Perth, Sydney, The Little Misses and a song

Picked The Other Half at the airport this morning after his 2-day trip to Sydney. I asked him what the verdict is with the Sydney move after his chat with the DVC at Sydney. He said 60-40 so far but only if I’m 100% behind him. I know he’s getting more excited with the prospect of this 1 year ‘adventure’ to explore a new place and also to explore the east coast as a family. If only we can get some major things sorted out here, then we would be very happy to make the move.

In a way, I’m feeling excited as well sebab next year will be the best year for us kalau nak travel anywhere sebab Miss 10 won’t have started high school lagi. Once dia dah start high school, memang susah sikit lah nak jalan mana2 unless it’s during school hols or nak pindah ke mana2. It’s also the perfect opportunity for us to take The Little Misses travelling up to Brisbane and Gold Coast and down to Canberra and the snowy areas. Perth is too far away from the other capital cities so kalau nak pergi travel makan angin ke Gold Coast or Brisbane memang lah kena keluar duit banyak sikit. Bila dah kat Sydney, it’ll be so cheap to fly to Gold Coast! And The Little Misses pun tak pernah bermain2 dengan snow so it will be fun to take them skiing during the winter season. Kalau duk Perth ni, it’s cheaper to pergi makan angin ke Bali then pergi makan angin ke Melbourne or Sydney! But, we are not interested to go to Bali so tak guna lah kan murah pun, hehehe…..

But, we just realised yang kat NSW (which Sydney is in), their high schools start in Year 7 while kat WA ni, high schools start in Year 8. I know memang pelik sikit kan, walau 1 negara yang sama, system sekolah setiap negeri berbeza beza. Next year, Miss 10 will be in Year 7 and kalau we all pindah ke Sydney, she has to enrol into high school which will be a bit of a shock for her lah kan. Pastu after that 1 year, bila pindah ke Perth balik, dia akan masuk Year 8 which is the start of high school again! Kalau jadi pindah Sydney, memang ada kemungkinan besar lah yang I akan home school both of them next year so they can still follow the WA syllabus. Can you imagine me as a teacher? Adalah yang nangis hari2 nanti kat dalam kelas sebab asik kena marah dengan Muumy aka Teacher Garang, hahaha. Miss 6 tak lah susah sangat sebab baru Year 2 aje pun next year. Kat Australia ni tak guna Standard 1 to 7 untuk primary schooling and Form 1-5 for Secondary schooling. Dia cuma guna kindy, pre primary/reception and then Yr 1 to Yr 11/12. There’s a big exam in Year 12 (kalau kat WA ni) for University entrance. Susah betul kan, pindah dalam negeri pun banyak masalah, hehehe….

And then kalau we all jadi pindah, we have to move in early-late January which is only 2 months away. And we intend to spend the whole December kat M’sia so bila masa nak pack barang2 semua? Hiring people to pack our stuff will definitely be included in our asking contract, hehehe. Tak kuasa lah I nak pack barang2 kat rumah ni, too many things/junks!

I pun baru perasan yang I haven’t put The Little Misses photos for quite a while now sampai Auntie Eryn and Auntie Sue dah kangen kat diaorang, wehehehe…

For them..

1 mata bulat, 1 mata sepet…. :-)

Orang kat rumah ni kan tak jemu2 makan pizza. Every week I kena masak pizza. I slalu beli bread flour yang 5kg nya pack and kadang2 tu sekejap aje dah habis padahal 4 orang aje pun yang makan, hehehe….

Oh lupa pulak nak cerita, I’m going to my food photography lecture/workshop esok. Can’t wait!

Alamak, nearly forgot……

The Other Half beria2 suruh I letak Cat Stevens’ song ‘I’m looking for a hard-headed woman’ in this entry. He thinks this song describes our relationship well and why he’s happy (most of the time) he married me. To people who know us (you know who you are :-)), do you think it’s true?

Sup or soto or both?

I wonder how many hubbies got asked the question, ‘What’s our song?’ last night selepas my post :-). Sure heran hubbies apasal lah tetiba the wives tanya soalan pelik sikit. Kalau The Other Half memang tak heran kalau I tanya soalan pelik sebab I memang suka tanya soalan pelik2 ni, hehehehe. And hubbies yang tak ingat their special songs, sure kelam kabut malam tadi nak mengingatkan balik kan. I wonder berapa orang hubbies yang marah kat I semalam sebab because of my post membuatkan wives diaorang muncung sikit when the hubbies couldn’t remember their special songs, hahahaha…

But, I’m glad to find out actually ramai jugak yang ada special songs ni ye which is so sweet :-D. Kiranya ramai jugak lah yang satu group jiwang dengan we all ni kan, hahahaha. Tak lah we all rasa lonely sangat2 all alone in the jiwang group (memang boleh bukak FB group lah macam ni kan ;-)).

Anyway, malam ni malas nak celoteh panjang since dah nak tengah malam baru nak post entry. The Other Half’s flown off to Sydney today for the last time this year. And I pun masak something that I’ve mengidam (as in saje2 gatal mengidam nak makan not because of mengidam berisi) nak makan for quite a while now. I had to wait until The Other Half pergi outstation baru lah boleh makan, hehehe.

Taadaaaa…… My beehoon sup soto. Actually I teringin nak makan soto but terlupa pulak nak masak nasi impit awal2 and malas nak tunggu so I makan dgn beehoon. And instead of buat sup ayam, I buat sup daging and then letak tahu goreng, bawang goreng, kacang goreng, taugeh, daun ketumbar and suun goreng. So tu yang nama dia beehoon sup soto sebab dah campur macam2 :-). And the icing on the cake was the sambal kicap. I love sambal kicap but I hate the garlic breath that stays with you for a few days! Berus lah gigi macam mana pun, still ada lingering garlic smell tu kan, hehehe. Masa makan tak hingat, bila dah bau garlic, baru lah nyesal :-).

What’s your song?

I was reading this novel in bed last night (yes, I occasionally do have time to read novels :-)) and this guy was asking this girl a few questions about her relationship with her boyfriend. You see, he’s in love with this girl but she’s already in a relationship (I know…so sad kan. Me reading chick lits), so he’s trying to gauge how deeply in love this girl is with her boyfriend by asking her a few questions. One of the questions was ‘what’s your song?’ Then this girl asked, ‘what do you mean by our song?’ Then he said something along the line of ‘you know, the song that reminds you of him and that makes you feel so in love with him.’ I malas nak pegi ambik buku tu kat dalam bilik, tu yang I can’t remember the exact words in the book :-D.

Anyway… tadi I tanya lah The Other Half the same question. His answer was, “You know that song sung by that guy who sang these 2 other songs that’s famous? That’s our song I think!” What??? What song? What guy? What 2 other songs that’s famous? What are you talking about? Might as well say dia dah lupa langsung what the song was kan or say we all memang takde song, wehehehehe…. Then he said, “I can hum the song but I can’t remember the name of the song and I can’t remember the singer’s name either! Do you wan’t me to hum it for you?” Urmmm.. No thanks! So sad kan when we don’t really have our own special song, hehehe.

Actually, that’s not really true. He’s got a song that really reminds him of me. It’s ‘I’m looking for a hard-headed woman’ by Cat Stevens. He said the lyrics of the song reflect what I am to him (yes, you can roll your eyes now :-P). And I pulak think the song that is special for us both is ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ by Savage Garden. Because he bought me the tape when we had to live apart masa baru setahun kahwin dulu. Everytime dengar lagu ni, memang tangkap jiwang lah, hahaha… Dolu2 dengar, basah pipi dengan air mata. Sekarang dengar, tersenyum sendiri teringat kenangan lama :-).And sekarang kalau we all terdengar kat radio, we all dua orang akan iktu sama nyanyi bagai nak rak sampai The Little Misses tak larat dengar, hahahaha…

So, do you think all couples yang ashik masyuk bercinta ada their own special songs ke?

