it was really hard getting the twins in the same picture – either one was asleep while the other was awake.

so we had fun watching the older kids instead. boy-chasing starts early for some girls, apparently! so much for our warning on aniq zohan’s t-shirt – lock up your daughters. ;p

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we had the rare occasion of a willing babysitter for the night, dinner reservations were made, outfits picked out, but as i’d written in the previous entry, plans sometimes go awry…

so we were a few couples short, and scaled down our own celebration in respect to a dear friend who’d just lost a beloved family member.

our initial dinner reservation at hotel intercontinental was cancelled, but we still had that table at 3 Monkeys for later that night, so seeing that birthday presents still needed exchanging and tummies still needed filling, we braved the traffic into town on a saturday night for that couples’ night out we needed so much.

all the ‘single’ ladies…

we’d never been to the now-defunct boom boom room, so this was the first time seeing kumar’s show (i hear he’s singapore’s only real national institution, hurhur), and omfg – the things he gets away with!

what a drag!

no holds barred, risque and irreverent, raunchy and bawdy, he basically entertained only our table and another’s next to us, both filled with, yes, melayus, lol! because, erm, we were like the most boisterous and ‘appreciative’ ones in the room, and got his (mostly dirty and/or racist) jokes. he loves us melayus lah.

and oh, what’s a birthday without being duly humiliated in public, right?

THANKS EH KORANG FOR SABO-ING. macam siak i tell you. but nevermind, because you give me cake and present, i still loves you. next time i give each of you a lapdance… NOT!!!

now, my fellow birthday girl lydia on the other hand…

i think she’s secretly a professional laptop lapdancer, can??

aside from that, thank you once again for the wonderful time, and for getting me to break into that LBD… which i’d probably never find the chance to wear again.

ps: and happy birthday to another december babe, ayu, who is busy slogging away with flour and eggs all the way in perth. you are sorely missed by the 77clan, whose AGM should be right about this time of the year. xoxo.

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i know i’ve said it before – twice actually, after the past two birthdays – that i wouldn’t plan anymore parties, but… it would seem that i have a sick addiction to it. coupled with my masochistic tendencies, the birthday party monster reared its ugly head yet again for the third year.

(they tried to make me go to rehab, but i said no, no, no…)

so The Plan was to hold a soccer party for the boy at the futsal pitch where his daddy and friends, aka Footsie FC, usually convene for their weekly soccer.

everything was set – barely a few days before the event, seeing how i thrive on deadlines and adrenaline – but, as the scottish poet robert burns wrote, ‘the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley’.

or in other un-cheem language, you can plan swee swee, but something sure go wrong one lah!

i’d naively hoped that it wouldn’t rain, but as nature has proved time and again, december is indeed a month fraught with uncertain weather.

it’d been nice and toasty all week, so my heart sank when i woke up to a wet and chilly sunday morning. don’t worry, it’ll clear up, the ever-optimistic husband said, looking up at the grey heavens.

an hour before the party, the clouds still refused to budge and continued to relentlessly drizzle its contents, literally taking the piss out of the harried party organiser underneath.

so an executive decision was made for a change in venue, caterer and guests redirected, and well… we ended up at the same, boring ol’ multipurpose hall nearby. there goes the photo ops with a nice backdrop and change in scenery for my – err, i mean, his party!

and of course, soon after the call was made and guests streamed in, the sun sneaked peeks behind its cumulus curtains. yeah, play games with my heart, why doncha.

anyway, i’d engaged Socatots to organise the games and activities for the kids, in line with the soccer theme (i’m big on themes, if you haven’t noticed), and i think that was definitely fun, especially watching the little ones follow instructions from the soccer coaches and run around in a (somewhat) orderly manner. age 3 is great for these things, and i think, my favourite age.

the Team

boys with balls

cake!

sing-along

“i loves mummy, i loves daddy, i loves baby auni” – aniq

stuffing the poor baby with cake. not that she’s complaining.

so that was that. never mind that we didn’t have a nice sunny romp on the synthetic grasses of the futsal field. we had lovely company, and the kids were happy.

and i shall now head to birthday party rehab.

wait, would it count if i did for auni’s 1st birthday…?

