Alhamdulillah.. Ramadhan is here!

Wishing all of you a blessed Ramadhan.

*(pic googled from the net)

Countdown to Eid, three times a day..

"Mommy, another 8 days, right?"
"Mommy, can I have NinjaGo Lego instead of the Pirates Lego?"
"Mommy, can we go watch CARS after Raya?"

Unlike previous years, this time Amin definitely feel the heat warmer than anyone else.
He will talk about Eid during Iftar, after Terawih prayers, and during Sahur.
I promised him a NinjaGo toys for full complete fasting.
But from time to time, he changed his mind and wanting other toys.
It's like he has constantly been thinking on what he wants as the reward.
Because he knows that he's gonna finish fasting with flying colours.

So, how are your preparations for Eid going this year?
A friend of mine once created an Eid check-list last year, which sorry to say I couldn't find the file to share it with you today.
However, here's my check-list.

As far as I can recall, I never go to the extend of changing the furniture, or buying new curtains, or new carpets for Eid celebration.
I believe my parents never did so either.
We just changed to freshly washed curtains, vacuum the house, wipe the dusty furniture, cleaned the windows and drainage and mopped the floors.
Other items currently in check-list will be:

• New clothes a.k.a baju raya (just the clothes, no raya shoes needed)
• Cookies and titbits for visitors (usually we'll make some but since mom not here during Ramadhan, so no home-made cookies this year)
• Money envelope a.k.a angpaw covers (we'll try to get the free ones from the supermarket or banks)
• The money to put inside the angpaw (standard rate is about RM1 for the kampung kids and either RM5 or RM10 for relatives, age relevant of course)
• Mercun a.k.a firecrackers. (favourites are the thunderclap and kingkats.. yup, this is a must!)

So, what's in your check-list this year?

(pics googled from the net)

I'm kinda tired, at the moment

It's 16th day of Ramadhan.
Another half a month left to go.
But I'm already tired.
Tired of thinking.

(pics googled from the net)

Have to think of what to eat for Iftar, and Sahur, every single day.
For the sake of Amin, my 7 year old.
To make sure he still has the appetite to eat and continue to fast the following day.
Oh this is sooo difficult.
I've already run out of ideas.
Especially when I can't even feel my taste buds now.
Got fever recently and tonsillitis, and flu.
Badly lost my appetite for the past week.

But I salute my son, Amin.
Obviously, he is a simple person.
Everytime I asked him what to eat for Sahur, he will give the simplest solution.
The other day he requested for toasted bread with fried sunny-side up egg.
And there was time he suggested we order up lasagne and chicken wings from Domino's pizza before we sleep so that he can eat it for Sahur.

I don't care what he wants, I will get it.
As long as he eats up.
So far so good, he has been fasting full day.
Mommy so proud of you, Amin!

If you have any brilliant ideas on what's to serve for Iftar and Sahur, kindly list them up.
I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks all !! 

50% off Ramadhan Buffet at Singgahsana!

Hooray!!
It's 50% off for the first and last 3 days of Ramadhan.
I can't believe I missed out on this for the past few years, coz Singgahsana Hotel have been doing this every year without fail.

Looking forward for breaking fast today.


(pics googled from the net)

First Sahur for this Ramadhan..

.. and he requested for fried mee (indome maggie to be exact) with sliced hotdogs and mix vege..
with favourite drink shake of fresh milk + Hershey's chocolate syrup + whipped cream. 

 Such an easy boy to please.

Hope he makes it through today.

Happy Ramadhan !

Since I'm not in the mood to blog, and in case if this feeling prolonged, I'd like to wish all my readers a Happy Ramadhan.

Please forgive me for all my wrong doings.

Hope that this fasting month will be smooth and easy breezy for us all, and may our Iftar be fun and joyous!


(pics googled from the net)

Let the countdown begin!

Another 5 more days to the most awaited fasting month of Ramadhan.

Both of my parents will be boarding the plane to the holy land, Mecca to spend the whole month there.
Something that mom has been planning for so long.
I'm happy for them.. of course.. even wished that I could come along.
But, maybe just not my time, yet.
I'm already feeling like this is gonna be one very sad Ramadhan for me..
Sob.. sob..

(pics googled from the net)

Syawal Greeting

It's 1st Syawal, the Eid ul-Fitr celebration, to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadhan.
By the time this auto schedule post generated, my family and I are out of town celebrating Eid in Pekan, Pahang.

It's a fisherman's village, on the east side of Peninsular Malaysia, breezing the South China Sea air.

Just to share with you my kids art work for this celebration.

Amin came home last week, happily flaunting this greeting card he made at nursery, together with a paper woven basket.

He said he painted them all, and weaved it, but teacher was the one who cut the strips of paper and then stapled them together to make a basket.

The basket was filled with cornflakes cookies, which the teachers made.
And none of us are allowed to eat it until Raya !

Arif was very excited to snatch this from Big Bro Amin but of course, Amin put this high up the shelf.
I thought this was it, until the next day, Arif came home with his own basket of cornflakes cookies!
(which yeah, the teachers made all this of course, as Arif is just 2 yrs old, which I doubt he made it, anyways.. LOL)

Hence, now we have 2 basket of cornflakes cookies, and since Arif has his own basket, yes, all cookies have been eaten within that very hour !

Once again, my family and I would like to wish you Happy Eid ul-Fitr.

May your Eid be celebrated with joy and happiness.

Please forgive us for all our wrong doings.

Take care and Muahhhsss to all !!

