Quiet Moments

I wont be posting much post as I am back on Korean drama spree right now. It all started when I was in Korea - the internet connection there was fabolous! So, I started watching and downloading 1% of Anything... beautiful story. And then, when I come back to Malaysia, I started on the box that I bought last time and watched "The Perfect Neighbour" -that was nice too! Azlin watched together and we spent the weekend finishing all the 20 episodes, of course, there's break with errands in between.
And at the same time, i am also trying to finish up Three Dads One Mom, online (and also downloaded on my phone) - its quite funny. Found out that 8TV is showing the same show right now dailies at 8:30pm, but its in Mandarin - takde ummph lansung! I want to hear Korean words from Korean people, not Mandarin.
There's few more series lining on top of my DVD player box and also of course, on line....so, I don't know when I'll get to finish the write up about Korea that I had started last week as I am busy watching Korean dramas right now...:-)

Well I'll Be Darn!

On the walk to Kamdar Kelang to get Ahmad's school stuffs, we saw birds high up in the sky. Then Alif asked a question....
"Mummy, why do birds fly south in the winter?".
I explained to him, because they want to get away from the cold winter.
Then he said, "That's not it!"
"Where do you hear this question from?", I asked back.
"Tigger of course!"
Now, what could this tiger taught my son now? Then, he repeated the question, to which I did not answer fast enough for him, so, he gave me the answer,
"Because it's too far to walk!" and then he laughed.

Well, I'll be darn!...:-)

Deoksugung Palace

After a long walk from Namdaemun Market, we finally reached Deok Su Gung Palace. It is near City Hall in Seoul. There is an admission fee of 1000KRW for adult between 19-64.



The main gate of Deoksugung Palace is called Dae-han-mun. We took group picture over here, in front of the gate where we bought the ticket. Then, we took a walk towards the main hall of the palace, called Jung-hwa-jeon
We can only see from the outside door the inside of the palace. Not allowed to go inside. The woodwork inside and outside was beautiful - totally different from what we have in Malaysia, definitely.

All we did in this area was walk and take pictures...and we were lucky enough on the way out as we got to see the hand over ceremony. It was really interesting...

Food In Korea

Winter is cold, really cold, well maybe not as cold as Wisconsin when I lived there once upon a time, but it is still cold that "smoke" comes out from your mouth as you slowly blow soft breezes in the wind:-)


My impression on Korean food was dumbfounded after all! The taste was not just acceptable, but there were good. Of course cabbage Kimchi is still a little too much soury and hot for me.

Here's Rice"Bi-Bim Bak" - it's all vegetables+egg

Once we've mixed all the vege with rice - taste quite good. Rice is definitely glutinous-ly like

I need to go back to sleep -- will update more. We had very good dinner at Korean restaurant today. - signing out from SIVAT Dormitory, Incheon Korea - trying to decipher all the Korean characters on my screen ....

Going to Korea

OMG ... getting a little bit more disorganized. Excited to go and learn but sad that I had to leave the family behind. With sooo many things to get ready and not much being done, I am getting more worried - what if I leave something important behind? Do I really need to go out and shop them gloves? Windbreaker - should I bring or the old winter coat (Azlin's) is good enough? How many packs of instant noodle should I bring? Maybe I could stomach down the food served..

I'm going to Korea! Inchon to be exact. In deep winter.... pray that I will achieve my goals there and bring back a success program and group to the country ... a more competent/experienced Industrial Hygienists? One thing for sure I'm richer with thousands of Korean Won:-) good if its thousands of ringgit of course!

Sooo many things happened today

Warning...this could be a long one - as the title indicate - sooo many things hapened....so, so many stories in one:-)

Yesterday was a very tiring day for me, after spending most of the day at our office in KLCC conducting Office Ergonomics Review sessions followed by on-site consultation and then meeting with the line managers, I rushed home thinking that I had to take Anis to her friend's birthday at Sunway but then on second thought - naayy..i dont want to go through the terrible traffic through Subang Jaya to get to Sunway, so I went to the gym for line dancing (and upset Anis) and did a real fast workout...so, I was really tired last night when I finally get to bed. Didn't woke up until Azlin woke me up, ready to go to KL for his PMP exam. Sedih jugak...thought I want to prepare him at least his vitamins and protein drink so that at least he didnt go out on empty stomach for his big exam.

