in the midst of insignificance...

Just one of those insignificant events - I parked my car, went to settle some matters/work, came out, approached by the parking attendant, he charged me, I paid, he issued me a receipt, and I was out of there.

But that day was quite different.... I was greeted by this much older man... Very old, his frame looked fragile. Very old you would imagine he would prefer to sit at home and relax in this golden years of his. Instead, he was all energetic and lively and seemed to enjoy his job. When he first approached me, I didnt know he was the parking attendant. He had the "friendly-neighbour" aura...

"Helllo Miss... going back already?" in a happy, joyful tone.

I was like "ermmm......" didnt know how to respon, huhu... a bit weird for someone u didnt know to be that friendly out of nowhere...ritee? to top that, I can't see his face clearly at that time.

"Going back? Do you have your car here, miss?" and as he asked and came nearer, I saw him taking out the parking ticket book from his small sling bag. Oooo.... parking ticket rupanya...

"Ooo just here... haa there..." pointing towards my car, 4-5 metres away. He followed me and took the yellow ticket and gave out a small laugh, "Haha, not very long...Hmmm, ok. that'll be only 30cents, miss"

uncle ni.... friendly and speaks english in a very polite manner..I handed him the coins and said thank you.

"Wait a minute ya, miss.. I will write you the receipt" wrote and gave it to me "Okeyyy, done...here is your receipt... Have a nice day, miss..."

"Same to you, thank you....thank you yaa" went into my car and lifted my hand as a gesture of appreciation and he waved back at me and then to the next car behind me, stopping the fella's car, to issue the ticket.... all with smiles and the consistent "friendly, happy" face :D

That uncle, he reminds me of the good old days... 15-20 years back, when people are friendlier... Well that uncle actually brings me back a lil more to the past, through colonial times, clearly shown from the way he speaks english which is different from our generation these days :P But above all, worthy of note.... is how his positive attitude made me smile that day :-)

From this so called insignificant event, I learn that if you are happy with what you are doing, or stay positive, you project positive energy to only to yourself but also people around you. Memang betul lah bak kata pepatah,

1. Senyum itu Sedekah
2. A smile is a curve that sets everything straight ~ Phyllis Diller

  

Penang Bridge Marathon 2010.

First time join a real Marathon.... Haha... I never thought of joining this year or anytime soon...Zue invited us to join her mission to run in this Marathon... and tup tap... here we go, with Kak Ilah and Mar.

Since we are all first-timer, we opted for 10km run...

(other categories: Full Marathon (42km),
                           Half Marathon (21km),
                           FunRun (10km but with no qualifying time/medal))

Those who manage to complete their marathon within the given time, they get a medal.
Full Marathon - 7 hours, Half - 3.5 hours, 10km - 1.5 hours.

and when Zue said she wanted to target the medal... I laughed.... and I told her, I will be lucky enough if I can finish the run.

The route map for 10km.... i edited a lil, coz there's a change in the route compared to the map they provided earlier. 

I walked for like 70% of my marathon :P coz

1. my stamina not that superb

2. I happen to have mild muscle strain at my right thigh joint, so i dare not stress out the muscle too much.

10km run started at 6.15 am.

as shown in the map... first part, we ran on the highway that goes straight to the bridge. At the fork towards the bridge, I bumped into Mar, and asked for the time and was told it was 6.30am. I quickly made some calculation, and figured I might be able to make it on time if I maintain the speed. But, my muscle started to sore a lil. Afraid I might end up hurt thus not able to finish... I walked, but in highest speed I could and berlari-lari anak a few times :P On the way, I asked 2 random people for time, just to check whether I was on the right 'track'. I maintained the same walking speed from the bridge towards the end. About 10 metres from finishing line, I ran :)) so that I won't feel like I did walkathon instead of marathon... miahahaha...

Finally, 7.30 am - I reached the finish line, took me 1 hour 19 mins. phewww..... Mar was just behind me in less a minute, then followed by Zue, just 2 minutes away. We bumped into each other a lot on the way... aku potong ko, ko potong aku, dan potong memotong sambil share ayaq :D Kak Ilah was nowhere to be seen, vanish into thin air gitue... haha... No lar, She finished earlier than us, took her 59 minutes oni...tak terkejar beb! :)) 

And all 4 of us managed to get medals.............. shared happiness is the best one ;-)

Thanksss u ollsss.... for various reasons i.e the invitation, lodging, motivations, jokes... etc etc

Hmmm... will I do it again? Hmmmmm...... we'll see... kalau ada kaki-kaki... maybe lah :P

p/s: PErghhhh... KAGUM lah.... those who did Half/Full Marathon.... cannot imagine myself braving thru 3-8 hours of marathon??? oucchhh

p/s/s: Adik-adik sekolah (junior category) sungguh incredible... they started 15minutes after us... but quite a number of them overtook us... ewah2.. mentang2 la metabolisme stamina korang masih tip top kan.... eksen nooh :P ahhahaa... cute nonetheless :D

Last but not least...

