My Little Angel

How many of you know of any young girls/boys who wake up extra early in the mornings to cook for their Mom or Dad before they leave for college?

I know one, and I'm happy to say that she's my daughter!

To be precise, she woke up at 6.30am (her classes start at 10am), just to prepare this for my post-workout meal and also another portion for her daddy to take it to the gym with him as an after-snack. And it's not only today, but this happens whenever my husband intends to go for a morning workout. She voluntarily does this and takes pride in doing it. When Daniel was in college, Kelly used to do this for her brother as well. And on the other hand, when the brother was on semester breaks or during his off days, he used to cook for his sister's college meals. Nothing like home-cooked food right?

And that's the 'packed' version for Daddy to take with him to the gym.

What goes around comes around, yes? Because this is exactly what I used to do for my children from their pre-school days till the day they finished high school. And during their recess breaks, I used to bring them food as well as fruits (for their dessert) for them and their friends. I was a full time housewife, therefore I owned the luxury of preparing homemade meals for children and husband all the time. And I loved and still love every single time I'm able to do it.

So it was pan-seared Salmon, with broccoli, carrots, potatoes and steamed white rice.

And later (very much later) tonight as in after midnight when Kelly gets home from her friend's function and when I get home from mine, we plan to bake a chocolate volcano fudge for us to indulge when we have our Mother-Daughter movie marathon throughout the night.

Blessed weekend, babes!

Earthly Paradise

Happy Tuesday my darlings.

I won't do much writing in this post, because I just want you to relish in these pictures. Welcome to Sipadan and Mabul islands, located in East Malaysia. From crystal clear waters to amazing corals, this is certainly one of the most beautiful islands among others.

And if you ever wondered how pearls are related to oysters, wonder no more when you come across the pictures further down below.

Enjoy!

And that's Edward Kong, owner of the oyster farm, demonstrating where how pearls comes off the oysters

Well, who loves oysters? And by the way, none of the hands in those previous pictures with the oysters belong to me, haha.

So it was sun, sea, and then some. Love you guys so much and keep the vibrations high!

Omi

"She came at a time when I was feeling an emptiness in my life. Her positive energy 

pulled me out of darkness and after a few days, I started to live again.
She never asked, but she understood. 

And I can't thank her enough for that.."

I spent my Saturday night at home yesterday, with one of the loveliest woman on Earth.  Omi - Hamed's mother. She came over with Hamed and his kids and it was truly a Saturday night well spent.

What you're looking at, is a bottle of massage oil that Omi made for my back, which I injured a couple of weeks ago. She takes so much pride in preparing these oils herself and always brings back some whenever she comes to Malaysia, mainly oil for my hair. Sure she brings me loads of other gifts from Egypt too but I especially love these oils as it's made by her. So it's special. It helps with my hair a lot and if you look at Hamed's hair (which you unfortunately can't), you'll know what I mean.

Anyway, I was talking about last night. Since I couldn't go out, they came over, we had dinner together - Nandos + Dominos takeaways and listened to interesting stories by Omi. Like most elderly women, she loves telling stories and I enjoy listening to it.

My favourite part of the night was the massage I received. Yep, Omi insisted she give me a massage with the oil she made and I kid you not, it was heavenly!!
I just lay there, high as hell while her fingers worked it's magic on my body. For what it's worth, Omi is around the same age as my mother and I'm amazed that she has a pair of strong hands there as she insisted on continuing to massage even when I thought she might be tired. It ended at 1am I think? I was completely in another dimension by then haha. It was too good. I was drifting in and out of sleep because it was so relaxing. At one point when I opened my eyes, she was speaking Arabic to Hamed and at another time I came out of sleep, she was telling me that Hamed is more Malaysian than me now, haha.

I woke up this morning with an urge to hug the Universe. That's how wonderful I felt. For the 1st time in 2 weeks I slept throughout the night and didn't wake up in between to adjust my position. Thanks to that wonderful massage of course. I'd gone for physio therapy before this and it certainly improved my back, but the discomfort was still there until that rubdown last night.

Omi is a beautiful woman. She's physically gorgeous and is one of the kindest persons I know. She's stylish and doesn't look her age at all. Only yesterday did I find out that she's actually Lebanese and only came to live in Egypt after marrying Hamed's late father, who is Egyptian. Hamed and I lost our fathers around the same time, just one month apart and that's one of the reasons when we started to really bond. We could relate to each other's despair.

I remember meeting Omi for the 1st time a few years back. I was kind off nervous. What do I call her? I can't possibly call her 'aunty' because she probably wouldn't know that we Malaysians call any elder women 'aunty'. On the other hand, I can't call her by her name because I feel that it would be rude. "Just call my mother 'Omi'" Hamed told me. And so I did. She was utterly surprised and I was rewarded with many hugs from her for that. We got along from the beginning. And she always says she wish we met earlier. Well, better late than never, right?

I truly enjoyed having her and the kids in Malaysia during their vacation. We crashed so many places but one of my favourite was the day after Raya when both our families went picnicking together at Templer Park's waterfalls. We even got her to cook a few episodes for Hamed's and my videos, remember I told you guys about that?

I also loved those times while Hamed was at work and if I was free, I used to take her out to malls, have lunch together, or just hangout at his place cooking with her.

Come and settle down in Malaysia for good, Omi! Arrangements can be made, no hal. To that, she said that she would love to, but for now, it's impossible because of her 9 grandchildren. "My children always send my grandchildren to me when they go to work. When they grow, I will come and live here of course". Her words.

And today at KLIA before she and the kids left for home after spending several weeks in Malaysia, she thanked me for being a good friend to Hamed. And she told him "You take good care of her". Well Omi, he surely does.

Thanks you for the past several weeks, Omi. Gonna miss you and the kids so much. Can't wait to have you guys here again. Love you loads xoxo