Mothers

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/6/21/nation/11520231&sec=nation

 

My head felt like exploding after reading the news about the child who died because his mom forgot that he was sleeping in the car and left the kid there for several hours. I'm not a perfect mother either, sometimes I let my kids do the impossible (because I believe in allowing the kids to explore the world, be free, run wild et al) but mothers who are negligent, mothers who literally dump their kids for other people to care for and abusive mothers are the types that make my blood boil.

 

I'm gonna go read happier news now. Super Junior is coming out with a new album in July hey!

He's right, it's an unproductive day for me at work because I took a half day off in the morning. Did you guys go to Jason Mraz' concert last night? Felt the love?

 

I just realised that I can't seem to cough up a proper pensée if I don't post without a photo. So here's a photo from Japan 2010. Which has no connection to what I'm writing right now whatsoever. Motif.

 

Kinda miss Japan's vibrant colors I guess.

 

Just sharing what I normally browse when I'm bored at work.

(gua tengah bosan ni, play along)

1. allkpop
2. seoulbeats
3. thedailymail
4. martha stewart
5. agoda
6. friedchillies
7. google reader (okay that covers about 50+ blogs a day)

er, that's about it. and oh, ohbulan.com when I'm in the mood for some inane local entertainment gossip. (get well soon remy ishak). lol.

GF1

Boss: Remember when I told you to pursue photography to the fullest if it's your hobby?
Me: Yes?
Boss: Now I want you to stop. Stop buying cameras, Nate!

So I have many cameras! Big deal! It's not like they cost millions!
But the latest one I got as an anniversary gift - the Lumix GF1 - is my current favorite. I still have a soft spot for my Lumix LX5 but this one, not only a hadiah dari suami from the heart (huhu) but the pancake lens is spectacular.

Now if only I have the discipline to sort the photos...

suami

Awesome husband. Equally awesome father. My husband always ask me if my arwah father is still around, would he like him? Yes, without a doubt.

Hai dari Serai

We celebrated Father's Day at Serai, Empire yesterday. A good restaurant with good food, good waiters and good host are hard to come by these days. Didn't take lots of pic food because er, I was starving and ate everything. Paling jealous tengok Rumi's fried rice with chicken satay. We've only been here twice but the food is great.

 

Kebetulan we sat next to a table of a big family celebrating father's day and a birthday as well. Sang along. Then came a lady and her daughter to share the cake with us. It was actually a primary school friend from Kota Bharu. She recognised me! Unbelievable.

 

Also bumped into my close uni friend J, who quit her job to care for her three kids and pursue her Masters. So envious of people who are going back to school. Arwah Baba always said to continue my studies, at least Masters, but yes, I fucked up. When the time is right, I'll go back to school. Yes, jom.

masak-masak

Apparently I have become obsessed with perfecting my chicken chop. Fine, I've only tried cooking it twice (first time with hubby's help). However, fresh chicken dipped in bread crumbs definitely taste better than ready-to-fry ones. but now that Food Foundry's chicken chop taste better than mine, I am thinking of ways to perfect the chicken without bread crumbs. Hmm. And russet potatoes fried with chilli olive oil? DA BOMB.

 

So last night we signed and sealed the design to our new kitchen! Exciting stuff. Can't wait to start cooking again - the recipe books are getting dusty I tell ya. So now no excuses lah not to cook eh?

 

Ok bye.

Me, soon.

Sent via BlackBerry from space. Not sorry for typos and brevity.

Mama

This year alone Mama has suffered a mild stroke, was admitted over the weekend for low potassium and now as we speak she's being rushed to the hospital after having suffered an epilepsy (which could be a stroke-related epilepsy).

We will get through this. 

new leaf

June will be a busy month for me. No wait, it's already June! I normally rant about work being a bitch in December or November but this year it looks like June will be the reigning terror for me. Oh well. You gotta do what you have to do.

 

This morning I gave my sister a parenting advice. Wow me, all grown-up. But I think it was an advice to life in general. I've always been a firm believer for two things:

1. What you give you get back - I believe in the power of sadaqa (give it a try)

2. Think positive and only positive vibes will come to you

 

But thinking positive is a daunting task that only the right mindset can achieve. I may be positive half of the time, but most of the time I forget to think positive.. which makes me a loser quarter of the time. Heh.

 

Now that I have a new layout (thanks @liy) there's no excuse for me not updating this space anymore. WAE DON'T I SAY THIS ALL TEH TIME. Having a love-hate relationship with twitter right now. Remember how blogging used to be exclusive? Remember how writing is all about expressing/sharing your thoughts without a care in the world about who's reading it? Blogging imho is not just about telling the world about how awesome you are, it's about embracing your flaws and having the guts to deal with it. Yeah let's go back to that.

 

Let's go back to loving and healing (with self-censorship along the way).

 

MWA-HA-HA.

 

 [photo using LX5 | shoes by korean designer Tiamo]

the weekend cure

 (while I wait for the new colleagues to come in...)

Perhaps we finally found the formula for a good weekend.

• Saturday: Belasah habis: Shopping; visit Mama; run errands etc.
• Sunday: Duduk rumah diam-diam: Clean house, go crazy with the kids; catch up on k-drama.

(yes notice that 'cooking' is not in the itinerary hehe)

Yesterday's dessert from My Elephant, Section 17

So yesterday I had Thai food, and today my colleagues and I headed to Nirwana and had froyo for dessert.

Dieting is never an option for me. But trying to cut down on food is also a Goliath battle of its own. 

So, right now, for a start, I've started playing badminton on Thursdays. I haven't figured out what to do with the rest of the week but I guess badminton is a start.

