kuE's mud cakes story

like i said previously my kids really love to eat mud cakes, not forgetting adults too! its rich with chocolates yummy...

actually my sister ina was the one whose the expert in this- mud cakes. since puteri and me have started back our baking skills recently, megat did ask me to try and bake mud cakes like what his cik wah did.

well at first i thought of searching for the recipe elsewhere and try it myself. we were at mph in kinta city last thursday. puteri asked one of the staff' for books on cup cakes. she brought us some and let us chose ourselves. we bought tempt by betty saw. the reason was that we found mud cup cakes recipe in that book. thus i did it yesterday morning. unfortunately it was oily :( then i remember that i omitted the ground almonds as puteri told me not to put that, the kids do not like it. i guess maybe that was the reason. besides that i was curious as the ingredients does not include flour like the other normal cake recipes. so i sms adik ina asking whether hers got use flour. i was more curious when adik ina got use flour. then i told her that i didn't include ground almonds as mentioned in the recipe. "lar... dah dalam recipe tu ikut je ler... ", adik ina told me. all of us laughed like hell bwahahaaa... bodohnya...

since i was still not satisfied with my first attempt of the mud cup cakes, i tried to bake another yesterday evening. this time i really make sure that i follow through the ingredients and method correctly without missing any ;)

at last... i was successful in my mision to bake the mud cup cakes. tadaa...





can i finish this alone?

or you wanna some ;)

kuE's lesson learned in this episode: the next time you wanna bake a new recipe, make sure you follow-through the ingredients correctly. unless otherwise stated ie sometimes it will be written there as 'optional'. the problem in this case was that its not even stated that the ground almond is optional lol.

from vienna with love

i received a sms from adik illa about an hour ago. she flied last night at 11.50pm from KLIA for +/- 10 days holiday i think, in austria (cousin sarah's). she went there with auntie mia and family and also our grand-mother ~

"we hv arrived at vienna airport. now freshen up b4 take 2hrs train journey to wels. kirim salam 2 everybody ".

auww... how i wish that i could follow them. its alright, someday kuE, someday... lol ;)

btw i woke-up very early this morning although the 2-weeks school holiday starts today. i guess maybe because i have use to it already. thus... i did some baking! at least there was something different for breakfast. this time i baked mud cup cakes. kids really lurve it hmm...

kuE's note: did you people realize it that there's always something with butterfly around our house ;)

chapter one

puteri told me yesterday night that her science teacher puan s stopped her when she (puteri) were walking by the teacher's room. of course puteri was puzzled at first, dunno what on earth happening.

"puteri, kuih yang cikgu awak dapat hari tu awak yang bagi kan (puteri, you are the one who gave your class teacher the biscuit that day right) ", puan s asked puteri.

"ha ah", puteri replied.

"siapa buat (who did it) ", the teacher asked again.

"saya dan mak saya (my mom and me) ", said puteri.

"nanti awak bagitau dekat mak awak yang saya nak dua, nanti saya bayar (please tell your mother that i would like to have two, i'll pay later) ", said puan s again.

oikk... i was stunned. i guess puteri's class teacher must have given some to puan s. well what do you think people (attn: kimi). is this the new beginning? ;)

still in tears

i was in sunway hotel, seberang jaya this morning for a company function. guess what people. during lunch, they showed us a slide of our bollywood dance during that staff' award night. even got some close-up shots of me you know lol. some of my colleagues said that i look 'exactly' like those hindi people hehe... well, i remember my grandma said that we have the genes, so not strange right. one of our AMs labelled us with those hindi celebrities name ie kajol, amitabh bachchan, shah rukh khan etc. while myself he labelled as aishwarya rai. ada ka?

well actually i was still not in the mood about what had happened few days ago. i didn't even talk much with my colleagues this morning. i just smiled to hide my sour emotions. i called puteri on my way back. she didn't want to eat her lunch. she's still upset :(

the most important thing is that i have so many great friends around. thank you so much guys and gals. you know who you are. thanks a lot for all the nice words to comfort me. i love you all to the max!!! mwahhh...

that was not the way

i am so down right now, can't help it at all. dun even feel like doing anything. i can't sleep last night, can't even have a proper meal.

i was hurt last week seeing my kids crying. that effected kimi too. we mothers are so easily touched when things like this happened. and now... grr... only He knows of how am i feeling. my mind keeps telling me- "that was not the way" :(

say NO-NO to plastic!

i discovered about this recently- my favourite brushes were not very good not just for me but other people too. no wonder sometimes my hair would have split ends quite often. puteri' worst. dad read it somewhere that we could use horn comb to solve this matter. it took about few weeks for us to think of where to find such type of comb.

well during my trip to kl last weekend, at last i managed to find it. i was walking around the stalls at the flea market while waiting for rose. suddenly i saw some brushes and combs displayed at one of those stalls. i walked nearer, took one of the brushes and tried to read the informations and the back of the packet.

suddenly the sales guy came to me and asked, "are you looking for wooden brush or comb".

