Moving To A New Place!

Hi darlings.

I have decided to move after all.

All new posts will be at the new blog called A River Garden. There is a story behind the name, mungkin satu hari nanti saya akan cerita. Please join /continue with me on this new journal.



xoxo

Salaam

Hi darlings. It has been ages indeed since the last post. But that was truly unavoidable.

We've been away. There was lots of planning and preparation before the trip.
 
We just got back early yesterday morning and now I'm down with the worst flu ever. There is still heaps of cleaning and clearing to be done. I will update the blog, I promise - I've got loads to tell. But for now I am taking things easy till the chest and nose clear up a bit!

This is out latest photo.

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Nikmat (yang Tak Terbilang)

We packed everybody for a kelas ustaz di Masjid Assyakirin KLCC the other day.

Times like this I thought, nikmat Allah yang mana yang ingin saya dustakan?

Dan ayat2 ini terlekat di hati bila saya terbaca:

قَالُوا إِنَّا كُنَّا قَبْلُ فِي أَهْلِنَا مُشْفِقِينَ

Mereka berkata: "Sesungguhnya kami dahulu, semasa berada dalam kalangan keluarga kami - selalu merasa cemas takut (daripada berlaku derhaka kepada Allah),
 At-Tur [52:26]

Lalu saya berdoa kami akan berasa begini sentiasa.

Dan sebahagian dari ayat ini:

...."Wahai Tuhanku, ilhamkanlah daku supaya tetap bersyukur akan nikmatmu yang engkau kurniakan kepadaku dan kepada ibu bapaku, dan supaya aku tetap mengerjakan amal soleh yang Engkau redai; dan jadikanlah sifat-sifat kebaikan meresap masuk ke dalam jiwa zuriat keturunanku. Sesungguhnya aku bertaubat kepadamu, dan sesungguhnya aku dari orang-orang Islam (yang tunduk patuh kepadamu)".
Al-Ahqaf [46:15]

Ameen.

Selamat mencari jalan pulang yang penuh berkat dan rahmat.

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A Family Wedding - Shazwan & Hartina

We were back in Taiping the other weekend. Shazwan, nephew, got married.

 

 The pengantin looked gorgeous in red and green. Cantik sangat color contrast. Pandai dia orang cari baju. Dan saya sangat suka laksa dan cendol that were served - sedap! A local favorite.

This gambar made me laughed. Ayah Cu looked like he just discovered that Ika's baby yang putih melepak (one of our many cucu sedara) just did a dirty job on him (which actually the baby did not).

Old memories. Humble beginnings. The house where I grew up in.

 As usual we stayed at Flemingtion that faces the Lake Gardens. Their lake facing room are always a sell-out. We enjoyed long morning coffee watching locals run and exercise at the park (kami tengok je!)

 Tak sah balik Taiping tak tangkap gambar pokok2 ni kat Lake Gardens.

 My old school. It is located at the end of town at the foot of the Maxwell Hills. Years ago we would would walk to the Lake Gardens to have class picnics (dont that sound fun? Somehow that reminds me of the Sound of Music although I dont know why!) Look at the sky - it is always that full of clouds every time in Taiping.

And there was plenty of fruits!

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Let's Share

I have a sister whom we call Kak Aji occasionally. She sends us all the good stuff and motivations like none other. Here are some of the latest ones that we've got.

 

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It Is Almost Year End Already!

Hi darlings. How are you? I've been very, very busy thus the silence despite best intentions to have the blog updated always (sometimes the thought of why bother? came to mind too..)

What are your year end plans? I've got none actually. We've got another family wedding coming up. I thought I will bake a turkey - just for the fun of it. I'll be working most days till Jan anyway.

We were at Picknik the other day (at last!) - the place is small but the food was quite enjoyable. The carbonara was good and the brownies are out of this world. But stay away from the risotto (my thoughts were, surely risotto tastes better than this!) And if you have any intention of catching a glimpse of the "leng chai" chef  at all you should go in the evenings. That is when he is around. If you are familiar with Ben's at Publika, Picknik is sort of like behind Ben's in the Solaris building, one floor down. I recommend the place.

