Down the Corridors of Time

Hola!

2011-11-14T06:02:00.003+01:00

Hola! Buenos dias.

Am updating my blog from city of Madrid, Spain. Will write more later. Too many places.. Too little time! :)
Signing off now. Honeymoon mode : ON.

Maybe I should do this more often...

2011-11-12T05:07:00.001+01:00

And here we go again... I make a promise to myself to write in this blog, at least an entry a month. That's my new blog resolution. Well, at least that's the plan. How hard is it to write a sentence in 30 days?.. Right...So, I'm updating... Snail-pace... Once a month ..'ish'..

Taufiq celebrated his 6th birthday on the 19th of October 2011. He was all prepped up for his birthday, one month earlier. He even had this handmade calendar, pasted on the fridge, where he would crossed out one day at a time every morning until the 19th. So when the day finally came, he was very excited.. Like he's going to transform into 'something'.. We didn't plan for any party, but settled for a nice dinner instead at Tony Romas, just the 5 of us, and end the day with Taufiq unwrapping his present. Happy birthday my dear Taufiq. Mama and papa love you lots! Hugs and kisses forever!

Sarah is getting more talkative or as we put it - 'makcik'. The 'radio' only turned off when she is asleep. She always asking questions, always expressing her feeling.. It didn't matter that what she is saying is incomprehensible some of the time.. She still has the cute 'pelat' or babytalk that only mother knows how to dicipher!

Alhamdulillah, Amirah has improved alot in her studies. She surprised me with 2 A+'s for for Bahasa Melayu! The whole family attended Hari Cemerlang at her school. She received a trophy and a certificate for scoring first place in her class. She also received an everlasting, foreverafter, proudest moment certificate from us :) .. You've made us proud.

Yay! I got my blog back!

2011-10-14T16:45:00.000+02:00

I thought I've lost my blog like ..forever!!

Been having problems with my blogger account.. Few attempts to resolve the issue few months (years?) back but halfway done :P. Out in the blue tonight, I was wandering what happen to my blog and decided to try again with my account. There was no 'claim-your-blog' Blogger page the last time I tried. So after few 'try this n that',then walla! I can see my dashboard again.

Am happy tonight. My regret with losing the blog was that it has the best chapters in my life and I can't share it with my children. But everything's changed. Alhamdulillah.

So, this is me.

Till later...

2010-01-01T11:26:00.000+01:00

Di tengahari raya ..

2009-09-30T01:00:00.008+02:00

Antara tetamu yang datang beraya di rumah. Pictures were from my friends' camera. Tuan rumah tak sempat nak pegang camera. Ihsan was busy at backyard with his famous lamb and chicken wings bbq, while urs truly tengah sibuk memanaskan her famous(???) kekeke....masuk bakul jap ..nasik dagang. Thanks to all yang datang rumah hari tu.

Lambat betul Ayu nih panaskan nasik nih..

Bersama Fadhilah yang meng'approved' nasik dagangku

Posing dulu sebelum makan... notice balang kuih raya dah kosong...hehe.. dah lapar ye

Pose faveret Taufiq sekarang.. PEACE!!

Bersama Haida

Lamb awal2 lagik dah abiss..tinggal chicken wings jek..huhu..

Tetamu lelaki yang lepak kat backyard..

Ihsan tengah beraksi

Sarah.. 1 year and a day old :)

Family Noorihsan

Tetamu bergerak ke destinasi seterusnyer..

Next house!!!

Di pagi raya

2009-09-23T03:33:00.003+02:00

Pictures from family's visit - apple picking

2009-06-28T03:53:00.015+02:00

busy..busy ..

2009-05-08T02:46:00.004+02:00

*** entry yang telah 3 minggu aku karang .. tapi tak post2... mak mertua aku siap dah balik Malaysia dah pun..

Busy buat apa? Hehe..busy bawak MIL dengan adik2 pegi shopping kat Melbourne nih...
They arrived last Monday and will be staying here for the next 2 weeks. So many places to visit/shop ..so little time .. jadi kena make use of every single day wisely :).

Syok nyer Amirah, Taufiq and Sarah jumpa tok and ayahda&ayahsu diorang. Amirah best sebab ada ramai yang nak melayan sembang dia, Taufiq best sebab ramai yang nak melayan dia main game, Sarah best sebab ..hmm... actually mak dia yang best sebab ramai yang nak melayan Sarah :D ..

Sarah sekarang tengah stage 'kenal orang' and if any unfamiliar faces datang and try to carry her, she will cry instantly. However kuasa Allah swt, she bonded immediately with tok and ayahda&ayahsu despite seeing them for the first time. Bak kata tok "dia kenal darah daging dia.. "

Okay..bye2 for now.. nak pegi masak jap and be a-good-daughter-in-law :D.

Kami

2009-04-28T11:05:00.002+02:00

... 8 years and insyaAllah many more happy years to come ..
thank you.

Selamat Hari Lahir

2009-04-21T16:12:00.000+02:00

I am not a perfect wife.. I have flaws.. and sometimes too proud to admit it ...
But if you can look past this.. know that in my heart, I love you, always are and always will. Selamat hari lahir Ihsan.

You jump I jump ..

2009-04-15T05:16:00.006+02:00

Dah 2 bulan kerja Ihsan tak jalan2.. pagi ni dia YM aku.. dia kata kerja PHD dia tak jalan sebab aku tak update blog .. "you tak tulis...i pun tak leh tulis" ... adakah itu cara lain untuk menyatakan yang aku ni sehati sejiwa dengan dia ... adakah aku Rose dan dia Jack Dawson ku ... hehe.. if that is the closest of Ihsan being romantic.. aku sanggup update blog kerana itu ... :) jangan marah ye dear.. lepas ni start tulis ye...

My last entry was about Taufiq going to the school, but I should have written another entry after that. About Taufiq NOT going to the school anymore. He hmm.. quit. No, quit is a strong word, my brave boy did not quit, he's just not ready, yet. He lasted for 4 painful weeks.He was crying all the time at school. He stopped crying only because he fell asleep. The mere mention about the word 'school' made him withdrawn. My cheerful Taufiq was so unhappy.The teachers did not know what to do. They tried, we tried, Taufiq tried, but at the end of the day, maybe he's just not ready. We'll try again soon. We are not quitter.. right Taufiq ?

Taufiq ni mommy's boy lama sangat ni... separation anxiety kot.....ish2.

And sapa tau apa yang best shopping kat Bandung? My sis is going there soon..hmm .. nak pesan apa ye...

Ok.... di akhiri entry hari ini dengan gambar muka budak tak nak pegi sekolah ..hehehe...

Taufiq's 1st day at kinder

2009-02-06T02:28:00.005+01:00

Posing sebelum masuk ke kelas

Terus jer pegi tempat kaler2..

Cubaan pertama untuk berkawan

Papa showed kat mana toilet

Lined up before keluar main kat luar

Terus pegi main kat sand pit, tapi macam ada budak besar jer kat situ? sape ye...

ooo..kak Mirah pun tumpang main jugak.. ish2.. ni untuk budak kinder jer lah ..bukan untuk budak grade 2

"Mama pegi la minum tea dengan mak2 yang lain tu.. kacaula Taufiq nak main ngan awek ni"

"Apa mama bawak bekal hari ni ye?"

Pancake and

apple and

apple juice.

Lepas tu mama pun keluar shopping kat deretan kedai2 in front of Taufiq's kinder sementara tunggu nak pick up Taufiq. Bila datang balik, Taufiq dah ready to go home.
The end.

It's time to write

2009-02-01T08:44:00.006+01:00

It has been awhile since i REALLY update this blog. Some may say it is dusty and I, sadly have to agree with that. I've been updating with uploading pictures, hiding behind 'a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words' clause. Well say no more.. I'm in the mood to write today. The weather is good, not as insanely hot as the last few days. I was burning, literally.. Oh how I missed spring and autumn and winter... (you guys have to wait till winter to hear/read on how I miss summer when my feet are freezingly cold again ..hehe.. lumrah manusia..)

What's new? Did I tell you that Taufiq started his 1st day at kinder last week? Yes he did.. and it was a successful first day. He's making friends, lining up before going out to play, eating basically everything in his lunch box, and making his cute face before waving good bye to me. It was me who thought that he would hang on to my shirt while crying "mama please don't go!!!!". It was me who guiltily looking around for the potential 'bully'. It was me who was afraid to let go... My son, my Taufiq, my big boy .. mommy is so proud.

Sarah is 4 and a half months old and weigh about 6.5kg now. Handful. Her cheeks are yummy but not as yummy as her belly. But the yummiest part are her chubby thighs. I just want to pinch those chubby little thighs.
She can partly turn on her side now, but not yet all the way. Misleading pictures in the previous post, she was 'forced' on her belly just so mom could have good shots..and err.. almost got those sheep's fur in her mouth! Ish..ish.. mak zaman sekarang...

And Amirah is going to be in grade 2 tomorrow. Lots of "yay!-i'm-going-back-to-school'. It has been a long school holiday. Even I can't wait for her to be back at school again. You won't believe how much noise and mess those 2 (Taufiq n Amirah) can make when they join forces!! But it also means that my morning duty is 'on' again.. and as much as I want her to be at the school, I think I'm going to miss having her around, especially when mommy needs a babysitter while she is facebooking and bloghopping :).

My weight is still a struggle. I'm started to think that breastfeeding can make you loose weight is only a myth ..haha .. Begone now my stubborn old fat!! Apart from that, I'm loving this new experience of fully breastfeeding your own child. The bond between us is just amazing. And to see that she is gaining kilos every month just simply from God's given white liquid is Subhanallah.

As at now.. I'm at home with kids while Ihsan is at the Rod Laver Arena to watch the Australian Open Men's Final. While waiting, he and his buddies are queuing at Garnier's stall to cut/wash/style their hair..huh??
Sungguh tak aci ...

My twinkle little star

2009-01-26T13:54:00.005+01:00

Ever wonder how could such a tiny bundle of thing creates so much emotions within your heart ..

Sarah darling ..

2008-12-30T01:59:00.006+01:00

Lama dah tak update ..

Letak gambar Sarah lah ... dah 3 bulan dah Sarah ..
Time flies ...

Amirah's School Concert

2008-11-07T01:42:00.004+01:00

Taufiq's birthday

2008-10-18T21:04:00.002+02:00

Happy 3rd birthday my sweet darling. Gambar2 birthday Taufiq kat rumah. Just the 5 of us. Taufiq tak sabar nak tiup lilin..Kak Amirah pun sama jugak nak tiup lilin, sabar ye.. February lagi 4 bulan :)

Gambar2 birthday Taufiq kat rumah Auntie Noi. Initially nak sambut birthday 3 orang geng2 October, tapi bila dah ramai tu, jadik whole year round nyer birthday. Take note : bila makan kek, discard the top layer. Confirm penuh dengan pelbagai jenis saliva ..:P

Open house Preston & Cukur jambul

2008-10-13T03:00:00.014+02:00

The annual Preston's open house for hari raya was on the first weekend of Syawal. We decided to do Sarah's 'aqiqah' as well. It was as delightful as last year.Hot sizzling lamb and chicken BBQ and Kak Jie's specialty nasi Arab were the hits of the day. The difference this year was the additional event, the 'cukur jambul' (shaving of the baby's head) of the two latest newcomers to the Preston's family, baby Sarah and baby Nabila.

