A Walk in Al Andalus Park

Oh my, i can't say much about our life here. So much so i wanted to say it is boring, but then i am grateful that things are doing good.

There is nothing much to do in the weekends. Kawan melepak pun tak ramai (ala2 takda sebenarnya, haha). Daddy ok la, Thursday pegi futsal, Friday malam ada jamming dekat rumah uncle Jeans. Luckily this time around, i have Milan. She is such a drama baby nowadays. Very good in acting i must say! Pot pet pot pet dengan action sekali :).

Oh ya, back to the walk in the park. The original plan was to head up to the beach but it was already late. Sampai beach pun dah gelap, we thought. Then, we noticed there's a park in town with empty parking spaces. And we were there, Al Andalus Park.

Enjoy the pics (mostly are Milan's :) )

Upon arrival,


Milan enjoying herself (kesian, jarang sangat keluar rumah)

14 Mos

Weight: 10kgs
Height: 74cm
Teeth: 4

Vocab:
Ots - Hot
Paypes - Pampers
Memo - No More
Babye - Bye bye
Ai (nada sengau) - Hi
Mama
Daddy
Dowa - Dora (Dora the Explorer)
Babis - Rubbish
Teti - Dirty
Poo poo - Poo poo
Kok - Clock
Car - Car (no more bubu car)
Puppy - Puppy (sometimes it's 'b*bi')
Baby - Baby
Bet - Bird
Hush - House
Chip - Sleep
No - No
Ors - Horse

Understand these:
1. Dirty, throw rubbish (She will pick it up and throw it into the rubbish bag)
2. Wash your hand
3. Kiss Mommy / Daddy
4. Where's Mommy / Daddy / Milan (but then will point at herself)
5. Give Mommy / Daddy xxx
6. Flying kiss
7. Shake hands please
8. Body parts - ears (only!, hehe)

Other than that, she
1. Climbs the sofa
2. Imitating Mommy cooking, taking photo, typing, doing laundry. When you sing, she'll too will sing. And the point when this photo was taken, i was cleaning the DSLR and the daddy was trying to repair the other camera. And she was doing that!!We just couldn't stop laughing.



3. Recognizes Dora from Dora merchandise
4. Loves teddy bears (they are all her 'baby')
5. Can recite 1-4, A-C
6. Flips her books when she is sleepy
7. Kisses every minute before dozed off
8. Knows when to sing the "ooooo" part in Spongebob Squarepants song
9. Loves to dance (robotic, clap and turn around, stomping her feet with jari 'cucuk langit' style)
10. Likes to frown whenever you stop her from doing something she likes

Like this;


11. Babbles a LOT..(God knows what she is trying to say, even in her sleep)
12. Loves to selongkar (kitchen cabinets - her favourite, open the closet and sits inside)
13. Suka tengok tv meniarap
14. Her favourite shows are PRIMO, Purple and Brown and Curious (and advertisements). All these shows have one thing in common, the characters are mute!!

Rambut

Alahai, susah betul jadi perempuan ni kan. Semalam cerita pasal berat badan, hari ni nak cerita pasal rambut pulak. Tapi tak lah sebesar mana masalah tu. Saja rasa nak mem'blog' pasal rambut.

Macam ni ceritanya, since last week, i've been having bad hair days. My scalp was too oily, then my hair melentik. Sindrom rambut melentik adalah masalah besar. Dari zaman sekolah dulu lagi.

Dulu, my inofficial hairdresser was a friend named Julie. Dahla bangun lambat, Julie bangun awal. Bila agak2 Julie nak turun kelas je, cepat2 panggil Julie tolong tocangkan (plait) rambut. Geram agaknya Julie masa tu, tapi dia tetap buatkan jugak. Baik betul Julie tu.

Lepas tu pernah pulak ada masalah kutu. Haih, masa ni memang nekad nak chop off my hair. Bermula lah era rambut pendek. Masa tu form 3. Mula2 tak perasan ada kutu. Then, there was one evening, rasanya weekends kot. Sebab tak ada prep (study malam) malam tu. Lepak dekat belakang asrama dengan Anne Uding & Audrey. Rasa macam kepala gatal sangat, area dahi. Scratch2, tertangkaplah seekor kutu yang MAHA GEMUK (eewwww grosss!!!). Siap beli spray Shieldtox sembur dkt rambut sebab nak bunuh kutu2 tu. Tah, tak ingat mcm mana masalah kutu tu diatasi jugak akhirnya.

