The lil’ dude and his family…

I’ve been very busy at work, at home and everywhere else that I have not had the time to blog. Actually, plain laziness contributes to it too. Haha. Anyway, here’s to wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Be safe, yeah? :)

I’ve been meaning to back-up my photos and also get them printed since yonks for one of my many, many projects, BUT, laziness and lack of time have always been my numero uno problem. Pft. Anyhow, as I was surfing the internet the other day, I stumbled upon eoe Online printing and am mighty pleased to learn that I can just upload any photos that I want, whenever I want and they can just print them out for me and even deliver the photos to me FREE if my orders exceed RM 35.00. Good deal, yes? And the printing price isn’t that expensive either - 30 sen for 4R and 50 sen for 5R. I am so going to go mad choosing the pictures that I want them to print for me. Soooo, what are guys waiting for? Head out to eoe now! :)

And oh, they are also running the eoe Online Blogger’s Review II where you’ll stand a chance to win the Olympus E-520 kit with a 14-42mm lens worth RM 2,499!

A week before her wedding, Zehan, Az, Farrah, Kim and I “kidnapped” Alia for her bridal shower in Langkawi. It was my first time leaving the two boys alone and I was very nervous and anxious about the whole trip, but it was a good one. I’m glad I went. :)

Saturday

We left for Langkawi on Saturday morning, and as always, the AA flight was slightly delayed. When we arrived, the driver/chef/caretaker - Pakcik Nazri - from the villa was waiting for us and we headed to Bon Ton for lunch. After lunch, we went for a sightseeing around the area since they were doing a soft launch for their new villas and I thought that it’d be nice to get some pictures of Alia at the historical villas.

When we were done, we headed to the duty free place to get some snacks and champagne. After that, we stopped at the nearby stalls to get some pisang goreng and kuih-muihs. Maaaan, I knew it then that we’d be pigging out like nobody’s business for our entire trip. And I was right! Heh.

The Owners Villa (courtesy of Uncle OTT and Aunty RZ) is a blardy gorgeous place! But since it’s in a middle of the jungle, it got a bit eerie at night, but nevertheless, a lovely place. :) It was blazing hot and we all decided that we should go for a swim after we’ve settled our luggages. The twins made an entrance at the pool and after a few laps here and there, we went for our makan session (again!) and by 6pm, I was this ular sawa that cannot move anymore. :P

Dinner was by the beach at Datai Hotel itself. We were fortunate that it didn’t rain that night and if it had, we would have had the dinner at the Gulai House instead. Whatever it is, the view was magnificent and the ambiance was oh-so-great! Thanks to Regina who arranged everything to perfection. :) And of course to Zehan too who was bossing everyone all the way from Sydney. Haha! I’m kidding, babe! :P

We got back to the Villa after dinner and changed into our PJs. First, we had the panty poem and it was just so hilarious! Zehan and I only found out about the game via the internet 3 days before the trip and I rushed to Topshop and La Senza to get ‘em panties for Alia. So to anyone who wants to throw a bridal shower to their friends, this poem rocks! When that was done, we did the newlywed game. Zehan got a friend to film Johan (the groom to-be) answering some questions and we asked the same questions to Alia and then compared notes. It was soooooo funny and everyone just had a good laugh! Again, good game to have at any bridal showers. :)

We then watched SATC and I was just so tired from everything that I knocked out 15 minutes after the movie started. Besides, I’ve watched it like 3 times already. Ish! Haha. Then around 1-ish, I got up and decided to go to the loo. And to do that, I’ve got to go to our own individual villas as they weren’t any toilets in the TV room. It was quite eerie outside but I had to golah and there was no two way about it. Haha. I’m just glad that Pakcik Nazri didn’t mention any stories earlier on, but he did when he sent us to the airport the next night and I ain’t gonna talk about it here. Pft.

Sunday

Zehan had to drag all of us out of bed for our morning walk with Irshad Mobarak but I’m so glad that we did it. We were suppose to have our nasi lemak at 7am before the morning walk, but since we all got up so late, we went for the walk sans our breakfast. By the time we got back to the villa, it was 10am and we gobbled down our nasi lemaks like there was no tomorrow. And then, we had to get ready for our Thai culinary class that was specially arranged by Regina at The Datai at 11am. Kim and I quickly mandi-ed kerbau because cannot tahanlah the body so sticky and all and we made it a few minutes late for the class. But since it was specially catered for the 6 of us, it wasn’t really a problemlah.

