Hari Raya 2009

Hari raya 2009

Not to forget...

Mama: How old are you, Sarah?
Sarah: Three.
Mama: How old is Amar?
Sarah: Two.
Mama: How old is Mama?
Sarah: Seven.
Mama: How old is Babah?
Sarah: Seven.
Mama: How old is Tok Abah?

Sarah: (shrugged and thought hard) Twenty?

Happy Birthday Atuk!!!

It's time to...

Partly the silence was because of poorly Amar. Partly, the denouement of Harry Potter, addiction to the Summer sale and attending parties, bbq and picnics. But ultimately, the time has come for us to part with our home for home...

p/s: Have to take down the photo temporarily. ~Sorry~

Hospital again and again

A lot has happened since the last time I posted an entry. There are still a few unpublished events. I guess those have to wait now. As for now, let me just update with a very brief entry regarding Amar.

Tuesday, 3 July: I noticed a swelling near his groin.

Wednesday, 4 July: A trace of pus was seen in his nappy suspected from the swelling.

Thursday, 5 July: I took Amar to the Walk in Centre (WIC). [Our GP - as usual fully booked and kept on asking us to call the next day.] The doctor at the Walk in Centre dismissed us saying that it was just another chicken pox coming out. [Angry mode: *#$$%&(#$*@*%#] [I promised a brief entry so I spare you all with the details]

Friday, 6 July: We were not happy with the doctor's diagnosis from the WIC. So I booked an appointment to see our GP. Luckily we got an appointment at 11am. We waited until 11.30am to be seen by Dr.Sood. She examined Amar, prescribed antibiotics and ibuprofen and then referred Amar to the hospital.

Sarah, Amar and I took the public bus to Coventry University Hospital. We waited for a while and we were seen by a nurse. We continued waiting until a doctor called out Amar's name around 2pm. The children A&E doctor was happy to let us go home with antibiotics but she would like a second opinion from a Surgeon.

Again omitting the many (my anger and frustration) details, we waited a further 5 hours to be seen by the surgeon (That was around 7.30pm). He was in the theatre the whole time. Babah arrived to see us about an hour before the Surgeon's examination on Amar.

After a quick examination, the Surgeon called a Urologist for another opinion. By then Amar was already traumatised by people groping his private part. After at least three separate examinations, the Urologist referred us to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Saturday, 7 July: Amar was given an appointment at 10am to go straight to ward 9. There was also instruction for Amar to have his last milk at 6am and last clear fluid at 10am just to prepare him for a surgery.

Again all my frustration, bitter and sad memories will be excluded from this entry.

Two hours after we arrived, Amar was seen by a nurse for his history and general check up. We were all hungry since it was already lunch time. We had to sneak away from Amar just to have a bite of bread and a sip of drink. He finally saw Sarah eating a chocolate filled brioche and started to whine and extended his hand through the cot's bars as if pleading to have just a tiny bit of the bread.

He continued crying until he fell asleep -hungry- on Babah's shoulder. He slept for about two hours and woke up smiling.

Then finally around 4pm (almost one whole day of fasting by our 2 year old Amar), the Registrar and (I assume) the Consultant oncall came to Amar's bed to examine him. The Registrar apologised several times for the wait to which Babah didn't say anything, and I avoided her eye-contact for I too was uncertain what to say.

Both doctors were happy to discharge Amar from the ward that day, [excluding all the medical jargons] but he has to come again on Monday for a review.

So that's the briefest summary I could give here. To date, the swelling has reduced in size and Amar looks OK. He still continues with his antibiotics and hopefully he won't have to go through a surgery afterall.

Coombe Abbey: 2 June 2007

I guess my statement and estimation was right after all when I said, I will write about our picnic at Coombe Abbey in a month's time! I first heard about Coombe Abbey from a friend during Princess's birthday party. She said Malaysian in Coventry used to do lots of barbecue there.

On 2 June 2007, the weather looked quite promising with plenty of sunshine. So we invited very close friends for a picnic at the place. Babah actually insisted a barbecue, but there was very little time to buy then marinate the meat. Therefore, a simple picnic was good enough.

Our friend D and her family led us to Coombe Abbey. There was proper signs along the way, so it was quite easy for us. We were so excited and happy when we reached the place. Again, Coventry has surprised us with its hidden beauty.

It was the first time for all of us (our family, D's family and Dina), but we immediately envisioned more picnics in the future. Originally a monastery, now a four star hotel covers a huge piece of ground. There is also a man-made canal and moat which was built in 1861. Full history here.

We had to pay a minimal parking fee and carried our stuff to the picnic spot. We purposely chose an area facing the back of the hotel and the moat.


There was plenty of space for the children to explore. The children saw rabbits and squirrels capering in the area too.


We had nasi lemak, karipap and some fizzy drinks. Babah bought some ice-creams at one of the kiosks there.


The children enjoyed themselves around the moat after their light lunch.


They also enjoyed themselves feeding the ducks, geese and swans. [Above photo shows twin D distributing the seeds equally in different bags]

Not long after that, Amar fell asleep while the rest of the children played at the children's playground situated at the front/beginning of the park.

Just before we left, we did our (borrowing Babah's words) obligatory jumping pose.

I know I misjudged [ie failed to snap] their jumping, but I love to see the way they rolled on the ground after their excellent synchronised jumping in the air.

Sarah watched from the side. She refused to join because she was unhappy about not getting something she wanted. [notice the similarity of her pose with the blurry statue in the background?]

A few people tried to make her smile again. But she just decided to be difficult. She even pushed Babah away.

Oh well, we still like Coombe Abbey nevertheless. We couldn't wait to go back to explore the rest of the place. Unfortunately, the weather has really been pretty gloomy for the last few weeks. Plus the whole family had chickenpox. We just can't wait for a cheerful weekend for another round of picnic. We might not be able to do our barbecue though, I've just read a notice put up by the Council that they have banned barbecue at all of their parks!!! [I don't mind nasi lemak again]