Anyway, I forced Alif to go to Taska today. He's been missing for almost 3 weeks already, at least get him to do his computer lessons which we had paid for nothing in November (since he went for only few days:(. Last night he said, ok, just carry him to the car. So, that's what I did this morning but as soon as he woke up, he started with "tak nak pergi sekolah" - I dont want to go school. He started crying and tried to open the car door - thank Allah for child lock! I normally restrain him in his car seat but today I drove Azlin's car to work, so, there's no car seat in his precious sporty car. Oh well, he cried all the way to school, sobbing and screaming. He cried until he throw up some whitish bile on the middle portion of the seat. Luckily he hadn't taken any milk yet in the morning, so, there's not much stuffs coming out. I tried to pacify him with few bribes -- like stopping to get vitagen, or junk food twisties but to no avail. Then I suggest that we could go to Aidiin's house and watch his Thomas collection coz he got a lot. Doesn't seem to work, coz he kept on crying till we reach school - that was a whole half an hour drive to the Taska. Finally, just before we reach school, at the traffic light, I put him on my lap and hold him close while driving - that kind of calm him down but he started again when I passed him on to the teacher!

So, I reached work a little bit late than usual. Oh - I am on NST Word Hunt for this next 2 weeks - just for fun. Starting last Monday, I started buying NST (got free on Monday from Colmar@Bukit Tinggi:-) then continue purchasing it at the convenient shop near the office. Today, I went 3 times from 8:30am to 9:30am and 12pm, and the shop owner still say "tak sampai lagi". What! At 12pm, newspaper still didnt arrive? Then Azlin called and said that he passed the exam. So he's now a PMP (project Management professional?) - that's the beauty of prometric exam, you know your results right away. I had to wait one agonizing month to know if I had passed my professional exam last time. We plan to go for lunch together but then he got stuck in the traffic jam at Sultan Ismail, so we had to scrap that date. I thot tonight I don't have to cook dinner since he'll be home early- well that wish got strucked out as he later he told me that he had to go back to work, the big boss who were supposed to visit tomorrow, decided to come in today and he had to do some presentation. Oh well...

Then, on the way home, after picking Alif, who is now happy and said school was great, I stopped at Subang Parade. Need to fulfill my promise to get him the Percy that he wants. He spend some time at Toys R Us to go through all the Thomas collection available. And kept on getting distracted by all the hot wheels and transformers and radio car near Thomas and almost wanted to get hot wheels (again) but after chanting "let me think think think" with a pointing finger underneath his side chin, he decided to get Gordon instead and said next time, we'll get Percy! He was one happy kid at that time. Chanting rapidly about going to school again tomorrow and every day. When I asked him at the school's door in front of the teacher just now whether he wants to go to school tomorrow or not, he just shake his head although he had just said that school was fun that day. After he got his "bribe" everything is nice and he's willing to go to school. We'll see tomorrow - its always nice today but wait till morning when he wake up and realise that he's going to school - he will have lots of excuse of not going. We stopped at Secret Recipe to get the White Chocolate Macademia cake slice for Azlin to celebrate his accomplishment today. I got the guy to write "Congratulations" on that slice:-)

Well, on the way back, while chatting away about Thomas and Gordon and their songs, he opened up another story. "Aidiin Abah tak kasi datang rumah dia. Sebab Aidiin Abah nanti marah" - now where this one come from. I guess he was paying attention to all the things that I said to him this morning amidst his cries. But he couldn't tell me what brought up this conversation with Aidiin and what he told Aidiin specifically - only remember what Aidiin told him. Kids!

I had actually planned to drop by at MPH to see if I could get my copy of NST there but I totally forgot until I reached home. After Sutera Maya and maghrib prayer - called up Azlin to get him to stop by at petrol station on the way home to get NST for me but turns out that he has some deliveries and would be coming home very late tonight. So, I decided to go out and get the NST myself at Jln Kristal shops - yea! i still could get the copy at 7-eleven, even at 8pm. Great! I guess, dont hope if it is Star, but NST is still ok, less demand for it. Anyway, I thought of trying out the rental book shop - maybe I could get new Malay novel there for rent, but on second thought, I guess I shouldn't spend time on the book coz I have lots of things to do at home as well, and things wouldn't get done until the book is finished. But, I dropped by at the DVD shop instead and bought myself 5 korean drama series! Ada sale! So, I dont want to miss the chance of getting cheap korean dramas....this would last me for few months:-)

I am now taking a short break - I need to go back to my work and finish at least 3 qtr of the work that I planned to finish at work today, otherwise I'll be very behind schedule in my work coz tomorrow is another long day off office. Up till now, at 10:28pm, Azlin is still not home yet. I hope he do get home before 12 and take the day off that he's supposed to get today (he's supposed to be on leave today but end of spending more hours at work pulak) tomorrow - we got to prepare for our Terengganu trip this weekend and also the ketupat materials for Sunday night when we got home so that there's something special to celebrate Eid Adha on Monday. ....signing off....I just heard Azlin's voice downstairs and the clicking sound of the plates:-)

Tika Rindu Berlagu...

