Kalau Allah nak 'tarik balik', sekelip mata sahaja

Nampaknya Auntida is in a very good mood for blogging. 3 entries in about a week! It's the end year. Auntie is feeling a bit restive so thinks it's time to do some updates. Next week uni semester starts so it looks like Auntie's 'new' year will start a week early. Rasanya, 2011 will be a race very much like the last 360 days or so. So, Auntie better takes these last few days of relatively slow pace to update blog. Maybe lepas ni another half year will pass before another entry.

Anyway, Auntie wants to talk about the entry title. Auntie dok reflect how lucky Auntie's life had been in the last 41 years or so. Allah has been kind to Auntie. Walaupun ada ups and downs in Auntie's life tapi mostly Auntie could handle.  There are many heartaches in Auntie's adult life also tapi Allah bagi kekuatan utk take them in my stride and for that I'm forever grateful. Also, there are more good fortunes than grievances yg Allah has given to Auntie and Auntie pray that Allah will only test me with things that I can face, Insya Allah.

As Auntie said, most grievances that Auntie had faced were perhaps too small in consequences to gripe about. Cumanya kadang-kadang kita alpa dan lupa that nikmat yang Allah beri tu, kalau Allah nak ambik/ tarik balik sekejap je boleh terjadi. Contohnya, the smallest of accident can happen and may change things in our life even as small as giving us a little scar on part of the body. Itu kira Allah dah ambik sikit lah nikmat kita. Iaitu nikmat kesempurnaan rupa paras dan tubuh badan. This is what happened to Auntie about two weeks ago. While frying something for dinner, the thong yang Auntie guna, yang ada spring-like thingy tu, telah berjentat (faham tak perkataan ni?) dan quite a lot of the hot oil splashed on Auntie's hand and chest. Luckily Auntie had clothes on that covered my chest (2 layers including 'pakaian kecik'), so the chest was not really hurt.  Tapi Auntie punya left hand was splashed with quite a lot of oil. Nasib baik Ogabang ingat satu petua to sapu mayonnaise over it and Auntida rasa that helped a bit. Tak lah teruk sangat tapi cacatlah sikit tangat Auntie yg gomuk dan montok ini. So, as Auntida said, kalau Allah nak tarik nikmat (anggota badan yg halus mulus- perasan!), sekelip mata sahaja dia boleh (kun fayakun). Nothing can stop perkara tu. So, kita sentiasa kena beringat dan jangan take things for granted. Sentiasa baca Bismillah bila buat kerja dan berhati-hati. Tapi, bila accident dah jadi, redha sahajalah dan berusaha utk pulihkan keadaan.

Okaylah, enough reflection. Now the pics of the aftermath of the accident and its development:

.

About 20 minutes after incident. Slathered in mayonnaise. Slow sign of redness. 

No sign of injury yet but ada tingly, pedih-pedih feeling.

 2nd day. Starting to blister, so Auntie pergi jumpa doktor and doktor pricked the blisters. Given a round of antibiotics and antiseptic cream.

After a few days. No further blister but skin started to pucker and darken. 

 No pain already but started to get itchy and skin dried up a bit.

After 2 weeks. Some skin peeled off and patches remained on hand. Sangat gatal. The last time Auntie kena burn, it was like 3 years before the burnt patch actually became invisible. 

Anyway, Auntida bersyukur nothing more serious than this happened. Auntie can live with this patch but Auntie sure thinks it's mighty difficult to live without the use of a hand. And may Allah jauhkan daripada segala kemalangan dan kesusahan di masa hadapan. Amin.

Auntie dan kasut

Auntie has things about shoes. Auntie selalu tergoda dengan kasut.  Masa study kat UK, kedai kasut ialah di antara kedai utama kunjungan Auntie walaupun takde plan nak beli [as in no real need]. Tapi pasti terbeli sbb kedai kasut sentiasa ada sale.

In Malaysia pun Auntie suka beli kasut jugak. Masalah Auntie ialah, Auntie susah nak jumpa kasut yg comfy for my feet in Malaysia. And Auntie always has problems with new shoes yg mesti akan cause me blisters. Tried to bubuh lilin before wearing tapi sekejap je dia ok pastu blister jugak. Tapi most kasut yg Auntie beli in Malaysia after dah buruk sikit memang akan jadi comfy. The process of getting them 'old' tu yg sakit.  Also kaki Auntie kembang kat depan so fitting selalu susah jugak. Kat UK ada banyak wide-fitting shoes. Auntie does not necessary go for expensive shoes although many people told me that if you spend a good sum of money on a comfortable pair of shoes, it will go a long way and in the long run it will be more economical. Auntie tau. Tapi the urge (belum jadi obsession, ya) to buy, walaupun tak perlu, defeats this economics a bit coz kalau beli kasut mahal dan banyak pasang, still duit akan habis. Auntie allows myself this one indulgence sebab Auntie is not normally spendthrift [ye ke?]

