Within the last week or so, auntie's group of former secondary schoolmates have experienced both joy and deep sorrow. Our joyful celebration is with regard to the births of two babies to two gals in our group, Tatee and Nora (the more vertically challenged of the two 'Noras' in our group. Hehe). Auntie wishes them the best of times with the new family members and may both moms and babies continue to be healthy. CONGRATULATIONS!!
A day after Tatee's boy's birth was announced, we received the very sad news that Maria's (our tall, but now ONLY Maria) dear mom has passed on due to cancer. Her cancer was discovered just a few months ago and from what auntie can gather from Maria's various postings, she and her family have been rigorously seeking and undergoing treatment. Maria is another person in our group who shared a nickname with one other person in the batch. But the other Maria (Rosmaria) 'returned' to Rahmatullah in May this year (auntie posted an entry about this). It was actually almost at the same time when we heard about the living Maria's mom and her cancer. From what I can gather from her postings in the group e-mail, Maria is very close with her mom. Arwah and her dad must have been her strongest anchors especially with giving emotional and other support to her as a single mom. And the loss must be devastating to her especially in times when Maria's health is also undergoing some problems. Auntie prays that Maria and her small close-knit family is able to gather strengths from each other to go through this. Berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu yang memikul. Semoga Allah tempatkan arwah di tempat yg terbaik di sisi-Nya. Amin & Al-Fatihah.
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Tuesday 19 August 2008
1, 2, 3...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU....!!!!!
Auntie adalah busy...catching up with work backlogs and chasing contractors (di samping having nightmares about whether or not renovation akan siap seperti yg diingini). Minggu ni auntie "cuti penyelidikan" (yes, jangan jeles, academics ada this privelege. We may not be able to afford luxury holidays to Hong Kong or even Langkawi, but we have "cuti penyelidikan", you know!)
Walau bagaimanapun, auntie is taking time out from thinking about research just to wish these loved ones happy, happy besday:
1 August 197_
Auntie's closet-intellectual bro (of course referring to the guy in white. The pompuan in black is his other half). This bro may look blur and scruffy but there's a very literate and artsy person inside. Turned out masa kecik dulu dia suka 'curi' baca story books auntie. Sebab tu sekarang dia seorang scholar in Ingrish walaupong jarang2 boleh dengar dia kecek bahasa ongputih. Selamak Hari Jadi, Deng!
9 August 196_
16 August 198_
Last Saturday was Sleepyhead's besday yg ke 30. Kepada sesiapa yg blom tahu (hehe, auntie berangan ada strangers yg baca blog ni), Sleepyhead adalah adik bongsu auntie. Dia adalah 'sebutir diri' (ini favorite phrase Wan) ropa Wan aka mak auntie. Kekadang Sleepyhead rasa sedikit depress sebab auntie, mommy and our two brothers are splitting images (in one way or another) of our papa aka Aki. So, bila kengkawan Sleepyhead jumpa kakak2 and abang dia, depa mesti kata "eeeek lain nye....!(as in you don't look like sisters, except in the 'badak'ness department)".
And while the rest of us call Aki "Bak", Sleepyhead choose to call him "Abah". So only two persons call Aki Abah ie Sleepyhead and her other half (of course, dia kena paksa call Aki Abah la, tu show solidarity ngan bini dia). Anyways, Sleepyhead thought teaching adults is a noble profession for a former best student of her degree programme, so she gave up a career in one of the MMC's companies in Cyberjaya (which may or may not had given her a jump start to more lucrative professions, we would never know, would we?) and pursued a teaching career at a recently-controversial-priveleged (nuff said!) public institute of higher learning. Auntie had seen Sleepyhead in action, so auntie thinks Sleepyhead is a fairly dedicated and patient teacher. If she just worries less about other people's achievements and continues to compete with herself, auntie thinks Sleepyhead has a lot to offer the acedeme.
One more thing, Auntie has a confession to make to Sleepyhead. Masa Sleepyhead berumur 5 tahun, Auntie telah 'curi' seekor (ada banyak ekor lagi) udang goreng yang Wan simpan untuk Sleepyhead kerana Auntie baru balik dari asrama dan lamaaaaa dah tak makan udang goreng. Itulah permulaan allergy auntie kepada udang. So, auntie rasa, untuk cure auntie dari udang allergy ini, auntie kena belanja Sleepyhead berapa banyak udang goreng yg dia sanggup makan at one sitting. What say you Sleepyhead? Birthday gifts of fried, juicy prawns (OK, OK, Joe can join la). Hehehe. BTW, Sleepyhead was with auntie yesterday and this morning tapi auntie tak sempat lagi offer this 'birthday gifts'. In fact, last night Sleepyhead yg belanja auntie seafood. Ok, dik, nanti kita bincang. And Happy Prosperous 30th Birthday.
LOVE U LOADS, BESDAY GALS AND BOY!!!!
