Friends, I need a favor from you

Dear friends,

How bad is swine flu in Malaysia? I am referring to the government's information or steps taken to curb this disease in Malaysia, generally about visitors arriving from overseas. Can you please provide me with all the information that I need to be aware of. My mom is getting worry, afraid that we will be kept somewhere upon arrival, and with me going off to India in just a couple of days after arriving Malaysia, my mom is getting so restless laaaa...aiyooo

FYI, kat sini relax aje wehh... everything is under control, though the government is taking whatever precaution to prevent spreading or reducing the case, but the public are well inform, but most important thing is, they do not panic. We go about with our daily routine, sneezing, coughing and runny nose is common during winter. So difficult to isolate normal cold and flu with swine flu. I guess being well informed what makes people here to not panic easily.

So friends, please keep me up to date about the situation in Malaysia. Just throw me anything you have. Appreciate your help.

p.s. Must buy face mask then

yours truly,

A matrimony story

Remember my friend from Brunei, Halida. I have wrote a couple of stories about our farewell lunch at the end of last year. Click here and here, if you want to read those stories laa.

Halida is now back home, serving for her country. I have been trying to write her an email for a long time after she went home, but I kept on postponing it. I knew she is getting married in June. What a terrible me!! Well, I don't know, I used to send email to friends frequently, exchanging story. But nowadays, I guess because of tremendous tasks to complete, or maybe have nothing interesting to share, afraid that I end up writing just a single line, "apa khabar?", "sihat?", "well, everything is the same", "up and down", wakakakakka... or maybe it is just me.

Anyway, I finally able to write something, in particular, congratulating Halida on her marriage, and click on the send button. Hoping she is not mad or something for not hearing from me. And a few days after that, she replied, with her matrimony story. She is now Puan Halida...ahahahah... and she even sent me some pictures of her happy moment. So sweet of her to share them with me. I asked her permission to post it here. Look how happy she is. And I am soooo happy for her.



To Halida, I know you read my blog occasionally. Thanks for visiting me virtually haha. CONGRATULATIONS dear. My dua is with you. Semoga Allah sentiasa lindungi perkahwinan kalian ya dan dimurahkan rezeki, semoga ramai junior nanti..ahahahahah.... Hope both of you live happily ever after.

p.s. Halida, hantar la gambar lagi...huhu

yours truly,

preparation part four : my visa has approved

Alhamdullillah.... all my worries have gone when I get back my passport with the approved visa...

What's next?? Shopping and packing...huhu :D

yours truly,

He is Dead!!

Was having breakfast, with a slight headache and runny nose, in front of the computer, reading emails, replying emails, and then switched to facebook for update. And I saw these headlines on one of my friend's status, "MJ and Farrah Fawcett dead".... Is it fact or fiction?

It is Fact.



Michael Jackson, pop music legend, dead at 50

Farrah Fawcett, sex symbol and actress, dies


p.s. I heard rumours that MJ had converted to Islam recently. Is it true?


yours truly,

I made pizza..hehe

Finally I have the gut to do it, so if I can do it...u too can do it ... There are numerous recipe available on the internet. And also with the help of the "Cooking Italian" cookbook, we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner last weekend (ok I am exaggerating a bit). Ahaks...

Ok...the trick of making a pizza is on the dough. Here is a simple recipe dough that I used:


Ingredients for pizza base:
7gm (1/4 oz) sachet dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of honey
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 1/2 cups (250gm or 8 oz) of bread flour (for much better result, but you can use plain flour instead)
1 cup (250ml) of warm water

Method:
1. Dissolve salt, and honey in the warm water, then add in the dried yeast. Mix well.
2. Leave it yeast mixture aside for about 10 minutes (or until foamy) cover with a cling wrap.
3. Sift flour into a bowl. Gradually add in the olive oil, mix well.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour, then pour in the yeast mixture.
5. Mix to a dough. Knead to form a clean ball.
6. Coat the dough with some olive oil. And let the dough rise for at least an hour.
7. After an hour, punch the dough to let the air out. And leave to rest for about 10 minutes.
8. Heat the oven at 200C.
9. Roll the dough, or use your fingertips to stretch the dough from the centre outwards to cover the pan.
10. Fold the edges to form a lip.


11. Sprinkle some olive oil on top to prevent it getting soggy from the topping. Punch some holes in the dough with a fork to let the air escape the pizza while cooking.
12. Spread the pizza sauce, cheese, onions, mushroom and your favourite topping.





13. Dont forget mozarella cheese to finish the process.
14. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.

Sorry if my instructions are unclear, I recommend you to visit Homemade Pizza and Recipe Pizza,

I made seafood and frankfurter pizza (will buy pepperoni next time) :D



yours truly,

Down.....

