Another Reunion in Alor Star

We had another Asmarian gathering the weekend before last. This time it was for those in the north and we had it at The Regency.

The number was small but we all had a great time catching up with each other. Thanks Wina, Ita, Yusni, Ziti, Pinut and Hanisah for making it to the gathering. I hope we can do it again soon.

SAS Gathering and Karaoke Night

Last Friday nite I attended a mini gathering for ex-Asmarian batch 1992. Sumat was the person who organised it all and it was held at Red Box, The Gardens. I flew down to KL on my own.. no hubby, no kiddo was with me. And it was a BLAST!!

There were 16 of us there and not just from my class but from other classes as well and everybody turned up in red and black. The food was good.. I think, because I only eat a little. I was too excited that food didn't hold any interest for me. Not even the dessert. Except maybe those Jaffa Cakes that Wina brought back from UK. Those I ate a lot!!

It was great fun and very loud and we were like teenages again. The best thing was that even those most of us have not seen each other in 17 years, we all just jumped in the conversations like all those years never happened. It's so great. I'm happy to see that the friendship that we've build in school has carried on till now.

By the time it was 2am, those left decided to call it a night (but really only because the karaoke machine thing refuse to let us play anymore songs... if not, we would have happily sang more songs) and left Red Box and took the party over to Bangsar at the mamak's. Even the mamak shooed us out becaus it was already 3am and he wanted to close up. So everyone said their goodbyes and Nana and me send off Kimi back to her place in Shah Alam. Then Nana took me home, waited while I had a quick shower and packed and she sent me to KL Central. My flight was early that morning and with no sleep whatsoever in almost 24 hours, I was just dead to the world the whole flight.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful night and I hope we can make it an even bigger event for our 25th reunion!!

Picture time...

Pleasure and Pain

So I went for my monthly facial treatment session this morning. As usual the treatment involves a 20 minute session of neck and shoulder massage. I tall ya, in all of the 10 years of having facial treatments, the massage is the one thing I absolutely hate. It's just pain and more pain to me. I just can't stand it. No matter how many times I keep telling the girl to go easy, the pain is still there. But I don't cry out like a banshee or anything like that. I'm the 'suffer quietly' kinda girl. Hey, I'm a Leo. Pride can be such a virtue to us Leos... or a bane. Which ever way you want to look at it.

I hear you asking why I don't just tell the girl to stop altogether. I don't know really. I guess I have to admit that the end result is good. I do feel more relaxed. It's just the thought of going through pain for a whole 20 minutes is what makes me suffer through it. But I don't have to like it!!

I know some people loves getting a massage; one of whom is my dear hubby. He often says that the pain you get from the message is good for the body. That's what makes it pleasurable. The more intense you push on a pressure point and the harder you roll out the muscles, the more painful it is and thus the more pleasure you get out of it.

What? Pain is good? I beg to differ. The only pleasure I get from getting a massage is when the pain stops.

But it's weird really because I usually have quite a high tolerance for pain. If I can stand it, I can ignore it. Like now, my neck is aching like the very devil. It's been days now but since the pain is bearable, I've been ignoring it. I could not be bothered to take any painkillers or rub in hot oil or such things. But this morning, the pain was even worse and I could hardly look down to type on the keyboards, let alone looking down to see if I've got my feet in the right pair of shoes. So in the end I succumb and swallowed a pill for the pain. It's better now and I know I'll be back to ignoring it again.

I know what I'm doing is bad. We should always listen to what out body is telling us but I have this odd believe that sometimes your body is just going through spring cleaning and you just have to let it heal itself. Like having a cold. There's nothing much you can do about it but drink lots of water. It would just go away once it run its course.

Well, I hope I'll feel better soon or I'm going to be having a horrible time at out mini reunion this Friday. I so can't wait for the day. Will update on that after the event. Till then....

6th Prime Minister of Malaysia

Congratulations to Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for his appointment as the nation's 6th Prime Minister.

May the new leadership breathes a new lease of life into the country.

