Being Azury

Today I feel
like introducing my parents in-law to everybody in the world. I don’t know why,
probably because I just met them yesterday and it reminded me of how lucky I am
to have them in my life… but seriously, they’re just amazing. It’s a privilege knowing
them. 

My father
in-law a.k.a Ayah is an army retiree, now working as a driving school
instructor. He’s the most loving man I ever known… he’s so caring, charming, humble,
down to earth and soft spoken. Kind of reminded me of my own father. Dan ayah
juga sangat2 ringan tulang. Tengahari dia balik rumah, tak hilang penat lagi
sebab baru lepas ajar org drive lori tengah panas, terus masuk dapur tolong
mak; kupas bawang, potong ayam, tolong masak; doing whatever he can to help.
Padahal mak full time housewife, boleh je ayah nak lepak relax. Mak, you should
know by now that you are one lucky woman! One more thing about ayah, when he’s
around… hati ni rasa tenang je. Entah ilmu ape ayah amal. Nafis yang tengah nakal
melasak2, bila ayah panggil terus dia pegi duduk atas riba ayah, diam, senyap! Never
seen anybody else done that. I guess this is what they call… magic?

Mak pulak to
me is like a true domestic goddess (Nigella, cry your heart out!). She cooks
heaven, hubby balik kampung mesti makan bertambah2. But what can I say; she’s
just an amazing cook, and she also sews and baby sits too. In my six years
being her daughter in-law, I think the best thing was I never once feel like
she’s judging me, despite all my flaws and never ending weaknesses, you know
what I mean? I don’t have to pretend whenever she’s around because she just let
me be myself. That means a lot, lagi2 masa mula2 kahwin dulu… segan siut dengan
mak mertua! Mak is also a good listener, jadi tempatku mengadu… especially kalau
bergaduh dengan hubby. But that’s in the first few years of marriage la,
sekarang dah steady jarang dah call mak nangis2 ;p 

So, that’s
about it. I know they will never be reading this but I hope they know how much
I love them. I owe them for bringing my wonderful husband to this world, and
also for becoming the parents I would be proud to call my own. Terima kasih mak,
ayah

Haha! I got
a funny story to tell. Last nite while watching TV, Nafis came to me and threw
his body on my lap. He was kicking his legs in the air like a baby; merengek2 and
I immediately knew that he was in the mood nak bermanja. I love when he’s
behaving like that, hubby menyampah but I think it’s cute. Later he stood up,
pulled my hands and said “Nafis nak mommy, Nafis nak mommy”. My heart melted, I
really wanted  to hear more so I didn’t
stand up and let him goes “Nafis nak mommy, Nafis nak mommy” over and over
again. I even asked him “Taknak daddy ke?” and he said “Taknak, nak mommy!”. Hehe,
I like that. When I sensed that he started crying, I stood up and followed him
to the kitchen. I made him a bottle of milk but he refused to take it. “Nafis
bukan nak susu. Nafis nak tu” while pointing on top of the fridge. I looked up and
I saw… a few packets of Mamee. My son wanted Mamee, not Mommy!! What a fool I
am! My sis in law even said “Patut la Lin tengok Kak Zury biar je Nafis mintak
Mamee!”. And I foolishly thought that he wanted me!

Silly Mamee!! Found a matching picture some more!

April is now
officially declared the month of grieve for the Kamaruddin’s family. Another
tortoise passed away and this time, it was April. Ironic huh? Our in-house CSI,
Miss Budar allegedly found April lifeless body lying upside down in her tank.
She identified the cause of death as drowned. Poor April!
 
In another unrelated case, we dropped by at mom’s crib last nite. Went to visit the remaining tortoise
but shocked to discover Forrest missing! Launched a massive search operation (exaggerated of course :p), only to find him hiding nearby next to mom’s food basket. Apparently he
escaped by climbing on Jelly. What a smart little creature! Run Forrest… ruuuun!!

We hired
Rahma, our Indonesian maid when she was just 18 yrs old. That was 2 years ago
and she’s still with us today. I must say Rahma is a good helper; she basically
carry out all the chores assigned, she’s patient, obedient, rarely create
problems, and my children love her. 

Now, some
people might say a maid is just a maid, but to me.. Rahma is already like a
sister. Because this is the person who takes care of my children, does my
laundry, cleans my house and sometimes does the cooking… basically looking after
my whole family. So what’s the better way to compensate her other than money? Answer:
We treat her the best that we can, like our own family. 

