Life, Food & Passion

Full Day Activity

2008-11-25T15:34:00.012+04:00

Since Haji Zunaidi/Rohaya & Syed Rafee/Ros decided to postpone their trip to Dubai the weekend, we decided to meet up at Rohaya's place and have sort of a gathering during lunch time. Furthermore all our kids spend the night at their place except for Haikal. So at 10am plus, Farida pick Ros & myself up and we went to Lulu to buy some things to cook for lunch. As usual, during the weekend Lulu was packed with people shopping. It took us nearly 1.5 hours to have our fish cleaned. Finally we left Lulu and went to pick Zaileha up.

We arrived Rohaya's place in Al Ansaab nearly 12.30 maka kelam-kabutlah we all masak. Surprisingly we managed to have everything ready at 1.30pm. We waited till most of the gang was around before we started having lunch. Our head chef for the day was Kak Farida who made her famous Assam Pedas upon our request. She also made sambal goreng udang. Rohaya prepared the fried mix vege, Zaileha cooked the fried chicken and yours truly made daging kicap. We had some much fun preparing and cooking together... macam kenduri kahwin lah.

Look at the variety of food

After lunch, most of us just lepak and started to prepare for our next gathering which was going to take place on Friday evening at Haji & Rohaya's place.

we are enjoying the food, finger licking good.

Sedapnya makanan sampai tak tengok kiri kanan

Three satisfied guys after lunch.

In the evening, all the kids (Rohaya & Ros) came swimming at our place. Since the weather was getting much colder and dark, the kids swam till 6pm. After swimming, we had a simple dinner of fried rice, chicken popcorn, meat balls & chicken donuts.

Ros/Syed & Shukor/Farida came over to pick up the kids later in the evening. Our Zaileha also drop by to pick up her daughter. We managed to have a mini karaoke session till about 10pm.

The kids had so much fun the whole day playing "Rock Band", volleyball at Rohaya's place and later swimming here. I guess we adults are not the only one looking forward to the weekend. they too love forward to meeting up with their gangs.

Tahlil At Mawalel

2008-11-25T09:52:00.004+04:00

On Wednesday (19/11)night, we had a special Tahlil & Yassin session at Raja & Ros's place at Mawalel which started at about 7.30pm. As usual, all the mothers brought their pot luck dessert and also some dishes to add on to the host's menu. That night our special guest was the Malaysian Ambassidor, Datuk Zamri who grace us with his presence.

Ladies section

Aina, Nadia, Aida & Hurin

All the husbands the the Ambassidor

Since some of us were working the next day, we all made our departure a bit earlier than usual.

ps. pictures courtesy of Ros's facebook.

Breakfast with the Gang

2008-11-25T09:19:00.006+04:00

Another week has passed by since I last updated my blog. As usual we ladies had a fun & pack week ahead. To start off the week, breakfast at D'Arcy on Sunday morning. As normal, after breakfast we all went shopping around (look see aje).

On Monday, we all gathered at Farida's place in Al Khuwair to have breakfast cum lunch cum cooking learning session with our chef Kevin from Oman Air. He taught us how to prepare "Seefood Pasta Arabiata" Our host was so nice to even cook for us "Penang Assam Laksa" which I have not eaten for a long time. So lepas geramlah.....makan. She made a dish call "Chicken Bamia" which she served with french loaf.

We were all so busy eating and me malas nak balik masak lunch for my hubby so I made him come over for lunch. We also had Haji Zunaidi & Syed Rafee to join him for lunch. Unfortunately, Sazali was too busy to join. Since Syed's kids were already there, I made the driver drop Haikal, Ben & Nadia at farida's place also.

We left Farida's place at 3pm with plans to meet up on Wednesday night at Raja's place.

ps. Tks Ros for the picture.

The Busiest Weekend

2008-11-14T22:34:00.008+04:00

Hurray! hurray! the weekend's here. This time around our activity started way, way, way earlier and it was back to back. Schedule heavy giler, kalah menteri. On Wednesday morning, Rohaya, Zaileha, Oja and myself took Ros, Farida and her daughter, Hurin to Muttrah. Main reason was to to look for farewell gifts for all those that will be leaving Oman very soon and at the same time bring our fellow new arrival to look see/shop kat Muttrah without their hubbies. Since it 's seldom that we visit Muttrah, sempatlah some of us selik purchase somethings for ourself. Spend the whole part morning bargain hunting for some nice gifts.

Later in the evening, we had two guest Aina & Hurin here spending the night with Nadia. They kept themselves entertained by karaoking and as usual making video of themselves doing all kinds of weird things. I managed to catch them dancing their hearts out (exercise konon).

On Thursday, all the kids wanted to go to Al Massa Mall for bowling. Parents semua malas giler nak bowling. So after sending them and making sure they will be safe, Hamzah, myself and not forgetting Haikal went to Yiti to check out the location. We were disappointed to see a lot of construction being carried out at the beach front. I understood for some people who came here before, Yiti use to be a nice place to have picnic and camping before Hurricane Gonu.

Rough sea at YITI

After Isya, we all (minus Hj/Rohaya) gathered at Oja/Rohimi's place for a some sort of pot luck gathering. Our host prepared Mee Rebus & lasagne. We also had donuts, chicken rice & soup (tks to Rohaya), tomyam soup. This time around I made Shepherd's pie & my famous carrot cake.

Since it was an anything you want to do gathering, we had people were having dinner/munching at the same time there were others playing pingpong, duk borak-borak catching up on current issue or borak kosong aje and macam biase there were some of them singing their hearts contents with our favorite pass time activity karaoke. We ended the night at about 10.30 pm.

Friday, 14th. November

As planned earlier in the week, we all gathered at Marjan beach for our snorkelling session. Since the sea was quite rough and there was something call "Red Tide", only the guys and the kids decided to play/snorkel nearby in the sea. The ladies all gathered in front the food chit chatting while munching away. Our morning breakfast menu included Roti Bom with fish curry, fried rice, fried kuey teow (2 types red & spicy and plain fried with soy sauce), tuna sandwiches, fried bananas & jemput-jemput roti. As usual menu makan best nor matter where we go or how early we are.

After snorkelling, our Tok Pengetua made an impromptu invitation to his house after Asar to bakar satay and lepak-lepak. Most of us arrive at 4.30pm after a short nap. While the men folks prepared whatever necessary to started bakar satay, we ladies gathered in Rohaya's new big kitchen to help prepare the rest of the food. Our gracious host managed to make us "Laksa Sarawak" and also chicken wings. As usual, we all brought additional food ie Nasi goreng, bubur kacang, "Onde-Onde", Chocolate mini cupcakes and also fruits. So we ended up with a spread of nice and different food to eat.

Men folks busy kipas satay/chicken wings

Wah, tokeh tengah kipas satay. Nampak best

Here we are in Rohaya's new kitchen.

Raja, Hamzah & Meor enjoying the satay.

Farida, Rosnie, Rohaya, Oja, Lynne, Zaileha & Ros

While we adults were busy eating and yakking away, the teenagers kept themselves busy playing video game "Rock Band", singing, playing drums & guitar. They even played volley ball. The juniors(kiddos) were busy playing PSP, running around Aunty Rohaya's big new house.

Future Rock Band kat Oman

No gathering is complete without our karaoke sessions. So at 8pm, Nazeri started karaoke with Hamzah, Shukor, Syed and Haji Zunaidi. The ladies joined in later. Gathering adjourned at 9.30pm since most of the kids will be going to school tomorrow and the fathers off to work.

Next week will be a slow weekend because most of the gang will be going to Dubai. For those staying back in Muscat, looks like we'll have to find something to do and keep ourselves busy.

Haikal's Artwork

2008-11-09T23:10:00.005+04:00

When Haikal came home today, he was so excited and eager to show me his artwork that he did last Wednesday. I remember him doing this particular artwork because when he came back from school last week, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the condition of his uniform. It was covered with spots of paint of all sort of colors.

Since he could not wait for us to reach our apartment, I decided to let him show me his artwork while walking home. When I saw the artwork, I felt proud of his work and told him keep up the good work. I guess he was also proud of his hard work.

Every night just before he goes to sleep I would sit down and read to/with him any story books that he brings home from school. Tonight was no different except this time around he surprise me by reading the book himself. Although the book was a simple story book, I was so proud of him for trying to read . To reward him for reading the book by himself, I told him that we would buy him a gift/toy (bribery lah). Hopefully with this gift, he would take more initiative to learn to read more book.

Today, he made me feel proud and happy to see what he accomplish in school over the past two months.

Morning Coffee

2008-11-09T16:53:00.003+04:00

Since we have a few new faces here in Oman, the regular moms decided to have Morning Coffee at Jean's Grill, Sultan Centre to welcome Syed's wife, Rosnie & Syukor's wife and daughter, Farida & Hurin (I hope I spelt the names right......sorry lah kalau salah spell).

As usual we had so much fun talking about the events that took place over the weekend, gossiping about everything under the sun including giving birth in a government hospital. We also made plans for the weekend.

After breakfast, we walked to the nearby mall to look for scarfs and to look see, look see.

Merdeka Celebration By the Embassy

2008-11-09T16:15:00.008+04:00

The much awaited Hari Merdeka celebration by the Malaysian Embassy here in Oman finally took place yesterday at The Diplomatic Club at Al Khuwair area after 2 months delay.

Since we were supplying the satay for the event, we were not sure if we invited for the said celebration. The first person in our group to receive the invitation was Rohimi/Oja followed by Hj & Rohaya. The only two couples that did not received the invitation was Sazali & Hamzah. We finally received our invitation this morning which the Embassy send my mail.

When we arrived, we noticed that the guest included all or most of the Malaysian registered with the embassy here. As usual there were lots of VVIP there from all over the world.

The food served was a mixture of local Omani (Arabic) food and also a few very popular Malaysian food ie Laksa Sarawak, rendang daging, nasi lemak wt sambal udang, curry puffs, cucuk badak, pulut panggang, mee siam and not forgetting our satay. During dinner, some of the children from the PDO community performed traditional dances ie Joget Pahang, some Iban traditional dances and there was also a song performed by Malaysian Children studying in TAISM.

The celebration ended at about 10pm with lots of photography session.

Small Business Project

2008-11-09T13:09:00.006+04:00

About 2 months ago, Rohaya, Zaileha and myself were ask if we were interested to participate (cook and sell) in the International Market Place at PDO. We jumped at the opportunity to do something we like (cooking) and at the same time make some extra pocket money for ourselves.

During our recent Hari Raya gatherings, we were also informed that the Malaysian Embassy here in Muscat was planning to organized a Belated Merdeka celebration for the Malaysian community here in Mucsat. To our surprise we were told last week that the Embassy wanted to order 250 sticks satay from us. So another opportunity arise to make money. Later they call to cancel and then suddenly, the next day we had an order for 800 sticks of satay. Both the events were to take place on the 7th & 8th November 2008.

We decided to make and sell Roasted Chicken Rice and curry puffs for the PDO event. Our project started from last Sunday with us busy shopping for all the the necessary things/ingredients needed for new business project......... berkobar-kobar betul.

On Monday we started marinating the meat for the satay, Tuesday & Wednesday duk cucuk satay and making our curry puff. We managed to get a break on Thursday before the great food sale on Friday. Most preparation was done at Zaileha's house since her house.

On Friday, our day started off very early with us preparing and prepacking our Nasi Ayam not forgetting frying our curry puffs (yg tersengih sikit). We were at PDO at noon to help prepare the stall decoration and to arrange our food stuffs. The event started at 3pm will 8pm.

To our surprise, we managed to sell all our Chicken Rice by 6.00pm with our curry puff finishing at 6.30pm. We were so happy and excited when all our food were sold out.

Yesterday, Rohaya & Zaileha started to bakar satay as early at 9.00 am since we wanted finish burning and deliver the satay by 4pm. We wanted to go home and get ready for the Embassy event since we were also invited.

Our special thanks to Syed for sending his wife, Ros to help us cucuk satay. To Oja for helping us make the nasi impit. A special thanks to all our beloved husbands Haji Zunaidi, Hamzah & Sazali for putting up with us (duk masak cincai aje) while we did our small business.

Our Pet Cat

2008-11-01T12:09:00.008+04:00

Nadia, the Cat-woman.

Birthday & Hallowen Party

2008-10-31T23:59:00.012+04:00

Friday, 31st. October 2008

Today is our Miss Small & Petite Princess, Aleeysa''s 3rd birthday. So Oja organized a birthday party. Since it was also Halloween, it was decided that it would be fancy/Halloween dress party where the kids get to dress up in whatever they want. Guest at the party included Cat-woman, witches, princess, blood drinking vampires, clowns, Ben-10, pirate & a character from Star-Wars.

For the last few days, Nadia and Ben have been planning their costume. Finally it was decided that Nadia will be going at a Cat-woman and Ben as mummy. Haikal macam biasalah "BEN-10". All last night, Nadia made her head dress for her costume. When the time came, we were unable to made Ben a mummy because the toilet paper kept tearing off.... so finally he went as "Julias Ceaser".

Before all the kids went off for their Halloween Trick or Treat, we sang and cut the birthday cake. The kids also took part in a Thomas The Train Stuffed Pinata game. Since it was a bit difficult to break and get the candies & chocolate in the train, we got the adults (moms & dads) to take part in the event.

Here in Oman especially PDO area, on Halloween night most of the houses will join in the fun and tradition of having "Treat or Trick" where they give out sweets, chocolates to all the kids that coming knocking/ringing on the door. Some even go to the extend of having part of their house decorated like a haunted house and even baked cookies. Its nice to see all the kids dressed up in all types of costume walking around the neighbourhood with their parents.

While the kids went for their candies/chocolate collection, the adults went on their karaoking sprint. Kali ni, anak-anak & parents semua ade activity masing-masing. Our new karaoke champion this time around was Syukor & Hamzah (Juara AF Oman musim ke 3)

The kids came back to Oja's place carrying each a bag of candies & chocolates at nearly 8.00pm after their collection. Had lots of fun and looking forward to the our next gathering.

Farewell Party

2008-10-30T17:18:00.004+04:00

Yesterday was the last day of school for one of Nadia's best friend, Manaal. She will be leaving Oman for Canada this weekend. So to celebrate their last outing together, Nadia decided to have a memorable farewell tea party at our apartment park with all her close friends. They wanted to have something different and they selected an English tea party theme like in the 60's. To help make her party a success, I baked them mini chocolate chip muffins, mini apple pies and included Anzac cookies which I already have from Raya. They also had pizza. To get more feel of the theme, the girls decided to dress up for the occasion also. They wore their "Prom Night Dress", high heels and even to the extend of wear crowns.

