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Showing posts from October, 2010

3 Things on My Nightstand

Now that the wedding is over, back to work and life. I have loads of translation files bottlenecked at me - I don't release any until I reviewed. So, sambil-sambil working on the files, here goes... 3 Things on My Nightstand: 1. Books: I now have 2 books I'm currently re-reading - The Lost Symbols and Sophie's World. Tengok mood which one I pick up for my night reading before I go to sleep. There are other books on the shelves under it - let's see... useful books after solat. There are also magazines - there's an Australian Women's Weekly (dulu tak pernah miss beli every month even though expensive but now ever since they changed editor, macam dah tak berapa best) and 2 fitness magazines yang I baca bila agak-agak ada semangat nak keep fit (ye lah tu, collecting dust!). 2. A radio: redeemed from Bonuslink. Right now permanently fixed at Red FM. I only switch it on when I'm in bed, that means usually 1.30am onwards. From 1am-6am, Red FM plays Malay & Indo

Corat-Coret Wedding Ceremony

1. At the Gombak ceremony, after most of our delegation from Bangi went back, Nizam & Zura berduet nyanyi karaoke lagu Seiring dan Sejalan. Tak tau pun yang anak sedara I ni boleh menyanyi rupanya! Suara macam Broery & Sharifah Aini la pulak... 2. The night we assembled the bunga manggar, baru perasan yang we actually bought different kinds for purple and silver. And to make things worst, tak cukup. In Miqdam's words: macam ayam togel je! Good thing my Abang Ben managed to buy 2 more packets that Sunday morning. So, tak lah togel sangat... 3. We got 100 eggs ready for the bunga pahar. When we tried putting the eggs, the net of the bunga pahar was too small. No eggs can be tied to the bunga pahar. So, we went to Giant nearby to get those little packets for the eggs but couldn't find any. In the end, we bought wires and glue to try tying the eggs. Then, we found that only the purple bunga pahar have that problem. The ones in white and silver are OK. So, in the end, we onl

Nizam's Wedding Part 5 - Sunday

The D-day. Finally, the day is here. We reached the dewan at 10.30am and the whole place was already set up nicely. Even the gift table was nicely decorated - thanks to Miqdam & Hubby. The only thing we needed to do was wait for guests to arrive. Well, not before we the family eat first! Delicious nasi beryani. Aliyah & Nurul practise bagi gifts to guests... My ex-colleague Azura came at around 11am to set up this beautiful (and delicious) cake. Pengantin lama dengan anak... Everybody on our side (err.. the ones yang my Kak Long assigned work wear this silver butterfly) The bride & groom... The family... It was tiring but it was fun. The whole place that was so empty and "peaceful" at 12pm became suddenly full of guests by 12.15pm right to 4pm occupying almost all the 30 tables. I think about 1000+ people came. There are relatives and people I've not met for ages and it was so good to meet up. My Melaka clan came too. Such joyous occasion. My only hope for the

Nizam's Wedding Part 4 - Saturday

The reception day at Gombak. With a convoi of 5 cars, we headed to my Abang Din's sister's house, whose house is just about 15 minutes from the reception hall. Nizam bersiap kat situ. Let's see - Hubby and Lia the main persons siapkan his baju, Izzat jadi pengapit, while yours truly (yang make-up pun jarang-jarang ni) telah menjadi Mak Andam terjun sungai. Mula-mula memang macam tepung gomak, maklumlah, foundation I untuk kulit I lah kan, tapi pakaikan pada muka orang lain of course lah tak sesuai gitu. But it turned up quite OK because setelah disental foundation tersebut sehingga it sets in, by the time the bersanding started, Nizam's skin nampak very smooth. Err.. from a far lah. And in the photos too. Dekat-dekat nampak la jerawat batu pun jadi putih. The reception on the bride's side was very well organised, we believe contributed by the excellent MC they engaged. Hubby & Lia menyiapkan pengantin. Mak andam terjun sungai namanya ni. Mak andam ni punya make-

