Snow Day: Winter Snow Juno

Delayed posting. But this was during Winter Storm Juno last week on Jan 26. We were bracing for very bad weather and thick snow storm about 18inches high (almost 2 feet!). Juno was said to be the worst winter storm since 3 years ago. We were released early around 3pm on the day before the storm as it will start that night itself on Jan 26 and to continue till Jan 26, 2015. People needed to buy food supplies such as bread, eggs, milk to prepare to be holed up at home, kids would be out of school, we need to prep the house before the storm comes - just shoveling snow and putting salt on the sidewalk so it won't be icy underneath all that snow.



So this is me on Jan 26 and I just reached home. Had to stop buy the store to buy some eggs because we were out! My face was burning from the cold and my cheeks were hurting because the snow was coarse and felt like little stones hitting me. My coat was all covered in snow. But still had to pose before I go into the house

Winter wonderland. Snow covered trees



Which was actually in my backyard

the aftermath in the morning

Front of the house. The Hubs shoveled snow for the pathway

again my backyard and the garage was covered with a white blanket

Snow wasn't that thick after all, less than 10 inches definitely

Perspective from below. when snow piled up it looked like a mountain of snow

We had a nice snow day on Jan 27. Weather wasn't that cold when snow was falling but it got colder the next day. So it was nice to be at home with a hot drink or soup

Salam Ramadhan 2012

Selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa Ramadhan 2012

Sabtu 21 Julai 2012 (1 Ramadhan 1433 Hijrah)

Semoga amalan kita diberkati Allah. Amin 

Passport & Immigration Services

Based on true events

Sunday night: 
Flying overseas the next day at 11.20am by AirAsia with passport validity less than 6 months

Monday morning:
Queue at Immigration office Putrajaya at 7.30am. Counter opens at 8am. Go next door to snap passport picture & photocopy of IC. Queue again with completed form and payment at 8.50am. Passport ready at 9.30am, process takes only 40 minutes. Rush to LCCT and check in around 10.20am. Fly off to destination at 11.20am. Phew*
*Warning: Do not try this in the near future as it may induce anxiety.


In a nutshell
If you are planning to travel overseas, please make sure that your passport's validity is at least 6 months before the expiry date, or you may not be allowed to leave the country at all. The situation above is purely situational. What if the immigration office was offline and they couldn't process the passport? Then you won't be able to fly unless AirAsia postpones the flight.

How to know validity of your passport? Please read this blogspot by Nina Mustaffa.

 

Immigration Services
There are a few ways to renew passport:

Counter
There are some branches which opens on Saturday and Sunday from 8am - 1pm. So even if you are super busy you can still do your passport on the weekend. List of the Immigration offices that opens on weekend are here. This is still the most reliable form of passport update as it takes about 1 hour once you have made the payment (provided that you are early in getting the queue no.).

Kiosk
Person has to be manually there to key in personal info and drop the old passport. However, I was in Immigration office a few times but did not find the kiosk to be helpful as it was always out of service. One time I noticed that the officer would go to the kiosk and take out the applications to be processed manually. So it will take more time than queuing at the counter.


Online
For convenience, Immigration has also set up an online process at MyONLINE*PASSPORT. Very convenient but also at a risk of Immigration to reject application if pic is not up to the standard. You can specify branch and date that you want the collect the passport. However, it also mentioned that it may take two hours to collect depending on branch.


Good luck!

Skype Surprise - Not!!!

Technology is wonderful. But when someone abuse that, it becomes a nightmare. Think hackers, trolls, identity theft, etc.

Around 7pm yesterday I was at my desk doing work on my laptop, and suddenly my skype was blinking with a message. I got a message from an ex-colleague whom I only chatted a few times on skype previously. And this was out of the blue as we haven't chatted in ages - probably about 1 year or so after she left. Her profile picture was that of a cute furry kitten and truth be told I vaguely remembered her as most people, she used her nickname on skype. So we exchanged a few lines and said she wants to call me on skype. To be honest, I didn't want to talk to her because:

 

1. she left the company in a less than ideal way, and 

2. I don't possibly know what she wants to talk about - I was thinking maybe she wants to talk about employment opportunity (as we were interviewing some people but nothing in her line).

So naturally, I hold off for a good 15 mins while I settled my task in hand. Untill I feel ready to face her. She was offline. Then after a few minutes she was online again and placed a call on my skpe. I accepted the call, after a few second waited for the other caller to appear on the web cam. Lo and behold, there was a naked male torso with his *peep* erected. Mind you it was not a very attractive sight. Would help a bit if he has six pack but all I can see was his several love handles. Yucks! I quickly exit the chat but realised that the call was still on, so I had to open the skype box again with the guy still doing things to his *peep* and close it off properly. What a nightmare!

