Totally Neglected

This place is totally neglected. It's been a while and my mood to fill up this space is absolutely no where to be found. 

Have been travelling. Went to Jakarta with my bff Muni during the Deepavali & Maal Hijrah mid week break. Went to work on Monday. Off to Jakarta on Tuesday. Took leave on Wednesday. In Jakarta still on Thursday. Came back that night and was at work again on Friday. A very packed week, wasn't it? Dengar pun penat.

Yes, it was tiring. But it was a very fulfilling trip (errr....kala mana yang trip tak pernah fulfilling lah kann!) Met up a dear friend in there. Shopped. Ate. Spa-ed. 

Amused ourselves with the vivid aptness on the locals speak - at times you just can't get it to you head how clever is their word choice and match. If I have the time, will tell the story....later. Everything is now pushed till later; till better and freer time arrives for more serious writing. Question is - will that better and freer time ever come? 

And it's almost December. A whole year is almost gone.

IDK - I Don't Know (learnt this from Nissa's sms texts)

Sigh......

Blackout Bakes

In 10minutes my cake should have been ready. Then all of the sudden, the lights went out. We thought it was just our home. A peek out the window not long afterwards affirmed that the entire area was affected.

Nissa was in the kitchen - going back and forth to the oven, checking anxiously on the cake. She's so hyper these days and her occasional sugar crave can drive me up the wall at times. Nak Cool Blog lah, nak Slurpee lah. Tonite she asked me to bake a cake.

When the lights suddenly went off, she jumped like a grasshopper around the kitchen, shrieking as if she saw ghost. Ingatkan kenapa je budak ni terlompat-lompat macam makan belacan! Ohhh rupa-rupanya ada orang ketakutan...cheh badan je besar! 

Facebook-ing in the dark....bad, bad for the eyes!!

Anyway, power only came back after about 45mins of sweating in the dark. And my cake?? Would it survive? 

Well, it did!! When power came back, I added another 10mins to the baking time. And the cake turned out great.

I was lucky, that's for sure :)


Sent via Kay's Berry

Cooking with Love

All these cooking and cake making without any doubt gives one some kind of a satisfaction. It feels great when the food is all finished and all the hard work of slogging in the kitchen is appreciated.

However, doing all the chores by yourself is no fun. Trust me when you have to do EVERYTHING from peeling the onions, cutting vegetables right till clearing the dishes, urggghhhhhhh PENAT!!! We do not have a maid anymore. The last one left - seperti biasa lari or in their lingo kabur; mana she went entah and I am not at all bothered to know what happened to her. This is not the first time I am faced with such a situation. Last year, I went solo in the kitchen during Ramadhan. And the situation is the same still this year. Tapi this year, umur pun dah meningkat, maka kepenatan itu pun bertambah.

Last year however, due to my new work assignment and its ridiculous hecticnes, I wasn't able to prepare much of food for our breaking of fast. There was this one kedai makan which we always frequented for our meals during the non fasting days. So obviously food for our breaking came from their kitchen. 

This year alhamdulillah, I'm quite relieved that I have more flexibility at work. Deliverables are manageable and during this fasting month we were allowed to take off early. If the roads are really, really okay (and it has been that way these past few days) I'd be pulling in to my driveway by 5pm!! Terkejut neighbours bila melihat I'm home when the sun is still bright. And what's most delighting is that I have time to cook!! 

Jadi....dapur itu sudahlah muka berasap. Simple dishes like soups, fried noodles and some lauk pauk would feast the hungry ghosts ones at home and it gives a real nice feeling when everyone is home having meals together. 

Sekarang sudah agak berkurangan ke Ramadhan Bazaar to buy food. It's not that I do not want to support these seasonal mushroom like sprouting small traders in making it big at Ramadhan. Most of the time juadah from them are rather disappointing. Not fresh, tak cukup rasa and price yang ditetapkan adalah sangat tidak berbaloi.

Early this morning at sahur, when I gulped down the dry and not-so-nice kueh kochi (bought at the Ramadhan Bazaar) my high hopes were shattered. Sebabnya? TAK SEDAP!!!

Oleh itu, akan adalah project "cuba, try, test" this weekend (kot??). Must attempt to make these sweeties – a must have for berbuka when my late grandmother was around.

Ohhh.....could just taste the sweet filling melting in my mouth. 

Kena buat jugak ni!!

Anyone remembers this batu kisar tepung? Then tepung beras kampit was no avail. To make the sweet kuehs, one would have to soak the beras pulut and later use this grinder to get that milky batter. (picture taken at a cousin's house in Air Pa'abbas, Alor gajah Melaka)

This kukur kelapa is used for shredding coconut from its interior. One needs strength to sit on this low benches. But actually, one has to learn how to use it. Tak betul cara guna, takut muscle pull akibat nya! (picture taken at National Museum Singapore)

 

Most important for kueh kochi is its sweet fillings - the inti. The coconut must be fresh and to use the best brown sugar - gula enau from Juasseh, Kuala Pilah!