...My Love for you is deep and true
No matter what you do,
I'll be there for you,
No matter where you go,
I'll always be there beside you,
Till the day I die My love will always stay true to you.

Something happens when you look at me, I forgot to speak, something happens when u kiss my lips, my knees get so weak.

Tq love! Love u 99% Honey Bunny....


I guess I really am an addict to romance novel (English or Malay) but now, I preferred the Malay novel more - it doesn't have all that physical intimacies description that would not be suitable for my teenage girls:-)
I had just finished a new book I bought last week- Tika Rindu Berlagu. Written by Lily Suriani. This is the first book by her that I bought, though its already her third, I think.

I just can't get the main character out of my mind today - this Naim guy who is so funny, "hensem", and who can love a girl just the way she is. The things that he did to get the girl's (who is actually a tomboy but with all a Malay lady's quality except for her clothing and manners) attention and love. He finally made her his but of course there's always things that get in the way before they are finally together and maybe live happily ever after. This is one novel that really touched my heart. It made me stop whatever I was doing at the moment and make me want to finish the novel with quality - meaning, do not skip any word! Yea, I always do that - I would do some speed reading whenever I get impatient and wants to know how it ends. Of course, I always took a peak of what's the ending but that wouldn't make me loose my interest - I would want to know how it gets to that ending!
I love the way she builds the characters - Naim and Adila Yasmin. And how the relationship grows from just a short encounter to many many coincidental encounters. How she (Lily) made use of that coincidences conveniently - Naim as the son of Adila's father's long lost friend, all the "terserempak" at Sogo, at Pasar Malam and how she had mistakenly gotten into his car instead of her boss's. This novel is one who would make you laugh while reading and also cry - i can't recall how many times I cried (I am an emotional person even though its just fictions) and also "geram" with some characters. Another touchy moments when Naim lost his memories including of Adila's - after all the things that he did to get her! But he always remember that he's in love with someone, just do not know who - and then he fell in love with her again for the second time...aaaa.......Every emotional thing is in there. For me now, Lily Suriani now is definitely comparable to the likes of Aisya Sofea, Damya Hanna, Anis Ayuni and Sharifah Abu Salem (writers for Alaf21) and used to be with Alaf21 - Fauziah Ashaari, Puteri Andalas and Aina Emir (ok, I used to ignore her books and bought this one coz I had no other good choice).
Back to the book.....do you know why he said "Love u 99%" and not 100%? I thought its normal la...kena simpan sikit, similar like trust. But what was written next, really melt my heart - "Because I need that 1% to stay alive". There's more lovely quotes inside the book - the ones that Naim wrote when he send flowers to Adila - but I don't want to spoil it by copying it down here:-)
So ... if you're looking for new Malay story book, I totally recommend that you go and buy this book!I definitely will go back Alaf21's book store to get her 2 other books (or maybe I wait until they do their sales again and get 30% off instead of just 15% discount)

Here's the cover page (taken from http://lilysuriani76.blogspot.com)

Aisya Nayli the Champ in Face Making

Introducing one of the little cousin ...Aisya Nayli. Currently, she become the baby in the house - Kak Su takes care of her during the day. She could give you the most expressionless face or the most expressive face - depending on her mood. But most of the time, it's blank face.

dah petik bunga orang pun masih blank lagi...she kept the flower in her ear sampai ibu dia balik!Kira melawa la tuh

She's thinking hard!

At times could be cheeky too!

Best of all...she's a real entertainer! Look at that cute little mouth!

The Cousins

Alif and the little girls around him....come to think of it, his little cousins are all girls. He's kind of the last boy born in the immediate family from both sides (mine and Azlin's)

Alif(28-5-04) and Balqis(6-6-04) - they're only 9 days apart.

Alif and Balqis now and when they were younger (<1>

And then there's little Aisya - who comes to our house on weekdays.

Cousins - Wan Batrisya Balqis and Wan Qaisara Qistina

oh...there's the neighbor friends - also girls!

Aqilah (3) and Alisa(5) - new and used to be best friend Alif sekejap until he suddenly discover no "girl" friends from school:-)

I can't resist putting this one up - Alif and Alisa when the area was being fogged due to Aedes. He can't hold still and need to jump to create the camera effect:-)

Countdown

Wuhu...a lot to count down this coming weeks...

1) Bro-IL's engagement -- 2 more days
2) KLIA Aviation Depoh visit -- 4 more days
3) My mom flying off to Mekah -- 4 more days (same day with KLIA thingy)
4) Family vacation at Bukit Tinggi (Colmar Tropicale Resort), one night je...8 more days
5) My Cousin's wedding - whole family going back to KT -- 14 more days
6) Finally...My flight to Inchon, Korea -- 21 more days!
Phew....so many things to do...