I guess the girls had so much fun that they did not even bother about the people around looking at them. The people must be wonder anak dara gila mana datang ni, pakai dress cantik, kasut tinggi duk kat padang bawah payung tambah berposing lagi.

Haikal First School Party

2008-10-29T08:56:00.007+04:00

On Monday, the British School Muscat organized a "Fancy Dress Party for Foundation Stage" at the school compound. So Nadia & myself took Haikal for his first school party. He was looking forward to the event since the week before. Since I did not want to spend much money on a new costume which he would only use once or twice, we decided that he go for the party dressed up as his favorite cartoon character "BEN-10". Furthermore he already have the T-Shirt, pants and also the Omitrix watch.

When we arrived the school, there were already quite a number of kids there all dressed up like Spiderman, Ninja Turtle, Catwoman, Cinderella and all the cartoon characters you can think of. The teachers and some of the parents took the time to put up game booth for the kids to play. Among the booth that Haikal enjoyed the most was a Bubble Booth which he made a lot of big bubbles. Other booths that were there was face painting/tatoo booth, finding the spider & catching spider booth, caterpillar trail, water wall painting, pin the tail on the donkey, etc.....

After playing at most of the booths, Haikal and his friends started playing on the slide, running & playing catch with each other. They were also given pizza and drinks. As usual, Haikal was more interested with playing than eating/drinking.

The party ended at 5pm with most of the children still running around, playing the slides.

BBQ & Satay Gathering

2008-10-28T13:07:00.004+04:00

Tried to recap all the two weeks activities into one entry but tak bestlah since I will miss putting in some nice pictures taken during out "BBQ cum Satay" gathering. Well since our Cik Oja had just returned from her extended summer/raya holiday, we decided to have a gathering. Furthermore, our Syed Rafee's family just arrived Muscat for a holiday, so it's more or less a welcome gathering which we normally have. As usual, it was a pot luck gathering.

We had fried rice, baked potatoes, potatoe salad, laksa johor and of course no BBQ is complete without the chicken wings, sausages and the main item of the night was satay with all its nasi impit, kuah kacang, timum etc. Its been a long time I had satay that tasted so nice and the meat was so tender. I think this satay is so much better than our famous "Satay Kajang Samsuri". Well, we have our Cik Rohaya and Zaileha to thank for the nice satay. Another thing I tried for the first time was the Sarawakian sushi call "Umai" and ikan tongkol bakar which surprise me tasted very nice. So looks like now I have another type of fish which I can grille in the future.

Well no gathering is complete without our karaoke session. This time around, we sang mostly oldies (songs from 1970 plus) and everyone was trying to score the highest. The entertainer for the night went to our En. Nazeri who sang macam pro.

Bi-Weekly Gathering

2008-10-28T08:21:00.011+04:00

Its been a long time since I updated this blog of mine. I bet most of you out there have been thinking what I am up to these days. Well actually banyak reasons. Nak cakap busy, adelah sikit tapi mostly malas kot. Last week, our nights normally spend in front the tv watching movies or karaoking among the three of us (Hamzah, Nadia & myself) kat rumah. Ben tak join sebab tak minat. Nadia said karaoking for her is like release tension after duk study.

Over the last two weeks we had a few outings and gathering among us. A very quick update. Previous weekend was our bi-weekly gathering which was held at Azlan & Saloma's place kat Al-Khuawair. As usual after prayers and makan-makan, the portable karaoke came out and we sang our hearts out till nearly midnight. Ade yang gelak sampai terbaring-baring , menangis-nangis tengok gelagat masing-masing.

Eid Mubarak & Selamat Hari Raya To All

2008-10-03T14:37:00.008+04:00

Our Raya celebration started off on the eve with us all gathering at Haji & Rohaya's place. After breaking of fast, we had our magrib prayers followed by takbir raya.

After sembahyang pagi raya, we had our usual raya breakfast of Lontong, Sambal Goreng, Sambal Tumis and Rendang.

We gathered at Roza & Razak's place at Mawalel to celebrate Raya. Lots of pictures taken.

After Razak & Roza's place, we went to the Malaysian Embassy to celebrate Raya. Met some fellow Malaysian there.

Well to all my muslim friends out there, Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin.

Last Weekend Ramadan Gathering

2008-09-26T19:39:00.008+04:00

With hari raya just around the corner, most of my friends & family are busy making raya cookies or tgh buat tunjuk kuih. Normally during this time back home, I will be busy making cookies with mummy and also Evone. Its been two years now and I miss the times we spend disturbing mummy while baking. So on Monday I started to make cookies by myself. So far I have made 3 types of cookies. It's a good thing Haikal and the two big kiddos are at school so there's nobody to distract or disturb me.

On Thursday, we had our final weekend iftar and terawih at my place. I made nasi ayam, kuih sago, jemput-jemput roti, bubur pulut hitam for iftar. My fellow guest brought with them "Badak Berendam", cheese jelly, talam jagung and a special sarawakian dish call "Madu Tiga". Others came with pudding kurma, serunding pulut,cream puff, samosa and nuggets.

After our our prayers and terawih and since most of us were in the spirit, we sang raya songs and also took lots of pictures. Tonight Shukor & Adnan were going back for 1 month to celebrate Eid with their family back.

We also had a karaoke session with Hj, Shukor, Syed, Roza, Razak, Raja, Hamzah, Ida, Zaleha singing. The rest of us also sang as backup singers aje. The show of the night went to our Syed Rafee whose showmanship was the best of all.

Our gathering ended at nearly 10.30pm with our Cik Roza singing the last song. It was a great gathering and I was very glad that we finish most of the food and we did not have much leftovers since my fridge is already crying out for help.

Our next gathering will be on the eve of Eid Mubarak at Hj and Rohaya's place.

A Week's Update

2008-09-20T06:57:00.004+04:00

Its nearly three weeks of fasting..... another week to go before we celebrate Hari Raya Adil Fitri or as they say it here "Eid Mubarak". After having two weeks of boring morning which I normally spend catching up on my sleep, at last Rohaya, Leha & myself went shopping together actually window shopping on Tuesday. We wanted to look around at some material shops which normally is opened at 9.00am but unfortunately I guess it was a bit too early for them to open during Ramadan. So we ended up at our Cik Oja's house to pluck some tapioca leaves, bird eye chili & screw pine leaves. After leaving Oja's place we went to Gubrah to see some materials. I found a shop that was selling/tailored "Abaya". After looking around I managed to find an "Abaya" for my mother which I hope she will like it.

Our weekend iftar & terawih gathering this time around was held at Sazali & Leha's house at Ghala. We had a lot of variety of malaysian kuih like Apam Balik, Tepung Pelita, Samosa, Cekodok Pisang, Kuih Ubi Kayu, Jelly, Pancake & two types of begedil. For main course it was more of a chicken week. We had a few types of chicken dishes which surprisingly finished. I keep forgetting to bring the camera so as usual there's no pictures. After terawih, the gang was in the Raya mood. Haji & Razak was singing raya songs and the rest of the gang also joined in singing.

Since we had so much to eat, we decided to have a very simple and light sahur. So for sahur, we had our favourite pizza and shawarma for "Yahya".

Yesterday, we decided to have something different for iftar. So we had a western theme.......... mushroom soup, salad, steak, shish kebab, bbq chicken, garlic bread & cheese bread. As plan earlier with Rohaya, I was suppose to meet her at Mutrah at 9.15pm. I wanted to buy a few jubah for my mother since Syed was going back. The drive was ok but we had problems finding for parking. The place was so packed. Since Rohaya & Haji were unable to get a parking spot, they decided to go back. We were quite lucky to find a spot which was a bit far. Since we were already there, we decided to go ahead and look for the jubah. After buying, we decided to walk a long the shop but we got lost trying to find our way back to the car walking in circles. I remember the last time, I went to Mutrah with Hamzah we got lost also finding our way to the car.

Fasting and Gathering

2008-09-13T07:13:00.003+04:00

Its nearly two weeks since we started fasting this ramadan. As for me at home, finding something to prepare for iftar and sahur is a challenge everyday. For the past two weeks, my main menu has been chicken rice, nasi beriani, beehoon goreng, beehoon soup, bubur lambuk, kuey teow kungfu and since running out of idea yesterday I made Nasi Lemak. For dessert I have been making murtabak johor every alternate day. Made roti jala twice already but so far my favourite dessert this time around is apple pie and curry puff made with instant roti prata. Yesterday dessert was pumpkin buah melaka and apple pie again. For sahur it has been english breakfast menu with sausages, scrambled eggs , beans and the normal cereal.

Last weekend, we had our normal iftar gathering at our fellow Malaysian's house in Mawalel. This time around Raja and Ros hosted the event. As usual the food was wonderful and the best part of the gathering was the chance to meet and mingle with each other during the weekend. We had our normal prayers including terawih.

We were the second to leave because Haikal felt down while playing n he had a big bump on his head. On the way back we stopped at Wallie's to have Chilie Frys and nuggets for Haikal.

This whole week we spend our time watching two movies.....Iron Man and also Hancock.

Happy Birthday Haikal

2008-09-10T00:11:00.004+04:00

9th. September 2008

Today my Haikal officially turned 5 years old. This morning when me and Nadia wish him Happy Birthday before he went to school, he made us laugh by saying.......My birthday again ?
At school, according to him his teacher Mr McDonald & Mrs Norris made him shut his eyes and when he open his eyes, his classmates were all gathered together and was singing him a Happy Birthday song , actually sang for him twice. He was so happy at school today. I'm glad he's happy at school.

We did not have an celebration for him but Hamzah took the whole family out for ice cream DQ after iftar. Maybe we will do something for him during the weekend.

Haikal's First Day At School

2008-09-08T10:23:00.006+04:00

Today, 8th. September 2008 is Haikal's first day at a real school. He spended nearly 2 years at a play school here in Muscat. He have been excited about going to school for the past few days especially when Nadia & Ben comes home from school in the afternoon. To ensure that he will not be tired or sleepy, I made him sleep at 8pm the night before.

As usual I woke up at 3am to prepare our meal for sahur. After sahur, I did the laundry and prepared Haikal's lunch box. He reminded me that he wanted to bring chicken nuggets, juices, apples and grapes to school. To play safe I also included a bottle of mineal water and also a slice of cheese for him. I hope he will eat his snack. Since its his first day at school, I decided that I will follow him to ensure that he will be ok at school (new surroundings.). As usual it is always difficult for me to get him to wake up in the morning but after having his shower, he was all so excited to meet up with some of his friends and also make new friends. Got his dressed up in his uniform & shoes.

We arrived the school compound early so I decided to let him play around the playground area. At 7.30am, the school bell rang and I took him to his classroom. He was a bit shy when the teacher asked him if he wanted to play with the other kids. It did not take him long to adjust to his surroundings. Mak dia yang risau lebih. When I noticed that he was doing ok with the other kids so I decided to leave him and go home until I picked him after school.

Back to School

2008-09-08T10:04:00.005+04:00

6th. September 2008

Today my two elder kids are off to school after their summer vacation. They have been having mixed feelings about school for the past few days. Excited to meet their friends but not keen to start school after the long break. Well nak ke tak nak, have to go to school. I'm actually pleased and happy to see them start the new school year. At the end of this school year Nadia will be taking her GCSE (O Levels) and hopefully by this time next year she maybe going off to college. Ben on the other hand will also be having his SATs exam at the end of the school year. Right now, Haikal is still at home enjoying his last two days of his freedom since he will only be starting school on Monday. I can't wait for him to also go to school so that I can enjoy my time alone in the morning.

This fasting month has been a bit taxing for Nadia and Ben because they have to get up extremely early for sahur and then go back to sleep and wake up again for school. Well, I hope it would get better after a week of school.

1st. week of Ramadan

2008-09-06T23:10:00.004+04:00

It 's nearly a week of fasting here in Oman. Nothing much happening. Our days here are very quiet actually. We have not been going out much since its Ramadan. The road here is very deserted during the evening since everyone is at home for iftar and for solat terawih. Unlike in Malaysia, during fasting month the road leading to all or most the pasar juadah are jammed with traffics and people. Where food is concerned, here in Oman there's no such thing as pasar juadah/ramadan. I guess that is our Malaysian culture where food is concerned. We can find all kind of different types of food(old & new types) sold at any of the Pasar Ramadan thru out Malaysia. So if you want to eat anything specialhere, you'll have to cook it yourself. So pandai-pandai lah kena cari idea/resipi untuk masak. For the past few days, I tried doing a few new recipes. Not even a week of fasting and I am already lost of ideas of what to cook for iftar since most of us at home don't want to have rice. Another reason for this lot of idea is because here in Oman we don't have much of the wet ingredients we normally have in Malaysia. I guess this is why I miss home during bulan ramadan.

Our first weekend/iftar gathering during ramadan was held at our friend's place in Mawalel. As usual it was a potluck gathering. Had lots of nice and different type of food. We had our magrib, isyak and terawih prayers after iftar. Looking forward to the next iftar gathering next.

Ramadan Kareem

2008-09-01T11:04:00.006+04:00

Today, 1st September 2008 is also the 1st day of Ramadan. Muslim in most part of the world have started fasting except here in Oman. We will only start fasting on the 2nd. September.

I would like to wish all my family and friends all around the world best wishes during this holy month and also Selamat Berpuasa.

Dubai (Day 2)

2008-08-31T23:58:00.005+04:00

It was about 4am in the morning on Friday that I woke up to a sound. Someone was trying to open the door to our hotel room. They kept on trying to open the door for sometime and I decided to wake Hamzah to check it out. From the peep hole, I notice there were 2 guy and a woman at the door. I guess they must have got the rooms wrong since they sounded drunk. Finally after about 10 minutes and after ringing the door bell, they gave up and left. After all the excitement, I managed to sleep in till 9.30am. After breakfast and clearing all our luggage, we checked out of the hotel at noon.

Destination was Diera City Centre (DCC). We drove around the Creek area to see the boats. Even though the summer sales were over, there were still some shop which were still on sale. We went around looking for Ben's Chelsea t-shirt but they were out of size. Shopped for a few other things. While shopping around, we came across this portable karaoke mic with built-in songs. Actually we have not been able to karaoke since Intan left us. She was the only one here that had a karaoke set. Without much hesitation, we bought it. Had a late lunch because the place was so packed and it was the weekend here. Left Dubai around 5.30pm. After a wrong turn, we finally left UAE border and arrived Muscat at 10 pm and went straight to Queens for dinner.

