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!

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

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.

Cross Selat Melaka ke Medan :-)



This is my second time in Medan. .

First Medan trip was one of the memorable one as for that trip,  I combined my family vacation with friends. Dindi is our friend from Medan who was our degree coursemate, and it had been 2 years since our graduation, and we finally got to plan our rombongan to visit Dindi and her hometown.

This Second Medan trip, was initiated from Durian crave! Dindi and I were chattin in Fbook, and suddenly... tadaaa.... I found myself caught in the Durian feva... I had to taste Es.durian Dindi mentioned. Well... and I miss her :P And my crazy adhoc plan got Zue and Mar's attention....

SHOPPING
(2 famous places) = Pajak Petisah + Pajak Ikan (tp jual kain2) :D

be reminded, it's quite expensive compared to Bandung / Jakarta... but slightly cheaper than the one back here...the key to get a reasonable price is to really bargain :D

 

Some of the Foods we had::

SOTO MEDAN

One of the Kedai yg sedap sotonya dan popular kt Medan:

ES DURIAN

Actually dindi owns a Kepudur Stall (Kedai Pulut Durian) selling varieties of desserts made from Durian... but her stall was closed temporarily. Her stall is kinda similar to this one. This stall belongs to a guy Dindi deals with for Durian supply: (Look at the Menu :P)

We dont have this exactly same dessert back in Msia. But to sum up this sweetie..... Its like Pulut Durian + Ais Kacang/ ABC + Chendol all put together in one bowl! Kebahagiaan yang Tripple !!!

Can u seee the floating durian :D This is Es.Kolak Durian. The difference with Es.Pulut Durian is this one, added with chunk of grilled bananas.

SATE PADANG

Dindi's Sis-in-Law tapau this for us :-) So nice of her...

LEMANG
This one... erm...actually I forgot the real name :P but it has Lemang served together - for breakfast - at Dindi's place. We stayed at her place except on the day we spent in Danau Toba of course :-)

BAKSO and ALPOKAT (Avocado Juice)

LAKE TOBA / DaNaU ToBa:

We stayed in this villa where President Sukarno had once made it his resting place. We felt honored to have experienced a sense of history :-)

The view around Toba. 

 

Unfortunately, timing of our vacation clashed with the public school holidays in indonesia. Therefore Toba became a bit too crowded (including the amount of vehicles) and the atmosphere was very different from my first trip. We didnt get to swim because of the crowd and just when we found a better spot, later it began to rain :( However, the view is breathtaking, the scenery very serene :-)

Ouh how I miss swimming n playing in the lake....
This time around, we went around... feast on the "Mangga Udang" (small cute mangoes)... and made ourselves busy with our cameras :D

 These boats are means of transportation to Pulau Samosir a.k.a Tomok.

SAMOSIR @ tomok

Rented a boat... we went in a group, together with Dindi's friends and staff :-)  12 of us altogether.

top deck

 Besides the Batak Museum, cultural display + shows,  this place is popular for the sorvenir shops.

 

FareWell

Going back to Medan and to Dindi's house, we are welcomed back by this sweet lil girl, Tara (Dindi's niece) :-) very kiut and intelligent girl.

On the 4th day, we made our way back to Penang. Dindi, thank you for everything....
Special thanx to all her family members for the hospitality and not forgetting Azka, for driving us to Toba ;-) We (Zue, Mar and I) will be delighted to be the host in Penang next time.

Dindi, Looking forward to your visit in future. Miss you :-)