Where do broken hearts go...

I just got to know that my friend Enon had recently gone thru another broken heart episode. All I could say to her was; tak pelah Enon, dah bukan jodoh you dengan dia. kumbang bukan seekor.

Enon's story on how she discovered her ex's true status was quite comical. On that fated day, she was listening to a popular radio station while driving when one of the radio callers happened to be her ex-beau. He was calling in to dedicate a song to his wife!

Of course she was devastated and felt cheated.

So I'm dedicating this song solely for Enon. I sincerely hope that she will find her prince charming one day. Just don't lose faith and hope ok babe!

Renjis-renjis dipilis

It's that time of the year folks! 

pic snagged from google

Yes, wedding invitations are pouring in like spill milk in my postbox lately. Mostly from our relatives and office colleagues (in my case ex-office colleague). Some with addresses coming from as far as Kedah and some from within KL itself. It seems that our weekends starting late last month are fully booked till end of December just to attend these weddings.

When someone posted you a wedding invitation card follow up with phonecalls that start with something like; please make sure you come ahh or make yourself available on that date or you better come or else, it's pretty hard to avoid it when you are being blackmailed.

And then you have to scratch your head searching high and low for the perfect gift for the newly weds. Whilst it is very convenient to give presents in the form of monetary, it is not that simple when closest friend comes into the picture. Sometimes you need to think out of the box what sort of present that will most suit them in terms of sentimental value, uniqueness and most importantly appropriate for married couples.

When my sister in law got married 3 years ago, we gave her a National cooking stove with 2 burners (not so pricey anyway). Yes I know, it is not a cool wedding gift to give to a newlyweds. But we are practical people. So when she and her husband finally got to opening their presents, she was dumbfounded and managed to utter a few words;

"What, a cooking stove? This has got to be one of the most weirdest gift I've ever had", she claimed.

"Why not? This is the perfect gift for you to start learning how to cook and make your husband proud knowing that he has NigellaLawson wannabe wife preparing meals in the kitchen..." I replied in a zest.

Well, she wasn't exactly the domestic kind of person. In fact, she never cooks in her entire life not even for herself. Anak manja dalam family lah tuh. Good advice in a very subtle way huh? Ha ha ha!

In the meantime, it looks like I have to forgo my plan to watch that sappy movie CINTA that has been the talk of the town lately. I'm really not a big fan of malay movies but this one has caught my attention due to its overwhelming hype from the media and people. Well, there's always the dvd pirated version to look out for.

Opps, just don't tell that to anyone ahh?

Chaos in the middle

this is how my reaction looks like when i see the house tunggang langgang...

What happens when you have two rambunctious primary schoolers and an active toddler all grouped together in one place? That's right.

Chaos in the middle!

I always dread the LONGGG school holidays. School holidays means; I don't get to have a moment of solitary in the house. And I also don't get to watch my favorite show on teevee. This is also the time I get to wrestle with them for the tv remote and I always lose, sigh! How can you win when three strong agile kids are cornering you at every chance they get? 3 lawan 1 mana boleh daa!

School holidays also means the kids are always hungry and I'm always fixing snacks every two hours for them. The speed at which I'm preparing their lunches and snacks in between marvels me sometime.

School holidays also means I get to wash loads of ever piling up laundry. It gets even worse after balik kampung/or holiday trips. My laundry baskets have never been empty since like 10 years ago. And yes, I have 8 laundry baskets with 8 different colours to differentiate each use. I could open a laundry service coz I am so good at separating fabrics.

School holidays also means I get to see my house all wrecked up. Forget cleaning up coz it'll be topsy turvy in split seconds.

Arghhhh, I give up!

Never gonna give you up!

You don't have to dance like Britney Spears do but when you have a great voice like Rick Astley why not getting jiggy a lil' bit.

Suddenly I'm into 80's mood today.

Off the scale

Women who can easily assume to their normal svelte figures after childbirth will never cease to amaze me. Before I turned into what I am today, I was a slim person with an average weight of 45kg. With a height of 5ft tall, I was considered as petite. That was the weight before I had children. Even if I overeat, my weight would still maintain or at least increase 2-3 kgs the most. It has never reached the 50kg mark. When I feel like bloating I would go on a diet for two consecutive weeks and my weight would drop back to normal. It helps too that I was also active in aerobics and other fitness regime that would speed up the lose weight process very fast. It has been that way for such a long time ever since I was anak dara right till I got married.

After the kids came along, I became lazy to do workouts. Even simple and easy workouts that can be done in the comfort of my home couldn't make me move butt. I couldn't care less about my appearance too. Tending a baby itself coupled with the household chores were already a full time workout for me. And yes, I had a dinosaur appetite too!

Years went on until I had my third baby that it suddenly dawned on me that I had become JenniferHudson! Whilst Jennifer had all the excess flesh strategically placed in all the right spot - mine didn't. In other words, the bottom half is bigger (and wider) than the top half .... sheesh!

I used to wear a size S but now its always XL or XXL! My weight had exceeded the 50kg mark a very LONGGGG time ago and now it has tripled. At the time I'm writing this my weight had touched 67kg mark on the scale! Either the scale had been faulty or I'm in denial mode, whichever way it is - I am officially overweight!

