It snowed in Dublin on the 2nd of Feb and on the 5th of Feb. People were like got panicked. The kids got excited. Schools were closed and people got trapped in hospitals and at work place as they couldn't travel as the roads were bad.
Dublin very very seldom got snowed and so when it does everything came to a halt. It happened like every 5-6 years or so. In my time here in Ireland I've experienced plus this one 5 times snow in Dublin.
But I'm sure the Canadians and other Europeans who had experienced very bad snowstorm just like belittled us and laughing their heads off to us Dubliners who got excited for a few inches of snow. Orang kata jakun lah! Hahahaha.....
Well, enough said. Here are the photos of the kids enjoying the snow.
Today I was in the mood. Hmmm....That statement itself may have gotten the men thinking one thing only ;P. But...no. Not that kind of mood. Sorry.
I was in the mood to cleaned up the house. Well, the house was a mess anyway after a week of neglect so vacuumed, steamed and dusted.
Then I was in the mood for cooking. First I cooked mee kung fu or cantonese mee. Whatever the name, I cooked it. Yum yum.
After that I got the craving for cupcakes. So I searched the internet for recipes. There are thousands of sites!! Anyway, went to UKTV food and looked for Rachel Allen's cupcake. I got bitten by this cupcake bug coz I watched her show one night while flipping through the channel. Then at the UKTV site itself got few cupcake recipes. Looked at a few and I noticed that the measure for butter, flour and sugar are the same. And so I chose one with the bigger measure so that I got plenty of cupcakes.
Baked one batch with orange flavour. Zup zup zup....one by one got eaten even without the icing yet. So decided to make another batch, this time lemon flavour. Then I said well, since I got this far, lets make another batch and I can give the others to my friends. So baked one batch of vanilla flavour.
Now, after all that work, I'm tired. It's late, so my friends gonna have to wait to get their cupcakes. Not that they know they're gonna get some anyway. Now it's time for me to sit and drink my coffee and.............blog..............
Do you remember this scene from Jungle Book? I watched this scene and I laughed at how Mowgli the boy was hook, line and sinker just with 'lirikan mata'. No words needed. NAMI asked my hubby what happened there. Hubby answered, the boy was under a spell. He said You will have that same spell on boys soon. Hahahaha.....
The lyrics itself is telling us how life is really. Abah work, mommy at home taking care of us. Even working mommy...mommy comes home and takes care of us. And mommy teach daughters how to run the house when they've grown. And the girls, I think most of us did think of getting married, what kind of husband we want and how many kids we'll have....and how we'll teach them and so on and so forth.
This scene and the song, to me actually captures the essentials of life and the relationship between men and women in such a simple way but has meaning which is deeper at so many levels.
1. I had an accident. Crashed into somebody. Nobody got hurt but I was quite shaken actually especially because little MIMI was at the back seat. Police came. Car was out of commision in the garage. The other car was badly hurt too. Adah...CANNOT TELL MAMA HAAAA!!!!
2. MIMI had her 3rd birthday. Gosh...how time flies...
MIMI with her presents
Abah and his princesses
NAMI putting on the stickers on the dollhouse
MIMI and her present Upsy Daisy
Amidst the chaos of life with accidents and all, I'm thankful to Allah for keeping us safe and get to live another day. Thankful that we still got our health, people that we love and love us. Amidst all the troubles that we're currently experiencing, we're still better off. Alhamdulillah. Just need to get through this rough patch in life with doa and tawakkal...Insya-Allah things will get better.
I am soooo sorry for those who visited here and see no new post. Nothing updated. Wondering what had happened. Well, rest assured I'm still alive and well. Should have put up a notice saying I'm in hiatus or something like that.
It's middle of November and soon it's the new year. The year 2008 been a tough year so far for me and my family. It's like one thing after another came crashing down on us. I felt like being crushed under a huge mountain. If I feel that way, I wonder how hubby's feeling. He seemed so cool about things that sometimes I think is he for real, does he know the consequences of the worst scenario. Well, I'm always the worrier in the family and he's the calmer one. One need balance in life eh....
Anyway, currently we're involved with someone who we thought was a good person but end up causing chaos in our life as well as our friends' lives. We're hoping for it to end soon so we can get on with our life but who knows, she might just drag it for her convenience or purpose.
