The Only ONE Missing

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

This morning I woke up as usual, getting ready for work and etc. Everything seems normal. There's no pieces of glass indicating signs of breaking in or anything. But as I stand at the door of the driver seat, I noticed something seems different. Seems empty.

Then, after a few seconds thinking and comparing, I realized that both the tyre and rim are missing!

It was quite a headache for me since there's only one tyre and rim missing. Actually, I can easily replace it with my spare tyre but it is only for temporary use. But I travel a lottttt. Every weekend, so using a spare tyre for a while ain't an option. Then I call for insurance but again it is not woth it. There's only one missing! My current NBC is at the lowest rate so if I use my insurance over something like this, then the rate will start all over again. If there's all four missing, I don't mind using insurance but in my case, there's only one. It is not worth it.

So in the end, I end up buying new rims for my car. And this time, I make sure to use lock nuts with it since I can't afford to stumble upon the situation again.

What a great way to start my day! -_-"

To Allah S.W.T. We Belong

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Takziah to my uncle and cousin for the loss of a beloved wife and wonderful mother. You're one tough and matured fellow, dear cousin. Glad that you're able to become a calm and strong supportive pillar for your father. I'm very proud of you. InsyaAllah, your du'a will always be with her. Through thick and thin, our family will always be with you.

Al-Fatihah.

Luthfi's Journey: 3 Months and Counting!

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Look at how fast he's growing. He's able to do that as early as 2 months old. 88days to be exact. Alhamdulillah, now he's already 3 months old. Oh, I am definitely missing the fun. My mom said sometimes he purposely didn't practice to lift up his head when he lies on his stomach because he wants to suck his fingers or the mattress. It's a bit dangerous when he wants to suck the mattress since he'll bury his face to reach the mattress. So, this kind of habit need a very careful monitoring routine. 

Haha! What an ingenious son... 

Pearl Daisy @ Malaysia

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Picture from Aquila Style Facebook page.

Alhamdulillah, yesterday I manage to join Pearl Daisy @ Malaysia at Food Foundry, PJ; a collaborative event by Aquila Style, Pearl Daisy Ltd, Azrianna Photography and Dear Azalea. It was such a nice, fun and a very inspiring event! After a whole week of contemplating whether I should come, currently I am so glad that I've made the right decision to come even though it means that I have to go to the place straight from work. 

Picture from Aquila Style Facebook page.

The event is actually more towards a meet and greet event. However there are also live demonstration on hijab tutorials and Q&A sessions. Masha'Allah, it was really nice to hear those inspiring words. Somewhat I came home with a more refreshed feeling than before. Oh yeah, I even get to know new friends and able to taste mouth-watering buffets!

Here are some of my pictures taken during the event *picture credit to @ekin_ninol*.

A picture with Pearl Daisy herself. A famous youtuber, amenakin.

Haha! I didn't even know why I was feelin' a bit of a rockstar.

Featuring Dena Bahrin, yeah. 

With supermommy Aishah Amin! Even though she was in a rush 

since her baby Juhd gonna need his sleeping time soon, 

she's still willing to spend a moment for a picture. Thanks a lot, sis!

Save the best for last... The super nice Shea Rasol!

 Heeee~ Adore her a lot!

And finally, a picture with Ekin herself! 

Thank you so much for being so friendly and fun.

It was nice to be able to get to know you!

Alhamdulillah, the event was a success. Thank you so much to everyone involved! I had a really great time yesterday. So now I'm looking forward to another muslimah events I guess. Heee~

"Anklong's" Wedding and Food Poisoning

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

It was the day of Luthfi's uncle's wedding. The theme was all red and bright. So for the day, I dressed him up in a cute red spider-man outfit. The groom is actually my cousin. The day starts with us attending the bride's reception in Parit, Kuala Kangsar *this is where the picture was taken* since I couldn't attend the solemnization day on the day before due to work. However among all day that we have, Luthfi actually choose that day to throw a bit of a tantrum in which forced my husband and I to leave the reception earlier than the rest of our relative. Luckily we have decided to bring our own car since the original plan is to go to my in-law's house after the wedding.

On the next day, Luthfi seems to become a bit calmer at the groom's reception. I guess the tantrum earlier on the day before must be due to the journey and lack of sleep. Alhamdulillah, it is much easier during the groom's reception. We just bring his cradle to the groom's house and let him rest there. He only wakes up for milk and nappy time and a bit of chit chat. 

