house chores

I must admit that I was spoiled as a child. I remember never having to do any chores around the house, not even washing my own dish after lunch or dinner. They were all taken care of. All I had to do was just ask, sit back and I would (almost always) get what I wanted. So I grow up not knowing some basic home survival skills (ouch!) like cleaning, cooking, and maintaining. If you asked me what spinach, coriander, parsley, or cumin look like I would certainly answer "I don't know".

I know sooner or later I have to learn about this domestic wonders. This is the perfect time. I get to manage my own place now, so like it or not I must do things I've been avoiding my whole life. Cleaning the bathroom will always be on the top of my list, but doesn't a squeaky clean bathroom reflect your whole household? Scrub, scrub, squirt, squirt, brush, brush...and I was surprisingly happy with my own bathroom cleaning skill. It wasn't that hard after all.

When it comes to kitchen skills, sadly I wasn't born with many talents. My first attempt of making a lasagna was a disaster. It had no shape whatsoever and got burned pretty badly :P Other than the 'lasagna incident' I managed to make some basic dishes, mainly because I took advantage of ready to use spices (thank God for these little marvels!)

Unlike me though, my son is keen to participate in cleaning the house. When he saw me mopping the floor, he insisted that he'd do the job without my help. Gosh..how sweet of him. I'm so inexperienced in this field, my husband is just hopeless and look what we produce...!!! I hope he grows up getting used to all of this chore stuff.

The Beach

Don't you just love the beach? Akram finally went to the beach for the first time. We had an isra mi'raj holiday here and went to Jumeirah Beach Park in Dubai. Oh it was a perfect day. The weather was nice, hot of course but you could still feel the summer breeze. The beach was quite packed abd everyone was wearing their smiles :) Some were barbeque-ing, some playing volley ball, some staying inside the water to escape the heat, and some just enjoying the whole experience...like me. I haven't got a chance to visit the beach in a long time. So feeling the sand against my feet and inhaling the ocean air was really nice. Akram didn't waste more time. He went straight to play with his beach toys with his dad. I was just happy to be there :)

Semangat Merah Putih

Wah kalau lagi di rantau apalagi yang ditunggu-tunggu kalau bukan perayaan 17 Agustus? Di Dubai, hajatan digelar di Safa Park. Kita pergi rame-rame sama keluarga Pak Ari, pendatang baru di Sharjah yang kita kenal pas lagi belanja di Carrefour Sharjah City Centre. Naik mobil baru lho! Enaknya punya mobil...nggak harus tergantung sama taxi yang bayarannya muahaal banget!! Apalagi kalau harus commute Sharjah-Dubai, sehari bisa keluar 120 Dirham atau kira-kira Rp. 312.000. Lumayan kan, uang segitu bisa buat makan rame-rame!
Aku dan Akram pake baju bernuansa merah putih dong. Eh, begitu sampai di Safa Park langsung kelihatan deh kerumunan orang Indonesia yang juga pada pakai baju merah putih. Tumpah ruah muka-muka melayu, berbagai jenis dari segala lapisan masyarakat. Seneng banget!!! Terik matahari nggak kerasa lho, saking semangatnya mau ikutan perlombaan. Tadinya aku mau ikutan balap karung, tapi ngantrinya panjang banget. Akhirnya daftar tarik tambang dengan nama grup Merdeka 2 (merdeka 1-nya suami2 kita...heheh). Semua yang datang dapat snack box gratis. Isinya tahu isi super size, pisang goreng (juga super size), dan lemper. Eh di pojokan ada yang jual teh botol kemasan kotak. Kangen bangeeet sama teh botoooll.....!!!

Eng ing eng....waktu perlombaan tarik tambang pun tiba. Si ayah sama teman2 dari Sharjah menang lho....!!! Lawannya sih nggak gede-gede banget, ya seimbang lah sama ukuran badan mereka. Bangga juga....tapi grup cewek-nya malah kalah. Kurang semangat....yang semangat aku dan mba Andia doang....yang lainnya lemes dikit, kepanasan ya mungkin...hehehe.

