So much to do & so little time

I was watching my fave cable channel Travel & Living. David Rocco was cooking pasta and he was throwing in sage leaves and rosemary into the pot. Since I have this vision that one day, Ill be able to whip up these gorgeous meals, I've added in 'Know your Herbs & Spices' into my Things to do list for year 2007. To date, the following are the what I have decided to conquer for year 2007:

Know your Koran
(Every week, I spelled out Arabic Alphabets and read the Koran sentence by sentence and I'm beginning to have this itch to know their meanings. So, I've found myself another Koran that includes Translations in Indonesian. Good enough for me. I hope to complete reading the Koran and understand what I'm reading before I turn 30 this year.)
Learn Conversational Mandarin
(I went to the wet market last Saturday and was stumped a few times due to my lack of language skills. Seriously, sometimes I'm ashamed of myself for living in Singapore for 29 years and not knowing even the most simple Mandarin or Hokkien words. So there... I've bought myself 2 CD-Roms to learn some Mandarin)
Know your World
(My tuition kid's mum enthusiastically recounted her great holiday last December in Turkey. If time had permitted, she would have taken a ferry across to Greece. Huh? Is that possible? The first thing I did when I reached home was to check the atlas and sure enough Greece is right next to Turkey. I'm like duh! Ok... so it's about time I know my world
Learn your Herbs & Spices
(Yup.... get to know them really well , their uses and where to get them so if I would one day in the near future cook something out of a recipe book, I know at least, I got my Spices and herbs right)

2007....what will I do?

Syuaib is in nursery now at Al Iman and Syahid is 14 mths happily discovering new things . I just turned 29 in December last year and very glad that I'm back to my original weight. I've got my Quran reciting back on track, once a week and my tuition sessions have kicked in, 4 days a week sometimes one session per day and others 2. I make it a point to visit the library fortnightly to borrow books for the kids as I can see that they enjoy them.

Apart from all these everyday mundane routine, I must make some new goals for myself for this year or else I'll definitely feel like it would be a wasted year. Maybe I should learn Mandarin? Or learn how to ride a bicycle? ......... still thinking..... minutes after minutes passes by....... still thinking......oh no Syahid has awaken now. I'll come back once I've decided...

Gym VS Bedok Reservior

I woke up filling bloated and extremely lethargic on New Year's Day. No wonder, I remembered clearly stuffing myself with pineapple tarts and many slices of butter cakes at my mom's place the day before. Not only that, I ate Mee Soto, rice and Mee Goreng too. Yup... all those carbohydrates and bad fats are circulating throughout my body. Hubby was at home so I told him I need to get rid of the excess food as well as the guilty feeling. "Give me an hour, I'll just drive to Laguna and have a quick run on the treadmill, a few crunches and squats and I'll be done" Hubby had other ideas in his head. He suggested us jogging at Bedok Reservoir instead. I was quite apprehensive on the idea as I'm not a fan of jogging outdoors. I'm not into hot weather, you see. He managed to persuade me saying I could jog while Syuaib rode his bicycle.

It was 4 in the afternoon and the sun was still shining. We realised that the gravel track was not suitable for Syuaib to cycle. Hubby insisted on me jogging first while he looked after Syuaib. I started jogging along the track. It was bad , really bad. It was my first time running on a gravel track. The sound of my footsteps stamping on them was very irritating. The heat from the scorching sun was unbearable. I could hear every beat of my heartbeat clearly as I did not bring my MP3 along and most of the time I was jogging alone. The place was deserted. I'm definitely not turning back so I continued jogging while cursing under my breath till I reached the point where I started. SO..... one round the reservoir is 5 km. ok... I'll be clocking 5km too if I'm on the treadmill but it will definitely be very comfortable for me at the gym. There will be air conditioning, my MP3 and a nice cushioned floor for me to run on. East Coast is much a btter place to run than this. Hard concrete and at 7 am, the air is cool and fresh.

I was so mad at hubby for his stupid idea. I told him for someone to run around Bedok reservoir at such an hour and weather, that person must be a hardcore runner. Me, on the other hand is not training for any pain endurance competition or any marathon. I should have just brushed off his idea and went to the gym instead.

Phuket again?

It was an emergency holiday. Got to know that we were going to Phuket only the day before. Hubby managed to get his last day of work on the 22nd of November and guess what? He will start his new job on the 1st of Dec. It was a mad rush for him to clear all his paper work given that it was a 24 hour resignation notice.

We were crossed between Bali, Bandung and Phuket. The only flight available was Phuket so off we go bringing along Syuaib but leaving Syahid, our smallest one at home. I was actually a tad disappointed that we were not going to Bali coz the last time I went there was 9 years ago. The trip to Phuket would be my third time.

We stayed at Le Meridien Beach Resort and boy i did not regret one bit. It's private beach was gorgeous. Facing the Andaman sea, I could walk 100 m into the sea and the water was still only touching my chest. The water was not very salty, the waves were gentle, the sand very fine and there were no ships at all blocking the view of the coastal line. It was really beautiful.

Syuaib turned into a beach bum. Every morning, he would cried out, Let's go to the beach!. He loved playing with the sand with his beach toys which of course, we needed to buy a set as his own set was at home. We took a boat trip to Phi Phi Island. Shafik brought Syuaib fully equipped with his life jacket down into the water while I waited in the boat taking their pictures. We visited Monkey beach too.

