Learning To Breathe

“The holidays seem to be coming earlier every year.”

Yes, sir.  I can vouch for that. For Chinese New Year, the holiday cheer was accompanied by a holiday fever…quite literally, and I had a flu-like head cold for about 3 days. I took a sick day off.

Back to hometown last weekend, I spent quality time with my car (driving), family, mrArchi and Shasha.

Saturday
- drove back to Seremban
- car service
- family muvi-nite-out: Underworld 3 Rise of the Lycans

Sunday
- woke up with the flu
- went to MAEPS for Pu3’s wedding reception with MrArchi, ganti xpegi yg Alor Star punye. She’s a real lady now, *feewiitt! Unfortunately, no photo taken with the bride and groom as mrArchi left the camera in the car
- Spent the rest of the evening at Alamanda with mrArchi
- Dinner at JJ Sushi King with Shasha, then lepak at Starbucks. We’re home around midnight
* Wengurls, weh laen kali buat gathering time aku ade laaa isk isk, rindu kat korang ni..luckily Sha and Fiena enlightened me the major details

Monday
- at home, in bed most of the time, the fever hit me hard
- Zura planned to come lepak2 tp xjadi, a long call from Radin in Germany (it’s free) and Zaidan akhirnya wujud kembali..wahh

Tuesday
- drove back to Kuantan dgn demam selsema, the fever hit me harder
- Ken took me to the clinic and later we went for dinner. Sempat groceries shopping too

Wednesday
- on MC: extra cuti for me
- regained health
- saja2 renewed bank card, quick (no need to queue) and free, thanks to Kak Nurul

Thursday & Friday (today)
- back to work + routines

I’ve had enough holiday fever..now waiting for the real holiday to take center stage. Jeng jeng jengg

P/S - Finally, Ken found my blog, after so long huhu. Hi! Ken =)

Well, I wasn’t really into cooking all my life. It’s not that I don’t know how to cook, cuma malas mungkin. I was too lazy to learn from my lovely mother who is a wonderful cook. My mum always moan that her daughter never takes much of an interest in cooking. My standard answers to my mum are:

• “Kakyong nak kemas rumah, mak masak lah ye”
• “Nantilah kakyong masak bila kakyong dah ada dapur sendiri”
• “Kakyong nak keluar la arini..”
• “Nanti kakyong blajar masak bila dah nak kawen ea”

Now I own a kitchen, ahh at last - my kitchen - a good place for trial and error, I’m beginning to show an interest in cooking. Cooking needs practice, then you develop instinct. Below is one of my attempts:

UDANG GORENG BUTTER

Bahan-Bahan:-
Udang harimau 400 gram
200 gram buttter
4 biji kuning telur dipukul perlahan
3 gram cili padi yg dihiris halus
1 batang serai dihiris halus
20 helai daun kari
4 sudu besar, gula, sedikit garam & serbuk perasa

Cara-Cara:-
- Goreng udang dengan minyak yg banyak
- Kacau butter dengan api yg perlahan
- Masukkan kuning telur yang telah dipukul
- Masukkan gula, sedikit garam dam serbuk perasa
- Gaulkan sekali dgn cili padi, serai & daun kari

This is a sector of my wet kitchen. Very basic eh. Oh I’m officially a fan of induction cooker. It looks intelligent because it’s shiny and has buttons =P. It’s extraordinarily easy to clean too. For a start, I bought the Philips single-zone induction cooker, I plan to upgrade to twin-zone cooker in the future.

And suddenly…I miss those days I forced my siblings to eat what I cook! Hahaha

Last Saturday, after boxes and furnitures were loaded in the lorry, I said my goodbye to Ayuni. She’s an ex-housemate now but we’ll keep seeing each other of course. Having Ken and his friends to help with loading and unloading the stuff made my moving day so much easier. AlanStone (a UTP friend) was in Kuantan, Ken and I managed to have dinner with him despite busymusy mengemas rumah. Say hello to my new home. This is my 3rd house in Kuantan. It is still a work in progress. Just a quick snap snap snap last night:

Living Room

“Let’s Get Personal” Corner

Corner Table

I must admit that the house echoes, most space still look “bottom heavy” or “hard” - will buy more things to soften the look and reduce the echoing. Maybe I should get an art on the wall. And get things in matte, not shiny.

Waaheyy, my personal schedule for 1st quarter of 2009 is getting busy.
One word as initial clue - “FUN“. Saya suka =D! Anda tunggu sahaja update-nya ya!

Living room serves as your front line element in making a good impression of your house as well as your personality. I still have to dish out some money from my pocket before I can visually see those layouts and plans that I made for my new house. Sume bende nak lengkapkan payahhhh. So now I can only afford to accessorize with colors. I invest in curtains, lightings and rugs. The L-shape sofa will have to wait first - expensive lahh *sigh. As for final touches, I add scented candles and frames for an elegant feel. I keep the style neutral, the 4 main colours are:

• light pink
• white
• tan
• brown

I’m moving out really soon, I pay rent for both current and new houses this month heheh diyana mmg suka membazir. Haha I sound boring kah talking about money and home deco je lah pulakk nowadays. I’m still out and about, watching movies, catching up with family and friends once in a while. Stay in touch with friends thru chats + emails + calls, mrArchi came for a quick visit, Ken helped me a lot with the moving already - he’s now in Sunway for inter-state championship, Anis has announced to Ayuni & me that she’s getting married, will be having dinner with my ex-housemate Shahreen tonite… Zura just emailed us - Happy 7th Anniversary Wengurls! =)

Altho’ sometimes it seems like a whole lot of shit is just waiting to drop down on all of our heads, it never hurts to be optimistic =) Happy New Year 2009!

Thanks for everything in 2008.
I hope 2009 is awesome for all of us.

What’s on my to-do list these days - I’m moving to a new house. Planning, packing, moving, cleaning. ribu riban sudah abesss isk isk adeihh.. Checklists and tools are ready to make my next move as painless as possible. It is tiring. And the moving process can bring up doubts, fear and moods that I find overwhelming too. Anyway, I want to feel right at home in a jiffy! Happy moving to me!