Whiteout!

It's been snowing in London since last night and it's still snowing now. Here's some pics for our folks at home...

We went to the small park near our house.

Little H's words early in the morning when he woke up: "This is the best day of my life!"
(hehe..he can be a little dramatic sometimes..)

The first thing Big H did when we reached there...

Am Back!

Finally, my pc is working again so I am back in the blogosphere!

Mr S stayed up until 4 am on Saturday to reformat and install everything back in so that the pc would return to its normal state after being out of it for so long. And he did it except for one thing - he forgot to save the hundreds of bookmarks that I had in the C drive!

Don't know how I can get those back again...

I think the reason for the breakdown is a virus that came in through a torrent that I was downloading the night before it happened...I think la...I dunno.

We're not even sure that it was a virus.

But whatever it was, Mr S, the IT engineer turned chartered accountant proved that he still has all those IT stuff intact in his grey cells by repairing and turning everything back to normal.

Thank you Mr S! Love you!!!


ANYWAY, just for a picture in this entry, I have uploaded my recent cake deco attempt on a carrot cake baked in a 9"x13" baking tin. Not an easy feat, decorating a cake with the kids around me and touching this and that - Big H even spoiled the icing at the beginning by leaning on the cake to reach for a tub of food colouring.

"That's IT!!!!! OUT!!" I had shouted, pointing towards the door.

The cake was for a friend who will be returning to Malaysia for good next week. We went to a farewell party for her yesterday and this was my contribution. Not perfect but boleh lah...

Righty-ho, I have to go now. InshaAllah, will update more soon.

April Snow

View from my window early in the morning.

View from the kids' window.

The kids playing in the backyard while the snow was still falling.

Learning to make snow balls.

Wet but happy.
Big H said he was 'trying to look annoyed'.

Melting already by 10 o'clock...

About noon, most of the snow had melted and there were not even enough for slush.

It stayed freezing cold the whole day though, and later, we also had some sleet and hail too.

Isn't it supposed to be spring?

Foggy Days

The last few days have been quite warm - spring is here! - but started with really foggy mornings. Below are some pics I took on my way to school with the boys...

At the junction on the way to school - visibility was only about 100m.

The one in middle of the pic - very small and wearing a black and light blue jacket is Big H. He had to run to chase after his classmates because their teacher had already instructed them to go inside because it was too cold to line up and wait outside for too long.

By the time it was 9am though, visibility has improved a bit as you can see from the pic above, although the fog lingered until about noon.

Happy 2008 Everyone!

I think it's not too late for me to wish everyone a happy new year..

Here's wishing my readers a wonderful and prosperous new year, Amin!

Until We Meet Again

I have always dread going to visit the sick or going to a wake or a funeral.

It is because of the fact that I cannot help myself from crying or feeling very, very sad from watching other people's loss or other people's grief and agony - I am very sensitive and soft at heart you see and I cannot stand to see other people, especially my friends and family suffer.

But isn't suffering and death a part of this life after all and thus we cannot escape from them?

I have not been in the mood to blog for a long time. It has been partly because of Ramadhan and all that but even before that I was in no mood at all to write about anything in this blog because ever since a blogger friend in Coventry had reported in her blog that her husband was at the last stages of cancer, I felt that surely everything that I have to report is so trivial compared to what she has to go through from now on everyday of her life.

We read each other's blogs, you see, and knowing this, I could not with a clear conscience write about anything happy or cheerful, when I know their family is going through a difficult time every day.

You might ask, if she is my very close friend then, for me to feel that way?

The answer to that is no, not really..she is not a close friend although we have met once (and now twice) and I slept over at her house for one night and our families had a wonderful day out together, but that's nothing, really...

I guess when one blogs, one's readers feel that they know one well, even though they really don't (not by a long shot in some cases) and even though they have never met you or they have met you just that one time, they feel like they have known you forever...

