Travel : Pt1 - Jordan-Jerusalem-Jordan-Madinah-Mekkah June 2012

The highlight for this year for me is visiting Jerusalem. I have interest in Palestine since I was young and envisioning myself to be with the convoy saving lives, and help Palestinian women and children with food and medicine.

Nevertheless, lepas kahwin, walaupun semangat masih membara, susah lah nak tinggal anak2 segala to just jump the ship to be a volunteer. Apatah lagi financial burden yang ada kan....


Sampai lah last 29 May 2012, dapat peluang. Dapat bonus yang tak terfikir dan increment yang memang out of my expectation, rezeki dari Allah. Alhamdulillah yang tidak terhingga. So peluang tu dengan segera di sambut. The initial plan is to keep the money for renovation, but again, the house can wait. The Mekkah, Madinah and Palestine cannot wait. Seperti memanggil2....


The challenges

At first, memang plan nak pergi Jerusalem, but then sebab pegi berdua macam tak cukup budget, terpaksa lupakan niat murni dan impian tu. Pergilah book untuk Egypt. Dapat tengok peninggalan nabi Musa sebelum baginda berhijrah ke Palestine. Tetapi, entah macamana cuti my hubby kena cancel for the umrah trip. So I change my plan to Jerusalem back. This time alone.

Seperti roller coaster, selang beberapa hari, my hubby dapat pulak new job offer. He accepted it due to the umrah intention (as well as we thought it is quite odd to cancel the leaves after approving it and after we are very frank about performing the umrah with the company)...The journey is not that straight forward, sampai lagi berapa minggu jer nak berlepas baru dapat confirm he got the offer and can hand over his resignation letter to the existing company. Sampai saat2 akhir gitu.... And that is not the only challenge we had actually. Stay on.....


Preparation - weeks before departure

Apa pun yang terjadi, aku tetap excited, aku dah nekad akan pergi juga untuk bertemu rumah Allah, dan melawat makam2 nabi dan makam rasulullah....

So the first thing I did of courselah.... beli buku. Sebab I have no idea macamana nak mengerjakan umrah. End up, later on, the agency kasi 1, dan kawan office kasi aku 2 lagi buku. Ohhh sangat penting ada banyak version sebab ilmu2 itu ada lain, so it is good untuk tambah ilmu. Dan bila aku blur habis semasa di "Ar-Raudhah" macamana nak queue untuk pergi ker bahagian perempuan Ar-Raudhah dalam buku tak ada graphic or map sebab kebanyakan buku di tulis oleh lelaki. Dan aku tak tahu juga tiang mana or mana satu maqam Rasulullah since semua dah di tutup... jadik ada satu buku ni yang aku tak perasan masa kat Malaysia, give the description and map... ha nasib bawak smua buku.. nasiblah aku kiasu....

Salah satu buku aku beli ialah "Travelog Haji - Mengubah sempadan iman" - oh penting baca buku ni. sebab you can really relate to someone's experience. I blog walked as well. One of the blogs yang paling best baca and details is "mariafirdaus.blogspot.com".... dan "ustazamin.com". Yang lain2 best juga, aku dah lupa link tapi pengalaman mereka di Jerusalem's customs sangat interesting.


Untuk perempuan, ada lagi challengesnya. iaitu, the menstrual. I was at the time for months and months tak datang my "bulan dan bintang". This is due to aku ambil injection for our family planning. Entah macamana, final weeks tu, aku dapat pula. Yang paling membimbangkan, I had it like spots, spots, clear, clear and then the spots come back. Pergi clinic more than twice, they give tablets to prevent, still I am having it tak tentu hala hari sampai nak solat pun susah. Hari ni solat esok tak solat. Esok solat balik and so on....So kira penat mandi wajib.. huhu....... Ustazah ada ajar doa untuk tahan datang "bulan dan bintang", it might works, but since it did not show any stopping signs, I opt tu see a gynae at SDMC.


Selepas mendapat pandangan dan ubat yang lebih professional dari a gynae compared to a GP, barulah stabil. Ayat Gynae tu "Your endometrium lining is 10mm, you will bleed anytime now! No wonder you are having this...Normal is about 3mm only!" kan????? Lega sangat selepas mendapat point2 yang bernas bersandarkan fakta sains tapi tak lega juga sebab anything could happen since Qada' and Qadr adalah salah satu rukun iman.... Selepas baca pengalaman orang lain yang lepas2 , ustazah semasa kursus pun ada bercerita, orang yang dah menapaus bertahun2 sedangkan boleh datang, inikan lagi i... So sangat humble lah masa tu. A humbling experience. Allah nak train aku untuk kesabaran dan redha.


