500th and 8th

I can't believe it, but this is my 500th post on this blog. But for 10 years old blog, that is not that much. It's around 50 posts per year or 4.2 posts per month or 1 post per week. That's not bad.

Anyway, for this 500th post, I want to write something special which is my 8th wedding anniversary. I always confused the date of our anniversary. For some reason, I always think it's on 18th January and this year I made that blunder again. At 18th January, I blurted to Zainal that we forgot our anniversary. Zainal looked at me annoyingly and told me that tomorrow is our anniversary. With confidence, I insisted it was on 18th. Finally, he took out our kad kahwin and showed me the real date. Ahhh.. It's on 19th. Come on brain, please remember this important event.

This year we were in San Francisco. Not purely vacation but more to Zainal's networking trip. While he was busy meeting companies in the Bay Area, I was busy exploring SF by myself. Since we were at the SF, we took this opportunity to have the anniversary dinner there. I chose Pacific West. The restaurant was full when we got there, and because Zainal was super hungry, we chose to seat outside as no one wants to sit there. We jokingly said that since we are from Boston where winter temperature is at -2 degree Celsius when we left on Saturday, San Francisco 12 degree Celsius is just a spring time for us. Even the waiter told us to take our time as nobody wants our table. Haha.

It was a fun night. The food was awesome, and it was Asian Fusion. Forgot to take any pictures of the food. The good thing about sitting outside that it was quieter and we able to have a proper conversation without having to shout compare to sitting inside which was packed and noisy. I love having dinner date where we able to talk properly.

I have a wonderful eight years with my husband. I pray that Allah unites us in goodness and grant us Jannah where we continue our marriage there. Amiin

The 7th year

7 years ago at this date, my status changed from single to married. I'm no longer under my dad's protection and his responsibility shifted to another man that promised to take care of me forever. Alhamdulillah I never regret that decision.

It has been a wonderful journey for me as a woman adapting myself to this title. We have been moving so many places and created so many adventures. There is no one that I want to share these adventures except with him. We will create more adventures in the future, InsyaAllah and I can't wait to live it.

To the man I married, to the 7th, 17th, 70th and 700th (in the Jannah InsyaAllah) of us.

6 years and beyond

Just because I skipped the month January from updating this dear blog of mine, I missed one important date to be cherished in this unknown blog. My wedding anniversary. Yup, the 6th year of our marriage.

Wow, how time flies when you are in love. Before we know it, we are celebrating our 10th, 20th, 30th and so on anniversary. Allah has given me a wonderful husband. A husband who always make me happy and InsyaAllah will leads me to jannah. Alhamdulillah.

Thank you Mr Hubby for being the best husband to me. Who cooked our dinner when I arrived home late from office. Who make sure I take care of my health. Who was so panicked when I fell from the staircase and immediately slip-proof our staircase. Who picked and send me to airport without fail the whole 10 months last year. Who always supportive of my career and dream. Who everyday share informative and funny articles with me. The most importantly, who always be by my side in all situation. 

May Allah bless our marriage my dear husband and love you bunch...

Worry

Knowing your husband is sick and you are 1000 kilometres away is the worst feeling ever. I didn't get any updates from him since afternoon and now I'm worry sick about him.

Has he eaten anything?
Has he taken any medicine?
Does he need anything?

This is killing me!

3 more weeks and I'll be by his side everyday.. Can't wait!

When a man loves a woman

Since Hallyu Wave has spread across the world, Korean dramas are shown in all tv channels and Astro even has 2 dedicated channels for the K-Drama fans. Honestly, without embarrassed, I admit that I'm one of them. Their drama is so addictive and bring you out of your current mundane daily life to another world. Me being me, I'm only watching those romantic, funny and melt-your-heart kind of drama with handsome and pretty actors and actresses. I avoid those serious and thriller type of drama. If I want to distract myself from my daily life, might as well goes to the extreme happiness rather than making you depress right.