Form 4, rambut panjang kejap. Lepas tu, potong sebab apa ntah. Tp, aunty cina dekat one salon dekat Soon Hup Tower (Mega Hotel) tu salah potong. Style sikat tepi, letak hairspray, angkat tinggi baik punya. Mampos lah kena gelak dgn Mama Qaseh and Mummy Aqeel masa tu. Kitaorg kalau ptg Jumaat je mesti melepak dkt town sebelum aktiviti Ko-Kurrukulum start. Antara aktiviti kitaorg adalah merayap dlm kedai jam (tgk2 Swatch), pegi beli Tummytrim (haha...) and pegi tindik telinga.

Ok, back to cerita rambut. Zaman kegemilangan rambut was in year 2000. Rambut panjang, hitam, wavy cantik. Sebab masa tu pakai ada satu hair moisturiser nama Essence (with herbal Shou Wu). Discontinue pakai hair moisturiser tu sebab dah tak in production lagi. Pastu, pendek balik. Ni potong sendiri sebab tension masa exam. Ngok betul! Since then, mcm2 la fesyen rambut. Pendek kata...panjang, boyish, curly, square, layered, with fringe, highlight..semua dah pernah merasa.

Sekarang ni, rambut dah selebet. Tak tau mana nak pegi dkt bahrain ni. Hari tu trim rambut pun dkt male salon yg hubby pegi. Tu pun sebab pinoy tu dah kenal, so he agreed. Otherwise, mana ada perempuan potong rambut kat salon tu. Kalau kat KL, selalu pegi salon Ken (my cousin), Exotic Salon dekat Sunway. I miss KL!

Not Good

Semalam kan, i naik the weighing scale. Andddddd...sangatlah dah naik berat!!!

What to do about it? Well, i'll think about it later.

Saya dah tak makan nasi 3 hari, huhu. Tp, besok nak masak nasi lemak. Tunggulah kejap angan2 nak kurus tu :)

Photography

Give me shopping and photoshooting, i'll choose the latter one. I love shooting scenery (only the scenery, not with a poser) and kids, both in action and portraits. To me kids pose more naturally.

These are among my favourite shots of Chiangmai :)

My name is...

To Miss TIQ,

I'm called by so many names:

1. Carol - short for Caroline. I'll introduce myself with this name.

2. Caroline - called by in-laws

3. Ubok (means 'girl' in Kiput)
This is a general name given to any girl in any Kiput family. So, it is common to find few 'uboks' in our place. My family calls me by this name. Since i now have a child, i'm called Ubok Tinah Milan (Tinah Milan - Milan's mom). Mrs Pearce is the only friend that call me by this name. Dari mula kenal sampai sekarang :)

4. Other than that, i'm also called by nicknames. Kay, Kiput, Sayeng.

Penyakit Dalaman

Dulu kan, kami (Yett and Mrs Pearce) ada teori. Orang cantik selalunya akan ada penyakit dalaman. How did we came with that theory? There were few seniors in school whom we categorised as 'cantik' and somehow these people ada penyakit. Some serious, some not so serious. And we categorised ourselves as 'cute'. Cute tu pulak in our term means "ugly but nice to see"...haha.

Sekarang ni saya rasa saya dah 'cantik', sebab ada penyakit dalaman. Penyakit 'meroyan' yang tak habis2, haha. Especially meroyan bila bukak FB. LOL! Sekarang ni dah tak meroyan sangat, so i'm back in FB.

FB tu pulak macam dah siot je. Nak upload gambar pun susah sangat. Layout pulak dah tukar. Nasib baik sebab rindukan kawan2, tu pasal activate balik fb. Rindu dkt mamak Qaseh :P.

Last night meroyan kejap sebab tgh buat something guna Words OneNote. Ingat nak belajar kan sebab mcm menarik. Dah taip cantik2, font kaler2, bulleted bagai, sekali tak boleh nak 'save'....arrrghhh..mcm ta*k! terus datang penyakit meroyan and masuk bilik n tidur.

What We Did

After the "What To Do", lets have a "What We Did" story



Actually nothing much. A friend just came back from Malaysia. And he brought some ikan kelah salai. Why is it so special you might ask? The ikan kelah salai was all the way from LAWAS yo! Thanks Johnny.