Reached home around 11.15pm. Went to sleep but I could hear Hamzah and the big kiddos trying out the new karaoke mic in the hall till 1 am plus. I guess they were having fun because I was fast asleep when they woke me up.

Bonus Holiday/Shopping - Dubai

2008-08-31T22:16:00.007+04:00

Since the kids are still on holiday, we decided to go to Dubai for a short break during the weekend. As usual, plans were made to leave home by 4.30am on Thursday but after our late and short trip to MCC the previous night, we only left home at 6 am. Since we were all quite sleepy, Hamzah drove to Dubai without stopping except for 1 toilet break. We arrive the border at 10am but the traffic was quite bad. There was a long jam since UAE authorities had done some changes at the passport entry point for GCC residents. We were sitting in the jam for an hour plus. Finally, we arrive Dubai at 11.30am. Our first stop this time around was Dubai Festival City. We walk around the mall and went for lunch. The mall was very big and the shops were mostly branded shops. Our plan was to go to Ikea to get some house hold items which we could not purchase the last time. Spend the whole afternoon there and we checked into our hotel only at 6.30pm.

After a short rest, we went for dinner at a nearby Indian Restaurant mcm biase lah beriani. Tried to find Mina Bazaar but got lost so we finally decided to go to Burjuman Mall. Since it was the weekend, most of the shops closed late. The kids finally found their school bags and also a few pairs of shoes. We walked around till 11plus pm. Finally we decided to go back since semua dah penat and got what they were looking for.

Our first weekend after the long holiday

2008-08-22T11:23:00.007+04:00

It's our first weekend here back in Muscat. And since most of the gang are already back here, we started of our "Tahlil and Yasin" gathering on Thursday nite. After postponing the last gathering at Razak & Rosa's place, we finally had it there. The usual gang was there minus a few who are still away on an extended summer holiday. As usual, the food was good. Roza made mee hoon tomyam, rojak buah & red bean pudding, Rohaya made kelupis and her very special kuah kacang wt satay daging. Zaleha made a special Sarawak dish called Bubur Pedas, Dragon fruit jelly. Since I had no idea what to cook/make, I decided to just bake a carrot cake. Macam biase lah meriah and since it was our first gathering, we had lots of things to talk about even to the extend and plans for our coming raya gathering (puasa pun belum start).

The kids also have fun catching up with each other. They even made plans to go out the next day. So after Friday prayers, we all met up at Al Massa mall only the mothers and the kids aje. Mothers had an afternoon playing bowling while the bigger kids went to see a movie at Shatti. After bowling and while waiting for the kids to come back from the movie, Rohaya belanja we all minum ice mocha while duduk borak-borak. We left the mall at 5.30pm. Since Zaleha drove to the mall (wah dh tera drive tak de lesen pun), we all went back with her. The car was so packed with us all. Just imagine lah 7 people at the back seat. Recordlah but it was fun for everyone.

ps. sorry no pictures. Forgot to bring the camera. The only person with camera that night was Rosa.

Back in Muscat

2008-08-17T16:45:00.003+04:00

It's been four days since I came back to Muscat. Weather here has improved so much... surprising not so hot (lebih kurang macam kat KL tapi still dry). Like usual each time after a trip, I have to spend the next few days clearing all our luggages and also the boxes we brought back. So for the past few days after lunch duk mengemaslah. So finally today, I managed to clear all the boxes and also most of the clothes have been stored away including my beloved abang's bag. Thanks to my cleaner lady who have been cleaning the house regularly, I came back to a clean house.

I have been trying to finish up most of the food I cooked for Hamzah before I went away. I guess he have not been eating at home much since there are still a few containers left. Today, I finally got fed up of the frozen food and decided to cook instead.

The kids and myself are still trying to adjust our sleeping pattern. 8pm already so mengantuk. I guess it would take a few more days to get adjusted.

My last days in KL

2008-08-16T07:23:00.005+04:00

After much discussion, we decided to return to Muscat a few days earlier. Managed to change our flight so we will be leaving KL on Thursday night. On Tuesday night, I went out with few of my friends which I have not seen for ages. Had fun yakking & gossiping. It was nearly midnight when I reached home.

Well, the last few days before I left Malaysia, I was very busy and had to finalised all my personal errand. With special request from my mother and brother, I made them 2 types of carrot cake and also more blueberry tart to be given away to my sisters & nieces on my last day in KL. I hope you all will enjoy the cakes/tarts. Next time when I come back we will make different type of cake.....ok.

The night before we left KL, my brother decided to spend us dinner at our favorite Indian Restaurant in Brickfields because Nadia wanted to eat "Nasi Daun Pisang". Well after not eating there for the past one year, I guess they might have change their cook. The food tasted different. I guess we will have to look for another Indian Restaurant to eat next time.

To was very say to leave KL especially my mother after spending a month plus with her, yakking, masak together, she updating me on the current dramas in the tube. The last few days she was very quiet and was even helping us pack our things. When I gave her her early Raya "angpow" in the afternoon I was leaving she started to cry. It made me sad to leave and Nadia started to console her. My kids were also sad to leave. I could not hold my tears when my younger brother called to say goodbye/pet talk to the 3 kiddos. My kids especially Ben started to cry. I know they all going to miss their nenek and their uncle Awie especially their daily midnight supper (roti canai/tosai) with their uncle.

More crying happened when we finish loading our luggages into the taxi. By then my brother arrived home and started to joke about my mother's crying (drama melayu). We said our goodbyes and promised we'll call each other regularly. I am going to miss my mother, sisters (in law incl.) my brothers, my nieces and nephews back home and also the food.

We arrived the KLIA early. In order to avoid the later crowd, we decided to "Q-up". Once the check in counter was opened we were one of the earliest in line. I was informed that we had excess baggages of 30 kgs and had to pay RM3K plus. So bermula-lah, tunjuk muka sedih merayu-rayu mintak kurangkan. So finally the clerk& the officer told me that I will have to pay for 10kgs aje. Wah, what a relief. Tu-lah, banyak sangat makanan nak bawak balik. I did not realised how hungry I was until I final checked in all our luggages. Did not eat anything the whole day. Had our last meal in KL kat Burger King. Left KLIA at 9.30pm.

Thanks to Jean for calling to make sure I arrive home safely the other night and for calling me at the airport. To my friend Mahani, be strong and all the best " Berkhidmat untuk negara" ya. To my family members see you soon.

Fish Spa

2008-08-11T18:16:00.005+04:00

There's this craze in most of the malls in KL and PJ which is called a "Fish Spa". You place you feet in a man made pond with lots of small fishes (600-1500 ekor). The fishes will feed on your dead skin while your feet is in the water. I have seen many "Spa" in all the big malls in KL/PJ. Everytime we come across this spa, my two elder kids will try and get me to try it. I feel so disgusted to see the fish nibbling at people's feet.

Today, while shopping we came across this fish spa. They tried to persuade me to do again, but I instead, managed Nadia to try first and tell us how it felt. According to her it felt tricklish. Maybe next time when I am back in KL, I will give it a try.

Weekend with my mothers

2008-08-11T17:52:00.003+04:00

Sunday, 10th. August

This is my last Sunday here in KL with my mother. Since my sister in law was in town and my nieces and nephew spend the night here at my place, I decided to cook lunch. With the help from my mother and Inah, we prepared lunch. The speciality for the day was Butter Cereal Prawn. In the evening I decided to try and make Blueberry Cheese Tart for everybody here to try. Surprisingly it turned out nice. I also learn a new trick this time when baking the tart. Since my mother in law was also in town and we have yet to visit her, I decided to make extra tarts and bring it over to my sister in law"s place. Nadia and Ben were excited to meet up with their cousin. They had a lot of catching up...ie gossiping to do.

Advance Birthday Party for Haikal

2008-08-10T20:44:00.004+04:00

My days here in KL passed so quickly. For the pass few days I have been busy attending to the minor repairs for the apartment. Finally everything has been settled and I can now go back to Muscat a bit relax and with peace of mind. Hopefully everything will be ok with the apartment. At the same time, I had to prepare for Haikal's early birthday party. He has been so excited and looking forward to the party since we told him about it. He kept reminding me to buy his a BEN-10 birthday cake. There were times that I even threaten to cancel each time his party whenever he starts to pick a fight with Ben/Nadia and also when he mess up his toys. Finally we had his birthday on Saturday, 9/8/08.

Thanks to Nadia & Ben who blew the ballons, put up the decorations and prepared the party

packs for the kids the night before.

Thanks to my mother and my sister in law, Inah for helping me prepare the food. We made very simples dishes and kueh for the party. Nadia had some of her ex-classmates over to join in the celebration. Unfortunately Ben's friends were not able to join.

Eventful Days

2008-08-05T20:40:00.005+04:00

On Monday, since it was my wedding anniversary and my hubby is in Oman, I decided to celebrate this day with my kids and my family. My mother wanted to eat carrot cake for so long so I decided to bake it. When I was buying the cake ingredients, she wanted to get some items to decorate the cake. I also cooked rice with chicken beryani. With my mother's help, we made dalca and also mutton curry. Since I was still so rajin, I decided to make blueberry cheese tart for the family to enjoy. My sister and her family came to join our small celebration. It was fun cooking, baking after a long break.

Yesterday, since I was going for my annual medical checkup at Sunway, I took the kids with me and left them to shop around Sunway Mall while I had my check-up. Nadia made plans to meet up with Laila. After my check-up, I caught up with them at the mall and was able to met up with Laila. We shopped, actually walked around the mall till 5pm. Rush home.

Around 7pm, Nadia, Ben & myself went to Stadium Putra for a concert " PANIC AT THE DISCO". This had been Nadia's favorite band since 2004. When she heard that "PATD" was coming to Malaysia for MTV Asia Award during her summer break, she was so excited that they were finlly going to be in the same continent with her. She was even more excited when she heard that they were having a mini concert and Hamzah agreed to let her go. So finally she will be able to see her favorite band performing live. For the whole week she was all geared up for the event. This is Nadia & Ben's first live band concert and she enjoyed it very much. I was so surprised to see a number of elderly people (40plus and above) at the concert. Earlier I thought that I would be the only orang tua kat sana. The concert turned out to be fun and entertaining with a local band call "One Buck Short" as an opening act. Very surprising.

This summer has been very enjoying for the kids I guess. Ben got to watch his favorite football team "CHELSEA" play and Nadia got to watch her favorite band perform live.

Happy Anniversary

2008-08-04T18:08:00.003+04:00

Today 4th. August 2008 is the day I celebrate my wedding anniversary without my other half beside me. Anyway.............

"Happy eighteenth anniversary my sweetheart!
After all these years, I'm still in love!
Perhaps not more or less, but differently,
Perhaps because we know what time has proved".

How wonderful to have you in my life!
All my feelings whirl about my heart!
Perhaps I can't contain that I'm your wife;
Perhaps I don't know how or where to start.
You have me always, no matter what you do:
A gift I give my gift, joyously.
Nothing means as much to me as you;
Nothing else so fully makes me, me.
If I had everything that God could grant,
Very little there would bring me peace.
En-wrapped in you is everything I want:
Rapture, warmth, affection, sweet release.
So strong my love! So happy, sure, and strong!
A thousand thousand years would not seem long!
Reason tells me everything must end,
Yet you will always be my lover-friend.

My week update.

2008-08-01T16:57:00.005+04:00

Its been more than a week since I last updated my blog. Over the week, many things happened some sad and some happy. Firstly, I went back to my hometown, Malacca for 4 days. This trip back was more like a short holiday for my kids away from KL. Unfortunately the weather there was not good. It rained most of the time we were there. Furthermore my nephew underwent minor surgery on the day we arrived . On Saturday, my brother decided to slaughter a goat from his farm and have a BBQ. It was a good experience for me and the kids. First time marinate a whole goat, prepare food for about 30 people with the help from my mother, my kids, my brothers and sister in law. Overall it was fun. After BBQ, Ben had his asthma attack and had to send him to a clinic at 1.30am. What an experience finding a clinic at this time of the day. He was fine after seeing the doctor. Sorry gambar tak de banyak sebab sibuk makan aje.

On Sunday before we came back to KL, my sister and me had to visit our favorite Mee Rebus/ Rojak Ayim at Ujong Pasir. We never miss to eat at this stall whenever we all go back to Malacca. Actually we grew up eating this mee rebus when we we small. (Pinggan yang kosong depan I tu, bukan I makan semua ya). After eating, we went to Limbungan to buy our kuih keria gula melaka and then headed off to Klebang to buy our belacan. Stop by Pantai Klebang to play kite. It was fun and the first time for Haikal and Nadia to fly kites. Left Malacca at about 5.30 and arrived safely at home around 7pm. Surprising there were not much car on the road.

Had bad news on Monday morning on my way for an appointment. Oja called around 10.30am to inform that Kak Prof passed away in Malacca in the morning. May Allah bless her soul. Made plans with Oja to go to the mosque at Subang Jaya to pay our respects. Met Intan there. At the mosque we also met a few of Arwah Prof relatives. One particular relative of Arwah Prof was very familiar to me. I remember having a neighbour from Sarawak long time around when Nadia was about 2/3 years old. She reminded me of the neighbour. After asking her she confirmed that she lived in my area previously. So sah lah she was my neighbour. Funny thing she said was, are you Audrey's sister? I said no, I'm Audrey. She was also so surprise to met me after all these years. After talking further she told me that her husband was arwah prof's brother. What a small world we live in. Meeting after 12/13 years at funeral of Arwah Kak Prof. Later met with Dayang Latifah's husband.

Went to the dentist after the funeral and had to have my tooth removed. Until today my mouth still hurts. Hopefully it will be better in a fews days time.

On Tuesday, 29th my niece celebrated her 15th. birthday. My sister had a small surprise birthday party for her. She was surprise to see us all there. "HAppy Birthday Shafiqah" May Allah panjangkan usia Fiqah. Ben followed his uncle Awie to see his favorite football team "CHELSEA" play with Malaysian team at Stadium Shah Alam. According to him it was fun. Well at least he got to watch Chelsea play. Something for him to remember for the rest of his live.

On Wednesday, we made plans to go for Arwah Kak Prof's Tahlil. Unfortunately, Nadia was sick the last minutes so we had to cancel all the plans and go to the clinic.

Thursday, had to take Nadia to have her hair cut after postponing it many times. After the hair cut, we went shopping and later went to have my crack heal cleaned. Wah bestnya. It was worth the money I paid. My heals are now so good looking (figure of speech). Like the lady said malam ni tak payah tengok tv, tengok and admire yr kaki-lah.

