A tiring weekend...

Yesterday morning, I bundled my kids and rushed off to OU to watch the movie, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. They loved the movie but Amir managed to doze off at the end...hehehe

After the movie, we went to Seri Pacific Hotel to check in. Yesterday, I had a reunion dinner with my school mates. The 20th year of our leaving SSP! I'm very old indeed...hehehe. I'll write more about this some other time, insyaallah.

Anyway, after we checked in, we went over to the Mall and had a bite to eat. After that, we went to a bookstore and bought a few activity books for the kids. After Asar, they wanted to go to the swimming pool and they had about an hour of fun frollicking in the pool...hehehe.

I went to join my friends around 7.45 pm and when I got back to the room around 11 pm, Amir was sprawled on the floor while the other two were still energetic enough to play with the balloons that I brought back...sigh.

Today, I checked out around 11 am, and had breakfast with my friends at the Mall before we parted company around 12 pm. We were supposed to visit Cikgu Poyah in Seremban who was diagnosed with breast cancer and had the operation done about 3 days ago, but we had to postpone it to a later date.

Somehow, my daughter managed to 'do something' to the automatic window button on the driver's side that now won't work at all...sigh. I drove to Selayang to get it fixed but the workshop was closed. After that, I stopped at the barber's to give the boy a crew cut as usual...hehehe. Went back to BTP to have lunch and arrived home around 3 pm...phewww

I managed to coax the kids to play at the playground before 6 pm but they only managed to play about 20 minutes when it started drizzling...sigh. Anyway, I'm feeling really sleepy tonight, so au revoir!

My World Cup : Part 2

This year, I planned to enjoy the World Cup 2010. I do not have any favourite team but I certainly had an irrational dislike of Italy and England. Though I did have a soft spot for Germany and the Ivory Coast...hehehe. The Ivory Coast was unlucky to be grouped together with Brazil and Portugal because if not, they would have gone at least to the quarter finals. Anyway, it's just not to be...sigh. While Germany played to their full potential and displayed one of the fastest attacking football there is.

Though they lost to Spain in the semis, I was not too disappointed because Spain played well and managed to curb any kind of moves the Germans tried. The best team won and I was also glad that Spain became the champion. They deserved it! I quite like Holland but they played 'dirty' at the finals and it was a shame. I knew that the odds were against them but was quite disappointed that they came out trying to spoil Spain's victory. The game between Germany and Uruguay was much better, free flow and they played beautiful football, definitely.

Since the WC begun on the 11th of June, I've been glued to the TV screen on about 80% of the games. I actually started my marathon on the 10th of June...hehehe. When my husband came back for a course in Cherating on the 12th of June, I was a bit disappointed because there was no telecast of the WC in our room in Swiss Garden Kuantan. But all was not lost because they showed the games at big screens around the hotel. We normally chose to sit out at the beach front and watched the matches.

My husband made me miss Germany's first game because he didn't want to wake me up. Actually he suffered from jet lag and though he heard the alarm clock, felt that he could not get up and would rather let me miss the game also. Hmmmphhh! One night, I crawled out of bed and watched the game at the lobby with another patron. Luckily it was dark because I literally dragged myself out of bed...hehehe

Anyway, when the kids started schooling after the school holidays, it became a challenge to sleep late and wake up early. Sometimes I survived on 2 or 3 hours sleep and during the day, I became a zombie. But once I caught myself nodding at the wheel and that put a stop to watching the 2.30 am games. Luckily it was during the quarter final rounds where we were given a reprieve of about two days before the next round...hehehe

Sometimes, I persuaded the kids to sleep downstairs infront of the TV, so that I could watch the games and be near the kids at the same time. My living room became truly 'lived in'...muahahaha. In my opinion, Germany provided a lot of entertainment in whatever games they played, except against Spain (they truly need a lot of experience and maturity to counter Spain's tactic). I loved how the Germans made the English looked like fools. Slow and weak against fast and strong contenders. Simply loved that.

