Last one for the year!

Hi! in just about thirty minutes, we will be ushering in the new year. I am now writing from our hotel room and would probably join in the countdown downstairs later. even if i don't, i am quite happy to just be in this room since it's soo nice and comfy :) aaahh.. well, i can't think of anything to write actually. just wanna wait till the clock strikes 12! so, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!! BYE PEOPLE!!

my favorite mee goreng mamak

there is a little stall near my office and the mamak there makes the best mee goreng. all i have to do is drive my car near his stall and wind down the mirror and order..."mee goreng 2!" (with my fingers indicating 2 like the peace sign) and wait for like 5-7 minutes...which i will spend smsing to people or talk on the phone or just look around outside of my car..and the mamak will walk to my car and hand me my two packets of mee goreng...heee heee..good customer service eh?? mee goreng mamak drive thru, sort of...



and voila!!! sometimes i can't even wait to get home to eat this..

just killing time..

Just got an email from my brother who is supposed to come back from Nepal but is stranded there because there's a problem with his flight home. He's there with a couple of friends on a holiday (yeah..don't ask me..Nepal??). I had the same question too. hehehe..but being a person who has traveled to i'd say most parts of the world, i guess he was looking for something different. something he can tell his children and his grandchildren that he has been to Nepal and see the mount everest. He is my eldest brother, just 18 months older than me and will get hitched some time next year. soon, our family will get bigger...and my parents will have more grandchildren, insyaAllah..and nazim will have to get used to not being the ONLY grandchild anymore. I have another brother, who is 5 years younger than me but certainly not smaller. in fact, he's the tallest in the family (isn't it always the case?)...and that makes me the 2nd child and only daughter (read: most independent, reliable and loving heheh)

2006 marks the year i turn 29, just 1 year shy from 30!!! yikes!!! i can't believe it..i'm not going to be in my 20s anymore...i can see the lines under my eyes multiplying (gosh, these eye creams never work do they??) this coming year also marks my 3rd wedding anniversary (which i will be posting a special entry) and it's just 9 days after the new year which means, ushering in the new year will also mean that we're celebrating another year for the both of us...(plus since we are already splurging at the nice hotel, might as well, make it a double celebration right?)

work wise, i'm beginning to feel a little burned out lah..i don't know..i like the hours and all, but it's getting a little boring for me..(and also getting fed up with my employment status which is still unconfirmed). other places would only take 6 months max to confirm their staff, but not this institution...noooooo..they have to evaluate you for 2 freaking years!!! and that sucks, because i was already enjoying the benefits of the parent company before i join this subsidiary and because i am not a confirmed staff yet, i am denied of all the medical benefits for me and for my family. this is so unfair...it seems that career wise, i am going downhill..even wayyyy down hill compared to my first job when i graduated from college, where i earned 6 times more than what i am earning now..(working overseas maaa) why did i leave the job?? well, a lot of things..being an unmarried girl and only daughter, sponsor commitment, hubby (then bf) was going home too..so what was i to do?...even getting an MBA didn't get me anywhere here at this institution. don't i deserve a little recognition...duuhh..all that hard work..which is why i've put the idea of pursuing my PhD aside for the moment as i am not sure of my future with this institution. i hope and pray that things will look brighter for me work wise this coming year, insyaAllah.

enough about my sad career...i have other nice things to look forward to this coming year..:) a new baby, perhaps another honeymoon somewhere exotic..and the little things we do as a family everyday..Oh..and a tea gathering with a few classmates of mine from form 5!! that should be exciting!

no picture of chicken pie

unfortunately, because i was in a hurry to eat, there is no more chicken pie to take a picture of.

Boxing Day

As asked by miss zetty, here's what i had to do for this entry:

1. Look for my 4th entry

2. Find my 3rd (or closest) sentence and post it for this entry.

....and this is what i found:

"so, as my hubby was watching a cooking show on the travel and living (guess where he got the bug from? hehe) channel on a sunday morning, he was inspired to have a nice western meal for buka puase. more specifically, he wanted to have Beef Wellington"

Ok so this posting was about that beef wellington me and amin made for one of our bukak puase this year..coincidentally, today, i made another western dish which i have not made before - chicken pie. i wanted to make chicken pot pie, but was too lazy to look up for the recipe on the net, so i just used my mom's "The Dairy Book of Home Cooking" and found a similar recipe, but without the 'pot'. i had earlier wanted to make my tuna quiche, but since amin isn't really a big fan of tuna or quiche, i thought i'd substitute it with chicken...and use the short crust pastry (as opposed to puff pastry) i made a few days ago to make chicken pie.

I'll post a picture of it later...

Despite it being a holiday today, i still feel dead tired today! my feet were killing me after all that standing from making the chicken pie (and i also tried to make chocolate eclairs for the first time). The choux pastry (the pastry for eclairs) was easy to make, and i think i managed to get the taste of it, but too bad, i didn't have icing sugar, so the supposed chocolate glazed didn't turn out so well :(..and i ran out of whip cream...oh well...

