live from kelab dangdut silver tortoise

you know i have been feeling rather down these past few days..


i am therefore very touched, that my state of being caught the attention of the lovely friend of a dangdut singer tak jadi of mine..

she sang and made this video especially for me.. *sob*....touched.

and tickled.






saya amat suka video yang saudari rakamkan ini.

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer..."

"The boy continued to listen to his heart as they crossed the dessert. He came to understand its dodges and tricks, and to accept it as it was. He lost his fear, and forgot about his need to go back to the oasis, because, one afternoon, his heart told him that it was happy. "Even though I complain sometimes, " it said, "it's because I'm the heart of a person, and people's hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren't, or of treasure that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly."

(Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist)

let those who dislike geometry...not enter.

someone i know just got back from pi..and it got me momentarily geting geek lusty. eventhough they were mainly superficial thoughts. but the place is damn cool, i was thinking i want one whole big black board where we can scribble integration and differentials on it..and of course loads of glass with it.

found a flickrset on it. if she actually does work there..then pi not only has cool architecture, but sexy people. but maybe she doesnt.

the place is actually founded and funded by the guy who discovered and own the co that does blackberry. which got me to turn to my friend to remind him in the event he gets hold of millions and billions, he should set up such a cool place and let me work there!

my melayu taste

i have this song stuck in my head..hahah

i blared it this morning on the laptop to wake him up to go to work. now its stuck in my head.

i especially like older malay/indon songs with a modern twist. i dont keep tab of the newer songs so i find myself enjoying the older ones more.

i also find myself buying more malay magazines nowadays..so you see i didnt stop after i got married and have no use flipping majalah pengantin. and errrr... no..i dun buy jelita or nona, though i flip through them ocassionally since my mums buy them. i do have a stack of eh! and glam though...both are malaysian publications..and oh yah ocassionally i do buy manja for my mum, depending on who's on the cover, the articles inside and definitely if it comes with a nice free gift.

and why do i like malaysian magazines..mainly because for a break, i would like to read about successful malay women.

i have been buying dare magazine for sometime now..which features pretty cool women. but after awhile i wanted a change. the malaysian magazines feature more successful malay women especially the younger ones. and not just celebrities.. i think our local magazines can do better. why not!..if it is true from what i gathered, the owners of anisahcollection and wayanretreat are in that late 20s! am sure there are many more. dare magazine was inspiring but as i mentioned before, after awhile it could get a bit boring when they have their bible babble.

glam was also rather funny. i find it less funny now. but it was, especially with the 'cerita mak datin' coloum in it.

so you see i am quite melayu in my taste..hahah..my wedding video clip that was shown over dinner was to the tune of kris dayanti's pengabdian cinta. and yes, i chose that song personally. there's a story to it actually.

i was in KL and saw a wedding video there with that song ..and i found it to be so extremely touching and befitting the ocassion. so eventhough half of the dinner guests might not understand it..we did..together with the nenek and makciks and the kakak kakak who were there.

and oh, my wedding band is in gold. the plain one also...very makcik! and super classic..hahah but i figured it will still look fine when my fingers get crinkly and wrinkled. and we did get it from the kedai mas tingkat dua tepi tangga.

errmmm..but it wasnt from mingseng or 2ndchance eh!

check check..

am i getting old?

i dont feel that excited about hari raya yet. i was trying to sort out my thoughts about it...i have many reasons to look forward to raya. its my first raya with 'my sunshine' (that's what i call him just a few mins ago) and all that...

but i am just not.

i bought the bajus. i bought for my mum a baju and something else big too. i baked one time. i've listened to the raya songs on the radio.i've been to geylang, thrice! but i still am just not. not yet maybe.

and oh..do couples have to be colour coordinated? how about same shade but slightly off?

get ready for the race..

was in the train, when i read this piece of news in the today newspaper..and i was like whoaa..one of my fav reality shows!

and i was caught wandering if we could go for it together..

some reasons i could think of on why we could give it a try...

- i can read maps rather well..heheh really! many have told me that..i dont drive but i have been the map reader in road trips.

- hmmm..and i am rather resourceful. i think so lah..

- he being 6 feet tall has pretty commanding prescence..and can look real tau and fierce to scare people (not sure how this can be advantageous or useful).