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as you can probably tell, the lack of updates by hana is a sign of profound malaise. clearly, the switch to non-sahm mode has not been the most joyful of event for her.

which made her question as to who in heck created the work week to stretch for five days and not contain it to just, say, four, or maybe three days?

to which she received a reply from her ever-sensible husband that it was all in the name of a healthy economy and The Big Picture. longer weekends mean longer downtimes, he says. less productivity and lower standards of living. worse still, he came up with the ‘less effective gahmen’ trump card. and in his usual gadget-centric logic, if his handphone is spoilt and requires servicing, a longer weekend would mean a longer time to get it repaired. hmph, the consumerist.

so apparently, long long ago, people, especially in the industrial era, used to work really long hours with really poor working conditions (boo hoo). then in the 1800s, some fella began demanding for shorter work hours, starting some kind of workers’ union, and went around with a catchy phrase, “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest”. that took quite a while to catch on, but it eventually did for most parts of the world, and May Day or Labour Day had something to do with that, you know, to commemorate the achievement of the labour movement, yadda yadda.

ok, so what’s the point of all this again?

ahh right, i’m *supposed* to be thankful that the work week has been greatly reduced from ancient times when workers were greatly exploited, especially women. but it’s hard to console myself when the fact is that most of the “eight hours of recreation” and “eight hours of rest” is sapped up by the demands of motherhood, leaving little for the self. (yes, i am after all part of Generation Me.)

labour is indeed a great pain for many women – the one experienced in the hospital to expel their offsprings from their wombs, and the one that takes them away from those offsprings eight hours a day, five times a week. the latter being more prolonged and painful for some, like me.

our respite – the forty-eight hours called The Weekend. where family, friends and food are the bonus and remuneration. <3

ok, digressing a little, i cheated (as usual) for the potluck picnic and bought a tray of shepherd’s pie from The Shepherd’s Pie, located at the second floor of Bedok Market Place, just next to our ever-favourite makan haunt, simpang bedok. we could have had it delivered for free, but since we were there for dinner the night before, we dropped by to pick up a frozen tray so we could bake it ourselves on the morning of the picnic.

what can i say, everyone approved, even the husband, the foodie! needless to say, the whole tray was polished off within minutes (as you can see in the picture). definitely tasty, with just the right amount of meat and potatoes. yes, i’m a carb person, i am. i love my potatoes. next time we’ll try the spicier stuff, ok idayana!

the two G.I. janes, aka botak janes. “kakak mia, don’t pull my hair!”

happy 30th! omg we’re old. hurhur.

and that reminds me – aniq’s birthday is coming, AGAIN! ha ha. of course there’s the question of should there or should there not be yet another party this time round.

to which the reply is that it would greatly depend on the economy. namely, the mother and father’s. which means, mummy would have to keep working to sustain that economy, baby. just so you can keep enjoying your birthdays.

crap.

aunty farah, can you save those three candles for him?

maybe i’ll just order a shepherd’s pie and plonk them on it.

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we had our first official friendly match of the season at the tampines safra astroturf pitch last night. although we just break fast 2 hours prior to the match, the guys really showed their mettle against a much younger opponents (at least for the first half, hehe)

the team gelled well even though this was the first time that we played. kudos to the team coach, powerdol for his shrewd first half tactics. we were indeed surprised to be 3-1 up by halftime. goals scored by loki and jon in the first half plus a gift goal from the opponent gave us a commanding 2 goals advantage.

but in the second half, it was a different story. the opponent team perhaps shellshocked by footsie, regrouped and came up stronger. maybe its our lack of fitness that let us down. they came up eventual 4-3 winners

credit has to be given to the younger opponents with their never say die attitude, they kept running while we, mostly daddies with buncit tummies, content to just take it easy. but overall it was a commendable performance by footsie fc. i can see the potential of the team. with more matches and training, we can indeed be a force to be reckoned with

ps: thanks to the WAGs that supported us throughout the match.

