Hangover.

Arggghh..

I went overboard with the ice blended lattes yesterday and woke up with a caffein hangover.

Pening.

Pusing.

Mual.

Macam nak mati (well not really.. nak pengsan ada la kot).

We were in KLCC hunting for a sony laptop, red mind you, that my hub's turkmen colleague pesan. Kebetulan the one she wanted came with a great promotion (free coordinated wireless mouse, coordinated mp3, coordinated padded bag & black backpack - totalling RM913). unfortunately to make sure that the freebies were suitably colour coordinated, we had to move on to midvalley and menapak several pc outlets.


*the mp3 was out of stock so they still owe us. but still thats a whole lot of freebies, all part of the pc fair promotion.

Aduh. susah kalau orang pesan2 ni sebab dek kerana tak sampai hati, we try our very best to get them what they want. even if it means combing 2 major shopping malls. even if it means pusing2 like mad cows.

Lucky thing it was just the 3 of us so trailer tak la panjang sangat. AF & AH had left earlier for another poetry reading session, this time somewhere in bangsar. Still we were so focused in getting the laptop we quite forgot about sitting down to lunch and just ate on the run. had some fancy bagels at klcc (a cross between jco doughnuts & aunty annes pretzel) and sushis from isetan. also.. lots and lotsa lattes!!! the cool smooth ones that go down nice & eeeeaaassy hehehe.

But.. i sure as hell paid a hefty price for being sooo indulgent.

The kepala-hotak-pusing-sampai-tertonggeng kind!!

It didnt help that as the nite progressed everyone started becoming totally mental... over, of all things, a misplaced battery charger (thats what usually happens when everyone's had a long day). orang ni kata orang tu, orang tu kata orang ni, bising betui.

Haaishhh. when it rains it just pours.

Thank god i became quite comatose after that and nothing really mattered anymore.

Not until i woke up that is.

But not wanting to waste an otherwise beautiful sunday morning, i dragged myself out of bed and right into the shower. one thing led to another and ta-daaaa... i was out shaking more than my butt (dah tua semuanya shaking gitu ekekeh) with my aerobic friends at the dataran.

Nothing beats sweating it out.

I feel goooood now :)

Hope yall have a good day too.

OUTPUT
AM - 50 mins med pace aerobics/dataran shah alam

At last

.. after a long, long, loooooong wait AF finally deign to convert his raw sony files (whatever that means) into uploadable pics. pics he took of the family during eid. pics that i had to wait more than a month for!!

Anyways, here we are in all our 'glory' hehehe.. introducing the nutty AA family ;)

Eid 2008 - Pic 1

Eid 2008 - Pic 2

Oh and heres the daddy, making sure he's never taken for granted ekekekeh

.. and his Katana Princess ;)

(note: all rifles, guns & katanas are props & nobody was hurt in the process hik hik)

Twilight frenzy

.. and AI is definitely responding to the call of the vampires.

What can i say about my 2nd except that he's a sucker for all thats dark & mystical. maybe not too much into the macabre, but dark enough to dwell within the realms of the nite creatures. Its wizards & vampires, da vinci & templar knights, rowlings & rice, conspiracies & vendettas. sometimes i kinda think he'd have prefered to live in the days of the past.

He adored gandalf. and potter. and v. and lestat.. and in all probability its cullens now. edward that is. mysterious & slightly menacing, he cuts quite a dashing figure.

Knowing the ban on driving alone especially when its late, he dragged his bro to midvalley last nite just to catch the midnite show. it would've included AH, but she had her own plans.. which usually involves her bf one way or another.

But dark or otherwise, at least he's still a romantic at heart. but then again, all my kids are. they're just good at putting up a tough front. quite like somebody i know, and know well ;)

I read the 1st & 2nd instalment of the series of 4. wasnt driven to continue bcos its a bit too mushy for my age. i guess i still prefer the darker more realistic nuances of anne rice.

Somehow, theres just something sexy about vampires and its no wonder the stories never really go away. myth or not, the ghaib is too vast for us to fully appreciate, nor comprehend.

Oh btw

.. take a look at this book and tell me what jumps right out at you.



