Wheelsondbus Is 3!

Wheelsondbus celebrates it’s 3rd anniversary today!

I was at SK Meru 2, klang today atas urusan pendaftaran sekolah fahmi ke tahun 1 bagi sesi 2011. Bila kutulis tarikh pendaftaran langsung aku teringat inilah tarikh my blog mula2 di launch. Rasa macam dah ancient blog aku ni tapi baru je 3 tahun sebenarnya. Barangkali sebab blog ni masih lagi mengekalkan layout yang asal, kalau jenguk blog kawan2 lain dah kerap bertukar baju patutlah aku terasa blog ni dah ancient! Ah sentimental sangatkah aku sampai tak mau tukar baju sebab terlalu sayang pada rupa asal blog.

Dah banyak kali juga aku terfikir nak tukar baju, buat face lift biar nampak lebih menarik. tapi bila difikir2 semula biarlah kekal rupa asal buat sementara waktu ini, lagipun blog ini sekadar merakamkan perjalanan hidup aku, my personal thoughts, orang2 yang kusayang, my ups and downs – tujuan asal bukanlah untuk tarik pembaca pun. Benda yang baik jadikan teladan, yang kurang baik itu adalah dari kelemahanku sendiri.

End February Gathering

We were at my mum’s house from Friday night until Sunday morning. Dah lama tak balik so we stayed longer this time around. Lama tak balik banyak jugak lah perubahan kat rumah where I grew up. Kerja-kerja memasang plaster ceiling dari arah dapur ke hadapan rumah dah hampir siap. Bukan main hebat lagi siling rumah luar siap centre rose, kipas siling dah wall mounted decorative lights yang dipasang pada tiang2 keliling rumah. Selalunya rumah dalam yang gah, tapi my abah buat face lift pada rumah luar plak. Hmm… ni kes nak sambut menantu lah ni agaknya hehe. Pun begitu aku figure out sendiri kenapa rumah luar lebih diberi tumpuan kerana rumah luar nil ah nanti jadi tumpuan saudara mara nak melepak dan tidur time kenduri besar. Maklum jelah rumah dalam tidaklah sebesar mana, tak cukup nak menampung keluarga besar my mum nanti.
Cuaca tersangatlah panasnya sekarang ni. My lil princess cukup kalah dengan perubahan cuaca. Sekejap badan dia panas, sekejap ok. Batuk dan selsema jadi teman baik dia sekarang. Puas kularang dia jangan main panas, tapi kat luar juga tempat kesukaan dia. kalau nak ikutkan takdelah direct exposed to sun kat rumah my mum ni sebab hampir seluruh ruang luar rumah teres ni shaded dah sekarang. Paling tidak aku beri kata dua pada dia, kalau badan masih panas sehingga hari ahad maka tak dapatlah dia ikut kami ke rumah my sister di kuarters klia, nilai to celebrate my niece’s birthday. 28 february also happens to be my mum’s birthday, so it was a double celebration today kat rumah my sister. Err… triple celebration actually coz we celebrated my future sister in law’s birthday sekali. May Allah swt bless you all, amin.

kek coklat moist cinderella seberat 3kg ni permintaan khas dari birthday girl, amalina

Mood Swing, Playing The Good DIL & SIL

last night we went to visit my mil who is visiting at my bro in law's house in kapar. yes, now apart from a sis in law yang stay in sg long, cheras and baby bro in law yang stay in sentul, now we have another close relative yang stay much much closer to us in kapar. bil or my children fondly calls pak cik boden just moved from pasir gudang to kapar with his two young children.

i made mee rebus which we brought over to bil's house. the absence of a lady host in the household made me feel compelled to prepare something untuk di makan bersama instead of datang berlenggang tangan kosong. can't expect a male to greet us dengan hidangan terhidang can't we. and can't expect my mil to do the cooking for us since she is also visiting while at the same time doing her best to help out sekadar termampu. tambahan pulak with house still in chaos and his two young children baru je settle down in school.

