new members in the family

Tsara' and Batrisyia with their new cousin, alisya



tok Abah and tok Umi with their grandchildren

Cucu yang ke 21 ( Pi and Ayu's ALisya)and yang ke 22( Yin and Mimi's Haiqal).

before they went missing

there's nothing wrong with your computer or laptop screen...they are in black and white.
yup, no other colours but white with black spots or all almost black
these photos were taken when they were barely a few days old, before they went missing.

feeding time . I think they are the third generations from this mummy cat.


the two big sisters( I think they are the second generation ), napping time or rather relaxing time.

manjanyer, mother and daughter, not for long, you have those four other baby kittens to share your mummy's love with, love is sharing, love is caring.......

.

They are back.........

They have been gone for more than two months.The mother took them away from the comfort of the tiny cupboard of our home to "'don't know where" until today, out of the blue, we heard baby kittens meowing somewhere.

Suddenly, i heard my son cried, "They are still alive!".i rushed to my kitchen, opened the folding door and the grill and true enough, there they were, only three of them ( there were four) standing at the edge of my neighbour's house's roof.

I guess, the mother finally decided that it was safe for her to bring out her babies in the open. no wonder she was acting kinda weird lately. She kept coming to the back kitchen and meowing her heart out to us, which was kinda strange because we had put her food outside, so she couldn't be hungry, but we didn't know at the time.

newborn

the look...the hug....the warmth.....the tenderness......
captured in these few shots taken by my kids last nite



we discovered that the mother had given birth to four new kittens. looks like the two ( earlier four )kittens ( now kittens no more ) have new brothers and sisters.

the love of a mother, even cats have feelings and protective over their newborns. How snugly close she held her babies in her arm and leg too!

love at first sight...

It was love at first sight. the minute I lay my eyes on these gorgeous plant, I fell inlove with it instantly. I had to have it.

Similar but not the same

What do you think, any resemblance?

well..almost...



My daughter came up to me with the kitten inside the bag, don't worry, the cat is not suffocated in the bag. She just wanted to show me that our cat looks like the cat on that wh*skas bag.

I think it does, don't you?

kittens in the garden

There were four kittens initially.After a while, one left the group (to the other world, but not to worry, cats have nine lives right, so they keep coming back)

Then, there were three as shown in these pics, but not for long, cos this is not their latest photo. As I am writing this, there are only two of them left. Princess, the white one, my youngest daughter's favourite died recently.

The mother is not seen here in the picture. she came to us not long ago.everytime she comes, we feed her. She is not ours and we do not know who she belongs to. We didn't take her in for health reason., not her health but our kids'.

This is in fact not her first batch of kittens but the second I think. None of her kittens survived , not during the birth but after. From that experience, she became extra cautious and over protective over her babies. She always tried to bring them into the house but we couldn't allow that, so what my hubby did was if they couldn't come into the house, so why don't we bring the house to them? Really, we made a house for them, using our kids tent and placed it on our front porch.

I have always liked cats and kittens alike. Ever since I was young ( many, many years ago.....)our house ( my parent's ) was never catless. There was Chomel, Tompok, Putih, Tamtih,and so many other names which I cannot recall.

they are such cute and adorable creatures and they would just melt any hearts who see them ( for most people but not all ).however, As I have my first baby in 1995, cats were no longer allowed into our house for health reason as I had mentioned earlier, so that is why they , the kittens are only allowed to play outside.

Is that a tree house?

There's a big purple house and i noticed that there's another house, much smaller with purple roof this time but it's on a tree! Is it a tree house? Is she trying to tell us something? We did plan to build one for the kids, but which tree? we don't have that many trees in our small compound, let alone a tree big and strong enough for a tree house, so i guess she can only have her treehouse in this picture of hers.

I like this drawing, so colourful, so happy, so ....every thing that it should be ....coming from a five year old who has no worries in the world.

Batrisyia drew this yesterday, 18th May 2009.

The three darlings

Kakak, Abam( this is how she called her abang ) and Batrisyia herself as seen through her eyes.....
My youngest daughter's drawing.

simple yet yummy...

I have to write this down before it slips from my mind.I tend to change my recipe every now and then and when I get the right taste, ( right taste means it gets nice reviews from hubby dearest)I have already forgotten what I actually put in there, that is why this time I am writing it down so that the next time I want to cook the same dish, I would know what to put in. Reason being, our dinner was a success last night, my hubby didn't just have a second helping but a third and a fourth. I was so happy to see him eat last night. He is not easily pleased when it comes to cooking. Actually he is, when you know what he likes and dislikes. If he likes it he will say it straight to your face and if he doesn't like it, he would do the same. Ouch! sometimes the word hurt a bit but at least I know what I did wrong , with my cooking that is, so that I can improve the next time.

