36 soalan untuk suami isteri?
2 weeks ago
My youngest brother was engaged on 4th of Syawal recently. To one mek Ganu. So to Terengganu we traveled, on the 3rd of raya. Wakaf Tembesu to be exact. There were 11 cars altogether in the convoy, consisting of my parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, uncle and cousins. It was a very long and tiring journey indeed.
We stayed in a homestay, named Sri Delima Homestay, at Teluk Ketapang, Kuala Terengganu. We left Raub at about 10 in the morning and it was already dark when we reached the homestay. Nice and cosy place. It is actually a large 2-storey bungalow, divided into 4 house units. Each unit has two or three rooms. Almost all rooms have its own bath. Each room with double bed. Each unit has a dining table and living area.One negative thing though, there is no sink at the dining area. So we had to use the sink in the bathrooms to wash our hands during mealtimes.
Some of the pics of the unit.
Some of the pics of the unit.
The next morning, we set out for the engagement ceremony at about 11 am.
My brother gave a short speech before the trip.
The hantaran.
The ceremony.
My youngest brother is officially engaged.
And this means, another trip to Terengganu some time next year, InshaAllah.
We headed back to KL after the ceremony. Hubby had to work the next day. It was another long and tiring journey back home. And it was not easy for hubby since he was not feeling very well. That's another story for another time, maybe. He really suffered and swallowed his discomfort and pain during the journey. And for that, I am really grateful and appreciate him more. :D
Ramadhan, bulan di mana umat Islam berlumba-lumba membuat kebaikan dan amal ibadah. Bulan yang diimarahkan dengan solat terawih dan tadarus.
Bercakap pasal tadarus, teringat masa belajar mengaji suatu ketika dulu. Ada ustazah datang ke office dan tunjuk ajar pembacaan yang betul. Ada dua pengajaran yang sangat terkesan di hati dan masih ingat sampai sekarang. Bukan pasal mad atau dengung atau nun mati atau huruf iqlab atau lain-lain hukum tajwid. Tapi something pasal jaga pernafasan untuk pembacaan yang betul.
Almaklumla, nafas kadang tak berapa panjang. Tak cukup nafas nak abiskan ayat yang panjang. Terpaksa berhenti di tengah-tengah ayat yang bukan designated sebagai tempat wakaf. So bila berhenti tu, kadang-kadang tak sure nak start baca semula kat bahagian mana. So, once, pernah tanya ustazah tu, macam mana nak tau nak mula baca balik kat mana. Ustazah tu kata, haa... kena la tau Bahasa Arab. Aduss... Terkesan sebab masa Form 1-3 belajar Bahasa Arab tapi sangat tidak ambil serius. So hasilnya, sekarang dah banyak lupa. Satu kerugian yang amat besar.
On a different occasion, one of us tanya ustazah, macam mana kalau curi nafas. Ustazah tu jawab dengan soalan. Mencuri dosa ke dak? Berdosa kan? Adusss... Terkesan sebab rasanya memang selalu sangat berlaku bab curi mencuri nafas sebelum tu...
Jadi, peringatan untuk kita semua, especially diri sendiri. Dalam keghairahan nak khatam Quran semasa Ramadhan, mudah-mudahan pembacaan dilakukan dengan betul dan tiada aksi curi mencuri. :)
Hemy, Mas and I have been on several food missions previously. Just tak sempat nak update in this blog. So let's take a tour on some of these missions.
We went to SACC mall and had lunch at the Teapot Deli. A small restaurant with nice English deco.
Hemy and Mas boasted of the deliciousness of the chicken pie and I just had to try it. It was very nice.
Hemy and Mas had nasi tomato set (picture is not available) which also came with dessert, a choice between bread pudding and trifle. They chose the bread pudding.Not so appetising by the looks. The taste pun kureng jugak. :)
On another day, Hemy suggested that we should go to a restaurant in Sg Penchala area, Sambal Hijau. And we went one day. The place was very packed during lunch hour. Luckily Hemy arrived early (as usual) and secured a table. The place offers nasi campur and varieties of lauk. Semua nampak sedap. Kalau ikut nafsu, memang haru. So, I settled with this. Ha ha... pergi travel jauh-jauh makan kat Sambal Hijau, ambik lauk cenggini je? Layann... diet la konon...
Before I made the trip to Sambal Hijau, I did my homework on this place..(kiasu or what? nak gi makan pun, buat homework bagai). Anyhow, I visited a few blogs which feature Sambal Hijau and saw that some of them ordered teh o ais laici. Looks appetising, so I ordered one. Nice... Well, teh o ais is one of my favorites, and adding laici is like a bonus.
The restaurant also sells lots of other things like snacks such as rempeyek, desserts such as durian crepe and this bubur sum sum. It was the first time I tried this dessert. Quite nice...
