Showering Myself with Gifts!!

haha.. mula2 plan nak cerita pasal another birthday celebration that we went to (which we had loads of fun) but then ada banyak gambar nak kena add.. tunggu dulu la... nak cerita pasal lain...

February 2010 is "Pamper Myself" month.. hahaha

1. Last few weeks, ntah macamana I found my 14 year-old Fossil watch ada kat lantai dalam bilik... battery berterabur, the cover belakang tu pun ntah hilang ke mana.. so I was watchless for a good month or so....

2. Last few days, Ja punya handphone tetiba rosak, tak boleh on... so she was handphoneless for couple of days...

Solution for 1: I bought myself a SWATCH! hehe dulu kecik2 mak bapak tak mampu nak beli.. dah tua-tua beli sendiri...

Solution for 2: Just bought Blackberry Bold 9700 last night for MYSELF, and I gave my RM179 handphone which I just changed the housing nampak macam iPhone tu to Ja....

alhamdulillaaaaah.. syukur nikmat... hopefully March 2010 is not going to be "Papa Kedana" month.. hehe


:)

Atok's & Arifah's Birthday

We celebrated my dad's birthday at Seoul Garden... steamboat & grill place at Plaza Pantai, adjacent to Angkasapuri, the one where the LRT runs through it... :)

Felishia punya idea to go to that place. Steamboat spread is marvellous! But the place too cramped. Kalau penuh tempat tu sure tak comfortable... lucky for us at our side of the restaurant takde orang lain... so they were about close to 20 of us including kids..

Lepas makan, tak larat nak makan cake.. so potong je dulu kat situ (since Renu & Sharat wanted to go home right after that), and then makan later at home...

I wanted to just get 2 small cakes since people don't eat so much cake nowadays except for kids.. pila kat King's kat Giant Hypermart tu... me & Rayyan went for the one with the fruit. Pastu takde kek lain yang menarik kat situ we walked over to Secret Recipe and bought the Chocolate Strawberry cake...

Haha.. gambar kat atas ni actually is the first of 2 snaps of cucu-cucu.. I got all these pics from Felishia punya FB gallery.. I didn't snap any photos using my camera kat situ coz was busy steamboating and grilling... 1st snap ni is all the cucus, except the cucu from Fizrul and his 2nd wife. The 2nd snap is supposed to be all the cucus... 6 altogether.. 3 laki, 3 pompuan... blessed! :)

While I was steamboating, grilling, etc.. Ja was busy taking care of Rayhana who was restless... tempat panas.. and she wanted to get close to the steamboat & grill... and of course while doing that Ja also berborak2la dengan all the menantus.... oh ya.. forgot to mention... dinner was on Ja.. hehe

When we got home, we unwrapped the presents. Arifah got the Barbie school bag with rollers, that my mom asked my to buy for her, which I bought at Tropicana City Mall earlier that day. And I bought for her a matching water tumbler, stationery + casing, and that transparent bag.. all Barbie... to go with the school bag...

As for Atok, my mom bought him 2 gifts... mula-mula bukak, it was a RM10 spec hitam... haha semuorang gelak...

I took out the shades I just bought for Rayyan & Rayhana.. each of these cost RM20!

hahaha.. pastu my mom took out another gift for my dad... spec hitam Armani siot.. hahaha

pasni ada lagi satu cerita birthday... :)

Dominoes

Not the pizza... the game..

Siang tadi gi Tropicana City Mall for the first time since it opened months ago... nak beli gifts for my niece Arifah who had her birthday on Jan 20th and buy a card for my dad for his birthday celebration just now.. Arifah came over all the way from Kajang too so we had 2 cakes during steamboat/grill dinner at Seoul Garden, Plaza Pantai... Ja belanja...

Went to Tropicana City Mall straight after picking up Rayyan at 11.30am. Terus cari Toys'R'Us. Bought some "Barbie" school stuff for Arifah while Rayyan was running up and down all the aisles to find something for himself that I would pay for.. hehe

My limit for him RM30 hahahaha nak beli apa for 30 bucks at Toys'R'Us... ahaaa.. that's the challenge... in the end we settled on Dominoes. Rayyan didn't know how to play. I promised that I would teach him and that promise alone kept him excited... untillah it was time when we reached home where he bugged me while I was working on my laptop.. bila la nak ajar dia main ni...

Finally I gave in... stopped my work for the day at around 4pm or so.. and just let him unwrap the Dominoes box and just told him that the number dots are there for a reason and that you must link them appropriately as you arrange however you want.... I let him play by himself first.

So he made a robot la, a kite la... but still susun ikut how we actually play Dominoes...

Then I told him the rules on how to play. That you need at least 2 people to play. You turn the Domino tiles over and "shuffle". Then each of us would take the tiles one by one. Then, sapa ada 6-6 start dulu. Place the tile in the center, and then the next person continue susun the tiles as he would susun to make the robot before.

And we played.... I won the first 2 games... he won the next 1, I won the next 1 and he won the next 2... hehehe...

Yang kelakarnya.... how animated he was while playing as soon as he got the hang of it...

"You are going DOWN!!! You are going down and down and down..." Sejibik macam pak hitam cakap... complete with the hand gestures... haha lawak budak ni...

Then about Maghrib time he played with Felishia.... Felishia pun kalah a few times... and by then he added..

"You are going down SUCKA!!!!!" hmmmphh.. cerita apa pulak dia tengok ada benda ni???

Then after dinner, we got back, Rayyan played with his atok pulak.. Atok won twice and he got trapped and lost the 3rd game.... we told Rayyan that you should not be saying "SUCKA"..

