Ramadhan Day 28: So sad Ramadhan is leaving...

Today is the 28th day of Ramadhan. Feel sad that the Ramadhan is leaving. But it is so ironic kan, when at the start you want things to go quickly, but when you are nearing the end you want it to go really slowly. Honestly, this Ramadhan, my appreciation towards Ramadhan sangat kurang, was pretty busy with the writing, more worried about the research, rather than enjoying the fasting month. Hopefully I will be able to go through next coming Ramadhan penuh dengan rasa syukur, able to appreciate every single day of it. Harap dapatla ke masjid untuk tarawih sok-sok.

OK... hmmm since Ramadhan is ending, kite tukar mood raya pulak. Am going to work until 2pm today, that is about 2 hours from now, then I need to prepare things for cooking today, then off to fetch yaya and have a brief meeting with her teacher. It is nearing the end of the school term as well, next week is the last week of school for this term, then the school will be temporary close for 2 weeks. Then balik rumah, solat, then I will start cooking for iftar, at the same time preparing ingredients for gotong royong tomorrow, yup this is regarding to our kongsi raya open house, insyaAllah on Friday. I will be incharge of the kuah kacang, aiyoh, never cook for 200 people lorrr.... nervous den. So tonight I will need to call mak for tutoring, hohoho. Then, tonight, I will make kek batik for the open house. Masak siap2, kang besok tak sempat. Nasib baik semalm dah gosok baju raya siap-siap.

Oh yes, just for the record, adik has been without the pacifier for two weeks now. Satu pencapaian yang baik. Though sometimes she asked me about it, but I kept telling her that her puting dah busyuk, nanti sakit perut. She accepts the excuse everytime, yela dengan rupe puting yang dah hampir nak hancur tu, what more she can do kan. I will definitely not buying her a new one.

Ok laaa... jom dengar lagu raya...hahahha... since we are not going home for raya this time, these two songs really reflect our feeling currently.... but somehow I don't really care...because what ever it is, this is going to be our last raya here xD






I may not be able to blog really well for the next couple of days, yela with the gotong royong n open houses, tak sempat. But I may update through mobile, so it is going to be short everytime. Moreover, my time will be pretty tight with the dateline approaching, aiyoh less than a month before the milestone, tengok task nak kena buat sebelum 'batu jalan' muncul pun dah tercunggap-cunggap, so maybe this is the last long entry kot, before I can find a very suitable time to write a good long story. So until we meet again, selamat berbuka, selamat hari raya, selamat jalan raya, selamat makan-makan di hari raya, apa-apa pun biar sederhana ok. 

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 26: Raya raya raya

Today is the 26th day of Ramadhan. Untuk yang berada diperantauan bahang hari raya takde la rasa hangat seperti di Malaysia. Nonetheless, this morning alone, I have received 3 open house invitations by friends. 2 on the first day of Eid and one on the second day. Not including our kongsi open house on the first day of raya. Wow, raya sakan laaa... like Mak said two days ago, "Enjoy it, this is your last time.." well she didn't actually refer to raya, but the Spring season. I told her that soon we will see Brisbane changing colours based on the type of flowers. Yup, that is something unique in Brisbane. As if the flowers are taking turn to appear. I am waiting for jacaranda to show their radiant purple flowers, before the flame of the forest @ semarak api take over the reign. I think I have posted a few pictures here in this blog of those two trees. But I will surely take new pictures with the two lil princesses under that trees very soon.

A very short entry today. I'm sure everybody are now getting ready to balik kampung. Seronoknye...I think this is the best time of any year dari zaman kecik sampai dah tua nih...hehehe... Apa-apa pun hati-hati bila memandu, suka pun suka juga, tapi kena beringat selalu. Ok then, till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,
 

Ramadhan Day 25: Unwell

Today is the 25th day of Ramadhan. With the Eid @ Hari Raya approaching, am getting lazier to cook. Yesterday, I was down with the flu, I caught the virus from adik, while adik got better. Flu or not, I managed to make a batch of donut. Today, atang is having the flu, the virus has finally infected the whole house. Yaya, ohhh she was the one who started it...huhuhu....anyway.. probably because the change of the weather or maybe the hayfever that came together with Ms Spring.

Ok, I promised myself this should be a short entry. I have one section of writing to complete today, before having a lil nap after zuhr. As I have mentioned in the previous entry, yesterday iftar we had Nasi Kerabu, the first and the last I think, unless akak will cook nasi kerabu for hari raya..huhuhu... No wonder people have been talking and praising the Nasi Kerabu, it was delectable especially the sambal ikan. I would give 4.75 out 5 for the Nasi Kerabu because there was one at pasar malam Tmn Sri Pulai that a bit more delicious. But hey, I need to say that akak Nasi Kerabu is not a full-time pasar malam seller, in fact she only sells Nasi Kerabu during Ramadhan here. And in addition the fact that the one selling at pasar malam Tmn Sri Pulai offered a variety of lauk, with daging bakar, ikan celup tepung, solok lada, hati goreng, telur asin and I usually asked the seller to add more budu and kerabu, definitely overcome Nasi Kerabu Brisbane.