* not much preparation for the rest, but Korea trip, a lot to prepare!
Nak kena buat presentation lagi for the mini Seminar with the Korean, making sure I got all info from the delegates, souveniers for the Koreans sides... I wonder if my winter jacket from old days in Madison still good enough to wear or not, hopefully it is, dont want to spend on winter clothing (not going on company's expense laa...)

Move It! "I'm Frozing!"

As soon as Azlin was feeling a little bit better today, we went out. Few things need to get - Anis's new glasses (which we had postponed for quite a while) and Ahmad wanted to get a replacement of his Ben10 PS2 games which doesn't work. So, we set ourselves to Carrefour, SJ. The PS2 games settled but Anis couldn't find the frames that she wanted - all plastic, white or transparent color and not too thick that it pokes her face. Oh, it also needs to be round. So much requirement, we've been to at least 5 shops and still couldn't find the one that she wants. Dia ingat macam nak beli baju - can ask for different size. Anyway, we walked to SP from Carrefour and finally find the frame on the 3rd shops.
When we wanted to go back it was raining cats and dogs! When it subsided a little, Azlin made a dash to Carrefour and we all waited in front of SP. It was still raining when he arrived, we had to make a run to get into the car.
Alif, with his 2 little hands on his head, ran and hop to the car. As soon as he arrived, he said,"Quick! Move it! I'm frrooozing!" His pants and shirt was a bit wet and it was a bit cold in the car with the aircond on. Maybe he meant freezing or was it frozen?
Anyway, he was wearing 2 layers of clothing at the time (kids!insist on wearing his favourite home-clothes) - so, I took off his jeans pants and collar shirt. He just smiled and said, "I'm all dry now;-)"

14th Years Anniversary

Happy Anniversary! Yes, married for 14 years, going into 15! With 4 kids, moved houses 3 times.... Reflection of the years together...

Got married on 13-11-1994
Year 1 (1995) - celebrate with a 3 months old daughter and just bought ourselves a new house in USJ with FAMA's help
Year 2 (1996) pregnant with 2nd child
Year 3 (1997) we got 2 little girls and just got the key to our new house in USJ
Year 4 (1998) Finally had moved into our new house, also with FAMA's help in the renovation
Year 5 (1999) Just got our first son - 3 roses for the 3 children that we have
let's just skip the rest (hey, i still remember what happened in each year! almost)

And this year...no more roses, this is the flowers that I got. Thank you dear - I love you too!

Another Baby?

The kids have been bugging us to have another baby. Alif is already 4 and not much fun to play with anymore for them. So, for them, it's time to have another baby.

Aina Syasya (13) made a case about her friend's mother who she said about the same age with me, having another baby - she hasn't seen my friend Marina pregnant with her 4th one yet, otherwise, she would put that as another point why I could still have another baby. Yeaa..I've been telling them that I am now too old to have another baby:-) And no energy to take care of the young ones at night anymore....of course they said they'd help but you know kids, now you see them and the next thing you know they're gone doing their own stuffs, and you were left alone to mend the little one.

I have 4 kids. Of the 4 kids, only the 4th one was planned to have. The first three were all Allah's gift when we didn't ask for (to put unplanned nicely). I learnt that you shouldn't say the word "accident" for a baby in Taiwan series - Fated to Love You (its showing in TV now, but with a different title - I watched this series thru mysoju.com). Coincidentally, they were all born 2 years apart - in terms of years of course. That's the beauty of breastfeeding - Allah planned the space for you, just nice:-)

When I had Aina, we had just been married for I think about 5 or 6 weeks. I thought I had some infection so Azlin and I went to see a gynae. Turned out that I was pregnant which was a surprise, it couldn't be that fast. The urine test came out with "faintly positive" but the ultrasound scan showed a dot. Hard to confirm at 5 weeks, Dr Nora said so, I had to come back in 2 weeks time for another scan and urine test. That's how we know that we're pregnant with Aina. Not much problem when I was having Aina, my stomach was small. Not many people know that I was pregnant - my stomach only showed when Aina was about 7 going into 8 months, then the size escalated quite fast - I gained about 2 kg/week in the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy.