The ceremony started at 2pm with marhaban, berzanji and followed by cukur jambul. We didn't shave Sarah's and Nabila's head, both dads decided just to snip a little bit of hair..sayang bebenor rambut anak pompuan diorang nih ..:) After that, Ustaz Khairul performed a 'tahnik', though actually papa already did that when Sarah was less than a day old :) .. tapi takpe..ambik berkat orang tahfiz al-quran..semoga Sarah menjadi seorang anak yang solehah.

* aqiqah : Aqiqah is done after the seventh day of the arrival of the new-born, as a form of welcome for it and to give thanks to the one who gave the blessings, it is prescribed to slaughter a sheep.If the new-born is a boy then two sheep are to be sacrificed, and if it is a girl then one sheep.

* tahnik : This means to softening a date and then rubbing the palate of the new-born with it just after the birth or soon after. This is done by putting a piece of the softened date on the finger and rubbing it from left to right in the mouth of the baby. It is done by the father or the mother or anyone from the People of Knowledge whose supplication is hoped would be accepted.

Pictures :

"Papa jangan gunting rambut Sarah lebih2 tau"

Selawat ramai2 sebelum upacara cukur jambul

"Papa potong sikit jer rambut Sarah, cantik lagi anak papa ni.."

Tahnik bersama Ustaz Khairul

Family Noorihsan

Family Preston
From left :
Family Abang Wahid/K Noi, Family Ihsan/Ayu, Family Haida/Olie,
Family Azwadi/Na, Family Kak Jie/Ustaz Razak, Family Azma/Mila

Budak comot

5 of us

Aidilfitri 2008

2008-10-12T08:27:00.022+02:00

What can I say about this year Aidilfitri ... not much actually.

To start with, I'm in 'pantang' mode, baru hari yang ke 12.. still sore here and there. Yeah, I know some people can go up and running the next day after giving birth, but I guess I'm not in that category. Bukan manja tau.. memang tak larat :)

So obviously no homemade nasi dagang or rendang or ketupat this year. In fact, dapur tak berasap pun .. but thanks to my neighbours whose kind enough to bring some rendang with ketupat and also nasik ayam.. maka penuh la jugak meja rumahku yang initially kosong :).

Then, the extra weight that I put on during pregnancy is still 'extra' ..hehehe.. so mood nak bergambar pun macam kureng... and it seemed that camera pun memahami, di pagi raya, boleh pulak bateri habis.. :P

Despite all that, we (yup.. the 5 of us) still went out to beraya at some of our friend's house. Boring la pulak kalau kena tinggal kat rumah..(shhh....jangan cakap kat org kampung aku dah keluar berjalan tak sampai 2 minggu dalam pantang..*wink* ). And as usual, gambar mesti ada jugak.. walaupun pun dah malam. Still 1st day raya kan :) ..

Gambar family kat rumah Kak Jie (jiran paling dekat)

Close up mama n papa with Sarah

Sidang bersembang bapak2

Mak2 khusyuk mendengar

Posing atas katil setelah penat pegi beraya umah org

Sarah dengan baju raya kilat2..
Ayu dan anak3 nyer

Salam Aidilfitri

2008-09-29T17:39:00.006+02:00

The beginning...

2008-09-28T13:58:00.011+02:00

Thanks to Asyiek for the wonderful photos...

My happy family...

2008-09-24T17:23:00.009+02:00

Amirah & Sarah

2008-09-24T16:09:00.009+02:00

Alhamdulillah...

2008-09-20T14:59:00.006+02:00

Alhamdulillah...
Amirah and Taufiq dah dapat adik girl pada 19.9.2008 hari Jumaat lebih kurang pukul 7.15 pm waktu Melbourne. Baby (3.87 kg) sihat wal-afiat dan begitu juga mama baby. Terima kasih kepada semua yang mendoakan...

Presenting new addition to the family...

Spring is here...

2008-09-16T09:31:00.009+02:00

Spring is here...
It's that time of year,
Flowers are blooming,
Some trees grow,
New leaves and baby animals are born.

September, October, November,
The spring days ahead.
Once it's December,
It's summer instead.
For now It's just warming up for that time of the year.
Yay! Spring is here...

by Amirah

Updatesssss ..

2008-09-01T02:11:00.022+02:00

Marhaban ya Ramadhan, bulan di mana nafas kita menjadi tasbih, tidur kita menjadi ibadah , amal kita diterima dan do'a kita di ijabah... Selamat menyambut kedatangan Ramadan buat semua pembaca blog :)

Lama sungguh tak berupdate. Semakin berat perut semakin malas pulak nak ber'blog'. Maybe this is my final piece before the 'big' day. Tengah countdown.. 14 more days to go... if the baby decides to come out on the dot, if earlier... banyak la hari puasa aku nak kena ganti ... :) ..
Dejavu ... Taufiq was born in the middle of Ramadhan too ... so maybe adik Taufiq pun nak ikut jugak .

Okay... back to the updates...

Last month winter was very cold... Ramai yang pegi main salji ... but i guess not with my condition... tapi sajer jer kasik 'can' kat Ihsan pegi 'bachelor's day out' ke Mount Buller. Four of them (sorang jer yang betul2 bachelor :P ...) went out very early in the morning and headed towards Mt Buller. It was snowing rather heavily, for these people macam main tengah ribut salji kot...tunggang langgang jatuh .. dah masing2 first time letak kaki atas snowboard..I'm glad they have so much fun tho ..(i think ..hehe...) Here are some pics they took kat atas sana. Pardon the kelabuness of the gambar... Pics yang cantik sikit tu were taken from here http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaffwan/

Anyway winter's over now...am glad spring sudah menunjukkan diri .... pokok-pokok yang sebelum ni hanya ranting2 already blooming with little blossoms.... saya suka spring ... spring sungguh romantik ..

Okay .. cerita budak2 berdua tu pulak ...
Amirah banyak dapat awards kat sekolah lately .... Every Monday morning, two students from each class will be awarded with the 'Academic' and 'You-Can-Do-It' awards.It's part of the motivation for the students to do better in classes. Tak payah tunggu akhir tahun baru nak dapat hadiah or sijil ... they do it on weekly basis, so most of the students memang akan look forward for Monday morning assembly to know who perform their best last week. Reason for getting the award simple jer kadang2...ada yang dapat for merely having a beautiful handwriting :) ... So far Amirah pernah dapat for, 'Always trying her hardest' , 'Beautiful manner', 'Confidence in storywriting' and 'Excellent work' . Yang paling latest dapat award from physical education class... reason sebab Amirah orang yang paling lama bertahan main 'hula hoop' ... it was a simple award yet bring so much joy to her. Menarik cara diorang tarik minat students untuk ke sekolah :) ...

Amirah nyer bestfriend kat sini, Bukhary.. (yup..the one with the same birthday with her ..and the one i kept saying 'her boyfriend') dah balik Malaysia for good. His mum pun one of the closest friend I have here..so kepulangan diorang sungguh terasa. Aidilfitri here would not be the same without them ..Anyway best of luck to them in Malaysia and do keep in touch.

Recently ada 'Toy Sale' kat most of the shopping complexes kat sini. Taufiq pun tak ketinggalan dapat toy baru .. set drum mini ... hopefully neighbour tak komplen bunyi bising drum Taufiq pagi2!! Ada lagi toy baru .. tapi tunggu next entry la kot ... kang cerita semua habis pulak modal mak dia nak ber'blog' ..:)

Cute thing about Taufiq now ialah dia bahasakan diri dia 'abang Taufiq' whenever he is close to my tummy ... he knows that soon there's gonna be a new baby in the house.Looks pretty excited. Yang best nyer bila dia tengah tolong letak lotion kat my tummy he will always said.. " Ma, baby ada dua ..." hehehe... yeah right .. :P

That's all for now. Maybe next entry lepas bersalin kot... Am a little bit of nervous... hmm.. 'little bit' sound sungguh tak tepat .... more like frighteningly nervous kot...hehehe... well ... see you guys soon. Until then ...doa2kan semuanya selamat kat sini.

Hello again ..

2008-07-30T03:37:00.013+02:00

Second time around was better. Our flight back from Malaysia to Sydney gave us the chance to get to know the city a little bit better. Instead of flying straight back home to Melbourne, we decided to give Sydney a second glance.

The last time we were there, we didn't get to explore the famous Opera House. This time however, my head was still reeling from deciding and choosing only few pictures to put up here from hundreds (no kidding..) of model and unmodel-like poses of Taufiq and Amirah at Opera House.

After 2 visits, Opera House, checked.. Darling Harbour, checked.. Bondi & Bronte Beach, checked.. Blue Mountain, checked .. 90% of CBD.. checked .. Most of the 'must visit Sydney' checklist almost completed. I'm not sure there will be a third visit to Sydney anytime soon. Maybe it's time for another Oz state. Tasmania perhaps :) ..

Entry yang tak sah kalau takde gambar :)

Harbour Bridge

Opera House

Botanical Park

Berbackgroundkan the famous '3 sisters' at Scenic World Blue Mountain

Tepi Bronte Beach

On the way balik ke Melbourne. Kat Wollongong lighthouse.

Wedding Day

2008-07-15T13:30:00.010+02:00

The wedding reception in Pendang was on the 31st May 2008. The theme was green, so nasib baik jumpa jugak baju kenduri kaler green that ehem.. still fit my 'size'. Taufiq and papa Taufiq pun sempat shopping baju melayu hijau baru. (I guess that will be our baju raya theme tahun ni kot.) Amirah was more than happy to be the flower girl.. dapat pakai gaun kembang2... dapat make up cantik-cantik .. dapat jadik centre of attention. Somehow she reminded me of myself masa kecik-kecik dulu .. mana tak tumpah kuah kalau tak ke nasi ye.. :)

Wedding reception at Teluk Intan - 07/06/2008

Azad & Azmir Solemnization Highlights

2008-07-08T16:58:00.000+02:00

Azad tu my sister ye ... or more well known as Cikda among my friends ...

Alhamdulillah, the akad nikah ceremony runs smoothly.With one lafaz, my sis was officially isteri orang. Semoga perkahwinan diberkati Allah dan menjadi isteri solehah and rajin memasak :P.

Gambar sekitar majlis pernikahan my sister.