Actually I liked watching Argentina played also, though I hate the over-dramatic coach. I think if you put a 'stick' as a coach also, they could play well. Brazil was too cocky for me. It was kind of sad that the African teams were not that successful...sigh. But it just goes to show that brawn without brains would not guarantee you success in football.

What about South Korea and Japan? I liked them also and sad to see them end their campaigns. They showed that Asians could also play world class football. I would also support Japan's bid to host the WC in 2018?!! At least, the matches would not deprive me of my much needed sleep...hehehe

Any complaints? Of course, the ball is one. Next time, please let someone involved in the game to design it! A ball that was designed in a lab should stay in the lab! Some referee were 'card-happy' like the Saudi man. Iskkk, at times, I wish they could invite Colina to referee again. I miss seeing his bald head running alongside players and controlling the game. If he referees, no one dares to say anything...sigh.

I bid farewell to World Cup Mania 2010! I laughed, I cried but most of all, I enjoyed every minute of it. I wonder what I would be doing during the World Cup 2014 in Brazil...mmm

p/s: Ramadhan is coming. I wish I'll have the same kind of passion to wake up nights as the WC...hehehe

My World Cup : Part 1

I'm a football fan. I wasn't that interested when I was younger even though I studied in a country where EPL reigned supreme. If I'm not mistaken, Gary Lineker was quite famous then. I just couldn't understand what's the point of 22 men chasing 1 ball?!! My husband was and still is a Liverpool fanatic. So, I became a fan by default or is it by marriage? Hehehe. But when I could not stand to support Liverpool anymore, I chose to support Chelsea starting from 2003.

Then, I started to read up on football news and watched games without fail. I became a football junkie...muahahaha. Well, now I agree when people say that football is a beautiful game. It is! In football, you'll have to work together and different positions have different parts to play. Different teams have different dynamics and I love to watch them all.

So, of course, I love watching the World Cup, it's not just about a football game, but also about pride of a country. In 2006, I was heavily pregnant with Amir during the WC and I was bleeding, so I was given a 2 week bed rest. So, I used that 2 weeks of 'bed rest' by watching WC 2006. Amir was delivered after the second semi final match. My favourite player was Zizou of course and I felt like kicking that Italian player for making him sent off. My favourite coach was of course Klinsman. I liked this man since he was a player...hehehe

Anyway, I'm lucky because this year, I'm still on leave! Yeay!

After all these years...

Hmmm... after all these years, my kids finally slept in their own rooms! Finally!

Apart from watching mind-boggling football during my sojourn from blogging, I was busy painting and decorating the two rooms upstairs. Ayang's old room was painted pink for Aliah, of course. And Mamud's room was painted blue for the boys. Mamud is in the process of painting his own room downstairs and his choice is green. So, my house is officially a 'rainbow' of colours...hehehe.

I was caught quite off-guard this evening actually, when Amir asked whether they're supposed to sleep in their rooms tonight. I immediately grab the opportunity and said yes! Aliah was at first not very keen to sleep on her own but after painting her room pink and added whatever decorations that she desired, she was very happy with her room. Actually, I just bought very cheap wall stickers at the night market...hehehe

Of the two boys, Amir was the one excited. Since the room was small, I put in a single bed with another bed which could be pulled out when needed. Their room was decorated with two tones of blue at two sides to signify the ocean while the other half was painted blue and cream to signify earth. We put up stickers of fishes at the 'seaside' and giraffes at the 'earthside'...hehehe. I think, I really need to put up pictures here. Anyway, Amir was happy because we put on stickers of Ben10 too.

Hadi was of a different opinion, though. He didn't want to stay in that room. He was very reluctant to sleep there tonight, but I was firm. Actually I was quite 'sorry' to see them out of my room, but I thought that once I relent, they won't take me seriously ever again...sigh.

Can you imagine, they've been in my room all their lives...sigh. I'm missing them already. I think I'm experiencing a small scale 'empty-nest' sindrom...muahahaha. So, bye for now, I want to enjoy having a room to myself all over again! Au revoir!