Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Good bye 2008

Today is the last day of the year. We are leaving 2008 in a few hours time. Early this year, I was told that 2008 will be a good year for me. Well, I do read through my horoscope (the problem is I can’t be sure whether I am a Geminian or a Cancerian) and also Chinese forecast (definitely a Dragon). Just for the fun of it. My wealth is on the positive side but my health will be on the negative side. Looking back the year 2008 there were a few things which had a major impact in my life and my family as a whole:

Well, this year I had good luck in my fortune/wealth side in terms of bonus, increments and salary adjustments. However, as forecasted I underwent an operation that resulted with me losing my voice.

My daughter, Auni, had been registered as “OKU” and able to enrolled into special class in Sekolah Kebangsaan Suka Menanti. She is happier there as they have swimming lessons every Sunday and the teachers are very helpful. I can see vast improvement in her studies and communication skills ever since. She even went to Terengganu through her school trip. She was also taught gardening. I remember the first time she came back from school and gave me “kacang panjang”. “Cikgu suruh ibu masak sayur ni”, she said. I found out from her teacher that they grew all these vegetables at her school and distributed to the students once they ripen. She also joined “pengakap” of which the smallest size uniform is still too large for her.

Amir, joined Tadika Kemas and has learnt on ways to make friends beside learning to read, write and count. He has shown his true colours in his class…Being an “Emir”, he’s becoming a leader in his class. At 5 years old, he would go up to his teacher and report what his friends had been up to…”Kuat mengadu” that’s what his teacher said. I remembered the teacher told me once when she told the kids, “ kalau siapa nakal nanti cikgu panggil polis” So Amir stood up and said;”Cikgu, ayah saya pun polis” During his birthday, I managed to persuade his brother Zhafri, to give Amir his PS2. But for a price…gotta give him RM300 so that he can top up with his saving to buy PSP. At least both of them got what they both wanted. Since then, Amir didn’t want to go anywhere. He would rather stay at home and play with his PS2 rather than going shopping.

Zhafri, has ended his form 5 and heading for another era of his life….outside school days. Sometimes, I forgot that my children are growing up very fast. Soon Zhafri will be off to further study and later will start working. He is going to be an adult…!!Sometimes, I’ve forgotten that I’m getting old…but my growing up children will keep me in check. Zhafri is already getting so tall. At 17 yo, he’s already 5’10” and still growing. Perhaps, he’s going to be taller than his father who is 6’ 2”We’ll have to wait and see…

As for me…nothing much changes. Just hope that 2009 will be a good year for me and my whole family…Happy New Year!!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Driving school - Zhafri

Zhafri had completed his SPM and now on a very long holidays, while waiting for his result. No point worrying yet since the result will come out in March next year. Still a long wait..
Anyway, I've asked him to get some job for side income...but he's been procrastinating until now. But one thing for sure, he's itching to learn driving. Well, better than just sit and lying around doing nothing...
Good grief!!The driving school cost RM650. I remembered it only cost me Rm250 the last time I took my licence. Everything sure is expensive nowadays.
Anyway, he's been pestering me to give him driving lessons which I did. We took my mom's car because it has manual gear. He drove through the highway to Bandar Darulaman. After a tour around Bdr Darulaman, he asked me whether he can learn reversing. So I told him to give a right signal at the entrance to lake recreation park there. After giving a right signal, I took a back glance and saw that it was safe to turn right.
Out of nowhere came 3 motorbikes from behind and took over from the right side. None of them were wearing helmets. "Samseng betoi..!!" Zhafri brake suddenly but not before the last motorbike brushed the front right side of the car, leaving a mark there. He stopped the car and we changed driver. I didn't see the bikers anywhere. So we headed home. On the way to the highway, I saw the bikers from my rear mirror. They were following us. I told Zhafri to take their bike numbers and they left as soon as we swerved to the higway.
The bikers were young guys about 16 to 17 years old. They drove real fast and couldn't give a damned about rules and regulations. What I'm afraid is that they could have marked my mom's car. Things like this could happenned to anybody.
Since then, Zhafri dare not asked for a ride again. He took the professional driving class and just passed the written test today.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Rapist

After lunch , my colleagues was so emotional after reading the paper today. When I asked her why, she told me about an article in Harian Metro North. It was about a man and his son raped a 20mth old child. I went to look for the paper and read it. It was reported that the child was sent to the baby-sitter’s house and was later being raped by the husband and his 16yo son.
What is happening to the humanity nowadays??? A 20mo girl is so small and innocent and yet the adults have no brains in their head. I supposed they only have nuts up there. The world is no longer safe nowadays, especially to girls. Where are the “9 akals” of these people?? God gave them akal to be used, and not for safekeeping…
I just couldn’t understand how these criminals think…
Pity the young girl. The lusts of these maniacs have caused her trauma for the rest of her life…
I am so worried about my girl, Auni..I guess we should let our girls to take up defense classes for their own protection. We cant be around them always..
At the same time, more severe punishment should be given to the rapists. The current punishment doesn’t seem to frightened them any more…

Friday, December 19, 2008

Selamat Hari Lahir Ayah...

