'Akit...kakak buat...'

This was taken on my post call day last week. Arishah was registered in kk putrajaya for her check up. She is 18 months old, and her last shot was due. In the clinic, she only cried for 10 seconds, then later she cried again. I guess it became uncomfortable. So at 3.30 pm in da afternoon, i took her to the public pool. She forgot abt the pain for awhile. Nice pic huh?

She had 2 days fever. It must have been painful for her becoz she cried when she tried to walk after 3-4 steps on da 1st day.

She wud say 'kakak buat! Buh-baaat' referring to the staff nurse n asking me to bubuh ubat.

Hi prof!

My name is Professor Arishah. I'm a genius! Can u see my oversized glasses n bald head? It's because i think a lot. Sometimes mama n baba got a scare seeing what i'm up to. Its a genius at work lah! Tok Ma said, banyak akal, mestilah nakal. It's cucu Tok Ma at maximum creativity!

Nak slide!

Weeee!

This is War!!!

This was the picture of my cherry tomato plant that finally produce > 30 fruits, not including the ones that Arishah picked to eat...or "O-oh...Jarrrr-tuhhhh!" It was still unripe when I took this picture. About 2 weeks later, it's beautifully red! Memang buat Arishah geram. Petang-petang, we went out, and she would say, 'Nak!' or '-to'.

And one week later, due to a bug called Mealy bugs (and maybe various attempts to eliminate it), my beautiful cherry tomato tree has wilted and dying. I've thus removed all the fruits for Arishah to play, and trim off whats needed, leaving the stems with what looks like small new sprouts of branches coming out. Sigh!

I've declared WAR!!! WAR to the Mealy bugs that destroyed my crops ooh so horribly! Went to Sg. Merab to rumah Arwah Abah and Mak Cik, and saw a plant nursery just beside rumah 5075. Told the owner about my problem and he gave me Malathion. I sprayed it last Sunday, and to my delight, upon contact with the bugs, the bugs just drop dead. Woohoo!!! But I've got to be careful because I'm planting vegetables and fruits, so no spraying 1 week before picking, that's what the labels says.Surprisingly, my second tomato plant that I thought was sure to die [picture above], is getting better. I've transplanted it, trimmed it about 2 weeks ago. Now a lush of new green leaves are growing.

When I took the picture (at night), I saw 3 mealy bugs on the stem sucking away the juices. I just squeazed it with my fingers. I don't think I should used Malathion that often, it says no more than once a week. But my hands are itching because the pest is still not controlled! It's driving me mad!!!

Here's another 3 pots of tomato plant, but these ones are round tomato plant, not cherry tomato. I thought of having a go at it. It's growing well, transplanted it from my styrafoam cup to a bigger cup. Once it has a good stem, then I'll transplant it the second and last time.


Anyway, at the plant nursery, Mak bought pokok cili padi. I've transplanted it for her to a bigger pot. She's been trying to plant the tree, she got three of them, all fully grown, but not one has bear fruit.

Can you see the small small cili padi jutting out? Geram nye!!! So does Arishah. I have to keep saying 'No no no...' to her

The plant on the left is the one that she got from Kampung. All leaves but no fruit. I told her it's probably all males.

Here's my first try out with pokok cili. This is cili besar. It's no more than a foot tall, but since 2 weeks ago the flowers are blooming, and I knew it's only time. Now the biggest Cili is about 3 inches.

I have two other cili tree, but it's small and refuse to grow further. It receives the same amount of sunlight though. I think it's the soil. Maybe next week I'll visit a plant nursery again and buy some more red soil. Mak loves the organic fertilized soil. But I think my plant needs a little bit more drainage.

Looky looky, my two eggplant tree! The left one has a fruit just a bit smaller then the size of a tennis ball, and another small one sprouting from another branch. The plant on the right has a purple flower on it.

Arishah memang tak sabar nak petik. Kena bagi tau dia, 'Belum masak Arishah. You can pick it when it's ripe and ready.' Tak tau laa dia paham ke tidak, tapi she just kept looking afterward, tak pegang pun. Besides, her favourite colour is 'Purrr-pel'.