With Anis, it was unexpected as well. Aina was only 10 months at that time. I was still breastfeeding her, though not in full - stopped pumping when she was 6 months. Period only came once when Aina was a little into 8 months. Thought it was some hormone problem, that's why there's no more period after that short one. It wasn't until I really started looking into the mirror and noticed that my stomach was a little bit rounder than usual and when I poked, it felt a bit harder than the usual fat droopy thing. Could I be pregnant? Went to pharmacy and bought that self-urine test and gotten positive results! So, we went back to Dr Nora to confirm - true enough I was already 7 weeks pregnant when she did the ultrasound scan. No pregnancy signal or any signs at all and the pregnancy was smooth with nooo significant bout of vomiting at all.

Ahmad -- well, this one was real puzzle. IUCD was taken out 3 months before and precaution was really taken as we were not ready yet for another child even though Anis was already 2 years at that time. We had just settled into the new house in USJ and things at work are getting a bit crazy but Allah decided that it was best that we have another child at that time. Nothing unusual this year, I know that I was pregnant when I was one week late but this time the pregnancy allergy (alahan?) was real obvious - I can't cook, can't smell the heated cooking oil odor. Nauseous every evening and can't do much around the house when we got home - yes, I had evening sickness, no problem in the morning. Azlin had to do most of the work - from cooking to cleaning. I just mind the children. Luckily, I managed to wean Anis off breastfeed within 2 weeks after I find out that I was pregnant. I think Allah wanted to test us more since we're hoping for a boy this time. It was still a surprise when I finally gave birth to our first son - I still thought that there was some high chance that this one might be a girl again since Dr Delaila could not confirm since the scan didn't show testes.

ok...finally, how we got Alif - Ahmad was already 5. Prior to that, the girls had already been pestering Azlin and I and its time that we should have a baby. For over a year, Aina started asking since she was 7, I think. Then, my in-laws also said that we should try for another boy - especially after they'd seen Ahmad Sirhan playing with Barbie Doll (well - not the way the girls are playing) - we should give Ahmad a friend. One day, Ahmad came back from Taska and asked me to eat a lot so that my stomach will become bigger and then I will have a baby. It wasn't until Ahmad starts asking that finally Azlin asked me if I am sure about having another baby...when I said yes, then we just let things happened naturally. Alhamdulillah, few months later, I had conceived Alif -- the same thing that happened when I was pregnant with Ahmad, repeat - but even worse. I was nauseous almost the whole day - not just in the evening! I think, it went on even after I has passed 4 months into pregnancy. I was already 34 at the time I was pregnant with Alif - should not be a problem for 4th pregnancy, but this was the most challenging of all. I had threatened early delivery at 32 weeks and had to overnight at SJMC for 2 nights and constantly on drip to stop the contraction. Ahmad had been talking to the baby almost every night , asking the baby to come out cepat and he really listened to Ahmad!

Oh well...after going through 2 stressful pregnancies - Azlin decided that we had enough. His parents said we should have another one. Aina wants another adik so that the adik would be attached to her instead of Anis - she didn't pay much attention that both of the little adiks that she had are attached Anis and do not favor her at all...kesian dia, tapi masih tak tau how to layan adik to make the adik favor her. Ahmad wants a baby as well and Anis wants a little girl since she didn't get her wish for baby sister when we got Alif last time. Anyway... with surrounding being positive for another baby, I thought why not? Coming from a big family, I do love to have more children. But then again, when I think of how stressful it was for Azlin (well, it was ok for me, since I get to rest most of the time) and also having a baby still on breastmilk would not be favourable with the current project that I have on-going at work - I think 4 is enough. Alif loves to play with my stomach - said it is big and there's baby inside there. Naaw... I'm not pregnant - that's not why I start on this topic -- more to release my longing to have another baby in the house. I think I am ok now. Alif will always be a baby in the house:-) I need to be more vigilant that them stomach exercise....

Aina (13), Alif (4), Ahmad (9), Anis (11)

Full Name:

1- Aina Syasya binti Azlin (24-8-1995)

2- Anis Syaza binti Azlin (2-2-1997)

3- Ahmad Sirhan (19-10-1999) -- there's no more bin in his birth cert

4- Muhammad Alif Safwan (28-5-2004)

#5? In the children's dreams..:-)

Zulhijjah is Back

It's Haj time! Seems like most of everyone around me is going for Haj. Ustazah Masirah who teaches us (the Jln Plumbum 101/103 ladies) Fardhu Ain is going (again). My mom is going for Haj, I loose count for how many times. Few of my friends are going too. Elisa will be going from Saudi. Some friends had already performed the Haj...I wish them all the best, hope they will be in good health while performing the ibadah and come home safe and achieve Haji yang Mabrur...Amin..

