| You Are Pretty Happy |
 You generally have a happy, fulfilling life. But things could be a little better, and deep down, you know it. Maybe you need more supportive friends or a more challenging career. Something is preventing you from being totally happy. You just need to figure out what it is! |
Thursday, February 15, 2007
I Am Pretty Happy
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
What is Your Favourite Pastime?
These days I realized that between balancing a career and a family
( and a pay TV , named ASTRO),
I have lost the time to do one of my favourite pastime : reading books.
After what felt like ages, I managed to visit a book store yesterday.
Well,of course there are bookshops here in the area that I currently reside , but they mostly sell either school textbooks, references or those mushy malay novels. It's not that I hate novels, but sometimes I think my time is too precious to be spent on reading novels, especially mushy love stories. But I did finish all the Harry Potter series though. Fantasy and Magic,
they come under a different chapter.
Upon entering the store, I felt a tingling sensation, a feeling which was very difficult to be transfered into words. Excitement was in the air. Non book lovers will never understand this, I guess. Books, books, books.. they were everywhere. They had everything in store. From text books to references, from novels to biography, from politics to religion, from language to cooking, everything.
all I had to do was , choose the ones that I like.
Now that was the problem.
At first, I heard myself complaining that it was hard to get a decent book to read.
And when I finally get to 'the' place, I still had a problem. What to buy???
I have a dream of setting up my own library at home . At this age,
I still don't own a house simply because we don't know where to settle down , yet.
So, Most of the books I have , I keep them at my parents'place .
( and a pay TV , named ASTRO),
I have lost the time to do one of my favourite pastime : reading books.
After what felt like ages, I managed to visit a book store yesterday.
Living in this part of the world really made it hard for me to continue my hobby. Why, you may ask? Well, it is simply because the nearest bookstores ( which sell the kind of books that I want to read ) are not very near.
The bookstore that I visited yesterday was in Kuantan. Some 200km away from home.
The bookstore that I visited yesterday was in Kuantan. Some 200km away from home.
Well,of course there are bookshops here in the area that I currently reside , but they mostly sell either school textbooks, references or those mushy malay novels. It's not that I hate novels, but sometimes I think my time is too precious to be spent on reading novels, especially mushy love stories. But I did finish all the Harry Potter series though. Fantasy and Magic,
they come under a different chapter.
Upon entering the store, I felt a tingling sensation, a feeling which was very difficult to be transfered into words. Excitement was in the air. Non book lovers will never understand this, I guess. Books, books, books.. they were everywhere. They had everything in store. From text books to references, from novels to biography, from politics to religion, from language to cooking, everything.
all I had to do was , choose the ones that I like.
Now that was the problem.
At first, I heard myself complaining that it was hard to get a decent book to read.
And when I finally get to 'the' place, I still had a problem. What to buy???
I have a dream of setting up my own library at home . At this age,
I still don't own a house simply because we don't know where to settle down , yet.
So, Most of the books I have , I keep them at my parents'place .
I learned a lot from reading books.
My parents did not have enough time and knowledge to teach me on most of things. I am not accusing my parents of
neglecting their responsibilities. NO.
But they only finished darjah 5 ( standard 5 of the primary school ).
I never expected them to teach me on things they didn't know.
I realized a long time ago that my parents were just
human beings who worked hard and did their best for their children so that we could have a better life than theirs.
They have taught me a lot. More than any teacher could ever do.
They taught me to continously seek knowledge .
They taught me that knowledge could change life.
Well, back to the bookstore,
I remembered reading on suhaimisulaiman's blog about him reading a few books.
I tried to remember the titles but to no avail.
So I just browsed through the shelves,
from bestsellers to the latest to the forgotten corners.
And after series of debates with my own self, I decided to buy these 3 books
( the thin blue book was taken from the state director's office waiting space,
It was very interesting to read, I decided to take its picture too.)
I will elaborate on each one of them when I'm finished .
I also had a tough time choosing which CD to buy yesterday.
I wanted to buy both but my allowance , ironically did not allow me to do so.
I had to set a limit to myself when it comes to buying cd or else
I will end up buying the entire store.
Music, apart from books is also one of my favourites.
Blogs really do have good advertising effects .