But now (Saturday 27/10/07), I feel that I can go on blogging as I have been to visit my friends in Coventry again and as expected, I came back very, very sad but also, I have to say, relieved.

Relieved not because I saw my friend's husband getting better, on the contrary, since the last time we saw him, just less than two months ago, he has changed so very much, no more bubbly and funny but instead so very thin, almost skeletal and he has become very weak and quiet. He was in pain - and such pain it was that he had to be given morphine consistently and as drugs go, he was sleepy and not in the mood to talk.

But still I was relieved.

Relieved because I saw in my friend a very strong woman who would not give up and would not let go without a fight, and a fierce and vicious fight she would put up too. I myself had to fight to put on a happy and 'normal' face while talking to her and later to him in the hospital room.

And all that time she spoke calmly, and it was easy for her to smile.

But still, I could not help from crying when we said our goodbyes at the hospital entrance. Her eyes had welled but she did not succumb to tears and I said to her what my thoughts were exactly at the time, "You're a strong woman..."

How brave and strong she is.

But if she was not, then, who would be for their family?

Thus, the reason why I was so relieved.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I had started to type this entry on Saturday but did not have time to finish and post it and last night my friend had sent us a text - a simple and short one;

"He's gone..."

And those words drove me to tears - for her loss and for her children's. They are so young to understand death and the responsibilities that their mother has to carry now, all alone. But I did not cry for him, as indeed, I think he is in a better place for surely, Allah knows best.

I remember when I last saw my father.

It was on the day that he was scheduled for a by-pass operation, which was on the same day I was scheduled to fly off to the UK to do my A-levels. It was pretty last minute and I could not change my flight date and I had asked my father then whether it was okay or if he wanted me to insist that my sponsors postpone the date of my departure to the UK.

He had said, "Tak apa lah. If anything happens..I go my way, and you go your way..." and he smiled, his usual calming smile.

And I hugged him and kissed his cheeks - which I don't remember ever doing. And I'm glad I did, for even though he passed away a few months later, and I was in the UK at the time and could not kiss his cold forehead just before he is wrapped in white cloth for his burial, at least I did kiss him while he was alive and smiling and his arms had come around to hug me and to pat my back to comfort me and say that it would be okay.

Yes.

After a while, it will be okay, InshaAllah.

After all, the living must go on living.

And life is short after all and no one lives forever.

We just have to be brave and carry on.

Until then.

(*pic taken when we were walking towards the cancer wing in the Walsgrave hospital at Coventry to visit our friends.)

Salam Raya

To everyone out there...

Berhati-hati di jalan raya

and

Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir dan Batin.


Sorry for the long silence.

Hopefully will be be able to pick up where I left when Syawal arrives, InshaAllah. Till then, here's wishing all of us a good holiday!

I Have Been Away...

Embarked on a long journey to Scotland last Friday.

It was supposed to be an 8 hour journey but due to jams, traffic disruptions and stops, the journey lasted for 12 hours instead and by the time we reached Glasgow at Mr S's cousin, Mrs Cey's place, we were, as you can imagine, limp and near to collapsing in utter exhaustion.

That explains the bags under my eyes in our holiday pics although I have to say the kids and Mr S look well enough and cheerful as normal in all of them.

Hmm...

Spent 4 nights in Scotland driving around and visiting various places which really, I have been to before during my school days, but all the same, visited again for the sake of the kids and for the sake of our holiday.

On the way back to London, we spent two nights in a friend's house in Manchester (our ex-housemate, Serigala London) and then one night in blogger D's house in Coventry! By the way, I have never met D before, except of course on the internet and Mr S said sceptically, "Betul ke kita nak tidur rumah orang yg kita tak kenal ni?"

He he he...

But it turned out to be a wonderful visit and we had fun getting to know each other and most importantly, our kids had fun too, playing together!

Thanks and multiple gratitudes to our cousins in Glasgow, Serigala London and family in Manchester and D and family in Coventry for their generous hospitality during our sleepover at their respective abodes. You all made our holiday really wonderful and an experience that we will inshaAllah remember for a long time to come!