Owhhh still having that terrible headache. Now with runny nose and stiff neck. I had 8 hours of sleep last night, but the headache love me so much and decided to stay. I have meeting with sifoo tomorrow, and yet to prepare all the material for discussion, but am feeling drowsy. Guess I need to cancel then.

yours truly,

Apa??!!

A friend of mine posted a link to this:

A(H1N1): US, UK, Australia, P'pines returnees must stay home for 7 days
By NG CHENG YEE

PUTRAJAYA: Those who return home after travel in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines must quarantine themselves at home for seven days.

Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said most imported cases of the Influenza A (H1N1) reported in the country involved patients who returned from these countries.

“We urge them to do so and if they develop flu-like symptoms, they must seek treatment immediately,” he told a press conference here Tuesday

(source: theStar online)



-----------------------------
aiyah.... so how??? Nak kena kuarantin ke?? Kes dah bertambah ke kat Malaysia? In Australia, most affected area is Vic (Victoria), but there are some reported cases in Qld. Arinie pun rasa cam nak selesema jek..ahahahha... but this due to the late night working, not enough rest. Errr...shall I go offline and watch movie instead? aahahhaha....

Tak dapek den doo.... ok...focus2

p.s. For more information about the A(H1N1), go here.

yours truly,

Meeting Alie, long time no see

Kengkawan, my presentation went well yesterday, thank you for all the wishes ya. But I need to improve more on the slides, will do that later, now as I promised, I want to concentrate on my blog.

As I have wrote earlier this week, we had lunch with long lost friend last Saturday, Alie is her name. We went to the same school, MRSM Jasin. Though we knew each other since form four, we only became close in form five. We hung out, and did a lot of nakal stuff together, ala... benda2 biasa aje laaa..duduk boarding school, macam-macam hal la buat kan... ahahahha..

We were actually a group of 8 girls. We called ourselves "the outlawz" kunun nampak cam ganas laaa....paling nakal yang we all pernah buat, "fly" dari hostel jek... we went outing, and decided to go home wayyyy past the curfew...ahahahha....mesti ramai yg pernah buat camtu kan... But when we have past the curfew hour, masing-masing mule glabah dah, kecut perut.. talking about innocent ... we thought of many things to go back home.... but everybody was afraid of the outcome.....tau takuttt wakakaka......luckily we met a very close teacher of ours (he is actually our softball team manager) at one of the shopping complex in ayer keroh...ala mana lagi JJ la tu...ahahahha... Sib baik cikgu nak hantar kitaorang pulang....kalau tak ada yang merempat kat balai polis...and that was the only time we did it....ONE time only.... kunun berani la sangat kan.... hampehhha....ahahhahah

I have a lot of fond memories with the girls..... We still keep in touch though.... lagi la dengan ada facebook nie... but I have not met any of them for a very long time.



I think the last time I met Alie was when she came to my bro's wedding in 1995. Giler lama tu, 14 years ago. She came down to Brisbane not for vacation, but she had work. Before she came to Brisbane, she asked me a favor to advance a payment for PINK! concert that she won from eBay. She went to the concert alone, yup, alone. Though this was not the first time she went to a concert, but in this particular concert, it was her first time going there alone. Giler berani makcik tu, in a strange land. But I told to myself, if anything happens to her, I should be blame as well. Alhamdulillah tak de apa-apa...perrghhh...selamat gue...ahahahhaha

The lunch was on her...orang belanja makan laaaa...and she even let me pick the place. So where else I would choose, but Hanaichi laaa...



I bought her something as a token of rememberance. I hope she like it :D. She left Brisbane that same night.



Hope to see her again in near future.

yours truly,

Upah

Upah diri sendiri sbb dah siap present huhu AD3 je :-P

Still unable to...

Salam and hello kengkawan/friends

This weekend was pretty messy (FYI I do all my blogging in the weekend ya, except for certain urgent entry, hence the word "this weekend" heheheh). I have drafted some entries, but I am not able to finalise them to be published. Will try and publish some stories after my presentation ya. And... I am SOOOO SORRY for not visiting you lately... but that doesn't mean I am ignoring you my friends hehehheh.... soon when everything is back to normal (I mean in my mundane life), I will knock on your doors again ya.

And.......slurrrpppp...hehe




There were many times, that I didn't feel like cooking and eating out. So that leave only one choice....atang's mee segera. I can never cook the mee segera like he did. Tak tau kat mana silap. Atang's mee segera is extra super duper yummy. But I guess that is my weakness and atang has skill in that area. OK la tu, sekali sekala pekena air tangan suami ekkk :D

owwwhhh... can't wait to fall in their arms again.....





yours truly,

Sorry love...I've been busy

Sorry kengkawan, last week was pretty tight with the analysis, and preparing slides for the presentation. Last Saturday, we had lunch with my long lost friend. She came to Brisbane for a week, office matter.

