Friday, July 31, 2009

Mari main masak masak


You know when you start baking, you actually baking stuff that you like to eat! But now, when you baked the stuff... you don't feel like eating anymore. Any of you experience this?

It goes the same to cooking as well. Thanks God now days I'm not the one who cook in the house. So happily can wallop everything on the table. Not sure how it's gonna be when I move to my house later.

Actually entry ni menyibuk nak ckp yg i baked 2 carrot cake and 1 cream cheese cake for my sister's office yesterday. Hari ni I nak baked satu lemon poppy seed cake for my mom pulak...and tomorrow 1 carrot cake plus one choc cake for my friend son's birthday party.

Oh makcik tak menjual...sebab makcik suke baking sapa2 suh bake makcik bake jek la ngan jayanya...hehe. No picture cos makcik biasala...malas nak amik gambo.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sakit yut ma!


I've been working from home for several days. In the morning I settle my kids and monitor the progress of house renovation. They are just few more things to do but the contractor make it difficult to complete it. I started to get very annoyed with them.

However today I am not going to talk about the house renovation. It's more on my little cheeky Fawwaz. As usual I will send him to kindy together with Aariz in the morning. I guess he started to sniff that I no longer go to the office after I sent them. So he made the biggest drama ever. First he complaint that he had a stomach ache in the car. Next when we arrive at his kindy, he said that he poo a little and want me and only me to wash him. I obediently brought him in the kindy and undress him so that I can wash him. Well no no no...he didn't poo, just pee. So I dress him up and again he showed face like his has a stomach ache. When I want to leave him, he start crying his lung out loud until I said OK, you can go home with me. The cry that I really thought he is not comfortable due to his stomach ache. We when into the car and he still sobbing until we reach our house. And peeps, please tell me if he is in any pain!!!

Picture taken when we justttt arrived at the house. He makes himself comfortable and start cleaning the woods!







Monday, July 27, 2009

Kitchen obsession


They come and install the kitchen cabinet yesterday...I like it so much!!! If my kitchen is a bit bigger...but well small step at a time.

What worst !!! I suddenly scribble down a long list of menu with guest list for break fasting this coming Ramadhan. Am I not crazy ?

ps: sabo tinie sabo...rumah ko pun belum siap2...tak kira lagi dah setahun ko tak pernah memasak!! hihi

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Almost there


We are almost almost there to get our house ready. I am so excited!!!!

I don't dare to share the picture of the house yet cos it is so messy. Ok let me share the story on the house renovation and why we plan to move there. (not sure if i have blog about this before)

We try to sell the house earlier as I can't see myself staying there. We already have few prospect buyer but due to economy turn down the buyer can't get their loan approve. We do some quick thinking and since we are very sure to stay put in KL at least for few years so we decided to move in. And so the renovation preparation start to kick off.

We call a few contractor to get quotation on the renovation. Nothing much actually, we just want to extend our kitchen and get a sliding door and a pagola. Tiles porch area and do fencing as our house is end lot. Quotation come back with around 40-50k from the contractors. That doesn't include the wiring, grill and some quotation is without tiles. Doing more thinking we resort to self employed the workers. We engage with an uncle, (call him Wak Konteng) from my father's contact and start drawing a plan for the renovation. So much worried especially from me as getting local village contractor might end up the house be in total mess. The agreement will be daily wages and we buy the material.

The renovation started... and having our own plan without any paper contract of course it has become a live plan. We change the scope here and there, conflicting idea with hubby but all end up with a wonderful results. Well it still 80% towards completion. They are few more crucial item to think about like paint and lightings. The will start to paint this coming weekend and the kitchen kabinet will be installed on Sunday. Tuesday they will put in the sliding door and hopefully by end of Friday next week all the work has completed.

Update : Ops btw being fussy me I'll washed the house today myself. Can't stand their standard to wash the house....:D

Couldn't wait for the end results...Don't you ?

Friday, July 24, 2009

Dinner at Third Floor


Few days ago I and my team member finally manage to go for our long due project dinner. We've been searching for a fine dining restaurant that we possibly will not go just for fun. The list goes on from The Carat Club, Vila Daniella, Angus House and few more other ( I couldn't remember the name cos obviously I am not used to it hehe).

We end up with the Third Floor in Marriot, suppose to be a French fine dining cuisine. Don't ask me what I ordered cos I dont remember the menu well. Overall I find it just so so ... I am not a fan or French cuisine or maybe my selection is not right.

