Eid-ul-Adha

Pic: Googled (Thnx!)

AidilAdha, time of sacrifice..

Wondering what's going on with few of our Doha Friends in Mekkah now, hopefully their hajj rituals running smoothly and come back home safely. Aminnnn...

On another note, we felt so blessed that this time around, we were showered with lots of invitations to open-houses. The first day alone, we've covered breakfast time, lunch and dinner.. (tak penah2 ni) hehe.. rezeki baby, mommy takyah susah2 masak pagi raye! :) tambah2 dgn Mr. Ai yang berjangkit demam dgn Myra..

And today, after work, we've got 2 more houses to go to. Then another house the day after.. Kinda feel like Malaysia.. maybe even more meriah? Hiks..

But I am sooooo sleepy at work now! Please wake me up! Urghhh!

Anyway, Eid Mubarak to all! (Orang Malaysia baru raye hari ni.. kiteorg dah raye semalam :)

Our date with Roger Federer..

Only that, he didn't quite know our very existance. And the date involved thousands of other fans...hiks. Anyway, we never would have dream to get to see him live. Yeah, like my dearest hubby always says; kat london mane nak dapat.. doha jugak bes, itu free, ini free, tiket tennis pun murah lagi.. then siap dapat t-shirt free! (yess hunny, ur 'doha' is simply the bestest place on planet earth!) Last time when they started the tournament, they gave out free tickets, but they failed to tally the number of tickets out with number of seats available, so ended up, if the stadium is tad full, you're not gonna get in. But still, after they start charging, the price ticket isn't that bad at all, so sebab tu la dah tak sempat nak rembat tiket semi or finals, sekelip mate je sold out! :(

I remember last time when we live in London, berangan nak tengok Wimbledon, then I saw on the website, we have to register one year ahead to be on the waiting list! Man.. seb baik the Qatar Open lom sampai taraf tu.. tapi I think it will get to that point soon, I just hope it won't be that soon. Anyway, we thank god to be apart of the crowd to see the world number one in action.. selagi dapat, enjoy jeee..

And the party of the year goes to....

Finally, I got a reason to wear that baju that I've had for ages. Azerdills just moved to their new villa, which is so homely and have got just about everything you need for the family. In a way, I really enjoy seeing their progress in life, they take things one step at a time and make it better each year; which we always set as a good example for our on references in life.

So, come Friday, the most sought-after-and-talk-about nite finally arrived. It was in conjuction with their 6 year old son's birthday (and I'm pretty sure skali dengan house warming ;). The bling-bling Party! Most all of the guest arrives with their own style of blings, including the sporting guys. Some came with a disco ball hanged up their jeans, some with cds sew'd onto their back of shirt, some with sparling sock, some with sparling eyeshadows, some came with wife's earings punched onto their chest and some even came with their newly-tailor-made-blinded-blings'd-dress! (Aku ingat my dressing dah over, rupe2nye ade lagi yang lagi over! hahaha thank god!)

It was a pretty great turnouts; the kids were having fun with their own party games; musical chairs, bawak bola pingpong dalam sudus, nari2 masuk kertas yang mengecik and so on. Best part is, the kids game were done in the clubhouse yang dah macam part of their house, sebab duduk sebelah jer.. memang best gile, dah la lengkap dengan pingpong, pool, fusbol and swimming pool.. just what you need to have fun with family and friends.

Then later that nite, came adults kind of games plak (please jangan pikir bukan2.. hiks). They organize such a great game; first is the how-well-you-know-your-friends-quiz. Soalan yang tak disangke2, and dapat pulak orang jawab. Macam-macam hadiah menariks, termasukla pati ikan bilis yang I just thought to kirim from Malaysie, tapi dah dapat, so takyah dah kirim.. hehe. Then came a grouping game- team Satu and team Dua. I was in team Dua; the champion. hehe. We played some puzzle games and won, then we played guess-what-the-hell-I'm-mimicking-about game but draw. So, overall, we are the winner. Memang takleh lupe, by far the best party I ever attended. Everybody was so happy and over-the-moon. Yang paling tak tahan, menang botol kicap kosong pun dah rase excited gile. Hehe