Pekan Juasseh....where one finds gula enau, chendol, biskut Azan and that out of this world rojak mamak Ali Kutik.

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

If you have fetish eaters like I do, putting together dishes they would not frown and make faces at is an absolute challenge. During this fasting month, the challenge can drive you up the wall. So in order to not go any more crazy than I already am, I resorted to seeking help from Uncle Google – in more specific the food blogs.

Just imagine, at lunch break mem-browse blogs yang penuh dengan gambar-gambar food yang tak terkata yummyliciousnya. Tergugat iman? Maunya tak!! But tak de lah sampai nak berbuka pulak kann. Just enough to stimulate the mind into figuring out what to cook later.

Anyway, one day when browsing for pasta recipes guess where it brought me? Yup, I landed at some blogs which had cakes of various shapes, colors and flavours. Ohhh...dugaan sesangat!

My baking...well it's mediocre lah. Just suka-suka whenever I feel like it. Obviously my baking akan ikut mood; if jiwa kacau, I'd bake more frequent. Kalau keadaan kehidupan macam relax and selesa je, tak de nya kisah nak mengguli-uli tepung and butter tu. And because baking ni tak serious, ada masanya yang diadun tu menjadi cantik. And ada masanya ia akan terus masuk dalam dustbin. I wish one day to be able to bake macarons like the Kitchen Guardian. When that happens, I think I should jejak qaseh dengan my cikgu Homescience dulu and tell her “hey maam...look, I didn't turn out to be so bad lah”. Considering dulu she pernah kata if I failed my exams, I should just kawin je (ohhh sampai hati cikgu...saya ni bercita-cita tinggi, cikgu....and how could you not see that??) Tapi mana boleh durhaka pada guru kan? Nanti tak berkat ilmu and macam tak sincere pulak bila tiap-tiap tahun nak bagi hadiah during Teacher's Day celebration.

Anyway, back to the story of fetish eaters. I Googled pasta and it brought me to cakes. Ciss tak baik betul Uncle Google ni. So dipendekkan cerita dalam the many cake sites, I found one recipe that I thought was pretty simple and manageable. And because it was something that has something to do with Japan, lagilah it got my attention. Anything to do with Japan or Korea would definitely interests the J-pop and K-pop junkie in the house (read: NISSA lah who else!)

The cake is called Hokkaido Chiffon Cake (original recipe here). Nama glam lah kan. But seriously speaking, it's pretty easy to make. So sebenarnya bukan lah I pandai sangat nak buat. Cuma pandai follow instructions yang diberikan lah kot. Jadi friends who were so quick at complimenting my “ke-terrer-an” at baking, thanks, thanks, and thanks again. Tapi sebenarnya, you all semua pun boleh nak try out this cake ya :)

So to friends who have asked for the recipe, here goes..... Try ya jangan tak try coz these snowy, soft and spongy babes are really nice :)

Hokkaido Lemon Chiffon Cupcake

(I tweaked it by adding lemon rind to give a bit of flavour)

Ingredients

3 egg yolks, at room temperature
20g caster sugar
35g corn oil
60g full cream milk
70g cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon lemon rind (if u like a more lemony cake, u can add more)
3 egg whites, at room temperature
25g caster sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream Cheese Filling 

(recipe actually suggested something with custard and whipping cream, but I improvised)

2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons cream cheese
4 tablespoons icing sugar (use more if you like it sweet)
1 teaspoon cream
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1.Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

2. Remove eggs from fridge 30 minutes before you start, and separate the egg yolks and whites and place in separate bowls covering them in cling film until ready. Arrange paper liners on a muffin tray.

3. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolk and sugar until pale yellow in colour. Add in oil and milk, and mix well. Add lemon rind. Add the cake flour and combine.

4. In a separate bowl (make sure bowl and whisk are very clean and free of oil or else the eggs whites will not rise), use an electric whisk to beat the egg white until foamy and then add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the sugar, and continue to beat til stiff peaks.

5. With a spatula, gently fold 1/3 of egg white into the egg yolk batter.

6. Fold in the balance egg white until well-combined.

7. Fill the pre-arranged paper liners to about 3/4 full.

8. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Do not overbake or else texture of the cake won't be as light. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

9. Using an electric whisk, beat butter till it's fluffy.

10. Add in cream cheese, sugar, plain yogurt and cream. Whip everything until it turns light and creamy. Use a chopstick to make a hole in the middle of the cake. Pipe cream into the cooled cupcake and dust with icing sugar.