- to make up for my rather weaker looking demeanour (actually i am not hokay..i was a judo-ka. a competitive one at that), i have pretty good stamina.

- he is methodical. i can read and decipher instructions very well. so in the event we get those type of challenges where we have to folow some manual to build a bike or fix a car engine or watever ..we can do it lah

- and we have proven that we can work rather well as a team in more than one adventures..remember we climbed a mountain, survived a wedding, and a home reno.

- we are not bitchy. we are nice people with moral values...cheh..heheheh


but i guess not.

some reasons i could think of...why we wont try for it.

- knowing how sly the editors are..i will definitely be potrayed as the whiny wife. him as the grouchy husband (he gets so if i disturb his sleep or have insufficient sleep)

- both of us have vertigo..from living on the lower floors of hdb flats and low rise buildings most of our lives, we will be real chicken about things like sky diving and bungee jumping.

- i cant swim. or rather can only swim if the water is shallow enough and my feet can touch the bottom. or if i get to don a life jacket.

- i cant drive. only he can.

- slim slim chance we get to have such long leave..

- and lastly but most importantly. i've already thrown the idea to him..but not even for a chance of winning a million bucks will he consider being on tv...and once he made up his mind, not easy to change it.

love me if you dare..

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
I’m in a world apart
A world where roses bloom

And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose

this is for the babe who asked me about a song i had here previously..
the lyrics, oh so romantic.




i had the song stuck in my head for many days as well. it was after i watched this movie, which was sad and warped. this is the dvd you have to find ok.

cooking this month

this fasting month, i realised i dont like to try new recipes for dishes, especially asian cooking. because my taste bud is on leave pre-buka...

the last time i tried something this month it was more on the bland side. i figured that when it comes to dishes, the recipes always say 'secukup rasa' or 'to taste', i'm not very good at it (that's why i prefer to bake! precision precision is more my thing) and i have to say in the family i must have the blandest taste bud. the husband likes it spicy and hot, the parents like it saltier. the amount of salt people add when they cook shock me and i usually get indigestion when i have too pedas food...soo actually i fnd it even more challenging now that i have to 'agak' the taste without getting to taste a few scoops ( i have to do that because the one small scoop to taste somehow fails me)


anyway this is my first ever try on penang laksa.


i never really liked penang laksa or perhaps never had any good ones here until i went to penang a few years back. the first trip there, my ex-colig tkhoo, got his penang friends to contact me, and i had a wonderful time being shown around by the locals (we even went hiking up a hill) and going around the local hangouts. and one of the best things about that was having some good penang laksa.

and the second time i went there, i brought my friends to the good laksa places. the ones at the roadsides are the good ones..the dirtier the better..

i dont remember having penang laksa eversince i got back here..or i just cant find any..but i remembered the laksa i had then. my mil tried making this a month ago..hers was somewhat different from the one i remembered i had in penang. she learnt it from a cook in malacca so maybe the one she has is a variation or laksa johor? is it similar?

but anyway i got hold of two recipe books and searched for recipes online. there are indeed variations..so i took the one in the recipe book and combine with some elements from the online recipe.

the adventure began when i went to tekka market in the morning. i've never been to the wet section of the tekka market alone. but my mum was not free, so i tried to get hold as much information from her on where to get the stuffs i need.

especially the more unfamiliar ingredient like the 'torch ginger bud' (the pic up there) or what is known in malay as bunga kantan. the recipe says no substitute for this....

anyway, it wasnt as complicated as the long recipe make it seem. the gravy turn out to be the nice colour, with the right amount of 'residue' that is the right amount of fish meat in it as how i remembered the laksa i had in penang. and i am partial to food with herby greens, so the garnishing of laksa leaves and mint together with the newfound ingredient, sliced bunga katan made it more flavourful. the husband recommended that i add the pineapple garnishings earlier in the gravy to make it sweeter...hmm actually i forgot to tell him..that i forgot to add sugar in the gravy. oh and we din have the petis..forgot to buy,or rather i wasnt too sure what to make use of it after we used the tiny amount for this dish. i tink it would be nicer with that too :P

anyway, i was suppose to invite someone for the buka puasa/dinner..sorry it didnt happen..hahahah errmmm..coz the recipe is on trial okay..once i have it bettered, you'll get to try :)

the recipe is very long..and i have the pic of my penang laksa..but i think i'll put them up later...

holy cow!

i have to say i am verrrrrrrrrry impressed by the eeeiiiindian railway system! we've booked our tickets and overnight they have been couriered and received and now waiting for us. verrrrrrry efficient. verrrrrry impressivve.

and i am reading the above tittled book and its verrrrrrrrryyy funny.

and we went to the travel agent again the other day and saw two couples around our parents age..or maybe slightly younger booking a trip to india..so i guess we shouldnt get too nervous about it if they can do it!

