Last day of Summer holidays…

The last day of Summer hols is finally here! Esok The Little Misses will start their day at their new school. The Other Half will be taking a day off esok to send them as well. Hopefully takde sapelah yang akan berlinang air mata, hikhikhik… Masa Miss 10 and Miss 6 first started full time school/kindy dulu pun I tak menangis on the first day, lagi lah sekarang kan after so many years, hehehehe…..

Is it because I ni bukan seorang Mum yang terlebih2 penyayang ke sebab tu I tak nangis?? Or maybe sebab I tengok The Little Misses happy aje at school sebab tu I tak nangis??? Hmmm… I wonder which one, hehehehe ;-). Kat WA ni, you start with Kindy then Pre-Primary before you go to Year 1. Kat South Australia dulu for Miss 10, she started with Kindy then Reception before she entered Year 1. Miss 6 is starting Year 2 tomorrow and Miss 10 is starting Year 7 tomorrow and I pray with all my heart that they’ll enjoy their new school, find good friends and have the best years there.

I pulak yang rasa nervous for them sebab for budak2 besar tu, the most important thing at school for them is to have friends kan. Miss 10 lah yang sure nya akan terasa sangat2 sebab sure lah all her classmates dah ada their own cliques or gangs or bestest friends kan whom they would have known from Kindy and she’ll be the new kid on the block. We’ve ‘adviced’ them not to rush in making friends, to just take their time in getting to know their classmates (and stay far away from the troublesome ones!!!).

We went to their school the other day to look at the list of class placements. Bila tengok Miss 10’s class list, banyak nama on the list yang bukan ‘mat saleh’  sounding names, mostly asian sounding surnames, hehehehe… Same goes with Miss 6’s class list. But the other Year 7’s and Year 2’s classes have more mat saleh’s names. Hmmm… that makes me wonder. Do they group all the non mat salehs into 1 class? Tak kan lah kan, maybe just me being paranoid kot. Because both The Little Misses have Mat Saleh surnames :-D. Nak sedapkan hati I, I told The Other Half yang Miss 10’s class ramai asian names sebab asians kan yang pandai2 ni so tu yang she got put in that class pandai, hikhikhik… Most probably her classmates tu semua yang got accepted into the GATE program nanti kat high school, tu yang they group them together kot. Pandai2 aje I speculate, hehehe…..

Anyway, malam tadi as usual on a Summer Saturday, we had BBQ. Lamb chops BBQ to be precise.

Cooking merrily on the Barbie.

We had the lamb chop with cheesy muffin, warm potato salad and sauteed veges. My lamb chop tu nampak gelap sebab I marinated them in kicap, honey, garlic, grated ginger, garam, fresh parsley and a sprinkle of chilli powder. Kira nya asian marinate but makan dgn western side dishes lah :-).

Ini pulak Australian ‘kasui’, hehehe. It’s lamington which The Little Misses have been asking me to make for a long time. Since esok dah nak sekolah so I made it for them to take to school for after lunch.

Malam ni, bermula lah kerja I as a makcik kantin again… Tiap2 malam/pagi kena buat bekal for The Little Misses to take to school.

Friday and finally…..

I nak tunjuk kat you a few photos…

Resipi ayam goreng berempah ni boleh dapat kat rumah Love. Dia ni memang pandai masak ayam, macam2 resipi dia ada :-)

Ini pulak daging prune. Kalau nak resipi boleh pergi rumah Kak Liza yang memang terer masak segala macam dishes and nasi!

You rasa lah kan, apasal I masak segala macam lauk ni ye? Sebabnya…..

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Nak makan dengan ini, hehehehe…. Finally….. bersua juga kita akhirnya ye dengan butiran beras ni, hahahaha

Malam tadi sebelum nak tidur, I asked The Other Half, “Do you want rice for dinner tomorrow nite?” His answer was “Oh well, why not! It’s been 4 weeks now and I feel like having rice.” I was like, whoa!!! He’s agreed to having rice which means….. Yeahhhhhhhh, hidup anak Jawa, kita menang!!!!! Muahahahaha….

