THE 5TH BIRTHDAY

She's been asking and asking about it impatiently for months and when the day finally arrived, she was in a state of disbelief. Kinda blase or uninterested even, if I might say.

Yes, it was the day of her 5th birthday. The day that I promised her a great big party day and she could have all her friends over. We'd have a huge heckuva cake, a pinata, music, games and silly hats and masks.

A week before the day, I told myself it's not happening. We'll just have a quiet affair since the girl herself has stopped talking about it. But four days later, change of plans. It's happening.

Daddy's in charge of the bihun singapore & cucuq udang. Mommy's in charge of everything else. Again, I went and shoot myself on the foot.

On Saturday, on the birthday itself, we went to the movies to catch Rapunzel. Awesome movie. We (minus Daddy, coz Daddy only layan war movies, pfftt...) enjoyed ourselves so much. Then, a Happy Meal treat.

Funday was on Sunday. There was no pinata, no party hats and the party favours were just packed in clear plastic bags (jenis yang bungkus lauk tu), tied with pink strings and decorated with heart shaped stickers. I made spaghetti and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and another with strawberry jam filling. No pictures :(

And oh, I made a rainbow cake. How many colours are there in a rainbow, you say? Well, this rainbow cake only had 5 colours. All with different flavours. Can you see that the cake was hastily and clumsily decorated? Yup, while the guests were busy stuffing themselves in the dining hall, I was busy rolling out the fondant and finishing the deco in the kitchen! With spectators summore. Damn kancheong, I tell ya! My little cousins trying to give a hand were really distracting.  The mermaid was a toy from the Happy Meal we got the day before, haha.

Well, at least the cake wasn't as disasterous as the cake 3 years ago! In terms of planning, her 2nd birthday party was executed much better, except for the case of the melting cake of course.

No matter how unprepared and wrecked our party was, we always felt blessed with the presence of guests in our humble home, most of them family. Put together close family members on both of our sides, and we easily filled up the house beyond our expectations. Cukup havoc. And we could always count on them to help out and and relief our duties in the kitchen so that we can play hosts.

So that sums our ad hoc party report. Thank you so much to all who came and made the day so special to us. The guests were happily fed with the delicious bihun and cucuoq that were given thumbs up by all the accomplished cooks in our family, hehe. The kids had fun playing in Nunu's room, especially the birthday girl had the time of her life.

And to Nunu, Happy Birthday, my little rainbow.

EID 2010

I'm still alive, I swear I'm still alive although this blog of mine is half-dead!

No one wants to hear my cerita basi about raya so bury that story under the rock I've been hiding all these while together with all other sob stories.

Ini tempat ku bergumbira, horey-horey, happy-happy.























 Nunu, relieved that we finally escape the horrible congestion at the Penang ferry terminal on 3rd raya



Cousins come in twos: Abby, Nunu, Aqil & Iman

Good luck to me trying to revive this old blog.

MY LITTLE TURKMEN GIRL

Well, hello December! Didn't realize you'll be here so soon.

Last week's trip to KL for Aidil Adha went well. As usual, it was just me and Nunu and my parents coz Mr Martian had to stay back for his cousin's wedding in Penang. Due to the lack of baking mojo lately, I woke up at 4 am to get something prepared, chocolate banana cheesecake and cupcakes. Suicide I know, but we made it in BM at his parents' place by 8.30 am for the raya prayers. Being the parasites that we are, we had our fill of the customary ketupat rendang and Mak's famous nasi himpit kuah kacang after which we lazed around with the other in laws watching Bujang Lapok until it was lunch time.

Lunch was at my aunty's place near our home. The special menu on the table was the tender meat of a teenaged cow who had to be sacrificed due to a broken leg (merempit ke aper lembu tu?) We made our move to our parents' place after that and the journey to KL started at 3-ish.

Arrived at my bro's bachelor pad somewhere around Maghrib and most of the time, we just hang out at the place. Meals was a plethora of lauk pauks and other jajans Mom brought from home and some tapaued from my aunty. Mom's idea was to never leave the house to get anything to eat, walhal my plan was to get out of the house as much as I can. So many places to go, so many people to see!

In the end, I didn't get to go anywhere except William's the following night (fantastic FANTASTIC Angel Hair butter prawn y'all!) or meet anyone except Leena from Bucketload to get Nunu's pjs  and  my long time pal Lynn on Friday morning.

Fun time chatting with you & Arip the other day!