I love this this eggplant tree, they are resistant to bug and grow without much fuss. Me and Arishah just killed a snail with salt last week when we saw one trying to climb up the tree. One of the leaves already half-munched by it the day before. Arishah says, 'Yek!' Hehe. I've tried to germinate more seeds 1 month ago, but didn't took care of it well enough, so none actually sprouted. I tried again tonight. We'll see how it goes in 2 weeks time.

My cukes...short for cucumber. From 5, only 3 survived after we fought with the Mealy bugs. Cucumber tree and Okra tree is their favourite apparently...maybe because juicy stems. All the 3 cukes are in one pot. 2 stemmed - long cucumbers, and 1 climbing - stout cucumber.


This one looks big, but it's a close up. It's actually the size of a thumb aje. I heard too much fertilizer will make the cukes bitter. So I try not to use any fertilizer this time.

I hope the biggie cucumber plant actually produce some fruit. The one I planted doesn't show any flowers. Maybe I've been cheated by the store. Maybe they are male ones, and I got unlucky.


Here's some more pics of other plants around the house. The picture to the right is Bayam/Spinach. Now they are dead and gone. They produced a lot of seeds in the end due to the hot hot hot weather. No fertilizer, they just love to grow.

Next to it is my Kangkung. By end of the week, I'm ready to pick and eat it. They can be picked within a month of planting. Very easy Kangkung.

The picture on the left is my made up trellis. It has 3 pots of Petola/loofah (as you can see hanging down there), and 3 pots of snap beans ( and I think you can see some of them hanging a bit weird too). I'm happy with the Petola, ate one already, another made into loofah scrub. But I don't know what's wrong with my snap beans. They are bunched up and fat only at the end, but thin near the stem. I've sprayed with Malathion already to get rid of the ants. In the mean time, I'll let it rampage around the (ugly) trellis.

That's an update on my garden. My birthday is next month, and I still can't figure out what to do with Arishah. I thought of going to Sg. Gabai waterfall again and have a picnic. Or go to a nearby beach, but don't know where it's quiet and water nice enough.

My first loofah...for scrubbing

My first loofah, aka Petola was already made into a vegetable soup. Nice one! Unfortunately, only me and Arishah was able to taste it, because tragedy flew from the window and swam in it. A fly went it and my sis-in-law had to throw it away.

My second Petola that I thought was going to be eaten, turned up a little short. No, I mean, really short. It was hanging and touched the ground. It remained in its size, until I picked it this evening. I kept it as long as I can on the trellis, to turn it into a loofah. I took all the seeds and already planted half of it into my cups to make new batch. Maybe next week we'll see if any actually survive to see the sunlight. I'm giving up on my snap beans, they look stunted even though they are already short.

This loofah was only about 8 inches. So I peeled the outer layer, and soak it in a clorox. Later tonight I'm going to hang it outside to leave it dry. I've pesan MIL to let it dry good, then she can use it for whatever she wants. She actually bought a loofah for washing the dishes, it cost RM3.00 each, and she cuts it into 2 to 3 pieces. Bah!

More to follow later...going out to dinner (7.50 pm)

Back from Midvalley with Baba and Arishah at 10 pm. Sleepy. Arishah dah shleeeeep. Ate at Carl's Junior. Baba wants some cheat food (he's currently on strict diet and exercise to get back in shape...a present he's suppose to give me 3 years ago...hmmm...well, he's trying).

Looking forward to this Friday! Tell more about it later.

Above the spotlight

With a little bit of hair do, i'm sure she can b a kid model. Problem is she doesn't want anything in her hair, or on her head. All curly wurly like baba's hair when he was small. Sometimes she looks like einstein wannabe haha.

On call tonight. Bz morning day n evening, hopefully a calm night. Sending this pic from my handphone. 10 hours more to go...

Gnite arishah! Mama luv u so much!