the house is spacious. tak sangka pulak tnb kuarters for executives seluas ini. ada 3 bedrooms with attached bathroom and 2 utility room yang cukup selesa untuk dijadikan guest room, 1 bathroom next to the utility room, a kitchen yang a bit smaller than mine and a spacious living room - enough space to host makan2 (though i doubt he'll be hosting any). walaupun rumah tu agak lama, tapi kalau di cat balik dinding dan grill i think it will look much much better. owh sakitnya mata tengok kotak2 yang masih tersadai di tepi2 dinding. pindah rumah satu kerja yang leceh! terasa gatal tangan nak mengemas dan mendeko kan rumah tu hehe. mengada2lah aku ni rumah sendiri pun tak habis deko & kemas lagi! ;-P

kami yang bertiga (me, hubby & kakak) pun took us so long to get things organised in our new house, inikan pulak bil yang have to do everything alone. pity him and the children. the children lah paling kesian coz this will be the first time they moved to a new house without their mother. owh i shouldn't go there... i really shouldn't go there. it will only play havoc with my emotion yang memang dah sedia havoc ni.

i have the most terrible mood swing these past few days. the things at the office drives me crazy. the calls that i've been receiving were outrageous, it drove me to the point where i for the first time tak peduli lah siapa or apa title the caller spat back rather rudely.the call was so provocative sampai i totally lost my patience this time around. if you know me you know that i'm the most cool and calmest person if not in the world or in malaysia at least in this office (at home i'm a different person ;-)) tersangatlah cool nye aku ni sampai kalau orang menyampaikan berita (batu api) pasal si polan si polan mengata or mengutuk aku pun aku bleh rilek aja. whatever, you can't get under my skin.

kesian kat hubby the other day. dia pun terkena tempias mood swing aku. but darling if you read this, those thing that i said to you last week walaupun attributed by the mood swing but they are real. very very real, fact.

i guess the things that has been going on around me has unearthed the dragon in me somehow. and the mood swing, is still there - kecil punya hal pun boleh buat aku emo.

Summer Wedding

Mum told me the other day that there’ll be a wedding in our family in june. My youngest brother is getting married. A summer wedding! The last wedding in the family. Owh I soo love organizing a wedding! Soo love fussing over small small things like the bunga telur/pahar, hantaran, bilik pengantin and now the wedding cake! I’m definitely and absolutely no doubt going to make the wedding cake! Owh and I want to dress the girls - my daughter and nieces as flower girls. None of us (my sister and me) had flower girls trailing with us before. Now I have lots of little girls yang boleh ku dress up kan, I’m going to make my brother’s wedding the most extravaganza one in a very simple and non-costly way. Ohhh orang lain yang kawin aku pulak yang tak sabar2… takde kerja lah tu ;-P

Dah memang itulah tugas aku tiap kali ada majlis kahwin dalam family ni. Kahwin my sister dulu aku lah orang kanan my mum helping her to look through the whole event daripada benda2 besar sampailah to the tiniest detail, akulah tukang buat hantaran dia walaupun selebet kan, akulah sesame dengan ma buat bunga telur, hari majlis aku jugaklah yang jadi shadow my mum. Pastu bila majlis kahwin aku, AKU lah jugak yang buat semuanya from A to Z. sampaikan hari nikah dan sanding pun aku masih bertungkus lumus bekerja umpama macam bukan aku pulak yang nak kahwin. Aku rasa masa tu orang pun tak perasan aku ni bakal pengantin. Bila dah lewat malam barulah aku dihalau oleh mak cik2 ku yang baru tersedar aku ni nak kahwin esoknya, disuruh tidur berehat. Padahal aku sikit tak boleh nak berehat sebab banyak benda lagi nak diuruskan. Hahah agaknya pasal tulah mat salleh kahwin pakai maid of honor kan? Tapi itu semua tak penting kan? Yang penting akad nikah.