It was in deed a nite to remember.. thanks again Azerdills for your great bling-bling party. A joy equally shared among the kids and adults. Memang lain dari yang lain ;)

Qatar National day parade

The day before the actual celebration, many sms(es) were sent by Qtel (ini macam Telekom la kat sini). Urging people of Qatar to come and celebrate Qatar's National day by coming to their parade. Ikutkan hati teringin, ikutkan badan.. malas.. hehe

We were actually too lazy to wake up for the morning parade- taking into account our drove-lagged self (just came back from the very long road trip) and the known fact that we-are-not-so-much-of-a-morning-person self and it's already 7am when Mr.Niz4m called Mr.Ai and according to him, the place is already crowded. But since it's a once a year thingy, we then came to our better-late-than-never sense and woke our lazy a$$ up. Leaving the house at 8:10am, I thought we'd get stuck on traffic somewhere along the way, but I was wrong.. The road is really smooth all the way through (with a puddle here and there due to Qatar's rainy season, yes! It does rain here too! Heavily, but with not so much of a drain- so go figure).

We parked the car to the nearest road, then walk our way to the parade point (ade jugakla dalam 20 minute walk.. but in this kind wintery weather-am not complaining! ;). In a way, we were luckily on time, as the parade is just about to begin and we got to see it from the starting point - avoiding the crowded area. Siap boleh lepak-lepak kat roundabout posing2 maut while the series of army lah, tanks lah, air force lah.. and their macam-macam colour team walked pass us. It was an amazing experience, something that we don't regret to lose our sleep for ;)

Anyway, here's some shots of the parade... this time we definitely salute Qatar, for their well-improved, organized and a make-known events! I guess, they must have hired a new event planner and a better marketing manager ;)

Squashed

It was the time of the year again, where many free sports events are lining up to entertain the ever so dull life in Doha. And I thank the Emir for that ;)

One of the wajib sport competition is the Qatar Squash Classic 2009; which mean we have the chance to meet with World number one, our very own Malaysian player, Nicol Ann David.

After seeing her play, I understand why I can't even be the world's 100th, she play so calmy, despite the tension pushed from her opponent. On Saturday, she was up against in Quater Final, were we saw a very tight play between the two, and yesss.. as we expected, she won!

But sayangnye on Sunday, during the Semi, she loss to her petite opponent from England. It was a very tough game, and I could tell that her opponent is somehow seeking revenge, that she struggle to beat Nicol to the end. Well, anyway I still salute you Miss Nicol, you are truly an inspiration!

Come back again soon! ;)

Brasil vs England

I never tot one can fall asleep with eyes wide open whilst watching a football match, until today. It was such a boring game.. and yeah i know, who am I to judge such a game as I don't quite watch football match before. But my hubby seems to agree with me. The first half saw our countless yawn and sigh; the Brazil team keep attacking but couldn't finish the job, as all; yes I mean ALL of the England player turn to defend. Yikes.. memangla.. friendly match.. most of which just lika warmup session for the reserves players. Oh yeah,, you must be wondering, whattehell am i talking about aite? hehehe.. i just got back from Khalifa Stadium; there's a friendly match between Brazil and England...organized with two agenda (as I was told); one, to celebrate Aljazeera Sport's 6th anniversary and two, to show that Qatar bids for World Cup 2022 ain't a joke. Apparently, they want to do it all (yup.. still got their bid for future Olympics eventhough their summer is like 40degree-boiling-hot!).

