Ramadan & Syawal

Since Ramadan, the holy month for us Muslims to fast is coming soon, it is appropriate for me to blog a lil bit about it. I've been thinking lately, what are my preparations for the upcoming Ramadan, instead of Syawal.

People always get so caught up on the Raya not the fasting month. What color theme for this year? Where to shop for baju raya? What color of my curtains this year? When to shop new set of clothes for kids?etc. I am lil bit guilty of that as well. I am not those kind that get really excited to change everything new for raya, ordered various kind of biscuuits & cakes or buy lots of baju raya for me & kids. I am just not that enthusiastic or 'semangat' like that..like most makcik-makcik or mak-mak feeling. Whatever need to change i change..think rationally not emotionally.

Like this year, i decide to do only 1 set of baju kurung (already done) for me & daughter and my husband will buy 1 set of baju melayu for him & son as well. The theme is black. For other more casual baju raya, since i always buy clothes so i don't bother to buy anymore for me. As for my daughter, walaupun terliur tengok banyak sangat dress cute for babies, i restrain myself to buy it just because first, Dania is growing up so no point buying lots of dress that she will outgrown it in few months and also because she already have lots of unworn dresses given by relatives & friends. Since Dania already walking (at 9 months), I only need to buy her a new pair of shoes simply because she only has a pair, and that one dah kotor dan buruk. My husband every year pun tak beli any baju raya apart from the compulsory baju melayu. My son Adam, tak payah juga kot because boy bukan ada choice sangat pun..baju lama pun elok lagi. As for biscuits, as usual i only ordered those that i like and only for me & family to eat and usually habis before raya. For raya incase ada orang datang, my mak always bagi biskut yang dia selalunya over-ordered. So buat apa nak bazir kan, amik jela biskut tu..sedap pulak tu! My house don't need any necessary grooming or enhancement, only need to be clean or re-arranging some stuff. So overall i don't need any extra stress or burden for upcoming Raya just some extra money to bring back to kampung.

Back to my earlier question, what are my prepation for Ramadan? I try to be more of Ramadan instead of Syawal this year. Rasa bersalah bila terbaca artikel pasal topik ni. As i just discussed with my office mate during lunch just now, reality is i always not that excited about fasting month. Just as my raya preparations, my Ramadhan preparations are somewhat uninteresting as well. But, this year i want to change it..hopefully. Not preparation in what or where to eat for berbuka and sahur. Instead i try to do more amal ibadat than every other months. Before this, i did not manage to finish recite the whole Quran (selalu stop half way). Also since married i dah tak pegi terawikh dengan alasan pregnant atau jaga anak. I am also not the kind who wajib sahur, kalau boleh memang taknak sahur dan tidak akan lapar pun kalau tak sahur. But this year i will sahur everyday insyaAllah, kesian husband sahur sorang-sorang sebelum ni. This year i try to change all that to become a better Muslim especially on this holy month. So having said it all i really..really..wish i can gain more pahala on this Ramadan.

Selamat menyambut bulan Ramadan pada semua. Diharap bulan yang mulia ini, dijadikan bulan yang penuh dengan amal ibadat dan cahaya keimanan di jiwa masing-masing. Happy puasa!

P.S: I am proud of myself because i manage to complete my 30days of 'ganti puasa' because i could not fast the whole Ramadan month last year due to confinement (after deliver my Dania).

Heartthrob

I might be too old talking about heartthrob. Well, every woman at point of her life do or did have their own heartthrob right? I am talking about celebrity heartthrob not the kind that you spot cute guy in school or mall, you go crazy stalk him and went ga-ga whenever you stumbles upon him.

Mesti semua pun ada your choice of celebrity heartthrob masa muda-mudi dulu kan..kan...eleeehhh, jangan tipu! Tersenyum tersengih sorang-sorang depan TV as if kalau boleh nak terjun masuk kat dalam TV tu peluk your heartthrob. May it be an actor or singer or even TV presenter/ VJ..we had our own silly moments whenever they appear on TV. Malam-malam sebelum tido belek gambar or tenung poster kat dinding lama-lama sambil fikiran terawang-awang beimaginasi berlari berpegang tangan persis adengan romantik drama Korea. Aik...wait, maybe i am the only one doing that, am i??? Well what ever la..i am guilty of that and i am not ashamed to admit it because it was fun and what made me happy then. I did not end up as a psychopath stalker but actually turn out to be a decent & normal woman, happily married with kids!

Ok enough merepek. Here are some of heartthrobs that made me crazy in love and rock my life!