Buat Ayah....semoga di panjangkan usia dalam keimanan dan keberkatan Illahi. Kupohonkan agar dikurniakan rezeki yang berlimpahan dan dijauhi dari kepayahan dan kesengsaraan. Semoga hari-hari mendatang, memberi kebahagiaan dan sinar keceriaan berpanjangan..

Ayah,
Kupohon jutaan ampun dan maaf kiranya ada tekasar bahasa dan tersalahlaku. Tidak ku sengajakan...Halalkan segala makan minumku sekeluarga dan akhir kata...semoga beroleh lebih idea-idea yang bernas di dalam penulisan...aminn..

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Cuti-cuti family gathering

On the fifth December 2008, all my family except my sis's family gathered at Penang for holidays. We used to have this routine every Hari Raya Haji but somehow it stopped a few years back...I supposed all of us having bigger family members and we are getting heavier to move anywhere in a group.....Anyway, last month, I invited all to join the gathering in Melaka but was rejected..too far...they said. So, I figured out, why not having it in Penang...Since I have a membership of Bayview Hotel, I booked three suites for the family....

We left at 11am to Prai...There's a good food stalls at Inderawasih where they sell nasi hujan panas every friday...Really yummy..!!They started at 12 noon and the "nasi" will finished by 1 noon. If you are late, you will only get the nasi putih...People basically rushed for the rice every friday...

Later, the guys went for Friday prayers and the ladies went window shopping at SSF.

We left for Ferringhi beach around 2pm...and reached Bayview Beach Hotel after 3pm ..due to the jam on the bridge, as usual. (Who said Penang Bridge was not making money???)

When we reached the hotel, only 1 suite was ready and available. Since all of us was rather exhausted from the travelling, we cramped into the one suite first...

Later, we went to our own suites around 4pm.

As normal, my parents' suite is where all the foods and junkies are...They are sharing the suite with my second brother...

We went for a walk by the beach the next day, kids having fun playing by the sea, horse riding( including my hubby), parachuting for the big boys and sand castle for the smaller kids...Later after lunch, we took a dive in the swimming pool...And as usual, I was the baby sitter while the others went out shopping...but it was fun..and all of us were burnt by the night time, especially me...

We had tomyam dinner at the nearby restaurant; belanja by my eldest brother..after which we went shopping at the side road stalls along the road..I managed to get a good LV wallet for RM28.00 which was initially offered at RM55.00

We checked out the next afternoon and went our separate ways...My family went to my mother -in-law house at Balik Pulau for Raya Haji and my brothers went back to their own places...

It was good to gather again....Hope next time we can all have a full family gathering again...

I've gotta start planning from now.....

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha to all muslimin and muslimat...Semoga tahun ini membawa perubahan ke arah keimanan yang sejati...aminnn.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Parathyroid

Having too much of anything is not really good for your health. It is a fact of life. Everyone needs calcium for stronger bones but too much of calcium can leads to serious illness as in the case of parathyroidism.

Every year, I'll be having my annual check up (especially now that I'm turning 40++). I've had the same result each year..I'm perfectly healthy. It's just that I had too much calcium in my blood. The doctor would advise me not to take too much milk or reduce my calcium intake. That's all.

When my youngest son was born in 2003, he had to be hospitalised due to lack of calcium when he was 2 weeks old. The hospital took my blood sample and discovered that my calcium was high. Since I was not the sick one, no one bothered to check further. My son was fed with fluid calcium daily and after 2 weeks, he's back to normal.

As for me, my life went on as usual. Early this year, I started to have high blood, shot right up to 170/140. My blood fluctated inconsistently. Every now and then I started having migraine and I knew that my blood must have shot high. The doctor prescribed me high blood medication but I refuse to take because it did not jive with my symptoms. I did an early checked up in March this year and the result was as usual, healthy except for my high calcium. When I asked the doctor if there is anything wrong with me that caused the high calcium, he advised me to do another test on PTH (Parathyroid hormone test). The result came out positive. I have a case of hyper-parathyroid.

