Pimp My Ride

Hafidz has been eyeing this beauty for awhile now... but the Aussie-made TD2000 costs S$160,000 *gulp*.

To rent, however, is S$300 p/d :)

And better still if on company's account :D

~Redang~

Hi, its Icha again.

I’m really getting the hang of writing blogs and Mummy thinks it’s a good way to get me to learn my ABCs. I think maybe I will become travel writer when I grow up, perhaps a female version of C-H-A-R-L-E-Y-B-O-O-R-M-A-N (I can spell his name because Mummy is working on his documentary THE LONG WAY DOWN. She was looking forward to meeting E-W-A-N-M-C-G-R-E-G-O-R but the Producers decided to send him elsewhere and send Charley to Asia instead- too bad...)

So, it’s been an exciting month for me. I wrote about Bali last time and now I will write about our 2nd family holiday to an island in Malaysia called R-E-D-A-N-G (no, aunty Apple it’s not called R-E-N-D-A-N-G, that’s the stuff you love to eat from Hajjah Maimunah when you come visit us from Bangkok).


My Nani was the organiser for this family trip, she loves getting her sibs and their brood together for some frolicking in the sun and this time they decided to revisit R-E-D-A-N-G. It was a tiresome 11h B-U-S ride from Singapore but I don’t remember any of it as I slept the whole way up and the whole way down- hehe. Then it was another 1h journey by ferry from Syahbandar. Abang Haikal and Kakak Seri vomited in the ferry but I was fine, thank goodness.

My Atok booked us into BERJAYA HOTEL and boy, it’s posh. We got great rooms with a HUGE bath tub but Mummy was more excited about the view.


I love sitting in the balcony with her on the deck chairs and sing her a song about boats- like the one Barney sings on my telly. It goes something like..

I LOVE TO SAIL ON MY SAILING BOAT
AND SAIL AWAY TO SEA
SAILING... SAILING... SAILING LIFE FOR ME

Of course I can’t really sing the words, but I hum the tune and Mummy gets it and will sing the words for me.

** Did I mention I went to the Barney show?! I had a great time dancing with Abang Rifqi although he was more fixated with climbing up and down the stairs and giving Aunty Sanah a hard time. But that’s what we kids love to do with our parents anyways...

So, back to R-E-D-A-N-G. I swam everyday- in the tub first thing in the morning..


...then the pool with Aunties Shafiqah and Shakira...


...then on to the beach with all the rest of my cousins...



By the end of the day I am usually ready for a tantrum as I have so much sand in my pants, it’s difficult to be polite.

On 2 occasions we took a B-O-A-T out for a little island hopping. I love getting into the blue seas in my yellow buoy with the little F-I-S-H-E-S and we even saw a few big T-U-R-T-L-E-S underneath our boat. That was awesome.




There isn’t anything much to do at night though so we would all go into the karaoke room but the 3 people in the family who can actually sing are Daddy, Tok Rahman and Nani Chu. The rest are terribly hopeless and Aunty Shakira taught me to cover my ears when it gets really bad. It’s a neat little trick to get the big people to stop assaulting our little eardrums.

Mummy bought all the 10 children activity books and we practised our skills in the karaoke rooms, only Aunty Sheila and Aunty Syazila ended up hijacking our crayons.





One night I heard Aunty Sarimah tell Mummy that they heard bleeting from the nearby forest whilst they were walking back up the hill to their rooms, past midnight. That spooked Abang Rizal who went into a wide-eyed trance and started pointing to some trees and cried. Mummy said it’s probably H-A-N-T-U. I don’t know what that is but I saw something strange too at the BBQ whilst looking at the moon. When I started grappling for Mummy, she took me out of my high chair and held me tight and read the long and soothing Ayat Kursi in my ear. That helped calm me down.

So apart from the swimming til I’m blue and the general mischief I participate in with the rest of my cousins, we had a very relaxing holiday.



Mummy says this will be our last holiday this year but then I hear her planning something with Daddy for December- now what’s that about! :D Perhaps we can go to a farm next???

R-e-s-p-e-c

How do they do it, those single mums?

For the past month, Hafidz is on a project that takes up 20h of his day almost 7 times a week. He basically said "Here're the car keys, can you handle it you think?" and Supermum stepped up to the occasion and replied with nonchalance "Yeah, no problemo".

And for a good 3 days I did manage- I managed to arrive at work on time, get tot to/from babysitters on schedule, get home before 1030pm and still have some leftover energy for a bit of laundry or the late night news before bed. I had the cheek to think "Hey, this isn't THAT bad".

But 3 weeks of this and I'm ready to call it quits- I want my husband back!!! *sob* I am totally sapped of energy I think I lost more weight (disaster!) but realise what an important role the Husband plays in my life (even as I whinge that he does close to naaaaaaaaaaathin').

Bila mau game? I feel like Marge Simpson without her Homer.

