Working On Saturday (18 December 2008)

This is my second post on my blog. I came to work on Saturday... i was supposed to come in early, but my cousin out of nowhere called me said she's in town and ask me to join her sightseeing Penang. After spending some time with her which was about few hours and after that i went straight to the office. Nobody is in and looks i got myself only to talk. I have finished my work and think about my blog which the progress is terribly slow.

Ehm.. I'm going to Japan in next few days and i hope i can get lots of nice shot overthere. I'll get that posted in my next blog's entry. The photo above is my work place. Pretty messy, huh... I should take from further angle so that you can see how busy i am sometime, when i'm really busy you can see lots of rubbish around me...

Well, talking about vacation, it reminds me my vacation in US, 2 yrs back. I have one photo of it in my office computer. It was great, i hope for second trip to US. That's me with typical "peace" asian sign... hehehe. It's my good friend's car, quite kewl huh?? :)

Chow.

Ketam Nipah.

Have you ever tried Ketam Nipah??
I were once tried it in Singapore with my Thai's friend. During that time, I considered myself "darurat" and in the "was-was" state. Certain people from different areas called it Ketam Batu. It is black color and it turn to red color once you cooked it. I think ate few times at the hotel,but I just don't bother of the halal/haram status because they serve in public places and a lot of moslem ate. But when I small, I was told that there are types of crab that you cannot eat, which is the one that live not in water.
So this is funny story happened to me and hubby. One day, my husband bought ketam nipah on our way back from Pantai Remis to Penang. He wanted to call his brother to dine with us. He asked me to cook the crab, and once I look at the crab, it was still alive. Then I was in the uncertainty state of the halal/haram status. I asked my cousin about it, and from her info, Ketam Batu and Ketam Nipah are the same type of crab and they are not halal. Urgh..Back to the story, I excused myself saying that I'm not feeling well. My husband finished the cooking part. During the dinner time, hubby approach me for the dinner. I excused myself again saying that I am not feeling well and I am not hungry. Actually my stomach was rambling. I ask hubby and BIL proceed with the dinner. Then I fall asleep with empty stomach.
So after my BIL went back, which was about 12 midnight, hubby woke me up. Then I got chance to raise my concern to my husband. But my husband was frowning,"I bought that from that pakcik. If its not halal, why would that pakcik sell?". He got his point, but I answer,"Maybe that pakcik sell those crab for non-muslim only and he think u are one". I got my point too, Hehe... "Noncern! I saw on Majalah3, got Malay ppl ate also. If you dont trust me, check on the internet."



Hehehe, actually those crab are safe or "halal" for muslim. Sorry Hubby!! And after that it become one of my favorite seafood. Now, most of the balik kampung time, we will look for those ketam from the same pakcik.

Mama's home recipe

I did try to cook porridge for Luffy yesterday. I'm glad that Luffy seems to like it. Thanks for my friend's thought. The recipe is simple

Ingredients
A small amount of rice
A small pcs of chicken meat
A small cubes of carrot
A small pc og ginger
Water

Procedure
1. Put the water and rice in the pot. Boil them
2. When the above ingredients starts simmering, add chicken and carrot.
3. Brew it until all the ingredient soft and looks like real porridge.
4. Remove the ginger. Cool it down, and blend it.
5. Serve to baby, he's going to like it

Look how Luffy's reaction to this. Yum-Yum Mama.... But I think it is waterlogged :) Hehe..it looks OK at first, but after I blend it. I thnik I put too much water, maybe today I'll try again.

This is my delicious porridge

Mama,you're The BEST!! It's very Yummy!!

Luffy starts eating the solids.

Since Luffy is officially six month it is recommended to introduce solid to him. Actually I wanted to introduce him much earlier, but after doing some reading I decided to wait until Luffy reach six month old. I bought two baby meal sets, one to bring to nursery and one for home. I bought a Fisher Price highchair on 50% discount and I’m glad, Luffy seems content when I put him on the highchair.

So far, I haven’t started cooking solid food for Luffy. However I did plan to do so, just need to do some shopping for correct materials and tools. I did checked few recipes on the web, and really look yummy. Check out this website http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/. A lot of tips on how to introduce solid, recipes and tips. So for the mean time, only store food available for luffy 

The first food that Luffy had really trigged anxiety both my husband and I. We are and both anxious to see how Luffy react to his first food. As for Luffy himself, he is very excited to the new experience. One scoop is not enough. Always asking for more. I let him eat rice cereal for 4 days and see his reaction. Alhamdullilah, no food allergy.

Since then, we have given Luffy all sorts of half solid food. Luffy seems to enjoy food very much. It is always a pleasure to see Luffy facial expression as I introduced all sorts of taste to Luffy. Flavors like Rapsberry, orange and apple really gave little Luffy some level of “sourface”. Hehe.

