Mixed feelings

After 7 years in Jakarta , this December 2018 we are saying farewell to our life and friends here.

Next week will be the final week of school for Term 1. Final and last term for me and my kids.

How all my 3 girls started their early years and primary years here.

To them , BSJ is their first school. And forever it will stay embedded in their minds.

It's the first school for my eldest. She was supposed to join Standard 1 in KL. But joined Year 2 when we moved here 7 years ago.

As for Aisyah and Alya , both joined the Foundation Stage at BSJ for 2 year before moving into Primary school.

How luckily they are to be able to join this great early years programmes. One which is different from back home in KL.

Of course 2 years in Tadika bunga tulip for eldest really paid off as it helped her a lot in Year 2.

Allah is the best planner..no doubts in it. And forever and always we will stay thankful to Him.

Throughout that 7 years in BSJ, me and my girls have become the regular faces that you will see in school. Both at drop offs and pick ups.

Having all girls leave me with no choice of not sending them to school. So Alya and Aisyah used to tag along to school before they join school.

And that how Alya became that time reminder for all those we have seen in school. A reminder how time passed by so quickly . A reminder of how old we have become as we see Alya grew up from being just a 3 months old baby to a friendly 7 years old girl.

Dedicated and friendly teachers had come and gone by through that 7 years. And how they have touched and leave good memories in me and my girls.

Until now my girls still remembers Ms Deborah O'callaghan , Ms Emma Russell , Ms Jeanette Sy .

And soon we will remember all the teachers in BSJ.

These days im school you will see me long hard and long of each things . If only what I see can be straight transferred into a video or pictures that me and my girls will forever cherished in the future.

We always pass by the kiddy pool . And how I can see Aisyah and Alya swimming there for their first time.

This last 3 weeks Arissa and Aisyah didn't get to do their swimming after school activities. Luckily I had look hard and long when I had the time ..with Alya . How we both always waited and sit at the shaded swimming dock whenever her big sisters are doing swimming.

And yes , I took endless photos of it. 😢

It's hard when you have lived quater of your life long in one place. Hard to leave when you have made good friends .

posted from Bloggeroid

Friday franctic

Afraid of see what next Friday will be.

Usually we were the ones who saw sad teary faces of those school leavers and their family.

How we were the ones who witness friends hugging the leavers . And how moms also hugs their friends for the last time in school.

So comes this Friday , me and my kids will be trading our places as leavers of BSJ.

I do know for sure how it will turn up my Year 9 daughters. Deep down inside I am dreading that teary scene.

As for Aisyah my girl in Year 5 and she is just 9, she may cry at pick up or in a car. This too I just don't know what should I do or say..

And as for my 7 year old girl Alya , she might be indifferent to this..but she will join Aisyah in crying later.

And me ? Well , I wish I don't have to cry..for I wish to be the strongest one to support and hug my kids in that last bye bye moments ..

posted from Bloggeroid

Back to gym life

Don't know why I didn't start hitting the gym back when Alya was in FS ..

It took me 3 years to enrol myself again as gym member..

I have always enjoy doing the aerobic and cardiovascular classes. .those day my choice is limited as I were only be able to do it after office hours..wait! Actually more of only when my work is done which could be at 6 pm..

So since January this year , I have been going to the gym and doing all the classes that I can..

And wow!! The feeling of doing those zumba, RPM, body combat, yoga , fast fit was sureal. ..

I enjoyed every minutes of it..

And now I am worried of having to miss these classes during that 1 week of CNY school break..I will be in KL ma. .

Did strong Zumba and Fast fit which was awesome. .had me looking forward to my class this week. .

These days my life in the morning just before I need to pick up my gorgeous girls from school after 2 pm daily, it is sandwich with groceries at pasar and supermarket, gym and my kelas pengajian 2x a week. .

Alhamdulillah for the reliable house helper that I have ..just need to tell what dishes to cook or prepared the bumbu for me to cook
..

