak rebut Piala Perdana Menteri . I was a part of this, main basketball. Tu yang beriya sangat nak tengok the game.

It was like walking back in time. All the excitement... the cheering, the oohhs and aahhs...Met other junior basketballers. I thought I was seeing things, when I saw this man-in-black.

"" E eh.. macam coach Mama aje.." I told my kids. Memang betul pun!! He was our coach way back in 1980s, and the current basketball team is still having the same coach. Dah nak dekat 30 tahun, yet he still looks the same. Dengar dia bagi instructions to the players, sama macam dulu, garang!!! Kalau dulu, bila ada basketball practice, we wld be sweating buckets, & also peluh sejuk sebab takut kena sergah dgn coach ni.

SSP & STF met again in final. Nasib baik jugak tak pergi, coz those who went & watched the final match, ramai yang rasa macam dapat heart attack. Very tight & close match. The final score

2) Day & 'Night At the Museum 2'
Eversince he watched "Night at the museum" on Astro long time ago, Amir has been asking us to take him to the museum. Rasanya dah pernah pergi dulu, tapi masa tu he was too young. He could not recall the outing. Actually, I pun tak ingat when was the last time, we went to the Muzium Negara.

It was an impromptu decision. We reached Muzium Negara an hour before closing time. Sempat pergi the main building aje. Quite a few major changes in the exhibits.

But, why must the museum's lighting remain dim? Gelap aje...

Kalau nak compare Muzium Negara ni with the one in the movie 'Night At the Museum' it's just like comparing Day and Night. Jauh betul beza... The kids were expecting an adventure like the movie. Farah could appreciate it more, sebab some of the items on display are in her Sejarah syllabus.

What did I learn from this visit? Yang I boleh ingat, kacang putih yang Minachi tu jual near the muzium, sedap..... Menyesal beli satu packet aje.... Sejarah has never been my favourite subject.

On the same day, malam nya we went to watch 'Night at the museum 2'. Rasanya kalau subject sejarah are made into movies, it would be easier to remember & more interesting.

From watching the movie, Amir managed to answer a $135,000 question in the programme "Are You smarter than the 5th Grader?" show, which the participant failed to answer.

The question was "Who was the first lady to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?"

It was Amelia Earhart. Senang nak ingat, because in the movie she was portrayed as the heroin.

3) Cherating & KTerengganu Breakaway.
11 June is Farah & Aimy birthdays. Same birthdate but totally different character. This trip was considered as their birthday present.

We are such law-abiding family. Bila pergi holiday we always abide by the law, especially Murphy's law.

Masa nak ke Cherating, kami ikutlah all the directions showing Cherating, till it came to the crucial junction which diverted into 2 roads. Tapi dua2 tak da tunjuk mana satu nak ke Cherating. After eenie, meenie, minie, mo, kami ikut jalan kanan. Stopped at the roadside & asked a pakcik. Unfortunately, we had taken the wrong one & according to this pakcik, Cherating was 1 hour away, the other road.
Reaching the resort, after some rest, kids wanted to go swimming. Asked the kids to change into their swimming attire. I remember packing everything into the bag, swimming suits, goggles, lotions, pelampung. Found out I didn't bring Aimy punya swimming shorts. Nasib baiklah, ada bawa extra shorts for Amir. And nasib baiklah, Aimy tak kisah pakai shorts abang dia..
It was time for Papapia to tiup pelampung Alia. After bersusah payah huffing & puffing, pelampung tu rupa-rupanya bocor. Of all the pelampungs we have at home, we took with us yang bocor.

It was never in our original plan to go to KT. But we did. On the way, bila nampak Mesra Mall teringat kat Mak Lang. There's a 'Toys'r'us' kat MM ni!!! My kids' fav shop. We drove straight to Taman Tamadun Islam.

Before starting our journey, we asked the resort's reception area, kalau they all ada any map to this Taman Tamadun Islam. Jawapannya, mestilah tak da kan.... (Remember, the taxi is never there, when you need them....) But, I was surprised when none of them tahu kat mana Taman Tamadun Islam ni. Macam tak tahu and tak pernah dengar there's such a place.... It made me questioned myself, maybe, maybe I yang silap nama. Finally, we told them, just guide us to Masjid Kristal, Kuala Terengganu.

Dari Cherating, tak susah ke KT. It was one straight road. Wanted to show the kids the different scenery, tapi they all tidur aje dalam kereta. Somehow, bila sampai Kerteh, they managed to catch a glimpse of the bandar petroleum. Nampaklah api menjulang ke langit tu.... they were impressed. (The scenery at night , on the way back, was even better).

Upon reaching KT, banyak roadsigns directing us to Taman Tamadun Islam, neighbouring Muzium Negeri @ the biggest museum in South East Asia. ( Tak sempat nak visit, next time -maybe)

After spending some time at Masjid Kristal, we decided to take the tram to Monument Park. Masa tu lah, it started raining, and masa tu jugaklah the person yang jaga ticketing booth tu pergi sembahyang. Kenapa lah tak da staff yang ganti??? So, we waited and waited in the rain... Time is too looonnngggg for those who wait. Nasib baiklah, ada tram yang berhenti, so we sat there waiting.

Monument Park yang ada 21 replicas of mosques all around the world, is an interesting place to visit. Wished we had spent more time there, but the kids were getting cranky. Amir nak rush back to the resort, nak main kat beach etc.

Amir admiring the Minaret of Xian, China: This great mosque of Xian was built by Admiral Cheng Ho during the Ming Dynasty. Its architectural design is of a Buddhist temple but it is built facing the Qibla.

Si Alia pulak, tak sabar-sabar nak main kat playground and rides yang ada dalam park ni. Bila dah sampai hajat, happylah dia....

On our last day at the resort, kanak-kanak ribena mandi kat swimming pool. Mamamia & Farah had our mother daughter time. We rented 2 bikes and went cycling around the resort. Dah lama tak berbasikal, it was like pay back time.... 3 kali pusing the resort. Puasssss.... I forgot, I was no longer that young girl I used to be. Lupa yang grease dalam lutut ni is depleting.

With the vacation over, I had loads of laundry to do and lutut bertampal dengan pain relieving SAlonPAs patch...

It's War!!!!

2009-05-25T17:15:00.002+08:00

On Day 1, I came across this advertisement in the newspaper.

At one glance, dah boleh teka dah, who's the 'Competitor'. Suku sakat Doremon.

Wah, so daring Tesco ni. I was wondering, wouldn't the 'Competitor' take any legal action for tarnishing it's reputation.

I was wrong....

Day 2, counter attack from the Competitor. No surprise that it's retaliating.

It didn't stop there.....

Day 3 - sambung lagi perang.

This time Giant wasn't alone. It has it's allies....

Interesting, how they label the enemy as "Mis-Leading Hyper".

I'm following this war very closely. Buat masa ni tengah aman balik dekat sempadan. Masing2 tengah fikir next strategy agaknya.

Nevertheless, I'm happy to be the "Guardian of this Cold war between the mis-leading Hyper Giants. "

I support this war!!!!

Quiz time...

2009-05-16T21:16:00.003+08:00

Received this via e-mail

WORLD'S EASIEST QUIZ!

(Passing requires only 3 correct answers out of 10!)

1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

2) Which country makes Panama hats?

3)From which animal do we get cat gut?

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

7) What was King George VI's first name?

8) What color is a purple finch?

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?

Remember, you need 3 correct answers to pass.
Check your answers below.

ANSWERS

1)How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years

2)Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador

3)From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep and Horses

4)In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November

5)What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel fur

6)The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Dogs

7)What was King George VI's first name? Albert

8)What color is a purple finch? Crimson

9)Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand

10)What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane? Orange (of course!)

What do you mean, you failed?!!

Me, too...!!!

(And if you try to tell me you passed, you lie!)

DAY for HAPPY MOTHER

2009-05-14T21:15:00.001+08:00

For Mother's day this year Alia gave me the card above & Aimy , gave me the bunga ribbon. Kakak Farah & abang Amir tak kasi apa pun. Frankly, Mamamia tak kisah...

Personally, I think this Mother's Day event is getting too commercialized. We don't need to wait for that one Sunday in a year to show our appreciations to our mothers. Should do it every time, everyday. But then again, there's nothing wrong if the kids still want to lavish us with gifts & make that one day extra special.

On that particular Sunday afternoon. I couldn't really recalled why I scolded Alia petang tu. Bukan marah apa pun, just raised my voice one pitch higher. The moment she got scolded, Alia looked up to me , & dengan suara merayu, she said " Mamamia, Happy ? Happy Mother's Day? Loves? Hearts?"

Alia tried to remind me of the card she gave me. With all the drawings of loves/hearts, This was supposed to be the day Mamamia kena Happy. Tak boleh marah-marah or cranky.

Oooo... that's what she understood pasal 'Happy Mother's Day'. The day when Mothers must be Happy.

I yang tengah marah masa tu pun tak jadi nak sambung marah. Terus tersenyum.....

Now she think that's the magic word. Sekarang ni, everytime I marah dia, she'll start wishing me. Nampaknya, our house will be having 'Happy Mother's Day' throughout the year lah.....

Sekarang ni si kakak & abang pun dah guna this trick. Bila tahu nak kena marah aje, terus wish me "Happy Mother's Day"........

Anyway, some history on Mother's Day (copy paste fr the Net)

The modern Mother's Day holiday was created by Anna Jarvis, as a day to honor mothers and motherhood; especially within the context of families

Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration.

Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother's Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time.She criticized the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter.

She felt that writing a love letter to your mother was a proper way to greet the occasion and of gift cards said, "A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment!"

She was arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother's Day, and she finally said that she "wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control ..."

Sadly, Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother's Day, died in 1948 in a Pennsylvania mental institution, blind, penniless, childless and bitter.

Malaysia pun sekarang ni, weeks before Mother's Day, dah mula keluar all the advertisements on Spa Packages, Dinner for Mum, Jewellery set, Mother's Day Sales etc, etc....

Maybe kita boleh ikut like the Swedish-

Sweden’s Mother’s Day, which takes place on the last Sunday in May, has a strong charitable focus: the Swedish Red Cross sells small plastic flowers leading up to the holiday, and the proceeds raised are given to poor mothers and their children.

Tahu tak, di Iran , Hari Ibu disambut sempena tarikh lahir Fatima, puteri Nabi Muhammad ie 20 Jamadilawal?

To all Happy Mothers out day, have a Nice Day!!!

Tax reliefs yang ciput...

2009-04-30T08:55:00.001+08:00

I was told by Papapia to gather all receipts & necessary statements for tax submission. No problem there. Actually, it was pretty amazing that I managed to find them without having to tonggang terbalik kan all drawers. The fact that I don't have any proper filing system, where some papers ada yang main selit sini sana, mana sempat... it still surprises me.

Book receipts, zakat statement, insurance statement, semua ada.... Only 1 minor problem, for Atok's hospitalisation bill, I found the invoice, but not the receipt. Nasib baik bila phoned the hospital & after giving the details, their billing dept said they all boleh bagi another copy. Lega..... sebab it was quite a substantial amount.

It's about time the LHDN review all the tax reliefs .

RM1000 pelepasan untuk buku , mana nak cukup!!!

We max out our tax relief on this. Infact kami dah terlebih belanja beli buku last year. It's either kami kena belanja ngam-ngam RM1,000 on books this year, or the org LHDN, tambahkan the tax relief.

Here's some of our receipts for books purchased last year.

Ni tak termasuk buku2 yang dibeli tapi lupa ambil receipt. Tak termasuk receipts yang dah termissed place. Last year tak pergi Pesta Buku, if not the figure would surely be higher. ( This year pun, tak da rezeki nak pergi Pesta Buku...)

Glancing through the receipts, baru perasan ada buku2 yang dibeli last year, tapi belum baca lagi. So, lepas selesai kumpul receipts, the next mission was searching for those books.

Perbelanjaan rawatan perubatan ibubapa - RM5,000 maksimum.

Yang ni pun, patut kena naikkan lagi.

With just one hospital stay , yang tak sampai seminggu, we spent RM5,000 on Atok's hospital bill last year. Ini tak termasuk those on off visits to clinics.

Potongan Pelepasan untuk anak2 - RM1,000 seorang!!!

Let's do some maths here. That's averaging RM84 per month!!! Nak breakdown lagi, RM2.77 per day!!! Ni zaman bila punya budget ni??? Budak2 sekarang belanja sekolah pun, kadang2 ada yang RM3 satu hari.

Hopefully, our belanjawan this year would be more berhemah. Dengan all these economics uncertainties, harga barang pulak melambung tinggi, govt should reduce tax brackets, and increase tax reliefs.

I ni complain, macam I pulak yang bayar tax. Memanglah Papapia yang bayar... but His money, is My money too!!!

Time to upgrade....

2009-04-20T14:46:00.001+08:00

Kids are getting taller & bigger. Kereta yg ada sekarang terasa makin kecil.

We've been considering to upgrade the small Kancil dgn MPV / SUV as our 2nd car.

We want a vehicle yang boleh comfortably fit all of us & has ample space for our luggages bila nak bercuti. Ya lah, kami kalau bercuti, bantal , comforter pun semua nak angkut. Lagi pun, with a 7 seater car, everyone will get their own individual seatbelt. The present car , has only 5 seatbelts , not enough for the 6 of us.

It's not easy to find a vehicle that meet our requirements. Kalau MPV tu boleh muat 7 passengers, the space for luggage tersangatlah sempit.

We obviously won't buy this car pictured below.

Tak masuk dek akal, bila 2 passengers have more bags than 7 passengers!!!

The bad news is, in today's newspaper, it was reported that there'll be an increase in the interest rate for imported cars, effective today.

Should have bought the 'whatever' car yesterday. That's the price one has to pay for proscinating.

Her 1st Sports' Day

2009-04-14T15:10:00.002+08:00

On Saturday 11/4/09, ALia's kindy had their sports day - and it's Alia's first big event.

She's in rumah merah, rumah Saga. The overall champion for this year. Tapi hari sukan ni, semua putera puteri jadi pemenang, tiada pengalah. Every kids went home a winner.

Too bad Papapia couldn't make it, dia demam. He would have been proud to see how her youngest child berbaris, baca ikrar, performed the Pom Pom Dance & berlumba.

Alia took part in 2 games, & for both, her team won 1st placing. The 1st game, main passing bola, I was busy cheering sambil tangan sibuk dgn view camera, trying to record her in action. Bila dah habis game, it was so frustrating when I realised, all the while I did not press the 'record' button!!! Here, we go again.... Rasa nak suruh cikgu 'rewind' balik aje game tu.

For the second game, I made sure I didn't repeat the same blunder. Alhamdulillah, I managed to record that. Lepas ni kena burn to DVD & it'll be something that Alia is going to cherish when she's older.

Are women impossible to please???

2009-04-03T15:20:00.000+08:00

In the newspaper today:-

Woman divorces husband for cleaning too much

Thu Apr 2, 2009
BERLIN (Reuters) –

A German woman has divorced her husband because she was fed up with him cleaning all the time.

German media reported the wife got through 15 years of marriage putting up with the man's penchant for doing household chores, tidying up and rearranging the furniture.

But she ran out of patience when he knocked down and rebuilt a wall at their home when it got dirty, Christian Kropp, court judge in the central town of Sondershausen, said on Thursday.

"I'd never had anyone seek a divorce for this," he said.

(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; editing by Myra MacDonald)

--------------------------------------

Alahai.... kesian kat husband dia. Bukan senang nak cari husband macam tu. After reading this, teringat pulak pada one email I received once upon a long time ago.

Here it is;

A new, special kind of store just opened up in a Manhatten shopping center. This store sells husbands, yes that’s right - women can browse men from floors of choices.

Actually, there are 6 floors of men, and with an increase in the floor level bringing an positive attributes… a nifty setup - with a catch. As you open the door to any floor, you may choose a man from that floor but if you go up, you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

Interesting, right?

So a young woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1 - These men have jobs. The woman reads the sign and says to herself, “Well, that’s better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what’s further up?” So up she goes.

The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids. The woman remarks to herself, “That’s great, but I wonder what’s further up?” And up she goes again.

The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good looking. “Hmmm, better” she says. “But I wonder what’s upstairs?”

The fourth floor sign reads: Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking and help with the housework. “Wow!” exclaims the woman, “very tempting. BUT, there must be more further up!” And again she heads up another flight.

The fifth floor sign reads: Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic streak. “Oh, mercy me! But just think… what must be awaiting me further on?” So up to the sixth floor she goes.

The sixth floor sign reads: Floor 6 - You are visitor 7,548,652 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor only exists as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store!!!

--------------------------------------

I think that is hilarious & there's some truth, I must admit.

I've done my 'purchase' - but not at the Husband Store. Alhamdulillah, it's a good buy. With all his imperfections, sanggup terima perempuan yang 'kurang sempurna' ini, Mamamia redha dengan ketentuan Illahi.

I truly love this piece of advice:-

Mengapa mengharap teman sehebat Saidina Ali, Jika diri tidak semulia Fatimah Az-Zahra,

Tak perlu mencari teman sehebat Sulaiman, Jika diri tidak secantik Balkis,

Mengapa mengharap teman sekacak Yusuf,Jika kasih tak setulus Zulaika,

Tak perlu mencari teman seteguh Ibrahim,Jika diri tak sekuat Hajar,

Mengapa didamba teman sesempurna Muhammad,Jika diri tidak sehebat Siti Khadijah,

Bimbinglah dirinya dan terimalah kekurangan itu sebagai satu keunikan,

Carilah kebaikan pada dirinya,

Bersyukurlah kerana dipertemukan dengannnya dan berdoalah agar dia milikmu...

Hari Kesedaran Autistik Sedunia

2009-04-02T10:20:00.000+08:00

Tahukah anda PBB telah mengisytiharkan tanggal April 2 sebagai Hari Kesedaran Autistik Sedunia. I didn't know that, till this morning, after watching MHI.

From Wikipedia:-

Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication , and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) also include related conditions such as Asperger syndrome that have milder signs and symptoms.

Autism has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism are complex and it is unclear whether ASD is explained more by multigene interactions or by rare mutations. In rare cases, autism is strongly associated with agents that cause birth defects. Other proposed causes, such as childhood vaccines, are controversial, and the vaccine hypotheses lack any convincing scientific evidence. The prevalence of ASD is about 6 per 1,000 people, with about four times as many boys as girls. The number of people known to have autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved.

Autism affects many parts of the brain ; how this occurs is not understood. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child's life. Although early behavioral or cognitive intervention can help children gain self-care, social, and communication skills, there is no known cure. Few children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, but some become successful, and an autistic culture has developed, with some seeking a cure and others believing that autism is a condition rather than a disorder.

These children are

Courtesy fr Autismoptismism.blogspot.com

Repetitively stacking and lining up objects may indicate autism. Photo fr Wikipedia.

A young boy with autism, and the precise line of toys he made. Again photo fr Wikipedia.

I hope I won't forget to watch the show "Autism x 6" premiering tonight on Ch733. Its about how The Kirtons family make the best of each day as they struggle to cope with their six autistic children. Imagine, 6 Autistic children!!!

Melayan kerenah 4 anak-anak pun kadang-kadang boleh buat Mamamia urut dada & pening kepala.

Shows like this will help me to have more patience in handling the kids , dan bersyukur dengan anugerah Allah.

Walau macam mana pun anak-anak buat perangai, ibubapa kena terus tunjukkan kasih sayang pada mereka. Jangan bila anak cemerlang, kita terlebih sayang, & anak yang kurang cerdik, kita abaikan. Treat them equally.

"Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it" Harold Hulbert.

1 jam bergelap & Tragic News

2009-04-01T07:39:00.004+08:00

Earth Hour - Our Version
--------------------------

Usually, Saturday nights will be our dining out night. Last Saturday was no exception. Kami makan kat luar jugak, tapi.... luar rumah aje!! In conjunction with the Earth Hour, we decided to do our part as well.

So, malam tu bertemankan beberapa batang lilin, kami menjamu selera kat our own garden. It wasn't totally gelap, sebab lampu jalan terang benderang. We noticed most of the other surrounding houses bergelap jugak. It would have been better, kalau they had switched off the street lights too. It was nice seeing the security guard, making regular rounds during the whole 1 hour on his bike. Ya lah, dalam gelap2 tu, manalah tahu, ada makhluk2 making the most out of it as their 'Happy Hour'.

Seronok anak2 dapat makan, atau lebih tepat lagi, main kat luar malam2 macam tu. They had so much fun, they wanted to make it a regular affair. Alia was asking whether we could do it again the next day.

Tragic News
-------------
Most blogs have already made their entries on the tragic death of the 2 doctors. We heard the 12am TV3 news , masa tu they were still reported missing. First thing in the morning, I called a dear friend Fid, to find out whether she knew anything about it. I know one of these doctors had been the paed. of Fid's children. Masa tu Fid kat pasar, & memang terkejut dia when told the news.

Kami pernah menggunakan khidmat pakar Allahyarhamah Dr Heliza. It was in 1995, when Farah was warded in APSH for very high fever. Masih teringat how Farah vomitted all over me depan the GP. Dah lah tak bawa any baju, because we didn't expect her to be admitted at all. Ingatkan lepas jumpa doktor, ambil ubat & boleh balik. Luckily, it was nothing serious, she was warded so that the doctor could monitor her situation. That was our first hospital stay as a family and Alhamdulillah, we haven't had many hospital stays. Except kat maternity hospital, time Mamamia bersalin, the whole family berkampung kat hospital. Campur Nenek sekali.....

Eventhough, that was the only time our child was put under Allahyarhamah's care, we are still indebted to her. Kami terasa kehilangannya. I'm sure those families who have had them as their children's paeds are experiencing greater loss. Semoga arwahs ditempatkan bersama-sama para solihin.

Anyway, I found out the news of their untimely death, when I was surfing the net. Masa tu, kat TV belum keluar lagi, but it was already out in Star-online. Called Fid again, to convey the news. Dia macam tak percaya.

Called Papapia & told him; " The doctors' bodies were found dead".

That evening, when Papapia joined kaum2 lelaki taman ni, yang sebulan sekali akan berkumpul & berborak, Papapia informed the group about the news. But Papapia had heard me wrongly. Instead of "The doctors' bodies were found dead" dah tukar jadi "The doctors' bodies were found murdered".

When the men asked him mana dia dapat news tu, (because at that point of time, the news was not yet made public in TV), Papapia told them "My wife told me, she read in the internet."

Habislah..... there goes my reputation. Tak pa lah, blame it on the internet.!!!!

Mother of the Year Award

2009-03-28T09:12:00.000+08:00

This is so long overdue. Kalau ni assignment from lecturer, agaknya kalau sekarang baru nak submit, won't be surprised if the lecturer throw it out the window. Nasib baiklah, there's no dateline when it comes to this.

I've been honoured with this award. Being presented with this award by 2 great moms Raden Galoh & DDIbu, who I have so much respect for means so much to me. I really look up to these 2 moms, and the rests too, of course. Whenever my health is not up to the mark, what gives me the strength to still give my best for the kids is the inspiration from Raden Galoh. And whenever the kids buat perangai, when the thought of managing 4 kids is hard enough, I try to put myself in DDIbu's position, who has 6 children. My 'tudung off' to you two!!!

The award comes with a set of rules which include:

1. Admit one thing you feel awful about (involving being a mom).

2. List 7 things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you.

3. Send this to 5 other moms of the year that deserve a reminder that they too are the best moms that they can be. Remember to send them a note letting them know you have selected them, and also add a link to your post that directs people back to the person who nominated you.

Okay, here goes....

