Of Turning the Big 3!

Alhamdulilah! Syukur yang tak terhingga.. life is glittered with blessings. I get to see daylight on my 30th birthday. Hello 3-series =)

The past week has been a great makan-makan adventure. Alhamdulillah rezeki =)

And what did I do to celebrate my last day of being in the 20s? Here goes:

+ Went to hair salon, to get my hair blown. They gave me nice, loose curls =)
+ Baking goods shopping
+ Practiced and had piano lesson
+ Baked chocolate chip cupcakes topped with choc syrup and marshmallows. Got 4 boxes!
+ Delivered cuppas to Dot's for her son
+ Went for dinner in Rahsia! With Shayang =)

And to celebrate my first day as a 3-series:

+ Good morning call from Ish in Oz
+ Wrapped present for Atiqah
+ Got dressed in kebaya nyonya =)
+ Drove Z3
+ Delivered cuppas to Jojo
+ Went for Atiqah's wedding
+ Went for open house
+ Went to Sg Buluh with Shayang =)
+ Planted my first tree (setelah berhajat bertahun-tahun!) - pokok kesidang =)
+ Dinner at D'Italienne Kitchen with family =)

Reviewing the many blessings of the past 30 years!

+ Co-owner of a company. Our staff has increased to 12 people now! =)
+ Getting married this year =)
+ Owning a house! Sri Ara! =)
+ Completing my Grade 8 piano! =)

InsyaAllah, looking forward to building a strong, healthy family with Shayang =)

Ameeen! =)

Of Blessings

Moments have passed by and memories have been created. Hope it stays in my mind, as I've not put it in words. But this month, July 2011, has been a month of adventure (Yeay!) and I get to cross out Things I Want To Do!

Week 1 - Sliding down world's tallest indoor tube slide! 50 metres, 5 storeys high at Empire Gallery

Week 2 - Riding on a hot air balloon! At Urbanscapes, courtesy of Groupon. With dearest him =)

Week 3 - Shooting range! At Klang Shooting Club. First time handling a .25mm and a shotgun. Not bad for starters. Got the bulls' eye twice =)

Week 4 - Zorbing downhill and on the water (InsyaAllah)

Past few months, I've also been baking. Quite a lot! Started of with brownies, then to pop cakes, Ina Garten's lemon cake, chocolate moist cake, and hopefully next week - carrot cake. Hehe... finally got something right in the kitchen =)

God willing, we'll be going off on a cruise to Krabi and Phuket with the company's team. Praying that it'll take place smoothly.

Let's pray next year we'll get to travel and see the world more! *Attract*

Of blessings. Alhamdulillah, syukur =)

Of "Make It Happen!"

This is from the cover of a note book I received from a dear colleague, three years ago. I've always kept in my office drawer, even after moving two offices, and only noticed how lovely these words are...

Make It Happen!

Everything you need to realize your dreams is right inside you.

You are the person who can make things happen.

You have great energy and potential within you to generate new ideas,
connect with the right people and attract perfect opportunities.

When you trust yourself enough, great things begin to unfold to the palm of your hand.

Just live your dreams today and make beautiful things happen!



Reading that, made me wonder... did she read it and think of me?

So flattering :)

Alhamdulilah!

Syukur, alhamdulilah.

14 Jan - He proposed. On both knees. And gave me a white gold ring :)
15 Jan - His family came to see my family. In less than one year, we would wed :)
16 Jan - Sent off the kids back to Abu Dhabi. Will miss them :(

I am still quite surprised by the chain of events, to the point that I got my menses a week early! Actually, on the day his family came to the house!

We had gone out to Ikea on Friday after work, where he bought a drawing table. We'd bought aunty an orange rose plant as birthday present. Then we went to the curve to get the kids' presents. Tiara and pink bag for her, and a car jigsaw puzzle for him. Then we headed to ikan bakar, behind my house. Had dinner with the kids, and grandmom and aunties.

He sent me home, and after such a long time not asking, he asked to hang out at the garden. I made nescafe. I went out. He handed me a card. It says, "Will You Marry Me?" with little hearts drawn all over. Then he went on both knees, and said that he loves me so much and couldn't imagine his life without me. We hugged and of course I said "Yes!" (duh)

The next day, he came with his brother and two aunties. We hosted, with two aunts and two uncles. ES was here with K. They kept me entertained, while being detained in the kitchen. Conclusion of the discussion - in less than one year (one year being max) we will tie the knot! And, it'll be a joint reception. It's here. It's finally here. Alhamdulilah, syukur. Syukur, syukur, syukur.

Will write more soon!

xoxo

Of Projects!

Wow. I knew I hadn't blogged for a long time, but I didn't expect that the last one would be LAST YEAR! That seemed so far away!

It's April and a lot has passed. Some were good and the rest not so.

Tok is no longer with us. She went two weeks ago.

Followed with Azri's dad a week later.

May Allah bless their soul always.

Good stuff - salary raise. Medical benefits. And another 28 days of annual leave (yeehoo? or what!) And more to come.

And, been investing a lot of time reading books! (even taroh Marion Keyes and Sidney Sheldon *gasp*) Thank god for Fahimi who bought The Catcher in the Rye yesterday! I'm reading that now (finally).

Ok, purpose today - need to work on projects!