ALHAMDULILLAH. .

posted from Bloggeroid

Being a mom

So we are back in JAKARTA after long summer holidays. .

And back to my routines.


And came back with more determination to lose some weight.

Talking about losing weight, it's easy when you have the knowledge of what's and why's of good eating habits.

Did my full health screening last month. Talked to a dietitian as it was part of the package.

Must say that I am glad and thankful for the results.

Have to credit this to my hubby. He has been constantly reminding me and sharing with me good eating habits.. also to exercises. .which I still have not start going to the gym..

Seeing the dietitian left a big impact on myself..I can only say it motivates me to watch what I eat ..and portion is important.

And being me who loves eating, this is helpful..I get to enjoy what I eat but with the right portion.

The tips is , be aware of what u eat at meals time. This will help you to decide what food u can eat for snack . Should u be hungry between the main meals. Go for smaller portion. And yes, lotsa water too.

When you watch and aware what carbo or protein or sugary or salty food that you had eaten , then losing weight will be easier.

posted from Bloggeroid

Teh tarik

Hubby said that I have been feeling homesick as I keep on ordering teh tarik either hot or cold lately. And how I crave for Malaysian style cooked dishes even on hari raya Haji.

To be honest, I won't deny it. And thank you my dearest superb half for driving me to Ah Mei in Living World Alam Sutera. However we ended eating at Kopi O as Ah Mei was closed for renovation.

This year raya Haji was a low key one. In fact almost all raya Haji that we celebrated in Jakarta had been a low key celebration. All this because it was a school day the next day. How uncool is that..

No doubt I cooked the the rendang ayam N9 . And this year we had lemang. Luckily I managed to order it from another fellow Malaysian. So apart from those two food , I bake a gugelhupf chocolate cake which is a recipe from Chef Wan. First time baking it and it was yummy. So that's it..that was the menu for raya.

Back to my homesick, I miss being in Malaysia. Blame it also for the fact that I spent my whole summer holidays in Malaysia this year.

posted from Bloggeroid

Mrsfina

I have a pray..

And my pray is that may Allah swt opens up your heart to contact us again.

Us as in we your friends that you have pushed aside .

posted from Bloggeroid

Spouse by love or religion

How lucky we are if we were advised and told by either our parents or by someone we trust on the important and logic reason why we should find prospective husband or wife based on religion. This I am referring to Muslims.

Of course it is mentioned in the Alquran on how to choose your partner ie what is the criteria one should choosed based upon.

But even if we know, nobody did say the logic behinds it..or our minds just don't want to accept it . And ignore it like most of the times.

So choose your partner because of his/her religion. This means choose a person who has great understanding of the religion and all its teachings.

With that , only after what had happened to someone dearest to me, do I fully understand the logic behind it.. but then, it's too late for my dear friend to change the past. You can just turn the clock back and reset everything when this is about your marriage and kids are involved.

But things would be different had my friend choose her partner first based on religion. From my observations on friends marriage, I noticed that having a spouse that has great and depth understanding of religion does help a lot with the marriage.

And this is different for those who aren't.

So many people fall in love with the outer beauty..some do get lucky to fall in love with a person who has both beauty and depth religion beliefs.

But when marriage get sour when your spouse suddenly changed from good to evil, not much you can do actually. You either try to save your marriage or divorce. And for a Muslim, divorce is one thing that Allah hates.

posted from Bloggeroid

BBQ

How old memories sting me like a bee tonight. More because of the presence of the people from the old memory itself.

How we used to have BBQ when my late brother in law was still alive.

I don't know how it started but what I do know is that he always do bbq even before I was married to my husband.

We always have bbq whenever he feels like too.. he did it whenever Baba Nong, Hala Pachik came all over from Singapore to visit us ..And Khuya Fazul and Kak Iz and the kids will drop over also ..

I remember the big open porch of his house where we did the bbq . How nice to have your bbq witness by the clear night skies and the twinkling stars. . Sometimes the night air was cooling..sometimes no wind at all..