Actually I ‘threatened’ The Other Half yang kalau dia tak mengaku kalah, I won’t cook nice delicious western food for him anymore, hikhikhikhik.. So, dia pun dengan segera nya lah conceded defeat to this anak Jawa sebab nak continue makan delicious western food cooked by me, wehehehe. Takde lah, yang sebnar benarnya he’s just being a gentleman letting the lady wins :-D.

But masa I tengah served dinner tadi, The Little Misses were so shocked to see rice being served. Miss 6 terus tanya, “I thought you guys are not eating rice ever?” Hehehehe.. And then, Miss 10 makan beria, habis 1 pinggan without any complaints and Miss 6 siap bertambah lagi, wakakakaka. SIan betul anak2 I ni kan, rindu banget kat nasi :-D.

But, I’m feeling a bit sick now sebab bila dah sebulan tak makan nasi and suddenly makan macam there’s no tomorrow, perut I rasa sendat semacam and rasa sebu and rasa pening aje.

Apa lah I ni, padan muka! Hehehe…

Tu lah, lain kali buat lagi kerja tak berfaedah ni, hah, kan dah sakit, hikhikhikhik……

What accent?

We have 2 Australians in this house but it’s very rare to hear pure Aussie accents coming out of their mouths.

When The Other Half talks, no one can figure out what accent it is :-). Some says American, some says Canadian tapi tak pernah orang kata dia Kiwi, hehehe. I guess when you were born a Kiwi but grew up in OZ, you tend to lose your Kiwi accent but not taking up the Aussie accent fully and then married to an Asian so bercampur aduk lah sikit ;-).

Miss 6 pulak is a true blue Aussie but she didn’t go to a nursery when she was young. I looked after her from birth until she entered Kindy. So, in a way, she learned to talk listening to me (which is a mixture of Malaysian and Aussie accent). Pastu, bila masuk sekolah, masuk pulak sekolah Islamic yang penuh dengan budak2 berbagai bangsa and languages. So, memang tak develop sangat lah her OZ accent tu.

Miss 10 pulak grew up listening to BM mostly until we moved to Adelaide. But she straight away went to a nursery yang penuh dengan Aussies and then pergi kindy and primary school yang penuh dengan Aussies as well. Masa tu memang pure OZ accent yang keluar dari mulut dia, hehehe…. But now, after so many years mixing with kids with English as their second language, her cadence has changed a bit. Tak lah pure sangat OZ nya.

But bila balik Malaysia, memang kadang2 kena gelak dengan sedara mara sebab they talk ‘funny’. Ye lah kan, bila dah selalu dengar kat TV American accent and dah terbiasa dengan American accent, bila dengar Aussie accent memang lah funny kan, hehehehe…..But it’s quite interesting with Miss 10, bila balik M’sia, she’ll still speak English but kadang2 dia tukar cara cakap dia ke ala2 gaya Manglish sikit. Maybe dia dengar cousins dia cakap macam tu so dia pun terikut2 lah :-). Miss 6 bila dengar kakak dia cakap lain sikit, dia pun ikut lah, hehehe.

Why this ramblings, saje je sebab I letak video kat bawah ni of Miss 6 reading Dr. Seuss. You be the judge whether she’s got Aussie accent or not.

Presenting Miss 6 reading Dr. Seuss ‘Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now!’

Sorry lah, terlebih panjang pulak video ni. She wanted to read a longer Dr. Seuss but I pujuk her to read a shorter story instead. Kalau tak, mau berjanggut lah I tunggu video ni nak upload!

Bulb and breadmaker

I’m so excited today baca all your comments regarding my fireworks photos. I really do appreciate all the encouraging comments, terasa sangat2 betapa berbaloi lah pergi kursus tu, hehehe. I’m very happy with my first try at taking gambar bunga api ni. And it was really exciting last night setting up the tripod and setting up the camera to the right mode for fireworks. Now, if only I had a cable release for the camera, life would have been wonderful! Tak payah lah I had to tekan the shutter button for a long time and chook the camera while doing that.

