Durian runtuh

.. can come in many forms.

Usually unexpected and usually cash, lotsa lotsa cash. but my durian runtuh is in the form of AF, AI, AH and also....... AA!!!

Would you believe, they'll ALL be home this weekend?!!

(still shaking head in absolute disbelief)

Not only the cikgu but yes, the golfman aka abe aka AA aka my beloved as well.

He's been called back for an unexpected, unscheduled meeting.. and to think he's been gone only a week!! isnt that a bonus or what lol.

But of course theres always the possibility of it being cancelled just as suddenly as its been called.. but thats ok, he's not due home anyway. if it happens it happens. either way i know HE knows best :)

Thank you Lord for these little surprises you keep throwing my way.. it sure is keeping me on my toes hehehe.

Apa nak masak nanti ek ;)

I'm actually pretty worried about nicolei. his eyes isnt getting any better. in fact its starting to look as if the old 'ulcer in the eye' problem is coming back. but i hope not because the last time involved surgery & rehab. i just dont have the energy to be holding his paw this time.

But if i hafta, i hafta.



Must go to the vet again soon.

Daddy's little girl

.. turns seventeen today!!!



Time just flies doesnt it?

Happy happy birthday echa hanis.. you know you have our love, always :)

Latest from the Cikgu :
SMK Clifford is now an official H1N1 zone and will be closed for a week.

He'll be coming back after a 2nd blood screening or something to that effect.

(due to the gravity of the situation a very small 'yay')

Dang the swine flu!!

First it was SMK S9 & AH
Then it was UiTM & AI
And now its SMK Clifford & AF..

Please Lord please keep us ALL safe!!

H1N1 in Clifford

Yup AF confirms that the student who is in ICU has tested positive for the h1n1 virus.

Its now in Clifford, Kuala Lipis.

And this unfortunately, has dragged AF into the thick of things even though he's away from the city.

My prayers are with you and your students my darling.

So.

I took my kotr pack during lunchbreak. driving down the slope towards the stadium, i am reminded of my fear of having to run uphill immediately upon starting the race. weh, can this ole legs carry me thru? belum apa2 lagi dah kena dig deep and conquer that hill (shudder) but then again, according to the main organizer, imposible is nothing aight?

I sure hope so.

The tees are bright orange this year (eh ada ke orange yg tak bright ek lol).. and it was hung in all the available sizes right at the front of the pick-up area. because it was sleeveless and because the possibility of me ever wearing it again is pretty slim, i chose the biggest size available - 2x XL!! why? so that i can pass it on to golfman.. he'd definitely put it to better use. but in the meantime, i'll be running in a.. sack? ekekeh ;)

And if you pass a huffing & puffing makcik with H 117 on her and waddling like a lame penguin, do wave wontcha :D

Workout Log
PM - treadmill/5km/40mins/460cal

A Midweek Break

I was supposed to go to UPSI on a mercy mission - AF needed a confirmation letter that would enable him to collect his 1st pay and he needed it asap. rather than have him travel all the way from lipis i volunteered to pick it up.

I'd applied for leave and with or without the kiddoes (they're recovering from the flu), i was all set for the trip to TM. But luck would have it the letter i was after was delivered to my doorstep by the good ole postman (not so old la actually lol)!!

It came with the convocation invite just like the officers from Bhg Akedemik said it would. i did call upsi about it earlier but i wasnt expecting it to arrive till much much later. For sure i wasnt banking on the almost perfect timing!!

Once AF confirmed that the contents was acceptable, i was home free.. i didnt have to go after all.

Yay!!

But apparently 'mama home on leave' was something not to be wasted.. without missing a beat my mom had me going to the vets with our cats in tow (nico's having some kind of eye infection & adeq's having some pretty foul smelling ulcers in his mouth) and later the kiddoes had us stuffing our faces & straining our eyes in OU!!

Me & AH's bf didnt get to pick up our kotr packs as planned because we didnt get back till after 8.

An unexpected day.. but it didnt make AF's bit of news any less disturbing.