Nizam's Wedding Part 3 - Friday

The day started very early. After breakfast, my Kak Long and me started cooking. I had 3 large ikan siakap to clean and cook! Belasah saja - 1 deep fry with sambal, the other 2 steam limau (and lemon) with cili api kicap. The feast. My mother keluarkan pinggan mangkuk warna gold ala2 pengantin yang dah sedia ada as long as I remember. Doa selamat by my father. The men makan dulu sebab nak pegi Friday prayers. After prayers, terus siapkan pengantin. Nizam was so nervous. He gulped dunno how many glasses of air penenang hati made by my father. Hehehe... Dalam nervous tu sempat jugak kacau his small cousins. Sekali lafaz saja. Tak sia2 Nizam berjaga malam hafal lafaz nikah. Dan tak sia2 dia minum berbotol2 air penenang hati! Sebak juga lepas dengar dia lafaz akad tu. This is one nephew I grew up with. We are 9 years apart only. And I spent most of my holidays at my Kak Long's place taking care of him. Such naughty boy when he was little. Now dah jadi suami orang. My niece Nurul cried

Nizam's Wedding Part 2 - Thursday

The months of preparation finally became hectic on Thursday. My Kak Long tumpangkan all the hantaran at our place - simply because we have extra room to lock. I had to be very careful and ensure the door to the room was close at all times. My Kiki the Cat can be very mischievous. The hantaran. Dark purple theme. That day my father pulak sibuk pegi pasar Tani to get stuff to cook on Friday. My sister and me were like - got time ke? Especially that it's a Friday the next day. Lunch was set at 12pm. And my father dah plan nak beli siakap (and me and my big mouth promised to cook siakap steam limau). But then, dah hajat orang tua, so ikut saja lah. We only got back home at night and I only got to start on my cake at 10pm. By the time siap, it was already 2.30am. Sambil buat cake, sambil buat translation work. My carrot wedding cake with cream cheese and purple butter icing. Ok la kan for an amateur like me.

Nizam's Wedding Part 1

My knees rasa macam nak tercabut nih. It was a fun but tiring 3 days of Nizam's wedding. It started on Thursday: finalise hantaran, baked hantaran cake and other details. Then Friday: morning start cooking, after prayers convoi to Gombak for majlis akad nikah. Then Saturday: morning traveled to Gombak again, siapkan pengantin, jadi Mak Andam tak bertauliah, siapkan final preparations at the hall. Finally today Sunday: the D-day of celebration on our side. For the past 4 days I think I only had 3-4 hours sleep. Last night I couldn't sleep - well, because we bunked at my Kak Long's place and I really have issues with sleeping in a different bed and my nieces decided to enjoy the full-blast air-cond! Let these overall celebration pictures tell the stories: Lepas akad nikah kat masjid. Bersanding di Gombak. Very grand pelamin. (Almost) Perfect event management. Anak perempuan tunggal. Theme: purple & pink. Potong cake at our side. Theme: dark purple & silver. Selamat Pe

The Face of the 9 Year Old

Aliyah's final celebration was a birthday dinner at San Francisco Pizza. She sure has grown - she could finish up her chicken chop. Her 9th birthday snapshot.

Happy 9th Birthday Aliyah Maisarah

Aliyah is 9 today. She was born at 2.31pm on a Friday afternoon in 2001. At 3.4kgs. After 12 hours of pain. Without any anesthetic. It was too late for me to ask for epidural. With long stitches. Had to wait for the doctor to come back from Friday prayers. Such agony. Those are the gory details. My daughter was the perfect baby. The moment I saw her all pain went away, including the sickness I've endured for the past 9 months. She was so fair to the point of being white. Head full of black and light brown hair. The doctor said she has hazel brown eyes. Today, she is as perfect a daughter any parent would dream to have. No tantrums, soft spoken, funny, polite, very shy, an introvert, but very talkative to the people she's comfortable with. She's a very detail person, everything must be perfect and in order. Loves drawing and colouring. Doesn't go around crying, screaming and wanting things at the shopping malls like some kids. A cat lover. And for the past 6 months, have

