Futsal and me

WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON!


My colleagues surprised me on Friday morning saying that he registered us (yes me included) for a futsal tournament organised by ASM. Each team would need to have a min of 5 players and since we are a small company, I was forced to participate to make up the numbers.

The friendly tournament would be held in PJ on 9th July from 9am to 1pm. Each game would take 10 mins and each team would need to compete in 4 games. The grand prize would be RM500.

I have never played football or soccer or futsal in my life. This is suicidal. I don't even know the rules and I have not exercised since I was pregnant with Hayley and I am not even sure if this worn out engine of mine could cope with all the running and not to mention having to kick and control a ball at the same time. Other than dancing, I have never really played any other sports in my entire life!

I tried to negotiate my way out by proposing to my boss that

a) I'll turn up in a cheerleader costume with 2 poms poms instead
Boss said 'nice try but we need you on the field'

b) then I said what about if I wear fancy costumes with lots of colourful feathers (mascot)
Boss said 'tempting' (just one word)

c) then I said what about if I bring Hayley along and let her be apart of our team. Am sure none of the uncles or aunties would want to take the ball away from a cute little toddler and I can make her kick the ball slowly into our goal post :-)
Boss said 'I don't think so, you are talking about actuaries here'

SIGH.. my boss is so mean... :-(

I guess I need to start my jogging sessions again to build up my stamina so that I won't embarass myself on the field. I'll start tomorrow, or maybe on Friday (haha). I know last min training won't be useful but hopefully I won't collapse before the 10 mins mark is up...

Well, wish me luck and I will try to post some photos after that. Hopefully one where I am still standing at the end of the day... LOL. If Hayley is cooperative, I might bring her along to be my cheerleader :-)

Correction: The tournament is on 11th July, Saturday and not 9th July as posted earlier.

Father's Day

Father's day this year coincidentally coincides with my FIL's birthday. So we organised lunch for the whole family. Father and mother in law had to drive out from kampung (about 2.5 hrs away) while sister in law and hubby drove up from Singapore. This was considered as our first complete family gathering this year since my eldest brother in law, wife and daughter were not present during CNY.

As my FIL was a simple man, very thrifty and humble, I didn't know what to buy for him. I ended up buying 2 Jean Perry memory pillows, one for FIL and the other for MIL as I didn't want MIL to feel left out. MIL initially hinted to hubby that we were bias for not doing anything on mother's day back in May so hopefully she will be happy to receive the same gift, evidence that we do love and care for both of them the same. Hopefully they both will be able to rest better at night with the pillows.

As for Hayley's papa, I didn't surprise him with any gifts this year. Instead I bought a shirt with the words 'I Love DAD' for Hayley to wear on this day and bought a card on Hayley's behalf. When hubby woke up in the morning, he was happy to see Hayley in the t-shirt holding a card. He still stresses until today that he dislike the pyjama I bought for Hayley here so hopefully this would even things out :-). Initially I wanted to treat him to a massage session after lunch but unfortunately it did not materialise as FIL and MIL stayed with us for a while after lunch and left around 5pm.

The lunch on that day was good (my friend owned the place and made all the arrangements for me) and we all enjoyed a delicious Secret Recipe chocolate chip with walnut cake as dessert (courtesy of my youngest BIL). Hayley had fun eating scallops and fish and playing with all her cousins.

As for my own father, I lost him to stroke in 2005. Father's day always brings back sweet memories of him but at the same time it brought back tears. I have not been able to celebrate Father's Day with him since 2005 but I am sure he is happy where ever he is now and he will always have a special place in our hearts.

The week started with a 'BANG'

It finally happened. I was wondering when the day would come cause I could sense it coming. Today it came. I was on the way to work, the Wira in front of me did an emergency break and I could not break in time cause we were going downhill and therefore, the 'BANG'. Luckily we were both unhurt. Her back bumper fell, just the right side) while my front bonet bent inwards. My front bumper had a few minor scratches and my car plate broke.

Hubby came to the rescue and we paid her RM100 to 'settle' the matter. She admitted that she had to brake else she would hit the car in front of her. We both CURSED the stupid car in front of her who escaped the accident. And because of that, I became the unlucky victim cause no matter who stepped on the brake or who's fault it was initially, it will always be the last car who will be at fault.

I was still shaken by the whole episode cause it wasn't easy to forget after what I have been through a couple of weeks ago. Read it here. I sent my car to the workshop this morning and was not able to get to work. Luckily Hayley was not with me when it happened else I would freak out even more. I thank God for that.

I guess I consider myself pretty lucky. Accidents are inevitable here in KL. It's getting so common, either you bang someone or someone will just bang into you or a silly biker will bang into your side mirrors or scratch it etc, its just like a routine.

I had this car for almost 3 years now and this was the first accident. When I had my first car a couple of years ago, I had one major accident every year for 3 years in a row. I came to believe that certain cars are not destined to be with certain owners. You need to 'click' with your car and if not, you better sell it. And my first car was just like that.

After 3 months of getting my first car, it got flooded. All the way to the roof. It was the first major KL flood where a lot of other cars had the same fate while parked at car parks. I was one of them. Imagine my heart pain. 3 months old car swimming in a pool of muddy water. In the 2nd year, my poor car got sandwiched. I was the 3rd out of 5 cars. Right in the middle and the front and back were badly damaged. In the 3rd year, a stubborn driver tried to squeeze his way through a narrow lane and scratched the side of my car. As you can see, none of them were my fault. But anyway... I consider myself highly unlucky. After another year or so, I sold the car off and got this one.

