...music of the windchimes

I love windchimes. A winchime has a natural sound that connects your heart to Nature, the environment or to the melody that only your heart hears. On quiet nights when the wind blows ever so lightly and your heart is missing that someone, its sound will pull at your heart strings as your mind wonders to moonlit beaches. And that will bring a twinkle in your eye.

I have 10 windchimes hanging at my tiny bedroom balcony. Each bought from all over the place, some visited by yours truly, some by my better half and one by my son. There are windchimes from Langkawi, Cameron Highlands, Kota Kinabalu, Bali, Perlis, Port Dickson and Malacca.....each is made of different types of material like ceramic, coconut shells, sea shells and wood. And the unique thing is each has a different sound.

Yes, when the wind blows gently on the windchimes, they will 'play their song', and I will just lay and listen to the melancholy sound it makes. But on stormy nights all the windchimes would be janggling about madly in the wind and the sound they make is intense yet it has a calming effect. I guess it's like a calm in the storm.

Yes I love my windchimes...

Recipe of the day: Kueh Cara

This is one of my favorite kueh...it's a simple green kueh with melted sugar in the middle. To be honest I have yet to make it because I don't have the molds to make it. The mold is made of heavy metal (I am not sure what metal but it doesn't rust). I'm figuring out where I have to go to get the molds...maybe in some hidden away rustic shop.

Anyway, this is a recipe that I found which seem simple enough to make.



Kueh Cara

For batter

2 cups multipurpose flour
2 cups water
1 cup coconut milk (1/2 packet coconut powder)
1 egg
1 teasp salt
Grenn cloring/pandan juice

Mix all the igredients and filter to rid of lumps.

Pour the batter into the mold, some say pour the granulated sugar into the batter before putting it on the stove, while others say when the batter is 1/3 cooked then only placed the sugar...well, let's just do a trial and error and see which one we are comfortable with : )



Anyway that's one of my all-time favorite kueh.

...of a mother's heart

Sometimes children don't realize what a mother's love entails. They don't realize that nothing matters more to their mother than the well being of those that they have painfully gone into hours of labor for. That these mothers have laboriously cared for them from the time their umbilical cord was tenderly cut off, separating these tiny beings from the womb that carried them for 9 months.

Sometimes children don't realise that spontaneous words that lashed out from their seemingly innocent mouth hurts deep to the core of a mother's heart. Maybe to them they are just trying to stress a point or express their thoughts but it does not work as easy as that.

But, when a mother express words of anger it is never in malice neither does her love diminish in anyway. However there are times when a son or daughter say bitter words it is with intensity. At the end of the day no matter how hurt a mother's heart maybe she will always be there for her children...always.

...first trip to Langkawi

Sunrise from the ferry to the island.


I have always loved the beauty of natural surroundings especially beaches, islands, sunrise and sunset. I have never been to the Isle of Langkawi until I took a trip with my students back in 2007...and fell in love with the serenity of the island. I guess the laid back lifestyle appealed to me (having always lived in the city).
I remembered looking at the sunrise from the ferry which was taking us to the island. I was mesmerized by the wonder of the Almighty.

At one of the ancient houses found at Makam Mahsuri site















From the ferry taking us back to the mainland
















That's me on the left with some students waiting for our turn to check into our hotel, The Eagle's Bay Hotel


















Say cheese!!! At makam Mahsuri.

























I

Recipe of the day: Rendang Pedas Ayam

This is a favoutite recipe that hails from Perak, traditionally cooked on hari raya. However, now rendang is a common dish even for breakfast to eat with nasi lemak. Well, this is a favourite dish that I like to cook for my children, family and friends.

Mind you I am a self taught cook, learning recipes from old ladies' word of mouth, therefore I have no accurate measurement...measurements are all 'professionally' quantified (in other words it's basically rough estimates based on quantity!!!)

Ingredients:


1 whole chicken, cut into manageble edible pieces

Part A
Lots of big red onions (it adds to the dish's sweetness)
Ginger the size of your thumb-sliced
Galanga (lengkuas) double the size of the ginger-sliced
Lemongrass (serai) 6 fat stalks or 8 thin stalks-sliced
Part A has to be sliced then blended

Daun Kunyit to be sliced thinly (mayang)
Cili paste (cili giling) depends on how hot you want it to be
Coconut milk (if coconut milk powder is used,put some oil to give it the oily glazed finished)
Salt to taste
Sugar (optional) if you do not want it to be too hot
Flavor enhancer

Method:

All the ingredients are put in a pot or wok and cooked over a medium fire, however as the cooking progresses turn down the heat and stir occasionally so as the rendang concoction does not stick to the pot or wok. If you prefer it dry then let the rendang cooked till it's slightly dried. However, you may leave it moist if you wish so (my children loves it moist as it is easier to eat with rice or nasi impit).
Bon Apetite...

...of nagging mothers

When I was a young girl I told myself that I would not be like my mother...you know with the nagging thing. But then here I am with my own brood and though I hate to say it I am not much different from my mum when it comes to nagging! Goodness what have become of me along the way...I must admit I am a monster when it comes to nagging, just ask my children!!! I horrify myself that I can be so beastly. And so this is my open letter of apology to my children for the years of nagging about things from the mundane to the critical.
Let me tell you children, when a mother nags it is not for the exhilarating pleasure of it. Neither is it for the throaty exercise of my lungs. I do tell you, don't I, what ought and ought not to be done first. Then I will tell you again and then one more time. But when you do not listen the patience runs thin - very thin - until it snaps. Then you have unfurl a beastly monster with a mouth that will mow anything in its path down.
So to my dear children please do not unleash anything that you cannot handle, I do get tired of nagging at the same things...just like a broken down record (or CD?)

