YUNA: CHAPTERS - album review

Album review: If you love the original sound and music of yuna, you wouldn't probably enjoy this particular album. It sounds very "Usher-ly" R&B. All songs sounds almost the same with similar base beats. I wish Yuna will go back to its root and produce better songs. Nevertheless, some songs are nice, especially the single Crush, it sounds better in this CD than the one you listen on radio. 

The Birth story

Afi Daniel is 11 months and 1 day old, and I'm here to tell a story of how he came out of me (I like to procastinate like that :P )

Everything that happen on that day is still fresh in my memory (and yet people already asking me to produce the next child.. gosh..let me get over the pain that was nearly unbearable first :D )

I was pregnant with Afi Daniel for 35 weeks and based on normal calculation I still have time to lepak for a few good weeks... but no, he decided to come out and see the world earlier, you impatient lil boy. -__-' I was supposed and have already plan to give birth in Hosp Selayang but well I guess Allah has His own plan. Afi wanted to become a Kedahan like his mom!

(Wed 30th Jul)
It was Raya week and we were in SP. On the 4th raya, we decided to go out and watch a movie, I still remember that I wanted to watch Guardians of Galaxy so much but the only available showtime was midnight, and we decided to watch other movie and was thinking to watch that movie later. After we came back from the movie, while I was performing Isya prayer when suddenly I feel some warm liquid were flowing out from "you know where". But it was not a heavy flow and I didn't feel any kinda pain at all. I told hubs and he asked me if we should go to the hospital and I said chill dulu la, esok baru pi. The whole night the liquid came out and made me wake up a few times to change.

(Thurs 31st July)
So the next morning after Subuh prayer , we headed to the GH. I still act calmly and said to hub that we should go and eat roti canai after the checkup.. but no, I was immediately warded ad been scolded by the nurse saying that I should've go earlier to the hospital because it could be dangerous to the baby. How could I know , Dr Google said it was OK. (So here you go, NEVER trust Dr Google ever again! He is not certified ok guys)

Then came a young male doctor to check the opening and it was quite a painful procedure and I hate it every single time they do this to me until the labor. Feel like kicking em in the face #seriously. So the 1st time the doctor checked, it was only open for 1 cm but because of the 'leaking' issue, I was stright away warded and was not allowed to go back or out at all. Sobs...I still wanted to go and eat roti canai at Mamak.

I was given a pair of pink hospital shirt and pants to change, it was the 1st experience for me to be a patient and warded in a hospital. I didn't feel any contraction until late evening at around 5pm, I started to feel mild contraction every few mins, I thought to myself this isn't bad at all. I can take this. Hub and mom was there. Hub brought the iPad and turn on the Quran app and he recited the Quran too.

No one was allowed to accompany me at the ward except for mom. But I decided to ask mom to go back as there was no extra bed available for her to lie down and she will be tired resting on the chair the whole night. So I was alone the entire night.

My baby was considered as premature because he was only 35 weeks, and because of that they couldn't induce me to make me go to the labor faster. I had to be given 2 dosages of dexa to make the baby's lung stronger and stable. And each dose is given between 12 hours diff. The 1st dose was 12pm Thurs and I needed to wait until 12am Fri for the next dose. The injection was another excruciating phase of the whole thing, it was kinda inserting a very big object that will go thru your blood veins and it lasted for 10 good mins. To make it worse, when they were supposed to give me the 2nd dose, the doctor accidentally induce me, and luckily at that time , the induce med or whatever thing they call it hasn't work yet and the stupid doc take it out immediately from me. So I had to go through unnecessary pain for 2 times! The doctor came and apologize to me many times while I was still bearing the pain. Oh well, this is what happen in GH with young fresh grad docs I guess!