Menu for the day was Thai Basil Chicken and Tom Yam Gung. We were done cooking our individual meals in less than an hour and sat down for lunch (makan lagi!!!) with our end products. I never knew making Tom Yam Gung is so simple? Shall cook those two dishes once my hectic schedule this month is over. ;)

Went back to our villa after that for some quiet time at the pool. Most of us zonked out by the poolside and when we got up later on, we all went into the pool and had more food for tea. I swear, I just can’t bear to look at anymore pisang gorengs for now.

Kim, Farrah and I were to fly out of Langkawi on the last flight out on Sunday night. After tea, we just chit-chatted until it was time for us to pack and get ready. Around 8pm, we had dinner (more lovely food from Pakcik Nazri) and although I was so full from eating the past 2 days, I just couldn’t resist his sambal prawns and oyster sauce vege. I think I must have tambah-ed three full plates of rice. Urgh. Damn ular sawa alright.

Pakcik Nazri drove us to the airport at 9pm and waddaya know? We were told that our initial flight at 1040pm has now been delayed to 11pm. And then, as we got into the boarding hall, we were told that our flight was postponed yet again to 1120pm. I’m like whateverlah wey. Just get us out of here! :P

Got home around 1am and that is how I spent my weekend - with the girls. Thanks Yan - for everything and thanks Alie - for the lovely gifts. Thanks Uncle OTT and Aunty RZ for the food and the lodging. See you girls tonight at The House and so can’t wait for the big day this weekend! Wheeeeeee…. ;)

The whole load of pictures (courtesy of Zehan snapping my Pentax too) can be seen here:

Part Un
Part Deux
Part Trois

At 32 months, he can already:

• wear his own pants, socks and shoes
• sing til the cows come home
• hold a pencil real well and likes to write (gibberish) or draw doodles
• eat on his own
• ask me questions til I go mad
• eat everything under the sky minus kayu, batu, pasir et al
• tell his wants and don’ts - and be very firm about his choice
• watch a movie - thank god! - and his favourite being wall.e
• swim, jump, dunk, kick, turn, flip and whatever else in the pool - must get him off the floaties soon as we’ve been giving him less air in the floats
• pee on his own - but still not 100% toilet trained yet
• scream and whine when his demands are not met - madness!
• help me fold his clothes - albeit a bit messy, but who cares? :P
• snap (some rather ok) photos via the pns

and many more I can’t remember. Haha. It’s a crazy month, this December is. Hopefully I can breathe better next month! :)

To my dear husband - I love you then as I love you today and thank you for being the greatest husband a wife could ask for! Here’s to us growing old together and watching our child(ren) blossom into good people. Amin.

Our nephew’s akikah was done on the 23rd of November 2008 and he wore the baju melayu that Irfan wore during his parents’ wedding. Heh. The lil’ one was fuss-free and even slept during the ceremony. It started at around 1030am and ended at around 12pm and we all dug in at the good food. The kambing was superb and I think I had like 5 rounds of makan-makan session. Haha.

Irfan as always was kepo-ing around and even refused to nap when it was time for him to sleep. He was already lying on the carpet with the cushions all around him but howlah to sleep with so many humans around? So I carried him and brought him upstairs (with Irwan tagging along with half-opened eyes) and after drinking his milk, his eyes were shut and no more noise emitted from his mouth. Aik? Tadi kata tak sleepy? :P Once they (yes father & son) were both asleep, I took to eating more kambings and dim sum. ;)

Aaaanyways, here are more shots of the ceremony.

It has been and will be a very busy year end for us. So many weddings, so many parties, so many kenduris - I’m still trying to catch my breath here! And on top of all that busy-ness, we’re currently property hunting too; be it a condo or a terrace.

