usah buruk sangka

I drive a small car. A Viva to be precise. Senang kacang je nak parking, bak kata orang ni. Kalau ke MidValley, boleh selit-selit celah tiang atau temple-tempel tepi dinding time kereta banyak. Kalau kereta tak banyak boleh ambik masa buat side parking atau reversed parking. Dulu terkagum tengok orang park MPV besor gedabak reversed-parking some more with no hassle.  Sekali tu.. rupanya ada kamera.

Anyway. On one of those days that I drive to work, sampai awal so I took my time buat reversed parking. Ala keta kecik kan, senang je. Then a MyVi nak park kat sebelah. Punyalah lama si driver nak betulkan keta dia. Keluar masuk ntah berapa kali. In my heart, hek eleh, keta kecik je pon, itupun susah sangat ke. When she has settled urusan parking keta dia, I went out and took my things and walked away. Turned back to ensure that I have locked my car. Oh my, ai parking senget.. padanlah orang sebelah susah nak adjust keta dia. Ya, Salah sangka dan buruk sangka.

Entah-entah orang tu menyumpah-nyumpah driver Viva parking senget. Hek elek, keta kecik je pon, itupun susah sangat ke. Okay, salah sangka lagi sekali. Ntah-ntah orang tu tak cakap apa pun.

Moralnya. Jangan cepat buruk sangka dan ingat kita sentiasa betul. Bila mana kita rasa diri kita lebih dari orang lain, selagi itulah kita nampak orang lain tak betul belaka.

Saya akhiri entry dengan gambar pokok cili yang dah berbuah. Suka sangat ai tau. Konfem minggu ni buat sambal.

Ada 2 pasu sebenarnya. Yang ni kecik tapi berbuah. Yang lagi satu besar tapi kena serangan semut, sempat berbunga tapi buah tak menjadi. I googled tips on how to get rid of ants, tip-tip alami gitu.. chemical free. Tips nya – cengkih. Tabur je, insyaAllah semut lari. Mula-mula macam tak percaya, tapi try jugaklah. Alhamdulillah menjadi.

 

 

Ni pulak peach in raspberry jelly. Terlajak rajin buat dalam ramekin kecik-kecik ni. These are my first ramekins.. beli masa Metrojaya Sale, RM6 sebiji. Jelly tu guna instant jelly brand Nona. Just add water and bring to boil for few minutes. Senang.

 

jemari hijau - first edition

Semangat Jemari Hijau dah menjelma semula :-) 

Kalau dulu laman sekangkang kera, now we have no laman anymore. Porch is fully tiled. Luckily, opposite rumah ada pavement, raised and tarred, about 1.5m wide. So that's my kebun now - approximately 1.5m wide x 6.7m long. Actually, my kebun tumpang. Since that area is tarred, my best option is to plant in pasu. Well, at least there is an option kan. 

Bought a lime tree 16 September 2013. Nak kata pokok besar, bukan. Nak kata anak pokok, pun bukan, it was about a little more than 1 m (I think) tall already. Beli pasu besar for RM25 and 6 packs of soil for RM1.50 each. Armed with my gardening tools and a little helper, Adam, we moved the tree from poly-bag into the pasu.

Photo taken on 23rd September. After a week.

4th October 2013 - berbunga!

About a week later... dah nampak putik. Excited!

16th October 2013. Dah nampak rupa bentuk bebuahan limau nipis.

Ada 3 bunches of bebuahan. Hope these will survive until harvest.

This one, solo.

And last weekend, me and my little helper (he's like a tail to me, di mana ada Ummi, di situ ada Adam), tried our hands at planting potatoes. I did this once long ago, all I got was the batang and daun only. Bila cabut, ada akar je.. takde ubi.

Since I have few potatoes kat dapur yang start turning to look like aliens with anak-anak ubi started growing from the induk, why not try again kan.

The big one is a russet if I am not mistaken. A very wrinkled one that is! Good for making mashed-potato but my mashed-potato project did not take off at all. For roasting and soup, I prefer the small ones like the one on the right. It has a more yellowish flesh inside. Russet is paler.

Buried these babies at approximately  4-6 inches deep. Hope to see the sprouts in a week or two. And I hope those budak-budak bulu tak memerut dalam ni. Like they did in my pasu pegaga. 

