Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Ole-ole dari Bandung

Dah hampir seminggu aku tak berapa sihat. Demam selsema yang berjangkit daripada anak-anak yang dah menular ke aku, sekarang dah upgrade jadi batuk pulak. Perubahan cuaca yang kejap2 panas, kejap2 hujan pun menyumbang kepada faktor tak sihat ni. Hmm. Sabar je la, semoga penyakit ni menghapus dosa aku yang berkoyan-koyan ni!

Anyway, walaupun tak sihat aku gagahkan jugak pergi kelas sebab semalam ada presentation. Cuaca buruk menyebabkan aku terpaksa bawak sekali anak-anak ke UM sebab takut terlewat.

Presentation berjalan lancar walaupun aku terpaksa cut banyak point sebab tak nak markah kena potong. Lepas abis presentation aku mintak excuse nak balik awal dengan alasan tak sihat. Nasib baik lecturer ok je.

On the way balik tu, terperasan whatsapp Kak Ret pesan ambik brownies Kartikasari yang dia bawak dari Bandung. Dalam hati, I loike, I loike! Hehe. Even sebelum aku beranak lima bulan lepas aku teringin sangat nak brownies Kartikasari ni tapi takde pulak sapa2 yang pergi Bandung masa tu. Aku suka bangat (tetiba accent Indonesia pulak) brownies ni. Sedap dan ada lapisan flaky kat layer atas brownies yang sangat la heavennn!

So malam tu jugak aku pegi ambik brownies daripada Kak Ret. Ingat nak bayar harga brownies memandangkan aku pesan kat dia, tapi dia tak nak pulak, katanya memang dia plan nak bagi kat kawan-kawan pun :) Heee... Mesti lagi sedap bila orang kasi ^_^ Thanks Kak Ret!

Ni la rupa menatang brownies yang diidam-idamkan tu...

Sampai kat rumah aku tengok Kak Ret bukan setakat kasi brownies Kartikasari ni, tapi dia ada bagi a few stuffs jugak:

Terima kasih Kak Ret! Love the souvenirs especially brownies tu :)

The Value of Money

... Is going down the drains. Seriously.

Yesterday I thought of baking home-made chocolate chip cookies using a recipe that I found online. So after fetching Khayla from her school, I drove to a baking supplies shop nearby Giant Batu Caves.

These are some of the stuffs I picked - self-raising flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, butter, sugar sprinkles (so we could have more fun baking the cookies), a packet of Oreo cookies which Khayla asked for, and cake mix (I was thinking of baking red velvet cupcakes as well) that costed me RM7.50 a packet.

When I brought those stuffs to the counter, the girl who minded the store calculated everything and told me that the total price was RM44. Naturally, I was shocked! It wasn't that many items and only to bake one type of cookies, and I spent almost RM50.

At first I thought she had done something wrong like scanning a few items twice. When I reached home and checked the receipt, I noted that everything was in order. Apparently home-made cookies cost more to bake nowadays, it's cheaper to buy them from stores (the Oreo cookies are just RM3.50).

Then this afternoon, I noted that I've run out of cooking oil, milk and eggs. Again, I went to the nearest grocery store to get these staples and also a few other groceries namely:

1. 1 liter Ribena drink

2. 1 liter mineral water

3. A carton of juice

4. A carton of ready-to-drink green tea

5. 350ml bottle of Coke.

6. Milk (I chose the lower price between two familiar brands)

7. Cooking oil

The checkout counter told me that everything was RM37. Again, it reminds me of how little the value of money nowadays.

I remember when I was small, we could buy nasi lemak for 50 sen (complete with fried anchovies and half a boiled egg) or even 30 sen (the kind of nasi lemak sold in small plastic packets complete with sambal, a quarter of a boiled egg, and a slice of cucumber, and you meshed it together and ate it right from the packet). And with RM1, you can get 3 pieces of roti canai.

Now a standard nasi lemak (no chicken or whatsoever) will set you back by at least RM2. And 1 piece of roti canai is the same price of 3 pieces of roti canai back in the early 90s.