Psstt… The Other Half kata I ni dah takde idea langsung agaknya nak tulis blog sampai benda ntah apa2 pun I tulis, hehehehehe….

Anyway, our dinner tonite was dinner orang malas masak. I masak sausages, chicken nuggets and chips and veges aje. I teringin nak makan something really fattening tonite so I buat cheese sauce and tuang on the chips. Lepas tu, rasa senak perut makan banyak sangat, hahaha… Next month nak start kurangkan makan sikit sbb nak turunkan berat badan before balik M’sia so kat M’sia nanti boleh makan banyak. Alah, nak cuba turun 1kg aje so tu yg next month baru nak start, wahaha….

Yeayyyyyy…. The Other Half dah jumpa cari our song on the net. The miracles of internet :-D. He’s playing it on the PC right now and I do think he’s got it right. It’s definitely the right song for us. Thanks Dear! I’m going to put it on the blog so you can listen to it too and you can go… Awwwwwwww….. Isn’t he romantic!

Muahahahahahahahaha………

He’s flying off to Sydney again tomorrow tu yang dia tetiba jiwang agaknya, hehehe ;-).

And to everyone who’s given us your thoughts about our Sydney dilemma, thank you for all that. We are still deciding and he still needs to be convinced by the agreements. He’s meeting up with the VC next week to find out what we’ll get out of the move. So, we’ll see…

Adehhh…I tersilap ambik video youtube ni. Ada ke terambik orang punya yang dia selitkan gambar anak dia, nasib baik lah I perasan, wahahaha..

Should we or shouldn’t we?

What would you do if your Other Half’s got an offer to work in a place more than 3000 kms away from home for a year? I guess it depends on a lot of things kan. The Other Half has been telling me for a while now that the Sydney people want him to work there for a lot longer than flying there for a few days every month. Every time, I’ve told him that I don’t want to relocate to Sydney because I really really like Perth. I guess nampak sangat I dah berumur kan, hehehe. Sebab kalau orang muda di tanya whether nak pindah Sydney or nak stay kat Perth, sure lah akan terus melonjak2 nak pindah Sydney kan :-). Tapi bila I yang kena tanya, terus kata nak stay kat Perth yang so quiet, takde Sunday trading, takde late night trading :-).

Tadi The Other Half came home and told me yang they are really desperate for him to work in Sydney for a year and they are willing to meet our demands (ye lah tu, sekarang memang lah mulut manis kan, macam2 kata nak bagi. But nanti, bila dah kat sana, mau nya macam2 tak terbagi). We asked The Little Misses if they want to move to Sydney. They straight away said yes! I think diaorang ingat macam nak pergi holidays agaknya, somewhere exciting and new kan :-). In a way, it will be like a holiday jugak kan but prolonged holidays sebab we are definitely coming back to Perth after the year has finished. But there’s so many things to think about before we can decide whether to accept the offer or not. The Other Half memang tak kan pergi sorang2 ke Sydney for a year and we all pun tak nak lah berpisah dengan dia for a year. Sydney tu jauh weh, lebih kurang Perth-KL aje! Pastu, tiket flight ke Sydney lagi mahal dr ticket flight ke KLIA, hehehe.

I ni malas nak pindah randah sebab memikirkan segala benda kat dalam rumah ni. For sure lah, we all tak kan mengangkut segalanya just for a year kan. And then, the Little Misses schooling lagi sebab kat sini, every state has different syllabus for their schools. After that 1 year, bila balik sini, Miss 10 akan straight away masuk high school so we all nak lah dia follow the WA system while she’s in Sydney. Mau nanti I buat home schooling aje for them both, hahahaha.. Poning eden, bertambah2 lagi benda yang nak kena fikir…Hish…..

Sebelum you all pun pening sama, layan lah ye gambar our dinner tonite.

Beef stroganoff makan dengan pasta and home made hash browns. Tapi tak brown sangat pulaknya. Nampak macam pancakes aje pulak dah kan, hehehe…

Drowning in chocolates

 

What is it about living/going overseas and buying chocolates when we balik ‘kampung’? I think since I was a student kot, everytime balik kampung during the holidays, mesti tak tinggal belikan all the chocolates. At that time, I can understand sebab all my adik beradik kecik2 lagi so chocolates memang lah jadi kegemaran budak2 kan. And chocolate overseas pulak tu, sure lah rasa dia lagi spesel kan even though masa student dulu yang termampu cuma beli chocs yang murah2 aje, hehehe…

But, until sekarang ni, the ‘tradition’ of buying chocolate hasn’t stopped at all. I still buy loads and loads of chocolates everytime we all balik bercuti ke M’sia. If you don’t believe me, look at the photo below, this bag is choc-a-block with funnily enough, chocolates. All types of them… Ini baru 1 bag you and I still have 1 month plus to buy more chocs, hahahaha. I tak boleh tengok chocolate sale langsung lah, mesti punya nak beli! Tension betul I, hehehe. I like buying them but I don’t eat them much. Hari tu balik in July pun we all dah bawak balik 1 big box of chocs too. Bukannya I saje2 nak beli, kalau I tak beli, adalah nanti yang panjang muncung bila jumpa we all ;-D. Almost half of these chocs dah kena booked by ‘people who shall remain nameless’ and then half lagi has already got ‘names’ on them. For those people, jangan ngences ye bila tengok gamabr kat bawah ni :-D. If suddenly, the blood sugar levels in my rellies’ blood naik mendadak2 after I balik, you tau lah who to blame kan.

Nasib baik my parents ada chest freezer so boleh lah we all sumbat segala chocolate ni in it until the right owners come along to claim them :-). And kalau masih ada lagi saki baki chocolates in that chest freezer kat kampung tu berbulan2 after we’ve come back to Perth, first come first serve, sape cepat dia dapat…..

I blame our chocolate fixation and addiction on my late arwah Atuk. When he was alive, he loved chocolate so much. But he wouldn’t eat the el cheapo chocolates sebab dia kata taste tak sedap. He would only eat imported chocolates and chocolates made with cocoa butter not vege oil. Masa dulu I selalu belikan dia chocolate when I balik kampung from OZ which he would keep in his room and eat a little bit at a time all to himself, hehehehe… Everyone knew at that time not to touch chocolate Atuk, hahahaha.. But he was very healthy and lived past his 90s. I guess sebab dia tak overindulged and dia makan the chocs sikit2 at a time as a treat (unlike his kids and grandkids nowadays :-( ).

The Little Misses pun sekarang dah tau which chocolate brand taste nice and which chocolate doesn’t but kalau dah takde langsung tu, they’ll eat anything and everything jugak! Takde diskriminasi langsung, hahahaha…

But tonite, our dinner takde langsung berunsur2 chocolates. Cuma nasi goreng sayur campur and baked chicken wings n telur goreng aje.

Sundays and bread

 

To tell you the truth, I love to bake breads. I just love the smell of the yeast and the dough when it’s rising and the smell of the bread when it’s cooking in the oven, just heavenly. And there’ll be times, when I really really want to make bread hari2 :-). But, kalau I buat hari2, takde sape yang nak makan sebab we’ll be so sick of eating it hari hari (but makan toast hari2 for breakfast, tak jemu pulak orang2 kat rumah ni, heran kan!).

And today was one of those days when my baking bread mood datang. Sebelum operasi kemas rumah dimulakan pagi tadi, I put all the ingredients into my trusty breadmaker and let it do the hard work while I did the other hard work of cleaning the house. By the time I dah siap cuci bilik mandi and toilets and vacuumed and dusted the whole house and cleaned and mopped the kitchen (with the help of The Little Misses and The Other Half of course), the breadmaker pun dah sudah his job of menguli and menaikkan the dough.

