mind your language

I don't know about you but I get seriously annoyed when I see people write like this:

• ak xtaw ler nk wat camner
• aq suker ngok cter nier
• suka lettew
• boley jewwww
• nk minx tlg cket
• ai dah uplod pics sumer. so uols sila la laik pics ai yer
• bowrink nyer xde org nk chat dgn aq kew?

oh gosh the list is endless. I'm getting annoyed just typing them out. Seriously, how old are you to type/write like such? It's not even cute when it's written by school-going children, let alone some grown up people. Pfft. 

Perkataan panjang dipendekkan eg: AKU = AK/AQ

Perkataan pendek, tambah huruf pulak eg: I = AI 

What the hell is wrong with you??? For the sake of everyone, please, don't.

weekend project part 27

Last week's weekend project was No Bake Lemon Cheesecake. Really easy to do. Go and google the recipe or search the video on youtube as the recipes and ingredients may vary.

 

OK before you start making the cheese batter, first you have to crush some biscuits and add melted butter. I used digestive biscuits. Mix the melted butter and the biscuits and press into a spring form pan and chill in the fridge for it to set. In the meantime, you can make your cream cheese batter. Make sure you use a spring form pan for this type of cake.

 Beat cream cheese until soft and fluffy.

Grate a lemon zest but make sure you do not grate the white parts as they are bitter. Juice the lemon as well. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and condensed milk. You can gauge how much condensed milk to put according to your liking.

Dissolve 1tbsp of gelatine powder in boiling water. Some recipes don't use gelatine powder because the lemon juice can set the cream cheese but I've got gelatine powder in my pantry so I just used it. Mix the gelatine mix into the batter and continue to beat for a few minutes until all ingredients have incorporated.

Once the batter is ready, pour into the spring form pan and cover with foil or cling wrap before you refrigerate. Refrigerate for 6 hours or more. I refrigerated mine overnight so the next day the cake sets beautifully and firmly.

Once you are ready to eat the cake (honestly I can't wait to cut it the next day), slowly and carefully remove the cake from the spring form pan.

Cut with a sharp knife and serve immediately. You can always add some fruits to garnish but I left it as it is. The taste is simply refreshing and not overwhelmingly creamy because of the lemon. It is simply divine. Imagine pure cream cheese with a twist of lemon with digestive biscuits...Ahhhh bliss. Next time I want to try Oreo Cheesecake. Yummy!!

it's in the paper!

In my previous post, I blogged about how unsafe it is to park a mile away from your car especially with the recent incidents that took place in parking lots. Gosh it is scary, isn't it? It can happen to anyone, anytime but I truly pray that it will never happen to me, to my family, to you, to your family and to anybody else in the world. And to whoever did the heinous crime, you will pay for it, if not now, in the hereafter. 

I then wrote to The Star newspaper in the Letters to the Editor column regarding this, simply to address the issue. I notice that security guards are stationed at a certain place where in my opinion, they should be roaming the parking lots to monitor the area and to question whoever is acting suspiciously. It will be too late if something has already taken place, then to react. I also notice that when a car alarm goes off, nobody bothers to go and check. Sometimes the car's battery even died, or went low, leaving a pathetic blinking of the hazard lights. By the time the owner gets to the car, it will be no use as either the car was pried open or its windows smashed and the battery is dead. What the security guards should do is to rush to the scene, take note of the plate number and inform the management. The management then should make an announcement so that the owner of the car can go and check on his/her car. One time I was at a mall and my car remote control's battery was weak so I could not open the door. I had to open it manually, triggering the alarm (who says CLKs don't have a good alarm? Mine still works after so many years, thankfully). Because the alarm went off, I can't even start my car engine. It took me a good 5 minutes or so to finally switch off the alarm. In the meantime, nobody, not a single soul came to my rescue and to check what is going on. This just goes to show how 'alert' the security guards are. 