Aliyah's Early Birthday Party

It's not really a "party" party. Our last real party for her was years back when we bought her that Barbie cake. This is the usual, not planned makan-makan - I wanted to get Nizam to try the carrot cake I'll be baking for his hantaran this coming Friday. Might as well make one cake for my sayang daughter Aliyah Maisarah. So happen, my uncle came bringing his delicious laksa. So, we had a little early celebration. My father baca doa while the birthday girl looks at the cake impatiently. Bersungguh-sungguh potong cake. Makan time! Bakal pengantin buat aksi menyibuk. Makan my delicious carrot cake. Hehehe... sold out within minutes. I used to buy the carrot cake from my ex-colleague Marina. She then gave the recipe to me. Since then I buat sendiri. This is the recipe that tastes so much better than the one sold at Secret Recipe. Seriously. And Marina actually got it from a website. Happy Birthday my beautiful comel daughter! We love you so much!

I Wonder...

I scrutinized my analytics and found this regular visitor located somewhere down the radar. And I wonder if it's that person who made my heart sick. Maybe yes, maybe no. Anyway, if it really is that person, to what do I owe such frequent visits? You know what, curiosity kills the cat. Don't let one kill you.

Aliyah's Early Birthday Present

Aliyah already got her birthday present. Her birthday is not till Tuesday. Yesterday night we took her out to buy a pair of roller blades. She's been wanting them ever since Raya when she tried on her Mak Ngah Mas' old pair. Now that she has her own, in her own size, she took only 15 minutes to learn and now she can roller blade. Well, limited to the living room only. She's trying her very hard to master it so that she can graduate outside. When that time comes, we need to get her a helmet and knee & elbow guards. Aliyah is a girl full of determination. If she loves something, she will try and try to master it till she gets it. She spent the whole day in those roller blades today, practicing to and fro the sofa and the writing desk. I think she gets it from Hubby. That's why both father and daughter can sit and play PS2 together. I'm not that kind of person I guess. I'm the multi-tasking person. I can't sit around mastering something till I really get it

3 Things I Hate

I'm starting a new category called Three Things. When you see this, it means that I actually have nothing better to do, or I have lots of things to do but I really need the break, or I seriously have nothing better to do. However, on a positive note, you will know 3 new things about me. (I know you don't really care, but hey, here you are, so what kan...) 3 Things I hate: 1. I seriously hate cockroaches. Seriously. My cat Kiki's hobby is catching insects especially cockroaches. Yang elok-elok ada kat luar pun dia nak bawak masuk dalam. Good thing I have such understanding Hubby who would quietly grab a tissue, scoop the cockroach he finds and throw it away. 2. Ironing clothes. Such uncomfortable and hot task. 3. Being late. A lot of people hate waiting for someone who is late. I, on the other hand, hate it when someone has to wait for me.

My Thriving Okra

My vege patch has been neglected throughout Ramadhan and Syawal. Malas sangat nak buang rumput sampai dah jadi semak. Bukan apa, those little menacing white flies buat hati panas je. They attack my chili, tomato and brinjal plants. Then there is this type of black little insects that attack my basil plant. I don't like to buy those chemical-based pesticides. Beli organic punya tak da effect apa-apa pulak. There is this recipe for home-made organic pesticide made of cili api, garlic and dishwasher soap that I have yet to try. So, the vege patch has been left for months. Just last week baru rajinkan diri buang rumput and baru found out that my lady's fingers / okra plants have started bearing flowers. It seems they are the only ones yang tidak diattack dengan brutalnya oleh those insects. For the past week, I get to "harvest" one okra a day from my 3 plants. Jadinya, dok buat masak asam pedas la sekarang ni. Okra has such beautiful flowers - yellow with crimson red insi