One of my regular read is k.Ruby 's blog, and she mentioned more than once
about Sean Ghazi.
Initially, when I entered the CD shop I wanted to buy Sean's CD, Semalam.
But when I set my eyes on the regional artiste section,
I noticed one of my favourite singer was there.
I think I stood there holding both
her CD and Sean's for more than ten minutes,
not knowing which to choose.
After considering the odd of finding her CD at other shops,
I had to say goodbye to Sean and promised
to buy 'him' on my next visit to a CD shop.
This was the CD that I bought.
Ultra Blue - by Utada Hikaru.
I like most of her songs. I think she is a very bright young lady.
Some info on Utada.
She sings.
She writes her own songs and lyrics.
She's bilingual.
She's a billionnaire ( if not a millionnaire) because she earned it
and not because her parents are oil tycoons nor 'towkeh balak'
Well, I have to stop writing and get back to being a mum.
I will listen to utada on my way to my daughter's babysitter's place.
And tonight, after she goes to bed, I will try to ignore my pals
on ASTRO ( namely, HBO, STAR Movies, Cinemax, AXN etc)
for a piece and quiet time of The Five People You meet In Heaven by Mitch Albon.
My parents did not have enough time and knowledge to teach me on most of things. I am not accusing my parents of
neglecting their responsibilities. NO.
But they only finished darjah 5 ( standard 5 of the primary school ).
I never expected them to teach me on things they didn't know.
I realized a long time ago that my parents were just
human beings who worked hard and did their best for their children so that we could have a better life than theirs.
They have taught me a lot. More than any teacher could ever do.
They taught me to continously seek knowledge .
They taught me that knowledge could change life.
Well, back to the bookstore,
I remembered reading on suhaimisulaiman's blog about him reading a few books.
I tried to remember the titles but to no avail.
So I just browsed through the shelves,
from bestsellers to the latest to the forgotten corners.
And after series of debates with my own self, I decided to buy these 3 books
( the thin blue book was taken from the state director's office waiting space,
It was very interesting to read, I decided to take its picture too.)
I will elaborate on each one of them when I'm finished .
I also had a tough time choosing which CD to buy yesterday.
I wanted to buy both but my allowance , ironically did not allow me to do so.
I had to set a limit to myself when it comes to buying cd or else
I will end up buying the entire store.
Music, apart from books is also one of my favourites.
Blogs really do have good advertising effects .
One of my regular read is k.Ruby 's blog, and she mentioned more than once
about Sean Ghazi.
Initially, when I entered the CD shop I wanted to buy Sean's CD, Semalam.
But when I set my eyes on the regional artiste section,
I noticed one of my favourite singer was there.
I think I stood there holding both
her CD and Sean's for more than ten minutes,
not knowing which to choose.
After considering the odd of finding her CD at other shops,
I had to say goodbye to Sean and promised
to buy 'him' on my next visit to a CD shop.
This was the CD that I bought.
Ultra Blue - by Utada Hikaru.
I like most of her songs. I think she is a very bright young lady.
Some info on Utada.
She sings.
She writes her own songs and lyrics.
She's bilingual.
She's a billionnaire ( if not a millionnaire) because she earned it
and not because her parents are oil tycoons nor 'towkeh balak'
Well, I have to stop writing and get back to being a mum.
I will listen to utada on my way to my daughter's babysitter's place.
And tonight, after she goes to bed, I will try to ignore my pals
on ASTRO ( namely, HBO, STAR Movies, Cinemax, AXN etc)
for a piece and quiet time of The Five People You meet In Heaven by Mitch Albon.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Jueya, my friend.
Forewarning: This is going to need concentration reading because so far, this is my longest post and somewhat emotional. Only read it when you are physically and mentally ready.
Last week, Wednesday, I had dinner with Jueya.
Who's Jueya? well, we went to the same secondary school. We had a few 'kyoutsuuten'
that made her one of those persons I still remember strongly after
(believe it or not, sigh*) almost 13 years having left secondary school.
#1: we were both from Terengganu
- although she was from Kuala and I was from Hulu, we spoke the same dialect. We boarded the same night bus back to Terengganu every semester break.
We even attended the same computer class after SPM.