Because of extreme laziness to exercise I had resorted to shortcuts which gave immediate results in minimum time but deadly in the long run. How many of us had taken those slimming drinks/herbs/pills which proclaim to lose weight in shorter period of time? And also those slimming lotions' claims that can diminish orange peel or cellulite on every nook and corner of our skin? I had tried and tested some of these products. Yes, some of them certainly gave excellent results but I'm also concerned of its side effects in the long term. Will it damage my kidney or liver if I took it longer than I'm supposed to? These uncertainties had made me stop taking consummable slimming drinks/herbs but I still continue the slimming lotions once in a while.

For now, its aerobics (held FOC) once a week every weekend and also brisk walking when I have the opportune time. I try to eat sensibly, drink lots of water and cut down on rice portion. It used to be one whole plate but now half of it. I don't skip meals. That's a big no no! Skipping meals tend to make you go extra hungry and therefore have larger meals to compensate the skipped meals. But I tend to break my own rules sometimes when the side dishes accompanying the rice are so deliciously tempting especially when its cooked kampung style ..... hmmm!

Yeah, it will definitely take longer time to see the results but as pepatah melayu once said - sikit sikit lama lama jadi bukit but in my case it should be amended as sikit sikit lama lama jadi plywood ... ahaks!

Here and There

What have I been up to lately? Nothing! For the last three weeks, I had been invited to every open house there is in the neighbourhood and gained extra pounds in the process. Time to lose some weight, a very impossible mission to accomplish but when a woman's gotta do, she's gotta do!

Got some pictures to show here but I'm not telling just yet which one is her...hehe. She's still too shy to show her real self especially when she has gotten a bit (read: a lot) plump on the side...hahahaha!

Pictures courtesy of Bunga and Yatt.

aikk...camner lah gambar ni boleh termasuk kat sini? err...everybody, this is NOT raya pic! I repeat NOT raya pic.

oopss! hehehe...this pic was meant for "acara selingan" only...it was actually drawn by a pre-schooler. supposed to be a scissor but somehow it turned out to look like....err nevermind! That kid deserves an A+ for originality and spontaneity!

Slowing down until...

Will be flying below radar for the next couple of months due to going pc-less starting next week. I won't be able to do blogging or bloghopping as much as I want to. Well, there's always the husband's company laptop but then he uses it all the time...sigh! Cybercafe? Nah, I'm just too old for it. I wouldn't be caught dead in that place. Buy a new laptop? Yeah sure, we kinda thought of that but short on the budget.

I wonder how I am going to survive without it? Slowly, I am trying (very hard) to detach myself from blogging and other related stuff so that when the time comes I won't be so miserable without my pc. Tell ya, it hasn't been that easy to do it when you're so used to it.

God help me!

The most eligible bachelors

Plain and pretty girls will scream at the top of their lungs. Straight guys will look at them with envy. The not so straight ones will look at them with lustful wagging tongues. The makciks and pakciks can only dream on wishing that they will become their ultimate menantu idaman. They are almost perfect to a point of no fault. They make head turns wherever they go. Such were their strong magnetism.

Bachelor No 1

A jack of all trades. His impressive list of resume will make Dr McDreamy (from the grey's anatomy series) sound like Dr Doogie Howserish. Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al-Masrie bin Sheikh Mustapha (such a mouthful name) is not only an astronaut, he is also an orthopaedic surgeon, a restaurateur and a part-time model. And did I mention that he is good looking too? Wow!

Bachelor No 2

He was dubbed as lelaki melayu terakhir until Dr Sheikh came along. He even outshone Pak Lah's popularity (and also eligibility before he remarried mrs doubtfire) at the height of his stardom. His name is Asmawi Ani or fondly known as Mawi. He first became well known after appearing in Akademi Fantasia. The same academy that had churned out the best tone deaf singers in the history of malaysian tv entertainment.

Bachelor (or is it bachelorette) no 3

Err...nevermind!

What else is new?

‘English only’ ruling for Maths and Science in secondary schools put on hold
By TEH ENG HOCK

KLUANG (Johor): Following the Government's decision on the Mathematics and Science papers in the UPSR, secondary school students will not be forced to use English for these subjects in their examinations in the next two to three years.

The Education Ministry will review the teaching and learning syllabus as well as the co-curriculum and teachers’ education before deciding whether Malaysian students are ready for “English only” examinations.

The initial plan was to have Year Six pupils answer their Mathematics and Science papers completely in English from next year.

However, said minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, he had promised MCA leaders and Chinese educationists that he would make a decision by this year as to whether to go ahead with the plan.

“I am glad to have fulfilled that promise,” he told reporters at a Hari Raya open house at his home in Taman Sri Lambak here yesterday.

Present was Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, who had also voiced the view of the state Umno committee last year to put on hold the implementation of the “English only” ruling.

On Saturday, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that UPSR examination candidates would continue to have the choice of taking the two subjects in either English or Malay (or the vernacular language of their school.)

