what have we been up to?

Quite a bit, actually.

1) Hi-Tea @ KL Tower

last-laassstt weekend, we went to KL Tower. My cousin - Abang Long Mahmud - celebrated his 60th birthday. So, he belanja seme orang up to 60%. Cool, eh! So, off we went, and for many of us, Mumsie included, it was for the first time! Happening rupanya tempat tu! There's a lot of activities around there. Animal Zone laaa...flying fox laaa...shopping and tempat makan, of course. Itu baru on ground floor. You can go alllll the way up to the observation deck (but only after paying mega bucks laaa) OR you can go up, like we did, to the Seri Angkasa Restaurant. Its a revolving one. Truth be told, for Mumsie yang not all that fond of heights, it was not all that exciting. Its hard to enjoy food when you keep thinking that you're at the brink of death!! Me exaggerating?? Yes, of course! :-)

The view from up there of course la cantik. We can see all of KL, jerebu or not. Food was so-so. MakSu reminded me that Puteri Kama the blogger had once wrote that the best bread and butter pudding is found up there. Can't say i agree with her but of course, to each their own, eh!

It was good fun, as always, to makan-makan with my cousins and anak-anak buah.

2) Movies

We've been going to the movies quite a bit as well. We've seen:

• Transformers (good fun although jalan cerita ntah apa-apa),
• 17 Again (Zac Ephron was simmply yuummy..who cares about the jalan cerita!),
• Jangan Pandang Belakang COngkak (a natural choice since we are hard core supporters of industry filem melayu...this one was hilariously funny, almost from beginning to end...jalan cerita? what jalan cerita? Filem Melayu mana ada jalan cerita! But it was good fun. The girls and I are still laughing over it. We can't wait for the DVD to come out!)


• On Sunday, like millions of others, we went to see Harry Porter, and the Half Blood Prince. Mula-mula tu bimbang jugak coz Shafrina said it was boring. I am not a hard core Potter fan so kalau tak best i would not want to watch it. Tapi tiket dah beli wayyyy before reading Shafrina's review so kena laa pergi jugak. Turned out, we liked it. It was...cute! Because half the story was about the kids mengorat each other!! hehe...Wished Potter did not look so nerdy, though!

3) Cats

yes, the house is once again graced with the presence of cats. 2 to be exact. Caramella a.k.a Caramel and Mansor a.k.a Monty. siggghhhh...i'm resigned to the fact that they are here to stay and that they are not the last of them!

Caramel was picked up from the place where we ate Ikan Bakar alllll the way in Melaka. KakNgah convinced Abah that the cat was male. I don't know why Abah believed her. He should have known better to check for himself!!

Mansor (the name i insisted on giving him - simply - just to irritate the girls) was picked up by Abah at the Pasar Borong Serdang. Abah and I was eating breakfast and he came by and buat manja-manja kat Abah. It worked.

So, there you go. The children's lives are complete, as far as they are concerned. Although, of course a rabbit or 2 or a hamster would make them muuuccchhhhh happier and would probably make them pledge their lives to me for eternity!!

Oklah...ada lagi nak cerita..tapi i dah ngantuk arrrrr.....nite-nite, y'all...zzzzzzz

BM? English? BM? English?

The policy maker keep changing their minds! Why is that? I do seriously believe its simply because their mouth works muccchhhh faster than their brains! The policy makers being politicians, i suppose you cannot expect much more.

I remember the kids headmistress had asked the parents to continue supporting the subjects to be taught in English because in all her teaching experience she can see that the students have improved much in their development. They may not be smart and scoring but she can see the students gain self confidence and are not shy to make mistakes. FOr maths and science, unlike English, teachers do not look for perfect grammar. It is sufficient that they answer correctly. E.g. water boiling can also be described as water is very hot. Something along that line laa..

So, am wondering, who did the policy makers consulted when they were mulling over this issue? Did they even mull over it? Kononnya, grades were dropping. Really? Then how come many many kids are scoring gazillion As for PMR, SPM, et al?