First Day of School

Last Monday was Nadiah's first day of school at her kindy. This year, I am happy to report that she is in the normal 6 year old class with 20 other classmates. For the past two years, she had been in SuperKids kindergarten but she was placed in the special class for kids with autism, down syndrome and other learning disabilities. But last year, her teachers have been saying that she has improved so much and was talking a lot more in class and able to understand instructions that they think she would do well in the normal class. That was one news I was estactic to hear. Something I have been praying for since we first find out she has mild autism four years ago.

So early that morning, I got Nadiah up real early as school starts at 8.15 am. She didn't make a fuss when she had to get up early. But when she saw that outside was still dark and she had to wear her school uniform, she started asking for her pajamas. To her, when it's night that means everyone has to change into PJs. I kept telling her that it's okay and that light would show up in a few minutes. In the end when the sun finally came out did she relented and gave in to wearing her uniform. But she was still a little teary-eyed. We had to dragged her to get into the car.

I was worried that she wouldn't be able to handle the crowds in school. She was used to being around 20 or so kids in school with a few teachers. This time there would be over 200 kids plus their parents! I kept my fingers cross that she would not cry.

To my surprise, once she saw the school, she could not get the safety belt off fast enough. She was happy to be back in school and had such a great time in the playground before the bell rang. Kept wishing those teachers that she recognize "good morning". When the bell did ring, she just grab her bag and lined up like she usually did with no fuss at all.

After school her teacher said that she did alright and was such a good girl. All my worries were for nothing and I thank God that she adjusted well.

Snapped some pictures on that day:

Of course, her cat and hat had to be with her on that day. But she left it in the car.

Writing her ABCs in the sand in the playground. I guess she was eager to start learning.. hehee..

Can you see her? She is the tallest kid in school, topping everyone by one whole head!!

16 Things You May Or May Not Know About Me

I've been tagged by Izan.
It's interesting and I have to think long about what 16 things I'm to reveal about myself.

Directions: Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog/Facebook note with 16 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment or tag them in your note to read this.


1. I am the youngest in the family and an only girl in a world of boys. My daughter, Nadiah is also the only girl among boy cousins. Whenever my mom, Nadiah and I spend time together, I always secretly refer to us as "The Girls"

2. I am such a romantic. I love romantic gestures and love to read romantic novels. I have hundreds of the books that can hardly fit onto my shelves.

3. Although I may act tough, but I am such a cry baby whenever sappy scenes in movies come out or in a book. I just cry like I know those characters personally and as if I'm somehow involved with what's happening.

4. I talk to myself occasionally and not just to boost up my confidence like you always see on TV when a girl is going in for an interview or confrontation. I talk to myself just about anything really. It's like a whole conversation.

5. I don't like to read chick lit. Give me a romance anytime. I guess it's because the heroine in a chick lit is usually independent and the ending is usually not what it seems of a happily ever after with a guy. I rather go for the damsel in distress kinda situation especially if it's a historical romance. But don't get me wrong. I am totally independent and can't stand helpless women in real life. It's just to read.

6. You probably know this already, but I love scrapbooking and the altered arts. Although some of my old teachers were surprised when they heard that I am doing any kind of crafts. Hello! Didn't I take Arts in school??

7. Before we got engaged (or even got married), hubby and I went out on a proper date only three times. Most times, he would come to my house and we would just spend time together under the proper supervision of my parents or one of my brothers. Talk about being old fashioned huh? But we didn't mind. After all, we see each other everyday in the office and he comes over everyday after work. So we pretty much spend most of our times together.

8. Although I do a lot of beadwork , I am getting pretty tired of it. But I still do it because the money I get from it supports my scrapbooking expenses. No beading, no more SB stuff (DIE!!). But honestly, I am struggling to come out with new designs and am ever so slow with my work these days. I would happily come out with one lame excuse after lame excuse just to buy some time out of beading.

9. I am so like Monica from Friends. I just love organising and labeling my things. Just ask my hubby and he would tell you how he first laughed at my neatly stacked boxes (and labeled too), when we first got married. Ask him what happens when he can't find his stuff and had to ask me where his randomly kept computer componetnts are. So who's laughing now, buddy?