Today, after long planing, me and Oja finally went to Kak Faridah's house for lunch. After a few wrong turns and a few calls, we managed to find her housing estate. Kak Faridah and her kids were at home to greet us. It was nice of her son and daughter in law to join us for lunch during their break all the way from KLIA. Kak Faridah prepared us a feast. Meja penuh dengan makanan. We had udang masak lemak, daging masak halia, ketam, kari ayam, ikan, mee goreng mamak. Dessert we had fried banana with ice cream. Kenyang betul. We yakked until nearly 6.30 when we had to say goodbye. Dah lama tak duduk borak with friends. Thanks to Oja for driving me there. Hopefully we will gather again before I go back to Oman. Sorry tak ingat nak ambik gambar. Duk makan aje.

Malam, Ben went out to see movie with Diana, Shezli and her parents. So tinggal Nadia, Kal, mummy and myself. So mummy belanja we all makan pizza baru dari Pizza Hut.

Another week pass by. We have another 2 weeks before we go back to Oman.

Activities with the Children

2008-07-23T20:07:00.004+04:00

Its been nearly 3 weeks since we came back to Malaysia. How times flies so quickly when you are having fun. In my case fun is actually indulging in all the local food. So far I managed to makan most of the local hawkers stall food I miss here in KL and not forgetting the durian. There are still many more things to do on my itinenary list. Hopefully I would have done most of it before the last week of my holiday here.

Yesterday, I left the house at 9 am and only came back home at 6pm. You all will be thinking that I went shopping the whole day. Well actually almost right. Took Haikal to make his renewal passport at Pusat Bandar Damansara. Was there till 1pm. Since Mid Valley was near the neighbourhood, we decided to go there to shop. Did not buy much but penat berjalan. Luckily we brought Haikal's stroller so he did not make much fuss.

The plan for today was to have our hair cut. So in the morning, I cooked Udang Masak Lemak Chilie Api, Sambal Ubi Kentang wt Ikan Bilis Soohoon. After lunch went to the bank and straight to the salon. Unfortunately, our stylist was away in Taiwan for a hair course so me and Nadia decided to wait until she returns next week. Since we were already at the salon, we made Ben have his haircut. After cutting his hair, we headed to Bukit Bintang plaza to look for Nadia & Ben shoes. This time around, Nadia was fortunate to find her pair of shoes. Ben macam biase tak de size. Was at the mall until 8pm and on the way home we stopped to buy durian. Sorry baba, having durian without you......

ps. No Pictures busy eating aje.

Kenduri & Tahlil

2008-07-19T21:04:00.002+04:00

Saturday, 19th July

This morning, I decided to cook since I have not been cooking properly since I came back to Malaysia. Asyik makan luar aje.....konon lepas geram. Since Nadia wanted to eat sambal paru, I decided to fulfill her wishes. So on the menu today was Sambal paru, Chicken Pongteh, Kangkung goreng belacan, Daging Kicap and the best of all was the sambal belacan.

After lunch, we just lepak aje. My brother and his wife came up to KL today since at night we will be attending my niece's kenduri doa selamat. Since Hamzah promised to buy Nadia a handphone, we went out looking for phones in the evening. Well after bargaining and lots of walking, we managed to get her a new Sony Erisson handphone which she wanted. So was so happy all the way back home.

We went to my sister's in laws place to attend a kenduri and tahlil. Had prayers & dinner there. Menu was masakan kampung ie kerabu taugeh, pecal, daging kicap pedas, gulai ikan masin. Well it reminded me of our kenduri and tahlil kat Oman. I suddenly missed our gathering kat Oman.

Hamzah's Leaving

2008-07-19T20:53:00.005+04:00

It's Friday and tonight my beloved hubby will be going back to Muscat after his short holiday here in KL. In the afternoon, we went to Bandar Utama to pick up his new glasses. We managed to walk around the shopping mall awhile. Had late lunch at Fish & Co and later I went to buy the famous "Mark's Assam Laksa" for Nadia who stayed at home to look after Haikal.

While I was finishing packing up Hamzah's bag, I noticed that my daughter was quite sad. The day before she was already complaining to me that she wanted to go back to Muscat earlier that our planned date because her father will be all alone in Muscat. Well I guess so was quite bored becaused I have been spending the last two weeks running around with Hamzah only.

At 5.30pm, Nadia and myself send Hamzah to the airport. Ben did not want to follow because he was not feeling well and he was also sad to see the father leaving. The only person not affected by Hamzah's departure was Haikal. He was like his normal self, saying goodbye and see you tomorrow to Hamzah.

Tried the new highway but i guess its the same as using the Kesas Highway also. On the way back, me and Nadia stopped and bought 3 durians to bring back home. We even went to the pasar malam at our area to buy fresh chicken and lungs to cook tommorow.

New Toys.

2008-07-19T20:01:00.003+04:00

Since our return to KL, we have been going out everyday either to eat or to shop. Me and Nadia have been bugging Hamzah to buy us new phones ever since in Oman. So he finally gave in and on Wednesday, he bought me a new Samsung handphone. Since this is my time using a Samsung phone, I found it quiet different and it I guess it will take me a few weeks to get adjusted to this phone. Surprisingly, Nadia only took 10 minutes to play around with the phone to know all the functions of the phone. I guess I am getting too old to learn new things.

On Thursday, we found out that it will cost more to get our Sony laptop repaired. So we decided to buy another laptop to replace the Sony. After shopping around at Low Yatt, we finally decided to buy a Compaq laptop. Unfortunately, all the shops at Low Yatt did not have stock for the said model. So we had to go all the way to Mid Valley to get the model we wanted.

Since it was also Hamzah's last night in KL and we were at Mid Valley, we decided to try this new restaurant "Grill Spaghetti". The food was good. The portion was just nice for each of us. Overall, the environment was more for a family. Will definitely try and go there again.

1st. Week Updates

2008-07-15T21:19:00.005+04:00

Its been a week since I arrived home. There's has been a lot of changes since I last came back in January ie. roads, buildings mostly shopping mall lah. Since Hamzah is on a short holiday, we have to try an accomplish all the errand/things to do list before he goes back. First on the list was buying the new laptop which hooray we managed to get one we were eying for without much hassle. Send our loyal kaput Sony laptop for its checkup. Still waiting for the outcome.

In between these errands, we managed to go and visit my sister at her new home. As usual we got lost a long the way but finally made it. Where food is concerned, the whole week we tried to eat as much Malaysian/ Thai food as possible (tak kisah lah warung ke restaurant).

On Sunday nite, we went for a gathering with Hamzah's family at his brother's place. Its was nice to meet my in laws, yakking and catching up on all the stories. My kids met up with their cousins and were sad to say goodnite at the end of the night. We had the usual beriani gam (Johor's specialty). Much to my surprise, I realized that I prefer the Omani version better.

On Monday morning, we drove to JB to visit Hamzah's mom. We stop at Pagoh rest area to have lunch. Since there were a few stalls selling fruits, we decided to eat durian. Wah sedapnya durian.. so creamy, so smooth the flesh.

All my years married to Hamzah, this is the shortest trip back to JB. Glad to see my mother in law who was doing very well despite her age. We'll be seeing her again in KL when she comes for her regular medical checkup next month. We stay in JB overnight because of our other issues to be settle before Hamzah's trip back. My mom in-law made the famous "Asma Rojak" and mee siam for us to eat before we left for KL. I drove back to KL almost all way stopping only at Pagoh toilet break and also to eat durian.

Outing with Friends

2008-07-10T05:55:00.004+04:00

Wednesday, 9th. July

After a day of rest, we went out to KLCC to meet Rohaya, Haji and their kids. They are in KL before the leave for Muscat tomorrow night. Its been more than a month since I've seen her. Missed all our activites ie morning coffee especially gym since she's my gym partner. Made plans to start exercising with her once I get back to Muscat. Did some catching up (yakking lah). About 45 minutes later, ex ketua wanita, Puan Intan arrived. Was excited to see her & the kids. The biggest surprise was Nadira was also there since we all had thought that she would be away at school. Did more yakking.

The three youngest had the most fun I guess. They were all playing, laughing thru out the time. I know for sure that Haikal miss Hakeem so much because all he was always saying in Oman that he wants to go back and see Hakeem. Its was a a nice sight to see them together again, playing, laughing, talking in the car on the way to Intan and Kak Prof's house.

Since we had to deliver a box from Udik, to decided to go and visit Kak Prof and her kids at their home. It was since to see her again since I last saw her was last summer before she came back to Malaysia. We talked a while but had to leave early since most of us had other plans for the night.

Said our good byes and promise Intan to met up again since Haikal and Hakeem still wanted to spend more time with each other.

Malaysia, Here we come

2008-07-10T05:26:00.005+04:00

Since we were leaving Oman for the holidays and also our excitement, we had a very light and simple lunch. So at 6.30pm, all the kiddos were already very hungry. Decided to have dinner at Bin Ateeq Restaurant before we left for the airport. As usual the food tasted much better than the last time or we were just very hungry. Left Oman on the 7th July at nearly midnight. As usual we always have the normal Costa Coffee send for anybody. The kids were all so excited to go back home for a short break. Arrived Abu Dhabi on the 8th at about 0045am. As usual Abu Dhabi airport full of people and the smell you can guess. Had no place to sit down so the kiddos just settled on the floor near the departure gate until we found a small cafe to sit. The flight back to KLIA was delayed nearly half an hour becoz some dude did not get on the plane and they had to find his baggage and offload it.

We arrived KLIA at 2pm. Excited gila dah sampai. Had to get us a limo (van) since we had so much luggage. (Macam nak balik untuk setahun) Its so nice to see the greenery along the ride home. For the pass 9 months all we saw along the way was mostly dessert (sand) and hills (rock).
We arrived home nearly 4pm and was excited to see nenek (my mom) waiting for us at the door.
Lepak and she did a lot of catching up my the kids.

My Sunday

2008-07-07T07:24:00.003+04:00

Sunday, 6th. July

Today, I spend my morning cooking 4 main dishes to be frozen for Hamzah. In the afternoon, help the kids pack their stuffs to bring back to Malaysia. At 5pm, Nadia, Haikal and myself went down to the park to play and pluck more dates. Unfortunately, most of the dates have already been plucked by the compound workers in the morning. We managed to get a small some.

Came home to watch tennis "Wimbledon" final between Rafeal Nadal and Roger Federar. It was a very long game. It was a very long game that we had dinner, managed to go out shopping for gifts, watch part of the game at Oja's place while repacking Udik's box and then watch the finals set at home. Interesting game because here at home, Nadia & Ben are supporters of Federar while Hamzah and me wanted Nadal to win. So menjerit-jeritlah each time dapat point.

Well another 24 hours before we leave Muscat. KL /Malaysia here we come.

Shopping

2008-07-06T07:41:00.003+04:00

Saturday, 5th. July

Today, I woke up very much earlier even though it's the summer break here. As usual there must be something plan for us to do. We were suppose to go for breakfast with Faridah before she went back to Malaysia but she had to cancel the night before. So I made plans with my kids to go breakfast with Oja.

I started cooking lunch at early at 7 am. Since Leha gave me kueh kacang during the weekend and thanks to Oja punye idea, I decided to make lontong with nasi impit, rendang daging and sambal tumis. I even had serunding daging in the fridge. So rasa macam makan pagi raya. Finish cooking at nearly 8.45am.

So we went breakfast at Jean's Grille, Sultan Centre. Since it was a buffet breakfast we sat there till nearly 10.45am eating & yakking & joking. After breakfast, we went to Al Harthy Complex to look for scarfs and gifts to bring back to Malaysia.

Call mummy, yakked with her. She was looking forward to meet the kids especially Haikal to see how much he changed since she last met him. Told her that he talks a lot these days.
At night, me and Hamzah went to find Omani Halwa, Dates and other gifts to bring back for the family. Had to stop at Yahya to buy shawarma by request from Ben and Nadia.

Well count down another 2 days before we leave Muscat for our summer break. Malaysia here we come, cannot wait.

Weekend

2008-07-05T18:07:00.003+04:00

Thursday, 3th. July

Since we were going to go back to Malaysia in a few days time, I had to start cooking and freezing food for Hamzah to eat when we are in Malaysia. So today, I made sambal sotong kering, ikan merah masak asam pedas and also daging masam asam to be frozen.

Since we were free and had nothing much to do today, we decided to take a drive to Shangrilla to pick up Ben's winning voucher. After picking up the voucher, we went walking around the hotel area to look see, look see. On the way back we stopped at Wadi Kabir fruit market to see if they had any fresh dates being sold there. Unfortunately tak ade. So we went to Centrepoint to find for Nadia's shoe. Kasut pun tak de size. So nampaknya kena beli kat Malaysia aje lah.

Thursday night macam biase lah, makan kat Yahya aje. (last kot sampai balik Oman in August). Came home and went to sleep early becoz nak gi snorkeling pagi esok.

Friday, 4th. July

Today after a long break, the group went for the usual snorkeling session at Marjan Beach. Since it was the school holidays, Nad & Ben were all so lazy to wake up early. It gave me the opportunity to leave Haikal with them. So it was only Hamzah and myself that went. We met Oja, Rohimi, Syed, Zaleha, Sazali & their kids. Even though the sea was choppy, the water was so inviting. Breakfast was mee goreng, nasi goreng, nasi impit with kuah satay. We also had sambal sotong. Lepas makan, macam malas aje nak masuk air but the moment we went in the water, bestnya tak nak keluar from the sea.

The water was not that clear but we managed to see quite a lot of fishes of different types. Nama ikan tak tahu sangat lah. Will have to learn the fishes name very soon. We were at the beach until at 10am.

In the afternoon, we went to MCC to look see and also to get some gifts/dates to bring back to Malaysia.

We came home from MCC early so Nadia and myself decided to go and pick dates from the trees in our compound. Banyak buah dah masak tapi pokoknya tinggi-tinggi. So guess what, Nadia panjat pokok buah kurma and me panjat kerusi to petik. Managed to get half a plastic bag. Hopefully it will last until I balik Malaysia lah.

Since nak balik ni, malas nak masak so Hamzah went to buy/ ta-pau dinner for us while I siap menggosok bajulah... nak balik kena siap semua kerja kat sini.

Pot Luck Dinner

2008-07-03T00:57:00.003+04:00

It been nearly two weeks since we had our usual Wednesday night tennis cum dinner. So after the short break, tonight we decided to start again. Well actually only some of the men folks went for tennis and a few others stayed at home to play ping pong. Oja and myself plus the kids stayed at home because we had more fellow Malaysian joining our activity cum pot luck dinner. Shukor & Faridah, Saloma & family, Zaleha & family also join us tonight. Shukor introduced us to another two fellow Malaysian from Oman Air. One of them happened to be the Head Chief of Oman Air Catering. So we have made appointment for him to teach us to cook some pasta dishes, pastries etc. We had a good spread of local Malaysian food ie asam pedas ikan, pecal, daging dendeng, sotong masak lemak, ayam kicap, ikan berlada, sayur chap chye, mee hoon goreng, sambal kacang and as usual the food was good. Dessert we had abuk-abuk sago, bubur kacang, sandwich cake and pudding.

