CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Friday, April 29, 2005

Am I asking Too Much?

If you’re gonna love me only when we're having fun, then we have a problem.
If you’re gonna love me only when we agree on everything, then we have a problem.
If you’re gonna make decisions without hearing my side of the story, then we have a problem.
If you’re gonna think me as acting up when we have a disagreement, then we have a problem.
If you think me as “mengada” when in actual fact I’m really hurt, then we have a problem.

I’m not asking you to become a “Pak Turut”. Just want you to be understanding and sensitive to my feelings.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Thursday, April 28, 2005

A Little Bit More About Me...

As if I haven't bored you with enough facts about me and my family. I took this from MaryBishop and she took it from someone else (who took it from someone else, etc, etc, etc). So basically I'm adding on to this insane cycle.

Accent: Depnding to whom I’m talking to, can range from Manglish (malay +English) up to fake Australian Accent
Bra size: Not big enough
Chore I hate: Folding and ironing clothes.
Dad's name: Idris
Essential makeup: Loose powder and chap stick. Is Chapstick even considered make up?Favorite perfume: Anything hubby buys for me.
Gold or silver: Silver. You could give me stainless steel and I would be happy. I’m cheap, like that.
Hometown: Kuala Lumpur
Interesting Fact: My right eye is smaller than my left one.
Job Title: Ass manger...ops, Asst. Manager
Kids: Two and counting.
Living arrangements: House
Mom's birthplace: Rembau..I think.
Number of apples eaten last week: None. But I recently bought some.
Hospital stays: Two births, well three including my own. Two accidents and one food poisoning.
Phobias: Dogs. And transparent lizards.
Question you ask yourself a lot: Does my ass look big in this?
Religious affiliation: Islam.
Siblings: Three younger brothers.
Time I wake up: Depends on what day it is. Weekdays: 6-6.30am. Weekends: As late as noon.
Unnatural hair color: White? Yes, I have white hair *shrieks*
Natural hair color: Black. Though I am a Redhead at heart.
Vegetable I refuse to eat: Brocolli. Yuck!!
Worst habit: Procastinating but I’ve been to therapy (workshops and courses) for that.
X-rays: Quite a lot. Scanning your tummy during pregnancy counts, right?
Yummy food I make: Spegetti and Chicken Rice. I also used to make a freaking delicous cheesecake. Alas, I do not own an oven here.
Zodiac sign: Taurus all the way.
Secret: A relative of mine died of AIDS
Why not tell it all? Why should I? He’s dead, let’s just remember the good times.
Most adventurous feat: Skydiving & Rapid water rafting in Tennesse.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Family Outing - To The Zoo

What we did last week.

Well, as I mentioned in one of my previous post, we had a 4-day weekend to savor. All the things I jotted down in my to-do list...hahahahah...nada, I didn’t do any of them.

Hubby was nice enough to call the plumber to fix the leaking (broken, actually) kitchen tap. Thank god, coz all those drip-drippity-drop noises were driving me mad.

I had planned out exciting activities for the whole family for the four days. Thursday was Visit the Zoo day.

It was rather exciting. I hadn’t been to the zoo in ages. I think the last time I was there, I was about 9. My sister-in-law (who’s been staying with us during her long college holiday) had other plans so we decided to bring the maid along. Initially we had planned to get out of the house at 9.30am, coz the zoo opens at 10am. Hahaha, when you have small kids, getting out of the house is a huge task. Something always comes up when you’re just about to head out of the door.

So, in the end, we ended up at the zoo around 12pm. It was freaking hot, luckily hubby got a shady place to park the car. There was already a long line at the ticket counter so I told hubby to bring the kids under the shade while I lined up to buy the tickets. 10 minutes later and we were all staring at the penguins and big fishes in the aquarium. Man, those fishes are enormous!! We’re talking at least 3 meters long. I forgot what they’re called. I should look it up and name my next child that.

