#mylittlefamily

Hello and Assalamualaikum. Hope everyone has a beautiful (oh, maybe not beautiful but a good) Monday. Hope that your "Monday blues" is manageable. Mine?! I decided not to care much but rather to just go for it. Work is piling up high and not to forget the assignments. But yea, what's new? It's basically the same old, same old story. So, deal with it, right?!

So anyway, as shown on the above picture, my daughter and husband were enjoying their pool time together. Despite the whole drama-show-tantrum that she put us into, yesterday was in deed a fun-good time together for all of us.

Being a mother requires a lot of patience and I am not giving up just yet. Sabar itu separuh daripada Iman dan Iman adalah anak saya. Jadi, sabar itu perlu. InsyaAllah, tanggungjawab itu akan di pikul sebaik mungkin.

Hello Malaysia!

I am very much impressed with the amount of money that our government paid for the Prime Minister's bills. The amount of money that we spent on these bills can actually feed a village, Masyallah. 

It is sad looking at what is happening to the country. It's getting worst with nonsense news being reported everyday. It's heart-breaking to see that irresponsible Ministers trying to fool the rakyat with crappy statements, making fool of themselves as if the rakyat is so stupid that the rakyat can't differentiate between right and wrong. We are desperately in need of a change - a true leader who can manage the country well and not just by managing their own pocket money.

Wonder when will that time be?

That Latte Place @ Jalan Persiaran Ritchie, Ampang

I am so excited about this new cafe that I really need to write about it. In fact, I just got back from having brunch at the cafe.

It was actually recommended by one of my course-mate. She is a regular customer of this cool cafe located at Jalan Persiaran Ritchie off Jalan Ampang Hilir (behind Great Eastern Mall). We have been planning to have brunch together at this cafe for the longest time and finally made it today. We decided to have our discussion for our group assignment-cum-brunch at this cool cafe. OMG, it is really a cool cafe.

That Latte Place is located at Yayasan Seni Berdaftar, Artisan Centre Gallery. I fell in love with place the moment I arrived. It's like love at the first sight. Chewah!!

The entrance to the cafe

And the food - the food is marvellous and at a very reasonable price. I had their Pancake with Fruit Salad together with Americano and it only cost me RM13.90. Isn't it cheap?

I had my second cup of Latte and it was good. It doesn't taste that sweet - ngam ngam taste, if you know what I mean.

Everything is actually below RM10 except for the Hearty Breakfast

Hearty Breakfast, RM17.90

The Croissant Egg Sandwich

Creamy Chicken Mushroom Pie

This is my order - Pancake with Fruit Salad

My second cup of coffee - Latte

Will definitely come again and you should too!

That Latte Place,

Yayasan Seni Berdaftar, 

333, Persiaran Ritchie off Jalan Ampang Hilir

#ootd

I just woke up from a very long nap. I was down with fever and falling flat after taking the meds. I had a very long much needed rest. Alhamdulillah, am feeling good and fresh now except for the sore throat yang masih menyengat rasanya.

So anyway, I have been busy with my usual stuff - work and assignments that I haven't got time to update this blogsphere on mine. Jadi post ini akan hanya menjadi post yang sungguh merepek.

If you know me personally, you would know that I don't really wear baju kurung that much. I only wear baju kurung on a very rare occasion - either during festive seasons (Hari Raya), weddings or kenduri kendara. Memang sungguh jarang sekali!.

Please don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like wearing them, I do! Just that I walk very fast and wearing baju kurung makes me move a little bit slower than my usual beat and it looks very funny when I walk very fast on a baju kurung.

But last Tuesday, I decided to wear baju kurung to work. Sungguh unusual for me to wear baju kurung to work sebab I don't wear baju kurung to work. Jadi, bila berbaju kurung ke tempat kerja, semua orang jadi pelik.

Wearing a brown baju kurung from by my mother in law for my brother in law's wedding

My point is, I should wear baju kurung more often to work else baju-baju kurung yang ada tu dibiarkan begitu sahaja.

Over a cup of coffee

Generally, weekend is where we spend most of our time with our family and friends - having brunch or a quick dinner just to get an update on their up and about.

Similarly like others, my weekend is where the boys will come over to the house while my mom will prepare food for them or a quick jalan-jalan with lil Iman at the park. But I hardly spend my weekends with my girls.

