Friday, November 28, 2008

I miss being a SAHM

"I quit last year. I cannot handle being able to spend time with my son like, what, only half hour a day?"

Well, at least she and her husband have the resources, and enough savings to afford her quitting her job. She has travelled all over the world. She has pretty much went through all kind of "been there done that" experiences.

It's not like I want to quit my job or anything, but I admit that I do envy stay-at-home/working-at-home mothers.

Having spent the last 1 year and a half 24/7 with Humaidi and Huzaifah, I wish I can spend more hours with my kids now. I leave for work in the morning before they are awake. By the time I return home, usually they have already been fed and bathed, leaving me to just spend time watching "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" or "Pocoyo" or whatever else that suits Huzaifah's fancy. Mak has scolded me a few times for letting Huzaifah becoming 'obssessed' with Thomas. He insists on watching Thomas everyday, even hummed Thomas's opening song in his dream, and if he gets his way, he would be wearing Thomas t-shirt everyday...

As for Humaidi - he is a "seniman jalanan" of sort. He loves singing - or tries singing- nursery rhymes. And now he has learned to chant some simple zikr like "Ya Latif", "Lailahaillallah" and sing the nasyid "Allah hu Akbar, Allah hu Akbar, Allah, Allah hu Akbar" (with loud emphasis on the last "..barrr" part). He hasn't speak any proper word except for "nak syusyu", but he's good at singing. I think apart from inheriting his Tok Ayah's hair, he has also inherited the "bakat terpendam" of my brother, Adik. Humaidi's Pak Ang (we tried asking Huzaifah to call his uncle Ayah Lang or Paman, and he ended up calling my brother Pak Ang) used to be lead vocal in several nasyid competitions (and won) during his student days. (Adik once asked me if it is alright for him to join the showbiz as a mainstream nasyid singer - I answered him by raising my eyebrow, naayyyy...)
Anyway, I guess another thing that I miss about Japan is I miss being a SAHM...

The "seniman jalanan" in the family

Thursday, November 27, 2008

What I miss about Japan

Been back for 2 months and I still get the question "do you miss Japan?".
So here's a shortlist of what I miss about Japan, in no particular order. Mind you - there's another list of what I don't miss about Japan, and trust me, hubby would have a big say in that list *winks*

1. Clean (free) public toilet, especially those shower toilets, with built-in bidet.

2. The exemplary customer service. If one waits for long at a restaurant - chances are, we would be offered free drinks as apology for not being able to serve us quicker. Service is always with lots of smiles and greetings. Staff are ever helpful, and even when I had on a herot tudung and non-branded jeans, I still got 1st class service at classy departmental stores such as Mitsukoshi or Takashimaya. (No looking down on potential customer a'la treatment received by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman...)

3. The drivers make use of their signal lights.

4. Not that many motorbikes on road.

5. Koyou (autum leaves). And come Spring, it would be Sakura, then tulips, daffodils.

6. Fresh, sweet and tasty fruits and veggies. A lot of people seem to agree that fruits and veggies taste better in Japan than in Malaysia - sweeter, crispier, etc

7. Efficient public transport. Had to take public transport to work the other day, and it was such a hassle. Try comparing the two situations below:
Taking public transport from home to school in Tokyo would be;
Bike to Asakusa eki (7 minutes) -
Ginza line subway to Nihombashi (13 minutes) -
(5 minutes transfer time)
Change to Tozai line subway to Waseda (13 minutes) -
Walk to University (10 minutes)

Taking "public" transport from home in PJ to office in Putrajaya would be;
Asked Adik to drive me to Taman Paramount LRT station (5 minutes) -
Putra LRT to KL Sentral (15 minutes) -
(30 minutes transfer time)
KLIA Transit ERL to Putrajaya (25 minutes)
(20 minutes waiting time)
Asked cousin/aunt to pick me up at ERL station and drive me to office (15 minutes)

8. The automatic queue - no pushing, no cutting in

9. No smoking in public area, and even on the road too.

10. Play area for children in most public offices, shopping malls, etc. Diaper changing stations and nursing rooms included.

11. 100/99 yen shop.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Rampai Raya 1429H

Yet another belated entry - some pictures from Eidul Fitr 1429H.
Morning of 1st Raya was spent in Kampung Tunku, before we rushed back to Seremban right after Zohor (hubby was quite unhappy since I earlier promised to leave Kampung Tunku before Zohor - but relatives kept coming and there were all the omiyage's to be distributed and all...)

