AmiraZefr

It was Shrek 3 showing nationwide yesterday and we managed to grab seats at Mid Valley for the 9.30 show. We’ve always wanted to bring Amirul to the movies but were always ‘afraid’ that he might not be up for it (you know, be grumpy throughout the whole movie). But we thought, since he liked watching Shrek (previous movies), we thought it would be a good treat to bring him.

His Abah came home early semata-mata for this ‘occassion’. Managed to get Amirul to nap for awhile (so that he’d be ‘fresh’ for the movie) before giving him his bath (it’s always a battle getting him out of the shower most of the time as he likes to play ‘fire-fighter’, but last night, he just obliged drying himself with his Bob towel-thank goodness!). Got him dressed, all prepped up for the big night.

As soon as we got into Mid Valley, he pointed out Mcd and yelled ‘Onals’ and yep, we knew where our tummies will be filled. Got him the Nuggets and Fries and his favourite ‘Lolo’-that’s Milo to the rest of us.

Off we went into Hall 2. Though we only managed to secure seats which were 3 rows from the front, the view weren’t that bad. Amirul was in awe. Seriously, he had his mouth open. If only I could take picture then. And I don’t think he even blinked!

On with the show, he was very obedient, sitting on my lap. An hour passed and amazingly, still fixed on the big screen.Then he started to ‘adjust’ his position. Dah mula baring on me. It was about 10.30 and I guess he was getting tired. But he didn’t sleep, he was still watching the movie. Bagusnya anak mommy… Luckily he didn’t asked to ‘nenen’…Pheww. But I was prepared *snigger*

The show ended a lil after 11 and from the expression on his face…he was contented, happy. Only he didn’t want to walk or let his Abah carry him. So, I had to carry him all the way to the car..( ayoo, he’s so heavy lar).

Sampai rumah je, he started singing and jumping. Gave him some fresh milk and told him that it was bed time. He obliged by saying ‘Ukung’ so kena laa carry dia to our room upstairs :I.

I guess he was pretty tired cos he didn’t want to let me go. I just propped him on the bed and his Abah took over. Quickly got into my jammies and jumped onto bed. 1,2,3,4,5….zzzzzzzzz. Off he goes to slumberland..

We would bring him to the movies again (for Shrek alike movies) and I must say his first; well our first as well, experience of going to the movies was definitely the highlight of our week! Hooray to the Zefferins!!

Hubs just emailed me at work and said that our developer has called to say that our new house at Nusa Rhu has been repaired (free from defects).

This means that we can start renovating our house :). We’ve got a few ideas for the house but we need to find a good contractor that can offer us a good price.

Anyways, my cousin and her family have moved into their new home a few months back. How nice! Their house is the exact replica of ours, only ours is in Shah Alam and hers is in Puchong. Looking from the photos of her house,I must say it was tastefully done. Bravo cuzz!

I have this intense pressure to make sure that my house is nicely done as well. Not so much that I want to compete with my cuzz (of course not), it’s just the pressure of having a comfortable house to live in and to look at - definitely not an eye sore! Definitely need to impress my mom (who is a fine decorator herself) as well as my MIL.

I think I just need to erase all these and just concentrate on what Fizan and Amirul love to have in the house (which I hope the other ‘lil one’ will be able to appreciate as well). I know that our house will be full of IKEA stuff, bright and cosy. Oh, I will also pay extra attention on MY one and only kitchen where I expect to be spending a lot of time in. I’m not much of a pro in cooking but I did promise hubs that I will definitely do more cooking once we move in our house. I like to cook and I love baking, it’s just that not having my OWN place and access to my OWN kitchen, hinders me from concocting meals most of the time. There I go again giving excuses :I

Anyways, we hope to move in to our new home before the baby arrives. Worst case scenario, this would only materialise right after my confinement period (which I think it’s such a long time to go *sigh*).

Lately, newborns have been sprouting like mushrooms! My cousin, Intan just delivered an adorable baby boy last Saturday. He is proudly named Ezril Mirza (I hope I do you justice Intan with the spelling :)) He was soo tiny with his lil fingers and lil toes but oh wow..a head full of hair! Brings back memories when I delivered my own boy, Amirul, almost 2 years ago. (He’s turning 2 this July..I have to start thinking of organising his 2nd bash already). But then to think of the confinement period of 2 months..Boo-hoo. But actually, mine wasn’t that bad (apart from having to drink ‘Air Periuk’ which tasted like feet! and the whole jamu enchilada). Mom took good care of me and baby, not forgetting my dear ol dad helping out with my barut and a great aunt urut, who happens to be my mom’s ol’ schoolmate. Will I have the same deal again in the future?? I hope so (minus some of the jamu and definitely the feet-tasting-periuk…!)

