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...