Handphone madness

Two weeks after we got here, I subscribed to a new local mobile number, and two nights later in the middle of the night, I got a call from an unrecognised local number.
I said: "Hello"
The caller (female) said, whispering: "Assalamualaikum. Who are you?"
Erk... sapa yang call sapa ni?
I said : "Who ARE YOU???" Then I hanged up. She called again five minutes later. I did not answer. And called again and again like 5 times after that!! Crazy or what? Minah desperado hungry for some midnight, kinky chat ke?
Since then, my handphone kept getting these weird calls from Arab-sounding people. Even after I said they got the wrong number, they did not budge. They just kept calling, and one even used the F word, after I hanged up on him when I told him that I have no idea where HIS brother was!!
These happened so frequent that I even saved their numbers and gave them not-so-good names so I can easily identify them when my phone rang. Hubby had to intervene and since then, it has been a month since these crazy people called me. Phew!

But out of all that craziness, the called I got tonight topped them all. I recognised the number because just a week ago, this person texted me in a language I thought was somekind of secret code from a friend or sibling. You see, the number was a Malaysian Celcom number.

His text was : Khlil tumi kemon aso.Ami asa kri allahah rohmte valo aso. Ami valo asi. ami arakti sim no dilam. 2ti sim amar ok. no..0060132231844..?...k hlil tumi amar kase pondiben.ETI..NAZIM (..MALAYSIA..).

I have a nephew called Amil and a sister called 2t and a cousin called Eti. For a while there, I seriously thought the text had something to do with them!! Later, I totally forgot about it.
Until I got his (Nazim's??) call tonight.
He gave me salam and I salammed him back. Then he mentioned some name to which I said, you have a wrong number bro.
He: "Is this Saudi Arabia?"
Me: "Yes."
He: "How are you?"
Me : "Huh?? Who are you looking for?."
He : "I call from Malaysia. I am Bangla and I look for you."
Me : "WHAT???" Then the line got all static and a second later, cut off. I figured his Xpax's credit sudah habis. He thinks it's cheap ke nak call Saudi Arabia?? Calling Bangladesh would be a lot cheaper, bro.
So, does anyone know Bangla or is it Bengali and translate the text for me???

Rain, ice cream and the Budimans

Woke up this morning to the sight and sounds of raindrops, lightning and thunder. For a second there I thought I was in the warmth of my bed in KL. The children got so excited to see the downpour, a rare sight for us since we moved here. Called my aunty who is performing her hajj in Mekah and she said it's overcast there but no rain yet. Should it rains later, it will be a wet experience for the pilgrims in the plains of Arafat.

(the view from our living room of the wet condition outside. It rained so bad, heard some roads were flooded)


And since hubby not around till next week, this mummy has become so lazy. Nasib baik lah last night (am not that lazy when it comes to making sweet stuff) I baked bread pudding and made HOMEMADE vanilla icecream (my first time ever and it turned out really good). So today's breakfast, you guessed it - bread pudding and icecream! Not exactly a healthy one but filling enough to last them till lunchtime.

(vanilla icecream --- made from milk, sugar, whip cream and coffeemate.)

Today, we are saying goodbye to the Budimans, one of the first few Malays we met when we first arrived here. And living in the same compound, the kids got quite attached to their bubbly, chubby and ever so adorable Dani. We will miss them no doubt. Adi and Yani, in my personal opinion, are one of the warmest and kind people I have come to know and I am so glad to have met them. They said this is not goodbye but see you real soon (their open invitation to those coming to Singapore) and yes, we can't wait to see them again. Maybe next summer eh? I am going to miss you Yani. And Dani too, your slobbers and all.. :)

(imran taking a photo of Dani)

Amir's biggest sceptic - his mom

Yesterday, had a meeting with Amir's class teacher. Since Amir has only been in the school for a month and a half, I came to the meeting with no high expectation. So imagine my surprise when I was "presented" with wonderful news about my playful and very manja 9-year-old son. Amir is apparently clever, bright, outspoken and very popular too! "Quite an achievement for someone so new in class," she said. Oh boy oh boy! This is despite his limited fluency in the English language. His teacher said, even his English has improved a lot. That bit I had noticed at home when I hear him reading his books. His only weakness, said the teacher, is his inability to "write on the lines." ??? I really see nothing wrong in that as long as he is writing in straight line. But obviously, it is important to this school. Whatever....