But the things that never missed was the laughter and happy mood ... especially when it was Baba Nong and the company..

I don't know why all of a sudden dearest hubby said about wanting to do bbq tonight.

He only said that the girls will like the idea. . And we only went out to get the new bbq set together with the charcoal and my new yellow and red stool from Ace Hardware store at 430 pm.

My MIL is here ..so do her old maid Wiwi that came to visit Umi and us tonight. Here in my Jakarta house.

I do know for sure these two people remember those old days of bbq ... and tonight seeing Wiwi again and having her with us doing bbq , the memories is just so strong... Wiwi was there in the old memories right from the beginning. . And she was also there when my late BIL passed away..

I do love bbq ..the chicken wings ,the lamb and meat was deliciously cooked with loads of loves from my hubby..

posted from Bloggeroid

Friday nite must-do-list

For the sake of my kids' education , I try to remind myself to read my kids' school weekly newsletter. This I do before I go to sleep on every Friday night.

The school will published weekly newsletter and send email notification about it every Friday evening.

Parents are being updated and informed about what the children are learning during the week and also for the next week. Each Year group will have its own newsletter. Thus its a good way for us parents to keep abreast on what is happening at school. Actually this goes inhand with the school aims of wanting parents to be more involved with their child education and progress.

At least by reading the newletter, I know how I can help my girls at home with what they have learnt and what they are going to learn.

In fact , at the beginning of each term and after mid term break, the school too will give us a printout of the whole term themes of topics that will be taught. The school really wants each child to have a good exposure, extra information and early ideas of what that term theme will be.

Sometimes, I refer back to last year academic newsletters for more insight on what to expect.

I really like this newletter ideas ..its totally different from my time. But i cant compare to school back in Malaysia. My kids have never experience it for we moved here when Arissa was starting her primary year.

posted from Bloggeroid

That feeling again..

Again I have to be a single parent for almost a week as dearest husband is away on a business trip..

A feeling that most unwelcome by me!

How empty I feel inside of me. And boredom is everywhere that it got me thinking and planning of what to do for this week ! Haiya !

I wonder how others who are really a single parent either by death or divorce, do they feel the same way I do ?

Someone that is dearly to me is going through one of the unhappiest moments of her marriage.

I feel empty and bored because my husband is away. She being empty and bored because her husband is neither here nor there.

posted from Bloggeroid

Our 3rd ramadan

Actually it's the 2nd ramadan that I am here fasting. This is because last year me and the girls fast in kinrara as Alya had her operation.

Nevertheless, Alhamdulillah me and my girls get to fast with their baba.

And being away from malaysia especially during this ramadan, it also means no bazar ramadan for us..huhu..

It's not like I didnt cooked at all . I still have to cook dishes for sahur. Arissa eat nasi and lauk for sahur and buka puasa. Which is good for her so that she wont be weak ..

As for me and hubby, we like to eat none of that nasi and lauk for buka puasa..

So since there is no bazar ramadan here, I have as the CEO of the kitchen, needs to cook what ever dishes we are craving...

Thank goodness, I can get kueh buah melaka or kelompang, ketayap or kueh koci from my pasar moderan...

Alhamdulillah also, even though we dont have air mata kucing and all those endless colourfull drinks ( actually I only like buying air kelapa muda and mata kucing) , we like jus mentimun and air buah blewah...it's as refreshing as our air kelapa muda too.. here, one needs to be carefull when buying air kelapa muda from the street. Hygiene matters..

Ops...need to pick up my two big A's from school..

Alhamdulillah. Arissa is still fasting..

Closure of 2013-2014 academic year

"Please do keep in touch.  Good

luck next year, the children will fly,

and if you are moving, good luck with the move, an exciting but

stressful time I know.  Once it all settles we will all look back at

this year and cannot help but smile and laugh at all the memorable

moments that made up this year."

This was taken from Aisyah's teacher's email Ms Jeanette Sy.  The last sentence was hit me hard that it's like reading a novel or like it came from a movie.

