Ceri & Belang & Kucing Gemuk

Kucing.....kucing......kucing.....tak ada cerita apa2, just nak share gambar masa time makan kucing ni.....

Tunggu masa nak makan, kalau bukan masa makan tak nampak batang hidung!

Dah puas mengiau, Ceri rileks kejap

Ni sebab Ceri diberi nama Ceri - byk spots kat badannya

Kucing gemuk ni pun tunggu makan

Belang berehat depan rumah lepas dh kenyang

Tunggu Belang makan dulu

Ceri & Kucing gemuk (yang sebenarnya agak manja sebab nak makanan kot)

Too nice to handle

I was informed that I am too "nice" - coming from a colleague who have been working together with me for the past 10 years, and thus probably thinks that he/she have an authority to inform me on this matter. This colleague mentioned that 10 years ago I was too naive and thinks everybody is "good". Obviously judging from my colleague's tone, that it was an error in my character because whenever the colleague and some other colleagues tried to bitch about somebody that I know, I would say that people is basically good. I was probably mentioning something positive or an unknown fact about the person that they seem to have beef with. So this makes it hard for them to bitch or gossip about other people to me as I was perceived as too nice to participate in this bitching ritual.

What is wrong with this picture? Is being nice/good considered a flaw in a person these days? Or is it because I don't participate in their vicious gossips and probably a deterrent in rumour mongering among themselves? I don't know.

They were glad that I have grown up and became more skeptical about people. Maybe I have grown up and have a different perspective about how the world works now but in my heart of heart, I still think people is good. Unless they have proven otherwise to me. Maybe thinking that everyone is good is a dangerous notion in this day and age because we don't know if that person might be a psycho or harbouring something dark in their heart. What this colleague perceived as me being more skeptical most probably came from my knowledge of things happening around the office, and thus made me privy to information most people don't know of.

They probably think if they bitch about a particular person that I know, maybe somehow I would pass on the message. I think that is their business and would not meddle with gossipers who probably have nothing better to do than pick a beef with somebody just because they are weird or do not confirm to their social standards. Hello, not everyone is born a gossiper. I don't need to know what's happening with so and so, if it doesn't concern or have an effect on me. Probably I am better off without the gossips so I don't have a share for it later in akhirat. Wallahu a'lam.

FYI, I am still nice. Deal with it.

Mee Goreng Basah ala BP

Mee goreng basah

Hari cuti ni saya cuba goreng mee resipi Kak Anim (kak ipar) yang saya dapat masa balik dari Batu Pahat hujung minggu lepas dan lepas tu tokok tambah secukup rasa.

Boleh kata menjadi jugak sebab saya tak pernah buat mee goreng dan rasanya boleh tahan, agak pedas dan berperisa sebab ada udang.

Ramuan:
500gm mee kuning - basuh & toskan
5 ulas bawang kecil merah
3 ulas bawang putih
8-10 ekor udang kering
1 sudu besar makan cili boh
1 sudu besar makan cili sos
1 sudu besar makan tomato sos
1 sudu besar kicap atau sos tiram
10 ekor udang basah saiz sederhana - dibuang kulit dan dibersihkan.
Kulit & kepala udang direbus untuk dapatkan airnya
Fishball & fishcake secukup rasa - atau boleh digantikan dengan ayam/daging
Sayur sawi secukupnya - atau taugeh
Air secukupnya

Cara memasak:
1. Tumbuk atau blend bawang merah + bawang putih + udang kering dan tumiskan
2. Masukkan cili boh dan tumis sampai naik minyak
3. Tambah sos cili, sos tomato, kicap/sos tiram dan air rebusan udang
4. Masukkan udang/ayam/daging/fishball/fishcake
5. Masukkan sawi + mee kuning dan gaul sehingga mesra
6. Hidangkan dan siap untuk dimakan! Untuk 4-5 orang makan

Komen:
1. Memandangkan first time buat mee goreng, saya tak pandai agak ramuanya jadi mee goreng ni masin sedikit sebab saya letak garam tambahan. Sebenarnya tak perlu sebab dah ada udang kering + sos cili, sos tomato, kicap/sos tiram.
2. Masak pakai sukatan lebih senang terutamaya kalau resipi sendiri, jadi boleh masak balik dengan rasa yang sama setiap kali.
3. Walaupun pakai sukatan yang sama tapi rasa mungkin berubah sikit sebab jenama sos, saiz udang, kepedasan cili boh mungkin berbeza dari resipi asal.
4. Okay saya cheat sikit masak mee goreng ni sebab ada letak "Cukup Rasa". Rasanya tak payah letak kalau udang kering saya buat resipi asal tadi cukup (5 ekor). 
5. Kalau nak mee goreng lebih basah, tambah saja air secukupnya.