After the wedding, as we go home on Sunday night - while we still on the highway, we started to have diarrhea. At that point, I suspect that it should be food poisoning prior to the wedding since the food was prepared by a catering service. The symptoms last for the whole night so we have decided to go and visit a doctor. I end up receiving two days MC from work plus a public holiday on the next day in which makes it a total of three days leave. I consider that as a good news since the weekend has been quite busy and I end up not being able to spend a lot of time with my husband.

I am thankful that the food poisoning comes at a perfect time. Thank you food poisoning for providing me with the chance to stay with my husband for a wee bit longer. :)

Birthday Talks: A Year Wiser

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me~~ happy birthday to me! 

Hihi, I guess I am officially a 23-years-old now. Alhamdulillah, this year has been a very wonderful journey to me. I am deeply thankful to Allah S.W.T for each and every moments in my life; the opportunity to become a wife of a very loving person, able to experience the beautiful world of pregnancy, giving me the chance to give birth to a little caliphs and also able to venture into the joy of a motherhood world.

However, I am most thankful to Allah S.W.T for opening up my heart to improve myself towards a better person. Alhamdulillah, now I can see a more mature 'me' over these past few months. A person who cherish her responsibility towards everything around her. InsyaAllah, I will strive to become a much more better person over the years to come. Amin. 

p/s: Thank you so much to my colleagues for celebrating my birthday on that day. I really appreciate the effort. :)

The Nature of My Workplace

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

As I have mentioned in the earlier post, I have just graduated in Bachelor of Education (Hons.) [TESL]. Alhamdulillah, I gave all my praise to Allah s.w.t. since I am currently employed in a multinational language service provider as a permanent translator.

SpeeQual Language Service

http://www.speequal.com

If I had to say, the nature of my workplace requires me to be working in a lab where only authorized people are able to enter. Any type of device in which can carry data is not allowed in the room, including a smartphone. Therefore, I can't be contacted through phone during office hour. I will usually receive a project to be done, in which normally consists of 9000+ words to be translated and period will be around 3 days. In general, it's like 3000+ words per day. It was quite tiring in order to finish the tasks within the due date given. However, when there's no translation project going on... *Unofficially* I am allowed to surf the net; Facebook, you tube, watch online dramas, blogging, etc. for the whole day as long as I don't have a project to be done or a due date to catch. Haha!

Funny that the office is located in One Ampang Avenue *also recognized as Korean Village*, in which makes  the activity of bumping into some Koreans seems like a routine already. It feels very interesting every time I overheard these people talking. It feels like I'm watching K-Dramas already. Hihi.

If only I can meet korean people as handsome as Lee Min Ho, or CN Blue's Jung Yong Hwa! Hahahahaha! *sorry husband! No matter what, I'll still love you!*   :)

A Date in Kota Damansara

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

It was a memorable day indeed. After a quite tiring night due to attending Bella's wedding, we kick off our morning a bit late actually. We go on our way through DUKE all the way to NKVE and all. The journey was fine since we're not caught in traffic jams. Our first stop is at Dataran Sunway Damansara for a lunch. At first we are aiming for my favourite 'asam pedas' but there has been a renovation going on in the area so the store is closed. I was a bit disappointed and we decided on eating Nasi Ayam only. 

The road to IKEA, The Curve, etc. was a bit confusing actually since there has been an MRT construction going on along the road. So the traffic was a bit bad, and lane are all mixed up. As we arrived at around 12pm, finding a car park in IKEA is also a bit difficult - as expected. After around 30 minutes in going in circles, we finally managed to secure our spot and went our way to The Curve. 

As we enter the lobby, there's a piano performance by a Japanese pianist in front of us so we stop by for a while to listen. The performance definitely adds on the romantic mood on that day. We only go for window shopping at The Curve since we actually don't have any intention of buying anything. However, IKEA is a whole another story since we there are a few orders to fulfill. That is the first reason for going there actually and we use that chance for a date. Haha!

However, I think that the date is definitely satisfying since we only left the area at around 5pm. :)

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale and Pesta Buku 1 Malaysia

Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

Have you ever heard of the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale? Oh well, I haven't been there during the past years but among all the reviews that I heard, it was a great book sale. I've been meaning to come every time the event was held since I am definitely a book lover. So for this year; since I am currently staying in KL, I really grab that opportunity to go and visit the sale.

The event was held at MIECC in which located just beside The MINES Shopping Center. I went there with three of my colleagues on Tuesday night, 11 December 2013 as soon as we got off from work. Actually my original plan was to find some specific book by a certain publisher and only to grab a few of them. However, I end up not be able to find that specific book and buying another 6 different book.