#2: We were in the same English set since form 3.
- We made fun of the same teachers. Miss Choy with her clock tower story and her bulging eyes and strained neck whenever she tried to explain something to us.
Miss Choy was always upset when none of her students wanted to be an English Teacher .
Well, we were very ambitious young ladies then, right Jueya?
I myself wanted to be at least, a cabinet minister then.
Hahahaha.. now, no more politics for moi.
I am trying to live in denial of whatever it is that I (politically) disapprove . I don't want to be angry no more.And of course, Puan Ashidah. How could we ever forget her.
Well, Jueya and I weren't really her favourite, I think. But at least Jueya got better treatment. Puan Ashidah remembered her name! Where as for me, Puan Ashidah only remembered me as 'mm.. the one with 'r' or 's''? ' Well, my deskmate was another girl that went by the name almost similar to mine except for the difference in the 3rd letter in our names. Hers was 'r' and mine is 's'. And to think that she taught us for 2 years in a row. Tsk..Actually, I admired Jueya 's talent when it comes to creative writing. She was full of ideas and imaginations.I still remember one of her 1119 essays.
She wrote about the Titanic.
I forgot the details but it was about the love between husband and wife. I liked it.
And I think she had more emotions than I did. By the way, just for fun, I am going to list
Puan Ashidah's favourites here. They are: ( in no particular order)
Haireen, Fern, Liza Fisal, Linda Noordin, Suri.. and a few more.. but never me, not even once.
#3: Our third language subject was Japanese:
I was very lazy when it comes to Shukudai. And I think Jueya was not very keen either.
But I like the fact that we actually had actual Japanese for senseis.
We got to learn all those Japanese songs, ate Japanese food. We had our own T-shirts.
T'was fun. Once, when we were in form four, the sensei deducted 20 marks from my exam result because I didn't send in shukudais on time ( and sometimes never even send any..)
# 4:We were classmates in upper secondary.
- We were both in the pure science class : form 4C and 5C
( C , not because we were stupid, Ok! C was for College)
For I don't know what reason, Jueya had the most front seat when we were in form 5.
I can still picture her mountain high textbooks and references on her desk, almost covering herself from the teacher's view.
Our upper secondary teachers were also one of their kind.
Encik Ahmad: Taught us Maths only for a few months in form 4, then he surrendered? Hehehe..
Mr Tan Jhi Seng: Very funny add maths teacher. But half of the class had to re-sit for the year end paper . And I think Jueya was one of them ,together with yours truly.
Puan Romas: Also a math teacher, made us stand on our chairs for not doing our homework . Sometimes she powdered our face with blackboard eraser when we were very naughty. But that was more than a decade ago. Puan Romas never got sacked because we knew we were wrong. Why should involve parents in this matter?
Mr Lim Kim Oh: Actually, he's one of my favourite add maths teacher. Very strict!He was our school's discipline teacher. I still remember his favourite motivational line: ' do u want to wave to your friend, on the tarmac or from the tarmac?' Something like, do u want to wave to your friend bye because that person is going somewhere far because they succeeded in their studies and get to board the airplane but u just get to go to the airport and wave from the ground, or.. do u want to be on that plane instead, waving to ur friends on the ground.?
Another favourite line is.. ( while staring right into our eyes, and his face was just like 10 cm away from our face) : "are you with us?". Thanks to him, the whole 5C passed add maths! with quite a number of distinctions.
Mr Nathan : Oh, who could ever forget the late Mr Nathan. Our beloved physics teacher. It still hurts me to think that I never got the chance to see him and thank him after I left school. To him, we girls were all 'hopeless la..'. Well, the average marks for our physics paper was around 45 ..
Encik Zainal: I still blame the school for assigning Encik Zainal as our BM teacher in 5C. Encik Zainal was ok.. but not for an exam class. please.. He was not the type that we would be scared and rush to do his homework. He was fun because he talked a lot, and he rarely gave homework. And even if he did, I rarely finished them. Ok, partly my fault la.. I didn't get an A1 for my BM. But if he was as garang as Mr Lim, I could have done better!( go on naa.. blame other people for your failures.. .. hehe..). And if Jueya ever read this, I am sure she could still recall the images of the stories.