In the next entry I will post some pics of our Summer 2007 holiday.

Fruits Of Summer

I have spent more than 6 years over all in the UK since pre-university and yet I have never ever went fruit picking during the summers.

It is not that I did not want to, only the fact that I have always gone back home for the summer hols during my undergraduate years and of course, during that time, one did not particularly look for family oriented activities, which is exactly what a day out picking fruits is.

But on Saturday, a friend and her family mentioned that they were going and I thought that it was high time that I do something about my 'inexperience'.

The farm that we went was near Enfield town, a farm called Parkside Farm. It was a beautiful day; sunny but windy too, so one did not feel too hot doing all that 'labour'. We arrived there at noon and straight away went to the picnic area to have lunch with them.

And then we went to 'work'...

First, there were the strawberries.

I have an allergy to these - so didn't fancy picking too many of them although Mr S did go back here later to fill our strawberry bucket..





Then, there were the blackberries.

As you can see, the ones that are not ripe yet look similar to raspberries, but as they ripen, they change colour and become fat and engorged with juice!





Then, there were the sweet corns.

There were signs at the entrance stating that the visitors to the farm were not allowed to eat the fruits and veges before paying for them but there were some visitors who behaved appallingly - yup, that's right, we caught some women eating the sweetcorns right after they picked them! And they had finished about 5-6 between them! I was told later by a friend that these taste real good freshly picked, eaten straight away uncooked, but seriously...

My eldest scrutinising his blackberry juice-smeared hand - he was looking for an insect that he thought was crawling on his hand.

Then there were the raspberries.

There were several types of them but I really prefer the Magda and Autumn Bliss variety - their stems and leaves were not as prickly as one other type - I cannot recall the name for that one at the moment. The Magda and Autumn Bliss variety were seriously yummy!

Funnily enough, although I was wearing a pristine white top and also handling a lot of ripe blackberries and raspberries - my shirt was just as pristine when I left the farm a few hours later! Bravo, eh?

As we left the farm, in the car, this was how the boys look like:



We didn't go home straight away, however. We went to a Chinese Supermarket near to our house to get some galangal and tamarind, and after waking my lil one up so that we can all go together into the shop, this was the scene they made:


Lastly, the fruits of our labour in our kitchen...



Now, all I have to do is to find a variety of ways to finish them off; eat them plain, with some fresh cream (my favourite!), make cheesecake topping..etc. etc. etc....

Potter, Potter Everywhere

This entry WILL HAVE SPOILERS so you'd better skip the spoiler part if you haven't read the final installation of Harry Potter and you plan to do it sometime in the near future.

Have no fear..You need to highlight the blank part in order to read them!

I woke up on Saturday, the 21st knowing that some people already had a copy of the Deathly Hallows in their hands and probably some have finished it already. Although I promised myself not to get too excited about the book, I could not help the anxiety of not knowing 'who died' and how it all ends so I announced to Mr S that I'm going out for a while to go and get my very own copy.

I took the bus - and I never willingly take the bus to go anywhere!

I went to the nearest Asda and found that the book had sold out. So, I had to take the tube to Stratford (the next nearest station) to get my book at the mall there, where there's a Sainsbury's and I got my copy for £8.87 as opposed to the RRP of £17.99.

Bliss!

But I did not read the book straight away. I was reading another book at the time and I just had to read a few more chapters of that book before I skip over to that long awaited thick black book at the top of my 'To-Be-Read' pile. We had guests anyway during that weekend - an auntie and our cousin stayed over for 2 nights, so had to SABAR...I knew that once I start with that HP, it would be terribly hard for me to put it down and what would that reflect on my emm..'skills' as a hostess??

Plus, have you ever had that feeling - when you want to read a book so badly but you feel a little afraid to do it because you know that once you start to read it - it had to of course... end? And there will be nothing else to look forward to? And thus, you are content just to look at the book and stroke the book cover and read the blurb again and again?