From the drama that I watched, I noticed that their romantic-ness are somehow over the top and obviously not realistic in real world. In real world, men will not do things like that. Sometimes I'm scared that some naive ladies out there who dream of having a man that will do what the actor did in the drama. I once read in forum that a guy wrote that he was sad that his girlfriend wanted to break with him coz he was not romantic. And the worst part, the girlfriend actually used K-drama as a benchmark of romantic-ness. Haih.. we need to differentiate what is entertainment and what is reality.

In reality, this is what a man will do to show that he loves his woman (based on personal experience):

1. Accept that she doesn't know how to cook and patiently teach and help her with cooking
2. Ate whatever she cooked even it taste really sucks
3. Charge her iPad/phone at night so that she can use her iPad the next day with full battery
4. Switched on the light when he went out for his night shift so that she will not come back into dark home
5. Support her to follow her dreams
6. Be her shoulder to cry on when her dreams face challenges and motivate her to not give up
7. Pick up and send her to airport every week
8. Bought network wire when she complain the hotel wire not long enough
9. Spoon feed her when she sick
10. Wait patiently for weekend to watch the new episode of tv series so that they can watch together
11. Skip futsal so that he can spend the all night with her before she moved
12. Quietly buy breakfast for her before she wake up
13. Remember what she likes and dislikes
14. Hate people who make her sad
15. Help her with the house chores
16. Make sure her car is in tip top condition
17. Kiss her before he leaves for work everyday
18. Provide 24/7 computer technical support
19. Never fail to call her everyday 
20. Become her biggest fan and biggest critic
21. Concern about her safety
22. Don't let her carry heavy stuff
23. Hold her hand when walking
24. Always on her side even the world is against her
25. Remember her favourite songs
26. Frantically search for her when she is not by his side in underwater
27. Make sure she always gets the best
28. Guide her when she's lost
29. Accept her during PMS
30. Cuddle her tightly every night
31. Keep a portion of his favourite food for her so that she can taste it
32. Buy her supplement so she will be healthy
33. Encourage her to be healthy
34. Respect her belief and principles, never force her into anything
35. Love her unconditionally

The list can go on and on and on. Actually the list is based on my husband. I'm so lucky to have him as a husband. He never lavish me flowers, jewellery, poems, poetic words, but his love is clearly seen in his action and decision for me. That's usually not capture in drama. So be wise and appreciate your husband.

Oh, lately I always see posts shared in FB about a good husband needs to do this, this and this. It is always about husband not being good enough and I will judge you if you share that. I will assume that your husband is not doing what you shared no matter how much you try to comment back saying "oh, my husband is the best, he's doing this bla bla" coz if your husband is ok, why you need to share and tagged his name at the first place? If I'm the husband, I will be pissed - why ask him to do things publicly on things that he already doing which giving an indication to public that he's not doing it?

I miss my husband T_T. Can't wait for Thursday!

The anniversary dinner

For us, celebrating our anniversary is something that we always look forward to. We tried to plan a holiday somewhere around it and if time (or money) not permitted, we will have a nice dining plan out. For this year, holiday was not planned as I will be moving soon, so we decided to have a good dinner to celebrate our fifth anniversary.

I told my husband to surprise me. He ruled out any buffet as I'm on my PB diet and finally he told me that we are going to Tanzini in G Tower. Honestly that was my first time hearing that restaurant and after looking at the online review, I was excited to go.

Tanzini is situated at the 28th floor of the G Tower and has 2 floors. The Upper Deck is serving the set course meal only and the lower one is the ala carte menu. Husband chose the upper deck as it is more private and have better view. 

The set menu consist of 4, 5 or 6 courses that you can choose. We chose the 5 course meals and beef and lamb as our main course. Then I ordered their specialty drink, Tanzini T - black tea, strawberry (with real strawberry floating), mint and pomegranate syrup. I really looovveee it. Husband ordered apple juice with lemon glass and it's just ok.