(Fri 1st Aug)
The contraction pain started to build up and by midnight it was starting to be so effing painful, I swear that it is the most painful thing I've ever felt my entire life so far. I was crying  sobbing and due to the unbearable pain, I started to bite the pillow while crying when the contraction started to fire. And the contraction happen for the whole night until my labor which only happen 12 hours later. So can you imagine the pain that I went thru for 12 straight hours! I even asked them to cut me open as it was almost undescribably painful. Hub was at the parking the whole night reciting Quran and also called to check on me, he came once to visit me once and said to the pakguard that he wanted to pass me some thing, and they allowed him to, except he couldn't stay so long. :'(

Because I was warded at class 3 so there were a lot of nurses walking around the area and I called them many times to check on the opening as I couldn't go through the tormenting condition anymore. It was Subuh when they finally decided to push me to the labor room. The opening was only 3cm. They asked me to take a bath and eat some bread. I asked for a husband-friendly labor room so my husband could join me and witness the painful episode. We got the room but suddenly the nurses came and tell me that my husband couldn't be in the room because my baby was premature and there will be a lot of specialist. (dalam hati dok !$@##@#%!!!!) Ok so this is what happen in the GH once again ladies and gentlemen. You can't get what you want. Everything MUST follow rule and sometimes the rule is just being created by the personnel who work at that particular time.

Contraction was still happening and still torturing as hell. I asked for epidural and they said the person who can give that is on Raya leave. For god sake, they don't even have anyone to replace him. Again , GH. So OK, the only thing that was available was the gas and I think I inhale the gas more than I should because I felt giddy until the next morning.

A lot of young doctors came to check on me and there were a few times a rombongan of maybe interns came to check out on my hoohoo like a freaking free show. I couldnt say anything, it is GH and this is what they do. And then came an Indian lady doctor to check on the opening but I can tell you if I have the energy at that time, I would just go and stab her on the chest repeatedly. She seluk that downpart and was digging like crazy as if she was trying to find something in there. She didn't even care that I told her it was damn painful and she continue to do that, for 2 times. Only thing I can do is to pray that she will be involved in a car crash or something , but seriously tho I think she never had a labor experience before and because of that she can't imagine the pain that I HAD TO GO THROUGH. When my husband came in to give me kurma and air zam2, I immediately told him to tell them not to allow that doctor to come and check on me again.

There were only 2 nurses that came to check on me and like I told you they just made up the rule for not allowing my husband to be around the labor room ;'( At around noon, the opening was only 6cm and nurses thought that it will take a few more hours and they left me alone in the room. Few mins after they left, at about 12pm, I started to feel that my baby's head was about to come out and I couldn't hold it anymore, it's not like you can kemut when you want to pee. This is different. hehe..

I thought, finally this is the moment. Baby, please come out of mommy now. I shouted for nurses and when they came in they told me it's time to push. I didn't have any knowledge nor experience and just do it they way I think I should do. I didn't go to any class or watch any youtube video coz I was thinking that I still got 4-5 wks to go :D But Alhamdulillah I was doing the right way and after a few hard push, Afi Daniel finally arrived. :) He was only a small baby weighing at 2.39kg, but it was an OK weight for a premature boy. I was still giddy and when they showed him to me I was a bit blur and coudn't properly see him. They had to immediately brought him to the child specialist ward because his sugar level was low and had to be warded for a week in incubator. It was a hard time for me and hub to see him there but Afi Daniel is surely a strong fighter.

Fresh from the "oven". Afi Daniel at 0 day 30mins :-) 

9mo Afi & Me

10mo Afi & Papa

Mama and papa will always pray the best for you here and in hereafter. Amin

Brain Beauty Belief: DP DAILY HIJABSTYLE

I always did the 1st and 2nd step.. gonna proceed with 3rd and 4th next :D



Brain Beauty Belief: DP DAILY HIJABSTYLE: My daily hijab style :) Headscarf : DP by Dian Thaisilk headscarf Top and Headscarf from our PopBatik collections

Cuti2 Malaysia - Penang

My morning view from flight, Subhanallah

I have never been to Penang.....as a tourist.. being a half Penangites (mom comes from Georgetown, Penang) I always drive around Penang to visit relatives and I never really bothered to visit attraction spots there, until recently.

It was a last min plan, hubs had ot go to Sarawak for a show. At 1st me and Nurul wanted to plan going out of Msia but the tickets were all expensive. I decided to just go to Penang , as a tourist :)

So I bought AA ticket from KL-Png and Malindo from Png-KL. Took the 1st flight at 650am from LCCT, reason being is the ticket was the cheapest :D Luckily hubs flight to Sarawak was at 8, so we went to LCCT together.