2nd day of Raya was spent visiting relatives all over Seremban and nearby areas - we went to 12 houses that day!

3rd day of Raya we travelled up north (from PJ) to Penang, to visit allahyarham Tok Ayah's youngest sister, Tok Chu Teh. (It also marked the first time I met up with Abang, Sarah and their newborn Uwais since returning from Tokyo). Ayah Jang made arrangement for his family, our family, and three other cousins to spend the night in one "rumah hinggap" in Penang that belongs to Mak Jang's uncle.

4th day of Raya we visited Ummi and my half brother Karim in Sungai Petani. Meera, my half-sister did not balik kampung this year. Then we went to visit my grand uncles, two of allahyarham Tok's younger brothers in Sungai Batu (not far from Gunung Bongsu, the setting of Azizi Abdullah's "Seorang Tua di Kaki Gunung"). Ayah gave us a treat that night- paying for 4 rooms in Hotel Continental, Penang - one each for Abang's and my family, one for Ayah, Mak & Adik and another for my MIL and Neni, the helper.

5th day of Raya, we jalan-jalan around Penang a bit in the morning before started our journey home. One of the longest journey home ever - left Penang at around 2.00 p.m. and arrived in Kampung Tunku at almost 11 p.m. with a one-hour stop in Ipoh. (It usually takes only 4 hours to drive from Penang to PJ) I advised Adik to stop for petrol in Ipoh rather than in any of the petrol stations at R&R because the queues were frighteningly long. Hubby later on drove all the way back to Seremban because MIL had promised to take care of one SIL's daughter the next day, and we finally reached Seremban at around 2.30 a.m.

Makan-makan after Solat Sunat Eid. Teh's family was the first to arrive



Teh's daughters - Izzah, Syahidah & Atiqah with the 'kung-fu panda' (as called by Huzaifah) that I received as a birthday present from hubby a few years ago.


With Iman (Nyah's grand daughter), Nyah, Teh and Ijan (Nyah's youngest son)



We forgot to take a proper Raya picture of the family. This was taken just before we left for Seremban. This year family's sedondon outfit were courtesy of Faizly a.k.a Sabah's Mama. Thank you Auntie - the picture is proof that we fulfilled our promise to wear your gift!

Another family picture - yes Sabah, you can save this and show to your Mama :-) I tried to find a matching tudung, but it was very difficult to find a tudung in this color, so I ended up wearing just black tudung... Ok lah, kan?


With my cousin Syahril and his daughter Iman, who is only two weeks older than Humaidi.


The Hj Baharom's Clan, The Hj Alayuddin's Clan with two of Teh's kids and Ayah Tam's eldest son Imad, in Penang.


The Hj Baharom's clan - so far...


Sarah, Uwais, Mak, Humaidi & I



Huzaifah had already 'lari berjabu' before we could say "chiii-zu"...


With MIL and Ummi in Sungai Petani


Hubby with Karim


Ummi with four of her children, her son-in-law, her besan, two of her grandsons and one cucu angkat

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Voluntary...

Once upon a long time ago - before marriage, children, Japan - I signed up as a volunteer for OMBAK (Women Against Violence Organisation). Went for a one-day crash course (mostly talks) organised by Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. About a year or 6 months after that, I received an invitation letter to join as a registered volunteer for All Women's Action Society (AWAM) which is located not that far from my parents residence but by then I was busy with wedding preparations and the rest, as they said, is history...

Nevertheless I still want to become a volunteer. I've seen Mak voluntarily working with orang Asli, with the masjid and all, and I know I want to become a volunteer even before I reach retirement age. I feel like I haven't been giving back to the society enough and I want to play what small part I can to make this world a better place (yes - blame it on all the Chicken Soup books I've read)

Mak told me over breakfast this morning, of her friend Auntie Shidah who volunteers as a Masjid guide for foreign visitors at Masjid Negara.

"I told her that you can speak Japanese, and she said they are looking for volunteers who can speak other languages than English"

"Uh-huh"

"You should go there and offer your help. It doesn't have to be on weekly basis. Once a fortnight or once a month is good enough"

"Ok"

A chance to introduce Islam and to practice (improve) my nihongo - double yay! Alhamdulillah...
Will discuss this with hubby and simply can't wait for his green light...

Change...

* I should learn to do things faster, and now that I am a mother of two (soon three, insya Allah), I need to allow for more "masa kecederaan" too.