And this was what I made from the sweet dough, cream horns and walnut scrolls. I cuma dapat buat 6 biji cream horns aje sebab I cuma ada 6 biji acuan nya aje, hehehe. I used whipped cream for the filling. The Little Misses and The Other Half were so impressed with the shape of the bread, hahahaha…..

Miss 10 decorated it with choc rice so nampak lagi menyelerakan lah for the girls :-).

The walnut scrolls. We had these bread for dessert after lunch, hehehe…

And our dinner tonite. Yes…. the sausages and the potatoes were cooked on the BBQ, tu sebab lain aje rupa nya. The Other Half masih tak bosan lagi main dengan his new toy tu, biar aje lah kan. Senang sikit kerja I tadi, boleh bergayut on the phone whilst he cooked :-)….

On a completely different matter……

Salah ke kalau kita takde sekelumit pun perasaan sayang for someone who’s your own flesh and blood? It didn’t start that way but the feelings just gradually disappear/terhakis over time after years of lying and disappointments and heart aches. People say kalau benci tu tandanya sayang and ada lah jugak perasaan for that person kan. But, bukan saje perasaan sayang, benci pun takde. Yang ada cuma this ‘I honestly don’t care anymore’ feeling. It’s such an unhealthy environment to be in the same room as this person because of all the lies behind the smiles and all the manipulative behaviours……. People say forgive and forget but it’s a bit too late for that…..

Rain? What rain?

Since last week lagi, The Other Half dah berangan2 nak ber BBQ this weekend and last week when we had a look at the long range weather forecast, it said that it’s going to be a marvellous 28C today. So, The Other Half pun dah listed down the BBQ menu since hari Isnin lagi lah sebab tak sabar nak berBBQ lagi kan :-)…

Then, we woke up this morning with a very grey sky and quite chilly weather. Takpe lagi cos we thought, mana lah tau kan, by tengah hari dah clear and would become sunny and bright (wishful thinking I know :-)). But makin lama, makin gelap the skies but still tak hujan. The Other Half kata, since dia dah bersemangat nak masak hari ni, rancangan BBQ akan diteruskan juga even though the skies looked so menacing. Orang sekali sekala masak ni kan, bila dia begitu bersemangat nak masak, better jangan halang, betul tak? Ye lah kan, mana tau, kalau kita halang, terus merajuk and tak nak masak langsung, I jugak yang susah nanti sebab kena masak hari2! hehehehe….. So, I pun prepared all the stuff to be BBQed (dia masak but I kena prepare segalanya. Dia cuma fire up the BBQ aje and tunggu the food while it’s cooking :-D).

But when The Other Half started stoking up the charcoals in the BBQ, the weather became chillier and quite gusty winds were blowing. Tapi, since semangat dia teramat lah kental nya, neither winds nor dropping temperature could stop him from BBQing tonite, hahahahahaha…. Then, as soon as the charcoal was ready, the rain started falling, hehehehe… I told him, obviously God doesn’t want him to have a BBQ tonite, wakakakakaka….

But, that still didn’t deter The Other Half from completing his mission :-). He just moved the kettle BBQ under the awnings so tak lah kena hujan sangat and luckily cuma hujan renyai2 and berhenti sekejap2. You nak tau kenapa dia beria sangat nak ber BBQ malam ni? Pagi tadi we bought a pizza stone which is a stone made out of high impact ceramic to be used for making pizza base crisper. Stone ni you can use in the oven or in the kettle BBQ, tu yang dia beria nak berBBQ malam ni sebab dia nak cuba masak pizza in it. Kat Australia ni tengah famous wood-fired pizza oven but it’s an outdoor oven and quite expensive lah banding dengan our kettle BBQ. The oven cost ratus ratus dollars while our BBQ only cost us $70 aje, hehehehe…

Our prawn and basil pizza before cooking. Masa tengah masak pizza ni, siap ada lightning lagi tu, but we all duduk kat dalam, the BBQ duduk kat luar and The Other Half pergi lah jenguk2 dia every once a while, hehehehe…

Ini pulak after we’ve cooked it covered for 30 minutes. The edges terhangus sikit cos we are still quite new and tak reti nak adjust the amount of charcoals to be used. Yang dalam foils tu sweet corns and sweet potatoes.

Sebelum di potong. The base was really crispy. Sape yang suka pizza base tebal might not like this kind of pizza lah but for us it was really yummy!

We also BBQed some marinated prawns and fish fillet. Miss 6 yang masa start dinner kata dia tak suka prawns, finished about 5 of them, hehehehe… Rasa arang tu yang buat kan dia sedap kan :-D

Then, tak puas hati dengan masak main meals sahaja, The Other Half masak dessert you on the BBQ. He said he wanted to try baking a cake in there, mana lah tau kan, kot2 jadi. So I  pun made instant brownies and he baked it in the BBQ for 30 minutes. This is how it came out..

It turned out really good actually cuma terhangus at the edges sebab dekat sangat dengan the charcoals.

It’s still crispy outside and chewy inside just like a normal brownies. The Other Half now is so impressed with his kettle BBQ because it can cook anything, hahahaha…. I pun suka hati sebab dah tentu nya from now on, he’ll be happy to cook every Saturday/Sunday on the BBQ :-D.

Smiles anyone?

                      

Some people say they have the same smile like The Other Half and some other people pulak kata they have my smile :-). I guess both of us like to smile for the camera ye so tu yang no one can decide, hehehe… ;-). But The Other Half kata Miss 6 smiles like him and Miss 10 smiles like me… Entah lah, I pun tak pandai nak tengok, hehehe. Yang I tau, selalu nya bila I tengok diaorang, lagi banyak tak macam I dari macam I, hihihihi…Alah, sebenar2 nya since both of them have both of our genes so tu yang kadang2 senyum macam I and kadang2 senyum macam The Other Half. Kalau The Little Misses senyum macam Brad Pitt kang ada pulak yang question their salah silah, wehehehe…

And I rasa the camera angle pun memainkan peranan besar jugak kan. Maybe kalau ambil gambar tu slightly from the right side, they look like me agaknya and maybe kalau ambil gambar tu slightly from the left side, maybe they look like The Other Half. Kalau ambil from front on, Miss 10 looks like anak chinese and Miss 6 looks like anak arab, muahahahaha…..

Psstt…. Another lazy dah of cooking dinner, tu yang tayang gambar entah hape2 and cerita merapu aje. We all makan instant noodles aje malam ni but konon nak bagi fancy sikit, makan dengan pan fried crumbed chicken breast (supermarket mari ye sebab Mummy tak kuasa nak masak, hehehe).

Oh ye.. another psstt.. The Other Half tak suka/merajuk I letak gambar we all last nite tu, sebab dia kata gambar tu nampak sangat yang dia ni geeky and nerdy. Tapi I dah terpost before dia nampak so I malas lah nak tukar gambar lain. Pastu, bila I bagitau semua orang kata dia sweet looking and not geeky, terus dia tak jadi merajuk. Wakakakakakka…..  Tersangat lah vain nya orang itu!