Based on the current situation (read: rather bountiful on the time side) read: 9-5 work hours, I've evaluated that I need other projects (other than being in love with Fahimi full time) to get it going.

We've been having arguments (i hate putting that down but I need a reminder!) that has sprung out of me being insecure. Blegh.

So, I need to get a grip of myself. Stop being so lembik, and revolve to who I was before - strong, independent, confident and intelligent!

Hence, here comes new projects!

Mission - To acquire new skills and strengthen incumbent ones
Vision - To continuously implement skills in enriching life

Acquire

1. Photoshop
2. Web site design
3. Creative writing
4. Laws of Success
5. The Master Key System
6. Baking

Strengthen

1. Cooking
2. Yoga
3. Piano
4. Guitar
5. Accounting
6. Mengaji

There you go.

12 items.

I will set a time line for each item and blog about it.

This is of course, set after watching the movie Julie & Julia.

Julie, weary with her daytime job decides that she needed a project. It was to cook 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook within one year.

I, will do the same.

All the best to me! Cheers!

Of an Ode

This is an ode, to my very first car. A green 850 Kancil aged 7 years old.

It was never under my name, to begin with. But I did acquire the car by cash from my father. Cash I got from my first personal loan at Al-Rajhi. 8500. That's what I paid him. This was four years ago.

Then on, it was that green-mean-machine that took me across the city traffic, day-in day-out, so very loyally. One hour in the morning. One hour in the evening. Good bye inconsistent and much too stuffy LRT rides, no more troubling Mama to send me and pick me up.

Good mornings took us through Bukit Tunku greeneries and oh-so-charming abandoned government quarters, and the peak spot where i'd catch a glance of the KL's skyline. There stands proud the twin towers and KL tower. One morning before Merdeka Day celebrations, we even caught a fleet of choppers practising a routine.

On another day, we spotted a heart-shaped cloud hovering between the towers :) I was very in love then :)

Very rare did it break down. Just in my absence of care it did. Dead battery-once. Puncture tyre-never. Over heating-never. Engine-NEVER! Alhamdulilah.

It was Rena who went with me to Uncle Raymond's to get the driver seat window fixed. It went down and couldn't get up. Something to do with the spring system.

And Eve, followed when it had to be serviced. Uncle Raymond purposely left the alarm system a glitch - it had a 'twing' sound whenever the central lock was unlocked. I was ashamed of it at first, had a few laughs bout it later, and soon became accustomed. Now - I miss it.

We traveled a lot. Mostly through the potholes and in between huge trucks, lorries in Port Klang. Kak Mina came along to work when she was pregnant with Putri. Chong did too, when I started using the PWTC route. Boss even had a round with it when he had to pick his kids up from school. They loved it, saying that the dad should get one, "It's like a bumper car!"

It was with it, that we started jogging. I picked him it at his office, to go to Sg Wang to get a book for Papa. I didn't know then. Our plate numbers were opposite. WJS sure-die-rich-forever was mine, and his is 8974 (rich-forever-sure-die). The first three alphabets are the same. I told Papa this morning that I wanted to keep the number. His friend advised to get a new one, to retain the number was too much hassle. I was sad. Say- would I get another WJS to match?

The weird thing is, I never gave it a name. I never really wanted to be attached to it. I didn't even want to get the radio changed.

How bout the time my keys got stuck inside the car? At Titiwangsa, I was with Kheng, and we'd just finished the KIOKU family day. This was last year. A bus driver helped us to pick the lock with a bent wire.

Then, this year. At Suria Spices. The same thing happened. My absent mindedness kicked in. Unlock boot. Put keys on dashboard. Close boot. Keys still in dashboard. Car is locked.

What did I do?

Picked my own lock, with my own bent wire. Less than 2 minutes. Ask Kent, he saw it!

How about the time Yaz helped wash it? And the time I cleaned the mud out of the spare tyre. I even bought fabric cleaner in attempts to get the stain out of the seat.

I purposely left two things in the car:
1. Tasbih
2. Asma al-Husna cassette

These two are my most consistent routine for the past two years. Mornings. Traffic jams. Times of distraught.

I hope it reaches out.

Letting it go was more than letting IT go. It was something else. It was supposed to be my cash cow. The last straw of my investment to go abroad. If everything else didn't work, I was supposed to sell it and use the money to go to Australia. Now its with someone else, I got 1K cash. Alhamdulilah... Gaji masuk lambat bulan ni! :P

Money aside.

Is this it? Is this a sign? Am I never going to go? Or is God preparing me for something else? What can I learn from this?

Be independent! Be strong! Be TRUE to yourself! Make Mama happy! Cause she is the ONLY ONE that has ALWAYS been there for you! Remember that!

Through everything. She has never failed me. Never.

I will get my Masters Degree then my PhD, and dedicate it to her.

The fight's not over.

In the meantime, I hope my little green-mean-machine is at a better place now.

This is an ode to my first car :)

Of Cloudiness

Cloudy
My head, my feelings, my want
I'm spinning in a whirlwind
I created
Breaking free looks far away
Sad songs make my cry now
Wondering what happened to the person before
She slipped away so easily
Occupied with dependancy
Do what you know
Believe in recipes you read
Loop, loop, loop.