Chapter 4 : Let the fun begin

Last step is to boil the Ketupats.

It's going to take a few hours, with several times changing & refilling the boiling water.

Do not forget the tips to lather the outer part of the pot with oil and paper, so that cleaning the pot later, will be easier.

And what better way to spend the time waiting for the Ketupat to cook, other than get together in a circle, and play the sepak takraw !

Chapter 3 : Lock & Loaded

The last step is to lock the Ketupats up, by weaving in the top part and tighten up any loose ends.
Then, knot them up in fives before cooking.
The final count for this year, is 150 pieces of Ketupats !

Chapter 2 : Quality Control

This is the most important part of all, stuffing the ketupat with rice.
Looks easy but actually you have to make sure it is in slightly more than half, but not reaching three quarter the volume of the ketupat size.
If you accidentally put more, the rice will be too hard when cooked, and if you put less, it'll be too soft and mushy.
Hence, that's why we called this phase, the QC phase.
Similar to years before, hubby is the appointed chief for QC.

Chapter 1 : The art of weaving

In the event of Eid ul-Fitri celebration tomorrow, our must have is the Ketupat.
First step is to weave the coconut leaves into Ketupat shape.
Yes, proud to say that I am born to do this.  It's like a ritual for every Eid celebration.
Maybe later I'll make a special entry on the step by step to weaving this Ketupat.
For now, we have to get as many done as possible!

Hooray !!

HAPPY EID UL-FITR ,

TO ALL MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD !

We'll be on leave for the Eid celebration, from 8th till 19th Sept 2010.

Yippeeeeeee !!

To those travelling back to hometown, remember to drive carefully, and always put safety first, plan your journey ahead.

May your Eid be celebrated with joy and happiness.
Please forgive me for all my wrong doings.
Take care and Muahhhsss to all !!

(pics googled from the net)

When life gives you egg..

..lets make omelet ! hehehe..

This was our sahur (meal before dawn) today.

So, what's your's?

Going Western

The most famous everyday question for this month of Ramadhan is:

" What to eat for breaking-fast today? "

And today's answer is "Let's go western style!"

Take the fish fillets, buttered up, steamed and then baked in the oven.

Then steamed the broccoli..

..the potatoes.. the carrots..

..served with Campbell's mushroom soup

.. and as for desserts, strawberries dipped with Hershey's chocolate syrup and whipped cream !

So.. what did you have for today ?

Good Luck, everybody !!

..in seeking for Lailatul- Qadr !! *wink*

Step 3 : Getting jiggy with it

Yeah.. let's get it started shall we.

Just to let you know that I did not sow it according to what has been sketched.
All went out the window, as soon as I started needling the sleeve!
Check out my first well-made flower! (after the 3rd attempt)

Moving on to flower number 2.

And the excitement kicked in instantly !

And I figured that I'll randomly sow the leftovers beads in between the flowers.

In case you're wondering, I'm sowing beads onto this one and only baju kurung because the patter is just too plain simple to me, and since it's silk, I'm gonna dry clean it anyways, hence I don't have to worry for the beads to fall off during cleaning either, right?

And just for the record, yes, this is my very first attempt at beading.
It seems that this year, beading is the current trend.
It is kinda expensive to get it done by the tailors / professional beaders, and not only that I'm a cheapskate towards that (coz all my money dedicated for my possession towards handbags! LOL), but also I am very picky because the result is not seen before, get it?  It means that I could be telling the tailor / beader to do like this bla bla bla, but in the end, it will turn out differently and I'm not sure either I will like it, or loath it.. get what I mean?
So, therefore, I'm taking the plunge and take matters into my own hands.

So, what do you think?
Is this o.k?
Too little?
Or too much?

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics.. will get better pics when done.

Sumsum berlauk has returned !

I love weekends (and holidays)!
For the reason that all my relatives around Klang Valley will get together to break-fast at one place.
And once again this week, the ever so famous sumsum berlauk, made its comeback!

True, I don't know how to make this.
But my grandma does ! Hehe..
Ok, I'll make an entry of it, one of these days, if I managed to get her to spill me the how-to.

Our family tree is genormous.
And during gathering times like this, we have to split ourselves up to eat.
The male clan usually gets to dine on the table.

And the ladies plus kiddies, get to have the real dining experience.

Feast your eyes on the ever so delicious and plenty of desserts !
You wouldn't even noticed that our main meal was Curry Mee ! bwahahaha

Here's some of my cousins, patiently waiting for the Azan.

Yeayyyy.. another 9 more days to go till Eid !!

My lunch..

Not mine, of course,.

It's Arif;s, to be exact.

As he's too young to be fasting.

And it always worries me that I'm not feeding him enough.

But I'm glad to report that he successfully finished the whole piece of 1901 hotdog for lunch.

Good boy !

Now lets continue shopping, shall we.. hehe..

Weekend getaway..

We gonna be having a long weekend ahead.

Today is a public holiday due to Nuzul Al-Quran,a national event to mark the revelation of the first verses of the holy book to Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

The celebration is one of the highlights of the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan.

And coincidentally, our Independence Day falls on 31st August, hence, another public holiday is coming.
So we decided to take the leave, and go somewhere.
The destination, none other than, Penang.

But instead of hanging out at relatives house at Kepala Batas, we decided to check into Krystal Suite, which located in the line of sight to the Queensbay Mall.
Hmm.. I can feel the shopping vibe kicking in..
Lets just see how bad the damages will be, later..