You think that's sad?

Well..you may be right.

But I have been waiting for this book with a mixture of anxiety and dread and if you are a real fan and a little crazy like me - you might understand.

Unfortunately, I could not stop myself after all and started the book anyway, the day after I purchased it, while my guests were out sight-seeing in London...

****WARNING! WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW! WARNING!WARNING!****

I knew it!!!

I knew that Snape has always been a good guy! And believe it or not, I also predicted that he will be one of those to die in the final book - it was pretty obvious to me, as I believed him to be innocent from the start and I ABSOLUTELY believed in Dumbledore who always, always trusted him (to me, there was also 1 clear indication of a 'plan' in the prior book) and thus, to me, it was beyond doubt that the author would kill Snape off and tell his story only at his 'deathbed' and make everyone feel remorse for thinking that he was Dumbledor's murderer. To me, only upon his death that the author can make Harry and all else understand the kind of sacrifice he had made.

But that surprise story about him loving Lily Evans/Potter all these years, ever since they were small just takes the cake, for me. I was touched to the core and I could imagine the young and wide eyed Snape lacking in confidence and wanting to blend in with all the Slytherins, as he was supposed to and yet only had eyes for that girl in Griffyndor. And that horrid James Potter who bullied him! Snape was a better man than James Potter ever was!

I was so very sad and my eyes watered when I found out that his Patronus was the same as Lily's and when Dumbledore asked him, his eyes full of tears:

"After all this time?"
"Always," said Snape.

I nearly bawled at this point!

It just shows the genius of the author, to make the readers sympathise with a character such as Snape's. Of course, since I had loved Snape from the beginning, all this was just a twist of the knife for me who was already feeling so very sad because Snape had just died!

I did wonder though, how come his Patronus was the same as Lily's - shouldn't they all have different animals conjured at this spell? But then, I remembered Umbridge's Patronus - and her strong attachment to cats. It seems that if one has strong feelings for something (or someone), it could affect one's Patronus, and thus, this is how I self-explain Snape's.

And how can I not mention the moment when he died..

"Look...at...me..." he whispered.

Even at his last breath, he remembered Lily for again and again it has been mentioned that Harry looks exactly like his father, except for his eyes...which is exactly like his mother's.

Sob.

Over all, I thought the book was great. Although I really wanted more info on wandlore - it appears that suddenly Harry was 'a master' at this at the end and I just find that difficult to believe - that he thought of everything suddenly. I had forgotten that Draco was the one who disarmed Dumbledore of his wand, even though Snape was the one who said Avada Kedavra, and thus, I was a little confused at the time...

And don't you think Ron's flight in anger (due to the chain's powers) is reminiscent of LOTR...?

I have so much more to discuss and I can't discuss with Mr S just yet as he is still too tired after the exams to actually open a book, even a storybook! He is also a fan of Harry Potter, mind, and he will not stop reading, even on the Tube once he starts but as to when that will be, I am still waiting with baited breath..

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

Order Of The Phoenix, the movie.

And then, during the weekend, we went to watch the latest Harry Potter movie. Had to leave our children for a few hours with a good friend and went to the nearest cinema which was the Odeon in South Woodford. JK Rowling said in an interview with Jonathan Ross that it is the best HP movie so far but I am inclined to disagree - I still do think that Prisoner of Azkaban is still the best one!

But the fighting scenes were brilliant.

Finally we see on film Dumbledore's great powers in that duel with Voldermort and the latter appears scarier and even better than the previous film. Never did like Michael Gambon's acting in the earlier films although I have to say that he is a great actor, really, and was brilliant in most of his other non Potter films. In this movie installation though, he somehow wore Dumbledore's shoes perfectly and Mr S agreed with me too, saying that perhaps the actor has finally read the HP books and has begun to understand the character...he he.

The thing about Dumbledore is that he is much, much more intelligent than Voldermort, and this, I feel, we can see from their duelling and how he parried all of Voldermort's attacks until finally, infuriated, the latter decided to 'attack' the young wizard instead.

