New Year, New Maid, etc...

Yup... just got a new maid. Another Malaysian from the same agency 'coz we've already paid RM2k for the previous one that lasted only for a couple of months.... so they owed us a replacement.

Got her yesterday. So far, as always, looks rosy.. dunnola.. couldn't be bothered if this one lasts or not. But she had worked with her previous employer for 4 years before the couple had to pursue studies overseas. That's a good sign.. working for 4 years... She's married, husband died in an accident 3 years ago, 2 children 16 and 11, staying with her mom in Parit, Perak.

Lots of things happened yesterday...

Ja went for her thyroid checkup.. got to do a blood test to see of her hormones are alright. Results will be back in a week to show whether she needs supplements or not for hormone balancing.. sort of..

Ja brought Rayhana to the hospital too coz that girl has yet to receive the 12 month jab. She got the "3 serangkai" jab. Dr Musa postponed the chicken pox jab and her last dose of Pneumococcal jab till she is 15 mths old, which is in a couple of weeks.

Both of them went to the hospital in my dad's car. Nazri (my dad's staff) drove them there. I was suppose to pick them up later together with Rayyan for lunch and the Sri KDU trip.

On the way to pick them up, my car almost broke down. Felt like there were 100 guys inside the car.. berat/slow nak mampus.. tekan minyak pun bergegar-gegar je.. tak pick up speed.. alhamdulillah sempat sampai kat Proton service centre kat Petronas D'sara Jaya along the LDP tu.

It so happened that I went there to get the car serviced for our KB trip haritu. I told them that there was this problem, but not as bad the last time. They said banyak sangat carbon clogged.. dunno where.. I know nuts about cars.. I just drive them. So they unclogged the carbon, and it turned out okay.. drove all the way to KB and back without problems.

Semalam pulak buat hal.. similar problems, lagi teruk!

It turned out that they had to change the spark plugs and the spark plug cable! Somehow the spark does not connect thru the cable for the car to move... (yer ker?) haha

Got that changed and just got back the car today....

So, bila dah letak keta tu kat situ, I had to get Nazri pick me & Rayyan up from the Petronas and get Ja & Rayhana at the hospital, drove back home and switch into Ja's Kelisa and off we went to get Burger King drive-thru at Mutiara D'sara and makan dalam keta on the way to Sri KDU.

Sri KDU visit details in the next entry... :)

Happy New Year!

Just got back from Kota Bharu

Thursday

Went to Kota Bharu last Thursday, Dec 24th. Wanted to start the journey at 9am, we ended up leaving the house at close to 11.15am.

Stopped by at Genting Sempah's McD for a drive-thru brunch and continued our way, with a brief diaper change stop at Gua Musang R&R before finally reaching Mek & Cek's house just before 7pm.

Friday

The next day, Ja's brother's wedding. Nothing fancy. Just ajak orang makan and that's it. No pelamin whatsoever.

The morning, as early as 7.30am, I was already at the front of the house, potong daging.. lots of daging... there were 7 or 8 of us there potong daging (fresh baru sembelih kat tempat lain right after subuh) until everything is done about 2 hours later.

Pastu, tolong2 jaga api masak gulai kawah, etc. Pas gi sembahyang Jumaat, balik tolong2 sikit, and then by 5pm dah terbongkang kat tengah2 hall... tido sampai Maghrib.

Saturday

Wanted to have an early morning trip to the beach at Pantai Cahaya Bulan. Tak jadi, coz the morning was wet, after a heavy rain just hours before. PLUS, I WAS POISONNED!! Food poisoning. Went to the toilet 11 times to splurge 98% water and 2% of crap.. haha.. drank teh pekat.. Ja went nuts and put 2 sachet into 1 glass.. GILA pekat!

Didn't dare to eat anything for breakfast, so we eventually went out to the Pasar at KB first, and got the safest thing to eat for lunch - McDonald's! Yeah, yeah, you're not supposed to eat burgers, fries, and that BERRY OREO FLURRIES... but what the heck... needed them, and I didn't go to the toilet again until later that night splurging 100% of only crap.

After pasar, we drove to PCB, sebab Rayyan dah siap pack barang2 sand castle dia since our home.. so kesianla tak bawak dia pulak gi beach kat Kelantan ni..

PCB memang tak boleh mandi. Beach sucks. And the waves were wild too. So the next best thing, we gatecrashed Perdana Resort at PCB, parked at their parking lot, and walked to their beach. Their beach sucked too... tak boleh main sand castle safely... so we lepak kat area beach volleyball dia.. adala pasir sikit2.. so we got a pail of water from the laut, poured on to the sand, and Rayyan had his time... si Rayhana pun sebok nak main pasir.. occasionally putting seashells into her mouth.. habisla mulut budak tu dengan pasir2....

Sunday

Planned to balik around 8.30-9.00am. Managed to start driving at 9.30am. Long story short, we reached home at close to 9pm. Ramai giler orang balik KL haritu. And we also had to make a stop at Putrajaya.

Monday

PENAT SIOT!!

The Sri KDU Call...

Okay.. here goes..

The DAMAGE list:

1. RM500 - one-time registration fees/booking fees to be included in the Sri KDU system.
2. RM100 - one-time assessments for Std 1 prospects: English, BM, Math. Passing mark - 70.

The assessment is compulsory as they only take in kids who have had kindergarten experience or those yang tak masuk kindy, they should at least pass to see that they are ready to accept Sri KDU learning process.

Kalau tak pass, you can opt for a re-assessment FOC. Or, you can just consider other schools (RM500 will be refunded only if the kid fails).

3. RM3500+ one-time deposit. This will be returned once the kid has completed Form 5, OR if you decide to stop sending him to Sri KDU, a written notice 6 mths in advance is needed to get back this money.

4. RM14,300+ for a full-year in Standard 1. This includes the compulsory curriculum and compulsory extra-curriculum activities, LUNCH, facilities, etc. Class hours are from 8.00am to 3.20pm on M-Th, Fri 8am -12.30pm. Payments should be made every term/semester (RM7000+ sekali bayar).

5. RM85 per set of uniform.

6. RM300+ on textbooks/ learning materials for the whole year.

Each kid will be assigned to a homeroom teacher (if you guys have experienced MRSM, this should be familiar). Homeroom teachers are not the main class teacher. They are like the father/mother of the child at school, taking care of the academic performance and personal/social issues of that child. Each homeroom teacher only handles a few students.

Here's a paste from the website:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As as part of our effort to provide your child with the best educational experience, Sekolah Sri KDU® constantly implements new initiatives. Your child will experience our programme which is driven by our tagline 'Malaysia Hearts, Global Minds' The four Key Components are:


Structured Performing Arts
The SPA programme is part of the school curriculum for students from Primary 1 to Secondary 3. It covers 4 key areas:-
1) Speech & Drama
2) Dance
3) Choral Singing
4) Musical Instruments

Classes are conducted by instructors from established performing arts schools and studios. The curriculum is non-graded, with flexibility to cater to students of different abilities. The focus of the SPA programme is on exposure and appreciation rather than specialization.


Character Building
The school’s Character Building programme aims to
• develop a positive culture in school and beyond
• create Awareness of and Participation in Charity Projects
• create Awareness of and Participation in Community Projects
• develop Mental and Physical Endurance through Expeditions and Outdoor Pursuits
• activate a Relief Disaster Programme
• develop Talents and Values through participation in Paramount Championships


Interactive Learning
The school will pursue its mission to develop independent learners to prepare them for success beyond secondary school by deliberately moving away from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred learning


International Perspectives within Curriculum
To teach students to look at issues from a global viewpoint, teachers will inject international perspectives into the national curriculum where applicable, through

• Comparative approach to global themes in the classroom
• Awareness of Global events


Pastoral Care
The school works on the belief that students grow and respond better when they know and see that they are cared for.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All I can say is that their marketing people did one helluva great job in coming up with what you just read up there! :)

MANDARIN is a COMPULSORY subject at Sri KDU for all students. Agama is also included. While the Muslims learn Agama, the nons learn Moral studies. SWIMMING is part of their Physical Education class. Bertukangla, memasakla, menjahitla, techie stuffla, and lots of other things that provide an array of interest areas to be exposed to your kids so that they will know which areas interest them most so they would focus on that for their career perhaps?