After dinner, macam biasa the men folks gathered around the table yakking over their tea tarik while we ladies started gossiping about everything under the sun and also our stay here in Oman.

Gathering ended at 11pm with the plans of meeting on Friday for our usual snorkeling session.

Farewell Salman & Laila

2008-06-30T08:08:00.009+04:00

Tonight we went to the airport to send Salman and Laila off to Ireland. Although its been a short time since we got to know these kids, they are very closed to us at heart and it was sad to see them leave. Udik will be staying in England for a year or so to further his studies while Laila will be on holiday till end July before she goes back to Malaysia to further her studies at a local university.

Nadia and Laila have become close buddies over the last few months. They used to hang out together after school, go to the gym, play tennis, after Nadira went back to Malaysia. Udik on the other hand has become a big brother to Ben. Whenever, the group goes out, Ben is always with Udik. Going to the movies, MCC with Udik. Ben is going to miss Udik a lot since there will be no one else to bring him to see movies, bowling, play tennis or jalan-jalan. Hamzah, Rohimi and Syed has also lost their tennis buddy, Udik.

Well to the both of you, we wish you all the best in your future. Will see you soon.

Kids Prom and Farewell Dinner

2008-06-30T07:48:00.005+04:00

Saturday, 28th. June

Tonight, Nadia and Ben were going for their first Prom Party at Shangrilla Hotel. In the afternoon, I send Nadia to get her hair and makeup done. Since Ben was going to the prom with the school bus, we had to send him to school at 6.00pm. Nadia and her friends on the other hand wanted to go to the prom in style (naik Mercedes lah) , so I had to send her to her friend's house.

Since Udik and Laila was leaving Oman for good, we decided to have a farewell dinner for Udik& Laila. This time around we went to a new place (new to some of us-lah) called KOBE Sizzlers for dinner. Meals were served on hot plates. We also had a cake to celebrated Udik birthday (actually belated since his birthday was on 26/6)

Tonight we met a fellow Malaysian who had been here in Muscat since February 2008. Shukor who is attached to Oman Air and his lovely wife, Faridah was introduced to us by our Syed. It is always fun and excited to meet a fellow Malaysian here in Oman. Dinner was fun, gossiping and etc lah.

Went to Lulu to get a few things before picking up Nadia and Ben from the school after the prom. The kids arrived late at the school area. I guess they were having so much fun that the bus left Shangrila Hotel late. When they arrived, Ben was so excited. He managed to win the grand prize n the raffles pull out. His prize was dinner for two at the Shangrila Hotel. He decided to give the prize to Hamzah and me for our anniversary present, so very nice and thoughtful of him. Well nampaknya dapatlah we both gi Shangrila for dinner one of these days.

Sorry the pictures at Udik/Laila farewell were not that good but boleh lah nampak muka masing-masing.

Dubai Trip - Day 2

2008-06-30T07:35:00.006+04:00

Everyone was so tired that we woke up at 8.30am. Had breakfast at the hotel and then we checked out nearly 10am. We decided to go to Ikea to look for some things for the home. As usual we miss a few turns and had to drive further to Ikea. Finally we managed to reach Ikea at nearly 11.30am. The mall was so big but we could not walk around the mall. We found our shoe rack and also a few other things that we would use at home. Could not buy lots of things because the car boot was already to the max (macam sardine). We even had to put the stroller on the floor of the back seat because it could not fit at the boot. This is the first time I shopped like crazy sebab if I did not get the items from Ikea, tak tahu bila nak gi lagi.

Left Ikea area and went to Mall of Emirates to shop. Met Oja having lunch at Chop-Chop. As usual, we did not get to walk around the shops there because of the time. Entered a few shops, had lunch at a diner called "Johnny Rocket Diner" which serve burgers and hotdogs with chilie frieds. We left Dubai at 5.30pm.

Picture of the tallest building in the world. The building belum siap lagi.

Arrive Muscat nearly 11 pm. So tired... makan maggie mee aje for dinner since semua malas and penat.

Dubai Trip - Day 1

2008-06-30T07:15:00.009+04:00

Thursday, 26th. June

Woke up very early this morning.... 3am. As usual prepared breakfast for the road trip. We went to pick up Udik at his home at 4.45am. Nadia and Laila left Dubai a day early with Oja & Rohimi because Udik had to settle a few matters and follow us this time around. We arrive Sohar at about 7am and stop at the usual area to have a very light breakfast. Traffic at the border was clear so we arrived Diera City Centre (DCC) at 10am after making a few wrong turns. Just nice... shops just started to open for business. Since most of the shops in DCC was on sale or part sale, we had a lot of fun shopping tapi tak puaslah. By noon, I was so hungry that Ben and myself went for a snack at a donut shop "Krispy Kreme". The donut was so soft, different from the other donuts I have eaten before. Mana tak sedap/lembut - RM5 per donut. I only bought a pair of shoes from Hush Puppies. Bought for Ben two shirts which he would use for his prom nite. Haikal got his toys (macam biasa thats the only thing that he's interested in). Nadia got the most. Hamzah bought himself a nice Seiko watch. The kids went to play the indoor games at Magic Planet while we adults had our late lunch. We shopped at DCC until nearly 6pm.

Checked into our hotel nearly 6.30pm. Were suppose to met Oja at IKEA but the traffic was so bad that we had to cancel. Instead we plan to met at Naif Souq. Unfortunately, she was tighted up at IKEA so I went ahead to Naif Souq. After battling the traffic we reached the souq area to find that Naif Souq was totally destroyed during the recent fire. Since I wanted to get some things from that area, we walked around to look see. I managed to buy the things I came for at the shops near by. We left the souq area nearly 10.30pm and went straight back to the hotel. We had Beriani (take away) from a restaurant near the hotel. The food was good. Everyone was so tired from the shopping/walking that we went to sleep immediately after dinner.

Sorry taking to long to update my blog becoz of the uploading of pictures. This is how the kids pass their time in the car during the drive to Dubai (main game, tengok sitcom on Ben's IPOD.)

Another day

2008-06-25T08:24:00.003+04:00

After nearly 3 weeks of not having a microwave, at last OXY send a brand new unit for replacement. These three weeks, I realized how important the microwave oven is to us. It was so much easier to reheat our leftover foods ie. pizza/fried chicken which we had during the weekend. We still could not use the oven even after they send it to us. The guy who send the oven did not even bother to help unpack what more fix the plug for the oven. Here things are done differently. One guy will send the item, another guy is suppose to unpack and/or fix the plug. It feels like wasting time and money aje. Since Nadia was at home, I got her to help me unpack the box and carry the microwave oven to the kitchen top. Had to get Hamzah to buy and fix the plug since the guy that was suppose to fix the plug did not come over the whole day. So at last I managed to use the oven at 7pm to heat up my roast drumstick.

Had a very simple lunch... fried rice and roasted chicken drumstick.

In the evening, we had a Early Education Program/Briefing at BSM for Haikal. Quite interesting discussion.

Thanks to Oja's invitation for dinner at ARAB World, I managed to escape from cooking dinner. The same group went for dinner. Said our goodbyes to our friend Zaireen since we would not be meeting her tomorrow. Oja will be leaving for Dubai early in the morning. Meeting bersurai at about 10.30pm.

Busy Day

2008-06-25T07:59:00.004+04:00

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Went for breakfast with Oja at Al Hooti. Since Rasyad's birthday was during the school holidays, Oja decided to have an early celebration for him at school. I followed her to look see the school and also help her out with the kids. The situation at the schools here are so much different from the schools in Malaysia. Here, I think the children are more motivated and look forward to going to school because the environment and the surroundings in the classroom. They have lots of pictures, decorations in the classroom itself. It looks more like a play area than a classroom. Where else at home, the kids are like taught like robots ie. sit down, open your books, read this, write this etc. Here from what I observe,the kids in primary one are taught to be more independent and are open to more ideas (problem solving).

Since our friend, Zaireen from Doha was in town, so me and Oja took the opportunity not to cook (malas) and have dinner at our favorite shop "YAHYA". We have not seen Zaireen since December last year and started yakking on all issue ie. kids, her new job, new house, new car etc. The men folks were also yakking among themselves. We all forgot our camera except for Zaireen. So no pictures today. Will cilok from Zaireen's blog later.

Haikal's Party

2008-06-24T06:41:00.006+04:00

Saturday, 21 June 2008

Have been a bit busy recently. On Saturday, Haikal's school "Bright Beginnings had their farewell party. He was all excited the day before. That morning it was much more easier to get him ready for school. He wanted to bring chicken nuggets for his party. Since Nadia did not go to school, she followed me and Oja for breakfast first and then we went to the school for the party. Unfortunately, we arrived a bit late. Their teacher informed us that they started the party much earlier because all the kids were so excited. We managed to watch them play football and a few other games. Haikal was having so much fun at school with his friends. Look at him, he looks like he just finish bathing ..........in sweat.

Weekend Gathering

2008-06-20T22:24:00.006+04:00

Friday, 20th. June

Today, Nadia had her final GCSE 360 Science Paper at noon. We send her to school and picked her up at 1.40pm. We went to Zaleha/Sazali's house for lunch today. The normal group was there. We had the Laksa Sarawak for lunch. Dessert was jello, chocolate cake and red bean pastries. Oja brought muffins, Saloma- caramel pudding and I brought Sago Pudding.

In the evening, the same group gathered at Oja's place to play pingpong. We had cekodok udang and tea at Oja's place. Went shopping kat Sultan Centre to buy things for Haikal farewell school party tomorrow.

Thursday, 19th June

Bored of eating rice, so I decided to make something different -Cantonese Fried Kuey Teow for lunch. Since its the weekend and most of the shops in Muscat are on sale. Firstly went to Toy 'R' Us. Then we decided to go shopping at MCC looking for Nadia's shoes, etc for her upcoming prom. I don't remember having a prom when I finish secondary school in my days. Well me and Nadia decided to go shopping by ourself leaving Hamzah, Ben and Haikal on their own. I was so tired looking around for Nadia's thing. Finally we managed to buy a nice pair of shoes from Charles & Keith. Macam biasa-lah I always end up not buying anything for myself.

At night we had take away from Arab World. Made a dessert for tomorrow's gathering. Watch the movie "August Rush" until 2am. The movie was ok becoz I did not like the ending.

Tonight, another one of the gang left Muscat for the summer holidays. To Rosa, Razak and their kids, "Happy Holidays". Next to leave Muscat will be "US" in 2 weeks time.

Thanks

2008-06-18T07:12:00.008+04:00

Before I start writing my entry for today, I would like to thank someone out there who gave me a belated birthday present. I was not expecting anything but it really surprised me. Thanks a lot you know who you are. Will always treasure our friendship no matter where I am.

Yesterday, me and Oja made a trip to Mutrah. I wanted to get some things to bring back to Malaysia for the family and also Nadia's friends. Did not find anything nice but bought a few pashmina for myself. Still have to find lots of gifts...... maybe will find something in Dubai next week.

Its been very quiet and less active week since the weather is getting hotter. Furthermore, everyone is starting to leave Muscat. Nadia is still having exams so nothing much can be done. Just looking forward to the next weekend to go to Dubai......shopping, shopping, shopping. Anyway another 2 weeks before the school closed for the summer holidays. Another 3 weeks before we go back to KL to enjoy the our local food.

Me, myself and I

2008-06-15T23:30:00.005+04:00

Its actually 11.35pm and the whole house is so quiet. Everyone is fast asleep. It feels like I have the whole house to myself which I normally do in the morning but I always have something to do then. Sitting down here, I suddenly realized how fast time flies. Its been a slightly more than a year I stepped my feet in Muscat, Oman. Well over the past year there has been a lot of changes in my life......mentally, spiritually and physically.

The most obvious one is the physical appearance. I have put on so much weight. Back to square one which was after I delivered Haikal. Wasted all the time, money and effort I put in the gym for 2 years. Susah-susah I lost those baggage, now its all on again. Must make new resolution to lose these weight again. I think I have always had this problem of losing weight. I really envy those you can lose weight without even trying. Everybody will definitely comment on my weight. Mana tak put on weight, asyik masak, buat kek/kuih (something I don't think I will ever do in Msia. Its actually a blessing me staying far away from Msia, at least I learn how to make these things) and the eating sessions we have here regularly.

It is also decided (dah lama) that the only one that can give me guidance and make me a stronger and better person is ALLAH. Only Allah knows what is going on in my mind and heart (my wishes). I don't know what he plans for me but whatever it is I will face it with an open mind & heart. Getting older makes you think more I guess. (Spiritually closer to God).

Mentally, I know whatever we have here is only temporarily. This gig here is not forever (so cannot get too comfortable) and that we might have to go back to Msia or anywhere else. So I am trying to prepared myself for anything even the worst.

Conclusion, being here in Oman have made me a better, happier & fatter person.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

2008-06-15T08:28:00.007+04:00

In a few days time, it will be 6 months since my dad passed away. Throughout my growing up years, my dad was just a title, name and figure only. All I always remember of him is that he was very fierce and always angry. Maybe because of the nature of his work. I don't recall seeing him smile or having a long conversation with me or my siblings. I have never been or try to be closed to him. I don't even remember telling him that I love him or miss him. I thank him for being my father because without him there will be no me. Anyway, God Bless Him and I hope he rest in peace.

My kids on the other hand are totally the opposite. They are always showing their love and affection for their father. I am glad & happy that my children have a totally different type of father. He is always there for them and is not afraid to show them how much he cares & loves them, understanding even though he seldom smiles (muka macho).

To my dearest hubby, I wish you a "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY".And to all the other fathers out there reading this blog entry "HAPPY FATHERS DAY" and thank you for being there for your children. Your children loves and remember you even if they don't say so.

Quick & Fast Update

2008-06-14T07:13:00.003+04:00

Well, things have been very quiet here recently. On Sunday, Oja took me to this shopping mall called "SANA". Since we were early, we stopped by Ramesh to see any new items on display. Well macam biasa lah, kalau dah tengok surely nak beli. So this time around I saw these cheap crystal bowls and a cake plate that were on display. Pikir punye pikir, I decided to get them. Sekarang simpan aje lah dalam almari. Bought some t-shirts for Haikal kat SANA.