The list is still quite long. I think I will write a different post dedicated to these teachers, later.
Jueya and I weren't really the goody two shoes type ( or were we? nah.. no.) We talked a lot, we made noises, disturbing other people who were busy studying. Together with other samsengs from 5C , we once organized a 'gusti rambut' ( hair wrestling- I'll try to write about this later ) and Miss Vicky the discipline teacher shouted our names from across the block, begging us to shut up. We were that loud, She didn't have to come and see who were the culprits. She recognized our voices.
But the memory sharing stopped because we took different paths in life.
We went to different universities. Took different courses. Now we have different jobs at two different places. The 13- year- gap is huge I think. I have changed. Jueya has too.
I am now married with one daughter. Jueya is still free to go anywhere she wants, do whatever her heart tells. Though I never asked, I think I am only getting paid less than half of what she gets monthly. Well, me working for the government, and she, a consultant for a private company. She spends more than my basic salary a month.
We live two totally different lifestyles.
To me, she looked and sounded very ambitious, with lots of thing to do in life.
And me, myself? Mmm.. I think I am not as driven as I used to be. I remember when I was , 'younger' ( if you consider 30 is old),
I believed that I could do anything that I wanted to do,
provided I work hard enough for it.
'Yareba dekiru' or the famous malay equivalent: Yakin Boleh.
I have proven it right through various stages of life.
The sweetest was when I was the first malay who passed the Japanese board of dental practitioner license exam ( shikaishikokkashiken). After several seniors failed , after being mocked by those damn prejudists and racists saying that malays are stupid and can never achieve anything, After being emotionally disturbed by questions from japanese friends who were fed stupid racist infos from non-malay , after being insulted by one of the dental school teacher saying that we all malays must never sit for the kokkashiken because we will fail anyway and that would bring the university's ranking down.
After all those nasty remarks, I proved them all wrong!
At first I didn't want to sit for the exam because the license was only valid in Japan. Furthermore, we had to pay to sit for the exam. But I was so sick and tired listening to those people, I decided to take it. And I thank God for giving me the strength to fight. To prove that, victories (or losses) do not belong to only one race.
They belong to those who deserve.
Time has passed. I have changed.
I have decided to be the best mother to my daughter and the best partner to my husband.
This is my choice. I chose to obey the rules of Islam. I am not a preacher but I also don't want to be someone who talks a lot about Islam but at the same time refuses to follow the doctrine.
It is not that I am 100% contented with life, I just want to live my life happily with my family and friends. I had the choice of between continuing my studies to the higher level and be a successful career woman but will have to sacrifice my time with my family ,or, have a decent job but I get to be with my family all the time.
I chose to be with my family. I have calculated and gave a lot of thoughts,
I could never have both.
No matter how positive I wanted to think of the outcomes,
I know my limitations.
I don't want to be the sore old woman who regretted not spending more time with her children when they were young.
I hope this change will not intimidate any of those who knew me before.
Just because I have decided to wear tudung, doesn't mean I am going to strap myself with bombs and be a martyr. Just because I don't do karaoke anymore doesn't mean I don't like music anymore. Oh, I still do sing, dear friends.. I just don't do it in public anymore.
I don't really know how far the 13 years had widen our gap, but what I really know is, to me, Jueya is still the same bubbly girl whom I spent 5 of my most precious years in life together.
And I also want her ( and all of my long lost friends, wherever u are) to know, we may have different views in life, but that doesn't stop me from being your friend.
Lets respect all the differences but that doesn't mean that we
must agree with each other all the time.
I love all of my friends and I cherish all the time I have spent with
them. They have became part of my history. I have never erased or deleted the cookies and files of my friendships throughout my life. And I never will.
I hope you won't erase me too.
Last week, Wednesday, I had dinner with Jueya.
Who's Jueya? well, we went to the same secondary school. We had a few 'kyoutsuuten'
that made her one of those persons I still remember strongly after
(believe it or not, sigh*) almost 13 years having left secondary school.
#1: we were both from Terengganu
- although she was from Kuala and I was from Hulu, we spoke the same dialect. We boarded the same night bus back to Terengganu every semester break.
We even attended the same computer class after SPM.
