Horrendous Rendezvous

Easy peasy kimchi recipe

2011-12-12T15:24:00.007+08:00

As promised, albeit 'soon' actually took me a while (apologies for that; time is a sneaky thing), here is the kimchi recipe. This recipe is adapted from Maangchi's emergency kimchi recipe. I could not be bothered spending hours making the proper kimchi so this was a great alternative for lazy me or people who are short on time.

Kimchi

Ingredients

1/4 of a cabbage, sliced (mine was partially used for the jjajangmyun recipe in the previous post and so was chopped up instead)
4 tbsp salt
1 carrot, thinly julienned
2 spring onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped (or more if you love garlic)
1/4 cup hot pepper flakes (or to taste; I mixed only 1 tbsp of flakes with lots of paprika because spiciness does not agree with me or the Big Kahuna and the paprika added the vibrant red)
1 tbsp raw sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce

1. Place the cabbage in a bowl of cold water and mix in the salt. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients (you can prepare the garlic, carrot and spring onions now so the salt can draw out the water from the cabbage).

2. In another bowl, make the kimchi paste by mixing chili/paprika powder with garlic and fish sauce.

I ran out of garlic so I cheated *shh*

3. Thoroughly mix in carrot and spring onions. Add sugar.

Don't forget the gloves!

4. Drain the cabbage and mix into the kimchi paste. Mix thoroughly.

5. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate until needed. Or eat straight away!

Notes and tips:

Use disposable gloves if you want to avoid smelling like the fish market the rest of the week.

Kimchi may last for months in the fridge.

Aside from being used as accompaniment, kimchi can also be used to make kimchi fried rice and other recipes that call for it.

If you would like to try your hands on making the traditional kimchi, please visit Maangchi's youtube channel. She has plenty of delicious Korean recipes there :)

Happy trying! Ta ra~

Notes on labour

2011-12-01T14:36:00.001+08:00

I am compiling some notes on labour for one of my best friends since she is giving birth in about two weeks' time *yikes!* and thought I might as well share it with everyone who might be going through the same ordeal soon or in the distant future. She is freaking out (and rightly so :P) but I told her supposedly, knowing what to expect makes labour less scary and painful. I cannot vouch for truth in it but I suppose it is better than treating it like the unknown and panicking when it is happening in earnest :)

I have read a few books and what one lacks, others make up for. However, bear in mind that every individual is different and therefore will go through different pains and emotions and cannot be lumped into one category. The notes here are all general occurrences that are associated with birth and what to normally expect and mostly refer to hospital birth. I also pepper them with some Islamic knowledge where necessary. So, take them as guidelines instead of blow-by-blow instructions, so to speak.

Labour may come as early as the thirty-seventh week as the baby is considered fully-developed (full-term). When your baby is engaged (head is deep in your pelvis), then be prepared for the baby to come at anytime. This usually happens between weeks thirty-six and thirty-eight.

Make sure you have your hospital bags packed for yourself, your support person (aka coach aka birth partner; although I do believe the term ‘partner’ in this sense is used very loosely) and the baby. There is an Excel spreadsheet detailing what you should consider taking at the end of the post for reference.

When you are in labour, you may not notice its early signs. When you do notice them however, then it may occur anytime and you should start conserving energy.

Although there are claims that certain surahs and ayahs will ease labour, these are based on weak or fabricated hadeeths. There are also fabricated and weak hadeeths regarding the virtues of pregnancy such as getting more rewards than a non-pregnant person (please refer to http://islamqa.com/en/ref/121557). Allahu'alem. However, it is always good for a practising Muslim to recite the Quran as it is a form of meditation and spiritual connection. So read the Quran and its meaning as much as possible before and during (this may be a hard ask so you might want to have surahs on your music player playlist if you will be using one) labour which hopefully will aid in calming you down and thus easing labour pains.

Some people experience pre-labour contractions which are also called 'false contractions'. They are usually uncomfortable but bearable and irregular. It is, however, difficult to differentiate between these contractions and the 'latent phase' contractions of the first stage of labour, where the cervix is three to four cm dilated, so you might want to ring up your doctor or hospital for advice.

Signs that labour is ensuing:

The protective plug sealing the cervix passes down the vagina that looks like blood-stained mucus (called a bloody show; yes, seriously).
When your water breaks, it may be just a trickle or a waterfall rushing out of your vagina.

If you notice the following, make sure you ring the doctor or hospital right away:

There is dark or green stain (meconium - baby's first poo) in the amniotic fluid when your waters break as this may signal foetal distress.
You have bright red bleeding which may be a problem with the placenta.
You feel or see the umbilical cord in your vagina. This means that the cord has prolapsed, which can cut off oxygen supply to the foetus due to the foetus putting pressure on the cervix entrance, hence, on the cord. If this happens, call or have someone call the ambulance, open the door, kneel down with your bottom in the air and head and shoulders down to ease the pressure.

Real contractions can be recognised when they are regular, get stronger and last longer, come closer together and harder to cope with.

Time your contractions' (there are apps available for your phone to time contractions. Ahh the wonders of technology) length and frequency and let the doctor or hospital know.

For a primigravida (first-time pregnant woman), this is what to expect:

First stage - the cervix dilates to eight to nine cm which takes an average of eight hours.
First stage transition - the cervix dilates to ten cm, which takes further three to five hours.
Second stage - build up to pushing and the baby is delivered, which takes up about two hours.
Third stage - the placenta is delivered, which takes up to an hour if done naturally (about ten minutes if induced with oxytocin).

The average time for labour for a primigravida is about fourteen hours but can range from just a few hours to days.

These are some of the things to expect to be done to you when you get to the hospital:

Blood pressure check.
Urine sample taken.
Temperature and pulse check.
Cervical dilation check up your vagina.
Electronic monitoring of the baby's heart.

For some people, the first stage of labour is hardly noticeable. I have a friend who rang the hospital when she felt the contractions and was told that she should wait a few more hours before going in. When she went in, they found that her cervix was fully dilated which means her first stage was only felt in the last few hours or lasted a few hours.

If your doctor advises you to spend a few hours of labour at home before rushing to hospital, which in the case of my friend, mentioned earlier, could have meant having the baby in the backseat of a car :P), it is best to time your contractions for about an hour to gauge the length and frequency of the contractions. If they are very close together, then dashing to the hospital is the way to go. Be prepared to go back home though if you have only just begun to dilate but take your hospital bags just in case.

Once you are in the first stage of labour, you might not remember everything that you have read or has been told to you so it might help to have your support person read the notes, remind or do things for you.

Keep your energy levels up by sucking on sweets, eating jelly, cooked fruit, dry toast or clear soup and keep hydrated by having sips of water or juice fed to you or chewing on ice chips. Eat lightly and avoid fatty, creamy and hard to digest foods. And avoid acidic and spicy foods as well.

If you opt for any sort of coping strategies, now is a good time to have them implemented, whether a massage, aromatherapy or drugs. You might not notice the urge to pee so it is a good idea to regularly go to the toilet. Make sure to move around to alleviate discomfort and keep hydrated. Try not to expand energy anticipating your next contraction (easier said than done I am sure :P).

If you feel intense back pains, the baby's head is probably pressing against the pelvis. You might be able to relieve the pain by doing the following:

Walk around, crouch, squat, get on all fours or lie on your left side in a foetal position if you cannot move to ease the pressure on your back.
Use a hot water bottle or ice pack or alternate between them.
Use a tennis ball for a massage (one of things listed as what to pack).
Your support person might be able to counter the pressure, which might give some relief, and also some bruises, but well worth it.
Drugs.

Labour positions are up to you. You may want to squat, get down on all fours, stand up or even sit. All those are okay but you should not lie flat on your back because that would interfere with blood circulation. If you have to lie down, make sure it is on your left side as this puts less pressure on major blood vessels.

Slow breathing might help during the first stage of labour. Breathe in slowly through your nose and breathe out calmly through your mouth as the contraction begins.

Light breathing should be done when contractions become stronger and more frequent. Use your upper body (instead of your abdomen) to breathe. Take light and short breaths.

The second part of the first stage (first stage transition) is often more challenging, when contractions are more painful and last longer (a minute to a minute and a half) and they come closer together. You may feel extreme temperatures, nausea or even vomit. You may also start feeling like screaming at your partner for putting you in this position. Your cervix is fully dilated at the end of this stage. You may feel like pushing before you are fully dilated but have your support person remind you to pant instead.

Some get a latent phase before the second stage of labour before the body tells them to push the baby out. Contractions will be just as long but will be a few minutes apart. In spite of what the movies show you, using a big push while holding your breath is not recommended. Instead, use shorter pushes with each contraction, making it easier for the pelvic floor to relax and let the baby out. It might take longer but it will put less stress on you and the baby. A poo might also be pushed out, which is entirely normal and nothing to be ashamed of, not that you will be in any state to be embarrassed about anything. Grunt and moan as much as you want. Doing so might expand more energy but if it makes you feel better...

Now here comes the part every woman dreads. The baby's head will be pushing against the perineum, and this is called crowning. You will feel a great urge to push but you will be advised to stop pushing at this stage. Instead, you will have to relax your pelvic floor in order to prevent tearing or an episiotomy (a cut made on the perineum and the posterior vaginal wall).

You will want to increase your breathing now. Use shallow breaths involving only your mouth. Take care not to hyperventilate by breathing out too much. Breathe lightly in and out through your mouth and gradually speed up your breathing. Short breaths or pants will help the baby to be delivered slowly and will put less pressure on the perineum. Remind your support person to remind you (every day leading up to the labour if you can if you are scared stiff of anything splitting down there, which I am while typing this) to do this so that there is less chance of badly tearing up the perineum.

Forceps delivery may be employed if in the second stage of labour there are poor contractions or foetal or maternal distress. The forceps will grasp the baby's head and guide it out without injuring either the baby or the mother.

Another instrument that might be used is the vacuum extractor. It works in a similar fashion to the forceps by attaching to the baby's head via suction. Don't worry, the baby's skull is made up of many unconnected bones which over the months will join together thus making the shape normal over time :)

An episiotomy may be done if there is a chance of tearing towards the anus. Kegel exercise done routinely might help prevent the need for this (plus other benefits including better healing post partum (after birth), better sex and preventing incontinence).