That night we (the whole gang except for Nazeri who was at site) went to "Bin Ateeq" for dinner. After dinner we all lepak kat MCDonald makan ice cream (macam budak kecik aje). The ice cream tasted so nice since the weather kat sini is getting hotter.

Since we came back late, the kiddos all did not go to school. Moreover the final exams are over and there's nothing much to do. Me and Oja went for breakfast this morning kat MQ. On the way back we bought Dunkin Donut to bring back. (Oh ya... Dunkin Donut dak buka 3 cawangan kat Muscat. So now ade tempat baru utk nak take a break). We all just relax at home.

No tennis this week because the weather was getting hotter. But surprisingly, it was not as hot as we expected.

On Wednesday (11/6) night, we went to the airport to send Haji, Aina and Syed off to Malaysia. Macam biase lah, we had lots of fun gossiping, making jokes, etc. Hopefully we would be seeing Haji, Rohaya and kids in KL before they come back to Muscat after their summer holiday.

Thursday (12/6), we stayed at home sampai petang. (anyway pantanglah kalau tak keluar weekend). After sending Nadia off to her friend's place for a birthday party, we went to makan kat "Muscat Pizza". Pizza not bad, macam kat Pizza Hut but I still prefer "Yahya" pun pizza. Still the best in town.

Friday, (13/6) I made Laksa Johor. Got the usual gang to the house for lunch. For dessert made kuih sagu and bingka ubi kayu. Oja brought blueberry muffin and sausage puff pastry. Lepak and borak till about 4.30. The party did not finish here. We all adjourned to Oja's place to play pingpong. We were there until 8pm. We all had fried rice for dinner kat Oja's place.

Weekend

2008-06-06T23:58:00.004+04:00

Friday, 6th. June

Our normal Friday morning started off with us going snorkeling at Marjan beach. The sea was not so choppy today but the water was not so clear at the deeper parts of the sea. Saw two big fish - looks like the flounder species. We did not do much today except we managed to catch up on our sleep. The whole house was asleep until nearly 6pm. Anyway Haikal was having fever so we decided to stay in today. Had take outs for dinner.

Got hooked on "Veronica Mars". Watched about 6 episodes today itself. Slow and relaxing weekend for the whole family. I guess the following weeks will be much less hectic since most of the gang are starting to go home for the summer holidays. I on the other hand am looking forward to our Dubai trip in 2 weeks time and our trip back home in July for the summer holidays.

Thursday, 5th, June

Tonight we had an unscheduled tahlil gathering kat Oja's house. The normal group of people attended this gathering. As usual the food was very nice since its been a long time since we all ate "pucuk ubi". Dessert was I guess the highlight with..... strawberry cheese cake, triffles, sago puding, donuts, sardin roll, chocolate cake and much more.

ps/- No pictures for this weeks gathering. Forgot to charge my camera's battery.

Thank U

2008-06-03T07:09:00.013+04:00

Yesterday was just like any other day in my life. Every year if my hubby was around, he would normally give me my present on my birthday either in the morning or when he comes back from work. This year, it was something different which I did not expect. Before he went to bed the previous night, he put my present on my side of the bed. It was not the gift that made me feel special but the little note he wrote in the card. It made a lot of difference to me to have him write such a lovely thought. I used to wonder sometimes if he had any more romantic bone in his body after the kids came along. But this proved me wrong. I still remember when he was working in Kay El, we used to go out dating, (just the two of us) and leave the kids at home once a month. We would try and spend some quality time together which we still do it here but only thing about it here is that we use this time to go groceries shopping. How romantic kan?

Did the same routine thing during the day. Cook, clean house, baked a cake for myself (how sad) and laundry. Was not much of a special day for me. I was sitting down and realizing all the things that I could and should have done over the years. But one thing for sure I don't think I regretted any of which I made. My life now is so blessed and gifted with a wonderful, understanding hubby whom I adore and love more than life itself. With 3 kiddos which sometimes drives me crazy like a mad woman, makes me laugh my heart out. They are my life and I adore and love each and everyone of them. My friends and family members who are always there for me. The person I must thank my life are my parents especially my mother for which if there wasn't her there would not be me. Thank you mummy.

As usual we were suppose to go and buy some groceries at night but went to "The Chedi" instead. Wanted to have coffee there, but ended up having coffee at STARBUCK at MSQ. To make the long story short we managed to spend some time together.

A Year Older

2008-06-02T10:04:00.006+04:00

HaPPy BiRtHdAY 2 U,
HaPPy BiRtHdAY 2 U,
HaPPy BiRtHdAY to Meeeeeeeee.
HaPPy BiRtHdAY 2 U

Well today I officially turn 40 plus. (Plus tu tak payah nak tulislah... malu aje). Each year the digit on my age turns bigger yet I don't feel it except for my sizelah. Getting bigger as I get older.The only thing I notice is that my children are no longer babies and that tell's me I am getting older. This year is the second year I celebrate my birthday in Oman. My birthday wish this year is to be able to spend many more birthdays with my family and good health always.

A Low Key Celebration

2008-06-01T23:23:00.004+04:00

We celebrate Nadia's birthday at home on a low scale. Made her a simple chocolate/pandan cake and got her some presents. She was very pleased with her gift especially the other from her father.

In the evening, we went to an Artefact Exhibition organized by British School Muscat. This exhibition was displaying some art works done by student from Year 7-12.This exhibition is mainly and most importantly displaying the art works from students from year 11 & 12 (GCSE & A Level). Their works displayed here will be graded by someone from the Education Board from UK for their final exam. We (Oja & Rohimi, Hamzah, Nadia, Ben & myself) went there to see and show support for our dear Laila whose art works was on display and she is currently doing her final GCSE exams.

For dinner, we all went to TFC at RUWI. Like usual we order their famous fried chicken.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NADIA

2008-06-01T06:59:00.004+04:00

Today 1st June, 15 years ago I was in the labour room waiting anxiously, painfully for this little one to make her way into this world. After 10 long hours of very painful labour, she finally decided to come out. I can still remember how small she was. We were so excited to welcome a new member into our family and also being our first born. We named her "Nadia Asyiqin". How fast time flies. Now she's all grown up, tall, skinny independent teenager.

Nadia,

What a wonderful, smart, loving, caring and responsible teenager
you turn out to be
what a proud mother
you have made me.

A daughter like you
brings joy to my life
years after wonderful years
the love you give
brightens up my days.

You are also my friend
who's always there, to lend an ear
listening to me nagging and complaining
when there's no one else around

You will always be very special to me
I want you to know
that I really love you even if I don't say or show you so.

Happy 15th. Birthday, my beautiful daughter NADIA ASYIQIN HAMZAH. Mama & Baba hope and wish you all the best at whatever you do. May Allah guide and be will you always.

Another Exciting Friday

2008-05-30T23:55:00.000+04:00

It's Friday morning and the Blue Dugong Snorkeling gang (minus penghulu- Hj Zunaidi & ketua wanita, Rohaya) was at Marjan beach for our weekly activity. I decided to call our snorkeling group the "Blue Dugong" . Reason being the colour of Nazeri, Rohimi & Syed's snorkeling attire and equipment. Furthermore, size kami semua lebih kurang aje mcm........(ade mak, bapak and baby).

Today Sazali, Zaleha, Aida and Syed's boss joined in our activity. Oleh kerana malas nak panjat dan pasang tent, we decided to try and snorkel from the beach front instead of our usual location. The sea was very choppy today but the water was quite clear. Managed to see lots of fishes, a few big ones. We did not enjoy much today's snorkeling because choppy water and also there was a lot of rock from where we started. Putting on and taking off our flippers were a bit of a problem because of the rocks. We decided that from now onwards we will take the time and climb the hill to our favorite spot to snorkel. Activity ended at 10am much earlier than expected.

For lunch today, Hamzah, myself and the kids went to MCC. Since Nadia's birthday is in a few days time, we decided to have her birthday lunch at Chilies. The portion of the food was big but surprisingly we managed to finish it. Must be really hungry after snorkeling.

After lunch, Nadia and myself went around window shopping. We went to "Splash" to look for a pair of shoes for her. Macam biasalah, testing punye testing kasut. Earlier on, I reminded her not to try any pair of shoes with the label "Missy" after Oja punya incident. Syok punye testing kasut sampai terlupa. Suddenly she inserted her feet into a pair of Missy shoes and it was pig skin lining. She was so upset & mad because this could happen in an Islamic country and the sales personel was not even bothered with her complaint. With this issue in hand, she decided to write to the local newspaper and advise/tell everyone about this. Dah-lah tu, balik rumah pulak kena samak kaki tangan.

Weekend's Here

2008-05-30T23:33:00.000+04:00

It's the weekend again here in Oman. After breakfast, I started making my dessert (kuih) to bring to our gathering tonight. Dessert tonight is...........Tepung Pelita & Kuih Lapis which I decided to try for the first time. Also made kerabu mangga.

In the evening, Hamzah, me & Haikal went around to Mutrah area to look around for other snorkeling area. We managed to find at least 2 location - Kalbooh & the jetty area which was damaged during the cyclone Gonu. The water was so clear that we managed to see the fishes from the damaged jetty.

The weekend (Thursday night) started with our bi-weekly tahlil gathering. This time around tahlil was held at Sazali & Zaleha's place. We also celebrated Adi's (anak tuan rumah) 15th. birthday. Had a few news guest at this gathering - Saloma & family.

ps. Sorry some of the pictures lambat nak upload.

Tennis & Dinner

2008-05-28T23:13:00.000+04:00

Today as usual is the night when we (Oja & Rohimi, Udik & Laila, Syed, Hamzah & myself not forgetting all the kiddos) get together and have our weekly tennis session at PDO Club. Normally after tennis, we all always have dinner together. So tonight, it's sort of my turn to prepare dinner. So this time around the menu is "Nasi Tomato, Ayam Masak Merah, Dalca Kambing and Acar Timun. For dessert, Oja made Cheese Cake. Enjoy it!!!!!

Bad News For the "Dugong Snorkeling Club"

2008-05-26T07:34:00.005+04:00

Around this time last year, there were news about a cyclone on its way to hit the coast of Muscat in early June. Well, its been nearly a year since Muscat was hit by Cyclone Gonu. Over the past two weeks, there were another sets of rumours going around that another "Gonu" on its way to hit Muscat again at the end of May 2008. So after the incident last year, almost all people in Muscat started going out shopping for emergency food supplies like crazy. I was at LULU during the weekend and was amazed to see the lines at all the checkout counter ......... incredibly long. I understood that the bottled water and rice supplies were all sold out.

Well yesterday night, Haji informed the men folks that our snorkeling trip to Damaniyat Island has been canceled. The tour operator that was suppose to take us are worried about cyclone rumours. Was also informed that the waters around the island is quite choppy these days and it would not be safe and nice to snorkel. Tak pelah maybe next summer since we ladies also tak cukup korum - ketua wanita, Rohaya dah balik kampung. So looks like if there is no cyclone hitting Muscat this weekend, we will have to find another location to snorkel. Worst case Marjan beach....lah.

I guess you all must be wondering why wait until next summer. FYI, Damaniyat Islands are actually a cluster of 9 islands. These islands are nature reserve islands and they are off limits to visitors. We can only anchor off the islands and snorkel/dive around it with permit aje. Furthermore the island area are closed from June for breeding purposes. So looks like this will be the first activity for our next year's summer agenda for those who will still around in Muscat.

AM & PM Meeting

2008-05-25T23:52:00.000+04:00

Our week here started off very differently this time around. Last weekend, Rohaya received bad news from her family in Sarawak that their mother has suddenly been taken very ill. So she and her kids except for Aina will be going back to Miri tonight. They will be there until early July. Therefore I will only be able to see her in August when I come back from my summer vacation.
I hope and pray that her mother will get well soon and that everything will be ok.

FYI, today also will be the last time the four of us (Rohaya, Leha, Oja and myself) get together for our weekly morning coffee. The next time will be after the summer holidays/Raya in October since our Cik Oja will only be coming back to Oman after Hari Raya. Today our gathering was at Rohaya's place. She made us her specialty.... Laksa Sarawak. Prune Tart and Steam Fruit Cake was also on her list. As usual the rest of the gang brought more food with us. We had a special guest this morning......Qayyum (Rohaya's eldest son who's back from US for the holidays).

Yesterday night after dinner I decided to make "Pulut Serikaya" for our morning coffee. Since this is my first time making this kuih, I was quite surprise and excited to see the end product. Ever since I came to live here, I managed to make a few other types of kuih which I would have just bought it at the makcik kuih (kuih tunjuk aje) in KL. Tengok ya..... Kak Lynn dah terra buat kuih melayu & nyonya. Jangan cemburu ya.

Macam biase, whenever one of us goes back to Malaysia, the whole entourage will be at the airport for the send off. So this time is no exception. The whole gimp bang was at the airport until 10.30pm to see them off. Pleasant and safe flight back to Miri and will see you soon, Rohaya.

Snorkeling..........again

2008-05-23T22:43:00.004+04:00

After a whole week of waiting patiently, its snorkeling time again for us. This week we decided to go snorkeling only on Friday morning and it was a all adult activity no kiddos except for Ben. Most of us arrived at 7.40am at Marjan beach. After setting up the tent, we had our breakfast first (sebelum buat ape2, mesti isi perut dulu kan) ...... nasi goreng belacan, mee goreng and sandwiches was on the menu. The water today was not so clear and the sea was quite choppy. Could not see much fish today but Hamzah & Nazeri managed to see a huge turtle. Snorkeled till 10.15am and we packed up to go home for Friday prayers. On the way down, we managed to see 2 turtles swimming and the water was getting much clearer.

Summer is already here. So everywhere in Oman is on sales. Yesterday, we went window shopping but ended up buying stuffs for the kids. For dinner we went to "Yahya". Yahya was glad to see us all after his 2 months holiday. Met Nazeri and Sayed there. Later Haji, Rohaya and the family came over to Yahya also. Met Rohaya's son Qayyum for the first time. Good looking chap.......looks like Haji. It was getting hot and the kids were all starting to complain about the heat that we all decided to leave earlier and go home .

Salted Eggs

2008-05-23T00:22:00.004+04:00

This is another update of a project which I did about 1 month ago. Have not eaten salted egg for more than a year, I decided to surf the net and see if I am able to make salted egg. Usually, salted eggs are made from duck eggs. Herein Oman, it is very difficult to get duck eggs so I decided to try with chicken eggs. After a month of soaking the eggs inside the salt solution, today I tried the saled eggs. To my surprise, I managed successful to have salted egg. So for now on, I will be able to have salted eggs from time to time.

