Unexpected news (lagi!)

Alamak!!! Red alert! Red alert!!! Hubby called to inform me that his youngest brother who just came back from UK is not well... demam dari aritu tak elok2 lagi!!! Arghhh... H1N1 kah?? Hubby decided to bring him to Hospital Sungai Buloh today for check up... aduhai... berdebarnya saya!!! Dah la Izzaty demam panas aritu.... and I myself am not felling so well today.... (see previous posting!). And my officemates are all urging me to go home... like NOW!!! Depa pun takut jangkit sebab I asyik complain tak sihat nih!!! :P Alaa.... betul ke nih???? *suspen siut!*

Another unexpected news... an ex-colleague, Mr R... who's now the head of one section in our ISD department.. (Finance management) offered me a pose in his department... a higher level job... aduhai... sounds so tempting!! But am I really interested?? Boleh buat ke?? Suspen la pulak!!! I've been doing programming for so long... not sure if I am ready to 'get out' from this comfort zone! But I do want to do something new... dah bosan lama sangat dok kat sini..... *sigh!*. I guess... time for solat istikharah nih.... tapi tengah uzur pulak.... huhuhu... sabar je lah... Please Allah give me guidance to choose what's best for me... dunia dan akhirat... Aamin!

Dugaan...

Izzaty has not been well for the past few days.... she got very high temperature... up to 40.3C! I got so worried at the beginning (4 deaths in Malaysia due to H1N1 as at today!)... but alhamdulillah, this morning she looked better and back to her usual self... so back to school as usual.... phew!! Lega makcik!! Tak abis2.... mula2 sakit mata (she still has to go to Tun Hussein Onn Eyes Specialist Hospital... infact, tomorrow is our next appointment!).. pastu demam pulak! Harap2 lepas ni tak de masalah la ya...

But today... yours truly ni pulak yang rasa lain macam!! I felt dizzy when I woke up early this morning... drove to the office as usual... tapi rasa cam zombie kampung pisang pulak.. tired + sakit2 badan + sleepy... *sigh!*. Ishh.. tak best betul lah kalau tak sihat on weekends!!! Rugiiii!!! Tak dapat enjoy!!! :P

Anyway, an 'unexpected' incident happened to one of our family members... (well.. not really lah.. I would not say we were really surprised... but we did pray that it won't really happened... tapi dah takdir kan.... ) and all of us are still upset with the news. Sorry... I can't share detail of this news in this blog... in order to protect the privacy of this family member... but just enough to say that the news really affect all of us as this family member meant a lot to us!! Quite sad.... may Allah protect this particular person and gave his/her strength during this difficult time... We love you... please remember that!!

Zamri's back! Time for another family gathering!

My youngest brother-in-law, Zamri is back for summer holiday 2009. So, last week... hubby fetched him from the KLIA on Wednesday night... and took 2 days off on Thursday and Friday to spent quality time with his beloved brother (Wah... so conveniently easy for him to apply leaves eh? Duh! :P). Zamri actually just came back from Egypt. He went to Egypt before coming back to Malaysia... (ni sure ikut abang dia sorang yang kuat berjalan tu!). Anyway.. on the 2nd day of his stay at my place.. Zamri got diarrhea... quite severe! Sampai tergolek2 atas katil.. I tell you! I got a bit worried there.... H1N1 kah?? Iye lah.. dia originally from UK kan.... quite scary lah.... tak pasal2 kami satu rumah kena quarantine nanti!! :P But alhamdulillah.. after taking medicine and had a good sleep.... he felt better and looked better! :)

Well, sempena baliknya adik kesayangan sorang ni... last weekend... all my in-laws gathered at my place (my parents-in-law came to my house on Friday night... the other brothers came on Saturday evening, and Kak Eina.. my one and only sister-in-law came on Sunday morning). We went for a picnic on Sunday (again! :D Hehehe.. we actually went picnic at the same place just 2 weeks ago! Tapi tak puas main air... so hubby and I planned to bring the whole 'Hussin clan' to come here when Zamri's in Malaysia!) Kali ni of course lagi meriah... coz all the in-laws (plus ila's sister (hamzah's sis-in-law) - Ija and her husband) pergi sekali! It rained early in the morning.. suspen jugak takut tak jadi pegi.. tapi alhamdulillah... by 9am the sun was shining beautifully.. and the weather was so nice!! We left early and reached there around 10am! Not many people were there yet... so senang la nak booking tempat nak bentang tikar and tempat landing kami! :) And as expected... by 11am... tempat tu dah penuh... full house!! Makin ramai yang datang! The water was extremely coldd... brrrr!!!! But that did not stop the kids having fun bermandi-manda!! :) Sampai biru2 dah bibir masing2 dok dlm air yang sejuk tu! :D Bekalan makanan pun banyak dibawa... nasi lemak, karipap, nuggets, jajan2, tembikai, rambutan, ect!

