Sunday, September 28, 2008

Whimsical English Country Garden stuff






This entry is dedicated to Shabbychic Mom, Whimsical Val and Fabmom and to my dear silent readers who are also into this. This showcase was held at Citymall and ended last Sunday. This is a teaser of more to come, the owner is a local lass who works as a stewardess (I think) and will be back in KK time and again. Soonest If any of you would like to have a personal viewing, you can visit her home where she keeps all this stuff.

The Barber Shop

The good ol chair..timeless classic..many glorified ars*@ have sat on this chair.

From generation to generation..notice the tin pot against the wall, it's steamed or boiled (not so sure) towels for after the haircut. Haircut charges only RM8.00 for adult and RM5.00 for kids.

The lady of the house shall subject herself to the latest digital hair technology indulgence hehehe, expertly done by a professional stylist no less..the damage errrr at least I got 30% discount.

In Raya mood..we brought the boys to the old barber shop in Pekan Tg. Aru..this barber shop has been around for ages. The classic Ah Pek tiam.. The pictures speaks for itself..Once when I was about 6 years old, Mum & Dad tried to bring me to this barber to cut my hair. When I saw the chair and the Ah Pek beckoning me to come and sit...I was hysterical! The whole image scared the shit out of me.. No more Ah Pek tiam for me after that, wouldnt even come near that shop..heheheh

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Toughen up


(This movie is really good especially for us women folks (sad that it didn't make the Hollywood BOxoffice)..if after watching this doens't get ur juice running and make u go to the nearest self defense class, I don't know wat else to say)

After reading a friend's blog entry about educating and training oneself with self defense skills, memories came flooding. I too had seen the insides of the police station one too many times. I'll share the story but first, just to let you know that I was trained in martial arts and competed with a gold medal to prove in sparring (back in school days). I was an athelete and I considered myself quite fit. And never have I imagined myself to be a victim of violence.

Year 1998..I was ending a relationship with my then BF of almost 1 year. I didn't think we will have a future. Because lately I realised that there was something amiss about his character that I couldn't put a finger on and all of my friends have warned me against him. I actually sacrificed my best friend-ship to be with this man. Of course I thought I was in love and that alone is enough to make me blind to his flaws (worst thing is I make excuses for him). He was a well educated man, in law no less, with a bright future ahead. He seemed sincere and serious enough to me. We talked about getting married after I finished studies bla bla bla.. I even wrote a bloody letter to my Mum about him (gosh was I so gullible, and I never talk about my love life with Mum let alone own up that I have a BF)..ok now u have a general idea of how it was going. All my friends started to stay away from me because all of them hated his obnoxiousness and most of the time I was with him.

So..cut the looong story short, I landed the axe over the phone and e rushed over to my apartment to demand explaination. He brought over the things that I gave to him and burned it. Then..he slapped me hard on the face, twice. And ran off. The only thing I can do then was to scream curses at him as he sped away. After that incident, he started stalking me, and my good (male) friend always keep me company whenever I wanted to go out. I was so scared. Even my housemate was scared. After 1 week i think he called me up and talked nicely and ask me to return all the things he gave me. I asked my friend to accompany me as my house mate was not home. My friend waited for me at the basement parking lot so as not to fuel my ex's anger. My ex got out of his car and we exchanged heated words and he shoved me against the car. Security guards started to come around and I said better to end this quickly and both of us went up to the apartment. As he waited outside, he snatched my handbag and held it as ransom. When I came back with his stuff, again I was caught off guard with a hard slap on my cheeks but this time I wasn't gonna let him get away with it without a fight. Fury came over me but all my martial art skills never came through..it was just pure adrenaline and anger. And I how was I , such a skinny tiny girl can even come close to hurt this tall and fit b#*@!rd, none of my punches landed on him. It only gave him an opportunity to kick me in the stomach and I "flew" few paces behind and hit the pillar..tried to hit me again with a video tape, but I blocked and got scraped by is steel watch. After that he ran away. I stood there shaking..and rushed back into my apartment to calm down and collect myself.

When I went down to my friend at the basement, I saw his car was rammed into..obviously by the sick b#*@!rd. The door of the passenger seat was totally crashed in. It was witness by the security guards. We went to report at the nearest Police station and the detective called that sicko in. He was interogated like a criminal..the detective really did justice to me..and it was done right in front of me. At first he was cocky and denied everything but after 1 hour he cowered down like a timid mouse. I chose not to press charges for some reasons and he agreed to pay damages. And guess what, his ambition was to become the Chief of Police! Maybe no more coz now he has a police record.