1. Admit one thing you feel awful about ( involving being a mom).

One only??? I have a lot. Sigh....

But 1 thing for sure, everytime bila tengok program Ibu Mithali on Astro Prima, I feel so awful with my below par performance. I don't think I'll ever get nominated as a potential candidate.

Normally, working mothers will feel awful for not being able to be with their kids 24/7. But, being a stay-at-home Mom, I feel awful when I can't spend quality times with the kids. Mana nak masak lagi, dirty laundry to handle, ironing, and the lists continue.....

2. What I love about my kids, love doing with my kids, and what the kids love about me :-

1) I can't find any reason why I love my kids. Just love them.... Ni agaknya yang orang panggil naluri seorang ibu. I love them when they well behaved, and when they misbehaved I still love them. I love them when they perform well in their studies, but when they come home with poor results, I still love them. I love them when they follow instructions, but occasionally when they don't, I still love them.

2) I love seeing their happy faces when I fetched them from school. Those happy faces mean they've had a good day at school & they can't wait to come home.

3) I love the silly games we play. The kids semua bangsa tak nak kalah. We even have this silly game before bedtime ... "Siapa tidur dulu dia menang". Moms would understand the difficulties we have bila nak suruh the kids tidur. Macam2 tactics up their sleeves. Nak minumlah, nak pergi toiletlah, especially the 2 younger kids. So, bila Mamamia start this game, we have less of this problem. Nak tahu siapa selalu menang this game??? None other, Mamamia!!! Even, how hard I've tried to let them win, tengok2 Mamamia yang gone dulu. Only being awaken minutes later, by Alia & Aimy who are still giggling & playing on the bed. Nak kena pikir game lain lah....

4) I love it when they compliment my cooking. It gets better when they say my cooking is better than the restaurants / hotel cooking. But, my cooking ability is limited to the same menu ajelah... Selagi they all tak muak, itulah yang I masak.

5) I love watching them growing up & maturing into their own personalities and characters.

6) I love the outdoor activities with my children . All the badminton games, walk round the neighbourhood, cycling around our small garden, or just chitchatting on the swing.

7) Finally, what the kids love about me? I think my kids love me for who I am. They have no choice.!!!

3. I'll give this a miss. To all moms out there, we are all great, right.?? We are the Chosen ones. After all, Syurga di bawah tapak kaki Ibu.

Phew, lega..... dah tak da hutang.

We went to 'O Rang Kahwin', jumpa "Mak Suri''

2009-03-25T10:31:00.001+08:00

Kalau tanya Alia, where we have been to during the school holidays, that would be her answer...pergi 'o rang kah win, jumpa Mak suri'. Pak Ngah who asked her this question, tambah pening bila Alia beritahu, pergi naik aeroplane!!!

Mak Suri mana pulak yang kahwin ni???

Well, we didn't go to any wedding. We went vacationing in....

Alia's first trip here. No, not exactly.... her first trip was when she was still in my tummy, that's like more than 5 years ago. So, it's about time for us to re-visit this island and enjoy its attractions.

Kids love the sun & sea. Not much swimming in the sea though, sebab banyak jellyfish. Main pasir & main air.

My personal favourite was watching the sunset.

Mamamia & Amir waiting for the sunset.

Our first experience at the Telaga Tujuh area. No, we didn't go all the way up. The first level of waterfall pun, dah mencungap naik. It's quite steep. Rasa macam panjat tangga Batu Caves.

The scenery was beautiful, but.... it's sad when you noticed rubbish left behind by visitors. Even dalam air pun, boleh nampak polysteren cups, the sharp can lid (imagine kalau terpijak), paper bags & wrappers.

And the toilet.... mmm.... it was dark, lighting not working. You could smell the strong stench dari luar lagi. My girls didn't even dare to change their clothings inside the cubicles. I stayed guard at the main entrance, whilst the girls tukar baju near the sink area. Nasib baik jugak gelap, sebab dalam gelap2 tu , Mamamia ternampak jugak sanitary napkins on the toilet floor being left behind by irresponsible people. Euw... bila teringat benda tu pun, rasa loya. Should have at least, wrapped it up in newspaper / plastic bag.

Papapia's favourite was the Laman Padi. Tengok sawah padi up close. Had lunch here. Kids learned about the not so scary scarecrow. To chase these birds away, there was this lady, whose duty was to pull the string that's attached to pieces of tins/tongs yang keluarkan bunyi bising. Papapia was saying, kalau orang tanya that makcik " Apa sebenarnya kerja makcik?", it will sound silly kalau makcik tu jawab " Oh, kerja saya buat bising....".

Scarecrow pun berdiri cantik aje, mana lah burung2 tu nak takut.

Alia & Aimy posing @ Laman Padi

One thing I know kalau bercuti dengan anak2 kecik ni, to have a hassle free holiday, one cannot stick to an itemised itenary. Kena plan on the go. We made an unplanned stop at Petronas Playsmart. Masa tu we wanted to have lunch at Telaga Harbour. Walking towards KFC, we noticed that place. Coincidently, it rained very heavily outside & no way we could proceed to the next destination. So, kids wanted to play at this Playsmart. Kids enjoyed themselves playing with the exhibits and yang penting, no entrance fee, it was free!!! An educational outing.

In front of the magic / funny mirror.

One of the many posters displayed. For those yang bergincu bibir. Mamamia tak pakai lipstick, the last time I had lipstick on was on my wedding day.

Lagi satu tempat kami pergi was the Langkawi Underwater world. Bila tengok all those beautiful deep sea creatures, from very tiny to big, one just can't stop thinking betapa besarnya kuasa Allah.

Our home away from home during those 3d2n was in this resort, named after this flower

Frangipani Resort, Pantai Tengah.Right smack in front of our room.

Kalaulah the kids googled makna Frangipani ni, rasa2nya mesti they all takut nak duduk sini.

From wikipedia : They are now common naturalised plants in southern and southeastern Asia, and in local folk beliefs provide shelter to ghosts and demons. The scent of the Frangipani has been associated with a vampire in Malay folklore, the pontianak.

Oh, we also visited Makam Mak Suri / Mahsuri. This place has changed a lot. Nice.... Amir picked up a new word here ie "Fitnah". Sejak balik dari Langkawi ni, he's been using this word a lot. In his definition, he's being fitnah a lot.

Mamamia : " Amir, kenapa tak hantar cawan ni ke sink?"

Amir : " Bukan cawan Amir lah. Mamamia ni fitnah aje..."

Mamamia : " Amir, ais ni dah habis, apasal tak isi balik. ( He's always the one yang suka minum ais)

Amir : " Tengok tu, fitnah lagi. Bukan Amir habiskan.."

Did we do any shopping? I'm not sure if we can call this shopping.... Beli mainyak gamat, a 10 minutes stop at a shop to get a few pairs of seluar batik yang Acu pesan, and bought some chocholates from the Airport Duty Free shop .

Orang perempuan selalu kalau pergi Langkawi, rasa tak cukup syarat kalau tak shopping pinggan mangkuk. Well, nak penuhi syarat, I did buy a pinggan , but without the mangkuk. Not corningware, but Mahsuriware. Ni special edition, only one piece in the world.....

Pain in the neck??

2009-03-12T07:46:00.003+08:00

Last week, for 4 days I spent long hours in front of the PC trying to finish a business plan. Just imagine, dapat phone call from this &@* Co on Friday 6th March asking me to present a biz plan on Tuesday 10th March. Kena siapkan 6 bound copies !!!!

Bersengkang matalah kita nak cari information, facts & figures. In between kena multi-task dengan kerja rumah & supervise the kids with their revisions for their tests.

I never thought I'd complete the biz plan. Nasib baiklah ada internet, managed to get the necessary information needed.

The presentation was on Tuesday 10th March and at 4 a.m baru siapkan the final bound copy. Papapia did the binding. Luckily we have that binding machine at home, kalau tak , mana ada kedai bukak pagi2 buta tu nak bind 6 copies. We bought this binding machine for the kids' school projects. Masa Papapia beli dulu, I said it's a waste of money, sebab bukan selalu guna pun. Sekarang, bersyukur sangat sebab ada alat tu. If I were to tell Papapia that I was glad that he bought that thing, I'm confident he would smugly reply "I told u so!!!"

I was a nervous wreck, hours before the presentation. Reached their office 2 hours early. Went to the surau in the building, tengok balik my proposal papers. Tambah menggelabah bila nampak typing error, here and there.

When I was called into the room, lepas baca segala jampi serapah, melangkah dengan tawakal. 5 representatives of the co were seated in front of me. Presented my case, with them probing now and then. Alhamdulillah, I think everything went okay.

Whether it's a success or not, tak kisah lah. I went just for the experience. It gave some excitement to my mundane housewife life.

Once, back at home, caught some beauty sleep. I only slept for 2 hrs the previous night. Kepala dah ting tong... Bila rasa dah cukup rest & attended to some household chores, checked my email . There was one email which really helped easing the neckpain I was having selepas berjam-jam depan computer. Thanks Ninis.

For my blogger friends, yang sakit leher sebab berblogging, cuba lah this neck exercise.....

Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda

2009-03-03T16:11:00.000+08:00

Baru dapat perutusan dari istana.

Depan envelope lagi dah ada kata-kata nasihat. Bestnya.... ada orang ambil kisah pasal kita.

Here is the perutusan

Tawaran Mengkompaunkan Kesalahan Lalu Lintas.

As if I have the choice to reject the offer!!!

Sungguh efficient jejawat istana ni... Perhatikan the top red circle. It's dated 16/3/2009!!! But I received this letter in February.

On the other hand, look at the bottom red circle. According to that, tarikh saman dikeluarkan 28/08/2000. Dah 9 tahun berlalu!!!! Patutnya dah kira bad debts lah. Ni masih nak tuntut lagi. Apa kata kita forgive and forget aje....

I'm very sure I wasn't the one who committed the offence. Eversince stopped kerja, tak pernah I drive to KL. The culprit, siapa lagi kalau bukan Papapia.

By the way, here's the kata-kata nasihat printed on the envelope;

"Berhati-hati ketika memandu".

or else, you'll be hearing from us in another 9 nears to come......

Unjustly accused

2009-02-13T16:22:00.001+08:00

Baru-baru ni, had this conversation with Farah.

Farah: "Mamamia, ingat tak essay yang Farah tulis pasal Ellen ( as in Ellen DeGeneres)?"

Mamamia : "You wrote an essay on Ellen?"

Farah : "Eh, Farah tak cerita ek? Farah kena tulis essay pasal 'The person I admire most'..."

Mamamia : "You admire Ellen? Apasal tak tulis ' The person I admire most is my mother'?"
( How pathetic can one get? Nak salah guna kuasa, paksa anak sendiri admire kat mak dia. )

Farah : " She's rich!!!"

My anak dara ni memang minat kat Ellen. Everyday she'll be watching her talk show. Mamamia pulak minat Oprah.

Anyway, Farah was saying, for that essay, she did very minimal mistakes, whilst others , banyak yang cikgu underlined merah sini sana. Only one student got an 'A' , the rests dapat either 'B' or 'C'. And Farah didn't fall into any of the above category.

Instead, she's been accused with plagiarism. Before returning their essays, the teacher told the class that she would rather have her students make mistakes, then simply copy their work from other sources. Masa cikgu cakap macam tu, little did Farah know that the teacher was implying her. Ya lah, kalau kita tak buat salah, tak kan kita terasa pulak kan???

I read Farah's essay, memanglah tak banyak salah, except for some prepositions mistakes, here and there. It was just some simple, straight forward, plain English essay. ( Actually, I tried to upload her essay here, for you to read, tapi tak tahu kenapa, eventhough the message said image has been uploaded, gambar tak keluar2 jugak...).

Hairan bin ajaib, macamana Cikgu tu boleh accused her of simply copied her essay from somewhere else. As I said before, it was written in very plain English, no bombastic jargons whatsoever. Kalau dari internet, mestilah the English will be more berabuk...

Is the standard of English among the students, that bad??? Sampaikan cikgu senang2 buat conclusion, kalau English tu okay, maknanya the student must have copied it.

This is the comment from the teacher "Next time, rewrite the information you have gathered in your own words, okay?"

But, that was what she did, dear teacher!!!

I told Farah to explain to the teacher that she did her essay on her own. Farah reluctant to do so, dia kata cikgu tak kan percaya. Bila I suggest, to let me talk to the teacher, lagi lah Farah tak kasi. Memang pantang anak-anak, for the parents to make a scene.

Farah : " It's okay lah Mamamia, bila monthly exam in March nanti, I'll prove it to her. Kalau essay Farah okay nanti, tak kan dia nak tuduh Farah copy masa exam jugak... "

Mamamia agrees it's bad for a student to simply copy down other people's work and pass as her own. But, it's even worse when a teacher simply makes a wild accusation. Patutnya, cari lah bukti & kesahihan fakta dulu....

By the way Farah, Mamamia tak suka Ellen, sebab dia L#*b*@n!!!

So, What's my Penawar??

2009-02-09T00:14:00.003+08:00

Remember my last entry, ura-ura about me falling sick? Well, that Friday memang I demam teruk, the worst I've ever had rasanya... Most probably due to the age factor. Nasib baik lah the next few days cuti CNY, so I had ample time to recuperate. Eventhough the fever subsided the following day, but it took nearly a week jugaklah nak rasa sembuh betul-betul.

So, you all must be wondering, apa agaknya penawar yang I requested from Dr Papapia.

To tell you the truth, when I felt so letargic, weak and serba serbi tak kena at that time, nothing else really mattered to me, I just wanted my good health back. What I really desired was to get back all my energy, so that I could continue resuming my duty as Mamamia.

Dengan sebab itu, I only requested for something cheap but I considered very valuable to me at that point of time. I asked Papapia to get me a bottle of 100plus!!!! Itu aje..... Orang kata 100plus can re-energize you.

Bila Papapia balik dari kerja hari tu, the first thing I asked was of course for my 100plus. But, yes... there's a but. He actually forgot to buy it!!!!

Me, trying hard nak jadi Isteri mithali, suami penat2 balik kerja, tak da lah nak suruh dia keluar balik pergi kedai, just to get me a bottle of my penawar. But the truth was, I was just too weak to get angry & merajuk masa tu. I'd better save the remainder of my energy fighting the germs away.

I knew Papapia felt guilty. Because the very next day, he went to get my penawar.

He came home, not just with one bottle of 100plus, but 2 crates of 100plus. Kalau 1 crate ada 24 cans, mengikut pengiraan Mamamia, 2 crates ada 48 cans. Betulkan???

Macam tu, nak buat bersiram pun boleh. Biar cepat sembuh... Lebih dari cukup....

At this point of writing, 1 kotak tu pun tak habis lagi.

Penawar...

2009-01-22T21:06:00.002+08:00

Alia is on her way to recovery, selepas Dr Papapia came home with the penawar.

Tapi, masalahnya... Mamamia pulak yang feeling under the weather sekarang ni. Tekak sakit, hidung dah sok sek, kepala berat aje...

I guess its my turn to get Dr Papapia to give me some TLC or buy me some 'toys'. Kepala berat2 pun masih boleh nak fikir benda apa nak demand.... Mengada-ngada betul.... Tapi this is just the appropriate occasion. Can't miss this opportunity.

What I learn in kindy today...

2009-01-21T10:24:00.004+08:00

It's just into 3rd week of school for 2009, but 3 of the kids have already been absent from school sebab demam, selsema, batuk. Here we go again, Mamamia playing nurse, in between other duties. Luckily they don't fall sick all at the same time. Kalau tak penat jugak nak melayan kerenah masing-masing. For today, it's Alia's turn nak bermanja-manja. She started having high temperature yesterday. Sekarang ni, dia tengah tunggu Dr Papapia balik bawa ubat from Toys*R*Ours!!!! Before he went off for work this morning, Alia has already 'bekalkan' katalog Toys*R*Ours to him, & which 'ubat' can be the antidote she needs has already been pointed out.

Alia seems to enjoy her tadika. Alhamdulillah, she takes the whole new experience well. Nasib baiklah all my 4 kids bukan jenis yang menangis on their 1st day at school. But on the second day, when I came to fetch her, she looked moody aje... She complained ada one boy kacau dia. Ya lah, all these while she's been the baby of the house, always protected, sekarang she's been exposed pada segala macam Dol, Ah Seng & Raju, kira macam culture shock lah to her.

She always come home with something new to teach me. So now, I'm her student, she's the teacher. The subject ..... children's songs. Marah betul dia, kalau Mamamia nyanyi salah pitching or lari tune.

One day, returning from kindy, she rushed to the toilet. I followed suit. The funny thing was, it wasn't because of nature call. Alia nak buat practical training aje... She just stood at the bathroom door and started reading out loud this;

DOA MASUK TANDAS

Dah habis baca doa, she just walked back to the living room.

Betul lah tu kan, kalau benda baru belajar, & tak praktikkan dalam masa 24 jam, nanti boleh lupa kata Dr Fadhillah Kamsah.

BAGS to school!!!

2009-01-05T07:46:00.002+08:00

Phew....... Lega.....

Lega sebab cuti sekolah dah habis & I'm still in one piece.

Lega sebab whatever needed to be done & bought before school re-opens had been taken care off. Banyak betul benda yang kena buat . Beli buku , beli uniforms, nak kena jahit lencana ,jahit name tags, nak balut buku, nak tulis / tanda nama on their books.

Lagi satu kelegaan, kids seem all ready and eager to go back to school. Yang paling eager beaver mestilah si Alia, coz it will be a whole new experience for her. She's been waiting for ages to go to school. Sekolah mana?? Sekolah yang ada swing, ada slide.... Chewah... mesti dia ingat, bila pergi kindergarten tu nanti, boleh hari-hari main aje.

Alia will go to the same kindy that abang Amir & Aimy attended. Tapi sekarang under new management . On hari taklimat I found out the new owner is my friend's sister. Kecik betul dunia ni kan... Eventhough owner baru, cikgu-cikgu masih yang lama.

Anyway, here are their bags to school. Apalah Mamamia ni, gambar beg sekolah ni pun nak tunjuk??? Ni bukan sebarang beg, macam-macam cerita ada behind these bags...

Bag no 1
Tuan punya - "Miss High Maintenance". Mahal bag ni. I was very, very reluctant to let Farah to buy this bag. Kalau sebelum ni I wasn't even aware that such brand exist, tapi dengan anak dara yang mengikuti perkembangan fesyen and ada darah brand concious ( ni obviously bukan from my gene, coz my bag yang RM20 beli kat Jusco yang kulit dia pun dah terkopek tu, I'm still using ) baru I tahu brand ni ada it's own boutique ( not shop, okay!!). Dia kata kalau tak dapat bag tu, dia tak bersemangat nak gie sekolah. She even agreed this would be her b'day present - which is in 6 months time. Papapia mula-mula agreed with me not to buy that bag, to go for something cheaper. But after pusing keliling the Pavillion, looking for alternative bag for someone who has already made up her mind on one particular bag, Papapia's shopping tolerence level dropped to dangerous point. Farah won.

I still can't find anything special about the bag. Rasa2nya Ummi365 punya bags lagi cantik.

Bag no 2:
Tuan punya - "Encik Jimat Cermat". Walaupun tali beg ni ada benang yang dah tertanggal sikit, and warna pun dah kusam, Amir just loves this bag. Everytime I gave him a suggestion to get a new bag, he still said 'no'. Dia kata kalau boleh dia nak guna beg tu untuk 2 tahun lagi!!!! His thriftyness exceeds mine.
Actually not just the bag. Even his school uniform & shoes pun dia kalau boleh nak pakai yang lama. Walaupun seluar dah senteng & kasut dah sempit, he still insisted he didn't need new ones. Sebenar-benarnya, he hates shopping. Ni memang sahih gene Papapia. Tiap kali kata nak pergi shopping, he'll let out that heavy sigh..... Mamamia kesian kat his future wife aje nanti....

When I was putting their old school shoes into plastic bag that day (for the garbage man to collect) , Amir wanted to keep his old shoes. Sebab apa?? Sebab dia nak tunjuk kat anak2 dia. He said that!!! Alamak, another hoarder in the house. Anak siapa lah ni???

Bag no 3:
Tuan punya - "Miss All Grown Up". Kalau masa std 1, Aimy loved all those girlie pinky stuffs. Bags, pencil case, tumbler, semua nak yang ada gambar Barbie, Princess Daisy dan characters yang sewaktu dengannya. But not this time around. She's into High School Musical, Hannah Montana , Miley Cyrus etc. So, bila beli bag yang ada sifat keanak2an tu semua dah tak main dah. Ni lah bag of her choice, bought from Tropicana Life. Nasib baik tak mahal.

Bag No 4:
Tuan punya - "Miss First Timer". Orang yang baru kali pertama nak pergi sekolah, kasi bag apa pun boleh.... Alia's backpack ni kindy yang provide. Of courselah kena bayar jugakkan...

Bag No 5:
Tuan punya - "Madam Chauffer". Org lain semua ada beg pergi sekolah, I pun nak jugak!!! Senang nak letak handphone, kunci & a few ringgits in this small pouch. Not forgetting my driving license, eventho I will only be driving dlm housing area ni.

Okay, all READY, SET & GO. BAGS TO SCHOOL!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!

Lega, sebab the computer & laptop are all mine now. Boleh lah I spend more time blogging blog-hopping. Part ni, tak boleh tulis besar-besar......

Dunia baru....

2008-12-19T10:58:00.002+08:00

First and foremost, Mamamia perlu minta maaf sebab tidak berkesempatan menjawab komen pada posting yang lepas. I've been out, out and away..... pergi attend some refreshment course. Masuk dunia baru yang banyak membuka mata dan minda.

While I was away, bungkusan yang Kak Elle hantar dah sampai. Thanks so much. Memang cantik knitting Kak Elle, so very neat.

Not quite sure what the future has in store for me, but if things work according to my plan, besar kemungkinan I will have less time to blog. Ntah-ntah kena abandon blog ni. Macamana pun, I'll make it a point to drop by kawan2s blogs.

Ni ajelah for the time being. Just to keep U all updated. Mamamia is still alive and kicking.

Berkorban apa saje....

2008-12-10T07:57:00.006+08:00

Aidil Adha datang dan pergi. Memandangkan hari hujan aje dari pagi, mood raya pun suram jugak. Sebab sejuk hujanlah, I overslept. Bila terjaga dah pukul 7 lebih. Apa lagi kelam kabut kejut Papapia & Amir. Rushed to the kitchen, prepared breakfast.

Masa nak ke masjid, Amir could not find his slippers. Rupa-rupanya kat garden, and they were all wet. Of course lah Amir refused to wear wet slippers. Sepasang lagi selipar, tinggal lagi sebelah aje. Yang lagi sebelah, entah mana dia campak... ( Ni lah perangai the kids, selipar & kasut bersepah-sepah. Shoe racks ada 2, 3. But the racks are empty, the shoes all over the floor!!) It was nearly 8am, masjid nearby dah nak start the sembahyang raya. Since they were running out of time, Amir just grabbed kasut sekolah dia & off they went.

Bila balik sembahyang raya, Amir happily announced;

"Mamamia, nak tahu tak? Kasut yang Amir pakai tadi kan, dua-dua belah kanan!!!"

Here we go again... Ingat lagi tak cerita kasut sekolah dia dulu tu? Both right feet!!!

Well, that brightened our pagi Aidil Adha yang suram. Good thing was, tak de lah orang nak curi kasut tu...

Besides that, the day ended on another happy note when Papapia brought home this;

All these while, the kids have been fighting over the laptop/computer. One of our laptops rosak, another one, Papapia guna. So, tinggal 1 laptop & 1 computer. Yang nak gunanya 4 kids + 1 Mamamia. After months of waiting and squabbling, finally yang ditunggu dah tiba.