To amateurs like me yang nak tau what mode I used for the fireworks last night. This was what I was taught. Kat DSLR camera tu ada ‘bulb’ function. Yang I tau ‘bulb’ ni will let the shutter open as long as you press the shutter button. Tu yang lagi bagus kalau ada remote switch sebab tak lah penat jari you menekan butang tu and avoid camera shake. And most important memang kena ada tripod lah. So last night, banyak lah tripods were set up around us and berlambak2 DSLRs in action, so tak lah terasa malu sgt I sbb nampak sgt2 sungguh lah amateur nya :-). And then I opened the aperture at it’s widest for my camera and I used ISO 100 and tak pakai flash. And I cuma guna my standard lens aje. And then you just wait and hoped for the best after that, hahaha… I think I still need to tweak the adjustment here and there to make the photos better or maybe I kena beli wide-angled lens kot (which I still tak mampu lagi nak beli :-)). Wei, kalau duit tak jadi hal and bini millionaire, memang macam2 accessories camera ni I nak beli, hehehe….

But tengah2 excited tu, ada cerita sedih berlaku :-((. I masak pizza for dinner hari ni. I know baru aje kan makan pizza on Sunday hari tu, tapi sebab I malas sgt2 nak masak and masak pizza ni mudah and sudah gerenti semua orang makan, tu yang I buat pizza again. Anyway, I pun suruh lah cik BM I menguli doh pizza tu. Pastu, bila dah siap uli and dah naik the dough, I pun keluarkan lah untuk di canai. Then I noticed yang the plastic paddle on the breadmaker dah patah dua! Sedih giler masa tu sebab kenangkan betapa berjasa paddle ni kat we all. Nasib baik lah ada 1 lagi metal paddle so tak lah terbantut kerja kilang roti kat rumah ni :-). Plastic paddle ni memang dah lama retak menunggu belah aje so tu yang tak terkejut sangat bila dia patah. Nak kena tunggu esok untuk call HQ Breville kat Sydney untuk cari sparepart. Sementara nak dapat sparepart baru, kenalah I guna metal paddle aje for the time being…

Our chicken and pineapple pizza. Yang ni the kids and I punya, thin crispy base. The Other Half suka yang thick base macam roti tu so I made him pizza yang tebal.

Australia Day and fireworks

It’s Australia Day today and since there’s 2 Aussies in the house (and since it’s a cuti day), we spent the day celebrating it by watching cricket on TV, having chicken sangers and chips at a picnic and watching fireworks in the city. Uish, ada sesape ke yang paham my Aussie slang ni? hehehehe…. Sape yang nak tau tu, cricket is a game and not the insect. Hari ni the game was a one-day game between Australia and Pakistan and Australia won the game. Sangers pulak is Aussie talk for sandwiches and chips are chips :-).

And I finally managed to capture some nice photos (well I think they are nice for someone like me :-)) of the fireworks which I’m so happy with. Nasib baik lah pergi the course sebelum pergi tengok fireworks kan, kalau teh other way round, memang hampeh lah my photos, hehehehe…. Even The Other Half pun kata, tak sia2 dia suruh I gi the DSLR course, wahahahaha….

And before we watched the fireworks, we took The Little Misses to go on some rides in the city..

Yes, we’ve got camels here in Australia. We even have wild camels here which if I’m not mistaken they are exporting to the Middle East, hehehe…

I think she looks so sweet in this face painting of a mask :-).

Adik dia kan true blue Aussie so gambar kangaroo yang dia nak on her face, hehehe..

Sekali pandang macam muka catwoman tengah panjat dinding nak menceroboh masuk rumah orang aje kan. Dua kali pandang baru macam rupa Miss 10, hikhikhik…

Tak puas naik camel, naik pony pulak nya..