My eyes watered when Sirius was killed with the killing curse by Bellatrix - indeed, Helena Bonham Carter did justice to that evil witch character - her acting was brilliant and you know what, even when I first heard she was part of the cast in that movie, I knew that she would be Bellatrix as she is just perfect for that role.

As for Sirius who was described as 'handsome' in the books, I wouldn't really categorize Gary Oldman as handsome by any stretch of the imagination but I have to admit that the long hair made him look 'dashing' enough. In fact, Sirius looked really cool with his wand moves during the showdown with Lucius Malfoy near the arch.

There were lots of short scenes though, which I found a little annoying but I understand the points that the film had to make to compliment and align itself as much as possible with the book - as opposed to filming the whole book verbatim, which is unfortunately, impossible.

Needless to say, there were lots and lots of other details that were left out from the movie so if you liked the movie, you should pick up the book because you're really losing out on a lot of interesting information that makes up the book and will probably be important to know to enjoy the next HP movie.

Accident!

Look at the picture and you know that this is going to be a shite story.

I'm still really pissed about this so I need to take some time to write this in a comprehensive manner so that I won't end up typing swear words all the way.

Let me start from the beginning.

My friend who belanja us the other day was coming for dinner last night and since he's on a strict diet to maintain his so very slim body (he was quite plump before), I decided to just keep it simple and made some chapatti doughs and some Chicken Karhai for dinner.

After feeding the boys and helping them put on their pajamas after their shower, I started on a bedtime story for them, keeping an ear out for a knock on the door as my friend said he was coming at around 7 o'clock.

And then there was a loud knock on the door.

As usual, I checked at the front window first and to my surprise, it wasn't my friend at all, but my next door neighbour. And I was even more shocked to see our Honda, which was parked right in front of the house, looking like it has just been rammed into! And what's more, the car that had done the job was still there, an old violet/purple BMW, not in a particularly good condition itself as its bumper had come off and the front of it was pretty done in. Some cars were moving slowly on the road, looking at the scene and there were few people hovering nearby.

I rushed out of the house and the few people there including my neighbour told me what had happened. The BMW was driving at top speed in the small residential and narrow road in front of our house and when another car came from the opposite direction - the BMW swerved to the side and rammed into my car which was innocently parked there - just a few hours after I parked it there after picking up my son from school!!!

In a panic, the driver and two other passengers, all young men or probably still mere boys got the car keys and simply took off and left their car there half blocking the road in front of my house!!

I called Mr S straightaway - he was at a client's office in the City but he was already getting ready to go home - Mr S told me to take some pictures to show the police or insurance people and he told me to use our digital camera (he told me where the camera was) to do it but I was too shocked and distraught to register where he said it was and so I just used my hp to get some pics of the scene. Someone in the crowd told me that they've called the police and feeling helpless and a little dazed, I also joined the rest of the people there hovering by the accident site.

My friend arrived at the time (he's Chinese by the way, not that it's relevant to the story, of course) - thank god he was there coz he helped me with the boys who came down from their room all excited because their mama opened the front door and they could hear loud voices of people talking all the way upstairs. My friend pointed out that "Ni mesti org negara P ni sebab ada bendera kecik negara tu tergantung depan kereta tu - to which I just sighed.

We waited outside for around 15 minutes and then I decided to call the police again - and report the incident myself - that was when a small Nissan Micra drove along our road slowly, and I saw that the driver and passengers of the car, all looked Indian or Pakistani descent, were looking at the accident most interestedly. The car then sped away but suddenly turned back and stopped right at the accident scene. In true Bollywood style they created havoc there swearing and yelling at each other and shouted curses at some three other young men who suddenly walked from the direction that one witness told me where the three culprits had ran to just a few minutes ago. These errant men were probably the ones who drove the wrecked BMW.

There were eight of them in all.

And there was one of me.