Recipe makes about 10 cupcakes if you use the squarish paper cups.
I must say they go very well with a cup of hot coffee or hot milo at iftar :-)

Sent via Kay's Berry

Skylark Takes A Break

Actually...tak perlu cerita pun tak pe about this. But...on second thoughts, cerita pun okay gak.

Two days ago was "heart" day lah kan. Of course there was no celebrations. Did moot via BBM if kot lah teringat nak gi Giant beli Ferraro Roche or Selberan KLCC (hahhh tu diaaaa...punya lah langit dgn bumi punya request!) to grab that eye blinding solitaire. Anyway, respond via BBM macam mendatar. So be it lah...tak pe. Lagi pun just came back from holidays, so cannot and MUST not complain.

Came home from work like always - late. After dinner, Nissa wanted to bake something. I said, "Yeah...why not. We have flour, choc powder and all the ingredients to bake moist choc cuppies."

And we did just that. Got the perkakas out and started baking.

Nissa said, "Let's use the silicone baking pan. Its "heart" shaped. Would be nice to make heart shaped cakes for Daddy kan..."

Okay, we did just that. The pan was something we got on our last day in Osaka hari tu. Excited lah nak guna. Plus nak test jugak...mana lah tau kot-kot cair ke under the extreme baking heat.

Anyway, about 30mins after I put in the first batch of bakes, ready lah those cute "hearts". Nissa being Nissa, dia test dulu and bila dah kenyang, she said, "Let's give Daddy."

Mommy said, "Okay...put on a nice plate and you give to him.."

Just seconds after Nissa took the "heart" to her dad, she returned into the kitchen and said, "Dah tido Mama....". Siap dengan facial expressions macam anak Jepun tertinggal subway lagi.

Chessss....kalau tau tadi gi beli cake yang nak expire kat Angle Kek House je kan....

Okay lah...tak larat nak type panjang-panjang cerita ni.

Skylark will return after this, rest assured.

Kick Start 2012

It is down to just four of us in the house now. The two elder kids have gone back to college and with school back in session, Nissa's schedule is pack to the brim again. She's now in Year 5. My oh my....my little baby no more this girl. She has grown so much – bigger and already as tall as I am (but Mommy is petite (ohh yeah??), so I guess this does not make a good height comparison). When we went to buy her school stuffs late last year, it shocked me seeing the size of her school uniform. Even more shocking was her school shoes - those size 8 looked so gigantic on her feet.

We also have a maid now. After those many months of slogging and struggling with the house chores, Alhamdulillah, it was God sent when this Bibik came to us. It's kinda a long story how Bibik ended up at our place. Nonetheless, I am glad that there is someone helping out in that department. I am so relieved that someone will be home waiting for Nissa and ensuring she takes her lunch properly after school.

Bibik being new into our household, has quite a bit of catching up. I wouldn't say she's at par with my super duper Bibik Ton, but so far things are pretty much under control and the house is back to normal. Laundry is cleared daily and there are no more clothes bundled in the basket waiting to be ironed. The lawn is nicely swept and my work clothes are neatly pressed every morning.

I almost forgot how good it felt being the Ma'am again. Just like the other maids we've had, I am keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping that this one will work out for us. If in the last 8 months, I have been going against the odds shouting out of frustration that we don't need a maid in the house, ohhhh now...I hate to gulp the truth that in actual fact YES WE DO!!

Sad....but true......and left with no choice I am.

One More Week

It's the 22nd Ramadan today. It seemed like just yesterday I was preparing the family to gear up for fasting. Time flies like an arrow, for sure. More so when you have a mad, mad schedule like the one I presently have. There is hardly time to get cozy, relax and smell the roses these days....sigh. In fact there is hardly time to smell the good food during this Ramadan....another long sigh. I feel like a robot, serious!

In less than a week, it will be Hari Raya. I gave a tearful glance at my kitchen before I left for work this morning. Whooaaaa.....it sure needs cleaning and some touching ups. The windows could do a good scrub and some re-organizing would give it back its shine and glitter like those days when Bibik manned the home.

Sob...sob...sob.....

Keep Calm

"Aku menanti kamu setiap hari
Aku menunggu dari Isnin, Selasa, Rabu, Khamis setiap hari.............."

Yes, the weekend is here. Am gonna try to keep calm, just as instructed *wink*
But.......ahhh tak pe, tunggguuuuuu....... *big grin*

July

July wishlist
*come home early from work
*catch up with house work
*try new bake recipes
*finish reading the Twilight series
*more time to myself -spa, facial etc
*prepare for Ramadhan
*and go for a quick RT maybe.....

Blog-silent

It's already 10 days into the new year. And this is my first entry after keeping blog-silent for a while. There is actually lots to tell. But time really has not been on my side lately.

The last 10 days has been rough and yes, it will continue on. So much drama this (my...) life is.....

Gotta go now, hoping to be back (like real soon...)