Nasi kerabu yang top di Brisbane

 Burger sambal

For kuih, I made a batch of donut, half I pre-fry and store in the freezer, another half for iftar yesterday. For today iftar.....hmmmm maybe I cook daging masak lemak cili api and roti john for starter. OK... till we meet again, selamat berpuasa dan berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 24: The last weekend

Today is the 24th day of Ramadhan. Alhamdullillah, we managed to wake up for sahur today, despite I just had 2 hours of sleep before getting up again preparing for sahur. The reason I've stayed up late last night was because I was watching  "Amityville 2". hahahahah....  Yup I am always the fan of horror movies, the most scariest movie that I will never watch again, without company is that Japanese horror Ju-on...hohoho... Here, every Friday night, close to midnight there will be a horror movie showing at Go! channel. So ikut tahap kengantukan malam tu, and the movie that was on air, kalau tak den terus slumber.

This is the last weekend before the Eid @ Hari Raya. So today we are going groceries shopping, ala not for raya, but to stock up because we are running out of supply. And like ordinary Saturday, I have loads of clothes hanging on the drier, but it is cloudy outside. Harap jangan la hujan.

Today nak masak ape? hmmm... I have ordered Nasi Kerabu, have some leftover for sahur, so buat donut aje la today. Till we meet again, selamat berpuasa dan berbuka, biar sederhana.

 yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 23 : the sequal, main dish

Alhamdullilah, we had pakistani food and it was delicious even yaya had second.

Ramadhan Day 23: the sequal, iftar at Darra Masjid

We have arrived at the mosque, waiting for the breaking fast time. Here are the starters.

Ramadhan Day 23: For the first time in Brisbane, we missed sahur!!!

Today is the 23rd day of Ramadhan. And today, the first time since we came to Brisbane, we missed the sahur. Aiyoh.... Adik was not feeling well yesterday, she caught the flu. So she woke up every hour, tossed and turned and mumbling in her sleep, and of coz I would then have to wake up to check on her, so both of us had a restless night last night. I did set the alarm, but because I was feeling tired and still sleepy, I dozed off again after switching off the alarm, and hope that I would wake up 5 minutes later. But when I woke up again, it was half an hour after the fasting begins. Aiyoh.... Due to this circumstance, we allowed Yaya to skip fasting today, but I kept reminding her, this is only for this year. Next year, no matter what, she has to fast. She looked confuse this morning, yela tetiba tak puasa pulak. And then I asked her if she wants me to prepare her lunch box, and she said yes. So I said to her,"eh, nanti kawan-kawan nampak cakap yaya tak puasa, kakak ok ke? She replied, "ala, kakak cakap la mak saya tak bangun sahur, jadi saya tak puasa harinie". Aiyoh...mama dia juga yang kena. Anyway, that is the story.

Ok laa... lagi seminggu nak raya kan, nak post iklan raya kat sini. Thanks liza for sharing this advertisement on FB. One of my favourite raya advert from Petronas. But I like the Malay version better, lagi terasa, menusuk ke jiwa.



Pesanan @ self-reminder: Jangan berkira dengan ibu dan bapa, pengorbanan mereka membesarkan kita tidak boleh dinilai dengan sebarang bentuk pengukuran yang ada kat dunia nie pun. Mereka pula tidak mengharapkan pembalasan material di dunia ini, hanya kasih dan sayang, serta perhatian dari anak-anak, seperti mana yang telah mereka berikan pada kita dahulu. Hargai mereka sementara masih ada peluang, yang tiada, masih lagi boleh berbuat demikian dengan berdoa semoga dosa-dosa mereka diampunkan. Harta untuk ibu bapa yang telah tiada adalah anak-anak yang soleh yang sentiasa mendoakan keampunan untuk ibu dan bapa.