10. I have a thing for British accent. Think Hugh Grant, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Sean Connery and Rupert Everett (yes, I know he's gay but what the heck? His voice and that accent... I just melt *sigh*). I guess it's also in their way of dropping a dry sarcastic joke with a straight face and you're thinking "was that a joke?"

11. I am impulsive when it to comes to shopping. I buy things just because I like the colour or shape or looks pleasing to the eye. They may or may not be practical buys but there you go. So out of sync with my Monica trait.

12. I love Lord of The Rings. I have watched the movie again and again and again, that I practically memorized the whole three movies. That reminds me; I have not had a LOTR marathon in a while....

13. I am such a horder. Seriously! I love keeping stuff for their sentimental values. I still have those movie stubs from more than 10 years ago from movies I watched in the UK. And what about those free maps, catalogues or brochures you get when you visit a place of interest? I've still got them all. They are too precious to throw away...

14. I love cats. I think they are cuddly and cute. But I am allergic to them. I mean, seriously allergic! I'll sneeze and my eyes start to water and my nose starts to tingle when I'm in a close vicinity of a cat. Especially to stray cats. I don't even have to touch them. Even just being close to them gets me going. It's just my luck that Nadiah just adores cats and would start chasing after every Tom, Dick and Harry cats. I think it's the fur. The dirtier they are, the louder I sneeze. I wonder if my allergies will act up with a sphinx cat....?

15. When I was a girl, I was such a tomboy. I guess it was all the influence from having lots of brothers. Once mom nearly had a heart attack when she found her precious little girl in her big brother's boots kicking a football in the hot blazing sun, practicing for the World Cup. Poor, Mom *sigh*

16. I love making friends. I'm pretty understanding and accepting of people's nature. I don't judge people and can always get along with most.



Well, I guess I can think of 16 things about myself. Now I am tagging:

1. CA
2. Kimi
3. Naddy
4. Chow Chow
5. Jessy
6. Liza

7. Wati

8. Jazz
9. Vivs
10. Dina
11. Iza
12. Spec
13. Fasha
14. Akmal
15. Nana
16. Hani

School Holidays

School holidays for us lasts for just over a month. That's because Nadiah's classes at NASOM went on till the end of November. Everything was jam packed in the first two weeks of December with weddings, Nadiah's schooling for 2009, Nadiah's school assessment and taking her jalan-jalan. It didn't help that everyday over the holidays she woke up at 7 am when before that it was such a struggle just to get her to open her eyes at 8.30 am. But this past month, she's up and about, all fresh from her shower by 7.30 am. Then right after breakfast, she's out of the house playing with water and sand, building sand castles.

No, we're not at the beach. Hubby got some sand from next door where they're doing some construction, and dump a load in the empty flower bed. But water + sand = a girl who is soaked all over from the "extra" shower. This happens several times a day, so just imagine the laundry I have to do each day... *sigh*

Hubby and I have to take turns watching over her every hour or so, because she gets into all sorts of trouble. During craft time, she gets glue all over her, the blanket, her hat and don't even mention the table. Or she finds some blue tack, thinking it's play doh: she's rolling it out, stretching the thing and opps.... it's stuck on her head, pressed flat over her hair and scalp. So we had to cut some chunks of her hair to get it off. *sigh sigh*

But to give her credit, she loves doing all these. They might drive Mama and Baba up the wall, but what does she care? She's a kid and kids do these things huh?

Anyway, over the holidays we were down in KL for two weekends in a row. The first was for my cousin, Nana's wedding to Faizal in Damansara. She's the youngest girl cousin on mom's side of the family. It was great to be able to meet up with the family again and catch up on each other and get the family gossip of the moment.. hahaa!! Although some cousins couldn't make it but all in all, everybody was pretty happy with everything. Here's some pics from the events:

The bride and groom (obviously!)

Mother of the bride blessing the couple

At the reception, Nadiah was a lot more happy spending time at the fountain rather than in the hall...

Imran, my cousin's son, being cheeky

Me with cousin and niece

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Then the next weekend, we were back in KL again. On Saturday, we decided to take Nadiah to Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam (or something like that) in Shah Alam. We were hoping to get her to experience some snow as we heard that they have some over there.

