I am back.........

Yeah I'm back.
It's been 18 non-blogging days... But I felt like I haven't been blogging for months...until I quite adapted life without the internet....believe it or not..

Where have I been???


Lets just say that I was stranded in a deserted island without any phone lines or internet connection. :)

Spending my days by the beach. Taking a stroll or reading my favorite novels by the seaside.
When its get too hot outside...i was back into the villa, drinking lemonade that was always there.


Hah...too good to be true....
Because..it isn't...

The real reason I didn't blog the last few weeks...
Hmmm...lets just say that I was stranded in a deserted island without any phone lines or internet connection. :) :) ;p


p/s- thanks to those who r concerned...

Is It Expensive To Be Healthy...

Yes it is...

I guess it is very true..

If during the old time...people eat their own produce...they go fishing for their lunch...the pluck the vegetables from the back garden...its differs now..

We don't do that anymore. No more vegetables gardens, fishing is just for fun..
We buy food ready made from stalls (which God know how it is prepared)...
We buy vege, dairy products, etc from the hypermarket, which is produce in bulk...and God know what kind of chemical they put in the soil or injected or in the cow's food..
Plus the ever worsening pollution, that can break up the nutrition cycle...what could be worse??

And did you know that pollution per se can increase your cells oxidation? Which if excessive in certain cells..it will become cancerous...

We can't do much about the pollution...we can always recycle...do our best to beat/prevent the pollution, etc.

But food wise...is it possible to grow our own vegetables...
Nope..everyone is living a rat race...

The best alternatives is organic food...
But WOW...just look how much organic vegetables cost you? Is that within our population budget? No... Did you notice that organic chicken eggs...it cost twice as much from the non-organic eggs...
Isn't it true that to be healthy is very costly...

Lets look at our other alternatives....

All those poorly-prepared food, inorganic fresh produce, the pollution, etc do extreme harm to our body. How to counter act this so called 'oxidation' process in our body?
Thank god there are forms of anti-oxidant.
There are nutritional supplement.
I have a dietition friend...she would always promote- No to nutritional supplement...eat a balance diet...follow the food pyramid...
Is that possible? I'm sure there are some of us that eat according to the food pyramid. I bet only 5% can achieve that.
How about the rest of us? Did you remember to eat 6-8 servings of vegetables a day every day? Have you cut down your fat intake? How about fiber, which is equally important?
And this goes back to supplement? Do we really need them?
Yes it seems we do.
But there are hundreds of brand to choose from? How to pick the best?
I read, and I read. I read books, journal, etc, just to select the best. I won't go into details about that.

Anyway...to beat 'oxidation' with supplement is costly too. A month supply of complete supplement can cost hundreds. Is that within our population budget. I guess a no to that too.

Another important thing to be healthy is EXERCISE. People tend to neglect this. Including me :). Some time, we don't even have time to exercise. (I save about this next time).

So..what do you think... Is It Expensive To Be Healthy?

The Dream Team- keep dreaming....

Today is a very wet Saturday. It has been raining almost all day.
And I am so bored. I have been bloghopping...to cheer things up, but not many updated their blogs during weekends.
And I am not in the mood to write anything as well...

Anyway, here's the photo of my two sweethearts..

Both the jersey were bought by Pok Chik...it's too big for Laiqa...
She hates anything to do with boys clothing. The first time we showed her this jersey, she quickly grab it and hid it under the desk.
Anyway today she agrees to wear just during the 'photo session'.
She is just so 'girly'.

Last time, her 'tok ayah' (my father-in-law), bought her a superman suit complete with cape...she cried and threw it away.
Bought her something pink..she will definitely love it.

What's for lunch?- lala

I was browsing the blog...and saw this delicious dish in Jun's blog...
Since there's some lala in the freezer...so, I should cook this rather than my usual sweet sour lala...

I just copy and paste the recipe....

lala
santan
cili api (ikut suka pedas)-tumbuk
3 biji bawang merah-tumbuk
1 ulas bawang putih-tumbuk
1/2 in lengkuas-tumbuk
1/2 in kunyit-tumbuk
daun kesum
garam

masuk aje sume2 dalam periuk. didihkan hingga masak.

The Baking Itch is back... red velvet cupcakes...

Yup...feel like baking again...and playing with frosting...
This time it's 'RED VELVET' cupcakes. Did you notice...the cake is red...
Anyway, I forget to take the 'cake-only' picture (so u can see that it really is red).
The recipe...I'll update later...too lazy to type out recipe now...