We all pun ada Eye of Perth :-)…

And now, jeng jeng jeng…. My fireworks pictures :-)

I know it’s not the best shots of fireworks but for a beginner like me, I’m happy. I malas betul nak touch up kat photoshop sebab dah mengantuk. Kalau I touch up, agaknya lagi lah ‘wow’ ye, hehehe…

Duck and the girls

We had some errands to do this morning so The Other Half took a day off today (and he’s happy sebab he’s having a 4-day weekend :-)). Lepas dah selesai the errand we all pun bawak lah The Little Misses to the park to reduce their boredom and spend some energy in the last week of their school holidays. Esok is Australia Day, we are going to watch the fireworks which they can’t wait to see. We all ni jarang betul tengok fireworks ni so bila dapat tengok sekali sekala, memang lah terasa macam best aje kan :-). And sambil tu boleh lah I try test cuba my camera skills ambik gambar fireworks esok, hehehe… Malam ni kena read a few sites on how to take photos of fireworks. The Other Half dah serahkan bulat2 kat I bab2 baca manual and baca ‘how to’ ni, hikhikhik.

So, seperti biasa, masa kat the playground, I pun jadi papparazzi tak bertauliah. Kat Australia ni (probably in a lot of other countries as well), taking photos of other peoples’ kids without their parents’ permissions is a No No so masa ambik gambar The Little Misses tadi, memang make sure takde ramai kids around. Ye lah, kang kena sergah dengan the parents, tak pasal2 pulaknya. It’s a bit leceh lah jugak kan but I can understand why. I pun tak nak lah kalau orang tak kenal tak pasal2 ambik gambar my daughters, takut jugak!

Anyway, sebelum melencong jauh, layan lah gambar The Little Misses at the park…

I know I know, ini bukan gambar The Little Misses but gambar itik yang di kejar dek The Little Misses. Punyalah banyak itk2 yang berkeliaran kat the park. So, bila banyak dah bayak itik, banyak lah droppings nya. Nasib baik lah ada picnic rug, so selamat lah my bum from sitting on the yucky stuff, hehehe. You rasa, kalau I buat nasi itik pakai itik ni, ok tak? Wakakakakaka…tak sanggup I nak makan itik ni after knowing what it’s eaten :-).

 

Nah engkau, sekali I tempek gambar diaorang, banyak2 terus, hikhikhikhik….

And below, gambar our dinner tonite. Char Kway Teow versi tukar2 ingredients and versi mixed seafood instead of kerang. Mana weh nak cari kerang kat sini, mussels and clams banyak lah…

Versi jauh sikit…

 

And versi dekat sikit :-)…

Dragon and drumsticks

It was such a nice BBQ weather today so we invited a few friends over and had a BBQ lunch. The Other Half is defintely chuffed sebab he’s getting better at BBQing. Masa tengah makan tu, dia bisik2 kat I, “I so love our BBQ. The chicken tastes nicer, the pizza tastes nicer..Ahhh..the smoky charcoal flavour…” Hehehehe…

Tapi bila dah sibuk2 hidangkan all the food and sibuk2 nak makan, lupa pulak nak ambik gambar dekat The Other half’s yummy BBQ piri piri chicken drumsticks and pizza. Well…. I yang buat the piri piri marinade and buat the pizza but dia bertungkus lumus masak :-)). I only took gambar jarak jauh aje (lebih kurang macam papparazi but without the telefoto lens lah tapi nya, hehehe).

And since gambar the food tak mengghairahkan, I tayang gambar lain lah ye :-).

I think I’ve mentioned before that Miss 10 has been going painting every Saturday and she’s been painting war models. Last year, when she got accepted into the GATE program, her Nana (aka my MIL) gave her a present which is a dragon model which she’s been eyeing for for so long. So, since balik from M’sia nearly a month ago, she’s been painting the dragon every Saturday and it’s been progressing really well. She normally spends about 3 hours painting it at the shop each time. Kalau I lah kan, sure dah sakit2 tengkuk and dah berpinar2 mata sebab kena tunduk aje and kena paint it in minute details. Tu yang bila dia painting, I pun pergi shopping :-). Much better to spend my time, hehehe…

Layan lah gambar her dragon..

The dragon was originally gray. Then she had to put the black base colour before she can colour it with other colours.

