tidak mahu berkawan

Nate is Frankie
Originally uploaded by natinski

34 weeks. And still counting. I’m tired, I want 2 weeks of MC like other expecting mommies now. Over the weekend, I met some friends at Chawan (so-so place by the way, we all know we're paying for the ambiance, not the food). They were attending a reading organised by a long-time friend and I have not seen some of them since masa bujang! How time flies. Suf sudah beruban (kih kih), Ru pula sudah menjadi seorang yang unrecognizable with that scruffy hair (sarcasm still intact though), Azwan masih seperti dahulu walaupun signature hat-nya sudah tiada and ada budak Singapore gila sorang ni semakin vogue (tapi speed percakapan masih laju seperti bullet train). All is good anyway.

Kami dipersalahkan kerana tidak mahu menggunakan Fesbuk untuk berinteraksi. Banyak event2 yg kami ketinggalan & karya2 agung teman2 kini hanya boleh didapati secara eksklusif di Fesbuk. My friends even threatened to stop sending me their photos but will post them at fb instead so that I'll be forced to join fb.

Aergh taktik keji! Bleargh. But that's okay. I am a social hermit by choice these days (make that for the past 8 months).

p/s: Hamster kakak ipar aku sudah beranak (twins!). Debaran semakin memuncak.
p/ss: I think I need a haircut.

Friday morning guilty pleasure

Aku ada satu rahsia. Radio station I listen to on my way to work on Fridays is Suria FM sebab ada Kak Vee! She/he is febelez y'allz.

Sent via BlackBerry from Maxis

Sometimes ppl can just be so gross. Let me tell you a story. Kisah benar, I don’t make stories up.

You know the food island at Cold Storage KLCC? Ada jual potato salad, fries, fried chicken dan pelbagai juadah makanan lagi. So we wanted to buy the fried chicken. Nampak sedap. But masa tu ada wanita tua ni was standing in front of the fried chicken area sambil bercakap dengan kuat on the phone. Fine. Apa yang tak fine is that - At the same time, tau tak tangan dia buat apa? Tangan dia sedang kutih/cubit cebisan2 ayam goreng dan terus masuk mulut dia, macam makan popcorn. Selamba je dia makan! There were too many ppl around so if you walk past her, you wouldn’t notice her doing it.

Kami agak tergamam dengan situasi ini. We could have told the security and let the security drag her sorry ass (and dirty fingers) out of Cold Storage but man, we were just too stunned to do anything. Ada jugak orang macam ni!

Perhaps ini adalah tanda that the economy is really bad now? (tapi banyak jugak orang gi shopping like dapat bonus 10 bulan kan? Membeli hadiah hari jadi untuk diri sendiri seperti aku doesn’t count okay. La la la)

I’m doing a little homage for my late father on my Twitter today. Sudah 7 tahun dia meninggalkan kami. Kadang-kadang aku panik apabila aku lupa certain things about him. Dalam memori aku Baba akan kekal dalam uniform referee FAM warna hitamnya, sambil meniup wisel dan melayangkan kad merah. Setiap tahun berlalu, dia semakin jauh, dia tidak datang dalam mimpi aku lagi walaupun ada waktu jantung ini akan tersentap apabila terpandang lelaki yang iras-iras wajahnya. My father-in-law namanya BabaH, which is a good thing – sekurang-kurangnya ingatan aku pada my real Baba tidak lenyap (walaupun I must admit, apabila nama BabaH disebut, dunia ini terhenti seketika).

Jadi Ba, if I could layangkan sehelai nota ke syurga sekarang, I want you to know that I miss you terribly. I’m in good hands now. Roy is a good husband (he may not be a superhero like you tapi he’s doing his best!) and tak lama lagi I’m going to be a mother. I wish you could be there for me to tell me that everything will be alright. Thank you for this strength that I inherited from you and I hope all my doa to you diterima.

Al-Fatihah.

click to enlarge

Bersalah-nya rasa apabila gagal mengingati tarikh lahir arwah Baba.

Nothing much to report. No wait, I want to gloat sekejap. My road tax dah siap! 2 weeks early kali ini (my road tax will expire on my birthday – 25th March). Selalunya few days before or after it expires baru akan dapat terima road tax. Sebab apa? Because I have to get my bank to do it for me (which is in Berangan or Banting or something don’t ask me why my bank is there) and the bank uses the lousiest courier service! Mesti my road tax tak sampai.