#2: We were in the same English set since form 3.
- We made fun of the same teachers. Miss Choy with her clock tower story and her bulging eyes and strained neck whenever she tried to explain something to us.
Miss Choy was always upset when none of her students wanted to be an English Teacher .
Well, we were very ambitious young ladies then, right Jueya?
I myself wanted to be at least, a cabinet minister then.
Hahahaha.. now, no more politics for moi.
I am trying to live in denial of whatever it is that I (politically) disapprove . I don't want to be angry no more.And of course, Puan Ashidah. How could we ever forget her.
Well, Jueya and I weren't really her favourite, I think. But at least Jueya got better treatment. Puan Ashidah remembered her name! Where as for me, Puan Ashidah only remembered me as 'mm.. the one with 'r' or 's''? ' Well, my deskmate was another girl that went by the name almost similar to mine except for the difference in the 3rd letter in our names. Hers was 'r' and mine is 's'. And to think that she taught us for 2 years in a row. Tsk..Actually, I admired Jueya 's talent when it comes to creative writing. She was full of ideas and imaginations.I still remember one of her 1119 essays.
She wrote about the Titanic.
I forgot the details but it was about the love between husband and wife. I liked it.
And I think she had more emotions than I did. By the way, just for fun, I am going to list
Puan Ashidah's favourites here. They are: ( in no particular order)
Haireen, Fern, Liza Fisal, Linda Noordin, Suri.. and a few more.. but never me, not even once.
#3: Our third language subject was Japanese:
I was very lazy when it comes to Shukudai. And I think Jueya was not very keen either.
But I like the fact that we actually had actual Japanese for senseis.
We got to learn all those Japanese songs, ate Japanese food. We had our own T-shirts.
T'was fun. Once, when we were in form four, the sensei deducted 20 marks from my exam result because I didn't send in shukudais on time ( and sometimes never even send any..)
# 4:We were classmates in upper secondary.
- We were both in the pure science class : form 4C and 5C
( C , not because we were stupid, Ok! C was for College)
For I don't know what reason, Jueya had the most front seat when we were in form 5.
I can still picture her mountain high textbooks and references on her desk, almost covering herself from the teacher's view.
Our upper secondary teachers were also one of their kind.
Encik Ahmad: Taught us Maths only for a few months in form 4, then he surrendered? Hehehe..
Mr Tan Jhi Seng: Very funny add maths teacher. But half of the class had to re-sit for the year end paper . And I think Jueya was one of them ,together with yours truly.
Puan Romas: Also a math teacher, made us stand on our chairs for not doing our homework . Sometimes she powdered our face with blackboard eraser when we were very naughty. But that was more than a decade ago. Puan Romas never got sacked because we knew we were wrong. Why should involve parents in this matter?
Mr Lim Kim Oh: Actually, he's one of my favourite add maths teacher. Very strict!He was our school's discipline teacher. I still remember his favourite motivational line: ' do u want to wave to your friend, on the tarmac or from the tarmac?' Something like, do u want to wave to your friend bye because that person is going somewhere far because they succeeded in their studies and get to board the airplane but u just get to go to the airport and wave from the ground, or.. do u want to be on that plane instead, waving to ur friends on the ground.?
Another favourite line is.. ( while staring right into our eyes, and his face was just like 10 cm away from our face) : "are you with us?". Thanks to him, the whole 5C passed add maths! with quite a number of distinctions.
Mr Nathan : Oh, who could ever forget the late Mr Nathan. Our beloved physics teacher. It still hurts me to think that I never got the chance to see him and thank him after I left school. To him, we girls were all 'hopeless la..'. Well, the average marks for our physics paper was around 45 ..
Encik Zainal: I still blame the school for assigning Encik Zainal as our BM teacher in 5C. Encik Zainal was ok.. but not for an exam class. please.. He was not the type that we would be scared and rush to do his homework. He was fun because he talked a lot, and he rarely gave homework. And even if he did, I rarely finished them. Ok, partly my fault la.. I didn't get an A1 for my BM. But if he was as garang as Mr Lim, I could have done better!( go on naa.. blame other people for your failures.. .. hehe..). And if Jueya ever read this, I am sure she could still recall the images of the stories.
