we finally managed to redirect our long blogsite url to something shorter and easier to remember. so instead of typing www.blog.izadnhana.org/wordpress, you just need to remember something shorter.

www.izadnhana.org

yep that’s it. very easy to remember, rite? the url will redirect you to our blogsite. simple? now try it :)

also, i had optimised the blog to load up faster if you are using your pda or mobile phone to view our site. if you are using a pda to view our blog, the page will automatically be formatted and optimised for your small pda screen. it will also work on certain handphone models. but so far, the only model i tried was the sonyericsson k800i.

the mobile edition makes your surfing on the small screen faster. anyway, if you still prefer to view the site in its full glory, you can change the settings in the mobile site. we hope these small adjustments will help to make viewing our site, a more enjoyable experience :)

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being the only child, he’s left to his own devices while we do other tasks around the house.

occasionally, i’d sneak up on him in his room when i feel that he’s… too quiet.

… and sigh in relief that he’s not up to some mischief.

perhaps it’s a nice respite having time to himself after five days of being at arms with his cousin dadam. :)

speaking of which, dadam’s going to have, yes, a BROTHER.

gah! another fella to add to our already burgeoning football team over at the jumari side of the family. more boys!! when will the spell break?!

“ha ha! another boy to fight and wrestle with! yee-haa, bring it on…”

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i’ve been following the COE prices for the past 2 months and the latest open bid COE result for september shows a slight drop in price in category A (cars 1,600cc and below and taxi) COE from $17,999 to $17,941, while there’s an increase in category B (cars 1,601cc and above) COE price to $19,589 but surprisingly the COE price in the open cat dropped from $19,323 to $19,199 (source from LTA website)

anyway, i wouldn’t be surprised if the COE price hit $20k next month. with the rosy economy outlook, many people are rather optimistic about the future, which is good in a way, but not so good for people like me who is shopping for a car!!

ever since the last post on buying a new car, i’ve renewed my insurance and road tax and put off thinking about getting a new car until baby colt started to get other ideas, the door locking system had failed on me for the 3rd time this year! maybe now, its justifiable to consider shopping for a new ride :)

also the wifey finally relented to my request of changing the car, wasn’t really hard, considering my prophecies came true. higher coe price, car giving problems etc… ;)

after going through our finances, we can only afford the sub $70k cars, so that means continental cars and honda stream are out. my first choice was the toyota vios but after looking around, the toyota axio and honda airwave look rather promising. the wifey is also attracted to the airwave, “…. the silver colour one looks striking, eh?” she quipped. 

airwave, mini mpv or

toyota axio, the saloon choice?

so anyone out there got any views about the axio or airwave? perhaps you own one or know someone who is using them. or maybe you think you got the perfect car for us that is within our budget. let me hear your 2 cents or 5 cents worth, hehe…

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it started with my body, especially the tummy area, which had grown out of proportion suddenly, in what seemed like mere days, jutting out unnaturally especially after a meal. even the areas around the hip and the back had packed on more meat than usual. weird, i thought. and i thought i’d been trying successfully to cut down on lunches lately.

lethargy then set foot, the overwhelming tendency to sleep or languish in bed or on the sofa. but i dismissed it as my then-depressed frame of mind, due to work matters. (i STILL am depressed at the thought.)

then the funny taste in the mouth, especially after having a meal of rice. that familiar metallic/chalky taste.

the burps, in increasing amounts.

and the threats of heartburn. that choked up feeling at the back of the throat, and the what seems to be perpetual hunger, which is rarely sated.

so when we popped by the pharmacy one night, i saw a two-for-one sale for the in-house brand of HPTs – only $4.95! – and grabbed it, making sure i had it hidden from sight from other customers. i don’t know why, but i thought it embarrasing to be seen holding HPTs while pushing a little toddler, barely two of age, as if i was being judged for careless family planning.

not that it wasn’t planned, really. i mean, we’d meant to have another one and all, of course. and some time within this year too. i’d actually ideally wanted to have this happen in november, so that it’ll come out in august next year, the same birth month as the daddy, to complement the first bub who has the same birth month as me.

