Nostalgia Bulan Ramadhan

Diam tak diam (hehe.. cliche je pembuka cerita) dah seminggu kita berpuasa. Ting tong sikit kepala sebab hari-hari bangun pukul 430 pagi masak sahur, lepas tu tidur balik pukul 530, lepas tu bangun balik pukul 630 anak nak pergi sekolah, pastu tidur balik sekejap, then bangun lagi pukul 820 pergi kerja sampai pukul 5..... ting tong sampai petang. Tapi semuanya aku redha. Hari-hari masak sahur okay!!! Jangan ingat nak hidang semula makanan berbuka, tak mainlah macam tu...semua masak panas untuk sahur. Kau ade? Tia pun bersemangat bulan-bulan puasa ni, tak susah kejut untuk bersahur tapi setakat ni hanya lepas satu hari puasa penuh. Yang lain tu separuh hari atau sampai pukul 3 atau 4, yang mana dia berkenan le. Kecil lagi tak mau paksa2. Asalkan kita dapat buat dia teruja dengan puasa, kira kami dahlah capai objektif Ramadhan kali ini. 

Wa takde le pemalas sampai goreng telur je bersahur.. hehehe... 

Time-time bulan puasa ni terkenang cerita masa kecil-kecil dulu. Teruja tu memang le sebab bulan puasa, risau pun risau juga sebab banyak dugaan kalau berpuasa di kampung. Pergi sekolah jalan kaki hari-hari. Kalau balik sekolah tu matahari tegak atas kepala... then kena siap2 pergi sekolah agama pulak yang jaraknya lebih kurang 750 meter dari rumah, Puasa bang... penat. Dah tu, setiap kali bulan puasa, mestilah lepas tu raya kan? Arwah mak memang suka nak tukar cat rumah sempena menjelang Aidilfitri jadi kami le tukang mengecat rumah. Umur dalam 9-10 tahun.... dah lah berpuasa, lagi nak kena cat rumah, haru betul. Kadang2 bila dah tak tahan tu ada juga teguk air paip dari dalam bilik air. Mengelat? Penat lah!!! Mana tahan.. tahu tak rumah Melayu limas berapa besar... pengsan nak cat semua! Arwah bukan guna positif reinforcement ke apa ke.... kalau kata.. lepas cat rumah dapat RM5 sehari best juga. Haha! Rindu arwah mak... masa-masa macam dia yang excited nak siapkan barang-barang untuk raya.

Bila dah nak raya tu.. kakak-kakak aku mula la buat kuih mcm ada pertandingan Kuih Terbanyak di Kampung Paya Rumput. 10 jenis kira mcm takde effort laaaa, kira mcm keluarga jenis malas la senang cakap. kurang-kurang 15 jenis yo! Dari subuh ke petang bawa ke malam, asyiklah buat kuih, lepas tu susun kuih atas para. Kira mcm paling awesome tengok kuih beraneka jenis dalam balang jernih. Kuih yang sering tersenarai dan tidak dianaktirikan termasuklah Kuih Tat Nenas, Kuih Siput, Kuih Dahlia, Kuih Goyang atau juga dikenali dengan Kuih Ros, Kuih Semprit, Kuih Makmur, Kuih Gunting, Kuih Kapet dan sebagainya. Buat kuih ni bukan sikit2.. kira dalam skala sekilo dua juga la. Dan yang bestnya.. semua kuih itu akan habis dimakan. Siapa le tukang makan eh? :)

Kuih paling senang nak buat jadi sedap

Puasa di kampung lain dengan puasa di bandar. Mana ada pasar ramadhan nak pergi cari makanan, kalau ada pun takkan nak belanja hari2. Formula arwah mak, kalau buat sendiri lagi muai dan sedap. A very good formula untuk orang berkeluarga besar. Jadi bila tiba nak berbuka tu penuhlah atas meja dengan mcm2 juadah. Yang best, air mesti ada dua jenis.. yang sejuk dan yang panas. Kuih pun boleh tahan juga, semua buat sendiri. Orang bandar banyak mengelat. Semua beli. Puasa pun banyak mengelat, duduk atas kerusi empuk sepanjang hari di tiup angin aircond sepoi2 bahasa. Haha... termasuklah yang empunya diri. 

Sekarang ni teruja tengok Tia dah cuba-cuba nak puasa dan dah mula excited bila nak raya. Now, it's all about her. Lagi 3 minggu nak Aidilfitri... nak buat kuih apa eh? Sajes la sikit!

Who Needs A Diaper Cake??

Well.... apparently people who organize baby showers! I've never heard of a diaper cake until yesterday when my niece informed me so. In my mind, I was like, do people eat diaper cake? Didn't want to sound ignorant, I refused to ask her what the hell is a diaper cake. And then I consulted Mr Google who told me that there's no eating involved in diaper cake. Phew! I had imagined sinking my teeth in a piece a cake that looks like a diaper with lemon filling. Don't panic.. this cake has nothing to do with flour, icing, etc. If it has, for God's sake, I don't mind being forgotten.   

But this cake is special and unique. It is to give expecting mothers on their baby shower parteeey!!! Don't expect any Candy Shop song by 50 cent in this gig, no lollipops...more of lullabies perhaps. 

