Fare thee well

Golfman's away for the weekend.. him & his buddies are off chasing 'em little white balls all over the green. and as most hardcore golfers would attest, its social suicide to bring your wife along on one of these trips so.. here i am, alone again, the proverbial 'golf widow' lol.

Its not enuf that he leaves me for work haish.  but then again a man needs his fun so its ok.. so long as he's not chasing after skirts as well  (bcos i know just the place to shove those shiny clubs of his ekekekeh) ;p

Anyways.

Lookit what i found right beside me when i woke up this morning.  

Schweet furry lil nicolei snoring away like theres no tomorrow hehehehe.  he must've jumped up and settled himself on daddy's side of the bed while i was busy dreaming of racing buggies with the hubs (and winning of course) lol.

It was quite a rush after that bcos there was a farewell at the office and i needed to bring something for potluck.  and as usual, when nothing else comes to mind then its meehoon goreng time, the simplest thing on the menu!! 

Apparently everyone was feeling pretty active this morning bcos the buffet table was overflowing with food.. and as i type this post, so am i hehehe *burp* oops 'scuse me!!

Farewell & birthday together.

To Mar, heres wishing you the very best in life mwaaah3. maaf akak kuat ngusik ;p

Confusing times

Yes i am indeed confused. i cant seem to make any sense of the things that are happening around me.  am i losing my mind or have we as a whole completely lost it?

First theres the shocking news of a 15 year old boy shot to death for driving without a licence in seksyen 11.

Forget about all the extra details, theres just too many versions anyway.  the fact still remains that he's a kid who got shot in the head bcos he was driving around without a licence. and in trying to digest that truth, my mind shuts down completely bcos it has become completely illogical.

Then a friend tells me of another kidnapping attempt only recently reported in seksyen 19.

Remember the story (read about it here) of my friend's son who escaped the clutches of heartless kidnappers by jumping of a van last year?  and how to this very day those villians are still on the loose? well, there must be more of them around bcos it has happened again.

And again by the grace of god, another boy escaped to tell his tale. that makes 2... that we know of.

So.

A boy gets shot for driving without a licence. and a van full of villians gets away with kidnapping.

Sigh.

My brain has shut down again.  Al-Fatihah untuk arwah aminul rasyid.


*Posted here is the email concerning the kidnapping attempt:

Assalammualaikum & SS,

Anak lelaki saya hampir dilarikan/diculik oleh sebuah van berwarna putih petang semlm. Saya tak pandai bercerita, tapi saya ada buat lakaran dlm PPT (attachment) untuk adegan kejar mengejar antara anak saya dengan van tersebut, dan beliau hampir ditarik masuk ke dalam van.


Kejadian

Tarikh: 21 April 2010 (Rabu)

Masa : 7.00 - 7.30pm (Selepas kokurikulum)

Lokasi: Berhampiran Sek Keb Sek 19


Suami saya lewat sedikit tiba menjemput anak saya di sekolah kerana baru pulang dari kerja. Anak lelaki saya berumur 12 tahun dengan ketinggian 165cm. Setelah berjaya menyelamatkn diri dari van tersebut, anak saya berjalan kaki dari Sek 19 ke U12. Tiba dirumah jam 9.30 malam. Ketika itu saya dan suami berada di Sek 19 sehingga jam 10 malam mencari beliau di sekolah & rumah kawan-kawannya dan sekitarnya.


Van

Warna : Putih

Model : Vannete

Pemandu : Lelaki memakai singlet putih, tubuh gempal, berambut pendek dan jambul berwarna perang.

Penumpang: Seorang lelaki disebelah pemandu, dan beberapa org lg di tempat duduk penumpang (tidak pasti).