I hate last day of school. I hate hearing and knowing people that I always see each day at school leaving for another country.  I just dont like it.

And today, it hit me really hard that my eyes were wet suddenly when I said and hug farewell to Aisyah's teacher. It was so over whelming. 

Maybe because she had been a very passionate and dedicated teacher. I saw how Aisyah made amazing development in her learnings and also social skills. 

Imagine one teacher having the responsibility to teach 20 students reading skills using phonetic ..It's one tough job in making the kids to sit down and stay in focus and attention in reading.

Early this year we were amazed when we see Aisyah can read. And the progress she made was so amazing. Alhamdulillah. 

Another thing that amazed me when it comes to education system at BIS FOundation Stage is the 1-1 teaching concept.

This I noticed whenever I am at Aisyah's class. Be it morning before the class starts at 8 am or during school time, I noticed how Ms Sy was always with a kid teaching using 1-1 concept.

Back to the last day, as usual we see people leaving.

This time, Arissa's Year 4B class teacher  Mr Simon Leask and her Year 3 class teacher Ms Emma Russell is leaving BIS.

As for her classmate, Joe Sandham is leaving to Singapore.

Same for Aisyah too.  She will be missed her classmates Sofia and Sophie Young and Marko too..

Hemm... :(

10 years

SOON it will be our 10th year of marriage...

Once a while, walking hand in hand strolling at the beach under the magnificient round moon , its amazing how I can still feel like we are just newly married or at the phase of our married life with no kids of our own... Arissa came during our 2 year of marriage. Perfect timing blessed by Him.

So here we are in Bali. Its our first outside Jakarta holiday... And alhamdulillah , everything went smoothly..

Rewards

Blamed it on my new hectic daily routine.

Blamed it on my spouse for what he had learned at some company training.

For I have been rewarding myself by buying a few stuffs since the last summer holidays begins.

And yesterday, I did it again.

At first it did cross my mind that I shouldnt be buying on impulse. But somehow I did managed to do a quick analysation on the rationalisation of buying that. pair of sneaker.

Yes . It was a sneaker not by expensive brand but by the humble brand Bata... Humble in the sense that its shoes are comfortable and stylish in a certain way that fits everyone's budget.

To tell you the truth, I have been buying Bata shoes or sandal ever since I moved to Jakarta. When I couldnt find the comfortable heels in any other brands, I found it in Bata. And just so happen that I like the design too.

Back to rewarding myself unstoppable , it feels good .. For my work has been getting busier in this new school term..

Currently its like a touch n go system between my house and my children's school. I am in and  out from the house like 3 - 4 times in a day... And its tiring ...of course having a supir helps a lot...but to be in and out from the house more than 2 times is tiring...

And I have started drinking cafe latte , cuppachino or mocha too... Even the guy behind the cashier at the school's cafe knows my drinks. Irk!!!! 

Eventhough being a homemaker itself is rewarding in the sense that I get to be with my kids all the time, it feels great when I rewarded myself now and then...

Pity the boy

How I pity the 5 year old boy if he were to know that his ex-nanny who had taken care of him for the last 3 years is now a nanny to his best friend..OMG !!!

If it wasnt for me who spotted that nanny, none of this will be known. I guess we all will have to wait until either the mother or the boy will bump eventually with the x- nanny at school.

And my only assumption that i can make on why the x-nanny quited her job is that salary issue..This is because the new employer of that nanny is an ambassador here in Jakarta. Entirely a different league from the former employer who is still wealthy but just not as rich as the ambassador..

At the end of the day, money rules in this side of the world..Even for a difference of a few hundred rupiah.

Forget about the kindness of the former employer who had been good to you for that last 3 years.  Nor the feelings of the little boy...

The mother is a friend of mine. How shocked she was when I told her that I saw her former nanny at the school. I told her how shocked I was when I saw her waiting for another boy who is the same class as her boy.

