I've been meaning to update this post since like....... hmmmm forevah and evahhh.. This draft itself dh terperuk dlm ni dekat seminggu. There's always distractions.. Both good and bad. Be it someone ring the door bell nak anta dapur, nk tukar water filter, nk buat wiring baru... or it's almost lunch time hence kene start masak, or En Muddy offday so masa utk sight seeing, and most baddest distraction adelah our internet line was down for freaking 3 days. This one dh tak ley panggei distraction. Dh patut panggil cekik darah punye kes. Anyway anyhow, aku ade bnyk menda nk story kat sini, so one story at a time ek.


Kami pindah lagik ! Tu tajuk utama ari ni. Dari Mangaf Block 3 ke Mangaf Block 4. Block kat sini adelah macam kawasan or mukim ( hmmm aku x sure la ape sebenarnye, zone maybe???). Contoh macam Puchong Utama, Puchong Perdana, Setiawangsa, Wangsa Maju. Cenggitu lah kira nye. Block block kat sini on another hand di panggil building. Ntah kenapa setiap kali dapat rumah, kiterang mesti dapat tingkat tinggi sekali. In old building, tingkat 6, at new home tingkat 8. Sume tingkat paling tinggi hehhe.. Adekah ini sign bile balik Mesia nanti akan duduk pent-house ? Kah kah kah...keep on dreaming makcik !!!...Keep on...

To be truth, dari sampai mmg dah ade hint2 nak kene pindah so I decided not to unpack, just leave everything in the box as it is. Basically, for the last 2 weeks or so, we're living out of suitcase and out of box. Nak pakai baju korek dalam beg, nak masak korek dalam kotak. Asik ulang ulang baju sama jek hahahhaha. Malas nk kluar banyak banyak baju.

Reason perpindahan kali ni ade pelbagai tetapi cerewet was not among it. Bukan nak mewah mewah pun, yang penting selesa dan convinient for all sebab nak duduk 3 tahun. Infact, rumah baru ni lagi kecik dari rumah lama, takde laundry room ( washer, dryer sume peruk dekat dapur ) and comes with only 1 bath tub (rumah lama dua dua bilik air ade bath tub). There's reasons why we decides to move. Senang citer, this house suits our taste more, kene selera bak kata orang Malaysia ( cheh cheh cheh, orang Malaysia ek?? Lempang skit tuan punye blog ni, de tuh orang mana ntah )Nanti dh setahun lebey br nak pindah, barang dh banyak lagi leceh.

Just to name a few on priority basis :


1) Easy access to main road

Rumah kat block 3 ( famously known as Swiss Gym sebab ade Gym kat situ nama Swiss Gym. As simple as that. Most building kat Q8 ni known by its famous bakalah or any trademark nearby the building. Ade satu building was called Shrimpy because ade kedai nama Shrimpy kat tepi building tu hehehhe) was located a bit secluded from main road. Kalau nak kluar, kena jalan kaki keluar ke main road. During winter, it may be a pleasant walk tapi sekarang ni summer wehhhhh. Jgn kan jalan kaki, br kluar lobby dah kluar keringat keringat jantan. Else, another way is kene call chartered cab lah. Mostly this so called chartered car was not well maintained, could be dirty at times and mostly in very bad condition. Ade yang tayar takde angin pun, tapi taknak kalah speed smpi 150 km/h. Jadik pe pe kang sape nk jawap? Dah la aku tak sampai lagi 360 mall uhuhuhuuhh. Yang takde aircond pun ade. Feeling de ala ala macam duduk dalam kebuk wasap. Prebet sapu "Q8 mari" lah senang cerita. New building kat Block 4 on another hand, betul2 tepi main road. Kluar je ade teksi. At times, x sempat sampai gigi jalan, dh ade teksi stop. Tak yah tahan tahan.


- New building punye entrance, just outside the door dah mainroad. Mudah kan?? Sesuwei utk lazy bum cam aku hahahah -

So this is plus point yang membuatkan we all decided to relocate here. One more factor, Swiss Gym tu entrance de siap ade tangga lak weh, mcm 10 anak tangga gak la. Kalau sekali beli brg, paling tak kurang 20-25 plastic bags. Go figure !!!


- Entrance at Swiss Gym, mmg hebat-grand bagai tapi kurang convinient-

Building baru, entrance de trus direct ke main door and terus lift. Super convenient ! Cheh macam macam la alasan ko baiiii hahahahah...

2) New building, new facilities, new furniture


-Lobby building baru -

Block 4 ni building baru, just operate not more that 2 months if compared to Swiss Gym. Jadik, biasa lah bangunan baru kan. Facilities de pun baru and as new building, the piping system, tank system, wiring all are mostly terbaru dan terkini. Like i used to mentioned before, Swiss Gym punye air sangat slow ya ampun !, tend to be very hottttt dan air de a bit yellowish. Unlike Swiss Gym, water here are clear, at reasonable speed and the hot-ness are bearable. Thanks to newly water-tank or the water-tank system, whichever applicable. Alhamdullilah.. Allah made it easy for us.