So I decided to try myeg.com.my this year. Ala yang ada iklan Maya Karin tu. It was so easy! Say like if semalam I renew the road tax, today sudah dapat. But of course you have to bayar your saman trafik first, renew insurance (which can also been done online) then head over the myeg then settle. Phew, lega. Hurray me dum dee dum.

I have another ante-natal class tomorrow. Lately I’ve been missing my Queen Mother (nenda di Kota Bharu) sana – I’m not sure why.

I survived my prenatal exercises class. Or to put it mildly a la my husband "Gila babi bapak penat" (ok he doesn't speak that way but uhm, yeah, those are some of his favorite terms - harap2 Little Yakuza won't turn into a swearbox mwahaha). Dengan kaki yang senantiasa bengkak, rasa macam mahu menangis apabila ada gerak exercise yang melibatkan kaki.

Alamak it's almost 11pm (jangan percaya time stamp di bawah). Esoklah kita sambung.

Seksanya nak bayar saman trafik.
Kali ke-3 singgah ke kaunter trafik baru dapat bayar saman:
1. Called balai polis TTDI to ask for the nearest place to pay saman - dia kata The Curve (polis kata it's only open from 10am to noon on weekends). Macam hampas, I went to there at 10:30am, turns out they are open from 2pm-8pm on weekends!
2. Went there again at 5pm. Abang polis pergi solat. *bangs head to the wall*
3. Terkejar-kejar kembali ke kaunter by 7:10pm. Takut abang polis pi solat lagi. He's there yay! Reluctantly parted with RM360.

Lepas ni aku janji aku tak park illegally / langgar lampu merah / obstruct traffic lagi!

The new Komikoo is finally out! Lama gila okay tunggu this issue. Worth the wait though because the paper quality sudah tidak flimsy lagi. Do get it at the your nearest bookstore. Orang Singapura mahu satu copy kah? Do email me okay. :)

p/s: Surat bonus masih belum kelihatan. Aergh the suspense will kill us all at the office.

Dah, aku sudah tahu macam mana rasanya ditikam dengan pedang samurai (yang tembus ke belakang). Try having gastric when you're pregnant! Semalam mmg meraung guling2-lah (at that time belum tahu aku kena gastric, sbb dah lama tak kena pun). Masuk tido at 10pm, then by midnight baru dapat melelapkan mata with the stabbing pains. By 2am wooo wa sudah tak tahan la, called hospital, MO said it may be gastric, but since takde ubat kat rumah, terus ke Emergency.

Mmg agak seram apabila keseorangan dalam labor room (R was on his way up masa tu) and yang hanya kedengaran was the baby's heartbeat. Macam bunyi degupan jantung Edgar Allan Poe. Or perhaps, bunyi tapak kuda and orang melompat-lompat upstairs (when you know there's nothing up there ala2 cerita seram). Then bila baby bergerak, bunyi macam dia tengah susun furniture. Geli hati pun ada.

By 4.30am we left the hospital (terima kasih Dr. El dan staff nurses yang sangat membantu) and sempat singgah McD for breakfast. Mmg gastric. Aduh, the pain was unbearable, tak sanggup to go through it again (alamak ini belum labor pains lagi ni).

baby obama!

baby obama!
Originally uploaded by natinski

Wah bila webmaster at the office kasi kelonggaran sahaja, everybody is busy checking their FB. In my case, I’m just scrambling to tweet or flickr. I am boring that way i know. Kami sebenarnya sedang tertanya-tanya tentang status our bonus this year (it’s supposed to come out this month tapi masih sepi tanpa khabar berita). I have a list of things to do with the money. Shared my list with R and terkedu sekejap apabila sang suami bertanya, “so what are you planning to get for Little Yakuza*?”. Alamak lupa pulak tentang future samurai dalam perut ini. Okay I shall put aside some money for a trust fund then okay. Insya_Allah.

* OK from now on baby will be known was Little Yakuza. Pergerakannya menusuk isi perut umpama pedang samurai sekarang ini (i’m in my 3rd trimester now – huuu takut!).

Me: Where are you...
R: Kat sini ha, I park belakang mini van, belakang Proton Hijau, belakang kereta etc etc.
Me: I can't see you!
R: Jalan depan sikit. I nampak perut you!
Me: Nggh.