OK...petang nie kami berbuka di masjid, InsyaAllah. Till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

p.s. nie yang buat den rindu mak dan abah sangat-sangat nie....huhuhu

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 22: the 1st essay

Today is the 22nd day of Ramadhan. One more week before celebrating the Eid @ Hari Raya. At this stage, I still cultivating my raya mood, because I am still refining my chapters.  I have dateline this Tuesday, maybe after that I can switch to raya mood. But I have two things to look forward to this week. Tomorrow atang wants to have iftar at a nearby mosque. Everyday, there will be someone or a group of people donate some food for iftar at any mosque, musollah (surau) around Brisbane, as far as I am aware of. Before the Ramadhan, the mosque or musollah committee will make announcement about the donation, individual who wishes to donate can contact the committee directly to book a date. Besides the one organised by the Malaysian Student Association (PPMQ), I have never attended any iftar event held at any mosque or musollah. So I did suggested to atang, maybe we could have iftar at any mosque or musollah on weekends, I just want to experience what it's like, plus tasting different type of food prepared by people from different culture (escape masak pun ye gak, huhu). Bila lagi kan, the only opportunity that I may have. It is coincident that one of atang's mate is hosting iftar at a nearby mosque tomorrow and we are invited to come. Alhamdullillah, so InsyaAllah, tomorrow I am off from cooking, yippee.

Another thing that I am looking forward to is Nasi Kerabu, yes, you read it right. This Nasi Kerabu is so popular here, people have been talking about this Nasi Kerabu since we have Bazaar Ramadhan in 2008. It is so popular that you need to pre-order it, coz don't expect you can grab it at the bazaar, orang kata putih mata aje laaa. I recently talked to akak who prepared it, she said normally she would prepare around 80 packs per day, and from that amount only about 5 packs were unreserved, but within a split second that unreserved packs were gone. So I decided I must try this Nasi Kerabu this time, the only chance that I may have, and since this weekend is the last bazaar, I have pre-booked the Nasi Kerabu for this Saturday. Sempat kang I will take pictures, takut kang tak sabar nak makan, dah nak licin baru ingat, huhu. As a summary, I may not have to prepare main dishes for tomorrow and Saturday, prepare some kuih aje nanti, itupun kalau tak membeli kat bazaar. haha

Anyway, what I am going to write today is about an essay written by Yaya. It is one of her school assignment.
The title is,"My journey on a pirate ship". Don't ask me how on earth did she came up with the title, because Yaya herself don't have definite answer to that question. Ok without further ado, I present you Yaya's 1st essay.

My summary: Yaya and her family onboard a pirate ship to get to an island, so that she and her family can enjoy a delicious ice-cream and hot dog. Then we checked in into a hotel that have a spa, swimming pool and a beach. After a day at the beach, we had dinner at night. hahahahhaha.... I was smilling when I read this. I asked yaya, ice-cream and hot dog, bulan puasa nih, fikir makan aje laaa... hmmmm clearly she is like me, think about food all the time. Notice that atang was only mentioned at the end of the story, so bab makan-makan dulu only involved yaya, her sister and her mother. Adeh... another food lover in the family, tapi memang betul pun. Alhamdullillah, yaya is not fussy when it comes to food, but she is not that adventurous like her mama. She will only try something new after I have convince her many times.

Dah lame tak citer pasal our iftar food kan, well nothing to story actually, same old dishes everyday. I don't have time to experiment new thing, not anymore laaa. For yesterday's iftar I cooked maggi goreng. We had fried chickens from Country Chicken two days ago (ala-ala KFC camtu), and have 2 pieces left. So yesterday I cut them to small pieces and add them to the maggi goreng, with telur mata lembu. Fuhhhh...

Today, I think I will cooked chicken tom yam. Tonight I plan to visit my neighbour. She and her family is going back home for raya tomorrow morning. Ada benda nak kirim dari Malaysia nie, my ikan bilis, ikan masin is out of stock. So, that's it friends, till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.
yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 21: Two pony tails

Today is the 21st day of Ramadhan. Alhamdullillah, it is getting warmer by day, but I have yet to decide on the washing and changing the bedspread, duvet covers and warmers, and put away the heater, afraid that the chilly wind will blow again.

But one thing for sure, as the noon passes, I will get sleepy. Yawning frequently, almost everyday. Dugaan dugaan. Blog writing is one remedy that could make me stay awake, or if I can no longer sustain from being awake, I will go to TV3 website and watch what ever available online that interest me. Like today, I just downloaded and watched a few episodes of Masam Manis Ramadhan. I knew about this drama from kty, thanks kty for recommending (indirectly because I knew about it from her blog). Best-best...

OK... Today I want to write about adik. Adik used to have wavy hair when she was small, but her hair is now more straighter and longer. I can now tie up her hair. But adik doesn't like the idea of her hair being pull together to a pony tail, or two or even in a tight bun. Well, she only allows me to tie her hair up into a tight bun when I bathe her, because she doesn't like her hair gets wet, as long as you will untie it immediately after that. Everyday, I will persuade her to allow me to tie her hair, nampak kemas sikit. An everytime she will turned down my offer. But yesterday, out of ordinary she agreed to my offer. She even requested two pony tails (am not sure if this is the correct word for ikat dua). Excited I was, after getting her hair done as she requested, I then took some pictures of her.