I hope the time will come for me (and hubby too). We (well, I did for both of us) had filled up the registration forms, I think 4 or 5 years ago but probably it was not meant to be, tidak diperkenankan Allah, agaknya, we can never remember or make the time to submit the forms until it gotten lost somewhere when we moved from USJ to Shah Alam over 2 years ago. It wasn't until sometime early this year that we finally get to make the time to register - with a new form of course! And by that time, the year given to us was already 2012. I heard from my mom, those who register right now, will get year 2018!

Itu la, kalau Allah tak izinkan, whatever we do or tried to,memang takkan dipermudahkan. Some people have all the money but was not given the Hidayah to go. Some people have the Hidayah and the money but was not given the time to go. Some people have all the time, money and the petunjuk and ilmu but was not given the opportunity to go. Well, what about us? We have the money and we really want to go but right now no opportunity and the time to go. Azlin needs to wait till 2011 before he will get his Haj leave from the company. As for me, I need to start banking in my leaves into an account so that I'll have enough or close by 2011 to take the long leaves for Haj. At the moment, we dont have to think who will take care of the children yet - I guess, those will be taken care of when the time comes. On top of leaves, it's also good times to start strengthening and enriching ourselves with ilmu Hajj...semoga dipermudahkan Allah, insya Allah.

Anis Attempt at Lily's Easy Gooey Yummy Brownies

When Anis wanted me to make pizza for her class's end of year, I was looking for excuses not to...and also alternatives. When I read Lily's FB notes on the brownies and there were so many takers who had tried, improvise and commend it, I suggested the same to Anis. Of course, less sugar (only 1.5 cups) and no walnuts coz Anis doesn't like nuts in cake, chocolate or any meals.

So, last Monday night, I took out all the ingredients, guide her on measuring the ingredients and turn on the oven for her. She whoosh my hands away whenever I want to help, so, in the end I left her alone. She called me when the mixture are done and its time to transfer them into the baking tin. Here's the results...in pictorial form:-)

The brownies - few minutes after it came out from the over. The middle portion was not really cooked - it ballooned in the middle (tak sempat ambil the ballooned picture) and then slowly, as it cooled, it dipped in the middle.... I cut it out ... actually I was looking for the gooey parts...

the gooey parts finished faster - Anis loves it, even the uncooked batter got cleaned by her tongue!

It's right in the middle of course -- that's when I gave her lesson # ???? how to test if the cake/brownies are done. But anyhow, after taking it out from the tray, it did look so much better.

Comment:

• Ummi (myself la) : Taste real good. Friends in the office also said so. I love it when it was still warm -- crusty on top and soft down below
  
• Abah: Well, Azlin (Abah) said keras (hard) but changed his mind on the next day - taste better on the 2nd day. Anis responded by saying "Of course la keras sikit (a little bit hard), this is brownies, not cake!"
• Ahmad: Hmm....sedap(delicious). This is definitely not cake. Not creamy enough for a cake but sedap!
• Alif: Ada kacang tak? Takde? Aaa....*ngap!*

She baked the brownies again on Tuesday night - in time for the party on Wednesday, the one baked on Monday night had long gone by Tuesday evening. And this time, the brownies cooked well - no more dip in the middle. No picture taken for the second attempt - this one, no-one in the house got a taste, all for her friends.

The trail of Alif's ... (dot dot dot)

This is the trail of what happen if you let Alif runs around and become too active. He will start coughing and need to beware when he does that, he will leave behind some presents on the floor. Warning! This could be yucky for some you:P

Trail #1
We stopped at Fella Design at Damansara after dropping Aina Syasya at her school near TTDI. It was a happy occasion for the boys, lots of nice furniture and beds and sofa to hop on. Near where the exclusive marble dining table, Alif stopped for awhile, and the next thing we know, wolla...he had spill it off on the floor. Luckily it was just some gluey sticky reddish clear thing. It went straight to one of his slippers. So he just hopped on with the other slipper (selipar) to Daddy and left behind the one with his bile. Oh well....it wasn't a lot and I do have to carry that piece of thing back, so, I took out the tissue paper from my handbag and wipe off whatever got stuck on his slipper and a little bit on the floor....

Trail #2
We've had a hearty family birthday celebration meal at Chilis last weekend. Azlin's 38th birthday (yes, he's younger than me for 6 months and he loves to mention it- that I'm older than him). Anyway, after the meal and Maghrib prayer at the newly discovered surau in the new wing of OU, we took a walk in the mall. As usual, Alif and Ahmad would run ahead - always chasing something that I can never figure out. Azlin walked ahead to look for the shop. We were actually looking for Ahmad's birthday gift - he wanted some additional games for his gameboy. When we reached a restaurant called "Charms", Alif suddenly stopped. Make a confuse face and suddenly -- voila! A lot of yucky gluey red-white thing came out. Must have been some of the kids cheesy pizza and tostada chips! Plus lots of liquid which could be the 100Plus that he drank. I panicked for awhile. Do not know how to react other than scolding him for running. Then, I slowly took out my spare tissue paper, wipe his mouth and walk away. Left the bile which was in between the restaurant (they had kind of additional tables outside the main shop, next the walkway). On the way back, we took a different path - walk on the opposite side of the restaurant - I can't really see if the stuffs had been cleaned or not but I can see the eyes of the workers on us -we were, I guess kind of noticeable group after that incident. What can I do, I could not really clean those thing with just a small pack of tissue paper! No tools to clean!
What do you do in such situation? Apologize and leave?