On Friday (our weekends start on Friday), we went to get something for Darwina's birthday. Her birthday is on March 15, but they left to India last night. So, kena bagi advance present. End up bought something for Darwina and MANY THINGS for the princess. Now, even the Daddy goes crazy about her clothings :)

Last night, after sending Darwina and her Mom to the airport, we went back home cos it was way past princess dinner time. Then, went out again for groceries shopping. See the photo with the word "Kunafa"? I've always wanted to try that thing everytime i see the arabs eat it. So, last night i had my first Kunafa. Sedap jugak. Something like a thick pancake layered with soft nougat (i guess! the Daddy said it is labanh). Topped with sugar syrup, honey, pistachio and coconut (actually you can choose your toppings but being so excited on trying, i asked the kunafa guy to put all types).

Then tadi, all three of us were in the kitchen trying to make karipap. Milan was busy as usual, memunggah barang2 from the lower kitchen kabinet. The daddy and me were 'playing' with the dough. Our first time making karipap. We made our own dough since the pastry squares that i bought was too greasy.

Karipap ni non-halal sebab inti ch*r si*w! We managed to get the dough right, crispy. But my ch*r si*w filing was too salty. Then, tak reti nak seal the edge. Masa nak goreng, terbuka pulak karipap tu. The h*ll la kan...lantak lah. Nama pun first time. We both thought we did quite a good job tapi lepas makan 3 karipaps, we both went "rasa muaklah!".

What To Do...What To Do

Happy weekends darlings!



To Endun xoxo



To Mrs Pearce xoxo

Egg TARDS!

I bought this pastry squares cos the daddy is 'craving' for karipap. I thought i might as well use the ready made pastry squares lah kan. But it turned out that the squares are too greasy. And to make it worse, i added the greasiness by greasing the muffin pan. Double the grease!



Before the karipap, he wanted egg tarts. So, egg tarts first in line. Since i didn't have milk and whipped cream in the kitchen, i 'pandai2' used only cream. In the end, this is how the egg tarts look like. Taste = not bad, Look = EGG RETARDS!!

I Think I Miss You

Things happen, life changes. I'm surviving mine, you are living yours. To our love and hate friendship.


REMEMBER ME THIS WAY (JORDAN HILL)

Every now and then
We find a special friend
Who never lets us down
Who understands it all
Reaches out each time you fall
You're the best friend that I've found
I know you can't stay
A part of you will never ever go away
Your heart will stay

I'll make a wish for you
And hope it will come true
That life would just be kind
To such a gentle mind
If you lose your way
Think back on yesterday
Remember me this way
Remember me this way


I don't need eyes to see
The love you bring to me
No matter where I go
And I know that you'll be there
Forever more apart of time, you're everywhere
I'll always cares


And I'll be right behind your shoulder watching you
I'll be standing by your side and all you do
And I won't ever leave
As long as you believe
You just believe

Celebrate Love

How was your celebrations for love darlings? Mine was simple. Considering that we have a toddler so there was nothing "romantika d amor" kinda thing. In fact, when i was preparing dinner, she was tugging on my pant and wanted to be carried. Of all the days, she chose the day when mommy planned to cook something special. She became cranky and did not want to stay with daddy in the living room.

I only managed to prepare these (Spaghetti with salmon). No dessert as planned :(








Daddy bought her a heart shaped valentine's balloon


Her 1st valentine's day card, again from daddy (mommy had no idea that a 1 year old baby needs a valentine's day card!)





Then, she got this teddy bear (again from daddy!)


Our little valentine playing with her balloon


And roses for mommy. Thanks dear :)

Anniversaries

Sebenarnya ada berapa banyak anniversary in one's life that they need to celebrate?

Today (13.02.10) is our dating 11 years anniversary. Then, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. And on March 15, is our wedding (church blessing) anniversary. Tp, registration dkt JPN we had in on 28.12 (dependent visa to bahrain punya pasal).

So, agaknya dating nyer anniversary ni kira lesap je la. We only count our wedding anniversary on every March 15. Kalau tak, bankrap la nak beli hadiah bagai kan. Birthday lagi, Christmas lagi.

Valentine's ni kita main masak2 dkt rumah udah le. Sapa nak babysit si kecik tu kalo nak dinner kat luar. nak bawak sekali, confirm la makan ala2 'kecemasan'.

