flying overseas while pregnant

I’ll be leaving for UK today to visit my eldest Sebrina and have a bit of a tour for 2 weeks. This would be my first long-haul journey while pregnant and thankfully I’m in the comfortable zone of my second trimester. All checklists checked and bags packed – I plan to travel light anyway because we won’t be stationary in a place. My main concern however is the ongoing swine flu outbreak which has currently infected almost 10 000 people in UK. This trip has been planned since the beginning of the year due to Sebrina’s convocation from her dental studies in Ireland and it was impossible to change the dates of tickets, etc. It’s with a heavy heart I’m flying today – mostly worried about the H1N1 infection. I’ve checked with my doctors and they gave me masks and some tamiflu tablets which is to be consumed in any case of infection. Tamiflu vaccine is the only cure for swine flu until they manage to distribute the real vaccine in September.

face masks and taminflu tablets to avoid H1N1

Somehow the thought of carrying the tablets help relieved my worries. My GP also advised me against moving about much during flight – as the plane is 13-hour-incubator of all sorts of airborne diseases! I’d probably get one of those diapers for old folks when they can’t control their bladder as to avoid going to the toilet – in the plane or in airport confinement to avoid risks of infection. By any means necessary – so they say. Imagine a pregnant woman on diapers! LOL Even hubby thought it was practical and sensible enough for me, but not for him lah! He won’t be caught dead in daylight in a diaper! ha ha.

travelling light - with just a bag.The other empty half is hubby's.

We’ll be renting a car to go around Scotland all the way down to London. I hope this won’t be my last update..:) Sayonara! And wish me well.

this weekend at my niece’s wedding

Being a young aunt has its perks – I get to see all my nieces get married within these short time! he he..To count I have 7 nieces blooming into adulthood, plus 2 daughters who are also “in bloom”…well, you can guess as much that very soon I would be a young grandma! No surprise indeed. Anyway, I love weddings…and my niece Sarah Hani’s wedding commenced this weekend. Congrats to both Marish and Hani…I wish both of them a happy and wonderful life blessed with great children till eternity.

bersanding at the groom's side

bersanding at bride's side

Lempok mania

Thanks to my friend Widya who gave me some lempok durian (durian jam) which is not yet dried, it has become hubby’s favorite snack. He wants it early in the morning, after work and even late at night before sleeping. Kalah perempuan mengidam! ha ha…anyway, here’s how the lempok looks like:

taken from sayasha.fotopages

I’m used to the dried dark variety so the jam-like pre-dried lempok tasted exceptional to me and hubby. Compliments to my friend!

the big belly dilemma

While most people would say that the size of your girth won’t be that big during your first pregnancy, mine has gotten quite large. 6 months down the road and I looked like how most pregnant females would look like in their 7th or 8th…well, I don’t know, my belief would probably differ in other people’s eyes. Still, what I’m having now feels pretty tight but I don’t want to buy that much maternity clothes as I had splurge on some previously and thought that was sufficient for the next 3 months or so. However Modernmom, 9 Months and the likes beckons.. he he.. I hate to admit that I’ve succumbed to the pressure of shopping for more tops a few days ago. However, I told myself to stop because I don’t know whether I’ll be pregnant again as soon…they say it’s okay to invest coz you can always keep for your next one. What if your next one never arrives..what do you with the maternity leftovers? And how much do people actually spend buying clothes during their pregnancy? Care to share, mothers-been-there-done-that? I would love to get some insights on this matter. Thanks.

tribute post to MJ

I switched on the news at 6 am today and saw the headlines – MJ has passed away. I’m not exactly his biggest fan but hubby and my daughters are, and I could imagine their shock. The whole world was shocked in fact, and on the way to work, all radio stations were playing his songs as a tribute. Right after work I had the urge to get his CDs coz I’m sure it would be sold out. True to word, when I got to Tower Records at 1Utama this afternoon, there was only a box of his compilation album left for catch. So I bought this, and watched it with hubby tonight.

MJ video singles compilation

What’s the first MJ song that caught your heart? Mine is “Rock With You”. It felt so smooth to my ears. That was my first favorite, then came along others like Thriller and Remember the Time. He is to me – the King of Pop.
To MJ, May God rest your soul in peace.

CHOGM (cheap holiday on government’s money)

