Long time no here

Ramadhan kareem to all Muslim readers - not too late to wish 'selamat berpesta ibadah', I hope, especially since we are encouraged to increase it during the last 10 nights...

It's been so long that it feels almost awkward to start blogging again, In the past two months or so, lots of stuff had happened - some good, some not so great. Let's see...

Hubby and I have been to Bandung and Jakarta in June;

I was confirmed to be pregnant in June;

Hubby and I experienced a kenduri (and a reunion with our almost-brother, Faizly) in Labuan in July;

Our bibik quitted in July;

Mak always said that we could not find anyone worse than our previous lazy bibik, but we did.
Akif went 'missing' on day 2 of the replacement bibik, and our neighbour reported that she beat our kids using the broom on day 3 - so we sent her back to the agent that very same night. 

Got an almost sister-in-law in the last Sunday of July;

Got a new sister-in-law in the first Sunday of August (yup, my youngest brother was engaged for only a week);

PV spotting started on the day following youngest brother's wedding. The doctor advised me to rest more because baby seemed to be smaller than expected (almost 11 weeks, but baby seemed to be 8 weeks old);

Too stressed out - both at office and at home, so wrote a letter to Numero Uno in the agency, asking for unpaid leave on August 3rd;

PV bleeding started on August 4th. The gynae did a scan. No fetal heart seen. The doctor told me that bleeding with fresh blood an indication of spontaneous abortion about to happen and gave me an appointment on the 16th;

Miscarriage happened at almost 1.00 p.m. at home on August 5th. Incomplete miscarriage. Kit and Fa-ah rushed from the office to get some lunch for me and the boys as well as sent me to the hospital (Thanks a million dear). The sac was left in the uterus. A&E doctor gave me MC for 5 days and asked me to stick to my August 16th appointment with the gynae;

Rested for a few days in Kampung Tunku before Mak and Ayah left for Saudi to perform their umrah during Ramadhan;

My neighbour Kak Ma who is a doctor advised me to go for another scan as quickly as possible and not to wait for my August 16th appointment. Kit supported this notion. So went back to the hospital for another check-up on August 10th (1st Ramadhan night);

Went to the A&E first. Abdominal ultrasound scan was not so good, so was referred to labour room. Gynae did a pelvic ultrasound scan and confirmed that my uterus did not look so great - larger than normal, with an opening of 1cm. The doctor ordered me to be hospitalised right away, to start fasting beginning from midnight as D&C was scheduled for the next day. A more junior doctor came to take some sample blood and a nurse gave me an injection to stop the bleeding so as to make it easier to perform the D&C;

I asked to be discharged on own risk (had to sign a letter and all) and promised to return to the hospital the next day. Was asked to go the OB/Gyn clinic at 9.00 a.m. Started packing my stuff and the kids stuff as soon as I reached home and asked my aunt to help looking after the children while I was away;

Drank lots of Bio-disc energized water and did hours of shining the LED torchlight through the Bio-disc onto my pelvic area while reciting lots of zikr and making lots and lots of doa. It was the first night of Ramadhan and I prayed hard for a miracle to happen;

The best 1st Ramadhan surprise ever - the scheduled D&C was deemed unnecessary after the gynae did yet another pelvic ultrasound scan on me. (A small miracle of sort for me since I'm really, really frightened of going inside the Operation Theatre even for a minor D&C thingy. Alhamdulillah...

Making do'a

...for the protection & safety of the human rights activists on their way to Gaza. Whatever nonsense Israel came up as their 'reason' would not justify the illegal capture of civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid in international waters, let alone the use of deadly force.... Ya Allah, we pray for protection of the brave and courageous souls who are only trying their best to do what they can to help out the people of Gaza...

... Al-Fatihah to Sheema Wahid, a 31yr old-mother-to-2-yr old-daughter PTD officer who passed away while undergoing her DPA training. I've been told that it was due to pneumonia or influenza like illness, but the mainstream papers seemed to glorify the fact that she passed away while undergoing 'ala commando' training. I don't know the full facts - but had read somewhere that she might have been saved had she been taken to the hospital earlier... Well, what happened already happened, and what ever else history is, it's in the past - so all we can do is pray for Sheema, and for her family, and hopefully a lesson had been learned from this incident...

