Back breaking, back aching, stomach cramping and I feel so sleepy. What can I do…..

I was surfing through FFN.net once again, searching for any good stories to read written by very talented writers. Unfortunately all the good writers which I knew and grew up with had all suspended their passion for writing and continued on with their adulthood lives, leaving new writers to take over.

Some of the new writers are very creative and talented but most of them are just average with no new ideas and badly plotted and rushed out fanfics. I had those rushed out fanfics. I makes me feel like picking up the phone and lecture the kids on the proper etiquette of writing.

The ppol of good fanfic writers are now decreasing and so are their passion in writing. Some of the great fanfics I’ve read were left unattended for  months to the point of being left forgotten. Hehehe.. and I’m one of them.

Well what can I say, for my part I’m busy with my working life but the urge to write is still there, only rusty. Hehehe..

But I’m still blogging and yakking out all my thoughts and views aren’t I? Oh yeah I’ll be coming out with a recipe of cheesecake and chocolatey marble cake soon. I’ll be experimenting the new recipes this week. Will intro the details of the recipes and new experiments later in the week.

I had thought today was like my usual mornings. Eat breakfast, drink cups of coffee and chit chat with my neighbors over breakfast. But mom decided to add a little extra fun by being a Sherlock Holme and solve the mystery to the holes in the soil of most of her potted plants.

Gloves- check. Gardening spades- check. Fat cat lazing beside her- check. Within 10mins of her solving mystery frenzy, the whole breakfast table was shaken up by her loud surprised yelling. Mystery of the holes in the potted plants solved.

A female birthing mouse was the culprit behind the holes. Yes, birthing… she was in labour and there was 3 newborn mice in the holed up nest. The poor mouse made the mistake of running away which attracted the attention of my lazy old cat. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my hunting cat move at fast speed and pouncing with the graze of a gazelle.

After making a chew toy out of the fat mouse, Kontot finally had enough fun and spat her prey out. By now my other cat, he eats almost everything (he loves fried Bayam), had woken up from his nap. He saw the nest of the mouse that my mom had digged out and after sniffing on the newborn mice, he proceeded to make them into his breakfast.

By now, everyone at the breakfast table had taken a keen interest in the National Geographic Channel live show and I was having trouble at trying to finish my breakfast. I’m not sure how the newborn mice tasted like but my cat sure like its breakfast.

We had thought he would only eat the young ones but he surprised everyone when he continued to eat the mother. It only took him a few minutes and he left nothing behind.

I did manage to get the picture and if its too much to view them, please look away.

I was dead tired last night and was asleep even before my head thumped onto my pillow. I wasn’t physically tired, I was mentally tired. I had done alot of thinking, calculations and error fault research on my work that by the time it was 7pm, I was nursing a migraine.

It was a good sensation having my aching back resting on my comfy King Koil bed. Oohh… If I wasn’t working today, I would have gladly slept in and snuggled my way out of La-La Land.

I wonder if anyone ever heard or come across sleep number bed? I certainly haven’t and was quite surprised when I came across it. In SE-Asia, we only know a bed is just a mattress to sleep on and the variety of comfort varies from hard to feather soft. They can also throw the back support and anti-mite protection and years of warranty in the package.

But airbeds? Uh.. Nope, never heard nor seen one. Although on the website it is stated that couples can adjust their comfort level of their side on the airbed to their satisfaction. I’m not sure if it works because I’ve never tried it.

I wonder what happens if there is a leak in their air pockets container… Will it be like a flat tyre? Hm..

Last Saturday was an extremely eventful day. My family and I were already out and driving at 2pm, heading out to Gerisik Hot spring but on the way there, we decided to head to Melaka instead to just RnR.

We did reach Melaka and it was 6.30pm, using the old highway. Although when we reached Muar, there was the new highway AMJ that cuts almost half of the journey and the view is as usual, boring. I prefer the old highway where I get to see villagers and plantations, cummuting with the nature and reminiscing the old times.

