HAVEN

I came across this restaurant while reading a local magazine called Wanita. So I suggested to my hubby why not we try out this new place.

My hubby called up his sisters and father and invited them for a dinner treat on top of the hill. All 13 of us drove up to Bukit Langat where Haven was located. It took quite a while for us to get up the hill and finding a parking spot. The road up the hill was very steep. To my surprised there were several other restaurants operating at the premise.

HAVEN on top of the hill.

Finally we reached Haven and OMG the view that night was awesome. You have to be there to feel what I felt. If I were on a date, the atmosphere will make me fall in love with my partner all over again. Yeah....to that extend.

Apart from the view, the food was quite tasty. Pizza was good, lamb shank was tender, lamb chop not bad, fried noodle was delicious.

After dinner we decided to walk to the very top of the hill. Couples everywhere, courting, holding hands, taking pictures while others, sitting in flocks talking and laughing under the starry night.

We decided to call it a night and went back straight home.

Catching up with Lost Time.

It has been a while. Sebenarnya banyak yg nak di coretkan tetapi masa tidak membenarkan. I have been busy and by night too tired to even to think. I just wanna sleep and sleep.

Where should I begin...

SHAKIEL'S BIRTHDAY - May 20, 2010.



It was a small occasion which we had it at his school so that he can celebrate it with his friends. Just a cake and birthday song. This round I did not go all the way like the previous year. I guess since he has lots of friends and quite popular at school so why not have it there, anyhow, I was not up to a huge celebration.

SHAKIRA'S BIRTHDAY - July 6, 2010.

A piñata is a brightly-colored decoration made from either a clay container or cardboard shape covered with papier-mâché. The container or cardboard shape were meant to be broken forcefully with poles and sticks, so the contents spilled to signify abundance or favors. Piñatas are believed to have originated among the Aztecs, Mayans, and other native peoples of Mexico. Information gathered from Wikipedia.

Since last year Shakira had a quite birthday, this year we went to the full length. Why I said that was because Shakira requested a PINATA! A Poney Pinata, to be specific. Too much of Dora The Explorer and Handy Manny!

Ayah said, "If my daughter wants a pinata, my daughter will have one!" He was actually immitating Kimora Lee Simons fabulous lifestyle. Indeed Shakira had her pinata, not one but two!

Mummy made this - A SUN pinata.
I guess searching for ideas in the NET, really helped me a lot. I really cannot build a poney so I settled for a SUN. I figure it should be a simple task until I started with the project. But all ends well and the birthday girl was not allowed to see the end result until the party day. We had the celebration in Ampang, where her grandfather and other cousins lives.

Ayah made this. Ayah was more adventurous. The poney he has planned in mind did not turn as planned. It looks more like a goat! Hehehe...again, all of our efforts was a success and most importantly our princess enjoyed her special day.


Birthday cake. It was a double birthday celebration for Shakira and Nabila.


It took me 6 days to complete the pinata. Mula mula memang bersemangat bila dah nak habis...lembab pulak. Sampai tahap nak give up pun ada. Tak pa la...this time only ya, baby. No more pinata please!
Main course was steam-boat. It was a good turn out and the girls had a good time.

Happy Father's Day Part 2.

So, today is Father's Day, huh? I thought it was last Sunday! This means the kids and myself celebrated Father's Day a week early. Ha ha ha....tersilap tarikh rupanya. I always thought mother's and father's days were celebrated every 2nd week on May and June respectively.

Sempena Hari Bapa ini, I would like to say, thank you 'kutuk' for being there especially for the kids. We love you very much!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of you and d kidz.

Hihihi........

I know that he has been carrying around a laminated photo of me in his wallet for quite sometime now. Don't I look good? Hahaha. When I look at the photo,....no wonderla he was head over heals over me. Kekekekekek. Jangan marah ye 'kutuk'. Muah muah.

This photo was taken on the ferry to Liberty Island, New York. It was winter on 1994 while I visited my cousin, Kak Ina.

Happy Father's Day Part 1.

Before I was married the only man in my life was Abah.

Abah has sacrificed so much for his family especially yours truly. I love you and missed you so much.

Happy Father's Day and semuga Allah memcucuri rahmat ke atas mu. I know you will always look over me.

Shallow am I?

Welcome back to my blog who's ever reading. I appreciate encouraging comments which may be room for improvement.

It's been a while, hasn't it? So much has happened...What trigger me back to write? Well just read on.......

I planned to go to bed early tonight...but ended doing a load of laundry and folded clothes. Then just as I was about to crawl into bed, I remembered a question popped up from Shakira, my 8 year old daughter. Oh boy how she has grown! Her questions...getting tricky to answer.

A conversation sunday morning.

Shakira : " Mummy betul ke Nabi Isa tu belum wafat?"

