ramblings of a nonsense recharger & a memory bank

dusting off the cobwebs....

2010-03-01T02:45:00.003+08:00

omg. more than half a year. super slack seyyy....

The new year's come and gone, and we're now into the third month of twenty-oh-ten. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm surprised there's no virtual mold growing on this blog. I'm not even going to try justify my absence; but let's just say that 2009 was a pretty good year, both personally and professionally (eksen tak to use this term for my teeny-tiny cake biz?) Let's go for a round-up now shall we?

1) Yes, teacher!
BB is now in playgroup! Didn't cry at all on the first two days but on the third day, pretty much cried for two hours straight. Most likely 'cos other kids were crying. Yes, my boy has a sensitive soul, bless him. Now, everyday when I pick him up at the end of the session, he will proudly proclaim,"Ashraf tak cry in school!" And when I say everyday, I mean everyday. It's the end of Feb and he still says it. Let's see for how long eh?

On the upside tho, he loves school. Like absolutely besotted. And it's been really good for him too. He's picking up things faster than before, he's a lot more confident around other people and he's learning to share (quite difficult to teach this at home since he's the only kid). In fact, I found out from his teacher that he's been sharing his snacks with his classmates, so proud of him :)

The downside is that his uniform totally engulfs him. He's slowly but surely growing into it. But his shorts still look more like culottes, beh.

2) The Big Move
Yes, it will happen this year. Don't ask for details but it will be in the next few months. MB and I have been sitting down, planning, drawing and discussing colours and fixtures and budgets (bleurgh!) and we're mostly having fun whenever we're not tearing each other's hair out, that is. We're targetting to be in and settled by BB's birthday. So yeah, it's exciting but also so, so terrifying. I'm not looking forward to packing my stuff 'cos God knows how much stuff I've accumulated over the years. And I hate to throw stuff. And I (still) keep collecting stuff. I'm such a magpie, geez.

Buuuuut....I so can't wait to start using my Kenwood Major Titanium, which, at 1500 watts, kicks major ass and looks like a shiny, silver Decepticon ('cos the bad guys always look bad-ass gooood). Pow!!

Man, I'm such a baking nerd.

3) Village People
Went up to Sedili in mid-Dec 2009 and again this past January. I love it there. I hate the flies when it's warm but yeah, that's about the only thing that doesn't agree with me. I can live with that. Other than that it's all tres bien.

List of awesomeness:
- The stars. When you look up at night, you can totally understand the phrase 'the sky was peppered with stars'. No way in hell can you see this in SG. I was speechless when MB pulled me out into the dark driveway and pointed up. I can totally get why he used to bring a mat and lie down in the driveway at night when he was younger.
- You wanna cook something to eat? Go pick something out in the garden and bring it in. I had the freshest lauk lemak daun ubi there. The leaves picked up outside the gate in the morning; and the coconut juice comes from the coconuts growing on the trees behind the house. Yummooo. And let's not talk about the other awesome plants: limes, water apples, guava, roselle, aloe vera, breadfruit....I could go on for hours.
- BB loves it there. It's almost like he was born a kampung boy. No squeamishness or anything. In fact, the only time you see a frown on his face is when he's not allowed to roam the grounds 'cos everybody's in the house. Then he'll sit on the front steps and just stare longingly at the neighbour's chickens and the goats grazing next door.
- Time. Stands. Still. You feel like you've done so much and then realise that only twenty minutes have passed.

4) Gig! Gig! Gig!
Ahhhh....gigs. 2010 is shaping up very nicely thankyouverymuch. After the dearth of bands (the ones I like anyway) last year, suddenly it's raining Brits. Very nice. We bought Muse tix the minute they came out last November, and picked them up the day before the concert, at the same time getting tix for Placebo (Placebo!!!).

Muse was awesome. There's a reason why they always win Best Performing Band at the NME Awards (speaking of, I miss reading NME). The show was spectacular and slick. Very very professional. Oh Muse, my life, you electrify my life. The Post-Muse Withdrawal Symptom was a suck. Three weeks after the concert and I was still humming Plug-In Baby and Uprising 24/7. MB and I shouted ourselves hoarse at the concert and actually took more than four days to recover.

Yup, we're that unfit. Now I'm worried about Placebo. I mean, it's one of my fave bands. Ever. And I've been looking waiting for them to grace our shores for freakin' ten years. I don't wanna pancit after the third song. That's gonna suck.

So MB suggested we do an exercise routine that involves jumping like monkeys to the band's songs. Kinda like rehearsing for the actual gig lah. Gig-o-robics so to speak. We're gonna look for recent concert setlists and bop to that. Daily. Except that we've not started yet. And the concert's in less than 20 days. Egad!!

Just read today that Stereophonics is coming our way again. This time in April. Niiiice. I gave their concert a miss the first time they came around, and felt like a stupid piece of shit for the longest time, so I don't think I'm gonna not go this time round.

But yeah. Placebo. omg. I'm so glad MB's really into it too. We're gonna do T-shirts for the gig. Haha! So on right? After getting all prim and proper for Esplanade shows last year, its good to scruff up a bit. Not that I didn't enjoy the shows at the Durian of course; Dunas was jaw-dropping awesome (and I'm not really into dance) and I was just as excited about the Count Basie Orchestra (luuuurve swing music and big band) as I am about Placebo. Oh, scratch that. Who am I kidding? I'm getting palpitations thinking of Placebo right now.

5) Biznez
Things are going nicely on the baking front, Alhamdulillah. It's been a bit slow for the first two months, but it's great 'cos I could actually spend more time with BB and sketching cake ideas, and now it's going pretty smoothly. Wedding cakes in the coming months, fitting just nicely around our reno plans. I was initially a bit worried about accepting orders 'cos of the reno but I think it's been alright so far. Allah helps when you ask Him, and if you're doing things for the right reasons, Insya-Allah, He will help you. I feel truly blessed :)

6) Terror & Magnus
Ooooh, gotta squeeze this in. Found Joe Ledbetter stuff. Nearly stopped breathing when I spotted his prints while passing by a seemingly innocuous looking toyshop. Spotted tokidoki: hmmm ok nice. Gloomy Bear: the totes look nice. Trexis on a shelf: ok can lah, moving on.

Was just about to walk on by when I stopped in my tracks and squeaked out to MB," Stop! Joe Ledbetter! Prints!" And proceeded to grab his hands and stomped into the shop. Didn't buy the prints in the end 'cos what with the packing and moving, we didn't want to risk it getting lost or damaged. We got a Ledbetter Trexi in the meantime though. Can lah. But we'll definitely be back.

Okie dokie, gonna wrap things up and catch me some zzzzzzzzz. Time check: 3:52 am. Gah!!

NR
please Mr. Molko: please sing Without You I'm Nothing. pleeeeeez.....

Ashraf is two!! Choo choo!!

2009-05-19T00:03:00.005+08:00

My BB's all grown up now. Awwww....

Had a small do to celebrate his big day on Saturday 16th May, 'cos his birthday (20th May) falls on a weekday. Anyway, we all know that preparing a party for five will still be as exhausting as prepping one for thirty right? But a good kind of exhausting. For one, its totally worth it :)

I kinda sorta loosely based his birthday around things he likes; so I knew upfront that something to do with trains was in order. And maybe stars, cars, any Playhouse Disney cartoon character, fishes, moons, cats, birds, balls...aiyayai, so many things to sift thru.

I decided to do a 3-D train cake. My first ever 3-D cake project. Kinda hesitant at first, I mean, what if I mess it up? In the end, I thought, just plan it carefully, give it your best shot and just wing it. At worst, it'll look like a train wreck and we have ourselves a real cool real-life diorama. Or something. Ika said it just doesn't have to bad enough that it ends up on Cake Wrecks. Heheh, I agree. That blog is fab tho, for all the wrong reasons :P

So yeah, cake planning started some months back. Since I knew most of my time would be spent on the cake, there was no way I could prep all the makan stuff. So I roped in my mum to be in charge of ingredients shopping and the main food items, leaving the dessert options to me.

Fast forward to the week leading up the party. To say I was starting to resemble a walking zombie was to say it lightly. Owing to the fact that I could only work after BB has gone to bed (and my son sleeps no earlier than 11pm), I was surviving on a couple of hours of sleep per night. But the anal freak that I am, I'd already planned out what to do in as detailed a manner as possible so I wasn't totally freaked out. Just effing exhausted.

Surprisingly, the night before the party saw me finishing off what needed to be done pretty early. I was all done just before 3am, so that was good. But I decided to stay up with MB, who was pumpimg balloons with his trusty bike pump. Afterall, he accompanied me the previous night when prepping the cake kept me up till 5.30am, so the least I could do was return the favour.

Besides, he was starting to scare me a little.

I did mention that it's be nice to have balloons around, you know, just a couple for the kids to play with and some to bring home. But no, he was furiously pumping the balloons and in no time, he was getting surrounded by them. I was like,"Erm, no need to blow up all hon. I think this is enough."

"You can never have enough balloons!" he answered, hands furiously pumping air, maniacal gleam in his eyes, crazy grin and all. Scary shit. I decided it was best to stay up with him in case something silly happened.

He didn't stop there. He proceeded to put balloons up around the living room and dining room windows, about a dozen on sticks arranged in a humongous vase, and dozens more stowed in the balcony. Suka dia lah. I was so spent, what's another hour or two up eh?

But I guess it was worth the effort. BB woke up and got a mild shock at the sight of so many balloons. He stopped in his tracks and went, "WAAH!!" and then proceeded to drag someone, anyone, to see what he was seeing. Heheh, he ain't seen nothing yet.

MB took him off my hands for the morning (thank you, I love you!) while I made the crumble bars and roasted the veg and started baking the chicken and prepping the pizza and finished up the cake. BB happened to walk by as I was affixing the train wheels. Again, he stopped, shocked, and immediately went, "Choo choo!! Wah! There! See? Yumm!!"

The rest of the morning went by quickly, but everything was in order, so no worries. BB got changed into a new T-shirt ('I didn't ask to be this cool!') and a pair of berms 'cos it was a hot day. MB wore his blue T-shirt with a cute graphic print of little things on rainbows. I wore my newly arrived Twilight T-shirt (La Push Cliff Diving Association); comfort being the order of the day, I didn't want to think of anything beyond T-shirts. By the time we all got changed and ready, my SIL arrived. Perfect timing.

More peeps arrived and we soon got to the cake-cutting. A bit late actually 'cos BB had a pretty long nap and I didn't feel like waking him up. Who wants a grumpy birthday boy?!

All the kids seemed really excited when I brought the cake out and were calling dibs on which part they wanted to eat. We sang the birthday song of course, BB looking a bit bewildered with a "Why are all these people singing??" look on his face. Then we got to the "Happy Birthday to Ashraf" part and then his face perked up and the look changed to a "Everyone's singing for me? Nice!" one. Hehehe.

BB blew out the candles and cut the cake very nicely (with a plastic knife of course) and proceeded to hang back, totally smitten with the knife and forgetting about the whole fuss.

The kids started to swarm around demanding cake, and I said, "Who wants cake? Line up!" and they actually proceeded to form a queue, passing out plates as they did. Very good, keep it up, you cute adorable tykes!

Of course I had to cut the cake and serve it. I heard my uncle lamenting, "Sayangnya nak potong!" I didn't mind. Actually, I'd be quite sad if people didn't want to cut my cake 'cos it's too pretty. The only problem with this train cake was, how the heck do I cut it?! I decided to start from the back, saving the engine portion last. Pretty soon, the kids were calling dibs again.

"I want the yellow part!"
"I want the star!"
"I want the grass!"
"I want the flowers and wheels!"

Thank goodness everything on the cake, except for the paper banner on satay sticks, was edible. I can't imagine the look on the kids' faces if I told them some parts were not to be eaten. It took some time to distribute the cake; the kids kept themselves busy while lining up by munching on the marshmallow flowers and picking out the grass on the side.

"It's like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! The grass is edible!" MB's nephew said. Hehe, I had to agree.

More noshing and chatting followed. Very casual, very stress-free. Everyone left by the time Isyak rolled around I think, I wasn't actually keeping track of time. By that time, I was ready to sit down and have a proper meal. Kind of. There were still presents to be opened.

I handed a present to BB, and he just sat there on the floor with the present in his lap, propping his head up with his hands. He had no idea what to do with it. Mummy to the rescue!! I love opening up presents, so helping my son do this was not a problem :)

Needless to say, he was really pumped with his birthday spoils. We didn't take them all out of the boxes; keeping some to be opened up later in phases. But he stayed up till after 11pm playing with everything, including the boxes. Finally, exhausted and still looking slightly overwhelmed by the day's events, he snoozed out.

MB and I just had to sit down and chill for a bit. My right knee hurt like hell from all the standing up for the past few days, and the thought of going for aerobics the next day seemed suicidal. But I went anyway, taking it down a notch tho. Pilates was superb, my all-whacked out body got a nice stretch. I went home feeling like a nicely stretched rubber band.

OK, Oscar moment:

Many thanks to everyone who helped out in one way or another; there're too may things, too many people, so if you are one of those who helped out with the party, you have my deepest gratitude.

Many thanks to all those who attended as well. I hope the food was good and you guys had a great time. If anything, it was a real good excuse to meet and chill. Kyn, I forgot to have a pic with you taken. As always. Sorry I'm such a goondu!

Thanks peeps for the fab gifts:

- Nisa and Silah for the Thomas the Tank Engine toy. He was reaaaaally excited over this one!
- Kyn and Dyn for the wooden blocks. Beyond coolness!! Can't wait to play it with him :)
- Piko for the tricycle, even if his feet can't reach the paddles yet. MB like it 'cos it's in Optimus Prime's colours *rolls eyes*
- Shikin for the..hmmm....what do you call it? It's this cool city layout thing where you can put in roads and stuff. He's luvvin' it.
- Ica for the RC car. I think MB's more excited about it, hehe!
- SIL for the tres cool tin lunchbox with monsters on it. And the Eric Carle book. Coincidentally, we just read it at the library a few days before and he loved it, so yay!!
- Ika for the superfast, superloud bullet train toy. It scares the shit out of BB, but he loves it to bits anyway.
- Cik Ros for the kiddie computer and for letting us marinate the chicken overnight in your fridge. Much appreciated!
- everyone else for the cash gifts; thank you, it goes right into BB's piggy bank :)

Eh, did I get everyone's gifts right? Please correct me if I didn't.

OK, now it's Memory Bank time. Purely for my own future reference:

Menu items:
- Pizza
- Mee Hoon Birthday (am I the only one who calls them by this name?)
- Epok-epok Kentang
- Roasted vegetables with thyme
- Baked chicken drummettes
- Fresh Orange Cake
- Sweet Cherry Oatmeal Crumble Bars
- Dadih

Goodie bag items:
- Homemade cheese cookies in Ash's fave shapes (star, fish and duck)
- Homemade Rice Krispie treats with 100 & 1000s and star sprinkles
- Hello Panda (small packet)
- Stickers (stars, rockets, moon etc)
- balloon
- Pooh wooden pencil
- mini toy car
- thank you tag with a train pic

Now that I can step back and look at the whole event objectively, I must say the pain and fatigue were worth it. The look on BB's face when he saw the cake and balloons, hardly any food wasted at the end of the day, much smiles and laughter filling the day...yup, def worth it. And I kinda got to tie in some of his fave items: Trains, check. Cars, check. Fishes, check. Pooh, check. Stars and moon, check. Woohoo! Faboo!!

But now I'm thinking: how the heck can I top this year's cake next year?!

NR
where is it: eh, what happened to the popcorn smoke from the cake? did it get thrown out? did someone eat it? hmmm.....

Good times: of BB, fitness, food and er, Twilight

2009-05-07T11:52:00.011+08:00

This is going to be a long post. That's a warning right there. OK, moving on.

This has got to be the longest period of time that I've not blogged. Been busy. Seriously. 2009 has been awesome so far; where work is concerned that is. Just wanna take a sec here to thank you awesome people (you know who you are) for your unfailing support and faith in me where SugarFix is concerned. I am very much humbled and deeply appreciative. It's still mind-blowing that I have people who completely trust my creative direction when it comes to their sugary confections; rest assured I will continue to do my best. I am very fortunate to be doing something that both challenges me and gives me much joy :)

Next up: update on BB (Benjol Boy, remember?). Much bumps on the head and scratches later, my lil precious will be turning 2 in a wink of an eye. Yes, the scar on his forehead is still there; put some glasses on him and call him Harry Potter why don't you? I would, hehe. What scar? Ah....

I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. It was 8th of January, and I was just cleaning up after finishing up one wedding cake before getting ready for the next one when this little boy speedily climbed up the chair next to me to offer his supervisory skills (snort!). Needless to say, he lost his footing and fell on his back, hitting the back of his head on the floor, but not before grabbing something, anything off the table in a frenzied attempt to gain some footing. Of all the things to have grabbed, he grabbed my rolling pin. My solid, wooden, long, heavy-duty rolling pin. Sigh. You can guess what's coming right? The edge of the rolling pin hit him smack on a soft bruise (suffered a few days prior to this), breaking the skin and squirting blood all over the floor.

Did he cry? Yes. All of ten minutes. And I discovered later that after he was over the shock, he was just grossed out over the blood. Did we go to the hospital? Ho yeah. I took off my apron, rinsed my hands, and off we went. Me smelling like a cake, with specks of crusting blood on my leg (I discovered this at the waiting room much later) and my hair in shambles (Also discovered in the waiting room restroom where I went to wash off the crusted blood; I gave myself a shock when I saw myself in the mirror), and my nerves on end. Was BB ok with going to the hospital? Hell yeah. He was just thrilled to be going out; he waved everyone goodbye and jumped with joy in my arms while we were leaving, leaving two very worried grandparents behind us.

Worrying if there was further damage was quite unnecessary. He was running around happily in the waiting room, oblivious to the huge piece of gauze the admissions nurse had plastered on his head. You should see the doctor's face when we explained what happened. "Rolling pin?! Like that thing grandmas use to make bread?" Sigh. I had to explain the size of that thing before he understood. The doctor asked us to monitor his reactions in the next 24 hours, but I remember him pausing after he said that and remarked,"Looking at how active he is right now, I don't think you'll have anything to worry about though."

Thank goodness no stitches involved, the cut was glued shut instead. MB and I were worried when they said they were gonna wrap him up in a blanket and we had to help hold him down while they glued the cut. My boy DOES NOT like being wrapped up. Loathes it. I was imagining him struggling and screaming his lungs out and quietly mentally prepared myself while they got the things ready.

I needn't have worried. We explained slowly what was going to happen and tried to keep him as calm as possible, even though it was a good chance he didn't understand what we said. But he kept still while the nurse glued his cut. We could tell he was trying very hard to be brave; you could see his chin quivering as he tried not to cry and he blinked away tears that streamed down the sides of his eyes. But no cry. Not even a squeak. I was so proud of him.

BB continues to amaze and amuse me every single day. He's picking up words now, but he can be quite selective. His favourite word is 'papaya' and any fruit that is not a banana ('cos he knows what that is) is a papaya. But he hates eating papaya though. Just like pizza. Loves saying it, but won't take a bite of it. I'm glad he's ok with vegetables. Cooked ones though. His new word is 'carrot' though he pronounces it "ka-ghot". Very a la francais. Hehe. I'm glad he eats it too. It's quite frustrating when I'm trying to give him his lunch and he dutifully picks up each and every pea, carrot and corn to eat individually. But it's vege so I don't want to complain. I found out he likes carrot juice too; practically hijacked my pack of carrot juice that I was happily sipping and ran away with it, only giving it to me later, all emptied out with a nonchalant, "Mama, no more."

He's currently munching on a piece of tempeh goreng, one of his fave foods the little Wak Jawa, while I'm typing this. Yup, good times.

Good times indeed. One of the things I set out to do this year was to get fit. It used to be that I got my exercise while taking care of BB, but now I need to get fit to keep up with him. Dah tua dokk.... So anyway, even if I myself was thinking,"WTF am I doing, signing up for aerobics?! I don't do aerobics!!" lemme tell ya, I'm enjoying it so much. Wasn't as bad as I thought, and the best thing is, it's completely stress-free.

Plus it's an extra incentive for me to go researching on healthier foods. Good stuff to know. Slowly but surely, my hidden hippie is starting to come out, and I like it. I for one, am a convert where agave syrup is concerned. It's all natural, usually organic, and has a super low GI; perfect for diabetics. And it tastes like golden syrup, yumm! It's just a shame that it's not so readily available; and that it costs about $10 for a bottle of 330ml. Gulp, I've used up about 3 bottles while experimenting so far. But it's all good. Wanna know more about agave, drop me a line. Or Google it. I'd gush about other new staple ingredients I've started stashing the kitchen with, but maybe, another time. Still tinkering and experimenting for now :)

Loads of reading up this search for healthier alternatives has taken me (eh, I sound like Yoda), but that's the great thing, I'm setting aside time to read again; research or otherwise. Another great read so far this year is Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. Thanks to Kyn for the lead on this one, I owe you sis! It's one of those books that managed to clear the clouds in my head, much like what Tuesdays with Morrie did, for me at least. We all need books like this from time to time to help us take stock of what's really (REALLY) important in our life and finding the guts to work towards it. I firmly believe that if you're doing things for the right reasons, the journey will get steadily easier, Insya Allah. Dare to be different, go against the humdrum flow of the hoi polloi. Allow me to quote a line from Tuesdays with Morrie (TWM), the one that gave me definite push to change things:

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."

If something doesn't work for you, then don't. Don't bow down. Don't bow out. Don't follow. Make your own destiny.

OK, enough with the carpe diem already. If you've not read TWM, check out some other quotes from the book here, then go get the book, 'cos if anything, it's a deeply moving, beautiful story.

MB if you're reading this, you must be wondering when Twilight is gonna make an appearance. Sigh. Yes, I admit. I've been sucked into the saga that is Twilight. *blush*

Yes, as Ain mentioned to me, teenagers read the books, but then you know what? Kids read Harry Potter and I love the series, so there. Besides, did you know that Tolkien wrote The Hobbit for 6-year olds? It doesn't make it less of a classic.

OK so Twilight is not exactly classic. But we can't all read Austen and Hemingway all the time yeah? I know I can't. What's great about the books is that it's got me thinking of other classics; Stephenie Meyer references them a lot. Which is a good thing; I was already toying with going down to the library and re-reading some of my fave classics (love Far from the Madding Crowd, but dunno where mine is), and Twilight kinda gave me a more distinct push. Now I'm considering re-reading Wuthering Heights. The last time I read that was like what, more than 10 years ago. It's worth another read I guess.

I did remember after reading Wuthering Heights how incredibly depressed it made me, not in a bad way though. It's an excellent book, just, well depressing. Quite overwhelming. Like listening to Dog Man Star for the first time. Depressing but insanely beautiful and totally overwhelming. But beautiful all the same. I kinda feel like I can appreciate the book better now, 'cos I'm older *rolls eyes*. Sounds stoopid right? But y'know if I'd read The Little Prince when I was young, I couldn't have fully appreciated the deeper meanings in that book. Age mysteriously does things to you.

Anyway, classic or not, I somehow got sucked in, line, hook and sinker. Devoured the whole series in about 5 days, ignoring pretty much, well, the whole world while I did. It is quite disconcerting. I came across this article on why Twilight is accessible to many, go check it if you want. If any of you's a Twi-fan, gimme a shout-out yeah? It'll be nice to know somebody else who devoured the books like I did.

So yeah, the only thing I (and MB) need right now is a break. It's been a whirlwind these past few months and we both need a breather. Especially MB; he's been elbow-deep, nay, head-deep (is there such a thing?) in work these past few weeks, it's been crazy. We need to get away for a bit. Probably somewhere local. BB can't tell the diff if we're still in good ol' SG or not, so we're not gonna bother with the hassle of going overseas while he's still a wee lad. We kinda have a good idea what to do, but if anyone has any ideas (shopping mall trips don't count), shout it out please!

After the break, the craziness will begin again. Good times. No, really. At least my package full of goodies will have arrived by then, so yeah, very good times :)

NR
go team: I'm on Team Switzerland btw, why choose?!

We'll Shine Together

2008-11-27T14:43:00.002+08:00

Finally!!!! It's up on YouTube!!!

Here it is, Manics' version of 'Umbrella', performed at Fort Canning last Monday:

On another note:

Hopefully with the turmoil that's going on in Bangkok, those going to see Manics at the 100 Rock Festival stay safe and have a good time. There's a few other foreign bands involved like Ash, so I think people may be flying in just to catch the event. Dunno how they're gonna get out of the airport though. The pics in the papers today look pretty scary. Lots of flights going to BKK are cancelled too, so I don't know how the bands are gonna get there in the first place.

This just in: unconfirmed news that the whole Festival is cancelled. For the sake of everyone's safety, I'd say it's a good move, but for those who have waited 14 years for the Manics to come by again...ouch, it must really hurt to wait some more. But then it gives them a good reason to swing by this side of the world again yes?

NR
doa for: those stuck at Suvarnabhumi heading for Hajj do make it to Jeddah. A pic of an old Muslim man sitting amid lotsa (obviously Jeddah-bound) luggage in the papers made my heart ache this morning.

"here chewing your tail is joy"

2008-11-26T16:48:00.003+08:00

The Manics were kick-ass awesome. One of the year's highlights for me. I'm still smiling and buzzing from the concert.

The weather co-operated, thankfully, so no rain, but it was pretty humid. The crowd was mostly made up of mid-20s to thirties; so not so many irritating teenagers, yay.

MB and I arrived at the venue around 7.30pm, we thought there'd be a huge crowd standing in front already but nope, just a few peeps sitting around and everybody else milling about the grounds and lazing on the lawn. Some even brought picnic mats. Right then I knew. This crowd is gonna be vastly different than the Suede crowd five years back. I like the concert already.

A local band opened for the Manics. The music was alright, don't quite like the vocals though. They performed a 30-min set then got off the stage for the crew to set up the stuff for the Manics. The crowd gave a cheer when Nicky's feather-boa-ed mike stand was set up. Ho yeah.

It hit me right then that I was going to see the Manics perform mere metres away. Woohoo!!!

They came on stage at 9pm. And based on their past few setlists, I expected them to start with 'Faster' but man, they dove straight into 'Motorcycle Emptiness'. Screamed my lungs out and sang along, fists in the air. Love that song. And it just gets better.

Next up was 'Autumnsong', one of my faves from 'Send Away the Tigers', then 'La Tristesse Durera' (more screaming and singing and jumping) and then 'Faster' (jump jump jump!!). I was truly the happiest person there. If the concert had to be suddenly stopped after the fourth song, I'd have been duly sated.

Not that it got worse. Nonononononono.....

Next was 'Everything Must Go', so how to stop?! We just rode along on the high, camera phones clicking (when we wanted to, too busy experiencing the whole thing!). They also did a cover of Nirvana's 'Pennyroyal Tea' much to MB's delight. I was expecting that 'cos they'd been performing that in pretty much all their gigs this year.

After the workers' anthem 'A Design for Life', Nicky and Sean took a short break for James to do his usual solo acoustic set. He stood there with his guitar and said, "I'm just one man with one guitar...and his feelings." Awwwwwwww....

I was crossing my fingers and hoping that he'd play 'Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky'; not a very well known song, but I saw a vid on YouTube of him playing that song acoustically and just melted. I almost teared when I heard the beginning riffs for the song. "This next song is not so sad." he smiled and said when the first one ended, and went straight on to 'Everlasting'.

Then Nicky and Sean came back and we rocked on with 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough'. With the night going so well, I was hoping Nina Persson would magically appear onstage to perform with them, but that would be asking for too much. Heheh.

And then, and then, James said they were gonna play a 'booty song'. MB and I looked at each other. "Are they gonna...?" Yes they did.

They played Rihanna's 'Umbrella'. Effing brilliant. MB and I saw a vid of them performing this song, and while they had played it a few times at their gigs, I thought them playing it here was going to be a long shot. But oh man, they played it. And damn, they nailed it.

So what's with the Manics playing cover songs? They love doing it, and I don't mind really. It's nice to hear a different version of a well-known song. They've done 'It's So Easy' by Guns n Roses and (I found out recently) 'The Drowners' by Suede way back in the 90s, and though I prefer the originals, it was nice hearing another spin to some songs that I love. I do like their version of 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' though. It was used recently on some ad on channel 5 , can't remember what ad though...

Anywaaaayssss, after 'Umbrella', they played a couple more songs before they ended with MB's favourite 'If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next"( The title is apparently taken from a poster from the Spanish Civil War). We screamed for them to come back for an encore, but they didn't :(

Don't think James could take the heat anymore hehe. He was sweating buckets a few songs into the concert and kept mentioning how hot it was. He mentioned that they should've been sent here for conditioning like the Olympic athletes first heheh. Nicky was totally cool though. He wore a jacket and didn't seem to sweat at all. His glitter eye make-up didn't melt a bit. He smiled a lot too, that was nice. He stood ram-rod straight in his glittery, gold sneakers, playing his bass and mouthing the words to the songs. Very cool. And yes, he is very, very tall; I feel like a midget just looking at him. James joked that he's 7ft 8in during the concert, heh. Sean....I couldn't see him 'cos he was behind the drums. But he was smart 'cos he wore bermudas and a cap; perfect for the weather.

I was kinda bummed 'cos there was no encore, but they had performed a solid 85 minute set with 20 songs, so I'm not complaining. Here's the setlist:

1. Motorcycle Emptiness

2. Autumnsong

3. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)

4. Faster

5. You Stole The Sun From My Heart

6. Everything Must Go

7. Ocean Spray

8. The Masses Against The Classes

9. You Love Us

10. Pennyroyal Tea (Nirvana cover)

11. Send Away The Tigers

12. A Design For Life

13. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky (solo acoustic)

14. The Everlasting (solo acoustic)

15. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

16. Umbrella (Rihanna cover)

17. 1985

18. Little Baby Nothing

19. Motown Junk

20. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

By far one of the best dates I've been on with MB, eventhough 98% of the time, I wasn't paying any attention to him. He's OK with it 'cos I know he had a blast too.