Hehehe.. i may be completely old school when i sometimes hang on tight to the queens english but doesnt that just scream of typo to you? judgment as opposed to judgement? heh, the americans really go all out to be different dont they... its not enough that they confuse us on the highways & freeways, the football fields & soccer fields lol.

Its a management book golfman brought back from one of his work-related forums.

It disturbs me to no end. it really does.

Mulling over

... a few things this morning.

I've cleared my in-tray, finished my report and am now enjoying a break consisting primarily of ingesting a variety of vegies along with my mee-hoon. one of the things that i love about the suk canteen is, pepagi lagi dah ada banyak lauk and that includes a large choice of vege dishes.

So while i carefully chew on the oh so yummy green leaves :) i'm slowly accepting the fact that i really, really cannot stand another day of the 'redness' thats dominating this blog (it used to be the RedKebaya thus the justification at that time of the colour RED).

Its overpowering and i never was a red kind of person, thats more my husband. in retrospect, it was actually a rather lame effort on my part to inject a little energy & colour into my otherwise 'dark' world. yup, i'm into all things black (black IS beautiful)... though earthy colours arent too bad either.

I had a feeling this was going to happen but i went ahead with it anyway. tak cuba tak tau.

So, its an experiment gone bad.

So, i can always get rid of the red by changing the template.

But i also know from experience that changing templates isnt as easy as it sounds...

- i will lose most of my links.

- i risk losing certain functionality.

- i'll be stressed bcos i dont understand html enuff to fix things

- i'll also risk feeling like a stoooopid idiot.

So.

Maybe its time i start a Phase 2 to my blogging. maybe moving on to a new blog, which is sooo much easier, isnt such a bad idea after all. as long as i link up Phase 1 and Phase 2 i'd still be able to keep track of the past.

Besides keeping family members & friends updated, keeping track of the past is one of the main reasons i blog. the way my memory is deteriorating scares me sometimes so its actually quite comforting to know theres something i can fall back to.

Hmmmm.

I musnt be impulsive. not again.

Maybe its best if i keep on experimenting a bit more while i give myself until... awal muharam to decide. that should be enuff time i think.

Yup.

Thats what i'll do.

OUTPUT
AM - 2k/tasik/15 mins
(i was LATE leaving the house much to my disgust)

Lets just

.. do it!!!!

Yup in certain cases too much thinking becomes a stumbling block.

Live a little.. and seize the day.

*deep breaths*

OK.

Moving on.. golfman and me have been left to our own devices tonite. yup we're actually 'home alone' (mak dont count bcos she retires to her room pretty early) and we get to do what we luuurve best heheh (you can start using your imagination here).

Ekekekeh. and if your mind's in the gutters you can climb out now bcos golfman's most favourite, bestest than best hobby is... drumroll please... SNOOZING!!! yup, he's a zzzZZZzzzZZzzz man thru and thru (or on second thought maybe drums are not really a good idea lol).

Anyway, the 3 kiddoes have all gone to kl for a poetry recital at.. where was the place again? errm, crown princess hotel i think. AF and his gf are meeting some friends and AI & AH decided to tag along. they didnt get any objections from me (even tho i had to fork out RM40 for each) bcos it should be a good experience for them. maybe meeting up with artsy people might add a new dimension to the way they look at certain things.

Hmmm, which brings me to wonder, when on earth will the new teater selangor (the one right beside the grand blue wave hotel) start operating? looks like the building's all done so what could be holding back the grand opening? dah la kat shah alam ni takde cinema, ada teater pun tak buka2 ish ish.

Cant we have some fun around here?

(kenapa la bebudak ni tak balik2 lagi ni? haaish... they're big oredi la so i shouldnt worry right?!!)

OUTPUT
AM - 3k/tasik/25 mins
Really slow but a great jump start to my day.. i should start doing something in the PM as well!!

Poetry

Here are 2 books that AF & AI bought at the recital.. collateral damage & voices from the underground.



Poetry Paralysis

People are frightened of poetry - why?
They think it must be something they dont understand
Meaningless high faluting empty words that just sound grand.

Perhaps its a memory sown, a mistake
Of painful hours in a class you had to take
Taught by that teacher you love to hate
Who used Poetry as a weapon to make you feel inadequate
Dragging out her dread dreary tortured hours in a language thats dead.