Okay....to make this cake, all you need are diapers and baby stuff, sprinkle it with imagination... and voila! Haha!! As if I have ever made one. For my other niece who is expecting a baby daughter, I want to make one for her.  Something like the one in this photo! If it didn't turn out to be this one... DO NOT JUDGE ME FOR I'M JUST A HUMAN YANG TIDAK SEMPURNA!

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Gorgeous yo!

2 days in Singapore!

The five great things about Singapore:

1. Great shopping place.... seriously dangerous for shopaholics

2. Great cinematic experience - IMAX yo!

3. Great transportation system or walkways for pedestrians 

4. Great building architecture.. have you seen The Sands and The Esplanade? 

5. Great Singapore Sale!! Hehe.. up to 80% discounts on branded items!

Awesome view from the plane

Kids need chocolate

A simple space could leave an impact with a bit of attention to details

Kid and dad on the other side

Kid and dad at the Fountain of Wealth

The Fountain of Wealth

A great design for a shopping mall

Attractive!

The Wheel lock place! All you need to do is to look up!

Photo op!

My kiddo posing!

And this is so not appropriate, is it? Could cause a riot if it's in Iran or Pakistan :P

My B'day Gift: LV Neverfull MM Monogram

My birthday is two weeks away but my husband decided to surprise me in Singapore with a treat from Mr Louis Vuitton's shop. We were looking for an iPad 2 casing, as we have seen plenty of LV cases around but unfortunately the casing hasn't been launched yet. So for those who have bought the LV iPad 2 casing.. rest assure that it's a fake. Sorry to break the news to you but the LV specialist told us so.  

Coming back to my birthday gift, he asked me to look around and I pointed the Neverfull MM because I have been eyeing that for quite sometimes. The PM is too small for my liking and the GM is too huge. MM is my perfect fit.  And lucky me, my love said yes! :) 

Not only that the Neverfull has a lot of space, where you can fit a few kittens inside, you can also wear it two different styles. Wear it loose like the picture below and you'd look super cool or you can fold the sides and tighten the laces to make it looks like a chic bag. Tie a scarf, hang keychains.. etc.. personalize your baby. 

The lining fabric design is simple yet beautiful but be careful not to spray perfume or leak any liquid inside. It could be moldy, warned the specialist. 

The trimming is made of cowhide leather, it'd turn tan after sometimes. If yours doesn't turn tan after you used it for 12 months or so.. maybe it's a fake. :P Just saying!

Neverfull design doesn't have any zipper to conceal the contents of your handbag from the prying eyes but at least it has a cute hook to secure the two sides together

For those of you who are curious about the price, in Singapore is  SGD1070, RM2700 in Malaysia and 480 Pounds in the UK. And people say you can get it cheaper in Paris. Duuuhhh!

All in all, I'm sooo over the moon with the gift. Not only because it's LV, but most importantly I received it from the love of my life who knows his wife so very well. Thanks my love! Happy Birthday to me!

My Kid is a City Kid

I helped Tia with her homework yesterday and by help I mean, accompanied her til her work was done. She needed to write one paragraph three times in her workbook. The sentences went like this "Haji Musa mempunyai sawah padi yang luas di Kedah. Dia mengupah pekerja dan menyewa jentera untuk membajak sawah padinya." Apparently, she didn't know anything about sawah padi, jentera, Haji Musa, Kedah, etc etc. Thank God for Google but I couldn't show her Haji Musa though. :P After we're done with the homework, we went upstairs to get ready to sleep and I read to her about fireflies. I told her that I caught a few when I was small. She looked perplexed. In her eyes I could see that she was wondering how was it possible for me to catch fireflies. She had never seen one in her life.

Basically, her childhood and mine are totally different. My kid is a city girl who never walks barefoot on a ground. She never plays outdoor at 3pm without adult supervision. She doesn't know how to climb trees. She never experience riding a bicycle downhill without having any protective gears. She was amazed to know that I had a lot of interesting experiences in my life. On my defense, I didn't have anything to do, that's why! But for her, if given the opportunity, she would love to experience my childhood, I reckon. Looking at her life now, many people would agree with me when I say, it's a blessed life. She could get almost anything that she wants, and she never has to worry about anything. But at the same time, she's losing out on the excitement of discovering things out there. 

I climbed trees as early as 6 years old. I chased and caught chickens just to find out that i'd only get a small piece after all the hard work. Tia could eat chicken whenever she mutters the word 'chicken'. I walked to school, stopped halfway to play in the rubber plantation about half an hour or so before headed home. I plucked multicolor chicken shit flowers (bunga tahi ayam) and made potpourri, along the way to my religious school. I helped my mom picked ciku fruits from the tree, cleaned them and sold them, only to receive 5% of the revenue for myself. When the water supply was cut, I had to walk downhill to the well to bath, wash clothes and carry some water home, uphill!! I didn't have any fancy toys but I spent my days on top of the ciku tree, wasting my time. Haha! 

Life is different for many kids nowadays. Tia is well-protected by us. From home, to school, to babysitter's house, to home again. Never once I let her out of my sight when we're together. But as a kid, she has also experienced many of us could only imagine, like traveling the world. She's six and she's been to many countries, meeting kangaroos and koalas, experienced extreme cold in Shanghai and autumn in Korea. She is gaining knowledge from books, a lot of books. She learns what she loves to do like dancing and drawing. 

Our childhoods might be different but as long as she's happy and she's got to experience life at its best, I don't think it matters. I'd like to introduce her to kampung life but I don't know where to start and I think she's not cut for it. Haha!  :)