One of the good things about the concert is that the organisers pretty much let the fans take photos and record the concert. I saw someone in front of me recording some songs on his phone. And some people brought their SLR cameras too. Very cool. Videos still coming in on YouTube. These are some of them:

Motorcycle Emptiness:

Autumnsong:

La Tristesse Durera:

Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky:

Faster:

You Stole the Sun from My Heart:

Pennyroyal Tea:

I'm still waiting for someone to upload the cover of 'Umbrella'. This is a vid of them rehearsing the song. It's pretty good. Apparently the song is featured in an NME CD. Hmmmm.....NME.....it's been some time since I last read that mag...

So yes, I am a very very very very very happy person right now. I've waited too long for a band like the Manics to come by. Thanks MB for buying the tix and for a very lovely concert date. After a few shows at the Esplanade, it's nice to go somewhere and rock out :)

Photos on my Flickr and Facebook.

NR
goondu moment: in my rush to get BB ready, I forgot all about my purple feather boa until I saw someone wearing a pink one. Bought it years ago 'cos i saw a pic of Nicky wearing a purple one at Reading '97. He looked awesome, all camouflage-print dress and purple eye-shadow, on the front of MelodyMaker magazine. I thought I'd wear it if I ever see the Manics. Oh well. Maybe they'll come back. I mean, they're going to Bangkok again after 14 years so....there's always hope yeah?

mean

2008-11-21T00:23:00.002+08:00

I know you say what's on your mind.

Because you're blunt that way.

I know you say the things you do.

Because you're tactless that way.

I know you do stuff like that.

Because, let's face it, you're not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, are you?

*snigger*

But it still hurts. I need to get thicker skin.

But don't you worry now; go float merrily along with the hoi polloi and breeze through your weekend; everything just flies over your head anyway.

NR
on the couch with the Manics: "What's the point in always looking back / When all you see is more and more junk " (from 'No Surface All Feeling'). Yet why do we still do it?

it's a no go

2008-11-20T12:55:00.002+08:00

OK so the deal is off.

No 600 cupcake order. Boo. The Cupcake Tree will be kept back into the box whence it came from. Double boo.

On the bright side, no rush next week. No haggling and begging peeps to help me do one million dozen things. No running around the island buying supplies. So it's kinda OK.

On an even brighter side, Manics is still on, so that's very OK. Collecting the tix later, yay!!

Hmmmm....can do more stuff with BB next week then. Take him cycling again maybe, 'cos yesterday was fun. Can go bowling with Ika too. And maybe fix an earlier dinner date with a couple of friends 'cos we all need to inject some happy-happy in these gloomy times. And I wanna talk MB into going to the places we keeep saying we wanna go, but never seem to find the time to. Yup, so all's good. Everything happens for a reason yes?

Allrighty, need to get dressed to go collect tix and lepak wif Ika.

NR
it's a bitch: pimple attack! argh! havent had an outbreak like this since the last century! hehe, i sound like a dinosaur...

All Systems Go

2008-11-19T02:21:00.005+08:00

Everything's going real sweet. One step closer. So exciting! And scary (for one of the things anyway)...but can't wait!

First up, remember I said I had to turn down an order for 400 cuppies? It's on the verge of being confirmed, but if it is, this time, it's 600!! Woohoo! Quite challenging, what with super major time constraints and all (event is next Saturday) and I have to plan, make, send, set up and dismantle them 600 thingies, but ooooh!! Major coup!! For me at least.

And the best thing? I get to use my Cupcake Tree at last! Kapow!! Finally took it out from its box and set it up. It looked beautiful even without the cupcakes. I'm in love.

Also, also....

I'm one step closer to....

Manic Street Preachers!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!! Just bought the tix online just now, will collect them on Thursday. MB and I had already arranged babysitting er, arrangements where BB is concerned, so on 24th November, it's just gonna be Manics and me. With MB lah.

Been listening to their songs this past week. Sighhhhh....I'm in love all over again...

The Manics write some of the most poignant lyrics I have ever come across. Sometimes sad, sometimes glaringly real, but always moving and beautiful. These are the opening to 'La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)' :

"Life has been unfaithful
And it all promised so so much
I am a relic
I am just a petrified cry"

My heart just ached the first time I read the lines.

I remember Melody Maker sometimes stating they were 'intensely intense'; I had to agree. But that doesn't mean their songs don't sound good.

There was this once, in Poly, my two buds and I were waiting for our tutor in an empty lecture room, and we got bored, so one of them dared me to stick in a CD into the sound system. I had Gold Against the Soul with me so I stuck that in the player. Wah...listening to 'La Tristesse...' over the sound system was awesome. Can't wait to hear them live; hope they play from their earlier albums too.

Speaking of albums, they're releasing their new album in spring 2009, with all songs featuring lyrics left behind by Richey James, the band member who has been missing since 1995. Something to look forward to, definitely. I'm linking the video of 'A Design for Life' here 'cos this is the song that got me started on Manics.

A Design for Life on YouTube

Embedding has been disallowed understandably 'cos they have their own YouTube channel here:

Manic Street Preachers' YouTube channel

Fort Canning, I'll see ya in less than a week. Got to get ready. Time to get intensely intense. Stay Beautiful peeps.

NR

cake it

2008-11-17T19:35:00.004+08:00

I saw this at one of my fave cake blogs (more about the blog later), thought I'd put it here 'cos it's so freakin' awesome.

The "making of" can be found here.

So yes, on to the cake blog. It's a site you should go to even if you're not into cakes 'cos it's well, hilarious. Not just the featured cakes, read the commentary; it's farnee.

So what's it about? For starters, it's called Cake Wrecks. It features professionally-done cakes that don't turn out, well, professional. Most of the time, they're just badly-decorated, but there's a few 'gems' that make you go "WTF is that shit?" It started out when the blog owner blogged about this cake:

Mampos kan???!!! To say the person who iced it was a bit literal is being real kind. Anywhoo, I'd post some more pics, but just go on there yerself. It does feature some really awesome-looking cakes sometimes, but it's the horrible ones that are fun. It's worth a look I tell you; Ika spent the whole night looking through all the archives when I showed her the blog. To say we laughed like manic hyenas is also being kind. I'll put up the link at the side later.

OK, I can hear BB laughing from downstairs; he's back from buying thosai wif my 'rents. Later.

NR
on edge of my seat: 600 a go? yes? no?

what's the Formula again?

2008-11-07T13:39:00.003+08:00

Yes, I was gutted. Beyond belief. To give me a sliver of hope and then to snatch it back at the very last few seconds...that's just not done. Boo. I would've been OK if he was at 5th position all the way. It's his year, I get it. Just don't give me that little bit of something to make my "what if..." come true, then snatch it away. I can't handle that.

Being an optimist sucks sometimes.

I felt physically ill, like a stomachache in the making. I quickly went to sleep after the press conference where I have never seen three podium finishers look so...sad. And did you see how Massa's family celebrated a split second before they turned still as stone when an official told them of the last minute Hamilton victory? My heart went out to Massa's dad, who, with a tube in his nose (he insisted on coming out from hospital to watch the race) celebrated what everyone thought was his son's victory, and the look on his face when an official touched him on the arm and told him what had happened. Heartbreaking.

I woke up in the morning with a bad taste in my mouth, wishing the late night race was a bad dream, like as if Interlagos never happened. Sigh. Next year eh?

On a lighter note, MB and I talked about Red Bull Air Races a few days ago. I'd caught one of the races on Eurosports Channel some time back and it looked like fun. Something I know I can definitely appreciate.

Then lo and behold! The next day, on the front page of Home news, they said that Red Bull Racing will most likely make its way here. Hooray! At least something to cheer about this week. Man, BB will be so thrilled if he sees those planes in action. He wakes up in the morning and the first thing he does when he sees MB is make aeroplane vrooming noises and flying plane motions with his hands. Very cute. How not to take him to see this?!

MB showed me some pictures of the Red Bull competition planes yesterday. One of his friends who's undergoing pilot training in Australia went to catch the race there and had the opportunity to take some pics with the planes. They look so good!

I wondered aloud to MB if there were other supporting airshows, with oh, you know, like maybe old, vintage, warbirds? MB was like yeah, see this photo? That's a warbird right there. They'll have formation flying and stuff.

Oh man, when he said that, you know like how excited I was about the RSAF OH? Like I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time? Yeah, almost did that. Until MB dropped the bomb.

He said some shows featured warbirds 'cos well, that country has warbirds to fly. It's too expensive to bring them over here. Plus, don't think they can fly all theway from US or Europe to Singapore. They'll probably sputter and die and break into a gazillion pieces over the Atlantic or sumthin.

Very the dammit right? I told him flat-out, "Don't go Interlagos-ing on me. That's just not cool. I cannot take it OK?"

At least BB's having a fun week. MB bought hovercraft off his friend. We've been hovering and crafting around the living room the past few days. BB's excited and scared at the same time. So fun. He'll be chasing the thing and when it turns around to go towards him, he'll scream and run to somebody, anybody. But he loves it really. We're gonna bring it downstairs and give it a spin at the void deck. Should be more fun.

He was "helping" my dad vacuum the house yesterday. Have I mentioned that's his fave toy? If he hates vacuuming when he gets bigger, he's so gonna get it from me. To get BB off his back, my dad gave him the small vacuum brush to go "clean up" so he happily brushed pretty much everything in his sight. End result? Happy toddler with a rash. Sigh. Must have been the dust. Good thing it was a localised spot on his upper arm. Still a bitch though 'cos it kept him up at night, it must've been itchy. And if he can't sleep, MB and I can't sleep. That's just no good.

Sigh. What a week of ups and downs. Another downer? I had to turn down an order for 400 cupcakes 'cos I'm all tied up next week. Granted, it was a last minute request, but damn, I was looking forward to making those. My heart sank to my toes when I read the email and saw the date. Replying to the email was painful. Oh well, as my mum said, and I agree with her, takde rezeki. But it still sucks.

Looking for sumthing to cheer me up this wekend. Any ideas? If only there was a formula to make me all chirpy and smiley and la-la-la. Sigh. It's one of those days....

NR
i want: my cheap cake fix.

tiers of joy

2008-10-20T03:40:00.007+08:00

Omg, corny right the title?! Please excuse my brain. I am duly embarrassed but too tired to change it.

First up: it's been a crazy month so far, from Raya it has just been full-steam ahead. I seriously wish I can just like, Bluetooth my thoughts to the laptop so this blog gets updated. But anyway, I digress...

This post is not and will not be about my lame grumbles about how shit-ass havoc busy this month has been. It will be about a happy event. A first. A foot in the door. An "oh-man-i-really-did-it-woohoo" fuelled, delirium-filled yay...thing. For me. And for SugarFix.

Today I have formally and finally had my first, real wedding cake be a part of a real wedding. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

I got the last minute order two weeks ago, and with the groom being an all-round cool guy and MB's recently-discovered distant nephew (oklah, not so recent; MB found out they were related when the guy spotted his uncle at our wedding. His uncle is obviously MB's distant uncle), I accepted. When I hung up the phone after talking to him, I was like, "Biar betul aku ni?!"

So with Raya visits, tuition kid's exams, other upcoming orders to prepare for and BB weaving through everything, I had little time to practise and lots of stuff to prepare. Everything had to be planned out in the anal, military precision, Type-A way so as to reduce the chances of me dreaming about scheduling when I sleep (no joke, I dreamt I was making a list of things to be done last week; what a nightmare).

I needed to practise draping fondant on a real cake, but once that was done, I was too pooped to do anything to pretty it up. So I just put a ribbon around the bottom and plopped an artificial pink peony on the top.

Voila! So that was how there was a kepala meja smack dab in the middle of the other food on the 11th. Not a kepala meja per se, 'cos those things don't get eaten. This one was pretty much gobbled down by the end of the day.

Thank goodness Nas (that's the groom ) wanted a real simple cake. He gave me a picture of what he wanted the cake to look like and asked it to be modified to a two-tier round cake. When I saw the ribbon bow on the top, my heart kinda sank when I remembered the agony of learning to do bows with Christina aeons ago. Needless to say, I don't remember much :P I managed to make a simple bow watching videos from YouTube though, so yay. Thank goodness the detailing was just criss-cross patterns embossed on the sides. He wanted toppers that matched the keychain he attached to his invite, so I carved the shape out from gumpaste.

Were there some headaches along the way? But of course. The biggest PITA was finding a matching cake knife and server. I had always thought that finding a cake server would be a headache, but I was so wrong. They were everywhere. Finding a silver-handled cake knife was the real bitch. I'm not joking when I say that this kept me up at night. For many nights. Turned out I was looking in all the wrong places, tsk, tsk, tsk, goblok. I just want to say yet again: I *heart* Sia Huat.

Fast forward to today. Cake's all done: Two tiers of dark chocolate cake frosted with dark chocolate ganache, covered with fondant. With a black ribbon bow on top, fronted by two gumpaste cut-out figurines. Sides are embossed with a criss-cross pattern, with ribbon going around the bottom of each tier. Just some finishing touches left.

Had a good start: the cake stacked beautifully. No sinking tiers (my big fear) or off-centre stacking or chocolate smears on the white fondant. I knew then it was gonna be a beautiful day. It rained, yeah, but we got to the venue (Signature Park Condo Clubhouse) just fine with not a single drop of water on the cake (that would have been a nightmare) and set it up with lots of time to spare before the solemnisation at 3.30pm.

Side-track: check out my eye-luggages...

After setting it up, we snuck out to watch F1 (important race, how to miss?!), jalan-jalan a bit, then went back to the reception (it ended at 8pm). On the way back, MB and I wondered if the cake had been cut or whether they were gonna do it later.

The cake had been cut while we were gone. By the time we reached there, the top tier had been devoured and a few slices had been cut out of the bottom tier. Score!! Spotted people eating the cake, fondant and all, and what was truly kick-ass was when people, from friends to family, gushed about the cake. Alhamdulillah, I was relieved. I'm not into cakes that look too good to eat or when taste takes a backseat to design. In fact, while I was discussing the cake design with Nas two weeks ago, he actually pretty much left the design to my interpretation "as long as the cake tastes good". His utter confidence in my abilities still amazes me.

MB and I chatted with his friends and some family members we recognised and stayed till the end, then we packed up our stuff, took home some kuih (hehe, pulut serunding sedaaaaapp!), congratulated the obviously-more-sleep-deprived-than-me happy couple and just our luck, a Merc cab pulled up the moment we left the clubhouse. Like I said, it's been a good day.

So yeah, I managed to sneak in 2-3 hours of sleep these past few nights in a row. I'm still running on adrenaline right now. But it was worth it. I got a hantaran enquiry for December already, Alhamdulillah. Another crazy week coming up. And I need sleep.

But here I am at 5-plus a.m., making some revision worksheets for tuition tomorrow (or technically, today), munching on Mini Oreos. I'll save the Kisses for tomorrow.

I could've started my work earlier but got caught up watching a Tamil movie on TV; so sue me, the story was too amusing to miss.

NR
a big mwaaaaaah to:
- MB for being my right hand man and cheerleader in this whole assignment
- Mama and Ayah for helping out with BB
- BB for being my little mixer assistant

guess who? guess who?

2008-09-20T20:51:00.002+08:00

Guess who had a plane barge into the back of his head today? Guess who had to get stitches for the lacerations from the plane's propellers? Guess who came home in a hospital top 'cos his T-shirt was all bloodied up and ended up in the bin? Guess who now has two small bald patches at the back of his head 'cos of the stitches?

Yeah. So. Anyway, he's pretty much alright otherwise, Alhamdulillah. Sigh.

Was I pissed? Hell yeah. At the start. Until he came home and I saw the damage and the crusted blood in his hair and the bloody T-shirt. Now I just want to baby him and make sure everything is OK. Sigh. Macam mana nak marah?

PROMO PROMO!!

2008-08-26T15:50:00.003+08:00

Loads of pictures and updates but, this I think I'll put these stuff up first. Heads up!!

#1. Breathe Exhibition at the Jendela, Esplanade, till end of August.

OK, I'm like super tardy on this one, sorry Kyn!! Kyn's one of the artists whose exhibitions are up at the space. Ends this weekend, entry is free, so go take a look. I like her work, and it's not because she's my bestest friend like ever, but because it kicks ass. Especially if you, like me, lurv paper cuts. Go, go, go see ok?

Oh and if you read Berita Harian, there was an interview and pic of Kyn and another artist featured in the show when it just opened. I don't usually read BH; it was my mum who noticed it ("Eh, ni Syikin kan? Wah!!").

#2. Stories of the Hijrah Year book

About the months in the Muslim calendar and their significance. Lest you think it's berjela-jela, it isn't. Each month takes up one page, with short and succinct explanation, very suitable for kids and adults alike. Best part (for me at least)? It's in English. I like.

MB's cuzzin is the author, his fren is the illustrator, and MB did the whole layout, or as is written in the book, he did the, ehem, book design. Hehe. It's in the process of making its way to the bookstore shelves, but if you want to get it direct, it's $10.00 a book. Call me or MB for info.

#3. Tupperware Hari Raya promo

OK, gotta put this in, 'cos I love their stuff. These are the promo items ending 20th September. Be quick though, promo items clear out real fast. I've already got 2 sets of the Counterparts II and one of the One Touch Canister Junior. Oh, by the way, in normal times, the One Touch containers come in blue only, so this wundeful green colour is only for this promo. Go grab.

Call me to order. There are other items featured in the catalog; you can find the items here:

Tupperware Campaign Updates

But the prices are not available online; call me if you find something you like. If you want a catalog to flip through and pass around, gimme a buzz too. Remember, promo ends 20th September.

Oh yeah, gotta mention this too: some people hesitate buying Tupperware 'cos they find it expensive compared to other plastic containers available, but what most people don't know is that Tupperware products (except a few exceptions) come with a lifetime guarantee. So that One Touch Canister I bought is gonna outlast me; if it gets worn out due to wear and tear like, 10 years down the road, I just go to Tupperware and change it to a new one. Simple really. So that container you paid a kerchingg for now will last pretty much till your kids go to uni and beyond. And if that container is not manufactured anymore, you get credit which you can exchange for brand new, different Tupperware stuff. Best kan? You save in the long run. Plus, you replace less plastic stuff, nicer to the enviro too.

Now that you know this (if you haven't), you know what to do to those 20-year old, sticky, yellowing, sambal-smelling Tupperware containers stashed at the back of your kitchen cabinets :)

NR
i want: that Ikea cushion for laptop thingy. my backkk....erkh...

these are a few of my favourite things

2008-08-13T00:40:00.010+08:00

No, I'm not doing the Julie Andrews routine; the song doesn't cover cakes, flowers and planes, which are my favourite things; plus I don't wear clothes made of curtain material, so uh-uh, nope, none of that raindrops on noses thingies. But dontcha just lurv that movie? But I digress...

It's just that over this very hectic month, things that I so, so love somehow keep popping up every so often, kinda keeps my sanity in check. Makes everything much more bearable of course. I think it's Allah's way of helping me keep up with what I'm supposed to do, and smell the roses along the way. Alhamdulillah. It's good to know He's always around :)

Speaking of roses, like how fab was the Singapore Garden Festival?! MB, BB, MIL and SIL and I went on a weekday to avoid the crowds, and I was like, blown away. I missed the first one (morning sickness and shit...) so I've been waiting for two years to attend it. I'm not gonna
ramble much, 'cos, hey, you must have read all the glowing reviews about the fest in the papers, and all of that praise were truly well-deserved. It was a serious sensory overload; but in a good way. I forgot I was in a convention hall 'cos it truly felt like I was at the National Orchid Garden, without the sweating. These are some of my fave pics:

Ah, the Bentley. Reminds me of my late nyai. She comes from a wealthy Chinese family whose family car was a Bentley. I wonder how it feels like to be chauffeured around in one of these babies. She had her own car too. She used to zip around in an MG in her younger days. Woweee. I miss my nyai.

This was the entry from Netherlands, there were tulips everywhere. And the hanging greens lit up with fairy lights reminded me of Lothlorien. Sigh, gotta read the trilogy again.

Disco!! Love, love, love the play of colours.

Look closely, they're made up of lotus leaves.

Oooooh! My favourite display!! White orchids make up the trunk of the 'tree' and the hanging orchids look soooooo gorgeous! I have a thing for orchids, can you tell?

These are the entries from India. They are just hills of roses. Yup. Hills. Of roses. And carpets of rose petals on the floor. Nothing high-tech or special, but oh so spectacular and eye-popping. And the scent of roses was in the air. One of MB's fave displays.

Another of my fave. Glass bottles filled with orchids in water, hung from the ceiling. It looks like something you can re-create at home. "Looks like" being the operative phrase, heh.

Indonesia's entry. Reminds me of MB's cuz's wedding. Her husband is an Indon and he wove coconut leaves to make decorations like these for the wedding. Reminds me of the offerings that women carry on their heads to the temples in Bali too.

One of China's entries. I think it's a cool take on Warhol's artwork. Thumbs up!

These are those messy but gorgeous looking things that look so effortless, but I can only imagine the work that goes into it. Look closely at the seemingly haphazard arrangements and you can see structures among the lilies, peonies, ferns, hydrangeas and whatever else. It was how I imagined a secret garden would look like.

Can you make out a bench under the arch?

Reminds me of Bilbo's house.

Display from Africa. Very impressive. Can you see the giraffe on the right? Bedek punye lah...

MB and I just went "Awwwwww....." when we saw these African pincushion flowers. These flowers were used as part of our wedding deco on MB's side, so they're a bit special and significant for us. Plus, they last for some time too.

This was a tropical forest setting that showcased pitcher plants. Lots of pitcher plants. Lots of different sizes too. There was mist being sprayed every few seconds to keep the humidity level high, hence the smoky look.
These balls of flowers were hung and arranged to look like the galaxy. I love the impression of movement in this one.

Last but certainly not least (at least for me). I had almost given up, thinking that my fave orchid, the cymbidium, was not featured in the fest. Truthfully I was a little disappointed, bordering on upset, at not having seen the orchid in any of the displays. Just before I left though, suddenly it appeared right before me. The arrangement wasn't impressive, but the cymbidiums were. Why else would I have used them for my wedding bouquet?

Man, I love flowers....OK, moving on...

Was busy busy busy leading up to the National Day weekend. Juggling orders close together along with tuition and BB, not counting the time taken to buy ingredients and prep work (making cupcake picks, gumpaste shapes, sourcing out box deco etc) takes a lot of organisation. Thank goodness my mum offered to look after BB while I scooted off to find stuff. I work best when I've made a list, but at the last minute, when push comes to shove, you just got to grab and run. By this I mean that when your client is coming in less than 4 hours and you got 2 cupcake giftboxes to frost and decorate, and you find out that you need shitloads more of coloring gel, and the only place where that colouring gel is available is in effing Newton, you just grab the baby, hail a cab and go. And I mean go. No planning required. 'Cos there's no bloody time is there?! And how many bottles of colouring gel did I get? I swiped 4 bottles off the shelf, thank you very much. With BB helpfully grabbing a bottle of Forest Green colour which I don't need. Here are the orders:

MB's fren ordered 3 boxes of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache filling, pink and purple vanilla buttercream and Strawberry Shortcake cupcake picks

Piko ordered 3 boxes of chocolate cupcakes with purple vanilla buttercream and gumpaste butterflies and dragees, individually packed

My mum's fren's daughter ordered giftsets for her solemnisation. One to be given to her husband; the other to be received by her. The theme was black and white/ silver.

Flowers, check. Cakes, check. So where are the planes? Er, not yet actually. I thought something was fishy when I kept hearing fighter jets roaring overhead somewhere at the start of the month. I knew it was nothing to do with National Day or I would've heard it from a few months ago. My suspicions that something was brewing was stoked further a few days before Aug 9th. I was layan-ing BB when I heard the familiar whirr of heli blades. Not just one heli, but a few. I grabbed BB and went to the balcony. Sure enough, a few seconds later, a pack of Apaches flew right overhead. I gasped. I shrieked. I pointed. I did a little dance. I scared my son. I knew what was coming. What else could it be?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's here again. The RSAF Open House. Woohoo!! MB told me about it later 'cos he heard it from his flying kakis. I checked the website and true enough, it's coming! We're bringing BB with us; I'll close his ears during the airshow if I have to (the jets take off pretty much right in front of us) and yes, we will picnic under the Hercules this time if it gets real hot. Seriously, everyone else is gonna do it, join in lah! When else can you do it, honestly?

In the meantime, I must not get excited. Did you know, when I was a kid and still living at Marine Parade, and the Thunderbirds (no, not them puppets with wobbly heads, but American aerobatic planes) were in town, my parents promised to take the family to the beach 'cos they were performing at East Coast. I got so excited I fell sick and my parents cancelled the outing. I could only see snatches of the show through my window. Very goondu right? So frustrating.

But it's kinda hard not getting excited about it. I was in the toilet yesterday, sitting on the, er, throne, when I heard the jets roar again. They must've been circling or something 'cos it went on for some time. And I was so happy, I clapped my hands. And laughed and cheered. While sitting on the throne. Trying not to do it too loudly in case my mum got worried.

And I was just telling this incident to MB a few hours ago, and again I got excited, and you know what? I started tearing. Like, wtf?!! MB laughed at me, so supportive of him *snicker* but he did show me a pic one of the fliers at DaddyHobby took. The guy was flying his RC plane and two Chinooks flew real low right above his head. I almost cried.

It's disgusting. I don't cry. I'm not a cry-er. Must be these damned mommy hormones or sumthin'. I hope I don't crumble into a sobbing mess at the show. If I don't get sick first. Bleh.

NR
this should be on SugarFix but: in view of the above event, I will not be taking orders for 30th and 31st August. Harap maklum.

jus wanna share...

2008-07-25T13:19:00.002+08:00

This is one of the first few blogs I checked out when I started blog-hopping, but I kinda forgot about it for quite awhile.

Until recently.

It's for those times when you feel like you are carrying a heavy burden but can't share it with anyone.

When you feel like the meanest person in the world for thinking ugly thoughts.

When you feel like you have been dealt the worst deal in life and no-one's got it worse and it sucks and you just wanna crawl into a corner and cry.

When you need to feel not alone.

This is the place to go:

http://postsecret.blogspot.com

People post in their secrets on a postcard to the site and it's updated weekly (on Sundays I think). Just reading through helps sometimes, it's almost cathartic.

Sometimes I think it's a bit voyeuristic because you're peeking into somebody's deepest, darkest secret, but most times, it helps to know there is someone else who may be feeling all twisted up inside.

Like we all do sometimes. And it's okay.

Have a swimming weekend.

NR

what a lemon...

2008-07-21T13:48:00.004+08:00

My laptop is truly in its death throes.

Got the keyboard fixed last year, it's got to be powered up all the time when in use, then it was the power jack thingy that got fixed earlier this year, then I can't carry it from the front 'cos it will hang if I do that, then the CD-drive doesn't freakin' work no more, and then, last week, while I was happily surfing and looking at photos, the screen just faded into white.

I actually thought,"Eh, cool, I didn't know this is a slideshow!" and waited for the next photo to come up. And waited. And waited. Then MB started laughing and said,"Hon, I think your monitor just died!! Hahahaha!!"

OK, no funny.

Sigh. MB hooked it up on my TV so I could transfer out important stuff to my external hard disk and do my work, but everything on screen was kinda blurry, I don't see it as a long-term solution. So now I am on Ika's laptop banging out (gently, don't worry) this entry. Feels weird using other peple's laptop. Gonna get my new one tomorrow.

So anyway, all these pics are kinda lambat (what isn't on this blog *snort*), but here they are, ta-daaah!!

I bought some more blueberries but didn't feel like making pancakes with them, so I made them into mini muffins. Yummy. Goes well with my lemon curd which I made earlier in anticipation of the muffins. Heh.

BB ate half a muffin by himself for breakfast and promptly stained his cheeks and fingers a dark purplish-blue. Nicely done my boy.

Kak Nor wanted an orange cake. But she wanted chocolate on top of it. Very the good idea. I made one for her, and one for myself. Hehe. She said she was coming at 1pm but came at 11am instead. Aisey, nasib baik dah habis seh.

We sat down and lepak-ed and basically she ate part of her cake right there and then. Hehe, I never had somebody order a cake and cut it and eat it straight away. Lu gerek ah babe!! Gua suka! Gave her some lemon curd too. Hope you enjoyed it man!

Know what? I'm gonna stop calling it lemon curd 'cos it sounds like something gone bad. It's actually like a nice lemony custard-y spread. I'm gonna start calling it lemon butter. Or lemon jam. Much nicer.

OK so yeah, new laptop akan datang. It's gonna come with Bluetooth thank goodness. I actually thought of giving away my old laptop if I get a new one, but it needs too much work now, so I dunno, maybe not. Anyone wants scrap metal? No?

NR
got to prep: cupcake picks, gumpaste butterflies, box inserts...get started already!!

ok like, what?!

2008-07-14T20:29:00.002+08:00

OK so MB swaggered in a few minutes ago into the room and said (well, announces actually),

"Ibra's friends are getting 2 baulus and a Kit Kat in a bag as birthday favours. (pause) They'll look like penis."

Then he promptly made his way out of the room to get some cake.

Like, what?!! I had to laugh. And I mean, laugh out loud real long and hard. Dunno why though. It's not even that funny. Maybe I've had too much sugar for today. Let's see, 2 mini-muffins for breakfast, 2 berkat-sized chocolate cakes (which I shared a little with BB,so not really counted) and 2 ulas durian. Oh, and 2 chocolate-covered crytallised ginger bits (Piko I love you). And a bit (real teeny tiny pieces) of BB's muesli bread.

OK so I just thought I'd blog this. Bye now.

Oh, and Kak Nor, if you wonder why the choco-orange cake is not in the list of foods above, it's 'cos it's all gone. Hehe. Kita dua-dua gagah!!! Bwahahahaha! Kesian bapak aku tertanya-tanya lagi tadi...