Getting an expert's help

My two lovely Cucumbers...great expectations! This picture was taken a week ago, so it's gotten much bigger since then. It's a 'dwarf' type, just like little Arishah. Lots of flowers!!! I can see one or two little cucumbers budding. There are three plants in a big pot, so I hope pollination is not a problem. I'm giving it a once a week NPK blue special fertiliser, which I found somewhere stashed at the back of the house. They say it's good for fruiting. Not sure if it's good for this plant though.
My cherry tomatoes are growing. Again, this picture is taken a week ago. It has grown taller. It's getting about 6 hours of direct sunlight, but then I want to put it at the side of the house so the rain won't hit as hard. Last time, the yellow flowers just fall off because of the heavy rain. But I can feel this time my tomato plant is 'stronger'. It's about 1 feet tall at the time of writing. I'm really putting high hopes on this one.

Well, that's about it. I'm waiting for my eggplant to be big enough to transplant, maybe wait for 3-4 sets of leaves. I'm still thinking of where to put a trellis so all my climbing plants can actually climb and get full sunlight, without distracting my mother's laundry

Think...think...


Been surfing youtube as well and watching lots of gooooood videos about growing vegetables. Most of them are from 4 season countries, watching so many varieties of tomatoes makes me go crazy! They are so pretty!

Now I'm waiting to transplant my eggplant. I'm waiting for my mum to buy me more polybags. I'm also waiting for my chilli plant to get bigger, chilli is a heavy use in this household. I'm making a mess of my mother-in-laws back yard. Well, can't really call it a yard actually, haha. Hmm...how I miss my old parents house with 1/2 acre of land...even though it's haunted...is it still haunted? Nevermind...no need to know or find out :p

Going to sleep now, with Arishah. She's a bit cold tonight, all bunched up like a cooked prawn...LOL

Acu Man, before and after

Acu Man when he was 5 years old at our previous house in Dato' Abu Bakar Baginda. I miss that house, no matter how haunted it was.

Acu Man at 23 years old, with his three beloved sisters.

"Forever, forever, you'll stay in my heart; And I will love you; Forever,
forever, we never will part; Oh, how I'll love you; Together, together, that's
how it must be; To live without you Would only be heartbreak for me " (From 'I
say a little prayer for you')

Remembering our conversation sometime back, "Bila Acu Man nak kawen? Cepat la dapat baby. Best tau!" Hehehe...

Timun kontot & Bendi tajam

Are those little budding cucumbers I see? I think so!!! I actually started them from seen on 1st February. 6 weeks, and I see them already...wooo hooo! The grand day will come when I can pick them. I can't resist from taking a picture. It's actually raining outside. I just got to put this in my blog.


This is a short cucumber, hybrid type I bought from Green World. Do you think I can get them to full size in 2 weeks? Hmmm, I wonder what will be my first dish from my very own cucumber.

I also picked 5 bendi/okra today. One already being used. And one which is quite crooked, but still edible I think.

I'm having so much fun playing in my own garden. I'm browsing through the internet about kitchen garden and edible garden. I already stumbled to a Malaysian w
ebsite a month ago, and trying to trace it. Now that I've found it, I'm adding it to my blogroll. It's about ASDAF's kitchen garden (Asrama Darul Falah), doing their own, very successful, kitchen garden. I'm so proud of them!

Sometimes I just don't have time to tend the garden. I also miss morning watering also because I have to rush to work. Once I'm back at home, it's already almost 6 pm, and playing with Arishah is my priority. I do bring her outside, and she sometimes do her famous car cat chase. Here's a preview:
Arishah buat muka hampa...

But she's not old enough as yet. Sometimes I still caught her putting things inside her mouth. Argh!!! But she does try to help. Like watering the plants...or the grass...or her own pants...

By the time she's two, I'm going to make sure to get her hands dirty in the sand and soil :) She can have her own flower beds if she wants. Or her very own cangkul! I used to have one when I was two, and I followed Arwah Abah (my late father) to work on the yard...more like disturbing him. I don't remember much, but as temperamental as Abah was, he doesn't mind me following him though :) Or maybe because I'm just his favourite wahahaha...

Talking about beds...I thought of making a raised bed at the top of the back yard. The space is very limited. The soil at the back is not really a soil, but rocky-hard-mixed-with-cement soil. Tilling is pointless. The only thing that's lusciously growing is the banana tree, serai, and my bendi/okra. Maybe I'll bring this up to Baba Rusydan if I'm really out of space :)

Until next time...