Year 2001..I was a victim of snatch thief. As I was walking just a 2 minutes away from my home in Luyang. The man was driving a pick up truck and apparently was lurking awaiting for a lone pedestrian. The lane was really quiet, not many cars pass by. I didn't even notice it was cruising behind me untill it was too late and all I saw was a hand reaching out to pull my handbag hanging on my shoulders. Mind you I was a "correct" pedestrian, I walk on the opposite side of the trafic, my bag was away from the road. He managed to grab the strap and drag away while is other hand was steering te pick up truck. I held on to my bag and because of that I fell on my back (twisted around) and was dragged on the tarmac until the strap broke. Then he stopped and looked back at me as if wanting to come our of the truck and make a grab or hurt me or something. But I screamed on top of my lungs to get my neighbours attention. Oh and this happened in broad daylight. But being in my neighbourood, who minded their own business and nobody was hanging outside, no one came to my aid. Thankfully my scream scared off the thief and he sped off.

Wat happened to me? Large piece of my skin on the back was scrapped off my the tarmac and I bruised my shoulders. I limped back home and called my aunt who brought me 1st to the police station and lodge a report then to the hospital. I was wearing only tube tops and sarong for 1 whole week.

Moral of the story..all those martial art skills I've learned didn't come in handy when I was caught off guard and overpowered. I believe now that I have to live and breathe self defense skills so that it becomes natural to me and I do not have to think to respond to my defense, not just take lessons and take things for granted. I think the best is the street fighting skills much like the one in the movie Enough will do me much better. And ladies, most of the time, our attacker will be much stronger than us. So there are specific skills that can be learned to overcome this situation. I have heard of such classes now available at Likas PLaza. I forgot the name but I will search for it, I think I've seen it's advert in Breeze magazine.

We must not take our safety for granted. It can happen unexpectedly and at the time we're at our most vulnerable. Fit or not fit, if we're mentally and technically prepared, we shall survive. Hey we don't have to fight them off to the death, just buy enough time for us to flee for safety.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

When u're suddenly a single mum..

I don't know her personally, she's a friend of my old friend. But when I visited this link, I felt so close to her. A mother to a mother. I can only imagine how heavy her shoulders must feel and a terrible sense of lost.

Takziah kepada Shahrizad for her lost

Monday, September 22, 2008

Tag Hari Raya

Tagged by Cockaigne of Mind

I like the title..to get the Raya mood going..

Berapa pasang baju raya anda taun ni dan kaler apekah?
4 pasang this year..incl. 1 pasang yg I've not worn since 2004. Colour blue, pink, mustard.

Apakah makanan raya tradisional kegemaran anda?
Daging dendeng wit nasi himpit my MIL's mum, kelupis wit curry my kampung, ayam masak merah my aunty JJ, nasi tomato aunty JJ..these i will attack 1st.

Apakah biskut raya kegemaran anda?
Makmur wit peanut inside my aunty JJ, biskut cashew bits n bites, tart nenas nenek, biskut semprit MIL.

Bape banyak duit raya anda dapat n spend untuk bagi kat bebudak?
Aiyaa suda lama inda merasa duit raya ni tau..this year for kids blum dibajetkan lagi..kita tunggu bonus heheheh

Apakah aktiviti malam raya korang?
Malam raya masa budak dulu, balik kampung and potong bawang, perah santan n fooling around with cousins, main bunga api, sapu taik kambing bawah kolong rumah, pasang hook tabir etc..Now, get everyone's baju ready, house cleaning and if I can get it..MAIN BUNGA API!

Now to tag..Shabby Mom, FabMom, Izyanti, Ijam, Hawk, Kim

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Paper planes



A typical boys toys..but my boys rather go to Mummy to make their paper planes! Coz Mummy's plane can fly better than Daddy's eheeheeh. Guess I can totally get off the idea of playing with Barbie Dolls *sigh*. My boys will always come to me if they want paper planes or ask me to draw dinosaurs or ask me how to beat Barricade with Bumblebee..but one thing I will not get is to to transform all those robots into watever their supppose to be otherwise..gosh! They're so complicated. I've actually broken a few because of trying to it fold out or in. I give up! Let Daddy handle this.

