There's always the first time to something

Thanks to the wonderful technology we have today. It is so much easier to get connected.

My father, after 60 years of his life, is now introduced to the world of chatting.

And so is Haziq!

Haziq is seven though.

Ustaz-Ustaz dari Indonesia

Masa mula-mula Haziq dapat sekolah dulu, we were so relieved. One hurdle dah lepas. The thing is the school doesn't have a school bus and even if it does, our house is a bit far off. Of course for someone who have lived in Klang Valley, 20 minutes drive is not far. But in Doha city, 20 minutes is considered far. Well, we didn't have much choice, all the schools near our place are just full.

So the next hurdle is transportation for Haziq.

There are a few choices. Among them are for us to have two cars. One for him, to go to work, and one for me to drive the kids to school. Me, wide eyes, estatic at the thought. You mean I get to have my own car here? Here? Even though I am not earning and you will pay for everything? You will? But err..this can only happen in a longer term, even if it does happen. Because first of all my lover needs to get his Resident Permit (damn they are slow). Then only I can get some Resident ID number of which then only I can take up the driving license (will be blogged later). After which if money permits then only we can get two cars.

Duh..slump back to boringness of being coop up.

The next choice is to hire up a limo or driver. Quite a few people do this as well. It is quite safe but errr, errr..I am a mother with many wild imaginations. But if you are coming here, ever, this is ok. Just pricey though.

So nak jadikan cerita, hari yang Haziq nak pi ambik test tu, I terlupa nak call KARWA (company cab kat sini). I did call. At 4 in the evening for a 6:30 cab the next morning. Sorry babe dah fully book. Ayoyo teruk betul public transportation kat sini (will blog later). Bas tak ada kat sini. Kat tengah-tengah town aje ada. And they are going to have, what, Asian Games 2006 in 11 months. Biar betul!

Anyway, so we called up ada Ustadz dari Indonesia ni. Nama dia Ustaz Nizam. (bersih aje muka dia tu, suka tengok) Kekadang dia boleh tolong drivekan orang. tapi dia pun dah ada orang book. But, but, but he suggested Ustaz Yahya, a friend of his. Dia pun ada orang, tapi still boleh tolong. Alhamdullilah.

Maka, dalam tengah brainstorming (cewah) pasal Haziq punya transportation, I thought why not kita hire Ustaz Yahya ni untuk hantar Haziq ke sekolah. We called and he said, yeah he would be free sebab mamat yang dia hantar tu dah ada kereta dah pun.

Talk about murah rezeki for Haziq man. Me, the mother yang paranoid tu, sangat lega.

So mai kita cerita pasal Ustaz dari Indonesia yang ada di Qtar ni. Di Qtar ni, there are no male construction workers macam kat Malaysia. Indonesians yang datang ke sini are either professionals, mainly geologists. Negara minyaklah katakan. Or female helpers and also Ustaz-ustaz.

Apparently kerajaan Qtar telah menjemput mereka ke Qtar untuk menjadi muazzin di masjid-masjid Qtar. And Qtar memang banyak masjid. Mereka digajikan sebanyak QAR1000 (RM1000 plus minus), which is a lot for a muazzin, I think. Rumah pun diberi. kalau tak beri, memang tak boleh hiduplah. Rumah mahal gila kat sini (will blog later). tak ada share-share pun rumah. Rumah kat compound masjid.

Selain dari jadi muazzin, di masa-masa lapang mereka, mereka juga boleh memberi khidmat tolong drivekan orang pergi kerja and in my case hantar budak pergi sekolah. Dapat jugaklah ongkos lebih. Pastu boleh jugak tolong ajar bagaimana nak drive bagi yang ambik lesen and nak familiarisekan drive belah kiri. Ya kat sini drive belah kiri.

Ditambah dengan itu juga they establish kelas-kelas ugama dari topik-topik yang mudah seperti Quran untuk kanak2 dan juga dewasa, tafsir Quran (almost all of them I know are tahfiz) , bahasa Arab (salah satu syarat ialah mereka mesti boleh berbahasa arab), kelas2 fardu ain. Ada juga kursus untuk pergi haji dan umrah. Topik2 yang lebih sukar mengenai ketuhanan, tasauf pun ada jugak.

