Disturbed....

A friend emailed me this picture (there are more....!) and I find this disturbing rather than amusing....

What have us mankind become????

Bakin' muffins....

House elves with their reward

Bought stuff for Khadijah's blueberry muffins....After performing maghrib prayers...Khadijah was pestering to start the baking session...At least she took the initiative to kick-off the session...Ib the house elf was more enthusiastic. Took out the eggs from the fridge and ladle from the drawer etc etc....Frankly, I was a bit claustrophobic with all of them in our small kitchen...But it was fun nonetheless.

The muffin pre-mix did not come with step by step instructions. We had to guess what to put in first...My idea was to put the pre-mix in the mixing bowl and gradually stir the eggs, vegetable oil and water after making sure the pre-mix wasn't lumpy..Since we were too lazy to sieve. Much to our surprise, wifey thought otherwise and of course being our kitchen guardian, we followed her method..i.e. mix the egg with the oil and water later and pour the pre-mix slowly.

Mm....like I guessed, the muffin batter became all lumpy...and extra work for Khadijah.....Luckily we have hand held electric mixer...It was done in a jiffy!

Erk...we only managed to bake 25 muffins rather than 40 as told by the shop assistant! The house-elves had fun...

Read Khadijah's entry on Canteen Day here.

Canteen Day

Khadijah reminded me since last week that tomorrow is her canteen day. Is canteen day a new phenomenon? I cannot remember ever having canteen day during my primary and secondary school days. I think Canteen Day is only peculiar to Malaysia just like school fetes in England.

Well, Khadijah dropped the bomb yesterday ---- she has to bring something to school tomorrow to sell...So have to knock off early from work today and buy stuff for her muffins (this was decided this morning whilst driving her to her tuition class). It's the easiest to do. To buy ready made ones will be cheating, ain't it?

Aaah...the joy of being parents!

Hocruxes or Hallows

Yes we were amongst the few hundred muggles at Kino KLCC on the morning of 21 July 2007 buying Deathly Hallows. Had a marathon read of the book on the day itself, but my daughter beat me to finishing the book. I had guests and interruptions from the younger ones..what do you expect!

On the eve of 21st Khadijah, Yusof and I watched John Q over TV3 and it ended like 1 am. Managed to finally retire at about half one and the alarm woke me up at quarter to four. Yusof decided to tag along as he was rather curious why Khadijah and I were overly excited over this final installation. I usually ask my brother in law to buy the previous books as he is a staff of one of the bookstores and gets discounts! This time we decided to witness ourselves the first day of sale of the ultimate installation.

Arrived at KLCC at half four and the car park wasn't open yet. Parked by the roadside and saw at least 300 people were already queueing. We had decided that we would not be fighting for the fisrt 13 free books! It's the ambience of excitemnet and anticipation which we were so looking forward to! Imagine at the same time around millions of people around the globe were camping outside bookstores waiting for the simultaneous sale of the book!

The crowd was a bit rowdy...mostly teenagers. There was this group of teenagers with hijab (veil) and black abaya (long dress) were all ready to run - they had running shoes on! The wait seemed like ages for us! At least 20 people got ejected by the security guards for hiding within the building. Apparently these people hid in toilets and obscure places within the complex! Once ejected the crowd clapped and shouted "nice try"!

Once the doors were open....the crowd rushed, ran and banged the glass doors and some even pushed others completely compromising their own security! Yusof was one of the victims - squashed and trampled on. Luckily I was right behind him to pull him out of the mound of fallen muggles!

Once in the queue we realised that we had like another 2 hours to kill. We decided to abandon our spots and made our way to KLCC mosque to perform dawn prayers as the surau within the complex would only be open at 1 pm.

We came back at about half six and we were amongst the last in the queue and the crowd had swelled to double the size than before. Whilst in the queue superwoman texted me to say that she was at Ca***f*** queueing for the book! I asked he to get another one for Khadijah so that we wouldn't be fighting over the book. Apparently there were only about 70 of them there! We finally managed to purchase the limited edition at about 8 a.m. We bought other books too! I am now reading "Confessions of an Old Boy" by Kam Raslan.