• Riwayat Hidup Nabi Muhammad S.A.W
• The Hobbit: Visual Companion by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins Pub. UK)
• 40 Love: A Novel by Madeleine Wickham *also known as Sophie Kinsella* (St Martin's Press)
• Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin (St Martin's Press)
• The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love by Dyan Sheldon (Walker)
• Chicken Soup for the Soul: Here Comes the Bride by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Susan M. Heim (Chicken Soup for the Soul)

The book prices are waaaayyy crazier than a normal book sale. I even buy something for my two-month old baby. It's obvious that he can't read yet but I can still keep it in order to use it later since it was a really good bargain. It's a book that giggles! The original price was RM90+ but I bought it at RM15. I absolutely love it!

Well then, the next day is actually a public holiday for Selangor state. While I was browsing through Facebook that morning, I found out that there's another book sale located in PWTC, KL. It was Pesta Buku 1 Malaysia. While Big Bad Wolf offer you a wide range of books, it was mainly consists of English books. Since I read both languages, I decided to go to PWTC for another round of books... but this time I was aiming for Malay novels by Jemari Seni. I don't know why but it seems like I've had a crush with this publisher. Haha! I bought another 4 books there in which makes the total counts of books that I've bought for this month into 10 books!!!! If I were to include Luthfi's book into the count, it'll be 11 books. The books that I bought in PWTC are all from Jemari Seni.

• Hlovatinta by Hlovate *this is a limited edition book* 
• Lazuardi by Nasz
• Kalau Jodoh Tak Ke Mana by Naurah Iman
• Jet & Jonah by Ika Madera

I was aiming for some long published titles since I'm afraid it'll be out of print soon. I think my next buy will be Hlovate's book since I've been meaning to complete my collection of his novels *not sure if the mystery writer Hlovate is a 'he' or 'her'* for a very long time already. 

I guess I've had enough books for at least another 2-3 months! :)

Happy 1st Year Wedding Anniversary

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Happy 1st year wedding anniversary, my love!

Alhamdulillah! What a well-spend weekend. I reached home with a wide spread smile from husband and had a great date yesterday. We were too busy with each other on the date until we even forgot to take our pictures. Thanks a lot my dear for the presents! Thank you for always be in my side, - the perfect friend that I could wish for, and a precious husband in my heart. 

Let us hope that this happiness will continue for many more years. InsyaAllah.

A Tale on December

Assalaualaikum, w.b.t.,

It's already in December, people! While the month signifies the end of the year to most of the people in the world, this month signifies as the beginning for me. There's a lot of things that had begun in the same month throughout the past years. The first is definitely the day where I started to breath, the day when I was born. Then the month witness another important day of my life; the day of my marriage. A new step into new responsibilities and now, it also marks the day when I started working.

At first, the month for this year feels a bit rough even with the thought of having had to go through the whole month. This is because I have to work here and live all by my own. Yes, without my husband and my lovely son. The plan was to come home every fortnight but since I've just started working and with the fact that I haven't received my salary for the month, it will be very difficult to come home. I even have to save my allowance *given by my husband* as much as I can so that I won't have to keep on asking for money. I am definitely not the type of people who'll ask for money from people even if he's my husband. Due to this, even the thought of not being able to come home makes me burst into tears. I miss my family so much, with even the slightest thought of them will cause rain to fall on my cheeks.

Nevertheless, I am feeling like the flowers for now and I am glad for that. I am very thankful to my husband for inviting me home this morning. He asks me to come home for the weekend and not to worry about the allowance since he also missed me a lot. Hee~ I am so excited to be able to come home. I definitely can't wait for tomorrow! :D

Luthfi's Journey: Two-Months Older

Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

Alhamdulillah; praise to Allah s.w.t., Luthfi is entering two-months mark now. I'm so sorry for being far away and not be able to hug and kiss you a lot on your precious day. As I'm told by my mom, Luthfi is not gaining much weight during the last month. It's only around 0.5kg increase. But Alhamdulillah, after consulting with the pediatrician it seems like he's in a good health. However, it was advisable for us to change his milk into normal milk since he was in lacto-free formula earlier due to some reason.

Over the past month, I was told that he started to coo a lot now, and quite loud too. He even laugh with sounds and all. It funny when my mom told me that he'll make different sounds for different things that he feels or wants such as feeling hungry, wanting to sleep, want to play, etc.

Oh, I can't wait to come back home and meet him! Love you so much, dear! Be a good boy to atuk and tokwan, yeah! :)

Luthfi's Journey: Our Last Hug

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Ooh, the picture of our last hug! I'm so sorry dear son for being far away for now and will only be able to come and visit every fortnight. However, my heart will always be with you. 