Laporan Polis.  Saya telah ke Balai Polis Sek 15 jam 7.25 pagi tadi. Polis menasihat agar laporan dibuat. Tetapi anak saya saya masih dalam keadaan ketakutan dan tertekan. Saya juga masih dalam ketakutan.  Tidak silap saya ada email (tahun lepas) tentang kejadian yang serupa yg menimpa anak jiran nya (lelaki) berumur 12 tahun di Sek 7. Kejadian juga semasa Maghrib. Budak lelaki tersebut dapat menyelamatkan diri setelah melepaskan ikatan tangan dan lari dari van tersebut semasa van berhenti di traffic light Padang Jawa.

Saya berharap tiada lagi kejadian yang serupa berlaku. Maklumkan kepada rakan, jiran, saudara dan anak-anak kita agar lebih berwaspada.

[Names & certain info have been witheld]

Hot & crunchy

There's a certain time every month when i hafta surrender my body to this 'monsta' with a HUGE appetite and i tell ya, she eats like theres no tomorrow!!!!

Hehehe.. what can i say, its the darn hormones ;p

While i was thawing out a pack of frozen 'kerang' i'd rediscovered in my freezer (and deliberating whether to make sambal tumis or just stir fry with lotsa onions & chilli api) i had this sudden vision of hot crispy yummy popia with healthy, crunchy vege filling and i knew i just had to have some or i'd go nuts lol.

Rummaging my fridge, again, i only came out with a bag of carrots & leftover mempelam epal from my trip up north. but when one's mind is set on something, nothing really gets in the way and anything goes lol.

So it'll be carrot & mempelam popia yay!!

Mempelam? hey wait a minute...  mempelam can be kinda sour sooooooo on second thought, maybe not. lets just stick with the beta-carotene then lol.

Ingredients

2 big sticks of carrots, grated

A can of mushroom soup as base

A bowl of cleaned and lightly fried shrimps.

1 red  chilli api (mak cant take too much chilli these days).

Oh and some popia skins of course.

Stir & mix it all up madly together.

Portion out the filling into each popia skin, roll em up (i made mine big & fat lol) and set aside. remember to have the oil really hot before deep frying so that it'll be all nice & crunchy.  once golden, out of the wok it goes.

Big fat popias ready to be eaten.

And serve when ready bcos its best taken hot but be very careful not to burn your tongue though, the cream soup base makes it piping hot!   i hope my schweetheart comes home early. he likes both his dinner & supper ready and waiting lol.

And as for me, i've already eaten 3 while frying the popias and getting dinner ready hehehe. all is well ;D

A lazy sunday

Golfman had an afternoon game lined up so we agreed to jog in the morning.  i forgoed my usual aerobics at the dataran bcos golfman has never really been all that comfortable jumping about like a monkey lol.

But once we set out to jog at the tasik he changed his mind and decided to briskwalk instead. and after a couple of metres the briskwalking turned into a lazy stroll lol.  his excuse - nak simpan energy for the game.  ha ah ye ler tu.. its just one of those lazy sundays la hehehe ;p we then went on to breakfast at the pasar seksyen 6, where the nasi lemak & roti canai is rather good. and where the choice of kueh & fresh fruits is endless.

When he left for his game, the kiddoes and me went on to jusco bukit raja for a short ronda2 session.  AH's fav handbag was peeling away (thats what happens to pvc but the designs are trendier) and AI was looking for shirts to wear to lectures.  and i guess it was one of those days when nothing could go wrong... bcos they both got what they wanted! i'm sure we all have those days when we're thwarted at every turn and every choice we make just dont come in the colour or the size that we want.

We came home happy. even golfman.. bcos he'd won his rounds :D

I hope you & yours had a great weekend too. 

And i leave you with this snippet of AH singing what is turning out to be one of my favourite covers ;p

And another

She's been spending a lot of time in her room lately.. and here's why lol.

Another engagement

It felt like only yesterday that we were part of the rombongan makcik kiah for the brother. and today its his adik's turn.

They were introduced by a friend. and after less than a year of courtship, they decided to get engaged. no fuss no fanfare, just straight to the point. thats life i guess.. its simple when you want it to be simple lol.

