eid al-fitr

This entry has been in my draft folder for quite a while now. Since August! Hahaa. So I shall complete it today.

An uncle once said, "Setiap hati yang tenang melalui dugaan di bulan Ramadhan sememangnya menyambut Aidilfitri dengan kegembiraan."

This year, our Eid is evidently different from the previous years. For one, we are ALL together. Yeah, my nucleus family, all the 6 of us are all together.  Alhamdulillah. Secondly, we spend less this time around because of the financial state my family is in, but that's okay. Weird thing is, despite the lack in that department, we've been blessed with abundance of rizq, from relatives, friends and strangers. Jars of biscuits, homemade cakes, seats at our favourite (albeit always full) Laksa Sarawak place (one of the diners asked my mum to sit with them first to secure the seat. other people were still standing around waiting for vacant seats. rezeki hoi), crates of fizzy drinks, sofa. Yes, sofa even. Heh. Come to think of it, I just had to buy kek lapis (for home comsumption and as gifts for colleagues and friends) for Raya, and just made one  pandan cake. Our signature cake. That's it.

During Ramadhan this year before I head back to Kuching, I made a mental checklist for celebrating Raya. One of them is to have all my brothers help out with the house-cleaning and house-decorating. Surprisingly they were all in agreement! Good job! Well, considering everyone has their own agendas pre-Raya for the last few years, this is considered a huge improvement :)) And I was so pleased for that, alhamdulillah.

Next on my list was performing the Aidiladha prayers together, which we did, and for that I felt so, so blessed. My dad even took a video of us walking back from the mosque together :')

Our signature pandan cake in the making

Mummy!

 I love them so very much.
I pray for us to have a life of His blessings and that with His will, to be able to enter Jannah together, Ameen.

And for that, there is still a LOT to be done.

May Allah ease it for us ♥

The pious offspring who casts a single look of affection at this parents receives a reward equal to an accepted Hajj - Prophet Muhammad

ramadhan updates

Ah, my favorite day of the week again.

I swear nowadays the days go by so fast, the next thing u know, it's just less than 2 weeks before Syawal come knocking on our doors. I have not prepared anything for Raya yet. Mak keeps on calling me reminding me what not to buy. I guess this Raya will be a little bit different. Definitely not as feisty as the previous years but I'm sure it will be more blessed, than ever.

My Ramadhan so far has been great, alhamdulillah. I spent some days breaking fast and terawikh with my cousin, nephews and niece, some days with my close friends, some days alone at home. But I think the best would have to be iftar and terawikh in Masjid Putra with my bestfriend. 

"Ramadhan is not about eating, it is about feeding"

This, retweeted by Wardina, and I couldn't agree more. It's all about feeding the needy and feeding your soul. Just my two cents worth, sometimes I think this hoohaa of feeding the less fortunate during Ramadhan is kind of over-rated. 'Cos that's about the only time when you see their welfare being well taken care of. What happens to them during the rest of the year? Zakat alone is not enough. I don't have the figures to prove my point but just go visit an orphanage and take their word for it.

Speaking of Wardina, I was watching Nona the other day and they were talking about families celebrating Ramadhan. I respect how Wardina educate hers. What she does is that she instills the concept of Ramadhan being the month with the bigger celebration instead of Syawal. Most of us treat Ramadhan otherwise, right? So on the first day of Ramadhan itself before breaking fast, Wardina has put up balloons and other decorative items in her house as if they're going to celebrate a birthday. I think this is pretty clever. So gonna do the same for my kids.

Alright, I better get some sleep now. Been sleep-deprived for days now and tomorrow I sort of need to accompany someone's mum for Raya shopping. Anything to cure my missing my mum. *sobs* Patience Amy, merely 2 weeks more to the land of my favorite people!

Good night, peeps!

"Faith wears out in the heart of any one of you just as clothes wear out, so ask Allaah to renew the faith in your hearts."

merdeka day in ikea

After months of not going to Ikea, I decided to finally have a look around it today. I was anticipating a big crowd because it's MERDEKA DAY today. 

Happy 55th Merdeka Day, Malaysians! (btw, hehe)

Yeap, the lot was as usual crowded, and apparently, Ikea has updated some of its product and showrooms as well. 

I only bought a few small stuffs, mainly because my house will be filled with a lot of people in December, for my cousin's wedding. Mum has been constantly nagging at me to buy more kitchen utensils (by that, she means plates and bowls) to cater for my relatives who are going to crash my house for the wedding.