So basically a budget of RM500 per month for groceries at present time is a very skimpy budget. There's very few things that those RM500 is going to get you. Maybe if you consistently ate rice with eggs and dried or salted fish, this amount can last you that long, no problem.

I can't figure out how some people can be super-rich and spend their time shopping for the latest clothes, shoes, makeup and handbags while just living off their husband's income. Their biggest worry is probably which smartphones to choose or which place to go for vacation.

Here we are on the other side of the world worrying about how to stretch the value of money so that we can last till the end of the month comfortably.

I can't imagine how it is for families earning lesser income than ours and with a lot more children than we have. God bless them. No wonder people are mostly unhappy nowadays.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sports Day at Khayla's School

When I was in primary school, Sports Day is probably the most dreaded and miserable time of the year. My parents probably thought it was an exciting time because they showed up and took pictures of me holding a balloon (which I was supposed to burst by sitting on it) while standing in line with my classmates.

I didn't understand why, but fast forward to more than 20 years later, I couldn't help feeling the same excitement when I received a memo from Khayla's school that they were having Sports Day!

So yesterday, even though I went to bed late the night before, I woke up early to prepare some food to bring for the potluck session after that. I also ordered some pastries from Uli-uli (they bake the fluffiest, softest, freshest and most delicious eclairs and cream puffs I've ever had) to be delivered to the school by 8.30am.

Like me when I was seven years old, Khayla also did not understand why we were super excited about going to school on Sunday. She cried because she was woken up earlier than usual, carried to the bathroom for a shower and then told to eat breakfast.

Parents were already gathering at the school compound waiting for the event to start. The principal greeted everyone and led everyone to sing the national anthem 'Negaraku'.

Starting the event with 'Negaraku'

Then the kids had some warm-up 'sing-and-dance' session led by the teachers, including the popular 'Gwiyomi' song! Now I know why Khayla is such a fan of 'Gwiyomi' ^_^

Unfortunately, my kid is the type of person who prefers routine and gets uncomfortable with new or unfamiliar experience. She refused to sing and dance because there were unfamiliar faces of parents and siblings around! She kept whining and then clinging to her father, and even crying when I took her hands and tried to make her dance :P

Khayla's class being the most junior class (N1) was the first to compete in sports. The game/competition was really easy. In the first game, the children have to run and put on 'rabbit-ear' hairband, then run to a bowl filled with flour and dab the flour on their cheek before running to the finishing line. The boys ran first, followed by the girls. In the second game, the children have to pick up one half of a picture then ran to the end of the line and fitted that half to the right half of the picture.

Khayla was not so keen to participate, so she refused to let go of her dad's hand at all! She was better than a boy in her class though, who cried so hard when the competition started that his father had to bring him out of the track :p Can't blame him, this must be his first Sports Day too.

Running while holding to Daddy's hand

Not looking pleased at being asked to run early in the morning!

Of course when she set her mind not to participate, she then refused to run. Rather, she walked, and then let her father picked up the item or dabbed the flour on her cheek, and then had to be dragged to the finishing line! At least she did not cry.

Khayla watching her seniors participated in their games

Khayla did not win any of the games but we did not mind because we were there only to have fun watching our girl participate in school activity.

She had more fun playing slides and swing at the playground though :p

'Can we go back home now?'

Friday, April 26, 2013

Letter to My Girls: Khayla (28 months) & Khadeeja (4 months)

Dear Beloved Daughters,

Another month has passed - my little babies once the size of a peanut in my tummy, are now 27 months and 4 months old respectively!

Dear Khadeeja,

This month you have started to be more contented to be left on your own longer. I first noticed this when I was checking on you during one of your naps. Instead of raising the alarm when you woke up like you normally do, you spent the time inspecting your two tiny feet. Probably wondering where did those extra hands come from? LOL!

But no matter, your feet have become one of your source of entertainment and exploration since you can lift both high enough for your chubby hands to grab. Whenever I put you on your back, the first thing you do is to raise those chunky legs and grab those pudgy feet! Then you try to put your toe (sometimes both of your toes) in your mouth, which more often than not, is a failed attempt. So you will be preoccupied trying your best while I get some extra minutes doing a zillion things until you managed to conquer this feat and get bored.