Taken outside our apartment, that pink and purple flowers are not blooming.

Today, she didn't want me to tie her hair, again. hmmm....

Ok... till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 20 : Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke 53 Malaysia

Today is the 20th day of Ramadhan.

MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA!

That's all folks, till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederahan.


yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 19: Raya mood?

Today is the 19th day of Ramadhan. About 10 more days until Hari Raya @ Eid. Dah raya mood ke? Pasti kat Malaysia dah mula sibuk dengan persediaan hari raya. Boleh bayangkan lagu raya berkumandang di pusat-pusat membeli belah, bazaar Ramadhan dah mula jual baju raya, kasut raya, kuih raya, semua raya laaa. Radio pulak tak henti-henti dengan lagu raya, silih berganti, dengan carta top hits masing-masing. Orang ramai pun dah mula fikir raya, agenda raya, nak gi bank tukar duit raya, apply cuti raya. Hai..yang pastinya macam-macam urusan berkenaan raya.

Den pun dah terasa mood raya harinie, sebab kawan-kawan mula membincangkan hal rumah terbuka raya kat sini. Sini sambutan raya memang kalah kalau kat Malaysia, rumah terbuka sampai ke tengah malam, juadah raya macam buffet tu, itu satu rumah, biasanya tak kurang dari 4 rumah buat rumah terbuka. Yang makanan jadi macam-macam ala ala buffet table tu, sebab lazimnya rumah terbuka kat sini berkonsep join raya, ahaa, 2 3 student/family kongsi buat rumah terbuka. Masak sama-sama, hidang sama-sama, lepas tu ada giliran rumah. Selalunya tetamu pernah cecah 200 orang, yela student bujang kan ramai, jadi kalau buat sorang-sorang, mau hidang air kosong biskut kering aje nanti...ahahhahahahah... Jadi raya kali nie, den pun join la kengkawan untuk rumah terbuka nie. Lagipun kami tahun nie menanamkan dasar rumah tertutup...ahahhahahahha... rumah den serabut la, ngan kotak-kotak, kertas-kertas atas meja, errr lagipun memang tak sempat la nak jamu orang bagai, bulan September nie lagi hectic schedule den.

OK laaaa.. kata hectic kan, jadi minta diri dulu. Till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

p.s. ada kes terbaru buang bayi kat Shah Alam semalam, adoiii...bulan puasa nie!!! sedih tul laaa...

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 18: 'Post-annual Iftar' story

Today is the 18th day of Ramadhan. Yesterday, after the gotong royong and iftar I was worn-down completely. I thought of laying lazily on the sofa, watching what ever was on TV, but I have a pile of clothes waiting for folding and ironing. Arrghhh....ku kumpul seluruh tenaga dan kekuatan minda untuk menyiapkan the last chore for that day. At 10 I told atang that I don't have any more energy, and quickly climbed up the sofa bed at the living room (that has been our regular bed for a number of months now), pull up the duvet and slowly went to sleep. Why did I said slowly, because adik was still active and widely awake. She had a long afternoon nap at home, while I was helping out at the gotong royong. Adik will always feel uneasy whenever I sleep before she does, and she will then starts to do something to wake me up, adoiyaaaa.... and I have this bad temper whenever someone disturbs me when I am sleeping, especially in the first few minutes. So apa lagi, I was really mad last night. According to atang, adik was really scared and merajuk. She even cried to sleep. Aiyoh, I was a bad mom last night, but can't really help it la adik. Your mom memang macam singa bila dia dah ngantuk and penat sangat. There are three situation that you don't want to mess with me; 1) ngantuk yang tak boleh lawan dah, 2) lapar dan 3) don't let me wait for you, 10 minit ok lagi, tapi kalau dah lebih 1/2 jam, bersiap sedia la dengar leteran tanpa henti dari den...yup, that's me. Ok nie dah mula merepek.

OK pasal gotong royong semalam. This time the committee have delegated the food preparation according to kampung. Kampung nie suburb yang mana ada ramai student malaysia duduk. My kampung kena buat acar dan satu jenis kuih. The menu was nasi tomato, ayam masak merah, acar, some kuih, air sirap. Buat acar tu ok laa, oh ye, we have to prepare for 450 people, that means 450 packs to be ready before breakfast time. For the kuih, our kampung chief decided to make onde-onde aka buah melaka aka kelepung (den panggil kuih kelepung, tapi den tak pasti nie bahasa nogori ko bahaso apo). Kuih kelepung tu kena buat 3 biji sorang, so kalau 450 pack, korang bayangkan berapa banyak kuih kelepung kena buat. Yup 1350 biji...haaaaa... Maka gentel la kami sebanyak itu, tapi tak sebanyak itu laaa... I didn't know how much they managed to get, because I got to leave early yesterday. I left the gotong royong place at 4 pm, about an hour and half before breakfast time. Tapi sebelum balik tu dah dapat about 250 packs. Mula-mula potong sayur dulu untuk acar, dalam kul 1 ptg baru start operasi buat kelepung, masa untuk berbuka pulak pukul 5.30 ptg you all!!