Out of my blunderness, I said to Ustaz, bagus ya Ustaz, boleh buat wang tambahan. Despite I was sitting behind him in the car, I can sense his uneasiness. Oh I hope he didn't get me wrong. I continued, dan yang lebih pentingnya kita semua mendapat faedah berkongsi ilmu. He seemed relieved. Ya, Ibu, kata dia, kita semua boleh berkongsi ilmu. Bantu-membantu sesama lain.

They have high reputation here among the muslim community. Ada satu omputih yang baru revert dan bosan dengan sikap orang arab yang confusing tu, mula bergaul dengan ustaz-ustaz ni and with Indonesian and Malaysians generally. Kita kan kaum yang lebih accommodating.

Perhaps, I can continue with my Harfiyah classes eh?

School has Started!

Haziq and Sya finally went to school yesterday. Yes, on Sunday the 15th. We came on the last week of autumn term. So they have had a long holiday filled with TVs and cartoons and fighting among each other.

Haziq's school starts at 7:00 in the morning while Batrisyia's, 7:30. Both ends at 12:45. The schooling days are from Sunday to Thursday. Haziq is now in Year 3 and Batrisyia is in reception they call it.

I am telling you, it was hard to get them places in school now. These are for the facts that there are flux of people coming over to Qtar (including us) and also we came at the wrong time (school wise). I have emailed various schools in Doha , emailed them from Malaysia even, and the reply was bleaked. I was hoping that both of them get the same school so that it would be easier, logistically, in fact it would be easier for everything.

Not only I emailed, I called and I visited. But the visits were helpful, I must say. I met the principal of Doha College and she was very helpful. She told me a lot of things, but still couldn't give us any placement. Hmmff!

Picture : Batrisyia playing when she should be in clas already. Jack2 playing as well Only one school had a place for Haziq and none for Batrisyia. I send Haziq for the admission test (of which he wouldn't be accepted should he fail the test) and looked for other places for Batrisyia. Lady luck must have been near to Batrisyia for there is a small reception school within our compound. So they took her, and I told them about her english. The teacher told me though, that Sya did say a few words and seem to understand. So I told her, she watches cartoon a lot, which is mainly American, so a British accent would be slightly tough on her. And she said, well you've got a British accent yourself. I said, I am very flexible maaa.

Anyway, when Haziq was accepted to that school, which is by the way a bit far from my house, our next problem was logistics. This shall be blogged later. Batrisyia is just 5 minutes walk for me, but since I had to take Sya and the little tortoise, Zachary, it can take about 15 minutes. Picture : Haziq, wearing his school uniform, kicking a plastic toy, while waiting for the car to come.





It's a wonderful walk though in the morning. It is quite cold but very pleasant. I can still wear sandals even though my toes felt prickly. When Zachary and I head home, I gave him time to run around and look for ants or pick rubbish and pluck leaves from the bushes. Picture : Batrisyia on the way to school

A friend asked me this morning, "Tak boring ke bebudak tak ada?" I was like, are you kidding me, and I replied, "Tak lah! Lega sesangat. "

Tips: Bringing your kids here? Make sure you bring along your kids school record - translated if it is not in english. Bring their immunisation record as well

Serving Dessert Tips

I'd like to share some tips to serve desserts for whatever function that you want to organise. This is based on my own experience of small open houses, past office functions, kenduri, functions organised by people of which I am involved or just plain observation of a person who eats dessert. Yum! Yum!

Cutting

For the last bloggers makan-makan, for example, I had only chocolate fudge. Since there would be many people and many children, the cake must be cut to small pieces, so everyone can enjoy and children can have the cake in one go. So, tip here, one type of cake, cut in small pieces.

The last eid Adha function we had here, there were about 300 people. Desserts were numerous. Nearly everyone, including guests brought some form of desserts. There were numerous cakes from normal chocolate cake to glamorous tiramisu. There were four big dish of caramel. Too many puddings and jellies. Belgium chocolates. Sorry no cheapo sumi jelly manis, no sweets. I am telling you, it's a feast of desserts. I shrink at the thought of my amateur pudding. Musti tak laku punya ni

I noticed many people didn't cut up their jellies, cake and pudding. Ah! Ah! Ah! (shaking fingers). Let me tell you friends, if you are serving jellies, puddings or cakes, remember to cut it. Particularly cake. Unless you have a knife somewhere near, otherwise no one will eat it. Particularly when they can eat up the chocolates nearby. You wouldn't want to bring home your dessert do you?