But things has gotten pretty exciting after the second half, 2 minutes after the wisel blown, Brazil scored their first goal. It was quite unexpected, maybe because everybody were down with boredom (well if not everybody pun, I'm sure I was! hehe). Lepas dah masuk satu gol tu, barulaaa ade thrill sket from pihak lawan. Tapi, sampai sudah England gagal nak lawan. So at the end they settled with 1-0. Maka, happy la kami-kami yang menyokong Brazil. ;)

But the thing about tonite is, although it was an almost-full stadium, with lots of waves around the clocks, and opposing trumpet song from England fans, I still kinda think it was not as meriah as i expected, something definitely is missing. Hurm.. (or maybe it's just a tiny guilt for leaving Myra behind, while the moms n dads having fun at the stadium? hehehehe)

Yeah.. with no Brazil's jersey to wear, we opt for a green-Amsterdam and yellow-bali to make up their colours.. hiks.

Perhitungan

Friday, like usual will be filled with some sort of activities, or else the Doha peeps will go out of their mind (but our case is different, due to the shift hours of work, so kiteorg slalunye belasah jek). The week before last week, we had MAQ bowling tournament, in which my dear hubby participated (yeah, takde menang pun, so tak yah la citer panjang2..hiks). But my stand as a viewer are more concentrated towards the out of the alley acts. Since most of the parents are busy menjatuhkan pin, the kids are left to play on their own, which mean the more adult of the group had to take some sort of action to somehow monitor them, so jadila saye babysitter tak bertauliah pade malam itu. The best part is, I was kinda been bullied by the bunch of underage kids! Cisss... First, they ask if I could buy them water, then chocolate, then fries, then ice-cream (tapi malangnye ice-cream tak lepas piawaian), then some more fries. Then after sometime, one of them started to 'pau' me a riyal, so being the melayu-yang-senang-kesian-kat-budak-budak-and-wanna-treat-them-equally, I gave all of them 1 riyal each. Naseb baek kene pau seriyal je.. hehehe.. pandai korang ek, seb baik auntie tengah good mood, so layan aje la.. Tapi once all of them ask if I could take them to the toilet, I started to panic, Errr... can't you guys like go on your own? Nasib baik ade rescuer, a more senior kids among them then volunteer to take 'em to the loo... fyuohhh..lege.

Then last Friday, another MAQ event took place, but this time it was bigger and merrier. The Malaysian communities are up against the Indonesian communities, for Badminton, Volleyball and Football games. But since there's no available sport complex for such an event in Doha, we then had to take it to Al-Khor; where the big community of RASGAS & QatarGas are (Most of the Indonesian lives there, so boleh pakai the facilities). The compound is like a mini town. Everything is there; be it school, medical centre, mini market, post office or bank. No wonder they don't quite need to go to Doha that often.

Anyway, talking about the sport tournament; as you can see, Mr. Ai was literally flying to fight the Indo-team. And yess, the Malaysian did win the whole set of badminton games. But a sipi-sipi kekalahan untuk Volleyball for both men & women team; which I somehow contributed on the first round (main after many many years without traning, yang bestnye memang dah jangke akan kalah, tapi tak sangke kalah tak seteruk mane, hiks). And yeah, it surprised me too that I manage to play in peace, sebabnye Myra tido, jadi dapatla saye main sekejap, kalau tak, toksah harap la.. sure satu dewan dengar suare die meraung..hehehe. Dan tak lupe, sipi-sipi kemenangan for football team; Go Malaysia!
Yup, it was indeed fun, make me miss my high school era, main volleyball suke2 lepas kelas petang. Hurm... how I wish for a multi-sport complex that we could rent by the hours ere. Anyway good team effort to all, and well done MAQ for organizing such an event to merapatkan lagi siratulrahim. I hope, after this takde la lagi bising2 isu tarian p4nd3k la m3nd3k la..kekeke

TGFFS!!!

That's Thank God for Friday and Saturday!! hehe.. Was a fulfilling weekend. Yup, the weekend here are Friday and Saturday (I'm sure most people are aware of that?). Alhamdulillah, this weekend, I could rest more from my daily job routine in the kitchen. You know, ever since becoming this so call house manager, my time spent in the kitchen has boost up to 85%!! It is quite frankly tiring!! hehe.. but who am I to complaint.. ok jugak, it has sharpen my cooking skills, and broaden my creativity on ..what's cooking doc? (In Bugs Bunny kinda way). Opps.. I did it again, melencong dari topik asal.. erghh! focus!