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yesterday i poped by at a colig's cubicle to ask some silly question and i found her sobbing at her desk. she didnt want to tell me what's bothering her but i figured it was a cumulative of a few things and what happened that morning. we had a 'scolding' from the boss. the whole dept. we all were upset by it but i could see it wasnt easy for her as she struggled with the words. we are almost like buddies in the team so it was horrible.

i had cried at work before but not here. in my previous life. i think i might have cried twice. but each time i felt the tears welling up, i would rush to the toilet. the husband in his previous life had cried before at work. and its not easy to make that man cry. things can get extremely frustrating in our previous lives. we were not doing the same thing but the nature was almost similar.

anyway we got out of that...when i told him abt what happened...we agreed, that the moral of the story is..if you need to cry at work, its best to cry in the toilet (he did too)..

anyway, i take the nasty things that come with the work with a pinch of salt now...

fasting & the body

this ramadan, i have developed some interest in what and how people have their sahur and buka..

it has to be due to my interest in what goes in the tum-tum..or rather the digestive system..coz i had the opportunity to see what was in mine (prior to ramadan i had some laxatives to clean the colon)..and it was unpleasant.

anyway, i found out that i can survive very well by just having my muesli with yogurt in the mornings for sahur. actually i prefer that to rice..coz if i have rice for sahur and then get into my 30 min quick nap after sahur..i will wake up feeling bloated and really tembam and chubby in the face.


so today i did some googling and found this very interesting post on our body and ramadan fasting. very long but interesting

the 5 sec rule

this may freak some people out..you know some people,( or is it most?) dont pick and eat food that has fallen off the plate and onto the kitchen countertop.

but there was this day earlier this year, we were having the most wonderful homemade durian ice cream and as i was scooping it, 'piak', one lump dropped on the kitchen floor. he looked at me and i looked at him. we must have the same thoughts. the parents weren't in. we didnt want to have the ice cream go to waste..there was no one else, so he quickly picked the lump up, turned on the tap, washed it and popped the ice cream in his mouth..

so yeah, that has to be the lowest we have ever been to eating something that has 'fallen'.

never knew about this 5 sec rule..but my thought was, what doesnt kill you will make you stronger..which makes perfect sense, since we need them germs to build up the immune system!

"The Ig Nobel prize in Public Health(2004) went to Jillian Clarke, now a student at Howard University in Washington, for testing the validity of the idea that dropped food is safe to eat if it has spent no more than five seconds on the floor.

In tests with floor tiles deliberately contaminated with E. coli, she found that gummy bears and fudge-striped cookies picked up the bacteria in less than five seconds. However, tests on real floors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she worked failed because they had no detectable bacterial contamination - suggesting the cleaning staff might deserve their own award. Other research suggests the question is far from closed."

...................................................................................

another interesting award from the Ig award last year has to be the award for Engineering:

Donald J Smith and his late father, Frank J Smith, for patenting the comb-over hairstyle for balding men (US Patent 4022227)

"i said rock! what's the matter with you, rock?"

this song, we often have this playing in the car.. we like it. except for that slightly irriating gospel "power power power" part (you may want to reduce the volume there)..

this is a good song when we are a bit late and need to speed down the expressway...this is a really good kanciong song. to ease the tension of being late or maybe build it up, to sing daramatically in the car or to tap the dashboard..

the gospel parts i dont like, but hang on for a while, then we have the tap tap part of the song (where i will be tapping them feet and fingers).. before the great ms nina, as always, ends her songs so souuullfully..

anyway..the moral of this song is somewhere in one of the lines..


