Yesterday, when I was young

I watched TOAST last night. It was adaptation from the real life story of Nigel Slater. The great cook nowadays in the UK.

The heart wrenching story of him when he was a child. The hunger kid who lost his mum at a young age etc..I love the soundtrack of the movie..Here take a listen to this song.



Yesterday, when I was young,
The taste of life was sweet, as rain upon my tongue,
I teased at life, as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame

The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned,
I always built, alas, on weak and shifting sand,
I lived by night, and shunned the naked light of day,
And only now, I see, how the years ran away

Yesterday, when I was young,
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung,
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me,
And so much pain, my dazzled eyes refused to see

I ran so fast that time, and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think, what life, was all about,
And every conversation, I can now recall,
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all

Yesterday, the moon was blue,
And every crazy day, brought something new to do,
I used my magic age, as if it were a wand,
And never saw the worst, and the emptiness beyond

The game of love I played, with arrogance and pride,
And every flame I lit, too quickly, quickly died,
The friends I made, all seemed somehow to drift away,
And only I am left, on stage to end the play

There are so many songs in me, that won't be sung,
I feel the bitter taste, of tears upon my tongue,
The time has come for me to pay,
For yesterday, when I was young

Mini chocolate moist muffins

I made this for our tea..


The little peanut just lovessssss them so much!

Nursery rhymes

Haris loves nursery rhymes so much . Hence, every time he requests for the nursery rhymes he will say 'wa wa wa'.

Nevertheless, some people did throw me with this question. 'Where is the 'wa wa wa' words come from?'. Actually, when I introduced ' The wheels on the bus' song to him, there was the rhyme which saying ' the baby on the bus goes wa wa wa, in the song' . 'Nursery rhymes' words are too tricky and difficult for a 17 months old baby to say it, so he just said wa wa wa instead. But no worries, we do understand him. The latest song that he is really falling in love is, 'Five little ducks'. He noticed this song when he watched 'Mr. Tumble' on the Cbeebies.

The lyrics of the song is,

Five little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But only four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But only three little ducks came back.

Three little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But only two little ducks came back.

Two little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But only one little duck came back.

One little duck

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But none of the five little ducks came back.

Sad mother duck

Went out one day

Over the hill and far away

The sad mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack."

And all of the five little ducks came back.

Nursery rhymes are really good for the babies and toddlers develpment. As for Haris, he knows and recognises duck after he was introduced to this song, and the funny thing is, he can make the duck sound 'quack' everytime I ask him 'what's the sound does the duck make?'. Such a cutie pie!

Anyone knows an interesting nursery rhymes songs? If yes, please do share them with me. So far we have been listening to many songs such as,

-The wheels on the bus.

-Row row your boat

-Twinkle

-Are you sleeping

-Clementine

-Incy wincy spider

-Ba ba black sheep

-Mary had a little lamb

-I am a little teapot

-Mulbery bush

-Humpty dumpty

-ring2 a roses

-I am a music man

-ABC song

-Small world

-10 green bottles

-12345 when I caught a fish alive

and many more. Before this I only know very little about nursery rhymes but trust me, I can sing all those songs pretty well ( oh I shall say very well instead!) since i had Haris.hehehehe

Epiphany of a little girl, used to be..

I was staring at one of my cousin status on the Facebook. She shouted about, when she was a little girl nobody had ever told how cute or beautiful she was. Referring to her status, she said people should tell or even pretend on saying how beautiful of each little girl is.

Frankly, I remember having an epiphany similar to her. 'Waking up and thinking, why am I not as beautiful as this or that girl'. I envied them especially when they were a center of attraction of the boys and teachers.They are like a shining stars on the cloudy skies. Their confidence is soaring high and they look very attractive indeed.

During my matriculation year, one of our Biology teacher showed favouritism towards fair and lovely looking students only, regardless the fact that some of them are brainless. Thus, me being an ugly duck in the class always reserved and lack of confidence in communication and giving idea in that subject. The worst thing was, I badly admired one of the boy in my class and sadly, he did not even notice my existence. Well, who will remember the bushy eyebrows girl with brown skin? Sigh!

When I started working and having my own money, I still did not know the right way to dress up and look good. I am quite impressed with the teenagers nowadays. They are much daring and too fashionable until overdressing if compared to non Muslim people. They are too sexy I shall say. Well, they are looking well sometimes, but unfortunately it is not a right way on showing it.