Good Start to A Weekend

2008-05-22T23:26:00.005+04:00

Wednesday, 21st. May
As usual, the ladies of the house had our weekly get together for breakfast. This morning it was at Sultan Centre. Today, we talk about all kinds of things under the sun (borak kosong aje). Had so much fun laughing, joking & making fun of each other until we did not realize that time pass so fast. This morning was very much different that our usual routine. We went for a garage sale after breakfast. Unfortunately, we did not buy anything. Just look see aje. It was nearly 11.00 am when we went for the garage sale. Had to call the hubbies to inform them that we were unable to get home on time to prepare lunch. So my poor abang had to have sandwich which he forgot to bring to work for lunch. There was a very bad sand storm on the way home and we were stuck in the traffic jam.

Later at night, there was tennis. I made "Triffles" to bring to Oja's place but unfortunately, I forgot to bring it to her house due to some miscommunication. Will make it again some other time.

LIFE

2008-05-22T08:18:00.003+04:00

Have you ever thought life is like ying and yang? Well I have never given much thought of these ying and yang until recently. All this time, I know that for every good there is bad, and every happy day there's a sad day and so forth. Sometimes you don't expect things to turn out the way you want to be, but it does and you get so piss about it andthere's nothing much you can do. These days my life is so predictable and so routine (I guess I'm getting old). What I know is that we all cannot expect our life to be 100% perfect and we should be happy and glad(thank God) with what we have becoz somewhere out there there a lots of people who have so much less that what we have. Suddenly I sound so mellow dramatic. My day started of on a happy note but ended the day with a more dissatisfied way. I guess this is part and parcel of life. You can't expect to be happy and contented all the time. Starting to feel depress I guess as the days are fast approaching and that I would be a year older. I think I should try and think of my life like a good bottle of wine. (Macam lah I minum wine, figure of speech). The older it is the better and fully bodied it would be. Masa tulis blog entry ni, perasaan emo tengah melandar ku. Ha.....ha...ha..... (Gelak sama lah).

My Project

2008-05-21T06:06:00.003+04:00

Well the weather outside is getting much hotter now compared to last year. It was like 52 Deg C in the afternoon the previous day. Even at night (ie 10pm) its still hot. Really don't feel like going out of the house unless I have too. Lucky it whole house is air-conditioned. Since I have not done much yesterday, well I am going to update on my small projects I have done from time to time. Well this time around is

Bean Sprout/Taugeh
As some of you know, getting taugeh kat sini - very unpredictable bukan macam kat Malaysia, gi aje pasar/kedai boleh dapat taugeh yang bersih/putih. Sometimes you can't even find taugeh at the supermarket for a month and not all supermarket have it. Kalau dapat ade yang dh lebam. Bean spout here are imported from Holland and therefore quite expensive. So me being Malaysian/Asian, we love taugeh in our Mee Hoon Goreng, Mee Curry, Laksa Johor etc. So here is where my project started and after failing for a few times, I succeeded to sprout my own taugeh for self consumption. Boleh buka taugeh farm bila balik Msia. (ha....ha..ha...)

Relaxing Day.

2008-05-19T18:34:00.005+04:00

Today, as planned earlier with Rohaya, we went to gym to burn some calories. Unfortunately, our routine exercise was cut short due the maintenance work being carried out at the swimming/steam and sauna area.

Since there was nothing much to do in the afternoon, I decided to try and make the cheese tart again. Was so glad it turn out perfect even though I change the recipe for the pastry. Nadia seems to prefer this ones that the previous made one. Orang kat Msia, don't worry, when I get home, I will made some for you all to taste. Just remind me aje.

Current News- Latest Update!!!!

2008-05-18T07:51:00.006+04:00

Saturday, 17th. May
For the past few days, I have been trying to clear my backlog of updating my blog. Well I finally managed to do it. Well there were some things that I accidentally left out. Well for a start, last week the school had an open interview for students who are interested to take part and represent their school(British School of Muscat)in a Model United Nation conference/debate. This is actually similar to the United Nation conference except this one, students all around the world will gather and discuss current world issue. This year there will be 2 conferences , Singapore and Holland. Macam biasa, it sounded interesting and after the talk given by the previous 6 students that went, Nadia got all excited and decided to try for it. At the end of the week, the results was given. Unfortunately, she was not excepted. Well the next day there was another announcement, and that another 10 are chosen to go with another location for the conference. So 8 to Holland, 4 to Singapore and another 4 to UAE which I guess that they were not interested to go. Guess what, our Nadia got a place to go for the conference and to......... HOLLAND. She is now excited and cannot wait to go.

Another issue, we are so happy that Haikal managed to secure a place in Reception at the British School this coming September. So finally he will be able to go to the same school with Nadia and Ben. The school had an open day for the new student to get familiarization with the school environment. Macam biasa, he was so excited but kejap aje. Then he wanted to go and play at the play area.

Did not do much today, had breakfast with Oja at home ...makan cheese tart aje bukan Al Hooti okay. Lepak talk and discussed about our coming trip to Dubai. Will update Dubai trip bila nak dekat trip date. OK. Since Nadia dah makin rabun, we decided to go and make her glasses for her instead of waiting to go back to KL. So went out to Al Wadi Plaza in Qurm to make her glasses last night. Will post a picture of her with her glasses soon.

Friday's Activity.

2008-05-17T14:32:00.004+04:00

Friday, 16th. May
This morning, the agenda on the list was snorkeling. Well now we all tengah snorkeling fever. Dah pandai sikit so enjoying it-lah. So make fried noodle to bring to the beach. Haikal stayed at home with Nadia. Ben follow me & Hamzah snorkelig today since he did not go yesterday. We met up with Nazeri there. Reach Marjan beach at 8.00am and we clmb the hill. Today the sea was extremely clear and Ben and myself managed to see a turtle swimming. We saw lots of nice fishes. I even saw a small Baracuda fish. There was a type of fish that had very long beak yang bentuk macam mulut dolphin. Hamzah even saw a snake. Snorkeled till 10am since it was Friday and they had to go for Friday prayers.

After lunch, I decided to make Cheese Tart but since there was no Blueberry at home, I made using strawberry. My first time using the new tart mold so I was not sure how thick the pastry should be. It tart turned out nice but the pastry was a bit too thin that it crack when it was baking. Overall the tart tasted very nice. Will try and edit and make it again next time. Hopefully it would look like the ones they sell at the bakery.

We went to MCC later in the evening and managed to find Nadia's jacket for her promp. Tried to find a suit for Ben, but they had no size for him. Maybe will try again or get it in Dubai. For dinner we went to ARAB World Restaurant. This time, we order Beriani with meat(mutton) and chicken. Rice was different than the normally one we had. BEstnya...licin first time we all habis semua nasi atas dulang tu.

Balik terus tidor sampai pagi since penat sangat.

Weekend Activity

2008-05-17T13:53:00.002+04:00

Thursday, 15th. May
Well its nearly the end of all the activites (recap) for the time that I was too lazy to update my blog. Hopefully after this I will update this blog regularly. Well don'tlah expect me to update daily, since my perangai malas still exist.

Ok lets get back to business, macam real aje. We went snorkeling at 9.00am this morning. Like usual, there must be food when we gather together. This time around was very simple. I made Nasi Goreng Kampung with chilie api. Rohaya made fried noodle and Oja made Fried Macaroni for the kids. Nadia and Ben did not want to go. Nadia tak nak gi sebab takut hitam/gelap since Prom Nite is very near. Ben on the other hand wanted to go to his friens's party later in the evening and he was afraid to be too tired to go. So me and Haikal aje yang gi. Hamzah went to work. Had fun at the beach. Did not get to snorkel that much since had to keep an eye on Haikal who was playing by the beach. Came home at 1pm.

In the evening, went to Shatti Plaza to find for my shoes and also my goggles. Unfortunately, goggles out of stock but Hamzah bought a new flipper. Dinner we went to Chedi Beach area to have Mishka (Omani satay - Beef and Cutterfish) Today is also Razak's birthday. Haji and Razak paid for the dinner.

Recap for the week

2008-05-17T13:09:00.006+04:00

Mon, Tues & Wed, 12-14th May
Well nothing much to report this week. Gym and shopping was on the list of things to do. Something different was on Tuesday night, Oja & Rohimi invited all the gang to this Arabic restaurant "Bin Ateeq" which served Kabuli rice to have dinner. Both me and Hamzah was curious why the sudden invitation."Macam ade sesuatu aje". Normally if something like this occurs in the middle of the week, the person has something important to announce. So macam biasalah both me and Hamzah started guessing that probably they were going to announce that Rohimi got a better offer and will be leaving Oman soon. FYI,I have been here in Oman for a year and had yet to eat at this restaurant. I have eaten at both the restaurants on the left and right of this said restaurant. The food was nice, a bit different from the restaurants next to it. At dinner, we all also discussion about our next major snorkeling activity ...."Damaniyat Island" on the 30th May. It was decided then, that since our kids will be having their final exams, they will not be joining the adults for this trip. It would be a husband & wife affair not forgetting the "married bachelors". Will advise/write more on the island later in my blog.

I guess you all are still wondering why Oja & Rohimi invited us for dinner. Well......actually they just wanted the group to eat together, barulah best. Like Oja said, eating together in a big group, the food taste much better which we all seems to agree.

On Wednesday, I got up early to prepare the ingredients for dinner which I would be cooking/bring to Oja's house. Later kaum ibu-ibu, went to Al-Hooti for breakfast. This time, we tried some different type of food ie Vada, Appam and also our usual Puri with Masala chicken and mutton with fried dal. Our table was so full with food that the neighboring table kept peeping at our table. They must be wondering how can these four ladies could eat so much. Went to Lulu after breakfast. Came home cooked lunch and later in the evening made chicken rice for after tennis dinner. Looking forward to tomorrow's activity.

PS: This is how most ARABIC restaurant here serve their food. They have a dining hall which have chairs and tables and also rooms for families which we have to dine sitting on the floor.

Slow Week- Breather

2008-05-17T13:03:00.003+04:00

Saturday & Sunday, 10th & 11th. May
These two days passed by very slowly. Did not do much since Haikal was not well and had to see the doctor. So since he was at home, gym activity had to be cancelled. Slow.... real slow. After all those activities we had the previous weeks, I guess, this is the time to relax a bit. Looking forward to our next weekend activity.

Snorkeling at Marjan Beach

2008-05-16T16:01:00.006+04:00

Friday, 9th. May
After yesterday's gathering, it was decided that we all would meet up at 9.30am at Marjan Beach and go snorkeling. Since we had extra food from yesterday's Tahlil, we did not have to cook anything. The weather was actually very hot but the moment you enter the water it was great. The sea was not so clear but we managed to see some fishes swimming around. We snorkeled till near 12 noon and we had to leave becoz the men folks had to go and get ready for Friday prayers. It was then decided that we would make snorkeling our weekly affair. I guess everyone was very tired myself included since I felt asleep while watching tv on the sofa.

In the evening, we went out with the kids to MCC to window shop. At night , we all had an invitation to have dinner at a restaurant call "SILK ROUTE" at MSQ. This is our first time to this restaurant but we have tried the food previously (bungkus).They served chinese style and the food was surprising very nice compared to the last time (maybe they had a new chef). Tonite treat was on our Mr Sayed.

Tahlil at Home

2008-05-16T15:33:00.004+04:00

Thursday, 8th. May
After the long break of having Tahlil, this time around it was our turn to host the event. This time, I decided to have something different. Want to have local malaysian food. So I made Nasi Tomato, Ayam Masak Merah, Acar, Dalca Kambing and Daging Masak Kicap Pedas. We had cream caramel, pudding, pengat labu, cornbeef sandwich, kuih lapis, and the highlight was a cheese cake made by Rohaya.

The Tahlil was very successful despite a few people who did not turn up at the last minute. We ended the evening with the planing of tomorrow's gathering.

Tennis at PDO

2008-05-16T15:28:00.002+04:00

Wednesday, 7th. May
Tonight is tennis nite. After our previous tennis session, which we all sweated like mad. So was looking forward to it. Had dinner kat rumah Oja... Soto.

Ladies Gathering

2008-05-16T15:21:00.002+04:00

Tuesday, 6th. May
Today the ladies decided to go for breakfast to discussion our weekend plan. As usual we met at Al Hooti Restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast we all went to TAVOLA (to those yang tak tahu, kedai ini jual periuk/mangkuk yang imported.Jadi gila kalau tengok. The all see my favorite things, baking tray etc.)to look see.Like usual, we all ended up buying something. I got myself a mini muffin tray. Thought of making mini muffin sometime this week. From TAVOLA, we all went to LULU to buy groceries. Since I was already too late to cook, I bought ready made food from there.

My Life Flash Right Infront of Me Experience

2008-05-16T00:17:00.006+04:00

Monday, 5th, May
After our exhausted trip to Jabal and the short rest we had on Saturday and Sunday, we (Rohaya and self) hit the gym again today. Threadmill, swimming and steam bath was on the list. During this trip to Jabal especially when I was climbing the fort, my heart was pumping like crazy. There was a moment when I thought it would stop beating and that I would not make it to the top of the fort. That was when I realised that I really need to exercise more and keep myself fit in order to keep up with the rest of the gang so when we have outdoor activities I would not be left behind. So my new resolution from now is to go to gym to keep fit and not necessary to lose weight. But if I do lose weight, that would be good news.

Nizwa/Al Jabal Al Akhdar

2008-05-15T17:16:00.009+04:00

Friday, 2nd. May
Woke up early about 4 am. Had to prepare the necessary things to bring to for our road trip to Al Jabal Al Akhdar. (Will let you all know the meaning of this word later). The regular gang aje went for this day trip. For this trip, we all had our malaysian favourite breakfast..... Nasi Lemak with egg (fried & boil)by our Nasi specialist Rohaya, sambal tumis ikan bilis and the additional was sambal sotong kering. (Semua sambal I yang masak.. dh terra sikit buat sambal).Oh terlupa ade rendang ayam pun (yg tu our Cik Oja yang buat) The other food we had was pau, cinnamon roll (Rohaya), MeeHoon goreng (Roza), Jemput-jemput/cekodok (Zaleha). Macam biasalah there were so much food can feed a batalion of soldiers. We left Muscat about 6am. Our trip to Nizwa took about 2 hours.