Guess, I can consider this as korban Papapia sempena Aidil Adha ni. Semoga terus murah rezeki...Ameen.

Senyumlah...

2008-12-05T15:28:00.002+08:00

One in a million shot...... A smile from Heaven.....

Received the above through email.

Kali ni Mamamia punya entry ada kena mengena jugaklah dengan gambar di atas. Nak kongsi petua yang Mamamia jumpa kat internet.

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Petua untuk murah rezeki dan dijauhkan kesulitan

Abu Yazid Al Busthami, pelopor sufi, pada suatu hari pernah didatangi seorang lelaki yang wajahnya kusam dan keningnya selalu berkerut. Dengan murung lelaki itu mengadu,'Tuan Guru, sepanjang hidup saya,rasanya tak pernah lepas saya beribadah kepada Allah. Orang lain sudah lelap, saya masih bermunajat. Isteri saya belum bangun, saya sudah mengaji. Saya juga bukan pemalas yang enggan mencari rezeki. Tetapi mengapa saya selalu malang dan kehidupan saya penuh kesulitan?'

Sang Guru menjawab sederhana, 'Perbaiki penampilanmu dan ubahlah riak mukamu. Kau tahu, Rasulullah SAW adalah penduduk dunia yang miskin namun wajahnya tak pernah keruh dan selalu ceria. Sebab menurut Rasulullah SAW, salah satu tanda penghuni neraka ialah muka masam yang membuat orang curiga kepadanya.' Lelaki itu tertunduk. Ia pun berjanji akan memperbaiki penampilannya.

Mulai hari itu, wajahnya sentiasa berseri. Setiap kesedihan diterima dengan sabar, tanpa mengeluh. Alhamdullilah sesudah itu ia tak pernah datang lagi untuk berkeluh kesah. Keserasian selalu dijaga. Sikapnya ramah, wajahnya sentiasa menguntum senyum bersahabat. Riak mukanya berseri.

Tak heran jika Imam Hasan Al Basri berpendapat, awal keberhasilan suatu pekerjaan adalah air muka yang ramah dan penuh senyum. Bahkan Rasulullah SAW menegaskan, senyum adalah sedekah paling murah tetapi paling besar pahalanya.

Demikian pula seorang suami atau seorang isteri. Alangkah celakanya rumah tangga jika suami isteri selalu berwajah tegang. Sebab tak ada persoalan yang diselesaikan dengan mudah melalui kekeruhan dan ketegangan. Dalam hati yang tenang, fikiran yang dingin dan wajah cerah, Insya Allah, apapun persoalannya nescaya dapat di atasi. Inilah yang dinamakan keluarga sakinah, yang didalamnya penuh dengan cinta dan kasih sayang.

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Masih teringat suatu kisah di dapur. My ever so helpful Aimy came into the kitchen, perhati Mamamia memasak.

Tak lama kemudian dia bertanya; "Pernah tak Mamamia rasa malas nak masak?"

Tanpa segan silu & terus terang, Mamamia jawab; " Ada jugak, kadang-kadang...."

"Tapi Aimy tengok Mamamia senyum aje, nampak happy aje bila masak... Takda pun marah-marah"

Ni cakap Aimylah.... Little did I know, she has been observing me all these while. Nasib baiklah, I have been in my best behaviour masa dia tengok tu...

My reply was: " Kalau nak masak sedap-sedap, kena senyum & happy. Kalau marah-marah nanti tak sedap, Aimy pun tak nak makan kan... "

She just nodded away. Faham lah agaknya tu....

I guess there's some truth to that. Kalau chef kat TV tu kan mostly happening & ceria aje, tu sebab their food look so yummylicious.

Kalau tengah mood tak baik, kita sendiri malas nak masakkan?? One thing I know for sure, my other half boleh sense my mood through my cooking!!! Nanti dia pun tak da mood nak makan. Maka tambahlah bad mood kita, sebab penat-penat masak, orang tak makan pulak. & it probably won't stop there. So, bila mood kurang baik or angin pus-pus tu datang, I'll always take the easy way out, order lah Pizza or McD.

Happiness is contagious, and so is Unhappiness.

Mamamia's Dancing Queen

2008-11-27T16:00:00.001+08:00

A month back, we finally managed to watch Mamma Mia.

How would I have known they are going to make a movie from the name of my blog. Ceh! Perasan..... The truth is, name of this blog was taken from the song.

Looking back, plus minus 2 years, I had that Abba cassette in my kancil. Bila dah boring dengar radio, pasanglah cassette tu... & on the way to sending & fetching the kids to school selalulah dengar....

What made me chose the song 'Mamma Mia' to be the name of my blog? Begini kisahnya.... if you are interested to know lah....

Masa terhegeh-hegeh nak create this blog, nak pilih nama bagai, I wanted to find a catchy phrase, something light. A name which at first glance readers boleh tahu ni blog seorang ibu yang nak kongsi cerita pasal kisah anak-anak dia..... Something like that lah....

Ilham tak datang-datang... Tapi yang sekejap-sekejap datang were the kids with their insistent callings of "Mama.... nak ni", "Mama... nak tu", "Mama...this" & "Mama...that".

In exasperation, I exclaimed "Mamamia!!! Here we go again...., nak apa lagi......".

Then, the light bulb moment appeared. Ok jugak, if I name the blog as such. So, from that point of time, muncullah seorang makcik blogger dengan nama 'Mamamia'. Nama ni memang jauh menyimpang from my actual name or nickname. So, kalau terserempak kat mana-mana, & kalau I tak respond bila ada anyone panggil 'Mamamia', this is the reason. Bukan sombong......

Lepas tengok movie Mamma Mia, there's someone else in the family yang dah jatuh hati dengan lagu2 tu. Tak lain tak bukan si kecik ni....

Mamma Mia.......

Dancing Queen.....

Our holiday gateaway....

2008-11-25T10:34:00.001+08:00

Papapia asked the kids where they wanted to go for their holidays. Excitedly the kids suggested Dubai, Bali, Bandung, Disneyland, Singapore, Australia.... and the list continued. Bukan main lagi budak-budak ni, kuat berangan. Dream on kids....

Finally, Papapia made up his mind. "Ok, kita pergi A'Famosa...."

Ek eleh.... jauhnya!!!!

Well, something is better than nothing. To get Papapia away from his work pun dah syukur Alhamdulillah.

Wednesday morning, I made the necessary reservation for a 3d2n stay. Nasib baik ada kosong lagi. Called Pak Long & Pak Ngah too. Ajak their families to join us. The more the merrier. Too bad ACu tak boleh join.

The departure time was supposed to be after Friday prayers. But at 3 pm, we were still at home. Kids were already getting restless. I'm used to this waiting game, waiting for Papapia to end his office calls. One by one the kids checked on their Papapia in the room. Everytime, the report came back negative " Papapia tengah telefon lagi..".

Once, dah masuk kereta, when we were about to drive away, ada lagi satu one last call he had to make. Quite a long one tooo!!! That's Papapia. It takes time for him to tune into the vacation mode.

The last time we went to this resort was when Alia was still a baby, & Aimy was around 3 years old - she could hardly remember this place. Tu yang dia ingat kami nak pergi jauh, & she was expecting we were going to take a flight there. Alia pun sama, dia nak pergi naik aeroplane....

Maybe some other times kids.... Anyhow, we made the best of what we had. It was one enjoyable gateway & let the pics do the talking.

We stayed in a 3 bedroom villa with a swimming pool. Since it was all fenced up, Farah yg dah lama tak pergi swimming, had her lepas dendam session. Mamamia pun terjun masuk kolam.

How nice kalau dapat tinggal dalam neighbourhood yang macam ni, tak da pagar .

One of the rooms, overlooking the pool.

A kitchen window with a view.... Kalau dapat dapur macam ni, hilang penat memasak agaknya...

Saturday morning, kids went for paintball target shooting, archery & go-kart.

Afternoon - we went to the Animal Safari world. Segala macam show kami tengok. Tapi the animals macam malnourished lah....

Cowboy show - the Good, the Bad & the Ugly fighting with each other. Cowboy style, Red Indians pun ada. Gun shots were a bit too loud, though.

Multi Animal show - Chimpanzee , Bear, Raccoon, Dogs macam-macam ada....

Siapa nak beli? RM10 aje.... Painted by a Chimpanzee,

Bird show - love the talking birds, which sang Happy Birthday to you!!!

The flamingo, strutting their sexy long legged legs.

Elephant show - kalau siapa nak tengok gajah main basketball, football & pandai mengurut, this is the show to see.
Then, we wemt on the Safari ride. Naik truck, macam naik roller coaster.... Watched the wild animals lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, crocs, deers in their sort of natural habitats. Teringat pulak cerita 'Madagascar 2'. kids started singing "u've got to move it...." Tapi, kesian lah tengok binatang2 ni... they look sad....

At night, we went to Cowboy town, just in time to catch the "Street Carnival Parade". We noticed the same people & animals who entertained us in the earlier shows, again were in this parade. They must be exhausted. Kita yang tukang tengok ni pun penat, ini kan pulak diaorang. Acara penutup parade ni was a firework display that lighten up the night sky.

Lepas tu, ada 2 more shows... Red Indian dance - they performed their expertise main & makan api!!! & finally, acrobatics show. Rasanya acrobats ni from mainland China. Melopong the kids tengok diaorang performed.... Such skill & such precision. We had enough show for one day.

Sunday morning, kids had their final swimming pool session. Left the place at around 12 noon. Tak singgah mana2 dah, terus balik 'home sweet home'.

Overall, it was an enjoyable gateaway. Kids had fun. Compared to our previous stay, this resort looks like dah terbiar sikit... the visitors macam dah berkurangan. Good, coz you don't have to queue too long & berebut tempat duduk to see the shows.

Food wise, too bad tak boleh masak in the villa.... So, we all beli aje food from stalls kat luar kawasan ni. Kalau dlm resort, mahal oooo... A packet of jambu batu pun RM2!!! ANyway, we all brought lots of makanan from home.. Maggi in cup, roti, cereals. I even brought toaster along... Macamana lah tak penuh boot kereta!!! Selagi boleh muat, semua nak disumbat.

Maybe in three years time , we'll do another revisit. InsyaAllah....

MEH entry....

2008-11-18T14:39:00.003+08:00

It's not even one week into their school hols but when asked how their cuti have been, the kids replied unanimously "MEH......"

Maybe some of you are not quite aware of the meaning of MEH. Ni perkataan baru yg masuk dictionary & I'm trying to apply it here. The dictionary entry for "meh" will say it can be used as an interjection to indicate indifference or boredom, as an adjective to describe something as boring or mediocre, or to show an individual is apathetic or unimpressed.

Another new word which I find interesting is FRENEMY ( an enemy disguised as a friend. Why don't we include this is our kamus dewan. Seorang musuh yang berlagak macam kawan, combined it to 'MUWAN' or 'KASUH'??? Rasa2nya DBP boleh terima tak??)

Kalau kena buat ayat, Mamamia buat ayat ni "I'd rather have 100 enemies, than 1 FRENEMY".
Terjemah sebagai "Saya lebih rela mempunyai 100 orang musuh , dari seorang MUWAN".

Meh??? Yes, No????

Nak baca lebih lanjut, try this link http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/od_afp/britainlanguagedictionaryoffbeat

Sakit telinga

2008-11-14T07:40:00.002+08:00

Last Wednesday, Papapia took Aimy to the ENT. She has been complaining telinga dia sakit & gatal. Memang dah lama dia ada masalah telinga ni. On & off, pergi jumpa doktor biasa, & from their observations, takda masalah apa-apa. But they 'll still supply the eardrop, to be used bila sakit.

Masalahnya, the problem still persist. Risau jugak kalau ada long term effect. To be on the safe side, baiklah dengar nasihat pakar.

Kadang-kadang geram jugak bila ada 'seseorang' tu kata kita tak bersihkan telinga Aimy betul-betul, tu sebab lah dia sakit telinga.

After ENT visit yesterday, finally found the root of the problem. Memang Mamamia happy sangat dengan the findings, sebabnya segala tuduhan 'seseorang' tu memang tak berasas sama sekali!!!

ENT said, Aimy is experiencing this earache, sebab.... telinga dia TOO CLEAN!!!! Tu dia... bersih sangat pun tak boleh. All her earwax has been cleaned off. Memanglah habit si Aimy ni suka bersihkan telinga dengan cotton bud. Bila gatal sikit, she'll use the cotton bud, which is always within her reach. Sampai kat tempat tidur pun ada.

Teringat Mamamia kecik2 dulu, bersihkan telinga dengan hujung bulu ayam. Pernah cuba tak?? I tell you... boleh khayal dibuatnya. Rasa macam 'heaven is a place on earth' ( suka lagu Belinda Carlisle ni).

Dari internet :-

The gooey, golden stuff that builds up inside your ears should stay there, according to national guidelines on earwax removal released today.

"[Earwax] is not intrinsically evil stuff, and consequently does not have to be removed merely because it's present," said Peter Roland, an ear, nose and throat doctor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "In fact, it serves a function and so if you don't need to take it out, you should just leave it alone."

Excessive or impacted earwax affects 1 in 10 children and 1 in 20 adults. You shouldn't stick any object smaller than your elbow into your ear, including cotton swabs, doctors say. Credit: Dreamstime.com.

To clean the ear, just clean the outer area, do not poke into the canal.

Ok, got to go. Mamamia nak pergi sorokkan all cotton bud....

School Holiday Prelude.....

2008-11-10T14:01:00.005+08:00

It's the last week of school for 2008.

Academic performance this year just so-so. Aimy did better than in her mid term exams. As expected, masa exam, dia cuai. Mesti ada soalan yang terlupa jawab. Banyak berangan dia ni....

Amir , slight drop. He didn't get top 3, tapi still nak bangga diri, telling us kalau among boys, dia tetap nombor 1!!! Dalam kelas dia yang top 10, he was the only boy ie nombor 5, yang lain semua pelajar perempuan. Kadang-kadang, I wish there's another boy in his class whom Amir can compete with. Boleh juga jadi pushing factor for him to reach higher level. Mengikut firasat Mamamia, he is capable to do better....

Buat tahun ketiga, Amir terima surat perlantikan pengawas. Dan ini kali ketiga , Amir kena tolak tawaran tu, atas titah perintah Papapia.

Farah has yet to get her results. Since secondary school ni, she has been doing her revisions on her own. Recently, while doing her maths exercise, Farah came to me when she could not solve the question on Pythagora's Theorem. Alamak!! I can recall learning that topic, but it was like more than 20 years ago. Lepas tutup buku, tak pernah pulak apply such theory in my daily activities. Bila masa pulak nak ukur right angled triangle, in running a household???

But, since Mamamia is supposed to know all, I had to walk the brain down memory lane. Slow and steady... studied the formula, looked at the examples, attempted the question. Surprise, surprise, dapat jugak jawapan dia. Phew!!! otak ni belum berkarat lagi lah gamaknya.

Farah is the type who likes to burn the midnight oil. Exam week, she stayed up sampai pukul 2, 3 pagi. The next day, senang pulak kejut kan dia. Kalau Mamamia lah, mesti dah ting, tong dah...

Since school holiday is fast approaching, Mamamia tengah mentally preparing myself.

Belum apa-apa lagi, the kids are already up and about with their activities. Tengoklah apa dah jadi pada pintu rumah;

dan juga ceiling rumah.

Ni semua Papapia punya idea. He bought those cans yang orang selalu guna masa birthday , Xmas parties. When you press the nozzle, it will produce colourful strings of foam. The kids apa lagi, they had a field day spraying everything & everyone.

It's going to be a loooonnnnnnggggg holiday.

Alia turns 4 y.o.

2008-11-04T23:11:00.001+08:00

On 29th Oct 2008, Alia celebrated her 4th birthday. She got her birthday cake & presents. But she was wondering "mana orang ramai-ramai??"

Kesian pulak dengar soalan dia tu. Tak buat party pun, just the normal candle blowing & cake cutting . Just among us anak beranak....

From a 3 yr old who couldn't pronounce words ending with 'ng' ( her 'sayang' jadi 'sayam', 'abang' jadi 'abam'), Alia has progressed a lot. Rumah meriah dengan her chatters.

Tapi ada jugak bahasa dia yang masih tunggang terbalik.

Her hari Jumaat still stuck as hari JUAMAT.

Siri 'Ugly Betty' Alia renamed it as 'UGLY BATTERY'.

Kat rumah ni, bila ada sesiapa disyaki not telling the truth, Aimy & Amir will always sing this tune " Tipu dosa, Mati siksa, Masuk neraka, padan muka....".
Yang ini, Alia punye version "Tipu dosa, SEKSI MATA, padan muka..."

Alia kadang-kadang feels left out sebab tak dapat join games played by her older siblings. But the others tak lah kejam sangat... she does get to join in their games , especially bila nak cukup kan quorum.

Once , they were playing this 'Namakan..' game. Each player kena take turn namakan different objects according to the selected category.
The game goes like this " Namakan sejenis binatang..."
So, each kid will take turn lah " anjing, kucing, burung dlll... sampai semua binatang dah disebut, they move to the next category.

Mamamia tak boleh lupa masa they all kena "Namakan sejenis buah-buahan"

Amir: " buah Rambutan"
Aimy: " buah jambu"
Alia : " err... buah HATI..."

That's more or less, cerita pasal Mamamia punya buah HATI.

My glamorous chef

2008-10-28T12:02:00.009+08:00

I was in the kitchen preparing ingredients for masak lomak cili api. My two little helpers walked in offering their services.

Part tumbuk bawang is their favourite task. Since there are two of them kena take turnlah.

Halfway pounding the cili api, Mamamia reminded them to be careful. Takut nanti cili api tu melompat masuk mata. Si Aimy yang tengah menumbuk, stopped in her track. & walked away.... Aikk, ke mana pulak anak dara ni???

Sekejap aje, she returned & continued her task. Tapi, kali ni dia tak takut dah cili api nak melompat ke apa, coz this time she was well protected. Not just protected, she was glamorously protected with her pinky sunglasses!!!

Sadly, she didn't complete her task. There's no way she could protect herself from getting stung in the eyes when the onions released their gas. Berair-air mata dia.....

Mamamia dah lama tak da problem dengan bawang ni. Kopeklah seguni pun, no effect whatsoever to the eyes. Kalau menangis pun sebab sedih kenapa kena kopek sampai seguni???

Rahsia kekebalan mata ni, sebab dah dilindungi dengan kanta sesentuh. There's no way the gas can penetrate the nerve endings in the eyes that produce the tears. So there are two reasons why Mamamia celebrates the invention of contact lense. One, for assisting me with my rabun yang tersangat jauh and secondly, of course for not making me sad in the kitchen.

Tak habis lagi.....

2008-10-22T18:12:00.000+08:00

Apa yang tak habis??? Cerita raya da.....

On the 11th day of Raya:

Kawan-kawan Amir datang beraya. They came in small groups. Lepas makan minum lebih kurang, they all minta diri nak balik. Masa bersalam-salam tu, Mamamia bertanya;

"Nak ke mana lepas ni?"

"Tak tahu lagi..." jawab A.

"Nak pergi cari lagi..." sampuk si B.

"Nak cari apa? " tanya Mamamia.

" Nak cari rezeki!!!" confirmed si B.

Itulah seronok jadi budak kecik ni. Syawal memang bulan rezeki untuk mereka.

On the 12th day of Raya.

Mak cik held a raya gathering cum farewell dinner untuk anak dia yang nak migrate to US, to join the rests of his family . The parents were not happy with his move, tapi tetap mendoakan kesejahteraan anak mereka. He's married to omputih & dah ada anak 1 boy & 1 girl, Amina - photo below. Comeikan??. Wishing all the best to you & family.

On the 17th of Raya;

Attended a neighbour's rumah terbuka @ 5pm. Mamamia memang dah kenyang sebelum pergi tu, so ambikkan makanan utk Alia & Aimy aje , a plate each. Tapi bila dah jumpa kawan2 dia orang yang lain, they all leka bermain. Tak sentuh pun makanan tu. Had no choice, kenalah Mamamia habiskan. Nasib baik ambik sikit aje, kalau tak, boleh termun...... The food was yummy, but no more space in my tummy.

On the 18th day of Raya:

Open house lagi.... This time, kawan Papapia. Memang grand, banyak stalls with macam-macam makanan. The kids wanted ABC. So, there we were, beratur dengan hemahnya. The queue , tak panjang sangat, tapi after standing at the same spot for more than 10 minutes, Mamamia dah resah dah. Macam tak bergerak aje..... Tried to persuade the kids to go for something else. But, they had made up their minds, nak ABC jugak. Terpaksalah tunggu jugak. Nearly half an hour later, sampailah kami ke depan. Bila dah sampai depan tu, barulah tahu kenapa it took so long. Memang menyirap darah, when we saw other people dengan senang hati aje potong queue!!! Kalau budak kecik, boleh ampun lagi, ni mak budak!!! Couldn't they see the queue? Atau sengaja buat2 tak nampak. Mamamia purposely cakap kuat2 to the ABC girl, biarlah

Cik Puan tu dengar

" Dik, bagi kami yg dah beratur ni dulu boleh??? " Adik tu cuma ngangguk aje. Maybe dia tak nak campur tangan...

Well, I guess kalau tadi Cik Puan tu buat-buat tak nampak orang dah beratur lama, there's no stopping her from buat-buat tak dengar!!! Dressing bukan main glamour, tapi simple etiquette macam ni pun tak tahu!!!

Lepas tu malas dah Mamamia nak beratur kat stalls lain untuk ambil makanan. Takut nanti jumpa balik makhluk-makhluk yang macam ni.

On the 18th night of Raya:

Nenek's turn to have the kaum Ibus of her Taman, over for raya. For the past one week, these kaum Ibus beraya kat at least 3 houses in the taman. Kira macam take turn lah buat open house kat rumah masing-masing. There are at least 30 of them.

Mamamia went over to help out apa yang patut. Entertained & berborak with some of the makciks. Two of the makciks @ my mother's age, left me with this piece of advice.

"Kalau boleh beranak lagi, beranaklah... Tengok kami ni, anak2 ramai ( 1 with 6 children, another 8 children) bila dah tua2 ni, tinggal sorang dua aje kat rumah. Sunyi gak kadang-kadang tu... "

Kalau boleh memanglah nak ramai anak, tapi... I've missed the boat. Hopefully, sorang dua yang tinggal tu nanti can take care of us.

Eeee E-lab!!!

2008-10-15T13:47:00.004+08:00

Mamamia was so free on Monday sampai kan semua newspaper habis dibaca. Nasib baik Sin Chew & Tamil Nesan tak da kat rumah ni, kalau ada , I could have ended up reading those too.

Yeah, seronoknya jadi surirumahtangga sepenuh masa ni!!!! Relax aje kan..... ( How I wish this is so true..)

Lepas baca akhbar sisipan meant for students, the e-LAB section @ 13/10/2008, which stands for English Laboratory with a tag line "Where English Comes Alive", I'm a bit concerned with the standard of English. Not saying that my English 'standard' sangat. Tapi kalau nak claim you ni portal pendidikan, the editor or whoever is concerned should have paid more attention. Macamana students nak improve their English, kalau their source of reference pun tak berapa betul.

On its front page, ada lah gambar cartoon depicting UPSR students in jovial mood since their UPSR exam was over. Then, Mamamia noticed this girl;

Mengikut telekan Ahli Nujum Mak Grasshopper ni, she might have some problem with her English paper. Unless, this is the only blunder she made, atau pun graph rendah...

