Winter Sonata revisited

I am in 'Winter Sonata' mood at the moment. Started episode one yesterday and I am hooked not that I haven't seen it, I had but I had to see it again. Jun Sang melts my heart all over again and Yujin makes me cry.....again and again........
currently at episod 11, had to stop to bake two cheesecakes, can't wait to continue....

brownies lagi

She came for her blueberry cheesecake and I served her a few slices of fresh from the oven brownies with walnut and hey presto!another case of love at first bite! she ordered two for the open house function

and requested me to make three gift size packs of square brownies for her

and she ordered blueberry cheesetarts too.

thank you Pn Normala and yes, would love to visit your 'Anjung Seri' house in Marang one day

more brownies

slices of brownies with walnut in a container, banana choc chip muffins and cookies packed and placed in paper bags

UPSR is gone, PMR is lurking round the corner....

UPSR candidates can breathe sighs of relief for it is over, the exam may be, but not the result, for those who have made the preparations should not be worried but for those who didn't , try not to worry too much, should you not score well in this exam, it wouldn't be the end of the world for you, for it is not going to determine or dictate your future, for maybe some of you are late bloomers where you will excel later in life. This topic is too deep for my easy Saturday morning thought, I'd better stick to something easier and simpler
.
just sent my youngest daughter to her school where her teacher will take her and her few friends for a colouring competition today. Do well dear , but most importantly, have fun. This daughter of mine is still a long way to go to UPSR, six years to be exact for she is still in her pre-school now. Who knows, by 2016, there'll be no more UPSR and would be replaced with something else instead.

continued from where I left off the other day, where I got distracted by an interesting movie on Astro channel. I took my Peperiksaan Penilaian Darjah Lima when I was in Standard five. It was rare for a school to produce many 5As students( unlike today ) and my school was no exception, being an out of town school, not so 'kampung' but not so 'bandar' either.from what I recall, if you make more than three mistakes for a subject, there goes your chance for an 'A'. that was how tough and strict it was.Those who get 5'A's were really the 'creme d la creme' I would think ( and I am one of them.:-) ....not being boastful just proud of my little achievement then,:-) )In that year, I was the only one who manage to get 5As from my school. My friends were good then, even if they didn't get 5As and they were offered to go to good boarding schools too, MRSM, SDAR, SMS despite getting 4As and 3As. Nowadays, even with 5As result would not guarantee a place in boarding schools! and because of my 5As, I didn't get to be with my friends for I was selected to go to another boarding school, far far away from them and my family, to the furthest South of Peninsula Malaysia , to Johor Bharu, Larkin road, now Jalan Tun Razak. There, I met many other 5As students from all over Malaysia. Most of them from JB, Seremban ( many from from KGV) and yes , there are a few from Kelate too but from other schools in Kelantan,schools which produce more than one 5As students, schools from KB (Sek Zainab )and Machang ( Sek Hamzah).

I remember that I didn't go to any extra tuitions or any private tuition then, why would we? everything was taught at school, the teachers taught us with dedication and full of commitment, putting everything else aside , only to ensure that their students would do well in the exam. My English teacher, Ms Teo Chu Kann, was really inspirational, my Maths ( Ilmu Hisab )teacher, Cikgu Hamidah was very strict but very good, and unfortunately I can't recall the other three subjects and the teachers ( from what I heard on the radio the other day, Halim Othman was saying that the other three subjects were Bahasa Malaysia, Ilmu Alam ( now Geography),was there Ilmu Sains? or Tawarikh( Sejarah)?
Seriously and sadly , I can't remember. Has my age fails me, is it the sign? the sign of aging:-)

The clock is ticking alright, and we should always look to the future but once in a while, it's good to go back to our past, to remember the good times. As we took our exam in Standard Five, by the time we are in our Standard Six, we knew where we would be going to further our studies later in life., we went our ways, our separate ways after Standard Six, and i do wish that one day we can all meet again, at our old school for a reunion.Every time I went back to my hometown and passed by my old school ( it has new blocks now) in Pulai Chondong, it gave nostalgic feeling, for that is where I grew up for twelve years, twelve happy, sad, memorable , beautiful years.

Now that UPSR is over, the next exam which is waiting just round the corner is PMR, and my eldest daughter is one of the candidates.it is now my turn to have the exam fever .Let's all pray and hope for the best for our children in everything that they do.Have a good weekend!

simple, sweet and beautiful

I first knew her when she ordered mothers' day chocolate cake to be delivered to her mum in Alor Star. 'Knew' via phone, later, through her interesting blog and through her profile I discovered that we have a lot in common, same age, same taste in singer, Bryan Adam, enjoys reading too and we spoke, we got along fine, perhaps it was the age factor.

