My neighbours ....

Salaam , it's a brand new week and already into the second week of bulan Rejab . My father has been fasting since 1st Rejab and I am praying hard that he will have the strength to fast until 10 Rejab . His health has not been that good lately as he will get tired easily so fasting this year will be quite a challenge for him .

I have two wonderful neighbours , Ani and Ima whom I called my network of support system ! The three of us shares everything (not our husband of course !!!) - we complement each other and I am really thankful for being blessed with wonderful neighbours from both side of my house and thank God for their husbands and children too who are just as caring and friendly to my family . The three of us are quite close like sisters , and as the eldest among us , I will normally take charge of things .... hehehee , well I am used to taking charge and being bossy .... LOL

Ani , Ima and myself loved to hang out in our front garden in the early evening when our children will play outside . We will pull out our comfy chairs and just talked about anything under the sun but mostly in would revolved around food recipes , our children , clothes , tv programmes , gardening , cartoons , etc . In between Ani and Ima they each have two children , Iklil , Aqil , Delaila , Danieya and the wonderful part is both of them are expecting baby boys this year . Ani will be giving birth in August and Ima will give birth to her first son in October !!! I am so , so happy for both of them and especially Ima and her hubby , Roger who are thrilled to bits when they found out she's expecting a baby boy !

My darling princess , Umaira enjoys a love hate attitude with her young neighbours , Kakak Iklil , Adik Aqil , Lala and Nieya - they play together and be on their best behaviour one minute and the next minute will start fighting for toys ... well that's kids for you ... !!!

I am forever thankful for Ani and Ima for keeping an eye on my dad at home when we were outstation or just out for the day . Thanks Ani , Zul , Ima and Roger too for being kind and caring towards Tok Bak , we really appreciated it . It's hard to find neighbours like them nowadays when people are too self centred and don't really mix and know their neighbours .

Have a wonderful week ahead . Wassalam

My favourite TV show !

Salaam ,

It's Friday and the morning started off with a big bang - Michael Jackson passed away and it is a huge news all over the world . Everyone is talking about it everywhere - Facebook , Twitter etc . Another famous person has passed on too - Farrah Fawcett one of the famous Charlie's Angels . Goodbye MJ and Farrah Fawcett , may you rest in peace !

It's a wet Friday afternoon and I am looking forward to the weekend , especially tomorrow night where my favourite tv series will be aired on NTV7 , it's 24 starring Jack Bauer (a.k.a Kiefer Sutherland) . I have followed this series since season one and now it's in its Season 7 (US had shown the season finale last month) and the new season 8 will start shooting soon ! Yipppeee .... I am planning to get a DVD collection of all the seasons from one to seven and will watch them over and over again . I used to think that I am one of the few die hard fans of 24 and Jack Bauer but after joining Facebook , I realised there are many crazy fans like me out there and I mean MANY .... hehehehee

My Saturday nights are made more exciting by looking forward to my weekly dose of 24 but in between I will be watching 24 on DVD when I have the chance ... I know , I know some of you will puke when I say this ... LOL

So , life will still go on .... happy weekend everyone !

My tomato tree ...

Hi , hi , hi ...

It's been a week since I last wrote in my blog , last weekend was supposed to be boring but everything turned out well and good ! Although my car was still out of action last Saturday but thanks to my beloved niece , Leya , I drove her car to my aunty's house in Kg Pandan for a kenduri . There were three of us in the car - yours truly , Umaira Maisarah and my ever-obliging neighbour , Mak Yah as my co-pilot . Mak Yah is a 60 years-old single mother but we get along very well and I can spend my time with her with feeling the obvious generation gap . She's almost my Kak Long's age so perhaps this is why I can relate to her because I am very close to my eldest sister , Akak (that's what we call her) .

I didn't attend my aerobic class last Saturday morning , but made up for it by going to bacaan Yaasin at one of my neighbours' house in the afternoon . I was looking forward to last Sunday because my hubby was returning home from Kuantan after being away for 4 days and on top of that was the possibility of meeting up with old classmates at Mines Resort in the evening . But nevertheless , the meeting was cancelled due to unforeseen reasons , so that was it ! My hubby came home and brought along nice keropok lekor from Kuantan which I distributed to neighbours .

Hmmm ... I am suppose to talk about my garden but I had apparently digress from the topic judging by the paragraphs above ! Anyway , back to my home garden , my tomato tree has apparently started tp produce .... hooray !!! I am so excited and pray very hard Umaira will not be tempted to pluck them before it is time !!!! She did that a few times with my chillies .... hmmmm

I will keep everyone posted on my tomatoes , can't wait to harvest them and cook Spaghetti Marinara or Olio .... all Umaira's favourites .

Ciao for now ....

Boringnya this weekend ...

It's already Friday and the weekend will be upon us very soon ... I am not really looki ng forward to Saturday , all because my car has broken down and I will be without a car until my hubby comes back from Kuantan this Sunday ! Tomorrow I have a kenduri tahlil in Kampung Pandan to attend to and Sunday , I really , really wish I can meet up with Azah and Narima who is flying into KLIA . We have agreed to have a mini reunion at Alamanda , but looks like the person who is organising it will NOT be attending the reunion .... the moral of the story is ... anything can happen in a flash of a moment !
Semuanya telah ditakdirkan , kita kena menerimanya dengan redha .... pasti ada hikmah di sebaliknya .

