Zayd's 14th Birthday ~Paris Disneyland -23rd. December 2007

Zayd's 14th Birthday was spend / celebrated in Paris Disney...there was no cake but the whole day from 10am till about 8pm we were there. Although we did not manage to get on most of the popular rides due to extremely long queues..even for the Fastrack pass..but we did have a go at a few rides..we started with the Spinning Tea-Cups..next to the Carousel of Horses than to Dumbo Flight...Pirate Ship...Run-Away Train..River Boat Ride...

All in all..it was an extremely fun filled day although cold..we have lots of pictures taken but in the end...everyone was pretty tired by the time we got to the hotel. The toilets were surprisingly very clean...I was hesitating for a long time to go bcos of the crowd and thinking about how the place will be..but I shouldn't have done so as it was surprisingly well taken care off..

Transportation to and from hotel was great...it is a must to have a hotel with shuttle service. Whether we will come again to get on more rides...insyaállah..or maybe to DisneyWorld in Florida...

Paris Disneyland

Will update soon...

Hannah Kamilah's 12th. Birthday ~21/12/2007

St. Pancras Station..19/12/2007

Collecting our tickets at St. Pancras and having some snacks...

London Trip - Part 1 18/12/2007 ~ 22/12/2007

18th. December 2007

Finally the day came for us to leave on our anticipated trip..luckily today it was a holiday for Azlan and the kids due to Aramco announcing it as such bcos Arafat day is on Tues 18/12/2007.. and Eid Adha will fall on Wed 19/12...so we will be celebrating Eid on the plane..huh..hu..hu..first time ever for us...If not..a sure thing will be to have a feast a home for friends and family...a reprieve actually from having to prepare lots and lots of goodies although I love doing it when everybody seems to enjoy them...usually I get lots of help and contributions from friends for these occasions..which now reminds me that i got to learn or get some new recipes for myself...

Anyway..back to the trip...I guess everyone was excited...great help from Hannah to ensure that the listed things are packed and ready...as usual Zayd did not pack his things maybe just his toothbrush although he was given a similar list..ends up Ayman and Hannah pack for him..Hannah is turning out into a very reliable little missy for these kind of stuffs.. packing... finding out things etc...sometimes in the end her things got left behind or even lost as she was too busy taking care of others..like her Nintendo Dx that was lost last summer..

We left for Bahrain abt 3 in the afternoon eventhough our flight is at 2am next morning..as we planned to have late lunch at Ponderosa...locate the parking space near the airport as we were driving our KIA there. Also..so that we have ample time for whatever comes up...anyway..we end up having too much time to wait b4 the flight...at the airport we met many of Aramco staffs especially the teachers...some are going to Europe & some back to US & Canada...Ms. Cave and Mr. Owens were there to give some pointers. Met Margaret Loftus also..and JP being Zayd's buddy in school...it was a good farewell for him a sthe Loftus family were leaving Saudi for good due to retirement...Jefry's family were also on the same flight going to Ohio-US... The flight was OK..British Airways..seats not too bad in terms of space..good selections of movies available...I planned to nap and I did just that even b4 the plane took off...I was surely tired from the packing..cleaning the house and etc...not sure what but I was really tired...

Arrive in Heathrow abt 6:00am..went thru the immigrations with no problems although Zayd was cited by the officer not to knock on the counter..he needs to learn all these lessons as most times he thinks he is above it all...teenagers..sometimes they think that they have a big pass to do whatever they want..Collect our baggage..go to find toilets..and decided where to solat subuh as no "surau"at terminal 4...make it simple..go to a corner with chairs and solat there...everyone was actually relieved after that...found the underground without any trouble..and it was full of travellers so the kids were a bit uncomfortable with bags,people and all..but we feel it will be good for them to experience this...we miss getting the right change of train from Piccadilly Line to Circle/District line to get to Bayswater...we came down at South Kensington intending to take the Circle line but instead board the District line which changes at Earl's Court...so from Earls Court we finally got on the right train to Bayswater to get to Berjaya Hotel....we have to climb up stairs and looking for the way out of the station where a funny thing happen...upon deciding which stairs to take...and arguing about it shamelessly...we find out either stairs out of the station is the same as they will get to the same platform...we have to pull the luggage up the stairs was the wee bit troublesome thing at the start of the holiday...

The Berjaya Hotel was just a turn from the Bayswater underground station and easy to find....checking in was no trouble as everything was as per reservation. the funny thing was in order to get to our rooms we have first to climb a flight of stairs..than take an elevator down one floor and reach our rooms..there was no thru way from the lobby....