NR
wat to do now: wipe off snot from BB's nose. oh, the joys of motherhood...

Oh Donald, what've you done...?

2008-07-04T16:13:00.002+08:00

Speaking of pancakes and breakfast, I'm linking this old Donald Duck video in which he attempts to make waffles but accidentally used rubber cement instead of flour.

MB and I watched this on the Disney channel not too long ago and by sheer coincidence, a few days later, a food blogger actually tried out the recipe as mentioned in the cartoon. Read it here.

OK enjoy!!

NR

pissin' at the piscine

2008-07-04T13:19:00.005+08:00

That's Benjol Boy (BB) on his first trip to the pool some months back. We were supposed to go to the swimming pool this morning, MB, BB and I. But it rained during the wee hours and continued till early morning. It was too cold to go so we cancelled. Bummer.

I was looking forward to a splishy-splashy time with BB today, and I packed everything before sleeping yesterday, but oh well. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise, who knows?

We contemplated going later at 10 plus, but it was still pretty grey and cool, so we scrapped the whole thing. BB doesn't like cold water, I mean, he practically detests it. When he has his shower and I spray him with the water before it warms up, his howls, man, they're amazing. You'd think I am spraying him with acid or something.

But then again, I hate cold water too. As much as I like going to the pool, I hate the initial few minutes when you enter the pool and it's so cold, I'll start shivering and my teeth start chattering. But after those few minutes, everything's fine, just "Swiiiiiimiiiing!!!" as that frog in the Rubber Dubbers kiddie show always says.

The pain of the first few minutes of teeth-chattering cold is worth it for the water fun later. BB, obviously, hasn't discovered this.

To make up for this disappointment, I made pancakes for breakfast. I bought some fresh blueberries a couple of days back and threw them in the batter too. Nice.

Hang on a second. Me and blueberries? What's up??

Yeah, I had a real strong aversion to blueberries since I was eight when I had a bad case of food poisoning after eating blueberry cake and gado-gado; which is the culprit, I do not know. But for a looooong time after that, the mere smell of blueberry-anything and gado-gado will make me nauseous. I'm much better now. Blueberries don't scare me anymore, but I still stay far, far away from gado-gado.

So are pancakes a nice enough replacement for a dip in the pool? Yeah, they are good enough. And they're fast and easy to whip up. This isn't anywhere near to being a food blog, but here's the recipe I use for my pancakes. Forgot where I got it from though. They use normal kitchen staples, and it's easy to tweak and add stuff to it to make them different everytime you make some. Leave the box mix on the supermarket shelf where it belongs; you don't need all those nasty chemical stuff they add in them, and making a fresh batch takes about the same time.

Use your common sense though. If it looks way too abnormally lumpy (like mine this morning), add a little more milk. Oh, and remember not to overmix the batter; a bit of lumps is fine, mix it too much and you end up with tough pancakes. Remember, breakfast isn't supposed to be rocket science, tweak it anyway you want to , as long as it works for you. I got about 8 pretty thick pancakes from this recipe, if you make yours thinner, you'll end up with more, duh.

Pancakes
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil or melted butter

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Combine egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients till just moistened. (make sure all of your flour is incorporated, you don't want to get a bite of flour when you eat these - NR)
Pour batter by 1/4 cupful (agak-agak sua- NR) onto a hot griddle. Turn when bubbles start to form on top of pancakes. Cook until second side is golden brown.

Easy right? Here's how you can pimp your pancakes up:

Use wholewheat flour instead if you have some lying around. It has a lower GI and is more nutritious.
Do not use margarine to replace the butter, cos butter tastes waaaay better, and margarine's loaded with trans fats. It is afterall, only one molecule away from plastic, and houseflies don't touch them, so why should you?
Subst the sugar with brown sugar, it has a more intense taste than white sugar.
Add a splash of vanilla.
Throw in some chocolate chips like what I did when Kyn came over for brekkie last year.
Swirl in some jam when the batter's on the griddle. Or better still, Nutella.
Throw in some banana slices and a dash of cinnamon. Subst brown sugar. Eat with peanut butter. OOOOH! Elvis will be so proud of you!
Mix in some chopped apples or spoon some applesauce on it when it's on the griddle. Add a dash of cinnamon. Subst with brown sugar if you prefer.
Mix in the berries, they're in season now so it's much cheaper. Fairprice has blueberries going at $2.90 this week, so go grab some, they usually cost about $7.00. Strawberries are a plenty too, so don't forget them.
Think beyond maple syrup. Make some strawberry sauce and swirl some in the batter or dip your pancakes into it. It's delish and real easy to do. Spread the leftovers on buttered toast for the next day's breakfast. Buzz me if you want me to put up the instructions on how to make this in the next post.
Blueberries and lemons are a perfect match. I was wishing I had some lemon curd to slather on my pancakes this morning. Buzz me if you want to know how to make this or you know what? Hands up if you like lemons! I usually make a lot and end up eating it all cos nobody likes them here. If you want some the next time i make a batch, lemme know. Self pick-up tho.
Go fancy. Never done this before, but I suppose they'd work. Plop a pineapple ring on the batter when it's on the griddle, and when you flip it, the sugar in the pineapple will caramelise, yummmm!!! Don't burn it tho. What do you get from this? "A-la-peanut-butter sandwiches!!" Upside-down pineapple (pan) cake!! Nice spin to an uber retro classic yes?
Oh yeah, MB ate his blueberry pancakes with some butter and cheese spread. Not bad actually. Give it a shot.

This was our breakfast today:

How was yours?

NR
macam betul je aku ni: 'piscine' is 'swimming pool' right? non? my French is karat giler. anyone wants to correct me? piko? kak nor?

momok!!

2008-06-27T18:44:00.002+08:00

Ok, one for the weekend!!

Quick post for now, I'm on a short break, got a cake in the oven and cupcakes to frost in a bit.

MB showed this to me a few days back. It's a far-neeee Thai commercial, and I just gotta share this. Enjoy!!

NR
sudden craving: suddenly have visions of a pavlova while blogging; crisp meringue shell, home-made strawberry sauce, strawberry chunks, softly whipped cream...aiyoh, shit man.

still here...somewhere

2008-06-26T01:05:00.004+08:00

yup, still here, still alive.

why no new updates for so long?

1. my laptop's crazy; it's reaching its end soon. i can pretty much go to anyone's blog, website, whatever, but it jams up on mine. yup, no kidding. it just cannot (or will not) finish loading my blog, and that sucks big time. it's the kind of thing that can kill my day so i don't even bother signing in.

oh and the speed? omygod. it's so slow that if it was a car, it'd get overtaken by a limping tortoise inching its way in the other direction. but yeah, it's time to say goodbye soon. it's been close to what, five years? MB offered to get me a new laptop, and for once, i'm not really protesting that i don't need it. i still protest though, 'cos well, it's not like going to the supermarket and buying a loaf of bread y'know? but the protest is VERY half-hearted. and knowing my dearest MB, it's gonna be "hello Mac" for me. i get enough practice from using his Mac from time to time, so shouldn't be too hard. but it's still an adjustment. oh well.

2. my little Benjol Boy (BB) is all grown-up at 13 months. walking pretty much everywhere, banging into loads of stuff (oh the stories i could tell you) and pretty much giving me daily heart attacks. sitting quietly and finishing up his meal now is an achievement 'cos his attitude right now is basically 'any time away from play is time wasted'. he's starting to run a little now. oh dear.

there's a special section in my brain that stores words i want to put down here, if i could just find the time to plonk down in front of the laptop. if somehow i could just Bluetooth my thoughts into my laptop, that'd be real convenient. freaky but convenient. but that'll mean i need a laptop with Bluetooth. yes, i got an old machine, refer to point no.1.

and yes, i will upload photos from BB's birthday party that happened in May. I will update more recent cake photos at SugarFix. i will record the mind-boggling and wonderful adventures and experiences of BB. maybe put in some videos. hopefully by next week. so if anyone wants to, you know, drop by (yes, the little handful who still hopefully lingers around), there should be something up. mostly stuff that happened in May and June. old news, yes, but well, they're more for me. i'm the one who needs the Memory Bank in the first place eh?

k, gotta go calculate ingredients. oh hey, by the way, wanna know how my day goes? dig out last sunday's lifestyle (June 22nd 2008) and check out the Baby Blues comic strip. i nearly teared when i saw it. really.

NR
weird-but-wonderful BB moment of the week:
took BB to see Wicked Aura Batucada last weekend. no reaction from him, no smiles, nothing; just full concentration on the performers, super intense. next morning, dances along with me to their music on the CD; smiles and shrieks and wiggles...the works. go figure.

April showers...

2008-04-20T01:43:00.009+08:00

...bring May flowers? Yeah right, it's been so bleeding hot the past month, the only showers I saw were when I took them in the bathroom. Okie enough grumbling! Round-up time! Anyways, what went on in April (that I can recall anyway :P)? Nah amik ko...

*Ashraf's op

What a way to kick-start the month. He had an orchidopexy on the 3rd of April. Basically, his right testicle had not descended at birth, and the surgeons gave us till his 10-month mark to see if the little stubborn thingy came down by itself. Obviously it didn't so into the operating theatre we went. The surgeon did say it was a fairly routine procedure; I thought it was just something doctors said to anxious parents, but on the day of his surgery, there were two other boys undergoing the same thing. Sheesh.

Truthfully, I was more concerned about the fasting-before-surgery thing. Takut nanti dia merengek satu malam. I needn't have worried. We went to KKH at 10am, and went through the pre-op check-up, changed him into the op gown (boys supposed to wear blue, but the only baby size available was in red, typically for girls, don't care lah, he still looked cute, and it was still oversized) and I was briefed about the procedure by the surgeon and the anaesthetist. His surgery was scheduled for noon, and only one parent was allowed in the waiting area, so I played with him in the designated play area. Man they have crummy toys, but we played catching on the mat and one Caucasian boy awaiting surgery made friends with Ashraf and gave him a sticker (so sweet!) so he didn't play with the toys much.

By the time it was his turn to go into the op theatre, he was fast asleep in my arms; all tired out and probably getting hungry. The nurse had told me during his pre-op check-up that he might struggle when they put the gas mask over his face, kids usually protest and kick a fuss when that happens. Thankfully, he was asleep so I just held him while they held the mask over his nose and gently tugged off his socks. In a snap, his oh-teng tumbled out of his mouth and that was it. I was kinda like,"That's it?"

"Yup, that's it mum. We'll call you when it's over. You can go have your lunch first," said the surgeon.

Hmmm OK, that was easy. MB and I had lunch, walked a bit around the shops (best thing about KKH is the food and the shops me thinks) and then I got a call from the nurses that the op was over. Yay!

I went into the op area and heard a baby wailing his ass off. Man, I thought, I hope Ashraf won't cry like that. I was putting on the slippers (got to remove your own shoes at the entrance) and when I looked up, the nurse shoved the wailing baby at my face. "He's been crying since just now, and doesn't want anything. You want to try to feed him?" Aisey, the bawling kid was mine.

He was all bundled up in a blanket, eyes closed but wailing like he just got slapped around silly. Damn. I tried to calm him down with milk and biscuits and singing...nothing worked. It was comforting that the nurses checked in really regularly. I got kinda exasperated and asked if I could call MB in. After crying non-stop for a few minutes, the nurses asked if I wanted the doctor to come take a look at him. Like duh. The anaesthetist, Dr Shah, came over and gave him some more painkillers and just like that, he snoozed right back. Phew.

He slept for some time, and I did manage to give him a little food and more importantly, water. See, they won't release him until he's taken a piss just to make sure everything's OK. So we pretty much stayed in the play area the whole time; me and MB taking turns to carry him since he refused to lie down. Man, he was one grumpy, frown-y little baby. Usually seeing us wanting to take a photo of him will draw out a smile, but that day, even that didn't work.

He finally urinated at about 6pm, after all the surgeries were done for the day (it is a day surgery centre afterall) and we took him home after getting some post-op care instructions from the nurse. He sat forlornly in my arms in the cab and fell asleep on the way back. Kesian anak kita, MB and I thought.

But what do you know, once we stepped in the house, he woke up and lo and behold! He was his usual self again. It was as if nothing happened. He was rolling and gambolling all over his play mat that night. I was so stressed 'cos I worried that he might bust his stitches. Sigh.

Alhamdulillah, he made a good and fast recovery. If you saw him the day after, you wouldn't believe he had surgery the day before. We went back for a check-up at the end of the month, I brought along a home-made thank you card and a bottle of choc chip cookies for the staff at the Day Surgery Centre 'cos I think they did a great job. KKH rules!!

* kurma kat durian

Man, I'm so corny *slaps myself*.

Yes, MB and I went on a date at the Esplanade on one of the Fridays. He got free tix for The Enchantment of Sangkuriang 'cos he did a project for Esplanade. Basically his client asked him to choose tix from any of the performances at The Studio in April or May. Why so specific? I think it's 'cos he did the program booklet for these two months.

When he asked me which performance we should go to, yeah I know we should go for Sangkuriang. Kaypoh me had read the synopsis while looking over his shoulder while he did work, so the choice was easy, hehe.

The show was fab; I had heard of the legend behind Tangkuban Prahu donkey years ago when I was in Indonesia and the guide in the bus was talking about it as we made our way up the mountain. I mustn't have been paying attention 'cos I didn't quite get the story. Or it could have been the smelly eggy sulphurous fumes clogging my brain. Or a bit of both.

Anyways, yeah, I thought the accompanying gamelan did an excellent job too. Sitting in The Studio waiting for the show to statrt, MB and I looked at the gamelan set and reminisced about the gamelan performance at Peliatan in Ubud while we were there. Although I had been to gamelan shows in Bali before, I was still blown away by the energy in the performance. I hardly paid any attention to the dancers; I was mesmerised by the quick strokes of the players' fingers over their instruments. Amazing. The troupe at Peliatan has performed at many international festivals and are known to be first-rate, so I made sure to watch them at least once while I was there. Definitely not disappointed.

The show ended after about an hour. I enjoyed it immensely and MB and I talked about it long after it ended. Nice. Next up, Kransky Sisters yes? Kyn, we going yes? Hehe. If you have not heard of the Kransky Sisters, they're weird-ass funny in a way, take a look:

Oh ahem, sidetrack sikit...if you've seen these posters up at the Esplanade, guess who made them?
Clap hands for MB!! Yay!! Tumpang show-off sikit, jangan marah! OK, back to the story...

We had ice-cream on our way home. I wanted to have a cone from Azabu Sabo earlier but was too full, so we had a Haagen Dazs cone each afte the show. Can lah. Not choosy. We were kinda pretending the whole evening that we were on a holiday (since we were sans Ashraf) in Bali, 'cos we both caught a travel show in the morning on Ch 5 on Bali; I didn't watch a lot of it; the presenter pisses me off, and not even the serene sights of Bali could distract me from her. I ended up watching Barney with Ashraf. Much much better. MB watched pretty much the whole thing I think (he was at his 'home office' at 96, I was at 53) 'cos he enjoys making digs about this annoying, bores-me-to-tears presenter. Really. Then he tears his hair out and changes the channel. Apa je...

* Bits of baking

Took a break from baking for a while after Ashraf's op to take care of him, man it felt good to start again! Did a bithday cupcake giftset for Ham to celebrate her friend's birthday. First time making gumpaste ribbons, quite time-consuming but very fun. Kinda happy with the way it turned out:Then the marathon baking session for the Daddy Hobby BBQ. MB wanted me to make some more of the Rocky Road Brownies for this year's event 'cos they were a hit last year. MB also volunteered to bring doorgifts for everyone, and I suggested making cupcakes. I bought the airplane cookie cutter some time back and had been looking for a reason to use it. So I made Confetti cupcakes with ganache topped with an airplane shaped cookie.

I wanted all the planes to be in green 'cos I wanted a warbird look to them, but MB's so enamoured with his Katana MD that he wanted some to be in purple. So we made most of them in green, with a small batch in purple.

They went down nicely with the revellers; I got two orders from the fliers who attended and the Rocky Road Brownies? They were gone in two hours. Yay!!

More pictures in SugarFix

* Stereophonics vs shopping spree

OK, so I didn't go to the Stereophonics concert. I feel like kicking myself. After an online shopping spree (I don't even dare to total up how much moolah I dished out), I didn't have enough kerchiinng to watch Kelly and Co at Fort Cannig. Dammit. I've attached a video of one of their early songs below; by early I mean like, when-I-was-a-student early. Very simple song and still one of my fave tunes from the band.

There were good reviews of the concert, and at least they didn't perform what, just over 60 mins like Maroon 5. Hehe, suckers. Thank goodness I'm not a fan, I'd have been so disappointed. Thank even more goodness I didn't go to that concert, I'd feel like shit knowing I'd gone to watch Maroon 5 and let Stereophonics slip by. But then again, what the hell would I be doing at a Maroon 5 concert in the first place?!

So why am I talking about Stereophonics when I didn't go to their concert? So I have a good reason to slip in this video here:

* That spreeeee

Yup, the one that wiped out quite a bit of $. I justify the purchases by reasoning that I can't get the stuff here. Even though one of the items got lost somewhere (I got a Harley nameplate instead and finally got the item I ordered a few days ago) and I was charged twice by the credit card company (which warrants an investigation which will last months, sigh...), I'd have to say I am delirious with joy whenever SingPost comes a-knocking or a padded envelope appears in the letter box, and horrified at how much space is taken up by the boxes. Like as if my room is not half a store-room already. I just got my latest purchase yesterday; I've not had time to open it and it's just outside the store room. No-one tell my mom OK? She'll go ballistic and give me one helluva lecture. But I also know she wants to see what's inside *wink*

OK so what did I buy?

- cupcake courier
- wedding cake book
- 4 cookie cutters
- 1 flower veiner
- 1 leaf veiner
- foil
- assorted gumpaste cutters (don't ask me what kind, I can't even remember them now)
- pink pearl dragees
- embossing plate
- cupcake stand

OK yeah, sufficient to say, I'm pretty broke. The main killer is the shipping. But oh, so many lovely, lovely toys!!

* Straight up

And I got my hair rebonded. Hehe. I finally made a trip to the salon and got my hair fixed. Now I can run my fingers through my hair like in the commercials. Haha!! How much I spent on my neglected, crummy, thick-ass mane will be a closely-guarded secret between MB and I. Suffice to say I nearly hyperventilated and had an anxiety attack after I left the salon and called MB. How much do I love my husband? Very very much, 'cos he waved it all off and told me I'm beautiful. Hai....pompuan, pompuan....

* Coming up...

...is the title of Suede's third album. Heheh. OK so May will be as packed if not packed-er thatn April... my tuition kid's exams finally over, so phew, I can relax a bit now. Orders coming in; just finished two yesterday, one more for the weekend. My little bubba is turning one in less than two weeks!! Yay!! Partaaaaaayyy!!!

Side note: Kyn's going on a concert tour in Australia with her band, My Precious. All the best sis, I'll miss you! We'll go out and ngap some goodies when you come home k? Then can take pics with our fabulous hair! Haha! We'll look identical again, just like in Primary 1 :)

NR
nak ikut: my mom's going to Carousel tomorrow for high tea with my aunts. I want to follow mummy please???

i. want. to. breathe...need. some. toing-toing-toing...

2008-04-14T13:33:00.003+08:00

oh man, i want to write so much stuff, so much has been happening the last two months, but no time to blog, hardly had time to call and meet up with some peeps like i meant to.

i just called my friend a few days ago to see how she was doing. and i meant to call her waaaaay back in february. everyday i think: "call her today irah," but i don't. man, this is shit. Alhamdulillah, she's doing great, will go visit when her baby is born. but i do want to meet her earlier. oh bleh...

and kyn!! oh kyn!! lamanye tak keluar jalan-jalan, makan-makan!! and talk. about people we wanna secretly slap and the cruel injustices the world keeps slamming upon us. chay-bah.

i feel like writing all that's been happening, but tak leh lah, got stuff to do now; i'm just rushing an entry (so-called) right now 'cos i'm just done filing my income tax (why i still have to do it oso i dunno). so goblok.

kaki sakit ah...dah macam orang tua...lenguh from last week tak baik-baik. the bottle of massage oil is collecting dust. heh. tak larat nak urut.

suffice to say i'm tired. but sometimes i feel guilty for being tired, like, i'm not supposed to complain about it or something, like it's being lazy. but my body cannot take it.

and let's not talk about emotional fatigue. i'm so over that by the way, well, kind of. never mind. only two, three people will know what i'm talking about. tak kisah ah, suka dia ah. i'll start caring for other people, thank you very much. it's all biznezz from now on. don't roll your eyes ika.

ok, so i just wanna say, ashraf's surgery went swimmingly well (will talk about it one day), the surgeons and nurses did a fab job and he's bouncing off the walls like he's never had surgery. Alhamdulillah. thanks to those who prayed for him.

on the cake front, my other blog, SugarFix has been updated, go take a look if you want to. i'll be back here soon. i just need to recharge a bit first.

NR
looking fwd to: going to the durian for a show on fri. yay. maybe that will help some.

Noooo-tella la la la

2008-02-26T01:42:00.006+08:00

Nutella kicks serious ass.

Yah, but before I write anything further about Nutella, let me first congratulate Piko for being the first person to correctly guess the movie character who said "Reach for the sky!" which was the title of my last post. She wins herself a batch of home-made cookies made by moi. Padan muka aku, I announced that I will give the person who correctly guesses the answer cookies mere sconds before she proclaimed, "Woody!!!" So yeah, cookies in two weeks for Piko, standing ovation please!! *clap! clap! pheewiiiit!!* Oh by the way, MB sayang? You're not eligibe for any prizes offered (if any *snort*) 'cos you're too smart. Heck, you cannot even join. No seriously hon, we use these lines in our everyday lives, takkan u nak menang je? Kasi chan orang lain ok? Muaaaacks. Sayang dia.

OK so, Nutella.

MB and I caught an episode of David Rocco's La Dolce Vita last Thursday or something. I like David Rocco. He looks a like a nice, likeable, unpretentious guy, and the stuff he cooks always looks delish. In that particular episode, he prepared a quick dessert for some friends who came to visit on short notice. What did he make? Crepes. He made crepes. Not just any crepes. Crepes filled with nutella and slices of bananas. Only he pronounced it 'noo-tella'. Hehe.

To say that MB and I were speechless is putting it mildly. We practically swooned. I know it's something simple, but aiyoh, it's Nutella lah babe. As one of David Rocco's friend said while devouring it, "I'd like to meet the man who invented Nutella and shake his hand." Well said.

When they cut to commercials, I turned to MB and said, " We're having noo-tella crepes for breakfast on Saturday." I've never said anything with such conviction and ambition and gumption and all the other applicable -tions.

So did we have noo-tella crepes on Saturday? In the words and tone of my other fave food personality Anthony Bourdain, "Oh yeah." Noo-tella crepes and much more.

I made the crepes while MB layankan si budak benjol/bintat (he's been knocking into lots of stuff 'cos he's testing his balance now, and he has two mozzie bites on his forehead). It's more of a 'belen' meal 'cos I threw in whatever was in the fridge to pimp our crepes.

Noo-tella crepes with banana slices, just like David's, for MB, with sliced strawberries for Vitamin C and a good dollop of freshly whipped cream.

I had a crepe filled with strawberry slices and whipped cream and a good drizzle of Nutella and another crepe filled with leftover blueberry filling and homemade lemon curd. And some banana to aid my ehem, digestion.
Why two crepes for me? 'Cos i can be greedy on occasion. Plus there's all this lovely lemon curd that nobody will touch, so I eat some everyday 'cos I can't bear to see it go to waste. Why do I make lemon curd when nobody's going to eat it? 'Cos I have a habit of making things that I end up eating myself. Besides, I like it, perks me up. Sour things are good things. Except sembuey. Bleurgh. If you like lemon curd, gimme a call. I'll pass some to you when I make a batch. Tastes great on buttered toast by the way.

So, ummmm, Noo-tella crepes. Or Nutella crepes. Whichever you prefer. Potay-toes, potah-toes. Either way, make some for yourself. MB and I ended up eating 3 crepes each. Yup yup. Share the love.

Ooooh, this I have to announce, at the risk of sounding totally shameless: my Japanese Cheesecake rocks!! I made one on Sunday and they were all gone in a flash!! All! Gone! Flash! Even had my mom and Piko asked me to do another one that night. But I didn't in the end. I had enough cream cheese for an order the coming week, and taking some from that stash means I have to go out and get some more.

Do you know that the whole of Bedok Central does not have Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese? Pathetico. Tampines Fairpice? Zilch. Carrefour Plaza Sing? Oso don't have. My usual standby source for dairy products, Giant Parkway Parade, was out when I went there. Never have I been so disappointed with Giant *shakes head*. Cold Storage jugaklah yang boleh harap.

OK I digress... Anyways, the cheesecake soooo soft and fluffy, and the top so nice and brown. Aisey, I was quite impressed myself. The side was a bit messy though, must grease the pan a bit more next time; I didn't grease all the way up the pan and the cake rose slightly higher than the pan during baking. Never mind, can do again!! All in the name of research eheh...

The picture of the cake is quite ugly though 'cos I didn't cut it properly; it wasn't even cooled down when I cut it so a bit messy lah. Tak sabar punya pasal. Share the blame peeps! Yes, you Piko, Ika and mama!! And me too lah.

Good food last weekend. Ika was telling me today it would be nice to eat crepes. Heheh. Just had my fill, I thank you. Wake up early next time and we'll have ourselves a Noo-tella good time!! Noo-tella, no tell you, no tell who who!! Hahaha!!

NR
does anyone know: where I can find a non-stick griddle?

Reach for the Sky...

2008-02-22T02:04:00.005+08:00

Yay!!! Singapore is hosting the Youth Olympic Games in 2010!!

Should be fun; can you imagine what a jam-packed 2010 it's gonna be? Especially in the later half of the year? National Day first, followed by Youth Olympic Games, then F1. And internationally, there's World Cup too. Fooyoh!! It'll be a SEA Games year too, won't it? And the next Singapore Airshow? Or am I getting the years wrong? Hmmm....

My head's still kinda spinning...

It's one of those days, I was cranky for most of the day, Ashraf wasn't helping. Plus I badly wanted to go down to the Padang to join the revellers and wait for the YOG announcement. But MB's busy today, he's been bogged down with projects for some time now, kesian jugak dia, so I didn't push it lah, but I was still kinda bummed. Ika was not working today but she's got some school project to do, plus with Yat still hobbling on crutches, erm, tak payah lah. Don't want him to strain his knee.

So I thought never mind lah, just watch on TV.

MB returned from work slightly early today; turned out he met a friend on the way and got a ride home, yay. I was quite surprised to see him at the door nonetheless, seemed like I just got off the phone with him, and he was just leaving then. And then.... and then right.... he opened his bag and fished something out and was like, "This is the one you wanted right?" And I almost screamed in delight (almost being the operative word; I was carrying Ashraf, and tough as he may be, he's not big on sudden loud noises, lemah semangat sikit dia ni).

He actually got me the book I was eyeing when we went to 25 Degrees Celsius last month. I didn't expect him to get it for me 'cos I actually wanted to go there again and get it myself. Plus, there are some other books there that I'm eager to get my hands on, so I whined, "You went there without me?" He looked kinda apologetic and said, "Well, since I wasn't free to take you guys out to the Padang, I went there during lunch to get this for you instead to make it up to you." Awwwwww... must he be so sweet? I felt like punching myself for being a whiny ass.

I've wanted the book since I saw it featured on a food blog I frequent, and I was pretty jazzed to know that I could get it at the cafe/ bookstore. I just held back from buying it then 'cos, well, I don't have space for any more books. So geram. But now that I actually have it, I'll find me some space!! Haha!

I told MB to choose a cake from the book for his birthday and I'll try my best to re-create it. Of course I had to show the book off to everyone at home lah. Hehe.

That made watching the results on TV much much better; watched with bated breath with MB, my mom and Ashraf in my arms. The three of us screamed and cheered and clapped like it was a goal being scored when the winner was announced. Luckily Ashraf didn't cry from the shock, he just looked slightly stunned.

So yeah, good ending to a sucky day. I love, love, love my new book! And I love you MB even more!!! Aiyoh, so mushy!!

NR

who-wants-to-go-with-me?: Bollywood dance lessons at Siglap CC. Serious, looks like fun. I can't dance to save my life, but I think I need to get my butt moving. If a 70-year old can do it, I better be able to, man!! Anyone wanna go with me?

cepat jawab!!: which animated character says the line which I stole for this blog entry title? Quick answer you, one of the what, four people who read my blog, and I'm being optimistic... :P

sisters, slurp and slope

2008-02-15T12:01:00.005+08:00

Phew! After a major baking session for the past week, no baking today!! Yay!! It's a nice break, even though after watching Everyday Foods a few minutes ago, now I feel like making choc chip meringue cookies. Oh yeah. Not done that one for yonkers. There was a period of time when Piko and I made a batch of meringue cookies every few days, if not everyday! Dunno if she remembers though, this was like, what, more than fifteen years ago? Yipes, tua siaaaakkkk kita....

But anyway, there's leftover cupcakes in the fridge, siapa nak? Aku!!! Haha!! Gluttony tsk, tsk...

Squeezed in some hooray time over the long CNY weekend so that was fun. Lepak with my sisters at Amirah (it's almost a yearly tradition for us oredi, heh), all 9 of us - the Rubangin sisters, our other halves and little peeps - stuffing ourselves silly and making a lot of noise.

We requested for the private room, more for Yat lah, 'cos his leg was still in a cast but mati-mati nak ikut kita gi lepak, so he was hobbling all the way. I thought he could put his feet up on one of the many sofas in the room. Nice thought but I kinda forgot that the private room was on the second floor! Peluh-pelih dia naik tangga, heheh. It was Piko and Ika's first time in the room, and once everyone got in, it was almost instinctive that we kick off our shoes and plop down on the comfy seats. The baby seat for Ashraf was mostly ignored as he was happier gambolling on the sofa and crawling and standing (with support) on the carpet.