But of course, the highlight of the trip was not about me, but a to visit a cousin and her family in Kajang who was being merisik by her boyfriend's parents. My dad had the honour to speak on our family's behalf and alhamdulillah, everything went well so I can't wait for another cousin to get hitched ;p

Another reason why we're spending half our Aidil Adha in KL is my second brother who's currently being 'deployed' in Turkmenistan was here for a short break. So, most of our schedule revolves around him and my sis-in-law.

Since we've never celebrated Nunu's birthday together, I brought the chocolate banana cheese cake that I baked on raya eve.

 



















Erm, the candles were just for show. They're not allowed to be lit.

OK, that's all folks! Next up, my review of the famous Cuppacakes!

EID UL FITR 1430H/2009M

... and on the eve of Eid, the Raya Grinch slinked away, his scheme to steal our Raya foiled at the call of the 'takbir'.

What a whirlwind celebration. Still, it was a low key affair at my folks' home that morning. Everyone was in a jolly mood although we were missing our dearest Tok Kecik and my younger brother (who had to spend his Eid in Turkmenistan)

And me? I'm just glad the grinch left me alone for once.

MISSING YOU

"Jom tengok Nenek Kecik dalam bilik!"

"Nenek takde, sayang. Dah lupa ke, Nenek kan dah pass away hari tu?"

"Nenek dah masuk kubur ke? Yang kita siram-siram dah letak bunga-bunga tu?Dah pegi jumpa Tuhan Allah?"

The term 'Tuhan Allah' tu hasil pengaruh sinetron Sulaiman a few months ago.

"Yes, jom kita sedekah al-Fatihah kat Nenek, supaya Nenek masuk heaven, ok?"

And she proceeds to recite with much enthusiasm.

"Hmm, dulu Nuha ada dua nenek, sekarang ada saaaatu je nenek!"

"Yes, you have only one nenek now, so you must take good care of Nenek Besar ok? Mesti selalu sayang, hug and kiss and cakap lembut-lembut with Nenek. And tak boleh sombong-sombong, nanti Nenek sedih and cry."

Ugh, I despise myself for talking in such rojak language with her.

"Hmm, Nuha saaaaayang Nenek Kecik dan Nenek Besar. Jom kita tengok Nenek Besar pulak!"

We miss you, our teeny tiny Nenek. Semoga ditempatkan bersama-sama roh orang-orang yang beriman.

HAPPY THIRTY

On the day I turned 30, I was awaken by a series of annoying dog barks, which I groggily found out later was my own hacking.

In the bathroom that morning, I choked on toothpaste foam and spit out clots of greenish phlegm.

On the day I turned 30, my husband left us alone at home in favour of, what else, bowling.

In attempt to cheer up Nunu, I tried making home-made play dough, an absolute flop because she got bored with it after 5 minutes and it turned yucky afterwards.

Not to be deterred, I tried to cheer myself up by making muffins, which turned out to be a flop as well because my oven stopped working midway after I've put in the tray. Endless kitchen mishaps ensued. My spaghetti sauce turned very salty and oily, and at one point it exploded in the pot, splattering red sauce all over the white stove and floor.

On the day I turned 30, my mother came to the rescue and whisked us away to my parents home, where we put the stunted muffins in mom's oven and revived them into something edible. Everyone ate my spaghetti without complaining.

On the day I turned 30, my father turned 57.



However, the nicest thing was, Martian came by later that night and made amends, bearing gifts for us. A watch for Abah, a set of colouring book and colour pencils for Nunu...



And something sweet smelling for me.

It isn't much, but it's enough. Happy birthday Me.

RAYA IN RETROSPECT

Eid this time around is such a big bag of mixed emotions for me. Though Martian has been very generous this year and has done so much to help- sprucing up the house and yard, hiring professional cleaners, purchasing much needed new furniture, to name a few, I on the other hand managed only minimal contribution. Still, I was pretty optimistic with the approaching raya that we've got things really going our way this year and there shoudn't be any reason I could be feeling unnecessarily melancholic like I always do during raya.

I could have done better actually, if only I was struck with a very bad case of skin allergy a week before raya that rendered me almost immobile for a couple of days and Nunu had to spend a night at mak nab's. The skin on the soles of my feet healed just in time on raya eve, but it didn't help to lift my mood at all.

I felt bleak as bleak as the weather was on raya eve, especially after receiving terrible news that a special person in my life had lost her mother. We're extremely close to this family. My Tok used to babysit Bibi's father and our fathers had remained friends all these years, they're practically family to us that I've always introduced Bibi as my 'cousin' to anyone we meet.

Is there a 'proper' way to grieve? I didn't have the guts to give her a call to express my condolences, although I did talk to her husband and sent a text message to her elder sister. I wouldn't know how to deal with it. Later that night, I found distraction in cleaning the fridge and the oven, and around 3 am, found quietude in the passages of the Yaasin.