I tried to discipline Luffy by setting his meal time around my lunch and dinner time. Customarily, I will feed him with his formula milk an hour prior to the meal time. Then his meal time is either before or after mine meal time. During my meal time, Luffy will sit on his highchair participate in the family quality time. Sometime I’ll provide his meal plate and spoon, so he can act like eating. But most of the time, he’ll knocked the plate with the spoon and cried when those fell down, maybe as a sign asking for help to get those back.

It so much fun to see and have Luffy joining us suring meal time.


Yum! Yum!

Luffy like his highchair

Luffy's first food

Happy SIX months Birth Day Luffy!!!

It's been sometime for me being stuck with my workload and housechores that left me no time to update my blog. "Feeble excuse", people might say, but it is true. However, there are lots of things happened around me since my last entry. Hopefully I able to find time to put those in words :). My little angel is already six months old. Alhamdullilah, he is healthy and develop a few skills like other normal kids. He is much more stronger and much fun to play with. I already introduced solid to him. (This will be written in the next entry). He is so active and really make use of his hand and feet. He'll touches everything near him. I think its the time for him to explore the world. So to be a good mother, I have to make sure the area within his reach should be clean and free from sharp object.

Sleep time also has been hard. He can't sleep with us anymore on the bed. There high possibility he might fell down. It happened once when Luffy sleep with me and at 5 pm, I woke up I heard he cried. I heard hubby preparing his milk. Then I just let he cried, but the cry become more intense. I woke up and check Luffy is not beside me. OMG!! He fell down, pity my little boy. He cried for help but nobody came. I checked his head and body, luckily no injury or swollen mark. After he got his milk, he went back to sleep. The next night, I monitor Luffy is so wild when sleeping at night. When he woke up at night for milk time, he already switch position. Now his head already at my feet. He really can't sleep on our bed. We did put him on his bed, but he seems doesn't get good sleep. He tend to wake-up more frequently at night. Well, its almost a time for Luffy to settle on his own room.


Luffy is so excited with the balloon.

See!!I put both his hand behind his back, so he can keep quiet. It only last for sometime :)

I hate cables!!

I am kind of busy lately with the engineering work. Juggle between work requirement and house chores made me quite weary. Urgh!! For this entry, I want to express my annoying feelings toward all the unkempt wires at home. Last weekend, me and hubby did some house cleaning job. I found that too many wires/ cables untight at home. Look at this picture taken from behind my TV Sets. Argh!!! DVD, speaker, cable TV and Television needs all this cables. Not including the desktop computer, the 3 notebooks, the network and power cables... Pening!!!!. I spent some time to untangle those cable and secure it with cable tight. Not really tidy, but better than this.

Little Luffy is getting better.

Luffy is at home with hubby. I went home to check the duos during lunch break. Luffy sleeps like a log, even with my hugging and kisses. I took his body temperature, it's 36C. Ok! Last night was 37.7C. Alhamdullilah, he is getting better.

Little Luffy is sick.

He got his 4th jab immunisation today. Obviously he's not strong enough to fight the virus this time. Hope he get well soon!

What bite little Luffy??

I feel sad on what happened with my little Luffy. Lately he has so many red spot on his face, head, ear and hand. Me and hubby were wondering, what bitten him and where he got those bites. I did clean, mopped my house, wash his clothes with detergent + dettol, and dried his mattress, comforter and pillow. But it does not solve the problem; he still got those red spots. But one thing I noticed was that, he won’t get this during weekend while he stayed at home. Therefore hubby and I suspected he got that from his day care place. However the nursery staff seems pointing that he got those rashes from home. We were puzzled. But yesterday did prove something. Hubby took Luffy from nursery and noticed, he got 3 new big red spots on his head. When hubby showed that to me, I did cried thinking that my baby was fell off something. Hubby did asked the nursery about this and defensively, they give lots of excuses, saying that Luffy’s skin is so sensitive, and other baby does not face this problem and etc. I was really DISAPPOINTED, UNHAPPY and SAD over what happened. I do not want to pinpoint anybody; I just want Luffy to be in a good care. What happened yesterday really proves that those red spot happened at nursery and they should do something on that. I’ll give that nursery monitoring period, if this thing continue going on, I think I’ll take next step to terminate their service. At the same time, I am in the process of looking for baby sitter.

When guys groom his baby.

Do you notice what is wrong in this photo. Maybe you do and maybe don't. I didn't notice at first, from the moment i hold him at the house and in the car. I started noticed it when i were at Johnnys having my lunch meals. Pity little Luffy, pakai baju terbalik. No wonder he cried when hubby put on his clothes. After eating, we headed to changing room to rectify this. B-)

Family Issue

I read on the news, lately there are too many cases of marriage issue eg. betrayal, affairs, separation and divorce. Not only on the news, had this issue also happened to many people around me, friends and relatives. I remember during my wedding solemnization, both husband of wife agreed to “sehidup semati”, and I believe other married people made that agreement as well. What happened???

