L.O.V.E

Rentetan perihal aku mendaftar sebagai penderma organ :

(Discuss  discuss discuss, bla bla bla, pok pek pok pek pok pek, things about organ transplant)

Bie harapkan Papa untuk uruskan dengan sepatutnya, if I happen to die first and to undergo this process. 
Thank you, hugs and kisses.

Yup.
<Smiley>
Sebab ada criteria dia.
And tak lah semua boleh diambil.
Eloknya Mommy cakap dengan mak jugak.
Just to let her know.
Tu je.

A ah.
I plan to. InshaAllah.

And Papa hope Mommy ada dengan Papa sampai hujung hayat.
<Wink>
Tak tau Papa macam mana kalau Mommy tak de.
Mommy je yang tau Papa macam mana.
Huhuhu...

InshaAllah, amiin.
Now give me my Chanel.

And that's, ladies and gentlemen, what we called LOVE.

Nota : Kami bila berbicara, memang menggunakan ayat penuh-penuh. Skema? Mungkin. Tua? Mungkin tidak, mungkin sekadar hmmmm.. berumur.

Double Celebrations!

So this is what would happen if

• you have been dating for 12 years and 4 years of those as married couple 
• your birthdays are just 1 month apart 
• you both already have an almost 3 years old toddler and,
•  the female is heavily pregnant

.......... One birthday celebration that could fit both, with a good, practical, pre-determined gift.

Nevertheless, we both enjoyed each and every moment a lot, especially that we still have each other despite all the ups and downs. Some days were easy peasy, some were just as rough as other married couple. We pray that Allah give us the same strength, same passion to go through this life with each other as it definitely is going to be tougher in the future.

Happy belated birthday to us, cheers!

Tempat Berteduh

New family member equals to more space required in the house. It's not like I'm adding one more child on top of 5 that we are not having now and not that I'm carrying triplet in my belly. There are only 3 of us in our small 998 sqft condo and so far it fits us perfectly; small area = low maintenance. Tu pun kadang-kadang aku dah malas nak kemas sungguh-sungguh, lalu panggil part time maid je. And to give space for our new little one should still be sufficient.

Since the property price has been skyrocketing as compared to the past 3 years (even our small house has now doubled from the bought price), it is a good time for us to start look, before it's too late! I mean the location is surely going to be farther and father from the city, the offered sqft is getting smaller and smaller, to keep up with the attractive price. So we went for some good 5-hours survey at some targeted area of new landed residential projects.

Prior to that, I've made some online homework as we could not afford to merayau-rayau without hala tuju within the limited time. Among the considerations were :

1) The targeted location is to be as close as possible to my in-laws. It's good to be closer to them as they might need our assistance and so do us. As such, we only shortlisted the projects to those situated in Damansara, Subang and Shah Alam area.

2) Price. The monthly salary for 2 senior executives at their age of 30 who are working and residing in Klang Valley, with one and soon two children, and a new car, is not a passport to own a more than RM500k landed house. Even with down payment of 10%, yearly interest of conventional bank loan of 4% - 5% (after minus the BLR), you would still have to allocate around RM2,200 of monthly earning just for the house loan (you could google "House Loan Calculator" and easily find a lot of this kind of application). Yes, you could always makan bersila after moving in to the new house since all your savings and EPF has been used for the down payment, house renovation and all.

3) Size. This is not actually an option. You could settle for either the price or the size since the price for 20 x 70 as compared to 22 x 75 could reach more than RM50k. Yes, quite some additional price for a 2 x 5 ft area, that could hardly equivalent to a standard parking space.

4) Design. Hmm.. You could say that we are being picky but yes, we would want a modern design as that is going to be the place that you would return to daily, after a long, tiring working day. Bayangkan kalau anda balik, menghadap rumah yang design rumah mak kau kat kampung lagi lawa.

This resulted to several areas listed in our mind : Subang Bestari, Ara Damansara (yeah, I know, kau dah gila ke apa. But my PILs insisted us to check this place out), Denai Alam, Puncak Perdana, Bandar Nusa Rhu and some other new developments at those area (sepanjang Jalan Batu Arang).

Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare for some jaw-droppings :

1) Ara Damansara. Apparently Sime Darby is now focusing on developing commercial area. But there is a project of a few of bungalow units, the is currently opened for booking but we don't dare to ask for the price.

1) Subang Bestari. Some developments are in progress but we could not find the sales office and gallery. But the area is quite isolated with view of RRI's rubber estate on the right side along the main road. There's a petrol station, secondary school, surau and other common facilities but the area is still being actively developed which results to holey and dusty road. Price range : Unknown (you could always google more information on this area online).

2) Denai Alam. This area is developed by Sime Darby, same like Bukit Jelutong, and yes, you could expect the standard as set by Sime Darby. This newly developed area is a bit further ahead along Guthrie Highway towards Rawang but easily accessible from Guthrie in fact you could see most of this area from this highway. The latest development is Maple 3-storey series which I don't dare to ask the price after knowing the latest lowest price for 2-storey in Denai Alam is RM750k. They'll be launching new series of 2-storey landed property perhaps next month and the starting price is again nothing lower than RM750k. C R A Z Y. But the design is fabulous. Modern design with good selection of colors. Plus, the whole area is well-planned as areas that are going to be developed has been flattened and cleared, meaning no heavy-duty pecah bukit activities will be done.

3) We passed through Puncak Perdana and Puncak Alam and drove further along Jalan Batu Arang. This road will lead to another currently develop area, Shah Alam 2. From my research, the offered price could probably starts from RM300k, but the location mak datuk, jauh ke dalam! We eventually settled with the next house survey area at Bandar Nusa Rhu.

4) Bandar Nusa Rhu. This area developed by Metrogen Sdn Bhd is currently having some new units of landed residential. We went straight to the ongoing development area named Idaman; some of the houses have been 50% completed whereas some of them are still under construction. There is a big hill (batu kapur) right beside this new development which will later be flattened to make room for future development by Metrogen Sdn Bhd. At 20 x 70, offered price after discounts is RM515k and there are only 4 units left. The design is quite OK but the fact that there is going to be some pecah bukit activities sooner or later, you might want to think twice to occupy this place before the area is being completely cleared.

5) Sunway Alam Suria. Located opposite Bandar Nusa Rhu and Puncak Perdana along Jalan Batu Arang, this was among the first developed cluster at this area. There is one project of 2 1/2-storey landed residential by the developer, currently opened for booking with price of at least RM688k for 22 x 75 ft area.

So, which one did we consider? NONE. *menangis keluar air mata mencurah-curah*

All down to the ultimate factor : price versus monthly income.

And since we are not in the hurry for a new bigger house, as for now we choose to explore more on other options or other future developments. Yes, we might require more space for the family but at the same time we would want to be able to live comfortably too. Selagi ada tempat berteduh.

Jauh lagi nampaknya perjalanan mencari rumah pencen ni.

Info from a friend : Kajang area is actively developed too. Soon there's going to be a new landed residential launching with starting price lower than RM400k but you have to expect long queue as early as lepas Subuh, with high possibility that everything will be gone before noon. Yes, I know, I N S A N E.


Interesting Info : Japanese companies believe that married men work better than unmarried ones do because the former feel more obligations and responsibilities toward their families. This results to the higher unemployment of men aged 35 above, with direct result to the homelessness in Japan. Source : Wiki lah, mana lagi.

Temper Tantrum Terrible Two, You Name It

Eirsa is now 2 years and 3 months old and I think we, the parents, have started to master the art of dealing with the famous terrible two. No. Too ambitious. We are just beginning to get the full picture of the expectations but talking about the art of dealing with this kind of tantrum, we are far from perfect (lagi mau cerita pasal master, chet!).

So yes, the tantrum, when it comes, could really test your patience. I was not the angelic patience mother type, even my close friends were quite surprise that I could tolerate with a kid better than I could tolerate with myself. And talking about tantrum 2, I admit, during the earlier stage my blood boil everytime. E-ve-ry tai-emm. I tried to be reasonable, I avoided shouting at her (which made my blood even went higher!), I avoided to babab her. But when the tantrum comes, me, being a human being that could easily be influenced by shaitonirrajim, I several time babab-ed her. And twice I regret shouting at her (at home, never ever in public, you should not portray your anger in the public as the kids understand humiliation and they will just go wilder).