Next, were the monkeys. There was this charming orang utan with her trainer, posing with the visitors for pictures. Alas, no pictures coz Dania was too scared. She was muttering “Monkey big!! Monkey big!!” Well, the last thing I wanted was to give her nightmares, so I let it go. I did get to shake hands with her (her name was Manja) though, so that was cool.

Fact: Did you know that an orang utan has the strength of 3 human adults combined? A slap on the face from an adult orang utan would put you in the hospital with a swollen face for at least 3 days. Believe me, it has happened.

After the monkeys, it was on to the elephants. Dania was excited but I guess she didn’t really expect them to be THAT big. The first 2 minutes, she was just staring at them. After that, she was begging me and hubby to let her get on the elephants. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any elephant rides that day.


Abah and the girls with Mr. and Mrs. Elephant

Next up were the birds. There was this really cool eagle/hawk bird I wanted to get a picture of, but I guess it was already agitated from too many people trying to hold it; it wouldn’t sit still for a pose. So Dania and I took pictures with what Ian Wright would call “Burong Eng-gang”.


Ibu & Dania with Burung Enggang

Mr. Lion was asleep and Mr. Tiger was too busy taking a dip in his pool, so we went straight to the reptile house. Dania lurrvveeed the crocodiles and the snakes. I think she has the talent to be the female Steve Irwin. She was a little freaked out by the iguanas though.

It was nearly 1.30pm at that time, so we all decided to have some lunch. We had ourselves some Merrybrown burgers, which were pretty good actually. It was kind of hard to breastfeed Dina coz of all the commotion, she kept looking up and trying to find out the source of the sounds. But all in all, she was an angel. She hardly cried and seemed genuinely interested with all the animals.

After lunch, we headed off to see the horses, rhinos and giraffes. God, rhinos sure do shit a lot!! No joke!! I’ll never grumble about changing diapers again. Just thank god my kid isn’t a rhino. Sorry, no pictures of rhinos, but we did get some pictures with the horses.


Abah & Dania with Mr. and Mrs. Ed.

The bears were the best part of the trip. I was personally disappointed there were no polar bears (they’re my favorite animals) but we aren’t on an island like in Lost; polar bears don’t live in tropical weather. There were, however, cute sun bears and this gigantic brown bear.


Dania & Yogi bear

The trainer made it stand up on its hind legs and I tell you the bear was at least 2.5 meters high. Wow!!


Give me a high-five!!

After that were the wild boars and flamingos which were really just pissed off at being put in at the end of the road. I mean, after sun bears and gigantic brown bears, how can you stack up with wallowing-in-the-mud faces and standing on one leg. Please people, move along, there’s nothing to see here.

All things considered, I would put the outing as a successful family project. We all got out of the house, and the kids (ok, yours truly included) learn a few things about the animal kingdom.
Needless to say, we were all burned out the next day so Friday until Sunday, we spent in lounging in front of the TV. Maybe next week, we should go to the petting zoo so the kids can experience the animals from up close.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Easter Pictures

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Not that I’ve been extremely busy, just extremely lazy. Anyhow, last Thursday we all went to the zoo. A successful family outing, I must say. Blog entry and pictures will be up soon.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures I took during the Easter festivals. Yes, rather stale but just had to share. If you’re wondering about Dania’s outfit, she’s actually wearing her pajamas. We went out around 8pm (minus Dina coz she was already sleeping) and took in the sights of Melaka (in-laws place) at night. We ended up at Mahkota Parade for dinner at McD. My MIL would have killed me if she knew we ate at a fast food restaurant when she had already cooked so much at home. Bad DIL!!


Who's cuter? Mr. Rabbit or me?


The sign said NO ENTRY but of course I didn't see it until AFTER we had taken the picture.


Abah, look!! Got eggs. Got baby chickens.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Pictures of Innocence

How I sometimes wish I could stop time and keep the girls this cute and innocent.


It won't seem too crowded, if only you would scoot over just a little bit.



Ok, I'll go for the orange bee and you go for the blue one.



Mesmerized by the twirling bees and flowers.