Tomorrow I have a presentation in front of the colleagues and sifoos. The sifoos want to make sure that I don't say benda-benda merampu...ahahahha.... seriously ahahaha..naahhh.. I should be ready for the actual presentations, so tomorrow is kinda rehersal.

ohh yes... forgot to mention, "sorry, love" is a common speech by oz. Love is referring to female. So if they are referring to male, they would say "sorry, mate".

See you soon.

yours truly,

Lasagna for dinner

It has been awhile since I last had lasagna. The ingredients are always available in my tiny ladder, so last Saturday, I took out lasagna sheets, napoli sauce, flour from the ladder and with the rest of the ingredients, I prepared lasagna for dinner.

For recipe and instruction, please visit my old entry here.

When I wrote the old entry, I didn't have pictures to show you how to prepare the lasagna. I recently took some pictures to explain you how. Basically the steps are: a) meat sauce, b) lasagna sheet, c) meat sauce, d) cheese (buchamel) sauce, e) lasagna sheet, and continue with meat, buchamel, lasagna sheet until all mixture are finish, but end with buchamel sauce ya.





Top with parmesan/mozarella (or both)..lotsa lotsa of them.....You may use about 4 to 5 sheets, depending on your baking tray or amount of sauces.

And lastly....enjoy...ahahha (jgn lupe baca doa sebelum makan :D).

yours truly,

preparation part three : hoodies

Now come to the third stage of the "Malaysia stop over" traveling arrangement. Yup, I have gave a name to my not-that-long-anymore travel. Two more weeks to go. Getting excite, but I am overwhelm with a lot of things to complete before saying bye-bye to Brisbane for awhile. But what else is new...ahahahhaha... keep going I must.

(psssttt...sebenarnye tengah ngelat nak buat sesuatu nie... sebab alasan personal...wakakakakka... susah kalau kite dah tak suke kat orang kan...semuanye jadi tak suke dan malas)

owwwhhh I intentionally set the font to the smallest size, it is not a scripting glitch :D. OK, back to the purpose of this entry. I bought recently two hoodies for our two little princesses. They have outgrew their old hoodies. So I went to the Pumpkin Patch website because they are having a big sale (well it seems the sale has been forever now) markdown to 70%, I guess people are being careful in spending money nowadays. Hey, the oil price has increased in Brisbane recently.



Anyway, I was looking for something for my niece's birthday as well. And with a little bit over a hundred (plus delivery), I bought these two hoodies for beloved daughters



and these for my sweet niece...hehehhehe



yours truly,

A bundle of joy news....

I received a text message from my bro today. I have a new nephew today....yeeeaaaa.... Alhamdullillah...

Finally my bro has a son (he already has 3 daughters).

Total nephews and nieces I have: 4 nephews, 4 nieces... hehehheh... So the record holder for number of son is my sistah, she has 3 boys and 1 girl.

Total number of cucus for my parents: 10 heheheh ( coz I contributed 2 of them).

Sure riuh giler raya nie....yeaaaaa

Happy thoughts for today .....



yours truly,

pahit tapi tak bleh berhenti makan

owwwwwhhhhh sedappppppnyee....



Belinjau or its English name, Bitternut (mmg pahit pun). Yup you can find them at the Yuen's Market, one of the groceries owned by a Chinese Malaysian family.

Wish they sell the sweet chilli version of Belinjau. But these surely keep my hands occupied...ahahahha... can't stop popping them into my mouth. Eat them with one hot flat black coffee (highly recommend Malaysian coffee).... I simply say.......perrrghhhhhh

yours truly,

I baked "Marble Cheese Cake MamaFami"

My baking project last weekend was......





For recipe and instruction, please visit MamaFami's blog.

My outcome was not like Mama's ...but the taste overcome the look...ahahahha... a little too sweet for me, you can reduce the sugar from the cheese ingredient a bit if you like.

yours truly,

musim berubah...dan dia datang lagi

Winter is here again. This is our third year winter experience. And this year is muccchhhhh colder than before. I tell you it is difficult to get out of bed now. Pulling the quilt up to my head. As I am typing this, I would constantly put my hands under the notebook for heat. We have the heater on, but our loyal portable halogen heater performance this time is not satisfying. Guess I need to bundle up more, pakai ski cap, muffler, gloves segala..wakakakka....anyway, this is a good time to stay in the office as long as you can...centralised heater... save my electric bill. But, sape nak masak kat rumah kan, perut perlu diisi maaaaa....

owwwwhhh I am so glad that there is no snow in Brisbane..... sejuk macam nie pun dah tak tahan ooooo....

ok enough rambling.