Well anyway why i was thankful so much for last weekend is because of the endless invites to makan-makan.. kenyang purut suke-hati ;). Friday, dari pagi lagi we don't have to bother about breakfast, got a free invites from the Tun's family. Lovely meal... cam biase; sarapan orang melayu nasik lomak- nyum nyum lauk sambal sotong yang super-delicious-just-the-right-hottness ;). Then there's yong tau foo- which got quite a long number of people queing, coz kene tunggu turn nak rebus.. haha. All in all, we had a great time there, well... bukan selalu dapat makan bekpes free with good company, aite?

Then later in the evening, we went to the so-called farewell tea-break for Mr.B4shir at the lovely home of Said n Ain, both Singaporean. Bes gile! Bukan makan petang pun, makan lauk pengantin! hehehe.. Nasik minyak, ayam masak merah and i think rendang daging! Pastu ade sluuuurpious dessert ever! (That I'll definately will try to make myself someday ;). Hahaha.. memang kompem i gained like 1 or 2 pound coming home that nite. Besides the great food, we still feel sad to bid our farewell to B4shir; one of the victim of the recent mass-job-massacre. Anyway, i heard that he is already talking about another good offer awaiting him, so maybe this is for the best afterall ;)
Balik balik lak, sh4fie n Hunny came to collect some football cd from Ai. So, ended up they lepak sambil layan seround movie, while training as babysitter to lil Myra. Bes ni.. makin ramai babysitter bertauliah kat Doha, senang sket mommy n daddy nak beraktibiti lepas ni.. hihihi
Then on Saturday, we celebrate 4rif R4yyan 1st birthday. He was so happy- like he knows everybody there to celebrate him. Memang budak magik kan? tau aje! hehe
So, there.. tak tau la about next week, hopefully dapat lagi la break camni.. >;) hiks

Italian job

We just got home from another house warming party, this time from an Italian guy name G4bri3ll4? (Bit confused with the name.. bukan name pompuan ke ni?) The so-called house warming party should have mention; no food-more booze? I dunno la, if it's a bachelor thing, or an Italian culture? Tapi memang silap besarla to expect your rumbling tummy will be well fed and happy from a bachelor, mat-salleh home. All we can see is a plate of italian pasta, each for me and my hubby! Best part is, the two plates that we got was it! Finito. No more for the coming guest! (seb baek gakla sempat makan.. hehe) Adeh, aku penah gak la makan2 rumah mat salleh (yang also happens to be single guy), tapi ade jugakla food.. at least enuff for everyone..hehe.. I think this is the least that we expected laaa. The house warming just another of their excuse to lansing2 dan minum2! (Which i hafta stress ere, are NOT our cup of tea! jangan salah paham aaaa) . Memang terase amat geli hati.. memang tak terpikir sungguh, (mungkin sebab lapa, sampai lupe rumah mat salleh buat ape je lagi, hiks.. memang jauh panggang dari api kalau nak compare house warming melayu! Kalau kite, food toksah cakapla, sampai tak muat meja! Kekeke.. Tadi just before leaving (yeah we usually left early sebab nak tidokan si comel) barula tuan rumah serve some salad, and tengah potong2 buah.. Aduih, I bet the cuppies that I brought will be left un-open too, if all they care is their booze. Penat je beta buat cupcakes tadi, tau bawak untuk bekpes rumah Ju esok lagi bagus... Huhu another tales to tell.. Now excuse me, me hungry, me want to make Indome!