Since Irwan’s moving to the new place next month, we thought that we’d stay in this part of the world now. The whole thing started after we got back from The Land of Auz. Irwan suggested that we’d temporarily stay at the condo here since the tenant has moved out (or gone back to UK - I’m not too sure) since I’ve been complaining how tiring it is nowadays to clock 100km every.single.day. So, he’s offered to clock the mileage instead now. :)

I packed some of our stuff and we moved. Like a nomad. Heh. That was about a month ago. Irwan would check up on the house every 2-3 days and so far it’s been oklah. With the market declining, I (or we) thought that it’d be a while before anyone’s interested in any of the available properties - house and/or condo. That also meant that the income was coming in lesser than the previous months, but we were doing quite alrightlah.

On Friday & Saturday, Irwan went to the Putrajaya house to let the agents and prospective tenants view the house. We had quite a number of offers and were quite surprised actually! Who would’ve thought that people actually wants to live in that jin bertendang place! But a few expats from Cyberjaya complained that they couldn’t stand living in Cyberjaya; and Putrajaya is the next best thing. A few have also shown interest in purchasing the house, but for the time being we aren’t selling it lah. Maybe later on, who knows?

Last night, after our nephew’s Akikah, Irwan and I went to our Putrajaya house to clear out Irfan’s room and take whatever loose items that we need. We still have to make a few more trips soon because get this - the  new tenants want to move in by this Saturday! Eeeepppp…

For now, we’ve put the ads for the condo on hold because otherwise, we’d be homelesslah! Ish! And property hunting is very pening-fying. I can’t believe how ridiculously priced some properties are. Dahlah nak masuk pun jam, nak keluar pun jam, but price must be so mahal meh???

So yeah, good luck to us and hopefully we’d find some place nice and don’t need to move years from now. It’s very, very, very tiring all this moving business! I don’t know how some people move houses every year or every other year. Tak penat ke?

Btw, pics below were taken at Hijauan Kiara during a friend’s daughters’ birthday party. Such a nice place she has. But the price - cannot affordlaaaaaaaa… Haha!

After all the procrastinating and what-have-yous, Irwan and I (with the lil’ dude tagging along of course!) finally got around to visiting this one playschool I’ve been eye-ing on. Although the price is a bit steep, but considering that it’s in the B*ngsar area, I can’t say anything muchlah. Irwan thinks that we might as well pay for Irfan’s Diploma instead, with that kinda fees. I just rolled my eyes. Hrmphh!

So yeah. Unless something else comes up, Irfan will start his first session in January. He was all excited seeing kids his age, but was shy too at the same time. He even wanted to join in when the kids were singing and dancing. However, upon seeing a bright red car outside at the play area, he then went on a ride in one of ‘em Step 1-2-3 cars and refused to get out and although we threatened to leave him there with strangers, he still refused! Ish. Boys and cars! :P

I like that the garden is clean and teratur (unlike the previous one that we went) and the first thing I did during the guided tour was to see the kitchen. Heh. Clean, bright and airy. Phew. Lega! And although there are only 2 other Malay boys there, the principal assured me that they serve halal food. Well, I saw the menu and the only other thing aside from vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables is chicken. And it helps that the cooks and helpers are Malay too. But I’m so glad that the children there are of all races and nationality - Japanese, New Zealander, American and what-have-yous.

Another plus point is that they teach Bahasa Malaysia 3 times a week and Mandarin once a week. I’m still undecided about sending him to a Chinese medium school (he’s not even 3 wey!!!!!), so yeah, Mandarin classes are good. They have extra-curricular activities like yoga, arts & crafts and music certain days of the week (whereby they finish off at 2pm), so we’ll see how it goeslah. One step at a time. :) I’m just happy that Mrika mentioned the school months ago. Thanks babe! :)

Irfan’s turned 31 months (I counted correctly, kan?) two days ago. He’s a handful these days and yaps non-stop. The questions don’t stop either. He’s always so banyak tanya that I get letihlah and sometimes when I’m tired, his persistence annoys me. But he’s a kid, right? I guess I just have to handle my annoyance in a positive way. (How do you do that anyways?)

