First sweet escape of 2012

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Tetiba pulak macam takde masa nak hapdet blog. Been a little bz bee lately dengan kerja-kerja ofis yang semakin menuntut perhatian dan menghampiri dateline. Anyway masih jugak sempat ber-vacay, actually a short holiday dengan family last weekend. Dekat mana tuuu...hehe. Dekat PD je sempena my other half kena attend team building kat sana for 3 days. So, disebabkan tak nak keboringan dekat rumah on the weekend, we decided to follow him, sharing a 3 room apartment hotel at Regency Tanjung Tuan Beach Resort with 2 of his colleagues' family. Regency is a hotel apartment, tiada standard room macam hotel-hotel biasa.

We were lucky sebab masa check-in tu, we were informed that 3 room apts all have been fully booked despite the successful booking that we have already made 2 days before. Nak tak nak diaorang pun upgrade to 4 room apartment...yahooo!! Memang puas hati dengan harga yang sama dengan 3 rooms apartment, the interior was spacious, budak2 memang boleh lari 100meter dalam tu....ngeeee:) Since kami satu family yang sampai paling awal, so managed to take the master bedroom overlooking the beautiful and clean beach. Paling best dapat menikmati pemandangan sunset yang sangat cantik right from our balcony....subhanallah.

Day 1 which is Friday, sampai dah petang dekat waktu Asar and my other half terus kena attend dia punye kelas. Luckily the other family arrived and kita orang just duduk sembang-sembang, sesi ice-breaking....haha since we barely known each other. Pernah jumpa sekejap-sekejap je masa event company Heitech Padu sebelum ni and sangat bersyukur dapat se-apartment dengan orang yang boleh ngam dengan kita. FYI, this is the first time actually I stayed overnight in PD, malu nak ngaku sebenarnya. Biasa pergi sana balik hari je.

What I appreciate the most during this short sweet escape is, the ukhuwah yang baru terjalin bukan sahaja between me and the wives of my other half colleagues, tapi jugak antara anak-anak masing-masing. Lagi satu yang paling best, boleh relax sebenar-benar relax. Memang santai habislah even tho kat PD je. The kids pon were enjoying themselves to the max playing in the pool and the beach. Pantai pun sangat bersih dan swimming pool memang dijaga oleh petugas yang menjalankan tugas dengan sangat baik especially making sure the small kids did not jump into the deeper pool. That is why la mak budak boleh relax, tak payah nak susah-susah memantau budak-budak ni sangat...hehe. Definetely gonna be one of my fav apartments hotel in PD disebabkan faktor ini. 

FYI, kalau tengok dari luar apartment ni memang buruk dan macam bangunan lama dengan aircond compartment dari luar memang nampak sangat perlukan refurbishment tapi interior memang sangat OK. Makanan pun not bad, kira kategori sedap jugakla. We were treated with masakan kampung for lunch and BBQ for dinner. Semuanya alhamdulillah ditanggung beres termasuklah harga untuk 3 days 2 night stay berjumlah RM 1300.00. Terkejut beruk la jugak semua yang berkenaan bila ada someone VIP dah tolong setelkan bil. Alhamdulillah rezeki anak-anak dan kami semua juga. Kebetulan masa hari dia bayarkan tu dia ada menumpang apartmen kami untuk solat sempena kehadirannya sebagai special guest. Mungkin sebagai menghargai komitmen pekerja dia yang menyambut ketibaan beliau kot....hahaha. 

Anyway, a memorable vacay is not complete without some pictures, right. So, let's get the pics speak :)

Ni la ghupe dari luar...agak buruk kn...haha

Tunggu nak check-in

Our room

The breathtaking view from the balcony

Fun time :)

The beautiful sunset

Discovering space u8

Semalam, Rabu bersamaan dengan 11 April 2012, adalah public holiday sempena pertabalan Yang di-Pertuan Agong yang baru. Pagi yang dingin disebabkan hujan renyai menambahkan kesedapan tido...zzzzzzz. Tapi disebabkan my other half ada training futsal for this coming Saturday company event, awal-awal lagi ( awal ke kul 9...hehe) dah gerak ke USJ. Habis training tu ingat nak buat pit-stop dekat Sunway Pyramid, tapi bila tengok traffic jam dari main road ke tempat parking, maka dengan itu we swithed to Plan B.