Lots of people were hovering around and looking through their windows but nobody assisted nor supported me.

I was still talking to the police on my hp at the time and he told me to just leave the phone on and let him hear what was going on whilst I should try to ask the men nicely, the name and address of the driver of that BMW.

"Who's the owner of this car?," one of the men asked, pointing to our car.
" I am." I said with not a particularly pleased expression on my face. I saw a brief look of regret on his face when he realised that 'the victim' appeared to be a small Muslim lady who looked like she wouldn't hurt a fly but then again it could have been relief for all I know - because the victim wasn't a huge and seething black man or something similarly intimidating.

One man denied that they know who the driver is. Another man said okay he'll give me the name and address of the fellow. But nobody admitted that the driver was one of them - which I suspected was probably the case.

And then they took out ropes and started to pull the car. Somebody tried to start the engine and somebody else started the engine of the Nissan Micra and slowly moved forward to push the wrecked BMW in front of it.

And suddenly they were moving away!

I yelled, "Excuse me! Your name and address please!"

But of course, I was just wasting my voice and air liur because that was their chance to get away and they just left without being responsible for what they had done and the fool that I was, I really thought that they wanted to give me their name and address, which was why I didn't really, really insist for their details at the time they were trying to start the car.

When they were gone, suddenly all the neighbours were at the scene. One said, " That was them! They were the one who drove the BMW just now!" And another one kepochi makcik hitam said, "I would never have let them go just like that! I would have gotten their name and address!"

To which I replied, " They were EIGHT of them and only ONE of me - I asked them and they didn't want to give me, so.." I just shrugged and added softly, Nobody offered to help me!

The police officer still listening on the phone asked me whether I took the pictures of the men and when I replied that I didn't, said that "I should have."

What the??!! I didn't want to stand there clearly snapping the picture of those men for 'proof' at the risk of them grabbing my phone or coming back later to attack me at my house - obviously they know where I live!

Sigh.

One hour after the accident, a police car came by and took statements and made a report to which they said they will probably try to track the car but what we should do is contact our insurance agencies. At this point Mr S arrived and I just let him talk to the two policemen - one of which had an accent that I DID NOT understand at all - for all I know he was speaking in a Martian language to me!

Mr S then had to sit for a long time with his hp to his ear talking to the insurance company while I sat with my friend while he ate his chapatti. The children were excited about the whole thing but I firmly sent them to bed anyway because I had too much on my plate at that moment to add any unnecessary tension with the boys.

Mr S came to the kitchen later to tell my friend and I that the BMW had no insurance so that makes it a little complicated for us to claim and will definitely prolong the claiming and repair/ compensation process....sigh.

So, no more trips to the parks with the kids' bikes. No more picnics. No more trips to the big stores at Beckton for groceries or books...

Sigh.

I would like to thank my friend who helped me through that whole thing while Mr S was not around - he was looking after the kids and cautioning me not to scream to those men and cause more problems. And he was also the one who saw that my face was pale and my lips were white - from shock, I guess - and asked me to sit and have a drink first while waiting for the police to arrive.

Indeed Mr S and I were sighing quite a few times last night (not from any pleasure, I assure you!) as we contemplated the problems and hassle that the accident will cause us but we are thankful anyway that no one was hurt. Alhamdulillah!

Sigh.

One nice thing though. Mr S told me that I did very well and that he was proud of me - the way I handled everything without him around - how I called the police, took pictures, tried to talk to those men and he said I was right (and my friend was right to caution me) not to push them for their names etc. for that may have caused some other trouble.

Always trying to cheer me up, Mr S also said something else. He said, "Takpe mama, at least there's something you can do after this.."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"You can blog about all this.." he said with a grin.

To which I rolled my eyes and...sighed.

I'm Sorry I Forgot!

Our wedding anniversary this year had a lovely, lovely date:

And I forgot all about it!

Really do feel like crying...

