Minggu murah rezeki...

The week started well, with an invitation for a housewarming kenduri in Miyazakidai, an hour away from Asakusa. Hubby and I didn't sleep the whole night, as we waited for the Malaysian twelfth election's results. It was a long busy night - attending to numerous phone calls, instant messages, surfing the net, getting and feeding information. And what a night to remember... Finally the persons I endorsed for won their respective seats even without my personal vote. Heh.

Hubby and I were so tired in the morning after, so yes, the invitation for a small feast of nasi tomato, ayam masak merah, ayam masak kicap, kari daging and kek pisang was certainly most welcomed. Never mind the long trip - Huzaifah and Humaidi hadn't been out for quite some time due to my worry in exposing them to pollens, so yes, it was good to have a family trip somewhere without having to prepare nasi goreng in advance for a change.

Tuesday saw me receiving a parcel from Malaysia containing 2 batik blouses and 1 long batik sarong suitable to be used for solat. Thank you my dear old friend. That was very nice of you and please don't hesitate to let me know if you would like to get you some suitable souvenir from Japan in exchange, okay?

Wednesday, March12th, was hubby's birthday. A quiet day - we didn't even celebrate it with a cake, and I didn't get anything for him yet. The year before last, it was a Lego model of Ferrari, and last year it was a huge (and quite expensive) remote-controlled Ferrari. No, we still can't afford the real thing, so I thought of getting him a little something later as a belated birthday present. Poor guy checked my blog on his birthday, perhaps expecting some loving wishes - and found none. I do love you more with each passing day, and sorry for my lack of effort in making the day more memorable apart from cooking bifstik (not proper beef steak, mind you, mine is the version meant to be eaten together with rice, as 'lauk') and ehem, being a little naughty. He he.

Thursday saw me assisting Kak Ita, a tourist guide, handling a group of Malaysians visiting Tokyo for the first time. I had some reservations at first whether or not to join Kak Ita, but hubby encouraged me to go ahead and help. Kak Ita after all was not very familiar with Tokyo Big Sight or Meg@Web, so she said it might help to have someone more familiar with these two places around.

So I played tourist guide for a day - a big difference from playing tourist, of course. For once, I had to answer lots of question on what to eat ("tempura is made from veggies and seafood, not meat", "ebi furai is fried prawn in breadcrumbs", "the Turkish restaurant in Nagoya and Indian restaurant in Kanda that you went to serve halal food although they also serve liquor in the premise","anman is Japanese version of pau kacang"), became instructor of Nihonggo crash course on important phrases ("takasugi, iranai", "hokani iro/saizu arimasuka", "toire wa doko desuka", " e ikitai, oshiete kudasai", "ima doko desuka", "denwa bango oshiete moratte ii desuka") and had to consult friends here and there to ask for information on behalf of others (and in the process found out trivial stuff like in Tokyo, apart from the Ueno eki branch, there is another Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi) No, I kid you not, someone actually wanted to know how to ask for a girl's phone number in Nihonggo. In fact the guy actually hit on two kawaii Nihonjin girls, using Kak Ita as simultaneous interpreter, which got the girls giggling all the way from Daiba to Shimbashi on Yurikamome line. A Malay kakak asked him - "nak cakap apa kalau pun dapat phone number?", to which he confidently answered, "tahulah orang nak ayat macamana". Ha ha.

Anyway, at the end of the day, the leader of the group asked me if I would like to join them again for a trip to DisneySea on Saturday. I quietly explained that apart from having to ask for hubby's permission first, I also felt that it might not be fair to ask him to spend another day home alone with the two kids . I thought that might discourage them from pursuing the matter, but the next thing I knew, the leader announced to the group that he would like to invite this "kakak yang tolong guide kita hari ini dan suami sama" to join the trip to DisneySea and for the group to help sponsor both of us. And to my surprise - they agreed. Just like that. Yeayyy... Okay, so Ihave to play tourist guide for another day, but given that I've never been to Tokyo DisneySea before and have been planning to go before returning to Malaysia, to be offered an "all-expenses paid for" trip was really cool.

And as if all these cool stuff were not enough, today I just found out that I got an A+ for the subject I took last semester, alhamdulillah. "International Journalism" was among the classes I enjoyed tremendously, and I thought my final report might deserve an A, so A+ came as a very nice surprise. No, I am not a straight As student, but along the way I've learned that I do well in courses listed under "International Society" and "Human Capital and Organization" groups. Now, if only I'd realized it sooner I would have taken more subjects under these two groups than those listed under "International Relations" group...

And to those who might wonder how did I fare in my PTK exam in December - alhamdulillah, I passed with Aras 3, for both kompetensi umum and kompetensi khusus. Although I am glad that I do not have to repeat the papers, I'm still unsure whether the result is an apt measurement of my real competence as a PTD officer. Oh well...

Will update more on Tokyo DisneySea later, insya Allah.