Ala-ala-laaa....cute nya!

Yess baby, i had this poster on my wall. Imagine my family & friends 'ewww' face whenever they entered my room!

Take That!!! A boyband from UK. I am fanatic about them. Most of my teenage life evolved around them. Posters all over the room, airing their song continuously every single moments, not one single day i did not mention Take That in my conversation (sampai my siblings buat betting cabar i berpuasa dari cakap anything related to Take That for one day), owned every magazine, books, video, cassettes etc that related to Take That, forced my family & friends to support me by contributing any Take That stuff or even articles to me and some other crazy stuff that a fanatics would have done at that time accept for stalking them since they are sooo far away. That time i corresponded with several Take That fans in Europe and Australia (having oversea pen pal was norm at that time) so that we can share stories and exchange posters. I even had the same haircut as them (Robbie or Mark). Memang gila ahhhhhhh!

Ok enough of boyband. Now come the real heartthrob. Guys that keep me drooling and the hero of my nasty imagination. Takeshi Keneishiro and Takuya Kimura. Both are asian and Japanese (takeshi is half japanese). I prefer asian than those hollywood star. If i would have to choose hollywood star, it would be Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp (note: those 3 guys are really hot when i was young). But Takuya and Takeshi still top of my list. I watch almost every movie or drama featuring them. And after that i will imagine i was the heroine. Hahahaha....  I enjoy Takuya style of acting espcially, so cool! Do you know after all these years and Takuya is already in his 40's now, he still got the most endorsement in Japan? Not sure about Takeshi but i think he was in lots of international ad as well and recently been paid high sums to be the face or Armani. Well, but too bad both of them are taken and not available now. Takuya already married with children while Takeshi just announced he has a Japanese girlfriend. Nevermind, they still remain my heartthrob because they are actually still HOT !

Cute & sexy

Oh Takuya! Believe or not i even ask my boyfriend (now husband) to do the same hairstyle as Takuya.  Dengan harapan akan magically transform to be as good looking as Takuya?? NOT!

Takeshi Kenneishiro. Sexayyy!!! 

His eyes..his hair..his facial structure...perfect!

Love his smile! Apa pun love lah! hahahaha ;P

Ok done...sila lap air liur masing-masing. Just to share my list of heartthrobs, so that in future when my anak cucu want to know better about me, they can just refer to my blog and think 'Oohh..boleh tahan gak taste mak/atok aku ni. Patutla muka kami ada macam Japanese sket' Hahahahaahahaa..

Weekend At Home

This weekend we decided to just lounge at home. When at home, mother's (my) job is never ending because i have to cook, clean and layan my kids (or maybe 3 kids if included my husband). Watching TV is nearly impossible because i can't hear the TV when my kids running around screaming and laughing like hell. Well, that if i ever get to watch TV, because Adam always watches his cartoons. My house is small & sempit. So whenever my kids play and punggah all the toys, rumah i dah macam loji sampah. Sometime it is hard to walk around without stepping onto any of the toys. Dah banyak dah toy yang jadi mangsa pijakan mak diorang yang heavyweight ni! We cannot restrain them from playing right? Kids still need to play, so macam mana pun mak diorang la yang kena ikut belakang kemas semua. If they eat and make a mess on the floor or table my work will be double. I hate when that happens! 

My dear husband? He will mend the kids only while i cook, bathing or solat, apart from that kena jerit baru terhegeh-hegeh tengok anak. Sit in front computer most of the time, cukup time makan, cukup time tido. Wah, so easy & relax! No wonder Allah bagi pahala banyak untuk wanita. So sabar la ye!!

 

Hatyai 2011

I really enjoy my Hatyai trip. Eventhough my dream destination is actually Bangkok, been in Hatyai somewhat satisfied me nevertheless. I shop..shop..shop and eat..eat..eat! Lots of cheap & artsy stuff for sale and i really wish i have more money to spend. I was being skeptical and short sighted, only change RM300, but end up spending RM500 plus!

