A Love-Hate Relationship

This is a relationship I believe I share with many KLites :-)

I am a through and through born-and-bred KLite, but to be perfectly honest, there are times I wish I could live/work elsewhere; a place that is not illogically congested and over-crowded by cars which somehow appear and pile up, like some horrendous magic spell gone wrong, more apparent after a rain shower, regardless if it was a full-blown storm or merely a smattering of drops!

Among my favourite landmarks in KL, the Masjid Jamek

Then there is the unbelievable number of road bullies who appear so timid and innocent but can just zig zag through traffic as if they owned the road!!

The hustle and bustle, which sometimes lead to (almost toppling) shoulder grazing -- so kiasu and kan-cheong -- in running their everyday business, that KLites seem to forget to smile at each other.

BUT, like I said.... It's a LOVE-HATE relationship and even though I often wish I could be elsewhere, no where would be quite the same as my beloved KL :-D

World class icon of KL, another favourite

KL is where you can find great food from around Malaysia without really having to travel far, although there's always the argument that you still need to go the place of origin to get the real taste.

Fancy a buffet at any of these world-class hotels?

They are a familiar sight in the KL skyline

This of course brings me to the fact that dieting in KL is not easy, well... not for me anyway! LOL

With all the great choices in and around town, it really boils down to what you're in the mood for.

For me, having a hubby who loves food as much as I do (maybe even more!), is a plus point as we can go out at any time on a whim just to look for what we crave for. The many 24-hour outlets were of great help, especially during my pregnancy LOL LOL LOL

I guess this love-hate relationship is not unique as many of us probably feel the same way, and we probably share the same rants and raves.

But, enough of this rambling... maybe I'll move on to more interesting topics after the weekend... Who knows??? :-D

AM

It's Been A While....

...since I last posted a recipe LOL

I know... I know... But, it's not like we haven't been eating ok. It's just that when I prepare our 'normal' food, I sometimes can't be bothered to go up and bring down the camera. Hence, the absence of food in here for a while now... ehehehe

So, here is my foodie entry for this week (I hope it'll not be for this month!) -- Pumpkin Soup.

PUMPKIN SOUP

you need:

1 1/2 cups pumpkin, cubed

1 large onion, sliced

1 small garlic clove, sliced

1 large slice ginger

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 vegetable stock cube +

500ml water

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground white pepper

salt & sugar, to taste

how to:

steam the pumpkin until soft and set aside.

in a pot, heat oil + butter and fry onions, garlic and ginger until soft and fragrant.

add in the pumpkin and stock mixture, and bring to a boil.

add ground spices and simmer gently about 10 mins, then turn off heat and cool slightly.

use a hand blender/processor and blitz the mixture until a smooth liquid is formed.

check seasoning. warm through before serving.

may be served with a dollop of cream and chopped chives with toasted garlic bread :-)

OK... that's it for the foodie entry :-D

I'm suppsoed to put in a special entry on something I got for Aina recently, but have been a bit under the weather and find it *such* a chore so will save that for later.

Meanwhile, here is Aina in her Mickey Mouse hat which Aunty Shima (my colleague) gave her :-)

On another note, I have now been transferred yet again to another department. I'm not sure if it's a good move since I have other plans in mind, but I guess that this is something that I really, honestly could not be bothered to comment on anymore. What will be will be I guess.

But then again, with 4 moves in a span of 1 1/2 years, dear Sir, who in God's name will be responsible for my annual assessment??

AM

Cheeky Pot, Aina

We had an uneventful week while Babah was away in Iran, and as usual, we stayed at TokMi's while Babah was overseas.

He preferred it that way.

And, here are pics of our bedroom, strewn with Aina's toys after a week away. She wanted everything and watched Disney Channel all day... LOL


She even ransacked her shelf and took everything out... She probably missed her stuff while at TokMi's.... who knows?!?



Here, my wonderful daughter is enjoying TV while playing with her toy, then the next minute I almost died laughing when I saw what she did!!!

Errmmm.......too lazy to sit up???


Aina, playing with her baby sling.... 'transforming' it into................?


Telekung???? LOL LOL LOL


She loves to immitate me praying, so each time I finish prayers, she'll grab her sling and wear it like this. Really entertaining to watch her!!! LOL


Oh ye, I managed to go to the MYDEAR warehouse sale yesterday (settled an important thing in the morning, then rushed to the sale LOL) and grabbed these fantastic deals...

this table + chair set for RM99.00

this tricycle for RM29.00!!

And the following are Mama's various activities when Aina is asleep, or engrossed playing and/or watching TV LOL LOL LOL



OK. I bought another essential thing for Aina, but will put that in another entry.... :-)
Too precious to put it together here....







AM

Aina @ Bird Park

Last Saturday, we decided to bring Aina to the KL Bird Park, something I've wanted to do for a long time but kept postponing due to a number of reasons -- family gatherings, H1N1, babah too busy, etc.