Free quibbling quill (real peacock feather) came with our purchase

Yusof and me with the Fat Lady before entering "Gryffindor common room"


The queue snaking on fourth floor


This was about quarter past five in the morning!

Some decided to sit


Whilst in the queue, majestic sight of the Twin Towers.

One of the adverts

"Violet" ain't it?

One of Gryffindor's students queueing

The entrance of Kinokuniya drssed up as the entrance to Gryffindor's common room complete with the Fat Lady

Th lady before us who did not know the password; Fat Lady seen here prompting her! "Gillyweed Violet", by the way!

Ib Potter

So now my son, Ibraheem wants to be a wizard and has been asking me how...!

Of course this came about after watching Order of Phoenix. He's watched all five Harry Potter movies but this installation somehow attracted him the most and he's abandoned his "I wanna be a doctor when I grow up".

When asked which part he enjoyed the most? Unhesitantly and confidently - the bit on Harry conjuring the Patronus charm defeating Dementors. Hmm...That's a bit too dark for his age!

He's actually asked me to enrol him to Hogwarts rather than "Tahfiz" school which he has been pestering us. Knowing that explanation that HP is just a make-believe story would be futile, I told him that enrolment is by invitation only and that he has to wait for the owl to swoop by and drop the letter of admission which, as expected fro him, met with his usual loud cry....!

With my kids, I find that their level of maturity differs. With Khadijah, at that age,explaining what's "make believe" and what's "real" was easier. Like they always say...girls mature earlier than boys!

Anyway, planning a daddy-daughter time down with Khadijah tomorrow...Yes we're queueing up for Deathly Hallows at Kino 5 am..! It'll be quite fun for her, I thought and she seemed to concur! Wanted her to go in robe and witch hat which met with a flat "NO"....It'll be fun hanging around with her...She' has been "revising" the last three HP books over the past three days! I'm on the last chapter of Half Blood Prince (second round that is) so that reading Deathly Hallows will be easier....

Wifey will be barking mad with Khadijah and I for sure, over this weekend, of Harry Potter marathon!

Dua Musim

Hopped over to the Immigration at Pusat Bandar Damansara a few days ago in preparation of applying for a new maid. It was lunch time and surprisingly I got attended to in a jiffy (10 minutes witin arrival) - I was impressed! Since I finished early, went around to get lunch and I saw a big crowd at this cafe - Kafe Dua Musim which is right above Giant but the eating area spills over to the court yard..You have to take the staircase which is next to Giant. This cafe does not only sell food but garden furniture too...Quite nice!

Naturally i wanted a quick lunch to be able to dash back for a meeting. The owner, I think, recommended plain rice with any of the dishes (the menu is quite loooong). Fried rice/noodle were out of the question as there was a long wait list! So I chose seafood green curry. Considering the number of customers, I was served very quickly....

Not what I expected...the green curry....but a generous serving (can be shared between two)! It was more like seafood kurma. But I enjoyed it....The sambal belacan served was too hot for me but nice..Wanted to eat more of it...but my tummy couldn't cope...

I have no qualms going back there and try other dishes/food...!

Anyway.......

I read this book, "ANYWAY : The Paradoxical Commandments" by Kent M Keith, (who wrote it when he was 19 as a Harvard sophomore initially as a booklet for student leaders) 4 years back and the "Commandments" appear in one of the books which I am currently reading and I thought of sharing the "Paradoxical Commandments" with you.

But these Commandments were taught to me, indirectly and directly, when I was young....The underlying theme is what my religion preaches and what the Prophet (pbuh) taught his followers....Enjoy this and think about it and put an action to it and spread it... and God willing, the world will definitely be a better place to live!

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred. LOVE THEM ANYWAY

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. DO GOOD ANYWAY

If you are successful, you will win fake friends and true enemies. SUCCEED ANYWAY

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. DO GOOD ANYWAY

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. THINK BIG ANYWAY

People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs. FIGHT FOR A FEW UNDERDOGS ANYWAY

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. BUILD ANYWAY

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. HELP THEM ANYWAY

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU HAVE ANYWAY

Duri-licious

I am born into a family who are just crazy over durians!