Another thing that you realise this month is your own voice. Oh yes, how you love to hear your own voice, sweetie. You experiment with various intonations - ranging from normal pitch babbles, to high pitch shrieks that had me hot on my heels because I thought something bad happened to you!

Sometimes I giggle when I catch you babbling and shrieking to your own reflection in the mirror. Those giggles will turn into guffaws the moment you tersengih-sengih macam kerang busuk to your own reflection. Hehe.

Practising her range of pitch

My Deeja-licious babe,

Earlier this month, I brought both you and your sister for lunch at a nearby restaurant. You were dressed in the dress below, purple with white polka-dots. Needless to say, you attracted quite a number of admirers from a group of aunties and uncles (who are actually Mak Yeng's age). They practically melted when you excitedly gurgled and made impossibly-adorable noises trying to catch their attention!

That's you, my precious gem. Always so friendly and ready to give everyone a smile so sweet you can give us diabetes.

Sweetest baby on the block

My buah hati pengarang jantung,

So many things fascinate you at this age. You like watching me going about doing housework. In fact, you like to be a busybody too. When I have you in the baby sling and trying to wash the vegetable, you tend to grab the vegetable and make my work difficult. You also can turn your body to see what I'm up to next. And when I put you in the rocker, you get easily tired of the hanging mobile and want a more complicated entertainment or you will shriek to be in the baby sling again!

Turn this here, twist that there. Genius at play.

Last but not least, like your sister, you love to be brought out of the house. Whenever it's time to fetch your sister from school, when you see me put on the baby sling and then my head cover, you squirm in delight and your face breaks into a HUGE grin - that made those moments the best part of my day - any day.

And to my firstborn Khayla,

If Adik made some huge discoveries of her own body parts, you also started to learn about your own body parts.

You can name your own body parts and point to it too. 'Nose!' while pointing at your button nose. 'Mouth!' But when it comes to eyes, you get it mixed up with 'forehead'! LOL!

A few weeks ago, your teacher wrote in the communication book that you refused to join in painting classes. You told your teacher that paints are dirty and flatly refused to get in contact with it. Seriously, you can be very quirky and funny!

Refused to join splashing in the pool because you hate to get splashed by others

I am glad that you show some progress and are joining painting activity in school now, but secretly wondered whether you pester your teacher to wash your hands every minute, like when I engaged you in our own painting activity at home (and you keep asking to wash your hands).

Little Picassa

In terms of your possessiveness, this is something that you have to overcome. You seem to view Khadeeja as a competition, and hate it when we give her toys to play - everything belongs to you. So when you see Khadeeja grabbing anything (from stuffed toys to books), you get agitated and will take it away. Any resistance will be met with loud cries and drama!

Bapak is your daddy only, not Khadeeja's

My adorable tot,

You still love to imitate my actions, and getting good at it. One day I was standing in front of a mirror while staring sadly at my bloated tummy. You observed me patting my tummy three times, and you followed suit. Needless to say, I forgot all about my misery and roared in laughter!

What would my life be without my entertaining copycat, God please tell me…

Sayang,

While you seem to be growing perfectly fine and making wonderful progress of your skills and knowledge, there is one area that concerns me deeply. Your social development. You hate people touching you (you will cry if anyone dares to touch you) and when I fetch you from school, I rarely see you acknowledging your friends or teachers despite their best attempts to communicate to you. Your principal even commented of how 'cool' you are towards people, which made me wonder - is this something that I should worry?

Nevertheless, despite your strong protest at being touched or even looked at by Khadeeja, at times you do show your affection towards Khadeeja, and vice versa. Khadeeja adores you, I can tell by her smile and how she loves watching you.

The two of you are starting to develop that sisterly bond. Sometimes after coming back from school, while I carried Khadeeja in my arm and you trailing behind, you will call out cheerfully to her, 'Khadeeja!' and Khadeeja will giggle and squirm excitedly at being acknowledged by you.

Loving the big sister moment

Maybe some day both of you will learn to love each other, just like your Wa Liza and I love and look up to each other.

Grow well, my beloved stars. Thank you so much for giving me plenty of TLCs every day of my life.