After the head comes out (this supposedly is the hardest part), then the baby rotates and the shoulders will slide out along with the rest of the baby :)

Pics of a cute baby for motivation lol (taken from

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbr2fhOsGx1qzfb93o1_500.jpg)

If you are holding the baby right now, you might not even be aware of the placental delivery. Ideally, you will want to put the wee babe straight on your breast (you can do the gushing afterwards :)). This will aid the delivery of the placenta and get the baby used to your breasts and stimulate the production of milk. Uterine contraction will continue to detach the placenta and remnants of the amniotic sac. The contractions will also seal off the point of placental detachment so no bleeding will occur from that site. The placenta will be checked to make sure that it has been fully ejected and nothing grisly is left inside the uterus. They will proceed to check on your well-being, making sure there is no haemmorhage.

Then, the baby's reflex and other observations will be done. The umbilical cord will be clamped and if need be, the perineum will be sewn up. Some books refer to this as the fourth stage.

The first thing a baby should hear is the adhan and so have the father recite it in the baby's right ear.

For further information on what to do after the baby is born based on Islamic sunnah, please refer to this link http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/7889.

Here are the links for this post in PDF form and an Excel spreadsheet for the hospital packing lists which you can modify to suit your own needs:

If there is any questions regarding the post or the links, please feel free to contact me at horrendezvous@hotmail.com.

To those who have gone through this, I salute you. To those who will be going through this soon, all the best and Godspeed! Ta ra~

References:

A Blessed Pregnancy by Sherin binti Kunhibava

Conception, Pregnancy and Birth by Dr. Miriam Stoppard

Islam QA – www.islamqa.com

Pregnancy Week-by-week by Dr. Jane MacDougall

The Practical Encyclopedia of Pregnancy and Babycare by Alison Mackonochie

Up the Duff by Kaz Cooke

What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway

Years of Reproductive Biology Studies by Me

Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles)

2011-11-17T16:40:00.000+08:00

Annyeong! How many times have you sat down and watch K-dramas (especially rom coms) and thought to yourself, man how good do they make food look?? The way they eat their noodles *slurp* and the spread they put out for breakfast... That happens to me and the Big Kahuna every single time and so I have been dabbling in Korean cuisine, sort of, lately. I have made jjajangmyun countless times now, experimenting with different ingredients and brands of black bean sauce :D

This dish originated from China and so is considered a Chinese dish enjoyed by many Koreans. I have tried the instant noodles version. Alas, not to my liking lol.

The recipes I found mostly use pork belly for the protein and since we are not pork eaters, this recipe has been altered in that sense and in many other ways to suit our taste. So this might not appeal to most people, least of all actual Koreans! Sorry! But jjajangmyun is so tasty that it would be awesome if people who find pork or even meat a deterrent to try making it at least once! :) If you're vego, just leave out the meat and it would still be super delicious, trust me ;)

Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles) Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 onion (diced)
A quarter of a cabbage (roughly chopped, about 2 cups; optional, can be substituted with 1 diced radish)
2 carrots (chopped; optional)
2 potatoes or 1 sweet potato (diced)
1 zucchini (diced)
1 chicken breast (diced; optional)
2-3 cups water
1/4 cup black bean paste
Sugar to taste
2 tbsp potato starch or cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water
White wheat flour noodles, follow instructions on packet
Half a cucumber (julienned, for garnish)
Kimchi (accompaniment; optional)
Sesame oil (optional)

Cabbage, potatoes, onion, carrots and zucchini

Diced carrots, onions and zucchini

Chopped cabbage

Diced potatoes

Diced chicken breast

The black bean paste I used this time (I always like to try different brands to find the best-tasting ones; this one was nice)

Noodles I used

Cornflour mixed with water

1. Heat oil in a wok or a big saucepan with a lid.
2. Sautee onion and carrots.

Sauteeing carrots and onion

3. When onion is transluscent, add cabbage, potatoes and zucchini.

Sauteeing the rest of the veggies

4. After a few minutes, add chicken and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

More sauteeing, with chicken

5. Add water until just covered and place the lid on. Let simmer for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are cooked. Remember to stir every once in a while to make sure that the potatoes don't stick to the bottom.

Water added

Chuck the lid on

6. Remember to cook the noodles in the meantime!

Cooking noodles in boiling water

7. Add black bean paste and sugar. Add more of either if you'd like it saltier/sweeter. You can heat up some oil in a small saucepan and fry the black bean paste before putting it into the mixture but it is not necessary.

Frying the bean paste

8. Add potato starch or cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce bit by bit. You might not use it all or you might have to add more. You'd want a very thick sauce that when you mix it with the noodles, it'd make this squishing noise lol.

Sauce which still needed thickening

9. Place noodles in a flat bowl/plate, heap a serving of black bean sauce on top and garnish with cucumber and a dash of sesame oil. Enjoy with or without kimchi. Mashittda!

Voila! Jjajangmyun with a side of cheat kimchi (recipe to come)

Notes and tips:

This is not traditional but I usually blend all the vegetables together and this gives the sauce a thickness (possibly the starchiness from the potatoes), I do this when I can be bothered :P Since the sauce is already thick, I would add very little water and sometimes I don't even need to add cornflour/potato starch mixture.

One happy customer!

If you find you have too much cabbage cut up, don't panic, you can make kimchi using a very easy recipe which will be put up very soon.

The beauty about this dish is that if you do not have certain vegetables, you can either substitute or omit. I would keep at least three different vegetables in.

Since I cook for two, we usually have heaps of leftover sauce. You can chuck it in the fridge if you're lazy to cook the next day or in the freezer to have over the months.

Happy cooking! Ta ra~

Swearing in Ramadan

2011-08-24T13:33:00.002+08:00

Actions speak louder than words; do you agree with the saying? I tend to, especially if said actions accompany positive words :) To counteract negativity, however, I would have to say, it is better to show that you are better than stooping down to their level by not parroting their speech and much less, their appalling acts.

For example, when your beloved says that they love you, wouldn't it be much nicer if they also give you a beautiful bouquet of flowers or something from Tiffany's? The latter you can of course reserve for special occassions :P

Anyway, this is off that topic now but I have noticed that many Muslim ladies, especially covered ones, i.e. hijabis, speak with such shocking language, especially on Facebook. Wtf, bs, stfu, some do not even bother with the acronyms and just spell each word out :S As Muslims, we are supposed to watch what we say, do, etc. because they reflect our characters, our fellow Muslims' characters and community as well. However, being hijabis, that responsibility, I believe, amplifies since our hijabs is a direct representation of our religion. I don't know if these ladies think they are gangsta or just being a 'normal' person. 'Hey, I might be Muslim but I can curse better than you American biatches,' maybe that is what they think. I don't know why I said American. I am trying to keep this as general as possible and so just typed whatever country came to mind.

Anyway, I, and I say this with shame, used to think I was so gangsta and swore like a sailor. I was thirteen, and angry haha. Ask my friends from junior high. I was the nerdy kid with thick glasses in full white school uniform. Not a pretty picture I might add, oh yes, that is me in the picture *dies*

I am at the bottom left :D

Oh here I am off track again. Like I said, I thought it was so cool to be angry and spitting out angry, disgusting words. I stubbed my toe, I said 'F*** you stone!!!', and kicked the little rock more and stubbed my other toe; I nearly got hit by a car, I said 'F*** you, you blind f*****r???!!!!', along with the obligatory middle finger salute. Bad hey? Tell me about it.

Overtime, I realise, that it is a nasty habit that needed curbing. And so, I allowed myself to at least say s**t or c**p until I culled the habit completely. I am proud to say that I am now ninety-nine percent sober. Because sometimes when I am extremely mad (mad is the key word), my naughty mouth just felt like saying 'F*** it!!!! (Bill O'Reilly style (warning: video is NSFW due to cursing))'. Felt good at the time but then I would feel guilty and the Big Kahuna would get upset with me and therefore nobody is happy. So yes, now I try hard to take a breath before I say anything when I get upset. That way, I will have time to think before I blurt anything out.

Bill O'Reilly Flips Out; warning: video is NSFW due to cursing

So lovely ladies (and guys too), why resort to cursing and swearing in this civilised society when there are so many wonderful, less offensive words to choose from. If someone annoys you, instead of saying 'you are such a b***h', why not say 'you know (insert name), I think I choose not to put up with your nonsensical behaviour,' and walk away. When someone will not stop 'advising' (i.e. telling you what to do) you, instead of saying 'why don't you stfu?? You don't know me so don't be telling me what to do!', say 'My dear (insert name), it is better for you to worry about your household before burdening yourself with mine as well', smile that smile that never reaches the eyes and walk away. Classy.

Okay, I think I have rambled enough, so I will leave you with this point to ponder:

In Ramadan, swearing does not invalidate one's fast, but it does detract from his reward. One should control himself and guard his tongue against swearing, reviling, backbiting, gossiping and other things that Allah has forbidden whether one is fasting or not. But when one is fasting it is more serious and he should be more careful in preserving the integrity of his fast, and avoid that which will harm people or be a cause of trouble, anger and division, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “If one of you is fasting, let him not utter obscenities on that day or raise his voice, and if anyone reviles him or wants to pick a fight with him, let him say ‘I am a person who is fasting.’”