Like I Need A Freaking Online Test to Tell Me This...

Yeah, right. Tell me something I don't know.

Congratulations!
Your Hotlanta Kink Test score was 315!


Here is the chart so that you can see how you are rated:

100 or less: You need to lighten up and live a little!
101 to 200: You have an average sex life in need of kink.
201 to 300: You have sweet hints of a kinky nature.
301 to 400: You are definitely a kinky player.
401 to 500: You are a major league kinkster!
501 to 600: Wow! You're too kinky for most!!!
601 or more: SUPER FREAK ALERT! You da BOMB!

The maximum score for this test is 700.

Are you kinky? Find out here.

Monday, April 18, 2005

So Much Time, Nothing (Fun) To Do

This week is a short week. We have Thursday as a holiday (Maulidur Rasul, Birthday of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.), so naturally everybody’s taking Friday off as well. Yeah, a 4-day weekend!!

What to do?
Where to go?

Budget this month is a bit tight, so no malls. No shopping. Unless it’s for groceries.

Catching up on my sleep sounds nice. But I don’t need four days for that.

Maybe I should start painting the gate. Or rather bug hubby to do it.

Things to do around the house.
1. Clean the fridge
2. Fix the leaking kitchen tap.
3. Paint the living room.
4. Get rid of the plants and buy artificial ones. Less hassle and they don’t turn yellow on you.

Thing I need to buy when I get the budget
1. An MPV (yes, yes, I’ve been harping about this forever. But until I get one, it’ll be #1 on my want list.)
2. A bunk bed for the kids (for when they're older).
3. A new air conditioner for the kids’ rooms.
4. A book case

I’m sure there’s more but I’ll stop here before I go overboard.

Mamamia..tis so true!

Your Inner European is Italian!



Passionate and colorful.
You show the world what culture really is.



I took this link from PoorRoleModel. She's French. What about you?

Thursday, April 14, 2005

An Uncomfortable Situation

So what would you do if someone offered information about themselves that you really didn’t want to know about in the first place? How would you react being in that situation?

Time out: Some background info
Yesterday we had a blood donation drive at our office. Unfortunately, due to my condition (nursing), I was advised not to donate. Good news though, a lot of my colleagues did. Kudos to you all. Each drop of blood means so much.

Back to my situation.

I was waiting at the lift after prayers. Beside me was this lady, around mid 20’s. We smiled and both waited patiently for the lift to arrive. Noticing the blood donation poster plastered near the lift, the lady pointed to it and asked me “Akak tak derma darah?” (Are you donating blood?)

I smiled and said “Taklah, menyusu anak. Doktor advice jangan.” (Sorry, no. I’m breastfeeding. The doctor advised not too.)

Her next statement is something I’ll never truly forget.

“Saya pun nak derma, tapi tak boleh. Doktor tak bagi. Saya termasuk dalam golongan kat sini.” (I want to donate but the doctors advised not too. I’m one of these.)

She pointed to the bottom of the poster. It read

Do not donate blood if you are
v Homosexual
v Bisexual
v Having sex with multiple partners
v Having sex with prostitutes
v Doing drugs and sharing needles

I was stunned. I just stared at her. And gave a faint smile. What was I to do, ask her “which one?”.

Hardly skipping a beat, she proceeded to give me her life story. How she was once wild in her younger life. How she’s no longer like that; that she’s turned over a new leaf. How she sometimes wishes she can turn back the hands of time and do things differently.

God, that lift took forever to arrive!!!

I was getting seriously uncomfortable, I mean, I don’t even know this person.

Well, the lift finally came, we both got on and she got off at the 2nd floor, while I was left to mull over what had happened.

In the car, on the way home, I told this story to hubby.

“Do I look like someone you can share every intimate detail with?”

Hubby looked back. “I’m married to you. I think that entitles me to.”

“Yeah, but what if you weren’t married to me? Would you tell me intimate stuff then?”

“Only if it meant impressing you and getting to know you better.”

