The lil climber

Myra myra.. sedar2 dah nak masuk 11 months!!!.. When she turned 10 months (exactly) she stand up on her own two lil feet.. with no support whatever.. but yet still no sign of her trying to walk by herself.
I blame myself cos of the limited time spent exclusively with my lil one. Too many things are happening.. When moving from Doha, she was 7-8 months.. I had to juggle between arranging my departure; the packing, the shipping, the getting-signature-of-7-(yes, SEVEN) different-department-to-get-the-final-paycheque, the farewells, the not-that-busy-work-as-media-manager and her.. my precious.. my munchin, my uchuk.. I tried to be the best mother I could be.. although i had to get up real early to go to work, i would still try my best to cook her food.. (I was lucky to have met Annabel Karmel's book- the complete guide for a newby like me).. Most of her food are tasty and freezeable, so i could still maintain the home-cook meal for my lil one.
Hurm.. selame I'm in Doha.. my maid must have been the most relax maid ever.. she just hafta clean the house (which was quite big.. a 4+1 bedroom villa with a rear garden, but there's only 3 of us, so mustve been a piece of cake for her) and taking care of myra only when either me or aizal isn't around.. I'd do all the cooking and caring for Myra.

Now that I'm in London.. coming home after work means, I am maid-ing myself; to either clean the dishes, do the laundry, ironing (which until now i failed to steal time for), or cooking and stocking for Myra. Plus all the extra work during off days - to shop and literally walk with the groceries in one hand and myra on the other or do all the other left-over chores. It was fine for the first 2 3 weeks.. I was feeling high.. I thought living in london isn't that bad after all..
but now.. I've reached my down limit.. I would constantly feel energyless.. Plus, with too many things happening; the toilet's leaking, the complaining neighbour and that ignorance landlord-who always says he'll take care of things-but-never-get-it-done-on-time and my poor husband-who were infected by tummy-bug.
When all were put on top of my shoulder, I realized. I'm not that strong anymore.
I cracked...
But the most dissapointment for me is when I can no longer spend a quality time with Myra; to train her, to tease her, to chase her, .. all i could do is to switch on Cbeebies and let her be amazed by technology while I'm in the kitchen, cooking (untuk bekal- maklumla makan kat office susah, not like in Doha where u could just buy anything you like, as all halal-guarantee). What a bad mother i have become.. :(
And today, when she lift her feet up high and sucessfully climb the sofa.. I knew that I've missed out a lot. It's time to slow down.. rest and make more quality time for her, or I'll miss out a lot more. That 3-4 months transition between Doha and London must have affected her in a way that she couldn't communicate.... poor baby
In less than 2 months.. my lil climber will turn 1.. and I wanna be the one to see through her first step.. Please god, gimme strength!

Picture: Sebelum berjaye panjat dan selepas berjaye panjat.. budak uchuk ni.. cubit kang!

The cycle vows

Like a lil kid.. we sometime wants to do what all of our friends do.. take cycling for example, it looks cool enough that you could cycle anywhere in and out of london.. so we are tempted to try. But.. the real question is.. can we handle it? can we cycle along the cold rainy winter? Sure.. it looks great now.. it's summer.. most of the time.. the sun shine..

but anyway.. we need to know.. if we can handle it.. and become the true londoners.. healthy and sweaty.. haha.. so we bought 2 bicycles.. nothing fancy.. just one normal hybrid bicycle (so we can attach a baby seat and carry Myra around!) and one folding-bike, so if there's an unfortunate time, where we had to catch a tube or bus in the middle of nowhere, we could just carry the bike in.

So, early this morning, the first part of the many internet purchases came by. And funnily enough.. it's the mud guard.

Then.. on late afternoon.. the second delivery arrives.. the hybrid bike.. cool! So now we can start cycling around the area. Only without the baby seat yet.. bummer..

I am so excited to try this new vows.. we wanna really try this out.. and see if we can save on travelling and actually become healthier.

That special birthday trip

it's the time of the year again, where my lovely hubby get older and i got smarter.. hehe
For his birthday this year, I planned to bring him to see his favourite Man U team on a fight in Manchester.. but until the last minutes.. i can't get any tixx for the game.. so.. as an alternative, we swing over to Belgium.


By Eurostar, Brussels is 1hr 50 minutes away.. i like travelling with it.. no hassle.. fast check in.. and you don't hafta worry about buckling up for the take off! Just what we need to travel with a 10 months old Myra.. who can't sit still, let alone buckled up on the seat! hehe

The weather just great.. after collecting our rental car and check in to the hotel.. we swing to see the infamous 'The Grand Place' and it's once-in-every-two-years Giant flower carpet.

I guess u hafta be really far from the carpet to actually appreciate the beauty.. cos, i can't figure out what the big fuss is all about when i'm standing right there.. the flowers all death.. and too colourful for me! hurmm.. but the picture looks nice.. don't you think? maybe it's photogenic or something.. ;)
There was too many people there.. we walk through and see rows and rows of restaurant.. serving seafood.. yummy! but aizal is a bid cautious when it come to food.. for him, if there's no sign of 'Halal' than he rather starve.. (which from my opinion is not that necessary as long as you know what's the ingredients cos, let's face it.. we have to consider few facts here in order to be fuss-free on food;

1. it's not an islamic country
2. not all the restaurant register themself to be check by the islamic-organization
3. it's a seafood restaurant

Well, enuff about that.. anyway in case any of you is wondering.. we didn't starved at all.. there were many many halal shop around.. as the arabs are commonly seen in brussels..

