have crocs will umrah

Auntie adalah risau kerana...

....walaupun tak berapa hari lagi auntie nak pergi umrah, auntie bukannya nak pi google doa2 untuk umrah tetapi auntie lebih risau baju dan kasut apa auntie mesti pakai supaya selesa dah bahagia di tanah suci. Dan auntie bercita2 untuk mendapatkan kasut yg di bawah ni:

...dan since mamachupan/ psychomama jugak menggalakkan pembelian kasut ini, auntie pasti bila auntie di airport pada hari Ahad nanti auntie akan grab sepasang in that very colour. Auntie boleh pakai cakap mamachupan kerana dia seorang yg amat sensible walaupun come to think of it, auntie tak sure pulak sama ada mamachupan selalu sensible dalam hal-hal kasut. Yg auntie tahu, auntie memang pantang tengok kasut, so mungkin kah ini cuma satu dugaan Tuhan terhadap auntie yg nak pi umrah ni. Ya Allah, ya Tuhanku, walaupun aku mungkin pakai crocs, kau berkatkanlah ibadahku di Makkah. If crocs is a bad choice, God, please give me the signs before I lose RM129 to a pair of shoes. I will gladly go and get 2 pairs of RM50 ppair of Crocodile sandals instead. Amin...

-auntie yg sungguh serabut kerana kena buat training utk mamat dan minah dari pelbagai negara (yg dijangka akan sungguh banyak karenah) dua minggu yg akan datang ini-

More message for Mommy and Auntie's general updates

Auntie just have this weekend to breathe a bit coz the next few weekends auntie will be working. Tu pun pagi-pagi bangun AH dah kata "nak buat American breakfast untuk Abang?" To AH, apa2 yg ada telur, sausage and bread is American breakfast walaupong telur tu asal dari kedai Ah Huat, bread dari British-based TESCO dan sausage is either Ramly or Ayamas. And it is still American breakfast to him walaupun makan pada pukui 11 malam. Of course jawapan auntie kepada soalan AH ialah, "penat la, bangggg................." Pastu dia akan kata, kalau Sleepyhead or Mommy or the kiddies or psychomama or Samantha or Nyonya etc request, sure auntie akan terus jump and say "ok, with or without chips?". Just shows how he ranked in auntie's life, he would say, pout, pout. OK la, mai pi makan kueteow Pak Wan. Yeaay!

A VERSION OF AMERICAN BREAKFAST

Anyways, talking about American breakfast, auntie nak tambah pesanan auntie to Mommy in hopefully warmer London (hey, check out, it appears that ada sleet kat Penang on Thursday!). If Mommy scroll back to auntie's entry about NOT going to London, ada hint kat situ. Tapi utk menyenangkan Mommy, auntie bagi tau la. Jgn lupa English muffins and crumpets for auntie. Tak kisah la from tesco ke, sainsburys ke mana ke. So, Mommy, before packing on the last day in London, go hunt for auntie's English muffins and crumpets, k?

BTW, auntie sudah get hold of Raymond, our soon-to-be lembut Eurasian (as in portugese- serani, kat Penang depa dipanggil Eurasian) designer-contractor for minor renovations with our apartments. Hopefully, we can set an appointment soon. Bad side of purchasing a property, on Monday auntie will have to pay the bulk of the legal fees. Sad thought, indeed. Tapi yg best, hopefully auntie will soon get back my small deposit on the purchase.

Also, following suit in the footsteps of Sleepyhead and Bro1, auntie is now the proud half-owner of a set of sofa. The other half ownership still belongs to the 88Furniture Shop (yep, that's the name of the shop) because auntie only put a deposit on it to book a sale price and then will only pay for it in full in June when it is delivered (hopefully after renovation finishes).

Hari tu AH bengang ngan auntie coz dia sebenaqnya suka our present lantai but auntie insisted on wood flooring for 75% of the floor. Tapi sleepyhead and umi ina kata, awat nak lantai wood coz present lantai dah cantik. Now auntie bagitau kat AH, kita buat wood flooring in bedroom and lounge only la coz the two sisters said lantai dah cantik. AH kata, itulah yg dia dok bagitau auntie tapi auntie tak nak dengar. Tup2 duorang ni cakap, terus auntie jump and tukar decision. Where's de partnership in this, he asked? Hehehehe. Solly la dahling. Nanti ida bagi abg buat dealing ngan Raymond, OK? Dia sure suka abang yg ala2 hensem tu.