Oh..another one of my cousin, well, a very bau bacang one also delivered a cute baby boy a few weeks back. Her first, a girl was delivered just a few days earlier before Amirul. I see so many baby boys… will mine be the opposite? Mmmm

A well deserved holiday indeed was actually materialised last week when myself, lil Amirul, Mom, sis and Aunt flew to Bangkok for a weekend shopping retreat. Was our first time (3rd for my sis) to the land of the Elephants and suprisingly, it wasn’t that much of a difference with KL. In the sense that the people looked like us. Tho the language thing was a riot. My hubby and I managed to teach Amirul to say Sawadikap complete with the hand gesture! But then he only managed to say Kap but a pro with the hand thingy

Got the Airasia filght on Friday night and touched down in time for dinner. Amirul was a handful on the plane! Couldn’t stay put. Luckily he obliged to a ‘milking’ session during landing. We stayed in First Hotel (a muslim hotel) which is close to the markets and shopping malls.

Saturday - right after breakfast, headed straight to Chatuchak Market. I think you can get almost anything and everything there. Be warned to bring lotsa water and comfortable shoes as the place is huge and sorta looks like a maze. We spent about half a day shopping with shopping bags full in our hands. Bags! Shoes! Handicrafts! Jewellery! Knick knacks! You name it. We bought em! After lunch, went to MBK (sorta like Sungei Wang) and again bought more things. Mom bought a couple of blouses that she was so proud of and I must say, that they looked good on her. Amirul loves to play hide and seek in between the racks of clothes so he was totally unmanageable for awhile. Thank goodness for mom, aunt and sis who never fail to entertain the young chap. Leaves mommy extra time to herself . After being fully satisfied with ALL of our purchases, we went back to the hotel to refresh and have dinner. Later, off we went to Silom Market (if I’m not mistaken) for more retail therapy. This place is somewhat more lively as this is a watchamacallit… a ‘Pat Pong’ (as the taxi driver puts it). A red light district area! Well, the music was good - from 50 Cent to Snop Dogg, the visual was also good - managed to get a glimpse of some scantily dressed girls pole dancing. Unfortunately, didn’t see any strip shows tho. Suprisingly, the promoters of the clubs even promoted us for some SEXY SHOWS… tempted but no thanks! Hahhah. Even my son was AWED by all the commotion. At one point, his mouth ternganga for a second as he looked into the club. I quickly closed his eyes and diverted his attention to some fake Marc Jacobs bags. Heheh.. It worked! After covering the whole market, took a taxi back to the hotel. Off to bed we went.

Sunday - After a heavy breakfast, we went for a city tour with our reliable tour guide named Caya. Visited the Jim Thompson Museum (love the bags!), the Grand Palace, the reclining Buddha, the Gem shop (Royal Laphidiri - can’t remember the name), a leather shop (this place is cool - the leathers we were made of Stingray skin, elephant skin, croc skin etc) and a duty free shopping centre. Totally cheap but had to refrain myself from doing more damage to my wallet. Put Amirul in a stroller and thank god he liked it! But after half an hour, he got bored and wanted to push the stroller all by himself. Oh my! Mind you, none of us had lunch all day but we had a couple of bread (we sorta seludup from the hotel :)) in the van and what with all the shopping, food was the last thing on our minds. Hahahha. Later in the evening, went to Mak Yah restaurant and had our so called lunch. Amirul slept through ‘lunch’ cos I think he used up all his energy running all over the place. Good thing that we were to have dinner later that night so he could fill himself up then. Went to the Siam Ocean World @ Siam Paragon after dinner. It was rather empty so we spent our own sweet time going through each and every tank there is while admiring the beatiful creatures of the underworld. It was similar to our Aquaria but I guess the creatures were more interesting than what we have back home. Amirul loves fish so he couldn’t have enough of em. He particularly loves to look at the sharks and the stingrays. If he’s scared, he would say ‘Akut akut’. How adorable! According to plan, we were suppose to go to another night market but considering that Amirul looked tired, we skipped it.