The whole family was supposed to attend my cousin's wedding in Kelantan on the 3rd day of raya, but all plans were canceled due to my grandmother's health and my father's last minute obligations. If we went to Kelantan, we could have visited Bibi's family in Terengganu, where her mother was laid to rest. And it could be a sign, that out of the blue, I stumbled upon a crumpled photograph of Bibi's wedding picture in an old paper bag in the tool shed, amongst other odds and ends.

Yes, I should call her today.

Dearest Bibi, I know words can possibly describe what you're going through right now, but I want you to know that Mama will always be in our prayers and memories. Semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat dan ditempatkan bersama orang-orang yang beriman.

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Much of the sorrow dissipated when I woke up at 6am that raya morning. Incredibly enough, the house was ready for our kenduri later that afternoon and we bundled into the car to the in law's by 8 am. Nunu, Ebby and I killed time by playing with puzzles while waiting for the rest of the family to come home from aidilfitri prayers. We then proceeded to have the usual salam-salam and bermaaf-maafan session.

Around 12, we drove back to our place in the kampung where my side of the family was preparing for the small kenduri. This was the time I felt truly blessed because everyone could make it to our home, filled their bellies with scrumptious nasi minyak and made us , especially my Tok truly happy. Which what I should have felt too right from the beginning, coz it was a time to rejoice in our togetherness.

Looks like the grinch didn't steal my raya after all.

KENDURI KENDARA

Some pics of my brother's wedding/kenduri last Saturday


Nunu with an orange mouth. I wonder if there are any ads for oranges like this


Dessert for the makan beradab, my choc and strawberries trifle, an instant hit among my sweet toothed family members


Shots above were taken by my younger bro. Anyone needs a wedding photographer within Bangsar area? Gimme a call. Bangsar yuppie, we must discuss my cut,

With parents of the groom, beaming with pride and joy

A shot of the bangsar yuppie by the official photographer


For a while, the groom sat with the keris jutting out from the samping

Another attempt to take a shot of my trifle actually (the trifle looked a little messy from the top, the drizzled chocolate were a lil smeared from the afternoon heat)

Doing the Dr Evil pinky gesture


Cramped facial muscles


We didn't hire this lovely wedding singer, tau. She's my cousin's wife. Lovely2 voice, at first we thought the song she was singing, Saloma's "Selamat Pengantin Baru" were on tape! Lama2 semua orang dah naik syeikh, lagu ajai nurul semua keluaq!

A note about the PA system and karaoke. We didn't have these during my wedding. My parents brought in the DJ this time coz they said during my wedding, I had a whole kompang team. OK, point taken. Everyone had fun taking turns at the mic anyway, even the official photographer, who happens to be my dad's cousin.

Here he was laughing and giggling at Pak Su On singing an old fogey song

The bridal suite - they're just for show you guys, but it was 100% my mom's work


A family shot- the lovely ladies at the front are my cousins and their children


My lovely, single, available cousins :)

My single, yet unavailable grandmas!

Cake! Coffee flavoured on top, choc on the bottom, covered in fresh cream in vanilla. Yummy!


My mom's work too -berkats for some lucky guests


Nunu with Mak Tok, tocang all gone - yeah she was munching oranges all afternoon!

A must shot with the sister of the groom and family (to ensure Nunu gets a cousin soon!)

GREAT EXPECTATIONS : TEARS, LAUGHTER, FUN, DISASTER (hey, that rhymes!)

Alright, where do I start? Should I stick to the fun part or spill out every single nightmarish detail about Sunday’s party? I risk sounding like a bumbling nincompoop and a complete whiny ninny, and that’s how I honestly feel anyway, for even daring having these visions of grandeur, imagining that I am this mrs incredible who has unlimited super powers to execute these party plans all by myself, all knowing too well that it’s a pretty impossible feat when I have this supertot as my sidekick (and in my hair 24/7) and her supernanny wasn’t around to babysit.

But how hard is it to come up with a simple party, with simple dishes, simple cakes and simple party decorations? Well, I surely thought everything was simple before until I finally had time to spare on Friday evening to go shopping for art supplies and snacks for the party favours. I had no choice and stuck to my guns because time is tight but I have an even tighter budget, so I went ahead with the original idea to make my own packs although I have no friggin idea how to fold the art paper into a bag, blow my own balloons although it’s impossible to get a pack of balloons with ONLY the colours of the chosen theme, and prepare the birthday banner according to plan although every single store that I went to did not sell any strings or yarn.