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it was a heartwarming iftar + birthday celebration at the orphanage, and i couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness despite their smiley faces as they salam each and every one of us, a whole trail of them, earnestly saying their goodbyes to us.

but when i stepped into their dormitory to look for my little one who’d wandered off with his newfound friends, i knew they were safe in the comforts of camaraderie, the big ones looking out for the small ones. in fact, we found one of the older boys carrying my prodigal son out while others swarmed around me, calling out his name, telling me where he was, asking about the baby in my arms, not squeamish to touch her face despite it being sloshed with drool.

back home, i put forth to my little one the idea of how blessed his life is.

me: “you know, the abang-abang just now, they have no mummy, no daddy…”
A: “where mummy? where daddy? the mummy die?” (i suppose two recent deaths in our family has pretty much entered his psyche.)
me: “yes, the mummy die, the daddy die… or the mummy don’t want them, so they put them in that house… kesian tak?”
A: “ohh… kesian…”
me: “see, aniq got mummy, got daddy…”
A: “got baby auni, got oma, got mummy…”
me: “ahh, abang-abang got no PSP, you know, no power ranger…”
A: “no ironman, no PSP…”
me: “yaaa, (here’s where i milk it for what it’s worth) abang-abang got no mummy to bathe them, make them milk, read to them books… so if mummy say ‘aniq! mandi!’ you must say ‘ok, mummy’. can or not?? you must sayang mummy you know!”
A: “mummy tak die?”
me: “err, no lah.”
A: hehahehe! *hugs me but almost crushes me to death me while doing so*

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the latest and last installment of our 2 days trip to KL which we all agreed was way too SHORT!

i’m really amazed that the videos really create a lot of buzz in the websphere with each episode hitting more than 500 views EACH! wow! (if one person just pay 10 cent to watch each video, gua kaya, haha!!)

so, its either there are really 500 viewers to the blog or the same people keep viewing the videos 500 times!

anyway, since this is the last of the KL videos, we really like to thank lennyrendra for organising the trip and nazrini for finding such great accomodation. and the rest of the roadtrippers, you guys rawk!! (we should organise more of these type of trips)

btw, the dvd is near completion, and since it seems that the videos are really popular, i’m taking orders of the dvd for the rest of the viewers who wants a copy for a low price of $29.99 with autographs from the roadtrippers and a personalise cd cover! (no lah, joking only)

ok, i don’t want to waste anymore time, since i got an assignment to complete also, enjoy the video and selamat berpuasa!

KL Trip 2008 (Part 4) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

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wow, 340 views and counting just for the first part!! that is really something!

ok, as promised, the second part of our trip. warning, more food footage

KL Trip 2008 (Part 2) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

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the official premier screening was held at rendra’s & lenny’s residence last night. (power chilli crabs, i must add!)
it was shown to a full house audience with full stomach. many of them actors and actresses in the video.
anyway, let me present you the first of a 4 part series. sit back and enjoy!!

KL Trip 2008 (Part 1) from izadnhana on Vimeo.

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7 families, 6 kids, 6 cars, 2 days, 350km, and a whole lotta eating…

and yes, carl’s jr. in kl is halal, lah. so is tony roma’s, which we ‘bedal’ too.

details later. going to TM with the kids now. and ikea, which, by the way, we also went to in kl – for the swedish meatballs, lol!

signing off,
an insatiable carnivorous singaporean

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in a few hours time, we’ll be lugging down a huge suitcase and two kids, like refugees in the dark, and off we go!

unfortunately, not somewhere which requires us to go to the airport and take a flight. just a really, REALLY short road trip over the weekend. a gorge-fest before monday comes.

the itinerary is set, or rather, a FOOD itinerary.

but for one person, only one thing mattered. his quest… for Carl’s Jr!

it better taste as good as he imagines, lol. :p

byebye and selamat bersahur in advance, everybodeee.