“Huh.”

Protecting my Creative Rights

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

When LIfe Throws You Horse Shit..

OK, so I finally finished it. Last week, actually. It took me a while coz really, when you have two active attention-grabbing kids under the age of three, you hardly have any free time to yourself. And when you do find that extra minute to yourself, making sure your nose hairs don’t jut out seems to be a more productive way to use the time.

Anyhow, in between time playing with the kids and playing with hubby (*wink*), I decided to allocate 20 minutes everyday to strain my eyes and complete the puzzle. Coz really, I love doing jigsaw puzzles. No, let me rephrase that..I LURRRVVVEEE doing jigsaw puzzles. I must have an analytical brain coz I love doing mathematics and those logical brain twister kind of puzzles too. I can only accept that 1+1 equals 2. Try convincing me that 1+1 equals3 and I’ll try to run you over with my car.

I finally finished it, no more small pieces in the box, when....WHAT?!! What’s that??!!



A beautiful scenery..but...hmmm Posted by Hello

ARGHHHH!!! There’s a piece missing!!!

I searched high and low for the missing piece. I lined up everyone in the house and asked them “Have you seen my missing jigsaw puzzle? Do you have anything to do with my missing jigsaw puzzle?” Everyone denied being responsible. I have my suspicions on Dania. She’s always taking my stuff without asking me. Plus she would always show up whenever I was in the midst of doing the puzzle and “try” to help.

Well, after a whole day of searching for the missing piece, I gave up. What to do. Just leave it at that.

However, yesterday I found myself looking at the puzzle again. I thought to myself, “Maybe I’ll just frame this as it is. If anyone asks, I’ll give them a philosophical answer: that life is not always perfect. That we may spent our days bent over a job only not be able to reap all the rewards afterwards. That perhaps for once we should stop and look at the bigger picture and instead of noticing the tree has a bald patch, we should notice the beautiful flowers blooming in the garden, the wonderful orange and purple hue the sunset is creating in the sky. We should remember, though life sometimes throws us horse shit, we can either whine and cry or use it as manure and plant blooming flowers in our yard.”

A more descriptive metaphor than the usual “make lemonade out of lemons”, if you ask me.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Weekend Bliss

A quick rundown of what happened over the weekend.

- I got my new maid!! Yeah!! Thank god, the laundry basket was literally overflowing with clothes that needed to be ironed. Yes, I hate ironing. Hate it with all my might. I should put it in my Hate List.

How is she? Well, she’s young. But she has experience. She comes from Pontianak, that’s Kalimantan for you geographically challenged people. She seems rather timid, which is a virtue I hope stays with her. Better to have them timid and quiet, than loud and abrasive. So far, she’s doing ok. One thing for sure, she needs a totally new wardrobe. I’m talking NO MORE TIGHT JEANS and SKIMPY T-SHIRTS!! Hubby was flabbergasted!! He was like “Take her shopping tomorrow. Buy her some long pants!!” Yes, I am bringing her to Giant tonight.

- Bought Dina to her first wedding reception. Hamdi, you should be proud we choose your wedding as the testing ground. Anyway, the fact you guys had it in a hall with central air-conditioning helped also. Picture as below. I’m very happy because

1. I look great. Check out that smile!!
2. Food was nice.
3. Both kids looked cute & behaved like angels.


The Family at Hamdi's wedding. That's Maarof on the far right (ps: he's still single) Posted by Hello

This is what weekends are made for. Family outings. We should really get out of the house more often. Weather being so nice nowadays, perhaps next weekend we should go to the petting zoo. I know the kids would love that.

- It was my hubby’s birthday last Sunday. What did I get him?

Being the ultimate romantic, I bought him a loving present.

SMART TAG!!

Hahahahahah..Oh man. I suck big time.

For those of you who don’t know, Smart Tag is a prepaid device that allows you to pass the toll gates without stopping. It’s mighty convenient to have when everyone else is queuing up at the cash lanes.