We all didnt know that she is now working with the ambassador. Plus she is now wearing hijab. And because of that, none of us notice of her while waiting outside the class room to pick up our kids.  She will be picking up the ambassador's son sometimes during the week. This is because they have a supir to help to do it also...So one day it could be her while the next day could be the driver..

And you want to know what my friend did after she found out about this? Well, my friend asked the xnanny  not to let her son see the xnanny face when in school..

My friend's son is still missing that x-nanny who had stopped working since the last 3 months. I really pity that boy. All because I had seen both the xnanny and the boy together in school for the past one year. Liked me, they will wait at the school from 12 noon until 240 pm. This is because the older sibling finished school late. So during that two hours of gap, I will always bump into them. Either at the cafeteria where the xnanny feed the boy his lunch . Or at the waiting area just before the school bell rings at 240 pm.. They are the sight that I used to see for the last one year..

so how on earth would the little boy not be sad and shocked if he were to find out about this!

New gadgets for BFMoms

I felt like having another baby to breastfeed!!!

And i should blame this to the moms and baby expo that is going on at Mid Valley Mall now...

I was at the Philips Avents booth last Friday... And OMG !!!!

Latest designs of bottles steamers. Latest  breastfeeding pumps. Latest designs and shapes of  bottles and teats...

Any mommies will go gaga and crazy  when seeing all those latest breastfeeding gadgets ....

The thoughts of getting a new bottle steamer is dancing in my head..And so is the cool  breast pump and the new teats and bottles too...all avents!!!

But sanity came knocking quickly too to my head.. Alya is going to be 2 years old in October. And it wouldnt be a good idea to buy latest design of that bottles and teats that look almost identical like a mother's breast when breastfeeding.

I want easier transition from bottles to cup for Alya for her milk drinking. Which is why new bottles n teats will just delay this process or even make it harder for Alya to switch to cup ...OMG !!!

Wished that I could stay longer but only managed to be there for less than 30 minutes..

Arissa didnt like it being in that crowded place..We arrived almost noon. Cant blame her also..

Pity her..Quickly did my exit from that place once I got new teats for Alya's avents classic bottles, bibs for Alya again as no spare one left in our malaysian house , and a bottle holder for our one and only stroller. Hope dearest hubby will like it as i he has been asking for it....

mak cik tua sleeveless

ahaks!!!! Again I was in shocked when I saw a woman in late 40s , sleeveless in mini skirt and wearing high heels walking out from mussola....hahahahaha

Ya Allah!  Memang terkejut saya dibuatnya..Dah la rambut macam balik dari salon dan muka make up..

I was really in shocked seeing a muslim lady with her lady friend who dressed equally like her , walking out from mussola.

There i was sitting on the cold steel benches  outside the mussola, waiting for my  eldest to finish her solat. Aisyah n Alya was with me eating the yummy delicious DQ ice cream.

If you ask me how sure I am that that woman was praying in the mussola, well, all i can say is that i have seen some young muslim women dressing like that in the mussola.

And this incident today took place at PIM aka Pondok Indah Mall...  Yep Pondok Indah is like our very own Bangsar... but we dont get to see muslim ladies coming for prayers in a dress or clothes like what I mentioned earlier...

I think that only in Jakarta do we see scence like this.. Pening kepala saya tengok cara wanita muslim di sini berpakain terutamanya yang pergi solat.

Ini belum lagi dengan yang bertatoo dan bernail polished!!!!


Hahahaha!!!!! selamat datang ke jakarta babe!

Baba less

its a public holidays here as its israk and mikraj day.. Thus school is off and so is tomorrow. Somehow the school is giving extra holidays to the children. 

As the house is lonely without a man of the house ie my hubby , and no supir  to drive us around ( I was lazy to ask him to come to work and hate the idea of having to pay him double of the amount of his daily salary) , today is spent at home only.

I had today's itinery mapped out last night. This to keep the girls occupied. Alhamdulillah half of it went out well except one plan failed to materialized.

