Tiny's mum gave birth to a litter of 4 kittens about a week already. And she is such a devoted mama cat. This time round, all 4 are male kittens and she is making sure they all survive.

The last time she gave birth to 3 kittens, only Tiny survived. And to think that Tiny was the least that she cared about then. One of the kitten died of suffocation - mama wanted to keep them warm so she had cuddled them close to her body. The next day, one of Tiny's siblings stopped breathing - mama cat had accidently slept on it the whole night. Tiny's other sibling died from undernourishment.

With only Tiny to look after then, mama cat made sure she wasn't out of sight. And we helped in any way we can, including building a shelter for them to sleep in right outside the kitchen door. On cold and rainy nights, we moved the basket of mama cat and Tiny, then an odd looking scrawny fur ball, to outside the front door where it was warmer.

I had not wanted to start the habit of keeping them indoors - they were after all still 'strays'. And I'd like to keep to the relationship we have with them now. In the day time, we feed them. Sometimes we allow them in to play around, But night time, its strictly outdoors.

The cats that seemed to favour our house and taken to us, and vise versa, somehow know not to soil the house inside and outside. If there are droppings found on the front lawn, that would most probably be the work of other strays or cats owned by others in the neighbourhood or some of the 'tame' cats' "friends"...

Jogging shoes in use...

Upon our return from our short 'balik kampung' holiday to Singapore during the recent school holidays, the first outing we did was to a mall to get running shoes for Hanafy. As promised.

Today, 1 July, marks the second time the shoes were worn and for the purpose of the purchase. The first time was last Saturday when we were in Penang to deliver our talk to a few schools there. We stayed at the Gurney Hotel along Persiaran Gurney, fronting the sea and with a wonderful stretch of concrete walkway point to point, connecting the hotel to Gurney Drive, and suitable for avid joggers and brisk walkers alike to partake their interests mornings, evenings or nights.

We brisk walked point to point and back. I am very sure we covered an area of about 4 km in total, judging from the amount of sweat that poured out of our pores. Once we got back to where we started, that is right in front of the hotel, we walked right up the 1 flight of spiral stairway to the coffee house for breakfast. A healthy one, mind you.

Ahhh....I had 2 bowls of their oatmeal and mixed dried fruits in milk plus yogurt, chilled and ready to scoop. Have always wondered how they did the mixture - whenever I tried to concote this tasty serving, it just did not come out the same delicious way! I had a few crackers with cheese. I had coffee and a glass of manggo juice. I had 2 half-boiled eggs, grade C in size.

The Gurney...I am sure their buffet breakfast spread is one of the best I have ever tasted. But then since we have been staying here regularly for the past 3 years, the spread never seemed to change. Not that I am complaining; as long as the oatmeal and mixed dried fruits in milk plus yogurt is there...eemmmmm...

50 years together, and still going strong

May God always be with the two of you and the all of us.

Love you both smuch!

Happy birthday, Raziq

Raziq turned 10 today, 8 June 2009. We have been in Singapore since Friday, 5 June 2009 and I had gotten him almost all on his wish list. Well, the list according to me, moir, mummy.

He got his sports shoe, sweat pants (and a couple of normal pants), a couple of plain colored t-shirts AND he got his football. And we as a family have been going down to the park in front, or could that be behind, Aunty Chah’s house for our 45 minutes brisk walk cum light jog EVERY day. Great, huh? Lets’ hope this continues when we get back to KL this Wednesday.

According to Raziq’s list, I still have to get him a football jersey – which I always referred to as t-shirt, pardon me. The GSS is on and we got some good bargains on his other stuff so perhaps we could get his ‘jersey’ at bargain prices. I did find a cool t-shirt that has a football club name printed stylishly in the front and at the back, ‘The Next Number 10’. He didn’t fancy that so it went to Raihanah, lucky her.

And according to HIS personal list which I specifically told him I am ignoring, there’s a super cool toy car top of the list. Dream on, dear…

The family that walks together...

Yesterday, we shopped around for sneakers or jogging shoes. The family aspired to start jogging together at least 3 times a week to stay healthy. And loose unwanted weight, if possible and of course! Worst case scenario, if we can’t jog then take brisk walks BUT as a family!