Few reasons that I always heard contribute to this, but I think the correct answer is due to commitment. People leaving their marriage or starts involve in an affair because either fade-up with commitment or want to run away from commitment. Why husband starts to seek other women?? Because fade-up on commitment being a loyal husband and loving father. Commitments to provide money for family’s endless need. Same goes to women, house-chores and kids seems as heavy burden. They do not want to be tangled in those commitment’s spider webs and prefer to run away from all those commitments.

Don’t misunderstand me or think that I looked down or feel hostile of those people which are having family issues. This might happened to anybody including me. We are typical human being which sometimes weak and looked for better option in life. “Life is about making an improvement!!”.

Luffy's Progress

Luffy is 4 month 4 weeks. Next week hubby and I will go for his 5 months check up and looks like he is going to get his jab this time. For this month, here are Luffy’s achievements and progress so far..

1)He can roll-over from both sides; left and right and sometime he can make few roll-over. Now I cannot put him on the bed unattended. Putting him on his comfortable also is a bad idea; his comforter is small, and thick. When he rolled over sometime he knocked his head on the floor. So I have to use my own comforter. Even with my own comforter, sometime he can go beyond it, so I have to check him regularly.

He need bigger space to play now

2)He starts teething already. He likes to chew his toy, even his bottle teat; after he’s satisfied he will chew the teat. I got him a few theeter, but he seems to chew all his toys including the hard one.

The rattle teether sure looks tasty

3)He likes to speak with only his understood language. Sometimes the pitch is soft, normal and loud. After he came back from day care center, I let him played on his own. While I busy cooking, I can hear his loud pitch from the kitchen, making my house so lively.

4)He giggle and laugh on when we raspberry him especially on his tummy and underarm. He favors few words like ‘gaga’, ‘cak’ , Aboo, hubby noticed this because when he utter those words, Luffy smiles and laughed.

5)He is a good listener. He lay quietly on my lap when I read him story or sing nursery song to him.

6)He can’t sit or behave properly during bath time. He will turn here and there when I apply bath lotion and shampoo or when put in his bath tub.

7)He cannot sit on the bouncer unattended. He’s too hyperactive and I’m afraid he might fell off the bouncer.

8)He drinks a lot lately. But hubby and I still decide to introduce solid to him at 6 months. So we have to endure waking up at night few times to feed him. Last month check-up his weight was 6.8 kg and the graph shows he is on the good track.

p/s These are the progress that I can remember at this time, I will add more if I can recalled :D

“What would you do if you can rewind your life path 10 years back?”

“What would you do if you can rewind your life path 10 years back?” This is the frequent question that we always hear or ask ourselves. Normally, we would think on the mistake that we have done in the past, things that we should have done, question of what I would become now if I were to do this last time and so many presumption and prediction.

As for me, the biggest mistake of the Past was I got carried away after being cheated with my ex-boyfriend, the things I should have done is to concentrate more on my study and at the same time enjoy my life as it no boundaries. I think being shied, afraid to take the risk and inferior of others are my traits which pulled me down from achieving my dream. I should've become ****** if I were to get rid of all those traits.

Actually we shouldn’t think that way. What ever in the past is History, what is more important is current and Future. If Current is good, InsyaAllah, future will be good. Let the PAST be a STORY to us and let us create a good STORY from now on.

Well, I happened to ask my hubby during lunch break about this question. According to him, there is nothing wrong about his past. The Past made him as what he is right now, and he believes everything happened for a reason. And when I brought up the issue on my ex-bf, suddenly he said, “Yeah… I think I regret of wasting my time with her!” . But…but..but.. “Dah takde jodoh!”. Hehehe, I do agree with him.. Everything happened for a reason, and Allah knows what the BEST for us.

Family visit in Penang

We had a long weekend last week for Deepavali holiday. Hubby was away from his hometown for almost 7 months and I think he is kind of homesick. So he decided to go back Melaka during this long weekend. Since Luffy is still small, we think it is not good for him to go for a long journey trip, so we postponed the family trip to Melaka. Initially I planned to drive back to my hometown with little Luffy, but my mum doesn’t like that idea. She thinks sitting too long with car seat will get Luffy fatigue. Instead she offered to travel to Penang. For this trip, my sister and her friend, Ikin accompanied my mum. My brother family joined the crew later.

This is Ikin’s first time in Penang, so I planned to take her to a few places in Penang. Actually me myself is also excited nak jalan2. Hehe.. So I took them to Bukit Bendera. This time the crowd was less and we don’t have to wait long waiting for the tram. Why? Oh why? Actually the trip is only until the mid-way, not to the top. Apparently there is some reconstruction happened at the top, so for now they are closing. Luffy behaves so well during the trip, he falled asleep in the tram and all the way up. When we reached down, he poo-poo. Below are some of the pictures taken.

Etet and Luffy; waiting for the tram

Inside the tram, pack like sardine

View of Penang island, from mid way to Bukit Bendera


We went to Batu Feringghi as well, too bad no photos were taken. I managed to get few CD from the bazaar market. The next day we went to Botanical Garden, to show my niece and nephew monkeys. Rush2, pictures tell the stories..