The trip on Saturday was unplanned as we were going to KL anyway to pick up Ana, so decided might as well go earlier and let Aina have a day out.



She seemed to be a bit quiet at first, then slowly started to warm up to the fact that there were birds roaming free around her, and started pointing here and there and jabbering non-stop :-)


This is her new 'thing' -- pulling at her lip. She doesn't do it very often, but enough to annoy us! LOL LOL LOL

Initially, she was fine and seemed excited to be able to touch the birds.......


But when she tried feeding the bird, and felt the slight peck of the beak, she became a bit nervous and fussy.....

She posed here with me, with her making such a cute and sweet face, ehehehehhehehe...


Here, you can see she's rather hesitant to have the bird so near to her....


Here, she became very excited again....


even clapping her hands and fidgeting about! She LOVES water and was obviously excited to see the waterfall.... Hurrmmmm... I might just take her on another outing when her babah gets back from Iran.....


Here she looks kinds 'limp' as it was a very hot and sunny day...


At one go, she finished half a bottle of fruit juice -- VEGOOD orange + mango, her favourite!!



Her babah had this bright idea of letting her hold a baby chick, and the poor thing almost got strangled to death!!!! Aina has a thing about fluffy/furry creatures and becomes to excited that she tends to (unintentionally) squeeze them, and that was what happened with the chick as well. Babah quickly took her hands away, and I told him to put the chick back. Good thing I had Dettol wipes in Aina's diaper bag, too!!!



Anyway, I've only managed to resize Aina's pics so I'll only put up pics of what we saw in a later entry.....

It's now 3:00am, so I have to go sleep now... :-D


Keep safe, people :-)




AM

Aina Yang Macam Macam

She's now as vain as can be, and the mirror is definitely her best friend!!!

I don't know what to call this 'fashion trend' but she seemed really happy and proud with herself that all I could do was laugh my head off while looking at her LOL LOL LOL


She'd obviously found another use for the ball that came with her learning blocks, and it took a LOT for me not to just die from laughter.... The 'best' thing of all was that she tried it on her head while sitting down, then got up to go to the mirror just to see how she looked... LOL LOL LOL

Priceless!!!

Then she started rearranging her toys....


And this pic shows her plonking herself down on the floor to watch her favourite programs on the Disney Channel. She's dressed up as we were going out for dinner with her Aunty Cicik.



This is Aina with her Aunty Cicik.... dinner at Lala Chong, Kayu Ara.



All in all, Aina is behaving like any other 17-month old I guess, testing out territories and boundaries and testing our patience in general, LOL LOL LOL





AM

All In One

This is going to be an "all-in-one" entry where I'm dumping all the happenings over the last couple of weeks so that I'm up to date LOL LOL LOL

Have been a bit busy, plus the internet line in our area still sucks, so it takes a WHOLE lot of motivation to put in a new entry....

A couple of weeks ago, I had some friends over (NO, it was not an open house thingy) so I prepared some simple dishes to suit the occasion...


Aina was, as usual, her cheery self and had her meal of hashbrowns before everyone arrived.


Then, the following week, we were at TTDI as Mom had her open house then......

NOTE: rantai labuh itu adalah cap zhulian ok...
kalau yg btol menangis la kalau aina campak2 ntah ke mana... huhuhuhuuuuu.........

It was during this time that Aina decided to walk when she saw so many people at TokMi's house. She wandered from one table to the next, basically saying hello to everyone LOL LOL.

Since Aina loves to get into our cupboards, we decided to buy her her own shelf to keep her stuff in. It seems to work, as she's spending less time ransacking our cabinets, and spending more time 'rearranging' her own space. I guess pretty soon she'll need her own room to keep her stuff (which seems to be growing in quantities as well, LOL).



Oh yes... Aina also LOVES to accessorise these days. She'll wear her hat and admire herself in the mirror, turning from side to side, then she'll take the powder and pour some in her hand and powder her face.... When I get ready for work, and she's actually already awake, she'll play with all my make up stuff and pretend to make her face up as well LOL LOL

I think the most hillarious was the other day when she peeled the airport security sticker from my luggage bag and stuck the thing on her forehead!!!! LOL LOL LOL

I dunno, maybe it was all metallic and shiny and she liked it so much so she decided to wear it....

Anyway, this is a pic of her, just after 'brushing' her hair...... ehehehehhehehehee...


In these pics, you can see her face with white patches, which she powdered herself LOL LOL....

And here, Aina is reading.... or maybe rearranging her shelf.. Who knows?? eheheheheh


And here is my simple dinner yesterday -- Yong Tow Foo Noodle Soup!!

Hubby is busy preparing for his upcoming trip so I just make dinner a simple affair since it's just me, Aina and Ana.








AM

Aina...FINALLY showing off!

We've known she could walk for a while now but she always pretends that she needs help. Finally, at her TokMi's open house, she wlaked. Watch the video, and you can see that she can practically run already!! LOL LOL LOL

I have more pics of her, but will only load them later....

Just the video for now :-)







AM