Anyway what I want to share is the conversation we had during the dinner. We talk about our life.... and what we are up to. Mind you that my team mate are all boys except me so no stories about handbag or shopping or gossiping abt others haha. Well most common subject are of course about cars and properties. I love this subject cos I can see what other people have in mind and learn from their experience.

One of my team mate just bought a Honda Civic and he is so obsess with the car. Any single noise from the car he will send to the service center. If he were to count, it's more than 10 times he actually send back her car to the service center. The other colleague planning to buy a new car since he just got a baby. Plan to buy a MPV and even thinking to buy a 12 seater....hurm when just having the first baby ;).

Next move on the subject of properties. One would like to buy a house in KL, big house but cheap. The others are looking for a house somewhere in Puchong and trying to look at something cheap as well. House or properties I guess is subjective. Everybody tend to buy house where their parents live in or where they are familiar. Maybe they are friends around, so that will be the factor to buy house there...But what caught me is the way people thinking.

Mostly people that I know off will buy house for them to live in for long term or to retire. Same goes to car....I know most people will buy brand new car and keep on changing one. But I do notice that I am lil bit different. Well I don't go for a brand new car cos my principle, car will depreciate fast. Since I am not able to buy my dream car yet ( I am not millionaire yet!!) . I settle with second hand car which the criteria must be reliable, comfortable, fuel saving, and their resell value should be reasoanble. So far the car we bought, one for hubby and one for me serve the purpose to get us from point A to B. Of course since we love to travel, the car should can bring us around Malaysia and Singapore comfortably. One day, when we really have the capital, we probably going to buy our dream car. But for now, that have to wait for other priorities.

Next on the properties. Well price of the properties went up all the time. Given that you buy the properties at the right place. We bought our first house near to my parents house. Impulse decisions.... At that time we have extra money and we are thinking that we should tie ourselves to something so that we don't waste the money to unnecessary stuff. Lucky enough, now the properties is near to a newly launch shopping complex that become very popular in our area. The price of properties around went up. I hope in next few year it went up further so that I can sell it off. Ok you see, my thinking of properties is not for long term...If I can make profit I will sell it off.

Other than house, we are keen to invest on land. We are crazy about land. But the down side is to buy land we must have cash. We scout on cheap land at area that has potetial, look from properties website, ask around and so on. The good thing about land .....the price will grow and again if you buy at the right area. It will not give an immediate return but it will be someday. The one that we bought has rise up to double the price from original price... but we still keeping it for future. Hoping to buy more land...but land price now is quite high ( the place that we aim for ) and of course we need to find capital first !

I and hubby are not very good in unit trust investment or stock market. So we go for conventional one. More safer but longer return. I bought some unit trust few years ago but I guess with current situation, the price went down as well. But according to my friend, if you have enough time to monitor the progress of the stock market. You can easily make money. Time is valuable for us now...so we set it aside.

That is what we do to gain asset. But before asset can really become an asset, they are liabilities to bear. The loan that we are taking to buy the asset. Currently the BLR went down so we engage ourselves with morgage consultants. Try to get the best options on how to restructure our loan so that we can minimize the interest and hopefully reduce the years serving the loan. Amazing we actually found out that we can save around 400 a month from our current housing loan. So of we go...now we are in the process of restructuring. Details on that I'll let hubby to elaborate more on his blog since he does all the nitty gritty.

We don't earn that much to start with investment. We starts with saving little amount each month since day 1 we start working. Which is 7 years ago. A part from that we do not forget our responsibilities to our parents and those who in need. We just work around it for future. So if we can means you can too :)

Well go back to Third Floor, the dinner went well I guess. I get the dose of quality chatting about life even I don't enjoy the food so much. That is enough for me...quality time. I might not the type of fine dining enthusias at all since I can't appreciate much yet. I enjoy good food...but so far good food always come from my own kitchen :)

Potty Train Little Fawwaz


Ok ok..my little Fawwaz is not little anymore...He will be 3 on the 1st of September.

We have a challenging time to potty train him. Several time we have tried and the results still no no. The fact that he can stay dry for several hours during day, and stay dry througout the night still doesn't change that he still need the diaper to pee or poo.

Few months ago I tried to get his diaper off...Maybe he is not ready yet so he and pee and poo where ever he likes. Still can't get it as in his kindy he do it well. So i put on his diaper again.

