Past Year Memories

Happy New Year to everyone who is at this blog...I went through both of our mobile and found a few videos that kind of brought back some sweet and sour(sometimes!) memories...
Here is one about Shadiq when he was 1mth old. He just returned from KKH because of jaundice so that's why the burnt looks. It was traumatizing because of the treatment we got from the staff at KKH and I was really disappointed with them. It wasnt just the nurses even the so-called senior doctors. They were rude with us and kind of rough with Shadiq. What tick us off is when Herman insisted that Shadiq be placed in the infants ward. The doctor said no and using his exact words "Your baby is from outside and therefore he is infected." Herman was furious and made sure that everyone there got what they deserved : a good scolding and "I will complain to MOH and whatever Ministry" threats to them. Herman even said that he will threaten to sue the hospital if Shadiq got exposed to other diseases coz he was placed in the children's ward. They were what Malays called; menggelecat after that and treated Shadiq better after that. Maybe thought we look like a couple of kids to be bullied I guess....
I guess that goes to show that you shouldnt ever judge a book by its cover...

Music Video

Finally I get to sit down and create a music video of the pics that I have. Yes, I am doing this nearly 1am in the morning when everyone out there is either celebrating the new year or sleeping in bed. This is one way of starting the new year....by updating my blog and going thru pics...the memories....

To everyone out there, A Happy New Year 2008 and best wishes for everyone! Thanks for all the memories and be sure to create new memories that will last forever..... now if only Shadiq could sleep in his own bed without me....

My Songs

Our Family Adventure

Wow! From last Saturday till today Monday, me, Shadiq and Herman have been on a long 3-day family adventure.
Here is the family itinery:

Saturday 1st December 2007:
8am Wake up, bathe and breakfast.
9am Go to doctor for Shadiq cough and phlegm medicine.
11am Go to Leisure Park Kallang. Nothing much to see as it is only 40% ready.
1130am Go to Changi Airport Terminal 3. Paid $3 per person for a guided tour.
Got to see their new shopping centres, viewing area, sculptured walls,
butterfly park, cinema, hotel, shower room & spa, departure hall, arrival
hall,new sky train and the list goes on....now I know where all our tax money
go to.
3pm Take the sky train to Terminal 2 Viewing Area.
(in malay its called Dewan Lambaian - sound so sad)
430om Take the train to Bedok (Shadiq make 'kueh' in the train)
530pm Have our supper at Bedok's Banquet. Walk around for a while.
645pm Reach home, bathe and relax.
740pm Karaoke, oke, ke.....
930pm Lights out.

Sunday (2nd December 2007):
8am Wake up, bathe and breakfast.
930am Iron the clothes, prepare Shadiq's dapur, make-up (Herman's sedara wedding)
1045am Went out and wait for a cab. (oh, oh...road closure because of marathon)
Walk out to Kallang Airport.
1130am Got a cab to Jurong (Toh Guan Road).
1215pm Reach the wedding place. Husin Saaban is the deejay, wow!
Chit-chat, get-together, talk, blah, blah, blah, eat, eat, drink, drink, etc.
415pm Leave the place and take a cab to Orchard Rd.
Walk around to see the buskers performing, the Christmas lights,
eat ice-cream, Old Chang Kee snacks, etc.
715pm Reach home, have our dinner, bathe and rest.
8pm Karaoke again, la-la-la-laaaa....
945pm Lights out.