Oh... btw.... hubby got a new toy!! Been talking and surveying about it for dayssss!!! So last Thursday... he brought his little brother to KL and bought this SLR camera....

Nikon D90 - hubby's latest toy!
And siap beli this book somemore... LOL!

Yours truly is so jealous!! Coz I still have not got the chance to 'get-to-know' this new camera! :P Below are some pics taken during the picnic using the new camera ;)

Tasting the water.... so cold!! brrrrr....!!!

Uncle Ee yang dah sihat happily melayan his nephews and nieces :)
Uncle Chik in action...

Oh Noo... bibir Danish dah biru kesejukan tu... tapi masih naik main air lagi! :)
Ila,Anis and Aidan. Ila is 8 months pregnant in this pic ;)

Atuk (lying under the umbrella), Nenek, Wan and Bibik... enjoying the food and fruits while the others mandi-manda. Those yang dah kesejukan or kelaparan... would join them to 'isi minyak'... before sambung balik mandi-manda! Yang berbaju coklat tu si Hamzah... tengah kusyuk makan nasi lemak... lapar la tuh :D

Yours truly trying the natural water massaging.... nice! And the kids having fun! :)

Everyone dah kelaparan... naik ke darat to eat!!! :)

Family bonding :)

Time to go home... nanti insyaAllah datang lagi.... we had sooo much fun!!

Kelip2 experience..

I have always wanted to experience seeing kelip2 at night. Never seen one before! I've also heard about a place in Kuala Selangor where one of the largest kelip2 colonies in the world located! I told hubby that we must go and see this place before the kelip2 extinct from that place!!! Wah.. bersemangat waja tuh! :)

Well... lately, hubby got this new hobby... melekat depan computer melayan travelbuddy . One minah salleh's friend of his from travbuddy (Victoria from Wales, UK) was planning to go to Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor to see the fireflies last Saturday. So my dearest hubby pun teruja nak pegi jugak... Ye lah.. sibuk nak tenguk negara orang... negara sendiri pun belum habis cover!!

So kami pun apa lagi.... satu keluarga bertolak ke Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor excitedly! The place is just about 2 hours drive from our place if we use the Bukit Tagar Highway exit. It was a pleasant drive... winding through old rubber and palm oil plantations! And we finally reached Kampung Kuantan just before Maghrib.... and performed solat Maghrib at a mosque just next to the jeti...

Senja di Kampung Kuantan... small sampans that are used to transport tourists for the kelip2 experience.

Din, our boatman for that night is a local who happened to be a friend of hubby's officemate. Hubby's friend, Rohaizad recommended Din to us when he knew we wanted to come here. So... senang sikit lah... we could skipped the tourist queues... no need to buy tickets from the Majlis Daerah... it was a personal private tour :) Kewl!! :)

The long queue at the jeti... waiting for thier turn for the kelip2 experience.

After wearing life jackets, the 7 of us (Hubby, myself, 2 kids, my mom and bibik.. plus Din) hopped into Din's sampan excitedly! Rasa cam terlebih muatan je... but Din assured us... katanya okay.. selamattt!! :) Apparently, ada 2 places aje in this world where these species of kelip2 can be found throughout the years... which are in Kuala Selangor, Malaysia and another place in Brazil... wah not bad kan negaraku ini?! Bangga wooo!! And what an awesome experience!! Cantik banget!!! Dari jauh nampak macam X'mas trees aje!!

Sarat! In our sampan... rasa macam dalam tongkang nak balik Indon je.. LOL!
Din... out boatman. Confidently steering his sampan.