Now I think he should be ready for potty training as he stay dry for long hours. I have take off his diaper during night ....he will stay dry all night long. But in the morning he will not pee in his potty but instead can carry on till noon. He can really hold his pee as long as he can...usually that long that you get worried and finally put his diaper on. I will still try for this weekend tho...see how it goes.

So peeps...help me. How to potty train my litte Fawwaz.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Electrical hunt


It has been quite for a while. Actually life is busy for the past few days... House renovation is 70% ready. They are few more item need to be confirmed otherwise everything should be on track.



We are searching for electrical stuff ie. fridge, aircond, water heater, washing machine, TV and few more others. Went hunting from normal electrical shop to the big one like Harvey Norman and Best Denki. Electrical I am not keen to go for warehouse sale. One of the reasons is the warranty... and if I compare the price, normally the difference will be a few hundreds buck only. But again, that few hundred bucks difference compared to the warranty given by the electrical shop, I prefer the one with warranty.



We end up buying our electrical stuff all at Best Denki One Utama. Why Best Denki? Well the day that we went there, they are cash voucher for purchase at certain range value. Example if I buy fridge at a price of 3299, I will get a cash voucher worth 200 bucks. On top of that, for item that we are looking for (TV, Fridge and aircond), is definitely cheaper than all other shops that we went. Panasonic 42 inch plasma goes at 2999 (but this one is a best buy so no more voucher), Hitachi Fridge that we are looking at cost around 300 cheaper than other shops and that not including the cash voucher. Hubby and I don't have much energy to scout for the electrical item anymore, so we decided to make the biggest purchase ever there. Being calculative I am, I calculate the payment to gain more cash voucher. Split the payment into three, first two payments is to gain the cash voucher and the third payment is to settle the TV using cash voucher with remaining balance.

Updated * - The other reasons why I choose big shops is they allow you to pay using credit card or even better do easy payment with no interest charge. Small electrical shops usually charge you 2% from the amount of your item when you want to use your credit card. But on top of that...the item that i bought is still cheaper in Best Denki.



Overall we are happy that day...One mission accomplish! Next will be lightings, and paint.




Some stuff we manage to secure for our new home..all at reasonable price (that is what i am force to believe so hehe)







Monday, July 13, 2009

Aariz and his homework


For the past few days last week Aariz went back home with no homework. It started on Wednesday and carry on till Friday. Well I start to get suspicious. On Saturday when we reach home I ask him about his homework. He brings his school bag to me and it's empty again. They are just Peter and Jane book inside and he quickly brings it out and starts reading.

Now I am not happy with that. I could sense something is wrong somewhere. I ask him about why he doesn’t have homework? Why teacher being so nice for not giving any homework? And I start to tell him that I’m going to ask his teacher on Monday then suddenly of he went back to my room and bring one book, which is true enough is his homework! Goodness… I keep on interrogating him again and he came back with another book. And he promise to me that they are no more books hidden.

I told hubby and my parents about this and of course everybody were shock. But I already have a word with him so I ask the rest not to ask him anymore.

At night when we were talking about some stuff and his Grandpa making a joke about something. Aariz quickly said, “Tok don’t lie….nnt masuk neraka”. Then his Atok of course couldn’t resist and reply back. ”Well, who lie and didn’t do his homework?”.
Aariz of course start to get defensive…. by saying that he didn’t lie. The conversation going on until hubby intercept …”Technically he is not lying as for the past few days we check his bag and we didn’t ask him where is his homework. But instead assume that no homework base on his empty bag. Today when mama ask then only he came out with the book”… We all just smiles and look at each other…but one thing for sure…he is one cheeky boy. Smart and if I don’t channel his thinking to something good …it might not turn out pretty well. Of course he had a long conversation with me on Sunday. On how wrong is his doing.

Well when you look at your kids you might be thinking about your reflections when you were small. I know how cheeky am I and hubby knows how cheeky himself when we were small. Thinking that how the kids going to be and how are they going to trick us looks scary now. Bit by bit I start to understand how worried my parents last time when I do all the stunt. Now serve me right…It’s my time to get sick worried with all their antique/stunt whatever…

Updated with picca!!!


Can you see there Aariz swimming in the pool ?




Ok can you see now ??? he's totaly underwater.






His lil bro...the spectator :D.





That suddenly...he can swim!