Corat Coret Nak Raya

Some people are saying that Raya will fall on Thursday. Ohhh...no!!! How?? Bila nak start cooking ni?? Panic...panic...panic!!!

Kalau betul lah Raya falls on Thursday, looks like I'll be heading back tomorrow night sans rendang and the other juadah raya I planned to cook. Switch to plan B - pack and head back to Seremban and cook at Mom's place instead. And that would certainly upset some of our Raya plans. But tak kisah lah....Thursday or Friday, celebrate Raya we will for sure.

Faris came home last night and hardly three hours at home Mommy has started giving him list of things to do. He must be still wondering with disbelieve the amount of running around he has to do in the next 36 hours. At the rate I am going, I'm going to need all the extra pairs of hands. And the kids know never to cross my path during these busy times. Pitty them juga, kena kerahan paksa. But no chipping-in no makan nice food yar.....

Ahhh talk about nice food. Last night I became rather adventurous and got my baking stuffs out. My experiment this time was kueh Samprit as per the recipe provided by Lyana in FB. It was the pictures of those flower like cookies Lyana posted on FB that motivated me to get started. I must say the end result was very rewarding. The samprits turned out really, really "samprity" (if there is such a word...). They are so lemak and had such fine texture. The moment you put it in your mouth, it melts!!! Dah lama tak makan samprit such as these. Anyway, I gotta improve a bit more on its appearance. These first badge had the 3G look - gebu, gumuk and geram-milicious. If I baked another round, I must try make it more lady like (just like Lyana's...cantik je samprit dia, ayu macam dia jugak) Last I checked, only a few pieces left; the guys sat and popped samprits after returning from Terawikh a while ago. Sah kena buat second batch ni.

I also saw the maruku made by Naz and ada juga cita-cita nak try buat. But looking at the many ambitious things that I want to accomplish before Raya, I think I'd best try save maruku for some other time (emmppp...Raya haji maybe)

Yahhhh....my hour count down to raya has started. It's time to bersilat and sweat in the kitchen!!! Haaa...baru lah dah terasa nak Raya kan :)

Last Days of Ramadhan

It felt just yesterday that we ushered Ramadhan. It's about to leave us soon. MashaAllah time has flown so unnoticed. Juggling between work demands and family expectations all have made the clock tick faster. And it's already September; enter the last quarter of 2010 and soon it will be time to wrap up 2010!!!! Cepat nyaa....and what happened to the whole 365 days???

Anyway.....by now many are doing their last minute preparations for raya, I'm sure. Saw updates on traffic in the city on FB earlier. Many reported that roads heading into the city are packed - a sure test on drivers' patience on this humid fasting day. Nope....no going out for us today. We are staying away from any malls, Jalan TAR and even Kompleks PKNS which is less than 5 mins drive from home. As Abe put it....dari April shopping raya...tak kan tak cukup lagi?? Of course dah cukup...and if tak cukup pun kira dah cukup lah tu.

Like the previous years, our Raya preparation is always modest. Nothing much on the house. Since the curtains are still nice we felt that it was of no necessity to get new ones. Got the maid to bring them down and washed them. Dah bersih, gantung semula....settle.

No new furniture addition to the house too. I feel we already have enough and certainly do not want to clutter the space that we have. I just need the girls to clean up their room and the house is ready for Raya.

Ohh.....yes the other important thing I need to do is apply my Raya leave. Berapa hari nak cuti??? Emmpppp....macam biasa lah, a day before raya and will probably add one more day on Monday. Kasi chance pada budak-budak cuti lama di kampung....boss start kerja awal tak pe. Boss every two weeks pun balik kampung ;)

And I must remember to bring out the Raya money packs. Tak mau jadi like last year, last minute isi pack in the car while traveling back to Kuala Pilah. This year no can do that coz the journey heading back to KP will be faster (hopefully) with the opening of the Seremban - Kuala Pilah straight road.

Have a good week ahead folks. And to those who are already traveling home - drive safe, have ample rest and exercise safety at all times. Have a terrific time di kampung masing-masing.

Wishing you - Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin (if I don't get the opportunity to bersiaran before raya again).

"They Don't Care About Us"

It sounds like that MJ's song, doesn't it? Precisely, that's how some of us felt today.

We had good vibes that we could finally close this chapter on our delayed completion claims with a housing project developer. When receiving the notification letter of the tribunal hearing date, we had this in mind, "Ahh finally someone is doing something to help us."

Well, you see I had bought this property near my old office some years ago. Reason being...dekat dengan my office, and I wouldn't have to travel so far from SA to Sri Kembangan. The developer, an established company had superb delivery records. We checked them out and we tracked their performance like a policeman. In fact when we asked friends who bought from them, there was not a single damaging complaint about them. No delays no glitches.

