Iman Alexandria turns 2

Two years ago, I was in a battle, fighting for the life of my loved one in a labour room of Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital. And to be honest, at that time, I wasn't sure if I'm actually ready to be a mother; raising a child in this very challenging world. What if I turn out to be so bad in this motherhood world? What if I fail in raising my children to be a good person? What if I don't have the capabilities in being a good mother? All these what ifs have been playing in my head hours before I gave birth to my baby girl.

But I guess, Allah is the best planner for His ummah. And He knows that I can do it. I turned out to be just fine - still struggling, learning, fighting with myself raising my growing up baby girl.

And today, my baby girl turns 2, Alhamdulillah.

It has been a very challenging years - watching her grow day by day. It's amazing how you can love someone so much and never want that feeling to ever go away. Loving her has taught me to be patient. There is no greater love than a love from a mother to her child because she means the world to me. She is my life.

So Iman Alexandria, Happy birthday to you. I wish you all the best in the world and I pray (and I pray hard) that you will be a solehah to your dad and me, Insya Allah. You mean the world to us. And I promise to always be there for you through your ups and downs, to be there to experience all of your firsts - first day of school, first boyfriend (eh?), first dentist check-up, first bus-ride and etc because my love for you is unconditional. Love you to the moon and back.

Oh! Malaysiaku

I'm sure everyone knows by now that there'll be an increase on toll rates effective 1st January 2014 for most of the inter-linked KL highways. Increment is ranging from RM0.50 to RM2. It's good that the government pre-empted us before they really implement the new rates. However, the rates that were reported earlier were slightly lower than the official ones. I guess, re-evaluating the rates have caused more increment. Rakyat Malaysia kan kaya raya.

Anyways, nothing's new right? We were expecting more things to increase in 2014 aren't we?

I'm not sure if this is the official rates applying for the respective highways but if this is it, I guess, makan pasir lah jawabnya. 

I have to spare RM12 daily for my toll expenses for 2014 which is 50% higher than my current expenses. This is madness. Tapi tak apa, rakyat Malaysia kan kaya raya!

Highways were made to help the rakyat to spend less hours on the road and to avoid traffic jams. Hence why the rakyat do not mind paying a little bit extra on toll. However, with the crazy toll increment won't do the purpose anymore. How is it helping the rakyat if we were to pay super extra in order to reach our destinations. And suggesting the rakyat to use alternative road is totally a stupid-uneducated comment made by the ministers. Then why build highways?

Are you expecting us to use Federal Highway or the MRR2? Have you been to this roads during peak hours? Where's you brain mister?

I have to find my own solution. Using alternative road won't solve my problem. I will still need to pay toll even using an alternative road. There is no way I can avoid paying toll going to Damansara. Hence why I decided to get a B2 license next year with or without husband's permission. And to get a super cool pink color scooter.

This shall be my 2014 resolution - B2 license and a pink scooter.

And to my fellow Malaysians, good luck to you. May the force be with us all.

The Daily Grind, Bangsar Village 1

I have this weird craving for delicious waffles for almost a week now. Seeing a friend posted a scrumptious looking waffles has increased my craving level. Texted the girls for a coffee session and persuaded them to have dinner at The Daily Grind.

I have never been to The Daily Grind before. I've seen friends going in, dining at the restaurant, food reviews and it's really a must-try restaurant.

Photo credit to Google Image

My inital plan was to have the waffles only but ended up having their scrumptious Triple Stack burger.

Triple Stack Burger - an A+ taste

Well, I did not take any photos of the burgers ordered by the girls but they were all really delicious. They have variety of burgers from beef to chicken to mushroom. Ah! Will definitely make another visit to this restaurant and I know who to bring along. Definitely the husband because he is really a hantu burger and I'm sure he's going to love it.

The portion is big and my advise is to go with an empty stomach else you won't be able to finish the whole burger which will be a huge waste. 

Oh, and they make their own sauces too - chilli and ketchup. The sauces are made by boiling down stock made from scratch and not from the cube and they were marvellous! source here

We had a 20 minutes break for Maghrib before having the dessert. And yes, I've fulfilled my waffles craving.

The picture doesn't do any justice but my goodness, it was fantastic. It can be improved though! The waffles wasn't that crunchy enough. I guess maybe because they were made before hand and it gets cold by the time it was served. This small portion of waffles was shared among 4 hungry ladies. Hence, each get a small portion of it but it was all ok. Sharing is caring, no? 