I think it’s quite a good job for a 10 year old. I know I don’t have this much patience to do all the details. Probably Miss 10 ni kalau suruh decorate cakes or cupcakes, sure jadi cantik agaknya kan sebab she can do all the tiny details yang Mummy dia malas nak buat, hehehehe…

Transformers, burger and Summer fruits

We’ve just finished watching ‘Transformers’ on the ‘big screen’.. Man, it was good :-). Percaya tak, orang lain dah berpuluh kali watched Transformers, I baru tengok first time tadi, hehehe. Tak dapat tengok kat panggun wayang tapi dapat tengok kat dinding, dah ok sangat2 tu, hikhikhik. Have I told you how much we love our projector? :-D. (but Miss 6 calls it rejector instead of projector!).

The movie really brought back my childhood memories watching cartoon transformers on TV. Memang minat giler2 kat Transformers masa kecik2 dulu, siap boleh hafal lagu thema dia lagi, hehehe… Pastu siap gaduh lagi adik beradik sebab gaduh berebut nak jadi autobots yang mana satu, hahahahaha… gelak betul lah :-D. But The Other Half tak membesar dengan cartoon transformers ni so dia memang tak tau sangat lah jalan ceritanya. Sian dia kan ;-)….

I can’t borak panjang2 malam ni sebab The Other Half dah panggil to watch another movie. The Little Misses have gone to bed and now we can watch what we want :-).

Layan gambar our dinner tonite, beef burger with egg (ada rupa macam burger kat gerai kat M’sia tak? hehehe).

 

 

Ini pulak saje nak tunjuk why I like Summer, because of the abundance of Summer fruits. Ada banyak lagi Summer fruits but tak beli pulak tadi. The best would definitely be cherries, so sweet and juicy, tapi season dia quite short so memang kena makan puas2 :-). Next would be white nectarine (yang warna dark red kat atas pisang tu). Ini pun sangat lah sweet and juicy nya. I really really love it! The Other Half loves apricots the most which for me is biasa aje. The Little Misses’ favourites, ikut mood, sometimes mangoes, sometimes white nectarines, sometimes cherries, sometimes lychees :-).

Another normal Thursday…

Nothing much happened today. Miss 6 went to work with The Other Half and I went shopping with Miss 10. A fair deal I say since I love shopping and he only does it under duress (unless it’s shopping for electricals and electronic gadgets). I even love to go grocery shopping you, teruk kan, hehehe. Even when I did the ‘back to school’ shopping for The Little Misses, we both went to the shop together but he went to the games and movies section while I stayed at the stationery section, ticking off the things on the school lists one by one by myself, hehehe. He earns the money and I help him spend the money :-D. The same goes with I cook the meals and he helps by eating all that I cook. (When he cooks, no one eats, hikhikhikhik ;-)).

When I go shopping, kadang2 I tak suka sangat bawak both The Little Misses together to go shopping with me. Sebab nya kadang2 when they are in one of their moods, asik bickering aje sampai I nak shopping pun terbantut. But bila bawak sorang aje, seronok sangat2 because they are so well behaved when alone with me. Baik aje tolong I bershopping which makes my shopping experience so calm and relaxing, hahahaha…. Berjam2 kat shopping mall pun tak terasa :-D. And The Little Misses like going to Daddy’s work so bila tengah cuti2 and tengah boring2 macam ni, they take turns to go with The Other Half to work.

So, bila hati happy aje sebab dapat ber window shopping dengan seronok nya, masak dinner tadi pun happy aje lah kan (walaupun bukan masak nasi for dinner, hehehe)… We had grilled chicken with salad and lebanese bread. Lebih kurang macam kebab lah. I even made garlic sauce to go with it so our breaths now stink of garlic! (masa makan tu sedap aje tapinya :-)).

Ini gambar jauh sikit…

And ini gambar close-up sikit, mana tau kan boleh buat orang terliur, hehehehe…

Psst… The Other Half was very sad sebab semua orang tak nak dia menang the nasi bet, hehehehe. He said his will power is still strong and masih belum goyah lagi. Dia mentioned the nasi itik tu sebab dia nak makan nasi itik tu as a victory meal bila dia menang the bet nanti! Kuikuikui…. Yo lah tu…..