Hari ni nak buat cupcakes :). Happy Valentine's Day peeps!! XOXO


P/s: my parents named their firstborn, Valentine :)

Blog hopping

I seriously love blog hopping, anyway...who doesn't right.

Apart of hopping on and off to my friend's blogs, i normally hop to blogs with lotsa pictures. Nothing political. I just like plain simple blogs. Now that i'm a mom, i hopped to mommies blogs out there. Tons of them. If you are a mommy blogger, there are 99% chances i might have hopped into your blog, and somehow get addicted as a silent reader.

And another thing, since i can speak bahasa iban, i blog-hopped to blogs written in bahasa iban too. Though sometimes, i had to read the entry out loud to get the hang of it.

Blog gosip artis tu haruslah kan. Kena jugak tahu update2 industri hiburan tanahair. Nak stream weekly Melodi online lambat sangat.

Fear

As i was watching Milan sleeping, my mind was thinking of the friend that i blogged about earlier. The one with the health condition.

Suddenly i found myself sobbing uncontrollably. I cried and cried. I can't imagine myself being in her shoes. It must be so hard just to think about how you have to stay strong to fight it. To be sure that you will wake up again the next day and still be able to watch your baby smiles. To comfortably tell yourself that everything is going to be fine.

And as i was crying, i see myself in fear.

Fear of not strong enough in any situation. Fear of not strong enough to fight for the ones i love.

I can't write anymore. It's getting harder to hold back the tears.

I will go for pap smear and mammogram after the vacation. I will...

Feeding bottle

Milan is still drinking from her feeding bottle. And it is a routine for me to make rounds of bottle collecting in the morning and in the evening. Or, should i say...bottle 'searching'.

Almost every single day, the daddy will have to bear with me, membebel2 while looking for Milan's bottle. Since she is mobile nowadays, her bottle could be anywhere. Sometimes, it could be somewhere i couldn't think of. And i will start to make statement like "besar sangat is it this house?". Or, i will start to question Milan on her bottles whereabouts, to which she will stare at me blankly. Oh yes, what can i expect from a 13mos daughter. But, i just love the idea of talking to her as if she understands me.

Today, i spent about 15mins searching for her bottle. And i finally found it in her 'wagon'. The other day, i was looking for her bottle for half a day, only to find it was in the washing machine!!

P/s: Our family is expanding again this year with baby no.10. All the best Kak Anna and Bro Julian on their 4th child. I hope i can 'contribute' baby no.11 :)

Did It Again

Ooopppssss...i did it again!

Nothing serious lah. FB account deactivation only. Malaslah, asal on laptop je, masuk fb. Bosan! Spending too much time there. Baik teman Milan tengok tv, nyanyi2, joget2.

Pastu, bosan tengok gelagat macam2 orang kat dlm fb tu. ada yang 'macam bagus', tp ada yang MEMANG bagus pun, hehe. Ada yang kutuk mengutuk, ngorat mengorat, gedik menggedik.

My family members pun dah berapa aktif fb dah. my sister pun dah deactivate her fb. So, kitaorang chat je to update each other. Privacy.

Anyway, takda sapa pun nak cari kalau tetiba takda kat dlm fb tu. Semua 'orang2 penting' know how to reach me :)

Better Luck Next Time

It's contagious!!!

Sangatla berjangkit. As far a i know, if a group of ladies are staying in a same house or practically staying close with each other, potentially they will have their menses at almost the same time.

Tapi, saya adalah di Bahra.i.n and mereka berdua adalah di Malaysia. Endun and Carmathen, kita senasib. Just that, timing difference. Malaysia time minus 5 hours. Not close geographically but close at heart maybe? Hehehe

With that, no hope for Sunshine no.2 in 10.10. Better luck next month!

Bittersweet

Despite the pain of bringing her out to this world, she is the sweetest little girl.

Last night, just like any other night...i was in room with her as it was her bedtime. when she is too sleepy, she won't just sleep. she'll climb out from her crib onto our bed. jump here and there. and i let her do whatever it is that she needs to do.

And when she starts to guling2, that's the time i put her back in her crib.

Tapi last night, she kept on climbing in and out of her crib. i pun rasa sangat geram. entah berapa kali cakap "Milan, lie down and close your eyes. sleep", sebab tekak dah kering nyanyi2.

