RM102 for 15 minutes fun

It is very, very expensive by my standard but I have two little kids and a husband to entertain on a Sunday!

I'm talking about Aquaria KLCC. Me and hubby had been to a similar underwater experience in Osaka in 2001, and to me once in a lifetime was enough already. It was expensive, anyway and I'd rather just relax and watch the National Geographic. But off course, things changed when you have kids. They didn't ask for it but we parents would come with some excuses!

After reading along's encounter with it, I thought we would never go there so soon, especially not during weekend. I've been avoiding KLCC during weekend like a plague, anyway but after reading Maria's, I thought it sounded more interesting!

We were there at about 12.30 pm. Bea1 was happy to be carried in a backpack carrier by papa all the way, while Bea2 in the stroller. A long queu as expected at the ticket counter, but they were fast. In barely 5 minutes, hubby got the tickets and met us at the waiting area that is provided for families that I just love!

And the new adventure began. It was a huge crowd there but I still could stroll comfortably through them. Some parts, Bea2 asked to be carried to get a better view. I was more interested to look at the expressions on my girls' faces. We moved quite fast but the girls seemed to be ok with the pace. Besides the huge cylinder, they loved the tunnel so much. I would never forget the excitement of their faces looking at sharks just swam over their heads! And Bea1's remark over seeing the seahorse the first time. She never knew that seahorse is that small (just like me;))!

To me, the aquaria is just too small but hubby insisted that the size is about the same as the one in Osaka. We've never been to Singapore's Underwater world, so can't compare.

We were done in 15 minutes. Had lunch at the Kenny Roger's just outside the aquaria, not so crowded as I expected and it was a rather peaceful lunch. I calculated the 'damage'. RM38 for 2 adults, and RM26 for kids over 3 years old equals to RM102. We concluded that it was expensive, but still the look on my kids' faces is priceless!

And off course, we will go again. Hubby said when Bea2 is a bit older and hopefully, by then she will enjoy it more but to me, I seriously think that she really did enjoy it. It's just that she did not know how to express it like her big sis!

No photo was taken as hubby strictly followed the rules but I saw people were happily snapping away!

A Thirty Year-Saga

Nobody tagged me for this one but I've seen a few bloggers put up their interesting 30 years of their lives, and I thought I just love it (though may not be as interesting!)

1985: 20 years ago

13 years old and my parents sent me to boarding school. I hated it. Got my two elder sisters there too but that did not help. Both of them were prefects but I was the one who always ended up faced-down in Cikgu Disiplin's room.

1995: 10 years ago

23 years old and supposed to finish my studies in uni but I failed one paper in the first year and had to repeat the whole year. It sucked but I enjoyed my time with my new a-year-younger friends. Commisioned to Second Leutenant (ROTU) by the Agung.

Got little conflict about the choice of music. Used to headbang to Metallica, Sepultura, Sodom and the likes but suddenly Cobain's came into the picture. Succumbed to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and the likes.
Tomboyish, a few guys in the uni looked interested (provided that I changed a bit) I was not into it.

Felt like I have the whole world in front of me....

2000: 5 years ago

28 years old and engaged to a guy. Who would have believe it that he was in my class in my second year. I never noticed him till we got introduced again some 5 years later. I've changed a bit from my tomboyish image, one of the reasons he got hooked, I think!

A little bit of searching and I knew what I wanted to do in life and I converted my Masters studies to PhD, though with hiccups, I love every bit of time spent finishing it, with a lot of support from my man.

First trip to UK, stayed in Bristol, worked in McDonald's and washed dishes in a guesthouse while hopping in and off a lab in Uni of Bristol to save my chemical, managed to do a bit of travelling to Western UK, London, Paris and Budapest!

Could not take more separation from my man, got married 3 weeks after returning! Bea1 was conceived 3 months later!

Hey, I did not realised that it might be the busiest year in my life;)

2002: 3 years later

30 years old and a mother of 1. Motherhood changed me a lot. Started writing my thesis. Only finished it end of 2003...yeah, I took a lot of time for that plus my supervisor in the uni retired and I had to chased him around. Tough time but hubby and Bea1 made it easier for me!

2005: This year

33 years old and soon-to-be mother of 3. Started teaching and look forward to more research works! Feeling good about life, will be moving into a new apartment!

2006: Next year

Hopefully able to turn the new apartment into an Ikea showhouse;). I will improve my cooking skill, and I hope to be able to let hubby rests more when he is at home;)

2015: Ten years from now

Will be grateful to Allah for granting me longer life! Hopefully more 'rezeki' to have 2 or 3 more babies. Will continue with my research. Plan to go for the 'haj'!

I'm also not tagging anyone for this one, anyone feeling like doing it, just go ahead and let me know, ok;).

