It was a success!!!!

A slice of the steam cream cheese layer cake... :-)

 I found the recipe through the internet. Akmal loves cheese. Ikram adores chocolates. So, to combine these two and trying not to favour one child over the other (in other words -  to be fair), I decided to try this recipe to welcome the month of Ramadhan.

Ikram was home for the weekend. It was perfect because he liked to help out making cakes and cookies. So, we put the recipe on the table. He did the measuring and I did the mixing. We used cream cheese for the cake. We were quite apprehensive because I had never tried anything complicated like layered cake. Usually it was just one type of cake like kurma or prune cake, chocolate moist cake or carrot cake. We followed the steps diligently and faithfully. Ikram being Ikram...made sure that it was as exactly as he could measure it! :-0  He treated it like his science experiments! :-D  The topping or ganache was also courtesy of the internet. It was simple and easy as it only used cooking chocolate and cooking cream.

Thus, we had the above. It was PERFECT! :-0) We put it in the fridge to set after we had put the topping (albeit a little messy - can never get that neat and tidy. Hmmm...needs more practice I suppose). After almost 2 hours, we had a cutting ceremony to see what it looked like. MasyaAllah. SubhanAllah. It was perfect. We were so excited.... Ikram immediately ate it and I just took a bite, as usual. He declared it yummilicious and the cheese was tasty. We were so proud of ourselves.

I send a quarter of the cake to Omayah's house to share a bit of goodwill around for the month of Ramadhan. Besides, she loves cheese cake. She cut it into four to share with her boys. She tried a spoonful. Hmmm...she finished her portion. She said her boys would love this. I was laughing happily because she said it would cost her rm70 just to get a cake like this with pure cheese. I told her I'll give her the recipe but do not forget the dose of "total loving care".

When Noor and Akmal came back, they finished off the rest of the cake!!! I declared it a success because I usually did not like to make something complicated. Plus, I don't like cheese. For the sake of the boys, I gave it a try. It took patience because it had to be steamed layer by layer but it was worth it. I did not actually ate it but by their reviews and comments, I guess I should be proud of myself. :-)
 Alhamdulillah ya Allah, for allowing me to make so many people happy through food.

The Big Flood 2010 - 2

A girl cycling through the flood...still manage to have fun  ;-)

View from the higher level at the entrance of our housing area

As usual, enjoying the flood at the higher level at the entrance of the housing area

The porch of our house - the water rose at about 3:00am to 5:00am before receding to this level during the day time and again between 3:00pm - 5:00pm according to the tides...

The Big Flood ... November 2010

Never in my life had I dreamed that I would be a statistic as a flood victim. Let me recall this memory. It's as if it just happened yesterday. I remembered it was after MUET and PMR. It was approaching Deepavali. Yes, I remembered because Silvan told us the temple at the stadium was flooded. Sometimes, Allah tested you yet with all His compassion and mercy, He simplified it according to your accord. Oh...so many times I wanted to give up yet the strength and patience He gave managed to pull us through.

It started with continuous rain with a steady downpour. You know the kind of rain where there was no thunder or strong winds ... just consistent down pour like grieving. Non-stop, depressing and disheartening. As usual, the flood did not start during the rain. We heard that Thailand had to release their dams due to overflow of water in their dams. This meant the water would flow into Perlis and Kelantan being at the border. We also heard that Kedah was releasing the waters from the Pedu dam. This meant an overflow of water into the local rivers and canals. Our main road was being upgraded. KTM electric railway line was under progress. These added to the clogging of rivers and the padi fields waterways. Thus, in the hot sun, quietly, surely and quickly the water rose suddenly. It always happened in the early morning hours. Since Noor slept late, he noticed water seeping through the cracks at the doors. The kind of rushing in without any invitation. Steadily, continuously.

The next morning we saw that the main road of our neighbourhood was already flooded. We faced this flood every year but up to ankle height and since the last two years it was quite bad but we never had to move out of our houses. I still went to school. By the third day, over the weekend, the water slowly rose. We heard that the housing areas where floods never occurred was already knee deep flooded. Alor Setar town was already flooded. Our house was steadily getting flooded by the fourth day. We had moved our cars to the Petronas petrol station on the main road. Everything that could be put on something higher like bricks or chairs or tables were uplifted. There was nobody home except the two of us thus there was nobody to ask for help. The water came in through the toilets, the drains and the overflowing river near our houses. You can imagine the dirty, murky black coloured waters. It was already up to the knees. We were told to move out due to the interruption of water and electric supply. We were lucky (Allah was very kind to us). We did not have to go to the evacuation centre at SMK Simpang Kuala. Shita (Noor's sister in-law) had just rented a house near Alor Mengkudu and it was empty being prepared for her new nursery branch. I was very grateful since I did not fancy staying with hundreds other families in the school hall.