Walau bagaimanapun, auntie is taking time out from thinking about research just to wish these loved ones happy, happy besday:
1 August 197_Auntie's closet-intellectual bro (of course referring to the guy in white. The pompuan in black is his other half). This bro may look blur and scruffy but there's a very literate and artsy person inside. Turned out masa kecik dulu dia suka 'curi' baca story books auntie. Sebab tu sekarang dia seorang scholar in Ingrish walaupong jarang2 boleh dengar dia kecek bahasa ongputih. Selamak Hari Jadi, Deng!
4th August 199_
Along aka Ya, is auntie's niece yg sulung. Masa kecik Along suka tengok rancangan kanak2 yg ada jingle A-L-O-N-G tu tapi dia sebut ALOM! When she was about 5, dia pi sekolah tadika Islam and bila auntie tanya dia cikgu nama apa, dia kata "Mak Limah". "OK, " auntie kata, "cikgu sorang lagi tu nama apa?". Dia kata, "semua cikgu nama Mak Limah". Biar betul. Ropanya cikgu kat sekolah tu dipanggil "Mu'alimmah" (maksudnya cikgu la tu), so semua la dipanggil 'mu'alimmah'. Begitu ropanya. Anways, Along aspire to be a linguist and since tadika lagi dia dah belajar Mandarin. And dia suka jahit-menjahit seperti auntie. Semoga Along mencapai cita2nya. Happy Besday, Along!
9 August 196_
Ms Nyonya aka Noya, one of auntie's badak soulmates. Dia mengajaq bebudak unibersiti di ceruk nun. Kat unibersiti dia tu, kalau silap sepak bola, harus masuk negara Siam. Noya adalah badak paling bersopan dalam gang kami. Dia jugak badak yg mempunyai standard kekemasan dan kebersihan rumah dan alam sekeliling yg paling tinggi. Dan pernah membuat antara sambal tumis tersedap, menurut AH (badak lain jgn jeles. Yg betulnya, AH tak pernah rasa sambai tumih orang lain). Lagi satu, kami masih menunggu laksa johor lu, noya. Baik lu jamu kami sebelum AH bagi title best laksa johor to sleepyhead (yg tak kurang hebatnya). Selamat Panjang (dan lebar) Umur, Noya! Semoga wa dapat melawat lu di Segamat many-many years in de future bila kita semua sudah tidak layak renew licence memandu dan cucu-cucu (termasuk cucu2 sedara dan cucu2 angkat/ pseudo) kita yg terpaksa bawak tok2 depa pi reunion dan makan laksa johor & ikan patin Sg Segamat.
16 August 198_
Last Saturday was Sleepyhead's besday yg ke 30. Kepada sesiapa yg blom tahu (hehe, auntie berangan ada strangers yg baca blog ni), Sleepyhead adalah adik bongsu auntie. Dia adalah 'sebutir diri' (ini favorite phrase Wan) ropa Wan aka mak auntie. Kekadang Sleepyhead rasa sedikit depress sebab auntie, mommy and our two brothers are splitting images (in one way or another) of our papa aka Aki. So, bila kengkawan Sleepyhead jumpa kakak2 and abang dia, depa mesti kata "eeeek lain nye....!(as in you don't look like sisters, except in the 'badak'ness department)".
And while the rest of us call Aki "Bak", Sleepyhead choose to call him "Abah". So only two persons call Aki Abah ie Sleepyhead and her other half (of course, dia kena paksa call Aki Abah la, tu show solidarity ngan bini dia). Anyways, Sleepyhead thought teaching adults is a noble profession for a former best student of her degree programme, so she gave up a career in one of the MMC's companies in Cyberjaya (which may or may not had given her a jump start to more lucrative professions, we would never know, would we?) and pursued a teaching career at a recently-controversial-priveleged (nuff said!) public institute of higher learning. Auntie had seen Sleepyhead in action, so auntie thinks Sleepyhead is a fairly dedicated and patient teacher. If she just worries less about other people's achievements and continues to compete with herself, auntie thinks Sleepyhead has a lot to offer the acedeme.
One more thing, Auntie has a confession to make to Sleepyhead. Masa Sleepyhead berumur 5 tahun, Auntie telah 'curi' seekor (ada banyak ekor lagi) udang goreng yang Wan simpan untuk Sleepyhead kerana Auntie baru balik dari asrama dan lamaaaaa dah tak makan udang goreng. Itulah permulaan allergy auntie kepada udang. So, auntie rasa, untuk cure auntie dari udang allergy ini, auntie kena belanja Sleepyhead berapa banyak udang goreng yg dia sanggup makan at one sitting. What say you Sleepyhead? Birthday gifts of fried, juicy prawns (OK, OK, Joe can join la). Hehehe. BTW, Sleepyhead was with auntie yesterday and this morning tapi auntie tak sempat lagi offer this 'birthday gifts'. In fact, last night Sleepyhead yg belanja auntie seafood. Ok, dik, nanti kita bincang. And Happy Prosperous 30th Birthday.
