#131 - So Long Malaysia, Hello UAE

Assalamualaikum.

The wanderlust in us decided to bring us to Dubai and Abu Dhabi this year. Alhamdulillah. I am grateful to Allah for giving us the opportunity to travel and see the world.

Insya Allah, we will be off for a week. Doakan kami selamat pergi dan balik.

Panjang umur kita jumpa lagi.

#130 - Celebration

Assalamualaikum.

August has been a hectic month for me. Endless work, weddings, open houses and gatherings.

Speaking of gathering, this month alone I've organized two different events for two different groups of people within the span of 2 weeks. I forgot how much details that I need to take into account when organizing gatherings. Date, venue, theme, sending out invitations. Tiring but fun nonetheless.

The first gathering was with my fellow Fanatics to celebrate our 10 Years Anniversary. We made a plan to commemorate this event since last year. So poyo liddat. Hahaha. We wanted to have something special thus the need to block the date as soon as possible. Tapi sesungguhnya kita hanya mampu merancang tapi Allah yang menentukan.

Though there were some setbacks but we managed to pull through. It was a joyous event indeed. Had so much fun with the girls like always. 

We have gone through a lot for the past 10 years; memories, laughter, sweat and tears. We may have our differences but we managed to put everything behind us and enjoying each other company. For the past 10 years, I had so much fun and experienced so many new things with them.  May Allah bless this friendship always.

The second gathering was something that I put together for a dear friend who will be getting married in October. The bridal shower had to be done earlier as the party organizer is pretty busy herself.

The theme was Traditional Malay and suggested by the bride to be so I tried to think of something that won’t cost a bomb. It was only a few days before the bridal shower that I managed to come up with the design of the cake, the props, decoration and the activity.  

The table setting, decoration and props; kain batik lepas and tepak sireh (both from my mom's collection). Welcome sign designed by me using Microsoft Word (hahahaha)

The activity; Advice for the bride. 

The cake. Ordered through Pinkies Cupcakes. The cake probably the only thing that I really worried as I ordered quite last minute but Darna (the cakemaker) was so accommodating. The cake was delicious. And I'm glad the bride to be liked the cake.

Alhamdulillah, the bridal shower went well.

Despite the minor hiccups and setbacks, I'm glad everyone had a good time. Insya Allah more to come.

Till then.

#129 - Ding Ding Round 2

Assalamualaikum.

Second entry of the day because I have nothing better to do (side eyeing the pile of work on my desk).

Today, I feel like sharing something with my readers (if I have any). I am currently 4 months pregnant with the second baby. This is actually a  planned pregnancy so when we found out that I was pregnant, we were more like "okay, I am pregnant. Here we go again, sayang" rather than "OMG I AM PREGNANT. How lah like this?"

Both my husband and I planned to have a medium sized family. 4 kids at least. But, after my horrendous first trimester, I was having a second thought about having more than 2 kids. So I thought. My husband shut the idea of stopping at number 2. So, you guys would probably would hear another 1 or two pregnancy announcements from me in the future.

Anyway, since this is a planned pregnancy, I was fully aware of my body changes. I was tired all the time, nauseous and the biggest hint of all, I was late. Took the first pregnancy test before my period was due cause I was poyo like that. The result was vague so I decided to take another test after I was 3 days late.

Then, the result was crystal clear. Showed the pee stick to husband and he was like grinning from ear to ear. 

The first 4 weeks was bearable. Onto the next 8 weeks, I was practically live in the toilet. I couldn't eat or drink anything. At one point, I was like crying to my husband "I dah tak tahan. I lapar sangat". The morning sickness was so bad that I got dehydrated and eventually admitted to hospital for 2 nights. Thank God, Husband was there all along to accompany me at the hospital. We even celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary at the hospital. How romantic!

Alhamdulillah, am entering 18 weeks and things are looking well right now. I can eat better now and my appetite is slowly growing. So far, I don't have any weird cravings. Yet. I don't think Husband would layan me if I got any weird cravings.

Insya Allah, we will be welcoming our new bundle of joy in January 2015. Please pray for both of us. 

To my dear Baby Boo (nickname TBD later :P), grow well my dear. 

Till then.

#128 - Selamat Hari Raya

Assalamualaikum.

Selamat hari raya and maaf zahir dan batin, everyone! Hope everyone had a good raya celebration with your loved ones. Minta maaf lah kalau ada readers yang menanti entry baru di blog ini.