Theorizing the metrics and rubrics and school bricks and old farts and school pricks.

But Poetry is not just about what rhymes
Poetry is not always long run-on lines
And Poetry is nothing you dont understand
Because where Poetry lives; began -

Its that healthy naked body you couldnt take your eyes off
Poetry in motion, beauty, flowing to the beat
That cutting soulstring melody of a song
The feeling that suddenly... you're home, you belong
The best sex that you ever (or maybe never?) had
Poetry is the one word that someone said to make you glad.

Poetry is anything
Anything
That
Moves
YOU

By Kathleen Choo, Voices From The Underground.

Settling in

.. and becoming a complete family unit once again.

For now.

Today has been a lazy, lepak sort of day for golfman, the kids and me. after a round of golf earlier this morning, the man was in a mellow mood and after lunch all 5 of us ended up 'berlonggok' inside the boys room (bilik kecik so semua jadi macam ulat gonggok je lol). in the coolness of the aircond, everyone settled down to their own thing.

- AF & AH have been locked on to this battlefield game for almost 2 days and 2 nites now, both their laptops linked together via bluetooth or something, i'm not sure. makan minum pun ntah kemana asyik dok menembak je (yes sidaro is a kick-ass gamer courtesy of her bros).

- AI's in his own little corner lost in his own computer game (i forgot which)

- Golfman and me pulak was alternating between checking our email, blogging & him listening to agnes monica on u-tube (eeww).

It was then that i realised we were all glued to our laptops!!! hehehe dulu2 mengadap tv tapi semenjak ada banyak sangat pilihan dah jadi susah pulak nak agree on a common channel. so the computers have taken over and specially with the internet, you can go places without leaving the room. i dont quite know if its a good thing or a bad thing but whatever it is, its also keeping the family together.

After a while i brought in some refreshments, and like ravenous baby birds yang menunggu mama bird bawa makanan, habis kueh teow pagi tadi (reheated of course) kena tibai ekekeh. and of course bila dah makan2 macam tu, maka timbul la pelbagai topik perbincangan dan usik mengusik yang tak berpenghujung.

And looking at the happy faces of my husband and children, contentment spread through my soul like the warmth of the morning sun.

Ya Allah syukur di atas segala nikmat MU.

OUTPUT
AM - Aerobics/ medium to fast/ 50 mins.
Oh and btw, golfman finally got me a swatch yesterday yay.. now i can keep a better time of my workouts :)

He's back

.. yup, the man's home.



Enuff said.... agagaga :D

ABE

.. toloooong!! i have a house full of rowdy males and they're taking over!!!

AF's ex-dormmates are staying the nite and they seem to be having quite a riot downstairs. gruff male voices & guffaws reverberating through the house and you wouldnt believe that its over, of all things, a game of monopoly!! hehehe in this age of technology, it warms my old heart to see young men still enjoying boardgames.

But it's also sorta obvious that theres now a certain 'distraction' about the place hik hik.



Errmm, Abe, do you think we should start getting a shotgun soon?

Ekekekeh...... just kidding ;p

Us gals are holed up in our room and glued to our laptops, me surfing sana sini (cant sleep) and sidaro furiously typing out one of her stories (tengah dapat ilham la tu), but like always bukannye dia nak bagi baca pun.... unless curi2 ;)

(counting the hours till you get back babe)

Time for cheer

.. because everyone yes everyone is almost here :)

So lets do a head count shall we? ok, from my last record there should be 6 hot-blooded humans and 3 super-spunky felines..

The felines:

Nico da Mafioso? check

Adik da Slinker? check

Mamat da Yowler? check

(Eh anak kucing saper lak ni..... maaaaak no more pls no more!!!!!)

The humans:

Opah da Supa Snoop-ah? check

Aie da Karie Marie? check

Ijat da Lidi Midi? check

Echa da Hanis Manis? check

Oh and moi of course, hehehe. check.

Abe da Saye Maye? errmmm, he's probably somewhere in samarakand right now.

But... insyallah, in a couple of days the man will be home and by then it'll be full house again agagagaga.