"wooden brush?", i asked.

"yes, correct", he said. i was like- yippeee!!!!...

the guy explained to me more about the comb. i bought three (as per the pic above) - the big one for me, the medium one for puteri and the small one for me to be placed in my handbag. i used my new wooden brush that very night at my sis place. i felt so relaxing. its true like what the guy told me. i straight away threw away my old brush ;)

the next day i called my mother to ask whether she wants me to buy one for her and dad too. that was the main reason of why i went back to the curve on sunday, before i came back here. well people, even puteri threw away her old brushes too, when i gave her the new wooden brush hehe... like mother like daughter huh?!!...

" carpenter tan combs are made of natural materials and refined with traditional craftmanship. they feel rather comfortable as a result of their round and smooth teeth. with no static electricity generated, the combs, if used frequently, could protect your hair, refresh your mind and prolong your life.

according to historical records, yuanfang chao, a medical scientist in the sui dynasty, pointed out that combing helps to make blood pass unimpeded and saves hair from turning grey. general contents & guidance of gods says that the more you combs, the more likely you relieve rheumatic, dredge blood, and tighten hair roots. dongpo su, a great writer in the song dynasty had an intimate knowledge of combing. before lying in bed with your hair undone, he stated, hundreds of combs would assure you of a sound sleep till daybreak.

the weak points are as follows: as made of smooth fibre, the combs should avoid beating, stretching, or bending, or it will be broken off with the hair knots. soak the wooden combs in water for a while and air them till dry, if they become deformed owing to the weather. heat the horn combs with electric blower and press them flat with something heavy, if they are out of shape. "

to everyone out there, i highly recommended you people to use this too. click here to read more about this type of brush/comb.

kuE's secret revealed

i blog about a friend who was asking about my secret few weeks ago. tadaa... here's the place people, where i get my supplies. its called ambiance located at the bsc. i met my sister there around 7pm on saturday. as usual, i bought some aromatheraphy soaps for myself. at the same time we bought some bithday presents for our cousin too. that shop is a MUST-go-place for me whenever i go to kl. now that you all have known my secret, why don't you try it yourself. once you try it you never wanna stop, i bet you.

from bangsar, we headed back to our auntie's place in ttdi. that was our meeting point before we went out together with all the other girl cousins for some saturday night out at la bodega in jalan telawi. the night was meant to celebrate those who had their birthdays in may including me! it was really a blast- we had so much fun together. thank you so much to all my wonderful sisters and cousins for the great night. it seems that they purposely chose that night because they knew that i would be coming over ;)

earlier that day i met my beloved friend rose at the curve. sheryl was supposed to be there too but she has some more important matters to attend to. its alright darling, just take care of yourself. there's always another time. with rose, i feel like there's that special bonding between us. we really had a great time that evening. i guess its all thanks to camus for tracking me! rose gave me a butterfly shawl (its definitely beautiful darling). she also passed me a lovely present from CK- a set of chomel' purple stone of butterfly necklace and bracelet. darn! i was damn surprised. its so nice of you two darlings. i hope that this friendship will last forever. thank you so much mwahhh.....

guess what people. i went back to the curve on the next day (yesterday). i found a cute purple colour butterfly handbag at MJ. gosh! that would matched my gift from CK. i could also wear them during my lil' bro's engagement day next month. without much thinking, i straight away grabbed and paid it. solved a problem ;)

o yea, the above shortbread biscuit was the one i baked for rose' kids. i hope that they like it.






kuE's update on 23/05/06: i am so sorry there was some misunderstanding on my side. both of the gifts that rose brought for me were from her and CK and not as stated above ;)

kuE's update on 28/05/06: click here to read rose' version of her story ;)

one ain't never enough

"hmm... dua-dua untuk cikgu (both for teachers) ".

both mom and grandma sounded a bit dissappointed. well actually they love my shortbread biscuit a lot. they saw two shortbread biscuits in a plastic container each this morning, both already written 'happy teacher's day'. we baked that last night- one for puteri's class teacher and another for her ballet teacher.

we only got the chance to eat a piece each few days ago when i did an extra one for home. maybe one ain't never enough. alright, we have baked six shortbread biscuits within four days! i will do more tonight, specially for both of you my beloved bah and mama. i love you two so much mwahhh...

don't cry my baby

i make both puteri and megat cried yesterday huhu... its all just because i gave the shortbread biscuit for auntie yan's birthday (their bah i.e. grand-auntie) that morning with my mom. initially they wished to send it together with me but too bad they didn't let me know. thus i assumed that they do not bother. i should have asked and confirmed with them earlier. i am so sorry dearies, i won't do it again.

we baked the shortbread biscuits the night before. it was the same one like what we did for megat's teacher except that i wrote "happy birthday" with the butter icing on it, along with a butterfly. yes it was auntie yan's birthday yesterday.

i went out to town with mom yesteday morning to get a birthday present for auntie yan. then we went to auntie yan's place. unfortunately both auntie yan and hubby were not in (padan muka, tu lar nak buat surprise konon lol) . we went back to town to settle some errants. when it was almost 11.45am, we went to auntie yan's hubby's work place (he should be in by that time) to ask him of her whereabout. yippee... she was not far from us. we were told that she was at one of the hair-saloon in town. so we went there and surprised her with a present and the shortbread biscuit. how happy we were that she was really surprised.

