Birthday wishes and carrot cake

Hello 42. That's the number for this year. Like or not, we all age...there will be more white hairs from now onwards.Its the big B Day today.Spend the day with my usual itinerary,mammogram and ultra sound check up, watched a movie and lunch. All this on my own. I celebrated my birthday in my own usual way. ME time. Which was quite sedih actually..sobs,sobs...but on the bright note, I received some lovely birthday wishes. My first birthday wish was from kak chik,she sent me a midnight birthday message via sms but it was on the wrong date...hehe...more like 24 hours early...but it doesn't matter and I didn't have the heart to tell her,"kak chik, you silap tarikh"...that would be cruel.The ball started rolling this morning with birthday wishes from hubby and kids.Followed with a missed call from Sue,she left a voice mail tapi I returned her call, and promptly dengar the voice mail...so sweet she sang me a birthday song..hehe, pitching ada lari sikit tapi boleh terima la.Then Kak Mah rang with her birthday wishes followed by Amal.All these while I was at the hospital.Sue said to me earlier why do mammogram on your birthday..well, I have been doing it for the past three years as a birthday gift for myself semenjak Kak had the big C.Its a wake up call for all of us.

Received few more birthday sms, another pitching salah call tapi in Soprano style fom Kak Dah in Kuantan and a long birthday call from zura....and as usual a string of sms exchanges with kak, kak's sms can be quite hilarious or confusing, cant put my finger on it..kak said something about wishing me an early birthday wish as mak would be having labour pains by now....so, I replied, mak had her labour pains since last nite cos my birthday is today.It seems that she had a mixed up with the dates, Aye kata its on the 26th.

I thought I would enjoy a day out on my own,do some shopping ke,do something frivolous ke, tapi I ended up doing something mundane like pi ke Tesco untuk beli susu Sofia and to the pejabat pos untuk bayar bills.Hmm, it seems I have finally grown up. But the little girl inside of me still wants a bithday cake..so I treated myself to slice of my favourite carrot cake with cheese frosting.Not so grown up after all.

Just too lazy and tired... for anything.

Am too lazy to do work...brought back some files home....the intention was to do some work during the weekends. Saturday passed by with a blur, sunday was grocery day..and jalan-jalan day with the kids and TH. Went to Giant with hubby without the kids(rasa guilty), had tosai masala and hot milo at Kayu. Balik rumah...keluar lunch at Mydin,Subang pulak.Balik rumah,was up to elbow mencuci bilik air...kak, syu, aye, amal and the kids came over in the evening with pisang raja (kak yang bawak) to visit TH.

Adik and kakak dah tidur. Both makan ubat selsema. Hubby is watching football...hmm, am too lazy to open the files....instead posting an entry...yawn,need to sleep, maybe will wake up at three or four in the morning untuk buat kerja. In the mean time, my back needs a rest, my head is asking for the pillows, my mind wants to shut down...hmm, I need to sleep.So tired.

The bad and the good....

This morning, well more like mid morning I was at SDMC for my appointment with the physician.As usual,the waiting place was brimming with patients...some appeared to be restless, tired or plain bored. I fell into the last category. As I am accustomed to hospital's waiting rooms, I brought my book and a bottle of mineral water to keep me occupied ( the book not the water) ...was trying hard to read but could not. There was a Chinese lady speaking very loudly on the hand phone. This was no just loud BUT MAJOR LOUD! I turned and looked at her, could not make any eye contact, as she too busy talking LOUDLY....I wanted to sent dagger looks, of course, could not.

It was very irritating. I wished people would understand, that private calls are meant to be PRIVATE. Please do not share it with others in an annoying way. I could not understand her conversation, but could pick up some smattering of english words. What do you do in this kind of situations....NOTHING.

Anyway, the good news that I got from Dr. Hew....my cholesterol, lipid levels were down...he was pleased. My usual dosage of 20mg has been cut to 10 mg....another blood test and check up in three months time. But before I left his room, Dr. Hew said..please exercise. I knew it was too good to be true.

Balik ke office, got a fax from HQ, transferred to another Ministry...hmm, kena cari kotak la pulak. Another journey begins.

Adik comel, kakak comot & TH puasa

This evening adik said something cute, she said "mama, adik comel, kakak comot". I found this to be very amusing. I tak pernah ajar adik to say that pun, maybe it is through her observations...hehehe.Kakak memang comot pun....she can be quite messy. Kadang-kadang baju kakak yang lawa jadi comot bila nampak baju gelebeh aje..she said mama yang buat kakak jadi comot.... she complained I beli baju yang besar for her bila I beli without her. Bukan tak pandai agak-agak her size, tapi takut nanti tak selesa. She is going to be 10 in November, hmm nanti lagi susah nak pilih baju. Mesti nak pilih sendiri. Adik walaupun kecik lagi tapi boleh tahan jugak memilih baju. Pandai nak melawa, asyik nak pakai compact powderla, berlip stick and pakai perfume.Habis barang mama lepa buat macam harta benda lepa. That's my girls.