* I should learn things faster at work. Should decrease answering queries with hesitant "err... jab ye, saya check"

* I need to eat more iron-rich food. Already, been twice 'gently advised' by the nurse at the clinic to do so in order to improve the hemoglobin content in my blood.

* I need to exercise - get so easily tired nowaday, and sleepy early (and I know it's unfair to Mak and Neni the helper, because they have to look after Huzaifah and Humaidi all day long, and I should be looking after them after work but sometimes I fell asleep first before putting them to sleep)

* I'm not the only one who need to change... but for things to change, I guess I might as well start changing first...

Friday, November 14, 2008

Sotsugyou shiki

I know, this entry is long overdue. Sorry.

It was a simple ceremony - no graduation robe, pesta konvo and what nots

But it was special in its simplicity - at least for me, since I got to bring Huzaifah on stage to accept the degree with me. (I wanted to take both Huzaifah and Humaidi on stage, but there was some 'miscommunication' problem with hubby, ending with me just taking Huzaifah)

Here are some pictures taken on the not-quite-big-but-significant-anyway day.

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Commencement ceremony for Graduate School of Asia Pasific Studies, Waseda University sign board. Next to me is Piseth, who upon arrival at Narita Airport in September 2005, thought I was "orang kurang upaya" since I was using the wheelchair (it was 11 days after I gave birth to Huzaifah, so JAL arranged for me to use the wheelchair from the moment I checked-in at KLIA until just before I left Narita airport).

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Hien and I donned our respective traditional costumes. I had already bought a new knee length knit dress and matching long-sleeved top, but couldn't find any suitable pants, so ended up wearing last year's baju raya. Which is not bad - it matched Huzaifah's and Humaidi's identical blue shirt. Managed to wear a new pair of shoes though - a black leather Made-in-Japan pair. In the past three years, I had only bought sneakers in Japan because trying to find a decent pair of shoes in my size often made me feel like Cindrella's step sister - all the nice ones did not fit and those which fit were not that nice.

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Returning my student ID card. The graduation day also commemorated the fact that the graduates are no longer 'students' of Waseda

With Alice, the President of GSAPS Student Association 2007/08. One of the nicest girls in our school. Picture was taken right after I returned my student ID Card back to the school.

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It's been a kind of tradition to have at least one Malaysian among the Dean's List recipients (in fact last year, my sempai Daud was also the valedictorian). Here is a picture of hubby with Amin, who gave quite a memorable 'performance' upon getting the Dean's List conferment (he shook the paper with a'la Oscar-recipient pose, and the paper flew away on the stage which drew a roar of laughter from the audience)

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With Ali, a brilliant Afghan from whom I learned a lot about the real situation in Afghanistan...





Jess, the valedictorian, likened getting our Master to climbing Mount Fuji. "At one point of time, we asked ourselves - what are we doing here? Why are we putting ourselves through all these pain and trouble? But getting to the end, being at the peak - we all realized that it's worth it. All the pain, the trouble, the sacrifices..."

Accepting the degree from Professor Amako, Dean of GSAPS, with Huzaifah right next to me. (The round of loud applause we got was akin to those usually reserved for Dean's List students.)
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Right after the ceremony, in the auditorium.
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With Emi and Yuko - part of my 'support system' during the critical moments of finishing my thesis.


Class of Fall 2008. Hien and I opted to be at the back during the group photo session - so that it'll be easier to locate us among all the graduates and professors.

With Mega and Hien - both Hien and I got our respective bouquet not from our husband, but from thoughtful friend (Thanks Basharan and Hadyan for coming to the ceremony and for the nice bouquet - really meant a lot to me). I was hoping that hubby would give in and bought one for me - after all, I don't usually ask for much, not even for flowers on my birthday, but hubby just shrugged and gave the usual reply, "bunga bukan boleh makan pun..."
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With Siyi, my zemi-mate, who's also on my 'support system' list during thesis writing. We usually found ourselves seated opposite each other in the computer lab - ocassionally checking on each other's progress. Siyi once complimented my 'slim, long fingers' (her words, not mine), that as a piano player, how envious she was of those with fingers like mine. "I don't play piano," I told her. "Then you should learn how to - you are born with piano player fingers..." Oh well...

Friday, November 07, 2008

Jealousy in moderation

"You might want to be careful. There are a lot of ustazs out there who marry their students or someone related to their students... Kalau dah berkenan, ada saja makcik pakcik nak offer anak dia lah, anak buah dia lah, apa lah..."

