Beautiful In My Mind

I came across a few blogs and photos with fall scenes on the internet that tugged and wrenched at the edges of memories of days gone by (à la a drama queen, you say..?) But seriously, arent these lovely? (Ciptaan Allah; which makes me wonder what magical things await in Jannah).

This I had gotten from Peter's Paris.

And this is from Kathi's, at a Maine farm called Cob Cottage. I love her life story on the farm and the fact that she paints beautifully.

And sounding like a broken record, let me tell you (again and again and again..) fall is my favorite season. I have a post of reminiscing the chilly fall days in Sept 2008. And (more) reminiscing fall in Nov 2008.

Wiki said autumn is associated with the feelings of melancholy (so I deduced that man, was I ever so melancholy in 2008.. I think this is a cue for Delinn to go ha-ha..)

I also have a post on the colors of fall in Oct 2009 (I suppose I wasnt that melancholy last year).
And I am not feeling melancholy this year although come to think of it, this is a post on fall (I have a feeling that maybe I should append a 'yet' here). Have a beautiful Oct/Nov, my dears, wherever you maybe.

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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

I was passing by the gorgeous beauty product counters this morning and remembered it has been ages (I do tend to exaggerate..) since I had decent cleansers and stuff for my own. I was happy with Artistry years ago but all that went awry when my membership expired.

I then tried Mary Kay via a pretty, petite lady introduced by Mijah. I find the products so-so. So when I finished that I went to Body Shop. I like the brand, but I think it is rather mild for my.. cough, cough err.. mature (yeah, that's the word I am looking for - instead of aged..) complexion. After all that I stopped using any stuff at all. I had used Clinique at college - it was rather affordable then - but gave up on them later (I mean tell me, whatever can you afford with five kids - four then - to support..?)

So this morning as I passed by the array of wondrous beauty counters (do you find you are in awe whenever you walk around these areas? I do) I stopped to chat with the Clinique Consultant named Juliet (that's what her name tag says). I was in a chatty mood and she is in sales after all - so what's there not to chat about?

She's in her mid fifties, a grandma she confessed, and has got only tiny lines around her eyes and forehead. Her complexion is clear and smooth. Cantik kulit dia. I peeked into her tag again, her photo on it looked gorgeous and I told her so. I can see she was pleased, but said that photo was taken like 15 years ago.

She guessed my age accurately (damn, I thought I might have looked younger than my years.. I am lucky I suppose that she hadnt thought I am already well into my fifties or sixties.. Vain, you say? I couldnt agree more. haha) She said she can tell I havent been pampering my face.. and then the bad news kept coming.

She remarked on the dark circles I have under my eyes (so tell me something I dont know Juliet, I said), I have lines around the eyes (I thought, I am middle-aged; not twenty. Of course I have got crow feet) - deep lines she added (what?!! where? and she pointed THEM ALL all out to me) and I've got open pores (and she pointed them all out too..).

She brought a mirror and invited me to look at both our faces in there. She pointed at her cheeks and the laughing lines. Her cheeks looked like they've got more elastics in them and the lines arent etched so deep. I concur to the differences she pointed out.

She showed me the products that she has. The techniques to everything (well, almost everything). How each and the how's can help.

So. You dont think I'd come home empty handed after that, do you? Juliet gave me her number and told me to call her if I need any beauty advice at all (she was the nicest beauty grandma I've ever met) and put my stuff in the prettiest cosmetics bag (picture above). She gave me numerous other bottles and tubes too, oh samples I said. She said these are no ordinary samples - these are meant to help you. She had selected and given me those that I need (how sweet..) and in no tiny, minute sample packages mind you. The sample bottles she gave are big.

Maybe one day I can tell you about the beauty treatment aka regimen, in my opinion, that Juliet goes through. Oh, and the (expensive) pills that she takes to rejuvenate her cells (psst.. let me tell you her secret ~ they are sheep placenta pills out of New Zealand!)

ps - I remembered the time I went to a Bobbi Brown counter (years ago) and the girl there had complimented my complexion. I was over the moon and I've been carrying that picture for years.. I suppose the picture frame crashed into tiny pieces today.

And pps - what you should take away from my nonsense in this post?
1. Your complexion should be numero uno to you (apart from other MOST important things of course)
2. It is never too late (or too early!) to start a beauty routine
3. Find a product you trust (whatever it maybe. I had seriously liked and trusted Artistry)
4. And oh, one last thing - never visit a beauty counter that's manned by a sweet grandma (these days banyak counter yang ada budak2 lembut yang temperamental tu.., go there. You may not spend a cent..)

