Christmas and Snow

Christmas brought back the memory of our trip to Chamonix, France end of last year. I was out-stationed in Lyon for 1 month plus and took the opportunity during weekend to jalan2. That was the first time I experienced snow. Well, Lyon ada la snow but it was nothing much ie the flakes were too tiny and turned to water when it landed on any surface. But Chamonix? And it was a lotttt of snow.

Macam tak real je snow kat roof tu...but it was real.

Husband and I was giddy, on the way, all the way, macam budak2. Frankly, we did not expect snow. We were planning to take the cable car to any of the peaks to catch a view of snow capped Mont Blanc. Rezeki murah, the night before our daytrip, it snowed heavily in Chamonix weeeheehehe.
Being ill-prepared, I did not bring any gloves. Had to buy them in one of the shops. The glove in the photo above, I noticed lateeeerrr that it was pig skin. Pakai je dulu, buang later, samak dengan sabun taharah. Shoes? I worn my Brooks Pure Connect yg berlubang2 tu. Woooo...pedih jari2 kaki. Sejukkk.

Hayaa dok sibuk nak ke negara yang ada winter and snow. We explained to her that we need to save a lot of money first for accommodation, flight tickets etc. We never showed her the Chamonix photo hahahaha..nanti lagi kecoh dia dok menanye.

Enjoying the view at Lognan ski area

Favourite Pacer

Not the running type of pacer. The writing type. Papermate Pacer which I used when I was in primary school. Punyalah suka pensil picit ni. Tiap2 kali hilang je, jenuh kumpul duit belanja and beli lagi. My mom gave me the first one. I think I've bought them like 2-3 times? 4? Tak pandai jaga barang eheheh.

Few days ago I walked past Faber Castell booth in KLCC and a mechanical pencil caught my interest, hence the sudden trip down to memory lane about the Pacer mechanical pencil.
Kalau terjumpa this pencil for sale online, I plan to pick it up. Nostalgia la pulak.

Road tax mati..dah dua bulan..eeep!

I normally do the renewing of our cars' road tax, since hubby is in charge of servicing, car washing etc. Tak perasan lah pulak road tax dah mati which happened few days after I delivered Umar. Sendiri tak perasan, hubby pun tak perasan. Went to Pos Malaysia in bandar salak tinggi, the closest one to mum's house (still in balik kampung duration).

Nak dijadikan cerita...the already dead roadtax was only for 6 month (May-Oct13) sebab hubby konon nya nak jual kereta tu, tapi tak terjual2 pun sampai sekarang. 1 year car insurance policy (May13-Apr14) sebab tak boleh la pulak nak ambik 6mth policy. Oleh kerana sekarang sudah Dec and Apr14 insurance expires, I cannot renew the road for 6 month (Dec13-May14) unless I 'top-up' the policy until May14. Haaaa...ini lah downside nye kalau buat road tax tiap2 6bln tapi tak tekun.

Hangin la jugak bila keluar dari pejabat pos tu (penat menunggu weiii) nak mencari insurance agen. Pos Malaysia tak boleh topup2 policy nih. Nasib baik laaaa ada cawangan insuran tu ada satu dekat la jugak. Otai punya cawangan ni...hehe..terhilang sekejap hangin sebab dah lama kut tak jumpa kedai macam ni... :)

Longgok je, tak payah file..eeep! Ambik gambar sorok2 ni

Pakcik the owner

While I was there, waiting for the policy to be topped-up by the chap in the first photo, ada laaa 2-3 kali pakcik tu jawab telefon. Clients following up. Each time after he hanged up, he would sift through the pile here and there, and sighed heavily. Aku pun saspen nengok nye weiii...jumpa ke idak apa yang dicari. 5S pakcik..5S.

Re-learning Arabic

I learnt Arabic before. When I was in Form 1-3, Arabic was one of mata pelajaran wajib (sekolah agama kan..). I changed school for F4-5 and took science stream so Arabic was not compulsory anymore. Now how I wished I have kept on studying Arabic.

My interest to relearn Arabic surfaced for the past few years. I am also seeing people close to me learning Arabic on their own - my brother and sister in law, a colleague, even my husband has expressed the same wish. I am truly humbled by their passion coz it is not easy learning/ memorizing something new when you are already in 30s-50s.