#####
I've been super busy at work - at the new place, surrounded by new bosses, peers, subordinates, learning all sort of new things because I'm handling stuff I'd never had any experience handling previouly...

The ICT policy in the new office is very, very strict - not only social sites such as Facebook, Friendsters, Myspace are blocked, we are restricted from viewing blogs under blogspots, wordpress and all. Worse - we are even blocked from access to web-based mails such as Yahoo Mail and Gmail. Yeah, they are that strict...

So, please forgive me for not updating my blog for quite some time now, and for not leaving comments at friends' blogs. I try to read them all - but I must admit that I get so drained out at the end of the day, I couldn't think of any good comments to be left at other people's blogs. No surprise really - what with me being so drained out that I couldn\t even think of any new post for my own blog - until today, that is...

Once upon a time - DPA 2001

Sekadar berkongsi gambar-gambar lama...

Sekatan jalan raya di sekitar Jalan Tun Razak masa Modul Polis

Ada seorang pemabuk yang cepat-cepat sarung ketayap ke kepala masa nampak ada polis.

Bila dia turunkan tingkap kereta, terus menusuk-nusuk bau arak. Dia rayu jangan dibuat ujian breathalyser.

Bila buat juga - sahih dia mabuk dan tak sepatutnya memandu. Dia nak hulur RM200 minta dilepaskan.

Depan kami yang ramai-ramai ni, boleh tu nak rasuah! 

"Dari kiriiiiiii, cepat jalan! Kriii...kriii... krii kanan kriii..."

Nak naik Kapal KD Tentera Laut dari Lumut ke Langkawi

nak naik kapal selam, takut tak boleh menyelam

Ramai yang muntah-muntah dalam perjalanan dari Lumut ke Langkawi sebab tak dipasang stabilizer

Saya pakai baju hijau dan muntah pun nak dekat hijau juga.

Alhamdulillah dari Langkawi ke Lumut ok sikit bolehlah pose kontrol macho 

Saya pun belilah T-shirt Laksamana Muhammad Amin sebagai kenangan

yang terkadang dipakai oleh suami saya yang bernama Amin sambil feeling-feeling dia Navy gitu

Spider-style rappelling masa Modul Askar.

Seronok dapat merasa sebab bukan semua orang diberi peluang dua kali terjun (kali pertama abseiling biasa)

Kami belajar menembak guna M16. Belajar cuci M16 - buka semua dan pasang balik.

Kalau tak cuci, nanti tembakan mudah terbabas dari sasaran.

 tapi kalau dah tak pandai, berkilat sekalipun M16 tu, tembakan masih terbabas entah ke mana-mana juga

Platun Cobra sorang-sorang posing tak nak kalah

Masa di Modul tentera - merasalah juga berbau hamis sehari semalam tak dapat mandi sebab duduk dalam hutan yang tak ada punca air berdekatan.

Kesian Bob - yang cedera kena batu di kepala masa mendaki Gunung Angsi

Inokulasi Peperangan - saya gagal untuk tamatkan pengembaraan - merangkak sambil bawa M16 dengan asap berkepul-kepul dan bedilan peluru hidup melintas di atas kepala.

Asthma saya menyerang dan terpaksa angkat senjata tanda mengalah

Selepas tengok saya dan Faridah ditinggalkan Platun Cobra di medan perang, Platun Scorpio ambil iktibar - anggota lelaki ambil tanggungjawab pegang semua M16 bagi mudahkan anggota wanita merangkak tanpa perlu mengheret M16 sekali dan ada 'sweeper' lelaki di belakang sekali untuk bantu 'tolak' anggota wanita yang dah tak berdaya untuk merangkak sampai ke garis penamat

Masa hari terakhir modul tentera 

muka-muka kelegaan tak kena berlasak-lasak lagi

Gadis-gadis pingitan (?)

Ala-ala gadis-gadis solehah depan Surau An-Nur, IKWAS

Earth Day lunch 110510 - the food

* As usual, this entry is dedicated to "yang jauh di mata, dekat di hati" Ju in Swiss. Cousins in Australia and Egypt are welcomed to feast their eyes on these too, hehehe...