"wah... sedap ni, balik boleh makan", she said.

from there, we fetch megat and puteri from school.

as soon as we reached home, puteri asked me, "where's bah's biscuit?".

"i have already surprised bah this morning", i replied.

"what lar mama. i wanna send it to her too with you and adik", puteri said. she cried.

this followed by megat while crying, "adik also wanna send it to bah".

i felt down-hearted and sad too. mom suggested them to make a hand-made birthday card for their bah after lunch. then i could bring them to see their bah after megat's mandarin tuition class. it was so hard to please them you know. puteri went upstairs into her room, continued crying. everyone were so quiet during lunch.

about an hour before i fetch megat, i asked puteri to freshen herself. she was still down-hearted, doesn't want to go. so i asked grandma this time. we were already in my 4wd. suddenly my fon rang. it was puteri. she changed her mind! i was sooo happy. we were at auntie yan's place until 9 something. grandma told auntie yan about the incident ;)

for teachers only

puteri, megat and me would like to wish a happy teacher's day to all the teachers through-out the nation no matter where you are. thank you so much for what you all have done for our generations.

• pics shown a home-made shortbread biscuits for megat's class teacher. check-out the card in mandarin people. megat chose it himself. also, what do you all think of my lettering using the butter icing- its my first attempt you know ;)

• i will do another one on thursday for puteri as her school will only celebrate the teacher's day on friday.

my birthday & mother's day

caution: this post is gonna be rather quite long and have quite a number of pictures too. enjoy!

hello people. how are you / apa khabar / ni hao / sawadikap / bonjour hmm... what else. would you like to help me here lol ;)

how was your weekend people. i hope you were all enjoying yourselves with your loved ones. to all mothers around the globe, i hope that its still not too late for us- puteri, megat and me to wish everyone a "happy mother's day". THE job are endless with NO pay nothing. you all have done a GREAT job. congratulations!

while for us here, we have decided to celebrate my birthday and the mother's day just the three of us elsewhere some day. i would like to say thank you so much to my puteri and megat for being such a wonderful kids who could understand their mother's condition so much mwahh...

its not that i cannot bring them out yesterday after puteri's sunday upsr workshop. 1pm is already a good enough time for us to go for an outing but the thing is we usually went to ipoh from morning and we enjoyed ourselves one whole day. the other problem was that i didn't have enough sleep, so i was doozing around like zombies.

alright i will tell you why i was damn sleepy yesterday. my mom and me went to my aunt's place (whose also my god-mother and winnie's mom) in ipoh the night before (saturday). i could say that it was a ladies night for us. the guest of honour with her entourage reached there at almost 11.30pm, after attending a wedding of a former local newscaster (i guess no need for me to tell the whose who here). then there were this first sessions of the event i.e. speeches, syair reading and also those gift giving sort of thingy. the best part that i like during that session was the fashion show of the models showing off the clothes from the 9 districts of perak. they were absolutely wonderful i tell ya.

around 12.30 midnight, all guest were requested to adjourn to the dining hall for supper (?). the emcee for this session was the well-known mahadhir lokman. the food were awesome! its not strange for us as the caterer was none other than the casuarina hotel. we were entertained by a local 3-piece band i think. they sang all kinds of music genres suitable for elderly ladies except hip-hop lol. maybe 1/2 an hr after that, we were surprised by the appearance of our very own raja gelek dato' m daud kilau with his shocking red outfit wah... he sang a few of his songs. we were also surprised by the cute gift given to all of us by the guest of honour (see the left pic). cute, nice and beautiful right. then the band continued to perform for us. at this stage, the guest were started dancing on the dance floor, as requested by the emcee. also the best thing was the pocho-pocho dance thats quite famous nowadays. i dunno the steps but i just went onto the dance floor and followed them. i think i should have learn it someday lor. i remember there's a policewoman asking me to join them some time ago. maybe i'll join them for a start ;)

we really enjoyed ourselves until we didn't realize it that the time already passed 3.30am (hehe... juz like my old younger days huh?!! but with a different version lol)! since it was already so late, my auntie asked us to sleep there first. i managed to sleep at 5am for two hours. my mom woke me up. if not i do not think that i would wakes up by then. by the time we reached here, it was alreay about 9am. luckily both my sister came back for the long weekend. one of them helped me to send puteri to school.


check this out people...

whose singing...

and whose dancing...


the pocho-pocho ;)

on saturday which was also my birthday, i was just relaxing at home with my family. my god-father came so that's why we can't go out that day too. anyhow, one of my sister baked scone for us for breakfast. oh... it was so tempting especially when it served hot. i received some birthday cards from my family members, also from some quilting friends from other countries. i adore a hand-made one from megat. he also make a flower for me using a paper and straw, helped by his grandma. although i didn't receive much gift but i like them so much 'cuz its my most precious gift given to me by my loved ones. its not the thing/gift that matters but their thoughts and loves.