I arrived Penang at about 7-ish. Syima and Rizal was already there to fetch me. Syima took the day off just to bring me jalan2 :D So sweet of her. We went straight to China House cafe to send Rizal to his workplace. Then Syima brought me to Nasi Kandar Kg Melayu which I've been longing for since quite sometimes.

Nasi kandaq kg melayu

Stomach cravings fulfilled. We both headed back to Rizal's cool cafe , China House. I explored the whole cool building that I never realized it ever existed before. Well, since I'm now living in KL, I barely know all those new and happening stuff happening in Penang. Sigh.

there's a bear in my coffee :)

Me feeling artsy and all. I had Milo cake

While waiting for Rizal to finish his shift, me and Syima walked around the cafe area to take pictures of the famous street arts that are currently hyped in instagram. I've seen then apparently but as I said, I never bothered to stop and take pictures with them, even som eof the arts are really pretty close to my late granny's house at Lebuh Acheh. Just few metres away :)

Art piece just outside of China house

Inside China House compound

China House

Art piece just outside of China house

Art piece just outside of China house. This is Skippy - China House owner's cat :) 

Once Rizal shift was over they brought me to Padang Kota Lama to eat mee sotong power. I've had that before but it was a long time ago. Remember my mom always brought me there when we lived in Penang several (20yrs) back and the stall was already there at that time. It certainly bring back those memories...

Mee Sotong Padang Kota Lama

Then we headed back to town area and did a cafe hunt. There are a lot of cool cafes in Penang, and most of them just recently opened and operated. Some of them that i remembered going was Moustache Cafe and Mugshot. I certainly love the bagel at Mugshot, I bet it tastes good because it was prepared in a traditional way. Let the picture speaks...

Yummy Bagel and Coffee

Me and dearest Syima

Mugshot Cafe

Moustache Cafe

Moustache Cafe

 

Moustache Cafe

After whole day pampering (more to torturing) my stomach, finally Nurul came and fetched me and we reached her house at Butterworth abt midnight.

Next early morning, we went to eat roti canai at Argyll street. I'm not sure tho why it is so famous as I think the taste is not so much different from the rest of the mamak's.

Roti canai and its gooey gulai(curry)

Not having any plan, we walk by the nearby streets and bought myself some scarf and Indan cotton shirt for Azmal and some kaftans for mom. Then we headed to Georgetown to continue on street art searching and photo-snapping.

This street art s just few metres away from my grandma's house in Lebuh Acheh.

We wanted to make a visit to some historical place and decided to go to Cheong Fatt Tze's mansion that is so visible from the road with its beautiful vibrant blue colored painted walls. We missed the mornign show so we had to wait for about an hour for the next show. We saw some pakcik beca and decided to take a ride to somewhere else while waiting for the next showtime.

Pakcik lancha (we call beca as lancha in utara) brought us to Penang traditional chinese house (I forgot the real name) but the entrace fee is RM20 so we decided not to go in. We are cheapskates people haha. Then he brought us to Chocolate museum and then go through little india before headed back to the mansion.

Beca ride was fun!

Chocolate Museum

After that, Nurul brought me to Chowrasta to buy some jeruk and eat (again) :)

Cendol "Ais Tingkap"

The best cucoq udang in town

Then, we went to visit Syima at her place. She worked at Macalister Mansion. It's kinda luxurious hotel which I can't afford to stay , but no doubt it's a beautiful place. 

Macalister Mansion

Then we had dinner at nasik tomato which I can't remember the place name. It was delicious. After having the dinner, me and Nurul went back to Nurul's house.

Nasik tomato sebelah IPD

Early morning Nurul asked me if I wanted to have breakfast outside. Without taking bath, we headed out to a very old kopitiam called Luan Fong Kopitiam nearby Bee Chew in Butterworth. I had roti bakar (the best one I had in my life, I even ordered 3 sets) Nurul had beef kueteow. *Meleleh ayaq liuq sambil dok type ni

The best Roti bakar in the whole wide world

Below is me, haing to do 1 last activity before I went back to KL on that night, which is swimming at Nurul's condo.

My flight was around 9pm, we pushed off a bit early as Nurul wanted to bring me to eat mee udang. Actually the famous stall would be Salwa but Nurul said Ayu's is better, so we had 1 big bowl of mee udang each.