To say we stuffed our faces with food was putting it mildly; as usual we were stuffed to the max whenever we go to makan at Amirah. Abang Hasnul put on some music VCD while we were eating and while we waited for our food to digest, we watched a bit of Braveheart (that's one of the few good VCDs available in the room). Then we picked our heavy asses off the sofas and dragged ourselves outside for some fresh air.

Walked a bit to burn off the food, and ended up at Starbucks for a drink. Ika lah ni, whenever we go out, I just wait for her to ask the inevitable, "Nak gi Starbucks?" Don't deny it Ika, you always DO ask us that, and we always fall for it, we're softies really, hah. So yeah, had a good time with my blood sistas. Granted we always meet up at Chai Chee anyway every fortnight when the Jurong clan comes over, but hanging out outside is more fun, amusing sometimes too, hahaha! I love you guys!!

I also met my other sister for a picnic at the slopes. I finally caved in and agreed to follow MB to the slopes. It's slope season now for local fliers. For a few months a year, the winds blow a certain direction and speed and fliers all over Singapore dust off their gliders and troop down to Bedok Reservoir to fly them. MB has been checking the Met Station super regularly (i.e. every hour) to check weather and wind conditions. When the wind is good, he'll go hit the slopes with his glider. He's been asking me to go with him for aeons, and I've gone with him once, when I was pregnant, I got bored after a while, so I asked Kyn if she wanted to co me down for a little picnic while MB flies.

Kyn and I have been wanting to go on a picnic since whenever, but it never happens, so I figured, let's not plan too much and just wing it. I baked an orange cake to bring along. I've been baking quite a bit of them for CNY orders but I've wanted to eat them for some time, and this was a good excuse as any to make some and NGAP!!! Plus it's fast and I don't need to break out the mixer. Also made some egg-mayo sandwich filling and grabbed half a loaf of bread to take along. Syikin's mom made some sushi (oishiiii!!!!) and she also brought some chips, drinks and mandarin oranges.

I hung out with Ashraf at the slopes for a bit; he got so excited when he saw the planes zooming around, but I think he enjoyed sitting on the grass even more.

MB's glider in the air...

fliers trying to take each other's gliders out of the sky...

MB and his half-completed new glider he ordered online. It's called the Bee, so I asked him to make racing stripes like Bumblebee from Transformers.

I was initially worried that Ashraf might get icky about grass but I guess I forgot how much he loves plants. He pretty much refuses to sit on the groundsheet and keeps crawling onto the grass. I'm happy he's comfy outdoors, I just made sure I stopped him from stuffing twigs, grass, assorted leaves etc into his mouth, not so successful sometimes, sigh. But he's had no tummy upset so I guess he's tougher than he looks.

Kyn and Dyn arrived a little after 5pm and we all squeezed onto the little excuse of a groundsheet (it's OK MB, next time bring the bigger one k? hehe) Kyn and I discussed her wedding cake, so fun!!! And we managed to finalise what she wanted over chips and sushi and sandwiches, yay!! Goblok me, obviously I forgot to take some pics wif Kyn. Again. Isy...

The only downer was the stoopid monkeys that approached us expecting food. I hate these pesky macaques, but I guess they're so used to people feeding them they can't help but be aggressive. I tried to shoo them away but one of them bared its teeth at me. I was kinda frozen when it did that 'cos I was scared that if I made any sudden movements, it will pounce. Bodoh jugak aku, should have stood up immediately when they arrived. One of MB's friends threw sticks in their direction to scare them off, thankfully they scarpered. It was a good thing Ashraf was with MB watching planes when it happened, also a good thing that those monkeys came from the front so we could see them. If they had come from behind, they might have succeeded at grabbing some of our stuff. So frustrating these monkeys. They apparently stole a woman's water bottle a few days later. Sigh.

So hopefully they don't show up tomorrow 'cos I may go up again (told you I'm a softie), depends, see how lah 'cos it's back to baking again tomorrow. Meeting Piko at Vivocity on Sunday, so it's another sisters meet-up yay! With my mom coming along as well, she wants to check out some Crocs.

My mom in Crocs. Hehehe. Should be fun.

NR
achievement of the day: I got to watch the whole episode of Martha!! Woohoo!! Haven't watched it for yonks. I know Ika, housewife moment, bugger you :P

i spy with my little eye...

2008-02-08T01:07:00.000+08:00

... a little naughty secret fly...

snoop
snoopy
snoop doggy dogg
gone to the dogs
doggone it...

tsk tsk tsk, notti notti notti

Morocco mania

2008-01-28T16:40:00.001+08:00

OK lah, my birthday is so over, but now then I have the mood to upload pictures. Happy belated birthday to me!! Sheesh, talk about shameless...

Me and Ashraf at Fish & Co where he charmed the socks off the waitstaff with that cheeky smile of his. Flirt...

Group photo with my fave cheap cake right before...

...Ashraf took a swipe at it.

Happy happy day. Blogged about it here. Now, on to the feast...

I offered to cook up a Moroccan feast the coming Sunday and even bake my own cake to celebrate my birthday with everyone. A bit pathetic right, but I wanted to eat stuff I like so, I figured the best way is to do everything myself. Heheh, control freak. I've cooked dinner for everyone before so should be OK. Besides, this was the only way to get everyone to eat coconut cake hehe.

Piko asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her to just come over wif your appetite and eat the dinner and at the end of it, say,"Mmmmm, that was delicious Hirah!" Yeah, shameless I know. But I seriously wanted everyone to have a good meal. So what was on the menu?

We started off with tosted pita bread and Baba Ghanouj. Oh yeah. Yummmmmy. Eggplants are the most under-rated vegetables ever.

Then we had Golden Couscous with Moroccan Slow-Cooked Lamb adapted from recipes from Epicurious, accompanied with diced cukes and tomates tossed with lemon juice and chopped mint.

Substituted the lamb with mutton, and started cooking this right after lunch, so by the time it was dinner, the gravy was rich and thick, and sweet and spicy, and the meat just falling off the bone. Oh, and if you need to cook with apricots, go for Turkish apricots. I was wondering where to get those and in the end I figured just get normal ones lah, and grabbed a pack off the shelf at Cold Storage. What do you know, I actually grabbed a pack of Turkish apricots without realising it until Sunday itself heheh. So sotong. Man, they were succulent and tender and sweet, but not cloyingly so, I think my mum would have finished munching the whole pack if I didn't grab it and dumped them into the gravy. And it lends a nice sweetness to the gravy. Oh myyyy... trust me, very delish.

I was imagining that I was cooking it in a tagine given to me me by my mum; she was supposed to have gone to Morocco late last year with her friends but one of them couldn't make it at the last minute. I think I was more disappointed than my mum. When she told me that she was going to Morocco and "what do you want me to get you?" I was like, "Tagine! Tagine! Tagine! And those beautiful lamps. And preserved lemons." But yeah, no Morocco. One day, Insya Allah, I'll go there myself. In the meantime, these food will have to do.

The couscous was delish too. When I told my mum what I wanted to cook, she was a bit hesitant. "Apa bende tu?" She was a bit edgy until I bought it and she was like," Oooooh, benda ni... macam semolina, sedap, sedap, OK." Heheh. Good to have her support.

For drinks, we had Sharbat, which was shredded apple and milk with a hint of rosewater. I *heart* rosewater. Served cold, it was a nice contrast to the spicy food.

And the cake! Jeng-jeng-jeng... Pina Colada Cake! Served on my brand-new cake platter, ta-daaah!!

I tinkered with existing recipes and came up with this concoction; Fresh Coconut Cake with Fresh Pineapple Filling and frosted with Marshmallow frosting, topped with flaked coconut. Can you tell I love coconut? Hehe. It's shitty that it's so tough to get flaked coconut 'cos it's tons better than desiccated coconut which is so dry it sticks to the roof of your mouth and is devoid of coconutty flavour, bleargh.

The cake was moist and dense, the filling a bit runny but delish nonetheless, but even I have to agree that one slice is enough. Too much of a good thing can be too much! My mum's planning to use the leftover filling for cream puffs, yay!!

Rounded off the feast with Mint Tea all around, to help with our overloaded digestive system. Perrrfect.

Mutton, cinnamon, tomatoes, lemons, mint, apple, milk, rosewater, eggplant, coconut, pineapple, lotsa sugar, lotsa butter...all my favourite things in one perfect meal. Oh yeah, perfect birthday meal. The best part? Everyone enjoyed it! Hooray!!

Special thanks to:

My mum: for her invaluable advice and suggestions, helping me buy most of the ingredients ('cos she rocks the market, baby), her support and being so sporting. And for eating the cake even though she's not a fan of coconuts.

My dad: for buying the best pineapples around, he is truly the nanas meister, thanks for letting me filch a can of pineapple juice, and for actually enjoying the dinner, he's not easy to please when it comes to food!

Ika and Yat: for going to Ika's fave place in the world for the pita bread (I know you love kedai Cik Mus, don't even try to hide it Ika!), for making the Sharbat and Mint Tea, you truly are the most kick-ass barista in the house (actually you are the only one, that's why you got to make the drinks, heheh), and for eating the cake, 'cos I know you don't like coconut anything. Oh and thanks you two for the Hindi DVD, hehe, been wanting that one for yonkers.

Piko: for making the super tangy, super minty cuke-tomato side, yummo, and for eating the mutton 'cos I know you're not a big fan of it. And the dark chocolate bars. Oh yes, those bars. Amacam Yat? Nak lagi? Hehe.

Hiqma: for gamely trying the food, for setting the table, and most importantly, creating the most sibuk when there's cake to be had. You are super.

MB: thank you, thank you, thank you dearest for encouraging me, praising my food and putting up with this nonsense fest and not saying a word as I went searching for tahini, couscous and other assorted stuff, with you paying for everything. Bestest present ever. Oh, and for taking full care of Ashraf while I was engaged in the kitchen the whole day.

Thank you everyone for coming to the dinner table with an open mind and more importantly, open palate; as much as you guys enjoyed the food, I enjoyed cooking them up much more. Sounds cheesy, but really, it's all true. So yeah, good food, good company, will probably make all these again 'cos they taste so good; can taste the gravy as I type this. Mmmmm, who's up for some home-cooked Moroccan food?

NR
die-die-must-go-again: the pizza stall at Bedok Corner. Hope it's worth a trip. Hope it's bloody open in the first place.

yay yay Monday

2008-01-22T23:22:00.000+08:00

It's going to be a good week, I can feel it. Yay. Get me out of my weekend blues. For once, I had a real swell Monday.

MB completed his contract so it's back to working from home for now. Which means no morning rush. Well, not so much lah, but yay anyway. I like having a relaxing morning to ease into the day slowly, own time, own target, while the rest of the world starts slaving away. All the better when you have someone to hang out with.

So anyway, MB spent the first weekday of his break accompanying me to my check-up. I had an appointment with my new gynae so I was a bit anxious. My previous gynae had hopped onto the private bandwagon and moved to Camden. I was kinda gutted 'cos I like him. But Camden is a bit far, and I actually like KKH. Eventhough it's a public hospital, it has an excellent performance record and I actually like that it's very accessible. Plus, I've had a really good experience there.

I was a bit apprehensive about meeting the new gynae though but MB reassured me that if I didn't like the new guy, we'd go for my old gynae at Camden. I needn't have worried. I like this new guy; very friendly, quite chatty, very easy to talk to. So, yay!!

After the appointment, MB and I went for a super-late lunch. We caught the train and went to Warung Lele at Chinatown. The kitchen was almost closed for lunch and we were their last lunch order; I felt kind of bad for delaying the wait staff of their break so I was pretty prepared for the food to be hastily done (i.e. rubbish). I was pleasantly surprised when the food turned out to be piping hot (and I mean hot! The fish was still sizzling when I tore into it) and delish. The fish is a winner. I like. Yay!!

MB had planned to take me to 25 Degrees Celsius for dessert, but we were both too stuffed to eat and decided to go there another day. We had a stroll down to Outram MRT to work off the lunch and on the way, I mentioned Sia Huat to MB, which was great since we were going past Temple Street. Sia Huat, by the way, is a treasure trove of kitchen equipment, from ice-cream scoops of different sizes to meat mincers, from copper pots (thousands of dollars!) to rubber spatulas.

It was buzzing when we got to Sia Huat. We walked around, amazed, amused and excited (mostly me). It was like a sensory overload. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun walking around the shop nonetheless.

The best thing about the whole walk? We now had space for dessert. Yay-yay!!! So we headed for 25 Degrees Celsius at Keong Saik Road. We went by the backway, which was supposed to be a shorter way, but the path was closed so we had to make a big roundabout to get there. Aisey, jauh jugak sey, tapi nak makan dessert punye pasal...

MB's been there once before during his lunchbreak with a colleague and he was telling me about a dessert they had, which was basically a molten Valrhona chocolate cake. I asked him if it was good. Know what he said? "I didn't eat it 'cos I want to eat that with you." Awwwww.....sweet kan?! So that's why we went there that day. Valrhona!! Yay!!

Suffice to say, I like the place. It's actually a bookstore specialising in books that are connected to food, mostly recipe books. They also have a cafe and what is called a test kitchen. Every fortnight they feature a few dishes taken from a recipe book from their repertoire; right now they are featuring recipes by Madhur Jaffrey.

MB knew what he wanted so there was no need for him to glance through the menu. I was toying with either the Bake of the Day which was a Grilled Buttercake, or the Sticky Date Pudding. I was always a bit suspicious of date puddings, 'cos in my mind, puddings are supposed to be soft and custard-y, something you eat out of a bowl. Then there's this pudding that looks like a muffin. Hmmm... plus it's date. Not a big fan of dates, even in Ramadhan I seldom eat more than one during iftar. But I decided to just try it out, get over my suspicions once and for all.

MB's Oozing Valrhona Chocolate Cake takes 15 minutes to prepare, so mine came first.
Cute little muffin-looking thing with caramel sauce spooned over it and topped with a gooseberry, served with vanilla ice-cream and crushed nuts. The smell was warm and spicy and I could immediately tell that I would like it. And oh, I was so right. The sweetness and spiciness balanced each other very well. And the ice-cream brought everything together just nicely, thank you. Aku suka!! Yay!!

MB's cake came with a scoop of ice-cream and crushed nuts like mine; it loked really unpretentious, but oh, I knew what was waiting in that dark little shell.
I nudged MB to break it open, and he so delicately poked through the edges. Aiyoh, by the time he was done, it would have hardened or something. So with a "May I?" I poked the top of the cake and split it apart and warm chocolate lava oozed out. Oh yummm.

There's a reason why Valrhona costs a pretty kerchingg. This thing kicks ass.

So we sat there lepak-ing with our desserts and drinks (mango smoothie for MB and jasmine tea for me) and discussed about pressing matters that needs to be discussed (stuff to do with SugarFix, more about it soon), and I must say it's a nice place to have a nice, informal meeting.

I browsed through the books there and have made a list of titles I want to get. Problem is, I hardly have space for any more books right now, so we'll see how this goes. Anyway, 25 Degrees Celsius. Nice place. Their website is under construction but you can read an article about the place here.

After that we went home, rindu seh dengan Ashraf. He was pretty psyched to see us too. I bathed him, always a fun activity. Now that he can sit up in the bath, I give him a few extra minutes to splash around while I blow bubbles for him to grab and pop. Then we say goodbye to his faithful bath toys (a squeaky teddy bear and a rubber soccer ball) and get him all dressed up and ready for more play.

It's easy to get Ashraf into a playful mood 'cos he's generally a happy baby, very generous with his smiles. Now that he's got 6 little teeth (2 below, 4 on top) those smiles are extra precious. He can stand up by himself with support and his fave activity now is to walk left and right while holding onto the rails of his cot or playpen.

Anyway, after dinner we took out our bottle of Gazillion Bubbles and had another bubble session. Tak habis-habis seh ni benda! It's a big-ass bottle of bubbles that we've had for years; what can I say, I'm a bubble person. Bubbles make people happy, true and simple. I gave bottles of bubbles as kid favours during my wedding. And MB bought me an adorable bubble blower from Royal Selangor a couple years back for my birthday. I loooove.

Now it's time to spread this bubble love to my son, heheh. I think he likes it, judging by his squeals and screams as he tries to reach out for the bubbles swirling around him. Happy times.

Like I said, it's gonna be a good week. I can feel it. Yay.

NR
*note: SugarFix blog is being closed to public at the moment 'cos of some SNAFU. Will open it ASAP. Bizniz as usual though. Anything can SMS or email me. Sorry guys!!

this was supposed to be something else

2008-01-18T22:37:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to write about last Sunday's feast. It was held to celebrate my birthday.

I came up with the idea. I cooked the food. I made my own birthday cake.

Quite pathetic I know. I wanted to do it my way I suppose. I'm happy everybody liked the food. Yay. Happy birthday to me.

But that's another post. Supposed to be this one. Happy post. About happy people eating delicious food. Another time. After this heavy feeling in my chest disappears.

The thing that always bugs me is bugging me again. Quite unexpectedly it crept back into my head. Not fair. After I've made my resolutions and all.

But I'm trying. It's not easy for a sarcastic piece of shit like me. I have vowed to take the first step, even if it's for the last time. And I will do it, pins and needles and all. Pins and needles.

And I will swallow what is offered, even if it's black and vile. Even if I feel like clawing my eyes out when I do it.

Better mine than yours. Siapalah aku..

NR

happy birthday to meeeeeee!!!

2008-01-14T11:16:00.000+08:00

aku dah tua....

hahaha, yah but still frigging gorgeous and obviously so full of shit bwahahaha...

I woke up on Wednesday to MB wishing me a Happy Birthday and Ashraf handing me a birthday card, so cute. Ok lah, not really handing me the card, more like I took it from his hands before he put it in his mouth, yeugh. I hate wet paper, makes my skin crawl.

Anyways, yeah the card was uber slick and cool and simple, very MB style. The best thing about having a graphic designer husband is getting a self-made card every year. That, and also because I want a self-made card every year, heh. But he's been making cards for me since the we were still going out, you know, zaman muda-muda dulu, skarang dah tua nak mampos.

MB took leave from work that day, so sweet, so we had a slow, relaxed breakfast together, nothing fancy though, just thought of spending a weekday yahoo-ing around while others are slogging at work. We did plan on going to the beach but it was raining like mad so in my mum's ustaz's words, "forget it about that." Kind of a bummer.

We did get out later in the day, nowhere special, just for a late lunch at Fish & Co where Ashraf charmed the socks off the wait staff there who eventually whisked him off for a tour of the restaurant leaving me and MB to eat our Seafood Platter and more importantly, drink my Sharkie Freeze - Ashraf likes grabbing cold drinks, especially if they come with straws, and the drink I ordered has both.

Then I went to do a spot of supermarket shopping for Sunday's feast and went to Polar before going home to buy the 'cheap cake' I had been hankering for for some time.

Why get a cake if I can bake one for myself? Firstly, it's my birthday, I don't wanna bake my own cake; secondly and more importantly, I love the taste of good ol' buttercream cakes. The type you can buy at heartland bakeries. You know, cheap cakes that some people will not touch, 'cos you know, it's cheap and to quote this ridiculous bugger, "I cannot eat cheap cakes like this, dunno why; cakes from Secret Recipe, you know, more expensive ones, those I can eat."

WTF?! Yeah, OK, to each his/ her own. Ika, don't snigger. It doesn't take much to please me I suppose, while I can appreciate exquisite stuff like macarons and chocolate truffles, simple things like those buttercream cake slices with funny neon icing squiggles on them can still make my day.

When I was growing up, I don't remember having a buttercream cake for my bithday except twice - my fifth birthday where I had my mom ice a bird on it (I was in Canary class in K1) and a Mickey Mouse shaped cake when I was...eh, was this Piko's cake instead? Aisey, not sure... we had a lot of fudge cakes growing up - my mum's signature chocolate fudge, I remember having durian fudge, pandan fudge... I also remembered having a blackforest cake for my eighth birthday. Most bizarre was my fourth birthday, when I got a pulut kuning 'cake' for my birthday. Now I can appreciate it lah, but which four-year-old would?! I mean, the knife got bloody stuck when I tried to cut it. I can still picture it...with little quail eggs and chilli flowers and my name lovingly spelled out by my mom diagonally across in green peas. Yup, my mom made all of our birthday cakes, buying cakes for birthdays was unheard of. Unfortunately, she's not a fan of buttercream so all the more I coveted it. I looked forward to classmates' birthdays 'cos most likely they'd have a store-bought buttercream cake, funny squiggles and all. Ohhh!! And wafer roses!! Those lemau and chewy wafer roses!!

So anyways, the only cake they had left in vanilla buttercream was the Power Rangers character cake. Erm, not for me lah. So I went for another one which was covered in vanilla buttercream and white chocolate chavings. Jadilah. I was a happy camper.

I decided to cut the cake in the kitchen with everyone around when we got home. Put Ashraf on my lap and proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to myself. I had not even reached the end of the second line when my little boy took a swipe at my cake and ended up with a fistful of buttercream. Man, he's fast. Needless to say, no more singing! Cut the cake already!

In the spirit of Muharram, I made a few resolutions, namely to be a better wife, mother, daughter and person. I will try to rekindle ties with certain people (eventhough it will be a bitch) and I resolve to cut my losses. The former will bring about the latter, hopefully, so Ika, don't snort. It's OK if it doesn't make sense, this warrants a post on its own, but not now, 'cos this is a happy post.

So yeah, Happy 29th to meeeeee!!! And thanks for the birthday wishes my dearies, you know who you are :)

NR
I-want: A tagine!!! Silpat non-stick silicon baking mat, 10-inch Bundt pan, chocolate double-boiler, a kitchen island, preserved lemons, a freezer with an ice-cream maker in it, a big-ass fridge or chiller, assorted chopping boards, knife set, volunteers to help me eat my cake experiments, a garden like Monet's, fresh harbs growing in pots at my windowsill, a barbecue pit, a raintree and a treehouse to go with it, and oh yeah, world peace. Did I miss something out? ;P

the incr-Edibles

2008-01-04T17:44:00.001+08:00

Yup, this is just mainly food pictures; yay, Irah uploaded pics, what an achievement, heh... OK, as my Lombok guide Faroush would say, "One, two, three, go!"

Right, I dunno why I made these two walnut cakes for, I just remembered that I made them for my mum...hmmmm....for kenduri agaknye, or ngaji class, or something, dunnolah. I like walnut cake; I thought I'd OD on them since the huge ass berkat order late October, but nope, I'll still wallop this little bugger if I see them around the house. But if it's a big cake version I won't eat all lah, "tu bukan kuat, tu gelojoh, BODOH!" Heheh...cepat! Cerita apa?!

MB's birthday cake...can you tell I was out of ideas? Heh. He just basically told me 'chocolate cake' and 'M&Ms', so there you go, chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream and those stoopid little things that yes, DO melt in your hands. White chocolate buttercream was disappointing...tweak it!! Cake was delish tho. Well, at least his second birthday cake turned out better.

Second cake I hear you say? Yesss my dearies, we celebrated his birthday on Hari Raya Haji, since we went to my MIL's place during the day, this cake was brought there. Celebrations at Chai Chee warranted another cake.

Made chocolate cheesecake as requested by birthday boy. Left it in the oven for a wee bit long, and fooyoh! Check out the earthquake cracks on the thing!!

They were so deep and so big, no choice but to dress it up a bit. I had thought of making some chocolate pieces for deco, but wah, this one banyak besar babe!! But I managed to come up with something...

Presentable sikit kan? I made loads of chocolate shapes to cover up the cracks, extra shapes were packed and presented to Hiqma for being such a helpful doll in helping to serve the cheesecake.

MB liked both cakes, yay!!

Had to interrupt a game of Scrabble to cut the cheesecake; lama tak main Scrabble macam best gitu, then we played Uno, syiok!! I was so sated that day, I mean, two different cakes in one day? It felt like my birthday hehe!

Gambar bawah ni ada momok, you know, like those strange apparitions that appear in photos unexplained? Check it out...hehehe...jangan marah Ika, nanti kena jual...bwahaha...

Had a quiet New Year's Eve, with a few movies to watch. Movies warrant a right old feast so, we popped some corn (no more microwave popcorn for me after reading this), threw some hotdogs into the ovenette, broke out the Chocolate Peanut Buttercup ice-cream (which, by the way, tastes soooo much better from the carton than at the restaurant, I wonder why?) and arranged leftover mini brownies on a nice glass cake pedestal. Fancy. I had made a batch of brownies earlier for an order and my mom asked me to do another batch for us people at home, which explains why some of them had ganache slapped on them and some are left bare. And to wash everything down, the best sugar-caffeine-bubbly goodness that is Pepsi. Yumm.

My SIL ordered a cheesecake for her friend (she doesn't eat cheese herself, what a waste), and after MB's cheesecake fiasco, I was very worried about cracks appearing in this one. I kept a close watch on the timing this time and yay! No cracks! Silky-smooth top with nary a crack in sight.

Topped it off with a blueberry topping and voila! Done! Gonna make one for myself one of these days man, that cheesecake looks so gooood...

So far, Alhamdulillah, January seems to be pretty alright I suppose; I got a few more orders coming up so hooray! Ashraf's growing up really fast and he's picking up loads of stuff everyday, it's pretty amazing. And overwhelming sometimes.

Which is why sometimes when you get a break and you get to spend some precious minutes doing what you want to do, you just gotta grab it and go. Like last Sunday, with both my boys having a nap, laundry done, Ashraf's lunch done, I finally had a few minutes to just prop my feet up and do the one thing I must do everyday to keep sane: read the papers. It's become something of a luxury nowadays to be able to go through the Life! section (the part I always read first), so yeah, this little break felt like a big deal.

Remembering the strawberries I got the day before, I grabbed a few of them and well, a bit of chocolate will taste good with them yeah? So I hurriedly made a quick ganache. Thank goodness there's almost always some chocolate in the house! Oh yeah, I washed it down with my fave Yakult flavour, which is the er, non-flavoured one. Gotta cleanse the guts right? Heh.

The best part about this whole little indulgence? Double-dipping!! Hehehe! Wouldn't dream of doing that in a communal chocolate-dipping situation, which is why I avoid chocolate fountains. Yeargh! Germ Central! That, and the dust flying around? Nuh-uh, no thanks.

Anyway, the little solo treat came to an abrupt end too soon for my comfort. It felt like a quickie; wham, bam, thank you ma'am! But at least I polished off everything in good time, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Like I said, a quickie.

More good eats coming up. Can't wait.

NR
bugger of the day: moisture sucks. oh nevermind.

Get your SugarFix here!!

2008-01-04T10:02:00.000+08:00

SugarFix is officially open for business!!

Yay! Can you tell I'm so jazzed? Heheh. My sweet goodies are up for sale, check them out here:

http://sugarfixSG.blogspot.com

Thanks soo much to my dearest MB for making the cutest logo ever. I love, love, love!
Do drop by and lend some suppport and I'll get right back at 'cha with some shoogary lurv!
If you are one of them peeps who are worried about too-sweet-stuff not being good for you, remember what Erma Bombeck said:

"Seize the moment. Think of all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart."

Hehe, Carpe diem I say!

NR

Three years and counting...Part 2

2007-12-16T23:44:00.000+08:00

So Part 2 began later in the day. Our plan on taking a leisurely trip down to Pagi Sore by MRT was dashed 'cos Ashraf was too pooped from the T3 visit and took a looong nap. The 6 of us (Mom,Dad, Hiqma, MB, Ashraf and me) popped into a cab to get there, with Ika meeting us at the restaurant.

I was a bit apprehensive about going to Pagi Sore; I know I like the food but the last time I went there was when it was still in Amoy Street ages ago, and with my large-ish troop if sisters and cousins, we pretty much filled about two-thirds of the restaurant then. It was pretty much a whole-in-the-wall kinda sized place, I wondered whether the new place in Telok Ayer Street was any different.

I needn't have worried. The place looks so much better, phew!! It doesn't have top-notch deco or anything but it was waaay better than the old place. Service that night was excellent; they anticipated what we wanted and were very attentive, two thumbs up. And the food...oh yummm...

We each chose a few dishes to try; Ika chose the Ikan Goreng Belado and Terung Tau Chio (she likes deep-fried eggplant and insisted on this dish eventhough my mum just cooked a similar dish a few days back), Hiqma's not into spicy food so not much choice for her; she chose Cumi Goreng Istimewa, fried calamari basically, good choice though. My dad was disappointed that they did not serve soups anymore, he looked kinda lost for a while ("Why no soup? Kering kan nasi takde lauk?") then settled for Asparagus Belacan and Kambing Gulai. I was quite surprised he chose asparagus, seeing that we don't really eat asparagus at hime and my dad is the most unadventurous person I know when it comes to food, but it was surprisingly good, not overcooked and just the right amount of crunchiness. I chose only one dish, the one thing I wanted to come here for - the Ikan Otah Kukus, which is basically a fish steamed with an otah mixture. Smackerooo!! MB's one pick was the Tahu Telor. We ordered two of them and MB joked that one was for him and the other was for the rest of us to share, haha. Yeah right, I bet you he was half serious. Mom wanted the Ayam Goreng Bumbu. Crispy but too salty for me.

We messed about and took some pics while waiting for the food to arrive and my parents to return from Maghrib prayers at the nearby mosque.

Dinner was a fun affair, lots of talking, laughing, eating, sharing and passing the baby around - can you tell Ashraf was getting bored being strapped in a high chair? Kesian dia...

And can you tell Ika wishes she was Angelina Jolie? *snicker* Luv ya sis, mwaaaah! Hahaha!!