... of my vege-tale-ble

Between sayur bandar and sayur kampung, I prefer sayur kampung. Kangkung, bayam, pucuk paku, kulat sisir, kulat tahun. Bunyi macam mold kan but they are not actually. Kulat sisir tu banyak prosedur nak masak but the taste, wallah.. worth the effort..  And ulam. I was brought up in remote kampung and our staple vegetables included pucuk mengkudu, jering, petai, kerdas, ulam raja, pegaga.. Paling bandar pun, kobis.. masak lemak putih letak bawang besar, cili sama ikan bilis je. Makan dengan nasi panas-panas, ikan goreng and a bit of sambal.. especially sambal jeruk belimbing besi tumbuk dengan cili dan ikan bilis. Menambah-nambah!

 

Seen above - my kind of menu. Top left is pucuk mengkudu. Rebus sampai lembut. Rasanya sedikit pahit tapi terangkat bila cicah dengan sambal ikan bilis+belimbing muda. I am drooling as I am typing this :D Masa dalam confinement, inilah menu sayur paling lazim (sans the sambal). Tabik kat Mok yang bersungguh-sungguh pegi ambik kat pokok. Fresh okay. Bila tanya kenapa mengkudu? Baik untuk orang perempuan katanya tapi tak ada ulasan lanjut tentang khasiat apa he he.

Last weekend rasa teringin nak makan pegaga. Beli kat Jusco, satu ikat yang tak sampai secekak tangan ai ni, RM3.50! Beli kangkung kat Aeon Big seikat pun baru 50sen.. nak makan punya pasal, beli lah jugak. I made sure pilih yang ada akar. Mok pesan kalau makan pegaga, makan semua dari batang sampai akar. But I had other plan in mind actually.

To grow my own pegaga that is! My latest OCD is - color-coordinating my pots! I bought new pot just for that and those sprouting pegaga please grow nicely. I ate all the leaves then trim off the layu ones so they'd look nice and tidy. Rendam dalam a bit of water for 4 days and then transferred them into the pot. I don't know if the 4 days of rendam is needed. I just had to wait until weekend to do all these :D While they are at that rendam phase, small new leaves sprouted.. much to my excitement he he.

I remember few years back I had this phase of drinking pegaga juice, freshly blended at home (tapi beli kat kedai aje pegaganya) every few days and it went on for months until I gave up sebab malas. If my green finger project is a success then perhaps I should start again. We'll just have to wait and see. Shall we?

artsy boyzz

Sent the three munchkins to Global Art's 3-days School Holiday Program second week of recent school break. They played with clay, they messed with paints. They even cooked teriyaki chicken and brought back bento. Conclusion. They like it. Very much. The boys even 'registered' themselves for its Saturday class!

We've been toying with the idea of enrolling them for quite sometime but Iman and Adam took it in their hands and on the last day of the 3-day program, they announced that they were going back on Saturday to do clay thingy. Plants vs Zombie theme! They've been playing with the game for months before. I would've jumped with joy, if I were them to be frank!

Kakak will start hers after UPSR. Judging from her work during the 3-days program, she's been offered to assist class! Imagine getting your pay at merely 12yo! Child labor, huh? :D  I'll leave that to her.

Stairs.. stairs.. and more stairsss...

Just when I thought we have reached the class, we were greeted by this signage! *mode ketar lutut panjat tangga sampai tingkat atas sekali*

Some of the artworks before entering the class. *mode lap peluh letih panjat tangga* Impressive huh? Boysss! I'd like to see something like this yer in months to come! 

After the first session, picked them up and I asked..
Adik, best tak?
Best Ummi. 
Why?
And he went relating this and that and this and that and this and that

Iman pulak. Best tak?
Best.
Kenapa best?
Sebab kelas ada aircond..


-__-

vroom-vroom 'sewn with love' single fitted bedsheet

Work's been good. Been busy but hey, not complaining (yet?). Kids are all well, I am good and Tebby's back! I made few small resolutions for 2013, mostly for self-improvement, insyaAllah. Among others - to revive back my hobby, sewing!

It's been awhile since I last sew anything! My last sewing project was in November 2012! Remember my yellow-kitty-sewn-with-love-pj-bottom project? In-between then and now, I sewed kelepet kaki seluar Iman and sewed-up badges and name tags onto their uniforms. But let's not call those sewing project, shall we? :D

Anyway, not withstanding my overdue 3-more-fabrics-to-be-swen-into-PJ-bottom, I ordered meters and meters of cotton for my fitted bedsheet projects. Tamak? Indeed I am! I mean who could resist such cute prints huh?