The list is still quite long. I think I will write a different post dedicated to these teachers, later.
Jueya and I weren't really the goody two shoes type ( or were we? nah.. no.) We talked a lot, we made noises, disturbing other people who were busy studying. Together with other samsengs from 5C , we once organized a 'gusti rambut' ( hair wrestling- I'll try to write about this later ) and Miss Vicky the discipline teacher shouted our names from across the block, begging us to shut up. We were that loud, She didn't have to come and see who were the culprits. She recognized our voices.
But the memory sharing stopped because we took different paths in life.
We went to different universities. Took different courses. Now we have different jobs at two different places. The 13- year- gap is huge I think. I have changed. Jueya has too.
I am now married with one daughter. Jueya is still free to go anywhere she wants, do whatever her heart tells. Though I never asked, I think I am only getting paid less than half of what she gets monthly. Well, me working for the government, and she, a consultant for a private company. She spends more than my basic salary a month.
We live two totally different lifestyles.
To me, she looked and sounded very ambitious, with lots of thing to do in life.
And me, myself? Mmm.. I think I am not as driven as I used to be. I remember when I was , 'younger' ( if you consider 30 is old),
I believed that I could do anything that I wanted to do,
provided I work hard enough for it.
'Yareba dekiru' or the famous malay equivalent: Yakin Boleh.
I have proven it right through various stages of life.
The sweetest was when I was the first malay who passed the Japanese board of dental practitioner license exam ( shikaishikokkashiken). After several seniors failed , after being mocked by those damn prejudists and racists saying that malays are stupid and can never achieve anything, After being emotionally disturbed by questions from japanese friends who were fed stupid racist infos from non-malay , after being insulted by one of the dental school teacher saying that we all malays must never sit for the kokkashiken because we will fail anyway and that would bring the university's ranking down.
After all those nasty remarks, I proved them all wrong!
At first I didn't want to sit for the exam because the license was only valid in Japan. Furthermore, we had to pay to sit for the exam. But I was so sick and tired listening to those people, I decided to take it. And I thank God for giving me the strength to fight. To prove that, victories (or losses) do not belong to only one race.
They belong to those who deserve.
Time has passed. I have changed.
I have decided to be the best mother to my daughter and the best partner to my husband.
This is my choice. I chose to obey the rules of Islam. I am not a preacher but I also don't want to be someone who talks a lot about Islam but at the same time refuses to follow the doctrine.
It is not that I am 100% contented with life, I just want to live my life happily with my family and friends. I had the choice of between continuing my studies to the higher level and be a successful career woman but will have to sacrifice my time with my family ,or, have a decent job but I get to be with my family all the time.
I chose to be with my family. I have calculated and gave a lot of thoughts,
I could never have both.
No matter how positive I wanted to think of the outcomes,
I know my limitations.
I don't want to be the sore old woman who regretted not spending more time with her children when they were young.
I hope this change will not intimidate any of those who knew me before.
Just because I have decided to wear tudung, doesn't mean I am going to strap myself with bombs and be a martyr. Just because I don't do karaoke anymore doesn't mean I don't like music anymore. Oh, I still do sing, dear friends.. I just don't do it in public anymore.
I don't really know how far the 13 years had widen our gap, but what I really know is, to me, Jueya is still the same bubbly girl whom I spent 5 of my most precious years in life together.
And I also want her ( and all of my long lost friends, wherever u are) to know, we may have different views in life, but that doesn't stop me from being your friend.
Lets respect all the differences but that doesn't mean that we
must agree with each other all the time.
I love all of my friends and I cherish all the time I have spent with
them. They have became part of my history. I have never erased or deleted the cookies and files of my friendships throughout my life. And I never will.
I hope you won't erase me too.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Insaf
This happened last Saturday.
My daughter who woke up earlier than me came into our room screaming.
"Ma.. angun.. olat!" ( read: mama, bangun solat!)
and my daughter is not even 2 year-old yet!
orang2 tua yang mengaku Islam tapi tak solat tu.. malu lah ek.. insaf lah diri.
this is a reminder to all muslims including myself.
My daughter who woke up earlier than me came into our room screaming.