Monday (3rd December 2007):
930am Wake up, bathe and breakfast
1045am Check my e-mail, watch some tv. Herman got bored and said, "Get ready."
1230pm Pack Shadiq's dapur again, bought a bottle of water and biscuits.
Take bus 30 to VivoCity.
145pm Bought a train ticket to Sentosa. ($3 per person) Shadiq sleeping.
200pm Reach Sentosa, took a bus to Underwater World. Shadiq wake up.
215pm Walk around underwater world. I feed the stingray and fishes with Shadiq.
Herman did not want to get wet. Brought the handicam but forgot to charge it.
Wanted to buy a disposable cam but decided against it. Walk around the place
and saw big, small fishes. Shadiq got scared of the big Japanese crabs.
Shadiq also get scared of a fish who stared at him with one big eye.
320pm Went out and went to Dolphin Lagoon.
335pm Reach Dolphin Lagoon and saw the pink dolphins performing. It is so
entertaining and fun.
445pm Take a bus to the Merlion.
500pm Paid $8 per person for the Merlion. Watch the show, got a fan(mystery gift)
and saw a view of Sentosa by going to the top.
530pm Took the train back to Vivocity. Eat at vivo's banquet.
Shadiq finished a plate of chicken rice and some fishballs and crabmeat.
630pm Went to Giant for a while. Bought a DVD cartoon for Shadiq. Shadiq drink milk.
715pm Reach home, Shadiq sleeping while in the cab. Herman relaxing, Raudah typing.
930pm Lights out!

Our three days family adventure have left us tired and lazy. I got to clean the house tomorrow and Herman got to work tomorrow. My two-weeks holiday just started so I am gonna make the most of it...Maybe I should start by making a shopping list...pay day is in 2 weeks time (bonus, increment, mmmmmmm.......)

Shadiq, Ayah n Ibu, Holiday Blues

Our computer had been in ICU for the past 2 months and was warded for a few days. Yesterday it was discharged and have fully recovered....so now is the time that I get to update our blog.

Shadiq turned 2 last November and have lost a lot of weight. He has bad cough and flu so in a way it made him lost his appetite. Now he is more into cornflakes, bread, rice and soup, fish and milk. He is also under toilet training. He is able to go to the toilet on his own or tells us if he wants to pee but still poops everywhere. He only tells us when he finish pooping. Funny thing is he will only go to the toilet if I am around. If not he did it everywhere. He doesn't wear pampers in the day only at night or when he sleeps. I made him go to the toilet before and after he sleeps.



He is also learning to swim. He swims in the normal pool (with buoy) and the deep pool (without buoy). He will dog-paddle around the pool and mimic swimming actions. He is going to pre-nursery next year May (they only accept when 30mths)but I brought him to my centre a few times when my mum was sick. My colleagues took turns taking care of him in their classroom. Apparently they and the children liked him. They said that he was well-behaved and did not make any fuss when he was in their classroom (surprisingly)....it seems that me and Herman's disciplining with him work out well (I hope!). Even though he is the only child right now, we did not want to spoil him and turn him into a selfish or spoilt brat. I have seen alot of brats in the centre and I dont want him to turn out into one. THe only thing that we want to teach him now is not to play rough. Herman teach him silat and play fighting with him so he tends to be quite rough with others (even with me)...He can also be very obstinate and stubborn if he doesnt get things done his way....We punished him by making him sit at a corner (the naughty corner) or not letting him play. The worst punishment that he will get is a caning from Herman (only reserved for bad or naughty things) or a pinch/smack from me. If he saw Herman with the cane, he will immediately run into a corner and said "Ampun, ampun" then crying pitifully.

I got some good books from my centre. We are shifting centres so we get to go through tons of worksheets, activity books, textbooks, storybooks, cds, etc. We were told that we can take the books if we want to as there are so many sets of them. I brought home lots of books for Yani, Elya, Ilham, Irfan and even Shadiq. xc I made him do writing and colouring too. I teach him the alphabets, numbers and shapes. Yesterday I and Shadiq went through the alphabet book together. He got along quite fine until we reached W. I pointed to W for Woodpecker and he said "No! Bird!" I pointed to the letter W and told him W is for Woodpecker but he insisted that it is a bird! Said "No!Bird!Bird!" Oh well...who is to argue with a 2 year-old.

I really do enjoy the holidays coz that is the time I really get to do a lot of things with Shadiq. Its like I have a mini-classroom in the house. We will do painting, playing with dough, writing numbers, alphabets or drawing pictures. I do alot of art and craft activities with him. Its fun and educational as well. Sure helps being a preschool teacher. I got lots of resources and fun stuffs hidden away so Shadiq sure is lucky. But I havent had enough holiday this year. Because of the shifting of new centre so our holidays are less and I have only two weeks leave. Not really enough for me to plan my activities with him but I think its better than having nothing at all.