Anyway to cut the story short, the property was due for completion in 2006. But during our periodic visits to the development site, hardly any progress was seen. Then we heard in the news that the developer was slapped with some legal tussle. You know lah the usual crap - no funds, legal suits...bla bla bla...

Then the long silence. And the construction site became an abandoned eye sore. We inquired, but we were told to be patient as the project would resume soon.

Well, it did. And late last year we went to collect our house key. Everything was in order. No major complaints on the finishing of the house. But there is just one thing which is not right....its completion was way, way delayed. And as per stated in the S&P, we could make monetary claims for the late delivery.

So we did....

We went to the developer's office to file our claims. Personally, I am very skeptical on this. But Abe said since it is stated in the S&P, we have the right to claim. Okay lah...since you are the paymaster, WE claim lah. And when we calculated the amount came up to quite a handsome figure (me already thinking of cruising the Mediterranean with that money...heh heh)

When we got to the office, we were told a different story. Our numbers and theirs did not tally. IT WAS MUCH MUCH LESS!!! (aihhh...apakah?? And bagaimanakah cara your calculations?? Guna calculator chap mancis api eh?? )

Okay, I was still cool about it and so was Abe. We asked around and were told that we could file our case at this government unit - the tribunal pembeli rumah. And we did and finally today we were called to present our case. Hope floats again... (read: sunbathing on deck to Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, Marseilles.....)

But what happened at the tribunal was a different story. We were told that the developer now has a court protection from having house buyers making claims from them. It's like a restraining order on the house buyers and the developers have become the untouchable ones!! Errr...excuse me, we were the ones who had to still service our loans even though the property did not show any sign of materializing. We were the ones experiencing the delay and they get to hold on to their money still. Apakah?? What happened?? And please explain the logic... Yes, maybe I am buta legal jargons, but in simple English when I read (again and again..) the SPA, it was stated that we can make claims from the developer should there be a delay in the completion of the property.

Bad...bad wolves they are!!

So what next? We wait till the court order ends which will be sometime late August. For the record, this court order was the FOURTH one. If I read the crooked minds of the developers they want to wait till the S&P agreement to become null and void after the two years is up. Jahatttttttt nyaaaaaa!!!!

We were not the only ones at the tribunal this morning. There were others as well. There was a guy who bought an apartment from the same housing project. Unfortunately, the building of his apartment was scrapped as the land was taken for the building of MEX highway. He was supposed to be compensated, deposit returned etc etc...but till now he has not seen his money. Duhhhh...so kesian nya. I hate to imagine what goes on in his home - schooling kids, wife, car loan etc. And I believe, he had the same hopes like we did to.

Anyway....no point lah, thinking about the lost money too much. I always believe rezeki ada di mana-mana. The house is ready pun and we have rented it out. At first we did consider moving there, but after all the hassle, we decided that we should just stay put in Shah Alam. Kids are happier here...sekolah dekat, my office pun dekat dah. Never mind lah if we don't upgrade ourselves into that semiD house, well for now at least. Had we moved, rasa tak larat jugak nak start all over again - furniture hunting and working with contractors on house renovations.

We simply love it here, the place where we first set foot some 20 years ago. Just love the closeness to the big blue mosque, to my abang jual ayam at the market, the makcik jual vege, the rojak man, the pool to go splash into whenever I fancy, and 1001 reasons just to stay put.

What's most important is that we are comfortable and contented in our present crib.

But to those big bad wolves this is what I have to say.........

Happy and Sad Ending

The month of May is coming to its end in a few hours. Fuhh...time surely zooms, and before you know it, a whole six months would have gone by.

Like always, work took precedence amongst all else. I'm happy to say that I've accomplished quite a bit in this month. The curriculum that I designed was well accepted by client and I saw its successful implementation in the last two camps. The response was overwhelming, with participants asking for more in the future. I get lumps in my throat each time we bid our good byes to the children after a good 4 days at camp. Nonetheless, out of sight doesn't mean out of mind coz we meet almost everyday now online. If only these children knew how lucky they were to be the selected few to experience this different method of learning where creativity and collaboration were the essential skills used. I am all so glad to share my knowledge and expertise with to these buds. Hopefully they will benefit from the knowledge, InshaAllah.

On the home front, I'm overjoyed too as we managed to carry out our kenduri kesyukuran sometime early in the month. We feel much at peace now after that traumatic time when fire broke out in our home. I must thank all who came on that day. Thank you to fellow bloggers Zendra, Kak Ezza, Desert Rose, Aida, Madam Principal, my bffs Muni and Jupe, my immediate family members, my Haj sister - Kak Lin, my sister TM and family, neighbours, Abe's colleagues and everyone else who have been so supportive of us during those trying times. I'm sorry if I didn't extend the invite to all, faham-faham saja lah, rumah comel je, takut nak kenduri besar-besaran.