here's a silver-plated butterfly potpouri box from mom...





and here's a liz claiborne leather hand-bag, a shared-gift from my two sisters and my lil' brother...

i watched a hindi movie after lunch. hehe... so long never watched hindi movie yea. when my mom passed-by me, she suggested me to have a nap as i would be going to ipoh with her that night. it seems that she afraid that i might be sleepy thus cannot drive. so i did. i went up to my room, switched-on the air-cond and i slept like sleeping beauty. 'till my grandma woke me up for a fon call from a friend. she called to wish me for my birthday. of course i can't get back to sleep then as it was almost maghrib. so i joined grandma at the patio. i saw there were already some goodies on our dining table i.e. fried meehoon, cream-puff etc. no one mentioned anything. i didn't even dare to ask anyone anything. i just talked with grandma while we were seating on the day-bed. some relatives came soon after. then they surprised me by singing along the birthday song from the kitchen with a birthday cake! auww... i was so touched.

i just would like to say thank you so much everyone for everything. love ya all mwahh...

34

i am 34 today! kids are a bit disappointed as we are not going out to celebrate it. my god-father wanted to come over and lepax-lepax here with us i.e. he requested grandma to cook for him some of the perak delicacies, also wanted to play guitar and hang-around with my dad and some of their old school friends.

remember i told you all that 'puteri & me' will be closed this week. unfortunately we were still baking on thursday night. this time we baked chocolate chip cookies. that's because it was a public holiday yesterday- wesak day. we slept at almost 4.30am on friday!

opss... my god-father is here. gtg ciao!

more responsibilities

*burp* (sorry people)

hi there,

i have just came back from my lunch. my grandma cooked masak lemak siput sedut (snails in a spicy coconut gravy) for lunch today. oh its awesome auww...

i was not in yesterday- n5 task force general meeting for the financial year of 2006/07 at the ISO. the last part of the meeting was none other than selecting our new committee member. our good friend shaidi has been voted as our new president, while our new vice president is abang lan. guess whose the new secretary? hehe... its ME lor!!! looks like i have another responsibility to handle apart from my work and life. last march, i have been voted without competing, as a vice president of the pta of puteri's school. well, whatever it is i will try my very best to complete all the task given to me. wish me luck people ;)

actually i was a bit late during the meeting yesterday as i got some errants to be settled back in the office. anyhow i did inform the former vice president, shaidi anyway. as soon as i stepped into the meeting room, i said sorry to our area manager (AM) for being late.

"its alright", he said.

i saw that they have arranged the meeting room in a different setting this time- meeting chairs scattered here and there.

"help yourself", continued AM. "o yea... before that ladies and gentleman, let's give a big round of applause to our heroin *tut*. congratulations, you were absolutely wonderful that night", said AM, while showed his hand, wanted to have a hand-shake with me. *phew* i thought what ler lol... so we did.

he was talking about the staff award night 2005/06 that has been held in penang on 3 may 2006. i did a bollywood dance with a group of colleagues remember? but i still owe you all the pics. nana still hasn't email me. i have seen pics ready from my staff camera but the quality was not that good. i'll try and do something about it har. you all just need to be patience. well as what our AM said, our dance might gonna be the most talk event of the year! hahahaaa... in fact i was about to go off yesterday when a colleague kak ina stopped me. she told me that i dance very well that night (o yea?) and it seems that i look very beautiful and 'sebijik' (exactly) like one of those bollywood artist. i was laughing like hell when kak ina compliment me that way. she said that she was telling me the truth, right from the bottom of her heart auwww... btw we'll see ya...

love is in the air

i guess let us put a side my baking mood for a while ('puteri & me' kitchen will be closed this weekend anyway). i am awfully, terribly in the sentimental mode this time auwww... ;)

love is patient,
love is kind.
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
it is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easliy angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
it always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
love never fails.

more muffins!

hey there uols',

how was your weekend people. for us, it was still on bake, bake... and more baking hehe... well, i teased puteri that probably 'puteri & me' (hmm... nice name huh?!! what do you all think people) kitchen will be closed next weekend 'cuz it will be my birthday and also mother's day, that's why. i should have relax and pamper myself instead right.

last night we baked muffin again. this time we combined chocolate chips together with chopped almonds. kids love it! see the pics above, taken during our breakfast this morning before they went to school. megat also brought some for his recess time. well, what shall we bake next?

kuE's note:
i) pics created with fd's flickr toys
ii) click here to see our first attempt.

kuE's update on 9/05/06: to rose & kimi and whoever uols out there interested with this recipe, you could find it here. its a very simple one, i bet you. fyi i lurve to browse thru allrecipes site so much. its juz recently that i've registered as its member. o yea... guess what, i simply posted a pic of our muffins the other day, just for fun. to my surprise, the web master has included it together with the recipe. check it out people!

one for the weekend

after megat went to sleep last night and that puteri also has completed her homework, we put on our baking cap and started to bake.

this time we tried to bake breakfast muffin. we used chocolate chip instead of blue berries. its puteri's choice. she's the type of who do not like fruits much. megat loves our muffin so much! we thought of baking this again next time but with an additional of chopped almonds.

here's a pic of our chocolate chip muffin, freshly baked from the oven...

