b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

lol. i know. a bit late jumpin on the bandwagon. but when i do, i do it with a bang

terjebak for two nights.. this nite is no exception.. 

quotes so far:

boy meet girl. boy gets stupid. boy and girl lives stupidly ever after

as promised to kakak.. the requested zoo trip was replaced with butterfly park. had initially planned to head out as early as possible – but then her baba wanted to take the car for a wax job.

we ended up arriving @ the butterfly park around 11:30am. the day was starting to warm up… and i dreaded the thought of having a really hot day when we’re out in the open air.

whilst queuing to get tickets for the family – overheard the tourist infront of me being asked to pay rm34 for 2 pax. luckily, for malaysians – if you show your myKad, it’s rm5 for adults so my total only came up to rm14 (2 adults, 1 paying child and 1 paying camera – yup… the camera also needs to pay )

as with any old tourist attraction – u can see that they still don’t hv the dough to refurbish or at least repaint. the place even smells old (esp. the educational room at the end of the visit)

i wish tho that they could’ve warned us about lugging along the baby stroller – there were steps nearly every few metres of the footpath provided.. thank god her baba mmg dah lali angkat2 stroller nie – even with anaqi asleep innit.

at the start of the visit, was quite disheartened as saw many flutterbys butterflying above us but did not observe any fluttering near kakak’s level.. when the whole point of visiting the place was for her.

explored further into the nooks and crannies that were designed into the park – it was when we were at the feeding stand that kakak managed to spot a few butterflies.

apart from butterflies, there were also fishies in the ponds – though one pondful of fish seemed neglected by the visitors – prolly coz it was quite secluded. even the water was cloudy – stagnant water.. good thing lot of fishies there – else we’d have a aedes breeding ground

her baba then started to gently pick up butterflies from where they were perched (?) to hand over to kakak. as with any new experience, kakak hesitated at first - but after the first butterfly remained on her hand – she got hooked on having butterflies on her. methinks by the end of the visit – she managed to pick up > 10 butterflies by herself – not to mention those that amir passed to her.

kakak herself donned her butterfly (a.k.a. fairy wings) that was bought during the hello music land show and was fluttering around like a butterfly too – which prompted comments from other visitors.

noted tho that some of the visitors, instead of enticing the insect onto their finger or hand like we did, just grabbed ‘em butterflies by the wings… apaa laa …. kan ke mende2 tu fragile… u’ve pretty much maimed them if ur grip was a tad bit too hard.

kakak also got to observe nature at work – we saw a lizard nearby the feeding stand – and all of a sudden, it immediately gobbled up one unsuspecting butterfly that was unlucky enough to land near it. kakak then got into her superhero gear and started a mission to save any butterfly that happens to land on the footpath.

we left the park after 1pm..kakak being extremely happy with herself … finally getting to see a lot of live butterflies and even touching a number… and also managed to secure a promise to return to the park in the future.

photos to be uploaded later – don’t expect those professional shots of insects tho… i don’t hv the patience to wait and compose or whuteva u call it.

uploaded images already – click here for more photos

papa’s birthday

it’s been quite sometime the ashclan had wanted to go out as a family to bowl – but somehow never got round to it til christmas eve 07. the only person missing from the outing @ ampang superbowl flamingo was qemal – who had to work *boo hoo*.. kerja kerja kerja…

overall – ayu was the best bowler, i think pouji ended up being with the least score (padan muka gi gelakkan mama nye masuk longkang – ketulahan ibu tuuu)..me – i’ve only bowled like 1x in my lifetime – and of course, wasn’t good at it.. this time round, managed to get no pins down for like more 6 frames (throws, bowls – whatever ppl call it).. but i had my own personal cheerleader who still rah-rah-ed for me regardless of the number of pins i knocked down

anaqi was so excited that he couldn’t be lulled to sleep – zulaikha managed to sleep for an hour or so..

next outing, ayu suggested alamanda… but it’s toooooo far (not with the new putrajaya-kl highway .. heheh..)

work-related (whut??)

yesterday was in lembah beringin -to manage the live pilot transactions for a showcase for new module introduced for my existing client. alhamdulillah – with minor hiccups (why is it that people rarely highlight issues or inconsistencies with process etc etc during testing or training but suddenly are reminded of it when it’s the live transaction??!) – two transactions were fully completed by the deadline given by client.

thing is – my effort ain’t billable yet since i don’t have the LoA for that project – why would one work without any formal engagement document? coz the documentation bottleneck is at the higher levels within this organisation. not on the client side. nuff said.. i’ve done my part.. now do yours!