Kitchen Garden - the follow up

I'm on call tonight, But I can't sleep. Just recieved a call from ED (emergency department) and admitting a case for heart failure 2ndary to fluid overload, with underlying AF, hypertension and CCF.

I brought my laptop along. The free time I used to sort out the pictures and folders I have. Most of them are pictures of Arishah, off course. She makes me laugh! Her pictures are so cute, and her laugh is like a fresh air, so genuine and pure. Geram!!! Nak gigit rasanye! Bite bite bite Arishah!

Thought of compiling some more picture of her 1 year album, which I have yet to do. If I decide on that, then it's back to print, cut, paste, and decorate for me. I don't know how long that's gonna take. I also thought of doing a standing double sided photo frame for each month. But if I do that, I don't know where to put it because the room is lacking space already. Hanging it on the wall will require some more money with frames and all. Well, I'm still in thinking mode, not a doing mode yet.

I'm busy with my garden (and so does Arishah), that's why. I should have updated a long time ago, and it's already more than 2 months ago. Well, I've added new plants. Some are good news, some are bad news. I'll tell the bad news first.

1. My Cherry Tomato! I started with 3 plants, but now ended with just one. The other two are dead, and I think it's been infected with what they call fusarium wilt. The last and only one, also infected, but I don't know, it seems to be fighting the disease. The only tree has become spindly tall, but only has small leaves, brownish spots seen, and wilting. There are yellow flowers, but the harsh rain is not making it any better. So far, I can only see 3 fruits, and as shown above, only one fully grown. I ate it!!! hahaha, it taste so sweet...unlike the store brought ones!

Well, I'm trying to plant some more from the seeds. I'm learning. There are three that's still in small pots, and when I get home tomorrow, I'll transplant it to a polybag. I know tomato grow well on colder climate, the recommended are 60-75 deg. Farrenheit. It also suppose to be semi shielded from harsh wind and rain, which I didn't do. It's just the cherry tomato are so cute...and now that I know how delicious it is...I really hope I can grow some!

2. Salads! I planted varieties of them, head lettuce, red lettuce and green leaf lettuce. They germinate well, but by the time they get 2 inches tall, it either gets spindling, or eaten by the SNAILS (my worse enemy so far!). Again, salads are cold grow well on cold weather, but under the sun. That's a problem, because we get hot humid and sunny weather. That's the reason my plants are having thin and spindly stalk. I've thus removed it under the son, and put it under partial shade, that's beside the house rather than behind the house. I also need to thin out the plants so that they can grow bigger individually. I'm going to do that tomorrow evening.


3. My beloved Okra. There are four plant in my big pot, and so far has given lots of fruits. I think I've already harvested 10. That's not counting my surviving okra that I planted on the hillside. For that one tree, we managed to harvest >5 okra already. I initially planted 5 seeds on the hillside. All of them germinated, but only 1 survive because the others are eaten by snails. There are a lot of snails up there every morning and after the rain, but I just let them be. Tomorrow evening...killing time...muahahahaha!

I've also planted 7, yes, 7 more in the polybag, and thribing well. Because of the humid weather, which okra really loves, the seed germinated within 3 days, which is really super fast. I'm saving these to give out to kak chal and k man. 3 for k chal, 4 for kek man. I'll ask Mama if she wants it too.

Mak used the okra for her curry. She loves it. It just simply taste sweeter, and softer than the store brought ones. It's not as gooey, and not strandy at all. Must be because it's fresh.

4. I've also planted cucumbers. Just like the okra, it grows super fast. It's only been a month, and I can see the yellow flowers blooming already. I guess, it'll be a couple of weeks when i see some small cucumbers sprouting from the flowers. I planted about 6 in the big pot, and then thin it down to 3. i but 3 poles for support. But my cucumbers are getting naughty, its vines are tugging their nearest neighbours, the okra and the tomato tree.

I'm planting more in a tray, and once it's big enough, I'm going to transplant it elsewhere. I haven't figured out where yet, but most probably in the polybag, then I'll set it up on the hillside with trellis of some sort.