Trust me, neither any specific ways would work. Every time she throws her tantrum, she demands different treatment. Sometimes she would just settle down with me ignoring her un-meet-able demand (of course after a good 10 minutes scream), or sometimes she would just continue crying sampai muntah atau hilang suara atau sampai sakit badan dek hempas-hempas ke lantai until I came to console her. Or on the other odd days, after all efforts, Mommy gt tired, gave he a babab or two, consoled her, then only she cooled down. Bribing her with her favorite stuffs would not work all the time.

Somehow or rather, we managed to get the gist of these painful episodes of tantrum :

1) The communication gap. She is in the phase of developing her vocabs (I believe all is in her head now but to get it out is totally another story and skill). As such she could just go "Ni.." "No.." "Bear..." "Cow..." "Ooonnn (bangun..)" and any other single word which would not be 100% reflected to her exact desire. And I tell you what, the desire could change in split second, ikut dan dia je.

2) The ability to deny parents' directions. True enough, her default answer now is "No!" even though she would eventually follow our directions but that would be the default first response.

3) The preference. If she would want her BearBear A, that means she WANTED THAT SPECIFIC Bearbear (grrr.....). Not the other BearBear cousins. And the preference keeps on changing depends on her mood. How to predict? Cannot. At least you are good at mind reading (please share the skills with me!)

4) The feeling that Mommy and Papa could do anything for her. Hatta meredah lautan bara api. So everything that she demanded SHOULD BE MET by us, which is very unfortunately darling, Mommy could never bring a dead cow alive.

5) The insecurity. Yes, She still has the insecurity in her in which she has the feeling that if she did not get what she wanted, the whole world will collapse. Not literally but more or less la. Their knowledge on things like alternatives, there's always next time, is very little.

6) The uncomfortable self or surrounding. For instance she seldomly woke up at night, screaming. That usually indicated that either she had bad dreams or her sleep disturbed by the heat or just simply caused
by a stomachache. And since you already knew what to do with these discomfort, quickly applied the remedy for any possibilities.

Frankly, this post contains no specific approaches or solutions to be applied this period of tantrum two. Same like other parents, we are still learning on both Eirsa's behaviour and our behaviour towards her tantrum. Still, perhaps :

1) You could follow your instinct in dealing with the tantrum but keep the good parenting values close with you; which means no scolding or babab-ing in public, no shouting, but at the same time not necessarily to follow bluntly what she wants.

2) Try to be creative in providing solution to all her wants, so that she would not have preference and as such the tolerance and acceptance to many solutions could be widen. If she is so get used to routines, some little change to her daily activities could cause a major upset. Playing with what's-next game with the kids is somewhat interesting too!

3) You don't necessarily have to meet with all her demands. If you did, she would register that she could get everything that she wanted, everytime. Dangerous. Be creative, find alternatives.

4) Before introducing some new things for the to do, provide the explaination on what to expect beforehand. This would help them to accept any changes rather than creating yet another scene of protest.

5) Take turn. If Papa is dealing with the tantrum, Mommy doesn't have to add salt to injury and vice versa. Just let the anak-beranak settle down and monitor from afar.

6) Seek for assistance if required. If Mommy could not figure out what she wants, ask Papa to help. Usually Eirsa would go easier with the other parent whom she did not project the demand in the first place.

7) Be cool. She is the one who is upset. You are smart enough not to fall into the trap of shaitan's whispers but again, being a leeeetle human being this is hard to achieve. Still, inshaAllah, pray to Allah, istighfar, take a deep breath, take a step back or walk away for one or two minutes and do all the necessities (not necessarily to meed the demand, but rather to comfort her).

8) Upon the successfulness of the consolation, hug her, kiss her and whisper on her behaviour that could cause the world upside down and that she has to be in good behaviour for everything to go her way. The eyes might get caught to TV but she actually listened.

9) If possible, come up with a checklist and list down all the possible alternatives, so that you are always equipped with the solution. But to attend a hysterically screaming child and to look for the checklist at the same time is not always easy. :)

10) Accept yourself as you are and not to meet others' expectations. They don't know the trouble and not helping either. Do the best as guided in your faith and inline with humanity. You could never go wrong.

