Gathering after many many many many years..

As I mentioned before, I stop counting & celebrating @ 40, but suddenly we decided to have a family birthday bash last week since 5/6 of my sibling born this month (talking about good planning.. :)).. So all of us gathered and turned the house upside down..

 The naughty ones..

 

My colorful kids.. 3 boys MIA..

The posing princess.. :)

It was the first gathering after many many many years.. and we plan to do it again next year insyaAllah.. :)

Stop counting @ 40...

Today's my birthday.. well, actually I plan to stop celebrating or counting @ 40, but they still remember.. :(

What's birthday? For me it is just a day for us to celebrate our brave moms.. thank you mom for decided to keep me in the first place, carried me for 9 months, suffered during the birth.. I would bring her out for dinner and shopping her heart out if I could, but it's no more possible for me to do so.. May Allah have grace for her as she was to me when I was little..

So.. birthday really means nothing to me without my mom around.. 18 years already past.. and I still miss her a lot.. 

Orang dah Lepas...

Isk.. 3 mlm lepas cik Lurpak dah selamat jd Dr.. siap ler dia komen blogku ini yg dah bersawang.. hehehe.. baru jer perasan, dah nak masuk 4 bulan tak update kan?? eleh.. macam ler ramai sangat yg baca kan?? Jangankan blog, otak pun dah bersawang.. hehehe.. caya tak bila dah tensen2 begini, jadi student cum mother, cum maid, cum driver, cum etc.. sempat lak melalaikan diri dengan benda baru..

Best kan? Uh... how I dream to have smaller house to manage!! Tak larat dah weh!!

Berzaman lah sudah...

I don't know why suddenly today I feel like clicking open this blog.. eh..? 6 months already past.. no update, spiderweb start filling the area maa... (In my house the spiders are more active actually, they can built it in just 2 days.. sigh..)

Well, nothing much other than being lazying around.. No paper produced, no upgrading in any part of the house, kids as usual.. my eldest back home (yeay!!), was having nice time in China last Dec, trying to become good housekeeper later and end up injured my right arm muscles, it'd been few months now.. still not fully recovered..

Here's some photos of Guangzhou..

 Metal grid in taxis :)

 Reminder for kids.. or parents?

 Our lunch.. yum yum.. the bowl is quite big.. :D

Cruise.. nice view..

 One of the tower.. the color change every few seconds..

 Bumblebee in China :D

 One of many roads.. I forgot where it was..

How time flew... weeeee...

Missing kids..

Case 1
Last week my dear hubby told me that a friend almost lost his youngest daughter in a play area in one of the shopping mall here. Almost lost, or in exact word, almost got kidnapped by someone who decided to just come and grab her away.. scary huh? Luckily at that moment the mother was nearby, and come to the rescue as soon as she hear the cry from the little girl. A middle age woman was carrying her and when asked what she was doing, the woman confidently answered that the girl's her daughter and she's always like that i.e. crying with no reason! When the mother told her that that girl is her daughter, the woman just drop her and run away!  

Case 2
last July my brother in law with his whole family come all the way from Canada to visit us. While talking about the kids, his wife give me one very important tip about how to avoid panic case of losing kids. Seemed she had quite an experience in handling the matter and for me, at that time, listened, but didn't come across my mind to directly practice it, i.e. informing my kids what they should do if they got separated from us anytime during outing. In my mind I thought it'll never happen. I'm always careful with the kids, and the elder ones will always look after the smaller ones.. Wrong!! It happened! and it happened just few days after that! And the worse thing, it happened in the crowded area in Genting Highland!! Imagine, 4 adults, 6 teenagers, 3 kids, and 1 missing kid! This boy went missing!!

