February 3, 2010

adakah rumahku ini syurgaku in the near future?...
It has not been an easy week these past few days. The pending renovation of my house is taking maximum toll on my family and eventually, hubby terminated the current contractor for failure to deliver after 9 difficult months. Then we went through multiple sessions with different ID and contractors to complete with what looks 30% remnants of former works. While it’s very hard to stay positive about future arrangement with new contractor, we each light up at every encounter, discussing this and that. Everyone we met guaranteed a 3 month maximum …. oh, to be sensible about the wait after all this time is a tough feat! I’m actually losing sight of my house now that baby has come into picture but lucky that hubby has taken time off from work to take the whole renovation into his own hands. Sacking the former contractor was the only option we had after feeling cheated throughout this delay. Really, I wish I could give him a big kick for inducing unnecessary pre, while and post natal stress on me!
While I’m grateful for my current shelter, what really stresses me is that my baby is growing fast and very soon Aisyah would start crawling all over the boxes of stuff I have packed in view of failed promise from my former contractor to complete house by December ‘09!!! I have almost packed 50% of my belongings and it’s quite pathetic to see all these boxes not moving anywhere soon. Of course I can unpack now and leave it to the movers later but I’ve seen how they pack and dump stuff in boxes without much care so I’d rather pack what I feel precious myself. The past few months after confinement I was occupied with going from room to room culling whatever I don’t want to carry into my new home, so really, after all that’s been thrown and given away, I was happy not to hoard so much stuff anymore. I’ve become irrationally sensible and detached from my posessions which before, I wasn’t. Being a language teacher, it’s easy to be trapped into collecting every bits and pieces of articles, brochures, etc for thinking it would be useful someday for your students. In actual, papers just keep piling and soon you have nowhere to store stuff. Same with being a woman – you’ll tend to collect all sorts of junk – baju la, pinggan mangkuk, all sorts of bags, tudung la, etc…bukan pakai semua pun! So that part of hoarder-me has changed tremendously in the process of waiting to transfer into my new house. Maybe that in itself is a blessing in disguise kot? ha ha ha
Albeit my current worries, this girl keeps me in focus of what’s more important in life and, to be irrationally sensible always!

checkmeout yo yo yo! Drool...
Now this I will hoard for life!
January 6, 2010
After a long hiatus from the gym, I’m back today (err…that was due to many phone calls from True Fitness!) I got 5 more sessions with my personal trainer plus the gym membership has been suspended since I got pregnant. Now two months after delivery, I bet the trainer would get a shock seeing me gained so much (none of my gymclothes fit so had to borrow Mr Hubby’s tee). After baby Aisyah is well-fed and slept, I drove to the gym and braved myself to the world of the immaculate slims.
First surprise – measuring my new body fat composition. Everything has gone up – protein level, body fat and bone mass, yada yada…it wasn’t really a surprise since I gained more than 20kgs over the 9 months preggy. I am now 70kgs with 163cm height so I need to get rid of 13kgs in total to achieve ideal weight. My trainer informed that achieving the ideal weight is not the goal here – increasing metabolism is. One thing good about measuring the whole thing is that you’ll know which part of body you need to shape up instead of just plunge into any workout. Mine is of course the lower body – I couldn’t recognise my thighs anymore! LOL So yeah, we started on the bicycle for 10 minutes.
Second surprise – I used to be able to jog or cycle straight for 10 minutes or more but this time I totally gave up half way through. There was no feeling of pain as I had cautioned my trainer to put me on a tailored workout for people after surgery but I was so unfit! I had to psyche myself into sheer will-power just to complete the workout. 10 minutes on the bike, followed by 3 sets of 15 on the vertical row machine to strengthen my back and lastly, another 3 sets of 15 to work-on-my-arm-machine (which I forgot the name) but you know I’m counting because the mental-trauma still lingers long after the workout! he he
Final surprise? I couldn’t believe what I uttered when the trainer asked for next appointment after going through the motion. “Tomorrow?”
That was how much I was determined to shed all these weight the healthy way. Let’s see shall we?
December 27, 2009

starting the day with a delicious crepe.
Today is my 32nd and I’ve never felt as accomplished, what with a brand new baby in tow! I woke up with great anticipation of what to come and Mr Hubby happily rise to the occassion. Not that he does it every birthday but this year he’s been quite sweet with all our special events and I feel really blessed. My first surprise is the breakfast date of my choice, well, since it’s a treat I
up the ante and chosed La Bodega. Oh yeah, I didn’t order the big breakfast set although I was so tempted to. Well, I still watch what I eat but on my birthday it’s an opportunity to let my hair down a bit. Speaking of hair, I had it done right after breakfast just to add a bit of fabulosity into my day! he he

treating myself to a professional hairwash!