Revised from Islam Q&A http://www.islam-qa.com

May our ibadah and fast in the month of Ramadan be accepted and rewarded inshallah. Ta ra~

Horrendezvous - the beginning :P

2011-08-22T14:23:00.001+08:00

I tried to open my blog yesterday and typed in the url to go directly to it instead of having to sign in and bla bla. But I could not for the life of me get it right and so I resorted to googling it because I was too stubborn to sign in. Anyway, my my was I surprised to see someone else is using horrendezvous and it kind of made me upset lol. I seriously thought of patenting that username. I have grown quite attached to it and have been using it since I was in high school. How many years now, yikes, ten! At least haha. Wow I am pretty old. Now I am looking at ways to patent it :P

I know, I am not the first person to put together two words to make a 'unique' name. I thought I was pretty clever when I came up with it though. Back when I was a nerdy (still is, albeit watered down) fifteen-year-old. Horrendous Rendezvous! How cool! I thought. I was angsty and full of teenage woe and those two words summed me up perfectly. I kept meeting people I eventually disliked and sometimes hated and I felt like my life was a just a downward spiral. All my poems were morbid and dark. Oh come on, everyone wrote poems when they were fifteen. Haha. The world was against me and everything sucked :P It is quite humorous, and not to mention embarrassing, when I think about what my mind was like. I think I had so many demons to exorcise and the only way to do that was either to run away from home or find the love of my life. Oh and how many hurdles I had to jump through to get rid of those pesky demons. Plenty. But I think I am free of them :) This reminds me of that song by The Wombats: 'If you love me let me go back to that bar in Tokyo (I used to sing it 'if you love me let me go back to my boring Tokyo' - which I still think sounds and means so much cooler than the actual lyrics), where the demons from my past leave me in peace...'

So I made my own graffiti using http://www.satisfaction.com/graffiti-creator/

I have never really thought of how 'horrendezvous' came to be, and now I have written about its history and etymology (kinda). I remember one of my friends did a paint graffiti of horrendezvous for me but that is lost among many other files that were wiped off our old HP pc from the dark age. Oh yes, which reminds me, did you hear about the HP tablet debacle? If not, here is the news link to it. Great executive decision-making I say. And what about the celebrity chef who has collaborated with KFC (read here)? I personally love KFC, and since I cannot have it here, I make it a goal to get some whenever I am in Malaysia :) However, for a chef to endorse fast food products, hmm that is a cause for concern, no? Then again, not all chefy foods are healthy anyway :P I am all for tasty food. As for healthy food, I would rather see to it personally. Until next time, ta ra~

Political dirt :)

2011-07-11T15:39:00.000+08:00

Unless you are very close to me, you would not know me as being very political (but I am :P). But as a Muslim, politics is a part of life and is not separate from my beliefs and thoughts. I abhor any injustice and wrongdoing and sadly but unfortunately true, the country (*cough cough* Malaysia) in which I was born and in the most part, raised in glorifies itself (perhaps not openly) in oppressing its supposedly civilised and intelligent subjects when it comes to politics, which of course affects the country's economic, human rights and social growths.

Even though I do not currently reside in said country, I am a citizen and therefore it is my right to express my opinions and disdain toward such cowardice and injustice. I know I know, you're thinking 'you don't live here so what do you know' but I do have the internet and believe it or not, I can access Malaysian newspapers and websites online ;) I just do some thorough sifting to get to the bottom of the matter(s). And I do have family and friends there who are willing to keep me up-to-date with current issues gripping the country.

I will not associate myself with any particular party because I cannot whole-heartedly agree with the principles and operations of any one political party whether in power or not. I just want a clean country (in every sense of the word) that when someone talks glowingly about it, I do not have to resort to rants of how there are hideous things residing in the palaces of the rich and powerful. And they look at me like I am crazy when all they said was that Malaysia is beautiful lol.

What prompted this post is no doubt the Bersih rallies which took place over the weekend. Many of my Facebook friends and sorta-friends in Malaysia complained about the road blocks that prevented them from hitting the shops, getting home, etc. It astounds me just how many people, aside from the ones who are blind to the misdeeds of their authorities because it does not affect them directly, simply do not care about the issues being raised. Issues which will affect their future and their children's. It saddens me that by not having a stand, these individuals will unwittingly cost their countrymen much freedom by 'not being bothered'.

I remember when I turned 13 and had just gotten back from the US. 'Reformation' was the catch word and I thought then, this is a new beginning, things will change for the better. Thirteen years on, nothing much has changed. I realise now that good changes take a very long time to manifest themselves because the roots of the bad are so deeply placed that it is not an easy task to take them all out. It is time-consuming, expensive and exhausting. But never give up! That is the key, to not give up and though we are in for a long battle, we will do whatever we can within our limits to ensure justice and righteousness are reinstated.

Unfortunately for the current government sympathisers, many of them believe that religion has no part in politics even though they learn for many years in school that religion and politics go hand-in-hand. How was it that Muslims and non-Muslims were able (and still able to in some countries) to live together in harmony even though they were under the same rulings and laws? Surely, in modern times, that is possible too? Without us having to resort to calling religious gatherings (Islamic or not) as politicised, because yes, politics has a place in religion.

It is not politics that is dirty, it is the people involved in it.

Why do I support BERSIH?

Because it aims to make Malaysian democracy not just a declaration, but a truth. No bribery, no bullying, no brainwashing; just proper campaigning, unbiased media coverage and forge-proof ballots and inks.

This post might not seem well thought-out because it is something nagging on my mind, not a thesis submission :) I do however hope that those who took their time to read this, did it with an open-mind and heart and inshallah will see truth in what I say and maybe do something to make things better for our country and its people. Allahu 'alem. Ta ra~

Brie and onion hearts

2011-07-07T13:55:00.000+08:00

I have made these a few times now and they're always a hit. They are great finger foods for parties and appetisers.

2 medium onions, thinly sliced (I used those big red ones but you can use your favourite kind)
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp raw sugar (or brown)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp allspice (or your favourite spice)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
120 g brie cheese, rind removed and softened (i.e. leave at room temp for 30 mins)
1 egg, lightly beaten with 2 tsp water

The pastries look like little hearts/pretzels

Heat oil and butter (I always put a bit on oil in when cooking with butter so it doesn't burn).
Cook onion with sugar, allspice and vinegar until soft and golden brown.
When the onion is cooling, preheat oven to 200 degrees (180 if using fan-forced).
Spread brie over the puff pastry.
Cover with onions.
Roll up one side to the middle, repeat with other side.
Use a serrated knife to cut 3 cm slices and place on baking tray lined with baking paper. Press the pastries so they're sort of 'sealed'.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Brush with egg mixture.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Note: You can of course use your own homemade puff pastry :) And for those looking for halal brie, Jindi does non-aminal rennet brie cheese (vegetarian).

Ta ra~

Roast Potatoes

2011-07-05T16:59:00.000+08:00

Here's another easy recipe; this time it's hot and comforting roast potatoes. It is a perfect winter recipe :)

12 baby potatoes or six regular potatoes, sliced thinly
1 onion, sliced
1 cup pouring cream (thin), more if needed
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Roast potatoes served in an individual dish as accompaniment

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
2. Rub olive oil onto roasting pan.
3. If you are particular about presentation, place slices of potatoes in rows to cover the pan, slightly overlapping each other. Otherwise, just throw potatoes and onions in and season to taste; ignore steps 4 and 5.
4. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle some onions.
5. Repeat 3 and 4.
6. Pour cream to just cover the potatoes (put more in if needed)
7. Bake for one hour to one and a half hours (check after one hour and bake until potatoes are fully cooked).

This is a versatile recipe and therefore you may add your favourite dried herbs, garlic or even cheese (add cheese in the last half hour). Enjoy! Ta ra~

Dead Nation (Detonation?)

2011-06-16T17:20:00.002+08:00

Sony's way of apologising to the millions of customers whose information had been compromised was to give two free games out of five from the PSN store. The Big Kahuna thought he never created an account but then I remembered how could he have added a few of his friends then. So we have downloaded two games for my account; Dead Nation and Infamous. We will also get the other two (Ratchet and Clank and some game I fail to recall; we already have LBP).

I say, if Sony was really sorry, they would pay for the bandwidth used to download the games too (8 gigs in total for both) :P It would have saved me having to stay up until two in the morning to start the download during offpeak hours. And then another hour browsing the internet (to make sure the downloads went well :P). So I ended up going to sleep at three. It's messed up my week's worth of consistent sleep and wake up time. But oh well.

So on Saturday, we tried out Dead Nation in co-op. I am now too used to PC gaming and therefore had plenty of trouble trying to adjust to the controllers again. And it did not help that it has gotten colder these past few days. Try rotating your half-frozen thumb and nimbly flick your other fingers. Not too smooth. As with most male species, the Big Kahuna had no so problem. I think he enjoyed the game quite a bit and I did too.

Image from http://ps3.gamezone.com

Obviously, you are the only two people who did not turn into zombies when the whole world did (or so you believe). You have objectives to get to and checkpoints along the way where you get to buy weapons and upgrade your armour. Before the game update, I found that there were very little health packs available but once updated, they dropped more often. Once you die, if your partner manage to get to the next checkpoint, then you'll be revived there. Otherwise, you both will respawn back at the previous checkpoint.

The variety of zombies were vicious and having to mow down mobs of zombies with the SMG was just so fun. Plus, you get to buy grenade and mines to detonate zombies! Oh and you get to see just how many zombies your fellow countrymen have killed; Japan is in the lead of course :P From the numbers, I daresay that there are very few non zombies left in this world, considering most would have been eaten by zombies or have become zombies, yikes!

Hmm I will have to insist the Big Kahuna bring in the heater from the shed to aid my trigger fingers. My gripe with the game is the camera angle. Fair enough, playing co-op might cause arguments as to which angle to use but I'm sure you can flip coins or something. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it. If you own a PS3 and have only one account with PSN, I do recommend you get Dead Nation as one of the two games. I give it 8.5/10. I will write about Infamous when I get to play it. Ta ra~

Easy pumpkin soup

2011-06-09T13:18:00.001+08:00

Winter has come and what better way to spend a chilly evening than in front of the TV with a bowl of hot soup? The Big Kahuna loves pumpkin soup but sometimes after a long day, you just can't be bothered with preparing a complicated meal. This soup is very easy to make. You can even prepare the pumpkin a day ahead. The Big Kahuna has a tip to bring out the pumpkin flavour even more - put the pumpkin out in the sun for a few hours and roast it in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Easy pumpkin soup: serves 4-6

2 tbsp olive oil

1 kg pumpkin, chopped (I used butternut)

1 onion, diced

1 litre vegetable stock

1 tsp nutmeg

200 ml pure cream (thin)

salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in a big pot, add onion and nutmeg and cook until soft/transluscent.