My other half suggested we went to space u8, supposed to be the new shopping mall for warga Shah Alam. Located between Bukit Jelutong and TTDI Jaya, we were disappointed by the amount of shops opened. Sangat-sangat lah sedikit, tak boleh nak dibanggakan langsung. By the way, this is the first ever eco-friendly mall. Sempat baca dia punye info on the construction method. For normal construction, we usually used pile for foundation tapi this eco-friendly mall hanya menggunakan a few layers on TYRES to support the whole structure. Wow!! It also does not operate air-conditioning ventilation system, only the shoplots have A/C. Ermmm, what else??? Oh yess! They also have this rainwater harvesting system. For more info on this topic u can visit the mall yourselves ( mode malas nak story panjang2..hehe)

Enough about the green building topics. Nak cerita sebenarnya aktiviti yang boleh buat kat sini selain shopping disebabkan kedai pun tak banyak kan. Ada MBO cinema dan jugak play club which is the current trend for kidz. Kat sini ada satu play club ala-ala kidzania tapi dah lupa apa ke namanya..hehe. Sekali masuk kena bayar RM25.00 on public holiday and weekend dan weekdays dalam RM 15 ke RM 16, lupa jugak...sorryyyy! Times for playing is unlimited. Orang tu cakap sampai dia tutup kedai pun boleh. Lagi satu kalau nak bawak anak-anak main kat sini, kena bawak stokin sebab it is compulsary to wear socks all the time. Coming soon in May/June kalau tak silap, this play club akan bukak untuk membership. The membership price would be RM 9.00 per kids per entry mengikut apa yang dia tulis dekat list of price tu tapi kena bayar membership fee RM 200.00 for one year.

Since the price is unacceptable for us (lain kali ye anak-anak, umi dan abah belanja....)we headed our way to MBO cinema. Orang memang takdelah jam-packed macam dekat TGV or GSC. Decided to watch Battleship movie since baru tengok trailer dia malam sebelumnya dekat FMP ( fox movies premium, previously known as Star Movies) macam best....ala-ala movie Transformers pun ada. Movie tu start pukul 2.30pm so we had our Zohor prayer first. Surau space u8 ni was located behind their food court dekat Tingkat 1 and the surau is unexceptionally comfortable, besar, nice interior dan disediakan telekung yang BERSIH ( masih bersih sebab baru atau sebab orang tak ramai pakai, not sure la.  We'll see for another times macam mane).

Bila dah masuk dalam panggung tu, I was disappointed dengan tempat duduk penonton. Sangat-sangat tidak mesra penonton kanak-kanak sebab tak macam TGV or GSC, budak-budak baya Aqil and Nadhirah memang tiada masalah ketinggian untuk tengok screen bila duduk. Dekat MBO ni pulak sebaliknya. Kalau nak tengok screen kena tengok ikut celah-celah tempat dudok depan, kalau tak memang kena berdiri atas kerusi ( tapi tak boleh la kan nanti orang belakang tak nampak pulak !!) since memang tak nampak screen disebabkan tempat duduk depan agak tinggi untuk budak-budak yang menghalang direct sight. Overall, ok!

Filem Battleship tu pun bagi saya memang best...berbaloi-baloi :) Dan, no wonder 80% of the scene ada unsur-unsur filem Transfomers since filem ni dibuat dengan kerjasama HASBRO dan movie ni pon sebenarnya is based on HASBRO classic combat game dengan nama yang sama. So kepada peminat Transformers, filem ni memang wajib ditonton. Lakonan first time Rihanna pon tak mengecewakan. Sampai ke hari ni, saya masih rasa kesan daripada menonton filem ni terutamanya, the scary and nerve-wrecking feelings if ever our beautiful world is invaded by bad aliens. Dan jugak perasaan hormat dan tabik spring lah dekat perwira-perwira lautan who have this extraordinary courage against death in defending the world against the more powerful enemy.

Kesimpulannya, lepas ni memang takde masalah kalu nak tengok wayang. Tak perlu beratur panjang dan pergi jauh-jauh lepas tu tak jadi sebab orang terlampau ramai, unless ada kesempatan nak book dulu online. Dah ada spot baru yang lebih convenience despite some flaws, tapi still boleh tolerate. So MBO @ space u8, watch out for my next invasion!!!

What I learned when my kid start schooling

My eldest daughter is already in Standard 2. I've learned a few things along the way, so was just thinking of sharing them with my audiences. Ohhh...wait!! Do I have my audience?? Silent reader, maybe...haha. Anyway, these are what I have learned when my kid start schooling :

1. u got to keep ur PATIENCE on the extremely high level especially when dealing with this situation.

Situation 1 : In the morning, waking ur fast asleep lovely kids of yours for Subuh prayer  and they start to cry because they don't want to leave their beds.

Situation 2 : The crying did not end and goes on during Subuh prayer and u can't concentrate on your prayer (this is  because she only wants to pray together with me, if I leave her behind and pray first the situation gets worse)

  

Situation 3 : When u sent her to the bathroom and told her to finish her bath and stop   crying, u came in to check on her another 10 mins later, she still weeping and leaning against the bathroom wall doing nothing other than....u know what. Grrrrrrrrr!!