Mee Udang Ayu

My 2 best buddies - Nurul and Syima sending me off at Penang Airport...sobs sobs.. 

Cuti2 Malaysia - Melaka

Melaka is such a beautiful city I haven't been explored much until recently with my hubs.

It was a last minute plan. Hubs has always been singin "Jom la gi Melaka" all this while, so finally we got the chance to be there.

Actually we went to Johor coz dearest hub had a show on Sat. So we planned to stop by Melaka on the way back to KL , and put a night there. On Sunday morning we headed to Melaka and arrived there just in time for check in.

At about 3ish we went out the hotel to check out the historic Melaka city. We decided to go by foot. Luckily our hotel is situated nearby the tourist attractions and spots such as the Melaka river, Jonker Walk, Hard Rock etc. 

1st we headed to Jonker Walk but only the shops were open, but not the stalls (yet). We got to know from the people there that the stalls start to open at night. But anyhow I managed to grab a few stuffs :-)

Then not knowing where to go, we just follow our foot and found some cool cafes and artsy shops. The best thing is that most of the shops are at the old preserved + restored buildings. Below is 1 of the shops that we stopped by to get our lunch. Look how cool is the ambience. 

At the 13 state coffee sshop.

Random buildings, shops , houses

Then we stopped by Hard Rock cafe.

Then while searching for the famous red-building called Stadthuys we bumped into this cool yellow wall and decided to take some cool pictures, coz we're cool people. 

Stadthuys was under construction and it was closed. SIGH. Next time maybe.

Then we bumped into a London double decker bus. (Don't ask me, I'm not sure how it got in Melaka, maybe the driver was lost and ended up driving to Melaka). So we climbed up the bus of course to the top floor and feeling2 mcm naik bas kt London. It was drizzling so it was a bit cold that day. Mmg rs  la mcm kt London masa musim autumn, hehee..

And then we continue walking and found this lil coffee shop by the river called Halia Inc. The interior design was awesome. See it for yourself.

We were pretty tired with all the walking, so we walked back to our hotel but managed to stop by Jonker Walk 1 more time to see the stalls. :) and also Gee's the famous handmade-clog artist. He was a super duper friendly and nice guy and he immediately became hubby's idol :) 

At Gee's shop

Next Morning after breakfast and checkout, we did an "assam pedas" hunt. We asked some locals, and most of them answered "Kedai Tiga Lima". We managed to find the restaurant and had our lunch there. Hub said my asam pedas tastes better. Haha...tktau la ambik hati or seikhlas hati.

After that, we wanted to stop by at Hang Li Po's Well. We followed Waze instruction but all we found is just Chinese cemetery. Sigh. When I came back and ask my Malaccan friend, he told me that I was already there but did not look at the correct direction. Lain kali la kami p tengok hang punya perigi no hang li po....

Before headed back to KL, we also managed to stop by at Hang Tuah's tomb.

Basically we had fun and definitely wanna go there again. 

Who said we need to go outside of Malaysia for a holiday? Malaysia is such a beautiful country and we should be proud of it! I myself have not explored most of it yet... should probably plan for it soon....

Summary of my holiday cum work trip

I love to write in here so that I will not forget what I did on my trip. I'm not good at remembering stuff.. Say it's an AGE factor? Nahhh probably too much stuff in my head :D #bigdenial.

Anyway I would like to summarize what I did on my recent working cum jalan2caripasal trip to  the other side of the globe, the furthest I've been so far in my life - United States of Amarikkkaa.. and transit in Dubai.

Of couse the summary only includes fun stuff which does not include work..haha..

Week 1:
1st experience of left-handside driving and Mazda 3!
Went to IMAX theatre to watch Oz -It was Ohzem (awesome)
Went to Outlet Store in Allen. Went a biz crazee.
Weekend :- Dallas Art Gallery & Museum (not a recommended place..haha)

Week 2:
Went to Outlet Store
Weekend :- Dallas Arboretum, Grapevine Mills Outlet

Week3:
Went to Outlet Store
Weekend :- Drove to San Antonio (~5 hours from Dallas). Stop by at Roundrock Outlet (supposed to stop at San Marco tho!), Went to San Antonio Seaworld. Able to meet up with Shamu the killer whale, super-cute dolphins, sealions, many more.