Tiring but Heppi!

 

the rocky La-La Land

Some people view life as a student after a certain age as taking time-off from Reality /"normal life" to enter 'student-hood'... sounds like we are in a la-la-land or some sort.

Being a student doesnt give us immunity from all other responsibilites around us. There are bills to be paid, families to look after, datelines to be met, debts n loans to be settled etc... it simply means life resumes. Yes, life as a postgrad may appear to be kinda flexible, having space and given independence (in a way). But.. ouchhh.... these advantages are as deathly as it sounds convenient. It's a part of our battle to deal with this.

Don't misunderstand. I still love what I'm doing... and love and enjoy my time being a student :-) am aware dat everything has its ups and downs... its Just dat... sometimes, it irks me when ppl give the judging look when they discover my status - single and still studying at my age. Sometimes I'm immuned, sometimes I'm affected ;-) well, that makes me human.... and InsyaAllah... I hope will make me stronger.

Btw... here's bits n pieces from a conversation I had with a fren, a student like me... just some Nerdy talk lah...

Part 1

A: internet supposed to offer so many things but i feel nothing for them hahahha

S: yes.. thats y i want to say

S: be far away frm PC even if u r not using it for ur research. it makes u tired, better to be far from it for few days, just play with ur normal life WITHOUT PC

S: its getting impossible nowadays but when u do it u feel better. That y i said..that day, turn off my messenger and blablab

S: some times we waste many energy for just checking our emails and useless thing via the internet

A: u know, rite now i am waiting for something from email for more than a week

S: yeah same as mine

A: no reply till now, so internet makes me more dpressed now than ever

S: thats yyyyyyyyy

S: we hate the internet i guess

A: yaaaa

S: me & u right now

A: irony

A: but we are using it to talk now

S: yes... LOL

S: i love internet

S: but sometime i hate PC AND INTERNET

S: I FELL IT MAKE ME MORE CRAAZY

.... and duh.... wat am i doing now??? on my PC...online and diverting my emotions to my blog...

MORAL: Balance your life... say no to turning into human-species from Wall-E (too caught up with / reliance on technology that they overlook real human interaction)....

-haha geeky talk gives geeky conclusion...

Part 2

S: thatss the human story,,whatever u dont hav u wish 4 it

A: yes

A: like me

A: i want to travel simply becos i can’t do it now

S: and u forget abt the gifts that u got

A: yes

A: and sometimes i envy ppl who r married n have kids

A: but i know it doesn’t mean life is all the time perfect when u marry n have kids

A: n doesnt mean u not happy when u r single

S: yeah

A: but since i am not in that stage, it makes me feel like i’m lacking

S (who is married): and maybe i envy of ppl who are not married

S: i say..good laa, they can just concentrate on their stuff and their research

S: no extra responsibility, no headache, no overflow

S: they can just be like a mankan think of any single dress or ...they wear

S: me like a jumble up person just jump to the dress and jump to school

A: see... this is the thing

A: human nature

A: like to be in the situation u are not in

S: i totaly understand uuuuuuuuuuuuu friend

A: maybe if now.. i am working, committed n busy bein software engineer

A: i might be thinking

A: y didn’t I further my studies and go into academics

S: so lets fight with this feeling once it comes to us

S: just STOP /PAUSE it

S: we must pause negative issue

A: yesssszz

MOral: KEy to HAppiNess.... Be ThankFul n HAppy for the gifts you already have... its Ok to want more in life... coz its good that u improve n upgrade your life... but dont push yourself to the extent you take things you already have for granted....

..................................................................................................................................

Conclusion of the post?

I need to get back on my feet.

--> please put aside the negativity.... be optimistic... and move forward!

Back to School again

Back to School again.This photo taken by Lena, a whiteboard somewhere in d school compound. The lyrics of the classic edelweis song:

Reminds me of Primary School days..and also RedCrescent... where we had bunch of classics and other multi-lingual cheerings during gatherings/events :-P

I drew some numbers for lucky draw.. and the first draw.... was my own number... Erk... I am my own luck? a bit paiseh tho. Then one of the numbers hit this aunty's number... she is form 1965 batch. She said to me "This is my first time ever winning lucky draw"... wow... and its very flattering that I drew that number for her.

Syawal berlalu....