Little Birthday Celebration & Meeting

Yesterday we had a small birthday celebration for Wani and also a meeting to discuss Nizam's wedding this coming 22, 23 & 24 Oct. Three straight days! Nikah on 22/10, celebrate belah perempuan 23/10 and finally on our side 24/10. Pengsan. Alhamdulillah, semua yang kena discuss dah didiscusskan. Everybody has been assigned with tasks. My task - I kena berlari-lari disegenap penjuru dewan untuk memastikan food cukup, tempat duduk cukup, kot-kot ada VIP kena bawak pegi meja and wherever possible accidentally drop my namecard di atas meja dengan harapan VIP tu interested nak beli company I, make sure the itinerary is followed, and all the other kuli work. Biasalah, kerja-kerja makcik pengantin. Hmm... anak sedara I yang dari kecik I dok jaga, dok gaduh dan membesar sama-sama dah nak kahwin... My father baca doa untuk birthday Wani. That's the cake I baked for her. Vanilla cake with cocoa cream and choc chips. I actually teraccident dropped this huge glob of cocoa cream on top.

Birthday Cuppies for Wani

Oven I dah start berasap balik. My nieces Wani and Nurul awal-awal dah start order birthday cuppies and cakes for their birthdays. Wani's birthday is tomorrow, while Nurul's is early next month. Yesterday night, after coming back from work, tak sempat nak rehat pun terus buat choc moist cuppies and vanilla with choc chips cuppies. No frosting. Wani order to take to school this morning for her friends. Tomorrow pulak kena buat birthday cake for her to celebrate with family. She requested for vanilla cake. Let's see... I'll either make lemon butter cream or simple chocolate cream. Masa Wani order tu, I jengilkan mata and said they will all cost her RM50! She mentally calculated, grinned and said OK. Yesterday when she came over to pick up the cakes, dalam tangan dah siap duit. Mesti duit raya tu! Alahai kesiannya anak sedara aku... I told her I was just joking. Free of charged. After all, my nieces are like my own kids. Instead of getting her own mother to bake her the ca

I Know More Today than I Do Last Week...

I am swamped with this translation work. Makan translation, tido translation... I practically have not much time for other stuff. And last week have been pretty hectic due to getting this bank guarantee for the project. Kenapa la bebal sangat bank kita orang ni? Seriously. Nama sangat Islamic, tapi tak Islamic nak membantu orang Islam especially small entrepreneurs. After wasting about 3 weeks ding-donging and almost resorting to opening a bank account elsewhere, the HQ of bebal bank actually told us that the branches we contacted have been giving us wrong information. Tapi both branches bebal tak nak mengaku salah pulak tu. Boleh berpura-pura ignorant as if my staff heard them wrong. As a result, we had to write a letter to the client to ask for extension to get the BG, and because of that, we couldn't sign the contract, and because of that, we couldn't invoice our client for first payment. Bebal lah... But then, one good thing that emerged from this project is that - I am now

Hubby's Birthday

It was Hubby's birthday yesterday. But, just like me last week, he was down with a fever. Pasal la tahun ni birthday disambut dengan demam. Dugaan tu... Anyway, Aliyah suggested we buy her Abah new koi fish. The one named Abah died some time ago, so we no longer have orange koi with black dots. Aliyah so wanted to buy the exact same one to replace the one that died. So very sweet of her :). She specifically told me to fetch her from school - not her Abah as usual. So, after I picked her up, we went to the fish shop in Seri Putra and got 3 kois. One diamond orange (sparkling) and 2 orange + white with black dots. I brought along a pink ribbon to tie the plastic - how la to wrap live fish? Back home, she excitedly called her Abah and showed the plastic with the fish. She named them - Coral (the diamond orange), Marlin and Nemo (the white + orange with black dots). That night I baked a vanilla cake and made the icing this morning - the normal white icing + some blueberry jam I found i