But
unfortunately, nobody’s perfect in this world… and so does Rahma. Apparently she’s
just a young woman. So really, what do I expect? 

Story 1: Today
we brought her along to Sogo. Since she wanted to buy a pair of shoe, I
suggested we go separate ways. A few hours later tengah jalan2 I saw her inside
the karaoke ‘jamban’ (it’s a very tiny room equipped with a tv and karaoke
set). At that time she was singing alone, obviously not aware of us standing behind.
I thought we better not disturb, so we left. 

About 20
minutes later when we were about to leave, I went to get her but surprisingly
this time I found her in the karaoke room next door… squeezing inside with two
Indonesian men and a woman. The woman was sitting on one of the men’s lap, so I
assumed that left Rahma pairing up with the other guy. I immediately asked her
to leave. Later when I inquire who those guys were, she said they invited her
to join them when her karaoke machine broke down. Sounded so innocent, but
still…
 
Story 2:
Last month, while I was at work, she rang me up to tell that her relative is
coming over to meet her. Adik sedara she said. Later, I heard from a neighbour
that her maid told her “Lelaki tu muka tua, adik apa. Macam boyfriend ada la”.  Malas nak percaya, but still… 

Story 3 : Around
last year she went to Klang.. untuk berubat katanya. Biasa la org Indon ni
percaya benda2 halus. When she came back, she told me her agent kat klang tu bawak
dia jumpa tok bomoh untuk berurut. Tanya dia tok bomoh tu lelaki ke perempuan.
Dia kata lelaki. Gulp!

Banyak lagi cerita tapi malas nak ingat.

You see… I
always ask myself the same question; why do I get paranoid over this matter? I’m
sure I don’t mind if she got boyfriends because to me, everybody has the right
to make friends, or perhaps find love… and you can’t just deny that. But it
just pisses me off whenever I find out that she’s hanging out with them. Why?
Is it because I’m afraid she might get pregnant? Or is it because I’m afraid
she might run away? Or bring them home? Or bergayut over the phone tak habis2?
Gosh.. she’s doing her job well but here I am, complaining to the world.
All I want is for her to be happy working for me, but I don’t think me being a control freak does any good at all. Sigh….

I’m sad to
announce the demise of our beloved pet tortoise, Nexus who passed away peacefully
(I hope) two days ago. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

My condolences goes to his owner, Miss Aisya. Next time please don’t ask again for anything alive as a birthday present. It’s not cute anymore when this time around you shriek "My birthday present is dead". Alamak, nak tergelak pulak! Sorry, i know it’s not funny.

Now… I just recalled
the shop owner mentioning something about money back guarantee…

That’s Nexus
on the right. Rest in peace dude.

(This post was written last nite)

Ok, I have
a confession to make. It’s silly, it’s ridiculous and embarrassing… especially
for a woman who’s turning 28 yrs old (yes that’s me!) but I desperately need to
clear my head before I go to bed… so here goes. Remember the tortoises we
bought for Aisya a couple of days ago? Well, previously I always thought that
tortoise was the most boring animal in the world. They’re slow, they’re shy, they
all look the same… so what’s really exciting about having them as a pet? In my
mind I thought probably Aisya was trying to be cute, asking for tortoise as her
birthday present so that she can shriek “I got tortoises for my birthday!!” to
everybody she meets.
 
I was
wrong. 

On the nite
of Aisya’s birthday, I was introduced to each tortoise. I picked up April, put
her on the floor and she just stayed there like a rock, her head and legs
neatly tucked in her shell. Boring! So I picked another female tortoise, which
at that time wasn’t named yet. As soon as I touched her she started getting
restless, her head and legs are sticking out and when I placed her on the
floor, I swear I never seen a tortoise walked that fast! She quickly got under
my legs and climbed up my pants. Afraid that I might crush that little fella, I
put her back in her aquarium and the moment her legs touched the water, she swam
forward, climbed over a pile of rock, crossed the bridge and got back to the
position where I first picked her up. Wasn’t that amazing? This is a tortoise
we’re talking about! And I also realized that she always stays in the same
spot, right between the aquarium wall and the plastic grass (That’s her in the picture). So does Forrest,
whom favourite hang out is under the bridge. 