My neighbour's car at the back part of the house

Looking at the never receding water but steadily rising and refusing to move out..;-(  It's a split level but the higher part was already covered with water

Our house was the end lot next to the "apple" tree - the water was already thigh high

The river on the right had already overflowed onto the main road leading to the housing area

 It was depressing. We heard that Jitra was worse than us in Alor Setar. Alor Setar town was closed for 3 days until the water started to recede to allow cars to pass through. The town was at a standstill. Business closed down and was badly affected since the low lying shops were also flooded including Kamdar. Noor's shop was closed for the three days. I did not go to school for the whole week. We were told by the people who visited us to apply for "cuti banjir" which entitled us for the duration of the flood. When I went to school after 10 days, I found out that Khoo and Sultan were also flood victims. So, we went together to settle our leave.

Thank you for life's little mercies...

Omayah's bed number

When Omayah told me that the hospital had rescheduled her operation to take out the benign cyst again on the 15th July, I was upset because I would not be able to wait for her on that day. I was involved as an examiner for the ULKCP (private candidates English oral for SPM) at SMK Pokok Sena 2. She said it was okay since we had gone through it the last time so she knew what to expect. Besides, Shifa, her niece who was on semester break, would be there. All she asked was that I prayed for her.

On the said day, I went for my English oral exam as an examiner. I smsed her my thoughts and prayers. I wished I was there beside her to give her encouragement and support. Allah Maha Mendengar. The oral today was a breeze. We were supposed to have 24 candidates with 8 candidates for the three sessions each. For the first session, 7 turned up. The second session was only 4 candidates. The 11:30 session was only 5 candidates. My team comprised of Pn. Kok Kam Leng (aka my district chief for MUET), Pn. Chee Guit Leng, Melody Ooi and Yana as the quarantine teacher. These are old friends. Yana was new. So, to kill the time between the second and third session (9:30am - 11:30am) after we had taken our break at the school's canteen, Pn. Kok entertained us with hilarious stories. We shared funny experiences. I had never had a good laugh where you literally cried with laughter. Neither had Pn. Chee laughed so much as she was usually very cool, serious and collected. I had not met up with Pn. Chee since 2 or 3 years ago as she was not called up for MUET. She asked me my age :-)  She was surprised when I mentioned it assuming I was much younger!!!!! She was retiring next year at 58. Melody said maybe because I had only boys. It could be a factor but she thought I was about her age or just slightly older. Oh well...we really made a riot at that school. By 12:15pm, it was over and we called it a day until tomorrow. Hopefully more candidates would turn up as we were only paid RM1 per candidate that we tested! :-{

Thus, after sending Pn. Chee home (she took a ride with me being in the same housing estate) I was already home before 1:00pm. I was waiting for Omayah's message. When she did finally smsed me it was almost 1:30pm. She was finally out of the operating room. I went to the hospital immediately and met Shifa, her niece at her car. I told her I would take over and wait for her aunty. Omayah was glad and relieved to see me. She thought she would be all alone until her discharge and waiting for Shifa. Her sister, Umaza, was in KL. I was glad I was here for her. They wanted to take the lump out to send it to KL for more conclusive tests for any cancer cells. I let her talk for a while and told her to sleep off the anesthetic. I sat on the chair and waited for her and I closed my eyes for a catnap.  :-)  I woke up when an attendant came to ask if Omayah wanted something for tea. Bubur gandum and hot tea. I told her to take something and see whether she could eat. Well, she ate half of it and she did not vomit so the effects of the anesthetic was gone. When the nurse came with the bill and medicine chit, I took care of it for her so that she could be discharged. Do you know that it only cost her RM23 for this minor operation? RM20 for the operation and RM3 for her bed. :-D  I could not believe it and I had to ask twice plus reminding the girl at the counter that she had surgery. She was not a government officer. Allah Maha Mengasihani. Just 2 weeks ago, the cost of her son's minor operation at the private hospital was RM5,800. Although he was insured, it did not cover 100% of the cost. So, I sent her home.

I was very happy with myself. At least I could still be around for her when she had nobody. Surgery, however minor, was a daunting experience. Scary. Being alone with only Allah with you. I was glad she went through it as she did not have to worry about it. Thank you, Allah. For letting me be there with her. Alhamdulillah. 

Silaturrahim...