we thought, with increasing age and our previous track record, we’d give it perhaps a three-month TTC window. ha ha. so much for that.

jackpot!

the first thing i thought was, “wait, didn’t we only just did it… err.. a few days ago or something??”

seriously. it was… puzzling.

so that was a monday night. i’d peed on one of the buy-one-get-one-free sticks, and both lines instantly appeared, very dark. thinking it was a faulty piece (thus the dodgy buy-one-get-one-free lelong), i peed on another one. again i watched as the wet streak made two dark lines.

and then i shouted out to the spouse.

“look! i think something’s wrong!”

he looked, and went “yey!”

it just kept getting weirder and weirder, i tell ya.

i made an appointment for our beloved tried-and-tested gynae for a saturday, and vowed to keep mum (again) this time round. though, i’m not sure how long i can keep up the charade though, coz from the looks of it, and i’m talking about my four-month-preggers belly, it won’t be long before they guess.

****

the day of the appointment came, and everything was, well, blase. it’s funny that we weren’t in awe or in terrible excitement, like we were the first time round when all this happened. i went in, took my weight (45.1kg), they pulled out my records, and we waited.

for two hours, that is, being a saturday. we had an active toddler this time round to make things ‘interesting’ though, so we ran around after him and he amused himself by playing with the bigger kids, as usual.

the check showed that the waterbag is present, and junior is still basically the size of a grain of rice, according to the doc.

“five weeks,” he proclaimed.

“huh?? are you sure??”

i counted back.

“i must have been unconscious when it happened, then!”

(yes, i said that out aloud.)

anyways, i haven’t told my mum yet. even after the checkup. i’m not sure i want to so soon yet, knowing her reaction would be one of concern and worry.

we’ll see.

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one.
two.
three.

four!

yup, we’re four.

;)

happy anniversary!

i’ll see you later tonight hor.

erm, right after my camera course at canon.

and for your birthday tomorrow, have fun being on leave by yourself eh.

wait i bring you to… Comex?

or you want to watch… the cast of Heroes, perhaps?

anything lah. as long as free, ok.

wo mei yo chien. wo de broke. wo IOU next month. or december bonus time. (or when somebody buys lumixette off us!)

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ok, looks like we are back!

sorry for the downtime. the servers were down for more than 24 hours. i had a hard time contacting the hosting company. but finally looks like its ok for now. i believe the migration to another server resulted in the downtime. hopefully the migration exercise is over.

anyway, thanks for your patience, hopefully you guys don’t get any withdrawal syndrome! :)

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well, after much deliberation we decided to jump the gun…..

meet pak mat punto!

….. haha, gotcha!! admit it, for a moment you guys thought that we bought a new car, right?

my dad decided to trade in his sonata for something smaller, it’s a grande punto to be precise. nice compact hatchback or better known as a supermini. we had the chance to test drive the car on sunday. found the handling very good and rather responsive. a continental car feels more solid compared to a japanese or korean make.

even aniq loves to drive it! more pictures here.

gostan… gostan…

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this is a week overdue, but congrats to farah for the much-anticipated arrival of mirza shiraz. :)

wow, only one of you left then, eh? *winks at lyd* lol!

anyway, the bub above here has shown signs of displeasure at not wanting to share mummy’s arms with any other little human beings other than him. his lower lip would quiver at the sight, tsk. so tak abang-abang ok?!

just how do they learn this – ‘jealousy’ – anyway?

nevermind. we shall keep ‘brainwashing’ him till he warms up to the idea. must prepare in advance mah. (way, WAY in advance, in this case.) :p

so, anyone else have babies we could borrow?

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it’s official and an announcement has been made to the relevant parties.

*drumroll*

there will be an addition to the family!

here’s a quick recap of what the person in question will be going through in less than nine months time…

oh, and here’s another hint.

IT’S NOT ME!