Last night my eldest rascal had a very painful lesson. As we all can expect their curiosity got the better of them..this "cat" went to touch the still hot iron so his fingers were scalded. At first he didn't scream. Both of us didn't notice anything wrong with him. Until I think the pain started to register and he came complaining to me, when the skin on his fingers started to "kembung". Apalagi..then the tears came pouring down, and came the confession that he "kacau" the iron, and ran screaming on top of his lungs around the house, takut kena taruk ubat. I was not so much worried about if he touced the hot iron (his fingers was not bad), I was just worried if he had touched the plugs or socket and got electrocuted and I asked him to point out to me what he meddled with. Luckily it was the iron. Actually after hubby finished ironing and switched off everyting, I think Benjy,somehow with some crazy thought wanted to know what's up with the iron, and now he knows first hand lah. The last thing he said before falling asleep was, "Benjy dont want to go to school tomorrow, Benjy cannot hold the colour pencil".

This morning, he almost forgot about it. Hehehe..so much drama.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Busy Beeeeee.......

(This is drawn by Benjy..he said this is Mummy and baby Ariff inside Mummy's tummy)

I'm gonna be a bz bee this few days..big event coming up..so gotta prepare quotation n presentation to bid for this job..and the challenge is the competition is a worthy rival i heard. With quite an impressive list of clientele. Typing these words got my adrenaline pumping already and excitement building up..rasa mcm kecut perut pun ada, berpeluh pun ada, feel like wanna poop pun ada ok that bad, feel panic rising from my bowels..it's because the presentation will be this MONDAY!! Shit! The client's big guns are coming down from KL just for this presentation and they decided to kasi awal the date..shit shit!..previously it was just gonna be the bosses frm KK branch so the thought is not so nerve-wracking..

ok calm down Val..deep breath..forget about pooping coz u don't have the time..GM's speech to do again (ARGHH!)..article for group buletin to do some more (ARGHH!)..okay about this part of my job..I've no background in writing watsoever n I landed tis job..bring it on i said..i'm up for the challenge..and when i received my 1st speech assignment, it has to be in BM..nokotigog juga my heart skijap..my formal BM sucks..I got C5 for SPM..i never like Karangan..n there I was staring at the Google search screen..heheheh..thank God for Google!

Back to my nerves..gotta stop this entry short..Val go back to work! Then find some models, find some dancers, gotta get ur band, n ur boss just called u into er room! Ciao!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Last weekend..

We're two weeks into Ramadhan. Have been indulging into fabulous food from the many hawkers stalls in town. But generally the price has doubled since last year. Not easy to get anything for RM1 which was the case the previous years. Now mostly starts with RM2. After two weeks I have my favourites marked; popiah goreng sambal (Asia city), Nasi Dagang (Asia City), Cendol (Tg. Aru), Puteri Mandi (Tg. Aru), Laksa Sarawak (Deasoka), Mee Hoon Goreng ( Tg. Aru), Soto Banjar (Tg. Aru), and the rest will be decided depending on my craving of the day. Last weekend I made bubur labu dengan jagung plus some other stuff. I love pumpkin, versatile food item. I especially miss my late Grandmas's Steamed Pumpkin cake.

Saturday we decided to check out Segama to look for my son's baju melayu. As predicted the place was conjested with human being. I noticed even the pedestrian bridge was alive with traders, saying this because it has been years since I see this kind of scene up there. I remember when I was little, Grandma used to use this way to go across from Segama to the wet market and I would enjoy the people selling everything under the sun along the bridge-walkway. From toys, shoes, vegetables, etc..
Benjy benjy benjy...his agitated whiny voice was heard throughout Segama...we just ignored all the curious glances from passerby...it was just not his scene...there was just so many people and he got squashed in between bodies with all kinds of BO and of course nothing of his fancy is around. Thankfully he agreed to cooperate to try on this baju.


This pic is a bit belated. We went to check out what was left of Servay Penampang Hypermarket. I was shocked to see it was melted to te ground. The day after it happened, the video was already up in YouTube, I saw many spectators crowded the nearby shops's to watch it burn. It baffled me that these people wasn't thinking about their immediate safety first! I mean the distance between the shops and the burning site was just 1 road lane away, too close for comfort. Luckily there was no major explosion of bursting glass windows.

Chronic Break a.k.a Cancer Stick. This was taken at the side entrance to Centre Point..it says a thousand words..nuf said. I'm proud to say that I'm no longer a contributor of spreading cancer. I'm not proud to say that I've done that, and I blame it on peer pressure (after much analysis). It's also a want to be accepted and supposedly it makes you look matured and sophisticated. I'm lucky that I was not terminally addicted. As I said purely to socialize. Now I can't stand the smell of it and the thought of I used to smell like that..ergh.


Thanks to my babies, I'm leading a clean life now. Kempen Anti-Merokok..heheh (nothing to do wit my main topic but i don't care ;p)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

So You Think You Can Dance?