"Semoga baby Luthfi membesar jadi anak yang soleh, selalu dengar kata atuk tokwan dengan opah and kekal sihat selalu."

Remember, ibu will always love you!

Luthfi's Journey: Human Rocker

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

This is what I called as "human rocker"! ~ Usually Luthfi will fall asleep the whole morning except when he wants some milk. However, the challenge begins at night. Sometimes he just wants to stay awake... There's a few times when he didn't want to be carried. He'll become anxious *as in being angry; shown with very fast physical movements* when I lay him down on his bed, and even cries when I put him into his cradle. The funny thing about this human rocker is that he'll be quite a quiet boy when he's being put on the lap just like the one on the picture especially when we put up a certain song call "Puteriku Sayang" by a nasyid group called Hijjaz. Sometimes, he even laugh when we put him on our lap like that. 

I guess, he's just become wiser as the time passes by. He's already 48 days now. :)

Luthfi's Journey: One-Month Wiser

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

It seems just like yesterday, the day when Luthfi was born. Alhamdulillah, he's entering 31days now. Officially a one-month old with the weight of 4kg and 53cm height. I guess he's growing up until now. As he grows, I notice that he already started cooing and smiling... though it is not as often as when he grows older. But still, I love the progress. I hope that you'll always be a healthy boy, my dear! InsyaAllah :) 

Graduating Bachelor Degree: UNISEL's 8th Convocation Ceremony

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

If I had to say.. I guess I have a lot. There are few things in life that I wish that I'll be able to achieve especially when it comes to career. It has been a year now since I finish my studies and Alhamdulillah, I am able to graduate as a second class upper bachelor degree holder yesterday, 27 October 2013. 

Two people missing from the picture. One is my older brother 

and the other one is my younger brother.

My lovely husband and my precious son. 

He's only 23 days old on this day.

The journey that I had to go through in order to obtain the bachelor degree was not that easy. It requires four long years. There has been some ups and downs over the years. There are times when it feels like giving up is easier. There are also times when laziness overwhelms your body but definitely, most of the times spent contains beautiful memories. I am glad that I have my family and friends with me all the times. They even came to my graduation day even though they have graduated earlier than me. I am very thankful for that. 

Seriously, I love each and every one of you. :)

Luthfi's Birth Story: Confinement Period

Assalamualaikum w.b.t, 

Alhamdulillah! As I have mentioned on the last post, I have already give birth to a baby boy. So automatically, I am now in my confinement period.  If I had to give my personal opinion on which is better, I'd say give birth to baby Luthfi is definitely easier than having had to go through a confinement period.

There's a few reasons, of course for the opinion. First of all, it is because of the after effect. You know, in all great things that happens life... An after effect always comes after that. In my case, its the pain. There's few types of pain that I had to experience during confinement and one of it is caused by episiotomy. The pain is actually not that bad but it was more like making you feel uncomfortable. However, the painful one is constipation so you really have to be careful on what you eat and drink. Last but not least.. The longest pain of all is the one on the cocyx, or tailbone. If I am not mistaken, normally the pain will last as long as 6-8 weeks at least. For me, this pain is the worst of all since at first I can barely sit much less to drive.

Picture from Google

Other than the pain, the second reason falls on the food. Well, for the first few weeks... I have to bear eating some kind of fish every single day. At the end of the second week, I can only eat three mouthful. Haha! There's actually a third reason but I guess it is not appropriate to be shared in public. Until then.. :)

It's a Miracle: Luthfi's Birth Story

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Again my pregnancy journal continues since I am now done writing my experiences for all the trimesters. I guess now is the part where I have to recall the memory of giving birth... *traumatized* Haha! It has been more than a month since I give birth to baby Luthfi but I can still remember the pain. 

My birth chronology starts on Thursday, 03 October 2013. On around 11am, I began to feel the contractions. At first, it was very mild. However, at around 2pm.. The contractions began to intensify. But it was still bearable to me. The intensity of the pain started to increase per hour but there's still no other labour sign. My water bag still intact and there's no blood show. Due to this, I feel a bit hesitant to go to the hospital and just keep on enduring the pain through the night. I tried my best to sleep since I knew that I'll need a lot of energy to go through the active labour process later. I was able to fall asleep but awake every time the contractions came. On that night, there's around 30mins interval for each contractions and last for around 40 - 60 secs. So I can only fall asleep for 30mins and woken up by contractions for a few second and go to sleep again. Oh, what a dreadful night.. Hihi.