The Daily Grind is definitely a must-try restaurant. It's located at Bangsar Village 1, LG 8 Lower Ground, situated right at the entrance of BV 1 facing BV 2 (underneath the linked bridge).

Parenting Guide 101

I wanted to share this parenting tips that has been viral on Facebook for quite sometime ago but never got the chance to really share it. 

It's a good initiative coming from this parent who shared the knowledge she received upon checking her son with a child psychiatrist. Some may have condemned her for not being knowledgeable. I guess, those who made the negative comments really being insensitive and arrogant.

Who would want to be a bad parents to their child. I'm sure everyone wants to be the best for their children - giving them the best that they deserve but sometimes, we overlook on things that we think is not important. I personally thank this parent who have the guts to share the knowledge. It's a reminder to me too. After all, knowledge is to be shared especially to us the new parents. 

You can read the full article here. It is very useful and please, share it with your friends.

Biasakan dan kerapkan bawak anak main pasir, buih, rumpur dan plastesin

This is to stimulate the brain and develop the child's sensory skills.

Don't expose to much things in the box 

TV, iPad, Phones, games & etc which I think is true. One example the she puts in her article is really an eye opener. A 4 year old boy seems to look unnormal especially his hands and legs because he was exposed too much to computer lights and touch screen. This has damaged the brain cells which lead to being unnormal. This is really a slap on my face. Iman plays with the iPad most of the time. She learns a lot - dancing, talking, ABC, Alif Ba Ta but I guess, I have to reduce the amount of time she spend on it. Although, it helps at some point, but I guess the exposure has to be limited.

Another way of addressing this is to watch and play the iPad (or any gadget) with the child. This will help to develop the interactions and NEVER leave the child and the iPad unattended. This will stop the child's development especially to their cells and nerves. 

Stimulate their imitation skills

According to the child psychiatrist, this is the biggest problem kids facing right now - lack of imitation skills which leads to low in vocab developments. There are few ways to overcome this - one of it is by saying a word and let the child imitate or drawing exercise.

Crawling is very important in child's development. Often we push our child to walk fast instead of crawling which is wrong. The longer period that one child crawls, the better it helps in her/his development. So, don't worry if your child never walks but be worried if your child crawls in just a short period of time. 

Iman crawled for a long period of time before she can finally walks which worried me much. I guess, it is not a bad thing after all. But if you experience this, don't worry. It is never to late to let your child crawls. They can still crawl even though they are in the walking phase. Just let them crawl like a tiger. 

Toys - It's Ok but NO superheroes or Monsters

ABC, lego, shapes, vehicles - they are fun and good for your child but not the superhero types. The way kids see things is different from us. They may take this literally and build a negative imagination through this superhero games unlike the actual toys which help a lot in building their vocabs.

Word first, sentences later

Elephant instead of This is elephant. Zoo instead of Lets go to the zoo. You get the idea!

Dealing with strangers.

Often, we hug our kids when they face fear when meeting strangers. Other way of dealing with it is to make it looks fun instead of not doing anything. Make them "High-5" the stranger and make it looks Ok! to do it. This will change the child's perception that the stranger is not a stranger after all.

Never scold you child.

This is the one thing that I always tell myself. Never to scold Iman if she did something wrong. Explain to her in the nicest manner on the reasons of her behaviour - right or wrong. They are still small and they don't understand things. Explanation helps!

Overly-attached to one person is not a good sign.

Something is wrong with your child's self-esteem. They need to mingle well especially with the other family members.

Follow your child's interest - Not Yours!

If you child wants to play ball, let them be. Don't change. It will confuse them much. 

Last but not least, bagi pilihan jawapan to enhance communication skills

Never let your questions being unanswered. If you ask your child why she/he doesn't want to eat, don't just let your child keep quiet. Instead, give them options - are you still full? You don't like the food? something like that. It will eventually help them to develop their communication skills.

But of course, there are other ways that you can see and check based on your child's behaviour. This is just a simple tips and guides on how to deal with your growing up kids. It's a reminder for me to always check on Iman's too. Check and balance. 

Sunday with Iman Alexandria

Last Friday marked the last day of the 3rd semester. I couldn't be happier. Alhamdulillah, it wasn't as stressful as the previous semester though. It's .... manageable. In fact, it was the best semester comparing to the other 2 previous semesters. Both our Media & Marketing Management group assignments were being picked as the top with highest marks compared to the other groups. Syukur! Syukur! I owe it to the group members. They were awesome!!