Sri KDU follows MOE's standard curriculum, but they teach beyond that, using textbooks from Singapore, UK, etc.

So... what do I think of all these??? Is the RM15k worth it? Well, if I have the money, then it's sooo worth it. If I don't? hmm... tu yang kena pikir gila2 ni... how would I pay for it?

RM15k is like the cost of having a new baby in the family. Looking at that, then maybe it is okay since that's about the amount we spent for Rayhana anyways.

BUT, RM15k every year, is like having a new baby every single year!! Now that is something else!! hahahaha... that would mean, being able to fork out RM1,250 per month every month for the next 11 years per child! (I bet it's going to be more with the inflation and what not)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Considering the car payment is going be over at about the same time Rayyan gonna start school, so that's a bonus.. that's roughly RM500 per mth. I will no longer be paying for Rayyan's Genius Aulad, so that's RM250/mth... Getting rid of the local maid... that's another RM800 per mth...

AHAH!!!! There you go... RM1550 per mth at our disposal!! hehe

But would I spend so much on Rayyan's education when there are MUCH MUCH cheaper alternatives around?

Clearly what they are teaching at Sri KDU is something that you can't get at govt schools.

So? Should I go for it?? Only time will tell..

So far 60 Std 1 places are already taken up for the 2011 session (that's about 3 classes already filled up). They only will open 7 classes for Std 1.

Will decide later. Now I'm planning to schedule a visit there to see the place and get to know more about their system.

http://www.srikdu.edu.my

The Public School Dilemma

Hmm... being in the education line I know how good a school is, not just the school, the students' demographics, the teachers' attitude towards the learning process, and even the headmasters/headmistress' true perangai... especially having witnessed them many times during their training/meeting sessions..

The problem with Malaysian education is not the policy, it's not the blueprint of the idea, but it's in the attitude of those at the schools. If you've got good people with the right attitude, you've got great schools. If you've got good people with not so right attitude or not so good people with the right attitude, you've got just an average school, if you've got bad people and bad attitude... haaaa.. kesian la bebudak kat sekolah tu..

To burden the government in providing the best education for our kids is fair for us as they control the education system and we need to seek for the best for our kids coz in return, these kids will help propel the country to greater heights.

To blame the government for non-performing teachers, schools and kids... that is not fair at all, especially when the root cause of the problem is not what the government has planned and implemented. The problem is in the "IMPLEMENTEES".

To monitor the implementees from deviating from what should be implemented, susah giler.. there are more than 10,000 schools in the country and hundreds of thousands of teachers altogether. Whenever they come for checks, the teachers will always terkial-kial planning for a good show for the MOE people. Kenapa pulak tak terkial-kial for the everyday teaching?

Of course, not all implementees are bad. Many are really good. The ultra good ones are even recognized by the MOE people. MOE knows who are the good teachers. And they would ask these teachers to give training to other teachers...

Implementees will work hard to implement the best for the school when they are challenged. One of the best challenges for them is to position their schools to be the top school in the state or in the country. This works well if the schools are already in the top 10% in the state or national ranking. What if the schools are in the 50th percentile of the performance curve? Would the implementees have the same motivation to work as hard?

Those good people with the right attitude would. Others would be more concerned of their allowance etc for working extra hours. They will not be working as hard as there are no MOE people to be hissing at the back of their head everyday.

That is why people are shying away from the public school (Sekolah Kebangsaan) and go for alternatives like the national type schools (SJKC, SJKT) just out of disgust with those implementees. SJKC and SJKT has better monitoring system. But I wouldn't say the same for what the system produces.

From my observation, the SJKC, especially, are so kiasu! haha.. berlagak nak mampus, just because they pride themselves of having a "better" education system, when all I can say is that they are just "better" beacuse of a better implementation monitoring system, and of course, more money at their disposal to provide better learning environment.

Unfortunately, the SJKC lacks the "human touch" in the learning process. It is just a generalization, not to say that all are like that, but generally, students who are from the SJKC would tend to be more "robotic" in the way they do their work.

Robotic is good, as they listen to instructions well, but if all of us are products of the SJKC, we would only be followers.. damn good followers, and no innovative and forward thinking leaders to lead our future generations.

Just to illustrate an example, from one of my many discussions/ debates with the MOE officers of different pangkats and darjats, it is a fact that SJKC students perform better at answering direct straight forward questions.. like what is 2536475 x 1538593 or something like that... hehe.. (malas nak think of examples.. but you get the point). But it is also a fact that they perform worse than the SK students in questions involving reasoning. So in short, they can do a damn excellent job but they would not know what good that is to them for them to manipulate the knowledge that they learn to good use. If they can do an excellent job from what they were taught to do, they will definitely be excellent followers.

Where will the leaders come from then? SK lah!

I have worked with people who came from SK and those who came SJK, and if I'm an employer, I would definitely get both. The SJKC flers will be those who would do the work for me together with a few SK flers, and then I would appoint the SK flers later to be bosses in their departments to help me monitor the SJKC flers do their job.

Mind you, I'm not talking about Malays vs Chinese here. I'm talking about Chinese from SK schools vs Chinese from SJKC schools for a fair comparison.

That's why if I were to put my son in a public school, I would go for SK's that are at least at the top 10% bracket.

If I couldn't get any one of those schools, I would go for an average school, BUT I would enroll my kids to other classes (not tuitions, as I don't believe in sending kids for tuitions.. I never went to any so my kids don't need that either). Classes as in music class, drama class, art class, Mandarin class, taekwondo class, swimming class, business/engineering/science - related classes for kids, etc.

Hmm... that would put soooo much pressure on the kid.. poor thing, unless of course the govt has all these elements included in the SK system!

Which is why I am seriously considering sending Rayyan to a private school like Sri KDU.

I'll blog about the call I made to Sri KDU soon.

Papa I Love You...

As mentioned earlier the last few weeks I was busy bersengkang mata almost every night.. sometimes tido kul 3 pagi, sometimes 5 pagi, sometimes, 7 pagi.. and sometimes tak tido sampai 10 pm the next night...

On one of those nights, while I was busy at our workstation area kat rumah (which we just installed guna duit jual kuih raya aritu hehe), Rayyan came up to me with this:





I love you too, Rayyan! :)

Working Hard

Loads of stuff happening in the past few weeks. Tak sempat nak update anything here. Busy with lots of added responsibility since being included in the KL Book Fair organizing committee.. the money is not so big but satisfaction is definitely guaranteed :) I just love books and the business world around them..

At the same time with loads of work, I'm also working hard on several "passive income" projects with a hope that within 1 year, I would earn enough so Ja won't have to work at MISC so she can help me out with my work from home, while taking care of the kids...

Taknak la bagi tau sebab belum jadi lagi but as a teaser, what I did in 3 days duduk depan computer generated me about RM500. Unfortunately, I have not been able to sustain that thing that I did.. coz kalau boleh sustain, that's easy RM5000 a mth.. and potential to go more... of course you've got to go through the learning curve to do this.. I've been researching on this business for so long.. years, invested on quite an amount of time, money, sleepless nights... and it still requires constant research and modifications to the business model.. hehe the longer I talk about this, lagi merapu jadi.. haha

I have also just invested quite a sum for another business project... actually 2 projects.. Nak dekat 2 bulan gaji lah jugak dia punya amount.. but insyaAllah, will reap benefits... dah ada nampak jalan, kabus pun semakin reda, but jalan still setapak demi setapak... belum berlari lagi takut tersungkur dalam kabus... pastu takde sapa nak tolong angkat, terus blur sampai bila2...

But all I can say is that 2010 looks promosing, insyaAllah... at least I know I have taken the right path, work wise, and I know this brain of mine suits this kinda thing.. which makes it more fun working at it...