Felishia pun came up with words that he could replace it with... including "You're going down to the ground!!!" hahaha

So dia pun cakapla benda tu... pastu dia terlebih excited while playing siap tokok tambah lagi...

"You're going down to the ground.... INTO THE SEA!!!!"

Sikat handsome

This morning tengah nak bersiapkan Rayyan for school, as usual terkocoh-kocohla every morning.. nak kena bangun, mandi, pakai baju, makan ubat, makan, minum, makan ubat lagi, flixonase, ventolin puff, sikat rambut all within 30 mins...

Time dah nak keluar rumah, terus ambik sikat nak try sikatkan budak tu...

Rayyan: Papa, can you sikat handsome...?

hahaha what's that??? hehe dah nak melaram dah budak kecik ni...

usually kalau lepas mandi he would wet his hair again and try making that "mohican" look with his hair.... itula kot sikat handsome... hahaha

oh by the way.. nak sambung sikit pasal schools.. I've been telling people for ages that how I wish (that if I were to send Rayyan to a public school) that I could send him to either SK Taman Tun (dekat rumah Nana tu) or SK Bukit Damansara... coz I know those schools are good coz I know how committed the teachers are over there...

and true enough, both of these schools are listed among the TOP 20 schools in the country (one of the Top 6 Primary Schools). I'm not surprised why none of the SJKCs (govt-aided Chinese schools) are listed... the SKs are better, they just need support from Chinese parents to keep sending their kids there coz these parents are vocal, and that is good to keep the SK teachers on their toes!!

Link to the top 20 school article: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20100125173928/Article/index_html

Schools...

Okay.. I've sort of decided to not send Rayyan to Sri KDU. Adalah reasons dia and $$ is one of them. I found a cheaper alternative.. and that plan can even start soon.. hehe

I've narrowed down the choices of schools: SK Sri Kelana and SK Taman Megah, both about 5-10 mins drive away. Definitely not going to SK Kampung Tunku.. my alma mater... hehe the condition of that school, the students, and the teachers now.. ntahler... takde confident pulak nak hantar anak sendiri kat sekolah tu.. it used to be the BEST of the BEST.. hehehe

I'm more inclined to send him to SK Taman Megah though... I heard they have a more balanced representation of races in that school. To me that is MOST important. I've gone through a well-mixed co-ed primary school, well-mixed all-boys secondary school, all-Malay co-ed MRSM.. and I think the best is still a well-mixed co-ed school anywhere, anytime... especially since Rayyan has Rayhana.. so a co-ed school is definitely convenient for us..

To me, English is important. And there is no way (yet) that Malay students in primary schools are going to talk to each other in English, UNLESS they make friends with non-Malays and there is a good mix of all the races.

I started my kindergarten in a surau.. Tadika At-Taqwa, I think.. kat Setapak... then, I went to Std 1 at SRK Gombak 1.. dekat Lee Rubber tu... the majority of that school was Malay. Half-way through Std 1, my parents moved to PJ and I went to SRK Kampung Tunku, not speaking a single word of English. But kalau English exam, I score.. hehe

I still remember an incident in Std 2. I wanted to borrow an eraser from a Chinese friend:

I said "Can I wear your rubber?" or something to that effect... hahaha

Another incident was when I was in Std 5, when I didn't complete my Math homework and the class teacher called me and gave me a lecture (in English) and asked why didn't I do my homework... I answered in Malay. I was warned to answer in English whenever asked in English...

Std 5 was the turning point. I had a great class teacher, Mrs Anne Wijasuriya (now living in Australia) who taught most of the subjects, and most of the time she would converse in English. It was then that somehow I spoke English to the max. By the time I went to secondary school at Bukit Bintang Boys' School (BBBS), I didn't have any problem conversing in English with close friends but sooo not confident with strangers though... (actually even now, kekadang kalau depan mat salleh, terkedu jugak lidah.. hehehe.. )

Then, it was my MRSM years... I would say that that was the time when my English went down the drain... even my grandfathers spoke better English than 90% of the students there. I do speak campur2 with the KL guys... but with the rest of my friends and classmates there... Melayu je la... I got C4 for my 1119 class. That was one of the highest marks at my MRSM. I know someone got C3... and that's it... loads of F9... even the majority of KL guys got C5 and C6... I'm pretty sure if I stayed at BBBS I would get better 1119 results.. hehe

Luckily I could still maintain my English proficiency at an acceptable level to get A1 for SPM.

Then it was the PPP/ITM years.... aaaaaahhhh.... some of the best years of my life... reminded me of my primary school years... where Malays speak in English to other Malays in a co-ed environment.. hehehe...

Few months back we had some sort of a small reunion among my MRSM friends. Those who hardly spoke English back then, but obtained their degrees from the UK and the US. I was AMAZED at how confident and well they converse in English...

I am also amazed at Ja... (sapa Ja?).. bini aku ler!!! She hardly spoke any English until she was "forced" to apply for an American Degree program and studied at PPP/ITM before obtaining a degree in the states. I'm more amazed at how critical she is and how well she reads and listens between the lines, especially when we read the same books or watch English movies together... most of the times dia lagi terror dari aku.. haha but kalau ambik English grammar test, I can safely say I can beat her any time... hahaha.. (I'm good at exams.. hehe)

It's all about the learning environment... thanks to ASTRO (hahaha), Rayyan speaks English well. He speaks better English than I was in Std 5! I would never risk it by sending him to a school where he would experience my "MRSM English" years...