When I got married to my wife, somehow my cravings for durians dwindled over the years up to a point where my mom and dad were extremely perplexed over this "pehenomenon". Me refusing durians? Unheard of!

Wifey just can't stand the smell and taste of durians despite being born in to a family who owns uncountable durian orchards in Baling (where both maternal and paternal grandparents reside). She used to boast (before marrying) or perhaps trying to impress my parents (whom she knew love durians) that "Di kampung I dughian penuh satu dapoq. Tak larat nak makan" (In my hometown, the durians practically fill in the kitchen up to a point where we don't really eat them"). And by the way it's now durian season in Baling. Luck has it that we are busy with work and can't make time to go back!! : (

The first time I went back to Baling - My god...I never saw so many durians in my entire life, in a home that is! And the taste of the durians - HEAVENLY! I went ga ga and wallopped loads!

BUT when your partner hates something, you try to compromise and sacrifice....

There are only two exceptions, though, which wifey has made in eating durians- her first pregnancy with Khadijah and this pregnancy to my dad's shock and horror! Naturally, Khadijah is the durian lover in our family now due to the overdose of this smelly fruit when she was in the womb!

Since wifey is in to durians at the moment, I have no grouses as I can bring home durians freely now! Just this morning after sending Yusof to school, wifey made an offer to buy me durians at the corner of IIU and Sg Pusu Road. Unfortunately, they were sold out...And what touched me, she asked the seller when is the next batch coming...So this afternoon...she's buying me durians! Yeayy!

I sort of have this craving for durian fritters.......(wifeys mum used to make them). AND guess what....? Wifey took the trouble to find out from mum-in -law how to make them!

Can this pregnancy last two more years, please? LOL!

NB: Picture is nicked from my daughter who posted on her daily photo blog. BTW the durians are from my bro-in-law's house in M'cca!

Potty about Potter

Got tickets for Order of the Phoenix!

Watching it a bit late..10 pm Saturday night and my kids are coming along...I'm surprised it's rated U...We are going to treat it as PG since it may be a bit "dark" for my younger ones. I bet you my younger ones will sleep throughout since it's a bit late.....But never mind....wifey is particular bringing only half of the brood anywhere - as it's unfair, according to her, which I tend to agree in most instances!

Initially, superwomanwannabe was supposed to come along. Her hubby is away on a conference..Her kids somehow wanted to wait for their daddy to come back and watch with him....How sweet..and thoughtful. I'm sure my kids would decide the same thing too.....

What a day!

Engaged my self a new secretary whom I interviewed at abot 8.15 am today (hmm....never have I scheduled interviews in the morning let alone this early) and yeayy...- Hopefully this one doesn't do the "no-show" on the scheduled commencement date, like a couple of candidates I had the past three months.

My "baby" almost got flooded today...The landlord actually changed the faucet to the wash basin when we moved in....The water couldn't stop flowing and we did not know where the stopcock was.....! Manually my accounts girls drained the washbasin using a plastic jug! Can you imagine the mess? Luckily it didn't wet the newly installed carpet.

I was locked out after coming back from a meeting....My keys were in my room and all my staff decided to knock off early today thinking that I would not come back to the office....! Luckily managed to get, yet again, my accounts girl to return to the office and hand over her set of keys so that I could finish an agreement to email client.

Knackered now...and time to knock off, myself. Adios!

Sorry..boo hoo!

Now, why do boys find it difficult to apologize? (he he he...pleading ignorance here! LOL!). Caught this in action for posterity!

The usual fights at home end with sulking and temper blaring. One's wait for the affected parties to make amends, through the natural process, is akin to waiting for the moon to fall on to one's lap. Being a mediator at home, or rather a dictator, has its privileges - like ordering them to hug and kiss and make up after a terrible dog-fight.

I can't remember now what precede the above hug and make-up session...! That's the problem of age fast catching up and not up-dating my blog as regularly as I should! Must be over some trivial matters which exploded to a huge warring!