The only thing yang I don't like is that I am deprived of exercise... just sitting on the chair in front of the computer does no one any good... maybe I'll start going to the gym downstairs again.. hehe oh and will start playing wii tennis and boxing again... :)

And the maid problem definitely did not come at the right time. With loads of stuff happening and going on inside my head, I could just drop the bomb and freak out to those around me, but takpelah.. simpan jela dalam hati... kalau terlepas cakap kang ramai sakit hati, terasa and all.. biarla orang terasa hati kat kita from something that we didn't say, rather than terasa hati from something we say... so as my mantra goes... BUAT BODO jer!

Maid Gone...

Another one... gone!

So I'm basically home-based 100% now till we get a replacement. That too, I dunnola... have been semi-home-based since this maid started work.. just to monitor how she worked..

..and just tell me how good a maid is if me, while working at home, can stop Rayhana from putting things into her mouth at least 3-5 times a day at the same time she was taking care of my daughter sorang ni...

Kalau macam tu cerita dia... what about the times when I had to go out to the office or meetings.. ntah apa benda ntah dah masuk dalam badan si kecik tu...

Sleep Deprived Me

Have not been sleeping well for the past few days... my biological clock timing lari.. kena betulkan mana2 timing belt yang dah loose.. hehe

On Thursday night I had to work on the KL Bookfair website.. it looks ugly now.. and maybe ugly later pun hehe.. but I'll just try my best to make it work.. haha

Friday at 3pm was the pra-pelancaran of the 2010 KL Book Fair. I'm in the organizing committee.. Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Internet & Media Baru... a special position they created starting this year.. hehe honored lah jugak terharu yg amat sangat bila dipanggil untuk masuk jadi committee member.. hehe they must have "seen" my visions on how to improve the nation's book industry as a whole.. hehe I don't sit down quietly during meetings with the book industry people in the government.. I voice out my opinions, and some of the seniors echo my points every now and then.. hehe so all that I guess snowballed into me becoming one of the organizing committee members..

The problem is that on the Friday itself, I have a 3-day seminar.. the Global Internet Seminar.. cool! Gila babi punya cool! Registration started at 8.00am. Attendance was giler!! I can say 80% Chinese, 10% Malays, 10% Indian and others. Selalunya benda2 camni Melayu tak ambik kisah... dunno why.. I'll blog about that later...

The Seminar was at Legend Hotel (the Mall). The Bookfair pre-lanch was at Grand Seasons hotel (area bulatan Pahang tu). I was supposed to complete the KL Book Fair site before lunch, but since I have that seminar, I had to complete whatever I can secantik mana yang dapat buat before I mandi and get ready for my 8.00 Registration for the Seminar.

So, I didn't sleep that night, went to a seminar, had lunch at the mall, stayed for another session after lunch, and rushed to Grand Seasons before the last session started.

Balik rumah after that, too tired to sleep.. could not do anything.. finally slept at around 8.. woke up around 11.. and couls not sleep until 3am. I have to be at the seminar again by 8.30.

Saturday, attended the whole day of seminar... got home at 6.30pm.... slept at 8.00pm woke up at 11pm again, slept again at 2am..

Sunday, went to the seminar again.. 9am sharp I arrived at the ballroom. Got home by 5pm, couldn't sleep till 10pm... woke up at 4am... and could not sleep till now.. at work..

Pagi tadi ingat nak baring, nap kejap at 7am.. tgk2 Rayhana pun dah bangun... celik mata je, point kat TV, she said "Pei"... dia nak tengok Upin & Ipin... so layanla Upin & Ipin dgn dia... cannot sleep...

UNLIMITED, Legal Movie Downloads :)

Just found out about a site that lets you download DVD quality movies legally. They have the license to let us download unlimited number of movies from anywhere in the world. Cartoons, Action, Thrillers, Documentaries, Sci-Fi, Family, Drama, all sorts of movies, including the classics.

Go here!!

I'm thinking if the pirated DVDs cost me RM8 per piece, so I'll be spending RM80 for 10 movies... (God knows how much I've spent) on illegal, pirated movies.. and if you're like me, with kids around the house, the CDs will end up bersepah2... no value to the pirated DVDs, eh? hehe

I used Kazaa/Torrents before to download movies/TV series and the spywares/adwares that came with it sucked! Sampai dah malas dah nak mendownload.. merosakkan komputer aku jer..

So now this site offers an alternate, legal way to get things done.. loads of choices, of course la for a fee... they are currently offering a 2-year UNLIMITED movie download membership plan for US$39.90 (RM135).. can download as many movies as you can for a period of 2 years!!! That's about the cost of 17-18 pirated DVDs... hehe

They are offering memberships for a limited time.. don't know how long the membership drive at that price is gonna last... I hear that after the 2 years, you can renew your membership at a lower rate than your first payment.

Interested? Click here!

Bersama-samalah kita membenteras lanun cetak rompak!
Spread the word around!!

:)

Books & PJ Hilton

Have promised Rayyan to bring him to the "bookshop" and he has been bugging me to go there the whole week. So, on Saturday I brought him to MPH @ The Curve. Got a bunch of books.. and I made sure that the books must have something that he could read.. tak kirala puzzle books ke, etc..

We settled for a Transformer comic/sticker book, a series of 4 astronaut-type shiny kiddie cardboard books, "Litttle Cricket's Big Day (with a cricket sound button), and an arts/crafts/experiment book with instructions to make things...

Then, balik rumah je that afternoon, Ja was already home from work, feeding Rayhana who just got up from her morning nap. Terus packing sebab we have a one-night complimentary stay at PJ Hilton... Ja menang a contest...

Too much barang to pack for just a one-night stay at a hotel sekangkang kera je from our house.. hehe..

We had dinner at Paya Serai Pj Hilton which was fantabulous, as always... 75++ per adult, 45++ per child.. Rayyan - FREE. Not a single item on the buffet that I would not try... gila best! Came down for dinner at 7.30pm, by 8.30 dah rasa almost all the food, then Rayhana pulak terberak, Rayyan pun nak kencing, so Ja went up to the room with the kids while I enjoyed my "pengat pisang", waiting for them to come back down for more food.. hehe

By 9.30 we're back to our room and 10.30 camtu Ja and the kids slept, while I did some work on my laptop.. had to purchased the DoCoMo broadband service.. RM31/hr.. RM63/24hrs.... so amikla yg RM63 punya.... stayed up till 3am.

The next morning, we had our complimentary breakfast buffet and Felishia & my mom joined us at Paya Serai.. had to pay RM45++ per adult for that... although the choices were great for a hotel breakfast, I still feel that the 75++ was actually much more worth than the breakfast.

After checking out, we stopped by at MPH punya discount sale kat Kelana Jaya hall.. setapak kera from our home... bought more books for Rayyan... including a maze puzzle book (he simply loves this kind of puzzles), an "experiment" book, and some books on pirates, outerspace, etc...

Dah sampai rumah barula perasan that we left the Little Cricket's Big Day book at Pj Hilton... :(

Nasib baikla Rayyan dah habis baca buku tu kat sana... but pity for Rayhana coz she loves that book too! Dok menekan-nekan the button for cricket sound...

Battery masuk hidung...

Yup, if you haven't heard it from my FB status, it happened 2 days ago... hidung sapa? Anak aku yang 5 tahun tu la.. hehehe


Dunno how it happened, and how it actually got out coz all the while I was at the office till late night.


Somehow Rayyan was playing with those battery yang leper2 tu.. the battery jam punya type but bigger, meant for those reading light thingy yang you get for signing up credit cards...


There were 3 batteries altogether.. thank God it was only 1 that he put up his nose... obviously it got stuck inside taht you can't see from outside.. can only feel it that it's there..


Long story short... Ja tekan one side and asked him to blow the other side of his nose and the battery finally shot out and rolled on the floor...


Hish!! Budak ni...


Well I was thelling the guys on FB that at 5 years, I had my fare share of terrifying feats!! hehe...


I was actually poisoned and was hurriedly brought to KLGH and brought to the emergency where they put up tube up my nose that went through all the way to my tummy or what not and sucked the poisoned blood out... 2wice in 2 days....

How I got poisoned?

I was playing hide and seek around the house when I hid belakang pokok ni....

Yup.. pokok keladi ni yg banyak dok kat kawasan rumah.. in my case.. kat dalam pasu around my grandparents house.. coz we were living there...