Love,
Mak

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Birthday Dinner at Alexis Bistro, The Gardens

Yesterday my dearest life partner turned 34 years old :) Happy birthday my man! When we first met, he was 25 years old and it has been 9 years since then. How time flies.

Anyway, I decided to have a special dinner celebration for him - just the four of us. Of course it would be fab to celebrate with friends as well just like what I organised a few years ago (surprise makan-makan at Bagan Lalang) but we would have to make do with a small-scale celebration since I'm not working and earning any income this year :p Besides Mr Hubs actually rather not have any celebration like he always does, but come on, how often does one turn 34, right? Besides it gives me perfect reason to get out of the house occasionally.

I've been reading a few blogs that raved about Alexis' menu especially its dessert (Pavlova, tiramisu, fruit meringue among others). Plus, many seems to think it has the classy yet cozy ambience so I decided to give it a try.

We arrived at Alexis around 9pm and were immediately ushered to a table with comfortable cushion seats. I have a good first impression of the service at Alexis mainly because when we arrived with a tandem stroller, one of the waiters helped us to lift the stroller as the dining section was slightly elevated.

We were also given the menu immediately after we settled ourselves at the table. By the way, Khayla could not stay still and kept wanting to climb the seat armrest and leaned over the divider!

For starter, we ordered their seared scallops and button mushrooms (we forgot to take a photo of the button mushrooms though):

Seared scallops and asparagus

The seared scallops flavour was nicely-balanced and the chilli condiment goes perfectly with it. I ate most of it because halfway, Khayla insisted to go to the restroom and Mr Hubs has to bring her! LOL

The baked button mushrooms were served with toasted garlic roll. The mushrooms itself were soaked in creamy sauce and sprinkled with parmesan cheese (I think). It was also quite nice but a bit salty for me.

For main course, I decided to try their Carbonara pasta while Mr Hubs ordered his favourite, a lamb dish:

Carbonara pasta with beef bacon bits (right) and Moroccan style lamb rack with roasted aubergine and pomegranate salad (left)

There is nothing special to shout about the pasta - it's creamy, slightly salty (again) and quite filling (I didn't manage to finish mine). When I asked Mr Hubs about his lamb, he could not say whether it is delicious or the opposite. He cut a piece and fed it to me and I understood why. Suffice to say, it's not your ordinary Western lamb dish because obviously, it's Moroccan-style! :p The Mediterranean spices really overpowers your palate when you try this dish.

We also ordered mashed potato for Khayla, but it never arrived (thank goodness!). We were so full by then that we wondered whether we would have room for dessert. Luckily, it was just a slice of Pavlova and Pavlova is light enough, right?

Since it was Mr Hubs' birthday celebration, I asked them to serve the cake with a lit candle to mark the celebration. While waiting for the cake, Khayla had climbed the cushion seat and suddenly fell backward and bumped her head on the table! She cried loudly, of course. Hish, budak kecik ni…

So she sat sulking in the stroller, but when the cake arrived complete with a lit candle, she forgot her misery (and painful 'benjol'!) and wanted to blow the candle, of course! Hehe.

Me and equally-active Khadeeja

Budak jatuh pastu benjol kepala with Mr Hubs

I have to say the cake presentation was quite pretty even though it arrived with half of the cake falling! I had high expectations (and anticipation) of the much-raved cake, but it turned out quite disappointing. This was not my first Pavlova, but it could not compete with the Pavlovas that I had before. The creamy filling was too thick and rather bland, thank goodness for the white egg outer crust. Even the black berries were tasteless! Hmmph.

Overall, we had a pleasant dinner, but the meal was really quite ordinary. The service was fast, and the waiters were helpful.

On the other hand, perhaps you might want to repeat the orders with the waiter who take it because like I said, we did not get our mashed potato (which luckily did not appear in our bill). Also, when the bill arrives, it's good for you to check carefully. When I checked mine before signing it, I noted that they included hot water in the bill even though we did not order it. Since it's FOC, I did not bother to raise it to the waiter.

My rating would be 7/10.

Happy Birthday, Hubster! Love you and hope you enjoyed my treat ^_^