Cuti dah nak habis ke?

Pejam celik dah tinggal a few more days before school starts. Kiranya tinggal next week aje lah for The Little Misses to melepak (macam lah sekolah kat sini tak lepak2 aje, hehehe). And back to being a Supir for me every day. But kali ni, the route to school will be different and I haven’t familiarised myself with the route. Ada banyak routes that I can take to go to that school, but nak pilih yang paling tak sesak in the morning and yang paling straight forward will take a few days I guess. And then, kat sekolah tu takde parking spots for the parents’ cars pulaknya. Everyone has to park at the nearby shopping centre and then take the kids to cross the road to the school. At least banyak jugak lah car park bays at the shopping centre so tak lah kena sesak2 macam at their old school. Once The Little Misses are a bit bigger, I can just stay in the car and let them cross the road themselves(at the zebra crossing with the lollipop lady’s help).

Going back to school this time will be interesting and exciting. The Other Half tanya Miss 10 semalam what her feeling was about going to a new school. She said that she’s a bit nervous and scared but excited at the same time. Ye lah kan, I pun akan rasa macam tu jugak if I were in her shoes. Budak2 lain in her class would have known each other since Kindy probably and she might be the only new kid on the block. I think dia cuma takut yang no one will befriend her at school and she’ll be alone. Dah lah she’ll be the youngest in her class (and most probably the smallest as well), tu yang buat dia lagi nervous. But she’s quite excited sebab she will learn music, dance and drama at this new school which she likes. Ye lah, sekolah lama dia sekolah agama so takdelah music and dance ni kan, hehehe. But sudah semestinya she’ll be left behind sebab takde basic in music at all. Hopefully, no one will pick on her because of that….

Miss 6 pulak tak kisah sangat benda2 macam ni. I guess sebab dia kecik lagi and she’s not that attached to her old school like Miss 10. She’s very excited nak masuk sekolah baru sebab she’ll be in Year 2! For her, being a Year 2 student tu dah kira sangat2 lah big girl nya, hihihihihi….

Hari ni I felt like baking so I pun bangun pagi aje terus suruh my BM menguli and I made nutella scrolls. I cuma guna the basic sweet dough as the bread base and just rolled it into a square and selebet nutella on it. Pastu, bakar dalam oven…

Yang tinggal selepas di baham separuh oleh The Little Misses…

And jeng jeng jeng…. Selepas berbulan2 menunggu, bagai menatang minyak yang penuh, akhirnya ‘lahir’ lah dia on our chopping board.

Sikit nya The Other Half memegang buah tembikai ini dengan penuh kasih sayang :-) (gebu kan tangan dia ni, hahahahaha). Berat lah jugak the fruit, around 2.5kg!

And setelah dibelah menunggu waktu untuk di telan. It tasted really fresh and sweet. Manakan tak rasa fresh, petik terus makan, sure lah fresh sangat2 kan :-).

The Other Half said he wants to eat duck with rice as his first rice menu. Dia nak makan Nasi Itik (nasi ayam style tapi ganti itik) yang macam dia makan kat Pavillion food court last month. He said the duck was so moist and tender, memang sedap sangat2 he said.  I memang seumur hidup tak pernah masak itik so memang tak tau macam mana nak masak. I’ve googled a few recipes but does anyone out there know how to cook duck that way?

Can we reach that 1 month mark?

Minggu lepas I betul2 mengidam nak makan nasi sampai termimpi2. But after we’ve passed the 2 week mark of not eating rice, my thoughts are not preoccupied with that little white grains anymore! Agaknya macam ni kot rasa orang merokok nak berhenti merokok, the withdrawal symptoms are at the worst in the second week. Once you’ve passed that mark, dah lega badan and dah tak ‘ketagih’ lagi, pandang nasi pun I dah tak kisah, hehehehe. Padahal I baru aje beli stock beras Basmathi 5 kg tadi (sebab tengah murah :-)), but entah bila lah I nak guna agaknya kan.