Hannis followed her father and brother, nice scenery right??

Waterfall, can come for picnic, just watch out for the nasty beast, Hehehe


This is the nasty Beast, there are too many of them.

Is Luffy ready for solid?

I was in the confuse state for this. Lately, Luffy seems so eager and clumsy. From my observation he kind of hungry. I bought him baby food eg. rice cereal, organic wheat cereal and puree. But I was hesitate to feed him on solid, after getting some information on few website. Therefore I should wait until Luffy reach 6 months then I'll introduce solid to him.By the way, Luffy is 4 months and 3 weeks old. On the meantime, me and hubby have to bear waking up 2-3 times at night to feed him with formula milk. Too bad, he is still rejecting my breastmilk... :(.

Here is the 6 reasons why I should wait to start solid on Luffy. I got this info from paedtrician website.

1. Baby's intestines need to mature. --> I thnik this is the most thing that I fear of. I'm afraid his digestion organ is still not robust to take solid. What about if he get constipated???

2. Young babies have a tongue-thrust reflex. --> Not sure on this, but sometime I can see his tongue push the teat out.

3. Baby's swallowing mechanism is immature. Afraid Luffy will get choke if he cannot swallow properly.

4. Baby needs to be able to sit up. Luffy still unable to sit on his own, how to sit on the highchair.

5. Young infants are not equipped to chew.

6. Older babies like to imitate caregivers.

New shoes

I went to Jusco yesterday to buy luffy's organic food. Otw back to parking, i passed the ladies dept. I found a shoes comes to my liking. Without much thinking, i grabbed and pay. I was rushing... Duh! Today i come to work with the new heel, so good to be back on heel after almost a year with flat sandals. I'm glad i like it, quite comfortable and funky. Hehe..

Dragon Fruit.

I bought it during lunch break. First time tried it, taste funny!

Luffy doesn’t like his car seat.

Pity my little boy; he seems so annoyed to be seated on his car seat. Every time I put him on his car seat, he seems irritated and looked away. He will avoid looking at me even though I called his name loudly. Initially I thought, he was distracted with something else, that is why he looked away, but after every time he did the same thing, I knew, he was sulking, and maybe protest.. Hehehe… my little angle know how to protest. Once I got him out from his car seat, he’ll starts to smile again.



Nie pun dah teruk paksa dia pandang saya, MASAM betul!!

This week, my hubby is on training at Batu Feringghi. So, Luffy has to go nursery with me this week, slightly earlier than his norm day.

Luffy at Week 21.

Shahir, my cousin was admitted to Hospital due to eyes infection. According to doctor is due to improper cleaning or usage of contact lens. Eyes are very sensitive organ and we need to take good care of it since we need to use it for lifetime. So last weekend, I was quite busy with hospital activity.

The milestone for Luffy at 41/2 month now was that he can bring up his feet and but to get out from the stroller. We were at Giant eating KFC, me and hubby was busy enjoying our 3.30pm lunch. I put Luffy in the stoller and he played with his napkin. Suddenly I noticed Luffy brought up his feet and butt to get out from the stroller. OMG!! my baby is already big and strong. I quickly tight the stroller belt to secure him getting out from the stroller. I manage to take this photo.

Ulu Licin, Beruas.

Wah, sekarang nie dah rajin aku menulis blog kan…
On the last Sunday during the Raya break, my family went for a picnic at Ulu Licin Beruas. My mum declined to go and choose to stay at home to look for little Luffy. She obviously was being idle of such trip before so, I don’t recommend her to go either. We went with two cars; hubby’s and my brother’s. My cousins and family also joined the crew.

It feels so nice to dip myself in the cool fresh stream. Ulu Licin is about 30 minutes drive from my mum’s house, less crowded and it is really convenient to get there. I’m glad that my hubby likes this place as well. He loves the idea of traveling, and there are many places to visit at my mum’s place circumference. And the Best is that the cost is very less.

We went there after having lunch, for our convenient also, to get rid of lots of packing. We brought some kuih raya and tidbits for our munchies during picnic. I was so having fun, dipped myself in the cold water, ate a lot of nuts and forgot to drink any drop of water. The result of it, after came back from raya break, I was having serious sore throat and intense cough. I really got lesson from this, in the future for any outdoors trip, I should drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

Here are some photos taken.

Everybody looking for a perfect spot

Really nice right??

My brother and his son, Haziq.

Piglet???

Wah, sekarang nie dah rajin aku menulis blog kan…
This is about the picture book that I bought last night for my little angel, Luffy. I went to Borders, Queensbay Mall. I have a few colourful flashcards, so this time I want to get Luffy some picture book. Gosh, children book are so damn expensive, why? Why? Why? Most of the picture book costs more than RM20 even though contains only few pages. I’ve come into several selections of interesting picture books, but I just can see the cover. Borders have all the books wrapped, I guess to prevent kids from mucking up the book. Hubby and I decided to pick one book with animal and their skin. Hubby thought it can teach Luffy on his touch and sense skill. Maybe Luffy was not comfortable, so he starts being fussy drive me out from Borders in rush. I just passed the book to Hubby for payment at cashier.