...the wrath of the flash flood

The college where I teach is a magnet for flash flood... Everytime there is a down pour the water rises in a blink of an eye, no thanks to the lake located on the golf course right next to the college and the giant monsoon drain in front of the college. We can practically swim in the water that floods the campus. The water can rise as high as your knees. There has been occasion where the water entered the lower ground level offices and shops, and the damage had been costly. Not to mention the piles of garbage left by the flash flood. I think we must offer courses in sampan and canoe maneuvering for the benefit of all!

We, the lecturers, have this interesting ritual whereby we will eye the giant monsoon drain which we can see directly from our 2nd floor Lecturer Room. We will eye the drain like hawks to monitor the rise of the water level. The minute the water spills over there will be a frantic rush for our cars to move it to higher grounds...which is practically anywhere that water does not rise. It's funny when we think of it in hindsight; everybody for their own car...it is quite a sight when big cars and small cars make a rush for the main gate.

When water rises it's like all hell breaks lose... Cars seem to come out of no where and jam pack the roads. I just do not see the co-relation between the rain and the expansion of the traffic jam in Shah Alam. I could understand it if it's in KL but in Shah Alam....?

Well it is the monsoon season now...and we still have a lot of water to go through until its over!

...3-in-1 birthday bash

Farouq cutting at the cake...




Most mothers always tries to find ways to save money...its an unwritten code of us mothers the world over. We get supermarket coupons, look for discounts and sales, shop about at flea markets or carboot sales. Well, we are that brigade of mothers that work hard at saving money for the betterment of the family! So what can I say when I delivered 3 daughters all in the month of February; Farhana, Faeqah and Faathinah on the 18th., 28th., and 16th. of February respectively. I find it so convineant to just have a 3-in-1 birthday thingy for the girls.
These are the photos taken for their 2008 All Girls' birthday thingy...
Happy Birthday Girls...

Eqah and Baby pose with the cake...

Big sister clowing away...
Fauzan my youngest smirking away...

The lovely one-for-all birthday cake for the girls bought by my better half...

Farhana and her good friend Liyana...

Faeqah flashing her smile...

...karaoke in a pocket

My better half has this obsession with singing...he will take every opportunity to hum or sing a tune that comes to his head. And I don't think that he realise it at times. As for me I shy away from singing...I think that the frog which lives in my garden has a better chance at 'One in a Million' than me! Well, true that's an exaggeration, actually I am more of a dancing queen that a singing diva : )

Now, my better half just loves to karaoke. Normally when we have the opportunity to karaoke, he doesn't mind doing it on his own while I be his worshiping fan. I know I am bias (because he is after all my better half) but to me I like to hear him sing, he can sing any song and I would love it.

You see a week ago he bought for me a new cell phone which can record voices, naturally I asked him to sing me a short song so that I can hear his voice whenever I want to. Well that short song turned out to be an hour of karaoke session for him. And I didn't have the heart to say anything...because actually we were suppose to go for dinner and my tummy was practically making its own karaoke session with its rumbling. To tell you honestly, whatever it may be I love all the songs that he sang because he sang it for me and it comes form his heart. I love you hon.

In fact I made one of his songs as my morning alarm call!

...of sardines in a can and portable outhouses

A few weeks ago during Ramadhan I had to attent a meeting at KL Sentral...therefore I naturally took the commuter there. Frankly, it's been awhile since I boarded that train to anywhere. And was I blown away by the experience of it all. Well, I guess I am too sub-urbanian and have lost my city survival instinct.

Firstly, the train was pack like sardines in cans, with no breathing or anatomical movement space... I think if someone were to make a slight movementI am very sure that it will cause a ripple similar to dominoes tumbling! I rememdered calling my daughter (who I'm suppose to meet up later at the end station) about it and she told me that that's the way it is and if I don't get on the train I will never to get back home...she was right there. So I just stood along with the crowd and when the train arrived I just allowed myself to be swept like cork on a turbulant river. And so that was how I was able to get into the stifling train. I told mysef it will be an awfully long time before I dare enbarked on that experience again.

Then there was another thing that puzzled me...why are there portable outhouses right beside the tracks, with doors facing the passengers on the train? I was appalled...especially thinking of those poor people who after finishing doing their 'business' be it big or small, being set upon a hundred gazes from curious train passengers. How does one survive such 'traumatic' embarassment, I wonder. Maybe some will say that desperate times forgoes such trifle humiliation.

Ah well each to his own...

...after a long long break

Everyone must take a long break...it definitely rejuvenates me. I, that person who rarely takes any time off,suddenly find that taking leave is a graet way of catching up with things that you have put off, and put off time and again (well, at least part of the things I was able to catch up with...) And being on leave allows me to be a full time mum, well meaning nothing glamourous, it just means that I become a full time driver, cook, maid and cleaner. Say what you may, it was fulfilling as I get to give full attention to my kids and the house is not topsy turvy. When I told that I would make a great full time mother he said "huh!" that I would get bored in after the novelty passes. Well, I guess he is right... I do need my adrenalin to pump through my body consistently to survive. The up beat life is basically pumps my blood through my system...

Anyway, I am back after a long deserving break... Welcome back Sha...