So off we went to Shah Alam, not really sure what to expect. We got there around 10.30am and saw on the board that the 4 Seasons House is experiencing winter. Oohhh.. we were so excited. Or rather, Mama and Baba were. Nadiah didn't really know what was going on. She thought we were going to see some lions.

We got in line for the open-air bus ride which would take us (we hope) to the House. When the bus came and we got on, Nadiah was really amazed that the bus had no windows and she could feel the breeze in her hair. I had one arm around her all the time in case she leaned out just a tad too far. The bus took us everywhere in the park and it was a BIG rain-forest park. S0 many things to see in just a glance from the ride. I saw an animal park, a spice garden, a bird park, some cultural buildings which I didn't get to read the name and of course the 4 Seasons House.

When we got to the House, we got our tickets, and pushed through the entrance, we could already feel the slight drop in temperature. The first hall had some exhibits on how the snow house was made and such things. We didn't bother with that but went straight to the double doors on the other side. So we rushed in and.... Man, it was cold!! It's a hallway with glass windows on each side. In the windows we could see scenes of snow in the winter with frozen lakes, penguins, snowman and an igloo. Basically everything was covered in snow. There was also a door on each side where we could go into the "scene" and walk on the bridge and pretend like you're actually somewhere in Canada or Hokkaido or the North Pole (that's the igloo bit). It was freezing in there!

The thing was, we weren't prepared for the place and didn't even have on a jacket, let alone mittens and scarves. Nadiah had on a skirt and I imagined her legs were probably freezing by the time we got out. But she didn't want to go into the glass rooms. I reckon she was confused by all the whiteness and the cold that she was feeling. The 'snow' that we've been having at home, courtesy of the freezer, felt cold to the touch but never to the whole body. So that was quite a shock to her system.

But I thought it was beautiful in there. I would love to return for the spring, summer and autumn seasons.

Christmas Greetings

Wishing those celebrating a very Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year

Wishing all the Muslims SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILADHA.
To those driving back to their respective kampungs, do drive safely and take care.

A Fall And A Wonderful Revelation

Last night, while getting Nadiah ready for her shower, I slipped and fell in the bathroom. Although the fall was painful and the result being that I ache all over today, I realised something wonderful: not quite like Einstein had a revelation when an apple fell on his head but something of a smaller scale.

When I was lying on my bum (a very undignified position, I can assure you!), Nadiah came running to me crying out "What's wrong? what's wrong? oh sorry" and then she asked "Are you ok?" and tried to give me a hug. That's when I realised that she was concern and empathic.

*Empathy is the capacity to recognize or understand another's state of mind or emotion. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or in some way experience the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself.

In most cases, an autistic child seldom feels sympathy or empathy towards another due to the fact that they are either unable to comprehend the feelings in theirselves, let alone the feelings of others, or if they are able to understand, they find it hard to express empathy to others, as appose to feeling it internally.

Example:
Many times in the past years, I have cried out of frustration whenever I feel like such a failure with Nadiah's progress. Sometimes just little things like trying to get her to sleep after 2-3 hours of lying on the bed beside her and failed to get her to drift off. Usually after a whole day of running here and there and all I want to do is close my eyes and get a good night sleep, the last thing I want to do is lying stiff like a board on the bed, NOT being able to sleep because as soon as I move or close my eyes, she would be up again and the whole process would just start all over again. There are times when the frustration just boils up and I just had to have a good cry and while I was bawling like a baby, Nadiah would just ignore me and do her own thing as if she could not here me. And this frustrates me even more when a good hard hug would have been a balm to my soul.

So back to the fall, I realised three wonderful things.
First: Nadiah was able to understand that when you fall, you may hurt yourself and that it can be painful. And thus, she understood that and felt empathic towards me.

Second: She was sympathatic and corncern for me and that was why she wanted to know what was wrong and asking if I was ok.

Third: Not only was she able to feel those things, she was also able to express herself verbally. And not just a one word expression but a whole lot of stuff was coming out of her mouth.