In her right mind

The signs were there all along, evident since she was a mere 4 month old baby. But I was in denial, reciting Dr Spock to anyone who dare suggest it "Babies don't develop a dominant hand until they're TWO"!!

My MIL, coming from a family of lefties, commented many times "It does seem like she is a left-hander, look at the way she picks up her toy/food. She even 'salam' (shakes hands) with her left" to which I would roll my eyes to the husband muttering the now-familiar Dr Spock mantra under my breath.

But lately, I'm less convinced by ole Spocko. For me the clincher was seeing her build a tower of 6 blocks with her left hand with ease, but when forced to switch to her right, can barely build a tower of 3 blocks. We've trained her to 'salam' and to pick her food with her right hand but this too, I need to reinforce from time to time- shifting her spoon from the left to the right hand on various occasions.

*Sigh* OK fine, so its high time Mummy accepted the fact that this little one could be a 'southpaw' so I've been reading on ways to deal with a lefty and to understand if they're any different from us the usual righties and came across a very interesting article about letter formation for lefty kids. Righthanders naturally pull the alphabets across a page whereas lefthanders need to push their pens resulting in torn pages, aching wrists and slow penmanship. An alternative method of writing alphabets for lefties where they, too, 'pull' alphabets towards them is as simple as:

So a lefty writes 'J' in this manner:


I think its brilliant! And there is a slew of products for left-handers on the market now, from scissors to pencil sharpeners and what-have-yous. All I can think of was how awkward it was for Dian to use scissors in primary school and yet, she has the most beautiful handwriting. Babe, should I get you one of these left-handed scissors?? :) Or maybe Sanah will need one too??

Since the brain is cross-wired, right handers are controlled by their left brain, whilst left handers are controlled by their right brain. It is not wrong to then say that lefties are in the 'right' frame of mind!

And some well-known lefties are Oprah Winfrey, Angeline Jolie, Marilyn Monroe, Lisa Kudrow, SJP, Julia Roberts... oh and how can I forget the men of substance- novelist Mark Twain, Alexander the Great, painter Michealangelo and presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton *pffft*

Kasi ikan makan pun pakai left-hand

Riding the wave of change

Some say bad things come in pairs.

Last week, my trusty aunt-in-law/babysitter called to say she had placed Arissa with another aunt that day. Of course I went into panic mode asking, "Why? What happened?". I can hear her calm, controlled voice over the line saying the Polyclinic doctors have just informed them that her husband's kidneys are both non-functional and that they needed to immediately seek medical help at a hospital. At this point, she started sobbing softly.

Dear God, I thought, renal failure. It would mean constant rounds of dialysis and expensive medication. My FIL went through this before his death so I (sort of) was clued into her dilemma.

I've visited them twice since then in TTSH, once with Arissa to help ease the bitterness of their reality. I saw how their faces lit up when she saw my little tot and my aunt confessed in a melancholic tone whilst hugging Arissa, "Mak Nor rindu betul la dgn Sha..." I told her not to worry about Arissa as I would find a suitable relief sitter in the meantime but I also fear that she may not be able to commit to babysitting my tot anymore in search for a full-time job or to take proper care of her husband.

We've 2 sitters in mind, both related to either me or the hubby, but Mak Nor has taken such excellent care of Arissa since she was 3 month old that I am loathe to try someone new. But what am I to do? Mum cannot commit to a full 5-day week and a maid is an option I fully refuse to try at this stage. At least, not until Arissa can talk properly. Its back to the phone book, asking family members to recommend a full-fledged, experienced sitter who can cope with a hyperactive tot. Thank goodness I still have 15 leave days this year. I can just see it being depleted faster than the ozone layer.

The 2nd blow came from Mum on Thu morning as I got ready to go over to hers. I had taken an off day to send Dad to the airport for Umrah when the bad news hit me in the gut- "Abah jatuh tersembam tadi pagi depan pintu bilik air. Dia kata dia pening, mama takut stroke aje". When we rushed over, Dad seemed fine- bustling about lugging his bags to the car. I spotted a swollen cheekbone but other than that, he said he felt fine. Hafidz, who is more experienced with these things and hence more cautious than me, openly voiced out "Baba kalau tak sihat, tangguhkan Umrah la. Kita boleh pergi x-ray dulu to make sure tak ada internal injuries". From experience with his father, my husband knew that Dad would only feel the effects of his fall a few days later.

And he was right. Now in Mecca, Dad texted to say he is not feeling too good and will come back earlier than planned. He forbade me to tell Mum about his health but I'm quite sure she knows. She herself seemed stressed lately and the last thing I wish to do is dump Arissa on her. So what do I do- apply 2 days of parental leave next week. Argh.

The bottomline is, nothing should be taken for granted, particularly one's health. I went back to all my insurance documents to make sure Hafidz & I are covered under some sort of policy in case we are suddenly not able to provide for our little brood. Its a scary thought but I would like to know that we're both prepared to ride any wave of change without drowning.