On His Birthday...

B's birthday celebration was kicked off with the Japan SuperGT at Sepang. I've never seen so many beautiful Japanese cars gathered at one place at one time. If I was swooning and drooling over them cars, B almost died and gone to heaven heheh...


We brought along Zareef as he shares the same passion as his dad. Short of sounding like a cliche, he is his daddy's son. So very like father like son


By this time, Zareef can't fight the heat and ear-splitting sound anymore. With a sulk that stretched his mouth to the far corners of his face, we were ready to go home. As we were walking out, we spotted this lean, mean incredible machine. It's Zareef's all-time favorite car, thanks to the latest Knight Rider show of course.


That night, we rushed to Shah Alam for a family dinner with B's family to celebrate Father's Day and B's birthday. We dined at this remarkable restaurant called Restoran Tasik Indah at Shah Alam. It's located behind Plaza Alam Sentral. Food was excellent!! I ordered on behalf of the family (nampak sangat kaki makan!) buttered prawns, chili crabs, steamed lemon pomfret, siakap tiga rasa, black pepper venison, marmite chicken and sotong tepung. Sedap tak terkata sampai lupa nak ambik gambar hehehhe...


The seafood were all fresh from the tank. Seen here, Zareef tugging at a lobster's spiny whisker (betul ke?)


The next day was B's actual birthday. He took the day off. I sent the kids to their respective daycare and off we went gallivanting at The Curve. Tskk... cuti-cuti pun kena buat kerja jugak ;P


We lunched at Paddington House of Pancakes. It took me a good twenty minutes just to go through its menu, such a fat one it is.


What's a birthday celebration without food, eh?! We had this apple fritters with ice cream pancake. Very huge portion!


And this All-American pancake burger. Kenyang sampai tak boleh nak jalan ngeee...

After a slow and leisure walk around aimlessly, I treated B to a pedicure. God knows how much he needed it!


Now my man has very nice, clean and pedicured nails which he can show off proudly ngeeee...

Happy Birthday Darling!! You're my everything!!! Muahhhhssss...

The Month We Both Turned 33...

My apologies... I know a bunch of people out there who are ready to kill me for not updating. How long has it been? A month you say? Ahhh yes... my bad. First culprit would be the continuous orders of cakes and cupcakes (Alhamdulillah...), then the school holidays that saw me enjoying island life at Tioman for a week and recovering period for the kids and I the next. Then it was my birthday weekend and yesterday was B's.

I'll just make this a pictorial post since I am having a writer's block at the moment. Enjoy!

My take of the sunset at Tioman on our first day of arrival.


Despite having just traveled for six hours, these kids instantaneously hit the beach. Talk about beach bums!


We went snorkeling the next day. We hired a speed boat to take us to three snorkeling spots. We went to Tioman's Marine Park which I dare say is almost non-existent, the corals that is. All dead! What a disappointment!!


Then we went here which was totally awesome! Deep, deep blue water with lots of healthy, beautiful corals and friendly fishes to boot!! Hehehheh... I felt like I was in being attacked left, right and center by these hungry fishes.

I did my Discovery Scuba Diving (DSD) the next day. It's certainly one of the MUST-DO things before you die :). Totally amazing!!!!

Off to my DSD with my divemaster, Alfian. Cool dude who resigned from being a lawyer for his passion in diving and all things underwater :D. The tank weighted 20kg! Berat nak mampos but I persevered. However, it felt nothing underwater but after all the fun and joy of diving, it felt like a dead weight with every single step that I took exiting the waters towards the dive center. Malam tu terus demam!!!


The chalets that my family booked, the whole row of them. It's called Salang Indah Resort. Basic clean room with hot water and AC that suits me well. It's all about roughing it out.


Zara fed the fishes with bread. You can see how crystal clear the water is.


My cheeky monkey :D


Zareef doing his jump, terjun style from the jetty. He was well inspired by the local kids who could swim faster than the fishes, dive head on better than those synchronized divers and were only 6-7 years old! I was totally impressed!!!


My boy after several jumps. He totally enjoyed it!


Abah with his cucus during one of their bonding times.

After a week at Tioman, we went home, all supertanned and covered with sandflies' bites. Zareef, my mom and I semua demam. Tak tau la demam terkejut ke, penat ke or what. The next weekend was my birthday and B had arranged for a surprise getaway. I told him, "Please... no long distance. Tak larat dah".

I was pleasantly surprised when he brought us to Impiana KLCC for a revisit (we came here for our Sevenmoon :D). Oh such joy!!

Our room for the weekend.

B booked the Marine Escapade package which included a family package visit to the Aquaria. The kids were ecstatic! And it firmly reinforced my desire to do my PADI open water.

My birthday dinner at The Loaf. They've come up with a new and better menu which I must say, looked yummier than the last.


My main entree which was the beef shank with soba noodles. Delicious! The slices of medium cooked beef were tender, juicy and oh so yummy!!!


B ordered Beef Ribs for his entree. Hands down, this is THE BEST ribs that I've ever tasted!! Eat your heart out Tony Roma's! Every bite sent us to heaven :D

While we were busy tucking in, this cheeky monkey jumped around and ran about the restaurant. Nasib baik, it was just us.


The next night, we went to Swensen's at Subang Parade for dinner again (Mommy malas nak masak coz was still in birthday celebratory mood hehh).


