Open House 2009

The little one is taking his morning nap now giving me about 20 minutes to do up this post.

As promised here are some photos from the open house. After browsing through my camera, it turned out that I didn’t have that many photos after all *LOL*

To be honest, I was pretty nervous at the thought of  inviting friends over as the house was nowhere near ready. All we had was a kitchen that was 70% complete and a bedroom which only had a bed and a wardrobe. I only knew mum had placed her old furniture when I arrived in KL.

So that was why I handed out those invitations 3-4 days before, talk about last minute!

It was great to meet-up with all of  you after all these years especially Raz whom I haven’t met since those London days in 1998 or was it 1999??

And to Miss Cream who drove from KL- Ipoh for a friend’s wedding,  back to KL and arrived just in time for our do. I’m amazed that your kids are so well behaved after that really long road trip!

First to arrive was Mother of 3!

Princess Kiki has grown a lot since I last saw her

i've known her since our CBN days

Ithink I have like 10 shots of this particular photo. Didn’t know where to look, there were far too many cameras!

See what I mean ? ( Behind - Is that Imtiyaz having a go at the drum ?)

Another cam-whoring session in the house - oh so many babies!

Am envious of these 2 who have a full mop of hair whilst Aidan has none!

Momster and Dydd, I hope you didn’t go home hungry

To the rest : Coffee-junkie, Krezijexx, Nadio, Mummy-O, Tun – Thank you all for coming, I know some of you had many other obligations with the raya season going full force at the time.

And not too forget the lovely gifts and duit raya for Aidan, it was very much appreciated!

Hope to see all of you again next year!

ps: For some stange reason the quality of the photos are not great when I upload them here. Hmmm…

Aidan’s Aqiqah

Phew, it’s been quite a week.

My jetlag was terrible this time round – waking up at 3am and in bed by 6pm. It took me a couple of days just to get over it. It didn’t help that Aidan was down with a terrible bout of flu ( his first! ) that I had to give him a dose of antibiotics. It did the job though and he’s now back to his chirpy self.

He was in this state for the first 2 days we arrived back in Dublin

All the smiling on the plane took a toll on his health

My laundry and cooking is also now back on track.  5 loads of laundry and imagine all the drying, folding and ironing that came with it too. The kitchen is also up and running, I couldn’t take another day of takeaway!

Anyway, I had meant to put up photos of our trip but never came round to doing so as things have been a little chaotic around the house.

In brief, the trip home was short, memorable and very meaningful as it was our first time living in our new home. It was also our first raya as a family plus I have not been back for Eid since 1999.

Mom was generous enough to give us her old furniture so we felt comfortable living in the new house. We had 5 days to make the house look more decent for Aidan’s aqiqah so you can imagine the mad rush to buy lights and fans.

Amidst all that fiasco, mom and I were on another mission to buy gifts for the Marhaban ladies and guests.

We were expecting a group of 15 ladies but suddenly at the very last minute they confirmed a bus load of 35 will be attending the do. So there was another panic of  ‘What should we get for them?’. Mom finally decided to buy them kain so we bought 35 x 4 meters worth of kain baju kurung!

At the same time, I was organizing little gifts for guests which included chocolates and cookies. Smallhouse Cookies and Coochicoo did a brilliant job on the orders that I would gladly take them again for another occasion, they were efficient thankfully. And it also turned out that the lady who runs Smallhouse Cookies was a friend of my SIL, the name Enolil was too familiar to her What a small world!

3 days before the aqiqah we went to back to Tapah to pay a visit to Nenek’s kebun. Hubby, all dressed in army gear went in search for batang pisang ( to place the bunga telur ) as shown in the photo below.

Hard at work- ada macam macho sikit

A day before the big day, we were busy moving furniture around, arranging and rearranging carpets every single corner of the house.

We had less than 12 hours – tired and drained but the show must go on.

Putting-up fairy lights

One knackered Usu, 2 nephews, 1 Hitler

The big day came and Aidan was all dressed in princely garb. Unfortunately the baju melayu that mom bought for Aidan was a little too big so out came the emergency romper and satin shoes that I had bought for him from Ireland.

My biggest regret was not taking a photo of him individually, infact to be honest we had taken very LITTLE photos being the host.

I know my uncle took some great shots – there was one photo of the 3 of us that I must, must get hold of.

An hour into the ceremony, he demanded to be carried.

Aidan being Aidan, he decided to show his true self an hour into the ceremony by wailing his heart out.

So daddy came to the rescue and carried him around. It was already well  into his nap time so I don’t blame the boy for being cranky.