When I reached home, I was so excited to show the book to Luffy. I opened up the wrapper and checked on the content. A chick and its fur, next page is cute kitten and its fur, followed by cow, horse and OMG! Piglet…. Why oh why I didn’t think about it?? Should HALAL mark put on book as well? When I checked the book meticulously actually it does written on what are the animals they have, at the back of the book and with the small wordings. So I guess, this is really my own mistake…. “Buat sesuatu dengan cepat dan tak concentrate memang tak bagus!!”

Appreciation..

As I was enjoying my M’cD chicken porridge on my lunch break, I saw the rows of cars parking in front of the break area. There are two of my favorite cars; 1 BMW 5 series and 1 BMW 3 series parking among those cars. Suddenly I have the thought, will I have the chance to own this car one day? Lots of positive thinking that came across my mind; eg.. I should work harder, I should do business, maybe its luck..etc. just to make me feels good. As I sighed I looked at other cars, and suddenly thinks how unappreciated I was. I am sure majority of the other car owners have the intention of driving the luxurious BMW, but do we need it?? Do I really need it? It’s only a mean of transportation. I can have it if I really can afford it but to in case I don’t get chance to drive own that car, I don’t lost anything.

I looked around and I see motorcycles passing by and people walking on the road. Now I feel how lucky I am to have my own car and independent of going to any places. Realized on how ungrateful I was and I started to beristighfar (state of asking forgiveness from God). Every human life and fate is unique and diverse. I think world would be too dull and unbalance if all people are rich, good and happy. That is why God create his servant’s fate unique and diverse. My opinion, it’s good that I have a dream, but I don’t have to be SAD and fell failure if I don’t catch my dream. I should fell THANKFUL for what I have, not GRUDGE on one that I don’t have…

Raya Story.

This time my conteng2 is about Eidulfitr holiday which has passed about a week ago. Since I started working, Eid or commonly call Hari Raya is the time I’ll take the longest holiday on yearly basis. Same goes this time where my holiday would be 11 days in a row..yahoo

I went back to my hometown on Saturday, and it is 4 days before the festival. Looks like this year, my family are going to have moderate celebration. My mum just got a new couch set for the new living room downstairs. The following 3 days passed so fast. I did some chores to help my mum like shopping, cleaning the house and cooking for berbuka. Most of my family member loves the idea of “me cooking” because normally I like to try new recipe and it taste BOMBASTIC… Hehehe… (masuk bakul angkat sendiri lah nie)…So during this holiday, I did cooked spaghetti, Mee Hailam, Bergedil Ayam, Sotong Goreng Tepung and Ayam Goreng taste like KFC. There is one specialty of my mum’s cooking. She very good in cooking curry, and I do not know how she’s done that. I did peek when she cook, and try to follow the same step but in the end my curry is still no so UMPH like hers. Oh, another specialty is her coffee…( pergi coffee bean atau starbuck pun tak boleh cari :) )

The last day before Eidulfitr was very hectic. Everyone was busy with their own task. I missed my baby so much because I got very limited time to play with him. My sister took care of him, maybe it’s an excuse to skip work, I guess, urm…. But i'm allright with that since I love doing this chores, because its boost up the spirit of festival in me. In the morning I was busy with my chocolate cake. It’s been almost two years I don’t bake anything. How time flies so fast? I remember before I got married, I love baking cake, cupcakes, pies and biscuits. It’s one of my hobbies. The chocolate cake was OK, but it is a bit hard because I forgot the setting of the oven. I followed the temperature indicates on the recipe, and I forgot not all oven are the same. Mine one is the small type, so the temperature circulation is very limited causing the oven very hot even with temperature like 70’C.

After finished with my chocolate cake, my cousin took charge of the oven. She baked fives types of biscuit non-stop. My gosh! She’s really good and so enthusiastic with the cooking. I think she really should quite job and open up a bakery shop. My mum is busy with her lemang. This year, she co-work with neighbor to do lemang and the kitchen was very messy to prepare for lemang’s ingredients. I wished I did take a photo shot for that but I missed it. Wait for next raya, insyaAllah. My next task is to do Rendang Tok…yeehaa, quite excited actually because rendang is an essential food to eat together with lemang and ketupat. Imagine all the guest will be tasting my rendang and say, “Sedap rendang Mak Jang thn nie..” FYI, my mum is widely called as Mak Jang. Plus provided if my rendang is really taste good and I really hope, wish and pray (u named it!!) for and exquisite rendang.