If I can do all these I would be da BOMB!..
Hey this is good exercise for strong abs muscle..plus many other benefits *wink*
Just look at her, such a cool pose..now here's a new idea for a wedding march..let him do it! hahaha...

Now you can take pole dancing lesson at the Hanging Gardens @ Linda Jasmine Studio KL..care to join anyone? Ermm mebe not just yet for me..I'll stick with belly dancing..but just look at them..don't mess with these girls..they are really strong!

Eyes wide shut

I'm never gonna get enough zzzzz's..been away on leave for 3 days to take care of baby Ariff..he got Bronchialitis apparently contracted from the nursery coz i found out most of the babies there were sick too..sigh..that's the cons of sending your kids to the nursery..and i understand why the poor babies eventhough sick were still sent to the day care..when i was working in the hotel, it was not easy to take leave and being in the private sector means u have tons n tons of workload and deadline, plus your boss for sure will not be so understanding..so i guess the parents didn't have much choice but to depend on the day care to take care of their child..so 3 days i spent quality time with my baby..during then he learned to stand and let of his hands, crawl, play tag, reach the armchair and everywere else and many other wonderful things...growing stuff that I will definetely have missed out on..I counted out of 24 hours, I only spend 5 waking hours with my children, count from 6.30am - 7.30am plus 6pm - 9pm..heartwrenching to think of this..after work and feeling so tired, putting up with 2 boisterous toddlers is a real challenge of keeping your patience and sanity..and their selective hearing when you say NO is so so trying on ur BP..it's quite normal for the neighbours to hear my "falsetto" and "chorus"..usual song would be "Benjy Nabil NO!" followed by some smacks on the buttcheeks..and within 5 hours of spending time together like that, I would normally feel remorse at the end of the night when I put them to sleep and they would say I love you Mummy..

Lain cerita, don't know wassup with me and security guards this week but I encountered one funny fler again in another bank, he was actually leaning at the counter with his eyes shut! I had to ask him someting so woke him up, answered me in a daze, then went away to stand in the middle of the room. I went pass him again and i saw him sleeping while standing still!!! Kesian pun ada, mau ketawa pun ada. He's mastered the skill of stealing nap time while standing up! LOL! OK that and I noticed he was wearing high heeled shoes..gawd, how much he is suffering standing all day in that..whylah put so much torture on ur feet brader? Maybe he has a taller wife and don't want to tenggelam berdiri di sebelah bininya kan?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Kicik kicik lembu jaga..


My fren do you feel safe looking at this fler? He was walking in circles in a daydream! In my active imagination I'd surprise him from the back and snatch away his rifle and I can rob the bank oredy..tempting tempting..

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Blogger's Block

My mind just go blank whenever I try to do an entry..maybe its the hunger pangs..last nite our house had power failure AGAIN!!! Twice!! Last month alone it happened at least 8 times..u can check with the power supplier of the state for my call complain record..so fed up lah..this has been going on for years..the thing is only a few houses in my street was affected..they keep on telling me "Masalah talian la tu"..my BP will hit the roof everytime they give me this excuse..i mean for years this has been happening, can't you solve this once and for all??????????!!!!!!!!!! We pay every month and at least you do the decent thing to provide us with good service..DUH! Cannot tahan la like this.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Another tag..

2 x 2 Meme Tag by Sharon

Two names you go by
1. Val
2. Ti (hahah i know some of u will snicker at this, I won't say it!)

Two things you are wearing right now
1. Pashmina
2. Wedding Ring

Two things you want very badly at the moment
1. Lose my flabs!
2. My own house

Two things you did last night just before bed
1. Change my boy's nappies
2. Eat (i know that ain't gonna help reduce my flabs)

Two things you ate today
1. Puasa lah..
2. ---

Two people you just spoke with
1. Hubby
2. Naza my Brother in Law

Two things you are doing tomorrow
1. Spring cleaning @ home
2. write in my blog

Two longest car rides
1. From KK to Semporna
2. Going home from Hospital Likas after Nabil's delivery (painful lah my fren..surgical wound plus epidural aftermath headache..and definitely can't go fast because of so many potholes and bumps on the road)

Two favourite beverages
1. Lemonade
2. Fruit juices

Now to tag: Ijam Shadan & Anna Farazillah

My Boys

My other half is away training in KL again..so me n my boys get creative let our imaginations entertain us..
I gave in to their request to sleep on the sofa bed in the TV room..that's Ben's designated spot because he has to block his baby bro from rolling off..
Suddenly Grandma's kain sarong became a prop in a Mr. Bean's Getting a Haircut scene..see that lil boy at the back?..ambil kesempatan snatching his abang's stuff on the table..
A penny for his thoughts...