Last Friday was the company annual dinner for hubby. Thinking that it might be a good time to bring the kids for a break, I urge hubby to book the hotel room for one night stay. Being hubby of course he has a second thought. Some how finally he said yes and off we went there on Friday evening. The kids were super duper happy...and the moment they step into the hotel room they already beaming and smiling ears to ears. Our hotel room is facing the pool and it's added up the joy on them. Fawwaz especially has been pointing to the pool excitedly and demand us to bring him down now and now!

So hubby gets dressed up for the dinner and I dress up the kids for the swimming. I learn from my sis in law that now I am more prepared each time we went for swimming session. Gear up with the swimming attire, towel hood, toys to play at the pool and some snacking. We were there for about 2 hours until they call it off.

We went up and I washed them off from the chlorine. Next we walked out from the hotel to get some food. Feeling like an expat in Malaysia strolling around from the hotel is quite an experience. Little that I know the pedestrian walk is badly in shape and it’s almost impossible for a mom to stroll her young baby around. Luckily mine is not that young. So I rammed my faithful Mc Laren with Fawwaz screaming “ouch ma…ouch ma” each time we face uneven path. I went to so many countries before the experience-using stroller in KL pedestrian walk is far behind! It’s almost impossible for people with stroller or even wheel chair to go through it. I sometime end up have to use the side of the main road as the pedestrian walk is terrible. And imagine that at certain part …just certain part suddenly they put a staircase!!! Well enough of that, I am still manage to get my 2 kids safely walk (Fawwaz tuck in the stroller) from the hotel to get some food outside and mesmerizing on the KLCC and KL Tower.

Next day, they are up on the pool again. This hubby is around so we just sat there and watch them playing and swimming…Swim with the float of course. Aariz is more or less there in the pool as he can survive in deep water if you provide him with the board. So just before we call it off, he asks me for his goggle. I put the goggle on him and he went back to the kid’s pool. He tries to breathe in the water several times. Next all of sudden he swim by himself for merely 10 seconds. Excited he turn to us and I was like stunned. He tries again and again and finally he can make one lap from the kid’s pool. All by himself…. and of course being a proud mother, I can’t stop beaming for the whole days.

Back in the car he proudly says he can swim now. Then I ask him how do he did that? So he told me that he just hold his breath and open his mouth …then quickly he continue, but I didn’t swallow the water. Well I don’t get it why he needs to open his mouth but I guess he release his breath through his mouth. Hubby said he is going to teach him later how to breath correctly when swimming. As for the swallow the water part… I keep on telling both my kids that they can’t swallow or drink the water from the pool. Else you can die and I will leave you there. So far that trick has get them to spit out the water each time they water get into their mouth.

I have more stories to tell about Aariz. Besides how he surprised me on how he suddenly swims by himself, he surprises me on others as well. Let see what else this cheeky boys is up to! Later

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Between rich and poor


Wealthier mothers tend to have more sons while hard-up women produce more daughters, a study claims.

Scientists have unearthed a fascinating link between the financial status of a woman and the proportion of boys and girls she can expect to have.

The discovery adds to the increasing evidence that the sex of a baby

More story :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1198233/Why-richer-mothers-sons.html


Err so if I have 2 sons means I'm richer hahaha...merepek betul!

Old files with memories


I'm digging out my old documentation from NZ project to reduce my work with my current project. Cheeky me trying to recycle what ever can be re-used. Training material, user engagement, reconciliation file ...anything!.

Look what I found in between my files. Sweet old memory of New Zealand again.

Aariz has a school project where he needs to prepare a potfolio on his family and his culture.

We consolidate family pictures including my parents and siblings...They are picture taken with my parents during their visit at Taranaki mountain. It's the only place with snow at our area New Plymouth.

Next is about our culture. We manage to pull out some pictures taken during the Hari Raya. So you can see some picture with our neighbours's kids and also my nephews and nieces. I think Aariz and Fawwaz is being blessed by surrounded by family and friends no matter where they are.



Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Tra la la la la


Dadadadadadada…….

1.House renovation is in progress, rapidly. I should paste some picture on our house. Sigh lazy to take picture.
2.In progress to refinance our house due to the low interest rate currently.
3.That bring to … they are land for sale…should we…shouldn’t we add more debt? But it’s an investment okeh…long term investment
4.Now itchy to get hubby agree on laminating the staircase and second floor.
5.Point no 2 lead to tak sedar2 diri they are more expense to use this month like for:
a) Bibik work permit expiring next month
b) Both cars are due to change two tyres each
c) My company registration also expiring next month

da di da di da dud du…….