Anyways, as a celebration to the end of my 3rd semester, I decided to do a spring cleaning on Saturday and a day out with my lil munchkin on Sunday. I finally got the time to clean my room. My god, it was totally an embarrassment to see how dirty my room was. Cleaned, mopped and rearranged the room - full of satisfaction. I even hand-mopped the stairs. Semangat bukan!

The initial plan was to bring Iman to the park on Sunday. The usual KLCC park tapi ntah macam mana the plan got changed to a shopping spree in KLCC. 

A must mother-daughter selfie

Tak habis penat, baru saja sampai rumah, the boys came yesterday and oh boy, Iman was so happy to see her favourite uncles.

Anyways, I have approximately a month break before the beginning of the 4th semester and I am sure going to spend every second of it with my lil munchkin. 

She is turning 2 soon. Though, it is not going to be a big celebration this time around but I hope she likes it (I doubt she remembers). Mom is planning to have her celebration at school. Will see how it goes. 

We are heading back to Kedah on the 28th. Kesian tokma dia dah lama tak jumpa and we are really at fault for rarely going back to Kedah. It's time to spend some quality time with the other side of the family.

And to those who are already heading up to their hometown for the long Christmas/New Year break, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Be safe and enjoy your holidays.

Canon M

Couple of weeks ago, I had to become a mystery shopper for one of my client. The task was to pretend to be someone who has interest in purchasing a DSLR camera and we have to snap photos of the complete set of the DSLR camera that we were looking for. 

There were 4 of us - 2 from my side and 2 from the creative agency side. During the first day of being the so-called-unprofessional-mystery-shoppers, we covered Fahrenheit, Lot 10, Sungai Wang and Low Yat Plaza. Yes, we covered all floors of the mentioned malls that sell DSLR cameras. 

The main objective of this task is to track the selling bar code for each of the product. This has something to do with the local sales which is hard for me to explain in a written form. Tapi to cut things short, while being the mystery shopper, saya sudah terjatuh cinta with one of the camera that I saw while completing the task.

Though it was tiring but I learned a lot about DSLR cameras. Macam-macam jenis and fungsi each model represents and one of them yang telah terjatuh cinta dengan is the Canon M series.

They have it in 4 different colors for Malaysia market - red, black, grey and white. While I was at one of the camera shop in Low Yat, they gave me the complete set of Canon M in white and I fell in love with it at the first sight. 

Canon M is labelled as a mini DSLR as it comes in a size of a compact camera but having a DSLR function. Unlike the normal DSLR cameras where lenses can be shared, this camera can only use its own lenses. More exclusivity in that sense.

The downside of this camera is that its performances - not as good as the normal DSLR. Hence why they only have roughly about 3-4 sets per shop, limited addition. Canon most probably will not be producing another model of this type due to the low performances. But hey, this is for my personal use and not for photography business. With the size that it has, I can easily carry it whenever I go and put it inside my huge bag.

Kalau dah suka nak kata apa lagi kan?

So, I make my proposal to the husband and ................ he approves it. Yeay!!!!

Not sure when will I can finally get it but according to him, by January 2014, insya Allah. Amin. Oh, I'm so looking forward to this. Really!

Sunday-cum-Monday syndrome

It has been a hectic month. Oh, faster ends December, I am already tired with zero energy level left.

All I want is a peaceful mind, lying by beach just like what I had 2 years ago. Oh, I miss!

Tomorrow is going to be the beginning of another long week. 

May the force be with us all, amin.

Sydney Day 5

Well hello! As much as I wanted to complete this series of Sydney trip, this is the final post of our 2013 family holiday.

It was raining heavily on day 5. Our initial plan was to visit the Tango Zoo but unfortunately, the weather doesn't permit us. Hence, we went for a short jalan-jalan around the city. Our first pit-stop was the ever famous Queen Victoria Building. Since, our main objective doesn't includes shopping hence, it doesn't wow us much. We walked through the first floor of the mall before heading our to the city. We walked through the streets without any fixed direction. Jalan-jalan redah hujan namanya.

The famous Queen Victoria Building

You're Welcome :)

To be honest, I can't remember these streets. It's 3 months ago and I have forgotten all the street's names. But it was a good walk. It reminds me so much of London. Seeing the old buildings standing strong on the streets impresses me much. We didn't even stop at any of the shop. Impressive ha! Sight-seeing means sight-seeing, strictly no shopping!