Sambal Hijau is not the place for you to hang out and berlama-lamaan untuk minum-minum and borak-borak. Ramai orang kot tunggu meja. So, after having our lunch, we headed to The Curve and met Mas there.
Later we settled down at Marche. Marche, pronounced as Mar-shay, is a French word for market.
It does applies the market concept.They have various stalls and you choose what you want to eat.
Once you have chosen the dish, they prepared it fresh for you.
We had one of this. Rosti and sausage. The rosti is actually a dish made from potatoes. Quite nice.
MidValley is also one of our destinations. Once, we dined here, Spaghetti Grill.
Hemy ordered this stuffed mushroom dish, as starter. Sedap...
All of us had pasta. Well, dah nama tempat ni Spaghetti Grill, pasta is a must la kan. Could not remember the name of this dish.
Or this dish.
And we topped of with this dessert. Ntah apa ke nama. Something chocolatey.
After Spaghetti Grill, we strolled around the Mid Valley before we settled down for our afternoon tea. We stopped by this Japanese bakery shop, Komugi.
We bought some of the Creamy Custard Krone and took it to Pappa Rich and eat the krones there. Memang sedap.
On another occasion, Hemy secured Groupon discount voucher for Spice of India. Again, we met at Mid Valley and had our lunch at Spice of India.
The place was deserted, as if we reserved the whole restaurant to ourselves.;P
The pappadom. The dipping sauce looks weird in green but taste-wise, not bad.
We had nasi briyani.
With mushroom dish.
And chicken and prawn dish. Can't remember the name of the dishes. But it was marvellous. Padan la pun harga mahal. Satu dish RM30 kot. We had to ask for another bowl of rice. Tak cukup. And to really get the feeling of the Indian taste, we ate with our hands. The spices are really awesome. Sedap hingga menjilat jari. Not only that, the smell and the colour of the spices linger on the fingers for a long time. (Err....SPR should consider using these spices to replace the indelible ink..;))
Next in our mission was Sunway Pyramid. Initially, Hemy suggested Hartz Chicken Buffet. So when we arrived in Sunway, we browsed through the Directory list, found the restaurant's name but the restaurant was nowhere to be seen. So we asked one of the security guards there. Dah tutup rupanya, baru seminggu. Isyh...melepas we all. So, we settled down at TGI Friday's.
We had these potato skin dish as starter. Potato skin pun boleh jadi dish kan? ha ha... Tapi sedap.
I had pepper and mushroom chicken that comes with herb rice. So-so la... Penat kunyah ayam.
Hemy had pasta. The pasta does not usually looks as plain as this. But Hemy asked for no sayur, thus the plain and colorless look of the dish.
Mas ordered the burger. Looks appetising.
That ends our food mission for now. It won't stop here, I'm sure. Will be more later.:)
Sempena Ramadhan yang akan tiba, would like to wish all selamat menyempurnakan indah puasa. Mudah-mudahan Ramadhan tahun ini lebih baik dari tahun-tahun sebelumnya. Dan mudah-mudahan our Ramadhan diary is not just full of food for the tummy, but also food for the soul.:)
Sempena Ramadhan yang akan tiba, would like to wish all selamat menyempurnakan indah puasa. Mudah-mudahan Ramadhan tahun ini lebih baik dari tahun-tahun sebelumnya. Dan mudah-mudahan our Ramadhan diary is not just full of food for the tummy, but also food for the soul.:)
I was at a wedding some time ago when someone said this to me: 'You don't look like someone who has 5 kids. You must have managed your stress well.' I just smiled and said, 'Ye ke...?'
Well, I am not sure about that. I don't deny that at times I do feel stressed out. But a good stress manager? I don't know. But I do know that I have several mechanisms of releasing or venting out the stress. One of it is my whatsapp groups. Particularly the group of my high school friends.
Once, when I was stuck in a heavy traffic jam while driving back from work, these conversation took place:
Nak stress sebab jalan jem pun tak jadi bila baca the conversation. Ha ha... In fact, I still laughed when I read the chat history just now. I supposed this can be one of my stress management kit. What's yours? :D
You read it in the papers. You watched it on the news. You saw people posting about it on FB. You tweeted or retweeted about it. And you think that it will never happen to you. Well, it did. It happened to me.
31st May 2013. It was already past 9 pm when I decided to go to Giant Batu Caves for an urgent shopping, alone. I put on a pair of jeans, wore a jacket over my t-shirt and cover my hair with a tudung and drove to Giant. The place is less than 5 minutes by car.
I finished my shopping in less than an hour. I remembered glancing at the time when I was about to leave Giant. It was 10.04 pm and my thought was, alamak.. Maharaja Lawak dah start... So, I hurried to my car which was parked quite a distance away from the entrance. Then it happened.