We figured, since we all love food and eating out at fancy spots, and we wouldn’t want to give all those up, then we’d start exercising to help us maintain healthy physical presentations, if you know what I mean. Over the past few moons, I noticed my pear shape turning very peary and Hanafy walking with his head forward to balance his, ehem, pronounced tummy.

Raziq, too has become very rotund – well, with the last few weeks of no prancing around the playground due to the mid-year exams and all, he hasn’t been able to turn those babyish fat into healthy sweat. The only one who has remained slim is Raihanah, and that is equally worrying.

Raziq spotted and fancied a pair of Puma’s and the cost was something I could afford for him, considering his birthday is just a few days round the corner. However, the lack of service (read: attention) from the many sales assistants loitering around the shop floor trying hard to look busy made us walk out with a loud “well, if they don’t want our money, we’ll go elsewhere”. And we made sure some of them noticed us walk into the sports shop just next door!

Poor dears, what they desired didn’t come in their sizes so I strike a deal with them. We’ll get ourselves ordinary no-brand running/exercising shoes. And if we remain true to our family pledge of 3 times a week of brisk walk and or jog, we’ll treat ourselves to those oh-so-very-branded shoes. Every one of us.

And mummy will throw in a pair of branded sweat shirt and bottoms for herself! Hey, I’m paying maaahh…

More goodness than un-good...

Today is a day of more good than un-good, for wanting of a better term.

We took the kids out to a movie at our favourite theatre in 1U – watched ‘Night at the Museum 2’. True to its critics, this sequel to NATM is better and more hilarious, with little resemblance to its predecessor. The kids had fun and so did we the grown ups.

The movie started at 2pm which meant we had a good 2 hours to have lunch and perform our zuhur prayers. As a treat to Raziq, a pre-birthday celebration, we left the choice of restaurant to him. And so it was at The Gardens we sat and enjoyed a sumptuous luncheon amidst ‘lush greeneries and wild flowers’, all plastic, of course.

We were served by Laila – superb and fantastic service indeed. The others, including the Floor Supervisor (I assume) also ensured we were served and waited on. I noticed this superb level of service is standard for every patron is treated the same. Laila was such a fantastic service provider that we ended up ordering dessert even though I had not particularly budgeted for that!

The ambience of The Garden really made us felt like we were at a garden wedding; who would believe this place is in fact on the lower ground level of a shopping mall, nestled behind some known labels.

After the movie, Raihanah and I went shopping for linen to be given as a wedding gift. Again, we were treated like royalty by the sales assistant who, from his physical appearance, should be resting at home playing with his grandchildren and not here, attending to people like me. Because of his warmth and friendly nature, I ended up buying more than what I had planned.

Ahhh…all good things must come to an end. This string of ‘goodness’ ended with deplorable service from a very rude store-owner where my children had walked in to buy computer games. Original ones, mind you.

I guess the store-owner didn’t think we could afford the more than RM150 games sold at her shop…well, pardon me for not carrying my original designer hand-bag. But after spending more than RM200 on lunch, what is RM150 for a computer game, eh?

It feels like the pits...

My jubilant mood on getting word that payment for some jobs I had done turned turtle just as fast. It seemed the end clients were not thrilled with what I had produced. Now that was, is, a balloon deflated.

I had been concerned and anxious with the assignments – I suspected some of what I had done may not meet clients’ expectations. But to have one of the assignments totally rejected…well, that certainly is enough to more than bruise one’s ego.

Another one of the assignment I’ve been told is being reviewed and revamped here and there. Which part or section exactly – I wasn’t informed. It did not help that I was only told of this when I text message the middle party for notifying me of my payment.

Somehow, it didn’t feel right; that I was not told of what or where I did ‘wrong’, and that I was not given the opportunity to correct what might have been my ‘wrong-doing’. The manner of this all seemed so ‘wham bam thank you, maam’.

And I do feel so bad, a tight knot in my tummy in fact, thinking that this could have an adverse impact on the career of the parties that got me the assignments.

For now, I can only pray that everything will turn out right. Eventually. Hopefully. For everybody. Don’t I always believe that everything happens for a reason?