Daging salai masak lemak cili api

Ayam goreng berempah

Ikan bakar

Bergedel

Ulam-ulaman

Sayur campur

 Banana and honey dew

Teh tarik and Air sirap-campur-oren

"Love Our Earth" choc moist & carrot walnut cupcakes

So cute and oh-so-yummy too!

All Green - "Earth Day" lunch 110510

Four of us who recently got the confirmation letter of our respective promotion (alhamdulillah!) - decided to throw a makan-makan session for our sector.

So we held the sectoral meeting followed by lunch, sponsored by us.

Threw in some present-giving ceremony - for birthdays, 2 newly-wed officers and 1 who just got his second baby.

Since it was also a Majlis Kesyukuran, the boss asked for a bacaan yaasin & do'a selamat to be included in the itinerary.

Since Idy, one of our officers, just came back from Korea for a COTI program, she decided to present some slides on the program.

And someone said - "why don't we all dress up in green in conjunction with Earth Day?".

So there - we ended up having yet another all-in-one lunch in the office. Heh.

Main theme - Back to our origin a.k.a Selero Kampong

Menu:

White rice

Ikan bakar with air asam
Daging salai masak lemak cili api
Ayam goreng berempah
Bergedel
Sayur campur
Ulam-ulaman with sambal belacan
Fruits - honey dew & banana
Sago with santan & gula melaka
Choc moist/carrot walnut cupcakes from Anna of Bake Freshly

And yes, it was yet again, a good lunch - food was okay, the cakes really yummy - and center of attention too. Turned out we have some rather old-school bosses who were not familiar with the trend of substituting traditional cakes with fancy cup cakes. One or two found the cakes to be "cantik sangat, sayang nak makan.."  someone was reported of being the recipient of cupcakes for his birthday in October last year and he'd never eaten a single cake until all of them rot in his room because "cantik sangat, sayang nak makan"

Thanks Kit for recommending Anna and for letting me to use your name as the introducer. Anna was pretty busy but was kind enough to take our less-than-the-required-one-week-notice order. The premium cakes for the birthday girls/guys were super yummy - carrot walnut with cheese frosting, yeay!

I think we might have yet another makan-makan soon in the office.
I just got a letter of transfer to Parcel D yesterday.
I am supposed to report for duty next Monday.

"Apa yang CC menungkan tu?"

Birthday presents - face towels

(last year it was a photo frame with collage pictures of all in the sector then)

Present for Baby Amina & wedding gifts for Fairuz & Nabil

Makan time!

"Puan, jomlah makan. Ambil gambar je tak kenyang, puan..."

"Macam mana boleh salah eja nama saya Pauzan jadi Pauza ni??"

Parents-to-be (with respective partners though) who both celebrate their birthday on January 15 - Fairuz aka Peyuz & Nabil

Encik J: "Rasa macam tak larat dah ni"

Tn Hj M: "Eh, makan, makan. Banyak lagi ni... "

En Z oO "I kalau ikan bakaq cecah ayaq asam memang tak angkat muka dah makan ni..."

Comel kan birthday cuppies kita ni?

CC yang malu-malu nak ambil gambar dengan birthday cupcake

Antara yang diraikan - yang sambut hari lahir pada Januari, Mac & Mei

"Eh-eh, dua orang je pegawai lelaki yang pakai hijau?"

Anizz tak baca emel minta semua pakat-pakat pakai baju hijau sebab jaga kaunter semalamnya, huhuhu

Chiiii zu!

Mak is 63

It's Mak's 63rd birthday today, alhamdulillah.
(Yes - May is usually when we have some family makan-makan since Ayah's, Mak's and my birthday are just days apart - Ayah's on 5th, mine on 10th and Mak's on 12th)

Mak, we wish you the best on your birthday (and everyday);

No one has earned it like you
You try to enrich everything you come near
You try to give your everything selflessly
You provide the love and care
that makes my, Abang's and Adik's dream
of a happy home came true.
May you'll always feel the gentle cloak of Allah's rahmah and mawaddah on your shoulders,
and may you be shielded, guided and protected by Allah all the time.
Thank you Mak
We love you.