My tip is, cut at generous portion. Slightly bigger than usual. For cakes, particularly, when serving arranged one to be slightly off alligned. This is cake psychocology. It lures people to take a piece. Once one is taken, many more would come. If you are that desperate for people to pick up your untouched dessert, you can take a piece yourself, to start off this cake psychocology of luring people.

Now look at this picture. The one which is nearly empty is mine (grin). Look at the contenders. They look marvelous, colourful don't they? At the end of the night, it is still not finished. This is because it was not cut. When people want to eat, they want to eat without much work. They just want to scoop it. Once you manage to get someone to scoop it, you would want them to take a lot of them. Thus cut generously.

But of course, if it is flan or caramel, you do not need to cut it up. Just serve with a strong spoon.

Plastic Spoon

The other thing is, I am not sure about you, but I hate plastic cutleries. I hate the styrofoams. I hate eating from it. That's why I rarely take away in the office even when no one wants to eat with me. But for the purpose of our discussion, let's talk about plastic spoons.

Look at the picture again. Ooopss sorry I have taken away my heavy metal spoon from my dish. But there is still one plastic spoon observed in the picture. If you are serving pudding or cakes, try to avoid plastic spoon, particularly when you have not cut it up. It's difficult to cut using plastic spoon. Sometimes the dessert is hard and heavy, one might break the spoon.


Conclusion

Of course in any type of dish, beautifying it is one way of luring people to eat it. Let's just assume that when you want to serve people, you already have this in mine. Let's just assume that all dishes are delicious to the eyes. Try the tips above so that your desserts will be picked. Make your effort a worthwhile one. Cut up properly and serve properly.

The objective is you want people to eat it without putting too much of their effort. With luck people will come for more.

I didn't tell you, of course, that near the end of the night, I promoted my amateur pudding to close friends. This help too. He he.

Marble Pudding?

The Malaysian way of celebrating anything, even the smallest occassion is eating. When you are inanother country, this eating fiesta is observed even more. Ever since I got here, I was invited to various houses to eat. Mostly, so that we get to be introduced to the seniors, the veterans here. The embassy function, the Malaysian-Qatar association, people's houses. I am so fat!

Today is the second day of Eid. Yesterday we were at the embassy for brunch. Today we went to the ambassador's huge mansion for lunch. Tommorrow we will be going to the Brunei Embassy for dinner.

Most importantly, this evening, we the newcomers, the juniors are inviting people over to our compound for an "open house". And I am here like what, three weeks? No big pots, no queen Anne's serving dish, no Corels, no nothing. So we catered. Thank God. However the wives will each make some sort of dessert or appetiser.Trust me I did not volunteer. (I am a bit pissed actually, since the discussion was made without the wives but we had to cook up something anyway)

Gulp! I am so not good at this. I can make springrolls, but without a car, I certainly am not happy going around town looking for the spring roll skin.

But but but, I am always prepared. Even how small it is eh? I asked my colleague for her great marble pudding recipe. She claimed it is the easiest thing to do. I took it without even looking at it.

I have a confession to make. I have never make pudding in my whole entire life. I have never made jelly either. I have no idea what the measurement should be. I am clueless in this pudding jargon.

The seniors akaks told me that the gelatin powder here is not as strong as the one they are used to in Malaysia, so they had to use more of it.

I bought ten, just in case.

The recipe went like 30g of something, 500g of something else and ml of some liquid. I went to get the scale thing. The one that the use to measure cakes and make anyone look so professional when they cook. But I errr used my kids milk bottle to measure liquid.

It is like you are in the lab or something except nothing explodes, mind you.

I am supposed to make marble pudding. A mix of yellow colour pudding and stripes of chocolate flavoured jelly or something. So I gave it a shot. A practice.

I think I must have poured the chocalate in a rush, that it overpowered the yellow pudding and turned everything chocolate. Err there goes the marble identity. But it is still pudding nevertheless.

Then I waited for hours for it to hardenen. It didn't. I don't know why. Frustrated, I chucked it into the fridge and decided to feed my children slurpies of chocolate pudding tommorrow.