What I did? Masa tengah menyorok belakang pokok ni.. I pi gatal gigit batang pokok ni yang berbelang-belang tu..... once gigit je, maka tertelanlah getah pokok tu bercampur dgn air liur and immediately my jaw was locked, lidah & tekak rasa bisa, I was terlolong masuk rumah.. couldn't seem to tutup mulut...

Only grandparents were in the house... Atok Mat gave me air garam to kumuh, gargle, etc.. still couldn't do anything... he called my dad at work.. (my mom was somehow already at GH, admitted for spraining her right shoulder few days before). My dad rush in a taxi and we took the same taxi to GH.

Admitted for 2 days. My mom slept next to me, instead of staying in her ward.

I definitely wouldn't want that to happen to any of my kids... HORROR!

Right after that incident, my grandparents mengharamkan rumah2 ada pokok keladi yg kat atas tu!

Rayhana berkata-kata...

Let's run through some of Rayhana's "vocab"... hehe..

1. "Pa" or "Papa" - me lah...

2. "Ma" or "Mama" - Ja

3. "Ba" - "Abang" Rayyan dia...

4. "Na"/"Nana"/"Nanana" - Rayhana...

5. "Bah" - bang... azan

6. "Ne' " - nenek

7. "Te' " - aunty... yg jaga dia kat rumah ni

8. "Ta" - car, star

9. "Dah" - sudah

10. "Tata" - babai ler

11. "Nak" - nak

12. "eir" - hair, ear

13. "uar" - seluar

14. "tete" - tetek hehe

15. "tak" - bukak

16."vvvah" - sha (Felishia)

17. "kerh" - "uncle"

18. "kerk" - "cake"

19. "ke'h" - "cat"

20. "dair" - "there"

21. "te' " - ten

22. "pah" - puff

23. "be' " - ubat

24. "pah" - tumpah

25. "tah" - muntah

26. "ppbfrrht" - kentut

27. "ghaaarrgghh" - tiger

hehe, sekian, terima kasih...

Rayyan's "Report Card" Day

Just got back from Genius Aulad tadi. 2d term punya teacher-parent session. They don't really test the kids.. no exams whatsoever so the "report card" just shows a detailed progress report for Rayyan at Genius Aulad.

Looking at the overall Genius Aulad punya student performance, bebudak sekolah pagi fare a bit better than bebudak sekolah petang... maybe kids are morning people.. so sesapa yg bangun lambat like Rayyan would lose out! hehe

Anyways, the report is broken down to Islamic Education (Al-Quran, Fardhu Ain, Akhlaq, Jawi), General Development (Social & Emotional, Fine Motor Skills, Creative Expression), English Language (Reading, Listening & Speaking, Writing, Phonics), Bahasa Melayu (Membaca, Menulis), Mathematic Skills (Pre-numbers, Number Sense, Arithmetic), Islamic Hafazan (Ibadah, Surah, Doa, Names, Others).. quite extensive assessment...

Rayyan excels in Math & English, BM is so, so... bab Islamic ni leceh sikit... coz since he only attended class 51 days out of 97 days in the 2nd term, he's lacking in the daily practice that the subject requires... doa, hafazan... these are things they teach every day, 3 times a day and if you don't come to school so many days.. you'll definitely miss out...

Rayyan is reading Peter & Jane book 5A. For 5 year olds sekolah petang, he leads the other students... yang paling dekat dgn dia pun baru sampai 3B je. But there's one student from sekolah pagi already at 6B, 1 at 5B, and a couple more at 5A.

The iqra' book, he's just an average student.. again, pasal dia tak gi sekolah banyak hari and mak bapak dia tak ajar kat rumah... hehe

Dalam banyak2 itemized skill from the report.. there is one yang paling excellent dia boleh buat... paling "competent"... DOA MAKAN! hahahaha alhamdulillah...

The pool video and pics...

Rayhana's first pool experience... and our first dip into our condo pool in the last 2-3 years or so.. hehe

Jalan-jalan & berenang

Yesterday night marked the first time Rayhana boleh berjalan more than 5 steps unassisted.. hehe, at 1 yr and 10 days old. (Rayyan started walking 2 weeks before his 1st birthday).

And of all places, she managed to walk masa orang dok sebok2 berkenduri and open house... kat rumah Nek Long dia... pelik betul.. dulu masa nak belajar meniarap... the first day she did it was when she was admitted kat DSH, on the hospital bed. :)

Yesterday morning also marked the first time Rayhana masuk swimming pool. Have promised Rayyan to go swimming since early of the week and that boy memang tuntut.. counting down every morning when he wakes up till yesterday... bila I kejut dia pagi2 at 8am, senangla pulak dia bangun and while dia jalan keluar bilik walking past me, he said "Papa, thanks for waking me up early"... hehe one thing I'm proud of this boy is his manners.. hehe forever being thankful and complimenting :)

Rayhana at the pool? Tak takut air langsung! She kept on splashing and splashing for about 15 mins or so.. pastu bila tangan dah kecut, we took her out.. dia meradangla, nak masuk balik... hehe sikit2 cukupla for now.. kang selsema balik kang susah pulak.. hehe

pics and video will follow soon.. nak sambung buat kerja jap :)

The birthday cake...

A friend of mine, Izma who lives just sekangkang kera from our house does cupcakes and stuff ( Myra's Cupcakes ) So bila browse-browse blog dia, I found out she does birthday cakes as well... I was about to go to Secret Recipe or Baker's Cottage for Rayhana's birthday cake but decided to give Izma a try... the theme.. of coursela Winnie the Pooh... coz she loves the "Think, think think" thingy...

Izma asked asked me to give her a photo of the Pooh gang since she has limited collection of that.. so I browsed the net and found one. Emailed to her, and she cropped it to fit the cake... the photo resolution was big enough to have such a sharp and a bright colored image on the cake.. :)


The cake flavor... choc moist cake.. sedaaap!

Happy 1st Birthday, Rayhana!!!

08-10-09: My little kitty kat turns 1 today... how time flies...

Raya Photo from Kota Bharu

Selamat Hari Raya!!
Maaf Zahir Batin!!

Buying a mama...

Rayyan: Papa, let's buy another mama... this mama didn't listen to what I say..

:)

Nak tau kenapa dia cakap macam tu?
Sebab mama dia tak layan dia dok bercakap suruh stop kat McDonald's drive-thru... hehehe

Selling off the sister

From the profits of our kuih raya business this year, we're planning to build a built-in study area with cabinets etc kat area hall atas tu.. so I call lah this Francis, whom we've known for the past 10 years, and also responsible for all my house renovations, and renovations in several houses of my aunts and uncles...

So this Francis guy came, dia ni suka layan budak2... Rayyan panggil dia uncle Francis jer.. sambil si Francis ni layan Rayhana...

Francis: Eh, Rayyan, you punya adik saya bawak balik eh?

(Rayyan was running around the house as usual...)

Francis (again): Eh, saya bawak balik you punya adik ok?

(Rayyan stopped, held out his hand...)

Rayyan: Beli dulu!!

Francis: Wah.. beli berapa ringgit?

Rayyan: Fifteen...

Francis: Weh adik you banyak murah kaa...?? Eh, Faisal you tengok you punya anak mau jual dia punya adik... ini apa punya abang laa...

The cabinet will be fixed in this coming Friday. Already given them my design.. and it will cost us about RM5k... nanti dah siap kita tunjuk gambar.... if I can ever find that camera link.. hish!

Selamat Hari Raya! Maids & Kindnapping

Disebabkan I misplaced my camera cable.. so takleh nak upload gambar lagi.. just want to story jer.. a few things happened since the last post...

Story 1
Out with the Indon maid... in with the local maid... 49yo, single, from Perak, with siblings staying in Pantai Dalam area. Ja and my mom ntah macamana dapat this employment agency that focuses on cleaning services domestic maids, etc.. rupa-rupanya this is the same agency that my mom went to get local maids for us when I was 6 years old... based in Brickfields.. kalau nak nombor, let me know. But the salary a bit on the high side laa.. RM800. So far she has been with us for 3-4 days.. okay.. the kids warm up to her well, dia pun okay.. maybe still takut2 lagi nak buat kerja...