I nearly got lost in Melaka. It’s so huge and there were so many drastic changes! I was a lost deer in Melaka. It was around 10 years or so since I stepped into Melaka and really walked around. And during that time, the city of Melaka was still slumbering. I had not expected such night life and major mega malls.

Wow.. All those plaves that my grandpa used to bring me on his bicycle were now tourists attractions, teeming with people and cars. Ugh.. I hate the traffic. The jams were terrible but it must be due to the school holidays.

Anyway I did manage to drive by The Eye of Malaysia, see the Hang Tuah Tower and see only the sign of Jonkers Walk. Didn’t manage to do more since we weren’t able to get a cheap hotel. All the hotels were booked and priced at a sky high rate.

We left Melaka for home at 9.30pm. Had wanted to take the highway home but once again decided on taking the told higway, meaning drive back through the villages and plantations to keep our RM30.00  worth of toll. Once again we used the AMJ highway, back to Muar then to Yong Peng and off to Parit Sulong.

Unfortunately the journey at Parit Sulong wasn’t as smooth as we had thought it would be. During the drive through the palm tree plantations, our right rear tyre burst and we were stuck good. No lights, only stars and awfully chilly night air were the scenario we were stuck in.

Luckily we had our plug in spotlight, traffic illuminator vest and torch lights to ease our predicament. But luck wasn’t on our side. The spare tyre was of the wrong rim size. Gah!

We had thought it was over, it was almost midnight and we know it was dangerous to be at the road shoulder without any street lamp illuminating on us. The road is usually used by heavy vehicles to head to and fro JB and a few times we almost had a scary run down by the monster trucks despite our lights and safety vests.

Luckily there was a nearby kampong house and the villagers were more than happy to help us out in the mess we were in. If it weren’t for the malay couple, my whole family and I would have to no choice but camp out in the plantation.

Tow-truck you say? Even the tow-trucks don’t even know and want to help us. So much for insurance coverage.. sheesh..

I was this close to throwing a can of acetone and throwing a lit flame onto my neighbour’s collection of cars in his factory. The car alarm was on for more than 20mins and there is only so much my ears and sanity could take.

Luckily that must-have-been deaf worker of his had realised something was wrong and turned off the godly irritating car alarm. How could anyone sleep or even get on with their normal with that high note beeping going on and on leaves me clueless.

My sis and her family came over yesterday but too bad, she didn’t bring the new born with her. I was quite looking forward to meeting the baby but I’d settle with my niece and almost a year old nephew. How I missed them..

Mimi was, well Mimi.. still not sharing anything with her siblings and almost anyone unless I bullied her into. Adam.. well he is a pure sweetheart, until he starts screeching that is. He had just learned to walk a few steps before falling down and laughing his glee off.

Amazingly he looks like elder brother when he was a toddler. Mom had taken out the family baby photos and the comparison were almost similar. He had almost everything that my elder had looked before but the lazy eye.. Hahaha..

Sorry brother, I had to say that. Love poking you!!

So anyway they are going to have the Cukur Rambut for Adam and Danial Afik on the 5th April 2009, only immediate families are invited. Meaning no nosy poking-here-and-there aunts and uncles, just family.

It was great meeting my sis. She looked no different that she had when she was pregnant, so much for saying she had lost weight and weighs 60kg currently. Looks the same to me. (^-^)

I had wanted to chit chat and yak-yak with her all day long but with her kids, mom and dad my time with her was extremely shorten. But at least that saves me from being under her scrutinizing gaze, digging all the things from me which she deemed as gossips.

Muahaha.. too bad sis, you had to do something better than that.

Anyway for those who are looking for or doing a admin job search, you can stop by that link and have a look at their offers.

The whole week I’ve been happily trying my hands out in baking in what I had previously failed to achieve due to my inexperienced.

