10 Years On...

at a time when people are jotting down their new year's resolutions, i've decided to look back instead of look forward. i dont believe in making new year resolutions. there's nothing new to list down, its the same every year - save more, spend less, read more, waste less time. other things like buy a house, buy a car, change jobs, doesnt really make it on to the list, they just happen!

my past 10 years have been filled with a lot of ups and downs, a lot of changes and a lot of new advantures. they were things i didnt plan (some of them at least) yet they came and i lived through them and learn from them.

1997...
this was my graduation year. graduating uni and getting a degree didnt seem all that big a deal to me. not to say i'm a genius or anything like that (oh, far from it...) but it was just something that happened naturally. i was also very sad, i didnt want to leave england. i had a great, great time there. i felt more at home there then in my own home. not to mention we get to watch footie at decent time!













1998...
started my first job. wrong choice of industry and wrong choice of place. it was after the currency crisis, and a bank is not a good place to start your working career. but if you need to work in a bank, at least choose a big bank, not this bank! it was a boring job, i dont know how i survived a year there.

1999...
i hated working, if i could i wanted to be a student for the rest of my life. i loved studying. so i begged my dad to send me back to england. i found a great course, and went back to do my masters. 20 hours of classes a week, no examination, 1 essay and 1 presentation per subject...ahh heaven. plus my house is merely minutes from meadowhall. got to watch a few united games. the best was sir alex's testimonial played on my 22nd birthday. got to see all my favourite players from the then-current & old team.













2000...
it had to happen, it was unavoidable. i had to leave england again. the second time around was worse, i knew i couldnt find an excuse to return. started looking a job, it was difficult. everyone wanted to offer me something in the accounting line (my degree), while i wanted something more of consulting based (my masters). due to the mismatch of supply and demand, i was unemployed for almost 10 months.













2001...
finally landed a job in one of the big 4 (big 5 it was, that time). great job...good prospects...really nice place to work in. after a few boring audit jobs, i finally got to do something i enjoyed...due dilligence (i still miss doing it).













2002...
a wrong email, and i met a guy. the rest of the year was a blur...hahaha!!














2003...
we got engaged. i bought a house in a great neighbourhood. didnt know the place existed, but once we saw it, we fell in love with the area (hubby loves the big football field)



















2004...
got married, a month after we were expecting. the months passed by blissfully. i didnt have morning sickness, no cravings, and i was full of energy. got the keys to our house, just in time to welcome the baby.



















2005...
our first baby. he's such a cutie. a good boy and didnt give us much problems. left my job to stay at home and take care of our son. felt more fulfilled than ever.















2006...
went back to work. my year of being a stay at home mum ended. good place to work, except its far and travelling tires me out. after a year of trying, we were pregnant again. our second boy arrived towards the end of the year. a difficult baby who tested our patience tremendously. but two boys...we love it!!
















2007...
i dont know what to look forward to. not all that excited to go back to work. hoping i would get a job near home so that i wont waste time travelling and being away from my boys. or better yet, maybe someone would offer me a job that wont require me to leave the house...and pays millions!!

Hot, Hot Days Part III - The Full Monty

finally did it...thanks to kak asmah who did my post-pregnancy massage (excellently, by the way). she came over on monday as a cousin wanted to have a massage session. spoke to her about the cukur jambul and she told me she can shave all of asyraf's hair off. its so difficult finding someone who's brave enough to hold a baby's soft head.

Oh So Tired

last weekend was a packed weekend. started with asyraf's cukur jambul at lunchtime on saturday, then it was my dad's 65th birthday dinner, followed by a makan-makan at my cousin's house (his son berkhatan) at tea time on sunday.

i cant remember the last time the clan from kb got together, but it was really great seeing everyone again. as usual, our get togethers are very loud, spent either watching movies, lepaking at coffee bean, barbequeing at the beach (if we're in kota bharu - that hasnt happened in a long, long time), or playing monopoly.

the get together started on a right note - arriving at 230pm for a 130pm occasion. yeah, the cukur jambul is done, people! so the cukur jambul turned out to be a makan-makan, house viewing affair. then it was planning which monopoloy to take to the dinner tonight affair.

the last of the cuz left my house at 530pm. i did some simple cleaning, then we took a short nap. arrived at my dad's house around 9pm. yeah, we were late, but we were tired. surprisingly there was a lot of people. the food was great too. my sis got the same caterer who did the food for asyraf's cukur jambul. for lunch we had, nasi putih, kari daging, ikan tongkol masak kuning (whatever that was - hubby's choice), ulam-ulam, popiah & karipap (i underestimated both the kuih beforehand, but they got really great reviews - the popiah was huge actually!). for dinner, we had nasi tomato, daging dendeng, ayam masak merah, dalca, kuey teow, barbeque chicken and daging, and i absolutely loved their sago gula melaka. i ate 2 while standing at the buffet table - tak malu!!

we left pretty late, it could have been later if the ring did not reach mount doom so soon (we played lord of the rings monopoly).

the next day, we met again at my cousin's house. this time it was disneyland monopoly initially followed by scrabbles. i wanted to take more pictures, i charged a lot of batteries, but asyraf had to be carried most of the time (what else is new?!) and it was great seeing the cousins again, that i had forgotten. here are some of the pictures that hubby managed to take.

asyraf's cukur jambul...

favours for guests...














daddy's birthday...

monopoly challange begins...those who speak the loudest always lose (eh, abg we??)

amir layan diri...



















makan-makan at abg we's...



































watching asyraf changing his clothes...

In Our DVD...

of all the pixar movies, my favourite has always been 'monsters, inc.' (largely due to billy crystal as mike wazowski. come on, who doesnt love billy crystal?). my dvd has been playing that movie non-stop for the past 3 weeks, thanks to a very bored 21-month-old. hubby's getting sick of it but thank god, i still love it. the downside to me is, my box of chocs has to take a back seat, sorry mock!

while walking in 1u yesterday, hubby saw this. amir's reaction was "naiiiiiiii..." (in our language, that means, niceeeeeeeee...perasan!)

First Outing

for asyraf or for myself...heh. after being prisoned for 4 weeks, i asked hubby to take us to 1utama. i needed to get out of the house before i go mental! we left at sun-up (which in layman's terms is 9:30am) to avoid the weekend crowd - lagi lagi with the school holidays and year-end sale and dekat christmas. asyraf didnt give us too much problem, he slept throughout the trip. hubby, amir & i managed to have a quiet breakfast. he needed to change his diapers only once and wanted milk once (twice lah including the one he had in the car). i'm really impressed as he usually doesnt want to be put down when he's at home. maybe its been really, really hot the past week and the house is just boiling! we even managed to go in and out of giant easily, without having to pacify either 1 of the boys.

asyraf on his first outing...


















abang long got some new vcds. we bought 'cars', 'pooh's 123' and 'the little mermaid' (that's actually for me aka ariel)


















when you're pushing 2 strollers you just stop anywhere you can...


















us in front of the christmas deco...i love christmas, its sooo...cheerful


















amir got excited when he saw mickey mouse (or 'mmmm' according to him). his daddy and mummy got excited looking at all the mickey mouse items on sale. if i had loads and loads of ker-ching, i would have bought everything from socks to carpets to pillows. the t-shirts were very, very inviting. amir patiently waiting in line to see mickey, surprisingly (patiently is the key word here!)




























we waited for less than 5 minutes, too many people lah. someone cried....'nanak car, nak mmmm.'

amir, your task now is to say...toookkkkkk, nak pegi disneyland. memorise that phrase, my son!