Ceritera Lapuk...

Quite a number of events happened this past few months, although they were small and not significant to others... but definitely mean something to me. Managed to captured some moments, but too bz to update the blog. Totally forgot about them until I did housekeeping to my folders recently...

My 1st attempt on PIZZA making (late January 08)

Jadi beb!!.. made it from scratch, was quite impressed with myself since I don't really fancy being in the kitchen. (This pic was taken after aku rasmikan the 1st slice). Ni dah malas nak kira kitchen experiment yg ke berapa dah nih. But this is my 1st time masak pizza, hasil permintaan tekak sendiri dan Hanna. (Susah nak cari kedai pizza halal sini). But I didn't know that the dough recipe was meant for the thin crust pizza, so rasanya rangup mcm makan biskut instead of roti. Hanna named it pizza kruk..krukk... Paling best, being left overnight tak 'lemau' pun (maybe bcoz of very dry weather). So, abaji bawak gi office on the next day. Wanna try? Here.

Light Headed (early Feb 08)

Ohh... rimas giler dah ni. I'm not used to have long hair anymore. Not like zaman anak dara sunti dulu. So Zarina (my new friend) took me and nenet to Chinatown on the 4th day of Chinese New Year. Kasi cantas itu rambut..... Why Chinatown?.. coz it's so much more cheaper compared to saloon near my house. It turned out to be that the saloon owner was Malaysian (Ipoh mali maa...). Fuhh.. bantai cakap melayu jer la... dah lama giler rasa tak cakap melayu with strangers. Ingatkan bleh dpt discount... huhhh!! I was reminded to pay tips some more!!.... mencikk tau dok cni!!... sumer nak kena bayar tips. But my head felt so light after that... no more hair poking around my shoulders.

Sempat tengok lion dance kejap on the way balik. Kiri kanan jalan penuh bersepah dgn confectionary. Mercun kat cni bunyi mcm kentut jer... meletup pastu beterbangan keluar confectionary (hahaha.. tak dapat nye nak menghalau hantu....). This is how ABC (American-born-Chinese) celebrated CNY. Takde la kuat bunyi mercun mcm bom meletup like in their origin country (or like M'sia). True culture assimilation could be seen here. Singa menari - kepala singa cina pengang, badan kat tengah mat saleh , pegang ekor... mat gagak. Tukang pukul gendang... rupa mcm melayu... (Hispanic kot?!)

Hanna's Art & Craft Class (mid Feb 08)

I joined a moms' association here. Not so much for myself but for Hanna. Most of the members are doctors' wifes from all over the world whom their husband doing reseach or specialist at the hospital nearby. Ramai housewife lah... I've made some friends but really have no time to mingle around with them due to commitment of my study (huhuhuh... rugi jer bayar...). Being a member, my daughter has the previlage to join the art & craft class, music class, playgroup and outing sessions, and with minimal fee, she can go to the pre-school there. Actually there's much more activities for mommys and their kids conducted by the members, but couldn't join most of them coz selain bz, their venue is considerablely far. Tak berani suruh nenek bwk Hanna jauh2 alone since nenet is still not familiar with the road here. But Hanna has attended few classes on Art & Craft held once every week. Clearly, she has ripped some benefits from it. She really enjoyed them so much.

Hanna's 1st art - Valentine's Card to Abaji... syiok betul tgk dia layan tampal2 love tu... 1st time holding scissors and glue!

Second craft - Paper Man!!

Ehh!!... tangan paper man sebelah lagi dah tanggal daaa....

Recently... Ester basket... No! We don't celebrate Ester as we don't celebrate Christmas and Valentines... this is just an art craft.

Got pink little bunny mashmellow inside the bag... the green grass inside was made from rope.

It's Story Time!!...

This is another activity most awaited by Hanna every week! I found out a Children's Public Library just a few block from our house in late January. Scheduled with many activities designed for infants, toddlers and older kids (from 6 months to 7 yrs old) like story telling session and creativity session. Obviously, Hanna loves being here... surrounded by many friends and friendly facilitators. She can learn a lot from this place. Balik kelas jer sure cakap homputeh yg slang tah ape2.... and the best thing is.. all classes are FREE!And she got her own library card too... They have losts of good books she can borrow anytime. Unfortunately, there's nothing on early Islamic education. I suggested to the library to have at least a series on Iqra' books or books about 25 Phrophets... hehehe... mcm la diorang nak layan...

Hhhmm... after looking at all these, yet I wonder why I don't have enough time to study although I'm not working. Couldn't be more than agree with K.Zie as what she had campak in her blog... I'm not just a mom... I'm a "Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations". And now I'm training nenet to be the "Associate Research Assistants" like what other professional nanny here does... provided she won't aks for salary jump!! :)

Oh My God !!!....