I’ve baked the cinnamon rolls according to the youtube.com video which I had watched and worked out like a charm. Although the amount of flour is more than what is stated on the recipe list, which was expected of it, the first batch was fluffy and delicious. I’ve made two batches, experimenting on using evaporated milk and condensed milk.

The batch that I had made using evaporated milk turns out very well while the other, condensed milk turn out quite hard and didn’t raise up as expected of a bread dough. However since I had added chopped baking chocolates into the roll, the rolls turn out as nice as a homemade cookie. the kids love the chocolate condensed milk batch while the adults prefer the fluffy bun.

cinnamon rolls 1

At least this time my cinnamon rolls were much more delicious and successful compared to the first time I did two years back.

Anyway lastnight, I decided to try another baking recipe, puff pastry. Using only the below stated recipe, it took me two hours to let the pastry turn out into the right texture I had wanted.

• 500gm plain flour (more will be used when kneading the dough to become firm)
• a pinch of salt
• 80gm of melted butter
• 200ml of water

I had mixed the butter and butter first and then added the flour into the mixture. Slowly I added the water, little by little while kneading the dough. Don’t use the electrical mixer or it will never work.

If the dough still sticks to your finger, add a palmful of flour and knead it throughly. Continue adding more flour if needed until you are satisfied. careful not to add too much flour.

After 15-20min of kneading the dough, flour out the rolling counter and flatten up your dough. Put 200g-250gm of pastry butter/margarine into the center and fold the edges (pinch them together) of the dough in the sequence of top with bottom and left with right,  like how you would wrap a present.

Make sure that the pastry margarine is totally covered by the dough and pinch the dough together at all openings. Then taking a rolling pin, flatten out the dough slowly into a rectangle like form and fold the dough into two.

(a)Wrapping the dough with a plastic wrap, put the dough into the fridge (not freezer) for 20mins. I’ve tried putting it for 10mins, it didn’t work.

After 20mins and making sure that the dough is cold and has the same texture as your pastry margarine (dry butter), take it out from the fridge and roll it out again and fold it again. This will be your second turn of the kneading process. Keep repeating the process (a) for 6- 8 turns.

After you have repeated the kneading process for 6 turns or so, you can now start using your puff pastry dough. Before using the dough, make sure that you at least rest your dough after you took it out from the fridge for about 5-10mins.

I tried my hand at it and added apple pie filling into. Oh yeah if you were to add those wet fillings, make sure to drain almost completely the liquid of the filling before you put it into the puff pastry.

You can also put your excess dough in the fridge if you have decided that you had enough baking for the day and take it out the next day to continue with your puff pastry making.

Happy trying!

Ayu puff pastry

It was a disturbing night last night. Although it started off quite peacefully with all the tv programmes I love being watched earnestly by me, but the moment I closed my eyes to knock off for the night, it took an unexpected turn.

I woke up at 2.28am with my heart in my throat and screaming my lungs out with the recital of the verses of the Quran on my lips. The dream I had was terrible enough for me to squeeze up to my younger sister in hopes of getting some comfort.

It was night in my dream and I was chased by hell hounds. The dogs were large and scary enough to name them hell hounds. There were eight of them, all were as tall as a doberman, heavily muscled, red fiery eyes and their canine teeth were as long as two inches each. Some were dark brown while others were as black as the night.

And I was the unlucky human that looked deliciously appetizing to them.

It was bad enough they can run as fast as the best sprinter in the world. It became a living nightmare to be in their dinner platter and having no where to go. I’m not sure why, but I eventually managed to climb up a fruit tree, praying hard that the mongrels don’t know how to climb.

Bad… Three of the hell hounds could climb and apart from reciting the Quran verses at the top my lungs, I was screaming for help. Strangely, a weird looking apparation appeared, smiled at me after asking what I was doing in tree and made the hounds disappear.

That was when I woke up. After heading to the toilet to wash my face off the residue of the dream, I snuggled back in to sleep in hopes that such nightmare didn’t happen again.

