let me be me and you be you

​

We are always kelam-kabut on weekday mornings because a) I always wake up late b) Idris wake up late c) I only like to iron clothes in the morning d) I sleep early the night before and too tired to do anything else. Nevertheless, that time frame between 630am to 700am is the time I cherish the most. This is the time where my eldest will hold my hand a little bit tighter as we walk to the car and on our way to his school we'd listen to his favourite songs. Or mine. Note: the other day he was shocked to hear a Queen Latifah song – only because his class teacher's name is Latifah. :)

During this drive I'd also take the chance to learn more about my son – what are you eating in school, who are your friends (why am I always worried if he has friends or not), is anybody bullying / taking your money, which teacher is most evil etc. It is a terrifying feeling the minute I leave my son in school – but these days I just tell myself, let go let go. I can only do some much for my boy.

I'm turning 39 tomorrow. I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Or cry harder.

(random thoughts about my lil' man)

 

Dessert for lunch.

Had dessert for lunch last week. This is the Belgian waffle with almonds from Nutmeg. Didn't have much appetite that time and Nutmeg's menu is pretty much on the high side anyway. The waffle is pretty good though.

​Staring at my dusty leather shoes I am transported back to when my late father used to make polish ALL his shoes every other weekend. I hated the chore because the smell of the shoe polish nauseate me and I remember grumbling to myself – why why why – why do people even bother polishing shoes, who's gonna look at them anyway?

 

(random thoughts about my ol' man)

He is 5ive.

Alhamdulillah my youngest turned 5 today! This is the boy who constantly say "you say bad word" whenever we accidentally let out any swear words. Also the kid who would say "I love you" or "I miss you" and hug us at random moments or when you least expected it. 

Alhamdulillah for everything. 

Al-Fatihah to my arwah Baba who passed away on the same date. Imaan and Idris would have been his greatest pride and joy. 

Heat.

Fell asleep like nobody's business today. 

KLpac

Our best investment for the year. Enjoying our weekly excursions at KLPac. Weather these days is pretty crazy though.

Food in JB

Alamak, had this in my drafts but forgot to post it. So we went to SG for the Bon Iver concert last month. We stayed in JB though. On the day we left JB, we had breakfast at Warong Pokok Cherry and I must say the nasi dagang is as authentic as the one at Kubang Pasu, Kota Bharu! Keropok pun sedaaaaap. Semua lah sedap dan murah. Glad we found this place (thanks google!). 

Oh by the way, when we got back to JB after the concert, we didn't know where to eat. So brother Uber dropped us at a Thai restaurant but who wants to eat expensive Thai food when it's close to midnight! Spotted Restoran Banafee so I ordered Nasi Goreng Banafee and it was pretty darn good!

Made jokes about Betty Banafe but few days later Ame told me that er, that place is owned by her husband. Oops! ;p

Food in Ipoh

Had a good break in Ipoh, albeit a short one. Well, any trips with the family outside KL are always good! Glad that we managed to check out some good food in Ipoh.

I'll let the food pics do the talking.

The infamous nasi ganja. Added hati to my dish. With cham ice. 

I call this roti kahwin - just kaya&mentega & roti bakar goodness.

Dinner at Vegas! Chicken chop hainan.
The next day we had breakfast at Hollywood, next to Vegas. (hur hur)
We had chee chong fun & char kue teow (KJ's makcik gemok ckt is still the best though)

One for the road. Nasi ayam Restoran Fuziah known for its crunchy bones and skin.

Kasut

Although I'm the last person you'll see at a premium outlet, we went to JPO anyway during our short trip to JB-SG last weekend.

Got these Rockport x Adidas techonology shoes for cheap!

OK dah.

SG short trip

We went to Singapore on 26th Feb to watch Bon Iver! Booked a place called The Grand Jade Hotel in JB then took train-MRT to get around in SG. Pretty dope short trip because I get to see my bestfriend as well who incidentally managed to get ticket seats right next to ours. 

Hotel room pretty decent for a short stay. Uber's reliability in JB is debatable, but when you have Waze everything is possible!