Obviously, I have been busy. I was practically swarmed with work and was exceptionally busy the week before raya. Orang lain sibuk pikir kuih raya and whatever not, aku dok pikir bilalah semua kerja nie nak habis. I rather finish or complete all the important things before going off for my one week break so that my manager won’t call and bug me (but she did on the third day of raya)

Anyway, we went back to Kuantan and Pekan for our raya celebration as this year is my husband’s turn. We off to Kuantan on Saturday morning and the journey took us about 6 and half hours. Gila. Normally it would take us 3 hours max to reach my in laws. Sakit satu badan.

Celebrating raya in Pekan means chaos on raya morning. Nak berebut toilet, nak pakai iron, nak bersalam raya, nak photoshoot family photo. Serious! This time around, ada pulak yang akan jerit “Selfie” at random times and semua pakat berlari nak masuk frame. Kelakar tapi seronok.

And one person that truly enjoyed herself was my Twinkle. Had a great time playing with the cousins and collecting duit raya. She was quite unsure why people keep giving her small, colourful packets but once she understood the concept, she would go and collect the duit raya herself.

Alhamdulillah, I have been given another opportunity to be with my loved ones on this special day. Look forward to more celebrations in the future.

#127 - If You Happy

Assalamualaikum.

Has it been that long since my last entry? Wow!

For the last couple of weeks, my life has been upside down with a lot of things happening around me. And on top of that, I have a cheeky little toddler that demand attention every moment possible. Twinkle is now 1 year and 7 months. She is more active and talkative now. 

Currently, she is in "ee i ee i o" phase. Which means, she'll be asking for iPad and my phone every now and then to watch "Old McDonald Had A Farm". Initially, I don't want to expose her too much to gadget but I must say it does come in handy when I need to do house chores or while we are out for dinner. We've downloaded flash card app too so whenever we are out of WIFI coverage, at least she would have other things to do and learn. So far, she has picked up a few words on flash card like "apple", "bear" "pink" and "banana".

When we are at home with her, we try not let her totally depend on gadgets so we play with her and make up some activities. So far, I only managed to do "If you happy and you know it". We come up with different instruction every time like "if you happy, you kiss Baba" "if you happy, you hug Mama". You know along that line. Yes, I need more engaging activities and need to research more.

Anyway, work has been "fun". Haha. Don't worry, I am still enjoying whatever am doing right now.Things are little bit harder now so time to step up on my game.

Oklah, it's time. Till my next entry.

#126 - Of This and That

Assalamualaikum.

It's lunch time now and since I had a heavy breakfast, I decided to skip lunch and update my blog instead.

I am almost entering my second month here. Alhamdulillah, so far everything is still great. Of course, there are a few hiccups here and there especially dealing Expats and Academicians. Need a lot of mental strength and will power.

Dealing with them would require you to be tactful. You can be humble but with limits. They tend to push you around thinking that you are there only to serve them.

I wish to rant more about this tapi malaslah. 

Anyway, one of my social groups is planning for an event in August to commemorate our 10 years anniversary. I am actually excited to plan for the event as it has been a while since our last event. Been checking out a few places and hopefully we managed to shortlist one or two soon. There are a lot of other things that we need to consider for this event. Hopefully, the 4 months time that we have now would be sufficient.

 That'll be my updates for now.

Till then. Toodles.

#125 - Pet Peeve

Assalamualaikum.

Things were quite mundane at the office on the last few days of last week. Both my colleague and I, we were taking our own sweet time to do our work. Mainly because our Manager was not around so we lepak a bit lah. Thought of updating my blog last Friday but of course, my writing mojo was not really cooperating.

Anyhow, since am not going out for lunch today as I just finished with an interview session with a candidate, I shall take the opportunity to write down my thoughts.

Ok, I have a question. When a person ask you "Hey, we want to go this place this year at this time. Do you want to join?"

What would be your answer or how do you answer the question?

It seems that whenever I posed that question to certain people, they would ask me with this question "Kenapa?"

I would normally answer the question with "Saja nak bercuti". Then, they'll be offended because they thought I am being sarcastic which am not. I am basically answering your question.

They would be like "tahulah nak bercuti. Ada kawan ke kat sana?"

Again, I don't find the logic. Why would I need to have somebody in certain places or countries for me to go there? I want to visit a place because I want to.

If it so happen I have a friend staying or living in certain countries, it would be a bonus. That's all.

As for me, whenever people ask me do I want to join them for a trip I would be "oh bestnya. Berapa lama nak pergi. How's your itinerary like or where do you plan of going?" You know that sort of questions.

One more thing, people's reaction when I want to go to certain places. "Nak pergi Adelaide? Tempat tu boring kan. Takde apa2?" "Oh ye ke. Pernah pegi sana?" "Tak pernah tapi tengok macam boring je?"

Penampar aku pernah kena?