We pretty much wiped out all the food we ordered, Alhamdulillah, I hate seeing food going to waste, especially good food. Even Hiqma finished her food; I daresay she is game to try new stuff at times, good for her, atta girl. By the time we were done with desserts - Alpukat (traditional avocado dessert) and Sirsak Sorbet (Soursop Sorbet) for MB - which were really good, we were sated and happy and I realised that this was a great way to spend our anniversary: surrounded by people I love and who (hopefully!) love me back; good food and good company can't go wrong I guess. Smashing idea MB :)

MB and I had to rush off after that for our movie at Plaza Singapura. Sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to start, I have to admit that we started to miss our little boy. We got so used to going out with him that it felt kinda strange to be out somewhere without him. I actually felt a little guilty leaving him at home. Ish... but I know we need some time away for ourselves; even if we need to constantly reassure each other that we do deserve a little break. We passed the time looking at his photos, somehow felt better after doing that. And I kept telling myself that he is in good hands so I should quit worrying. I know, I know, I'm a worrywort wimp, so sue me why dontcha.

We watched "Enchanted". Yeah I know, lighthearted fluff more meant for small little girls who want to be princesses. But I can't hardly handle anything heavy, my brain can't cope. And nope, I'm not a McDreamy fan *rolls eyes* Everytime I see him I see the scruffy monkey smuggler who died of an Ebola-type disease in the movie "Outbreak". Which I like very much. The story that is, not his character in it. What's not to like? There's Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Donald Sutherland, Renee Russo, Cuba Gooding Jr and Marcel the monkey from Friends. Plus an evil airborne bug that kills. Solid cast, great movie. Anywaaay...

The movie "Enchanted"basically makes fun of Disney cartoons, and Amy Adams is a hoot playing the cartoon character that comes alive. And the song and dance sequence in Central Park is so like Kal Ho Naa Ho (the part where SRK sings that Prety Woman-like song and the neighbourhood comes alive). Check out the videos, the first one's from Enchanted, the second one's from Kal Ho Naa Ho:

After the movie MB and I thought of going for a stroll to check out the Christmas light-up before heading home when I got a call from my mom saying that Ashraf had cried his lungs out earlier and now refuses to go to sleep. It's like a switch had been turned on and we were back into parent mode. While I was on the phone with my mom getting the necessary details about Ashraf, MB had whipped his phone out and called a cab to take us straight home.

Sigh, nothing makes you into a bona fide adult than a kid of your own.

Still, at least we did put in the effort to do something special for our anniversary. And as much as I'm happy we got to fit in some time just for the two of us, I'm glad we also shared the day with people I care about and who have helped us in one way or another throughout our marriage. I feel truly blessed :)

NR
phrase of the day: "I thought I smelled cabbage." Dunno why this line sent me into peals of laughter when MB said it out of the blue. Quick!! Where is the line from?? Anyone?

By the way, for more details on Pagi Sore, visit their website www.pagi-sore.com

Three years and counting...Part 1

2007-12-13T22:25:00.000+08:00

Three years running and we're still going great...

MB and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary earlier this month. Now that we have Ashraf, we didn't have anything fancy in mind, but we did want to do something, or go somewhere, on our special day.

I was a bit torn at the start- do we bring Ashraf around with us or do we leave him at home and have us a couple-only day? MB had the perfect solution: do something with the lil bub for the first half of the day and do something else- just us two - later. Perfecto. So clever my husband.

We planned on having dinner at Carousel; we've actually not been there since its Cafe Vienna days and it's got pretty good reviews. Thinking that our special day was on a weekday, I didn't think of booking waaaay in advance, I thought maybe a couple of days will do it. Wrong. Fully booked on that night, but tables available the day before and after. WTH? Bummer.

Where the heck to eat now? Again, my cleber, cleber husband came up with a solution: Let's go Pagi Sore, he said, it's not a fancy place but the food is good. I was alright with that, but can we finish what we wanna order (which is a lot, gluttons that we are)? MB's idea: Bring everyone at 53 with us so we can order more stuff and not waste the food, plus it's much more fun to eat at Pagi Sore when there's more of us. Okaaaaay...., I said, but it's our anniversary no? If everyone's with us, it's not special, I said. After dinner, everybody else go home, we go catch a late movie, just the both of us. That way we get to eat good food and still go on a date, MB said. Set!! Pandai kan laki aku? Heheh.

So I made reservations, 'booked' my mom to take care of Ashraf for the night and we were good to go.

MB took the day off from work (sweet!!) and we woke up nice and fresh and early to a nice sunny day, had a quick bite, and got ourselves and Ashraf ready and were out by 11am. We decided to take Ashraf to the Terminal 3 Open house. OKlah, actually it was more for the two of us, heh.

We took the guided tour and Ashraf slept midway through, but I enjoyed every moment of it. A lot of work still in progress but wow, the place looks pretty stunning. The viewing gallery for the public sucks big time, the one in the transit area a little better. The skylight gave the place a nice, open, sunny feeling, I like very much. And there's a butterfly garden and a koi pond in the transit area. Very nice. Most of the shops are still not open yet, and they had piles of luggages at the check-in area for the airport personnel's training purposes I suppose. Very cool to see how things are shaping up.

The fact that we came early in the day meant less people, less crowds, more open spaces. Man, if I was a kid, I'd be gambolling all over the carpeted floor. True enough, we saw a few kids cartwheeling and frolicking about in a spacious corner; no chance of doing that once the Terminal opens for business. I imagine Ashraf would do the same if he was a few years older.

Not that he didin't enjoy himself. He especially liked the glass elevators, and squealed in delight everytime we were in the elevator and he got to see things move on the outside. Plus he got to leave his, er, mark on the carpeted floor in the departure area. While we were posing for some pics, he upchucked a good amount of his milk. You must understand, Ashraf has this weird habit of grinning after he throws up, and opportunist that MB is, naturally he managed to snap a pic of the action before laughing his ass off for a good few seconds and then help me clean him up.

Yes, I was the one carrying him when it happened. Were you expecting any different? Check out his grin, puke slowly oozing down notwithstanding:

Yes, I look mortified, not to mention ugly, but hey, there was puke, people!! But, the saving grace was that, quick-thinking that I am *snort* I managed to quickly maneouvre both of our bodies so that the puke missed both of us. Chay-bah!! Here's another nicer pic, sans puke:

I'm glad Ashraf likes taking photos, he's generous with his smiles, betul punya bawak rezeki budak ni, really. Here's a very slipshod montage of some other pics we took there. I just slapped them together, no editing done, can you tell I'm lazy? Heh. I could've uploaded the pics one by one, buuuut....lembab ah.We had our lunch (food places mostly at the basement; actually it looked no different than a shopping mall basement where there's always food- we could have been in Tampines Mall or something), took the Skytrain to Terminal 2 and headed home, ready for Part 2 of our day.

NR
fave activity of the day: taking a bus ride by myself and listening to Smashing Pumpkins. Oh sungguh syiok dah lama tak dengar...! Everybody, sing with me! "The world is a vampire... jet jet jejet jet jet...."

my tardiness is appalling...

2007-12-03T00:34:00.000+08:00

Dah December pun...

To think there are pics I've not edited since August. Aisey, slack gila sey.

Whenever I think of transferring photos from camera to laptop, opening Photoshop, uploading on Flickr and the tons of photos: from cakes to Ashraf to other miscellaneous nonsense, I get so put off I don't even bother switching on my laptop.

Plus, I'm just too damn tired. My feet ache, I'm mentally checking off a things-to-do list in my head (editing photos gets progressively lower and lower down the list), my back's all cramped up and may give way any day, and I don't have eye bags anymore- I have eye luggages. There's kids' songs floating in my head most of the time. I also have obviously bigger biceps than before, which could be cool, except I suspect my right one is bigger than my left. I foresee myself wearing jogging shoes in the house somewhere next year.

Great. So if you see a haggard midget gorilla with bloodshot eyes walking and veering slightly to the right humming tunes from Sesame Street, please go over and say hi, it will most likely be me.

Anywayyyy...I told myself to put up some pics in this post 'cos hey, I actually managed to edit some of my cake photos yesterday (steadylah! pheewit!!).

OK, so from waaaaay back in August, these two are Syikin and Dyn's engagement cakes. Syikin wanted the Strawberry Shortcake, Dyn wanted the Megatron. I am especially proud of the Strawberry Shortcake picture, turned out better than I thought it would. Such fun cakes for an engagement :)

A few weeks later Syikin's bro Yusuf got engaged and he wanted a cake with Guy Smiley. Yup, that yellowheaded guy from Sesame Street. No idea why him (Guy Smiley that is.). His fiancee wanted a cake with the green-coloured Care Bear, Good Luck Bear or something, can't quite remember the name now.

I also did some cupcakes for Yusof to give to his fiancee, and I was planning to put them up here today, but I've not finished editing them yet. Yes, I know, my tardiness is appalling.

NR
phrase-of-the-day: "Step lively!" *giggle* Such an old-fashioned phrase in my book. So quaint.
confession-of-the-day: OK, so it should be phrase-of-the-day-before 'cos I watched Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End yesterday. That's where the phrase is from.

"Prodent! Pasta baru, gigi berlobang, ditinggalkan..."

2007-10-27T23:25:00.000+08:00

...or something like that lah. It's from some 80's Indon comedy featuring Dono, Indro and Kasino, no idea why they were singing that line or something that sounds like it, don't remember much of the movie actually, kinda hazy, but that line kinda stuck in my head.

Anyhoo, Ashraf's first tooth is out!!! I'm soo excited! Kinda sad too, he's growing up so fast, I miss his mitten-wearing days and the long-gone days when I can carry him in the football-hold: terbengkok-bengkok kita dua ekor if I try to do it now.

So far, his fifth month has a couple of milestones:

- first Raya celebrations; he was so well-behaved during jalan2 Raya, drooling notwithstanding.
- he discovered that he enjoys being around plants - we spent most of the time during our visits to MB's relatives in their gardens than in the houses themselves, heheh. Botanic Gardens here we come!
- he learnt how to roll to his front and prop himself up. Oh, and sorta inch himself forward to grab something in the distance.
- he discovered that showers are much more fun compared to baths. He has a combo of both now; he's propped on the seat in the bath and gets showered, splashing water is not that challenging anymore I suppose.
- and of course, his first tooth, teeth actually, another one is popping up beside the first, which is sticking out very clearly from the middle of his bottom gums.
- apparently he calms down when he listens to The King. Oh yeah, hunka hunka burnin' love.

OK yeah, so maybe I'm gushing, but hey, he's my kid, can't help it can I?

NR
song of the day: Wooden Heart by Elvis. Cute Polka-ish tune heheh. MB sings it to Ashraf to shush him. So cute.

Snot Brigade

2007-10-11T20:29:00.000+08:00

I'm down with a cold. Maximus horribilis.

I've actually been surrounded by people with sniffling noses this past week-my dad, Ika, Hadyr (Bambang), and last to be attacked, Ashraf.

Ashraf came down with a runny nose two days back, the same day Piko found out that Bambang has chicken pox. Aisey. The whole bunch of us at Chai Chee had gone to Piko's for buka last Sunday; Bambang had a bit of flu then, so I was a bit cautious about carrying him and Ashraf. Then when Piko said he had chicken pox, I was like, oh man, I hope Ashraf is spared. Got two weeks of wait-and-see, in the meantime, check his body for spots everyday. Bummer.

Kesian Bambang, dah tak leh jalan raya. The whole first day Raya plan is a bit out of whack now, with Piko possibly not following us, but her daughter Hiqma will. I'm seeing is Ashraf gets better by then; if he doesn't, we'll probably cut our day short too, no sense bringing around a sick cranky baby.

I got the sniffles from Ashraf yesterday, and my throat felt funny too, I thought, takpe lah, better me getting sick than him. Oh man, when I woke up this morning, yowzer!! I felt horrible, so took Ashraf to the doc and got some meds for meself too. Doc said it'd be safe to bring Ashraf jalan raya, if he does get chicken pox, it won't be contagious yet, so no worries. That said, she gave me her handphone number and asked me to call her immediately if I find any spots on him.

Actually, my mom is more worried than me; she followed us to the clinic and I basically asked the questions so that my mom will have a peace of mind. 'Cos when she's stressed and worried, she'll pass it on to me. I told the doctor this and the doctor asked her to keep her worries to herself and asked me to keep her handphone number away from my mom "or she'll call me day and night!" Heheh, go Dr Yap! Seriously, we've been going to her clinic for years, and she's more like a family friend now.

So yeah, just checked my temperature (I've been checking Ashraf's temp for the past few days and never thought of taking my own until they asked me about my temperature at the clinic, selenge kan?). Got a fever now. Takpe lah, better me than Ashraf right?

Oh ya, better get some stuff done by tomorrow:

(1) cat food coming between 2-6pm. Get cash ready
(2) call polyclinic to re-schedule Ashraf's jab
(3) call KKH while at it to re-schedule Ashraf's appointments
(4) get my 2 boys' baju Raya ready and Ashraf's bag packed
(5) get somebody to do all the above, heh.

I feel like I'm missing some stuff from the list. Ah, besok boleh pikir ah. Nak tido...

I miss reading newspapers in the morning...

NR
i cannot believe this: this whole month tak minum air kathira! oh, sungguh ku kempunannn!!

School of Hard Knocks

2007-10-06T13:04:00.000+08:00

My mom mentioned yesterday that Ashraf is living up to the Commando label on his singlet; we woke up yesterday and found a new scratch on his left temple courtesy of his fingernails. This makes the total number of facial scratches sustained within the week to be five (two on the nose, two on the forehead and one at the temple, all sustained on different days). I know, I know, cut his nails I hear you say, here's the thing: I have, and overzealously so. So overzealous in fact my boy was in danger of having really short nails, so MB asked me to ease off the nail-cutter. But that's when the scratching started, so I've given in to the nail-cutting itch and trimmed his nails. Again.

Also had a Murphy's Law moment last week with the side table in the balcony. It was waiting to happen. Ashraf has a tendency to suddenly jerk and straighten his back when you're cradling him. Tunjuk perasaan lah konon. Well, that move gave him a good ol' benjol on his head when he hit the edge of the table. And a nice little 'oh-cheh' to go with it. Aiyayai yayai. That's my boy.

Oh yeah, he's got a new best friend now, his pacifier that my mom bought for him months ago. Ok, not really a new friend, more like a re-discovered friend. Up till about two weeks ago, he has been resolutely refusing to be given a pacifier. Sometimes on good days, he will suck one-for a good minute before spitting it out and screaming bloody murder. I don't really want him to be stuck on pacifiers, but the alternative is him going on comfort sucking on my susu-cap-gantungs. Camne nak buat kerja lain?! He's also taken to sucking his finger (or fingers, at last count, he could put in three fingers in his mouth at a time). Very easy and not very hygienic. Plus, if you wanna wean a kid off pacifiers, you throw the pacifier, but how to throw out a finger?

But I have to admit I haven't been relentless in my pursuit of having Ashraf start on the pacifier. My mom on the other hand has been adamant that he take to the pacifier, not any old pacifier, not even the ones I painstakingly bought after looking through a handful...nope, only the ones she bought would do: "These are cute, the one you bought makes him look like he's got a butterfly on his mouth, not nice. Mine looks better, I'll make sure he likes it."

Whenever she's putting him to sleep, she'll always persistently make sure that thing is stuck in my boy's mouth, even holding it in place until he dozes off. Ashraf didn't like it at first, but I think he pretty much gave up. Now, it's his best friend. The ironic thing is, frequent washing has rubbed off most of the pretty picture on the pacifier, so it looks like any other normal pacifier now, haha.

But my mom's not done yet. The pacifier came in a pack of two, she's already asked me to dig out the other one, apparently so that Ashraf will not get too attached to the present one. Uh-huh yeah, that's the main reason mom, gotcha. In case you're wondering about this super-magical-oh-so-desirable *snort* oh-teng, it's a rubber teat pacifier with a picture of Humphrey the elephant on it.

But that doesn't mean that he has forgotten how nice his finger tastes like; when the mood hits him, he'll push his pacifier to one side and sticks in a finger on the other side to get the best of both worlds. Sigh. Suka dia lah. All his saliva gives him a rash though, no matter how much I try to wipe it off, he'll end up wih a smattering of small red bumps at the end of the day. Thank goodness for Calendula cream; got it from Little Dreamers online, it's been my magical cure for his rash, scratches and bump. Upon applying, the scratches and his benjol were gone in about a day, and his rash disappeared in a couple of hours. Yay Calendula!!

Oh yeah, another thing he likes to have in his mouth? MB's cheeks. Seriously. He'll go "aaaargh!!" and attack his dad's cheeks with so much gusto, hands flailing all over the place and everything, it's kinda scary.

Amusing, but scary.

NR
must-do: edit photos and upload them to Flickr already!

pins and Needles

2007-09-03T22:57:00.000+08:00

How weird is it when your memory is taken by somebody else? And it being oh-so-casually flaunted and passed off as his/ her own? In front of you, no less? Weirdo-doo-dah.

Ika wisely told me that this kind of shit happens. She learnt something about this during her child psych class. Apparently, a person can be somewhat attracted to another person's experience/ memory and 'store' it in his/ her mind as if it actually happened to himself/ herself. So in my case, when the person poured out my experience as something that happened to herself, she probably didn't realise what she was doing.

Good for her or I'd have knocked some sense into her. Or just knocked her. Crazy woman.

It wouldn't have been weird reading about this condition in a psych book, but when it happens to you, it's a bit Single White Female, if you're old enough to get my drift. Call me selfish, but I kinda like keeping my experiences to myself thank you very much. I'll share them with you, but don't take them as you own. Kinda lame you know? With my life being soooo exciting (snort!!), it's kinda sad. Go find your own.

I need a sugarfix. Bad. Pepsiiiiiiii..........

NR
achievement of the day: watched Ace Ventura today. Again. Finally. Allrighty then!! Shikaka!!!

I NEED MY BOXES

2007-08-28T00:44:00.000+08:00

Maybe I'm over-reacting, so be it.

I was put into a real foul mood this evening when I found out that I was given a set of 8" boxes when I specifically requested for 9" ones at the baking supplies shop today. Grrrr....I really need those 9" ones! Like, today! I have a bleeding schedule, for crying out loud. What the fuck am I gonna do with those smaller boxes?! Argh!!

And to think I was having a pretty okay day. Of course, the day just started going downhill after that discovery. Moron.

Just goes to show that if you want to get something done, you gotta do it yourself. Sebastian was sooooo right.

NR
oh ya: Sebastian is the crab from The Little Mermaid; he pretty much said the same thing before one of the songs

pocket-sized commando

2007-08-27T23:49:00.000+08:00

OKlah, not really pocket-sized, but small enough to be carried.

As per requested by Syikin, this is Ashraf in his Commando singlet:

The word 'Commando' is on the back though, and the flash made the stripes on his seluar dalam pretty un-see-able. Oh, and the macho singlet colour totally goes with his Kero Kero Keropi tuala for his dribble!!
Can you tell I made him hold the little towel? Doesn't look impressed does he? Hehehe.

MB got a few more army-inspired singlets and tees at the army market when he bought his reservist supplies a few weeks back. Only this one fits for now :P We've been meaning to get more of these since Syikin got him those awesome Apache singlets while he was still in my tummy. I'm sooo jealous Ashraf has them!! He should be able to wear them soon, will post pics here too :)

NR
must also get: cargo pants to go with the singlet, heheh. At least tuala dia boleh simpan dalam kocek sendiri!

O-oh!! He saves everyone of us!

2007-08-25T12:00:00.000+08:00

OK like, this is like brilliant. I laughed so hard my son burst out crying, eeeps. Saw this on Syikin's blog and just had to copy it here. Sis, you kick assss!! Even my mom loves this :)

As I see the pictures, I can hear MB's voice in my head singing the theme song from The Flash. Yup, he sings this kind of stuff around the house. Lucky me.

NR
hmph of the day: Can't believe ika watched Ace Ventura without me. Hmph!!

no cheesecake today...

2007-08-25T11:32:00.000+08:00

...or cupcakes or any form of baking whatsoever.

I had a sudden high fever last Thursday that reached 39.1 deg C, felt like my skull was being prised open. I couldn't walk straight, much less bathe Ashraf 'cos I couldn't even carry him. It was horrible. Ashraf slept with my mom that night but since he wasn't used to the new environment, I still had to wake up a few times at night to calm him down. Doesn't help that he's an uber-light sleeper.

The fever went down as drastically as it went up yesterday, so I'm much better now, but I'm taking things a bit easy for the moment. Ashraf slept with me yesterday so my mom wouldn't go nuts with his frequent wakeful episodes, heh.

But I've been ordered to rest and banned from baking by my mom, and since it is her kitchen, I say, "Aye, aye Captain!"

Sigh. Why is it that everytime I want to bake cheesecake, something comes up? This must be a sign, no? Oh well, who needs cheesecake when there's cream puffs in the kitchen (with choc pastry cream! yummo!!)?And I get to be a 'mando' and boss Ika while she bakes cookies with her boyfriend (hahaha! siap korang!!) Plus, I think there's some walnut cake left, kesian takde orang makan...heheh.

NR
haha of the morning: Ashraf looks sooo cute in his Commando singlet and stripey shoodalam! Kapow!!

the week ends

2007-08-20T00:15:00.000+08:00

Man, the weekend just flew right by me. MB came home late Friday night (yay!!) and we made some plans for Saturday: basically run a few errands, hang out wif Ashraf etc... so that Sunday won't be that much of a rush.

But the weather on Saturday had other plans; it rained so hard and so much, we were basically cooped up indoors, all fidgety and restless. Yeah, we could've just gone out anyways, but with Ashraf being a little cranky the past few days (according to my mom, it's 'cos he's going to be 3 months old soon: "tukar bulan") and the logistics involved in bringing a baby around in the rain... takde mood seh. We managed to go out after maghrib, but it was still a bit of a rush to get the stuff we needed before the shops closed.

So today (Sunday) was another rush. We went to Tampines to get more stuff, then went to my MIL's for a bit, then rushed back home. MB made his necessary prep for the coming week (laminated bunk signs for the different sections, and basically, laminated just about everything else and boy, was he proud of it! Nerd alert!! *snigger*), got his stuff packed and ready, and left by 10pm. Fooyoh!!

But it wasn't so bad I guess. I did manage to bake choc chip cookies on Friday. I skipped the nuts and used my stash of Ghirardelli choc chips which I was saving for something special. Damn, the chips made the cookies go up a notch; I mean, I knew the cookies will taste good, but this time, man, the cookies had balls, know what I mean? Although I made the cookies for MB, I think I ate almost half the lot myself, eheh, not one of my proudest moments. They were the first thing I reach for in the morning and last food item in my mouth before I sleep, plus I grab one (or two) whenever I'm in the kitchen, and I'm in the kitchen quite a bit. They're all gone now, like that's a surprise :P

Oh yeah, Ashraf's gonna be 3 months old tomorrow. That means another trip to the clinic in the morning to get his shots, and hopefully he doesn't get a fever. What to do if a baby has fever? I haven't the slightest idea. Eeeps.

Unfortunately, it's times like these that I need MB around, you know, to just reassure me that it will be OK, and we'll just laugh our way through it, make some mistakes and learn something along the way. Aisey. But then again, there's never a good time to go for reservist, is there? You just gotta kinda go along with it.

I need ice-cream.

NR
decision for the coming week: cupcakes or cheesecake?

"in the aaaaaaaarmy!"

2007-08-14T17:41:00.000+08:00

MB's doing his reservist right now. Woke Ashraf up early yesterday so that he could say bye-bye to his daddy before he left. Booo. Feels kinda like NS all over again. Sigh. Except that he gets to get out on weekends during NS. He'll be getting out this weekend though, dunno what time on Saturday (18th Aug), pretty late I think, and getting back in on Sunday night (19th Aug).

But the next weekend, he won't be getting out on Saturday, only for a little while on Sunday (26th Aug), bleh. Major suckeroooo. Gotta cram in some quality time in a few hours before he goes back in, then, he'll be outfield for the rest of the week (I think) so no phone calls. This blows.

It's been only two days and I miss him terribly, aiyoh, I'm such a baby. Can't wait for the 31st.

NR
to make for MB on Saturday: Choc chip cookies!!

"Transform and roll out!"

2007-08-03T16:22:00.000+08:00

OK I think I'm about the only person in the world who still hasn't watched the Transformers movie. Although I'm not a fan, the movie looked pretty impressive, judging from the trailers, and I'd promised MB (who's a huge fan since he was like, what, 8?) that I'll go watch with him.

But with Ashraf refusing to be fed from a bottle (you'd think we were trying to poison him, from his screams of protest), it's pretty much impossible to leave the house without him. Sigh. So MB went ahead, he was getting fidgety at the thought of everyone having watched it but him.

Anyways, this kinda cheered me up. I saw it on MB's friend's blog. Check it out, I think it's pretty cool, and I'm not a Transformers fan:

I'm also putting a link to this guy's blog (his name is Mike and he's an art director at the company MB was working at a month ago). His blog has really cool videos (eg. Sesame Street's "Who are the people in your neighbourhood?", I like!!, Human Tetris, A-Team) and toys: he has some really cool Bruce Lee figurines, worth taking a look. Here's his blog:

Mike's Lalaland

Enjoy!!

NR
i-wanna-watch-again: Alien vs Predator. Good, campy fun. I *heart* Predator!! Eh...where's my Predator figurine ah? Hmmm.....must look for it...

"eyes, ears, mouth, noooooose!!"

2007-08-03T12:30:00.000+08:00

Here's Ashraf getting excited over singing his fave song:

It was taken a couple of weeks back doing basically what he enjoys the most: chatting away to whoever is talking or making sounds at him, especially during bathtime (his fave activity), man, my boy's practically hosting a talkshow. And he's getting more and more vocal each day.

A few days back he suddenly started crying during his sleep. His eyes were shut but he was tossing from side to side crying; obviously having had a nightmare or something. I started patting him gently and started making those 'shushing' sounds (you know how it sounds) to lull him back to sleep. Once he heard me making those sounds however, he stopped crying and tossing at once, opened his eyes slightly, looked at me from the side and gave me a crooked smile, very flirtatious, you know, the kind of look that says, "What's happenin', hot stuff?". I was taken aback and just started laughing at the instant change in his mood. Then he started smiling and chatting and laughing and occasionally snorting ('cos he tried to do all these at the same time). He also expected me to reciprocate so it was a two-way conversation. Bear in mind this was at 3am in the morning.

He chats to anyone really, down to the makcik who sat beside us at the clinic, and all she did was ask me how old he was. Apparently, he thought the makcik was talking to him so he started yapping away, while I struggled to administer some meds into his mouth. Makes it easier I guess, with his mouth open and all.

Oh yeah, we went to the clinic to get him circumcised last Tuesday. Horrible experience. To think he started the morning in a bright and chirpy mood. Terperanjat kodok dia kena sunat. I learnt from having taken him for his jabs that it's better that he's awake during these painful procedures so he won't be so shocked; the last time he had his jab, he was asleep when the nurse injected him. The shock on his face was distressing, not to mention his cries, I think he took his crying to a whole new level on that day.

So I figured better make sure he's awake during the circumcision. Alas, he had other plans. He fell asleep ten minutes before his turn and, from the moment the nurse held him down to the end of the procedure, was crying for all he was worth. Kesian anak aku. I left the clinic carrying a traumatised, bawling boy, eeps. He cried for pretty much the whole afternoon (his circumcision was around 11am); we only knew he was feeling better when he started smiling and chatting when we talked to him; at that moment I was thankful that I waited till he was a bit older (originally I wanted to have him circumcised at one month) so at least I know how he reacts to things around him.

But the most heart-wrenching thing was that he had cried so much, he made himself hoarse, so whenever he smiled and wanted to chat, he would instantaneously frown and start to cry; must have felt his throat was scratchy and uncomfortable. So I didn't enagage him much the next day to allow him to rest his throat. Alhamdulillah, he's much better now, his wound is healing very nicely and he's back to his old chatty self, yay.

Seriously, before I had Ashraf, I didn't think I could come up with anyhting to say to him. During pregnancy, I always read that it's good to talk to your unborn child, but honestly, it felt rally weird so I didn't do that much. But now, even if I say things that don't make sense, it's OK, he gets a kick out of hearing my voice, and know what? I probably get a bigger kick when he flashes that mentel, gummy smile and chats back to me :)

NR
shopping reminders: get those cute red dino socks for Ashraf, then get Cheese Twists for MB and Dark Choc Ginger biscuits for me. Yummo!! Oh, and a jokebook for Hiqma.

"Great Odin's raven!!"

2007-07-04T19:04:00.001+08:00

OK, enough baby-centric posts already, well, at least for now anyways heheh.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore Will Ferrell. Some people may think he's only good for low-brow comedies, I say he makes me laugh, and that's enough for me. There are hits and misses of course. I didn't like him in Wedding Crashers, and Bewitched, and Elf wasn't so good either.

But I do think Anchorman was and still is an awesome comedy; it's just a good, laugh-out-loud kinda movie to watch when you just wanna switch off your brain cells and chill. Plus it has loads of good supporting actors and cameos to boot: Vince Vaughn ("Dorothy Mantooth is a saint!"), Steve Carrell ("Loud noises!"), Paul Rudd (They've done studies you know, 60% of the time, it "works every time."), Christina Applegate ("It smells like a used diaper filled with Indian food!"), Jack Black ("Did you just throw a burrito?"), Ben Stiller ("The sewers run red, with Burgundy's blood!") among others. Anyhoo, kinda sad 'cos MB and I cleaned up the room and I think we carted most of the dvds to his place to free up some space in the room, so can't watch it anytime I want. Neh mind, I think my Pulp Fiction is somewhere in the room, brilliant movie, haven't seen that one for ages...Anyways, found a website with the quotable quotes from Anchorman, so I'm a happy camper for now. Doesn't take much to make me laugh I suppose, but I draw the line at those silly movie spoofs (eg. Scary Movie), bleh. Below are some clips from Anchorman:

Actually the first time I even came across Will Ferrell's Anchorman charactor, Ron Burgundy, was from an MTV Awards show, where he interviewed Jim Caviezel as Ron Burgundy about Caviezel's role in Passion of the Christ. I'm so glad I found it on YouTube recently:

I still crack up whenever I watch the Matrix 2 spoof ("Ergo! Vis a vis! Concordantly!") and the George Bush impersonation ("We're gonna get Nature to co-operate with us."), and mind you, I've watched these vids loads of times.

