Their favourite Summer words

Favourite words used by The Little Misses sepanjang cuti ni…

‘hold on….’

‘wait…’

‘not now…’

‘in a minute…’

‘I’ll do it soon….’

‘later…..’

Why can’t their favourite words be…

‘righto…’

‘can I do it now?’

‘would you like me to do it now?’

‘ok…’

‘going now…’

‘yes Mum…’

‘certainly…’

Wouldn’t that be wonderful! . But I can only dream and hope aje lah for that to happen, hehehehe……

The Other Half said that I’m only making myself stressed because I’m asking them to do everything according to my time frame. He then said, ff I were to follow The Little Misses time frame and go with the flow then I tak kan stressed when they say, ‘later’, ‘not now’, ‘wait’, ‘hold on’….

Iyo lah tu Cik Abang, you pun kadang2 geram jugak kat budak2 tu bila dengar ‘wait’, ‘not now’, ‘hold on’, hikhikhikhik……

Malam ni for dinner I made cottage pie makan dengan green salad.

But I made the reduced-calorie version of mashed potato topping tu. I made it using skimmed milk and olive oil spread instead of loads of butter and cream . Rasa dia tak selemak the fat-laden version lah but still very nice.

And on top of the topping I scatter a tiny amount of grated parmesan and bocconcini to enhance the flavour.

And the bolognese beef filling pulak I letak segala macam sayur.

The Other Half is happy sebab I’m still making all his favourite food but the lower calorie version so takde lah dia rasa macam dia berdiet kan .

Sunday without Bianca :-)

Today is Sunday (macamlah ada yang tak tau, hehehe) and Cyclone Bianca has decided to pass us by without doing any stopovers, Alhamdulillah. But it would have been nice to have had a little bit of rain from Bianca though .

Kat rumah I ni, kalau weekend or when everyone is at home, I noticed that there seems to be so many water glasses/tumblers lying around everywhere in the kitchen.

I heran betul lah sebab kat rumah ni cuma ada 4 orang aje tapi kadang2 tu the glasses/tumblers yang lying around adalah dalam 10 macam tu kot.

Bila I tanya The Little Misses and The Other Half sape yang guna gelas berlambak2 tu, takde sorang yang mengaku and semua buat muka heran…

Ini yang buat I sangat2 mushkil, sejak bila pulak rumah I ni ada simpan benda2 halus or orang bunian or invisible friends yang terer minum air bergelas2 ni ye?

Bila I duduk rumah sorang2, tak pulak benda misteri ini berlaku, 1 aje gelas from morning till the others come home….

Hmmmm…………

Kena letak cctv cameras lah around the kitchen kan kalau nak nab the culprits, hikhikhikhik…

Malam ni for dinner, I made grilled polenta (I beli yang instant dah siap tu) and makan dengan grilled lamb chops with its jus and bocconcini, grilled eggplant and green salad.

I’m not sure if I got it right or not though, my plate ni is only around 300cals aje which is not much langsung kan! But sangat2 mengenyangkan and yummy….

I cuma makan sekeping aje polenta tu because dah kenyang, hehehe…

The gravy/jus we ate with the lamb tu I buat senang aje.

Ini recipe gravy yang I selalu buat.

After you’ve grilled the lamb, jangan basuh the grill pan. Keep the heat on low and add a teaspoon of butter to it until it has melted.

Then add about a tablespoon of plain flour and cook it for about 1-2 minutes. Then add some water as much as you want to. Add some soy sauce/kicap masin to taste and then let it simmer until the gravy’s reduced/thickened a bit.

Pastu, bolehlah makan dengan your chops or steak! Tak payah susah payah beli gravy powder.

Perth and the storm

Yeay, we finally got a thunderstorm here in Perth after so many thunderstorm warnings over the past few months. Actually, budak2 tu yang excited lebih sebab kat sini tak banyak storms unlike M’sia . But the storm today is unlike the usual storms you find during Winter where it’s cold and freezing. Storm tadi memang betul2 tropical because it was still so hot and muggy but pouring with rain!

Pagi tadi it was so hot, it got to 41.8°C at 2pm about an hour before the storm started. Pastu, tiba2 gelap and terus hujan lebat gilers.

The Other Half kata, teringat dia masa duduk kat M’sia, hehehehe.

Why I ambik gambar the hujan? Sebab kat sini kan negara kering and jarang hujan, so tu yg macam jakun aje ambik gambar, hahahaha…….