A student of clifford is in icu, and a whole classroom has been quarantined. over the weekend, a group of students had gone on a school trip to melaka. it has yet to be confirmed if its h1n1.

Melaka.

Also the trigger for the uitm fiasco. maybe it shouldnt be on anyone's visiting list.. for now.

Co-pilot

.. in command once again.

Letih but when you have to, you have to, theres no 2 ways about it

(one can still gripe about it tho hehehe)

Workout Log
AM - aerobics/med pace/50 mins
(i'm proud to say that the shah alam-ites braved the rain to finish the workout - sungguh 'bersemangat'..its either that or we're just a bunch of crazy people lol)

Another one down

...and that makes a total of 4 uitm campus on 'hiatus'.

First it was melaka, then perak followed by trengganu.. and latest news from AI, uitm shah alam is also giving its students a week's break - until 2nd of august.

The official reason? just so all the campuses gets a synchronized break. unofficial reason? there're probably more students than they're willing to admit who are down with some flu or other. AI says half of his classmates are unwell.

It may not necessarily be the freaking swine thingy.. but it sure is getting out of hand, fast.

I think one of the main reason is the attitude of people in general. we're just too laid back about it. guess what happens to the students who are from the closed campuses? they go home, get bored outta their skull and start visiting & lepaking with their friends at the other campuses. forget about being on house arrest ..they dont really feel all that sick so why should they stay home?

Inadvertently, more people are exposed to whatever it is thats been going round.

So please, if you're from or have been to these 'red light' districts (ones that are connected to the h1n1 of course lol) and you're starting to feel the onset of a cold or flu, go see the doc and stay HOME please!!!

We really dont want this to turn into an epidemic.

*Correction: ALL uitm campuses are now on a break.

The Visit

I wanted to run this morning but 2 things conspired against me:

i. It was drizzling.

ii. KSU was coming for a visit.

I dont fancy getting wet while i'm having this neverending flu and i certainly dont relish the thought of accidentally bumping into the KSU while i'm all stinky & sweaty. so like the demure & docile civil servant that i'm supposed to be, i've donned my baju kurung, put on my khol & lipstick (the only make-up i've ever considered using on a regular basis) and pasted a smile on my face that would put farrah fawcett to shame (ooops i'm showing my age... maybe i should've just said denise richards instead ekekekeh).

I'll be glued to my workstation today la-di-la ;)

AF - i cant seem to squeeze in a trip to UPSI this week darling, sorry but i'll try my very best next week k.
AI - lega mama you're going around with the renewed roadtax. the memory of abang cluelessly going round for months on end with his expired roadtax still traumatises me!!
AH - dont worry, i'll try to settle the saturday dilemma with abah as soon as possible.
AA - hard to fly when you're working with turkeys aight?! sabo je la abe ;)

The BZ weekend

SATURDAY was pretty hectic even for a chaotic household like mine :)

1. AH's second installment of her SPM seminar at KLCC.
- another early morning foray into the city with AH's bf faithfully in tow. and this time AI decided to grace us with his presence as well :) 7.30am and we were already at the suria carpark.. and being early i had my pick of the choiciest lot (nearest to the escalator of course). 2 saturdays down another 4 to go!!

2. My first run at KLCC park.
- after getting our butts sore from all that sitting, this week we had ourselves a plan - we were going to sweat it out!! after leaving AH at the counter of tower one, we headed for the park. it really feels like an oasis in the middle of a concrete desert, the trees and water a godsend!! although the markers were a little unclear but i gather one loop was about 1200m - 1300m and i did 5 loops while AZ did 6 1/2 (he turned back after the last round). it was fun and the rubbery track was extremely kind to my ole creakin' joints :D we're doing it again next week.. hopefully AI will be joining us instead of just lounging about the park bench counting leaves hehehe.