Trail#3
When we were in a factory outlet in US sometime in April this year, I think it was Nike shop - Alif peed somewhere in between small wooden chair and display rack - ok, he cannot hold it anymore The moment he said I wanna pee, the whole thing comes out. Nothing much that we can do also except to use his pants to wipe them liquid off and took him to the quite a distance washroom to wash off. The staff there, I think were clueless as to what happen:-) Well, accident do happen sometime....

When the Modem Broke Down....

Lately, I had been having too many problems with internet connection at home.
First, it was streamyx connection problem. Then 2 days after that was solved, our wireless router starting giving problem. We had to switch back to the unstable old router. Just as dear hubby was about done fixing the wireless router, the modem pulak went kaput!
Now, we are on modem loan from my SIL - Nini. But the wireless connection is still intermittent. Fed up le teman!

When the modem broke down...

• I can't continue my Challenge Sudoku with Elisa (and other friends)
• Browsing internet is painful at home
• I had to steal some time at the office to check on messages at FB
• I end up playing Sudoku on papers only:-(

BUT....I ended up

• getting some progress on my curtain's goblet heading (almost 2 yrs sangkut)
• AND..I'm back to Korean drama ...:-) ha ha...preparation for my Korea trip this coming Dec (alasan je tuh!)

*sigh*...I hope it'll resolve soon

NOT an Easy Peasy Breadstick

Tonight I venture into a baking session for cheese pizza (mainly because there's only cheese in fridge) and kids-loved-it breadstick(supposed to be pizza hut style).

I found the breadstick recipe by "Chef Dee" at recipezaar.com(http://www.recipezaar.com/137629) sometime ago. The kids love pizza hut's breadstick so, more to save cost and also allow them to eat to their heart content, I looked for the recipe and try to make ones. Finally, after few trials, I got this recipe that really suit to their taste. Of course, i had to improvise the recipe as I do not own a bread machine.

The dough, after I had cut and placed them on the tray, prior to bake

Here's the recipe (after modification)
Mix all of these together:
4 cups of high protein flour (bread flour)
1 tsp salts
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp oregano
3 tbsp milk powder (I love to put extra - 1 "bumbu" tbsp)

Put all these ingredients in your mixer. Use the hook meant for bread. You might want to reduce the proportion to half if you're not using high power mixer (I burnt 3cheapo mixer motors - even one that is supposed to be about 500W. Once all of them had mixed, add on 1 1/3 cups of warm water (you might want to go slower on this, dont put them all at once. Add on about half of the cup and then slowly add the rest of the liquid until you get them all to mix.
Then add 3 tbsp olive oil and let it mix well. Let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes more until the dough becomes smooth. Then put the dough into airtight container and let it rise till double for about 1 hr.

Once the dough had risen, roll them onto a floured surface, into rectangle shape. Cut them out using pizza cutter to the size that you like and transfer them onto greased baking tray.
Let it rise for another 30 - 45 minutes. Then you can use the topping as recommended by the recipezaar or just spoon some original traditional prego (the tomato one) on it and put mozarella shredded cheese on top of it. It'll taste like pizza stick. The original topping was to mix all of these listed ingredients below and shake it onto the breadstick (after you had greased them with olive oil)
2 tsp dry parmesan cheese,1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp oregano. You can place them into a shaker (or re-use the oregano container) and shake on top of the dough. Bake them at 180degreeC for about 15 minutes or until done. The dough is very soft even when it is cold (if you get the dough done correctly la..)

You'd need to place the bread on wire rack to keep the bread fresh

Fruit of labor...:-)

1st Trip to Kota Kinabalu

ps: the picture arrangement didn't turn out the way I want it to be...haven't master this blog's layout yet...

My new work in another company has gotten on the move, almost every month. I guess I will be seeing more Malaysia now than I ever was. Probably this'll give me more ideas on where to bring the family for next vacation

KK is the 3rd site on my schedule that I had to visit and do the health risk assessment. I do not know what to expect but I do look forward to the trip , more because I will be meeting my long-time-never-see friend, Patricia G. Plus, Sapangar Bay (the site I was supposed to go to) was made known to me as a beautiful place to see. Of course, there's another goal that I have to achieve this year to be counted in my deliverables for this year.