I started my work with mincing 3kg beef. It’s really a tedious job; if you don’t believe try it. However I managed to finish it about 1 to 2 hrs enough to make my back and hand sore. After that I prepared the other ingredient eg. Kerisik, santan, onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and rempah ratus. Kudos to my mum for helping me prepares the kerisik and santan. These are another time consuming task items to make. I really looked like chef on that time, not the chef you’d seen in hotel, but the chef you’d see at kenduri kendara like makcik2 type. But the one not good thing is that its fasting and I can’t taste my rendang before the berbuka. Luckily there is someone who is tak puasa. She is not purposely not fasting, but due to her condition which forbid her to fast. Thanks to Etet, my sister  I asked my mum whether she already put the salt into the rendang, she says not yet. So, it’s time for me to pour some salt before Etet tasting session. Etet suggest of one spatula of salt, since the rendang is quite lot, just imagine 3kg mince beef inside my rendang. Thank God, I didn’t follow her advice instead I put only one teaspoon of salt. She tasted it, “MASIN!!”….I was like huh??? Puzzled and suddenly I remember my mum did mention the coconut milk she used was already mixed with salt. Both of us were forgotten about that, and there it goes all my effort. I felt quite frustrated that time but Etet knows how to fix it. According to her the rendang is not that salty, it tasted fine if you eat together with lemang, ketupat or nasi. Just that if eat on its own, you can taste it’s quite salty. During “berbuka puasa”, she was right. My mum and I felt relieved.

Later that night, my Pak Lang family from KL arrived. He is my mum’s third brother. His daughter family came together so my mum’s house was quite a crowd that night. They looked so excited to see Luffy and I’m glad Luffy sleeps and behaved well that night which made people likes him. They also bring a few dishes for the Eid, at least people can try other dishes, not my rendang alone.


The Eidfitr falled the next day, which is on Wednesday. Early morning I ask forgiven from my husband for all the wrong doing I’ve done (sungguh sayu dan hiba). After getting some mild breakfast, we went to mosque for Eidulfitr prayer. Going to mosque with full stomach is a bad idea, I think. After finished with the prayer and listen to khutbah raya we went to visit my grandmother and grandfather cemetery.

Come back from that, comes my favorite part, which is visiting relatives and neighbors. This is also part where I need to provide ang pow or duit raya. For this year, I was late to do the money change ( break the money into other notes of smaller value) and a few days before I took leave I went to few banks and they don’t have the change anymore. Luckily there is one acquaintance at my kampong worked in the bank at Pantai Remis, managed to help me. This year I spent about RM600 for duit raya. Luffy also got duit raya, but cannot cover back mama’s money lah… :). I went to Uda’s, Andak’s, Tok Uda’s, Ulong Kama’s, Mak Long’s Setiawan , Ngah’s Batu Gajah and Pak Teh’s house. We were so exhausted and terribly full with the feast offered. Not forgotten, I feel happy to see my relatives and exchange stories. This is the time for family gathering and to update the particulars. Sometimes I just love to join aunties’ conversation, so many stories :). Not forgotten to refrain and to reminds myself not being such makcik ok!


Di rumah Mak Long Sitiawan



Geng Raya OTW rumah Tok Uda.


Soto di buat oleh fabulous Syuhada

Hey, its me again..

Assalamulaikum....

Actually this is not consider as my new entry, as I've started blogging almost 2 yrs with infrequent update though. However that blog was not user-friendly enough that I've decided to create a new one. I hope I'll make more attempt to decorate my blog colourful and cheerful.

Let me motivate myself on the first entry of conteng2ceritaku. I came into this interesting quote

"Work while you work
Play while your play
One thing each time
That is the way
All that you do
Do with you might
Things done by halves
I am not done right"

I totally agree with this, if we want to accomplish a goal, we must do it wholeheartedly. Relates back to the quote, this was happened at one of the famous hypermarket in Malaysia. Me and my friend are paying for our stuff and the cashier was busying keying our stuff price and talking with one of the guard standing nearby. They look very fond with each other until me and my friend started to get agitated. In the car my friend told me she got free lingerie, the cashier forgot to scan it. Hahahaha.... Lucky for you!! Lesson of this, do you job with focus, dont get easily distracted!!

Langkawi trip 7-9 aug 2008

Hello again... urgh!! i really need to be motivated to update my blog regularly.. It's been sometime since my last entry, and i almost forgot my password. Luckily after a few trial and error i managed to get access. Without further bla..bla..bla, let me update my blog with my recent trip to Langkawi. As a token of gratitude to my mum and my sister, Etet for taking care of me and my baby during the confinement, i decided to take them for a vacation to Langkawi. I've been to Langkawi 3 times in the past, but one good thing this time is that I'm going there with flight. I managed to get cheap ticket with fireflies, RM120 round ticket Penang-Langkawi.



Early in the morning, we all were rushing to get ready. My mum was all ready by last night, so she helped me to prepared luffy stuff. Around 8.00 am, we started the journey to airport. Luckily the road is no jammed, eventhough is was slightly slow. Yerlah, hari kerja, plus it's the time people go to office. We parked the car at the airport car park. The charge is RM20 for 1 day, which is almost the same if we were to call cab.