Neighbours and drivers

We have a neighbour who lives opposite our house across the road who loves to play his drums from 8.30 at night till 10+ every night and sometimes longer when he’s pretending to be the Metallica drummer. He thinks he’s good which I kind of agree with (tak lah bagus sangat but banding dengan I, memang lah teramat lah bagusnya, hehehe) But… Kalau tiap2 malam main beat yang sama and then so loud pulak tu, his best fan pun surenya akan naik jelak, betul tak? Even The Little Misses yang tidur in the back room, not facing his house at all pun mengadu tak boleh tidur kadang2 sebab his drumming is too loud! Sometimes, I rasa nak aje pergi knock on his door and complain suruh dia tone it down a bit, geram betul!!!!! Kesian betul sape2 yang duduk betul2 bersebelahan dgn drummer ni, sure every night mengeluh bingit telinga. I hope takde lah babies or toddlers who live around there…. I said to The Other Half, maybe every morning very early, we can turn on the lawnmowers dekat2 bilik tidur dia so baru dia tau what noisy is! Hehehehe…. Memang takde semangat kejiranan langsung lah I ni :-). If he can be noisy at night, kitaorang pun can be noisy early in the morning lah kan, ada aci tak? :-D

And we also have a neighbour belakang rumah we all yang suka jemur kain kat luar at night time. You want to know how I know? Sebab my PC area mengadap the back windows and the back sliding doors and selalunya we all terlupa/termalas nak tutup the blinds on the sliding doors and windows. And a few nights, bila tengah lepak2 men surfing the net, suddenly I can see this light bobbing up and down kat belakang pagar we all. Mula2 tu terkejut jugak lah… Ye lah kan, malam2 tetiba ada lampu bergerak2 kat pagar, hehehe. Then bila di ‘intai’, rupa2nya the light is attached to a headband (macam yang miners selalu pakai tu lah) around this guy’s head and dia tengah menjemur kain, wakakakaka…. Nasib baik belum sempat dial 000 lagi sebab ingat penyamun, phew… ;-D. Kesian dia kan, takde lampu kat belakang rumah dia tu. I pun selalu jugak sidai baju malam2 kat ampaian but ada 1 outdoor lampu kat that area so tak lah takut keluar sorang2, hehehe….

Itu cerita pasal neighbours, now nak cerita pasal drivers pulak. Hari2 nak pergi kerja, I have to drive through the Curtin Uni area. Kalau masa Uni holidays, seronok betul I drive sebab laju aje and tak penat mulut I menyumpah. Tapi bila tengah uni terms, tension selalu I dibuatnya. I rasalah kan, maybe ramai students kat Curtin tu yang hanya ada lesen kedai kopi kot. Especially the asian female drivers (I know I’m one of them but believe me, I’m not as bad as them, hahaha). Ramai giler students kat situ yang tak tau the road rules especially road rules around roundabout. Dah lah kat Curtin tu ada banyak roundabouts so pi lah baca buku the road rules next time before you drive. Ini, pakai masuk aje tak toleh kiri kanan macam Bapak dia punya roundabout aje! Pastu ada pulak tu yang sikit nya lama berenti nak tunggu masuk ke roundabout, macam tunggu orang bentang red carpet aje, hehehe… and I tau lah kat sini memang tak boleh speeding and I pun tak pernah speeding but come on…. It’s a 70 km/h zone so drive lah at that speed. Yang you pegi drive 55-60 aje tu buat apa! And then satu lagi I menyampah, jenis yang kalau driver berborak2 dengan passengers dia and mesti masa tengah borak tu pandang2 the passengers sampai kan bila the lights turn green pun diaorang tak sedar! Banyak lagi sebenar nay my grievance ni but cukup2lah dulu kan. Tu yang I kata, I tak boleh drive kat Malaysia sebab drive kat sini pun I geram sgt2 kadang, lagi lah nanti kalau drive kat M’sia, memang tak berenti lah agaknya mulut I mengomel, hahahahaha….

Kenapa I cerita panjang lebar malam ni? Sebab I takde gambar dinner yang I boleh tayangkan, hehehehe…. The Other Half takde malam ni so I makan leftovers and The Little Misses makan scrambled eggs and sausages and toast aje. Memang dasar pemalas :-D.

Saje nak tayang gambar baju kurung sutera ijo I yang I suruh my Mak carikan dalam gerobok kat kampung. I know I know, masa ni I tengah tembam giler2 punya sebab baru kawin and senang hati takde worries, wahkahkahkahkah… And The Other Half tengah kurus giler2 sebab baru kahwin and makan hati dapat bini macam I, lagi lah wahkahkahkahkahkah… Takde lah, dia pun happy sebenarnya but memang dia kurus sgt2 masa tu :-).

So, you rasalah kan, baju kurung I ni dah kena makan moth ke belum agaknya?

Whose culture?

The Little Misses’ school will be having a “Multicultural Food Festival” in a few weeks time and we were given a note from school saying that it’s a fundraising event as well. Kat dalam note pun tertera, ‘We would appreciate if you supported the College by cooking and donating a popular cultural dish from your country of origin’. So Miss 6 said to me, “You have to cook something Mummy and take it to school but even though we’ve donated the food, we still have to pay for other food! It’s not free!” :-D Wouldn’t it be nice if we can get free food after we’ve donated some food, hehehe….

The question now is, since I’m the head cook in this household, it has to be food from my culture lah ye? Hmmm….popular food….. So many food comes to my mind, from nasi lemak to mee goreng to mee kari to roti canai to karipap to roti jala and kari ayam to nasi impit and kuah kacang or rendang ayam :-). Ini baru sikit aje kan, hehehehe. But one problem remains, kalau nak donate food untuk event macam ni, kenalah buat banyak2 kan! I ni memang tak tau nak masak untuk ramai orang sebab family I kecik aje and I pun bukannya selalu buat jamuan jemput berpuluh2 orang kat rumah ni, hehehe….. But the biggest problem is kemalasan yang surenya akan melanda bila dah dekat2 that day nanti, wahahahaha…. Awal2 macam ni memang excited konon macam2 yang I nak masak for that day but believe me, bila dah dekat nanti, I’ll get so ‘malas and kecut’ to make all the fancy dishes and then will end up just baking cakes or making mee goreng aje, hahahahaha….. I ni sebenarnya seriau nak donate food ni. Kalau I donate food and orang tak pandang and tak nak beli my food langsung, it’ll make me so so sad sebab nampak sangat nanti yang makanan I tak menggiurkan. Takkan lah I nak paksa The Little Misses and The Other Half beli all my food kan just to make me feel happy, hahahaha.

Kan best kalau The Other Half yang head cook kat rumah ni, so bagi dia yang pening pikirkan apa popular food from his culture yang he can donate ;-D. Rasanya kalau I suruh dia cook something, mau nanti, dia pergi derma sausages aje for other people to cook at the event, hehehehe….

But as usual, dinner malam ni (like every other day), I lah yang tukang masak nya. For everyone else I made crumbed pan-fried fish and chips and veges. And for me I made nasi goreng cili api (don’t worry, cuma 3 biji cili api aje I letak :-)) and makan dengan pan fried fish and veges. Itu pun sebab nak habiskan nasi yang berlebih from the other night sebelum basi. I malas nak sumbat nasi tu dalam freezer sebab sikit sangat2, tak berbaloi nak sumbat :-). And jagung tu pulak I ter rebus lama sangat2 (sebab sebok bergayut kat talipon) so jadi kecut terus, hehehe.

Mat Saleh and anak2 mat saleh nya food…

Minah Jawa nya food….

It’s going to be a long wait

You know how when you are eagerly waiting for something to happen, it takes sooooo looong to arrive or to materialise. But then when you are not looking forward to something, sekejap aje dah sampai masanya… The saying in English is “a watched kettle never boils”. But since I tengah ada mental block sekarang, for the life of me, I can’t remember what the equivalent peribahasa is in BM. Anyone cares to tell me? Is it “buah ditunggu takkan gugur” ? Betul ke? Masa SPM dapat A1 tapi my BM sekarang memang rasanya sudah jatuh merundum macam buah durian gugur, hehehe…

Anyway, orang2 kat rumah ni semua tengah biting our nails waiting for November to come (well, maybe not Miss 6 kot :-)). I know I can’t wait for November to arrive. Rasa lambat sangat pulaknya nak sampai ke November ni, hehehe. But at the same time I tak nak lah November datang cepat sangat sebab baju wedding tak siap lagi (punyalah lembab macam kura2 tukang jahit tak bertauliah ni), hehehehe. Such contradictory feelings kan! Apalah I ni! Like I posted in a previous entry, the first round offer for the GATE Program that Miss 10’s applied for will only come out in November. She has already sat the test in August and next month baru offer keluar.Then only we know whether she’s been selected to enter this program at her chosen school or not. Then only we can decide whether we want to move out from this rental property or to stay put or to buy a house or not. Our rent is currently very very cheap so tu yang rasa berat hati sangat nak pindah and nak beli rumah. Especially bila rumah yang we all minat, the asking price was $539,000+. Rumah biasa2 aje pun dah lebih setengah juta! Tak pernah seumur hidup I terbayang yang one day I might have to pay more that setengah juta dollars untuk beli rumah 4 bilik aje, memang tersangat lah tahap melampau nya I think….