Mr S remembered but PURPOSELY kept me in the dark because he wanted to surprise me with a gift and he didn't have time to buy one on the day or before that because it was an extended weekend and he had to study at home for his exams and most shops were closed anyway....(phew! that was a long sentence!)

*Excuses, excuses.*




Anyway, if I had remembered, I would have at least cooked something nice for him (since I have no money whatsoever to buy him something nice instead - what's the point of it if I buy and he pays for it, right??)

Instead, on that fateful day, I was feeling tired and lazy and there was some leftover lauk masak kurma in the pot and I just added some chicken into it!!!!

In fact, Mr S was the one who suggested it because he knew that I was just too lazy to cook that day!

Horror!!

I do feel very, very guilty over it but I blame him as well for not reminding me about it AND THEN, rubbing in the fact that I forgot our anniversary and only 'masak lauk kurma semalam tambah ayam je' for him on the special day!

Arghh....!

And he had to buy me that very nice card too, on top of the gift. He really made me feel quite miserable and very, very guilty yesterday!

Because Mr S will be reading this, I would like him to know that I AM SORRY for forgetting such a significant date in our lives and I wish him too, a very Happy Anniversary and I hope that he can forgive me.

(In future, if Mr S doesn't want to be disappointed, please set aside any temptation to surprise and just inform me so that we would at least have a good anniversary dinner, huh?)

Right. I am not really one for love poems but I found this particular one on the net that strikes a particular chord...

So here it is, to you, my horrible but lovely, my darling Mr S...

The Love of My Life
by Manda E I

You've been patient and I thank you a lot,
because very few people seem to have what we've got.

It took a long time to be really sure,
but I am the ailment and you are my cure.

Love without you is a life without love,
like living on earth without the heavens above.

Love without you, is a day without time,
a million years pass and the sun never shines.

My love for you can hardly be told,
It's something you feel but can't ever hold.

Among all these words what I am trying to say,
Is, 'I love you', in that very special way !!

A Bargain

Thought I needed to make some extra effort to keep fit, what with all those cakes and my many cups of sweet tea, daily. Plus, the fact that my metabolism is not what it used to be, now that I am 31.

So, I bought this 'Air Walker' on ebay, second hand for 60 quid. OOpps..did I say 60? No, no,no...16 quid, not 60...!

I think I bought a real bargain of an exercising machine.

Mr S thinks I bought a white elephant...or a clothes hanging frame.

The boys think that I bought a climbing frame.

Only time will decide which one it will be.

New Weekend Routine

Just some updates for my family and friends.

We have decided that going to the park on Saturdays will be a weekly thing because my eldest needs to practice cycling his bicycle (still with training wheels) and we'll also have a picnic there to spend more quality family time outdoors. Last weekend I made some nasi ayam and brought it in the picnic basket and had our dinner at the park at around 6pm (sun sets at 8pm+ nowadays) after which Mr S, the boys and I kicked some football. And then we went for a nice walk around the park and went back home tired but happy.

We had a wonderful time, alhamdulillah.

Also the boot sales have started again now and we like to go (actually, the kids hate it and Mrs S is indifferent - I'm the only one who really looves it) to look around for good and interesting stuffs. I like to look for toys, books and kids' clothes in these boot sales. The boot sales are normally on Sundays so that basically makes our weekends 'full'.

In order to do the above we need to do our grocery shopping beforehand and we've decided that ordering online (Tesco's) is best. We've done this many times before but only when we've got other unavoidable plans for the weekend but now I think it is a permanent thing. Believe me, it is very, very de-stressing to get all your shopping delivered to your door instead of going to the supermarket, braving the trolley traffic jams and all the queueing. I totally recommend it if such a service is available to my readers!

Just some more pics taken last weekend at the park and a boot sale using my Sony Ericsson K800i hp:

A nice one of my eldest at the boot sale at Lee Valley, near Chingford.

Look at the blossoms on those trees!

Following the narrow lane beside the fields at the park.

My youngest was not too pleased at the boot sale. "Let's go home mama!"