Friday, July 3, 2009

Why i don't need fancy TV


I was talking about moving house and household item to buy with my officemate. That somehow ended up with I don’t really need fancy TV as hubby and I don’t watch TV that much. Well I am surprised that how they find time to watch TV and they are surprised on how I don’t have time to watch TV.

And I wonder…..

Hubby as of now, he attached to a client that requires him to be in the office at 8.00 a.m. So by 5.00 usually he can go off and reach home around 6.00. In the morning of course he will leave early so kids will be 100% on me.

We’ve been blessed for now since we are staying with my parents, so they get to pick up the kids after kindy and I don’t have to worry about food at all. Since we have maid then I don’t have to worry about laundry, cleaning and all little thing here and there. But then why and why I don’t have time watch TV?

First in the morning I wake up and get the kids ready. Get the kids ready is dragging my first boy to bath. Ma 5 minutes … Ma I’m tired…. Ma I don’t want to go to school..ma…why I need to go to school. Reasoning with him will take around 10-15 minutes. Yelled at him will take him a second to get up..hurm maybe 2-3 minutes cos he will try to reasons still.

Once I bath the first one, here comes the second one. If I wake him up to bath first thing come out from his mouth…”Abang dulu”. The he doze off. If I force him, he will be wailing for the first 15 minutes. So this one I must gently wake him up…cuddle him and tease him 2-3 minutes will do a trick at a good day. Bad days….. . the wailing drama will take over.

In total to bath them in the morning with all reasoning and drama…may take around 40 minutes. Please note, I am not ready yet…this is just to get them ready.

Next breakfast. Aariz is easy…he can just take almost anything and everything. The one that is taking 30 minutes of my time will be Fawwaz. He’s a picky eater and very fussy too. The bread must be cut round… He just refuses some food. One minute he wants to eat A next he will opt for B. Oh btw, you can’t just leave him eat by himself. Lately he just want mama to feed him. Not even willing to lift his finger up to hold his food. Don’t tell me that I spoil him or not being hard to him. I tried…nice way bad way… Consoling, reasoning, yelling or even give a little pinches. Hmpppfh! The funny thing about the little one, each time you pinch him he will say, “hey why you do that” while giving the most innocence face ever.

While you were rushing to the door, this time every alternate day or two one of them will announce that they want to do their “big business”. So 10 minutes waiting for them before getting into the car. Again to note, I do not prepare breakfast and all their things are line up at the door. Alone, handling them in the morning, will left you no empty spaces for yourself.

Once everyone is ready and get into the car (this is the time where I feel relief usually for merely 5 minutes) then few minutes after that they will either start fighting or giggling. Most of the time it require me to again console, or reasoning or yelling. I am so not into yelling or rising my voice (that sound more appropriate) but hey… until you get kids like mine…then hurm you might know.

Long time ago when I don’t have my own kids, I always smirk to see some people just can’t control their kids. Well it might be true that maybe your technique is incorrect or maybe you are not firm enough. But how firm you can be firm and what are the correct techniques to use? Sometime maybe they can listen, but most of the time you can’t control what they have in their mind.

When we go for outing with friends that have small kids. You really see that some parents really blessed with kids that keep quiet or behave. Some kids just have their mind of their own. Like mine. So far hubby and I tried very hard to play along and reasons with them so that they can behave better. But I believe they are intelligence kids that just require lots and lot’s of attention. The only thing is since we are working parents, time is limited to fulfil their curiosity and mischief. Maybe I should be a stay at home mom after all?

Anyway I guess the morning chaos can give a brief idea on why I can’t watch TV at night. The same routine will happen. Feeding and bathing and brushing teeth and trying to get them to finish their homework and colouring and fight for which colour to user and the reading time and the ultraman fighting time and endless why question.

Well I might not start on the details else you might need to read another 2 page of lengthy post! But I guess I have to be thankful that even I don’t have time to watch TV, the kids enjoy my accompany and needs me. My time is being fulfil watching them growing :)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Moving on....


Yeap...I'm moving on to a new project. Where no one wants to go there :(. Being a contractor you dont have much choice huh!. But I like the challenge.

So welcome irregular working hours, communication issues, and telecon all the way long ....