In the midst of the fall, all my pain was just brushed aside, insignificant to the incredible feeling of my realisation. I pulled myself up, gave Nadiah a quick hug and a kiss while blinking rapidly several times so that tears will not fall. And I've been doing that several times since the incident whenever I thought of it. Even hubby was rendered speechless when he rushed over to the bathroom to see what was happening. Note that I pulled MYSELF up; no gentlemanly behaviour here, people!! I guessed he was struck dumb by Nadiah's show of concern.

It's days like these that I live for. One little incident that would erase all the other failures....

Twilight

In honour of the opening of the movie TWILIGHT on the 21st November, I have changed my blog background.

I think it's so cool....

Snow In The Hot Sun

A few days ago, Nadiah decided she wanted to dress up in winter gear. So she dug out a pair of gloves, a jacket and nicked the cerkup I wear for prayers. And after a few minutes of searching, I found my old woolen scarf and hang it around her neck.

She was ecstatic and ran downstairs to scrape for some "snow" in the freezer. I don't know where she gets these ideas but am only too happy that her imagination runs well. And so, to help her with her play, I decided to gather as much "snow" as possible into this big plastic cup. She was deliriously happy that she started to sprinkle some "snow" on herself and they look kinda real, like flecks of snow droppings on her clothes. I had to take pictures, of course..

With "snow" on her head and scarf

Tying her scarf

"Snow" in her hands

"Snow" from the freezer

Vampires Anyone?

Do you ever notice that since the emergence of Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings on the silver screen a few years back, books and more movies are made around these fantasy, paranormal, psychic, urban myths and legend hullabaloo? And it was no surprise that I fell right into the trap!!

I adore the Harry Potter series, both the movies and the book series. And I just can't get enough of The Lord of the Rings. Admittedly I was one of those who saw the movie first without reading the book. But when I did, I straight away went out of my way to get the books and read it cover to cover, including the appendix. Not enough with just reading the book, I had to browse every LOTR site there was on the internet. Once or twice a year, I still have HP or LOTR marathons whenever possible.

Then about 2 years ago, I got hooked on vampire books. The first book I bought was Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. And wasn't I ecstatic to find out that the movie will be coming out soon. Since Twilight, I've read New Moon and bought Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, of which the last two books I've yet to read.

Then there came the Otherworld series by Yasmine Galenorn. The books are about the three D'Artigo sisters: Camille is a witch; Delilah, a ware-cat; and Menolly, a vampire. These three sexy, ass-kicking, half human, half Fairie sisters are out to save the world from the evil forces of Shadow Wing, the leader of the Subteranean Realm. Hahaa.. you're probably thinking what the heck I'm talking about. But it's great!

But the books that I really got seriously hooked on are the Dark series (or sometimes called the Carpathian series) by Christine Feehan. One day I saw a couple of titles in the series at Popular Bookstore and I chose just one, just to give it a try. The next day, I went back and bought all the other titles. After browsing the website, I found out that there are 18 books in the series that have already been printed. And I had to have them ALL of course. Those that were not at the bookstore, I made the people there order for me. And it wasn't just to be any book printed on the series. They had to be from a certain publisher so that when I arrange the books on my shelf (in order of the series, of course), I have the pleasure of seeing the books in order and of the safe cover design and height. That was how obsessed I was!! And yes, you've guessed it, I have every single title from the series except the latest new release. That is only because it's in largeprint and thus will not be of the same height as the other books. I read the books day in and day out and in a year, I've read every single book twice already and some even 3-4 times. Hubby is baffled with my strange obsession with the books. And so am I.

Nah... no, I'm not. I'm just weird. I just get into the characters and the plot that sometimes I have difficulty drawing a line between reality and fantasy.

Ok, now that we've establish how weird I can be, shall we stop now before you decide what a complete nutcase I am?

I'll leave you with a picture of some of the Dark books



Ta, see you in a few days....

Bowling Day

This time I'm not going to even comment on how long it's been since I last blogged, nor make any such promises that I would be more diligent and update regularly. Because I know I will renege on that promise again and again. So I won't even bother. Instead, I'm just going to start blogging like months and months had not passed and ignore the "basi-ness" of some news. There! Now I can start.

