Life Goes On

Hello darlings.

It has been a while. Sejak2 panic cerita pasal apa pun  belum siap untuk wedding, terus busy semacam buat preparation. Tak abis2 pergi ke kedai riben!

Nevertheless the other day we took time away to send Efan balik ke kolej. Dia dah pindah kolej ke Raub this semester. Alhamdulillah lebih cantik. No more bunk beds. New facilities.

Saya selalu pesan, belajar elok2. Boleh express buat degree dan balik ke KL. Alhamdulillah he was on Dean's List last semester. Last sem sengaja saya kata, ada apa di Jengka kalau dibanding di Melawati. haha. Tapi saya agak memang lain Jengka dan Raub. Jengka nampak macam memang a university town; catering to the residents of the uni. Macam tak berapa ada local life di situ if not for the uni. Kata hubs, harap stadium je gah. Raub on the other hand is a proper township.

Nevertheless. We have never been to Raub. Ever. Jam pulak. Mungkin terlalu ramai mak bapak hantar anak2 last weekend.

It was late so we didnt have time to explore. Namun Raub nampak interesting. Masih ramai anak Melayu buat construction di jalan. Tiada Indon di gerai. Dan tak ada Bangla cuci lantai di dewan makan.

Terlalu bayak dusun2 especially durian. Sepanjang jalan in fact. Dan dusun pun di jaga sangat rapi. Rumput cantik macam di lawn menara!

One thing that stood out in Raub is the gerai nangka sepanjang jalan. Kata nya buah nangka madu dari Lanchang.

Sebab jalan ikut Bentong jam, waze detoured us via Mempaga. Jalan kampung yang agak jauh tapi peaceful. Musim durian di Raub mesti best.

And I have been reading somewhat.

Maka Maha Tinggilah Allah, yang Menguasai seluruh alam, lagi Yang Benar (pada segala-galanya). Dan janganlah engkau (wahai Muhammad) tergesa-gesa membaca Al-Quran sebelum selesai dibacakan oleh Jibril kepadamu, dan berdoalah dengan berkata: "Wahai Tuhanku, tambahilah ilmuku".

(Surah Taha 20:114)


Have a blessed week ahead. Semoga dipermudahkan Allah segala urusan.

ps - Bila di Pahang, teringat arwah Jamal yang berasal dari Temerloh (kalau saya tak silap). Semoga Allah ampunkan arwah dan merahmatinya InsyaaAllah. Life is indeed short.




~ xoxo

A Wedding!

We are having a wedding again soon.

Bila ingat wedding, kecut perut dibuatnya sebab banyak benda yang belum siap (sebenarnya tiada apa yang dah siap! hahah). I have only googled some hantaran pictures.

Impian kali ini hanyalah satu majlis yang simple. A very small celebration. Tetapi tertanya2 pulak, tercapai kah impian ini? Family je pun dah beratus orang!

Sekali ni saya agak tiada bunga pahar @ bunga telur di pelamin. Rumit! Tiada kecoh serabut-serabai rumah - buat di dewan. Lebih mudah. Mungkin. InsyaaAllah dipermudahkan Allah.

Let me share some lovely stuff I found and liking a lot:

Sangat minat dengan tiffany green at this moment.

 What a sweet cake!

Dan sangat2 teringin hantaran fresh flowers. I am still deliberating on this.

Dan those pictures yang gave me some second thoughts:

Stripes for hantaran. Hmm.

Dan yang di bawah. Haha seriously?

 Ini tahun berapa punya hantaran nih!

And this made me laugh so loud.

There is something so seriously wrong here if you ask me!

So wish me luck. I have lots to do. Starting immediately!

(ps, yes I noticed too many ! in this post too. Mungkin due to the sense of urgency of the matter! haha)





~ xoxo

Feel Like A Girl Again (Or Not. You Were Never That Girl)

Kata Di, buku ni untuk relieve stress. I said oh ye ke? I bought it because I can make a claim for my taxes.. Haha penipu besar! I bought it in fact because the gambar are so cantik.

Dan terfikir saya pun dah bertahun tak mewarna. I dont think I ever did any coloring when I was small. First maybe because there were no such thing as a coloring book then. Second mungkin saya budak kampung; tak ter-expose kepada such books. Ketiga mungkin we could never afford such luxury.

Dan saya agak mungkin sebab ketiga. Sebab saya ingat saya pernah menangis tak mahu ke sekolah kerana tiada buku teks dan cikgu akan denda saya berdiri di luar kelas jika saya tidak membawa duit untuk beli buku saya that day. Ingat pun rasa nak menangis lagi.