 Dengan pekerja-pekerja yang diimport khas dari Malaysia (kami la tu) seramai lebih kurang 10 orang wanita, masing-masing telah diberi kepercayaan untuk menjalankan tugas masing-masing iaitu, menggentel tepung, memasukkan gula ke dalam tepung, mencedok kuar kelepung yang sudah terapung, menyalut kelepung dengan kelapa dan membungkus kelepung. Ada pekerja yang diberi tugas lebihan seperti penyediaan tepung bila bancuhan hampir habis dan memasukkan kelepung ke dalam air untuk direbus. hahahahahah punya detail den memberi penerangan. Tapi kisah kelepung nie memang paling best semalam, sebab nak kejar masa dan kejar target sebanyak 1350 tu. Tapi den tak tau la berapa banyak yang dapat pada akhir garisan ehhh..nak dekat2 buka puasa tu. Kisahnye tepung habis sebanyak 16 peket, so kawan-kawan cakap, habis tepung habis la tugas membuat kelepung tu, sampai import suami masing-masing yang ada masa gotong royong tu, tolong sekali menggentel buat kelepung tu...ahahahhahah... Lepas tu semua tak larat nak pergi join iftar, last-last ada yang tolong ambilkan makanan dan bawa ke tempat gotong royong tu (rumah kawan) dan ramai-ramai buka kat situ. Den n family gi surau untuk buka puasa sebab atang kat rumah kan. End up tak ramai yang show up pada majlis tu, banyak juga la makanan yang lebih termasuk kuih kelepung yang disasarkan sebanyak 1350 bijik tu. Moral of the story....jgn buat kuih kelepung untuk majlis sebegini lagi, kecuali kalau ramai pekerja dan banyak masa. huhuhuhuh...

Ok itu kisah semalam. Harinie den menyelesaikan chapter yang tertangguh hari jumaat, alhamdullillah dah siap dah, malam nie nak siapkan satu lagi bahagian. Harap dapat siapkan sebelum tido. Harinie juga den masak sup tulang, senang aje jerang atas dapur, sambil tu bleh buat kerja. Dan petang tadi, bersama yaya n adik, den gi bazaar ramadhan untuk carik kuih.

Bazaar Ramadhan 2010

Tak ramai pulak orang berniaga hari nie, den dok bayangkan macam-macam pilihan kuih sampai rambang mata. Sebab minggu lepas tgk status FB masing-masing yang pergi bazaar, macam-macam kuih diorang beli. Dari bazaar, kami beli nie:

Kuih-muih on our table today

Tu dia, penuh meja kami untuk berbuka tadi. Semua sedap-sedap. Alhamdullillah....

OK laaa.. that wrap up our Ramadhan story for today. Got to go and complete my writing. Till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.


yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 17: Gotong royong for iftar

Operasi potong memotong untuk acar dan gentel2 buah melaka.

Ramadhan Day 16: Exhausted

Today is the 16th day of Ramadhan, been focusing on the amendment of my first draft this week, and hava another week to come up with a polish and succinct draft. Arrggghhhhhhh penatnye. My sifoo said, "less is more", what he meant is, I should write concisely but able to deliver the idea clearly...aiyoyo... I admit, I am very poor in writing, always finding it hard to elaborate and convey ideas clearly, and now I should do it in a condensed way.... Mak capek oiiiiii.... takpe2...sabar2...sikit aje lagi (ayat memujuk diri).

Apology not having anything else to write here rather than rambling about my writing. I guess the story of Ramadhan is getting dull ya. Well, life is ordinary after all...chewahh.... Anyway, tomorrow would be something worth telling, if I have the time to do that. Because tomorrow, we gonna have our annual iftar. Alhamdullillah, I am off from cooking...hahahaha... In the morning there's gonna be a gotong royong memasak, yeaaa... a break from all this writing, am so looking forward for both the gotong royong and the iftar tomorrow, InsyaAllah. Will try and blog while gotong royong is in progress, otherwise I will not have time to write about it tomorrow.

OK laaa.. need to continue with the writing. Bila nak abis nie!! Till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.


yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 15: Selamat menyambut hari kemerdekaan yg ke 53 Malaysia tanahairku

Today is the 15th of Ramadhan. I can't wait for the Eid, but I don't want Ramadhan to end as well.

I have very tight schedule today, so can't write anything specific. I want to share a video that a friend posted on my FB public wall, a video that is related to our beloved country independent day. Merdeka kah kita? A question that you can only answer.



Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan ke 53 Malaysia
Till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 14: We are 9 and the farewell

Today is the 14th day of Ramadhan. We nearly half-way through the Ramadhan. Are we prepared for the lailatulqadar?

Today is a very special day for us. 9 years ago, after maghrib, I officially became atang's wife. 9 years ago we began our journey together. We went through ups and downs together, were tested in various ways, we overcame many obstacles, learnt to accept things beyond our expectation, compromised and sacrificed for the benefits of each other. Alhamdullillah, we are still together and hope we will be together until death do us part, and reunite in heaven. Amin.

Yesterday I bid farewell to my sparring partner cum research colleague cum a good friend. We met over 3 years ago, when I started my PhD journey. We shared a lot of things together, from research, gossips and to personal problems. There were many occasions that we cried on each other shoulder, or infront of each other laptop while chatting through the instant messaging facility. I was so grateful that I met such a sweet but strong girl, and that's why I was devastated yesterday when we had the last chat. I almost cry infront of her but quickly turn my head around. Hahahahah very emotional yesterday. I can't believe that she's going to leave soon. I will gonna miss her, don't know if I could look at her empty workstation, the place that she used to occupy 5 days a week, next week. Lan, you will be missed.

the last picture

I have to stop right now, can't control my emotion anymore. Until we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.
yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 13: Mulai harinie delete terus dari kamus diri

Today is the 13th day of Ramadhan. Alhamdulillah it is sunny today. Today is an important day for me, my friend is going home for good this Sunday, and today is the last chance for me to see her for the very last time. This morning she presented her research as a rehersal for her actual seminar that is going to be held at her home country. Ahhhh sedih pulak rasa hati den nih, and feeling nervous at the same time, because soon it is going to be my turn. Bila dah dekat nih, rasa macam belum bersedia pulak untuk submit. Dulu rasa tak sabar aje nak submit, sekrang nie rasa tak nak pulak. Aduhai.... moga urusan den di sini dimudahkan...amin

OK in relation to the title, somebody share me an interesting note on FB yesterday, which I am copying here:

Perkataan "BYE" merupakan jarum sulit org Kristian... Di dlm bahasa Arab b'maksud "fihafzil baba ". Manakala dlm bahasa Malaysia b'maksud di Bawah Naungan Pope(paderi). Jadi foward dan sebarkan kepada semua shbt2 anda. Semoga Allah memberi rahmat kpd kita dan org Islam yang lain. Wassalam di Universiti Putra Malaysia. Itulah satu-satunya Universiti yang ada gereja. Gereja ini antara yang aktif untuk memurtadkan orang Islam. kalau ada saudara kita terminum 'Holy Water'. Sebenarnya air ini dibuat di Vatican City. Dijampi oleh paderi termasuk Pope John Paul yang jemput Perdana Menteri kita dulu! . Kalau terminum, cari air kolah dari 3 masjid. Baca Al-Fatihah 1x, Yasin 1x, 3 qul 1x, dan selawat. Ambil sebahagian buat minum dan sebahagian buat mandi. InsyaAllah mereka akan sedar dan dapat diselamatkan.insyaAllah. tolong fowardkan ... demi islam... demi agama yang tercinta...insyaallah... forwardkan mesej ini..""

So as usual, I used answers.com to find out more. I should used the web engine to find relevant articles, but I really have limited time, so one search is enough la. And I got this from answers.com:
from answers.com, search word "Goodbye"
[Alteration (influenced by good day) of God be with you.]

WORD HISTORY No doubt more than one reader has wondered exactly how goodbye is derived from the phrase "God be with you." To understand this, it is helpful to see earlier forms of the expression, such as God be wy you, god b'w'y, godbwye, god buy' ye, and good-b'wy. The first word of the expression is now good and not God, for good replaced God by analogy with such expressions as good day, perhaps after people no longer had a clear idea of the original sense of the expression. A letter of 1573 written by Gabriel Harvey contains the first recorded use of goodbye: "To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes," recalling another contraction that is still used.

hmmm....adeh...kita terpedaya lagi!!!.... Dah jumpe bukti ini, walaupun satu aje, tak cukup beri bukti yang kukuh kan, am sure if I google the word I would find many related articles, tapi sudah cukup untuk menanam azam untuk buang terus perkataan itu dari kamus diri. Lepas nie cakap, C U aje laaa kat orang2 bukan Islam. Antara muslim dah tentu bagi salam kan. So korang macam mana?

Now about iftar, yesterday it was the same old normal day, so we had rice, and some kuih. Kuih keria from my neighbour, which atang call it 'donut melayu', and kuih bakar that I made, eh both were made on Sunday. Banyak sangat on Sunday, tu yg boleh bring forward. Atang pulak, he actually doesn't know the name of the kuih, and keep referring it as donut melayu. Pardon my atang, bab makan nie mmg glosari dia terhad...ahahahha and that's why he marries me...huhuhu....