Abu Dhabi : Desert Safari

On our last day in  Abu Dhabi, we finished the tradeshow at 1pm and our flight back to KL will be later on  the same night (well technically it will be tomorrow morning at 2.40pm (via Etihad Airways)). Since we have more than 12 hours to kill before our flight, we decided to go on the desert safari which will start from 3pm and finish around 9pm. We calculated that we will be back to the hotel latest by 10pm, have at least 1 hour to refresh ourselves before heading out to the airport by 11.30pm that night.

The safari cost us about 200 dirham each (about RM168). Pick up was at hotel by the tour company in a 4WD. There were 3 of us in the car and we shared with a family of 3 (minimum 6 pax) - John, his daughter and granddaughter. We rode out from Abu Dhabi to Al -Ain which took about 1 hour. John used to work in the UAE many year ago and he shared with us that Al-Ain was the old capital of Abu Dhabi and used to be Summer administration and come winter, the administration moved to Abu Dhabi. Finally, it was decided that the administration moved to Abu Dhabi.

Along the highway to Al-Ain, we saw many trees on the right and left side f the road. John told us that Syeikh Zayed the ruler had planted those trees. Each tree has its own water outlet which hydrates the tree. A massive undertaking to keep Abu Dhabi green.

Then we reached our first stop at a camel farm. There were a bunch of camels feeding on dried grass. we were told that they were females and males were kept in a nearby cage as they are quite volatile and likes to bite and spit on people.

Females are docile enough and I was able to pet its body. She doesn't mind it though. The fur wass rough like carpet.

The reason for the stop at the camel farm was to cool down the 4WD engines

Look at the smooth desert with its fine grain sand. There are some plants but it will soon wither and die.

We reached base camp after more than half an hour of dune basing

Entrance to the base camp (view taken from the inside)

Yours truly at table for all the travellers

Behind our table was the  stage for the entertainment

With Emily, John's grandaughter

Belly dancer

Henna tattoo on my arm. Stayed there for two weeks!

Abu Dhabi: Sheikh Zayed Mosque

The majestic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was initiated by the late president HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was regarded as the father of the UAE. The construction used artisans and natural materials such as marble, stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics from countries such as Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, Turkey, Iran, China, Greece and the UAE. The 22,412 square metre Mosque site is equivalent to around the size of five football fields, and can accommodate 40,960 worshipper. More info on Visit Abu Dhabi and Wikipedia. Walk-in tours are available every day and its complimentary. Guest are reminded to be properly dressed as a sign of respect. However, abayas and head cover are readily available for loan. The Mosque guards will guide you on what ti wear and where to walk onsite.

 

Tip: If you take a taxi to the mosque, please ask the taxi driver to wait as it is difficult to find a taxi for the return trip.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque features 82 domes of Moroccan design and all decorated with white marble.

Italian white marble and inlaid floral designs adorn the prayer halls- this is on the wall

On the floor - Italian white marble with inlaid floral designs

The main prayer hall features the world’s largest chandelier under the main dome – being 10 metres in diameter, 15 metres in height and weighing over nine tonnes. The Mosque’s seven gold-coloured chandeliers, from Germany, feature thousands of Swarovski crystals from Austria and some glasswork from Italy, and cost about US$8.2 million (AED 30 million).

The 99 names (qualities) of Allah featured on the Qibla wall exemplify traditional Kufi calligraphy, designed by the prominent UAE calligrapher - Mohammed Mandi. 

The Qibla wall also features subtle fibre-optic lighting, which is integrated as part of the organic design.

The 96 columns in the main prayer hall are round in shape and inlaid with mother of pearl.