Bila baca petikan bawah gambar tu, mata Mamamia terbaca pulak line ni;

'Just a word of advise'.

Shouldn't it be 'Just a word of advice'. Another typing error???

Ntah lah... These could have been their 'one off' mistakes. Tapi since it's on the front page, it didn't give a very good impression.

Our raya routine..

2008-10-13T09:10:00.003+08:00

Firstly, my apology for this entry is still on Raya, eventhough it's already the 13th day of raya. Orang lain dah tukar chapter lain dah!!!

Perasan tak, how particular we get bila cerita pasal raya with regards to the time? Bila cerita tu, mesti kena mention the time... Starting with malam raya, pagi raya, raya pertama, raya kedua, sampailah sekarang ni raya ke13. Even ada satu saluran TV tu, their programmes pun are scheduled as such. ie tayangan untuk raya ke 7, ke8, ke9 etc.

Year in year out, Mamamia sekeluarga has somehow stick to the same raya routine. Or should I say stuck with the same routine. Eventhough it's so predictable, the excitement is still there. Tapi this year, there's a bit of twist, here and there...

Selalunya the last buka puasa, will be at Atok's house. Mamamia menyebokkan diri, tengok nenek masak apa, & helped out apa yang patut. This time round, nenek efficient betul, tak bagi chance Mamamia nak tolong. Semua dah siap!!

Malam raya, kids would be assigned with a task that they always look forward to ie tolong masukkan duit dlm green packets. Tapi this year they were dissapointed sebab tak da duit raya , & tak da green packet!!! Mamamia pun dissapointed, sebab tak ingat langsung mana dah sorokkan those new notes. Baik punya sorok, sampai tak jumpa!!! Masa selongkar2 tu jumpa the kids' last year duit raya adalah. So how lah, to raya????

Pagi raya, routine wajib is bersalam2, and followed by routine sunat ie bergambar. If previous years, tak pernah dapat gambar the whole family in a shot sebab one of us will be the photographer. Tapi this year, Mamamia dah pandai guna Timer kat camera tu, so managed to shoot the whole family in a shot. The first few shots tak jadi, sebab Mamamia put the setting too short, tak sempat enter frame, the camera dah clicked. Alia was amused kenapalah Mamamia ni after setting the camera ,asyik berlari bila nak bergambar . Happy sangat ke??? Lama2, Alia bertanya "kenapa Mamamia lari ?"

Lately, Alia ni banyak bertanya. Some are straight forward questions, but there are also those yang Mamamia sendiri tak pernah fikir apa, kenapa & macamana? Masa raya ni, we have taught her to greet 'Selamat Hari Raya' to the relatives. After a few greetings, Alia bertanya, "Mamamia, SELAMAT tu apa?" Alahai, when my brain was set on leisurely mode, masa tu lah dia nak surprise test kita!!! Kalau nak bagi defination Hari Raya tu senanglah . I can't remember what my explanation/kelentong was, but she must have got the gist. Kalau tak silap, I told her 'Selamat' ni lebih kurang macam 'Happy'. Like when we wish others 'Happy Birthday - Selamat Hari Jadi', 'Happy New Year' - Selamat Tahun Baru'. Nasib baiklah Alia tak tanya kenapa bila kita wish 'Selamat Pagi / Petang / Malam' kita tak cakap 'Happy Morning/Afternoon/Night' but we say 'Good Morning/Afternoon/Night'. Siapa nak jawab????

Raya pertama was spent at Atok's house. Selalunya we would be there sampai petang, but this raya I decided to come back home in the afternoon. Sebabnya... Mamamia nak teruskan pencarian duit raya!!! Yang lain2 tu, took their afternoon seista. Sampai rumah, Mamamia headed straight to the closet. I retracked the last time I took those new notes from it's original place. Terbayang2 lagi the big envelope, tapi tak ingat langsung mana Mamamia dah simpan. Searched the shelves over and over, tapi tak jumpa jugak. Sambil tu, dapatlah kemaskan the clothings in the closet. Memang dah give up dah, when I decided to have a last look. This time I searched at the most unlikely place. And Alhamdulillah... I saw the big envelope, diam2 menyorok kat belakang shelf tu. Lega ada, geram pun ada. Geram sebab kenapalah I skipped that compartment on my initial searches....

Hari raya ke2, selalunya kami ber'convoy' adik beradik to relatives houses in Bangi, sampai ke Banting. This would be tha day yang we all akan singgah rumah sepupu untuk makan tengahari & akan dijamu dengan nasi putih dan lauk simple termasuklah sambal sardin& ikan masin. Lepas dah puas dengan ketupat & rendang, masakan simple macam ni memanglah terasa sedap sangat. But this year, kami tak da rezeki. My cousin had to balik kampung Perak coz the mother in law was unwell. The rest of the visits went okay.

Since memang dah routine, second raya kena makan sardin, balik from our raya visits, Papapia requested for that dish. See, how we are sticking to the routine!!! Second raya & sardine, tak boleh lari dah the mindset.

Raya ke3, ke4 & seterusnya, depending on the mood, we still continue with the visits. Ada lagi rumah makcik, pakcik yang belum cover lagi ni...

The past rayas, we hold 'open house'. This year, ingatkan nak skip this routine. Tapi ada orang dah bertanya " Tak buat open house ke? Dia nak datang rumah.." Ni masalahnya, since we always had one previous years, everyone is expecting one this year. "Nak buat ke tak?", that is the tune singing in my head at this moment....

Sejak berblogging ni, dah tambah satu routine. Kena update blog on raya happenings. Tak gitu???

Hari Raya, dah Selamat........

2008-10-05T12:40:00.003+08:00

A short one. Sebab kalau nak cerita pasal raya, takut nanti dah raya haji pun tak boleh publish entry ni.

Salam Aidil Fitri dari Mamamia sekeluarga.

Kalau ada terkasar bahasa hingga terguris rasa , harap diampuni.

Santa Claus & famili di depan pondok buruk.

Di pagi raya, sebelum ke rumah Atok.

Menjelang Syawal - expect the Unexpected.

2008-09-27T07:35:00.005+08:00

Kids have started doing their countdown to raya. Tinggal berapa hari aje for us to make the best of our Ramadan . Ada jugak terasa sedih, for this could be my last Ramadan and yet my performance is below average. Could have done more.... Sigh... Kadang-kadang tertanya jugak, kalau syaitan dirantai dalam bulan ni, kenapa my amalan still below par? Kalau bulan-bulan lain boleh jugak terima excuse sebab hasutan syaitan. Ni tak da syaitan pun, amalan lebih kurang aje. Baca quran maybe lebih sikit dari biasa, tapi still tak boleh khatam. What a dissapointment!!!

If Aidil Fitri is welcomed with joy sebab kita telah kembali ke fitrah, my self-evaluation tells me , I don't deserve that. My only hope semoga dipanjangkan umur for yet many more Ramadans. Wah... banyak kena muhasabah diri.

Anyway, back to home front. The decluttering process semakin rancak. Banyak jugak yang dah masuk tong sampah. Baju2 lama esp for toddlers dah dikumpul nak donate. Nak bagi pada siapa, tak tahu lagi... Just can't think of anyone nearby yg ada anak kecil. Baju2 yang besar sikit masih boleh di hand down to the next kid. Yang melambatkan kerja Mamamia sekarang ni, siapa lagi kalau bukan the 2 younger kids. Mana2 baju yang they all rasa they all berkenan semua nak try. Mamamia sibuk masukkan baju dalam boxes or plastic bags, they all sibuk menyelongkar balik. Kalau macam ni, dah raya pun, tak boleh selesai benda ni....

The beginning of Ramadan, I thought I've covered all the shoppings. Rasanya semua baju wajib & sunat for the kids & myself dah settle. Untuk benda2 rumah like carpet raya, langsir raya, cushion cover raya, semua tak payah. Guna balik yang lama, semua masih dalam good condition. So, in between the decluttering, Mamamia tukar langsir. For the kitchen's window, Mamamia turunkan langsir & campak masuk washing machine. Ni lah satu2nya tingkap yang tak ada spare curtain. It has been that one curtain, dari dulu. Dulu here means like 10 years!!! Amboi mak, lamanya..... it did cross my mind to buy one on our last shopping trip, tapi tak da pulak jumpa ready made curtain utk tingkap dapur yang berkenan.

So, bila washing machine stopped its spinning cycle, Mamamia happily took the curtain out from the w.machine nak jemur. But as the title of this entry go, "expect the unexpected".... curtain yang Mamamia masukkan tadi cantik warna brownish petak2, bila tarik keluar, jadi.... macam kain buruk!!! It all tattered and tercarik-carik macam kain buruk. Alahai!!! habis langsir yg ditempah dari whotheFella tu. Didn't expect that to happen to kain 'mahal'. Tak betullah peribahasa 'alah membeli menang memakai' ni....

But, come to think of it, the payment made for that curtain, if spread over the 10 years, berbaloilah.... Dah hari2 kena matahari, kering & reputlah dia. What more it got the direct sunlight. Kita pun, kalau kena jemur hari2 berterusan for 10 years, boleh dapat skin cancer.

Last night, told Papapia that we need to shop for curtain. His reaction... was as expected. " I thot U said we don't have to go shopping lagi!!!" (dengan nada tinggi ) . Dia phobia dengar the word 'shopping'.

I don't mind kalau tak pasang curtain kat tingkap tu, sebab terang sikit. Tapi bila malam, orang luar boleh nampak dalam. Dah lah tingkap tu menghadap jalan.... & without curtain, it looks kind of b*gel. Kalau tak sempat jugak beli, last resort is to use curtain meant for the other windows. Maybe kena ikat sikit, kalau tak basah kena air. Pandailah Mamamia menggayakannya nanti. "Tak ada rotan, akar pun berguna." ( Eh!, banyak pulak peribahasa kali ni)

For buka puasa yesterday, we all berbuka kat rumah Atok. Sebelum tu made our trip to Pasar Ramadan. I did the buying, the rests waited in the car. Atok pesan beli sup daging. Bulan Ramadan ni, Mamamia dah jadi regular customer kat stall sup daging ni. Selalunya, beli RM4, & balik rumah Mamamia campurkan carrot & potatoes to the soup. Amir loves it.

This stall is manned by a husband & wife team. Mamamia perasan selalu ada anak2 mereka sama kat stall tu. Yang besar sikit akan tolong the parents, potong daging & packing. Yang kecil tolong jagakan adik. Ada 4 orang anak2 mereka. Bila nampak anak2 sekecil tu susah payah menolong ibubapa mencari rezeki, I count my blessings for I don't have to put my kids through those hardship. Teragak jugak nak tunjukkan my kids this scene, biar they all tahu, tak semua kanak2 beruntung macam they all. Dapat duduk depan TV, menghadap internet, relaks aje kat rumah.... Ni kadang2, bila minta tolong, dia punya 'okay, nanti kejap' tak tahu ntah berapa kali. Malas nak mengerah lagi, lagi cepat kita buat sendiri...

Since it is coming to the end of Ramadan, mood raya pun dah ada, Mamamia pun tergerak nak sedekah anak2 penjual sup duit raya. So, yesterday I went to pasar Ramadan with 5 green packets in my pocket. Why 5? There are only 4 kids? Ntah, Mamamia pun tak tahu kenapa gerak hati suruh bawa 5 ...

As usual, Mamamia stopped at the stall & placed my order, then went looking around for other juadah. Tu lah routinenya. Bila dah beli juadah lain, I'd come back to this stall, make my payment & collect the soup.

Bila nak collect the soup semalam, Mamamia tengok there was extra mee soup in the plastic bag. I told the daughter, my order was just for 1 soup. Then the father said, the extra mee was their gift to me for being a regular customer. MasyaAllah.... bukan kat Mekah sahaja Allah bagi ganjaran on the spot. Macamana seller ni tahu Mamamia nak sedekah anak2 dia duit raya hari ni??? I really didn't expect that. Ntah kenapa masa tu timbul perasan sebak for their generous gesture. Tapi controllah perasan tu....

Mamamia tanya the girl, berapa orang adik-beradik dia? Ya lah, nanti bagi duit raya, tak cukup kang, berebut pulak adik beradik... She said '5'. Then only Mamamia noticed their elder brother at the back of the stall. Maybe all this while, dia bersekolah, that's why he was never around. Glad I followed my gerak hati., 5 green packets, not 4.

I handed the packets to the girl, telling her to distribute among her adik beradik. She gave it to her mom "Acik tu kasi". They said their thank yous, tapi Mamamia cepat2 melangkah pergi. Didn't want to show them, how I really felt at that moment. I could hear the kids' excitement in the background. Semoga Allah melimpahkan rezeki pada keluarga ini.

What you give, you get back. How true!!!!

Anyone else having this problem??

2008-09-20T12:07:00.002+08:00

Cepat betul rasanya Ramadhan kali ni. Frankly speaking I'm not ready for raya yet. Kueh tak buat lagi, or should I say kueh tunjuk tak order lagi. Baju raya , nasib baik dah beli. Good thing we covered that area earlier. Kalau tunggu time ni, tambah stresslah Papapia masa shopping. Opps, terlupa ... Amir pun akan sama kongsi Papapia's pain. Dua jejaka terhangat ni, really detest shopping. Since ada baju yang dibeli way before fasting month, dah ada yang dilaram oleh Aimy & Alia. Kalau dulu-dulu, memang Mamamia tak kasi, mesti kena tunggu Raya, baru boleh pakai. Tapi, bila baca berita kes kematian & hilang anak ( minta selisih Malaikat 44 for this to happen to us), & macamana famili tu meratapi kehilangan anak while showing off the new baju raya yang tak sempat dipakai, I've changed my priority. Tak nak menyesal nanti... Lagi pun, pakai sekali dua, tak akan buat baju tu buruk..

Tapi yang paling menstresskan Mamamia is, the house is yet to be decluttered. Year in year out, it's the same old story.

A week before puasa, started the rearranging of furniture. Ya lah, kita tak ada beli furniture baru, so konon-kononnya bila tukar arrangement furniture tu, nampaklah kelainan sikit. Tapi, tak banyak mana pun lainnya.... Rumah kita bukan mansion, pusing sana, pusing sini macam tu lah jugak. Kadang-kadang dah penat rearrange, Mamamia rasa the original position was better. Tapi sebab dah penat, dah tak kuasa nak tukar lagi....

Konsep hiasan dalaman rumah kami ni bukan tergolong dalam kategori English Cottage, Tradisional, Moden, atau Kontemporari. Mamamia rasa it's more to 'Carca Marba'. Tapi kalau ikut hati, I prefer the Zen or Minimalist. Ya lah, tak banyak barang, tak banyaklah hilang tenaga nak mengemas... But with four kids on the block, macamanalah nak minimal kan barang-barang?

Our house is cluttered with toys, books , magazines and clothings. Dah Papapia tu ada darah Santa Claus, the act of giving is year round... Mamamia rasa tak lama lagi we need a bigger house to store these items. Or maybe sewa storage space somewhere.

What makes it worse is, we all ni sayang nak dispose old things. Kalau majalah Anjung Seri tu ( ha, ni Mamamia punye ) terbitan tahun 1998 pun ada lagi. That's like 10 years ago!!! Zaman dah berubah, interior decoration styles have changed, but I still keep these magazines. Not that Mamamia ikut any of the konsep bila buat susun atur perabut, but I somehow still want to hang on to them. No doubt I'm suffering from hoarding syndrome.

In the kitchen itself, there are a number of items yang Mamamia sayang nak buang, and here are some of them:

Sos Cili dari McD. My kids tak makan pedas.

Bekas bunga telur ni kena simpan, nanti anak2 nak kahwin, bolehlah pakai... Actually, these are just too pretty to be discarded. Lagi pun, bukan murah kan bunga telur ni? Sekarang ni pulak, orang kahwin dah ramai yang bagi beg kertas yang diisi dengan kek, gula-gula, saputangan dll, so my collection of these bags is growing.

These are straws from the milk cartons. The kids always pour the milk into their cereal bowl, so these straws are seldom used. Mamamia simpan in case the kids nak guna. Very useful bila nak bagi orang sakit minum from cup. But how often do we get sick sampai tak boleh duduk nak minum? Bila dah banyak sangat, terpaksa jugaklah buang.

Ini food container, they do come in handy bila nak store items in the fridge or nak tapau food. I have lots of these.

According to mental health experts, hoarders collect things that most people view as worthless: magazines and junk mail dating back decades, old newspapers, safety pins, plastic bags. Or they collect useful things on such a large scale that they could never make use of them.

Ada research mengatakan separuh orang sayang nak let go of things for sentimental reasons. Ni Mamamia setuju, sebab even my 2 kids tak kasi buang their favourite seluar, walaupun dah koyak!!!

Ada pula yang tak sanggup let go off things for they see utility in everything and want to avoid any kind of waste. Ni, Mamamia lah ni!!!

In US, they even have task force who tries to save those who save too much, macam owners of these houses.

Typical symptoms of compulsive hoarding could include any or several of the following:

- Saving broken, irreparable, or useless things

- Buying excessive quantities of goods beyond the amount needed for reasonable usage

- Purchasing large amounts of useful items and storing them away for future usage, but never using them

- Retrieving numerous materials from the trash on a regular basis

- Having difficulty discarding anything due to a fear of accidentally throwing out something important

- Saving excessive quantities of printed matter (newspapers, magazines, junk mail, etc.)

- Making and keeping extensive lists or records of certain things, even after they are no longer needed

- Saving large amounts of certain items for possible use by others or for future recycling

So, anyone else nak mengaku she is suffering from this hoarding syndrome? Hope I'm not the only one.....

Periksa mata & keturunan anda

2008-09-17T17:51:00.000+08:00

Since I have only 2 miserable entries so far in the month of September, & tak da cerita nak kongsi, maybe I'll just share with you this email.

Chinese eye test

If you cannot decipher anything, then try pulling the corner of your eyes as if you were Chinese. (Sepetkan mata anda)

It works, right???

Ni Mamamia nak tambah, for those yang boleh baca at first glance, even without menyepetkan mata, (betul, ada yang boleh terus baca...) then, maybe you should check your salasilah keluarga.

Kemungkinan besar ada darah Cina mengalir dalam tubuh anda!!!!

IF I could turn back time

2008-09-15T06:32:00.004+08:00

Went to Pasar Ramadhan & bought the kids' favourite chocolate cake When it was 25 minutes to buka puasa, Alia si kecik yang tak puasa tu, requested for a piece of the cake. Instead of fulfilling her wish there and then, Mamamia pujuk her to wait till buka puasa. Just a case not wanting Alia to menggoda the other kids yang puasa. Lagipun, Alia masa tu baru sahaja menjamu selera dengan Spaghetti & dadih.

Lepas berbuka, we totally forgot about the cake.

Later at night, Alia tidur awal dari biasa. That allowed Mamamia to give full attention to abang Amir & kakak Aimy yang buat revisions for their monthly tests. Tengah2 buat revisions tu, as usual they took their break, menjamu selera dengan chocolate cake. One piece after another sampailah Aimy finally announced "Mamamia cake dah habis.."

Then, it hit me. Ya Allah, Alia wanted a piece tadi & terlupa nak kasi dia or even keep aside for her. Tak sangka pulak they all akan makan sampai menjilat jari, selalunya boleh carry forward sampai the next day. Tapi, nasib baiklah dia dah tidur and mesti dah lupa pasal cake tu. Lega....

Around 11pm, masa Mamamia bersiap nak tidur, Alia terjaga nak pergi toilet. While trying to make her go back to sleep, she popped up her request......

"Mamamia, Alia nak kek.."

Bila dengar aje permintaan tu, hati ibu ni rasa bersalah sangat. Infact, sampai sekarang pun the guilt is still there. Tak sangka pulak Alia masih teringat kek tu. Kenapalah, I asked her to wait? Kenapalah, kenapa tak bagi aje dia makan kek tu masa tu??? Kalau Mamamia ada time machine, I would have turned back the time. Really dissapointed with myself for letting her down.

Terpaksalah pujuk Alia, yang Mamamia akan belikan yang lain. Luckily, dia senang dipujuk. Tapi bila dia terus bertanya, siapa habiskan kek tu? Hati Mamamia ni rasa macam dicucuk-cucuk. Mamamia tak jawab soalan Alia tu, for it was not the fault of the other kids.

Tak lena betul tidur malam tadi. The moment that Alia asked for the cake, kept on replaying in my head, over and over and over again. Terngiang-ngiang suara si kecik tu.

Satu pengajaran untuk Mamamia, next time when the kids ask for anything, try to fulfill their wish at that very moment. Janganlah bertangguh... Bila jadi macam ni, perasaan seorang ibu rasa macam disiat-siat. What kind of mother am I?

Well, there's no use in regretting the past. Just buck up & be a better Mamamia...

Regret Today
By Catherine Pulsifer, © 2007

How many times do we say something that we immediately realized was not the right thing to say?
How many times do we look back on an event and think, if only I had....
How many times do we do something that we wish hadn't done?

You can't change what has been said.
You can't change a past event.
You can't change what has been done.

Do you call it regret, sorrow, repentance?
Do you think about what might have been?
Do you relive an event the way it should have been?

Forget about regret, and focus.
Focus on today, not on the past.
Focus on what you can do, not what you didn't do.

The only thing to regret is living in the past
The only thing to feel sorrow for is not living each day to the fullest.
The only thing to do to repent is to sincerely say, I'm sorry.

Don't live your life regretting yesterday.
Live your life, so tomorrow, you won't regret today.

Lawak bulan puasa.

2008-09-09T22:41:00.001+08:00

Alhamdulillah, panjang umur kita untuk sekali lagi merasa manisnya Ramadhan.

Routine ke pasar Ramadhan pun start balik lah… Have been buying kids’ favourite juadah. (Ini kes tak nak mengaku, yang selera Mamamia pun sama naik). Kalau nak masak sendiri tak terbuat rasanya, lagi pun tak pulang modal. Sebabnya, masing-masing ada citarasa lain-lain. For kakak Farah , her favourite is tepung pelita. Amir pulak suka donut yg ada rainbow sprinkles tu, & Aimy peminat Otak-otak .

Being a first timer in fasting, Aimy is doing rather well. Tapi biasalah, nak suruh makan pagi-pagi waktu sahur tu, pening jugak kepala Mamamia. Amir complained that watching Aimy eating in her sleepy mode is an annoying sight. Amir lupa yang masa dia Tahun 1 dulu, dia pun lebih kurang macam tu jugak.

Amir has been reminding Aimy on perkara-perkara yang membatalkan puasa. Teringat Mamamia masa kecik-kecik dulu, ada kawan-kawan yang percaya, kalau telan air liur pun boleh batal puasa!!! Tak ke susah tu, asyik nak meludah aje... Macamana lah tak letih longlai.

Anyway... Amir was telling Aimy, kalau korek hidung, batal puasa.

Aimy who was caught in the act at that time, came to me asking;

"Mamamia, abang Amir cakap kalau korek hidung, nanti batal puasa. Aimy terlupa tadi, habis kalau masukkan balik, boleh tak terus puasa??"

Alahai Aimy, kalau dah terlupa tu tak apalah.. Kenapa lah nak masukkan balik? Hish.. tak senonoh betul!!!

After all these years, dah macam-macam soalan yang Mamamia kena jawab to the kids, with regards to puasa. Tapi, ni lah soalan yang paling lawak sekali.

Her pet monkey

2008-08-27T08:47:00.001+08:00

For the past few weeks, ini Alia punya favourite monkey. Nak tidur pun kena bawak.