Kuih bakar n my neighbour's keria

Ok laaa... got to go.... rasa sebak pulak dok teringat kawan nak balik dah. sob sob sob...She is busy packing her things at the workstation right now. We took some pictures around the office just now, sad pulak rasa. Her journey is going to end soon. Soon she will have the prefix 'Dr' on her name.

yours truly,
 

Ramadhan Day 12: Kengantukan

Today is the 12th day of Ramadhan, and I am feeling sleepy right now. I slept early last night, felt exhausted, probably due to the late nights I had couple of days ago. And now I still feeling sleepy, maybe had a lot of sleeping yesterday, plus it is cloudy with occasional rain. Adik is busy with her phone, an old phone of mine that I hand it down to the kids. She loves scribbling on the phone, and can spend a long time doing it. Aiyah, my eyes are getting heavier pulak.


I forgot to update about Yaya eye. Apparently it was not conjunctivitis as I have assumed. Alhamdullillah, probably her eye was dry and itchy, something got into her eye maybe. But the redness has subsided. We bought eye drop and applied it to her right eye. Days before that she had this 'ketumbit'. This ketumbit thing has been in my family for generation. You know how ketumbit so itchy right, maybe yaya been scratching because of the ketumbit, and that thing burst. I noticed she no longer had it before the red eye incident occur. Anyway, alhamdullillah it is not an infection.

And I also forgot to say, or give an advise when you want to buy shoes in Brisbane. You have to be really carefully, because many many shoes selling here used pig skin as the inner sole. You all tau kan how to recognise pig skin, if not please visit this here. Usually shoes that is less than AUD50 used that skin as the lining, because it is cheaper. Kasut budak2 memang banyak, terutama kalau buatan dari C-H-I-N-A, tak kisah la apa brand pun. Contoh kasut C-L-A-R-K, susah nak jumpa yang tak pakai kulit tu. We all bila nak pilih kasut, kami pegang tapak kasut tu dulu, lepas tu belek-belek dalam dia, selalunye ada label yang bagitau insole dia leather ke synthetic. Kalau leather, ha kena la belek lebih-lebih sikit, besar kemungkinan kulit babi. Jadi hati-hati la kalau membeli kasut kat Brisbane nie ya.

OK..change topic. Last night I called up Abah. Abah has completed his 5 out of 10 times radio therapy treatment. He stays at the hospital, easy for the doctors and nurses to monitor his condition. He said he misses home. Adeh, bulan-bulan puasa nie, duduk hospital, sorang-sorang, dah la tak boleh puasa, lagi la rasa sedih aje kan. Mak is at home, yela, nak teman pun, mak bukan sihat. Lagipun InsyaAllah, abah ok, lagi la in good hands. So when I called him yesterday, "Bah, lambat angkat telefon". "Abah kat balcony, tengok2 kat luar ni haa...boring dok sorang2." Alahai...sedihnya dengar. Takpe bah, tak lame aje lagi. Dan tak lame lagi gak, cucu-cucu abah nie balik. Hopefully by Friday, all treatment is completed and he can go home to mak. Abah weight is worrying though. He needs to gain more weight to start chemo, which is scheduled after raya. His must weight at least 60+kg, and his current weight is 56 (wohooo, that's so much less than my weight). Before he was sick, he weight 70kg. Yup, he lost a lot of weight definately, I can't imagine how Abah looks like right now.

Ok laaa...that is the story for day 12th Ramadhan. I have about an hour to complete a task today, before fetching Yaya at her school. Then asar, after that I will start preparing iftar. Still have left-overs from yesterday's iftar, I cooked nasi ayam yesterday. Today ingat masak kari daging aje laaa. Till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 11: Spring has sprung?

Today is the 11th day of Ramadhan. Alhamdullillah, the weather is hot with mild wind today. I washed a load of clothes yesterday and today, opppsss not literally, the washing machine did that. And thankful for the sunny weather, the clothes dried up quickly. This morning atang and I had a bit of spring cleaning, eh dah spring ka? It is not until September for the spring to arrive, but it is getting warmer nowadays, I no longer have to wear jumper during the day, still need to wear pull-over at night, and still using quilts at night. Well, the kids kicked it away at night, I still pulled the quilts up to my head. I remember last year, somewhere in August, we thought that the winter was over, and it was time for spring cleaning. So I washed the quilt cover, jumper, changed the flannelette sheet, and stored them away. So confident that the winter has gone. And a few days later, it was cold again, end up I had to take out all the things that I had put away. So this year I will wait until spring to come, flowers blooming until I starts storing all the winter garmet. This time would be much easier, will put everything in the packing boxes, for give away and take home.