something sweet from Mr Hubby
When we return my girls got ready to have lunch – again my choice! Really, what a great treat. Of course I went for seafood – I have a thing with prawns and crabs. KL-bound, seafood is only great in Klang, and we almost lost our way around the terrible traffic in Klang town but we’re in time for lunch. I just tuck in all the goodies like nobody’s business – steamed bawal, chilli crabs and prawns, etc… Well, I was too busy between digging in and handling baby so couldn’t snap any photos of the delish goodies.
Finally, my birthday ends with a nice tea at Delicious. By then I was too full and just pinch some of my daughter’s carrot cake. Plus baby Aisyah has started to get agitated after a long day outing. Well, honey, it’s mommy’s birthday and she needs to feel pampered too because starting now it’s going to be a rare treat and you’re getting all the attention! he he…

at 32 and happy!
What a day…I’m so humbled and felt like I have everything I need in life. Time to focus on my loved ones pulak…good night!!
December 21, 2009
My daughter expressed her interest in baking recently and I went to surf for available baking classes especially at beginner level. I found one at the Cooking House which is actually just 5 minutes away from my resident. The moment we stepped into the shop we saw a swarm of children around the chef and noted that the baking course for beginner we signed up for was actually for kids! But we still went in for the fun of it.

Chef Collin at work and all those kids just can't wait to get a lick of the batter!

say yes! to baking.
Although the culinary school was just minutes away from home I never knew about it till my discovery online. It offers a variety of cooking and baking course conducted by renown chefs and the courses are quite affordable. Hindsight, it’s actually quite pricey but a lot of it were hands-on so it’s money well-spent for the experience.I paid RM135 per person for a whole day’s course which consists of foundation to baking and four other desserts. The course was actually a two-day set but I registered for one day first to see how it went.
The Cooking House has a well-equipped kitchen for industrial baking. There’s a variety of ovens used so this really helps you find out how your oven at home would function to suit the baking learnt. The chef also dish out some useful tips and techniques to baking.

I wish there was a mixer! Berpeluh-peluh mix batter from scratch - nak cabut tangan wooo..
I used to bake straight from recipe books and went through trial and error but this class enlightened me a lot. Since there was no mixer for the batter, everything needs to be accurate (Now this is where my Math fails and thank God Sebrina is around to help count! ha ha) I’m not great at baking and realised the best way to learn is always hands-on.

having fun at it
My daughter also enjoyed the whole process. We team up with each other and take turns whisking and creaming and battering things up (he he) to make walnut brownies, carrot and raisin muffins, chocolate and coffee cupcakes plus peanut butter cookies as a finale. We had a well-prepared table to ourselves complete with ingredients. Throughout the entire time it was fun watching the younger kids struggle through their measuring cups and creaming the butter, even running around yelling for extra flour, sugar etc. Sebrina also had the chance to teach those kids some manners as we’re the only adults there! We felt like kids ourselves, really, and time flies so fast when you’re having fun.

our spoils of war!
The presentation is better left unsaid, eh? ha ha… but you must believe me when I say our muffins, cookies and cuppies really tasted good. We brought back the goodies and I gave some to the neighbours because there was just too much. I was actually very tempted to sign up for the second day installment but after 5 long hours away from home, I started to miss my baby. So I’m giving tomorrow a miss. Well, at least it leaves me with great plans of baking with baby Aisyah when she grows up!
And it was a great bonding time with my eldest.

she's already a pro at swirling those icing on the cuppies.
If you’d like to join any cooking or baking courses on offer you can contact The Cooking House at Desa Sri Hartamas (03-23001070) or you can check out their website www.thecookinghouse.com
December 14, 2009
I’ve shared before in previous posts about my maid problems and now that my maternity leave is ending, I was reluctant to leave baby Aisyah in the hands of my current maid while I’m at work, until I’m very sure the baby is well taken care of. Mr Hubby and I have discussed at length about it and I’ve decided to take a couple of months unpaid leave. While my parents who are both in the civil service were against this at first, with mutual concerns on seniority, pensions etc – I hold on to the thought that within these few months I could breastfeed my baby in full plus train my maid well. By the time my leave ends, baby Aisyah would be 4 months old and quite strong already. Of course I care about my career, but I don’t think leaving the frail baby in the hands of a total stranger could enable me to work at ease.
So today I went to seek my boss’s consent. She gave me a long lecture being a career woman with 7 children herself, and how she doesn’t trust maids. I know she wants to talk me out of it, but what other options do I have? As is, my workplace is quite a distance from home, plus I live in an area with no proper nursery (the closest would be somewhere in Kota Damansara or Taman Tun but that too is out of my way to work). I’ve thought of nurseries near my workplace but Mr Hubby is against the idea of me driving the baby all the way through the 40km highway to and fro. So yeah, seems like a few months sacrifice as stay home mom is my best option. As a matter of fact Mr Hubby asked me to take a year off but I told him being career woman I would go beserk to just to stare at the walls and feed baby. As excited I was about the thought of not working, honestly, I would miss the chats in the staffroom, driving around like a lunatic to get to punch early and most of all, dressing up to work. I hope my two months break allow me to build some confidence leaving baby at home later but not long enough to find the joy in being career woman again.