Anyway, berbalik to that GATE program. The process to enter the selected schools yang ada program ni lebih kurang macam pilih Uni after SPM lah. If your results are good, you get your first choice university/ program. You get to list down 5 schools that you prefer out of the 12 schools (tak silap lah) yang offer the program. We chose 3 schools South of the River and 2 schools North of the River in that list. So, kalau Miss 10 bernasib baik, she gets her first choice school. Kalau tak bernasib baik, she gets her second choice and so on. Kalau betul betul tak bernasib baik langsung, she won’t get offered any place at all :-((((. Kalau she doesn’t get offered any place, then memang lah definitely we all kena pindah dari sini, hehehe…. So, we are really hoping and praying for the best for her (and us too :-)).

Walaupun risau memikirkan about November, but masak dinner tetap kena teruskan kan, hehehe. Dinner malam ni ingat nak masak fish lagi but The Other Half kata, kalau nak masak fish, dia nak fish n chips. But baru aje haritu makan chips so kenalah tukar menu lain. The easiest is pasta n bolognese sauce lah…

Another lazy Sunday

Nothing interesting to write today, same old same old Sunday :-). Since I takde story mory yang menarik, I’ll just letak gambar aje lah ye…

Our breakfast this morning (breakfast at 10 sebab Sunday kan). Grilled avocado n tomato on toast with banana & berry smoothie. The Little Misses had instant roti paratha insteadt of the grilled bread.

And tetiba tengah hari tadi I merajinkan diri membuat roti sebab bila pergi ‘rumah’ Ika and Hana, tertarik pulak tengok roti kaler ijo kat rumah diaorang. So, I pun buat roti guna resipi donut I and tambah aje pandan paste, hehehe. Separuh doh I buat bun gula and separuh lagi I goreng buat donut. The Little Misses terkejut sekejap tengok donut diaorang kaler ijo, wehehehe…

Untuk dinner pulak I buat beef, veges n cashew stirfry and seafood tomyam (tapi letak kunyit so kaler dia kuning, hahaha)….

And now I nak pergi tengok series ‘Border Securities’ on TV. We all ni jarang tengok TV and this is one of the few we watch every week :-)….

Hot weather and BBQ

We had a really hot summery weather today, it went up to 37C. It was so nice to finally have the aircond on instead of the heater. And obviously lah, it was also the perfect weather to rasmikan our new kettle BBQ. Tak sabar betul The Other Half nak menguji bakat terpendam nya itu and to join the rest of the Aussie men who are in love with their BBQs, hehehehe. Kiranya kalau kat OZ ni, Aussies and BBQs memang tak boleh dipisahkan lah. My hubby pulaknya, baru sekarang nak bermesra2 dengan BBQ after dah berpuluh tahun duduk kat OZ ni :-). Itu pun setelah I membebel bagai nak rak for him to buy the kettle BBQ, baru lah dia beli (kalau I tak ‘paksa’, sampai bila pun we all tak kan ada BBQ ni :-)).

So, this morning before our house hunting trip, The Other Half read the DIY instructions of the BBQ and dengan sorakan2 and some help from the cheering squad, he managed to construct the BBQ without doing anything wrong. You know how some men are with DIY stuff, hehehehe….

Begitu tekun The Other Half membaca the instruction and The Little Misses pulak sibuk cheered him on, hahahaha….

Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at 5 places. Out of the 5 houses, only 1 aje yang menarik minat we all. But it’s got a swimming pool which we rather not have. The Little Misses suka teramat lah with the swimming pool but sape lah yang sanggup nak maintain swimming pool tu anak2 woi! The rest of the house is really nice, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and plenty of room…. But there’s still a lot of things to think about before we buy anything and also there’s still a lot of other houses for us to look at…. That’s ok, we’ll take it slowly…

Balik from the house hunting and after lepak2 sekejap, at 4.30pm, acara yang di nanti2 kan pun bermula. I marinated a whole butterfly chicken with home-made piri piri marinade pagi tadi before we went out so everyone’s was looking foreward to have BBQ piri-piri chicken :-).

Begitu khusyuk The Other Half memerhatikan his brickettes and his charcoals. Penuh konsentrasi, hahahaha….

Miss 6 pun nak ambik gambar jugak standing next to her pea plant. DIa yang tanam pokok pea tu at school last term and sampai sekarang masih dia jaga lagi tu… (And I pulak nak tunjuk the dress yang Miss 6 pakai tu. I made that for Miss 10 about 2 years ago but sekarang Miss 6 yang pakai). Okay lah jugak kan dress yang I buat tu. Masuk bakul angkat sendiri, wehehehe.

Finally, the chicken on the BBQ sebelum di masak…

And ini rupa dia setelah di masak. By the way, The Other Half said to me, tonite all the credits go to him sebab I cuma tukang potong ayam and marinate ayam aje while dia yang ber ‘tungkus lumus’ ber ‘susah payah’ hidupkan BBQ and masak ayam sampai cantik macam tu. So, kalau you all nak puji my dinner tonite, make sure you puji The Other Half ok, and not me, wakakakaka…

Takpelah kan, sekali sekala dia nak dapat nama, kita angguk aje lah, hehehehe…..

Lunch box

 

Semalam pergi melawat ‘rumah’ Shidah, dia cerita about her kids’ lunch boxes. Then I pun baru teringat yang I dah lama jugak tak tunjuk The Little Misses’ lunch boxes yang tiap2 hari I dok prepare for them :-). School dah mula seminggu so memang every night and every morning, 3 lunch boxes have to be packed lah. Hari tu dah cuti sebulan from packing lunch boxes during Ramadhan. Sekarang kena lah start balik…

I love making their lunch boxes during Spring and Summer because of the abundance of gorgeous fresh fruits for them to take. Selalunya before their bedtime, I’ll ask The Little Misses (and The Other Half) to pack their lunch boxes with snacks they want to take. And every nite, I’ll cut up the fruits and put them in the fridge so tak lah kelam kabut pagi2 baru nak buat everything. This week, I perasan yang Miss 10 is going through a ‘I’m so hugry, I can eat anything’ phase, maybe sebab she’s storing all this energy for a growth spurt soon kot. Hari tu, I dah bekalkan dia quite a lot of stuff but she was still hungry so dia pergi kecek Miss 6 nya cupcake. Nasib baik lah Miss 6 masa tu was full already so dapatlah dia sedekah kan her cupcake kat Kakak dia yang masih kelaparan, hehehe. Luckily for Miss 10 yang adik dia goes to the same school kan :-). So, for the past 2 days, I’ve been packing more stuff for Miss 10 and she’s been finishing everything so far. Not a single thing left! Which is quite amazing for Miss 10 to do, hahahaha…. Budak kan, tengah membesar :-)….

Anyway, layan lah gambar their lunch box for today. I made them sausages in bread roll. I dapat recipe kat blog Azie but saje nak buat fancy sikit, I pi potong kecik2 and then cucuk kat lidi sate. The Other Half kata, I terlebih rajin, hehehehe. But The Little Misses love it this way sebab senang for them to makan and celup in the tomato sauce. Tak messy I guess. Then I packed them some fruits, chips, sultanas n nuts, jelly and a choc bar since it’s Friday.

