My storeroom half empty...

It is now the last day of July, and we have exactly 3 weeks to prepare everything for the move. At first Subalipack is supposed to help us with the packing. It's the company that helped us bring our things from Malaysia. But, now it seems that another company is contracted to do the migration. Probably, it'll cost more to bring the Subalipack workers from Malaysia. But I've seen those people work and I salute them...anything and everything could be packed it seems.

The bad news is that the new company wouldn't help with the packing, only bulky items and glassware. And to tell the truth, by looking at the workers, I guess it's a Sudanese company. Mind you, I do not have anything against them, but I'd rather do the packing myself (better be safe than sorry is my motto). We've heard some horror stories during the first phase of the migration...hehehe... I'll write about it in another posting (after our move), and after gaining personal insight.

So, we were given 30 boxes and 2 white masking tapes to start us off. I've finished the two masking tapes about 2 weeks ago and had to borrow one from my next door neighbour. We're supposed to get extra packing materials 2 weeks ago also. We only received the extra packing materials yesterday. That illustrates how these people work perfectly! Meanwhile, I'm busy packing our things for the migration. I've sealed 25 boxes plus several Subalipack boxes as not all can fit into the boxes supplied to us. Look at the pictures below...

Some of the things left on the shelves...

The other side of the room...

Amir is busy 'helping' me...

That's Aliah and Hadi's bicycles actually...

Sealed boxes in the living room...

Packing is also not so straightforward as I have to think about all the stuff that we need for the next few weeks. I've packed some of our clothes leaving only enough to recycle for the next three weeks. Plus the fact that I can only do the packing after the kids are asleep (Amir is the exception of course...). FYI, the pictures were taken at 1 am and you could see how he 'insist' on 'helping' me. I don't know where I'm going to put all the things in the new apartment as it's considerably much smaller than our present apartment...sigh... I guess I have to manage with what I have and stop whining...sigh...

Our new apartment

Last Saturday, we went to see our new apartment in the new complex. It was the second day of the first phase of migration to the new complex. The first phase was on 25 and 26th of July, the second phase would be on the 8th of August and ours would be the final phase on the 22 and 23rd of August. But, look at the pictures taken on that day...

This is to be our living room...

This is the view from the living room, the gap is supposed to be the counter...

This is the kitchen...very narrow...that's without all the stove and kitchen cabinets!

The view from outside!!!

That is supposed to be home sweet home for us!!!

What do you think? Is it possible that it's going to be ready for our move in August? Well, ready or not, we have to move because the present lease of our buildings is up on the 31st of August!!! Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Water supply in Sudan

Unlike electricity, water is practically free, it's very cheap. I don't know why it's called 'hard' water, probably because like coke, it can scrape your insides...hehehe...just kidding, but we are definitely scared enough not to drink it raw. We are lucky because the previous occupant left their water filter behind.

For drinking and cooking purposes, I have to boil the filtered water first or use mineral water. At first I just boiled the filtered water, but after discovering mineral deposits at the bottom of the jug, I've opted for mineral water instead, especially to make milk for Amir. Alhamdulillah, since we came, there's only one incidence of stomach ache for Amir.

Another main use for water is definitely for washing our clothes. I've learnt my lesson the hard way, no more washing colours separately for me...why? Because whites would never remain whites again... hehehe, the water tend to leave 'marks' on whites (I think on all clothes, but it's just more obvious on whites). And no amount of bleach can help remove it. Using 'vanish' is also futile. The water here can make new clothes look jaded by the second wash. I can attest for the mineral deposits in the water because every few days, my washing machine would get clogged with sand and even small stones. I've become quite the handyman...hehehe...I've also found another use of a toothbrush, as a 'declogger' tool!

To make my life less miserable (for the duration of our stay here), I have decided to buy only coloured clothes for the family. That is what I call 'adapting' to the way of life here.

Electricity supply in Sudan

As I mentioned in earlier postings, electricity supply in Sudan is definitely expensive. Probably those who can afford it are the rich and the expats. When I first came to Khartoum, I was a bit apprehensive when the electricity supply was cut off sometime in the morning. Luckily, Kak Rehana (a neighbour) assured me that it is normal. Huh?!! But, it's true, it is normal that in a course of a day, we'll have several power cuts.

It's not actually power cuts, it's just that there's no power supply and there'll be a black out! That's also why there's a big generator at every building, including our block. So whenever there's a black out, the generator will kick in after a few minutes. It happens so often that at first it drives me crazy.