Anyway, please be careful wherever you are and always be alert of your surrounding. Please take out your car keys before you walk to your car and don't scramble looking for the keys when you are alone in a parking lot. Some malls have allocated parking lots for single ladies and for ladies with a stroller or kids but do you think that people care? I doubt that people will adhere to it. Let's say you see a couple or a single man parked in a single ladies' parking lot and you tell them to move their car because, well, you are a single lady driver, or you have a baby and a stroller with you, do you think they would move their car elsewhere? I don't think so. It will never happen in Malaysia. It has yet happen to me but I will try it one day and see how it goes. It would be fun, don't you think?

Here is a link to my letter, entitled Security Guards Who Are Merely Window Dressing. It is heavily edited, by the way but at least I get my message across. And no, I did not come up with that title.

glitter-graphics.com

Risking it

We were told to exercise and move out lazy butts off the couch one too many times, don't we? How many of you actually take the stairs up to your condo/apartment (walk up apartment or flats doesn't count OK) or to your office? How many of you actually parked your car a mile away just so that you can walk a bit? I, for one hardly ever do any of the above. I hereby unashamedly admit that I am a lazy bum. No wonder my bum is getting bigger by the day. gaaah. My office is on the 1st floor and yet I take the elevator to go up. That shows how lazy i am huh? But to my defence, I have tons to carry to my office ie my handbag, my other bag and my file. On some days when I don't have a file with me, I would walk up the stairs but on most of the days, with or without file, I would take the elevator. Back at home I have no choice but to take the elevator because we are staying on a high floor and I need to carry Babycakes, my handbag, my other bag, Babycakes' food bag and Babycakes' bag pack. On days that I have stuffs I bought, I would have one or two plastic bags or grocery bags with me. But how come I still have these "bye-bye arms"? Pfft.

I would also find the nearest parking spot available but it is rather an impossible task here in my office area unless I do not go to court in the morning. I would make several rounds with the hope that a car would come out but luck is not always on my side. I always ended up parking a bit far from my office so I had to walk, with my handbag, my other bag and my file. 

trust me, I don't really mind walking a distance from my car or to take the stairs up to my office but with the recent incidents that happened at parking lots of shopping malls, who would want to park a mile away? Who would want to take the stairs up at a shopping mall? No way. It is not safe anymore. 

I'd rather have a big bum and bye-bye arms than risk being kidnapped, raped or robbed *touchwood*, thank you very much.

weekend project part 26

It's been so long since I last made a 'weekend project' post. Wow somebody's been slacking in the baking department, huh? Oh well, juggling work, motherhood, wifeyhood and household ain't easy my friends. It's all do it yourself baby, or the house will rut, the hubby will starve and the baby will stop growing lol. OK not funny. Recently, my baking mood has slowly started to come back. We have a huge oven as a wedding gift from my besties but I left all my baking utensils at my parents' place and I never bothered to bring them to my place just because well, urmm, I have my hands full. Weekends are the time when I would clean the house, do laundry (this requires a whole different post altogether) sweep the floor- gosh that reminds me, I should actually mop the house! When was the last time the floors see water?

Anyway, I have forgotten that baking can give me a slight sense of relaxation and happiness after finishing and looking at the end product. But I hate the cleaning up part, though. Pfft.

Now that I have brought all baking utensils to my place, it's bake time! It started with a buttermilk cake with hazelnut praline topping which I copied from here. It looked so tempting so I decided to bake it for Father's Day. It was a hit. Then my mum was saying things like "see, how nice it is that you bake your own. you should bake more often yada3" and before I know it, I started googling for recipes and also watching videos on YouTube. I then stumbled upon a video on how to make cake pops and gosh who would have thought that it was so easy to make? A bit tedious but easy peasy! I made them last weekend.

I used an instant cake mix as I was too lazy to bake from scratch. Thank God for the invention of these instant cake mix. I feel like a pro in an instant. The fewer the ingredients needed, the better. I bought White Wings Our Favourite Moist Chocolate as it only requires milk, eggs and vegetable oil but I simply used cooking oil because I don't have any vegetable oil. I baked the cake on Friday night and let it cool overnight.

The next day, when the cake is obviously cooled, crumble them into pieces. I did not crumble the whole cake in the beginning as I need the right texture for my cake balls. I added Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Vanilla frosting bit by bit so that the cake won't end up soggy. In the event your dough becomes too moist because of too much frosting, you can always add more cake in it.