The plane ride to KK from KLIA took about 2hrs and 40 mins. I get my preference seat on the front wing at window - that allows me to start snapping. I love watching the clouds. They're soo white and pure. And with polarizing filter, the shots captured looks so much better.

When we reached KK, the scenery gets much better and the sky are bluer than you'd ever seen on the city of Kuala Lumpur. The town is actually build along the sea side. I managed to capture few shots before the stewardess came and stop me "No electronic should be turned on". This is something that I dont really understand - camera do not have any transmitting device, why the restriction on camera?

I stayed at Le Meridien, KK. It is right in the heart of the city, with fruits and craft markets across the street. We can see the harbor from the hotel. They put me in the room at city view but from the window, I could actually see the see. The hotel wasn't that great but the room is definitely nice. Food - so-so. I had to dine in the hotel mainly because I was too tired to be advanterous and eat out but also more for convenient. Since I'm traveling on actual, what the heck, bantai je la kat hotel. Internet connection is complimentary but, a big BUT here... it surely can discourage you from using it. VERY SLOW.

Took another picture from the room - looking further in the sea .. it's actually near the fisherman's pier. But behind the restaurant, the view are breathtaking. Unfortunately, I only discover this on the last day of my stay there, well, I only stayed there for 2 nights only.




The Phillipines Market
I took the first trip to the market on my first night there. Heard that it closed at 6pm but when we (a colleague and I) reached the hotel from Sapangar about 6:30pm, some shops are still opened. So, we went there just to look around first and survey the bargains and prices. On the second night, I went there with a goal in mind - need to get some cheap pearl bracelets and brooches for the children - price, less than RM30 for the bracelet. I did accomplished that. Actually bought 4 pieces for RM90. They're all fresh water pearl. The girl in the shop demonstrated to me on how if you try to scratch the pearl with scissors, no colors will come out but with plastic, many things will come out. Ok, that's indication enough. After that - we went to the local produce next door and bought ikan bilis (anchovies). Those are pretty cheap - 1kg of ikan bilis, good one, for about RM15. The dried prawn is also quite cheap.


Phillipino or Craft Market next to local produced market

I also got myself some terubuk masin sarawak. Apparently, there are Terubuk Sabah and also Terubuk Sarawak. Terubuk Sarawak supposed to be nicer, less salty, all the stuffs inside the fish had already been removed. But Terubuk Sabah did not removed anything and the stuffs inside the fish now becomes salt and makes the fish more salty than Sarawak ones. The picture on the left is Terubuk Sarawak and the right one is Sabah's

To Sapangar Bay
The ride to Sapangar Bay was quite long, about 35-45 minutes from KK, depending on the traffic. We left early, at about 7:30am so, it was ok. We got there in a little bit over half an hour. The scenery going there was calm and soothing to the eyes. I would not say breathtaking but it did make you feel a little bit "wow" with Allah's creation.
From now on... I would make short pictorial description of what I see on the road to Sapangar Bay. I managed to actually take pictures while the taxi was moving on my last morning there.

Menara Tun Mustapha from far

Here it is once we arrived - about 10 minutes later

Another view is the mosque. From far it looked like the mosque is on the left side of the road, really next the beach, but it was really quite a distance and on the right side of the road, a distance away from the beach. Amazing. It must have been curvy road

One thing that really amazed me was a flat that we passed by, closer to Sapangar Bay. The water tank is blue and all are outside the house. My best bet is that they're at the back. I had never seen such sight in Semenanjung yet. I dont know if this is the new way of putting in water tank. My good old DBKL flat has small water tank inside the house. I know some apartment's water tank is on the roof somewhere, but never have I seen anything so visible as this.

The days had been really wet in the evening, I didn't get a chance to get a glimpse of the summit of Mount Kinabalu. There was a place near Sapangar Bay that we can really see a nice view of the summit, however, when I was there, it was all clouds. So, no luck. But finally, when we reached the airport at 5:30pm, we can see the summit from there. Not a clear one, but still ..better than nothing. Here's pictures of the summit from the new airport. Overall, this is one good trip. I would definitely want to come back with the troops someday...




Oh! I forgot to mention, I met my long-time-never-seen friend in KK - Patricia and her 9 yrs old daughter. The last we met was while I was still studying Chemistry in Madison 16 or 17 years ago. How time flies. But she didn't really changed much. Still the same look, same smiles, maybe her face has a little bit more flesh than before but still as beautiful as ever.