The first course was smoked salmon. It was delicious. In fact it was one of the best course that night. Then the waiter served our starter, mine was dried scallops with something something and Zainal was duck with something something. Well, it was ok. Next was the baby kailan soup with crispy chicken. He poured the soup in front of us to ensure that the crispy chicken didn't not turn soggy swimming in the soup. Between the soup and main course, the waiter served us watermelon sorbet to rinse our taste palate before the main. I don't like sorbet, so I didn't enjoy it. Then our main was served. I chose lamb while Zainal chose beef tenderloin. My lamb was so tender with some grill taste outside. It was so yummy. Compared to husband beef tenderloin which I think is just average, the lamb is better. Lastly was the dessert. The huge disappointment. It was a scope of ice cream on top of chocolate cookies and reddish. The ice cream and cookies was ok, but the reddish, omg, seriously just spoiled my whole experience of the food that night. Maybe I don't like reddish but man, that's not dessert!

For left top: My delicious drink Tanzini T, smoked salmon, the starters, sorbet, Zainal's beef tenderloin, dessert and my lamb. In the middle is the kailan soup.

Despite the limited food choice in the upper deck session, I love the restaurant. The ambiance was so romantic, with high ceiling glass ceiling where you can see KLCC in front of you. The couch as the seat where we can cuddle (if only the waiter stopped coming checking on us) and the hanging round lights in the middle of the room made the whole place very cozy. You can also hang out at the balcony before you leave enjoying the soft breeze of KL night skyline. There were 2 couples including us only for that night and made us felt like we own that place. 

The ambiance

The service was excellent. The waiter was very attentive, checking on us so many times, explaining what is the dish that have just served and took time to take a lot of our pictures. The best part was when we ordered a beef dish, he came back to us and told us that dish was marinated with wine. So he told us to change it and gave us different menu. 

On side note, I always respect and have a high admiration to restaurants that are very sensitive to their customers religion belief and inform them the ingredients. I found out that how I dress, for example like me which is wearing a hijab, always save me in restaurants. Few restaurants that I went, Tanzini, Alexis, Chocolate Bar at Marina Bay Sand in Singapore and few others, has warned me that certain dish in their menu has alcohol as ingredient. The funny part is they informed me but not my husband (in the case of Chocolate Bar). So I always believe if we dress as a Muslim, we will be respected as one too.

Back to the Tanzini, overall the food and the ambiance there was above my expectation. I really enjoy our dinner last night. 

Thank you husband for the great dinner and as my lifelong companion. Happy 5th anniversary and may our love last till Jannah. Love you bunch <3 p="p">

The marriage numbers

19th of January is our 5th year wedding anniversary.

We dated each other for 5.5 years before we got married.

We knew each other for 5 years before we dated.

Therefore, we have known each other for 15.5 years. Which means we have known each other more than half of our life.

:)

10 Years

10 years ago, your friends told you that we are not suitable for each other.

But you ignored them and asked me to be your girlfriend.


10 years ago, my friends advised me that we shouldn't be together.

But I ignored them and accepted your proposal.



Now, 10 years later, I'm glad you asked me and I said yes.




Happy 10th Anniversary Boyfriend!

10 Muharram 1433

Yesterday was 10 Muharram also called Asyura day. Hazrat Ibn Abbas (Radiyallahu 'anh) reports that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam) arrived in Madinah and found the Jews observing fast on the day of ‘Ashura… They said: "It is the day of great (significance) when Allah delivered Hazrat Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) and his people and drowned Pharoah and his people, and Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) observed fast out of gratitude. And we also observe it." The Holy Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam) responded: "We have more right, and we have closer connection with Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) than you have"; so Allah’s Messenger (Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam) observed fast (on the day of ‘Ashura) and gave us orders to observe it. [Sahih Bukhari and Muslim]

‘Ashura is a day of great historical significance. On this day: Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) accepted the repentance of Sayyidina Adam ('Alaihis-Salaam) after his exile from Paradise; Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) saved Sayyidina Nuh ('Alaihis-Salaam) and his companions in the ark; Allah extinguished the fire in which Sayyidina Ibrahim ('Alaihis-Salaam) was thrown by Nimrod; And Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) spoke directly to Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) and gave him the Commandments. On this same 10th of Muharram, Sayyidina Ayyub ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored to health (from leprosy); Sayyidina Yusuf ('Alaihis-Salaam) was reunited with his father Ya’qub ('Alaihis-Salaam); Sayyidina Yunus ('Alaihis-Salaam) was taken out from the belly of the fish; and the sea was divided as the nation of israel was delivered from captivity and Pharoah’s army was destroyed. ‘Ashura is also the day when Sayyidina Dawud ('Alaihis-Salaam) was forgiven; the kingdom of Sulaiman ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored; Sayyidina Isa ('Alaihis-Salaam) was raised to Jannah and Sayyidina al-Husayn (Radiyallahu 'anh) (the Holy Prophet’s, Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam, grandson) achieved the honor of Martyrdom. (from: http://sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/ashura.htm )