Tak sabarnya nak tau apa warna tema majlis nanti. Bolehlah aku mereka2 design wedding cake nanti ;-)

Lamb Briyani

Enough ramblings about dream. Last week we went to this wedding reception kat rumah lama. Kat kenduri tu kami dihidangkan dengan lauk gulai kambing. Sedap sangat masakannya tapi aku Cuma dapat seketul kecil aja sebab sold out dah rasanya masa tu. dah lama tak makan kambing or bebiri so last Tuesday I bought frozen boneless lamb shoulder from cold storage. Aku ni memang tak reti nak pilih bahagian daging bebiri mana yang sesuai dan lembut untuk dimasak. Kalau nak panggang tu dah tentu aku pilih bahagian kaki. Tapi kalau nak menggulai or merendang bahagian mana yang best ye? Apapun aku dah beli dah pun.

Hubby pun teruja dengar aku beli lamb. Tunggu punya tunggu cari masa nak masak tapi tak ter masak lagi until today. Sempatlah semalam lari balik rumah during Friday break untuk masak lamb briyani. Dalam half an hour dah siap but lebih bagus lagi kalau dapat masak dengan api yang perlahan, let it simmer for longer like 1 hour ke barulah bertambah sedap sebab rempah rauts dan perisa semua meresap dalam daging bebiri. Anyway, that’s all I could afford to do. Kalau aku tak berkejar balik masak tengahari alamat sampai weekendlah bebiri tu terperap dalam freezer. Tak berani nak gamble masak malam lepas balik kerja coz aku tak pasti what time I’d be home. Tambahan lagi malam tadi kena siapkan kek tempahan orang pulak tu. macam nilah ibu2 yang ada 2 kerjaya, kena pandai curi masa. Kalau tidak, tak merasalah hubby makan masakan air tangan wife dia ;-P

Btw, daging bebiri bahagian shoulder tu mudah empuk. I guess masak bebiri lebih mudah compared to daging lembu. Selain dari daging batang pinang, aku tak reti nak empukkan daging bahagian lain pasal tu selalu cari batang pinang je. or aku yang tak reti masak sebenarnya? Heheheh…
Masak lamb briyani ni tak susah. Just perapkan lamb dengan rempah briyani for a good 30mins sebelum masak. Tumiskan shallots, garlic dan ginger yang ditumbuk kasar bersama dengan kulit kayu manis, cengkih dan bunga lawang. Lepas tu masukkan lamb, 2 biji diced tomatoes or 2 sudu besar (aku letak kedua2nya sekali coz aku suka rasa masam2 manis fresh tomato & deeper tomato taste from the puree). Letak air sikit, biar dia merenih. Bila lamb dah lembut masukkan plain yogurt, let it simmer sampai pecah minyak. Aku suka tambah kismis yang dicincang supaya briyani terasa manis2 buah gitu. Ataupun letak bawang goring yang diramas2 supaya kuah pekat and also for stronger tasting briyani.

Both my children had lamb briyani with nasi minyak for their dinner petang semalam. They rave about how sedap the lamb was. Fahmi memang kutahu suka makan lamb, tapi yaya baru inilah kali pertama dia merasa. Ada baki lamb shoulder yang kusimpan, I bought 300gm which is quite a lot untuk dimasak sekaligus. Demam plak musim panas ni melantak lamb sungguhpun sedap. Nanti bila2 bleh buat lamb pie pulak just for me & hubby… heheh

Dream

I had this strange dream about a long lost room mate masa kat uni dulu. She’s a year younger than me but we graduated on the same year – the course that I took was solely for entry with STPM or working experience whereas hers straight from matriculation. We did keep in touch, very briefly after graduated – I invited her to my wedding, which she didn’t managed to attend, she invited me to her wedding which I didn’t get to attend. Lepas tu terus lost contact. Thought about her over the years that passed, I even googled her name on the internet manalah tau dia ada facebook ke, walaupun I don’t have one. Tapi tidaklah aku become obsessed with the thought of her.

