Category Archives: Hobby/Interest

Al-Yateem Islamic Relief update

Posted in Good Things, Mini Project by

Al Yateem Islamic Relief is a programme where one can choose to sponsor an orphan to get a bright future. Monthly cost vary by country and pledgers need to be willing to commit for at least 2 years.

I signed up as a sponsor in 2014 and was assigned a beautiful young girl as my benefactor. Her father had died leaving only the mum to raise her and other siblings.

It is now 2019 and I realized that I have been her sponsor for already 5 years! I am happy to learn from her annual progress report – that now she is old enough to go to school and most importantly has an ambition! She wants to become a doctor.

Her house now has gas and electric supply on top of having access to safe use of water. It wasn’t like that when I first received her biodata. I hope she would continue to do well in school and I look forward to see what she will become in many years to become. InsyaAllah.

Islamic Relief is one of the few charities I try to help in terms of funding depending on my budget. One other I contribute monthly is Mercy Malaysia. My budget for this comes from my elaun keraian of which its use is spread across other charitable purposes such as for tabung kematian, jamuan at work, presents for staff, sponsoring items, a learning course or providing money for activities or events. It can be anything as long as I deem it as a form of sedekah. I aspire to be like Uthman bin Affan even though I am not earning millions. Amin.

You don’t have to be too rich to give. Just practice giving with what you have.

Sparkle Run Melaka 2020 – a rare weekend activity

Posted in Everyday Life, Hobby/Interest by

The announcement for this event came out very early. At the time I was contemplating on joining or otherwise. There are a few factors that I have to take into consideration whenever I choose to participate in a weekend activity.

  • Kids friendly or otherwise
  • Duration of programme
  • Venue of programme
  • Husbands schedule

If I had to attend a formal course on a weekend – then that is without a doubt, a must go. No question. No need to discuss. But when it comes to something of choice – I need to deliberate.

On Saturdays, my husband works in the clinic for at least half a day. On top of the weekday locum slots he is assigned to. He needs to fulfill his percentage of clinical work since he is most of the time doing a non clinical form of job.

On Sundays, or Saturday sometimes , he has to give community talks, organize gotong royong in a taman affected by dengue fever (which the residents don’t attend anyway) and god knows what other stuff involving handshaking the higher official menteri and such.

In a way, my Me Time or weekend activities need to also consider the above. His timetable. Safe bet is, I plan my stuff and inform him way in advance before he arranges his schedule. With frequent reminders hereafter so he wouldn’t forget through shared digital calendars, physical calendars, watsapp notification and verbal ones via the kids. Ha ha ha.

Sometimes he still forgets. Like my bellydancing session in Bangi. He made me cancel. I said No. He had to rope in his parents to help and we were grumpy towards each other the whole weekend.

Sparkle Run Melaka 2020

This run was announced many months earlier. I was thrilled for I could plan ahead. This is my first run so I am not quite sure what to expect but reading from other peoples experience of other runs – it should be a short run. Indeed it was. We came for the 0830am flag off and noted that those who went for the 0700am flag off has safely received their medal and on their way home.

The run venue was near to home, so it’s a plus point.

It was stated kids friendly but from the email, it discouraged bringing kids less than 2 years old. So I didn’t bring Ninie. On that day however, I saw other runners bringing their kids in strollers. Dayum.. I could have done the same.

My 5km run with Ee was done in 43minutes. We were pleased with ourselves and will consider joining other runs later. If it fits my weekend activity criteria.

Weddings , grocery shopping for instance are kids friendly activities with a less than 3 hours duration. The difficulty level may differ depending on the variables for the day – husband presence, kids mood or Will to Cooperate, the crowd etc. Even then I still need to plan my grocery trips – is it better to go Family Store where they help you to pack your stuff with less variety or to Tesco with good variety but hands off attitude when it comes to packing customers grocery. In both situation – I bring my own shopping bag. But Family Store was more willing to help.

Anyway, now that I find Fun Run interesting – I will now need to juggle future runs with other cropping weekend agendas – Ee’s skill classes, weddings, birthday parties, courses, visit parents etc etc.. thankful for my faithful HoboMinci.

Greenish HOtel Langkawi

Posted in Just For Fun, Leisure & Travel by

This is a 3 star hotel located in Kuah, adjacent to where most Malay Malaysians love to shop – Haji Ismail Group shopping mall & hotel. It is only about a 25mins drive from the airport and roughly 10 minutes from the jetty. Room rates are at a range of RM135 – RM185/night.

EE at the lobby with the grandparents
Basic toiletries, hairdryer, mini fridge, free coffee & tea, hot shower.. lurvly..
View from our room. The pool. Petronas ( you can do the 10 000 steps everyday there and shop at Mesra. LOL).

All rooms have a balcony with different views of course and has free high speed WIFI. What I loved most about the hotel was the very friendly staff that genuinely helps you with the bags and the superb pool with its mini cafe that opens at night.

The guests here are thankfully not from those big tour groups. It can be a nightmare to be in the same hotel with big groups as they tend to hoard the breakfast food. Some even muka tak malu go and tapau to eat in the bus. We did however spot few guests that sneaked the breakfast buffet food up to their rooms! Mentang2 ko warga asing boleh plak buat suka hati.

