I'm on top of the world...

What's that on top? Yes... u guessed it right...

The top one is Amin's PMR result and the one below is Mia's UPSR grades...

I am so happy today... so very happy!!! Unimaginably happy!!!... Oh God... Syukur Alhamdulillah... People might ask... 5A 3B pun nak kecoh... Phuh!!! If u know Amin's history (academically) you would also tip your hat for him... really! honest!!!

Amin went to kindy for 3 years but was only able to read when he entered standard 2. Imagine that... His test and exam results were always barely average, except for Mathematics. Somehow he almost always managed to do well in that subject. And me... (yg selalu mulut laser, even to my own children... hahaha...) always accused him of taking after his daddy's IQ... Belajar tak pandai macam your daddy, tapi Math kau boleh pulak pandai, hm... macam your daddy jugaklah sebab your daddy memang pandai "berkira"...

On top of that, in preparation for his PMR exam, Amin also refused to go to tuition classes. He said, the teachers were not good, his classmates were noisy, the classroom was hot... 1001 excuses...

So, he took the liberty to make his own decision and dropped out of his tutition classes in April. Tapi nasib baik, he was honest... When I gave him the money for May's fee, that's when he told me that he didnt want to attend the classes anymore. I am so grateful that he didnt do what his half sister did when she was preparing for her SPM and later failed with flying colours... hahaha... (that story was told in "Claiming Credit" entry).

Anyway, I scolded him for making that decision on his own and I tried to force him to go back to the classes, or register at another tuition center. But, he instead demanded that I hired a private tutor like I did for Muaz when Muaz was in Form 3. I tried to reason with him, now that we are "on our own", I couldnt afford to hire a private tutor for him. So, he pulled a long face and merajuk... he said... in that case, tak pe lah, he could learn on his own. So, that's just what he did... he studied on his own, with help from online e-tutor and exchanging notes with his cousin, my brother's daughter who scored straight As.

One other factor, of course, the turun-naik court yang until now still tak berkesudahan... which also at one point dragged him to be directly involved as a witness...

So, because of all those factors, I did not expect that he would get such "good" results...

Oh boy... Amin... you really proved it today that you are truly mummy's son... And mummy apologises for all the laser words that I said to your face before this (mostly sebagai lepas geram to your daddy)...

Congratulations and thank you my dear Amin...
You just put me on top of the world today...

We are going on a paid holiday again...

Since school holiday started I havent taken the kids anywhere... not even balik kg for Raya Haji... (because Muaz was sitting for SPM and he still had Physics and Chemistry after Raya Haji). So, of course his brothers and sister blamed him for them to have been deprived of spending their Raya with their Mak Yang and Ayah Alang whom they adore so much... Ever since my mother passed away, my sister, who my kids call Mak Yang and her husband, their Ayah Alang, have become almost like their grandparents - balik kg means balik to Mak Yang's house, balik raya means raya at Mak Yang's house...

And then we had to postpone lagi holiday sebab last week Aqim pulak bersunat... so, to go anywhere, we have to wait for him to recover...

So, we had to wait until end of the year to go on a holiday... and as luck has it, I have been assiged to handle a workshop at our branch in Sungai Petani on 29th December... Hm... memang lah rezeki for me to take the kids on "paid" holiday again... Yeay!!!

This is not my first time going to our SP office, but before this I took a flight to Penang and someone from the SP office picked me up at Penang airport. So, this will be my first time driving to SP, though I have driven to up north before (but up to Kulim only) visiting my sister last May when I had to visit our Penang office, and I brought the kids along.

Anyway... this time, we will start our holiday on Christmas day. First stop is Felda Residence Trolak at Sungkai (a friend told me the place is heavenly peaceful, but then again, with 5 screaming and jumping kids, mana lah nak peacefulnya)...

Next stop is my kids' Mak Yang's house and 2 weddings, one in Ipoh, the other one in Bandar Sri Iskandar.