Among Nadiah's hundreds of VCDs, there is one that shows kids playing bowling which she keeps watching again and again. So one day, hubby and I thought we would take her to the bowling alley and see if she would be interested. Usually places like that are really noisy with the music blaring out of the speakers, bowling balls being rolled across the floor and crashing against the pins. Not to mention people shouting and jumping up and down when there was a strike. So I wasn't too encouraged when we neared the place.

But then Nadiah suprised me when she walked in without a blink of an eye and only belatedly tried to reduce the sound around her by sticking a finger in each ear. And even that was done half heartedly. When I tried to get her hands down, she complied without much arguement. So that was a start.

One look at her face, I knew that she was excited. What with all those coloured balls sitting nicely in a row. I think she was amazed to see that she was actually there, at the bowling alley, just like the one she's been watching on her computer. But then, that day was just a trial to see if she would even step into the place. We stayed for a few minutes more to let her soak everything in and promised her we'll come again another day.

And so we did. After a few days, with our socks on hand, off we went. On the way, we kept talking about bowling to get her all hyped up. And she was. She was so excited that we could hardly make her stop and sit for a little, while Baba registered and get our shoes.

So how did she do?

Well, she's 6. What do you expect? I don't think I'll be dreaming of her in the Olympics pretty soon. I think we spent more time chasing after her then we did on the floor rolling the ball. She just did not get the concept that different coloured balls have different weights. If it was up to her, she would like to "throw" the ball according to the colour of the rainbow, regardless of the weight. At one time, it was Nadiah rolling on the floor instead of the ball. Thank God there were not many people around or we would have gotten the boot for sure!

But all in all, she had a blast!! Mama and Baba on the other hand, was totally exhausted.....

Choosing the right ball

Getting ready to "throw" the ball

Disappointed that her ball just disappeared down the drain

Giving Baba a hi10 after she managed to hit a few pins

Trying to pick up the 15lbs ball on her own

But she sure did enjoyed herself.... so that's what matters.

In The Month Of Ramadhan

Everyday, time and time again, I would tell myself that "today I will update my blog". But today becomes another day, and another day etc etc... Mostly it' s because I've been swamped up to my head with beading. I hardly have any time at all for anything else. It's the 21st day of puasa and I've only been to the pasar Ramadhan twice. But I am happy to report that the beading is coming to an end and hopefully by Friday I'll be beading-free. Well, except for my own baju kurung, which is looking like I'll probably be going bead-less again this year. Don't have the energy or the enthusiasm to work on my own baju.

Despite the workload, I did managed to go out once in a while to do my shopping for the coming Hari Raya. I'm glad to have done most in my list. There's just the kuih raya to get for Nadiah's teachers, MIL and for our house. Then it's to the kitchen for the back aching work of preparing our traditional cookies: makmur and cornflakes cookies. Mom has already warned me that she'll be sitting out for this year's cookie-making. Said she is too old to sit for hours on end shaping the makmur into perfect ovals and thus leaving everything in my capable hands. Oh dear, I am hoping this week would go slowly so that I'll have ample time to rest before the back-aching work starts.

Ok, I'll update again later on. I'm feeling really tired now and can hardly get my eyes open. Till then, selamat berbuka puasa...

Singing Diva

My brother bought Nadiah a cool microphone set with speakers the other day. The mic is in the shape of a flower and the speaker is also a flower coiling on the floor to hold up the stand. It's so funky and I have to say that it was a brilliant buy coz my darling Nadiah has turned into one singing diva!

In the beginning, when we were unpacking the mic from the box and she didn't know what it was, she wasn't very interested. Then I called to her through the mic and I could see the curiosity in her eyes. She tried a couple of lines from one of her many favourite songs and from then on, she was unstoppable.

Picture time:




Of course I couldn't resist scrapping about it and you can see my layout here.

Ramadhan 1429

I would like to take this opportunity in wishing all my Muslim friends and blog readers a very happy Ramadhan. May you be blessed in this holy month.