Herman started working at SMRT for nearly 2 months now. It is better than working at Suntec in terms of having better future prospects and it is much more stable considering it is a government job. He is much happier now where he is and I told him no more job hopping from now on. Now he is into thinking of buying a condo and a car. I told him that he work for SMRT not own it to be thinking about all that. I dont mind getting a car but not the condo. It is not worth the money.
Me? Well, I am basically going to spend my entire life at this PCF centre. Besides I am going for my Speech and Drama course under Lorna Whiston Centre next year for six months. It is an established training centre and after I got the cert I can teach Speech and Drama at any place. It will be fun and quite entertaining in a way. No news about my bonus yet. Everyone have already been appraised about their performance except me. My principal told me that I dont need to be appraised and that they are happy with my performance. Dont know how true is that but I do hope that I got a good increment for my pay. Still low though.....'sigh'...we do more work but got less for it.
Holidays? Still havent decide yet where to go. We thought about staying for 2 nights at Shangri-La Hotel at Sentosa or Downtown East Pasir Ris Chalet. Reason is because of the short holiday that I have, our bonus and Herman doesnt have enough leave to go on a long holiday. So we plan for a short holiday in Singapore during the weekends or public holidays. We do it to coincide with our bonus (at least we have money to spare!).

Kuih, kueh.........

Start buat kuih yesterday and today....M&M cookies, honey cornflakes, bantal peluk saloma...tomorrow we will be doing the chocolate chip cookies.....next week will be kuih makmur and kuih tart.
I have always loved making kuih. It is always more satisfying (cheaper too!) to make your own kuih than buying. You know what makes the kuih all seem so nice when you make it your own? The fact that it is your own sweat in making it. Too bad I got sick (flu) and couldn't really do much. Herman and the other kids at home helped my mum who is the supervisor to adun and Faiz is in-charge of the baking. I am part helper and nanny. I had to look after Shadiq and also Emma. Kind of funny though, there are times that Emma was on my lap (sleeping) and my hands were doing all the kneading....Shadiq however is occupied with playing soccer at the corridor area with the kids.

Now, I am in the midst of imagining on how to start cleaning the house. Dusting, sweeping, moping, washing and whatevers. Just thinking about it give me a headache. Herman will surely be busy cooking the rendangs, ayam gorengs. Yes, my husband Herman is the one who help his mum to cook for Hari Raya. So for those of you who will come to my house to visit, don't be surprised if you saw him cooking. We have already assign ourselves on what to do on the eve of Hari Raya. I am in-charge of the cleaning-deco section, Herman is in-charge of the cooking-kitchen section and the kids in the house will be in-charge of the childcare and play section.

Poor Shadiq. Yesterday, both of us were so busy with preparing the kuihs and buying the ingredients that we totally forgot to feed him. Kesian kena puasa satu hari tak makan nasi. Just gave him milk....at night, he got such a bad stomache. Felt quite bad about it. So today I made sure that he ate despite all the hustle and bustle in the house.
And another thing about him is that he has literally exhausted and worn out our P-Ramlee vcds. We watched the movies every night without fail before he sleeeps (requested with persistant cries) and it got to the point that he can memorise the songs and the lyrics of the story even dance steps. From Bujang Lapok (Seniman and Pendekar), Nujum Pak Belalang, Labu Labi (part 1 and 2), Lela Manja, and the list goes on... Don't know what it is about the movies that clicks with him. We, ourselves, got bored of it all and when we changed to cartoons or animated movies, he isn't that all interested. Just like this morning..from 530am to nearly 8am, it was just classics and nothing but classics on the tv. We slept through it all and he was the one who changed the cds and play the cds. Yes, he know which cd to choose and how to run the vcd player as well as the tv. Its just easier and less painful for us...

And last but not least to everyone out there :
SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI !!!!!

BRYAN ADAMS !!!!

I was browsing around the internet when I came across this music video... to all Bryan Adams fan (like me!) this is for you.....

p>Bryan Adams- Everything I Do

[via FoxyTunes / Bryan Adams]