Talking about emak and anak. Mak is with me, took her from kak's house on saturday. Bibik sempat berbisik to me this morning that TH kutip my brooches and simpan dalam her bag...so, I terpaksa buat buat bertanya kat mak samada ada ternampak my brooches, so mak pun mencari-cari. Memang pun, ada dalam bag mak. Hmm, tak apa, it is only brooches.

Petang tadi, hubby kata, mak resah pasai dia nak berbuka puasa tapi makanan tak siap lagi. She asked bibik to masak nasi. Mak of course tak puasa. So, hubby smsed to me (why, sms? Cos I was in the bedroom, upstairs)...his sms didnt make sense at first, something about pity mak, bila I turun baru he said mak kata dia puasa, nak buka puasa tapi tak apa apa nak makan. I tak siap lagi.

Anyway sebelum I turun bawah, mak asked me, laki kat bawah tu nak naik solat ke, I said Zubir ke, she said no, laki lain yang dia buka puasa kat bawah tadi...I said mak tak puasa, tadi kita makan tengahari...she said again bukan zubir tapi laki lain....hmm, risau pulak, laki mana pulak...naik bulu roma jugak. Hmm, mak boleh nampak something ke...takut jugak. Rasa macam dalam twillight zone pulak.

Where do I begin...

This morning while I was cuddling my youngest on the bed, savouring the minutes before I have to get up to start my day, I pondered on events that took place yesterday. I was in court in the morning, representing 3 juveniles and ended up representing 2 more juveniles with an adult. I had interviewed them weeks ago, made a representation to the DPP's office, hoping for the best for them. Yesterday, I went through again , the whole motion of interviewing/questioning , sharing my opinion and advising the new clients . My emotions pun bercampur-campur. You looked at them, thinking where have all the innocence gone to, you look at the parents and start to wonder when did they realised that they have lost control over them....at the back of mind I am trying my best to help the kids, but at the same time, the evidence and the facts are not in their favour...where do you begin as a parent, as a professional, as a fellow human being...to understand and and at the same time be grateful of your kids but yet frightened of the future.

As a mother I sympathise the parents and feel very humbled when the mothers bersalam with me, talking to me not only as a lawyer for the kids but as a mother to mother....pressing my hands with the hope that I can help their kids and and make a difference in their life....and at times leaves me with heavy burden to carry.

Yesterday, when the charges were being read again....I looked at them....they were just kids. Sedih. The charges against them are quite heavy, they would be looking at a maximum 20 years of imprisonment for one of the charges if they are adults, but being juvenile...the order not sentence would be under the Child Act.

I know its difficult to raise children, arwah pak was firm and yet compassionate and affectionate. I tak pernah kena pukul dengan pak, mak ada jugak cubit kat peha...but that was nothing. They raised 9 children well. I may not have toys berbakul-bakul macam my kids, pakai baju hand downs from my sisters, mak jahit baju cotton masa kecik-kecik, we had a simple life, mak was a house wife so she was always at home, makan apa aje yang mak masak, bukan trips to McD or KFC, tak tengok movies Disney ke, tak keluar every weekends, we visited relatives, we enjoyed the strong family values that they instilled in us, life was quite simple and happy then, just study hard so that we do not disappoint them....I grew up with sisters that I looked up to and brothers that I could depend on. I just hope that I can be become a good parents like them....kalau dapat sebahagian pun dah alhamdullilah. Syukur. Amin

Makan-makan & kak chick's tushee

It was quite an eventful weekend. The we had our Legal Clinic at one of the hypermarket in Kuala Lumpur. As usual when you have the public as your clients you must be prepare to accept all sort of questions and karenah. Be patient and keep your composure, no matter whether you are tired or do not feel so sociable. Some are curious, shy or just plain ignorant of your services.The clinic lasted 6 hours, 7 and a half hours to be precised, taking into consideration of the preparation time. There was some hiccups earlier on, the management did not provide us with tables and sufficient chairs although we have requested for them . We were tempted to buy some foldable tables...mujur we did not have to resort to it, we used some tables that were kept behind a small stage. We brought along some of chairs. But we had to buy kain at Kamdar for the table. Nampak buruk kalau tak ada covers. Ada ke the officer in charged of the arrangement was more concern about his trip to Sepang for F1.

The whole event left me quite tired, sampai rumah pun dah dekat pukul 6, didnt have enough time to cook for Syu's bbq, so, after exchanging view with hubby on what to bring to the gathering, I suggested beli Dominos pizza saja. So, off we went to Dominos in Subang Jaya, make the purchase order via phone for 4 large pizzas. Kids were happy about the pizzas, they thought we were having pizza dining in...hehehe, tricked them.