Another obvious challenge ialah..... entah kenapa few weeks before departure, ada satu kucing yang jiran aku kasi makan (kucing liar - dan jiran aku suka kasik dia makan tak halallah kan....obviously so bau najis dia amat dahsyat dari biasa) kucing ni suka makan kat sana, tapi buang air kat sinun... kat sinun tu belakang rumah aku. Betul2 di bawah tingkap bilik bawah......atau depan pintu belakang... sabau jer lakan....


Dalam satu hari mesti ada 3 spot of najis kucing ni..... So dalam 2-3 minggu itu ajalah kerja aku lepas balik kerja. I will take plastic glove and a loads of newspaper and plastic bag untuk bersihkan.. Tuang clorox supaya hilang bau dan rasa... Semakin aku bersih, semakin best dia membuang....


Nak hilang juga kesabaran, sampai I suruh aunty sebelah tu jangan kasi makan lagi sebab dia akan membuang kat rumah aku... tapi aunty tu tak sampai hati dengan dia mengiau... so ikhtiar aku yang seterusnya ialah dengan menutup semua lubang2 pagar... barulah redaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....


Sepanjang incident tu, I reminded myself, kucing ialah binatang yang paling Rasulullah sayang... so it really calm me down a bit. Sampai satu ketika kitorang yang tak reti pegang kucing ni cuba nak tangkap dan buang, obviously misi kitorang gagal sebab memang tak tau pegang kucing hehehehehe..... kesian DS aku paksa dia jadi penahan kucing tapi bolos gak ekekekeke!



Banyak lagi cerita menarik, semasa kursus pun ada. So sepanjang hidup aku, inilah paling banyak aku merasa cabaran. Alhamdulillah semuanya secara sedar. So aku boleh remind myself of my intention to go to Mekkah. Kalau tahap tak sedar di uji entah apa yang akan berlaku kan??


Bersambung later... Enjoy the picture first.

We took Royal Jourdanian's airline. Overall it was ok. Masa pergi tak berani nak tengok entertainment. So memang banyakkan baca Quran, Allah can give and take us just like that, bagi aku sesia kalau tak sampai... huhu...  Bawaklah spray, senang nak ambil wudhu'. Actually cuma untuk subuh saja pun... sebab yang lain dah jamak sesiap, atau akan di jamak... It helps me a lot as perempuan ni leceh sket nak ambil wudhu' dalam kapal terbang...

Pemandangan dalam perjalanan dari airport Queen Alia to the chinese restaurant, It is so early walaupun dah terang benderang in the morning, pak2 arab dan minah2 arab blom bangun katanya....

 Restaurant chinese halal yang di operate oleh Jordanian...

 The inside...

Menunya, sup sayur, telur dadar, fries and ayam goreng... Walaupun begitu, rasanya tak sama macam makan di Malaysia, I pun tak paham kenapa... bukan tu menu biasa? hehehehe.... Yang mula aku notice di sini, satu meja bulat walaupun ramai orang dia kasi sebotol air mineral besar untuk di kongsi... So dari situ akan bermula trend yang sama (macam... sangat kekurangan air gitu)... sampai la ke Jerusalem nanti trend yang sama.. infact kat sana lagi la.......... nanti i cerita ya...

House project : Quotation for curtains

I went back to Homedec with baby 'am today. I was so ready to buy the sink and the kitchen tap (with shower mixer). Even though my mind was made up to buy bareno brand, due to the past mistakes, i still survey the restlah.

End up, tak jadi beli. I did collect few brochures though. manalah tahu kalau dah made up my mind nanti tahulah mana nak pergi beli.

The highlight of today was the curtain quotation. was a very calming process and we received a very good service from the personnel there. Selalunya pun good juga cuma kali ni lebih lama dari biasa. and my choice is getting better. The price for 10 feet x 8 feet x 5 rooms = RM12k..... Amik ko! Average price per meter is RM50 so that's the cause of it. Compared to Jakel, 129 per meter, and sheer curtain for RM35, lagi pengsan!


Dengan kedai lagi satu we managed to get price for RM28 per meter but quotation is for 4 room so minus 1 room but additional blind for another room = RM6k. So we might opt for this shop. We really hope the service will be better. My reservation for this shop is the chinese man ni cam ah kua sket so dia plak lebih diva dari aku, tapi dia sgt baik pada ibu dia yang sudah tua, so aku dapat rasa hati dia lembut sket....Let's hope for the best.