After more than a year and occasional exchanges of smses, a few cake orders, well, one actually, not many because she's in KL but she did order oreo chocolate cheesecake for their family gathering in Bukit Merah a couple of months back and the latest she ordered marble cheese brownies for Aidil fitri where I finally got to meet this lady in person.she is as nice in person as she is in her blog and on the phone.She has a special request

for me to bake her daughter Hanna , her 13th birthday cake to celebrate with the family in Alor Star before leaving back to KL on the fifth day of raya.I wasn't sure if I could do it or not because I myself would be going back to my hometown for raya but as fate has written that I would be back by the third raya so I was able to make it for her. She chose vanila cake with blueberries filling sandwiched in between

she may be 13, but , no Hannah Montana and no teddies or girly girly stuff either, and I do hope that this cake was what she wanted, simple, sweet and beautiful., not too childish but not too matured either.

the verdict from her mum via sms:

"cantik n sedap sngt. Semua suka! Hanna upload pix @ fb dia. Mmg lawa kek tu. Tq zue!"

tiada kata secantik bahasa dan tiada bahasa seindah kata-kata ini.........

they sound like music to my ear.

Thank you Ja for trusting me with your daughter's birthday cake and Happy 13th birthday Hanna.

three cakes for three darhlings

Umairah , Syamimi and Azmina

19th sept 2004

19th sept 2000

19th sept 2005

all three girls share the same birthdate, cool....not just the same month but the same date too.

my kids share the same expected due date, 19th January but none of them are born on that date, my eldest, 24th january, my youngest, 21st january and my son lagi awal, 29th december!

The girls' mum left everything to me......up to me how to deco the cakes.....

no theme, as long as cantik and cute and suitable for girls, most importantly, must be deliyummilcious.

her verdict via sms:

"kek sedap & semua suka.TQ"

nothing pleases me more. thank you Cikgu Shamiha for trusting me with your three princesses' birthday cakes. hope they had a wonderful time.

kuih bungkus di petang hari, Selamat Hari Raya Aidil fitri

yang dalam kelongsong tu, macam tepung pelita ( my favourite ) but they are not. it is white all over, with no inti , nothing inside, just sweet and lemak and i don't know what they are called. these kuih were from my neighbour who just came back from their kampung.

first impression, looks like tapai, but when you smell it, smells like tepung bungkus,

when you taste it, it does taste like tepung bungkus cos they are tepung bungkus, thai style wrap.

cupcakes for makan2.served these kuih muih for my friends who came over for beraya. Baked macaroni au gratin for them, very simple and minimal dish only but tetap meriah with their presence.

She made mee kari for us the other day. I like mee kari but haven't got the skill to make it myself.i acquired the taste for mee kari when i was pregnant with my first child.

black white and pink

simple black and white with pink as an engagement hantaran set

thank you eliani and her mum and selamat bertunang Adi and Syera.

main pondok-pondok

haaaa......Batrisyia dengan Adam duk wat apa tu? Whatchadoing?

oooooo...... main pondok2 ek?

A modern version of main pondok2 I guess, playing with miniature house with its furnitures, miniature figurines, etc...unlike my time, here we go again........flashback to the seventies.....

picture this:

a girl with two pony tails or sometimes one ponytail dressed in ( i can't recall what I wore then!) but selipar tu rasanya selipar jepun ( no Crocs or Clark masa tu , for me lah )

a boy, one year younger but much taller than me ( I guess everybody is much taller than me! )

in a small place called Pulai Chondong, entah kat belakang rumah siapa, we set up kerusi ala2 pelamin gitu and there we were, bersanding together! with a few more friends of course, not just berdua, no no no....

kelakarnya........what's become of him, I wonder dah berapa orang anak dia, my abah called him, ( my so-called groom) , my neighbour's son, Pak Muda cos he's the youngest among his siblings, always a sweet and polite boy

choc cake with simple deco for my hubbby's nephew to bring back to KL

and some cookies too.