I also found a collection of decent tudungs at ClosetHeart. They did a sale at the office the other day but their shop is in Subang Jaya. Their selendang are long and wide - tidak lah kecik / jarang / licin or any other silly tudung issues like that. Their tudung Syria are comfy too. The material is firm enough to stretch and yet not limpy. They have quite a range of pretty blouses also if you are into that.Thank you Aeda for recommending. & I recommend their stuff to you too.

And I am not a devotee of The Voice. But I came across this last night. She came this close to the late diva herself (after all who doesnt love the song or Whitney?) I was amazed. According to coach Adam they only rehearsed the song once. And if you do not know yet, Tesanne won.

If you are vacation-ing, have fun. If you are workng, you'll have fun too. The roads - and the office - will be almost empty. Have a good year end.

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A Family Wedding - Dira&Imran Part3

(Sesungguhnye adat orang Melayu kawen renyah. Memang renyah).

Namun alhamdulillah we never had any tiga-hari-tiga-malam kind of kenduri in the family. Dan insyaaAllah tidak akan ada hendaknya.

Kami pergi hantar pengantin last weekend. The hosts had kindly invited us for dinner on the eve of the kenduri. The food was delish, bertemakan makanan arab (and I thought I must learn how to cook lamb!) The pengantin wore gorgeous purple wedding suits. And I love the simple yet sweet pelamin (tak berserabut). It rained all afternoon and evening that day.

It dawned bright and clear (oops, silap) I mean cloudy, windy and raining the next morning (tengok je lah gambar awan tu - typical day in the east coast during thanksgiving weekend - haha - I suppose). Kata Imran, besarnya ombak and look at the sea - it is raining heavily there. I thought, is that how you tell it'll rain on land?

Nevertheless it cleared somewhat by noon bila kami sampai di rumah pengantin lelaki.. The pengantin looked gorgeous in blue. Agaknye dah nama pun pengantin, pakai apa pun nampak cantik saja. Tapi saya rasa pengantin ni exceptionally so.

And that was that. Alhamdulillah everything went fine. Kesian mak-bapak pengantin pening, susah hati, risau dan sentiasa berharap dan berdoa agar semua majlis-majlis berjalan lancar.

Later we went to the beach. The waves were high and looked choppy. I thought it looked like the waves on BigSur at some point (chewwah - macam pernah sampai!) Betul - sebab you can see the mist that rise to the beach from the sea spray. It looked beautiful.

Kata Fatin, mesti pergi makan keropok di Bukit Tok Beng di Seberang Takir. And we did. I like the big wood burner that they use to boil the keropok. I have never seen this. Kalau tak silap ada 10 periuk besar kat atas tu. We laughed at the automatic number system in place. Kata budak2 macam masuk ke bank. Memang la ramai orang.

We also went to Gong Badak area (and saw project stadium yang roboh along the way. Engineer kata macam mana boleh roboh..) Kata Fatin lagi, mesti pergi makan ikan celup tepung di Warung Pok Nong. We did. But they didnt open until 3pm and we were already on our way home. So we headed out to Marang. We stopped at the place where we once bought the out-of-this-world apam balik (budak2 ingat lagi sampai sekarang) but there was no apam balik anymore there. What a shame.

We stopped at Kuala Kemaman. Our favorite place for sata, otak2 and lekor. Lekor was bad. But sata has always been the best. Tapi dah terlalu ramai orang dan the place do not seem so quaint anymore. Dulu gerai kecik je bawah pokok; like a place where the locals would also go. Now semua kereta plate W and B and J. I didnt enjoy it as much as previous times we were there. We need to find a more quiet place.