There are gym facilities and swimming pool also, just like Swiss Gym. The only different was, we can actually use it for real compared to Swiss Gym. At Swiss Gym, they don't actually allowed woman/families to use the gym and pool as the gym was open to everyone including Kuwaitis, explained the strict rules. After few series of complaint made, sebab dalam contract ade tulis yang we can use the gym and pool at anytime we like, they finally gave kelonggaran and allowed women and children to use from 7-9 am daily. Another problem occurs, they did not consistent in opening the pool or gym. Kadang kadang 8, kadang kadang 8.30. Baru cecah kaki kat pool, dah kene halau. How larrrr ??? At Block 4, the building, or accurately, the pool and gym was closed for outsider. Only open for tenants and can be use at anytime we like. Ada yang ckp, ala kat Malaysia dulu, rumah ko ade gym jugak, ade pool gak. Tak mandi pun ari ari. Hahhaha betul betul betul. Kena paham yang kat Q8 ni, not much entertainment can be found around. Nak jalan luar, panas! Nak shopping, barang mahal! Nak tgk movie, banyak cite arab, else english movies de sume dari zaman aku still layan Feminine lagi. CSI New York de pun still season 1 ke season 2. Sedih!! Pool ngn Gym lah jadik pelepas stress cenggituhhhh..One more thing, pool de indoor so anytime pun boley guna. Berkat asik turun pool jek, Alis and Erin can kick correctly and able to swim from one edge to another by themselves. Ofcourse with floaties but I betcha, it wont take long for them to not needing the floaties anymore. Maybe I can borrows theirs if I wanted to go to 2m side hahahahahaha.....


-kinda small tapi cukup la utk kegunaan penduduk bangunan ni yang x berapa kerat ni-


- open concept gym, de terabur kan jek kat depan pool hahhaha -




- pemandangan dr depan entrance, building building jiran. You won't get more than this here. It's either brown, beige or in it's original brick colour. I can understand why coz no point spending thousand dinars on fancy glossy paint coz it's going to get covered in sand anyway. Furthermore, it blends more with nature. They compensate it with highly well decorated lobby entrance. Most all buildings here got somewhat grand entrance, wrough iron gate, fancy lift,fancy drawing at lobby,fancy carpet,fancy wall paper and caretaker that will welcome you everyday, everytime. Most of time ! -


- sedikit preview master bedroom. Please be informed, model is not including in the house package. King size bed were given for both room. Quite bermasalah for us sebab King size Malaysia equivalent to Queen size in Q8. Even though we took extra precaution by picking King size bedsheets in Malaysia ( bedsheets in Q8 are very expensive so we brought few from Malaysia), still it cannot fit both beds. Truthfully, it does looks exactly like me trying to force 5 years old Levis jeans into my post-delivery body kah kah kah -


- dun hate the orange shower curtain, peoplesss !!! I tried my very best not to hahahha. Of all colour, orenggg jugak pilihangg hati building manager ni nk match ngn grey background. Belasah la labu,dummy jek ni sbb bile budak2 ni dh masuk tub, jgn kan lantai bilik air, lantai luar bilik air pun lencun -


Di sebab kan Swiss Gym ni bangunan lama, so basically penyewa de dh bertukar ganti. We could be tenant number 10 or the number could be more. So most furniture dah worn out. Cracked kat dinding mmg dh macam corak. There's one incident, one of the room lamp pecah tiba2. Takde angin takde ribut. Owhh there's ribut alright tapi kat luar hhahhaa. Sah la mmg x pernah bukak tingkap kat rumah ni kan. Just imagine, penuh kaca atas katil, dalam beg baju ( kata living out of suitcase,so beg mmg terbukak ). Bile called building caretaker, de just ckp biarlah, bersihkan la, nanti nanti de tukar. Sampai sudah la x bertukar huuhuhuhu. Dapur de pulak, mmg dh ramai pakai kan so banyak kerja-kerja menggilap, menggosok, membersih lah yang terlibat. Tak la teruk sangat pun, ok jek cuma sense of belonging tu takde, feeling macam rumah sendiri tu takde. Mengada ngada kan hahahha...Isk isk sangat mengada..

Block 4 pulak, dah nama block baru so everything was basically new. Furniture de pun more up to date, more modernize, and furnishing de pun cantik. It's rather small by 1/2 size compared to previous home but there's something about this house. Ade connection. Me likey !
The previous tenant was an American doctor who rented the house only on monthly basis as he came here on assignment. De duduk tak sampai dua bulan pun, he doesn't cook I guess coz dapur bersih berkilat tak bersentuh, freezer de tak berpakai lagi siap manual pun ade lg dlm tu, no trace of food inside which means he doesn't use it, and most all of kitchen stools provided by the management like toaster, cooking pots, fork and spoon still dlm either dalam plastic atau boxes. Somemore, since he came on single basis, only master bedroom's toilet was fully utilized as guest bathroom left untouched. Another alhamdullilahhhh... Again, Allah made it easy for us.