As promised the girls and I had our way of celebrating; we girls just wanna have fun and fun was at the mall. As always Nissa got her wish - stuffs from GIRLS. It was outfit buying for her too, as she made it through the High School Rock cheer leading audition and will after this compete with other students in Putrajaya. And Nissa has really, really grown!!! Other than her school uniform, most of her clothes are obscenely tight. Macam sarong nangka, serious!

Nissa said some of her friends have a collection of these tees from GIRLS - such lucky children.

Told her to go for Enid Blyton's Malory Towers. Instead, she got carried away with "Diary of A Wimpy Kid". She said this is what everyone at school reads now.

So last Friday was shop till we dropped day. When we got home, my feet ached so bad. I must now remind myself that I'm no longer that 20 sumthing girl who could go mall hopping from sun rise till sun down.

Since the PLUS highway south bound at Nilai was badly congested, we took LEKAS to Seremban. It was LEKAS all right. Faris was behind the wheels and he took like 1o mins to get to Ampangan toll on LEKAS.

On Saturday, the girls were supposed to have their usual activities at Art and music class. Just as they were getting ready a call came in for Abe. It was his brother calling to inform him that an ailing uncle had passed on early that morning.

Immediately we changed plans and got kids packing for the day trip back to Seri Menanti for the funeral. Two weeks ago Abe had gone back to visit him when we got news of his frail health.

It rained for a short while before the funeral.

Farah and Daddy walking to the mosque for the prayers.
Al-fatehah, semoga roh nya bakal ditempatkan di kalangan orang yg soleh.

Pak Ngah was the husband of my mother-in-law's sister. Abe's uncle lah kan? Of all his uncles, Pak Ngah was one of the few, that I know. If I recall well, he was the spokesperson for Abe's family during our engagement. Pak Ngah was a real nice man, I respect him for his wisdom and wit. He was 79 and I believe he must have lived his life the fullest.

Cajun seafood pasta

Salmon toast...yummsssss!!!

We ended our long weekend with more makan-makan on Sunday. I decided to try Italian and surprisingly my Cajun seafood pasta turned out a real hit with folks at home (come to think of it, don't think the kids dared say the otherwise).

Then there was the Carrot Apple Nutty cuppies for late night dessert

And Chitty wanted to take five, go chill too.....

Sunshine...Hooray! Hooray!

What a beautiful morning!! The sun's out and I'm pretty determined about putting work aside. And it's too nice of a day to be indoors, knocking hard on the keyboard.

Greens out my window...looks like we'll have rambutans soon :)

Us girls have our plans already lined up till Sunday. Looking good all of us, and with that..... have a wonderful long weekend folks!!

Latest Addiction

Tak de apa-apa lah...saja nak buat topic gempaq je.

I've been walking almost everyday last week. I'd walk for about 45mins, doing between 3-4 kms, Took a break on Thursday coz I had to travel to Seremban for a meeting. Nissa has been pushing me to do my exercise. She was with me during one of my visits to the doctor and she's like repeating what the doctor advised me like an old broken record. The reverse is happening huh? Selalunya Mak nag kat anak, ni anak pulak yang nag kat Mak.

Anyway, it's good that she has challenged me to get my exercise regime going. Actually boleh, cuma at times, giving all sorts of excuses to not get going - rain lah, headache lah, penat lah and my all time favourite is "i need my sleep".

The elder children have also chipped in to encourage this Mom to get herself going. They loaded songs (read: their songs) on my iPod, really upbeat and makes one feel like dancing!! I have now hot, hot companions streaming down my system while I struggle that long 4 km.


So, if you spot me going extra hyper during my walk, this "number" could just be the reason.

Letting Go

"Don't know where to start about what's wrong with corduroy.." said Miranda of "Sex in the City" to her bartender boyfriend. They were talking about how to dress appropriately to a dinner function organized by Miranda's legal firm.

Hey...if I was the boyfriend, I would have replied her that I like corduroy. Not kidding, I have a few cords hanging there in my closet; from jeans to skirts and even a jacket which I could not fit into anymore, want to give it away, but....so sayang nyer.

At every attempt I make clearing my closet, I'll go through this same "yes, you go", "no, you stay" or "maybe yes, maybe no" kind of decision making. It's so difficult to make that call. And as a result of that, my closets are filled to the brim. My build-ins are probably screaming at my wrong doing, how I abuse them, hanging more than I should on the already giving away hanging rod. On top of that, everyone in the house is complaining that he/she has little space left to get clothes organized. And it's all due to my blatant space invasion act. That's what they claim lah....and me, well, I simply can't see what they are fussing about (still in denial as always...)

Anyway, to proof their claims wrong, I made good progress over the weekend. Spent the entire Sunday clearing old stuffs, packed them in boxes and all ready to be taken back to MIL's place. I leave it up to her to have them distributed to anyone she thinks deserves our hand me downs. Most of the clothes are still in good shape and some hardly worn. I remember one corduroy overall which I got for Nissa when she was three years old. It is navy blue and has small red floral prints all around she skirt, one very sweet piece. The last time I deliberated whether to give it away, took it out and put it in back again. This time, my mind is set; it shall go to a new wearer.