Selamat Pengantin Baru

Congratulations

2008-07-08T04:26:00.005+02:00

Congratulations untuk Cik Puan Konot and Am di atas kelahiran baby baru semalam. Semoga mak and baby sihat. Balqis must be very excited! Walaupun tersasar sehari dari date yang diidamkan 06/07/08, tak kisah lah beb..janji semua selamat. Tapi 07/07/08 cun jugak apa :) ..

Tahniah dari kami sekeluarga di Melbourne.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia

2008-07-02T08:09:00.010+02:00

Hi, I'm back. Yeah ..there's lots of dust here. Definitely need some clean up to do. Maybe a new look.. a flashy makeover to the blog..hmm.. too ambitious..let's just focus on putting in some stuffs here first :)..

We were back in Malaysia last month for my sister's wedding. So spent most of our time at kampung, helping out with the preparations. Tapi sempatlah jugak jalan2 sikit. Dah sekali sekala balik Malaysia... bergambar pun mengalahkan tourist. Ini lah aksi2 terbaru Amirah and Taufiq. Buat pelepas rindu setelah err..hmmm... 4 months? :P

Kat KL

Dalam ferry ke Penang

Di pantai Batu Buruk Terengganu

And gambar latest yours truly, happily 26 weeks pregnant :)

Project N.A.S.A Astronaut Amirah

2008-03-18T23:09:00.013+01:00

Been helping Amirah for the past few weeks on her space project. Throughout this semester Amirah has been learning about the solar system and things in outer space. All grade 1/2 students are to present their space project by the end of the term. They can make either information posters, power point presentations or make a space model. We decided to choose the later because it is much more interesting and fun to make. After much thought (includes hours of googling for ideas on the internet), 'Men landed on the Moon' theme came out top of the list (also because competitive mom think that 'mesti takde orang lain nyer buat idea ni' ..hehhe).

So we started our project by making 'Moon' and 'Earth' using paper mashe technique. Gradually working on the base of our project which is a black paper covered shoe box with glittering stars and planets. After pasting the 'Moon' to the base and hanging the 'Earth', we added the rocket and two odd looking Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin clay models. Papa came out with a last minute idea to 'umphh' things up, by adding a torchlight to create the illusion of the sunlight.

After 2 weeks of sneaking time to do the project while 'helpful' little brother asleep, we finally finished it. Amirah is so happy and proud with her project (so am i ..hehehe ...).

Pictures as usual.

Amirah showing off her space astronaut certificate

Amirah's Men landed on the Moon project

Other space projects from Amirah's classmates :

Apartment for lease

2008-02-16T02:24:00.005+01:00

Anybody looking for apartment to rent around Lembah Klang area? I have one that might suit your need.

This stunning apartment is sure to impress. A ground floor apartment for easy access. Featuring three good sized bedrooms with an additional study room. Fully renovated modern open plan kitchen with ample cupboard space and a separate laundry.

Address : Block C G14, Sri Baiduri Apartment
Ukay Perdana, Ulu Kelang
Location : Next to Bukit Antarabangsa, 12km from city centre
Monthly rental : RM 750.00 neg
Contact : ladyayu@gmail.com

Cerita awal tahun ...

2008-01-30T23:24:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was Amirah's first day of school. Unlike back home in Malaysia, sekolah kat sini start end of January. Maybe kasik budak2 cuti lebih sikit kot. Amirah dah grade one sekarang. Excited plus nervous nak pegi sekolah. Excited sebab dah lama tak jumpa kawan2... and dah boring duduk kat rumah...and nervous sebab new grade means new teacher and also new set of friends. Her new classmates are not the same as her Prep friends last year. They mixed the class so that the kids get to know new friends. Amirah insisted to pick some flowers from my little garden nak kasik kat cikgu baru dia.. hmm.. good bodek strategy :P

On a sad note, my Columbian neighbour had moved to Canberra last week. Amirah yang paling sedih because dah takde kawan2 sebelah rumah yang boleh main petang2. On a sad note no. 2, favorite uncle and auntie Amirah and Taufiq kat sini dah balik Malaysia for good. Terisak-isak Amirah nangis kat airport tengok auntie Nurlin and uncle Saiful dia balik. Taufiq still tak faham apa2 lagi.. when asked, 'Where's Uncle Saiful and Auntie Nurlin?' he will said sambil depa tangan imitate aeroplane .. 'Uncle Auntie aeroplane'. Both of them have been a very good friend to our family, in fact dah terasa macam family pun. They arrived here at Melbourne just few hours earlier than us. Duduk kat Malaysia Hall sama2.. carik rumah sama2 and kebetulan dapat rumah close to each other. They saw Amirah and Taufiq grew up.. especially Taufiq, dari 4 months old sampai la boleh berlari sekarang .. They have been a good influence in my kids life.. so sangat2 terasa kehilangan. Tak pe, jumpa lagi di Malaysia nanti...

Back to good news, my sis got engaged last two weeks. Congratulation to her and her fiance. Selamat menempuh alam pening kepala preparation for the wedding..

Lastly, Happy Birthday to Abah and Mama. Both were born in January. Semoga sentiasa sihat dan dirahmati Allah selalu.

Okay.. till next post...

After Cherry Picking

2008-01-24T06:34:00.000+01:00

Some of the places we stopped by...

Had a picnic at Sorento beach...

Taufiq buat sandcastle

Frankston Waterfront

Tahun Baru

2008-01-09T07:32:00.000+01:00

Selamat tinggal 2007 ....
semoga 2008 semakin indah ....

Cherry Picking

2007-12-13T02:43:00.000+01:00

On Sunday, 09 December 2007 we went cherry picking at the beautiful Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula. This was the first time we picked our own cherries & it was another one of those fun-filled moment day trip. All in all, we had a great time. A bit cherries overload .. but it was fun nonetheless.

to be continued in the next entry...

This is how we say Hello ..

2007-11-26T00:25:00.001+01:00

We attended Amirah's school art Festival last week. It was one of the major year end events organized by the school and the parents club. It started at 5pm and finished at 8pm.

There were stalls selling ice cream, (a big hit because of the sunny day and for more obvious reason, kids!!! Who could resist ice cream??), sizzling sausages (it's Halal too.. isn't her school great?) and coffees. There were areas for arts and crafts; the do-it-yourself pins, buttons and cards, and areas where children have free access to aboriginal musical instruments such as the drums and the didjeridoos. The school hall was transformed into art gallery, displaying masterpieces from the students. The way they framed and arranged the drawings and paintings make you feel that you're visiting an Art Gallery. The paintings were labeled with the names of the artists and where they were from; medieval, renaissance or modern (read : grade prep, 1,2 ,3 ,4, 5, or 6). I found Amirah's fish collage amongst the display, right next to Monet and Da Vinci collections :P .. I'm a proud mom ..

It's interesting to see the level of participations from the students, teachers and especially parents. Some did volunteer work, helping out with the stalls, and some were there to give support and watch the performance by their children. Amirah's class was the second to perform on the stage. They came out with colorful ribbons on their wrist and each wore a hat that has different countries flag glued to it. They formed a semicircle and to my surprised, Amirah and another boy stepped out to the front, being some sort of dance routine leader. The song was about how you can say hello in various languages. I gooooogled and found the lyric. Here are some of the pictures taken that day. As usual..enjoy the pics.

In France they say Bonjour
In China they say Ni How

In India they say Namaste
In Zimbabwe they say Jambo

In Mexico they say Hola
In Japan they say Konichiwa
In Greece they say Kalamera

Sometimes we shake hands
We wave and we grin
We slap each other on the back
We say hi, how've been

In Germany they say Guten Tag
In Lithuania they say Labas
In Russia they say Strasvecha
And in Australia they say Good day.

Anak mama ker anak papa ni....

2007-11-17T11:35:00.000+01:00

Terjumpa site ni masa tengah browse F_riend_ster page member. Looks like fun... and sesuai untuk orang2 yang takde keje ni ..:P ... So kalau terasa korang pun takde keje ..boleh aaa try jugak.

Amirah's new friends

2007-11-15T01:36:00.000+01:00

Hmm.. sebulan lebih takde update ... takde cerita baru sebenarnya.. every weekend dalam bulan syawal lepas almost cerita yang sama. Open house..open house and open house again... very tiring weekends... yeah.. orang kg victoria ni rajin betul beraya :P ..

Cerita baru...kitorang dapat jiran baru. Amirah yang paling happy because jiran baru ni ada 3 orang anak and ada sorang girl yang sebaya dengan Amirah. They were from Columbia, baru jer sebulan datang Melbourne, so semua orang tak tau cakap English except for the father. They speak Spanish. The only common words yang Amirah and kawan baru dia share ialah uno .. dos..tres..cuatro..cinco..seises.. (too much of Dora the Explorer and Handy Manny :P ..)

Memperkenalkan kawan2 baru Amirah, Estafan (kalau tak salah dengar -7 yrs old), Juliana (pronounced Huliana - 5 yrs old), and Taufiq's new friend, I dunno-what-his-name (2 yrs old).
As usual..gambar....

Kanak-kanak riang di hari raya

2007-10-29T06:59:00.000+01:00

Yang paling happy bila pegi open house di hari raya ialah budak-budak. Not because dapat makan lots of foods.. tak bersentuh pun makanan kadang2... and not because they can get lots of duit raya.. it's not even a custom here.. Amirah even puzzled getting a money from her favourite uncle " Ma, apasal Uncle ni kasik duit kat Mirah ni..?"
But the joy of hari raya for these kids ialah get to meet their friends and play with them. Sometimes boleh dapat kawan baru. When they meet each other only one thing matters "It's play time!!.." Best kan jadik budak-budak.

Congratulation to my sis..

2007-10-26T07:30:00.000+02:00

Baru perasan ada gambar graduation dia kat her friendster.. so curik dua tiga keping ..and upload kat sini ...

12 years ago..I still remembered impian sorang budak kecik nak jadik doktor.. I think it was driven by my grandpa's death.. tokwan rupanya ada cancer paru-paru.. kitorang semua tak tahu until his death... i think even he himself tak tahu... as long as i can remember..dia tak pernah sakit... until that evening when dia jatuh semasa nak berwuduk ... and 3 days later, we lost the most loving and sporting grandpa we ever had...x-ray from hospital showed that his lungs was damaged beyond repair...

It's such a cliche saying that I want to be a doctor one day to help others because I lost my loved one, but that was what my sis did. And today I am a very proud sister. My little baby is now a doctor (oh..few of my friends still remember my sis as budak darjah 6 lagi..hehe.. time flies kan... ).

Congratulations Dr. Azad Eryani, Tokwan would be proud :)

Raya Update...