Tengoklah how engrossed she is, when playing with Po Pang @ Paul Frank.

Nasib baiklah kakak Farah teragak nak captured these moments & ada jugak gambar Po Pang dalam simpanan. Inilah aje yang tinggal buat kenangan Alia.

Sebabnya, last week masa kami pergi tengok wayang Wall-e tu, Alia insisted to bring Po Pang along. Bila balik rumah, baru lah dia perasan yang monyet dia dah tertinggal....

So sad to say, she had to bid Good bye to Paul Frank.

Sampai hari ni, Alia masih teringat kat monyet dia. Maybe our next trip to the movie, we can try asking the Lost & Found dept, kalau ada orang yang baik hati terjumpa & handed it over. Entah2 Po Pang dah jumpa tuan baru.

Anyway, baru-baru ni, Mamamia terbaca this article ;

Monkeys can experience the joy of giving in much the same way as humans do,U.S. researchers reported on Monday. For capuchin monkeys, it seems, it's betterto both give and receive, than just to receive. At least, that's whatresearchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory Universityin Atlanta have found.

Monkeys were given a choice of receiving a food reward, or receiving a food
reward and also having another monkey receive food.

When paired with relative or "friend" the monkeys primarily went for the double reward, known as the "prosocial" choice, researchers led by Frans de Waal report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The fact the capuchins predominantly selected the prosocial option must mean seeing another monkey receive food is satisfying or rewarding for them," said de Waal.

But the monkeys weren't so generous with strangers, choosing the so-called "selfish" option instead.

Mamamia tengah fikir kenapa agaknya they all buat research on this. Apa agaknya kebaikan dia to human kind?

Nampaknya monyet / binatang pun ada sifat keperimanusiaan. Tapi nak heran apa, sebab ramai manusia sekarang yang bersifat kebinatangan!!!

Whatever it is, the joy of giving is always twofold, to the giver & receiver. But then again, tangan yang memberi itu adalah lebih baik dari tangan yang menerima. & bila bersedekah tu lebih afdal kita utamakan saudara yang terdekat.

So, let's do like what the monkey does.

SPORTS & US

2008-08-17T16:59:00.002+08:00

Mamamia nyaris-nyaris dilucutkan gelaran Blogger. Buat sekian lama blog tak dikemaskini. Melompat-lompat blog / blog-hopping pun dah lama tak diamalkan.

Sebelum dapat gelaran 'GOBLOK', eloklah Mamamia go & blog.

One of the reasons for my abscence from blogland ( ada ke orang perasan & nak tahu??), is I've been away to Beijing for the Olympics. Kenapa, tak percaya???

Betul.... Mamamia ni minat sukan, so tak boleh miss Olympics. So, Mamamia berada di Beijing , but without leaving the home. Nasib baik ada subscribed the Astro's Sports channel, dapatlah ikut perkembangan Olimpik ni. All these while, very rarely we tuned into this channel, sekarang baru lah bukak.

Even the kids share the interests. Amir enjoys watching Basketball. & as for Alia, selalunya kalau dia tengah tengok cartoon or children programmes memang masalah lah kalau nak minta tukar channel lain. But there's one sport yang she enjoys watching. Nak tahu apa?? It's unsangkarably acara 'angkat berat'. So, everytime Mamamia nak tukar to Olympics channel from her cartoon channel, Mamamia akan tanya Alia "Nak tengok angkat berat tak??", yang bestnya Alia mesti setuju....

28 sukan, 302 acara & you are spoiled for choice. Memanglah tak tertengok semua... The commentators life commentary making it more interesting. Mamamia admire the participants' determination, will power & even under lots of pressure, they can't afford to crumble. Masa ni lah we can share their 'Thrill of Victory & Agony of Defeat'.

It's so humbling to watch a well built and strong man broke down into tears when he failed to perform, like that one weighlifter, entah dari negara mana. It must be dissapointing, when you missed a medal you have been working hard for, just because you made one small mistake. Mamamia rasa that mistake is going to haunt them for quite sometimes.

While some had to struggle for days and hours just to secure a medal,( eg Badminton, Ping Pong) others just had to run below 10 seconds timeframe to get Gold medal. And usually, his name would be the highlight of the news. That's unfair, right??

Eventhough Mamamia enjoys watching all the excitement & dramas, bila team Malaysia main, Mamamia tak sanggup nak tengok. Kita pulak yang seram sejuk, kalah wakil Malaysia sendiri.

Anyway, if we have to choose between watching Sports Programme and playing the sports itself, we would choose the later. Amir tu pantang ada peluang, nak main basketball, football or badminton kat garden yang sekangkang kera tu. Sebab tempat bermain luas sangat, not surprisingly, satu lampu kalimantang dah berkecai jadi mangsa.

Baru-baru ni, tingkap kaca rumah Atok pun dah jadi mangsa. Again Amir was the culprit. Rasanya dia tak serik lagi tu.... Bila beritahu Papapia, dia senyum aje. His only comment was, "Biasalah tu...., I expected that to happen long time ago." Mamamia tak kisah kalau benda pecah, yang risau bila ada yang terluka kena kaca yang pecah, itu aje...

Fabulous 40 plus, plus....

2008-07-29T09:07:00.006+08:00

The date was 29th June 2008.
The venue was Renaissance KL Hotel.

The theme was Silver / Red.

The occasion was Fabulous 40 Gala Dinner, to celebrate the alma mater 40 years of excellance.

This entry is way too late, cerita pun dah basi.....

Anyway, for the benefits of Mamamia's regular visitors yang curious nak tahu macamana rupa empunya diri, and before you all got carried away with your imaginations based on Wan Shana's very kind description, I'm gonna share some of the photos taken that night.

Mamamia & kawan2 got together hours before the dinner started. Faham2 ajelah, bukan selalu dapat kumpul ramai-ramai, macam-macam cerita nak kongsi & cerita masa sekolah yang nak dikorek balik. All 15 of us squezzed into the room taken by Il*nn.

Walaupun dah lama tak jumpa, the minute we got together, it just felt like old times. The teasings started & jokes shared. Rasa macam schoolgirls balik. We could still laugh at the same old jokes eventhough have been told more than 100 times. Baru keluar line, " Ingat tak masa....", itu pun dah mula gelak besar, belum keluar punch line lagi.

Nearly maghrib, the havoc started, berebut bilik air. Exactly like hostel's life. Masa tu lah, baru nak tukar baju glamour & get ready for the dinner. Performed maghrib & beratur depan cermin for the final touch up.

We decided to be in 'Silver'. These are some of the glittering dresses hung in the closet.

In the ballroom, tambahlah the excitement, jumpa kawan-kawan lain. This year, our batch has the highest attendees. Ni gambar our batch. Nampak tak Mamamia, yg tersenyum , wearing silver tu?

Ni gambar dekat sikit... Cuba teka, which one....

Getting closer & warmer....

Finally, here's the final reveal. Alia & Mamamia, yg happy dengan balloons collected by the kids after the dinner was over. Kesian my kids had to wait very long at the lobby along with Papapia.

Anybody got it right??

Kenangan manis

2008-07-28T18:30:00.000+08:00

Will we last this long???

2008-07-16T17:32:00.001+08:00

In yesterday's Star - World's oldest blogger dies in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A 108-year-old Australian woman who was promoted as the world's oldest blogger has died two weeks after making her last post about "singing a happy song," her great-grand son and her online forum said.

Olive Riley wrote 74 entries in her blogs, firstly http://www.allaboutolive.com.au and later http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com. A friend introduced Riley to blogging early in 2007, and was hooked.

Riley "passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 12," a posting on her Web site said. No cause of death was given. "She will be mourned by thousands of Internet friends and hundreds of descendants and other relatives."

She entered a nursing home in Woy Woy, 50 miles north of Sydney, last month, from where she blogged about having a bad cough and feeling weak.

In her last entry, on June 26, Riley thanked supporters for "a whole swag of e-mails and comments from my Internet friends" and described meeting a new friend in the bed next to her.

"She and I sang a happy song, as I do every day, and before long we were joined by several nurses, who sang along too. It was quite a concert!" she posted.

Great-grandson Darren Stone said Riley loved being able to stay in touch with correspondents all over the world and said she believed it kept her mind active.

"It was mind blowing to her," Stone said. "She had people communicating with her from as far away as Russia and America on a continual basis, not just once in a while."

Born in the remote mining town of Broken Hill in 1899, Riley blogged regularly in the last year of her life about growing up in the Outback, raising three children and working as a farm cook and bartender earlier in her life.

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After finished reading that piece, Mamamia terpikir, lucky her to be blessed dengan umur yang panjang. Kalau ikut umur Mamamia, maknanya dapat hidup lagi 60 tahun lebih. Wow.....

The second thing that struck my mind was, will I still be blogging till that ripe old age? Kalau ya, agaknya, dengan tangan terketar-ketar, Mamamia will be knocking on the keyboard. Kena tengok screen dekat-dekat lah, sebab mata pun dah rabun - sekarang pun dah rabun, lagi 60 tahun, bertambahlah kerabunannya..

If at present, my entries mostly revolve around my kids. For the next 60 years , it will still be on my kids, plus menantus, plus besan & besin, plus cucus. Maybe ada jugak cerita Pilih Menantu macam Kak Lady's Munir Munirah. Atau cerita nak jadi Wan Mommy macam Kak Rina....

And maybe, towards the end, entries will be more educational. Akan keluarlah all medical terms which relates to old age. All of us , will be exchanging health notes instead of recipes.

Persoalannya, will we be blessed with such long age, & will we continue blogging??

For the time being, let's just continue happily blogging & blog hopping.

Cartoon script - Reggie Lee the 'Star'

Kaki Anak siapa lah ni???

2008-07-13T16:14:00.003+08:00

Siapa lagi, kalau bukan kaki anak-anak kesayangan Mamamia.

Dah berbuih mulut suruh the kids pakai selipar / kasut when playing outside. Tapi, biasalah masuk telinga kiri keluar telinga kanan.

They will have their slippers on for the first few minutes. But after that, slipper entah mana, tuan punya entah ke mana.

Yang buat Mamamia lagi naik angin, kadang2 they'll happily drag their dirty feet into the house.

Last Friday, abang Amir yang dah ingkar titah perintah Mamamia dah dapat balasannya. Tengah syok2 main bola, kaki dia tersandung tebing batu. Terkoyak sikit kulit & berdarah ibu jari kaki. Because of that, he won't be able to put on his school shoes on Monday & he has decided to ponteng. He refused to go to school wearing slippers, takut kena marah.

Amir ni law abiding student - lurus bendul sikit, walaupun Mamamia told him, it's okay to use slippers if you have solid reason, dia sampai menangis minta simpati Papapia to allow him to skip school.

Kalau Mamamia, dah lali sangat dengan airmata anak-anak ni, that trick doesn't work on me anyore. Tapi Papapia, tak boleh tengok anak dia sedih, he has given his greenlight...

That's one of the reasons why the kids think Papapia is the bestest parent.

Berani salah tempat.

2008-07-07T20:28:00.003+08:00

Mamamia memang geram bila dengar ada kes kecurian kat surau, masjid. Inikan rumah Allah, tapi orang2 ni (rasanya ni bukan kategori orang dah) masih berani nak panjang tangan. Kita nak beribadah pun tak senang.

Pantang kita alpa, handbag kena curi, kasut kena bawa lari, handphone pun yg kita letak sekejap nak ambil air sembahyang, boleh lesap. Tabung masjid yang bermangga pun dia orang kopakkan.

Memang berani betul dia orang ni. Tapi berani salah tempat.

Papapia pun baru aje jadi mangsa. Kena masa sembahyang Jumaat, dekat masjid berdekatan. 2 keping cermin kereta dipecahkan & 2 telefon bimbit & Ipod hilang.

Hairan betul,macamana cekapnya diaorang buat aktiviti ni, sampai tiada yang perasan. Kereta Papapia parking tepi jalan besar. Infact, bukan Papapia sorang aje kena. Another 3 cars suffered the same fate.

Nampaknya kena tempatkan pengawal lah dekat kawasan masjid sekarang.

It's not the material things taken yang buat kita marah. Itu boleh ganti lain. But it's the hassles one has to suffer. Kena buat police reportlah. Macam Papapia hari tu, he had to rush for an appointment which he had been asking for. Bukan senang nak dapat appointment tu, so kalau dia postpone yang ni, entah berapa bulan lagi, dia boleh dapat next appointment.

Next thing is the lost phone nos.@ business contacts. Nowadays, rasanya tak ramai yang simpan hardcopy of contact nos. Semua saved dlm hp. Bila hp hilang, semua pun hilang... Isn't that a hassle nak cari balik all those nos..

In another case, a friend who was a lecturer had her car broken into, eventho her car was parked near a pondok jaga. Yg kena curi, her smart tag & notebook case. Luckily, the notebook was with her. Unluckily, inside the notebook case, was her students' assignments due for marking. Kenalah students dia buat balik semula. Sebab sorang punya hal, berapa ramai yang lain merana....

Bila park kereta masa pergi wedding pun, we have to be careful. Another friend had her camera stolen & her husband's laptop stolen from their car. Same modus operandi. Pecah cermin kereta, & car was parked by the roadside. Again, it happened in broad daylight.

If only, 'orang-orang' ni berani pada perkara yang betul less people will suffer & we can all live in peace.

Ya Tuhan, bukalah hati mereka2 ini, berikan keberanian pada mereka untuk cari kerja halal, & kerja kuat. Amin....

Best Poem 2006

2008-06-27T10:43:00.002+08:00

Nak kongsi email ni - Nominated by UN as the best Poem of 2006 -

Written by an African Kid (in the writer's verbatim)

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When I born, I black

When I grow up, I black

When I go in Sun, I black

When I scared, I black

When I sick, I black

And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow

When you born, you pink

When you grow up, you white

When you go in sun, you red

When you cold, you blue

When you scared, you yellow

When you sick, you green

And when you die, you grey

And you calling me colored??

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Mamamia teringat lagu Pak Cik MJ kita ..

"It doesn't matter, if you are black or white... "

Tapi yang peliknya, MJ ni dulu hitam, sekarang dah putih!!

His one wish - still outstanding.....

2008-06-23T17:41:00.001+08:00

To any other kids, Amir is one lucky boy. So far, he has everything (almost) that a boy wants. PS2, PSP, Ipod, bicycle, etc , etc.... Kalau Mamamia lah, budak lelaki , memang Mamamia akan mencemburui Amir.

For his 10th Birthday last April, Papapia bought him a PS3. That's one of his birthday wishes.

Another birthday wish granted was, a birthday party complete with a Magician.

So, what's more could he has been wishing for?

There's still one wish which Mamamia finds very peculiar, but this one sure comes from his heart. A wish which is not so easy to be fulfilled in its entirety. Just a taste of it maybe.....

I wish to be ..... a simple kampung boy. Boleh main keliling kampung, naik basikal dengan kawan-kawan, tangkap ikan kat parit, tangkap belalang & pepatung kat semak, mandi sungai & perigi.... Bottomline, I want to break free. Amir nak rasa hidup bebas!!!!

He envies the childhood that Mamamia enjoyed. Sebelum tidur, kadang2 Mamamia buka cerita "Masa Mamamia kecik-kecik dulu....." The kids love this session, melopong they all dengar, tak puas-puas walaupun dah ulang tayang banyak kali.

Memang the kids a bit terkongkong. Dengan macam2 cerita sekarang ni, we as parents have no choice but to practice this. Tak merasa lah they all nak merayau mana-mana dengan kawan-kawan. Ke mana pergi, must be accompanied by an adult.

Sekarang ni, Mamamia tengah survey 'Homestay'. Kalau ada kesempatan, maybe we'll bring the kids to a place where they can have a taste of a simple kampung life. Jangan they all jatuh hati & terus nak tinggal sana, sudah...

Coincedently, Mamamia received this story in an email.

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How poor are we?

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son,"How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered:"I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night... Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.

"The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

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Mamamia won't be surprised, if after our short homestay ( yang entah bila) , the kids will have the same opinion......

Something New...

2008-06-21T21:05:00.003+08:00

Hari ni ke sekolah, for Report Card day. Semalam lagi Aimy dah ingatkan Mamamia dia nak ikut sekali.

"Aimy nak ikut esok, nak beli buku cerita" Selalunya ada orang datang jual buku-buku cerita, pada hari-hari terbuka macam ni.

" Aimy kena pakai baju sekolah ke?"

" Tak. Boleh pakai baju apa-apa."

Lepas tu cepat-cepat Aimy sambung lagi, "tapi.... cikgu cakap, baju tidur tak boleh!!"

Tersengeh Mamamia sorang-sorang.

Amir who wanted to come along too, couldn't make it. Demam pulak dia, after being caught in the rain, balik dari sekolah semalam.

So, how did they perform?

Amir got second. Aimy?? Ni lah yang something new, for us. Sampai Papapia gelabah jugak lah & Mamamia kena buat postmortem on her results.

All these while, the elder 2 kids, have always been Top 10. Kalau masa Std 1,2, 3 tu at least Top 5. Sekarang, Aimy is giving Mamamia new challenges. Macamana nak naikkan her placing from No 19 to Top 5?

According to her class teacher, Aimy performed well. Nothing to fret. Except that in her class the students mostly score tinggi2. Beza markah pun 1, 2 aje. Ada pulak certain positions tu, sampai 2, 3 orang getting the same marks. So, kedudukan seterusnya dah dianjakkan lah...

Anyway, hasil postmortem, Aimy ni a little careless. Rasanya dia tak semak kertas dia, sebab ada aje soalan yang tertinggal. Nak kata tak cukup masa, tak mungkin. Sebab sempat dia warna gambar2 dlm kertas ujian, walaupun tak diarahkan begitu. Hopefully, with a little guidance, she'll learn to get her priorities right.

Mamamia will face this new challenge with gutso.

Hari Bapa?? Not!!

2008-06-18T07:57:00.005+08:00

Ahad 15 Jun 2008, hari Bapa. A sad day for the 4 children of my cousin (eldest in college, youngest Std 4). They had to say their last goodbye to their father. Ayah mereka kembali ke Penciptanya. Penyebabnya, demam denggi berdarah....

Mengikut ceritanya, Arwah mengadu demam dan setelah berulang alik ke klinik, ubat habis dimakan, demam masih tak kebah2. Kali terakhir ke klinik, doktor terus mengarahkan Arwah ke Hospital. Sebaik dimasukkan ke hospital, didapati Arwah mengidap denggi berdarah. Saat itu rupanya his internal organ were already affected to a critical stage. Ingatkan kalau denggi berdarah ni, kita nampak bintik-bintik merah pada kulit. Little did I know, denggi boleh serang all the internal organs without us knowing.

That particular Sunday, we did plan to pay a visit to the hospital. Mengikut perancangan awal kami nak keluar rumah pukul 12.30pm. Tapi, biasalah... nak suruh the kids to get ready bukannya senang. Kadang-kadang, Mamamia dah bersiap bertudung, dia orang still dok delay daily. Anyway, around 1.10pm, Pak Long called, to inform that Arwah dah tak da lagi.

Jemput Nenek dan terus ke hospital. Sampai di sana, terus ke ICU, jenazah masih di sana. For the first time ever, the kids berdepan dengan jenazah. Farah nampak sedikit gugup. Mamamia lupa langsung yang dia ni lemah semangat sikit, the other 3 kids ok aje.

Nenek & Papapia menatap wajah Arwah. Alia yang dalam dokongan Papapia pun selamba menjengok. Mamamia.... tak berani. Takut teringat2 nanti.

Mak Long was there tengah baca Yassin. There was even a recording of Yassin dipasang. Mula2 ajak Farah baca Yassin kat situ, Bila nampak dia memang gelabah, baru Mamamia teringat pasal lemah semangat dia . Kesian Farah, she's not ready yet... Allowed her to leave the place & joined the rest outside.

The minute, Mamamia mula baca Yassin tu, mulalah rasa sebak. Couldn't really understand why. Mamamia tak berapa kenal rapat dengan Arwah, tapi dengan the wife (my cousin) memang close. Especially masa kecik2 dulu. It so happens, the wife is now Farah's Eglish teacher. Rasa sebak, maybe sebab mengenangkan anak2 yang hilang tempat bergantung & kasih sayang. Ntah, tak tahu macamana nak describe, sebab sebenar perasan sedih tu.

Didn't had time to complete the Yassin recital there .( Balik rumah read it all over again). Sebab masa tu, jenazah dipindahkan ke bilik jenazah untuk urusan seterusnya. Arwah dikebumikan di Pahang, atas wasiatnya. Isn't it ironic, 3 weeks before, Arwah masa tu sihat walafiat, told his mother & wife, kalau ditakdirkan dia tak ada nanti, kebumikan dia di Pahang. I guess its Allah's way to make it easier for the wife & family to decide.

we left the hospital early. Farah was asking why her teacher (my cousin) tak nampak sedih pun. Memang, dia nampak tenang betul... Told Farah, she could be beyond grief, with no more tears to cry. A mother had to be strong for her children, at times like this. Lagipun, setelah lebih 5 hari Arwah berada dalam koma, my cousin dah accepted their fates.

Mamamia passed a comment like how painful for the children to lose their father on Father's Day. Amir's reply surprised me. He sounded so matang.

"Ya lah, Allah dah tentukan...."

That's right kids. Inilah ketentuan Allah. Never a second too early, or a second too late.

Semoga roh Arwah ditempatkan di kalangan kekasih Allah & dicucuri rahmat. Semoga keluarga yang tinggal terus tabah menghadapi hari-hari mendatang.

Cuti sekolah May/June 2008

2008-06-10T16:29:00.002+08:00

Aahh, lega.... School holidays are finally over. Finally, getting back to enjoy my "Me Time". Loteh den, melayan kerenah the kids.

Cuti kali ni, kami tak ke mana-mana, again!!! With kenduri kahwin to attend, Nenek being hospitalised & Papapia ada sports event, all holiday plans had to be put on hold. But, somehow the kids were not complaining. Nasib baik.

As usual, to keep them entertained, Mamamia kena lah bukak balik plastic swimming pool tu... & Mamamia kena lah jadi pool attendant, perhatikan they all main dalam air tu. One thing I noticed, the minute I was supposed to be on 'guard', masa tu lah rasa mengantuk sesangat. sekarang baru faham macamana these pakcik guards will be sleeping whilst on duty. Seksa betul nak ber'jaga'...

Walaupun cuti dah habis, kesan peninggalan swimming pool tu masih ada.

Kat garden tu, ada this round patch of rumput mati. Exactly macam dalam gambar ni, but at a different location. (Ni gambar tahun lepas) Bau dia pun boleh tahan..... It will take more than a month untuk rumput tu tumbuh balik.

To make up for the 'not going anywhere' we tried to compensate the kids by fulfilling their wishes. Very simple wishes :

- Farah wanted to go shopping at Pavillion, she's been getting 'advises' from her friends. Our first time there. Shopping was done at record time, sebab Papapia had to rush for his game. Tak sempat nak round betul-betul.

- Amir nak pergi tengok wayang & main bowling. Again, our first outings to movie & bowling. Bowling was hilarious, sebab none of us pernah pegang bola bowling. Kalau yang plastic toy with colourful pins tu, memanglah expert. We were clueless, main redah aje... Didn't even know, bola tu ada size & berat berbeza. Mula2 Farah refused to play, she didn't want to make a fool of herself. Amir & Aimy pun segan nak bowl. terpaksalah Papapia & Mamamia bukak gelanggang. Lepas tu, barulah they all tak segan nak cuba. Once started, naik syok pulak. Sampai bergaduh, sebab ada yang tak ikut turn...