Selamat Hari Raya..... hari ni Syawal-29.
Okeh.... no more satay dgn nasik impit dan rendang.... or roti jejala... no more tat nenas.... ayam masak merah.... Hisssh... awat aku ngidam lagik nak makan mende2 ni eh... hohoho....

takper... tunggu tahun dopan lak ye...

chup tp  masih dgr ura2 org masih buat dan ada nak attend "open house" weekend ni... hahaha... ye la nama pun open house... Open the House je lah...
Sebagai penutup... sedikit recap:

Baju bertema oreng trang tang tang...

Buiskut yg kebanyakan nyer resepi 80's itu :P

Mereka yang kesukaan dengan tosai mak aku masak... dan ayam masak merah :P

haishh lapaq eh....

nak pi makan.... weeezzzzzzz

Business in the motion

.....last year....

Niecey nicey: Aunty, open the light... I want to pass motion...
Me: What....?
Niecey nicey: I want to pass motion pleaaaseeee... please open the light
Me: Huh? Pass motion.... what's pass motion?
Niecey nicey: Pass motion is go to "uuu-uuuk" laa...  teacher Mary teach me... u dunno aar?
Me: Haaa... yaka? tak pernah dengaq pon, yeke Maa (turning to my mom....)
Amma: Yap.... taktau ka?
Me: Pass motion?? biaq betuiii....
Amma: Ya laa... abes tu hangpa ckp apa?
Me: Erk...... ntah...tak ingat pun cikgu ajaq? hmm... bahasa zaman dulu kot...  (confident je, coz I know teacher Mary would be at least 15 years older than me)
Niecey nicey: Aunty faster laaa... open the light!
Me: its ON the light, not open the light...( Klik...)
Me: Okeii... you can go pass motion now...


Erk... did the term skipped a generation. Coz, bein curious and tak puas hati, I asked my sisters and they didnt know too... both my Mom and Dad knows....
maybe it was taught but then I/we forgot... i donnooo....

baidawayy... how did we say it back then, in school ? In a more "so called polite" way?
Big Business or Small Business... or... "we want to do business with Mr.Tan...."
bisness minded generation we are!

How to build ant colonies... yg bleh tolan.

My obsession with 80's recipe is not new to my family and some of my frenz. Having done 8 cookies altogether, I figured that should be enough. But then recently I was goin thru websites, (blogs n fotopages sharing recipes) and.. I found myself scouting for more recipes... and I fell in love with biskut makmur and biskut sarang semut. These are considered as evergreen, especially makmur. Sarang semut was famous in the 90s I think... hoho... but still evergreen gituw. Looking at the recipe... I realised I could still afford to make another cookies, and I chose sarang semut as most of the ingredients are already available.

When I searched the net, most of the recipes are the same. So here I share one of the links from a famous foodblog. http://hanieliza.fotopages.com/?entry=901155 . I rewrote... konon kasi variety sket dan takla copy paste je kan :P btw can also refer to the link for the resepi, in case mine tak clear sgt  :P

The Ingredients:

• 
  
  350 gm wheat flour
• 
  
  100 gm corn flour
• 
  
  250 gm butter
• 
  
  100 gm castor sugar
• 
  
  1 egg (just the eggyolk)
• 
  
  1 teaspoon vanilla essence

 For Deco:

• 
  
  Chocolate rice

Things you need (other than the normal baking stuff):

• 
  
  Grater
• 
  
  Small Paper cups

Method:

1. 
   
   Sift wheat flour and corn flour together.
2. 
   
   In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. 
   
   Beat in the eggyolk and  add vanilla essense.
4. 
   
   Blend in the dry ingredients (both the flours) gradually. Add and mix well.
5. 
   
   Form into big doughs so that it will be easier to grate the doughs.
6. 
   
   Grate the doughs into a bowl
7. 
   
   Take a spoonful (/or accordingly) of the grated doughs into the paper cups.
8. 
   
   Spread some chocolate rice for decoration.
9. 
   
   Bake for about 12-15 minutes in hot oven at  around 160-180 celcius.
10. 
    
    DONE !

Guidelines to use Grater:

As seen in the photoblog, Ms.Hanie used this :

seems handy and easy right. But I dont have one of these!

therefore... I resort to this:

less blades huh.... imagine the efforts needed :P

But it was not that troublesome... So here's a demo of how I did it... cewah:

har har har... as u can see... I'm not using the dough. As this demo was done after the cookies dah siap! So I used Ain'a plasticine instead :)) huahuahua....

And your final result... would look something like this:

inset: how it looks like inside.

The Ant-Queen will be very excited!