What is Hyper-Parathyroid? Everyone has 4 to 6 parathyroid glands in their necks. These glands function is to control and monitor the calcium flow in your body so that the muscle and nervous system can function properly. Once the glands detected low calcium level in the blood, they will disperse parathroid hormone(PTH) into the blood which will subsequently break the calcium in the bones to be dispersed into the blood and also promotes calcium intakes by the kidneys.

In the case of hyper-parathyroid,at least one of these glands is hyper-active and produced excessive PTH into the blood and causes serious calcium imbalance.The doctor used to tell me that the symptom is known as "moans, groans,stones, bones and psychiatric overturns" meaning moans -feeling ill,hyper tension, groans - abdominal pain(gastric), stones- kidney, bones-bone pain and psychiatric overturns-lethargy, fatigue, depression, memory lapses. And I had most of the symptoms.

The bad news is there is no medicine/cure for this illness. The only cure is to remove the over active parathyroid galnd. So, I had it removed in May 9,2008. The operation was done in Putrajaya Hospital because no other hospital has the specialist for PT cases except UKM and Putrajaya Hospital. Well, I chose the best doctor. Since then, no more high blood, lesser bone pain, better temperament or gastric.
However...the bad news is the operation had cause an injury to my voice nerve chord. The gland was on the nerve and resulted with me losing my voice..That is another story...

Friday, November 21, 2008

Auni the invincible

"Ibu!!! Kepala Auni berdarah!!" my maid screamed from the hotel's bathroom. I rushed to the bathroom and saw Auni holding her hand full of blood while my maid is trying to put pressure at the back of Auni's head.
"Apa dah jadi?" I asked my maid while looking at Auni's head and saw blood oozing out at the back of her head.
"Auni tergelincir dan kepalanya terhantuk kat tepi bathtub, ibu" answered my maid. I went back to the room and get ready with jeans and told my hubby to do the same. We went down to the lobby and I stopped one lady, Puan Nora, the hotel staff, asking if they have an in-house doctor. When she heard about the accident, she told us the hotel will send us to the nearest clinic.
They drove us to Sg Ramal and Auni got 3 stitches at the back of her head.
Through out all the incidents, she did not shed a single tear. Not only that, she was so cool all the way.
It was amazing!! Everyone was amazed at her. They said they had never met a child who stayed so calm like Auni....When I asked her if it was painful, she said "no".
By the time we got back to our hotel room, she was back to normal and chattering away....boasting to her brother that I said that she is a supergirl and so brave....as though nothing had happened.
That night, the hotel treated us very special...the gave us extra mattress, help to launder and dry our clothes and gave us a plate of fruits...not to mention the courtesy calls from the manager that night and the next morning...enquiring on her condition...

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Anugerah cemerlang Auni


When I reached home last Thursday, my Auni came running to me with all smiles...."Ibu, Auni nak dapat hadiah hari Isnin ni. Cikgu nak bagi" shoving a piece of paper to my face...It was a letter from her school inviting parents to the "Hari Anugerah Cemerlang". It said that she was one of the recipient.I asked my hubby..."Auni cemerlang apa?" "Tak tau, cuba tanya cikgu" he replied...

But I was so proud of her...I call my mom and told her about it...Then, I remembered...alamak!! I got to take leave on monday...I dont have a lot of leave left but for Auni...I will take leave..

The next day, I sms'ed my boss who was away attending meeting in KL. She gave a go ahead. Thank you...

On Monday, Auni got up very early...we sent her to school and I asked her teacher reasons for her receiving the award....The teacher, Puan Rosni told me that she had showed tremendous improvement compared to the first day she came to that school. She's now willing to participate in the classroom activities and answered when spoken to...

We took photos of her receiving the award...as usual she made her "selamba" face when spoken to...we stayed for the show for a while and I took her home. She started showing off her award to her brother and sister...and whoever came by the house that day...

I'm proud of you Auni...Keep up and Success will be yours one day.....Insyaallah..!!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Prince of the night








Zhafri is prince of the night at GALA dinner organised by his school...