Besides these important events in Islamic calendar, there is one event that important happened in my life on this date. It is my wedding anniversary. Every year we celebrate 2 dates, one Hijriah and one Masihi.

When I was choosing a date for our nikah, I was so determined to have it on the 10 Muharram for obvious reason. I didn't care what date is that in Masihi and Alhamdulillah 10 Muharram 1429 fell on Saturday of January the 19th 2008.

I'm praying that our marriage is forever blessed by Allah and lasting in happiness and barakah until the end of our life and continue in heaven, InsyaAllah.

posted from Bloggeroid

Why I love May #4

I'm going to continue counting why I love May again. I mean I have counted to 3 but everybody knows it's all for the same reason- my birthday. But of course, May is just not about my birthday. It also our anniversary, which can be summarize to this equation:

 [Our wedding anniversary 2011]² = Our All-time Anniversary on 7th May 2011

Yes, we are 9 years baby! 

Why I love May #1

This is why I love May...

The background match the bouquet kan. Terima kasih landlord untuk dinding purple. Surprisingly the purple wall looks really good as a background based on experiment by me. Maybe in the future we have a purple wall specially just for family pictures. Hehe..

It's not even my birthday yet, but I got a lovely surprise from my husband.when I came home from work this evening. My colleagues said that the Chinese believe that it's good luck to celebrate your birthday early. So I'm early like 5 hours. Hihi.

Anyway, this is not the only surprise from Mr Hubby, he also cooked dinner tonight. Well, he been cooking dinner for us lately if he's on off day. So it's not a big surprise.

I'm so happy tonight. He kept on asking me when I'm going to eat the Ferrero Rocher. Well, it's not my birthday yet, sayang, so you have to wait. Rupanya ada udang sebalik batu. Hehe...

Thank you so much my beloved husband. I love you always and forever.

Everybody is a princess on her wedding

I am watching the royal wedding of Will and Kate's replay as I am typing this. It such a beautiful wedding. Beautiful bride with simple yet gorgeous dress and the prince, well, there's nothing to say about him. I used to have a huge celebrity crush on him. I bought like every magazine that has his pictures and my good friend, Sue, when she went to UK to do her A-Level, she posted me a life-size William's face postcard to me. She wrote in the postcard, 'the moment I saw this postcard, I immediately remembered you'. Awww... so sweet. I still kept it. I'll take the picture of it and post it here when I come back home one of these days. But why William becoming bald nowadays? Aiyahhh.. sudah tidak hensem la macam ni.

Anyway, when I watched a wedding, I always looking forward to this moment: the moment when a bride meet her groom. No matter in what religion, there is a moment when both bride and groom will meet for the first time in that ceremony. That particular face-to-face moment will show if they are really in love or feeling awkward. You know why? It remained me of my wedding. 

I remembered during my solemnization, when I was walking to my designated place, at that moment I didn't realized my future husband was watching me. Then without a plan, our eyes met and I only saw his love in his eyes. My heart skip a beat and fell in love all over again. At that moment I realized I made the best decision of my life. Then the whole ceremony was fuzzy to me. Until now, I can recall that moment clearly in my mind and never fail to make me smile.

Oh man, I was on romantic mode one whole day. With all the love songs Fly FM has been playing during my journey to and back from work, lovely dinner with my husband and best of all, all day chatting with him using IM (yup, his company is my company's vendor, so we able to chat with each other.. hehe), nothing can spoil my mood right now. Not even a diarrhea. 