I've always loved this place for its quintessential all-American food plus this is the only place where I can feast on a plethora of lip-smacking ice-cream sundaes at reasonable prices. This place is kinda sentimental to me too as I've been coming here since I was 13 (I used to frequent the one at Federal Bowl), hence the returned visits :)


This time, cheeky monkey slept all the way through. She was totally KOed.


As a finale to my wonderful birthday weekend, B bought for us an icecream cake, something which he said I can't do. He got that right!

Happy Birthday to the both of us! May we live long and prosper, jodoh berkekalan hingga ke akhir hayat and still be in love with each other till the end of time. Aminnnn...

My New Walls...

After 2.5 years of staring at plain boring cream walls tainted with drawings of little Picasso and a multitude of food stains, I have decided to give my walls a makeover :D

I bought the package at HomeDec in November last year but only now do I have the resources to do them up.

Installation at the dining area. This guy was very skillful and quick. I couldn't help but be amazed...

Installation at Zareef's room

Tadaaaa... dining area.

TV area

Zareef's room. Please excuse the mess. High time to do a garage sale. Seriously!

Finally, my bedroom.

I just can't stop staring at my walls. They are simply mesmerizing. I love them! :D

Chili Crab Craving...

If you're on my Facebook friends list, then you'll know that I have been craving for chili crabs for quite some time. Yesterday was a free day (no cake orders and no car pool), so I decided to cook the chili crabs myself.

Nothing beats a homemade meal especially when it's cooked with love and fresh crabs that were just wriggling out of the tank just a mere hour before that. The taste? Totally outta this world! Here's the recipe if you crave for chili crabs like I did... Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 flower crabs, cleaned and cut into half
1 sprig of coriander (chopped for garnishing only) - I didn't have any so I made do without it
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of tamarind juice
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1/4 cup of water

Spice Paste:

8 dried red chilies (soaked in hot water and deseeded)
1 tablespoon of taucheo (fermented yellow bean sauce)
3 cloves of garlic
1 inch of fresh ginger
2 inches of lemon grass (the white part only)

Tamarind Juice:

5 seeds of tamarind
Water

Method:

1. Clean the crab and chop it into pieces. Save the green and juicy stuff inside the shell and set aside.
2. Pound the spice paste with a mortar and pestle or grind them using a food processor. Make sure that the spice paste is finely blended or pounded.
3. Soak the tamarind seeds in some warm water for 15 minutes. Extract the juice and discard the seeds.
4. Heat up your wok and add cooking oil.
5. Stir fry the spice paste until fragant and spicy.
6. Add the crab and 1/4 cup of water and do a quick stir. Cover the wok with its cover for 3 minutes.
7. Add the green and juicy stuff from the shell and stir well.
8. Add in sugar, tamarind juice, a little salt to taste and continue stirring for about 2 minutes or until all crab pieces turned red.
9. Dish up, garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Zareef, Oh Zareef...

We were eating lunch one day about a month ago when Zareef started talking about his classmates of both schools (he goes to SKPU2 in the morning and KAFA in the evenings). I always cherish this private moment that I have with him where he and I would chat and eat, then chat and eat again with Zara diverting our attentions intermittently.

Back to the topic of his classmates, he would tell me that si A doesn't know how to spell or si B would always be late for school (yeah right, he talks as if he's always early :P), or how si C have to go to a daycare center in a van for a transit before proceeding to the same KAFA as he is.

I explained that his friends had to go to various daycare centers by vans after school for a transit because their parents were not able to pick them up from school due to work commitments.

That made him moved on to the next topic which was his friends' parents' occupation. After regaling me with half of his classmates' parents' occupation, I asked him, "What did you tell your friends about Daddy and Mummy?"

He said, he told everyone (rather proudly I might add) that Daddy is an Engineering Doctor while Mummy works at A*IA and P*roton. That answer made me went 'Huhh?'. I asked him why did he tell his friends that I worked at these organizations when he knows fully well that I've stopped working with them and that I am now a SAHM with a cake business on the side.

He just kept quiet. His plain and honest reply was "Friends Zareef punya Mummy yang lain semuanya kerja. Kalau Zareef cakap Mummy tak kerja, tak best la".

I was taken aback with his reply. "Zareef cakap tak kat your friends that Mummy bakes cakes? Tu pun kerja jugak" to which he nodded but not before adding "Kadang-kadang je".

That statement hit me hard right in the face. Now I've realized that my son secretly wishes that I work, just like other moms. He is in fact, quite ashame to admit to his friends that his Mummy doesn't work.

Truthfully, I'm quite shock that he feels that way. I would be lying if I were to say that it didn't hurt. Kids will be kids but you can count on them to be the most honest to goodness creatures on Earth and you can always rely on them for truths from the heart. Now I know how he feels.

Hmmmpphhh... this conversation took place over a month ago but it has always bothered me eversince. I'm so sorry you fell that way Zareef. I truly am...

What's On My Fridge?

These...

Front view


Left door...


Right door...


Right side... Zareef's art work included :D

So now I guess, you know what to get for me as souvenirs eh?! *wink*

Delectable...

Two weekends ago while on a jalan-jalan carik pasal excursion with B and the kids, I chanced upon this yet to be opened store.


I immediately clapped my hands and shouted gleefully. Terkejut badak B and the kids. Yes, I was THAT excited!

Imagine being a follower of the said owner's blog for a couple of years and reading her accomplishments and salivating and marveling over her magic touch on each and every cakes that she has designed and now to see that her dreams coming true right here, at The Gardens, is best put as simply AMAZING!!

Congratulations Su Yin! You've done it! Brilliantly, I might add.

Oh boy... I can hardly wait!!