To be honest, yes, I sometimes worry about hubby receiving all these 'offers'.
But the fear of 'exposing' him to others have to be balanced with the acceptance that I must share him with others. It is one of his responsibilities to spread the message of Islam, to share his knowledge with others, thus it is my responsibility to give him my full support. And with that I have to put my trust in him too.

Anyway, I admit that I do not trust him 100% - a lot, but never 100%. Been advised by others to keep being a little suspicious all the time, not to the extend of ruining the relationship, but enough to be aware of 'unwanted possibilities', because one can never be too trusting... And yes, I've read/heard of so many stories of wives being surprised by their trusted-to-be-faithful husbands' "unsangkarable acts"... Nasty surprises.

Ok, so maybe one have to be careful and be a little 'jealous' (cautious) all the times, but sometimes I wonder - what ratio of trust:jealousy is 'balanced' enough?

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Change, eh?

Ken (I know you read my blog even if only ocassionally) must be very happy with the US Presidential election result. Oh, maybe not just happy - overjoyed is more like it. He has never been too happy with having 'an idiot' (his word, not mine) as president.

Barack Hussein Obama's speech gave goosebumps not just to Americans but million, if not billion, others all around the world, as the hunger for a change in American leadership is as strong outside the US as in it.

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Change was what Blair promised with the New Labour's landslide victory in 1997.

Change was also what people hoped for when Pak Lah led BN to a big win in this country's election in 2004.

Well, it's my hope that Obama (and others who called for "change") learn some lesson from others' mistakes...

Having said that, this blog remains an apolitical one...

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I'm glad that Lewis Hamilton won the F1 World Champion, while hubby has to be satisfied with Ferrari winning this year's constructors championship. He would be even more delighted if Massa had won the driver's championship. I admit that Massa is a good driver, but I feel more for Kimi Raikonnen...

F1 is one of the things I have started to enjoy after marriage - one of hubby's likes that I have grown to like too. He also enjoys watching EPL matches, which is not a difficult thing for me to appreciate, since I used to watch (and discussed) EPL back when I was in Leeds.

But we do not have to agree on everything - he supports Ferrari, while I prefer McLaren (Raikonnen used to drive for McLaren before he joined Ferrari, so that explains me having a soft spot for the Iceman) Hubby is a big fan of Manchester United, while I would support any other team but MU (with exception of Chelsea). Both my brothers too are fans of the Red Devils, and in fact I'd had to buy a lot of souvenirs from Old Trafford for them and my younger cousins before I returned home from UK.

I have nothing againts MU - only that I think that they are over rated.
Just like Ferrari team is over rated in F1.
Or roses are over rated among flowers.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

On doctors...

When I had trouble to pee a few months back, I went to Asakusa Hospital. I must had been the youngest patient of the day that particular day because all around me, I only saw obaachan and ojiichan in their golden- if not platinum- years.


I didn't have to wait that long to see the doctor. Answered several questions and the doctor told me that I was suffering from "chi". I knew that chi is blood in nihongo, but I didn't quite understand this other "chi" the doctor was talking about. The nurse who was assisting him quickly went in search of an English-Japanese dictionary while the doctor began to explain 'chi' in greater details, using a small anatomical model to help make things clearer for me.


It wasn't long before the nurse returned with a dictionary and she showed me the word "hemorrhoids". At the time I was not familiar with the word, but thanks to the doctor's explanation using the anatomical model, I understood that I was having trouble due to poor muscle tone in the southern region, which might be due to increased straining during bowel movements, and that this is rather common for pregnant women. I was given some cream, and advised to drink more fluids, eat more fiber and practise Kegel exercise.


Later, when I consulted Ailin (a doctor who is on unpaid leave, accompanying her husband doing his Master in Tokyo) I learned that hemorrhoids is what we call buasir in Malay, also often referred to as 'piles' in Malaysia.


Despite language barrier, the doctor went to great length to explain the symptoms and causes of piles to me, until he was satisfied that I understood his explanation. Although I am sure that he must had been rather frustrated that I did not immediately grasp the meaning of his explanation, he never once raised his voice to me. He treated me with respect, and I found comfort in knowing that the doctor cared enough to explain things in details, that he is well qualified to properly identify and respond to my specific needs.


#####


Fast forward two months later.

I found myself in PPUM's Paediatric Emergency room, being talked to as if I was daft for bringing Humaidi to get stitched up.