In September, my hubby received bad news of his father who got admitted to HUKM and diagnosed with leukaemia. After few phone calls home, he decided to go home. At first we thought only him to go but after discussing and couldn't bear the thought of celebrating raya on my own here in Dublin, we decided that best all of us went home as it might be our last raya together with his dad. And sadly it was, as he passed away in hospital on 3rd raya. It was devastating to all of us, and my two kids did not even get to see him when we arrived home and did not get to kiss him goodbye. Well, at least he got to be with them when he visited here last winter. And the memories they will remember of their Atuk, if any, will be of happy moments.
Amidst the sadness of the death of hubby's beloved father, my sister got engaged. Well, I was there for the merisik occasion only as the engangement took place after I returned back to Dublin. But my sister said it was meriah like kenduri kahwin!
Then, few days before we were supposed to fly home, my mom was admitted into orthopaedics ward. There was sublaxation of her cervical bones with nerves impingement which caused numbness of her hand. So we decided to postponed our flights home to see what's gonna happen to my mom. But the postponement was in vain coz not much was done and it's like waiting forever for anything to happen. I felt like I was in a slow motion movie where everything was sooooooooo sloooooowwwww. Both of us kept comparing the healthcare system here and back home and how things are done and we got frustrated. No wonder nobody wants to go into hospital unless you''re really dying. I guess everybody got horror stories to tell when it comes to hospital.
Anyway, MRI confirms the sublaxation of the bones and she needs surgery. I called her and told her to go for it as it will only get worse and it will not resolve by itself. She's scared to her wits (who wouldn't!) but she got till Raya Haji to decide. I pray that everything will be okay for her. At this stage all she could think of is the worst. And it's harder for her as both her daughters not there beside her - the doctor daughter and her beloved daughter. (I'm not her beloved...needed only for technicality purposes...to explain things medically to her! Kah kah kah...merajuk konon piiraaah!) And it's hard for me coz I can't be there for her.
And as the year coming to an end, so is my post for the night. I pray for better tomorrow and brighter future. Allah knows best and He has plans for all of us.
*sigh* That's how I feel at the moment. I feel like I'm in another world, sort of like a dream and I can't wake up.
Just got back from UK last nite. Very tired. Took emergency leave. Went home in the afternoon, cooked dinner for 2 days for hubby and his friend, packed my bag and left the kids at my friend's house who was also going with me.
The reason of this sudden departure? A friend of ours, Shaz and Abg Amin who was staying in Dublin before they moved to Luton to enable Shaz to do her Masters in Dermatology, experienced the nightmare of all parents. Their son Ashraf died in his sleep after a fever. He was 8 years old.
The story was that Ashraf was complaining that he felt hot and having headaches at school. Abg.Amin went and picked him up and attend to him at home i.e give calpol, tepid sponging and all. Shaz came home and checked Ashraf, looking for any rash, checking his pupils and all. All seems ok. And so they did what most of us do, even us doctors, thinking that it's just viral or flu and what we need to do was just bring the temperature down and if it doesn't settle then or the temperature went up to 39 or 40 C then straight to hospital. BUT Allah loves Ashraf more. That morning, Abg Amin fell asleep beside him, just for a moment. When he woke up Ashraf's gone. Shaz did CPR until the ambulance came but he was gone. It was less that 24 hours and their life changed forever. Shaz is 8 months pregnant and she had a final exam the next morning.
The body underwent post mortem but as yet no conclusion as to the cause of death. So they're doing a thorough post mortem and so there's no funeral as yet. Both of us girls, me and Dr.Glam and a few others from Dublin, went there to help the family and be there for them. But it seems that it's not our rezki to help them with the funeral. Only to offer our condolences and be a shoulder to cry on.
"Berat mata dan hati memandang, berat lagi bahu yang memikul" I just cannot comprehend, I will never know how they feel, and I hope I will never experience it. The only way to console a weeping heart was to tawakkal and redha as to Allah's plan. He knows best and only He knows the reason to it all. Seems harsh to swallow but in Allah we believe and in Allah we trust.
I can only keep telling myself that. If it happens to me, I don't know how will I cope.