Hubby was very pleased. He said it made him feel like driving a Merc going through the Smart Tag lane. :D

Happy birthday Sayang.

Remember, it’s the thot that counts.

Blogger Blunder

Stupid Blogger. I uploaded an entry last Friday and it ate it up. Now I’ve lost the entry and I didn’t save it anywhere. I can tell you it was damn witty but what proof do I have to show for it? Sigh..thanks a lot Blogger.

Anyhow, today I feel extra lazy. So many stories in my head but I’m too lazy to type them down. Type them down..is that even a phrase? Whatever...yawn...

Public Announcement

Belaian Ibu Untuk Ibu/Mothering Mothers
Do something special this Mother's Day. Cheer up mothers who are taking care of their ill-children in hospital. Buy them a gift to warm their hearts. All you need to do is to get the gift, drop it off and the members from MyMomsBest will gladly distribute them for you. Full details available here.

Monday, April 04, 2005

I want my New and Improved Credit Cards

This rant goes out to my bank that starts with an M and ends with a K.

Dear M*****K,

I am just one out of your million users. I understand, I may seem insignificant to you. The amount in my savings account does not warrant me any special treatment from you. It’s not as if I were to pull out all my money, your bank would collapse into bankruptcy and be forced to file Chapter 11. I have that much, or would I say, that little.

However as a paying customer I do expect some respect from you.

Please, don’t send me a letter asking me to pick up my “NEW AND IMPROVED CHIP BASED CREDIT CARDS” from your branch that is gazillions of miles away from my home and office.

Please don’t make my current credit cards with the STUPID MAGNETIC STRIPS unusable without any notice. It is embarrassing having to rummage through my purse searching for lose change to pay the girl cashier at Guardian RM4.60 for a box of Kotex pads that I DESPERATELY need, while having 5 other customers behind me, breathing down my neck.

Please do not just smile and shrug your shoulders when I finally drag myself to your branch and risk the chance of getting a ticket for double parking, only to find that my NEW AND IMPROVED CREDIT CARDS have been shipped back to the main branch.

Please offer an apology when I call up your customer service, tell you my dilema and ask to know where the hell are my NEW AND IMPROVED CREDIT CARDS?

Please don’t repeat the phrase “We’ll shipped them using Pos Laju (Express Post) soon. “ I wanna know when and I wanna know where to.

Please do not add anymore tension this working mother of two is already handling. She already has a zit the size of the watermelon on her forehead and she needs to look nice for weddings this coming weekend.

Friday, April 01, 2005

It's The Weekend. Yeah!!!

TGIF. Let me say that again. TGIF!!!!

As promised, I've posted the most recent pictures of the girls below. Enjoy.

Have a great weekend everyone.


My current wallpaper. Makes coming to work and firing up the PC pleasent.  Posted by Hello


Dania: Hahahaha, Dina's hair is tickling me.  Posted by Hello


My feet are bigger than yours!! Posted by Hello


Taken by their abah. At least both of them are looking at the camera. Posted by Hello


A little drool and lots of teeth make sisterly love Posted by Hello


One's not smiling and the other is not looking at the camera. Sigh... Posted by Hello

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I received this in my inbox this morning. I think the reply best reflects my thoughts on the matter too.

Subject: Female-Led Prayers:A Step Forward for Women?
Question: On March 18, 2005 Amina Wadud led the first female-led Jumu`ah Prayer. On that day, women took a huge step towards being more like men. But,did we come closer to actualizing our God-given liberation?


Content of Reply

This answer was kindly provided by Sister Yasmin Mogahed, a member ofAsk About Islam Editorial Staff. Yasmin is an Egyptian-American journalist based in Wisconsin, USA. She is currently studying for a Master's degree in Journalism.

Salam, Sarah.

Thank you for your inspiring question!
Well, answering your question, I can say that I don't think so. What we so often forget is that God has honored women by giving them value in relation to God not in relation to men. But as Western feminism erases God from the scene, there is no standard left but men. As a result, the Western feminist is forced to find her value in relation to a man. And in so doing, she has accepted a faulty assumption. She has accepted that man is the standard, and thus a woman can never be a full human being until she becomes just like a man the standard.