Current fave

These days I have this obsession with chocolate chip cookies. This one in particular! Geng-geng office yang order. The cookies are soft and the best part is the generous amount of chocolate chunks that you'll find in the cookies.

Can't. Stop. Munching.

opinion

As usual I am the master of unpopular opinions. I am also​ secretly a sucker for bad Malay dramas but let's save that for another day because once I start bitching about Cinta Teruna Kimchi I'm not gonna stop y'all!

 

Anyway, the other day my husband and I went to see midnight show Deadpool (AWESOME MOVIE)  and I was so irked to see Meleis couples (saw two) bringing their babies to the cinema. Dude do you not see what's wrong with this picture here?

 

a. It's almost midnight

b. The babies were below six months old

 

Even if the kids were below 2 yo,

​WHAT THE HELL MAN?!? And why do you need to bring those babies to the cinema at this goda​wful time? Your babysitter died? Your parents hate your kids? You just had to watch that movie or else you'll combust?

why

WHY

WHYYYYYYY

 

I know it's none of my business but I was so annoyed that when one of the mothers (I nearly typed monsters haha) walked in front of me I just had to mutter (loudly) under my breath "kesian baby". I'm sorry but this is so not ON wei.

 

That is all.

Note to self: Never go to Sunway Lagoon then go to work the next day. i is tired.

 

Gold chili and yee sang

I remember when I first heard of gold chili's infamous butter chicken, I decided to cook my own and it tasted pretty darn good! Not sure if the husband remembered it though... Anyway, this butter chicken is his favorite dish. When I first tasted it I was like wait this tastes just like what i made! Except I sprinkled cili padi on my dish to minimize the jelak-ness of the cream. Their bihun goreng is pretty darn good too.

Below is my second yee sang for the year. I love love love yee sang. Had this at China Treasures Sime Darby (also my favorite dim sum place) but adeh, so slow the service. The restaurant captain was like we apologize for the delay but our dim sums are fresh bla bla bla. I was barely listening. I mean, if your restaurant is always jam packed you should at least manage our kitchen eh?

Took us an hour and a half for us to finish our food - the dim sum came one by one, one by one... -_-

#girlboss

If you ask me, the transition from being a normal staff to a superior is a tough one. I mean, you took this long to climb up the corporate stairs and the minute you're a step in the 'mid-to-high management level' team you secretly wish that you're back to square one again. 

People say I'm too nice and we all know leaders are not nice. Then you need to face the change of peers who should not longer be your friends because hey they should listen to you now. Then you gotta face bigger responsibilities, because boo-hoo you need to manage your team or else.

There is so much to do, to learn, to be calm about, to make mistakes, to fall and get up again. I'm guessing this teething period will pass, sooner or later.

I'm on MC today which was completely unheard of back when I was just a normal staff. Sigh.

I scream for ice cream

I'm at this phase where I need to scream at the boys whenever they don't listen to me or when I need their attention. Not proud of it. :(

This weekend Idris had to be neb-ed for 5 minutes, he is much better now. 

Imaan, is doing okay although we are getting flabbergasted with his tantrums.

Imaan's typical face whenever he meets strangers. ^_^

Jom makan maggi at The Manna

Hi-jacked Serene's plan for a quiet and solitary lunch yesterday because she was having Korean! This is one of her favorite cheap eats in Plaza Damas which I've been wanting to try for a while.

It's a quaint place right next of Canteen, near Aji Don Alley. Speaking of Canteen, they serve the best carbonara with salted egg yolk. So sinful! 

I assume this place is owned by a Korean couple but they were busy at work training Bangladeshis. -_- Oh well. 

Ordered shin ranmyeon (which you can get at any convenient stores - it was the cheapest on the menu haha) but I like their side dishes! Rolled eggs with carrots and such, kimchi and chopped fish ball. I've tasted kimchi better elsewhere but who am I to judge - I ain't Korean!

 :)

Syafiq Danial

“You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” 
― Anne Lamott

Rakuzen

Lunched at Rakuzen today! I'm a Sushi Zanmai kinda gal so today I decided to try some beef teppanyaki! Aiyak, forgot the name (tsk tsk) but the beef was so tender. I like the garlic fried rice better at SZ but Rakuzen's version is not too shabby either.