Last but not least, congratulations William & Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Prince William told his bride Kate, "You look absolutely beautiful". The special moment that I was talking about.  Source: Here

Ps: Do you notice a large Malaysian flag in the crowd at the background of the interview segment? Who's that lucky chap?

19.01.11

I'm using Penultimate Apps & using Boxwave stylus which is so awesome.

11 years ago

While waiting for my husband to come home this evening, I dig out a file that kept all my memories in the year 1999-2000. I was 16 that time and full of weird teenage hormone. I found few poems and love stories that I wrote based on my current situation but with more dramatic endings. Haha.

But best of all, I found a series of email that someone send it to me (I printed every one of it). We were separated when he changed school. So only phone calls and emails that kept us in touch. We were not in a relationship but just two friends keeping updates with each other. However I just noticed that from month to month, the tone of his email changed slowly from just a friend to somebody who cares for me.

Who has thought that the same person who religiously sending me emails and patiently answering my phone calls on every school holidays is the one that become my husband.

Who would have thought?

That's qada' and qadar.

Not that I'm complaining =)

27th and 8th

Finally, he's turn to turn 27. Now we're even.

I celebrated my birthday at Niagara Falls, NY this year. Woohooo...

We celebrated our 8th year anniversary at Boston and New York City on the 7th May.

He will celebrate his birthday in Durham, NC. Don't worry sayang, I like Durham =). Kita pergi makan di Cheesecake Factory nak?

This post will be expanded into a nice long post in the future (it might be tomorrow, next week or next year.. haha).

3:09 am secret

I have a secret.

Though when Zainal having a fever or any sickness worried me (who doesn't, anyway), I secretly like it coz I can manja-ing him. I feel like a mommy taking take care of a baby. Hehe.

Psst... don't tell him. He might over manja and takes advantage. Haha.

Picture from: Daily Pets

2 years and counting

Last Tuesday our legal union turned 2 years. I can't believe how fast the time has moved. I still remember last year for our 1st anniversary we went to Raleigh and met Malaysians there. This year the day itself was one of the busiest day of my week. I was out of the house at 9am and only back home at 5pm. And guess what I found on the dining table when I was back in the evening? This lovely red roses in the clear glass vase.

Oh my God, I was surprised! The flowers was shipped via Fedex from California. This was his plan in case I was at home. Literally it's hard to buy each other present secretly when you go everywhere together. Honestly, I didn't get anything for my husband. I'm such a bad wife. I forgot that I still can buy stuff online (like I always do) without having to spoil the surprise. Really disappointed with myself.

I decided we should dine out to celebrate. We went to Red Lobster as they have promotion and it's a seafood restaurant. Might as well go to straight to seafood restaurant as that's the only thing we can eat. Other restaurant might be nicer and has more romantic ambiance but when you can only choose 2 dishes from the hundreds of dishes in the menu, it's not appealing anymore. Red Lobster was good actually. We really enjoyed our meals. The service was good too, they very attentive and made our dinner enjoyable. Though I suspected Red Lobster is the place to go if you are celebrating someone's birthday as throughout our dinner, there were 3 birthday songs were sang by the waitresses.

The roses and hubby

Feeling guilty of not buying anything for my hubby, I suggested that the ski trip that we are going to take will be my treat. That's my present for him for our anniversary. That's lead to another guilt. I have to postpone the ski plan again for the second time as I decided to change course. Don't worry honey, we will ski for sure.

To tell the truth, when you are married and still hasn't got any kid, all the trip you took feel like celebration or honeymoon. The Florida trip that we had in December was supposed to be our 2nd anniversary trip. So when the exact date came, I felt like I already celebrated it. Last year we when to New York. I wonder where are we going next year? I hope by next year on our anniversary, we have our tiny clone with us or at least on the way in my uterus. Finally, my motherly instinct kicks in.

We are 7 baby!

Yes, we are celebrating 7th anniversary today. Seven years as his girlfriend (yeah, we made it official early last year but I'm still his girlfriend for life) and 70 more years or whenever Malakul-Maut comes. And I pray we will continue our love in heaven Insya Allah.