LOVE U LOADS, BESDAY GALS AND BOY!!!!
Wednesday 13 August 2008
Auntie adalah geram...
...kerana diva-diva contractor auntie cannot stand one another!
We make the conscious decision to contract one person for the renovation and another person for the electricals. The reason being it is probably easier to amend mistakes with renovation than with electricals. In any case electricals have more safety issues than tiling or painting walls. So we need trusted electrical person and we know one already who has been doing the job for AH's family for many many years. We decided not to give it to A Seng although he can do electricals because we just got to know him and good references we got about him are only about tiling, plumbing etc. So, we hired Abg S for electricals.
From day 1, when we introduced Abg S to A Seng dia dah ada attitude towards A Seng. Pastu, masa he was supposed to start working, he didn't so A Seng lost valuable five days of construction work because he could not continue with the walls until Abg S finished with his wiring. Nasib baik he didnt' push for extra cost. Kalau tak harus auntie mengamuk and pi tumbuk Abg S, long friendship with AH's family notwithstanding. We heard a lot of unfavourable stories about Malay contractors and I thought Abg S could prove these stories wrong but of course he has not.
Last week, bila A Seng dah plaster and paint walls, Abg S pi tebuk lubang nak buat wire without consulting us. A Seng mengamuk. Bila we confront Abg S, dia mintak maaf and say he would do up the wall on his cost (but of course at the risk of our walls being ugly because jadi tak consistent ngan A Seng nye work). He also promised that he would finish the work in a few days. So A Seng left him alone and did not continue with his part of the work. Tapi dia tak datang habiskan kerja tu. Masa A Seng was due to come and continue work, tetiba dia mai plak and start nak tebuk dinding lagi and masa paint tengah basah plak tu. So they both almost had a blow up and sape yg kena settle sume ni? This accommodating client la. A Seng was so angry coz Abg S made racist remarks during the battle of words. Auntie rasa mau ketuk kapla dia ngan tukul besaq masa tu jugak. Memang la A Seng pun diva jugak coz sikit-sikit mengadu kat we all, tapi dalam hal ni, Abg S tu supposed to be family friend and he should know la not to cause problems and he jeopardised our project. Auntie memang takkan maafkan walaupun sekarang dia kata dia akan take responsibility for all kerapah yang dia buat. So, in the end, walaupun AH pun rasa mau sepak dua2 contractors dia terpaksa pi pujuk so that depa tak fight lagi. Kalau tak, tak siap apartment auntie.
Auntie sungguhlah geram....
We make the conscious decision to contract one person for the renovation and another person for the electricals. The reason being it is probably easier to amend mistakes with renovation than with electricals. In any case electricals have more safety issues than tiling or painting walls. So we need trusted electrical person and we know one already who has been doing the job for AH's family for many many years. We decided not to give it to A Seng although he can do electricals because we just got to know him and good references we got about him are only about tiling, plumbing etc. So, we hired Abg S for electricals.
From day 1, when we introduced Abg S to A Seng dia dah ada attitude towards A Seng. Pastu, masa he was supposed to start working, he didn't so A Seng lost valuable five days of construction work because he could not continue with the walls until Abg S finished with his wiring. Nasib baik he didnt' push for extra cost. Kalau tak harus auntie mengamuk and pi tumbuk Abg S, long friendship with AH's family notwithstanding. We heard a lot of unfavourable stories about Malay contractors and I thought Abg S could prove these stories wrong but of course he has not.
Last week, bila A Seng dah plaster and paint walls, Abg S pi tebuk lubang nak buat wire without consulting us. A Seng mengamuk. Bila we confront Abg S, dia mintak maaf and say he would do up the wall on his cost (but of course at the risk of our walls being ugly because jadi tak consistent ngan A Seng nye work). He also promised that he would finish the work in a few days. So A Seng left him alone and did not continue with his part of the work. Tapi dia tak datang habiskan kerja tu. Masa A Seng was due to come and continue work, tetiba dia mai plak and start nak tebuk dinding lagi and masa paint tengah basah plak tu. So they both almost had a blow up and sape yg kena settle sume ni? This accommodating client la. A Seng was so angry coz Abg S made racist remarks during the battle of words. Auntie rasa mau ketuk kapla dia ngan tukul besaq masa tu jugak. Memang la A Seng pun diva jugak coz sikit-sikit mengadu kat we all, tapi dalam hal ni, Abg S tu supposed to be family friend and he should know la not to cause problems and he jeopardised our project. Auntie memang takkan maafkan walaupun sekarang dia kata dia akan take responsibility for all kerapah yang dia buat. So, in the end, walaupun AH pun rasa mau sepak dua2 contractors dia terpaksa pi pujuk so that depa tak fight lagi. Kalau tak, tak siap apartment auntie.
Auntie sungguhlah geram....
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