When a man cut his hair short, she wanted to cut her hair short. When a man joined the army, she wanted to join the army, and so on. She wantedthese things for no other reason than because the "standard" had it.

What she didn't recognize was that God dignifies both men and women in their distinctiveness, not their sameness. And on March 18, Muslim women made the very same mistake.

For 1,400 years, there has been a consensus of scholars that men are to lead Prayer. As a Muslim woman, why does this matter? The one who leads Prayer is not spiritually superior in any way. Something is not better just because a man does it. And leading Prayer is not better just because it is leading. Had it been the role of women or had it been more divine, why wouldn't the Prophet have asked Lady `A'ishah or Lady Khadijah, or Lady Fatimah the greatest women of all time to lead? These women were promised heaven and yet they never led prayer.

But now, for the first time in 1,400 years, we look at a man leading Prayer and we think, "That's not fair." We think so, although God has given no special privilege to the one who leads. The imam is no higher in the eyes of God than the one who prays behind. On the other hand,only a woman can be a mother. And the Creator has given special privilege to a mother. The Prophet taught us that heaven lies at the feet of mothers. But no matter what a man does, he can never be amother. So why is that not unfair?

When asked who is most deserving of our kind treatment The Prophet replied "your mother" three times before saying "your father" only once. Isn't that sexist? No matter what a man does, he will never be able to have the status of a mother.

And yet even when God honors us with something uniquely feminine, we are too busy trying to find our worth in reference to men, to value it or even notice it. We too have accepted men as the standard; so anything uniquely feminine is, by definition, inferior. Being sensitive is an insult, becoming a mother is a degradation. In the battle between stoicrationality (considered masculine) and selfless compassion (considered feminine), rationality reigns supreme. As soon as we accept that everything a man has and does is better, all that follows is just a knee jerk reaction: if men have it, we want it too. If men pray in the front rows, we assume this is better, so we want to pray in the front rows too. If men lead Prayer, we assume the imam is closer to God, so we want to lead Prayer too. Somewhere along the line, we've accepted the notion that having a position of worldly leadership is some indication of one's position with God.

A Muslim woman does not need to degrade herself in this way. She has God as a standard. She has God to give her value; she doesn't need a man here.

In fact, in our crusade to follow men, we, as women, never even stopped to examine the possibility that what we have is better for us. In some cases, we even gave up what was higher only to be like men. Fifty years ago, we saw men leaving the home to work in factories. We were mothers. And yet, we saw men doing it, so we wanted to do it too. Somehow, we considered it women's liberation to abandon the raising of another human being in order to work on a machine. We accepted that working in a factory was superior to raising the foundation of society just because a man did it.

Then after working, we were expected to be superhuman the perfect mother, the perfect wife, the perfect homemaker, and have the perfect career. And while there is nothing wrong, by definition, with a woman having a career, we soon came to realize what we had sacrificed by blindly mimicking men. We watched as our children became strangers, and soon recognized the privilege we'd given up.

And so only now given the choice women in the West are choosing to stay home to raise their children. According to the United States Departmentof Agriculture, only 31 percent of mothers with babies, and 18 percentof mothers with two or more children, are working fulltime. And of those working mothers, a survey conducted by Parenting Magazine in 2000, found that 93 percent of them say they would rather be home with their kids,but are compelled to work due to "financial obligations." These"obligations" are imposed on women by the gender sameness of the modern West and removed from women by the gender distinctiveness of Islam. It took women in the West almost a century of experimentation to realize privilege given to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade myself by trying to be something I'm not, and in all honesty, I don't want to be a man. As women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to mimic men and value the beauty in our own God given distinctiveness.

If given a choice between stoic justice and compassion, I choose compassion. And if given a choice between worldly leadership and heaven at my feet, I choose heaven.