OMG!!... MasyaAllah!!! SubhanaAllah!!... Astaghfirullah!!....
As I was looking at my account summary thru Internet Banking, suddenly my eyes became so terbuntang!!... I felt my heart stopped pumping for a while, and then started beating fast like crazy!!!.. Rasa mcm nak gugur jantung nih. I was panicked and overwhelmed... Not becaused some hacker or conman has robbed all the money in my account, (ade baper sen sgt pun kalo nak curi...) but ade terlebih banyak duit pulak dlm account akuh! Quite a huge sum, bukan takat 2-3 ribu...(huhuhuh... sib baik in RM... kot in USD ke... pound sterling kaa... lagi la gelap mata ku ini...).

Oh... adakah ini rezeki datang dari langit ?!! From the transaction detail, it seems like somebody has used a corporate desktop banking and transferred it to me. Obviously this is not from individuals yg nak kirim barang kat cni. I was so excited and wanted to wake Abaji up, but managed to refrain myself form doing that because it was 4.30 in the morning. So, I decided to tell him after subuh nanti and continued doing my assignments. Hehehhh... tak bleh concentrate nak wat keja pun... I was in the deep hard thinking and wondering where the source of that money came from. Dalam pada tu sempat berangan pulak tu, hhmmm... bleh employ private nurse utk mak ngan abah la mcm nih... kalo tak pun boleh employ maid Filipino utk diorang... kehhkehhhkehh... (sbb baru discuss ngan Hakim siang tadi pasal maid indon susah nak dapat).

Tapi mujur lah imanku yg senipis kulit bawang dan kewasaran akal fikiran masih mampu mematikan angan-angan mat jenin ku... (dah la tengah dok buat project paper pasal ethics in Islamic economics ni)... As I don't expect to receive any money from anyone at the moment, I think this must be a mistake. I've heard this kind of mistake happened, which the receiver had already used the money. The court ordered to return the money and the receiver got penalised some more for being dishonest . Since it has happen to others, it could be happening to me as well. The devil in me said... alahai... duit dah masuk dlm acct aku, jadi aku punye ler.... diam2 sudah le buat ape nak kecoh. Tapi hati ni terdetik... dpt duit banyak tak tau mana asal usulnye, tak berkat nanti tak guna juga....

So, trying to be an ethical person, I contacted the bank to verify the source and genuineness of that transaction and now it's under invastigation. * Ohh... Abaji skype from office, tanya bank dah reply blum... hhhmmm... he must be wandering also...*

We had fun under the sun on the snow :)

Date: Feb 24th, 2008
Day: Sunday
Time: 2.00pm
Duration: approximately 1 hour (tak tahan woo lama2...grrrrrr....)
Venue: Central Park, Manhattan
Weather: Sunny, Mild wind, Cool (0 degree celcius)

Weather remarks during winter: -13 to -6 (freezing cold, not dare going out... except for Abaji yg terpaksa pegi keja), -5 to -1 (cold / considered daily average tempreture, pun dok rumah jer la...), 0-4 (cool a.k.a suam2 kuku, keluar bila perlu for some errands), 5-10 (oh.. nice warm weather for a short walk *provided still pakai baju 3 lapis inside winter coat*), 11-14 (perfect!!... very rare to get, ade la few times for the past 3 months), 15 and above (weather sesat.... pernah sekali dapat sampai 17 degree, best giler... lots of mat salehs pakai shorts... and minah salehs took the opportunity going out pakai spegetti stripe... pastu the next day sojukk balik... jangan harap dah lerr...)

Lepas ni it's either salji makin cair or... akan ade blizzard or snow storm yg jadi lagi teruk... so baik kita pegi skarang walaupun sejuk (aku sebenarnye sudah tepu dok rumah ni buat assignments yg tak siap2 tuh).

Moral of the story: Mendung tak bererti hujan... terik matahari tak bererti panas. Don't ever think bright sunlight brings along the warm weather!

A friend gave me a pair of very nice and pretty winter boots for Hanna during fall hari tu. Aku sudah happy lah sbb dah tak yah beli... asked nenet to keep the boots until then, we discovered that it was PIGskin!!!... (againn?!!!). So main redah je lah Hanna pakai kasut nipis dia... Kesian kaki anak aku beku... nevertheless, she enjoyed herself more than ever...

My Abah...