So after the whole fiasco in the kitchen, my feet just cannot tahan anymore and all i wanted to do was take a shower, and sleep!! and i did just that...after a 40-minute nap, i feel good as new :)

On another note, i've been feeling a little sad that my maid is going to leave us soon after 2 years. Despite her flaws, she has taken very good care of my son...and aside from me and amin, she's the next person whom he is attached to. They've developed quite a special bond, one which sometimes makes me a little envious. Nevermind the fact that she couldn't cook, she cleans well though..and what's most important is that she follows instructions well. I just hope my son will not be missing her so much...as it would be another problem later on which i don't want to think about at the moment. She's just so patient (this trait we sort of like instilled in her) with nazim and so devoted to him. She's not a mother yet, and not even married, but i'd say taking care of nazim for 2 years has certainly prepared her for motherhood. I just hope the new maid we are getting is just as good if not better than her, insyaAllah. I'm worried to about coping up with 2 kids with just one maid. People these days seem to have one maid for each kid! aiyoooo...koyak la poket macam ni...so i hope nazim will not be so difficult to handle once his sister is born. Otherwise penat laa mommy...

come on holiday, can you come a little sooner?

it's 20 past 3 in the afternoon, and i am bored...and can't wait to go home, turn on the ac and lounge in my big comfortable bed. it's just one the things i look forward to doing everytime i go home nowadays. :) and shortly, my son will come up the stairs by himself to join me...and we'll roll around the bed and he'll try to reach for the bottles of cream, deoderant, etc on the dressing table while i try to get some shut eye. after a while, he'll notice that i have fallen asleep and he'll come and snuggle next to me....and then..there will be complete silence..and when i turn around, he's sound asleep...:) i love the peacefulness during these times...sometimes i choose to continue sleeping, sometimes i'd get up and do 'stuff' like putting away his smaller clothes in the store, or just digging things from the store that i don't even realize i have..

i've been imagining the massage sessions i'll be getting during my confinement period..though i haven't really found a masseuse yet. hmm...i want to have massage like every other day. i only had 3 massages during my last confinement..and i feel that i should have more..i hear some people have massages almost everyday during their confinement. besides having a makcik urut who comes to the house, i also want to try out the local beauty spas that offer after-delivery packages..hmmm should be fun, eh?? can't wait...can't wait..

oh watched the chronicles of narnia a couple of days ago...just to catch up with the buzz, but since me and hubby are not really book readers, i guess we weren't really too hmm...how should i say..."wowed" by the show..we thought it was pretty lame and thought there were a lot of loose ends..like did they explain why the cupboard can lead to narnia? (maybe i missed this..), and who is the professor and what is his relation to the kids? (ok maybe i missed this too).

oh well..i am bored..still am..going home soon...have a nice week everyone!

adios

Good bye 2005 - Hello 2006!

The end of the year is fast approaching and am definitely feeling the excitement. thoughts of what will we be doing on new year's eve will creep this time around every year, but just like any other year, we will probably end up at home sleeping or watch tv when the clock strikes midnight ...pathetic isn't it? i just made a call to a pretty nice hotel in downtown KL, just to find out how much it would cost to spend the new year's eve there, and guess how much it is?! 700 bucks!! ok..will keep that in mind..but i really wouldn't mind staying there just for a night! :) then..there's my 3rd year anniversary coming up too in January..and i asked how much would it be around that time of the year..around 400 but without breakfast..hmm..when am i going to get a complimentary voucher to stay in the pretty nice hotel??

The past week has been a little crazy for me. nazim was not too well, and so wasn't i...been feeling ok one day and not-so-ok another day..but today, i'm feeling OK and energetic. seriously, this pregnancy has been quite tough compared to the first one..i'm just a little over 6 months now but gosh, i feel like i am ready to deliver anytime and going up the flight of stairs at home seems like a marathon every time, resulting in me panting for air and lying down on the bed for a couple of minutes. even going to bed has been quite a challenge for every position i try is either hurting my back, or poking my ribs. and the headaches..getting them too often lately.

I was looking at the academic calendar and was excitedly planning for a holiday next year...the 2 millions free seats from air asia sure sound tempting doesn't it? i better get amin to sit down and work this out before we miss out on the free tickets!!! we haven't been to bali before..that's one of the places i have in mind..and then there's jakarta, surabaya, medan, bandung....out of these 4 places, which one is better? i've heard people saying that bandung is a better place to go...i'm looking for a nice place to go to relax (have a nice massage and spa), shop (no traffic jams, please) and dine. appreciate your suggestions!