This morning I blocked and report abuse to skype. Hope I never meet that creep again!!

Al-Fatihah

Al-Fatihah to the victims in Datuk Sosilawati's murder case. Takziah to all the family members. I can not imagine what they are going thru now....

This is not a claim to fame, arwah Ahmad Kamil & wife were the same batch with me in Matrics IIU in 96'. However, we are not in contact after IIU but friends used to bring updates about ex-IIU students, so we knew bits and pieces about other friends, including them.

Its sad and shocking to hear something like this happened to somebody we used to know. May arwah be in a better place now & Allah cucuri rahmatNya. May Allah give peace of mind to the families...Ameen

Hope the bastards who did this crime will be caught and heavily punished....Insya Allah..

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak and Maaf Zahir & Batin to my family and friends.

Hope our celebration is in moderation so that we won't gain back all the kilos that we had shed during the fasting month :p

Happy Burffday to Me...Yeay!

What a fun birthday this turns out to be. I turned 32 today!!

Last night had an awesome iftar with 2 good friends at TGI Friday's in Wangsa Walk. Ate till I puked afterwards - we ordered the Ramadhan set which had 3 appetizers & 3 main course. Ate till we can't eat anymore. Then had a nightcap at Bangi Kopitiam branch - met a couple of friends till around 12++. Tapau-ed the leftovers from TGIF and I ate them for sahur, but unfortunately puked again. Damn! I must be allergic to the fried mac & cheese. What a shame....

Anyway, we had a Hari Raya video shoot this morning. Everyone was told beforehand to doll up in our finest Hari Raya get ups - the girls in kebayas and baju kurungs and the boys in baju Melayu with songkok, and the odd mat salleh in baju batik!



The video director arranged us in lines, and I had to be in my tippy toes so that my face can be seen. Then the boss have to say a few words and have to shout out the raya cheers and waved to the camera and salam each other.


The boys (2 boys missing from this pic). Note the mat salleh wearing songkok(He's actually our consultant)...hehe...we should buy him a proper baju Melayu with all the trimmings - butang, songkok, sampin, even chapal - to get him ready for all the Hari Raya open houses.



The girls mainly in shades of purple, pink & green


The gediks (ok its just me who's gedik) - secondees from our old job

The Birthday Celebration

We had a birthday celebration at Chili's for Ms Fantaghiro's birthday after work on Wednesday.


Ms Fantaghiro in her many vain poses

Ms Fantaghiro doing her best Amanda pose


Ms Fantaghiro with her birthday card


Ms Fantaghiro with her Southwestern lamb grill. Yummy!


Ou regular menu at Chili's - the Triple Play's awesome!

Ms Fantaghiro happy and full

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MS FANTAGHIRO!

Critically acclaimed vain pot, Ms Fantaghiro

Its her birthday today!!

Ms Fantaghiro has many passions in life

10 things that she loves:

1. She loves food of all kind, but mostly she loves Chilis

2. In love with Bradley James - from Merlin

3. In love with Jang Hyuk - from Slave Hunter

4. Love all the pretty boys - Used to love Ben Barnes

5. Loves stripper shoes

6. Loves Kopitiam

7. Loves to be a couch potato

8. Loves magic-related series - Charmed, Merlin

9. Loves books

10. Loves Hindustani movies & songs - though at one moment in her life she boycotted them

10 things that Ms Fantaghiro hates:

1. The heat - it gives her migraine

2. Migraines

3. Other vain pots - nobody can topple her crown of vainness

4. Skanky b*****s

5. Rude drivers

6. Rude people in general

7. Cruelty to animals

8. Being called fat

9. BlueHyppo

10. Undisciplined parents & children

So, Happy Birthday Ms Fantaghiro

Many Happy returns of the day

May Allah bless you always

May we remain good friends no matter how...

Of being philantrophic and managing your finance

I was at the mall last Friday, just walking around doing some shopping. I felt a bit hungry and decided to buy one of those Auntie Anne's pretzels sour cream & onion. As I was sitting down beside the kiosk, I saw this chinese lady peeling some nuts with her employee (I guessed she was the employer). First they were quiet, then suddenly the aunty started to talk him and telling him how she was involved with her church charity groups, reaching out to the poor, giving donations and help to those in need.

It started me thinking that I haven't done much charity, that maybe I've been selfish with my quest to achieve the ultimate comfortable state of life. The only charity I'd done is giving away some old clothes and monthly donations to MAKNA, which I can say is quite meagre. Behind my apartment is an orphange, but I'm ashamed to say that I've never donated anything to them, be it in cash or kind. I don't know, maybe it's hard to make the first move to approach them and tell them that I want to donate something. My mum always say, if you want to donate to those kids, bring them food. She'd brought some food over for supper and she said that the kids were very delighted to see it.