For some people, it is a ritual for them to have a quick get-together brunch/lunch/dinner with their close friends. Unlike others, my close friends are super busy with their own lives. One is still cooping with managing her own little family (having a 6 months old baby boy is as challenging as taking care a growing up lil Iman) while the other one is busy doing her home-diy-decorating project and the other one who is still learning to overcome her heartbroken-ness needs the time on her own. Hence, to fix the time where everyone is free and available is indeed..... difficult.

I can safely say that our get-together will only be once every quarter sebab nak celebrate everyone's belated birthdays. Oh yes, we celebrated our birthdays the belated way. Sungguh unik bukan. It's our thing, we can't help it!

Anyway, my point is, although we do not have time for each other atau dalam bahasa lembutnya, we hardly meet each other, that doesn't mean that our relationship is loosen up because we built our friendship base on trust not by frequent get-together meetings.

I know that I can rely on them on anything and I know that they will always be there for me whenever I need them the most. We don't need to meet each other every-so-weekend just to update ourselves on our whereabouts. Itu dah macam client's WIP meeting pulak nak kena update every week. We can still communicate with each other through technology though! We still keep ourselves updated about each other through phone calls. Tak perlu physical meeting because we have other commitments that requires our time instead of having a weekly get-together, kan?! Therefore, we will make sure that the time spent for each other were the quality ones. Kan lebih bermakna.

This friends I have are the ones that I'll keep for the rest of my life - the ones that will never lie, the ones that will always tell the truth even though truth hurts, the ones that will say everything in all honesty and these are the ones who will share my ups and down. Real friendship doesn't requires weekly get-together, real friendship requires honest love which we have for each other.

Al-Amin Xinjiang Muslim Restaurant

A colleague recommended a new Chinese Muslim restaurant couple of months back. It's called Al-Amin Xinjiang Muslim Restaurant located at SS2 Mall facing the SS2 residence. And so, we (my usual kaki makan gang & I) made a visit to this restaurant last September.

These were what we had that day.

I can't remember the name of this delicious food I had. It's a beef something. Very spicy.

Mutton Dumpling.

Xinjiang Lamian

Chicken Kebab - this is super delicious

Beef Xinjiang Lamian

Overall, it's a 3.5 out of 5 for me. The food is so-so only (for my taste buds). But the chicken kebab/satay is super delicious. 

If you're into Xinjiang Chinese cuisine, please make your way to this new restaurant.

A good wife

I was washing my husband's shirt (yes, I hand-wash my husband's shirts & my blouses) when it hits me with a question - what does it takes to be a good wife?

We've been married for nearly 3 years now. Masih mentah and there are still a lot of things that we need to learn and to understand about each other. Although, we have known each other for nearly 8 years now but that doesn't mean that we know each other inside and out. Masih banyak kelemahan and kekurangan diri yang masih perlu dipelajari. But within this 3 years of marriage, never have I once called myself a good wife. I am far from being a good wife to my husband, not even close!

We are both a working parent. My husband is a Political Journalist hence his time is spend mostly working on his assignments. As a wife, I try to help as much as I can to manage our family although being a working person, a mother and a student all at the same time is tough and tiring but here I am still standing, Alhamdulillah. And with the help I get from Iman's nanny - my helpful helper, kuranglah sikit beban. I get to do all the house chores over the weekend while she help me to look after Iman. Saturday is the only day where I can do the house work - laundry, cleaning and whatnot tanpa gangguan Iman yang comel itu (eh, tiba-tiba). My point is, by doing house chores doesn't mean that I am a good wife right?!

They say a happy marriage starts with the husband's tummy and also a good sex life. Oh yes kids, sex in a marriage is very important. Go ask around if you don't believe me. The increase of divorce rate is all because of unhappy sex life. But I'm not here to write about my sex life. Nanti kena label as porno blog pulak tak pasal. 

To be honest, I rarely, very rarely cook for my husband. We are staying with my parents hence all the cooking is done by my mother. I will only do the cooking if my parents are not around or they requested for pasta. With this, I don't think my husband's tummy is happy though I positively think the tummy is happier with the delicious food that my mom prepared for us. This is another example of me being a bad wife.

We made into a fight recently. Biasalah, rumahtangga mestilah bergaduh but I took it very emotionally and made a fool of myself. I turned myself into a very stubborn person and choose my emotion and not being rationale about it. This is the one thing that I regret the most. Tiap-tiap hari rasa bersalah. I am not going to write what I did to my husband but clearly what I did was wrong dan sebagai seorang isteri, perbuatan itu adalah berdosa.