I am standing on the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet. Designed by Iranian artist, Ali Khaliqi, the carpet was hand-crafted by 1,200 artisans in small villages near Mashhadin in Iran, a region renowned for its carpet making expertise. The artisans were flown to Abu Dhabi to stitch the carpet pieces together for the final fitting. Consisting of 2,268,000 knots, the Mosque’s carpet is estimated to be valued at US$8.2 million (AED 30 million).

The Mosque has approximately 1,000 columns in its outer areas which are clad with more than 20,000 marble panels inlaid with semi-precious stones, including lapis lazuli, red agate, amethyst, abalone shell and mother of pearl. 

Inside of one of the minaret

Water cooler

Side view of the mosque and this is where the visitors exit

View from the highway: 4 beautiful minarets standing at almost 107 metres each at the four corners of the mosque.

Abu Dhabi

View from hotel. Building of a new shopping mall

I was in Abu Dhabi last month for a business trip. This was my second time to Abu Dhabi, the first was way back in 2005. I saw very little of Abu Dhabi back then because we were only on a day trip from Dubai but the impression was that the city has nothing much to offer. But this time around in Abu Dhabi was an experience for me because there were so many things to do and see in Abu Dhabi. Not as any other tourism destination, everything in Abu Dhabi is about new development and the biggest and best of everything. But didn't have much time to explore the city (all pics was taken within one day). There were many other parts of Abu Dhabi that I didn't explore such as the Heritage Village, Souk at Shangri-La, Marina, etc.

Fountain in the middle of tourist area. Le Meridien hotel just at the back and Abu Dhabi Mall just next to it

Abu Dhabi Mall - good shopping for international brnads like Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, etc

The Abu Dhabi Co-Operative Society - a small scale shopping mall

We walked from Sheraton Abu Dhabi to the tourist area (near Abu Dhabi Mall) which took about 15 mins. Cool weather and windy in the early morning but gets very hot at noon.

Street signs in Abu Dhabi

Mc D promotion - The Arabian

Hardees - looks like Carls Jr but tastes much better!

Unnatural Disaster

(Illustrations only. This is NOT my apartment)

 

Things will happen when you least expect them, which is the most infuriating part of all. But then I'm no clairvoyant and don't know what will happen in the future. Well, the thing that happened was more of negligence on me/hubby's part. 

Our current apartment is small but comfortable for two. Our washing machine water outlet is through the second/guest bathroom. So whenever we have guest (which is quite rare), we kind of fold up the long water pipe to the side of the washing machine, so that if they want to use the bathroom, the door can be properly closed. So last Saturday we had some guests in our apartment. Hubby did the needful with the water pipe. That same night around 11++ I decided to wash my clothes. Put everything in the washing machine and I let it run. Before I went to bed, I noticed water seeping in the other bathroom and I just thought it was from the bathroom, so I just mop it up and went to bed.

When we woke up the next morning, lo and behold our apartment was flooded! our carpets were soaked and the floor was wet. The water level wasn't high only like a puddle under my feet but was enough to drench the carpets and legs of furniture and my linens & comforters which i stored underneath the bed in my spare bedroom. We had to spend the whole morning mopping the rooms and making sure everything was dry with the aide of a stand fan. I had to dry the carpet outside on the communal lawn and luckily only took two hours to completely dry (turned it over once). I had to wash all the wet linens and comforters (making sure I had the water pipe in the bathroom!). Phew! It was a long day.

It was a lesson learned - never take your home equipments for granted or you may wake up with some surprises!

Ceri & Belang

Ceri & Belang sleeping together in a flower pot - only in Rompin!

Tomato Bruschetta

This is my version of the tomato bruschetta, which is a hit at any food gathering. Its easy to digest food and really simple to make. You just need a few ingredients : bread, tomato, onion, cream cheese and butter/olive oil.

1. Bread is the most important element of the bruschetta. Normally, baguette would be the bread of choice. But other types of bread would do as long as there's a base for the tomato goodness. This is lovely wholemeal bread from Berjaya Times Square Hotel at 14th floor (RM6). Just cut the bread into 2 inch quarters.

2. Cream cheese (any brand) & pesto butter (to spread on bread)

3. Dice one big tomato and half a Spanish onion, season with salt, pepper and the cream cheese

3. Spread the bread with pesto butter (if you don' have any, just substitute with regular butter or olive oil )

Voila! The end product. Ready to eat.

3 steps to housechores

Not getting any closer to becoming a domestic Goddess, am I?