Masing2 bowl dengan style tersendiri. Amir siap dengan silang kaki kat belakang, exactly macam pro. Aimy kena angkat bola with both hands, tak larat. Surprisingly, boleh strike pulak... Papapia macam main bowling buah kelapa. Farah's throw boleh improve lagi. Mamamia, mmm.... scored the highest. Tapi ada sekali tu, instead of throwing the ball into the lane, bola boleh terlepas ke belakang!!! Nasib baik tak kena the kids. So, when it's Mamamia's turn to bowl, semua kena pastikan tidak berada di belakang. Nevertheless, we had fun, with capital F.

- Aimy's wishes was the easiest to fulfill, ie dia nak pergi MegaKids @ Lembah Tengah. Used to take the kids there, tapi dah lama tak pergi. Whilst Amir, Aimy & Alia bersuka ria kat situ, under Papapia's watchful eyes, Mamamia & Farah pergi MPH, borong buku lagi.

To sum up, it was an enjoyable school holidays, walaupun tak pergi to any holiday destination.

Apa yang tak ada bunyi???

2008-05-23T07:52:00.005+08:00

In front of the TV, sambil tengok American Idol (AI) Finale, Mamamia tolong Farah with her English homework. David vs David. Sampai kesudah Mamamia tak tahu their fullnames, it's more like David the Boy vs David the Man. Farah as most teenagers (I think) minat David Ahcoo....(???).

Anyway, the homework was something like crosswords puzzle, where you have to give the meanings, synonyms, antonyms, idioms for given words with clues provided.

Mamamia & Farah working as a team. With the help of the internet - Thank U Allah - we answered all except one.

Q: As noiseless as a .....................

Clue : __ H __ ___ O __

Ingatkan as noiseless as the graveyard / cemetery. Tempat ni memang sunyikan?? Tapi tak fit in with the clue given. Mamamia had no inkling.

Meanwhile , AI was coming to its end. Mamamia rasa the highlight of the show was the part when the "White Indian Guy , dressing up as Cowboy Angel' nyanyi lagu yang dia cipta sendiri;

I am your brother

Your best friend forever

Singing the songs, the music that you like

We're brothers 'til the end of time

Together forever 'til the end of time.....

This song is so catchy. Mamamia suka nyanyi lagu ni for the kids " I am your mother, your best friend forever .... " Pandai-pandai lah tukar lirik. The kids followed suit.

Tak sangka kan. For a guy yang tak lepas selection stage, boleh nyanyi kat A.I final. Tuah ayam nampak di kaki, tuah orang tak siapa tahu.

Result was announced with David the Man ( or should I say David the tukang masak -Cook) won by 12 million majority. Banyak tu!!! Ni baru boleh panggil Raja SMS. Berapa agaknya jumlah kesemua SMS? No wonder, their singers can become instant millionaire with just one hit single.

A.I dah habis, homework Farah tak habis-habis. Whilst Mamamia continued googling, asked Farah to look through the dictionary. Starting with Ah, Bh, Ch .... cari possible answers. Finally she came to Sh.. and the word Shadow. Fits in nicely. Logik jugaklah kan. As noiseless as a shadow. Tak pernah jumpa 'shadow' yang berbunyi. Kalau sesiapa pernah jumpa shadow yang berbunyi, tu bukan shadow tu. Kalau lagu 'Shadow Dancing' tu ada lah......

Nak type ape??

2008-05-20T10:32:00.001+08:00

Blogging is supposed to be my therapeutic escape. Tapi bila asyik problem with my internet connection , tambah tension adalah.... For the past weeks, couldn't even upload a single image. Malas dah nak try...

Anyway, here are some photos yang dah lama di upload, tapi tak buat N3. Forgotten all about them.

Pictures taken masa Aimy & her cousin Sarah were experimenting with Words on the laptop.

Bila dah tak ada idea nak type apa, they asked me for ideas. "Nak type apa lagi??" Mamamia bagilah idea & contoh2 yang bernas. Came to a point, they started smiling & giggling.

Nak tahu sebab apa? They thought the second line was hilarious.....

Kenapa? Tak percaya??? Eish, budak-budak ni, tak bagi chance langsung.....

What's her secret?

2008-05-18T21:52:00.001+08:00

Hari ni grocery shopping @ Tesco. Suka pergi pagi2, tak sesak sangat. Kalau tak, nak tolak trolley pun seksa. Lagi geram bila kena troli yg roda pun tak berpusing. Nasib baik lah Tesc* ni opening hrs dia as early as 8 o'clock.

Cari energy saving bulb. The one at home dah start flickering, cahaya pun malap aje. Found the one we need. Mahal jugak bulb ni RM24. Went to the testing board, nak check lah elok ke tidak. Had difficulty inserting the bulb. Nasib baik ada staff Tesc* passed by, asked him for help. He took the bulb fr me & instead of going to the testing board, he tried it somewhere else.

"Kenapa tak test kat board tu?" pointing at the testing board.

"Itu rosak lah, kak...."

"Kenapa tak letak sign 'Out of order', blah,blah,blah...." mulalah Mamamia nak membebel. Penat aje kita pusing bulb tu clockwise, anti-clockwise. Ingatkan kita yg tak reti guna alat tu.

Next, cari pink blanket untuk Alia. Dah pandai berebut blanket dgn kakak Aimy. Tak ada pulak blanket 'pink kaler'. Found one pink beach towel. Besar jugak size dia. Passable as blanket.

Ada offer untuk children clothings. Berkenan at the dresses. Sweet, simple & material tak panas. Untuk basahan kat rumah, ok lah tu... The best part was, RM8.90 each. Grabbed 2 each for Alia & Aimy. AT this young age, brand apa pun tak kisah. Not like kakak Farah, yang dah brand concious. ( Sampai rumah, tunjuk dia org baju2 tu. Dan-dan tu nak tukar baju. Tak sempat basuh, dah pakai. Nampaknya for the next few days, these will be their uniform rumah. Kalau baju baru tu, lembab kat ampaian pun suruh angkat, nak pakai..... )

Kat fruit section, noticed someone familiar. Ustazah yg ajar Mamamia masa sekolah ugama dulu, darjah 4,5,6. She looks just the same, awet muda betul. Approached her & introduced myself. Ustazah ni mula-mula tak berapa ingat Mamamia. Don't blame her, 30 years have passed. Tapi dia ingat Mamamia ni 'anak Limah'. Memang Mamamia & Nenek muka seacuan.

Apa agaknya rahsia Ustazah ni. Muka maintain macam zaman Mamamia jadi anak murid dia. Bukan Botok, plastic surgery mahu pun tempe. Ni lah agaknya berkat amalan air sembahyang dan mengaji Alquran. Berseri-seri, Masya Allah.....

Kabare Atok?

2008-05-15T21:52:00.001+08:00

Sambungan ......

Reporting from the hospital, Papapia cerita how he created a scene kat sana. Sebabnya, the doctor took his own sweet time before attending to Atok. Walaupun dah diberitahu ni kira emergency & needed immediate attention. Maybe bila darah menyembur2 keluar baru boleh dikategori sebagai kecemasan agaknya....

The first 2 days, Atok was really weak. He had a temporary loss of memory. Ingatan dia seperti terhenti at the point of time he sent Farah home from school. Dia ingat dia masih berada di rumah kami. Bila bercerita, dia asyik ulang cerita yang sama. Masa kami pergi lawat dia kat hospital, bila bersalam nak balik, dia boleh tanya "Tinggal kat mana ni?" Tengah malam, Nenek cerita, macamana Atok terjaga dari tidur, & nak terus pergi mandi. Atok cakap "Dah lambat ni, nak hantar budak2 tu pergi sekolah..."

Risau kami dibuatnya... Takut jadi permanent memory loss. The doctor assured us it would be temporary. Sebab demam panas Atok tinggi sangat, he was hellucinating. Besides that Atok complained rasa penat sangat, vomitted, cerit berit & shivering. On Saturday, his blood test confirmed Atok kena demam denggi.

Alhamdulillah, except for his cough, Atok recovered fast & was discharged the following Monday. Meanwhile, we all adik beradik bincang macamana nak handle the following day. Sebabnya, Nenek was scheduled to have a check up kat H*KM which required her to be warded for a day or two. So, kena discuss lah siapa nak jaga Atok at home & siapa nak jaga Nenek kat hospital. Kalau cuti tak apa, since its a schooling / working day, banyak nak difikirkan. While we were discussing, H*KM called kata Nenek's appointment ditunda lagi 3 minggu. Again, our prayers were answered & kerja kami dipermudahkan.

Lupa nak cerita, pasal kereta yang Atok langgar 'sikit' aje tu. Memang judgement Atok lari betul hari tu. The front of the other car was badly damaged. The impact was strong, sampai kereta tu terhentak pada tembok & tembok tu pun rosak. Atok ni kira dah 'hit & run' punya kes. Mengamok tuan punya kereta tu. It so happened masa tu, Nenek pun tak da kat rumah, pergi mengaji. So, keluar hospital, Atok kena pergi buat police report pulak. Memanglah Atok kena saman. Tapi the owner of the car, rasanya dah boleh maafkan Atok, bila dah tahu Atok's condition at that moment.

Atok keluar hospital hari Isnin. Hari Selasa, dia dah mula dengan routine dia, much to the dismay of Nenek.

Routine Atok , pagi2 belikan Nasi lemak, kueh mueh utk cucu2 dia (in other words, my family). Eventhough dah diberitahu tak usah beli lagi sebab the kids pun bukan makan sangat kueh mueh ni.... The monthly cash yg kami bagi for him to spend, dia belanja utk kami pulak. Kalau dulu dia naik kereta datang rumah kami, kali ni dia jalan kaki!!! It's quite a distance, kalau nak jalan. Mamamia yang sihat ni pun, kalau suruh jalan, rasanya dah angkat bendera putih awal2 lagi. That Tuesday morning, berapa kali Nenek telephoned tanya Atok dah sampai ke belum. It took Atok nearly 1 hr to reach our house. Sampai2 aje, dia complained penat!!! Of courselah... Semalam baru keluar hospital, hari ni dah berjalan jauh, siapa yang tak penat??

Sekarang, kereta Atok dah serah pada my brother. We thought he'd be better off without his car. Mamamia dah take over kids transportation to school. Mula-mula tu Atok still insisted to send the kids. Susah gak nak convince Atok. On one hand Mamamia tak nak kecik kan hati Atok, & on the other hand, tak berani nak take the risk that this episode might happen again. Nasib baik he finally agreed.

Ingatkan tak da kereta, kuranglah pergerakan Atok. After 2 days of staying home, relaxing, Atok complained of boredom. Kalau dah biasa ke sini ke sana, susah nak buang habit tu....

Now every morning, Mamamia akan tunggu Atok sampai dengan sarapan pagi & suratkhabar. Atok datang naik basikal....... Dah berbuih mulut kami adik beradik beritahu Atok don't exert himself. Atok degil...

Kalau budak-budak degil, boleh tunjuk tali pinggang. Kalau orang tua degil, sampai sekarang kami tak tahu nak buat apa...

Thank you, Allah....

2008-05-12T14:04:00.001+08:00

Long overdue entry. Events occured on 30/4/2008.

We were scheduled to have 'interviewers' coming to the house at 2 p.m. Very important for us to impress upon them, sebab ini akan menentukan hala tuju hidup kami sekeluarga in the coming future. Details of which, Mamamia belum boleh reveal to the public. For the past few days leading to the date, bertungkus lumus mengemaskan rumah, dari luar rumah, sampai bilik air, all need to be in tip top condition. Habis semua toys yang selama ni menguasai segenap pelosok rumah, kena sorok kan. ( Some of the toys Mamamia dah lupa kat mana dah disumbatkan, Alia has been asking for it).

We were told, 2 representatives of the Co would be coming. Tak cakap lelaki ke, perempuan ke. Malay, Chinese, Indian or lain-lain , no inkling whatsoever. Thought it was necessary for us to know this, sebab senang sikit nak prepare juadah apa. Kalau Mamamia masak something with meat inside, di buatnya Indian yg datang, nanti dah offend dia pulak.... Heard from someone who had already experienced this before. They prepared bubur durian for their 'interviewers'. Sekali yang datang somebody from Middle East, who couldn't stand bau durian!!! Tak pasal-pasal, dah kena tolak markah.

To be on the safe side, Mamamia prepared Bihun goreng, fruit salad, sweet dessert - kueh bakar ordered fr an aunty, & delicacy of this town 'Satay Kajang'- yg ni beli.

So, I thought everything was in order. Little did I know, something else was planned for me. Kita merancang, Allah menentukan.

Since Papapia couldn't be around during that time, we asked Atok to be around instead. Ya lah, kalau yang datang , dua-dua lelaki, dah tak da muhrim pulak. Maknanya, after fetching the kids from school ( tugas atok), Atok kena stayed back longer.

Around 1 pm, Mamamia selesai goreng Bihun, & siap apa yang patut. Around 1.10pm, Aimy should be home, followed by Farah at 1.20pm. Bila they all dah balik, Mamamia planned nak mencantikkan dirilah pulak. Tunggu punya tunggu, 1.10pm, Aimy tak sampai lagi. My immediate assumption was, Atok jemput dua-dua & hantar balik serentak. At 1.20pm, dengar bunyi honk kereta Atok, & bila buka pagar, tengok-tengok kakak Farah sorang aje yang turun kereta. My heart skipped a beat!!

"Farah, mana Aimy?" Mamamia jerit. Farah was confused, sebab selalunya, memang atok dah hantar Aimy balik dulu. So, she didn't expect anything amiss. Farah tanya Atok, & Atok nampak macam bingung kejap. Mamamia, suruh Farah ikut Atok, go back to the school & look her up.

While Atok was driving away, Mamamia noticed his driving was very pelik. Macam orang baru belajar bawa kereta or macam orang mabuk. Mula2 dia terlanggar kon penghadang jalan depan pondok jaga, & the turning he took was unusually big.

Ya Allah!!! Suddenly, it dawned upon me that Atok was not well. Mamamia recalled those little conversations I had with Atok this morning. Teringat Mamamia ada tanya Atok samada dia kurang sihat. Sebab pergerakan dia nampak perlahan dari biasa. Atok cuma cakap dia rasa letih sikit aje. He was a bit quiet, selalunya he'll be nagging Amir suruh siap & makan, tapi this time, nampak dia in resting mood aje. Lagi satu petanda yang Mamamia overlooked, Atok cerita macamana dia terlanggar kereta jiran, masa dia reversed his car earlier in the morning. Atok cakap, masa reverse kaki dia crammed, & dia tertekan minyak. Impact dia sikit aje, kata Atok... He said it so casually, so takdalah Mamamia ambil kisah sangat.

Bila recalled semua ni, Mamamia had to act fast, walaupun menggelabah, hanya Tuhan aje yang tahu. Selama 10 tahun, Atok jemput & hantar the kids to school, ni first time Atok terlupa jemput cucu dia. Macamana lah Mamamia tak panik. Called Papapia , explained the situation. Told Papapia "Something is wrong with Atok!!!" He prompted me, to drive my Kancil & kejar kereta Atok. Meanwhile, Papapia said he'd rushed home & called my brother. Capai kunci kereta, & put Alia in the car. At that very moment, ada satu kereta berhenti depan pagar. It was the school teacher, & Alhamdulillah with Aimy inside the car!! Said my brief thank you to the teacher. Memang cara Mamamia berterimakasih masa tu tak nampak macam Mamamia appreciate sangat with what the teacher had done. Tapi, masa tu Mamamia tengah fikirkan hal Atok & Farah.

Put both kids in the car & pecut ke sekolah. Sampai sana, saw Atok's car. Farah was just about to get back into the car. Honked. Farah got down & naik kereta Mamamia. Masa ni masih tak terfikir how weak Atok was. Let him drove his car, with us following suit. Atok bawa kereta macam orang mabuk, ke kiri, ke kanan. Nasib baik, jalan tak banyak kereta. Should have asked him to just park his car by the roadside, & take him home in my car.

The 5 min drive home rasa macam terlalu lama. Menjerit-jerit Mamamia dalam kereta bila tengok Atok macam nak terlanggar pembahagi jalan. I could only said "Atok, Atok..." The kids were very quiet at the back of the car.

Alhamdulillah, sampai jugak rumah. Got the kids down from the car & into the house. Rushed to Atok's car & tried to get him out of the car. The first thing he asked was " Orang tu dah sampai?" That's Atok... Sakit-sakit pun masih ingat tanggungjawab dia kena teman Mamamia pukul 2 ptng. He seemed really disoriented, bila kita tanya, macam tak paham aje.

Atok could barely stand. Phoned Papapia again. Instructed me to call ambulance or Doctor. Managed to get Doctor to come to the house. Atok biasa dengan Doktor ni. Took me nearly 10 minutes to get Atok out of his car, walked him to the house & bagi Atok minum air.

The time was approaching 2pm. My home interview !!! Mamamia tak 'cantikkan diri' lagi. Still in my T-shirt & tracks, mandi pun belum lagi. Tinggalkan Atok dgn Farah sekejap, rushed to my room, & changed into my baju kurung.

By the time I got down, Papapia & Doktor sampai. Doktor advised to take Atok to the hospital straight away. Put Atok in Papapia's car. Susah jugak nak baringkan dia, bila disuruh baring, Atok just didn't understand simple instructions. Papapia took Atok to the nearest hospital. Said our thank you to Doktor for her quick response. Tak sempat nak ajak Doktor masuk minum. Tak beradap pulak rasanya.

Time was clicking away. Asked Farah to jaga adik-adik dalam bilik. Jangan nanti masa orang tu datang, dia orang bergaduh ke, buat hal pulak. Within minutes the 2 interviewers came. Alhamdulillah, one guy & one gal. Before that, Papapia sempat pesan, pretend that everything was normal. Just to focus on the interview.

Managed to calm myself. Rasanya, it went okay eventhough 'pergi' interview dengan tak mandi. Nasib baik ada orang invent perfume.... Lepas habis interview, phoned Papapia to get update on Atok. Alhamdulillah, nothing very serious. Nevertheless, Papapia asked the hospital to do thorough investigations. Mamamia rewind balik apa yang dah jadi hari tu. & started counting my blessings.

1) Thank you Allah, for protecting Aimy from any harm. What if, takda cikgu yang perasan Aimy dah tertinggal transport, & ada pulak orang yg tak baik ambil kesempatan?? What if, Aimy decided to walk back, & tengah jalan kena kidnap or accident?

2) Thank you Allah, for looking out for Farah & ATok during the ride back from school. Farah beritahu, the scariest ride of her life. Mula2 dia ingat, kereta Atok rosak bila Atok's driving was sekejap on the road, sekejap atas rumput.... Then, she realised Atok looked sickly.

3) Thank you Allah, kerana memudahkan urusan kami bawa Atok ke hospital. Nasib baik Papapia was not stuck in a meeting, or traffic jam. For any delay, could have been fatal. Early diagnosis showed that Atok was running very high temperature which somehow causing a recurrent mild stroke. We were very worried sebab Atok ada history jantung.

4) Thank you Allah, for presenting Mamamia with 2 very nice people as interviewers.

Up till today, I'm not done with thanking Allah yet. .....

To be continued - the outcome of Atok's condition.

Life is.................

2008-04-22T12:21:00.004+08:00

PPLife s an opportunity,

Poem fr SimpleBin

Life can seem ungrateful and not always kind.
Life can pull at your heartstrings and play with your mind...
Life can be blissful and happy and free...
Life can put beauty in the things that you see...
Life can place challenges right at your feet...
Life can make good of the hardships we meet...
Life can overwhelm you and make your head spin...
Life can reward those determined to win...
Life can be hurtful and not always fair...
Life can surround you with people who care...
Life clearly does offer its Up and its Downs...
Life's days can bring you both smiles and frowns...
Life teaches us to take the good with the bad...
Life is a mixture of happy and sad...

So...

Take the Life that you have and give it your best...
Think positive, be happy let Allah do the rest...
Take the challenges that life has laid at your feet...
Take pride and be thankful for each one you meet...
To yourself give forgiveness if you stumble and fall...
Take each day that is dealt you and give it your all...
Take the love that you're given and return it with care...
Have faith that when needed it will always be there...
Take time to find the beauty in the things that you see...
Take life's simple pleasures let them set your heart free...
The idea here is simply to even the score...
As you are met and faced with Life's Tug of War

------------------------------------------------------------

Life Is Poem by Mother Theresa.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is a sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is life, fight for IT.

And Forrest Gump said "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get"

Recently, Papapia surprised me with this heart-shaped box of chocolate. Chocolate never tasted better than this.

Had another surprise last night, kali ni from Alia. Masa tu, Mamamia was busy meddling with the DVD recorder, trying to record a cowboy movie for Papapia. Alia datang dari belakang, and started playing with my hair. Dia minta permission nak ikatkan rambut Mamamia. "Go ahead", I said. Sekejap aje, dia kata "Dah siap". Hairan jugak macamana dia pandai nak menggayakan getah rambut tu. Bila Mamamia pegang bahagian rambut yang Alia ikat tu, I felt something sticky. Getah rambut apa ni??? When I tried to take it out, the hair just got tangled up. Got a small piece of it out, mengucap panjang Mamamia. Ingatkan dia guna plastecine, tapi melekit semacam. Makin ditarik makin teruk jadinya. Tak da pilihan lain, kena gunting jugak, nasib baik hujung rambut aje. Setelah dikaji, diteliti, baru Mamamia tahu, Alia guna chewing gum ikat rambut mama dia!!!

With small kids around, life is really full of surprises!!!

Last but not least,

Life is FRAGILE, handle it with prayers....

Rambut baru

2008-04-10T10:45:00.001+08:00

Baru-baru ni Mamamia guntingkan rambut Aimy & Alia yang dah panjang tu. Bertempat di dalam bilik air, operasi dijalankan.

Aimy's new haircut suits her well, short & sassy. Senanglah nanti pagi-pagi masa nak bersiap ke sekolah, tak perlu lagi Mamamia nak kecoh-kecoh ikat rambut dia. Kalau tidak, geram jugak nak layan permintaan dia pagi-pagi tu, nak ikat satu lah,, ikat dua lah, nak riben hitam lah, putih lah..... She's a bit of a fashionista. Sekarang, rambut dah pendek, she can just comb it herself, ikutlah style apa dia nak hari tu.

Cutting Alia's hair was a challenge in itself. She couldn't sit still. Sekejap tunduk, sekejap dongak, berpusing kepala kiri kanan. Takut tergunting telinga dia aje. On & off, she kept on asking " Dah ke belum, dah ke belum..." Once finished, tak tahu siapa yang lega sekali, Mamamia ke Alia...

Bila dah siap, mandikan dia, & got her dressed up. While she was admiring her new hair cut in front of the mirror, baru Mamamia perasan.... alahai, ada rambut terlebih lah Alia!!!

RALAT...

2008-04-08T07:40:00.005+08:00

Atas permintaan Kak Azzah8, Mamamia kopi pasta email ni. Maybe, yang lain pun nak tahu....

Muslims fooled by April Fool's Day Internet Urban Legend

Sister Anisah of South Dakota http://www.angelfire.com/sd/HIRU

Recently a Young Sister's Group passed on a questionable story to my daughter in which the claim was made that Fool's Day had to do with the unthrowing of the Muslims of Spain. Being that my husband and I are history buffs & I have studied the history behind holidays we knew this "claim" to be false.