Anyways MB showed me this vid a few weeks back and it's the cutest thing ever. The star of the vid isn't Ferrell, but this cute little wee lass named Pearl. So precious. Take a look:

The Landlord

Hehe, they even sell t-shirts with Pearl's famous line, too damn cute. This is the out-takes vid:

The Landlord Out Takes

The following two vids are the Matrix spoof and the George Bush impersonation respectively. Yeah, I know I've put them in an earlier post before, but I like 'em and this is my blog so I'll do whatever the heck I want, so there. Hehe. Enjoy :)

Can you tell I like Will Ferrell? :P

NR
definition of 'diversity'according to Ron Burgundy:
"Diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era." Riiiiiiight...

a month's worth and more...part2

2007-06-30T14:02:00.000+08:00

OK I'm gonna write about my labour process. It's really more for me than for anyone to read it 'cos
#1: I'm so forgetful, I can't remember some parts already.
#2: I'm weird-anal remember? So I need to know what happens in the Delivery Room if I ever need to be in there again. Not so soon I hope :P
#3: It's so freakin' long, who'd wanna read it?

Alrighty, so my EDD was supposed to be Tuesday 22nd May, so I'd lined up stuff I wanna do over theweekend, you know, cleaning up the room, going to Syikin's exhibition opening, maybe catch another movie with MB...you know, normal weekend stuff.

Yikes, woke up with slight cramping, had the show at about 11am, so cancelled all my plans and just hung around at home, timing each contraction, re-reading some stuff and packing some last-minute things. I didn't breathe a word about it to my parents though, knowing my mum, she'll panic and worry so much, I'll probably send myself to hospital way early just to put her out of her endless worrying.

Right about slightly past 8pm, MB was eating his dinner and I thought OK, let's go get ready and we quietly got our stuff ready and got dressed. Then when we salam my dad, he thought we were going gallavanting somewhere, hehe.

Dad: Nak pergi mana ni? Keluar jalan-jalan?

Me: Nak gi hospital.

Dad: Why? What's wrong?

Me: I got contractions. Since morning, I think it's time I go to hospital.

Dad: Hah?! Oh OK, OK. Anything call home tau.

Me: OK will do, don't worry.

I think my dad was still a bit shocked after we left. I called my mum while in the cab (she was out that evening); I tell you thank goodness we didn't tell her about the contractions earlier:

Me: Hello ma? Just wanna tell you, I'm on the way to the hospital now.

Mum: Hah? Why?

Me: My contractions are pretty close, I've been monitoring them since morning.

Mum: Hah?! You OK or not? Why never tell me?

Me: Because you will panic. Don't worry, I'm fine, really.

Mum: Habis kau pergi sorang?!

Me: Tak lah, Adnan is with me, don't worry.

Mum: OK, OK, should I meet you there?

Me: No, we'll keep you updated, dunno how long it's gonna be.

Mum: OK, OK, banyak selawat tau? Semua dah packed? Appointment book dah bawak?

Me: Yup, all in the bag oredi, don't worry ma, anything we'll call you.

See what I mean? My mum would have worried herself sick the whole day if I told her in the morning that I had cramps. By the way, they do feel like period cramps; after not having them for 9 months, you can definitely tell you're having contractions.

So anyhoo, we strolled to 7-11 to get some drinks and snacks for MB to munch on then went straight up to the Delivery Suite.There were two cheerful senior nurses chatting away at the counter. Seemed like a slow night. They looked up as we approached:

Nurse: Yes? What are you here for?

Duh a bit obvious right? I was momentarily stumped, and then told her:

Me: I would like to check myself in. (What else was I supposed to say?!)

Nurse: Wah, OK, we check you first. Come with me.

So she whisked me to the Observation Room and strapped the...man, what's that thing called?... the belt that measures contractions, and then she said she was gonna see how far along I was dilated. I was pretty confident by then 'cos the contractions, although not so strong, were pretty close together. Haha, yeah right. Still smiling, she said, "My dear, you'll be here for some time, you're not dilated yet."

I was taken aback but blurted out, "Not even 1cm?" "Nope, don't worry, get some rest if you can, we'll check you in an hour OK?" To say I was disappointed was an understatement. So I stayed there, staring at the ceiling and trying to sleep. I could hear two more women get into the room as well, and being the kaypoh that I am, strained to hear how they were doing. Can't really make out anything though, padan muka aku ni, kaypoh... :P

I was stoning out when the curtain was pulled back and a doctor came in with the nurse to check on me. Walaueh, the doctor punyalah hansem, terkebil-kebil kejap. He was like, "Sorry, I need to check your dilation OK?" Man, you can do anything you want. The best part was that he said I was already 3cm dilated; that's pretty fast 'cos the average rate for first timers is 1cm per hour. I saw the senior nurse behind him give me the thumbs up sign. "OK, let's get you to the delivery room." Woohoo!!

I was sent to Delivery Room 24. Shiok seh the room, the toilet was big, there was a TV and basically, I felt very at ease there, a good sign :) MB and I just hung out there, the senior midwife dropped in now and then to see if I was doing OK and asked if I wanted any pain relief. I told her I was doing OK then, but would like to have the Entonox on standby if I needed it. Apparently, there was Entonox on tap the whole time, the mask was just behind me, so needless to say, I was a happy camper.

Unfortunately, my contractions started to slow down and a doctor who came in to check said that he was gonna break my waters to speed things up. Now, I've heard some people say that it hurts when they burst the waters so I was kinda nervous. MB, who, during this time was getting bored, had walked around the whole room for the past hour, reading anything and everything that was put up on the walls, or in the booklets in the drawers. Apparently, he had come across some info on how the doctors go about breaking the water bag and was kinda excited at sharing the info with me. I, on the other hand, had no wish to know what the doc was gonna stick up my vajayjay, other than to do it quick; for me, the less visuals I see, the better I deal with it. It just so happens that when the doctor said,"OK, I'm going in now..." MB excitedly shoved the info booklet under my nose and exclaimed,"The picture is so accurate! The instrument the doc is using looks exactly like this!" I seriously wanted to slap him; seriously, I DO NOT need to know that I have rod-looking thingy with a hook on one end stuck inside me at that moment. Thankfully, it was over real fast and, no, it didn't hurt at all. That's when I told MB not to do that. Ever again. His response? "OK, sorry hon...but you know what? It really looked like the picture!" Sigh.

So anyway the contractions built up, and were more intense. I started using the Entonox, not much help. I kept looking at the contractions monitor to see how strong each one was and to gauge when the next one will be coming, much to the MB's exasperation: "No need to look at the monitorlah! When you have a contraction, you have a contraction!" Hehe, can't help it lah, control-freak that I am. Anyway, the contractions were hitting 70, then 80, sometimes down to 50; the Entonox didn't seem to help much, if at all. I had asked the midwife earlier and she said that the bigger the number, the stronger the contraction. I asked her what the highest reading was and she said that it could go over 100, and would I like to on Epidural? I had turned her down then, now though...hmmm...

MB, to my amusemant, had started to repeatedly go to the toilet. I seriously thought he was getting the runs, but apparently he wasn't. He didn't know why he needed to go so many times either. At one point even the midwife remarked, "Is your hubby OK? You yang nak give birth, dia yang banyak teran!" Heheh! It's his way of handling stuff I suppose.

Anyway, the doctor came to check me again and said that since the contractions were not speeding up, he was considering inducing me. Nooooo! But I understod where he was coming from; with the waters out, the chances of infection and ultimately foetal distress were higher the longer we wait. So he said he'll come back at 1.30am, and if the contractions were still slow, he will induce me.

By then, the contractions were pushing 90 on the monitor. The contractions were pretty intense by that time, but I was still hangin on alright, plus MB massaged my back at every contraction and that just felt good, so not too bad lah. I just kept telling myself that my body knows what it's doing, so I should just go with the flow. And of course, baca selawat and whatever doa came to my mind, helped me keep calm, so that was good too. The senior midwife asked me a few times if I wanted Epidural, 'cos if I was induced, the contractions will be one on top of the other and will, of course, hurt like crazy. Besides I could get some sleep and conserve energy for the second stage of labour. I told her I'd think about it. MB thought taking the Epi was a good idea so we'd both get some sleep. I was still uncertain.

I thought I could do this without Epi, but oh heck, if I needed it, I'll take it y'know? Besides sleep does sound good by that time. But, I didn't want to take it too early, who knows how long this first stage will last? I didn't want the Epi to run out by the time it got to the second stage; it'll be awful to feel no pain for a long time only to have it return full force if it ran out later. I decided to wait till the last moment; if my contractions don't pick up by 1am, I'll have the Epi. I wanted to time it so that by the time the anaesthetist was done, I'd be induced. Just nice. Don't waste any of the analgesic goodness.

So it went as planned. I requested for Epi at 1am. The anaesthetist came in a few mins later and inserted the tiny catheter in...ahhhh....instant relief. Does it hurt when he put in the needle and stuff? Well, I couldn't tell the diff between the injection and my contractions, so I'm not really sure, but it's pretty fast if you hold your position so not so bad lah.

OK, off-topic a bit: Some people refuse Epi 'cos they are scared of the huge needle. Many people think they have a huge needle stuck in their back the whole time. I thought so too, until they showed the process during antenatal classes; yeah there's a huge needle, you need to go through the space between your vertebrae, so of course you need a thick needle. But the needle stays there for a really short time; a very very fine catheter is put through the needle. Once the catheter is in, the needle is taken out; the Epi is supplied to you via the catheter. So, myth busted; no huge needle stuck at your spine. It's all done under anaesthetic, so no worries. Besides, you won't see the huge needle sticking in your back, so not so bad lah.

Some people don't wanna use Epi 'cos they're scared of back pain. Truth is, some people get back pain whether or not they use Epi. It's not been proven thst Epi usage increases back pain after labour. So if you have to use Epi, go ahead, use it. Yeah sometimes you feel like you wanna do it au naturel, no chemical intervention, but, you know, sometimes you just gotta do what's best in that situation. No shame in using it.

So anyway, after the Epi took effect, I started shivering-one of the Epi's side effect; I wasn't cold or anything, but I was just shaking like a leaf, at least I wasn't nauseated from the Epi, so I wasn't that bothered. I actually found it comical, I kept on trying to talk to MB through chattering teeth and laughing at the ridiculousness (got such word?) of how I sounded. Wasn't very funny after half an hour though. We had tried to get some sleep, and my chattering teeth was giving me a headache; when I clenched my teeth to stop it, my neck ached. Sigh. I did manage to get some sleep though, so not too bad lah. MB siang-siang dah ngorok.

At 4.30am the doc came in to check my dilation. 6cm only, how disappointing. He was like, "We aim for 8am OK? Hopefully you can start pushing by then." My only thought was, enough Epi or not? Then I fell asleep again...

Around nearly 7am, I felt some pressure down below. I knew the baby's head must be fully engaged and probably will have to push soon, but I was soooooooo sleepy, I ignored it and went back to sleep. The pressure came and went, but I just didn't feel ready to push, I was too sleepy!! When the midwife came in the room a few minutes later, I told her about the pressure and when she checked she was like,"Eh, can see the baby's head already, can start pushing slowly. Your hubby want to see the head?"

Hmm...MB had mentioned his queasiness of blood many times, but so far, he's been really cool about all the icky stuff. He immediately went to see: "Ya! Can see the head!" My first question to him: "Got hair or not?" "Yesss!! Haha!" You see, MB and I were born with not much hair really, especially me. My mum said that among my sisters, I was the most botak one, so I was naturally curious to see how much hair my baby has.

So I started pushing, remembering how to do so from the classes, not too bad lah, but goondu me, still didn't manage to push properly for quite a bit; I got the breathing right, but I wasn't focusing my pushes right. MB was like a cheerleader, he was clearly enjoying himself urging me to "push a bit more! He's almost out! You're doing great, don't stop!"

Oh yeah, btw, they turned down the dosage for the Epi during the pushing so I could feel my contractions and push when I had them. It wasn't as bad as I expected, I didn't really feel any pain, just a strong pressure like when you wanna move your bowels. Didn't even notice they did an episiotomy.

At 7.54am, my little boy finally popped out. MB quickly rushed forward 'cos he wanted to cut the cord. Then he followed the nurse to the warming station at the side of the room to do what he does best - kaypoh and ask questions- while the nurse was quickly cleaning Ashraf. Ashraf didn't cry much, cukupkan sharat aje, lepas tu senyap. Then he azankan Ashraf and the nurse passed him to me to start breastfeeding. I was looking forward to this 'cos the sucking reflex is apparently strongest within a baby's first hour so I wanted to get him started as fast as possible. But, once I put him on my breast, he didn't do anything, he had this perplexed look like, "OK so now I have this thing in my mouth, what the heck am I supposed to do with it?" Aisey.

The nurse then took him back to give him a thorough cleaning. I asked the nurse about his Apgar score; the nursewas like, "Didn't you hear him cry just now? I'd give him a 10!" Chay-bah! Full score seh! But his actual score was 9.9. Steadylah my baby!!

We had wanted to donate his cord blood but apparently his cord was tiny and would not yield enough blood, so we had to forget about it. Boo. I asked the nurse how heavy he was, expecting him to be near, if not more than 3kg 'cos at my last check-up the scan estimated his weight to be 2.8kg; my gynae said that by the time my EDD comes around, he'd be about 3kg, pretty average weight. Hehe, Ashraf tipped the scale at a hefty 2.56kg!! He was tiny! But healthy so no worries. I didn't really think he'd be anywhere near 3kg anyways 'cos my tummy wasn't particularly big.

He had his BCG shot straight after they cleaned him up; he cried when the needle went in, all three seconds of it, and that was it, all peachy fine after that. Take a look, this was taken right after the vaccination:

Tiny right? And that's a New Born sized diaper he's wearing. He breastfed a little after that; finally started to fig out what to do with a nipple in his mouth I suppose. I was feeling reaaaaaally sleepy but quite happy 'cos Alhamdulillah, everything turned out fine and well, I figured, labour isn't that bad after all. Little did I know the shit was just about to hit the fan.

I had to wait for a doctor to come stitch me up; the female doctor, who came with a student doctor came quite late; by that time, I was nodding off and the Epi had run out. They did anaesthetise me and the student doctor proceeded to stitch me up, watched closely by the woman doctor. You know, it's one thing to be made to feel like a Christmas turkey as they dig and poke and pull and sew, it's quite another when, after going through this horrible process, you hear the doctor say to the student, "Actually you shouldn't have stitched it like that. Never mind, I'll show you how to do it." By which she proceeded to poke around some more. F**k, it hurts man. She was going "Sorry ah? This will hurt a bit..." Man, it seemed to take ages for the student to finish up and for them both to poke and pry and goodness knows what else they did. At first I tried to tahan and keep my cool, but pretty soon I was going "Owww!" and throwing dirty looks at them both. Assholes. I was sweating and thoroughly traumatised after that.

They served breakfast after that, but I was too sore and sleepy to eat much. It was a pretty sucky breakfast anyways-very oily mee soto. After that, the midwife helped me change and said that I was gonna be sent to my ward. I was so jazzed. Finally! I can sleep! The orderly pushed me out on the wheelchair, and I was so sleepy, apparently I was grinning at everyone and everything that passed me. I remembered saying good luck to a couple who had just entered the Delivery Suite; the woman looked a bit nervous so I thought I'd give her some encouragement. On hindsight, I may have frightened her more in my dishevelled state, all drowsy and wishing (or was it warning?) her good luck. Oh well. I mumbled to myself for a bit on the way out, dunno about what, but I remembered mumbling, then after a bit, we reached the ward. The orderly helped me to the bed and I tried to sleep. MB too.

Didn't I say I was traumatised by the stitching episode? Damn right, I couldn't sleep 'cos of that. Everytime I close my eyes, I could visualise them stitching and discussing what they did and I could almost feel the pain all over again. Invariably, I'd wake up shivering 'cos I was so freaked out. MB was so sweet; he helped to calm me down - I was a bundle of nerves by then; I just sat there and started crying 'cos I just wanted to sleep so bad but I couldn't get the images out of my head. Eventually we both got some sleep. But I tell ya, I'd rather go through labour again than have to endure the horrible stitching again. Those idiots, dah lah datang lambat, buat kerja terhegeh-hegeh, terkorek sana-sini, pikir aku ni apa? Ayam togel ke? Monyet...

So yeah, that's it, in just one pop, suddenly MB and I are officially adults. Yikes.

NR
bleh-moment: baju KKH tak lawa langsung seh...nasib baik overnight aje :)

a month's worth and more...part1

2007-06-30T13:22:00.000+08:00

Fooyoh!! I've got a month's worth of blog entries in my head and I'm gonna spill 'em all out, right here and now. Finally have some time for myself, well kinda, seeing that Ashraf is happily sleeping and I got maybe half an hour at best to crunch stuff out.

Okie, first up, ASHRAF!!!!!! My little baby boy! Who'd have thunk I'd finally have a baby of my own? I never was the maternal type, and I seriously dunno if I am now, hmmm...I thought this maternal thingy will just automatically kick in after giving birth. Tak pun. And you know they say when you breastfeed you feel this bond with your baby? Tak pun, tipu seh...

That's not to say I don't love this little boy. I love him to death, and will fight tooth and nail, literally and figuratively, for him. But I need some work in the mommy dept, me thinks.

Anyhoo, he's not that difficult a baby I suppose. Even when I was preggie, he gave no probs. Come to think of it, I had a pretty smooth pregnancy. Other than nausea in the first few months, everything else was OK; no back aches, not too much water retention, I was still skipping my way around the house at 38 weeks...everything went swimmingly well, Alhamdulillah. MB and I visited his friend whose wife just gave birth and she apparently had a texbook pregnancy, and by that I mean, all the discomfort stated in a preg book, yup, she had them all. Jeepers, I can't imagine waking up screaming every night 'cos of leg cramps; everytime I feel like a leg cramp is about to hit (and that's pretty rare), it's flex, flex, flex!! Thank goodness for those physio sessions at the antenatal classes.

Oh ya, luv those classes, missed them when they were over; MB and I were like, what are we gonna do on Saturday mornings now? It was kinda surprising to find out that nobody I knew attended these classes. Up till then, I just assumed everyone attended them. Would I recommend them to preg couples? Hell yeah, especially if they don't have time to read up on preg stuff, and especially if they are kinda weird-anal like me.

What do I mean, weird-anal? OK, ask any woman the thing that stresses them the most about giving birth, the answer would most likely be labour right? Not for me it isn't. I mean, yeah, labour scares the shit out of me, but what really keeps me up at night is hospital procedures. Stuff like where to go when you arrive at the hospital? How to register yourself? Are we allowed to eat in the delivery room? What pain relief methods will be offered? Do I need a birth plan? If I wanna pee or shit in the labour ward, how? In that vein, will there be a catheter to drain my pee automatically? Will I be given an enema? Will I have any choice at all?... yup, these things keep me up at night; in fact I think the lesson I looked forward most to and in fact really paid attention to was the one on Hospital Admissions. I slept soundly after that. I know, weird-anal. OK, OK, I'm also a control freak, I deal better with new situations if I have some semblence of control and I know what's going on. Jeez.

Did I enjoy my pregnancy? Hell yeah. Other than the first 3 months where I didn't have the mood to do anything but eat sembuey, second and third trimesters were wonderful; I baked the most during the third trimester, and MB and I went out a lot then too, kinda like trying to pack it all in before I pop. Only regret: should have gone swimming more often, got no time now! So yeah, pregnancy, good times. I miss it so.

NR
forget-to-mention: You will get seat in the MRT surprisingly easy. Yes, people are kind, but on the flipside you will also be the ultimate sleeping pill when you enter the train carriage. Can't win all the time *shrug*.

mummy vs me

2007-04-23T19:16:00.000+08:00

I've always seen myself as closer to my dad than my mum. My mum and I are both stubborn and feel so strongly for certain things that we both will not, and at times, cannot, give in. I remember how long I had to convince her that I did not want an engagement ceremony (that took more than a year by the way). Don't even get me started on the henna thing...

With mum sometimes I feel like I have to strategise before bringing certain issues up, doesn't sound very nice does it? My dad on the other hand, we can get along like soccer buddies. In fact we were soccer buddies; we'll wake each other up and watch soccer together in the morning's wee hours, he took leave from work just so I'll have someone take me to the stadium to watch a SEA Games match years ago... now I don't keep up with soccer anymore, he was a bit disappointed when I started watching less and less once I started working, just too tired I guess, but at least we have F1 races to watch together now, and MB is his soccer buddy. My dad is a very straightforward guy, what you see is what you get, easier to figure out than my mum. Sometimes when we both don't agree with what my mum's doing, we just look at each other and roll our eyes, hehe, very mean.

But since I quit my job and started hanging out at home more, I think I understand my mum a lot better. I used to just zip out at 6.30am and come back at 5pm all tired and crabby and in no mood to really deal with anyone, including my mum. It helps that now we have a shared topic to discuss: baking. She was very supportive when I went for my baking classes and now we share loads of stuff together and from what I learn, we try and improve on her recipes. We may still be two stubborn, opinionated farts, but we can accept each other's viewpoints without fuming and ranting and raving about it later to our respective spouses. That is a big achievement. I tell you, quitting my job was one of the best decisions I've made, made me really stop and think about what's important. I thank Allah all the time for giving me the courage to do what many of my friends still only dream and talk of.

The best thing about all this is that we can now work in sync in the kitchen. That's important when you come and think about the size of a typical HDB kitchen, plus we have different working styles. She likes to wash and clean while baking, I like to wash up while the cake's in the oven, so we work around our preferences, but it's been fun playing to our strengths; 'cos she's still much better at baking, but I'm faster at frosting, so we make a pretty good team.

Anyway, my mum went on a pastry frenzy about two weeks back and suddenly decided to make cream puffs. I jumped in to volunteer and help; I've always wanted to do pastry, but they scare the hell out of me, don't ask why, just like baking bread; I'm completely clueless. I still remember my Lemon Meringue Pie Crust fiasco, I've never needed my mum in the kitchen more. Whenever I have to type out bread recipes for my mum's baking class, I always have to double and triple check with her 'cos I have no idea what the terms mean (window-pane stage anyone??). Helping out during her baking classes are fine, 'cos most of the time, we fine-tune new recipes together anyway, but her bread classes? I'll wash the dishes and stay out of the way, thank you very much. Thank goodness I've been having my antenatal classes all these while, so I wasn't available to help during the bread classes.

Anyway, my mum used to do loads of cream puffs when I was way younger and my job and my sis Piko's job then was to snip the baked choux shell and scoop in the pastry cream. Needless to say, a good number of the puffs were eaten by us kids before they even got filled. Crispy and yummy yum yum yum.

So we digged up the old choux pastry recipe, I found a really yummy creme patissiere recipe that didn't need custard powder, and off we went. Man we were so pumped. Mum was reminiscing about how she always did them with coffee cream and my late grandma will ask for the soft ones for herself; I was telling mum about croquembouches and how MB's cousin had a small chocolate version at her wedding... good times, but alas it didn't last. The puffs didn't turn out good at all. We deduced it must be the eggs 'cos mum got the smaller sized ones, bleh. They all deflated within seconds of coming out of the oven, but the taste was pretty good. What a disappointment. But what to do with the rest of the pastry cream?

I dug out a recipe for pate sucree (sweet pastry crust) and we made tarlet shells out of it. Blind baked them, brushed the insides with melted chocolate and filled them up with the pastry cream. Looked quite plain so we sprinkled shaved chocolate on top. Simple but tastes soooo gooood. Sometimes you don't need fancy stuff. This is one of them times. Anyway, most of them were whisked away to the kenduri at my aunt's place, but no matter, can do again! Besides, I'm not so scared of making pastry now, not that scared anyways. But the cream puffs, we'll be tackling that little monster soon.

I made Mini Rocky Road Brownies for MB to bring to his flying sessions two weekends back. I had made two full-sized versions when he went to a BBQ event organised by fliers at Punggol a couple of months ago and they were well-received. I remembered what a pain in the ass it was to cut through gooey marshmallows- it got stuck to everything! But the taste is phenomenal. So I figured mini-sized ones for a bunch of guys to munch on in between flying their planes will be easier to deal with- not so sticky. I kinda like the way they look, and, better still, less marshmallow stickiness all around, yay!

My mum loved them so much, she had cravings for brownies a week on. I had made cupcakes later in the week (next post!), but according to my dad she was lamenting on brownies and refused to eat the cupcakes, insisting on brownies and only brownies. Sigh. And I'm the pregnant one.

So my mum, being as persistent a person as I am (if not more), made brownies the next morning after preparing lunch. She had all the ingredients ready, and when I mentioned how 'on' she was, she just casually shrugged off, "Oh, I have some leftover pecans, so I thought of using them for something. Brownies seems like a good idea, sedap kan?" Uhuh, yeah, OK mum.

She mixed it while we watched Martha on TV (our noon time habit now), and so engrossed was she on the show, she overmixed the batter, and when the brownies were done, all the nuts had somehow floated to the top. Hahaha! Still tasted good though. Besides, good reason to try again, no?

I thought of making up my own tartlet flavour. I found an almond crust recipe and thought I'd play around with an Iranian rosewater pudding as a filling, jazzing it up with pistachios and cardamom. I mentioned it to my mum and she just kinda clammed up when I mentioned rosewater and cardamom, trying to think of someting nice to say I guess. Sigh, can't agree on everything I suppose ;) Besides, my family members don't seem to be big on rosewater and cardamom in desserts. I remembered my Persian Rice Cookies, which I loved, but hardly anyone touched. This little tartlet, I'll have to try alone. Any testers?

NR
reminder to self: start looking for mum's birthday prezzie now; it's never too early!!

"Nak pergi Pulau Bantal!!"

2007-04-14T23:04:00.000+08:00

I'm soooo exhausted!!

Been baking the whole day, will blog more about it tomorrow...or something...
Struggling to keep my eyes open now, which is so not me 'cos I usually stay waaaaay up late. But this is the time the baby starts his exercise routine so, layan kan dia kejap lah, quite impossible to sleep when he's up and about sometimes anyways.

OK, another video for the weekend. No translations this time hehe. It's a guy doing a mime to the song 'Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia. I really like it, very amusing. I feel real old knowing this song though, sigh...

By the way, the quote for the today's blog post? That came from me when I was a wee little lass. It was bedtime and someone (my mum me thinks) told me it was time to go Pulau Bantal. Now, when I was a kid, pantang diajak jalan, kalau ajak gi jamban pun agaknye nak ikut jugak; so when my mum said that, I die-die don't want to sleep and insisted we get changed and go to this wonderful-sounding place. And when she repeatedly said that Pulau Bantal is my bed, I didn't believe her, 'cos you know, orang tua selalu tipu budak kecik apa...I mean, why ajak me somewhere when I'm there already? I just didn't get it. So I kicked up this huge fuss and finally went to bed sulking. Hai....selenge jugak aku time kecik...

OK lah, nak tido....babai!!

NR
kata ganda of the week: posen-posen (like as in," Ada posen-posen tak untuk bayar teksi? Fare dia 4 dolar tiga posen.")

Whahahahaha HEY!!

2007-04-06T23:15:00.000+08:00

I've been playing around experimenting with a few recipes lately, but nothing significant to blog about, except one of my cupcake photos was featured in Cupcakes Take The Cake a couple of weeks back (yay!) but it's not really one of my faves so neh mind lah (boo!). Little heart decorations not really my thing lah. I much prefer The Elvis (banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting) though the frosting was a tad sweet; the banana cupcake though...yowzer, Elvis the Pelvis would have approved; super moist and soft and yummy... and I don't even particularly like bananas. Photos found in the Flicker link.

Anywhooo, MB shared another ridiculous video with me (Syikin, u paying attention? Heheh). It's by the same guy who 'translated' the Thriller rip-off video, only this one is German (I think) and the fun part is the whole performance really. It's the campiest, weirdest disco thing I've ever seen (discounting the Boney M video from Syikin's blog, the guy in the vid should be in another category altogether).

So here's another one for the weekend...

Oh well, since we're on a disco groove here, this is the Boney M video I was talking about earlier; MB's 15-year old nephew was so mesmerised (or was it freaked out?) by the guy in the video, he watched it again....and again... and again...

Thank you Syikin :)

Hehe, and our parents think our music choices are strange, geez, they grew up with THESE...

NR
pick of the week: come and dance and love the fish!

Thrillsville

2007-03-23T13:02:00.000+08:00

I first came across this video on Syikin's blog. It's actually a song-and-dance clip from a Tamil movie, with the dance sequence inspired by (OKlah, copied from) Michael Jackson's Thriller music video. Hehe hilarious...

And just when I thought it couldn't get any hilarious-er (got such word? no? there should be, it's useful...), some guy 'translated' the words of the song into English, only that the so-called translation is based on how the Tamil words sound like in English.
Alrighty then, here's one for the weekend. Enjoy :)

Thanks MB for sharing this with me, sayang dia...but enough with singing the song around the house k? Tak manis ah...

NR
phrase of the day: Girly mannn!!

Meow-ching!!

2007-02-10T23:47:00.000+08:00

To think I've not written a single thing about my meow-ies when they are such a central thing in my life sheesh...

Here they are (from left to right), Memek, Sid and Dot. All females, all sistas, born on February 15th 1998. That makes them 8 years old. Tua seh...

I could write all day about them, but since I've actually done an Art project about them three hotties (along with other cats I previously own) during my past life in NIE, aisey, no need to talk so much lah hor. Want to know more, come over my place, can see my workbook. Got an A for my efforts, yeehah. Better still, come over and meet them (if they're in a mood to meet you heheh).

Anyways, Memek has this thing about 5 stones. She goes nuts if you wiggle it, and will crouch a few feet in front of you, eyes like saucers and implore you to throw it so she can catch it. When she was younger she'd actually bring the little sack of beans back to you to throw again. And again. And again.