We will explore Taiping on the 27th - visiting an old friend recently reunited (thanks to facebook) and then possibly the Taiping Zoo... or other destination that I cannot disclose yet... takut my kids get overexcited and kalau tak jadi they would be disappointed...

I will start driving to SP on the 28th - Swiss Inn is the place that we will spend the night.The kids will be on their own on the 29th while I do my work. I havent had specific plans for the 30th yet... I have a few options, but (again) I cannot disclose here takut the kids ter-overexcited... hehe...

So, that's the plan....

Potong...

My last boy was circumsized yesterday... adoi... very emotionally draining exercise... he didnt want me to leave the treatment room, I had to hug him for the entire 30 minutes procedure... and he cried throughout... and I pun apa lagi... I cried along with him...

It feels good being appreciated...

Annual Dinner cum Service Excellence Award for Financial Year 2008/2009 for the organisation that I work for was held last night...

It started at 8pm and ended at 1am...

Anuar Zain was the guest artist... that guy is so skinny... he looked like one of The Beatles... hahaha...

And... at the dinner... I received the "President's Award of Recognition" - one of the highest awards given away every year. And this is my second year of getting the award...

Hm.. it feels good being appreciated...

Milestone

Muaz "khatam" secondary school officially yesterday. His last paper was Chemistry, and when I asked him "how was it?", his answer was "Boleh la..." In fact that was the standard answer that he gave everytime I asked after he finished a paper. When I complained about it, he said "well... mummy pun tanya standard question jugak"... Anak-anak zaman sekarang... "pandai menjawab"...

I think, everytime my children sat for exams, I was more nervous than them. Especially Muaz, he seemed very cool... in fact too cool... he watched TV as usual, jogged every evening as usual, lepak with his friends as usual... did not break away from his routine at all during the exam weeks. I can only pray that he will get good result so that he can enrol in good programs like Diploma in Pharmacy (if he chooses to stick to science) or Diploma in Accounting.

Anyway... Muaz finishing seconday school signifies a new milestone in my life... he will be 18 next April... which means I will have an "adult" son who I can really appoint as "the man of the house". In a way, I feel relief because in absence of si polan, Muaz can play or shoulder that role "legally" now (I mean once he turns 18 in April 2010). Yet, in another hand, I can't help but to worry mainly because this is the cucial years of his life that he should have a mentor or a role model to help him through the process of transforming from a teenager to an adult. I ask myself sometimes if what I am doing is fair to him...

And I know that the situation that I am in right now has effects on him. For example, I often hear him says that he plans to stay single forever. One of the occasions is when we were talking about buying a new house. He prefers a double story house but I prefer single story because when I am old and staying alone, it will be a waste to have such large space but unoccupied. He responded by saying... "dont worry mummy, I will stay with you forever because I will never get married"... Jokingly I replied "Ala... you'll never know... once you meet someone you like, you'll forget what you said today..." But actually, his words cut me deep, because I know his losing faith in marriage is definitely due to the example set by me and his daddy...

Another postponement...

I received a call from my lawyer's office this morning...

My next court appearance (this appearance is only for the court to announce the judge's verdict) which is supposed to be on next Monday, 7th December, is now being postponed again... Reason? Syariah judges have to go for a course for 2 weeks starting next Monday... And my case is tentatively rescheduled to March 2010... because the judge's dates for January and February are fully booked... they didnt even give an exact date...

I am lost for words... really...

Letih...

I tire easily nowadays....

Work at the office is almost "uncatchupable"... if there is such a word... meaning I cannot catch up with the pace... one deadline after another, actually many of the deadlines are overlapping...

I seriously think that I'm getting too old for this kind of job... I approached the management, asking to step down and for them to appoint someone younger... their answer "Yes, you can step down, but please groom someone to take over..." Adoi...

The problem with young people nowadays, at least those working under my supervision right now, they dont like challenges. They just want to come in at 9am, conduct whatever sessions/classes/seminars/etc that they have to do and go back at 5pm... but they want good pay...

I am really tired... really really really tired... rasa macam anytime can pengsan now... really...