With this, clearly I am not a good wife. But then again, what does it takes to be a good wife?

Sydney day 3 & 4

Day 3

Continuing our holiday trip at Sydney, we spent our 3rd day at Paddy's Market and Paddy's Market only. Hari yang penuh dengan kejadian. As usual, we started our day late as the lil princess decided to sleep extra hours that morning hence our day started at about 11-ish AM. We rushed to the ferry station only to know that we took the wrong ferry to the city. We stopped at one of the station and took a bus instead. Interestingly, the old folks of this city commuted with the public transportation quite well. Age is not a factor to stay at home and do nothing. They rather go out and enjoy their days walking down the city. Sydney is indeed a place for pensioners, heh!

Anyway, we stopped at the Central Station - transit train from Circular Quay and walk all the way to Paddy's Market. No wonder I lost few kgs during this trip, jalan memanjang.

The main entrance of Central Station

The Central Station

Walking to Paddy's Market

Paddy's Market - the cheap gifts store

Didn't expect the "cheap" gifts to be very cheap, we decided to go again to Paddy's Market the next day. My mother was the excited one for their wet market. She bought all sorts of fruits and veggies - apple, oranges, banana, sayuran-sayuran. They are all fresh and cheap!

Selepas penat membeli-belah, we balik rumah dengan hati yang riang.

Day 4

Before we headed again to Paddy's Market, we went to Sydney's Under Water World at Darling Harbour to see all the interesting underwater world adventures. Amaze-balls!

The floated ship restaurant at Darling Harbour

The large crab - memang besar gila!

The underwater world tunnel

Gambar shok sendiri.

Dugong.

Besar kan?

Another underwater world tunnel

Ibu and Iman

There were thousands of pretty pictures we took at this place. Tak tahu kenapa we appreciate more of this kalau kat negara orang instead of the one we have in our own country (Aquaria). Maybe I should bring Iman to Aquaria and compare. But anyway, we had fun!

Then we jalan-jalan at the nearby area before heading to Paddy's Market. Tak habis-habis promote Paddy's Market.

The view at Darling Harbour

We singgah at China Town for awhile. My mother wanted to look for a pack of rice sekali tak jumpa. We spotted a Halal Malaysia Chinese Restaurant at China Town but we didn't try it sebab mak masak kat rumah lagi sedap.

Malay Village at China Town

The main entrance to China Town

Memang penat gila. Balik memang pengsan. Imagine, I have to carry Iman all day long inside the carrier. Patah tulang I tell you.

Oklah, shall continue soon. Enough of a long picture post for today.

Stories on Sydney day 1 & Sydney day 2 

Happy 3rd Anniversary

No! No! Not my wedding anniversary (not until January 2014 though) but rather 3rd year anniversary for being the employee of the media agency that I'm currently attached with.

I was actually drafting a post on one of the Chinese Muslim restaurant that I visited couple of months back when I realized that today is actually 1st of November which marks the 3rd year of me working with the media agency. 

Wow, time flies very fast. I still remember my 1st day working with the company. Nervous much when I realized that I was the only Malay girl (then, but the Malay population has grown now) working in the company. I thought that I'll be facing difficulties mingling around but it turned our perfectly fine. They respect me as a Muslim - allowing me to perform my prayers when the time comes (my ex-boss even reminded me to go and pray). They treated me like a family. They alarmed me that some of the food that they bought were non-halal hence they can't share it with me. No discrimination among us. They are more than just a colleague. They are like a family to me.

And that is the reason why I stay.

To be honest, there were thousand times where I feel like quitting, joining other media agency. There were thousand times where I complaint about how much I have given up hope with my work - how much I really want to quit. But in the end, I never quit!

Not that I haven't explore my options. In fact, I have been receiving numerous of calls from other agencies for new opportunities. But, I don't feel the need of moving on looking for a new opportunity just yet. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn. I started of with zero knowledge on media planning but because of the interest I have and a good teacher who taught me well, I am who I am today.

Of course, there were the good and bad times especially when you did not deliver and affected your client's reputation but that is how you learn. You learn with your mistakes so that you don't do the same mistakes again. You improve yourself and you develop your skill through it.

Never have I thought that I will stay with a company this long (3 years is lama ok!). But I guess, I will stay for another 1 or 2 years till I completed my Masters at least (I still need the source right, LOL). Who knows I probably stay longer or kerja situ sampai pencen, who knows right?

3 years and a promotion. Not bad huh?!