Can you imagine, if the washing machine is on, it would stop the cycle immediately and you have to start all over again. Sometimes, it's very inconvenient to say the least. During the JEM attack, it was worse. It's like chipsmore, now you have, now you don't kind of thing...hehehe. The kids used to scream whenever there's a black out, but now they're such a pro that if there's a black out, they'll just stay put until the lights is on again. It's just something that we have to get used to. It's just a fact of life that in Sudan, the electricity supply is unreliable.

Oh yes, another thing about the electricity supply... Each electrical appliance will give out static shocks...hehehe... it's true, even while I'm typing this post, I could feel the static from the lap top, I have learnt to avoid touching the side of the lap top because the static is worse there. Sometimes, Amir would get static shocks when he tried to disturb me...hehehe. Sometimes, touching the freezer or the washing machine could make your fingers numb for a little while. I guess that's a part and parcel of the 'perks' staying in this country...hehehe

Amir...sigh...

Two weeks ago, my sister in-law asked about Amir, "is he more mischievous?". He is definitely more than that! My husband has declared that all doors need to be closed at all times, this would include every door possible, the kitchen door, the bathrooms doors, the bedroom doors and especially the storeroom door...hehehe...

I need to be on a lookout for him if he's so quiet for about 10 minutes. If there's a lapse of more than 10 minutes, it means that the damage has already been done! He can get up to so much mischief, you wouldn't believe it...hehehe...yesterday, he took out all the toothpaste from their respective boxes and put them all in the bathroom sink. At least he didn't squeeze them. Can you imagine the trips that he had to make in order to get all of them in the sink? and the fact that the storeroom and the bathroom is across the hall from one another...hehehe...

Sometimes I feel like screaming but most of the times I couldn't help but admire his 'skill' at looking so innocent...A few weeks ago, he nearly finished a whole tub of vaseline petroleum jelly at one sitting. As Sudan is very dry, we need to put on the petroleum jelly, if not our skin would be very dry and it can get itchy and sometimes could be painful. And being so fair, Aliah and Amir need to use it liberally, if not, they'll look like pink tomatoes (especially on the face)... But have a look at the pictures below...

Real innocent, right?

Look at the amount of the vaseline on him !!!

This picture's taken after washing off all the vaseline, but his hair still stuck up like a durian!!!

There's also his food exploits. I'll keep those for another post...hehehe...still trying to get more evidence...

Photos in Paris...

For the past few days, I've been busy categorising our photos in Paris. Some were easy to recognise, others a blur. Especially all those beautiful buildings...it was so easy on the tour bus when there's a running commentary, but now I couldn't remember a thing...hehehe...here, I'd like to share some of my favourite photos...

This picture's taken in Val D'Europe city centre on our arrival day

The kids in front of Notre Dame Cathedral (Day 1)

The kids on Eiffel Tower (Day 2)

The kids in Disneyland (Day 3)

The only picture as a family (Day 6)

The chicken stealer strikes again!

Amir, caught in the act! Again! Look at his face, what can a mother do? Since we came to Khartoum, he has been 'stealing' chicken when I'm not around in the kitchen. Now you see it, now you don't kind of thing...hehehe...it's like having a cat. The first time it happened, I was puzzled where could the pieces of chicken have gone but when we found the bones near his toys, the puzzle was solved. And I've been trying to catch him red handed and voila! As you can see, he looks so innocent...hehehe...

My first 'karipap'

Yehoo! After more than 35 years on earth, I managed to make my first ever karipap today...Hehehe...Above, Aliah's posing with the unfinished karipap. She volunteered to help as it is her favourite savoury. Why after all these years? The answer is because before this, i've always managed to get karipap easily. My old neighbour, Kak Arah always gave us a plate whenever she made some...hehehe, otherwise I could get it easily from stalls and shops.

Why today? because my supply of frozen karipap is nearly over. I panicked last week when I discovered that I have only 2 packets left...uhuk, uhuk... So, today I decided that it's now or never. Did the filling first and when it tasted like the 'real' karipap, there was no looking back... To make the dough is a totally different matter entirely, though...I used the ERT recipe, but since my planta supply's also finished, I used butter. Somebody told me to rub the butter into the flour like making a crumble and later add iced water. So, I did just that...