And this is our apple tree. Kesian dia sebab this is probably the 3rd heavy rain it’s endured. All our apples yg masih kecik2 memang gugur semua because of the heavy rain . Baru aje nak membesar dah kena hujan so gugur lah dia. Tak dapat nak merasa buah apple this season, sob sob……

Esok, the BOM kata Cyclone Bianca nak mai Perth but they don’t know how strong it will be. Habislah pokok apple I ni, memang tak tinggal sebiji pun buah lah nampak gayanya…..

The Other Half wanted to fire on the barbie for dinner tonite tapi sebab hujan, tak jadi lah dia nak berBBQ, terpaksalah dia masak kat atas dapur aje, hehehe.

This was what he cooked tonite.

Grilled bronze whaler shark steak in cajun spice rub, makan dengan tomato and avocado salsa and seasoned roast potato.

Sharks ni tak boleh makan selalu because as the norm in big fish, they usually have high levels of mercury in them which is not good for us. Tu yg I lagi suka makan ikan bilis, sure takde mercury, hahahaha……

Ikan bilis masak sambal, ikan bilis goreng dengan kacang, ikan bilis makan dengan nasi goreng… Fulamak sedapnya, hikhikhikhik…..

kopi susu pekat or macchiato?

If you can describe the colour of your skin using a drink, what would yours be?

I berborak2 kosong dengang The Other Half tadi about the colours of our skin. (jarang weh we all borak2 kosong ni )

I said to him yang my skin colour will be kaler kopi susu pekat kalau kat kedai Mamak, bukan nescafe susu tau, real kopi .

He said, kalau pergi posh nya coffee house, my skin will be the colour of macchiato. Kalau you all pergi kedai mamak and mintak macchiato, ada lah yang nak kena sedas dua penumbuk dengan mamak buat air tu!(hikhikhikhik)

Pastu I tanya lah The Other Half, what will be his skin colour. Dia kata maybe horlicks but with loads of susu. (alamak, terus terasa nak minum horlicks ais kaw kaw pulak tiba2! Nyampah betul kah kalau borak2 pasal food ni, hakhakhak).

Kalau kat posh coffee house, you all mintak horlicks, sampai tutup that coffee house pun you takkan dapat air horlicks.

And then he said, Miss 11 pulak will be the colour of caffe latte and he said if he goes to a coffee house and asks for a caffe latte and it comes exactly like the colour of Miss 11’s skin, he would be happy. Hikhikhikhik……

Then I tanya dia, what about Miss 7. What would be the equivalent drink?

He said, sampai sekarang dia tak tau whether Miss 7 tu tanned ke cerah sebab her skin colour changes with the season, hahahaha…..

Sejak lepas balik from Adventureworld hari tu, kulit dia dah ala2 kopi susu cair. Tapi bila masuk Winter, kulit dia macam sirap bandung mixed with a bit of teh, heeeeeee……..

Pastu The Other Half cakap, “I know! It’s like that drink in M’sia where you ask for teh susu and then the bring it to you unmixed and the condensed milk at the bottom and the tea on top. She’s like that, the bottom layer in Winter and the top layer in Summer .”

Muahahahahahaha…… ada pulak kulit anak I kaler teh c peng!

Ini lah jadinya bila a dark-skinned Javanese kahwin dengan light-skinned Mat Saleh kan!

Malam ni I masak oven-baked beef curry (takde santan nor yoghurt, I cuma letak 1 can of diced tomatoes), steamed eggplants with sambal ikan bilis and jasmine rice.

eggplants ni dari kebun we all. Sekarang tengah lebat berbuah so memang kiranya hari2 lah makan terung, hehehe.

Ada 5-6 pokok tak silap and semua tengah lebat berbuah. Nasib baik lah terung ni ok aje masak dgn apa2 pun. I masak pizza, letak finely diced terung on it, masak bolognese sauce, letak finely diced terung in it jugak. The girls makan aje, they didn’t realise ada terung in them . Kalau buat salad pun, I akan letak grilled eggplants in it.

Merepek about the flies

I hate flies!

If you have ever lived in OZ or pernah datang OZ time Summer, you will definitely understand what I mean when I say I loathe them with a vengeance!

They are everywhere making your life miserable.