Lots of love, hugs & kisses from:
- Kak, Amin, Ujai, Akif & Asim

Time to shed some: 2-month progress report

* This is a belated entry

I'd only lost 1kg by the end of April, totaling 3kg so far since I joined Klinik Citra Sihat.
I know, I know - it's all my fault.
For one, I seldom exercise for longer than 20 minutes where else in order to force all the extra body fat to start dissolving is to work out for 40 - 60 minutes.
And then, while I try to watch what I eat - there were occassions in which I failed to do so.
Like attending kenduri, or attending a course in a hotel  or when hubby says, "let's go to Sate Intifadha" in Kajang...
Yeah, I'm weak like that...

Still - at least I'd managed to shed off some inches too.
And the yardstick?
I've managed to wear my bridal baju kebaya again!
(Yes Kit - that purple one)
I was so excited because after I gave birth to baby Haniyya, I couldn't even fit into the bridal baju kurung moden, what more the kebaya.
Oh, the kebaya still feels a little tight - indicating that I need to do more sit-ups, crunches and lunges.
Still to me, it's a good sign and a good motivating factor...
I mean, after all, I decided to own my own baju pengantin so that I could wear them again - and not leaving them alone in the far corner of my wardrobe kan?

100510

"Thirty five is when you finally get your head together

and your body starts falling apart" - Anonymous

It's my birthday today.

Someone wise once asked, "What right do you have to celebrate your birthday?"

Well, I don't know.

But I do know that birthdays could be a good time to reflect and to grow...

It goes without saying that as we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we view things, people, happenings, the world, differently.

We've gone through a lot more than we used to when we were younger, and that in turn enable us to reflect on how little we actually know after all.

We move a step closer towards death, and we would remember those selected ones - who were born in the same year we were born - but had gone to meet The Creator earlier than us.

But we can't despair for we also need to remain energetic, zesty, full of life so that we can keep on playing our role, commit and give back - to our family, loved ones, friends, community, religion and all.

So, it is my hope and my do'a that while I'll grow wiser and act so , 

I'll also remain 'young' enough to keep living, loving, learning and giving, insya Allah.

#####

Undated picture, probably taken when I was 7.

With Ayah Tam, Tok Ayah, Pak Su, Ayah woohoo - rambut afro ala Alleycat, Tok,

my cousin Syahril, Adik & I

Yeah, yeah, now it's obvious whose mischievious grin Ujai takes after..

Standard 6, with Kelas Agama classmates 

(two classes were combined, the non-Muslims for Kelas Moral and Muslims for Kelas Agama)

I was in the same class with Wan Azlan Abdullah - a good swimmer and a minor celebrity of sort in school who would grow up to swim for Malaysia in 2 Olympics - Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000

 

Eidul Fitri 1988 - in Kelang Lama, Kulim with Tok, Tok Ayah,

Ayah Jang's family, Ayah Tam's family, Teh and Pak Su.

Eidul Fitri 1989 - in Parit Semerah, Pontian with Mak Tua, Mak Long, Pakcik Me'at, Mak's cousins and Kak Ina - the longest serving 'kakak pengasuh' we ever had.

SRP 1990 candidates - right after we were done with the exam. For the record, yellow baju & white kain was the uniform for KPs(prefects) while light blue baju & white kain the uniform for Resource Center-related  committee members

Eidul Fitri 1991 - with Tok, Tok Ayah, Nyah, Teh, Chik and more cousins since Teh and Chik had gotten married while Ayah Lang had remarried in the previous year. I got 4 new cousins in 1991 alone, 2 of them girls. finally Firdhaus and I had new female cousins - yeay!

English class classmates 1992 (during English and Arabic, the classes were divided into "Set"s)

As it happened, many from our class furthered our studies abroad - if I'm not mistaken,7 of us did our 1st degree in UK, 3 in the US, 1 in Canada, 1 in Jordan and 1 in Egypt.

Heh - who says budak sekolah agama usually fly to Middle East je?    

In the exam hall - SPM 1992

5 Biru 1992 - During those years, it was almost a tradition for Kelas Biru to be the naughtiest in the school.

I must admit that while we were no angels, we were not that naughty, but maybe we were, if measured by a 'sekolah agama' standard...

Poor Ira and Ara - being prefects on good terms with their 'naughty' classmates, they were usually given the task of 'jaga gate' when spot-checks were on. But of course, we the naughty ones were quite good in hiding our 'prohibited' walkmans, romance story books, cassettes, posters and usually got away with it, hehehe.