Anyhoo...how will this affect our children? Mine, in particular. Truth be told, I'm not particularly worried. Not because my children are smart. But because it don't make much difference. Although sekarang ni maths and science are supposedly taught in English, my children tells me their teachers ala-ala mengelat and teach in Malay from time to time. I tengok kertas soalan pun, ada both languages. So, as long as the kids understand the question, they should be OK. For maths in particular coz the answers will be in numbers. Science will be a bit tricky, I guess.

Am hearing radical reactions from friends who are parents. Less so from those with kids in private schools. I suppose they don't intend to send their kids to national varsities anyway. Ada cerita that some parents have taken their kids from public schools and put them into private ones as soon as the annoucement was made. Wow, i remember thinking. Radical nya! But i was also thinking...korang kaya, tak perlaaa...anak sorang dua boleh laaa...

I learned English from my Bapak who spoke English to us at home, who introduced us to the world of ENid Blyton since the day we learn how to read and who allowed us to watch American sitcoms through Singapore channels! I try to do the same to my kids. In the beginning, they were reluctant. They refused to converse in ENglish although they could perfectly understand what I was saying. Alhamdulillah, the sojourn to Geneva helped tremendously. The kids were put in the International school whilst there, and they "embraced" English whole heartedly. So, for us, masa kat Geneva we speak Malay at home. Now dah kat Malaysia, tukar cakap omputih pulak kat rumah. So, alhamdulillah my girls are bi-lingual.

I do hope the policy makers are thinking of a long transitional period. Hopefully, at least for a couple of years beginning 2012, they'll allow some flexibility. Perhaps they can let the students choose whether they want to answer question in BM or ENglish. And in the meantime, they can spend more money training the teachers coz i i actually believe, deep down, its the teachers who are finding it difficult to cope!!

Yaasin

ni malam-malam jumaat macam ni Mumsie nak citer pasaal Surah Yaasin and how it has changed my life. Ini kisah benar tau!

For most of 2008 I had a very hard time at work. There was frustration and pent up anger. I had bosses who were (some still are!) very demanding. Very meticulous. Every comma, every full stop must be in place. Nothing i did was good enough. It was very tiring. Many mornings i woke up thinking of excuses not to go to work. I'll take leave just to be away from the office and i will cancel those leave if i find out the boss is away from office too! It was bad. Morale was low. Motivation was almost zilch.

Then, early this year, entah macam mana, lepas sembahyang maghrib one day tu I switched on Astro Oasis. There were showing orang mengaji and that prompted me to mengaji as well. I found a Yaasin booklet given by Bank Islam. Dalam tu it was written that whoever reads Yaasin first thing in the morning, all their wishes will come true. Insya ALLAH.

So I started. Everyday lepas tu I baca Yaasin EVERY morning. In the beginning, I baca and thought of the bosses at the same time. At the end, I baca doa minta ALLAH swt grant me a good day at work. Dalam booklet Bank Islam tu pun ada doa to be read after one recite the Yaasin. Among others, kita doa minta ALLAH swt "jangan jadikan kami berhajat kepada seseorang pun daripada kalangan makhluk-Mu dalam soal rezeki kami" and kita minta ALLAH swt "ikatkanlah lidah-lidah orang yang mempertuturkan keburukan kami..."

So, whenever I come to these portion of the doa, i will think of the bosses. It convinces me that rezeki i only comes from ALLAH swt. The bosses do not decide on my fate!

Alhamdulillah, it works almost immediately! My days at the office improved tremendously!! The bosses no longer screams at me. My drafts are approved almost immediately. Waking up and going to work is no longer a chore! Alhamdulillah! I told some colleagues about it and one of them started reading as well. She too claimed that she feels soooo much better at work (I wasn't the only one suffering, you know....)

I still read the Yaasin every morning. And i would like for you all to do so too! Insya ALLAH, berkat hari hari kita....