Anyway.. Those were the days.

Mungkin saya mewarna semasa anak2 masih kecil. Share dengan anak2. Quality time now gone by..

There are two such books like this by the same author. The other is called Secret Garden. Saya flipped the pages and the Enchanted Forest looked more interesting.

I concur it MIGHT have some positive impact. I was singing on my way in to the office the other day! (unbelievable)

Tapi semalam I got a crick in the neck sebab mungkin mewarna terlalu lama. Or maybe it was the photobooks that gave me that.

You should try. It might work for you. Namun. Saya agak semuanya mesti dibuat dengan berpada2. I thought I could spend the time for more productive things. Maybe.




~ xoxo

Cakes 101 (for me at least)

Dan, teringin jugak nak bake best macam The Kitchen Guardian. So I did these.

First up, the Victoria Sandwich cake.

Tak berapa jadi; hahah. Got confused over the french-butter (!) measurement. And then also got the meringue butter cream wrong (the meringue turned to scrambled egg whites..) And had to redo that. Dan terlupa pulak letak fresh strawberries on top.

Namun, anak2 kata sedap (they are my #1 fans after all). Dah pesan kat semua orang suruh bawak sorang sikit pergi ofis. But turned out there isnt enough to give away pun. Habis disapu dek my fan club.. What a bless.

And brownies. As taught, I bakes these in two separate pans. The first was what can I say? Sedap nye.. The second was undercooked and when I baked some more it turned out somewhat crispy!

Namun, we took it up a notch and served it with ice cream. Decadent of course. Tapi takut nanti jadi macam Americans makan dessert tak sedar alam.

I am thinking of making the devil's choc cake this weekend. InsyaaAllah. Must keep the inspiration rolling, people!

Have the greatest weekend.




~ xoxo

When In Ipoh : Interesting Stuff (2)

We were in Ipoh again the other day. And stayed at the other M Boutique Hotel. Sama cantik hotel2 ini. I let the picture tell the story.

Their tagline is come as strangers leave as friends. Makes you feel so at home.

Reception yang sangat memikat. And their employees are so friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a room yang sangat interesting. Modern. Appealing.

Breakfast comes with the room. Tapi rather a let down. Tak setaraf bilik2 hotel. Namun the cafe is quite charming.

Lift foyer upstairs.

The corridor. Cantik kan?




Mesti meraikan cucu2 walau dalam blog sekalipun..





We had dinner at a place called Thumb's Cafe. Makan biasa2 je namun tempat makan yang sangat adorable. It reminds me of an indie cafe on a beach somewhere in the Carribean maybe (haha.. bermimpi..) Sebenarnya cafe ini terletak di dalam sebuah rumah lama. Tapi nampak cantik di dalam gambar dengan lampu2 dan deko yang amat menarik.

We wanted to have lobster dinner somewhere di Sungai Siput maybe 45 mins drive dari Ipoh town center. Tapi jauh kata anak2 dan masing2 pun dah kepenatan.

We had lunch at nasi ganja the next day di Jalan Yang Kalthum. Namun anak2 tak berapa minat; lebih sedap di Nasi Kandar Suberi AU3 kata mereka!

So that was that.




~ xoxo

From CJ With Love

(saya tiada gambar lain jadi have to make do with this same photo)

I am in CJ again. Mom-sitting. Of course.

Tiada apa yang terjadi di CJ. Of course I would say that as I am home self-quarantined all the time. Abis takkan balik jaga mak tapi there I go frolicking around town / kampung kan. But I think the jerebu di Taiping agak buruk juga. It rained most heavily petang tadi. Alhamdulillah.

Sekali ni balik tak berapa tengok drama. Mungkin tiada drama dengan hero dan heroin yang segak!

One thing I learn this time staying with mum. Biar manja dengan anak2. Maksudnya kalau pening suruh budak2 picit kepala. Kalau sakit biar anak2 urut kaki tu. Biar anak2 biasa menjaga mak bapak. Make them comfortable nak tanya mama sakit ke? Bapak sihat ke? 

Mak asyik bertanya, umur mak dah berapa tahun. 91 jawab saya. 9 tahun lagi dah seratus? Ada ke orang hidup sampai seratus? Mesti lah ada. Kan ada perempuan tua di Jepun yang berumur 114 tahun? jawab saya. Eii, mak tak mau hidup lama sampai macam tu.  

Bila saya hulur baju warna cerah, kata mak, mak tak mau pakai baju yang ini. Macam nak raya. Orang tua2 pakai baju malap2 saja. Oh, ok.. Kain batik pun tak boleh bagi yang baru. Lebih kelabu lebih mak suka. Bukan macam orang muda, pantang ada baju baru..