2. Add pumpkin and cover for fifteen minutes. Make sure you occasionally stir to avoid the pumpkin from sticking to the pot.

3. Add stock and cover for another ten minutes.

4. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes.

5. Blend the soup in batches or use a stick mixer until thoroughly creamed.

6. Put it back on low heat and stir in cream and season to taste.

7. Serve with croutons/slices of your favourite toasted bread. Drizzle some virgin olive oil and top with a few basil leaves. Bon appetit!

Note: This is the vegetarian version. You can substitute vegetable stock with chicken stock if you prefer.

Pasta Carbonara

2011-06-08T14:32:00.002+08:00

As promised, here is the recipe for the pasta carbonara, happy cooking!

Pasta carbonara: serves 2-3

300 grams fettucine/penne/fusilli
2 egg yolks
1/2-3/4 cup double cream
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

1. Mix together egg yolks, cream and parmesan. Season to taste.
2. Cook pasta until el dente. In the last 3 minutes, add peas to cook. Drain.
3. Quickly add pasta to the cream mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Serve immediately. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and extra pepper. Bon appetitto!

Note: this is the vegetarian version. You can add beef bacon by roughly chopping 4-6 slices of bacon and rendering the fat until crisp, drain on paper towel and add it to the cream mixture.

Tara~

X-Men First Class

2011-06-07T12:44:00.004+08:00

If you do not follow the comic books/cartoon series, there are spoilers ahead so if you intend to watch this movie, please stop reading now.

X-Men First Class details how Xavier came to meet Raven, Magneto and several other mutants and how he ended up bald (kind of) and in a wheelchair. Prof X was played brilliantly by James McAvoy (but then again, I enjoy most of his movies); he was a carefree devil-may-care playboy genius, much different than the serious Prof X we know now. I suppose age does that to you. Raven is portrayed as having issues in coming to terms with the physical nature of her mutation. Her vulnerability and desperation to become accepted as normal and in doing so, having to work twice as hard in keeping her mutated physique under wraps while maintaining her ability ring true with everyday women (or people in general) who always feel like they have to conform to society's (i.e. predominantly male's) perception of beauty.

Image from http://watchxmenfirstclassmovie.files.wordpress.com

The emergence of Beast was a great experience as well. Great that he got a better (amplified) ability than just being able to hang upside down and run really fast :P Besides, a design genius such as he, has to be taken seriously at times :) The Big Kahuna loved that they incorporated future mutants into the movie. The part when Xavier and Erik were recruiting and came up to the then not-yet-Wolverine Logan, and he said to both of them to F off and they did, that was entertaining :) Erik, before he became the ever so misunderstood and less-than-conservative Magneto, was a mere child, whose parents were cold-bloodedly murdered in a concentration camp. Kevin Bacon was fabulous as the Nazi doctor who 'created' Magneto. Erik learned to use anger and pain as triggers/catalysts to his ability to bend and direct metal at will.

X taught him that if he finds the point between anger and serenity, he will be able to move more than just a submarine. I think that could work in real life, it would be hard to achieve, but if one could do the same, one could be a better person altogether. You will not be governed by just your emotions and perception of pain and disdain that you get from the world. Instead, you will use them to better and exemplify yourself in all the good ways.

The Big Kahuna said he would have joined Magneto in the end because of X's constant naivete and willingness to see good in others that got annoying; he found Magneto more realistic than X's idealisms. I agreed that X is usually too naive in his beliefs but that Magneto was also misguided and at times, driven to inflict more justice (i.e. cruelty) than is necessary. Therefore, I would start my own faction :D It is amazing how small things you don't agree on can make people turn on each other. Outsiders might even view these things as insignificant, yet they can drive those involved to kill, mutilate and torture other beings.

I would love to dissect and analyse each character in the movie but that would require days of typing. Thus, I shall stop here and finish with the overall score of 9/10. I loved the movie! They missed out on the last point because there were some less than spectacular scenes but I'm just nit-picking. Having said that, I have always loved the X-Men franchise so I might be biased. But I went with my friend A who is not an enthusiast yet she still enjoyed the movie :) Ta ra~

Sucker punched?

2011-04-30T18:39:00.003+08:00

Okay, the other movie we saw was Sucker Punch. I really was hooked on trailers and wanted to see it to the point of obsession. I had no idea what it was about except that it looked super cool.

It turned out to be a dark movie, touching on nasty topics that unfortunately we hear a lot about these days. Naturally, being in a nasty environment causes one to retreat into a fantasy world; a world where you get cool guns and other weapons, meet an old white samurai and kill baddies. I hope I didn't give away too much :P

I suppose the movie tries, in a way, to portray female empowerment. I wouldn't say it failed but given what the girls (Baby Doll and the others) went through, man, it looks like being a woman is only awesome in a fantasy. And boy I lapped up the fantasy world :D I guess there was some consolation, which I cannot give away but still, it is a movie not made for traditional grandmothers.

Image from http://cdn.screenrant.com

There was a lot of speculation after the movie about the dance that never actually happened, as to what it was. And there were some interesting ones but obviously in the end, we turned to Google to decipher the metaphors :) Okay, I haven't really talked about the movie at all. It's because it's one of those movies you have to watch to understand as to why I can't really talk about it without giving it away completely.

I can promise you there is a lot of action, although it did get repetitive, a lot of characters to like and loathe and cool outfits and did I mention weapons? :D And in case you don't already know, the soundtrack is to die for! So, did I get sucker punched? If, by sucker punch you mean did I get weirded out, then yes. But I like weird so I gave it 8/10 :) Ta ra~

Science, Religion and Paul

2011-04-20T10:18:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, I saw two movies at the cinemas. The usual prep went as follows; get Twisties, Cheezels and a bottle of water stuffed in my black hole bag (a smallish black Kipling messenger where things somehow mysteriously disappear in). Pay $3 for water which you can get for less than a dollar in the shops? Unlikely.

We then drive off to our favourite cinema with the big screen (it's quite a rarity in Perth) and incidentally Paul was playing on it as we were tossing between Sucker Punch, Scream 4 and Paul. So Paul it was.

Firstly, I absolutely love most, if not everything Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are in. Shaun of the Dead - brilliant; Hot Fuzz - awesome and now Paul - we shall see. If there are zombies in Paul too, it will definitely be ridiculously astounding.

I will try not to spoil the movie for anyone. As clarified by the trailers, Paul is an alien who looks very much like Roger from the American Dad. And apparently, Spielberg's alien film ideas came from Paul. Paul is a rude alien who is also entertaining and on the run. Who from? You'd have to see the movie.

Image from moviecarpet.com

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have long-time-married-and-still-in-love chemistry about them, an epitome of bromance if you must. Speaking of chemistry, the movie hinted or rather obviously tried to relay atheistic messages. Not so much from Pegg and Frost but very much from Paul. Pegg and Frost are self-proclaimed atheists in real life as well. Paul, coming from a different planet/galaxy, appeared to grasp the meaning and origin of life, hence nominating natural selection and Darwinistic theories as more likely correct than any religious anecdotes on the matter.

The movie does focus on a couple of religious Christians but did so by portraying them as bible bashers. Now, preaching belief in the nonexistent of a higher power is one thing but ridiculing another religion is another story (I feel that atheism is a religion itself). It reminded me of a 'The Daily Show' clip I watched the other night when Ricky Gervais made an appearance.

Gervais is a favourite comedian of mine and he is close friends with Jon Stewart, another favourite. Gervais talked about his atheistic beliefs and a photo showing him crucified with the word 'atheist' branded/carved on his chest. He said that much like Jesus, atheists are being persecuted by the general public. I disagree because I find atheism is forced upon us at uni (especially in science units), on TV and even in casual conversations; religion rarely, if ever, takes up any slot. If you think being atheist is hard, try being a scientologist for a day. I jest, I jest.

Original images from www.rickygervais.com and
celebtrashtalk.com; modified with Photoshop

True, I did not agree with the atheistic sentiments, which to me, were unnecessary after the third assertion. However, Seth Rogen as Paul is lovable and humorous and the movie otherwise is funny, up-to-date with popular culture and entertaining. I give it a 7/10. Ta ra~

Meet Hironaka

2011-04-12T14:19:00.002+08:00

The Big Kahuna rang me this morning from work saying he's glad I'm blogging again. He then proceeded to question why I failed to include our new kitten in the catch-up list (RE: previous post). So here's a little bit about him.

He was born in Toodyay on January the second of this year. He is blue-gray in colour and is a cross between a Persian and a Scottish fold (he's got folded ears). I initially wanted to name him Huckleberry Finn but given the racism-charged claims against the book named for this character, I decided to find a different name. I settled on Hironaka, after Hironaka Heisuke, a Japanese mathematician :) We call him Hiro for short.

Tidbits about the breed: Scottish folds with folded ears (normal-eared ones are called Scottish shorthair) should not be bred together as the dominant fold gene is linked to severe bone diseases. Therefore, Scottish folds are ethically (hopefully all the time) mated with non folded-eared breeds.

Hiro has only been here 4 days yet he'd adjusted fairly well. He talks/mews a lot and hates being left alone for more than 5 minutes. His favourite spot is behind the curtain in our room. He eats a lot and on his way to becoming rotund if we're not discipline. He's also a very playful kitten and basks in attention. All in all, a great companion :)

I'd love to elaborate about the mathematician too but I have little knowledge regarding his field so a Google search would suffice to uncover his biography, methinks :) Ta ra~

Annual report

2011-04-11T17:22:00.003+08:00

I made a semi-promise to Mawar to update my blog more regularly. Considering I only posted 3 entries in 2010, I think I might be able to do just that :)

10 catch-ups from more than a year ago:

1. I bake for others more than for myself/the Big Kahuna

2. Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are still on my TV-series-I-watch list

3. I have finished uni but have failed to secure a job related to my degree and so I bake for others (RE: #1)

4. The Big Kahuna sported long hair, which incidentally, was cut by yours truly last night (not bad, say the colleagues)

5. I contracted (and survived *phew!*) dengue when I was in Malaysia about a year ago

6. I still miss my family and friends :)

7. I have gone to more weddings and hear joyful news of pregnancies this past year than any other :) Congratulations to everyone who relates to this sentence!