Putrajaya

when i first heard of Putrajaya, it was being built...and there were only criticisms. Biasalah, when something is made political. Tun Mahathir had then stuck to his gun and went on building. I never saw Putrajaya until we had to move here in 2003. Masa tu only a few Precints (i love that the areas are divided into "precints") existed. There were hardly any shops or restaurants. Quite dead, really.

But i loved living in Putrajaya even then. It is beautiful and more importantly, convenient. Everything is 5, 10 minutes from each other. So what there was hardly any entertainment then. KL is not all that far away. Traffic jams are almost unheard of for there are big roads leading to just about everywhere. I particularly love the fact that it takes me not more than 20 minutes to get to work each day! Malam-malam the city dimandikan cahaya. My mom kata it reminds her of Mekah!

We lived in government quarters. The grade I'm in allows us to stay in a semi-D. I love the fact it is gateless. It gives out a sense of space and freedom. In the beginning it was even grill-less but with development came crime - house breakings started and eventually Government puts up the grills. Although i must say that didn't deter the criminals. We still hear horror stories of break-ins.

When we came back from Geneva, we managed to secure another government quarters. This time in a newly developed precint. This time Putrajaya has changed much. There is now a shopping complex - Alamanda - complete with GSC movie theater, bowling alleys and karaoke rooms! And our house is a mere 10 minutes away (i don't how far in km). Kedai mamak tak payah cerita laaa....its everywhere!!

A couple of weeks ago my office shifted to our own building in Precint 4. I was worried that it would take a long time to get to work since i have to pass some 13 sets of traffic lights to get there! But being in Putrajaya, it means that there 3-4 alternative roads and I chose the the 3-lane hi-way that leads me direct to the office within 20 minutes tops without passing any traffic lights!!!

I love Putrajaya...now i only need to find RM .5 million to enable me to buy a house around here!!!

Ina pun suka Putrajaya, kan?!

weekends

I don't know about others, but for Mumsie weekends are often the busiest time for me! Dulu, masa kat Geneva weekends were all about spending time together. Yelah, mana ada orang lain lagi. And it was all about what we want to do...nak gi jalan2 ker...nak gi golek-golek dalam snow ker...nak gi bakar-bakar ayam and kambing kat park ker...or to just chill with friends. Whatever, its personal...semuanya plan dan execute sendiri.

Back here in Malaysia...banyak social obligations. More often, your weekends are not your own. Its all about, kenduri here kenduri there...get together here, get together there...its double when you are married, I suppose. Then there are the in-laws' kenduris and get togethers as well!

I don't suppose I'm complaining, really. What would life be without siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws? Sure lonely giler.

So, yes, I'm not complaining. I rather enjoy having my weekends booked until well after Raya! haha! Even it means that half the days after is spent recovering from the weekend!

Mumsie is in Love

With Anuar Zain.

Mumsie + MakSu +MakTam + Shelly + Shafrina had a girls' nite out to watch Anuar perform last nite at Istana Budaya.

Anuar was simply awesome. He sang effortlessly, sounding exactly like he does in the CDs, backed by a 55 piece orchestra. There was even a harp!

And Anuar was simply gorgeous! In well tailored suits, highly suspected to be that of Armani, dengan budak baik's haircut...he was the kind of boy you want to bring home to meet your parents if you are young free and single OR to play with if you are not so young but free and single OR to buat menantu if you're me ! And whats with allll that story about him being gay anyway? He looked perfectly metroseksual to me :-)

Lets not get started on his moves...he didn't have any silly dancers prancing around him. It was just him. He danced just a little but whatever it is, he made it soooooo sexy! siggghhhh...

I just wished he had sang more. He spent quite a bit of time bantering with the audience. The ladies were screaming and throwing marriage proposals at him. Understandable, actually but wished he hadn't reacted to each and every one of them!

Still... thank you, Anuar. For making me feel young again...

I had a really good time last nite...but despite falling in love with Anuar and all, I must say that I actually enjoyed Sheila Majid's performance more!

p.s. Pixes courtesy of MStar.