Tummy Talk

When school holidays and heavy rain combines – you get terrible traffic jam in the evening. To look on the brighter side, traffic is rather light in the morning – not that it’s a concern especially if you drive out of the house at 6.30am when traffic is extremely good, it makes no difference. Only on those overslept days it’s very much appreciated.

Anyway… approaching TTDI yesterday a little past 7pm, we saw Doli Kuey teow Goreng at the row of shop lots opposite TTDI Plaza. Being a fan of Kuey Teow Goreng (both me and Mr. Hubs), Mr. Hubs decided we should just perform the Maghrib prayers at the TTDI mosque and then have our dinner there – tension sgt dengan traffic jam actually. And so we did.

And I’m glad we did! Mr. Hubs had the special (bigger portion with more prawns), and I had the normal. It suits our tastebuds definitely. Mind you, we somehow or rather, always find places people go ga-ga over not as nice as claimed. Maybe our tastebuds are to be blamed. Like last weekend up North, we managed to try the famous Char Kuey Teow at Permatang Pauh, and I think I’ve tasted better, less famous ones all the time. But we discovered the satay there was marinated to perfection – extremely juicy! A must go the next time we’re there since Mr, Hubs and Imtiyaz are HUGE fans of satay.

Just googling some info on the place itself, I found out it is already very popular in Taiping. IDB would know, I guess.

At least when the traffic is really bad, we found a new place to eat!

 

Another Journey Up North

If you have been in contact with me, and have planned to meet up some time, you’d probably notice I would always some weddings or kenduri of some sort to attend. One of the reasons is probably because both my family and Mr. Hubs is right here in KL. There’ll be frequent calls of asking us whether we would tag along, etc, etc.

Not much of friends’ wedding when you’ve reached my age actually (but looking forward to a friend’s wedding next week, double YEAY!). Mr. Hubs has a very huge family on his mum’s side, and loads and loads of cousins of course. I think for the next twenty years or so, I’d still be attending his cousins’ weddings, seriously! Maybe one or two each year, who knows! ;)

So we’re going up North tonight. Good thing this cousin’s house is within walking distance from my grandma’s place. Sometimes I think Mr. Hubs is more excited than I am when going to my grandma’s! One very obvious reason is my grandma knows he simply LOVE her super delish homemade murtabak, and until now, she never failed to have some ready for him every time we are there. Talk about being spoilt!

And the boy… when we told him we’re going to Tok Nek’s house tonight, he asked, “…and play game?” Luckily he did not object when we said, “No games… at Tok Nek’s house we always see the chicken and the cow, remember?”

Looking forward to the whole month of December. With all the public holidays and the planned leaves, who wouldn’t?

Have a nice weekend, people!

 

Professionalism

First of all, I hope I spelt that right!

I’ve witnessed a lot of office affairs in my own office – some very obvious, some a bit blurry, some publicly displayed, some trying hard to hide (but of course still obvious)… and I don’t see anything wrong with it, provided both parties are not hooked up with anyone else, by marriage especially.

I’ve read an article once, saying it’s easy to fall for your own colleague just because of one simple reason. Most people are at their best when in the office, be it behaviour, the way they dress, the way they carry themselves, etc. I guess it’s true, especially if you work for a company that requires a lot of competing, you tend to display your best. But I guess if everyone remains at the highest level of professionalism, none of the unwanted would happen. And of course, those who are at their best in the office may be the total opposite at home! So think twice the next time you drool over somebody just because they look hot in the office. ;)

I personally think how you address each other in the office is important. Nowadays, people call everybody ‘Babe’. Or the Malaysianized ‘Beb’. But in the office, I think it’s more appropriate to just call your colleagues by name, no? I mean, I’ve never called my male colleagues ‘Babe’. It just doesn’t sound right. I’d seriously spare that only for people close to me. Obviously it sounds a little intimate to be addressing your colleagues with that, so please, avoid it! It could trigger some ‘perasan’ moments, for all you know…

Second most worrying trend – the SMS. Obviously it’s OK to sms your colleagues, work related. And if you are on a more friendly term with your colleagues, after office hours. But I don’t see the point of sms-ing even the simplest stuffs!

Like, where are you… thought you said you’d be here to settle some work with me… or, got anything to discuss with me at 5? (which is the end of the office hour)…or, is everyone in the meeting room already?

If someone is not there to do the work with you, then just do it yourself… or if someone didn’t say anything about any discussion, then just go home… and just go to the meeting room if it’s time for the meeting, for goodness sake!