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This Early Morning

I like mornings when I have off-site meetings. The meetings usually starts a bit later than the usual clock-in time -

.. yuck, do you ever have those punch cards? Sort of reminds me of arwah Sudirman with his song of the same title when I ride on the (pink!) mini busses to work like eons ago. Al-fatihah.. anyway, these days we have access cards to glass doors -

- right, back to my morning with off-site meetings. Since the meeting starts a bit late I usually have extra time to myself as I'd leave home at the usual time (I hate getting caught in the peak hours traffic, dont you?) I'd get my breakfast somewhere with the newspapers or my notebook or prepare my meeting notes. It's rather peaceful in the early mornings. Sememangnye lah, the early birds will catch more worms (?)

This morning I am at *** (a place where Eirfan would say mama, kita kan boycott tempat tu? if I ever suggest we have a meal here) Nevertheless, there is no other convenient place open this early in the morning with wi-fi, to boot (we always can come up with the flimsiest excuses ever if we try hard enough!)

I like the coffee at this place. The smell reminds me of the coffee aroma at the cafetaria of my old college days. So here I am blogging (and listening to My Ummah by Sami Yusuf, my new fave. Listen to it here). The girl washing the glass windows shot me glances that I could translate to, ye ke makcik tu blogging and surfing here? So are the other morning customers. But man, this is the new millenium and makciks do blog.

The same stares I'd get whenever I whip out a camera and take photos of anything and everything. My more demure, politically correct, immaculate mannered, home-grown (and older, of course) sister would, without fail, remark on it. She will say, tu la engkau born and raised overseas (her words, not mine). Personally I dont think that's it.

Whatever. I have a photo I am trying to upload, but cant since the upload sevice is down, said Blogger. I'll put that in later. Right now I need to leave for the meeting.

Have the nicest day ahead (I sort of have a feeling I will, Insya'Allah).

~ postnote : have managed to upload the photo afterall; my notebook, my usual arabica coffee (large, of course), my watch .. which I adore (it was a mother's day present), the headphone and my daily prescription of mecobalamin (that's something like vitamin B to you and me).

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Whatever The Mood Is..

Occassionally I wonder what'll become of me if I hadnt done what I did when I was younger. Like maybe I had traversed down the road I had but taken. Maybe's and could be's. Or should have beens. If only's.

Let bygones be bygones. Things that are meant to be will be. Qada. Qadar.

(I figured it must be age that's catching up with me)

Anyway. I found some stuff I like on the net..

I love reading about Bob - funny, endearing conversation snippets that Lisa, mom, would post. It is simply addictive. Like when he joined her and friends for lunch and talked about Star Wars.

And I love Syib's (as I affectionately call her sometimes) post on Azri's out of tune singing of Maher Zain's For The Rest Of My Life and she twirling her hair (what?!!) I find difficulty placing her in that scene actually. If you know Lara, the tomb raider, then that's Syib. But then again, there is always layers upon layers of an onion.

And what's not to love about this place? I like Gabrielle's for her designs (and that she is a mother of six!) but actually fell in love with her site when she confessed she only ever keep a journal when feeling blue. I thought - finally, someone to bond with! Pix above from Gabrielle's too.

And anything on this mouth watering food blog is surely a sin. I love all Tex-Mex (not that I know how to make any; I cant even handle simple nachos let me tell you) with all that cheesy flavors spiked with super hot jalapenos.

Last but surely not the very least, I do confess that I occassionally sneaked to this site to prove to me that life will still be fabulous at 50; and beyond.

So there!

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Doodles

This is something I like at this time. The children were listening to him.

There is something soothing about his songs. He is a Swedish singer/music producer with Lebanese origins.


I bought his CD and passed it around to share. Has had said, I'll buy his CD sebab dia cute! I went like, okay.. He is having a mini concert this weekend and tickets are all sold out (not that I am looking for one).

Also.

This is something else I like too. My favorite pakcik at the gerai buku recommended the singer (I had thought like, tak kenal pun..) But I googled the name later and found that he is quite popular actually.

He is a British Iranian singer/songwriter and had appeared in numerous publications. Read his story in Time magazine and on The Independent (note : I hate that label Islam's Rock Star - whatever does that mean anyway?)