"Ma.. angun.. olat!" ( read: mama, bangun solat!)
and my daughter is not even 2 year-old yet!
orang2 tua yang mengaku Islam tapi tak solat tu.. malu lah ek.. insaf lah diri.
this is a reminder to all muslims including myself.
Friday, January 19, 2007
my favourite sushi neta
I love salmon! Or it's japanese name 'sake' , sometimes 'shake' (no.. not pronounced as sake as in for your own sake or shake as in shake the bottle.. but like sun and cake.. without the 'n' and 'ke'.. and shunt and cake.. minus the 'nt' and the 'ke') and i also love Ikura.. salmons roe.
Awesome combination for donburi. I absolutely recommend everyone to try these 2 fabulous items. These are the pics of nigirizushi with sake and ikura as neta which i bought at midvalley's jusco.. tasted quite good. Almost as good as those that i used to have in Tokyo. Of course u can not beat the freshness of the sushi sold at Tsukiji market.. but this one is definately a great deal considering we are now living in the tropical Malaysia.
So, what are u guys waiting for? Go! Have a try..
Awesome combination for donburi. I absolutely recommend everyone to try these 2 fabulous items. These are the pics of nigirizushi with sake and ikura as neta which i bought at midvalley's jusco.. tasted quite good. Almost as good as those that i used to have in Tokyo. Of course u can not beat the freshness of the sushi sold at Tsukiji market.. but this one is definately a great deal considering we are now living in the tropical Malaysia.
So, what are u guys waiting for? Go! Have a try..
For the uninitiated:
donburi- japanese rice bowl dish
nigirizushi- a type of sushi, hand form clump of rice with toppings
neta- sushi toppings.. like raw fish or fish eggs..
Tsukiji- fish market in Tokyo.
Sushi- oohh.. come on, don't tell me u don't know what sushi is..
Friday, January 5, 2007
Korban
I had a great time during the last eid -adha. My sisters bought a few parts of cows for their sons 'aqiqah'. They also bought a goat , just for the meat though. It was really fun to work together . actually, I just watched them do all the work. I am so used to having 4 elder sisters and not doing any housework ever since I can't even remember. Thank God my sisters' daughters are a very helpful lot. The menu for that day was 'gulai kambing' and 'ayam merah'. And also 'daging singgang'. We invited our neighbours and relatives to come by for lunch. Even my in laws came all the way from Kuala Terengganu to taste my sister's 'gulai kambing'.
My sisters gave away most of the uncooked meat to our neighbours. But since most of the neighbours also sacrificed cows and goats.. we got back almost everything that we gave away. Nevertheless, it was a good thing to do I guess.
The main chef whom i fondly call "kak" had the worst headache of a life time after eating her own 'gulai kambing'. I took her blood pressure reading and it was disturbingly high. 168/110. OMG! No wonder ... She was down ,sleeping for the rest of the day..
This is Kak, preparing the meat to be given to our neighbours
Her cousins, enjoying the 'kutu' hunting.
We tried again. Much better this time..
Then my husband decided to shave his head. He said 'teman anak'..
And guess what, a few days later, I followed suit. Oh yeah.. believe it or not.. I had the shortest hair style ever ...Only a few mm longer than Sinead -O- Connor. My husband said I look like one of those monks from Tibet. Amazingly, at the time I am writing this .. ( it took me almost three weeks to write this entry for I was busy preparing reports and plan of actions for my department) my hair has grown to a considerably decent lenght.
Syasya.. don't hate us for doing this. We Love You! and ur hair will grow back! Promise.
Consider it as our korban for this year's eid-adha.
My sisters gave away most of the uncooked meat to our neighbours. But since most of the neighbours also sacrificed cows and goats.. we got back almost everything that we gave away. Nevertheless, it was a good thing to do I guess.
The main chef whom i fondly call "kak" had the worst headache of a life time after eating her own 'gulai kambing'. I took her blood pressure reading and it was disturbingly high. 168/110. OMG! No wonder ... She was down ,sleeping for the rest of the day..
This is Kak, preparing the meat to be given to our neighbours
My brother in law and his daughters. Very rajin.
My husband savouring a goat's mandible. Complete with teeth.