I guess that's why I never have enough money in my hands. Maybe I make more than some, minus all the debts, some contribution to the family, I have enough left. Always just enough, never in abundance. Also I am quite the spendthirft, so that's the more reason. Maybe my money is not berkat, coz I don't give it away much. It is said that a portion of your money belongs to someone else, maybe a friend in need or giving to charity. I think the lesson for me is: I need to give more to charity. I should start somehwere, no matter how small. The first step is the most important.

Earthquake 30 Sept 2009

I was still in the office around 6.15pm yesterday with 3-4 colleagues when I felt the tremors the first time. I thought I was probably dizzy because I was having a headache due to exposure to the sun and I was fasting sunat Syawal, so I thought it was just me feeling malnourished. My chair was shaking and I thought it was the wheels moving. Then I got up to make sure that either I was dizzy or the building was moving and said to no one in particular, "Is it just me or is the building moving?". Assured nothing happened, I sat down and continued iwth my emails. Then Tasha came and asked me if I felt the building moved, and I said yes, I thought it was just my imagination, and then wham! Both of us felt the tremors again, this time around more visible than the last because we were aware of it and we saw the leaves of the office plants moving. I said to Tasha let's get out of the office, now! We switched off our PCs and collected our bags and quickly went to the lift, praying that there won't be any tremors. A lot of things were playing in my minds, would I make it out alive? would there be any more tremors? I was scared. The elevator came soon enough and it was packed with people. I met En Wan, one of the Directors and asked him if he had felt the trmors, and like me he said, I was having a headache and I thought that was it. Alhamdullillah we reached the lobby without any incident. Later on, I heard on the radio, an earthquake had hit Sumatra with 7.7 richter scale and its tremors were felt in Malaysia, including Angkasapuri. Tsunami alert for Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

Lets pray for the victims of the earthquake in West Sumatra and the tsunami victims in Samoa.

Eid Ul Fitri Mubarak

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin kepada semua...
Jangan terlebih makan ketupat/rendang/lemang/lontong..nanti sakit perut..
Berhati-hati di jalanraya ketika balik kampung/pergi beraya...
kecelakaan boleh menimpa di mana2 sahaja...

Happy Birthday kepada Kak Shira, ibu kepada tiga anak, bakal calon Phd, kawan sekolah dan geng Taekwondo masa zaman Uni. Mudahan persahabatan kita kekal sepanjnag hayat walaupun kita semua dah sibuk dengan kehidupan masing2.

Ayu & baby Johan Iskandar

We just came back from visiting Mummy Liza Idayu, who had safely given birth to a very healthy baby boy, named Johan Iskandar. He weighs 3.1kg and was delivered in Pusrawi KL. CONGRATS TO AYU & KHAIRIL

Mummy Ayu yang glowing dan happy jer

Kolat yg terencat and Ms Fantaghiro with her "Gollum" pose

Baby Johan Iskandar, born 26 August 2009

Me and Mummy Ayu

Me and Ayu were neighbours from both our parents home in Taman Perwira Gombak. She was emcee at my wedding, and I was the emcee at her wedding. She is currently teaching in SM Teknik Dungun. Again, congrats to both new parents. I'm sure they are both over the moon with their bundle of joy!

Cake Deco Class with Yasmin Sanusi

Yasmin Sanusi's book on caked deco using fondant

Salam Ramadhan to all..

Yesterday was our cake deco class with Yasmin Sanusi, organized by Aza De Kaza who is Puspanita's Pengerusi Kraftangan & Keusahawanan. The class was RM190 for a 5-hour session and there were 15 participants in the class. We were taught how to make cupcakes, buttercream icing, how to ice a cake, decorate cupcakes with 6 different designs - Elmo, teddy bear, clown, swirl, rabbit, and one decorated with coloured piping gel. More info on cake decorating class can be found on Yasmin Sanusi's website.

I'm not really a fan of cupcakes but the ones that Kak Yasmin baked in class was the yummiest and fluffiest I've ever tasted. It was a basic yellow cupcake recipe in which she substituted vanilla essence with orange flavour. She'd also taught us how to fill in piping bags with buttercream, some neat tips on how to soften or harden the buttercream, depending on what you want to decorate. If you want to make a sitting clown, then you should harden the buttercream by sifting in more icing sugar, you know its stiffer when you spoon just stands in the icing. If you want to make some delicate motif like leaves, then add more milk to soften it.