At Nizwa, we went to the market/souq. This souq a bit different from the usual market you see. Here you get to see the local farmers auctioning off their livestock (lembu/kambing aje). We also visited their silver & souvenir souq. Some of us managed to shop for silver and souvenir. Later we climb the Nizwa fort. The walk up the souq was really taxing for me since I was really not fit. Spend about 2 hours at Nizwa. At about 11am, we continued our journey to Al Jabal Al Akhdar (Jabal means mountain and Akhdar mean green. For this trip we all had to rent a 4WD becoz a cars are not allowed to go up. Ade checkpoint ROP(Royal Oman Police) check. A long the way to the top, there are many viewing points. The scenery were so breathtaking. Hamzah cakap the view dari atas macam ala-ala Grand Canyon kat USA. Along the way, we made lots of pit stops to eat and take pictures... macam-macam style posing. We left Jabal and came arrive Muscat at about 6pm.

Family Day

2008-05-15T17:08:00.002+04:00

Thursday, 1st May,
This week is a bit different for us from all my previous weeks. We spend our Thursday's afternoon just lazying around at home. In the evening we went to Oja's house to play table tennis. and came home just before maghrib. Went Yahya for dinner. Actually we were all preparing for our outing schedule for tomorrow morning which we would be leaving the house early.

As usual whenever we go on a road trip, I for one cannot sleep. I had to prepare our breakfast for the trip. I managed to make Loh Mai Kai also. Have not made this dish for a long time.

Hitting the Gym

2008-05-15T16:59:00.004+04:00

Wednesday, 30th. April
Well, I guess those who knows me, will be surprised to see that I hit the gym again today after many times trying to do so. Yeap, trying to keep up with the momentum. Today's routine kat gym was lebih kurang macam yesterday except today, I sempat nak steam my hair. Tengahari masak simple aje since tonite there will be another family activity.

I know you all will be guessing .. surely gathering makan-makan. Well to you all punye surprise today activitynya lain sikit. Hamzah, myself and the kids went to play tennis with Rohim, Oja and her kids. Udik and Laila ikut jugak. We are trying to get Haikal, Ben and Nadia to learn how to play tennis. It was a very good workout for all of us. Lepas tennis, Rohimi belanja we all semua makan kat PDO - western lah.

Working Out

2008-05-15T14:48:00.005+04:00

Tuesday, 29th. April
This is actually the continuation of my update for the past few weeks. After enjoying ourselves at the gym, we decided to do it again. Hopefully this would be a twice/three times a week routine. Today, we decided to add another few more activities to our routine. So we went all out... after running on the threadmill for 30 minutes, we did some weight exercises. Lepas tu..... the best part, we went swimming for 20 minutes (indoor ladies swimming pool) then, we went for a steaming. It was real fun coz I have not gone for steaming for more than 1 year. Badan rasa segar aje after that. We spend about 2.5 hrs in the gym. Malam tu, tidur dengan nyenyak aje.

Breakfast with the Gang

2008-05-14T15:56:00.002+04:00

Monday, 28th. April
Today, we the mothers actually decided to go for breakfast to discuss the menu for our upcoming trip to Jabal Akhdar. So macam biase we were suppose to meet at Al-Hooti but due to some unforseen circumstances, we change the location of our breakfast meeting to D'Arcy at Shatti Beach. So we had western breakfast for a change. At breakfast, the menu for our trip was decided. I know what you all will be thinking right now. Baru aje start exercise, dah planing makan-makan. Well whenever the gang gathers for the weekend, there surely be some nice malaysian food for us to enjoy. Kan makan ramai-ramai best. Menunya...will advise at my next blog entry. After breakfast, we went shopping around the mall. Mana sah, kalau tak gi shopping even if it was window shopping.

Muhibah Games at PDO Club - AM

2008-05-14T15:55:00.006+04:00

Thursday, 24th. April
Well, it was very nice of Norina to include my family again in their activites even though we are not staffs of PDO. For those who are reading my blog, I guess you must be wondering what the hell is Muhibah Games. Well it actually activites organized Malaysian, Indonesian, Bruneian PDO (SHELL/Petroleum Development of Oman) staff. Well since Hamzah was working today, we could only joint the activites after 12 noon. Like normal, food was the main issue for this gathering. Again it was potluck lunch. I decided to make Chicken Rice since I had time on my hand. To my delight my chicken rice finish a few minutes after I arrived. Well I guess it must have been good. The kids did not get to play any games since all the games were done before we could arrive. But Haikal managed to show off his talent by singing for us a ABC song and he got a prize for it. I was surprise becoz he has never done this before and he was not afraid at all. We left the club about 3.00pm. I had to go home and prepare for the next activity happening at night.

Snorkelling

2008-05-14T15:55:00.003+04:00

Friday, 25th. April
This week has been a very active week. Yesterday we decided to go snorkelling at Marjan beach in the morning. Unfortunately, we all were unable to get up and some of us still have not gotten our snorkelling gear, we decided to go to the beach at 4pm. Most of them arrived at the beach at 4.30pm. Air baru aje nak pasang so, the water was not that clear so we very unable to see anything. Never the least, the kids had fun swimming. We left the beach at about 6pm since tomorrow was a school day.

Dinner as usual at our favourite Turkish Restaurant "YAHYA".

Exercising

2008-05-14T15:55:00.002+04:00

Saturday, 26th. April
Its been a long time since I went to the gym to exercise. Tried a few times to go but the MALAS attitude keep coming back. Have been putting on so much weight since I came to live here and not forgetting the gathering that we have during the weekend with usually comes with lots of mouth watering food. Well, we (Rohaya and self) decided that we should start exercising to help us burn the food that we enjoyed during the weekends. So, today is the first day, we went to the gym. Managed to only run on the treadmill for 15 minutes aje. Pancit and had no stamina. Decided that we should make this exercise a routine. Hopefully we will stick to this plan.

Makan Activity - Oja's House

2008-05-14T15:55:00.001+04:00

Wednesday, 24th April
Well, after rushing home for the games, I had to prepare for a potluck dinner at Oja's house. There's really nothing much to do when we gather together except Makan (Eat). Since the theme for the night was Western/Italian, I decided to make Lasagna for dinner. For dessert, I make my famous Chocolate Brownie to be eaten with ice-cream but unfortunately, I did not managed to stop and get the ice cream since I was showing Zaleha & Sazali the way to Oja's place. We had lots of nice food for the nite. There was fried chicken,pizza, spaghetti wt chicken met sauce, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy which I managed to make despite being in a rush. We had fried rice with sambal belacan by Zaleha... I know out of the theme but the sambal was so good.Everybody came including the Mawalel group. It was a good turnout. While eating we we all busy making plans for tomorrow's activity and also planing our trip to Jabal Akhdar.

Rohaya's Treat

2008-05-14T15:54:00.002+04:00

Wednesday 23 April
Tonite we had dinner at the famous TFC Restaurant (Trivandrum Fried Chicken) on Hj & Rohaya's treat. FYI, this restaurant is just beside the famous KFC Restaurant. What a coincidence kan. Well like the name its self, they serve mostly Indian cuisine . The food is nice if you know what to order. We all macam biasa lah order roti canai, fried chicken which is their speciality, curry and etc. The usual gang yang gi ....Hj & Rohaya with kids, Rohimi & Oja with kids, my family, Razak & Roza with kids. Yang bujang-bujang Nazri, Meor, Salman, Laila, Syed. Tonite Hj also introduce his friend from Sarawak ...Sazali, his wife Zaleha and their kids to the gang. They just came to Oman a few weeks back.

After dinner and since it was still early, they suggested that we all went bowling at Al Massa. So we all went bowling. Dah lama tak bowling. Our bowling session ended nearly midnight. We had to go home since we had other activity plan for tomorrow.

** Tks to Oja for the picture**

Tennis Tournament

2008-05-14T15:54:00.000+04:00

Monday, 21st. April
Today on TV was one of the hottest football game on. CHELSEA vs MANCHESTER UTD. So
Salman & Laila came over in the afternoon to joint BEN to watch football. The game ended with CHELSEA winning. Kan Ben peminat setia CHELSEA. Since Salman was playing tennis in the evening, we decided to go and provide him with moral support. So penatlah we all cari flag Malaysia which Intan gave to us before she left Oman. So after maghrib prayers we all went to Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex to see Salman play .... finals. Sibuk budak-budak ni dengan flag Malaysia. Unfortunately Salman's team came in runner's up. So to celebrate Salman's victorylah, we all went to Yahya for dinner on Oja/Rohimi's treat.

School Spring Break

2008-05-14T15:52:00.002+04:00

Monday, 14th April
It's still the school holidays kat sini. We all macam biase aje.. asyik duduk rumah, masak & makan. Hamzah went to site for a few days so I did not have to masak lauk-pauk for our meals. We had simple things like mee goreng, nasi goreng. The thing I tried was making PAELLA. I bought this paella pan kat Home Centre last week since it was on sale so first time cuba buatlah. I ate paella about 10 years back masa I gi Barcelona with Hamzah dulu. It turned out nice and the kids (Nad & Ben aje)loved it. We made muffins and also chocolate brownies. A friend of Nadia's told her of a website where we could watch Korean, Taiwanese & Japanese drama series. So guess what, we had a marathon of Taiwanese drama series for the whole one week. Everyday watch like 5 episodes of a show. Nadia managed to finish a whole Japanese drama series in 3 days. Later we started with another Taiwanese drama which we have yet to finish the series. Hopefully will finish it before school starts next week. Anothing thing we tried doing was icing the cupcakes that we baked. Nadia macam gila Taiwanese actor ni sampai nama dia pun dia icing kat cupcake.I have not had the time to put the picture nanti later2 i letaklah gambar cupcake I tu.

Dubai - Day 2

2008-05-14T15:52:00.000+04:00

Friday, 12th. April
We woke up early the next day. Decided to have breakfast kat hotel aje. We drove around the Creek Area. Saw lots of merchant loading and disloading goods kat the harbour area. As it was early most of the shops belum buka lagi and the road were clear, we decided to drive to Diera City Centre shopping. Managed to find for Nadia a dress for her prom nite kat Forever 21. This is my second time to DCC but I could not remember the last time DCC was this big. We shopped around for Haikal's toy and books for the kids. Spend half day kat DCC tapi rasa macam tak cukup. Banyak kedai we all miss tak masuk sebab rushing nak balik hotel to check out. So finally we left DCC to go back to the hotel. Lepas check out, we drove to Jumerah area. Went to the beach area to see the activities. The beach cantik betul. Went to Jumerah Souq. This souq lain sikit rupa bentuk dalamannya. Looks like the rumah lama dengan tiang kayunya. Lepas tu, kita all gi Mall of Emirates. Second time kat sana. First time tak dapat tengok apa-apa. Second time pun sama. Mall was so besar. We all jalan-jalan kejap aje then went for lunch/tea kat TGI Fridays since besok Ben's birthday. So consider ni birthday lunch treat dari Baba. Lepas lunch macam biase Haikal wanted to go to the amusement park so we went there kejap. We left Dubai to come back to Muscat nearly 7pm. We were so exhausted when we got home nearly midnight. Hopefully we will make another trip to Dubai in June after the exams just before we go back to KL for the summer holidays. This time we will really be prepared for the trip. Kat Oman ni the rules and regulations semuanya defers from one person to another so we must not assume that everything will be ok. Just be well prepared. This is what we learn from this trip.

Road Trip To Dubai - Day 1

2008-05-14T15:51:00.003+04:00

Thursday, 10th. April
Its the school spring break for two weeks here in Oman. So we decided to go to Dubai for the weekend. This will be our first road trip by ourselves and you would not guess how much trouble we went thru just to get to Dubai. The kids and me were so excited that we did not sleep the night before. I managed to catch a few hours of sleep. Actually, the night before I was having fever and went to the doctor that evening. My fever went down so we decided to make the trip becoz the hotel was already booked and it would be a waste of money if we were to cancel the trip last minute. So on Thursday morning @ 5.30am we packed the car with our luggages and drove off. All of us sleep along the way except for Hamzah who driving. We arrive at Oman border at 8.30am. Unfortunately we were unable to cross the border becoz they wanted the road insurance for the car which we did not bring along. So guess what, we had to drive back all the way to Muscat city. The driving back was about 4 hours. We arrive Muscat at 12.00 noon. I slept all the way to and from the border as I was still not feeling well. I would not have mind if we cancelled the trip. But Hamzah was determine to make the trip. He left us at McDonald to have lunch while he went to settle the car insurance. All settled and then at about 1.30pm, we finally left Muscat to Dubai. The journey back to the border took us about 4.5hours. You would not belive me when we pass the border this time, the police were not even interested in our car insurance or even the car road tax. They just let us pass thru without any hassle. Sakit hati betul. We just wasted 8 hours on the road. Well we arrive Dubai at about 5.30 pm. We got lost awhile becoz of the changes in the road. We arrive the hotel at Bur Dubai at about 7pm. As I was not feeling well that nite, I decided to stay in the room while Hamzah, Nadia and Ben explore Bur Dubai area that nite. They went shopping at Burjuman and a few other complex along the area. They came back at midnite.

Dinner at Home wt Guest.

2008-05-14T15:51:00.000+04:00

Thursday, 3th. April
Since most of our friends in Oman are away in Malaysia, we decided to cook dinner at home and invite Hj, Rohaya and family to dinner. We decided something different to eat. So the theme for the nite was Western. We had Mushroom soup, steak and steam vegetables for main course. For dessert, we had Apple Crepes and Rohaya brought pumpkin pie. Since there was a new fellow Malaysian here, they decided to bring him over. So this is when we met our famous and comedian Sayed.

PDO Welcome Dinner

2008-05-14T15:45:00.002+04:00

Wednesday, 27th, March
Well today we had dinner at PDO Club. This gathering was organized by Norina of PDO to welcome fellow Malaysian that are new to Oman. She was very nice to include us and also Hj Zunaidi's family as we are not attached to PDO. It was a potluck dinner and we had lots of nice malaysian food to eat. We had Laksa Sarawak since most of the PDO staff are actually from Sarawak. There was Soto, Meehoon goreng and lots of other nice food. The kiddos also had fun becoz they also organized games and activities for all kids. Hamzah and myself make a few new friends from PDO. Hopefully there will be a new gathering and they would include us in.

Tahlil - Hj Amin House

2008-05-14T15:42:00.000+04:00

Wednesday, 19th. MARCH

We during the last Tahlil gathering at Hj And Rohaya's house it was decided that we would hold a Tahlil gathering every fortnight. Well so this time around we had the Tahlil gathering kat rumah Hj Amin. We met a few other fellow Malaysian that have been staying in Oman for quite sometimes now. They are all mostly nurses working at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. K Liza had catered Omani food and also BBQ for dinner. Macam biasa dessert was potluck. Came home at about 11pm. Tired and full.