I hate folding clothes
I hate ironing (bloody hate this!)
I hate sweeping/mopping/vacuuming
I hate dusting

I'm ok with washing the dishes (kind of therapeutic)
I'm ok with washing clothes
I'm ok with hanging the dishes
I'm ok with organizing the cupboard/bookcase/wardrobe

I love cooking & makan
I love TV
I love music
I love books

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!!

Back from the Dead!

Been on blog hiatus for months - busy with work & KPI, having writer's block, losing my passion to write and share for a while. Been off everybody's blog too. So today when I read La Signora's update, its nice to know that disconnecting from social media is ok. Disconnecting for some real life, but not totally disconnected at the same time. In my hiatus, I was back on FB updates since before I only go online once every 3 months. But after a while, the FB updates by other people and sometimes by myself felt so narcissistic. So I decided to get off FB and back into blogdom.

So the year 2012 is the year of the Water Dragon. I don't even know that there were different type of dragon until this year when I was enlightened by my Chinese colleagues. They have predicted that although its the Year of the Dragon, but the Water Dragon will not be so "ong" for them. They are already moaning about mishaps that happened to them and felt that the whole year it will continue in the same fashion. Personally, I don't subscribed in that belief, but when I fell down twice spraining both my ankles (first incident sprained my right ankle near the LRT station and then a week later sprained my other ankle while doing a jumping activity at home) and another colleague also fell down and did a split, my other colleagues were saying that this is not a good year for our office as so many mishaps had happened early of the year. Hmm....maybe its all just a coincidence.....read here for more info on the water dragon 2012.

One of my favourite things about the CNY was all the "Loh Sang" toast we did with the yee sang dish. I did at least 3 loh sang toast this year and some colleagues did 7 or 8! You can practically buy the loh sang at sushi restaurants and do it at home with the family. The loh sang dish is just a mixture of crackers, pomelo, salmon slice (optional), plum sauce and honey. Its just a fun cultural experience and good food if you think about it. My Loh Sang entry here.

That's all the updates I have for now.

Salah siapa?

Tempat: Surau Central Market, tengahari

Scene: Di saf pertama beberapa orang wanita sedang bersolat, manakala di saf kedua seorang wanita telah selesai bersolat dan sedang membaca Ma'thurat. Aku pula baru masuk kedalam surau setelah selesai berwuduk. Sedang asyik aku mengenakan telekung, terdengar suara wanita yang membaca ma'thurat menegur wanita yang baru selesai bersolat dihadapannya, "Kaki nampak tadi, tak sah solat tu" wanita tersebut terdiam sebentar seraya menjawab "tapi saya dengar kalau tak sengaja tak apa", dan dia berlalu untuk membetulkan rambutnya di cermin, meninggalkan wanita yang menegur tadi terdiam.


Persoalan: Siapa yang berdosa dalam hal ni? Wanita yang tak sengaja terselak kainnya semasa sedang bersolat ataupun wanita yang duduk dibelakangnya membaca ma'thurat sambil memerhati tanpa membuat apa-apa?

Pandangan peribadi: Kalau dah nampak perbuatan tak betul tu, tolonglah betulkan (mana yang sesuai ikut keadaan). Kalau dah kain orang tu terselak, sanggup tengok aje kaki orang tu terdedah sampai dia habis solat, sedangkan kita tahu hukum mungkin solat orang tu tak sah. Kalau dah ada ilmu tapi tak diamalkan dan dihebahkan, tak berguna juga - baca ma'thurat seribu kali pun tak dapat faedah. Dan tunggu sampai orang tu habis solat baru nak tegur, pada saya, bunyinya macam riya' dan macam sengaja nak memalukan orang tersebut. Ini tengok saja benda yang tak betul berlaku tapi tak ada kata nak tolong, semua pakat-pakat tengok lepas tu pakat-pakat melepat.

Kesimpulan: Lain kali kalau ternampak saudari seIslam yang sedang bersolat terselak kainnya, tolong lah tarik kain supaya kakinya terlindung. Tak payah tunggu orang tu habis solat baru nak tegur. Mungkin kita yang memerhati tanpa membuat apa-apa pun dapat dosa sebab mendiamkan (no action) perkara tersebut.

Wallahu a'lam - Allah lebih Maha Mengetahui