He’s started singing too. From 1-2 buckle my shoe to twinkle twinkle lil’ star to this old man to half-here-half-there of Apologize by One Republic (favourite song!) to the ABC song (at the top of his lungs!) and asks me “next time won’t you sing with me?”. Haha. Whatever makes his daylah. :)

We’ve scouted around for his school and found one that I think would be suitable for him but let’s just see when we do swing by next week for a visit and chat with the teacher/principal. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this would be it because penatlah cari school banyak-banyak. Heh.

The past few weekends, we’ve had Aaron and family joining us for some fun time at the pool and pigging out time at the ayam golek stall, durian stall, Raju’s banana leaf rice and a few others that seem to have slipped my mind. Haha. The kids really had fun at the pool and Irfan was the blackiest of the lot last weekend as he stayed out ’til 1230 pm!

The plan was to enjoy Manly Beach with the sunny weather and the Jazz shows but it rained from the night before til late evening. :( Nevertheless, Zehan still brought us to Manly and we managed to watch a few Jazz shows here and there.

We had fresh seafood for lunch, but unfortunately Irfan didn’t have any as he fell asleep right after we left Zehan’s place and only woke up when we were having hot chocolates for tea. Heh. The rain finally stopped by then but it was so lecak everywhere and Irfan had fun jumping in the puddle and see his Mama turn beet red! :P

After watching this really great saxophonist and his band, we made our way back to Zehan’s place to get ready to have dinner at Cafe Sydney - a gorgeous dining place overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Since it was really really cold that night, they had the place all closed up. Damn, what a waste! But dinner was great (and pricey!) but we didn’t really get to enjoy the whole ambiance because Irfan was tired and cranky and although the waitress offered him a dvd player (which we politely refused), we thought that it’d be best if we went home and not disturb the other diners. There was this one old lady who was giving me the killer looks. Macam dia tak pernah ada anak like that. Geez.

So anyway, there we were, walking in the cold (brrrrrr!) and Irfan suddenly thought that he’s not that sleepy anymore and was running, jumping and tergolek-ing everywhere. Ish! His new hobby was to press the pedestrian button and whenever we let him press, he’d be ever so happy. Kids. What simple minds they have. :)

I couldn’t tahan the cold and the furious wind (although I was wearing Zehan’s jacket) and hurriedly got to the car. Stopped at a souvenir shop to get some stuff and off we went.

Stayed up that night to pack as I didn’t want to do all the packing last minute, but the next day, I did keluar masuk barang for god knows how many times and since it rained on that day too, we didn’t go to the beach. Cooked some breakfast, got all ready and left for Aryan’s place for a Raya open house. Again, Irfan slept in the car and when we arrived at Aryan’s, we left him in her room and had some really good nasi lemak (go all the way to Sydney to have nasi lemak! haha!) and ketupat and satay and cakes. Yum!

Daylight savings started on the day we were to depart, so I was quite kancheong because I didn’t want us to miss our flight to GC. If we did, hoo-boy, we’d be stranded in Sydney for quite a bit and we don’t want that to happen, do we? So we left Aryan’s place not long after and when we arrived at Sydney Domestic Airport, there were just so many humans queuing! I checked ourselves in at the kiosk and got our boarding passes, but we still needed to queue to check-in our luggages. The queue was moving at snail’s speed because some people just didn’t bother to have themselves checked in at the kiosk so that delayed a lot of people. By 530pm (our flight was at 605pm), we were still nowhere close and an announcement was made asking us to go to the “last minute” counter so that we can settle our stuff in a jiffy and board the plane.

Once we boarded, it took quite a while for the plane to take-off. And I was still a bit worried because I wasn’t sure whether we’d arrive in time to collect our luggages, go through immigration and check-in again at the AAX counter. I got all panicky for all the wrong reasonslah. We had so much time and got bored waiting at the GC airport. Haha. Our flight to KL was at 935pm and we arrived at LCCT at 4am. Took forever to get ‘em luggages and decided to try the Skybus (since we were too early) and the ride was just hor.ren.dous. Well, that’s another story for another day. Suffice to say, the CEO of Skybus called me the day after I wrote in a complaint at their website and apologized profusely.

So, that’s that and now we’re saving for our next trip puyak (Irfan’s slang). ;)

Pictures from Aryan’s place - taken with her camera. :)