He managed to stay quiet in Daddy's lap

Whilst all this was happening, Aidan’s cousins were happily playing badminton behind our house.

This was obviously more exciting for them! Mana laa datang raket ni ? Sorang tu siap lengkap berbaju melayu!

Despite little hiccups here and there, overall we were happy with the ceremony. Eventhough we had taken very little photos, the happy memories will stay with us forever. Thanks to everyone who gave us a helping hand especially to Big Bro and SIL who went on a special quest to look for paperbags that fitted our taste and budget, it was very much appreciated!

And finally a photo of one of the gifts for the guests – I will try and take a photo of the rest when I get the chance.

The personalized chocolate

The last minute paperbag

And by the way, the show didn’t end there, we had an open house that very afternoon. I hope to put up the photos in my next entry!

Dr Green

Guess who's been hit by the nesting bug?

Weather was somewhat glorious over Easter weekend – all warm, sunny and most importantly,  DRY!

Hubby came home Saturday morning after a night on call and since he was lucky enough to get a good night’s sleep, he had this sudden burst of energy to mow the lawn.

All geared in scrubs and garden gloves - a sexy combination of McSteamy and Jesse Metcalfe

It may seem like a simple task but as you can see, we only have a manual reel mower in the house, so  it took him nearly 3 hours of sweat to get that perfect manicured lawn look. I kept motivating him – ‘Takpe, exercise sikit je…Heheh’

Anyway, a  few friends will be coming over for my homemade Nasi Ayam tomorrow and I am sure they will be smiling over our green masterpiece

So what else have I been up to lately ?

Well, I have been running around like a headless chicken organizing things for the house.

Made a trip to the local laundrette and and am happy to hear that  they are willing to make deliveries to the house for no extra charge. We also found a lady cleaner  from the Philippines to do domestic cleaning  – vacuum, dusting, bathroom, kitchen etc and she too is charging a very reasonable rate.

At least for now, I can breathe a sigh of relief  that the house will be in tip top condition if things get a little bit out of hand.

Last week too, I bought a whole month’s supply of food for Pepper. She’s a fussy little one and only eats a certain brand that I can’t just buy from any supermarket.

Pepper, The Cat

And next week, we will be sending both cars for a thorough wash and polish.

Oh dear, I could go on and on with the list – A million things to do yet so little time.

So till my next post, Have a Happy Easter everyone! Don’t eat too many Easter eggies!!

A Snowy Day

The Lounge

We have successfully moved into the new 3 bedroom house last night, yea!

I know the next few days will be a great challenge finding out where everything is as we are slowly sorting out our clothes, shoes, books etc and at the same time making the house more livable for the both of us.

As the house is still an utter mayhem, we had indian takeaway 2 nights in a row.

Anyway, to our surprise we woke up this morning to a very snowy morning which is so, so rare in Dublin.

And although I was still tired from from the weekend move, we couldn’t say no to the generous amount of snow falling in our backgarden.

Hubby went all out building a snowman with his bare hands! He insisted on making a bigger one but I said, NOOOO!

The pom-poms were actually meant for my niece, sorry Amber!

He’s so proud of it too, heheh.

Hubby built this snowman with no gloves, crazy! Merah merah tangan!

We Are Moving ( Again! )

Our backgarden on a rainy day, I really love the shed.

We are moving to a bigger place this weekend and I am having a headache sorting out all my junk once again. This decluttering business is certainly no joke for one who is entering her third trimester

So until we are pretty much settled, I will probably not be able to post anything here.

Wish us luck with the moving!

A Really Quick Update!

November flew by quickly and my last post was 3 weeks ago. A lot has happened since and my life now is slowly coming back to normal. I had a gruelling 2 day course last week (which is a must for Paediatric Trainees) and my last minute work paid off in the end. I passed, yea! I-am-just-glad-its-over!

The weather ? Oh, I absolutely hate the freezing cold weather. It annoys me that I have to start my journey 20 minutes early to warm up my icy car as I could really do with the extra time in bed. And it’s depressing enough that I don’t get to see any daylight on weekdays!

On the brighter side of things, the pregnancy is going well and we now know the sex of the baby. The 2 scans have been showing the same outcome but I’ll wait till I get my 4D scan at 30++ weeks to be 100% sure. Can you guess? Heheh….We’ll leave it as a surprise.

After months and months of anticipation, our house back home is finally ready and complete. I have so many plans for the house but all has to be put on hold for the moment with us being here. To be honest, I have no idea how the house looks like now. My family organized a ‘kenduri doa selamat’ a few weeks ago and I am glad that’s out of the way, so that is one less worry for me. We only have to organize a house warming party next ( whenever that may be! )

And finally, I’ll leave 2 recent photos of us taken over the weekend at a friend’s party. I used to put my photos under private posts but i guess there is no point in doing so if hardly anyone reads this blog.