And baru ingat nak buka mulut lagi as she was standing up (again...), she kissed me on the lips, lie down and just dozed off!!! Maybe she was trying to say "goodnight mommy, i love you"?

Brocollini

Now, i must have been living under the rock or something. Honestly, i only knew about this brocollini last week. Itu pun nasib baik tengah menonton rancangan kegemaran, rancangan memasak. At first i thought i heard it wrong or maybe the host tetiba terbelit lidah ke apa. Then, after he explained that broccolini is indeed from the same family as broccoli. To me, it looks the same as broccoli except that it comes in single and yet smaller stalks. Macam mana nak cakap ye, brokoli biasa tu kan ada 1 big stalk...then berkepul2 (i am imagining asap berkepul2). Anyways, they look the same to bare eyes.

And i love brocolli so much. Mmg tak tahan la stok broccoli in the fridge. Masak nasik, nanti buat sayur campur broccoli with shiitake mushroom. Masak macaroni or pasta, sure ada brocolli. I just love the crunchiness.

Tapi, tadi google gambar brocollini...dapat yang macam ni. Macam geli je nak makan....



and lepas tu...ada pulak this blog showed a BROCCOFLOWER!!!Broccoli+cauliflower. It's a cauliflower with green color. That's so brocCRAZY!!

Burnout

burn'-out".fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity.

Today was better than yesterday. Semalam rasa penat sangat, lepas tu, tidur kejap, then ok.

So Random

Takde kaitan dengan rancangan yang Demi Lovato berlakon tu. Aceli banyak sangat gambar2 yang i ambik tp tak sempat nak letak dekat blog. So, kira buat cerpen bergambar lah ni.

First in the list, haruslah gambar si kecik tu. Agak2 dah jadi mak ni, haruslah head over heels with your kids. The first photo was about her 'playing' with the chopped apples. Messy sangat. Same thing with the middle photo. I was trying to make her eat on her own. Habis comot makan yogurt. Sampai masuk hidung. The other two tu, dia tgh main with her new ride (baru beli tadi. aceli keluar sebab cari Baby Balsam Vicks for IY, hehe) and her favourite activity before bedtime, reading.



Ni, kalau sapa tak tahu, adalah limau bali or pomelo. Saya buang kulit mcm ni, tak tahu lah orang lain macam mana.

Gambar kat bawah tu, adalah menu saya semasa berdiet (hangat2 ta*i ayam...). Seriously, i start to worry on my weight la. Macam tak turun2 je. Since we are trying for another baby, it is very crucial (ha...bukan important lagi) for me to lose this babyweight. Otherwise, babyweight 1 + babyweight 2 = ???. Could be more than babyweight 3!!!


And these are photos taken by the daddy at the Al Janabiya camel farm. Banyaknya camels. Tapi masa tu, si cameLIA kecik tu tido pulak. So, daddy keluar ambik gambar, kita duduk dalam kereta je. Kesian la camels tu, kena hurung dengan lalat.


Dah lama tak letak gambar masakan kan?


Calon-calonnya adalah:

1. Brocolli with shiitake mushroom

2. Favourite semua kawan2, sardin

3. Ayam masak kicap with peanuts and lotus roots

4. Ikan keli (tak sedap betul ikan keli kat sini) masak sambal

5. Kerabu mangga

P/s untuk mama IY: awak, so far tak jumpa lagi vicks tu. Boots pun takde jual. Nanti kita try lagi k.

Please Don't Stop The R.a.i.n

I never knew that i could l.o.v.e James Morrison's songs so much that i could cry (don't laugh ok). Really. Dengar James Morrison nyanyi je rasa sayu.

Dulu, menitik air mata while listening to "The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore".

Enough said la...buat sedih je. Sebab En James ada kat Dubai this 19th :( and we are not going there by any chance...sob..sob. Even if we can go, either one of us has to stay and jaga Milan. And i dare not going to any concert alone. No matter how much i heart J.M. The last concert i went to was Linkin Park. Wayyyyy back in 2003, huhu...

Pening

I feel so pening today. Sebab malam tadi tido lambat, then tak boleh nak tido. Milan asyik mengigau. dah tu mimpi mengarut lagi. so, hari ni whole day pening-pening. tadi ingatkan nak tido kejap petang tu, Milan pula merengek2..kesian dia. sorang2. daddy dia pun tido rupanya dkt luar.

Ok, i guess that's about it. Peninglah...