Beauty is not about 14 inches thick of make up which you apply on your face and it just not about the minimal fabrics you are putting on to cover your body either. The truth is, beauty is coming from inside out. Beauty lies in the purest heart and good attitude.

Whatever it is, now I know. I learn that fashion is unique and subjective. Something good on you do not mean good on others, or otherwise! So, just be yourself no matter what! You are beautiful in your own way...Just listen to this song and the lyrics, You are beautiful by James Blunt...

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

White Christmast

This year Belgium is definitely having a white christmast. The snow has been falling from the sky since yesterday morning and until now, still has.

I think this christmast brings us and our wicked neighbour together. Both of us are offering truce. I have my good old neighbour back but my upper stairs neighbour is moving out at the end of this month. What a shame! He has been a very good neighbour for all these years. So far, we are the longest and oldest tenant in this block.

Anyway, I take this opportunity to wish merry christmast to all my christian friends and a very happy new year to all...

The 'beauty' lies under the imperfection..

'If you expect perfect, you are not gonna be happy. So, just accept and tolerate with the imperfection.'

How lovely the quote above is. I trully agree with it. In this world, nothing is perfect so how come some people claim they are perfectionist.

Perfection is just like 'beauty'. They are only exist in the eyes of the beholder. Something might be perfect for me but not for others, otherwise!



The pink legging looks good and perfect on my eyes when I pair it with the blue jacket but the combination maybe look ugly and very odd to other people. That is the simple example I can give in the context of toleration with the imperfection. What to do, I only have one snow jacket for Haris and if the legging is orange by any chance, still I will put it on with the same winter jacket.hehhehee.

The conclution is, do not expect perfect or if not we are not gonna be happy in life...

16 going on 17

In a few days away, Haris will turn 17 months old. Only one month left before entering one and half year of his age. Most of the babies are sleeping through the whole night, perhaps ten to twelve hours stretch but it is far to happen for Haris. He keeps waking up in the night twice or thrice. Though, I do hope he will settle for the whole night when he reaches 18 months. Fingers crossed!

He gets less like a baby and more like a toddler day by day. Every time I give him a good bath in the morning, I notice how much his body's shape has changed. The pudgy limbs are gone. He still has his 'leftover' chubby cheeks and babyish pot belly but his arms and legs are long and lean.His hair is starting to cover his head and waving good bye to the baldness babyish looks. Oh he even got a little curly mullet but I trimmed it.

Haris is growing up in his own way too. He knows what he wanted and he shows his rebel by shouting out loud if he failed to get it. I tried to teach him to less shouting by saying 'turn your voice down, please' in a very soft voice every time he screams. Alhamdulillah, so far so good. I can see the improvement. Shouting back to him is not a good way because I read somewhere. The article says, babies are not trying to annoy you by screaming. It is just the way they channel their demand and request thus, shouting back to them will make they think you are trying to test their voice and the 'shouting' problems will never ending.

The little boss also has decided cutlery is must if he eats by his own on the highchair and he prefers to drink from beaker.I am impressed by his determination to master his fork and spoon. Normally, he easily loses his temper and starts crying when he could not do something that he eager to do, but not in the cutlery skills learning.

Haris also starts copying my behaviour. One day I see him put my hand phone on his ear and keep saying 'ello ello' and when he put the phone on the floor he said 'by, by'. How sweet is that!

There are many examples of him copying my action and talking over the phone is one of them.

How fast the time flies. I can't wait to have the second babies when he reaches three years old and above..baby is the sweetest creature in the whole world ..I can't deny it! Who can?

Plain consideration

I don't know whether it's premonition or just plain consideration towards my feelings. Im in the midst of browsing the online designer handbag until I came across with this bag. I was aimed for Gucci and LV for the past few months and now I have made up my mind. After taking into account a few reasons, I chose Gucci. Plus, someone promised to buy me LV if he gets PHD. InsyaAllah.

Thus, one thing for sure, I am going to make sure this bag is mine. Just give me at least three months top to save my pocket money. InsyaAllah.

-Lancel-tick
-Longchamp-tick
-Furla-tick
-fossil-tick
-coach-tick
-guess-tick
-CK-tick

If the boss has an extra budget, I shall go for salvatore. The last one to 'pau' his money on handbag.

catch red handed

I think from the title above, people can guess what I try to say in this note. That idiom brings the meaning of catching someone in the middle of doing something wrong.