We stopped at Teluk Mak Nik aka Monica Bay. Monica Bay? I mean, seriously? (I might be in BigSur after all..)

It was a good trip. I think I will revisit the whole stretch again with a (good) camera; free and easy the next time. I need to pukul gambar like this.

We will have a free Sunday this week. There will be another family wedding next weekend in Pekan. Shazwan, nephew, will be married. The weekend after that in Taiping. Then it'll be another rest weekend. After that Jean, niece, will be getting married pulak. But in KL je for both bride and groom kenduri. Which is rather a blessing. But you know what the big question is - ada baju ka? Nanti masuk gambar baju sama je..

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A Family Wedding ~ Dira & Imran Part 2

We were at the wedding reception the other night.

 

 

 Welcome drinks were served before you are called into the ballroom for dinner. You get to mingle with a drink in your hand while listening to the quartet. Then take photos and sign the guest book. Very civilized, I must say..

  

We had the (beautifully decorated) table all to ourselves.

 

 

The food was unparalleled.. There was salmon for the entree, broccoli soup, lovely sea bass for main and ice cream teh tarik (!) for dessert.

The bride and groom looked gorgeous that night. I took a video that didnt happen (!) Hampeh.. (sebab berdiri tepi aisle punya lah lamanya konon ambik video tu) Seriously they looked lovely; I wish the video worked and you could see.

The wedding favors were adorable - decorated biscuits that taste as sweet as they look. They came in threes in charming pink and olive green oblong boxes (I cant get over how pretty these were).

My sister loves flowers. There were fresh hydrangeas, roses, orchids all over the room. We were asked to take all the flowers home later (although there were a lot more left at the hotel). So for a few days I suppose everybody's houses were like florists' shops.

And a thank you to all the guests.

It was a beauiful ocassion indeed.

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A Family Wedding ~ Dira & Imran

Dira, niece, got married. The aqad was beautiful. The bride had on pretty smiles throughout the ceremony. The penthouse was decorated in white with the wedding theme color peach. I love the pelamin that was simply done. The hantaran was beautiful too, adorned with fresh white orchids, roses and hygrangea.The food was delicious and the room, though small gave a warm cozy feeling amongst family.

 

 

 

 

 

Semoga dirahmati Allah sentiasa. Panjang umur dan murah rezeki. Maka nikmat Allah yang mana yang ingin kita dustakan lagi?

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Nikmat-nikmatNya

After the convo the other day I told the children, we must tangkap gambar family. Yang dah convo dulu kata, convo kami takde pun tangkap gambar family.. I said well, there must be progress (my sister has a "hall of fame" - that's what I call it. Semua anak2 yang convo ada gambar kat situ dengan family sekali. I thought it might give an inspiration to the younger kids and it look rather nice actually).

Anyway we went to Oscar Studio - kedai gambar dolu2 - nak tangkap gambar (ramai2 nih pergi..); and we were turned away (!) - there was like 3 or 4 families already waiting. All with a family member who has a scroll and the graduation gown / cap. Hmmph..

Tapi percayalah, kadang2 benda yang tak seronok tu menyebabkan benda2 yang lagi best jadi. Turned out that we decided to tangkap gambar di studio photgraphers yang tangkap gambar masa wedding Ilyas/Zuf. We spent an hour at the studio dan it turned out to be a great family get together that evening.

Their studio was gorgeous dan santai (sama sekali tidak seperti Oscar Studio, that is for sure). Dan semestinya gambar yang di tangkap di sini pun takkan sama di Oscar.

While the photographers siapkan studio (they call that the white room) kami tangkap gambar dan menceceh di waiting area yang amat cantik. And I have photos to share if you like to see.

These are taken in the waiting room or the living room as they call it at the studio.

And these are taken by the pros - while standing on a ladder, à la Harry Potter, magician etc (I keep the more sombre aka traditional ones to myself) .

 

Oh, and the studio is called the Shutter Place Studio.

You've got to make excuses to take your photos here!

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