Makan-Makan

Today we had a hi-tea to welcome another two Malaysians family to Oman – Hj Amin n Raja. Hj Amin has been here quite sometime n just brought his family to stay here while Raja just arrived here 2 weeks ago. The event started at 3.45pm. One by one all the guests came (well actually the same usual colleagues). The guest of honour finally came at one hour later.

Everybody attacking him for his lateness, especially moms! We just love to make him feel guilty. After that everybody started eating n enjoying the food. Today I made mee kari, dadih n cheesecake. I’m always thankful to have my friends – Rohaya, Lyn, Zaireen n Oja who never turn up with their empty hands.

No matter what occasions that we made, all the moms will always busy preparing n trying their best to make dish n desert. Well actually this is the time we can show our skills.. :). We always say to each other that if we r in Malaysia, we will never want to do all this. Just imagine u can buy any kuih with 3 or 4 for RM1. Even if u want to order kuih in bulk it is still cheap compare with all the efforts n hard work that u have to do. To make traditional kuih require a lot of patience coz it’s sometime jadi n tak jadi!

When come to think about this, we glad that we learned n gained lots of skills n knowledge in cooking. Especially me.. I just love to explore n venture into a new recipe.

Last night we also gathered at the PDO hill to watch the fireworks. The kids just love watching it. Each time when the fireworks hit the sky they were screaming excitedly. The show last for ½ hour. After that all of us headed to our favourite ‘jalan-jalan cari makan’ place.. where else? It’s YAHYA.. the Turkish food with YAHYA around who always greet us ‘Selamat Kembali’ each time when we went to his place. Hj Zunaidi treated us last night for his triumph of getting his driving licence. Bravo!

p/s: Good luck to Rohaya for her 6th road test tomorrow. Hopefully she'll get thru it.

My Pleasure

Every Thursday is normally my OFF day for cooking n being in the kitchen. I declared that for the right of the humanity! Ha ha ha.. nothing serious. It’s just that I would love to eat outside n spend time with my family. We would go to the only one ‘happening’ Mall in Muscat n sometimes strolling along the beach.

But today is different. After upon request from the man of the house who had ‘suffered’ himself of not eating rice n have luxury meal during weekdays.. :) I am back to my kitchen. I started with bihun goreng for breakfast. Masak lemak cili api ikan talang masin with nenas, daging masak kicap, peria taucu n not to forget petai. (don’t ask me where do I get the petai, but it’s still fresh n huge) Huh… sounds delicious ahh..

After lunch I was busy preparing desert to bring to our friend’s house – Oja. Tonight we r going to watch fireworks. Oman is approaching its National Day soon. That’s why they r having many kind of events for the people here. We will start having tea at her house n then going to the location (up on the hill) gather all of us, stand n look up to the sky with mouth open, admiring the fireworks. U can imagine it ahh..

So that’s the plan… Hope we will have a good time tonight.

The Sixth Sense

Have it ever encounter in one of your days that u r so worried? I am a kind of person that sometimes likes to worry over a small little tiny thing. If I wake up one morning n my husband didn’t smile or talk to me as usual, I will start thinking what have I done wrong last night.

When I send my kids to school n my usual group of friends that used to talk n hang out together suddenly just turn her face or walk away from me… I will feel bad n begin thinking wether I have said or done something wrong to her.

When I have the worried ness feelings I will try to avoid of having the negative thoughts. Maybe the particular person woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or may be he or she just have a bad day too.

Today I was worried about my dearest friend. After received the phone call from her husband asking her whereabouts, my thinking clock has started. I tried to call her hand phone a few times n she didn’t answer it too. After one hour waiting with still no news, my fear n worried getting stronger.

I just can’t wait. I tried not to think something bad might happen. I make myself busied. Oh.. God knows what I was thinking at that moment. Finally I got to know that she is safe n still in one piece!

After I started losing my Mom n one by one of my close friends, I feel so sensitive over hearing any unpleasant news. I just can’t face any more lost n sadness in my life. I love my family, relatives n special friends around me. Maybe I am just getting older..

Grateful n Blessing

I was touched n pleased to meet my daughter’s French teacher at the Parents Evening today. When we talked about my daughter, she was so concerned about her. I know that every teacher showed their concern n worried but this teacher was different. At the end of our conversation she touched my hand n said that she will treat n take care my daughter just like hers.

I’ve seen her several times but never talk n meet her personally like today. When she talked I can see the sincereness in her eyes. After I left her, I know why she’s so concern about my daughter. She has a special touch n feeling towards my daughter because she is a Muslim.

All this while I didn’t know that she’s a Muslim until one day she called me during recent Ramadhan. She called me because she was very upset of my daughter not submitted her homework. She said she understand if my daughter was tired because it was fasting month, because she herself was fasting n Muslim too. At that point I was so shocked n surprised.

And today when I met her, it answered everything. She said she doesn’t want to see Muslim especially woman being left out of place in the world. Muslim woman has to be very independent n not to depend too much on man. I know n notice that we Muslim will always have a special bonding to each other even though we’re strangers. Especially when u r at the place full with strangers n who majority are non-Muslim.

When the first time I was in Mecca, I saw thousands different kind of people with different kind of hair colour, skin n language. And all of them are Muslim with one religion – Islam. I was so proud n grateful at that moment to be born as Muslim.