Limit the sms for important stuffs. Limit the conversation only when you are at the office. In fact, I don’t think one should be on a too-friendly manner with colleagues of the other gender at anytime of the day. I don’t blame the guys alone, because lately, from what I’ve heard and seen, women too played their part shamelessly.

Prevention is always better than cure, anyway.

Just my two cents!

 

Freshen Up

Since I can already fit back into some of my old kebayas which I haven’t given away, I decided to get a set of dokoh to freshen up the look. It’s always great to go for a look that’s classic than the modern and too fashionable because classic, as we all know, will never go out of style.

Pic is taken from my phone, which explains the quality.

The place I bought it from has a range of classic accessories which I absolutely love. In fact, when I tried them on, I only had on a simple grey coloured t-shirt, and it dresses them up immediately! The best thing about dokohs from Paulini is that all parts can be disassembled to be worn on its own.

You can check out the range at Paulini Heritage Craft.

 

The Camel Hump

Abû Hurayrah relates that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “There are two categories among the inhabitants of Hell whom I have not encountered. The first are people who carry whips like the tails of cows and beat the people with them. The second are women, clothed yet naked, drawn to licentiousness and enticing others to it, their heads like the swaying humps of camels– they will neither enter Paradise nor even smell its fragrance, though its fragrance can be found to a great distance.” [Sahîh Muslim (2127)]

These days, you see hijab-clad women with buns tied up high underneath the hijab. It looks normal if the intention is just to ensure hair stays in place underneath, but when one starts to look like cone head, or the head becomes double or triple in length (there are several ways to achieve the look actually, not just by using the hair alone) – it just looked too weird. Urmm… actually, some looked really good with the style, depending on the shape of the face, etc.

I came across some debates saying it is not-so-right to follow that trend, and have been looking up further info on it. I think it is just right for me to share it here.

You can read the debate on it Chasing Jannah, for more info.  One part that caught my attention was this :

We must also note that the hadîth does not refer to the hair itself but refers in more general terms to the head. This means that the hadîth is not just talking about the swaying of the woman’s hair, but rather to the way the woman holds and tosses her head in a provocative manner. On the basis of this realization, we come to the conclusion – and Allah knows best – that the text is not actually prohibiting any particular hairstyle on its own. It is permissible for a woman to bind her hair in any way she wishes – even to pile her hair up and secure it atop her head – as long as she strictly adheres to the well-known dictates of Islamic Law in her dress and her conduct.

Let us all benefit from the reading, InsyaAllah.

 

Translator Comeback

I was given another lesson yesterday. The boy asked me,

Can I say ‘tungu’?

Yes. (I thought he said ‘tunggu’) ‘Tunggu’ means ‘Wait’.

Nooo…! Gwen (from Ben 10) said ‘tungu’. ‘Tungu’ means ‘Jerk’.

Okayyyy… so he meant ‘Dungu’. Told you the translated version sucks - big time!

 

Translate No More

If you remember this entry on Imtiyaz and his obsession with the BM translation of Cartoon Network, you’d know how relieved I am now we managed to stop him from wanting to switch.

It started one morning in the car.

Mama, I want susu.

Hold on. We’re almost at Siti’s house.

*pause* Tak guna!!

I didn’t actually capture what he said at first, but it got to me after a while. Told him there and then that’s not a nice thing to say. Took some time for him to understand why he can’t say those words when the cartoons he watched actually said them!

After that incident, we slowly started to tell him not to change to the BM translation because some of the words used are not-so-nice. Told him if he wants to learn or speak Malay he can ask us anytime. It did take some time to coax him, but now I can hardly hear him ask for the remote to switch the language. *phew*

And he actually got into the habit of asking whether the new words he learnt can be used or not, like,

Mama, ‘Tak Mungkin’ can or not? ‘Tak Mengapa’ can or not?

Maybe he got the impression anything that starts with ‘Tak’ might not be so good to say out loud.

But this morning, as he was taking his bath and playing with his 2 figurines and creating his own dialogue between the 2, he suddenly asked me,

Mama, can I say ‘loser’?

Gosh, big challenge isn’t it when they’ve reached this age? ;)

 

p.s. He has just started his mengaji classes this school holiday. So far enjoying it and willingly gets ready to go - though will ask why he needs to mengaji almost every day. Told him if he knows how to mengaji, then soon he can follow Babah pray at the mosque because it’d be good if he knows how to read the Quran properly. His reply was, “I like to pray at the mosque, but I don’t like to mengaji at Siti’s friend’s house.” Haihhh… macam-macam!