Had my first yee sang/loh sang for the year too. More to come I presume.

Best9

Oh look, most liked photos on IG in 2015. The top left photo is actually an IGvideo of Park Chanyeol's family restaurant. Mesti EXO fangirls yang banyak like ni. :)

Economy is set to bad this year. I know we said the same thing last year, but this year nobody's giving out positive house views about how things will hold up. Not holding my breath about the bonus this March. Sigh. 

Breakfast today

Salah satu daripada breakfast kegemaran saya. Kueh teow goreng makcik gemok at FAM Kelana Jaya. Hold the taugehs please! :)

How they sleep

salmon marinara

You can say that this is one of my favorite comfort food. But only if it's salmon marinara you can find at Souled Out. Sedap d'owh. The salmon portion is generous too. 

FB be gone

​For some unexplainable reasons (does every decision-making requires a reason?) I decided to suspend my FB account. I was beginning to feel that I'm becoming highly dependent on FB (reason one); I tend to believe everything I read (reason two) and god, why does everything has to go viral first in order for us to be aware of things (reason three). But I guess you tend to miss out on things as you go, like the eating on diaper fiasco [ROLL EYES] or some lipan crawling into some kid's ear [only because I don't read newspapers].

But who needs viral news when you have abang nara to keep you updated on the latest gossip retis!

But I do miss posting photos and gloating about my children though. Tee hee.

Donate!

In case if you're in the 'hood - they accept diapers, ready to eat items, water, baby formula, chocolates, diapers (not to be used as party plates ho ho ho), sanitary pads and boxed milk. coffee/tea/2-in-drinks also can.

test

​test test

not sure if this blogger update via email still works.

 

peace!

 

The red beanbag

Celebrated our big boss' birthday last week. The Red Beanbag is his personal choice so ikut je lah. It's located at Publika, and if you look down from this restaurant's balcony you can see my husband's poem in one of Publika's walkways.

My boss' favorite dish. Some sort of lamb stew. It comes with roti canai but ask for garlic bread. Sedap dimakan! 

This is my salmon wedged between egg benedict and potato rosti. It was okay.

The food is so-so but i ordered iced mocha (a favorite these days) and wow! I'll definitely be coming back for the coffee.

Day 1 of thankfulness

Vegetarian lunch at Ganga Cafe. The wall behind the cash counter is finally complete! 

Ewa di Penchala

Makan di Ewa today. If you know Sambal Hijau in Penchala, then just down the road you can find Ewa Chinese Cuisine. Orang tidak ramai di sini, which I don't know why because their deep fried squid in salted egg yolk and chicken kungpao are very very nice! We earlier went to some ayam kukus place in Damansara Perdana (I think) but the queue was long. Ana Patin House was equally packed so Ewa it is. 

Chicken Kung Pao with Arlo, as illustrated by my husband.

You get free tofu if you order the chicken set. On the right is the much loved squid.

Nearing 7

My first-born wore his Standard 1 uniform (bought only yesterday, mind you) for his assessment test today. Yup, same kid who’s had so many adventures in the hospitals, same kid who broke his brother’s tooth, same kid who just recently recovered from a bad case of eczema.

Next year he’s standard 1 already! So bummed I couldn’t be there for him this morning because I had an event that I couldn’t wiggle myself out of. While we constantly feel sorry for ourselves for not being able to send him to a private school we do hope that he will do well. I’m gonna wait until the day before his official 1^st day of school to cut his hair because to quote what I just read from an article titled ‘Why I Don’t Want to Cut My Son’s Hair’:

“Because ultimately, I just don’t want that kid to grow up.”

That’s completely true.

This afternoon at Jaya, I saw a former singer with his frail mother. She can still walk, but he was holding her hand and not a single moment did he ever let go. “I hope my sons will grow up to be like him,” I said to myself. Not as a singer, but as good men who will continue to care for me even when I’m too old to be cool.

Ah, Ibu getting melancholic. Can’t wait to get home to hug my Rumi today. 

Abang Rumi probably half awake here. <3