2007-10-22T04:33:00.000+02:00

I was not feeling well during hari raya. The worst was the night before raya. Kalau tak memikirkan besoknya raya, and there were food to prepare, I would have slept the whole night thru. Instead, I did telan panadol sebijik (universal-cure-all-sakit-ubat), slept for 2 hours lepas maghrib, and woke up at 10.30 pm feeling a little bit better, and started all the preparations for cooking. The menu was Nasi Dagang and Nasi Impit with Kuah Kacang (sama jer menu macam last year..hehehe). Macam signature dish la pulak di pagi raya :)

Inilah rupanya nasi dagang bergulaikan ikan trevally and nasi impit with kuah kacang. No cookies as I am terribly bad at making cookies plus i have no tolerant for tedious cookies making. Carrot cake pun beli jer dari Sara Lee, sebab Ihsan tau how 'good' wife dia on baking.

What's the difference beraya di Malaysia and di Melbourne? Lagi meriah kot. Hari raya here started at Malaysian Hall, where most of us went there for sembahyang raya. Then, pegi beraya rumah kawan-kawan. There will be houses/hosts that volunteer untuk diserbu di pagi raya. Of course it was pre-arranged prior to raya on list of houses to visit. Emails were full of raya plan, tapi biasa lah.. on paper jer tu.. hari raya kan .. semua rumah always terbuka untuk diserbu :). Kalau ikut plan, my house 'bukak' on Hari Raya kedua...tapi alhamdulillah and nasib baik jugak buat extra nasi, ramai pulak tetamu di pagi raya. We then pegi from one rumah to another, sampailah ke malam. Raya kat Malaysia pun takde lah sampai 12 jam non-stop. It was fun, despite me being not well. Being surrounded with friends, kurang sikit rindu kat family in Malaysia. In a way, we have each other, friend are like families here.

So, selamat hari raya everyone. Enjoy your Syawal...

More pictures soon....

The best 2 years of my life ...

2007-10-19T08:48:00.000+02:00

.. and more to come !!

Happy Birthday to ME !!!

Selamat Hari Raya

2007-10-18T10:36:00.000+02:00

Ada yang nak buat sushi bukak puasa hari ni ker?

2007-10-09T05:56:00.000+02:00

Kalau nak buat sushi, kena ada :

1. Sushi mat
2. Nori sheet atau seaweed sheet
3. Beras for sushi. Usually ada jual dalam packet special for nak buat sushi..or you can recognize beras tu by the appearance. Gemuk2 and pendek2. Common misconception ialah sushi was made using beras pulut ( i did :P..) sebab texturenya yang melekit2 dan berkilat. But really, it's the beras and the vinegar solution yang make the texture looks like that.

Any special skills kena ada :

1. Basic skill masak nasik.
2. Rock n roll :P

The first step for making sushi is to masak nasik. I usually masak the old fashion way atas stove, 2 cups of rice with 2 cups of water, ratio 1-1. Kalau nak guna rice cooker pun boleh jugak..sajer jer kasik tradiotional sket.
While rice is cooking, boleh prepare the vinegar solution, which consist of 6 sudu besar rice vinegar, 4 sudu besar gula,1 sudu teh garam, mix all and cook with api kecik jer until semua melt.

Bila nasik dah masak, kaut and put in a bowl, biar dia warm sket and start putting the vinegar solution sket2. Kacau slowly as not to smash the perfect sushi rice. Bila all dah nampak cam glossy shine and sticky to the touch, then voila, your rice is ready for rock and roll.

Nak roll ni i wud consider tricky part sikit. Odds are, the first time roll tu memang tak akan dapat shape yang diinginilah... so sabar... with practise, you'll be just fine. Letak seaweed atas sushi mat tadi and start putting your rice on top of the seaweed. Ratakan, leaving only about 2 cm seaweed uncovered at the end (to seal the rolling end). Don't put too much nasi, as long as you can still see seaweed sikit2 dicelah2 nasik tu, then you are on the right track :).

Letak la apa nak letak dalam sushi ni.. my favourite ialah crab stick, zucchini and avocado (potong panjang2). Roll your sushi. Kat last2 tu, basahkan the uncovered part of seaweed tadi and seal the whole rolling process.

Potong and ready to eat.

Gambar from my old entry. Aku ni pandai kasik resepi jer.. the last time i made sushi was hmmm.. bila ek?

What to do?

2007-10-04T05:28:00.000+02:00

Been YMing with a friend... and you know when girls talk (err.. boleh lagi panggil girl ke kita ni eh?) .. we were rambling from one topic to another... about life being married..loving it... 'geram'ing it..loving it back..hehe.. you know the usual.. and somehow di bulan ramadhan ni.. kalau tak bersembang about makan tak sah.. what to do .. perut sometimes controlled what's on our mind... so yeah.. she said she made some major improvement in cooking .. proudly made a whole family dinner of nasik ayam last week... (okay if you really been blog hopping..hehe.. you sure know sapa yang aku tgh chat ni..hehhe.. ) .. and again she made nasik minyak yesterday.. bravo! ... apparently, married life agrees with you darling.... anyway.. while we were sharing my sushi recipe .. I did said to her that I've been thinking of uploading any recipe yang aku tau in my blog.... (considering errr.. how very dedicated I am to blogging) .. at least there will constantly be a new entry..(hopefully) ..
She said to go for it.. but hmm.. suddenly terasa macam malu pulak.. macam ler terer sangat aku ni masak sampai nak kasik recipe2 ni..hehehe.... don't we have too many of a recipe blogs/websites/FPs already? Takkan mine pun nak turn into one kot...hmm... so what do you think?

Mt Buller trip

2007-09-26T07:49:00.000+02:00

Gambar-gambar ihsan daripada fotopages anor and asyiek.Gambar from our camera was accidently deleted.Ingatkan dah transfer masuk computer, rupanya belum lagi. The whole July collection was gone.

This was the first time kitorang sampai kat Mt Buller. First salji untuk Taufiq and Amirah. This year pegi sight seeing dulu. Hopefully next year boleh main ski.

Ramadhan Kareem

2007-09-13T05:30:00.000+02:00

I got this from my mailing list email. There were lots of Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan wishes..and one of them got my attention. The email simply said "Ramadhan Kareem..... Allahu Akram" when asked, the sender explained that this is amalan dalam Islam di negara-negara Arab. When the month of Ramadhan comes, mereka akan mengucapkan Ramadhan Kareem, dan di jawab dengan Allahu Akram untuk mengalu-alukan kedatangan bulan Ramadhan.

Ramadhan Kareem - ertinya Ramadhan yang mulia
Allahu Akram - ertinya Allah itu lebih mulia

So now you know :) (for those yg baru tau mcm aku jugak..yg dah tau tu tak salah kan refresh the memory..)

RAMADHAN KAREEM!

Selamat menyambut Ramadhan

2007-09-12T11:38:00.000+02:00

It's gonna be my second Ramadhan here. To all muslim out there, use this opportunity wisely. Perbanyakkan amal... semoga Allah ampunkan dosa-dosa kita.

" Tuhanku aku tidak layak untuk syurgaMu
Tapi aku tak tahan siksa nerakaMu
Dari itu Ya-Allah kurniakan ku taubat
Ampuni dosaku
Sesungguhnya Engkau Maha Pengampun dosa-dosa besar"

Selamat menyambut Ramadah al Mubarak.

Al-Fatihah

2007-09-06T06:53:00.000+02:00

Papa Ihsan telah pulang ke rahmatullah tengahari semalam. Alhamdulillah, semua telah selesai. Biarlah Papa berehat. Allah lebih mengetahui apa yang terbaik untuk Papa. Kami sekeluarga redha. Semoga roh Papa dicucuri rahmat dan ditempatkan dikalangan orang2 yang mulia. Al-fatihah.

Spice Girls with kids

2007-08-28T04:30:00.000+02:00

Baru perasan ada gambar me and my kids dalam blog Konot. Padahal, that was like her 2,3 days old entry oredi..hehe.. either she was too committed doing this blogging thing..hehehe (which is true) or I'm the lazy ones (which is also true).. I checked my own blog pun kadang2 tu sampai 3 hari sekali okay.. apatah lagi nak dutifully checked other people's blog... sorry dear..but i do read yours religiously (if not everyday)..

Go here to see rockin' mommies :P
This was during my short visit to KL. We did a short get together at Konot's house. It was fun :).

We missed KL

2007-08-24T02:02:00.000+02:00

We were in KL for 5 days. So many things to do, so little time... tapi yang penting sib baik sempat shopping ..hehehehe..

yawn

2007-08-21T11:16:00.000+02:00

Lagik entry cut and paste.. see.. dah ada tulis siap pun lama giler aku nak upload kat sini..hehehe... kalau dah malas tu...

***

Dah 2 minggu di Terengganu.. having nothing to do .. time seems to be running rather slowly.... My highlight of the day would be Amirah asking " Pa / Ma .. hari ni kita nak pegi jalan mana?" So that i don't feel as guilty going out of the house.. Amirah yang nak keluar jalan2 kan.. :) ..

Jalan2 pun, paling best was going to Mydin...jangan gelak.. bukanlah macam Mydin kat Jalan Tar tu.. ni kira updated Mydin, version Giant Shah Alam. So, ada playground for budak2 nak main.. ada kedai mamak with wifi connection, so that we can have our teh tarik while updating ourselves with Internet world (how i missed my broadband kat rumah... huhuhuhu) .. and ada popcorn yang sungguh sedap... everytime datang mesti tak miss beli.. apa ntah yang dia letak kat dalam tu sampai it's a must-have. Pop corn kat Melbourne tak sedap.. very masin. Malaysia jugak yang best.. (but not recommended untuk orang2 yg ada diabetes)..

Satu lagi kegemaran balik Terengganu ialah pegi pasar malam.. almost everyday mesti ada pasar malam kat mana2 .. i mean different areas sekitar rumah my in law... and everytime pegi, I will be looking for this particular guy yang jual apam balik . Semua pasar malam mesti ada mamat ni, which is good because i so like apam balik. Kalau aku tak pegi pun Ihsan will come back with at least RM 2 worth of apam balik from this guy (6 bijik size mini) for his beloved wife. Senang kan nak ambik hati aku ni.. hehehe.. beli apam balik jer..:P

I think bandar Kuala Terengganu dah running out of places dah kitorang nak jalan2.. so we decided to naik bot pulak. There's this jetty depan Pasar Payang yang ada boat service for people dari pulau2 kecik kat depan tu untuk datang ke bandar Terengganu, so we hopped in one of those boats and made pegi balik trip. Taufiq and Amirah was very excited. Me however, was worried about my white trousers getting stained with minyak hitam yang ada all over the lantai :P .. Anyway, the kids were happy and Ihsan finally fulfilled his 6 years long of promise nak bawak aku naik bot tu. Thanks dear. (Satu lagi ye promise tak buat lagik.. jgn lupa nak bawak I pegi Pulau Kapas pulak ok ...).

