Strawberries and cream in Spring

Minggu ni we all sepatutnya kerjakan our front garden…

And such a gorgeous Spring weather to lepak2 in the garden as well…..

Letak mulch around the roses, redo the edging, clean up the lawn….

And then nak buat another big trellis for the snake bean/ kacang panjang seedlings….

Tapi…apakan daya, disebabkan dek The Other Half’s injury, terpaksalah dipostpone indefinitely….

But The Other half kata, dia turunkan tugas buat trellis tu ke I!

Which means I kena build the trellis while dia jadi supervisor!

Uwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I baaaaaanyaaaaaakkkkkk maaaaalaaaaaasssssssss nak buat benda2 macam tu especially kalau The Other Half jadi supervisor.

But kalau nak tunggu sampai The Other Half sembuh betul, we would have missed that crucial time to plant the Spring and Summer plants.

Memang nampak gayanya I lah yang kena bertukang esok ni…..

Hari ni we have 2 open houses to go to…

We went to one this morning for brunch. Dapat makan nasi lemak with sambal sedap and rendang and kuih muih yang sedap2 sampai kenyang so no need to worry about lunch….

And then a bit later this afternoon, another open house which we will surely makan sampai kenyang again so I don’t have to cook dinner .

Panjang senyum I, hehehehehehe….

But I did cook something nice this morning.

We have a new neighbour right next door who just moved in yesterday so to welcome them, I made scones with cream and strawberry compote.

Some for us to eat for breakfast and some for them….

The strawberry compote ni is just strawberries and sugar cooked on low heat until the sugar has melted and the sauce has thickened a bit.

It’s strawberry season here so they are so cheap!

The big red juicy sweet strawberries are just $2 for 500g punnets so tu yang beli banyak and terpaksa ditukar ke compote before they go bad….

I usually use the lemonade and cream scone recipe to make my scones.

Because for me it’s a fail-proof recipe and so easy (as long as you have cream and lemonade in the house lah).

One of the things we love about Perth

One of the things we love about Perth is the easily available halal goods including things like pies and their family .

Semalam, I took The Other Half for a drive to get him out of the house and get some fresh air.

He said he’s still feeling a bit scared to be in a car especially when he sees a cyclist on the road.

He said he has flashbacks of the car that hit him.

Poor him…

Thank goodness I am a good driver (unlike the stereotypical Asian female drivers you get around here!), hehehehe…. .

I know the road rules, I follow the road rules, I follow the speed limit, I’ve never been fined and I’ve never been involved in an accident (syukur Alhamdulillah and nauzubillah) so I guess I can be included in the safe driver group lah kan.

Anyway…..before I digress any further….

One of the places we went to yesterday was this big warehouse selling bulk items called Cash n Carry near our house.

I guess it is a bit like Macro in Msia when it was first opened. It sells everything in bulk and you have to have a card to buy from here. We are a member of RAC which is one of the accepted cards so tu yang saje nak pergi tengok.

We’ve never been to this place before so memang macam jakun sikit lah to see segala benda in 10kg and above bags, hahahahaha…..

We went there yesterday specifically to look for Mrs Macs halal pies.

We’ve been buying them in small quantities from IGA which cost around $3/pie so if you want to buy banyak, it’s a bit costly jugak lah.

But biasalah kan, you ended up buying other things as well, hehehe….

Instead of just the pies, we also saw this Four n Twenty sausage rolls which are for export and halal. The ones sold at the shops are not halal so bila jumpa yang halal there, terus lah beli 1 box of 24.

Another Alhamdulillah sebab we have big freezers to accomodate the 24 pies and the 24 sausage rolls we bought yesterday, hahahaha….

And guess what we had for dinner last night????

The pies!

heeeee…….

(Lepas ni bila malas nak fikir pasal lunchboxes and dinners, I can just open the freezer and get the pies and the sausage rolls out kan!),

We used to occasionally buy our pies and sausage rolls at the Danish Patisserie tapi The Other half tak minat sangat their sausage rolls and pies.

But he loves these ones so tu yang beli berlambak2…..

I tak kisah, semua makan as long as senangkan kerja I memasak, hikhikhikhik…..

Bland and exciting

Both of us were so tired last night after an eventful few days.

Tu yang slept early and tak sempat nak update blog.

Nak jawab comments pun still tak sempat lagi, tunggu dulu ye…

By the way, I dah disabled the chatbox kat tepi blog ni sebab it wasn’t a good chat box. Sentiasa penuh and sentiasa susah for me to answer the comments without me having to log in first (which I kadang2 sangat lah malas nya nak buat, hehehe.)