Hawaiian party

Last nite, after the photography classes, we had to rushed to Leng and Leine's hawaiian birthday party. But since we didn't have any hawaiian-like clothes to put on, and it was very short-notice of an invitation, i think; why not go along with batik instead? hehe

See.. pakai baju batik pun dah bleh masuk dalam theme Hawaii! kekekeke (and i wore the batik kurung! lagilaaaa.. asal boleh!) . The party setup was beautiful.. memang rase cam kat Hawaii, tapi cam biase la.. (even baru balik dari kelas photo-memoto) still lupe nak ambek gambar banyak2! haha
Happy Birthday to the two ladies.. Leng and Leine.. they are best friends with the same birthday and similar name.. lika twin or something.. hiks (And no.. they are not malays but Pinoy, .. don't get confused just because of the asian-looks ;)

Kapal berwap?

Is it spell steamboat or stimbot? Anyway, last Friday and Saturday we've made our official presentation in Doha. We invited all our old (and some new) malaysian buddies over to enjoy a nite of steamboating-comes house warming party. There're crabs, tones of tiger prawns, and many other typical steamboat stuffs ala,, u know, the usual, fishball, ketam balls, sosej, sayur2 and everything (Am a lil bit surprise that some of them has never tried steamboating before! Sure glad to be the one who introduce this for ya! ;).

But disebabkan our home now ain't as big as our old villa, had to divide the guests into two groups, which turns out even greater! More space and meaningful gatherings for everyone! And I've got very good verdict on the foods (but then again, maybe they just being kind-to jage hati tuan rumah, i dunno..for all i care i did the best i could with the preps and everything). I just hope everybody enjoy it as much as we did. Well, if any of you are reading this thank you again for coming! I hope our new life in Doha will be a joyful one...

(Just 5% more to settle down..are waiting for the big wheel ;)

By the way, we finally got the chance to watch Transformer last nite, and it is AWESOME i must say! hiks.. ;)

Pasar Malam & Malam Berinai

Yes, another topic of makan!! hehe.. the more I tried to resist to write about food, the more events there is involving yet more foods..

It was Friday nite, the MAQ has organized some pasar malam event at the embassy. Siap masuk iklan lam paper! So, memang meriah la malam tu, ramai gile manusie.. makanannye cam tak setimpal ngan jumlah manusie yang datang.. so memang finish, licinnn..laku gile laa.. and I even test out the market, by selling a bouquet of cuppies. and two boxes of 4 cupcakes! hahaha cam kelaka je, orang jual gile-gile cam nak rak, kite jual seciput jek.. takpela.. tumpang meja je.. try-try. Even got an order of 36 pieces for this coming Tuesday.. okla tu.. buat suke-suke for fun ;)

Tapi like always, I didn't quite have the time to betul-betul browse through the Pasar Malam, coz i was busy chasing the lil one! dah la crowded, panas! pastu time tu jugak die nak mencelah-celah orang gi sane-sini..pantang lepa, dah zoom.. ilang.. adeh.. letih! But as heard from the conversations, and the newspaper,there were many stuff there besides food too. Among which are RO water machines, bracelets, abayas, tudungs and etc. Fuhh..bleh tahan, padahal kecik je compound tu.. takpe, next pasar malam nak try jual mainan cikai-cikai ke, belon-belon ke.. baru betul rase pasar malam! hehehe

Then, on Saturday nite, Ija's is hosting another event of makan-makan sempena menyambut pengantin baru Shafie & Hanny. The very cute couple.. comeyy je! Sirius! hiks.. Takde berinai pun, saje je buat topik hehe. There were nasik ayam delicious, plus Laksam, and many many sweet stuffs, including ABC! wahh.. rugi tak sempat jual ABC time pasar malam, reason being, coz ice tak sempat mengerasss... alahai, takpe, next time around ;)
The sweet couple even sempat nyanyi karaoke, best gak suare dieorg.. boleh menang ni, kalau ade competition. ;) Anyway, welcome to Doha, to the newly wed, hope you two will have a wonderful married life together forever and ever and ever.. ;)

P.s: some pic above were taken from facebook- thanks to Adam hiks.. and i really don't understand why people like to put p.s; what is it stand for?! hehe..