And Taufiq was introduced to his first experience of mandi laut. We went to Pantai Chendering near Ihsan's house. I was very excited for Taufiq, until Ihsan said " You tau tak diorang tak allowed orang mandi2 kat sini sebab ada orang dah mati.." err... okay... maybe not full mandi laut..just main2 kat gigi air jer .. anyway Taufiq and Amirah were having a good time main pasir and main air . I think they too, like their mum.. love the beach. There's something very romantic about walking by the beach.. feeling the sands in between your toes .. watching the sun comes down.... ---- stop day dreaming lah Ayu..anak tengah nangis tu...heheheh...

Okaylah..till next time..I am looking forward for next week. We are going to KL.
*sigh* .. I wanna say "yay'.. but somehow it felt so wrong..

Dah balik rumah ..

2007-08-10T14:36:00.000+02:00

- Dah 2 hari dah sampai di bumi Melbourne... Still in no mood to write .. paste balik jer apa yang dah ditulis masa kat Malaysia, tapi tak sempat2 nak post dalam blog...

- To my dear friend Liana aka Konot... Selamat pengantin baru. Like i said to you, it's rare for people to have a second chance... so cherish this.. semoga bahagia selamanya...

- my copy - paste entry :P

Never thought that I’m gonna come back to Malaysia again, so soon. But here we are. 9 months after Ihsan’s father 26 hours surgery marathon. Things are not looking good. And we are back here to spend, hopefully some quality time with his father. There’s nothing much that we can do. Just being here for him.

The kids were happy though to be back. Escaping the very rigid and cool weather in Melbourne, and finding joy in hot sunny days in Malaysia. I love watching Taufiq’s and Amirah’s blushing pink cheeks. And I’m not the only one, apparently other people notice this too, asking me if I did put on some blusher to them…hehe.. macam la aku takde keje lain … Taufiq was more friendly this time around. Last time we were back here, he was so clingy. Takde mama dia dekat2 tak wajib. I guess it’s part of growing up. Amirah as usual being very chatty and friendly as always. To my amusement, she was shy to speak English. Tok2 and tokwan punya la dok cakap cucu balik from obersea..hehehe.. sekali cucu speaking Melayu all the time.

The first 3 days was spent at my home town in Kedah. Sempatlah lepas gian makan buah rambutan, manggis,dokong,mata kucing and my dad’s very own ‘buah sulung’ dragon fruit (kat depan yard rumah aku sekarang ada like 20 pokok naga kot.. my dad’s latest hobby). Yes, all the fruits semua kat tepi2 rumah je. I could like jump and grab a bunch of rambutans and dokongs or went manggis picking at my paklong’s manggis tree sebelah rumah jer. I used to have this huge durian tree in front of my house, tapi dah mati. She was in her utmost glory masa tahun aku kawin dulu (hmm.. 2001 .. dah 6 tahun eh..). I still remembered counting about 150 D24 grade buah durian in one single pokok. Bnayk tu..sampai tak larat makan...And I also missed my pokok buah kedondong or buah amra bak kata orang Kedah. Pokok ni pun dah kena tebang.. I used to engrave my err.. secret’s admire’s name kat batang pokok ni dulu..hehehe.. (zaman sekolah2 rendah dulu okay..) Anyway … It was good to be home.

On Friday, we drove our ‘loaned’ car to Terengganu. Reached there in the evening. Tersentuh sekejap tengok Ihsan’s father menitiskan airmata tengok kitorang balik. Thousand of miles away, and yet here we are. I really don’t know how to describe papa. Just that it was painful to watch. He’s so thin and so fragile. The cancer around his mouth totally preventing him from talking, breathing and eating normally. He eats through the tube inserted in his nose, breathe from the tube in his neck, talks with his fingers, hanya pen dan notebook penyambung bicara. It was sad to see once a strong and charismatic man, now lying helplessly on bed..looking very old and tired.I pray to God to give strength to this old man. And to give strength to those who love him. Dugaan Allah itu Maha hebat. Will I be as strong if it was me? …

I’m glad that we are back. Even though for a while, but at least we are here. We’ll try to make the most of it.

Contact number di Malaysia

2007-07-17T06:40:00.000+02:00

Just in case nak contact kitorang kat sini.

Ayu : 017-5546050
Ihsan : 0179054336

Balik kampung..oooo.. balik kampung...

2007-07-02T01:02:00.000+02:00

Nampak gayanya blogku yang sudah sediakala berabuk akan berabuk lagi ni.. coz i'll be practically out of internet connection (dial up tu tak kira internet connection langsung okay...) for another months.. reason... ialah saya nak balik Malaysia ..(sedih betul, macam la Malaysia ni takdak internet connection..hehe...) anyway... kalau dah ada broadband depan mata pun malas giler nak update blog... nak dial up or pegi cyber cafe is totally out of question la.. :)

We are going back because Ihsan's father is very ill, so if it's not too much to ask, tolong doakan yang terbaik for him. Most of the time I'll be at Terengganu.. if by any chance you guys bump into me, do say hi :)

take care. i'll see you soon.

Rindu

2007-05-28T12:13:00.000+02:00

Rindu? Siapa yang rindu?
Tok dan Tokwan yang rindukan Amirah and Taufiq.. ?
or
Mama Amirah and Taufiq yang rindukan familynya... ?
either way.. rindu terubat di Melbourne...

Here are some photos masa diorang kat sini.

Any similarity?

Weekend bawak diorang jalan2 ke Great Ocean Road. My sis request for tempat yang background cantik nak posing.. so, what's better place than here.

Adikku yang suka berposing..

Kakak dia pun apa kurang..he..he..he..

"Nak main gayut2 kan railing ni lagi boleh ma?"

Family Pak Adam

My parents

Posing wajib... I used to tease her about posing kepala wajib senget..

Did you guys know that Amirah actually gayat tempat tinggi.. it took awhile to get her to sit on the pagar... she was afraid she wud fall to the other side...

Adala tu benda yang mintak kat Tok tu.. (after mama-say-no)
mintak kat Tok gerenti dapat...

Cucu-cucu kesayangan

The whole family

Thanks for coming here. Same time next year? :)

Visit to Bright Day 2

2007-04-25T12:53:00.000+02:00

My parents ada kat rumah sekarang, diorang sampai hari Ahad lepas. So sekarang ni sibuk dok bawak diorang jalan2. Tak sempat nak update blog. (me.. always with excuses..he..he..)

So ni sambungan citer pegi Bright hari tu. Gambar jer la yek.. :P

Around the Bright Caravan park

Posing kat area sekeliling tempat kitorang duduk

Mount Hotham

After checked out, some of them (kitorang pun mengikut jer..)decided to drive up to Mount Hotham, antara places yang famous untuk main ski, tapi dah pergi bukan time winter, mana nak ada salji nyer..he.he..
Next winter perhaps ..

Lakes Entrance

Dah naik gunung.. turun pulak pegi lake ..

And after a very long drive, akhirnya sampai jugak di rumah ...
Tamat kisah berjalan2.. next week sambung cerita lagi. More stories about my parents and my sis's visit to Melbourne soon. (Hopefully .he..he..)

Visit to Bright Day 1

2007-04-23T08:47:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we went to this place called Bright, which claimed to be one of Victoria's most attractive tourist destinations. The reason being, every year in autumn, the town and surrounding countryside transformed into a canvas of colors where trees ablaze with red and gold, a breathtaking display of shades.

With that description in mind, we went there with expectation.

Unfortunately, we were 2 weeks early. The season just started. The trees is still green, with few hues of yellow and red. So much for autumn scenery...
Anyway I did manage to catch a glimpse of what it should be.I bet in another 2 weeks time, Bright is going to be bright and beautiful. How I wish I could be there to see it.

Actually jalan2 kali ni was more like 'Rombongan Cik Kiah' melawat Bright. There were 14 families in this trip. Got itenaries too!! Dah lama tak ikut rombongan melawat2 ni...
So, the first itenary was to visit the largest hedge maze in Australia (that's what the signboard says). To make the visit more interesting rather than just going round and round in the maze, there were prizes for the 3 families that can find their way out from the maze the earliest. So being the uncompetitive family that we were, we just walked and let Amirah took the lead. Not surprising, we were the second last family that came out of the maze (ingatkan yang last sekali..hehe..siap berposing2 dalam maze lagik..) Anyway, it didn't matter that we did not win, because Amirah was having a good time being lost in a maze and finding our way out!

Hedge Maze

Di celah lorong2 dalam maze

On one of the two towers (mcm LOTR la plak). Ber'background'kan the top of the maze.

This is how the maze looks like from bird's eye view. Notice the 2 towers in the middle?

Next stop, apple and chestnut farm. Too bad tak leh nak apple picking here, Amirah and Taufiq dah geram2 dok tarik buah apple tu..and adala err few ter'picking' jugak.. but I just pretended the apples jatuh naturally on the ground hehehe..

Apple and Chestnut Farm

"Can i pick this mom?"

So, this is how chestnut looks like. Macam mix buah rambutan and buah getah.. if you are kampung enough, you will know mcm mana ropa nyer buah getah (from the rubber tree).

Dah tak leh apple picking from the tree, pilih and beli from here jer lah nampaknya..

Dah settle kat apple farm, we stopped by Bright town kejap.Very clean and nice town. Macam pekan koboi pun ada jugak..

Bright Town

After that actually we went to trout farm. Memancing ikan trout. Only one video shot taken, gambar2 tak sempat nak ambik.. yelah..sibuk jaga Taufiq yang asyik2 ada cubaan nak terjun kolam je..he..he..

So, end of day1 jalan2. Next entry pulak cerita lagi :).

Good bye Anis

2007-04-16T03:19:00.000+02:00

Anis,Amirah and Aiman

The only kawan perempuan melayu yang sebaya and quite close dengan Amirah kat sini, and she's going home for good. This picture was taken on Anis's final night in Melbourne, just hours before her flight back to Malaysia. Before going to her house, Amirah asked me to wrap a present for her friend, the item being one of Amirah's favourite hairbands. She said that she really likes the hairband and she hopes that Anis will like it too. Yes darling..I'm sure Anis will love it.

Keep in touch and take care Anis. Amirah will miss you. Good bye.

How to Save a Life

2007-04-03T08:12:00.000+02:00

How to Save a Life - The Fray

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Great Ocean Road trip

2007-04-03T08:01:00.000+02:00

All the pics actually were couple of months old ... apa nak buat zaman2 malas nak update blog dulu... but the scenery was too breathtaking not to be shared. These were taken along the Great Ocean Road, the stretch of road that covers some of the most scenic coastline in the world, because of its striking and dramatic natural rock formations.

Nature has ways of creating beautiful things. Here are some to share with you. Enjoy.

Most famous rock formation - The Twelve Apostles.

The 2 of 12 Apostles

Semua formation batu2 ada nama2 tersendiri. Like this one behind Ihsan, is called London Bridge but was renamed to London Arch in recent years after the 'bridge' partially collapsed.

Gambar2 kat whale viewing platform in Warrnambol. Unfortunately, bukan season whale datang bertandang. Ambik gambar jer lah.