I have never been concerned about my weight, but it's hard to shut everybody up ("ehhh, dah bersemangat awak sekarang!") and going to stores and they don't have your size can be a little too much to bear at times.

In the meantime, I look forward to see the end-result for @amirhimself who has taken on the NST weight loss challenge. It's hard work, this losing weight business.

Now what should I have for dinner tonight?

the talented Audrey Kawasaki

Layan feeling blues, coz 2 of my colleagues' last day is tomorrow.

People say friendship lasts forever, so here's to another chapter to our lives. I don't see them as leaving, I see this as a road that suddenly diverges... yada yada you know the flow, pick up robert frost you know how this works. I've lost too many colleagues for the past 4 years in this industry and I'm blessed to have them as good friends outside the office.

okay I go layan k-pop now. heard that showdown tonight will cover k-pop. hwaiting! ~

Photo credit: The talented Audrey Kawasaki

Thought about Neri when I saw this.

iPhone cover at Tokyu Hands, Yokohama

I have decided that my next camera will be an iPhone. Next year perhaps.

Dinosaurs Alive! Or maybe not.

Took the kids to see Dinosaurs Alive! (yeah it comes with an exclamation mark) at Pusat Sains Negara last Monday.

You know when I was a kid (yes we are skipping a light fandago on memory lane here) there were 2 things that I remember loving. Dinosaurs. And Pusat Sains. Oh add Smurfs too and Jem & the Hologram. I wanted to be an archeologist, I knew all the names to all dinosaurs (my favorite was the Triceratops -- how can you not love the Triceratops? Those massive ceratopsian horns look equally cute on its babies). During my brief elementary years in Kota Bharu, Pusat Sains came to Kelantan for 2 weeks and I WAS THERE EVERYDAY. But of course I never grew up to be an archaeologist, and Jurassic Park ruined everything.

Dinosaurs Alive! was a major disappointment. Yes I do know that there will be big synthetic dinos screaming their lungs out whenever you walk pass them. But I didn't expect that it would be a 5 minutes stroll along a badly lit route which reminds me of a cheap haunted house you normally find at funfairs. -_-

And now I get why Malaysian kids will never dig science. Pusat Sains Negara is falling to pieces. The science stuff hardly work and it's disheartening to see such a giant place be filled with decrepit items (probably the same items I touched back when I was a kid). Geez. Please Malaysia, make science sexy again.

But if you still wanna check out them dinosaurs, do go. Don't say I didn't warn you. 15 bucks for adult, 6 bucks for kid. But I didn't pay for my kid coz I got a coupon off a newspaper the week before. Who needs to watch Extreme Couponing. I've lived in America, we survived on coupons baby!

That is all. I'm feeling like a dinosaur myself today. ArggggghhhHhhHhhHhh.

No parents should ever bury their children but I guess for all of us it would be twice as painful to bury our parents too.

Al-Fatihah to Chah's beautiful mother.

You know how kids tend to give you minor heart attacks on a daily basis?

Last Saturday baby Emre chipped his front tooth coz Rumi jumped on him. I was pretty relaxed about it because I didn't see any blood but my heartbeat was beating like a jungle drum and my head welcomed a headache that wasn't there in the first place. One thing about the si kecik is that he's a tough one, he cried a bit, we took him to the dentist (y'all should really visit Dr. Fauziah & team in Melawati) and everything is back to normal – sans half-a-tooth.

On Sunday I tried to make my kids call me 'boss'. When they are big enough I'll demand a party on Mother's Day for me and my friends. Tee hee. Hope you had the opportunity to tell you mothers how much you love her. Come on, admit it, you don't get to say it often, no?

Happy 3rd birthday Idris Rumi. Go on, break some hearts. Love, Ibu.

Chicken Chop

The family wanted to do an early birthday celebration for kid Rumi (he's turning 3 on the 8th!) so we decided to make chicken chop with brown sauce. My girl Sara C suggested the Mccormick ready-made chicken gravy and 2 hours before making the gravy I found this video on youtube. 


The gravy turned out very good! (I've never made chicken chop before, mind you). We bought the frozen chicken chop (already bread-crumbed) from a shop in Greenwood [Iwani Halal Frozen Food] and it took less than an hour to get everything ready. SIL made her delicious potato salad, and we added veggie balls and fruit cocktail (mixed fruit, susu Ideal with nata de coco) and a Thomas-themed cake. Ta-dah! 


Wait, I'm not sure if 'bread-crumbed' is the right word, but you get my point.


Not looking forward to work tomorrow. The department is in shambles, morales are low (not mine) but it's tough to be positive about work when everybody around you is just so negative. Guess I just have look ahead and keep my head high. I worked so damn hard to get to where I am now. I don't feel the need to apologize for getting the better attention, the better pay or the better bonus, no? Work as a team, but by the end of the day, you still need to push yourself to the limits especially when you have a demanding boss.* 


Enough ranting about work. I cleared my credit card today. My shoulders feel less heavy now. 

* If you can't stand the heat, leave the kitchen. And that's that. 

My husband is awesome because he has in-built GPS Japan system. In KL he is a bit fail when it comes to directions but in Japan, he is awesome-des. He said he's done with Japan and if I want to visit this place again next year, I'm on my own. On my own, with these crazy train lines!?! Die.

So I kinda went overboard with spending at Universal Studios. So unlike me to be wasting so much of my hard-earned money on souvenirs. But to make me feel better, I shall think of it as 'I can do whatever I want with my money I worked so hard to earn them!'. Yeah. Then I realised I have not been to Tokyo, Disneyland and Ghibli Museum. I am officially doomed.