Week4:
Final week in Dallas, got lotsa lunch invitations. Some free some are not. haha.
Sat fly to San Francisco

Week5:
Arrive San Francisco, fetched by my friend Sheilla and her family. They brought us to Stanford Uni, Silicon Valley where we were able to go to Facebook, Google HQ! So mind-blowing!
We pushed off back to their home at San Jose.

Next morning they brought us to SF again. We went to Pier39, TwinPeaks, GoldenGate, ArtGallery. This was the best experience in US so far I guess (besides the outlet..haha)

The next day we just hang around in San Jose, Sheilla brought us to a outlet store closeby.

Next day, we drove to Los Angeles, but we stopped by another outlet which is on the way to LA. It was a pretty big store.

We have prebooked our hotel via Agoda at the Mayfair Historical. We arrived LA at almost midnight.
The next morning, we went to Universal Studios Hollywood. It was super fun, we get to meet up with Mr Optimus Prime, bumblebee and Megatron too :)

The next day, we went to Hollywood again since we have purchased the Citypass to go to the most famous spots in LA. We managed to cover only these 3.

• Starline Tours of Hollywood: 6925 Hollywood Blvd.; Starline box office at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
We got to see celebtrities home and the iconic signs of Beverly Hills and the most famour "Los Angeles" sign on hill.

• Madame Tussauds Hollywood: 6933 Hollywood Blvd.; main box office
We get to take pics with  Hollywood celebs! (wax version tho)

• Dolby Guided Tour: 6801 Hollywood Blvd.; box office (located on level one)
It was the last session so we both get a private tour as no one else were there to join us.
We got to get inside the Academy Awards hall. It was osem.

Supposed to do another one which is :
• Hollywood Behind-the-Scenes Tour: 6708 Hollywood Blvd.; Red Line Tours Center adjacent to the Egyptian Theatre

....but we didn't have enough time. 

Of course we were able to walk on the Walk Of Fame too! :)

Our flight to Dubai was on the next day. We checked out around noon and straight to Staples Centre & Nokia theatre, actually it was pretty close to the hotel. 

There were a lot of people at LAX.

With the strict custom check and some idiots that cut the queue at the ticket counters, we were the last 2 person to board the plane to Dubai! 

We reached Dubai at night and straight away check in our bags foran the next day flight, yes Emirates do that. Thats the only good thing I find about this airline. Other tha that, it was quite a horrible flight experience by Emirates.

After checked in our bags, we bought the train ticket to go to our prebooked hotel.

It was about 20 mins from airport. 

Once we reached it was quite hard to find the hotel as it is not by the roadside, we had to go a few rounds and ask people around to find it. 

The next morning we checked out and went to the most happening place in Dubai - Dubai Mall where 1 of the tallest tower is located at too. - Burj Khalija. 

We didn't went up the tower tho, it was quite expensive and I find nothing interesting to look at around dubai from the top :P  I find Dubai a boring place to be at. It was dusty and hot. And the people are not friendly AT ALL.

We didn't buy anything except some fridge magnets and Starbucks coffee and our lunch (KFC) which was not delicious.

We went out from mall at around 5 pm and back to the hotel to pick our bags, then we went to airport to catch our flight back to Malaysia. I was so ready to go back to my home country at that time!

We reached Malaysia on Monday morning, and my cousin and husband was already waiting fr me since 8ish. :) 

I will put up the photos here soon..... 

Bihun goreng

Utk 3-4 org

Bhn A - menumis

--------------

Cili blend 1.5 sudu besar

Bwg merah 1.5 biji

Bwg putih 2 ulas

Bihun stgh bungkus

Isi ayam

Udang

Carrot -1/4 btg

Sawi 

Cili hidup 1 

Sos tomato - 3 sudu besar

Kicap manis dan masin - 1 sudu kecil

Gula - secubit rass

Garam -1 sudu kecil

Cara

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1. Tumis bahan2 A sm p naik bau 

2. Masukkan  sos tomato , kicap masin dan manis, gula dan garam secukup rs 

3. Masukkan isi ayam & udang

4. Masukkan cili hidup

5. Masukkan batang sawi & carrot

6. Masukkan bihun dan kacau rata

7. Masukkan sawi