5. Kangkung and Bayam is living and kept on going. I didn't take out the root this time. So I only harvest the leaves when I intend to cook it. Bayam is usually for Arishah. I wish I had the rounded leaves type for Bayam, or maybe I am growing that one but since my Bayam tree is so big, the leaves are bigger too. As for Kangkung, I've grown it in 2 planters. I cooked twice already for Kangkung masak belacan/kangkung goreng biasa. I think it tasted a bit bitter than the market ones. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the soil. Oh, that reminds me, I need to put fertiliser tomorrow.

My baby pok choy also growing in one of the planter, but slow growing. At least this time it's growing! Last time it just dissappear, eaten by snails. I hope when I get home tomorrow, it still exists!

6. I'm trying on eggplant and loofah (petola) next. I planted eggplant seeds and loofah seeds in styrafoam containers. I also planted red chilli, since Mak always said she didn't have any, and hers kept on dying.

The red chilli, I managed to get 3 small, 1 inch tall ones. I still don't know where to transplant it to.

Eggplants and loofah seeds were just planted 2 days ago, so that one will take time. I saw in the internet a white eggplant, so pretty!!

I'm hoping my new french bean seeds will grow. I planted some in the tray. We'll see it it goes.



Well that goes for all my plants, with pictures provided. Update on Arishah? Oh, just too much. Maybe some other time :). I'm going to review the patient from ED, I think he has arrived to CHDW already. G'nite.

Happy birthday arishah!

To b edited soon...

Arishah's Vocabulary

Before this post, I'm suppose to write about Arishah's birthday and her zoo trip, with loads of picture, but I'm having trouble finding time to connect the pictures to the computer and upload it. So, I thought I put this entry first.

Well, my family knew that me and hubby is introducing more language skills for Arishah, and perhaps for the rest to follow. Other than English, we also want to try Mandarin, Arabic, Japan...macam banyak gila, tapi we'll see la dulu. But when she was about 2-3 months, I found about Sign Language, and how it can help children's mind because it has so many types of stimulation to the brain - visual, tactile, auditory.

I heard about Signing Time. Baba downloaded the program, and Arishah has been seeing the program over and over again since age 6 months. She never got tired of them until a bit recently...hehe. Plus, she's learning English, and alphabets/spelling too, non-directly. I'm also learning at the same time, and I'm having a great time! Learning a new language by watching children's video is just awesome.

1 Month ago, I've observed her more and more whether she understand and uses the signs to describe things. Now, when she's making a little noisy and cranky, I would ask her, "What do you want Arishah?", and she could sign Milk, Eat, Bath, orlead the way. She sign Fish, Wind, Rain when she sees them or when someone mention its name.

She's imitating sounds of animals...visiting the Zoo was so much fun! Lion, cat and dog. She already saying Apple, Cat, Fish, Star. She talks...a lot. Even though we can't understand most of them, she talks like it's the real thing, and talking/explaining to us like we can understand what she's saying.

There are still some words that she can't pronounce right, like Open (since she likes to open cupboards!), she would say -pen. Stay -tar.

Mama and Baba feel so blessed to be gifted with such a smart girl. The funny thing is, we both don't feel it's genetic! Haha. Must be the Selawat Nariyah that I sometimes recite to her. Maybe it's just kids these days, so many different stimulations.

Tok Wan is also teaching a lot of new words and action to her. She can salam with cium tangan...so sweet.

Arishah is definitely an entertainer, penyeri hidup Mama and Baba!

If i were to have a garden

It would definitely b a japanese garden. So peaceful n tranquil!

My forever best buddies

I'm happy i had spent time with them. Ain was going back to sabah the next day. The last time i met them was a year ago, shame on me! Zurie is pregnant her 3rd child. Shidah is a camera girl now. Ann put on braces. Emi, still on one year honeymoon...bila nak ada baby ni? Ain will b getting married june this year.

We'll c wat else comes up. Hopefully i dont wait too long to meet up again. Shidah will b our event organizer, as she always has been.

I'm on call tonight. Maman will b back from his 3 months trip tonight. Gonna drop by mama's house tomorrow noon postcall