So, mintak maaf lah kat semua orang yang tulis comments kat situ but I tak sempat nak jawab ye.

I will try and find a better chat box but so far takde masa betul.

Last night baru lah both of us dapat tidur dengan lena and tak tossed and turned the whole night, alhamdulillah…..

I baru aje nak start puasa 6 on that Monday and then the accident happened but Alhamdulillah, masih jugak berjaya puasa until today.

But memang rasa sangat2 mencabar puasa on that Monday and Tuesday tu because of what happened…

But puasa2 pun, lunchboxes still kena prepare untuk budak2 tu and dinners still kena masak.

On Tuesday night after coming back from the hospital, The Other Half said, “God, I hate hospital food. I really missed your food. I want something bland and easy to eat tonight like mac n cheese.”

So, I pun buat kan lah dia Mac n Cheese since it’s the easiest thing to cook, hehehehe….

I made mac n cheese with breadcrumb and cheese and poloni toppings.

You have to eat it with loads and loads of pepper, baru sedap!

And semalam, The Other Half received this at home which was exciting.

His work colleagues pooled some money and got this gift basket. Isn’t it thoughtful of them to do it.

Pakkal I puasa, or else memang I dah nibble them the whole day today!

He’s back home

Thank you everyone for the get well wishes and doas.

We are deeply touched by your concerns.

Alhamdulillah, he’s back home this afternoon.

Albeit still very sore and traumatised.

He definitely looks like her’s been in a fight with 1 black eye and bruised cheek .

I told the girls that their Dad sejak kecik bercita2 nak jadi stunt double tapi tak pernah tercapai until now, baru lah tercapai, hehehehe….

Kejap lagi sebijik lah muka Bruce Willis dalam Die Hard (minus the tan), hikhikhikhik….

But Bruce Willis takde mengerang langsung dalam Die Hard tu even muka bengkak2 and penuh bruises satu badan, macho gilers kan!  

Unlike hubby I ni…..heeeeee

Anyway, I would rather have all his moanings and complainings when he’s in pain than nothing at all….

And since semalam ada berita tergempak tu, I didn’t manage to put up an entry about our Sunday Father’s Day celebration.

Here in OZ, Father’s day falls on the first Sunday in September.

We didn’t do anything much actually, hehehe, except going to the Sunday market in the morning and then going to Fremantle afterwards.

The Other Half needed to get his electric bike serviced, tu yang pergi Fremantle.

Sambil tu we all had a picnic while waiting for Dad.

But that night for dinner, I made something a bit more special than just toasted cheese sandwich, heeee….

But nak jadi cerita, as soon as it was time to have dinner, we had a power black out for about half an hour!

Nasib baik lah masa tu I dah siap masak everything or else kenalah I masak kat BBQ kat luar tu.

But we still had our dinner in the dark, only accompanied by candle lights.

But tak boleh lah I nak ambik gambar our dinner malam tu….

Since tak boleh ambik gambar our dinner, I tried ambik gambar using tripod and long exposure.

The Other Half kata, “Now, you’ve got the candle-lit dinner that you’ve really wanted.”

I think the candles made everything tasted extra sedap that night! hehehe….

I made roast chicken, roast sweet potatoes and carrots, potato nuggets (kedai mari), sauteed kale and spinach with garlic breadcrumb.

That was the first time we all makan kale and it was delicious! We’ve been growing kale this Winter tapi tak pernah nak mencuba.

Barulah yang we all tahu rasa dia berpuluh kali lebih sedap dari silverbeets and has more taste compared to spinach.

Monday tragedy

At 7.30 this morning I got a call from The Other Half.

I picked up the phone thinking that he’s already at work and calling me to let me know how his bike ride went.

But when I picked up, he said, “I’m involved in an accident. A car knocked me off my bike. I’m ok but I’ve got a lot of gravel burns on my body and on my face and I think I’ve broken my finger. The guy is taking me to the hospital”

 

And 14 hours later, this is how he looks like

They had to put a wire in his finger to hold the bones together.

Kelam kabut I pagi tadi, hantar the girls cepat2 and zoomed off to Fremantle hospital to see him.

Dah lah hari ni, selebat2 hujan with squally winds and grey skies. Memang tak nampak apa kat jalan tadi.

I met up with him at Emergency dept and stayed with him until they took him into surgery under GA.