3. Golfman's unexpected return.
- yup a mega-bonus for yours truly. wasnt expecting him back for another month at least. ETA KLIA 12.30pm and since AH's seminar ended at 1.30pm, golfman had to take a cab. and bcos i wanted us to be home waiting for him when he arrived, i got me permission to 'extract' AH from her seminar earlier than usual. so rendezvous shah alam 1 pm :D

4. Trip down to Kuala Lipis.
- with his abah home, it was such a waste not to check on the cikgu so we left for lipis (golfman & me - the kids had prior engagements) around 6pm with a bootfull of stuff from tesco (the cikgu wanted a couple of things). gawd, was i glad to see him... rindu sangat!! we stayed overnite at his apartment, after making it a little more hospitable of course hehehe.


SUNDAY was just as packed.

1. More shopping.
- the mall in lipis isnt like the ones we're used to. centrepoint is half deserted especially on sunday but the alternative can be found in the form of a thriving hardware business - the hardware shops sell everything under the sun here in lipis!!! we even managed to get him a panasonic rice cooker :)

2. A trip down memory lane.
- we went to check out the railway station. golfman remembers fondly a time when he would impatiently anticipate stopping at the lipis station whenever he followed his mom to kl.. how he would jump off the train just to buy the cheap & delicious nasi ayam bungkus and jump right back on. alas, the shop isnt there anymore and golfman sadly admits that it probably wouldnt taste the same anyway.

3. Drive up to Gua Musang.
- hah what would you expect from a kelantanese? the call of the 'tanah tumpah darah ku' was too strong for him.. golfman just couldnt resist crossing the 100 odd kilometres into kelantan hehehe. on the pretext of 'jalan2 mencari durian' we left lipis after a late breakfast (the nasi kerabu just outside the railway station comes with great ayam/daging bakar) and found ourselves in gua musang by the next hour!! and once there, we sorta went crazy at the pasar (jeruk maman, lada solok hijau, akok, keropok, ikan masin and of course the BUDU).. before we knew it the boot was filled to the brim ;)

Thank god we made the trip. I really needed to be with my cikgu and to make sure that he was alright. regardless of size or age, he's still my baby and leaving him behind (a lone figure braving the cold winds - hehehe mama dia berdrama skit) was extremely hard.. i'm already planning another trip that-a-way ;)

Oh and btw if ever you're in lipis check out the pahang club.. they serve the most divine coconut shake!!

Vitamin AA

..i might just be getting an unexpected dose this weekend ;)

Heh.

Exactly what i need ;D

my bouncer hehehe

Serabut

.. and the cough's not helping one bit.

In fact i'm beyond serabut.

So in a bid to lessen some of the serabut-ness, yesterday, after dropping AH off for tuition, i went to check out the poco2/taichi session that was supposed to be held every tuesday, 9pm at dewan angsana seksyen 8 (info courtesy of the mbsa bill-board). the mini dewan was dark when i arrived at about 845pm but luckily there was a guard on duty who confirmed the existence of such activities.

Unfortunately, my delight was shortlived. dunno what happened but the place remained deserted right up til 9.30pm when i then decided enough was enough and left.. i just wasnt in the mood to hang about the place a minute longer.

Bertambah la serabut.

So tonite, after again dropping AH off at yet another one of her tuition classes, i made a beeline for the KSAS gym. it might not have state of the art equipment but the treadmills and cyclers are pretty dependable. and cough or no cough, i was determined to work out some sweat, yeah!!


Workout Log
PM - Treadmill/40mins/4.6km/380 cals

Latest news on the 'Cikgu'

Yup its confirmed. AF just called and he has been sent to Clifford, Kuala Lipis.

After the briefing in temerloh this morning, the 30 odd grads officially received their first postings. AF's the only one assigned to lipis.

He's making his way there as i write this.

Cikgu AF (lipis) & Cikgu EV (masai)

Safe journey my darling :)

A mess

... of unstable, fluctuating hormones.

I'm generally a cool person. i dont get fazed too easily (unless it has something to do with public speaking) and not really the type to cry at movies or go after people who cut queues with a parang hehehe.

