Too close for comfort!

Oh my oh my.

A guy on the 35th floor of my building has been confirmed with H1N1. And apparently he had a meeting on my floor. But some are saying it's the floor above.

But anyways, a friend of mine on my floor was in close contact with him when they bumped into each other in the elevator. This friend of mine is currently sneezing etc and has gotten an MC for 2 days.

So yes, yours truly will be getting a bunch of hand-sanitizers during lunch.

And it pays to have a friend who's father is the Asst. Health DG. She said that this flu is like 'any other flu'. But is deadly to people who has pre-existing illnesses that compromise their immune systems, old people with weak immune systems and kids with not yet matured immune systems. And once infected, it takes up to a week for symptoms to show (hence the one week quarantine for suspected cases).

The treatment is the same for normal flu. The only reason you need to be quarantined is to help contain the spread. So far, patients admitted and subsequently discharged to the Hospital for quarantine since Case #1 has been certified with a clean bill of health.

So please have the courtesy to sneeze or cough onto a tissue and dispose of it properly.

Kiddies

Sa'eed

The lil boy is coughing and has a slight fever. Usually he would just lie down and won't even bother his sister. But he gets all cheery and excited whenever I offer him egg.

My mother-in-law recently bought an IKEA stool for him. The next day my grandma bought an IKEA table to match it. Sa'eed is thoroughly enjoying both items. Sometimes he would put the stool by the windows, sit on the stool while looking outside.

His vocab is definitely expanding. He knows alphabets when he sees them, but gets them confused. Main tibai je mana A, mana R.

If he's doing his business, he will say uk-uk. But if he's not done and I try to take his pants off to wash him, he'll struggle like mad. Hmmm....is this an opportune time to potty train?

'Aatikah

This girl is getting spunkier by the minute. She can commando crawl and is starting to heave her self up while holding on to a chair or Sa'eed's table. She can also walk while holding on to the sofa (and of course with someone holding her hips). She's also learning how to use the straw. She can get the water into her mouth, but she'll splutter some out.

And all this happened in one weekend...phewwww.

How alternative energy changes lives

I was in Tanzania, Africa a couple years ago over the summer working on a solar project. This particular post is about a small village area in Bagamoyo. To get to Bagamoyo from town (Dar-es-salaam) was a couple of hours and to get from the center of Bagamoyo to the village area was a couple hours more. I remembered the road (if you can call it a road) to be very extremely bumpy.

When I got there, I could see a couple of girls carrying buckets of water on their heads. If you look at the picture, the girl is actually carrying a baby tub on top of a bucket. They walk from their huts to a small watering hole twice a day to get water. Each trip probably last an hour.

The picture above is what their huts look like. I've been told that because it is made out of mud, after a while it gets 'holey' and snakes tend to come in uninvited.

Hmm...so what is this structure? Looks like a regular water tower you find in more modern housing areas. And that's exactly what it is. The government gave some funds to some people to build this thing to store water so that it could be distributed to the surrounding households.

How do they get the water in the tank? Via water pumps pumping water from the underground source (aquifer).

The above picture shows the water source. The pump is close by. Since the village is not connected to the grid, the only way to get the pump to work is by using alternative energy.

And in this case, they chose solar panels. We did the testing on that day and everything seemed to work ok. The pump had enough horsepower to pipe the water up into the tank and the piping network from the tank was working too. So the people in the village only had to open a tap and water would be flowing.

It might not matter to us coz we are so used to having water whenever we wanted it, but to them, this small effort is worth so much more. Now the girls won't have to walk to and fro for long hours just to get water.

But I bet the small kids would continue going to the water hole to bathe (read: dangerously dive) just because they can :)

I am the party poop-er

Ada ka, this penguin pooped right when I was snapping this pic. But the most tak tahan thing is that the penguin pooped while nuzzling with its girlfriend.

Langkawi Pics

As promised, here are some looooong overdue pics from our Langkawi trip. Not a whole lot coz it takes ages to upload. Oh, and these aren't in any particular order.

'Aatikah and Auntie Blossom at the nikah ceremony.

'Aatikah chillaxing at the airport with a bottle of H20

This was at Perdana Quay aka PETRONAS Quay near the cable car ride. PETROSAINS here is free! Since it was a hot day, we decided to hang out at the fully air conditioned place while waiting for 'Asr prayers.

Some waterfall that has lost its mojo because water was trickling instead of falling. Can you spot hubby?

Hmm....asyik 'Aatikah je, mananye gambar Sa'eed nih?

Ah, ni dia Sa'eed...hehe, and I HAD to put an embarassing photo of him first. Oh well...this was him passed out while we were up on Gunung Raya.

Practicing some karate moves on the beach.

Talking to the fish....

Spring cleaning

Hmmm....my apologies for not updating ever so frequently. Work has become really hectic. Have been going home late more frequently too.

But anyways, job satisfaction is on an all time high, which is good I guess.

This pass weekend was mostly spent outside the house. Saturday morning we went to DSH to get 'Aatikah's 6 month jab...yepp, at 8 months. Then we sent the car for servicing. Or was it the other way around? But anyways, papa loaned us his car and of course we forgot to take the house keys from our car keys. And maktok pun was painting the town red with makngah, so we did the next most sensible thing...headed to makngah's house konon2nye nak tunggu derang balik. Plus, Umairah and family were home. Umairah looks like a carbon copy of her mom, but apparently I'm the only one who sees it...hmmmm...other people claim that she looks a whole lot like her daddy.

At makngah's we got a call from the service center saying that our car was ready, so we picked up the car and went home. Heh...got a call from sister in law asking if we were going to the wedding. Our reaction? Haaaaaa? Whose wedding???? Rupanye it was hubby's cousin, the one we went to Langkawi for. Langkawi was for the bride's side and Saturday was for the groom's aka hubby's cousin's side.

So after Zuhr we headed off to Bandar Tun Razak for the wedding and ended up lost. (But not as lost as someone who wanted to drive to Melaka but ended up going to Ipoh....muahahahahaha. That, my brother, will never be forgotten).

Hmm...Saturday evening was a blur.



On Sunday we went to Ampang for my cousin's kenduri do'a selamat. Baby Noah is so cute! Tido bagai nak rak even though the house was full of activity. 'Aatikah on the other hand was very very very clingy. Fortunately or unfortunately she only wanted ME. If not, she'll start crying her dinosaur tears, her eyes would get all red and she would shriek like there's no tomorrow. Maybe coz she's still recovering from her on and off fever + runny nose.

Came back from the wonderful lunch and relaxed with some Simpsons reruns.

Fabulousmoms.com recently opened up a branch in TTDI and was hoping to visit, but no time yet...even though we drive pass it every single day...heh

Hmm...back to work...oh so much fun dissecting the recently passed American Clean Energy and Security Act...

My little princess

Aiseyh, sorry Sa'eed, ummi nak put your picture also, but tetiba cannot upload. Sorry babe, we don't love you less k :)

First word?

Oh yeah baby, the girl is beginning to be a talker like her aunties (on hubby's side...hahaha). Just yesterday she let out her very first word...and it had to be 'bah'. Why can't it be 'ummi' or even 'mi' instead? Sa'eed's first word was 'bah' too.

But anyways, apparently today she's miaowing. Called up the house to ask if her fever has subsided and that's what maktok said. 'Aatikah's miaowing. *slaps forehead*

Will update later on our holiday in Langkawi :)