Thinking that Nabi Isa lived centuries and centuries back and trying to put reason into her head, I replied,

Me : Nabi Isa kan hidup zaman nabi2 kalau Nabi Mohammad dah mati what makes that of Nabi Isa?"

Hehehe that should make her stop from asking.

Shakira : "Wafatla mummy bukan mati."

What? What is this girl taking about? BING!!!!

Me : OHHH...sorry wafat.

Shakira : "Tapi ustazah cakap Nabi Isa tak mati lagi."

Me : "...then listen to Ustazahla."

Ayah interrupted our conversation.

Ayah : "Betul. Betul. Betul. Nabi Isa belum mati. Tuhan angkat Nabi Isa ke langit. Orang kristian yg ingat yg mati tu Nabi Isa. Nanti masa nak khiamat Nabi Isa akan turun ke bumi."

It gave me the shivers. It stopped Shakira from asking another question. Merrily skipping to the dining table and continue with her sketches. Satisfied with the answered. And...I HATE POP QUIZES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REUNION Part 3

On the day of the reunion..the butterflies flew and flutter away. I was very much comfortable as we go along with our conversations. At times we were kind of loud with our burst of laughter.

Then we have Mior Hisham (top picture) and Sayed Mazawir (bottom picture)...dia orang ni masa zaman sekolah dulu memang la kenit. Now pun lebih kurang je....hahaha jangan marah ya.

They were among new faces that afternoon and both look almost the same just like when they were in Primary school. As what I understood...Sayed ni suka pakai socks panjang...hihihi.

While we were sitting and having our buffet suddenly he walked in. Making his grand entrance it was Bakri. Emmmm orait jugak dia ni. Terkejut jugak tengok dia datang. Though he has aged a bit but after a while the 12 year old face started to appear in front of me. Siapa tak kenal dia di SRKIS. Banyak yang syok dengan dia almaklumla masa tu boleh katakan dia good looking la. He was a school athlete and no doubt with his athletic back ground he entered STAR Ipoh.

Most of the new faces I met that day...could hardly recognized me. I guess I must have changed a lot especially with my long hair. We finally call it a day around 4 pm and there were suggestion another reunion must take place. And this time it should be at Pulau Chempakasari in Parit. Pot Luck? Maybe?

Insya Allah.

I had a great time and hopefully this is a begining of a beautiful friendship, as Boggart said to Bergman in Casablanca!

Reunion - Part 2

Never in my life I ever thought the urge of reuniting with old school mates. Somehow as you aged you think more of your past and want to hold on whatever memories you have be it pleasant or nasty.

Yong has always been the best student in SRKIS. In fact she was the first student who scored 5A's in the school's Peperiksaan Penilaian Darjah 5. Now it is called UPSR. Having both parents as teachers, she was gifted. She had it in her and seems doesn't need to study but yet scored high marks in class. Always came out first in class and she got an offer to continue with her studies at STF in Johor Bahru soon after standard six. Nothing known about her but on and off I used to see her returned to Parit during her semester's break. She would ride her bicycle past in front of my grandfather's house without acknowledging my presence. The next thing I heard her parent moved to Ipoh and we never see each other again.

Me, Yong and Nizar.

I read her blog, MrsNordin, in cases anyone is interested,....she could recall a few of our finest moment back then. How we collected paper and magazine cuttings of Hollywood stars such as Farrah Fawcett, Lee Majors and of course the Charlie's Angels and stick it in our scrap book. She also mentioned that the three of us, her, nani and myself use to ride our bicycles around the kampung and declared ourselves as the Charlie's Angels. Frankly speaking I cannot even remember that part of my history. But being chased by guys on bikes...yes I can second that. By the way Yong...who were the guys chasing after us????

We also went mengaji dekat rumah wan Nipah which is next to my gramp's house. She was also good at mengaji. Wan selalu biar je dia baca Al-Quran sampai 3-4 helai sehari whereas yours truly cuma baca 1-2 helai. Her brothers Azman and Shariman, my sister sheri also attended Wan Nipah's classes.

Now Yong who is married and has 3 stepchildren and one of her own is working with Celcom.

Anyway, Masa sekolah dulu kita orang girls and boys tak de lah rapat sangat. We maintain good relationship je...maklumlah sekolah kampung kan. To reflect on the school days...the girls wore pinafore to school and we wore shorts during PE. Baju kurung selalunya pakai hari Jumaat je. The boys wore shorts to school and yes, even when they were at standard six.

But now my daughter who is in Standard 2 get paranoid kalau I suruh dia pakai pinafore untuk ke sekolah. Dia kata budak ejek dia anak india la...and macam-macam. SO this year she stopped wearing pinafore. Kesian dia. How sometimes other kids can be cruel towards another.