Anyway, dua tiga hari lepas, Auntie selongkar office Auntie (yg also moonlights as my store) and found pairs of never-worn or harldly-worn shoes I bought when I was studying kat UK dulu. Other than the heels yg dah relai, they are still in good condition. Auntie sent them for repair hari tu and now that are good to go (walking, that is). They may be a bit outdated in the fashion department but tak kisahlah.

Here are their pics:

All of these shoes Auntie beli between 1994 & 98, so they are more than a decade old. But they still look good kan? 

 Yang ni Auntie beli because it looked like my dream shoe to be put on the hantaran tray bila Auntie kawin. Masa tu takde boyfriend/ suiter 'setabuk' pun lagi. Cuma dreaming je. Tapi Auntie fikir that bila dah jumpa calon suami, Auntie akan mintak dia reimburse balik the cost of the shoes to Auntie and then dia mesti hadiahkan kasut ni as Auntie punya hantaran. Scheming tak? Hahaha. 

4 or 5 years lepas beli dan dah balik Malaysia, Auntie was still single but was still hoping, so kasut terus disimpan dgn lovingly nye dalam kotak :)  End of 2003, jumpa Ogabang and early 2004 tunang, so dalam hati kata "Finally, my shoes will be on a tray!" Tapi, masa plan nak kawin tu Ogabang kata dia ada pantang larang membeli kasut utk orang yg dia sayang coz dalam family dia ada belief bahawa we should not hadiahkan org yg kita sayang with shoes, sharp objects or handkerchiefs. Tak tau mai mana belief macam ni tapi because he was adamant and because kan masa tu tengah tunang, so takutlah jugak nak langgar pantang larang orang tua macam ni. After kawin dah tak kisah siapa beli kasut siapa. So, nasib kasut ini ialah dia terus dok dalam kotak and since lepas kawin Auntie dok berpindah-pindah rumah for the first few years, kasut ni terus dok dalam 'storage' and somehow the box was carried to my office and stowed into a cabinet and forgotten. Tengoklah, dah kurang kilat sikit tapi still looks strong and wearable.

Ni kasut yg Auntie beli from M&S sebab it looks so comfy. Bila pakai memang comfy. This shoes was stored in a box in rumah Wan in Kuantan for many, many years. From time to time Auntie remembered it but never got round to unpack the big box of Auntie's 'treasures' yg dok kat attic rumah lama Wan tu (now dah jadi rumah Acik Din). 

 Auntie 'unearth'  it two or three years ago with the white shoes below and brought them back to Penang. But they remain in other boxes in the office until a few days ago. Hope to find occasions to wear them soon.

My dream wedding shoes. Auntie beli kat Selfridges, tak silap. For GBP10. It's 'seconds' coz ada a bit discolouration on one pair. But Auntie tak kisah.

So, as I said, the shoes was a planned wedding shoes. A wedding that didn't come until nearly 10 years later. So, together with the red shoes, it was shunned and intermittently forgotten :D. Until la a few days before Auntie punya wedding when I frantically went looking for it. Masaelahnya, when I scoured the attic and opened the boxes, somehow I could not find the shoes! Auntie was so heartbroken. Betul-betul tak jumpa walaupun semua kotak dah diselongkar. So, dengan hati yg sungguh luka, Auntie terpaksa pi beli kasut emergency for the wedding [yang sekarang Auntie dah store kat mana tak tau]. For some time after the wedding, Auntie still teringat kat kasut ni tapi memang bila cari lagi tak jumpa juga sampailah 2 or 3 year ago when Auntie was looking for something else in Wan's/ Cik Din's attic, Auntie suddenly found it in the big box together with the red shoes [Auntie rasa dah beberapa kali tengok dalam big box tu tapi missed them]. Nak tunggu 10th anniversary takut kasut ni akan relai pulak, so kena cari another ocassion to wear it also.