Bought these two types of print from D' Cotton Heaven. Both are cotton but I personally prefer the texture and feel of the scoot-scoot on black background. Vroom-vroom on yellow background is a little thin to the touch but still can do laaa.

Both fabrics are of bidang 44 inci. Means, I need to adjust the width by adding up 10 inches on left and 10 more inches on the right. It was a messy ordeal I tell you. Especially when it was my first time sewing fitted bedsheet! And when I was done cutting, I realized I did not have enough for pillow-cases!

Though I targeted to sew two sets (for the boys each), I only managed to complete only one set. Sabar ye Iman, next weekend I'll do it for you. 

Fitted by sewing getah on 4 corners.Alhamdulillah, it turns out well and fits nicely. There's obviously still room for improvement.

Adam was very excited.
Tebby said nice.
More bedsheet perhaps?

baking it, kids' style

So, how was your long break?

Mine, I took one day extra since the kids' school closed down until Wednesday so I enjoyed 4 days straight off from the office. Not that I am complaining tho hi hi.

While Tebby was in the office, I whipped up Nasi Lemok Ganu Style. Intentionally for breakfast and lunch, I cooked one whole pot of rice! Voila... Mine and kids' favorite. Since our marriage almost 13 years ago, I am more Terengganu than Tebby is, Pahang. I can eat laksa with uncooked gravy, I can stomach un-fried keropok lekor, I enjoyed myriads of traditional kuih muih. But ask my husband if he eats ikan patin in whatever form of cooking. No.

For breakfast, we all had a plateful each. For lunch I had to skip my portion to save up for Tebby's dinner. Earlier I wassap-ed him the photos of us enjoying our breakfast. His reply 'wahhh nanti malam makan nasi lemak ye? See, I am thoughtful. And a back rub will very much be appreciated too :P

My kids, I thought they'd be sleepy having stuffed themselves (like I did). Instead they opted to do keras-tangan thingy.

Hard at work. Kakak bought a pack of modelling clay months ago which she had been using with care to ensure she would utilize it to the fullest. That was partly my fault jugaklah. That pack cost me a freaking RM80.00! Ahhhh those puppy eyes she made.. I gave in with condition that she'd use it wisely. Imagine her anger when the boys wanted to join and share!

And earlier yesterday, she pow-ed me those cookie-cutters. No wonder she was so eager when told I needed to go to Carrefour .. or rather Big AEON huh? since our beras was almost finish oredi.

Hasil keras-tangan the kids. On the baking sheet are Kakak's. The rest are Iman's with an exception of that purple-yellow ball. That is Adam's. Oh ya, the clay can be baked to keep forever and if baked according to instruction, they will maintain their original color. It says bake at 130d for 15 minutes (for 1/4 inch thickness). I remember baking it the first time (which happened some months ago), the oven was 160d and I baked a butterfly for 5 minutes. My theory was, extra hot lesser time = lesser temperature longer time. Obviously it doesn't work that way. The butterfly came out with dark brown edges. Poor thing!

Those went out from the oven perfectly! All dried and hard and in their original color. Kakak made an impressive flower cookie there.

Okay Kakak, raya this year, I uli the doh, you terap the cookies k.

Note - the clay comes under the brand Sculpey Pluffy - Soft Fluffy Modelling Clay. Kakak bought hers from Art  Friend, MidValley. 

2D1N - Columbia Asia :D

Fate has it that we did not manage to go anywhere despite our earlier plans. We had meant to go balik kampung @Temerloh and later go picnic @Teluk Cempedak. I knew our plans were not going to be materialised the moment Adam started vomiting non-stop since last Friday 21st December, after we fetched him from taska. He vomitted twice on my pair of comfort shoes, time for new one, no?

Things got worse early Saturday morning. Tebby brought him over to A&E Columbia Asia Hospital at wee hour of 4.30am. They got back later with 2 kinds of medication and 1 bottle of 100Plus :D

But, how do we administer oral medication when he kept on vomiting whatever that was being fed? On Sunday 23rd December, he started having mild fever and later that day, it spiked. He complained of tummy ache and headache. Monday morning, again, Columbia Asia Hospital . The paed was hesitant to admit Adam but Adam insisted. Yep, he insisted. He was willing to even take the drip (I've warned him earlier but he didn't budge!).