8. I have also heard many bad news and been more sick this past year, (alhamdulillah, may Allah aid us in our trials)

9. I have been awed by many courageous, proactive and strong Muslimahs :)

10. I am currently waiting to get a copy of Dragon Age II; I have in the past year played Dragon Age Origins and Awakening, Fable and dabbled in a few others.

Image from guestcontroller.wordpress.com

I would love to write more but the rest is more insipid than what have already been written so I had better stopped. When inspiration strikes, I shall write again :)

Oh yeah, I am currently reading Raymond E. Feist's 'A Kingdom Besieged' (So far, so awesome ;)). Ta ra~

Innalillahi wa inna ilahi raji'un (to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return)

2011-03-03T12:14:00.002+08:00

Mawar Nafastari, it has been 12 long years since we truly spoke to one another. And for the first time in that many years, I heard your sister's voice. And that only occurred because a tragedy has befallen you and your little ones. How I long to go back to those years when we wrote notes about our childish delights and hopes and dreams... But believe me dear when I say that in the four years that I have been away from my home country, I have thought of you often and hoped that we would somehow be confidants once more. Then perhaps at this moment, I can be by your side instead of waiting for the phone call saying that you are ready to take visitors. Then maybe I can hug you earnestly and comfort you by saying that as Nafastari's rose, you are with thorns, giving you defense against those who meant you harm, your smell evokes pleasant feelings, making your acquaintances delighted, you are beautiful, aesthetically and inside, your branch is strong, and so is your will, for you children will look to you for strength and courage.

I am guilty to not do more than just find out the news from your on your profile but I smile every time you post a new entry and I read your late husband's musings with much intrigue and awe. I never knew him yet I respect his opinions and views, often agreeing with them as well. I am sure that is how you would like him to be remembered. I reread his entries today and saw many of his friends feel the same way. We shall all make dua's for his soul. May he walk with the righteous come the Day of Judgement.

You and I, we planned to meet this time as you were in Pakistan when I am in Malaysia and I was in Perth when you were in Malaysia. I still plan to see you and though it is wishful thinking to want to go back as we were, I still hope for it. Lest, I will simply be glad to see that you harbour no regrets and to see your little girls with you. I await the call...

Majesty 2

2010-03-05T10:20:00.002+08:00

I've been looking for a Caesar IV-like game for a while now. I came across Majesty and Majesty 2 and thought hey I'll give 'em a crack. I settled with Majesty 2 because reviews say they keep the Majesty essence in the second one so I just went and got a better version. Their tagline is 'the fantasy kingdom sim'. So am I satisfied with the 'simness' of it? Well, to be fair, I'm only 3/4 done with the campaign. However, I did expect I could actually keep on building my city and keep my heroes instead of having to start over with meagre amount of cash every new campaign. I guess it would be better if the campaigns occur as I build my city and men/ladies. Maybe they could just limit the number of heroes I can have or just make the monsters crazy hard to kill.

Another thing is, the heroes can be too materialistic as they have their own "will". I mean hey 100 gold is a lot of gold to kill a rat that's killing off your fellow countrymen. sheesh. A redeeming feature is lordship, where you get to keep a favourite hero once you've successfully finished a campaign. From then on, you'll get to call on them in your next campaign. I have to admit that the graphics are sweet and the characters have funny voices and lines: 'Tax collector!' goes the tax collector. 'One day I'll lose a fight, but not today,' goes a victorious Warrior. 'Gimme a hand!' goes a dying Ranger. All in all, it's good fun although I'll have to keep looking. Ta ra~

Teach Others What You Want Taught to You

2010-01-13T09:42:00.000+08:00

I found something neat on the net the other day. I was looking for a language translator (that was what I googled :D) and came across this website: www.mylanguageexchange.com, a language exchange community where you can sign up and offer to teach others the language(s) you know and for you to learn another language from whoever is seeking your knowledge. Then, you can seek out 'language partners' whose criteria match whatever lingo you're after based on native language, country, etc. This exchange may be done through email, chat or voice call.

I confess that I am a linguaphile, I get greedy seeing all the possible languages I'd get to learn off people who actually speak the languages I wish to learn. How exciting! So, I signed up in a hurry. Alas, there is always a catch. In order to contact any of those 'language partners', you'd have to have a paid account, d'oh! Now, I don't mind paying a few bucks for it, but I keep making dents on our finance so I thought I'd better not :P. I sighed and hoped one of those upgraded account people would contact me and signed out.

Then today, I received an email saying someone's willing to share a bit of language in exchange for help in English. Yatta! I'll keep you updated on my experience with this language exchange website. I also found another interesting language tool called babylon, it is just superb when you have trouble with long sentences and documents, it translates everything for you in a jiffy. You get a free 3-day trial and then you may either pay a fee of about USD 10 a month or a lifetime fee of USD 100 (or something like that). *hint hint Big Kahuna*. Until next time, ta ra~

Resolute resolution?

2010-01-10T08:59:00.001+08:00

I just got back from my run, alone (since someone who said she was up for some exercise decided sleeping is better than getting fit... UMMI!) and thought I'd check my long neglected blog. From my previous entries, I guess some of you would know I'd intended to be more consistent with my blogging though I manage to fail to do so after just several days, go figure :P. This should go on my unresolved resolutions list (it's a pretty long list). But hey it's early days, I still have 11 months to achieve this goal :P.

Anyway, I'd better get showering, have a brekkie date this morning. Then I'll see if anyone's up for some window shopping and later if I can tear away my brother from the PC and extract the other one from his room, we'll play a bit of basketball (just bought a new ball :D). If my dear sister would care to join us, she's more than welcome to.

Aww brekkie just got cancelled, ah well I guess some chocolaty goodness will have to do, hmm yum... Ta ra~

Warm Ups

2009-12-05T07:54:00.001+08:00

I have started running again for a few months now (for those who never knew, I was a bit of a sports junkie when I was in school) after stopping when I moved in with my in-laws. It was simply more convenient to just not do any sport at all. When I did take up running recently, I remember when I was about 11 or 12, an article came out dismissing warm ups as unnecessary and I have lived by that motto since. So the Big Kahuna told me off for not warming up before my runs and as usual I flicked my hand and went,

'pfffft I never need to warm up'
'but your body will feel it when you get older' says he in a preachy voice.

Oh yeah, now I think he's right, I forget I'm in my twenties now, from the way I behave and think, no one would be the wiser anyway haha. My left patella been giving me grief, I haven't run in 3 days and it's driving me insane. So, what I'll do today is get knee supports and some long sleeve shirts and track pants (they've nothing to do with patellar tendonitis but hey since I'm going to the shops...).

For those thinking of taking up any sport and especially anything as strenuous as running, please do warm ups, just as you should not halt activities straight after running so that your heart rate does not go from 100++ down to 70-80 in a matter of seconds, you should also build up your heart rate from its resting state. What I generally do when on the treadmill is jump on, do a fast walk for 5 minutes, then start running. When I'm running outdoors, I do the same fast walk to the park and start running. From now on, I'll do a few stretches first, build up my walk and then start running and of course use knee guards/braces, because complete tendon rupture requires surgery and that would suck.

I'm all for better quality of life and that starts by looking after your health and exercising, but let's do it properly so that the body God gave us will last us a lifetime :) Prevention is better than cure but if you do cause a problem to your joints, remember RICE:

Rest

Ice (the problematic area)

Compress

Elevate (the joint higher than your heart)

Ganbate!

Check out this website on runner's knees and warm ups

Patellar Tendonitis

Warm up

Update: I am in Malaysia until Jan 30, babysitting 'cos my parents are in Makkah, thinking of revamping my blog, that'll happen in due time, one of my gf's leaving for Europe this arvo, hope she has fun and takes care of herself, okay A? :) Will update more, ta ra~

Ayran (Yoghurt Drink)

2009-10-30T14:18:00.008+08:00

You went to the shops and you saw organic yoghurt and thought, hmm this will be very healthy and grabbed it off the shelf. You went home and put it in the fridge. The next day, you remember about the yoghurt as you rummage for a snack in the fridge, you had a taste and thought whoa that's sour! Oh well I'll put it back in there, have like a week before it expires, I'll surely do something with it by then. A week later, that yoghurt's still there. What to do? Make ayran with plain yoghurt as instructed below and vow to pick up a Ski next time.

Ingredients:
Plain yoghurt
Water or carbonated water/soda water (in equal part to the yoghurt)
a pinch of salt

1. Mix all ingredients together and whisk or shake like you've never whisked or shaken before.
2. Chuck it in the fridge to chill.
3. Shake before serving.

That organic yoghurt we bought was utterly sour so I cheated and put some low GI raw sugar in to offset the sourness. I made it with plain water and thought I'd be clever and added a bit of flavour in the form of a slosh of lemon and lime bitters, and it tasted pretty good. So I guess you can do half soda water, half fanta or something, hehe. The Turks would probably shun me and refuse to accept this as ayran but oh well. Great on a hot day or to accompany an especially spicy meal. Afiyet olsun, ta ra~

Mushrooms, Parmesan and Leek with Risoni Soup

2009-10-28T17:40:00.008+08:00

What's a sport that's more boring than golf? You guessed it, lawn bowling! The Big Kahuna's late tonight because of a work event and yeah that's what they're doing. I've done 5 solid hours of studying and my poor belly's starving. I ruffled through the pantry and saw a box of Barilla risoni and thought I'd try the recipe they always give you on the box. Lo and behold! It's in Italian. Now my Italiano's very limited so had to google the ingredients and some of the keywords to make sense of the instructions.

Ingredients:
200g risoni
150g mushrooms
50g celery
30g parsley
20g parmesan
1 clove of garlic
1/2 an onion
1/2 litre broth
1/2 leek
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1. Slice half the leek and sautee and set aside.

2. Sautee the other half of the leek, mushrooms, celery, parsley, garlic and onion in olive oil until onion is soft.

3. Add broth and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add in risoni and leave until cooked, if using Barilla then it should take about 12 minutes, stirring once in a while.