pinnk and white deco brownies for her first grandchild

300 slices of brownies with walnut for kenduri akikah ( slightly inferior quality photos , taken with the digital camera instead of my usual Canon EOS , or perhaps it was I who wasn't sure how to use that camera:-) )

she wanted to surprise her daughter ( for her first grandchild's akikah ) by ordering cupcakes and at the same time, her daughter also ordered cupcakes to surprise her mother. Sweet ain't it. Both mother and daughter sharing the same thought. She's a nice lady, very sweet,( a smile never left her face whenever we are talking ), soft and down to earth despite the title ( Datin ) she's holding, insisted that I just address her minus the title.

fortunately she found out before it was too late, if not there'd be 600 cupcakes instead of 300. so she changed it to brownies instead but to still stick to the white and pink deco.She had oredered pink cookies and mostly everything would be in pink, her grandchild being a girl, Damia Sofea, a very sweet and beautiful name which suits the little girl whom I saw and met during the kenduri.Sedap lauk kenduri tu, I have always enjoyed makan kenduri sebab lauk mesti dan selalunya sedap.

Thank you Kak Nor. Salam aidil Fitri.

UPSR vs peperiksaan Penilaian Darjah Lima

Today , my niece, my friends' and relatives' children, and everybody's childrens, age twelve or less ( for those whose birthdays are in December....hehe..... ) in Malaysia will be sitting ( as we speak, it's 9 am ) are sitting ( and I think almost finishing their first paper in five minutes time ( just had the info thru Halim Othman via Sinar? or Suria? FM this morning.....that the first paper will end at 9.05 am ) for their UPSR or Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah.



Wish everybody the best of luck , try to do your very best, this is just the beginning of your major exams or maybe not, if the proposal for the elimination of this and the other exam is approved, there wouldn't be anymore UPSR or PMR. but hey, I am not going into that in detail, I just want to go back three decades into the Seventies when I sat for my Peperiksaan Penilaian Darjah Lima when I was in Standard Five ( we called it Standard Five or Darjah Lima unlike today, they call it Tahun Lima or Year Five )except that UPSR is taken when they are in Year Six.Neither am I going to talk about the education system , I'll leave that to the expert.



this will be my thought, my notes, my diary ,sort of, perhaps I have not told my kids some of my childhood stories and by writing them in here, my kids can read and they can share a little bit of my past which is completely different from theirs.



My primary school was in a small village, Pulai Chondong, actually not really a village but not a town either , smaller than bandar Machang but bigger than Kok Lanas, but it has almost all the necessary amenities like my school, SKPC, which could accomodate students from the neighbouring villages, Kg Galang, Kg Bukit, Kg Merbau Chondong, Pangkal Gong, just to name a few that I could remember, the post office, pusat kesihatan kecil, police station, bomba i think, telecom if I'm not mistaken, a wet market right in the heart of the the 'town', a few convenient stores, goldsmith, Shell ,a small surau and one traditional 'bakery'!



the school was only a walking distance away from our rented house. Dressed in dark blue uniform and white shirt with a bag with few books ( unlike now ), two pony tails , my brother , my sister and I would walk gayly to school with packed lunch or if sometimes my mother did not have time to pack them, worry not, she would just pass it over the school fence behind the canteen which was just behind our house! how convenient was that?





I have to take a break. I got distracted by a movie on Star Movies Channel, "She's The One", Jen 'Friends' aniston and Cameron Diaz starred in this . It's getting interesting and I can't seem to stop watching it. I'll continue later.

nasi hujan panas?ke nasi pelangi?

ayam goreng, ikan bilis kacang and gulai kambing, part of lauk kenduri akikah.

Ayam berkokok, di tepi pokok kari, hamper dikirim, pengganti diri.....

From someone in KL for another person in Kuala Kedah. Delivered one day before raya.

A basket tied with black and white polka dots ribbon, filled with three types of home baked cookies from Zue's Oven, semolina, ice cream green tea and chocolate chip cookies with brownies too.

thank you Mr Jacky and Cik Rose and wishing En. Manja and family,Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.Not forgetting, thank you too to Mr Fitri from Iliasco for recommending me to Mr Jacky and Salam Aidil Fitri.

intai intai dulu

Salam Aidil fitri

Thank you Azirah and MB Inc. Salam aidil Fitri

Songket bag filled with Zue's Oven goodies

Songket design bag filled with raya cookies and marble cheese brownies as gifts

the green set

the orange set

marble cheese brownies cut in square slices in a crectangular transparent container with a simple orangey chequered ribbon

semolina and ice cream green tea in rectangular container with pink and white polka dots ribbon.

thank you A.P.A.