I was opening the car's door when I saw two males on a motorbike approaching. I was surprised at first seeing them, which then turned into terror when I glimpsed something shiny, which looked like a knife in the hand of one of them. That guy got off the motorbike and came after me. I tried to run but he grabbed my tudung from the back. And I screamed my lungs out, 'Tolong!! Tolong!!" I was holding my purse and my handphone in my left hand. I also held two shopping bags in the same hand. The guy grabbed the plastic bags and tried to snatch it away from my hand. I resisted and hold on while screaming 'Tolong!! Tolong!! Ya Allah!'. I heard the guy said, Lepas kak, lepas... So, I let go. I let go of the two plastic bags. But still holding on to my purse and my handphone. The guy ran to the motorbike and then I supposed he suddenly realized that he only got the plastic bags but not my purse. So, he turned back and started to come after me again. By now, I should have run away la kan. But don't know why. Terror-stricken? Adrenaline? I just stood there, looking at the guy and screamed continuously, Tolong!! Tolong!! Heroic or foolish ntah. But the guy changed his mind and throw the plastic bags on the ground and got on the motorbike and they sped off.
Then I saw people coming towards me asking me what happened. I told them about the 2 guys, that I was not hurt and that they got away with nothing. I was shaken but I was not crying. Just shaken. I did not stay or considering of lodging a report to whoever in-charge there. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. So, I picked up my shopping bags and drove home. Only when I saw my husband and told him what happened, did I burst into tears.
I kept reliving the scary moments over and over again in my mind. And playing the what ifs game in my mind. What if the guy used the knife on me? What if I got stabbed? What if he stick the knife on my hand? Etc etc... I also wondered, was it really knife that I saw? I have no idea because it happened too fast and I was too busy screaming and holding on to my things to get a closer look.
By Allah's mercy, I escaped unhurt and I still got my valuable with me. Except for a pain in my left little finger which developed swelling the following day. Must be due to the tug-of-war between me and the perpetrator. Otherwise, I am fine physically. Alhamdulillah, sangat-sangat bersyukur. But mentally... Was I shaken? Yes. Was I traumatized? Yes, to some extent. Phobia? Hmm.... maybe. But life goes on. I still have to leave the house alone for work and other errands. But I think I will stay away from Giant for a while and leave all the matters related to Giant to hubby.
Lesson learnt. I have to be wary of people and the surroundings. Of course, we try to bersangka baik dengan orang but we cannot deny the fact that there are lots of sick, crazy and desperate people out there. I pray for my safety and the safety of my family and friends from these crazy people. And for the two guys who had the bad intention on me the other night, may Allah has mercy on them too and gave them hidayah to change for the good. Amiinnn...
We had a family gathering in Raub during the long weekend Wesak holiday recently and celebrated 2-in-1 Mother's and Father's Day celebrations. Not all family members were able to make it (including my husband who was unfortunately stuck with office work and deadlines), but the number of siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews and grandchildren who were present was quite impressive.
The preparation of lamb, chicken, prawns and squids for BBQ. Salad and black pepper sauce too.
Yang diraikan, my parents.
The menu prepared by the younger generation.
The younger generation also took the role as waitress. My daughter Syahidah was asking her nenek, nak makan apa.
The presentation of the Mother's Day and Father's Day cards followed by cutting of the cake.
The cards. With photos of all of us pasted inside the cards.
It was fun and enjoyable for the family. Even though we should appreciate our parents every day and not just on any designated day, but a once in a while event such as this would remain in our memories forever and strengthen the bonding between us. InshaAllah.
It's finally over. Seriously, penat layan politik ni. Tapi if tak layan, it's the future of the country at stake. So kena jugak ambil peduli. And it's really mental exhausting. (ha ha... mengalahkan calon yang bertanding).
Kenangan PRU13 050513. Besides inai, I have never got my nail colored. I think. Ke masa budak2 dulu pernah kot kaler kuku dengan magic color.:)
I stayed up quite late last night accompanied by my whatsapp friends discussing and updating each other with the current results while ironing clothes. The ironing took longer than it should since my hand kept reaching for my handphone..he he... Mujur tak de baju yang terkorban kena panas seterika.;D I finally went to sleep after Najib gave his speech.
So the verdict:
Full results of GE13 can be accessed here:
Today, waking up to a new day. Selangor has announced that today is a public holiday. So my kids have another day to laze around. I had to take leave since I am working in KL and I can't send my youngest kids to the nursery. Sebab nursery pun tutup. So I too have an extra day too laze around.... yeah right... boleh la sangat nak laze around. Chores awaiting.
Anyhow, let's move on and look forward. Let's pray for a better Malaysia. Let's pray that all MPs and states assembly members that have been appointed will do their job honestly dan sentiasa menjaga kebajikan rakyat disamping tidak mengenepikan hukum-hukum Allah. Amiinn...