But lately as i find myself inching nearer and nearer to the big five-oh, i seem to be turning ridiculously sappy & emotional. case in point, the morning that my son was to leave home for his first job; which was yesterday.

The day started with my usual aerobic session at the dataran. everything was fine and even though i was still going about with a racking cough, i felt energised because i was breaking in a pair of new shoes. yup i finally bought myself another adistar (but i'm still not sure if i should've gotten the 4 1/2 instead of 4).

And sometimes i wonder if my coughs are partly psychological because how come i wasnt coughing so much while i was jumping about?

Anyway, after a great sweat-out i went to the wet market and started buying stuff that my son liked ... lunch was going to be all his favourite dishes: ayam masak kicap with lots of button mushroom, fried tempe, sambal sotong with a generous dose of petai and salad (he's trying to lose weight so the salad was there to sorta balance it out a bit hehehe).

To be honest, i was already feeling these little tugs at my heartstring but i just ignored it. it got stronger when i was at home cooking & cleaning.. but the dam went and burst itself when i went thru his checklist one more time to make sure he didnt leave anything behind.

The poor guy was still sleeping when i started bawling my head off and hugging him like my life depended on it. i made such a ruckus that you could probably have heard me right to the end of the street.

I cant really explain it but my baby was going out into the world and i wouldnt be there to protect him anymore. he would be without his family and group of caring & very supportive friends.. instead, he would be in a strange place with strange people and they didnt know him like we do - that even though he looked like a big & strong 'macho man', he was also a clumsy, forgetful, lovable idiot who's too trusting for his own good and really cares about the people around him.

Lord please keep him safe & loved.

Sheesh i'm getting all worked up again.. even though the kiddoes have gotten used to mama waaaaa-ing her head off (thoughts of the golfman also triggers me off lol), i dont think my officemates are ready for it though.. they'd proably think i've been abducted and an alien has taken over my body -_-'

Overdose of the suria

.. and i still have to face five consecutive saturdays of the same, help!!

The great oil company annually organises a seminar for the children of their employees in preparation for major exams like spm/pmr/upsr. and just like her brothers before her, it was AH's turn this year.

The programme is both educational & motivational in nature and spans over six saturdays, starting as early as 8 am and finishing off at 1 pm. since dropping the kiddoes off at klcc has never been an option for me, i have to plan out ways to amuse myself during that period of time. which shouldnt really present a problem considering that its right within a thriving mall (i could always shop till i drop) but... yes, theres a great big 'but' here. experience has painfully taught me that a mall is extremely 'dead' and barren before it opens for business, usually around 10.30 to 11.00 am... i am already there by 7.30 to 7.45am.

So theres the park and its a beautiful place.. but the thought of 3 hours of 'park gazing' every saturday can also become pretty daunting (the park bench has left an almost permanent mark on my butt lol), i'm thinking of trying out the jogging track next saturday.



Rajin ke ek? i hafta have a change of clothes if i dont wanna go about the suria all stinky & sweaty.

And since AH's bf seems to be a permanent fixture (he's sweet enough to suffer my presence while we both wait for her lol) i might even manage to coerce him into joining me ;)

Its a plan but we'll see what happens.

Congratulations are in order for my good friends Fara & Baiyin. she's the first of my semsas classmates to 'menyambut menantu' ... untuk anakanda, semoga bahagia dunia akhirat :)

KL

..from kl to kl and back :)

Hmmmm.

Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lipis.

Thats where AF will be going. he's only reporting to PPD Temerloh but his actual posting is Lipis.

Which school? dunno yet.. maybe clifford and according to his gf, that actually has some meaning to it ;)

Kita tunggu dan lihat.

Oh and if you've heard about the '0' milestone in Kuala Lipis, it's NOT the centre of peninsular malaysia as some would have it. the centre is actually in temerloh.