Yes, wedding anniversary is so overrated. People celebrated wedding anniversaries coz it's an arranged marriage. Haha.

We celebrated our union of love when we started dating and continue counting as we get married. Or we just celebrate both. =)

I love this date, 7th May, coz it's the middle of our birthday. I'm 4th May, he's 14th May, yeah you got me, 9th should be the middle between 4 & 14 but wth. So May is the big celebration. His, hers and our day compacted together to form an ultimate celebration. Ok, that was exaggerated.

Anyway, enough crap, let's pictures showed the journey of us.

This was during my brother's wedding. The first time I introduced him as my bf to my mom. This was back in 2002.
My favourite picture back then which I hanged on my cupboard door in my college room which drive my roommates crazy.

Both of these pictures were in 35mm film camera era.

Then digital camera era rolled in and here goes all funny pictures.

Started with VGA phone camera.This was when we were watching at Starlight Cinema, Bukit Kiara. Did I look like an elder sister to him? Yes, I did. I won't show you the worst picture which I looked like a lecturer dating a student. Aargghh.. (Ni semua Thoreq punya pasal).

The second time we went to Genting but this time with AKIUM. We have this funny relationship with Genting where we like to go there for so many times. Until now I can't figure out why.

Oh, it's so hard to choose pictures from different era... I looked funny...

At Zainal's first convocation. Second one will coming soon. =)

Yea, no glasses anymore. No more I-look-older-than-him-and-I-might-be-his-elder-sister. Hehe... This was few months after LASIK and finally can wear sunglasses!

At Shahnon's sister wedding. I always love this pictures Maybe because we unintendedly wore same colour and smiled happily as if we know..

this going to happen soon....

Our akad nikah on 19 January 2008.

Our reception on 19 July 2008.

This was in NYC 2009. The last weekend I physically spent with him before we'll meet again (not through Skype or dreams) in less than 10 days!

Well, Happy 7th Anniversary Sayang!

Our little boy got castrated

We send out little boy for a castration yesterday. It was a tough decision to be made. He was alone so without castration would not cause any problem. But since he has become perosak his own room, we made decision to neuter him in order to reduce his aggressiveness. Not that he was an aggressive rabbit, in fact he was adorable but then lately he has become a bit naughty.

So after researching and asking around, we found out that this is the best clinic to castrate Choki: Heshmael's Clinic for Pets Sdn Bdn which located at Sunway Damanasara. So yesterday we went there to send him. After filling the forms, we met the doctor. Dr Hasnul was nice and knowledgeable in rabbit. It's hard to find a vet that also specialize in rabbit coz most of the vet are specialize in cats and dogs. So when he telling and informing stuff about rabbit, we were happy about it. And he looked soft too, so we hope he's not so rough with Choki.

During the examination, our little boy behaved in a way that made parents proud. He didn't run around, just sniffing away in his usual way and when the doctor checked him, he obeyed and didn't repulse. I was so proud of him. Furthermore when the doctor checked his teeth and he's ears, he looked fine. The doctor even asked if we always bath him. Well, we never bath him at all and he still looked clean and cute. Hehe. We just put some powder to him but not bathing him. I don't think we can bath a rabbit.

So when everything was fine, we left him with the doctor. Few hours after that, during eating at Ikea, the nurse called and informed that the operation was done and he's ok. We were so relieved. At that moment, I felt like going back to the clinic to bring him home. But we already promised the nurse to take Choki today. Just to let him recover at the clinic. That's what good about that clinic that they called you to inform the progress of your pet. So that you won't worry about your pet.

So today we went fetching our little boy. He was quiet all the way home and he sat near to the door as if he wanted to sit near us. But the whole day he ate quite a little compared before. Even when we gave him his favorite food, pear, he didn't want it. Sangat merisaukan la.

We scared he bit the stitching area so we were trying put the e-collar to him but he harden his neck to make it impossible to wear the collar. Since he don't want to wear, we just leave him that way la. Macam-macam la.

Hopefully he's appetite improve tomorrow and he can jump around like always.

He's mine

I have my own Hugo Boss model...
And he's sleeping with me every night.
Jangan jealous ye.... haha...