The seven things meme

Domesticgoddess tagged me on this. I rarely got tagged, only twice, I guess. Took me awhile to think what to write. Here goes....

Seven things you plan to do before you die :
i. Go to Mecca for the 'haj'
ii. Improve my Arabic
iii. Read and decipher the whole of the Quran
iv. Travel with the family
v. Backpacking with ONLY hubby
vi. Watch the kids grows up, got married, have kids and watch hubby grows old
vii. See all my parents wishes are granted

Seven things I could do :
i. Improve my Arabic
ii. Read the Quran more
iii. Write a few more research papers by Dec. 2005
iv. Improve my cooking
v. Pamper myself more
vi. Be more patient with hubby, kids and the students
vii. Get more organised

7 Celebrity crushes :
i. Charles Bronson (anyone knows him or not?)
ii. Pierce Brosnan (since Remington Steele till now)
iii. Tim Robbins
iv. Gary Sinise (in Mission to Mars)
v. Bono (I just love this man!)
vi. Bob Geldoff (in Live8)
vii. Steve Harris (Iron Maiden's bass guitarist if you never heard of him)


7 often repeated words :
i. Nak mama cubit? (ok, I'm bad mom sometimes, ok)
ii. Abe, abe tau tak....
iii. Read first, after that only ask questions!
iv. How's school today, sayang?
v. Shoot!
vi. Can't think off any!


7 physical traits I look for in the opposite sex :
Er...I don't look at any other man after having hubby, anyway what I love on him:
i. Nice and strong hands
ii. Nice butts
iii. Those wrinkles at the corner of his eyes (Charles Bronson got that, too!)
iv. Those greying hairs (that will make him looks smarter...hehe)
v. Broad sholders
vi. Nice ears
vii. The smiles and a lot more la...7 mana cukup, can't finish wan!

7 tags goes to :

Anyone who likes it, and got the time to do it!

Counting down to D-Day (Part 2)

Arranging the bedroom

It started off with a queen bed, off course. When Beatrisya comes into the world, a cot was added. It was fully utilised till she was 9 month old when she decided that sleeping through the night was no fun at all. On and off she she was in it and after her first birthday, most of the time she was sandwitched between mama and papa.

Bea2 came and she demanded to have me by her side throughout the night. For awhile, all 4 of us shared a queen bed. I just never thought that it was possible, and the cot started to collect dust!

Realising that the girls are getting bigger, and papa22beas is also not getting any smaller;), we bought one of those extendable junior bed from Ikea for Bea1. Following some advices on the internet, we let he chose the quilt cover, pillowcases of her choice. She did that, and was so delighted with the new bed, we placed it in our bedroom but still *sigh* she rather sleep under papa's 'ketiak'!

Since the arrival of the toddler bed, the cot was shifted in the living and became a storage of toys and junks!

For awhile, I slept on the toddler bed with Bea2 and later, papa22beas assembled it to its maximum length and now he is occupying it! Don't underestimate cheap stuffs from Ikea. It can withstand his weight alright, plus some 'activities' *ahem,ahem*.

I'm no hurry to get the girls into their own room but now, with a new baby is coming in less than 1 month, I must do something!

On Saturday morning after papa left for work, I rearranged the stuffs in the room. Took out things that are not needed there, and pulled the cot back in. No matter if the baby will like it, knowing that there is more space for everyone is enough at the moment! Like the room better now, even with a queen bed, a toddler bed, a cot, 2 chest drawers, we still have even larger space to do our prayers!

I have 10 siblings and to have my own room in the house was just a dream. Then I went to boarding schools and stayed in dormitories, later to the uni and shared a room with a roommate! After graduated, I just could not wait and I rented a room. A small room but I'm just happy to have 4 walls all for myself. It lasted for a few years till I decided to get married. The thought of sharing a room with a er...boy made me nervous. It was not that bad, and I never thought I'd be also sharing it with 3 kids soon!

Counting down to D-Day (Part 1)

Delivery Day, that is! I'm due on the 14th Oct. but think it will be earlier.

I was having Braxton Hicks yesterday. At 9.00 pm, in the bed, I tried not to be bothered by browsing the new Ikea catalogue, papa22beas was hooked on CivilisationII and the girls doing their bussines in the living!

I dozed off on and off, woke up at 11.30 pm and saw both girls were still awake but all nice and clean in their pyjamas. Papa was still on Civilisation!

Me: It is way past bedtime, shut it off and let the girls sleep.
Papa: *silent*

Contractions on and off, mild but enough to make me unconfortable

Me: I'm having contractions

Papa: Ya? *silent*

Me: It is quite regular! What if it is tonight, the floor needs mopping, I got a class tomorrow and, and ...I have not shop for the baby!
Papa: *silent*

A manja pregnant woman started to feel that she had been neglected by the husband


Me: *Got really irritated, raised voice* Abe, what if it is tonight?