We boarded the flight at 9.35 am and reached Langkawi 10.00 am. Short distance flight should be good for my mum since this is her first time travelled by air. We stayed at Berjaya Hotel which is not that far from Airport. The resort is a walking distance to Langkawi cable car. The first destination was Crocodile Farm. Oh, to mention here, I had list down the places that I want to go this time and as usual, my husband will buy a map. Its really handy before the trip you plan on where to go and you have map with you so you can have efficient trip without wasting time on the road. EHm.. About the crocodile Farm, the entrance ticket is RM10/ adult. There was a few cages where they kept and segregate the reptiles based on their species and size. There is a big pond and long wooden bridge across the pond, so that visitor can observe the crocodile from top. Its a bit scary for me, because the are lots of nasty big giant in the ponds looking at they prey on top.





The next trip was Langkawi cable car. On top of the Bukit Mat Cincang, our view was quite limited due to intense fog. But it was so chilly and windy which reminds me of wether during autumn. My presumption that my mum would be scared and dizzy was totally wrong. She was all well, instead me and my sisted were giddy. We spent almost 2 hours there before move to next place which is Makam Mahsuri. We had our lunch at food stall situated next to Mahsuri's Sanctuary. The entrance ticket is RM5. When we entered ,there was a museum which enlighten the brief story of Mahsuri and her descendant. There is Mahsuri's tomb, Mahsuri's well, Mahsuri parent's house and the neighbourbood surrounding.

Warung Roti Tampal, Batu Berendam, Melaka (13 Feb 2008)

Aku rasa sikap kemalasan aku telah datang kembali menyerang ku dan aku mula payah untuk mengarangkan ide-ide bernas ku di dalam blog ku ini. Walau macamana pun akan ku pastikan “Persistant Effort” aku berikan..yee haa...


Ok, aku ingin bercerita tentang satu tempat makan yang aku dan kawan-kawan universiti selalu kunjungi sewaktu masa belajar dulu. Tempat ini di perkenalkan oleh salah satu kawan baik aku..tak lain tak bukan En. Rizal Effendi @Belon (Round Applause to him). Kami panggil tempat ini Roti Tampal, sebab makanan yang paling terkenal di sini ialah roti Tampal. Selain daripada itu ada juga terdapat roti-roti yang sewaktu dengannya seperti roti canai, roti bawang dan etc. Ehm… tak di lupakan jugak nasi lemak yang menjadi lumrah di jual di warung kedai2 Melayu. Kedai ini terletak di Batu Berendam, lebih kurang 15-20 minit perjalanan kereta dari kampus MMU.
Sudah hampir 3 tahun aku tak kunjunginya, tapi keadaan kedai itu sama saja. Masih macam masa zaman aku di Universiti, rumah pondok kecil sahaja dan ada wajah pekerja yang masih sama juga. Pakcik pemiliknya pun masih ada sibuk dengan order dan rotinya. Masa aku tiba, tak terlalu ramai pelanggan, tetapi sebentar kemudian, sudah penuh dan ramai orang menunggu di luar untuk mendapatkan tempat duduk. Berbagai-bagai bangsa dan golongan orang yang suka makan di situ. Mungkin pada masa itu hari cuti, kalau tidak aku pasti golongan manager dan businessman pun akan menunggu giliran mendapatkan tempat duduk.



Setelah 3 tahun, aku dapati rasa roti tampalnya tetap “BEST”, yum..yum... macam nak suruh pakcik tu buka franchais dekat Penang dan tempat-tempat yang lain. Memang sedap!!! Dan harga still murah, RM1.20 untuk satu roti tampal..So kalau berkesampatan ke Melaka, jangan lupa singgah ke Warung Roti Tampal, Batu Berendam, Melaka. Tak dilupakan juga aku berkesempatan berjumpa Atoi dan isterinya yang makan sama meja dengan kami...nampak nya dia pun mengimbas semula kenangan manis di Warung Roti Tampal juga.

Weekends at Safari Night, Taiping and Ulu Licin, Bruas (29 January 2008)

Last weekend was a blissful holiday. Hubby and I went back to my hometown to join the family reunion hehehe… actually it was not really a reunion. My brother’s and cousin’s family came back and it was like a small family get together thing. The last time we all gathered were during last Hari Raya. My mum’s house was filled with joyfulness of kids’ voices. Haziq, Hanis, Syida, Syira and plus 6 kids which are the neighbors and happened to be my cousin’s kid made a really happening and joyous environment. FYI, my mum’s house is next to her brother’s with 7 kids and 5 grandkids. Really big family right?!!

On Saturday we planned to go to Zoo Taiping. Ehm… my mum was soo difficult, always with her excuses, “kome pegi le, biar mak jage ruma, banyak kerja kat ruma nie, nanti kome balik senang nak makan” a feeble excuse which I commonly heard from her. However my brother threatened, “mak tak nak pergi, aku nak baliklah…Lia jom kemas barang” which left my mum with no choice but to go. Hubby and I were pretty determined to take some kids to go with us with or without the other grownup. Finally all of us were going, but the bad news was that we reached Zoo not at the proper time. We arrived at 5.30 pm whilst the Zoo closed at 6.00 pm and plus it started drizzling, urgh!!. Then the idea came out to go for Night Safari, yeehaaa…. I’ve never been to Night Safari before and from the reviews that I got, it was all good. We hanged out at Tesco Taiping until 8.00 pm, and then we headed for Night Safari.