*10 mins of precious morning hour wasted*

Situation 4 : On our way home after work, she fell into sleep in the car and the morning situation repeated (my eldest kid is schooling in 7.50am - 4.00pm school hour and usually my other half will pick her up after Asar prayer)

Situation 5 : The crying episode continued in the evening but usually it will gets worse with the "baling-baling barang" and "hentak-hentak kaki" situation which is so annoying to me and again the bathroom situation will be repeated

Situation 6 : She fell asleep again while doing her homework and we couldn't do anything to wake her up. The next morning, she'll skipped Situation 1-3 but she will repeat Situation 5 since she did not manage to finish her homework and updates her books to bring to school according to the timetable.

Situation 7 : The same situation goes on and on almost everyday of school days

2. kids on early school years, they listen but they never learned lessons from the everyday situation. You have to keep reminding him/her everyday about the same things like these: 

Situation 8 : don't watch tv while doing ur homework

Situation 9 : do ur homework early especially on the weekend so u could have a piece  of mind

Situation 10 :  keep ur books according to the time table on the eve of school day, not in the morning of next school days so you have more times in the morning to get ready for school

Situation 11: don't loose ur sport's uniform again *instead, she has lost it 2 times already and the uniform is not cheap, ok!!

3. the everyday situation differs in boys. What I can see is, boys are much easier to handle. They won't get too emotional while on the other hands, girls are much more spoiled and got too carried away with their emotion

4. store more on-the-go foods in your handbag for after school 'hunger' unless u want to make a stop at the petrol station or convenient store on your way home

5. u need to provide them with supplements because they tend to fall sick easily

6. u need to spoil them with promises during exam's week and making sure u keep it after they received their remarkable results...yeayyy!!

7. no more normal rate on hotels since u can go on a vacation during school holidays ONLY 

 

8. some of the hot-temper-encouragement situation will fade along with their age...... ...alhamdulillah    

Well, that's all I could think of for the time being. Will update later if there's something I left behind. For reminders, these learning process (except for no.5-8) only happened when you have kid who is schooling from 8.00am-4.00pm straight. So you can see why all the annoying and patience testing behavior occurred in the first place...*THEY ARE TIRED!!*

Android users is ruining our IG club :(

Salam Jumaat....

If u notice on my profile, I wrote that I'm an Instagram addict. For Iphone users everybody knows Instagram. But 2 days ago it hit me that Instagram will be no more exclusive to Iphone users ONLY since it is now available for Android phone users. WHATTT?? Mode : Heartborken.

"dissapointment has a name...it's heartbreak - John Mayer, Heartbreak Warfare"

Now, if anybody ask me, what is Instagram, I couldn't proudly answer like this any more..." A photo sharing apps that's exclusively invented for Iphone users..bla bla bla".

 I just found out that the disappointments has been felt around the world when reading this, Iphone Users : Android is ruining our instagram club. Well, actually they do. Iphone has lost another exclusivity. Before, when Iphone users posted something on FB, the words via FB for Iphone will appear, now it's all gone with the wind updates, despite the facts that everyone is making request that the feature makes a comeback, we were disappointed again and again after one update to another, the feature never make itself appear again.

Steve Jobs has done a great job changing our way of life and I really admire his capabilities and brilliant ideas (which was copied promiscuously in the same form but different names of apps world). Now that he's gone, to see his masterpiece slowly lost its trademark disappoints me again and again and again. However, when I read this part of the article,

I think: that which smartphone we own has begun to inform our identities. In our gadget-filled lives, our phones have become another way for us to organize ourselves into separate groups, to label each other as "other" and "apart." Our tech has come to define us. 

I'm changing my angle of view to the positive sides. Besides, we smartphone users basically use it for the same thing, social networking, checking mails on the go, surf webs on the go, finding locations; just like the author of the article said, so lets just get along and share pictures of how beautiful our lives is.

P/s : this makes a good reason to add another smartphone change to Samsung Galaxy Note, perhaps :)

update: still disappointed no matter how hard I try to welcome androiders to my IG world:(

Photos of the week

 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.........

 

“ Sesungguhnya pada kejadian langit dan bumi, dan pada pertukaran malam dan siang, ada tanda-tanda (kekuasaan, kebijaksanaan, dan keluasan rahmat Allah) bagi orang-orang yang berakal; (Iaitu) orang-orang yang menyebut dan mengingati Allah semasa mereka berdiri dan duduk dan semasa mereka berbaring mengiring, dan mereka pula memikirkan tentang kejadian langit dan bumi (sambil berkata): “Wahai Tuhan kami! tidaklah Engkau menjadikan benda-benda ini dengan sia-sia, Maha Suci Engkau, maka peliharalah kami dari azab neraka” [Aal ‘Imraan 3: 190-191]

#sunrise

#sunset

#sunset

#sunrise

Simple Butter Cake

Disebabkan electric mixer dah ada, so its time to bake something....yeahaaaa!! We'll start with a simple cake first.