It is sad that it is "dangerous" for our young Muslims to even enter in to "religious" discussion on supposedly serious Muslim chat groups (even gender-segregated) due to the rampid gossip that is spread under the cloak of "truth". This story is a clear example of how willing many Muslims are willing to make a "boogy man" out of others, rather than face the fact that the Loss of Spain was due to the corruption of the MUSLIMS who fought amongst themselves, as is often the case today in the Ummah.

Instead the Muslim Ummah wants to blame someone else and so they accept who ever the finger is being pointed at. What ever happened to Islamic justice? Solely because someone is a non-Muslim does not mean they are in the wrong and evil, while being Muslim makes one right. Nor does being born into a Muslim family make one right and the others wrong.

Yet this is happening. I have heard in our Ummah statements by professors that "they aren't REAL Muslims" in reference to Muslim American converts. I have heard Arabs speak derogatorily about other races within the ummah, blaming the non-Arabs for bring fitnah and innovation into the Ummah. All of these acts are dividing and destroying our ummah. The shatan doesn't need the non-Muslim to send spies into the Ummah to destory us, we have many within our own Muslim Ummah who are more than willing to help the shatan for the sake of Nationalism, Tribalism, Racism and Economic rankings to do that.

We fight for the sake of buildings, but sit back and let our Brotherhood and Sisterhood destroyed! May Allah forgive All of Us for our inaction and our weak deens!

Below I have added the article that corrects the misinformation that is being passed by the Muslim masses on the email. Insha Allah, in the future we will start to check into these claims before they are shared with our fellow Muslims.

Yusuf Estes http://www.islamtoday.com/ sheikyusuf@aol.com
National Chaplain to World Assembly of Muslim Youth

It Appears That Muslims Are the Fools

Now as regards the incorrect story circulating amongst the Muslims on the Internet saying that April Fool's Day is the celebration of the kufar over the conquest of Muslim Spain. I felt that it was necessary to clarify a few points in the interest of truth, inshallah.

Bismillah Al Hamdulilah was Salat wa Salam ala rasoolulah. Allahu Alim. In the Name of Allah, I praise Allah and ask for His Peace upon Muhammad, ameen. Allah Alone is The All-Knower.

To continue: Once again, Muslims are circulating a fabrication on the Internet trying to claim things which can easily be proven incorrect by Christians and non-Muslims who rejoice in watching us play the part of Everyday Fools.

The most recent story says that Christians could not conquer the Muslims there and sent spies to discover why. According to the story, they found that the Muslims there were on the 'Taqwah' (God Fearing and Pious) of Islam. Then the story says the Christians sent in alcohol and cigarettes which the Muslims used and lost their 'Taqwah' and then the Christians defeated the Muslims on April first and began celebrating 'April Fool's Day' ever since. This story is not correct in many aspects.

1.) First, let us consider the historic fact that Muslim Spain ended on the 12th of January in the Christian year of 1492 A.D. yet 'April Fool's Day was not heard of until over fifty years later.

Once upon a time, back in 16th-century France, before computers, people celebrated New Year's Day on March 25, the advent of spring. It was a festive time. They partied steadily until April 1. In 1564, when the calendar reformed and became Gregorian, under the influence of Pope Gregory, King Charles IX proclaimed, perhaps pompously, that New Year's Day should be celebrated on January 1st instead of in the spring. Diehard conservatives resisted the change (or perhaps didn't hear about it due to the absence of e-mail) and continued to celebrate New Year's from March 25 to April 1. During this period of spring festivity, the more flexible French mocked the rigid revelers by sending them foolish gifts and invitations to nonexistent parties. The victim of an April Fools' Day prank was called a "poisson d'avril," or an "April fish," because at that time of year, the sun was leaving the zodiacal sign of Pisces. April Fools' Day hit its stride (avoiding the banana peel) in England in the 18th century, and was brought to colonial America by the English, Scottish, and French.

2.) Second, we should know that cigarettes were not even invented until AFTER the time of the fall of Muslim Spain (January 1492). According to the State College in Framingham, the Human Biology course by Dr. Roger Morrrissette, Ph.D., smoking of any kind did not exist in Spain until after it was brought back from the New World AFTER King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had come to rule Spain. This is from their website:

Introduction to Human Biology Framingham State College Roger N. Morrissette, Ph.D.

I. The History of Smoking.
900: smoking is referred to on a Mayan stone carving.
1492: Columbus notes the natives of the New World smoke leaves.
1550: Spaniards begin cultivating tobacco in the West Indies to export to Europe.
1880: Tobacco use is widespread but people only use small amounts.

3.) Muslim Spain began to deteriorate at the time of Ibn Seenah and others who were beginning to use their logic in place of Divine Revelation of Allah. Some were very interested in the Greek and Roman philosophies and concepts and began to try to 'rethink' Islam much the same as some 'modernists' are doing today. It was right after this that Muslim Spain began to divide up into small kingdoms and fight against each other for control and gold. They employed mercenaries from amongst the Christians and killed and destroyed each other for a number of years. When the Christians came against them the first time, they appealed to the ruler of Maghrib (Morocco) across the Mediterranean Sea who sent troops to quell the attacks. He stipulated that the Muslims must stop fighting each other and go back to the Islamic system of rule under one leader. They did not do it. When they began fighting each other again, the Christians came in very strong against them and this time the ruler of Morocco refused to help them. They lost battle after battle against the Roman Christians and finally the last stronghold of Islam fell to the Christian King, Ferdinand, in January of 1492. [for details order the video "Muslim Spain"]

So regarding the email claiming that April Fools Day is a celebration of the take over of Muslim Spain, it is clear the whole thing is a made up lie. This is totally unacceptable and should be brought to the attention of the one who sent you this lie in the first place. A good Muslim would never accept to repeat lies and fabrications especially in presenting facts about the history of Islam.

If you have received such a letter it is your duty in front of Allah to write back to those who also received it and ask them to contact all of those on their lists and email the truth about this issue. And we should all fear a Day when we will stand in front of Allah and be asked about these matters.

If we don't do something about correcting the education of our beloved brothers and sisters in Islam, then everyday on the internet is MUSLIM FOOLS DAY.

Again, it is only Allah who has All Knowledge. May He forgive me my mistakes and guide us all to the right way, ameen.

Foolish of Me....

2008-04-05T20:42:00.004+08:00

It was foolish of me to post the earlier entry on 'April Fool'. Should have checked the truth to all the claims made.

Today, received another email , saying it was all a fabricated story. There was a long explanation, which I have not read in detail. Should have known better, do not trust everything you read in the internet.

Habis nat buat macamana, 'Tipah tertipu lagi'.....

Mamamia has withdrawn the earlier entry.

Lesson learnt, lain kali check dulu kesahihan fakta, & jangan percaya bulat-bulat apa yang dibaca dalam email tu.

A cargo full of love and devotion

2008-04-03T07:36:00.005+08:00

So I'd like to know where, you got the notion

To rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby

Rock the boat, don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby

Rock the boat-t-t-t-t

Ever since our voyage of love began

Your touch has thrilled me like the rush of the wind

And your arms have held me safe from a rolling sea

There's always been a quiet place to harbor you and me

Our love is like a ship on the ocean

We've been sailing with a cargo full of, love and devotion

So I'd like to know where, you got the notion

Said I'd like to know where, you got the notion

To rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby

Rock the boat, don't tip the boat over

Rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby

Rock the boat-t-t-t-t

Up to now we sailed through every storm

And I've always had your tender lips to keep me warm

Oh I need to have the strength that flows from you

Don't let me drift away my dear, when love can see me through

Our love is like a ship in the ocean

We've been sailing along with a cargo full of love and devotion.

Ni lyrics lagu 'Rock the boat' by Hues corporation. Lagu oldies.... Apa kaitan lagu ni dengan Mamamia???

This is one of 'our songs'. Dimainkan bila dah habis sesi bertikam lidah, dengan sorang tu merajuk, sebab asyik kalah bila berhujah. Masa sesi pujuk memujuk, Papapia selalu pasang lagu ni. Mamamia pun layan......

Memang betullah, hidup suami isteri ni satu pelayaran. Nakhoda kapal kena pandai mengemudi kapal, tidak boleh ada dua nakhoda dalam satu kapal. Jangan biarkan badai yang melanda menenggelamkan kapal, dengan anak-anak kapal sekali......

B@rney & Me...

2008-03-30T14:52:00.005+08:00

All four of Mamamia's kids grow up with this big purple dinasour. Personally, Mamamia rasa it's an appropriate show for kids. Adalah a few English words they picked up . When Farah was small, Mamamia used to record these shows so that she could watch it often. Masa tu belum ada Astr* lagi... Bila dah ada Astr*, everyday ada show, infact satu hari ada 2 slots, so bolehlah Mamamia tinggalkan the kids depan TV, while I run my errands. The 3 elder kids, cinta mereka dah lama beralih arah. Tinggal Alia yang masih setia...

Tapi dengan Alia lain sikit. When it comes to the last part where the kids start singing

I love U
U love me
We are one big family
With a great big hug
& a kiss from me to you
Won't you say, you love me too..

Mamamia wajib ada sebelah dia. Kena act out according to the lyrics. The hugs & kisses, all complete. Kalau tak, ALia mengamok.

Teringat ada sekali tu, way before I understood this request, Mamamia was in the toilet, when Alia came knocking at the door. Bila lambat respond, dia mula menangis, sambil cakap 'I love U, I love U...". Masa tu kita tak faham lagi apa dia nak, so Mamamia just responded back " I love U...". Bila keluar dari bilik air, she took me by the hand sampai depan TV. Teresak2 Alia cakap " I love you, abis...."

Ingatkan that was a one off sitaution. Selepas 2, 3 incidences , barulah Mamamia faham. So, tiap kali bila dengar Alia, jerit "I love you" masa tengok B@rney, Mamamia dah tahu, it's the cue for me to be with her. Time for me to shower my hugs & kisses....

Alia dgn selipar dia...

Sejuk perut Ibu...

2008-03-26T15:09:00.002+08:00

Bila anak-anak mendapat keputusan cemerlang, gemilang & terbilang, macam pelajar yang dapat 21A dalam SPM baru-baru ni, salah satu kalimah yang kita akan dengar ialah "Sejuk perut ibu mengandungkan dia..."

Mamamia adalah jugak pengalaman sikit-sikit dengan situasi ini. Memang sikit betul, nak mention pun segan. .... Bila orang puji anak-anak kita atas pencapaian mereka, mahu pun peribadi mereka, yang Mamamia perasan bukan 'perut' aje yang sejuk. The effect is like to the whole body. Hidung boleh kembang kuncup, senyum meleret di luar kawalan, badan rasa diawang-awangan...

So, persoalannya, siapakah gerangan yang mencipta kata-kata ini? Kenapa sebut bahagian perut aje? Ini peribahasa, simpulan bahasa, kiasan atau bidalan??

Tak kisahlah..... Yang pastinya kita para ibu, ummi, emak, mama & bonda bertuah dapat such recognition. Untuk ayah, abi, papa, & bapak, ada ke kata-kata macam ni untuk mereka?

Ini salah satu sebab yang menyejukkan perut & mata Mamamia...

Abang Amir as Imam & Alia jadi makmum. Alhamdulillah..... Doa Mamamia , they'll continue this practice sampai besar nanti, InsyaAllah.

Numeric joke.

2008-03-23T21:42:00.004+08:00

Email fr a friend.

This is hilarious... ..even an Englishman could not construct sentences using numeric, which is exclusive only to Malaysians and Singaporeans.

Ah Lek was asked to make a sentence using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10.

Not only did he do it 1 to 10, he did it again from 10 back to 1. This is what he came up with.....

1 day I go 2 climb a 3 outside a house to peep. But the couple saw me, so I panic and 4 down. The man rushed out and wanted to 5 with me. I ran until I fell 6 and threw up. So I go into 7-eleven and grabbed some 8 to throw at him. Then I took a 9 and try to stab at him. 10 God he run away.

10 I put the 9 back and pay for the 8 and left 7-eleven. Next day I called my boss and told him I was 6. He said 5 , tomorrow also no need to come back 4 work. He also asked me to go climb a 3 and jump down. I don't understand. I am so nice 2 him but I don't know what he 1.

Ni N3 tak ada idea. Mamamia not 6, but 10 still 1 this blog 2 have story.

Plaster girl

2008-03-21T14:41:00.001+08:00

Seorang anak kecil telah menemui penawar segala penyakit.

Cuma tampalkan plaster pada luka tersebut. Yang bercorak kartun & warna warni lagi mujarab.

Tercalar atau terguris sikit pun boleh segera diubati.

Jari halus ni, ntah kena apa pun, senang dibaluti.

Yang tak tahan tu, kena gigit nyamuk pun, kena tampal plaster!!!!

Mamamia layan ajelah si anak kecil, Alia ni...

Salam Maulidur Rasul

2008-03-18T12:48:00.001+08:00

Petikan dari MIDI Nov 2007

Ucapan selawat dan salam kpd Rasulullah S.A.W. adalah satu ibadat yang sangat di tuntut dari setiap umat Islam dlm setiap masa.

Ia sebagai menandakan ingatan. cinta & kasih terhadap baginda di mana jasa & pengorbanan baginda amat besar sekali terhadap Islam & perkembangannya.

Orang yg tidak membiasakan dirinya dgn berselawat adalah dianggap sebagai org yg tidak mengenang budi (tidak menyanjung) baginda sehinggakan syarak melabelkan mereka sebagai org yg bakhil.

Fadilat berselawat tersebut, maka Allah S.W.T. telah menetapkan malaikat yg khusus bertugas sebagai penyampai selawat yg diucapkan terus kepada baginda.

Rasulallah S.A.W. bersabda;
" Sesiapa yang berselawat kepadaku dengan sesuatu selawat, sentiasalah
Malaikat berdoa untuknya selama ia berselawat kepadaku; oleh itu terpulanglah
kepada seseorang sama ada ia hendak berselawat sedikit atau banyak."

(Amir bin Rabiah R.A )

KISAH BENAR

Memang dah habit untuk Mamamia berselawat bila hati nervous semacam. Macam bila kena pergi dentist, masa dalam labour room, masa nak exam, nak tunggu result dll. Bila nak tahan marah pun, Mamamia makes it a habit to berselawat. It has that therapautic, calming effect. Kalau susah nak tidur malam pun, ni lah my sleeping pills. Alhamdulillah, it works...

Mamamia jadi bertambah yakin akan fadhilat berselawat ni selepas satu peristiwa yang berlaku masa Hari Raya a few years back. On that said day, kami buat open house ala kadar, jemput saudara mara & neighbours. Tetamu yang akhir datang was relatives on Papapia's side. They all ni, lepas rumah kami, nak ke rumah another family di Sepang, but they didn't know the way there. Papapia agreed to show the way. Masa tu, Mamamia memang dah rasa penat sangat, tapi nak jugak ikut. Sebab kalau tak pergi masa tu, entah bila lagi kami ada masa nak ke sana. So, after Maghrib we all bertolak.

We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, dah kenyang makan, kami pun balik. Masa dalam kereta, at the junction, tiba-tiba Mamamia teringat kan rumah, teringat kuah kari yang dipanaskan atas dapur. Ya Allah, macamana boleh terlupa nak tutup api dapur tadi??? Habislah terbakar rumah macam ni. Neighbours kiri kanan semua balik beraya kat kampung. Nak suruh Papapia pecut laju-laju tak boleh, coz the other family was counting on us to lead the way. Jalan pulak gelap, tak banyak lampu jalan. Kurang-kurang pun, lagi satu jam baru sampai rumah. Maknanya lepas lebih tiga jam periuk tu atas api dapur, baru kami akan sampai.

Panik memang panik. Masa tu, Mamamia dah bayangkan the house on fire, & bomba nak padamkan api. The minute we reached the highway, Papapia informed the other family we had to speed off, & explain the situation. Since, they were familiar with the highway, ok lah for us to leave them there.

Sepanjang2 perjalanan Mamamia tak henti2 berdoa for situation to be under control. Berselawat non stop, sebab nak tenteramkan perasan gelabah tu. Lagi 10 minit nak sampai rumah, Mamamia kuatkan semangat. Preparing myself to the sounds of fire engine & the sight of our burning house. Berani2 takut nak tengok, kaki tangan dah seram sejuk.

Bila nak masuk simpang ke rumah kami, e eh, tak da bomba pun, tak da api jugak. Alhamdulillah, lega.... Boleh jadi all these while, I was worried for nothing. Maybe Mamamia dah padamkan api dapur sebelum keluar tadi.

Dengan senang hati, kami nak melangkah masuk rumah. The minute the door was opened, guess what welcomed us?? Asap tebal & bau hangit terbakar penuh satu rumah!!!! MasyaAllah, I was right all along. Quickly we rushed to the kitchen, nak padamkan api. But, there was no fire.

Periuk hangus masih atas dapur, kuah kari yang dipanaskan tadi, tinggal tulang2 yang hitam macam arang. Later we found out, apa yang telah menyelamatkan keadaan ialah, dapur kehabisan gas. Syukur.... Bayangkan kalau tong gas tu penuh, guarantee rumah kami dah hangus terbakar, termasuk rumah jiran2 sekali agaknya.

Lebih dari sebulan, bau asap tu jadi our Ambee Pur. Bau dia melekat kat dinding, sofa, cabinets. Tapi tak apalah kan, as long as rumah tak terbakar.

All these while Mamamia bersyukur sangat atas 'kebetulan gas habis' tu.... Berselawat tu menolong, but the mechanical of how it worked, I didn't know.

Selepas baca hadis di atas, & hayati isi kandungannya betul2, baru lah Mamamia faham. Masa Mamamia berterusan berselawat on that eventful day, little did I know, the angels were praying for me & alongs with me.

Sekarang, dah tahu rahsia ni, Mamamia has been taking advantage of it. Kalau tak dapat apa yang kita hajati pun, sekurang2nya dapat pahala. It is a win-win situation. InsyaAllah....

Pengajaran dari Sepasang Kasut sekolah....

2008-03-13T16:00:00.002+08:00

Time really flies when you are having fun. Rasa baru macam semalam the kids mula cuti sekolah, sedar tak sedar tinggal 3 hari aje lagi for school to reopen.

Kasut sekolah tak berbasuh lagi. Tak terkejut kalau bekas / container untuk bekal or tumbler air masih ada dalam beg. Ntah2 dah berkulat... ( Dah pot, pet suruh the kids check their school bags. Nasib baik, semua dah keluarkan)

Teringat kisah basuh kasut sekolah ni. Kejadian tahun lepas. Semua kasut dah basah direndam dalam baldi. Suddenly, buat keputusan mengejut ( as usual) nak keluar outing. Since, we were in a rush, terpaksalah basuh sepasang kasut sekolah for each kids aje. Lagi sepasang, tunggulah, balik nanti....

Nasib baiklah kasut yang dibasuh sempat kering hari Isnin esoknya. Tapi, lain pulak ceritanya..

Amir was getting ready to go to school. He was putting on his shoes, when he suddenly called out my name.

"Mamamia, apa ni?? Cuba tengok..." sambil menunjuk kasut di kakinya.

" Kenapa? Ok aje Mamamia tengok.."

"Tengoklah betul2!!! Ni dua-dua belah kanan!! Macamana ni...."

La.... Memang betul. Nak cepat punya pasal semalam, sampai tak perasan, basuh belah yang sama. Panik sekejap. Kasut apa Amir nak pakai ke sekolah? Kasut belah kiri, basah lagi.... Selongkar stor, jumpa kasut kakak Farah, yang lama. Nasib baik Amir tak kisah nak pakai kasut Farah tu. Ya lah kan, daripada pakai dua2 belah kanan....

Lessons learnt;

jangan lagi buat kerja tergopoh gapah & last minute.
Bila nak basuh kasut tu, pastikan dulu kiri kanannya.
Mamamia kalau jadi bibik, kerja untuk orang, mesti dah kena siram air panas, mesti kena sumpah seranah, sebab simple task macam ni pun, boleh salah. Kiri kanan pun tak tahu!!!

After that incident, Mamamia became more accomodating, when the kids make mistakes. After all, we are only human.

"People make mistakes, that's why Pencils have Erasers...."

Kenapa ya??

2008-03-09T23:37:00.002+08:00

Persoalan sempena PRU 12.

Selepas membaca tajuk di suratkhabar pasal pilihanraya, Amir tanya "Mamamia, kenapa ya kena rebut kerusi2 ni. Kerusi apa ni?"

Mesti dia ingat ni macam musical chair, siapa cepat dia dapat... Dia banyak bertanya pasal pilihanraya , sampai tak terjawab. Dia dah bilang berapa tahun lagi dia boleh layak mengundi.

Semasa hari mengundi, sampai di tempat mengundi, mula2 Papapia parked near the houses & he walked to the polling station. Mamamia & kids waited in the car.

Tak sampai 5 minit, saw him walking back to our car. Kenapa ya?

He said it's quite a distance to walk there. Since he noticed tak banyak kereta kat sekolah tu, he decided to park nearer.

Drove nearer to the school, & dengan senang hati we parked betul2 nak dekat pintu pagar sekolah. Hairan jugak, kenapa ya org tak park kat situ.

Suddenly, ada abang Polis datang ketuk cermin tingkap kereta. Bagi signal suruh park further up. Kenapa ya?

Rupa2nya tak boleh park within 15 m pintu gate tu, restricted area.

At the polling station tu, tak ada suasana hari mengundi langsung. Mamamia tak payah nak queue. Dari keputusan pilihanraya only 51% turnout.

Kenapa ya, ramai malas nak mengundi? Bila tengok kat TV, ada wargatua bertongkat, berkerusi roda sanggup mengundi. Yang kat pedalaman Sabah Sarawak tu berakit, panjat bukit, meredah banjir bagai....

Mamamia tak kenal pun siapa calon2 yang bertanding. Polling station pun, kami tercari2 kat mana sekolah ni. The last time kami ke situ masa pilihanraya 2004.

Kenapa ya? Sebab, mengundi di luar kawasan sendiri. Bukan phantom voter, tapi masalah teknikal masa buat pertukaran alamat dulu.

Kenapa ya, tak buat pertukaran alamat sekali lagi.? Tak payah nak buang masa 2 jam pergi balik just to cast our votes. Kalau dah update dgn SPR, our nearest polling station 10 min aje dari rumah.......

Ni lah, masalah nya org yang selalu menangguh kerja. Sekarang ni, tengah berkobar2 lah semangat nak update address tu. Tapi, ntah2 next election kami masih akan tetap tercari2 sekolah ini sekali lagi.

Kenapa ya, masa nak pilh parti mana berkenan di hati, kita kena pangkah kotak dia? Selalunya kalau kita letak 'X' besar2 tu,maknanya kita tak suka lah.... Kenapa tidak kita 'tick' mana yang kita pilih, atau 'cross' yang kita tak nak?

Anyway, persoalan yang perlu dicari jawapannya oleh pemimpin BN; KENAPA YA, suara rakyat lain benar bunyi nya kali ini?

Mamamia teringat nasihat seorang penganalisis politik yang rasanya bagus untuk calon2 yang menang & kalah, ie: " Semua kena ingat pada Rukunegara pertama "Kepercayaan kpd Tuhan'. Ini semua dah ditentukan olehNya. Kalau kita berada di atas, jangan ingat kita akan sentiasa berada di sana..."

Ceria di Oasis...

2008-03-05T13:45:00.008+08:00

Ceria is Alia's favourite channel at present. Suka sangat dia dengan programme TomTomBak & Anak2ku. Mamamia pun dipaksa tengok sekali dengan dia. Terhibur jugaklah tengok keletah anak2 bila kena interview dgn Aznil. Their candid and out of the blue answers make the programmes lively. But Mamamia & Papapia have our reservations on parts of the programme. To other parents, maybe dia orang tak kisah sangat. Tapi untuk kami, yang konservatif ni, agak kurang manis bila anak2 ini menggayakan tarian2 'Gerudi Inul', 'Beyonce / Shakira Butt&Body shaking', 'Gelek 360*' dalam slot bakat anak2. Kami rasa itu bukan bakat. They even dressed up accordingly. These kids are too young to be exploited as such.