Waiting for me to push his trike.

Where we sat for the picnic. (Can't show the rest of the picnic pics, sorry.)

Trying out Abang's bike - it's time to get him his own!

Advance Reading Copy

Got this in the post yesterday:


And inside it was this:


And inside that was this:


It is the ultimate avid romance reader's dream, I think. To get an early reading copy of her favourite author's book, complete with the author's signature inside!

This book was won in a draw - I registered in the Mary Balogh Yahoogroups a long time ago where fans of the author and the author herself discuss her books and other books in the genre and she was giving away some early copies of her book, titled The Web Of Love.

It is not really a new book actually, it is a republication of an old book that is out of print and not easy to find. Her old books are highly sought after by her fans and in fact I once made bids for her old books on ebay only to win at a whopping 21 USD for a book that was old with lots of creases! So you can imagine my happiness at getting this one for free!

You know, I used to scoff at people who read romance. And I only started really reading romances about 2 years ago too, when my husband and I were apart for 1 year because he had to work in the UK and I had to wait awhile before joining him.

It wasn't a pleasant experience for a mother of two like me to go through such a thing. It was, to me, a taste of single motherhood and it was then that I had understood the hardships and problems of raising children single-handedly. But even then, I was not really alone, unlike the many, many single mothers of the world. I had my maid, my in-laws, and my family to help me through each day (and I am very thankful for them) and also I had the books.

I read romances not because of the sex scenes, mind! As I have mentioned before (a few times, in this blog, in fact), my reading romances has always been for the happy endings, and I think many other readers also share this with me. I think I was feeling depressed at that time and a little lonely too and the books without fail, gave me a happy ending to look forward to everyday.

(Sorry folks, this is where the rambling starts - feel free to skip to the end..)

But you know, reading romance novels then also had a deeper impact on me.

Due to reading romances, I realised that my long term courtship with my husband - we were going out 6 years before we were married - has made me indifferent to his actions. I didn't make an effort to 'read' him any more - I didn't even notice the things he did for me and even if I did, I simply brushed them off as 'nothing'. And to add to this, he has always been a subtle kind of man and a man of little words.

And I feel, this was how the romance novels helped me. With the actual man being one 13 hour flight away, I learnt to be more sensitive to his expressions and actions which I have recalled back and committed to memory. You may know how each and every emotion is described and explained in these novels; like why the hero held his breath. And why he paused in his sentence. And why he looked away. Every little action is explained with emotions and something deeper, inside. (Tedious and it can be annoying, I know, but combined with some very good writing, it can make very good reading, in my opinion.)

It may sound funny but it made me realise and understand a lot about my hubby and my relationship with him - which I have been blind to all these years. It made me had a long think about things and most importantly, it made me appreciate Mr S more.

Example: I used to be very selebet when I am at home. My ideal uniform at home is my pajama bottoms and a loose shirt all day long. And I had only 2 or three favourite T-shirts, thus I would wear these again and again until they were quite in tatters and still I refused to wear something else.

But now I dress up when I am at home - for Mr S, of course. Nothing too fancy - simple clothes but those that don't make me look like a sack of potatoes - 'tighter' and curvier and more pleasing to the eyes because what man doesn't like his woman to look good?

That is one of the ways I show my appreciation to Mr S - all thanks to reading this genre. But I admit that it had to have that period of being apart thrown into the mix as well (pathetic, I know), when I had all the time in the world to think about ways to please Mr S...

My word, have I or have I digressed into deep territory in this entry?

(And this is where my rambling ends, as it should..)

Mrs Balogh is loved by her readers not really for her plots but for her writing style and the depth of emotions in her writings. I love her style best, and the writing styles of Suzanne Enoch and Loretta Chase as well. These are my favourite romance writers in the whole world and I am in the process of collecting their novels. Thus, you can imagine how happy I was at receiving the book FOC yesterday.

Thank you, Mary. I will treasure the book forever!