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eh eh, national day came early lah!

happy birthday again, boys…

majulah singapura!

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one month old and you’ve been to at least two tourist attractions: sentosa and the science centre. :p

96 degrees in the shade

ouhh look, freshly hatched chicks from their shells, just like you.

egg shell & Peanut Shell

of course, this time round the purpose was to bring your abang to see the dinosaurs. which he wasn’t very impressed with, and i must say, i was kinda disappointed too. maybe we should’ve brought him to see that big purple dinosaur instead? no?

well, at least he got to date a big fan of the big purple dinosaur…!

forget that purple pansy, sharleez – this is how a REAL dinosaur sounds like!

so auni, are you ready for the zoo next? one kakak working there has reminded us of those free tickets, you know!

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we figured it’d be more worthwhile to hold a joint cukur rambut ceremony for the two babies, and invite relatives and friends at one shot since many hadn’t had the chance to be acquainted with the new arrivals, and so we did – for aidin, who’s at that extremely cute age of three months (topped with curls to die for and smiles that melt the heart), and auni, who’s at that rather clueless age of one month (with few fuzzy bits as hair and accidental twitches of the lips that get passed off as smiles).

oh look, four little tykes to strike terror upon their oma! *gasp* let’s tie them to the train tracks!

aniq, auni, aidin, adam… and thomas the train

the last time we had the ceremony for aniq, the husband got to carry the baby during the ceremony, so this time, it was my turn.

.

yeah, told ya the boy’s curls are to die for. compared to our almost-botak girl, tsk. must be from my (follicle-challenged) gene pool. (premature balding/receding hairline’s in my side of the family, gah!)

so, ta-da! her first haircut… err, hair trim. we’ll spare you the “boy or girl?” queries from strangers and not shave your whole head ala GI Jane. keep that few fuzzy bits you call hair, and don’t worry, *some* day you’ll get to wear those hairclips aunty diah gave you, ok? :p

the thing about having kids in the family, is that there’s bound to be comparisons. like how different adam and aniq are. and looks like it’ll begin again – or perhaps has already begun – with the two new additions.

but this time, we have a trump card – “alah, dia kan girl…” and yeah, this line has actually been used a couple of times already as it is.

the thing is, it’s us parents who perpetuate this comparison business – we simply can’t help it! i’ve caught myself asking the husband why the sister’s different from her brother, and it always start with “aniq dulu…”

eg.

“aniq dulu rambut lebat, auni rambut sikit.”
“aniq dulu minum susu banyak! kenapa auni tak minum banyak eh?”
“aniq dulu malam bangun, auni malam tak bangun terus.”
“aniq dulu tembam sekali! auni ni macam tak kembang-kembang jer.”
“aniq dulu active! auni asik tidur, tidur, tidur…”

and the husband’s response would be – you guessed it – “alah, dia kan girl…”

like it makes all the difference in the world, to be a girl!

but maybe it’s a good thing, to have that gender difference as a trump card, since she’s gonna have to compete with her brother AND two boy cousins. heh.

and speaking of cousins, meh, makcik nak promote sikit ni!

with our regular cupcakes and berkats supplier, Simplycupcakes a.k.a. ayu, about to move continents in a few months time, we’re happy to find another worthy replacement in her absence. as my mum says, they both have the same “citarasa”. tasty and tasteful, indeed.

favours by Mariah & Sham – for enquiries, email mariahnsham@hotmail.com

i’m a little behind in blogging, have so much to do and interesting stuff to write about… but it’ll have to wait.

tomorrow going science centre, you know!

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