Cakap pasai orang lembut, semalam auntie sms our long-term car insurance/ road tax lembut agent, Sam (hehehe, what a coincidence with the Sam from 2+1 sit-com long time ago, which will only be remembered by people born before 1980). Tiap2 tahun since we bought our car, Sam's been doing this for us. Very efficient and good service. Auntie just called, tunggu kat opis and give all necessary documents and money, and presto, 3-4 days later siap and delivered in person to office. Thank God for people like Sam. Bukan macam airport taxi driver last night yg so rude and bengong (but this is an entry for my other shared and less-known idiot ranting blog).

OK, AH dah suruh mandi nak pi makan kueteow Pak Wan.

Babai.

A very short messsage for Mommy

Auntie is going crazy with work so auntie is only going to give Mommy a short message and hoping she reads auntie's blog from ole and surely blustery London.

If Mommy wants to gift (sic) auntie with books, here are the options according to the order of what auntie wants most:

Selves, Persons, Individuals: Philosophical Perspectives on Women and Legal ...

By Janice Richardson

Legal Feminism: Activism, Lawyering, and Legal Theory

By Ann Scales

If Mommy can buy all four for auntie, auntie will reimburse on the ones that Mommy does not consider gifts for auntie and auntie will be eternally grateful.

Enjoy the rest of the days in London and hope Mommy is not thinking too much about how she misses her two girls back home.

Yang mengharap,
Auntie

Wan and Jijin- a very, very belated birthday

Auntie is sooo bogged down with deadlines auntie temporarily forgets the birthdays of two very important people this month.

On the 7th of April, Wan became 72. On 12th of April (last Saturday), auntie's baby, Jijin, was 7. No big family celebration this year, though Jijin had an unplanned one (see Ayah's blog). I think everyone was busy even to drop Wan a wish or two. Poor Wan. Not even flowers this year, unless Mommy did remember wishing and sending flowers? Auntie totally forgot till today.

Auntie remember two years ago we had quite a do for Wan's 70th birthday. Auntie still has some pictures (see pictures below). We also celebrated Jijin's birthday together with Wan's that year.

Here's Jijin with Wan and the cakes. Aki and Shasha looking on:

The green cake belongs to Nan, our cousin who had his birthday in the same month so he was included in the almost impromptu celebration. Nan was 13th then.

Prior to the cake cutting there was a semi-formal speech and tribute session. Ayah took on the role of MC and spokesperson for the bro and sis:

No sweat at all for him since he must have done this so many times in his line of work. Of course he may want to learn a thing or two from the veteran PTD officer, seated in red...NOT!

Here's the tear-wrenching event...

Sleepyhead is the designated poem reciter. Poem specially dedicated for dear, beloved Wan, written by, who else...yours truly! All in five minutes and on scraps of tesco receipts, if I recall (maybe later transferred by Sleepyhead onto a more berjurus paper). Sleepyhead! Where is that poem now? It's sooo rugi if it is lost coz auntie could not remember a word of it now. For what it's worth, it did reduce a few people to tears on that day.

Here's Wan's cake:

And Jijin's, specially baked and decorated by Mak Faridah (tangan gemuk pasang lilin tu, of course, tangan auntie):


Jijin with Wan again:

Jijin with all the prezzies. Sorry, baby, this year's prezzie is going to be a bit late.
Sharing the moments with Along and Man.

And with Umi and the rest of the gang...

As we are looking at less than new family pictures, here are a few more...

Wan and latest cucu, Ajmal

The kiddies, all featuring Jijin, the belated birthday girl...

May Allah give us many, many more years with Wan and may Allah protect our Jijin in His tender care, always. Amin.