Tagged

2007-04-01T12:07:00.000+02:00

I've been tagged by my friend Konot .. and it was a zillion time ago ..he..he.. entry yang dia tagged aku pun agaknya dah takdak kat front page blog dia ..:P Sorry darling .. I've been away.. :)
So here goes .. 6 weird things about me..

1. I like to memorize script from movies. I mean not the whole thing.. but part2 yang aku rasa best. And i can like watch it over and over again...

2. I have this one favourite buku cerita melayu.. Which dah berkali2 khatam.. and yet i still cry kat ending dia sebab watak dalam buku tu mati ..and err.. nama watak tu 'AYU' ..he..he.. and actually after she died, there's another chapter, but i refuse to read to rest of the chapter, sebab ada cerita husband dia macam jumpa orang lain..he..he.. for me, the book end when 'Ayu' died...

3. I get tachycardia after i drank coffee. I'm not sure if the term correctly describe what i felt.. but it sort of like rapid beating of the heart. But lately, i think i drank too much coffee .. my body was getting familiarize to it. I hardly get tachy anymore nowadays.... Somehow, i kinda missed having it..

4. I have this looking into nothingness habit. Macam termenung.. like i have to stare at one spot for sometimes.. and selagi that feeling of 'looking' tu tak habis.. i can't stare away. Kalau ada orang like kacau before aku 'habis' staring .. memang rasa cam tak best betul aa...

5. I have short term memory loss .. aku selalu lupa where i put all my stuffs like jam tangan, keys,handphone and handbag ... actually it's more like bad habit of letak barang merata2... but seriously, (he..he.. aku pun tgh layan grey's anatomy ..) sometimes baru jer 2 seconds letak.. and i kinda forgot aku letak kat mana.. seriously... he..he..

6. Okay..i'm running out of weirdness.. he..he.. perasan .. but just to complete number 6..he..he..
aku ada sorang kawan yang high/suka main hujung kain ..well aku tak reti xplain, but if wanna know kena visit blog dia sendiri aaaa... dia explain panjang lebar..and i have this one friend yang kena goyang kaki sebelum dia tidur .. so when the kaki stop bergoyang meaning dia dah tido aaa tu ... ada jugak yang bila on high places, dia akan jadik gayat and terasa nak terjun..he..he... bahaya betul... and i wonder if word 'Teritip' still send goosebumps to you? .

*sigh* i miss you guys .. my weird but lovely friends .. keep in touch okay.

My once in violet moon entry ..

2007-03-30T11:50:00.000+02:00

I'm out of practice. I don't know what stopping me from blogging.. nak cakap aku tak de masa.. i have plenty. Nak cakap aku sibuk.. i can't think of anything that can be categorized as sibuk. I just feel like not wanting to write. Not wanting to share. Not wanting to think of what to write. In truth, i have plenty to tell. In truth, i have plenty to share. In truth, i've been thinking about writing...

Maybe i'm back.. maybe i'm not. I don't know. But i guess this little entry might be a good start.
We'll see.

I'm 5 ..

2007-02-19T07:42:00.000+01:00

Hi.. my name is Amirah and I am officially 5 years old. These pictures were taken during my birthday party at the park near my house. Thanks to Uncle Asyiek for the photos taken. They were lovely. Oh.. and I'm sharing the party with my friend, Bukhori.. he's 6 years old. And for the record, we're just friend.. my mom didn't get the facts right.. she was excited over nothing.. seriously mom .. i'm 5.. don't you think i'm too young for that. Stop embarrassing me in front of your blog readers. Having said that.. I love you mom and dad nonetheless.. thanks for the great party. I had a wonderful evening.. and err.. enjoyed unwrapping the gifts. We should do this again next year, more freebies for me!

To my mom's reader, thanks for the birthday wishes...enjoy the pics.

Happy Birthday....Amirah

2007-02-12T15:25:00.000+01:00

Hari ni 13/2/2007, Amirah genap 5 tahun. Since her birthday tengah2 minggu, we plan to bring forward the birthday celebration to this coming Saturday. Still remember the boy in the picture from my last post on Aidil Adha? Yeah.. the one Amirah had a crush on.. he..he.. It's so happen that they shared the same birthdate, only a year apart. So...both parents decided, joint je la buat birthday party budak berdua ni... All are welcome...sempat lagi ni MATTA Fair :p .

Amirah's first day at school

2007-02-06T13:14:00.000+01:00

Macam tak percaya je anak aku dah masuk sekolah. She was so excited about going to school. The night before, she woke up at least 5 times. Each time asking if it was the time to go to school. Got up in the morning, put on her new checkered pinafore and maroon windcheater, and specifically asked me to tie her hair in ponytail.. and then she was ready.

Preston West Primary school, here she comes !!

and here we go again ..

2007-02-05T13:34:00.000+01:00

Just when i thought about quitting blogging, there's always a friend who's there, you know..asking if things are well .. and why my blog seems to be collecting dusts .. I kinda losing it for a while... Thank you for reminding. You know who you are.

I'll start vacuuming my blog.. Right away ..

Cheers.

BBQ at Bundoora Park

2007-01-19T04:12:00.000+01:00

It's been a while.. i have been ..BUSY. Enjoy the pics.

Happy Birthday ma ..

2007-01-18T14:38:00.001+01:00

Selamat ulang tahun ke 59 mama ..
Semoga dipanjangkan umur dalam keberkatan dan dimurahkan rezeki ...
Amin ..

Aidil Adha di Malaysian Hall

2007-01-18T13:36:00.000+01:00

Gambar belated Aidil Adha ..
More pics entry to come ..

Amirah dengan boyfriend mama..

Ni baru 'boyfriend' Amirah *for the moment* ha..ha.. inseparable jer kalau jumpa kat function mana2 kat sini. (yang tengah tu decoy jer tu..)

Mama : "Amirah suka Bukhori ye.."
Amirah : "Taklah.." sambil senyum2 ..he..he... "tapikan.. Mirah rasa Bukhori tu macam handsome jugak kan ma .."

Adusss.... and she is just 5 yrs old (in 3 weeks time) ..

Handsome boy in baju Melayu ..

Taufiq jumpa member

Ahli mesyuarat tangga

Ahli mesyuarat pintu

Nice to see guys in baju Melayu ... setahun dua kali jer boleh nampak camni kat sini ..

Happy New Year 2007

2007-01-16T23:33:00.000+01:00

i have no mood to blog nowadays ...
banyak benda tak ter update ...
banyak benda belated nak wish ..

So .. i'm gonna summarize all in one entry ..:P

- Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha .. (see punya lah lama nyer tak update blog)

- Congratulations to both my good friends hmm..wait.. keempat2 kawan saya, Farah&Hadi and Wa&Sandra for their new born .. Alia and Hakeem right?.. both were born on the 12th December 2006.... kan? so dah sebulan lebih yek baby korang ..:P sorry ye.. auntie Ayu tak sempat pegi melawat ..

- Happy New Year 2007 .. as usual.. no resolution.. lame huh ..

- Happy 61st birthday to Abah... 04/01/2006 ..

- And how could i forget about my blog's 1st anniversary?? to tell the truth ..i'm lazy/tired of blogging... there were always other things that seemed more important than blogging nowadays... (like what? .. )

- Taufiq started 'almost' running today ... and Amirah will start her prep school soon... kids grow so fast kan.. you blinked, and you might missed something..

- To my dear friend.. I'm sorry .. I have no reason.. please forgive me. How you define good friend ..hmm.. they forgive each other? take care with the pregnancy, do tell me the good news.

- To my sis who's so busy with 'on-call' thing..he..he.. give your best shot.. i guess i'll be calling you 'Dr' dulu dari your abang ipar eh .... i know u love that ..ha...ha..ha..

- Oh..my darling now have a new scooter ..ha.ha... that'll be my next pics post...

- And .. I'm gonna be 30 this year .. is that supposed to mean something? nah.. it's just a number *wink*

Till next update .. ta.

26-62

2006-12-29T13:41:00.000+01:00

It was a long operation for a 62 years old man. 26 hours marathon. But it felt longer to those outside the operation room and at home waiting. The operation started at 8 am and after 26 exhausting hours, papa was sent to ICU.

Ihsan's father was diagnosed with mouth/skin cancer or scientifically called squamous cell carcinoma about 8 months ago. It started out as simple pain that won't go away after he went to see a dentist and have one of his teeth pulled out. After thorough checkup, doctor said that there was presence of tumors in the mouth areas. He had already undergone one operation but recently the cancer had spread out to the other section of the mouth. And thus the 26 hours operation .. which have us flying back to Malaysia.

Alhamdulillah.. the operation was a success with the following procedures:

1. Removal of cancerous skin around the mouth
2. Removal of the iron placed in the chin (in the first operation few months back)
3. Bone taken from fibula - leg bone to reconstruct the chin
4. Flab taken from thigh to cover the mouth area

Quite an ordeal for an old man. May Allah give papa strength to bear the pain and speedy recovery and in good health for many more years to come.

These are some pictures taken during his stay in the ICU and some during his recovery process.Not for the faint hearted.

Dalam ICU, hari ke dua , papa still tak sedar lagi.

Day 5, setelah pembalut muka dibuang. The cancerous skin around the mouth was removed and replaced with the skin from the thigh (the lighter shade portion)

With pen and note book. Tools to communicate as papa tak boleh cakap lagi. Alhamdulillah...Papa is now getting better. Please pray for his speedy recovery, thanks.

Back

2006-12-28T04:02:00.000+01:00

Home sweet home ..

Ironically, my previous post's title was 'Home Sweet Home' and that was referring to Malaysia.. I guess after a month away, i kinda missed it here.. and when the immigration officer said 'Welcome back' to us ... i was all smiling. I'm back.

Home sweet home

2006-12-06T11:31:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the long silence.. the reason being.. hmm... yes ..saya ada kat Malaysia sekarang.. and up until today baru berjumpa internet access ..

I was in Malaysia for 2 weeks oredi now... balik pun sebenarnya bukannya plan pun... last minute je beli ticket flight .. Ihsan's father will undergo major operation for mouth cancer... so balik terus ke Terangganu and then ke HUSM Kota Bharu .. supposed operation date was last 27th Nov .. tapi ada complication so the operation was postponed to 11th Dec. Sementara menunggu operation day..kitorang lari jap balik KL ... will be going back to Kota Bharu on Friday. For those yang i tak sempat nak call or jumpa... sorry sangat2... one.. banyak sangat benda nak settle dalam masa yg singkat ni.. two ..mostly number you guys i takde .. three .. banyak la plak alasan aku kan... anyway.. kalau nak call i .. please ring me at 0175747828 . I will be using this number until 25th Dec ., which will be my last day kat Malaysia (nice timing eh? .. sampai2 Melbourne jer aku leh shopping on Boxing day ..he..he..he...)