It did and this time the stupid dogs were bad enough to nearly tear off my throat. I’m not sure why but I remembered a person naming the dogs. I can’t quite remember the first name since it was in a strange language I’ve never heard before but I do remember the last, it was Yusof.

Weird.. Very weird. This time after another bouts of running and trying to arson the damn dogs, I woke up to the sounds of my roof shaking. Yes, the rafter and roof were shaking. After picking up and binding back whatever was left of my courage, I took a look outside my window.

It was storming badly outside and the wind were making those small spiral techniques, somewhat giving the impression of a mini typhoon/ hurricane. No wonder my roof were shaking..That was at 3.30am

It was 4am in the morning when I finally managed to get some sleep. So much for trying to get a good rest for today’s hunt for my fiberglass machine and auto performance parts that I had wanted to research on.

I was bored to death last night and sure enough I tagged along with my parents when they informed me that they were heading out to Pasar Pandan. I know its a huge trading wet market with lots of fish and groceries for sale but when you are overwhelmed with boredom, you’d do anything to get rid of it.

Luckily for me my parents agreed to have dinner at Tesco Tebrau after mom had finished her business with her groceries. However the moment I step into the market, I’m not sure what happened but all of the attention were drawn to me. I wasn’t wearing a dress or anything fancy, who would ever wear an evening dress to a market?

In fact I was wearing a decent T-shirt and my worn-out three quuarter faded pair of jeans; nothing revealing and sexy. I was very clueless as to why anyone would ever want to even look at me, much less whistled and asked for my number. Perhaps being in the prolong company with fishes has made the men there quite depraved.

Anyway bought a few kilos of fishes, red grouper, sotong kereta and ikan sagai. Then we headed off to Tesco Tebrau!

Yeah.. Bought a few things in the hypermarket. But my favourite purchase was my blouses!! I had a good bargain, the sales lady were so happy to indulge me and gave me great discounts! hehehe.. Go recession.. oops!

Hmm.. I’m wondering if the life insurance rates will also be lowered considering that we are all in the world economic recession.

I am craving for spaghetti. I love the sour taste of the tomato paste. I also love when the chef add in a healthy helping of minced meat and large sprinkles of mozarella cheese.. oh yeah!

And to share my love for food and making them, I’m posting up a few good videos on Youtube.com on puff pastry making and cinnamon rolls!!

I love cinnamon rolls and now that I know how to make them, I no longer need to travel far to get my yearly dosage of cinnamon rolls. Yummy!!

Unfortunately the owner of the video doesn’t allow imbedding her video, so I’ll just provide the link for those who are interested in making cinnamon rolls.

Imagine my shock when I was about to walk down the stairs to from my room when I saw something peculiar flicking up and down on my mom’s makeshift clothes hanging rail. It is green, it’s 4inch long and it feeds on other insects. It’s a praying mantis.

Luckily the mantis wasn’t that matured yet since it can grow much longer. Even though the insect was beautiful and graceful, it still freaks me out. I get very freak out every time I see  creepy crawlies or better known as insects. I get goosebumps every time I see a whole army of ants crawling or centipede crawl pass me.

I don’t easily freak out on insects and they used to be my favourite pets when I was younger but over the years, the lack of exposure to many legged insects creeps me out.

There are 3 different types of praying mantis that I’ve found in my mom’s garden. One was a 1cm long black colored with red stripes praying mantis. I’ve checked it out and the mantis was originally originated from southern Thailand. How it ended up in southern Johor leaves me clueless.

I tried to get a clear picture of the praying mantis but the thing just can’t keep still. Oh well, hope you guys are entertained by the ‘visitor’.

Anyway mom has returned him back to the wild and hopefully he doesn’t return. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, creepy crawlies are not welcomed in my house. If they so wish to be in a cozy place, get a hotel and even enjoy an unexpected extended stay hotels, unpaid for all I care.

As if anyone would ever charge a mantis for a room rate. hehehe..