6. Serve with parmesan and sauteed leek.

Serves 4

I used dried parsley 'cos I'm out of fresh ones, but that shouldn't affect the taste too much. And I used vegetarian chicken stock (yes there is such a thing! Massel brand) diluted with a bit of water to make the broth (vegetable broth would make it more vegetarian I suppose). You might need to add more water because it'll become very thick. I know the end result doesn't look very impressive but it's pretty yummy :) Have fun! Buon appetito! Ta ra~

Applesauce

2009-10-27T15:20:00.006+08:00

I was looking through past exam papers and thought hey I haven't had applesauce in a while. And the Big Kahuna's been complaining bout the apples being soft (we bought a whole big bag). So I figured I'll make some applesauce (makes about 2 cups)...

Ingredients:
4 apples, washed, peeled and cored
1/2 - 1 cup water
2 tbsp sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Sliced apples as you like, if you prefer chunky bits, then leave them chunky.
2. Pour water and place apples in a pan and leave until boiling.

3. Add cinnamon and stir every once in a while until apples are soft. Might take between 20-40 minutes.
4. If using sugar, add and stir until dissolved.

5. Have with pancakes, bread, on its own or added to other recipes :D

I prefer it unsweetened as the apples are usually sweet enough. Makes a healthy snack :) Enjoy making it, ta ra~

Word of the Day

2009-10-26T19:53:00.005+08:00

I'm back! I've just finished my last assignment, submitted it and now am just wondering about the quality or lack of it lol. That's all passed, doesn't really matter now 'cos I now have to move onto actual studying. Anyway, I have subscribed to 'a word a day' in order to satisfy my appetite for words. This isn't today's word, just a word I came across somewhere: onerous, which means burdensome, kinda reflects how the stuff in my life has been affecting me in the past few weeks and the several weeks to come.

Anyway, I had an awesome chat with my high school roommate on Friday night :D I also read Lord Byron's biography finally, only because the word of the day from the website was 'byronic', which describes the poet's personality, which was not very nice, to say the least. His life story read like a manuscript from 'the Bold and the Beautiful' (not that I've ever watched a whole episode of it), i.e. affairs, illegitimate offspring, incest, well you get the picture. Great writer, shame about the character. Until next time, ta ra~

Hiatus

2009-09-27T20:19:00.003+08:00

Due to many many assignments to be handed in very soon and exams just around the corner, there will be a break from blogging, on all my blogs, unless of course I could squeeze some time in :) Hope everyone had a great long weekend, and inshAllah will be back hmm... hopefully soon. Ta ra~

www.uclconservatives.co.uk

Eid mubarak!

2009-09-20T14:59:00.003+08:00

Eid today and I still haven't posted many photos from Ramadan, bad bad me! inshAllah in the days to come. Anyway, eid mubarak everyone! Enjoy all the sweets and food being ploughed in front of you lol. Big Kahuna found me some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! They're hard to find here. I was crazy for them when I was in the US. So yeah I was beyond ecstatic! He certainly earned a few brownie points.

In case anyone else is looking for them in Perth, they can be found at the candy shop at Malaga Markets and Ye Olde Candy Store in the city (in Carillon City I believe). Enjoy your day! We're going to go visit more people and eat more baklava's. Ta ra~

Still on Cupcakes

2009-09-10T12:03:00.013+08:00

I was supposed to include pics and step by step instructions to make the fondant decorations I used on the previous cupcake post. If anyone wants detailed recipe and instructions, I'll gladly put them up in a later post :) Here's a photo of mini vanilla marshmallows that had to be separated into 2 containers because they came in mixed bags (I think I used 7 Betta (halal) marshmallow bags). The Big Kahuna had heaps of fun "helping" me separate them even though he did whinge I was crazy hehe.

Depending on what colours you're making, you melt it in the microwave, until just melted, add icing sugar and shortening (I used Copha) and start kneading it like crazy. When you get the right consistency, pack it up in Gladwrap, cover with good amount of Copha and refrigerate. You can add colouring before you put it away but one website says if you're making red fondant, it's better to colour it when you're using it to avoid bleeding onto the other colours.

Take it out of the fridge when you're ready, and knead again and roll and shape to your heart's desires :)

Voila! Marshmallow fondant for cakes, cupcakes, anything you fancy. Ta ra~

Cupcakes for Iftar

2009-09-08T12:06:00.007+08:00

Sorry haven't been updating my blog(s). Ramadan's here and been too busy cooking mostly lol. You would think because we can't eat all day, there would be less of a need to spend hours to cook. But really it's my eyes that get hungry. I go through cookbooks and decide I want to cook 2 full meals AND dessert. Sometimes reason wins and I calm myself down and just settle on the easiest and fastest things to cook :) Alas, one should make more ibadah than worry about what to break fast with in Ramadan, ahem, just reminding myself. But I thought I'd share some of the meals I've cooked up this Ramadan. Will post pics on a daily basis (or at least try to as I have this bad habit of getting into things too heavily and then failing to commit). These are cupcakes made for my friend's J's little girl's first Iftar (instead of a party :D)

This is my favourite out of all of them :)

On that note, Ramadan mubarak everyone, try to make the most it inshAllah! Ta ra~

The Ugly Truth

2009-08-14T19:39:00.002+08:00

Saw the 'Ugly Truth' on Saturday with the Big Kahuna. I've always had a soft spot for Katherine Heigl so maybe I'm biased for saying I really enjoyed it. But the Big Kahuna felt the same so I guess it was a good movie :) I'll try not to spoil it for those intending to watch it. It might be a bit crude to some but the comedy's there.
To be honest, to me Gerard Butler has this wax-like quality about him that makes him seem straight out of Madame Tussaud. I think it's his eyes, maybe it's just me :P Anyway, it's hardly 100% chick flick, guys would enjoy watching it with their significant others and girls can swoon with their girlfriends. Pretty much follows Abby's path in finding out what it is that guys really want...

Enjoy, ta ra~

Rant

2009-08-12T20:58:00.004+08:00

I think I've reached my threshold for journal article tolerance. Never read so many in a whole month! Then again 4th week of uni has just begun, so make that 3 weeks. They use such fancy words that you have to dissect and rearrange in order for them to make sense. Once you take the time to do so (which incidentally is also the hardest part), hey! they're not so bad. But somehow I find gaming or passively watching tv more interesting (man, I can just game for hours and feel guilty for hours afterwards), which begs the question, how do I discipline myself? Well, both my favourite shows have ended their seasons (Grey's and Desperate Housewives-which is good) BUT other shows like Rules of Engagement and Big Bang Theory are starting to grasp my academically-repulsed attention (BAD!). I gave this problem some thought during the holidays and decided DIVX player/recorder is the answer: record whatever show I'm interested in and I can watch them over the weekend or when I have a short study break. I mentioned the idea a few times to the Big Kahuna and he says 'ah yes yes, that is a splendid idea my dear.' He went out and bought a DIVX player sans recorder.

Ah well, I tried to reform my study behaviour, alas to no avail, through no fault of mine I should say. Time to think of something else (other than the article in PDF format in front of me). Ta ra~

Clowns

2009-08-11T21:32:00.004+08:00

Talked to my baby sister the other night. Her birthday was on the 3rd of July (She's just turned 7). I asked if she was going to have a clown at her next party because her friend had one.

'For which one?'
'For your 8th'
'Oh so next year it'll be on July 8th?'
'No no, on the 3rd of course'
'Oh it's the same every year?'
'Yes, the day you were born on doesn't change'
'Really...I thought birthdays change every year'

This came from a girl who got 98% average on her midterm exams (yes Malaysian education system is cruel even to 7-year-olds). I've deliberated and decided that it's my parents' fault for this misunderstanding, no more one birthday party for all your kids please (then again there are so many of us lol)! Ta ra~

p/s: I hate clowns because of IT

Beef Rendang

2009-08-08T12:13:00.003+08:00

Felt like a proper Malay dish last week so made myself some :) Here's the recipe with the ingredients in order of usage.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lemongrass
2 red chillies (about 2 tbsp)
1 medium red onion, half sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger
3 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin
600-750 grams beef, sliced and cut into bite pieces
1 cinnamon stick
4 curry leaves
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Blend lemongrass, chillies, half of onion and garlic and ginger. Set aside.
2. Mix the beef with coriander, turmeric and cumin.
3. Sautee the sliced half of the onion until soft.
4. Add the beef mix and cook until browned.
5. Add cinnamon stick, curry leaves, brown sugar and coconut milk. Cook covered for 1 hour.
6. Removed lid and cook a further 1 1/2 hours or until it reaches the consistency desired. Stir every once in a while.
7. Removed cinnamon stick and add in lemon juice.

Adjust the sugar and other spices according to your preference. Great eaten with rice cakes, glutinous rice or even plain rice/bread. I know it seems like a lotta work and takes so long! But if you're missing/craving it... Well, it'll be worth it, enjoy! Ta ra~

Razer Goliathus

2009-08-01T12:40:00.005+08:00

Updated gaming mouse pad by Razer, available in three sizes, optimizing your gaming experience. For gamers. By gamers :D I haven't been let down by their products yet so I'll prolly get one of these for myself (when I finally get a desk, that's a whole 'nother story :P) and the Big Kahuna.

Razer Goliathus

Until next time, ta ra~

Whinge whinge

2009-07-25T13:06:00.006+08:00

Uni's first week's already over and I've been sick on and off with a sore throat (I get really bad ones that I'd need a post-it pad to communicate) and temperature. So I haven't been very diligent with my blogging *sigh*. Anyway, I have a 3-minute presentation with 1 ppt slide on Monday (how random is that, I mean I struggle to get a 10-min presentation done, but I think most ppl can handle 5 mins, but 3 mins... maybe I'll just talk really fast :D) on birth. I guess one min on pushing the baby out, the next min on baby coming out and the last on doc receiving baby (ta da!). I'll figure something out inshAllah.