He dislocated his left ring finger(jari manis) with a deep gash on the ring finger exposing the tendon, suffered multiple bruises and gravel burns, tu yang they took hime to the surgery to fix his finger and clean all his wounds up properly.

They had to cut up his wedding ring to take it off sebab masa tu his finger has swollen so much.

As soon as they took him to surgery, I cepat2 balik and picked the girls up early from school.

Balik rumah, buat apa yang patut and then dropped the girls off at a friend’s house and zoomed off again to the hospital at around 4.30.

When I got there, he was out of surgery but still very groggy and tidur aje when I was there.

Ni baru balik sampai rumah lepas ambik the girls.

Kesian the girls having to stay up late tonight.

The Other Half has to stay overnight at the hospital for observation post op.

He looked really shaken up.

He said, “I like riding but I dont think I can ride again after this. It’s shaken me up really bad.”

And it wasn’t even his fault, it was the car’s fault, tak nampak The Other Half because the driver was too busy looking the other way.

The Other Half said that the driver must have hit the front wheel which caused The Other half to tergolek on the bonnet of the car and rolled onto the middle of the road.

He said Alhamdulillah, other cars on the road managed to brake on time and put their hazard lights on or else memang dia dah kena gelek by other cars lah.

When I heard him said that, rasa sangat bersyukur Alhamdulillah, because he has only surface wounds and one dislocated finger.

It could have been much worse!

So, he’ll be out of action for the next one week and luckily it’s the finger on his left hand so he can still write and do things with his right hand.

First day of Spring on Saturday

Since we weren’t going to any open house this weekend, The Other half and I decided to spend this weekend beautifying the garden.

And since dah spent so much at Bunnings buying the mulch and soil and compost and seedlings, better use them promptly kan.

So, pagi2 Sabtu after bfast, we all dah keluar meninjau our neglected gardens.

This was how the garden looked like pre-makeover.

Berserabut dengan weeds and errant grass and unkempt plants.

Our no dig gardens. One has been madeover a few weeks ago but I haven’t planted anything in it yet sebab penat puasa and then sibuk raya.

The one on the right dah penuh dengan pegaga and near-dead chili plant and near-dead celery.

this small vege patch pulak has been taken pver by weeds.

My first job was to pull out all the near dead plants, salvaged some of the pegaga and replanting them in another vege patch and then pulling out all the weeds.

Punyalah banyak gilers weeds, macam tak habis2, hehehe.

Then, the Other half did the make over by adding some more compost, soil and mulch to the garden bed.

The ‘new’ garden bed.

Luckily we have a very good helper in the form of Miss 8. memang betul2 terer dia kerja tadi.

Aerating the garden bed…

Picking the sugar snap peas.

Mixing the seed raising mix.

Where was Miss 13 at this time?

Still in bed! Budak tu memang, kalau weekends aje, mesti nak sleep in.

After 4 hours bertungkus lumus kat the back gardens tadi, this was what we achieved.

Plenty of seeds planted and kept in the green house. We planted bok choy, chili, eggplant, watermelons, sage, mint, coriander, sunflowers, beetroot, carnations, strawberries, okra, snapdragons, snake beans.

and also the basil seedlings.

The capsicums.

the zucchinis.

and the cucumbers.

The Other Half also berkerja keras menanggalkan the shade cloth yang dah koyak sana sini over the pergola and taking down some of the rotted wood of the pergola.

Nampak gondol and way too bright that area sekarang.

lepas penat menolong we all, she spent time playing in the garden pulak.

Our expensive date night

Last night, someone asked me out on a date.

He said he wanted to take me on an expensive night out.

Without the kids….

But he said to me, “you don’t have to dress up. you look nice just the way you are.”

.

We left the girls at home by themselves since he said we are not going far and not for long…

Then he took me to….

Bunnings!

This was our expensive date night!

He spent $200 there so he was right when he said it was going to be an expensive night out.

We went there at around 7 and memang takde orang kat Bunnings. We felt like we were breaking into their garden centre aje.

Boleh belek all the plants one by one, sambil berposing depan the plants, hahahaha.

Unfortunately, no lit candles, only spotlights at Bunnings tu to accomplany our exepnsive date, heeeee…..

This was what the money was spent on, dirt and mulch.

The Other half certainly knows how to pamper a lady eh,

By buying her plenty of dirt and mulch, hikhikhikhik….

Oh, and some seedlings for her to plant in her Spring vege garden.