The Other Half said, “Since we’ve already gone 2 weeks plus without rice, might as well make it to 1 month. We’ll start eating rice again at 1 month. It makes it more memorable than 2 weeks!” Hikhikhik, adakah itu bermakna his resolve is getting weaker by the day? I mengidam nasi last week, dia mengidam nasi at the 3rd week, hihihihihi… I said to him, “Doesn’t matter to me. If you want to admit defeat now, I can straight away cook rice for you now if you want to :-D.” Then he said, “Nah! That’s OK, I can live without it for a looong time!” Ishhhh… stubborn betul lah Mat Saleh sorang ni! Pastu dia cakap, “Or.. I can do a barter with you. You give me something I really want and like and I’ll give you the victory.” Wakakakakakaka ;-D. Tak payah lah I tulis apa yang dia nak tu ye, hahahahaha….

So, since dua2 masih degil and I’m still not sure about the bartering system, I masak lah ‘fish n chips’ for dinner malam ni. Since Sunday haritu, the temperature has been over 40s. Hari Ahad tu it got up to 43C, semalam it got to 42C and today it got to 41C. Memang panas sangat2 bila keluar rumah, tu yang kalau boleh nak makan simple2 aje.

I pun marinated some marinara mix in satay marinade and pan fried them for dinner. Makan pulak dengan home made baked chips and salad. So simple and yet so filling as well.

Models nak mogok dah!

Jom layan gambar2 orang tengah kemaruk nak guna DSLR ni. Pergi park tepi rumah tu pun sanggup menyusung bag camera :-). Agaknya orang2 yang duduk kat rumah tepi park tu sure heran sebab 2 kali diaorang nampak I pergi park, 2 kali tu jugak lah I sibuk klick klick. Orang niat pergi park nak berriadah menyihatkan diri, I niat nak practice my new found skills, hahahaha… Misses 6 and 10 sampai tak larat asik kena suruh berenti main kejap just to pose for me. Sikit lagi diaorang nak panggil union boss and nak mogok, hikhikhik..

Masa ni muka dah tension aje sebab kena berhenti main bola dengan Daddy for 5 seconds! (tapi banyak2 kali seconds sebab Mummy asik tak dapat the right lighting aje, hehehe).

 

Now you see colour…

Now you dont!

Saje je buat black n white ni. Baru lah nampak Miss 6 ni anak jawa kan bila kat black n white, wehehehe.

And ini pulak our dinner tonite, pasta n sausage in ricotta sauce (Pakcik Leggo nya sauce!). We all masih lagi tak makan nasi ni, dah night 19th tak tengok nasi, hehehe. Malam tadi I teringin nak makan kari so I buat kari ayam makan dengan roti jala. Sedap you! Hahahahaha. The Other Half pun terpaksa mengaku sedap jugak lah walaupun tanpa nasi :-).

Hot hot Sunday

I’ve finished my basic photography course and the most important thing I learn from that is that if you know how to edit in Photoshop, you can make any photo look amazing! Hehehehe… So, that’s what I’ve got now. Semalam, I’ve downloaded the trial version of Photoshop Elements and if I like it, we are going to buy it and hopefully I can learn to make my photos more mouth watering and have the ‘wow’ factors, hehehe.

On Friday nite, our last session of the course, we were asked to bring some photos that we took using DSLR. And I letak kan gambar The Little Misses at the playground. For me, the photos takde wow factors but when the teacher played around with them using his fancy Photoshop version, terus jadi cun gilers anak2 I tu ala2 models, hahahaha… Ye lah, he’s a professional photographer so all his softwares yang mahal giler nya. Amazing kan what it can do. Lepas ni, boleh lah I pergi edit all photos yang ada gambar I so boleh I tambah boobs sikit, kecik kan saiz my peha and pinggul sikit, bagi waist I kecik lagi, kurangkan wrinkles kat muka tu… Alah, senang cerita, lebih kurang macam Rihanna nya body lah terus! Wakakakakakaka….