But coming back to Amir. He is quite unique. Everytime I attended a parent-teacher meeting regarding him, I always came out a bit surprised. He never failed to kind of impress me. Even in his exams. (Ask him what he learned in school today? His classic answer is : "Mmmm... entahlah tapi adalah belajar." )

This is my boy who only knew his ABCs (only A to G, mind you) and numbers 1-10 when he was 3.5 years old. Never interested to speak in English. Not interested in books, no matter how colourful they were. When he was almost four, he attended a playschool in England for 3 months and again surprisingly, the teachers told me how participative he was in class. Again, despite his very limited English, he somehow thrived.

Then when we returned to KL, we decided to send him to a newly set-up kindergarten, just behind our house, ran by a Malay lady as we thought we did not want to burden him with too much stress (read:homework) if he was to attend schools like Q-dees, CEC or Smart Reader. We wanted things to be easy for him. But the Malay lady turned out to be a thief. After collecting the fees for the second half of the year, she decided to close the school and ran away with the money! So, Amir never did learn anything from that short 5-month period. He never liked the school in the first place and dreaded to be sent to another school. So we let it be and he was free of school for the next 6 months.

The next year, he attended Smart Reader and again being a playful boy he is, he "graduated" from the school with little knowledge but a lot of friends. He entered Standard 1, still "crawling" in his reading, both BM and English. He was put in the last class after the school assessed him. We were not surprised. For the first six months, he was struggling with his reading and writing but he was good with numbers. Shockingly, came July 2007, just out of the blue, he began to read so well, I was like SHOCKED! By the end of the year, he was number 2 in class and got "promoted" to the second top class for Standard 2. And he continued to do well, always in the top 6 and got promoted again to the top class in Standard 3.

I really don't know how to explain him. When doing his revision at home, he ALWAYS asks for help, as if he knew NOTHING. He hardly had homework. He read Doraemon books, period. But his teachers would comment: Amir seorang yang cerdik.....

When we came here, enrolling him in a Brit international school was a bit worrying. So when the school suggested that he takes ESL program, we were all for it. And amazingly, he is doing good and settling well in school.

I might always be sceptical of him and not easily pleased, despite what others said of him, but let it be known I am always so proud of him.

Phew... I have finally created a blog after months of contemplating whether I am up for all this or not. After months of "mind writing" before bedtime.
Now I have a real outlet, not so much to share with the world about my life, but to share with my friends and family back home in Malaysia of what has been happening to me and my family since we moved to Jeddah, KSA in June 2009.
But importantly, it will be a place I can go back to whenever I feel nostalgic and maybe in need of a good laugh in the years to come (you can sense that I am not exactly having the time of my life here... maybe not yet?)
And also for my children, in later years, to understand why their mom did or said what she did and said and hopefully, in restrospect, they can know. love and respect their mom better.
Why the name MY SCRIBBLES? One teacher of mine, back in primary school used to complaint that she could never understand what I wrote. "You don't write well, you scribble and it looks like taugeh". So said Mrs Chong.
Yes, I scribbled so well I should have become a doctor. But I did not. I became a reporter and for more than 10 years I was in a job that allowed me to happily scribble away, taking down notes in my beansprout-lookalike writing, which only yours truly could comprehend.
So yes, I want to continue to scribble (although this one would be more readable).
Here's wishing myself all the luck in blogging and hopefully this will not be one of those things I started but never get to finish. (Blame it on being a Geminian....)