To complete the whole 'Indonesian experience', pulangnya kita diajak makan sama Pak Ari ke restoran Singapore Deli. Namanya sih berbau-bau Singapore, tapi makanannya asli Indonesia dong. Pelayan dan koki-nya juga orang Indo! Aku makan bihun goreng, yang lain pada kangen sop buntut. Pulangnya kenyang, bau matahari, dan gatal-gatal karena duduk di rumput tapi....SENENG!! Hehehe...Merdeka!

Neighbour

It's not easy finding Indonesian friends here in Sharjah, but I'm very lucky to have found one...residing near my building, just 5 minutes walk. I know her through my mom's friend who lives in Dubai. One day she called and I eagerly asked if I could visit her. She has a 4 year old daughter, so I brought my son with me.


The minute she opened her apartment's door, I could smell something so nice. She made us a plate of onde-onde (balls-shaped sweets covered with sesame...hmm..) and combro (traditional Indonesian snack made from cassava, coconut flesh, tempe or soy cake and various spices). Yummy!! So we chat and chat and though her pretty daugher Zahra and Akram were not really playing together, my son refused to go home so my husband had to pick us up

We certainly had fun and went home with a bag full of onde-onde and combro :)

*picture by Patrick Beckers

Driving License Drama

One of the downside of living in the Emirates is the difficulty of getting a driving license. Ironically, we have a high rate of accidents and the taxi drivers here are the most reckless I've met so far. My husband is a living proof of the issue. First of all, being an Indonesian citizen doesn't help. Our very own license is not valid (I guess everybody in the world knows how easy to get a license in Indonesia even when you don't actually know how to drive). So my husband must take an initial test to determine whether he has to enroll in a driving institute or not. Turns out, he needs twelve hours of lesson to take the official driving test (yet I know for sure that he is a very good driver, too careful sometimes..)

In the process of the lessons, the instructor said that he doesn't have to complete all twelve hours, and suggested that my husband should take the police test right away (this is a bit weird considering my husband had paid the full amount of the lessons fee, and I'm telling you it's not cheap!!) So after just three or four lessons, he took the test. Result: he failed because the policeman said my husband didn't see a car behind him or something like that (not really an important point). Second attempt, from the first time my husband saw the policeman who was going to test him he knew something was wrong. The policeman was bossy and rude to everyone (there were three other men taking the test). So the result was quite as predicted, he failed again, came home swearing without really saying the swear words...hehe...but I could see from his face that he was really pissed off.

Today, the third attempt.....he finally succeed!! Hooray!!! I guess this will be the driving license experience he will remember for the rest of his life :P

To Infinity and Beyond...

Buzz and Woody are just so much fun!!!! I watched the first Toy Story years ago when it was first released and didn't watch it again until recently. Bought both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 DVD's before moving to the Emirates especially for Akram. He liked it the instant we watched them, and ever since he's been absorbed by the world of buzz, woody and the whole toy gang. I have to admit that I've been developing a huge amount of fondness for the heroes of the movies. Especially Woody, who's voice is played by Tom Hanks, my favorite actor. I think Woody is hilarious! He's definitely more 'human' than Buzz. He makes mistakes and learn from them (like we all do), but doesn't mean that I don't like Buzz. He's Akram's favorite! In fact, we just bought a Buzz Lightyear toy for him a week ago, and Buzz has won a special spot on Akram's bed. "To infinity and beyond...", Akram chants those words everyday while jumping of off the bed or couch.

The more I watch those movies, the more I like them. I even laugh at the same jokes and same silly scenes over and over again. The other character I like is Rex the Dinosaur with inferiority complex. He's soooo culun and polos (I couldn't find the right english words to describe him...free translation: comical and naive???) His comments and facial expression are so funny, thumbs up for Wallace Shawn who did Rex's voice. There's been a rumour going on that Disney will make Toy Story 3, but without Pixar, the brain of the project. Some websites mention that it's been cancelled (ooh, too bad). I'd love to see all of the toys going on an adventure again. But hey...there will always be Toy Story and Toy Story2 to keep me and my son entertained.
For those of you who haven't had the chance to watch these movies, please do! It's suitable for all ages, packed with laughter, and features amazing songs. So go grab some chips and colas, and laugh your heart out!