Bila mak mengadu tak larat saya pun tak tahu nak kata apa. Namun saya harap saya belajar. Hari ni hari emak, esok lusa hari saya entah apa ketentuan Allah.

Dan. Saya terbaca (which is completely related) ~

Dan Tuhanmu telah perintahkan, supaya engkau tidak menyembah melainkan kepadaNya semata-mata, dan hendaklah engkau berbuat baik kepada ibu bapa. Jika salah seorang dari keduanya, atau kedua-duanya sekali, sampai kepada umur tua dalam jagaan dan peliharaanmu, maka janganlah engkau berkata kepada mereka (sebarang perkataan kasar) sekalipun perkataan "Ha", dan janganlah engkau menengking menyergah mereka, tetapi katakanlah kepada mereka perkataan yang mulia (yang bersopan santun).

Dan hendaklah engkau merendah diri kepada keduanya kerana belas kasihan dan kasih sayangmu, dan doakanlah (untuk mereka, dengan berkata): "Wahai Tuhanku! Cucurilah rahmat kepada mereka berdua sebagaimana mereka telah mencurahkan kasih sayangnya memelihara dan mendidikku semasa kecil."
(Al Israa : 23 - 24)

Selamat beramal dan mencari bekalan untuk hari2 yang abadi.

~ AllahuAkbar

So Sedaaapp

Let's talk about inspirations.

What inspires you? A book? Some smart person you met maybe. Or a new experience. Travelling. Or people who are really passionate about what they do?

Personally for me all the above, I think.

I was at The Kitchen Guardian class the other day. Sangat2 seronok (I was going to type teruja.. macam skema lah pulak). Thank you Yati for organizing. Maybe I should say thank you KTTM.

Kek dia punya lah sedap nye. We did devil's food cake and sandwich cake. Sedap. Brownies pun buat; tapi saya rasa brownies saya pun sedap.. haha. Boleh challenge la brownies cikgu!

And of course I have photos ~

Hobi cikgu adalah baking dan photography. Belajar dengan Saiful Nang lagi.. She is really good in what she does. That I must say (I posted this photo and Ilyas said, mama buat yang mana? haha. Tak tahu semua cikgu yang masak. Kami tengok dan tangkap gambar / ambil video je. Hopefully we learnt something!)

A slice each to take home.

Brownies. FYI brownies mesti ada layer yang shiny tu. Kalau tak it'll just be like a choc cake yang tak berapa jadi..

 The strawberry and blueberry sauce was seriously sedap. It reminds me of a similar sauce I did like 20 years ago..

Dan baking studio yang sangat comel.

Yummy! Love the caramel that trickles on the sides.

Cikgu berpeluh2. Students ambik video..


Let's get baking everybody! Get inspired.





~ xoxo

Sembang-sembang

What's the next best thing to blog about other than babies, let me ask you.

My take is food. Naturally.

We were at Me'nate recently for a birthday makan2 (tapi kami tak lah makan wagyu..) Never had that place been busy like it was that night (thanks to the Azwan Ali episode I reckon). Sampai ada ofis mate pun nak ajak makan2 kat situ (me : seriously?)

Anyways. We did BR on the 31st. But found that flavors on 31st are always limited. Yang sedap2 selalunya tak ade. Kami mungkin tak nak pergi on 31st lagi. It has turned out to be a marketing scam..

Dan pleased to say we managed to visit nasi kandar ganja after all at the Yong Suan Restaurant in Ipoh. Boleh la. The tapau queue was long. But if you are eating in, you should just go ahead and get yourself a seat. Namun saya fikir masih tak boleh beat Nasi Kandar Beratur di Masjid Kapitan Keling Pulau Pinang. Ataupun mungkin saja kari Suberi di AU3!

Dan saya masih lagi mencuba untuk siapkan fotobook2 saya, although I have completed one on Hobbiton (teramat cantik, jadi yang itu yang saya terpaksa siapkan dulu!) Anyways I have too many photos. Gambar2 saya dalam tiga camera dan beberapa handphone (yang mana semuanya penuh gambar). Nak pilih gambar pun mak aiii.. weeks. But I am getting the hang of it. Wish me luck!

Dan. Saya terjumpa ~

Sural al Insaan Ayat 25 - 26; terjemahannya:

Dan sebutlah dengan lidah atau dengan hati akan nama Tuhanmu (di dalam dan di luar sembahyang), pada waktu pagi dan petang;

Dan (dengan apa keadaan pun maka) pada sebahagian dari waktu malam sujudlah kepada Tuhan (dengan mengerjakan sembahyang), dan (seboleh-bolehnya) bertasbihlah memujiNya (dengan mengerjakan sembahyang Tahajjud), pada sebahagian yang panjang dari waktu malam.