The other
male was named Nexus, after Nafis’s hero Ultraman Nexus. He’s the smallest one,
he got the palest green and he’s also limped. Nexus only uses 3 legs because
the left one in the front was stiffed and seem swollen compared to the other.
At first I thought maybe we should return him back to the shop and get a new
one. But all of us felt that it’s totally ‘inhuman’ and the right thing to do
was to just accept him the way he was. Nexus truly breaks my heart… 

From left: Nexus, April & Forrest

That nite I
was given the honour to name the nameless female tortoise. I came up with
‘Jellyfish-zip-zip-a-a-a’ (it’s our favourite tagline at the moment, long
story!). So everybody agreed to call her Shelly.. or Jelly. Cute! 

So.. that’s
about it. I’m declaring to the world that I now love tortoise! They amazed me
with their intelligence and I’m also surprised to know that each of them got
their own feature and characteristic, just like a little baby! I’m really
looking forward to meet April, Forrest, Nexus and Shelly again because right
now, I’m missing them already! Maybe I should get my own tortoise too…

I’m
soooooooooo in love! This picture was taken by Lieyha on Kak Azu’s
engagement day. Lieyha, you’re simply brilliant and Kak Azu, thanks a million. See how Dania was caught red handed biting her nails, and Nafis pulling
strands of her sister’s hair. And I can’t believe how much similar
my lips are to Nafis!

I’m H A P P Y

Lately I’ve
been wondering why my hubby was not his usual self these past few days. He got
home from work looking like a sour grape, moody and cranky all over. PMS ye
bang? :p I’m sure something must be messing about with his mind but when asked,
he just said dunno. So for a while, I sort of kept a distance from him, gave
him some space and prayed hard that he’ll recover from this mystery madness… fast!!
 
So last
weekend, I finally discovered the source of the problem when hubby showed me some
of the sms he received from his boss and colleagues. For those who don’t know,
my hubby is working for a company that maintains the north-south highway. And since
they have hundreds of projects scattered along the peninsular, the company had
set up a centralized messaging system; you send your message to the centre and
everybody registered in the system will get the sms. I guess the purpose of the
system was to ease communication between HQ and region, and to make sure
everybody is regularly updated on the progress of works at all time.
 
But
unfortunately, some people define ‘at all time’ as it is: All the Time! To
make things worse, the boss was forcing everybody to reply to each of his sms. Since
then, hubby’s phone has been beeping endlessly.. day and nite. Some of
the replies to boss’s message are so pathetic because it’s written for the sake
of nak jaga hati boss. Message from the boss pun I think a bit disturbing jugak, irrelevant and emotional sometimes. I understand if it’s an urgent matter but if it’s not, esoknya kan
boleh cerita kat ofis? (Oh, btw… most people in the system are from the same
office, hari2 jumpa. Duh??). Jadi mana la laki gua tak tension?

So Mr.
Boss, if you happen to be reading this, first of all please don’t fire my
husband because he has no share in this post. As a matter of fact, I don’t think
he ever read this blog. Secondly, incase you don’t know, some people prefer to leave
their work behind after office hour and look forward to spend the rest of
the day with their family. This sms thing obviously isn’t helping at all. We do
have a life you know, so please leave my hubby alone. You can have him back by 8.30am sharp! :p (except on weekends and public holidays of course!)
 
And to hubby, I want you to know that I love you no matter what. I believe you can handle with this problem. Take your time (tapi jgn lama sgt!), relax… take it easy (sing it like mika). And please smile more ok, tak larat i tengok muka moncong tu :p Fuhh.. I feel a lot better now. Chiow peeps.

This
morning my mom received her Pingat Kesatria Mangku Negara from the Agong @
Istana Melawati, Putrajaya. How cool is that? She just made me soooo proud. Bravo mommy!!

Beaming Ummi posing by the singgahsana, simply gorgeous in her kebaya

This
morning I woke up feeling very dizzy, so I sms my officemates telling them I’m
gonna be in late. But unfortunately by noon the wooziness still won’t go away..
it literally drove me crazy! I lost myself and became this cranky grumpy headed
monster. Nafis kena marah a few times because he hit his sister. In this state
of mind, you better behave and don’t cari pasal dengan mama ok! But overall, today was not
so bad after all because I got to spend time with my children. These pictures
sum it all.

Portrait of
Mama by Nurdania (thanks baby!)

Nafis trying to be a baby

Another baby, hehe :p Won’t think the walker will be around by the time the 3rd baby arrives.