Kak Yasmin explaining how to make buttercream icing by slowly (medium speed) creaming shortening, butter, icing sugar, milk/whip cream, cream of tartar, some salt and vanilla essence. Must be patient and give ample time for the buttercream to turn out nice and fluffy

Kak Yasmin demosntrating us how to make shell motif on the cake

Yours truly decorating a cake with woven basket techniques on the side and shell motif at bottom of cake and star motif on top of cake. My cake's is 90% done as shown here

Voila! The cake done with roses, leaf and branch motif. We learned how to make the roses from scratch. And kak Yasmin showed how to make two-tone rose. But mine's not so beautiful lah...kembang semacam jer rose tuh hehe

Elmo's furry face was made with piping tip with lots of small holes, same technique for making grass, then his eyes, nose and mouth were shaped from coloured fondants. The star cupcake were filled in with coloured piping gel, the same piping gel that were mix into buttercream to make it more smooth and shiny. The sitting-down clown was made using building up techinque to form its body, the icing should be a bit sitffer so that you can put the clown's head (non edible)

The proud owner of decorated cupcakes

Aza De Kaza with her cupcakes. During the class, she kept saying "Ini bukan bidang aku!" And look how her cupcakes turned out! I believe anyone can do it, just need to learn the techniques

Soon to be mummy, Teena with her cupcakes. She also made some of the most beautiful roses in the class.

Mother of four - Kak Lin, proudly displaying her decorated cake and cupcakes.

All in all, it was a fun and quite tiring 5 1/2 hours of class, but we did learn a lot! Kak Yasmin did a really good job teaching us the decorating techniques. Now I know what's its all about, I can decorate my own cupcakes! Next, I would like to learn cake deco using fondant with kak Yasmin, which she I believe is more of her specialty. Look in her website and you'll see many creative things that she had created from fondant such as the burger cake and cactus cupcake.

*FYI: Cake and cupcakes that I decorated yesterday were given to my neighbour who have 5 children, they were so delighted to see the decorated cupcakes:)

Pengumuman Puasa

Puasa pada 22 Ogos 2009 (Sabtu)

BONUS!!

*Click to enlarge image

Water + Lemon = FRESH!

Image taken from Tupperware Malaysia

One thing that I loved more than clear soup is....lemon slices in cold water! It's just so damn refreshing, especially in these hot, hot days. I've always been intrigued by Tupperware's catalogue supplied by Aja, my SIL-cum-Tupperware dealer, with images of tumbler full of water with lemon slices immersed in the cool, cool water. Never had the guts to do it, coz I was afraid that the water would turn bitter with the lemon + skin soaked for long periods... Boy, was I wrong! I had a couple of leftover lemon slices, courtesy from the Lemon Chicken Rice takeout from Pak Li's Kopitiam near my house. Waste not, I always said. So I washed the lemon slices and dunked them in my 1 litre Tupperware tumbler and let it cool in the fridge for a few hours. The result was HEAVENLY!! and I had reused the two slices of lemon again and again, still fresh and lemony, so kira ok lah tu...haha sungguh perak dengan air rendam lemon, tapi itulah hakikatnya tuan-tuan dan puan-puan....cubalah hari ini!! Tp ingat, tak payah letak gula pun dh best gila. Beats drinking plain water, and suitable for those who are trying to wean off sugary drinks. Don't add any sugar! You don't need the extra sugar.

Thank God my blood sugar is normal!

Our Photoshoot

Nice eh?Compliments to Geoffrey, our photographer of the day. We wanted to have a special memory before Ms Jam left for Brunei, so we had our pics taken at Carcosa Seri Negara after work.

Take it from the top: Nuwal, Noriah, Emi, Kamilia & Jamilah.

This shot was inspired by Che Yah. Best of all I looked kurus heh heh

I'd always wondered how this kind of photo was shot. Maybe the model was jumping on trampoline or that they were supper skinny or very good athletes that they could jump very high. The trick is simple, which the photographer have to shoot this crouching down or from a low angle, and the model, which in this pic ces't moi, was jumping as high as she could. And the result, Voila! Me jumping ridiculously high almost reaching the rooftop. It's a wonder that I hadn't actually broke the heel of my sandals as they were very thin and had to support my considerable body weight after each jump!

Award from Salfaryna

Many thanks to Mrs Salfaryna for the award, which says "Uber Amazing Blog"! I'm quite touched as I haven't exactly been updating my blog...so maybe this will inspire me to start blogging again ;)

Award from TiNiE

First time ever dapat award and post it on my blog....thanks TiNiE!!!

Now, I'd like to award: Noreez Azlan, Hnyhar, La Signora, Salfaryna, Kerabu Jantung, The Silent Scribbler, Ziah, Aza De Kaza & Sue

Thank you, thank you...I feel like a star!!!!!