After unpacking and change everybody's mind starts to think abt food...but I decided we still need to go out and pick up the train tickets to Paris from St.Pancras Eurostar counter..since we do not know where and how to get there..before start with food...at the lobby we met a Msian student with her family and they told us that Malaysia Hall is just a street away and we can get food there easily and cheaper...alhamdulilah..it was something I never thought of to locate...

I am putting the photos of our first 3 days here...will continue with the captions & write up later..

Images of Paris 25 Dec'2007

Eiffel Tower...




















When 2 families meet...


















Zayd's on his 14th. Birthday...look at the hat he's wearing...




















Rozie & Balkish...who would have guess that we will meet here in Paris...it's just meant to be....






































Across the bridge on the Seine River...this is one of the famous bridge but will get the name later..

London & Paris

Feels like everything will not get ready on time...the packing..finding thermal wear for everyone..cleaning the house...etc..etc... The plus of is that kids and Azlan is on leave 18/12..the day we will go to Bahrain and board the BA flight to London..we planned to leave for Bahrain after Asar and have dinner at Ponderosa and go to the airport..but..we are not sure how the causeway is going to be like since its the eve of Eid Ádha..

Anyway...I have lost the pack of trip planners that indicates things we want to do..well..since everyone help to clear the house on Thurs&Friday before the Tea-4-Guests on Friday..it might have been chucked away somewhere..Gosh..I hope I find it especially the table indicating do what and when things...

Among all the things I wanted to do..I hope we have enough time and the weather will be fine and may all of us be in the best of health..insyaállah..

Wet London and Gay Paree here we come...

Decorative Painting Projects..

More projects can be found at http://decorativecrafts.blogspot.com

Free hand drawing practising the strokes...might as well get it in frame form.. the leaves and calyxs still did not turn out well..I am using PLAID as it is quite easily available in Zamil stores and it cost about SR6 per 2 oz bottle...in Jarir I can get a 15% discount but most times required colors are not available.



























The first picture frame I painted using One Stroke style..but the design doesnt turn out well..


















Terracota Flower pot..basecoat with Licorice and using comma strokes for the flowers..



















2nd.picture frame...this time tried to be more adventurous....



















This is orinally stove burner covers bought at Jameel store...after sanding and repainting the base to different designs...it looks more promising...




















For the covers..the leaves are still my biggest problem to get the right color match...but for my own use..it seems quite nice..at least I did it myself...wish I have more time to practise. For some time now I have been under the weather...mainly coughing and block nose and sometimes feverish...I hope I will be better soon...at least for the trip to London & Paris soon...

EID MUBARAK FIESTA.....

After reading Elisa's entry in her blog http://elisataufik.blogspot.com/... Iwas kinda of smiling non-stop thinking about the past 8 days of EID. Let me just write down my own version of the same cahin of events....

Wednesday Oct. 10....
At 9:00am..went to Ana Zul's house to discuss the final food preparation for our combined open house....together discussing were Ana, Kamisah,Aida & Shalita..we had quite a good and fun discussion plus cooperation to get the 2nd. Eid feast into action...Before going home, Ana provide us with Laksa, kicap and some other stuffs that she says she has huge stocks..ehem...I know where I will be going if I am short of certain things...

Final Iftaar pot-luck at Khaloud....I brought as usual Saadedin cake... well I am not a good dessert maker except maybe for Cake Pisang...but the bananas I was supposed to mash and turn it into a cake has gone sour..excuses..excuses... Zaharah mention that Eid might fall on Friday eventhough they are going to sight the moon on Thursday. So..we shall be fasting 29 days if Friday is Eid day.

Thursday Oct. 11...
Wake Azlan up from his deep slumber..."" Az..bakpe lah dok tidur macam tak boleh bangun-bangun..I ni pun puasa jugak...."" I remember grumbling to him to wake up as I have plans to do my final shopping this morning...We manage to sneak out of the house about 9:00 am... Stop by the Oriental stores to get final stuffs in preparation for Eid... I feel I still have enough time to prepare whatever there are.... Since I have got most of the stuffs..I feel quite relax anticipating the Eid announcements...prepare for Iftaar after Asar and roasted the peanuts in advance... make rendang daging cili api and also rendang ayam...doesn't matter that it's about 1x a year I do this..I hope it will turn out ok...left the 2 rendangs still wet and not fully dry so that we can have it for Iftaar also...

Pick-up Ayman at about 4:00pm...ask him to clean the tables outside etc..etc..