Making yourself heard

Looks like one of auntie's babies is having bad days these days. This is what Mommy has reported:

there's something that is not going right with ichqin aka qin (aryssa rizqin)...

i could not put my finger on it yet ..

daddy thinks its the "mid-life crisis" of a toddler,

hey, moving from two to three and later the big four - it is definitely a big step..

i think she is probably assuming her "terrible or troublesome three" role from the "terrific two"

after all, in four days time, she will be three years and five months - right smack in the middle of bein a three year old.

we are not sure whether she will end up being a "fantastic four" or "fearless four"

it begins friday night when i came back

you can feel the sombre mood in the house as you entered

shasha was frowning as she continued to do the homework when i kiss her forehead

and there you see qin in a corner doing her stuff, with her shoulder defiant -

i know there's something wrong, cause the moment she saw me, she told me that she scolded esah (the maid) and kakak

apparently she squashed and threw the birthday present shasha aka kakak prepared for her best friend and that causes the commotion

it does not stop there. the whole weekend, qin was poking kakak, throwing stuff at kakak and daddy, hit daddy several time on the face and...get this,

qin actually snapped at me on saturday night when i tried to coax her to come to bed. she was watching dora, she did not even look at me, she raise her hand with her finger pointing at me and said sternly "mommy, jangan usik qin"...wow!

it was a weekend full of drama. life is so tiring with qin on the rage...

hopefully this week is a better week.

and yes, one last little detail, i did told her that i will be going to london and she has to switch "ketiak" - she has been sleeping "bawah ketiak mommy" everynight, to the point we call her "qin underarms" (vs. carrie underwood) - that could possibly be the reason for all the rage...

Or maybe she just needs to be heard. It's sometimes tough living in a baby's/ toddler's world where whenever you have something mind-blowing to let out, like how come I can't go into the TV and dance with my Prince Charming, all the adults could think of is that you need milk or roti canai (Qin's fav food).

Anyways, auntie is praying Qin will be alright especially when Mommy leaves for London this Saturday for two weeks. May Kakak's perpetual loves and patience towards Qin makes her missing Mommy a bit bearable. Sorry auntie's plans to go stay with Mommy in London and in so doing, would have been able to bring Qin along, will not materialise due to all sorts of shortages, most of all of the pounds and pence kind. Also, auntie prays that, as Qin gets older, she becomes more tolerant of people around her.

Qin in her younger days, with Kakak:

Incidentally, this is a picture of Qin in Mommy's previously new closet:

The reason that auntie post this picture is because it just might be the case that Qin has a thing for closet. When Qin was about 8 or 9 months, and the family came to visit auntie and Uncle AH, Mommy and Daddy had to go out with auntie to do some work, so Uncle AH gamely agreed to look after the two kiddies. According to Uncle AH, after sometime Qin got bored golek2 atas katil with Kakak and started to make her boredom known loud and clear to Uncle AH. Not having had the experience of looking after a baby all by his lonesome self for more than 5 minutes, Uncle AH was at a loss of what to do, so he carried Qin around, but still, there's no let up on the boredom-volume. Uncle AH then opened auntie's half empty closet and perched Qin on one of the yet-to-be-filled shelves. Lo and behold Qin stopped bawling and was instantly chuckling. When Mommy came back Qin was the all-time contented baby.

Uncle AH would like to assure Mommy all care had been taken to ensure no possible accident could have happened in that stunt.

Auntie and the brood

In English (at least, British English), there is a word used for women when they are suddenly worried about the ticking of their biological clocks or when wherever they go, it seems to them that everyone has got a baby or a child in his/her arms. It's called BROODY. Broodiness signifies the time of the month/ year when you looooong to be a 'love-slave' to a tiny, helpless human being that prolly weighs little more than your Notebook PC when it was born but makes much more unpleasant noise and expresses its opinion through loud, shrilling yell. Plus, unlike with PC Notebook where you can call a technician, with these tiny creature, you literally have to deal with their crAp when the time call for it.

Well, auntie is not exactly broody today. Maybe 10%. Maybe it's watching that episode on Grey's Anatomy last night where Addison is losing her last chance of having a baby (and she's only 38 on the show!) and also visiting Hafiz's new baby on Wednesday and also talking to Kak Puteh the cab driver yesterday about saving other people's babies by adopting them (she had three such babies- well two of them are now teenagers). And also maybe because auntie was sorting out pictures of kiddies in the family.

Anyways, these are some of the pictures of those precious human beings in auntie's live, whose crAp auntie had dealt with at one time or another:

Shaheera aka Ya aka Along.
Memorable moment from Ya:

(Upon arrival at Wan's house from KL and complaining of being hungry)
Wan:

Ayah tak singgah makan ke tengah jalan tadi (as in, on the way here)?

Ya:

Tak, dia singgah TEPI jalan jek...