Hairan, macamana ibubapa anak2 ini memberi kebenaran untuk anak2 mereka beraksi sedemikian rupa. Maybe they'll argue these are just kids, nampak cute & comel aje.... Tapi lupa ke mereka, pada pencolek2 Nurin & Sharlinie? Kids like these are their targets.

Atau kami ke yang narrow minded?????

Now, Mamamia cuba alihkan minat Alia pada program Alif di saluran Oasis pulak. Sekurang2nya dapat belajar sesuatu sambil berhibur. Ni, program yg ada K.Iza bercerita dgn kanak2 kecil tu, diselang seli dengan Nasyid & ada juga doa.

The latest show was on Rukun Iman. Selalunya Mamamia tumpang tengok sambil lalu aje. Very seldom I listen to everywords. Yesterday, terdengar K.Iza bercerita pasal kitab2 yg diturunkan pada Rasul. Suddenly, I heard kitab Injil diturunkan pada Nabi Musa, & kitab Taurat pada Nabi Isa!!!! Eh, did I hear that correctly??

Since Astr@ ni kan selalu ada ulangan, Mamamia made it a point to watch the repeat. Confirmed, yang Mamamia tak silap dengar. How could they made such glaring mistake? Ini program kanak2, bukan ke nanti kids will accept that as a fact? Nanti, they'll question their Ustazs/ Ustazahs pulak.

Mamamia tergerak hati nak buat lapuran to the relevant parties. Bukan saja2 nak condemn orang, tapi lebih pada rasa it's my duty as a Muslim. But, who are these relevant parties? Astr@, Kem Penerangan, Censorship Body, Jab Agama Islam?? Tak ada clue langsung!!!

Pagi tadi, Mamamia tengok lagi sekali repeat show. Kalau sebelum ni nak buat confirmation yang Mamamia tak salah dengar, kali ni nak buat Double confirmation. Ya lah, nanti kalau silap information & kita forward the complain, tak pasal2 kena sue pulak.

Mamamia pasang dua-dua telinga, this time around. Bila Kak Iza explained pasal 'Percaya kepada Kitab', Mamamia listened to every single words she said.

LEGA..... they have edited that part out. Tak payah lagi Mamamia susah hati nak call sesiapa. At least somebody is doing their job. Albeit, its a bit late. Patutnya masa production stage lagi dah betulkan semua ni...

Nampaknya, kenalah Mamamia sendiri jadi In House Censorship Body to all these children programmes.

Anyway, saluran Oasis ada program yg worthwatching. Suka tengok Iktibar dari Tanah Suci, Diari Jemputan Umrah, Sebutan Syariah - ( tersentuh hati bila tengok tangisan anak sebaya Alia menjadi mangsa perceraian . Anak ini belum mengerti kenapa dia tak boleh ikut balik rumah Papa dia. Dia menangis sambil menghentak kaki berkeras nak balik rumah 'kita'. Kenapa tidak boleh balik rumah 'kita'. There's no more 'kita', boy.... )

Dare to Fail...

2008-03-02T16:29:00.001+08:00

Salah satu buku favourite Mamamia "Dare to Fail". Inspiring, motivational & lepas baca buku ni rasa macam panjat Gunung Everest pun boleh...

Something that caught my eyes was the cover of the book. Cuba perhatikan bottom right hand corner of the cover, yang Mamamia bulatkan. Sekali imbas Mamamia baca " A million copies sold". Impressive.....

This is the enlarged version.

Bila baca betul2, rupanya " A million copies TO BE sold "!!!!

It's the authors marketing ploy. Tak salah rasanya, for him to claim as such. Kalau baru terjual 1000 copies pun, he can still put that statement. Very clever....

Here are some excerpts from the book;

We are never too old to succeed

Coco Chanel was having her fashion company at the age of 85

Michelangelo painted his famous masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between the ages of 71 to 89

Ray Kroc founder of McD started the franchise at age 52.

( Kalau macam ni, kita pun boleh venture into something yang dah lama kita fikir nak buat. It's still not too late...)

Those who ignored the critiques;

In the 1940s, Chester Carlson's idea was turned down by 20 companies including some of the biggest in the country. After 7 long years of rejections, in 1947 his idea was accepted. The idea was the Xerox machine.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out" Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles in 1962.

"You ain't going nowhere... son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, firing Elvis Presley after one performance in 1954.

( Bab ni, Mamamia lemah sikit. Bila orang kritik sikit, cepat sangat give up. Baru anak2 complain kek Mamamia buat tak sedap, dah takut / malas nak cuba lagi. Kena perbaiki ni...)

Since, sekarang tengah demam pilihanraya, maybe ramai calon2 yang mencuba nasib . Terutama calon Bebas, they dare to fail.

Mamamia tabik spring pada Nenek Maimun Yusoff 89 tahun, selepas 4 kali mencuba, akhirnya berjaya menjadi calon Bebas untuk PRU ke 12 ini.

She really has that attitude "Never too old to succeed".

All the Best Nenek Maimun!!!

Penulis buku ini pun, apa kurangnya. He really practises what he preaches. Dia pun bertanding dlm pilhanraya ni sebagai calon Bebas. Pernah gagal sebelum ni & dia cuba lagi.....

N3 bergambar

2008-02-25T13:33:00.004+08:00

The first 2 photos are related to my last entry , Malang Tak Berbau.

This is the golf stick which has created history.

One of the boys who came over. This boy went home for lunch, & came back & stayed till 5 p.m. Tengoklah betapa penuh konsentrasi dia bermain PS2.

For the past few days, pekerja Majlis Perbandaran have been working hard. Tapi Mamamia is dissapointed with what they are doing. Apa pun sebabnya, Mamamia rasa ada banyak kerja pembersihan lain yang patut diberi keutamaan. Salah satunya, longkang besar di tepi jalan rumah kami ni dah banyak sampah. Sudah tiba masanya untuk dibersihkan. Pernah sekali, Mamamia sendiri turun dalam longkang tu bersihkan, bila tengok air dah bertakung, sebab banyak sampah tersangkut.

Yang Mamamia tengah geram ni, bila tengok diaorang tebang pokok2 kat seberang jalan tu. Dari pandangan mata kasar, pokok2 tu tidak mengganggu pandangan lalu lintas, atau menghempap sebarang talian telefon atau letrik. Ntah kenapa ditebang tak tahulah. Kalau dah tahu pokok ni akan tumbuh tinggi macam ni, why did they plant them in the first place?

Tak adalah lagi pemandangan ni.

Sekarang, ini saja yang tinggal. See the vast difference.

Automatically, terasa bahangnya, rasa sesak nafas.

Hopefully, they won't do that to my oxygen tank. This tree is exactly in front of my house. Pokok yg banyak memberi kesegaran pada mata yang letih ( after spending long hours infront of the PC lost in the blogging world ). My source of grenery. Sekali sekala bird watching pun boleh. Bila tengok liuk lentuk ranting2 & daun2 ditiup angin, ahh..... nyaman & tenteram.

Maybe Mamamia kena start forming a committee "Save our forest", walaupun untuk pokok sebatang ini.

Malang Tak Berbau...

2008-02-23T13:31:00.004+08:00

Pagi ni Amir ada basketball praktis kat sekolah. & petang semalam dia dah beritahu Mamamia yang kawan2 dia akan datang ke rumah lepas habis latihan nanti. Inilah tabiat Amir yang Mamamia kurang berkenan, suka memberitahu kami tindak tanduknya selepas mengajak kawan2nya ke rumah. Been reminding him to get our permissions first before inviting his friends over. Mana lah tahu, kami ada plan lain untuk hari itu.

Amir kata dia boring, tak da kawan kat rumah. Well, we don't really mind he has his friends over. Infact we welcome them. They are good boys. Selalunya, mereka datang pun cuma untuk bermain PS2.

Tapi, tiap kali bila kawan2 ni berada di rumah kami, Mamamia can't help feeling a little bit stressful. Undue stress for the following reasons;

Firstly, bila anak2 orang, ada kat rumah kita, mereka dah jadi tanggungjawab kita. Have to keep a watchful eye on them, during the duration they are with us. Maknanya bertambah lah sikit kerja Mamamia.

Secondly, Mamamia risau kalau these boys tak dapat permissions their parents to come over. Selalunya Mamamia akan tanya " Ni mak ayah tahu awak kat sini? Dah minta permission?" . & selalunya mereka akan mengangguk, mengiyakan soalan tu. Nevertheless, we still have doubts, budak2 ni bukan boleh percaya sangat.

Pengalaman lalu banyak mengajar. Masa tu, zaman Farah Tadika, 2 org kawan2 tadika Farah datang ke rumah. Bila ditanya rumah kat mana, dekat aje, jawab mereka. So, Mamamia assumed they lived around our housing area. Kali kedua, cuma seorang aje datang. This time, we asked her to show us specifically kat mana rumah dia. Terkejut besar kami bila dia tunjuk arah rumah dia. Rupa2nya she lived on the other side of the road, the main road, sekarang jalan tu dah jadi highway. So, upon knowing that, we decided to personally send her home that day. Masa tu pun dah nak dekat maghrib. Sampai rumah dia, baru tahu cerita sebenar. Her parents thought she went to the playground nearby their house. Since dah nak maghrib, she still wasn't back, the brother went looking for her at the playground, which was apparently empty. Kecoh jugaklah kejap family dia. Anyway, that was the last time dia datang main dgn Farah.

Selain tu, some of these boys, are staying quite far away. Mereka datang berbasikal. Mamamia risau kalau apa2 terjadi dalam perjalanan pergi atau pulang budak2 ni.

Today, the inevitable happened. Amir & friends finished their basketball practise early. As planned, 4 of his friends came. Instead of coming into the house, they played outside for awhile. Mamamia kat dalam, jaga Alia sambil memikirkan apa nak jamu these kids. Tak sampai setengah jam mereka bermain, tiba2 Amir came rushing in, asking for kain, plaster ...

"Cepat Mamamia, ABCD banyak darah tu..."

Mamamia grabbed the GM towel & rushed out. Saw ABCD standing near the tap, washing his cheek, Tshirt. Gave him the towel & tried to assess the injury. Masa ni darah dah tak banyak keluar (phew, nasib baik...), luka pun nampak kecik aje. Masuk dlm balik, ambik First Aid kit. At this point, still belum tahu, what had really occured. Itu secondary, my main concern was to help this poor boy. He didn't shed a tear, but could see he was in pain.

Masa nak letak plaster over the cut, Mamamia noticed macam ada daging terkeluar. Plaster won't do the job, he needed doctor's attention. Rasanya macam kena jahit. Well, tak kisahlah whether kena jahit ke tidak, but my instinct was, to take him to the doctor.

Called Papapia to come home. Nasib baik Papapia was at the neighbourhood barber aje, kalau dah gie office, lagilah kelam kabut Mamamia. Luckily, it was not a hassle to get the boy to the clinic. Maybe sakit sangat, dia setuju nak pergi.

At the same time, Mamamia terfikir jugak "Should we call the parents first, or should we take him to the clinic straight?" Papapia decided to take him to the clinic, while Mamamia call the mother. Nak jadi cerita, the mother's number stored in my hp was no longer valid. Asked Amir & the other friends if they knew ABCD's house tel no. Semua kata tak tahu. So, kami tawakal aje lah bawa anak orang pergi klinik.

Sementara tu, MAmamia cuba bertanyakan pada Amir & friends what really happened. Rupa2nya, memang malang tak berbau. MNOP was practising his golf swing. He missed the ball, and his swing ended on ABCD's cheek yang berdiri sebelah kiri dia. It must have been a powerpack swing, sampai terkoyak pipi budak tu. MNOP rasa bersalah sangat. Yang kawan2 lain pulak lagi menakutkan dia "Gasak... engkau buat dia..." Kenalah Mamamia console dia pulak, kesian budak tu, bukan dia sengaja nak pukul kawan dia.

While they were at the clinic, Mamamia buat roti canai segera. Time felt so slow, bilalah dia orang nak balik dari clinic ni. Risau sangat... Risau pasal condition ABCD, & risau how to break the news to his parents.

Finally, they came home. ABCD got 2 stitches, sikit aje, tapi kena jahit jugak lah kan. Since ABCD memang patient clinic tu, Papapia got his house add. & father's tel no. from the clinic's card. Tapi number tu pun tak valid lagi. Papapia drove over to his house, but the parents were not at home. Cuma ada kakak dia aje. Got her to phone the father. The father later came to our house to take ABCD home.

Meanwhile, Mamamia suruh kawan2 Amir yang lain to jot down their parents' contact numbers, in case of emergency. In the future, kalau dia orang datang lagi & accidents like this happen ( hope not), senang kita nak take action. ABCD pun sempat tulis his mother's number. ( Tapi, bila Mamamia tried to call utk bertanya khabar, still got the message this number is not in service... )

Kawan2 Amir yang lain balik in staggered time. As at 1.3opm, cuma sorang aje tinggal. Masa Mamamia nak 'on' kan PC, ternampak one black MPV berhenti depan pintu pagar. It was the boy's father, who seemed angry. Informed the boy, yang ayah dia ada kat luar. Dari tenungan & jelingan ayah dia, Mamamia sure dia kena lecture sebab balik lambat atau kategori yg tak minta permission. & ni yang buat Mamamia rasa bersalah.

Boleh jadi Mamamia kena adopt peraturan sekolah. Siapa yang nak main kat rumah Amir, kena tandatangan surat kebenaran dulu ;

Saya ....................................... ibu/bapa/penjaga kepada
................................................... memberi kebenaran anak saya
bermain di rumah Amir pada tarikh ..................... dan
masa.......................
Pihak tuanrumah tidak akan dipertanggungjawabkan atas sebarang kejadian.
Yang benar,

.............................
Tel
:

Is this too much? Ada ke ibubapa nak sign surat macam ni?

Maybe in the future, tak payah lah lagi ajak kawan2 Amir datang rumah. Mamamia dah serik...

Happy faces..

2008-02-21T10:23:00.001+08:00

There's a budding artist in the house. Since she has run out of papers, and drawing canvas (kononnya) any flat surface will do.

Sekarang she's perfecting her skills in drawing happy faces. So, everywhere you go in the house, adalah jumpa muka2 happy ni.

Ni atas tutup Tupperware.

Two happy faces on the drawer cabinet. Muka kakak Aimy, next to her self portrait.

Ni gambar yang clear sikit.

Bila tanya "Who did this?"

Dengan bangganya dia mengaku "Alia buat..."

Bila Mamamia marah, she'll point to the picture, saying " Ni, Alia happy...."

How can I take away the joy from her happy faces.???

Bacathon

2008-02-19T15:21:00.002+08:00

Farah came home from school carrying this hamper. It certainly was not her birthday...

Rupa2nya ini hadiah untuk sumbangan paling banyak for Bacathon for last week. Every week, 2 penyumbang terbanyak dapat hadiah, and at the end nanti ada lagi Grand Prize untuk overall highest collection.

Kalau macam ni, boleh ke sekolah meet the collection target. Pulang modal ke? Harga hamper ni rasanya not less than RM15.

The funny thing was, Farah's collection pun bukan banyak mana pun.... Students were asked to get their parents to do the collection. ie minta lah dari kawan2 pejabat tu. They really think Papapia wants to do that. Kerat 10 jari pun, tak kan dia buat. Selagi mampu, he'd rather contribute from his own pocket. Tak kira lah, banyak atau sikit...

So, on the collection card that day, at first there was only one name ie Papapia. Nampak macam tak cantik pulak... Nak kasi lagi meriah & nak tunjuk enough effort was put into it, Mamamia put all our names in!!! Except for Papapia the main contributor, the rest of us contributed RM 2 each.

Dengan berkat nama adik beradik, kakak Farah dapat hamper tu. Rezeki, Amin...

By the way, Farah's collection was RM2 less than the highest contributor for the week.

Jemputan & Penghargaan...

2008-02-14T07:34:00.007+08:00

On Tuesday, Mamamia needed to fetch Farah from her latihan sukan. Around 4.30pm, with Alia & Aimy we were already in front of the school . After 15 minutes of waiting , still no Farah. She did say she was not very sure pukul berapa habis latihan. Aimy was getting restless, Alia was busy singing away her Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Old Mc Donald, Farmer in the Dale.... Like a broken record, asyik rewind lagu yang sama, sampai Aimy suruh stop singing.

Suddenly, Mamamia's handphone rang & the number appeared buat darah Mamamia berderau. Never before dapat call dari number ni. It was Amir's school calling. Automatically, dah fikir benda2 buruk aje. Apa dah jadi kat Amir? Terjatuh ke, bergaduh ke or tak sihat ke??? Ya lah kan, kat sekolah sekarang these are very common.

"Assalamualaikum, Hello..." jawab Mamamia dengan perasan berdebar.

"Assalamualaikum Kak Mamamia...." suara ceria dari sebelah sana. ( Dalam hati Mamamia, sejak bila pulak pihak sekolah ni ber 'Kak' , selalu being formal, they'll use the term 'Puan')

"Waalaikumsalam..." masih berdebar lagi ni. Still couldn't figure out the purpose of this call, preparing for the worse.

" Ini Cikgu Z*l@*n lah" ; oohhh, patut pun ber 'Kak', memang kami selalu berhubung. Anak dia best friend Amir. Selalu call pun guna handphone, tak pernah through school's line.

" Hari Sabtu ni, free tak? Boleh datang sekolah masa mesyuarat PIBG nanti?" , sambung Cikgu lagi.

Sejak bila pulak pihak sekolah buat individual phone call suruh datang mesyuarat PIBG? Tak da langsung ke orang yang nak datang?

"Except for one jemputan khenduri, so far tak da plan lain lagi." that was roughly my respond, sambil mengurut dada, lega... Lega tiada berita buruk.

" Kak, sekolah ada cenderahati utk En. Papa atas sumbangan selama ni. So, kami harap sangat En. Papa boleh datang."

"InsyaAllah, nanti Kak Mamamia sampaikan pesanan ni."

"Thanks Kak. Jangan lupa datang tau...Mana tahu nanti boleh jadi AJK PIBG" Cikgu mengakhiri panggilan.

Ya lah tu, AJK PIBG... Sumbangan dalam bentuk lain, rasanya kami boleh usahakan. Tapi nak jadi AJK PIBG, berat sikitlah.

Alhamdulillah, rezeki Papa murah, & he doesn't mind contributing back to the society ie the kids' school. Bukan banyak sangat pun.... It was really nice of pihak sekolah to recognize that. Kami menderma pun bukan kerana nama. Since we can't contribute in terms of time (jadi AJK, they all ni lagilah banyak menyumbang), we try to contribute by other means.

Either we can make it to the event this Saturday, tak tahu lagi. Papa tu, meetingnya tak menentu, macam doktor On Call pun ada jugak.

Berbalik to perenggan pertama, pukul 5.15ptg baru lah Kakak Farah muncul. Menunggu 45 minit, lama betul...

Masa AMir balik dari sekolah, told him that Papa will get a cenderamata from his school this coming Saturday.

"A ah, Amir tahu. Tadi Cikgu ada kasi surat suruh pass kat Papa . Tapi (ada tapi nya..), Amir tertinggal kat dewan..."

Ahh, that's my son, typical of him. Tertinggal barang kat sekolah. Kalau cikgu tak call tadi, mesti Mamamia tak tahu. Nasib baik lah surat tu orang tak ambik. Semalam (Rabu), Amir finally brought the letter back. At least we know the aturcara, & what time we are expected to be at the dewan.

Cuti Tahun Tikus..

2008-02-11T15:19:00.000+08:00

Khamis:- Set up the plastic swimming pool, which has been left untouched for a few months. Berpeluh jugaklah..... Pasangkan paip air & tinggalkan kolam tu biar penuh air. Sementara tu kami ke KLCC. Farah needs a new pair of spectacles. Cermin mata yang dia guna sekarang, tangkainya dah macam nak patah. Dah berapa kali kena duduk specs dia tu, sebab suka sangat tinggalkan atas sofa.

Journey was smooth, reached KLCC within half an hour. Dah lama tak ke KL, dah berubah betul jalan2nya. 2 major roundabouts yang dulu buat Mamamia selalu tersangkut dalam bas masa nak pergi kerja pun dah tak ada lagi.

KLCC was people packed. Headed straight to kedai cermin mata. We overlooked the fact yang kedai ni akan tutup today. Tried another shop, tutup jugak. Third shop, tutup. Nampaknya tak ada rezeki Farah nak specs baru hari ni. Very obvious lah kan, optical shops are being monopolised by them.

While we were there, Farah wanted to get a new pair of shoes. Dia ni memang tiap 3 bulan kena beli kasut baru, cepat betul membesar kaki dia. The one bought for raya dah sempit. Suruh beli sandal aje, dia tak nak. Advised her to go for open-toed shoes, tapi tak jumpa yang dia berkenan. By the way, size kasut dia dah lebih dari Mamamia. So tak boleh lah nak kongsi kasut....

Sementara tu mata Mamamia ni jeling2 jugak tengok kalau ada jumpa handbag yang berkenan. There were quite a number that caught my eyes, tapi price tag dia Mamamia tak berkenan.

We bought nothing on this outing, memang window shopping aje. Except for 1901 hotdog, requested by Amir yang tiba-tiba lapar. Kalau ikut Mamamia & the girls, belum puas lagi. But Amir dah bising ajak balik (ni memang anak Papa, he hates shopping) & Papa pun had to rush somewhere.

Sesampai di rumah, kolam dah separuh penuh, Amir terus lompat masuk. No wonderlah, tak sabar2 nak balik. Bawah panas matahari tu, Amir main sorang2. Alia wanted to join in, but managed to pujuk her tunggu petang sikit, when it's not too hot.

In the evening, barulah all the kids main kat pool tu. Sampai kecut2 tangan, terketar2 bibir...

Jumaat;- Mamamia woke up for Subuh, noticed Aimy sleeping on the parquet floor. Kejutkan dia & suruh dia tidur kat katil.

"Kenapa Aimy tidur sini?"

"Tilam Aimy basah..."

Rupa-rupanya dia mimpi main air lah tu, sampai terlepas atas tilam... Hari ni, tambah satu lagilah duty Mamamia.

Amir pulak bangun tidur complained that his throat was sore. He looked sick, & bila checked his temperature, it read 38.3c. Dah demam balik.... Mamamia had uneasy feelings when he played under the hot sun yesterday. Dia ni 'Putera Lilin'. The last time we were in PD, dia demam jugak, lepas berjemur on the beach.

So, hari ni Aimy & Alia had the pool to themselves. They had their morning & evening swims.

Sabtu :- Lepas breakfast, Aimy & Alia main air lagi. Tak puas-puas they all main air. Nasib baik kolam plastik, kalau proper pool, Mamamia nanti tak da kerja lainlah, selain dari teman dia orang main air.

Bila petang, their cousin Kimi dropped by. Another round of playing in the pool. Amir who has slightly recovered pun joined sama.

Ahad :- As usual, another round of morning dip. Since cuti pun dah habis, petang tu, we emptied the pool. Meanwhile, kids had their splashing good time, getting themselves wet. It took us nearly one hour to clear everything.

To sum up, our cuti tahun tikus was spent at our own backyard. Kids enjoyed their morning & afternoon swim, and they have grown a few shades darker.