Papa: *eyes still fixed on the screen* Abe standby la ni...but make sure it is for real. Got water coming out already?

Me: It is not necesserily the water?

Papa: *eyes still on the damn Civilisation* Check la got DILUTE or not!

Me: *It is DILATE la, you *$%^&#*...(and before doing anything dramatic and tragic like throwing that laptop out the window, I chose to calm myself down and went to the bathroom).

I stayed in the bathroom for a good 1/2 hour, and thought how I had wasted RM160 for the antenatal classes that we both attended 4 years ago! Feeling better, I tiptoed to the room. It was silence, Bea1 was asleep in the big bed, so as Bea2 but she was beside her papa on the toddler's bed (that was supposed to be Bea1's). They looked adorable, but papa was still on the game!

This morning, on the way to work:

Me: It is dilate la...not dilute
Papa: I know la...just testing you
Me: It was not funny, ok!
Papa: *smile*

The contraction is gone, and I'm back to my usual self. The class is done, and I have a long list of "what-to-do-before-the-arrival-of-the-new-baby". Hope I can start off with the shopping;)

They got to be joking!

I thought I have enough jokes from lrong, but not till I found this.

This blog is not meant to be a place to pour out grouses or complaints (well, sometimes I can't help it;)), or show angst. I may create another blog specifically for that. So, for the above matter, I shall reserve my further comment!

Yeah...the shortest blog I've ever written!

Still too early for sex education

Think Bea1 is getting more curious on what's on earth a baby is doing in mama's tummy, and how she/he gets there. At the moment, she can get really facsinated especially when she sees images of baby in-utero, just like me longggg time ago.

When I was pregnant with Bea2, getting her prepared for the new sibling was not that challenging. I kept telling me there was a baby inside, brought her along to ultrasound scanning. At her age, think sometimes she looked curious but really no questions were asked.

But this time around, still no questions asked but from her face I knew she wants to know more.

I was looking for ways to explain things to her. Last few weeks, there was this documentary on National Geographic, In the Womb. I thought I must let her watched it.
It showed the process/progress of the creation of baby human from conception to birth, with nice computer graphic and real ultrasound scans!

She was not really interested at the earlier part, but when the baby started to get into shape, she became more attentive. 1 explained to her that the baby was growing inside her momma's tummy as her little bro/sis in mine. At parts when it showed the baby in utero, she asked me "Mama, where's the mama?", and when it showed the mother with the big tummy, she asked "Mama, where's the baby?". I tried my very best to explain and kept talking to her throughout the show. Thought, at the end of it when the baby was born and in her mother's arms, she would comprehend more.

Did not know that it was a 2-hour show. It was past bedtime, papa22beas and Bea2 were already in bed but Bea1 was wide awake. I dozed off a few minutes near the end of the show but her attention was all on the box. Finally the baby was born, think with the mother's position on all 4, that sight was not that 'scary' for a 3-year old. I could see a relief on her face when she saw the baby and mother finally 'together'.

It happened that I was scheduled for another ultrasound scan two days after that. I brought her along. She looked so cute when the staff seated her in a chair besides the bed, you know with that excitement/curious look on her face. All of us explained to her what she saw on the screen and finally, she was shown the face of the baby!

To give her a clearer picture, I also showed her this:




I knew Discovery showed Anatomival Travelogues: Conception to Birth but never got a chance to view the whole of it only the end. But to me the sights of the birth may not be suitable for my girl, yet! But I called her to show the events after the birth and explained to her a bit about birth etc.

After all those 'lessons', thinks she gets more ideas. She even talks to the baby in my tummy and she also understands better when I asked her to feel the baby kicking etc.

Anyway, in the begiining of In the Womb, she got really curious and during some parts:

Bea1: Mama, what's that?
Mama: Err....sperm.
Bea1: *repeat after me* Sperm! ...and what's that?
Mama: *jeling to papa, but knew I would not get anything from him* Err...ovum.
Bea1: Ovum *nod, nod*

Well...still too early for sex education! I remember when I was a little girl, being 'budak kampung' and all, we was never taught about it. Only learnt it much later in school. My imagination was, all girls was born with tiny babies in their tummy already. The babies would grow when the girls got married, and came out one by one!. When I got to know that my parents did that 'thing' to 'produce' my cute little sister/bothers (before the lessons in school), I was like "Ewww..."...It was simply unimaginable!

Hopefully my girls won't have that kind of feeling!

One after another, and another, and another.....