Well, the pain lasts and keep on intensify until the next morning.. Friday, 04 October 2013. At around 9am, the interval between contractions became around 15mins and lasts for around 60secs. At this point, I can barely stand the pain so I call my mom *she's at work* and told her. My mom end up coming home and took me to the hospital to meet my O&G specialist. VE was performed and I was told that the opening is only 1cm. However, the doctor decided to send me to labour room to be monitored since my blood pressure shoot up due to the pain. The reading was 180 over 110. At that point, meds are given to me in order to ease up the pressure and I was told that I have to be induced in order to speed up the process due to the risk that my blood pressure will shoot up again and maybe even higher if I had to bear the pain for few more days until the opening is fully dilated.

At around 10am, I was sent by the nurse in charge to the labour room. I was given the chance to relax in order to control my blood pressure until around 12pm because if not, I may have to undergo c-sect. This is because inducing will bring stronger contraction. If my body can't stand the pain and my blood pressure keep on rising, me and my baby will both face a bigger risk. Luckily, my blood pressure seems to drop as the time reach 12pm. After a bit of discussion with my doctor, the inducing process began at 2pm. 

During the process, I guess a lot of thing starts to wander in my mind. Alhamdulillah, I was very lucky to have my mom accompanying me the whole time since my husband is still on his way from Sungkai. He arrived somewhere around 4pm. At that point, my dilation is only 2cm. Then around 5pm the doctor came in to break my water bag and make the dilation move to 5cm. Only after an hour later my dilation became 8cm. I had to say... at that point I began to feel that the baby is going to come out.

Alhamdulillah, after much hardships that I had to go through for another hour plus vacuum at the very last moment since my whole energy was totally depleted... Muhammad Luthfi was born at exactly 6.19pm on 04 October 2013 with the total weight of 2.5kg and 50cm long. I dare say, this is one of the unforgettable moments in my life.

To tell the truth, I actually dream of having a gentle birth for this pregnancy. However, the whole process happen to be a not-so-gentle experience as I happen to take analgesics due to very painful contractions and also an episiotomy. Nevertheless, this is still a very good experience for me *as in I am not traumatized and regret over the experience of giving birth*. Definitely a thumbs up for Columbia Asia Taiping. Haha! Still, I hope that I will be able to achieve gentle birth in my next pregnancy.

InsyaAllah :)

One Step Further: Third Trimester

Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

Here goes the story for third trimester. As I've mentioned before, I have actually registered myself at the nearest klinik kesihatan and went for monthly checkup.  *you can read more on that here* However, I didn't planned on delivering at government hospitals. I have my own reasons, of course. Haha! So.. As my pregnancy enters the third trimester, I started to continue my monthly checkup at Columbia Asia Taiping. I'll do a review on my O&G Specialist and the rate for the hospital later.

So for my first checkup there, my O&G did a 4D ultrasound scan in order to check the gender of my baby *per my request, of course* Hihi.. It was so exciting. You can even see the baby's movement, even when he's yawning. A 4D scan is definitely worth it. Even the price is affordable.

Everyone says that the nose looks like mine! Actually, I can't even imagine how he'll look like in real life even though the picture is very clear. Haha! 

To add to the perks, I got food poisoning on week 38. I must say, having food poisoning while you're in third trimester is definitely bad. Food poisoning caused me to have contractions as the baby must be feeling uncomfortable. At first I thought that the contractions was a sign that I am near to giving birth as I'm already on week 38 but I'm nit that sure. As the contractions becoming more and more regular, I feel that I can barely stand the pain and I was admitted to the emergency room. Then I was sent to the labour room to be monitored since even the doctor is not sure if it'll all end with food poisoning or it'll go all the way to giving birth. After having regular contractions for a while, the contractions started to subside. Still, I was monitored in a ward for a day. 

Luckily, the ward is comfortable and I end up enjoying my day in there. Haha!

One Step Further: Second Trimester

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

It has been quite a while since my last update on my pregnancy experience. To tell the truth, I can't seem to recall lots of my memory for the second trimester experience since it has been a while. Luckily I did the post for first trimester earlier.

Nevertheless, there's not much to tell o second trimester actually. Everything seems to be going quite well for me during  pregnancy. It was overwhelming to see that my bump starts to show up. Haha! And I started to gain weight too which resulted in me having had to buy few clothes for pregnant women. *If you're looking for nice yet affordable pregnancy clothing, look for 'Scarlet' brand in Jusco* Haha!

All in all, that's the only thing that I can remember for second trimester. The third trimester, however is another different story!