So, the story begins...

Everytime we go to the launderette, we will bring all the clothes in the blue Ikea bags. Those bags will be leaving on the top of the washing machine all together with the fabric softener and the washing powder. It just not us who left the Ikea bags like that, most of the customers will do the same thing, regardless the brand and type of the bags that they bring to the launderette.

A couple of weeks ago, the incident happened to Am whereby after loading the dryer and switching it on, he left the Ikea bags before the dryer and soon after that he went out for smoking. After five minutes and so, he returned to the launderette and find out the bags had been stolen. Suddenly, he spotted the bags with the black guy. Nicely, he said to the guy, ' all those bags are mine and I put them on the floor right in front of the dryer like others did!' Without drama, the black guy returned the bags to Am.

Can you see what is the problem here? Stealing! That is the problem. The icing on the cake was, the black man never said sorry for stealing and never felt guilty of his wrong doing.

Until one fine morning in the last two weeks, the incident happened again but this time I was at the location.

After loading the clothes in the washing machines, We went to the Sunday market to buy some fruits and veggies. We returned to the launderette after 45 minutes and I find out, two of my Ikea bags had gone. I brought three all together.

My hunch kept saying the black lady in the launderette was the one who stole my bags, but I did not have a proof of accusing her of doing so.

Hmm...I just kept thinking how to get my hands on the bags nearby her piled up clothes. So, I kept back and forth in front of her to wait for the right moment to do so.

Until.....

Suddenly, out of the blue, when she tried to lift the bags, the bottle of my fabric softener fell down from the bags. Gotcha! I just knew it! The woman was caught red-handed when she tried to use my bags to fill in her laundry. The adrenaline rushed all over my body and I could feel the strength of saying something to her. I said to her out loud,

' Those are my bags and I put them over there, and why are you stealing them?'. She could not understand me very well, she replied to me in French but she could guess I called her a thief, until there was a lady who could understand English popped in to the shop and be our spoke person. I asked the lady to tell the black woman this, 'for me, it is not acceptable to take everybody stuff without permission. Somehow, I put the bags on the machines that full of my clothes. So, if she took my bags, how on earth could I bring all my clothes back home? With my bare hands ?It ridiculous ok'.

Unfortunately, for this black lady, she did not read it as a stealing. She jumped up her arse when she knew I said her action is called 'stealing'. She kept saying she could pay the price of those bags straight on my face and kept repeating the price of the bags just only 50 cent.

OMG! I almost lost my sanity in dealing with the idiots. I did not care about the money, what I really pissed off was, stealing. Oh and I was lucky though because I was thinking of leaving my Deuter bag instead. If I did leave my Deuter, you can call me moron. hehehe

Some people maybe think and say, it just only the Ikea bags, for god sake! Do not take it too much or make drama , but for me, the point is, taking other people stuff without permission is stealing. Does not matter how cheap the thing is. Stealing is not permitted.Dishonourable!

I cannot see the reason why we need to steal. Sometimes, you have money but you still stealing. Some people said, stealing is a habit. A really bad habit. I guess it is right after all and I could not agree more, when hudud is the best action to tackle this problem.

Ok la ni Belgium is not a muslim country but kalau dapat lempang si pencuri ni bagus gak hehehehe.

Moral is, jangan mencuri la..moron

Slumberland

Haris at 16 months old

We bought him this swing when he was four months old but when he was 9 months old I kept it on unreachable place for Haris until today I asked his papa to assemble it properly. Haris knows how to use this swing already plus we just press the button so the swing will swing by itself. Easy job for us as the parents.

This photos's taken when he fell asleep while watching the third and bird on Cbeeebies..

Saints and Sins

Picture is not related to the story but the quote is.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Belgium is a unique country!

Do you want to know why do I say so? The answer is because this country is divided to two part. One part is Flanders and people speak Dutch as their main language and the other part is Wallonia, and they speak French. Though, there are a few languages available in this country such as English and German.

Since I've been living in Belgium there are twice time the local people from Dutch speaking part tried to annoy us with the question or statement like this, 'this is the first class couch' or ' do you know this is the first class couch?'.

Ok let's me get it straight. When I wrote those sentences, I was talking about the people who tried to remind or reassure that we sit in the right coach in the train. Well, of course only first and second class coaches are available in any trains.