Another accumulating guilt...kain!!! Entah bila nak send them for tailoring..sigh.

As I accumulated the "yes, you go" and "no, you stay" pile yesterday, that horrible guilt gush came disturbing; all hands and toes point my way as if telling me "my oh my...you sure know how to empty your purse!!!" Unfortunately, I still have no good answer to that. They say old habits die hard, do they not? Until I get that department sorted out, guess I'll continue making more space for others in the house, well that's the least I could do lah kan....

Curtain Closes on ASEAN Camp

Finally, the ASEAN camp came to a close; last Friday night to be exact. Happy moments for everyone - kids and all of us who worked day and night preparing for the camp, ensuring that everything went as planned.

Venue of the camp...apple crumble dia....adei boleh jatuh kerusi!!!

1 ASEAN community spirit

Joget dikkk...jangan tak joget!! Group performance for the Minister - ASEAN Joget Lambak

The closing was a grand event, no doubt. With this client of ours, "things" are always done in fashion and fashionably right. Anyway, I'm so, so glad that it's all over. My team is to do a post-mortem on our role during the ASEAN camp. Kinda difficult to get ourselves focused right now, as everyone is exhausted and we just want to lay low and spend the last two weeks of the year in peace (read: me as the boss wants to have some quiet time to myself!!)

I have somewhat caught up with my sleep. It was sleep and more sleep over the weekend. And I took off Monday to get stuffs for the girls for my niece's upcoming wedding. Again, my dear uncle has requested that I help him with the speech. Bolehhhh....saya suka buat kerja-kerja gini..heh..heh. It helps defuse all these office madness.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to cook up any holiday plans this year. Unlike the last two years when we had a family holiday to look forward to, this year there is none!! Sedih juga bila dah penat-penat and not going anywhere to chill out. Faris has gone camping with his friends and that leaves me with the two girls' holidaying needs to look into. Well, maybe I could still squeeze kan a few nights in some island somewhere, we'll see how lah.

Wonder who is the proud owner of this one? She's one of the beauties at the cat show.

And another beauty.....

Anyway, Nissa shouldn't have anything to complain about as we got her another kitten at the cat show last weekend. She was feeling down as the other little kittens didn't make it. I don't quite know what happened but many died; only Petra and Luna are still surviving. I suspect it was some kind of infection that got to all of them and made them weak and finally succumbing to whatever that they had. Nissa said that all of them had gone to heaven to wait for her. Yeah.....kucing tu memang lah gi heaven Cik Nissa....but if you don't work hard to go to heaven yourself, you won't get to meet them okay!!

This new cat that we got, Chitty (which means naughty in Burmese) is one very playful kid. Another girl about 4 months old, but she's kinda big for her age. The people from PAWS said that she's a domestic cat, but I suspect there's some mix lineage somewhere. But...gosh, Chitty is one very active cat, practically jumping and running all aver the house. She stays indoors as the others have not made friends with her yet. That would be Nissa's immediate task to "rapatkan" all of them.


So there you have it....just in case you've been wondering where have I disappeared to; the sudden silence in blogspace. It's chill and cat time for me as for now.........

Sunday...Sunday..Happy Day!!

Theme song of popular 80s sitcom "Happy Days" is sung in following manner.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,
Saturday, what a day,
Rockin all week with you.

My version, however would have only one day as my happy day - Sunday. The other days are work days, where got fun one!! Even my Saturdays are not free from doing work. There's always spill over from Friday's tedious undertaking that needed quick attention. Well..that's life in the fast lane. Like the saying goes, tak berani bermain ombak, jangan berumah di tepi pantai, iyer tak?

Today was not supposed to be very much of an eventful day. My plan was to do my routine visit to the market, cook and then rest. There was this naughty thought of doing RT. But didn't quite fancy the idea of going to KLCC to do repeat visit of that "something" I discovered last week. It's school holidays and the place was going to be so jammed packed. Dah masuk alam senior citizen ni...malas nak berebut parking and berlaga-laga bahu kat malls dah. Buat panas hati je nanti... So tak jadi lah berRT nampak nya.

Furry....doting Mom, even with the stomach flu

When I returned from the market, Nissa ran out to get me, causing panic yang tak terkata, telling me that Furry is lifeless!! Duh...kucing lagi?? She demanded that we took Furry to see the vet immediately. That was sometime around noon and the vet place was not opened till 2.00pm. I went and checked on Furry, and yes, she did look rather unwell. Hujan kot...plus orang dalam pantang kan...ade lah something yang tak kena agaknya tu.