Oh, Auntie ada one more shoes to show:

This is a leather boots that Auntie used to wear in London. Still looks good kan? Because it was bought a few months before Auntie balik Malaysia. Sekarang ni it's a bit tight for me because kaki Auntie kat depan dah kembang sikit (sikit je ke?). Kalau Along aka Ya sudi, Auntie ingat nak bagi kat Along. Boleh Along pakai pi trekking kat mana-mana :D

Eye-witness aka step-by-step account of Ogabang's mee kicap sotong

Auntie tau it's been ages since Auntie blogs but that little thing called FB had again lured Auntie away from penning mundane thots in this space. For that Auntie regrets and will try harder to improve blogging consistency.

What Auntie will do is to take FB updates and turn it into materials for blogging. Semalam Auntie updated on FB that Ogabang intended to cook dinner. Mee goreng kicap sotong. Later on after that, Auntie also posted the proof of the pudding, so-to-speak. So, Auntie reproduces the pics here:

 The mee goreng minutes from the kuali

Auntie had to stop Ogabang from scooping this onto his plate for the pic.

 Close-up to proof the existence of sotong

The garnishes. 

In Ogabang's book it's a almost sin not to have garnishes with mee goreng. So, Auntie selalu being given 'the look' for refusing the asam limau on mine. In Auntie's opinion, things that should be eaten with a dish should have all gone into the kuali with it. They have no business waiting outside :). 

For Auntie's friend Zura who'd like to know how Ogabang concocted the mee goreng above, now Auntie nak give step-by-step account, as Auntie saw Ogabang made it yesterday. Auntie is sure Zura is highly capable of coming up with the same if not better superlicious dish. But here goes anyway:

Ingredients yang Auntie nampak:

Yellow noodles, washed (1 bungkus medium, probably can serve 4 tummies) [Ogabang is very fussy about the noodles. Would only buy from tried and tested vendor. Kalau tersilap beli, will never here the end of it]

Sotong, sliced (yg Auntie kena cuci: 3 big ones, dengan janggut sekali)

Fish cakes, also sliced (optional, according to Auntie but a must according to Ogabang)

5 shallots, sliced finely

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

[Kalau auntie, akan boh chopped ginger as well but Ogabang left it out]

[PS: Ogabang never cooks with electronically blended shallots and garlic. He prefers them chopped. Nasib baik semalam dia tak suruh Auntie chop coz Auntie had a very smart retort already prepared]

2 sudu besaq ground chillies/ cili boh

2 sudu besaq sugar

3 types of kicap (kicap mee, kicap manis and tah apa tah satu lagi, but there were 3 bottles on kitchen top last night)

Dissolve asam jawa in half cup of water (amount of asam jawa kena agak sendiri coz Auntie pi tengok tv sat masa Ogabang prepare this)

garam secukup rasa

tomatoes, sliced kasar-kasar

sawi, chopped kasar-kasar

taugeh [ikut suka]

Cara-cara membuatnya:

1. Heat wok and oil. Tumis bawang merah & putih until fragrant. Add blended chillies. Tumis lagi. [Sambil tumis, sambil komplen coz tumisan dok terpercik kat pakaian]

2. Add sugar to tumisan. Kacau sampai dissolve.

3. Add fish cakes. continue cooking. 

4. Add air asam jawa, then the kicaps. Season with salt and more sugar if needed.

5. Add sotong and kacau.

6. Add tomatoes and kacau.

7. Add noodles and kacau [memang a lot of kacau- ing. For Ogabang, termasuklah kena kacau oleh bini masa dia dok kacau mee]

8. Add sawi and stir.

9. At the very last minute, add tauge so they will still be crunchy bila angkat.

Serve with/ without the garnishes but always with LURVVVVVVV!

Selamat mencuba! 

[Kalau tamau cuba, tapi mau makan, mai rumah kami. Kalau Ogabang in a good mood, maybe you'll get a plate. Kalau tak you'll just have to make do with Auntie's version of the mee goreng, yg akan ditunjukkan di lain siaran. The jury is still out there on siapa punya lagi best].

Hidup mesti baking

Sejak beberapa Ramadhan yang lepas, minggu seperti ini ialah minggu Auntie akan mula menggatal nak baking pelbagai jenis cookies. Semua cookies yg Auntie bake mempunyai rupa yg tak semenggah. Mesti senget-benget dan herot-petot. Walau bagaimanapun, ada beberapa cookies yg diakui oleh adik beradik Auntie (kecuali jika mereka berselindung di sebalik pujian) sebagai mempunyai rasa yg sedap.  Kalau Auntie pergi rumah Qin, Qin sure akan sibuk ajak Auntie bake cookies or cupcakes. This year, Mommy pun has started baking projects with Qin coz Mommy tak larat nak dengar Qin punya pertanyaan bila Auntie nak pi KL lagi to start baking.