From the experience of being a mother for 3 years and 8 months, I found that my kids get sick in the average of 2-3 times a year or about once in every 4-5 months. Off course, I don't rely much on this estimation but it just something that popped in my mind! I know it is silly but I kind of use it to 'prepare' myself;).

And the sickness comes with a trend. For the past 3 sessions, Bea2 got it first, she then passed it to papa and finally Bea1. Sick kids means sleepless nights (of sponging to keep temperature down, checking temperature etc), and a lot of worries (paranoid is my middle name, by the way;)) to me. Sick husband means more works for me as he needs to take rest. And whenever got sick, Bea1 would act extra babyish, I swear she got that from the father!

From my experience, at anytime of the year when the kids get sick, I would get this comment from the doctors, be it from a specialist or GPs in hospital:

"Ohhh...sekarang ni memang musim, banyak budak sakit"

And I also got these from colleagues,

"Musim la...cuaca panas sangat"

And this from a waiter at Secret Recipe when she saw me struggled to feed medicine to the kids:

"Musim....kejap hujan, kejap panas...saya baru je lepas demam"

Well that made me feel better, but I do wonder if there such thing as "musim" when people tend not to get sick!

Bea2 got a fever during the peak time of the bad haze episode. And off course the doctor said it might be the haze. So, now I can add another "musim" to it!

Just when I feel relieved that Bea2 didn't pass it to anyone, papa complaint he had a fever. Just after he felt a bit better, Bea1 got it pulak! And I suppose the haze is no longer an issue. Just when she showed that her condition was improving, it went back to Bea2. Another trip to the hospital on Monday and both girls are a lot better now.

Anyway, I must be grateful that I escaped from the bugs, except for a mild fever last year. But I can't help it and wonder why. I suppose someone must be healthy to
do all the task of making sure that everybody is back to good health. Plus someone must take care of those extra chores of cleaning pukes etc!

Now that both girls are better, I pray that it is the end of another session!

With a heavy heart, I quit!

*Hanging head in shame* Think in almost everything that I've done, I'd never quit this fast. But it really should be this way!

I would only take the plunge to do the 3.5 km run tomorrow if I know there is hope for me after that. These few days, I looked for more info on the programme and found out that though they will only be sending the best candidates to Russia in December, the other tests such as aerophysical tests will be done in September. The candidates also are expected to have other tests in these coming 4 months. And after talking to a staff in ANGKASA just now, it is the end for me.

Papa22beas was the one who forced me to sign up the application for reasons that I really stand a good chance, being a PhD holder as we thought the programme was all about research and a scientist could be one of the best candidates, and to him, I'm quite fit;). I, on the other hand thought he should be the one. He was accepted in one flying school, despite his love to fly, turned it down after passing through interviews and tests. The reason was after much thought, he said he'd rather be with the family. I slapped my forehead and thought "ahh...rugi, rugi" *kidding only la*!

Think he is a bit dissapointed on how this whole thing ends, but he was also the one who said "tak pergi pun tak apa!" after we watched the launch of the run that was held in Terengganu. He was just afraid I get knocked down by others;), and the thought of premature birth adds more to it;).

The application was done in Dec. 2003. After a long silence, I thought I was out already. Now that the real selection is being done, and things get a bit euphoric to me that I was actually still in.

Talking to him two nights ago:
Me: You know why now that I'm so interested...the sight of the earth from up there, seeing the beauty of Allah's creation! It would be a miracle! Can we experience that without having to go to ISS?

papa22beas: We can always appreciate it from anywhere, want me to come out with "hadiths" and Quranic verses?

Me: I know what you mean hehe...next time ok, want to go to sleep. So, seriously abe, no regret if I let this one go!

I hope one of the best 8-10 will be a woman! While the best candidates will spend 11/2 years in Russia for the training etc, I will be very much doing the same thing. I will be in and out of caves in Perlis, Kedah and Perak studying records of climate in the past preserved in the cave sediment, lugging around my breastpump. While the first Malaysian astronaut eats roti canai, and teh tarik;) in micro-gravity, I will witness that while nursing my baby (hopefully we can get to watch it live!).

Before I forget...talking about miracle, having a creature inside me, knowing the he/she is alives because I'm alive, feeling she/he kicks about is very much a miracle to me. Just like 5xmom mentioned here. I don't have to go that far!

I apologise to all my friends: 5xmom, lrong, annie, belacan (sori ya, no mama22beas on the Star), mjey, shamira, laramommi, ninuk and all those in MMB who had wished me luck!

And to lrong, instead of saying this to your friends:

"hey, my 'friend' is an astronaut, ok... don't play me ah..."

Hopefully one day, you can say this instead:

"hey, my 'friend' ah, got a daughter/son who is an astronaut, ok... don't play me ah..."

Now, still hoping...;)