Now she expects you to pick it up where she left it, like I said, old oredi, no more in the prime of their youth.But still she expects you to throw it again. And again. And again... The other two join in eventually, but not as wholeheartedly as her. Watch below, the vid is senget 'cos MB filmed it that way up, so exercise your neck a bit lah huh. Oh ya, at the end of the vid, you'll know why we call her Memek:

Memek and Sid play 5 stones

Oh er, by the way, the voice you hear in the background yelling, "GOALIE PEKAK!!!" among other stuff...that's my dad. He gets really emotional when he watches soccer. As a kid, I used to get nervous when he started shouting at the players on the TV screen, but now, I don't even bat an eyelid when he makes a spitting action towards the screen (leans forward and goes "PTOOOOOIII!!!") when a player messes up. In fact, I actually wait in anticipation of him getting really riled up and shout out his fave phrase, "Nyonya bunting pun boleh kasi masuk!!" usually when a player screws up in front of an open goal. Hilarious man. This phrase is swiftly followed by him switching to another channel to cool down for a bit, usually Discovery Channel, better still, if it's an animal documentary. I tell you, my dad can practically live on soccer and animal documentaries.

The vid above was filmed using MB's phone during the second leg of the Asean Cup Semis which ended in penalties. While the rest of us were on tenterhooks, my mum was lapping it up, she loves penalties. When she watches soccer with my dad, anytime she sees a player being fouled, doesn't matter where on the field it happens, she'll shout, "PENALTY!!" My dad will most likely just shake his head and take another deep drag on his ciggie. Know why? 'Cos my mom can sit and cheer the players, criticise the referee, demand penalties...you know, be supportive of my dad and his fave pastime, and after 20 minutes, will ask my dad, "Manchester United yang pakai warna apa?" Sigh...she tries though, and I know she gets a kick out of it.

Anyways, my cats like to hang out where everybody hangs out; mind you, they don't like to be touched, they just like being around people (especially those who feed them) so there I was, half watching soccer, half playing catch with Memek, and later on with Sid joining in. Guess where Dot was all this time?
Lazy bugger. Had the warmest seat in the house and was lying on her side snoozing in no time. Every so often, we have to gently flick aside her tail so it doesn't block the screen. Hai....sayang punye pasal...

NR
treasure-of-the-day: Know what? I can still wear my Malaysia Cup '94 Finals T-shirt I dug up a few days ago. Chay-bah!!

Nachos libre

2007-01-19T18:45:00.000+08:00

Finally met up wif Syikin. Been meaning to do that since late last year so it was a happy day meeting up and lepak-ing at her studio.

Took a bus down to Serangoon Gardens and bought lunch, and Syikin said that she wanted to make nachos for dinner so we went grocery shopping too (one of my fave pastimes now, is this healthy? Who cares...)

I got to watch Mirrormask, yay, missed it when it was shown at the theatres here. Lying down on the mattress,with fluffy pillows, sated after lunch and chilling in the air-con room of her peacefully quiet studio, I nearly dozed off. But the movie was good though, who could've thought of those fantastic stuff? Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean are geniuses.

Dyn joined halfway through the show, we hung out a bit after the movie, played with Mao, then put on Anchorman. Watched it for a bit, and Syikin decided to make the nachos first so we could chill and nosh at the same time. MB had arrived by then, so he hung out wif Dyn while Syikin and I fixed the nachos, or rather, Syikin did it and I kaypoh-ed hehe.

Oh me goodnessssss....the nachos were so easy to make and more importantly, so yummy! I'm gonna make them myself real soon man. Makes watching Anchorman so much better 'cos you know, when in Rome....heheh, never mind.

Oh yes, this is Mao, resident studio cat. He has a missing paw on one of his hind legs so when you scratch under his chin, he kinda lifts up that leg and does scratching motions, hehehe. But this cat is one ganas bugger, or as Syikin call says, it's tough love. Be prepared to bleed when you play with him, as I did. Oh well, I'm lucky if I get half as much attention from my 3 furry ones, so I'm not complaining. Much :P
So yeah, thanks muchos for the nachos Syikin!!!! And it was fun hanging out with you (as usual). Glad you like the brownies :)

NR
i-want-i-want: shoulder massage please!!!

BOY-nkyyy!!

2007-01-15T17:32:00.000+08:00

Had a great birthday gift this year :) After months of affectionately calling my little bump, well, BUMP (Baby Under My Pusat), MB and I finally got to know the sex of the baby. Just had to get this onesie when I saw it at Mothercare. Too cute lah. And people don't have to ask if my baby's a boy or girl, they just gotta look at it.

I had an antenatal check-up on the 9th and went for a thorough screening of the foetus, just to see if everything was going ok. The scan took longer than expected 'cos the little guy kept facing down and wouldn't budge even as the technician asked me to cough repeatedly, which I did until I got a coughing fit. So in the end, the technician gave up, asked me and MB to go have a drink and come back in 40 minutes, sheesh. Here's the boy facing down...
Good thing the baby co-operated this time, and we managed to get a few shots of him. He was still moving around a bit so the technician was working as fast as she could to get the necessary measurements. One good thing was we got to see everything, even his face was quite clear. Hehe. Then she asked:

Technician: "You want to know the sex of the baby?"

Me: "Er, OK."

Technician: "Boy. See? This is the boy part."

And after that, everytime we came across the penis, she'll point it out. I could almost hear MB going "Yessssss!!!!!" I betcha he's already envisioning bringing this boy to his flying jaunts. Aisy....oh well, a few free hours for me then...

Here are the scans, the first one is the scan taken at 12 weeks, obviously very tardy of me, now that I'm at 21 weeks. But anyhoo...better late than never...

12 weeks at 49.7 mm...
And the rest of the scans at 21 weeks (16.5 cm)...
Of course they spelled my name wrong again, dammit. Susah sangat ke nama aku ni? Sigh. Oh well, they got it right at 12 weeks. I've been feeling the baby move for a bit, but wasn't sure if it was the baby or just, well, gas. Honestly, not funny, but feel free to laugh, my gynae did. But now when he gives a nudge, can see a slight bump coming out from my belly, kinda like those alien movies where the victims have baby aliens in their tummies you know? Heheh, I watch too many B-grade movies...

NR
marathon of the week: Animaniacs DVD Vol 2; here we go again...

December round-up

2007-01-01T19:19:00.000+08:00

Now that the new year's in and I've not blogged for like a gazillion years (feels like it anyways) here's a round-up of stuff that went on last December. I'm out of my moody funk thank goodness and raring to go. Awrite!!

wedding anniversary
MB and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on 4th December.

On our first anniversary in 2005, I woke up alone with husband nowhere in sight, got sent on a wild goose chase by the aforementioned husband and had to wolf down a Ya Kun breakfast all by myself. Bloody bugger.

No lah, actually, he made it out like this Amazing Race thingy where I had to go around to places familiar to both of us. He even made clues just like the ones in Amazing Race.

My last pitstop took me right back home where I started but while I was gone chasing the goose, he had discreetly returned and decked out the room exactly like it had been done for our wedding. So there I was, slightly grumpy and sweaty, and there he was in the room waiting for me with flowers. Awwwwwwwww...... and what did I get for us? A dinner and two tickets to watch the Chestnuts play at Jubilee Hall. Eeeeeps. He told me later that with all the effort and planning he threw in for this, it will have to last for at least 3 more anniversaries. Of course I laughed it off.
Fast forward 2006, and man, he wasn't joking seh. We were both out of fresh anniversary ideas, and decided to not do anything special. The big bluffer (is there such a word?). We decided to go Swensen's Changi for dinner, 'cos that's where we went on our first date. At that time I thought that if he was boring, at least I'd have ice-cream and planes, heheh. So anyway we went there and just before dessert, one of the waiters gave me this big (and heavy) bouquet and said that it was from MB. Bloody bugger planned something afterall! Isy! I, of course, had stuck to the pact and had done, well, zilch! Oh well, it was really sweet of him anyways. He even took the trouble to get the bouquet done by the people who did my wedding bouquets. Sigh...how to get mad at him, I ask you?

Anyways, it's been a great married year for us, just got to slip in some wedding photos here 'cos seriously, I had a blast during my wedding. Thank goodness my parents weren't so anal. Some of my friends had been told (warned?) by parents and assorted elders not to 'misbehave' while on the dais, that means no eye contact, no holding hands, no talking etc.... MB and me? We were chatting like monkeys on the damn thing and taking photos of everyone and everything with our Digicam and Lomo. Man, we were so pumped, I mean, it's supposed to be the happiest day of your life right? So act happy lah!!! Besides, it's very hard for me to sit all prim and proper for an extended period of time. I tried, honest. Anyways, here are some photos:

jurong link-up
Hiqma stayed over for a week, basically 'cos I think she was getting bored out of her mind over at her place. She somehow finds stuff to do here, one of them being going downstairs with a basket on her arm (I'm serious) and plucking pretty flowers to bring home. The first time she did that, I had to sit her down and point out the poisonous ones (allamanda and stuff). Hopefully NParks doesn't come by anytime soon. I'm trying to discourage her from doing this though.

She baked cookies with my mum and decorated them using dragees and sprinkles (she loves sprinkles remember? But then, who doesn't?). They actually turned out quite yummy and at least my cookie cutters got a workout.

Took her to Bedok Library for a storytelling session, and had good fun picking out books for her to borrow. Of course, no trip to the library is complete without a Burger King meal, so we had that for lunch.

My mum's friend had complimentary tickets to the newly re-opened National Museum so I brought Hiqma along. I was quite apprehensive as I thought she might get bored, but there were many interative displays and she had fun learning about spices. I loved the gallery with the film displays. There were a lot of stuff about good 'ol Jln Ampas, and I love P.Ramlee films so I spent quite a bit of time there watching the videos and listening to the songs. Didn't get to explore the whole museum 'cos Hiqma got hungry. I didn't really mind, I'd already made up my mind to go again with MB. So off we went to MacKenzie Rex for chicken rice.

Nearing the end of the week, my mum and I were already scratching our heads on ways to keep her entertained, and we shouldn't have worried so much; she made friends during one of her many jaunts downstairs with my neighbour's son who even kindly offered to bring down her bicycle for her. Sweet little gentleman :) I daresay she enjoyed her stay here.

bar-be-kyuuu:
Had a goood time catching up with my wonderful ex-colleagues at the bbq hosted by the original hip party-meisters of Cedar, Cikgu Salimah and her husband Cikgu Junid. She's been asking us young punks to organise a get-together for yonks, and I guess, she realised that it will happen only if she took matters into her own hands. Heh, how right she was.

Anyways, it was real nice meeting up with Nahidah and Maimon, both gave loads of advice on babies, so thanks a million! Found out Diana's gonna get hitched next year, yeah! Timing je off sikit, I'll be giving birth around that time, boo! Would have really loved to do your cupcakes man... Dina's off to Australia to be with her hubby, just flew off a few days ago actually. All the best Dina! Caught up with Faridah too, have not seen her and Fadzly since Hari Raya; they've been busy with their open U stuff, so it was fun hanging out with them too. Saddiq was back home for the weekend, he's starting his final year at UM this year. Been a long time since we all met him so it was fun to have the livewire around. And of course, Cikgu Salimah was just wonderful. She seems to be more excited than I am about my baby, hahaha!! She's so sweet! Cikgu Junid of course, kept everybody in stitches with his funny stories and comments. Some of his jokes I've heard a few times, but they still sound funny every time he tells them.

And the food.....yummms. MB came late and spent quite a bit of time around the pit. Small wonder huh?

woodlands link-up
Had lunch with Ain at Vivocity. Been a loooooong time since I've met her. Since she moved to Woodlands, we've been meeting up less and less. We spent most of the day catching up and just basically talking rubbish, which suits me just fine really. She can't believe I couldn't get a seat on the MRT, haha! Can't expect much lah, I just look fat right now, but in a few months, we'll see...

She gave me a dvd of Little Britain Season 1; Ain, if you're reading this, thanks a million! Devoured the whole series over 2 evenings, now MB and I are all over the place going "Yyeeeeeesss!!", "No, but yeah, but no" and "I'm the only gay in the village Myfanwy!" . I think MB's fave is "Yeah I know!" and "I want tha' one"and then going on about the fat guy in the wheelchair (MB: "That bloody f**ker! Argh! What the hell?!"). It helps that there are only 8 episodes in the whole season, or else it would have been damn tiring laughing all the time. Seriously. As much as MB and I love Animaniacs (our early relationship was basically built around it), watching the 5-CD dvd made us fall asleep almost instantaneously after a few episodes. Of course it could also be that we are getting old.

So anyways, Ain, chocolate fountain party still on? Heheh. Will come over your place earlier and let you watch Anchorman code 1, not the code 3 bullshit version they have on the shelves. Oh ya, attached below is the clip that basically made me realise the genius that is Will Ferrell. It's an MTV spoof of Matrix 2, and he appears later in the clip as The Architect.

Matrix Reloaded Spoof

And while I'm going on about Will Ferrell, this is a clip where he's spoofing George Bush on the topic of global warming. If you close your eyes, it's like the real McCoy talking, rubbish and all.

'George Bush' on global warming

Watch out for his new comedy coming up soon about figure skating co-starring Jon Heder ('Napoleon Dynamite') and produced by Ben Stiller.

MB's birthday
My m-i-l wanted to belanja everyone on MB's birthday so we went to one of our fave places, Amirah's Grill. It was fun chatting with my sis-in-law, and we got to video our fave 'gemes' girl Ibra being disturbed by her eldest bro Zuhdi, at the expense of her mum. Heheh. Can always count on this little girl for amusement.

MB's birthday cakes
Got out of my baking funk by making three birthday cakes for MB. Made a chocolate hazelnut cake for his office; basic choc cake with loads of crushed hazelnuts in between and Nutella-ganache topping. Yummy. Went down well with his colleagues :) Score! My piping skills are a bit wonky now though :P

Toblerone cheesecake to cap off Sunday dinner at Chai Chee. Had the Jurong clan over so I made Beef Stroganoff for dinner and the cheesecake for dessert, strawberries plopped on by my baking assistant, the ever-ready-to-chip-in Hiqma (after asking "What are you doing Bibik Irah?" for like a thousand times in 15 mins, I gotta give her a job man, more for my sake than hers... but she did a super job :))

MB had mentioned he wanted a robot cake some aeons ago, by this he means tiered cakes, 'cos he says that stacked wedding cakes look like robots and well, he's a robot geek. But no way was I gonna make him one; who's gonna eat all that cake?! So I compromised and made him a chocolate cake with a picture of Optimus Prime on it. It's his fave Transformer, and with the movie coming out this year, he's so pumped. I've never understood Transformers, I mean, I love Mask, He-Man and Centurions, but Transformers...? The good guys and the bad guys look the same to me (sorry MB). That's one cartoon dvd I chose to not watch with him.

Anyways, made the cake on Hari Raya Haji to bring to my in-laws, and since his birthday was already celebrated a week ago, he didn't want a 'Happy Birthday' on it. Suka kau lah. But at least he seemed to like the Optimus Prime I did. The grey parts were a bit too dark though, and the frosting sucked. Never will do that frosting again. But everyone else seemed to think it was OK, so I dunno, not that I trust my tastebuds that much nowadays, everything seems to taste a bit off.

So yup, that's December in a nutshell, if I remember correctly. Have a great 2007 everyone! Hugs and smiles to all :)

NR
quote of the month: "Hey! That's mine!!!" Ibra telling off her brother for eating his own ice-cream. Her ice-cream cup (obviously) was already empty.

know why? know why?

2006-11-29T18:15:00.000+08:00

wah, haven't wrote anything in this thing for like, lama seh...

seriously, i've not had much motivation to do, well, anything. normal people call this laaaaaazy, no excuses. well, bollocks to them. actually they may have a point. i've been hanging around the house eating and watching TV- i actually watched reruns of Alf every single f**king day last month, how pathetic is that?

i think MB wants me to get out more, but hell, i want myself to get out more, but it's just a hell of an effort to get my butt off the bed, figure out what to wear (which is a real bitch 'cos most of my pants don't fit anymore), hope and pray i don't get nauseated, then figure out where to go (but even the thought of waiting for the damn bus irritates the shit out of me)...by which time i just don't wanna go out anymore, too much work.

sigh. what the hell am i gonna do with myself. i feel so cut off from everybody i meet as it is. is it normal to be at this age and still not know what the hell you REALLY wanna do? i'm such a disappointment. what a mess.

Yeah, baby, yeah!

2006-10-13T20:00:00.000+08:00

So yeah, I'm preggers!! Here's a photo of my first scan taken on 2nd October when I was about 6 weeks along.

Heheh, cute an? Terceruk one corner, kah kah kah... It's about 5.2mm from head to rump. Should have doubled in size by now. Shaikhah said she can see two tiny eyes staring back at her. Ape je. I tell you, she sees what she wants to see. Either that, or I think she's too fatigued from her job. Kesian...

Alhamdulillah, my gynae said everything seems to be OK, and other than nausea, I've got no probs.

But the nausea. Urgh.

I have an innate fear of throwing up. Got a baaaaad case of food poisoning when I was eight and threw up 99% of the time when I was awake. I've been off gado-gado, blueberry cake and puking ever since. Buuuut....while my nausea is horribilus maximus, I've not puked once...yet. My bedside companion is my trusty bottle of sembuey. Yuck. Normally, I don't touch those things, but now, it's the only thing that helps.

I thought that for once, I could actually fast for one whole month. Haha. Fat chance. Not happening. I tried, and had nausea so bad, I couldn't get out of bed. I was kinda bummed, but as my sis-in-law told me, He has other plans, it's probably better this way. I'd have to agree.

Yeah, FINALLY, I got something to say when people ask,"Why no kids yet?" Cringe. I usually just point at MB and say that he's having it. Heh. His idea actually. Usually shuts people up. I actually kinda not look forward to gatherings 'cos of this. I don't mind people just asking once, but some people don't drop the subject and I get really annoyed. Nobody's business but MB and mine what.

And I've learnt early enough not to say that I'm into family planning. I get lots of scandalized looks at the very mention of the word 'planning'. Seems like it's almost a vulgar word. Don't know why though. I know lots of people want to start a family right after marriage, and that's cool. It just (to borrow from Austin Powers) ain't my bag, baby.

Lotsa people tell me, "First one no need to plan, second one onwards, then plan." I know this works for some people but not for me. I think if anything, I really need time to plan and be physically and more importantly, mentally ready to be a parent, so I think, personally, I'll plan as much as I can for all my children, be it first or second. The rest I'll leave it to Allah.

So anyway, next check-up is November-something, will post the next scan here too. Partly for posterity, but mostly 'cos I know what a klutz I am, and it'll probably get lost if I don't scan and keep a softcopy of it ;P

NR
note to self: Friday TV sucks big-time. Go watch Animaniacs. Now!!!

Dance baby, dance!!

2006-09-29T12:07:00.000+08:00

Syikin put this link up on her blog and I cant recommend it enough. Go watch it if you're having a shitty day in the office, go watch it if you want to know how to jiggle your bits, go watch it if you are in a Munneru Valliba kinda mood, go watch it if you wanna know how shiny gold boots look like on an afro-ed bare-chested man. In short, just watch it lah. It's precious, I tell you.

Solla Solla Enna Perumai

So anyway, Syikin was featured in a Stompcast as part of tag24, where they follow a local musician for a day; she's the singer of the punk rock band My Precious. The tag is still online, so watch it here.

Also watch the extra clip Kyn's Felines, which feature her two cats (Molly and Kitchi) and the resident studio cat aka The Cat Who Failed Sit and Reach: Mao. He's so amusing I tell you.

My Precious will be playing at the library@Orchard on Oct 4th. Details can be found in the Straits Times or at her blog. You rock girl!!

NR
i-want-for-buka-today: 7-11 instant mashed potatoes

The joys of flight

2006-09-22T11:23:00.000+08:00

It has been a long time since my last blog entry. It was mostly pictures too. I guess I'm not much of a writer as I am a pilot, an aeromodel pilot that is.

Been flying consistently again for the past few weekends and slowly regaining my confidence and my skills. It's always a joy to keep the plane in the air and to cap it off with a scheduled 3-point landing [a scheduled whatsit?! English dah dey, English!!! - NR]. But as I am still coming up to speed with the new plane's capabilities and idiosyncracies, there were more unscheduled landings then scheduled ones.

Just last weekend, when attempting to fly in high winds, I lost control of my current favourite plane (which NR totally abhors [It's ugly as f***! I'm supposed to like it?! - NR]). It crashed into a tree and landed smack in the middle of the road. I saw motorcycles, cars, even buses pass it. I was resigned to the fact that I will lose the plane but a kind soul walked to the road when there were no vehicles around and handed my plane back to me. I thanked the man profusely and went to go about checking the condition of the plane. Surprisingly, not a scratch, not a dent, the plane was unscathed [Dammit!!! Die plane die!!! - NR]. That was more than what could be said of my old Crocs .

As I was climbing out over the fence to the road, the strap on my right sandal got snagged on the fence and was duly torn out. And that's that.

I'm thinking of coming up with another blog as I write this entry. Something to solely showcase plane stuff, which was what this blog was initially intended for. Leave this blog for shared experiences for NR and I [Awwwwww....sho shweeeeet! - NR].

I think I have outdone myself with this entry, more words than the previous one, and no pictures. Will have to do more entries to meet my quota [or you'll get the whip my boy!! - NR].

MB
[edited by NR - he wanted me to, honest!]

I'm soooooo happy!!!!!

2006-09-06T10:59:00.000+08:00

Seriously, I've never been this happy since like, my wedding day, I think. And it's all because of planes. Yup. Planes.

Early warning: Extra long story with loads of grandfather-kinda-stories. If not prepared to read, skip the text and enjoy the pics. More to be found via the Flickr link.

Went to the RSAF Open House last Saturday with MB. Keep wanting to go there every year, but always miss it somehow. This year, I thought to myself, I will not miss it, come hell or high water.

So we woke up bright and early and made our way to Paya Lebar Air Base before it opened at 10am. There was already a huge crowd there dammit, but the security check was a breeze and it wasn't long before I started jumping and skipping with joy (literally) around the airbase.

Why was this such a big deal? You see, you're not allowed to come up close to the aircraft at the Asian Aerospace. Well, in the past (say, 7 years ago or sumthing), you were, and I got a photo taken right in front of a C-130 with its (very tall) pilot to show for it. However, with recent security concerns, you can't get anywhere near an aircraft. I left the Aerospace exhibition in a few years back disappointed and have not visited it since.

Now, the RSAF Open House Open House is another thing altogether. You can touch the aircraft, go in the aircraft and in the case of some sugar-high tykes I saw, play and climb around the aircraft. There were also quite a large handful of families lepak-ing and lunching like they're at the beachside under the cool shade of the planes' wings (I kid you not). What's not to love?

I got there with one mission in mind: to get in the AH64D Apache Longbow. But first up, it was the airshow. I had studied the schedule on the Open House website the night before and knew that the airshow started at 10.45am. So after saying hi to the aircraft along the way, we made it straight to the gallery to get the best seats.

OK, background info: For me and MB, after seeing the fireworks at the Esplanade opening, not seeing the National Day fireworks live is not such a big deal anymore. I mean, the fireworks at the opening were everywhere and lasted for goodness-knows how long. After the show was over, the (late) night sky was as bright as morning and I was spewing gibberish from euphoria. I can still smell the gunpowder now...sniffffffff.....

Soooo, after seeing the airshow that day, I will never hanker for NDP tickets (well, not that much lah). The aerial display was enough to keep me satisfied for some time. The F-16s and F-5s took off right in front of your eyes and flew so low and roared so loud, I was reminded of my Memek at home, probably hiding in fear behind the massage chair, just as she had done everytime these birds flew over the past week during their practise sessions.

They showed how the fighter jets are refuelled in mid-air from the C-130, and we see the Apache Longbows doing manoeuvres in mid-air (syiok seh!), a Chinook carrying a light strike vehicle (LSV)… I was bobbing up and down in my seat with happiness. Then, when we thought it was all over, the Red Lions dropped in from somewhere behind us in their signature red outfits and parachutes. They were just metres above our heads! Wow! You can’t even get this close during the NDP!!

We checked out other stuff happening around the base; there was something for everyone – carnival games, souvenir stands, model airplane demos… I got myself an Apache pin and an Airborne pin (wanted this one since I was thirteen!) and made a beeline for the Apache.

Along the way, we lined up for the Chinook first (it was the nearest). I never noticed how long the rotor blades were, man, they were practically in your face. We went in the Chinook for a while, then we went to check out the Super Puma helicopter. I’m so jealous that MB has been in a Super Puma before when he was doing his NS, dunno where they fly to lah, hmph.

Then we went to queue to get in the Apache. Got a bit of a sunburn in the process ‘cos it was a bit of a wait, but everything was orderly, nobody was complaining, a personnel even came and apologised for the long wait. The wait didn’t bother me, you gotta expect some waiting in a big thing like this, especially ‘cos the Apaches are the newest addition and pretty much the show’s highlight.

Saw the arming of the Apache demo, what with rockets and Hellfire missiles, waaaaah, this thing packs a punch man.

Went for lunch, drank more water, not much space in the makan area, so MB and I sat on the grounds outside and watched planes taking off and landing while filling our tummies. Bliss. We sat pretty much next to the portable air control tower that was used in Aceh. Found out it takes only 6 hours to get it set up and functioning. When it was sent to Aceh, it landed there at 11pm and was up and running by 5am the next morning. Phoo-yoh!!

After that we went to check out the model aircraft flying which was situated in the stadium a little off the base. Boring though, but we got to relax a bit, enjoy the sounds of aircraft taking off somewhere in the base and wolfed down ice-creams. Then we made our way to the C-130 Hercules.

Dunno why I’m so fascinated with this big aircraft. It doesn’t have any missiles or rockets or anything, it just carries loads of stuff. And I mean a shitload of stuff. No wonder it was heavily utilised in Aceh after the Boxing Day tsunami. As shown during the airshow, it doesn’t need a long runway to land, so it’s suitable for use in places where runways may be damaged.

I think I really like the C-130 ‘cos it figures so prominently in my memory and makes me remember the places and people connected to it.

I remember when I was in Temasek Poly, waiting for drama rehearsals to start in the evening, I remembered sitting on the corridor of one of the buildings and watching the C-130s glide by, and as they do, you see these little mushrooms popping in the vermillion sky – parachuting practice. And they’d do it again and again, and you’re treated to this awesome view of little black silhouettes against the darkening sky and the low hum of the aircraft tells you there’s more to come in a little while.

When I was teaching, and since the school's pretty near the Paya Lebar Air Base, there will always be C-130s over our heads when it was PE time, and my thoughts will go back to the little men parachuting out of these big machines. And you know, it was easier to discuss with the kids about how S’pore was helping with tsunami aftermath when you have these live examples flying above your heads on a daily basis. I remember the kids bent over their work in class, and I’m so stressed with whatever’s going on, and I look out the class window and I see a Chinook flying past; somehow I feel better, can’t explain it. How we sometimes have to pause in our explanations in class when the fighter jets roar above us; I don’t mind, the more times we have to pause, the more we know: National Day’s coming! Seeing these aircraft so close so regularly is one of the reasons I miss teaching there.

So anyway, we waited for quite a bit to enter the C-130. There was kind of a mess (people I mean, not the aircraft) ‘cos everyone wanted to enter the cockpit. MB and I took our time, sitting in the belly of the aircraft, sated (our own bellies full) and just looking on at all the commotion.

Then came the hero. Captain Adrian, tall, lanky, smiling guy, came in the aircraft and sort of organised everyone into groups so the entry to the cockpit was more efficient. While we were waiting for our turn, we were briefed on the features of the C-130, man I was glad we didn’t go in first, I learnt so much from this guy! At the same time he had to placate some irritable people who were still waiting outside, and handle these two super irritating boys who were running all over the place and pissing everyone off. Hats off to Captain Adrian!

MB and I were first to enter the cockpit when it was our group’s turn. The pilot inside said we could sit in the pilots’ seats. Woohoo!! Sooo happy!!! The two irritating kids wanted to sit too, but the pilot said that they have had their turn before this so…haha!! The pilot (forgot to ask his name, so goondu!) showed us what the little dials were and we asked a few questions about the aircraft, taking our own sweet time ‘cos the lil kids were bugging us to let them sit up front. I know it sounds horrible, being so mean to kids, but seriously, these kids were beyond control, their dad was just standing by, smiling sheepishly and saying nothing. Bloody hell, I didn’t know who I wanted to scream at more, the kids or their dad.

So yeah, that’s us in the C-130 cockpit in our profile pic. All in all, it was very well-organised, there was hardly any waiting time for the shuttle buses, the personnel on duty were really helpful (even if one of them gave MB wrong directions, they were eager to help anyways), there was something going on all the time, so even if you were queuing up, there was always an aircraft taking off or landing so you could pass the time watching something cool.

Needless to say, I will be back.

august update

2006-08-28T16:09:00.000+08:00

Haven't blogged in a while, mostly 'cos of a severe case of Lazyitis; here's a recap on what went on in August:

Hiqma's birthday celebrations (in school and at Chai Chee)
After toiling away to make a cake and cupcakes for her school celebrations, I was on a baking strike that weekend. But I felt bad 'cos the first thing Hiqqy did when she came over to CC was run to kitchen looking for me, "Where's my birthday cake bibik?" Issssh, apparently she was promised one..... so another cake was baked that evening for her; I'm such a sucker...anyways, I didn't feel up to decorating it, so I just slapped on some ganache on the cake and told Hiqma to put whatever she wanted on it. I tell ya, I've never seen so much gummy candies and sprinkles on a cake. Check out the cake here.

Cake Competition at Creative Culinaire
Still haven't used the crab shell cracker-thingy that I got. Nor the tea-set and vouchers I won. Sigh....