I was a bit famished yesterday for I did not have my lunch. So, upon reaching home after fetching my youngest daughter from her kindie cum daycare, I rushed to the kitchen, still in my working attire, i started pounding the onions and garlics, while de-frosting the squid, chicken, and fish.

I have already asked my eldest daughter to cook the rice before I left the office, so that is already been taken care of. Now, what shall I cook? Something quick yet delicious. My stomach is already grumbling , so I decided to make sambal sotong , the easiest and fastest.

Turned the cooker on, put some oil in the pan and sauted the onions and garlic, add some chilli paste, when it is cooked, add asam jawa paste with some water, followed by salt and sugar. I also added some oyster sauce and soy sauce, Habhal Kipas Udang Lemak manis, a favourite among us in the house. After all the ingredients were blended in, add the squids and leave it for a few minutes. you can't cook seafood too long.

That's one dish done. What next? I boiled three eggs because I thought of adding them into the prawn gravy, but changed my mind. Instead, I used the "ikan kembung" instead. so I had my ikan kembung gulai in a jiffy, a ready made gravy from yesterday's prawn gravy. Why waste it when it is till tasty and edible.

That's not all. I had my ( just me ) dinner early at around 6.30 pm. At 8.30 pm I went down to my kitchen again to prepare the dinner for my kids and since my husband is not going out tonight, he specifically asked for "ikan bakar' which I am more than happy to oblige because I like to cook this one. My son likes ikan bakar too, especially siakap. My eldest daughter, she likes everything, so I am not worried about her. Furthermore I had prepared the paste earlier so all I need to do is just de-frost the ikan siakap, clean it, put it on an aluminium foil , rub some salt and squeezed some lemon juice on it and turn the oven to grill mode. The final ingredient, spread the paste which I had prepared earlier on the siakap and grill it away . About 20 minutes later, it is done.

For the paste, I pound together some onion, lemon grass, belacan,salt and sugar, chilli paste and some tomato sauce.

So, there you go, our dinner:
1. ikan siakap bakar with sambal
2. sambal sotong with oyster sauce
3. ikan kembung in prawn gravy curry
4. boiled eggs
5. mixed veggie
6. ikan gelama masin
7. sambal belacan and cucumber

Bon appetit!

Unfortunately I don't have the photos to show all these dishes., they are in......err... our tummies........

A brief visit by my youngest bro and SIL

Batrisyia with her teddy and her Aunt's teddies....

BBQ corner

Masa yang ditunggu2, saat2 untuk menikmati the plain bake cheesecake. He likes to eat it when he was young and his schoolmate, nama Muniandi kan yin, would join him when they returned from school ( primary school) in a small shop house, in a small kampung, about 10 minutes drive to the capital city of " Negeri Cik Siti Wan Kembang".

saje2 topped the cheesecake with the bride and groom teddy on the cheesecake for the not so newly wed. Adik tinggi, kakaknya tak berapa tinggi , itu pasallah dia kena tundukkan kepala..hi..hi...

" kak jue, one cheesecake please, we are coming over", well those were not his exact words but meant something like that. My youngest brother has been one of my number one supporter for my plain bake cheesecake, that was way before I ventured into Zue's Oven.

Just married barely 3 months with the lady of his choice, a sweet petite Mimi from Skudai whom the sales person at Pekan Rabu mistook for his sister....she's carrying ( in her tummy) their first baby barely 3 months old also.....

A few to do items on their list:
1. nak makan cheesecake kak jue
2. nak cari ikan pekasam di Pekan Rabu
3. nak BBQ

I am glad I am able to fulfil all those wishes esp that SIL is pregnant, however the visit was so brief that we barely have time to sembang2( noticed that this is the third time I used the word " barely"). They arrived around 2 am on Thursday ( Friday night) and by the time they arrived, the cheesecake is ready, fresh from my oven, only waiting to be cooled off and chilled in the fridge.

We only slept at around 3.30 am and hubby woke me up at 4.30 am cos we planned to go to the morning fish market to get our supply of fish, chicken, prawns ,etc for the family cos my freezer is almost running out of stock.

Bought nasi dagang, roti canai and some pulut sambal for breakfast and since it is Friday, our off day, most of us slept in but not Mummy dearest, after packing the fish, etc into individual plastic bags for each servings, had my bath ( actually Mummy did take a few minutes to doze off ), came down to the kitchen to prepare today's lunch and the menu for today is
1. kari ikan kembung ( fresh from the market)
2. Ayam masak minangkabau ( the recipe which i learned back in the school days)
3. ikan bawal emas goreng ( the favourite fish among my family , kalau makan ikan ni mesti licinnya)
4. sayur kacang and carrot
5. sambal belacan and budu with timun

very simple menu, after lunch off hubby went to KL for his Architectural seminar ( he only just found about it at the last minute, if not he would have stayed ) That leaves me and my three kids with my bro and SIL.