As I was skyping with Hik not so long ago, (apart from showing off their pics laki bini riding on Husni's new superbike) she sent me this photo of Abah which was taken in the very good old days... tak tau thn bila lupa lak nak tanya, but i supposed during his 'bujang sunti' time la kot?! Hik passed remark to me, "Husni (Hik's hubby) kata rupa Abah masa ni sebijik mcm ko la Nom".

When I looked at it at first glance, hhmm ye la... ade rupa sket especially kat mata (which Abah used to tease me of having mata panjang sampai ketepi, mcm ayam... keh..kehh..kehhh...). But I thought this pic looked more like Haiat (the youngest) or Hakim (the 2nd)... not so much of me. Then, when Abaji looked at it later, he said, "Ehh... Abah ni rupa macam Hik la... iye la... macam Haziq pun ade..." (Haziq - Hik's elders son). Hahahahaa... aku terus terbarai gelak kuat2 teringat yg laki Hik kata rupa abah mcm aku, laki aku pulak kata rupa abah mcm Hik. Well, lots of people and sedara mara said both of us (me and my elder sister, Hikmah) look like Abah. But the fact is, rupa aku ngan Hik sikit pun tak sama langsung!.. Jauh berbeza sungguh!!!....

I think apart from my look, I inherited his genes more than I got from Emak. My character and behavior (including temperament, egoistic and 'keras kepala') are more towards Abah's. During my growing up days, especially teenage, I always had arguments and dissatisfaction with Abah. Due to that, and plus comparing his different treatment given to all 7 siblings, I had always thought that Abah didn't love me... or loved me the least.

But I’ve been through several changes as I grown up and started to have my own career and family. My perception towards Abah also has changed over the time. I know Abah loves me… he even told me that he loves me… (which I think very rare for typical Malay fathers express their feeling of love verbally to their adult children). My unique Abah, is of the extreme of two… he could be very2 fierce and intolerable bila naik darah (belasah anak2 pakai tali pinggang, tak hengattt punyerr... ni zaman dolu2 la.. takde teledera... hahahah...), but he is also a very sanguine, fun loving father, and always love to entertain his children. When abah buat lawak… memang all of us tergelak sakan sampai keluar air mata… He’s good at playing psychology with kids and his cucus are so bertuah having a granddad like him. No matter what, I really love my Abah and I always do.

Right now, aku sangat rindu nak dengar Abah main organ kat rumah. I called home again several days ago, and it was so painful to hear that Abah is re-hospitalized, dah 8 hari dah… (and no one telling me!!.. chessss!!). He's just discharged from the ward for not more than two weeks recently, and now kena masuk balik. Oh... sometimes I wish I were rich so I can dedicate private nurse and dietitian cum cook at home utk menguruskan hal2 kesihatan Abah and Emak. Being in the far away land and tak keja somemore, I can only pray for their well being and hapiness. And I really hope my brothers could take good care both of them well.



A person can have many children, but he/she can only have one true Abah and Emak. I just hope Allah give me enough rezeki and kesempatan utk jaga Abah and Emak for at least in this life… as I'm not sure I can be anak yg soleh enough for my doa to reach them in their next life later on… Or who knows if Allah wants me to go first before them … takut tak sempat merasa berbakti pada diorang.... Wallahualam…

Sneak Peek at Lovely LV

Went to Bloomingdales just now to pick up this gorgeous piece of handbag. It's TREVI PM from Louis Vuitton (sebut betul2.... "loo-wee vee-tahn"). But it's NOT MINE!!.... huhuhuhu...

Kepada si pengirim... till you get this in your possession, enjoy the pictures of ur elegant handbag first lah ok?... :) (please pardon the background appearance... as I'm just an amature in taking photos... the bag looks so much nicer compared to its pics).

Ohhh... dan yang ini akak punyer senirik... since I always stay up all the night lately (nak menyiapkan project papers and assignment lah), I need this "All About Eyes Hydrating Gel" to diminish my dark circle and puffiness around my eyes yg dah macam zombie nih....

Oh, how I love Clinique skin care products... it's gentle on your skin and it's afforable too. It is Clinique Bonus week now and I got these make-up kit for free. Well I'm not really into the make-up actually... tak reti lah... and I feel leceh some more... I'm not the type of woman who wear make-up to work (time2 anak dara dulu ade lah try2 sikit). I'm more comfortable wearing sunblock and lip balm without face powder, unless for special occasion or kenduri kendara lah. That's why aku punye lipstick dah nak dekat 4 tahun tak abis lagi... sbb pegi keja slalu lupa nak pakai... ni lagi dah tak keja.... tak pakai dah lerr... hehehhh... so dah dapat bende ni free lagi 4 tahun lah tak yah beli lah... lalalalala... ;)