Faridah's birthday
Went to Amirah and the four of us (Faridah, Fadzly, MB and me) just lounged around (and I mean lounged) in the private room; kicked off our shoes, lay on the sofas (we had a sofa each), watched a repeat of S'pore Idol (for want of any other programmes) on the TV and smoked sheesha.

Later drove up to this place that had a pond with 3 Arapaima fish, at least I think they were; they must be. I mean I just had to see it with my own eyes when Fadzly mentioned that there were a couple at Dempsey Rd, 'cos these fish are HUGE! I didn't think there were any outside of the zoo. I was not disappointed.

Family day out at the Botanic Gardens
All 'cos I bought a book on plants for Hiqma, she's nuts about pitcher plants now. My dad decided at the last moment (last moment as in we were ready to leave) to follow us ("Family outing what...wait for me.") and knowing my dad, he expects time and tide to wait for him. So rather than wait around and get pissed by the second, MB and I took off first and had breakfast at Cafe Les Amis while waiting for them and the Jurong clan. It was good being around trees and dogs and flowers while having a decadent slice of choc cake for breakfast. Smackeroos.

Finally got to go to the coolhouse; been waiting for that place to open since before I got married. MB acted as the tour guide, he has been doing the NParks annual reports for 5 years running, so the Botanic Gardens is like his backyard ("Only thing is, I don't get to ride a buggy today, must walk." Pooooi!! Eksen konon...!). Mum got a good exercise and my dad loves nature, so he was having a good time reading all the tree names and signboards. Hiqma got her pitcher plants (and squirrels and dragonflies) and Hadyr got crabby. Heheh.

All in all, a fun day culminating in lunch at the new Taman Serasi Food Centre. Check out the pics here

MB flying his DIY plane
Finally made one with compressed foam. Unfortunately, a little unbalanced, so can't fly properly. Hello rubbish bin!!

MB bought another plane
Butt-ugly as hell IMHO. I refused to take a photo of it, MB's amused I hate it so much. The plane had the last laugh: it hangs in front of my face while I sleep. Damn you ugly-piece-of-flying-foam!

4 cakes a week
I'm supplying 4 cakes on a weekly basis to a cafe at Waterloo Street. Yeah! Thanks Shikin for the intro :) You'll get more free cakes soon! It seemed like love at first sight for the cafe owner, Auntie Hani, when I bought some slices over for a tasting session. She saw my cakes and pretty much wanted to order them on the spot! Hahaha! I actually persuaded her to try them out first 'cos how to sell the cakes if you don't like them yourself right? Anyway, she likes them so I'm sending over the first batch this coming week. Woohoo!!

The four cakes are: Carrot Cake, Ultimate Orange Cake (my best-seller, surprisingly), Green Tea Layer Cake and the oh-so-retro Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Took pics of them but a bit lazy lah to post here. Will post them in Flickr. One of these days or something. Soon lah.

My dad's in Hong Kong!
My dad won a trip to HK in a lucky draw so he's there right now, touring the sights as I type this. So lucky. He hasn't called us since Saturday, so I'm assuming he's enjoying himself. Or it could also be 'cos he doesn't have a handphone.

My dad's a pretty amusing guy sometimes. He wanted to borrow my digicam for the trip, but since MB uses it when he goes for a photo recce, I couldn't lend it to him and suggested he borrow my sis' camera. "But I want a digital one..." he lamented, finally borrowing one from his friend. He came home excited and asked me to check the camera out. Know what? It's not even a digicam. It uses film and has the APS feature, and that's about it. "It's not a digicam? Relly ah? OK lah, how to set the date and time?" Sigh. My father.

I registered him with the MFA and gave him the contact details of the Singapore consulate at HK, all the while nagging at him to bring this, do that, definitely bring that, stay away from those... he thinks I'm trying to be smart with him but I know he appreciates it anyhoo.

So the month pretty much rolls into September. No Teachers' Day cards this year :( It's all right really, one day of fun doesn't make up for the rest of the year's hell and headache. Hey, this year no need to brave the crowd at Concourse!! They've got really cute stuff around this time of the year, but it gets horrible in the days leading up to Children's Day, no joke. Nope, definitely don't miss that.

NR
gripe of the day: why do i leave paying back puasa to the last minute every year? why??? ishhh...

happy birthday to youuuuu!!!

2006-08-12T08:44:00.001+08:00

Happy 6th birthday Hiqma!!!

Piko ordered a 10-inch cake and 25 cupcakes for Hiqma's birthday. The kids will get a cupcake each, while the cake was for the teachers and for the kids too (should they want a second helping).

The challenge was to find a theme to tie in the designs of the cake and cupcakes together, yet not make the cake too attractive that the kids do not want their cupcakes, so the cupcakes couldn't look too shabby either.

Decided to use the leftover green buttercream frosting from the cake deco competition to pipe grass and scatter some choc flowers on them. I'd wanted to do those biscuit trees since I saw Chef Yai do them for his cake. Too cute. Pretty straightforward designs actually, but the white choc gave me loads of probs, and it being a super humid day didn't help a bit.

But Hiqma was happy, "Wow! Thousands of them!" she said after seeing the cupcakes arranged around the cake. Extreme exaggeration for only 25 cupcakes, but hey, the kid's six.

Hiqma got a special cupcake, with a flower of each colour and a stack of gummy sweets on top. Her classmates are so well-behaved, none of those irritating run-around-your-legs-screaming-like-their-pants-are-on-fire-kids, which totally get on my nerves. To think I would've got used to all this, having taught before and all that, heheh. But yeah, Hiqma's classmates, all angels.

It's so fun making cupcakes for kids. You have the licence to go totally bonkers on colours; I'm quite reserved when it comes to colours sometimes, but I'm learning. Oh, and Hiqma's special cupcake is featured in Cupcakes Take the Cake. Woo-hoo!

So anyway, another birthday to celebrate this weekend: my friend Faridah turned 25 on Friday, so another set of birthday cupcakes coming up. If I have the time, another cake for Hiqma on Sunday when she comes over (no promises here! might be at 96 for the weekend, plus the hill of laundry is slowly but surely turning into a mountain).

MB's flying his made-from-scratch plane. The propeller broke the last time and he got sooooo sad. Hopefully it stays in the air long enough today. Updates on the plane coming up soon, watch this space.

NR
reminder of the day: baju kurung belum hantar! Eharkz!!

prizes and planes

2006-08-10T11:33:00.000+08:00

Yeah! I won the first prize in the Cake Decorating Competition (Buttercream Frosting) organized by the baking school Creative Culinaire on National Day.

To celebrate the opening of their new premises and café, the school had organised Students’ Day on National Day. Students with businesses could display their cakes, cake-decorating competitions were held and there were also free food-related demos by the resident chefs.

It was great fun as I got to meet some of my classmates from my baking and cake deco classes. I had attended the wedding cake class at the new premises a month ago, but the café was not open then. The new school is bigger and better, in terms of layout and space.

So anyway, being ambitious (if somewhat silly), I had signed up to take part in both the Wedding Cake Competition and the Buttercream Frosting Competition. When else will I get to practise right? But by the competition eve, I was ready to call it quits.

2.30 am: Completed the wedding cake. Finally!! Start prepping for buttercream cake.

3 am: Had planned on piping roses. Forgot how lousy I am with piping roses. Discarded the 2 pathetic excuses for roses I piped and panicked. How now?! Back to what I do best…fantasy flowers! Start snipping the wafer cones…

3.30 am: Lack of sleep and with my nerves on end, my hands were shaking by the time I started on my buttercream cake. I had been loading up on Pepsi the whole night, and finally felt the effects of the caffeine at that time.

4.15 am: The 11 flowers that I have lovingly piped and put in the fridge fell splat on the table as I was picking one out to arrange on the cake. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Back to ground zero then.

5am: No more white buttercream on hand for piping the border, couldn’t be bothered to whip up a fresh batch (contestants got free ready-to-whip frosting from the sponsor; thank you Sunny Foods! You’re the unsung hero in my eyes!!) so I used the only colour I had on hand: lemon yellow. Bleurgh.

5.30 am: All done, start cleaning up.

7.00 am: Short snooze.

7.45 am: Wake up, showered, packed the cake and zoomed off.

Had a nice cup of mocha at the café and nibbled on some potato bread while MB and I waited for the results. I was really surprised at winning the buttercream section, and I got a tea set with vouchers from the baking school. Yahoo!! Free lessons!!

Oh, and I won something in the lucky draw too! It was supposed to be a wine bottle opener but since I don’t drink alcohol, Judy gave me a set of crab shell crackers (or whatever you call it, you know, those thingies that look like nutcrackers for crabs) instead. Was so jazzed!! Now I can eat my fave crustaceans in less the usual time (though my mother doubts it: I take an hour to finish a crab most times). I also got some more baking school vouchers and 10% off dinner at Carlton. Yesssss!!!

I got some more vouchers later ‘cos I was a participant in the wedding cake competition as well, so in all, I have $130 worth of vouchers from Creative Culinaire. Yeah!!

Got some shut-eye when I reached home, woke up in time to watchthe parade on TV, and of course catch the F-16s and Apache going past my house. Took videos of them. Check them out:

F-16 fighters on the way to Kallang

Apache Longbow helicopters on the way to Kallang

After the planes and helicopters zoomed by, MB and I got changed pronto and zoomed off to 96 to watch fireworks from his balcony. His nephews and aunt were already there, so it was nice meeting up with them as I’ve not seen them for a while.

Oh yes, Happy National Day to everyone, so sad to see Kallang go. I’ve got beautiful memories of that place (mostly connected to soccer, Sea Games, and of course, ‘live’ National Days). *sigh*

On a lighter note, came across this vid on YouTube. It’s a parody of the National Day and probably done by a group of boys in the changing room after soccer practice. The quality is pretty grainy, but I tell you, I laughed my ass off when I saw this the first time. As did my mum when I showed it to her. Must see this one:

Salute the President spoof

Reports on MB’s plane (made from scratch) coming up. Guess who has to write it? *sigh*

NR

word of the day: alboni (kesian my dad, my mum laughed at him so hard, I think she feared bursting her op stitches. Really)

Nothing like fireworks and a flypast. Oh and limes too.

2006-07-30T22:04:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's dilemma was quickly resolved.

I had enough pistachios that anyone could finish munching within 30 seconds, so the lofty idea of a scrumptious Pistachio Cake went swiftly out of the window. Key Lime Pie it was then.

I'd wanted to make this pie since I got the recipe ages ago. Only problem is, where the heck to get key limes here?! After looking through the Internet, I realised that the size of key limes resembled limau nipis. Close enough lah, limes are limes after all, right?

I requested some limes from my m-i-l a few weeks back since there were a couple of lime trees at Sedili, and the limes could be humongous at times. They bear fruit pretty often so there are always limes (and thus, lime juice, yum!!) over at 96.

So anyway, my m-i-l called me during my wedding cake deco class when the chef was doing a demo:

m-i-l: Hi! I'm at kampung now. Adnan said you wanted limes?

me: Yes, if there are some to spare.

m-i-l: Oh no problem, how much do you need? 1 kg? 2kg?

me: (sheepish) Er, a couple of handfuls?

m-i-l: You're sure that's enough? I'll give you half a kilo or something lah.

me: That'll be great. Thank you so much.

m-i-l: OK. Uncle Mor said takde limau nipis, limau bulat aje ada! Hahaha!

Riiiiight. A bit corny lah, but amusing. So that's how I came into the possession of these luscious green limes.

You know they say if life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Improvise lah; Key Lime Pie is now...Kampung Lime Pie!!

Not too shabby eh? Tastes like lemon cheesecake, but a bit bitter 'cos I think I didn't fish out some teeny tiny seeds. Didn't think it'd matter see. So wrong. Anyway, Ika kept wanting to poke her finger into the pie while I was taking photos and suggested I take a photo of her mock-eating the whole pie a la what she did with my lemon meringue one. Apa je, tak senang nak layan.

Ended up with two pies: Gave half to my neighbour. Giving half to Shikin (hopefully tomorrow, thank goodness she lives a few bus stops away, but still my tardiness is embarrassing...), will eat the rest. Bwahahahaha!

Anyways, had to pass a pair of NDP preview tix yesterday, one of the most difficult, gut-wrenching things I had to do. But there is a good, no great view of the F-16 fighters and more importantly, the Apaches flying by on the way to the stadium from the balcony, so consoled myself with that lah. That's the best part of the parade for me: the flying machines. Aside from the fireworks of course.

You hear the Chinook first. It flies really high though, so you can't see it very well. Then come the F-16 fighters with their smoky tailsmoke. Then (jeng, jeng, jeng!) the Apaches! They fly pretty low imho, 'cos you can really see all the parts very clearly. Took a short vid of them yesterday; they look tiny in the vid 'cos I forgot all about zooming in. So goondu. Saw some of the fireworks on the way to makan at Mak's Place later on, so yeah, I feel pretty good :) Anyways, here are the Apaches:

There's no sound in the vid tho, so you can't hear me, MB, Ika and my mom crowding around the window ooh-ing and aah-ing at the sight. To think we do that everytime there is a practice session, which is about, say, every weekend for the past month. Heheh.

Limes. Helicopters. Fireworks. All in one day. Can't wait for the real party on the 9th. Hooray :)

NR
yeah of the day: F1 for two weeks ina row! Yesssss!!

sweet lil cuppies

2006-07-29T12:07:00.000+08:00

Cute kan?!!! These are by far, the sweetest-looking cuppies I have ever done. Had an order for a dozen of these and since the client didn't ask for a specific design, I just went full steam ahead and had fun decorating them.

Had three cupcakes left over, so I used them to explore other topping ideas and just use up the leftover choc designs I had. Just had to do another of those 'EAT ME' cupcakes that I did for Syikin. Wanted to cover with ganache first, but habis oredi. Experimented with a brighter colour this time and I have to admit, the yellow stands out real nice. Will keep that in mind next time.

Gave away the three remaining cupcakes to my neighbour 'cos her daughter lurvs choc cakes. A bit of a wrench giving away the 'EAT ME' one, but, oh well, let somebody else be Alice eh? There's always a rabbit hole somewhere to tumble into.

NR
dilemma of the day: Lime pie or pistachio cake? Decisions, decisions...

next-of-Kin

2006-07-24T10:15:00.000+08:00

Met my good fren, Syikin, whom I've known for like donkey years last Tuesday. Guess what we had for dessert?

Ben & Jerry's rocks!!!! Had Gelare waffles for the past two Tuesdays, so I guess try something diff this week lah...

Met Shikin (my ex-colleague and currently co-slacker) and Sheda (my ex-colleague, not a slacker!) for an early dinner at Amirah's Grill the next day; the moutabel dip, as usual, did not disappoint. Lurrrrrv it! Smackeroo! Who knew eggplant could taste so good?

Had 3 days Wedding Cake Deco class, will post the pics one of these days lah. Or next week. Or sumthing...

Had some things to get at Bencoolen Street and Art Friend on Saturday, met Shikin at the thrift shop where she volunteers at Middle Road and had lunch. Ayam Penyet, direct English translation: Smashed Fried Chicken. Hahaha! Just found it amusing... The chicken was nice and crispy and tender at the same time, yum! Good choice Shikin! The kangkong and sambal reminded me of the Pelecing Kangkong I had in Lombok. Hai...Lombok.....sigh....

Syikin had a BBQ at her studio yesterday. I lurrrrv your studio Syikin! And I lurrrv Mao (resident studio cat, former factory rat-catcher, one paw missing), he's so adorable, tapi kuku panjang seh :P

Made Devil's Food Cupakes for Syikin. Dunno why never take any pics, so goondu. Anyway Syikin has more sense than I do, so check out them cupcakes here. Oh, and while you're there, see her cute cat Molly 'speak', so precioussss!

produce of the day: Kampung fruit!! Limes! Jackfruits! Kelapa juice! Limes! Sukun! Did I mention limes?!! Woohoo!! I love Sedili! Thanks m-i-l!

the armchair has landed.

2006-07-17T10:23:00.000+08:00

Was talking to MB earlier and we decided that we need a vacation. Yup, a holiday to just chill and bask in the sun let others worry about cleaning up your room. Enough armchair travelling via the internet and travel channel. Any sponsors out there? Hehe, totally shameless I know, but worth a shot eh?

Anyways, to satisfy the inner armchair wanderlust in all of us, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4

Came across it on YouTube some time back. I'm so jealous of the guy in the vid, he's been everywhere! Good stuff for the week though, if you're craving some escapism from the fluorescent-lit hell known as the office. Enjoy!

NR
yeah of the day: meeting my ol' pal Syikin tomorrow!!! Let the b***hfest begin!

Yo sistas!!

2006-07-13T14:00:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm referring to you two people who sandwich me into the middle, aka my lah-linggg sisters.

Piko, go get your Flickr badge via this link
http://www.flickr.com/badge_new.gne

Ika, the link to my fave blog at the moment is listed under my links, and lest you think it has something to do with porn, well, it doesn't (I'm no sicko!). As a person who works in the food/customer service industry, I strongly suggest you check it out whenever you feel stressed out 'cos then you know someone out there knows the shit you're going through. Dealing with rude imbeciles can be exasperating. Take time out to read this one from the archives; strikes a chord, no? Have fun reading!!

So there you have it! Aren't I the nicest sis in the world? Bwahahahaha!!

NR
mood of the day: jaw-dropping laaaaazy

The hanger in the hangar

2006-07-07T13:53:00.000+08:00

Gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘hangar’ huh? We ran out of floor space (even with my baking stuff out of the way) and he had to resort to hang his toy using a wire clothes hanger at the window. The one on the left is Sharif’s ‘cos MB offered to repair his plane. MB’s is the one on the right. There’s also the dismantled parts of his old red Slow Stick and a white glider at the side (you can’t see it in the pic).

It’s been a looong time since anything aeroplane-y was posted. To think that this blog was started to chart our adventures in flying. It’s starting to look more like a food blog, sheesh, how did that happen? ‘Cos I’m the one doing the updates, haha. MB ni tak boleh harap lah. Except for that one solitary post somewhere in May, he’s stayed clear of updating any plane stuff here. “I’m not so good at writing lah, besides, you write better.” How flattering and yet, convenient.

So here we go. Just a little update. MB initially wanted to make a balsa wood plane, but found out that balsa-wood planes are not a forgiving lot. One teeny weeny crash and you might as well make it nosedive into the nearest dustbin. He’s opted for the more hardy foam instead. He is in the midst of building his plane using a plan he got off the net. When I heard that he was building a plane, I thought that he would be building one of my fave warbirds (B17F, Bf109, P51D et al), you know, to show his lurv for his adoring wifey, but he chose to make an aerobatic plane (“It can do flips and rolls and stuff!”) instead *sniff*

The plane looks pretty good so far, he even allowed me to cut out some parts, and if that ain’t love, what is eh?

NR
yay of the day: AH64D Apache Longbows in the sky…National Day’s coming!!

The Royal Ramble

2006-07-05T15:09:00.000+08:00

What a week! I think I got an average of 3 hours sleeping time every night for the past week, and I didn't even watch that much soccer!! So glad things are pretty normal now, phew!

Did cake samples for MB's ex-company Greenhouse, since they were to be cut out into rectangular slices and my cakes are basically round, I had to re-calculate and do a few test runs before I actually made them- frosting and garnish and all- for the real thing. The royal icing carrots were made the night before in a semi-zombie state but turned out better than expected, I had wanted to make the orange peel right after the carrots and finish the lot before zzzzz-ing, but goondu me, didn't read the recipe properly. The peel had to be soaked overnight. Dammit! Panic attack! Will I have time tomorrow?! Decided to wing it anyways and caught a few winks before waking up real early to bake the Orange Cake (the other cakes were done the day before, but the Orange Cake is best baked and eaten on the same day so...), and started the frostings and garnish for the Devil's Food Cake, Carrot Cake and Walnut Cake, and start making the orange peel. Mum and MB fussed around and helped to pack them into little boxes. All packed and ready to go by 2pm, and I was too zoinked out by then to start thinking about the major order on Satuday.

Ah, Saturday's order.

What started out as an order for a pastry basket and pulut kuning soon escalated to an additional two items- a fancy jelly and a fancy fresh cream cake.

It's true they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In my case, makes the significant other stronger too.

The preparation for the stuff was lined up in a chronological to-do list in my head. With hardly any room for mistakes left, I was a wreck. Marketing had to be done twice in a span of four days 'cos some stuff just had to be super-fresh, extra time to search around in other places when your regular places suddenly run out of essentials, mental and written reminders so I won't forget the tiniest details, struggling to remember how to pipe flowers...pheeeeuyoh!! And when the pastry basket decided to collapse and take a break during the wee hours of Friday morning, I just totally shut down - the oven, the kitchen lights, my brain...and went for a 3-hour snooze. Screw the to-do list, the basket could wait and be squeezed into tomorrow's schedule.

Friday saw me doing Pastry Basket v2, the ridiculously cute jelly (can't believe I'm capable of something so pink! But I really like it!!), baking the pastries, cooking the meat filling for the pulut and baking three layers of chocolate cake. Thank God for my dad who helped with steaming the pulut, my mum for her valuable instructions ("Do this first, that one can wait!", "Check the oven! Are the pastries golden brown yet?", "More salt please, don't be stingy.") and MB for everything else (going to the supermarket for me, keeping a sense of humour, putting up with increasingly hysterical wife). The looong day ended with me and MB in the kitchen cutting wafer cones with blunt scissors and talking gibberish at almost 3am.

6+am Saturday morning: my dad just returned from the mosque after Subuh prayers to find me whipping cream; got himself a jolt and must have wondered if I was sleepwalking or really awake. Things just went fast forward from there: frost the cake, put in the fridge to stabilise, get jelly out of mold and decorate, take cake out of fridge, put jelly in fridge, pipe flowers, arrange on cake, put back in fridge, take out of fridge, pipe the sides, goes back in the fridge, make the pulut kuning, arrange pastries, decorate pulut kuning, pack some pulut and meat and prawns for Kak Siti, get the boxes ready... in one word, madness.

Kak Siti arrived just as I completed cleaning up, talk about timing man! The stuff were briskly packed (I messed the cream a little as I was packing the cake, clumsy me) and whisked away to the solemnisation.

Had a bit of a break, then got started with my friend Haida's cupcakes. She was leaving for UM to get a Malay degree and was having a gathering at her house that afternoon. Made 9 big cupcakes, frosted them, cleaned up, showered, dressed and was out of the house, still bleary-eyed and running on adrenaline.

Slept like an unglamorous log that night, woke up early on Sunday, went to work (first day doing story-telling at a book shop in Marine Terrace), came home and crashed again. Woke up late in the afternoon and started doing Piko's cupcakes. My sis ordered 20 for her colleague's birthday so my mum's Kenwood Major got a good crank-up again for the nth time that week.

I knew I couldn't stay up to watch F1 later that night. And I didn't. Not for lack of trying though. Woke up at 3.30am and wondered why there were so few cars on the track, very confusing for a sleep-deprived brain like mine. Found out both Merc cars crashed within the first few minutes, along with quite an assortment of other cars. Oh well, back to zzzzz.

At least some good came out of the whole madness. I got two orders from MB's colleagues, Haida was speechless when she saw the cupcakes (and I tell you, that's something) and Piko's cupcakes were wolfed down pretty quickly (they found the frosting a tad sweet though, must tweak!). Kak Siti seemed pretty happy when she picked up the orders (or was it because of the pulut we tapau for her to eat later? Hmm...).

Yup, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or at least, what doesn't kill you just puts your body clock out of whack. But I say, bring it on. Any more orders, Kak Siti? Hehe...

NR
question of the day: Why do I have 4 lemons in the fruit bowl?! Hmmm...

Oreo-e-ooo!!

2006-07-01T21:32:00.000+08:00

Yay!!

My Oreo cupcake photo is featured on one of my fave sites: Cupcakes Take The Cake. Check it out!!

http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com

NR
baking reminder of the day: we're out of no-dairy whipping cream! Get more!!

Eat your way home...

2006-06-26T18:10:00.000+08:00

I feel so patriotic. Check out the jelly I made. Didn't think it'll look very 9th-of-August-ish when I made it 'cos it wasn't supposed to be so, er, red, but oh well...

Anyways, I've been a model citizen yeah? Was a civil servant for more than 3 years, serving the people, and now, domestic servant, serving my family, yeeesh...

But seriously, I'm getting the hang of domesticity, and actually (dare I say it?) I kinda enjoy it. Tinkering in the kitchen is pretty fun, and I just served loads of food to my family over the weekend, so not bad huh? For someone more comfy with a cake tin than a frying pan?

I confessed to my friend and MB earlier last week that I thought I was commiting suicide by offering to cook dinner for the lot, but they gave me some moral support, so I told myself, I gotta do this, and I gotta see if I can really do it myself. Kind of a confidence boost y'know?

My initial approach was to just wing it and see how things go, but, slowly, unconsciously, a battle plan started to form in my head. The practical part of me (very Singaporean right?) told me to follow it.

So, made Oreo cupcakes late Saturday nite for MB's cousin who was having a kenduri the next day and made croutons for Sunday's salad (oven was already hot, so kill two birds with one stone), woke up early on Sunday to frost them. Then later on, cooked lunch, then went straight to tackle dinner. Yeah, real early, I know, but thinking about the whole thing was making me very edgy, and I still had a cake to make, so, I got cracking. Besides, I had that battle plan to follow right? Glad I did, 'cos everything got completed in time. Phew.

Turned out pretty well, if I say so myself. The chicken and mushroom cream sauce were wiped out, salad was gone too, there's still a bit of the Spanish rice 'cos I cooked too much to start with :P

The cake was fun though. I got Hiqma to help me with the strawberry slices, and of course, assistant chef gets privileges. Cream cheese priveleges, to be precise. Piped leftover frosting into her mouth (she was so amnused!) and made a rosette on her palm for her to lick off. Messy, but hey, last day of June hols, let the kid be a kid, man!

The cake got thumbs-up all around, even from non-cake lovers, so yeah! Will be making this again in the future for family dinners :)

Anyway, the dinner was to celebrate my parents' anniversary (which was the last weekend btw, but my sis and nephew were sick so they couldn't make it and the celebrations got postponed) and they received a pair of Starbucks mugs from us (thanks Ika!) for their morning instant coffee fix. We got them instant hazelnut coffee too (my parents are not the coffee brewing types).

I'm glad there was hardly any leftovers to deal with. I was soooo tired and could barely keep my eyes open watching F1 later at 1am. But it was worth it; my dad (very conservative eater) commented on the strong olive oil presence in the rice, but still tucked in and seemed to get over his reservations. That, is a major achievement for me 'cos he's basically a rice-sambal-tempeh combo kinda man. The men in the house wolfed up their cake slices even though they are not cake people (except MB, thank goodness; who'd eat my cakes?!). Sure, everyone laughed at my jelly and started singing "We Are Singapore", but hey, if you can't beat them, join them! I was too sated to argue anyways.

NR
yeah of the day: I got my rack from Howard's Storage World fixed!! My baking things have a home now! And I can see my floor!!!

A japanese walks into a bar...

2006-06-21T22:19:00.000+08:00

...OK, not a bar, more like a spa at a ski resort, and it's hilarious!! The clip's taken from a crazy Jap TV show that asks viewers to send in prank suggestions, and this one's a real gem. In the ten years that I know MB, I've never heard him laugh like how he did when we watched this (and we're laughing people). I laughed till I gagged and nearly threw up. Then had to take a piss.

*Cheshire cat smile*. Nice pick-me-up for anyone with mid-week blues.

Here's the clip for all to enjoy to tide over till the weekend. Enjoy!!

http://www.breakdancingelite.com/worlds-funniest-japan-pranks.htm

See? Told ya I'd be chipper in this post :D

NR
yeah of the week: had Fish & Co on Mon, will be having Arnold's tomorrow and a feast this weekend. Woohoo!!

this still life is all I ever do...

2006-06-16T00:05:00.000+08:00

I've been staying mostly at my m-i-l's place since my f-i-l passed away earlier this year, and I must say, what I had assumed would be stressful turned out otherwise. My m-i-l is very easy-going and every morning will see her looking through cookbooks (some as old as I am!) and going," Hmm...what to cook today?". My late f-i-l used to do all the cooking, and he was really good at it too. His potato ball soup is droolsome, and Ika’s eyes still glaze over when she thinks about his soto ayam. My m-i-l is a cookbook cook and I think I’m more a baker than a cook so cooking lunch usually involves a lot of furrowed brows and many “what do you think?” conversations. Any mistakes are laughed off and we’ll still eat whatever is cooked up anyway the dish turn out. It's been a blast.

Now that my mum has returned from the hospital and she's not allowed to cook, clean or do any other heavy tasks, I've come back to Chai Chee and am staying here for now to help out around the house, one of the main jobs being to cook. It’s pretty stressful cooking for my own folks 'cos my mum's a good cook and her food is usually rich and the methods complicated (for me at least) so it's not been smooth sailing all the way. And when your efforts are laughed at and people insist on giving 'helpful' tips, well, dontcha just feel like dirt? Dontcha just wanna sock someone in the face?

Truth be told, I'm not exactly enjoying myself here; I don't mind doing the housework here 'cos I really want to help my mum out (and she's been really great), but with cooking and laundry being events over here, I'm losing steam. Really fast. And when you put those together with a really lousy day, you know you need to get away for a bit.

And there's where my sweet MB comes in. Spirited me away before I really lost it. He whisked me off for a movie date in the afternoon and we went for a walk at the Bay and had dinner in the area. Nothing too fancy-schmancy, but really nice (don't think I was up for something too elaborate anyways). He really knows how to cheer me up and cool me down, precious little boy he is.

So tomorrow's another day. It will get better. And hopefully easier. Insya-Allah.

NR
tip of the day: If you ain't happy at how others do the job, do it yourself. Oh, and shut your trap while you're at it.
note to self: well, don't I sound chipper today :P will (try to) be more cheerful in the next post.
note: title is first line of the song Still Life by Suede from their fab album Dog Man Star.