Recipe: Butter Cake
 

Adapted from Food-4Tots

Ingredients:

2 and 1/3 stick (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
7 oz (200g) plain flour/all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
7 oz (200g) castor sugar
4 eggs
½ tsp salt
4 tablespoons fresh milk or yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Lightly grease the pan with some butter.
3. Mix the flour and the baking powder together and sieve. Add in salt and mix well. Set aside.
4. Use an electronic beater to mix butter and sugar until well combined or pale yellow in color. (Note: Sugar has not dissolved yet).
5. Add in the first egg. Beat well after each addition of egg until creamy.
6. Scrape down the sides for even mixing.
7. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
8. Fold in the flour into the mixture and mix well.
9. Finally, add in the milk/yogurt.
10. Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan. Shake it lightly to distribute cake mixture evenly.
11. Bake until golden brown and cooked, about 40 minutes. Use a cake tester to test if it’s cooked.

12. Remove it from the oven and let cool on the wire rack for another 5 minutes. Serve warm.

p/s : Ditch the salt if using salted butter.

My point of view....

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim...

Macam mane ye nak mula...ermm. Sebenarnya hari ni mak budak ni nak membebel pasal komplen yang mak budak buat hari tu dekat SKMM. Alahhh...pasal lirik lagu Bawaku Pergi tuuu. Terkini, lagu tu pon dah kena banned, for temporary or permanent sementara tunggu keputusan muktamad jawatankuasa yang dilantik, tu di luar bidang pengetahuan mak budak ni ye. Anyway, lets just hope for the best into a better environment for our generation.

Yang kena banned tu bukan gara-gara komplen mak budak ni sorang je ye. Ni sebab dah keluar paper Utusan Malaysia sebagaimana dipetik daripada Mstar online :

Utusan Malaysia melaporkan rungutan Presiden Majlis Pemuafakan Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru Nasional (PIBGN), Prof Madya Datuk Mohd Ali Hassan yang meminta lagu tersebut diharamkan kerana membawa unsur negatif serta boleh mendorong remaja lari dari rumah.

Dah baca kenyataan balas penulis lirik dia. Antaranya, dia menyatakan bahawa: -

1.lirik lagu tersebut menggambarkan imaginasinya nak bercuti ke luar negara dengan isterinya terutamanya ke Bali/Indochina - apa dia ingat manusia yang dengar lagu dia tu Tuhan ke, maha mengetahui segala imaginasi yang dia ingin gambarkan. Lain orang lain interpretasi dan pemahaman, ok! Lain la memang tulis situ " saya nak gi Bali dengan bini saya makan angin"....muahaha. 

2."Saya gemar mengembara, dunia ini ada 196 negara dan sempadan dunia saya tidak berakhir di Siam,” katanya. .- bagi kebanyakan orang yang tak kaya macam dia, nak pergi kenal sempadan selain sempadan Siam pun tak MAMPU. Ntah-ntah nak gi skolah blaja Geografi pun tak MAMPU.

3. "Saya menulis sebagai seorang dewasa dan jika pihak yang kurang matang yang mendengar lagu saya bertindak bodoh, itu bukan hal saya." - di manakah tanggungjawab sosial dia sebagai seorang manusia beragama Islam dan artis yang dikenali di Malaysia???

Semua petikan di atas, dipetik daripada laman web http://mstar.com.my. 

Lagi satu ada jugak komen-komen pembaca yang tak menyokong pengharaman lagu ni dengan alasan, lagu-lagu barat lebih merosakkan. Mak budak rasa lagu-lagu barat memang orang tak heran sebab zaman berzaman memang merosakkan kalau tak ditapis betul-betul. Sebab apa??? Sebab diaorg tu orang KAFIR. Memang diaorang takde pikir dosa pahala, baik ke buruk. Jadi tak payah la nak compare dengan lagu barat sebab semestinya diaorang tak setaraf kalau nak dibandingkan dengan kita orang Islam ni, yang sepatutnya mempunyai budi pekerti yang lebih mulia dalam setiap pekerjaan kita. Lagipun ramai yang tahu, memang misi diaorang nak menyesatkan umat Islam yang cepat lalai. Takkan la kita sebagai Muslim nak menyesatkan saudara seagama kita sendiri kan. 

Kesimpulannya lebih baik buat lirik yang simple dan mudah difahami atau lirik yang berbunga-bunga pun tak kisahlah asalkan maksud yang nak digambarkan tu sampai, dan takkan disalahtafsir oleh orang-orang yang kononnye berfikiran negatif. This is only my opinion on this issue. Everybody else is entitled to their own different point of view.