Friday 26 September 2008

My Last Day Before Raya

Buah cempedak buah kepaya
Ambil galah tolong jolokkan
Bapak budak mau beraya
Silap dan salah tolong ampunkan.

Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir Batin.

Thursday 18 September 2008

Three Cheers for Athyra

Remember in this little update I mentioned that Athyra was already taking baby steps? And now I would like to present.... The Walking Athyra!!! (clap! clap! clap!)

Ok. That may be a little bit of over-dramatization but Alhamdulillah, Athyra is now finally walking, if you can call getting upright, taking a few steps, moving all around to balance while taking those several steps, tumbling and diving into whatever that can be perceived as safe haven and repeat the cycle again as walking. I would love to take Athyra's photo again in that Aqiqah ceremony outfit but this will do for now.

My little Athyra, now taking the gigantic leap towards toddler-hood. Towards being independent. Preparing herself to be a big sister come February 2009.

Saturday 13 September 2008

An Episode Before Iftar

Today, on Friday, we came back in 2 separate cars, which would not normally happen on weekdays where we would carpool and come back in one car. Typically on Friday, the roads would be more horribly choking than the usual unbearable jam anyway. It was a busy day in the office, clearing the horrible mess resulted from me making half of my room available to another person bunking in so we didn't get to discuss what to have for iftar. She was in the other car with all the children and I was driving alone in the small green car. So, I was practically talking to her on the phone, without handsfree kit, while looking into my rear windscreen in the gridlocked traffic.

Wow! That sounds like a very dull intro. Haven't been writing for a while and I'll try to make it more interesting from now onwards to make it worth your while.

While we would normally go home together and she'll cook just in time for iftar, the congestion was extraordinarily bad. So, we decided maybe to eat outside for today. Until at the very last traffic light junction, I received a quick call from her saying our fasting Alyssa would like to have nasik lemak at home and I am entrusted to buy some ingredients from the local grocery store.

To cut a long story short, I was already in front of the cash register that showed a total of RM4.60. And viola! I suddenly discovered I had no paper money in my wallet at all! Instantaneously, I remembered when it's too late that the last 100 I had in the wallet was given to Alyssa to pay off her kum0n. An I don't need to be a genius to tell that the paltry amount of coins that I had in the wallet would not even cover half of that amount. Blue-faced, I told the cashier to hold on to the goods while I made my way to the nearest petrol station which is within a walking distance from the grocery store. And this was when the iftar time is looming within 30 minutes.

A hurried walk saw me arriving at the petrol pump in 5 minutes. And guess what? I don't even need to go into the convenience store to see the highly visible sign pasted conspicuously on the ATM saying "Out of Order". Oops. Failed on the second contingency there.

So, what did I do now that the deadline has been reduced to a mere 25 minutes? Surely I would take about 15 minutes to go back and forth and secure some money from home. So, I had to make the straightest face and go to the cashier to secure the goods on credit (aka hutang) first to make sure we could eat on time , then come back and pay when the chef was coming up with the evening delicacies.

Which I succeeded since I don't exactly have the face that would scam anybody at first instance. At least I would like to think that I don't.

So, thankfully this story ends with a happy ending even though we had to wait impatiently for about 5 minutes before the rice cooker's switched popped up. And everybody lived happily ever after, up till now at least...

Thursday 4 September 2008

No, I Am Not Linked To Screwboy

If you think I were somehow psycho-kinetically linked to Screwboy after reading his post here and mine, apart from this tiny little occasion, I would like to clarify that I have never experienced any other twin-like reflexes despite being in the same office with him for the past err 5 years maybe.

I have a confession to make. I am mosh and I am a microsleeper. I had one expensive instance yesterday. I microslept during my little food-less lunch time excursion to submit the reconfirmation forms of my all-grown up Alyssa for next year's coming of age schooling year in which she has been really looking forward to.

The price I had to pay? A lot of pride, a busted driver-side front tyre, some unknown damage to the drive shaft or whatchamajinga under the car and a lot of sweat under the hot sun which liquid would only be replenished 5 hours later and a rude awakening, if I may add. If you are somehow familiar with the Taman Tun area approaching LDP opposite the Green and Yellow/ Red Petrol station with a huge tyre shop right in the middle (how apt!), you would be able to imagine that the road will curve to the left as you approach the LDP. I was not feeling tired at all throughout the journey. And the night before was one of the few nights that had I enjoyed a good 7.5 hours of sleep. So you could either blame it on the hot sun or the lack of nicotine in the bloodstream. Either way, ironically the last thing I remembered was thinking about one of my conversation with my brother-in-law about how car insurances would only pay up only a portion of your claims should you under-insure your car. The next thing I know, there was this loud thud coming from the front of the car and I was climbing the 4-foot-tall earthern road divider, ramming straight into it in my sleep. It didn't take a genius to know that my driver-side front tyre was totally busted and I stopped over in that work clothes to do the manly thing of changing into the spare tyre.

Thankfully, apart from the horribly scratched rims, minor scratches on the bumper and maybe some unknown costs of material damages on the front-right tyre and axle, I don't have to deal with a mangled piece of metal that used to be my car or worse still, deal with a mangled piece of meat that used to be me.