Monday - Our last day in Bangkok. Flight was at 5pm (it was eventually delayed). Went on foot to some of the shops near our hotel. Bought more blouses. Didn’t buy any Thai silk tho. Our last stop was Siam Paragon (again) for some exercise therapy. Didn’t buy anything there. Only had ice cream (the best tasting-looking fudge ice cream!) and did some people-watching. Rushed back to the hotel to finish packing (went to BKK with 1 bag but came back with 2 :0 ). That was a given. Bag beranak would be essential for any shopping retreat ay?! Got to the airport; which was big and new. Had lunch at Burger King and did some last minute shopping. Finally got my hubby the Jim Thompson shirt that he wanted. Had some 1000 Baht left but didn’t have time to spend it as it was close to 5. For all we know, the flight was delayed bout half an hour… was to be expected from Air**#….. Waited and waited. Boarded the plane. Couldn’t wait to get home…See my darling hubby… Amirul had his milk and slept throughout the journey. Jet lag ka? Was a good thing as I could have some shut eye… Reached KL bout 8.45pm. Didn’t have any problems at the Custom. It was a breeze. Saw hubby and we went straight home. Ahh…’sgood to be back

All in all, had fun in BKK. Wish that next time, hubby would tag along. But I don’t think I would go there again any time soon. Maybe Dubai again

Met an ol friend a few days back. Sure sparked back those good ol memories. Things have changed since the last time we met. And I mean, MAJOR changes in our lives. Yet, it was nice being able to be myself and have some decent conversation.

If things were different…

It’s been close to 3 weeks since I’ve started my new job. Totally different than what I used to do back in the audit days. I’m more relaxed and definitely have more time for hubby and my lil one. My hubby too has ventured into a different company and is very happy with it. So far, we have no complaints. I’m learning so many things and adding so many jargons in my vocab. Nature of business is specifically construction so I’ve managed to understand what a Change Order is to how many EOTs are required to delay a project….

Boss is cool..no emotional issues attached (unlike some of my old bosses), colleagues are great, I have my own cubicle (a bit the jakun lah cos I’ve never had my own place before-thanks to frequent visits to clients!)

All I want to say is, I’m happy where I am now at the moment. Going back to work was a bit leceh for me at first but I’m getting a hang of it now. It’s great to be able to have your own income and having the independence.

Don’t get me wrong.. I loved being a full time mommy..but I knew back then what I had to do and I went for it. Now that Amirul is bigger, I’ve got no worries of leaving him with his atuk & nenek, or whether he’ll have enough to eat…. Though I MISS HIM ALOT when I’m at work..

Alhamdulillah, I am still able to nurse him before and after work. Going for the 2 year mark, insyaallah.

For those full time mommies out there, I salute you. I know what you guys are going through. I’ve been there.

Okay, I must admit, I’m a BIG, HUGE fan of Grey’S Anatomy. I first heard bout the show while watching The Golden Globe when Sandra Oh (Dr Christina Yang) won an award based on the show. When the show first started last year (Season 1), I was like..must be another ER or House but boy, was I wrong. It was full of drama, provocative, sexy and lots of bitching (healthy ones, I might add). I was hooked. Even the first episode (first day for the interns at Seattle Grace Hospital) was enough to make me glued to the tv and wanting for more. The characters were strong and the scripts were amazing.

This was when my fixation for MerDer first began. Let me introduce Meredith and Derek (Mc Dreamy - Patrick Dempsey is hot!). She an intern and him, an attending. They had a one night stand the night before she started work at SGH. They started to fall for each other. They seemed like the perfect couple only for her to find out that Derek has a wife (Addison, who is also a Dr). Going into Season 2 (just started a couple of weeks ago), we see Mer and Der fighting their attraction towards each other eventhough Derek made a HUGE mistake of deciding to give another go with Addie (She slept with his bestfriend). It’s soo clear that he still loves Mer. Imagine my frustation when Derek did not sign the divorce papers and did not meet Meredith at Joe’s right after (well he was late).

However, Shonda (the creator of this magnifique show) did not fail us. The final episode brings the two together (going at it in the OR :)). And Meredith is left to choose between Derek and Fin (Mc Vet - He comes in the show towards the end of the Season as Mer’s new love interest..But clearly she still carries a torch for Derek). We also see the emotional drama between Izzie (another intern, Mer’s housemate) and Denny (heart patient who falls for Izzie and asked her to marry him…before his transplant). It was really sad to see her, so anxious to see him in her prom dress in the elevator while Denny was dying from a blood clot in his room, alone.