...and by 7am, they were already on our breakfast table ;)

kuE's note: could you figure out whose 'cute' butterfly mug was that? ;)

kuE's secret

wow... i don't feel like going to work at all today. we had a really great time last night in penang for the staff' award night 2005/06. i won't post about it yet as i wanna wait for my friend nana to email me the pics. i didn't take any pics except one on the bridge ;)

i reached home +/- 3.30am this morning. tup tap tup tap... i woke-up at 6+ with stone eyes. i end-up continued my sleep after i send both kids to school. i woke-up again maybe at noon. i need more sleep mannn!!! ya lor... so long i never stay awake until that late. as usual, we didn't go back straight after the function. but we lepax at a nasi kandar shop (sorry can't seems to remember the name of the shop tho') somewhere near bukit jambul mall.

earlier, when i was on the way there, i dropped-by to see abang and to catch-up on some things that we missed. abang told me that its already quite near from there to penang. he also advised me to drive slowly that i no need to drive up until 140km/h. sorry arr... sometimes my right leg can't help it to press the 'oil' so deep inside ;)

i reached penang safely at 1pm. we started the sound check and rehearsel after 2.30pm. we always stayed in a group. once, when i was walking by a female colleague kak liza, she was interested in my smell.

"eh... *tut* come back here. you have a very nice smell lor..." . this time she pulled my right hand, make me standing besides her so that she could smell more of me. sniff sniff...

"ye ke. thanks", replied me.

"yea, i like your smell very much. what's your secret huh?!!", she asked me.

hehe... this incident reminds me that abang used to tell me the same thing too ;)

well, do i really have a secret? how about you people. would you like to share some of yours with me?

damn you afghans!

good morning to all of you people my friends around the world. have you all heard about the news- afghanistans killed canadians? argghhhh... hate them (afghans) so much. we wanna live in peace, mind you. now i am so tired and sick thinking about it sooo much- i am so damn worried and miserable now, dunno what to do. help me... somebody!!!!!!

here's another...

we baked this chocolate cake topped with glace icing last night- went to bed by 2am occay. hmm... wonder whats baking expert Nah gotta say about this ;)

something to do

since puteri's schedule rather tight until her upsr examinations, we have to sacrifice ourselves of not going out for our weekend outing so often. so this idea of doing some baking at home sounds interesting right ;)

for a start, last night puteri baked (oh yea... of course i was around to supervise her) a butter cake covered with her own version of the chocolate butter icing. guess what she loves to do this again anytime today or tomorrow.

a' chaa...

i was out the whole day in ipoh yesterday with my mother. we were looking for some stuff for lil' bro's engagement day in june i.e. fabs., sequins (i chose gold colour butterfly cuz' they look gorgeous auww... lol), etc. i'm sure lil' bro will be surprised seeing butterfly on his hantaran too hehe... my mom gonna sew the lapik semerit herself. maybe i'll help her a bit here and there ;)

azah called when we were in ipoh parade. "must be something", i thought to myself. hahahaa... yea... it IS something.


azah: *tut*, you kat mana tu.

me: i'm in ipoh.

azah: alone?

me: no. i'm with my mom. you know, my lil' bro's engagement is around the corner- in june. so both of us are here looking for some stuff for that lor.

azah: o ok. its about the dinner next week.

yes, there will be a staff' award night on next wednesday in penang.

me: yea...

azah: we have to present something. and as usual our group have to do lor... you, me, shaidi, nizam and nana to name a few. plus a few others lar.

what? we have to perform? i'm sure our staff will be laughing at us like mad lol.

me: what we have to do.

azah: we gonna do some bollywood thing.

both of us giggles.

azah: so okay lor. we gonna meet at nana's place on monday at 10am for practise. see you there!

me: a' chaa...


mwahahaaa... bollywood huh?!! who gonna be aishwarya rai, shahrukh khan, preity zinta or saif ali khan. now what should i wear for that nite. i have just bought a damn cute butterfly blouse that made of sequins. maybe i'll wear the punjabi suit just for the show. and guess what people. last night i dreamt that i borrowed a punjabi suit from our neighbour! all set with the glass bangles, that gundu thing, some accessories etc. hahahaa... i can't really imagine how is this gonna be like. we'll see...


o yea... i saw a card with green envelope on my desk. i was not in the whole day yesterday, remember. i unsealed it. tadaa... its my first birthday card! and its from people of the ipoh sales office (ISO)! i.e. my area managers. thank you guys ;)

a mother's hope

i was down-loading pics from my fon, taken earlier at megat's school. at the same time i was browsing-through my friend's blog when suddenly a latest post by qatar cat sadden me.