Seperti auntie, Ya berminat dalam jahit menjahit. Baking membaking tak sure plak.

The following photo is of Aiman:

For a long time, Aiman was the single thorn amongst the roses that are auntie's kiddies. Now, of course, he has Ajmal as a companion. Masa kecik2 dulu Man sentiasa tanya Ayah, "bila Ayah nak kaya?" coz dia nak suruh Ayah tukar kereta. Masa kereta Perdana baru keluar Man telah gunting logo Perdana dari suratkhabar dan tampal pada logo kereta Wira Ayah. Kawan2 Ayah ingatkan Ayah so desperate for Perdana sampai sanggup pakai logo tiruan.

Auntie tak banyak digital photos of Aiman and Ya. This one is of the three siblings (inc Jijin- see below for Jijin's tributes) on auntie's wedding day, ages ago.

Man is in red. The loudest of them all when Tuk Mudim did the 'chopping'.

This is Shasha:

Full name Puteri Aisha Nabila. Shasha wants to be a lot of things when she grows up but they must be something to do with writing, drawing and creating/ building things. And she loves animals. Also she adores her little sister (see group pics below).

Shasha is also a constant worrier. She worries about all things that happen around her like what would happen to that person who parked his car wrongly in the slot. Would the police come and get him? What will happen to his kids if he goes to jail?

When Shasha was about five, auntie visited her in the US and shared her room. One day masa auntie pakai baju dia komen pasal auntie's b--bs yg agak heavy tu. So dia kata, "Auntie Ida, do you know how to make them smaller?" "How, Sha?". "You should do like Mommy. She got a Daddy, then she got me as a baby. When babies drink from those things, they [she meant the b--bs, not the babies, of course] will get smaller". Of course now, auntie has a "Daddy" but still no Baby so the blasted things are getting bigger. Oooops, no x-rated pun intended!

Noor Shakirin.
Named after at least two mosques frequented by Ayah and Umi. Both mosques are near famous shopping places in KL (it just tells you their favorite activities masa mengandung budak ni). More famously know as JIJIN. Masa auntie mula berkenalan ngan uncle AH, dia telah terkejut bila auntie kata ada niece nama Jijin. Dia kata, ada tak yg nama Dracula? Actually, that is her preferred name. She's been called other names like Reen, or Shakirin but she keeps refering to herself as Jijin so it stays.

In auntie's observation Jijin is quite a decisive person and a free-spirit. She knows what or whom she likes. Eg, when everyone else likes Mawi on AF3, she likes Amylia. Also, although Jijin is very intelligent, she didn't think very much of school. When she was younger, bila orang tanya nak pi sekolah tak, dia kata tak nak. Bila orang tanya kenapa, dia kata, "Jamil tu pergi sekolah, tak pandai-pandai pun". Lagipun sekolah takde TV. Of course now auntie believes she diligently goes to school and enjoys most activities there.

This is Arysaa Rizqin. At this age, Shasha called her Chubs.
Now she's more famously know as Ichkin or Qin, for short. She's the current terror-toddler (followed closely by Ajmal).

Whenever auntie comes to visit and then auntie goes home, for a few days Qin will be calling and calling auntie. She's prolly a bit unsure why this auntie woman is sometime with her and sometime not. Qin is happiest when people call her Princess Analese.

This little terror is trailing behind Qin. He's Ajmal Szarith (betul ke eja tu?). So far, auntie belum ada chance to interact properly with Ajmal coz its been some time since auntie sees the kiddies and you know how fast babies grow. Ajmal celebrated his 2nd birthday early last month but auntie could not attend. Auntie dengar dari Mushu aka Sleepyhead, Ajmal dan boleh cakap sket2. But even without his speech ability he's already a force to reckon with. So active and tak larat orang nak kejar.

Ni masa Ajmal was still all wrinkled and mengelupas.

It takes no time for him to develop into a cutie.

Actually all of Ajmal's siblings look like this when they were this age, sometimes it's difficult to remember which picture is of whom.




The girls

The girls on Mushu's wedding

All wearing baju kurung yg auntie jahit

All kiddies minus Ajmal, with Aki

Auntie and two kiddies

See how Shasha adores her little sister

The slumberous duo.


And this is a picture of the first little human being whose crAp auntie basuh:

Kahkahkahkakakakaka!