Well, I better get right on it and I've gotta go back and study my previous sems' notes on neuro and physio. Hurrah 3rd year! Ta ra~

Pic from www.sacredtree.com

Merlin

2009-07-13T21:40:00.004+08:00

Currently watching Merlin, the whole first season :)

Keep the magic secret...
Uni starts next week *boo*
Well, ta ra~

He's Just Not That Into You: Muslim Version

2009-07-06T00:11:00.006+08:00

Watched the movie at my friend J's house the other night and it reminded me of a time long long ago when Big Kahuna and I were still on msn chatting away. We had been talking (meaning online typing word after word) for a few days when suddenly he used the noun that no Muslim man who is interested in a Muslim lady use to refer to her. The noun in question is 'sister'. Fair enough if you started out using 'sister' from the start but to use it out of the blue, then it's a no no if you are trying to court the lady. I wrote him off totally (I categorised him as a platonic male friend straightaway, besides he was too old *evil laugh* jk jk) and referred to him as 'bro' from then on. I later discovered that he consulted his buddy K when he wanted to tell me that he liked me and K pretty much gave him a disdainful shake of the head as soon as he heard about the 'sister' fiasco.

What were you thinking bro?
I thought it would come across as a sign of affection...
Bahahahahaha

Then he told me how he felt and imagine my shock! Then the long story commences. So, there it is boys and men everywhere, be careful of what you call your lady of interest. Ta ra~

Watching: Wimbledon Final Federer vs Roddick

Sidetracked

2009-07-02T12:21:00.002+08:00

It's been a coupla days since I last blogged but for good reason; I am working on a few things atm that require more attention :) More about them in a few days... This drawing in no way depicts how I feel lol. I was just going through photos I have on my pc and found this from my old friend Osman. I've always liked it when I was going through my depressed teen phase lol.

Just watched:

Slumdog Millionaire (Dev Patel, Frieda Pinto; absolutely loved it, I know I'm a bit late jumping on the bandwagon :P)

Street Kings (Keanu Reeves and a huge cast; thought it was an awesome movie)

Until next update, ta ra~

Icey Ice

2009-06-29T20:28:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since I've been to Icey Ice. It's hard to describe the icey ice that's on offer at the cafe; its kinda like shaved ice, kinda like ice cream but not really and it tastes so good! They've expanded their menu to include crepes and fondue shown here with or without hot drinks for accompaniment. Big Kahuna and I had this a few months ago. It's chocolate fondue with fresh fruit, icey ice balls (not as nice as in their big bowls) and some bikkies. Usually having icey ice doesn't make you feel bad but this fondue was definitely a guilty pleasure. Next time I'll melt some chocolate and cut up my own fruit so we can save a bit of money hehe. Yum! Ta ra~

A Week in Perth

2009-06-28T20:28:00.000+08:00

My family came to Perth exactly a week before my finals so I didn't really get to take them anywhere special. Took them shopping at all times that I got to take them anywhere. The Big Kahuna took them to Hillarys and Whitman's Park; there weren't many places here that they could go to in just a week. We would've gone to Margaret River or some place south if we had more time or if exams weren't just around the corner for us :). It was quite an experience since our house is so small and I'm not used to cooking for a herd lol. They were sleeping on the couch and even on the floor, I felt pretty bad about that though :P and I tried tripling recipes but there was never any leftovers left :D Overall, I think they enjoyed their stay here (they certainly did a lot of shopping :D) but I wish they would've stayed longer and came when we were on holidays, like now! Til later, ta ra~

Ricci's Raiders

2009-06-27T23:54:00.001+08:00

I've spent hours on WAR trying to find the Ricci's Raiders PQ in the Land of the Dead. No luck yet but found a photo by Wethamster on Photo Bucket that might give other people in the same situation some consolation. Next time we'll split the warband in two and one will take north and the other, south. Others have complained about the difficulty in finding the PQ but once you find it, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to complete (Easy PQ). There are those who claim to have found it with no problems at any time :P . I still need a few glyphs from the PQ's and I had one good roll tonight and the rest mediocre; at least I got myself some golden scarabs. Wish more SW stuff would drop :P need a wardrobe update ASAP! Anyway, I'm off to bed. Good fortune all in the LotD, ta ra~

Rug Up

2009-06-27T17:25:00.002+08:00

You know the Rugs-a-million guy that always advertises his rugs? Well, I've always been annoyed with his constant exploitation of current issues; the latest being the financial crisis. So he goes on and on about how he has to close a few of his stores due to financial troubles and has to sell all his carpets and mats at outrageously discounted prices, laa dee laa... Lo and behold! a new store of his just opened in Balcatta! Sheesh... If you want to exploit, at least stick to the plan.

Watching: Changeling (Angelina Jolie)

Until tonight, ta ra~

Toy Museum

2009-06-25T22:13:00.000+08:00

While I was in Malaysia end of last year, I visited Penang with my gf's and we went to many places and had the best Chendol in one of the back alleys lol. It was certainly an experience to remember. We did plenty of shopping at the night markets, stuffed our faces with street Chinese food and Indian cuisine, yum; we went up the Penang Hill on the 'tram', went to chocolate and tea boutiques and also dropped into the toy museum (claimed the biggest in the world). It's not too bad albeit being not very well maintained. It contains a myriad of trinkets and toys from the likes of Barbie and friends to Chucky the Devil Doll to naughty figurines (not shown :P) lol. My favourite photo from there is the one of me with the unidentifiable scary bust. Overall, apart from the subpar room that we stayed in, Penang was awesome! Until next time, ta ra~

Birthday Bash :P

2009-06-24T18:03:00.000+08:00

The Big Kahuna's birthday was about 2 weeks and so I made him cupcakes to take into work the day before his birthday. They were vanilla cuppies with dark, milk and white chocolate icing :) On his birthday, I made mee goreng (fried noodles) and sticky date pudding for dessert instead of a cake. We decided to forego birthday gifts this year (we're both Juners and broke) and got ourselves a DIVX player with USB input for all those unwatched series we have on the PC :)

Until tomorrow, ta ra~

Holiday Projects Commencing

2009-06-23T18:06:00.000+08:00

So, one of my projects for the holidays is daily blogging; it's been 3 days but hey at least I'm starting somewhere :) Here's a photo of one of our Scrabble games; I'll try to remember to upload subsequent ones as well. The longest word was NOTARIES and I won this one, woo hoo!

List of Projects:
- Daily blogging
- Organise Recipes
- Paint the rest of Warhammer models
- Improve my Bosnian and Turkish
- ~~Redecorate the house~~ (due to financial constraints, yes it's hit us too)
- Game more!

All you uni kids on a break, have fun! Ta ra~

Final exams

2009-06-11T12:24:00.002+08:00

I'm in the middle of finals at the moment. I've promised myself once they're over, I'll blog daily; hopefully that'll come to fruition :P I have an anatomy exam tomorrow. To be honest, I have not done nearly enough. Quite disappointed with myself but I'll really start cracking on it after this post. Below is the fellow (that rhymes :D) whose videos have helped a lot of anatomy students. He's a multitalented physiology student with skills in art, science and music lol. For last minute brush ups on anatomy, neuroanatomy and physiology, go to youtube and watch hyperhighs's videos :

Until after exams, ta ra~

FCUK Wolverine Tees

2009-05-07T00:06:00.002+08:00

Loving the new tees from FCUK, especially this one.. Will go see the movie soon (I hope). Ta ra~

Scrabble and Chess

2009-05-03T19:01:00.001+08:00

The Big Kahuna and I are playing perpetual games of Scrabble and chess. There is no time limit for a move to be made (although you may occassionally hear 'hunnnn make your move already!!!!'; Hun being in the other room and thus is hard of hearing, and no pressure (yeah..). So far, he's beaten me in every game of chess (we're going into our third game) and I am the reigning champ of Scrabble (woot!).

I am currently working on my Neuroanatomy essay that is due in 3 days so my Feisty (as we like to call our Dear friend Raymond E. Feist) book has to take a back seat. The lecturer gave the assignment 2 weeks into the semester which makes that about 2 months ago.. Why oh why is my cortex (the rational part of the brain) less strong than my nucleus accumbens (the part of the brain that makes one feel pleasure)? *falls on knees and cries*

Update on my sis, she's gone back home and I found my long lost friend J! Til next time, ta ra~

Currently Reading: Journal articles

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

2009-04-17T08:38:00.000+08:00

Warning: there might be spoilers (I don't know where this review might lead)

This book was published postmortem of the author, who committed suicide in late 1960's. It follows the dramatic life of Ignatius J. Reilly, who is of "grand" stature and mannerism. He is a 30-year-old virgin and scholar, who lives with his mother, writes profusely and possess very sensitive valves (that causes incessant bloating if upset). One who misunderstands or refuses to see his point of view may deem him obnoxious and unbearable, blaming his bloated state of being on the excessive consumption of Dr. Nut (a soft drink) and hot dogs (that he will eventually sell, or try to). A kindred spirit on the other hand will see an abused soul, whose alcoholic mother and on-and-off idealistic (who believes every psychological malady could be cured with sex) female correspondent, Myrna (the Minx), keep berating him with his every move, contributing to valval impediment.

Throughout the story, Ignatius's sense of style (or lack thereof, preferring a big floppy green hat to keep his ears warm over nicely groomed hair) precedes his presence. This follows his near arrest as he was waiting for his dear "ol mamma", Irene, at a shopping complex. From there on, more characters make their way into the storyline; Officer Mancuso (the sergeant played a continuous prank on him) and his aunt Santa Battaglia (loves bowling, matchmaking and gossiping), Lana Lee (owner of Night of Joy nightclub), Jones ("vagrant" Night of Joy janitor who knows he's onto "something big"), Darlene (drink pusher and aspiring exotic dancer), Mr. Levy (one of Ignatius's employers with a story of his own), Miss Trixie (whose "guidance" Ignatius craves) and many more colourful characters.

Ignatius lives in a world that literally never leaves New Orleans, except for that one abominable trip for a job interview on a Greyhound, to Baton Rouge that left his valves sealed, and deprived him of a job for a number of years. He writes Irene loves her son to the point of annoyance, not to just Santa but some readers too I am certain, thus the firestoning of Irene against Ignatius began and she pushes him to search for a job suitable for his "high education" or the option of hospitalising him. This is when a lot of the characters are brought together. This book is definitely a recommended read for any reader, read on to find out Ignatius's rally to change the world (into what is still up for speculation) and his constant writing to the Minx, Patrolman Mancuso's pitiful career, whether Jones really is onto something big, Irene's battle with her "insane" son and Mr. Levy's struggle with his company and demons (of a wife).