Selamat beramal dan berusaha untuk hari2 yang tiada diketahui kepayahannya. 

~ xoxo

Umar & Sarah

Hello Darlings

It has been a while since the last post. I have been busy with well err.. stuff. Mungkin sebenarnye kurang ada mood untuk ber-creative bagai (haa.. nak start whine dah lah tu. Muah-ha-ha)

But come to think of it again, I have in fact been creative. Saya sedang menyiapkan semua photobook for our last trip to NZ. And yes, semua means I have quite a few to finish up. I have completed one and it came back fabulous from the printers. Sangat sempurna dengan gambar yang cantik (pardon me for saying so) and bright colors. MasyaaAllah.

Hari ni tak ada banyak nak cerita, cuma nak share gambar cucu! Siapalah saya seorang nenna kalau tak share gambar babies (babies yang dah pun besar sebenarnya).

First up, gambar Umar al Haziq.

 

Yang ter-cute mesti terbesar. Comeii gigi Umar.

Dan gambar Sarah Sophia. 

 

 Cepet. At this time belum ada gigi lagi pun. Now she has half!

Nikmat Allah.

~ xoxo

 

Book 4 It's A Love Story

This is actually written by a friend. That is most probably why I read it. By Nina Kamal (bukan nama dia pun). Kata nya Kam is her ex boyfriend's sur-name; saya ketawa bila dengar her funny tale of her writing.

I demanded from her a copy to read when I knew about her writing.

And I was in fact rather impressed with the book. As her first book, I thought it was very good indeed.

She has a good flair in writing. Humorous at some point. And tak boring langsung. Although it was rather thick. She said she didnt know she had over-written the number of pages!

Kalau nak cuba cari di kedai, jangan. It is no longer on the shelves. She said just wait for her new book. Mungkin out soon.

So basically I am just promoting a friend (dan kalau tak bagus tak ndak saya promote pun..)

Nanti kalau2 terjumpa buku Nina Kamal, beli lah.




~ xoxo

From CJ With Love

Hello Darlings.

OMG. It has been almost a month since the last post. I have been busy. And somewhat under the weather.

Nevertheless (strictly no whining on-line).

Nothing much is happening in CJ. Purely mum-sitting. It has been somewhat hot and cloudy. Which is good. Kalau hujan nanti mum will be saying, sejuk nye. Ambil baju sejuk mak. Selimut kaki mak. Mungkin sejuk yang dikata, sampai ke tulang sum2. Wallahualam.

I am watching a lot of tv. Drama. Unbelievable. Dari tak kenal, sampai dah terpahat muka Zul Ariffin di minda! And I should text message tv3 with #Lame and #Cliche on their Mahligai Cinta program. Saya tak dapat jatuh cinta walau mencuba. Contoh : kata dekorator, konsep perkahwinan ini adalah France Castle. French chick (chic?). Dengan English flowers. Lalu saya jadi sangat keliru..

Dan saya tonton Maria Tengku Sabri & Ifa Raziah dengan costume Elsa dan Anna masing2 (yes, believe it or not).

Dan ada masa pening saya sangat2 menjadi bila duduk di depan tv (FYI, mum watches tv3, tv1 atau some al Hijrah. Saya turutkan saja.)

Also I was working. Well.. some.

And also reading. A few pages. On solat. A few points I thought I must share:
1. Solat orang yang khusyuk adalah mereka yang sentiasa sedar dan mengikuti segala pengertian dan kalimah yang diucapkan di dalam solat.

2.  Solat seseorang yang dalam keadaan lalai sesungguhnya tidak mempunyai sebarang nilai kebaikan di sisi Allah swt.

3. Orang yang mengerjakan solat dalam keadaan lalai sama keadaannya dengan orang yang mengigau ketika tidur, walaupun mungkin ia menyebut Allahu Akbar.

Nabi saw bersabda dengan maksudnya, tidak ada ganjaran bagi seseorang hamba dalam solatnya kecuali sekadar mana yang ia ingat (khusyuk).

Dan Nabi juga bersabda, maksudnya berapa banyak orang mendirikan solat tetapi yang diperolehinya hanya penat dan letih, kerana mereka itu lalai dalam solatnya.

ps - photo above is the pintu of our old(er) house. Rumah tua; and what was the place of so many photo shoots before (like the one below).

Selamat beramal sedaya-upaya dan sebaik yang mungkin untuk hari2 abadi.

~ xoxo