After Isya'prayers...at about 8:30pm..Kimey sends SMS saying that Eid will be Friday...i.e. tomorrow. earlier on after Maghrib..Hannah&I was watching the TV hoping that we can know if EID will be announce...we watch bahrain TV and it did announce something after Maghrib... since we dont know Arabic it was same as useless information...still we wait..but already I start to panic..what if Eid is tomorrow than I have quite substantial things to do....

Still in my telekung..once got the message...jump up and remove the telekung since already done Isya'with Azlan....straight to the kitchen and start to touch everything but do nothing.... Hmm..where to start...ok...gave the peanuts to Azlan to remove the skins..I boiled the nasi impit....cut up the chillies, onions..and so on.....well..everything was done by about 1;30am..

Friday...October 12..EID Mubarak...Eid Mubarak...
Azlan and the boys were late arriving at the mosque...they started prayers at 5:50am... So..alternatively we prayed Eid ourselves in jemaah in our surau....in fact the kutbah given were beneficial to the kids and understanable since Azlan gave it..

Had breakfast of nasi impit,rendang and kuah kacang....about 9:00am head for Ras Tanura for the 1st. Eid open house at Ghazali's house...wow..nasi beriani and the lots.. I was impressed..how could I manage next...Than went on to Sukhairi&Faridah's house and follow on to Zul&Izzah house...so in the end we only return to Dhahran at about 5pm..we did not follow the gang convoy as we were thinking that we want to head home earlier and also get some time to speak to the hosts...if there's too many people than it will be next to impossible. Next after Maghrib..went to Khaloud..Eid pot-luck..by this time everyone was tired and full and I am worrying about preparing for 2nd. Eid open house combined at my place....Still had a fun time with friends and families there...

to be cont....

Bowling At Ras Tanura

Hannah Last Day of Elementary School end June 2007

Turning 45....

Had my besday yesterday....couldnt believe that alhamdulillah..I have reach this day with minimum mishap...in my mind there are 1001 things that I wanted to do more...will time be mind....

Why I didn't think of half on these to do much earlier in life..I believe again time might be a constraint plus the fact the it never enters my mind...

But my doa to Allah swt...may the time I have will have my iman focused and strengthen... Allahumma inni iman nafiah..wa rizkon thoiyibah, wa ámalan mu ta qobalan...

Ramadhan Mubarak.....1428

Ramadhan datang lagi...alhamdulillah masih lagi disini...masih lagi kalut nak merealisasikan janji buat Ramadhan yang ini...tidak diketahui samada akan berjumpa Ramadhan lagi maupun Ramadhan ini dapat dilalui hingga akhir..Namun semuanya ketentuan Allah swt juga..akan dilalui dengan tawakal atas apa yang daj tertulis dari azali cuma ia tidak kita ketahui qada' dan qadar nya..oleh itu terus terusan usaha memperbaikki diri selagi nyawa masih ada....

Sedar tak sedar dah hampir 2 bulan summer holidays July dilalui...masih lagi tak berkesempatan untuk update blog buat merakami isu-isu diri sendiri khusus nya...

Sambil2 menunggu orang balik dari Terawih...maka terkenang sekejab...dah masuk 7 kali tak berkesempatan berpuasa sepenuh nya dengan Adzrul...dari waktu adzrul dimatrik sehingga kini di Russia....sayu juga hati mengingati anak2 terpaksa membesar dan menguruskan diri sendiri...nama nya ada lagi papa dan mama namun kita semua berjauhan..waktu2 akan datang tak juga tau if dapat lagi berpuasa dan beraya bersama...Ayman pun dah masuk kali kedua berpuasa di boarding school di Bahrain...cuma untungnya weekend dapat bersama berpuasa... tapi masa2 akan datang nampak tak menggalakkan sangat..mungkin setahun dua lagi sewaktu summer bulan puasa jatuh maka waktu cuti sekolah dan mungkin akan dapat berpuasa dan beraya di Malaysia...insyaállah...

Semoga dapat menambah pahala bagi diri dalam bulan mulia ini dimana ganjaran dari Allah swt berlipat ganda...mari kita rebut setakat mana yang mampu...

Ramadham Mubarak......Ramadhan Kareem...

2 Years On...May Allah swt Blessed Her Soul...

It's been 2 years since mak passed away...sometimes it feels just like she's still there home.. I missed her funeral due to flights were fully booked. She passed on just about 10 days b4 I was due home..it was not meant to be...

May Allah swt forgive all her sins and have mercy on her...Amin..

Nak Balik Cuti Dulu......

After the 5th Grade Band concert...Ibu & Anak Berposing...