yea just imagine... i just came back from megat's school, brought what ever he wished for his recess time- yesterday i fried nuggets and today he wanted the sausage bun from a local bakery. then before i left we kissed each other. while on the other side of the world huhu... what when wrong?

btw here are some pics that i snapped at megat's school. i can't resist my eyes looking at those kids. they are so damn cute aren't they. with the name of Allah the almighty we just hope that these kids won't be the one like those mentioned by QC ;)

i can't read that hehe...

so cute ler ;)

megat completing his mathematics in mandarin

what's your favourite TLA?

modern life is awash with TLAs or Three Letter Acronyms such as:

• LOL - Laughed Out Loud

• OMG - Oh My God

• BTW - By The Way

so people what's your favourite one? or do you just hate them? please let me know with a good ranting post.

weekend in kualer...

yes, we spend our weekends in kualer this time.


on friday...

puteri showed me a paper from school. she has been selected as one of the 15 students to join a free upsr workshop organized by a 'someone/organization'. this workshop will be held on every sunday until end of august, including school holidays. hmm... its definitely a no-time-for-play girl.


on saturday...

i brought my puteri and megat to the water sports festival along the sungai (river) perak. that was one of the 'must' yearly events held during the sultan's birthday. unfortunately the sultan was not around that day. his place has been replaced by his son, the raja muda dytm raja dato' seri nazrin shah, along with raja di hilir, raja kecil besar and raja kecil tengah.

as usual almost all the rakyat (people) of perak were there to meet their beloved raja-raja.

one of the 'must' sport that day was the perahu rowing contest between the 'oxford and cambridge of kualer'- clifford school and mckk. clifford won, as expected ;)

kuE's up-date on 26/04/06: no wonder koleq always lose, check out about this here hehe...

btw here are some pics-

a view from far

can you spot the team in black? that's koleq's.

it was already almost 6.45pm when we left the place. puteri and megat look so damn tired, including me. so we headed to the new kopitiam in town before we went straight back home. kinda' nice place tho' ;)

my point of view from inside the new kopitiam

on sunday...

first sunday of puteri's upsr workshop. can't lepakking no more lol. anyhow, of course i'll find time for friends and leisure.

surprisingly out of the blue moon, my god-father whose also winnie's dad, dropped-by just to say hi ;)

mom vs daughter

good morning people,

can you all guess what i was doing with puteri this morning, before she get ready for school. hehe... so shy lor to tell you all. alright, to tell you the truth both of us decided to compare our vital-statistics ;)

if you are unable to read puteri's writing, here's the results-

puteri ~ 30-27-31 1/4

me ~ 29.5-26.5-33 1/4

this shows that puteri really gonna be bigger than me lol. btw we also decided to do this monthly. i will surely up-date it here too.

it was raining during last two nights. so no pics of the panjut contest from me. we heard that it was actually held for two nights. but since last night was raining until so late, i don't think people will light the panjut. pity megat. the night before was raining too but they started after the rain stopped approximately 9pm. unfortunately megat slept early, so we didn't go. maybe next time i guess. anyhow, i will surely bring kidz to the pesta "ayor" (read: air) / water festival this saturday. this is gonna be their first time!

before i go off, here's a self-taken pic of me, taken last night. can you spot the butterfly on my pillow case? cute kan :D

perak delicacies

introducing my grandma's "ayor tangan"...

my most favourite local food- on my plate (ref. above pic) - rendang dinding (middle) and gulai tauchu sotong (right).

it is said that there is no idiomatic phrase in english to best describe ayor (read: air) tangan, which encompasses both the cooking style and skills of the chef. the term also refers to the food prepared to correct ingredients and measurements.

in the malay culture, air tangan ibu broadly refers to mother’s cooking and it is to describe that "special touch" that makes food tastier.

hmm... wonder why i thought of blogging about our local food today? well, tomorrow will be a public holiday for perak state only as it is the birthday of our sultan. me as a perakian, are so proud to take this opportunity to invite all of you people to visit the sultan's office' website. it is very informative i tell you. while you are there, you could read more about the perak sultanate and its heritage. there's also a page showing his royal highness' official programs.

usually there will be quite a number of events that will be held in perak through out the month. one of them is the pelita panjut contest tonight among the government and private sector i.e. pdrm, bomba, mckk etc. i'm going to bring puteri and megat out tonight to see the event. they are so excited, can't wait for it hehe... while on saturday, i will bring them to see the pesta air (water festival) along the sungai (river) perak.

alright, back to the food. i really can't resist my grandma's rendang dinding and gulai tauchu sotong. they are the best. no one could challenge her. i remember when grandma used to come over to my place in subang last time. she really likes to cook a lot eventhough there were just the two of us in the apartment. so we always invited my former colleagues to join us. they loved her food so much that she almost cook for the hotel during a perak food festival ;)

the wild & gubra

wahh!!! this gonna be my third post of the day hehe... so much to blog about i guess ;)

we went for a movie marathon yesterday- two movies only anyway. we watched the wild at 11am (+/- 1hr 20mins). then we headed for our lunch at the newly-renovated secret recipe. then we went into the tgv kinta city again to watch gubra (2 hours) at 1.35pm.