Selama2 ni I cuma edit all my photos using Microsoft Office Picture Manager aje. MOPM ni bukannya best sangat pun sebab tak banyak yang dia boleh buat. But selama 2 tahun berblog, ok lah jugak kan my photos, masih boleh membuat people drool over my dinners, hehehe. Can you imagine what I can do to my food photos once I’ve mastered Photoshop? Sure lagi mengancam agaknya ye, hikhikhik… ;-). But, nak master the arts of Photoshop tu yang will take practice kan (segala benda kena practice kalau nak pandai kan, hehehe).

So, hari ni since it’s so so hot outside (the forecast says it’ll reach 41C today), I’m going to stay inside under the cool aircond and play with Photoshop all day long :-D. Takde sape larat nak keluar in this weather, much2 nicer duduk bawah aircond kan!

Anyway, since I nak melayan Photoshop today, you all layan aje lah some photos yang I took masa kat M’sia yang dah di Photoshopped sikit. I still tak tau nak guna lagi menatang ni so I rasa masih banyak yang lari….

I belum sempat lagi nak photoshop my photos supaya jadi ala2 Rihanna gitu, hehehehe….

Ini pulak gambar our kuih and my dinner semalam which I used the DSLR (I tak edit guna Photoshop lagi gambar ni). The Other Half kata, dah pergi kursus DSLR, might as well use the DSLR camera untuk ambik gambar all my food kan. Selama2 ni I cuma guna my Fuji Finepix camera aje untuk ambik gambar the food. You all rasa ada beza tak between my gambar yang guna Fuji finepix ni dengan gambar yang guna DSLR?

Psst… Still tak makan nasi lagi but I teringin nak makan laksa penang last nite so I pun buat lah for me. The Other Half kata laksa tu kan buat dari beras so kiranya I dah kalah lah kan. Ada lah pulak!

Kuih keria…

Laksa penang I yang tak cukup bahan sebab I buat guna canned tuna aje but still sedap kat my tekak ni hah!

Jom tengok wayang!

 

We all takde TV canggih, neither plasma nor LCD nor LED. Our fanciest TV is a  6-year old Sony Wega which is a crt only. Setiap kali pergi Harvey Norman or JB Hi Fi or Dick Smith, memang meleleh air liur tengok all these LCD and LED TVs that are on display. And everytime we feel like buying one, we always step back and said to ourselves, “we don’t watch much tv at all. the only time we watch tv is when the cricket is on and when we want to watch a movie so why do we need a bigger fancier tv?” So, we always ended up not buying one, hehehe.

Until a few weeks ago, when we found something more precious to us. We bought a projector! Definitely not the high end variety which cost $3k+ but the low end one aje :-). Since that day, we’ve had a couple of movie nights where we would set the lounge room to resemble a movie theatre. Ye lah, setengah orang ada their own special home theatre room but we all cuma ada lounge room aje, hehehe. But we love it so much sebab we finally could watch all our favourite movies on ‘big screen’ :-D. The Other Half setiap 10 minutes will say, “have I told you how much I love our projector?”  Oh Man, I truly agree with him, memang best giler ada projector ni, segala benda nampak besar giler, hahahahaha.. Tak boleh dah rasanya tengok movies on our ciput TV tu!

The Little Misses pun punyalah seronok tengok movies sekarang ni. But we could only watch it at night so far sebab nak make sure it’s dark so baru lah terasa macam kat cinema kan. And we love our off-white walls sebab tak payah susah payah beli screen, just project it onto the walls aje. Kalau lah tuan empunya rumah ni kalerkan walls dia green ke, purple ke, pink ke, memang tak jalan lah our home cinema, hehehehe..

And ini some photos I took of our movie session tonite (saje nak bagi adik beradik I jeles, hehehe). I tried using DSLR but I malas nak bega and nak adjust the light so tu yang ada gelap and cerah. The Little Misses siap ada tempat baring2 lagi nak tengok ‘wayang’, mana boleh baring2 kat cinema kan, hehehehe… And then bila I buat popcorns to eat during the movie, memang terperasan sungguh macam kat dalam cinema, hikhikhik…

See how dark it is. We had to shut the blinds, switch off all the lights, shut all the doors so less lights come in.

Our lounge room cum home theatre area :-D.