As I have mentioned in the previous entry, yesterday we went shopping instead of looking for used boxes. We went to DFO just to get new slip-on for my lil princesses. Each of them has a pair of slip-on for raya. For baju raya, hmmm not sure we will get them something new, because they still have several pairs of baju kurung from last year raya, some dresses and new t-shirts, so maybe we will buy when necessary. The shoes because yaya n adik don't have a nice pair of shoes to put on, and that was why we bought them each. Tak mo 'membrazir' (yaya slang of membazir). Although here the celebration boleh tahan juga, with open houses every weekend, tapi takkan sama like celebrating at home. So nak beli yang baru-baru pun macam kurang semangat sikit, plus I will definately busy after the eid, preparing for submission. I am more enthusiast with the submission than the eid preparation. Picture below shows yaya's n adik's raya shoes,

Raya shoes for lil princesses

Yesterday jugak was an election day for Australia. Tak tau pulak sape yang menang semalam. Sorry, malas nak ambil tau. Anyway, about iftar. A day before yesterday, that was Friday, mood malas nak masak tu datang. Actually I have no idea to cook, like I said in the Friday's entry. I was browsing through a few of my fav cyber chefs' blog until I saw encik Mat Gebu's sosej gulung rangup. I had a couple of instant pastry in the freezer, and I used them all, bagus2, habis kan semua, clear the fridge. Sausage puff for Friday's iftar.

Sausage wrap in instant pastry

Yesterday, since it was weekend, I spent my time in the kitchen and made mee kari. Our neighbour came and gave us mee goreng mamak.  

My neighbour's mee goreng mamak (she's penang mari)

For today's iftar, I going to cook nasi ayam, kuih, maybe kuih bakar kot. OK laaa...I need to fill up a form then packing some clothes that I am not going to wear anymore in the box. Till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana. 

  

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 10: Hunting for used boxes

Today is the 10th day of Ramadhan. Today we have a mission, hunting or buying a second hand packaging boxes. There is a shop at Logan selling new and used boxes and other packaging material, so we are heading there soon. But we need to go to the pharmacy first because Yaya is infected by conjunctivitis. I noticed she has been scratching her right eye yesterday, and have asked her to stop doing it. So this morning her right eye is puffy and red. Aiyoyoyo... last year pun camtu gak, until adik and I were infected too. Jangan la berjangkit nanti.

Eh...why laaa so many story about abondoned babies (eh should I say abandoned, because most of the cases main buang camtu aje... nie bukan keje manusia dah nie,  sedangkan haiwan pun ada rasa kasih sayang) in Malaysia lately. Sedih la wehhh.... korang takde akal ke? Isshhh...isshhhh... betul la orang cakap, love can kill. Bunuh perasaan kasih sayang, bunuh akal, bunuh iman, bunuh maruah.... adehhh.... at this stage everybody is to be blamed. Kita nie hidup saling berkait, so tak boleh la tunding jari satu pihak aje. Tapi yang paling den nak tegur nie, perempuan. Wahai perempuan yang belum berkahwin, jaga la maruah kamu, jaga la adabmu, jagalah agamamu. Perempuan, terpalit cacat  aje sikit, sikit aje, habis laaaa....Sebab tu kesan yang teruk kena kat perempuan, lelaki, haaa...they can easily escape and run away, sebab apa, yg perempuan nie jugak yang bawak perut, yang nampak buruknye perempuan la juga. So wahai perempuan yang belum berkahwin, takut pada Allah, ingat pada Allah, takut pada api neraka. Adeh...emotional pulak den. huhuhuhu.... Sebab emotional sangat, den pun teringat la lagu nie. Tapi takde kena mengena dengan kes buang bayi nie, cuma tajuk lagu tu "Love is a killer".



When I was young, during teenage years, ada la berangan untuk ada band. Wakakakakakkakak...the band consists of four of my cousins and me. Actully, all of us had professional training in music. And that was one reason why I dreamt to have a band. But it was a dream that never comes true, because education is the utmost priority in our big family. Well, I never wanted it to be real anyway. And none of my cousins know about this....shhhhhhh.... Each of them have their own position in the band, and guess who is the lead singer..... den la...wakakakakakkaka.... ahahahhahahaha... I am chuckling right now remembering that old days of berangan. Itu la orang kata angan-angan mat jenin. Ok...so this song is one of the fav my berangan band would play. hahahahha...ok I better stop now before I burst out laughing and the kids and atang will start wondering what am I doing infront of the machine.

OK...got to go. Atang has changed his mind, tak jadi gi carik kotak, instead we are going for raya shopping...huhu... carik kasut untuk budak-budak nie ha.... Till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana

yours truly,