If there was anything to improve regarding the service and facilities here, it would be ;

  1. The breakfast selection. I acknowledge that one should not expect selections like the ones served at 4 or 5 star hotels. But if a 2 star Seri Malaysia hotel can serve good food and fast service (clearing tables) – guests tend to have higher expectations. In Greenish Hotel, the best food was mi goreng ( serius sedap) and the omelette. I was disappointed with the coffee. Although I am not a coffee connoisseur, it still felt difficult to gulp down the beverage.
  2. Housekeeping need to be mindful in the small details. Pay attention to the depleting complementary beverages, the full rubbish can etc.
  3. Ventilation in the lobby. Perhaps it was an effort to conserve energy and electricity but when you have a lot of people waiting to check in and out – the heat does get to you.
  4. Parking space is free but limited. If you don’t mind walking, you could park at the gas station beside the hotel or even at HIG shopping mall and walk a bit. Perhaps the hotel will decide on expanding depending on the demand. LOl.

Despite the shortcomings, it was a pleasant stay on a budget. Definitely my go -to- hotel in the future.

Exchange and substitution

Posted in Everyday Life, Good Things, Mini Project by

Heyya.. I am still in the BLS2020 programme. The 6 month agonizing but hopefully fruitful journey to lose weight.

I knew a nutritionist. My sister that is but she has forgotten almost everything she learnt during her undergraduate years because she is not practising. She is now a teacher by profession. Ha ha.

Fortunately, the internet especially my fav go to for infographics, Instagram has a lot of things I need to know about diet, exercise, weight loss. I just need to choose my hashtags properly and double check to see if the ones dispensing advice are certified trainers/nutritionists. Yup, not doctors cause the advice is superficial and very textbook. I know because I’m one. I did not even know that there’s a thing called a Food pyramid for vegans!

credit to original IG account the.rich.fam

Recently I’m learning more about food exchange and substitution. Like, if I don’t want to use sugar in my drinks – what can I safely replace it with. Or if I want a recipe for low calorie choc chip cookies – what would be the secret ingredients.

part of my food diary pictures. Trying calorie deficit but I think I am on a plateau

When it comes to exchange, it’ll be like ‘if I drink this bubble tea now, my calorie bank would shrink. Am I willing to sacrifice my fist of rice and palm of broccoli for this?” – on most days, I am proud to say I am able to walk away from those hip drinks. But I do have my bad days. Especially when my nephews and nieces come by to the house!

It is also interesting to note that food products marketed as healthy may not be as healthy you would think it is. I learn to read the labels. Still making mistakes but sis cuba.. lol. Take this for instance, a tablespoon (15g) of this St Dalfour marmalade is only 47kcal whilst a tbs of this healthy spread ranges from 84 to 96kcal.

We have 4 months to go. Indeed, I feel lighter although the scales are not showing it. I am drinking more water. I am more selective with my choices of snacks and timing of meals. I am lifting weights. My husband has this multi function home gym fitness station which has been redundant for quite a while. I have painstakingly moved it to my personal craft room for my own use. I hope to see results at the end of this 4 months.

I plan to practice belly dancing at home and just wiggle for cardio purposes since being on a treadmill can be boring. who knows I can get a figure like Shakira. HA HA HA HA.

I am still optimistic of what I hope to achieve out of this 6 months of restrain and pushing myself. This is because as one successful weight loss instagrammer puts it,

“I hate having to omit myself out of pictures which marks milestones and memorable moments in my life. I am tired of removing myself from my own life story”

My first bellydance fitness session

Posted in Good Things, Hobby/Interest by

Bellydancing is traditionally associated with sensual movement of the hips where the women would expose their mid-rift to demonstrate the shimmies. Egyptian women would entertain the men with fascinating, complex movements of their torso during heavy feasts and such.

Nowadays, bellydancing (BD) can also be a form of fitness for women. something like a cardio workout.

I am very lucky to have known this particular muslimah BD fitness instructor during my blogging days. I call her Kak Syifa. She organizes classes every week at different locations in Bangi and I felt honoured to be invited to one of her special classes today. I was really excited because this would also be my first time meeting her having been cyber friends for more than 10 years. She was everything that I imagined she would be. She had that kind face, bright smile, infectious laugh and voices with many intonations.

This particular BD party is held at Lily Fitness Studio in Bangi Getaway Mall. It is a kids friendly studio hence moms can bring their kids with them too. Walk in fee is RM20 whilst for members it is Rm15. The session is for 90 minutes. The 1st half hour was for us to learn the basics of hip movement. The next hour was a gruelling BD cardio workout with fantastic international music from English to Arabic & Hindi!

The energy throughout the whole session was amazing. When I got there, the ladies were all in hijab and abaya but once the doors were shut, they changed into something more colourful, more revealing (still minding the aurah between women) with a lot of bells at the hips. The regulars were all dressed up and us newbies were in our boring workout attires. HA ha ha.

Our instructor, Zuraiha (my kak Syifa of course) was very very lively, friendly and accommodating. Her passion for this art showed in her choreography and facial expressions. She was smiling all the way while I was huffing and puffing trying to catch my breath and making sure my hips move the right way. In the end, I think I couldn’t make the figure of 8 with my hips as it turned into a 1. Nor could I shimmy and ended up making weird lower body movements instead. LOL

I would definitely sign up for the next session (if any) and will practice my hip movements more at home. Perhaps later I could get for myself one of those belts too 🙂

BD instructor Zuraiha conducts sessions at Fitness Kingdom Studio, Kajang too. If you’re female and looking to be fit the muslimah way, do follow her IG ( setting is of private account) for the latest update. Just make sure you are identifiable as female.

PS : I couldn’t record videos or photographs during the session for privacy reasons.