Questa è Enida

Bibik wished me Happy Anniversary yesterday, as it was my 7th year carrying the title Mrs. Isteri. “Patutnya ibu pergi bulan madu,” said she.

Bulan nya di langit, madunya di sarang…Bik.

But then, sayang nya di hati.
To Mr. Suami in London…I love you Be.

I have been wearing glasses for five days now. Not really enjoying it. In fact, ghimeh! But like everything else, I don’t do something for nothing. After my first trial pair of contact lenses in 1991, I never went back to wearing specs. I never looked back. Though I do have a pair or two for backup, it’s the feeling of a ‘barrier’ between my eyes and what I see that I cannot stand. The in-between thing.

So, in between today and June 25/27…terpaksalah I do what I don’t like doing. Wearing glasses. I am going for my IntraLASIK treatment. Yey! Can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to wake up menggagau for my glasses in the morning (I do wear glasses at night, at home – but everytime I talk to Be, Bibik or the kids, I take the glasses off. What pain! But I simply can’t help it. Perhaps I take “seeing is believing” a bit too far. So much so, that when I can’t see clearly, I can’t hear clearly either. Sampai macam tu sekali, I tell you! It made me realize that I do do lip-reading rupanya all this while.)

Can’t wait for the day I can go swimming wearing non-prescription goggles and still see the bottom of the pool, senza other floating substance that is not supposed to be in a pool lah tapi. Can’t wait for the day I stop making trips to the pharmacy getting the solutions. Hate it when they charge you through the nose for a free lens case – if I collected those cases since 1991, I could make a king size bed out of them.

Just a month ago I went balik kampung without the case and solution…accidentally. Poor Flick kena heret and seret around town to show me every single pharmacy and kedai ubat available. And if Kedai Ubat Lee Nam opened past 6pm, I was pretty sure I didn’t have to go elsewhere. But it was close to 9pm and it was TLOH, not TTDI. I was about to give up, and even said this to Flick…if the 7Eleven we were about to stop at didn’t have it, I was going to burn down all pharmacies in town and the town next to it! That, and then perhaps I would resort to a pair of forks in my desperation!

Lo and behold!

That 7Eleven on Jalan Bahagia had it! And that was about the ONLY time I was grateful contact lens solution in travel sets come with a case gratis! Ever.

I am off to class now for the first time facing my students with glasses in between.

Ever.

I have been thinking twice these days. And that is only when I am thinking about what to write. The second thought always takes me away from the “Sign In” button, let alone “New Post” button. Not good! I am not out of ideas. I have been so full, I have exploded a few times. Wordlessly. In silence. But enough already!

Classes have started and I am back to work – but the load is so light I don’t think I can really say “I am back to work”. Kitreena’s second year’s school concert happened May 26 – almost three weeks ago. And next month is her final month with the Beeloved montessori. No more buzzing around with Aunty Jamila! Boohoozoo!

We are moving. Bye Ampang and Hello Kajang! Be’s new position doesn’t require him to commute to the KLCC…but it does to KLIA. So, Kajang is as far as it gets. Kitreena is going to the nearest international school available next year. And Edrick is walking 100meters from our new place to the montessori in the neighborhood! Neat!

Just today, as I was leaving KaCher’s house, I said…”I am waiting for the day when I don’t have to pack the kids’ stuff like I am going camping for a month and drive across the city just to melepak at your house, KaCher!” Yep! We are going to be a short 5 minutes drive and RM1.00 SILK toll away soon! But of course I can take the 20 minutes alternative/scenic route to save RM1.00.

It has been raining and I am loving it! It is raining tonight and I should tarik selimut and be glad that I ignored my Lazy Lady title and didn’t listen to my second thought about writing this New Post.

p.s. The picture in this post does not implicate that I am too lazy to wipe after myself or anything like that. I was just trying out my phone camera for the gazzilionth time while I was on ‘business’ – and remembering that we got this set at The Cheese Factory (actually an art gallery) somewhere down by the Blackwood River Valley, Western Australia. AUD$36.00 was a pretty good price, I must say, for a one-of-its-kind toilet rolls holder and brush set.

…the bahasa (?) word magis mean anyway?

Refer to: Utusan Malaysia’s article on Ikon

Educate me, please.

Tak rasa macam diri sendiri lately ni. Tak tau lah kenapa. Biasanya memang tak tau kenapa pun. Hard to explain, even to myself. Rasa macam nak mintak dipujuk, mintak dibelai. Tapi bila orang yang berkenaan pujuk dan belai, menyampah pulak. It must be really hard for Be to melayan me. It is hard enough for ME to melayan me, takkanlah ada yang tahan. I don’t want to feel guilty because it’s just going to make it more complicated. But I do feel guilty, and it is complicated sebab tak tau punca.