1) the wild

disney's the wild shows off some of these impressive, cuddly characters, but unfortunately, the writing doesn’t hold up when compared to recent – and classic – animated films.

the wild isn’t terribly funny by any means, unfortunately, at least to an adult. there are a few laughs to be had here and there.

even with the funny moments, the wild is still missing that special something. while every pixar film to date has appealed to both young and old, disney has yet to get that concept right on its own. now that disney has bought out pixar, projects currently in the works certainly have a chance to reach the standard set by films like toy story and monsters inc. as for the wild, well, it’s really just for the little ones.

that aside, the animation in this film is truly some of the best i’ve seen. the brilliant presentation of times square, the realistic view of the dense african jungle, the smoke billowing from a volcano facing imminent eruption – all these things considered, well, it’s easy to see why the visuals are the film’s strong point. the animation in the opening storytelling sequence, as well as during the clever charting of the transcontinental journey across the atlantic, was also extremely well done.

for the kids, they may certainly get a kick out of the wild, with its colourful cast of characters and its typical Disney ending. but there are certainly some better options.


2) gubra

as you all could see, i do not watch stupid local films/movies. i only watch a good quality one like yasmin ahmad's. i know she has been through the ups and downs in the industry. what when the recent mysterious thing happened to her film in theatres. read about it here :(

gubra continues where sepet (whom my lil' bro was the music/sound editor) left off, delving further into inter-racial relationships, racial issues and religious acceptance and tolerance. it was not a surprised, of me sitting next to a chinese girl who came to watch the movie alone.

“gubra is basically about love and betrayal, and the inevitable question of whether or not to forgive the people who betray us and why is it that we tend to hurt the people we love most,” - yasmin.

gubra is bound to create some waves as it also raises the “sensitive” issue of the friendship between a wife of a bilal (religious figure) and two prostitutes, one of whom is dying of AIDS.

sharifah amani, ida nerina, harith iskandar and adibah noor, from sepet, reprise their roles in gubra.

psst! people who havent watched yet, stay back for after the credits. you will so kiss me for telling you this. REALLY.

if i have to compare gubra with sepet, i’d have to say that gubra didn't make me sit down and just think, like how sepet did. sepet just completely jilted me. but that doesn't make gubra a lesser movie, cos i think they’re both in two very different categories. if you exclude the art direction and the filming techniques and the obvious yasmin ahmad element, gubra wasnt like sepet at all.

gubra was filmed fantastically. i especially love how there was so much play with doors. it made me feel like i was an intangible observer, like a ghost, but yet *there* at the same time, in the heart of what was taking place before my eyes. like being in two places at once - both on the inside and outside.

the powerful and jarring scenes from sepet were succeeded in gubra - the scene where temah held her son from behind while he was sleeping, the scene where arif enveloped orked while she cried, the scene where the car was being washed after orked walked out on arif, the scene where the religious man walked past the prostitutes .. i loved them all. gubra was good cos of scenes like those. cinematography and screenplay at its best.

gubra was a feel-good, soft film. beautiful like black calligraphy on yellowed parchment, intimate like pressing warm hands softly on tired eyes. i give it a 4/5.

rose

happy birthday

you are such a special friend
and i wanted you to know
just what your friendship means to me
and how your love does show
you hold a special place with me
deep inside my heart
for that my friend i want you to know
our friendship will never part
i want to wish you a happy birthday
on this most special day
i ask that Allah will bless and keep you
for this i'll always pray

happy birthday ROSE
love, kuE, puteri & megat

kuE's note: pics created with fd's flickr toys using images taken from here, here, here and here.

kuE's up-date at 3.50pm: there's also a special entry for rose on CK's and KC's blogs. check it out people.

17th april visit

kuE's note: more pics and stories can be found here, here and here ;)

kuE's up-date on 18/04/06:
" arthurteng says:
It is rare to have hornbills as companionship within our house compound. Perhaps the ideal environment makes the birds feel safe for frequent visits. " - taken from kuE's flickr.