Workout Log
AM - 4k/26mins/TSA

Hanya Ada Satu

For my one & only Golfman.. a song by Afgan ;)



Tahukah kau apa yang aku rasakan
Aku takut kehilanganmu oh sayang
Perasaan ini selalu saja datang
Selalu datang

Setiap detik waktu dalam hidupku
Kan ku coba membahagiakan dirimu
Hapuslah resahmu peluklah diriku
Kekasihku

Hanya ada satu sayang di hatiku
Hanya ada satu cinta di hatiku
Hanya ada satu rindu di hatiku
Akan ku persembahkan hanyalah
Untukmu seorang
-courtesy of www.lirik-afgan.blogspot.com



(and i can already see the kids rolling their eyes at me ekekeh)

Infestation

Mention the word 'rats' and you'd probably think 'store', 'warehouse' or maybe even 'kitchen'... but would you believe 'office'?

Office? surely not my clean, pristine and recently renovated office? the one in which i have to go barefoot in because management thinks my shoes would sully the office environment and to hell with inconvenience? the exact same one that looks beautiful on the outside but whose kitchenette overflows every other day bcos the damn contractor wasnt careful enough with debris and probably dumped half of it through the kitchen sink?

Yup one and the same. and it is now infested by rats. i even found one lil baby rat crawling under my table (pretty disturbing i can tell you arrgghh) which we later found out came from a nest of other baby rats right beside the next cubicle (my friend had stacked a lot of old drawings right behind her cabinet and thats where mama rat had her litter).

Seems that to date we've found three different litters.

Aaargghh.

We're being colonised here... help!!!!

p.s. the rat busters are supposed to come today.


Workout Log
AM - 4k/30mins/TSA

Transform

... into evil or good?

Its a choice. and even if you were born into evil, choosing to be good is still an option open to you.

That was the message i got outta the latest transformer movie.

Gawd i love the special effects and sitting in the absolute front row (we were lucky to even be there, it was the weekend and the theatre was close to overflowing) made me feel as if i was actually part of all that kick-ass action (sib baik tak pening ekekeh)!!

But what stayed with me was the memory of the little spy robot from the decepticons (megan fox's pet) and his 'aha' moment.. the one where he suddenly realised that NOT being a decepticon was an option and he didnt have to be bad anymore. it was during the scene in which the derelict decepticon resurrected from the museum admitted he'd had enough of the in-fighting and was helping the primes out instead.

Age old enemies.. and yet in the end, he even sacrificed his 'life force' to optimus.

So.

It doesnt hafta be so drastic la hehehe but why not let ourselves all transform for the better ;)

AA - miss u, miss u, miss u
AF - just another week and you'll be joining the nation's workforce. welcome to the jungle and do watch out for the monkeys in suits ;)
AI - so starts your first day at the main campus.. make the most of it k!
AH - this paintball thingy might be a little too rough for you la darling.. risau je mama sakit2 nih!!


Workout Log
AM - 3km/TSA (terlambat skit so i couldnt finish my normal rounds.. but its better than nothing aight?)

Terkedu

.. and i cant seem to shake this feeling of disbelief.

When i first heard about it last nite i was speechless. shocked even.. bcos i wasnt prepared.. bcos its only july and spm seems eons away. well, to me at least.

And PLKN was the last thing on my mind.

Of course i'd thought about the possibility, especially when i heard people saying that at least one member of the family would be called. i'd mulled over my options; if ever my little girl got herself selected what action could i possibly take?

Hah.. the irony of it all. my boys escaped the 'calling' both times but now my sweet echa has to go? if it was my choice i'd rather it was one of the boys. but to be totally honest, i'd rather not at all. i dont have that much confidence in the effectiveness of our national programmes because from past experience, they dont really have staying power. a couple of years down the line, sometimes just a matter of months, policies change and all that hulla baloo dont mean naught; all the pain and suffering of the initiating process flushed down the drain.

I dunno. i'm just your regular jane/minah and i sure as hell cant beat the system. all that i can do is hope that the people of power & influence know what they're doing and really, truly have our best interest at heart.

PLKN sesi 7/2010.

I'm just hoping that this piece of news wont be affecting AH too much and disrupt her focus on her spm.

AH with mr peachy

Dang.. and there goes all my plans as well.