Their typical lunch box for Spring and Summer.

Alamak, we are so so late for school and work already. Habis lah. Ciao for now!

To buy or not to buy

 

The Other Half tengok my blog tadi, baru lah dia terperasan yang I added a title to my entry last nite and dia tak berkenan pulak dengan the font and the colour of the title. Dia kata dia dah terbiasa dengan  my title-less blog so bila nampak title tu rasa macam termasuk blog orang lain aje, hehehe… I said to him, alah, tengok lah berapa lama I’ll keep up with writing a title sebab I ni selalunya warm warm chicken droppings aje, wakakakaka….. (mengamuk cikgu BI I kalau dia terbaca my blog ni).

Ok lah, let me story mory about the title above. A few nights ago, The Other Half and I were discussing about when is the right time to buy a house and the most important question is how much we are willing to spend on a house. Dulu masa we all kat Adelaide, we’ve already bought a house which we had to sell masa we all pindah ke Perth. And then, suddenly the housing price kat Perth ni skyrocketed out of the blue. Tak sanggup we all tengok harga rumah kat sini! Our first house in Adelaide only cost us $150,000 for a 3-bedroom 1 bathroom house. Nak dapat rumah harga tu sekarang kat Perth, we have to live out in the boondocks (kalau translate ke Bahasa Melayu, tinggal kat ceruk hutan jauh from pekan lah). Sekarang ni, at the suburb we are looking at, the median house price for a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom is $450,000!!!! 3 kali ganda dari harga dulu! Nak dekat half a million for a small house. Mana lah tak tercekik tengok harga tu kan :-). Kalau balik Malaysia, boleh jadi millionaire I, hahaha. Sebab itulah we are currently very happy to be renting and saving like mad for a deposit for a house!

Anyway, since The Little Misses are getting bigger, we have to start thinking of the right secondary school for them to go to (I’m talking about public government run schools ok, not private schools) Sekolah kat sini ikut zone, kalau you are not in the right zone, memang susah sangat2 lah nak masuk sekolah yang bagus2 ni. It just so happened, the house we are renting currently falls in the zone of this really really bad high school (memang terkenal dengan the worst kind of students with really really bad morals and attitudes) so tu yang we definitely have to move out of here sebelum The Little Misses masuk high school.

Unless…. Miss 10 gets into the Gifted & Talented program at the public school we are aiming at. Kat sini pun lebih kurang macam kat Malaysia lah, ada special tests for the kids in Year 6 to sit if they want to join the Gifted & Talented programs at certain public high schools. Untuk nak masuk private school with scholarship pun ada test jugak but we all tak berminat pulaknya. But test ni tak wajib, sape yang nak masuk the program aje yang have to sit the test. Sebab cuma ada 600 places aje for these programs. From her school, cuma dia sorang aje yang ambik the test. I guess everyone else wasn’t interested  kot which is a bit sad. She took the tests in early August and 2200 Year 6 students took the tests along with her. November ni will be a nerve wrecking month for us sebab they will start offering the places for these programs next month. So, we will only know whether she gets it or not next month lah….Tadi we just got her test results back and she did really well, much much better than we expected but you never know kan… Hopefully, she’ll get into one of the schools we chose.

Lerr melencong jauh giler, hehehe, biasalah kan :-). Anyway, masa tengah2 berdiskusi tu, we all tried lah this mortgage calculator on the net. Alah, calculator yang asks you for you annual wage and then they’ll calculate how much you can borrow form the bank and how much mortgage you can pay. We all pun letak lah our our earnings…. and then it calculated that we can borrow $1 million dollars from the bank for our mortgage! Terkejut beruk sekejap we all tengok. 1 juta dollars tu bukannya sikit, banyak gilers weihhhhhh…. Macam tak percaya aje kan… Then bila we all tengok balik, patutlah.., rupa2nya they asked for your nett income not your gross income! We all pergi letak gross income, Cisss!!!! Anyway, when we calculated balik, they told us yang we could only borrow $620,000 max from the bank, hehehehe. Punyalah jauh beza kan the gross income and the nett income kat Australia ni. That’s what happens when you pay exorbitant amount of tax!

Anyway, we are going to start house hunting starting from this weekend. I really hate house hunting, so memenatkan and so depressing sometimes…… Beli ke tak, still undecided but we’ll have to start house hunting somewhere and some time, might as well start now, betul tak? :-)

Ya Rabbi, panjang gilers entry malam ni. Nasib baik ada title kan, kalau tak, sure orang dah malas nak baca, hahahahaha…

Ok lah, sebelum you all terlelap, meh I tayang our dinner tonite. Burger and chips, easy peasy lemon squeezy…. :-)

To add title or not to add title

 

I rasa dah nak dekat 2 tahun I dok berblogging, adalah agaknya 2-3 entries aje yang ada title or something resembling a title. Bila I blog-hopped, I tengok most bloggers have titles for their entries which I think make it nicer and kalau title tu interesting, make people more prone to read it kan :-). The reason I tak letak title selama ni was because I sentiasa terlupa nak letak title, hehehe. Bila dah publish baru teringat, pastu dah malas lah nak edit balik kan! I think maybe I should start adding titles to my entries so I can generate more interest in my blog, betul tak? ;-). But I ni memang bukan a story teller so nak come up with interesting titles for my entries rasanya will take up a lot of time. Ye lah, kalau boleh nak lah letak a catchy title ye tak, but nak invent catchy titles, something short and sweet (macam the owner of the blog ;-)) tu I rasa susah lah jugak, hehehe…..

And most of my entries pun campur2 segala macam cerita so nak choose 1 title to sum up the entry will be even more difficult lah kan. Mau nanti the title lagi panjang dari the story mory, hahaha… I think I will letak title bila teringat and kalau takde title tu maknanya I lupa or I can’t come up with anything short nor sweet :-).

Tadi after The Other Half came back from work, all of us went for a walk around the block. I had already made dinner masa tu which was cooking in the oven so tu yang boleh keluar jalan2 with them. Kalau tak, selalunya diaorang keluar jalan2 sedut udara segar while Mummy terperap kat dapur bermain dengan periuk belanga cooking dinner :-). And sebagai blogger yang dedicated, I took my camera along. Some photos of the plants around our area and some photos of The Little Misses and The Other Half (sebab dah 6 hari I tak letak gambar The Little Misses kan, so ada pulak orang yang rindu, hehehe).

A small cherry blossom tree across the road from our house.

The Little Misses buat aksi lawak ;-)

A bottle-brush tree. It’s called that sebab bunga dia sebiji macam berus botol susu tu.

The three stooges :-).

And this was the dinner that was cooking merrily in the oven while we went for our walk.

Baked honey mustard chicken wings with mashed potato and plenty of vegetables. Penuh satu pinggan tu dengan vegetables tonite, hehehe. We had baked asparagus, baked pumpkin (ini vegetable kan?), steamed carrot and corn on the cob.

Malas nya nak masuk ofis balik after cuti berhari2 since minggu lepas. But esok The Little Misses dah start sekolah so I pun kena lah start keje balik kan, hehehe. I tanya The Other Half, boleh tak I nak jadi Lady of Leisure again. Dia kata boleh aje tapi ada syarat2 nya. Lepas dia huraikan syarat2nya (which is not much pun), terus tak jadi pulak I nak jadi Lady of Leisure ni. Apa syarat2nya? Adalah, hehehehe….. ;-).