After marinating the chicken, my SIL and brother went out too and they were going to Sg Petani to see her father angkat and I continued fiddling with my fondant figurines because the cake is promised by 3 pm tomorrow.

We missed the BBQ because they came back quite late and even if they were home early, it wouldn't be fun BBQing in the rain, it was raining cats and dogs and even some parts of Alor Star was flooded.

Despite the shortcomings, we had such fun time eating the chicken BBQ on Saturday ( marinated by SIL the nite before) ). Brother and SIL prepared everything themselves from scratch ; from making the bara, to grilling till we saw the end result, chicken, some prawns, and satay too..... on the small dining table in the wet kitchen.

Back to the BBQ lunch, we shared silly jokes and exchanging riddles like this one :)
Q: gajah lalu, patah titi, kambing lalu, patah apa?
A: patah balik......kuang, kuang, kuang......

Q: There's a fire in an orchard, all the fruits got burnt except for three kinds of fruits, what are they?
A: i) buah cempedak - di luar pagar
ii) buah keranji - di dalam perahu
iii ) pisang emas- dibawa belayar........

Q: Kenapa kalau orang main golf, lepas dia pukul bola tu, dia letak tangan above the eyes and dongak ke langit?
A: Takkan dia nak tutup mata, nanti tak nampaklah bola tu jatuh ke mana......

Those are some of the jokes and riddles that we shared and that brief moment at least something for us to remember the brief visit by.

After lunch, waited for my first 3D/novelty fondant figurine Snow White and the Seven D... Dolls chocolate cake to be picked up by a lady, fellow colleague, who has three sons and one daughter and she wanted this cake to be very special indeed for her 3 years old, one and only little Princess . I slaved ( exaggerate a bit ) myself over the cakes the last few days making sure that I've got everything just as she wanted it, colourful, girlish only that I made it extra special by making it 3D instead of just 2D drawings on the cake. ( see my other cekmekzue blog for full photos of the cake)
Off we went to Pekan Rabu in search of that ikan pekasam and at the same time bought ' baju pengakap" for my son and also on the way back, dropped by at Bata to get him a new pair of shoes.
Dinner was very simple, bihun goreng with generous portions of prawns and squids matched with keropok goreng. After taking a few minutes rest because my SIL is still having her morning sickness, they drove back to KL at around 11 pm bringing back some of the cheesecake with him. Speaking of morning sickness, i remembered my condition when I was pregnant with my youngest, I was hospitalised and put on drips for a few days. It was a difficult pregnancy and a difficult birth too but out came a beautiful angel weighed 3.25kg. more about this later. So, Yin, take good care of the little missus, some pregnant women tend to be difficult to live with especially if they have all sorts of weird cravings, likings or dislikes but you must learn to accept the condition and be very patient for this is one of those times that they need their other half most.

received an sms this morning that they've arrived safely in Puchong at around 3.30am . i guess my brother will only have a few hours rest because he's working at 8 am!

As a sister, I am very happy and berbesar hati cos my brother comes over to visit us even though we are living about 4 to 5 hours drive from one another. just like my sister who is living in Ireland, when she came back for last raya, she made a point to visit us during the fasting month last year and that time I made chocolate cake for her hubby since it was his birthday. I'll write about Da's visit in the next post, insyaallah.My other sister too who lives in our hometown nearer to our parents house came over for a visit once in a while.

No matter how busy we are, with work or with children , no matter what the distance is, it only takes a small step to bring the distance closer, to make the relationship stronger, make time to visit them, if you can't afford the time,give them a call, e-mail them or sms them, the least you can do is include them in your daily prayers, that will bring them closer to your heart, insyaAllah.

Princesses and Prince of the house

the three jewels in my life. Now where is that other gem? The tall, dark and handsome Prince Charming in my life

The other Princess...

zoom in my wet kitchen as seen from outside, whilst my other Princess is busy watching TV.

Disney on Ice Princess Batrisyia

She skates like a pro, like "Disney on Ice" Princess, wonder where she got the skill from...hmmmmm.....

A new beginning

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Assalamualaikum, pembuka kata.

Wow! That wasn't so bad. Been contemplating on creating this blog cos I am not really a computer savvy or an IT person. OK. I am going to take one step at a time, now that this is done, I will explore and experiment further later..