So yes, I bought a few more plates and bowls, a funky cushion, few pieces of native-inspired cushion covers, some small jars for salts, ajinomoto and whatnots, wire baskets for my drawers and something least expected out of me, some scented candles and holders! 

Seriously not a fan of scented candles, but after taking a whiff of the Tindra range, I immediately fell in love. It smells of pure vanilla, imagine if you light them in your house and have the whole house smelling like vanilla!  Superb! Am gonna try that 1 day. In the meantime, the candles will still be kept somewhere in my storeroom :p

Alright, gonna call it a night now. Going to an ex-colleague's open house tomorrow, and that to me means REUNION! I love reunions! So many stories and ehem, gossips to update on.

Au revoir!

Oh ya, Ikea's 2013 will be coming out real soon!

Raya holidays? So yesterday (!), Mari gembirakan hati tengok live band dan makan2 :P

Let's move on to a more cheery note, shall we? :D


Thursday 9th Sept 2010
Just a day before Raya. Training in the morning. Nasib baik jadi trainee jer. BUT, need to work in the office after lunch. Still very much numb inside. 


Went back and slept because damn tired, plus didn't want to think about Raya. 


8pm - Boss called, ajak dinner. Didn't want 'cos no mood. BUT she baited me with a movie (am a sucker for movies ok). So went out at 8-ish for dinner and later movie at Alamanda. We watched 'Step Up 3'. Highly recommended, you non-movie-buffs. Night went well, slept good too (nonetheless still with a little pain in the heart ya'll).



Friday 10th Sept 2010
First day of Hari Raya and I was working. Lucky thing the roads were clear (well they better be). I wore a dress to work. A rebel, you see :P Loads of work, but I went off at 7pm (which is kind of 'early'. No, seriously). Boss ajak watch movie (again I'm hooked) and go karaoke. So, off to IOI Puchong and watched 'Resident Evil : Afterlife', which to me sucked BIG TIME! Come on, Resident Evil is like one of the movies that has a great storyline and all the sequels are great, EXCEPT, for this one! This new sequel shows more CGI effects (like I care much juga) and more surprise elements. It literally killed the whole storyline. Ohh well! After movie, we headed to Neway and sang our hearts out until 4am. So there!

Saturday 11th Sept 2010
Practically slept the whole day until after lunch where I spent the rest of the day watching the telly.


10pm - Lene called ajak tengok movie (sigh, i can't live without movies, awesomeness). We watched 'Cats and Dogs', hilarious :P Next on our to-do-list-on-a-Saturday-night is of course, makan! And the hunt began in Bangsar (we wanted the famous nasi lemak) but the stalls were closed. The only packed (and open) makan place is Devi's mamak. So, with a bunch of McD takeaways, we continued our hunt (yeap babes, still food-huntin' even with McD in our very hands) in KL. Singgah sebentar di Chow Kit 'cos we saw a few stalls selling Raya goodies. Lene got herself a box of serunding daging. Nyum. I was't really into Raya, so tengok2 je la.And then (!), jeng jeng jengggg, we found a mamak in Bukit Bintang area (Estana Curry House) with not so many people BUT great food! Yay! I had nasi lemak + ayam rendang (or so) while Lene had nasi campur. Memang sedap. We went back at 4am (so I was actually wondering whether it was supper that we had or breakfast?). Hit the sack at 6am! Weeeeee..

Sunday 12th Sept 2010
Rest day (not..haha). Went to Sunway Pyramid by myself for some errands. Sometimes shopping alone is therapeutic. Seriously.

Monday 13th Sept 2010
Workday. Training in the morning. This time, I'm the trainer. Booo. 


Tuesday 14th Sept 2010
My babe, Lene's birthday! Dengan baju yang ala-ala untuk dinner jazz gitu, we went for birthday dinner at Delicious, Bangsar. Food was lovely. I had Mama's Bolognese Spaghettini and Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert. Lene had Lasagne and Blueberry Crumble Pie. Memang tabik spring and memang worth and memang sangat puas hati.

We wanted to have a chill-out session listening to jazz in Alexis but unfortunately, they don't have any band playing that night. That definitely didn't take down our mood (of cos not!) and we straight went to the next best happening place, Sunway! Watched the live band playing. 2 thumbs up for the band, especially their lead vocals with whom we had a chat with as well, Dina. The crowd was small but still, sporting! Lene had a birthday song dedicated to her by the band. Woot! Thanks to the lovely Chindian waitress we made friends with at the bar (her name's also Lyn ;) )


IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE FUN NIGHT! 