And it works...hehehe...the other problem is that I don't have a rolling pin...If you look closely, there's a green plastic glass...that's my rolling pin! It's not that bad, but without a proper rolling pin, the dough's not that thin. My next problem is the sides, how to 'klim'? I honestly do not know how to do it. That's where Aliah comes in. She used the fork to press the sides together, and we had fun...lot's of giggling and shooing Amir out of the kitchen...hehehe...

Anyway, at first I wanted to give some to the neighbours but when we finished, we ended up with only 21 karipaps...plus the fact that I wasn't sure what it taste like and some were really mishapen...I decided to keep them in our family...hehehe. We had to wait for my husband to come home before taking the first bite...Man, it was lovely...Some were a bit thick but the taste was there. It was all gone in a matter of minutes...Amir liked it, well, he would eat anything, really...

This is definitely not going to be my last attemp at making karipap...hehehe...

Hadi and his first 'mengaji' lesson...

Arghhhh...I'd better scream it out of my system. I had just spend 25 minutes trying to coax Hadi to start his first 'mengaji' lesson. FYI, Aliah has an ustazah to teach her the Iqra' and since she's finished with Iqra' 6, I thought that it is time for hadi to start Iqra' 1. Aliah is currently rereading her Iqra' before starting al quran.

Today, the ustazah finally came after an absence of about a week (due to illness). He started screaming and refused to stop watching TV. Okay, after finally managing to subdue him and taken him to their room to start the lesson, I thought everything would be fine. Then, Aliah came out saying he's crying and refused to read. I asked him to stop crying and he said he wanted his transformers book.

I tried to find it but it was not there. Okay, I resorted to giving him his 'jetfire', but instead of reading, he was playing with his toy. That was definitely the last straw for me, I flipped and ordered him to read. He managed to sobbed the first page through and it took him less than 2 minutes. It was definitely tiring, plus the fact that Aliah was trying to be 'very helpful' by teaching him herself...sigh...

Afterwards, when I asked him why he cried, he admitted that he was scared...that's just like him to kick and scream first before trying anything new...sigh...and the fact that all that hassle had woken Amir from his nap...sigh...

100 days in Khartoum

Well, well, what do you know? It's been a hundred days already since we first came to Khartoum. Not that long really, just over 3 months...but feeling-wise, it's been ages...hehehe...and I long to go back to Malaysia where I can gossip with friends and neighbours alike...hehehe, that's one of the things that I really miss actually, keeping in touch with friends and neighbours.

'Dah lama parlimen pokok mempelam tak bersidang'. That's what my husband used to call us, a few ladies with shared interests...hehehe. I really miss Kak Normah, Kak Arah, Hani, Ema, Ina, Kak Eda (my neighbours (Tmn Sri Rawang and BTP) and Sha, Shima, Zu , Farah, Kak Bai and Nisa (my workmates)...sigh...I wish I could gossip with all of you now...It's been lonely here. Luckily I have my SSP friends for company...hehehe...though my husband could kill me with the amount of internet prepaid that i've spent.

Anyway, back to the 100 days report. All I can say is that it has been interesting, living with my family in a totally different setting. We've learnt so much about relying on each other and having fun as a family unit. I've learnt that I really couldn't teach Aliah (lack of patience...sigh), and potty training Hadi has been hell...that's another story all by itself...hehehe. But, what's important is that we are happy (most of the time) and the kids do not miss Malaysia as much as me...hehehe...and I've learnt to cook (of sorts), just to keep the family alive...Nora, I'm still a survival kind of cook. I think that's all for the first 100 days, there'll be more days to come...sigh...

The new apartment

We went to have a look at the new apartment yesterday. It was quite impressive actually. There are 3 main buildings, 1 office block and 2 residential blocks plus 1 multi purpose hall. When we arrived, we could see that block A was definitely not ready to receive dwellers. The missing windows, scaffolding everywhere and we could see from afar that airconditioned units were not even installed yet.

My husband called one of the project team members and we were asked to go to their unit in block B instead. The area looked like a construction site with debris and dust everywhere. All the apartments would look the same by the way. When I entered the apartment for the first time, my first impression was "oh, it's a modern apartment".

It was definitely smaller than our current abode. The kitchen was very narrow but with modern equipments. The furniture was all black, with black leather sofa and black cabinets. The TV was a 32 or 40 inch flat screen and the most important thing, the internet connection was ready. Each apartment would have 3 rooms with attached bathrooms and another bathroom outside. The room was roughly about 2/3 of our current room space. I think we'll have 1 parent's room, 1 girl's room and 1 boy's room...hehehe...if Hadi is willing to sleep on his own. Aliah is definitely looking forward to have her own room.