Well, Humaidi accidentally hit the edge of the bed last week, causing a rather nasty cut on his left eye. Our first response was to clean the cut on his left upper eyelid with minyak gamat and cover it with a band-aid. Hubby and I took him to see Dr Johari, my family's trusted GP right after his clinic was opened, at about 9 a.m.


Dr Johari cleaned the cut and changed the band-aid with a more proper dressing. He advised us to go to the hospital if we want the cut to be stitched up, so that there'll be less chances of infection, but he doubted that Humaidi would be stitched up since the cut is on the upper eyelid and needed very fine needle which is often reserved for plastic surgeon and Humaidi's case is not an emergency. He tried to connect the cut together with a tissue glue plaster - which Humaidi managed to take off as soon as we reached home.


Mak and Ayah did not want to take any chances - Humaidi hit his eye on the edge of the bed, and for all that we know, that might cause some delayed effect on his vision. We called up some relatives, and one of my uncles got a recommendation from an expert paediatric to call up Dr Razak, a paediatric surgeon in Damansara Specialist Hospital. Called up Dr Razak's clinic and we were advised to bring in the child to the hospital's ER, where they could call up Dr Razak on his handphone to attend to Humaidi.


But by the end of that day I was not feeling well, and hubby too was suffering from toothache, so we postponed taking Humaidi to the clinic.

First thing the next morning, I went to see Dr Jo again - this time because I was down with flu. Right after that, Ayah drove me and Humaidi to see Dr Razak in Damansara. Dr Razak checked the dressing on Humaidi's eye, and already there was some whitish infection on the cut. It was quite a struggle for the doctor to check on my son's eye, but he managed it despite Humaidi's gelupur.

The doctor's advise - to minimise risk of further infection, it would be better to get the cut stitched up. But in order to do that, the doctor would have to make another cut, clean the current wound and only then stitch it up. They will need to put Humaidi to sleep for about 45 minutes using anaesthetic, thus will need the operation theatre to perform the surgery. The doctor was even willing to circumcise Humaidi for no extra charge too, but they need to get the boy admitted for the surgery.

The cost?
Dr Razak estimated it to be around Rm4000 - RM5000.

Ayah and I looked at each other. That's a big amount for us. Ayah thanked the doctor and told him that we need to discuss this with the boy's dad first. I knew that hubby would never agree to pay that much for a 'minor' surgery, so I suggested to Ayah to try going to a government hospital. Ayah agreed, but by then it was nearly Zohor, so Ayah brought us back home first, for lunch and prayer.

It wasn't long after Ayah sent me back home when Mak returned from Huzaifah's playschool and asked me to quickly accompany her to the hospital. Huzaifah had an asthma attack!

On the way to PPUM, Mak briefed me that the playschool management had called her up to come and pick Huzaifah since he was wheezing. Probably from eating too much rambutan. There's a rambutan tree in the playschool's backyard and Huzaifah has been asking the teachers there to get him "buah mbutan" all the time. (The first time, my jakun boy actually ate the whole fruit, pit and all - to his teacher's amazement. They quickly pitted the fruit for him first after that). Huzaifah has no problem with eating watermelon or ice, but I forgot that eating too much rambutan could trigger an asthma attack, so not only I did not warn the teachers at his school, my parents and I in fact bought him a lot of rambutan over the weekend after seeing how much he enjoyed eating the fruit (and Huzaifah has always been a fussy eater). Only after he got the asthma attack that we remember how hazardous rambutan could be to an asthmatic child (and since then we have substituted rambutan with canned longan)

Mak left Huzaifah and I at the PPUM's Paediatric Emergency area, at which he was quickly attended to. I didn't have to wait at all as the doctor in charge quickly asked the nurse to prepare the nebulizer. For the first time, Huzaifah was very cooperative in using the nebulizer. Probably because he couldn't wait to 'attack' the playhouse available in the waiting area. (Which he did even before the gas was not quite finished but he has stopped wheezing, leaving my lap, insisting to be allowed to go "main-main")

Mak returned back with Ayah and Humaidi - to let the doctor take a look at Humaidi's eye. By then I managed to perform my Zohor solat, but hadn't pick Huzaifah's prescribed medicine yet. Turned out Mak had already briefed the doctor in charge (a different doctor, not the one who attended to Huzaifah, I guess his shift was already over by then) , so the doctor wanted to check on some details with me.