'you oughta be ......., sinnerman'

so errr..this song can be quite scary lah..its an apocalyptic song..

if you cant find any reason..

to go to nepal..you know if you are prone to AMS (acute mountain sickness),

perhaps this could be the cure..



hahahah.. courtesy of the plebian.

sorry for not paying attention

now you got my attention!!

you see my friend who had never listened to what people said she should do, and have always decided to do what she wants to do..and who thinks life doesnt need to be all about planning and being organised. has been doing quite a few cool things lately apart from just bumming. after spending a few months working on a schooner..she got her feet on solid ground...errr or maybe not.

are you taking it? if you do, please stay there long enough, so that i can get discounts some day...muahahahhahaha

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selamat berpuasa and have a blessed month!

a small thought and a long entry

when we first heard the news and read it over the weekend, i was not as shocked nor saddenned as i had over the first one back in 2002.

which was slightly disturbing. almost like its a fact of life, that some time some where in some place which they deem to be of high risk, a man is willing to blow himself up. like what they said about 7/7, that it was bound to happen.

what actually disturbed me more over the weekend while watching cna, was a feature of the trials over the 0ct2002 incident.

it was disturbing and sickening to see the preprators of the 2002 incident, beaming and grinning as they were tried in court, so proud over their actions.

it was strange tho that since they were so desperate for matrydom and an express ride to paradise, they are appealing to overturn the death by firing squad sentence to a term of life imprisonment.

the only thing i can deduce from watching the trials, must be that those guys must think that their faith to be the most pure. and the most absolute.

which is a thought.

how can one be 100% sure of one's faith. how can one be sure it is at the 100% mark, 100% of the time? the holiest of the holiest?

i have faith, but i know mine wavers. i have faith but my ibadah is weak. and if i do pray regulary, doesnt it take just one slip of an action or sentence or a word, and the husband/wife/mother/father or whoever says 'you pray regularly but you do/say such things?...where is your iman?' have you not witnessed this before?

the difference between the more pious, religous and the holiest of the holiest and me, is that perhaps he/she puts in more effort to improve his faith.

i am more often neglecftul. i am the weak but i do try. so you can see, i swing between wanting to be the good girl, the girl who once while staying in the hall,asked her friend to wait while she finished her isyak before they go off to zouk, and the girl who still wants to wear the sleeveless top when the weather gets too hot. its a contradiction. and i am aware of my weakness. that thought that i was born into it, will grow old with it, and that there is time to ammend. the thought that explicit actions do not matter as much as what is in the heart. of course there are failings to these thoughts. but its something personal for me to work on..the holiest of the holiest may not be able to help me if i cant help myself.

when i was younger, less corrupted, having a life with lesser temptations, i used to think that phrase 'my faith is between me and my god' was misused as an excuse for neglectful behaviour..but there is some sense to that..

as one wise man once said..

"An appropriate approach to this issue would be to believe that the decision as to who will go to Paradise and who will not is something only Allah knows. He is just and His mercy is boundless. He is the one who will judge who has the true faith and who does not and He is the one who will judge the acts of each one of us and will decide our fate. We mortal human beings cannot and should not play God"

so back to that feature on cna, the men on trial, must have had that sense of 100% certainty of their faith, something so blinding that they were resolved to do something we deemed so heinous..something sadly which to me look like turning what could have perhaps be 100% in them to almost 0%..

some cleansing

i was at the hospital today for a lil procedure. looking back at it, i am actually slightly amused (explains why i was rather calm) in addition to being thankful of course.

you know, when one goes beyond the MID to the LATEs, apart from the ocassional unpleasant inspections infront of the mirror, and the worries of crows feet, and sagging rear..(yes i DO worry about these) the body seems to start throwing in a few surprises or two. it seems to have these dramas to tell you that 'hey, you're getting older!'

this year, i had two such occurences. sure sign that i am not what i used to be, and knowing what my insurance covers has never interested me more. if you have not experience any drama, lucky you.

for us who have, maybe its due to the very unhealthy habits that we have been accumulating. or maybe not. maybe there's some reason, maybe there just isnt.

now i tend to watch out for a few things that i thought i wouldnt care about (like MUST have SPF on my face now) and i think i just have to work harder at a few things (MUST find those jogging shoes!)

anyway, i think the coming weeks will be a good time to have perhaps some system overhaul. think i need one for sure. in more ways than one.