These babies are gonna be up there until the papers rot to pieces and fall off and the balloons shrivel up like apricots

Later that night, after Nunu sleeps at last, I didn’t see the need to hit the panic button just yet, as I sat down in front of the tv and started cutting and pasting away (being a wrapping paper hoarder FINALLY paid off, hah mom?) That somehow was a therapeutic process and I calmly laid down my strategy for the next day.

In supermommy mode, I envisioned: I would finish these party packs in the morning, go to Rena’s baby’s aqiqah do at noon with Nunu (arggghh I forgot to charge my batteries, so no cute baby pictures!), race to the office to settle some office work an pick up the jellies my assistant had volunteered to make for the party, and pick up some baking supplies on our way home. And later that night, when the girl goes to bed, I can bake those cupcakes and birthday cake in two hours, tops. On Sunday morning, I’d wake up really early to get some fresh chicken, eggs, potatoes and bread to make some chicken and potato salad, boiled egg sandwiches and pasta bake. . I'm pretty sure I can pull this all off before Nunu wakes up around her usual time, which is 10-ish. Sounds like a wonderful plan, right?

The next day, I finished the party packs and all I had to do was stuff them with tidbits and tie them all up, so I thought roping in my assistant’s help at the office would be less of a headache. When I was having lunch at baby Nadine’s aqiqah, the assistant texted me that she had to be home by 1pm because she’s expecting the plumber. I thought, okay, no problem, how hard can it be to stuff things inside a paper bag anyway?

Well, pretty hard if you have a tot who wouldn’t take a nap terrorizing the office and couldn’t make up her mind which youtube videos she wanted to watch. To make matters worse, my technician took home the laptop that I planned to let Nunu use to watch the videos so that my PC would be free and I could actually do some work. So there was a whole lot of running around in the office that Saturday evening but I worked it out and managed to finish off the party packs (and yeah, Hana, that was the reason why I didn’t get the chance to give a bday shoutout to you on that day)

Close to 6, I bundled everything inside the car, the party packs, Nunu’s stuff and stroller, the jellies that my assistant promised, AND the cranky tot herself. We swung by the baking supplies shop and she terrorized that place too. She conked out as soon as she was in the car seat, poor girl, so I took a longer route home and took my own sweet time because I wanted her to be well rested, and hopefully she'd be in deep enough slumber, she won't even wake up when we reach home. Good motherly intention, right? Crappy decision, I say! We arrived close to nine, and she woke up well rested indeed and terrorized the house summore! This time, it's "Mama, kung! Takut nuu... (whining and pointing at imaginary monsters on TV)... Mama, kunggggg!!!" Like Sasha likes to say, 'belakang all senget'...

I was so pooped but the supertot wasn't and it was well beyond midnight when we finally turn in. There goes my late night baking plans.

You may guess that I have a recipe for disaster all laid out for me, because when I woke up the next day, and in a cupcake baking frenzy, the little terror decided to wake up earlier than expected, at 7.30 am! Dear lord, on a normal Sunday, she won't even open her eyes till 11 if I don't go up and wake her! Don't even ask where Martian was, because it's just the same - dia ada ke, dia takdak ke, I'm always the one responsible to babysit the girl (unless I'm in the shower or praying)

So, I didn't get to go out to do the marketing, and to my horror, I found out I was out of sugar, cocoa powder and cooking chocolate! Silly me, I've forgotten that I've used some of those to make chocolate syrup for pancakes the week before. So there goes my plan to bake a chocolate birthday cake that morning. Anxiety finally gripping my stomach, I bathed and fed Nunu, did a quick cleaning up, and planned to go out to the shop coz I still needed some yarn or strings and crepe paper for the decorations.

When Martian woke up, he said he needed to go to the shop too to get some paper cups and err.. other stuff he was responsible for (he's in charge of the main course, his famous keow tiau goreng!) When I showed him my shopping list, he made a big deal out of it and questioned my ability to 'perform' all these miracles. Well, IMHO if we worked fast, of course I can! So fine, nak mintak tolong beli ayam pun susah, I ditched the chicken and potato salad idea. I have time to prepare the pasta bake while Nunu's occupied with Astro Ceria reruns and before Martian got back from the grocery shop and took over the kitchen to prepare his keow tiau.

So I got the pasta bake sauce ready and all I had to do later was to boil the macaroni and layer it up and top the casserole with cheese and I'm done. The next thing I did was raid the stationery shop where I finally found some orange and pink crepe papers and a ball of pink yarn. There was even a small baking supply shop near my kampung which I didn't know of, so I got my chocolates there. I was tempted to buy a ready made or a cake mix to make my life simpler, god knows why I was so stubborn/gundu. Then, Nunu saw the same mr Doraemon whom she hasn't seen for ages, so I don't know how much time we spent over there.