(doing the jiggly miggly)

As you can see i'm obviously still high on drugs =_=

Its tough

.. just standing by while your chidren venture out to explore all of life's possibilities. you know its a big world out there, one with good & bad in equal measure. you also know that, although its a difficult thing to do, they should be allowed to make mistakes. little ones of course (bcos you'd have to step in otherwise) in the hope that they will learn something from it.

Its a mom's default to worry but its also a mom's duty to encourage growth.

Sigh.

Susah.. susah. especially during those times when you feel they should've taken another route or made a different choice.

My sweet sweet babies. they have a long way to go.

*bite my tongue till it bleeds*

The irony of it is

.. instead of making a fresh start elsewhere like i probably should be doing, i'm at home on 2 days medical leave hahaha.

Last friday i received a faxed letter from the kementerian offering me a promotion in the form of a kader post in putrajaya. the letter was dated 13th Nov, i received the fax on the 14th and they expected me to report duty today, 17 Nov 2008. admitting that the whole thing disturbs me is putting it too mildly. wth? you guys are giving me just 2 days (weekend plak tu) to mull things over? macam tak nak bagi je..

Coming down with flu didnt help but to be honest, i didnt really need to ponder & deliberate all that much anyway. with the man away and my life in a perpetual state of chaos, its pretty obvious that staying put was the best option.

I can imagine the furor down at the office. with my absence today, they're probably thinking their hard-core akak, the last bastion of seniority (not senility mind you) has finally succumbed to the dark side!!! heheheh, adik2 akak, you people know already how i feel about naik pangkat n stuff kan. i just wanna do my work in a quiet lil corner until pencen comes a-knocking :D

For now let my meds work its magic and take me away to that wonderful place where nobody sneezes, nobody coughs and heads dont spin.

AI- all the best for your last paper tomorrow k

Abe ku saye, how was 'airforce one' btw hik hik?

Dripping like a faucet

.. and croaking like a frog.

I'm down with flu and feeling like shite. i cant breathe, i cant sleep and my head feels like exploding :(

Gaah.

And to make matters worse, i caught my 'bodyguard' sleeping on the job hu hu.. now who's gonna mind the house while i conk out huh ?

Jokes aside, i feel truly awful.

Abe - i dont know why i hafta share you with the P & PM la, you're mine aincha?

(Sneeze sneeze.... pulling out tissues, tissues and more tissues)

Chance meetings

.. and how it can affect our lives.

We meet new people every day (unless we're a recluse or on house arrest, courtesy of disturbia lol). some just breeze thru, others become acquantainces and there are those who stays on to become really close friends.

But the time or duration of interaction with another is not a direct measure of their impact on our lives.. there are people who suddenly appear out of nowhere and leave a deep impression. there are chance meetings that can jolt you in unexpected ways and spark a change. sometimes its a cause for reflection, for deliberation or better yet for improvement.

I was reminded of this fact quite recently, although it didnt really involve me directly. AH had an unexpected encounter that surprised her to no end and thanks to the ripple effect, had also given me cause to re-examine myself. i realise i had become too busy for personal reflection and it took a young questing mind to remind me of this.

We all have this potential for affecting others positively but we dont usually tap into it because we are unaware or unappreciative of ourselves. but the beauty of it is, when goodness IS there it shines through anyway.

Thank you, may you have a blessed life.

Moving on.. AF is back for his break and will be around till january yay!! AI will be home by the 19th, and golfman will tentatively be flying back on the 28th so it'll be full house again soon double yay!!

Isnt life just peachy :)

Oh but maybe not quite so for my little gal. seems that her bf will be gallivanting off to the land down under on a family getaway so i should be expecting a major meltdown coming our way in the not so distant future ekekeh.

Hai budak-budak :D

Please la

.. can you NOT treat me as if i was still that 5 year old you bullied into submission?

.. can you NOT dedicate your life to judging people and always, ALWAYS expecting the worst from them?

.. and most importantly, can you just leave me & my children be? everything doesnt have to work your way you know and unlike you, i still happen to see the intrinsic good in humanity.

Enough with the double standards and please... we dont need a 'martyr' in the house.

*SIGH*

Thank god for the release i get from running.

Moving on.. i think i bit off more than i could chew (again) when i went a-fiddling with feeds & widgets yesterday. gawd, why i get myself into this sort of situation is sometimes beyond me lol. my actual intent was to get into a blogger forum, sort of slowly feel my way around and finally get up the courage to ask for help with my 'unresponsive' blog archives (something's wrong with my widgets that much i do know).