It's just nice for our family but I'm worried about the storage of all our stuff. There's a small and very narrow space outside (it looked like a broom closet actually) where we could put our dry stuff (soaps and detergents etc.). Looking at the space, finding a place to put the freezer could be a problem...sigh...so many things to think about. Plus the packing and unpacking that has to be done soon. I've loosely packed about 15 boxes already but there's so many things not touched yet.

Overall impression, it was not that bad but I'm worried about block A, would it be ready in 3 weeks? I don't think so... Another worry is that since by hook or by crook we have to leave the current building by the end of August, the job done will be slipshod and it could be dangerous if the all the safety precautions are not taken seriously...sigh...Luckily out apartment is one the first floor so it's not that bad if the lift is not working.

Anyway, we met Adik's friend there (one of the IT people). He's going back to Malaysia in 2 weeks time and he told us that all the internet connections were ready to be used. Small world, huh...Anyway, that's all I can say about a 20 minutes visit...except that Hadi was so taken with the apartment, he cried when it was time to go home (he said the place was 'shiny')..hehehe

Bad news...and more bad news...

I would like to share several bad news with everyone. The first bad news is about the fact that once we're in the new Petronas Complex, we have to pay for the electricity. Why this is bad? Because electricity here is very expensive! If I'm not mistaken it could be more than two hundred US dollars per month. Ouch! And the fact that the country is so hot that we could not afford to let the 'hot, hot' air in...

I was so happy because I thought that once we move, we would not be spending so much money on internet prepaid (as we are doing now) and the internet connection is definitely faster. But now, it seems that we will be spending more for the electricity...sigh...

The second bad news is about the date of the move. It was supposed to be on the 15th of August, but when we went to the Petronas Complex a few hours ago, all is not well. There were scaffolding everywhere, especially my block. The lift was not working and can you believe it or not, some apartments were without windows, let alone furniture...Horror of all horrors...I think we have to postpone the move to a later date, but hopefully by September because it will be Ramadhan soon...sigh...another headache...

And finally the last but not least kind of news...My husband's ocola (overseas allowance) is being reduced. The whole Petronas community is talking about it now. We are still not very clear of how much it's going to set us back, but it is definitely bad news. I think most of the engineers are looking for other jobs right now and I think Petronas is definitely stupid by doing that because since the pay is considerably lower if compared to other oil companies, it is inviting massive crossover to other companies, like Aramco which is waiting for something like this to happen. Well, we will definitely start surfing Aramco's website, looking for other opportunities...sigh...If the money is being used to raise the overall wage of Petronas staff, I don't really mind. But if it's going to be used for other goverment expenses...I do mind.

Uprooting one's family to live in a war torn country where everything is so expensive... the simple pleasure of going anywhere we wanted is restricted...etc...sigh...

Oh yes, another bad news...we have received information that there is a possibility of another skirmish in Khartoum...so, I'll be packing our stuff again...the uncertainty of living in this country is making my head spin...
sigh...

News, news, news...

It has been quite long since I last blog. Why? I've been engrossed with reading the news from Malaysia actually. I just couldn't believe what is happening in Malaysia...Anwar? sodomy? again? From my point of view, it's just a plain nightmare. Just think about what it's doing to our economy. We are sadly embracing inflation with the oilprice hike among other things and with the current 'blame-game', no investors in their right mind would put their money into Malaysia.

I've been reading a lot of other political blogs and what I gather is that the Malaysian public is angry, and showing it. It's quite entertaining at times but also sad that a lot of things are happening to the 'rakyat'. They are the ones who are suffering from inflation, everything is more expensive now...and yet to be offered the 'spectacular' news of sodomy, news of statuory declarations among other things. Who cares about those things if they couldn't afford some simple pleasures like eating out for example? I bet that with the current oil price, those with cars are really watching their oil consumption...what's the use of having a car if you couldn't drive it?

In Sudan, there's been a second plane crash on the 30th of June. We actually went past the crash site, 4 people were killed as it's a cargo plane. It was burned out of recognition. The first plane crash was on the 10th of June, also a Sudanese Air plane. 2 crashes in the space of 20 days, not very encouraging indeed. The first plane crashed on the runway of the Khartoum Airport itself, the latest one came down near Afra, the area of the shopping complex, which is about 5 minutes from where we are staying. As we are not far from the Khartoum Airport, this is definitely scary.

Ok, that's all for now...