Take my house for example ye…

Our doors and windows have all got screens on them to prevent insects like flies and mosquitoes from coming in when we leave the doors or windows open. Tapi, those fr***ing little b***ers boleh jugak masuk.

You nak tau how they get in?

1. Diaorang berkumpul on the screen doors and as soon as kita bukak aje screen doors tu untuk keluar or masuk, walaupun sekejap, kelam kabut diaorang akan masuk beramai2! Macam budak2 dtg beraya tak sempat2 nak masuk nak dapat duit aje .

2. As soon as kita keluar aje from the house, diaorang akan beramai2 datang kat kita and hinggap on our baju lah, seluar lah, rambut lah. Kiranya sebijik macam perangai pets kesayangan lah, datang bermanja2 gesel2 kat kita. And sometimes mana kita sedar kan bila dia hinggap kat baju so bila kita masuk rumah, dengan gumbiranya, those flies pun masuk sama lah!

And bila diaorang dah masuk rumah, memang bermaharajalela diaorang kat dalam rumah ni.

I have my own theory (which The Other Half kata menunjukkan I ni paranoid giler, hahahaha) yang the fly sprays yang dijual kat supermarket nowadays memang saje dibuat menjadi sangat2 lah tak effectivenya sebab the companies nak kita beli more and more sprays!

I said this sebab I think some of the flies yang we all sembur dgn fly sprays ambik masa berhari2 nak mati! In the meantime diaorang nak mati tu, sempat lagi diaorang torture I with their existence!

Do you agree with The Other Half yang I’m paranoid? Hikhikhikhik……

We’ve got fly traps around the house (well, 2 aje pun, hehehe) and we all dapat tangkap so many flies in the trap over 2 weeks but still banyak sangat2 lagi flies yang berkeliaran out there!

Where the heck do thay come from??????

But I should be thankful yang this only happens during Summer (and occasionally Spring when the temperature gets a bit high) and Summer doesn’t last forever, hehehehe…

(but before Summer finishes, I hari2 memang jadi hulk kalau I nampak a fly in the house!)

Oh, did I tell you, I tak boleh nampak walau sekor pun fly in the house. I really hate that insect! hehehehehehe…..

Enough of the flies, I tayang dinner pulak

Ini dinner malam tadi, I made mee goreng bodoh makan dengan grilled seafood. And tak lupa cili mentah potong (pedas giler cili yg I tanam ni, hahaha).

And ini pulak dinner malam ni, vege pizza (again I know) makan dgn salad and crumbed chicken breast.

Walaupun we all tengah berdiet, we still eat the normal food we eat cuma kurang kan portion, kurangkan cheese and lemak2, tambahkan salad/sayur2an and grilled stuff which means  that we have to be more aware of what we eat and kurangkan our daily calorie intake and exercise hari2.

The Other Half has lost 5+kg in 2 weeks! . I’m so proud of him .

(I pun dah lost some weight jugak but tak lah sebanyak dia sebab I tak exercise sekuat dia, hehehehe).

Australia Day and pics

Hari ni Public Holiday kat sini to celebrate Australia Day. So, pagi2 tadi bila Miss 7 bangun, I terus wish her Happy Australia Day sebab dia sorang dalam keluarga ni yang ‘true blue’ Aussie. Dia sorang yg lahir kat OZ ni, yang lain semua lahir overseas, hehehe.

Hari ni, we’ll spend it berkebun and lepak2 aje. Dah nama pun PH kan, mana ada kedai or shopping malls yang bukak kat sini that we can go to, hehehehe.

We need to recuperate from yesterday .

Here are some pics I took semalam.

I’m still learning on how to take photos of moving objects (especially The Little Misses yang kadang2 susah giler nak suruh ambik gambar sebab they were having too much fun to stop sekejap!). Nk ambik gambar candid, I’m still struggling to take good candid photos. Some people are just so natural at it, ambik gambar candid yang Wow! I think maybe I think too much kot about each photo yang I nak ambik, tu yg susah nak ambik candid, hehehe. So, tu yg a bit overexposed, a bit underexposed, a bit blurry and mostly not Wow.

Lagi best ambik gambar food and flowers and plants yang tak bergerak ni kan .

Gembira sungguh diaorang berjimba2 di dalam air.

You rasakan, kenapa Miss 7 terpaksa berbaring in this paddle boat?

Sebab…kaki dia tak cukup panjang! Hikhikhikhik….