Banyak benda kot. Or maybe there’s nothing at all? One thing for sure, I know I am not motivated to do much these days sebab I don’t feel productive. I am out of work, and that makes me lazy. Too much time in my hand. When I am busy, the thing is, banyak pulak benda yang I can accomplish. The busier I get, the more I get done. Macam Raebok tu lah. When I have all five work days to myself, I would wait til Friday baru nak do what’s on my to-do list.

I feel fat-ter, too lately ni. But who’s to blame? Siapa yang malas exercise? Dah tu lagi nak depressed. Dah bertongkat rasanya perutku ini. And pipi pun rasa macam dah agak labuh dan lanjut sedikit! Tapi to get on the treadmill, adoi laaa liatnye. Sebelum classes ended aritu cik main lagi bersemangat Waja Gen2 semua rasa macam begitu teruja nak naik treadmill hari-hari. Siap beli bluetooth earphones to emboss the motivation plus the safety factor of it lah kan.

But now?

I have been thinking but not thinking about Be going to Sakhalin. Thinking and getting excited about the money – if it is really 43% increase. Memang half a million dollar chance in a lifetime lah if we can get the mortgage paid within the next three or four years. That will free us of our financial and location commitment. I have been so resentful renting this Hisham’s place because at the end of the day, the house will not be ours. Dah lah banyak nor benda are falling apart.

Tak nak fikir sangat pasal Sakhalin and get stressed out thinking about the time being away from him. And him being away from the kids. After chatting with Cik Nan the other day, memang it hit home lah that Kitreena and Edrick being the hardest hit. Kitreena has been really close to Daddy these last year and a half. Edrick pulak yang quite the opposite, will need the closeness if he were to bond with Daddy. Dah lah he’s known (to Dad) to be the ladies’ boy. Siap kena pelepap kat Cameron Highlands baru ni sebab tak nak kat Daddy!

I don’t know lah. Memang malas nak fikir, especially lepas bergebang dengan Cik Nan about how Adelaide’s lifestyle yang sangatlah sesuai for people like us. Me, yang tak cukup baja dan motivation nak mengurus pasal anak-anak dan rumahtangga sejak termanja dengan kehadiran Bibik. And Be, yang tak cukup 24 jam sehari when it comes to work – punya lah dedikasi. Sometimes I think when the world comes to its end, Be will be in his office, doing work.

Where will I be?

Saturday, Be jatuh pokok papaya!
Haiiii, I would like to say it was a “tiat not yet broken” [read: “tak patah tiat”]. But really, it was a tiat not even spoken. Tak sempat! Kisahnya, Be had been thinking and planning to petik the papaya on the tree belakang rumah for almost a week. Came Saturday, it had become too tempting for him. So, off he went in socks and runners, a ladder on one shoulder, ready to mempertahankan his papaya from the preying eyes of the squirrels sekelian!

I was watching from the kitchen door, with Kitreena busy melangau in my ears, Mommy this, Mommy that, Mommy Mommy this and that! As Be was going up to the highest point, about 10ft off the ground, he shook the ladder that was against the papaya bark (it’s an old old old papaya tree yang dah bercabang tiga already!) He did so to see if it was safer for him to go higher and to see if the strength of the bark would support the weight – his and the ladder’s.

I opened my mouth to warn Be not to stay up against the bark too long and to stop shaking it. “Babe, don’t shhh….!” And it was then that the brittle bark broke into three pieces! The ladder terjungkit like a see-saw – the base in our backyard, and the top in our neighbor’s. Be fell into the neighbor’s yard, luckily slowly. I held myself from saying anything to give him some time to realize that he just fell off the papaya tree, 10ft high! (In other words, I was speechlessly shocked and scared!)

There were so many fortunate things surrounding the drama, withal. It could very well have been a ‘sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga’ scene. Or Be could have fallen on the sharp rocks that were in the neighbor’s yard. Or even more seriau, there was a metal rod within an inch or two away from where Be had fallen, that could have poked through his chest! For God’s sake, excuse my ghoulish thoughts!

After rubbing his chest, neck, shoulders and arms…Be said, “Blasted papaya! But lucky me! Someone must have been watching over me.” Be escaped with only soreness on his left elbow and a bloody deep scratch on his right shin. Kitreena, being a drama queen, was crying in the background – as she got scared and overly worried to have seen Daddy fall.

I kicked myself for assuming that Be knew what he was doing. While he might have taken all the safety aspects under consideration, he admitted it later that he knew squat about papaya trees. They are not even trees, kalau ikutkan. Just an overgrown herb-type plant. Aren’t they? The ‘bark’ was not only brittle, it was hollow. So, the moral of the story is…bark all you want, but at the right tree, please.

Sunday was a Satay Kajang Day for us all.
Yummy the satay was. But a friend who joined us that day had a yummier story. And that is to be blogged about another day.