Weird Facts

I’ve been tagged by Ana. It looks like an interesting one, so here goes:

RULES: People who are tagged should write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog....
(These are the rules created by… I don’t know who, but I try to stick to it..)


Fact 1
Some of you may know that I’m a tidy and organized kind of person (sometimes frighteningly so!!), especially when it comes to stuff like… my books. I have loads of books and not only are they neatly arranged on the shelves according to authors, they are also catalogued in my pc.
Ok, so that’s not so weird. Many people do that… I think. But whenever I’m at a bookstore, casually browsing along the shelves, I’ll catch myself rearranging the books, shelving them in the ‘right’ order.
Hey.. at least I’m doing the store a favour. People will be able to find books a lot easier.

Fact 2
I’ve got really strange hearing. Whenever I hear something on my right, you can bet you life that the sound is coming from my left, and vice versa. Same goes for front and back. Due to this, a lot of people have been kept waiting at the gate because I always assumed that the honking was coming from the road at the back of the house.

Fact 3
Every morning when I get up from bed, walking towards the bathroom, I always stop at the dressing table and brush my hair even though I know that I’ll be getting into the shower in a few minutes. I’m not vain or anything because when I brush my hair, I don’t necessary look in the mirror. It’s just a process that I go through every morning.

Fact 4
I can’t let go of stuff. I keep things for their sentimental values even though I hardly have enough space for them. I still have all those movie stubs from my UK time. And some of them you can’t even see anything anymore because the ink has been rubbed off. But I can always flick through and see that I watched Lion King and Forrest Gump THREE times!! EACH!! At the movies!! (And cried all of those times too!!!)

Fact 5
When I eat rice, and all it’s ‘lauk’, I have to make sure that the fish or chicken or veggies does not go on the rice itself. But would have to be arranged around the rice in a semicircle. If anyone were to serve me and placed, say the chicken, right on top of my rice mount, I’ll move it to the side and patiently pick out all the bits of rice that’s sticking to the chicken. (Gosh!! I’m starting to sound like Jack Nicholson’s character in As Good As It Gets!!)

Fact 6
I love durians... but only the fresh ones. I cannot stand durian flavoured ice-creams, or durian cakes or durian eaten with something else like sticky rice.
Give me fresh durians anytime, and no thank you to the others.

So there. All my idiosyncrasies revealed. I hereby tag Iza, CS, G, Spectacularwave, Akmal and Fasha.

Soooo Stressed Out!!!

I need a break!! Desperately!!!

I’ve got tons of things to do. There’s a bundle of clothes that needs beading, book details to upload to my website, clothes to wash and iron. Then there’s the odd errands that needs doing for my dad like going to the bank, to the post office, to the electrical shops. There’s also shopping to go to with my mom. Apart from that, Nadiah needs looking after, or running after is more like it!

Last of all there are all those books I’ve bought for the last two months to stock up my online book rental store and have yet to read. And read them I must because I simply CANNOT bear for other people to rent them before I’ve had a read through.

I am soooo STRESSED!!!!

I’m going to and get a KitKat now…..



P/S
As you can see, my book rental website is up in the MY OTHER BLOGS/WEBSITE link. It’s up, but it’s not running still. More books have to be uploaded and other stuff. But you’re welcome to have a look and browse around. Have fun and please leave me a feedback if there’s anything you’re happy or not happy with. Thankx

Mama... I love you

I was taking Nadiah to the bathroom yesterday when she said the most amazing thing. While helping her out of her clothes, Nadiah suddenly said, very softly

"Mama"
"Yes" I said
"I love you" said Nadiah
"I love you too" I replied

I just smiled at her, blinking away tears. But my heart just bawled over. This sure is the happiest day of my life. Something so simple
and yet means the world to me.
Hearing Nadiah called me "mama', which has been significantly absent
these last two years.
A fitting present for a day that's devoted for love, don't you think?

Here's to my darling Nadiah.....

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, SAYANG!!

Happy Anniversary to....

us!! Today marks the 7th year that Shukri and I have been partners in this institution called marriage. How time flies. It feels like only yesterday that he secretly (or so he thought) send a bunch of flowers to me at the office for my birthday, on the wrong day. Which prompted my other colleagues in the office to rush out and get me birthday cards and and subtly placed the cards while I was at the loo (making it look like a well thought-out plan they had made in advance). Anyway, I was rather amused to have to tell them that they had the wrong date. They were all asking who the flowers were from since Shukri had signed the card with a big X. But I just gave them a mysterious smile and kept my mouth shut. I knew who it was from even if he didn't know that I did. I could see him right across from my desk, pretending to be busy with his drawings and basically making a disinterested look with everything that's going on around us.