I was far from happy with the tone that the doctor used.
Apart from repeating "awak faham tak..." as if I was daft, he was not keen to listen to what I have to say. But I said it anyway

"Look, I know that my son is not in dire emergency need. I know that his cut might already started healing. But I also know that there are chances of infection happening. It already happened earlier but a doctor cleaned his cut this morning. And I am worried that such infection could occur again and somehow affect my son's vision. It is not so much the scar that I'm worried about - it is his vision that I'm most concerned about"

The doctor went quiet for a while.
"Okay, let me consult some eye specialist then," he said.

When I returned to the waiting area after getting Humaidi's registration process completed, Mak told me that already there were two doctors who came to check on Humaidi. They were away to consult an even more senior doctor.

The eye specialist that I met was firm and kind. He explained that since Humaidi's cut was already more than 24 hour old, the healing process has started so it would be difficult to stitch the cut unless they make another cut on top of the current one. But it would be more a plastic surgery rather than a necessary one and they would need to use the operation theatre to do that and well we all know how the operation theatre is needed for more urgent cases. Even a tissue glue could not do the trick because the eye would be bunched up weirdly.

"He will be okay, the cut will heal on its own, but there will be a scar" the doctor assured me.

"I'm okay with the scar. After all, he's a boy" (Boys and scars - inseparable)

The doctor smiled.

"What about chances of infection?," I queried

"We will prescribe an ointment for the eyelid to help prevent infection."

I nodded my head.

"And if you are not happy with the progress, I can arrange for an appointment in the eye clinic next week," he said further.

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A week has passed.
Humaidi seems to be healing well.
Huzaifah too is back to his old jumping-there-climbing-here self

But the memory of being treated like I was daft by a doctor lingers on...

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

7 facts about me

Ahkak Zurr tagged me last month. I'm supposed to share 7 facts about myself, some random, some weird. Here goes...
  • Perceived differently by different people

Some told me I'm one of the most kelakar persons they've ever known while others have asked me to be less serious. Personally, I think I am usually more on the merapu meraban side than serious because those who told me that I'm funny (ha ha, not funny weird) usually are those I consider to be rather close to me and know me better...

  • Hate folding and ironing clothes

A mountain of laundry waiting to be attended to was nothing extraordinary in my household (and Mak's household too, when we do not have any helper around) I suspect that a lot of people shares my sentiment about folding and ironing clothes. I mean, I've heard a lot of people declare their love for cooking, baking even vacuuming, but I have yet to hear someone enthuses, "Oh, I just looovvvveee ironing. It's so soothing/relaxing/calming..." Back in Japan, the iron was rarely used - only for hubby's jubah (for Friday prayer), baju raya and on several 'special ocassions'.

  • Used to have a diary named Ricky Alden Chan

Ricky - from Richard Dean Anderson (of MacGyver), Alden is the middle name of Tommy Page (yeah, yeah, so I used to like Tommy Page, so what?) and Chan is after Jackie Chan.

  • Could take ages to decide whether or not to accept someone as a friend on FB

Partly due to the fact that Facebook is banned in the office, but sometimes I do take my own sweet time deliberating on whether to accept or ignore some invitations. Like that guy from high school who caused a terrible heartache when I was 16 (who was finally accepted because a girlfriend said that his asking to be on my list might be deemed as an apology of some sort - besides we are both married with kids now) or a senior from college who deemed I was not 'good enough' to be 'introduced' to her hubby's anak usrah (who happened to be my ex). Despite being forgiven, that was a little harder to forget, so her request was finally ignored. By the way, I can be bad at remembering names and faces, so usually invitations with some introduction messages get the clearing faster than those with none.

  • Love trying out new dishes.

So long as they are halal, of course. Been trained by Mak to develop an adventurous tastebud - so food is seldom a problem for me if I need to travel overseas since I am not a masakan melayu-reliant person.

  • Not a fan of shoes or handbags

I know, I know, if they can afford it, most women are expected to like and owe several pair of shoes and handbags. Preferably branded ones. I 'owe' some nice ones on FB, but am not really 'into' them in real life. (Yeah, yeah, hubby is indeed one lucky fella, hehehe...)

  • Not quite as quick at adapting back to the job scene

I wish I could pick things up faster, or get the hang of things more easily - but after 3 years of study leave and was more like a stay-at-home mother than a studious graduate student - I found myself not as quick at learning stuff at the office as I expected. And I miss being able to spend all day long with my boys... (I know I should be grateful for having a stable job and all, alhamdulillah, but oh well...)

Should I tag others? Most seem to have already done this tag, but in case they haven't, I am passing this on to Theta, Hanny, Ina, Faizly, Zarin, Kit and Kakaq.

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