Hatyai is only a small town. Being the nearest town between Thailand & Malaysia (Kedah) borderline, Hatyai is full of Malaysian (mostly from northern states) during weekends. So you can imagine a small town full of people, mostly tourist from your own country. Here are some of my interesting finds about the small town:

• Food (esp in restaurants) are relatively expensive. Fried chicken bought at street vendor cost me RM6. But i still buy them because they are delicious!
• Other stuff such as clothes, shoes, bags, handmade items, accessories are much more cheaper, maybe 50% cheaper than you can get here. Those stuff selling at The Curve bazaar, Uptown bazaar or online blogshops are extremely overpriced, you can get the same design & quality with a fraction of the price tag. So i was really devastated that i brought so little cash!
• Been told Thai iced tea is good. So it was the first thing i ordered. Sweet as hell! More like 'susu pekat ice'. But still, if you can abaikan the sweetness, the tea is quite good, has a strong tea taste and pandan taste as well (they boiled water with lots of pandan leaves)
• Desserts are cheaper. Swensen's ice cream only RM9.90 per glass! Donuts as good & fancy as J.Co are only RM1 to RM2 per piece! 
• If you ride a motorcycle, only the driver wears helmet. Penumpang kat belakang (sampai 3 orang pun ada) do not wear helmet. If not all, majority are like that. 
• Even you can see muslims who clad hijab almost eveywhere, surprisingly i did not spot any mosque, surau or even hear azan. 
• I am pretty sure that the fast food (KFC, McD) over there are non-halal but still, i saw thai muslim (because they wear hijab) eats there.  
• At 7eleven and hypermarkets, they are lots of junk food, chocolates, drinks, instant noodles of various brand and flavour. Was really tempted to buy them but no confident enough of the halal status. Sigh, i wonder how you all can resist living in oversea country restrain yourself from buying or eating those stuff!

Ok lah, enough with the rantings. Here come the pictures, caption included. Enjoice!

Thailand border

Waiting to be stamped

One of the temple we passed

Tuk-tuk ride to town

First lunch in Hatyai. Lidah masak merah, tomyam, kerabu = RM65. Pricey!

Delicious & cheap donuts. I Like!

Lion paws slippers! My son bought a pair in blue

Cute bow slippers for me! Feeling cute gitewww! hahaha

Monkey + Dania = Cuteness!!!

Fondue at Swensen's. Cost us only RM25

Expensive but yummy chicken. RM6 each.

Fat prawns. From RM10 - RM20. Yummy!

Fat squids. Eggs included inside. Come with hot chili sauce. Sedap sangat!

Insect buffet spread ;P

Fear Factor anyone??

Crunchy grasshoppers. Teringin nak rasa satu..tapi takut! 

Boat market. Recommended place to visit!

Almost all food sold there are RM2 each.

Cute containers, to filled with drinks. RM2.50 each

Nice looking sushi but did not taste as nice.

Colorful jelly. Sayang nak makan!

Telur burung puyuh. My favourite!

Interesting way to store drinks, don't you think so?

Big C. Largest hypermarket in Hatyai.

Crunchy baby crab. Rasa macam serunding. Sedap!

Some of my haul. Too bad too little money! :(

Overall, me and family had a blast in Hatyai. Wonderful city, exotic food, fantastic shopping. Looking forward to go there again next year. This time gonna bring more money! 

Cleansing

Picture from here

Everybody seem to have a take on recent notorious demo. I am not a fan on politics and i don't take sides. For me both sides are the same, dirty & power driven. In fact all politic scene in the world are more or less the same. The only difference is that how it effect us as a citizen and how far they control it.

I understand what Bersih demanded. I even agreed upon clean election. I am proud seeing all Malaysian come together for one cause ( i assume they  majority are rooting  for the same cause). I am hoping that if this demo does any effect on Malaysia, it will be a positive one and every Malaysian will benefit from it.

But i don't like chaos, things that makes me feel unsafe at my own country. I am skeptical on the true intention of Bersih, especially those who organize it.  I am sad seeing how the foreign media summarized the whole issue and focus on negative things instead of what Bersih really are. Mostly i am terribly devastated to see one sided media coverage by both parties (local TV media by gov and internet media by anti-gov) because it makes people who do not know any better presumes, make judgement and blindly take sides!

Well, like i mentioned earlier everyone wants to be bijak pandai and talk politics as if they care all this while. I refuse to be that person. My post is just my heartfelt on the current issue, as a peaceful Malaysian. If your true intention is for a better Malaysia, i support you but please CLEANSE your soul first before anything else as this is all only 'Drama Dunia'. Peace.

Off to Hatyai!

Will be gone to Hatyai this Friday. Hatyai is just an hour drive from my kampung, Alor Star. So tomorrow morning going back to Alor Star first then Hello Hatyaii!!

Passport photos of my son & daughter. Comel tak? Hahaha...muka serius gila! 

Will blog about my trip once i am back. The last time i went there when i was only 11 or 12 yrs old. Looking forward for bargain shopping and exotic foods!