Living with Sarah

Uols semua dah sampai kampung? Tahun ni Raya di Bangi. Yippee... I nak masak rendang. I suka masak rendang. Nama rendang I - rendang suka hati. Mak mertua I selalu tanya kalau I masak rendang - rendang apa ni? Rendang tok ke, rendang negori ke? I cakap - rendang suka hati. Sebab I suka hati nak masak macam mana. Agak-agak kat belakang rumah banyak daun limau purut, I letak la daun tu. Kalau tak, I letak daun kunyit, hiris nipis-nipis and tabur towards the end. Tapi I tak letak dua-dua ok, nanti rasa dia contrast. Tak sedap. Belah husband I masak ikut "rules". Sebab tu I tak masak bila balik sana. Sebab I masak tak ikut rules. I masak sesuka hati I. Tapi I masak sedap OK. My hubby suka je, tambah nasi lagi. My father pun suka makan whatever yang I masak suka hati tu. Once I goreng sotong sesuka hati I ala-ala Jamie Oliver, dia punyala suka, the week after dia beli sotong and pesan to my mother - "mintak Anizah masakkan!". Hehehe... so, I punya suka hati ada class uol...

When I was in primary school, I've always had my hair short. My mom always, always ensured that. Then, when I was in secondary school and staying at ATPN, I had shoulder- length hair, but the "rock" style (it was the 80's ok). Yang layered tu. Since I'm not the girlish type, I never had those fancy hairclips and stuff, just plain hairband. I remember my gang and I always made fun of the girlish type girls. (We ruled the hostel...). There was one in particular. She's very pretty, with exotic name. And she's an expert when it comes to "playing" with her hair. In prep hall, we can see her sit, first, with her hair flowing. Next, you can see her hair is in braids. Then, you look up and see her hair in now in pony tail. Then those fancy hairclips start to be all over. Then, she will braid her hair back - at times the elaborate ways. And all these within just a few hours, and without any mirror. We always rolled our eyes watching her and wondering what...

Still got 2 minutes left... It's my birthday today. Quite a boring one actually. Hubby was not well he spent the day mostly sleeping. We spent our morning meeting up with the architect who'll be drawing our house extension plan. Finally, Affin Bank faxed us our redemption letter for us to refinance our apartment - after 2 months of chasing. 2 months! What kind of bank does that to its customer? Anyway, now that there's money at the end of the tunnel, we shifted our gear from P to D. Now we can plan our house renovation as there's now a budget to work around. Late afternoon, we went to Alamanda where hubby got me my birthday present. Tommy Dreaming perfume... Nice... Then, we met up with Angah and family for a birthday buka puasa at Johnny's. That's my eldest brother whom I share the same birthdate. Imagine, there are 365 days in a year, and my mom was destined to give birth to 2 children on the very same date, 12 years apart. A year older, hopefully a year wiser...

I noticed E's facebook contained depressing thoughts lately. She has this beautiful way with words - poetic and sincere. I thought to myself, I pray she's in the midst of writing a novel. Apparently, she's not. She really is going through the worst in her marriage. When we met, almost on cue of my how-are-you, she immediately poured out her souls. I felt uncomfortable at first, us not really being what I can call good friends. She's my junior from university and that day was actually our second meeting even though we do email and sms each other, but mostly about work. She's my favourite proof-reader, I never want anyone else to proof-read our translations. We ended up talking for almost an hour. She opening up, me listening, commenting and I felt deeply for her. She's going through this rough time in her marriage and amazingly she's so calm and composed. In the end, she wondered aloud why she was telling me all her problems but said she felt relieved. I was ...

I have little patience for negative thinking people. Yang I paling irritated - "kalau tau lah jadi macam ni, tak payah buat (this or that)...". Memang lah as humans we never know what will happen. Sometimes we think it's an excellent idea, but then bila execute, it failed. That's why we need to try again and not give up. Another one I paling tak suka is negative-thinking men, especially husbands, yang tak support their wives. Just the other day I naik angin (sorang2) when Linda told me her husband mocked her when she told him she wants to learn driving, saying she will never be able to learn. I must say I'm blessed to have a husband who supports and encourages me to explore things, and I do the same for him. I always feel husbands yang tak support their wives are simply chicken. These men have inferiority complex. They want their wives to stay they way they are. I'm not saying I ni positive sangat, at times duduk tersandar juga. But staying positive in life ma...

We have been making cupcakes for sale lately. We even got orders for Hari Raya and a huge order for a wedding kenduri after Hari Raya. We are still perfecting the cupcakes - in terms of presentation. The taste is of course good. Well, that's what my daughter says... Latest one we did for my nephew Ejat whose birthday is today Hubby and my nephew Nizam brought this to their offices and were sold out within a few hours. Dark chocolate moist cuppy with butter cream and this heart-shaped chocolate on top, with a dust of cocoa powder. Another variety of the dark chocolate moist cuppy. Vanilla cuppy with lemon butter cream. The cuppy we'll be doing for the wedding kenduri after Raya.

Lately I couldn't spend much on books. Poket kering. Payment lambat. So, I resorted to rereading my books. At times I rent, but then they don't really offer my kind of books. In the end, I ended up with Danielle Steel's books which I have read in my college years. Tak apa lah, as long as I always have books under my bed. These few weeks I've reread Murakami's Norwegian Woods and South of Border, West of the Sun. Never grow tired of Murakami's books. I reread Sophie's Bakery for the Broken Hearted. Still a very heart warming story. Then I rented Danielle Steel's The Ring. After a few chapters, it seemed I have already read it years ago. I have under my bed The Magician by Raymond E Fiest. It's waiting its turn. Now I'm rereading Under the Tuscan Sun. Not that bad this time around. In fact, quite interesting. I was disappointed reading it the first time. I bought a cheap book at Sogo this afternoon while waiting for hubby. I'm sure it's tra...

I serious tak faham. Like the whole country was in uproar over this person's statement and yet, he is still so very arrogant. Just look at his face and the way he talk in TV interviews. And he kept on saying ikut budaya Melayu kalau tak salah tak payah mintak maaf. I've never witnessed such arrogance before. Dah lah ini bulan Ramadhan bulan yang tersangat mulia. Cara cakap punya kasar tak ada rasa hormat dengan bulan puasa ni ke? And most interestingly, the Chinese guy yang dia dok kutuk-kutuk handled his interviews in such calm manner. I have admired the way he handled the press ever since the March election. Watching the TV just now, I wondered - siapa yang puasa actually? Datuk Melayu tu ke Tan Sri Cina tu?