May be I forgot to include any other important things but you guys are just beautiful parents are you are. Enjoy parenthood!

Note : More reading, go here.

Cerita Kereta, Minyak dan Duit

Yes, after 2 years of husband, Eirsa and myself travelling in our little Kelisa (correct, with stroller, car seat, bags fro Eirsa, bags fro parents, toys and all the necessities), we finally managed to upgrade our family car from a city car Kelisa to small family car; Honda Insight Hybrid. More on car size here.

Our main criteria during car shopping was the space; both driver + passanger seats and boot. Secondly the price range, since from there we could work out on the options what we had; technical specification, fuel consumption, pre-sales, after-sales services, depreciation value and of course, color. I would say Insight came in at just the right time for us. Alhamdulillah. Syukur. Syukur

Had Insight in March 2011, it was considered as new in Malaysia. Kalau pergi mana-mana akan jadi tumpuan. Rata-rata waktu parking, ramai akan bertanya tentang harga, performance dan kadang-kadang terpacul juga soalan "Sedap tak?". Apakah?

With help from Husband for some of the technical specifications, we came up with this important information or rather comparison of fuel consumption, in which I think would be the main criteria in considering a new car, other than the space, design, color and all (please click at image for better view).

All in all, so far we are happy and satisfied with the car; the space, the fuel consumption, the design. Dengan pemanduan berhemah, our average fuel consumption is 20 kilometer per liter. And, the performance of driving to Genting Highlands was not bad at all!

Hi baybeh!

Note 1 : Husband's car zaman bercinta, Satria (2003), sold for RM8,350.

Note 2 : On handling, car performance, maintenance and what not detail technical specifications, please ask Husband as there is a high possibility that I might respond to question such as "How about the ABS?" with "Oh, They are sexy with six-pack!" (You know, abs as in the flat tummy, instead of Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)).

Fun Facts : United States is at rank 1 in list of countries by vehicles per capita, with 779 motor vehicles per 1000 people (as per record in 2008) and Malaysia is at rank 42 with 273 motor vehicles per 1000 people (as per record in 2007). (Source : Wiki)

Cerita Tentang Seorang Penuntut Ilmu Yang Cintakan Muzik

Aku ni jenis selalu lambat masuk kelas tuisyen. Setiap kali masuk kelas, semua kerusi dah penuh. Selalunya ada satu je kerusi kosong. Kerusi sebelah minah tomboy.

Aku tak tahu samada memang dah takdir ataupun orang lain takut nak duduk sebelah minah tomboy tu. Minah tomboy ni minat benar dengan KRU. Setiap kali datang kelas pakai t-shirt KRU. Masa tu mungkin t-shirt dia nampak hebat & cool. Tapi bila difikirkan semula sekarang, t-shirt yang dia pakai tu tahap entah hapa-hapa je.

Asalkan ada peluang, dia mesti nak cerita pasal KRU. Cerita pasal dia pernah pergi konsert KRU. Dia pernah jumpa adik-beradik KRU. Pasal dia dah hafal semua lagu-lagu KRU termasuk step tarian. Rasanya kalau ada pentas depan kelas tu mesti dia dah tergedik-gedik demo step tarian ala KRU.

Kalau dah setiap minggu melayan dia pasal KRU, aku pun naik meluat. Aku rasa orang bukan takut nak duduk sebelah dia. Tapi orang sebenarnya menyampah nak duduk sebelah dia.

Walkman dia cuma pasang lagu KRU. Satu hari dia tunjuk kaset-kaset KRU dalam beg. Buku tuisyen ada sekeping dua je. Beg berat sebab penuh dengan kaset. Tak ada ciri-ciri ketokohan seorang ilmuwan langsung.

"Alah, setakat kaset. Aku peminat 4U2C ni lagi canggih. Gantung CD kat leher. Aku cuma tak pakai kat kelas je" kata aku yang sudah berbulu.

Sejak hari tu dah tak ada lagi kerusi kosong untuk aku sebelah dia.


Nota: Happy 19th Anniversary, KRU! Korang memang legend. Aku masih simpan 2 kaset original KRU.