School fees, AdventureWorld and Schnitzel :-)

Hari ni we spent the whole day at AdventureWorld which is a place a bit like Sunway Lagoon lah (but on a smaller scale, hehehe). The Little Misses memang tak berhenti langsung main air and naik the rides except bila kelaparan. even though bergelen2 sunscreen we all bubuh, they were still quite tanned when they got home .

I plak spent most of the time lepak2 dalam tent sambil baca novel. Cukuplah spent 2 hours main air kan, lagi best lepak2 dalam tent lepas tu .

I might letak some of the photos I took today esok2 lah ye.

Some people asked me rentetan entry semalam about the school fees and whether public school ada fees ke tak.

Students at public school in WA (I’m not sure about the other states) ni either primary or secondary schools still kena bayar fees. Takde free education kat sini, hehehe. They called this voluntary contributions. Different schools will charge different amounts of voluntary contributions ni. But the goverrnment has already set the max amount a school can ‘ask’ for. Tu yg amount dia boleh berbeza2 each school. But definitely lah tak semahal private schools!

Like Miss 7, her voluntary contributions this year will be $60. And on top of that $60, we still have to pay for anything that crops up throughout the year like swimming lessons, all the excursions, all the incursions, any activities that require some more money, edudance and so on and so on.

And the textbooks semua kena beli sendiri.

And for Miss 11 pulak, the fees depend on what subjects the students are taking. Ada subjects yang charge fees mahal and ada subjects yang charge fees tak mahal. And their voluntary contributions mahal sikit dari primary schools.

This is what we have to pay for Miss 11 for the whole year. Kalau kat private school, lain cerita lah ye, hehehe…

She’ll be taking all the subjects listed on the above bill. Subject yang paling mahal for her is Food Awareness. The Other Half kata, nak beli all the barang mentah to cook bukannya murah, hehehe.

So, anyone yang ada anak2 nak masuk public primary school or high school kat WA, this is just an example what you might have to pay.

And since we spent the whole day kat luar, I tak masak dinner malam ni. But I’ll show you what we had last nite ye .

I made crumbed beef schnitzel, oven baked wedges and green salad.

All this was about 500cals so tak lah banyak sangat kan .

Kat rumah ni lagi suka makan crumbed beef schnitzel dari chicken.

Back to school shopping

Rasa macam tak percaya pulak yang this is the last full week of school holidays. The Little Misses’ schools will re open next Wednesday after 6 weeks cuti.

(Jom ramai2 emak2 bersorak gumbira, woohooooooooo ).

Jadi for the past few weeks, I dah pergi kedai buku, kedai uniform and also kedai2 yang jual stationery masa tgh ‘back to school’ sales.

For Miss 7, tak perlu susah sangat nak beli uniform baru sebab her old uniform ada lagi and they are still good. I just need to buy a new hat for her sebab she’s lost her old hat. Pastu, cuma boleh beli hat at school aje pulak tu because kena beli yang ada the school logo on the hat.

Untuk Miss 11 pulak, kena lah beli semua serba baru sebab dah masuk sekolah menengah kan. Last week, I pun pergi lah beli uniform untuk dia.

Punyalah lamanya we all kena queue up semata2 nak beli uniforms dia, hehehe. First, kena ambil number untuk tunggu dia panggil to try the uniforms. I sampai, dapat nombor 63! Masa tu baru aje nombor 50! 40 minit we all menunggu for our number to be called!

Then, bila dia panggil our number, the lady helped us to find the right size uniforms for Miss 11. Nasib baik ada saiz untuk dia, hehehe.

Pastu, dah siap tu, dia bagi us 1 form which we had to take to another room for them to find the correct sizes for her. Then, kena queue up untuk bayar pulak!

Mengalah kan nak buat visa aje! hikhikhikhik…..

Ini lah the receipt of the uniform yang we all beli.

Nak tercekik tengok harga for only 5 pieces of uniform!

Harga shorts pun dah $31. Padahal shorts dia biasa2 aje, bukannya buat dari benang emas. Shorts pulak tu, mana ada pakai kain lebih2 kan. Agaknya sebab ada 5 pocket tu yang buat harga dia melambung2 kan, ye lah, banyak pocket, so banyak lah pakai kain, hahahahaha….