Nizar pulak...I was not very closed with him. Kami cuma kawan biasa je...dalam kelas je and kat luar pun kalau jumpa buat tak tahu. Dulu kat kampung, we were mostly known as anak si...so and so...or cucu si...so and so...SO I am mostly known as cucu Cikgu Basho...gurubesar yang garang...who used to spit into another student's mouth. And yet respected. Hmmm takut I dengar...now people would say..kurang ajar...but that was long long ago. Sure dapat high blood pressure kalau dapat Cikgu Basho jadi class teacher.

So Nizar ni pun memang pandai. In our class he and Yong would always compete 1-2 placing in our term exams. Now Nizar is pursuing his MA fulltime at UKM. He is into Geology. These days Nizar is the easiest of the guys to mingle. Very friendly and funny. Without him our first reunion last raya would have not happened.


Ishamuddin

Ishamuddin will always be remembered as the drummer boy. Hihihi....Kat sekolah SRKIS our school band tu bolehlah dikatakan yg terbaik...hihihi one drum, 2-3 small triangles, and the rest of us on recorders. Later we added the xylophone. Isham was very suitable with the drum and he played well. We were good tau.

There were stories going around that both Yong and Isham were an item masa standard six. Cikgu Joharah, our class teacher and who happens to be Yong's mother caught some love notes between them. Isham was called and given warning. Kesian Isham.

Now Isham is working with Datuk Hishamuddin Tun Hussin.

T be continued....

Reunion = Inferiority Complex Part 1

There are two types of people in my observation. The group which likes to meet people and the group which doesn't.

Well, I'm the latter group.

Now that another reunion from my primary school days are coming up this 24 January 2010, the butterflies starts hibernating again in my stomach. I dread reunions.

After almost 30 years, I gathered enough courage to meet up with several school friend last raya which I have lost contact since I left Parit in the early 80's. Thanked to Facebook who brought us all together.

Anyway, this post have been abandoned for about 2 weeks into 24 March reunion. And after a week of the reunion I am still stuck! I don't know how should I begin. There are so many things to write about.

Finally 24 Jan arrived. Was I nervous....damn right I was. Out of the lot I'll be meeting, 3 of whom I've reunited last raya will be there,too. I guess I just have to be myself, huh? As soon I'd arrived I didn't see any of them. Great, was I early? I placed a call to Nani (she contacted me a few days earlier) but a girl answered that her mom left her mobile at home. Hmmm? Called Jamilah and no answer. Than I sms Yong and glad to see her replies that they were already at Melting Pot. I walked in and saw a few unrecognizable faces. I headed directly to Jamilah and gave her a big hug. Nani was there. And there was Yong. We embraced and I saw Yong wiping off her tears soon after that. This reunion must have touched her deep. After hellos from the others I was introduced to Syed Muzawir, Zaida and Mior Hisham. Yes I still remember those faces.

Our class of 1980- Standard 6A.

1979 and 1980.....Those were the 2 primary years I spent in Parit. As you may recalled I was sent to continue with my schooling in Parit after the death of my mom. It was hard adjusting to a totally new environment. City girl became kampung girl - what can I say. Indeed I do get tease always being as 'the girl from KL' with my BM language slang whilst confident English speaker. That I was told by Nani. Hmmm I could barely remember that. I guess I do set a certain standard everywhere I go. Really. They remembered me as the quiet type but talkative and a happy go lucky girl.


As I sat there I very much try to observed each and everyone of them. In presence also was Ishamuddin, Jamilah and Nizar. How I missed those good old school days. So young and carefree.

Taken on 24 Jan 2010.


Let me begin with Jamilah....

In this picture - Jamilah (left) and Rosnani.

Milah ni suke merajuk and sikit2 nak report kat abng dia. Her brother and my uncle were friends when they studied in Liverpool, England. Macamla dia sorang je ada abang, Nani said...hahaha. Milah juga suka mencubit and I was also one of her victims. But soon after Secondary one, her family moved to Ipoh and we just lost contact. Until I found her in Facebook. I have been searching for all of my school friends and tripped upon Milah. How glad I was! Milah is now a secondary school teacher in Batu Gajah and currently pursuing her Masters in Literature at UM, part time. She drives down to KL in the weekends to attend her classes. I admire her determination. You go girl! I don't know how her hair looks now behind her tudung but it used to curled at shoulder length.

Rosnani pulak budak minang. She used to lived with her grandmother in a big yellow double storey wooden house. Sweet looking Nani, what we called her, has a mole on top of her upper lips. Long haired and very lanky for a 12 year old then. Now physically she has changed a lot but she is still the same Nani back in school. Nani is also a teacher and teaching in Bangi.


Zaida came with her daughter. This chinese looking girl was very reserved and quiet back then. She still looks the same and how had she maintained the looks for 30 years. I understood she just went through a divorce and working with HSBC credit card center. Zaida, tolong approve credit card untuk I, boleh? Platinum ya!

I told ya,this going to be long....to be continued.