And today I am so delighted n pleased that my daughter has a kind n thoughtful teacher. I told my daughter that she has to be very grateful n thankful to have her. Alhamdullilah…

Be Yourself

When I was at the gym today, I had been approached by the lady instructor. Her name is Vicky n she’s Russian. She asked me the English word for certain part of the bodies. Then our conversation went on about ‘converse in English’. She recently had one month holiday back in her country. In Russian she only speaks her own language.

And now after a long holiday, she felt that she can hardly communicate with people. She felt shy n scared to converse in English. As a ‘concern human being’ I gave her some opinion n advice. It’s normal for everybody to be scared to speak the language which is not our mother tongue language. It will take some time for us to adapt with the surroundings n gain more confidents.

She asked me where I learn to speak English. Well.. I am not that super really good in English, but I guess I will survive if been thrown out in this English group of people. I told her that in our country, English is a compulsory subject in school. Almost everybody in Malaysia can speak good English. (I do feel proud when I told her this..)

It’s just us actually sometimes feel scared to speak especially in front of those white people. I faced that too when the first time I stood in front of them, all the sentences that I’ve memorized n practised goes haywire. All my past tense, present tense, and future present tense n whatever nods goes upside down!

So I told her, read dictionary. Yes.. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid n it worth all the efforts because without u realize u will memorize words. Don’t worry if we can’t speak like their accent. They even don’t care about it because they understand n knows that English is not our mother tongue language.

Even we Malaysian (Malay, Chinese, Indian) speak in our own style of English. I still remember when I send my daughter for registration at Taylors College; we had been briefed by one of the officer in charge. When she started to speak, I was laughing n realized that I’ve not heard this English speaking for so long. Maybe I’ve been away too long n been surrounding by British English. She spoke Chinese English (like Malaysian Chinese.. u know lah… if u lost the key ahh.. u have to pay ahh.. ) I told my daughter.. please don’t be influence by this ‘rojak’ accent. Just speak plain English.

The same thing goes when I first time talking to the Indian in Oman. They speak English like a bullet train. Not to mentioned the intonation in the curling part of their tongue. I couldn’t understand at all. But after awhile everybody here including Omani sometimes speaks like them. They don’t care at all the verbs or vocabs, as long as u understands what they want to say. 'This is too much expensive! After five minutes I come.'

Even though some nation try to deny n not to accept the English n stick to their mother tongue language, the fact is English is the world language. No harm learning other language because it might helps u. Practise makes perfect. Be yourself. That’s what I told the Russian lady. Even me, myself is still learning n practise it everyday.

Great Weekend

When comes to weekend, everybody here will be very excited. We started to asking each other (usual friends) what’s the plan n where to go. Today we had a picnic at Shatti Beach. The reasons why we had picnic today is because the whole Muscat will be entertained by ‘The Patrouille de France’.

It is also known as ‘The Cavaliers of The Sky’. This is an aerobatics show by a special team of pilots of the French Air Force. The show started at 3.30pm. We were there from 1.00pm after Friday Solat. We had our lunch – rice, chicken curry, mutton curry, sweet sour fish, vege, sambal belacan, rojak buah n lots of deserts n titbits. One thing I realized that every time when we were having outing, we will always make sure our food presentation is as good as we eat at home! Well done moms.. we did a good job!

While waiting for the show to start, kids were swimming n playing with sands. The weather now has started getting cooler. It’s very windy n breezy especially at the beach. We love the weather now. When the eight jet planes hit the sky above us, all of us were running towards the open area. Everybody busied taking photos n screaming amazingly. The jet planes flew at very high speed with just one-two metres between them. And they were just about 1,000 metres above sea level. We can see them clearly n sometimes feeling scared that they will hit us or each other!

They must be the best pilots with lots of experience. This aerobatics show needs a very good coordination n cooperation. We enjoyed n amazed ourself for 30 minutes by the great entertainment from French Air Force. There will be another aerobatic show by the British Air Force on 19th Nov (will sure be there!)

We did have a very good weekend. We will be looking forward for the next weekend with another activities..

p/s: I've never watch LIMA Langkawi show. I'll make sure to watch that when we go back to Malaysia.

It's Party Time

My weekend is busy with my kid’s party. Yesterday Nabila had her school fancy dress party from 3.30pm – 5.00pm. She dressed in Minnie Mouse costume. Hakeem didn’t want to be left out too. I put him on with Superman costume. He was so happy n excited more than his sister. I heard Nabila said to her brother “Hakeem.. this is my party. My school’s party. You don’t have to be so excited!” But Hakeem just didn’t care about it. He seemed to be enjoying it too.

At 7.00pm we had another birthday party. Aleesha’s 2nd birthday n it was a fancy dress party too. Nabila n Hakeem looked very tired but they didn’t want to miss it. Nabila was a fairy princess angel n Hakeem as a superhero strong man (I guess it’s one of wrestling character). All the kids were having fun n enjoyed the great party. At the same time around our friend’s neighbourhood (PDO camp) we saw many kids went from house to house for ‘trick n treat’. It’s Halloween night actually.

Today Nabila went to another birthday party. Four of her classmates celebrated the birthday today. She is a princess pinky fairy today. This time she had to leave Hakeem behind. She had a great time at the party. She won a lot of prizes for the games.

And for Nadira, she also had a party with her friends last night n today is Aida’s birthday party at the Ice Skating Centre. Ohh… what a day. Now all of them had passed out.. exhausted n having their sweet dreams at the moment.