Before reading the whole story, bear in mind that the first class ticket is almost double the price of the second class one.

The first incident happened when I sat by a man in my journey from Brussels to Liege. We got the time wrong when we departed at the peak hours. The train was packed with working people and we were fortunate to have the first class tickets in hand. After five minutes of journey, that man did ask me this question, 'Do you know this is the first class couch?' The way he asked me was like, I was not having enough money to buy the first class ticket! Shallow ok! Without having second thought and doubt I answered to him politely but in a sarcastic intonation like this,

'Oh yes, I do and I do not think the first class ticket is so expensive , isn't? Oh by the way, I never travelled in second class, It is not my standard' While giving him a fake smile.

I tell you, this man looked disgusted with my sarcastic answer and he went quite for the whole journey. I shall say this to his face but I did not.' Dude, we are in the lower score, you do not like me and I do not like you either!'. Serve him right, I reckon.

The second incident was happened when we sat by this middle age couple, from the moment I sat my arse on the seat the lady kept looking at us from head to toe like we did something wrong. At the first time I just ignored her but after a couple of moments I could not stand her glance anymore. Suddenly, out of the blue I popped out this question to her and trust me I did not know where is the strength come from. I said to her,' Hi, Is there something wrong with us?' and she said 'nothing' but I could sense her guilty voice. I continued talking to her by saying ' Ok, if nothing is wrong, can you please stop staring because it is rude to stare at other people!'. After hearing I said something like that, she turned her head around to the window and never had a gut to give us even a little peek.

I learnt something from those experiences.

Sometimes, we have to say it loud if we know we are right. Never let people bully us and do remember nothing to be afraid of. Speak out loud and that is it. But, never ever showed how thick you are. Always be smart in handling situation.

Again,life abroad teaches me to stand on my two feet!

Does divorce is the last resort?

D.I.V.O.R.C.E

Those seven letters are really easy to spell out but the meaning of it is heart wrenching.

Lately, so many divorce cases I have witnessed with. Most of the cases happened in my closed proximity friends and family. The consequences of those word is undeniable. The causes of the divorce cases are varying. One of the common reason is the existance of the third party in their relationship. Have you ever heard this idiom,

Two is company, three is a crowd, ring a bell folks?

Sometimes, I am petrified if our marriage could destroy like them. It does not mean we are at the wits end.

We are fine.

Peaceful.

So far so good.

The truth is, this notes is not related to us at all and it just the rambling idea from a lady who has an ample time to write.

Four years of this marriage is a blessed, but as a normal human being, I could not deprive myself from feeling scared and unsecured etc. What if this and that happened in the future. Nauzubillahhiminzaliq.

Being me, naive in some aspect of life makes me bragging about this matter to my best friend, Am. I share everything with him, plus he is a very good listener. He does not talk too much but when he gives his opinion, it always end up in me feeling blessed and proud to have him as my other half.

A.f.r.a.i.d

Nothing I should be afraid of actually. I should pray more so that HE will bless this marriage until the death does us apart...InsyaAllah.

Though, one thing I realized. When wedded blessed marriage is destroyed, people will say 'dah takde jodoh' but otherwise to not wedded blessed. People tend to say' dah kahwin takde restu, padanla tak kekal'. Oh dear, have we forgotten that, 'jodoh, pertemuan, ajal dan maut di tangan Tuhan'? So, stop being judgemental. Stop saying something nasty until you are in their shoes.

I should not complaint more and frankly, I do not fancy to tittle tattle about people's problem with others but what I want to stress in here is, I am an ordinary lady who is hoping the ending of her love story like in the fairy tales.

Happily married ever after and if this is too much to ask for, perhaps I shall say, May Allah bestows his rahmah to us..Ameen.

'Jangan amik hak orang kalau taknak orang amik hak kita..what goes around comes around. Though I agree maybe, divorce is the best way for some couple and soon they will realize they were not meant to be together...

Nauzubillah

Again one of my friend bercerai...sigh! Nauzubillah...

Ya Allah, peliharalah rumahtangga kami dr rintangan yang tak termampu untuk kami hambamu menanggungnya...

Chic Frock- Go frock yourself!

Loving it!