Now, let’s see if I can write about my recent flight experience as faithful as possible. Last weekend we took a flight to Langkawi (dengan Air Asia lah apa lagi) – masa dah nak boarding, they asked whether I dah isi borang pengakuan pregnant (which I haven’t, but we have surat doctor just in case. Lagipun I was almost 27 weeks pregnant last week and letter is upon request only). Pada awal-nya kami kiasu nak berebut seats, but end up we were the last (nasib baik flight tak penuh). Mana taknye, the staff yang janji nak bagi form kepada kami hilang entah ke mana and end up kami terpaksa tanya sendiri at a different counter for the borang. Fine. We didn’t miss the flight or anything.

Sampai ke Langkawi, we had lots of fun under the sun – tour de Kilim Geoforest, naik cable car, makan di The Loft, lepak di pantai, shopping chocolates etc. Then hari Isnin datang, oh masa untuk pulang ke KL!

Sampai di airport untuk check-in, aku tanya siap2 for the borang pengakuan pregnant. Puan berapa bulan? 27 weeks. Ada surat doctor? Ada. The staff tengok the surat doctor and geleng kepala. She said surat doctor kena ada 7 days validity (mine was written 2 weeks before) and asked my doctor to fax a new one to Langkawi – or else tak boleh board.

Okay, fine. Except for one problem – KL tengah cuti Thaipusam! So we ask them, what’s the big deal, masa nak fly from KL nobody asked for a freaking surat doctor. Tambahan pula, kalau ikut regulations Air Asia, if you’re 27 weeks pregnant, you can still fly with them without doctor’s letter pun takpe. Bollocks. They asked me to go to counter customer service to sort out this matter.

You know, saat2 genting macam ni (I really don’t want to miss my flight) one would expect the staff to be supportive to help us. Instead ini yang terjadi (dengan staf Air Asia Si Muka Kelat yang mungkin gaji tak cukup):
1. Still tak boleh fly – tambahan pula apabila borang pengakuan mengandung dari KL tiada di tangan kami
2. Surat doctor tetap kena reject
3. Kena cari doctor di Langkawi to get a new letter
4. Oh, naik je teksi yang ada kat luar airport tu – tapi kena drag luggage sekali sbb AA tak offer nak tolong jagakan barang
5. Kalau miss flight, kena bayar penalty (walaupun kami gila kiasu sampai di airport awal)
6. Dan oh, oh, bayar the difference ya kalau the next flight is more expensive than the flight we’re supposed to board
Wow, rasa macam masuk Amazing Race pula. Aku sudah mula meninggikan suara apabila dia memberitahu kami tetap tak boleh fly: “So what are you going to do to help us here?!?”.

Tapi kami bukan jenis yang agresif – I know some of you would probably throw a hissy fit by then. Baby dalam perut mula stress seperti ibu-nya. Nak tak nak, terpaksa kami cari doctor di luar (thank God we still have our rented car masa tu) and found Klinik Delima. Doctor Yus kata this is not the first time orang kena macam ni – mmg susah nak fly back to KL without the right documentation (adakah ini satu sindiket untuk memaksa orang KL jadi orang Langkawi?). Dapat surat, terus rush balik ke airport.


This is our rented car. Gila p0rny!

But our misery didn’t end there. Si Muka Kelat itu masih mahu charge kami penalty dan pay for the cost difference – unless we have the letter from KL. Penat aku geledah luggage yang confirm tiada surat itu. Saat itu aku sudah raise my voice sekali lagi pada Si Muka Kelat itu “Kot ye pun nak kami bayar, you don’t have to be rude!!!”

What happened next was a blur. Si Muka Kelat asked me to quickly follow him, and minta R scan bags (walaupun kami dah scan the bags masa mula2 sampai tadi). Aku fikir, oh great, now he’s sending me to deal with his superior pula. Instead, we’re now back at the check-in counter, bags ditimbang semula, dan was asked to isi bukan 1, tapi 2 borang pengakuan mengandung. Tanpa apa2 explanation atau apologitika atau a clue whatsoever of what’s gonna happen next, kami diminta ke Gate 4 dengan cepat. Eh? Didn’t we miss our 9:50 am flight already? (it was already close to 11am ketika itu). Even the police kat departure gate thought the 950 plane dah blah.