anaqi update: 11 months in 1 weeks’ time

am planning to go for a checkup this saturday – am feeling that anaqi has gained weight but would like to confirm with the GP… come feb next year will be his final vaccination – then we’re home free…i think…

he’s still fully breastfed (YAY for me!!) and now rejects porridge – apparently he’s bored with the same ole porridge and now craves whatever other people eat – last week managed to prepare him pasta with mushroom and herbs… have also fed him with nasi kenduri … roti canai… bread dunked in milk.. whatever u can safely feed a child – we’ve done it.

somehow makes life easier but am now worried whether he’s getting enuff nutrients.. have to sneak in some veggies and fruits somehow… am scouring the net for easy-to-prepare recipes for snacks..

field trip to butterfly park

kakak mentioned wanting to go to the zoo.. but after reading news on that girl who was mauled by a leopard @ zoo negara, decided that maybe kakak ain’t ready yet for that.

suggested to kakak if butterfly park would interest her.. she was so egg-siting! (that’s her term for anything that makes her happy)… so since last weekend was filled with other activities – am thinking of taking the family to butterfly park sunday… will prolly post pictures later!

how’s that for a busy week? from having watched nuthin via cinema for nearly a year – we went on to see two shows within a space of two days.

first: enchanted @ tgv klcc on 1st day of eid adha

yeah.. we did.. but so did a hundred or so more other muslims.. mostly out with their families – prolly stranded in kl/pj/wherever they are since can’t head back to their hometowns which are inundated by flood waters

anywho.. it was a whim – had convened at nenek’s and yaie’s place in keramat for makan pagi raya.. then just hung out until 11am when the entourage was ready to head for banting to meminang for me cuz. we did not tag along as weren’t invited – it is just bertunang anyways – the real day, we’ll be there!

so – ended up with nuthing else to do – mak was also not around which ruled out heading for pj. amir suggested we go for a movie – i immediately agreed. tried to book via phone but somehow tgv’s phone booking only had up to 18th dec programmed in, d’uh!!

off amir went to purchase tix. two for enchanted and one for national treasure le second.

we reached the cinema just in time for amir to head into his cinema hall – i took kakak and anaqi to the snack counter to get us the requisite popcorn & bottled mineral water.

was a bit anxious that anaqi might be overwhelmed by the loud noise – but my worries were unfounded – he was estatic and just enthralled to see the large screen. kakak loved the storyline, of course, since it was all about princesses.. she’s a princess herself, doncha know?

i surprisingly managed to follow the story altho had a 4-year old and a 11-month old with me. managed to have only 2 bathroom visits – 1 for washing her hands (messy eater she is) and 1 for an aborted attempt at shee-shee-ing.

the only time that anaqi acted up was when he wanted to nurse – i checked out to see whether the coast was clear, then flipped me shirt and proceeded to nurse anaqi – thank god kakak didn’t mention anything, else my cover would be blown.

with another 20 or so minutes left to the show – finally realised that anaqi stopped patting me and was quiet – kakak took a peek and confirmed that adik was asleep!! ho laa! that’s the best. finished off watching the show – after it ended, we headed to chilli’s for a late lunch. anaqi slept halfway thru and woke up to be fed on mashed potatoes!!

second: hello music land @ cineleisure damansara today

this – i had been planning for since last month. heard the advertisement on mix.fm and checked out the programme + any reviews almost immediately.

had initially planned to bring anaqi along but then they had this rule that any child above 0.5 meters in height are supposed to pay for tickets. d’uh? he’s only 11 months? he’s gonna be seated on my lap anyways? so shelved that – amir offered to take care of the lil boy – so am home free.

as per earlier outing – we arrived with minutes to spare. got the necessary refreshments and headed to cinema hall 10 *just realised that for enchanted – we were also in cinema hall 10? albeit in different movie complexes*

immediately noticed that the hall was close to empty – only the first 3 rows of seats had occupants in them consisting of 2 mat salleh families, 1 chinese family and a group of indian kids with their chaperons (most probably from an orphanage or half-way home)

show started off with a lot of music, lights and fanfare – the host of the day – mr quickles did his best in entertaining the kids and getting audience involvement. overall, the show itself was not half-bad – audience participation was a bit lukewarm at the start – but they slowly warmed up and everyone ended up clapping along and *gasp* singing along too..

my proudest moment – when kakak actually volunteered to go onstage for one of the games that the show had. she looked damned adorable – if it were not for the prohibition of having recording devices on in the cinema – i’d had a photo of her on stage.

all in all – the important thing is she had fun tho the outing did set me back by a few hundred – including snax, the soundtrack of the show and dun forget – the butterfly wings i ended up buying at the flea market @ the curve.. muahahah. pix laters.