Until I get this dream last night. Aku mimpi dia dating menziarah aku, stay over the night kat rumah. She came alone. We talked, catching up on things that went through in each others life, we were happy to have found each other again. But she was alone. My curiosity gets the better of me so I asked her about her husband. In real life I am curious about the man she married. I never get a chance to ask her if she is marrying/married to the same guy sekampung dengannya who was her senior at school or is it another guy because I still remember she did once told me that their relationship was on the rocky road – family intervention. I wanted to know. She seems happy sepanjang berborak tu, I guess her married life is a happy one too, but never once did she speak about the husband or children. The minute I asked her about her husband and children, she broke down. Aku tergamam. She told me that her husband had left her because dia tak dapat bagi zuriat. It’s not that she is barren or what, tapi dia tak boleh carry full term, she had had a couple of miscarriages over the past years. I consoled her while at the same time I couldn’t hide my fury towards her husband. What is it with men.

The dream felt so real, aku rasa aku betul2 dapat peluk dan bercakap dengan dia. Bila bangun tidur pun aku agak terpinga2, tercari2 mana dia kawanku tadi. Terus aku terkenangkan keadaan dia. I have to find her. Harap2 life dia tak seteruk yang aku mimpikan. Ah that was just a dream. But I had dreams yang felt so real macam mimpi malam tadi. Aku selalu anggap setiap mimpi tu ada makna. Maybe she is looking for me too. Like the dream that I had about my demise brother in law few days before aku buat housewarming last month. In my dream he came back to my mom’s house nak jenguk anak tunggal dia. The dream felt so real aku rasa nak menangis tengok dia peluk anak dia. Aku cakap kat diri sendiri agaknya kita yang hidup ni dah terlupa nak mengingat atau bersedekah pada orang yang dah pergi pasal tu lah aku termimpikan dia. Bukannya aku percaya pada benda2 karut marut, tapi aku lebih suka beranggapan mimpi yang felt so real ni kadang nak mengingatkan kita pada sesuatu yang kita dah terlupa. Oh btw, aku tidur siap basuh kaki & baca surah 3 kul pendinding diri siap sapu ke seluruh badan dari kepala sampai kaki, tak pernah tidur tak baca doa tidur or tidur koboi.

What We Did During CNY Break

the remaining 2 days Chinese new year break were spent mostly at home with the children. Fahmi has started to read, so I brought him and yaya to mph on Monday to get him storybooks for his reading. I promised him that I’d buy him books once he is able to read on his own. Susah juga nak jumpa storybooks yang sesuai for a beginner like him. I finally found these books yang pada setiap sukukatanya ditandakan berlainan warna supaya mudah dibaca. I bought 4 books from the same series and they are cheap too!Tak sangka pulak fahmi pun berkenan dengan the books, sambil temankan aku browsing through cookbooks kat mph sempat fahmi bersila atas lantai sampai mulut tak berhenti2membaca. Berlarutan dia melekat dengan buku tu sampaikan sepanjang perjalanan balik dalam kereta tak berhenti2 dia membaca walau tak lancar tapi pecahan sukukata tu helps.

I know, it is quite late for him to start reading at 6. Itupun dia baru mula dengan reading in malay, belum in English lagi. I wasted a lot of time. Could have done better but well it is still not too late. The teachers at his school did a good job. Banyak perbezaan dengan dulu.

Nowadays it is a bit challenging with yaya. Kalau dulu fahmi yang liat buat homework, sekarang it is the reverse. I don’t know how or what tapi yaya pulak yang liat buat homework, kalau suruh belajar dia buat main2 je. Is it because of their age ke apa? Itu belum diambil kira kenakalan lain. Seolah2 my two children ni dah switch places with each other.

Enough ramblings about the children. We decorated the house on tuesday, nothing much really. Just hung up the koleksi family photos and english style letter box hadiah from my auntie masa housewarming tempohari. no pictures yet coz tak habis mendeco lagi. cuci mata dengan hidangan kami last tuesday - hainan chicken rice.