Notice how Umar is smiling cheekily whilst Ibraheem seems a bit bothered about the whole thing. Now you know who started the whole fight!

Tagged for a good cause

Tagged by Ruby, eons ago but been busy. It's long overdue but not past the deadline!

Ruby was tagged by Raden Galoh who was tagged by the initiator, Idham who has pledged to contribute RM127 to an orphanage, Rumah Anak Yatim Darul 'Izzah for each meme contributed by any blogger before 26th August 2007. His goal is to collect RM10,000 worth of meme/tags by bloggers! Ain't that a noble effort!

The rules:-

1.Please leave a comment on Idham's blog to inform him that you have done the tag

2.If you are tagged, you need to write an entry related to the meme. At the end of your entry you just need to tag as many bloggers as you like.

3.You will then leave a comment in their blogs to let them know they have been tagged. And to include this message, "By doing this meme you are contributing rm127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage".Then please copy and paste this rule somewhere in your entry.

The meme is about completing at least seventeen out of the following twenty seven sentences.*These can be copied and pasted to your entry*


I'm all or nothing guy. So here goes my completed 27 sentences!


1. A person is only as good as ...his heart

2. Friendship is always ... a two way street

3. To love is to... love lor!

4. Money makes me...D I Z Z Y (LOL)

5. I miss ... my black hair...now that grey hairs are sprouting like mad... (talk about vanity)

6. My way of saying I care is by ... putting the rubber to the road....through ACTION baby...!

7. I try to spread love and happiness by... not whining, moping and complaining about anything AND having a positive outlook all the time and at all costs.

8. Pick the flowers when... your heart says so!

9. To love someone is to... be always selfless and love that person unconditionally

10. Beauty is... what comes from within

11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was... being felt not loved by my parents coz they refused to take me back after I decided to enter a boarding school and changed my mind later. Upon reflecting, they were teaching me to be responsible of my own decision which I thank them for, NOW. I always tell my kids that they'll appreciate later in life for all the "dos" and "donts" which we impose on them now.

12. When I was twenty one, I remember... that I was the coolest dude on earth, but looking back at old photos..., GAWD what the....?

13. I am most happy when ... my loved ones are happy.

14. Nothing makes me happier than ... to see my loved ones happy.

15. If I can change one thing, I will change... nothing. (the phlegmatic me....)

16. If smiles were... abundant ...then I... am sure the world would be a better place to live in.

17. Wouldn't it be nice if we could... just help others and impact their lives all the time?

18. If you want to ...succeed ...then you have to ... work it, baby!

19. Money is not everything but...everyone needs it......

20. The most touching moment I have experienced is... listening to the sound of each of my children bursting his/her lungs upon entry to this world.

21. I smile when...I feel like!

22. When I am happy, I...clap my hands, snap my fingers, stomp my feet, say hurrah..But seriously..I tend to be not too strict with the kids.

23. If only I don't have to ...work and still earn loads of dosh (so that my kids are taken care of on their education expenses), then... my wife and I will retire and reside in the Holy Land.

24. The best thing I did yesterday was... not give my staff a hard time...(it was work work work yesterday).

25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title, "Stop blabbing, start doing"

26. One thing I must do before I die is... to repent

27. Doing this meme, I feel like ... I've done the least I can do for a good cause





Okay....I'm tagging:

Superwomanwannabe
Pato&Pearl
Xis
Helena
Adam
Sherrina
Minah Celoteh
Mak Andeh
Wan
Bola2Api
Thusha

7 7 7

IT'S 7TH JULY 2007 today.....Translated 07 07 07...

What tickled me yesterday was when wifey told me, after her monthly check-up (27th week of gestation) that her gynae has to work extra hard today because of scheduled deliveries in the form of C-sections and induced-deliveries as it is 07 07 07 today. Believe it or not!

He had to cancel all his clinics today in anticipation of those scheduled deliveries so that he doesn't need to rush between his clinic and delivery room/OT. There was one lady, apparently, who was scheduled to be admitted on Monday for the birth of her child - scooted back home after the check up but came back to see the gynae after realizing that today is 07 07 07 and re-scheduled her admission to today...