Buckle Up...

I was bloghopping in drzeze's blog, and found this clip, which is suspense, but yet hillarious, and informative..





I'm not sure whether this clip is officially from proton, or just a spoof clip, but it's interesting.

The morale...always buckle your seatbelts...it can safe you...



These two kids...I always make sure they wear their seatbelts before a journey, but...they always 'get out' of their fastened seatbelts.

It is So Unsafe Out There- even during Eid

Giving have been a norm and tradition in our country. That’s why giving ‘duit raya’ and ‘ang pows’, etc have been a must.

The amount to be given have also increased from year to year. As for this year, there are rarely people give ‘duit raya’ less than RM5. I was not aware of those anyway. But my kids have been receiving at least RM5, even from someone we rarely know.

We, on the other hand should be grateful for this gesture. Grateful and thankful.

But there are still people who are taking advantage of this situation. During Hari Raya, there will always children from other village walk around from one house to the other, from one village to another, visiting ‘neighbours’. Eventhough I don’t think a house which is more than 5kilometres than their own house as neighbours, moreover it’s a house of someone they haven’t even met.

What do you think? Do you think this ‘norm’ is normal? Or it shouldn’t happened?
As we are aware, visiting friends and relatives during this festive season is highly suggested as this is the time for us to ask for forgiveness and to strenghten the bonds (because we rarely meet). To forgive and forget.

There are even some of this children who steals from the host. One of my distant relatives who of course, being too kind and generous to invite this kids in for tea, only to end up with one of the kids stealing his mobile phone.

In the news a few days after 1st Syawal, there were two girls who went to an ‘unknown’ house for ‘hari raya’. Ended up being raped by the host.

Is this habit (or is it the tradition) of visiting other people houses a good one. Or should we discouraged the children.

I think it’s a good thing as long as we visit our friends and relatives, together with the parents/adult. Children going out on their own to houses that they are not familiar with, shouldn’t be practice nowadays….it’s just not safe…for the host and also the children.
Will that dampen the spirit of ‘Eid’?

Uninvited Guest

It was Saturday. The day was not that bright, in fact, it was a wet Saturday...
We were in the living room, when suddenly, there was this squeking sound coming from the sliding door.
That must be a beetle got trapped at the curtain. The sounds so loud, that we thought it came from the inside of the house.
Umar started throwing his toys toward the curtain (being 'brave' he is), and nothing happened. No movement. I swept the curtain aside, then only I saw a rather large paw on the glass panel of the sliding door.
My goodness...there's a large lizard (or is that iguana) anyway, we called it 'biawak'. It's huge ok.
Not the tiny one that I seldom see climbing up trees at my 'kampung'.
The picture a bit blur since the 'biawak' was moving away from our sliding door, towards the gate.


We just sat on the couch watching. The 'biawak' must have seen its own reflection on the glass, that's why its been scratching and making funny noises.
The 'biawak' making a tour in our front garden. (smelling the flower). Can you see the large flower pot near it's tail, and just guess how large it is.

After a while, it walked out the gate, only to turn back after a few minutes 'stop-and-think' outside. It did this a few times too, walked out, then come back. The 'biawak' even pooped as a farewell gift for us.
It left after about an hour or so.
The 'ultraman' of the house was freaking out. Eventhough he did boast to the father when he called later that day.

Down with Flu

I'm not feeling well today...infact...i'm feeling blue..........
Blame the flu bug.
Yeap...i'm having flu........
And I hate it.....hate all the things that are associated with flu.....
Hate runny nose...blowing into the tissue every 30 seconds or so...
Sneezes...
The nose will be red like a clown.....
I almost lost my voice. since last night I sounded like a very husky man. Hahahahah.....
And the lazy bug always accompany the flu bug...
Hate all the bugs........

To make things 'worst' my parents made a surprise visit yesterday, late afternoon.....
There's a good to it too.... my mum will hang the clothes to dry, sweep the floor, mop it, clean the bushes that starts growing in my back and front garden, etc.....things that i'm not fond to do...
Anyway I managed to bake orange cupcakes for their tea yesterday.

And cook 'ikan keli masak lemak', chicken soup for the kids and fried 'ikan pekasam' (fermented fish), which is my all time favourite, (amidst my runny nose and sneezes) for dinner.

There's nothing more soothing than eating 'ikan pekasam' with a plate of hot steaming rice. Yummy...