Until then.. sorry again .. will try to see you guys if i can ... take care.

*************

Post aku tak sah kalau takde gambar :P .. latest gambar Taufiq .. jumpa Zahid pulak bila lepak Starbuck KLCC.. ni stock untuk Tok dia sebenarnya ..ha..ha.. jgn tak tau ..mak aku dulu minat Zahid Akedemi Fantasia ni ... siap vote sms lagi ..ha..ha..

Till later ..

2006-11-19T02:33:00.000+01:00

Open House Kg Victoria

2006-11-10T15:30:00.000+01:00

These pics taken during our Jalan2 ke Open House warga2 Kg Victoria area Springvale..... (jauh sikit dari city..most of them are students at Monash University Melbourne..) ... dalam satu hari tu boleh caver 7, 8 rumah kot..It's kinda fun (esp. the fact that i don't have to cook for the day ..)

Raya pics

2006-11-10T01:28:00.000+01:00

Nak tengok gambar raya ye .. okay .. ni dulu ... nanti letak lagi....tgh edit gambar ni ..

Antara yang datang rumah malam hari raya tu ..

Syawal updates

2006-11-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

Sekejap jer kan .. dah nak setengah dah bulan syawal.. puasa 6 baru sehari..hmm.. kena cepat ni ..kot tak sempat nanti .... insyaallah...

For all Muslim reader, rasanya it's not too late to wish Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri..Maaf Zahir Batin... Syawal sebulan kan ..:)

Hm.. dah lama tak update blog... laptop rosak sebenarnya... (okay.. that's alasan jer tu... but i guess kalau laptop okay pun macam lambat jugak nak update blog ni ..) tengah tunggu nak baiki lagi my laptop tu.. at the moment.. pinjam laptop *bau kedai lagi* my hubby jap ...

News update ..hmm... where do i start ..

- First time malam raya tido 2 jam jer .. because i was busy cooking .. baru tau rupanya susah jugak beraya kat rumah sendiri ni ... dulu selalu balik kampung goyang kaki jer.. err ..regardless rumah sendiri or rumah mak mertua .. (erk..) .. sib baik Ihsan pun have to study for his coming exam.. so while i was cooking.. dia dok la meneman kat dalam dapur tu .. bila dah siap.. tengok jam dah pukul 3.45 am.. tunggu jer lah another 15 minutes nak masuk Subuh .. then after prayer, tido sekejap sebab kol 6 nak bangun siap2 for sembahyang raya at 7 am..

- Oh..did i mention that we celebrate raya on Monday? Yep..a day earlier than Malaysia .. so it's kinda weird calling back Malaysia and beraya dgn parents while they were still fasting ..:P .. so i make a point of calling again the next day... baru ada feel sikit..he..he.he..

- First time Amirah ponteng Kinder tahun ni for hari raya ...

- The theme this year was smashing red..ha..ha..ha.. tapi ada la pulak orang tu tak nak pakai baju melayu merah dia... said that no point in wearing baju melayu just for pegi sembahyang (bagus jugak.. then i don't have to do my most malas job -- ironing) and then tukar balik baju biasa sebab kena pegi kelas... oh yes.. Ihsan ada kelas sampai ke petang hari tu..

- My raya dish -- nasi impit with kuah kacang and nasik dagang .... nasik dagang was a sold out... agaknya that's the closest they can get to nasik dagang here kot..ha..ha.. nasik impit and kuah kacang unfortunately have found residence in my fridge (until today... !)

- Glad to announce 'Open House' tradition still lives ..even tho jauh di perantauan .. but open house rumah orang lain lah... mine...no official open house this year.. however my house is open anytime to those yg nak datang beraya ...
For those in Malaysia.. open house i raincheck lah ye .. tunggu sampai i balik Malaysia dulu .. :) meaning 2 more raya to go.. insyaallah if panjang umur and murah rezeki ....

Now that my first time raya in perantauan is almost over.. it's actually not that bad... Overall, raya feels good. I guess when you have the family that matter the most beside you .. you couldn't ask for more.

Happy Birthday to me...

2006-10-19T02:31:00.000+02:00

Mummy showed me the world on 19 October 2005, and today I am one year old. Thanks Papa, Mama and Kak Amirah for one wonderful year.

Dress up day

2006-10-12T01:10:00.000+02:00

Again cerita pasal Amirah.. :P

This time kat kinder dia ada Dress Up Day.. so everybody has to come to kinder dressed up as any character the children choose to be. Amirah nak jadik Fairy ..

One thing about the parents here is that they do take these things very seriously.. Events organized by the kinder usually will have lotsa support.. even our version of mesyuarat PIBG pun ramai yang datang ... yours truly included... I have to give credits to the kinder's teacher... diorang sanggup datang malam2 semata2 nak borak2 dengan parents budak2 ni regarding the children's activities .. salute ..

So back to Amirah the Fairy girl story.. Since other parents pun macam beriya.. kitorang pun tak nak terkecuali.. We went for costume shopping for Amirah and bought her the wings, the celo and the magic wand .. all white.. so boleh matchkan dgn gown putih dia...

Di pagi hari mama dia ler yang kena siapkan.. he..he.. infact mama dia lagi semangat nak dress up kan amirah dari empunya badan tu sendiri (okay.. tadika aku dulu mana ada dress up2 ni..oh..wait.. aku tak habis tadika ..he..he ..satu2 nyer institusi pengajian yang aku quit sebelum tamat pengajian..:P...)

And as usual.. gambar lagi :P ..

Sporting tak.. cikgu pun dress up sekali ...

Amirah tgh tunggu turn nak balik

Kat park sebelah kinder Amirah

With her bestfriends

Olivia the Bride, Amirah the Fairy, Geogia the Mermaid and Marie the Ballerina

Romancing the Tulips

2006-09-25T02:52:00.000+02:00

The tulip came to Australia with the love of Cees and Johanna Tesselaar. The couple left Holland on their wedding day just before the start of WWII. Johanna’s parents were bulb growers and Kees’ father worked in a bulb auction house. Their dream was to bring the flower of their affection to their new home. Settling in Silvan their dream came true. They have been able to share their dream and show off their love, a love that extends through generations.

There are but a few weeks of the year when we can share this love affair and you can witness these masses of magical colour and brilliance. A love affair which has been getting bigger and better for 52 years! So release yourself from the droll of everyday life and fall in love again at Tesselaar Tulip Festival …

Okay.. that's what was written on the brochure masa kitorang pegi this festival... So if you have any plan to be in Melbourne and love tulips, then come here around mid September to Mid October... there are but a few weeks of the year when the tulips bloom...

“Knee deep in flowers will stray; we’ll keep the showers away. And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight, will you pardon me? Come tiptoe through the tulips with me!”
- All Dubin and Joe Burke

Ramadhan datang lagi..

2006-09-24T08:56:00.000+02:00

Alhamdulillah... tahun ni masih lagi sempat merasa Ramadhan ...

Feels the same.. just that tahun ni cabaran berbeza .. kena menyediakan juadah berbuka without the help of 'Pasar Ramadhan'. I guess tahun ni semua homemade..hmm... but we sure gonna miss tepung pelita .. huhuhu..

For all my Muslim readers.. Selamat menyambut Ramadhan. Semoga bulan mulia ni kita perbanyakkan ibadat.

Wassalam.

J_mie Oliver Kg V_ctoria...

2006-09-22T00:51:00.000+02:00

Long overdue post sebenarnye ni... dah lama dah upload gambar.. tapi still in draft mode ..until today :P ..

Sajer jer nak cerita aku dah reti buat sushi .. i first thought sushi making was very difficult .. it turned out VERY simple.. macam masak nasik biasa jer .. cuma the rolling part was a bit tricky if you are first timer.. he..he.. berterabur nak gulung.. It took me a while, but practice makes perfect! .. But of course there are different types of sushi ..the easiest to make is a maki or roll... tu yang aku rasa senang kot..he..he.. sebab buat sushi yang level beginner .. :)
Usually i will put crab stick, avocado and cucumber .. Nak carik salmon pulak lepas ni ...

Both Amirah and Ihsan love sushi so much so memang rasa berbaloi buat. And if you've enjoyed eating sushi too, don't be put off by its food-as-art reputation - try making it yourself. All you need are the right ingredients and plenty of patience! Good luck.

Ni gambar Amirah dengan my own pieces of miniature edible artwork...I think ni second time buat kot ..Yang first tak sempat ambik gambar because everything was gobbled down long before the photographer gets set up :)

My two models ..

2006-09-19T03:00:00.000+02:00

One of those days yang malas nak update blog.. so gambar jer lah ye ...

Bz

2006-09-13T10:26:00.000+02:00

Bz sket lately ni.. parents ada kat rumah .. so sibuk dok bawak diorang jalan2.. malam ni flight diorang balik Malaysia, after 2 weeks kat sini.. wish they stayed longer tho..

Lepas ni lah ye letak update baru ... till then.

Edisi Merdeka

2006-09-02T15:52:00.000+02:00

Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke ehem.. (jap google jap...) okay 49th ...

Sama jer merdeka bagi aku ni kat mana2 pun .. kat Malaysia maybe rasa best sket kot sebab cuti kot... else, sama jer... huh... tak patriotik sungguh aku ni ... maybe i should read more books about history of those pahlawan2 (Mat Kilau, Leftenan Adnan.. hmm sapa lagi ye *think hard* from buku sejarah form 3 dulu ...he..he.. ) yang bebaskan Malaysia dari penjajah ni instead all those tak releven buku2 cerita ..he..he.. yeah... i know .. i took our freedom for granted. I guess you can never truly embrace the real meaning of freedom when it is inherited... or when it is not your fight ... or when you learnt that hari merdeka is more synonym with meaningless jeritan "merdeka..merdeka.." kat dataran merdeka... or the fireworks or the perarakan merdeka... it's sad on how we are losing the real meaning of merdeka... *sigh* .. or maybe it's just me....

Okay.. quickly moving on to happier note .. Amirah just won tempat pertama for Pertandingan Pakaian Beragam Kebangsaan for Hari Merdeka organized by Kelab Dewan Malaysia Melbourne. Yay for Amirah!

So as usual.. entry aku ni tak sah kalau takde gambar ... who else.. kalau tak Taufiq, Amirah.. tak Amirah .... Taufiq pulak ... I'm short of models for my blog lah :P ... Any takers?

Amirah and Bella Bear...

