Putting on the party-planner hat again!

"I think we should start planning for my birthday party la Mommy...," said Maira Friday night.

Yup, my first-born will turn nine May 20. And she definitely has figured out what she wants for her party!

For starters, she'd like to have a 'handbag cake'. Amboiiii... baru sembilan tahun dah pandai nak handbag, ye??? haha... girls these days. Well, I have that taken care of by Wiz. And I'm sure she's going to come up with yet another masterpiece!!!

Maira wants to invite all her classmates too, but girls only. This is because she's embarrased if the boys see her without her hijab!!! pandai malu!!! (my girls go to an Islamic school and wearing hijab is part of the uniform).

We got ready-made invitation cards at MPH today after their Computertots class. Being a cheap-skate, (haha) I had thought of asking them to make the invitation cards themselves, but remembered that they will have their first term exam next next week and knowing them, they will spend all their time creating, decorating and beautifying the cards and I sure don't want that to happen when they should be doing their revision.

Last year, it was just a quiet birthday for Maira. May 20, 2007 was just 3 months after their daddy's passing and with me still in my iddah, we had a quiet cake-cutting do with some family. This year, she is expecting a PARTY!!!

I have decided that I will let her have the party that she wants. If daddy was around, he'd give in to her, too. And yeah, I will gladly organise everything everytime.

The next two weeks will be a mega-busy time for me on the workfront. We are participating in a world congress -- sort of like the Olympics of the IT world and I anticipate the 'panic state' will start tomorrow onwards!!! hehehe... arrrggghhhh...

Since her birthday falls on a Tuesday, we will have the party on Sunday, May 18 as the following day, May 19 is a public holiday for Wesak. That way, I'll have a day to recover after all that!!!

But you know what? I just found out that we will be involved in a press conference on Wesak Day itself! WHAT??? There goes my rest! Another aarrrggghhhh!!!

On another note, I hope I'll be able to organise something memorable for Maira. Nine days after she turns nine, I will be leaving them two with my mom as I will go on a two-week trip which I have been looking forward to for a loooonnnngggg time now.

May is a busy month for me but come May 29, I hope I would be able to leave everything behind and just enjoy my trip. Insya Allah...

Glad it's over!

Glad the whole work weekend episode is over. Phew!!!

It was the most stressful outstation trip for work ever. So far.

Sure hope they'll be no more such experience. That's the risk when you do collaboration with other companies. It's so much easier if you're the master of everything, where it's easier to control the outcome of things.

Enough said.

S-U-N-D-A-Y

I invited Dr. Wan and Nesreen over for lunch Sunday for makan-makan and lepak-lepak. Sort of like jemputan balas after dinner at Dr. Wan's several weeks back.

Cooked nasi tomato, daging bistik and ayam masak merah as requested by the princesses of the house. Also made tomato and mint salad, just to add some Mediterranean flavour to it, instead of the usual acar timun and nanas.

The girls punyalah excited to meet Nesreen for the first time as I told them they could speak Arabic to her -- the very limited vocabulary and phrases that they have learnt in school, that is... But depan Nesreen malu-malu pulak... that's my girls for you -- pemalu macam mommy deruang ;)

Annie could not join us as she is off on some short course on 'relationships'. Annie -- I know you're reading this -- hope the course was beneficial and provided you valuable insight that you could put to good use *wink* *wink* ;)

Dessert was chocolate brownies, thanks to Dr. Wan -- I provided everyone with extra calories in the form of vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce! Yummy!

After lunch, we (minus my girls) went to catch 27 Dresses -- we walked to the movie theatre, which is just across the road to my apartment building.

It was a typical chick flick, a movie to be enjoyed with girlfriends (or drag hubby to!) No suspense, no unexpected ending... but a fun one to watch all the same. I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada (the screenwriter for 27 Dresses also wrote Devil Wears Prada) much better, though -- stronger characters and better acting there.

Orang punyelah ramai nak tengok wayang kat situ, mengalahkan TGV at KLCC!

Apparently it rained cats and dogs during the time the movie was showing, alhamdulillah by the time we were done, there were only tiny drizzles and we managed to get home without getting wet.

Before the guests left after Asar, the good host served some flavoured tea and cakes ;)