Upon to this long walk we had on the streets, we ended up at the park situated right in the middle of the city. And again, I can't seem to remember the name of the park. Despite the heavy rain, the park still looks nice to me.

Obviously, I was the cranky one.

One of the oldest church in Sydney. It's called St. Mary (I Think!)

Our last pit-stop for the day was to The Rock. It has its own history. It's the oldest town in Sydney and everything there looks exactly like how it was decades ago. It probably have done several changes but according to the tour book, everything looks exactly the same. 

Aren't they beautiful. I was quite disappointed as I wasn't got the chance to walk around the area. Iman was so tired that she fell asleep half way through The Rock and I was so tired of walking I guess.

It was a long day for us walking under the rainy weather but hey, it was a good experience. At least, Iman can tell all her friends that she has been to Sydney though I doubt she remembers the trip.

And of course, we were all tired because of the walking, we passed out the moment we arrived our apartment. That night was the final night of our stay at Medina Apartment as he have to leave early to catch 10.00am flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was again a looonnngggggg flight for the fact that it was on bright sunny day hence the hours seem so long.

Iman had funny, that's for sure. She was even the flight attendance for that day - walking around up and down. I'm sure she had fun!

So, this is it. The end of my Sydney trip. Fuuuhhhhh! Akhirnya.

To serve and not to be served

Over the past few weeks, there has been a heavy coverage on the flooded areas of Kuantan, Kemaman and some other parts of Pahang and Terengganu. It has been reported that the nature disaster was the worst in 17 years. As much as I want to help - in terms of offering my physical contribution helping the flood victims, I have my responsibility here waiting for me. Hence, dengan sedikit kemampuan yang ada harapannya agar dapat membantu mangsa-mangsa banjir, InsyaAllah.

And until now, what we hear over the news were the fights between the political parties on who should we blame over the nature disaster and how much they have contributed helping out the victims (by showing off their faces on the news instead of REALLY helping out the victims) instead of finding ways to ensure that this won't happen again in future. It's not a first time that this unfortunate disaster happened in the east coast. It is well-known that year end is where the monsoon comes and hence it effects the east coast states. But there is no initiative done by the political parties to somehow solve this problem or to at least, prepare the victims with whatever that is needed before it happens. Because whether you like it or not, it will happens.

Despite the on-going argument between the political parties on who to blame and what nots, there's one soul who have been contributing her whole energy helping out the victims. I salute Tengku Puan Pahang with all her hard work helping out, cooking for the victims across the villages in Pahang. And believe it or not, her consistent contributions were not reported on the news. Ini adalah contoh sebenar membantu dengan ikhlas and I'm sure they were all on her own expenses. 

These are some of the photos taken from her instagram account. The sincerity is there, you can see it for yourself.

And yes, she practices what she preaches "to serve and not to be served". 

I admire her hard work. The one thing that she can contributes is by cooking for the victims which she is really good at. Her down-to-earth personality makes her loved by everyone not just by the Pahang people but also by others. She puts aside her status and as a human being, she helped her people in times where they need her to most. A good example that all leaders should follow. This is nothing close in gaining popularity. This is really who she is!

Tengku Puan Pahang, you are in deed a good role model. 

December 2, 2013

Hello ladies and gents (though I'm sure there are no gents reading this blog except for my husband which I forced him to). How was your weekend? Mine, was great with attending Masters classes and busy watching Iman growing up. And ..... we are already on the last month of 2013. Wow, time really flies. I don't even remember what I did for the past 11 months. Rasa macam telah membazirkan masa dengan begitu sahaja. 

Having said that, I am actually looking forward to 2014. I have a strong feeling that 2014 will be a good year for me, InsyaAllah! And it will be a good year for everyone too, amin.

Anyways, I need a small favor from everyone who reads this blog. If ever you people stumbled upon this ads below, please be nice and click on the ads. I can ensure you that this is not a scam ads. This is something that I am working on; helping my beloved client's campaign (and to ensure that we meet the KPIs or else, we are doomed!!).

And, if you ever crossed the ads somewhere on the net, please click on it ya!! Or you can just click on their website here to check on it!. 

There are a lot of interesting things happening on the website. Go and check it yourself. And to all of my BBGS friends (if there's any), Juwita Jalil is in there too promoting her Great Indoors business. Cool kan?!

So yea, what are you waiting for. Go, check on it now! 

Thanks a bunch and have a nice day lovers. Counting days to 2014