I also have other places in mind which we have not yet been...like Egypt, Morocco, Spain (the madrid/cordova side), pakistan (we should probably go there since amin's relatives are there), and australia (a good reason to go since my sis-in-law is there!). we haven't been to eastern europe but for some reason, both of us are not that keen to go to that part of the world. maybe when we really don't have anywhere else to go..

coming back to what are we doing for new year's?....still thinking...

back from the exhaustion

what was supposed to be a relaxing 3 day break (plus 2 days over the weekend) turned out to be such a tiring and exhaustive time for me. i had planned to take 3 days off from work to follow hubby on his working trip up north, along with my son and maid. to top it off, i was down with a flu, followed by my son too at the end of the trip. i finally recovered from this fatigueness this morning when i woke up with bright eyes and my body feeling much stronger than it has been for the last 4-5 days.

the drive was endless and what made it tiring was we had to make many stops as my husband (the ever so busy businessman) needed to meet some people along the way. and while he had his "short" meetings, i would find some kind of entertainment for nazim, like finding a McDonald's or a KFC that has a play area..or just hoping that that meeting place has a small aquarium or those water feng-shui things. waiting for amin in the car would drive all of us crazy because we weren't sure how long the meetings would take. and while we were on the road, nazim would keep shifting places from his own seat at the back, to my seat, and then to his dad's seat..and then in between us. and this would go on for the whole time we were in the car until of course, he falls asleep...phew..that's the time when i can put my legs up on the dashboard and rest.

we arrived at our destination (Penang) close to 11 pm, freshened up, and were ready to hit the sack...oh but before that i managed to catch a quite interesting movie on 8TV called 'Just Desserts'. they certainly made nice attractive desserts in that movie. yum yum..

the next morning...i decided that all of us should follow my hubby to seberang, as he said he would be there the whole day!! i didn't wanna be stuck in the hotel for a whole day! maybe i would take nazim to the pool but how long would that last? probably an hour...and then what? so, we all jumped in the car and headed for seberang prai. exploring prai for the first time, it did make me a little excited..and i can say that i can roughly tell where kepala batas, permatang pauh, and other areas in prai are, having driven the highway a few times that day.

during the many "entertainment-finding-stops", i managed to get a few things that i've been looking for like a non-stick muffin pan (nice material and cheap too!), a board to roll my dough on, a really2 cheap kitchen weighing scale (now i don't have to use my head to do all the conversions!!), a nice tikar gulung, and a matress (i plan to have my massages during my confinement on this).

our day in prai ended pretty late that day, and culminated with me, losing my entire handbag just before we made our way back to the island. yup..i had left my HANDBAG (with my wallet with not a lot of cash, camera, handphone, keys to the office, key to the hotel room) at one of the shops in kepala batas! on the way back to the shop, i was in complete silence..praying that someone would be nice enough to keep it till i arrive...and Alhamdulillah..my prayers were answered...my handbag was safely kept at the lost and found counter at the Wisma Dato' Kailan (the shopping place). that was how tired i was...because i'm not really the type of person who would leave things behind..we visited my grandma on my father's side the next day before making our way to KL for the weekend.

i realize during my trip..that my husband has quite a stressful job, compared to mine..i mean i know this even before going on the trip with him...but after seeing him on the job..gosh..i do feel a little remorse..driving to people's office for meetings, and people not being there on time, arranging as many meetings as he can fit in a day which results to him forget his meal times, trying to make it to the meeting spots on time by driving like a mad person...and of course..the amount of time he spends yakking on the phone with his own staff and business contacts (his phone rings every 5 minutes on an average working day and i am not exagerating). his stress level on a scale of 0-10....11!!

and then there's me....who goes to her office..unlocks her door, turns on the AC and PC and goes to her classes (which is about 7 hours per week) and with her phone ringing at maybe 0 calls/hour?? my stress level on a scale of 0-10...0.5 (ok..maybe during marking exams, it would be a little higher..like 4 or 5..hehe)

so i guess i can be a bit more understanding whenever he comes home with a not-smiling a face...so i normally give him some time to cool it off a little..and then he'll be back to his normal self. :)

A few things i noticed on my trip:

1. Public toilets in Malaysia have not improved despite the recent campaign to clean the toilets. Apa taknya, some of the toilet flush in the toilets were deliberately removed so that tak kena curi! So how is one suppose to flush?!! and naturally, all the bau hancing from the unflushed bowls will accumulate and becomes the potpurri for the entire bathroom!!!WHEN IS OUR COUNTRY GOING TO HAVE NICE SMELLING AND CLEAN TOILETS?! NEVER?!

2. I absolutely cannot stand the smell of a room that had people smoking in it...(i literally had to cover my nose with a towel as i was suffocating)

3. It is not that difficult to entertain my son...so long as there is a McDonald's playland and lorries on the road..

4. Penangans have heavy breakfasts (they serve nasi tomato and nasi beriyani at the hotel for breakfast!!)

5. My husband is a very patient man..:) (of course i know this a long time ago but this trip really proves it)