Next thing we knew we were back in line untuk board flight – the 9:50am flight was delayed! Syukur pada Tuhan. Sungguh ajaib. Cuma masa nak masuk dalam aircraft aku kena tahan lagi. Air Asia lupa nak mintak RM10 from us for the luggages! Banyak betul dugaan (and cikadak).

Itu jelah pengalaman saya untuk kali ini. Should we lodge a report? We could, considering all the crap we had to go through. Tapi Air Asia adalah satu-satunya aircraft yang bukan sahaja no frills, but NON-APOLOGETIC either. A little common courtesy would be nice. Is that too much to ask? Tak mengapa. I’ll just post it here, for everyone to read and learn. I really hope they'll improve their customer service in Langkawi because honestly, they all suck.

[by the way, tiba di KL, aku sangkut lagi dan terpaksa bermalam di rumah in-laws : BATERI KERETA AKU MATI!!! Aergh!]

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
*flu / kaki bengkak / baby I. Yakuza practicing aikido dalam perut / rambut serabai*

Maybe later I'll write about my horrible experience with Air Asia last week.

Bila berlaku peperangan je, semua orang mahu baca puisi.

Jaya Jusco, Alpha ANGEL. Semalam.
(haha dulu masa zaman sekolah, member2 mesti sebut "angel". Used to drive me crazy all the time)

Here's why you should never tell your stay-at-home mom that your current favorite drama Melayu is the same as hers.

Semalam I was about to watch the final episode of Laila Majnun on TV9 and my mom blurted out the ending of it. Rupa-rupanya she has seen LM earlier in the evening. "Mother! How could you....", merajuk la saya kejap.

Pffttth.

First of all i must apologize to a Rosmaynni Jamali for using this visual without permission. I didn't bring my camera yesterday (actually I can't remember where I put it hee hee) and my google search brought me to this pic - I think this thing is called teko basuh tangan.



So anyway, I was at a wedding in Seremban yesterday. Sat in front of a lady and her family. Mamat2 caterer were a bit slow untuk clear-kan meja and ganti air basuh tangan. So this makcik in front me (agaknya dah fed-up menanti air basuh tangan yang lambat sampai) telah membuka bahagian bawah bekas bangun tangan (ya bahagian yang ada air bekas orang lain basuh tangan)

and dipped her hand into it. Like, euw gross!

I was already eating halfway but after seeing her did that, rasa geli tekak sikit but aku teruskan juga makan.
Sigh. There's always something amusing to comment about when you go to weddings.

Especially bila wedding tu ada MC kenduri kahwin yang syok sendiri. Haihh, buat bingit telinga je. Sekian terima kasih.

Siapa yang google BAMBAM dikira disqualified. Oh I should have told you yesterday kan. But ada satu minah kiasu di Kota Singapura yang tidak lena tidur akibat gambar ala-ala sex toy itu (sex toy tang mana aku tak tahu la) sanggup menelefon aku today (after her last SMS from the barrage of SMS-es last night went unanswered) dan memberitahu jawapannya yang tepat sekali. Yes. It is a baby horn, satu alat tradisional dari Holland untuk mendengar degupan jantung bayi.

Terima kasih Lisa for the gift! Saya sangat terharu. Belum test lagi. Need to figure out kedudukan baby dulu. Esok ada check up untuk minggu ke-25. Baby I. Aulia (nama-nya bertukar setiap hari) sangat aktif sekarang. The other day kita kasi dia layan lagu Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics. Respons bagus daripadanya (atau adakah Baby I. Aulia tidak suka lagu itu?). Respond terhadap permainan video Patapon di PSP juga mendapat mendapat respon hangat. Apa lagi yang dia suka – Hikayat Putera Shazlan; lagu2 rock kapak dan cerita-ceriti dendangan ayahanda-nya; suara anak buah aku Anis (she’s the only niece who likes to say hello to the tummy); among other things.

Tapi dia tidak suka jeritan bos aku yang gemar meninggikan suara setiap masa. But that’s okay. I tell my tummy today, jangan layan sangat suara perempuan xxxx itu. Nanti bila lahir, jadilah seorang insan yang berani dan tabah hati okay! Or something like that. Sat gi kalau ter-deliver prematurely kang, siap-lah, aku nak saman minah tu!

Siapa boleh teka apakah alatan ini maka dia lah yang paling terror!

Nota: Tidak dibikin di Malaysia.