Pastu, masa PE or sports, tak boleh pakai t-shirts or shorts biasa2, kena pakai t-shirts and shorts khas dia. Sports t-shirt and shorts aje pun dah $50. Memang agaknya diaorang buat dari special kain yang serap peluh sambil keluarkan perfume Giorgio Armani  so tak bau hangit kot!

And then, school kemeja dia lengan pendek pun dah $26 each.

And I belum beli lagi the school jumper yang harganya $50 tu. Tunggu dah sejuk nanti lah baru beli, hehehe….

Kat sini, school informs memang beza2 antara sekolah and diaorang bukan jual badges sekolah yang you boleh semat kat any t-shirt. Kena beli school t-shirts yang memang dah sedia ada the school logo on the shirt which means lagi mahal lah dari t-shirt biasa kan.

T shirt sekolah biasa takde logo boleh dpt $5 satu, t-shirt yang dah berlogo harga dia around $15-$25, hehehe.

And ini pulak book list Miss 7. Text books cuma boleh beli kat 1 kedai ni aje, tempat lain takde jual.

List dia panjang tapi cuma 2 aje textbooks yang dia kena beli, hehehe. Yang lain tu stationery list yang dia perlukan which we can buy at any shop.

Pastu, each school uses different textbooks pulak nya so kalau you pindah sekolah lain during the year, you might have to buy new textbooks (on top of the new school uniforms).

Pening kan!

At least, we don’t have to buy any textbooks for Miss 11 sebab the textbooks will be provided by the school. They are included in the school fees.

But Alhamdulillah, semua yang major dah beli kot including school bags, lunch boxes, stationery, school shoes…

Our new garden beds

Weekend ni memang weekend yang memenatkan because we spent yesterday and today mostly with things concerning the kebun.

Semalam we all buat pelaburan kat Bunnings and hari ni buat pelaburan kat City Farmers. Kalau beli saham kat this places, memang dah lama we all kaya. Tu yg asik tak dapat beli handbags mahal2 aje sebab asik melabur duit kat dua tempat ni, hehehe.

Semalam we all beli raised garden bed kits sebab macam rasa tak cukup besar aje our current vege patch itu. We want to build a no-dig garden which is the rave sekarang ni. And alang2 dah pergi Bunnings, we all beli lah some more seedlings. I beli some more cherry tomato seedlings, some more strawberry plants, broccolini seedlings, spinach and a blueberry plant! But kena tunggu a few years lagi before boleh kutip hasil blueberries tu .

And tadi I pergi City Farmers beli bales of straw and lupin mulch for the no-dig garden beds. Habis penuh 1 kereta dengan straw tadi, jenuhlah we all kena vacuum, hehehe.

And mana boleh busy2 kat garden without taking photos kan. Dah nama pun mammarazzi berjaya, hikhikhikhik….

My vege patch now. The cucumber plants, the tomato plants and the silverbeets semua dah kena pulled out by me sebab dah tak mengeluarkan hasil yg bagus anymore.

And I gantikan dengan english spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, broccolini and red onions seedlings. Penat gak lah berkebun semalam digging the vege patch and planting all the seedlings (sorang2 I buat you, hehehe).

And petang tadi, The Other Half made up the garden beds and we all bertiga (including Miss 7) bekerja keras filling it up with layers of stuff. We’ve decided to put the garden beds on the concrete under the shade.

First we put old carpet at the bottom layer and then we layer the straw.

Then we scatter dynamic lifter on the straw. Miss 7 as usual nak buat by herself so terpaksalah Dad jadi supervisor aje, hehehe.

Then we put compost (from our own compost bins) to cover the straw.

Then we added potting mix on the compost. But tak cukup pulak potting mix nya so we had to halt the building of the garden beds until esok. We are going to put lupin mulch as the top most layer. Pastu, next weekend boleh lah we all start tanam plants in it.

Dah kepenatan the 2 labourers. Duduk lepak2 atas the straw bale, hehehe…

(memang sebijik farmers lah kan, hahaha).

And then bila dah penat berkebun satu hari suntuk, rasa sangat lah sedapnya bila dapat makan nasi ayam, hehehe.

I made nasi ayam tapi ayam tu di bakar so kuranglah sikit fat nya kan.

Kangkung form our kebun and cili pun from our kebun. Sambal cili ni I guna recipe sambal ayam penyet Ijan. Memang sedap sangat2. Recipe I dapat from here. Thanks Ijan!

Dapat jugak I tahan nafsu dari makan 2 pinggan, hahahaha….