From the internet I learned that the species of kelip-kelip reside only in mangrove areas. During the day, they retreat into the tall grasses just behind the mangroves. Like a bat... they are very week during daylight! And as night falls, they move to the mangrove trees (i.e pokok berembang) located along the river bank to feed on nectar from the leaves and to attract mates with their synchronised flashing. The chemical reaction in the thorax of the insect produces a cool green glow that is controlled to flash at a rate of 3 flashes per second. For optimum effect, it is best to visit the place right after Maghrib (around 7.30pm) and not later after 11pm, after which time the kelip-kelip would have found mates or mated, and subsequently the flashing would stop.

Din steered his sampan expertly to the edge of the bank so that we could get a closer look at the beautiful kelip2. Terror betul Din handling his sampan dalam gelap!! I complemented him.. and he answered... "dari kecik kak... membesar guna sampan kat tempat ni!"

Pokok Berembang - kelip2's favourite tree... see the little2 yellow thing.... that's the kelip2! Our compact Canon camera could not capture kelip2's beautiful flash in the dark... so the photos taken were not as nice as we wanted them to be.. :(

I told Izzaty to catch one of the kelip2...

Izzaty : Takut la Ma..

Mama : Takut of what??

Izzaty : Nanti tangan sakit kena api dia...

Ek enaaa... dia ingat ada api ke apa kat kelip2 tu... LOL!

When everyone was busy appreciating the twinkling of the kelip2... tiba2 Din cakap "Adik.. jangan campak selipar abang dalam sungai!!". Ehh?? Tak lain tak bukan.. si Izzat lah!! Notty betul tangan dia.. tak leh dok diam betul!! Geram betul mama ngan budak nih!!! Malu betul ngan Din... O(#^%*()^!!

In the end... ayah volenteered to pay extra RM10 for the missing slippers! Izzat... Izzat... *sigh~*. Ayah also bought a kilo of udang galah from Din's family... for only RM30!! So cheap!!! :) What an enchanting experience....

Izzaty's last pose... before leaving Kampung Kuantan...

U-turn!!!!

What? Back to BM??? Duh!!!

When they first announced that Science and Maths were to be taught in English.. I was a bit skeptical! Ye lah... my kids were all born with 'lidah melayu'! Boleh ke diorang ni?? But alhamdulillah... I must say they are doing pretty good! As a mom.. of course I had to make sure they do!!

And now that the government decided to make to a U-turn.. and revert back to BM (oh.. and other languages too!) with effect from 2012... again... mommy has to make sure they would adapt to this latest change!

I can still remember Izzaty asked me a few months back.. "Mama... litar tu apa?" (She was reading her Kemahiran Hidup text book pasal litar elektrik. And I was like... "haaaa?? litar pun tak tau ke?? Izzaty kan dah belajar in sciences!" Then I remembered she only know the word "circuit"!! :P Hehe.. kelakar pun ada... :D

So I guess I understand niat murni kerajaan nak memertabatkan Bahasa Melayu. But why in the first place they decided to make it in English years ago?? Masa tu tak pikir ke nak memertabatkan bahasa ibunda kita?? And now that most of the kids had adjusted well to accept English for Maths and Sciences..... boleh pulak they all buat U-turn!! *sigh!*

Yang jadi mangsa... kids and teachers zaman sekarang... they have no choice... terpaksa lah U-turn jugak! Bila la nak sampai destinasi macam nih kan.... *sigh!*

Another Kumon Achievement Test..

Izzaty had to go for follow up with Dr Gayatri at Tun Hussein Onn Eye Specialist today. Thanks god, hubby is on leave... so he volenteered to bring her there (that was after I took the effort applying for GL from medijaring! Tak kisah la kannn... janji ada orang nak tolong hantarkan!!)... Alhamdulillah... checked! Done! :)


Today... both kids had to sit for Kumon achievement test! Izzaty did the level G Maths test and Izzat did the Level B1 English test..... and taraaaaaaa...!!!!!


Alhamdulillah... both kids came home happily with these letters and reports...

Hmmm.... very clever Ms Jaya... one letter was addressed to Ayah.. another one to Mama... very fair and square eh? :D

When I turned over Izzaty's result report... I saw the 'expectation' of the next level - H!! Eeuuu... for a 10 years old... the syllabus looked pretty scary kan??

But don't worry girl... we'll help and guide you!! Just do it at your own pace, eh? ;)

To both Izzaty and Izzat... Mama and Ayah are very proud of you kids.... love you! *muah!*