You see, we haven't started going out with each other yet at that time although we've known each other almost a year. We were always hanging out together and I guess the attraction was there. But I didn't do anything about is as I had just came out of a relationship right before I started working and wasn't looking for a new one. He, on the other hand, later told me had been giving me hints since the first day, but I was totally blind. Honest!! I seriously did not get whatever hints that came my way. The problem with me is that I take people at face value and any subtleties or hints would just passed through me unnoticed. I supposed he was running out of ideas when he finally seek his dad's help. His dad then had a talk with his colleague, who happens to be my parents' old friend, to 'inquire' about me. Or 'merisik' as it is called in malay.

This may sound old-fashioned to some of you, the elders discussing my marriage options without my knowing. But my dad totally approved of the way Shukri went about this whole thing. Because unbeknown to anyone, that was what my dad did. He had a man to man talk with my grandfather (mom's father) behind my mother's back. Sort of asking my grandfather for my mother's hand in marriage before he asked her to marry him. Of course my parents would have to ask me whether I was agreeable.

When mom told me that Shukri had sent someone to merisik. I got a shock of my life. Never in a hundred years did I suspect anything. Then the laughter just hit me. I laughed in amazement, confusion, delight and uncertainty. All rolled into one. But after a lot of thought and times spent together, I decided it felt right.

A month after that we got engaged. Two weeks before Shukri had to fly to the States for three months for some training he had to attend. Two months after that, we got married. And it's now been seven years. I pray that we have many, many more years to celebrate in the future and may our lives together be blessed by Allah.

And one of His signs is that He created mates for you from yourselves
that you may find rest in them, and He put between you love and compassion;
most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect.
Surah 30. Ar Rum Ayat 21

Nadiah's First Day Of Kindergaten

It’s Nadiah’s first day at Superkids Kindergarten today. She is in a special class for kids with Down Syndrome, learning disabilities and autism.


Class starts at 1.30pm and ends at 3.30pm, three days a week. But as this is the first week for the special class, classes will dismiss a half an hour early. Altogether there were 20 some kids in 4 different classes. The class that Nadiah was in have 2 other kids. We were worried but at the same time hopeful that Nadiah would like the school.


At first when we arrived at the school, she refused to get down from the car and Shukri had to carry her in. But as soon as she saw the playground, she insisted to be put down and immediately ran to the swings. There were other kids running around with their parents looking on and teachers in their special pink coats zooming in and out of the picture, expertly handling the kids with ease. I looked at the scene and though: well, Nadiah might just be alright at this place. For the moment, Nadiah will just be wearing her normal clothes as school uniforms have yet to be issued.

At 2 o’clock, the bell rang and everyone had to line up according to the color of their name tags. Nadiah’s was green and we took her to stand in front of the teacher who was also wearing the same coloured name tag. I must admit that I was busy settling Nadiah down that I didn’t get a chance to look at the teacher’s name. Will do that tomorrow. Everyone had to sing a 'Good Afternoon' song with the teachers and waving their hands all over. It was a bit unsettling for Nadiah and she tried to get away. Thank God the song was short and sweet!! Shukri decided to carry Nadiah into the classroom and we worried again that she won’t sit still at the table. But the teachers had already thoughtfully lined up some toys over everyone’s place. With no time to waste, Nadiah slide into her chair and proceeded to play. She seemed fine and couldn’t care less about us so we left her to the care of her yet unnamed teacher and went to the auditorium for a welcoming talk from the principal (whom I know her name is Miss Yeoh).

Nadiah happily playing with her blocks in class

We were shown slides of the activities that goes on in the special classes which includes water play, messy play, colouring, numbers, alphabets and so on. The activities are somewhat the same as any kindergarten but the techniques are better suited for special children. They concentrate on making the children independent and able to follow instruction and in the hope that the children are able to join other kids in the regular classes. I am happy to see that the activities revolve around stuff that Nadiah really likes. They have water play which they would teach the children how to bathe, soap themselves then dry themselves and put on their own clothes. In one of the pictures, they had the children washing a car (lucky whichever teacher that went home with a squeaky clean car that day!). Basically just having fun with friends.

There’s also messy play where they get to play with icky, gooey flour and water mixture and just slide their hands in the paste and stamping all over a paper (clothes, hair and God knows where else). Now I know why they require every child to have an extra clean set of clothes in their bags.

The school also organizes parents’ class every fortnight. It’s when parents get to meet other parents and discuss with the teachers about their child’s progress or lack of them. It’s also the time where they will be given training on how to deal with their child. I thought that is a good and valuable opportunity. After all, it’s the parents who would be spending most of the times with their child. We can’t just drop our children at the school expecting the teachers to do all the work.

3 o'clock, talk finished, we all rushed out to see how our children was doing. I was apprehensive, thinking Nadiah might have given the teacher a hard time or something. But she was fine, albeit walking around into other people's class (checking out their toys, I suppose) and by the time they were let out of the class, she was still sitting down at one of the tables not wanting to go home. I had to go to the door and call her name a few times before she got up from the chair.

All in all, Nadiah had a good start. I think she had a fun day and hopefully, she'll willingly go into the classroom tomorrow and the next day and the next week and on and on.