Kari kepala Kambing
A few weeks before that, my lovely daughter was diagnosed with 'head-lice'. gross.. we tried 'A-lice' shampoo. It worked for a few days. But after one week, the nits re-appeared. We shampooed her hair again with the same thing. Still, her lice were very stubborn . as stubborn as she could be at times.
My whole family was very relaxed to hear the news that my daughter has lice on her head. Her cousins even enjoyed looking for her lice and nits.
But my husband and I hated the whole lice and nits thing.
We decided to shave her head. My husband once had a friend whose hair was so full of lice that her scalp was always red and smelly. Of course, we don't want that to happen to our daughter.
But,our daughter has one of the shortest attention span I ever knew.
The result is this.
Her cousins, enjoying the 'kutu' hunting.
We tried again. Much better this time..
Then my husband decided to shave his head. He said 'teman anak'..
And guess what, a few days later, I followed suit. Oh yeah.. believe it or not.. I had the shortest hair style ever ...Only a few mm longer than Sinead -O- Connor. My husband said I look like one of those monks from Tibet. Amazingly, at the time I am writing this .. ( it took me almost three weeks to write this entry for I was busy preparing reports and plan of actions for my department) my hair has grown to a considerably decent lenght.
Ok.. stop scrolling.. nope.. sorry to disappoint you.
I am not posting my photo here.
I'll let ur imaginations run
Instead... here are my daughter's pics from her pre-lice era.
Syasya.. don't hate us for doing this. We Love You! and ur hair will grow back! Promise.
Consider it as our korban for this year's eid-adha.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Cemerlang oh Cemerlang! *sigh...
A few days before the new year break, I was called by my boss to sign my 2006 performance appraisal. She gave me a very good mark for someone who just worked for 3 years. And she also said that she 's going to nominate me for the Anugerah Khidmat Cemerlang . Wow, truthfully, I am very honoured. Even if I don't get the anugerah, at least my boss thinks that I 've done an excellent job through out the year. Looking at my records, she said that I am a strong candidate and most likely I could get the award. But on the other hand, ... ahhh.. this 'on the other hand' thing really made me sad.
Well, on the other hand, she said she doesn't know how to defend me if the state director doesn't want to reward me for I don't portray a good image to the department. Most of u will be wondering by now, what kind of person this naa is? hmm ..performed excellently in her work but her image is not good?? hmm.. ok.. , it so happened that i am working for a department where we are all supposed to be very healthy people. why? because our job is to treat sick people, and i guess being unhealthy or not having a healthy look is going to tarnish the name of the department.
And now u must be wondering how bad my image is?
Brace yourself for ..guys, actually....
>I don't have the ideal weight for my height!!<
ok.. stop laughing .. enough... yeah.. really funny..
but this is the truth, whether u want to believe it or not.
We have goals for body mass index and mine is a far cry from the new ideal BMI for asians.
maybe the state director is right.. i should shake off some pounds for a start. that would make a good new year resolution!
but the truth is.. deep down in my delicate heart.. ( ouch.. why am i being touchy here?) it hurts.
it hurts when people do not want to recognize your good work and effort just because u don't have the ideal weight.
it hurts.
Well, on the other hand, she said she doesn't know how to defend me if the state director doesn't want to reward me for I don't portray a good image to the department. Most of u will be wondering by now, what kind of person this naa is? hmm ..performed excellently in her work but her image is not good?? hmm.. ok.. , it so happened that i am working for a department where we are all supposed to be very healthy people. why? because our job is to treat sick people, and i guess being unhealthy or not having a healthy look is going to tarnish the name of the department.
And now u must be wondering how bad my image is?
Brace yourself for ..guys, actually....
>I don't have the ideal weight for my height!!<
ok.. stop laughing .. enough... yeah.. really funny..
but this is the truth, whether u want to believe it or not.
We have goals for body mass index and mine is a far cry from the new ideal BMI for asians.
maybe the state director is right.. i should shake off some pounds for a start. that would make a good new year resolution!
but the truth is.. deep down in my delicate heart.. ( ouch.. why am i being touchy here?) it hurts.
it hurts when people do not want to recognize your good work and effort just because u don't have the ideal weight.
it hurts.
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