The model

The ankle boots

The legging

The top

Just very eye catching trend to follow with. Yes, I know some of the comments about wearing legging, but I just could not resist the temptation. Thus, I am going to find and buy tiger or snake pattern leggings very soon...Harap2 la ada!

cencalok, budu and I

Let's me get it straight. I am so into cencalok compared to budu but both are not a good choice for my hubby. He does not eat cencalok, budu, sambal belacan and all type of sambal etc. He is a very straightforward person. Curry and vegies, or any gravy will do except all those types of masak lemak.

I could vividly remember one of the incident happened to us when the first time I stepped my foot in Manchester in the four years back. I could picture the incident as much as I can remember the story line of my favourite film 'The green miles'.

One day, I found cencalok in one of the Asian shop called Apna. The price of one bottle of cencalok was very intriguing which was two pound per bottle and during that time, the currency exchange was about 1 pound = RM7. Do the maths please...

I was so damn happy to find cencalok so straightaway I bought one to satisfy my taste buds. Wasting time not, I asked my hubby to open the lid so that I could indulge myself to the fullest. To be honest, that cencalok had the worst lid ever. We could not simply opened it like the one which sell back home. We tried to use can opener but still we were struggling to open it until 'pop'!!!!

The big and echo sound came along with the filling of the cencalok spreaded and scatter all over the ceiling, the walls and the floors in our kitchen. Am was so furious when the cencalok safely 'landed' on his hair. Well, you know the smell of the cencalok was a nightmare. Even though, he had a great shower did not means he could get rid of the smell easily.

From the night onwards, he forbade me from buying cencalok, budu or whatsoever that related to these types of foods. Being stubborn me, I bought one of the budu and hid it in my kitchen cabinet and only ate it when he was not at home.

The hatred feeling towards cencalok and budu were obvious, but who cares..I love them so cencalok or budu will always be one of my stock in my kitchen cabinet.

hehehehehe

And this is why I need budu..



nasi kerabu kuning with baked chicken..

Backdated entry about Eid ul fitri 2010

We have celebrated Eid ul Fitri at Embassy of Malaysia in Brussels. A day before the Eid, we went off to one of embassy staff and overnight at her house. The celebration was wonderful with mouth watering foods and drinks. I have taken some pictures, so here they are..





I only selected three from one album in my facebook.

Rejoice!

Last day of our trip

On the third day in Salzburg, we decided to catch a train at 11am after considering the checked in time in the last hotel in Vienna. Our last night, we booked a hotel at Wien Praterstern. We chose this hotel after taking into account of the easiest way to go to the airport since we needed to check in as early as 8.40am. There was a nearby train station from the hotel. It took 30 minutes to arrive at the airport.



at salzburg train station before departing a train to Vienna



he will cover his face like this when people are staring at him

The best thing was, we had time to visit Wiener Reisenrad, as known as Vienna eye. This was one of the tourist attraction in Vienna. The panoramic view of the city could be viewed from this ferris wheels.



Wiener reisenrad

Apart from that, we went to visit the city center for the last time before bidding farewell to this big city. As early as 7 pm we returned to the hotel before dozzing off to the slumberland and woke up as early as 6 am to get ready before departing into the train and went off to the airport.



haris for sale









Our flight took off at 940am and arrived in Brussels around 1120am. We arrived at home around 3pm and needed a week to recover from holidays mood..



Can't wait for the next holiday....

the end

My boy

Up to this date, Haris really shows his true characters. Apart from that, he can say a few words and for 16 months old baby, he develops very well in many aspects. The words he knows how to say are,

1. A duck
2. A ball.
3. Papa
4. Mama
5. Lamp
6. Hello but it sounds like 'ello'
7. A book
8. Wawa if he requested for the nursery rhymes.
9. Maman- if he wanted to eat. I keep telling him eat instead of maman, sigh!
10. Waybuloo- he said like 'blu'. hehehe so cute
11. A bird

One thing for sure is, he doesnot have accent like 'babies talk' because I do not use the 'telo' slanag when I speak to him. I read in the parenting sources, they strictly forbidden for the parents to use the 'babies talk' even though it sounds cute.

The example of babies talk are, 'tido=bum', 'susu=cucu' etc.

Anyway, will tell in details about his development pace in my next entry.

The heavy snow for year 2010

When I write this entry, the snow is still falling from the skies. The soft white flakes keep piling on the road, buiding ets and the white blanket is everywhere. The worst and earliest snow falls ever and the temperature is dropping to -7 degree celcius...welcome winter 2010.

Hoping to make a snowman in this coming weekend..InsyaAllah..