I sent my car to the workshop and it is expected to be discharged around 6pm today. Its medical bill is estimated to be RM350. The bonet needs to be fixed and repainted. The bumper will require some touch ups and the car plate needs to be replaced. My total damage would be RM450 in cash, 1 day of absence from work and bruised ego.

To me, nothing beats the fact that my car will not be 'perfect' anymore.... sob sob sob

End of school holiday.. sigh...

I am always upset when school holidays are about to end.

1. I will miss the smooth drive to work
2. I will miss the smooth drive back home from work
3. I will miss not being able to let Hayley sleep later
4. I will miss not being able to sleep later myself anymore

1 more day and this will all come to an end. I will need to wait a few more months before the year end school holidays in November.

SIGH! SIGH! SIGH!

Traffic jams have always been a huge problem here in KL especially in the Golden Triangle area. We've heard complaints by the people and then promises by the authorities but nothing has really been done to improve the situation.

I have been driving for almost 10 years now and I noticed that there were less traffic on the roads when the petrol price was at RM2.70/litre back in 2008 and during every school holidays.

I really envy SAHM and those moms who work at home.

Vocabulary of a 15 month old

At 15 month 3 weeks old, my little girl's vocabulary is pretty impressive, here are the words regularly heard, although some still incorrectly pronounced:

Baby language: mum mum (food), gai gai (go out), nen nen (milk), pom pom (bath), kut kut (drink water), night night (good night), oi oi (sleep), poo poo and she she [you know what these means :-)]

Mandarin words (learnt from the babysitter): yang yang (itchy, and she will lie down on her tummy and expect to be scratched on her back), pa pa (scared, and she will gently pat her chest), pau pau (full, while rubbing her tummy) and mei mei (pretty)

People: mummy, papa, po po (grandma), a-ti (aunty), uncle, yi yi (my youngest sis), popo (grandma), kor kor (elder brother), ceh ceh (elder sister), baby

Food/fruits: apple, orange, nana (banana), grapes, bread and o-gurt (yogurt)

Transport: car, van and lorry (yes she can differentiate them)

Body: eyes, nose, chin, mouth, teeth, ears, toes and elly utton (belly button)

Animals: bear, dog, cat, duck, ant, en-da (panda), i-ger (tiger), bird, ish (fish), cow, ab-bit (rabbit), bunny and bee [she can also match the sounds made by some of these animals to the animals itself such as wow wow for dog, meow for cat, moooo for cow, baa baa for goat and bzzzz for bees]

Others: cup, chair, book, fan, hour (flower), tree, air-ro-plan (aeroplane), moon, star, shirt, bib, shoe, keys, ar-ney (money), clap, jump, run, walk, kick, throw, am-poo (shampoo), nod, scared, shake, come, good (she can do thumbs up sign) and the most common one which is 'NO'.

I am sure I have forgotten some words. She can also understand many others although she couldn't say them just yet (well, its just a matter of time). A colleague commented that she would probably be just as talkative as the mom and I won't mind a bit :-).

One of those days

Today was one of those days where I hoped I have stayed home, locked myself in the house and watch TV or work on my computer the whole day. Instead I went out and almost got myself hurt or killed! It happened not once but twice!

The first encounter happened in the morning on the way to work. A careless female driver almost knocked into my car but thankfully we both managed to swerved out of each others' way in time to avoid an untoward accident. That was lucky brush no 1 and a pretty clear sign that my day will not be a smooth one.

The second encounter happened in the evening on the way back from work. Yes it was another accident which almost happened. This time it wasn't anyone's fault but mine. As I was driving back on a curvy road, I suddenly lost control of the car. This has never happened to me before. I was not sure why and how it happened but it suddenly did. All of a sudden I lost control of the steering wheel and the tyres just went berserk. I tried to hold on tight to the steering wheel and stepped on the brake at the same time but nothing worked. My car swayed from left to right frantically and during that split second, I thought I was going to crash into a tree or a divider or worst into an oncoming car. Luckily the road was empty at that time (usually there would be plenty of cars) and after a few seconds I finally managed to gain control of the car and stopped by the side of the road, just a few inches from crashing into the divider. Again I didn't know how that happened, it just did. It was a very scary moment. Thankfully no one got hurt including me and my car was intact, not even a scratch. That was a miracle!

When I got home I tried to explain to papa what has happened. He blamed my driving skills plus the wet slippery road (as it rained earlier in the day). The car seems to be back to its normal self later in the evening when papa took it out for a test drive.

This probably was a lesson to remind me to drive carefully and slowly from now on.

Anyway I am glad that I am now home safely, sitting in front of my computer, thanks to someone up there who is clearly watching over me.

After publishing this post, something else happened to add salt to the wound - power failure! It happened twice (again, something very rare) and I was home alone with Hayley. It couldn't get anymore worst than this. Even TNB wanted to make fun of me.

I am going to hit the sack now and hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day! Good night.

Back to nature 2 - Bukit Jalil Park

This weekend we brought Hayley to the Bukit Jalil Park. We were on our way back from the Hush Puppies warehouse sale in Puchong and decided to drop by. This was the first time papa and I visited the park and we're glad to visit this place for the first time together as a family.

The park is huge and has a big playground for kids. There is also a big pond with turtles and fishes. Hayley love animals so imagine her excitement when we saw a monkey nearby the playground.

This is a rare sight - Hayley sitting down quietly :-)

We didn't manage to walk the entire park as we didn't come prepared. Moreover, it was pretty hot and there were lots of mosquitoes. So we covered the playground and the pond and we were off in less than an hour. Hayley got pretty hungry too (after the warehouse sale) and decided to eat a dry leaf :-) [see photo above]

We will surely revisit soon, next time we will go prepared :-)