This will be The Little Misses’ last term at school for this year but they’ll be going to school for 8 weeks aje this term pun sebab the final 2 weeks of term, The Little Misses will ponteng sekolah dek bercuti. Macam sekolah Mak Bapak diaorang aje kan mandai2 cuti panjang, hahahaha… Apa nak buat, dah kampung jauh so kadang2 terpaksalah ponteng sekolah kan ;-).

And for dinner pulak, smoked salmon from semalam still ada lagi and the easiest thing to use up the smoked salmon would be in sushi. But I terlupa pulak nak beli nori sheets tadi untuk buat sushi gulung, yang tinggal cuma 3 keping aje, mana lah cukup kan untuk balut 2 cawan beras. Then The Other Half kata kita buat sushi cake aje which is square sushi. But I takde acuan yang betul so tak lah jadi betul2 square and tak mampat. Bila tak mampat/padat, bila potong tak cantik lah.

And then I buat sushi balls and drape the nori pieces on the omelet. Jadi lah kan sikit2 bentuk nya, hehehe….

I borak2 dgn my Mak I tadi about this upcoming wedding in December. I asked her to selongkar my lemari kat her house to search for a green baju kurung for me to wear on that day. I said to her yang if I’m not mistaken, I ada baju kurung sutera in green which I’ve put away somewhere. Baju ni last I pakai probably 13 tahun dulu kot masa I graduate and masa Raya after that. My Mak kata, “Entah2 dah kena makan dengan moth or anai2, sikit nya lama tersimpan!” Kalau dah kena makan moth, ada lah yang nanti masa wedding tu pakai baju seksi berlubang2 kan, hehehehe…. Itulah yang susah nya bila duduk overseas ni, macam mana lah I nak cari baju kurung warna hijau kat sini kan! Tu lah, dulu Mak I nak ajar buat baju kurung, I beria2 tak mahu belajar, sekarang kan sendiri yang susah, hehehehe. Kalau I tanya my Mak, pakai dress hijau ok tak agaknya? , you rasa ada tak nanti yang kena jeling? ;-) …. Terpaksalah I suruh my kakak or adik or Mak carikan baju kurung hijau for me and terpaksalah I berserah sepenuhnya ikut cita rasa diaorang……

Pagi ni pun I spent it cutting and sewing more pants and the dresses sampai sakit belakang I. So terpaksalah The Other Half jadi tukang urut and doctor tak bertauliah and bagi I half day MC hari ni from further sewing-related activities and from cooking dinner, yeay!!! hahahahaha…. But since I dah masak for lunch hari ni, tu yang dia masak dinner :-). But I terlupa pulak nak ambil gambar pasta yang dia masak tadi (but gambar lunch yang I masak, I ingat pulak nak ambil gambar, hehehe)..

Our western lunch today. Croissants with scrambled eggs, sauteed mushroom n tomatoes and smoked salmon.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the school holidays. The Little Misses will go back to school on Tuesday again. They’ve been really good this holiday, they were quite happy playing together without too much arguing or bickering. But I think they can’t wait to go back to shcool again to play and be among their own friends their age :-). And the next time school holiday comes, we will hopefully be in M’sia already having our long awaited holidays…..

The whole day today was spent surrounded by cloth and patterns! Dari pagi sampai ke maghrib, bergelumang dengan kain :-). Tapi kan, nampak sangat bukan pro nya, kalau professional tailor satu hari suntuk bergelumang dgn kain, sure dah berhelai2 baju siap. But since I ni masih amatur, baru 2 helai seluar yg siap. How come tiba2 buat seluar? Because The Other Half nak pakai thin cotton pants untuk lepak2 and buat kerja around the house kat M’sia nanti. Masa I balik M’sia haritu, I nampak my brother pakai seluar buat dari kain pelikat. And since The Other Half ada berlambak2 kain pelikat yang dia memang tak kan pakai(gifts from relatives kat M’sia), I might as well convert them to pants yang gerenti dia akan pakai kan. Dari tersimpan aje dalam plastic kutip habuk kan. What’s happening with the flower girls’ dresses you might ask? The dresses tak siap lagi sebab I have to make a few readjustments and alterations to the patterns, so tu yang lambat tahap siput tu. Takpelah kalau lambat macam kura2 asalkan siap betul tak, hehehe…

And since I tak keluar ke mana2 hari ni, I felt like having a big lunch. So, I made nasi goreng makan dengan sambal ikan bilis, keropok goreng and sate goreng and also jemput2 udang. Sate goreng ni from sate daging and ayam balance from the other day yang I froze. Kan my icebox ni magic so bila terasa nak makan sate, tinggal bukak freezer and voila! keluar sate, wehehehehe… But malas nak cucuk, I goreng aje lah. The Little Misses like it this way better sebab diaorang kata senang nak makan :-).

So, bila dah makan a big lunch, semua orang tak lalu nak makan a big dinner lah. Which was fine by me sebab I cuma buat toasted cheese sandwich aje, hehehe….

Oh lupa nak cerita, tadi I suruh The Other Half beli charcoal kettle BBQ kat KMart cos it was on sale. Alah, kettle BBQ ni yang bulat and bertutup tu but instead of using gas, it uses charcoal. The Other Half kata dia tak nak BBQ yang guna gas sebab, his reason was, “I want my food to have the charcoal smell when we have a BBQ. It taste much nicer :-).” And since dia yang akan masak kat BBQ tu, let him get what he wants lah kan ;-).

Can’t wait for nice weather now so we can rasmikan our new BBQ. The Other Half dah berangan nak masak macam2 in it, wahkahkahkahkah…. We’ll wait and see right ;-). (Most probably I lah yang have to do all the work from buying the meat/chicken to cutting it to marinating it) but he’ll be the one standing next to the BBQ feeling so proud of his creation, hahahaha…. :-).

Masa I kecik2 dulu, I used to watch my Mak menjahit using mesin jahit yang guna kaki tu. Masa tu rasa best betul kalau I dapat menjahit sama. And then bila I dah besar sikit and my Mak nak ajar I jahit baju kurung, terus I tolak awal2 sebab langsung I tak minat menjahit ni. Masa tu, I cuma akan pegang benang and jarum untuk jahit baju I yang terkoyak aje :-). And then with studies and work and life, I didn’t have time to belajar menjahit nor getting interested in sewing.

Then when we permanently moved to Adelaide, a friend of ours gave her old Singer sewing machine to us sebab she wanted to get a newer model. Masa tu I terima aje lah sebab orang dah bagi kan and then at that time I thought, boleh jugak I guna untuk jahit baju yang terkoyak or untuk naikkan hem. The first thing yang I self thought was how to jahit lurus. Sebelum tu, I tak pernah berjaya nak jahit lurus, mesti bengkang bengkok segalanya. Jahit hem curtain yang lurus tu aje pun herot berot you, sampai membuatkan my Mak tension aje kalau I tolong dia menjahit, hehehehe…. I ingat lagi, punyalah gembira hati I the first time I berjaya jahit lurus. But I was so stupid at first, manalah I tau yang kat every machine ada markers to make sure you sew straight! Bila I ‘terjumpa’ markers tu, baru lah senang hidup I when it comes to jahit lurus ni :-).

Pastu bila hati dah berkobar2 and bersemangat nak menjahit, I enrolled in a 5-week beginners sewing course (3 hrs/week aje pun). Masa tu lah I belajar menjahit guna patterns yang ready-made tu. From zero knowledge to quite a bit of knowledge which is amazing for me :-). And strating from then, setiap kali ada sale on the sewing patterns, macam2 patterns I beli. And bila ada sale kain aje, macam2 jugak I beli, hehehe… And then, I share beli overlocker dengan my MIL, lagi lah bersemangat terus I nak menjahit kan, hehehe. Banyak jugak lah benda2 yang I dah buat but mostly the girls’ pants, shorts, dresses, skirts and adults’ pants. Dulu bila I balik M’sia, mesti I buat something for my nieces. But yang tak best nya, since I cuma ambik beginners lessons aje, sampai sekarang ni, I cuma boleh jahit baju bila ada patterns sahaja. kalau takde patterns, jangan harap lah I reti nak membuat nya :-).