 So Am I  !!  Siok sendiri kuasa dua :P

New habits for highly ineffective people

title mcm tajuk buku glemer tu kan.... ahaks.. well....


New habit on Sundays...

Browse thru sunday star, and go time travelling back to when I was 15... hehe...  :P

There's a section in the paper for Science n Maths for PMR... and I'll do the exam questions, monitored by my 6 years old niece. (more like tukang cek i dah abes ke belom) I can say my "PMR knowledge' is not that bad lah, tak la terlalu berkarat... But my prob is language... coz the terms were in Malay back then. so i kinda have problem tryin to figure out some of the terms :P

would i do better if the questions are in malay like how I was familiar with. Or should I be concerned that I can't relate to some of the Qs because of language issues? :P

My math still not that lost... coz most of it involves numbers n equations rather than terms. Some unfamiliar terms, just make assumptions :P

Ok... wait...
Has they changed Math n Science back to Malay? Tak sure plak...x keep myself up to date with current affairs :P Huhu... but inconsistency can be quite confusing eh?


New habit with the dough....

Haha... blame my niece. She always "forces" me to make something out of the plasticine. Chickens laa.. horse laa... tiger la.. cat laa... She will help by making some other props.... like this one-sarang ayam:

Somehow the habit got a bit uncontrolled and out of home. Like this one: completed with the help of  a fren and some kids I played with, ranging from 5 to 10 years. The 10 year old Atikah made the Apatosaurus, Octopus, snake, mouse and a fish to feed the cat :P We made a Zoo... land and water creatures combined :P hahaha

Ok.... now is it my Niece or myself who got carried away? Hmmmm.......

Newest collection.... I bought this mini colorful doughs. I got my younger sis to work with me in making another Zoo a reality :)) Of course, the happiest person would be my niece :)) Can u list the animals correctly?

my personal fvourite  :P



New habit with the dough (Raya version)....

Hehehe... doughs again... but eatable ones.
cookies... a.k.a biskut Raya
OK.... but my doughs are very very not commercial-able :))
and not very friendly to diabetic patients... erk...

but I like to eat them.... my own made cookies...

Siok sendiri yang mengenyangkan... i like....

okies... off I go.. to make another cookies tonite. nama biskut.. Biskut boubourn :)) apa punya nama daa.. biskut di atas pula bernama biskut badam bonbon...  tak tipu, semua adalah mengikut resepi (tahun 80-an). Sekian Terima Kasih :*

Makan beramai-ramai

14th Ramadhan... wow... so fast....
Our yearly routine of pot-luck Buka Puasa.

again, this year... we invaded Rash&Miem's home.... with new addition to the tribe- Adam & Azreen... oh yeah, and Alma... but she's not here in this pix coz she 'balik kampung' early with her mama & papa :) Chup... semua ahli baru nama "A"?Next in line, Kak Ilah's house to be attacked. yeaahaa

Buka puasa with the gurls. yes... Girls... chup, how many berpuasa here?

As I am typing this, my niece keeps saying "This is Sabrina-baby mother".... It seems that her kindergarten younger-than-her fren named Sabrina... has a mother who looks like Elena... hoho....Oppps... apparently, us Girls are already in our aunty-hood / motherhood....

but as always.... young at heart... even if the number of candles keep increasing every year.

In this case.... the 3 in 1 candle...  This is actually a siok-sendiri thing... coz our birthdays are so so so belated already! That explains why Joe is in denial here :P


Alrights...dats all folks :D

Nostalgia berpuasa...

Di bulan Ramadhan ni, tiba-tiba nostalgia lama kembali dlm ingatan. Cewah.... Ini kira first time belajar nak puasa, when i was 7 in Standard 1. Ye lah, dah masuk skolah, malu dgn kawan kalau cakap tak puasa, kan. So confident je thot I was ready nak puasa. With Azira, my partner in crime… we challenged each other, siapa boleh puasa lagi banyak hari. Lepas dah berjinak-jinak puasa tu (walaupun separuh hari masa tu), tiba-tiba pula dengar rumors yang kalau puasa, air liur pun takleh telan. Kalau telan, batal posa.