He has this new song I like but it is only a single. The good thing is you can download this for free now. The full version on a CD is said to be out soon. The same song on youtube already had >2mil viewing at this time. Listen to it here.

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Walimatul-urus

That's the arrival of the pengantin. The wedding was meriah. That's the word to use. Ramai orang datang and receded only when it rained. Maybe it is a blessing that it rained?

Because we ALMOST ran out of lauk. The ayam panggang-air asam pair was way too appetizing for a wedding I think. Sebab tu cepat habis (moral of the story is kalau kenduri masak lauk ala kadar je sebab nya kalau tak, orang makan banyak!! Dah sedap, kan..? haha).
But seriously. Mungkin niat baik ibubapa pengantin nak menjamu. Berkat, InsyaAllah.

We missed the akad - as usual the children had got to work. But it was meriah as well from the stories we heard. It was a niece's wedding di kampung.

The 5-tiered wedding caked looked pretty and so much fun. The best thing is, it is made by the bride herself! She is after all the owner of a bakery.

There were actually three pretty little flower girls. The third, a 3-year old cried on the red carpet and refused to let go of her mum's hand and therefore had to be uh, dropped. Arent these two cute?

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Last Call For Raya Stories

Feel like I must squeeze in another update on raya. Yeah, yeah - that's a done story I know but this is a must.

We had our office raya do only today. It was fun. Lots of food. Good food, must emphasis that. With laksam (yumm..), satay Keting (or is it Urat Keting (?) from Bangi), rendang negeri etc etc. Nice people. Basically a good day.

The paparazzi boys came out of their shells with techie cameras.

The nicest gambar I took was of the satay actually..

Satay testing di dapur..

The children had also invited friends for raya makan2 recently. Luqman had 10 or less friends around. Iman a few. Kaia invited 30 friends (which made me feel like pitam) but told me not all will come. Trust me he said (I should have known better because more than that thirty friends showed up). And when asked if Ilyas had invited like 10 friends or so he said mesti lah tidak. I thought (or hoped..) less. He said more. Twenty? I asked. He shook his head and said maybe twice that number. Wow.

But trained as we are at the office to accept all hurdles as challenges, I thought hah, what is 80 or so hungry young men/women who wanted to eat? I made pizza (with ready-made crusts) just to add a different flavor to the kids' raya; and with the usual stuff like mee curry (thank you Fahmi for the recipe and the last minute tutorial! haha), bakso and lemang-rendang-nasi impit trilogy. I suppose the whole event went rather well. It rained (but it didnt ruin the parade), what's a little rain - actually it rained quite a lot - to a bunch of hungry boys?

Unfortunately I got no at all photo as I was too busy in the kitchen.

And last but not least, I have some (more) raya di kampung photos I simply must share.

Eirfan wore a pair of swimming goggle to protect his eyes from the smoke while making the rendang.. what can I say? They are all budak2 pekan..

That's the dearest oldest lady I love.

He is a town boy who had NEVER EVER belah kelapa (when asked if he sees a rabbit or a rat face at the top of the coconut - coincidently my dears, do you know this? - he said ma I dont see anything..) I gave up and said ok, ketuk je lah kelapa tu sekuat hati! And he did just that.

So there. I suppose that is a wrap on the raya stories this year.

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Give It A Hug!

I have much to update but so little time! Like the raya invites we had, Ana's wedding, some old photos, bead updates etc etc.

But for now I've got to tell you about my new laptop handbag! Yes I know - doesnt that sound like a dream? Laptop handbag. Photos below.

They are called Hugger bags because you will hug it to your body (maybe because of your precious laptop inside). For a while I thought it seem like Huggies.. (God forbid that anyone should think I am carrying a diaper bag!)

For many years previously I've been carrying a Microsoft backpack (let me emphasis a FREE backpack). And it had served me well that backpack.

Now (at least until last week) I lug around a FREE backpack from Basis Bay (yeap, I love freebies). That bag is pretty handy with many pockets. But somehow felt heavy and bulky for my fragile (you are allowed to substitude that with aged..) shoulders.

And I have a feeling I'm outgrowing backpacks too.

I was looking for wedding presents when I saw the bags at the mall. They looked good, so to borrow a phrase from Delinn, terus rembat satu.

If you are looking for a laptop bag, read here for tips for getting one. Like the size of your laptop, material etc etc ; http://alimbag.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-choose-laptop-bags.html

And more photos of the bag options here - http://www.huggerbag.blogspot.com/

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