Woke up early to cook the nasi lemak . My maid helped me to cook the rest.  After that, the girls played together . Aisyah with her play dough while kakak helped her out.

Soon it was nappy time for Alya. Aisyah was already asking when can we make the iced lollies. All because she wasnt interested in wacthing the telly like her big sister. Told her that it will be after i put alya to sleep first.

By the time Alya was asleep, my two A's was upstairs in Aisyah's room. Glad that kakak kept to her tv's time limit . Found both of my girls busy making crafts on the floor with nice cooling wind breezying through the opened balcony doors.  It wasnt long  before Aisyah started reminding me to make iced lollies..heheh

After done with iced lollies, it was painting time with them...Alya was up from her nap by then. Allhamdulillah, this coloring activities really engaged them until lunch time. In fact I fed them lunch while they were still enjoying doing it.

One plan that we didnt get to.do was swimming. The pool was just behind our house. The girls were so upset and dissappointed that the pool water was dirty with dead leaves and insects.

Aisyah was the most upset one  as she was crying and couldnt stop voicing out her dissappointment while walking back to our house from the pool.

Infact, she and kakak cried once we were in our house. I pity them as they had been looking forward to it since morning. How we prayed for a good weather that evening and it was a cooling weather indeed . Ideal for a nice swimm in the evening as it wasnt sunny.

To compensate it, I allowed them to have a pool bath in the bath tub..alhamdulillah the smiles were there after the pool bath.

The last itinery of the day was movie night. I joined them watching again the repeated vcd of the 12th princesses.  Dinner was Dominos pizza treat. And some Tuc biscuits too. Even Alya was enjoying the pizza minus the pepperoni .

Alhamdulillah. They are all fast asleep now.

Tomorrow is another babaless day...how i hate being mommy alone this week...how i wish we are in singapore with baba...

Ex collegues

My excollegues at my old company are peoples who had seen and been with me for a good and bad 13 years of my working life.

They had seen me as a young single lady.

They had seen and witnessed my three pregnancies.

I bet they did see part of my dating life too..

yes they did as i remember them commenting how io and my hubby would be sending sms during office family trip. I was in my dating years with my hubby back then...

These people are my friends that have touched my life and leave their footprints in it.

Evennow after leaving the office for almost two years, we still keep in touch.

I can still remember Rafi who always give me a lift to lrt station on days that I stayed back after office hours. Sometimes he would give me a lift to my car which was parked behind the office building. I remember telling my hubby how he would wait in his car and only drive off once I am safely inside my car. At that time, I didnt have my own shared car park ..

And its hard to forget Nadia who always buy me nasi lemak and kueh for morning breakfast.  And it was her nasi lemak that I ate on the morning that was the day that i gave birth to my 2nd daughter. How we still laugh at it when it crosses our minds.

And there was Azim who  until now is easily remembered by my dad as the couple ( he and his then Gf now wife)  who visited me after i gave birth to my eldest.  He said I like to perli him sometimes..yeah... it hit him at his nose...my sarcastic remarks..

hmmm.....tonigh these people crosses my mind as one of them are in mekah performing umrah..

actually, we have been pretty closed during that 13 years. So closed that most of us know what had happened within their own family life. And some on personal life too..

Thank you Allah for giving me the wonderful 13 years of my working life...

coz i am a mother n wife

Its 12.25 pm  and my 3 lovelies are past asleep. And i am just done with cooking tomorrow breakfast. A simple mee hoon goreng or mee goreng lekat like what my eldest called it.

I was about to called it a night when this face of my other half came to my mind. Something in the what was painted across his face that made me think that it was best if I cooked the tomorrow breakfast tonight.

This thing about cooking the night before is something normal to me even when I was a working mom back in my old days in KL.

We mothers really put our lovelies' needs first and foremost.

Sometimes it does cross my mind if my children will remember me for the little things and unnoticed things that I do for them.Well its easier and  honestly that we human easy to remember the ugly thinngs that others did to us. Dont we?