By then it was a little over 12am, and because I had to work (not to mention train) the next day, I need hit the sack early (otherwise we would have gone to Skybar as well, had the seats booked, mind you). Some other time, perhaps.


The night out really shifted my mood and I'm loving it :) Sebenarnya, now pun tengah no mood to have anything connected to Raya (even turned down a bestfriend's invitation to go menziarah) but I can't help it. Ok, gotta get this happiness radar up and up so that I can focus on work. Weee..

XOXO!

Emotional

For about a month now I've been trying to keep my heart numb. To have no feelings at all. Physically there, mind only on the subject matter in front of my eyes, or the subject matter for the week, for example, the projects. Still, this does not include the freaking workload that always seem to be building up, no matter how hard you work to get them finish on time (or before time for that matter), no matter how many projects/process improvements you have just to make you do your work faster or more efficient. SIGH MAN SIGH! Sometimes I wonder have I made the wrong decision after all? I mean, people actually tried to pull me out of the sinking sand but I keep on saying to myself that it WILL eventually stop sinking. At times, I think I've lost my mind. Aaahh.. 

To top it all up, NO Raya leaves this year.I did apply, and got a measly 3 days! No extension because apparently those who does NOT celebrate Raya decides to take this amazing opportunity to take their own vacation/time offs doing personal things. WTH? I am definitely gonna do something about this next year, oh yes I will.


My exact feelings are simplified into the below 2 descriptions :
1) A little hamster running in a wheel in its cage. Running round and round, never getting to its destination.
2) A piece of wet cloth being squeezed until dry... andddd still being squeezed again and againnnnnn...

So, it's now 2 days to Raya and of course, there will be bombards of questions like, "Bila balik Raya?" or "Tak balik Raya ke?" and "Kenapa tak balik?" (tapi memang dah ada questions tu semua). I dread those questions, really. It is so sad. I know they mean well but you know, it's sad laaaa.. 


Last night while I was all ready to snore, I was suddenly hit with a pang of just missing my family so much. So I .. cried teresak-esak.. Waaa.. long time didnt cry like that leh.. I had sore eyes the next day. But I think part of what I've been hiding under the numb exterior for the past weeks has been released a bit.

Today my Mak, Papa and my youngest brother headed their way back to kampung in Sibu. It has been years since I went back too and I really wanted to meet my relatives, anak-anak buah, cousins, pakciks, makciks, nenek, datuk.. I miss them so much.. Hmm, earlier I was listening to Aman Shah's 'Kepulangan Yang Dinanti' and again, aku cuba mengeraskan hati from menangis dan meronta-ronta.. Haha.. (ketawa kesedihan sebenarnya). 

Tomorrow there will be less people at work, which means double/triple workloads.  I just want to finish work and get home as fast as possible. I wanna be numb until Raya is over. I don't want to think about Raya and the feelings that go with it.


Now I'm thinking of settling down in Kuching, for good. To have eternal fulfillment and content alongside my family. I believe that is best solution. I hope Allah will show and guide me the path. Amen.

Anyways,

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf zahir and batin. 

Much love.

Insensitivity is downright killing me

Am utterly disgusted at some portion of the community who thinks that they're all that. 

I mean, why on earth would they circulate videos of another religion talking crap about another religion? Wouldn't that just make matters worst? I don't get what the motive is. To educate? To enlighten? For me, if you really want to enlighten others, you need to emphasize the strength of the subject matter instead of condemning others (which actually shows how shallow you are). Gosh, talk about tertiary-educated. And frankly-speaking, I think I've had enough already on the race issues that we are facing in Malaysia today. Ya, they brag about the 1Malaysia concept and all but the fact is, people are still judging each other by the colour of their skin and what (or whatnots) they ancestors did. Oh come on!

The same goes for some insensitive individual(s) who I personally think do not have the rationale not to post out PG-rated videos on the social network during this holy month of Ramadhan. How insensitive are you? How long have u been living in Malaysia, dude? 

I am not saying that I am a perfect Malaysian. It's just that I think things now don't seem like how they use to be, where there were no boundaries of skin colour, languages, culture.We are made out of diverse culture, beliefs and upbringing and it's everyone's responsibility to respect that.

I guess some posts I saw this whole week have been bugging my mind like mad. There, I said my point.

Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta - A MUST GO!

