Jalan jalan pergi Korea with Maria Tunku Sabri, cheap muslim package

Hello K-pop lovers! And fans of Maria Tunku Sabri!!

With great pleasure, I would like to announce that my cousin's travelling agency company is organising a muslim trip to Korea this April. Check out the details in the flyers below.

Not only muslims can follow this cheap tour, it is also open non-muslims, but the food will be halal food.

If you are interested, do drop me a line with your email address and I will help you on the registration part.

Dengue and its prevention

I attended a talk on dengue some time last week and it's quite interesting to know certain facts that I have never been exposed before. All I had ever known about dengue was, you'll get it from a mosquito called Aedes and it is active during early morning and late evening. Full stop. But there's more.

So far we have no vaccine for dengue and there is no proper treatment for it. If you are diagnosed, you will be admitted to the hospital and you will be dripped with water. So it is very important that you prevent it from happening rather than trying to cure it.

Dengue is transmitted between people by Aedes mosquito. So someone who has ben infected by the virus when being bitten by the mosquito, that insect will carry the virus in her (only female bites). That virus can multiply in her body and stay about 3-7 days. When bit someone else she will passed the virus to that poor healthy person.

60% to 70% of our population has been infected by dengue whether or not you are aware of it, depending on individual's level of antibody. First bite normally will not be very severe, but when you get bitten for the second time, that's when you can see all the symptoms, again, depending on the level of antibody and which level of virus has been transmitted to your body. This virus will go away from human body usually after 7 days, depending on the severity.

There are a lot of probable symptoms, and the obvious ones are nausea, vomiting, rashes, body aches and bleeding. Rashes will be something coming from under your skin, usually at your arms, legs, and sometimes whole body. It is not like acne, so you can't feel the rashes but you can see reddish spots from under your skin.

1 mosquito can lay 100 eggs and they can become adult in 1 week. When in the eggs or during lava stage, they do not carry the virus. They only carry and transmit the virus when become adult. Hence, anything that contains water must be washed once a week, before the eggs have the chance becoming adult. Not only you wash and throw the water away, you must scrub the surface as well to deform the eggs, as when you throw the water, the mosquito's eggs will be glued at the hard surface, and they can live on a dry surface for 9 months. Once water touched the eggs, they will hatch and become lava. How scary... Coz you thought you have washed it all.

Aedes bites between 5 to 7 am/pm. So be careful when your kids go out and play. Iris loves playing outside during these times in the evening. Its life span is about 2 weeks to a month and it can fly up to 50-150m. They like dark coloured container/shirts, especially red because it reminds them of blood. Female aedes feeds on blood as they need blood to produce egg (male aedes are vegetarian). These insects are attracted to human sweat. So...rajin rajin la mandi ye.

Some petua for dengue fever, which not proven medically but has been a practice:
Pucuk betik rebus and minum, air kelapa and crab soup.

Hope this helps.



Talk by vector specialist.
     

Marriage

No matter how long you have been married to each other, there are always a lot of things to be improved. No marriage is perfect. Hence, both husband and wife were made for each other, have to constantly reminding each other, to make a happy family.

Mufti Menk, on marriage.

1. Everything is created with partners/spouses/pairs.

2. If you take care of your tongue and private parts, paradise is guaranteed for you.

3. If before marriage already lived in together under shadows of syaitan, when you get married, syaitan will make you fight, and influence you for adultery with somebody else. But if you marry for the right reason, you will always have natural feeling towards your wife, that you have never had it before marriage, maybe more in love than before.

4. Sunnah Rasulullah s.a.w: Be conscious with your pair, created from the rib of Adam a.s. Know that man was created from something dead (soil) but woman was created from something alive (Adam's rib).
Masya Allah... so females are actually gifts to men. (After Adam A.S doa to Allah that he was lonely, Allah s.w.t created Hawa.

5. Be conscious with Allah s.w.t. You will never disrespect your responsibility towards your family, no cheating etc.. because Allah watches you.

6. Be conscious of wombs in your wife, mother, and mother in law. The wombs carry all your zuriat.

7. Those who live separately with the parents, insyaAllah will have better relationship with the parents. There shouldn't be 2 kings/2 queens in a house. Parents must allow their children to live separately and not to interfere with their lives.
This is very true. I am currently staying with my parents, and yes, there are issues when there are 2 kings in the house. When it's about paying stuff and taking care of things in the house, we were always being reminded that we are adults and now it's time for us to take over. But when about making decisions about the family and that sort, we are just kids. So yea..not that I don't love my parents, but I think these issues will be resolved, once we are on our own.

8.  99% problems of marriage comes from communication, the way we speak. Husbands have to make jokes, praise the wives, make them smile and blush, be as romantic as possible like Rasulullah s.a.w used to do with his wives. Speak up when you have to speak.
Also true. My husband is not a romantic person. And he doesn't speak his mind very often too. Seldom praise me, well nothing to praise I suppose. He is too honest that sometimes it hurts me. Ouch..truth hurts.

9. A woman controls the love in her man. Smile, cook, do everything for him. Man will have inclination towards the woman even if the cooking is not nice.
Ermm...must remind the husband, he is too honest with my cooking.