I realized, aku tak suka pilih curtain kat Nilai 3 or kat Jakel. It makes me rushed. Maybe the heat, maybe the crowd and maybe sebab tak ada tempat duduk. Experience pergi kedai langsir, you just name the budget, they will bring the samples to you in a kind of album gitu. So I think I prefer this.


I still need to buy blind and simple curtain for DS room and Dylan&baby's room so I still may go to Nilai 3.


I am so loving my choice today. Grey for the dining room n living room. The sheer curtain makes me excited. I chose different pattern for dining and living so i hope it blended well. They better be.


Semua pun I pilih mengikut concept di internet.... hehe.... cemana lah jadinya nanti ya....

House Project : Homedec 2012

On last friday night we visited Homedec at KL Convec.

We met Signature Kitchen guy to see the 3D design of our wet kitchen, laundry room and dining room. Sabar jelah, mintak quotation kat IOI mall, tapi review kena datang KL Convec....untuk dptkan 10% discount katanya.


It was a pretty bad 3d actually...I have seen better huhu... I said bad because a 9 feet long cabinet was drawn to look like it was 4 feet. and coming from 'Signature Kitchen'? Nasiblah baik, they incorporate some good items, I like it that they use corian top, include blum drawer and undermount work walaupun I did not ask specifically. I did ask the other contractor to quote me with all that only with them I didn't. So patutlah pun harganya for wet Kitchen sahaja about 18k.


With artak kitchen, 12k. But the design and material are slightly different so you can't compare apple to apple. The best thing is Artak Kitchen included in the quotation not only blum drawer but also the wire rack and the bottle rack.


So what I have to do now is to go back to Artak kitchen and ask them to requote with high gloss spray paint.


We went to Defuro kitchen also.  they quote 18k for wet kitchen. Since Defuro is from germany, memang tak payah suruhlah dia quote the Blum drawer bagai..... memang automatic masuk. They use LG solid surface. i like it except that they have problem in doing up to ceiling. So we were thinking to get Defuro do our dining room only since their design is quite unique.

Apa lagi yang best kat homedec?

1. The smart key - the cheapest is MYR700 plus from Valor Force. tapi ada banyak jenis, samsung pun ada....We can use Touch 'n Go card juga untuk access the door systems. So I 'super jump' to the idea. Convenientkan? There is finger print access type as well so it is a good idea if you have MYR1.5k extra to spend...They have the type for sliding door as well. So techie which I like.


2. Ions CCTV - for under 2k you can have 4cameras and the vcr. However, price did not include cabling and MYR800 for a one time installation fees.


3. Eubic systems - This one I like. why? because I do not have to pay extra to the electrician man to hack the wall and add extra wall electric power. Price? MYR1.2k plus MYR250 of outside Klang Valley. With that price you will get 3 track with 13 regular head. So about MYR100 each. I haven't asked around on electrician fees but kalau tak nak headache maybe I just put down deposit for this.


4. Bareno sink n kitchen accessories - the big single bowl for less than MYR800 and the tap that I want for MYR600. Thats like the cheapest so far! I am thinking about getting those first tomorrow...let's see.


5. For our wardrobe hunt - I heard from my boss that Kian Classic give good price for the wardrobe. So betullah kot? sebab offer dia 8 feet for only 2.8k tak silap with eco material. Selalu 8 feet about 4k. cantik pulak tu. but i am looking for swing door since I hate sharingdoor with my hubby. The offer is for the sliding door though. Maybe for DD's room oklah kot? am considering....


6. Reliance glass - omg. shower screen glass for 2.2k only.... if not for a lousy salesperson, I would have booked.

Other things like polyroof etc, good to have but not our priority yet...... so betullah to certain extend that they offer good price. but for us, we won't rush to buy since we have bad experience in choosing our oven. Choose calmly n wisely.

Kids : Dylan's concert today

Dylan, my third son is 5 years old this year and he goes to Smart reader kids Saujana Puchong. Today is his annual year concert - held at The Summit.

So semua orang pun datang, mak long, atuk, nenek, pak usu, fav cousin pun ada hehe...paginya kita pergi concert his fav cousin in Shah Alam. So it was a concert day today.

Overall, the kid's performances for the smart reader are impressive for their age. No crying on the stage. Compared to Qdees- my second son DS's kindergarten, this is better. but in terms of the presentation from the teachers perspective, Qdees is better. Krista - DD's kindergarten, best juga tapi masa tu combined with other Krista school n their performance tunggang langgang so ada gap utk boring....huhu....