The sedih part is, since about a year ago, I’ve stopped sewing. Note: cuma berhenti sewing aje, beli patterns and kain masih diteruskan, hahahaha….. Tak tau lah kenapa, suddenly the motivation wasn’t there :-(. Even The Other Half pun selalu jugak tanya bila I nak mula buang habuk from the top of the sewing machine and the overlocker, cisss……

But a few days ago, I dah start kemas2 my sewing area and dah start sapu2 habuk and dah start keluarkan patterns and ironing the patterns :-). Ini semua disebabkan I baru tersedar yang it’s already October and the wedding is in December, which is only 2 months away!

Agggggghhhhh!!!!

Baru lah I terasa nak nangis sebab I masih belum siap buat the flower girls’ dresses! I’ve managed to cut 3 so far, so there’s 5 more to go! But luckily lah I cuma buat the simplest dress so hopefully it won’t take that long to finish them. But I will be extra busy lah for the next few weeks especially on weekends until lah all the dresses are done. I takut jadi macam tukang jahit kat M’sia masa bulan puasa aje, sampai malam sebelum Raya pun masih lagi sibuk menjahit baju! Tak ke haru kalau pagi2 wedding day tu I still lagi tersengguk2 depan mesin jahit, wahkahkahkahkah…. Macam mana I nak bergaya jadi penyambut tetamu macam tu kan ;-).

A dressmaker busy at work, hehehehe…..

Bila dressmaker busy (entah kat mana busy nya pun I tak tau lah tu), dinner pun yang simple sangat2 lah..

Our dinner tonite, quesadillas.  Yang meleleh2 keluar inbetween the tortilla bread tu is a mixture of melted cheese and bolognaise sauce :-). We had it with corn on the cob and fries…

My N3 tonite is not going to be about us or about our dinner but about a special book written by a special person (ni kira N3 mempromosi buku lah ni, hehehe). The author kata since blog I ni popular (wahahahaha) so kiranya a very good medium lah for her to promote her book. Wei Sheri, I won’t be held responsible tau kalau because I promote your book tetiba the sale terus jatuh merundum! But I really hope and pray that the sale of this book will suddenly skyrocket lah kan (then bolehlah you belanja I makan, hehehe).

This book is a children’s book but very educational as well. It’s titled “Nabil and Puteri Nutrisi” and it’s in Malay. Ini gambar front cover of this book. The author is the tuan rumah of this blog.

I’ll just write down the synopsis ok…

“Mengisahkan tentang seorang budak lelaki obese berusia 12 tahun yang bernama Nabil. Nabil amat gemar makan sehingga menyebabkan dirinya menjadi obese. Nabil sering diejek oleh rakan2 sekolah nya yang lain kerana keadaan fizikalnya yang gemuk dan tidak mampu berlari seperti orang lain.

Walaupun telah dinasihati oleh ibubapanya, Nabil tetap mengambil makanan yang tidak berkhasiat dan mengabaikan kesihatan dirinya sehinggalah pada suati hari Nabil bertemu dengan seorang puteri cantik dari planet asing bernama Puteri Nutrisi. Puteri Nutrisi didatangkan khas dari planet ini untuk membantu Nabil menguruskan badan dan megamalkan gaya hidup yang sihat. Puteri tersebut banyak menasihati Nabil tetapi Nabil tetap berdegil. Puteri Nutrisi juga turut membawa Nabil ke masa depan  dengan harapan Nabil akan insaf dan berusaha untuk mengubah dirinya menjadi lebih sihat.

Apakah yang berlaku seterusnya? Mampukah Puteri Nutrisi menasihati Nabil supaya mengubah tabiat pemakanannya dam mengamalkan gaya hidup sihat? Atau adakah Nabil tetap meneruskan sikap degilnya dan tidak mengendahkan segala nasihat Puteri tersebut?”

Was that the longest I’ve ever typed in Malay? Terkejut sekejap jari jemari I menaip perkataan2 melayu ;-).

So, to everyone out there, please have a look at this book and buy it for your kids, your nieces, nephews, anak sedara sepupu, cucu sedara, cucu sendiri, anak jiran sebelah rumah and sesiapa saje lah ye. Sebab ini salah satu cara our kids learn about healthy eating and exercise. If they start young, it’s much easier for them to learn kan. I think you can get it at any book stores in M’sia. But if you want further information about the book, you can ask the author yourself at her blog ye. No, tukang promote ni tak dapat royalty ye apa2, hehehe….

And since I’ve promoted Sheri’s book, The Other Half said to me, “When are you going to promote my book then?” Lerr, merajuk pulak dia sebab I tak promote his book, hehehe. Actually kan, I should promote his book jugak kan sebab if he gets the royalty, I’ll get the habuan jugak! Ye lah, duit dia duit I, duit I duit dia, so kalau lagi banyak buku dia get sold, lagi kaya lah I which means lagi best lah I nak pergi bershopping, wahahahhahaha……

Nanti2 lah I promote his book. Sure nya ramai kan accounting students out there…..

Today she finally reaches the big 6 (after berbulan2 dia menunggu, hehehe). She was so excited bangun pagi tadi sebab she said she felt like she’s grown overnite, from a small girl to a big girl, macam2 lah budak2 ni kan :-). Ye lah, being 6 is definitely much better than being 5 kan ;-). Masa kecik2 ni lah they are so eager to tell people their age and so excited everytime their birthday comes. Bila dah sampai umur macam I ni pulak, everytime people tanya my age, I dengan sopan nya akan menepis soalan itu and distract them with another question, wehehehehe….

Since it’s Miss 6’s birthday, N3 hari ni will be about her aje lah ye :-)…

Muka The Little Misses baru bangun pagi…

And as promised, I made her the love-shaped cake with buttercream and very simple deco. Yang nak makan nya pun we all aje so simple is better in my opinion (ye lah, sebab I ni bukannya pro in cake decorating ni so itulah motto yang paling sesuai for me, hahahaha).

Simple kan, but she loved it so much which made me so happy :-).

Then, we had a very cosy picnic dinner at the playground to celebrate her birthday. The weather was gorgeous again today so picnic aje lah yang paling sesuai with weather like this. This is the nice bit about Perth ni, even though weekdays, ramai jugak yang berpicnic at the playground tadi with their families. And the best part was, The Other Half and I could lepak2 sambil borak2 at the picnic table while The Little Misses entah berlari kemana2 at the playground without worrying about The Little Misses going missing. Kalau kat M’sia, I rasa tak berani langsung I lepa from watching them…. Maybe it’s just me aje kot feeling that way…

Layan lagi lah ye gambar at the playground…

The Other Half perasan he looked cute in this photo. He said, “Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t shave because it makes me look rugged and cute!” Wehehehehe, I sebagai isteri mithali, angguk aje lah kan ;-).

It was quite hilarious taking family photos ni sebab we all malas nak suruh orang lain tolong ambilkan gambar we all so we searched for places where we can sit nicely and there’s a place for us to put the camera on even though jauh (sebab lupa bawak tripod, hehehe). So, adalah a few other photos yang bermacam2 pose sebab The Other Half terpaksa berlari dgn lajunya to race the camera’s timer :-). But I think he did a good job with the photos.. (No, we didn’t use the DSLR, cuma guna digital camera biasa aje :-)).

This was still at the playground area, playground tu kat atas bukit, yang ni kat bawah bukit aje. And air tu sungai, the Swan River, bukan laut but so pretty kan, nampak macam kat beach aje ye tak….

The Little Misses tak sabar tunggu the cake cutting ceremony, hehehe….

It was a really nice day, quiet but still fun as well :-).