10. To make a happy home:
- spend time
- tolerate on differences
- Speak
- trust
- tender and lenient, calm and polite, sweet talk
Hard and harsh will drive the partner away.

11. Thankful to your partner always to show appreciation.

12. Always try to put yourselves in your spouse's shoes. Try understand where they coming from.

13. High tone of voice in the house will make people in the house lose respect towards you. If a child see the father or mother scream and shout, this will haunt them forever. Lose respect.

14. Select your words when speak to wife or children. Instead of saying 'shut up', just put your finger on the nose to ask them keep quiet.

15. How to choose a spouse: Beauty, stability, closeness to Allah. Find a woman that has a good bring up, because your children will follow you.
I think this applies to women as well. Choose your spouse wisely. Not just about love. Love can be developed after marriage.

16. For women to work is last resort. Primary role is to give birth and to take care of homes. That is why womb is not placed in men.
Well, I can't do this yet. I think if you work and you still give birth and able to keep your family harmony, it's tough, but it's most respected. Because you work, to reduce the burden of your husband, right? But of course I have to hire a maid for washing and cleaning. So I am not there yet ok. I wish I can work and do housework at the same time. But I can't. Kene improve? Yes. Ke arah isteri mithali, insyaAllah.

But basically all other things yang Mufti Menk cakap are mostly reminder for the men. Too many responsibilities in a man to keep your family together. So, my man! A lot to improve?

Iris' Food

If you speak to all devoted mommies out there, food is one of the most important thing to watch out for their babies. I am not particularly good at this. I don't read books or online articles about what food suits babies according to their age, never. I just follow my instinct.

I look at my daughter, see the number of teeth, imagine if I were her at that age, will I be able to take that food. Of course I over-do it at times. Or under-do it. But there were a lot of trial and error involved. There are no hard and fast rule, really. Just what you think is best for your child.

Everything is introduced in stages. Supaya perut tak terkejut. And I started with something very mild and easy to chew and digest.

Below 6 months
Iris was exclusively breastfed until 6months old. When she reached 6 months, it was the fasting month, and I couldn't cope with the milk pumping 3 times a day. I decided to mix with formula milk since she was already passing her 6 months mark. I didn't want to do puasa ganti sebulan. Tak sanggup.... I would have, if she hasn't yet turned 6 months.

6months
Iris started her first solid at 5months and 29 days because the grandma was so eager to put something in her mouth. And of course because she had shown signs of interest in food since she was 5months. She would look at your mouth when you chew your food, look at the spoon as you take it to your mouth, with her mouth open of course. (Google for signs in babies to know if she is ready for solid. Some babies show signs later than this, means she is not ready).

6.5 months to 7 months
Her first solid was fruit puree. Thanks to my bestfriend Ira for making Iris' first apple puree. So we made her banana, apple, honeydew and papaya, and she loved banana the most. She was only on fruit puree for about two weeks, then I started to feed her blended porridge mixed with banana and dates. Not very long after, I introduced her steamed, blended vegetables mixed with her blended porridge. So I had bayam, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins. I have also added sweet potato puree and she loved it so much. Still continuing with fruit puree though, although they were not the main food. So at this stage she was only eating twice a day.

7.5 month to 8 months
Started to introduce her fish. Mostly on salmon. Realised that she loved grilled salmon. And we have been giving her salmon almost everyday. So porridge mixed with salmon and vegetable. We stopped carrots and pumpkin because it caused her skin to be yellowish, carotenosis they call it. But she continued with everything else. And we have added more kinds of vege in her list. She already started to take dinner at this point, so three meals a day.

8 months to 10 months
Introduced chicken to her. Mostly grilled. At 10 months old, we stopped blending her rice, just put more water in her rice and started to introduce egg yolk. Sometimes mommy cooked pasta for her, but she prefers rice.

10 months to 1 year old
I tried to cook lauk for her with kuah so she can eat with her rice. Because at this stage, she eats normal rice that we eat, so I thought some kuah would be nice for her. I never added salt to any of her food. Tried to delay the salt.

1 year old
Started to introduce her red meat. A bit too late some would say. But I just thought red meat is a bit too hard to digest. I don't know. But anyway, at this point, everybody starts giving her little bites from whatever they are eating. So she has developed the sense of taste now. She no longer wants food without salt. She would cry for the food on the adult's table and refused to ear the one in her bowl. So for me, either I let her go hungry, or let her eat adult's food.

At first, I couldn't help it but cried when she rejected my cooking. Either because my cooking is lousy or she refused to take food without salt anymore. Husband comforted me saying that the little salt that we put in our cooking will eventually diluted and spread in the kuah. Berapa banyak sangat la kuah baby tu makan. Which makes sense.

So I have accepted the fact that my baby has grown up and she has well developed her taste bud. Insisting on eating baby food is like letting her go hungry. I know there are ways to make baby food that has good tastes, but I am no chef. I cook following recipes, I can't improvise my cooking to suit babies. I am just lousy at it.

I believe all mothers love their children so much and would like to have the best for their babies. If Iris wants adult food, and if that's what makes her eating, so be it. I tried to preserve feeding babies food (very little salt or no salt at all) to Iris, and I only managed to do it for 1 year. Good enough for me.

As long as you're eating, baby!

My super energetic baby girl modelling Prada shades