Auntie's favorite cookies are chocolate chips' cookies and cookies with nuts or grains. Choc chips are constant baking projects but nutty cookies may come in many, many forms, which Auntie would experiment.  Last year Auntie baked almond cookies. Sedap tapi, as usual, nothing to look at. This year Auntie discovered the Anzac cookies while attending conferences in Melbourne (will do an entry on this soon, hopefully). Tried to bake them and was successful, so for sure this will be a constant in the near future. Auntie brought back some macadamia and pecan nuts from Tasmania (while on the trip to Melbourne), so Auntie's been trying a recipes to use them. This morning Auntie tried once recipe but the taste didn't turn out to be that great. Just so, so. Then this evening tried another recipe with walnuts. Can be improved. The problem is with recipes (in Malaysia, usually) that used ingredients with a view to making the cookies last for keeping, thus, the results are usually crispy and dry cookies.  The recipes would normally call for icing sugar, milk powder and corn flour.  In Auntie's opinion, cookies are best when they are made with just (real) butter, plain flour, castor sugar (white or brown) and eggs. And vanilla essence (or real vanilla pods, if you have the luxury).  Variations should only be in the form of taste-themes eg add almond essence for almond cookies, nuts for nutty cookies, or add oatmeal or dessicated coconut for grainy taste. With these basic ingredients and with the Malaysian heat, cookie doughs don't normally turn out to be too great as per envisioned by the recipes (esp if recipes are taken from international websites), so we have to improvise somehow. In Auntie's experience, it is always best to refrigerate cookie dough after making them and before forming them into cookie shapes/ baking, for at least 20 minutes. Take a little out to form the cookies and to bake them. While they are baking, keep them remaining dough back into the fridge until needed to be used.

Auntie will also bake some cakes, hopefully by using the vanilla pod that Auntie bought in Tassie (if they are still usable).

Here are some pics of bakings that Auntie had not yet blogged about:

Nutty cookies: walnuts, pecans and macademias. But adding the chocolate was not the best choice. Would have been better if plain butter with nuts.

From oven

Cooling. Auntie baked this after sahur so didn't get to taste them until after berbuka. So-so.

Another 'nutty' attempt: Walnut tart. Pastry a bit bland and sweet (follow recipe, which uses icing sugar. Should have used a cheese pastry recipe. Would have been much more sedap)

Rupa yg herot-petot

Filling is not too bad. Chopped walnuts and butter-sugar mixture.

The most successful cookie-baking attempts so far. The Anzac cookies. 

Ogabang has been having these for sahur in the past week. So, auntie bake new batches yesterday.

Auntie's best-tasting butter cake so far. With real vanilla pod for flavour.

Carrot cake

Carrot cake 'dressed' for Boss' Birthday lunch.

HAPPY BAKING, MY DEARS!

Work and play

This weekend Auntie is in the mood for updating blog.  There are a few events in Auntie's life that are worth blogging about since January this year. One of them is work since especially this year, work has taken a big chunk of Auntie's life. Tapi before Auntie talks about Auntie's work, Auntie nak mention a sad news. One of Auntie's friends passed away Monday two weeks ago (26 July 2010).  On that Monday morning Auntie received a msg fr Kak Nor, that Dr. Suhaimi Shahnon passed away at the Selayang Hospital. When Auntie got the news Auntie was preparing to travel to KL for work and, in between, to join Mommy and Pak Long Ami take Aki and Wan to IJN for check up.  So, Auntie tak sempat nak call K Nor to ask for further cerita.  To this day pun Auntie has not find the right time to talk to Kak Nor but hopefully soon. As some people may have guessed, Suhaimi is the son of National Literary Laureate Shahnon Ahmad. He was an Associate Professor at the School of Management and the Deputy Director at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies at Auntie's uni.  Auntie mula kenal Suhaimi, his wife, Kak Fadzillah and their 3 girls around the year 1998/99 through Kak Nor. They are kind, humble people and were very easy to be friends with.  In the last few years, kami jarang jumpa except during common meetings at the uni or kadang2 terserempak kat makan places. Their first born, Izni, used to be quite close dengan Auntie and was peramah. Bila dah besar, dia malu-malu sikit, like teenagers normally are.  Auntie also know Cikgu Shahnon personally coz Auntie helped him with some translation work for his book a few years ago.