He hardly made any move from the bed. Always lying down, refusing to talk and answered me with just nodding or shaking his head. And frowned at me when I asked any open ended questions :D

Adam with my elder two. They were ecstatic at learning there was a hot shower there. Since dah lama mandi air sejuk hihi..

On Tuesday, he was regaining his usual-cheeky-self. Woke up chirpy and talkactive. When I brought him down to the cafe, he inspected every nook and crook :D The probiotics really helped I think. He still poo watery stools but much less than the day before. And as his usual-self always walks around, he found being attached to IV drip was such a nuisance. When the paed made his ward round, Adam insisted he be allowed to go home. Yep, he admitted himself and later asked for a discharge!

The contained I was supposed to catch him poo-poo in! After 3 babies, no more geli-geli to do such thing laa. And beside that, a sachet of probiotics. Adam has had a not-so-pleasant experience with probiotics (of different brand) so I has some problem coaxing him to take that.

Adik, kena minum ni. Nanti cepat baik.
Geleng
Ni ubat takde rasa Dik.
Geleng
Adik minum ni nanti takde sakit perut dah Dik.
Geleng

@_@ .... patience wearing thin!

Adik, kalau adik minum ni, sekali je sehari, nanti Ummi belikan adik Lego yang adik nak tu

I offered too soon. But kids will always be kids. They will never forget.

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Hello! Mega Bloks Halo UNSC Wolverine #96833. Anything bricks and blocks are Lego. This is actually from Mega Bloks. The pack comes with a purple alien and a soldier.Nak assemble benda ni naik kematu jari jemari sebab ketat! Unlike Lego or Kreo yang lebih finger-friendly huhu. It has 31 assembling-steps. I did only 12 then Tebby took over. Thank God I coaxed him into buying this 200+ pieces instead of the 400+!

Oh ya, he nodded at last at my probiotics proposal!

the blocks boy

Went back balik kampung to Tebby's hometown 9-12 December 2012. We traveled by air so strictly not so much toys (the boys) and not so much books (Kakak).

Deprived of their favorite blocks, imagine the boys' excitement when the saw an old tub of blocks back at my inlaw's :D

Iman put away iPad for a while to do this. One-Eyed Monster.

While Iman was at that, Adam wailed since he hadn't got enough pieces to build his hihi. Sekerat badan je Dik? 

Okay now young man. You pose with your creation then please play with the iPad. That was not the usual me but for the sake of peace, you might as well please do Iman

Adam's version of One Eyed Monster

I'm the King - I hereby announce that everyone in my kingdom to yada yada yadaa

Kereta askar ni Ummi. He must've meant the tank kot

Ice Cream!

Warrior Boy! With sword and shield :D

Last but not least - a robot

Thank God Iman was so hooked on the iPad that I spent lesser time being a peace ambassador between the boys!

painted :: she draws!

Almost there! Our house. I don't think it'll be 100% done comes middle Dec but I appreciate of we can move in back by then, albeit 80% or 90% done. Hot shower please! Been coming back home late these days and the weather is not cooperative where natural lighting is concerned. Hence no better photo. And please excuse this one, was taken this morning before we left for work. Still gelap. Exterior is painted antique bronze (Jotun's).

Living hall and dining area (original). We previously painted it chiffon. Tebby opted for Jotun's olive this time around. I normally go for dark colored furniture. Not sure it my pick will fit in this scheme. We'll see la how. I don't want to weight down the whole tone.

Extended area. Low, awkward beams.I am not a fan of this dome thingy but let's not chop off anyone's head, shall we. This is to give way for ceiling fan. Square shaped down-lights.

Anyway, sharing some of drawings done by Tebby and Kakak during their father-daughter bonding time over dinner the other day. Puss in Boots done by Tebby. Kitty by Kakak. I love how she draws 'fur' along the edge and the details on Kitty's boots.

Tebby's. Loads of superheroes and stuff. The boys love anything of this sort. When Tebby's not around and the boys are in in one of their superheroes mood, I'm done! Kenapa tak macam abah lukis? Bukan macam ni la Ummi.

Kakak's Howling Wolf on a Small Hill. Cute eh? With a pluffy tail and all.

Kakak's Dancing Kitty in Black Boots. It is not 100% done yet. When she's done with UPSR next year, we are seriously thinking on enrolling her in art classes.

Anyway, I went to TM's helipad this morning. It's on 60th floor. Alhamdulillah th weather was good and kind enough. It was a little hot but loads of fun. Shall upload some proof later :D