We managed to chance upon two very good restaurants. A seafood restaurant and another serving North Indian. TheNorth Indian restaurant has a nice ambience and the food was delicious. I'm not really a fan of Indian food but this one was an exception. Every dish that we ordered were tasty. It's special Naan bread had slices of sweet juice mangoes on it. It's name is Ali Baba restaurant located on Ruamchai Rd, along Patong beach, opp Holiday Inn.

In the morning of the last day in Phuket, while everyone was asleep, I sat at the hotel balcony with a cup of Milo. It was about 7 in the morning. Everything looked so peaceful and it was then that all my new year resolutions came to me. The seaview was really beautiful that you couldn't help but to think of nice things. I know that this holiday would be my last with hubby in the next two years and i was really glad that we managed to have these nice moments together away from the hustle and bustle of the city back home, away from the mundane everyday routine. It was then too that I told myself to look at the positive side of everything that comes my way and to face every obstacles and problems that might arise for the next two years graciously......while hubby is away... that is

My Day off.

It's been ages since i rollerblade. Zah called me yesterday to arrange for a rollerblading session at East Cost with her. Managed to find my 12 year old blades under the bed. The blades has really served me well and it did it again. No problem gliding along the pavement from Fort Road to the Food Centre. Zah fetched me with her bike in this really short shorts. I made her hurry jsut in case my in-laws caught her with her get-up. Before blading, I had one of my favourite breakfast food from Macs, Hotcakes. Yummy.... After blading, Wati joined us from lunch at Raffles Banquet. Lunch was Ban Mian, Tim Sum and Carrot Cake. All shared between the three of us.

We then proceed to this five storey building called ICON, opposite Bugis Junction. It housed as what Zah called it 'quirky' clothes and accesories. Both Wati and Zah bought clothes that look like they were made in the 80's. Most of the shops are selling these types of clothes. They kept saying the clothes look gorgeous and I seriously couldn't agree with them. Most of them are oversized tops or dresses that looked dowdy to me. Of course, I didn't tell them this as i might offend them. Zah kept saying that they're very fashionable now. Don't think I can carry the 80s look so nope... even how fashionable the clothes may be, if it makes me look like a christmas tree, I'm not wearing them. You can call me old-fashioned but I know what looks good on me.

Syahid at his most adorable poses

This water tastes weird. Very different from my bath water! Yucks!

Hi... I'm 9 months old and I'm extremely happy today. Mama brought me to the playground.

Oh no...I'm falling asleep..sleeping is a such a waste of time but my eyes are damn heavy. I can't take it anymore. ZZZzzzzz

I Not Stupid Too

Yesterday, cousin Nisha brought along a dvd 'I Not Stupid Too' to my place. I was quite apprehensive at first about watching the movie as I didn't want to waste 2 hours of my time watching a stupid Mandarin locally produced movie. She said it was good so I took my chance and boy it was not only good..it was excellent. I cried my eyes out! Jack Neo is brilliant. I should have watch the movie when it was first shown at the cinema. I'm sure everyone was raving about it. Well, it's better late, then never. I highly urge everyone of you to watch it. Borrow it, buy it or steal it. You will not regret it.

SUPPORT OUR LOCAL PRODUCTION!!!!
(coming from someone who claims the movie was stupid at first... Sigh)

Wati's birthday Celebration

I bake a chocolate ganache cake for Wati. I must say that the cake was extremely delicious! (Shameless me) Anyway, everyone luv it too especially Wati with her love for dark chocolate. Wati, Zah and Shah came over for the cake, then we head down to Pierside. All of us ended up with their signature dish Bake Cod fish. Lovely evening under the clear sky with the river view. Had a great time catching up.....

Mcdonald Party.....

Syuaib got his first invitation to a birthday party on the 2nd of September. It was Ahmad Siddique's 3rd birthday and was held at Macdonald (Queenstown). Though excited as he was, he seemed rather out of place. During the games, he was more awed by the activites and only half participated in the activites. Oh well, I guess it's time for him to go back to school. Since he's immune system is pretty strong now and the toilet-training going really well, he is definitely ready to go back to school.

After the party, we went to one of our fave place, Great World City have lunch and then Ben & Jerry's (where as always the ice-creams are so heavenly).

Happening No More

It just daunt to me that I'll be 29 this year. Funny that life becomes more monotonous, less fun and no longer as carefree as what it used to be 10 years ago. Does everyone experience the same thing thing as me? When you age, does life just get boring? How do one make one's life full of LIFE? Taking care of the 2 young things definitely has made my everyday life extremely busy but looking back during my before marriage and having kids years, there's definitely something missing... you know the spark... the excitement of unplanned trips, the release of pent up anger through dance, the happening late nights...the girls' movie outings cum dessert....I guess it's just up to you to bring back the spark. But with a three year old and a 4 month old boys, everything must be planned, how to have happening late nights and is there still time for outings with friends?

I just had a 3 day's trip to KL. Went there with my 2 in-laws and my 2 kids. What I did there was mainly taking care of the kids. KL trips used to be clubbing, shopping and more shopping. Those days are gone. I missed those days where you just let yourself go and sway yourself to the music till the early hours, shop till you drop, laughing away with girlfriends at Swensens, rollerblading for hours on end. I just have to tell myself. When you age, you win some and you lose some. Whatever it is, I know my winnings....