So i went tra-la-la-la-ing over to blogmalaysia, malaysiablogger, allmalaysiainfo, blogger-something-or-other and ended up joining technorati (dont ask me why, i'm still foggy about that one lol). waah signing up was a breeze... but then they gave me this option of 'claiming' my blog, then they asked me whether to do it just once or for always or not at all. wtf?!!? thats when i knew i was in deep shite.

Tu la takde pasal cari pasal (as always).

Now i need to figure out what i've actually gotten myself into and read up more about rss feeds & widgets. it seems that theres also a guy on u-tube who explains it to idiots like me but i cant access u-tube at work so that will be my activity tonite i guess.

Weh aie tak bole tolong mama ke?

OUTPUT
AM - 4k/full loop/half hour

The Other Paths

... that you could have taken in this journey called life.

There are crossroads in everybody's lives and we are where we are by virtue of the choices we made (of course God has the final say but thats a given). With time on my hands, my overactive imagination has enjoyed free reign lately (and i honestly cant decide whether thats a good thing.. or not lol).

So i got to wondering where the other paths might have led me?

A click here & a double click there and guess what i came up with ekekekeh.... meet the alternate latiffa people!!

*blink blink.. blink blink* errr, belly dancing anyone?!!

See Abe, i told you prolonged absence always drives me cuckoo hahaha!!!! And have a good week in tashkent dearest.. dont go losing your funny bone now ;)

(why am i on a running break this morning?)

SPM

.. its D-day for AH's seniors and marks an early start to the school holidays for her.

I wish all the students the very best of luck & hope they do well bcos like it or not, spm IS an important milestone in their young lives. and it also affects the parents directly.. we're anxious because we already know just how much is at stake.

2 down and 1 more to go, at least for me that is.

Sooo lil miz echa, you know well enough what that means aight?!

(must keep prodding AH to start early).

Tak makan cili

... jangan la pula terasa pedasnya!!

Easier said than done as it has been proven time and time again.

My niece called me up recently and we had quite a lengthy chat. usually whenever my anak2 buah's head are screwed, i'm the place to call (that catchy tune 'now who do u call? ghostbusters!!' is ringing in my head right now lol).

She's fresh out of college and has just started working at an international transportation company. Still in her probationary period, she couldnt help but be thrilled to hear from her supervisor that management was already considering her for permanent status. A time to rejoice but for one minor detail... she would be bypassing some other temporary staff who was there much much earlier.

The poor kid is racked with guilt. unnecessary of course but thats being young for you. me being the realist that i am didnt pull any punches and told her, as long as you've worked diligently and didnt go round parading your boobs & butts with the sole intent of getting up in the company's ladder, be at peace with the situation. it means that your effort & hardwork is recognized and whatever your employer decides is independent of you.

Hard work has it payoffs my dear. enjoy it, without the guilt.

OUTPUT
AM - 4k/complete loop/half hour

INPUT
B/fast - jamu tea
Coffee break during mtg - halfplate fried meehoon (lordy, they went completely overboard with the pepper).
Lunch - fried kangkong, half fried keli and bits of assam pedas pari.
Dinner - paper tosei & apple juice at pelita (temankan sidaro)
Also snacked on jambu air plucked from mak's tree.

Now you dont have to wonder why my equation is never ever balanced ekekekeh!

Santai

... that was the essence of my weekend.

Without golfman and the boys, the days are pretty quiet & laid-back. after all its just us 3 'gals' (mak, me & AH) and the 3 tomcats (namely nico, adek n mamat). we're usually content just tinkering about in the comfort of home... mak & her anak2 buah (kucing, gagak, tupai & all the other neighbourhood 'wildlife'), AH & her 'beloved black' (guitar that is), me & my.. uughh, thoughts (just meandering thoughts that doesnt really get me anywhere).

So in the absence of half the household members, we try to amuse ourselves the best we can. and while we cling to each other for the comfort that togetherness brings, we pretend that the emptiness doesnt really matter all that much.

OUTPUT
AM - 50 mins medium pace aerobics, 3k/tasik.