Next day, we decided to drive to the neighbouring country.. and off to Amsterdam!.. yeah.. it only took us 2 hours ++ but with the GPS.. (surprisingly) it made the journey longer, i think it took us 3 hours or so.... cos.. Mr. Driver kept confusing with the pointer signal and misses few exits. Well.. am not complaining as long as i'm not driving.. ;)


Here's the picture of the thing that made Amsterdam so damn famous.. it's 'magic mushroom' and the coffee shop that sell weed legally. And next to it, is my lovely husband-the bedday boy.



We didn't go too far.. just a quick tour in the town and the canal area and a peek of the diamond factory street.. but sadly, no shiny souvenirs for me.. as it's not my special treat :(

After few hours, we head back to Brussels.. a straight journey home. Toll free hassle free.. no immigration no nothing.. just need to fill up the tank and go. How great is that?!
Minus the fact that Myra mabuk kete.. i think she threw up like 3 to 4 times on the entire journey.. luckily I bought a spare jeans just before push off.


Left: Myra-budak mabuk.. dah pengsan di tempat kejadian.





That's that about our trip.. cutting the long story short.

Happy Birthday Shayang!!! muah muah muah!

the windsor trip continue

Last tue and wednesday both me and aizal got 2 days off together.. so we proceed to go to Windsor (again) and visit legoland.. yeah.. bapak budak nak sangat tgk lego.. time kecik2 dulu tak kesampaian.. hehehe

So, we started off early taking jubilee line straight to waterloo then exchange to windsor.. the trip this time is much better as I've known the best route to take and i took the timing of the train before going off.

So, approximately 2 hours later, there we are.. in legoland again..

It was a bit showery.. luckily Myra has recovered her diarrhoea and don't really mind the cold weather.. she enjoyed the trip by standing and posing to the camera, (as if she's so big already!)

look at this! macam dah besar je.. jalan pun blom! hiks..

The next day, we went to see Madame Tussauds.. couldn't move as there were too many people!!! we regretted the trip.. just hafta come back again sometimes.. (luckily we've bought the Merlin Annual pass, which means unlimited entry to top 12 UK attractions for a year.. ) hahaha.. I know.. we are a bit crazy to buy that pass.. but if you calculate.. it is cheaper than buying 2 entry tickets.. so, what the hecks.. kate dah duduk london.. ;)

After the crowded moment @Tussaud, we went to ride the London Eye.. the que was long, but we decided to go ahead, as london eye wouldn't stop moving.. so it shouldn't be too bad.. after 1 hour of queing.. we finally step onto the 'flight'. Again, seeing london from the top.. I am happy i finally got to share this moment with aizal..

After the 1/2 an hour flight.. off we go to see the london aquarium..(it is situated just besides the eye) nothing much to see.. but the shark is soooo.. scary!

myra.. didn't have that much fun.. she look a bit scared.. i'm not sure whether it was because of the dark.. or she just don't like the fishy surroundings.

So, there goes our 2 days off.. an outing like other ordinary tourist...(minus the double decker bus tour).. which i think we should try some day.. hurmm.. will leave it till someone from malaysia come for a visit ;)

visit to legoLAND

Sha came for a quick stop in london and decided to see us.. she suggested legoland.. so, i figured why not? sounds great for myra too.. so yesterday me & myra had an adventure ride to see Sha in legoland.. just the 2 of us as aizal had to work. :(

from our home.. Aizal suggested to tied myra up on my chest n dragging her stoller, cos she won't want to sit on the stroller, and riding the tube would be not that pleasant with a crying baby.. so.. there i am with all the equipment attached (feel like a combat ready to go to war)

first stop, liverpool street.. had to go to holborn n switch to piccadilly line straight to heathrow.

after a long journey, we finally saw Sha.. lege.. dah ade org tolong tolak stroller hehe

So, from Heathrow we took a bus to Feltham train station then a train ride to Windsor.. gilela panjang journey.. i took off from 1100am and reached legoland at 3.30pm..only few hours to closing time..

myra lak got diarrhoea ..kesian.. sampai kurusss.. but despite all that, we still had a fab time!

Home improvement (before & after)

Tadaaa.. here how our lil apartment looks like before make over.

will update the after pics once i got everything in order.. heee

when the first month is over..

Well... tak sangke.. we've made it to the first month ere with no problem at all.. plus, we are now happily living in our own lil apartment in stratford.. I've dress it up to make it as homely as possible.. so I'm all happy for now ;)
earlier today, before I'm off to work, me, aizal and lil myra went to see the malaysian week fiesta in potterfield park. They are promoting some malaysian stuff there.. just drop by london bridge tube st and walk.. it is not far not the tower bridge.
There, we had some satay (which is ridiculously pricy.. £3.50 pound for 4 pieces), nasik with beef rendang (more like daging masak kicap.. urghh) and some karipap n cucur udang (hangus?!)... i dunno la how these people manage to open a restaurant in london.. their food.. OH MY GOD.. not at all close to tasty.. hurm..
Tengah jalan2 ambek angin kat situ, ade lak ternampak muke pemes.. there he is.. Mr. Saipul Apek.. so, ape lagi we snap up a pic with him lah..