:D

look out, dadam & aniq, you’re gonna have to work even harder for your oma’s attention soon…

ps: aniq ONLY just turned nineteen today, so shh, no suggesting/requesting/coercing/demanding that we plus 1 ourselves YET, hokay? shh!

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dear gwen,

as much as i like your style and covet your yummy milf status, i’m afraid the husband and i will not be seeing you terkinja-kinja on stage come august.

it’s stranger than Fiction but we unanimously decided to go watch these old geezers instead, whose singer incidentally wears the same amount of make up as you.

THE CURE!! WAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

i’m stoked! i am! i heart them many many for a long time hokay! i used to play their Wish album over and over again coz it was a rollercoaster of delirous happy (‘friday i’m in love’) and depressing sad (‘letter to elise’), just like i was at the time (ie. a teenage mess of extreme highs and lows).

we don’t have such sentimental history with you, gwen, but we wish you all the best and know that you will be playing to a full house when you’re here. our friends will joyously tramp along with you to ‘wind it up’ and swing to your ‘sweet escape’ and spell out ‘B.A.N.A.N.A.S’ at the top of their lungs, no doubt (pun intended).

oh my, it looks like august is shaping out to be quite a rawking month, eh? (not to mention, a pokai one. yikes!)

hollaback (er, whatever that means),
haNajuku girl

ps: for those who prefer EVEN older geezers, engelbert humperdinck is also performing next month. wuaahahaa!

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he had his final poke in the thigh yesterday, ie. the 18th-month jab. the last he’ll see of the needle till primary school! i guess we won’t be referring to that health book again for some time?

dah kena inject, tidur lah. lemah, you know.

kena tricked lor. two days of enjoyment, then kena inject! huahuahua!

he complained to everyone about his poor injected leg afterwards, pretending to limp and going all dramamama with a fake whimper and animated gestures. fake sympathies were offered to him (“alalalalaaa, kesiannn”), and he’d chuckled gleefully. very bertuah punya anak, ok.

we’re grateful that he’s passed all the milestones according to his grand age of eighteen months, and marked at the fiftieth percentile in height and weight. “good,” declared the doctor.

well, thank you. that’s all we liked to hear. :)

ps: total dvd count for the past 3 days of our ‘faux holiday’ = 4! not too good, must work harder…

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can i just say…

IT’S FRIDAY! IT’S FRIDAY!

my stating (or exclaiming) the obvious is to emphasise the fact that tomorrow officially marks the start of our ‘holiday’.

well, if you can count five days – including weekends – a holiday. sigh. we make do with what we can get, eh?

being the ever, erm, resourceful (read: cheapskate) and, erm, efficient (read: kiasu) parents, we have the itinerary packed to the brim with activities starting from, well, tomorrow lah. (ok, we’ll leave some buffer in the schedule for aniq’s nap-time, my blog-time and izad’s… jog-time?) our mission is to let the little one vent out as much of his tornado energy as possible throughout the five days.

next week, no more big children swarming the playgrounds, pools, malls, void decks, and every imaginable kids’ hangout other than schools!

so, all you babies and toddlers, you can reclaim your rights to these places then, ok?

hmm, perhaps mummy and daddy could squeeze a movie date in there somewhere too. (i still can’t believe we managed to catch ocean’s 13 that day! miracle o’ miracles!)

and since we’re at it, i hear the zara sale is around the corner. a little shop-time would be nice. (i know i know, i brought back enough shopping bags the past few days already. *snort*)

speaking of which, this has been accumulating in my head since THAT sale began on tuesday.

Some Tips To Survive A MNG* Sale.
(i’m quite sure other more veteran survivors out there would have additions to this, so feel free to jump in.)

1) head for the main MNG stores, as they have more variety in terms of sizes and models. forget outlets in department stores, eg. iSetan, as the selection (and space) is limited. furthermore, some of these iSetan people will insist you dump your belongings into a crumpled garbage-like plastic bag and seal it with cable ties ala mustaffa shopping centre, before they let you in.