Story 2
Raya in Kelantan.. got pics but nanti later I upload... it was okay... we almost missed the flights.. nak pergi pun almost missed, nak balik pun almost missed... KLIA was packed gila. We arrived there (7am) almost 1 hr before the flight but they have already make the "last call" announcement, so we had to check-in kat a special counter.. gila berlari berkejaran all the way to the gates... with Rayyan lari, and Rayhana giggling away in her McLaren... hehe
Kota Bharu sesak nak mampus sampai the usual journey that takes 30 mins from Ja's kampung to the airport at Pengkalan Chepa turned out to be 90 mins. Nasib baik we plan to leave early.. kononnya nak makan, lepak, berak dulu befotre boarding the plane... hmm.. tak sempat!

Story 3
I tried so hard to keep the kids stay healthy throughout the stay kat KB, but bapak dia pulak selsema the day after we got back. Then, since I had to take care of the kids since maid takde lagi masa tu, Rayhana caught the selsema from me. Then Rayyan pulak cirit-birit, demam, pastu dah baik dia pergi cium adik dia banyak sangat, dah kena selsema pulak... so the raya kat KL kitorang tak keluar mana pun...

Story 4
My cousin got kidnapped. He saw some guys chasing a girl. He tried to shout to the guys who were chasing not realizing some other guys from the same gang behind him shot a gun and almost kena kepala my cousin ni. The shot kena pompuan tu. Then the guys pukul my cousin, humban dia dalam van, and was transported to some hutan. He was asked to strip down to his boxers and given a pagoda shirt to wear and stayed in a cage. Monday morning, my aunt received an SMS from the kidnappers using her son's handphone. That same day another SMS came from another number which we found out later was just registered on that day under my cousin's name. On Tuesday, my aunty received a call from her son... from a public phone somewhere.. he said he had to do some job for this men and that we shouldn't be worried... Tuesday night, my cousin heard the men were contemplating to let him go or finish him off. Wednesday morning, my cousin was dropped off somewhere and he called his mom to pick him up... ALHAMDULILLAAAH!!!! We're just glad that he is still alive!! My cousin still a bit traumatic from the episode... it's a like a drama pulak.. but man... semuorang dok panic giler throughout the 50+ hours he went missing but alhamdulillah, we thank Allah, and the kidnappers, for returning my cousin back to us safely.

Selamat Hari Raya!! Maaf Zahir Batin!!
Stay safe!!

Maid Lari Part 2

Why part 2? REALLLLY PISSED OFF!

Nak kata glad no maid around, ye jugak.. but the way she left tu yang kalau jumpa mau jer nak kena sumpah seranah... orang dah buat macam family, dia buat hal pulak.. lari tengah time-time cenggini...

..... kuih raya nak kena settle delivery, supplier kuih buat hal tak siap-siap kuih, nak kena ke hulu ke hilir rumah2 supplier only to get 2-3 bottles of kuih raya from the 20-30 promised.. habih duit minyak tu... and then I have to go around to do whatever stuff needs to be settled for my work... Ja pulak kena buat budget department dia... pastu balik kena monitor budget kuih raya pulak...

tak pasal2 laki bini tension, suara ditinggi-tinggikan to let out steam... nasib baik bila sorang tengah marah, sorang lagi cool... kalau dua2 marah, punah ranah rumahtangga disebabkan maid yang takde akal ni...

pasal makan minum Rayyan tak kisah... he's pretty independent.. boleh senduk nasi sendiri, get whatever he can get to eat as long as the thing is prepared on the table or within his reach... fruits ke, biskut ke, etc..

Rayhana ni yang kena tengok.. and be given full attention.. makan minum dia, kena masak... kencing berak dia... nak kena tidokan dia... and play with her to keep her company all the time coz she can;t be left alone... budak tu manja giler.. merengek je if no one's around, although masa tu tengah sebok with her play things...

tulaa... pasal maid ni.. diorang ni bila kita dah buat baik, macam family, tak sedar diri... take advantage of our kindness... memang diorang ni jenis yang tak boleh bagi muka... memang kena treat macam "orang gaji". Period.

Jangan pilih muda yang dah kawin. Muda yang belum kawin pun jangan. Ambik yang tua je, preferably yang tak kawin.

Bila time makan, jangan bagi dia makan kat dining table.. bagi dia makan kat dapur. Jangan borak2 dengan diorang. Jangan bagi dia panggil abang kakak.. suruh dia panggil Tuan/Puan. Kain baju diorang jangan bagi basuh pakai washing machine.... suruh diorang basuh tangan jer. Duit gaji jangan bagi. Simpan terus dalam akaun, pegang buku akaun, bagi allowance RM100 masa dia nak cuti jer. Cuti memang bagi sebulan satu hari.

Lantak la.. nak kata zalim, katalah... kita ni zalim sebab teraniaya...

But the best thing is having NO MAID at all... ni yang tak sabar so budak2 ni besar sikit. Can help out around the house. Rayyan boleh diharap sikit2 but he is the no 1 mess maker... yang lagi satu leceh.. basuh pinggan, basuh baju, mop lantai everyday... oh bukan satu.. 3 benda yang leceh... other than that, we might as well spend RM500 on a fun monthly weekend getaway relaxing in hotels anywhere within 100km radius.. malasla pulak nak travel jauh-jauh.. hehe..

tu tak kira duit beribu2 nak dapatkan diorang tu...

now next step.. report POLIS. Will do that after raya..

Maid Lari...

Sabtu lepas Ja hantar dia kat Subang commuter station as usual, for Rani's monthly 1-night break... she's supposed to come back Sunday, but could not be contacted since.

So sekarang ni it's me taking care of the kids in the morning, and Ja taking half day in the afternoon till Friday when all of us fly to Kota Bharu for Raya...

I don't understand la these people... you datang legally, pastu sanggup jadi buruan polis, for what??? tempat tinggal tak menentu, makan tak menentu, kebersihan tak menentu.. daripada sihat wal'afiat jadi sakit melarat...

Malas nak citer.. nak maki hamun pun ada... sabar jelaaa.. alhamdulillah...

6th Anniversary

Today (8 Sept 2009) is our 6th wedding anniversary... as I mentioned on my FB status... dulu I tido sorang2 atas katil queen... fuh... best giler.. banyak space nak berguling2 ke kiri dan ke kanan... so much space, etc... now, 6 years later, I'm sharing a king-sized bed PLUS a single bed joint together, with 3 other people... but I'm enjoying every minute of it.... 4 is never a crowd in our bedroom... altho tak boleh la nak berguling ke kiri dan ke kanan... 'coz the only available space can only allow me to do ke atas dan ke bawah jer.. hehe

Saya cinta isteri saya, saya sayang isteri saya kerana menyempurnakan proses pemberian 2 anugerah Illahi sebagai amanah untuk diberikan kasih sayang dan segala yang cukup untuk menjadikan mereka insan2 yang berguna, insyaAllah. Saya juga berterima kasih kepada isteri saya kerana telah berjaya mendalami isi hati saya, tahan dengan perangai saya selama 6 tahun, oleh kerana pengalaman 6 tahun itu amatlah berguna sebagai orientasi untuk menahan perangai saya dalam tahun-tahun akan datang... hehehe

Eh, suddenly tersedar pulak.. next month, 8 Oct 2009, Rayhana will be 1 year old!!!! So fast time flies... I felt it was just couple of months ago when we were trying to look for either a "turtle" or the "hamburger" sign on Dr Susanna's monitor... hehe.. now she's already going to be 1!

Rayyan pun dah start counting the days to plan for Rayhana's party... every morning when he wakes up... "Papa, 31 more days...."... next morning, "Papa, 30 more days...", the same way he counted down the week masa dia tengah quarantine for that Influenza A thingy...

What are we planning for Rayhana's 1st birthday?

We have no idea... yet!