Thanks to C, Big Kahuna's colleague for lending this book. He's in Europe for a month so my book supply is on hold for now. Ta ra~

Just read:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian - Marina Lewycka (funny)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (great writing)

Currently reading:

Weather - Julie Capaldo (jury's still out)
update: one of the flakiest books I've ever read but it did have its funny moments

Will read:

Rides a Dread Legion - Raymond E. Feist

Latest WAR Scenario

2009-03-24T14:06:00.001+09:00

It's been hard on me gaming-wise, there's just not enough hours in a day AND the scenarios rarely ever pop up! sheesh. Guess everyone's too busy with ORVR and Dungeons to care about us younglings (just trying to get RP's). Well, one popped up for me Saturday night and Kayla (my toon) did awesome!

Currently Reading: Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)

Loving: Human - The Killers

Uni: Test on Thursday

Fantasy and Reality

2009-03-07T11:10:00.000+09:00

Do forgive my inconsistency. Uni's started and a lot has been happening. I've read at least 5 non academic books and half a chapter of a textbook :) I've seen at least 3 movies and about 2 lectures on my Ipod. Today I'm going out with my sister and J.

Let's see what books I'd managed to get my hands on, they're mostly from Big Kahuna's colleague, C, who's been very generous with his library. I'm generous too, cos I'm now going to make him lunch for every 2 books I get from him (no backlogs though).

Perfume - Patrick Süskind (set in 18th century France; follows the isolation and infamy of a serial killer with an olfactorial fetish)

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (fantasy, my cup of tea)

Stardust - also Neil Gaiman

Gold - Dan Rhodes (not for the conservative, not so much the language but rather the essence and plot)

The Secrets of the Chess Machine - Robert Löhr (awesomely fictionalized historical events)

Wolf of the Plains - Conn Iggulden (this is from another of Big Kahuna's colleague, C2; Depicts detailed events that led to Genghis Khan's ascent to being the Khan of the Mongols, this book precedes Lord of the Bows)

I think I missed a couple more so hopefully from now on I will blog soon as I am done with a book.

Last week, I was talking to my lab partner and something she said was really funny (beats me what about) and I was chuckling outwardly and thinking 'LOL' in my head. So I came home and asked Big Kahuna if that's ever happened to him. It took him a while but he said yeah maybe once or twice. It's happened to me more than just a few times though, should I be worried? Nahhh, this is the Gen Y syndrome, I'm better-versed in msgr language than any other :) It's useless for Uni but I think they're crossing over to meet our needs as well. I mean why else would they make lectures available in podcast format if they're not on the way of bowing to our every need and want? And 'meh' has made it into the dictionary (not the urban one, the proper one). Soon we'll be able to write scientific articles and reports just the way we've always imagined it; Atropine was administered to the toad heart, after which a dose of acetylcholine was applied. The result was insignificant as the muscarinic receptors seemed not to respond to the blocker. In conclusion, meh.

My ride's here, ta ra~

Trevlig dag!

2009-02-09T19:27:00.001+09:00

On Saturday, the Big Kahuna and I went to Ikea early in the morning to beat the crowd. We managed to do just that and got the thing(s) we needed (wardrobe for the room my sister would be staying in, didn't need to get a sofa bed because it turned out my brother-in-law was chucking his). Then we arrived at (one of) my favorite part of Ikea (my first favorite is where the frames and pictures are, 2nd is the kids stuff, 3rd is the kitchen heaven) where they had heaps of stuff for the kitchen, things you wouldn't think of getting until they hang them on the walls; 'ooh look at that apple corer/slicer! (who in their right mind uses a knife anymore) and the bendy chopping boards! and the ice cream scoops with cute handles! and I don't know what that is but it sure looks useful, plus it comes in turquoise!' I saw (sensed rather, 'cos I certainly wasn't looking) the Big Kahuna's eyes glazed as he begged me to let's leave because by then he could hear a herd of kids screaming 'til they were blue in the face and he could smell the woman hunters staking out their furniture before they 'will be back soon'.

To be honest, I think he loves Ikea, when the furniture is at home, fully assembled by his dear wife (we have wall length/height bookcase and some wardrobe and they were all, I can proudly say, assembled by moi :)). He should be embarrassed but he's not, in fact, he was happily doing the dishes while I nailed the backboard of the wardrobe, no shame, that man. But really I shouldn't complain, 'cos I absolutely love assembling Ikea furniture. Okay, I'll give the Big Kahuna some credit, he did help me lift the furniture. We left Ikea around noon, a few hundred dollars poorer, but a few stuffed toys (to give to my friend J's baby), several kitchen utensils and two big boxes richer. I was smiling and he was just glad to be leaving.

We were both buggered when we got home but the Big Kahuna went out to get a new modem and my belated anniversary gift (a black Acer Aspire One yay!). I love it! I can take it anywhere I want, I can chuck it in my tote, I can write whenever and wherever :) Thank you darling!

Sunday we didn't do much, visited some people and I finished up with the furniture. I was excited to see my sister! That must've been why I couldn't sleep even though we had to wake up at 6 the next morning.

Come Monday morning, my eyes were bloodshot and the circles underneath my eyes were even darker than usual. Thank God it didn't take her long to go through customs at the airport. We got home and Big Kahuna went to work. Showed my sister around our humble abode and I made some vanilla cuppies (yum!), gamed for a little bit while my sister slept and then I cooked dinner and watched Desperate Housewives and a bit of Dexter and Underbelly, then I was out like a light. In the morning, I should wake up and wish everyone 'Trevlig dag!' Ta ra~

Tennis Ball

2009-02-06T11:12:00.001+09:00

Last night, I was watching Grey's Anatomy while folding away clothes (I'm great at multitasking) and ever since I got back to Perth after a 2-month holiday, I've had a severe case of dandruff due to very dry climate. So I was happily scratching my scalp, leaving crumbs of dandruff on the sofa when suddenly I felt a lump at the back of my head that was throbbing like a bruise. So Derek was adamantly against the idea of spinal freeze procedure for Phil who might be paralyzed (hey since I'm thinking of a career in Medicine I think this show is relevant to my future studies, I'm so not watching it for the love on and offs of Grey and Shepherd).

I ran to the computer room where the Big Kahuna was gaming (we both game so it's okay) and told him in semi-frantic voice about the lump on my head. And without taking his eyes off the screen (his Swordmaster was killing a Giant Horror), he said in a drone voice, 'Oh that reminds me, I've been meaning to tell you this, a guy at work had to fly over East because his brother had a tennis ball sized tumor in his head, good thing they managed to get the best Neurosurgeon in Oz and they operated on him and managed to get 99.9% of it out with no complications, he was up on his feet the next day.' All in one breath. I looked at him disgustedly and spewed 'You're gold, Hun.' And his response, 'Wa'?' with that spaz look, ughhh, I wanted to hit him so hard.

Well anyway, so I was fuming and kept watching Grey's (I've stopped any housekeeping activity for purpose of rebellion). He came over to me right before the show ended and asked 'Why are you upset?' No, he's not telepathic, I shoved and punched him. 'Is it cos I'm not spending much time with you?' Toldja he's not telepathic. At first I told him to go away and after a few of those, I rattled on about how he made me think the worst of the lump on my head that he never bothered to even look at and that he'd be happy if I was dead wouldn't he? Ah then he realized what he had actually said in relation to my situation and it was a D'oh! moment for him. Then we made up and it was my turn to have my Shadow Warrior see some action.

Oh I might go see Bride Wars today! Yay! Some girly stuff to do :)

New Year Resolution (a month late)

2009-02-05T12:48:00.000+09:00

I've finally solved the problem of why resolutions never pan out for me in the long run. It's because I tell people! It's like wishes, you can't tell people otherwise it won't come true. Of course, the latter requires absolutely no effort in its acquisition, but it does make sense. Since I'm not going to reveal my resolutions, at least not the most important one, I shall babble about something irrelevant to my original topic.

I'm turning 24 this year and I do realize that I am as far away from my life goals as ten years ago. I wonder what's happened over the years and what I've done wrong that's deviated my path from the one I intended for myself. And I've realized that there are trade offs, for example, I want to be doing a Masters degree at this age, yet I am still doing my Bachelor's (thanks for my 2-year study hiatus). The trade off is that even though I wished to be married at 24, I am now married for two years to a wonderful man. See the logic? Two years for two years.

It's still very annoying though to still be studying while your peers are making awesome money and buying cars and on top of that, some of them ARE married with kids lol. I guess I'm a late bloomer in some departments :P i.e. studies, making money and kids.

Well uni opens in a few weeks, and it's geeky but I admit I'm looking forward to it. I love a busy life. And my sister's coming over next week and she's staying for a coupla months! So my days won't be as lonely (hers will when I start uni hehe) and I'll get a bit of help in the kitchen (not that my dear husband, let's call him the Big Kahuna from this point forward, refuses to help but the poor dear has no clue hence his eviction from the horrendous kitchen. Read: oil splatter all over the kitchen wall after grilling some steaks and potatoes).

The Big Kahuna is not anticipating having to dress modestly in front of his sister-in-law what with the weather being so hot and clammy these few months. And he has to watch his dirty mouth from spewing naughty words at me in front of her lol I can't wait for a gentleman to emerge from the Big Kahuna in his own house, that would be history in itself.

The Big Kahuna forwarded an image from Brazilian cartoonist Latuff that won the best political cartoon award; Once Upon a Time in Rafah:

I thought it was very interesting and relevant given the recent event that's occurred. It's witty and sad (upon further realization) at the same time.

On a lighter (or even lighter) note, I managed to make edible and passable-tasting potato gnocchis from scratch yesterday! Yay me! I spent half the day doing that but at least that's one thing to cross off my to-do list before I turn 25 (or is it 35 or 40? I don't really remember, I dunno where it is). 200++ to go! Ta ra~