The visiting hours starts from 8.00pm until 11.00pm except on Saturday and eve of public holiday which they closed at 12.00am. The entrance ticket is RM10 for adult and RM6 for kid (3 to 12 yrs old). Not forgotten, the train charges is not included and you have to pay additional RM3 for adult and RM1.50 for kid if you want to board the train. I think this is scam… who would want to wander in zoo at night?? Sure people would go with train. At first I thought RM10 is inclusive with the train charge, but No No. For me comparing day and night time visit in zoo, I prefer the day time. I can see animal clearly and enjoy the green scenery as well. Where else at night I can’t see clearly what’s the H@#L those animals are doing!! Sure they put light for us to spot the animal, but I still don’t enjoy it. The vision is too limited. True some animals are nocturnal at night, but I think most of it because it was their feeding time. Scam huh!! Hehehehe... Well, bottom line the kids enjoyed themselves so much during this trip. I'm sure they had a terrific time at Tesco’s Kids Playland and Night Safari.





The urge for having more fun made us decided to go for a picnic on Sunday. Initially my brother opts for Teluk Senangin beach but it was blistering hot and glaring sun out there. So my husband suggested for cold, stream waterfall at Ulu Licin Bruas. Both places are like 30 minutes drive from the house. Sound so refreshing to me and most of the family members. And this time my mum supported with zero rejection at all. Surprisingly she wanted to dip herself in which I doubted this. We reached around 2.00pm and after indulge in the appetitive lunch; we soaked ourselves to the cold, freezing and refreshing stream. Due to the water condition, I soaked only half of myself…it was D@#M cold!! My mum (as I predicted), did not take part in self-soaking activity but she became guardian of our belongings. She managed to befriend one of the makcik which was doing similar part time job like her (stuff keeper, hehehe). In short it was really a pleasurable evening, and I knew the kids were having such a wonderful time. My brother was having a hard time to get Haziq out from the water. Haziq cried out loud and scuffled to get away from my brother. We spend about three hours there and we started to pack when we see the sky getting cloudy and dark. We predicted high chances of downpour!! (It was correct; on the way back to Penang about 2 hours later, it was heavy rain all the way from Pantai Remis to Penang.)

Trip to Himeiji, Kyoto (25th - 26th Nov 2006, Sat-Sun)

Pada hari sabtu tu aku rasa penat sangat. Ini mungkin disebabkan banyak sangat berjalan dan main di Universal Studio. Aku bangun lambat hari sabtu tu. Hari nie tunang nak bawa aku berjalan ke Himeiji Castle, terletak di selatan Kobe. Jadi hari nie kami akan pergi ke arah yang bertentangan daripada biasa. Selepas makan tengahari kami bertolak. Tapi nasib tak menyebelahi, kami ambil bas yg salah dan kami telah tersesat. Jadi lebih kurang 2 jam dihabiskan di kawasan perkampungan Jepun. Sebenarnya Himeiji Castle tu dekat saja dengan stesen LRT, jalan pun boleh sampai. Agaknya tunang aku tak nak kasi aku berjalan sebab dia kesiankan aku, tapi mungkin hajat tak sampai. Kami sampai jugak ke Himeiji Castle pukul 4.30 ptg, tapi memang takde rezeki sebab dia buka sampai pukul 5 saja. Masa tu musim luruh, jadi pukul 5 dah nampak macam malam. Kami cuma dapat lawat kawasan taman di luar jer. Tapi aku tak terkilan sangat sebab menurut tunang aku istana tu macam Muzium... (bukan minat aku sangat)..




2) Keesokan harinya aku pergi ke bandar Kyoto yang sebelum ini merupakan ibu kota jepun. Dekat Kyoto pun ramai orang, lebih kurang macam Osaka jugak.. orang berpusu-pusu dan ramai. Tapi yang bestnya dekat Kyoto banyak rumah-rumah jenis lama yang dulu banyak dipertontonkan dalam cerita Oshien dan Rinhanikuma. Aku pergi ke Kinkakuji ("Golden Temple") tapi aku tak berminat sangat dengan bangunan tu. Yang menarik nya keadaan dan suasana di situ, sungguh tenang dan daun-daun mapel nyer berwarna kemerahan. Menurut tunang aku, kalau musim sejuk ada sakura berbunga dan salji turun. Kalau aku nak tengok semua tu aku kena tunggu lebih kurang lagi sebulan.
Selepas tu kami pergi berjalan-jalan di sekitar bandar Kyoto dan beli cenderahati untuk keluarga dan kawan di Malaysia.