Camera Un-Kaput

Tengah boring giler... now it's 3am. Have not been sleeping at the right times since Ramadhan started... just finished updating our family business's company profile to include the recent ventures my dad started in Kedah... all those lembu-lembu and bot-bot ikan... it's funny coz the bulk of the profile talks about how for the past 15 years we have been involved in book publishing and printing, then suddenly cerita pasal lembu and ikan.. hehe

Wa & Anaz came by just now amik kuih.. hehe and it's not actually for them pun.. hehe.. to Wa's friend.. Yan, is it? Enjoy your Mama Carries!! :)

Rayhana cried gila-gila tadi when Wa & Anaz came.. ingatkan the usual cranky-ness pasal baru bangun tido at 9.30pm, but then bila check, her private part merah and membengkak.. not too sure it was nappy rash 'coz it was not "rashy"... but we applied the nappy cream jer.. tengok dulu kalau tak okay nak kena bawak jumpa doctor la.... alhamdulillah after some time she is okay.. sempat main-main finger ala "E.T." dengan Anaz & Wa sambil senyum-senyum malu.. haha

Rayyan just slept at 2.30am... mamat ni susahla.. will never sleep kalau I tak sleep...

Lately, since I brought my work PC home, he has been bugging me... "Papa, are you going to throw your small computer (home laptop) away? Give it to me!" hahaha.... I'm contemplating on buying a new laptop for my work and yeah.. maybe I'll just let him share the old one with Ja.. hehe...

Tgh dilema sekarang ni... kalau ada RM3k.... nak beli iPhone ke or a new laptop? iPhone is soooo the in-thing now, and yeah, I need it to help me better at "organizing my thoughts"... but the laptop is sooo gonna make me enjoy doing my work more.... hmmm....

.. and I'm still waiting for a new fund to come in for a job that I almost complete... that is huge! now, maybe THAT can fund my iPhone.. hehe..

I'm planning to go to Dubai in February for the 1st Dubai International Children's Book Fair. Have requested for participation details from the organizer. Have also found another publisher friend who's interested to join me there. Have been checking on the accommodations and flights for the past couple of months... and tonight I checked with MAS... RM1500 pergi balik siot!!! Kalau nak bawak the whole family, me, Ja, Rayyan, Rayhana... RM5300+ sahaja... pergi balik for the whole family!!

But the bookfair is quite long.. 8 hari! Ja susah nak dapat cuti so early in the year... I've got a friend who have been staying in Dubai for the past 4 years who offered me a place to stay during the bookfair... interesting! But kalau 2-3 hari takpela.. ni kalau dah sampai 8-10 days.. segan la pulak... so just now I went to my uual hunting ground.. VRBO.com found a marvellous condo unit.. and the new Dubai Metro stops right in front of the complex! Filled in my enquiries online and then about less than an hour later the owner CALLED me all the way from the UK! Now that's what I call service! I told her I didn't expect her to call.. only a reply within 8 hours or so was expected... but her call caught me by surprise!

Now trying to get my publisher friend to confirm boleh chip in and share the condo unit tak coz it can sleep up to 7 people.

Hmm.. apa lagi nak citer.. oh yeah, about my camera that I thought went kaput... rupa-rupanya battery tak charge betul... ngong betul... either that charger plug tak masuk soket betul-betul or the battery was not placed right... tak pasal-pasal nasib baik tak gi hantar Sony station kena godek-godek isi perut dia.. daripada takde apa-apa, jadi ntah apa-apa nanti...

So busy yet so not doing anything...

I've got lots of things to do... from web development, proposal writing, the kuih raya business, my online book business, exploring new market for my books (just delivered a FedEx 25kg box to Johannesburg, South Africa.. people there wanting to be my distributor).

I've just been appointed as one of the Ahli Jawatankuasa Pengelola Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur 2010, heading the sub-committee on "Internet & the New Media", which means I'll be in charged of the KL Book Fair's website and any web promotion for the fair.

Here's the thing. The KL Book Fair will be from March 19-28, 2010. I'm supposed to go to the Bologna Book Fair that runs from Mar 23-25, 2010. Macamana ni? Takde chan ler nak berjalan-jalan explore Italy lagi... hehe and yes, Nana.. I don't think I can join you guys at the French Alps. Kalau pergi Bologna nanti it will just be a touch-and-go affair.. have to go ngam-ngam sampai sana to set up the booth on 22nd and balik on the 25th or 26th... so I can still do my part for the Kl Book Fair that ends on the 28th, not to mention nak kena jaga booth sendiri lagi kat situ....

Ni lah orang kata kerja giler... hehehe.. because of PWTC takde proper slot for the KL Book Fair, the KL Book Fair terpaksa overlap dengan the biggest children's book fair the world. Macamana la nak memartabatkan the KL "INTERNATIONAL" Book Fair??? And since the organizer have signed up with the PWTC for 5 years, there is no way we can have another venue for it. PWTC pulak, orang dah book for 5 years, kena la bagi proper slot well in advance! Ni tak... bukannya orang pakai free... bayar lagi!

So now I'll be having monthly meeting regarding the KL Book Fair.. oh terlupa.. nak kena buat budget for the board to approve by next meeting... hmm... berapa aku nak charge.. hmm.. actually each of us in the committee will get a "sitting allowance".. I have no idea how much.. me being a rookie in the AJK will not dare to question much.. just bagi inputs je sudah memadai.. and last Friday was a very fruitful meeting for me... it's good to know that my inputs are well received by the otai-otai in the Malaysian book industry.

Updates on Rayyan & Rayhana:
1. Rayyan still not going to school. Maybe after raya baru pergi kot... taknak bagi dia keluar rumah to meet other kids at school. His phlegm dah gone.. chest and nose is clear...
2. I'm exposing Rayhana to the letter "O". She's a fast learner...
3. Rayhana can say "bu-ah".. a good start in the vowel sounding development.. hehe putting two different vowel sounds together.. :)
4. Rayhana has started wearing Rayyan's old t-shirts and shorts.. hehe lagila macam boy budak tu..
5. Have started to teach Rayyan using our home phone to dial our mobile numbers... in case of emergency...

Busy Business Kuih Raya

No updates for sooo long...

Alhamdulillah Rayyan is OK. Demam dah takde since the day he was discharged from the hospital. For the past 3 days the phlegm dah takde... puas nak suruh dia cough so I could hear if there is any phlegmy sounds... so far takde.. alhamdulillah...

Sekarang ni busy giler with our Kuih Raya business. Go to http://www.kuihraya.com.my

A new website, same old kuih raya, at least 50-60 new individual customers, a group of new agents, old agents keep on ordering, some agents not doing it for this year, but still order since their friends are pushing them to do it...

Alhamdulillah business semakin berjaya... nak kata untung semakin banyak, itu kena tunggu audit just few days before raya... hehe this year we are a bit generous with the agent comissions... so mungkin our nett profit kurang sikitlaa.. but if the sales pick up during these last week of ordering, insyaAllah the profit bertambah...

So far we have received orders up to 2,500+ bottles altogether, with an estimated 125,000 pieces of kuih raya. Banyak tu! Kalau untung 10 sen per piece dah dapat RM12,500!! Orders keep on coming in, as usual.. biasala org Malaysia ni suka order last2 minute... last date of ordering is 5th September 2009. Ni baru jer few people baru datang rumah nak ambik sample.. hehe

Nak kata ekonomi gawat... gila2 jugak orang Melayu ni belanja for Raya.. hehe

Special note to Wa/Anaz: wei... bila nak datang amik kuih raya korang? hehe dah tunggu tak datang2 pun... hehe

Rayyan, Influenza A +ve

This is the note I posted on FB.

Since quite a few of you are asking about the symptoms I saw when my son, Rayyan was diagnosed with Influenza A early Sunday morning. Here goes...

Thursday afternoon: rasa badan macam suam-suam... was on the way to send him to school.. dalam keta rasa suam2, pastu I made a turn nak balik rumah, but then tanya dia lagi if he's okay.. he said ok.. he said he did not feel sick and he wanted to go to school.. I pun patah balik nak hantar sekolah.. dah sampai depan sekolah, I rasa badan dia dah naik sikit... so balik je la...