Syu organised a bbq for her mother...it was a belated birthday celebration. As usual, when the Wans get together, its all jolly good time of makan-makan. Syu had prepared ayam panggang, corn on the cob,chocalate cake, Aisyah brought sausages with coney dog sauce, Tizah baked Rasputin pies, kak mah brought some cupcakes, Daniel did the carrot cake with cheese frosting, Abang Imran with his famous sambal tumis sardine and Amal beli ice cream for dessert, we also had rice with Kak's gulai ikan.I cant remember whether I left anything out. I believe that food makes a family more closer and you cant be closer than this, as usual we love any makan-makan.

I'll be away to Putrajaya for 5 days...ada CMS...hmm, am not too thrill about it, tapi akan daya dah kerja. Oh ya, today pi visit Kak chick at Hospital Pusrawi ...she had an operation on her tushee...actually she kinda of embarrass about it ...hahahah....I had my fair chance of nursing Zubir's 3B (guess what it stands for..hehehe). So, kak chick get well soon so that you can go shopping at IKEA for a new cabinet. Ciao

(note: draft entry was made in the afternoon, during lunch break...it was not during waktu kerja, my conscience clear, hehheh ...sambung kat rumah)

I am clueless....

I have received some weird, hysterical and irritating sms through the years, today I received an sms which started a series of to and fro smses with my eldest sister. It started like this -

"Who is our new PM?" My reply was "Is this a tricky question? Hmm,its Najib or is it smthg else. Tell me". She responded with " Nothing tricky. Very straight forward. He is of course very popular w Malaysian". So I replied " Haiya. I tot u have smthg up yr sleeves.Kalau dpt cuti esok best jugak or pi bye2 Pak Lah dgn white handkerchief. Her following response was quite confusing, it was "White handkerchief. The clue". I texted "What is d clue? U giving me headache now" Kak replied with this "Okay2 dear. I thought it is Anuar Zain". At this stage I was pretty much confuse, so I replied with this "Anuar zain? Kak I am more confused". With that the smses stopped.

Now, I know that she has a lot of time on her hand and she can be quite lonely at home with the kids at work and at Uni...so she occupies her time by sending funny smses, sometimes with riddles, giving us updates on the latest info about the family, spreading any news, traffic flow on the North and South Highway (when she is travelling to Perlis or Alor Setaq)..and so on to the rest of the family. But today's sms was confusing. In fact I called up Amal to ask whether kak sent the same sms to her about who is the new PM. Now, I know for a fact who the next 6th PM of Malaysia...but I thought she was making some joke or giving some riddles.

Well, that's kak. I still dont know what is connection between the new PM and Anuar Zain and why the white handkerchief is a clue. I am clueless.

Asap rokok and my LB

What's my take or opinion of the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic -well, to be truthful, I was disappointed with the movie. I preferred the book version than the movie. Found the movie to be less entertaining than the book...the pace was a bit jumpy, macam tak cukup umph. The movie did not do justice to the book. Somehow the character of Luke Brandon in the movie was not the image that I had from my reading. I had the image of a more mature LB in my mind. On the character of Becky Bloomwood, what I love about her is her ridiculous imaginations and naivety....it can be quite annoying but at the same time adorable... Isla Fisher did some justice to the character. The dancing scene was hilarious. I really laughed loud and hard. I adored her in the movie "Definitely, maybe".

Anyway, yesterday my very own LB came over to my office. He was on leave. Had lunch at gerai ikan bakar kat jalan ipoh. Hubby was disappointed sikit cause the choices of ikan bakar yang masih ada was limited. We arrived at the gerai about 10 minutes before 1pm, gerai dah penuh...ada yang nampak macam lama dah makan, hmm, pukul berapa lepa ni keluar lunch ah? Makan berdua ni, lain sikit tak ada budak-budak nak kacau...tapi the surroundings was not romantic la, quite panas sikit and kena share the table with other customers. Tapi boleh la.

Back at office, hubby filled my room with asap rokok. Pening la jugak. He made himself comfortable with a big mug of iced nescafe, newspapers and ciggies...tak was not enough for him, bila officer I came in to my room to seek my advice...hmm, dia pun sibuk bagi his opinion jugak...thats what you get for marrying another lawyer...its a job and family hazards....hehehe. To be fair to him, am thankful with his opinion cause I pun tak sedar ada benda yang tak tahu.

After he left,my office boy came into my room with a can of air freshener...terus sembur-sembur. Hmm, nak tergelak pun ada, tak tau whether nak rasa insulted ke....maybe he could sense that I was quite uncomfortable with the smoke. Hmm, nasib la, that's my Luke.