The Prime Minister explained that the schoolchildren had yet to attain proficiency in English. Hishammuddin said secondary students would also continue to have the dual-language option although many of them have a “decent command” of English.

He said the weak students were mostly from the rural areas.

“I will not do things on an ad hoc and piecemeal basis. I want to do it (using English) as a whole.

“I want the foundation to be solid (at the primary level) before we look at the secondary schools,” he said.

He added, however, that many secondary students chose to do the papers in English.

Citing matriculation students, he said 95% of them did their papers in English.

Abdul Ghani, who is Johor Umno chairman, said putting on hold the implementation of “English only” papers for Mathematics and Science would allow students to master both English and Malay.

At its state convention last year, the party voiced its concern over the use of English for the two subjects.

This drew comments from some quarters that it was a backward move and would not encourage young Malaysians to learn English. Asked about this, Abdul Ghani said: “Sometimes, it is a misconception. Sometimes, it is just some people trying to create issues.”

NURIN Alert!

Latest (not so by the time I'm writing this) update

Yes! She has been found - safe and sound! Thank god for that!

But there's a plausibility side of Recka's (thats her real spell-checked name) story that the police are investigating into. Donch know if she was telling the truth. Either she ran away or been kidnapped - it don't matter anymore.

But what I do know, Recka had learnt a very valuable lesson that day!

Have you seen her?

She was reportedly missing from home after going to the pasar malam to buy some vcds. Her name is Rekha Abdullah and she's 10 years old.

I don't know how long she's been missing but finding her is very CRUCIAL right now! We certainly don't want another Nurin tragedy befall on this innocent girl.

Forget those powers that be that has been dilly-dallying the process of materialising the Nurin Alert programme. They are as slow as a snail can be.

Another girl is missing and she DESPERATELY needs our help.

Let's find her!

Footnote: Read here for more reports.

My cubicle

Don't you just love that James Blunt's sickly sweet one-hit wonder song ? I do.

So famous is the song that a chinese bloke had made a spoof out of the song. Ahhh singaporeans, they don't call themselves kiasu for nothing.

Blogger's block

This is exactly what happen after a long break. 

I got nothing to write! 

When I have nothing to blog about I will change the template until I get bored! 

Google should better come up with new templates or I'm moving my blog elsewhere! (in my best little girl pout)

Someone once asked me why I keep changing my template like ever so often and my answer was;

Dah aku punya blog suka hati aku lah nak buat apa.

Kapisch.

Eidul Fitri

children in the 50's looking resplendent in their raya clothes

The signs are obvious aren't they? Barely two weeks of ramadhan we are hearing raya songs blasting from the shopping malls and radio stations for as longest as I can remember. Hordes of raya entertainment programmes are lining up on the cable and free tv channels filled to the brim with raya song of yesteryears. And not forgetting those raya-theme dramas with the usual wearisome storylines that I can predict the endings with my eyes closed. Between these, you can bet one or two Hindi films making their profound presence on the first week of raya. I mean hey, its hari raya for goodness sake and they're showing Bollywood movies?

I remember vividly about four years ago when the whole bunch of us (including the in-laws) balik kampung on first raya to visit close relatives and right smack in their living room, Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham was shown on the tube and needless to say people in the house were glued to it oblivious to their surroundings. Oh well, who can really blame them when Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol were the main attraction. As they say, if you can't beat them join them.

Of course hari raya isn't complete without the must haves mouth-watering dishes such as rendang, ketupat, lemang and raya cookies. Raya cookies either home-made or store-bought they are truly a sight to behold. Its really sad that not many households today have traditional cookies to offer during raya. Gone are the days when the likes of batang buruk, putu kacang, samperit, kuih ros (some people call it kuih loyang), kuih bakar, kuih makmur and bahulu adorn the cookie jars. They had been replaced with pineapple jam tart, almond london, cornflakes and so many other cookies with contemporary names.

And last but not least, duit raya is a must nowadays. And should be given in green angpows. It used to be 10 or 20 cents in good old days but if you give that kind of amount today you might get a surprise look on the childrens' face. How times have changed indeed.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my blogger friends Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and maaf zahir batin from the bottom of my heart.

Have a safe trip back home and come back in one piece!

Say a little prayer

I've never even met her before. I only got to know her from her blog. I can't really remember who discover who first but ever since then I will make it a weekly if not daily visit to her place. Her stories are so ordinary, delightful and yet sometimes thought-provoking mostly revolve around her family, friends and life in a foreign land. I felt entertained just by reading her musings on life itself.

But for this past couple of weeks her story had been different. The kind that would tear your heart apart. Its about her beloved husband who is stricken with cancer (advanced stage) recently. For many of us, the very mention of the word cancer bring an instant sombre mood. Its the one news that we are not happy to hear. No matter how hard it is for us to accept it its even harder for the person(s) concerned to come to terms with it.

D's latest posting about her husband's condition really sank in my heart. I sincerely hope that Mrs D is given utmost courage and strength to withstand this very trying times of her life. Her display of calmness and patience in coping with her husband's illness is truly remarkable and admirable. To D, I'm sending you my little prayers.