Mix the frosting and the cake crumbs either with hand, spatula or a cake mixer- I used a spatula as it would be a hassle to clean the cake mixer later. It's all about being efficient, people! Once you've got the right texture, ie not too soggy or moist and not too hard, roll the dough into little balls. Do not make them too big or the stick won't be able to support them.

Lollipop sticks are available at baking supplies stores. Once the balls are ready, dip one end of the stick into melted chocolate and stick it into the balls. (that doesn't sound right, does it?) Shoooh dirty minds! Anyway the melted chocolate acts as the glue to stick the balls on to the stick.

Refrigerate for an hour or more so that the balls are set. While my cake balls are in the fridge, I managed to iron some clothes, sweep the floor and take a bath. Thankfully Babycakes were having her afternoon nap so I managed to get all these done. Phew.

She woke up just as I finished bathing (talk about good timing, huh?) so after entertaining and feeding her, I placed her in her pack n play, put on her nursery rhyme dvd and I went back to finish my cake balls. It ended up refrigerated more than an hour, which is better. I then melted some milk chocolate buttons, and once the milk chocolate has cooled slightly or to room temperature, I slowly dipped the balls in it. This has to be done carefully as you don't want the sticks to be covered in chocolates as well. Plus, you need to be careful that the balls don't slip off the stick. While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some colourful strands or beads or almonds on it. I don't have a styrofoam block or clay or sponge so I used whatever was in my kitchen, a styrofoam pack. I simply poked holes in it and slipped the sticks in it so that it will stand upright. Improvise, remember?

So there you have it, the end product- my very own home made cake pops. Told ya they were easy, didn't I? I wasn't sure if I was supposed to refrigerate them afterwards but I did. However, the chocolate buttons that I used are very thick and it ended up a thick coating. But wait, why am i complaining? They're yummy milk chocolate! Chocolate balls covered with milk chocolate- a true chocolate lover's delight. Lucky I didn't use the Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting or that would mean triple the chocolate. Take note that the frosting is a bit too sweet so use in moderation.

These cake pops were a hit at my aunt's house as I brought them over that night for a kenduri. When eating a cake pop, you have to be careful as the cake might drop so it's best to make small balls so that the whole ball can get into your mouth in one bite. Kids and adults alike love cake pops and they are a great party favour too. I might do this for Babycakes' birthday.

silver with gold

today marks Babycakes' 9th month birthday, alhamdulillah. this little pumpkin of mine is very vocal and noisy, she knows what she wants,  she knows how to smile, she knows how to show her excitement, she knows how to clap her hands when we say "clap clap, clap your hands", she knows how to wave goodbye when we say "bye-bye" or "ta-ta-bye" (even though sometimes she gets confused with waving goodbye and clapping her hands where she would wave when we say clap, she would clap when we say bye bye), she can make a lot of sounds with her little mouth, she loves to make "aaaaaah" sound and then cupping her mouth with her hand repeatedly that she made a "ah-bwaaa-aah-bwaaa' kind of sound, she can stand with support, she can scream a loud scream, she can feed herself, she can pull the bib off her chest, she can poke my eyes, peel my lips, pry open my mouth, slap my face and body, squeeze my boob, pinch and bite my nips, pull my hair and the list goes on. if you see a bald spot on my head, it's probably because she pulled my hair.

i've been breastfeeding her for 9 solid months to date, alhamdulillah. this means i now have silver boobies with golden nips! oh yeahhhh!!! i deserve a cupcake! or two!

oh dear three more months until her 1st birthday!! i shall put on my thinking cap and start planning. 

glitter-graphics.com

human obstacle

putting Babycakes to sleep at night is like declaring world war. she would either cry or she would be most active when it comes to bedtime. i know that she was tired and sleepy but she just refused to sleep. when we are on the bed, that is when she wants to practice her skills and show off to Mummy. she would stand, crawl, roll and do every other thing possible. 

seriously, i feel like a human wipeout obstacle.