The memorable one was the story telling about the boy n the tree... it left a big impression in me. Not by my son but the girl could really tell a story. Kudos to her. Dylan's performance was good. We know he likes to perform so obviously he did enjoy showing off his dancing and singing skills.

Will add picture later.

Travel : Reminiscing London & Paris June 2009

Kita ingat negara kita ni tak maju... tapi ada hikmahnya kita lambat... tengok laa train mereka ni dah tua.... This is in Paris.

The roller yang warna kelabu (depan the screen) is the mechanism to choose the options on the screen... I was like ...smiling.... blur sekejap macamana nak choose memula. This is the machine to top up the card. I sudah lupa apa nama card kat paris ni.

 Tak silap this is on the ferry cruise and the building at the back is the Notre dame de Paris.

 We were excited when we first saw the Eiffel tower. Tapi kita malas nak beratur panjang2.... so kita lepak sajalah kat garden sini and makan kuaci.... sambil tengok budak2 main bola sepak. Memang terasa macam best betul summer in Paris....

 At the back is the "Monalisa" potrait. Boleh tengok dari jauh sajalah because they put barrier.... The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre), tapi masa aku pergi tu aku cuma tahu kat dalam ni ada potrait monalisa so I must go. Tatau lain2 info. Tak cukup masa buat homework sebelum pergi...... Tapi bila dah sampai sana, there are a couple of things that you will discover..yang dulu baca jer, now di depan mata. Siapalah yang tak excited kan? You want to be there for hours and hours...

 The most expensive kebab.. Tak silap, Euro17 (x 4 berapa da tu?) Tapi I memang tak pernah rasa kebab best macam ni lagi. Kedai ni di belakang shopping2 center near the LV boutique.

Oklah, for a cheap accomodation, it is comfy. The owner is muslim. And we stay in a muslim majority area. So banyak makanan halal.

Kalau tak silap i , ini dalam Westminster Abbey. I was intrigued by London sebab dulu2 masa kecil suka baca buku novel and they describe the place like it was the best place you should be.

 Ni verandah in the hotel (or hostel) in Paris. Very nice and cheap.

Westminster Abby. Bolehlah imagine apa yang kita baca dalam sejarah sistem2 raja dulu kala tu bila dah witness sendiri peninggalan2 sejarah tu. Ada yang kata tak boleh masuk church... tapi niat tu kena pasang betullah ya.....

Tak susah rupanya nak naik tube. The first station we stop, keluar ikut orang2 lain yang berpusu2, tetiba, eh..... terus nampak ni...MasyaAllah... (sebenarnya nampak buruk sangat..... macam bertahun tak di cat atau di jaga, tetapi sebab london ni synonym dengan big ben, so memanglah kena tengok sendiri kan...)

 

The best experience is attending the shakespeare open theatre "Romeo & Juliet" at the Shakespeare's Globe. Kawan2 aku tak minat, so I booked online for myself, pergi naik train sendiri (ahh seronoknya rasa macam dah bertahun2 hidup kat London haha) dan tu la first time aku pergi theatre. I loss my theatre virginity in London, glamer sangat! haha!

 

You can visit them at http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/

 

I thought that was my first and last trip to London, I was thinking jadiklah kan teringinnnn sangat pergi London, dapat juga seumur pergi, mana tahu Allah rancang lagi bagus... Tahun depannya, ada pulak business trip to London........and Brighton. Alhamdulillah for the chances Allah.

Kids : DD's hospitalization

It has been 5 days since dd, my first daughter , hospitalized at SDMC.

Dr Sofia is not around today. Dr Endon is replacing her until tomorrow. She is ok overall just the cough is bothering her. and bothering us..... She had it for 2 weeks plus now..

My CEO said (infront of the management members) to me that I should not be at work when my daughter is in hospital. "You should get your priority right"....... kata dia. Malu sebenarnya bila dia cakap depan senior management. Even I know he has the best intention in the world.

Depending on how you translate it, some would say, he is nice. He is nice!I can tell you he is the only CEO that is so human I ever met and work with.


How do I translate that? Nice, and.... "am I not putting my priority rights? really?" I am a mum. I should know what is my priority kan? so I am a bit of...... "please do not say I am not putting my priority rights, I am just worry about delivering the best for you..."


I just do not want him to look bad at this trying time. So I just need to be there even if for half day. But since you think I should not, oh kay laahh........


The least I could do is just by checking my emails regularly. True enough, there is one incident today that is so out of hand. I am not sure how the department could give wrong information. This is not the first time. Totally unacceptable. After 1000 times of confirmation and we still miss it!