20th March 2010 - My first day of Fest
Weeee..!!
The Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Festival was so-the-awesome!

Except for the very hot weather and the fact that only 2 hot air balloons that they exhibited this year, the rest was A-OK!

Just for information, the location of the fiesta is at Precint 2, Putrajaya. You can't miss it if you follow the Precint 2 signboard, and it's just after the beautiful bridge.

The fee for the hot air balloon ride is RM10 for a few minutes ride, and according to the Pak RELA/Pak Guard who guarded the line, people had been lining up as early as 6:00 am to get the tickets and actually for the first day, they wanted to release only 300 tickets, but due to the response, they released another 200.I did NOT get the chance to get on it! But I'll be coming back there tomorrow with another friend. So hopefully I get the tickets to go UP tomorrow!

Aside from the hot air balloon ride, you can also ride on sphere balls (on land and on water), go-kart, mini bikes and bicycles. There are also many, many stalls opened ala flea markets and there is also a section for exhibition from organisations such as the Malaysian Aviation, MERCY, etc.

You can also ride on the helicopter, but mind you, the fee is RM120 per person :)

Things to note:
1) Put on loads of SPF ok? It's DAMN HOT!
2) Sunglasses/Caps/Hats
3) Drinking water (but they are also selling lots of them there,so no worries)
4) Watch your kids. It can be a chaos there.
5) CAMERA IS A MUST!

I came with my nephews who are avid fan of photography (that's the whole point of bringing them there) and they enjoyed the day.I left the scene sweaty and smelly.Urgh, but it was well worth it :)

21st March 2010 - My second day of Fest

Geez, I've gotten dark again! Even with the sunscreen all over.Haiyoh.
Today I started off to the fest a wee bit earlier than yesterday.Reached there at around 8.30 am ('cos I wanted to buy the balloon tickets).And I was glad that I came again today because there were MORE BALLOONS TODAY! Was excited already. Since Lene was not there yet, I went straight to the counter (where the long queues are) and again to my disappointment, the tickets had already sold out for the morning session.It was just 8.30 am, man! Anyhoo,in the end, we decided not to go on the balloon anymore because we wouldn't be sure what time we would actually get on the balloon.

The extras that they had today was that they had paragliders gliding around the skies, more hot-air balloons, more food stalls and being the last day of the fest, more people! The weather was not as hot as yesterday, in fact it was most of the time breezy.Heaven~

Lene and I started the day with sandwiches from Dessert's Bar (2 thumbs up) - a healthy chicken mayo sandwich, and drinks from Kelantan Delights.Most of the other food stalls were not opened at the time. Next, we roamed around the already-packed areas watching people getting on the hot-air balloons, playing sphere balls, taking photos and strolling around the food and merchandise stalls.We bought ourselves a make-up bag each.Haha.I nearly gave myself a face painting okay? The deal was pretty good I reckon, RM5 for a pic anywhere on your body, RM10 for half-face, RM15 for whole face.However, since I wasn't going anywhere else after the event, the face paint would be useless then.

After a good half day of strolling around, we took a breather eating ice-creams (extremely HOT day, did I mention?) and went back.

I was glad I came to the event, lots of interesting things/happenings, lovely people and I think I've lost a few calories just by sweating :P Will make another comeback next year :)

Hitting yet another number

Approximately a week to go for my birthday! It feels so fast. And I'm still their little girl. LOVE MY FAMILY!

Got this card from my cool family last year XOXO

Can't sleep tonight

It is now 3-ish am and I still can't sleep. Probably due to the fact that I slept earlier after my day out scouring for some stuffs in Petaling Street. Earlier in the day when I was in the train heading to Pasar Seni, there were some teenagers practising their Christmas carol in the train and to me, it was indeed very nice. Cos then I started to feel like Christmas is actually just around the corner (well, I wasn't feeling the Christmas mood yet initially). Nice.


We finished around 1 pm and I headed straight home. It was starting to rain heavily anyways. I had the whole house to myself for the rest of the day. It felt nice cos it was raining, the house was dim and I was watching chick flicks right up til evening. I like it when I can spend 'me' time doing nothing.Like that. Like now, too. Best! And after that, I felt asleep on my lovely sofa. Heheh! Tired, and I woke up early on a weekend k? I need that compensated :P


Well, I guess I better sleep now, seriously. Got to do some email drafting and figure out the price for the stuffs we scoured in Petaling Street tomorrow.And yeap, need to do some Christmas shopping for my other half. So adios, and sweet dreams :)