Suhaimi had been diabetic for a few years but Auntie rasa dia ada a few other complications in the last year or so. He was admitted to Selayang Hospital some time ago due to these problems. Suhaimi is probably only about 4 or 5 yrs older than Auntie. It is very sad to lose a friend at such a relatively young age. Al Fatihah atas pemergian Suhaimi and Auntie doa semoga Kak Fadzillah dan anak2 diberikan kekuatan oleh Allah untuk menghadapi dugaan ini.  In 2006, we lost arwah Bob, another of Auntie's and Ogabang's friend and colleague and a good friend of Suhaimi's and Kak Nor's, too.  Bob also had some complications which were quite similar to Suhaimi and Bob was 46 when he passed away. Bob, even when he was already ill, had gamely agreed to represent Ogabang as ketua rombongan meminang Auntie in 2004.  He knew Auntie's parents because his parent-in-law's home is near Aki and Wan's. He lead the rombongan meminang armed with a few rangkap pantun and took Tokki De who represented Auntie's side with an amount of surprise. Auntie had only good memories about Suhaimi and Bob, two kind, gentle souls and is grateful to have known them. May Allah tempatkan mereka di tempat tertinggi di sisi Nya. Amin.

Auntie was actually going to blog about work when Auntie was reminded about Suhaimi. So, anyway, this year had been way too busy on the work front for Auntie. Much of Auntie's fieldwork for various research started late last year and continue well into this year. One of Auntie's most enjoyable fieldwork is the interview with young people who were participants of the National Service. We had to go to a few places for the interview in the span of 6 months or so but one of the most memorable one is in Rompin because Auntie got to 'balik kampung' (Rompin is Auntie's birthplace) and had some quality time with family members (Aki, Wan, Pak Long Ami and family) and 'extended family members' who were Samantha and "RA" and mamachupan and family. The latter two are Auntie's co-researchers. And in this trip, Ogabang came along so we got some couple time although we also had a really big fight about some really stupid things (but we kissed and made up after a few hours, of course!).  Pada masa yg sama, Ogabang managed to get some work done with his project of the time by recruiting our first 'child labour' in the form of Jijin, who were hired to be a voice over for Ogabang's video project. The video turned out to be very well received. When we get the permission from the 'client' Auntie will put it on the blog, Insya Allah.

Some pictures of the Rompin trip:

Ogabang, the designated driver. Masih happy.

Masih calm. But the lidah is a sign for a storm to come!

Precious cargo no.1

Precious cargo no.2. Aki said to Ogabang: "Ogabang ni drive macam Aingah la (our eccentric uncle)".

Sudah mula tensi. (Gambar tensi not worth taking).

Some nice kampung view- somewhere after Pekan

Nenasi beach

Jalan yg meningkatkan tensi Ogabang especially bila ada lori (selekoh maut di hujung tu).

First night dinner. Only the udang galah were memorable (according to pemakan2 udang).

Did Auntie mention Pak Long and family decided to come along? The rest of the clan couldn't.

Ogabang's nasi goreng and udang galah.  RM60 or 65 sekilo.

Relaxed Wan & Aki

Auntie & Ogabang during peaceful times

Umi penggemar udang. Go for it, Umi!

Pak Long yg kena pau Wan's celebrex selepas makan udang galah. But sure rugi kalau miss kan? Sbb dia tukang bayar. Tenkiu, Pak Long kerana menyokong projek penyelidikan kerajaan Mesia.

Siapa punya leftover, ni? Definitely not Auntie's! (Auntie non-pemakan udang)

The adults after dinner. Ogabang dok baca doa lepas makan ke?

The kids after dinner. "Bila nak balik ni?"

The researchers with the camp facilitators. Thank you, ladies!

Ajmal, kept from boredom with Auntie's phone-TV while Jijin practiced the voice-over.

Pantai Rompin (lupa nama glamour dia): tempat Wan & Aki bercanda dolu-dolu.

Pak Long and Umi membuat cubaan bercanda tapi ada 'handbag' aka Ajmal.

Para penyelidik dan pembantu penyelidik sesudah subuh.

Adakah penyelidikan paranormal part of the deal?

The beautiful sunrise

Sunrise 2

Sunrise 3. After that batteries in Auntie's camera went kong-ed.

Food in Rompin (other than udang galah and lokan) is nothing to 'blog home' about but all in all, the trip had been very successful research mission and bonding times. 

Good night, all!