Anyway, I thought of having my throw-all-in-spaghetti (macam-macam ada...meat, seafood, vege et all) for lunch. Then came visuals of creamy baked potatoes. Ishhh kucing yang dalam pantang, Mommy kucing pulak yang beriya-iya nak makan. Out the window went my four years in a row new year resolution; the all time favourite "nak lose weight" pledge. Five more weeks to the new year, what the heck, next year, it'll be the same resolution again..sigh.

I have stuffs for spaghetti, but didn't have the right potatoes to bake. I know they have those washed white ones in Te*co. So kena lari kejap la pulak ke situ. Told the girls, since I'm going out, might as well bring Furry along to see the vet.

The girls took Furry to see the vet while I waited in the car. Banyak pulak cats who were sick today, so the girls had to wait quite a while for Furry's turn. Obviously lunch was a very late one today. Nasib baik, breakfast was late, other wise sure kelaparan orang yang berada at home.

Crowd at Ike* today...ramai but still manageable

After that hefty lunch, I told Abe that we should go out, or else we'd surely doze off in no time, nak-nak in this gloomy weather. He asked where to and I answered "Ike*". I knew I won't go wrong with that place coz' there are lots of DIY stuffs that he could find there.

One of the compulsory stops - the lights department

Then off to have a look at the picture frames...
In serious discussion with Farah...which one to get, I supposed.

Yang ni...asyik suruh snap her pics every corner she went

Ohh...who does this bottle belong to? Mommy nye must be terlalu concentrate shopping...bottle pun boleh terselit kat picture frames!!

So menjadi jugak lah RT...walaupun not the RT that I wanted. That's okay....there's always that Christmas shopping...manalah tau I could get lucky again in two, three weeks time :)

Latest Addition

Cleo..mix brown shades
Petra...gray

Gosh...when I review my postings for the past month, they are either about jalan-jalan or cats!! Ohh...get a life, Kay. Bet you the next person who reads this blog would either be wondering if this is a mirror site to Trip Advisor and PAWS.

But I do wanna share news and pics of latest addition to the family. Someone said in FB, I could open a zoo after this. Yeah..I just need to go get myself a cobra, and I'm all set to receive visitors. This is perhaps my greatest accomplishment in life...err in the four legged department I mean. Many of my Uni friends know that I am actually afraid of anything furry, be it four, eight or with many legs. My RT gang, Muni and Jupe know that their cats are to stay away from me whenever I'm at their place; for the moment the felines come close to me, I'd automatically lift up my feet. Geliii lahh...Well, that was then, and I'm getting better.

Cleo (R) & LunaChentaLestari (L)

And now...who is the Mom and granny to these many lil' ones?? Ayooo...no wonder lah ader orang suruh buat zoo!!

The last two days have been really eventful. The two girls - Fuzzy & Brainy gave birth to 5 kittens all together. Total population now is 8 new kittens. Three are already a month old and the other 5 are less than 36 hours old. Farah said that our washing area looks like hospital bersalin tu-ching!! I couldn't help but agree with her.

Fuzzy...in pain. Contractions 5 mins apart

Fuzzy must be thinking...to push or not to push...

Haaa...keluaq dah...TIGA ketoi!!

We still haven't decided who goes and who stays. Cleo and LunaChentaLestari have been booked by Desert Rose and a girl from the office. Petra stays for the reasons mentioned my earlier posting. Now the other 5 tu...fuhh siapa lah yang nak diberikan to. It's still too early to separate the kitties from their mommies as they all still tengah menyusu badan. At times terfikir jugak..hai sedang kan kucing pun pandai sayangkan anak. Manusia pulak pi buang anak here and there. Sedih kan...

Brainy...gave birth under the mango tree, despite our effort to have her deliver on comfy sheets we laid out for her.

She must be thinking...dua je?? Kak Long Furry & Kak Ngah Fuzzy ader TIGA!!

I'm going out with Faris later to get new cages for them. The new mommies fight for their territorial rights. Okay I guess faham lah kan..tengah berpantang, post natal blues ni, so sensitive!! I must remember to get some gourmet food for them when at the pet shop. Kira treat lah...coz dah selamat melahirkan :)

The three hopefuls....we want our Mommy...tell her it's our feeding time!!

Okay lah...I shall leave you with their pictures. Macam-macam adaaaa... Yang fair, yang with sports and yang tan macam ehem..ehem Abe pun adaaaaaa.... Gosh, for the life of me, I can't figure out siapa lah bapak-bapak mereka ni.

Next thing to do is to spay ALL of them. Yess..them mommies are going to be POTONG-ed. (haa..macam advert P1 w1max tu..), Sorry lah babes...what can I say, you girls must be the prettiest aweks in the block, ramai yang minat. And I can't afford to have any more....hope you beauties faham lah eh. It's about doing "it" safe, okay.