Hubby suggested buying the Rosetta Stone Arabic Language software. While checking the website, I found a forum which suggested Arabicpod.net ie learning through podcast. Rosetta Stone is very pricey (USD179 for Level 1) while Arabicpod.net offered free lessons for beginners and USD 198 for full access until Advance level. So I'm dropping the stone and getting into the pod.

Tgh maternity leave ni, I might start the ball rolling. A colleague of mine is subscribing an online Arabic class which I find quite tedious (assignment, tutorial etc). Apa2 pun, both of us ie encouraging each other. Syok sikit :) Harap2 ni bukan hangat2 tahi ayam nye initiative.

Medical checkup and other agendas

Went to hospital today for a follow up. My pantang will be over soon OH YEAAHH! I fidgeted while waiting for my turn at the clinic, coz I did not bring the baby along and wished to be home as soon as possible for next feeding. Did not have to wait long and when the check was over (everything is A-okay), I rushed to the parking lot.
Saw a banner in the lounge area on Diabetes Walk and baru teringat about Terry Fox Run shirt which can be purchased at CARIF. Nasib baik tak masuk kereta and keluar parking lagi. Bought the t-shirts for both me and hubby. Mission accomplished!

There was another mission, to buy 1901 hotdog. Today is 19th so macam biasa ada cheap sale RM2.99 for small one and RM3.99 for large one. Not that I crave 1901 that much, it's just that I never had the chance to buy it cheap elsewhere coz the queue would be soooo long. Kat spital nye 1901, lengang je la. Angkat satu!
By the time I got home, I asked bibik about the baby. The baby was still asleep since I left for the hospital. Hah! Syukur alhamdulillah. If all went well, today will be genap seminggu berjaya BF baby 100%.

Hubby's Penang Bridge Run

I started running first. Then managed to get husband to join. So we've been running in events together. The events that he ran alone, usually because I was out-stationed last minute. That happened during PBIM12. We were supposed to run the 10K together. This year, I was on maternity la pulakkk.
For PBIM2013 we registered for 21K...hah amek kao. He's driving to Penang this evening with another friend, also running HM. Another 2 friends will rendezvous tomorrow at the event.
Worrying thing is, hubby running activities also dwindled down the drain when I'm on maternity. Ishh...tak sustainable langsung. His last event was 10K in PBSN Nite Marathon and he did a 7K last weekend. Itu ajeee? Apakahhh..
Good luck to you abang. Kalau rase mcm tak larat in the midst of run, surrender je lah heh? DNF tak pe lagi. Jangan la dah sampai Penang, DNS la pulakk. Lagi kelakar.

Post Race notes :

He did it ehehehe. He ran like 11-12KM then brisk walked all the way. Patutnya tak dapat medal lah sebab qualifying hours is 3.5 tapi agaknya byk medal lebih, officer bagi je la kott. On Sunday itself, live tracking system did not even register his total run but only indicated estimated finish time. Time-out I guessed. However, Monday showed that the system got corrected and hubby's timing was registered properly this time.

Hardcore runners may laugh or even ridicule the time, but who cares? My body, my kaki, my time eh? Hubby was happy enough, siap bawak medal to his office for bragging. He sustained no serious injury except swollen left ankle. First time jadi ni. An evidence, if he were to run HM or longer, need to loose weight or strengthen the ankle. The ankle was an old injury. He broke it while playing football like 10 years ago. For 1 year or so he had a metal with a couple of screws in his ankle bone (a nuisance everytime walking through metal detector in airports).

Baby meet Terry?

A colleague of mine queried whether I will be joining the run or not. Both of us kebetulan tengah on maternity leave but definitely the pantang will be over by then. She'll be joining, pi hangkut sumer anak, suami and baby baru.
Last year, my hubby ran alone. I was out-stationed last minute, hangin la jugak sebab tak dapat join. So this time, I am...contemplating..hmm... to jalan2. I will angkut my baby jugak lah kan, tu je yang buat pikir 2-3 kali nak join ke idak.
T-shirt is sold in several places. Lo and behold, CARIF SDMC being one of them. And I am going there early next week for my follow-up medical checkup. Macam kebetulan ke aper.

21 Dec

Just to note that we did not go for this. Balik kampunnnggg. Anyways, dapat la menyumbang by buying the shirt.