2006-08-25T06:11:00.000+02:00

This is actually one of the ‘bring-home-activities’ from Amirah’s kindergarten. Each of them will have a turn to bring home the kinder teddy bear named ‘Bella’ for 2 nights. There’s also a journal for the kids to write their journey with Bella Bear.. of course this has to be done by mommy and daddy. So being the ‘takde keje mommy at home’ I took liberty to bring Amirah’s journey with Bella Bear to the next level..he..he.. Instead of just writing.. I took some pictures.. printed it and pasted it on the journal along with the stories. I even wrote it with colorful pen and drew some decorations on it.. yeah.. I have plenty of times for that…

I actually have no more space left to write after I pasted all the pics… so I have to make do with what little space I have.. anyway ..who needs writing when the pictures said it all… as a saying goes….a picture is worth a thousand words kan…

So, here goes the story…

Amirah’s little brother, Taufiq likes to play with Bella Bear too. He thinks Bella Bear is cute . ( okay… I made this up… how could I know what 9 months old boy is thinking.. ?)

Amirah is playing with Bella Bear in the backyard. She is serving tea and cookies to Bella Bear. Bella Bear said Amirah made delicious cookies. (Lupa pulak Bella Bear nak puji Amirah nyer Earl’s Grey.. agaknya tak sedap kot..he..he..)

It’s night time. Bella Bear and Amirah are sleepy..it’s time to sleep. Nighty night Bella Bear. Have a sweet dream. Amirah loves you.

Happy 23rd birthday my dear sis

2006-08-24T12:06:00.000+02:00

24th August 2006..

2006 minus 1983.. and it’s 23… wow.. I thought you were still 20 or 21 ..ha.ha.. dah besar rupanya adik aku… yes Konot and Farah .. she is a big girl now.. I know you guys still dok visualized dia in her teenage years … being first met her when she was 12 years old .. that just showed how long we’ve known each other kan…. and to K’on.. I hope you didn't still remember my sis as a 7 years old girl… ha..ha… my oldest and bestest friend….

Anyway.. back to the story… To my only sis aka Cikda …I hope you have a lovely 23^rd birthday. Jangan demand lebih2 on birthday present … kakak awak ni kan suri rumah sepenuh masa… tahun ni dah tak isi borang income tax… Make your demand elsewhere okay.. *wink*

Today also marked the 10^th year of my relationship with Ihsan. I still remember making a call to my sis from..hmm.. * jangan gelak * KL Tower, wishing her a happy birthday and also telling her that I am officially in a relationship with someone special. That someone who later became my other half.

Although we don’t celebrate this date anymore, ( dah tukar dengan tarikh kawin )…. It’s nice to still remember the day… and to know that after 10 years.. things haven’t change.

Red energy

2006-08-02T02:27:00.000+02:00

Baru dapat bill letrik from Red Energy.. terkejut sekejap bila tengok amount -- AUD 457.38 ..lepas discount 5% if bayar awal, tinggallah AUD 434.51... kalau convert adalah plus minus RM1300...Tak pernah lagi bayar bil letrik semahal tu ..... maybe biasa bagi certain people, tapi agak luar biasa la jugak bagi aku n family. Bill letrik kat sini sampai 3 bulan sekali ... the first bill was quite okay..just AUD 96. So bila datang second bill.. yang berkali2 ganda dari bill dulu.. muhasabah diri sekejap..okay...kena belajar jimat electricity ler macam ni...

When we first arrived here. .. it's summer time.. so mana lah guna heater langsung... since start sejuk ni ... heater almost ON jer selalu ... lampu pun pasang macam nak raya ..minus lampu kelip2 jer... he..he.. tv and dvd pulak Wiggles or Hi 5 jer all the time... computer hmm.. download movie 24 jam... :P ..

Itu dulu .. ( tempted nak tulis -- dulu lain sekarang lain..he..he..)

Macam membazir betul pulak rasanya bayar mahal2 untuk letrik.. baik shopping lagi bagus.. so, antara langkah2 nak jimat letrik ni..he..he.. masak air panas dah guna dapur gas... masak nasik pun aku try old fashion way atas dapur gas.. hmm.. lagi sedap pulak nasik kalau masak style tu rupa nya... (provided tak overcooked sampai hangit ler...which so far berjaya di avoid) .. daytime if possible kurangkan penggunaan heater ... and malam heater and light in one room only... tapi TV, dvd and computer tu maintain aaaa.. sumber entertainment tu ..:P ..

Hopefully boleh reduce sikit amount for the next bill .. we'll just have to wait and see then...

Big Boy's new toy ..

2006-07-25T06:13:00.000+02:00

Men never grow up... only their toys get more expensive. .. :P

They have moved ....

2006-07-24T06:36:00.000+02:00

I dengar kita nak pindah ker KL Central...jam la kat Federal tu... or... Datuk beli bangunan kat depan KLCC tu, nak moved semua office kat situ ... or .. Lepas ni boleh la naik LRT ke ofis, kita nak pindah pi Menara Maxis...

Those were the rumours that had been circulating around my ex beloved office, KAF Discounts Bhd... issue nak pindah office .. he..he..i think the rumours were as old as time... way back daripada I started to work there kot... but 5 years passed..sampaila i resigned.. the address is still same ol' 28th Floor Wisma Goldhill... until recently...

Finally KAF has new address... and all my beloved friends at KAF dapat office baru.. So..I'm writing a special entry today to wish all of them ..Selamat masuk rumah baru! .. semoga makin semangat kerja kat tempat baru...Hope everything settled down ok...and eventhough all the memories with me semua kat ofis lama..please don't leave them there.. bring them with you... Sometimes you will look back on times you laughed and you will cry. You will look back on times you cried, and you will laugh. You will always remember close friends, and you will always keep memories of them in your heart.

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. ~Jean de Boufflers

Good luck at Chulan Tower!

ADP 3 Reunion

2006-07-13T11:00:00.000+02:00

Entry khas untuk Encik Ghazari Amri yang sedang dalam usaha mempromotekan Reunion untuk ex-PPP (ADP 3). Sila support untuk mengembalikan zaman gemilangan gila kuasa Ghaz. :P.. he..he..he...

Note to Ghaz : You oredi got the right person in your team .. I heard Mary did a good job last time organizing IT PD Reunion.. too bad I takleh join. Wish I was there tho...
So..all the best..

Please visit here for more information.

Cuti-cuti Australia - Finale

2006-07-06T13:30:00.000+02:00

We decided on the way balik, to singgah di capital city of Australia, Canberra. The city is 300 km southwest of Sydney and 650 km north-east of Melbourne. So, journey balik Melbourne takde lah lama sangat.

As the seat of the government of Australia, Canberra is the site of Parliment House, the High Court of Australia and numerous government departments. Pendek kata..macam Putrajaya la.. cuma bangunan2 kat Putrajaya lagi menarik kot...

Okaylah.. enuff pasai aku jalan2 ni..he.he... these are antara photo2 terakhir cuti2 Australia ni.. he..he.. for now.. :P

Two of Canberra's best-known landmarks, Parliament House and Old Parliament House (foreground). Commonwealth Place runs alongside the lake and includes the International Flag Display

Us at Lake Burley Griffin

Till later.. ta.

Cuti-cuti Australia - Part 3

2006-07-04T10:02:00.000+02:00

Ni banyak sikit gambar kat dalam city. Tapi banyak tempat lagi tak sempat nak jalan betul..wish kitorang dok kat situ lama sikit.. baru leh betul2 puas hati jalan.. takpe.. maybe next time. But for sure this time, we are not driving..he..he.. enuff of 13 jam dok dalam keta...
And if I am not mistaken ..next time pegi Sydney ada dah kot tempat nak lepak..he..he.. you know who you are :P

So.. gambar lagi ...

Pemandangan dalam city

Naik bus tourist 2 tingkat..macam kat London la pulak..

Sydney Aquarium.

Naik boat keliling harbour..

Cuti-cuti Australia - Part 2

2006-07-02T23:41:00.000+02:00

850km journey from Melbourne to Sydney seems endless. We were mesmerized by the breathtaking scenery. There were acres and acres of grassland where sheeps, cows and horses roamed freely. But after 13 hours of the same scenery, i just couldn't wait to be out in the civilization again.

The journey

This is us at the famous Bondi Beach. Just 30 minutes from the city. I guess if we were to come here during summer, you can expect alot of you-know-what. In this cold weather, instead of baring it all, one would prefer to be covered in layers and layers of clothing. The beach was kinda deserted except for few beginner learning how to surf.

Bondi Beach

Darling Harbour view at night. We walked and crossed the bay on the pedestrian bridge that connect from one end to another. Please pardon some of the distortion in the pictures. Sampai sekarang still tak reti2 guna night mode.

Darling Harbour

More pictures later. Banyak sangat nak crammed in one entry. Till later okay.

Somniloquy

2006-06-29T18:48:00.000+02:00

I know I’m supposed to be posting for part 2, (don’t worry, it’s coming..banyak sangat gambar.. tak tau nak letak yang mana….) but this is too good to be passed out as an entry. Last night I heard Amirah doing the ‘somniloquy’. It’s the medical term for sleep talking activity.. you know, when you talk out-loud during sleep. Tiba- tiba jer tengah2 malam terdengar “ … It’s not broken anymore” ..ha..ha… Anak aku pun mengigau cakap omputeh. During my college years, my housemate used to tease me about mengigau cakap omputeh ni… I almost laugh last nite dengar Amirah sleep talking.. I did google about sleep talking and in one of the article, under the ‘who gets it?’.. it is reported that it occurred 50% in children and about 5% in adult. It occurs at the same rate in both men and women. It also appears to run in families. Hmm.. I kinda remembered my mum pernah cerita about my dad sleep talking too.. and the exact word is “Do I look younger?” ..ha.ha..ha.. It’s must be in the genes!

Cuti-cuti Australia - Part 1

2006-06-20T00:53:00.000+02:00

Cuti sekolah dah start. Ihsan pun dah habis exam. It's a perfect time to jalan-jalan. So last Saturday, we went to Werribee Open Range Zoo. It's an hour drive from Melbourne city. Sampai kat situ around 11.45am, then meet up with few friends yang dah tunggu kat sana and terus beli tickets for the bus ride. It's an open concept zoo where you get to see the animals up close and personal. Tapi takdelah sampai boleh pegang, just tengok dari dalam bus jer. Amirah had a great time. Taufiq macam biasalah...takde perasaan pun tengok animals tu.. just excited with the bus bumpy ride :).

And as usual, pictures!

Ni gambar kat rose garden sebelah zoo tu, tersesat masuk sini ..:P. Pokok rose tinggal batang and daun jer.. bunga almost takde sebab dah nak winter...

Tengah tunggu beratur nak naik bus. Sempat lagi ambik gambar.

As close as we can get to the animals.

Dalam bus. Those ex-ppp, kenal mamat yang kiri sekali tu?

Antara animals yg ada kat sini

Boleh tengok lion dekat2.

End of cuti-cuti Australia part 1. Next, part 2 pegi jauh sikit. Tunggu..tengah compile gambar..
Entry will have lots of 'asyik-asyik-gambar-family-dia-jer' ..he..he.. so if you are okay with that.. stay tune for part 2. Chow.

Taufiq in action...

2006-06-19T04:14:00.000+02:00