Thursday malam: Temperature panas. Using my unreliable Omron thermometer tu his temperature was 37.7 (it could have been 38.7 now that I've known).. so I just gave him PCM (paracetamol pink syrup) 5ml.

Friday 4am: My son muntah. Twice. Then muntah lagi on the way to DSH A&E at 5am. Wanted to take RAPID TEST then, but doctor said it's just 1 demam baru. Maybe it was something he ate. At that time his temperature was 38C. And he was chesty. So we did the nebulizer. Doctor gave him 2 supps.: 1 for muntah, and another for the fever. His chest cleared after nebulizer. And an antibiotic for the wheezing.

Friday afternoon: Still having fever with temperature ranging around 38.5+C. Bought a Braun thermometer. Went to see Rayyan's paedn., Dr Azizi at DSH. Dr said there is no flu like symptoms. So not necessary then to take the RAPID TEST. He asked to wait for another day before taking the test. Kalau amik that day, it may turn out -ve, then the next day kena amik lagi... 2 kali sakit budak tu nanti.. (the nose swab procedure is VERY unpleasant! even for me... had one myself just now)..

Friday night till Saturday afternoon: Temperature ranged 38-39.3 every 5 hours. Sponged him, had him shower a few times every 6 hours, with him shivering like mad over slightly cold water.

Saturday Afternoon till night: Temperature was around 38+ every 5 hours. In between those hours, he dis his usual things.. running and jumping around.. you will never have guessed he had been having high fever for the past few days...

Sunday 3am: Heard unpleasant wheezing sound on his chest and his back. (My left ear is the official stethoscope in the Shake Residence hehe).. went straight to DSH A&E. At that time his temperature was around 37+. By the time we reached DSH 20 mins later (we were spending the night at Palace of Golden Horses... family matters), his temperature dropped to 36.8 which was about normal. This time I insisted on taking the RAPID TEST, BLOOD TEST, and whatever test there is to justify all the vomitting, high fever, weird wheezing sounds...

Luckily DSH at that time around 4am was quiet.. only 3 of us were there. We hardly waited for 10 mins before we saw the doctor. Dr took the nose swab, the blood test, and did the nebulizer again. Then waited for 1.5 hours for the results while my wife Ja and Rayhana was still in the car.

Test came out positive for Influenza A, negative for Influenza B. I saw two other test results that morning which were +ve for Influenza A as well. One of them even tested +ve for Influenza B, God knows what that is (need to check up on that).

Dr immediately admitted my son to the isolation ward. Tamiflu is prescribed, twice a day with the first dose taken at 6am that morning. Nebulizer action every 4 hours, and PCM syrup for the fever, although by that time his temperature hardly reached 37.3 C...

For more updates on what happened after that... refer here:
http://www.facebook.com/shake74?v=feed&story_fbid=121509191980

Dr Azizi said if there is no fever, it shows the body has won over the virus and Rayyan is Influenza A-free. As a precaution - 1 week home quarantine which we are doing right now. Rayyan is already fever-less for the past 36 hours... boy.. that was a LOOOONG 36 hours...

Thanks for all the prayers and wishes...
:)

shake

My Standard 3 Class Photo

A former classmate of mine Ms. Fairuzia Natasya Salleh recently uploaded this amazing photo of our Std 3N class of SRK Kampung Tunku, PJ on Facebook. This brings back memories BIG TIME... that was some fun class... 26 years later, thanks to FB, many of us are connected again...

That's me... sitting, front row, extreme right. I wasn't sure that was actually me until people tagged me. That's how close we were back then... orang lain lagi ingat muka kita masa dulu-dulu.. hehe.. I myself can recognize about a third of them by name so far... I have no idea how some of these people look like now.. haha

This year alone I've caught up with Hasnul, Ike, Megat, Ilyas, Ilham, and Jason. Hope to meet the rest of the guys some day...

Sitting next to me is Megat Yusmar, now a pilot with MAS. There's Jason in the back row, also a pilot, with Etihad Airways, now living with his family in Abu Dhabi. A few girls in there, like Wai Cheng and Corinne are living in Australia. Hazleen, one of the guys standing in the back row, I heard is now one of the big guys of the Citi Group in Singapore.

Aaaahhh.. 1983... those were the days... where we didn't care whether we were Malays, Chinese or Indians.. we just had fun at school. LOADS of FUN! So much fun that PONTENG was never in our dictionary. Well.. we were Std 3 then.. but when we were in Std 5, Std 6... the fun was at school, playing with friends! And we scored too!

I'm still proud of the fact that the whole 52 of us in my Std 5 class got 5A's in our Penilaian Darjah 5 exam... that was something!

Lagi-lagi Rayhana...

My camera suddenly went kaput.. tak boleh on.. tak tau pasal apa.. battery dah charge... jatuh pun tak... tetiba je sukahati dia taknak cooperate pulak... dunno what to do with it. Maybe go send to Sony place and have it fixed.

Ni gambar2 yg sempat diupload to my PC...

Rayhana Rayhana Rayhana

Rayhana is 10 mths old today!

My little Kitty Kat turns 10 months old today... so far she does the following:


1. Tepuk tangan whenever we say "pandai" or we sing "pok amai2..." and waves her arms in the air when we say "rak-rak horay!!!"

2. Point to the lights and say "pbuu!"

3. Wave her hands bye-bye...

4. Angkat tangan macam nak doa when we ask her to doa...

5. Point with one finger to her head when she hears the Super Sleuth song "Think, Think, Think!"

6. Merangkak and picks herself up to stand when she reaches any object high enough...

7. Pantang tengok muka I... asyik nak dukung... but malam-malam boleh merangkak over my body to get to her susu cap gantung every night.

8. She will say "aaaaaaawaaaa" or something to that effect whenever she hears the azan on the TV.. mata tak berkelip tengok azan..

9. Tak takut makan ubat... in fact sometimes she wants more.. :) (pelik anak2 aku ni hehe)

10. She pats he knees following Little Einsteins and waves her arms in the air like the cartoon character does...

11. She hates her walker... kalau nak letak jer, dia dah siap kangkang luas2 trying not to get into it.

12. She hates kissing my cheek. Dia geli... hehe

13. She knows what a nose is as she points to ours when we ask her to..

14. She likes handbags (hahahaha) dia suka pegang and belek2 whatever bags dia boleh capai..

15. She loves being in the bathroom. She loves taking a shower. She loves playing with water.

16. She loves playing kejar-kejar with Rayyan, running in her walker.

17. She loves watching the cheapo nursery rhyme VCD.. in fact it is one of the ways to console her
whenever she cries for whatever reason...

18. She loves books.. and papers... haha with her books she loves to flip through and point to whatever there is on the page... with papers, she just loves to tear them up to pieces..

19. She still breastfeeds 40% of the time! Much to my delight! (Rayyan was only breastfed up to 4 mths after which the breast could not supply the milk he needed..)

20. She has 2 gigi atas, and 1 gigi bawah baru nak keluar. And because gigi bawah tu dah tumbuh, you can see her ketap2 gigi dia making unpleasant sounds to my ear...

21. She is a very fast learner!

22. Dia taknak kat orang unless you are around her for quite some time...

haha.. panjang gila list... stop sini je la... nanti Rayyan jeles pulak... haha

oh yeah forgot pulak...

23. She is VERY jealous kalau Rayyan nak bermanja dgn anyone of us... daripada jauh she would crawl towards us, making noise macam nak suruh Rayyan move away...

Happy 10 mths, Rayhana!

:)

Mandi? No time!

Rayyan rushed to the toilet while he was watching tv. Dia nak kencing... then he called me to cebokkan dia.. After cebokkan kencing si Rayyan, I immediately asked him to take off his clothes...

Me: "Dah.. gi mandi!"
Rayyan: "I don't have time for that...", smiling sheepishly, sambil pandang atas looking at me...

Kuih Raya Already??

Yeah... inilah antara kuih-kuih rayaku... bukan hanya untuk ditonton, tapi untuk dijual...


Go to http://kuihraya.com.my for more!!!!

My Latest Specialty... YUMMMMM!

Several times I tried to make an olio-type pasta but nothing ever came close to THIS!! (click on the images to enlarge and droooool.....)