Mmm...... would you disturb the workings of Mother nature? I know wifey and I wouldn't!

Friends. The relatives of today

Ruby Ahmad's recent entry lives to each and every word of it in my life today. Well, not just today....It happens a lot of times in my almost 40 years of living. It happened again a day after I read her entry on "friends". NOTE : The title of this entry is verabatim of her said entry! Sorry Ruby in lifting word for word!

A blogger friend, Xis, whom I have never met before but with whom I communicate with through my and his blogs as well as via sms, texted me today to say that he wanted to drop by and meet me to give me some home-cooked goodies whipped by none other than his mom, who I gathered via his writings, an accomplished "cook"! I'm a number one fan of Kelantanese delicacies and of course I was thrilled to the hilt! He gave me a whole carrier bag of murtaba', akok and piana. That's a lot of food, I must say! It's my first time eating piana and I love it!

Well Xis - THANKS a million!

My Room

Sneak preview of my room which is not fully furnished yet...The timber blinds (decided against I**a as I have odd sized windows) have not been installed....My cupboard has not been purchased..Thinking of buying an old colonial one but space is the issue!

My wall badly needs a piece of art...The "asma'ul husna" (99 names of Allah)art piece I saw in Bali last year came to mind..I would have bought it but to hand carry it???Mind you this piece is very unique...99 pieces of individual frames framed together....Price was a steal.....! next time may be...I also love verses from al-Quran done the chinese calligraphy-style. I have one at home bought by my parents when they were in Beijing complete with the seal of the artist to top it up. And interestingly his name's Yusof! The ones I find here are mostly without the seal of the artist.

The rest of the furniture's coming tomorrow and the day after....More piccies to come your way....

New Office - Piccies

The entrance with a single glass door. My office is almost fully automated and hence no receptionist is required!

I thought I just share with you the part of my office which is presentable at the moment...None other than the reception/waiting area!

The rest, sadly, still looks like an aftermath of a tornado....

The waiting area with old court documents (Supreme Court of Straits Settlement, Singapore) framed (eight of them) dating back to 1890s

The entrance with an original painting on canvas purchased circa 1995/6

New Office - First Day

Well like other things in life....first days don't normally go without glitches -

Settled down quite nicely for me....despite the boxes and files still lying all over the floor! The call divert from my old office did not work and still isn't working just yet...Waiting for the business relations manager to ring me and tell me what's wrong with it!

The glass door is still not fixed after the move (they had to take it out because my old conference table could not go in to this office!) which they were supposed to do it first thing today...Now it's postponed to 4.30...

Apart from that, nothing eventful worth noting!

Update.....

Finally....moved stuff over to the new office Friday and yesterday...I didnt ealize how much we have until the move.....

We had about 8 tonnes of stuff (files and books!!). My contractor cum mover made the remark if he had gone to the paper lama ("paper recycling") place he would have made RM20K! Hey...that's my periuk nasi (rice bowl) he's talking about! LOL

Finally, yesterday it was my first time in two weeks that I reached home early...i.e. 730 pm..It has been midnight last week and about 10 the week before! It's Ib's and Umar's sports day today...themed Flintstones and Dinosaurs....Told wifey to get materials yesterday to make them the costumes....I had to do it (my mum trained me when I was 13....LOL- she couldn't use her feet that time and mum was frantic coz it was almost eid/raya and her curtains were not done yet....I had to be dragged in with much objection on my part. I told her "sewing are for girls". Looking back, I thank her for that since I can do what others can't in time of emetgencies like this! BTW I can only sew straight lines.......) since there's no way wifey could actually sew with her bump! It turned out okay thank God! (will post piccies).

Khadijah went to Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah's Malam Juara & Bakat (Talent night) last night upon my cousin's invite..I think she bought the whole table and sent her kids, Khadijah and another niece for it. Wifey got a bit worried as she was not back at 1 am.....They finished close to 12 andl the driver had to send one of the entourage to Shah Alam from Cyberjaya, then our place...She came back at 1.30 eventually!