The black turtleneck is really hiding the bump well

A Taste Of Summer

Finally we experienced some sunshine today!

The neighbourhood leisure center, will probably tryout the swimming pool one day.

It has been raining buckets all week, makes you think whether it’s mid-July or mid-December!

Anyway, I had an extremely busy week with 3 on-calls, so the weekend was all about organizing and decluttering the house.

We went hunting for a bookshelf on Saturday to accommodate our ever growing collection of books.

The landlord promised one a week ago but to no avail, and I couldn’t stand the sight of my books strewn across the living room.

We drove 20 minutes away here and fortunately we found one which suited our budget and car-space Bought a few other essentials too at the mall below.

Look at the clouds, how depressing!

I love the little market just outside the mall.

So thankfully the mini-shopping trip was a success and the house now is much more livable. We have finally installed cable tv last friday, 2 weeks without it was pure agony and what a relief to be connected to the outside world once again.

So till my next post, have a good week!

Back To The Daily Grind

our street

We have moved to a new place and hence the lack of updates.

the new neighbourhood

We are slowly finding our way around and last week was all about discovering the local Tesco, post office, bank, indian takeaway etc. So far things are looking good and it is just a matter of time until we fully adapt
ourselves.

our apartment block

The move was somewhat tiresome and moving 11 years worth of belongings across the country was definitely no joke. I couldn’t believe at the amount of clothes, coats and shoes I have collected over the years and I blame it on the four seasons!

the big move

Anyway, the long break is over, sleep is a luxury nowadays and occasionally, I do miss the freedom and liberty I once had before.

I was terrified the night before I started my new job but thankfully the week went by pretty smoothly. As before I was only dealing with premature babies (who only cry and poo) and hormonal moms, now it’s back to interacting with bigger kids who are so much easier to work with. A big sigh of relief there!

The hospital too is just a 5 minute drive from home so unlike my previous job, it’s great not to spend too much time on the road.

I have 2 paediatric courses and a presentation lined up for the month of July which requires me to do a little bit of studying, so, if you don’t hear from me in the next few days/weeks/months, you know where I am.

Didn’t I say ? *Gulp* The break is over!

Yes,

it’s true, we are coming home!

After weeks of toying between should we, should we not, should we, should we not ?

We finally decided, YES WE SHOULD!

You see, the decision would have been much easier if his holidays were not somewhat limited and restricted to 2 weeks. And plus, the prices were ridiculously exorbitant and enough to make a big hole in our pockets. (we also have to worry about our upcoming house project etc)

But we figured, it’s better now than later and with his cousin tying the knot, it was the perfect timing too.

With the very short amount of time, I have come-up with a list of must-dos which we will try our utmost best to achieve.

Amongst the top priorities are:

1) A drive-up to Northern Perak to visit my 94 year old ailing grandmother who currently is not in the best of health and on the way, stop by Tapah to visit Hubby’s grandmother.

2) Attend cousin’s wedding.

3) Spend as much time as possible with family and the 14 nephews and nieces that are so full of life and energy (and cuteness too!)

4) To finalize the design for the kitchen and lightings for the new house.

5) Abuse our digestive system with killer Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai (must be 100% mamak and not some fancy-schmancy restaurant please!)

I intend to add more to the list but even if we get to achieve the above, I would think the trip home is a major success already.

And with only a few days away till I reach home soil, I am getting very excited. I really can’t wait!

ps: photo above is of Istana Kenangan, Kuala Kangsar taken during our last trip home.

From Tipperary to Sayong

We came across this Irish cottage on our way to Waterford the other day.

You don’t see that many thatched cottages in Ireland nowadays so when I see one, I will try to take a photo of it.

For some strange reason, the old rustic traditional features reminds me so much of my ‘kampung’ back home.

I was looking through my old albums this morning and I found a few photos of Sayong.

My grandmother’s original house had been tastefully refurbished by my parents a couple of years ago and I think they did a brilliant job with it.

I know there is a lot to love about the features of this house eg. the meticulous carved wooden trimmings, but I especially love mom’s choice of the sunflower curtains which added a very warm ambience to the house.

It’s more of a holiday home for my family nowadays where they go to relax and unwind, waking up in the mornings to the beautiful scenes of Sungai Perak.

This is the scene if you are looking out from the main window.

Lovely, right ?

Oh, and did I tell you that hubby was at war with the mosquitos the last time we stayed here? Heheh.

Now I really wish I was back home in Malaysia, sigh.