Mind you, I have seen the whole of Season 2 (DVD - Uncut) before they aired it on tv. So I’m just too anxious to watch Season 3 (They’ve only showed 2 episodes in the States). God knows when we’ll get to see it here. So, all I can do is update myself through it’s website every week. Yes, I’m a fanatic. My hubby agrees with me. I have been watching Season 1 and 2 (on DVD) over and over again. Clearly for the fact that I can’t get enough of McDreamy (reminds me of one of his movies in his early days as an actor - Loverboy). Yes people, he is hot!

Okay, enough of my fixation. Time for me to continue watching Season 2. Mer got her hands stuck in a man’s body (she was holding a bomb that was shot into the patient by a bazooka), however the bomb went off after the bomb squad got a hold of it and Derek being grateful that Mer didn’t die that day. (Did I spoil it for some of you? Alaa, don’t worry, it’s worth to watch)

There goes my time. I was suppose to do some research for tomorrow. Big day tomorrow. Insyaallah, hopefully everything goes well.

GO MERDER!

It’s our 2nd anniversary today. alhamdulillah we made it this far. Tho the journey was not a bed of roses, I am grateful to have a loving husband and a handsome young boy. Lucky for us, Amirul made his first 8-9 baby steps infront of us (tho he has made a few attempts before landing hard on his bum a few weeks back). It was indeed a wonderful anniversary present!

Amirul is kinda of a late bloomer. Started crawling only when he was 9 months old (when his peers were practically cruising). People say it’s normal since he is a boy (apparently, girls develop faster). As for me, I’ll let him ‘bloom’ whenever he is ready. I mean, we’re not competing in the Olympics! As long as my hubby and myself get to witness his ‘firsts’ of everything, that is good enough. Besides, we have it all recorded !

By the way, had a great dinner just now. Amirul was a handful but we managed. Insyaallah, moga panjang umur and wishing for more anniversaries with my loved ones..

A week ago, on Friday (30/6), my uncle (my dad’s youngest brother) passed away. It was right before the Friday prayers and this marks the second passing of a family member after my atuk (from mom’s side) last Raya Haji.

I can say he was one of my favourite uncle. Used to give us (me and my siblings) a lot of duit raya since we were the eldest nieces and nephew. He was also succesful in his own right. Has 4 amazing children, which I adore. What bugs me is that he was still young, in his mid 40’s. Always full of energy. Was very proud of his children and was a loving husband. This can’t be happening. I can’t believe he’s gone.

I can still remember the phone call from mom right before the Friday prayers, ‘Ira, Busu dah takde’. I was terribly shocked and shaken. Amirul (my darling boy) just looked at me, trying to understand why mommy was crying. He was pretty cranky right before the phone call, but somehow, was quiet and pensive right after. As though he felt the sadness as well. I took him. I hugged him and whispered that Tok Busu dah meninggal. I was at least glad that he had the chance to meet his Tok Busu.

That evening, my sis, bro, hubby and son drove back to Melaka since the jenazah would be buried there. It was a solemn atmosphere. My atuk seemed relaxed probably trying to be strong for all of us. But hanya Allah saja yang tahu. Suddenly, I remembered a phrase I heard not long ago ‘Parents should never bury their children’. Yeah, it’s just not right. But I guess, the Al-Mighty has his own plans for each one of us and we should always be prepared and make the best out of life.

Most of my uncles and aunties (including mom and dad) were still back in KL, at the hospital, making sure that everything goes on smoothly. They would drive back to Melaka later in the evening, just in time for the funeral.

The funeral went well. I didn’t go as I had to take care of Amirul. After the funeral, all of us hung out. Actually, it was kinda nice cause it is not often that all of us get to meet. Most of my cousins are boys and younger but we were all in the same wavelength so we always have things to talk about. Later that night (about 11pm), all of us (the Rahim family) and 7 other cousins went out for dinner. We were all tired but hungry so Abah decided to treat all of us for dinner. Right after, it was bedtime for all of us.

The next day, all of us gathered around and talked for what seemed to be for hours. We still felt the loss and kept everything to a minimal. Later, in the evening, we headed back to KL.

Insya’allah, I know my uncle’s in a better place and the Almighty is watching over his family. It’ll take some time to adapt but I know they’ll be fine.

Life is too short to be wasting it on unnecessary agendas. Love yourself and your family.

Considering this is my first entry, I’ll make it really simple and sweet. I’m not much of a blogger but since I’ve jumped off the corporate wagon (for now) and have a lot of ‘myself’ time now (NOT!!), I figured, why not share my thoughts with the rest of the world? This would be a good way to express myself and also talk about non other than my precious lil one - Amirul.