Imagine how I become! Like a crazy woman running around screaming calling his name and stopping here and there asking if anybody saw him! It was just a matter of few minutes, I brought my little princess to the loo and while still there, my niece came and asked if Nibras's with me, and right at that moment I felt my heart fall into my stomach! I tried to stay calm, but impossible to do so. We told the teens to hold the small ones while we run around looking for Nib.. One cleaner told me that he saw one boy crying near KFC but he's no more there. I almost faint when suddenly he appeared with my BIL wife. I really want to scold him for moving on his own, but all I did was hugging him and told him that never leave our side again. He's just a 5 years old kid, of course he'll be wondering around at any opportunity he got..., I want to scold the adult...., aahh....sigh...... Nevermind, it's my fault anyway! Thanks Allah we found him and from that day, I don't care if people sees me as a fierce mother, better to scold your kids a bit rather than losing them right? The previous Sultan of Johor used to say that better to let your kids to cry now rather than you cry later.. a wise word from him indeed.

So what was the tips?
Tell your kid that whenever he/she got separated from the parents, sit and wait at the same spot. Do not move. Do not follow anyone. Do not try to find your way back (this is the case of Nibras. He try to find his way back!!). Stay and we will come to get him/her back. Parents will never leave their kids and will always search at places where they'd been with the kids. Teach and reassure your kids about this and let them to repeat this until they understand that this is what they suppose to do if they got separated from us. This is really important, believe me, I got the experience already!!

A day at the dentist..

Yesterday I finally managed to bring my little princess to the dentist.. She had been complaining about her molar for quite some time.. It began a while after she fell in the washroom and had a cut at her chin few months ago..

At that time the doctor told us there was nothing else, she was perfectly fine except for the cut and pain due to it.. 'it's normal' he said.. and later the toothache began, and being 'rabun', I did not see that there was a crack at her molar, the impact from the fall.. The pain was on and off.. I realized it much later when I touch with my finger and found half of the teeth was wiggling while the other half stayed intact.. So.. yesterday was the day..

We waited for about 2 hours and we were the last one.. she was brave and not a single scream nor tear come out.. thanks to the Dr.. she was really good at handling kids, well, at least while handling my princess :) (I did hear few screams before our turn, and saw few crying faces as well.. 'shame.. shame..' comment my girl, as she saw those big kids crying.. hehehe..)

While waiting for our turn, we flipped through few magazines there, in one of the magazines, there was a model with red sparkling eyes shadow that somehow look scary..

"mama, look.. this is more scary than a normal ghost.."

Now.. that was something...

Too much make up is not good for you...

and I just found out that the ghosts are 'normal'..

huh??

Sayang Sarawak..

Just come back from conference in Sarawak.. my presentation was a nightmare.. don't want to think about it.. a lesson for future, relax, don't panic, they're NOT GOING TO EAT YOU!!..

(Image from google)

Well.. anyway, other than that, sightseeing was fantastic.. We could not catch the weekend market in Serikin, but we manage to cross the river to taste the Mee Kolok, and buy the famous Lapis Sarawak. The ride across the river only cost us RM 0.50 one way.

A view from the Waterfront to the village area across the Sarawak river..

Mee Kolok is Sarawak specialty noodle but unluckily for me, my first mee kolok was too salty that I almost never want to taste it again. The hotel save me from spreading false info about this noodle though by serving it as one of the buffet lunch menus on my last day, and I gave it a try.. nope, it was not salty at all!! The taste was nice, I wish there was some chilly to go with it as I love my noodle a bit spicy :)

We visited Sarawak Cultural Village the afternoon after my presentation. I managed to get student rate by showing my matric card, paying only RM 15 instead of RM 60.. ;)  

We arrived late, around 3.10pm, and there were 7 houses and a 45 minutes show which started at 4pm, so we ran like contestants of the amazing race.. climbing the special stairs which was made of a single tree trunk, crossed a bamboo bridge, took photos as many as possible..

the view from top of the stairs, proudly taken after I managed to climb it first time :)

Catch the show 10 minutes after it started.. wish could watch it from the beginning. Anyway it was fantastic show and I enjoyed it very much :)  Visit their website at http://www.scv.com.my to see the houses there..

We bought ikan terubuk masin as well.. It's a wet salted fish. I never eat it before, and until I write this entry I still have not fry it yet.. so could not give any review on the taste..

Sarawak is a very nice place to visit, people are friendly, good food available. Plan your visit or get a tourist guide to really enjoy it there. I really wish could visit again, exploring the caves next time :)