Hikayat 64 Malam...

Hmmm...the last time, I was off my blog for more than a month. And this time around, it's another record.

Forgive me Blog, for I have slackened. It has been more than 2 months since my last posting - 64 days, to be exact! :(

Life has been pretty hectic at the home front and also at work, and with FB being at my mere fingertips day in day out, it became a preferred venue to share my thoughts with friends. Less hassles, and less time involved.

Believe me, many a times I had wanted to post new entries here, but somehow or rather things got into my way, and when opportune times came by, I would be just too zonked out, or the news that I had wanted to share had become yesterday's news.

And you know how it is when you have heaps to tell and/do, and you just don't know where to start, that after a while it becomes such a humongous task to actually carry them out, and you decide to just put them on hold. Time and time again. And again.

Guilty as charged.

But, I have to say this - I do miss blogging. Very much :(

I know I have friends out there who had followed me through this blog of mine, and somehow I feel that I have lost their/your friendship over the last few months due to my non-active blogging phase. For that, I humbly apologize...

So, I hope this entry will kick-start my blogging streak again, insya Allah, and what better way than to pick up from where we left off, kan? For those who have been following my rattles and ups and downs over Facebook, please bear with me, as most of what I'm going to write here will be very much like a re-play of events. Sorry, guys!

So, where do I begin?

What had happened since 7 September 2010?

Hmmmm...Let me see.

Of course - there was Raya Puasa which Ayah, me and the kids celebrated in KL. Pagi Raya - we were at my MIL's place in Tropicana, and in the afternoon, we celebrated with my parents in Kota Damansara. The big hoohah for Raya was of course - Baju Melayu Ayah and Hilman tak siap satu pun! (And there I was worrying about us girls punya baju yang takut tak siap! Khadijah, our tailor had in fact managed to siapkan 2 pairs of our baju kurungs! (Alamak!!! That reminds me! Our third pairs - the orange themed ones are still uncollected since Raya Puasa! Have to call her. Hopefully dah siap, so that we can wear them for Raya Haji next week, insya Allah. And, Baju Melayu Ayah and Hilman yang tak siap for Raya Puasa hari tu pun are still uncollected from Omar Ali for that matter! Mak oiii... They actually called Ayah 2-3 weeks after Raya hari tu asking him to collect the baju Melayu, but, both of us have been pretty tied up, and langsung terlupa! (Alamak...mana la pulak I letak receipts for the baju, ya?)

Whatever it is, Insya Allah I will collect them by the end of this week, and we'll have an ORANGE Raya Haji this year :)

And of course, there was Hanna and her PMR. As we were without a maid then, we decided to "pindah" to my MIL's house for two weeks - a week before PMR and a week during PMR to make sure that Hanna's studying schedule would not be disrupted and so that she could concentrate and focus on her revision. If we had not done that, Hanna would have had to carry all her books and stuff to and fro from Tropicana to Sri Damansara everyday, and THAT surely would not have helped her to have a clear mind to sit for her papers.

If we were to have followed our normal routine then, she would have had to go to my MIL's place after school, and I would have picked up her and her siblings from there, and go back to SD after 7:00pm, and the next day she would have had to leave the house from SD to go to school, with all her materials for her revision for that day, to be brought to my MIL's after school, etc and the cycle would have continued, and she would have been mentally and physically exhausted at the end of every day!

So, stayed at my MIL's place we did. For 2 solid weeks.

Hanna was pretty cool about her papers. Unlike her Mommy (who tried her very best to stay cool though...). She said they were okay, except for her Science 2 Paper. Anyway, apparently many candidates reported the same, so, insya Allah, she'll be okay.

And after PMR until now, she has been making her school like her Bapak punya sekolah, and only goes when she feels like going. And there had been days when she felt like going, but, Mommy said "No need to go!" (coz' Mommy malas nak hantar! So, Mommy buat sekolah Hanna macam sekolah laki Mommy lah pulak! HAHAHA!)

And of course - the biggest news must be this - BIBIK DAR IS BACK!

Remember when I posted on incident berbalas-balas SMS with her hubby dulu? Was it in January this year?

Well, anyway, apparently, Dar had in fact returned to KL in January using the permit that we had renewed for her, but, instead of coming back to us, she had gone to Muar to work with her brother there. And all this while she had been there, thinking that her permit was still valid, not knowing that we had in fact cancelled it early April.

So, I guessed, thinking that her permit would expire in November (which she didn't know that in fact it had been cancelled dah pun!), she called me early last month, disguising as "RIRIN", her friend - asking me if I still needed a maid and that Dar was wondering if she could come back and work with us again. This "RIRIN" told me that Dar was then still in Indonesia, and that her husband had then allowed her to come back to Malaysia and work again, and that Dar ONLY wanted to work with us.

I knew it was her on the phone, but, I just played along and told her that I would have to discuss the matter with Ayah, ESPECIALLY when at that point in time, we had already submitted our application for new maid, and we were just waiting for the new maid to come. (Remember Mutmainah dari Jawa Tengah?)

And the next couple of days that followed, I received calls from her brother in Muar, pleading me to take Dar back and when I asked him why was it that Dar didn't admit that "RIRIN" who had called me was in fact her, the brother said that she was afraid that I would scold her. Duuhhh?! You'd think?!

Anyway, me being me yang cepat kesian kat orang, decided to take her back, even though I know Ayah was (is?) dead against it...

Ayah told me that he should not be the one who's angry with what Dar had done, as she not returning had actually affected me more than it had affected him, in that my life had gone haywire since I became maidless in Sri Damansara for 10 months! And because of that, Ayah had let me decide whether I wanted Dar back or not.

And after weighing the pros and cons of things, I decided to take her back.

So, Dar is now back with us, and our house has ceased to be a tongkang pecah anymore, and more importantly - my laundry is being done (washed/ironed/folded/hanged) everyday, without fail. (Too bad for Mr. Dhobi who had made a fortune out of me for the last 10 months, though...Hehehe!)

And more importantly, the kids are very, very happy to have her back! :)

But, I have to say that Ayah did not speak to Dar for the first 3 weeks she was back with us. In fact, I think, he only started speaking to Dar at the end of last week, kot?

But, it's good to have her back. It's like she never left. The first day she came back, she started mengemas everything and by the third day, everything was tip top again. Syukur alhmadulillah...

But, of course, now we're in a fix.

We don't really know how to "legalize" her again, and Mutmainah will be her at the end of this week!

We had thought of just cancelling Mutmainah, and in fact there have been quite a number of friends who are more than willing to take her from us. But, it just so happened - my SIL's maid ran away a few days ago (what's new, huh?!), and so, Mutmainah will be working with my SIL, instead, insya Allah.

Our agent offered to process Dar's documents for a fee of RM5k which we think is pretty steep, and we are now still looking for other agents who can do it for us at a lower fee. If any one of you knows a reputable agent who might be able to help us to get out of this fix, please, please, please let me know, ya? Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

Hmmmm...Have I missed out on any other significant events which happened in the last couple of months? Let me think...

Nope, I think that's about it.

If anything pops up later, it'll be in my next posting, insya Allah :)

So, that's all for now, and I hope to come up with another entry soon, insya Allah.

Maaaannn...It's good to be back, you all! :)

Wassalam!