Since summer is in town and going out sometimes can lead to very unpleasant experiences, so we stick to indoor activities to fill our time. One of it was swimming. Fast become one of the girls most seek activity to do during free time. Furthermore, they had 2 friends living at 7th floor who shared the same passion for water sports and more than willing to accompany Alis and Erin everytime they want to had some splash provided I was doing something else, like cooking for an instant.

We bought floaties for both, which have been very very helpful but unfortunately, when using it for long period of hours, the floaties will tend to gave blister to their below arm. We then replaced the floaties with junior life jacket which also produce almost the same effects. So basically we're still hunting for best floating device for the kids to be used in long hours without giving them blister whatsoever.


{ Ini budak daredevil. She will just jump into the pool and dive. I believed the signage outside the pool NOT ALLOWED WITHOUT PARENTAL GUIDANCE was meant for her }

I am still in my searching for fun activities to do in Q8. Been bloghopping and webhopping for that matters. En Muddy had found 1 activity he wanted to try which is shooting. There's a shooting range in affordable travel distant and affordable rate. I was searching for maybe something like horse riding for Alis but the Equestrian Club here opened for Kuwaitis only. How sad!!!. Another sport that I would really love to try here was ATV but for that, I have had to wait up till Winter to come as most outdoor activites was put on hold during Summer here due to extreme temperature lately. You can get caught by policemen if they found you camping during this season. So for now I guess swimming it is.

Owhh they made tremendous progress though in swimming. Lina ( Lim's wife) who turn out to be their fulltime un-paid swimming instructor always commented that in no time Alis and Erin will start swimming without floaties. They embraced the concept of swimming naturally without being taught to, like body posture and kicking style. All they need was gut to take off the floaties and jump, which Erin had no problem to do it hahahahaha.








{ Tgk lah, macam macam style lak makcik ni. Lebeh2 tau ! Macam pro seyhhh.. }

On another topic, I secretly ( there's nothing secret about it anymore since I'm sharing it with you here) wished or shall I put as, I secretly set a deranged challenge to myself to learn Arabic. In 3 years here, I would want to be able to converse in Arabic, or at least I understand them and they understand me. Most importantly is, I want to be able to understand what I utter in my prayer, not just uttering them without understand what's the story behind.

I've been reading "The Ideal Muslimah" by Muhammad Ali Al-Hashimi lately and I must say it's a very good book. And Yes ! I don't just read Harper Bazaar and Ikea catalogue only hehehehe. Anyway, in Chapter One : The Muslim Woman and Her Lord said, among many ways to reach ultimate concentration in prayer was by understanding your reading words by words. Something which I would really like to be able to do it. I think it will makes me a better person and better muslimah.

I was doing my not-so-favourite task one fine day which is siang ikan, ketam, udang dan yang sewaktu dengannyer. U see, I would prefer to do it sitting down rather than standing upon the sink coz I work in very slow phase. Hahahaha it could actually take almost half day to finish "grooming" my 1 week stock. I will trimmed the ekor, the sirip nicely and for ketam, I will cut every possible sharp pointing torn I could find. When doing this, biasa nye I will alas the plastic bags with old newspaper kan, to avoid air air ikan to stained my floor, which I find it handy. While doing my work, I can catched up some reading too :). Normally between singing and reading and siang-ing, I will share with my husband whom normally in the living hall should I stumbled upon any interesting information from the old newspaper I've been practically sitting on and reading on. Most of the time, he already knew about it hahahhaha, dah kata old newspaper kan.

Anyway, as usual I was reading during siang ikan when small advertisement caugh my attention.

" Arabic teacher for ladies only. Fastest way to learn real Arabic, fun Arabic. Call 665XXXX "

It was tempting alright but I didn't call anyway cause in my judgement, my situation not permitted me to do it just yet as Alis haven't start schooling so most of my time is occupied by them. Furthermore, I am still not familiar with Q8, so for me to travel to the school myself with 2 kids is not a good idea. I wanted to do it right way, even if it means I had to wait a little while.

So for now, I'm using my own way of learning Arabic, using anything I could find domestically. Bread plastic wrap, baked bean can, sweetened condensed milk can, toothpaste tube, juice bottle , practically anything I could find. Normally this product will comes with it's own tagline U see, and it has Arabic version so basically I'm learning from my groceries. En Muddy had his own benefits coz his working with Arabian and Egyptian so he learn from them during daily conversation. Sometimes when I heard song in TV or any wordings that caught my attention or Alis's attention, I will memorised it and ask him to ask his Arabian friend for what it means.

Infact, during jalan jalan session, there's a lot to learn from your surrounding. I've learnt that P in Arab was spelled in Arabic not using Pa but Ba. Intead of using Pa, the proper way to spell P in Arab was using letter Fa. To name a few example, Pizza here was spelled Bizza, Papa John was spelled Baba John in arabic word, Pepsi became Bebsi, Popeye spelled Bobeye. Got it ?

Till my next progress on my Arabic lesson, stay on the safe side BeoBle :) :) :) :)