Later at night, I checked and hey. It is now a jelly. Oh! I am supposed to put it in the fridge eh?

I made another one for the makan-makan. This time, hopefully no mistake. No room for errors. I carefully poured the chocolate jelly, making sure it doesn't mix with the yellow pudding.



I just hope it taste alright though.

Marhaba from D0HA

I have finally got a computer! And I am so nervous. I am almost speechless typoless, I don't even know what to write. Many things happen that I would happy to complain and make this entry a long list of complaints. But not today. Today is Eid Adha.

And I am happy enough with my brand new computer with a 19" flat screen. But I am still on the slow prepaid dial up (38kbps). I can't sign up for ADSL yet since my lover has not get his Resident Permit. No RP means no life here. But hey I have my blog back! And I have you! I still have all of you right?

Man..have I been cooped up!

So wazzzzzzuuupppp people?

I have more to tell. But I have to breath first. In out..in out. I am too excited.

So smooches and hugs and will see you again..soon, very soon. After eid prayers and lots of eating tomorrow, at the Embassy again. (roll eyes)

Sore

This is not fair. So not fair. Shout out loud! Not fair!

I am still gloating over my perfect teeth. With or without retainer, at the moment, I deserve this feel good. Don't I. At any chance I got (eating time) I would flash my teeth. I would remind people that I am not wearing braces anymore. *FLASH TEETH! BIG GRIN!*

And today, today I am cast with this thing. This thing called cold sore. Why do they call it cold sore anyway, when it is hurting mad and blistering hot. Here look here, these ugly boils at the corner of my lips.

It is not enough that I had to suffer for years enduring the pain of the braces tightened.

It is not enough that I have to brave myself to eat during these pain. If there is such award of "The most determined person to eat through pain, that would be me.

It is not enough that I had to suffer blisters each time my kids knocked their head to that area. Blisters will worsen to ulcers. Make screw up face just thinking about it.

It is not enough that I had to go through this retainer emberassing myself with slurpy speech and dribbling.

And now, I must have cold sore. Ugly, ugly cold sore.

I remembered the first time I had cole sore.That was when I lost my cold-sore virginity. I didn't know what it was. My good friend Aowyn, the redhead Scottish, went around saying Lollies has herpes, Lollies has herpes. Herpes? Oh shit where did I get that from?

Scientifically cold sore is known as herpes simplex. It is also a cousin to chicken pox which is herpes something , I forgot

Anyway, today is Friday. Look at fingers counting the days. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three more days to the day of my flight. I plan to look good. I bought a Zara suede jacket. And I swear I look good in striped shirt and an A-line skirt with ankle boots. Wouldn't I look good on the day I'm flying off? You agree?

With perfect teeth some more.

Only to be spoilt by cold sore!

Well I guess there are two ways to look at it.

One : I could have it even when I have braces on, and that is definitely double whammy

Two : At least the cold sore is now when the braces are off. So cold sore on good teeth is not too bad.

Let's choose number two. Just to make me happy.

On another note. This is perhaps my last entry as I am cutting off my line tomorrow. Just hope I got a line quickly so I can see all of you again.

If you miss me that much, you can read up all my past entries. And if that is not enough you can look at some photos HERE.

Will definitely miss you. Take care meanwhile. And you'd better be blogging when I am back!

GRIN and WAVES frantically.

Brace(s off) Myself

Well well well whaddayaknow. I've got my braces off last Tuesday!!

So you don't know what I am talking about eh?

I have been wearing braces, for my teeth, that is, for more than two years now. This was for no other purpose other than the vanity in me. But for two very long years I have been going around, scaring little children with my smile. Some people have plastic smile. I had an iron smile or steel smile or a robot smile.

But now no more braces. Woo hooo. Smile with me people.

Errr..did I tell you though that I still have to wear something on my teeth. The retainer. I had no idea that retainer is like wearing dentures. You know with that plastic palate. Urrggghh! I hate it! I nearly puke putting that thing on! I was going around feeling like puking.

Anyway, I had to wear the retainer all the time except when I eat and brush my teeth. So if any of you want to meet up with me, you'd see me without the retainer for I am sure meeting equates to eating. Eating is no no for retainers.

And worst, I can't speak properly when I wear them. It's like I have a short tounge or something. I can't speak fast as well..for no one can understand me. This drive me crazy! So I was babbling and babbling to my lover, and he had no clue what I am talking about. Grrrrrrr!