So ada skali tu masa recess-time, tengah main- main kt mangosteen trees tepi volleyball court, sebab tak pi kantin… Then suddenly terkuar issue air liur nie, Azira and I both tiba – tiba dah cuak.... cam mana ni, kena stop menelan air liur lah, kalau tak batal nih. Tanpa merujuk pada pihak ketiga, kami nekad! So kami berdua tahan air liur tu, bila dah banyak terkumpul (eeeeuuu).. tatau nak spit kat mana pulak. Tiba-tiba... masa tu jugak la *bellRing (loceng bunyi untuk ke dewan untuk perhimpunan lepas recess). ALAMAK ! Dlm kekalutan dan sambil bercakap dengan mulut penuh takungan, dok gabra gaduh tatau nak ludah kat mana? Banyak giler, semulut dah ada… Pengawas plak dah datang, dgn muka garang suruh masuk dewan… So, dalam kekalutan dan suasana tegang itu, kami pun bersama-sama decide menelan aje air liur ditakung tu… hua hua hua… eeYuckkkk! Banyak giler tuh! Wek wek wek.... Perasaan geli tuh takleh lupa sampai skang! Pengajarannya di sini, lenkali jgn nak pandai-pandai buat/ikut fatwa yang takde kesahihannya.

Darjah dua masih curi-curi minum air bila orang tak nampak. Darjah tiga dah puasa betul – betul, tapi maybe ada la skip beberapa hari. Darjah empat dah belajar puasa penuh. Dugaan besar, time sekolah sesi petang. Dah umur 13, patut dah terer puasa ni…. Tapi sebab dah penat dok kt skolah sampai lewat petang, dah tu bas sekolah aku lak sampai sangat la lambat dan kami terpaksa tunggu lama, jadi makin exhausting. Sekali sekala sambil tunggu bas tu, dok ushar satu rumah ni dekat kawasan menunggu tu… rumah dia ada halaman luas, dan jauh di sudut ada sebuah tempayan di sebelah sebuah kolah. Bila time-time dah penat sangat, renung je kolah dan tempayan tu… dah terbayang dah mandi air sejuk tu dan betapa besnya minum air tempayan sejuk tu…kalau dpt setitik dua pun j...PooonPooon… eh bas dah sampai! bila tersedar dr lamunan tu, termalu lah sendiri dgn fantasi kolah dan tempayan aku tu… erk…

Makin membesar, dah dapat atasi fantasi-fantasi mcm tu…. Kalau tengah puasa dan orang makan kfc kt sebelah pun tak heranz. Hmmm yeke… Yer Bolehh…..

Masa kecik-kecik dulu, fokus utamanya more to boleh tahan lapar dahaga ke tak, boleh lawan temptation nak makan minum ke tak. Pastu selalu alert takut kalau silap-silap tergali idung ke telinga ke tanpa sedar. akekeke... Tapi, wahai kanak-kanak, Ustazah ada cakap, puasa ni bukan control makan minum je, kena jauhi semua perbuatan tak berfaedah, jahat dan maksiat. Masa tu, maksiat paling besar yang boleh kita imagine adalah mengumpat. So tiba-tiba je, semua jadi baik tak nak ngata sapa-sapa. Kalau ada sesiapa yang terkuar statement ala-ala mengata nie, dan-dan sorang sorang start nak quote ustazah :P

Little did I know then....
Rupa-rupanya makin besar, makin banyak lagi “temptation” untuk buat perkara-perkara tak berfaedah… Rupa - rupanya dugaan makin banyak, pintu ke arah pelbagai jenis maksiat menjadi semakin meluas dan semakin kreatif pun ada.

Tapi bila dah makin besar ni, kita pun seakan-akan makin lebih pandai nak justify segala perlakuan kita. Apa je kita buat, ade je justification nye kan. Dah takde sapa dah nak tegur dengan quote2 ustazah mcm zaman kecik-kecik dulu, ye tak :) Kalau ada yang tegur pun, kita sama ada jadi malu, tak suka, ego atau tak selesa... dah tak terbuka dan boleh terima teguran dengan senyum kambing mcm kecik-kecik dulu.

Hmmm... bila ckp bab-bab agama masih banyak menda yang aku taktau... bak kata pepatah "cukup makan je"...  tanamkan niat wahai gadis, anda Ilmu tak banyak....jadi rajin-rajinlah mencari..... Amal tak banyak.... jadi rajin-rajinkanlah beramal....wokey macha?

Sejauh mana penghayatan aku bulan Ramadhan ni? Lebih daripada tu... aku terfikir jugak, Sejauh mana kah penghayatan aku pada amalan-amalan yang di buat di bulan Ramadhan.... (i.e. baca Quran, Solat2 Sunat, Sedekah etc) pada bulan-bulan lain. Di bulan Mulia ini, kita perbanyakkan, itu tak bermaksud di bulan lain kita minimize/ lupakan terus, ye dok? :-)

~Peringatan untukkku....

MarHaBan ya RaMadhan...

SelaMat BerPuasa ye KenKawan seme, muslimin muslimat semua....

Semoga kita mndapat KeBerkatan dari-Nya....

Amin.