The CEO has reminded all staff that we need a "high performing" culture in the organization. If only they know what it means. Seriously rasa nak lempang jer semua orang.. hehe.. i mean not literally but sometimes I can go "mereng" sekejap. "what is wrong with all of you? how difficult can it be?"


Somehow, I am thankful that I am in this organization where there is a lot of improvement can be done. It is a learning process for me. I tried to adopt what I am in the office at home too.....Like managing a project, I have a gantt chart and a work plan. At home, dulu2 sebelum busy, I am actually quite a good mum. Ambitious mum...I have work plan, I have reading chart, I have white board.


After 4 kids and career is growing, so does accountability and responsibilities. I admit that I am not a very good COO at home. But I have included this project next year. Yes, I have AOP as well for next year. One of the AOP is the reading chart. We need to revive that. The list can go very long, depending on my time. I have not had time to review their hafazan too. They are part timer in Darul Huffaz actually.


DD told me they will have competition on memorization of surah yaasin and as-sajadah before end of school term. We can start with that this year just to warm up.

Found an old picture at the other blog.

Dd is blue. She was 1 year or 2 years? I can't remember.

 

During SARS in SG. She is our first child so a bit kiasu there....

She started the swimming school at 8mths old I think. Or was it earlier? DD is in pink with me. The instructor is australian couple. It was one of the greatest experience with dd.

I remember this part... we will sing "humpty dumpty sat on the wall, humpty dumpty fall from the wall.." and gedebush! the kids were suppose to terjun dalam kolam.... and later stage they will dive up to the bottom with the correct techniques.... Visit them at http://www.marsdenswimschool.com/home.htm

 

Si Jane ni muka masih muda walaupun sekarang DD dah 10 years old...kan? If you think it is expensive, it is not. I was young at that time. Earning about SGD2.5k jer kot.....

This is during DD's admission to KK hospital. Waktu kitorang dah tak berapa nak ada duit so we stayed in 6 bedded room.. hehehehe.. This must be when us self-employed. DD was at her kindergarten, 4 years or 5 years old gitu...

The oxygen level at that time. Better a bit.

DD managed to get good grading during her "ballet" exam. And that was her only exam... Her nenek convinced her enough to stop the class due to the sexy baju.. I was thinking it was a good exercise for her since she tak minat taekwondo... I regretted the decision to stop her ballet class.

DD in an ex-KRISTA. We chose KRISTA as there is a continuance of her "peter and jane" series after our move to Malaysia. Dia sempat dapat 2 piala dari KRISTA. She is actually a bright student... especially during my "GLORIOUS" day as a dedicated mum... I am so excited to bring that back next year... I hope the house is organized enough to start the "good mum is back" project. including cooking I hope.

House Project : Laundry area ideas

At first, this is not even included in my plan.


Our plan was to bring the current washing machine (which is from my parents), dump it in the common bathroom and that is all. End of story.


And then, we start to think (dangerously). When we start to think, it will cause a hole in our pocket. So that is dangerous.


One of our many problems is the laundry. We were so busy that we will have up to 5 laundry baskets to clear. And usually our laundry time is during weekend. And that weekend sometimes consists of sunday only. Saturday is extra class day. Sometimes the kids have school activities so we can't do laundry on saturday. Sometimes we just want to lepak lepak with our family - rumah kakak, rumah adik, when that happens, our saturday will be a non house chore day.


Sometimes it will be a rainy weekend. In this situation, our 5 full laundry baskets will not progress well.


We need to include a dryer in our plan. That is the point when we changed our plan totally.


When we chose our oven (it was a mistake), actually we were there to choose our dryer. And they have offers of MYR1999 for washer and dryer package. So we closed the deal and went home. I started planning on what to do with it. where to put it.

Here are some of my inspiration. Dun forget that the dining table for the family dining room will be here too...... It will serve dual purpose. A table to eat, and a table to fold my laundry. (will i fold any clothes in the end is another storylah).....

 Not bad kan? I seriously think white is a way to go...

 Wasn't that bad kan letak kat tepi tangga cam tu... haha!

 Maybe?

Ok, the above is more like it. I will do white. the washer and dryer memang I chose silver. Because the initial plan is to stack it up bottom and up in the kitchen. So mungkinlah akan match dengan stainless steel yang lain kat kitchen tu... tapi lepas tu I have a second thought to put this in the family dining area.

And look at the table in the middle? That is what I want to do. Exactly this. Oh my goodness, it is so beautiful in my eyes..... How much again? MYR4k to have those in my family dining room? huhuhuhuhu.... But wait, there is always the cheap solution right? Mungkin tak vavavoom, but oklah kan......