We came back just in time for lunch, and I got started with the party decorations right away, in between feeding the psyched up tot some yoghurt and blowing balloons till my cheeks were numb. Martian was still not done in the kitchen and I had trouble putting Nunu for her nap because of the darn exciting balloons.

this is the best I can come up with

Before I knew it, it was already 3pm, and the guests were expected at 4! I had no cake, no pasta bake, a cranky tot and a cranky husband. I should have gone bloomin' bonkers by then!

I managed to park Nunu in front of the tv to watch this new show that she likes so much, and as much as I know it is impossible to bake a cake in less than an hour's time, I did it anyway. When I put the cake in the oven, Nunu too had some cakes in her diaper. So I had her scrubbed and cleaned up, and that was when the first batch of guests came! Luckily, they were just my in laws, so they all helped me finish up for the preparation.

no time to make fancy patterns, but mil said these are nice enuff, so on sajalah!

Before I knew it, other guests came pouring in, and they brought in lotsa food too! Suddenly, the dining table looked like a decent banquet (haha and all I made was 'em lousy cuppies!) So yeah, I was relieved I didn't finish making the pasta bake, or else they'd be too much leftovers and I hate to see things go to waste.

I admit I was a little sheepish when they asked about the cake. Actually, SIL bongsu volunteered to buy a cake earlier that week, but I didn't want to trouble anyone with cake, because hey, it's not often that I have a valid reason to bake a cake, so when the occasion calls for one, it's only logical that I should come up with the cake, right?

But I gave up on the cake already when I lost my focus and couldn't be bothered to see how it was in the oven. Dah tawar hati. I took it out to prevent it from burning and just left it to cool, while trying to pacify the now extra cranky Nunu, entertaining guests, and seeing things in the kitchen.

SIL came in the kitchen and asked where the nice smell came from. I showed her the sinking cake, and told her there was no way I was gonna serve that hideous thing. She took a pinch to taste the cake and said, "Tapi sedap!"

A few more people came in to help and encouraged me to 'pimp the cake' up. Haha, Mak Baik and Mak Yuh said, "Alang-alang ada cake, belasah ajer lah!" so we all had such a laugh and the kitchen was wild with commotion when there were too many hands involved in the decoration.

Mak Yuh: Nana letak butterfly kat tepi ajer tau, bukan kat tengah.

Mak Baik: Flower letak sini, flower letak sini.

Nana: Nana nak letak! Kak Anne, Nana letak sini k?

Mak Baik: No no no, tak simetri! Sini sini sini!

Me: Uik, Mak Baik, I don't know you're THAT anal.

Mak Baik: I can't help it, I'm an accountant! *buahahahahahhaha*

Nana: *proceeded to put a BLUE candy on top of the cake*

Mak Baik & Mak Yuh: NANA!!!! YOU'RE FIRED!!!

Hihihi, poor Nana, she was just trying to be helpful! So, this was the cake.


pinky, isn't this the most gempak cake you've ever seen?


well at least Nunu had a birthday cake, so there was a reason for us to sing the birthday song after all


this is how it looked like when the still-warm cake sank completely and melted off the frosting

As for the birthday girl, I had to apologize to everybody for her crankiness that day. She was practically an extra limb on me and wouldn't let anyone carry her. My arms are still sore to this day, and I swear there is an obvious bulge on my left biceps that wasn't there before. When everybody gathered to have a short du'a recitation for her, she freaked out to see so many people and demanded to stay in her room, I had no choice but to pacify her in the room.

Tok Ma and Tok Bah


Uncle Boy and Aunty Nor

As soon as the doa was over and the guests started eating, all the kids went into her play room and literally trashed that place! But thankfully, Nunu lightened up a bit and had fun 'entertaining' her guests. Unfortunately, while having too much fun, she didn't look where she was going and bonked her head on the door frame, resulting to a nasty vertical bump.

the kids - akif and yana came by later and I forgot to snap their pics

Alhamdulillah, although there was a lot of tears involved, I wouldn't trade this day for anything else in the world. Things were difficult at first, but as things revealed to me later, a lot of people who care made it much easier for me and got me thinking to not sweat over the small stuff too much.

thank you, everyone!!!

You can hardly call this a 'loot', but what's more important is the du'a that comes from the people who are close to us. And of course, Nunu won't be able to remember what happened that day, but as long as I'm still around, I sure am gonna let her know how it went.

At least, I'll make it memorable here in this blog :)

And let's see if I learn my lesson when it's time for her third birthday party :) :) :)