Friday, November 07, 2008

Zhafri injured

On wednesday nite, my mom called me when I was on the way back from work..She said Zhafri wanted to came back. His ankle is hurting again..(too much sports) It was already 8.30pm. So I told her to wait for me. I dont want her to drive all the way to Pokok Sena alone at that hour. I reached Alor Star around 9pm and called my mom. She told me that the teacher refused to let him come home when she called the warden for permission. Since it was already late, we let it go for the night.
Yesterday, I called my mom again to find out if Zhafri came back or not..He's already at home with cast ankle which had already swollen. He needed to use "tongkat" to walk. My mom told me that the warden did not bother to give Zhafri a visit at all that nite...
When my dad found out about it the next morning, both my mom and dad went to his school and took him home and straight to the clinic... He got 4 days mc.
Now, he's at home and I'm worried of all the extra classes he had to miss...SPM dah dekat and he had sprained ankle...!!Being a mom, I cant help worrying how he's going to the exams if he cant even walk properly. The distance from his hostel to the exam hall is quite a distance and going down hill..
Dugaan...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Growing up

Parents are usually over protective over their children especially special ones. My Auni is 8 yo and she is a special child. Even now, she needs helps with her daily chores. She is still learning to comb her hair or even brushing her teeth. She cant pronounce properly and currently is undergoing speech theraphy at the child phsychitarist on how to pronouce certain words such as "k", "s" and "r".
Early last month, my hubby called me at the office; "Cikgu Auni tanya whether we can allow her to join the school trip to Terengganu or not." My first reaction was .."NO!" She's too small.. It's too far...She wont be able to managed herself..blah..blah..blah..So we said no to her teacher..
When I reached home that night, she was all smiling, Auni nak pi Terengganu dengan kawan-kawan...So, I told her, "Not this round Auni..Nanti kita pi duduk kat hotel di Terengganu cuti sekolah ni, ok?" Her face changed..She refused to talk, to eat or even sleep...I noticed that she was crying silently...
It broke my heart to see her that way..So, I called her teacher asking about the trip..It seems that all her friends will be going..and not to mentioned almost all her teachers as well...A teacher will took care of 2 students each..Well, that should be a relief..After some discussion with the hubby, we decided to let her go...
It was indeed a very difficult decision to make..But the teacher told me something which opened up my mind..These special children are really special in thier own ways but we had to let them grow by letting them go. They need to learn to survived themselves. These were the main reasons why her class had organised this trip..to see how they can managed without their parents around....
Sometimes, no matter how hard it feels to let go of your kids, it is actually the only way to let them matured and be who they chose to be in order to survive later in life...Life experiences are precious and the only way to get it, is by trying and going through the ups and downs of life itselfs.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Happy Birthday, Amir!!




Today is my youngest son's birthday.. Amir Zikry 5 years old..Born at 10am on 23rd October 2003. I remember it was Deepavali's eve. You have bring great joy to our life...The most manja of all my children..being over spoilt by the maid and usually gets what he wants.
Amir means Leader and Zikry means remembers...I gave you this name so that when you grow up...and become a leader who always remember your roots and Allah...
Although you are the youngest, I can still depend on you to give way to your special sister. You understood why she needs extra attention.
Thank you for being a sweet and loving child...
I love you dearly...

Happy Birthday...


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Boosting marriage life

My friend sent me to the bus station last nite. It was soo dark and yet the time was only 6 pm. I dont feel like walking to the bus stop in the drizzling rain and in this kind of weather. It's not because I was afraid of getting wet but it was also very dangerous to wait alone in this kind of weather...
Anyway, we were chatting in the car and I was telling him that it was my hubby's birthday.
"Why didn't you take leave?" he was asking. "I'm taking half day leave for my son's birthday on the 23rd. Furthermore, I dont have much annual leave left"..
Frankly, I can spare a day leave for my hubby, but I was still mad at him for forgetting our anniversary last month. Imagine....I took leave to spend time with him and he was off to work on his rest day for the whole day...Leaving me with the worst anniversary celebration I've ever had...! To top that up, I bought him a nice gift which he couldn't be bothered to acknowledged...
My friend told me that he wanted to take leave for his wife's birthday but it was too close to Chinese New Year. Being an Indian, he had to give way to his Chinese friends for their New Year celebration.
"I used to give her presents for her birthdays b ut I don't know why I didn't now...I think I'll start back giving her presents."
"She'll be pleased if you do. I guess it's life that people take for granted after few years of marriage and people tend to forget the importance of cherishing little things like birthdays and anniversaries"
That starts me thinking...We haven't had a proper anniversary since ages ago...Why do people changed after marriage?? They took each other for granted and it is driving them apart..
Time to think of a way to boost the marriage life back.....

Happy Birthday, Abang

Woke up this morning and I looked at my hubby. He is 50yo today...Took my bath and solat Subuh and got ready for work...By the time he finished his solat, I was already patiently waiting for him downstairs. He sent me to the bus station every day. Before I got down from the car...I looked at my hubby, give my sweetest smile..and wish him "Happy Birthday". His face light up...