Keeping in touch is not as easy as one imagines or thinks so. Sometimes, we always say - do keep in touch. Yet, that person leaves and only occasionally or when suddenly out of the blue, someone is thinking of you, does one really try to make the effort to keep in touch. Humans nowadays are too busy to catch up. Unless that person is really special, do we keep in touch as we want the person to be really part of our lives. Even families do not keep in touch. Neither do friends. But, that does not mean that we are out of their minds or thoughts. Its just that they just do not see the reason to keep in touch. Thus, we do keep in touch through meaningful forwards or quotes to remind the other person that we are keeping in touch.  :-)  This is the reality if we are far apart. How about if we are closer here?

We meet up occasionally for lunch or hi-tea or just do some activities together like visiting friends or shopping. Most times it is weddings, deaths, accidents, happy or sad events that causes us to gather. Thus, I told Noor that we should have a gathering and some makan-makan for his siblings here so that at least we do meet up and keep track of his nephews and nieces. Meraikan bulan Syaaban dan menyambut bulan Ramadhan. So, yesterday was a cooking session for me. We had invited Suri and family ( 8 of them including 4 children and her parents in law) and Mohamad (5 of them including 3 children). His niece in Jitra could not make it as she was in Tanjong Karang. She asked Noor to postpone it to Sunday as she would be back. I was sorry but I would be working on that day. :-) He had invited his 4 staff and some friends. I thought he had invited this 17 people which made 20 including the three of us (Akmal was home for his semester break). That night another six turned up. One friend became two and he called up somebody else...Thus I had 26 guests!

Alhamdulillah for Akmal. I started the day with my marketing for wet ingredients with Noor and Akmal as they had to carry the bags. After breakfast which we bought at the market, I started to prepare and cleaned up my ingredients. My menu was nasi tomato with chicken kurma (as there would be children), the sambal udang, beef black pepper and acar timun+nenas. I also decided to prepare the mee kari nyonya but substituting the mee with spaghetti with sambal kerang. Well, I managed to get half the menu prepared. Everything was ready for cooking. After a meal of curry mee, Akmal and I took a break and rested. We continued at about 5pm and set the table and house. As we cooked and did our chores, I had the radio on to Lite fm. We sang familiar songs together, laughed over the songs, and Akmal did a lot of food testing. :-D   We decided buffet style and not "berhidang" since they were coming at staggart hours. By 8:00pm, everything was ready and we waited for the guests.

The guests came and ate all the food! Even the last strand of the spaghetti, the last drop of the kuah and the last bit of rice!!!!! It was just nice. Everybody tried the rice and the mee curry. Its the first time I tried basmathi rice. I still thought it was slightly hard and not enough water. I did not get the hang of cooking it yet. Akmal said it was perfect.Hmmm.... loyalty I suppose. :-)  A friend of Noor's whom I was not familiar with suggested I opened  a stall and sold the mee curry. I just laughed at his suggestion. At least they enjoyed the food. Noor's sister in law commented that without having this kind of gathering, we would have not made the effort to meet up even though we lived not very far from each other. Each of us were busy and just said hai...and bye...  :-{   Even his sister from Kangar commented that although she came to Alor Setar frequently to get her supplies or for some errands, usually she hardly had time to stop by. When Noor's friends and staff had left, they stayed on and we caught up with each other until almost midnight. Having cups of hot earl grey tea ( hmmm...heaven after depriving myself for almost 3 months without sugar  :-D) or for the others hot Tenom coffee courtesy of Akmal from Sabah with grapes, bahulu and biscuits while the kids had ice-cream and chocolates. Somehow, they always felt relaxed and made themselves comfortable here. Thus, they usually took their own sweet time to leave.

I was glad to organise this gathering although I knew that I would be so tired the next day. I did not expect any thanks or appreciation. At least I had done something to forge his family's relationship. Azizi, Suri's husband, suggested another gathering next week before the start of Ramadhan courtesy of my cooking!!! I just laughed at him and said that everybody would be rushing for the solat terawih. Maybe one day during Ramadhan, we would host the berbuka puasa as my tradition. Just so to maintain and preserve the ukhuwah and silaturrahim. Alhamdulillah atas segala kekuatan dan kesabaran. Alhamdulillah kerana adanya Akmal membuatkan persediaan ini begitu menyenangkan dan menggembirakan. Alhamdulillah kerana mencukupkan dan memberkati rezeki kami malam ini. Alhamdulillah kerana mengizinkan kami menjalinkan ukhuwah dan silaturrahim antara kami.

Udang masak merah my way...:-D

Daging black pepper - how Mak used to cook it

Nasi tomato beras basmathi with daun pudina - first time experiment. Nothing left after the dinner :-D