Shaizol & Syazwani

As usual, we all gathered at kelana jaya before setting out on a convoy.  this time to taman desa jaya, kepong.  the parents were understandably nervous bcos although they'd only recently gone through the same process, nothing is actually ever the same.

The Family & the Hantaran.

Alhamdulillah the ceremony went quietly & smoothly. after a brief discussion the elders agreed to a short engagement and set the wedding for october.

.The Meeting of the elders & the Hantaran Balas.

Both sides agreed to keep everything simple so as to facilitate the wedding arrangements since october is after all just 6 months away.  and i must say that my BIL has been blessed by the AlMighty to have very accomodating & understanding bisans.  again, the host was most welcoming and went out of their way to make us feel at home. golfman even had the dessert made in honour of his shirt hehehe!

Hey look abe, its colour coordinated!

 We're a big group and usually end up having  a lot of fun together lol. in fact we were enjoying ourselves so much that we all agreed to continue with the merry making at another nephew's place (he'd just moved into a new house) later that nite.. a potluck bbq!!  hahaha suffice to say we ended up eating non stop... to the point that i even forgot about taking pics lol.

Gendang gendut tali kecapi, kenyang perut senang hati :D

Earlier in the day while i was doing my 2 loops at the tasik, there was a hot air balloon floating about the dataran merdeka.  it was in conjunction with grand blue wave's annivesary celebration.  dapat naek best gak ek ;p

Hot air balloon attraction

Workout

8k weekend run/TSA 

Aktiviti pagi

I've started running the neighbourhood route again since AH started her partime job at the kindy.  theres usually nasi goreng & hot tea on the table (AH & her abah likes their breakfast heavy) before i leave for a half hour of huffing & puffing.  then its a quick shower & change before i drop the missy off and head straight to work.

But late last nite AI told me, in his 'suave' & 'nonchalantly' way,  "Ma esok ada jamuan kat fakulti.. can make brownies ah for potluck?"

Haisshh, these kids always cakap last minute n expect mama to make things happen.  lucky thing so far  they've escaped major disappointment and in this case, lucky thing also there's spare stuff stocked up in the larder & fridge.

So this morning, instead of running i ended up making cheesecake brownies!!

And bcos of the time constraint (and bcos i'm not a purist) i took the easy way out by taking a major shortcut hehehe. i used betty crocker's ready mix.. just add water, oil & eggs and the brownie part is done ;p

That left me with just the topping. but thats not a problem bcos my mixer would be doing all the hard work lol

Once the topping is ready & spread evenly, all thats needed is a little swirling of the chopstick and thats the  marble effect  all done.

And with that, i left the baking to the man himself lol.... tak sempat nak buat and part of the price to pay for giving mama such short notice & making her miss her run ;p

AI - happy baking darling hehehe :D

Update: On a more sober note, i was told by the hubs that there'd been an unexpected death of a colleague's aunt and  he'd just come back from helping out with the necessary arrangements.  she was involved in a car accident but the postmortem results revealed that she'd had a stroke before crashing. she was 55.

Al-Fatihah to the deceased.. and condolences to the family & friends.  semoga rohnya ditempatkan bersama mereka yang solehah & beriman.

Teman Setia

We had him since he was small enough to fit my palm.  comel tapi comot lol but he was also very frisky.  he had us at the first 'meeow'.

 
Many years back, a regular stray had given birth yet again to a litter of kittens out on my veranda.  the kids had always pestered me for a pet but since AI & his abah was asthmatic and the other 2 had allergies of their own, i had always said no.  but there comes a point in time when the good outweighs the bad and a choice between the lesser of 2 evils had to be made and i said yes. the kids were older and despite their allergies, the responsibilities of having a pet would greatly contribute to their development.

I agreed provided that it was a HE (i didnt fancy being a 'grandma' a thousand times over by choosing a female lol) and provided he passed the 'potty' test (HE had to be able to use the litter box).

