a few april birthdays in the family. (thanks for the treat, big bro. err, it WAS a treat, right…? :p never mind, next month’s universal studios trip is on me.)

guess who else has been counting down the months (yes, she does know the names of the months after all) and going “I CAN’T WAIT FOR APRIL!”?

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no reason for this youtube post except that:
a) i like this rendition (despite rachel’s annoying perpetually-pained expression),
b) i like her dress (which is something i’d wear, and in fact am wearing today, but in blue, with black stockings and all).

and what’s this, Women Against Ryan Gosling?! BLASPHEMY!
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/181390/w-a-r-g-women-against-ryan-gosling/

oh, and btw: #teampeeta! (“real or not real?”)

tgif…

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sitting by, witnessing her brother’s ejaan practice in progress:

M: “hinggap.”
G: “like tingkap!”
M: “no, tingkap tu window. hinggap.”
G: “like hiccup! *hic, hic*”
M: “noooo… HINGGAP! like a bird perching on a branch!” (I don’t even know why I bother.)

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he may not know or understand every word he comes across, but i’ll just have to trust that he’s absorbing whatever he does. as it is, his reading has improved, but spelling is still a painful thing… for me. (to keep coming up with ways to motivate him to “learn” those damned spelling lists.)

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Ballerina auni, originally uploaded by izadd.

love how pliable their young bodies are… that posture!

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he’s been wild about this series since the start of the year…

and hankers for more, scouring library shelves (although they’re usually all loaned out), exchanging with his cousin adam, and ultimately, begging us at bookstores. but do you know just how many there are in the series? SO MANY. i’d be utterly broke if i let him buy one every time i enter a bookstore (and err, we know how often that is).

so when i told him that a very kind aunty (who wrote in through our blog) is offering to give away her son’s collection of Geronimo Stilton books to him, he was ECSTATIC. and look, it’s as if he struck lottery! (and that’s not even the entire series, btw, plus there are spin-offs and graphic novels and special editions….)

and the very kind aunty even surprised us with something extra – a box of home-made cottage pies, so beautiful and delicious.

thank you, Rohaya, for your generosity, and for making a little boy very happy (and very occupied!). :)

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“can we go out nowwww?”
“go where?”
“i don’t know, shopping or what-ever.”

SHOPPING OR WHAT-EVER! is she 4 or 14?!

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confession: i devoured book 1 of The Hunger Games in two sleepless nights. I got hooked. and now i understand its appeal.

i’d resisted it for ages, always picking it up in stores and putting it down, refusing to buy into the increasing hype.

but it had to happen eventually. i buckled, caved in to curiosity. besides, i cannot bear to watch a movie adaptation without first reading the book. (and then insisting to everyone who’ll listen that “the book is waaaay better!”)

and so, i grudgingly started on it – on the husband’s Kindle.

yes, hana on an e-book. gasps! the blasphemy!

btw, i would like to report that, at the end of my intense e-book experience, i suffered a stiff neck, stiff fingers, and stiff eyes. immediately after, i went to get the paper version – and its sequels.

so, back to The Hunger Games.

well, it sure sated my appetite like a plate of hot satay.

from the engaging characters, to the details of the world they inhabit (Orwell’s ’1984′ being my last read, the themes of dystopia, oppression, and a government of surveillance bear comparison), to the exciting action and plot twists, there is something for everyone – boys and girls – and the story, especially the gripping Survivor-like spectacle, moves at such an exhilarating pace, it’s really quite hard to put down.

confession: i tell you what else did it for me – the boy-crushing-on-girl-for-longest-time-ever part. (ikr, “say whuuuut?”)

please, forgive me for reliving my teenage fantasies through “young adult” fiction. i simply have a weak spot for strong, self-sacrificing boys who nurse crushes on emotionally-clueless girls. especially when the protagonist has not one, but TWO boys crushing on her, amidst err, more pressing matters of life and death. (ref: Twilight.)

so, is it Team Peeta or Team Gale for you? i find myself liking both (it’s not as clear-cut as my allegiance to Team Edward), so yeah, i’m still deciding. :p

(now, where do i hunt for hot satay at this hour…?)

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I enjoy seeing the kids having unadulterated fun. Kindda makes me miss my childhood where life was way simpler. Enjoy while it last, kids! :)

Posted via email from izadd’s pemalas posterous

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off to school and work we go.

(no Post cereal today but scrambled eggs. and a hideous hairband i’ve been trying to hide from the girl with little success. oh well.)

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the kite runner

the book, the film, and the graphic novel – all left me equally choked up.

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sunday is my Sweating Day.

every sunday, i sneak out of the house before the rest of its inhabitants are awake, and have a nice drive to the studio for the morning hot hatha class. (i love the ECP on sundays.)

barely ten minutes in and i’m on both hands and feet, drops of sweat profusely trickling down from my temples to the tip of my nose, some seeping saltily into my mouth, perspiration dripping on the purple mat beneath me, forming a map of dark archipelagos and continents, as i hold my downward dogs and planks through sets of sun salutations in the forty-degree heat, breathing, breathing, breathing….

IT FEELS SO DAMN GOOD.

i don’t usually sweat easily otherwise, and what more with the many hours spent freezing in the winter of discontent that is Greyville, i don’t have much opportunity to activate the sweat glands. when lunch break comes round, we’d walk out of the building with arms outstretched to embrace the sun and melt in a pleasurable sigh. “helloooo, mr sun.” talk about ‘sun salutations’.

i think the reason why so many people feel depressed and perpetually pms-ish at work is because, confined in offices for long periods of time, they are deprived of the vitamin D goodness that comes from exposure to the sun, that it affects the body’s serotonin, the happy hormone. i mean, imagine how much happier we’d all be if we worked at the beach, right?

although i have to say, those lifeguards at our public swimming pools tend to be a tad too grumpy and stern-looking for my liking, despite having plenty of sunlight.

which is where i go to with auni on sunday afternoons for her swimming lessons. and here, again, my sweat glands go on overdrive while waiting for her, sometimes at the side of the pool to give moral support. more maps are formed, this time on my t-shirt, especially under the pits.

and after all those toxins are flushed out, and serotonin levels increased, what else could make you happier than treating your kid (and yourself) to a $1 ice-cream potong? $1! and so delish.

ps: i need a beach holiday.

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well, might as well send the boy into the labour force early…

nah, he was on e-learning for 3 days, so brought him to Greyville on one of the days. (ok, he’s on a break here and playing online games. at least it’s not facebook.) they get THREE whole days off from school to do homework online! kinda like telecommuting. yes, they do start them early.

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ok so this one sounds suspiciously coldplay-ish but i just like the idea of swallowing so much sleep, coz i very much want to do that, gulp a whole lot of it down and keep me full. (and am obviously listening to too much 98.7. husband calls everything on it “hipster”. i think it’s his favourite word.)

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