Spicy Grilled Marinated Shrimp Pasta Aglio Olio.... hmmm.... did it twice already and it's still yummmmmmmmmyyyyy!!!! My own recipe... :)

Very healthy!!

Shrimp - marinated and grilled separately...
Tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, (egg plant should be nice too.. maybe will try next time), onions, garlic - baked topped with salt, pepper and loads of olive oil

Bila semua yang di grill and baked dah masak, siapkan serving tray, campurkan semua, put in the pasta, gaul semua, pour more olive oil, gaul lagi, grate some lemon rind and squeeze some juice, gaul lagi... salt & pepper, sprinkle LOTS of chilli flakes (in this case I just blended cili kering sampai dia jadi flakes) gaul semua..... top it off with parsley and I wished I had parmesan to grate.. tapi so far pakai parmesan powder je...

BEST!!!

Ja in hospital

Ja just underwent a surgery to remove her swollen left thyroid gland. Started at 11am just now and came out of the OT at about 1pm. They need to test the thyroid tissues to check if it's cancerous. If it's not.. alhamdulillah... if it is, the right side has to be taken out too....

Details later...

My Little Kitty Kat

H1N1 Flu... the song

I laughed my heart out... enjoy... not the flu.. the song.. hahaha

Anakku dah pandai merangkak!

Last week, few things happened...

1. Right after I dah baik sakit, Rayhana pulak demam sampai 38+C. Ni kes berjangkit2 la ni... fortunately, demam dia 2 hari je...

2. Right after Rayhana baik demam, Rayyan came back from school last Friday with a temperature of 38.9C. Panic jugak.. tetiba jer... alhamdulillah.. by Sunday he was okay...

3. Ja pulak, after 2 weeks earlier went for biopsy on her left thyroid gland, got back her results.. altho non-cancerous, the lump has to be taken out.. so she needs to set a date for the surgery just to confirm that it may never be cancerous forever... kalau ada possibility boleh jadi cancerous, she has to get rid of both her thyroid glands.. left and right..

4. Rayhana dah tumbuh gigi!!!!! Satu jer.. belah atas.. hahaha funny now coz whenever she laughs macam mulut nenek tua.. hahaha

5. Rayhana dah pandai merangkak!!! Now, she dislikes being put into her walker coz she knows she can touch and feel more stuff crawling all around the house.

6. Rayhana now knows "car" where she would run in her walker towards the glass door to look for cars, "lampu" especially the ones in her atok's house, "ka ki ku ke ke ko" she would immediately look at the stuff I stuck on the wall for rayyan... and she can also do a "one" with her right index finger whenever we ask her to, and point to pictures in her picture books.

So the house now is on full alert for any teenie tiny bits of whatever stuff that she can put into her mouth... and the lantai has to be swiped and mopped frequently, altho most of the floor is covered by comforters... for her to golek2 and sleep during the day or whenever we're lepaking in the hall..

Aku kena attack!!

Haha dunno what title to put up there... I was attacked, yes... by a virus.. the kind that would make you feel demam, pening, rasa macam nak muntah, terhoyong-hayang, and sakit-sakit badan... and it happened on my birthday last Saturday.

I was okay on the birthday morning. Had to go to 2 weddings and 1 visit to the KL General Hospital to see the person who took care of me when I was a little boy... who had just had a brain operation and now is skull-less half of her head. Pity her.. she was in deep sleep.. not sure if she is in a coma but her feet and fingers surely moved while I was there, together with my mom and dad.

The first wedding was Ja's anak sedara's. Her cousins from KB, Kuantan, Felda Taib Andak Johor (yup, kampung Mawi tu) came all the way to witness the wedding ceremony at Kem Wardieburn (sp?). Since there is also another wedding on that day that my parents have to go to, the wedding of my 2nd cousin whom I have not been in touched with since I was born (although the family lives in KL) which is just somewhere in the Taman Melati area, so we decided to go in the Naza Ria and all of us went to both weddings.. and the hospital later.

Masa kat 1st wedding I started feeling giddy. Rasa loya, tak sedap badan.... then, masa 2nd wedding, okay sikit, but then rasa macam bahang semacam, it was either my body feeling it or the dewan tu memang takde ventilation... Pastu gi hospital.. I was okay... then we balik rumah.. kepenatan.. I just baring while waiting for the birthday dinner...

Ja nak belanja the whole family makan.. so we went out to Marche' @ the Curve.. Rayyan had his usual bowl of wild mushroom soup and a bowl of kid's pasta. At that time I was sort of having fever, pening kepala, etc... boring gila.. orang lain nak makan pun takde selera.. we had to balik la once everyone finished eating. I only had ceaser salad sikit, and some sayur goreng sikit, and some of Rayyan's pasta, and little bit of mango layered cake.

Balik rumah, I took the panadol 2 bijik and tido... Next day Ja had to send me to DSH 'coz my heart was beating at 125 beats/min after just waking up from sleep. Body temperature was high although blood pressure was normal.

Pi checkup kat DSH, the doctor said (and I probably thot too) that it was viral infection.. not the babi type.. insyaAllah.. hehe takut jugak sebab the doctor mentioned there is a possible swine flu case tengah tunggu dalam special room kat ER tu, waiting for an ambulance to pick him up.

To cut the story short, I'm now in my office, while waiting for Rayyan to finish school, and waiting for my car to be "spring-cleaned" inside out, then nak balik... 'coz I still feel I need some rest... kepala still pening... maybe because watching too much Friends DVDs... hehe and also working and FaceBooking at home....

oh.... Ja still owes me dinner at Tony Roma's... hehehe

Me no fingernail...

During Felishia's engagement ceremony tu my left ring finger was swollen gila babi and hurts like mad, especially bila terlanggar something...

It all happenned about a week before that, the usual kuku cengkam isi sampai bernanah at the side of the finger tu.... I thought it's the usual thing that happened before.. 2-3 days max, and it all will dry up leaving the dried skin that could be peeled off and that's it.... BUT NO!!!

2-3 days after that the finger got swollen, filled with water.. I had to use a needle (that I sterilized with hot water) and poke small holes so the water could get out coz the pressure that built up in there was so painful!! and then the nanah also didn't stop...

so, couple of days after the engagement, I went to see Dr Herbert Ambrose at Klinik Mediviron @ Giant Kelana Jaya. It so happenned that he is the MASTER of nails... toe or finger... and he has pulled out more fingernails that you can imagined... hehe

He gave me 2 choices: a stronger medication to hopefully stop the nanah and hopefully make the pain go away later.... or pull out the fingernail and clean up whatever mess that was building inside the finger...

I chose the 2nd option.. 'coz the pain was next to unbearable...

Dia cabut hari tu jugak. First up, anaesthetic shot.. he had to inject 4 times into the finger... kesakitannya macam disunat kali kedua! No kidding! Especially the last one, where he jabbed into the finger from underneath it, almost reaching the finger nail... GILA BABS!

The removing of the finger was fast.. me not feeling any pain... and of course I didn't bother to look at how all that was being done... could only hear as if he was cutting the whole nail out using scissors... again.. "sunat" came to mind at that point...

so fater all is done, he wrapped the finger, and gave some painkillers. I thought I wouldn't need them, but the whole night I could not sleep because of the pain! Berdenyut2, menyucuk-nyucuk rasa kat jari tu... gila! The whole night! Could not sleep... so tried to find DVDs to watch.. semua dah tengok.. (I need to buy new DVDs).. so last2 gi bilik Felishia, asked her if any DVDs I haven't seen... so.... the whole night I was hooked on GOSSIP GIRL Season 1 hahahahaha... (by the way, that blonde girl sure looks like Gwyneth Paltrow!) hehe.. Pukul 3 lebih baru boleh tido...

Now my finger has gone thru several dressing/cleanup sessions with Dr Herbert last week, and I have to nurse the finger myself starting from tomorrow onwards.. he gave me the antibiotic gel to put on the "fingernail" and leave it open... until it gets better and new finger nail to form within the next 6 weeks...

My finger still berdenyut-denyut till now... and it has been 2 weeks!