HAJI K PERSONALISED ZONE: November 2007

25 November, 2007

Triple Celebrations

November is always a busy month with lots of birthdays, activities and functions.

This particular special celebration was dedicated to beloved wife and daughter Nureen, who celebrated their birthdays in November; and to daughter Zureen, who alhamdulillah, has passed her PSR with 4A 1B. Congratulations to all the three of you. May all of you achieve sucesses in life now and hereafter. To Zureen, thank you for making us proud parents, keep up the good work and hope you have a good time in the new school starting next year.

Actually, we have a difficult time to choose the venue for this special event. Seasons Restaurant was full due to a booking of 100 pax by SM Sayidina Hassan, Sheraton Hotel was in the middle of promoting Thai Food Festival - not a good choice for the kidz, Airport Restaurant did not offer extraordinary menu despite the costly price and Atrium... well, we just have buffet dinner at Empire less than 2 weeks ago. Luckily, Seasons Restaurant called back and informed us that they will make a table for especially for us. We love to dine at Seasons Restaurant because the kidz enjoyed the food. Thats all what matters, right.

the three beautiful ladies being celebrated...

the four special ladies in my life...

some of the latecomer guests...

them at the desserts table...

my 3rd helpings (or was it the 4th.. hehe)...you see, i only took small portions...

my desserts...

22 November, 2007

Happy Birthday Ainureen

The birthday is on 22nd November 2007.

The family planned to give her a surprise birthday party this year and guess what actually happened???..... read on...

As normally the case.... during her free time or while watching the cartoons on Astro channels, she kept herself busy by drawing some pictures or colouring her books. We took no serious attention to what she was up to. The only thing we noticed was that her skill in drawings and colourings has improved because she kept on sticking these pictures on the doors and walls.

A day before her actual birthday, I came home around 6.30pm. She opened the door and greeted me with the usual "Hello Dadday". She followed me into the family room and on the way to the family room, she kept on pestering about her birthday cake. Trying to be secretive, I told her that the cake will come the next day. Then, she blurted...

she: Tapi... tapi... mana kek ku untuk sekolah?
me : Mana ada kek untuk di bawa ke sekolah.
she: Aku udah gitau kawan ku esuk birthday.
me : Apa Baby?
she: Esuk aku birthday di sekulah. Aku panggil kawan ku.
me : *toink* *toink*

Then, I remembered some of the cards she drew/made, which she showed to me a few days back. I took no attention of it at that time because I thought it was just an imaginary game she was playing herself. I did not realise that she actually distributed the cards to all her friends at school. HaHa. How could I missed that one!

Realising what actually happened, I took a turn and went to the master bedroom instead. Told my wife about it and we sort of panicked a little bit. After a brief silence, I told my wife that we could try to go to Jollibee and ask if they would be willing and able to deliver something to the school. After Isyak prayer, we drove to the town and tried our luck - our first target was Mum Bakery to order the cake. Did not find anything fancy there and we moved to Freshway Cake House. She liked one of the pink-coloured cakes and we bought it straight-away. You know, we did not want to waste more time... coz its getting late already!

Later, after serious considerations, we also decided to cook some foods at home instead of ordering from Jollibee. So, we went to Soon Lee and bought stuffs there. Later, we went to Teguh Raya and bought more stuffs there too. At last, everything was in hand and we went home exhausted and tired...

The next morning, my wife had to wake up early to prepare some of the foods. We also told the maid to fry the sausages and fries before we both left for offices. Luckily, we have the driver who took care of the delivery of the foods and drinks to her school later that morning. She celebrated her birthday, cut her cake and enjoyed her "makan kecil" with her classmates and 2 sisters at school. It was unfortunate that we could not join them for this special event this year.

What started as a carefully planned surprise party for a lil girl ended up with a different surprise, which was played on us by our lil girl. Ahahaha...

In the end, I must say that we were proud of her creativity and ability to "plan" this event on her own but I also feel that we need to polish her communication (at least by telling us well in advance) and management (ability to plan together with the rest in the family) skills. Hehe...

Anyway, we wish her a very happy birthday and may Allah guide her into the right path in life, blessed with good health and wealth with family and friends around. We sincerely hope you have enjoyed the blasted birthday in school with your friends.

Lastly, here are some of the photos I took to remind us of this "surprise special birthday" by our sweet lil girl we call Ainureen

the creative invitation card she designed on her own...

this card is for her special friend, safwanah...she said Safwanah already knew about it, so she does not need to keep the card...

the pink birthday cake...

with friends of Sekolah Pertama...

cutting the cake...

17 November, 2007

A game of monopoly

Monopoly Game.

with niza...

with syahirah...

enjoying a good game of monopoly...

her turn to play...

the dices...

throwing the dice...

making her moves...

and paying fines...

09 November, 2007

Hari Raya Biscuits

I just want to share some of these photos, which was taken at my sister's house.

...a plate full of Tapak Kuda...

...they are really delicious...

...hey, they are slowly disappearing...

...gone...

...biskut tembikai - watermelon biscuit...

...watermelon biscuit - biskut tembikai ...

...chocolate chips...

04 November, 2007

8th Day Raya - Trip to Belait District

Hey, I have not finished my Hari Raya stories yet. okay. More stories will be coming up, I think lah...

This year, alhamdulillah, we managed to spend a day visiting friends and colleagues on the other side of the country - Belait District. It has been a couple of years since we did not visited any of them. Our only Hari Raya trips to Belait District, since maybe 2 or 3 years ago, was to Kampung Lumut.

Along the way, we dropped by to a few houses at Kg Danau & Telisai. And, guess what? A friend offered a special dish of "daging sang kancil" or mousedeer. Never tried it before but why not, right? The taste is not bad at all. Will it make me rascal or clever like the "sang kancil"? I do not know yet... hehehee...

Moving on, we finally reached Kg Pandan in Kuala Belait around 3.30pm. Spent a few hours in KB. On our way back, decided to drop by at 52s in Kg Sungai Liang. And then, the final 2 houses at Kg Telisai. All in all, I think we went to 8 houses that day. (Note: kira banyak jua bah tu according to our standard yang selalu nya around 2 to 4 houses per day saja).

...first house in Kg Danau...

...my two lovely ladies...

...both of them again...

...at a friend's house in Kg Pandan...

...nice lil waterfall...

...at Hj Zainal's house in Kg Sungai Liang ...

...lamb chops are irresistable...

02 November, 2007

MV Doulos

In between my busy schedules this week, I managed to attend the motivational talk by Datuk Dr Haji Hassan Ali, which was held at Brunei Shell Recreation Club, Seria. An excellent motivator, Datuk Dr Haji Hassan (or known as Nasir at home), kept the audiences chuckling and at the same time felt remorseful.

Later, after work - as promised to the kids, I brought them to Muara Port to enjoy shopping at the World's Largest Floating Book Fair MV Doulos.

Here are some photos of our visit to MV Doulos. ~~I will update this page once I got time to upload more photos. Please come back some other time for more photos.~~

...http://www.MVDoulos.org...