this would go on for about an hour or more and in the end, i fell asleep myself, only to wake up later and realized that there are 1001 other things to do. therefore i would try to steal some time whenever i can to pack her bag or thawing her milk or cleaning up her dining area etc. on some good nights, she would fall asleep very easily but on most nights, it's mummy the human obstacle.

it's a girl!

duhh it's obvious my Babycakes is a girl, isn't it? having a baby girl brings a whole new meaning of cuteness altogether. everything looks cute on her. no, make that super cute. everything looks adorable. she can never look weird in a mismatched outfit (not that i've ever mismatched her clothes, mind you). what i meant by 'mismatched' is having her wear for example a orange top with a green pants and yellow headband. hmmm to think of it, she doesn't have an orange top, a green pants and a yellow headband. maybe i should get one for her (alasan). anyway you get my point, right? but then again, isn't colour-blocking the current hot fashion trend? or has it passed? i am no fashionista myself and i don't do colour-blocking whatever so i wouldn't know. that being said, it does not mean that you can dress your baby in any way you like. to you, she is the most adorable, cutest looking baby on the block but to others, she may look like a little clown. lol.

anyway, speaking of dressing up a baby, being a girl, Babycakes has tons and tons of clothes. first there are the daily clothes and pants that she wears at the nursery and then there's the weekend clothes where she wears only on weekends. they're too cute to be worn at the nursery (and Mummy might not see her in it) yet they are not really suitable to be worn outside to the malls or majlis and the like. 

i've always loved the colour pink so it is a good thing that my baby is a girl. as much as i try to vary the colours of her clothes, the colour pink dominates her wardrobe i think. on father's day, initially i wanted to treat hubby to a nice dinner somewhere but on saturday evening, hubby suddenly said, "jom pergi Genting!" i was like, huh, genting as in genting highlands? that was at 6pm. he said yes. KL has been so hot and hazy yada3, it's so near yada3 so off we went.

so i put Babycakes in a long sleeved plain dusty pink romper with a plain pink legging with hearts on it. just before we left the front door, her royal highness decided to poop. and she pooped a huge poop while sitting in the bumbo seat thus her poop rides up her back and stained her clothes and legging.
glitter-graphics.com how convenient. i had to clean her and change her altogether. this time i put her in a pink t-shirt with white polka dots and a white legging with pink polka dots and a huge pink flower on her little bum. when we arrived at genting, i put her on her hooded navy blue sweater with red and white soft shoes to cover her tiny toes. as i was pushing her stroller and entered one of the shops, a group of Thai ladies (or shemale- I can't tell for sure because they are so pretty yet the beauty wasn't natural, i don't know. too much make up perhaps?) saw Babycakes and started to admire at her and ogling at her. they were speaking in Thai and they even touched her hands. then one of them said "[Thai words] handsome [Thai words]" i was like, uh huh. i couldn't be bothered to correct them though as i was hungry at that time and kinda malas nak layan.
we then had dinner at Hotel Highlands coffee house (food was so-so) and I opened Babycakes' sweater zip because i wanted to put on her bib to feed her. her pink t-shirt was obviously showing.  a chinese family near our table was admiring Babycakes from afar and saying how cute she was because she was seated beside me, not on the baby chair and she was feeding herself the biscuits. then hubby carried Babycakes and brought her over to the table to say hello to the family. then the chinese lady said "so cute ah...dah besar sure hensem worr." hubby corrected her and said, "ini baby girl lah" to which she replied "ohh girl ah? sure cantik besar nanti"
my question now is, does Babycakes look like a boy? just because she's wearing a navy blue sweater, does that make her a boy or look like a boy? isn't it enough that i've pink stuffs all over her? so much for being non-stereotypical huh?  but if you ask me, i'd chose a girlier sweater for her actually but we bought this particular sweater from Baby Poney last year simply because they were on sale and it was buy 1 free 1 for the price of rm69. rugilah if tak beli. her other sweater is red but it's one size bigger so it's kept for use in the future.  so shall we stick to the blue is for boy whereas pink is for girl then?

matchy matchy

half a year is almost gone OMG. it's June already? tick...tock...tick...tock...

this means raya is about 2 months+ away! oh oh! i haven't ganti last year's puasa. i was pregnant last year and i missed X number of days of puasa last year. Gaaaah!