- setiap block pasti ade menda ni. Flyers utk delivery. Kat sini, tiap menda ade delivery. Thai restaurant, chinese restaurant, indian, turkish, krispy kreme.. segala mak nenek la ade delivery. Kat rumah aku ni dah ade berpuluh flyers. Sangat senang utk suri suri rumah yang di jangkiti penyakit allergic masuk dapur secara tiba2. Bile kena jek ngn penyakit misteri ni, all you have to do terabur kan sume flyers dalam koleksi, sebut teka teki teka tekuk, tengok mana yang kene, pehtu call jek. Mudah kannnnn -


- galley -



3 ) Neighbours

In Swiss Gym, most of my neighbors were US American soldiers base in Q8. Only 1 Malaysian family that I know off. Not that I have problem with that coz personally, they are nothing but nice and friendly. It just that we came to hear that there's a lot of Malaysian staying in new building in Block 4.

Infact, there's a lot of Malaysian living nearby.It's like mini perkampungan orang Malaysia. This triggers me something u know. Back in Malaysia, there's a time we gets worried about mini perkampungan Indo or Vietnamese yang tumbuh mcm cendawan lepas hujan. Could it be now Kuwaitis's turn to worried about us. Just like can be seen gerai bakso tepi tepi jalan, who knows tak lama lg ade pulak gerai2 Ramli Burger kat Q8 hahahaha...Acah jek, ngeri wooo sbb kat sini instead of normal police patrol car doing round, they sent FBI doing patrolling. Like wat the @#$%. FBI wehhh. I've seen them only on TV before and now, they're patrolling on road we use everyday. Wat malu Embassy jek kang ade rakyat Mesia kene tangkap coz setup illegal burger stall hahaha.

Okay, back to topic yang dh terlepas 3-4 simpang. So far, there's 6 Malaysian families including us staying here. 2 more on their way. It is indeed feel good being surrounded with familiar languanges, cultures and faces sometimes. Bukan tak nak bermingle dgn orang local or lain lain bangsa, it just the fact that En Muddy working on shift rotation. We dun have our priviliges like in Malaysia. We dun have car here. We certainly have no Columbia Hospital behind our backdoor and we obviously doesn't have parents staying 15 km away. In any case of emergency or kids got sick, it is indeed good to have someone we can trust and speak our language few floors away. Tu jek reason de.

4) Dekat dengan convinient store dan shoplots

Block 4 ni, as i kept mentioned was very near to main road. Near to seaside pun yer jugak. Near to Fahaheel pun yer. There's one convenient store ala ala Giant, opened 24 hours at sini. So senang la kalau tgh malam tiba2 nk makan ayam goreng tapi ayam takde, lari kejap gi beli. Sultan Centre pun dekat, within En Muddy's walking distance, so senang la kalau nk beli ape ape. Reason aku letak En Muddy's waking distance, sbb setakat ni de jek gigih jalan kaki. If i were to come along, sila la tahan teksi walau hakikat nye, 2-3 minit dah sampai hahahhaa. There's a lot of interesting shops can be found around this area if you keep looking. Most of kedai kat sini style de agak outdated. Style ala ala super kinta. Mostly all the good stuff located kat basement. Road level cuma entrance jek, we have to go few stairs down, masuk ke bawah baru la jumpa kedai sebenar. To those yang pernah pergi SuperKinta kat Ipoh paham la maksud aku hehehe. We found one store yang jual barang barang made in china. Mostly plastic ware and cheap household. Sangat sioookkkk . I'm sucker for cheap stuff. Takkan la nk beli mangkuk plastic, tapis sayur pun kat The Avenue kot hehehe. Trus En Muddy booked ticket anta balik Mesia. Lagi menambah belanja lak bawak dtg Q8.


- view from tingkap dapur, kat sini la aku skodeng FBI yang lalu lalang -


- another view dari tingkap dapur, motif sebenar nak tunjuk laut, dekat kan dr rumah aku, rasanye jln kaki smpi ni..kami mmg tak ley dipisahkan dgn laut. Lumut, Besut and now Qwait. -


- humble living room, sejengkal je hehhe -


- little project for alis and erin, called misi menghias bilik air mereka-




- end result cermin, jadik laaaaaaaa, ceria skit hahaha -

So, tu la sesi pengenalan kepada rumah baru kami yang cute ni. Dah dekat seminggu, so far alhamdullilah takde masalah. Hopefully this will last for 3 years and next relocation we have to face is when we leaving for good. Insya allah.

Till next post, satu pesanan dari penaja : Walau di mana anda berada, "Safety comes first, dan practice makes perfect". Ingat tuh !!!



- Mak saya kecoh, mandi dlm tub pun kene pakai floaties, kecoh kan de tuhhh ! Saya tgh prektis swim ni sebab mak saya kata cara saya "kick" ade gaya, gaya ratu renang negara !!! -