The story I want to tell today has significant with the picture below.



This has become normal occurrences for me every winter. Before I came to Brisbane, never in my life I experience nose bleed, though I have witnessed this tragedy (tragedy kaa) many times before. Came the third winter, same thing happens. Hidung rasa sejuk, even as I typing this, tarik nafas pun rasa cam sekat2 camtu. This reoccurence, what else to say, so no more grieving. Pepatah ada mengata "alah bisa tegal biasa".

Searching for information about what may cause the bleeding to occur, I found that, it may be due to (with what I am experiencing right now):

"Dry/Heated Air- Having a bloody nose is much more common in the winter due to low humidity and dry air. Dry, hot, low-humidity climates cause the same problem, which is the drying out of nasal tissue, which in turn causes the tissue to crack or crust. Rubbing, picking, or blowing the nose causes this delicate tissue to bleed."
More info @ nosebudd

oowwwwwhhhh patut laaa hehhehehe....picking nose surely one of the best thing to do to pass the time...ahahahhaha....

yours truly,

Lights up

Workng late today. Am on my home. Waitng for bus, its freezing cold out here. Brrr...

Disagree : To prevent the earth from moving with you

One of the best local band in Malaysia.

Listen to their new single, OSAKA here.

Their new album will be out soon, end of this month.

Read more about this band at Wiki.

p.s. sempat rembat satu sebelum pulang ke Brisbane nie :D

yours truly,

my Simple Nasi Ayam

Taken from Chef Zailina's The New Malaysian Cookbook but modified by mixing with other recipes and friends/relative tips. I have tried this many times, so simple and yet so delicious. Jom masak.

Ingredients:
1 chicken
2cm ginger
sufficient water to boil chicken
1 bulb of garlic (chopped)
2 shallots (chopped)
chicken fat (the secret ingredient)
chicken stock/cube
some oyster sauce
oil
salt
a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Boil the water with the crushed ginger. Add in the chicken stock/cube and salt to taste .
2. Add in the chicken and lower the heat.
3. When the chicken is cook, remove the chicken and immerse in cold water for about 20 minutes.
4. Rub the chicken with some oyster sauce, leave it for awhile and fry the chicken till golden brown,
or if you like the steam version, just rub the chicken with the sesame oil.
5. Heat oil in the rice cooker pot, saute in the chopped garlic n onion. Add in the chicken fat. Saute until fragrant. Then add in rice and mix well.
6. Transfer the pot into the rice cooker. Pour in the water that was used to boil the chicken sufficiently to cook the rice. Use the remaining water to make the chicken soup. Add in spring onion and fried shallots.
7. Serve the chicken rice with the serving sauce.

my chicken sauce:
sugar, sesame oil
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
Add about 1 laddle (senduk) of chicken soup

my serving sauce (chilli sauce):
blend together some 1/2 inch ginger, 1 garlic, 3 red chillies, 1 chopped tomato, sugar and salt to taste. Add in a little bit of lime juice
Heat the blended ingredient in a pot. Add in 1 teaspoon of corn flour. Simmer under low heat, until thickened.



This chicken rice set is for our neighbour :D.

yours truly,

Ole-ole dari Malaysia

A good neighbour of ours just came back from Malaysia. They gave us these....

Terima kasih banyak-banyak...buat susah-susah aje :D

Actually I have a story behind this. Lately I noticed I am either attracted to things in red or have something around me in that color. I discovered through out the years, my favourite color keep on changing. When I was a little girl until teenager, I like blue. Then it changed to black and white during my campus year. Changed to green when I started working (my wedding dais and songket were also green :D), and still fond of green. But slowly am attracted to red. Maybe you noticed a number of objects in red around me; my pencil case, my camera case, and my study lamp. As an evidence, a quiz result that I took from the facebook supported it (tapi tak bleh caya la quiz nie, doing it for fun only :D)

"The more excitement they experience the more alive they will feel. Reds are practical, action-oriented, love to achieve results and be successful. They have an insatiable urge to win and create something valuable and important in their life. Their strong will power and intense, almost unlimited physical energy allows them to be extremely active, persistent and successful in virtually anything they do."

And now, the gift provides me with another evidence....and...ohhh.. I just remember the tissue box cover that was given by my colleague. Aahahhahaha.... tell me something... is it me changing or the surrounding that influence me to change (eh ke benda yang sama nie??).

But I still love green karer :p

Apa yang ku bebel laaa....

yours truly,