Speaking of raya, I am sure most people have sent their materials to the tailors by now. I haven't! In fact, I haven't even decided what colour to be this year's theme colour. The other day my mum suggested a aprticular colour. Hubby already has a baju melayu in that colour so he's safe. Pfft. This means I need to find a baju for me and Babycakes. Shopping, yeayyy! This year being the 1st raya as a Mummy, of course I am super excited. Babycakes will be 11months during raya so it'll be fun to dress her up and she may be walking by then. Or at least scrambling. I can imagine her in pretty gowns and cutesy baju kurung. Would you believe me that Babycakes already has not one but TWO pairs of baju kurung already? Yes, I already bought them for her. One was bought in April and another one I bought in May. Crazy huh? Puasa is not even here yet but she already has her baju. And one of the baju kurung has lots and lots of maniks on it, I kid you not. But they're cheap so I HAD to buy it. Come puasa time, the price will surely double, I betcha! Kalah Mummy nanti. But the two baju kurungs are not that particular colour. I want to have a matchy-matchy baju kurung with her to be worn on the 1st day of raya but no tailors are gonna accept it now. *knocks on head* I have a pair of kain which I asked my SIL to buy in Bandung but looks like the kain will have to be kept for raya haji or some other occasion. It's not even that colour anyway. 

The issue now is, where can I find a matching baju kurung for me and Babycakes? I want us to wear the same baju! As for the 2nd and 3rd and subsequent days of raya, we will be wearing matching colours. This means I now need to find another one to match her manik2 baju kurung because I already found (and bought) one to match her other baju kurung so at least I'm safe there. It's better to buy early because prices will soar come puasa time. I even left my card at the boutique so that they can inform me once the mummy & baby baju has arrived. I hope they're pretty and 1st raya-worthy. And I hope the prices are within my budget.

Hmm...it just doesn't sound right, does it? Mummy has to match Babycakes' baju, and not the other way round? It's pretty clear who's the boss now huh?

two for one

we only have one child (for now) yet we have two car seats and two strollers. the car seats are a must as we needed one in each car as hubby would be sending her off in the morning while i would be the one picking her up in the evening. thankfully Babycakes doesn't mind sitting all alone at the back, in her own little seat. if it's a long journey, she can easily doze off.

and then there's the stroller. we recently bought an umbrella stroller for her so that i have one in my car. all along her stroller is in hubby's car so if i were to take her out somewhere, it would be a bit leceh without one. if it's a short trip to the supermarket, i can easily put her in the trolley seat and do my shopping. she really loves trolley rides and she loves 'eating' the trolley even more. so to distract her from 'eating' the trolley and all the germs that come with it, i would push the trolley while running and making funny sounds, much to her delight. she would give me a belly laugh but at the same time, i get weird stares from other shoppers. haha. but they would smile too when they look at how happy Babycakes is.

i have a sling to carry her but since she's becoming more active, she wouldn't sit still. she would arch her back wanting to see the world so it's really difficult at times. last friday i went to Toys R Us with her and saw a few umbrella strollers and they are really cheap. they are lightweight, easy to fold and most importantly, they can fit into my tiny car. so i told hubby to get one and on saturday, we bought Babycakes a brand new stroller, yeay! it's a simple umbrella stroller and it has a special price for starmembers so i told hubby, let's take it! there were two colours-red and navy and of course we chose red. it matches my car and her car seat. awesome. Babycakes loved her new stroller that she fell asleep on it after that. a new stroller requires a hanging toy so we bought her a taggies toy as well just because. haha.
as much as i am tempted to buy the fancier strollers, i refrained myself as the other stroller will still be her main stroller anyway. why should we pay so much for something that we hardly use? the one that we bought fits all the purposes and it is just as good as any other stroller. i don't want to be pushing a huge bulky stroller especially when i'm alone with her and i don't want to spend so much time struggling to fold and keep the stroller in the car especially with so many cases of car park kidnapping recently.

now that we have a stroller in my car, we can go anywhere we want, with or without hubby. :D