So now new teeth for brand new life eh? I shall brace myself to the future ahead with sparkling perfect alligned teeth. I will smile and bare it to all, full of confident and will look perfect as an expat's wife. The lady of leisure I am.

Eh, I forgot I must wear the retainer at all times! Duhhh!

My Helper

Again many ask what would I do with my helper, now that we are going to Q@tar. I wanted to bring her there. I even told her on the possibilities. Alas, the ruling there was, Indonesian maids can only work for the Q@taris and no other nationalities. So, no luck on both of us.

She was my first helper. I remembered the jitters waiting for a helper to come. Anyway, you'd probably remember my entry of my Pep Talk with her on her first day with me. I had numerous other talks with her after that too. Initially it was once a week, than once a month, than whenever the need arises. It will evolve on instructions on the things she need to do or that she has done wrong or even how she find her stay here.

It's all a learning experience for me, for her and also for my children.

As for me, I had to learn to live in the lack of privacy. My lover couldn't just walk around without his shirt on and just boxers. I couldn't cook in my birthday suit. No more adventure in the kitchen and what nots. Privacy is just not there.

But my another bigger tasks are my kids. I am amazed at how kids learn to be the prince and princess in just a short while. One morning, I saw Haziq having his breakfast while my helper put his school shoes on for him. Enough that my helper helped put his bags in my car and all, but having see her squat and put his shoes on while he eat, somehow ticked me. That very night both of them are summoned upstairs. She, my helper, being told not to treat Haziq like a king. Haziq being instructed to take his bag downstairs, put it in the car, put on his shoes and be ready for me, on time! "And if Ibu see bibik putting on your shoes for you, both of you will get a smack from me!"

I also overheard Batrisyia shouting at my helper to put on the TV for her while she lie down on the couch in front of the TV and the remote is just reachable. Suffice to say, that she didn't get to watch TV for an hour, and had to put it on by herself from then on.

It was also an experience for my helper. Remember my posting about her first bash from the bitch next door? (Clicklah kalau nak baca. dengan yang ini)

Within seven months, all have understood my rulings and everything looks good. Batrisyia probably reminded my helper of her own daughter back in Indonesia. It's a pity that her stay with us is just for a short while. She is a good helper. I am not a fussy employer either.

Sometimes I think she doesn't have anything to do at all. Particularly when I am back from work. The general rulings are, the kids are mine once I got home. I will bathe them myself and I will feed all of them myself. She can help clear things up later.

One night I saw her reading "Mastika". She got it from my parents. Hmmmfff. So I bought her magazines. Carefully selecting that the contents at least has some intelligent provoking ideas. No romance, no skimpy clothes girl, mostly religion. I bought her story books. All Malay books. I even buy her Utusan sometimes. Last week I saw her reading Haziq's Muqaddam. The one with translation. Which is fine.

She is good. If you are fussy, you may find faults. But otherwise, she is really a good helper. She takes care of the kids fine. And she is not "gatal". (err horny?) She likes to cook too, except that I do most of the cooking. So she tried her hands on desserts, which is yummy. But I had to tell her to stop, fearing that my children (and myself) will get fat.

Many wanted her, knowing that I couldn't take her to Qatar. After discussions with her, we finally agreed that she go with my friend, of whom her helper had ran away with a man. My helper wanted a household with young children, to keep her busy with their little quirks.

I will send her off on Sunday, a day before I leave for Qatar. I pray that things will go well for her. I pray that she will earn enough to give a better life for both herself and her daughter. And also hope, her future employer,( I understand that she reads my blog sometimes) will take good care of her and treat her well.

I am thankful that in her short stay with me, I had a peace of mind. It's not easy to find a good helper nowadays.

Sorry

First of all, I feel sorry for my closestest (super superlative for close) friend. They won't be able to comprehend my behaviour the past few weeks or perhaps months. You see when I am bitter, instead of moping and garnering sympathy, I got angry. I snapped at people whom I loved most, and I got wind up on small issues. Criticising everything, I made them feel not appreciated.

Don't look at me in the eyes my friend. Just hug me and leave me. Leave me with my quirky behaviour.

I don't want you to see me cry.

I am missing you already.