The kids were understandably esctatic (they'd wanted a cat ever since i could remember).  and there was something about the comel tapi comot guy that pulled at our heartstrings.  even from the start, we knew that he was the one.  and bcos mak said that the poor sod would be lonely without a playmate, i agreed to take in another!!!!

The was later a hilarious mix up of gender & names lol but we did finally end up with 2 tomcats :

Nicolei OBB aka Nico

(One Ball Bandit - the vet confirmed that he had a retained testicle)

Chewbaca OGB aka Chewy

(Opah's Golen Boy - he later became mak's companion)

The two tomcats filled our days with much fun & laughter.. and more of our fair share of cat poo and vomit lol.  sadly chewy died at 3 yrs leaving Nico in the company of mak's substitute companions.

Nicolei is now 6 but his cat age is actually equivalent to our 40 year old.

Like me, he's not keen on too much fuss & attention.

Like me, he's not overly expressive.

But i know that like me, he too loves the family.. with all of his tiny kitty heart.

Aning.. we'll love you till the end of time :D

Workout

21/04/2010 - 4k/PM/sek9

22/04/2010 - 3k/AM/sek9

More of Nico

First & foremost Nicolei is a self proclaim 'muka tembuk' lol.. he looooves sunning out on my ledge.

 Nico the 'muka tembok'

Snoozing is his favourite pastime... any time, any where.

ZZZZzzzZZZZ

Although he's become a lazy ole coot sometimes his curiousity still gets the better of him.

Nico meets Cico

 Nico caught 'watering' the neighbour's car

 Nico in the bathroom taking a peep.

 Nico playing footsie with mummy.

He's a sporting guy even though he gets bullied an awful lot.

He's trimmed & bathed almost every month

He's groomed & henna-ed when mummy's in the mood.

And made to model almost anything (even a tudung lol)

And although he tends to sleep on the job, he still manages to keep on top of things. 

Looking after mummy's bag

Comfortably perched atop AH's homework.

But whatever he may be, to us here nico is the best-est cat in the whole wide world :D

Nicolei 2010

Eating

All it takes is putting something edible into one's mouth, chewing it  then swallowing.  what can be more simple? (except drinking of course.. and sleeping heheheh)

But thats not always the case.

We had a call from my BIL early this morning.  my MIL wasnt feeling too good and now that golfman's home could he attend to mek's problem?

My MIL is in her 80's and has hypertension, diabetes and a host of other problems.  but despite all that she's a cheerful, spunky lady who faces life head-on (unlike my mom who's prone to mood-swings and is overly pessimistic).  while her daily dosage of pills would scare a grown man, she downs it like the champion that she is.

But lately she seem to have completely lost her appetite and though she tries her best, finds it such a struggle to eat.  so she gets tummy aches & complains of  'wind' or 'angin'.  obviously taking a mini mountain of pills on an almost empty stomach is nothing but a recipe for disaster.

Old people need as much attention as little children, sometimes even more so bcos they have usually become hyper sensitive as well.

After we managed to coerced her into eating a little of the nasi lemak & bread and sipping on some warm milo, she started becoming chirpier and more like her usual self.  before long she was responding to the jokes her sons were making and giving back as good as she was getting lol.

Yes, on top of her meds more attention should also be part of her daily dosage.  and the children should come up with a revised plan to suit this need asap.

I was still able to make it back home, cook up a quick breakfast for AH & AI (golfman had already eaten nasi lemak mamak with his mom) and punch in on time.

And alhamdulillah a colleague was generous enough to provide free breakfast for everyone.  thank you kak CT.. semoga dipanjangkan umur dimurahkan rezeki & dikabulkan hajat :D

Nasi lemak & pau kelapa

But tell me, wouldnt you have done a double take too if you had found this perched on your table first thing in the morning?  hehehe... just look at all that teeth!!!!!!

p.s. I could almost hear the intense subliminal message of "eat meeeee  or be eaten muahahahaha" .. and yes i have an overactive imagination, i know lol ;p