199th

wow!!! i just wanted to blog about my visit to ipoh on friday with mom, to see my cousin oyeen's baby. then only i realized that this gonna be my 199th post. what a co-incidence, huh?!! i remember that i posted my 99th posts sometime in december '05.

both oyeen and baby went back to ipoh for a week. they will fly to abu dhabi on monday night to join the husband/dad whose a pilot with etihad airways. formerly he was with malaysia airlines. he went on for a better offer since the local airlines didn't provide him enough eventhough he has worked with them for so many years. oyeen didn't tell me anything when we met last week. then only i knew that she has quit her job (stewardess with the same airlines) for good too. here i include a candid pic of oyeen and baby natalia nadine ;)

kuE's note: to all you malaysians, does this face looks familiar to you. hmm... mati i (i would be dead) if oyeen knows that i posted this pic here hehe...

typical malaysian

i hate to talk about this (ref- title) among us over and over again. what to do. its the facts of malaysian life.

story #1 ~ i know some of you may wanna know of whats the out-come of yesterday's. sadly to say, it has been postponed to 15 may 2006 :( quite a number of friends called to ask about this. when i told them about the postponment, they were not surprised. besides they said, "hmm... normal lor... malaysian like that one, dunno how long this gonna last. in fact its almost one year already since the incident last year". its true! like most of the court cases we heard on local papers/tvs that took so damn long to settle i.e. months/years grr...

p/s what ever it si, thank you so much too all my hamily, relatives and friends for their kind words before i went to the court yesterday morning. all you people really makes me so relieves ;)

story #2 ~ one of the examples of malaysian life could be found here in my post last month.

story #3 ~ an indian neighbour of my auntie in ttdi complained about a bird that frequently flying around her house, that makes such a loud and lousy noise (?). my oh my, such a stupid fellow complaining about His creation. jabatan perhutanan people came to the house you know but unfortunately my auntie was not at home. my cousin (my aunt's son) told them that he dunno anything. it was his mom and their opposite neighbour mwahahahahahahaaaaa rotfl...

apples of my heart

first of all, before i say/type any further, i would like to thank my darling rose for being my guest blogger today. i had tears in my eyes when reading it. you said so many good and nice things about me. are you sure darling. anyhow that's me! i am who i am. thank you so much dear mwahh...

about last sunday, please do not feel regret about it at all. i am fine here. maybe next time you let me know your situation. who knows i could come over to your house and fetch you or something yea...

btw i am not gonna tell you people about what happened this morning yet. let us keep it for tomorrow. at the meantime, here's pics of my puteri and megat, taken this morning before they went to school.

Another guest blogger in the house :)

Hi people :) This is Rose, blogging on behalf of KuE. I was surprised when i read her sms last nite.. but really feel honored to do this bit for her :) Thanx for the trust dear *hugz*

As all of us know from KuE's recent post, "Sapina", she's in court with her dad since 8.30 this morning for the first hearing. I really hope things will go on smoothly for them *crossing fingers* As for now, i'm sure many of us just wished the culprits will change their stand to accept the charges so that things will be very much easier for both KuE and dad. Can't wait to read her update on this matter later. Soon, i hope :)

Anyways, what else should i write? Hmmm... my reasons for not meeting up with her during the weekend? Oh well, i better not mention them here bcoz some may think those reasons are actually excuses, excuses, excuses rather :( Sometimes i just can't help comparing my life with KuE's. Her ever friendly self really makes me admire her more and more. Her thotfulness, kindness, sweet smiles, encouraging words, strong soul, are only small fraction of the good things to mention abt her. She'll always have time for frens who come from near and far. Also, she never fails to invite frens to come over to her house, and even offers her ground to frens to have their gatherings :) Hope one fine day me, C and kids will be able to spend some precious and lovely time with her, Puteri and Megat. Be it in KK or KL :) One day dear, one fine day *wink*

To a such a lovely lady by the name of KuE, hope we'll stay frens for many many more years to come dahling *mwahs mwahs*

look at this people!

our breakfast this morning was interrupted when the five hornbills came to our house to look for food. that was because we usually eat our meals at the patio. as soon as i came back after sending kids to school, i saw one of them was sitting on the roof near my room. not long after that, came another and another flying around the house. lastly, all of them were eating bugs near our patio. before that my cousin' maid trying to sweep away all the bugs (kelkatu) that came into the patio last night. since we saw that the hornbills were eating that particular bugs outside, so we asked susi to stop sweeping. my grandma asked me to open the patio door with hopes that the birds would come in. they did, four of them!

as usual, i loaded all the pics to my flickr account. my mom called my sister to let her know about this. she was so excited, immediately told most of her 'environment' friends. within minutes, my flickr page of the birds pics been viewed by many. within seconds too, my sister have added more tags about the birds to my page-
bucerotidae, coraciiformes, anthracoceros, anthracoceros albirostris and oriental pied-hornbill.

see, i told ya... only environment people know these. how on earth i know those scientific words lol :P


kuE's up-date at 10.34am:

i copy and paste this tag that has been added by my sister to my flickr page (pandai-pandai je... lol). i guess she's the one that was really excited hehe...-

" they have started to visit our place for many months now but much more frequent the last couple of months, and this morning has been the most exciting visit!

there are 2 adults and 3 juveniles in the group. these are 2 of the juveniles (ref. to the 4th pics i guess) i suppose.

last night the patio or breakfast area were 'infested' by flying termites (or what are they called?). this photo was taken against the mosquito netting but you can see the couple of photos when they came inside the house to feed on the insects (my grandmother (alo... me lor, not grandma) opened the door).

so in other words, my family had to wait to have their breakfast after these guys had theirs
:-)) "