2) do NOT, i repeat, do NOT bring your boyfriend/husband/child into the sale area. these persons only waste valuable floor space and cause obstructions to the serious shopper scrambling for that piece of tank top spotted from ten metres away. if you insist on bringing them in, however, make sure that they stand in the furthest corner of the shop and not linger at or block the passageways. i might add that this is also for their own safety as women at MNG sales are a vicous pack.

3) do some physical work out before attempting to go to one of these things. because you’ll need the strength and stamina to elbow through the crowds of women hell-bent on rummaging and scrounging through piles of garments for the best bargains in their sizes.

4) wear the thinnest possible piece of clothing, preferably skin-tight, so that you can easily try on an item on the spot without having to wait in line for a fitting room. i mean, have you seen those queues? do NOT waste precious sale time, people!

5) if you see something, GRAB. this is no time to be gracious. nevermind if it’s one size to small, you can always starve yourself later. remember the saying, ‘everything’s fair in love and war’? well, women at a sale and at war, little difference.

6) this one’s a little flexible, but some of you may be cranky shoppers on an empty stomach. when hungry, your much-needed energy and concentration is wasted on a rumbling tummy. in such case, eat something light before you brave the shops. i emphasise the word light, because if you eat a heavy meal, you’ll frustrate yourself from not being able to fit into your usual size and then blame the MNG manufacturers for defective measurements. come come, that’s hardly fair, is it? as i mentioned, this is flexible, so you may choose to go in without food if you are the kind who can single-mindedly focus on a task and have a strong desire to squeeze into size 0 pants.

7) this is optional – go in pairs. tag-team it. you can cooperate by finding sizes for your friend, and advice on each other’s buys. if you prefer to go at it alone, that’s just as good. hey, less competition!

8 ) you’re all familiar with the concept of blog-hopping and island-hopping, no? well, here’s one more – shop-hopping. plan your route in advance, and shop-hop away! for example, your starting point can be, say, centrepoint… then on to ngee ann city… then wisma… then lido (which has two MNG stores), or you could do it the other way. why shop-hop? don’t be silly! who knows what other treasures you can find in the other outlets.

that’s it for now, happy shoppers. be safe now!

(*MNG stands for Mango for the uninformed. like, hello! which coconut shell have you been living under??)

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who says playing too much computer games is no good for you? well, for my brothers, it turned out the opposite as they brought home the sony playstation 3 after becoming champions in the new paper cyber challenge! we were there at Funan IT Mall to capture their finest hour. their chosen game was the nba street home court, which is a basketball game set on the streets. they had an early scare in the semi-finals when they trailed by more than 8 points before composing themselves to come back and win by 22-20. fortunately, they had an easier time in the finals, steamrolling their opponents 21-9.

aniq, looking rather uncomfortable with the attention.

“hmm…. daddy, u sure you know how to play?”

it ain’t heavy, its a PLAYSTATION 3!!

fullest concentration required

for more pictures, check out my flickr, here

their prize? a cool playstation 3 with $1000 cash and $300 game voucher! how sweet was that! i guess aniq was their lucky mascot, so perhaps a share of the prize money for aniq? hehe…

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i got us tickets!

the cheapest i could get, but it’s ok lah, can still see si kudut ni. i think we’ve been to every one of his concerts together, haven’t we? wahlao, we were like dating-dating back then, man. sooo lomantik.

yeah yeah, his songs kinda suck now, so let’s hope he’ll give us some of the old stuff. heck i won’t even mind stuff from the tears album. maybe he should really go back to being an androgynous drug addict and stick with his ex-BFF bernard butler. ah well, things change, people move on, etc… eh? such is the volatile nature of the rock & roll scene. (alah, blogscene pon kekadang gitu jugak. ah ah, joyah!)

oh, we’ll leave the wild one (aka aniq) behind, ok! then we can talk like proper adults without him around! wahh, what a change!*

but have to wait till august leh. meanwhile… we don’t need to talk lah! we blog with each other enough, ok!*

heehee.

(*private joke laki-bini lah tu.)

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