Ms Thana and me in my comot tudung..*ngee

When I got back at work, I was summoned (he he..big word there) to attend a 3-day course for teachers at Klang. While I hate the idea of going away and sleeping at some seedy hotel (there were men lining up for hookers at some room on my floor at night. It was an eye opener on the Malaysian brothel scene!) the thought of going away from the familiar work scene and learning something new did entice me. I was thrilled to meet up a former senior of mine who presented a paper on classroom practices – Ms Thana. I remembered my lecturers mentioned her research to me and actually read it up in the library. Although she’s not a professor just yet, I admired her dedications of documenting her classroom practices and made it available for others to see. I’m sure there are plenty of commited teachers out there who toiled in and out of their classrooms but nobody bothered to recognise them – myself included, so the effort of putting up various speakers to present their achievement looks great to me. Here is an outlet to discuss on what works and what doesn’t and how do we innovate on that. Sure there are plenty of complaints but it builds us to be better presenters and learners. However towards the end of the course, I was dissapointed by the organiser’s remark on our complaints – “you know that you’re here on sponsored stay – everything is free so there shouldn’t be any complaints.”
To me, just because you don’t see the money coming out of our pockets at that very instant, doesn’t mean that things are free. We were there on taxpayers’ money to improve ourselves as civil servants and contribute to society. Therefore if things doesn’t run smoothly with plenty of hiccups, complaints should be sufficient to improve the event later – whether in terms of accommodation, program schedule, etc. I believe that the better of us knew that these kind of remarks is the current attitude of the top civil servants administrators – conducting courses as a means of CHOGM (refer to title). I left a bit disgusted at that attitude, but overall, I feel rejuvenated to reflect on my classroom practices and improve on that. Well, thanks to people like Ms Thana who shows that you don’t have to prove to the public that you’re great. The real yardstick is your students’ marked achievement in their exams. Oh yeah, I don’t think the government did a CHOGM on me coz I left with lots of inspiration and knowledge.

my little surprise

I left my daughter at home with the maid while I was away at Perhentian with hubby because she was worried about her coming exams and assignments and needed the weekend to study. When I got back, I saw two cute boxes on my bed and the following content:

one each for Daddy and Mommy

She got it for hubby in conjunction with Father’s Day last Sunday, and I guess they throw in a 2-in-1 Mommy souvenir as well. But what touched me was this little note attached:

I won’t forget this Fatin, even when I have my own baby later. You’re still very special in my heart too, as always. Thanks for reminding me that being a mom is the greatest feeling in the world.

p/s: to Hubby; if I have not told you enough – you’re a great father. Happy Father’s day to you!

stopping for a relief at Perhentian.

I’m updating my posts from Perhentian island this hour. I’ve never been here and been lucky enough to follow hubby on his business trip to survey some land to develop. He has left me alone to go trekking with his engineers and here I am on a RM10 per hour Internet connection – geez…gonna make the best use of it. Meanwhile, I love the powdered sand on my feet and turquoise sea outside my window bay. Gonna update later with photos at my travel blog. Oh yes, I’m going to see my grandma at Kelantan tomorrow too..so yeah, looking forward to that. Meanwhile – everything feels heavenly. See you soon.

an English panel souvenir

Just to keep the mood going as first week of school approaches….

Selamat berjuang semula!

thoughts on Raya

I bet people has already started to worry about finding fabric for the kids and tailoring their baju Raya especially during the school hols and constant sales ad. Although this year I don’t feel so preoccupied with that due to my preggy state, I do feel the urge to prepare my family for Raya. If all goes well, I will move into my new home sometime mid-August and deliver my baby (Insya-Allah) late October or first week of November itself. So these two big events in my life will happen shortly before and after Raya. Fatin has been telling me she wants two kebaya for the festive occassion. (Oh, and make it as slim-fitting and pretty as possible – she adds! LOL ) As for my eldest Sebrina, I’m going to see her in Ireland this July and bring her back – she has ample time to choose for her baju later when she returns. I guess with older kids, you have to allow them to choose because they are fastidious over how they want to look like. But of course within a budget lah. The other day hubby discussed with me over finances and realised that we have a tight crunch ahead due to many expenditures this year – the new house, overseas trips and coming baby. It’s great that sometimes hubby gave me a stand on his finances so that I would be careful – I realised that as I grow older there’s so many people to please, especially the kids. So we promise to remind each other of our reserves and expenditure, but Alhamdulillah, God has been kind to allow us many leisures in life.
I don’t think I had that much choice when I was growing up. My Mom is the sorts that would buy a roll of fabric and made us all the same baju – well up till I was sixteen! Kasut tu pakailah yang ada sampai buruk. Then I would start bribing my Mom with housechores to take me to Globe or Kamdar for baju Raya shopping! ha ha … I’ve always wanted things brand new for me and kinda got carried away till now. Comes Raya (err, not just Raya!) I get excited nak beli matching everything but when I start being a real mom – I must start getting frugal so that my baby will model after my good behaviour, not my odd ones!

Preparing for Raya itself is a fun chore – my parents made a big deal out of spring-cleaning the house and preparing all the kuih. So to me, Raya had always been big in my diary – it’s not something I pass off as another break to watch TV and visit relatives. Celebrating Raya becomes the tradition I’ve been trying to instill in my new family and so far, things are changing for the better and hubby and Fatin actually look forward to puasa – which is a great accomplishment to me already.
Having said that – I feel quite depressed that I won’t be able to do much for the preparation- even my maid posed me that question yesterday; “ibu macam mana mau Raya nanti?” I know what she meant – will I be able to prepare my new house, cook the 3 hour-rendang and make kuah kacang? fast for a month? entertain relatives, etc… All I know is that I’ll take it at my level best when the time comes. I admire some of my colleagues who were fit and steady right up to their 9th months of pregnancy and I vowed to myself to be healthy as possible so my family too would enjoy a good Raya this year. I believe a mother’s role makes or breaks a festive occassion. Anyway, I could start good by sending my daughter’s fabric for her kebaya to the tailor this weekend. My baju? Naaahh…I’ll save the fabric for after delivery – only God knows how my body would change after that, and big possibility I won’t be able to fit into my previous outfits too soon. Good luck to me! LOL