So I will be spending the weekend at home with Umaira and my dad . Umaira has a new interest at home - her daddy bought a new DVD player last week and she has been watching Barney , Barney and more Barney everyday when she is not in school ! Her favourite DVD is the one that contains a mixture of cartoons - Barney , Thomas and Friends , Bob the Builder and Pingu .... my favourite too ! I can sing the songs in these shows with ease , all the lyrics already in my head ... here you go ...

Barney's song
I LOVE YOU , YOU LOVE ME
WE ARE A HAPPY FAMILY
WITH A GREAT A BIG HUG
AND A KISS FROM ME TO YOU
WON'T YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME TOO .... !

Thomas and friends
THEY'RE TWO , THEY'RE FOUR , THEY'RE SIX , THEY'RE EIGHT
SHUNTING TRUCKS AND HAULING FREIGHTS
RED , AND GREEN , AND BROWN , AND BLUE
THEY'RE A REALLY USEFUL CREW
ALL WITH DIFFERENT ROLES TO PLAY
ROUND TIDSMOUTH SHED AND FAR AWAY
DOWN THE HILLS AND ROUND THE BENDS
THOMAS AND HIS FRIENDS ....

How about that ? These are only some of the songs that I now know by hard ... you have too when you have a toddler like Umaira .... LOL

I must muster all strength and willpower to get outta bed early tomorrow morning for my aerobic class at 8am . I have been giving it a miss for the past two weeks due to many reasons (which I am not telling) and it's about time to get fit again ! Umaira loves it more than I do actually .... Saturday nights are made more bearable with the thoughts of watching another great episode of the action drama series , 24 and get a dose of good actions from my here , Jack Bauer .... hmmmm

Happy weekend everyone !

Rombongan "Cik Gayah" ke Air Tawar , Perak

13th June , 2009 (saturday) marked a historical day in my life . It was the first time I have ever organised a family trip using a tourist coach as our mode of transportation . The maiden trip for made to attend the wedding our my cousin's eldest son . The loction - Amir Chalet in Air Tawar , Perak . I had tried organising such trip before but it never somewhat materialized due to many reasons . The task of getting everyone agreeing and free on the same date is not easy !

So the Day came last Saturday and I woke up at 3.45am to prepare some food and tidbits for the trip . Chicken and fish nuggets , sambal goreng jawa , IKO biscuits , mini buns , freshly brewed coffee in a flask among other things were all the order of the day . Umaira did not have any problems waking up so early in the morning , she was jumping up and down the bed when I told her we will be taking the bus somewhere together with Mak , Kak Anab , Kakak Amah , Abang Nasser , Mak Long , Eyna , Tok Uda , Tok Chik , Kakak Iman , Kakak Munirah and many more of her second cousins , atoks etc.

We departed from home at 6.15am , which was a bit off schedule but hey , we arrived at our first stop , Kg Pandan at 6.55am which was definitely on time . We made it to the next stop , Subang Jaya at 7.45am and from there everything was exciting . The relatives from Subang Jaya that turned up for the trip were more from the seats they had booked but in the end we all managed to squeeze everybody into the bus . The last stop is at Denai Alam to pick up my Kak Long Pida and her daughter , Eyna and we were off to Perak ! It was so much fun travelling with your own relatives , no outsiders in the bus and this was the chance to get to know your family members better ! Food was being passed around all through the trip , the Carrot Walnut Cake and kuih tarts were simply delicious and even the egg sandwich made by Kak Echah was good . Everyone was talking at the same time and it was loud but we were all having a great time .... They were even talking about organising the next trip together .... Genting Highlands , Cameron Highlands , Kota Bahru are some of the most preferred destinations .

We arrived at the wedding with a big bang because the bride and groom were in the middle of their bersanding ceremony and our arrival sort of taken the attention of the guests away from the pengantin ... !!! The food was great , were starving and the dalca was superb . It was the first time I tasted dalca that was cooked with young bananas .... simply delicious no other words to describe it . When it was all over , we boarded the bus again at 2.30pm and headed to Lumut Jetty for some shopping . The bus was filled with Satay Ikan , Ikan Bilis , Ikan Kering and other tidbits and we wanted more shopping so we headed to Bidor town for another round of shopping . At Bidor , most of us bought petai , petai and more petai , Jambu Air Madu and seedless guava . By the time we reached Tg Malim rest stop , it was Maghrib and we had dinner there , most of us had the famous Tanjung Malim pau and even bought them home the frozen ones . When we finally boarded the bus again at 8.15pm , everyone was already tired and sleepy but still in high spirits . Speeches were made by me , the organiser , Kak Menah on behalf of Subang Jaya geng and Kak Tik on behalf of the Kg Pandan geng .... thank you so much to everyone for the support and making this trip a wonderful one !!!

Home sweet home , we finally reached our own home at 12.00 midnight and I managed to watch my favourite show , 24 on TV .... LOL ! The day ended with a high note and everyone was in high spirits although very tired . Hope to see you all in the next trip soon !